Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Wasn't it The Peechees who sang, “I don't mind poetry… if they're songs”? I acquired the second edition of Paul Weller's lyric book and it's pretty interesting. Not because it has words to a lot of great songs–duh–but because of the zingers that the Modfather adds as commentary. While the recollections on The Jam are cooler and reflections on his solo stuff are more revealing, the notes on the Style Council are easily the most interesting. Regarding “Money-Go-Round”: “I had a bit of a political awakening, a realisation of how the system worked. I had a lot to say at the time, even if some of it seems a bit na
Continue reading
Holy crap! On Saturday, I went to the FYF Fest at Los Angeles State Historical Park (just outside Chinatown) and the lineup was nuts. Well, to be honest I wasn't familiar with all of the bands but I wanted to see 4 or 5 that made the 25 bucks admission worth my while and got me to drag out a bunch of friends as well. We got there just in time to catch a few songs from Puerto Rico's Davila 666 and then L.A.'s own Best Coast at the medium-sized stage, but I was too far away to get any decent pics… We headed over to a smaller stage after that. In the background is The Oh Sees. You already know about those lo-fi garage rockers, right? In front is GR photo stud Ben Clark. We bumped into him while waiting in the super-long line to get in. Actually, it went pretty fast but I feel sorry for people who had to wait in will-call or the box-office to buy tickets first. It was hot! The other members in my crew: Greg and Sharon from San Diego, and Daniel from HK. This was taken right by the barricade at the small stage, where we set up shop for the next three bands… First up was OFF! The group has Keith Morris (Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Bug Lamp) on vocals, Steve McDonald (Redd Kross, Tater Tots, Anarchy 6) on bass, and Mario Rubalcalba (411, Clickitat Ickatowi, RFTC, Hot Snakes, Earthless…) on drums. The previous work of guitar player Dimitri (not shown) is unfamiliar to me, but he was pretty rocking, too. OFF!'s style is early '80s hardcore with super-short but controlled blasts of anger and energy. It was rad to see Steve and Mario cut loose from their respectively poppier and spacier styles to go back to their roots and unload with the original singer of Black Flag. Keith Morris told some great stories about playing nearby in Chinatown and dedicated a new song to his late friend Jeffrey Lee Pierce. Why the stage wasn't packed, I have no idea. Maybe the band is too new and no one knows who they are yet? Look for their amazing first EP to drop in October. Next up was 7 Seconds. These guys are definitely not kids any more, but they still totally rip, attracted a huge crowd, and got a nice circle pit going. In between songs, Kevin Seconds told some stories about the old days, playing in L.A. with Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies, and Youth Brigade. The set was heavily drawn from The Crew and Rock Together, Walk Together, and it's pretty amazing that I remember and can shout so many of the
Continue reading
Remember him? Issue 65 cover Shintaro Ohata's art became well loved instantly by a lot of you, and here's a little update of his works. *in case you don't know much about him, he's a young artist from Tokyo who I actually met while being a scout judge at Takashi Murakami's Geisai event. I thought he was one of the best in show. The piece above, you might remember since it was on the cover, but see the new ones below.
Continue reading
Production is tough but I love it. During the day at the office, there's a crew of people working instead of just me hacking in front of a computer. Then at night, I get to work with Wendy on design (after Eloise goes to sleep, of course). And it's always when we're the busiest that people seem to drop by the office: photographer Ben Clark, cartoonist Bryan Lee O'Malley, actor Daniel Wu, model Lisa S., musician Ryan Hui, musician artist Prodip Leung, musician Goh Nakamura, artist Dave Choe… There were more that came by during this issue's crunch time, and they all part of the GR familia so they understand if we're a bit frazzled. Below is Ken Wong (a.k.a. Monkmus), who contributes a comic strip to each issue. Linda's his wife. Now it's bad to regular time–which is also busy time. Time to crank out press releases that I've been putting off, address a book project, finally reward our fundraiser friends, start new projects, and dig into GR68. By the time you see GR67, we'll be deep in that deadline because it's coming up fast.
Continue reading