august 8, 2013
Hanni El Khatib
Bombino FREE, THURSDAY NIGHTS, 7-10PM
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Bombino
Table of contents
page 6
Made in the shade(s) Chilli Beans all about beach lifestyle
pages 8-9
Map Find your way around the Pier
pages 10-14 page 4
TCS lineup
Guitar slinger night Hanni El Khatib, Bombino make it all about six-strings
Learn about this summer’s future shows
page 15 page 5
Take a picture
Insider’s guide
Shots from last week’s show
The 411 on this year’s shows
Aug. 22
Nick Waterhouse
Twilight Concert Series Schedule
with Boogaloo Assassins
Aug. 29
Aug. 8
Trombone Shorty
Hanni El Khatib and Bombino
Sept. 5
Aug. 15
The English Beat with Maxwell Smart & troup
with The Dustbowl Revival
Gardens & Villa and Mr. Little Jeans Sept. 12
Jimmy Cliff 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
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
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Hanni El Khatib
Bombino
Guitar slinger night Hanni El Khatib, Bombino make it all about six-strings S
till charged by the momentum of his sophomore album’s April release, singer, songwriter and guitarist Hanni El Khatib returns to the States from a whirlwind European tour to rock the Santa Monica Pier’s Twilight Concert Series on Thursday night. Concertgoers can expect to hear songs off the new album, “Head in the Dirt,” which enlisted the input of album producer and The Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach. The album blazes a trail, leaving bluesy rock with vocal harmony in its wake. “Head in the Dirt” is garage rock with hints of rockabilly revival, 100 percent rock ‘n’ roll and a bi-product of whiskeyladen pub talk. The L.A.-based musician was deejaying at a bar in Paris one night when the owner introduced him to Auerbach. After a few drinks, the two hit it off and decided to make an album together. “Our shows are pretty rowdy and energetic,” Khatib said. “There’re no tricks to it. We go up there, play a song, lot of guitars, a lot of amps, it’s really loud.” There’s going to be a really positive vibe, Khatib added. He’ll share the stage with North African rocker Bombino. “Bombino’s music is kind of trance inducing, kind of crazy rhythms and really cool melodies, and it’s all kind of bluesbased,” said Khatib. “(The Twilight Concert Series) seems to book some really cool bands that blend well.” For Khatib, creating and performing his music is all about meeting like-minded collaborators and forging lasting relation-
ships. “I’ve managed to build strong connections and relationships with all of the people that I’ve worked with,” Khatib said. “I’ve worked so much and toured with so many different bands.” Another connection Khatib said he wouldn’t mind making is one with Andre 3000, multi-instrumentalist and member of the hip-hop group OutKast. “He’s a creative dude,” said Khatib. “I’m sure he writes tons of songs on the guitar. He seems pretty talented in that respect.” Khatib has also toyed with the idea of making sludge metal music, a style of heavy metal defined by its distorted instrumentation and sometimes screaming vocals. “At the moment, I don’t have any time to dedicate any great amount of time or effort to record something because with the touring and my record just coming out, it’s pretty difficult,” Khatib said. “I wouldn’t mind starting a band with all new people and writing songs together or even just playing guitar.” Khatib’s music has reached a commercial success that’s allowed him alternate means of supporting himself and his music. His work has been used in movies, TV shows and commercials. Apart from a paycheck, Khatib sees these mediums as a way to spread his music to those who wouldn’t otherwise have heard it. “People are kidding themselves if they’re too cool or too good to accept someone’s money for using their songs,” said Khatib. “I can understand if you have a moral dilemma.”
Bombino
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mara “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.
