Lorange Blog

Drinks on an empty stomach makes my lips numb and me say silly things. At least I now know it's pronounced Ann-drea and not An-drea. Just wondering. Took a power nap, changed brake pads on my car, showered and arrived in the middle of Underwater City People's set at last night's Kiss or Kill. Eric from XUK joined them on viola for a few songs and it filled out the sound perfectly. Then Kevin and Emily from Midway stood as the horn section on the Banjo song, even though the song doesn't have one. During resident band Rainman Suite, Celeste from UCP joined in a great cover of Joan Jett's "I love rock'n'roll". Probably the highlight of the night for me. The Randies were next and played a set that was a billion times better than their last Kiss or Kill outing. Finally a new catchy song too. Finally . Decided later to sober up a bit and enjoyed The Ebbs who were filling in for King Cheetah. It was perfect music for my perfect buzz. People were nice...

Tonight (4.26) is a great line-up at Kiss or Kill wtih the Powerchords, Underwater City People, Rainman Suite, The Randies and the addicting King Cheetah. 18 an up and only 3 bucks, at the Echo . There might be smurfs too. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fri. May 6th - Kiss or Kill Compilation CD release party!!! All Ages!! --- 14 Bands: Bang Sugar Bang, Midway, The King Cheetah, The Letter Openers, Silver Needle, Underwater City People, The Randies, The OAOT's, The Knives, Billion Stars, The Waking Hours, Rainman Suite, Bobot Adrenaline, Chromosome Tea ---- 2 Stages ---- $5 cover and get a free KorK Comp.CD They are expecting @ 1000 people. You're cool, you'll be there. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Podcasting via Buzzplay Maybe you're one of the 10% of iPod owners who actually use an mp3 aggreagator for podcasts. Even if you don't know what an mp3 aggreagator is or own an iPod, you still can download podcasts (they're just large mp3 files) and use any mp3 player (iTunes, real, w...

Tired and stressed. This should all be over in a few days I hope. Or it might get worse. Made it back from the Bay Area where I did some crappy things that needed to be done, only to come home to deal with more crap. Escaped for a few hours to fly my kite (so lame, I know, but very relaxing), ate lunch at Frisco's Car Hop , checked out The Amateurs at King King last Wednesday and attempted to see Gemma Hayes at the Echo last night. Pink Grenade, the first band at 9.15, was interesting in a good way but it wasn't until 10.30 when the second band Molecule FINALLY started. Grr. After a couple so-so songs, my friend and I gave up and left, but apparently Gemma cancelled too. Oh well.

Saw this written in a blog today: When one person is overreacting, the other person must underreact. I'm the master of under-reacting, or so I've been told.

The wonderful Gemma Hayes from Ireland has quietly been playing shows at Tangiers every Thursday this month I just found out. Even though she has been nominated for The Mercury Prize , granted a bigger deal in the UK, very little has been made of these shows I assume on purpose. Often compared from Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez to PJ Harvey on her later works and has open/toured with Beth Orton, Rufus Wainwright and David Gray, Sparklehorse and Zero 7, so these are low key dates. Randomly checking venue calendars I noticed that she is also playing a free show at the Echo on Monday 4.25 and picked up the Tangier info from her web-board. So you can see her tomorrow and next Thursday or go see her for free on Monday. (Viva K is the resident band on Monday..they sound cool in very different way) tag: gemma hayes

I'm so unbelievably stressed out right now. The end of last month started a whole series of cascading issues that I needed to resolve this week and I'm just shutting down. A very bad reaction when I need to get my shit together, but I will and by the end of this month I will know what lies ahead for this year. If I seemed a little out of it, this is why. Convinced myself not to flake on Kiss or Kill again and enjoyed a great set from The Press Fire . I'm lazy, so this is what Joe wrote: "the first band was the press fire. Two guitarists, drums and keyboards. Wow! They each took a fresh tequila shot even the smallish little girl keyboardist. They were really good. I don’t know if there is a name for this genre of rock I am seeing more and more where the melodies sound exceptionally punk with wails, yells and screams but the drums sound like dance beats...." They were cool and fun to watch and now tagged on my to See Again list. Underwater City People were up nex...

I really like the Punk Rock Socials held at the Anarchy Library, since the crowd is so different from my usual Kiss or Kill nights at the Echo. I know I'm a tad lame looking, and not in the indie cool lame look sort of way, but when I can go into a bar/club by myself (which I hardly do) and feel at home with punks, hipsters and members of The Mongols motorcycle club (they seemed nice), then that’s fucking cool. I can't speak for most nights at the Anarchy Library , but the Punk Rock Socials are great there. Missed the first band, The Renders because I got stuck at Wal-Mart (I should've known better), so I'll check them out at a later date. Arrived in time for the 50 cent well drinks specials and the band I mostly came out for, So Unloved , a young group out from San Antonio, Texas that just kicked ass. I highly suggest checking them out. pictures by Aristeo Perez Saw them at last week's Kiss or Kill, but didn't know they were a band until the flyers were...

Folks have started to line up outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre [word is that it will be playing at the Archlight on Sunset] and put in place this "sign in, sign out" system to determine place in line. Placement is based on the total hours waited in line, so you could go to work, go to Hollywood & Highland, hang out for a few hours, leave, come back, and repeat for the next six weeks. Pic is off the liningup.net site, I assume this week. Make First Contact (yeah I know that's Start Trek, which kicks Star Wars ass btw) I think I'm going to take a look at these, um dedicated fans later this week, but I hear they are answering the payphone, so why don't you call them!!! (323) 462-9609 (no joke, it's true) Read updated info at Boing Boing (Thanks to blogging.la for the link to Boing Boing)

Survival Research Laboratories latest creations were going at it behind Dangereous Curve in downtown LA this last Saturday. Basically SRL builds these giant mechanical machines that fight each other until there is one large burning mess. This is from their site: Survival Research Laboratories was conceived of and founded by Mark Pauline in November 1978. Since its inception SRL has operated as an organization of creative technicians dedicated to re-directing the techniques, tools, and tenets of industry, science, and the military away from their typical manifestations in practicality, product or warfare. Since 1979, SRL has staged over 45 mechanized presentations in the United States and Europe. Each performance consists of a unique set of ritualized interactions between machines, robots, and special effects devices, employed in developing themes of socio-political satire. Humans are present only as audience or operators. There was a large 20 foot shockwave cannon that they would aim...

How did I not hear about the Lebowski Fest - West ??? This was held last weekend and looks like it would've be hella fun. Held anually in Louisville, KY (July 22nd-24th, 2005) but one offs in Los Angeles and Vegas. From their site: Lebowski Fest is a bowling event celebrating all things relating to the Coen Brothers 1998 film, The Big Lebowski. It can be likened to a Star Trek convention in a loose sense. The event takes place at a bowling alley and includes unlimited bowling, costume , trivia, farthest traveled, and bowling contests, prizes, and what-have-you. Jeff Bridges even showed up this year! (more pics here ) Lebowski Fest West

Maybe you saw them on the news if not in person, but Saturday was filled with Monarch butterflies making they're way up to Canada. Crazy amounts of them crossing the 15 near the 60/15 interchange and later as I was kite flying at the park. I thought it was really cool. Enough of my crap. Here's something cool if you like Beck: Go over and check out Stereogum 's post for a flash video for "Gameboy/Homeboy Que Onda Guero remix". Animation done by AudioDregs - I think this might be link to their site , but maybe not. For you LBC folks, Midway is playing at Taco Beach tonight or come on out to Kiss or Kill at the Echo. Lineup: New Fidelity, Chromosome Tea, Bobot Adrenaline, the return of Bang Sugar Bang, and the Dollyrots finishing it off. All good stuff. tag: beck

[needs serious rewriting/editing..my ideas are better than the end result] Vanessa continued her thoughts on how much Steve was an asshole to Ann and Jeff as her foot rub up my leg. I was a little surprise that Vanessa was paying any attention to me today and worried she was just slumming it for her own amusement. "...Steve still manages to surpass his last level of fucky-ness. I’m constantly surprised by this." "Oh yeah, did you see that fat, dirty whore that came looking for him after work?” Ann questioned Vanessa and Jeff sitting on the opposite side of the table. "That girl with the big blue eyes?" I asked. Ann wasn't going along with my thought already, "Odd choice of clothes, yes, but a lot of the guys didn't have a problem with her looks." She was now fish-tailing in her stool, "Oh so you would do her then?" I gave her that "ha-ha funny look" to her teasing, "I'm sorry, but Ugg boots will always be a deal br...

I'm working backwards Asobi Seksu I wasn't really ready for what happened. I've read or heard them speak of how much more rock their live performances were, but rock isn't right. Every song played with a total immersion of sound with loud, fast strumming instead of the long feedback of the album. Awed as I was by their force, I could only imagine the audience members who thought it was to be mellower, cleaner, and maybe even poppier. We were all pleasantly unprepared. I loved what they did to "Sooner", they played "untitled" and then the unreleased song I have generically titled "demo ep 03 (tiny little voices)" in my iTunes and started off with "Walk on the Moon". The singer seem so tiny walking around the venue earlier (the band seemed a little antsy), but once she got on stage with that amazing voice and the large sound coming from behind, it was easy to forget one's perspective. Don't miss them at Spaceland April 2nd. ...

Last minute plans to see Margo Lee (= Jessica Dobson = Deep Sea Diver )at the Key Club worked out to my favor: It gave me enough time to drive home (1.5 hrs), do laundry, take a power nap (2 hrs) get ready and make it out to her 11.30 set time. Brief detour looking for an open coffee shop at 10.45 pm to keep Cortney awake. We settled for some from the Jack in the Box across the street from Amoeba Records and were entertained/freaked out by a crazed/drug-tripping lady splashing a whole cup of water on her face while bitching on a cell phone. Ah Hollywood. Margo Lee was playing an after party for the Fall Out Boy (part of the Fueled by Ramen and Friends tour) show at the House of Blues that night. I've never heard of any of these bands (Q: have you?) and wasn't blown over by what I've heard online either. So out of touch with MTV, oh well. When we got there, I think the Juliana Theory (I've heard of them) were finishing up on the main stage while we made our way into ...

Gardena to Glendale, normally 35-45 minutes at 4.30pm, but with rain just a tad under 1.5 hrs. Grr. Dinner at Foxy's in Glendale which had a nice atmosphere . My club sandwich could've used more turkey, esp. non- dried out turkey, but the other sandwich components were excellent. Just a bad turkey day I guess. The great debate Headed over to the Galleria for some Apple loving and debated if it was worth spending 50 bucks more for the 20bg vs. a green 6b iPod mini. I'm all for the 20 (heck I need a 60bg) and Cort thinks of it as wasted space/wasted money. Its not like it's the difference between a 32" and a 35" television, I tried to reason. She claimed she doesn't have that much music, I counter with a "yet". But what it comes down to is that she wants a green one (she loves lime green; her VW Beetle, clothes, everything) and 6 gbs is plenty, simple as that. The more space the better for me since I add 5-10 songs at least to my iTunes each wee...

Looking forward to seeing Asobi Seksu out of NYC. When I first discovered them via jenyk/dot/com over a year (2 years?) ago, I emailed them asking about any possible west coast dates. I did the same when they later signed with a label and each time I received a short, but nice, response of " that would be cool, but we have no idea when" or something along those lines. Now with shows at the Detroit Bar tonight, The Echo tomorrow and a Spaceland show booked for April 2nd, I'm excited. From their site: " What was once called shoegazer rock — blaring, shimmering, multilayered guitars enfolding confessions of longing and ambiguity — is back in Asobi Seksu, a New York band that wraps its guitars and keyboard around well-made pop melodies and the girlish ache of Yuki's voices." -Jon Pareles, New York Times, March 5, 2004 Stream their video for "Walk on the Moon" and listen to some mp3s here and check out more of the amazing art design by Sean McCab...

Felt lazy until Saturday night when Corey reminded me that Midway was playing out in Sunset Beach at King Neptunes , a cool laid back locals kind of bar with the one or two drunk beach riff raff as one person described it to me. The band New Fidelity who invited Midway to play, were cool and will be playing Kiss or Kill on 3/29. I over heard a few people giving Midway props during their set. Coming home I got stuck on the east 10 with a major sig-alert ; 7 cars all lanes, closed, so I quickly pushed my through stupid people, did La Brea south with a bypass on Jefferson. Nice little 45 minute delay that got me home at 3.15 AM Random: A girl that night was looking for a piece of paper to write on so I gave her the "Do our survey, win $" slip that I got from eating at Chili's earlier. She came back to point this out in case I wanted it back and I told her that maybe it was her lucky day and wished her luck. She'll probably win. Super Random: Found out that Theresa fro...

Burning Annie, a movie coming out one day This week has been a blur with a trip all around LA county this past week. St. Patrick's Day was spent at the Pacific Design Center for the upcoming independant film " "Burning Annie" . Basically about one college student's life influenced by Woody Allen's movie; a blessing and a curse. Tried to explain to my friend that when I was 10 or 12 watching Annie Hall made a mark on me. She didn't believe me and was more keen on stealing a couple really cool martini glasses from the open bar (and did). So I only had one martini and just wasn't feeling up to boozing and driving that night so we cruised down to Astro Burger to eat french fries and onion rings. Tried to determine where Hilary Swank chowed down after her Oscar win until I was too grumpy and rounded them up to go. "We can finish talking about that in the car" and the got up with keys in hand. Like I said, grumpy. tags: burning annie astro burg...

I was driving alongside this red Blazer Sunday night when the driver jerks over into my lane oblivious and without reason. I might have shouted "Fuck!" and definitely yelled “Son of a Bitch!!” as I swerved my front end too quickly to the left to avoid the A-Hole and I over compensate. Now my car starts to slightly fish tail and I can see the concrete median with the reflective flaps out of the corner of my eye. I noticed the double yellow lines of the carpool lane move under my hood and I smell burning rubber as the back tires start to skid. I thought, "Whoa, I should probably start to control this" as I tried to straighten out and quickly realizing that I had just turned the steering wheel in the wrong direction. I change course and correctly turned into the skid, slowly pressing on the brakes. I was seriously freaked out by those 20 seconds, the other cars were freaked out, and that A-Hole was smoking and didn't dare look over to me as I drove past him. I made...

Welcome to news reports of 18-wheelers being blown over in the Inland Empire, clear views across the Los Angeles basin and the return of my allergies. Thanks wind. Where was the wind now gusting through Southern California when I decided to fly a kite on Sunday? But then again, how could I resist when you can buy them at Target from 2.99 and up. I picked a cool turtle kite with featured a five foot long tail made up of smaller turtles for only six bucks and 3-D kites going for about ten dollars. We all need to get our practice in since April is National Kite Month . You can also check out the American Kite Flying Association and locally the Up and Away Kite Club of Seal Beach Did the Egyptians used kites to lift a 6,900-pound obelisk ? tags: kites windy