Giant Robot Store and GR2 News

When: January 5th Saturday 2-4pm Where: Giant Robot 2 – 2062 Sawtelle Blvd LA, CA 90025 310-445-9276 www.gr2.net You got it. January 5th, Saturday 2-4pm. Meet Adam Pfahler, drummer of Jawbreaker. He’ll do a little bit of story time with slides. You can ask him questions, and then he’ll sign some of his albums. We’ll have his new re-releases and T shirts! 
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Boris in J Pop style! I’ve always thought of them as being on the edge of dangerous, from mellow to thick. They were like a modern day Black Sabbath, but this album, New Album is a strange pop hybrid that’s less rock, more J Pop. What happened? Without insulting the trio, the first thing I thought of was Attack Attack, which isn’t good. Yet the album finds some marks here and there and gets shoegaze with “Spoon”. I am hearing anime soundtrack music and undefinable take on contemporary top 40. Click on the link to hear it. (Spin – Boris)
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Last night, my awesome pal Michelle let me be her tag-along for the first of three LA performances by The Cure, part of their final “Reflections” tour. The promise: a concert of the first three studio albums, including my favorite, Faith. Promise firmly delivered. I don’t have to tell you about The Cure. You know them. They’re the crossover band of the last several decades, loved by goths and sensitive jocks, when bullying wasn’t a legislative agenda.  Their earliest releases aren’t as accessible as their albums in the 1990s that were complete with music videos, and now make appearances in your favorite karaoke song books. I didn’t discover these records until after Disintegration came out when I was in Junior High. It took a solid education of punk rock and it’s earliest incarnations in British new wave, to help me develop a solid taste for the earlier work. This stuff is good though. Classic really, and the sound at The Pantages was stellar. It seems to take a reunion show these days for me to melt away into a live show, when you know every song because you’ve listened to them a thousand times. Those experiences are magical though, and they remind me of a time when music was about discovery. Discovering new bands, making music that was beyond. Being able to listen to a record over and over to commit every chord, every hook, and every lyric to memory. Realizing that these songs were about moments in your life, or a life you wished you were living. I miss that magic in music. If you didn’t get enough of the far-away cell phone pictures in your Facebook feed last night, you can check out more of my picture here. I am the reluctant concert photographer who’d rather be dancing, but I tried.
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The great, the influential, the band, the myth… Jawbreaker. Their shirts are back in stock. It’s the infamous When it Pains it Roars shirt. Kurdt Cobain was once seen wearing it, and that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. If you don’t know the band, do check out some of their songs. Inexpensive at $20 and a holiday pleaser.   [youtube]Cwyh9cCUzRI[/youtube]    
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