For those of you who are not planning to attending MSTRKRFT and John Digweed at Vanguard, I have a suggestion for you.

M/R/X

This is one of my favorite clubs in L.A. Job Leatherette and his cohorts play an exceptional mix of underground tunes and bring in some of the finest talent from parts unknown. Tonight The Parallelograms and Jean-Paul Yamamoto are playing live.

Labels: Clubs We Love, M/R/X

I spent most of last night at Transistor, where I ran into my friend Xavier for the second time this week, which was kind of odd considering that we hadn't seen each other in a few months and I think he just kind of ended up at Transistor and the Dimmu Borgir party earlier this week by chance. Me, I was working, but I wasn't working as a DJ and that's all I will say for now.
Florian Pfefferkorn and Cathy Lara played tight sets. I can't really remember enough to provide a detailed account considering that I have slept maybe three hours since then. Woke up early this morning, interviewed another band. Started to freak out at the thought of four full or nearly-full mini cassettes that I really need to transcribe and turn into stories. Blah.
Worked all day. Sat in traffic to get down to Synergy Cafe & Lounge in Culver City, which was where we did the first of our monthly Rockit events at the venue. Scored a killer grilled cheese with gouda oozing out of it. Mmm, thinking about it makes me hungry again. Hung out with Carlos, James, Robert and the rest. Went through CDs we're going to review for the next issue of The Rockit. Watched The Weather Underground play unplugged. They covered "Alone Again Or," which I have seen them do before. "Alone Again Or" is one of my favorite songs ever. I didn't know that Love did the original until I was a teenager. I grew up on The Damned's version. I loved both. Now I love all three.
Best part of the evening was getting our copies of the new issue. You can pick it up in stores and see it online this Monday. Plus, we're doing another event at Underground next week, so you will be able to score some there as well.
So, for those who actually grew curious when I hinted that we had someone big for the cover, here it is.
Grandmaster Flash
Now I want to go on the record and say that getting the chance to interview Flash was the highlight of my career thusfar. I think most of the encounter is best described in the story, so you have to read it. For now, I will just say that I was honored to have to chance to talk to him about music and am eternally grateful to the folks at Reybee for making it happen.

But that's not all, we have equally awesome stories on the following:
Trans Am
Cherokee Studios
The Autumns
I'm From Barcelona
A Change of Pace
xDeathstarx
Vendetta Valentine
The Pacific
Distant Daze
Screaming Masterpiece (documentary film)
Tourfilter.com
Radio Perfik
Rhino Records
Shrine Clothing
Pacific Dining Car
Plus live reviews: The Lady Tigra and Electrocute, Lucha Va Voom, Low vs. Diamond, Sparta and Joe Bresler
Loads of record reviews
DJ Charts from Cody Wayne and Maurice de la Falaise
Oh, and a certain editor pretty much compared Nine Inch Nails to George Lucas

Labels: Clubs, The Rockit

Stop telling me that your English is terrible. I know that you might not get the colloquialisms and such and sometimes I have to slow down because I'm from California and I have no time to wait for anything so I speak at Autobahn speeds, but that's nothing.

Your English is marvelous and if you heard the linguistic travesties I hear on a daily basis, you would agree wholeheartedly. Maybe that's because you aren't eating when we are on the phone. People out here seem to have a problem with that.

Labels: Nonsense

The Berlin-L.A. Club Swap starts tonight at Transistor, where DJs Cathy Lara and Florian Pfefferkorn aka Monoprix will spin alongside the residents.

Fun will be had.

Labels: Clubs We Love, DJs, Upcoming Shows

Whilst in the midst of a round of phone tag that extended the whole evening, Estelle left me a message that forced me to laugh like some crazed Sunset Strip partier as I waited for Carlos outside the Key Club.

"Do you remember that time we saw one of Calvin Johnson's bands play. I can't remember which one. It must have been ten years ago. There was this girl at the side of the stage with headphones on and she was just there dancing during the whole set."

I called back and sang into her voicemail.

"Oh my God, Estelle. You're too much. I forgot about that until now. It was Dub Narcotic. At The Troubadour. Was it with The Makeup? I can't remember. Was it really ten years ago?"

