Dionysus Records welcomes  Jimmy Vargas & The Black Dahlias!

Jimmy Vargas is a racketeer and crooner, reincarnated from the twilight side of Los Angeles’ sin alley circa 1947. Lilana is a sorceress and exotique from the Mission Dolores San Francisco by way of Buenos Aires Argentina.

Brought together in the Broadway dancehall on North Beach by the Black Pope of the Bay City on the eve of the Dias De Los Muertos 1992, Vargas and Lilana’s relationship forged over several lifetimes. Vargas venerates her as his Shadow Bride. She vaunts him as her swinging Galahad, Gnostic crooner, and carney wise-cracker. Liliana alone tempers and guides the melodies, visions and words that come from Vargas’ hands. Her sexotique DNA alone seeds Jimmy Vargas & the Black Dahlia’s canon.

Jimmy Vargas & The Black Dahlias have created seven albums; the first, El Torchtura, was released in 1994 and set the template with its’ melancholic jazz swing, torch and Lynchian soundtrack. Six more sassy, satanic, swing noir episodes have followed, tempered all by Liliana’s essence and mystic influence. Liliana’s iconic holy image is embossed on each of their records and DVDs, as a haunting talisman.

Dionysus Records now stocks several Jimmy Vargas releases in our mail-order cart and will soon be releasing Digital versions of each album. Keep your eyes open for a new Vargas & Dahlias CD/Digital release and a vinyl LP in 2013! Click this link to order all four releases in-stock:

Death Swings’ (Album I & II)
Lust Angeles (Album VII)
My Shadow Bride Ghosting
Requiem For My Shadow

Their new disc, Lust Angeles, is now unleashed just in time for the zeitgeist. It’s a vintage and futuristic soundtrack for the new metaphysical soul shift. Fleshed in satanic hosiery and divined in a Gnostic spirit, these are urban hymns for the unsaved sons and daughters of Eve and features nine more tracks of lupercalian blues, scorching mambo and torch that one would imagine blasting out of a Hollywood pleasure house jukebox of 1948.

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.

We’d like to wish a slightly belated Happy Birthday to one of the most marvelous joys of life on this earth – the 45 RPM Record! Check out this link containing text from RCA Victor’s press releases regarding the launch of the 45, and have a listen to RCA’s “Whirl Away” demonstration 45 which introduces the format.

The legendary and departed Greg Shaw –  founder of Bomp!  holding his favorite format. Photo borrowed from the Bomp! Records website.

Jonny Whiteside Presents The Messaround’s Lucky 13 Edition with wah-wah overlord Del Casher, punk legend Dave Drive & The Zoomies, roots alchemists The Skip Heller Trio, destructo-rock sensations The Ingrates! Dick Deluxe fronts the houseband! All Ages! No Cover! No Prisoners!

Jonny Whiteside’s Messaround at Viva Cantina
Sun., March 20, 5-9 p.m.
900 West Riverside Drive,
Burbank, CA 91506
all ages; no cover.
FREE PARKING across the street at Pickwick Bowl (same owners)
www.vivacantina.com

Strap on Yer Dribble Cups To Suck Up This Highly Spiced Burgoo of Outright Slash & Burn Chaos Versus Cool, Controlled Old School Perfection

Messaround Witch Doctor Jonny Whiteside ecstatically yields to popular demand and welcomes back the incomparable guitar stylist Del Casher. The first visionary to adapt the wah-wah peddle unto a guitar (and the first to record with it), Casher is intimately conversant with the full spectrum of American music, from pure communicative jazz to frosty cocktail blues to rabble-rousing rockabilly. This is the cat who truly did the 1960’s Hollywood music business “A-Z”–as lead guitarist for Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch by day and as hired hand for Frank Zappa at the Whisky by night; an in-demand session player, who has cut with everyone from Frank Sinatra to supplying the twang for TV’s Bonanza theme and backing up Elvis Presley onscreen in Roustabout, Casher’s dazzling, wah-wah laced mastery is nothing less than mesmerizing.

The Thrill-O-Meter is sure to bust with Big Beat Mayhem Supergroup The Zoomies. Fronted by punk rock icon Dave Drive (Gears, D.I.’s) on guitar and vocals (!!!) with the equally esteemed veterano Dig Pig on guitar, plus Marty Perez, Ralph Lopez and (maybe even) Mike Manifold–the Zoomies will throw down thunderous, sublime trash rock for what is certain to be an auspicious Messaround debut, and we’re proud as hell to be hosting these gnarsome artistes.

Get-around singer-musician Skip Heller, the formidable, Les Baxter-mentored stylist who has collaborated with the likes of Sun Goddess Yma Sumac and Pachuco Boogie Godfather Lalo Guerrero, brings his crack trio, eccentric repertoire, decades of far-ranging experience and rare insider insight. The prolific and passionate Heller ranks as one of the West Coast’s most discriminating and broad minded talents, a man whose innate hep quotient and well-chilled instincts guarantees a performance loaded with sizzle and sensitivity.

Making another wild-hair Messaround debut tonight is the Ingrates, who’ll fire a high-calibre barrage of Iggy-Motorhead-Ramones bunker-busters directly into your soul. Fronted by untamed rock doll Paige Darling (whose 20th century incarnation the Darlings were good enough to make the Bomp Records roster) and featuring tenured Hollywood hellraisers Chris “Poobah” Bailey, Tommy Wright (late of 80’s-era Raji’s miscreants the Little Kings), along with Chris Schwartz and Jill Guido, this frantic combo is certain to live up to their name via a distinctive wall-to-wall-FTW-with-a-backbeat disregard for every known form of societal normalcy.

With an opening benediction from our brand spankin’ new houseband frontman Dick Deluxe and beloved ‘Mess stalwarts Paul Marshall and David Raven–the righteous rockers upon which we build this tabernacle–plus the inevitable surprise guest performers and the singular culture of lurid flat-git-it balling which the Messaround has created, it’s yet another blow-top schizo-phonic session of the highest order.

Luxuria needs your help

to survive and thrive!

(Reposted from the Luxuriamusic website.) For eleven years, Luxuriamusic has provided YOU PERSONALLY with a seductive variety of international music, chat, and interweb bonding. it’s our pleasure to do this, but it doesn’t come cheap. (Click Read More below to read more, or just click here to go straight to the Donate page.)

We want to move forward, but first, there are some tough realities to deal with. Listeners know our equipment is old and at the breaking point, and we can’t currently afford to repair or upgrade. In order to do that, we’re asking for your help.

Our DJs are currently working hard to make this 2011 pledge drive fun both for our listeners, and of course… for ourselves!  Why not!  We’re offering lots of great new Donation Premiums including CDs, DVDs and books by our distinguished staff, including Andrew (“Come to the Sunshine“) Sandoval, Steve (“The Nice Age”) Stanley, Kristian (“Peppermint Spicerack”) Hoffman, Gene (“Atomic Cocktail”) Sculatti, Strike (“Kitsch Niche”), Angel-Baby & Doctor Nod (“Between the Sheets”), and Jason (“The Bachelor Pad”) Croft.  In addition, you can choose to support our studio directly by clicking on a whole range of items in our studio, like microphones, the mix console, the T1 Internet terminal, and even walls and doors.

You can also send in a check, cash or money order to this address: LuxuriaMusic, LLC, P.O. Box 26290, San Francisco, CA 94126-6290 USA, or donate securely VIA PayPal using the DONATE link on the home page, or by clicking directly to http://luxuriamusic.com/donate.html .

Luxotronathon!!

Join Rotary Rachel and a cavalcade of stars/Luxuria DJ’s for the first annual 24 Hour “Bucks For Lux” Telethon, beginning at 12pm March 3rd and ending 12pm March 4th. (pacific)

There will be giveaways, auctions, games, and much more fun – including a line-up of VERY special guests! Scheduled to appear are TV’s Frank Conniff, Pamela Des Barres, Allee Willis, Blaine Capatch, Micky Dolenz, Ruthann Friedman, Taylor Negron, and many more TBA!!

Not to mention special sets from all your favorite Luxuria DJ’s….including OG Lux 1.0 legends The Millionaire and Eric Bonerz!

DO NOT MISS this amazing event! The chat room, donation page and phone lines WILL be open for this important cause. We need your help to keep all the groovy LuxuriaMusic programming on the air!

“Everything but the Kitschen Sync XIV”

March 4 – 27
Opening Reception: Friday, March 4th, 8-11 pm
La Luz de Jesus Gallery
4633 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90027
323-666-7667
www.laluzdejesus.com
info@laluzdejesus.com

Preview the entire show here!

La Luz De Jesus Gallery will be holding their annual juried group exhibition, “Everything but the Kitschen Sync” this coming Friday, March 4. This gigantic, no-theme show features works from some of the freshest and most relevant artists working today. Commercial illustrators, graphic designers, tattooists, scenic painters, students, and animators and other have been invited to submit images. The show includes artists the gallery has previously exhibited, who consistently produce some of the most interesting paintings and sculptures in pop contemporary, as well as a large selection of work from a brand new batch of undiscovered, underground talent. This year’s list of 121 Kitschen Sync artists showing 225 pieces were chosen from over 8000 entries that were sent to the gallery throughout the year.