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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
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CLOVERFIELD
Aluminum Plastic Glass Bi-Metal Newspaper CardboardWhite/Color/Computer Paper Copper & Brass X DELAWARE AVE. 10 WEST
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Made in the shade(s) Chilli Beans all about beach lifestyle I
f you’ve partied at the Santa Monica Pier on Thursdays for the Twilight Concert Series, you’ve probably noticed the giant pair of shades sitting atop its wooden planks. The oversized sunglasses belong to Chilli Beans, a Brazilian company that designs and manufactures trendy shades. “Those are super dope,” Brandon Burkham, Chilli Beans store manager, told us during last week’s show. “We do those for every single event. We have artists come out and do a different mural on the lenses for every single event to match our location. It’s one of our best marketing tools. It’s an attention grabber. People take pictures with it; they post them and tag them with @ChillibeansUSA on our Twitter, Instagram, MySpace and Facebook. It’s a great, great way to reach out.” The larger-than-life shades have certainly been grabbing the attention of concertgoers and so has the company’s “popup shop,” a bright red mobile trailer filled with sunglasses of assorted shapes and styles. The company has been taking its show on the road since 2010. “We keep it all fresh, spicy and brand new and always up to date with the newest styles and trends because we are who we are and we do what we do,” Burkham said. “We own us, we sell us and we design us. It’s all about living this type of lifestyle and being fashion-
able.” Chilli Beans shades are manufactured by Luxottica, the same company that puts Arnette, Oakley, Ray-Ban and Prada on your face. The only difference, Burkham said, is that Luxottica doesn’t own Chilli Beans, so it’s able to keep prices low. “We’re very, very fairly priced for the simple fact that we want people to change shades like they change their socks and underwear,” said Burkham. “We want a new pair on them every single day. We want you to match them to your shoes, to your hair color, to your shirt color. Whatever it is, we want you to own many, many of them so you have one for every day of the year.” Owning a pair of Chilli Beans shades is more a lifestyle choice than anything else, Burkham said. “It’s that club lifestyle, it’s that music lifestyle, it’s that actor’s lifestyle, Hollywood, rock star, porn star. Whatever you think you are, we got what’s going to spice up your lifestyle,” Burkham said. The company started as a small vendor in Brazil about 16 years ago and exploded to include more than 700 stores there, Burkham said. “We took over the game in Brazil,” said Burkham. Chilli Beans produces most of its sunglasses
in limited quantities to stay on top of emerging trends in fashion. “But we do have the mix to bring in the masses,” said Burkham. “We want each store to be a melting pot location.” The company’s local store is located on the second floor of Santa Monica Place. “Santa Monica is a very fashionable place. You got your surfers, you got your musicians, it’s all around a melting pot for all different types of trendy people,” said Burkham. “Action sports are crazy over here, so it’s a really great way to reach out to people and bring the lifestyle to them.”
This is the first year Chilli Beans has partnered with the Santa Monica Pier, but it plans to continue to do so for many summers to come, Burkham said. “The Twilight Concert Series has always been great, it’s always been huge, it’s always treated the community really well and just L.A. in general,” said Burkham. “So to be here and to be a part of that — just supporting the music lovers and the fashion lovers — we want to be a part of the community, we want to be a part of every community, which is why we keep expanding.”
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2013 Twilight Concert Series
The English Beat
Aug. 15
The English Beat with Maxwell Smart & Rusty’s EAC 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.
the back-alley thrill of New Orleans, Detroit and Memphis in their heyday. He combines an astute attention to detail with an honest 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.
SEE LINE-UP PAGE 12
Aug. 22
Nick Waterhouse with Boogaloo Assassins Nick Waterhouse is the new breed — an R&B fanatic who combines an uncanny oldschool 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
Nick Waterhouse
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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, doowop, 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 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
SANTAMONICAPIER.ORG 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.
The Dustbowl Revival 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 taste-making KEXP.
Sept. 5
Gardens & Villa and Mr. Little Jeans Gardens & Villa is the project of five college friends from Santa Barbara, formed following the collapse of a noisier post-punk band and a hitch-hiking journey up the West Coast. Members Chris Lynch, Adam Rasmussen, Levi Hayden and Shane McKillop began playing in earnest as Gardens & Villa in 2008. The name is pulled from the location of their house on Villa Street, and the property’s lovely garden to which they tend. The music they make is very much connected to the coastal
Boogaloo Assassins
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue city they call home — the stoney bike rides, dance parties and a scene free of judgment. For two weeks in the summer of 2010, the band camped behind visionary and now-labelmate Richard Swift’s Oregon studio. No shower, no kitchen, but all the magic you could ask for. After taking a band oath to always play all parts live — a la Talking Heads’ “Stop Making Sense” — the band added member Dusty Ineman to supremely execute the live incarnation of the band.
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.
Sept. 12
Jimmy Cliff 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
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LINE-UP FROM PAGE 12 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
SANTAMONICAPIER.ORG — 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/per-
Jimmy Cliff
cussionist Dan Boer and piano/lead guitarist Kevin Bivona), the first song they tackled was a cover of Rancid’s “Ruby Soho,” a skatinged 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.”
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Photo play Xavier Rudd all about American/Aussie love
I
nventive rocker Xavier Rudd led an Australian sonic invasion of the historic Santa Monica Pier during last week’s Twilight Concert Series show. He routinely switched from traditional Australian instruments to more modern tools of the trade all night, showing off his mastery on each. Nikki Jensen opened the night up with an easy style that mixed well with the sea air. This week’s show will be all about the venerable guitar featuring Hanni El Khatib and Bombino as a double-bill. Think North African rhythms meet good old fashioned rockabilly.
photo courtesy Brandon Wise
Xavier Rudd
photo courtesy Brandon Wise
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