JULY 11, 2013
FREE, THURSDAY NIGHTS, 7-10PM
Surfer Blood terraplane sun
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29TH ANNUAL
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Twilight Concert Series Schedule
Aug. 15
July 11
The English Beat
Surfer Blood
with Maxwell Smart & troup
with Terraplane Sun
Aug. 22
July 18
Nick Waterhouse
Meshell Ndegeocello
with Boogaloo Assassins
with The Record Company
Aug. 29
July 25
Trombone Shorty
No Age
with The Dustbowl Revival
with Tijuana Panthers
Sept. 5
Aug. 1
Gardens & Villa and Mr. Little Jeans
Xavier Rudd
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with Aus Rocks Us
Surfer Blood
Sept. 12 Aug. 8
Jimmy Cliff
Hanni El Khatib and Bombino
with The Delirians
Twilight Concert Series Partners Myspace Cirque du Soleil KCRW OneWest Bank 98.7 FM G'day USA Quantas Airways Shore Hotel Chili Beans Eyewear Michelob Ultra
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LA Weekly Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Mambo Cotton On Australia.com Loaded Boards Rum & Humble Spaceland Laemmle Santa Monica Daily Press Drum Workshop Uber Barefoot Wine Sabian
WSR Creative Bagavagabonds Heal the Bay Del Frisco's Grille Mariasol City of Santa Monica Pacific Park of Santa Monica Studio 16 City TV Whole Foods Buy Local Santa Monica For more information, visit
www.SantaMonicaPier.org
Table of contents
page 6
The new Myspace partners with the TCS pages 8-9
Map
page 4
Where’s the bathroom, dude?
Surfer Blood kicks off Twilight Concert Series
pages 10-13
Venice-based rockers Terraplane Sun open week one
Learn about the line-up for the summer
page 5
pages 14-15
Twilight Concerts insider’s guide Get the 411 about this year’s shows
Flash back
Future shows
Last year’s series in pictures
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Surfer Blood
Surfer Blood kicks off Twilight Concert Series Venice-based rockers Terraplane Sun open week one O
ne would be forgiven for thinking Surfer Blood was a West Coast band. The sweet, pop vibe of their sophomore album, “Pythons,” has all the sunshine and sugar a person might expect from a beach rock group, but with a saccharine undertone that brings the airy tone back down to earth. The band of Floridians will bring its eastern beach vibe across the country on July 11 to kick off the 29th annual Twilight Concert Series, a string of 10 free outdoor concerts offered at the world-famous Santa Monica Pier each Thursday night this summer. The series brings a mishmash of styles and sounds to the stage that will alternately have listeners swaying from their sandy seats on Santa Monica State Beach or boogying on the Pier deck. Surfer Blood’s bittersweet Beach Boys vibe marries well with the summery atmosphere, said Martin Fleischmann, owner of Rum & Humble, the company that has produced the concerts for the last two years. “Surfer Blood is an up-and-coming indie pop band who is not just a great fit with the
(Twilight Concert Series) by name alone,” Fleischmann said. “Their upbeat and vibrant music encapsulates that ‘school’s out, beginning of summer’ feeling that one finds all over the Pier this time of year.” Surfer Blood first took shape in the late 2000s when the band members met after Miami’s Ultra Festival, an electronic music extravaganza better known for its four-on-thefloor party atmosphere than pop credentials. Founding members John Paul Pitts and Tyler Schwarz convinced soon-to-be bassist Thomas Fekete to join up and start helping them with songs that would later become their 2010 debut album “Astro Coast.” Bassist and backup singer Kevin Williams rounds out the foursome. The original band name: Jabroni Sandwich. Surfer Blood ultimately replaced that moniker. Within two months after Ultra Music Festival, the band members were already touring, and they tracked and mixed “Astro Coast,” which became a staple on “Best of …” lists of 2010.
