Vaporhaze

"Actively passive, losing-itself-in-the-noise" - new column by Kieran Press-Reynolds steps out of his lane to explore the "dreamy malaise" of "hazy new-gen alt-rock":  bar italia, untitled halo, deer park et al.

Slackerdelia part 3, only this time they don't even have the energy to capitalize their names... 

Slackerdelia part 3? 

Well obviously part 1 is Mercury Rev, Pavement etc. 

But what would part 2 be? 

Chillwave, glo-fi, hypnagogic pop, of course. 

Not the sound of the groups he's writing about particularly, but some of K's evocations of them reminded me of my favorite guitar album of the past 15 years: Suburban Tours by Rangers. 

Also the name of one of the bands, deer park, reminded me of the opening track "Deerfield Village".

I got into this record not long before we moved to LA and I think it somehow prepared me for suburban life in the land of perpetual summer.  Drifting through, dazed by light, mood oddly suspended between anomie and bliss.... 

As I recall, the album is inspired by living in Texas and the newbuilt suburbs, which often have names inspired by the wilderness they've supplanted - hence track titles like "Bear Creek", "Deerfield Village," "Woodland Hills," "Glen Carin."

That integration of wilderness and built-up areas is very LA and something that continues to enchant and unsettle - just the other day heading off to an on-the-early-side dental appointment we saw a mangy looking coyote in someone's driveway. This in a neighbourhood completely built-up with suburban houses, no wilderness or even parks nearby.

An early attempt to connect hypnagogic pop and Southern California while freshly enchanted as a new arrival. 

Then there's the Suburban Tours track "Out Past Curfew" - an allusion to the fact that some  towns in America actually have legal curfews for teenagers. You're not allowed out after sundown. 

Joe Knight has put out a bunch of excellent records since but here he tapped into something really magical-mystical - I bracket Suburban Tours with The Greatest Hit and Up On the Sun. 

Supposedly he drew some sideways inspiration from this song by Rush - not musically but the mise en scene 

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Another recent Rabbit Holed - K reports on SWAGGOTFEST, a 12-hour anarcho-pride parody of a music festival that transcended cringe and captured the sweetest, rawest aspects of the New York DIY scene

"This Is What Los Angeles Looks Like"

We took in three No Kings protests across Los Angeles on Saturday - West Hollywood, Los Feliz, and Pasadena. Here, for Vanity Fair, are Joy Press's snapshot impressions of the joyous day and the way it ran counter to the "maddeningly out-of-whack" version of life-in-LA-right-now circulated by the national and international media. 

The Los Feliz was insane - a nonstop honkathonic carnival on account of the constant flow of cars  at this crossroads, most of whom beeped repeatedly on their horns in solidarity and were answered by the woo's and cheers of the demonstrators thronging every sidewalk. 

But if anything the Pasadena protest was even more amazing:  no discernible central gathering spot or focus, just an everywhichway flow of people that sprawlingly spilled across many city blocks and intersections. A microcosm of the, erm, rhizomatic organisation of the protests across this city and nationwide .  

There was also a cute local No Kings in South Pasadena which we passed, honking, on our way - I love this little town. 

Enter Carducci

LA-people! This coming Sunday evening I'm doing an event with Joe Carducci of Rock and the Pop Narcotic / Enter Naomi renown at Stories Books & Cafe in Echo Park. We'll be chatting about "the tangled music cultures of Britain and America circa 1976-86 and the Rough Trade and SST scene" - punk, postpunk, New Wave, hardcore, DIY etc. 

Admission: free

Time: 7pm 

Date: Sunday, March 20, 2022 

Location: the open-air patio in back of Stories Books & Cafe, 1716 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. 

Further info: (213) 413-3733 and https://storiesla.com/

Carducci is also the special guest on the next Rocks Back Pages Podcast, which airs on Monday 21st of this month. More information at RBP pod central. 

take me down to paradies-stadt

 ... from the blurb for a production of Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny aka Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Kurt  Weill and Bertolt Brecht:

"Three fugitive criminals found the city of Mahagonny in the desert, which is really a snare and money pit. Goal: make as much money as possible off other people and gather a fortune without working. Mahagonny wants to be "paradise city", a place of unbridled enjoyment, a symbolic caricature of absolute freedom..."
 
Could Guns N' Roses have possibly got that phrase from Brecht/Weill?!?

If so, the missing link, or even the conduit, might just conceivably be

As described above, Mahagonny sounds rather like Los Angeles (or Las Vegas)

And "caricature of absolute freedom" sounds a lot like Sunset Strip metal in the 1980s...

"For if we don't find
The next whiskey bar
I tell you we must die..."