OUT TO SEE: A YEAR IN PHOTOS (VANCOUVER & LOCAL MUSIC EDITION PART 2: APRIL – JUNE)
APRIL
Row 1: Get Set Go, The Slow Death, Twilight Sleep
Row 2: Whispertown 2000
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MAY
NOTES FROM VIVACE’S JULY PLAYLIST…
The Like – “Narcissus in a Red Dress”
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The Mormons: “Red Steel Dawn”
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Non Ultra Joy: “Pushing the Brand”
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Big Whup: “Yaaaah”
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My Pet Saddle: “Alaskan Sun”
(pictured left) (more…)
OUT TO SEE: SILVERLAKE JUBILEE PART 2 OF 2
If you missed my Part I, click here to read about Day 1 of Silverlake Jubilee.
Sunday, Day 2
Day 2 at the Silverlake Jubilee started later than Day 1 for me. I had brunch with friends at around 1 p.m. Come around 2:30 p.m., I went home and took a 30 minute nap. I was exhausted from my Saturday activities (once again, see Part I). After my nap, I drove on down to Silverlake Jubilee, parking along Hyperion (this is actually a semi-important point).
Santa Monica Stage
Silverlake Jubilee was on a tighter schedule for day 2 versus day 1. The first band of the afternoon for me was Lilofee. They started their set with an awesome wall of sound.
Comment: “We’re so excited to play here. We’re half way from Los Angeles and half way from San Francisco.”
Noticed: Lead singer had this female claw motion.
Sunset Stage
Next was a brief encounter with Seasons. I only caught half their set, if that. By missing half of Seasons’ set, I realized that Silverlake Jubilee had Sunday’s schedule tightened up compared to Saturday’s.
Comment: “We’ve got to make sure we’re in tune for our last song.”
Santa Monica Stage
I caught part of Division Day’s set where I heard the lead singer doing the sound check by saying, “Potato. Potato. Potato. Banana. Banana. Banana. Elephant. 
Elephant. Elephant. Potato.”
Noticed: Couldn’t help but notice the yellow shaker used by the drummer. I have no clue why this caught my attention, but it did.
Sunset Stage
Yes, at this point I was spinning with my constant back and forth between the two stages and had to settle down.
I stuck around the Sunset Stage to catch the Monolators’ full set. While standing near the stage, one of the band members kicked an opened Gatorade bottle. Gatorade flew towards the audience and the handful of us near the stage back paddled a couple feet. “I just wanted to add some special effects,” was the comment made afterwards.
Comment: “Does anyone know what a fop tie is?” (more…)
Soundtracks to our Summer: Robotanists
all photos by Jessy Plume for TRAffIK
The darlings of our Summer Soundtrack, Silverlake based Robotanists enjoyed a whirlwind season full of sunshine, radio airplay (KCRW), and lots of new friends. Two of the band members Sarah Ellquist and Daniel de Blanke have taken a few moments to bring you firsthand some of the highlights of their summer, as well as how they feel they’ve grown as a band. They even let you us in on what songs they wish they had written.
Robotanists are:
Daniel de Blanke – guitars, keys, songwriting
Sarah Ellquist – vocals, keys, songwriting
Preston Scott Phillips – percussion, drums, iphone
Keith Boyarsky – bass
TRAffIK: Where can we learn more about your band?
DANIEL: Google “robotanists” or go to http://robotanists.com
TRAffIK: How did you come together?
DANIEL: We were all in other bands, and then left those bands and formed this one. The social lubricant was alcohol and a fondness for screaming at the television. That, and Dostoevsky.
TRAffIK: How would you describe your sound?
DANIEL: Up-tempo sad music for amoral intellectuals
SARAH: Make-up sex
TRAffIK: How does the songwriting process work for you? Where does the inspiration come from?
SARAH: Dan and I are a song writing team, but every song is born in a different way, from a different place. I write all of the lyrics, but sometimes, I write the melody and Dan builds harmony from there, or vice versa. If either of us ever thinks that we’ve written a complete song, the other is there to edit and refine. We take everything to the rhythm section for the final seal of approval… and the rest is history. Lyrics come from a very personal place, but I try to craft them in a way that the listener can interpret as they choose. Music is a personal thing, I want listeners to make our music theirs.
DANIEL: I have three thousand song ideas that are half crafted at any given time. I generally force Sarah to listen to them until she starts singing melodic material.
TRAffIK: Lately you’ve been performing acoustically a lot more than we’d seen previously. Do you have a preference for either performing unplugged or plugged in?
SARAH: I think we all prefer the energy of playing as a full band, but performing with just an acoustic guitar is a great way to really showcase our songwriting. It’s liberating to strip things down and just let the melody and harmony dance with each other.
TRAffIK: What started this trend for you?
SARAH: I suppose you could say that most of our music starts out “acoustic” during the demo phase, but we started performing them that way after some friends of ours (the band Vanaprasta) asked us to come to the Bond St. Lounge at the Thompson Hotel in Beverly Hills over the summer and play a few songs. The next thing we knew we were getting weekly invites to perform all over LA. (more…)