“Everything but the Kitschen Sync” began in October 1986 as the “Día de los Muertos” show which was entirely focused on the folk art, sculptures and imagery of Mexico’s “Day of the Dead” celebration. By 1995, gallery owner and curator Billy Shire felt the show had run its course and presented other themed group exhibitions such as the 1996 “21st Century Tiki Show” curated with Otto Von Stroheim. In 1998 Shire decided to present a non-themed show dedicated to illustrative and narrative artwork. As many local artists work in commercial graphic art fields such as illustration, cartooning, animation, ect, the show was named “Uncommercial Art by Commercial Artists.” In 2004, Shire changed the show name to the more encompassing and less-cumbersome “Everything but the Kitschen Sync.”

“Everyone looks at this show for new and interesting artists” states Shire – and indeed, not only does La Luz de Jesus pick artists from the Kitchen Synch for future smaller group and solo shows – numerous curators and owners of other galleries also keep their eyes on the yearly show for potential artists to add to their rosters.

“This is the only opportunity for emerging artists to show at the most prestigious gallery in post-pop and it is one of the most anticipated shows of the year because patrons get a crack at buying art from future superstars” states gallery director Matt Kennedy.

“Everything But The Kitschen Sync” 2011 Artist List:
Jessicka Addams
Ron Adkins
Marco Almera
Betty Alvarez
Susanne Apgar
Chris Athans
Davidd Batalon
John Brosio
Greg Brotherton
Michael Brown
Blue Broxton
Jeaneen Carlino
Evan Chambers
Andy Clark
Lacey Clemens
JAW Cooper
Edward Robin Coronel
Matthew Couper
Robert Craig
Will Crane
Jessica Dalva
Patrick “Star27” Deignan
Delphia
Robert Doucette
Dimitri Drjuchin
Jesse Fillingham
Mary Fleener
Vanessa Flores
Tim Forbus
Harold Fox
Frijol Boy
Don Fritz
Richard Frost
Rachel Fujii
Damian Fulton
Jeff Gillette
Mark Gleason
Bruce Gossett
Desiree Grisham
Max Grundy
Sunny Gu
Tamara Guion
Conrad Haberland
Caitlin Hackett
August Hall
Walt Hall
Ashley Harrison
Derek Harrison
Gale Hart
Andy Hernandez
Brett Hess
Scott Holloway
Jack Howe
Bree Hranek
Eric Hudgins
Jeremy Hush
Jennifer Jelenski
JoKa
Damara Kaminecki
Da Hae Kim
Miran Kim
Tara Krebs
Eunbyul Kwak
Dennis Larkins
Dave Lebow
Caroline Lee
Alexis Lopez
Carl Lozado
Danni Shinya Luo
Dion Macellari
Jon MacNair
Monika Malewska
Apricot Mantle
Robert Marbury
Aya Masuda
Mark Melchior
Miso
Junko Mizuno
Nicole Moan
Roberto Morales
Click Mort
Emi Motokawa
Munk One
Corinne Odermatt
Daisuke Okamoto
Jose Ontiveros
Amy Ortiz
Nathan Ota
Cristina Paulos
Celene Petrulak
Linda Quakenbush
Cate Rangel
Brian Raszka
Bonni Reid
Eric Richardson
Gustavo Rimada
Antonio Roybal
Leigh Salgado
Van Saro
Scott Saw
Kim Scott
Simon Sotelo
Andy Steele
Bryce Takara
David Russell Talbott
Hui Tan
Johnny Taylor
Pol Turgeon
Marietta Villalva
Javier Villanueva
Edith Waddell
Jessica Ward
Dave Warshaw
Mel Weiner
Mirmy Winn
Jasmine Worth
Christine Wu
Adam Ybarra
George Yepes
James Zar
Kim Zsebe

Brett Hess “Iconoclast” Acrylic on wood panel 22.25″ x 26″ in 26.25″ x 30″ frame
Evan Chambers “Diving Bell Desk Lamp” Copper, bronze, blown glass 4″ x 8″ x 4″
Eric Hudgins “The Liberator!” Oil on canvas 24″ x 30″
Betty Alvarez “Romantic Underworld” Acrylic on canvas 16″ x 20″ in 22″ x 26″ frame
Bonni Reid “Never a Frown” Egg Tempera and oil on hardboard 13″ x 16″
Nathan Ota “Wind Me Up” Mixed media, acrylic painted resin sculpture 6″ x 8″ x 6″

This Thursday – 2/10 – Dionysus Records brings you three bands at The Redwood featuring exotica with a twist from The Ding Dong Devils, The Dick and Jane Family Orchestra with Dionysus’ Lee Joseph on bass, and Casino 66, formerly The Huntington Cads and featuring ex members of The Finks, The Witchdoctors and The Tiki Tones. Only $5.00!

