Short blog item for O.C. WEEKLY’s blog on Koo’s founder Dennis Lluy moving his all-ages venue out of Long Beach and back to Santa Ana, which sort of chased him out six years ago but which has apparently learned from past actions.

After five years in downtown Long Beach, storied all-ages venue Koo’s is officially returning to Santa Ana and a new home at the historic Yost Theater, where a no-longer non-profit Koo’s, Inc., will begin programming in January.

“We’re done in Long Beach,” says Koo’s founder Dennis Lluy today, shortly before he’ll begin hauling equipment and furniture out of the 530 E. Broadway space he’s due to vacate this weekend. “We had a five-year run and we took it as far as we felt we could take it. I feel we were unsuccessful seeking partners. But I don’t blame anyone but me—so we’re moving on.”

More at the Heard Mentality post. I’ve written about Koo’s a lot and you can follow their OC timeline in stories below.

January, 2002: The initial 2002 shut-down and departure from Santa Ana.

February, 2002: Koo’s temporary stint in Garden Grove at the Drop-In center.

January, 2004: Relocation and initial trouble in Long Beach.

January, 2004: More trouble with permits and people legally being allowed to dance.

March, 2005: New controversy over nude-drawing classes at Koo’s.

March, 2005: Conflicts with neighbors over amplified music.

May, 2005: Success! Koo’s gets its live-entertainment permit.

November, 2006: More problems with noise and neighbors, heralding the transition from a live venue to an art gallery.

Lining it all up like that really makes it look like an uphill battle for Koo’s. Hopefully the new location won’t provoke this sort of song-and-dance. And also some lessons learned about all-ages promoting from Lluy and others like PCH club’s Alex Maciel.
More lessons learned here.

lwiii.com

Stream: Loudon Wainwright III “Motel Blues”

(from Recovery on Yep Roc)

Stream: Big Star “Motel Blues”

(from The Ardent Sessions)

My first talk with Loudon Wainwright over at O.C. WEEKLY. I did this originally for the S.F. WEEKLY Hardly Strictly Bluegrass piece but didn’t end up using it. But I’d never leave Loudon out in the cold. I just interviewed him again yesterday and he was in fine form, talking about caves and hobos and putting razorblades in Halloween apples. I always feel pretty happy with an interview when the subject asks, “Wait—is my wife going to read this?” Loudon one here and excerpted below and Loudon two coming soon. Also as a nice little ego bump, the OCW contents page actually quoted me and Loudon joking around as a teaser. What can I say? There’s a certain type I can really work with.

Wainwright has always had a special talent for writing lyrics alternately painfully funny and painfully fragile, often in the very same verse, and Recovery revisits some of the most powerful life-or-death moments of his early discography. That barely there guitar on “Motel Blues” conveyed loneliness so potent it was almost contagious; that last ragged gasp at the end of “Saw Your Name In the Paper” was as sudden and startling as a thunderclap. “Dead Skunk (In the Middle of the Road)” helped make his name, but there was real, raw humanity in his songs, too. (Power-pop iconoclast Alex Chilton even covered Wainwright during the waning days of Big Star.) Even now-Loudon admits that then-Loudon had a little something special: “I went back and listened to the original versions—most of that recorded 35 years ago,” he says, “and I was impressed overall by the quality of the writing. That guy could really write!”

“My father was a writer,” he continues—that would be Life magazine editor Loudon Wainwright Jr. “Maybe I got the writing gene or something. I didn’t think I was gonna be a writer. I went to drama school and studied to be an actor. So I was quite surprised when I started to write songs. But I guess it worked out. A friend of mine, George Gerdes, wrote liner notes for my first live album, and he said if I hadn’t picked up an ‘axe,’ I would have been an ax murderer.”

Were you flattered?

“I was,” he says. “Thank God there was a Martin D-28 in my future.”

josh slater

Download: Roky Erickson Wish List Set List

(from Roky Erickson Wish List Set List)

My actual real-live interview with Roky Erickson up at L.A. RECORD. He sounded better on the phone and ever. (And did a pretty great show last night, even without “Starry Eyes” or “The Interpreter.”) I talked to him last year for this S.F. WEEKLY piece and although he was very enthusiastic, he was also very succinct—a lot of “I lahk it!” answers. This time he was happy and chatty—the Q&A is pretty much how it went. Nice to find out about new album, new songs and his early visits to musicals like South Pacific. All roads lead to Roky. Full interview here. Also note Roky’s democratic voting record. There is no endorsement that speaks more to me. Obama/Bleib ‘08—apparently it’s alright to do it!

Do you still play piano?
I do! I played the other day over at these peoples’ house—they had me over for dinner—fish and chicken-fried steak and everything—and we sat there at the table, like the knights of the round table, and he asked me if I’d play one of those loony tunes, and I said sure. Boy, that was just a gas, you know what I mean? An after-dinner thing.
Who are you gonna vote for this time?
Well, I don’t know. I voted two times previously and both times I voted for the Democratic Party. And then people helped me do it.
What’s the nicest present one of your fans ever gave you?
They give me bats and no tellin’ what! Little tapes and things. Napkins that said ‘Suzy Creamcheese’ on it. I try to keep ‘em—we have a storage house we keep ‘em all in. I don’t know how we get ‘em in there but we do!
What’s in there?
Just all sorts of stuff, man. Cages and everything. Couches. Apparently it’s alright to do it!

Complete new L.A. RECORD Roky here. Excerpt of S.F. WEEKLY Roky below. Oh and re: the fan bats… I did get a present of a rubber snake while leaving the show yesterday. So don’t doubt.

It’s been 40 years since Erickson and his most noted band, the 13th Floor Elevators, recorded their last fully realized album, Easter Everywhere, and about 39 years since things really began to get difficult for the singer. In 1968 a confused situation involving drugs and police and a rattled Erickson resulted in a minor marijuana bust, which he snuffed with an insanity plea. But that collapsed into Erickson’s sentence to three years in maximum-security Rusk State Hospital in 1969.

While locked up, Erickson’s mother brought him a tape deck and he recorded songs like “Save Me.” When he got out, as the folklore goes, he was a supposed psychedelic casualty, said to be staring at the same glass of iced tea forever. There was a comeback string of horror-rock songs in the late ’70s — by Roky and the Aliens, his San Francisco band — and then a slow dissolve into one of his very last shows in Austin in 1993, where they pushed Erickson on stage with a guitar and he just stood there, eyes wide and smile wider, but not singing along to his signature song, “You’re Gonna Miss Me.” He’d written that track when he was 17, and by this time he was 47, and after that performance he was gone for a while — no more music from Roky Erickson. “Just kind of taking a vacation,” he says now. Did you miss it?

“Yeah,” he says, “I missed it.”

Full piece here.

For all those who are wanna get into the show for free and have the true rok love that will make it possible—or for those who wanna get the 13th Floor Elevators book or a Roky 2XLP, both of which I have inches away from me right now (not the contest copies, don’t worry) and both of which I can assure you are deeply and righteously ripping… anyway—for those who want a chance to ace the only GRE (Glorify Roky Erickson) that matters, L.A. RECORD presents… the ROKY ERICKSON TRIVIA CHALLENGE! Direct link here and rules and questions inside.

Welcome to the L.A. RECORD’s GRE (Glorify Roky Erickson) exam—below you will find five ultimately challenging Roky trivia questions. Don’t worry—they are multiple choice, and we will be grading on a curve so don’t wimp out! In case of a tie, the earlier entry will win!

First prizes are a PAIR OF TICKETS to see Roky live at the El Rey with the Black Angels on Halloween! (Est. retail value incalculable by human measurements.)

For second, third and honorary mention we have mind-melting Roky paraphernalia from the righteous people at Process Media, Norton Records and Roky’s management itself, for which we are cheerful, bashful and grateful! These prizes include…

EYE MIND: THE SAGA OF ROKY ERICKSON AND THE 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS, THE PIONEERS OF PSYCHEDELIC SOUND—the definitive and exhaustive biography of the first psychedelic rock band on the planet! With this by your bed, you’ll ace every Roky trivia challenge ever!

ROKY ERICKSON AND THE EXPLOSIVES – HALLOWEEN: RECORDED LIVE 1979-81—Norton’s gatefold 2XLP of Roky at his most fearsome! We are listening to this RIGHT NOW (not the contest copy, don’t worry!) and it rules. In fact, the version of “Wake Up To Rock ‘n’ Roll” in the above podcast is from THIS VERY RECORD!

EYE-SATISFYING PSYCHEDELIC TOUR POSTER—seen here and in full color in the last L.A. RECORD, but never revealed in its full glory until this contest, which will put it in your actual hands!

Email us your answers at fortherecord@larecord.com by MIDNIGHT on THURSDAY, OCT. 30, and include an email and phone number where we can reach you! And if you wanna hedge your bets, tickets for Roky are available here!

