"Military Child" - Their Wedding's NEW Single

A good song is hard to ignore. Genres be damned, I think it’s safe to say a catchy, memorable tune is what we’re all looking for when we push (or click) play these days. Southern California’s Indie/Pop maestros Their Wedding, have delivered just that with their latest single, “Military Child.”

This new song off their forthcoming Wine EP, is awash in foot tapping, finger waving goodness. Coming from a jaded misanthrope like myself, that’s saying something folks. With a pulsating hi-hat and funky guitar scratches, Celese and Al Hernandez (drums and guitar respectively) unleash a flood of good vibes on the ear drums. Piano man/crooner Michael Escañuelas’ vocals provides a soulful, world weary tone that brings an emotional heft to the table, while simultaneously doubling down on the band’s mega catchy factor as well.


Their Wedding’s Wine EP comes out June 3^rd, via True Grit Records. If “Military Child” is any indication, you’ll be “Oooooh Oooooh-ing” in no time.

Chelsea Wolfe @ First Unitarian Church, Los Angeles. 2/8/13.

 Chelsea Wolfe. The name alone sounds ominous right? Then there's her music. It's dark and brooding stuff. The type of music you'd want to crank as you enjoy your final glass of wine before heading off to the guillotine. This (currently) Los Angeles based singer-songwriter has made big waves in both the indie and metal scenes over the past two years. Everyone from my favorite misanthropes in Gaza and the "Extremely Extreme" folks at American metal rag Decibel Magazine have been singing her praises, it was only a matter of time before I fell under her spell. Her music has been described as "doom-folk" or even  "indie-black metal." I just think it's rad.

Touring in support of her latest album, 2012's Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs, Chelsea played a stripped down set of, you guessed it, acoustic songs. Her music is pretty low key anyways but she usually has a full band backing her during live shows (or so YouTube has informed me). Not this night however. No, tonight it was just Chelsea, her trusty acoustic guitar and gnarly voice, and a pair of homies on cello and keys/synth. Oh and it was in a dark and drafty old church. Oh yeah.

I knew nothing of the opening acts beforehand but was glad they didn't suck. In fact they were the opposite of suck. Sarah Jaffe and Deradoorian, both low key female singer-songwriter types, served as the perfect opening acts for Ms. Wolfe. Jaffe brought the catchy songs and Deradoorian (and her two back up singers) brought the vocal acrobatics. I was officially warmed up...not really though it was cold as shit inside that church.

friends don't let friends take subpar cellphone pics

When Chelsea Wolfe and co. took the stage, shit got real...real dark. But only for a few minutes. The dude who ran the lights had no idea what he was doing. The sound guy either for that matter. There was a string of technical problems that led to a false start or two, and caused the house lights to flash on and off several times during the first few minutes of her set. The dramatic mood that the candles, animal skulls and crimson red lights had conjured might have been squashed by the technical flubs but none of that bullshit mattered. Chelsea Wolfe's voice and damn fine songs are strong enough to stand on their own. Holy fuck she was amazing. If I could describe this show in one word it would be this: spellbound.

That's right. I didn't bother trying to take many photos or record any video for a change. I was in the moment, spellbound. Chelsea's voice was awe inspiring. She did the haunting little whisper thing she does on her albums, but unleashed her powerful set of pipes as well. Ms. Wolfe could huff and puff and blow some damn houses down if she were so inclined. Her all encompassing voice, the dramatic atmosphere of the church, and the fact that Chelsea towered over her seated audience, made this show feel more like theater than a traditional concert...and I loved it.

more photos HERE at grimygoods.com

I'll leave you with this haunting version of "Halfsleeper" some lucky soul in the front row of the church recorded. The sound quality is great so ignore the dude in the hat (he's Chelsea's homeboy....I creeped them on Instagram =p ) and enjoy the Wolfe in action.

The Strokes @ The Cosmopolitan Hotel, Las Vegas. 3/12/11.

Guess who's back? Back Again...

It took some time before I came to embrace The Strokes. I was a snotty teenage metal head when their debut album came out in 2001. All the girls at my high school gushed over these five scruffy lads from New York and MTV tried oh so hard to convince me how buzzworthy their video for "Last Nite" was but at this time, if it wasn't Slayer I didn't care. All those trips to Tower Records when I should have been in class at ye olde community college helped me warm up to several tracks from Room On Fire but I still wasn't a confirmed fan. It was First Impressions of Earth that convinced me that The Strokes were for real. The album was darker, slightly heavier and more up my (contaminated by heavy metal) alley. I caught them live in 2006 and was thoroughly impressed. I could now safely say I was a fan of The Strokes. Then they went on a five year hiatus. Great.

So now the band I used to love to hate is back and I had to make amends. I snatched up tickets for their special one off show at the brand spankin' new hotel, The Cosmopolitan, in Las Vegas and prepared to rock out like it was the mid 00's all over again.

First, The Cosmopolitan is a siiiiiiiiiick hotel/casino. From the high tech underground parking garage, to outdoor pool alongside The Strip, and that giant fucking chandelier with a bar/lounge inside it, this place was pretty awesome. Too bad I probably couldn't afford to stay there until I'm old enough to collect Social Security (lol @ no hope/future for my generation!).

The show took place in the Chelsea, a giant ballroom on the 4th floor. It's a pretty large rectangular space, like the Hollywood Palladium, but 1000x fancier. We arrived around 7:30pm, The Strokes didn't come out until almost 11:00pm =/. The first opening band didn't show and or canceled for some reason and the next act, hipster folk lord Devendra Banhart didn't go on until 9:00pm and was done by 10:00pm. So yes, that equals about 2 1/2 hours of standing in a sold out/over capacity venue. It was the best of times, it was the BLurst of times...

Devendra "The dude who used to nail Natalie Portman" Banhart was alright. I think under normal circumstances I might have said he sucked but given the boredom induced dementia I was fighting I actually kind of enjoyed some of his tunes. His band was tight and hell and sort of sounded like a Doors tribute band, his over the top vocals are what killed it for me though. Funny stuff happened during the massive wait for The Strokes. Some girl repeatedly passed out in front of us after taking hits from some really foul smelling joints. My girlfriend ran into some girl from her high school that she hadn't seen in almost 10 years, and we meet some funny Michael Cera looking dudes from UNLV.

Finally, after waiting for an eternity, The Strokes hit the stage. They opened with "I Can't Win" off Room On Fire ( a song title that perfectly describes my exploits with Roulette the next day) and the crowd exploded. Between the rabid movement of the audience and Nikolai's at times over powering bass lines, I quickly realized it would be impossible to take any decent footage of their set at this point and put my video camera down, enjoying every beat of classic jams like "Reptilia" and "The Modern Age" instead. I was really pleased with how the new songs off their, then upcoming but now just released, album Angles sounded live. I was already familiar with "Undercover of Darkness" but man, the new track "Gratisfacion" they played during the encore was damn awesome. Anyways, back to the main set.  Coolest slow jam of the night goes to "Under Control." It really felt like we were watching the Rat Pack onstage during this song, everyone in the crowd swaying and singing along as Julian crooned extra Sinatra-y (Vegas man, Vegas...). "New York City Cops" gets the award for wildest crowd response. I was afraid the floor in the brand new Chelsea might collapse from the combined weight of the audience, and the chubby hedgehog looking dude in front of us dancing/jumping like madmen.



It wasn't until the band come out for their encore did the energy level drop just enough for me to get some quality video. And what an encore they did. "Automatic Stop" and "You Only Live Once"  back to back?! Good stuff friends. Good stuff. They ended the show with "Last Nite" and the crowd responded with one last final burst of explosive energy to see their heroes off the stage. The lights came back on and we all stood in this majestic new ballroom, in a swanky new hotel surrounded by some serious ballers on Saturday night in Vegas, completely covered in sweat, dehydrated and totally loving The Strokes. All the grumbles about the insane weight time seemed to vanish and quickly turned to "I can't wait for that new album." All in all, twas a great show and a nice little Vegas weekend getaway as well. Too bad traffic sucked heading back home Sunday night. Yes, I endured even MORE waiting...

Hellsongs

Hellsongs- Serving up Swedish bits of Heaven

First, I have to thank the folks at Metalsucks.net for inspiring this post. Strange, the day after my lengthy Pantera rant my favorite metal douche lords post THIS.

What? Didn't click the link provided to their original post? It's alright, I'll break it down for ya. The metalsucks cats posted an AWESOME folksy/indie/acoustic cover of Pantera's "Walk" performed by a Swedish trio called Hellsongs. Apparently, the dudes (and gal) of Hellsongs have been cranking out their quirky lounge versions of metal classics for a few years now. I'll give you a few examples of their handy work to drool over.

In keeping with my recent Pantera binge, here's the original version of Pantera's "Walk."

"Can't you hear, the violins, playing your SOoooooooooooong?!" Damn I love that part.

So here's Hellsongs quirky ass take on this aggro classic.

Mind blown? Mine was.

Here's another example of their hippie/Swedish mind-fuckery:

Yeah, thats "Blackened," by Metallica. Easily one of the most brutal songs they've ever written. Here's how it normally sounds:


The comments on the metalsucks article as well as Hellsongs' youtube videos show just how polarizing stuff like this can be. People either love the breath of proverbial fresh air covers like this provide in the often stale metal community or flat out decry this stuff as retarded, pussy shit. Well, I for one like metal, can be known to act retarded on occasion and happen to embrace my softer "pussy shit" side (see recent Interpol/Arcade Fire posts) so I can't help but gush over what Hellsongs is doing. Check em' out.

Interpol @ The Greek Theatre, 10/23/10.

After a five year drought, I saw Interpol play two shows in two months.

Their free record release gig in Hollywood this past September was pretty awesome. Sure, their new album kind of sucks (erase kind of) but some of the new material actually sounds better live. Either way, watching Interpol rock out for an hour in a parking lot, near the front of the tiny ass stage was so badass...their real concert at the Greek just couldn't match the experience.

We caught the last few songs from the opening band White Rabbits. They weren't horrible, just not my cup of tea I suppose. Our seats were closer than my last Interpol show at the Greek (where I froze my balls off in the cheap seats), but still too far for me to get any decent photos or video =/

The band's setlist was pretty rad. They blended some of their non-horrible new songs pretty seamlessly with favorite cuts off Antics (C'mere, Slow Hands, Not Even Jail, Narc, Take You On a Cruise, Evil) and a few Turn on the Bright Lights classics (PDA, Say Hello to Angels). The only song they played off Our Love to Admire was "Rest My Chemistry" which was kind of odd. I know a lot of fans stand divided over that record (I don't really love it all that much myself) but its far superior to the new album and I guess they had to cut something from somewhere. Their encore was all SICK:

• Untitled
• NYC
• Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down
• Obstacle 1
  

Yeah, all Bright Lights era jams had  the audience queefing pretty hard. I personally lost my shit when they played "NYC." I mean, just watch (courtesy some jerk with a waaaay better seat than me)


It's strange that this show was marred by three separate "incidents," where three different male fans rushed the stage and tried to get at Paul Banks while he was singing/playing mid song and almost NO FOOTAGE has popped up online. First some guy jumps onstage and actually tries to kiss Paul on the cheek or something before being hauled away. Another fellow climbs up and is tackled mid-air by security as he lunges at Paul. The last and most freakish outburst came during the "Stella Was a Diver..." near the end of the night when some maniac rushed Paul and knocked his mic stand down, broke free from security and had to be wrestled off stage with Daniel playing guitar on the side looking confused as fuck. It's funny that the band did not miss a beat, never stopped playing and didn't even really talk about what had happened either. I guess it's common place for dudes trying to molest Interpol these days or what?!

