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Goh Nakamurathon – 40, 40, 41 hours to go

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 3:19PM / Standard Entry

Anyone who’s read Giant Robot magazine, been to one of the shops, or visits the website knows that we’re big supporters of Goh Nakamura and his music. While his roots are in ’80s metal and his style is more like Elvis Costello or Elliott Smith, his worth ethic is as indie as you can get. He plays living rooms and theater lobbies, sits in on local jam nights and community gatherings. Most recently, he’s been featured in two independent features, Surrogate Valentine and Daylight Savings, which are making the film fest circuit. The movies directed by David Boyle are very cool and I hope everyone supports them, but in the meantime Goh hasn’t been releasing enough of his own new music… Yes, the Music from the Motion Picture CD is a cool collection of tunes and scores from both flicks, but we fans are ready for a full-on album.

The Dream Sessions, Goh’s latest Kickstarter effort, would remedy that. He’s trying to raise money to record sessions in three studios. Three cities, three different sets of musicians, same rad guitarist and singer. To help publicize the campaign, he’s been webcasting live sets featuring various friends playing music or just hanging out. Today, I was the visitor, and brought Eloise as long as well. You can watch the link here, in which she sings along to The Ramones and The Go-Go’s and dances around to The Beatles. How lucky are we? Coming up on Wednesday is Tamlyn Tomita, star of Karate Kid II and patron saint of Asian American cinema. I hear she used to skateboard in pools, so watch the webcast, jump in the chatroom, and request Agent Orange’s “Bloodstains” or some other skate rock! Then support Goh, a rad musician, good friend, and awesome guy.

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Mutant Girls Squad – Preview of next week’s US DVD release

Friday, May 18, 2012 7:27AM / Standard Entry

The legend goes that Mutant Girls Squad came about when friends Noboru Iguchi (The Machine Girl), Yoshihiro Nishimura (Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl), and Tak Sakaguchi (Versus) decided that since they like to drink together, they should direct a movie together–not an anthology but more like a jam where person takes a segment. But are the filmmakers violent drunks, funny drunks, or emotional ones? It turns out they’re all of the above in spades.

The saga of the sisterhood of mutated and persecuted Hiruko more closely recalls that of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants than the X-Men, but warped by the twisted erotic manga of Go Nagai (Devilman, Mazinger Z, Cutie Honey) and filtered through the B-movie SFX of Frank Henenlotter (Basket Case, Frankenhooker). Yes, it’s that cool. And although one might think that such a project would be a cluttered mess with so many cooks in the kitchen, the effect is actually the opposite. The pace is brisk with each of the directors packing his 30-minute segment with as much action, humor, and guts as possible, leaving no room for filler.

In other words, although you see more than a dozen prosthetic heads explode or get split open, each occasion is unique (i.e. eyeballs popping; brains flying in the air; skulls being chopped horizontally or vertically, in half or even thirds). The mostly analog special effects are realistic enough to be gross but fake enough to keep things fun and not disturbing. Even the most jaded gorehound will be left agog and exhilarated by the fountains of blood, cool weaponry, and severed or extra limbs. As for the stars… they provide pretty good eye exercise, too.

The Sushi Typhoon crew has amassed a small army of freakish followers with their low-budget, hyper-imaginative, hybrid action-and-horror splatter movies, and Mutant Girls Squad might actually be tight enough to cross over to “regular” audiences. There’s just enough character development and melodrama to make the gravure models do more than pose and be likable, highly quotable dialogue and odd supporting characters, and one honestly impressive action scene in which the protagonist offs 15 victims in one take. But best of all is the directors’ back-breaking (and just about every other body part, as well) commitment to provide maximum entertainment though the time-tested elements of insane action, unlimited gore, and pretty faces.

Watching great trash like this on a tiny little YouTube screen is weak sauce. Do yourself a favor and buy the domestic Blu-ray/DVD from Well Go USA or your local purveyors of fine filth starting on May 22. You get a ton of extras (including a short prequel) and the theme song by the Noodles sounds great coming out of real speakers. Most importantly, I’ve interviewed each of the filmmakers over the years and they’re all very cool dudes who deserve your economic support.

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Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival – Opening Night

Friday, May 11, 2012 4:34PM / Standard Entry

Tonight’s kickoff of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival featured a screening of Daniel Hsia’s Shanghai Calling. I thought the smart, stylish comedy produced by Janet Yang and starring Daniel Henney was a bold choice of an opener. Instead of dwelling on typical themes of Asian American cinema such as the diaspora or having to live up to the image of Bruce Lee, it presented Asians as being in a position of power in terms of commerce and culture. That one’s Asian connection is seen as empowering and beneficial in the modern world, rather than as one’s burdensome past, is exciting. It reflects the fest’s new international, extroverted direction, which is immediately likable and exciting.

