Whether he likes it or not, Flea, bass player for Los Angeles’ own Red Hot Chili Peppers, has become the de facto face of music for our fine burgh. If you ask him about it, he’ll just slough it off. He doesn’t want to be the face of anything. The guy’s so humble he’ll probably be pissed for even being called humble. But when you’re one-fourth of one of the world’s best-known bands and your assessment of your skills is a simple, “I’m a pretty good electric bass player,” then you get the drift.
The Fairfax High graduate and recent USC School of Music student has played with a mind-boggling litany of musicians from around the world: Bryan Ferry, Jimmy Scott, John Cale, Mick Jagger, George Clinton, Ice Cube and just this summer, his close pal Patti Smith, with whom he closed out the Santa Monica Pier’s annual Twilight Dance Series.
And then there’s Thom Yorke, who brought Flea on board to perform his solo album, “The Eraser,” live. “When he was getting his thing together to play his music he thought enough of me to ask me to join him. I was really honored,” Flea says. “It’s just exciting for me to play with great players, and new players, without any of the pressure, to go out and have fun and play music just for the celebration of it. The whole Thom Yorke experience was wicked. It was fucking fun man.”
The band’s three soldout L.A. performances were rad, but don’t hold your breath for their next outing. Flea says, “We’re just going to play once in a while, a fun project. My home is the Red Hot Chili Peppers and his is Radiohead.”
What is on the horizon though, is an album with another talented Brit: Damon Albarn. Earlier this year in London, Flea, the Blur/Gorillaz/the Good, the Bad & the Queen frontman and Afrobeat drumming legend Tony Allen recorded an as of yet unnamed, largely improvisational project that was born out of an earlier jam session at a Nairobi club.
Flea says, “Damon is a contemporary of mine, someone who has covered a lot of musical ground as a musician. Tony Allen is one of my favorite musicians of all time. He invented the Afrobeat sound for Fela Kuti. That is his beat, it is one of my favorite sounds ever.” He continues, “Playing with those guys was such a natural thing, the same thing I strive for when playing with other musicians. I can’t wait to get the recording finished.” An early listen of the rough tracks revealed music that though loose and atmospheric, showed great pop structure and invention.
Flea’s panache for invention isn’t limited to performance. Perhaps its most concrete manifestation sits in a classic 1920s terra cotta building at the historic Sunset Junction. Here, the Silverlake Conservatory of Music offers lessons to musicians of all ages, but its true purpose is providing free instruction to more than 300 students. Flea says, “I’ve had some questionable good ideas but this wasn’t one of them. When you start a non-profit music school for kids who can’t afford musical education and aren’t getting it from public schools, anyway you slice it, it’s a good idea.”
Flea hates asking people for anything, especially money, so his only reservation about the endeavor is that he and his staff need to come up with a million dollars a year to fund scholarships and keep the little neighborhood school afloat. To that end, he has used his many connections in music — Eddie Vedder, Tracy Chapman, Metallica, Andy Summers, and most recently, Ben Harper — to play a series of fundraisers for the school. “I know from the belly of my heart that music is important and the more kids — people for that matter — the more people who are involved in music then the better off we will all be,” says Flea.
Flea’s other investment in budding musicians’ future is FLEABASS. The company manufactures sturdy, cool-looking bass guitars that aren’t a rip-off for beginning players. Flea says, “I just wanted kids to get an instrument that is a real instrument and not a toy. They are very reasonably priced, that is really important to me, and each bass is set up and ready to play.”
While Flea’s influence and expertise is musically based, it is also decidedly and distinctly Angelino. He says, “I’m not patriotic to the USA, I see myself more as a citizen of the world, but I am patriotic to my neighborhood and to this city.”
When Brendan Mullen, founder of the city’s groundbreaking punk club the Masque, passed last month, the Los Angeles Times had Flea write an appreciation. Similarly, in May, the Lakers again turned to their hometown blogger to perform the national anthem, and the team ended up with a crucial second round Game 5 victory over the Houston Rockets.