“Astro Coast” put the band on the map, but the musicians branched out a bit for “Pythons,” enlisting star producer Gil Norton of Pixies and Foo Fighter fame to help with the project. The band moved to California to work with Norton, whose fingerprints show up in the complex harmonies and more focused style that differentiates “Pythons” from “Astro Coast” without hiding the band’s innate style under a jaunty boy band patina. “Gil pushed us really hard on this album, and there are a lot of really awesome harmonies that wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for him,” Pitts said in an interview on the band’s website. In their downtime, they sought out places to surf from Zuma Beach in Malibu to Venice Beach to Costa Mesa, which captured drummer Tyler Schwarz’s heart. “We are very excited for our next shred destination: Santa Monica Pier,” Schwartz said. Terraplane Sun, a Venice-based five-piece rock group with country twang, will open for
the band Thursday night, bringing a bit of the hill country sound into the big city. The two bands represent the opening onetwo punch combination in what promises to be a Twilight Concert Series to remember. The 10-concert set leaps across the musical and geographic maps, following the bi-coastal bands with the funky Grammy-nominated Meshell Ndegeocello and later Australian Xavier Rudd. Although the series has long been a draw for little-known international acts, there’s a marked dose of Los Angeles music in the mix, like Terraplane Sun and No Age, an experimental punk group that will play July 25, or Hanni El Khatib, a singer-songwriter born in San Francisco but based in the Southland. This is also the first year that concert producer Rum & Humble partnered with KCRW, a public radio station based at Santa Monica College known for its indie music show Morning Becomes Eclectic, Clear Channel’s 98.7FM and Spaceland, a hip concert organizer and promoter.
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WATCHING THE SHOW from the beach tonight? Don't forget to recycle your glass bottles and aluminum cans.
2411 Delaware Avenue in Santa Monica
(310) 453-9677
Twilight Concerts insider’s guide Tickets
Smoking
No tickets necessary, this is pure free summer fun (remember that?) all thanks to our partners and sponsors who have brought us another season of awesome free concerts at the beach. Make sure to show them some love.
Don’t even think about it, it’s a 100-year-old wooden Pier, and we really like it.
Pets Dogs are welcome, but must be on a leash.
Time 7 p.m. — 10 p.m., but those in the know stake out a good spot early.
Parking Parking is available in the 1550 Pacific Coast Highway Lot next to the Santa Monica Pier on a first-come, first-served basis. Those wanting to avoid long waits should try one of the municipal lots around Second Street and Colorado Avenue or grab the ParkMe app for live data of parking availability and prices. Go technology!
Weather & attire It never gets too cold, but sometimes it gets a little chilly once the sun goes down. So bring something or head up to the Pier Tent on the deck to grab this year’s limited-edition sweatshirt or T-shirt!
Seating Seating is not provided, so feel free to bring your own chairs, blankets, etc ...
Food & drinks Bike & skateboard valet Park your wheels at the free bike and skateboard valet located next to the beach bike path just south of the Pier.
There are plenty of great food and beverage options on the deck and at the various restaurants on the Pier. Most even have to-go options perfect for munching during the show. As a reminder, alcohol consumption is not permitted in public spaces, but there are several full-service bars in the area.
Friends & family
The Concert Garden
Bring them, the more the merrier. You will not regret it. This is one epic summer tradition.
There is a 21-and-over Concert Garden featuring Barefoot Wines, an assortment of cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages. Do not miss this view.
First aid/lost & found If you need first aid or assistance, please visit the Pier Tent or flag down a security officer. If it is an emergency, please call 911.
E-mail list & special offers Sign up at TwilightSeries.org for special announcements, offers and invites.
