Even though John (asian bass dude who plays fruity drum pads) flaked on our burrito mission you should still watch him and the dudes from HEALTH get crazy down at The Smell this Saturday.

Myspace

Ok here is a show that worth $5 this weekend. Details below. Don’t ask me about the flyer I think is was John from HEALTH’s idea. I think playing with Gay Beast inspired him.
I am a fan of HEALTH and Anavan so I will be hanging out

HEALTH myspace
Anavan myspace

As mentioned in the previous article, a few friends and I went to a warehouse party a few weeks back. The party was at a low key warehouse off of 6th street in the industrial district of Downtown Los Angeles.(a few blocks from skid row). Anyway after Qui and Triclops, the little collaboration with Jesus Lizard’s David Yow and Qui, and my friend getting molested by a professional skateboarder 400 Blows came on.

The mood was kind of like “lets represent a little LUV for LA!”. From the second they hit the first note the crowd went off same with Scott and the rest of the band. I seriously can’t remember a time when I saw a band rock a place that hard. Especially when the Scott, the guitar player looks like Hitler and ½ the crowd is ethnic.

They definitely hold the title as the best Punk/Hard Rock band out at here in Los Angeles. Anyway as of right now they are my favorite LA band and deserve every bit of credit people give them. It’s pretty tough for just having guitar, drums, and vocals. They are playing next Saturday November 11th at The Echo in Echo Park, along with infamous Gil Mantera’s Party Dream, and The Grand Buffet. It is the best $10 you will spend this month.
Albums


400 Blows Myspace

I met Tumbleweed about 2 years ago. When he was playing a banjo at my friends house in Diamond Bar. I orginally was a jock asshole and called him an “art fag”, I don’t even think he even heard me or cared. Later on that year Tumbleweed, his partner Turtle and 2 other friends moved to downtown to start a revolution. The venue is Zamakibo. It’s in the depths of the fashion district in downtown LA on Pico and Grand. All their shows are usually $5 and always a great atomosphere. According to City Beat “The ladies prefer Zamakibo”. Which is nice considering most shows in downtown are dude fests. It is one of the few venues in LA that allows bands and artists to have creative freedom. It is one of the few spaces in LA that is really helping contribute to the arts and music community in LA. Instead of the typical douche bag venue on the west end of Sunset having 10 different velvet ropes, the asshole doorman who claims he knows “everyone” but you, $20 parking, a secret password that gets you a whopping $2 of the $15 cover and $10 watered down coke and jack, you get a place where people can just hangout, see a good show for $5 and the door man not give a shit if your important or not. The bookers are cool you don’t need to be a certain genre or “scene” to play there. Your music just needs to be good. It is a truely a venue that promotes creative freedom. Venues like this are whats needed in order for LA to get back on the map for music. Venues like Zamakibo, The Smell, El Cid, Little Pedros, The Il Coral, The Silverlake Lounge, Spaceland, and The Echo are reasons why LA is starting to happen more for music. Pretty soon we can hopefully see an end to pay to play, $20 parking, $10 watered down drinks, velvet ropes, and $15 covers to see your friend’s boyfriends metal rap band. Anyway a few days ago I got lunch with Tumbleweed in a South Central LA burrito shop to discuss what Zamakibo was all about:
R:What is Zamakibo?:
T:It is a word that comes from the book cats cradle. It means fate. It’s based on a fictious religioin bokononism from that book.
R:What is the idea behind it, the whole concept?
T:Give people a place to have fun and not worry about conforming to social conventions. I want to be a venue that isn’t attached to a scene dictated by strict social guidelines.
R:How did it Start?
T:Me and this guy decided to get a warehouse called a few of our friends as long as we had a warehouse we would have shows to throw and then eventually it got bigger and bigger and turned into a space.
R:How the hell did you get those animal costumes?
T:We found them in a dumpster in Upland behind a costume shop. So we would go back their weekly and check to see what surprises we would find. 90% of the items in this place are from dumpster diving including the new gift giving machine that lights up.
R:How do you choose the bands?
T:Music that we like, people that are friendly, music that is unique.
R:What are the Plans for Zamakibo, More Dumpster Diving?
T:Yes. Connecting with more people to help, making a zine, making more videos, more art, stranger themed shows, turning it into a playground, eventually we want to move into an old church or theater.

Anyway here is their Myspace enjoy!