Johnathan Rice is an interesting fellow. I met him for the first time at coachella, riding a van that magically snuck us past all of the lines (if only LA traffic could work that way... I guess that's why there are helicopters?). He was so quiet but composed. On his arm was his then and current lady-friend Jenny Lewis from the band Rilo Kiley.... Little did I know that months later, we'd be making a recording with both Jenny and Jonathan at the Echo. Although none of the tracks with Jenny made it to our release, the spirit of the album is in tact!
The concept that Johnathan came up with for the night was called FOLK YOURSELF_an acoustic evening with Johnathan Rice. It was him, Jenny, and several other locals in rocking with hollow guitars. It was hot and packed that night! The folks that were lucky enough to be there would attest that it was well worth the heat. the show was really special.
So, you may ask "Why Johnathan as the download this week?" Well, our buddy is finishing out a tour with another beautiful former saddle creek artist named Maria Taylor friday (tomorrow) night at the echoplex. This talented you lady has been paired with Bright Eyes in the past.... quite a talented pool that they all swim in, huh?
If you're in the buying mood, check this album out in our new store and let us know what you think. Type in RCRDLBL as the coupon code when you're checking out and get a 66.4% discount on our already really cheap prices. Basically makes this album only $1.45 and almost all of our others $2.... some of our albums like the Thermals have over 20 tracks on it! The idea is we know that there may be some bugs in the store and we figure that a big discount is the best way to even things out for you.
PART TIME PUNKS is the name of a club that takes The Echo every Sunday night. The club was started by Michael Stock and Benjamin White-who not only DJ the night, but also promote it, book the bands, project the visuals along with Samuel Cooper (the short films of Kenneth Anger, Oskar Fischinger, Stan Brakhage and Derek Jarman fit in neatly with old skateboard videos, Dogs In Space, The Great Rock and Roll Swindle, Blank Generation, old band videos/documentaries and Jan Svankmeier's Alice).
The night focuses heavily on obscure and classic music coming out of America, the UK and Europe in 1978 to the present: Punk, Post-punk, Punk-funk, New Wave, No Wave, Hardcore, Indie-Pop, Twee, Grunge, Electro, Minimal-Synth, Shoegaze, Baggy, etc. Not only in the form of the music being played for the dance floor, but also the bands that are booked to play. Mostly up-and-coming and unsigned (from LA and NYC); all of whom are draw their influences from the creative pool.
The purpose of PART TIME PUNKS is to promote an inclusive atmosphere where you can go to hear and dance to amazing music that you may or may not have already heard...a place for people who're looking for something more substantial in their party music. aesthetics over attitude, substance over style. PART TIME PUNKS...and don't the kids just love it?
...alright. now that you know what PTP is all about, on to why I put that in the post. So, Ben (one of the PTP guys) is in a band called the Soft Boiled Eggies. Sort of the PTP resident band. Ben is in the band, Janet Kim sings and plays keyboards. They have a rotating cast of Echo Park friends. On this album, one of the Echo's sound guys Scott Cornish is playing drums. The band is what some would call "arty" and much like PTP its "arty" but totally dancable. Almost like Joy Division or something....
They're doing a tour soon which includes a stop at La Cita. PTP has a Punky Reggae night there tomorrow. I once stopped at La Cita after Lucha Va Voom on Valentines day with my girlfriend. We danced all night in mexican wrestling masks... amazing night. See link to get a little context. Lucha Va Voom is basically my childhood dream put on by Tim Husom... manager of Ladytron and Great Northern, among others.
So, check out this download from an early Soft Boiled Eggies show. The night was also the 2nd anniversary of Part Time Punks. Really fun night.
PS: Saw the new Batman movie earlier this week. HOLY SHIT. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good. That dude that plays the joker that killed himself is fucking amazing. I didn't really know much about him til he passed but man-o-man. He is really really really good. I love the Jack Nicholson Joker a lot and I gotta say, the new Joker is even better.
Die! Die! Die! is one of those bands that other bands wishes that they were. Though they're technically from New Zealand, at this point, they don't really live anywhere. They're ALWAYS touring and when we recorded this show, Andrew (main singer dude) had just broken his wrist or something because he was just rocking so fucking hard the night before... it didn't stop him from killing it at the echo when we recorded this. Enough said. they rock. check out the download of "Blue Skies" below. give them money when they play your town.
It was long ago... when we record a long time Spaceland friend Patrick Park. This show was opening up for his friend and sometimes tennis competitor Alex. Alex was the resident that month at Spaceland for his new project Sea Wolf [see our last post about Sea Wolf/Irving/The Afternoons]. Today [Thursday, June 19th, 2008] he's playing with Alex again at another one of our clubs the Echoplex... Full circle, eh?
the free download of "Life's a Song" was recorded at this show. It had been a while since Patrick had played the club. Most of the songs on this record hadn't ever been release before. For his fans, it was a well appreciated gift!
