Josh-Manhattan dweller…
Don-I know, right? I can’t relate to this shit. Actually, I worked here tonight and I got a little loopy and then I went to the city I did my fucking standup and then, it would have been really easy to go home get in bed, but I came back out…
Josh-It’s hard getting out here, man, fuck that shit.
Don-Yeah, It’s well, I dunno, man, I tell you, this is like good living, good living out here.
Josh-I got a nice place.
Don-yeah, you got a good spot going on, man.
Josh-It’s allright. I want to hear about your stand-up.
Don-It’s good man! It’s good. So far so good.
Josh-I’m not surprised.
Don-I did yesterday and I did today and it’s gone really, really well, I got…
Josh-both days were good?
Don-Yeah! Like, I did last night and things went well. But then tonight was a kind of a challenge where I had to follow that up so I went home and wrote a bunch more shit and went out and did it and I dunno, I was, I don’t want to sound like… cocky… but I kind of killed it both nights.
Josh-I believe you.
Don- I feel good, I’m going to go with it, I’m going to write some shit.
Josh-Awesome.
Don-But you, man! you’re on some shit right now, you are a… busy dude!
Josh-I am a busy dude…
Don-You’re back from Japan…
Josh-Back from Japan.
Don-You’re playing, or you played… last night. Did you play last night?
Josh-Yeah.
Don-Was that, that was the Webster Hall show?
Josh-Yes.
Don-How’d it go?
Josh-It was nice. I actually really liked that gig. It was like a really mellow one for us, but it was very satisfying, it felt very therapeutic. It was fun.
Don-You mentioned that you guys have never really done media stuff before, always shied away from interviews and now you are in the thick of it. You’re on the front page of the fucking art section of the New York Times today, beautiful photograph, you all look great, so you’re back into it, man, this is what a lot of bands aim for right?
Josh-I guess. I guess so. I dunno, I just want to be able to make music so, I’m assuming, or not assuming but, hopefully all this ‘banter’… it’s going to make it easier for us.
Don-Yeah, well, you know it’s… more people hear about you, the more people see you. but so now you’ve done the record, the record’s out, it’s been like three years in the making…
Josh-Yeah.

Don-Do you feel like you’re already done with that or, you said you were going to record again soon?
Josh-We’re recording in January. Going to Joshua Tree, out in the desert, to a friend’s house.
Don-Is that? Is it Bono’s house?
Josh-Uh, No. It’s not Bono. And the Edge won’t be there either.
Don-Fuck! That would be… that would be so fucking good. Man! If you guys have like the Edge playing on your record, man, that would be… something else.
Josh-It would be sweet but I’d be out of a job, he’s too good.
Don-well, no, seriously, I think you’re better than the edge, you’re better than the Edge.
Josh-Thank you.
Don-I think, you’re the hidden ingredient of that band. I think, you know… Degraw… you know, he gets a lot of the attention but you’re sort of the hidden one. Because, I remember listening to you guys over the years and I’d be like, “I didn’t hear any guitar”, but then I’d actually see it live and I’d see you playing and I’d go, ‘Oh, Josh is actually making all these sounds happen.’
Josh-Half the time when we play, we get these reviews, Central Park Summer Stage was the most recent, after we did that, I read a couple of reviews online where people were like, the guitarist was strumming furiously and no sound was coming out. (laughs) Like they think I’m not doing anything, which is funny.
Don-No… well, on the new record I feel like the guitar is more apparent, It’s really good.
Josh-It’s more ’straight guitar’.

Don-You said, you’re getting a new guitar? You have one in mind over at Main Drag? Did you pick that guitar up you were talking about?
Josh-Yeah, Bruno [mutual pal] helped, I came home from tour with five dollars or whatever and I just traded all this stuff and then Bruno leant me the rest of the money to get this guitar because…
Don-did you get it?
Josh-Yeah I did, but it still needs to be set up for synth stuff. It’s just, like, I take equipment on the road, and we’ve traveled so much, that shit just gets beaten up and you know I’ve played the same guitar for years in the band and it just gets totally destroyed. It’s a mess.
Don-So, what made this new guitar stand out to you, like why did you want to get this guitar.
Josh-I dunno, you’ve probably had that experience, you play guitar.
Don-Yeah, you see a guitar and you’re like, ‘this is the one. I need to have this guitar.’
Josh-I think I’m attracted to strange, lost, instruments, or something like that, outsider instruments, the one that doesn’t get invited to the party.
Don-The loner guitar.
Josh-The loner.
Don-So you have it now?
Josh-yeah, I have it, it’s nice. I’m getting it set up tomorrow and then hopefully I will be able to make some money at some point and I can afford to put the…
Don-you guys aren’t making money yet? I mean, you guys are on top of the world, right? New York Times! You guys you’re fucking doing it, this is like, people form bands and their dream is to get to the point that you’re at right now you’re at that point.
Josh-I’m working at Daddy’s right now. (laughter)
Don-(Laughter)

Josh-yeah, man, I mean, I don’t know, I mean, we kind of like, I am fortunate because we’ve made some money over the years.
Don-You did that um, Boadrum thing, which is amazing.
Josh-Yeah, it’s just like, sometimes we’ll get something that pays, but, it’s real up and down, I mean, I did come home from tour and I had five dollars and, It doesn’t feel so good.
Don-Yeah.
Josh-Like, I’d been living on my change jar until the show last night.
Don-So that’s the lesson. If you form a band, you’re not going to make any money at all and you’ll realize your dream and you’re still not going to make anything at all.
Josh-It ain’t about the money until you have as many grey hairs as I do and then you have to worry about money.
Don-you have… about thirty-four grey hairs.
Josh-Maybe thirty-Five.
Don-Well, I just got the record, I got the record yesterday, or two days ago and, and I’ve really gotten to listen to it and it sounds, obviously, really fucking solid, it’s really good um…
Josh-Thanks, Don, you’re a sweetheart.
Don-Well, you know, I’m just sayin, I’m just sayin…¦
Josh-Worth the buck. But…
Don-But you know, a little more work and maybe you’ve got something… seriously, you guys could try a little harder next time.
Josh-Yeah, I love you Don.
Don-Alright. That’s that, Gang Gang, oh shit.

Download Gang Gang Dance’s Saint Dymphna at  OTHER MUSIC

more GANG GANG here & here.  

Don Stahl is a comedian and writer. He dwells in Manhattan. See more here

Our buddy Jacques Renault is out with an awesome video for his track ‘Bad Skinned‘
This near 7min cut of furious disco basslines and Zaxon rayguns is off his new Rvng Of The Nrds Vol.6 12″.The Video was created by Lifelong Friendship Society & Strange Baby. 

   
There’s an acceptance of pain involved in the individuality of things like skateboarding, punk and noise, graffiti and not being able to do things ’cause you’re underage and just not belonging to whatever ‘normal’ is; but through this pain comes creativity and a bit of its own sort of feeling good.

The Smell, in downtown Los Angeles, is a kind of culmination of all these things and acts as a breeding ground for an all-ages revolt against accepted aesthetics, sonics and ideology. Relatively broad ranges of groups perform at The Smell, but its definite roots are in hardcore punk and noise. On any given night you can walk in and feel your body tremble from a frequency you never knew existed, upon further examination you’ll see, not hear, singers screaming on the floor or on an amp, ripping their shirts and about to pop a blood vessel, yet, because of the amplitude already at its peak, the vocals make little to no difference in the enveloping soundscape. 

ANAVAN IN ‘40 BANDS/80 MINUTES’   

The Pehrspace in Echo Park is another center for bands and artists with this DIY approach; Sean Carnage organizes a night on Monday’s there that features a good variety of progressive noise and other experimental groups. A little more than a year ago Sean released a documentary entitled ‘40 Bands 80 Minutes‘, the film is a document of 40 bands from the L.A. DIY scene playing for 2 minutes a piece for a total of 80 minutes. Abe Vigoda, Explogasm, Wives (Dean and Randy from No Age) and Anavan were among the bands involved in the project. It’s not only a showcase of these bands but also about the support the bands give to each other, something quite redeeming about the L.A. scene in general. Everyone’s in it together, pushing each other yet not in a competitive manner, much like the support from peers while skateboarding. A group of individuals helping each other and whoever else wants to get involved.

NASA SPACE UNIVERSE   

One band that’s really pushing things on all levels is NASA Space Universe. They combine the harshness of noise with the fast anxiety of 80’s hardcore to produce violently direct music with a piercing social message warning of societies doom and decline. Kevin Rhea, the singer, goes off into deeply emotionalized conspiratorial, psychological and philosophical rants about the draining of our minds through media and the government, all the while working up the audience into a frenzy. 

THE MAE SHI AT THE SMELL  

Bands keep forming and un-forming, house venues and art galleries start then get shut down but still optimism remains amongst everyone. Even with all this press the scene’s getting, there’s still a genuineness that remains and doesn’t seem to be leaving, in fact all this attention seems to only add fuel to the fire; for something that started with no direction, it’s become quite an interesting journey to watch.

MIKA MIKO  

JASON-Jesse, it’s interesting that the scene is so defined by it’s youngest participants. I know that’s really true in places like the OC that the kids are really shut out of things. And this reclaiming of territory and marking out something that is really meant for the kids is rad. It’s not something I think NYC kids relate to because teenagers in NY are kind of hanging around clubs and bars from a young age.

JESSE-I get pretty bummed about most things being 21+ since i’m 20 and because i’m very much against the elitism that it sort of produces by keeping ‘kids’ out of ‘adult’ things.

JASON-It seems the roots of hardcore run pretty deep for sure. Does this mean that the scenes you’re talking about are boy-centric like hardcore was and is, or is this more inclusive than that? I was looking at the pictures on NASA Space Universe’s myspace and there did seem to be a number of young ladies in the pit. 

JESSE-Just from my personal observation, I’d say that there is a definitely larger male presence but it is a very open scene and there are quite a lot of girls involved with things. 

JASON-Who’s the girl’s version of NO AGE? 

JESSE-Theres a few bands with all or mostly girls, namely Mika Miko and Vomit Bomb there’s also this band All Neon Like, they’re all different though vomit bomb’s like 77 thrash/metal and mika miko is like no wave punk stuff. 

VOMIT BOMB AT THE SMELL

JESSE-When things are at their craziest there’s still a love that’s present and if you fall, people are gonna pick you up, and girls are just as involved with all that as guys are, there’s just overall more guys in the scene than are girls but no one really discriminates.

JASON-Awesome. And it’s also interesting because even though it seems there’s a big carry over of some of the more agro aspects of Hardcore and Noise, there’s also a definite break from it’s traditional images. The bands and their artwork and style all seems much more playful and colorful than hardcore. Do you see that same difference in the scene between ‘FUN’ and something more ‘agro’? Is it a big party atmosphere and is humor important to the scene?

JESSE-I’d say it is definitely a fun environment, although there’s alot of heaviness, overall people are quite positive even amongst the gentle violence. Humor is definitely a substantial factor, there’s alot of blurring the lines between seriousness and parody. But some take it so far that it’s hard to know they’re satire unless you know them personally.

  

JESSE HLEBO IS A PHOTOGRAPHER, FILMMAKER, WRITER, and the editor of Commonism, “an online art/music/culture/collective zine who’s purpose is to promote positivity in the san francisco, los angeles and orange county scenes with the hopes of creating a closer unity and sense of community between them.” See more here. and here.  

GET MORE INFO ON THE BANDS AND VENUES DISCUSSED HERE AT THE FOLLOWING:
THE SMELL
PEHRSPACE
40 BANDS/80 MINS
ABE VIGODA
Explogasm
WIVES
Anavan
NASA SPACE UNIVERSE
Mika Miko
VOMIT BOMB
ALL NEON LIKE
DOWNLOAD NO AGE, ABE VIGODA, MIKA MIKO, ALL NEON LIKE AND MORE FROM OTHER MUSIC

All Photos in this post BY Jesse Hlebo. All rights reserved.

In desperate need of finding a singer for the school’s big music show just a couple of days away, three Japanese teenagers recruit a Korean exchange student to front their newly formed cover band. With a stillness and pacing alien to any American movie about high school kids, 2007’s Linda, Linda, Linda is a near perfect slice of teenage life. As they set about practicing, and practicing and practicing, the girls bond around the common purpose and modest goal of having a good show. They work themselves to the bone, get a pep talk from the Ramones in the Budokan, and nearly blow it all when the rains come. It’s awkward and sweet and an amazingly honest account of what it’s like being in a garage band.

In this the final scene of Linda Linda Linda, the girls get their moment of glory at the big show. It’s so heroically good you’ll get goose bumps.

Join The Profesionals. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (1981)
“we don’t put out.”
Cult film Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains stars a 16 year old Diane Lane and a 13 year old Laura Dern as would be punk icons out on a rain soaked tour. Also staring Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols and Clash bassist Paul Simonon, the film gets enough right in it’s portrait of underground bands to overlook the dated bits. The Shags-like sound of the stains seems an indie phenomenon some 20 years ahead of its time. Filmed with a dirty loose feel that goes well with a cynical and sarcastic anti-establishment view of the ‘biz’, this ultra-cool film was once abandoned to late night tv and the midnight movie circuit but has just been released on DVD. Rumor has it this is the film that gave the White Stripes‘ their name.

LEAVE IT TO THE AMATEURS. BOYS AND GIRLS, THE LESS THAN ADEQUATE SHAGGS. (1969)
BLESS.