MICHIGAN 24TH
Santa Monica Recycling Center
CLOVERFIELD
Aluminum Plastic Glass Bi-Metal Newspaper CardboardWhite/Color/Computer Paper Copper & Brass X DELAWARE AVE. 10 WEST
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Everything new is new again New food, new partners; welcome back to an all new summer at the Pier O
ne of the best things about the Twilight Concert Series is that we're always doing something new. Summer is about trying new things, and when you head back to the Santa Monica Pier, you'll have enough new music to listen to, fresh food to try and exciting experiences to last the whole season. Connecting fans with artists and music is what the Twilight Concert Series is all about, so this year, our presenting partner is Myspace. Myspace is the place to go for music online and on your phone. It's all new, re-launched and redesigned, and focused on the social aspects of sound and creativity. The site is now the world's largest digital music library, with users having access to 53 million songs and videos to prove it. Listen away on a persistent player, which anchors everything you do online in music. And the Myspace mobile app's My Radio lets people unleash their inner DJ, creating and programming their own free, unlimited streaming radio station that anyone
can listen to. Promoting the music you love? Sounds like our kind of partner. Another partner that's on exactly the same page as us is OneWest Bank. OneWest Bank is back with our all new “Pier Checking” partnership. That means that if you open a Santa Monica Pier checking account with OneWest Bank at one of its 75 Southern California branches, not only will you get special checks that have an exclusive Santa Monica Pier design and watermark, but for every account opened OneWest Bank will make a donation to the Pier. As long as you're on the Pier, why not check out some of our newest restaurants, shops and food carts? The recently opened Pier Shop and Visitor Center is the new cultural center of the Santa Monica beachfront. Historic displays of Dogtown surf and skate culture coast alongside the lifeguard history wall. It's also the place to pick up special merchandise — like vintage surf and skate boards designed by Dogtown's Jeff Ho, and board
shorts created by Heritage Surf — that mix up contemporary feel with a classic Pier vibe. Hungry? Keep your eyes open for the new Berlin Currywurst gourmet food cart, from the same husband-wife team that opened a like themed restaurant in Silverlake and beer garden in Hollywood. What's a currywurst? It's a German sausage served on a fresh bun and covered with homemade curried tomato sauce. With beef, pork and veggie sausages available, as well as sauerkraut and crisp bread, there's more options than you can shake a wurst at. Thirsty, too? Rusty's Surf Ranch has heard your cries, and its happy hour menu has been expanded to include turkey burgers, pork sandwiches and carnitas tacos, and happy hour itself has been extended to Monday through Friday, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. So now you can hit the bar Thursdays before the concerts, and then come back for after parties. And stick around any time to try the new pulled pork barbeque sandwich, or stop by weekends for
in house music, now without a cover charge for the summer. At the end of the Pier, majestic views meet Mexican cuisine at Mariasol. The eatery has upped its game and released a refurbished menu, featuring sizzling fajitas marinated in blends of herbs and spices, crispy beer battered fish tacos, and plate-loads of world famous nachos to try. Sit back, sip a specialty margarita, and take in impressive views of the Pacific all in the same meal. But wait, there's more to come. Be on the lookout for the Al Mare Restaurant, upscale Italian dining from the crew that brought you the Third Street Promenade's Trastavere, and Crepe n' Around, a gourmet food cart version of the French cuisine flavored food truck line, both of which are coming later in the season. We could call it the tip of the iceberg, except we don't get icebergs in Santa Monica, so just think of it as the tip of the summer.
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2013 Twilight Concert Series July 18
July 25
Meshell Ndegeocello
No Age
with The Record Company
with Tijuana Panthers
Following the release of 2011’s critically acclaimed “Weather,” Meshell Ndegeocello announces the release of her 10th studio album, “Pour ne âme souveraine” (“For a sovereign soul”), a dedication to fellow musician Nina Simone. Joined by musicians Chris Bruce (guitar), Jebin Bruni (keys) and Deantoni Parks (drums), the singer-songwriter, rapper, bassist, and vocalist reworked some of the tracks made famous by the iconic musician. Guests on the album include Sinead O’Connor, Lizz Wright, Valerie June, Tracy Wannomae, Toshi Reagon and Cody ChesnuTT. To celebrate the release of the album, Meshell is sharing the iconic track “Be My Husband,” which just premiered on NPR. Flush with stomps, claps and chants, Meshell is accompanied on vocals by New York singer-songwriter Valerie June. After only 10 days in the studios of guitarist Pete Min, the album was born, reflecting Meshell’s admiration for the pioneering work of an artist who refused to be owned by genre, industry, or expectation. As Meshell describes, this album is “a dedication to Nina Simone and her incredible influence but it is also a dedication to the single, interior life we all experience.” Revered by Meshell, Nina Simone was a powerful influence both musically and politically. Her music was highly instrumental in the fight for equal rights in the United States. “She wanted success, was pressured to make hits, but her own sound was still irrepressible,” Meshell said. “She had things to say, she protested. She was a loud, proud black, female voice during a time when black female voices were not encouraged to make themselves heard.”
