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SHOW REVIEW: Battles at Club Mayan

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Photo by Andrew Youssef (Stereogum).

In support of their latest album, Gloss Drop, Battles graced Los Angeles with a night of experimental rock stylings this Monday, headlining a show at Club Mayan in Downtown LA with tour-mates Walls and Nisennenmondai. The Italian electronic duo Walls opened the show. Working from a a table stacked with samplers, drum machines, effects pedals and other miscellaneous gear, they played a handful of lengthy hypnotic movements characterized by blissful ambience and textures morphing over steady electronic beats. Next came Nisennenmondai, an all-girl three-piece band from Tokyo, who pummeled through an otherworldly and upbeat set of progressive and moody instrumentals. With layered guitar loops, steady bass lines and evolving drum patterns, Nisennenmondai’s songs would typically begin with some minimal instrumentation and develop excitedly into epic freak outs (“Mirrorball”) or sometimes remained stubbornly dense with tension until a song’s anti-climactic ending (“Fans”). The openers’ bands set the mood perfectly for Battles, who are in fact co-currating the next ATP where all three bands are slated to perform.

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SHOW REVIEW: St. Vincent at The Music Box

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Fall break 2011 ended fantastically, for me, with a chance to see one of my favorite musical artists of the past couple years: St. Vincent. Even if you don’t listen to St. Vincent, you may have enjoyed frontwoman Annie Clark’s skills without even knowing it: she was a member of both The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens’ touring band. Clark, a porcelain-skinned, deceptively-waifish singer and guitarist, is an artist whose sheer talent claws its way through the feeblest of earbuds, unable to be ignored—so you can imagine my excitement to see her perform live. Her talent—and there really is a considerable lot of it—was in full, spotlit, often overwhelming display on Tuesday night.

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SHOW REVIEW: Toro y Moi at El Rey

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It was a Monday night. I’d like to think I’m a responsible student. I rarely go out on school nights; heck, I would never just drive into LA to go to a concert. But on Monday, October 3rd, I did just that–specifically, to see Toro y Moi. My friends and I got in line about a half hour before the doors opened. To our surprise, the man of the hour himself, Chaz Bundick (better known by his stage name, Toro y Moi) casually walked by with the band. The people waiting in line, ourselves included, started applauding and before he rounded the corner to the stage entrance, Chaz turned and waved excitedly at his fans.

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SHOW REVIEW: Blind Pilot and Dan Mangan at El Rey

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Photo by Rachel Fidler.
I started off October right this year. My suitemates and I headed out to Santa Ana on a whim on the 1st, having found out about this concert only days before, but it was the best decision we could’ve made. My new favorite singer, Dan Mangan, referred to on his website as a “fresh-faced folk singer from Vancouver, Canada”, was opening for Blind Pilot at the Galaxy Theater.

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SHOW REVIEW: James Blake at the LA Music Box

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Photo by Rachel Davidson.
Sunday, September 18, 2011. It would have been a mind-addling, homework-inundated kind of Sunday for me, just like any other… if I had not decided to throw caution to the wind and escape the real world for the night. This otherworldly trip began with an eventful drive on the I-10/101 in a crowded Scripps van with seven of my friends, and after more than an hour and a half of patient waiting, I came face-to-face with my favorite musician, James Blake. Glorious.

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SHOW REVIEW: KSPC Presents TOKiMONSTA and Gavin Turek

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Gavin Turek and TOKiMONSTA kicked off this semester of Art After Hours on September 15th, bringing energy and style to Thatcher’s southeast lawn—the opposite side of Lyon Garden than last year’s Art After Hours setup, and a minor change, but one that both felt like a refreshing alteration and spared the garden’s grass by encouraging more spectators to stand along the paved walkway. Complementing the rebellious theme of the current exhibit at the Pomona Museum of Art, which celebrates the young artists whose work populated the museum between 1969 and 1973, Gavin Turek SC ’09 started the evening with her buoyant set of vibrant, danceable pop music.

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CONCERT REVIEW: Ty Segall at the Spaceland 6/25/2010

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Ty Segall and all of his lo-fi glory graced the Spaceland on June 25th, and I was lucky enough to be in attendance.  While I missed Wounded Lion, one of 3 openers of the night, I was able to interview Ty Segall, along with DJ Flesh Sweat, before the show started.   Since you never know if the next big thing in the indie world will be, well, a jerk, I had my share of worries, but I can safely say that Segall is super nice. (You can check out the interview here).

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