2/25: Dick and Jane Family Orchestra and Skip Heller Trio in Echo Park
Friday, Feb 25 2011 9pm
The Skip Heller Trio
The Dick and Jane Family Orchestra
Christopher Lockett
At Rafa’s Lounge and Gallery
1836 Sunset – at Glendale Blvd, right next to The Echo / The Echoplex – enter on Glendale Blvd
Rafa’s is a well kept secret, right in the middle of Echo Park – the beautiful but small hand-built gallery shows sculpture and paintings, and also boasts a small stage with a intimate living-room vibe.
Historian, music fan, guitarist, singer, songwriter Skip Heller has researched and produced records with the likes of Les Baxter, Robert Drasnin, Sammy Masters, has played with legends such as Yma Sumac, has written and produced music for The Flinstones and Dexter’s Laboratory, among many other things. His current group, The Skip Heller Trio, provides Heller with a vehicle to play and sing his songs which are as inspired by great American songwriters of the Brill Building era as they are Americana roots, country and rockabilly. The Trio performs covers such as Jimmy Skinner’s “Doin’ My Time” which showcase Heller’s ability to really smoke on lead – played on an acoustic guitar. Backed by Dionysus Records’ head honcho Lee Joseph on bass and Mark Borinstein on drums, the combo also has the ability to whip out cover tunes they’ve never played before and make them sound like they’ve rehearsed them!
The Dick and Jane Family Orchestra were formerly known as Dick and Jane, a husband-wife duo featuring Richard Ross and one of Los Angeles original “100 punks,” filmmaker and producer Jane Cantillon who has worked with the likes of Tyra, Hard Copy, Howie Mandell and many others. When Lee Joseph was approaching the end of his almost decade long DJ residencies, he was invited to see a screening of Cantillon’s “The Other Side” documentary. The duo performed and Joseph told them that that they could use a bassist. After dusting off an instrument he pretty much put down in 2000, Joseph joined the duo in February of 2010. Shortly after, Michael Peffer, drummer of Biblical Proof of UFOs joined the threesome as their percussionist and the group became The Dick and Jane Family Orchestra (with Joseph and D&J’s “fake” son and Pefffer as their “fake” nephiew.) The group plays a hybrid of beat, folk and garage with acoustified versions of Velvet Underground, Question Mark and The Mysterians and Jimi Hendrix, along with Cantillon’s catchy and humorous originals about Los Angeles, the last taboo (smoking)and of course, men.
The two groups will be joined by singer-songwriter Christopher Lockett.
A $5 donation is appreciated!
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