Dirty Glitter 2013 In Review #8: The Last Internationale, X Ambassadors & Daley

Radio check 1, 2, 3! What we have here is a Spring of 2013 segment for your recollection. This collaboration between High Voltage and Dirty Glitter with Brody Ramone on WGBU-FM every Thursday night at 8pm PST/11pm EST has yielded some pretty sweet musical fruit not the least of which comes from the three talents in this 8th edition of Dirty Glitter 2013 In Review.

Dirty Glitter 5/8/2013:

The Last Internationale- "Cod'ine"
The merger of folk, rock, punk and blues with an air of protestation for righteous reasons brings us to the Last Internationale, a New York City trio formed of Delila Paz (vox, bass), Edgey (guitar) and now Rage Against the Machine's Brad Wilk (drums). With a sound that's raw and strong, smacks of being socially awake and challenging the status quo by way of rock and roll (and isn't that what rock and roll is supposed to do?), the Last International are refreshingly irony-free and substantive: probably because they don't miss the musical plot that. Now what we have here is TLI shining on a cover song: the Buffy Saint-Marie classic "Cod'ine" which Saint-Marie wrote about her experience recovering from her addiction to codeine. Even though this is a cover, it's the Last Internationale flexing some of their strongest muscles in the translation of emotion. From their current EP New York, I Do Mind Dying this is "Cod'ine."

X Ambassadors- "Unconsolable"
Brothers Sam and Casey Harris along with friends Noah Feldshuh and Adam Levin source everything from the Staples Singers to the Stooges to Ginuwine to hip hop to fashion their seriously groove-based music. If you could actually taste music, which I totally believe is possible, you could file Brooklyn-based X Ambassadors under "thick and delicious"; it's full of texture and feeling, often swells into bombastic territory with lyrics that speak from many places of the heart. On Tuesday May 7th they released their 6-song EP, Love Songs Drug Songs, which had some serious production assistance from Alex da Kid and some guy named Dan Reynolds (yes that Dan from Imagine Dragons). Back to considering the music to be delicious, in this song "Unconsolable" Sam does reference bread and butter. See? It all comes full circle.

Daley- "Game Over"
His proper name is Gareth Daley but this British soul singer of the blue-eyed variety simply goes by Daley. Embracing all that is romantic, sexy, laid back and groovalicious about r&b and neo-soul and lacing it with a little pop, Daley's music breakthrough came in 2010 when he provided guest vocals on the Gorillaz song "Doncamatic." Since then he's produced and released the EP Those Who Wait in 2012, toured with and supported the likes of Emeli Sande and Jessie J and been one of the UK's rising stars in a new wave of neo soul. He's currently working on a full album but for now from the Those Who Wait EP here's "Game Over."

Signed,
Diary of a Concert Whore  aka @dharma69

Dirty Glitter 2013 In Review #7: Terraplane Sun, Great White Buffalo, Trixie Whitley & Vanaprasta

The year's almost at an end, rock stars but here's another Dirty Glitter with Brody Ramone-review. We're up to part 7 my High Voltage Magazine-recap of artists to re-discover, the artists and songs that I selected for play. Are you ready? Here we go:

Dirty Glitter 5/30/2013 Edition:

Terraplane Sun: "Get Me Golden”
How can five guys who occupy space in the beachfront city of Venice, CA possibly tap into a river of south of the Mason-Dixon line-sound blended with California sun and soul without sounding- what’s the word…ridiculous? Well, that’s Terraplane Sun for you. Ben Rothbard, Johnny Zambetti, Cecil Campanaro, Lyle Riddle and Gabe Feenberg describe themselves as “blues indie rock folk dance soul”; their sound is a little vintage, a little timeless and a lot of awesome as they truly do flesh out blues, indie rock, folk, dance and soul with full blown musicality and a refined rawness that translates wonderfully from record to their live shows which- whether they're rocking a local show or on tour with Imagine Dragons- are flat out electric and virtuosity on on display. Here's there's sunshine of a track, "Get Me Golden," which was featured in the 21 Jump Street redo and in a national CitiBank commercial.

Great White Buffalo: "Thanks For Nothing"
For some reason what Graham Bockmiller, Stephen Johnson, Blake LaGrange, and Rich Carrillo aka Great White Buffalo do seems almost effortless and in its ease is the pleasure of listening. Hopefully that makes sense because with Graham's textured vocals, the choice hooks and melodies and the lyrically well-crafted songs, Great White Buffalo are just a little too solid for their own good. They've followed up last year’s four-song Tightrope EP with a self-title one composed of six tight as a drum rockers produced by Grammy winner Phil Allen (Aerosmith, Adele) that stand up to anything that any indie rock band- LA based or otherwise- has dished out in the past year. to check out those songs, see their Bandcamp for further. In the meantime, get to grooving and rocking with Great White Buffalo and "Thanks For Nothing."

