Cobalt Cafe might really be the most underrated venue in Los Angeles. I guess a lot of that has to do with it being an all-age venue situated in Canoga Park, at the far west end of the San Fernando Valley. If you're underage and from the Valley, Agoura, Thousand Oaks or Simi, it's pretty much the only place to go that doesn't require a fake ID or huge quantities of gas. So, by the time you're actually old enough to hang out at Scotland Yard, the neighboring pub, it feels like you're actually too old to go to the Cobalt.
Honestly, I never liked the Cobalt when I was young. This was mostly due to the fact that I always had this adversion to running into people from school when we weren't on campus. Plus I never really dug that local band Incubus that played there just about weekly in the mid-1990s. That's another thing about the Cobalt, a lot of the bands that play there go on to much grander careers. My sister saw Sublime there, I think with Save Ferris, shortly before the singer OD'ed and "Date Rape" became the biggest song on KROQ for the remainder of our teenage years. Rock Kills Kid played a residency there a few years back, but that was after I was old enough to drink at the pub and, therefore, too old for Cobalt, so I never saw them. In fact, I really can't think of one band I saw there that blew up, but I know for a fact that it happens. Maybe in some time I will be able to say, "Remember that show at the Cobalt where Winston and the Telescreen played? Oh, yeah, you don't because you weren't there, but I was."
The crowd at last night's Winston and the Telescreen show was thin, which probably was due, at least in part, to it being a miserable, thunderstorming sort of Monday night. My brother and I arrived early enough to catch Silvercities, a tight-playing local three-piece who have been making the rounds about the LA club circuit lately (they're playing at Fusion @ Bar 107 in Downtown on Wednesday). Recent comparisons bring up the inescapable use of post-punk, but I thought the band had more of a glam-meets-power pop sort of feel, along the lines of Cheap Trick or Sweet. I guess that's just more evidence that music is subjective and reducing it to scenes is ultimately meaningless.
Map, which features Paul and Trevor of Winston and Telescreen on keys and drums, respectively, followed. Frontman Josh plays a mean guitar in the Robert Smith-vein and the Sea and Cake influence noted on the band's My Space page is very evident.
Balthazar Monsoon and I have probably gone on about Winston and the Telescreen long enough for readers to already know what to expect in terms of sound and performance. (Refresh yourself with Balth's interview here.) This is a twee-lovers dream band with waltzing guitar riffs, pretty keyboard lines and a singer who spins around as he plays tamborine. Trust me, when this band is picked up by much cooler bloggers and ends up on a Pitchfork year-end chart, you will kick yourself for missing last night's show.
Unfortunately, we had to leave before the last band played. I think that they were called Minus My Mind and hail from Montana, but my Google searchs have turned up nothing.

In other news, one of my friends who attended SxSW got to see the Plimsouls/World Party show that I was jonsing to witness. He said it was "Fab!" World Party brought out mandolins and fiddles and the Plimsouls were "brilliant."
Next year, baby, I'm heading to Austin. Of course, I say that every year, but this time I mean it.

Also, D. at Soft Communication (which I humbly suggest reading constantly) got the new Morrissey album and had, perhaps, the most poignant reflections on it that you are likely to read.