Forever cascading forward in a positive direction, gleefully instinctive, No Age erupts out of your speakers, blasting away the clouds above the smoggy cityscape to reveal a solar flaring sun. With an ecstatic force bubbling around and beyond their music, they release contagious energy like they’re main-lining a field full of whirring wind turbines, while tuned into an ancient celestial power source. No Age is the duo of Dean Spunt and Randy Randall, they are on a constant journey to explore the furthest reaches of sound. They set out with one particular rule in mind: To write songs that we would be psyched to listen to. On a first listen, discovering each new dose of their alchemy is exhilarating — they produce perfectly crafted songs, underpinned by infectious melodies and ear-piercing cacophony. This swirling mix of unstoppable momentum is catapulted into the stratosphere by sweeping bursts of symphonic growls. Their power is enunciated through their ability to take their core of catchy song-writing and expand its emotional influence through tone, structure and noise. “Everything in Between,” their third album and follow-up to 2008’s “Nouns” has now arrived. The pair has now shifted far beyond their L.A. skate-punk origins, accentuating their development in each and every creak and crack on Everything in Between. The record represents a bold step in their creative evolution, it documents their lives and their artistic progression more prominently welded into a permanent union. It is a culmination of reflecting upon life’s ruptures and triumphs; the process of moving through these moments banged and bruised, yet better off for the wear and tear.
No Age
Meshell Ndegeocello
Aug. 1
Xavier Rudd with Aus Rocks Us “Rudd’s status as one of Australia’s most talented artists has been reinforced” 9.5/10 Tone Deaf Xavier Rudd is back with his #2 ARIA debut album, Spirit Bird. With an identifiable array of guitars, yidakis (didgeridoos), stomp box and percussion, Rudd’s has reintroduced Australians to the sounds and stories of the land’s original owners, while introducing the rest of the world to an entirely new sound altogether. Over the course of a decade, he has taken this sound to every corner of the globe; producing seven studio albums, two live albums, multiple ARIA nominations and a global fan-base of like-minded souls. From 2002’s To Let, his first studio album, through to 2007’s White Moth, Rudd gradually refined his globally-influenced collage of world music - a matchless mixture of reggae, funk, blues, folk, and nearly every other sort of song with the ability to stimulate people’s spirits. With 2008’s Dark Shades of Blue, the world was welcomed into a darker, more somber side of Rudd’s music. The album was indeed musically rich, with an international
influence still inherent; however, the overall aura carried a different tinge compared to that of his previous work. “Dark Shades Of Blue was something that I didn’t realize at the time. It was like I could feel the shudder of an earthquake, but I didn’t know it was coming” explains Rudd. That metaphorical earthquake manifested in the form of the most tumultuous year in Rudd’s personal history, and one he was more than happy to put behind him when starting to pen 2010’s Koonyum Sun. This album was a new awakening for Rudd, perhaps because it was his first with bassist Tio Moloantoa and percussionist Andile Nqubezelo under the unified banner of ‘Xavier Rudd & Inzintaba’. Thanks to the input of Inzintaba, Koonyum Sun presented a staggering amount of vigor to this release that Xavier Rudd fans hadn’t seen to date. Which brings us to 2012’s Spirit Bird. Already producing Rudd’s highest-selling single and most played radio single to date with Follow The Sun, 2012’s Spirit Bird is Rudd’s deepest and most explorative album. The album saw the ever socially-conscience Rudd delve into his musical and spiritual ancestry and took him from the threatened landscape of Western Australia’s Kimberley region, to the hills and lakes of Canada. The Spirit Bird sees Rudd to sell-out shows
SEE LINE-UP PAGE 12
Xavier Rudd
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Hanni El Khatib
LINE-UP FROM PAGE 10
The English Beat hometown of San Francisco to become part-owner of Innovative Leisure in Los Angeles. It had been the kind of year where anything that could happen would happen.
Nick Waterhouse
Aug. 15
The English Beat with Maxwell Smart & Rusty’s EAC
and festivals across Europe, UK, Australia, US and Canada. Xavier Rudd is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, a surfer, environmental and cultural activist, and one of Australian’s most iconic voices. Spirit Bird is out now through all good retailers.
