I went to Underground last night, not knowing for sure that Anthony and Dave would be there, but knowing full well that it is rare that they miss a Friday night at The Tempest. They parked right as I was ready to cross the street. Naturally, the first thing I asked them was how was Comic-Con. Anthony and Dave go every year and every year I really want to go, but stay home instead.
"Did you see any Fullmetal Alchemist stuff when you were there?" I asked.
They both stared at me, confused.
"What? The movie is coming out this fall."
"You're into anime?"
"Yeah, you didn't know that?"
After that, a conversation ensued as to how no one had ever pegged yours truly as the sort who gets all wrapped up in anime serials.
"Well, I wouldn't say I'm an anime nerd or anything," I explained, not to mock other anime fans but rather to protect myself from anyone who might call me a poseur because I'm not the sort who can spout off tons of anime trivia. "I'm just really into Fullmetal Alchemist. And Paranoia Agent." And a few others that I neglected to mention, but that's to a far lesser extent.
"Besides, even when it comes to Fullmetal Alchemist, I don't know everything about it. I mean, I haven't read the manga yet." However, that is on my summer reading list.
I then explained that anime fits in perfectly with my addiction to television shows, movies and books that are so involved that if you miss a few minutes, you're totally lost. It's everything my beloved One Life to Live could be if I were head writer. (This might also explain why I like Coheed and Cambria, but that's fodder for another post completely.)
So, there you have it, my admission to non-hipster-approved geekiness. I don't even know if I have any other friends who get all caught up in the adventures of the Elric brothers, but if I do, I will be scheduling a field trip to see the film when it's in theaters this fall.

I hate having to work Saturday mornings, because I can't really go out on Friday nights. Tonight was no exception. I had to get out of the house somehow, so I thought I'd go to the record shop and use my 10% off coupon before it expires. After the usual dilemmas of deciding what to get, what to put back, and budgetary constraints, I ended up walking out with The CSS' CD (thanks for the tip, Ivan), Otto von Schirach's Pukology record, and the Ellen Allien/Audion 12".

Upon leaving, and realizing I had a few hours to kill before having to go to bed, I decided to go to Back to the Grind, a local Riverside coffee shop, to work on my column for The Rockit News, and have a cup of chai. When I got there, I noticed that there were more teenagers than usual on a Friday night, and the girl at the counter told me there was a benefit show in the basement. I didn't know who was playing, or what the benefit was for, until someone came upstairs and shouted: "Phoenix and the Turtle is about to play!"

Now, that was a pleasant surprise, as they're probably my favorite Riverside band these days. I put my computer away, and proceeded downstairs at once. I found out that the show was a benefit for orphaned children in Darfur, which is something I can get behind. As for the band, well, this was probably my fifth or sixth time seeing them play (but first time in quite a while), and from their first song reminded me why I love them so. Think epic indie-rock, only slightly proggy, with male/female vocals. The only comparison I can really make (and it doesn't even come close) would be My Favorite, but without the 80s influence.) The last song they played, "Bush", featured a guest spoken-word appearance by the singer from Conspiracy of Thought. Their short set was comprised of songs not on their first self-released album, but (as the bassist told me afterwards) will appear on their upcoming CD. I can't wait for it, as I like their newer stuff much more than their earlier songs. I'm definitely going to see them when they play August 5th at The Vault Martini Bar in Redlands.

It's not very often in the IE that one can just stumble upon a great show such as this, but tonight, I'm not complaining.

I got on some random Flesh for Lulu kick today. I'll be honest, I hardly know anything about the band outside of the two songs that made me crazy when I was a wee lass (see below). So I ended up at this fan site and started looking through the gigography, which is fairly impressive as it dates back to the early-1980s and, really, I had no clue that Flesh for Lulu played with so many bands I love. Then I scrolled down to 2000 and noticed that the only date listed was in London and I'm positive that I saw Flesh for Lulu play that year, as I was the DJ at the gig. I would have written to the webmaster to provide some useful information, but I can't remember the date, although I think it was sometime during the summer. I do know, however, that it was at Rodney's English Disco while the club was held at Fais Do Do and I'm pretty sure that I was single and Paul the ex-GGBW was my faux-date that night, which would place the show squarely in 2000.
Rodney's English Disco was a sorely underrated club. I really loved working there, especially since it meant that I got to play alongside Rodney Bingenheimer, who is pretty much a legend here in Los Angeles and someone who had an enormous impact on my music tastes (short list of bands I heard first on his show: James, Suede, Supergrass, Teenage Fanclub, Bis, Kinky Machine who became Rialto, Shampoo, etc.). The fact that the club was hosted by a major figure in the L.A. music scene meant that a lot of really interesting people would hang out there. I don't necessarily mean celebrities, but, it was the sort of place where you could be talking to some guy and midway through the conversation you realize that he's played on loads of huge records. As an added bonus, Rodney's was pretty much the only place where you could see the largely unknown foreign bands like Boo! and Vyvyan.
I think Flesh for Lulu actually played the same night Vyvyan (wish I could find out whatever happened to those girls as their cover of "Push It" was out of control). It might have also been the night I was renamed DJ Anne (don't ask), but club nights all sort of fade together after time passes. Anyhow, Flesh for Lulu played and it was such a fun set. We started talking about "I Go Crazy" and I started to think that there was another song I actually liked better than the Some Kind of Wonderful hit. One of my friends (Paul, Tim, I don't know) suggested that it might have been "Postcards from Paradise" and then the song just came over me in a great wave of life on music and the band played the song shortly therafter. I removed myself from the post behind the CD players, ran down the stairs and just started dancing.

