L.A. Snaps
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Artist:
As summer creeps up on us, the warmer weather is futzing up the Los Angeles air which, by day, can take on an ominous haze. But the nighttimes are still vibrant and sweet, and it's easy to fall in love with this place.
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Even a late Sunday afternoon-into-evening can ring melodious, especially during an installment of the Grand Ole Echo - a weekly free concert series that starts in the spring and continues throughout the summer until the fall at the Echo nightclub. A feast of Americana music from various local artists and the occasional wandering troubadour, the Grand Ole Echo runs from 5-8 PM on Sundays, and also features a barbecue and a busker playing down-home tunes on guitar in the fenced-off alley behind the club. A few weeks ago, the bill was bountiful: two of my favorite local outfits - Old Californio and the Paul Chesne Band - and a feisty, tuneful opening set from The Believers. This Sunday looms as another winner, with Groovy Rednecks, The Cheatin' Kind, Robert Black and Paul Inman for your delectation.
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Bernie Larsen
Yesterday evening, I was back at Genghis Cohen for the regular Wednesday night jam with the Song & Dance Society. There are only two more Wednesdays to go before an early summer break as a number of the usual suspects go out on tour as members of Jackson Browne's back-up band. In addition to the usual greatness, I must make note of an amazing, reggae-flavored cover of the Temptations' timeless hit "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" by easy-going, soul-soothing singer-guitarist Bernie Larsen, backed by keyboardist/bandleader Jeff Young and the omnipresent Celia Chavez on back-up vocals and featuring a couple of the most hair-raising solos imaginable by twin lead guitarists Mark Goldenberg and David Kalish. People are usually pretty enthusiastic at Genghis, but this number generated a standing ovation. To add to the glory, tawny supple-voiced Laura Jane Jones followed this and turned up the heat with a gymnastically jazzy rendition of "When I Fall in Love" - a song often identified with Nat King Cole - and made it her own. And that was just a small portion of the gig.
Laura Jane Jones
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New clubs pop up with stunning regularity, as others fall by the wayside. One of the latest is My Studio on Hollywood Blvd., a few doors down from the legendary Tinsel Town restaurant Musso & Frank. Dropped by there last week for a beverage and a blast of sound and found myself in the VIP area with the lovely and adept DJ Emma Ford as, a few seats away, comedian Tom Green chatted with a seemingly lucid but wary actor/rapper Joaquin Phoenix, and a Russian model did a modified hoochie-coochie dance in front of actor/screenwriter Sasha Baron Cohen (no relation to Genghis). His alter egos Borat, Ali G and Bruno might have been excited or alarmed, but Sasha appeared unflappable. Meanwhile, Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" drove the young, the hot, and the callow into a dance-floor frenzy. New club. Same old same-old. In other words, business as usual.
Old Californio - "Joseph Campbell" (Live at the Hella Hipster Hoedown)
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Comments (10)
i wish you could quote the Tom Green/Joaquin Phoenix conversation. if it hadn't happened first my bet is that they would have been talking about the jam on Bernie's version of "Papa". that was some of the most blistering guitar work i've seen in a long time and i was the first one standing after the major "re-invention". glad you saw it. i don't think even Joaquin could describe it properly.
your "business as usual" is anything but the usual. there's something elegantly funny about describing Joaquin Phoenix as "wary actor/rapper". i still love him in-- To Die For, was it called?
actor/rapper............I have to say that made me laugh a little out loud
Robin: I can not violate any confidences regarding overheard conversations, but I can attest that Mark and David were running a clinic on that number. Blistering? To say the least.
poeby: And to take it all a bit further, I was in my local cafe this afternoon and who should stroll in and sit at the table next to mine but Joaquin's costar from "To Die For," the dead-sexy Illeana Douglas. Oh, Hollywood! You complete me.
Rawk: That's what he'd call himself. I guess I should've put rapper in quote marks.
actor/rapper/beard grower. He does one of these very well.
I fancy him a good actor, Jonh. Speaking of fancy, how are you liking the latest dispatches from Who-ville?
Well there's a red-haired temptress I'm fancying a lot. But why is the fiancee such a nebbish? It dsitracts, because first of all he's just wasting space and time [*cymbal crash*] on the screen and I'm always wondering what she sees in him. The stories are still looking good and I do like Mr. Smith's interpretation. BTW, it may be my gammy brain but I swear I saw a poster for Dr. Who On Ice.
PS: Joaquin also grows an impressive hedge on his chin. The little multi-tasker.
Jonh: Don't know if it's on ice, but there's def a stage show being mounted in the U.K. (BTW, I'm kinda okay with Rory, especially since he's not stupid, he creates a bit of tension and may very well be more integral to this series arc than, say, Mickey was to previous ones.)
I saw a huge poster for the live DW (as it's been snappily "rebranded") yesterday. Sadly it's not on ice. But it will be.
That's cold, Jonh.