Violent Femmes, The Observatory, Santa Ana, CA

Violent Femmes @ The Observatory (Santa Ana, CA)

The Violent Femmes, photo by Chad Keller

Do you like American Music? Well, you and many others, at least that is what the Violent Femmes proved after playing 3 sold out shows in just 2 days around Los Angeles last weekend. The Femmes have been absent from the scene for over a decade, but with the release of their first studio release in 15 years, We Can Do Anything, The Femmes are out on the road and selling out one venue after another.

A packed crowd amassed at Orange County’s Observatory on Mother’s Day to enjoy America’s favorite folk punks. The band walked out onto a stage littered with every manner of instrumentation and percussion prop including a xylophone, a cajon, a large Weber BBQ, an 8 foot tall baritone saxophone and over 14 different versions guitars, violins, and mandolins. The staged looked more like the best flea market ever than a place for the 5-piece to rock the house.

The Violent Femmes played a career-spanning set for over 2 hours including all the favorites ("Blister In The Sun", "Add It Up", "Kiss Off", "Gone Daddy Gone"), but they also dove into much lesser-known cult favorites such as "Breaking Up", "Dance MF Dance", and even "Color Me Once" from The Crow Soundtrack. Their sound was clean, clear and as tight musically as any fan could ask for. We have seen a growing trend of nostalgic bands from the 80s and 90s reuniting to tour lately, some often doing more harm than good by putting their spurs on and jumping back in the fight (**cough**, Guns N’ Roses, B-52's, **cough**). This was not the case with the Violent Femmes. Not this tour, brother! They sounded no different than they did on their self-titled album released back in 1983 and had energy to burn on stage. They were able to bring a completely mixed room of aging hipsters and crowd-surfing teens to a frenzy and play over 22 songs by the time the night was through. Given their current momentum, their latest album title says it all for The Violent Femmes, We Can Do Anything.

The Violent Femmes Setlist

Blister In The Sun
Kiss Off
Good For At Nothing
Country Death Song
We Can Do Anything
?
Prove My Love
?
Traveling Solves Everything
Breaking Up
Jesus walking on the water
Color Me Once (The Crow)
Freak Magnet
Hallowed Ground
mother o mother of mine (acapella)
Dance MF Dance
I Held Her In My Arms
Gone Daddy Gone
Add It Up

Encore

Memories

American Music

They'll be doing the Lord's work by touring various festivals and headlining gigs this summer:
June 14 Millvale, PA
June 15 Richmond, VA
June 17 Camden, NJ
June 18 Brooklyn, NY
June 19 Ashbury Park, NJ
June 21 Washington, DC
June 23 Norfolk, VA
June 25 Fredrick, MD

Underworld @ The Fox Theater - 4/13/2016

Underworld is royalty in underground electronic music and rave scenes and they don't seem to mind not becoming sensations like recent EDM "superstars" such as Calvin Harris and Avicii. In case you were in a coma during the 1990’s or happened to not be born yet, Underworld formed circa 1980 with principal members Karl Hyde, Rick Smith, and now Darren Price since 2005 after Darren Emerson’s departure in 2001. 

Supporting Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future, and 2 days before they took to the desert for Coachella, lucky Angelinos were able to see the band in full action outside of festival traffic and time constraints for over 2 hours of electronic bliss at the much smaller and much closer 2,000-person venue located in Pomona, CA.

Hyde, Smith and Price took the stage and launched immediately into 2 consecutive tunes off of Barbara, Barbara. The tracks (unfamiliar to most) were immediately well received by the sold out crowd of nostalgic UK ravers and expats all jumping simultaneously to the beat. Barbara, Barbara might be the more somber and emotive of albums, but it still delivers the same personal touch and layered electronic complexities that Underworld fans have grown to love for over 30 years. Almost every song off the new album made an appearance at some point in the night, but the overall set was so well structured that there was never too long a wait for a classic banger or other strong hit from the past including "Juanita", "Push Upstairs", "King of Snake", "Jumbo" and "Two Months Off". Fans were also treated to some rare, off-beat tracks that don’t often make it to the stage in shorter festival performances such as the trip hop-infused "Ring Road", "Eight Ball" from The Beach Soundtrack, and a first-time taste of a new remix of Dirty Epic aptly named “Dirty Club.” As Hyde introduced the track to the crowd, he boasted, “We’ve never played this next track live before. You are the first.”

 

The evening's crescendo was an all DJ display as Smith was left on stage alone and feverishly live-remixed three consecutive tracks live free of vocals. The crowd danced away as the lights dimmed and The Fox Theater seemed to transform into an underground London rave. "Rowla" bent and modulated until it became "Rez". "Rez" climbed and climbed analog staircases until finally Hyde retook the stage and jumped into the vocals of "Cowgirl" and the crowd lost their minds. 

