Good Times – Sam Cooke – The Man And His Music
I Can Only Give You Everything – Ambertones – Garage Punk Unknowns Vol 7
Cissy Strut – The Meters
Love You So – The King Khan & BBQ Show – The King Khan & BBQ Show

The Happy Farmer – Ty Segall – Ty Segall + Superstitions Split
Valley (Of The Jams) – The Traditional Fools – The Traditional Fools
Jinx Removing – Jawbreaker – 24 Hour Revenge Therapy
All The Troubadors – Abi Yoyos – Mill Valley
Baby, You’re Right – James Brown – Star Time Disc 1
Can I Get a Witness – Marvin Gaye

IRT – Snatch – Destination Bomp
Bulletproof jacket – Biggs – The Roll Call
Roy (Third Sex) - Hey Girl! – Big Fat Ski
Spend, Spend, Spend – The Slits – Cut
I Just Do – Go Sailor - Go Sailor
I Don’t Want to Take a Chance – Mary Wells

Are you expletive kidding me?

Well, the lineup was released today for Sasquatch Music Festival, May 29th through May 31st. And it is absolutely incredible. In my opinion, it stomps Coachella. For the past week, I’ve been mulling over dropping over $600 on plane tickets to Manchester, TN for Bonnaroo. Sasquatch is almost, if not, better than Bonaroo too. The only things holding me back: 1) its during 9th week of Spring Quarter. 2) Its in Washington. But regardless…I may still go. Let me tell you why I’m so excited/upset/in decision mode:

FRIDAY, MAY 29

Vampire Weekend: (also performing at Coachella) Fresh off their sophomore album Contra, these New Yorkers are surely going to put on an incredible show. They are known to have awesome energy during their shows and are completely blowing up with the success of both their albums to date. Approaching must see status in my book.

Deadmau5: (Coachella & Bonnaroo) One of the top DJs out there right now.

OK Go: (Bonnaroo) Look up their live stuff on youtube. Sometimes they dance. All the time they sound identical to their music. And they just released a new album that rocks.

Minus the Bear: My friends have raved about them live for years. Their music is so complex that it would seem difficult to transmit live, but all of the people I know that have seem them live say that they do it flawlessly.

Wale: (C & B) He’s hip-hop for indie-rock fans. I just saw him last week and he knows how to get the crowd involved which is a very underrated but extremely important element in performing and festivals. What I like about Sasquatch is that he is one of the most prominent names in hip-hop performing while Coachella and Bonnaroo have both opted to let Jay-Z headline a predominantly rock festival.

Other notable performers: My Morning Jacket, The National, Broken Social Scene, The Hold Steady, Miike Snow, The Very Best, Laura Marling, Fool’s Gold, WHY?

SATURDAY, MAY 30

LCD Soundsystem (C & B): Because they’re gonna be good, I just know it.

Kid Cudi: (B) He is my favorite artist of the year 2009. His album, Man On the Moon, is incredible. He’s like Wale, an up-and-coming hip-hop artist that indie fans love, except…he’s better. This will be his first big festival gig, and he’s gonna blow the Gorge away.

The xx(C & B): This band is flying up indie fans’ musical charts and rightfully so. Their music sounds like it would transfer very well to the big festival stage, and if they’re being booked at Coachella, Bonnaroo AND Sasquatch you know they are gonna bring it.

Avi Buffalo: The Long Beach native hasn’t even released an album yet, and was invited to the festival. THat says A LOT about how talented he is. Two weeks ago, he performed in Royce Hall, I missed it. I’m still bummed I missed it.

Freelance Whales: I’ve struggled with defining the type of music this Williamsburg, NY quintet plays but I’ve settled on hipster, experimental folk pop. Bottom line, they’re innovative, true to their music and simply incredible. I have been playing their debut album Weathervanes non-stop since I got my hands on it a few months ago.

Other notable performers: Massive Attack, Pavement, Tegan and Sara, Nada Surf, The Tallest Man on Earth, A-Trak, Local Natives

MONDAY, MAY 31

MGMT (C): They will have just released their sophomore album, Congratulations which I’m predicting now will be one of the greatest albums of 2010. MGMT has hit every major festival from Bonnaroo to SXSW to ACL and all across Europe so it goes without saying that they have established themselves as a fantastic festival performer.

