From localpunks.net:



There was some Dramarama discussion about two months ago here, and you can't really find fault with The English Beat (well, I can't), so why not post it?

A friend forwarded this to me, so I don't have the attached flyer, but I thought some of you might be interested anyway...

BPM Relaunch Party w/ James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem (Tues 9/20 @ Montmartre)
Please join us for the OFFICIAL RELAUNCH PARTY for BPM MAGAZINE. New look, new style, new music!

This very special event will feature an amazing cross-genre DJ lineup including BPM cover feature JAMES MURPHY of LCD SOUNDSYSTEM joined by a DJ set from LA indie favorites SHE WANTS REVENGE (Adam 12 and Justin) along with BPM editor, Rob Simas. And our host for the night, thats right, PEACHES!

Peep us Tuesday September 20, 2005 @ Montmartre Lounge (6757 Hollywood Blvd., enter through the rear). Check the flyer below for full details.

As usual RSVP to BPM-LA@overamerica.com. And get there early.

Greetings, comrades on the distant coast!

Well, it's that time of year again - CMJ opened tonight, and yours truly saw precisely zero bands, thanks to researching obligations. I chose researching over rocking because the former pays me dollarz and the latter does not, but at least there are very few romper-wearing hipster clots roaming the byways of Lexis Legal.

Comrade Liz already gave a shoutout to the home team, Man in Gray, who make their CMJ debut Friday night at 169 Bar. I advise everyone to start hanging out at 169 immediately, because word is they're getting a new booker (hint: he books the hippest venue in Brooklyn) so the kids may start catching on. Go, go now, while the sound still sucks, the seats are available, and the kitty's sleeping contendedly under the DJ booth.

Has the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah hype hit California yet? Don't worry, it's coming. Now, don't get me wrong - CYHSY are friendly local boys who have worked hard to promote their debut LP without benefit of a major label. This is one of those cases where the ratio of bloggerati chatter:actual worthiness is grossly skewed, prompting me to roll my eyes every time I see that yellow and pink album cover art. If people just said "yeah, they're nice, they're pretty good," I'd probably nod and agree. It's the drooling and foaming at the mouth that makes me knee-jerk a negative reaction; none of this really matters, though, because CYHSY are probably going to walk away the winners of this year's Most-Talked-About-At-CMJ crown, and as we've learned, that tends to lead to... a major label. Ready?

Let's get down to business. I want to tell you about some bands that probably won't dominate the press, the blogs, or the post-show wrapups, but who are entirely worthy of your attention and your earholes.

First up: Ley Royal Scam, straight outta Jersey with "mall emo" in their hearts and mass media infiltration on their minds. Take a listen to "Yr Still Not Awesome" and "Are You Feeling My Disco" and you tell me if they're joking or not. Alls I know is, the singer's name is Teeter. Or Ginny. Or not.

Grizzly Bear have been described as "creepy folk." True, but they're actually very nice folks. They're either psychedelic or post-psychedelic, depending on whom you believe.

The iOs will tickle the fancy of anyone whose fancy was tickled by mid-nineties shoegazer pop; aside from being pocketably adorable, frontpersons Chris and Autumn have gorgeous voices and I bet they can harmonize in their sleep.

Hot chicks + grrr! + "JT LeRoy, Meet Dennis Cooper" + lust + louder = Knife Skills. I think I'd be a little nervous if I met them in person.

I don't know much about Read Yellow, except that they're on Fenway and they do a mean, rocked-up cover of "Bigmouth Strikes Again."

There's been nothing but good talk about dancepunkers Mistakes round these parts. Is 'dancepunk' even a legit term any more? No one dances in New York. Maybe Mistakes will kick their asses.

Finally, be sure to check out friend-of-a-friend Pete Galub and the Annuals. Pete contributes occasionally to Soft Communication, and when he's not doing that, apparently he's writing some very good songs.

Three hours ahead, badgeless but alert, over and out.

The following is an email from My Favorite frontman Michael Grace sent out by Double Agent Records in regards to the recent demise of My Favorite. As My Favorite fans (we interviewed them for this website late last year), we felt compelled to print the email in its entirety. For more information on My Favorite, please check the band's website. For more information on Double Agent Records, click here. -- L

Friends, fans & colleagues,
This correspondence is to announce the end of a pop group.
Andrea Vaughn has left My Favorite.And thus, by all rights, that chapter should be closed.
The Faves
"With Love Despite Fierce Resistance"
1991-2005

-----
That is a long time for dancers to hold a pose, in the illumination of golden lights, in the wilderness of feedback. It is also more or less my whole life post junior prom. It shall take some getting used to.

The whole unbelievable truth will perhaps be revealed someday in the form of book either I, or a couple others, might threaten to write. Or perhaps it will stay where it's always been覧just beneath the surface of the stormy waters, swimming towards Atlantis.

