Yeti Menace

Rocktober is here! And that means the Eagle Rock Music Festival, LA’s best kept music secret for more than a decade. Today the ERMF hits a mile of Colorado Blvd in Eagle Rock from 4pm-11pm where 10,000+ people come out to enjoy over SIXTY acts playing on more than a DOZEN venues! This is a locals’ experience that nothing else rivals in LA…. One of my favorite days ever, and right here in my own hood to boot. If you are around, make it out, you won’t regret it!

Of course these are based on personal preferences so give them as much credence as one sees fit:

Dragging a Dead Deer up a Hill by Grouper

Silent Movie by Quiet Village

Street Horrrsing by Fuck Buttons

The Sea Horse Limbo by aMute

Fleet Foxes S/T by Fleet Foxes

Laula Laakson Kukista by Paavoharju

Saint Dymphna by Gang Gang Dance

Waaves S/T (Woodsist) by Waaves

Rest by Gregor Samsa

Mothertongue by Nico Muhly

Destroying Something Beautiful by Trancelike Void

Dømkirke by Sunn O)))

For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver (the reissue means it can be counted as a 2008 release)

Infinity Padlock (EP) by Nudge

Stainless Style by Neon Neon

Never Never Love by Pop Levi

Los Angeles by Flying Lotus

Skeletal Lamping by Of Montreal

The Ken Burns Effect by Stars like Fleas

Albums that don’t need anymore hyping:

Portishead/Girl Talk/M83/Beck/MGMT/TV on the Radio/Vampire Weekend/Sigur Rós/Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds/Hercules and Love Affair/Mogwai/CSS/Bloc Party/Death Cab for Cutie

Agree to disagree…

The first of only four live performances for the tenth anniversary of SUNN O)))’s creation and the recording of their first album The GrimmRobe Demos was last night. Only Sunn O)))’s core members Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson were on stage. No guests. No vocals. No keyboards. Just them on stage wearing their characteristic ‘grim robes’ (long hooded cloaks). The air was filled with fog and they played at their signature deafening volume.

For the uninitiated, Sunn O))) play extremely slow and heavy, using droning guitars, frequently heavily drop-tuned to extremely low tunings such as drop A and drop B, accompanied by feedback and other sound effects to create dark, ominous soundscapes. Their performances usually last 1 & 1/2 hours.  This is a marathon experience. They did not disappoint last night. Many who began the performance in the front of the stage dismissed themselves after the first thirty minutes, either from exhaustion or boredom (the bored being those who read about them from the New York Times Arts section article but never having listened to any of the discography). Those who held on got to experience mammoth soul shaking set to harmonics that rattled the bowels.

The venue was an interesting choice. Originally, the show was set to be at Safari Sam’s off Hollywood Blvd. At the last moment, the Regent Theater was picked for some reason (either the crowd was too big or too small–the latter being the more probable). The Regent has the dubious honor of being an adult movie theater until 2000. The shell of a building is hard cement with a sloping floor that made standing or sitting an uncomfortable experience yet somehow added to the show.

Nothing more to say. The initiated stand in awe of Sunn O)))…

The strangest feeling as one stood in the audience for their final U.S. show: this was not about the band; this was about the audience. How the audience reacted to hearing the music as if it was played underwater or in the next room really loud. How it was not necessary to actually see the musicians playing since the light show obliterated the view. How every smug, self-satisfied person in the audience stood in awe, not of the band, but of how they were able to withstand the barrage of noise when the final song with its 15 minute sonic explosion was performed. Pity…the Holy Grail remained so because few, if any, actually saw the bloody thing. Nostalgia sux.

Well their November 22nd date in LA will be at….the newly renovated Palladium. Interesting. Haven’t been to a show their since (oh god how I date myself with this) Sugar or the 20th anniversary Ramones show.

Go to Stereogum.com to take a look at a series of photos from their NYC show. Good Lord, they brought an actual live horse on stage! Can not wait for this!!!

Finishing up with Mogwai’s new one The Hawk is Howling. Moody instrumentals that rarely rise about the cacophany of past masterpieces (think Young Team–how obvious, huh?). Perhaps in a live setting these pieces will blast through. Yet I keep seeing filmic images as the music plays and will file this away for later…regretfully much later. Oh well, can’t wait to see Fuck Buttons live though…

Of Montreal’s Skeletal Lamping: torrent came in Saturday. Boy was I excited. Then I listened to it. Boy was I confused. Then I listened to it again. Boy was I annoyed and frustrated. Then I listened to it again with no distractions. Boy oh boy.

I had to dig up some interviews with Kevin Barnes to see if I was hearing this correctly or just hearing a rough (really rough) demo that wasn’t mixed yet. Alas…the songs hit the listener with such driving force then then the corner and become something entirely different in tone/texture/speed/context/vocal intonations. Yikes. One listen had me yanking off the earplugs and proclaiming this music to be an aural equivalent of schizophrenia. Songs end abruptly, mix fluctuates radically, there appears to be no thematic flow…and then I read the interview (go to Wikipedia for the link if you’re curious). Yep, this is exactly what Mr. Barnes wants to achieve with this new sound. Will be interesting to see if the audience is there for this. I will be seeing them when they play live in LA (no venue yet but HEALTH is opening act) to see how this will be pulled off.

Saw Bon Iver play last night at the Troubadour for the first of two sold out dates. Haven’t been at the Troubadour since last May when I saw Destroyer play.

Anyone who has listened to Bon Iver’s release For Emma Forever Ago must agree that the beauty of listening to the quiet elegance of this music lies in the moments of hesitant pauses and rising falsetto that dissipates into thin, fractured air. Well, toss that onto the scrap heap when the songs are performed live. I understand that translating ones music onto a large venue requires changes and allows the performer to crack open structures and explore avenues of expression. Just why did it get turned into a pummeling from the drums? This happened with Destroyer’s show and last night it happened again…oh, wait a minute, could it be the person running the sound board? Perhaps. Yet if I were on stage and noticed this, I would seek to correct it. Oh well, there’s always the Fleet Foxes show to look forward to.

Justin Roberts and Liam Davis rocked the kids at the awesome Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga Canyon today. The highlight of the show was the thrill-tastic Meltdown, with the kids screaming their heads off.

Check out Justin and his fantastic music for kids and adults alike at www.justinrobertsmusic.com.