GEAR UP LA: SATURDAY 6/30 10 AM – 3PM
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This Saturday, the KITR – InTraffikRadio girls will be giving out Free Brownies and Lemonade at our LEMONADE STAND during the GEAR UP LA! Music Gear Swap Meet at Bedrock Studios in Echo Park (home of KITR-Intraffikradio).
Where: Bedrock Studios (1623 Allesandro St. Echo Park 90026)
When: Saturday June 30th from 10am – 3pm
More Info: http://gearupla.com
WHAT:
+Outdoor pop up market with vendors selling music gear and music related gear at HUGE Discounts
+ Indoor Try Out Rooms: ESP Guitars, Satellite Amps, Mapex Drums, Soultone Cymbals, Muffin Man Music, Echopark Guitars, Reanimation Station
+ Food Vendors: Grill ‘Em All, Germany’s Famous Bratwurst, Antigua Cultural Coffee House, Free Lemonade, Brownies, Mini-Sandwiches from KITR-InTraffikRadio, and Cookies from Freshly Baked.
+ Live DJ sets from Mono Records, who will also be selling vinyl
+ Pins and Needles, Bedrock’s in-house vintage pinball arcade owned and operated by Pinball Molly, the top female flipper in the US, will be throwing a micro tournament and the winners will get extra raffle tickets!
PRIZES:
The first 50 people in attendance will win a pack of Cleartone strings, a $17 value! PLUS, Cleartone is giving away a year’s supply of strings as a raffle prize! That’s 12 sets of electric guitar strings in the gauge of your choice.
Bedrock LA is providing the following 6 prizes:
(5) 3-hour Showcase Room rehearsal blocks
(1) 8-hour recording block.
The recording block can be used in any of our three recording studios and includes a junior engineer. You can bring your own engineer or opt to hire any of ours. If you bring your own engineer we will provide an assistant at no charge. Any extra time or equipment will be billed at normal rates.
GRAND PRIZES:
OUT TO SEE: FINDING THE MUSIC SCENE IN LISBON, PORTUGAL (PART II)…
As you may be familiar from some of his past columns about his travels (Sevilla, Spain, Prague, New Zealand,etc.), Notes from Vivace always makes a point to try to locate the local music scene in each of the places he is exploring at one point or another during his trip.
continued from PART I
I came back at 10 p.m. and the lobby was packed. There was also staircase where a number of folks sat. The first band hit the stage soon after I entered. A small mosh pit started up immediately. It was a powerfully fun set.
Now some of the following facts might contain errors, but here is my attempt via forensic research on Facebook. The night was put on by Florcaveira. The main band was Os Pontos Negros with Samuel Úria eas Velhas Glórias and Alex D’Alva Teixeira joining in on the fun. Here is a video
The way the night worked was that the lead band kicked it off. Then one guy who was part of the small most pit jumped in with his band (Alex D’Alva Teixeira). The change over took five minutes. He played maybe two songs and then jumped out and the lead band jumped back in and played another set. They then jumped out and another band (Samuel Úria eas Velhas Glórias) jumped in for 3 or 4 songs. While this second band was playing, the main band had fun tossing water bottles out to the audience. After Samuel Úria e as Velhas Glórias finished up, the lead band jumped back in and closed out the night.
The lead band members switched instruments a number of times: one guy going from keys to drums and back again. They also had a couple guest musicians during their sets. And for their last song, all three bands had a ball together. An encore was demanded and they obliged.
During one of the breaks, I asked someone next to me who these guys were. A young girl with a Florcaveira t-shirt looked at me with an “Are you serious? “look. Sorry, I’m from Los Angeles.
Not only was I watching the bands, but I also took a little time to check out the photo pit: four cameras. It wasn’t really an official photo pit, just camera folks who had somehow congregated near each other. I decided to approach a couple of them after the show. I asked the first guy if he spoke English. He said a little, but that his friend spoke English better. I asked his friend if he had any suggestions regarding the Lisbon music scene. He couldn’t immediately think of any but one did later pop to mind. A band called Julie and the Carjackers was playing a free show at a record store, he said. He also suggested that I google “concerto” on the google.pt website and that a link to all shows in Portugal would pop up.