Trixie Whitley "Never Enough"
Trixie Whitley may only be 25 years old but her life experiences have brought a wisdom far beyond her age. Born in Belgium, she's the daughter of the acclaimed late bluesman Chris Whitley and those genes have passed on some immense talent as she's been a DJ, a dancer, a waitress...most before she was even old enough to vote. A multi-instrumentalist equally comfortable with a guitar or behind a drum kit, Trixie's fiercest tools are her songwriting and her voice which is stunningly soulful, haunting, emotive and- also- belies her age. So much so that the one and only Daniel Lanois (who has produced Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel and some of U2's best work) tapped Trixie to be the voice of a collaboration project called Black Dub. Her full length debut album, Fourth Corner, was released in April and shows off what makes this lady so darned special. From that album, this is "Never Enough."

Vanaprasta: "NineEqualsNine" (honorable mention) (I. Love. This. Band. So. Hard.)

Vanaprasta is Sanskrit for a person who lives in the forest as a hermit after giving up most material desires. It’s also the name of one of my absolute favorite local bands. Based in Echo Park, CA, Vanaprasta are all about dynamic musical elements that shape-shift from psych guitar rock to disarming soul to blues progressive and shamelessly back again carried by Steven Wilkin’s flexible and arena-worthy vocals: he was, after all, an opera singer as a child. Along with Taylor Brown, Collin Desha, Cameron Dmytryk and Ben Smiley, these guys are ambitious with Pink Floyd-ish experimentation to Zeppelin-ish guitar to full blown prog, and yet they aren’t afraid of tripping a little weird. While indie rock is their game, this track, “NineEqualsNine,” is a game-changer due to the lush and sensual current of R&B that runs through it and the song title is indicative of their fascination with numbers, shapes and patterns in life. They’re in the studio working on album #2 as we speak (and I cannot wait for it) but this track is from their 2011 debut, Healthy Geometry. 

Dirty Glitter 2013 In Review #6: Davis Fetter, Birds of a Black Feather & the Crash Kings

Summertime, oh sweet summertime.

Alright music lovers, welcome to the 6th installment of my High Voltage Magazine and Dirty Glitter with Brody Ramone 2013 in review! Three songs from three artists whom I highly approve of and I hope you find something to approve of, as well. New music discovery is what I love so let's get you busy discovering.

Dirty Glitter 6/20/2013 Edition:

David Fetter- "Born"
Every now and then you come across an artist of some sort- in this case, a musician- who seems as if they should have been born in another era or decade. With that in mind, see the romantic rocker Davis Fetter for further as he channels the rock and roll of the 50s and 60s with a Britpop coolness and a guitar rock flair that's uniquely his own. Rock and roll legend Chuck Berry has been a major influence on Davis' musical style. Over the years Davis has opened for the likes of Blondie, Peter Murphy, the B-52s, Chris Cornell and more. Seasoned as a songwriter as well as a performer, Davis is equally adept rocking loud and electric or crooning stripped down and acoustic; his voice is wonderfully fluid instrument and we're lucky that he was born when he was.

Birds of a Black Feather- "Turn Me On"
A mutual love of rock and roll, blues and soul is just one unifying element in Birds of a Black Feather. The Los Angeles quartet is made up of, not only friends, but also family: sisters Katie and Sarah Virden along with Murray Foretich and Ben Nelson. A little raw with moments of refined, touches of Southern rock and sultry in the music and in the co-vocal harmonies of Katie and Sarah. In band years, they're relatively young but you wouldn't know it by the musical force they present when on stage and live really is where the music lives. This track, "Turn Me On," is from their self-titled EP.

Crash Kings- "All Along"
Brothers Antonio and Michael Beliveau along with Jason Morris are the Crash Kings and one of the most uniquely crafted rock bands out there. Known for Tony's extraordinary vocal range and dynamics, as every note you hear on this song Tony easily hits live, Crash Kings are also famous (or 'infamous') for rocking just as hard as any guitar-driven band out there...but minus the guitar. Instead Tony plays a specially designed Clavinet tricked out with a whammy bar and a few other tweaks for distortion effects which he uses to replace guitar tones. Signed to Linda Perry's label, their 2009 debut album produced the hit single "Mountain Man" and they've toured with the likes of Jet, Chris Cornell, Rooney and Mason Jennings. It's been a few years but the boys are back: they launched a Kickstarter to fund their upcoming tour and album release: they met their goal in about 8 hours. Now their long awaited follow up release, Dark of the Daylight, is out and from it is "All Along."