Aug. 8
Hanni El Khatib and Bombino When Hanni El Khatib started out, he was just a skater kid playing the world’s worst guitar and singing by himself. Inspired by a long line of determined do-it-for-themselves musicians winding back through punk and psychedelia to rock ‘n’ roll and early R&B and finally the first scratchy years of the blues, he’d record song after bare-bones song — in between day jobs and night life — just because he had things he wanted to sing about. Then in 2010 from a chance meeting, up-and-coming indie label Innovative Leisure recognized that there was something huge hiding in those little songs. And so El Khatib made his official full-power debut (on vinyl too) in 2010. Soon his music would overtake him completely. By the time his first album “Will the Guns Come Out” was released in 2011, he clawed out a space of his own musically and left his job as creative director at streetwear label HUF as well as his
Bombino Omara “Bombino” Moctar, whose given name is Goumar Almoctar, was born on Jan. 1, 1980 in Tidene, Niger, an encampment of nomadic Tuaregs located about 80 kilometers to the northeast of Agadez. He is a member of the Ifoghas tribe, which belongs to the Kel Air Tuareg federation. His father is a car mechanic and his mother takes care of the home, as is the Tuareg tradition. Bombino was raised as a Muslim and taught to consider honor, dignity and generosity as principal tenets of life. Bombino spent his early childhood between the encampment and the town of Agadez, the largest city in northern Niger (population about 90,000) and long a key part of the ancient Sahara trade routes connecting North Africa and the Mediterranean with West Africa. One of 17 brothers and sisters (including half brothers and half sisters from both his mother and father), Bombino was enrolled in school in Agadez, but he demonstrated his rebellious spirit early on and refused to go. Bombino’s grandmother took him in to keep his father from forcing him to go to school, and, like most Tuareg children, he grew up living with his grandmother.
Dave Wakeling is a hell of a nice guy! Dave loves to tell you the stories behind his songs, either from stage or after the show. Ask any one of the thousands of fans who have met him over the years and that’s what you’ll hear. Never mind that Dave is the singer/songwriter from two of the most popular bands of the end of the millennium, The English Beat and General Public, he’s a stand up man from Brum. Whether it’s the personal as political in “How Can You Stand There,” making politics personal in “Stand Down Margaret,” taking a stand against global warming as he did making Greepeace’s Alternative NRG, or helping little kids stand tall with “Smile Train,” Dave has always stood for something. And like the mighty Redwoods of his adopted home of California (dude!), it’s easy for Dave to take a stand because of his strong roots. Hailing from working-class Birmingham, England, Dave and The English Beat entered the music scene in the troubled times of 1979. When The English Beat rushed on to the music scene it was a time of social, political and musical upheaval. Into this storm they came, trying to calm the waters with their simple message of love and unity set to a great dance beat. Over the course of three albums, The English Beat achieved great success in their home country, charting several singles into the top 10. In addition to their UK chart success, in America the band found a solid base of young fans eager to dance to the their hypnotic rhythms and absorb their message of peace, love and unity. Their constant touring with iconic bands such as The Clash and The Police helped to boost their popularity in the States. Despite his huge success, Dave didn’t stop singing and acting on the problems caused by what he called the “noise in this world.” The band donated all the profits from their highly successful single version of “Stand Down Margaret” to the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament.
Aug. 22
Nick Waterhouse with Boogaloo Assassins Nick Waterhouse is the new breed — an R&B fanatic who combines an uncanny old-school sensibility with a charged, contemporary style. At just 25, he joins the ranks of a growing cabal of similar acts and producers of recent times — Mark Ronson, Mayer Hawthorne, the Daptone Crew et al — that are all moving forward into the past, yet all quite different. For Waterhouse, his muse is the over-modulated sound of vintage R&B, and his take on such a time-honored tradition evokes the back-alley thrill of New Orleans, Detroit and Memphis in their heyday. He combines an astute attention to detail with an honBoogaloo Assassins
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LINE-UP FROM PAGE 12 est desire to match the emotional impact of the music that inspires him. When asked to pinpoint the sound or style he strives for, Nick Waterhouse simply shrugs and responds, “American music. And I know that’s pretty general, but it is what it is. I have spent so much of my life immersed in this stuff, because I wanted to figure it out, [yet] all I figured out was that there was no plan.” In other words, whatever musical style Nick may choose to espouse, it’s not done because someone else did it, but done for the same reason someone else did it. Growing up in the Southern California, Waterhouse eschewed his surroundings and found emotional authenticity in the vintage wax of Ray Charles, Roy Head, Little Willie John and the whole panoply of American music, where feel so often trumps technique.