She & Him (C & B): Two words, one name…Zooey Deschanel. She’s cute, she sings, she’s married to Ben Gibbard, he’s in Death Cab for Cutie, they’re from Seattle, which is in Washington, which is where Sasquatch is…. Wait. So you’re saying there’s a chance of a Ben Gibbard spotting? With or without the husband in tow, Zooey and M. Ward make an incredible tandem and will have just released their second album, Volume Two.

Passion Pit (C): Going from 2010 album expectations to 2009, Passion Pit’s Manners was one of my favorite albums of the entire year. They’d be fun to see live.

The Temper Trap (C & B): The Temper Trap got its big US break with the lead single for the movie, 500 Days of Summer, starring none other than Zooey D of She & Him! The Temper Trap make my list has bands I’m dying to see simply because I wanna experience the bliss of hearing “Sweet Disposition” live.

Other notable performers: Ween, Band of Horses, The New Pornographers, Drive By Truckers, Boys Noize, Neon Indian

So, now you understand why I am so crazy about this line-up. So crazy in fact that I wrote an entire column on an event thousands of miles away. I think I might have to go….who’s with me?

I’ve had my fair share of celebrity crushes. I remember when I was younger and I had a huge crush on Justin Timberlake and most of the members of N’Sync but I grew out of those and realized that those celebrities, and celebrities in general, would probably a) never date someone so young and b) care to meet me. In this day and age I see that the celebrity crushes I develop are aimed at celebrities that are awkwardly younger than me.

Yes, it creeps me out too but to be completely honest sometimes I don’t even realize that the person I am looking at is younger than me. Sure, the age difference is small but I’ve been used to forming crushes on people that are older than me. My first example is, of course, one third of the most famous brothers in the world. Little Nick Jonas. I know it seems like I exaggerate considering that I’m only eighteen but I have the right to be a little creeped out by the fact that millions of girls that are older than me find this boy attractive. I do admit that he is cute but he is young and I find it weird that so many older girls think he’s sexy.

Another example is Taylor Lautner. He exploded when New Moon came out all I can remember about him are his abs. That boy has a great body and he’s only seventeen. There are millions of women that think he is attractive. Don’t get me wrong, he can be good looking from certain angles, but, like I said, he’s only seventeen! And I hear women, yes, GROWN WOMEN, talking about him in ways that I don’t need older women to be talking about young men. It’s weird to think that there are people out there who count down the days until these boys become legal. I’ve read blogs about this and it honestly scares me it scares me as much as men who count down until girls turn eighteen. I know that these are just dreams in people’s heads and that people can have crushes but it personally creeps me out. It doesn’t mean I’m going to stop with these crushes and it certainly doesn’t mean that I don’t approve of these crushes but it simply means that I’ll be less creepy about them. Oh young Hollywood, it seems like you’re getting younger each year but I can live with that. So, this rant is dedicated to the next generation of young heartthrobs that will cause older women to swoon and squeal. Hopefully I won’t be one of the many females that get caught up in the hype but if I do then I can live with that.

- Laura
Totally Rad!!! Thursdays 8pm-10pm

Tune in this Saturday from Noon-2pm and celebrate Valentines weekend with DJ JokerPace and the JokerPace Radio Hour. The entire discography of the legendary singer/songwriter SADE will be on display for the full 2 hours, including her latest effort that was released this week ‘Soldier Love’.

Only a week before the concert I received an email from the Jason Webley mailing list “LA show this Thursday at Echo Curio.” And yet even with such a short notice and absolutely zero publicity, the venue was packed.  Luckily I was small enough to fit very nicely directly in front of Jason.  Opening was Eliza Rickman, a local singer-songwriter, toting an antique two-octave piano.  Her beautiful voice, victorian shoes and Charlie Chaplin doll charmed her way into my music library.

