Filed under: Music
I’m not sure what you did with your Friday night. But I can tell you one thing: unless you were at Tangier in Los Feliz between about 10:30pm and 11:30pm, you fucked up.
It’s not often that I unexpectedly have my socks knocked off at a show, but Andy Zipf’s gig at Tangier last night was unreal.
Andy is a friend of my friend Bob’s and a while back when I was looking for cool music to put in a movie I was working on Bob said to me “what about Andy Zipf? He’s gonna be huge”. And now after having seen him play live my response is a resounding “totally”. I like the guy’s recorded stuff, but as with most really talented musicians, the live performances are where it’s at.
His MySpace page lists Jeff Buckley as one of the musicians he ’sounds like’, and with a voice so beautiful that it made every annoying twit who wouldn’t stop talking during any of the previous sets shut their mouths and listen, the Buckley comparisons are pretty hard to avoid. Each song was great, but “First to Promise” is a favorite of mine. And the highlight of the evening, a cover of “What’s Going On” actually brought me to tears.
Andy’s been playing for a long time, and his DIY approach to music and marketing are pretty great. He’s taking advantage of the internet and all it has to offer and is embracing new ideas about how to get music out to the masses. As well as T-shirt production.
Before last night I’d only been to 2 other shows where people reacted by simply asking “Who IS that guy??!?”. So here’s my advice to you: buy his stuff, listen to it, get your friends to buy it, and for cryin’ out loud, see him play next time he’s in town. I’ll be sure to let you know when that is. And that way you can be all like “that guy’s Andy Zipf. I’ve been into him for ages. Hasn’t everyone who’s anyone?”
Filed under: Los Angeles
As a big fan of all things old school Los Angeles, I’ve been wanting to do the LA Conservancy’s self guided walking tour of downtown for some time, and yesterday I finally got it together.
While the whole tour is really great, and I highly recommend it to Angelenos and visitors alike, the Bradbury Building was far and away my favorite stop. You might recognize the building from Blade Runner, or any number of other things shot there, but seeing it in person is the only way to do it justice. It’s open to the public so wander into 304 South Broadway and get a good look at this place – it’s amazing.
While rather unassuming from the outside, once inside you’ll discover a central courtyard with an entirely glass roof surrounded by iron railings and 2 open cage elevators.
And while you’re downtown, stop and have lunch at the Grand Central Market:
I didn’t have time to do more than walk through the market, but I know I’ll be back!
Filed under: Los Angeles
Überorgan, Überorgan! I’m in love with the Überorgan!
I went to the Getty on Friday and saw said Überorgan, along with the rest of Tim Hawkinson’s show. (The photo above was borrowed from the Getty website – I had trouble getting a good shot with so many people around.)
The Überorgan is a gigantic contraption made of plastic tubes with what looks like bladders and stomachs and giant horns covered with tin foil. And it plays music (for 5 minutes at the top of every hour) by reading the ’sheet music’ seen here:
This alone was worth the visit!
And considering that the John Humble exhibit was *actually* my favorite thing of the day, now is a good time to get to the Getty. Humble takes amazing photos of Los Angeles, including a whole set that follows the LA River from the head to mouth. Here’s a couple of his shots:
Humble’s show is up until July 8th, Hawkinson’s until September 9th. So don’t dilly dally!
Of course we all know that the Getty museum itself is more interesting than their general collection (although I totally fell for this painting by Jan Brueghel the Elder of The Sermon on the Mount):
So here’s my panorama taken from the gardens:
Filed under: Movies
The trailer for Charlie Bartlett, the movie I worked on for the last 7 months, is up. Take a look at it here. We’re all really proud of the movie so I hope you’ll see it in August. And take your friends.
Filed under: Los Angeles
An unusual set of bumper stickers for a Ford F150…
Filed under: Los Angeles
On Monday I went to the opening day of the season at Dodger Stadium. Normally I’m not much interested in things ‘All-American’, but baseball does something to me. I find myself high-fiving my neighboring fans after a good play and tearing up during the 7th inning stretch as we all sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”. I know it’s out of character. But I have no shame. Baseball makes me happy.
On opening day they do such silly things as…
Have some dudes parachute onto the field:
Fly helicopters over (I didn’t manage to get a shot of the fighter jet flyover):
And unfurl the largest frikin’ flag you’ve ever seen:
And finally here’s a panorama of Ed, Ben, Jason, and the entire stadium (click to bigify):
If you come to any games with me this season, this gives you a pretty good idea of the view from our seats.
Let’s play ball!
The Gena Rowlands Band has a new album called “Flesh & Spirits” that comes out tomorrow and I highly suggest you buy it. You can get the actual CD here, or download the files on iTunes (as of tomorrow, I’d assume) And, of course, it can be found at a record store near you!
Ever since I first listened to GRB I’ve struggled to describe them accurately. They’ve got a Rufus Wainwright meets the Magnetic Fields sort of thing going on. But so much more. A sentence from the review of their first album on Pitchfork describes them best (and keeps me from having to do any actual work):
“The music could qualify as chamber pop if it had any pretense of wanting to be pop– instead the violas, vibes, clarinets, and cellos drift along behind Massey’s wine-stained baritone, forming a sort of stream-of-consciousness backdrop that drifts in and out of dissonance, occasionally dissolving to a minimalist wisp.”
Now, this album has more of a pretense of wanting to be pop. But only a little bit. Anyhow, it’s really frikin’ great; all of GRB’s stuff is the kind of music that gets better and better with each listen.
Here are a few of my favorite tracks from the album for your perusal. Listen, enjoy, repeat. And buy the CD. Bob needs a new pair of shoes!
The Joke I Play On Washington
Althea
God and the Way Women Walk
(Apple people: option click to download, PC people: right click to download.)
My good friend Ben made up a TV show called Drive. It starts airing Sunday, April 15th on Fox.
Set your Tivos, VCRs or DVRs. Or even stay home and watch. Just make sure you see it, and call all your friends with Neilsen boxes!
Filed under: Los Angeles
There’s an artist who goes by the name of Cache who paints these fantastic chicken murals all over Echo Park. According to his MySpace page they’re not only in EP but all over town…
Here are some shots I took today of several of them; my favorite one is the last of the bunch:
Last but not least, Chickens in Love. Awwwwww:
