Los Angeles Music Blog

[Tonight is the opening of the L.A. Philharmonic's West Coast, Left Coast events that run through December 8. Rounding up our series of exclusive interviews with musicians who will be playing at WCLC (see also our chats with Terry Riley and Matmos), here's the LA Weekly's John Payne talking to David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet and Mike Einziger from Incubus.]

David Harrington

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Mike Einziger

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It was a shambolic, funky night at the Echo.

This is what was supposed to happen: Stones Throw had arranged a shindig for the release of Toechizown, the new album by DâM Funk, LA's self-procclaimed [see comment below] "Ambassador of Boogie Funk."

Mr. Funk was supposed to have gone up at 11, after an announced bill that included sultry underground soul songstress Jimi James, Detroit's turntablist Kyle Hall, and a set by DâM's side-project (or is it main project?) Master Blazter.

It didn't quite work out like that.

Gustavo Turner

DâM Funk and Master Blazter

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A. J. Farkas

Matmos

​Matmos is taking part in the LA Phil's West Coast, Left Coast events at Disney Hall on November 21, alongside and in collaboration with Terry Riley, the Kronos Quartet; Incubus guitarist/composer Mike Einziger also premieres a piece that night. We gabbed on the phone with Matmos' Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt to get the lowdown on this thing called a West Coast sound...

Drew Daniel: I'm always very reluctant to sum up California, because when you do that there's gonna be aspects of it that you're gonna leave out of the narrative. And if you invoke something like the Frontier, it's kind of cliché at this point. Yet I still remember when I was making decision, Where do I want to go to college? Do I want to go to Ohio or California? Little closeted me associated California with freedom and independence, and San Francisco in particular with experimentation. It's because in the sequence from the '50s to the '60s to the '70s there was always a radical set of communities in literature, in music, in sexuality, that was based here.

M.C. Schmidt: There.

Drew: Yeah, sorry, I should say there, because now I live in Maryland. Martin was born in California, so I think he comes by it more honestly.

LA Weekly: Is there anything characteristically Californian about your attitude toward making music and the way you work?

For those curious about the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra that has produced the likes of Gustavo Dudamel, Alberto Arvelo's documentary Tocar y Luchar screens tonight at Long Beach's Museum of Latin American Art.

Venezuelan Youth Orchestra "Mambo"

Legendary composer-performer Terry Riley is the creator of such groundbreaking "Minimalist" works as In C, A Rainbow In Curved Air, Poppy Nogood and, with the Kronos Quartet, decidedly un-Minimalist works as Cadenza on the Night Plain and Salome Dances for Peace.

He'll perform solo and in collaboration with Kronos and Matmos at the November 21 opening night of the L.A. Philharmonic's West Coast, Left Coast events that run through December 8. Riley talks here about the origins of his music, where it's going and what he expects to find there...

​L.A. WEEKLY: Given the theme of the "Left Coast" events at Disney Hall -- that there is something about West Coast composers that might indicate a different way of thinking about music and art -- how do you see yourself fitting into that?

TERRY RILEY: I guess I fit in as well as anybody. I was born up in the Sierra Nevada foothills, where I live now. I've lived all my life in California, and worked here, and whenever I go anywhere and do anything, that's what I'm known as. I don't think there's a stylistic link between all the people who live on the West Coast, but I think what this festival does is put everybody out there and let the audience decide themselves if there's any common thread going through it all.

View more photos in Timothy Norris' "Snoop Dogg, DJ Quick @ Club Nokia" slideshow.

Jay-z once said, "Rap is a young man's game... you gotta have a plan for when it's over." Nice words, Hova, but for quintessential West Coast rapper Snoop Dogg the game goes on. At D-O-double-G's performance at the Club Nokia, the prototypical West Coast rapper dropped his classic cuts, old school covers, and hosted a cameo cavalcade that wasn't just a rap show: it was Snoop Dogg's Variety Hour.

Timothy Norris

Snoop: Paid Da Cost To Wear Da Onesie

​There was the Tupac tribute, the choreographed dancers dropping it like it was hot, and throwback collaborations featuring Lady of Rage, Xxibit, and hip hop pioneer Too $hort. Snoop wielded his greatest hits, "Gin and Juice," "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang," "Who Am I (Whats My Name)," and some new tracks from his upcoming release, "Malice in Wonderland." The crowd exploded for the classics, rapping along as if everyone had pocketfuls of rubbers.

But make no mistake, this isn't the Snoop of the Doggystyle era.

West Coast Sound's Daiana Feuer has apparently been moonlighting as too-hip location scout! She writes:

These tUnE-yArdS videos were released today by Dublab for their Vision Version series. They take bands and shoot them in unique L.A. spots. tUnE-yArdS was shot at the Echo Park Time Travel Mart. Yes, it really is a store that only sells time traveling materials.**

Eli Stoneberg directed these, and I actually suggested the location!

** [ Ed.'s note: This so-called Time Travel Mart seems to be a suspicious front for a different kind of outfit.]

Enjoy!

tUnE-yArDs "Hatari" from dublab on Vimeo.

(Second video, after the jump.)

Liz Ohanesian

​In the Adult Swim series Metalocalypse, which recently began its third season by moving from a fifteen-minute spot to a half-hour one, Dethklok is so huge that they've spawned an economy larger than that of most countries, so famous that fans will do anything for them. While the live Dethklok, fronted by show creator Brendon Small, isn't quite so massive (nor does it's music drive fans to an epic demise), there's no denying that this band is adored. When WCS's Gustavo Turner spotted the line for last night's sold-out Palladium show early yesterday afternoon, we were impressed by the devotion.

The shrieking washed through Avalon in a solid wave of 14 year-old girls wearing short dresses from Forever 21 and boys whose bright sneakers gleamed in the darkness like the eyes of ghosts trailing sparkly wallet chains.

Chris Brown's Fan Appreciation show last Wednesday was morally tormenting. I wanted to "Run it Run it" on the dancefloor as I have in my car, but I worried about the kids. Avalon was packed. Why were they here?!? The children are our future, and I wanted America to punish him and teach them a lesson. Instead, the human capacity for compassion (or corporate desire for $$$) enabled these kids to forgive Brown, for booty shaking's sake at least.

Timothy Norris

Chris Brown...

​"People make mistakes," a ninth grader told me in the bathroom. "And he's a great performer," said her little sister, smoothing on lipgloss.

Timothy Norris

...and his Appreciating Fans

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Pablove Foundation's Jeff Castelaz and Lance Armstrong

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Here at West Coast Sound, we have been following the cross country bike ride of Jeff Castelaz, co-founder of Dangerbird Records. Castelaz took off on this trek to gain support for the Pablove Foundation, which aims to raise awareness of childhood cancer. Castelaz's 6-year old son, Pablo died of cancer earlier this year. On Saturday, as Castelaz rolls into town, he invites cyclists and ordinary people to make the final leg of the journey with him. More than 300 riders are expected to join him on the 51 mile ride from Long Beach to LA, which will culminate in a concert featuring Band of Horses, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and Sea Wolf.

(Info on joining the ride after the jump.)