Jason Webley, for all those who are not familiar, is an accordionist from Seattle who travels around the world with an old vodka bottle filled with coins. He opened with a cover of a song I wasn’t familiar with, followed by my all-time favorite “Map” from the album Counterpoint. He apologized as usual for his lack of new material and played a ridiculously hilarious cover of  ”Sex Mad” by Nomeansno instead.  The show was sold out, but he let in the people standing outside and told us to jump up and shout “Welcome!” and embrace them when they entered.  And we did.

As he played “Dance While the Sky Crashes Down,” Jason stomped his foot so vigorously that the dust from the carpet created a cloud around him.  I inevitably inhaled it.  I was also so close that I was much too embarrassed to whip out my Nikon and snap a photo in his face so I took some inconspicuous shots with the iphone.

Jason Webley at the Echo Curio Performing "Dance While the Sky Crashes Down"

He gave a brief ode to Leonard Cohen and followed up with a cover of “Stranger Song” and  then a crowd favorite, “Icarus” from Only Just Beginning. Again, the dust cloud. But more impressive are his famous (or infamous) covers. Webley is more than a musician or songwriter; he’s a an amazing interpreter of other artists’ music.   Half the songs he plays at shows are not his own, and of course he took requests.  I mean, who wouldn’t want to hear “Billy Jean” on an accordion?  Who wouldn’t cringe with curiosity at the idea of  Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” as a polka?

And so he played several more covers and continued the night off with several of his own songs, “2am” and “There’s Not a Step We Take That Doesn’t Bring Us Closer Together”, which, as usual involved much audience participation.  He jumped around so much his hat kept falling off. And then he played the ubiquitously-adored “Eleven Saints” (Check out the music video made from construction paper, magazine cut-outs and googly eyes.) He finished with a Russian song, (which he sang in Russian), a horribly (albeit amusingly) depressing Christmas song, and his traditional finale, “The Drinking Song”, before which we all spin around twelve times while staring at our fingers pointed at the ceiling and then proceed to sway and sing “La da di! La da da! La da di da da da da!”

Overall all it was one of my favorite concert experiences so far. I highly recommend trying to see him when he’s in town.  He should be going on tour soon with Amanda Palmer of the Dresdens Dolls as they are releasing an album together next month.  Pre-sales start February 16th so mark your calenders!

—Alice

Thursday night, as I walked out of Pauley, I felt a sense of hope. UCLA Men’s Basketball had just beaten a good team (The Stanford Cardinal), a great player (Landry Fields), and found themselves at the top of the Pac-10 — I mean, Pac-9 (sorry $C) — with half of the conference schedule left. The freshman duo of Tyler Honeycutt and Reeves Nelson, along with veteran leaders Nikola Dragovic and Michael Roll, spread the wealth between themselves and gave The Den and all others attending a very emotional, satisfying win. All was right in Westwood.

And then there was Saturday.

From 35 rebounds to 23. 5 to 16 turnovers. It was as if first place in the conference scared The Bruins and they would rather be the underachieving underdogs they have been all season than a legitimate contender. California’s Theo Robertson, Jerome Randle, and Patrick Christopher torched UCLA and The Den had to shuffle out of Pauley with heads hanging.

Once again this season I’m going to pick up the Daily Bruin on Monday and hear about how the Bruins “Still Have A Chance.” That they could still potentially make it. That they just need to kick it into gear. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that the Men’s Basketball team is teasing us. They show us their potential, how could they COULD be, and then follow it up with disappointment. So what’s the solution? I can’t say that I have the Basketball IQ of a basketball coaching great like Ben Howland, but I think I have a solution for this season. It may work, it may not, but at least it’s a change of pace.

Tyler Honeycutt

Get the young players into the game! Tyler Honeycutt has proven that he is a legitimate basketball player, and if he chooses to stay in Westwood (Dear Tyler, STAY HERE.) he can become a star. Howland was cautious earlier this season as far as giving him minutes, but has now given him almost the entire game to assert his authority on the court. But other than Honeycutt, Howland needs to put more young guys out there.  For example, Reeves Nelson. His hustle and drive is infectious, and he is quickly become a cult hero of The Den. He may not always drop twenty in a game, but he always does the little things on the court that good players seem to do naturally. Reeves was in an extra six minutes in the win compared to the loss. Coincidence? Potentially, but if we are going to be competitive in the coming years we need to get a head-start on the future now. Starters like James Keefe and the unpredictable Nikola Dragovic (15 points Thursday, 7 Saturday) need to give up some of their time so that these young players can get experience. We have just as good of a change of winning going young, and it will be much more beneficial for future years here in Westwood.