I next approached another photographer. She told me she had followed the local scene for a number of years. When I askedabout bands she immediately mentioned, “You Can’t Win, Charlie Brown. They’re playing here on Feb 29 to earn some money to head over to SXSW.” I wasn’t going to be around. She couldn’t think of any other suggestions for the next couple days.
I was happy with the feedback. And I learned something after all these travels that I should have learned long ago: ask those in the photo pits about the local music scene. These folks know what is going on in the local music scene (actually, I think I tried that once before and the girl was only there to photograph her friends and didn’t have a clue about the local music scene so it isn’t necessarily always true, but I suspect it usually is).
Side note: I looked through the research I’d done on the Lisbon music scene before my trip. I didn’t check a single one of those venues or bands out. Instead my music was via a random encounter on day one and google.pt.
check back tomorrow for more of Notes from Vivace’s Lisbon Adventures
FITNESS 101: ASK AUDRA
Audra Yocom is a certified personal trainer based out of Los Angeles, who will be answering your fitness questions on a weekly basis (every Monday) and will also bring you monthly fitness tips via her regular column (resuming in July) to help us to dis-spell those myths we’ve all been subjected to regarding fitness at one point or another in our battle with the bulge. You can also hear Audra with her fitness tips during the early morning (5am – 7am) A.M. Blast block of upbeat tunes geared towards your morning workout and via her new “Fitness and Health” Show the second and fourth Wednesday of every month at 7:30 pm on intraffikradio.com (http://tinyurl.com/intraffikradio) or under Intraffikradio under the eclectic section under iTunes Radio. To learn more about Audra or to inquire about training sessions visit her site http://audrayocom.com.
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QUESTION: Ideally how many calories does a person want to burn when they exercise? Is there a healthy amount?
ANSWER: How many calories you want to burn each time you exercise is really dependent upon what your fitness goals are. There are 3,500 calories in a pound so divide 3,500 by 7 days. If the goal is to lose a pound a week you need to create a deficit of 500 calories per day. To burn 500 calories in one workout is do-able, but it’s a very intense workout.
Combining a healthy diet with exercise is the best way. One of the best ways to count your calories and help yourself lose weight is to use an app like Loseit.com. With this app, you can enter everything you are eating (many of the foods you consume daily are likely already in the app) and it will count the calories for you. It also allows you to enter your exercise and will calculate roughly how many calories you burned based on exercise type and intensity level. To get a more accurate idea of how many calories are burned in each of your workouts it’s best to get a heart rate monitor that calculates the number of calories burned based on your heart rate throughout the exercise.
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Audra will be answering your fitness questions every Monday. If you have questions you’d like answered you may email her at Audra@intraffik.com or send to info@intraffik.com. To see if your questions have been addressed check out past “Ask Audra” Column Entries here
OUT TO SEE: FINDING THE MUSIC SCENE IN LISBON, PORTUGAL…
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The Pre-Trip Purchase
I bought a new lock for my luggage. My last lock got removed by Argentinean security so I bought a new TSA lock. I fumbled the attempt at setting up the three digit security code. Forget it. I went and bought a non-TSA lock. I wasn’t planning on checking my luggage on the plane, but I figured it’d be useful at my hotel room.
What Makes Me Feel Comfortable
I will say one comfort about traveling to Portugal is that they are in the Eurozone and so I had some Euros – equivalent to $40. I just feel more comfortable when I have local currency ahead of my trip.
Wednesday – Randomness on Flight Day
Since my flight to Lisbon wasn’t until the afternoon, I spent my morning eating crepes at Solar de Cahuenga. I re-learned (as I always do when I take these midweek brunches) that there really are plenty of people who spend their mid-morning hours at cafes/restaurants, scanning Facebook on their Mac laptops. Interestingly, I didn’t see a single iPad.
Is this one reason why folks become hermits? They get extreme anxiety not about facing the world, but about what they might have not done. I always hate the last hour or so before I walk out the door for a long vacation. Did I pack everything? Where is my passport? Money? Did I turn off the computer, television, and oven? Did I close the windows? Is my car door locked? Lights?
My bus trip on the 91 to Downtown Los Angeles was spent listening to a high school kid using “sh*t” in every sentence. “They really charge you for that sh*t. Sh*t, I hear the family plan is cheaper.” Sh*t this, sh*t that, and on and on. Yes, most of his conversation dealt with his irritation over his cell phone plan. I guess sh*t has replaced fu*k as the 4-letter word of choice among young people?
