Star Parts does their part.

Just wanted to personally invite, and let everyone in the L.A. area know about a great show, with a great cause this Satudrday, January 30th. Former Sunday's Best drummer and Kite Eating Tree guitarist Tom Ackerman, will be playing with his new project, Star Parts, at El Cid this weekend.

I will personally be in attendance, collecting donations on behalf of the Los Angeles Chapter of The Red Cross that evening, to benefit the earthquake victims in Haiti. Star Parts has graciously and generously agreed to donate their record, "What You Bleed is What You Get", to this cause. A $5 donation will get you a copy of the Star Parts album, along with a Star Parts sticker. The wonderful guys from Margate, will also be on the bill, lending a hand to this worthy cause.

We have some other great things in store for that night. A few record labels and businesses around the Silverlake/Echo Park Area, have generously agreed to donate some items for raffle, at this show. The 'Text Haiti' campaign has raised over 8 million dollars. The all star telethon last week raised over 57 million dollars. All of this possible, because of everyday, hardworking people, banding together for a great cause. The people of Haiti still need our help. Let's show everyone what this "ineffectual" and "apathetic" generation is actually capable of doing.

Come for a great cause, stay for great drinks, and a collection of generous, fun loving people. El Cid is located at 4212 West Sunset Boulevard, just east of The 4100 Bar in Silverlake, CA. Show starts at 10pm, doors at 9pm.

"Los Angeles, I'm Yours" by The Decemberists

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"Los Angeles, I'm Yours" is from the album "Her Majesty, The Decemberists", available on iTunes.

Here's an update on the night's events! The following businesses have charitably donated items:

Spitfire Girl in Echo Park, is home to many great gift items, and hand crafted arts and crafts, from local artists. They have put an arrangement of these items up for raffle on Saturday night. Visit their site for an idea of the great, affordable items they offer HERE. We love their wood, wall art!

Pull My Daisy in Silverlake, at the heart of The Sunset Junction, has also offered a gift bag worth of goodies. For a great collection of Men's and Women's clothing, shoes, and gift items, please visit their MySpace page HERE. Big thanks to Sarah, her lovable weiner dog Bingo, and Rick & Colleen, for making this happen!

Dusty's Bistro in Silverlake, offers fine organic produce, chicken, meats, and coffee, with a great atmosphere, and wonderful tunes on the house iPod. They have considerately donated a $50 gift certificate for raffle on Saturday night. Big thanks to Maria, and my old roommate Karrie K., for opening their hearts to this great cause. Check out their site HERE.

Dangerbird Records, also in the heart of The Sunset Junction, and home to such great acts as The Silversun Pickups, Sea Wolf, One Am Radio, and The Dears, has also generously committed to donating merchandise for raffle. Their spirit of giving is a beacon in our city of Los Angeles. Visit the Dangerbird Records site for the full array of excellent merch they have to offer. Also visit the Pablove Foundation site, for the backstory of a courageous little boy, and the wonderful Dangerbird Co-Founder's story, HERE.

Stay tuned for more updates, and a thank you, from the bottom of my heart to all these great people who have given to the progress of Saturday night.

Do Not Support This Man!!!

(Holy Crap, my head is as large as Jay Leno's!)

This picture of me was taken a few years back, when I went to see The Silversun Pickups play on the Tonight Show. The funny thing is, I didn't even ask to have my picture taken...I was simply leaning on a clown car, that happened to belong to The King of Late Night Indian Givers himself. He came out to his car, and immediately assumed I was waiting for him, as one of his throngs of adoring 'no' fans. Hence this picture.

Most Americans would kill to retire. Jay Leno apparently, can wait. You'd think him tooling around Burbank, showing off his stove piper cars to the locals, would be enough for him to call it a day?

Tonight marks Conan O' Brien's last night on NBC's Tonight Show. Tune in tonight, for what will be a highly entertaining last venture, for what I, and all the other supporters of "CoCo" feel is the bittersweet end to a rotten deal.

Its not about the money, as Conan and staff have been handsomely rewarded. Its about an employer going back on its word. Its about some high level suits at NBC being out of touch, and thinking the general public will swallow whatever they spoon feed. Its about showing the NBC brass that, without the fans and viewers, they have nothing. Dick Ebersol of NBC, seems to be quite outspoken on this whole debacle. He has called Conan, chicken-hearted and gutless, in his criticism of Jay Leno, and NBC. He has also called Conan's version of The Tonight Show, "an astounding failure". Wait til this geriatric version of the abonimable snowman sees the ratings for this year's Winter Olympics.

