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Greetings from Cudahy
Thursday 22
They’re not just another ’60s soul-pop cover band intent on “shakin’ yo ass,” they’re Social D, the Adolescents, the Cadillac Tramps, U.S. Bombs, and TSOL, the OC’s gnarliest exports indulging their un-punk selves, their musician ids — they’re the Black Diamond Riders, and they’re hitching up tonight at Bar Pink. This seven-piece supergroup came together in March to resurrect dance jams by the likes of Eddie Floyd, Rufus Thomas, and Solomon Burke. Drummer Jamie Reidling (U.S. Bombs) told OC Weekly, “There are billions of songs that we can play.” Billions. Gonna be a long night, so wear some comfy skids, kids.... Swedish starlet Robyn alights at Belly Up behind round three of her Body Talk series, Speak Your Body. The ambitious (she’s an international hit), liberated (on her own Konichiwa label) artist says she strives to balance the fluffy entertainment side of pop with some aural if not necessarily intellectual heft. Rock writer Marc Hogan likes her, standing just this side of oxymoronic when he describes her as a “commercial tastemaker.” I think I know what he means, but this is better: “[Robyn] pleases everyone from post-dubstep crate diggers to teen tweeters.” I guess you know who you are.... The rest of ya: SD’s dark-pop duo Blessure Grave digs in at Soda Bar...art-punks Ghetto Blaster turn up at Ruby Room with wicked pissah punk-bop freaks Fkenal...and the Johnny Rad Fest III kicks up Thursday through Sunday, bouncing between the Ken, Two Roses, and Tower and featuring the Zeros, NoBunny, the Spits, among mucho mas. For all the radness, click this: johnnyradfest.wordpress.com.
Friday 23
Rob and Zach bring Pinback to the track to kick off this season’s freebie Friday postrace-in-the-paddock shows. The local indie-rock duo signed to Temporary Residence for a new one that’s s’pposed to drop this year. Word is mum from the Pinback camp on that, but they did want you to know that the shows this summer are a stripped-down affair with just our two Little Italy denizens plucking the strings and singing rearranged things from the whole dang catalog.... Comic Patton Oswalt yuks up House of Blues through two Friday night at 8 and 10p. The comedian-actor is one of them Chunklet-bred “rockers’ comics.” He’s a regular at SXSW who’s signed to indie stalwart Sub Pop, split vinyl with the Melvins, and this year will share the big screen with Tool front man Maynard James Keenan in Blood into Wine. And it’s not a vampire movie; it’s a wine movie. Oswalt’s Grammy-nominated CD My Weakness Is Strong! is now available on DVD if you want a preview.... Recommend catching Oswalt’s early one and then jetting to Casbah for the garage-rocking Loons‘ o-fficial CD-release set for Red Dissolving Rays of Light. Creepy Creeps and Deep Ones in support.... Or get to Soda Bar for Mexico blues-punk duo Le Butcherettes with Marquez! and Shapes of Future Frames. Butcherette front-femme Teri Gender Bender is a hella wildcat.
Saturday 24
Japanese juggernaut Boris has been called “heavier than God fronting Blue Cheer.” That sticks with me. Over their nearly 20 years, the Tokyo trio has bled ears dry with their sludge-punk psych-outs and is — I’d like to go on record — partially to blame for some of the tinnitus I suffer today. Their last proper release, ’08’s Smile, however, held “songs,” songs with lyrics and listenable vocals that showed the aging act’s got a knack for pop. Really loud, sonically over-the-top psych-pop, but still... Saade sets the stage, while Brainticket DJs spin round sets.... In the clubs, Brick by Brick hosts acoustic rockers Secret Seven’s CD-releaser for Turn Your Back to the Sea...while local indie rockers A Scribe Amidst the Lions and Gun Runner hit Ruby Room.... Some BIG-ticket items in town, too, as Snoop D-o-double-g and Ice Cube chill 4th&B with throwback raps on their How the West Was One tour...Sir Elton John will tinkle the keys at Cricket Wireless...and the eldest S.O.B., Ziggy Marley, stands pat at Harrah’s.
Sunday 25
Time for the big-ass Bass Summit at Dizzy’s downtown, the Second and J Street Wine & Culinary spot off the MLK sidewalk in the Harbor Club Towers. Being real specific because it’s kinda funky to find and this is gonna be sweet. Eight great bass players, including locals Gunnar Biggs, Rob Thorssen, Bert Turetzky, Bob Magnusson, etcet etcet, will be slapping bop to tango. It’s set for 7p.... Ché Café stages Queens, NY, punx Sick of It All. The hardcore quartet is out to tout their latest, Based on a True Story, and, oh yeah, celebrate 25 years of moshing your socks off. 50 Lions, Alpha & Omega, and Take Offense go first.... The Cricket dials 311. The multi-platinum Omaha rap-rock act added more reggae to their repertoire for last year’s Uplifter. Omaha’s weird.... Here’s some good-bet sleeper sets for you Sunday-nighters: experimental-pop Oaklanders Silian Rail slide into Bar Pink behind Burning of Rome. Silian Rail is an instrumental act that’ll remind you more than a little bit of Slint: Check ’em out: myspace.com/silianrailmusic.... And SanFran psych-pop bands Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound and Sleepy Sun set on Casbah.
