Now that I'm out here in the music business, I gotta start politickin' and keeping my negative reviews to myself. So, from here on out, it's just positive stuff.
Since arriving, I've been hitting the clubs with a vengance, and here's a few thingst I've been able to see.
TUESDAY; coincidentally bumped into list member Jason Sugars' (u know, the guy who makes sense on here) partner at Boardners. A pretty dead Tuesday night, actually, with everyone heading out to the back room to smoke out, and the DJ's just basically practicing in an empty space.
WEDNESDAY; 4th Ave. Jones, Macy Gray, Knitting Factory; 4th Ave Jones is a live hip hop band; 2 mc's, a diva vocalist, guitar, bass, drums, and something a bit out of the ordinary, electric violin. The bass and drums are tight, but the guitar player is outta site. Damn he was nice.
They did what seemed to me like a lot of covers, but the originals were good, and a few were struck me as real deep. Not glossy and poppy like City High, but funky as hell.
Macy is at the Knitting Factory on Wednesday nights, and if you saw her on tour supporting "On How Life Is" this is a whole new band, with only the keyboardist holding over from last time. I'm happy to report these muthafukas are even badder than the first crew, especially the drummer and the bass player (no guitar on this date.) Macy herself kept it low key, hanging off to one side of the stage and getting off on the funky rhythms the band was playing. A bit like watching Bernard Hopkins tune up before a big fight... you can really get a chance to see a first class crew do its thing in a setting like that.
FRIDAY NIGHT, big night of funk on the corner of Wilshire and Western, and I missed most of it. At the Wiltern, the bill featured Karl Denison's Tiny Universe, Spearhead, and Blackalicious. Word is that Spearhead wiped the place out. A few steps to the east, Ron Trent and Vikter Duplaix were packing 'em in at the Atlas Bar and Grill. They went on real, real late, though, and I'm not yet on daylite savings time.
SATURDAY NIGHT, The Mission, at the Temple Bar in Santa Monica. Here's my find of the week. I highly recommend you check out this group if you're a fan of live jazzy hip hop ala the Roots. The Mission is from the Bay Area, and consists of bass and drums, (both hot), a funky Asian girl on Rhodes (throwing in a little JS Bach Invention here and there between her Herbiesque- riffs), a guy on the samplers, and an MC. Apparently, there are 2 MC's, but one of the guys couldn't make it.
This is a hot group with good, strong material. I'd love to see them at full force. Check 'em out if you like your lyrics delivered over "Thrust" style jazz; in fact they actually played "Actual Proof," or at least the first 4 bars of it, in loopy fashion. Not bad to spit rhymes over JS Bach and Herbie Hancock all in the same set.
Check these guys out. Very enjoyable.
That's it for now!
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