So there's this band in Silverlake called Irving. They've been around for a while. Kind of like the city council of the music scene out here. Everyone knows 'em and likes 'em. We did a live record with them last year and it turned out to be their last Spaceland show as the band as it was. Turns out Alex the bass player had been working on his own project called Sea Wolf and it got to the point where he wasn't able to do both. Everyone supportively agreed that Alex doing Sea Wolf full-time was the best thing to do for everyone. They're all still great friends and I wouldn't be surprised if a reunion happened at some point in the future.... From all that that Irving decided to for a new band called The Afternoons.
The Afternoons= Irving-Alex+Tom Biller+Operatic Singer(Claire)+2nd drummer(Sam)
They just played their first night of the Spaceland Monday Night Residency (FREE, drink specials, rad band, good people) and it was pretty damn amazing. They'll be playing every Monday for the rest of June (4 more!). We're gonna be recording one of these nights too. For those of you who don't know Tom, he's worked as the right hand man of Jon Brion. He also happened to work on the Irving Covers EP that we put out as well.
For your enjoyment and to give you an idea how very good this band is, check out the download below.
We especially love to work with our "local" bands. Rademacher is uniquely "local" in that they're really from Fresno (3-4 hours away from LA!) and somehow motivate to play on what seems like a weekly basis at one of our clubs. Good peeps. On their shit, too!
below is something from what most would call the "leader" of the band Michael is modest, at best, about his music. Check out what he had to say about the live record we did with 'em. Download the track. It will make you happy.
FROM: Mike of Rademacher
It is really nice when someone asks you to do something for them that you enjoy doing. Not like, “can you help me move,” or “what do you know about computers?” sort of shit.
So we were pretty excited when our friends at Spaceland asked us if they could record the Record Release Show we had booked at the Echo in LA -- and then to take that live recording and make a record out of it. Does that make sense? I thought it was a very “meta” move for us to record the release party to make a record out of it. I guess, I mean, I thought it was kinda “arty” or something. The show was a pretty big deal at the time too ( our first record ) so we decided to bring our friend Kim Haden (from the LA band Light FM) on board to play keys with us on some tunes. So the band is Rademacher + Kim. We don’t usually get to tour with a keyboard player because we don’t have enough room in the van... we don’t want to get a bigger van ‘cause gas is really, really expensive!
The recording has been out a few months and my friends who have bought it have given me really nice compliments.
So. Yeah. Now we have OUR live record and some people like it. It sounds like us. Listen!
Liam Finn, son of Neil Finn of Crowded House, is one of those artists where because of his lineage some in Silverlake (including myself) can be a little skeptical of our little bearded dude. Through your good friend Brady at KUFALA we heard his inspired album "I'll Be Lightening" and gave Liam his first ever solo show in LA as the first of 4 bands on a free night... Maybe 30 people were there but one of them was me recording what turned out to be quite an historic show for the club and for Liam. As you'll here in this FREE download of Second Chance, homie rocks and rocks it solo. Here those drums and guitars and layered vocals. That's all Liam, by himself... LIVE! He's really a genuine guy and so fucking talented.
Also at that show, in the audience was his current label Yep Roc who signed him and released "I'll Be Lightening" [click to buy] this year and apparently Eddie Vedder heard our recording and decided that Liam had Juice to make it happen on tour with him.
Here's a track from one of my favorite bands. They're pretty new, just really starting to play out. Haven't really gone far out of California much. They're from the SF bay area... remind me of all of the good things about the band Television. Great musicians. Seriously, good stuff. I got Corey in the band to talk a bit about the show and what they think of playing our fine establishment. We even made a video with our good friend Michael on this one. Enjoy.
We've probably played The Echo in Los Angeles more times than any other venue in the world. And everytime it has been as a part of the Part Time Punks night. It's a night where they play the kind of records that we like to listen to back home in San Francisco. Mccarthy, Another Sunny Day, Pylon, Felt, Orange Juice, and The Feelies. Also notable about that night was an interview where a guy asked us our names and what position we play. Just like a real sports team! [Check out the video below]
I don't remember a whole lot about playing the show itself. But I definitely remember hearing it played back for the first time. It was great to hear how our new material stacked up next to our older songs.
On a whole I think it's a great album. And it's nice to hear the parts where we mess up. In fact, I think my guitar is missing from an entire verse of "Millions of People.." when Phil kicked my tuning pedal across the stage and unplugged it from the amp. But it gives the record a certain charm that a studio record could never duplicate.
...from our favorite gingers. Evan's the singer/songwriter. his sis plays keys and sings. his wife plays drums and sings then a rotating cast of friends around them... the are really the nicest people you'll ever meet.
Hey, all. What a year this has been!
In November of last year, we sat around as a band and talked about the goals for the next year – releasing a new EP on our own, trying to get the Spaceland residency at some point, getting out on the road more. These were just a few of the things that we discussed. Well, fast forward to April of 2008: we started out the year by playing the Spaceland residency. We have already made quite a few trips out of town for shows, and have more in store. And next month we are releasing the new EP! That’s a busy 4 months!