 

Signed,

Diary of a Concert Whore  aka @dharma69

Dirty Glitter 2013 In Review #5: The Technicolors, Queen V & The New Electric Sound

Once again, welcome to Dirty Glitter with Brody Ramone-review. We're up to part 5 my High Voltage Magazine-recap of artists to re-discover, the artists and songs that I selected for play. Here we go:

Dirty Glitter 7/11/2013:

The Technicolors- "Again"
The Technicolors are out of Phoenix, AZ and their music is modern rock colored with shades of Britpop with good guitar work in the forefront: think shades of Oasis and Supergrass. They're a four-man outfit made up of Brennan Smiley, Mikey Finezza, Michael Nicolette and Kevin Prociw and their current album, Listener, is a solid piece of work and on it is a pretty wicked cover of Chris Isaac's "Wicked Game." But on the original side of things, here's the Technicolors with "Again."

Queen V- "Good Enough"
Queen V isn't just a band, it's the woman who fronts this hard rocking outfit from New York City. Even though rock is typically a boy's club, Queen V brings swagger, attitude and the ability to hold her own on a stage, with a guitar, writing songs and definitely when she opens her mouth to sing. She's toured with Billy Idol and Twisted Sister and her new album released on June 25th, The Decade of Queen V, basically sums up the music she's made since 2005 and she gets a little help from her friends like Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine) and Lemmy of Motorhead. While she specializes in gutsy and hard rocking music, this track is the softer side of Queen V yet still gives you a clue as to what she's about as well as her incredible lung power.

The New Electric Sound- "Suitcase"
Los Angeles by way of Utah is the New Electric Sound and all you really need to know about this five-piece can probably be found in a few key lines in their biography:

"You ask yourself what it is that makes this music so incredibly catchy, so deeply arresting. Suddenly, you are humming melodies against your own will and snapping your fingers uncontrollably. You begin to find that you are unable to perform the most basic of tasks - food becomes impossible to masticate, your favorite movie cannot be watched, the cutest kitten cannot be stroked. You experience an uncanny joy."

Fronted by Scott Vance and drawing influences from the likes of Buddy Holly to the Kooks, the New Electric Sound's vintage surf guitar tones make for solid songs that really do stick. So much so that they were one of the bands I asked to play my High Voltage birthday show in July, which happened to be their first LA show. They've a full album that came out in 2012 and I highly recommended that you dig into it.

Signed,
Diary of a Concert Whore  aka @dharma69

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

Dirty Glitter 2013 In Review #3: Say Hello to the Janks, D & M and Javier Dunn

Hello again, lovelies. What time is it? Just Dirty Glitter with Brody Ramone-review time. Third installment of my High Voltage Magazine-recap, so let's get down to business.

High Voltage Segment on Dirty Glitter: 8/22/2013

The Janks- "Rat Racer"
If you listened to an album's worth of the Janks music you'd be able to pinpoint their very specific formula: no, rules; just right- whatever 'just right' is. The Janks are Zachary Zmed, his brother Dylan Zmed, Paul Kilmister and Leon LeDoux and they have a serious classic rock jones but rock out so eclectically, sometimes irreverently. One of LA's premier radio stations described them as “Imagine Jack White had a baby with Jimmy Page. And that baby had a brother. And those brothers were adopted and raised by a commune of favorites like Father John Misty and Family of the Year." That's pretty much it. Vocals and brotherly harmonies are provided by Zach and Dylan and their live show is incredible. In August they had a month-long residency at the auspicious LA venue, the Satellite and what a fantastically successful residency it was.

And if the last names Zmed or Kilmister sound familiar, they should be: Zach and Dylan's dad happens to be actor Adrian Zmed and Paul? His dad goes by the name of Lemmy (Motorhead).


D&M- "Dirty Love"
From Philadelphia we have the duo D&M, simply named so because the players are Danny Fornasa and Matt Klahre who met in college back in 2009 and bonded over their love of rock and roll, blues and pop which you can hear plain as day in the grittiness of this track. Danny has some impressive vocal range and tone which is just as at home on any genre style. Expect a full length release from these guys later this year but in the meantime here's "Dirty Love".