Although I haven’t been active in the film festival circuit lately, I was happy to run into a lot of old friends right away. In the mens room, I intercepted the fest’s newly appointed artistic director Anderson Le. The veteran of the mighty Hawaiian International Film Festival loves movies to death, and has assembled an impressive balance of arty and commercial, serious and fun, Asian and American pieces. He has also expanded programming to Long Beach, and promises that next year will be even stronger.

In the theater I snagged a seat next to Greg Pak (above), who I hadn’t seen since I moderated a comic book-related panel at the San Diego Asian Film Festival years ago. The closet softball stud directed Robot Stories before going on a tear writing for Marvel Comics, but is about to enter a filmmaking program along with Ham Tran (below). Ham made the excellent The Rebel and Journey from the Fall. The newlywed director’s next flick is going to be about Orange County’s Little Saigon in the Eighties! Can’t wait.

Seeing Eugenia Yuan and Michael Aki (another softball god) is always a treat. I miss seeing them around Sawtelle since I don’t make it out to the Giant Robot offices much anymore, and look forward to their next feature which has been shot but is in editing mode. My inside source says the story is super compelling and that the footage looks great.

Mike also co-stars in Daylight Savings, director Dave Boyle’s indie flick about an indie musician/sequel to Surrogate Valentine featuring real-life rocker Goh Nakamura (below, left). Both films screen on Saturday along with music sets by Goh. He has released a few amazing albums that won’t disappoint fans of Elvis Costello, Elliott Smith, and The Beatles, so this is a big deal! (He’ll also play covers, so think of some interesting requests beforehand…)

Of course, Wing Ko (above, right) was in attendance with Tadashi Suzuki and the entire Working Man crew. I’m stoked to get to see the beautiful and ripping skate short made by so many of my friends on the big screen once more on Monday night. I’m trying to get that piece along with Wing’s The Brotherhood: Chicago and other parts of the Animal Style program of skate videos that I curated for Chicago’s Asian American Showcase to be included in other fests, so keep an eye out for news on that.

My friend Cate who got me into the festival’s gala opening reintroduced me to her pal Daniel Dae Kim once again. The Lost star just wrapped another season of Hawaii 5-0, and always seems to remember me. What a cool guy.

Get out of the house and go to the festival. There is a ton of great movies that I didn’t even mention (Peter Chan’s Wu Xia will look amazing on the big screen) and people who I didn’t see, know, or cram into this late-night blog (if Shinae Yoon and Karin Anna Cheung weren't in such a rush this post wouldn't have been such a sausage party). Hope to see you at the screenings!

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OFF! record release party with FIDLAR and Spider Fever; Cinco de Mayo with Los Lobos, X, and Mariachi El Bronx; Junghaus at Pehrspace

Friday, May 11, 2012 2:39AM / Standard Entry

Before starting his set, Keith Morris explained why OFF! wanted to have its eponymous LP release show at the Whisky. Even though the Sunset Strip landmark is now a cheesy venue that seems more concerned with selling drinks to poseurs and tourists than rad shows, it is a symbol of L.A.’s matchless musical history from psychedelic rock like the Doors and Love to first-generation punks the Germs and X to more recent metal shows that even I saw like Guns ‘n’ Roses and Michael Monroe (not to mention touring bands like SNFU, Scream, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, NOFX, and Green Day, as well as the first Descendents reunion shows…). Add to that OFF!

Openers Spider Fever seemed to soak up some of the venue’s psychedelic past with the elevated stage and high-end light system actually adding some unintentional-yet-not-inappropriate flair to their tweaked take on garage rock ‘n’ roll. I saw OFF! drummer Mario Rubalcaba front the band with his upside-down guitar and no-nonsense singing before playing with Hot Snakes not long ago, but this show seemed even tighter and actually more fun. After seeing the band a few times, it almost seems like the meeting point of many of Mario’s bands: the balls-out rock of RFTC, psychedelic aspects of Earthless, rawness of Clikatat Ikatowi, and energy of OFF! I was stoked to pick up the band’s amazing full-length LP, and you should get it, too.

FIDLAR is an acronym for “Fuck It Dog, Life’s a Risk” and the band lets it rip accordingly with short, catchy, and dangerous blasts of energy about dope, fun, and zero regrets. Even though the band seemed a little out of place at the Whisky (with front guy Zac Carper seemingly trying to get physically lower to the ground and the audience by crouching, sprawling, or laying down on the stage that has absorbed the bodily fluids of Jim Morrison, Eddie Van Halen, Mick Mars, and so on) they shredded 100 percent. Can’t wait to see them again. Hopefully soon–before they implode, hurt themselves, or grow up.

What can I say about OFF! The same way that the Whisky encapsulates a lot of what’s rad about L.A., so does the current project of Keith Morris (Circle Jerks, Black Flag), Dimitri Coats (Burning Brides), Steven McDonald (Redd Kross), and Mario Rubalcaba (Hot Snakes, 411, Spider Fever). It has punk, metal, and the pure darkness, aggression, vitriol, and smarts that seep through every Pettibon illustration or Chandler novel. Still blasting songs at roughly a minute each with huge amounts of chops and pent-up energy, there’s no room for the falseness that outsiders associate with L.A. Every OFF! show seems like a true event with planets aligning, tides rising, and crowds about to take the streets. Exhilarating and awesome to experience, and I’m a little resentful that they have been taking their show on the road instead of letting us Bogart their radness. The members of OFF! have lived long, long live OFF!

On Sunday, I saw some other legends of L.A. punk. Los Lobos hosted a special Cinco De Mayo show at the Greek, and when my calendar opened up that afternoon I picked up some fourth row seats on StubHub for less than list price that afternoon. Chido! Mariachi El Bronx did a nice job warming up the stage with its punk-flavored-yet-respectful-take on the Mexican music form, but it was X that really kicked things off.

X is and always will be the pride and pinnacle of Los Angeles’ music scene. Equal parts punk, roots, and poetry, they have rocked out with brains, art, and style like no other for 35 years, and this compressed 45-minute set showed that their attitude and appeal haven’t diminished one iota. And maybe it’s their folk side, as seen in the Knitters side project as well as the more recent acoustic partnership between singers John Doe and Exene Cervenka, that allows them to step down from headliner status to play last December’s Goldenvoice gala before Social Distortion or open for their friends Los Lobos at the Greek. They’re rock gods, but humble, human ones that need to be appreciated a little more while they are still playing their asses off. This particular set included just about all the hits from the first two albums plus “Breathless.”

Los Lobos were headlining the upscale-venue, sit-down, career-spanning concert by the Pride of East L.A., but the tone was more like a party with friends dropping in and jamming. Having Neko Case (above) and Alejandro Escovedo (below) play some songs showed their lasting relevance and roots, with one of today’s most respected singer-songwriters paying her tribute to the masters as well as a peer from original country punkers Rank & File.

It was already like a Slash Records reunion with the presence of X, Los Lobos, and Rank & File before Dave Alvin came out to sing “Fourth of July.” Interestingly, he played the song he wrote and played with X after introduced by David Hidalgo as a member of The Blasters, whom Los Lobos wouldn’t have existed without. After that Dave’s older brother and Blaster singer Phil came out to sing “Marie Marie” in Spanish. Whoa. I hadn’t seen them play together since the Blasters opened for The Go-Go’s on the Prime Time Tour! What a trip and what a reminder of how lucky we are in the City of Angels, which Bob Forrest repeatedly calls the music capital of the universe on his L.A.-centric radio show.

One more show, just because I want to say that you don’t have to go to fancy venues or rely on Ticketmaster, LiveNation, TicketWeb, or whatever to check out cool music and be inspired. I saw my friend Ben’s band Junghaus play their fourth show at Pehrspace a couple of Fridays ago. They rocked the fuck out on the floor with minimal PA and maybe a dozen friends. Sweet!

Upcoming shows: Maybe Devo at Hollywood Park, definitely Dum Dum Girls at the Getty.

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Chris Chu on the fate of The Morning Benders and future of POP ETC.

