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.
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.
“Hi, I’m Terry and I’m manic depressive,” smiled the famously deadpan lead singer for The Specials during the spoken part of “Enjoy Yourself” at the end of Monday night’s return to Club Nokia. It was their second show there in 26 years–showing that the band didn’t just get heal up and get back together a few years ago but continue to actually enjoy themselves. Since the reformed band’s first stop in L.A. in 2010, the heavy parts during “International Jet Set,” “Stereotypes,” and “Man at C&A” got heavier and the light parts in between were just as light, with Terry Hall giving away tea bags and ginger from backstage (and making fun of American half & half) and Terry and guitarist Lynval Golding giving very conflicting reviews of Argo before playing “Concrete Jungle” (whether or not Ben Affleck is a “cunt”).
Did I mention that Tuesday night’s Redd Kross gig at The Roxy was a record release show? Here’s a review on that long-awaited LP as well as some other new music that you should check out…
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.