Monday 26
In the spirit of summer, Soda Bar sets up Zombie Surf Camp. The locals are, like, horrorcore for the beach set, with song titles such as “Reefbiter” and “Flipper Is on a Killing Spree.” Their zombifying makeup dude’s pretty good, too. Nerve Meter and the Slow Poisoner open the show.... Tin Can stacks up sets by Snuffy, Father Figures from New York, Ben Lear (L.A.), and Fungi Girls. Texas trio Fungi Girls were my unexpected grin working on this week’s thing, calling out 13th Floor Elevators and Piper-era Floyd, all shot through a Mary Chain grinder! The kid’s got Jim Reid’s lazy cadence, too, which is kinda cool. Take the taste test: myspace.com/fungigirls.
Tuesday 27
I’m leaving for Wisconsin Tuesday, so I don’t really care what you do. Spirit Photography’s playing the Tin Can. That’s what I’d do if I wasn’t in beautiful downtown Cudahy.
Wednesday 28
I ran out of words 49 words ago, so squeezing in the hump-night highlights, you’ve got Casbah milking SanFran cowpunk band the Swingin’ Utters. Cute Lepers and Hard Fall Hearts open that show.... And up and around the bend, Blue Note artist Rachelle Ferrell settles into Anthology for two nights of classic-to-contempo jazz singing of the highest order. She good.... Else: the Ché punks La Jolla with Comadre, Maladie, Rogue State, and a bunch more...Nathaniel Rateliff and Pearly Gate Music strum-n-hum at Bar Pink...English act Level 42 celebrates 30 years of “sophista pop” at Belly Up...and Philly grime freaks Aunt Dracula turn the Tin Can behind Black Mamba. Sophista pop?
— Barnaby Monk
Here's something you might be interested in.
Greetings from Cudahy
Greetings from Cudahy
Thursday 22
They’re not just another ’60s soul-pop cover band intent on “shakin’ yo ass,” they’re Social D, the Adolescents, the Cadillac Tramps, U.S. Bombs, and TSOL, the OC’s gnarliest exports indulging their un-punk selves, their musician ids — they’re the Black Diamond Riders, and they’re hitching up tonight at Bar Pink. This seven-piece supergroup came together in March to resurrect dance jams by the likes of Eddie Floyd, Rufus Thomas, and Solomon Burke. Drummer Jamie Reidling (U.S. Bombs) told OC Weekly, “There are billions of songs that we can play.” Billions. Gonna be a long night, so wear some comfy skids, kids.... Swedish starlet Robyn alights at Belly Up behind round three of her Body Talk series, Speak Your Body. The ambitious (she’s an international hit), liberated (on her own Konichiwa label) artist says she strives to balance the fluffy entertainment side of pop with some aural if not necessarily intellectual heft. Rock writer Marc Hogan likes her, standing just this side of oxymoronic when he describes her as a “commercial tastemaker.” I think I know what he means, but this is better: “[Robyn] pleases everyone from post-dubstep crate diggers to teen tweeters.” I guess you know who you are.... The rest of ya: SD’s dark-pop duo Blessure Grave digs in at Soda Bar...art-punks Ghetto Blaster turn up at Ruby Room with wicked pissah punk-bop freaks Fkenal...and the Johnny Rad Fest III kicks up Thursday through Sunday, bouncing between the Ken, Two Roses, and Tower and featuring the Zeros, NoBunny, the Spits, among mucho mas. For all the radness, click this: johnnyradfest.wordpress.com.