The residency at Spaceland was everything we imagined it could be and more. It was a month of getting to play to a great audience of friends/fans, and a month of getting to play WITH and watch some of our personal favorite bands. It was really like a party every Monday night. Can’t beat that, can you? Some of my favorite moments were watching our friends bands – bands like Light FM, The Monolators, Flashing Red Lights, and Everest – play INCREDIBLE sets. Those were moments where you realize exactly who you’re surrounded by, and the sheer talent level that is all around you. That made it even MORE of an honor to play for all these people, and made it feel all the more special when they responded with such enthusiasm.
Spaceland Recordings made a live album out of our last performance of the month – January 28th, 2008. They recorded all the songs, the whole set, in all its glory. There is a moment captured on that recording that you can hear, if you listen close – a really special thing to me. I didn’t even really notice it until listening back to the recordings. Our encore song of the set was a tune called “Mossback”, which is off of our first full length. It’s a fun dance-y number. It ends with a bang, and a chorus of harmonized “ooh-la-la-la”s. When you listen to the closing section of this song, you can make out that a whole bunch of the audience was ooh-la-la-ing right along with us. It sounds great! It is a sound that can’t be achieved with just a band, playing to itself in a practice space, or in a recording studio. That is the sound of a band and an audience not only connecting, but joining together, and having fun TOGETHER. We weren’t just showing them a good time, and they weren’t just showing US a good time. It was a shared thing, it was mutual. And it is easily my favorite thing about listening to that show now – just hearing a mutual exchange between audience and band, and feeling the real energy of that show. It was an amazingly sweet way to end an amazingly sweet month.
As for the EP – we began recording some material for it in December. We recorded two songs right before Christmas, one of which ended up on the EP (“Got It All”). After our residency in January, we pretty much spent all our free time, and all our time that we normally spent playing shows, either at The Boat Studios, or at David Swensen’s apartment (David is our bass player, and also produced the record), recording various things for the record. This was our first time really doing EVERYTHING ourselves – from engineering, to producing, to album art … it is quite a labor of love. We are really really proud of how it has turned out. Because it was all on us, and because we were so invested in it, we really feel it turned out to be something special – something that really sounds like a lot of effort and pride was put into making it. We worked hard to get the sounds we wanted on the record, and David spent hours upon days mixing it, until we really felt it was layered right, and that everything was just as we heard it in our collective (Red) head. “Owl & Timber” is kind of like our new-born baby. We’re VERY excited for you all to meet him (her….it…).
hey everyone. I thought that it would be fun if as we put some of these tracks up, we got the artists to chime in, a bit. This one is from Joey. the singer of The Henry Clay People. He's brother is the other guy that looks similar to him, playing guitar... that's andy.
At the bottom there are some reviews of some of the residency shows for you to check out too. At spaceland and the echo we have a resident band that plays every monday in the month. its FREE to attend and a great way to see a band "grow up" some of my favorite shows at the club have been these. -kV
The residency was a blast. We tried to have something a little different each night to keep the spirit spontaneous. Rock and roll should be shot from the hip. We relearned some Op-Ivy covers that we hadn't played since high school, we got alot of friends to join us on stage. It was chaos and I loved every minute of it.
![LIVE [Part Time Punks (at the Echo) - May 13th, 2007]](http://image.iodalliance.com/release/thumbs_60/209678-72.jpg)
![LIVE [Part Time Punks (at the Echo) - April 8th, 2007]](http://image.iodalliance.com/release/thumbs_60/209731-72.jpg)
Buy at 
![LIVE [in Spaceland - September 26th, 2006]](http://image.iodalliance.com/release/thumbs_60/209719-72.jpg)
![LIVE [in Spaceland - November 16th, 2006]](http://image.iodalliance.com/release/thumbs_60/209703-72.jpg)
![LIVE [at the Echo - December 21st, 2007]](http://image.iodalliance.com/release/thumbs_60/215868-72.jpg)
![LIVE [in Spaceland - April 30th, 2007]](http://image.iodalliance.com/release/thumbs_60/209710-72.jpg)
![LIVE [Part Time Punks (at the Echo) - July 22nd, 2007]](http://image.iodalliance.com/release/thumbs_60/209699-72.jpg)
![LIVE [Mondays (in Spaceland) Vol. 6 - January 28th, 2008]](http://image.iodalliance.com/release/thumbs_60/216240-72.jpg)
hey everyone. I thought that it would be fun if as we put some of these tracks up, we got the artists to chime in, a bit. This one is from Joey. the singer of The Henry Clay People. He's brother is the other guy that looks similar to him, playing guitar... that's andy.![LIVE [Mondays (at the Echo) Vol. 7 - February 4th, 2008]](http://image.iodalliance.com/release/thumbs_60/215862-72.jpg)
The Henry Clay People
"Children of Chin" (mp3) 
Buy at iTunes Music Store
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