Dirty Glitter 2013 In Review #4: Sunset Strip Music Festival Edition

Saturday, August 3rd in West Hollywood, CA was the Sunset Strip Music Festival. Born in 2008, it takes place on and along the notorious Sunset Boulevard as well as inside it's world famous venues the Viper Room, the Roxy and the Whiskey where, once upon a time, the Doors were actually the house band. The fest is all about honoring and promoting the live music scene that the Sunset Strip was built on and every year's festival has a special honoree who has been an influence on The Strip: past honorees have been Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue, Slash and last year, the Doors. This year the Strip recognized that girls rock, too: 2013's honoree was none other than the one and only Joan Jett. Why? Because just like us, the Sunset Strip loves rock & roll.

Dirty Glitter 8/1/13: Sunset Strip Music Festival Edition

Andy Clockwise- "Everybody's In A Band"
He's charming, roguish, audacious, a bit of a wild man on stage...he's Andy Clockwise. An Aussie who came to Los Angeles for a visit and, in discovering that he felt quite at home among the madness, never left. "Schizo pop" is Clockwise's trade but what it sounds like is a swaggering maestro of wit and awesome. On Saturday at the Sunset Strip Music Fest Clockwise played the Viper Room stage where he did, indeed, pull out this song: from his 2011 release The Socialite (which was an examination of the cult of celebrity through humorous and partially vodka-iced eyes) it's appropriately titled, "Everybody's In a Band."


Sabrosa Purr- "The Lovely People"
Sabrosa Purr is an LA four-piece that sometimes defies description but often gets compared to notable bands like Smashing Pumpkins and Jane's Addiction. I simply call them "a collision of stoner fuzz and metal punched up by guitar rock, glam and as ethereal and enigmatic as any drug induced head trip". They've two EPs and one full album and listening to them takes the mind on multiple trips as Will Love’s vocals bend from pliant, boy/man coos to eye-watering, nu-metal howls that would earn Kurt Cobain’s seal of approval...and those will be happening in this song. During SSMF they occupied Viper Room stage. Sabrosa Purr is guitar driven, ethereal, haunting, bombastic, occasionally quiet and with a female rhythm section, it officially makes them one of the sexiest bands, period.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club- "Rival"
The Sunset Strip isn't the typical stomping grounds for garage rockers Black Rebel Motorcycle Club but Los Angeles is their home, LA loves them and BRMC are always ones to rock for a good cause. The good cause in question was the non-profit Music For Relief (which was founded by headliners Linkin Park). A portion of SSMF ticket sales went to MFR which is all about musicians supporting disaster relief efforts. So on Saturday BRMC did their awesome thing at the festival on the main stage and it was loud and from the heart, which there's a lot of tucked inside the leather jackets of Peter Hayes, Leah Shapiro and Robert Been. This track is from their latest release, Specter At The Feast, and it's Black Rebel Motorcycle Club at what I described as possibly their 'hi-octane grungiest'. It also contains my favorite drum performance from Leah Shapiro since she joined the band in 2008.

Signed, 

Diary of a Concert Whore  aka @dharma69

A Silent Film: LA Moments and a Bed To Call Home

A Silent Film = Robert Stevenson (vox, piano), Karl Bareham (guitar), Ali Hussain (bass) and Spencer Walker (drums)

Their stop in Los Angeles at the Troubadour on February 28th was a sold-out one and- along with Australia’s Gold Fields- fits perfectly into A Silent Film’s nefarious master plan of being (according to Spencer) the “only English band on the road” in a respective tour. Even so, they do admit to being open to the prospect of possibly touring with fellow countrymen and High Voltage favorite, the Chevin. I may have planted an extra seed of potential for such a thing to happen by heartily endorsing the Chevin as really nice guys and reminding them that both bands chose to record their current albums in the same studio in- of all places- El Paso, TX. “I do really like that song [“Champion”],” mused Spencer.

Collectively from Oxford, England, the guys of A Silent Film make beautiful music: the kind that is heartfelt with uplifting, thoughtful and exploratory narratives that pretty girls love to sing along to. And what they deliver live cannot be mistaken for anything other than a rock show as they translate the beautiful into damned fine energy. Touring on their second album, Sand and Snow, and with the radio-ready hits “Harbour Nights,” “Danny, Dakota and the Wishing Well” and “Anastasia” under their belts, they’ve made a healthy impression on this side of the pond, certainly in Los Angeles: this is their fourth tour visit. Their initiation into the City of Angels, their very first LA show, turned out to be at none other than the infamous Viper Room in 2010: An experience categorized as “crazy” and “a bit of a blur.”

