Com Truise + XXYYXX @ The Echoplex for CYP2

Some of my favorite men/ roommates made their live debut Monday night at The Bootleg… heres to em’!

GANGPLANS is a production duo lead by Echo Park/Lake Arrowhead musicians War Gogh and Tiger Smith (ex-Blacks& and Sea of Cortez). Not only do they bang out killer tunage.. the two manage a fantasy football team AND ride bikes together to the local farmers market. Keyboardist Myles Young (Mr. MPH), multi-instrumentalist TJ Abbonizio, and drummer Troy Lawton (A B & The Sea) round out GANGPLANS’ live show.

The newly aligned crew played a short and varied set monday, sprinkled with elements of original sounds, and experimentation. With many friends in attendance… Josh Ballinger on the visuals + Julie Bach with the premier of her new music video… the evening was quite the family affair. Gangplans was able to take a breath entering their first show together and just play. And hey! they sounded good too.

The last song of their set - ‘Like We Never Have’ really grabbed my attention.  A definite add to any summer playlists you have in the works.

GANGPLANS is currently working on their debut LP, Alcapwned, which features a different artist per track. The album will be released on digital and vinyl format in Summer of 2013. If this is any indication of the future, we cant wait to see whats next for these bro’s. Stay tuned.

The Echo was packed last Friday for Check Yo Ponytail 2. The LA crowd vibed happy as Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Ruban Nielson delivered signature vocals out of the worlds most adorable face. He sported a hat resembling an oversized leather yamika. A tattoo of a third eye on Neilson’s adam’s apple peaked out of his colar as he pressed against the mic, giving us exactly what we came for. UMO’s live sound is dusty, meandering and freeing.. like an old record, captured in time, preserved and delivered, in this case, through the echoplex’s encompassing acoustics. 

UMO brought with them some unexpected crowd moving openers. Foxygen, Gothic Tropic and Wampire all brought exciting sets. Foxygen, with their sultry bedroom pop sound, especially enthralled and surprised the people. They were fully in their moment, creating a performance that was heartfelt and sucked us in completely. Giving us permission to escape with them to jump and play for a bit. 

Pick up Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s latest release, II, here

Our favorite sounds from UMO, Foxygen and a special ‘Check Yo’ Ponytail mix’ from Warpire 

Tom Krell’s performance at the Echoplex in Los Angeles Tuesday night was sparsely arranged and haunting, a breathtaking adventure into a muted, introspective world. Krell, the experimental singer and producer who performs under the name How to Dress Well, is currently in the middle of a three-month long tour that flirts with two continents and a handful of countries in support of his most recent album Total Loss. The crowd in Los Angeles was receptive to the raw, unfiltered performance Krell is famed for, one that nudges and goads the audience to a similar place of self-reflection…

Continue reading our article on How To Dress Well here… via The Huffington Post. 

Our Favorite sounds from HTDW

Some nights end up a little more reckless and wild than we anticipate, no? We got the call earlier that day to cover a show at The Troubadour in West Hollywood but had our hearts set at making it out to our friend’s show at The Echo in Echo Park. Not an impossible distance, true, and given the scarcity of traffic and well-aligned set times, we tried our luck.

Needless to say, it was not our night. I gambled with a 20-minute window at my parking meter and lost, and both of us arrived and missed our friend’s show. While we were working out the myriad emotions that come with all of that, American Royalty took the stage for a stomping, tremendous set. The crowd heaved alongside singers Marc and Billy, and bounced with Mat’s backbone drumming. 

I had seen them once before at Pacific Festival (I believe my text to Aly for that day was “American Royalty. Holy fuck”), and was ecstatic to be able to hear them in a closed in space. They were born as a studio experiment, so the rumors go, and they excel in that realm as their songs and sounds swelled and filled The Echo’s walls. 

It’s too bad that, according to this Death + Taxes interview, the band’s moving to New York. Hopefully we’ll catch a show or three before they head out, or they’ll go on tour after they move, or we’ll just move to them. However it happens, and whenever it happens, we will catch them again.

Our favorite sounds from American Royalty:

The Internet @ The Echoplex 

Syd Tha Kyd and The Internet headlined IHeartComix’s monthly Check Yo Ponytail 2 just before Thanksgiving, and we were on hand to check out the show. Syd, of Odd Future fame, gave a solid performance and seemed genuinely blown away at the show of support from the sizable crowd. Despite her small frame and frequent giggle, she still commanded the stage with her lilting, vibing voice.

The Internet also came groove-ready and threw their musical weight into some lengthy jams. Syd stepped off and gave them the stage, a move that was simultaneously sweet and encouraging. The night continued like this, a grooving, soulful affair free of surprise and controversy that left the crowd bobbing and joyful.

The most memorable part may have been shoeless Syd The Kyd. It’s a move we’re definitely bringing back to our jobs with us.

Our favorite sounds from The Internet.

Video by Aly Schoonover for SweetSetsMusic

We step off the West Hollywood streets and into an empty Troubadour, then head up a dark staircase to a green room the size of two airplane bathrooms that smells a quarter as strong. There is a black bin of beers and waters, a small circular table, and a bench that the three members of Icky Blossoms soon sit down on: Nik Fackler, the guitarist with hair like a wilting afro, Sarah Boling, lead singer with a mop top and a perfect pout, and Derek Pressnall, armed with blue-green hair and a knowing smile.

