Above: Monsters Are Waiting's lead creature, Annalee. The Oohlas also played the sold out concert. Click the link to see Timothy Norris' full slideshow of pictures from the evening.

Tokyo Police Club and Dappled Cities
The Troubadour, July 25, 2007
Better than: Holding off ‘til the full length release.
By: Courtney Lear

One day I’ll learn that it’s not “cool” to show up early for a show. But last night at the Troubadour my nerdy diligence was rewarded by discovering Sydney rockers Dappled Cities who opened for Tokyo Police Club. Echoing the Shins’ sound and employing the prog-rock conventions of Wolfmother, the fast-paced, experimental pop quintet filled the stage with their presence. Vocalist/guitarist Tim Derricourt sang in split personalities, guttural growls led to high-pitched caws and coos in the same breath, matching vocalist/guitarist Dave Rennick’s falsetto in harmonious complicity.
The last song unveiled the power of their progressive rock undertones while whimsical keyboards danced circles around furiously chugging guitars and driving percussion that built to frenzy.

Their raucous performance put energy in the air and set high expectations for who the crowd really came to see, Tokyo Police Club. The short seven tracks on the Ontario natives’ EP A Lesson in Crime are post-punk, angst driven, sound bites. Driven by sporadic guitars and pulsating urgency, their danceable garage rock has been compared to the Strokes. They opened with lead singer/bassist Dave Monks screaming through a fog of distortion, “Operator! Get me the president of the world. This is an emergency,” the intro for “Cheer It On.”

Editors
Jimmy Kimmel Live! July 25, 2007
By Timothy Norris

OK, so we’ve all heard about it and Jimmy’s Green Room really is the best. I was just surprised that I actually knew some of the folks down there tonight. Well, I knew Juli C. and Kevin B. and even a few other familiar faces from around the block. Just like a regular visit to Romper Room for young Timmy. Yeah, I see you too! But let’s not forget what brought all us kids together tonight; that would be Editors jumping out in support of their latest release An End Has A Start.

Photo by Timothy Norris. Click here for a slideshow of more from Editors.

The lads from Birmingham, England ripped through an abbreviated set on the outside stage at Jimmy Kimmel that consisted mostly of material from the new record with the exception of "Munich" from their debut full length The Back Room. While the sound of An End is not a huge departure from Back Room, it certainly shows maturity in both sonic adventure and lyrical content allowing the band to weave the set together with ease. Opening with the title track "An End Has A Start" followed by "Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors" (of which both aired) the band ignited the stage in a fury led by front man Tom Smith and his seemingly uncontrolled on stage antics. At one point during the set he lost his guitar strap and found himself restricted until a stagehand came to his aid. Though like the great John Lee Hooker once said, “If the boy’s got it in him, he’s got to get it out! So let’s boogie!” And boogie they did, or something like it, until the end which saw Tom scurrying off stage dragging the mic stand in a fit of passion straight past Jimmy up the ramp to the dressing room. Following closely were bands mates Russell Leetch (Bass), Chris Urbanowicz (Guitar) and Edward Lay (Drums) shaking hands and kissing babies. Well, shaking hands anyway.

With that I was on my way back to the green room for the proverbial post show cocktail. I chose a Molsen for the funny sayings they have on the bottles, only I didn’t bother to read what mine said. I was already all smiles anyway what all the new friends I’d found today.

The Rapture
July 25, 2007
The Mayan
By Jonah Flicker

If you haven’t yet experienced the phenomenon of people walk-dancing, apparently the best place to witness this is at a Rapture show. Here’s how it goes down: guy in awfully tight pants and girl in white one-piece from the ‘80s enter bar area, dancing while they walk. No, they can’t wait to find a stationary position to begin their spastic maneuvers. It’s the Rapture, for Christ’s sake. If nothing else, this is a dance band, albeit one with all the requisite rock band clichés and poses (guitar up, big smile to the crowd… and solo!).

Photos by Jonah Flicker

This is also an incredibly tight band comprised of musicians whose skills become much more evident onstage than on record. They also surprisingly, refreshingly have an air of normal-guy dorkiness about them. But it’s a snake swallowing its own tail: they’re so uncool that it’s cool, which is kind of uncool, which is ironically cool, and so on and so forth.