Robert: “That was our first opportunity to play LA. The coolest thing about it was when we finished sound check and we had to put our gear somewhere and the guy said ‘Put it in Johnny’s [Depp] booth’. That’s pretty cool.” And the show was a good one, complete with pretty girls singing along so cheers all around.

As far as ‘LA moments’ go, A Silent Film were surely gifted a high quality one that evening, but you’re not truly one of us until you’ve been subjected to when things get just a little awkward.

Karl: “Oh, when we went to that party…”

Spencer: “OH THAT WAS SO LA! That was amazing.”

Robert: “We get invited to this party, we went all the way to the top of Beverly Hills…in a van and trailer [at this point Spencer is giggling, Karl is shaking his head]. There was a valet at the party, so you know what kind of party it is, at a really, really big mansion. Spent ages trying to get the van up the hill to the party! All these fancy cars and there’s our van with a trailer. When we actually did get to the party there were about 15 people there?”

Spencer: “If that. Basically the person whose party it was wasn’t there and there was just a bunch of people like…who just when you walk in immediately look at you, don’t recognize you and go back to their non-conversation while looking over the shoulder of the person they’re talking to. It was the weirdest night.”

Robert: “Actually there was a DJ in the corner just spinning records to nobody. Just being paid to be there. It was so LA. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had some great nights in LA, but that’s probably the most ‘LA’ night.”

On the flip side, Karl offered up what he considers to be an ‘awesome’ night in Los Angeles: “I like to go to Swingers (West Hollywood diner). Just hanging out.” Robert and Spencer are in wholehearted agreement.

Band formation can tend to be a fluid process as, over time, members may come and go and A Silent Film has been no different. Coming from different bands and moments in time found a way to conspire so that Robert, Karl, Ali and Spencer would eventually and fortuitously meld in 2010. “The nice thing about this band,” Robert says “is that it’s come together like gravity pulled us together. Some benevolent force has got the four of us together to make music because it’s happened very naturally.”
Spencer adds, “It’s evolved into this. Which is a great feeling rather than the four of us just being together and trying to make it work just for the sake of it. This is what’s stuck.”

From here A Silent Film continued their co-headlining tour with Gold Fields in the US, ending their road trip in March at South By Southwest in Austin, TX. There I caught two of their festival sets and, even though it had been a long few months and they were a little road-weary, their shows were no less endearing and vibrant than in Los Angeles. A nomadic and rock and roll lifestyle is not easy. It may be a dream come true, but it’s hard work and sometimes there’s just nothing like sleeping in one’s own bed.

After SXSW, they headed back to the UK for a few weeks of rest in those beds of theirs before resuming life on the road in the US. They're coming back for you, America, so check out their tour dates HERE.

Speaking of beds...

Robert: “Oh my goodness it feels so good when you finally get out of the van and you have somewhere to call ‘home’.”

Spencer: “We don’t say that word, actually, because it’s too emotive. So we don’t use the “B” word in relation to the possessive. It’s too much to handle.”

I’m almost positive that Spencer whimpered.

“I’m going to start welling up. I’m gonna be weeping uncontrollably on the floor if you start talking about my bed.”

I had no idea they were so sensitive.

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When Little Bands Grow Up: Imagine Dragons

Labor Day Monday and the eve of the release of Imagine Dragons’ full-length debut, Night Visions and the band has made themselves comfortable at the FM 98.7 Penthouse at the Hollywood Tower apartments. There’s a lot that I could try to say with an abundance of wordy flourish in an attempt to sound literally poetic and deeper than the BP oil spill, but I’m not going to go there. The album that dropped yesterday? We at High Voltage Magazine heard it in early August and it made us happy. Made us do that stomp-clap-stomp, stomp-clap-stomp thing (I'm getting better at it, I swear) with goofy grins on our faces. You see, this is that moment when people like us, like you-music fans- know with all of your hearts that the time, energy, money and support channeled into believing in the music and watching those who make it explode before our eyes has been a one of a kind emotional investment that repays itself with intangibles. And that's because I think that many of us are more than just fans of music: Music is also a friend and we try to treat it and those who make it as such.

But I’m also just one of so many who have watched Imagine Dragons (a band less than four years old) evolve from a five-piece to a four-piece, from a baby band first on an evening’s bill to sold out, sweat dripping from the ceiling shows at the Viper Room, a place that feels like home to them (and believe me when I say that Viper regards them as family). And like so many, once upon a time I heard an Imagine Dragons song and immediately decided that I needed to hear more. Somewhere between that impromptu weekend when I and two friends with little planning drove to Las Vegas for a show where Imagine Dragons were on the bill, their shows in Los Angeles and our own editor Chelsea Schwartz booking them for my birthday at the Viper Room (Dan’s birthday happens to be the following day) something happened. Attachment. Then they kept returning to Los Angeles and playing with local bands and friends. And then their lives became interwoven by marriage with two other local LA bands/friends that I love and...