I do believe I recognized a TSA agent on the Green Shuttle. I travel too much.
The Tom Bradley Terminal looked amazingly empty.
Someone was bringing two cats with them on their flight. I didn’t realize that cats were allowed to travel with a passenger (or maybe they were flying first class and those folks get special privileges).
On take-off, one of the cabin lights kept on flickering. Typical Iberia Airlines, I thought.
The flight was relatively empty. Hey, cheers to a winter vacation in Southern Europe or maybe it was empty because it was Iberia Airlines.
While the plane was in flight, we got an old old video. It showed Nicolas Cage’s performance in “Adaptation” from 2002; and also Christina Aguilera singing Lady Marmalade and her Grammy Award from 2002. Typical Iberia, showing video from a decade ago.
Thursday — Arrival
Madrid, Spain was a rush. Our plane arrived on time, but the plane didn’t go to a gate. We stopped on the tarmac and waited for a bus to pick us up. The same video of cities from across the Americas kept looping (this video also looked like it was made a decade ago). After the video ended, an instruction video would play about how it would be best for those with connecting flights if we all exited the plane as quickly as possible. Okay?!?
The bus arrived and we went through Customs. If I recall correctly, I wasn’t asked a single question. They looked at my passport and stamped it. I was in Terminal 4S. I took the shuttle all the way to Terminal 4 and got my carry-on luggage x-rayed. I looked at the flight board and saw that my flight was leaving from M35, which was back at Terminal 4S. I then looked at the departure time, which I swear read 15:06. That was like 15 minutes away. I ran back to the shuttle that would now take me back to 4S. I was panicked. Then I looked at my physical ticket: 15:45 p.m. I already knew that, I kicked myself, as my panic eased.
As I was waiting to board my flight to Lisbon, I recalled how the Spanish love rushing into queues. Yep, it happened again.
After checking into the hotel room, I decided to stroll around Lisbon. First stop, of course, was to go to an ATM to get additional euros, but after that I headed over to one of the main Lisbon streets. As I was walking, I heard the sound of a rock band (if you read my stuff, you know this article would eventually get to music). Hmm, I decided to head over. It was coming from a fairly large building (Hall do Cinema São Jorge) so I was half assuming that maybe it was a well known band and that the ticket prices would be high. I walked closer and came to the realization that the band was doing a sound check in the lobby of the building. Hmm.
Some guys walked out so I asked, “Anyone speak English?”
One said “yes” so I asked the obvious, “Any bands playing tonight?”
“Yes, 10 p.m.”
“How much?”
“Free.”
“I’ll be back,” I said.
check back tomorrow for Notes from Vivace’s first “musical adventure in Lisbon”
OUT TO SEE: MAKE MUSIC PASADENA
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Make Music Pasadena is a free event. How this is possible is beyond me. I didn’t even see any donation buckets.
Everyone should thank them for this gift, because Saturday was amazing.
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For me, it started out at the Indie Rock Stage to catch The Happy Hollows (pictured above). The set was full of jumping joy goodness. From there I took the ARTS bus to the Shops on South Lake Stage. There was a group of us heading off to see Tempest. As we were coming to our stop, a young lady asked me, “Who are you taking photos for?” We got into a quick conversation about Silver Lake Jubilee. I asked her what bands she liked most from that weekend. “Moses Campbell. I was in the mosh pit. Summer Twins. Family of the Year.” I did a quick scroll through my camera and showed her a Jubilee photo of Family of the Year’s Christina. Her response, “I love her. She’s like Lana Del Rey, but prettier.”
Tempest (pictured left) is Gabrielle Wortman. The sound is sexy electronic beats. Two five year-old girls danced in front of the stage during the last couple songs. Kids dancing in front of the stage are always the cutest. They must think that adults are old and grumpy for not joining them.
Comment of the set: “We have two more songs for you tonight.”
Okay, so someone is used to playing at 11 p.m. versus 1 p.m.
I just missed the ARTS bus and had to wait around for fifteen minutes for the next one. This delayed my arrival to the Levitt Pavilion and I was only able to catch a handful of songs from Gaby Moreno (pictured below). Her songs are a mix of Spanish and English. I caught the English portion of the set. She has wonderful Central America inspired music.
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From there it was back to the Indie Rock Stage for Electric Guest (pictured below). While watching the band set up, I couldn’t help but notice the screams from the crowd. One fan flagged down the lead singer. He came over and she handed a portrait that she’d painted of him. He was very appreciative. She was overwhelmed. After taking my photos, I headed backstage and couldn’t help but notice Madeline from Cults singing along to one of the songs. Their music lights up when the keys are played.
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As for Cults (pictured below), a year ago I saw them in London. I now got to see them in Pasadena. Life is sweet. While I was hanging out backstage, Madeline appeared to wave at me. My immediate instinct was to look around me. Was she waving at me or someone else? I felt a little awkward, not sure if I was being rude for not waving back. During their set, I noticed her waving to folks in the crowd. At that point, I felt really stupid. I should have waved back instead of being rude.
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What I noticed while watching Madeline sing: she likes to grab the hem of her dress and sing on her tippy toes.
After their set, I said to myself, I have the most awesome life.
It was a fifteen minute speed walk to the Eclectic Stage to catch Grimes (and I was not the only one speed walking). The place was packed. It was so packed that some folks were watching the stage from the various levels of a parking garage. I stood there wondering how in the world I was going to get into the photo/VIP section. One fellow photographer had mentioned that the security guards in the alley insisted that there was a separate list for folks to get in front of the stage. He suggested getting in via the Colorado street side. That simply was not possible. I ran into a couple other photographers who were also trying to figure out how to get into the photo area. One said quickly, “Let’s go get in through on the alley side.” I was a bit nervous after what my fellow photographer had said, but off we went. We got in without questions. I think security was pre-occupied as I heard a conversation that went as such, “They said don’t worry about the folks in the parking garage as long as they don’t start throwing anything.”
A handful of folks had taken the initiative to jump into the photo/VIP section – including two guys from Mexico. (The area was actually a section of a parking lot so there was some nice open space.) A security guard started going through the area, checking folks out to make sure they had a wrist band (the two guys from Mexico escaped inspection). This was my first time seeing Grimes. While talking to one of the photographers during Electric Guest, she mentioned that Grimes was just an awesome individual to photograph. As her set time approached, I was getting excited. I was going to get some awesome photos and there was a distinct buzz coming from the crowd. Who couldn’t get swept up in it all?
Comment of the set: “I’ve never used this keyboard before, I’ll probably f*!k it up.”
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From the moment she started her set, I kept thinking, she’s unreal. It was so so good. If there is an award for Best Set at Make Music Pasadena, she has to win it.
Best fan: a guy jumped on stage and started dancing away for a couple songs. Security finally came up to drag him off. Grimes yelled out a couple times, “It’s all right, he can stay.” Either security didn’t hear her or they had other priorities, because the fan was taken away anyways.
Best flower: A black tinged red rose was tossed on stage.
Not so good moment: the police shut her set down, probably a couple songs early. I guess there were concerns about the crowd knocking down the security fence. On her second to last song, Grimes asked her fans, “Please don’t jump forward. Jump upwards.” Though the crowd followed her request, it wasn’t enough because her next song was her last. Bummer.
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I was back speed walking to see Grouplove at the Indie Rock Stage. Now a group of friends were at the Levitt Pavilion to catch honeyhoney. I have to admit that this one was a near coin toss decision. My decision came down to this. One, I’ve seen honeyhoney a number of times versus only once for Grouplove. Two, I wrote an article about honeyhoney for Intraffik a couple years back. And so no disrespect to honeyhoney, as I love them, but it was going to be Grouplove this time. And what did Grouplove provide: great music and as a photographer some great photos. The music started and Hannah immediately had her arms raised as if making the statement that Grouplove was seeing this as their homecoming triumph.
Comment of the set: “There are so many people here, it’s insane . . . This is a far larger crowd than at El Cid.”
After taking my photos, I decided that instead of hanging out backstage, I was going to go out front. I had one long walk to make as the crowd was backed up to Raymond.
Moment of the set: I noticed a father pogo dancing with his young daughter on his shoulders who was also pogo dancing in her own way. Awesome.
For their last song, they stopped mid song and gave the audience a look that said, CHEER!!!
My suggestion to Make Music Pasadena about the Indie Rock Stage. In the Raymond intersection, you’re in a music dead zone. I couldn’t even hear Grouplove. Throughout their set, I was able to move up and finally left the Raymond intersection. The sound improved greatly – just moving up the fifteen yards or so. My recommendation is that when the crowds grow that deep, the various vendors need to shut down their music during a band’s set. The sound waves crashing into each other cause issues – at least I suspect this is true.