Friday 23
Rob and Zach bring Pinback to the track to kick off this season’s freebie Friday postrace-in-the-paddock shows. The local indie-rock duo signed to Temporary Residence for a new one that’s s’pposed to drop this year. Word is mum from the Pinback camp on that, but they did want you to know that the shows this summer are a stripped-down affair with just our two Little Italy denizens plucking the strings and singing rearranged things from the whole dang catalog.... Comic Patton Oswalt yuks up House of Blues through two Friday night at 8 and 10p. The comedian-actor is one of them Chunklet-bred “rockers’ comics.” He’s a regular at SXSW who’s signed to indie stalwart Sub Pop, split vinyl with the Melvins, and this year will share the big screen with Tool front man Maynard James Keenan in Blood into Wine. And it’s not a vampire movie; it’s a wine movie. Oswalt’s Grammy-nominated CD My Weakness Is Strong! is now available on DVD if you want a preview.... Recommend catching Oswalt’s early one and then jetting to Casbah for the garage-rocking Loons‘ o-fficial CD-release set for Red Dissolving Rays of Light. Creepy Creeps and Deep Ones in support.... Or get to Soda Bar for Mexico blues-punk duo Le Butcherettes with Marquez! and Shapes of Future Frames. Butcherette front-femme Teri Gender Bender is a hella wildcat.
Saturday 24
Japanese juggernaut Boris has been called “heavier than God fronting Blue Cheer.” That sticks with me. Over their nearly 20 years, the Tokyo trio has bled ears dry with their sludge-punk psych-outs and is — I’d like to go on record — partially to blame for some of the tinnitus I suffer today. Their last proper release, ’08’s Smile, however, held “songs,” songs with lyrics and listenable vocals that showed the aging act’s got a knack for pop. Really loud, sonically over-the-top psych-pop, but still... Saade sets the stage, while Brainticket DJs spin round sets.... In the clubs, Brick by Brick hosts acoustic rockers Secret Seven’s CD-releaser for Turn Your Back to the Sea...while local indie rockers A Scribe Amidst the Lions and Gun Runner hit Ruby Room.... Some BIG-ticket items in town, too, as Snoop D-o-double-g and Ice Cube chill 4th&B with throwback raps on their How the West Was One tour...Sir Elton John will tinkle the keys at Cricket Wireless...and the eldest S.O.B., Ziggy Marley, stands pat at Harrah’s.
Sunday 25
Time for the big-ass Bass Summit at Dizzy’s downtown, the Second and J Street Wine & Culinary spot off the MLK sidewalk in the Harbor Club Towers. Being real specific because it’s kinda funky to find and this is gonna be sweet. Eight great bass players, including locals Gunnar Biggs, Rob Thorssen, Bert Turetzky, Bob Magnusson, etcet etcet, will be slapping bop to tango. It’s set for 7p.... Ché Café stages Queens, NY, punx Sick of It All. The hardcore quartet is out to tout their latest, Based on a True Story, and, oh yeah, celebrate 25 years of moshing your socks off. 50 Lions, Alpha & Omega, and Take Offense go first.... The Cricket dials 311. The multi-platinum Omaha rap-rock act added more reggae to their repertoire for last year’s Uplifter. Omaha’s weird.... Here’s some good-bet sleeper sets for you Sunday-nighters: experimental-pop Oaklanders Silian Rail slide into Bar Pink behind Burning of Rome. Silian Rail is an instrumental act that’ll remind you more than a little bit of Slint: Check ’em out: myspace.com/silianrailmusic.... And SanFran psych-pop bands Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound and Sleepy Sun set on Casbah.
Monday 26
In the spirit of summer, Soda Bar sets up Zombie Surf Camp. The locals are, like, horrorcore for the beach set, with song titles such as “Reefbiter” and “Flipper Is on a Killing Spree.” Their zombifying makeup dude’s pretty good, too. Nerve Meter and the Slow Poisoner open the show.... Tin Can stacks up sets by Snuffy, Father Figures from New York, Ben Lear (L.A.), and Fungi Girls. Texas trio Fungi Girls were my unexpected grin working on this week’s thing, calling out 13th Floor Elevators and Piper-era Floyd, all shot through a Mary Chain grinder! The kid’s got Jim Reid’s lazy cadence, too, which is kinda cool. Take the taste test: myspace.com/fungigirls.
Tuesday 27
I’m leaving for Wisconsin Tuesday, so I don’t really care what you do. Spirit Photography’s playing the Tin Can. That’s what I’d do if I wasn’t in beautiful downtown Cudahy.
Wednesday 28
I ran out of words 49 words ago, so squeezing in the hump-night highlights, you’ve got Casbah milking SanFran cowpunk band the Swingin’ Utters. Cute Lepers and Hard Fall Hearts open that show.... And up and around the bend, Blue Note artist Rachelle Ferrell settles into Anthology for two nights of classic-to-contempo jazz singing of the highest order. She good.... Else: the Ché punks La Jolla with Comadre, Maladie, Rogue State, and a bunch more...Nathaniel Rateliff and Pearly Gate Music strum-n-hum at Bar Pink...English act Level 42 celebrates 30 years of “sophista pop” at Belly Up...and Philly grime freaks Aunt Dracula turn the Tin Can behind Black Mamba. Sophista pop?
— Barnaby Monk