Check out the only footage I can find of Paul's insane 3rd admirer here:

dude tries to get frisky around the 2:20 mark

So yeah, Interpol's Greek show was great. Paul's voice sounded stronger than ever (unlike how nasal he sounds on the new record...haters gonna hate?) and yeah, Carlos D looked cool dressed up like a Hitler youth with his bass hung all low but these two shows proved that the band can carry on just fine without him. Sadly, as cool as the Greek concert was, I don't think anything will beat their earlier gig...unless they play in my apartment or something.

Arcade Fire @ The Shrine Auditorium. 10/7/10.

"rough like timberland wear..."

This may come as a surprise, but I'm also a fan of NON-EXTREME METAL. Like...regular music. Strange huh? Well yeah, although most of my time is spent listening to growls, blast beats and ungodly time changes I honestly enjoy all kinds of music. Montreal's Arcade Fire are not only one of my favorite "normal" bands, but one of my favorite acts period. I first stumbled upon them on accident. About five years ago I had downloaded At The Drive-In's In Casino Out off SoulSeek and some careless/unorganized user included Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" in the album file. One second I'm listening to angular post-punk and the next, its Arcade Fire...majestic and catchy as fuck. I was hooked and immediately downloaded their debut album Funeral and the rest is history.

So now Arcade Fire are huge. They've always been indie media darlings as far as I've known, but now they're like # 1 album in the country, touring w/ U2, "saviors of rock music" ultra hype huge. I've seen them slay thousands at Coachella. I've watched them in the freezing cold at the Hollywood Bowl. Tonight, they were playing one of two shows at the far more intimate Shrine Auditorium (inb4 6,000 seats is still big). They were playing a smaller, indoor venue and promoting their awesome new album The Suburbs. Needless to say I was stoked. So of course I started fighting a nasty cold the day of the show. Figures.


The sold out show was filled to the brim with dirty hipsters, yuppies, grandma & grandpa Woodstock veterans and all around goofy fuckers like myself. HOT chicks though. Despite the differences in the audiences' demographics, we all came together in rocking out once our favorite Canadians took the stage. They opened with "Ready to Start" off their new album and began the kickass-ery that lasted the entire night. Sure, there was some moments of muddled sound, Win's guitar's stopped working mid way through their set and he flat out forgot some lyrics toward the end, but really people, Arcade Fire tore the joint up. They played a healthy does of new material ("Sprawl II," "Modern Man," "Rococo," "We Used to Wait,") and old tracks off Funeral ("Laika", "Haiti," "Rebellion Lies") with a few Neon Bible cuts thrown in as well ("No Cars Go," "Intervention,").


This easily one of my favorite Arcade Fire songs. It's like some ancient tribal Ewok jam and I fucking love it. If the Storm Troopers had been blasting this out the side of their Imperial Walkers, they would have subdued Endor a whole lot quicker is all I'm saying.


This is another old Funeral track only it was recorded by some lucky bastard with a better seat than me. I remember the first time I saw this video on MTV2 and it kicked my ass. Notice how the chick singing in the other video is playing drums here? Yeah, they're all pretty much multi-instrumentalists. Seven (sometimes eight or nine) dudes/dudettes onstage...like a talented Slipknot, or an Amish Wu-Tang Clan.

So yeah. Arcade Fire put on a damn good show and I heard night two was even better. My personal highlight of the evening was Win talking shit about the Lakers before drowning out the boos and groans by launching into "Power Out." Good stuff man.

* side note. I saw a few minor celebrities walking around after the concert ended (the asian doctor on Grey's Anatomy/naked chick in Sideways, Hyde from That '70s Show, and the retarded guy from The Office)...too bad I didn't give two shits about any of them. Funny because I met Danzig at the Shrine when I was a teenager during some comic book/porn fest before I even cared about The Misfits.