SIRIA: WHAT I LISTENED TO IN JUNE
Alright, this month I listened to an overwhelming amount of music. I was less discriminating than ever. My motto seemed to be if it’s music, throw it at me. Alternative, Country, Dance/Electro, Grunge, New Wave, Power Pop, Punk, Rap/Hip Hop, Soul, etc. Genre? Didn’t matter. Obscure or well known? Didn’t matter. If it was music I wanted to hear it. I didn’t end up in a fetal position with the sweats and shakes, but I might’ve overloaded on it just a bit as by the end of the month all I wanted to hear was Alex Chilton. Unfortunately, I can’t list everything I listened to so you’re getting a list of songs that got stuck in my head. However, soon enough you’ll all know the reason why I subjected myself to the music of hundreds and hundreds of music artists this month.
Marvelous Toy – “The City is a Washing Machine”
I love this song by local artist Marvelous Toy (yet another music discovery from a few years back, who I can thank Jon Hershfield for. You can check Marvelous Toy out on IsGoodMusic.com). The lyrics make me think of so many of my musician/artist friends, some of which my old roommate and I used to poke fun of mainly because of the reasons expressed by these lyrics in particular
“I know how my life began and I know how it will end I will be searching for a word that rhymes with dying as I lay dying”
“I’m always writing songs sometimes you think I’m listening, but I haven’t heard a word you’ve said. I’m silently building chords and melodies.”
Cloud Control – “Ghost Story”
The Shakers – “Villain”
I’m so proud of local band The Shakers and how far they’ve come as a band when it comes to their live performances in such a short time. This is their first music video which they recently debuted:
OUT TO SEE: CAN TOO MUCH MUSIC LEAD TO ILLNESS? I’M SICK…
I had less than ideal health this past winter. I’m not saying I was ever on my deathbed. In fact, over the course of a year I only missed three days of work due to illness (if an Internet source is correct, the average full time worker takes 8.5 days of sick leave). The situation is that starting around December, I went through this routine of getting colds that lasted about three days. I’d recover and then figure I could just go back to my normal routine, and then about two weeks later the sniffles would return.
I am either getting old or perhaps it is just bad luck.
Sidebar. As I write the first draft of this column, I am fighting back another bout of a sore throat and runny nose (that in fact in retrospect lasted longer than three days).
One friend recommended that I give up the night life and go for 8-9 hours of sleep. Perhaps she is making an appropriate recommendation. Of course, I argued that exercising out in the cold winter nights probably contributes a tad; you know, breathing in cold air –- this is what I’d like to believe.
My latest run of bad luck illness hit after four nights of music scattered amid three days of cold winter night exercising.
Here’s what perhaps led to this latest illness.
Monday: I headed off to Spaceland to catch Castledoor (pictured left) and Princeton (pictured right). I’ve previously made reference to Castledoor. What was unique about this night was the fact that it might have been 
Castledoor’s last ever set. At a minimum, it was their last set in their current form. Really sad. It was only the second time I’d seen them and I was liking them. As for Princeton, it was their residency month. For their last song, they invited anyone so willing to come up on stage. A number of folks got on stage and they had a dance party. (I would post photos of the dance party, but I’m not sure people would appreciate having their photos up on intraffik.com.) Two friends were supposed to meet me at Spaceland. Both made it to Spaceland, but didn’t get inside. When I arrived at 10 p.m. I walked right in, but it was already crowded inside Spaceland. I sent off warning texts. Unfortunately, my friends got caught in the long line that quickly formed outside after 10 p.m. Interestingly, they know each other and I’m sure they were standing in line at the same time, but neither noticed the other.
Tuesday: I was off to see Oh, The Spanish Moss and Roll the Tanks. Siria mentioned this night briefly in her ‘What I Listened to . . .’ column. I have to give props to Oh, The Spanish Moss. Their bassist had just quit on them before their gig. They decided to play anyways. Who needs a bassist anyways? As for Roll the Tanks, there was an interesting situation where one of their amps started picking up a Spanish radio station. You couldn’t hear it while they were playing, but in between songs you’d hear Spanish coming from the amp. It was amusing for the audience, but frustrating for the band. (more…)
Re-Discovering the Sunset Strip: Viper Room, Trip Two (Part 2 of 3)
Second trip to the Sunset Strip. Viper Room.
