Monthly Archives: August 2011

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Gallery Music The Emperor of Dubstep: Nero

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon
August 11, 2011 - 10:24 am

Dubstep’s latest poster child, Nero, is composed of one part Daniel Stephens and one part Joe Ray. The innovative duo came to light after a string of big name remixes for the likes of Deadmau5, N.E.R.D. and La Roux, which they followed up with a 2004 EP titled “Requiem.” Currently dominating the worldwide festival circuit, Stephens and Ray are on a mission to apply their punchy beats and euphoric sounds towards boosting the dubstep genre one notch higher.

The guys arrived in LA Saturday afternoon to play to thousands at HARD Summer Music Festival. Following a 4-hour trek through immigration, Stephens and Ray arrived on the festival grounds. “The airport was just fucked today. I don’t know what was going on,” joked Stephens. After what he referred to as a “sucky start” to the day, Stephens took a seat in his trailer to discuss everything from clubbing in London to Nero’s latest album.

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Featured Gallery Music We Want S’more: Camp Spin-Off

by Mike Bucher
August 11, 2011 - 10:00 am

OK, imagine that you are between the ages of 13 and 17. Now, as you stroll into the beautiful Ojai grounds which include a skatepark, human foosball field, rock climbing wall, ping pong tables, and frisbee golf course, with unlimited supply of red bull you think “I’ve died and gone to heaven.” And those are just the peripherals.  The reason you are there is to learn all there is to know about the dark art of DJ-ing.

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Featured Gallery Music Ph.D. in Funk-ology: Chromeo

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon
August 10, 2011 - 10:37 am

Of all the performances at Saturday’s HARD Summer Music Festival, Chromeo was responsible for rallying the masses into an energetic frenzy more than any other act. The project, composed of P-Thugg (Patrick Gemayel) on keyboards, synth, and talk box and Dave 1 (David Macklovitch) on guitar and lead vocals pride themselves on creating a dance-worthy eclectic sound which they affectingly refer to as lovers funk.

Prior to show time, P-Thugg set up equipment for the gig as Dave 1 invited ChinaShop into his trailer for a preshow chat. In the calm before the Chromeo-induced storm, Dave revealed the genesis of the duo’s “ridiculous” nicknames, his persistence for finishing up his Ph.D., and discussed the surreal experience of being personally invited to jam in the home of Darryl Hall.

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Film An Animal Existence: “COLD FISH”

by Ariel Maccarone
August 10, 2011 - 10:32 am

Cold Fish

Remember the dreams you had as a kid which evoked disturbing emotions for which you had no names? The latest film, Cold Fish, by epic Japanese filmmaker, Sion Sono, recalls them all. Sono’s unique style of gore brings to mind the work of artists Paul Thek and Maskull Lasserre in the ways it makes the audience uncomfortable but introspective.

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Music Tuesday Newsday: New Releases from Jay-Z and Kanye, Barenaked Ladies, Trivium, and Arsis

by Shop Keeper
August 9, 2011 - 7:09 pm

The big one out today is Watch the Throne, the new collaboration between Jay-Z and Kanye. It’s getting some fairly positive reviews thus far. Metal masters Trivium release In Waves, Canadian giants Barenaked Ladies are back with Snacktime-exclamation point! and Arsis’ seminal A Celebration of Guilt gets a re-release. That last one’s a must-hear. Til next time kids…

Kanye/Jay-Z - Watch the Throne

The Horrors - Skying

Luke Bryan - Tailgates and Tanlines

Drive A - The World in Shambles

Trivium – In Waves

Barenaked Ladies – Snacktime!

Dom – Family of Love

Pepper Rabbit – Red Velvet Snowball

Arsis – A Celebration of Guilt (Re-Release)

Gallery Music A Guided Tour Down Music’s Memory Lane: Larry Mizell

by Dustin Downing
August 9, 2011 - 1:29 pm

The Soho House West Hollywood Screening Room is tucked away behind hidden sliding panels in the walls of what is LA’s hotlist member’s only refuge. Its deep red velvet armchairs are free of the common slippery popcorn butta and it’s cashmere blankets, pillows and ottomans are sans sticky soda pop. This is a intimate room with a view, not a 180 degree view of the city as one floor above, but of a small stage on which this particular evening found Motown legend Larry Mizell in conversation with Eothen ‘Egon’ Alapatt, bossman of Now-Again Records –part of the family at cult independent hip-hop label Stones Throw.