After more than a decade of making music and memories together, life suggests (or demands) changes. And in the cracks that faith won't fill, fractures will occur. You can't build palaces upon rubble. Few things live forever. And that which does覧never dies. Thus mourn judiciously, and celebrate what you can.

We end this band the way most great cult bands end, with a combination of frustration and regret, pride and fulfillment. But mostly we part as friends, and brethren.

I have had the great fortune to have my songs come to life alongside some remarkably talented and dedicated musicians and people, who fought the good fight alongside me with great passion. Lads with the remarkable ability to find a link to my haunted imagination, in their own. My Favorite was truly the golden chain we all formed together. You have not seen the last fruits of that collaboration.

Andrea gave me and our music nearly half her life. She gave this band her labor & her love. She was a uniquely talented artist, the kind of popstar Jane Austen would have created. She gave my words a courageous vulnerability, and a kind of dignity, which no one will ever be able to rid them of. I will be indebted to her personally and artistically for all we shared, in so many different ways.

She was the Anna Karina to my Jean-Luc Godard, the poetry in my Alphaville.

We wish her nothing but happiness.

----

The Future:

That leaves us with a partially recorded could-be masterpiece, one that never truly felt much like a My Favorite record to me in the end anyway. It is also an album which Andrea ended up not recording very much for. An unfinished novel missing a main character.

During the last two years of this band's shaky solidarity, I began to plan覧sadly覧for this moment. I wrote the name of an imaginary band called The Secret History in the margins of my New York Times. I thought of what I would do, what I could do, if I had to start again. In the next couple months, this will all begin to take shape; a new project, old faces, a new website and diary, a resurrection of the record, a search for a new Nico, a crime to end all crimes. The last battle.

You will hear more about all this soon...I promise. But what is definite now, is that there is no more My Favorite. There couldn't be for me (and probably for you) without Andi.

The last "performance" by My Favorite was during an episode of the CBS soap opera 禅he Bold & The Beautiful' which aired at the end of August. One of these links works better on PC, and one MAC.

http://www.lostdetective.com/videos/HCK.html
http://www.lostdetective.com/videos/HCK-wmv.html

It was a hilarious, yet strangely affecting thing for me to watch; the ghost of a teenage bride swirling about on stage. The audience clapping like we were giving some kind of metaphysical encore. The one line of dialogue: "Maybe there will be a miracle today." In fiction, we get happy endings. In life we ask only for second chances. For a band that truly was a soap opera, well the good lord's sense of humor, and empathy, never ceases to amaze.

To all of you: The true BOLD and BEAUTIFUL

To all of you who have cared about My Favorite for any part of the decade plus since we crawled out of the toxic waste of Long Island together覧I thank you from the bottom of my heart. From Peter Green to a shy pop kid in Sweden; it took every one of you to make us what we were.

There were amazing moments. Too many to number or describe. Someday I'll get around to doing it.

Speaking on behalf of the band, I know the whole gang deeply appreciated all that we have shared together, and all the support that we have received over the years from the aforementioned friends, fans and colleagues. No matter what personal or professional frustrations or heartbreaks we endured, there was always an email or letter waiting to inspire us when we got home, a story about how we were part of the soundtrack of your lives, and how we gave you strength and comfort. I hope you realize that YOU did the same for us. Very few people, who pick up a microphone in their parents' garage, get to be told that they are in a band that profoundly MATTERS by a few thousand of the smartest, best looking people in the world. As much as the music industry marginalized us, YOU championed us, and given the choice...I would choose YOU a million times in a row. You are My Favorite, and I believe in...well...you.

Speaking on behalf of myself, my life has been truly changed, and blessed, by those of you who walked in that downpour of grey glitter alongside me. With a song in our hearts (or headphones), we never walked alone. Thank you dears.

When I started down this road, all those years ago... a tender teenager in horn rimmed glasses and a second hand Fred Perry, surrounded by misfits and prophets, glue sniffers and geniuses... all I hoped to do was share something of the urgent loveliness and sadness of our lives, surrounded as we were by a plainness of architecture, and ugliness of spirit which defined the suburbs, and (sadly) much of America itself. There was almost something glamorous in defying it, in defining it, as we did. I was consumed with being that dark star, that obscure saint. I wanted to make an art that was as rainy and lush and real and spectral as the coastal towns that comforted us at twilight. I wanted to be a sword swallower, and nostalgia was to be my sword. I wanted to do something courageous.

Sadly it was always much easier for me to do that in my art, than in my life. But I'm working on that. If I had known then, just how much loveliness and sadness this band would bring to me personally, I don't think I would have believed it. And I'm not sure I would have ever stepped on a stage. But I did, and I had company. We were glorious failures. But we were glorious.