Everyone can agree, that Jay is as funny as this past election's Republican tour rallies...actually, those were funnier. While Conan may have struggled translating his schtick to a more mainstream audience, his genuine effort to provide a truly satirical and relevant vehicle to late night is to be commended, and instead left unappreciated and misunderstood by Jeff Zucker and crew, who think they know what America wants.

So, spread the word to everyone to watch Conan's last NBC Tonight Show. Tell your friends who are Nielsen families to watch! Hell, host an impromptu viewing party.

On a side note, is it too vindictive to possibly tell the loyal Conan fans to try to get Tonight Show taping tickets starting on March 1st, and formally protest Jay Leno's return to The Tonight Show? To have everyone in the studio audience sit on their hands, in silence, in response to the out of touch comedy of Jay Leno? Maybe give the NBC execs something to fret about? Stranger movements have started online.

Best of luck to Conan, wherever he lands next. Grumblings have said HBO, Adult Swim, Comedy Central, or Fox as possibilities. I can't help but giggle, when I think that NBC's lawyers sat in a room somewhere, actually muttering the words, "You cannot take 'the masturbating bear' sketch to your next network!". Farewell for now, Coco...I can't wait to see the "Cone-Zone" on a network that does your humor justice.

Here's a lullaby from Passion Pit, to bid adieu.

"Sleepyhead (Acoustic Piano Version)" by Passion Pit

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Passion Pit music is available on iTunes.

CLICK HERE for front page, and full list of track postings.

An Open Letter to LA Radio Station KROQ

Dear KROQ,

I just want to start off by saying, I used to love you...and I mean a lot. Back in the early 1990's, you were this awkward teenager's only friend. You introduced me to the timeless music of P.I.L., Siouxie and The Banshees, The Ramones, and countless other artists that I still love today.

When I moved away to college, in 1996, we naturally drifted apart, as I could not get to you, such as with today's technology. This same technology has afforded me the chance to re-visit you, my old flame, from the confines of my daily, hellish cubicle.

Over the last couple of days, I was horrified to hear the following sampling of music, over the span of a few hours: "Interstate Love Song" by Stone Temple Pilots, some awful, unidentified song by The Offspring, a track from Weezer's first album, some even worse Red Hot Chili Peppers song from "Dani California", three songs from Sublime, almost every single from Nirvana's "Nevermind" album, and to top it off, some Papa Roach.

KROQ, do you have live deejays? Or is a robot programmed to play songs from 16 years ago, on constant rotation, all day, everyday? You used to be a pioneer. You used to deserve to dub yourself as "World Famous". Did I outgrow you? Surely. Did you grow up whatsoever? Clearly not.

You've done nothing to further yourself, or the state of rock music. It really is embarrassing. Not until a contemporary band like Phoenix or The Silversun Pickups becomes engrossed in the mainstream, will you give them attention. You used to springboard bands into great heights, is this too much work these days?

There are a few highlights that remain in your programming, however. Rodney on the Roq will forever be an LA staple, although we've heard he's had a bumpy relationship with you in the past. We also like Kat Corbett for highlighting a few of LA's local acts that are worth noting. Other than that, you are the creepy uncle who never married, and is hopelessly living in the past (as I write this piece, a quite terrible Blink 182 song is being played on the air).

My dream job has always been to take a huge station like KROQ, and give an overhaul to its programming, thus providing the wonderful city of Los Angeles a great place to hear music, first...again. Because what we have now is unacceptable. If not me, how about any of the wonderful personalities this town has to offer, broadcasting on much more humble frequencies?

Unapologetically Yours,

Long Time Listener, First Time Open Letter Blogger.

Here's a song that is better than 97% of your current programming...this is scientifically calculated.


Visit The Soft Pack's MySpace page at www.myspace.com/thesoftpack

"C'mon" by The Soft Pack

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The Soft Pack's self titled album will be released on February 2nd. You can pre-order the entire album HERE.

CLICK HERE for front page and full list of track postings.

End of Year List

EENC Blog would just like to wish everyone a safe, and happy New Year.

And now, a brief tip of the cap to the things we loved this year...in no particular order.

In the land of "Ear Candy", here's a few things we quite loved...

We Were Promised Jetpacks - "These Four Walls"
These laddies from Glasgow made all those who loved Jawbreaker, were too ashamed to tell anyone they liked at least one Killers song, and those who despised the Airborne Toxic Event jump for joy. Check out "Moving Clocks Run Slow" below.



"Moving Clocks Run Slow" by We Were Promised Jetpacks
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Jay-Z - "The Blueprint 3"
We just can't get enough of Sean Carter and his love for the NYC. While many fans prefer the Jay of old, and the fact that there are some holes in this album that leave more to be desired, we still can't help but dig when he delivers on this record. The fact that he dragged his wife, "BK", to indie rock festivals also won our hearts. Plus, this great Rhapsody commercial appeases to the days of yesteryear. Check out the anthemic "On to the Next One" below.



"On to the Next One" by Jay-Z

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Also notable:
Blackroc, The Horrors, Dead Man's Bones, The Handsome Furs, Sunset Rubdown, Sunny Day Real Estate Reunion Tour, The Get Up Kids reunion shows, Camera Obscura, Thorns of Life live bootleg, Coconut Records.


Here's some "Eye Candy" we liked this year:

"500 Days (of Summer)"
Given the director's track record of terrible music videos, how much we dislike Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and what has become Zooey Deschanel's obligatory singing of a song in each movie she appears in, this one registered high on our list. The awkwardness of a male attempt at "chercher la femme" made this one entertaining in the realm of romantic comedies.


"The Hangover"
What more could you ask for, with the talented and funny Ed Helms, the always hilarious Zach Galifianakis, and Bradley Cooper as the guy who just looks like a dick? For Zach, the added dimension of weirdness in his character sets this role apart from his past cinema bombs...i.e. "Out Cold". Our favorite quotable from Zach' "They gave out rings at the Holocaust?"


"Inglourious Basterds"
We haven't been staying up to speed on Quentin Tarantino's kung fu or double feature gore fest rip offs, so this remake was quite a refreshing surprise. A great cast, headed up by Eli Roth and Brad Pitt, makes us wish this over the top exploit was how the war really turned out. An affinity for Hogan's Heroes doesn't hurt either.


Also notable: Bored To Death, Paper Heart, Ballast, Sin Nombre, The Fantastic Mr. Fox.



We Were Promised Jetpacks and Jay-Z music is available on iTunes.

CLICK HERE for front page and full list of track postings.

Medium-Fi

Is there such a thing as Medium-Fi? Here's a track from the forthcoming self-titled Broken Bells record, which is comprised of DJ Dangermouse and Shins frontman James Mercer. Seems like the collaboration from the ceased and desisted "Dark Night Of The Soul" record , left some unfinished business between these two. The album takes all of The Shins' great pop sensibilities, which then becomes mastered by Dangermouse's supreme ear for the sublime. To me, listening to this self titled release is like driving through a late night desert with the top down, while being possessed by Roy Orbison, then taking a detour into an alternate galaxy, all while listening to a Gary Numan record.

This album won't see the light of day until March 9th, but you can pre-order it from Amazon HERE. Listen to the very fitting "The Mall & The Misery", dedicated to all those who waited til the last second this year.

Link Removed by request of Columbia Records

Visit the official Broken Bells site HERE.

CLICK HERE for front page and full list of track postings.

Santa Ana Winds

Here's a track from the forthcoming Cold War Kids EP titled "Behave Yourself". Consider it a Christmas treat for all Angelenos, from Whittier's own Cold War Kids. The EP will be released on January 19th, you can pre-order it HERE. The 'Kids will also be gracing Los Angeles on January 22nd at The Wiltern Theater. You can purchase tix HERE. A Merry Christmas to all, and to all Angelenos, enjoy our version of Winter.


"Santa Ana Winds" by The Cold War Kids

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Cold War Kids music is available on iTunes.

CLICK HERE for front page and full list of track postings.

BK Trip

Here's a track from the wonderfully psychedelic, Yeasayer. Its a song from their forthcoming album titled "Odd Blood". The Brooklyn-ites recently signed to the also wonderful, Secretly Canadian record label. The album will be released on February 9th, 2010.

This highly anticipated record highlights the band's continued progression into a more accessible brand of odd melodies and spaced out euphoria, much like the mainstream success of Animal Collective. Check out "Madder Red" below. Visit Secretly Canadian's official site HERE, for more album information.

"Madder Red" by Yeasayer

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Yeasayer music is available on iTunes.

CLICK HERE for front page and full list of track postings.