Reeves Nelson

This season has been a roller coaster and it will continue to be a wild ride. We will win some great games with amazing play, we will lose in horribly embarrassing fashion. But personally, I’d rather see our Bruins go with the young, exciting guys on the court rather than going back to the same formula we’ve been trying all season and never knowing what to expect.

-John The Intern

The Big Program, Mondays from 6-8 PM

Jon doing what he does best

As we start a new decade, it’s always good to look back at the highlights of the previous ten years.  Across the Atlantic Ocean, Hospital Records artist Cyantific has been hard at work summing up the decade of 2000-2009 by mixing together some of the best drum and bass songs of the decade in chronological order.  The ‘Time Flies’ mix is being released in two parts, free of charge, with part one being out now and part two on the way.  The London based duo consists of producer Matt and DJ Jon.  Jon had this to say about the mix:

“Time flies when you’re having fun, or so they say.
I wanted to do a mix which is a snapshot of some of the D+B that I’ve really loved over the last decade. 2 parts in 2 hours, year by year. That’s about 5-8 tunes a year. It took ages just to get a vague idea of what I wanted on there. Then organising it by year, and working out what would work where. So many amazing tunes didn’t make it just for that reason. It’s not meant to be me going ‘this is the best music D+B had to offer’ its just a mix of some of my personal favourites. I hope you enjoy it.”

Cyantific has been a part of Hospital Records, the largest drum and bass label in the industry, for years, bringing a darker and more laid back influence to the company’s usually light tone.  Cyantific tends to create liquid music with some influence from techstep.  Ever since the 2005 release of their song Don’t Follow, Cyantific has had a tremendous rise to fame.  Their remix of Netsky’s song Hold on to Love has topped Hospital’s top ten this month.  Part one of the ‘Time Flies’ mix consists of 29 songs and can be found on Cyantific’s website on Hospital Records here:

http://www.hospitalrecords.com/artists/cyantific/

- Nate Mayer
KLA Plugged, Saturdays 4-6 pm

Today, very few bands successfully harmonize their vocals. A lack of effort or often an outright lack of backing vocals has minimized the singing capacity of many current bands. Of course, harmonized vocals do not suit all songs and all types of music. But you would think, what with the vast amount of pop-oriented Indie tunes and bands that swear by their catchy melodies, there would be more backing vocalists who raise or lower their voices two notes away from the lead singer. The fact is that harmony enriches songs with a ringing quality that dances through the eardrums. In the right places, harmony can add a measure of lushness and appeal, even if the melody is already well-crafted. In Standing Next to Me by The Last Shadow Puppets, for example, Alex Turner and Miles Kane’s flowing vocal duet gives the song a grand and cinematic quality. When The Kooks embellish their choruses with harmonized backing vocals in Naïve and Mr. Maker, they move beyond other Indie groups in creating high-quality, memorable pop songs. Bands that incorporate harmonies well can create timeless and stimulating music. Of course, nothing fancy is required, and excessive harmonies certainly detract more than they add. But by sprinkling songs with bits of harmonious backup singing, musicians overstep better-than-average tunes and create real, crooning masterpieces.

–Eytan Schindelhaim

“Iggy Pop was wrong. There is, in fact, fun.” – fun.

Well, I suppose it’s right to assume that Iggy Pop was wrong because there is fun. After the demise of The Format, Nate Reuss knew that he wanted to stay in music so he recruited Andrew Dost from Anathallo and Jack Antonoff from Steel Train and formed fun. The band has seemed to explode onto the scene with “All the Pretty Girls.” A song about love lost and trying to move on. They have toured with Manchester Orchestra, Taking Back Sunday, and Hellogoodbye. They ended their headlining tour in September of last year with Miniature Tigers as their opening band. The band has just started touring with Jack’s Mannequin and will tour with Paramore and Relient K in April of this year.