Re-Experience. This is part two of the Sunset Strip re-experience.
Off to See: Tommy Peacock, Automatique, The Mulhollands, The Shakers.
For Super Bowl Sunday I hung out with some friends. Most of us were cheering for the New Orleans Saints. I’m a Pittsburgh Steelers fan so I wasn’t cheering for the Saints because I was all happy to see them win the Super Bowl. Obviously, I’d so much rather see the Steelers winning the Super Bowl. But there is a reason why I decided to cheer for the Saints: Drew Brees. (Yes, it has nothing to do with Hurricane Katrina.) Earlier in the season, the Steelers were playing the Chargers and after the game I noticed all these anti-Steelers comments up on Facebook being made by all my friends who are San Diego fans. Now the Steelers and San Diego have a bit of a rivalry, having met in the play-offs a number of times throughout the years. Drew Brees used to play for San Diego. In his last season there, he got injured during the last drive of the season and soon thereafter San Diego decided to ditch him in favor of Philip Rivers. What can I say; I wanted a knife to go into the backs of all those San Diego fans. Many, I’m sure, had to wonder if San Diego should have stuck with Drew Brees.
Parking. Sunday nights equals free parking on the Sunset Strip – at least until the City of Los Angeles decides they need more money and make the meters 24-7.
Missing Friends. I was talking with one of my friends at the Viper Room. We don’t see each other that often. We lamented the demise of one of our favorite local bands, Automatic Music Explosion. She mentioned how she hadn’t seen some of us for six months. The world of the local music scene: we form friendships with fans of various bands and then a band breaks up and our ties with each other are stretched. I had a similar conversation with someone else while hanging out at Club Moscow. I wouldn’t necessarily call her a friend, more of an acquaintance. I would see her around once a month or so at various Automatic Music Explosion sets. She came over to me during a break at Club Moscow and said, “It’s been so long since I last saw you.”
The Viper Room was rather empty when I first got there. Folks missed a good band called Vas Defrans. I have to admit I only caught their last two songs. I don’t believe they sang during those songs, just went on a long jam session. Next up was Tommy Peacock (pictured left). At this point, the Viper Room started to fill up. (more…)
NOTES FROM VIVACE: (15) Days of Summer
The Upfront. Yes, I’m playing off of (500) Days of Summer,but we here at TRAffIK really liked that movie.
What’s going on here. Now TRAffIK did technically kill off summer with the following blog, but hey, I had a nice summer and wish to do my own summer exit. This blog is going to take a trip from Highland Park to the Sunset Strip and various other locations between these two music spots.
Aaron Beaumont. So my (15) Days of Summer launched with seeing my friend playing at Life on Wilshire. There was a nice group of supporters there, many being mutual friends of ours. This was my first time at Life on Wilshire. Life on Wilshire has a nice set-up that for some reason reminded me of the set-up at Cinespace, but a bit classier. His set included various friends joining him on stage such as Shane Alexander. This was the kick-off for his tour, which ends Oct 8th at Hotel Café.
Notes from Vivace’s July Soundtrack
5 Days Dirty: “Sound of Revolution”
Gangi: “Waiting on the Line”
Saint Motel: “Dear Dictator”
The Shakers: “Distress Signal”
Neo Geo: “Can’t Catch Me”
NOTES FROM VIVACE – Out to See: The Shakers
I’m plugging my friend’s band. A friend of mine joined a new band called The Shakers. The band only has a handful of gigs under its belt – though they did travel as far as Philadelphia to play one gig. I missed every one of their earlier gigs. One of their gigs (or perhaps it was two) was off in Venice so an easy excuse on my part was that it was just too far away. On a recent night; however, they played at the Bordello, which is much closer to home. So off I headed to see my friend play in her new band.