Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
After circling the world once or twice and releasing a double album, 10″ soundtrack, and a bunch of digital mixtapes, Dirty Beaches came back to L.A. last Friday, teamed up with soulmates SISU as well as Chasms from San Francisco. The opening duo from San Francisco were raw and cool, like the swirling goth of Siouxsie meets the industrial tone of post-Dils, post-Rank & File Blackbird.
Holy crap! I got to see Bad Religion at The Echo. And Quicksand back together. And FIDLAR for free. But first things first. Last week was the closing of the Giant Robot Biennale 3 at JANM, where I got to see my friend (and rad artist) Jack Long play with his band, White Dove.
Dude! My ears are still ringing from just 10 minutes or so of Sun O))) last night. I was pretty beat after seeing Black Breath, C.O.C., and High on Fire, but just had to stay to catch at least some of the headliner’s set. And now my ears and brain are paying the price. But first things first. I finally got to see King Tuff last week.
My wife and I had tickets to Touch-and-Go Records’ 25th anniversary celebration in 2006, and I was really amped about seeing the back-in-action Three Mile Pilot–not to mention the reunited Negative Approach and Big Black, the always amazing Shellac, our friends in Seam, the folks from Enon… And then the magazine schedule ran late and we decided to cancel our trip to Chicago. Man. I still get bummed when I think about it. So when last Friday’s show at The Echo was announced, I was super amped to get to see the progenitor of Black Heart Procession and Pinback once more in a small club.
Happy birthday to me. You know those Facebook contests where you respond to a post to win something? That’s how I got on the list for Shonen Knife’s show at The Echo, courtesy of Big Wheel Magazine. (Thanks, dudes!) Of course, the band from Osaka is not new to me. They have been featured in the pages of Giant Robot numerous times and I’ve also blogged some of their more recent shows–not to mention have my daughter and her cousins and friend dress like them for Halloween two years ago. So it was rad to see them on their 30th anniversary tour, starting off with the “Good morning, Shonen Knife freaks” intro to the timeless 712 album that introduced their music to a generation of indie punks and grunge rockers.