Last year's Circus was a lot of fun and this year's will be even better with the addition of The Little Ones, who were picture perfect at the Echo in August. Wear a costume, get a CD with one song from each of the bands performing. I may or may not be dressed as a devil.
We did it last year....and we're doing it again this year....only BIGGER. We're taking over both the ECHO and ECHOPLEX in Los Angeles: 14 bands, comedians, food trucks, face painting, games, raffles, free popcorn and sno-cones, cotton candy, maybe some magic...?
Oh yeah...it's Halloween weekend too... Anyone who comes ...dressed in a Halloween costume, or as some type of circus performer, will get a FREE mix cd w/ a song from all (most?) of the bands performing.
Friday, Oct 29 at the ECHO and ECHOPLEX
7pm doors, music at 8pm.
$10 tix in advance/$12 dos
and the lineup:
THE HENRY CLAY PEOPLE THE LITTLE ONES ANDY CLOCKWISE WE BARBARIANS THE MONOLATORS THE DIG DOWNTOWN/UNION
PLUS "side show acoustic performances" by:
RED CORTEZ MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY OLIN AND THE MOON THE STEELWELLS RADEMACHER MARVELOUS TOY THE HECTORS
This is a day late (and the font is a little off), but for those of you lucky enough to be in Austin and looking for the best LA has to offer, here's CER's SXSW recommendations: Family of the Year
It's great to see the bands we love get the recognition they deserve. In January The Henry Clay People opened for Olin & The Moon's residency at the Echo and their set consisted of their entire unreleased new album, played front to back. If you've seen HCP play anytime over the past 6 to 8 months, you've already heard a lot of the songs. There's multiple winners on it, including "End of an Empire," and two of the four new songs they wrote for their April Spaceland residency. The album will also include re-recordings of "This Ain't a Scene" and "Working Part Time," which appeared on their previous release, For Cheap or For Free. I do lament, though, the omission of "The Switch Kids" (CER's subtitle is taken from that song).
We now know when we'll see the album, and on what label. And we also know that HCP will be playing 10 sets at SXSW, which should be a record (Local Natives only play a measly nine. Time to step up your game, guys). From the band:
Hello friends, strangers, loved ones, and whoever else cares to read this-
We are extremely pleased to announce that we will be releasing our new record "Somewhere on the Golden Coast" in early June of 2010 on TBD Records (Radiohead, White Rabbits, Port O'Brien). The record was recorded mostly at The Ship in Eagle Rock, CA by Aaron Espinoza and at Rollercoaster in Burbank, with David Newton. Aaron's new imprint The Ship Records is also helping with the release.
The idea was to track the record as live as possible onto tape, leaving that dirt under the fingernails kinda feel. So yeah, there is a good amount of dirt, but hopefully other stuff too. We threw a couple of tracks on the ole myspace. Check back in case we decide to throw a couple more on.
We're also happy to announce a whole tone of upcoming dates, kicking off with 10 shows at SXSW in Austin, an LA show with Admiral Radley (Grandaddy/Earlimart super band), and some dates with Drive by Truckers (more to come too).
More later!
Love, The Henry Clay People
upcoming dates;
SXSW Schedule
3/17 Wednesday 12:50 – QuinnStorm & C3 Presents @ Lamberts 2:20 – LittleRadio @ Red Eye Fly Night – Stubbs inside between outside sets for NPR showcase, two sets
3/18 Thursday 2:00 – Roky Erikson’s Ice-Cream Social @ Threadgill’s 3:45 – Aquarium Drunkard @ Lamberts 8:30 – Billions Showcase @ Club Deville
3/19 Friday 3:30 – Buddyhead @ Annies on 6th 6:00 – Pure Volume @ 504 Trinity St
3/20 Saturday 2:30 – Pianos NYC @ Kung Fu Saloon 5:15 – The Ship & WOXY @ Homeslice _____________
3/24 - Bootleg Theatre - Los Angeles, CA w/ Admiral Radley 5/5 – Rialto Theatre – Tucson, AZ w/ Drive-By Truckers 5/6 - House of Blues - San Diego, CA w/ Drive-By Truckers 5/7 - Avalon - Los Angeles, CA w/ Drive-By Truckers 5/8 - The Fillmore - San Francisco, CA w/ Drive-By Truckers 5/12 – In The Venue – Salt Lake City, UT w/ Drive-By Truckers
True, it's purely a coincidence that my birthday is the same day as this spectacular show, but when you can see both Local Natives and The Henry Clay People at Spaceland on your birthday (and for free) the stars have truly aligned.
And that doesn't even include Fun., which features Nate Ruess of The Format and Jack from Steel Train. They've sold out the Mercury Lounge (NYC) and Schuba's (Chicago) dates on their current tour. And Aushua is supposed to be great also. I am very excited.
Local Natives on at 11, Henry Clay at 10. Fun and Aushua keep the candle burning on both ends (9pm and Midnight, not necessarily respectively). You best get there early.
Skeeball Balloon Animals Face Painting Mimes Free Cotton Candy Free Sno-cones Free mix CD of all the bands if you come wearing a mustache, wear a clown costume or show up in other circus attire (for the first 100 people) Only $10to get in
August is going to be a spectacular month. Let me count the ways . . .
#1) Sunset Junction: August 22 and 23. Seeing Arrested Development will be worth the price of admission ($15/day in advance), but then there's also Local Natives, Nico Vega, The Submarines, Conor Oberst, Nico Stai, and Fool's Gold, among others.
#2) Local Natives Residency (especially the August 10 date). It's Local Natives' month; we're just living in it. They've got six LA shows this month: 5 Mondays at Spaceland and the first day of Sunset Junction.
#3) Rock 'N Roll Summer Circus at the Echoplex. This is going to be great. To start, it's Henry Clay's first "small" LA show since their April residency, but there's so much more. From THCP's myspace description:
w/ FOL CHEN, FLYING TOURBILLON ORCHESTRA, MARVELOUS TOY --- "Side Show Acoustic Performers": Damselles/TC4, Balloon Bass, Roadside Graves, Les Blanks, Downtown/Union, Oof Tarted, Banjo-vi, and Eli Monolator. Cotton Candy, Games (Skeeball!), Balloon Animals, Face Painting, Moustaches, Mimes, and MORE
Quickly, since I need to get back to work and it's not a huge week for shows.
Tuesday - Thursday: Art Brut at Spaceland. Nico Stai opens on Wednesday and Rumspringa (sorry, got them confused with Vanaprasta) opens on Thursday. I'll be in attendance on Thursday.
Saturday: Seasons and I Make This Sound at Mr. T's Bowl. I Make This Sound features the rhythm section of The Henry Clay People. Speaking of The Henry Clay People, they really need to play an LA show soon.
Halloween Jack also plays Spaceland, if travelling out to Highland Park isn't in the cards.
A lot of Henry Clay People news was made over the last two weeks, and Monday night was no exception. THCP are really going to make a run, and I don't see how it won't be successful. They signed with a new management company and are going to be playing Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits later this year. And supposedly there were "a lot of important people" at the show to check them out. On top of that, Joey and Andy quit their jobs on Monday and said they are starting a tour in Washington, D.C. this coming Monday without giving any more details. It turns out this tour is opening for Ben Harper and the Relentless 7. Great news.
Onto the show . . .
I was pleasantly surprised by Young Love's dance-rock. It's odd, though, that this is a band from the former frontman for Recover. But I suppose if Gabe Saporta can do it, so can Dan Reyes.
I was also surprised by The Flying Tourbillon Orchestra, who are now female-less. I thought they had replaced their departing female with another. I didn't stay long or pay close enough attention, but it sounded like their musical style had also changed towards more energetic, straight ahead indie rock.
As for The Henry Clay People, their set was a barnburner. I haven't been so entertained in a long time. It was the "covers" show that was supposed to happen last week, but I didn't bring my camera because I didn't know. I've learned my lesson. For photos taken by others, see here and here.
I knew something was up before their set when I saw extra mics on stage and Ross from The Broken West tuning a guitar. But I had no idea what was about to happen. THCP came on in full costume: hats, feather boas, velvet frocks, sunglasses. It was quite a spectacle. The Damselles, a local female doo-wop group, joined the band on stage for a most of the set and added a new dimension to both the originals and the covers. Adam from Fol Chen and Hunter from Flying Tourbillon also made appearances.
Covers included "Roll Away the Stone" "Proud Mary," and to close, of course, was "Honky Tonk Women." The band was very well prepared -- the covers sounded great; no sloppiness.
