Wednesday, December 10, 2008  3:00 am 

Smoothed out on a punk rock tip

You know how it’s usually LA people who tour your place? Well, it’s payback time! Thanks to Brian Miller, who provided todays post, from most excellent purveyors of true bliss Deathbomb Arc, you are going to get to tour the most exciting places of the burgeoning LA underground, this is only the beginning, where we learn about the way the LA kids get down tres Dancey, and celebrate the launch of IE’s new video ‘Party in the 909′.

Now over to Brian Miller, say thanks to him in the box below!

Love 8 Skull7

Bel Biv Devoe described their fashion sense as MENTAL… which basically means wearing all your favorite items of clothes at once with no regard to color matching, style matching, or any common notion at all. What really makes living in LA, as a DIY music fan, is that everything is straight up MENTAL here. That’s not really that way the press normally describes “The Smell scene” though. Which is too bad, cuz it is the way that tons of crazy different shit comes together in just a few spots, like the Smell and Pehrspace and Echo Curio and WOMEN, that really makes LA fun. While I absolutely love HEALTH, No Age, Mae Shi, and all the amazing noiserock bands that carry the torch for the valley of smoke, the true energy driving everything is a passion for something maybe too nonsensical for most journalists to want to latch on to. So here begins a series of posts to help give a larger census of this Smell thang.

Starting with Ravesploitation.

Every major city has its own answer to underground dance music. Here in LA we call it Ravesploitation.

Punk kids making lofi beats, theaudience moshes (seriously), and the scene even has its own superstar known as Captain Ahab (that deep 20JFG readers will be familiar with).

In 2008 though the queen of Ravesploitation was definitely IE (which stands for Inland Empire, the same the Lynch made his own lofi homage to). Her swan song is ‘Party in the 909.’ The plight of a jnr high princessa loving her new found world.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/2432269[/vimeo]

If you want to chat about this video, come join everyone in IE’s video chat room!

The cast sums up the everything MENTAL about LA. Dan and Grace from noisedrum troop Foot Village, Erik and Elijah from the accapella outfit E&E, and Jessica and Dana from acoustic poppunk trio Puppy Dog.

Jessica, Dana, and Puppy Dog third Vanessa don’t use an ounce of electricity to scream to the sky. They know that sharing time is vital though, and when they let LA electro rappers Kid Infinity ride their Pegasus around one day, the payoff was essential. I have a soft spot for dance remixes of punk tracks, but even for a push over like me knows that this is tops.

Puppy Dog- Pegasus (Kid Infinity Remix)

Harder is better? Insaner is better? Yes. Of course. Tleilaxu Music Machine knows this too. Totally charismatic through all the anger. Totally feisty, cute beats and a body slammed against the audience. LA is one hyped town. Fight for your right to party is a cosmic political stance, and don’t believe the hype. All enlightenment is premature enlightenment. So rock on, raver.

Tleilaxu Music Machine- I Never Know

labels >> Deathbomb Arc, IE, Puppy Dog, Tleixalu Music Machine

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