“Our sports teams are as big as anything for me,” he says. “The Dodgers and the Lakers, I mean when you are there, being with all those like-minded people, it doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, what part of the city you’re from, what color you are; when you’re there and everyone comes together and wants Lamar Odom to make that free throw, it’s just beautiful.” – Pete Weiss
Entries from November 15th, 2009
FEATURE: Flea
November 15th, 2009 · · Editorial
Tags:Flea·Red Hot Chilli Peppers·RHCP·Silverlake Conservatory of Music
PROFILE: Portugal the Man
November 15th, 2009 · · Editorial
Portugal. The Man isn’t a man at all, but a band, and a damned fine one at that. They’ve also been pretty prolific, releasing five albums and a pair of EPs in a mere four years, including their latest and greatest, “The Satanic Satanist.” It’s a collection that’s so good the band opted to re-record it acoustically and release it to their fans under the title “The Majestic Majesty.”
Despite the apparent nod to “Their Satanic Majesties Request,” the Rolling Stones’ 1967 psychedelic-soaked answer to the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” P.TM singer/guitarist John Baldwin Gourley says the similar titles are purely coincidental. “I was never a Rolling Stones kid,” says Gourley via phone during a stop on the band’s recent U.S. tour. “I told our manager that I wanted to call the album ‘The Satanic Satanist of the Majestic Majesty’ and he called me out on it right away. My friends have actually gotten pissed at me for not knowing that [Stones’ album title], but it was always that dancing. Any time I saw [Mick Jagger doing] that chicken dance, I thought, ‘Man, I don’t like that.’ It just wasn’t my thing.”
During his formative years in Wasilla, Alaska, Gourley was more in tune with the Beatles, ‘70s AM radio, and soul legend Curtis Mayfield. It’s those sounds that influenced “The Satanic Satanist,” which found P.TM upping the stakes by enlisting noted producer Paul Q. Kolderie (the Pixies, Radiohead), as well as Adam Taylor (the Lemonheads, the Dresden Dolls) and Cornershop sitarist/keyboardist Anthony Saffery.
“This is the first time we went in with someone who wasn’t a friend beforehand,” Gourley explains. “We really didn’t know Paul, Adam and Anthony at all. It made us really nervous and very self-conscious and I think that added to what the album became.”
In Gourley’s mind, that self-consciousness has helped keep Portugal. The Man — which also includes keyboardist Ryan Neighbors, bassist Zachary Scott Carothers, and drummer Jason Sechrist — interesting and evolving by changing musical styles from album to album and keeping themselves and their fans guessing. “I think eventually we’ll probably find that groove and we’ll become comfortable with everything and then we’ll become Paul McCartney and put out bad music. He’s one of the best songwriters of all time, but I wish he’d just look back and be self-conscious again,” says Gourley before asking, “My God, was that awful to say? The Beatles are my favorite band.”
Portugal. The Man isn’t only about throwing minor jabs at rock royalty. In their songs, the band takes on such heavies as former President George W. Bush, who’s alluded to in the opening lyrics of “People Say,” the country-soul sing-along that kicks off “The Satanic Satanist.” Gourley croons, “Save me / I can’t be saved / I’m a president’s son / I don’t need no soul” and later adds, “What a lovely day / Yeah we won the war / May have lost a million men / But we got a million more.” The song’s upbeat melody is in stark contrast to its dark subject matter. “You always have to have some lift,” Gourley explains. “You never want to be too much of a downer.”
Gourley and pal Austin Sellers also provide some visual delights for fans with the psychedelic packaging of the CD version of “The Satanic Satanist,” which features an elaborate series of die-cut panels. “The CD is teetering on this cliff right now,” he says. “It’s ready to go. I was just thinking we really need to do something that makes it worthwhile, not to buy necessarily, but if you do buy it, you get something for it. And if you do throw it away, it’s just paper, there’s no plastic and there’s only one glue spot, so you can recycle it.”