01. Roky and the 13th Floor Elevators were the first band to use the term ‘psychedelic rock’—but where was its earliest appearance?
a) flyer for residency at the Jade Room b) business card c) album cover d) live review in the Austin Statesmen

02. What famous cartoon consortium released a version the 13th Floor Elevators “You’re Gonna Miss Me” 45?
a) Filmation b) Terrytoon c) Hanna Barbera d) Walt Disney Corporation

03. What was the original source of the dubbed-in applause on the Elevators’ 1968 fake live album?
a) boxing match b) rodeo c) stock-car race d) end credits of I Love Lucy

04. Which famous Texan singer-songwriter was once Roky Erickson’s roommate?
a) Guy Clark b) Townes Van Zandt c) Willie Nelson d) Kenny Rogers

05. Which members of the following bands have NOT recorded at least one song with Roky Erickson?
a) Creedence Clearwater Revival b) Jefferson Airplane c) Mogwai d) Moby Grape

BONUS: What is Roky Erickson’s middle name?

Now put down your pencils! Winners will be announced on Halloween!

dan monick

Download: Warpaint “Billie Holiday”

(from the self-released Exquisite Corpse EP)

A completely different conversation with Warpaint up now at L.A. RECORD. This ran in the August print issue but we didn’t post online til we got an MP3. I think it’s worth it. As I said before, I’m really getting into this band. I think Emily and Theresa did a great job in this interview, too.

What was your longest car ride together?
EK: We went to Vancouver together to play and write and hang out. We wrote music on the mouth of a cove.
TW: There were mermaids—lots of mermaids there. It was called Deep Cove. And we learned from them how to be the hypnotic sirens we are.
Mermaids are half-naked.
EK: Maybe we’ll just play naked.
Thanks for giving our website one million hits.
TW: I’m gonna say ‘naked’ in every interview from now on.
EK: Change our name to Naked Warpaint. Naked Paint.

All the rest (including the origin of the naked-guy story from the OC WEEKLY article) over here. I hope to get them down to Long Beach in the near future so watch this site.

carolyn barron

Download: Roky Erickson Wish List Set List

I think we all know the kind of place Roky occupies in my life. Since he’s doing new songs for the first time in decades at the show Friday, I made a wishlist setlist of rarely heard Roky classics for L.A. RECORD. Complete info over there.

“Mine Mine Mind” from The Evil One
“Don’t Slander Me” from Don’t Slander Me
“For You” (live) from Casting The Runes
“The Damn Thing” from Don’t Slander Me
“Sweet Honey Pie” (live) from Gremlins Have Pictures
“Click Your Fingers Applauding The Play” from Gremlins Have Pictures
“Haunt” from Don’t Slander Me
“Can’t Be Brought Down” from Don’t Slander Me
“Wake Up To Rock ‘n’ Roll” (live) from Halloween: Live ‘79-’81
“Right Track Now” from Epitaph For A Legend

Download: Greater California “It’s Great” (shea M gauer remix)

(from Trust Us on Fidotrust)

Download: Devon Williams “A Truce”

(from “Elevator” 45 on L.A. RECORD)

Download: Thee Makeout Party “Slack”

(from the Audacity split on Trabajo—one of the best 45s of the year!)

UPDATE: Topped for tonight!

L.A. RECORD, Article 1 and ZCONTROLS present the first of hopefully many shows I’ll be setting up at Prospector. This falls right after the Last Saturday event at {open} around the corner so come to that then walk on over to this! If you don’t know the bands, Greater California are Zombies/Pet Sounds pop done by quality rock scholars—actually, every band playing tonight has record collections that warrant formal acknowledgement by the Secretary of the Interior, which is why every band will get to do a DJ ste, too—and Devon is my personal pick for California’s Alex Chilton, though many others hear a lot of Go-Betweens, and thee Makeout Party is real-deal ‘76 style suburban rock ‘n’ roll something between the Real Kids and the 1910 Fruitgum Company. I personally witnessed them coax an Elks Lodge full of feisty buffet-sated grandmothers up to very vigorously dance. I believe the Velvet Underground started almost the same way. 9 PM and $5 for 21+ gets you control. Tentative next event is a last-minute Monday night show with Detroit’s brain-bursting Human Eye, who are like Hawkwind closely advised by Roky, Iggy and Helios Creed. Stay tuned for confirms on that.

emily rose

Download: Devon Williams “A Truce”

(from “A Truce” 45 on L.A. RECORD)

Great press for Devon to advance my show at the Prospector tomorrow. (THAT’S DEVON WILLIAMS AT THE PROSPECTOR IN LONG BEACH TOMORROW NIGHT!!!! CLICK HERE FOR MUSIC AND REASONS TO GO!!!!) Full fun below.

