This Friday: LA’s 60s / mod dance party – The Blackeyed Soul Club in Downtown Los Angeles DJs Howie Pyro and Jason Pandora are joined by Lee Joseph from Dionysus Records who brings some amazing records to the turntable. FUN FUN FUN!

The Blackeyed Soul Club happens every Friday at The Monty Bar: 1222 West 7th Street  Los Angeles, CA 90017, (213) 228-6000, www.montybar.com

Before the club, come to La Luz de Jesus Gallery  for the opening of Scott Hove’s “My Private Apocalypse” and Joe Sorren’s “When The Rains Come” exhibitions, opening at 8PM.

Orchestra Superstring featuring X’s D.J. Bonebrake on vibes performs Cal Tjader’s “Mamblues” at The Speakeasy in Venice, CA on Feb 13, 2012. This song is not on either of Orchestra Superstring’s Dionysus albums – enjoy!

Orchestra Superstring is performing at the Del Monte Speakeasy in Venice, CA -  Sunday February 12th at 9:30 pm.

The group will be playing their special mix of Latin inspired jazz and exotica with DJ Bonebrake on vibes, Mike Bolger on trumpet + keyboards, Danny Frankel & Debra Dobkin on percussion, Woody Jackson on guitar, and Paul Eckman on bass.

The Speakeasy is located underneath the historic “Townhouse” at 52 Windward Ave,Venice, CA, 90291.

One set only!

Come down to the beach and enjoy the evening Orchestra Superstring!
www.orchestrasuperstring.com/

Co-founder of Elephant Stone Records and wife of scribe and former Dionysus Records / Orange Sky employee Ben Vendetta, Arabella Proffer creates figurative and surreal portraits of imaginary subjects using oil and linen or panel. Taking her art a step further she writes a bio about each of her charicters. Her “Ephemeral Antidotes” can be seen at San Francisco’s Articulated Gallery through the end of January.

Proffer’s current works explores “medical superstitions and practices of centuries past,” inspired by her battle with a rare and aggressive cancer. While being treated and going through surgery, Proffer wondered what it would have been like to have lived through the process during her favorite periods in art history.

“After having a section of my leg removed, I began researching medicine from the Middle Ages through the 18th century; this series was a good way for me to work out my anger and be even more thankful that what I’m going through is nothing compared to old remedies and techniques. My art and interests were in the way society lived in the past, but with emphasis on the defiant, glamorous, and eccentric — not daily strife. You could have been rich, important, or beautiful, but if sick, you would still receive brutal or worthless treatment” states Proffer.

Proffer’s bold, colorful and darkly themed art is inspired by punk rock, Elizabethan fashion, gothic divas, religious icons, and the decline of European aristocracy. Many of her paintings can be seen in her recently released book “The National Portrait Gallery of Kessa.”

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Proffer earned her BFA from California Institute of the Arts and currently resides and works in Cleveland, Ohio.

View all “Ephemoral Antidotes” images and bios here

See the show at
Articulated Gallery
1681 Haight St
San Francisco, CA 94117
articulatedgallery.com
415-551-1036
info@lovedtodeath.net

images:
“Skin of the Fox Cures the Pox” 16×20 oil on linen.
“Sawed” 16×20 oil on linen.

Click Here to play or download a podcast of Howie Pyro’s LuxuriaMusic.com “Intoxica” Internet radio show which aired on 1/10/12 and featured me as special guest – with a stack of garage, surf and instro insanity plus a set of  trashy and wild South American 45s spanning the late ’60s through the early ’70s -it was quite a show! To Howie’s dismay, we played a Led Zeppelin cover on the show though Los Commandos did a great job of turning “Moby Dick” (with a riff stolen from Sleepy John Estes)  into a sloppy and inept teen garage instrumental which was further twisted with the infamous Intoxica echo over most of the really sloppy drum solo. Thanks Howie and LuxuriaMusic.com!

Photos: Howie Pyro is very excited to play the record pictured below which I took from www.devildick.blogspot.com as I didn’t have mine handy while putting up this post.

Hey everybody!

Well, it’s been quite a while! But I can tell you 2011 was a very busy year for us. Since the release of our third album “Meet Redondo Beat” last January we’ve been getting a lot of attention, and have been playing quite a lot. Touring Southern Europe last summer was amazing! People in Spain were crazy about the new album. Radio 3 DJ, El Sotano, opened one of his shows playing three songs back to back, and also listed “Do you wanna have this dance?” in his top 50 songs of the year.  Playing at the Fast Fun and Bizarre festival in Logrono made us once again realize how much we love it down there. Watch out Spain, we’ll be back this May. In the fall, we toured the United States once again, and it was great as always! We started out on the west coast and slowly made our way to the east, spending quite some time in New Orleans, hanging out at the No.1 music festival, the Ponderosa Stomp. Playing with the Preachers Kids again in Oxford, Ms brought back sweet memories and while spending a week in Memphis we even ended up playing at Gonerfest. Good times!

As we made our way up north, we were sobered by the terrible news that our great friend Zoltan Shoubber passed away. We’ve been playing with him a lot in the past 10 years, and you can hear him on some of our records. We instantly included “Tigergirl” by the Tigermen in our set, which was one of Zoltan’s faves. He was way too young and is sadly missed.

In all we had a great time, playing in great cities, with great bands such as the Royal Pendletons, Missing Monuments, and the Party Stompers. Thanks to Van Thompson, Scott Rogers, Gabriel Hammond, Adam Gaither and all the bands we played with. We will be back very soon. Stay tuned!

Roman Aul – Redondo Beat

Photos of Roman and Max by Michael Dominici

Howie Pyro has asked me back to his INTOXICA show for a third time – I’ll be bringing a box of garage, surf, pysch and weirdo 45s with an accent on fabulously trashy South American (mostly Peruvian) records from the ’60s! Listen Live via the Luxuria.com website on your computer and smart-ass phone – sign up to the Luxuria.com website and post your snide, rude and nearly funny remarks in the chat room! OR – download the podcast when ready!

9:00 PM  – luxuriamusic.com

While poking around a closet at the Dionysus office, I came across two sealed boxes of an 1989 Dionysus Records LP release, “Smells Like Fun” by 27 Devils Joking, a guitar dominated psychedelic band from New Mexico. This is a timely find as the cover art is by the late R.K. Sloan whose art is in the current La Luz de Jesus 25th anniversary show. I’ve just put the stock in the Dionysus cart which you can find here. There are also a few copies for sale at Soap Plant / La Luz de Jesus.

IT’S OFFICIAL: THE INMATES HAVE TAKEN OVER THE ASYLUM AS INDEPENDENT LABEL DISTRIBUTION LAUNCHES WITH INDIE RECORD LABEL OWNERS AT THE HELM

Frontier Records, Beer City and Tribunal Records Take Over Ownership of Physical and Digital Distribution from ILC and Take Control of Their Own Destiny

LOS ANGELES, CA & RICHMOND, VA. (TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2011) – Call it punk, call it gangsta or simply call it good business – Independent Label Distribution (www.ildistro.com) announced today the formation of a new indie record label-run company for physical and digital distribution of some of the best-known independent bands and labels in music today.

Independent Label Distribution (ILD) sprang from a need for solid distribution for independent labels – some in business for more than 30 years – which had been perpetually stiffed, left in the lurch, sold to less than reputable companies or left in ruins by their disreputable distributors. ILD’s goal is to provide quick, efficient service to their customers while providing them with top-sounding and top-selling records at a fair price. Labels Frontier Records, Beer City, and Tribunal Records formed a new business model: a record distributor run by a faction of independent label owners.  Faced with the prospect of being stiffed two times in four years, label vets Lisa Fancher, Mike Beer and Matt Rudzinski, took over their failing distributor in Richmond this summer and rebuilt it from the ground up.

“Of all the things I never thought I’d do, taking over my distributor is probably number one on my list,” said Lisa Fancher of Frontier Records and Independent Label Distribution. “Loser distributors have burned me for hundreds of thousands of dollars since Frontier started in 1980, so at this point I know what it takes to make one succeed. Mike Beer from Beer City, Matt Rudzinski from Tribunal Records and I share the same DIY ethic and we’re not just doing this to save ourselves, we’re interested in helping a couple dozen other labels survive after the previous owner was running the company into the ground. If taking his company over to run it ourselves isn’t punk, I don’t know what is!”

Titles currently distributed by Independent Label Distribution (ILD) include Adolescents, D.R.I., Les Baxter, Bouncing Souls, Cannabis Corpse, Larry & his Flask, Kill Whitney Dead, August Burns Red, Circle Jerks, MDC, The Dils, Hole, Naked Raygun, Rocket From The Crypt, Turbonegro, The Weirdos and more. A full list of ILD labels includes Altin Village & Mine Records, Anchorless Records, Beer City Records, Cavity Records, Chunksaah Records, CI Records, Corrosive Recordings, Dionysus Records/Bacchus Archives, Frontier Records, Init Records, No Way Records, Red Scare Industries, Riot Fest Records, Rodent Popsicle Records, Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club/Springman Records, Six Weeks Records, Sympathy For The Record Industry, Tankcrimes and Tribunal Records/Divebomb Records.

With a solid back catalog and a diverse, new roster of current bands and titles expected each month, ILD is poised to provide chains, one-stops and independent stores with superior service. Following a credo that quality counts, ILD is not your typical distributor with an uncertain shelf life – its goal is to offer quick, efficient service to customers while providing them with great fill on top-selling classic catalog and new releases at fair prices, no matter the size of the account.

To contact ILD Sales Reps, please email:
Andy King andy@ildistro.com                     Chris Pease chris@ildistro.com

ABOUT INDEPENDENT LABEL DISTRIBUTION
Independent Label Distribution (ILD) was formed in Richmond, Virginia in Summer 2011 as the first and only American music distribution company run by independent record label owners. Founded by three independent record label veterans, Lisa Fancher of Frontier Records, Mike Beer of Beer City Records and Matt Rudzinski of Tribunal Records, ILD provides quick, efficient service to customers from some of the world’s best catalog and new releases.

Here is a collection of Orchestra Superstring live videos. – Be sure to check out their new Dionysus release, “Easy” on CD from the Dionysus cart or on digital via iTunes , eMusic or Amazon.com