So that's that. Sitting here on a park bench underneath the elevated subway line, in horn rimmed glasses and a Fred Perry, the world appears to me still a divine creation; a place of great turmoil, and great possibility. A place where each cross we bear brings us closer to that which is unbreakable within us. I hope I've earned enough of your trust that you will follow me to what comes next. If I've learned anything from all this, it is that one should never hold back, or be frightened of, that which is in one's heart. Die with your boots on. Live with your boots on. The spaces around us are our sacred battlefield. Strike boldly, but strike only for Love. That's what The Secret History will be.

Stay gold,
Michael Grace Jr.
Faculty & Alumni
School Of The Hearts
State University of Nowhere
http://www.lostdetective.com

This is a post written by Kyle S., who we hope will contribute to the PDP more often. Enjoy! --L

"The icicles are dripping like the whole house is weeping"

With lyrics like that, there's no question that David Berman fancies himself as something of a poet. Whether or not he's actually had a book of poetry published (Actual Air) is besides the point -I mean, how many people gazin' round here have Ian Curtis' or Stephen Patrick Morriseys' words inscribed on their souls? The poet-musician-poet Ouroboros is evident in no one, if not David Berman (Leonard Cohen notwithstanding, of course) - It's only on Tanglewood Numbers, however, that DB's allowed the music to become as forceful as his words.
Tanglewood is more of a Pavement record than any Pavement-affiliated outing has been so far, and I mean that in as good a way as possible. What once would have been bare-bones acoustic numbers have been sped up to a full gallop, and much of the subtlety which drove previous Silver Jews records has turned to rock with a capital C-O-U-N-T-R-Y. From the distorted guitar riff and 30-second-guitar solo that ends "Sometimes A Pony Gets Depressed" to the gang vocals shouting "I love you to the max" that set apart album-opener "Punks In The Beerlight," this is about as heavy and forceful as David Berman's music has ever been on record - enjoy it while you can.
I know this is supposed to be more of a dance-music-oriented site, but if mentions of that newly discovered R.E.M.-Circa-Green B-Side "Soul Meets Body" can fit on here (I mean, the arpeggiated pre-chorus, that ba-ba-ba melody line, the pseudo-Mike Mills backups, the goddamned mandolin!), then I figured the Siver Joos could snag a mention or two here on the eve of their most rockin' album to date.

Love,
Kyle

Those of you in Los Angeles may hear Neneh Cherry's "Buffalo Stance" with some regularity on that primarily oldies station geared towards Gen X and the older portion of Gen Y. Some of you may hear the song and wondered, "Whatever happened to Neneh?"
Neneh Cherry Online reports that, while Ms. Cherry's latest solo effort is stalled at the moment, she has joined with CirKus, whose album Laylow, will start to hit the shelves at the end of September. The hip-hop collective will tour Europe this fall. There is a possibility of a US tour, but that has not yet been confirmed.
To hear snips from Laylow, check CirKus' site.

Ah, another year and another CMJ that yours truly will not get to attend. If you, dear reader, will be in NYC for the festivities, please try to see Man in Gray on Friday, September 16, 2005. MIG is playing at 169 Bar (as in 169 E. Broadway, take the F train to the East Broadway stop). Time slot is 11:00 p.m.

For the rock kids, Sahara Hotnights is playing at Spaceland with Run Run Run, who is the club's resident band for September. According to the band's website, Sahara Hotnights is currently working on a fourth album (no release date in sight yet). The show is free and 21+.
The Mojo Filters are also playing resident rock band this month. Every Monday night in September, you can catch them play at Zen Sushi in Silverlake. Joining them this evening are Lemon Sun and The Soundhead. It's free if you are over 21 and a few dollars if you are not.
For the dance kids, I really suggest checking out Dance Like a Machine. I'll be honest and admit that I have never attended the club on account of Monday night classes and such. However, I am acquainted with a few of the folks who have spun records here and, well, they have good taste. DJ Olie is the resident and tonight's guests are Aquavee (Create:Fixate) and Stan Min vs. Tang (Cytrax, Incision, Automatic Static). DLAM goes down at M Bar in a strip mall on the corner of Fountain and Vine. There is no cover, but it is 21+.

Let's just say you had this friend who dressed like Louise Brooks and hung out in a red-walled West Hollywood nightclub listening to Mink Stole singing Edith Piaf. So, then this friend finds a tattered copy of Edith Piaf's songs in a used bin at some mega record store that still sells used vinyl and puts it on Turntable the First. Then you, being the Warp Records-listening nerd that you are, say, "Dude, wouldn't it be totally cool if we put some glitch beat under 'L'amant d'un jour?'" So, you put Random Electronic Record With Slow Jarring Beat on Turntable the Second and wonder, "What will this sound like?"
Most likely, it will sound something like CocoRosie, who have a new album called Noah's Ark out this Tuesday from Touch and Go Records. Despite the fact that this is the band's second album, the website is still under construction. Ladies, this is where My Space comes in handy. Anyhow, there is a track available on the Touch and Go site right here.
Enjoy.