Ellen was gonna talk Nilsson with him (per this little artifact) but they got more philosophical:

What drives you to continue to make music every day? I know you said something once about cheesy questions, and that’s kind of a cheeseball question, but I mean it sincerely.
I don’t really have a drive to make music, it’s just this thing that comes naturally. It naturally grew into an outlet. Whereas certain kids might play football and get out their aggressions or angst, or some people might put their head in a pillow and scream, I was fascinated with guitars—not guitar gear, but the idea of being someone that plays guitar in the band. I acquired a guitar and it really just grew naturally and became this outlet. It’s kind of been really understated in my life, just having a guitar and playing it—I never questioned it, wondered what was it for. My mom always said it was really therapeutic for me and I was like, ‘Ah mom, what are you talking about?’ But in a way she’s right: Sometimes if I don’t play guitar for a week, it’s like, ‘Oh man I haven’t played guitar in a week!’ And I get really frustrated, and I get angry, and I drink . . . these crazy things. And then I just realize I have rail a lot. I have to do it or I’ll turn into a raging asshole. It’s not really a drive, rather than just like—
A preventative measure?
Yeah, it’s like, ‘Do you want me to be a crazy jerk? Or do you want me to just be normal?’

The rest of that here. And Doug Wallen gets Devon going on chronology that’s new to me—he’s 27? Amazing. He’s ageless to me.

“The promoters weren’t really familiar with us, and just assumed it was a guy with an acoustic guitar,” he remembers. “We’d go on and [play] really loud. So that’s a bad part of having my name be the name of the band.” Asked if he ever plays alone, he quickly replies, “No. That’s my least favorite thing.”

The rest of that here. Flyer and info on the show here. And come out early for tons of fun on 4th St. beforehand—Pike and {open} will be hopping. Also—Billgazer last-min DJ add for tomorrow because you really can’t do a show in Long Beach without Billgazer blessing.

Stream: Warpaint “Billie Holliday”

Second talk with the other half of Warpaint up at OC WEEKLY. I did an interview with Emily and Theresa in L.A. RECORD but that’s not quite online yet. (But will be very soon.) I’m really starting to get into this band. Warpaint sounds kind of like Telescopes and Lush and a lot of the spacier British bands from probably ‘79 to ‘93? That’s kind of clinically mathematical as a description but I got numbers on my mind today.

With the long-promised debut EP Exquisite Corpse just out and a just-finished Spaceland residency that left the band tighter and closer than ever, LA’s Warpaint are primed for further exposure. In Exquisite Corpse’s five songs, they try 50 small and subtle things—shy ravels of guitar or stuttered polyrhythms by drummer Dave Orlando, tense basslines by Jen Lindberg that would win approving salute from Jah Wobble, or melodies that stall and dive like a bird interrupted in flight. They positively effervesce atmosphere, beginning songs with barely more than bass and breath, and then roaring toward orbit; they evoke as much “lush” the adjective—heat and fog and a gentle threat of sensory overload—as Lush the band, whose ghostly vocals find respectful echo in Kokal and singer/guitarist Theresa Wayman. There’s even their reverent appropriation of a verse from Mary Wells’ “My Guy,” which adds new fire to the smoky stand-out “Billie Holiday.” (Used with permission, adds Lindberg.)

More here and they play Monday down at Detroit in Costa Mesa—free and their first O.C. show. I hope to get them at Prospector soon with maybe Blank Blue. Watch the blog for confirms.

dan monick

Download: RTX “Cheap Wine Time”

(from JJ Got Live RATX on Drag City)

Tons of fun with RTX’s Jennifer and Kurt over at L.A. RECORD. I back this band hard (I even wrote their bio) and the new album is great. Hanoi Rocks plus Enigma-era Roky to me, though L.A. RECORD photographer Scott Schultz says the above is like a Stones song, and he’s not wrong there. This interview done at Prospector before—and prolonged into—our Cha Cha night. Good times:

Did you take a big hit when the stock market crashed?
J: That’s a joke in your life but motherfucker I had bank in the stock market four years ago! And I sold it all when I bought my place here. I had the Latin American Equity Fund. But I been putting my brain on hold. I will keep myself from any kind of stimulation.
Is this like how you take the snow chains off the car for the summer?
J: Yeah, but I’m going a couple seasons. I’m just eating the popcorn that didn’t pop off the floor, you know what I’m saying? I’m really in suspended animation—literally no information coming in. I’m saving it up until I can parse it and put it out on my own time.

The rest here. Album just came out. Grab it if you’ve never heard the band before—and be ready for shred—and grab it if you have heard them before, too.