The fact is, this moment is what we music fans and friends of those in bands who work their asses off towards greater things fervently hope for yet simultaneously fear. We gladly, enthusiastically act as cheerleaders, photographers, street teamers, bloggers, town criers aka people who just won’t shut up about them until everyone has listened to us and is listening to them. And for those bands we wish every form of personal and professional success and happiness in repayment for the honest joy the music gives us. But with that comes accepting the possibility that we may never see them in the dripping sweat and close comfort of a Viper Room again. But at the end of the day it’s okay because the dreams are coming true, the passions are being followed and it showed on Monday at the FM 98.7 Penthouse. Imagine Dragons played a short acoustic set that was more personable and warm than business professional as Dan, Wayne, Ben and Daniel took their normally electric and anthemic chorus rockers and reigned them in, softening them with an intimacy that flowed into a Q&A session. With his usual gentle humility, Dan spoke of the road that the band has traveled to get where they are, vocal cord surgery, what an awesome catch Ben is, following a dream, insomnia, the Viper Room, truth in songwriting and the combination of fear and excitement about what comes next. What comes next is their turn on the Jimmy Kimmel Live stage, a national tour, then…who knows.

If you've read our current High Voltage Magazine cover story, you know that there are entirely too many variables that are involved in why a band does or does not break through to success, but where Imagine Dragons are concerned - after you factor in the drive, determination, hours in rehearsals, hours on the road, long days and longer nights - the one true explanation is the one that they will sing every night, at every show for the rest of their career-lives: It’s their time.

Sunset Strip Music Fest 2011 Artist Profile: Jordan Cook

Jordan Cook...

...is a guy who stunned the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland during a jam session with BB King and Van Morrison. He was 15.

...at the age of 17, stepped in for an AWOL Aretha Franklin at a House of Blues show in Florida and performed an entire set with her band. It went very well.

...blew the mind of Nic Adler, owner of The Roxy Theater, so hard at SXSW 2011 that Nic made it his business to see Jordan on the 2011 Sunset Strip Music Festival lineup. No more fitting a showcase for such a pure force of talent.

To see Jordan Cook in the live is to feel as if you’re watching flesh become legend or something equally impressive and it’s not just because he’s blessed with archetypical rock star good looks (yes, he could easily pass for a Chris Cornell sibling). Touring on the release of his album Seven Deadly Sins, he had a February residency in LA at The Viper Room and on this particular night the joint wasn’t full, but that was fine: Cook played as if his soul were at stake in that Robert Johnson-way for a crowd that alternated between open-mouthed awe and straight up rocking the fuck out. His guitar talent and Hendrix-tendencies qualify as virtuosic and aren't something that he “does” so much as something that he “unleashes”.

He’s Canadian, but we won’t hold that against him (yes, how“South Park” of me) because he caters to a music lover’s most primal senses. Cook’s oeuvre is the school of rock with the sludge of backwater blues and grit in its veins and, if you’re not careful, can awaken some of your more carnal tendencies in a public arena. Women will dance, undulating to the potential of six-string sin (see the title of his album for further) and dudes will feel like air-guitar gods about to get laid. In “Black Eyes” Cook’s fierce and abrasive howl frames lyrics like, “And when she came, she said her name” and “Such a sick game; I feel no shame” so you know that rock and roll’s fundamental undercurrent of sex is present and pure and electric. Stylistically, he’s infected with the ability to make that guitar of his seem like a sixth appendage (think about it) without which he’d be incomplete, but then he closes the album Seven Deadly Sins with a piano-laced track like “The War” and he captures more than the ability to blow raging hot but also to soothe slow-dancingly, achingly cool.

A visual aid of badass proportions:

Calling Cook a stunning live performer is like calling "The Godfather" a good movie; with intense and uninhibited swagger, the man turns a stage into his playground and that may stem from the fact that he’s been playing since he was two.

Star in the making? If I had any real faith in this thing that we call the “music industry” I would resoundingly say, “Hell’s fucking yeah!”…but I don’t. Incomparable talent, which rivals that of the renowned musicians that he draws inspiration and praise from, is not the harbinger that it used to be. Still, your next order of business is to catch Jordan Cook when he takes ownership of The Roxy Theater stage on Saturday, August 20th for the Sunset Strip Music Festival.