News Roundup: Dam-Funk + Slave, Jim Henson + Beat Music?!, Radiohead Donor Revealed, Trip-Out Tuesday, ASKA + Flea + Spike Jonze

Quick bloggy bits* from around the L.A. underground (and up).

Durlin Lurt's 'Him Jenson'

  1. ‘Him Jenson’ Releases Wild Muppets Mixtape [MP3s]
  2. Dâm-Funk Making LPs w/ Steve Arrington, Nite Jewel [MP3]
  3. Trip-Out Tuesday: Psychedelic Visions from Red Sparowes
  4. And The Top Radiohead Benefit Donor Is… Dangerbird?
  5. ASKA of Moonrats Collaborates Flea, Spike Jonze
  6. (all stories via West Coast Sound, via LA Weekly)

*If you like it, then you better put a tweet on it.

Trip-Out Tuesday: Psychedelic Visions from Red Sparowes

LA Upcoming: Do Make Say Think, Wale, Prefuse 73 + Gaslamp Killer + VOICEsVOICEs

A short list of recommended L.A.-area shows for the coming week (plus videos for instant gratification). Click “details” for descriptions.

  • Region: West Hollywood
    Music: Do Make Say Think, Happiness Project, Years
    Vitals: The Troubadour on Monday, February 1
    (details at LA Weekly)
  • Region: Sunset Strip
    Music: Wale, Chiddy Bang, Audible Mainframe…
    Vitals:
    The Roxy on Tuesday, February 2
    (details at LA Weekly)
  • Region: West Hollywood
    Music: Prefuse 73, The Gaslamp Killer, VOICEsVOICEs
    Vitals:
    The Troubadour on Wednesday, February 3
    (details at LA Weekly)

Review: Beach House, ‘Teen Dream’

Beach House, Teen Dream (Sub Pop)

Beach House

Beach House, 'Teen Dream'

In 2008, Devotion removed some of the molasses, uncovering a handful of sing-along moments and a whole lot more fans, thus paving the way for Teen Dream’s Sub Pop release. Beach House is still a duo. That duo still lilts through its haze. That haze is still gorgeous as all get-out. So what’s changed?

Grade: A- (via The A.V. Club)

Live In LA: Radiohead Perform Haiti Benefit

And then there was this. On Thursday, the news traveled like wildfire across the dry digi-field that is the interwebs: greatest band in the world (why not?) Radiohead was to throw an impromptu Oxfam benefit raising money for Haiti’s recovery at a 1300-person theater in L.A. As one reporter pointed out, the band typically sells out multiple nights at the Hollywood Bowl, capacity 18,000. Covering for Spin, I bumped into Britt Daniel (Spoon) and Eric Wareheim (Tim & Eric) in line outside of the Fonda, but neither that nor a face-to-face with J. Timberlake (also in attendance) could have been more thrilling than hearing nearly half of OK Computer performed live. Read about it.

Thommy and Jonny, shot by Tim Norris

*The photo comes courtesy of LA Weekly shutterbug Timothy Norris. Music editor Randall Roberts wrote a great review of the show as well, which you should read, here.

Live In LA: Cold War Kids Start Mini Tour

So despite what you’ve heard, Radiohead wasn’t the only band to play a show in L.A. over the weekend. Cold War Kids kicked off a mini tour behind its new EP, Behave Yourself, with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah frontdude Alec Ounsworth opening. In a world where artistic chutzpah makes the calls, that lineup would have been reversed, but alas, that is not the world that we live in. Read about the show here, on Spin.

A Cold War Kid, shot by Andrew Herrold

News Roundup: Mars Volta At The Movies, Madlib Flips Wig, MMC Are Only ‘Partially Smart’, Manimal Signs New Artist, and… Boobies!

Quick bloggy bits* from around the L.A. underground (and up).

  1. Mars Volta Ax-man Makes Directorial Debut
  2. Madlib To Kick Off Album-A-Month Series [MP3]
  3. Watch: Meanest Man Contest, “Partially Smart” [MP3]
  4. Tearist Signs To Manimal, Delivers Exclusive MP3
  5. Seven Saturdays Releases Creepy NSFW Video, MP3
  6. (all stories via West Coast Sound, via LA Weekly)

*If you like it, then you better put a tweet on it.

LA Upcoming: Sun Araw, Airborne Toxic Event

A short list of recommended L.A.-area shows for the coming week (plus videos for instant gratification). Click “details” for descriptions.

  • Region: Echo Park
    Music: Sun Araw, David Scott Stone, Vaginals + Talibam!
    Vitals: Echo Curio on Monday, January 25
    (details at LA Weekly)
  • Region: West Hollywood
    Music: The Airborne Toxic Event + Aushua
    Vitals:
    The Troubadour on Wednesday, January 27
    (details at LA Weekly)

Apocalyptic Urban Visions: E-40, Gil-Scott Heron

No words for this.

I had no words for this, but a second video tip-off from the Pedestrian, a.k.a. the good evangelist J.B. Best (check out the first two tracks on the Lala player, screen right), revealed a second gem in addition to the incredible new E-40 video. Eerily similar in its visual theme is the just-released clip from spoken word heavyweight Gil-Scott Heron. Two of the hip-hop’s biggest DNA-providers crossing paths in the night.

INCHES revs Sunn O))), Flying Lotus + House Shoes, Russian Circles, Langley Sisters [MP3s]

A brand new installment of L.A.’s taste-making vinyl column, INCHES, has officially dropped. New and recent, some deluxe, wax releases from doom kings Sunn O))), Low End Theory figurehead Flying Lotus, Detroit producer House Shoes, Chicago post-metalleers Russian Circles, and Britain’s old fashioned Langley Sisters. MP3s, photography, reviews.

Behold, the first release to earn a space-swallowing vertical shot:

Sunn O))), "Monoliths & Dimensions"