The always-prolific Gourley already has an album’s worth of new tunes in the can. In the new songs Gourley dug deeper into the small-town psyche and came up with a collection of songs that are, by his description, “very dark,” and accented by hip-hop styled drum loops. The material, recorded with Saffery, includes a song Gourley wrote on a guitar that indie icon Elliott Smith used while recording his first two albums. And what’s the title of that song? “Some Men.” Surely that’s not a play on “Some Girls” by the Rolling Stones? “I just thought of that,” Gourley laughs. “Damn it.” – Craig Rosen
Tags:
PROFILE: The Cool Kids
November 15th, 2009 · · Editorial
Definitely in the first three months of 2010. If it’s not out by then, I’m leaking it. That’s the pure, honest truth.” So says Chuck Inglish, one half of Chicago’s the Cool Kids, on his group’s exceedingly long-awaited album debut.
Shortly before the release of their game-changing 2008 EP, “The Bake Sale,” Chuck and partner-in-rhyme Mikey Rocks announced that the “When Fish Ride Bicycles” LP was soon due. Yet despite all the promise packed into the crisp beats and clever rhymes of that unbelievably stylish first outing, the better part of two years has passed with only a mixtape to show for it.
“We’re really hard on our music,” Chuck says. “There could be a song that we liked originally, but then three months will pass and we’re not feeling it anymore. We don’t want people to hear it because that means they ain’t going to like it in three months either.” So they’ve been scrapping, revising, and rebuilding from scratch (and without reusing material from the “Gone Fishing” mix).
The Cool Kids have also been touring the world on the strength of what little music they’ve released, recently wrapping up a series of stateside dates with their idols, Clipse.
Perhaps learning from the Virginia duo’s label troubles, these two aren’t rushing into a contract. “I want the ability to drive this car,” says Chuck. “You shouldn’t have to impress a panel of people to put out something that has your name on it. You, as the artist, should be critical enough to know what’s good and what isn’t.” – Chris Martins
Tags:
PROFILE: MSTRKRFT
November 15th, 2009 · · Editorial, Uncategorized
They clearly have an aversion to vowels, but the boys of MSTRKRFT (pronounced “master craft”) totally dig sound. Jesse F. Keeler (JFK) and Alex Puodziukas (Al-P), the decidedly deft duo from Toronto, are electronic mix masters who specialize in throbbing house music that, like the title of their catchy collaboration with N.O.R.E., inspires clubbers far and wide to “Bounce.”
Since their inception in 2005, MSTRKRFT have remixed the best of ‘em, breathing new, funky life into tunes by Lil Wayne and Keri Hilson (“Turnin Me On”), Usher (“Love in This Club”) and Crystal Method (“Keep Hope Alive”). They also have two original LPs, “The Looks,” and this year’s “Fist of God,” and weave various techno, electro, rock, rap, and punk influences into their beats.
Their November tour schedule is jam-packed through the middle of the month, with shows in Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, the latter gig taking place November 14 at the Vanguard — home to one of the city’s best, and loudest, sound systems.
If you want to see two fine young Canucks working turntables like professional gamblers working a high-stakes blackjack table until the wee hours, MSTRKRFT is your ticket. – Amy Lyons
Tags:
PROFILE: Miike Snow
November 15th, 2009 · · Editorial
Miike Snow write pleasant pop tunes that seem to have no ambition or pretension to be anything but agreeable. This is a good.
Singer Andrew Wyatt and his cohorts Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg — aka Bloodshy & Avant, the Swedish duo that’s penned songs for Madonna, Ms. Dynamite, and Kylie Minogue — can also sound surprisingly soulful (albeit in a low-key fashion) and sneak introspective lyrics under tasteful and cheery beats. This is good as well. Your mom would enjoy Miike Snow. So would your little brother. Chances are, you would too.
The b-i-g-g-e-s-t song on the group’s eponymous 2009 release is the ballad “Sylvia.” Its vocals and riff generate a surprising amount of tension until it hits the crescendo of electro bleeps and blorps. It’s a long song, but worth it, and a good palate-cleanser between the tunes that make your feet tap involuntarily. Another single off the disc, “Animal,” is more straightforward than “Silvia” in that it’s immediately catchy and somewhat reminiscent of the late ‘60s flower power anthem “Something in the Air.”
You can imagine these songs coming out of outdoor speakers on summer nights, or quietly playing inside stores and restaurants, so slight you barely notice, but when you do you’re happy. Hopefully Miike Snow continues doing albums like this and will, unlike “Something in the Air’s” Thunderclap Newman, be around for a while.
