It’s absolutely gorgeous in Los Angeles today, with temperatures topping out at a pleasant 77 degrees–a full 20 degrees lower than it’s been for the initial two days of MUSEXPO 2008. I played hooky from the morning panels after last night’s debauchery, wherein I didn’t arrive back at my Hollywood home until 3:30am and staggered back into a state somewhat resembling consciousness around 11:30…just in time for the second leg of the Champions League semifinal, which matched Manchester United and Barcelona, who had earlier played to a scoreless draw on the Spanish side’s pitch. Scholes scored for United in the 14th minute and they held on to beat Barca, 1-0…guaranteeing the first all-English Champions League Final in the competition’s history, with Manchester United poised to face the survivor of tomorrow’s Chelsea/Liverpool duel in London (they also had a scoreless draw last week at Anfield). If Liverpool fanatic Sat Bisla mysteriously disappears during lunchtime at the conference tomorrow, it’s recommended that you search for a secluded television set.
Okay, enough digression: on to tonight’s music preview!
Well, okay…one more digression. I must confess that I’m looking forward to this year’s “International Fashion Show” during the Beta Records-hosted cocktail party at the HoB between 6-8pm. It’s a new concept for the conference and I’m interested in seeing how it goes over…purely from a detached, theoretical standpoint, of course, and certainly not out of any twisted desire to hit on the models afterward. Nope, not me….
Okay, finally we get to what the title of this blog entry promised: Tuesday evening’s musical entertainment starts off with what figures to be a compelling set from Danish quartet Grand Avenue, whose melodic sound recalls nothing so much as the heyday of U2. Savvy overseas listeners are in agreement, as the group received a nomination for Best Danish Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards last year.
They’ll be followed up in the Foundation Room at 8:30 by Australian singer/songwriter Ry Cuming, who was discovered while strumming his guitar in the hallway of a youth hostel on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Since relocated to Los Angeles, when Ry isn’t playing out at SoCal clubs he’s working on his debut album for Jive Records, due out this summer.
Hitting the Main Room stage at 9pm will be manic Winnipeg, Canada quintet The Nods, whose energetic tunes completely belie the narcoleptic nuance of their name. The group made major inroads at American College Radio with their last release, Static Pop, which gained spins on over 175 college stations.
At 9:30 the Foundation Room hosts a set from Englishman Frank Turner, who has made the rare transition from hardcore punk to the acoustic singer/songwriter genre…but with songs bearing such titles as “Worthless Bastard Motherfucker” and “Thatcher Fucked the Kids,” it’s obvious that Frank didn’t leave his hardcore roots too far behind. He received a great response during Saturday’s live “Passport Approved” broadcast, and apparently played this morning for early-risers at some exotic event known as “breakfast.” What will those wacky kids at A&R Worldwide think of next…
Okay, that was the last digression for this post…I promise. Taking over the stage in the Main Room at 10pm will be English trio Mexicolas, whose big, bold sound has drawn favorable comparisons to artists ranging from Queens of the Stone Age and Foo Fighters to Green Day and Stone Temple Pilots, with Kerrang magazine declaring the group “absorbing to watch and breath-taking to listen to.”
The Foundation Room will be host to a 10:30 set from Auckland, New Zealand’s Opshop, whose first two albums have sold Platinum and Double-Platinum, respectively, in their native land, while the group has garnered raves for its live show, with the NZ Herald proclaiming, “Like our answer to U2 and Coldplay, they played big, rousing pop songs with the beef to fill a stadium and the sentiment to back an OxFam campaign.”
Next up on the Main Room stage at 11pm will be a quintet of local boys made good: Capra, who live just north of Los Angeles in Santa Clarita, California, and have quickly become the band of choice for Tinseltown’s many young party people thanks to their foot-stomping melding of rock and funk. Nice guys to have a chat with, also, as I’ve discovered over the past couple of evenings.
And speaking of Hollywood party people, they’ve also been moving to the throwback grooves of Los Angeles dance duo LMFAO, who will be closing out the evening’s Foundation Room entertainment at 11:30. Comprised of the dynamic duo of RedFoo and Sky Blu, LMFAO have quickly become favorites of Hollywood’s DJ multitudes, leading to their anthemic tunes being spun in all the hippest venues in La La Land.
Rounding out the Tuesday showcases at 11:55 in the Main Room will be a Finnish act with an apocalyptic name: Poets of the Fall, who have released three well-received albums and toured across Europe. Their video for the song “Carnival of Rust,” the title track of their second album, was voted “Best Finnish Music Video of All-Time” by the viewers of TV2’s Musikki TV.
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