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From there it was back to the Levitt Pavilion to catch Dam Funk (I happened to cross paths with Suzanne Santo so I did get a small dose of honeyhoney). The crowd was sitting on the grass. A handful of folks were standing near the stage. A guy with a “F#!k You” baseball cap kept yelling out, “Sit down up front.” The folks near the stage weren’t listening. A call was made for everyone to stand up and come closer to the stage. Many of us made the move. The guy with the baseball cap ended up near me and I overheard him saying, “I thought this was just going to be a laid back night, I guess not.”
Comment of the set while Dam Funk was setting things up: “We’re going on in five minutes . . . we’re going on in two minutes.”
The night ended over at Crème De La Crêpe Stage. There were some street performers in the alleyway that were giving the area a cool vibe. I was there to catch the twins called Macedo. Ending my time at the festival with some singer-songwriter music was the perfect way to go. Nice.
Buses. Okay, so I mentioned that I barely missed the ARTS bus while trying to get to Levitt. I also took public transportation to Make Music Pasadena, which meant I needed to take it back. And would you know it, I just missed the 180 bus back to Glendale, which meant I ended up waiting 30 minutes for the next one. And when I say I just missed it, I mean that the bus was there and I started running after it and as I was staring into the faces of the folks on the bus (sort of pleading with them to say something), the bus took off and I was stuck. As one person said to me while I was waiting, “It stinks when you just miss a bus at night.”
Amusing. I do like to make Seinfeld references so here is one. Also, waiting for the bus were four teenagers (one girl, three guys). They asked when the bus would arrive. I told them it would probably be thirty minutes. After a few minutes, I could hear one of them on the phone, giving out the cross street. They then took off for Ralphs. And guess what: a minute later the bus arrived. Seinfeld reference: the Chinese restaurant episode.
PREVIEW: MAKE MUSIC PASADENA
Make Music Pasadena is stacked with wall to wall music on over 20 stages. I’ll highlight just a hand ful of bands here.
Cults play the Old Pasadena Indie Rock Stage at 4 p.m. This is a band that I flew across the Atlantic to catch. I first caught one of their sets at FYF and decided I’d fly off to the U.K. to catch a much more personal set at Rough Trade Records. You don’t believe me? I have an Intraffik post to prove it!!!
At 5 p.m., there are two awesome bands hitting two different stages, Milo Greene and NO. Milo Greene will be at the Old Pasadena Indie Rock Stage while NO will be at the Levitt Pavilion Pasadena. I love to rotate around on Monday nights in Los Angeles to catch various residency bands. I don’t usually stop at the same place twice in a month, but for Milo Greene I stopped by twice at The Satellite. And last year when Sunset Junction got cancelled, my music needs were satisfied by heading over to Dangerbird Records to catch their set. My love for NO is well documented. If they played too early for you on Sunday at Silver Lake Jubilee, you get another chance to catch them in a late afternoon time slot.
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NO
Milo Greene"
honeyhoney
Grouplove
Black Flamingo
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At 6 p.m., there is a massive traffic jam of bands hitting with Grouplove at the Old Pasadena Indie Rock Stage, Honeyhoney at the Levitt Pavilion Pasadena and Black Flamingo playing the Majestical Roof Courtyard Stage. Good luck with having to make a decision there. I know I’m conflicted. The last time I saw either Grouplove or Honeyhoney was when each had separate residencies at Bootleg Bar. I do have a longer history with Honeyhoney. I still remember the first time I caught honeyhoney at what was then known as Spaceland. I heard “Little Toy Gun” and was hooked. As for Grouplove, their Bootleg residency show was the first time I saw them. The place was packed. There were smiles throughout. If you listen to the radio for an hour, you’re more than likely to catch their song. As for Black Flamingo, I recently did a post on them when they played with NO. Do you want to hear demons and angels joining in harmony?
And here are some quick shout outs: Happy Hallows plays at noon. The Lonely Wild at 2 p.m. Grimes at 5 p.m. Caught at Ghost at 6:30 p.m. Shadow Shadow Shade and Ross Sea Party at9:45 p.m. Robotanists are also playing their first show in some time at Make Music Pasadena