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Gallery Music HARD or BUST

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon
August 9, 2011 - 11:33 am

If this year’s HARD Summer Festival theme had to be summed up in one word, it would have to be “naked.” On Saturday, the celebrated electronic music festival brought thousands of music lovers to Los Angeles’s Downtown Historic Park for the sold out music fest. Swarms of festival goers arrived in their rave-worthy best; dressed in the smallest amount of clothing they could get by in without earning them a police record.

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Featured interview Music The Deftones’ Chino and Far’s Shaun Lopez Form CROSSES

by Jeff Nau and Sidney Bensimon
August 8, 2011 - 5:23 pm

Crosses

For the past few months, if you tried to dig up any information on Crosses — Chino Moreno’s latest project with Far guitarist Shaun Lopez and a mysterious Clint Eastwood-type guitar-slinger named Chuck –  you’d find next to nothing. There might be a reason for that: Crosses isn’t Deftones-ish at all. And it ain’t really even remotely Far-esque. It’s an unorthodox but heady mix of trip-hop, jazz, and some touches of that Northern California brand of hard rock they helped pioneer.

But days ago Chino dropped five free downloads of the Crosses project onto his Facebook page. Here’s an interview we got with the guys last month, when the album was still being mixed in Red Bull Studios.

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Featured Film Fridays Music Rain or Shine We Came To Rock: Lollapalooza Day 3

by Kim Taylor
August 8, 2011 - 5:02 pm

British post-punkers Arctic Monkeys managed to play a partial set to a drenched yet committed crowd after the first of two huge storms shut down outside stages on Day 3 of Lollapalooza 2011. The band delivered their catchy hits including, “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor,” and other recognizable tunes from their first two explosive albums in an energetic yet hurried set.

Arctic Monkeys at Lollapalooza 2011

Later, Foo Fighters performed a torrential two-hour finale of old and new songs on another main stage in the rain – sounding and looking stellar as always (even drenched). Lead singer/guitarist, Dave Grohl, yet again steers the Foo Fighters into becoming the most seminal American rock band of this musical era with hit after hit song and consistently brilliant headlining live performances like this one. Hence, it was fitting Foo Fighters should close this historical 20th year of Lollapalooza. As they say, it will go down in history.

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Featured Music 10 Covers / 10 Days: Tokyo Police Club

by Nicole Pajer
August 8, 2011 - 4:09 pm

Tokyo Police Club 2011

Canadian quartet Tokyo Police Club have announced an ambitious and riotous project, recording 10 cover songs from the years 2001-2010 over the course of 10 days. The project will begin at 12pm PST on Tuesday, August 23 at Red Bull Studios Los Angeles when the band enters the studio to rehearse and record a cover song over the next 10 hours, to be premiered the following morning at, 10am PST right here on ChinaShop starting Wednesday, August 24. The final song will be premiered on Saturday, September 3.

Starting next Monday, August 15, three potential songs from each year, between 2001-2010, will be revealed via Polaroid with the final track revealed each night prior to recording. The band will be creating daily Polaroid photo diaries and filming the entire recording process. In addition, each song will have unique artwork created from a Polaroid image shot that day in the studio.

Exclusive media partners include Alternative Press, ARTIST Direct, Entertainment Weekly, FILTER, Mashable, The Onion AV Club, Spinner. At 11am EST the song will be made available via all partner sites. Livestream.com will be offering fans a behind-the-scenes look into the recording process each day between 7pm-8pm PST.

Stay tuned for additional details in the coming weeks on the packaging of all 10-songs with commemorative pieces from the project.

While Tokyo Police Club was busy prepping for the event, singer David Monks spared a few moments to jump on the phone to provide us with some insider info on what we can expect from “10 Covers in 10 Days.”

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