I think the show occurred somewhere around the time that the DJ who would go on to become my boyfriend threw half-rotten pumpkins out of a fourth floor window because Bis' new single "Eurodisco" so compelled him. I can't remember much about the night, but I think it might have been Dub Narcotic and The Makeup. Maybe it was just Dub. Things become a blur after years of clubs. It was definitely the Troubadour because I remember standing by those poles at the side of the stage with Estelle and probably Suzie and maybe Shamus too. I can't remember. All I remember was this girl at the side of the stage. We thought she must have been part of the show. She was thin and very indie. Her hair was long, the same shade of blonde-brown that colored the hair of all of the AYSO diehards in elementary school. Her headphones were huge, perhaps double the size of the ones I wear to DJ and covered in either a light gray or dingy white plastic. Total flea market headphones. And she was there at the side of the stage dancing all night and we weren't sure if she was dancing to the band or something else that was playing in the headphones. It was random, even by the standards of two girls who were prone to jumping on furniture for impromptu renditions of "Dig Me Out" and hung out with boys who threw half-rotten pumpkins out of fourth floor windows.

Labels: Flashbacks

Okay, there were no virgin sacrifices at the Dimmu Borgir record release party tonight, but we did see actual Scandinavian black metal dudes. It was a total Metalocalypse moment without the dead bodies and such. We even had our picture taken with one of the members.
Carlos heard that we were going to see the members of Dimmu Borgir in Clark Kent mode, which I guess was true, but Clark Kent for Scandinavian black metal dudes involves long hair, piercings and cowboy hats.
Meanwhile, I whispered to Carlos that maybe I shouldn't have worn pink. He said that my rose cord jacket with the faux fur collar was totally metal. I'm inclined to agree, but it's more Kyuss metal than Mayhem metal and I think this crowd leaned towards the latter.
Now, if you're going to throw a major party, we suggest the Plush Lounge at the Key Club. They had a total spread, including a massive Wonkavision fountain done up in a chocolate/caramel mixture and huge strawberries. Plus it was open bar.
Oh, and the new Dimmu Borgir record is pretty hot with goth-via-former-Eastern-Block-musician orchestration and beats that play like the worst whoopin' you ever got.

Labels: Metal, Out on the Town

Calvin Johnson is way cool.

I think I'm going to see him spin alongside Ian Svenonius at both The Mountain Bar (3/13) and The Echo (3/11).

That is all.

No, wait, that's not all. This has totally been bugging me. When we were in college, I remember going over how many bands had covered "Indian Summer." I could have sworn we had at least seven. I asked Mr. Johnson about that and he said that he knows of three. He didn't name the covers. These are the three I came up with quickly.

Eugenius
Luna
Spectrum

There are more. I know there are more. Somebody help me! (Mary and Estelle, I'm looking at you two.)

Labels: DJs, Geek Out, Upcoming Shows

Optimo played San Francisco last weekend and is playing San Diego on Wednesday. There is no L.A. date.

It's times like these that I wish I still promoted clubs, that way I could book them.

Labels: DJs, Optimo

I was going to post this yesterday, but, anyhow, did you guys get to read this feature on Cory Kennedy? It's a riot.

Oh, and I have a story in the Santa Monica Mirror right now. It's not a riot, but please read it regardless.

Yesterday, I was going to write my annual I Hate the Oscars post, particularly in light of the nearly-two hours I spent on the road traveling ass backwards to drop off a press kit at Ivan's place. I told him it would have taken me less time to ride the Orange Line to the Red Line and then walk to his place. He said, no, Hollywood and Highland has been closed for two weeks because of Oscar and, on Saturday night, all the stops between Universal and Vine (I think that's three or four stops) were closed. What, are they afraid someone is going to steal the Harry Winston diamonds that no actress actually bought?

Simply put, I just really hate it when the city decides to close down the streets and subway stops funded with our tax money for the fucking Academy Awards.

Labels: In the News, Rants

I got wind of this clip from Carlos. Now, I don't know a lick of French, but it must be one hell of a sad song. It left me feeling a little heavy around the shoulders and tight in the chest, which is what good songs and impassioned performers should do.

Labels: French Stuff, Jacques Brel, Videos