(more…)

Tune in to Metal Slug this Friday Morning from 10 AM to 12 PM to get the Top 10 Valentine’s Day Tips from the founders of YuGoe Entertainment and the hosts of FVCK LOVE! at the Equator.  Call in with your best Valentine’s Day stories to win a special gift from the event.

And for all your night’s out, make sure to go to www.yugoe.com first for great tips and recommendations.

Metal Slug: serving up your metal in the morning every Friday from 10-noon.

Valentine’s Day is a pretty brutal holiday.  Everything’s decorated in blood, you have naked flying babies impaling people with arrows, there’s  a lot of sex and a lot of fetish indulgence….the dream of every young Scandinavian adolescent with a guitar and a distortion pedal.  Of course, what better way to say “I love you” than with some hard hitting speed metal (for the V-day quickies)? Or the subtle ambiance created by drone metal (goes great with hot wax and leather!)?  Or even the psychedelic space odyssey of progressive metal (I guarantee nothing will get her pants off faster than a 22 minute Dream Theater prog-fest)? Yet, as hardcore as Valentine’s Day may seem, there are still rules to follow when setting the mood – and unfortunately, that means saving some of the heaviest and brutalest metal in your music collection.  Here’s my list of metal songs that you SHOULDN’T play on Valentine’s Day.

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UCLA can be a beautiful place in the Winter time.

My day usually begins at 6:00AM from the sweet sounds of a radio tuned to virtually no station. Yep, I hear the static “no station” sound at highest volume to wake my ass up. It works because I hate the sound and it can’t blend as a background music for my fantastic dreams.

I then eat breakfast and begin driving to school at around 7:30AM. Today, I got there at 9:00AM. Unfortunately with rain, people tend to drive at a “grandma’s pace”.

Driving on the 101 and 405 freeway every single day is the biggest waste of life on Earth! Every quarter I lose approximately 3 days of my life commuting to school (yeah, I calculated it!). So that’s 9 days every school year and 18 days after I’m done with UCLA. Yippie ki’ yay!

Now that I have successfully bored you with my daily dilemma, let’s continue this article.

When I arrive on campus, the first thing I always do is grab a coffee from Kerckhoff coffee house. Today, for the 199th time (I really haven’t been counting), I got to sit by an interesting person at the coffee house. She was a teacher assistant for an English professor. She had her lunch already bought, sitting on the opposite side of the table, to save a seat for someone else. As usual, I didn’t care … and I asked “Is this seat open?” She said, “Yes, but in 40 minutes I’m going to have students to speak to.” I said, “No problem, I’ll be out of here in 20 minutes!”

I proceeded to sit down with my small-in-a-medium-cup house coffee and spinach (popeye FTW!) & cheese lunch croissant. Before I continue… you’re probably wondering WTF I’m talking about with “small-in-a-medium-cup”.

Let’s go off on a quick tangent. From my experience, the small coffee cup’s at UCLA, and the lids made for them are defective. I, as well as many of my friends, have burned their beautiful hands while walking to class with a small coffee because the lid doesn’t fit it snugly enough. So what I do is always ask for a “small in a medium cup” house coffee. That way, you usually get more coffee, since they try to approximate how much a small in a medium cup of coffee is, and almost always screw up. I would say 90% of the time, my small coffee magically turns into a medium coffee! Just don’t ask room for cream!

Back to the woman.

She was quite attractive, very kind, and respectful. Unfortunately, the week before midterms, I always become quite bitter at life. I’m immensely sleep deprived and desperately am looking for a way to boost my energy throughout the day. However, I limit myself to 2 cups of coffee during a single day, so the rest of the day without coffee is a battle. After about 5 minutes I finished my croissant, I asked her, “Do you not have a lid on your small coffee because it spilled?” She said, “No, I just like drinking coffee without the lid”. Intrigued, I proceeded to tell her my method of buying small coffee at UCLA. She liked my advice!

