Music stories by me:
Forbidden Fruit
IE Weekly
Peaches—and the mainstream—is enjoying the cream of her crop
Peaches feels creamy. She’s not shy about it.
The Canadian hip-hopanitrix who calls Berlin home first steamed up dance floors with the memorable 2000 song “Fuck the Pain Away.” Peaches, neé Merrill Beth Nisker, hasn’t lost momentum since with her androgynous, sexually explicit lyrics and intensely pervy, over-the-top stage shows.
Stage shows boasting pink-chiffon ostrich costumes and glittery gimp masks are a far cry from Peaches’ first gig at 20, teaching music and creative movement to preschool-age kids. The class grew out of her frustration with traditional teaching styles. She branched out on her own doing things her way, which proved popular among teachers and parents. Of course, there was no dirty talk.
Click below for the full story:
http://www.ieweekly.com/cms/story/detail/forbidden_fruit/2777/
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Sound Check: Moostache
By Arrissia Owen Turner | Riviera magazine | February 22, 2010
Patrick Wardell does his best not to sound like everyone else, according to lyrics in his song “Hold On.” And for an 18-year-old from Huntington Beach, he’s doing a bang-up job.
Click below to read full story:
http://orangecounty.modernluxury.com/style/sound-check-moostache
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Shoegazed and Confused
IE Weekly
The Horrors might be more exciting than the Sex Pistols—maybe
The Horrors want you to feel something, perhaps even go a bit mental.
They don’t want you to think about their transition from 1960s-era style garage rock to shoegazey darkness. They don’t want you to care what the music press writes about them. They want you to judge their music by the emotions the songs unearth.
What most of their fans—young girls and guys clutching to Horrors fanzines, who love Tim Burton movies but whose guilty pleasure is an affinity for Brittney Spears—feel are their hormones gone haywire mixed with commiseration.
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The 88 Play All Day and All of the Night
OC Weekly
Well-respected men about town open for and back Ray Davies, collectively pinch selves
“Since we got out of the other situation and are doing what we thought was right, all these great things are happening,” front man Keith Slettedahl says, checking in between shows with Davies. “As soon as we let go of that and I let go of those ideals, all these things started manifesting.”
Click below for the full story:
http://www.ocweekly.com/2010-03-18/music/the-88-grove-of-anaheim/
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Making Noise: Avi Buffalo
By Arrissia Owen Turner | Riviera magazine | February 12, 2010
Frontman Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg may sing about bacon in “What’s in It For?” the band’s Sub Pop seven-inch release, but you won’t get the song out of your head. Zahner-Isenberg, who actually goes by Avi Buffalo, may be from LBC, but guitarist Arin Fazio is an H.B. res, so we’ll claim them.
After opening sold-out shows for Vampire Weekend recently, many are smitten. Tastemaker radio stations KCRW and BBC1 are on the bandwagon, as is the snarky touchstone music website Pitchfork, which bestowed Avi with a seven out of 10 for their debut.
avibuffalomusic.com
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Jessie Baylin, with her shaggy dirty blonde rocker hair and scratchy, seductive tunes, reminded us of Christine McVie from her early days, although she’d probably rather be the new Stevie Nicks.
At other times, she came off with the soul of a Sharon Jones. (But white, which would make her Amy Winehouse, but American, and without all the fuss and hooha, which again makes her Sharon Jones
The One Most Likely to Dance It Out
Then it was the anti-rocker, New York-bred Ingrid Michaelson, who is a bit melodramatic in verse, but she knows it. Michaelson got clap-happy over unconditional love in “The Way I Am.” Then she sang sweetly about fragility, saying we’re all “breakable boys and girls.
Michaelson told the story of a boy whose heart she shattered when she was an asshole, self-absorbed co-ed, and how two years later in a moment of maturity she wrote him a song to make amends. She sent him a letter about it and he never responded, so fuck him.
We visited her MySpace page the next day to try and remember which song it was, but we got distracted reading blog posts about what selling out means (her song “The Way I Am” was recently on an Old Navy commercial, which helped pay some struggling artist bills) and who would win in a fight between Mona from Who’s the Boss? and Blanche from The Golden Girls. She’s also oddly obsessed with the show Full House.