Flesh for Lulu "I Go Crazy"

Flesh for Lulu "Postcards from Paradise"

Buy the album here.

I had an epiphany while editing today.

If you crossbred Robert Smith with the dude from My Chemical Romance, stuck the offspring in a Silver Lake studio apartment (or, as my friend Melissa like to proclaim, "That's not a studio! That's a bedsit!") and feed it nothing but Stella Artois for a year, said offspring would look like Jack White.

Yesterday I read this editorial in LA Times about the darkside of Wikipedia. At first I thought, maybe this guy just got burned and he's out for blood. After all, this is the democratization mass media and that means everyone has a voice and that's just so now, isn't it? As a completely unscientific test, I started searching band wikis. Consequently, I learned that dude was totally right about the wiki slant. On the flipside, though, these inconsistencies often disappear within hours.
Let's take Aiden as an example. When I looked the band up this morning, there was this huge rant on the page about how Aiden is said to be emo but it isn't really emo, at least not like "good" bands like Indian Summer. Now it's gone, but I still have to wonder what would possess a person to go into a program that is supposed to function like some sort of democratically produced encyclopedia and spout some sort of nonsense most easily found on a chat board? Then there is Kill Hannah's entry, which seems to be in a bit of disarray at this point.
But it's not just those love/hate bands that have wiki issues. Sometimes it's just a matter of making up scenes for the sake of being authoritative about something. When I looked up Dntel, there was a mention of his former band, Strictly Ballroom, which was apparently described as "Enocore." I called Estelle, who probably saw the band more than I did when we were all working at the same radio station, to see if maybe I forgot something from those days. Unfortunately, I got her voicemail. I'm pretty sure, though, that I wouldn't forget hearing any band referred to as "Enocore," since it's actually a worse title for a non-genre than slowcore and cuddlecore combined. I don't really remember Strictly Ballroom sounding much like Brian Eno either, but, whatever. What's worse is that there is an entry for "mallcore," in which the term is described with the tone of a high school textbook or the guy on the chatboard (and it *is* always a guy) that insists that his musical tastes are the only ones valid. Let's get this straight, the suffix "core" should never be applied to music unless you are talking about things released off of SST in the 1980s and the bands derived from that sound (i.e. hardcore). Doing so is just as bad as admitting to your friends that you won't be going out tonight because you are editing a wiki entry on post-hardcore bands from Goleta, California circa 1997.

Behold! Megan the Water Moccasin has edited, literally, thousands of shots taken at Ozzfest and Warped Tour and uploaded the best on her website.

According to Wikipedia, North American Monsoon's are Mexican in origin, but tend to travel up through the Southwest. These storms often affect California, but rarely Los Angeles. More frequently, you will find the North American Monsoon out in the desert. Last weekend, we caught the tail end of a monsoon, or, at least that what's my mom heard on the news.
Saturday afternoon was filled with 119 degrees (no kidding) of sticky, oppressive heat. By 8:00 p.m., when I decided to head down to the South Bay to visit Carlos, the thermometer had dropped to 111 and the sky had this odd gray-orange cast to it. I hopped on the 405 and headed south, noticing that the horizon was quickly turning gunmetal as I entered the mountains. I saw some flashes and, for a few moments, thought about turning around for fear that there was a flash flood warning in the hills that I missed. Once through Sepulveda Pass, the lightning hit harder, great Tesla streaks across the sky that flashed every ten seconds. In my nearly 30 years of life in Los Angeles, I have never seen anything like this before. I tried to focus on the Cure album playing on my stereo, tried singing along to "Lullaby" only to realize that I was starting to sound more terrified than if the Spiderman had his "arms all around me and his tongue in my eye." Soon after passing the 10, I saw a bolt as sharp-angled as the one of the cover of Ride the Lightning and I could have sworn it hit the LMU bluff. I jumped up as I drove, all the time wondering what I have to do to ensure that lightning didn't strike me. I made sure that I didn't park under a tree. That's all I could recall.
The lightning slowed down throughout the course of the night, only to be replaced by a thick downpour of hot rain. Two days later, the air is still schvitz-like.
Inspired by the weather, I wanted to post some songs from Monsoon, which featured a 17-year-old Sheila Chandra when the trio released it's only album, Third Eye, in 1982.