The one thing that I found out about girls at UCLA (and probably in general) is that it’s easy to get them talking, but it’s hard to get them to continue talking. Especially at Kerckhoff, since they are almost always studying or are on their laptops. You also don’t want to sound like you’re interviewing them, but I end up always sounding like that, since I’m always interested in learning more about people! But if they don’t ask you any questions during the process, that’s usually a horrible sign. At least, in my opinion it is. It’s like driving on a one way street!

She asked me only one question… “What’s your major?” I said, “Psychology … hence my method of buying small coffee!” That made her laugh, but I realized this conversation wasn’t going anywhere. Don’t get me wrong though, I did get her vibes of interest towards me. However, I also had to get out of there since I needed to meet up with my own TA for my Research Methods class. The last thing I said was (and I say this to everyone I meet that I don’t ask for their phone number), “The one problem with UCLA is you see someone and never see them again. Hopefully, I’ll see you again!”

That’s the story of my daily life. It’s all the same. I must slow it down and make it different.

Maybe I should have asked for her phone number?

We all know The Knife as the Swedish electronic duo of Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olaf Dreijer who have astounded listeners with their enigmatic sound on tracks such as “Heartbeats” and “Silent Shout” and their new experimental album Tomorrow, in a Year is nothing short of breathtaking. The Knife collaborated with Danish theatre group Hotel pro Forma, Mt. Sims and Planningtorock to create an opera based on the research of Charles Darwin and his book “On The Origin of Species.” Now being a science nerd, I definitely geeked out a little when I heard about the inspiration. I found this description from The Knife’s website particularly entertaining: “These 90 minutes span the life of the earth, from the earliest geology, amoebas and insects, passing the dinosaurs, arriving at man, maybe looking further on. And they tell the story of Darwin and his ability to upset the established order and wrestle the ownership of creation from God.”

The first track to be released entitled “Colouring of Pigeons” is in my opinion, a small masterpiece that has a noticeable development or “evolution” as one could put it, over the course of its 11 minutes.  The piece begins with what sounds like a primordial rhythm/chant and progresses into a melodic ballad carried by Karin’s unmistakable voice before  ending with the strikingly beautiful vocals of an opera singer. The momentum of this track is astounding and will have listeners hooked from beginning to end.  As if one needed any further proof of The Knife’s originality, this album demonstrates what a true art form blending musical genres can be with awe-inspiring results.

The full version of Tomorrow, in a Year is now streaming online at the Knife’s official website and is available for pre-order which includes an instant download. If you are a fan of The Knife this album will not disappoint!

- Allie Chavez
Erotic Thriller, Wednesdays 8 -10pm

Mid-term season is here!! And for those of you that need a little time off, guess what? The Fowler Museum at UCLA is a great place to distract yourself from all that stressful business that comes with tests, writing and what not. On January 31st a new Exhibition called ” X-voto” opened showcasing the retablos of Mexican artist, David Mecalco. So for those of you who do not know what a retablo is, basically a piece of wood in which art is painted into as a form of gratitude to the saints, in this case his art is dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe. The really cool thing about these retablos however is the fact that it depicts paintings inspired by the people of the barrios or neighborhoods were Mecalco grew up in Mexico. Personally my favorite piece of art was one of two men who were partners, and while holding hands thank the Virgin Mary for allowing them to be happy in their relationship. Although it sounds controversial having two gay men thanking the virgin for allowing them to share a relationship, this is not the most controversial retablo at the exhibition. If you are into colors, and into art that depicts real life, this is definitely the expo for you! According to the Fowler Museum Website “Fowler in Focus: X-Voto—The Retablo-Inspired Art of David Mecalco” will be on view in the Fowler in Focus gallery, the central space within the long-term exhibition “Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives.” So stop by the Fowler museum, IT’S FREE!! And it’s open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.
Thursday until 8 p.m, so for sure there is a time for everyone to visit this great exhibition. So next time when you are 1) Procrastinating, 2) Bored or 3) just want to enjoy a great time looking at art, walk to the Fowler Museum located right next to the Jans steps and check out this show!

– Maria
The next Episode Thursday 2-4pm

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