Javier Dunn- "Couple Of Drinks"
For the past 10 years or so Javier Dunn has been the right hand guitar-man of singer-songtress Sara Bareilles but now making music under his own steam: it sounds like that shyly confident romantic storyteller with a Taylor guitar on open mic night getting his synth-washed sexy back and phone numbers on cocktail napkins. Javier has a terrific new album out called Trails that's all about love and its potential, if not inevitable, highs and pitfalls with an overlay of R&B groove and pop sense electronically tweaked. This track comes from that album and it's pretty much a tale of a night out on the town and romancing via liquid courage. Here's "Couple Of Drinks."

Signed,
Diary of a Concert Whore  aka @dharma69 

US10 On Spitfire Radio: 4th Of July Edition

Independent radio is a good thing for obvious reasons, but no reason so obvious as loosening music fans from the narrow lanes of restricted listening and limited music discovery. Major radio stations have their painfully structured playlists of songs that you'll hear repeated every hour on the hour with little room for deviation. And then there are free spirits like Spitfire Radio across the pond in  Birmingham, England who are all about being a quality alternative and a source for amazing music that you may not otherwise find. That's where Barry Tomes (a Brit) and Brooke Henderson (a Yankee) come in as hosts of the program, US10 which showcases 10 of the BEST new and emerging bands/artists from the US. Isn't it lovely how we Americans and the English have been able to get along despite that nasty American Revolution-thing?

Now being given the opportunity to select 10 of my favorite artists for this week's edition of US10 was a pretty honor, yet a really difficult one. Why difficult? Because although 10 may sound like a lot of artists to choose, it's barely scratches the surface due to the abundance of good shit out there just waiting to be discovered by ears like yours.

My US10 turned out to very LA-centric and, if you know me, there will be a few familiar names: it wasn't intentional, I'm just very fond of much of the music growing in my own backyard. So check out the show (with adorable and witty banter courtesy of Brooke and Barry whom I thank for indulging my selections), dig into the music and perhaps turn yourself on to a new band.


Bands featured:
The Last Internationale
X Ambassadors
Big Black Delta
Finish Ticket
Terraplane Sun
Irontom
Dead Sara
American Royalty
The Features
Sabrosa Purr

Putting A Shine On Terraplane Sun's "Get Me Golden"

How can five music-making dudes who occupy space in the beachfront city of Venice, CA possibly go all south of the Mason-Dixon line-sound and blend it with California sun and soul without sounding- what’s the word- ridiculous? Yes, fricking ridiculous. Well, that’s Terraplane Sun for you. These guys are my guys: I  took ownership of them a long time ago (in the most platonic way possible) and am just shy of being able to claim them on my taxes.

Ben Rothbard (singer dude), Johnny Zambetti (guitar, mandolin and awesome hair), Cecil Campanaro (slapping da bass), Lyle Riddle (cool drummer, cool tats) and Gabe Feenberg (like...everything else, seriously) describe themselves as “blues indie rock folk dance soul”: their sound is a little vintage, a little timeless and a lot of awesome as they truly do flesh out blues, indie rock, folk, dance and soul with full blown musicality and a refined rawness that translates fantastically from record to their live show. So here's a song for you that will be on their brand spanking new EP coming out in June. The song: "Get Me Golden." The theme: going for the gold, silly.

Rothbard (or 'Ben' as I like to call him) was kind enough to sum up the song in his own words:

"Golden was written with the notion that if you want something, you gotta go and get it. One thing we've learned as a band and even just as individuals is that very little will fall in your lap and if it does, chances are it won't happen again. I've never been a fan of the lottery and have always been called crazy for saying that I'd give away all the money if I won it. It's always so much more rewarding if you earn what you get and really go after exactly what you want, whether it's love, a goal, a challenge etc...

The song itself was Motown inspired for sure. It's a dancer!"

And who doesn't like to dance? So you read these words, listened to the killer song, did the hand claps because it's a little irresistable and now you're all, "Holy shit, this band's a bucket full of awesome...if you could actually put awesome in a bucket, of course! Where/when can I get some of this live?"

Funny you should ask: if you happen to be in Los Angeles on Thursday 5/30 and attending the Imagine Dragons concert at the Hollywood Palladium, Terraplane Sun just happen to be the opening band so, BAM!, you're welcome. Otherwise, do your duty and stalk them in the usual places like their website, Facebook and Twitter in order to get in their business. They'd probably like that.

By the way, every Thursday night at 11pm EST/8pm PST High Voltage takes over the radio on Dirty Glitter w/ Brody Ramone on WBGU-FM in order to play three High Voltage-approved songs. Tune in this Thursday night and you'll hear Terraplane Sun getting some love.