Thursday, May 3, 2012 2:01AM / Standard Entry

The Morning Benders/POP ETC outside The Troubadour (March 25, 2010)

A lot has happened since the last time I talked to Chris Chu. In 2010, The Morning Benders were headlining a sold-out Troubadour with rows of fans camped out in front of the stage hoping to hear masterful and sometimes even orchestral indie rock such as “Excuses” from up close. Since then, Chu and his band has changed their name to POP ETC (turns out benders is derogatory slang for gays in Europe) and the sound has undergone an overhaul, as well. In anticipation of the self-titled new album (which comes out on June 12) the band released a raw, self-directed video as well as a mixtape of bold, R&B-derived pop complete with Auto-Tuned vocals last week. The transformation seemed crazy until I realized that the band has never been afraid of production and that David Bowie followed up Diamond Dogs with Young Americans and Altered Images added as much polish between Pinky Blue and Bite. Chu and POP ETC look young but have toured with the likes of Broken Bells, The Black Keys, Grizzly Bear, and Death Cab for Cutie and know what they’re doing. I hit up Chris on the new songs and sounds.

MW: Can you tell me about the mixtape? Is it experiments, outtakes, or something else?
CC: The mixtape is actually a collection of all original songs (except for the cover of Björk) recorded around the same time as our new album. Basically, when we started recording we realized the songs were divided into two families. One group became the mixtape and one became the POP ETC album.

MW: So what’s the difference between the songs on the mixtape and the new album?
CC: We recorded bits of all the songs at home, but for one reason or another some of the songs seemed to take on a more homespun feel than others. Those ended up on the mixtape. And in general, the mixtape songs were a bit slower and mellower. More atmospheric.

The Morning Benders/POP ETC soundcheck at The Troubadour (March 25, 2010)

MW: A lot of artists use Auto-Tune when they can’t sing. Can you talk about using it when you actually have vocal chops?
CC: Yes! I think there is a lot of confusion around Auto-Tune and the way it works. Like any effect, there are different ways to use it. Some people who really can’t sing use auto-tune as a crutch, just the way people have used reverb and delay for years to cover up blemishes or bad performances. This is nothing new. On the other hand, we’ve tried to use Auto-Tune as an additional tool–another color in our pallet.

Not all our songs have auto-tune. Some do and some don’t. We found it particularly interesting to have both in the mix. Sometimes you’ll hear a tuned voice in the right ear and a raw one in the left ear. Sometimes we use auto-tune as a texture. Sometimes we use it because we feel it better fits the character in a particular song. There are a lot of reasons why we use it, but we are always thinking about how to best serve the song. People already know that we can sing, so I hope they don’t feel we are using it as a crutch or that we are being lazy. Auto-Tune doesn’t write the songs for us. We write the songs and the melodies. Robots didn’t make this music; it’s still us!

MW: Do you think some of those types of songs might actually be harder to pull off live?
CC: Definitely, but we are up for the challenge! It’s really fun transforming songs for the live setting. We want to incorporate a lot of stuff that is unique to the live show. Stuff you can’t hear on the album.

MW: Many bloggers seem to be comparing the newer sound to ’80s R&B, but are you into new wave/soul stuff like later Style Council or The Blow Monkeys?
CC: We’re into everything. Definitely dig a lot of new wave/soul stuff although I don’t go that deep. I only know one Style Council song, I think. Love Prince, of course, who I feel like a lot of the more soul-ish new wave stuff was influenced by. Dig the straight new wave stuff like Altered Images. Orange Juice. Of course, the straight pop stuff, too. Cyndi Lauper is an all-time fave. Madonna!

MW: Any particular reason for the change-up in style? Is this something you’ve always been into?
CC: I think we’ve always told people, for as long as we’ve been a band, that we want to keep changing. We aren’t one of those bands that hones in on one sound for five albums. It works for some people, but not us. We want to find ways to continually excite ourselves, and that means putting ourselves in new environments, getting out of our comfort zone, and trying something fresh every album.

MW: Did you have to re-learn songwriting, or is it simply style and production?
CC: In a way, yes. I’d say 50 percent of the songs were written on guitar and piano, the way I always write. The other 50 percent were written to loops or beats. It was a lot of fun. Sometimes writing to a beat takes you to a place melodically that you would have never thought to go on your own. Also, writing with Danger Mouse and my brother in this way made for some new kinds of songs.

MW: You’re about to hit the road with Dirty Projectors, but do you have feelers out for less indie and more mainstream pop-oriented shows? Any dream lineups?
CC: That’s a good question. We like a lot of different stuff. Dirty Projectors is one of our favorite bands, but we’d love to tour with Katy Perry, Robyn, or Drake. We kind of occupy a weird place right now, where we are a bit too indie for the full-on mainstream and too poppy for the indie kids. But I think that’s why we ended up here. We were drawn to this place that feels kind of undefined. It feels fresh.

Dig POP ETC’s new video, check out its revamped site, and follow the dudes on Twitter. Then look for them to leave New York and hit the road in August.