They’re pleased to have the interview before the show, as Pressnall and Fackler both play in the evening’s headliner Tilly and the Wall. Aside from a 5-minute breather to reset their gear, their isn’t much time for the two to switch over.

Icky Blossoms formed during an Omaha snowstorm in 2011, but the band members were well-acquainted before that. Pressnall is something of a mainstay in Omaha music (he’s been with Tilly and the Wall since 2002) and had heard of and recruited both Boling and Fackler. 

“Derek first heard something I sang on when I was studying math and engineering” Boling said. Then she paused, gave him a look, and hunched over. “Then he said ‘Hey, little girl, come practice with us.’ 

“No fucking way I said that,” Pressnall laughed. “I’m not the creeper of Omaha.” 

Five months after that initial practice, Boling dropped out of school to join a band full-time. 

Fackler has his own recruitment anecdote, too. He was approached by Derek, who was a fan of his “flowery guitar playing.” For Fackler, this was a golden opportunity: the chance to be a musician again, a livelihood and a passion that had once driven him to direct music videos (“I wanted to meet musicians and hang out with them and get to know them, and then sneak into their bands somehow. It totally worked!”). After his focus shifted to filmmaking full-time, he’d thought his musical career was over. 

Pressnall admits his own initiation into music was similarly random. Though he’s been playing since he was 12 in “pop-punk/ska bands,” he doesn’t know how he ended up making music this long. “I got roped into [Tilly and the Wall], and then the opportunities just kept coming.” It’s an artistic fate that Fackler echoes: “Chase the opportunities.”

Though Pressnall is the elder statesman, Fackler steers the discussions of artistic ambition. “It’s good to have as many projects as possible going,” Fackler said. “Work on all of them when they ask you to be worked on. If one takes a dip, the other can take a rise. It can be natural.” He mimics a wave with his hands. 

“It can get tricky knowing which band a song belongs to,” Pressnall - who is in five bands - said. “Usually when I’m writing songs, I’m focused on a certain band. Sometimes things can get a little weird and walk the line and you don’t really know where they’re supposed to go, or which group to put them in. One of the new Tilly songs was a song I wrote for Icky.” 

“I was really surprised because he showed it to me in the living room,” Boling said. “We were jumping around and spewing out ideas, because we like to dance to brainstorm. We spent three hours on the song and it was stuck in my brain for months, and then I bought the Tilly album and started playing and I was like… Oh my god! He gave them that song!”

Apart from a some cross-pollination, Icky Blossoms is a decidedly new endeavor, separate even from their other shared band, Flowers Forever, a punk rock outfit whose intent was, according to Fackler, “to get people moving and to thrash out.” Blossoms places beats at the center of their songs to encourage that “pounding feeling that gets inside people.” But the guitar’s still there.

“We try to coax people into a mosh pit that way,” Fackler said, “by putting the thrashy guitar with the beat.”

“Once we started with the beats, we noticed that peopled did move more,” Boling said. “Considerably more. That’s how the decision was made for us. Whoa! We got people in Omaha to shake their butts!”

Pressnall laughs at Boling’s impersonation of the typical nod and bob shuffle. “All of the bands I’ve been always have had that intent to connect with people, whether it was punk rock, electronic music, pop, folk music, whatever. It’s about trying to find this weird thing with people.”

“We really take pride in the work that we put into our live shows” Fackler said. “The thought process that’s gone into it to really make it feel live, to make it feel like music’s being made there and that you’re hearing things that would never be on the record, ever.” 

Whether this was a reference to the bassist who played half-possessed was never verified, but this certainly wasn’t kids on turntables. Pressnall flung himself toward the microphone, halting at the precipice between controlled stage presence and the eager, thirsty crowd. The drummer is a constant force in the back row, sweating minutes into the set. Boling’s vocals fill up the Troubadour, and her synth, the ascribed backbone for the music, while not filled with suspense or tricks, provided strong support. Fackler’s hair is free, as if it fears ever being tied down. The silhouetted Fackler thrashes out.

The show is quick, flashy and loud, bolstered by the synthesizer and free of banter. They are sweaty, exhausted and smiling. They’ve earned their 5-minute breather.

So what’s next for Icky Blossoms? “Intensify the live show even more. Add new things. Keep pushing it and pushing it and pushing it,” Fackler said. “Stay busy. Just not stopping.” 

Added Bohling: “Boredom is the enemy.”

Icky Blossoms is finishing up their tour with Tilly and the Wall before heading out with The Faint starting November 27th.

Our favorite sounds from Icky Blossoms

Sweetsets had the opportunity to see a short set by Azealia Banks late Wednesday night thanks to a friend at HuffPo and a party thrown by DETAILS magazine. It was a brief set, no more than 15 minutes, but it was a riot and a blast. She launched straight into her performance, leaving little time for stage banter or idling as she ripped through her increasingly popular songs. Before we knew it she was wrapping up 212 and we were beaming as we left the bar, eager for more.

Enjoy the photos courtesy of Glory Gale, and Check out our full write-up which ran on HuffPo Entertainment.