Boogaloo Assassins The Boogaloo Assassins’ name might hint at homicide, but their efforts are strictly life-saving. Dedicated to re-creating and re-interpreting the boogaloo craze that swept East Harlem, the Latin Caribbean and South America from 1965 to 1969, the Los Angeles nine-piece band attempts to do to R&B, doo-wop, Afro-Caribbean jazz and salsa fusion what the Dap Kings do to classic Stax soul.
Aug. 29
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue with The Dustbowl Revival Since the release of their Grammy-nominated 2010 debut album, “Backatown,” Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue have grown creatively while winning hordes of new fans performing nonstop on five continents. Their latest album, “For True,” offers substantive proof of their explosive growth, further refining the signature sound Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews has dubbed “Supafunkrock.” “There was excitement from everywhere,” said Andrews of the experience on the road and how it fed into the creation of “For True.” “We did over 200 shows in the last year and a half, and every night we allowed the music to take us over. Musically and creatively, we wanted to shoot for some different things.” The band — Mike Ballard on bass, Pete Murano on guitar, Joey Peebles on drums, Dan Oestreicher on baritone sax and Tim McFatter on tenor sax — stirs together old-school jazz, funk and soul, laced with hard-rock power chords and hip-hop beats, and they’ve added some tangy new ingredients on “For True” as they keep pushing the envelope, exploring new musical territory. “We never sat down and really thought about concepts and
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
29TH ANNUAL what we wanted our music to sound like,” Andrews explained. “It’s just that, over the years, we allowed each one of the band members to bring their influences and taste in music into our music. Anything we hear or are influenced by, it naturally comes out in what we’re trying to do. It’s just our sound, and it happened naturally.” Andrews wrote or co-wrote all 14 tracks on the new album, including collaborating with the legendary Lamont Dozier on “Encore,” while this time playing as much trumpet as trombone, as well as organ, drums, piano, keys, synth bass and percussion. Indeed, he played every part on the swaying, Latin-tinged “Unc.” He’s also come into his own as a singer, honoring the hallowed legacy of the great soul men of the 1960s and ‘70s. Like its predecessor, the new album turns on a rare combination of virtuosity and high-energy, party-down intensity.
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Mr. Little Jeans
Sept. 12 The Dustbowl Revival
Jimmy Cliff The Dustbowl Revival is a Venice, Calif.-based collective that merges old school bluegrass, gospel, jug-band, swamp blues and the hot swing of the 1930s to form a spicy roots cocktail. Known for their inspired live sets, The Dustbowl Revival boldly brings together many styles of traditional American music. Imagine Old Crow Medicine Show meeting Louis Armstrong’s Hot Seven Band in New Orleans or Bob Dylan and Fats Waller jamming with Mumford & Sons on a front porch in 1938. Growing steadily from a small string band playing up and down the West Coast (hundreds of shows in the last two years), DBR has blossomed into a traveling collective featuring instrumentation that often includes fiddle, mandolin, trombone, clarinet, trumpet, banjo, accordion, tuba, pedal steel, drums, guitars, a bass made from a canoe oar, harmonica and plenty of washboard and kazoo for good luck. With an enthusiastic and growing national following, DBR released their first LP “You Can’t Go Back To The Garden of Eden” to rave reviews. Their tune “Dan’s Jam,” received Americana Song Of The Year honors by the Independent Music Awards (Tom Waits, Ozzy Osbourne judging). The group has placed songs in several independent films and TV projects including “Made In China” (IFC) which won SXSW, and in an upcoming episode of “American Idol.” National radio play includes L.A.’s KCRW and KCSN, Austin’s KGSR, San Francisco’s KPFA and Seattle’s tastemaking KEXP.