The night was capped off with the signature anthem of "Born Slippy". Hyde’s vocals were simply amazing. Every word clean, crisp, and never at a loss for air for the entire 2-hour marathon of sound, which is amazing since all 3 men are now in their mid to 50’s.  Underworld has not lost a step since 1994.  They brought down the house in Pomona and now head off to back-to-back weekend performances in the 100 degree California desert.

See Underworld at 7:35 pm in the Sahara Tent on Friday both weekends at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

DJ 1000 Aces Playlist: The Rainy Season

Whether you're left coast, best coast or west coast, you're probably seeing precipitation. DJ 1000 Aces has some thematic tunes so you don't mind the puddles.

1. "Riders on the Storm," The Doors

2. "Raining Revolution," Arrested Development

3. "Rain," Madonna

4. "Rhythm of the Rain," The Cascades

5. "It Never Rains (In Southern California)," Tony! Toni! Tone!

6. "After the Rain," Little Dragon

7. "Naked in the Rain," Red Hot Chili Peppers

8. "Love Rain," Jill Scott

(These three were the rest of the staffs' picks.)

9. "The Rain [Supa Dupa Fly]," Missy Elliot

10. "Purple Rain," Prince

11. And the only song that matters, "November Rain," Guns'n'Roses

Artist: Standard Fare

Album: Out Of Sight, Out Of Town

Label: Melodic

Release Date: 12.12.2011

Rating: 7.5

Somewhere between The Sugarcubes, the fictional Sex Bob-ombs, and The strokes lies a band called Standard Fare. They are a quirky, upbeat, and highly catchy pop trio of indie rockers hailing from Sheffield, England, Formed in 2005 and made up of Emma Kupa, Danny How, and Andy Beswick, they adopted their rather banal name fram a sign Kupa saw on a bus in Newcastle. The group found themselves in high acclaim with the success of their 2010 debut, The Noyelle Beat.

The second installment in the band's legacy of bright, poppy, and dance-worthy tracks, Out Of Sight, Out Of Town, is full of the band's signature he-said/she-said, boy/girl vocals and a tight guitar/bass/drums sound that comes, almost exclusively, with rock trios.

However, Out Of Sight, Out Of Town does go a bit deeper than previous Standard Fare material with maturing lyrical content and the addition of a trumpet player and violinist on many tracks. "Darth Vader" and "Early That Night" stick out in particular as meter sticks for the bands maturity as they slow the action down and transmit soft, reflective moments of romantic frustrations and unfaithfulness.

Stand out tracks on the album are "Dead Future", "Call Me Up", "Older Women", and "Half Sister". Across the songs, guitars are bright and light-hearted without being gutless. The 'his and hers' vocal exchanges are reminiscent of John Doe and Exene Cervenka, yet uncannily similiar to Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians when Kupa sings solo.

Now, does Standard Fare bust down the walls of indie rock boundaries as we know it with this release? Heck, no! They do one thing few bands do, they know who they are and they maximize what they do well better than an In 'N' Out Burger. That quirky, jaded, lovelorn bebop that is so heighly contagious and enjoyable is Dtandard Fare's Double Double Cheeseburger and the album delivers it with both drive-thru windows, baby!

So, let melancholy go for an hour, drop the anarchism anthems and folktronica experimental projects for a moment and tune into this smile-worthy, indie bop. Take a road trip and crank phrases like "ba-ba-ba-ba-bite my tongue" as you leave gridlock, fax machines, and time clocks behind.

St. Vincent

St. Vincent

Strange Mercy

4AD Records

Release Date: 09.13.11

Rating: 8.0

Annie Clark, better known under her moniker of St. Vincent, released her third full length album this September. Packed with her unorthodox and unique brand of vibrant indie rock, cabaret jazz and electro-fused ballads, the album is aptly named Strange Mercy.

Clark is primarily a guitarist. An aggressive guitarist. A bold, vicious guitarist, and her chunky distortion-filled guitar arrangements are the engines that drive the songs on Strange Mercy. Sprinkled throughout are riveting feedback inputs, unexpected electro spikes and surgically placed tonal noise. It's like a guitar distortion sundae with LED lights on top and even as such a sonic delicacy, the album stay accessible.

Behind each gritty guitar riff are Clark's signature eeirie vocals. Coded, crypic lyrics come as poetic paraphrases. The song "Surgeon" invites "Best, fine surgeon/ Come cut me open." This serves as a nod to Marilyn Monroe--the line was found in her journal. Other songs like "Chloe in the Afternoon" allude to fighting with the crutch of promiscuity, while the title track explore the wonderment of unexpected grace.

A drawback to this album is the apparent lack of any real standout tracks. Most songs sound as co-stars to an absent shining star. As such a lead character is missing, I have to say on the first spin, the album didn't grab me.

The inexplicable pull for Strange Mercy is the depth and weight of what is being conveyed and the novelty of musical combinations that Clark is attempting. These aren't pop songs, they are pages from Clark's diary that highlight emotions of frustration, lost innocent and atonement that all of us go through on some level. The electro-noise infustions make this new music, not a recycle of something we continue to hear as radio fodder.