Eagle Rock Rocks

On Friday, I went with Noey to see Atlas Sound at the Eagle Rock Center for the Arts (http://www.centerartseaglerock.org/). Still not totally clear on where Eagle Rock is, but it's not that far from my place. And strangers, this "center" is awesome. It's basically a high school gym slash church, with a stage in front of a GIANT dramatic window and a makeshift bar with people selling strange beers I've never heard of. Most of the people there looked like 18 year old high school seniors, looking for something to do on a Friday night.

Atlas Sound is what Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox has been calling his solo work since he was 10 and the show was wonderful. I don't know that I could pick out specific "hits," but his voice is so special and he does everything himself on stage and had a lovely rapport with the audience. I was in a trance. It was good.

Here are some unrelated songs I like today:

1) "California" by Delta Spirit (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3gRn3_9p8w) Did I already post this song? Whatever I love this band. They're a California band (I loved Matt Vasquez's LA diet http://losangeles.grubstreet.com/2011/02/delta_spirits_matt_vasquez_for.html) that did a long stint in Brooklyn and it's nice to have them singing a song called "California" rather than one called "Bushwick Blues" for selfish reasons. This song is definitely more "pop" for them than I am used to, though they've toyed with this beat before and Vasquez's voice is always unique and undeniable. Excited for the new album.

2) School of Seven Bells' new song that I heard in my car on 88.5 and didn't catch the name of. What is their new song called, Strangers? Seriously, I It was so M83-does-a-ballad! I dug it!

3)"Little Talks" by Of Monsters and Men (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghb6eDopW8I&ob=av2e) So this song sounds a little Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros meets Mumford & Sons, but I like it, and I think it's elevated by the female singer's voice. She's kinda Kate Nash meets Dolores O'Riordan. I like to meet things today.

Thanks Em...

Booking my ticket to Philly now...thank you Emily for sending:

http://www.cakespy.com/blog/2012/2/28/sweet-of-the-day-ice-cream-in-pretzel-cones-millers-twist-ph.html

Um

Saturday night I slipped and fell into a box of McDonald's chicken nuggets. And fries. And then Anna and I watched The Bodyguard and swooned over Kevin Costner.

So it was an incredibly awesome/terrible weekend.

Hot New Track!

Ha, that post title is so funny to me. I just wanted to type "hot new track" so badly, so I did it. However, I am into the new single from M.Ward, "Primitive Girl." It's good:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KADgwgjCWiI

Right? I really do NOT care for the doody-tweeness of She and Him and a lot of M. Ward songs carry that overly-cutesy, bullshit stench with them, but this one seems fresh, maybe with a faint Ben Folds/silly-piano odor. See how far I took that smell metaphor?

I myself am NOT a primitive girl. Without makeup, I sort of look like one of those dancing claymation raisins that sung "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" in those commercials back in the day. Don't know what I'm talking about? Yeah, I'm old. Anyway, I'm just gonna play this song on repeat and picture Keri Russell in a field or something. And by Keri Russell I mean Scott Speedman.

2 Bands 2Day

Lil Strangers, I got Spotify. I don't know how to work it except that I can look up any music I want and listen to it and everyone I am friends with on Facebook can tell when I am listening to Lady Antebellum. Anyway, I listened to the new Sleigh Bells album, Reign of Terror and it is GREAT. Like, I saw them live so I know they put on a good show (just so LOUD and aggressive and dance-y), but aside from "Rill Rill," I wasn't thrilled with their last album. This one KILLS ME, it is so badass. I especially rec "Born to Lose," "End of the Line," "Leader of the Pack," "Road to Hell" and "You Lost Me." Okay, that is half the album, but it is enthralling and I love it.

I ALSO am loving Lower Dens. The new single "Brains" is very good, but I am discovering the 2010 album Twin-Hand Movement for the first time, and I am getting kind of crazy about it. "Blue and Silver" and "I Get Nervous" are lovely, and while I cannot make out the lyrics, "A Dog's Dick" seems like a really romantic love song. Seriously. Listen to it!

In short...Spotify, iPhone, it's the future.

Pioneertown!!!

Okay but first, the other night I went to this new record store in Los Feliz called High-Fidelity Records (http://www.yelp.com/biz/high-fidelity-los-angeles-2). Yes, the name is a schmaltzy reference to a GREAT book AND movie (so into Stephen Frears' stuff), but the place is surprisingly great too! They were having their opening party with free beer and wine and you could bring in your used records. This band, The Peach Kings (http://thepeachkings.com/) performed...and they rocked. They were a lot harder live than on their album, which I obviously LOVED. They sounded kind of like The Kills (and you know my intense emotions about Alison Mosshart) and there is an awesome dynamic between the singer and the studly young guitarist (sorry strangers, I think they're a COUPLE (explaining the sexy vibe)). Anyway, it was a pretty cool event.

So THEN I went to Pioneertown with some friends for the weekend. If you have never heard of this place, that's OKAY, but just listen to my advice and go NOW. It's this little ghost-town right outside of Joshua Tree where they used to film Westerns back in the day. There's an adorable inn there (http://www.pitowninn.com/), where we stayed. Look at the cuteness:

OMG YOU GUYS I KNOW, the iPhone takes a much better pic. Here are Kyle and Julie by a bull (fake) outside the inn (not sure what Kyle is doing behind the statue).

That is a fake hotel in the ghost town. I sort of wanted to stay there.

This is a kind-of racist Mexican gnome statue that I wanted to steal. I didn't.

OH NO!!! Julie is in JAIL.

So there is like, this kitsch graveyard in the ghost town and they lined up some weird, old typewriters. Also, Kalen made me lift one and it was like a million pounds.

So, a stone's throw from the motel is this place called Pappy and Harriet's (http://www.pappyandharriets.com/), which is basically Heaven on Earth. It's this giant restaurant/bar where they have insane BBQ and a different musical act almost every night. So like, you can eat this:

And then dance to a band like Dengue Fever (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengue_Fever_(band)
Strangers, this band is NO JOKE. The singer is Cambodian and she sings mostly IN Cambodian, accompanied by some SICK psychedelic rock. They blew me away. Then we had an afterparty and passed out pretty early.

The next day my friend Erin joined us, we went to this DELICIOUS brunch place in Joshua Tree called The Crossroads Cafe (http://www.yelp.com/biz/crossroads-cafe-joshua-tree). I had an omelet I created with Andouille sausage, green onion, mushrooms, and salsa and then the table shared scary things like crazy mashed potatoes with onion, cheese, sour cream and an over-easy egg on top and moist banana bread with butter (okay, my friend Jesse does NOT like butter, and he doesn't think it is necessary in general, and that's probably why he is so lean and I am jealous of him even though he is a male). Then some of us (me) decided it was too cold and windy to do the hike we planned (Julie, Kyle, and Jesse were troopers), so we went bowling. The place kind of smelled of vomit, but we had fun, and by that I mean I won. Kat Scardino will be mad that I posted this picture of her:

But STRANGERS, you could wear sweats there! Then my friends Jacqueline and Antonio and their French Canadian friend Jeremy (okay, he was just French) did another round of Pappy's with us after a very cold night attempting to camp. Things got so wild that this happened:

I don't know who that man was, but that night he was just my best friend. Then we continued the dance party and I decided to pay homage to my friend, most likely during a Whitney Houston (RIP) song:

Good times, good times.

The Big Pink

Actually, their version of "Velvet" is AMAZEBALLS. I just re-listened and...wow. It's like Depeche Mode and NIN had a lusty baby:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt2jw-NcQ9s&ob=av2n

You're welcome.