As for original Henry Clay songs, they played three brand new ones that they had only played during the residency, as well as the new classic "Working Part Time," which they played after announcing that they had quit their jobs.
In all, it's the end of the era of THCP as a "local band" (even if they were the best local band in LA), an era that I had the privilege of being part of for the past few months. Now the rest of the country will have the opportunity LA has enjoyed. They will be missed, of course.
Here's a video towards the beginning of that era: THCP playing "Fine Print" three years ago at the Echo.
Finally, Olin & The Moon's new album is available tomorrow. I'm not sure why it's being released on a Friday. They'll be touring with Leslie & the Badgers in June.
Another Monday night trip to Spaceland. By the third show I thought I'd have have Henry Clay fatigue. I didn't. Maybe it was because I hadn't been to a show in a week, but I was still looking forward to it. At the end of the day, knowing that once a week you can drive over to Spaceland and see The Henry Clay People for free is something to be thankful for, and it's something that may never happen again.
Supposedly this was going to be their covers show. Nope. They only played one cover, Tom Petty's Mary Jane's Last Dance, in honor of 4/20 (video clip below). But the music still wasn't stale, and I'm not sure it could ever be. It helped that they played three brand new songs, but "Working Part Time" was still great to hear. And the band seemed the happiest it had been during the residencies. Joey walked off the stage into the crowd and there was a lot of smiling and finger pointing, which is to be expected when you're playing amongst friends.
The Whip played right before HCP with their brand of disco rock. There's not much distinguishable about their brand. Their drummer, though, is one of the best female drummers I've seen. They started off with a couple of unimpressive instrumental songs. About 15 minutes into their set they left the stage claiming technical difficulties, but returned 10 minutes later. To make up for it they said that if anyone tweeted them they would put them on the list for their show the next night at Cinespace. By the end of their set I had warmed to them, but only slightly.
Adeline & The Philistines closed the show at midnight. I enjoyed the 5 or 6 songs I heard (especially "where the bees don't bite"); it's pleasant, toe-tapping, girl-fronted indie pop. Adeline kept on thanking people for staying, and after each song smiled and giggled a bit, as though she was impressed or surprised that they sounded so good and that people were applauding. It was endearing.
Looking forward to next Monday.
Here's two videos from the show, courtesy of my new camera (you may notice an extreme quality improvement, especially in HD).
Silversun Pickups' Swoon will debut at #5 on Billboard with about 48,000 first week sales. [UPDATE: Actually # 7. Hitsdailydouble misleading me again!]
The Henry Clay People are playing Lollapalooza. It will be their first major festival appearance.
The Harlem Shakes are touring with Passion Pit and will be in LA on May 28 (Troubadour) and 29 (Echoplex). Now you just have to choose which one.
Ran into Evan from Steel Train outside Spaceland. They're almost done recording their album and will be on tour after that, with California shows in late May.
Ben Hoste screen printed the HCP residency poster and is selling them at the shows.
I really like The World Record. Besides the songs, I especially liked how they started their midnight set 10 minutes early.
No line this time, but I did get there 45 minutes earlier than last week.
Last night was my 25th show of 2009, not including SXSW. How did that happen.
Don't ask questions. Just go. You're going to hate yourself one day if you miss this.
New songs ("Taste of the Tasteless" tonight and I'm sure "End of the Empire" will make an appearance next week) and newer songs (one brand new song each night)
Covers. The third show (April 20) is devoted to covers.
"Old" favorites ("Working Part Time," "This Ain't a Scene," "Andy Sings")
Destroying equipment by accident. Joey knocked over Jordan's (of Marvelous Toy) keyboard not once, but twice. The first fall killed it, the second time was just hilarious. Joey appeared to trip in the middle of the stage and tumble over, and then the keyboard fell over in almost slow motion.
They'll soon be too big for Spaceland, if they aren't already.
Waited on line 30 minutes for a 40 minute set and it was still worth it. Looking forward to getting there next week a little earlier. For some mediocre quality videos from the show, check out CER's YouTube page.
Went to the Silverlake Lounge to see the Local Natives on December 8, 2008 and fell into the local LA scene. Started my blog on February 21, 2009 to keep track of it all.
ChanceEncounterRecords@gmail.com
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