UCLAradio.com has been added to the iTunes staff favorites for January 2009. Check us out in the radio section of the iTunes sidebar!

–Teeg

High Places at The Echo (1/22/2009)

Last Thursday, I went to The Echo to “experience” High Places, because I shamefully missed their show at UCLA. The venue was almost full on that night. As soon as the opening band put their keyboards away, the duo restlessly started installing their “magic table” with bunch of effecters, mixers, and drum machines on it. Whole audience was waiting for the duo to let them dance. As the Robbie started making noise, kids in the front row began to wave themselves. He was playing some kind of Akai product. As Mary’s voice came in, the audience started melting. The kids were already dazed. I was bit annoyed since I was in the second row. They played most of the songs from the latest self-titled album which was released from Thrill Jockey last September. Surprisingly enough, at the show they reproduced their experimental/improvisy sounds as in the record almost accurately. Though their sound seems coming from computers on the CD, they were actually “performing”. Their sound of “tropical IDM” was totally worth experiencing. It was such a great show.

http://www.myspace.com/hellohighplaces

-Dan Shimizu

If you’re like me then you’ve probably never had trouble talking to women. But for the rest of you Kosmo, the season one winner of VH1’s hit reality show “The Pick Up Artist”, will be joining me on The High Life with Fast Eddie (Friday 2-4). If you have anything you want to ask the pick up artist email me at UCLAhighlife@gmail.com. Tune in and enjoy!

Daedelus – Denies the Day’s Demise

Track List

1. “At My Heels” – 3:19
2. “Sundown” – 3:18
3. “Nouveau Nova” – 3:36
4. “Viva Vida” – 3:18
5. “Samba Legrand” – 5:48
6. “Like Clockwork Springs” – 2:46
7. “Lights Out” – 3:12
8. “Bahia” – 3:35
9. “Our Last Stand” – 5:21
10. “Patent Pending” – 2:35
11. “Sawtooth EKG” – 2:53
12. “Dreamt Of Drowning” – 2:43
13. “Sunrise” – 2:56
14. “Petite Samba” – 1:57
15. “Never None The Wiser” – 3:38

Description
Combining elements from virtually every genre, Denies the Day’s Demise showcases Daedelus’s electronic wizardry. The album is the closest you’ll come to techno by Daedelus, but restricting Denies to the confines of even that fairly large genre would not do the album’s scope justice.  Denies is exclusively Daedelus – featuring no guest vocals or contributors – and the “indietronica” master reaches deep into his bag of tricks for extremely obscure samples cut and pasted into some of the most unique tracks I’ve ever heard.

-Teeg

OK, he’s lucky he didn’t bump into me like that. I have a black belt in ka-razy and I would have done a LOT more than that girl who got out of her hoopty. I mean, I know it’s a piece of crap, but you don’t disrespect someone’s car like that!

This song sort of sums up the last part of the ’90s for me. It also reminds me of that coke scene in Cruel Intentions.

–J

Note: Hipsters may want to wear their neon shades for this one.

After a bit of uncertainty, KROQ’s Kevin and Bean Show will indeed be announcing the Coachella line up on Tuesday morning at 7:20 PM — I think.

The announcement came via KROQ’s Twitter page as well as the name of that one MGMT song that no one can get out of their heads.

Better get started on that “I can’t remember the last time I shaved or showered” look now before it’s too late!

-Teeg

Post-Rock is Cold Dead Genre? (2004-???)

Albums like F#A#(infinity) in 1998 by GY!BE, Young Team in 1997 by Mogwai, and The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place in 2003 by Explosions in the Sky have become the blueprints that many fledgling bands have used to sculpt their own sound. The fact that modern post-rock bands are now taking their influence from previous post-rock bands almost defeats the purpose of post-rock, doesn’t it? Post-rock was initially intended to be a genre that pushed music forward, mixing many disparate sounds together to form something entirely new while reinventing the rock wheel.

This isn’t really the case anymore (I’m generalizing here, there still do exist bands that are post-rock in the truest sense – and no, Battles is not one of them.) So in a sense, post-rock is kind of dead (Is it possible for anything that is post-something to be dead before that something itself is dead?) However, when you think of post-rock as the style of music birthed in The Young Team era, then it is still alive and bigger than ever.

