As all 4 of you know, I’ve really been into ghost songs lately.
Here’s another ghost-related song called “Apparition” by Frank + Derol.
Frank + Derol are a semi-electro / dreampop / garage rock sounding Los Angeles duo – Codi Caraco and the as of yet lesser-known Cyrus daughter Brandi Cyrus.
They’re opening with Kitten at tonight’s Sir Sly show at the Casbah in San Diego!
I can’t believe I completely forgot about the time I saw Koalacaust in a basement show.
I was hanging out with a friend of mine, and she suggested checking out this show in some art gallery / art space in the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco.
I wish I could remember the name of the space. There was an art installation of various old televisions playing videos captured in various street corners and along different sidewalks. No (noticeable) direction – just capturing (supposedly) exactly what was passing by and going on in front of the cameras wherever they were set up.
Then up a flight of stairs was a basement area with a small bathroom and an even tinier window through which people took turns smoking.
Down in the basement was where the concert was. It was really fun, and the singer from Koalacaust got in the crowd, used the whole space as his stage, and even hung from the rafters! I forgot all about this until I found some photos from old computer folders I haven’t looked at in literally over a year!
Here’s one of my favorites. Seeing this photo made it all come back to me. Even just taking this shot was fun!
Oh yeah, and they’re originally from Santa Monica – much LA love to them. 🙂
Last year, I started music theme days. I need to continue that. “Emotional (Until Crickets Guide You Back)” by Rilo Kiley was a Rilo Kiley Saturday Morning song in December, but I only posted that on Facebook. So let’s make it music blog official and state that today, which is actually a Sunday, is a Rilo Kiley Sunday Evening.
This song reminds me of how a friend of mine was telling me about never really being able to figure out where home is. As I write this, I remember someone I dated a few years ago who also said that she “do[es]n’t have a sense of home.” It makes me wonder what exactly “home” is. But I’d rather continue on about that on a different post with a different song.
Anyway, this song is amazing. It’s one of three songs that… makes me cry. I’ll have to explain that in a different post, too, I guess.
Jenny Lewis never fails to bring out the raw emotion in any of her songs (Rilo Kiley, solo work, or The Postal Service – especially in “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight”). And honestly, this is one of the best examples of it – probably also why it’s called “Emotional.”
I feel my heart break deep in my chest every time I get to the 1:53 mark.
Jenny sings “And you’ve lost your way home and it feels familiar and crickets guide you back. And you hear them calling and it sounds familiar and they might help you out.” And that just makes me think of every single girl I’ve ever heard tell me about not feeling like anywhere was home.
Then in the middle of the instrumental build up at 2:43, Jenny just screams “IT’S SO HARD!” and that’s usually when I just start crying whenever I listen to this song while feeling very emotional…
Little college-aged me met Kitten at their Bottom of the Hill show in San Francisco in April 2010. I was so excited because I fell in love with the first incarnation of their song “Kill the Light” when my friend Sharon recommended them that March. I then had the “difficult” choice of staying in all night working on a paper for Media Studies 10 or going to the concert and then pulling an all-nighter to finish my paper.
I’ll never regret my choice of putting my paper off to go to the show. (Sorry Professor Levina!) Kitten was opening for a band (forgot which one 🙁 ). Very intimate setting.
Bottom of the Hill is a 21+ venue, and I wasn’t 21 yet. However, that was the ONLY Bay Area show Kitten was playing. So I came to the venue early with a Sharpie and practically pleaded my case to the bartender and venue owner. I said that I’m a huge fan and that this was Kitten’s only Bay Area show in their tour and can you PLEASEEEEE let me see the show and I’ll even put big, huge Xes on my hands with my own Sharpie. And…
THEY LET ME!!! They just said that I couldn’t hang around the venue until the show started and that they better not catch me with any alcohol. I went to this pub-style restaurant down the street and ate some fish and chips. Then a bit before the show, I got bored, so I just stood around outside the venue waiting in what would be the line area. I saw these kids around my age hanging out near a van. I thought at first that maybe they were there for the show, too. Then I thought “van… WAIT! WHAT IF THEY’RE IN A BAND.. WHAT IF THEY’RE KITTEN?”
I thought “Fuck it” and walked up to them and asked “Hey! Are you guys.. in a band?” They said “yeah! We’re Kitten.” And my jaw practically dropped. I told them all about how excited I was to go to their show and how even more excited I was to actually get to meet them! Chloe said she liked my outfit, and I felt like the coolest person ever. They let me hang out in their tour van with them and let me take pictures and showed me their XBOX set up in the back! We hung out for a bit more before the show. It was so cool!
That was seriously the coolest moment ever for this little music blogger!
Right before performing “Kill the Light,” Chloe gave me a shout out because I told her it’s my favorite!
After the show, I got to take this awesome photo with all of them outside the venue. We tried doing this thing where we all jumped as the picture was taken. That didn’t work out that great in terms of jumping, but the photo turned out pretty awesome. I don’t think I’ve looked happier in a photo.
Anyway, with that little reminiscence chronicled, I’d like to move forward to today and to the future.
Today – I want to remind you that Kitten has released two songs from their upcoming “Cut It Out” EP! You can check them out on the Kitten band site.
Future – They’re coming back to Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco on June 13!! Buy your tickets here! LA friends, be sure to catch them on June 25 at the Bootleg Theater for free!
Finally, you can check out more awesome photos from when I met Kitten here!
I <3 Kitten!
Wondering when Kitten, one of my favorite bands, is going to perform in SF again (or LA whenever I’m back home), I went on their Myspace page. While scrolling through the site, the word “indie” caught my eye in the “Type of Label” section. Having been used to them being unsigned, I had one of those double-take moments and re-read that part then looked up to see that it said “Record Label: The Control Group”!
Does this mean that Kitten’s been recently signed onto the same label that produces Kings of Leon?
The SXSW rule is really proving itself! (My apologies, I mean, “the correlation is really showing the possibility of a causal connection, but the direction or even the variable is not yet determined.”) Either way, the band is really making a name for itself! I’m extremely happy that one of my favorite bands is really moving forward in the music industry!
I’m pretty much in love with The Shivers and The Stationary Set. No lie whatsoever!
The Shivers myspace.com/shiversnyc with members from Black Jesus myspace.com/myblackjesus
The Stationary Set http://www.myspace.com/thestationaryset
Let me set the scene.
It was 2006. I was 16, sitting in my living room doing homework. My big black Sony stereo with the two feet tall box speakers that started everything (Music Starved, BoxSpeaker, my interest in my internship, my hours of searching for and listening to music online, my changing of plans for flights back to LA to accommodate bands’ concerts, probably even the whole point of who I am today) was playing tuned into either Indie 103.1 or KXLU 88.9 (these details escape me, but judging from the lack of static, it was most likely Indie).
Anyway, there I was sitting doing homework when an amazing song came on, sending its electronic beats through the speakers to my ears. I immediately pushed the red dot button on the stereo that meant “Record” to capture that magic on cassette. Later, I tried to type in the lyrics that I could hear to find out the song title and band. However, for some reason I kept getting death metal bands. It must have been because of the “Do or die” part. It was kind of hard to get any other lyrics because the section I was able to record was mostly in French. Anyway, after much searching, I finally found out that the song I heard was “DIY” by Robots in Disguise.
Now, if you know me personally, you’ll be aware of my love of robots and electropop. The girl duo that is Robots in Disguise bridged my two loves of robots and electropop to make a mellow track that really shows its ambient European electronica influence.
Fast forward to today when they are working on their fourth album and have songs that exhibit a riot grrl feel such as “We’re in the Music Biz.” This band is versatile and fun!
Check them out here: myspace.com/robotsindisguise and robotsindisguise.co.uk
May 28.
The Unknown Theater in LA.
Clayton Clayton played a show with Kitten, Pillz, and Billy Boy on Poison.
My best friend Kat (kata–loca.blogspot.com) described him as the “male Lady Gaga.” His show was such a Lady Gaga-esque spectacle, complete with oil/blood, glitter, a huge fur coat, confetti, and bright lights. A combination of electronica and rock, Clayton Clayton’s music has smart lyrics and dance-able beats. His sound is the complicated three-way love child of Mindless Self Indulgence, Dan Black, and Michael Jackson. As I’ve stated about Dan Black in a past blog, Clayton Clayton is another one of those artists who are even better live! His stage presence bombards you with electro beats and environmental conscientiousness all while making fabulous fashion statements.
Find him here:
