Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
The first time I saw The Jesus & Mary Chain was a religious experience. I was still in high school when Rodney on the ROQ first played “Never Understand” and then announced that the JAMC were going to play their first gig in the U.S. at the Roxy in 1985. The show, which was a couple of nights before Christmas, didn’t last more than 20 minutes with Jim and William Reid mostly facing away audience and Bobby Gillespie banging on a single tom. The set was as out of control as the feedback, and just as rad. So were the next JAMC shows I saw at the Santa Monica Civic and Palladium. When I found out that I could see them at Hollywood Park for only 10 bucks, how could I resist?
Revelation Records‘ 25th anniversary happened last weekend and I went to two of the four shows. Here are some pics that I’m sharing in B&W. As my friend Ben Clark says, that’s how punk rock is supposed to look. Sorry, no Quicksand pics because I didn’t go on Sunday. I suggest you keep an eye on Atiba Jefferson‘s site because his Instagram pics from the shows were pretty hot. Bobby Hundreds covered it on his blog, too.
Night Zero, which was added after the weekend shows were announced had the widest range of sounds and styles. The first two bands, Kiss It Goodbye (Seattle) and In My Eyes (Boston), were of the straight-up, no-bullshit, unfiltered hardcore and straight edge variety.
Like the musical equivalent of a Coelacanth, Sacramento’s RAD is a living, breathing, biting example of an era gone by. They carry on the fury, brevity, and humor of the mid-‘80s when punk and thrash were crossing over, but with totally modern sensibilities. A couple of months ago, I finally got to see them play L.A. (along with my friend and ace photographer Ben Clark, whose pictures from a Pyrate Punx house show are included in this blog) and followed up with some questions that follow.
RAD is Lory (vocals), Charles (guitar), Anthony (bass), and Craig (drums). I asked them a lot about their debut 7” but there’s already a cassette tape demo ready to drop as well. They play often–sometimes in basement shows with local bands as well as with old-school thrashers–so check them out when you can. But as the song goes, definitely cover your tits in the pit.
MW: “Rad” is a word that all of you use pretty often. Is it difficult to not use it when talking about your own shows, songs, or sound?
Anthony: Yes, it’s difficult because it’s so true. We are rad. I think we remind the audience of that fact at least twice every time we play. It’s quite an effective marketing tool actually. People say, “Whoa, you guys are rad!” all the time after they see us play, and pretty soon everyone believes it just out of sheer repetition. Because it’s also true, of course. We are RAD.
Charles: We originally wanted a name like “NARC” or “Bad Dudes” but settled on RAD.
Lory: Being a native Californian, I tend to say “rad” a lot. We do get to play a lot of rad shows. I think all of our songs are pretty rad. The sound we are going for… rad. The dudes that I get to play this rad music with… They’re all right, I guess.
Craig: Yeah, unfortunately the word does come up a lot. All of us spent some amount of our childhood in the ’80s so it’s just in the vocabulary.
If you read this blog, you’ve probably gathered that I fully advocate supporting bands by purchasing records from merch table, cool shops, or the labels themselves. Downloading free MP3s is strictly for bootlegs, demos, and so on. But I have no qualms about attending free shows–especially ones that I can take my four-year-old daughter to. And what could be better than a trip to see one of Eloise’s three favorite groups (Dum Dum Girls) at one of her favorite places (The Getty)?
The Dum Dums kicked off the museum’s free Saturday evening concerts two weekends ago with a full set of dreamy, goth-y, garage-y rock. The band has been touring in support of its excellent second album with its extra lush sound for a while now. So of course they sound as great as ever, but there are extra hints at showmanship this time around. Members step up, back, and converge in the middle of the stage. New bassist Malia fits right in, and Eloise and her cousins rocked out nonstop after the sun went down and the volume turned up. So rad to get an hour-long fix in such a setting, and Eloise even got a heads-up from her Facebook/Instagram fans Sandy and Dee Dee. Gotta find out when Sandy returns to town for a Fiore date, and keep checking the Getty’s Saturdays Off the 405 schedule as the summer goes on.
Everyone has friends who are in bands. But who hangs out with judges? Next week, original O.C. punk Joe Escalante (The Vandals, and more recently the Sweet and Tender Hooligans) is on the ballot to serve on the bench as Judge of the Superior Court for the City of Los Angeles. He’s a smart and realistic guy—and good friend–who wants to do it for the right reasons. It all started with a legal advice radio show that stemmed from his working in entertainment law, representing his own record label as well as working for CBS. I’m voting for him and if you’ve ever been to a show at the Cuckoo’s Nest, Perkin’s Palace, or Fender’s Ballroom (or even visited Club 33) you might want to support him, too.
MW: Is judging something you’ve always wanted to do? What do you like about it?
JE: I applied to become a Temporary Judge in 2008 to broaden the amount of stuff I can cover on my radio shows. I usually only give “showbiz” legal advice on the radio, but I thought for job security I should brush up on the kind of stuff that more people need like small claims, traffic, and landlord-tenant stuff.
After doing it for a few years I’ve started to like it more than all the other stuff I do. I am able to use my brain, help people, and help the county, and I’ve met a lot of great people who are judges, prosecutors, clerks, translators, defense attorneys, bailiffs, etc. (Not my world until then) And I think I’m good at it.
You can have fun on stage or recording music, but are you really helping people? Maybe, maybe not. And is your brain valued? Or is it your looks? Can you grow old gracefully in a band? You certainly can on the bench.
Traffic Court is often joked about as a punishment for low-level judges. I love traffic court. We’re in Southern California and it’s a car culture in a big way. The rules of the road are on everyone’s mind every day. To be the final arbiter of a traffic dispute is a big honor. I love being involved in it. Everyone wants to make a difference. I think I can on the bench.