Monsoon "Wings of the Dawn (Hindi Version)"

"Every So Lonely" was the major hit in the U.K. off this album (and was later remixed into a massive club hit by Jakarta), but "Wings of the Dawn" was quite popular in L.A. goth clubs over a decade later. This is the Hindi version of the song, although clubs played the English version. You can find it on this compilation.

Monsoon "Tomorrow Never Knows"

Simply based on what I recall of Beatles' history, this version of "Tomorrow Never Knows" seems fitting. I used to play it at Transmission. It's on the same comp.

When Monsoon split, Sheila Chandra embarked on a solo career and has maintained
a stellar reputation amongst world music aficionados and NPR listeners. She also contributed to this track from The Grid.

The Grid "Angel Tech"

Featuring Dave Ball of my beloved Soft Cell, The Grid scored some serious club hits in the 1990s, the biggest of which was this.

The Grid "Swamp Thing"

"Swamp Thing" came out right around the same time that my friends and I started clubbing and I'm pretty sure that not a single Sunday passed when we didn't hear it at Velvet, which was where we went for a house-meets-80s vibe.

"Swamp Thing," however, should not be confused with this wacky mid-1990s tune.

Rednex "Cotton Eye Joe"

Used copies of "Swamp Thing" and "Cotton Eye Joe" are available on Amazon.com, however, I can't find "Angel Tech" on there.

It is ridiculously hot out. Granted, it's summer and the heat is par for the course but we're still allowed to express our disdain for triple-digit temperatures. And while I have no advice on ways to cool down, I do have a few album selections that will take a bit of the suffering out of your day.

CANSE DE SER SEXY - Cansei De Ser Sexy

Cansei De Ser Sexy (a.k.a. CSS) is a Brazilian electro group that will make you shake your ass to songs about the indie/hipster lifestyle. Ironic? Yes. Honest? Definitely. Humorous? You bet! Vocalist Lovefoxx's accent is hella cute and only made more so by the dance-able lo-fi electro tunes.

Favorite tunes: "Alala," "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above" and "This Month, Day 10."

Official webpage

Myspace

MSTRKRFT - The Looks

This is the debut release from MSTRKRFT (of which I drooled about here), which is more of a collection of dance tunes (eight in all? oh blarghagh!) than a full album. Though The Looks may seem like nothing but a collection of 12" singles neatly compiled in one spot, it's second on the list for a reason. There's plenty of hi-hat trickery, booming analog bass and robot vocals to get any Silverlake party jumping.

Favorite tunes: "Work On You," "Paris" and "Street Justice."

Official webpage

Myspace

THE BLACK ANGELS - Passover

"Native American Drone-N-Roll" is what these guys describe their music as and I'm not going to argue it. What I will add is that Passover is an album packed with some great 60s psychedelic/stoner rock; somewhere along the lines of a shoegaze band attempting Dead Meadow covers.

Favorite tunes: "Young Men Dead," The Sniper at the Gates of Heaven" and "Empire."

Official webpage

Myspace

CUT CHEMIST - The Audience's Listening

Former Ozomatli and Jurassic 5 DJ breaks out on his own for his first full-length album. The LP is 12 tracks composed of samples from Cut Chemist's vast library of vinyl and includes vocal contributions from Hymnal, Edan, Mr. Lif and Thes One.

Favorite tunes: "The Garden," "What's The Altitude" and "Metrorail Thru Space."

Official webpage

Myspace

(Warning: The songs contained herein will be considered objectionable by most. By objectionable, I mean that the lyrics might actually make Peach blush. They are definitely dirtier than anything Avenue D could write, except for maybe that song one of the girls did with Boy George. Do not listen to these songs from your workstation or in any other place where turning up the volume can get you into serious trouble.)

After graduating from high school, I spent three months bumming around with my small crowd of friends knowing full well that, by September, we would see each other infrequently or, in some cases, never again. My house was pretty much ground zero since my mom had a Price Club membership, meaning that we had a stockpile of jalepeno poppers in the freezer, and I lived down the street from a straggly-haired pro-skater that certain girls in the circle found hot. One night, Angel, my partner in crime, drove up in his new car with a very loud stereo system and blared this club hit.

Lords of Acid "I Sit on Acid"
(Song Removed)

The song inspired an impromptu dance party on the sidewalk in front of my house complete with seven teenagers screaming "Darling, come here!"

The fact that no one in my neighborhood seemed to care about our raucous behavior, encouraged him to play another track for us.

Lords of Acid "I Must Increase My Bust"
(Song Removed)

All of us girls started working the bust exercises from junior high P.E. class as if we actually needed help in that department. This prompted Angel to switch CDs and play the song that he swore was "crucial for every woman to know."

Consolidated (w/Yeastie Girls) "You Suck"
(Song Removed)

At one point during this song, we were actually dancing on top of cars. These things happen when you are that bored. The best part was that not a single person in the neighborhood complained.

Lust, the Lords of Acid album from which these two tracks stem, is still available. However, this doesn't seem to be the case for Consolidated's 1992 release Play More Music.