Elliott Smith Would Have Been 39

Earlier tonight I went and had dinner at this place down the street from me called Malo, it’s a yummy Mexican place with fancy margaritas. Anyhow, it also happens to be next door to where the cover of Elliott Smiths’ Figure 8 was taken, which is somewhat of a landmark around here. But I noticed that there were candles all along the wall, and people sitting out in front playing guitar. It struck me that today was the anniversary of Elliott Smith’s passing, a rather sad day for a lot of people.

It’s been 5 years already, and he would have been 39. It still saddens me that such an amazing person was so sad that they could take their own life. I’ve put a few of my favorite songs below, as sort of remembrance to such an amazing musician who’s touched so many lives. I hope you enjoy them.

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Baby Britain by Elliott Smith

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Pretty Mary K (Other Version) by Elliott Smith

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Rose Parade by Elliott Smith

Bobby

Bobby Solomon

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October 21, 2008 - See more posts by Bobby

Surfing by Megapuss, Artwork by Travis Millard and Mel Kadel

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Crop Circle Jerk ’94 by Megapuss

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To The Love Within by Megapuss

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Surfing by Megapuss

When it comes to Devendra Banhart, I feel like you love him or you hate him. Some folks think he’s too weird while others think he’s too weird to be folk. Personally, I have a soft spot for him, his songs are always immaculately crafted and even though they may be a little odd sometimes, who else is making music like this?

So I was rather excited to hear that his awesome side project, Megapuss, was becoming a real project with a real album. I had the great pleasure of seeing Megapuss perform at The Hammer, performing along with a rotating slideshow of Lauren Dukoff’s photographs. The band was hysterical, the songs were a little rusty, but you could definitely see the potential in it. The band is made up of Devendra and Greg Rogove from Priestbird, and together they’ve probably made one of my favorite albums of the year.

The album sounds like a Devendra Banhart album for the most part, but instead of his usual “psych folk” sound, it’s more like psych surf, somewhere between a hippie love in and The Beach Boys. Every song is pretty eclectic, like Duck People Duck Man, about, well… duck people. But behind this trippy spoken word piece is a beautiful song, you just have to listen for it. There’s also the most rocking gay anthem I’ve ever heard, Adam & Steve, which even features a George Michael jam, backed by some bad ass drums. Nonetheless, this album is really easy to listen to, I’ve already gotten several people hooked on it.

Another sweet detail to this album is that the artwork was done by one of the most creative couples out there right now, Travis Millard and Mel Kadel. As it turns out, Devendra and Greg were recording the Megapuss album next door to Travis and Mel, and they happened to meet at the mailbox one day. They got to talking, and the next thing you know, they’ve made an amazing booklet of art. Travis was nice enough to send me some large images from the booklet, as well as some outtakes from it as well that weren’t used.

Everything is under the cut, another 18 images in addition to the ones you see above, so be sure to check those out. And I should probably warn everyone that there are some cartoon dicks and fighting and gore on the photos, so if you work in a church or for Sarah Palin’s advisory committee, you might want to be careful.

You can currently buy the album digitally on iTunes for $9.99, but the physical album doesn’t drop until November 4th, so be sure to mark your calenders, this is truly a gem of an album.

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Bobby Solomon

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October 14, 2008 - See more posts by Bobby

Stars Is One of the Best Live Bands in the World

Last night I had the IMMENSE privilege of seeing Stars play at the Avalon here in Hollywood.I actually bought my tickets on Monday after finding out they released a new EP on September 1st, which subsequently led to me realizing that they were playing last night. I’ve been a pretty big fan of Stars for a few years now, my first encounter with them was hearing What the Snowman Learned About Love and then buying every record they’ve had before and since then. Basically, I couldn’t be more excited to see these guys play live.

I can say beyond a doubt that Stars puts on one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen. First off I’d say there was Amy Milan, who probably has some of the best stage presence ever. She’s also an amazing guitar player, something I didn’t know. She was totally captivating and made the whole thing even more exciting. Torquil, the male singer in Stars, was amazing in his own right, always sounding really in tune and busting out a trumpet on several songs, which was really incredible.

Overall they played everything I pretty much wanted to hear, though I’d have to say that the crowd favorite was Ageless Beatuy. Everyone was dancing and singing along, the lights were bright and pulsed along with the music, and you couldn’t help but smile the entire time. I can’t say anything bad about the show, it was simply epic.

Definitely check out the Sad Robots website to download the new EP, and if Stars roll into your town I can’t recommend seeing them any more highly, your mind (and eyes and ears) will be blown.

Bobby

Bobby Solomon

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October 2, 2008 - See more posts by Bobby

Off-Register at Little Bird Gallery

There’s quite a few galleries here in Los Angeles, so I’d imagine getting noticed could be somewhat difficult. Or you could do what Little Bird does and have a big group show with basically the best artists and designers out there. The show’s called Off-Register and features Geoff McFetridge, Steven Harrington, Andy Mueller, Cody Hudson, Mike Perry, Evan Hecox, Todd St. John, Justin Fines, Grotesk, and a ton more people. The show is all about screen printed posters, so it should be quite a treat.

Off-Register opens tomorrow night, from 7 to 11 pm, and runs until October 7th. I would suggest coming out to this opening though, I’m sure many of the artists will be hanging out, and they’re all particularly nice.

Bobby

Bobby Solomon

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September 26, 2008 - See more posts by Bobby

The Art of Music @ Scion Space

I’ve been working like crazy these past few days, so I apologize for the lack of posts. Thankfully though I was able to get out and see the new show at the Scion Space called The Art of Music, showcasing art that’s inspired by music. The show had a ton of great artists like Steven Harrington, Ryan Waller, So-Me, Stefan Marx, PAM, Sanghon Kim, and whole lot more. One wall was dedicated to posters created for the exhibit, while another wall featured other art by the artists involved. I must admit that So-Me stole the show with his giant light-up display, which you can see in the top photo, but my other favorites were definitely Steven and Ryan’s pieces, which you can see in the other two photos.

There’s a bunch of photos under the cut, so be sure to check those out as well. I also want to give a shout out to all the rad folks I met last night! Lionel at Sixpack France, Thomas from Ill Studio for putting on a crazy show, Jonathan from Clark Magazine, Steven, it’s always good to see you, and Mr. Waller, thanks for hamming it up every time my camera was around.

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Bobby Solomon

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September 7, 2008 - See more posts by Bobby

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