• Spanish

WHAT: Sad and French
WHY: Music for lovers  with punk  soul
LINKS: http://sadandfrench.com

Text por Lizandro Melean

@lizandro_melean

The story goes like this; I knew Jose Prieto back in the late ´90’s when he spent his time filling the streets of Caracas, Venezuela with punk alongside his band: The Go Go Punkers. They even had a cover of “Hit Me Baby One More Time” to laugh with the crowd and all.

Of all those gigs in Caracas only some photos, memories and an EP titled Four Punkers Around the Corner were left. The years passed, the grey hair came to hunt us and Jose, just as many others, came to the USA to have a new chance in life and now he’s armed and dangerous with Sad and French, a project that sounds like folk but that has a punk soul underneath and a lot of melancholy in its DNA.

The Project started as a Prieto’s solo experiment when he was walking around Florida looking for a muse before moving to Brooklin-NY where he lives nowadays. Today the band is a duet with a garage/folk/punk sound attached to it. Jose brings life to the vocals, the guitar and the bass-drum, while his partner Edwin Santacruz, a guy from Cali-Colombia, hits the strings of the double bass that ads a lot of Sad to the French, if you know what I mean.

Sad and French has a 5 song EP that you can download for free on their website, it was recorded on 2011 and many other songs Jose recorded by himself that also take part of Sad and French repertory. The full length album is going to be produced in Colorado in the near future.

Sad and French toured the US from coast to coast and they served as the opening show for musicians like Joey Cape from Lagwagon, Drag the River, Micah Schnabel, Cory Branan, Dave Hause, between others, and this year Europe will hear from them.

Here it’s a little taste of Sad and French:

• Spanish

WHAT: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
WHERE: Royce Hall @ UCLA
WHEN: November 17th, 2011

Photos by Isaac Bonyuet

@IsaacBonyuet

With two sold out shows in a row, Noel Gallagher with his debut as a solo artist alongside with his new band High Flying Birds, played at the Royce Hall in UCLA. A british night packed with an adult audience that grow up with Oasis. Noel played 9 songs from Oasis that night: (It’s Good) To Be Free, Mucky Fingers, Mucky Fingers, Wonderwall, Supersonic, Talk Tonight, Half The World Away, Little By Little, The Importance of Being Idle y Don’t Look Back In Anger.

We are waiting now for Liam to take the stage of The Wiltern with Beady Eye on December 3rd.

• Spanish

WHAT: Sunset Strip Musical Festival 2011
WHERE: Los Angeles, California
WHEN: August 20th, 2011

Text by Lizandro Melean

Photos by Greta Alvarez / @grets & @lizandro_melean

The Sunset Strip Festival 2011 tried to take back that old feeling full of hairspray, self-destruction, bad behavior and gallons of whisky down your throat on stages full of angst-ridden songs. Two stages, the one on the east, not too much rock on it, but full of fresh bands that made the public jump no matter how hot the weather was.

Cobra Starship was the dessert after 1pm, a band that seems right on these Glee times but not too right on a rock festival on Sunset Strip, where as legends tells, lies the real American rock heart.

On the East side at 3:10pm Matt and Kim put the entire audience inside their pockets and Public Enemy, although they were far from being in the rock aisle, reminded us why they are one of the top-notch rap bands of all time, priceless to see Flavor Flav´s teeth live. She Wants Revenge on the other side stayed on the mellow side with their placebo-indie-rock-style warming up the amplifiers for Mötley Crue.

The poisons for the day: beer, courtesy of Budweiser, and Jack and Coke on a bottle. The prices: reasonable though a little high, the usual on these kinds of events. The Twilight Zone moment: you could only drink these refreshing elixirs on a zone that were more in tone with an AA after party than something else. You could not drink your beer watching the bands; I imagine this was made to stop people from littering.

People went there to see Bush and Tommy Lee and Co., Escape the Fate also gave a wonderful performance but it was Bush who started to put fire on stage. Their show was short but consistent. The sound impeccable and Gavin Rossdale voice amazing. It was like listening to a Greatest Hits Bush album, only the essential songs were played and they were one of the bands who did a meet & greet before their show.

Mötley Crue and Kiss must be the most theatrical bands out there. You pay to watch Tommy Lee spin around with his battery, then you pay to see fireworks and great visual effects and then you pay to listen to the band live. Their show was flawless and entertaining with a capital E.

The Sunset Strip Festival is the aperitive for Fall season. It’s the moment to blow the heat candle and give a step forward to the winter-colder season and a breath of melancholic air to all those bands who were, are and will be the kings of the sweetest cocaine for the soul: rock n roll.

Videos you said? Served!

Bush-Glicerine

• Spanish

WHAT: Rock Arsenal bottled tees by Ann Leushina
WHERE: Moscow, Russia

By Lizandro Melean

@lizandro_melean

A t-shirt is a t-shirt, simple. What can take this piece of clothing to the next level? The answer is: a bottled t-shirt!

Don’t deny it. Everyone, even you, love to throw two or three things away sometimes just because you’re angry or only for fun. Now you will do it with joy because if you smash these beer bottles like a mad cowboy, you will have as a reward a brand new t-shirt. This beer package was designed by the student Ann Leushima, a young fashion promise from Moscow.

Rock Arsenal T-Shirts are the people who are selling these pieces of fine clothing in their original package. Just remember, if you want to put them on, you need first to break the bottle that keeps the tees away from you. Rock Arsenal is a place that sells musical instruments, jewelry and of course, t-shirts and is one of the most popular stores between underground culture lovers of Tolstoi’s land.

They come in three different bottles of beer: Classic, Dark and Soft. Do you like Bon Jovi, Slipknot or Led Zeppelin? Doesn’t matter which taste you have, there´s bottles of beer (and tees) for every taste

It’s time to go out, let’s break some bottles!

• Spanish

WHAT: KROQ: Weenie Roast 2011
WHERE: Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
WHEN: June 4th 2011

By Isaac Bonyuet

@isaacbonyuet

KROQ, one of the most recognized radio stations about modern rock in LA organized last weekend the Weenie Roast 2011 a festival that has its name referring to all those people who like to do barbecues in a field and spent hours under the sun.

Lateral stage:

Neon Trees

The Airborne Toxic Event

Everything began on this side with Young Giant, Foster the People, The Airborne Toxic Event. Neon Trees put the last dot with their post punk new wave that exited the public.

Main Stage:

Bad Religion

Bad Religion

Cage The Elephant

On this side we had more punk and garage rock. Face to Face, A Day to Remember and KROQ spoiled brats: Cage the Elephant. These last ones are from Kentucky and they offered a mix of rock-punk & blues with influences from Nirvana. Then, the legendary band of Californian punk Bad Religion was the next in line with the right repertory to start a mosh pit.

The cameo:

The Strokes

The Strokes

Rise Against

The Strokes were also part of this party and their show lasted only 40 minutes between hits and new songs. They entertained with Last Nite, You Only Live Once y Juicebox. The next on stage were Rise Against, a punk rocker band with hardcore doses, beloved by KROQ public.

The twist:

Foo Fighters

Foo Fighters

Foo Fighters

All of a sudden, the surprise of the night: Foo Fighters who showed up playing All My Life. “Surprised?” screamed Dave Grohl a second after the song ended. They followed with Rope from their last record Wasting Light.

“If this was a Foo Fighters gig, they would need 3 hours for their hits, every single song is a hit, but they only have an hour so I’ll better shut up and this way there will be more time to play”, said Grohl before returning to his guitar. We listened to The Pretender, Learn to Fly and they closed their show (of course) with Everlong.

The closing:

Weenie closed with Linkin Park. They and their nü-metal are still alive thanks to the Transformers movies. On that precise moment I decided to leave with the memory of Foo Fighters in my head like the last band of the night.

• Spanish

WHAT: Awesome People Hanging out Together
LINK: http://awesomepeoplehangingouttogether.tumblr.com/

Michael Jackson, Francis Coppola & George Lucas

By  Greta Álvarez

@Grets

The description of this Tumblr-Blog says the name of the space is self-explanatory, and it actually is: its a blog where you can see pictures of famous cool people with more famous cool people side by side, get it?

Mick Jagger & William Burroughs and Andy Warhol

Ella Fitzgerald & Marilyn Monroe

From pictures showing Ringo Starr with David Bowie, also Charles Bukowski with Mickey Rourke and Charlie Chaplin, Marlon Brando & Sophia Loren seated on a single table. People you have never imagined together and others you would die to be with. Photos that have the word “genius” written all over them.

Susan Anton, Sylvester Stallone and Andy Warhol

A Tumblr with the one you’re gonna understand the truth about the phrase: show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are.

Kate Moss, Johnny Depp & Iggy Pop