The Birmingham band played a short, sweet set on the outside stage for the Kimmel show. Click here to see all of Timothy Norris' photos. The Editors return to LA on September 24 for a concert at the Wiltern.

The Cobrasnake was at the Daft Punk show at the Sports Arena on Saturday, July 21.

Click here for a slideshow of more from the concert, as well as a trip to the water park.

Slint
Henry Fonda Theatre, July 23
By Randall Roberts

The tension between the dweebs and the rockers was palpable last night at the Henry Fonda Theatre. The dweebs, giddy at the opportunity to hear Louisville band Slint perform its wuss-rock classic, Spiderland, in its entirety, stood in silent reverence as the band sauntered onto stage, picked up their instruments and launched into a pitch-perfect rendition of “Breadcrumb,” the soft, lilting opener to the 13-year-old album.

Photo by Randall Roberts

The boys snuggled with their girls, bobbled their heads in time with the music, and strained to hear exactly what lead-mumbler Brian McMahan was muttering into the microphone. All was well in the world: silence beget more silence, and every harmonic tone floated into the crowd as though launched with wings. As the first song closed, the band received an enthusiastic but measured appreciation, and then more silence. It felt like we were at a Philharmonic world premiere. Song number two, “Nosferatu Man,” received a similar, awed response.

Femi Kuti
House of Blues, July 20
By Matthew Fleischer

Half-way through Femi Kuti’s first song of the night, the powerful “Truth Don Die,” a strange realization hit me -- Femi’s wearing Tevas. For some reason, seeing the heir to a revolutionary musical legacy, and a virtual legend himself, in Tevas struck me as eminently amusing and I spent the next few minutes devising marketing strategies for the Teva Corporation.

“Tevas – 1 out 6 African revolutionaries agree – it’s the footwear of the future.”

I eventually got over it though, and for the next two hours witnessed the afro-beat superstar take turns blasting though several lengthy post-bop inspired sax solos, singing in his breathy, staccato tenor, playing funky keyboard and miraculously flailing across all parts of the stage like an ADD problem child hopped up on pixie stix.

But despite the multi-talented Femi’s charisma and energy, I can’t say unequivocally that he was the star of his own show. Accompanying him on stage were three stunning, female Nigerian dancers, who unabashedly shook their asses in ways a mere pale-faced mortal like myself never thought possible. In what appeared to be a breach of the space-time continuum, one of the girls seemed to be able to stay on the beat with her left cheek and go double-time with her right. (Go ahead and try that at home – I dare you.) Femi may have spent half his set healing lepers for all I know -- I found it nearly impossible to take my eyes off the gyrations. I wasn’t the only one.

Photos by Matthew Fleischer and Mel Schwartz

The Village Voice's Siren Music Festival took place over the weekend with performances from M.I.A., New York Dolls, Elvis Perkins, The Black Lips and a lot more. Click here to visit the Voice's music blog Sound of the City and read more about it. Or go straight to all the photos.

M.I.A. actually stops her set to put on lipstick. Seriously.

Photo by Rebecca Smeyne

Sonic Youth
Urban Outfitters, Santa Monica
July 21, 2007
By Jonah Flicker
Better Than: Dinosaur Jr. playing at Anthropologie
Download: Sonic Youth Archives

Walking through Santa Monica’s 3rd Street Promenade mall, on my way to see Sonic Youth perform at Urban Outfitters , sponsored by Toyota’s Free Yr Radio campaign in support of KXLU… this shit’s enough to make your head spin. Corporate American commercialism shoring up LA’s bastion of indie/college radio and one of the best bands ever to arise from the NYC post-punk/no-wave/art scene undoubtedly equals big bucks for SY. As Henry Rollins recently expounded upon on his IFC show, bands like this deserve the cash and the exposure they’re getting by placing songs in ads, but it’s more than a little disconcerting to hear the KXLU program director shilling for Yaris while introducing the show (“Sign up for the giveaway! They’re really cool!”) Anyway, it’s Sonic Youth, I’m pissed because I missed their performance of Daydream Nation at the Greek the night before, and it’s a free concert for the kids lucky to show up early enough to snag wristbands.