Hello, Lovine.com

I am guilty of abandoning this side of the internet for more than half-a-year, while visiting exotic (and not-so-exotic) places of the world. I was worried about the non-linear sequence of events, and had a little maintenance to do in the back-end of things. Pictures are now going to be bigger, and the layout is dynamic and will adjust to most screen sizes (even tablets and mobile phones). I guess these are the problems of the 21st century, the modern day equivalent of 800x600 vs 1024x768 hooplas.

Now that I've got that out of the way, I figured, F it. I'm sitting on a massive backlog of material that I have been meaning to share. I'll be back-posting dates, so keep an eye out for some crazy shit.

Explosion of winners at the 0:18 and 1:20 marks! Easily one of the greatest thrills of my life - getting closer to THE DREAM of winning lifetime Coachella tickets! But this year, we just got merch. HAHA!

Coachella for 7 years and counting. 4 years of Carpoolchella in the bus. And we're damn ready for 2012!!

Coachella really is part of the greatest times of our lives.

If you haven't done so, you should check these guys out: http://www.radiolab.org/

They first caught my attention when I was listening to an episode of This American Life on NPR, which had a Radiolab segment. Instantly hooked. In a nutshell, both their shows remind me of what it feels like to be genuinely entertained. Not by passively being fed garbage in front of a television, but by finding myself asking questions and getting immersed into a story, which rarely happens when you have the attention span of a goldfish. Great stuff, and really put well together. On par with TAL. Which is a pretty high bar. In this decade of cheap thrills, it's always a great blessing to find gems in the rough and tumble that we call the internet (and the radio).

And so I could not contain my excitement when I heard via The Scenestar about a live taping at UCLA's Royce Hall. The first show sold out yesterday, and I was hanging around Ticketmaster's site until they stopped selling tickets at 5pm. I knew there were still seats open in the balcony, so I head to the box office alone. The only other friends who care enough to know who they are, are in SF (hi Kat and Basso) but I had no hesitation to do a solo flight, as usual. It's kinda weird to finally see what you're familiar only hearing. So when I heard the show's opening theme when Jad pressed a button on his monome as they were starting, it brought a real smile to my face.

Zoe Keating did the live scoring and a few numbers during the night. Love her music also, very rich using only a cello and a loop machine to layer her sound. I've seen other artists layer their sound using a loop machine (lucky enough to see John Scofield), but she creates a really complete orchestra and complex textures that you really need to see (and hear) to appreciate. I don't know why I just bought a Radiolab shirt and not her CD, but if she plays again anywhere near soon, I'm totally there.

I'm still amazed at the entire thing. And I didn't even get to write about the theme of tonight's show. I just hope I have my hair parted at the correct side. More on this next time.

Fuck, they're really good. Had a blast at the Fonda, and I've really gotten over the part of going to gigs by myself. I've been waiting for this gig for SO LONG, and I've been stopping myself from buying their album in anticipation of buying out their merch tonight. Unfortunately, I was mildly disappointed when they didn't have vinyl on their merch, and of course as usual they ran out of shirt sizes on my first two picks. I'll probably just eat it up online.

I'll bet a lot of money that TDCC will be playing Coachella this year. These guys whip out a big serving of happy music.

Tomorrow I'm taking a flight back out to Las Vegas to attend the rest of the AAPEX and SEMA shows - I was there this morning and it's honestly better when you go out there with people you work with, instead of roaming around aimlessly by yourself...

"Brothers and sisters, we should not allow this pride of hatred and scapegoating to infect the rest of the country. And one of the ways we could do that, is to stop it in Arizona. SB1070 is not only a racist law, it is a divisive law. And the millions who sign it into law are doing something that I view is an insult to our collective intelligence. What they are saying, is that our intelligent sisters in our migrant legal community are the problem. But they are the ones causing the economic problems. But the names of the people who are creating this economic crisis are not Garcia, Martinez, dela Rocha, or Morello... The names of the people who are creating this crisis are the hands of Goldman Sachs and AIG, and corporate America. They are the ones who took the jobs out of the country and then tried to blame it on our brothers and sisters suffering in Arizona for the problems. Well tonight, and every night, we need to step up and defend the rights of our brothers and sisters. Si se puede..

Si se puede! So wake up!! Wake up!!"
- Zack de la Rocha
July 23, 2010

My birthday gift to myself. This will be an epic weekend.

Lovely Allen

Super Inuit

SHT MTN. Fun times at 0:25.

Been lucky enough to catch HF every year since we first caught wind of them in Coachella 2008, at the Troubadour in June 2009, and again at the Troubadour in 2010. I'm really digging these guys a lot. Shot with a T1i, but wishing I had an external mic jack so I can use a powered mic instead of the crappy onboard shizzle. Click on the vids for HD :)

Holy Fuck at the Troubadour. I don't understand how these guys are not selling out their gigs, everyone had a great time and they put on such awesome energy throughout their set. Can't wait to see them again! I know the GIF animation is ghetto-fab, but hopefully it makes the HD uploads crawling to Youtube right now look even better ;)

Music is the love that never betrays you, the one that will always understand the beat of your heart.

One of the few things that I really love about LA (aside from the weather, KBBQ and Kogi BBQ), are the big names that come through town and play great venues like the Hollywood Bowl, Santa Barbara Bowl, Hotel Cafe, the Troubadour. And this time of the year, after the dust of Coachella has passed, we usually find the bands hanging around to play shows this side of the planet.

I found out this morning through The Scene Star (I love you), about all the bands going on pre-sale. Without you, I'd be SOL. Muse (lower level @ Staples), Phoenix (box seats at the Bowl), Pavement (terrace seats at the Bowl), Vampire Weekend (terrace seats at the Bowl). I totally would've gotten LCD Soundsystem also, but it's on Pepel and Pat's wedding weekend. Miike Snow is also on sale this weekend.

I just charged more than $1,200 on concert tickets, and the fraud department kicked the doors down! Granted I was buying blocks of 4-6 tickets, one gig after another, I would be suspicious of my activity as well. However, I always feel like this is a chance of a lifetime. Each day at a time!

Just got back from the desert.

Friday
Hockey
Ra Ra Riot
She and Him
Passion Pit
Them Crooked Vultures
LCD Soundsystem
Vampire Weekend
Benny Benassi
Ceu
Whitest Boy Alive

Saturday
The Temper Trap
Band of Skulls
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
The XX
Corinne Bailey Rae
Hot Chip
MGMT
Muse
The Deadweather
Die Antwoord
Devo

Sunday
Deerhunter
Matt and Kim
Florence and the Machine
Julian Casablancas
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Phoenix
Pavement
The Big Pink
Sly Stone
Gorillaz

2010 is a good year. With a lineup like this, it's hard to get my head wrapped around the fact that I saw and heard what I did.

Music is life. Life, is music.

... is going to be epic.

I usually am not agreeable with desert summer heat (although the weather report of high 80's will be a ten degree drop from the usual hell), but I have come to the realization that music can save me from any misery and turn it over to the other side of imminent awesomeness. And I will be lying if I deny the pleasure of wearing pekpek shorts over the weekend.

There really is nothing like exhausting yourself with amazing music, from the best artists of our time. See all you cool kids at the party. :)

I'm not complaining that my week went by quickly - Fridays are always the start of something fun. :)

Off to San Francisco to see the Flaming Lips!!

Phoenix at the Greek Theater last night. Love this song, a cover from Air. More on my YouTube account.
They put on a great show, the crowd was fun, which says a lot about your music I think. I almost forgot how small the Greek really is, and it's probably the smallest outdoor venue here in SoCal. Fun times :)