Crooner Eclipse
LA City Beat
The Hotel Café Tour, Saturday at the Fonda
Published: 04/16/2008
The McDreamies were in the house last Saturday – doubtless tormented and pouting. The Hotel Café troupe is quickly becoming a phenomenon thanks to Chandra Wilson’s sex-crazed surgeons on Grey’s Anatomy, as well as Scrubs, Eli Stone and various other enjoyable middlebrow entertainments.
That sort of exposure helps take the troubadours and torch singers out of their crappy apartments and onto the big stage for the fourth year. The tight-knit group – which includes Cary Brothers, Jim Bianco, William Fitzsimmons, Ingrid Michaelson, Jesca Hoop, Jesse Baylin and a rotating cast of others – is on its way to Europe to spread a heartfelt gospel, 15 minute sets at a time.
But first, it was time for two sold-out, six-hour love-ins (six hours!) in their hometown. Midway through the tour, the critics have been less than kind, but that stinks of laziness, and condescension. The whole Grey’s Anatomy thing has become an easy way to degrade the genre and dismiss it as Dawson’s Creek yearning.
Seriously.
If it was 30 years ago, James Taylor and Gordon Lightfoot would probably be singing during those celluloid break-room screws and it wouldn’t make them less rele- vant. But then, I’m a girl, and what do I know besides how to pot plants and watch my stories?
So here’s the rundown:
The One Most Likely to Be Prone to Fits of Self-Loathing
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| William Fitzsimmons |
William Fitzsimmons helped prepare the crowd for the marathon of maudlin music. “I make songs that make you want to call your parents,” he said. For a towering bearded guy, he was more akin to the Snuggle Bear than a burly biker.
When he needed the band to back him up the bass player was nowhere to be found. “No one respects the beard,” he said. His songs are full of quiet guitar noodling in the best way, though. Fitzsimmons’ whispery soft croon lent a sexiness to his cover of
“Cecilia.”
The One Most Likely to End Up Linked Romantically to Ryan Gosling
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| Meiko |
Next up was Meiko, who got her start serving beers at Hotel Cafe. Now KCRW is playing entire performances, and she’s got a slot with her former drink ticket customers. Her song “Reasons,” which we previously thought was a Feist song, is impossible not to lose ourselves in.
The most heartfelt ditty was “How Lucky We Are,” originally called “Shitty Apartment” or something like that. The Sonny and Cher ideals translate into optimistic future-hunting, escaping said shitty apartment for a luxury resort hotel and marveling at their luck over morning coffee and the morning papers. One day, she says, there will be peace on Earth, too. It’s hard not to believe in a better tomorrow when it’s coming from such a songbird.
The One Most Likely to (Maybe) Go Easy on the Bourbon
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| Jesca Hoop |
Jesca Hoop is a recovering Mormon who worked as Tom Waits’ nanny and a homesteader and who fancies big Daniel Boone fur hats (even on a 162-degree day), elaborate cowboy boots, whimsical expression and fanciful arrangements. Hoop let us in on an intimate Hotel Café Tour detail: “This is my first tour,” she said looking over at the backstage area littered with her mostly male counterparts. “And now I’ve seen a lot of balls.” What would Brigham Young say
The One Most Likely to Vow He’s So Into You He Can’t Function, and Then After You Sleep With Him He’d Bring Another Woman to Your Birthday Party
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| Jim Bianco |
Jim Bianco’s gravelly Tom Waits-like speakeasy sounds, drenched in blues, jazz and irresistible pop, set the stage for his charms. “There are a lot of lovely motherfuckers out there,” he said, greeting Los Angeles. He introduced the song “I’ve Got a Thing for You,” a little ditty about being a semi-stalker. “Do we have any stalker-creepy lighting?” he asked the crew. They did!
Songs like “Goodness Gracious” are the sort that could turn any girl into a Rock of Love stripper thanks to multi-instrumentalist Brad Gordon’s pocket trumpet. And then it came time for his showstopper – his repertoire includes a crowd-crashing number, “Sing,” when the Cahuenga coterie descended on the audience singing the romptastic sing-along. Luckily, we knew the words.
The One Most Likely to Date a Hotel-Smashing Rock Star
At other times, she came off with the soul of a Sharon Jones. (But white, which would make her Amy Winehouse, but American, and without all the fuss and hooha, which again makes her Sharon Jones
The One Most Likely to Dance It Out
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| Ingrid Michaelson |
Michaelson told the story of a boy whose heart she shattered when she was an asshole, self-absorbed co-ed, and how two years later in a moment of maturity she wrote him a song to make amends. She sent him a letter about it and he never responded, so fuck him.
We visited her MySpace page the next day to try and remember which song it was, but we got distracted reading blog posts about what selling out means (her song “The Way I Am” was recently on an Old Navy commercial, which helped pay some struggling artist bills) and who would win in a fight between Mona from Who’s the Boss? and Blanche from The Golden Girls. She’s also oddly obsessed with the show Full House.
The One Most Likely to Secretly Want to Date Izzie Stevens Because She’s Hot, Not Because She’s Funny, Sweet or Cool
You might recognize Cary Brothers, who is not two men who share a surname, from the year you spent obsessed with Garden State. He unabashedly rocked the otherwise hushed stage, most notably “Blue Eyes,” the Zach Braff-friendly ballad. For this night’s rendition, the rest of the Hotel Café crew joined for the chorus, a big sloppy hug of melody.
The near-highlight of the night was when Michaelson joined Brothers for “If You Were Here,” the Thompson Twins song that made girls in the Sixteen Candles years hold out for their own personal Jake Ryan, and then went on to believe that there were Lloyd Doblers walking among us.
This pay-dirt paean was only topped by Michaelson, again, who did a stripped-down, ukulele-fueled rendition of Radiohead’s “Creep.” This time the creepy-stalker lighting didn’t seem so menacing. Just gorgeous.
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Gettin' the Digits
IE Weekly
Bromance keeps things adding up for The 88
The 88’s unbelievably catchy songs will make you want to buy Kleenex in bulk or replace your cordless drill. Maybe they’ve already gotten to you.
The red-and-white bulls-eye ball got rolling at a Supergrass show when band members handed out CDs. One made it into the hands of the right person who puts catchy ditties on TV and films. That shrewd move of unknowing product placement happened before The 88 signed a record deal.
Click below for the full story:
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Party animals
Cafe R&B plays Blues for the Zoo fundraiser
By ARRISSIA OWEN TURNER
Reporter
Cafe R&B singer Roach saw her future during a road trip through Sacramento when she was a young girl.As her dad perused the stations moving past the fuzz, he passed a screeching man singing Willie Dixon-esque blues powered by electric guitar. Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” rocked the family drive, captivating its young listener and probably annoying the hell out of her parents.
“Wo-man,” Robert Plant crooned after a loose blues riff. “You need it.” The song mesmerized Roach, reaching way down inside.
Click below for the full story:
http://bigbeargrizzly.net/articles/2010/07/21/community/arts_and_entertainment/doc4c44e48c87f37883089171.txt
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Q&As
OC Weekly
The 88 front man Keith Slettedahl on Backing Ray Davies
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Singer/guitarist Keith Slettedahl is a happy-go-lucky guy, as witnessed by his band the 88's irresistibly upbeat lyrics and catchy hooks. But the last couple of years were a little dark for the serenely-married Pasadena dad. The band got signed and dropped by Island Records. But they did manage to land on soundtracks for TV shows such as How I Met Your Mother and Weeds. The 88 have opened for Rilo Kiley, the Flaming Lips and Elliot Smith. They're the band you walk around humming songs by but still don't know their name. In a recent phone interview, OCW spoke to Slettedahl about leaving the Island, Target, staying authentic and touring with his idol, Ray Davies
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| Piper Ferguson | ||
| From left: Adam Merrin, Anthony Zimmitti, Todd O'Keefe, Keith Slettedahl |
OC Weekly (Arrissia Owen Turner): Why do I feel like we're breaking up? On your second CD, 2005's Over and Over, we were seduced and you were full of love and life. Then on 2008's Not Only ... But Also things seemed a little rocky? The most recent 88 release, This Must Be Love, seems kind of sad. Are things looking up for the next round of songs?