Tags:
Profile: U-N-I
November 1st, 2009 · · Editorial
No matter your personal feelings for the eternally show-stopping Kanye West, there’s no denying the dude’s influence on rap — specifically, the culture’s growing embrace of form-fitting threads and synth sounds cribbed from electronica. Both elements are woven into the fabric of Inglewood’s U-N-I, the rising duo comprising emcees Thurzday (he of the designer digs) and Y-O (Mohawked maven of thrift store couture). The former is actually a dead ringer for West — and the latter could pull off a vocal stand-in — but U-N-I has its own identity steeped in a soulful positivity whose roots run closer to the Soulquarians family tree.
Listen to their breakout single, “Land of the Kings,” and you might assume it’s a collaboration between MGMT and N.E.R.D. “It’s a new day,” says Thurzday. “We’re in a generation that listens to all kinds of music, so to use different elements and sculpt them into something new to create an unfamiliar sound — that’s natural.”
U-N-I are po-mo Internet kids to the core. The group’s handle comes from the Roots’ classic, “UNIverse at War”; they scored an early hit with a sneaker-inspired Wu-Tang Clan remake, “Kicks Rule Everything Around Me”; and their new album gets its title from John Coltrane’s most famous release. U-N-I’s “A Love Supreme” is a musically inventive set of life lessons, odes to fun, story raps, and — of course — serious swagger.
Tags:
PROFILE: Bon Iver
November 1st, 2009 · · Editorial
A triumvirate of soul-killing circumstances — a band break-up, a romantic relationship’s fizzling, and a nasty liver infection — sent Justin Vernon into seclusion in 2006. After holing up in his dad’s cabin during one Wisconsin winter, the then 25-year-old Vernon emerged as Bon Iver, delivering up the musical fruits of his frosty, wood-chopping, deer-hunting retreat, 2008’s “For Emma, Forever Ago” (Jagjaguwar).
Known for his aversion to engineers and producers, Vernon reveres the folk tradition and continues to impress with his high register wails and buttery guitar plucks. In concert, he hands out lyric sheets to audiences, allowing fans to re-create the massive amount of overdubbing on the album. Thus, a Bon Iver concert is often a mass sing-a-long, an audience-as-back-up-vocalist affair. Think “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” with hauntingly heartbreaking additives. During live gigs, Vernon is joined by Sean Carey, Michael Noyce, and Matthew McCaughan.
There won’t be any secluded log cabins for Bon Iver this winter. A live BBC performance of “Skinny Love” made the cut on Rhino’s “Later Live 2 with Jools Holland” compilation released last month. The recently released “Twilight: New Moon” soundtrack included a track from Bon Iver, along with songs from Death Cab for Cutie, Thom Yorke and the Killers. The film is out in November, and in January, Vernon is traveling to the New York Guitar Festival to perform a piece with friend and fellow Volcano Choir member, Chris Rosenau. All signs point to a happier times for Bon Iver. – Amy Lyons
Tags:
PROFILE: Hockey
November 1st, 2009 · · Editorial
H
ockey is made up of four good-looking young men that often sport facial hair and are from the great Pacific patch of indie rock, Portland, Oregon. As of this writing, they are on tour with Portugal. The Man, and they play the kind of accessible meat-and-potatoes electro pop that nobody in their right mind would find even slightly abrasive.
They have enough of a new wave spring in their step to keep them from being too square to the ears of the folks in their demographic, and they even still paint
their own pleasingly amateurish, D.I.Y.-style record covers.
The title of Hockey’s self-released album-turned-part of Capitol Records 2009 roster is “Mind Chaos.” Founding members Ben Grubin and Jeremy “Jerm” Reynolds coined the phrase “mind chaos” to describe the happenings in a University of Redlands course called “The Great Remembering: Evolving Beyond the Pathology of Modernity.”
This music isn’t going to make your head explode with a million valid revelations, but in the same vein as LCD Soundsystem, it’ll probably make you want to dance, just like founding members Ben and Jerm intended.
Tags:
