It's Casual ( Record Release)

It's Casual ( Record Release) (10:30 PM)

FATSO JETSON (9:45 PM)

The Generators (9:00 PM)

CHUCK DUKOWSKI SEXTET (8:30 PM)

Buffalo Eye (11:30 PM)

Fri, November 23, 2012

8:00 pm

$0.00 - $10.00

This event is all ages

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It's Casual ( Record Release) - (Set time: 10:30 PM)
It's Casual ( Record Release)
Like most Angelenos, Eddie Solis is pissed about the traffic on the 101. Unlike most Angelenos, Eddie Solis writes songs about being pissed about the traffic on the 101.

Solis’ band, an impossibly loud punk/hardcore duo called It’s Casual, addresses transit issues with an urgency hitherto unmatched in the realm of urban planning. Imagine Henry Rollins at a City Council Transportation Committee meeting, all neck veins and municipal outrage, and you get the picture.

Onstage, Solis’ eyes bulge amid a shock of curly hair, his throat emitting the collective war cry of a million frustrated commuters: “Los Angeles! There’s too many people! I want them to go away!”

His isn’t the Los Angeles of Priuses, Pilates and brunch, but the L.A. of undocumented immigrants, hardcore music and bus-stop delays. After nearly 10 years of ceaseless yelling, It’s Casual have a busy year ahead of them, what with slots on Fu Manchu’s North American tour, a forthcoming sequel to their ’08 ode to the city, The New Los Angeles, and, maybe, a European tour.

“We’ve been working at it and believing in this kind of music — which I call L.A. hardcore or L.A. skate rock — every day,” says Solis. His gaze is unflinching, and his voice is smog-raspened. He calls It’s Casual “L.A.’s only two-piece hardcore band” and is serious about his art. “I don’t take it lightly. It all comes from deep within.”

It’s Casual formed in 2001, the name inspired by a line in Cameron Crowe’s obscure follow-up to Fast Times at Ridgemont High, called The Wild Life. In it, a character played by the late Christopher Penn replies with “It’s casual” every time he is asked a question. Solis currently has a similar relationship with drummers — he’s between them. As far as a third member? “We kept trying to find a bassist, and they kept flaking,” Solis says.

The band’s sonic boom is amazing, considering there are only two of them. The secret to their sound is a unique pedal and mic’ing system. Solis’ guitar is actually wired to two amps for added punch. The results are so thunderous that fellow musicians have been known to come early to shows to watch him set up. (“There is a special formula with different pedals,” he explains of his sound. He’s trying to register it as intellectual property.)

It’s Casual’s first record, The New Los Angeles, came out in fall 2007, and was inspired by Solis’ commute from Pico Rivera to Hollywood. Tracks include “EZ Pass,” about the public transit ticket, and “The Red Line” (the handy subway that connects North Hollywood to Union Station). Most of It’s Casual’s songs last around two minutes and contain no more than three or four lyrics, hammering home their message with a directness most public servants and council officials have yet to master. Even Councilman Bill Rosendahl, chair of Los Angeles’ Transportation Committee, is impressed. “Music is a good way to get transportation messages across,” he says during a recent phone call, adding that he hoped It’s Casual were aware that plans for the Purple Line are afoot. “They should write a song about the Purple Line!” he enthuses, suggesting possible lyrics, singing: “The Purple Line/In my lifetime!”

It’s not all subways and off-ramps. Solis ventures into other matters. “Cholas Are Loyal,” for example, is all about the advantages of dating Latinas. And It’s Casual’s next album, The New Los Angeles II: Less Violence, More Violins, is inspired primarily by the California education budget deficit. “Do you think It’s Casual will translate in Europe?” he wonders, aware of his band’s distinctly local messages. But wherever there is a rush hour, there are people who identify with Eddie Solis.

Born and raised in East Los Angeles County, Solis is “the result of basically growing up around a gang-infested area with lots of negativity.” He turned to music and skateboarding as an escape, and was 15 when he started his first band — a Ramones cover group called Endless Vacation, which played shows in his parents’ living room. He got “the heaviness” from his father, who used to carry his young son around the house on his shoulders while listening to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and the Who. “They weren’t handing me money to buy me instruments,” Solis says, “but they were, like, ‘Hey, listen, we know you wanna do this, so here’s our backyard and here’s our living room.’ Which is pretty punk.”

His parents let him build a halfpipe in the back, and Solis would “put Slayer on the radio superloud” and learn skateboarding tricks with his friends. “That would be Friday night, and then Saturday we would have a show on the ramp and take donations to keep it refurbished.” Skate videos informed his taste in music — the teenage Solis would grab a pen and paper and pause the VCR to jot down names of bands like Black Flag, Dinosaur Junior, Hüsker Dü, “… all the good stuff on SST.”

Fast-forward to 1993, when Solis started interning at metal record label Century Media, which gave him a taste of hardcore commuting. Taking the bus from Pico Rivera to the label’s headquarters in Santa Monica every day was a formative experience, but he only lasted about a month (“Well, you know, it was a long trek”). That job led to a position at Priority Records, down the street in the CNN building. That’s where he learned how to sell records, a job he still does today as sales manager at doom-metal label Southern Lord.

Solis also worked as a publicist for Black Flag at SST, under the label’s founder, Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn. Basically it was the gig of Solis’ 15-year-old dreams. “I took the job because I thought it would be great to work for an icon, a legend,” he says. It was there that he learned the philosophy of DIY.

Three years ago, while strolling down the road near the Southern Lord offices in East Hollywood, Solis came upon the Relax Bar, a 150-person capacity Thai karaoke bar with an orange awning. Solis has single-handedly transformed it into a hub for L.A.’s heavy music scene. He’s booked more than 400 thrash, doom, noise and punk bands there in the last three years. “I was going to lunch, walking past the Relax Bar and the door was open. I saw a stage and it had this dark, musty kind of vibe. Kind of grim in terms of the atmosphere but real positive in terms of what you could do there. I thought, if I could get these owners on the same page and book any format — whether it’s satanic black metal or really avant-garde stuff — that would be great.”

The Relax Bar’s owners, despite not being fluent in English, supported Solis’ vision, prompting the most unlikely cultural union since Weezer recruited Kenny G. “They had a guy translating as I tried to describe the kinds of bands I wanted to book, using metal as my main focus. I said ‘Ozzfest, no — not those kinds of bands. Stuff that’s a little more creative, full of more soul, and more organic.” He played them some It’s Casual and High on Fire and a selection of punk and grindcore CDs, and they seemed to like it. Turns out the ballad-loving Thai karaoke bar owners, like Solis, possessed an unyielding passion for DIY. “They know how much work it is to bring your gear out, record your own stuff and self-release records,” says Solis. “They are all musicians themselves.” It’s been a happy union ever since, with some of the gnarliest underground bands in L.A., from Municipal Waste to Chingalera, rocking the Relax Bar’s tiny stage amid the perpetual aroma of green curry and ginger — and, when the door pops open, the faint smell of bus exhaust.
FATSO JETSON - (Set time: 9:45 PM)
FATSO JETSON
Fatso Jetson was formed in Palm Desert, CA, in 1994 and are often credited as one of the fathers of the desert strain of stoner rock made most famous by their slightly younger neighbors Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age. This might be strange considering that the genre was in full swing at the time of Fatso Jetson's inception. The reason for the group's immense stoner credibility is that key membe
rs of the group played in seminal local "desert" bands Across the River, Yawning Man, and the Sort of Quartet: each of them being groups that the high school aged Kyuss members would frequently see perform at parties. While musically similar to some of their stoner brethren, Fatso Jetson incorporate a broader variety of musical influences that includes punk,blues, jazz and surf music. That is not to say that the band isn't capable of dishing out supremely heavy riffs.. Certainly grounded in dense hard rock, Fatso Jetson experiment with many musical textures, angular instrumental epics, and bizarre lyrics to create a punk, blues art rock all their own.

When guitarist/vocalist Mario Lalli and cousin/bassist Larry Lalli kept bumping into drummer Tony Tornay at desert parties and at the Lallis' own club, "Rhythm & Brews" located in the desert town of Indio CA, the trio decided to start playing together and have remained as a unit since. After performing with former Black Flag guitarist and SST Records' owner Greg Ginn's band, Fatso Jetson were offered a chance to record for Ginn's legendary influencial SST label. In 1995, the group recorded their debut "Stinky Little Gods" and followed that up in 1997 with "Power of Three" -- both discs appeared on SST.
Brant Bjork(Brant Bjork & the Bro's,Kyuss,Fu Manchu) briefly joined up as second guitarist and appeared on two 7" releases . The band then teamed up with Bongload Records, who then released Fatso Jetson's third full-length disc, "Toasted", in 1998. The album was recorded and produced by Chris Goss (Masters of Reality.Queens of the Stone Age).
Guitarist and old friend Gary Arce (Sort of Quartet, Yawning Man) joined the band to record thier fourth LP "Flames for All" in 2000 for Artist Frank Kozik's Mans Ruin Label .
Fatso Jetson also contributed to "The Desert Sessions" releases that Josh Homme (Kyuss,Queens of the Stone Age) organized, bringing desert musicians and other creative like minded rock musicians together to collaborate. At these sessions Mario Lalli co-wrote two songs with Homme ("You think I aint worth a dollar but I feel like a Millionaire" and "Monster in the Parosol") these would eventualy make their way on to the Queens of the Stone Age albums "Rated R" and "Songs for the Deaf"
It was Homme's record lable Rekords Rekords that would release the next Fatso album in 2001 "Cruel and Delicious". For this session the band was joined by Vince Meghrouni (Bazooka, Mike Watt, BellRays) on Sax and harp adding a new dimention to Fatso's hard to pin sound. The band continues with this line up in 2009.
A Fatso Jetson Live record released on vinyl only available from Cobraside records in 2007 would be the latest form the band.
A new full length LP "is planned for a Feburary 2010 release with a european tour to follow in April including a debut at Holland's "Road Burn Festival".
The Generators - (Set time: 9:00 PM)
The Generators
The Generators have been at the forefront of the Los Angeles punk scene since 1997, and were recently mentioned by one of Americas leading news publications, the USA Today as one of Americas most under rated punk bands. ​

When the punk scene in Los Angeles was being recognized across the globe vocalist Doug “Dagger” Kane was one of the young familiar faces in the picture. Frequenting all the early Punk clubs like The Vex, The Cathay De Grande, and Godzilla’s, a then 16 year old Dagger joined in on the action, and started singing for his first punk band Doug &The Slugz. In 1983 The Slugz were documented as one of America’s first OI! Street punk bands, and on any typical night they were opening up for other notorious punk acts like The Abandoned, Ill Repute, Mad Parade, and the Flower Leopards.

In 1989 Dagger would go on to lead the Southern California punk band Schleprock. Through out the nineties the band supported the likes of Green Day, Rancid, The Specials, Sublime, as well as many others. After numerous records and non-stop touring over three continents, Warner Brothers Records eventually swept up Schleprock into the major label record feeding frenzy. In 1996 Schelprock released” Americas Dirty Little Secret”, but due to internal breakdowns and drug addictions Schleprock dis- banded in January of 1997.

Along side Dagger, there is also founding member guitarist Mike Snow. Snow and Dagger’s friendship go all the way back to 1980 as child hood friends. Snow was one of the early faces upon the Los Angeles mod scene in the early 1980’s, and his first band Subway also played along side Doug & The Slugz on some of these early LA punk gigs. Mike Snow was also part of one of California’s first street punk bands The Choice through out the mid to late nineties. In 2009 Schleprock guitarist Sean Romin re- joined Daggers side to take front stage for The Generators. Romin has also been around the LA Punk scene since the eighties and has been playing lead guitar for the old school LA Hardcore band Decry over the past decade. With this trio of veterans together holding the reins, The Generators prepare to embark on another journey, and another mission to the manipulate the sound waves.

As of 2012 The Generators have been in the trenches for 15 years, which in the world of punk rock can be considered a lifetime. They have released 8 full-length albums, and they have put in their fare share of blood, sweat, and tears at earning a name for themselves. There is now a sense that the band has begun to really pay their dues, and is graduating to headlining tours and high profiled albums. The Generators somehow always remain to set themselves apart from the typical punk rock pack. Whether it is with their creative story telling approach, or the way they twist, and turn all the melodies around. The boys from the city of angels somehow always manage to keep changing things up, while keeping their fans feeling safe in that familiar place.
CHUCK DUKOWSKI SEXTET - (Set time: 8:30 PM)
CHUCK DUKOWSKI SEXTET
Chuck Dukowski.. is the world renowned bass player and founder of The CD6. He was the original bassist for Black Flag [he was on the the first six releases]. He also wrote many great songs for Black Flag such as My War and What I See... .. .... .. Lora Norton ..is the singer for The CD6. She is also an artist. She created all of the cover and poster art for The CD6. Lora is known for her powerful vocals. .. .. .... .. Milo Gonzalez ..Genius musician and guitarist whose music embodies all... .. .... ..Tony Peluso..The raging drum god who fell out of a black hole to rule our universe
Buffalo Eye - (Set time: 11:30 PM)
Buffalo Eye is a high energy weirdo rock band from Southern California who have an equally energetic and strange fan base. Coming at you like a big, furry, angry locomotive, These enigmatic guys and vivacious gals never leave you disappointed after a show. The band has survived merely on bootlegs, home movies, and leaked demos. Their live show can only be described as a playful tongue-in-cheek, "let's have a grand time!" performance, including many surprises, along with audience interaction via "Thee Amazing Friends," who aid in creating a truly theatrical multi-sensory event.



With their debut album, "See You On The Sunny Side…", Buffalo Eye brings you the story of Blue, a little-bud trying to make it in this big world. While dancing with his dark side, Blue's haunted by the sweet voice of "Innocence" and begins to spiral deeper into his world of madness and chaos…
Venue Information:
Troubadour
9081 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA, 90069
http://www.troubadour.com/

All lineups and times subject to change