On Saturday, the Bergamot Station Arts Complex flooded with heavy foot traffic headed straight for Copro Nason Gallery, where strange sea creatures, aliens, robots and mutants anxiously waited on the walls and floor displays. It was opening night for the second installment of Chet Zar’s Conjoined, The Sequel – In 3D exhibit, and the art-hungry masses were fired up.
Little is the new big. At least that was the vibe when alternative dream rockers Angels & Airwaves stopped by the Red Bull Sound Space at the world famous KROQ in Los Angeles to play a handful of songs and answer questions from fans. Known for breaking some of Southern California’s biggest rock acts, the radio station formed a partnership with Red Bull last year to create Sound Space, an intimate stage on which some of the world’s best bands could perform for 150 of their closest friends and fans. Following Falling In Reverse, The Fray, New Found Glory, and Sound Space debut performers Coldplay, Angels & Airwaves ripped through a five-song set that included songs like “The Adventure,” “Anxiety,” “Everything’s Magic,” “Hallucinations,” and fan favorite, “Surrender.” Lead singer Tom DeLonge waxed poetic about the end of the world, making doodles of naked superheroes, and why Angels & Airwaves and Blink-182—the multi-platinum pop-punk group he’s fronted since 1992—are two sides of the same coin. After the set concluded, ChinaShop got some extra time with DeLonge in KROQ’s luxurious mail room to dig a bit deeper into the mythology, beauty, and DIY DNA that is Angels & Airwaves.
Sharon Van Etten is announcing even more tour dates in support of her forthcoming album, Tramp, out Feb. 7 via Jagjaguwar. Next month, Sharon kicks off a headlining tour of the East Coast and Midwest with a sold out performance at Johnny Brenda’s in Philadelphia. Before heading to Europe for a week, she’ll play three record release shows in New York – Fri. Feb. 24 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, and Sat. Feb. 25 and Sun. Feb. 26 at the Bowery Ballroom (Sat. Feb. 25 is sold out). Then she’ll head down to Austin for SXSW, and make her way out west with The War On Drugs. The newly announced dates include a tour of the Southeast and beyond.
We recently had the opportunity to sit down and get to know the sisterly duo of Catherine and Allison Pierce. If there is an award to be given for musical perseverance, these two deserve it. After three records and 10 years of making music together, the Pierce sisters were ready to throw in the towel and attempt their own solo projects. In the final hour, Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman stepped up and expressed interest in hearing their new demos. Berryman took The Pierces under his wing and produced their groundbreaking forth album, “You & I.” The ladies recently signed with Polydor Records and finally feel at home with a label that believes in them.
In the lobby of West Hollywood’s Andaz Hotel, Allison joked about continuously breaking her Kindle as Catherine told her somber tale of someone beating her to the house she had planned on moving into. The girls explained that listening back to their earlier tunes makes them proud of how far they’ve come and that being role models to artists who haven’t made it yet has it’s pros and cons.
Worldwide by way of Chicago, Tony Arzadon has brought his big room crossbreed of deep, punchy house and infectious pop to the masses via some of dance music’s choicest labels, including Juicy Music, Movement, and System Recordings. Like many of his contemporaries, it was his success with bootlegs that ignited his approach into the mainstream, having produced unofficial rerubs for Justin Timberlake and One Republic that caught fire with other DJs and across the Beatport spectrum. Though he’s no stranger to nightclubs in Los Angeles and Vegas, Tony is a Chicago boy through and through, raised on a steady diet of deep dish pizza and Bulls basketball. Before he departed to Aspen to DJ the X Games, Tony gave us the head’s up on his latest production project, as well as a list of his favorite Windy City spots for food, drinks, and music.
The aptly-named Warehouse LA is a vast, 4500-square-foot expanse of vintage-hunting heaven, set apart by its distinct lack of clutter and its stylish furnishing. This isn’t a place you come to dig and hope, but a place you come with the option to get styled by in-store experts selecting from vintage, reconstructed and locally-designed pieces.
Over here on the East Coast, it’s been a relatively mild winter for NYC so far, until the wee hours of last Saturday morning when prayers were answered. It’s almost February and not a lick of snow! My morning commutes have been so ice-free and I haven’t once slipped and broken my ass or had a passing bus spray me with foul brown toxic slush! With the Giants doing so well, people have run out of things to complain about until we finally got a nice layer of clean white snow that was properly turned into said foul brown toxic slush by early Saturday evening.
Lacuna Coil release their 6th album for Century Media, Dark Adrenaline; American Idol crooner Kellie Pickler is back; Nada Surf releases a particularly strangely-named album Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy; 60’s icon/bad ass Joe Cocker is back with his 21st album, and Chairlift does Something…Right. ‘Til next time then…
Foxy Shazam - The Church Of Rock And Roll
Standard Fare - Out of Sight, Out of Town
Craig Finn - Clear Heart Full Eyes [of The Hold Steady]
First Aid Kit - The Lion’s Roar
Chairlift - Something Cloud Nothings - Attack On Memory
Gonjasufi - MU.ZZ.LE.
Rodrigo y Gabriela - Area 52
Ingrid Michaelson - Human Again
John K. Samson – Provincial [Weakerthan's lead singer's solo debut]
Bhi Bhiman- Bhiman
Lacuna Coil - Dark Adrenaline
Kellie Pickler – 100 Proof
Lamb of God – Resolution
Joe Cocker - Hard Knocks
You Me at Six - Sinners Never Sleep
Scorpions - Comeback
Rise to Remain - City Of Vultures
Nada Surf - The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy
Porcelain Raft - Strange Weekend
Seal - Soul 2
Tim McGraw - Emotional Traffic
Mishka is a diminutive of “Mikhail”, can be translated to “Little Bear” in Russian and happens to be the name of a streetwear company you should know about, especially if you like graphic art and cartoon eyeballs. Launched in 2003 by Ukranian expat Mikhail Bortnik and self-proclaimed toy nerd Greg Rivera, what began as a T-shirt line has grown into a lifestyle brand with shops in NYC, Tokyo and now in LA’s Echo Park neighborhood.
Dead Sara has been busy since we spoke with them last year. The female-fronted four piece has been packing in venues, exponentially growing their fanbase, and just finished recording their highly anticipated new album. Dead Sara was recently selected to be featured artist on this year’s Warped Tour and has been enjoying success on popular rock radio stations throughout the country.
We recently caught up with vocalist Emily Armstrong who explained that 2012 is shaping up to be the band’s best year yet.
Check out our conversation with Emily as she discusses being a female vocalist in a male dominated rock world, items in her tour survival kit, and the band almost being named Masturbation Salvation:
