The Black Keys Are Hollywood Bound

My whirlwind weekend of Black Keys delights has reached its zenith: Jason Bentley announced this morning on KCRW (89.9 FM) that Dan and Pat will play at the Hollywood Palladium September 27th. Tickets go on sale Friday on Ticketmaster. Wonder if there is a fan pre-sale? The list of recently added shows just went up on their website. San Diego show at Soma on September 25th. Scenestar also reports.

INCOGNITO With Jason Bentley

After I graduated college, I was an intern at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Every now and then I'll stop by GRACIE to check out the funky jewelry and merchandise or help out at an event. Last night I volunteered for SMMoA's annual exhibit and benefit sale INCOGNITO, which features what is definitely the coolest way to sell original artwork (made specifically for this event). Over 700 artists - big name, emerging, local, and international - submitted an 8" by 10" two dimensional piece and signed the back. The fun part is, the identity of the artist isn't revealed until after the piece has been purchased! The whole point is to "trust your instincts" and just buy what you like. Most of the pieces, which were selling for $300 plus tax, sold, and there is a sale of the few leftovers going on at SMMoA today with $10 admission.

Anyway, I was working near the DJ booth, which was manned by none other than KCRW's Jason Bentley, he of the melted-butter voice on "Morning Becomes Eclectic". I geeked out a bit when he arrived and actually did a double hand wave to greet him. (I KNOW.) He said "Hi" and quietly set up his Macbook, while I regained my composure. A couple times throughout the evening I chatted with him a little about some of the songs, and it was so great to talk to somebody who knew way more about music than I did. At one point, though, the thrill of his presence was eclipsed by the sound of a familiar voice streaming out of the speakers...

I hadn't heard this song before. But I could distinguish "howlin'" in the lyrics. OH MY GOODNESS, was it the B side track of the new Black Keys single that had just arrived in the mail that very afternoon? (As I mentioned previously, I love The Black Keys' music so much that I bought the 45 so I could hear it in all it's glorious vinyl goodness. I still need to get a record player...).

Sans record player, I have't gotten to play it yet. I had seen the unofficial video for "Tighten Up", but I hadn't even heard a bootleg of the B side track, "Howlin' for You." Barely containing my excitement, I asked Mr. Bentley if this was indeed that song, and of course....IT WAS. The best part of the story is that this song is UN-EFFING-BELIEVABLE! What a great night. :)

Here's a nice review here of the 12" single for "Tighten Up"/"Howlin' for You". I'll see if I can find a decent version of it online. UPDATE: The Deluxe version of their new album Brothers, out May 18th, is available for order here. Oh yeah, see you on the road.

New Order

So, contrary to what you learned in arithmetic... 97.1 > 102.7

FM, that is.

I am, of course, talking about the state of the terrestrial radio waves in Los Angeles.

In the wake of Indie 103.1's tragic demise and somewhat comforting online reincarnation, there's been a great deal of flux in the programming of the remaining stations.

Star 98.7 now plays bands signed by labels out of Silver Lake. It has also incorporated an hour-long session of new music from 9-10PM on Sunday nights. It may be that I have just never noticed this before, but from what I can tell from the last 3 minutes of this hour ("Broken Connection" from Eulogies), they've indied it up a bit. And I like it!

89.9 KCRW (of "Morning Becomes Eclectic" fame; or, Everyone's Favorite Event Sponsor) seems to still be going strong. Today I was totally amused and absolutely LOVING Peter Gabriel's cover of Vampire Weekend's "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa." "This feels so unnatural....to sing your own name."

-->Newsflash: OMG ..... Peter Gabriel with HOT CHIP?! That explains it! :)

To continue the state of the air waves, big news on the pop front - new Amp 97.1 (you may recall these are the same call numbers as Howard Stern's show back before Sirius) is blatanly challenging Ryan Seacrest and uber-pop station KIIS FM. Good old 102.7 has long pummeled listeners with relentless poppage and is pretty much the radio version of TMZ. But now new kid on the block Amp ups the ante by promising some unfathomable number of songs in a row without commercials. Not only that, but its advertising has a soundbite of a caller dis-ing Seacrest. Wow. Ballsy.