Sept. 5
Gardens & Villa and Mr. Little Jeans Meet Mr. Little Jeans, a.k.a. Monica Birkenes. She is small and Norwegian and she makes music that will leave you reeling. Her pop dances left of center, a curious thing of equal parts organic magic and buzzing electricity. She has worked hard to get to this place, traveled far to find it. On some unmarked pasture between St. Vincent’s prettiest moments and Debby Harry’s wilder inclinations, she stands fronting an army of bright ideas and sharp sounds, a shipbuilder’s daughter with a voice that could part a sea. Monica grew up in the middle of the woods in a seaside town called Grimstad. Her dad built catamarans and her mum was a secretary whose love for music was infectious. They didn’t have much money, but put their daughter through years of piano and voice lessons which she’d attend wearing her mother’s oversized outfits from another era. There were four black cats called Missy, and some neighbors who killed a man, but otherwise it was all Nancy Drew, dancing through the trees, and singing to mum’s records. Her first instrument has always been her voice. Monica sang in the church choir at 5, then around town wherever and whenever her mum saw fit: malls, old folks’ homes, theaters, even on local television once or twice. At 10, she recorded a cassette of children’s classics and shopped it around to gas stations mainly. By 15, she was singing in bars, clearly underage but backed by a band of boys in their 20s. She focused on music in high school, then relocated to London to study drama. A year later, Monica was on her own in England, having left college to chase singing leads gleaned from the “wanted” pages. Mostly she spent an endless string of years as a terrible waitress and, after an exploratory trip to Los Angeles, a couple more years sofa-surfing, country-hopping, and racking up credit card debt as she wrote with different producers — Peter Moren (Peter Bjorn & John), John Hill (Santigold) — and shaped her sound into that of the inimitable Mr. Little Jeans we now know.
with The Delirians “I got one more shot at the goal/Straight from my soul/I’m in control,” sings reggae legend Jimmy Cliff on “One More,” the lead track from “Rebirth” the new Universal Music Enterprises album from the Grammy-winning musician, actor, singer, songwriter, producer and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, produced by punk icon Tim Armstrong, of Rancid and Operation Ivy fame. The release, his first studio album in seven years, is the next step in their collaboration on last year’s “Sacred Fire” EP, an effort Rolling Stone called Cliff’s “best music in decades ... [his] tenor still soars.” With the groundbreaking 1972 film “The Harder They Come” celebrating its 40th anniversary, Cliff — who starred in the movie and contributed the title cut, “You Can Get It If You Really Want,” “Many Rivers to Cross” and “Sitting in Limbo” to the soundtrack — is still going strong in a career that has spanned almost 50 years and includes his native Jamaica’s highest honor, the Order of Merit. In the autobiographical “Reggae Music,” Cliff recounts going to see famed Jamaican producer Leslie Kong in 1962 to convince him to work with him, releasing Cliff’s first hit, “Hurricane Hattie,” when he was just 14. “Jimmy is one of my musical heroes and I’ve been responding to his music my entire life,” said Armstrong, who had never met Cliff before, but was once recommended to him by mutual friend Joe Strummer of The Clash. Gathering Armstrong’s studio band, the Engine Room (bassist/percussionist J Bonner, drum/percussionist Scott Abels, organ/percussionist Dan Boer and piano/lead guitarist Kevin Bivona), the first song they tackled was a cover of Rancid’s “Ruby Soho,” a ska- tinged number from the band’s 1995 album “... And Out Came the Wolves” about a musician having to tell his lover he’s headed for the road. “I had no idea it was one of Tim’s songs, but I liked it and could identify with the sentiments,” said Cliff. “I never really had the opportunity to hear his music, but it was a great thing how we hit if off in the studio.” They also worked on a cover of The Clash’s “The Guns of Brixton,” a song about the growing tension in Brixton at the time. Ironically, Strummer’s last session ever was with Cliff on “Over the Border,” a song from Jimmy’s 2004 album, “Black Magic.” It was at that time Joe talked up Armstrong as someone who might make a good collaborator for him. “It was inspiring working with Tim because even the sound of the album feels like we went back to the ‘60s and ‘70s,” said Cliff. “I had forgotten about a lot of the sounds and the instruments we used then, and we brought that all back.”
Jimmy Cliff
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Flash back Last year’s Twilight Concert Series in pictures E
very summer for the past 29 years, the Twilight Concert Series has brought you the best that music has to offer. Last year’s edition was no different spanning genres and styles, combining everything from indie rockers Haim to New Orlean’s Hot 8 Brass Band. Here’s just a taste of who rocked the Santa Monica Pier last summer.
Amadou & Mariam
haim
Kasey Chambers
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29TH ANNUAL
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alex cuba
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29TH ANNUAL
TWILIGHT CONCERTS
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