So why would post-rock be bigger than ever today if it’s been getting stale for a while? The reason is that post-rock has bled into a plethora of other genres and this genre cross-pollination has allowed for a lot of growth and development both within post-rock and within other neighboring genres. Because of this, many new styles and niches have emerged in the post-rock world.

Of all the styles of post-rock, the two most prominent are descendants of the traditional quite-loud post-rock of The Young Team era. They are the Explosions in the Sky and Godspeed You! Black Emperor schools of thought.

Right now, we’ll go over the EITS school of thought and next week we’ll jump into the GY!BE school.

The Explosions in the Sky School of Thought

Bands in the Explosions in the Sky School of Thought are characterized as having songs that are roughly around 6 to 10 minutes long, predominantly all instrumental with the use of rock instruments found in yout traditional four man band (sans vocals), with slow buildups and big crescendos, and loads of reverb and delay. A lot of twinkly guitar work going on over here.

Here are some of the major bands that you can loosely classify as falling under this category: This Will Destroy You, Caspian, Joy Wants Eternity, Giants, Laura, Gifts From Enola, Up-C Down-C Left-C Right-C ABC + Start, pg.lost, Ours to Alibi, and Beware of Safety among many many others.

I’d like to stress that by classifying these bands under the EITS School I by no means am implying that these bands are EITS carbon copies because they definitely are not. Rather, the purpose is to point out that the EITS influence is more evident here than elsewhere. Some of these bands don’t particularly sound like EITS, but if you had to place them into a neat little box, this box is best fitting.

To get a better feel for what this style sounds like take a listen to these links:

(more…)

Here’s a clip from the show where Kim wears a UCLA shirt.

Go Bruins.

-DJ Octoon

Hello everyone,
I’d like to share with you my favorite recipe for Chocolate Buttermilk Cake:

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

* 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
* 1/4 cup water
* 2 1/4 cups cake flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 cup butter, softened
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 3/4 cups white sugar
* 3 eggs
* 1 cup buttermilk
*
* 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
* 1/4 cup honey
* 2 tablespoons water
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups heavy whipping cream

—-
DIRECTIONS

1. Grease three 9 inch cake pans. Line bottoms with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. In a small pan over low heat, combine 1cup chocolate chips and 1/4 cup water. Stir until chocolate chips have melted, and mixture is smooth. Allow to cool to room temperature.
3. Sift together flour, soda and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, cream the butter or margarine with the sugar. Add vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in chocolate mixture. Stir flour mixture into creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend until smooth. Divide batter into three 9 inch pans, and smooth tops.
5. Bake for 25 minutes, or until pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans for 10 to 15 minutes, then invert on wire racks; turn right side up to cool completely.
6. Place 1 cake layer upside down on cake platter. Spread with 1/2 inch layer chocolate whipped cream. Repeat with another cake layer. Top with remaining cake layer. Frost with remaining cream.
7. To Make Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting: In small saucepan over low heat stir 1 cup chocolate chips, honey, 2 tablespoons water and 1/8 teaspoon salt until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth; cool completely. In medium bowl beat cream until it holds its shape. Gradually fold about 3 large tablespoons cream into chocolate mixture, then fold chocolate mixture into remaining whipped cream until blended.

–I hope that you will all enjoy,
Bon apetit!
Michael

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
8:00 pm
From $22.50 – Tix

House of Blues Anaheim
1530 S. Disneyland Dr.
Anaheim, CA 92802
714-778-BLUE

hob.com/anaheim | elefanteweb.com

Grammy-nominated Mexican rock band Elefante performs at HOB Anaheim.

“[Reyli] Barba is a natural performer who reportedly gave his first public performance at the age of four — standing on a table in a restaurant.” –Real.com

Saturday, February 21, 2009
6:30 pm
From $45 – Tix

Los Angeles Sports Arena
3939 S. Figueroa St.
Los Angeles, CA 90037
213-748-6131

hh101.com

Music and arts festival featuring headliners Ludacris and Common with support from Keri Hilson, Mix Master Mike (Beastie Boys), Janelle Monae and more. Plus, dance school competition and live graffiti exhibit.

Thursday, February 5, 2009
7:00 pm
$25 – Tix

The Music Box at Henry Fonda Theater
6126 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90028
323-464-0808

henryfondatheater.com | nofxofficialwebsite.com

25th anniversary show of the Angeleno punk band which will feature the three different line-up “eras” of the group. Special guests Youth Brigade, Channel 3 and Sin 34.