Keith Slettedahl: I grew up listening to a million songs about a girl or love and that influenced me. Sometimes an idea just sounds cool in a song, so it's not always literal. The rocky relationship was with our label. It wasn't a creatively satisfying experience. For This Must Be Love, I would go home from the studio and do whatever I wanted. But the next one is going to be a real band record. That's what I am looking forward to doing. As far as the subject matter, I knew that we were not in the right situation. Songs are sometimes written when I'm in a bad mood. It's just a snapshot of the moment. No one puts a gun to your head though. We could have easily walked away. When we signed, my wife was pregnant. It was probably all financial if I'm being totally honest with myself. You grow up with this dream in your head of a record deal. We had reached this goal, but it wasn't what I thought it would be. We had to get through that to remember why we got into this business. For me, at 36, now I know that it's OK to still have fun playing music. I lost that along the way somewhere.
So this was your freak out record?
Recording those songs by myself in my room, it was like when I started writing using a four track. I just let the songs go where they did. In the studio, everything was analyzed. This chorus has to happen here, this lyric doesn't make sense, this has to cut here. The people we were involved with were trying to take off all the edges.
So what are the new songs like?
Before we were just having conference calls about nothing. Then we started getting together all the time to record, jam and just make stuff up. I brought ideas to the band and they would make it into this other, better thing. The four of us have never been more excited about playing music together. These four guys--it's just really, really fun for us. Now that we are doing what we think is right, all these great things are happening. It's very clear to me that it wasn't the right fit, and as soon as we let go of that and I let go of those ideas, all these things started manifesting.
What's your take on the whole song placement thing? You guys have done remarkably well without seeming to try.
It was Danny Benair from Natural Energy Labs. We gave him a CD sampler while we were outside of a show with fliers. He liked it. He started placing stuff. It was totally lucky. It turns out he grew up on my dad's street. Very random. He knew my dad's whole family. He saw my last name and asked, "Do you know Conrad?" It was meant to be. The good thing is that the songs were written with no regard for TV or film.
Has not being pigeonholed into any one music scene helped or hurt the band when it comes to bookings?
I'm not sure. We've played with everyone from Smashing Pumpkins to Elliott Smith, and we're going to be playing with Ray Davies. I think it's a really good thing not being categorized.
How excited are you that you're going to be playing with Ray Davies, the man you are so often compared to?
I don't have any words for that. I don't know how to explain it. I'm just really excited. There is nothing I can say. I would just sound like a total dork and go crazy about it. He's the tops with me, the greatest ever. The Beatles, him and Dylan are my biggest influences.
How did it come about?
He was looking for a band to do a month-long tour and open up the show, and at the end of his acoustic set back him up on some kinks songs. We heard about it through the grapevine and so we put our name in the hat. He wanted to hear us do some Kinks songs, so we recorded six songs and we sent it to him and he liked it [laughs giddily]. I am just trying to stay cool about it.
The 88 perform with Extra, Curtains for You and Mphase Thursday, Feb. 18, 9 p.m. at Detroit Bar, Costa Mesa, (949) 642-0600; $5. 21+.
Making Noise: The Steelwells
By Arrissia Owen Turner | Riviera magazine | February 11, 2010
The Steelwells
Think dreamy, Pet Sounds-era melodies filled with varying textures and lush harmonies. Singing about shipwrecked crews and broken relationships, the young Fullerton band’s recent EP Shallow on the Draft is a pre-party lullaby. Frontman Joey Winter and his cohorts played live relentlessly last year, perfecting their stage presence.
And the ship talk? “Nothing in life is a for-sure deal, and if we can’t keep our heads on straight, we will in the end be failures,” says Winter. “We have all these big-picture ships and smaller, day-to-day ships, but in the end it’s our crew that will help get us where we need to go.”
myspace.com/thesteelwells
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Tales for tailwaggers
Big Bear Grizzly
Guy Davis performs at Blues for the Zoo fundraiser
By ARRISSIA OWEN TURNER
Reporter
Published:
Guy Davis not only sings the blues, he tells the tales of the people who created the art form. The son of two Civil Rights activists and accomplished actors, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Guy Davis passes along the rich heritage that accompanies the storytelling aspect of the genre. During the last three decades, he has released many award-winning CDs, most recently “Sweetheart Like You.”
Click below for full article: http://bigbeargrizzly.net/articles/2010/08/04/community/arts_and_entertainment/doc4c575158c7e9f867398224.txt
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By Arrissia Owen Turner, Thu., Apr. 10, 2010
For a bunch of reticent rockers from Costa Mesa, the New Limb crew likes to make a lot of noise. Made up of brothers Joey (vocals) and Adam Chavez (drums), Dan Perez (guitar) and Lauren Salamone (keys), the band releases its first full-length recording, Sounds People Can Hear, April 3, kicked off by a show that night at House of Blues in Anaheim. But before the public gets a gander at the pretty, pastoral songs, the band invited friends and family to a private listening party at their shared abode for a peek into the what's been consuming the band since fall. To help guide listeners through the journey, the New Limb members displayed album artifacts that helped inspire the CD
Click below for full article:
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Q&AsOC Weekly
Life, Death and Devotion, Part Two: The Killingtons Reunite For Two Shows
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| JK Thompson, circa 1999 (By Chris Bowden) |
The members of the band the Killingtons went from living in a van together on tour to saying hello while Christmas shopping or at someone's birthday party. At the peak they had bands like New Found Glory and Jimmy Eat World opening for them and played alongside Sonic Youth and the Get Up Kids. After a 10-year run (and even appearing on the cover of the Weekly in 2000), the band known for its rolling guitars and loaded, lovelorn lyrics imploded in 2005.
Two years ago, they got together to play three songs at a memorial for a friend. Lead singer and guitarist JK Thompson and bassist Christopher Muench started talking. Their wounds healed and it felt good to be the Killingtons again. Finally, the band is taking the stage for two proper goodbye shows. But don't call this a reunion, says guitarist Mitch Townsend--it's a reconvening. We sat down with the band at Townsend's Huntington Beach home. It was the first time they'd hung out in years.
Click below for the full story:
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/qas/life-death-and-devotion-part-t/
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OC Weekly
Peace Corp are Back--and George Fryer is Still Angry
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| Peace Corp back in the day |
But be assured, the singer, songwriter, guitarist who was once the driving force behind OC punks Peace Corp is still easily riled--he's just more hush about it.
Click below for the full story:
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/reunions/peace-corp-punks-are-back/
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Making Noise: Young the Giant
By Arrissia Owen Turner | Riviera magazine | February 9, 2010
Young the Giant
You may know them as The Jakes, but after a legal scuffle, they’ve resurfaced as the fist-pumping indie rockers with the jolly moniker. The Newport Beach band’s 2009 EP Shake My Hand’s pop hooks and vocal verve won them an opening spot for Kings of Leon last summer and their summer-inspired album, produced by Grammy winner Joe Chiccarelli (White Stripes, The Shins), debuts soon.
“I’m most excited for the unknown,” says lead singer Sameer Gadhia, who with his bandmates put college on the backburner. “There are things I have no idea are even going to happen. Depending on how the music is pushed, we could tour the U.K., Japan, who knows?”
youngthegiant.com
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OC Weekly
CD Review
Monsieur Leroc Le Slow Motion Boogie WoogieCornerstone R.A.S./skunk.com
Is it just me, or is hybrid music bum-rushing the whole damn world? Here's more evidence: Monsieur Leroc, a weird German who's landed on our coast with an arsenal of hip-hop, jazz, funk, R&B, soul, and Jimmy Page-style guitar rock, all wrapped around freaky electronic beats. My own aversion to electronic music has waned lately, with talents like Beck, Moby, the Beastie Boys and Live Human taking the boomp-cha-boomp-cha repetition out of the beats and turning it into what's easily the most creative pop medium in eons. Monsieur's ethereal, slow, heavy beats, manufactured on several computers and assorted techno-geek gear, suck me even further into the electronic world —they make the perfect background music for a swank party or . . . heh, other things. "Le Odensaque" has these slinky, sultry vocals and boasts a horny "I like it" coo. "I Think I" has a Prince-ish, soul-sexy vibe, telling you that you'd better go find someone to love pretty quick before the next jam falls. "Funky Schlupfer," meanwhile, is all lo-funk action, a wiggedy-wiggedy-wacked booty-shaker. "Macaroni Cheese Sandwich" pumps things up even more, something that'll have you dancing like James Brown and howling this stupid-fresh key line right along with guest vocalist Lazlo Loco: "No onions please! Can't stand onions!" How can a German man get so damn funky just by ordering a sandwich?
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Too Cool for School
OC Weekly
My life as a Donna
Click below for the full story, which of course, is made up:
http://www.ocweekly.com/2000-06-29/music/too-cool-for-school/