9:30 PM
$5.00 Cover
The Redwood Bar and Grill
316 W. 2nd St.
Los Angeles, CA. 90012
213.680.2600

Destroy All Movies!!! The Complete Guide to Punks on Film. Book signing by the authors Zack Carlson & Bryan Connolly

Sunday, November 21st
5pm – 7pm
La Luz de Jesus
4633 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90027
323-666-7667
www.laluzdejesus.com
info@laluzdejesus.com

This wildly comprehensive release features A-to-Z coverage of over 1100 feature films from around the world, as well as dozens of exclusive interviews with the cast/creators of crucial titles like “Repo Man,” “Return of the Living Dead,” “The Decline of Western Civilization” and “Valley Girl.” Also examined are countless prime examples of straight-to-VHS slasher trash, Brooklyn skid row masterpieces, Filipino breakdancing fairytales, no-budget apocalyptic epics and movies that shouldn’t even have been released, many of which have never been written about. Also included are hundreds of eyeball-smashing stills and posters, many in full color!

In addition, the book features tons of exclusive interviews with music/big screen luminaries including Ian MacKaye, Richard Hell, Penelope Spheeris, Nick Zedd, John Doe & Exene Cervenka, Alex Cox, Martha Coolidge, Lee Ving, Keith Morris, Mary Woronov and many more!

“Destroy All Movies!!!” nails down decades of insanity with superhuman research, vicious precision and electrically charged stills and images, and is the first and final definitive armchair roadmap to punk and new wave on celluloid. Five years in the making, this pulse-bursting monument to lowbrow cultural obsession is a must for all film fanatics, music maniacs, anti-fashion mutants, ’80s nostalgists, sleazoids, cop-killers and spazzmatics!

Check out www.PunksOnFilm.com for more info.

About The Editors
Zack Carlson has owned a punk record store, taught college courses on disreputable film history, toured internationally in various bands, and has amassed a bone-crushing collection of over 3000 forgotten VHS treasures. He’s a lead film programmer for Austin’s original Alamo Drafthouse Cinema called “The best movie theater in America” by Entertainment Weekly) and Fantastic Fest, the nation’s largest genre film festival.

Bryan Connolly has been movie-obsessed since childhood. A screenwriter and filmmaker, he is also one of the driving forces behind Vulcan Video, one of the world’s last flourishing independently owned movie rental stores. A fearless warrior in the arena of underappreciated entertainment, Bryan is the founder of the international event VHS Day, which will take place each October 1 from now until the end of time.

BEYOND EDEN: Over 3,000 attend opening – Robert Williams honored – opening night pictures

L to R: Andrew Hosner (Beyond Eden organizer, Thinkspace Gallery, Sour Harvest,)  Matt Kennedy (Gallery Director – La Luz de Jesus,) Robert Williams, Billy Shire (Owner, Curator – La Luz de Jesus,) Lee Joseph ) (Beyond Eden publicist and coordination assistance.)  Photograph by Sam Graham

From Andrew Hosner / Beyond Eden event organizer:
BEYOND EDEN 2010 opened with a blast this past weekend drawing  nearly 4,000 people total over the weekend to the beautiful grounds of Barnsdall Park and the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.

We would like to thank everyone who came out to support the artists and to extend our gratitude to the staff at LAMAG for making the event possible and nurturing it into such an overwhelming success. Saturday night’s opening reception alone drew well over  3,000 people and the energy in the air was palpable.

At 8pm when the time came to present the one and only Robert Williams with a Lifetime Achievement award, the venue was simply packed with a crowd of friends and revelers that stretched outside into the municipal gallery’s courtyard. Robert Williams, ever a gentleman, was gracious and ribald during the well received presentation.

We can’t stress enough what a huge honor it was to have Robert–the progenitor of contemporary West Coast art–there and to be able to present him with this award in front of all his friends and family. It was truly the crowning moment of an already amazing night that saw so many new people exposed to the thriving New Contemporary Art Movement. Long ignored by the mainstream, this movement continues to gain momentum and supporters all the while further breaking down the doors at institutions and museums the world over.  A new generation of artists and art enthusiasts is rewriting the rule books and we are excited that BEYOND EDEN can serve as a vehicle of enlightenment and change.