Results tagged “Local Music” from Hollywood Babble On

If you'd like to venture out to Hollywood on a Thursday night and see something really cool and interesting, go over to The Steve Allen Theater at 8pm and check out ResBox, a monthly event featuring the best in experimental and improvisational music.

Musician and filmmaker Hans Fjellestad spearheaded the ResBox project in Hollywood after founding a similar group in San Diego called Trummerflora. The latter group started small in a tiny area of San Diego in the late 1990's and has grown into a very large collective of experimental and improvisational musicians and performance artists who still perform around San Diego and now Los Angeles - as well as New York City and around the world.
You can find their works here and you can also find CD's on the site as well as iTunes. (I highly recommend the Christmas CD "...and the Reindeer You Rode in on (from 1999 on Accretion Records)" - which consists of experimental interpretations of Christmas songs.

Fjellestad is playing in a two-person group tonight called "ICE CREAM" which also includes Amit Itelman and the evening also will feature performances by Steve Roden, Yann Novak and VJ Fader. Tonight is the last of the ResBox monthly series.

You can find more of Fjellestad's musical work here and here. He has made several documentary films (several about music) that includes A Frontier Life (2002) and Moog (2004), about the life and work of synthsizer maker Robert Moog. Expect three more films in the very future from Fjellestad.

The Steve Allen Theater is located at 4773 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027

If you can make some time tonight, head on over to The Hotel Cafe in Hollywood and hear Lindsay Ray play. She's a fantastic singer/songwriter from Maine - which is also home to another good singer - Ray LaMontagne.

Ray's show tonight is also a CD release party - celebrating her new record The Picture Perfect - which is available on iTunes and her own website where you can hear some of her tunes before you go.

Ray calls her style 'quirky-pop' and a few of her songs have been featured in television shows such as Knight Rider and on The Style Network, E! Channel and the Lifetime TV Movie "Sorority Wars"

The show starts at 9pm and the tickets are $10 advance or $12 at the door. You can get advanced tickets at the Hotel Cafe site. The first 50 people through the door get a free EP.

The Hotel Cafe's address is 1623 1/2 N. Cahuenga Blvd (between Hollywood and Sunset).

Not only is The Hotel Cafe a great music venue, but look for several outstanding artists and bands playing during the month of October. Here are a few:

Schuyler Fisk - October 1 (tomorrow)
George Stanford - October 2nd (Friday)
Lelia Broussard - October 6th (Tuesday)
Andy Clockwise - October 9th (Friday)
Keaton Simons - October 16th (Friday)
(Simons has a song featured in several trailers for the Starz Network television series Crash.)
Brian Wright - Every Friday all month, except for the 16th
Sweet Talk Radio - October 20th and 27 (both Tuesday nights)
The Mornings - October 23rd (Friday)

Also, in early November
Curt Smith (of Tears for Fears) - November 2nd (Monday)
Will Hoge - November 5th - (Thursday)

for more on the lineups at The Hotel Cafe, go here

If you're in Hollywood this Friday night, head over to The Hotel Cafe and give a listen to singer/songwriter George Stanford. He is a phenomenal talent, has excellent songs and a great band.

Stanford is from Philadelphia and has been in Los Angeles playing for several years. When I saw him the first time several years ago, he was playing with The Denim Family Band, who split up when two of the guys left - Stanford being one. Stanford then went solo and recorded his debut CD "Big Drop," which was released in June of 2008. He's been playing and touring in support of the album ever since, playing the Hotel Cafe and Crane's Hollywood Tavern several times over the past several months.

Several of the times I've seen him play recently, he was on the same bill as Truth & Salvage Co - which consists of many members of the no defunct Denim Family Band. Like Stanford, Truth & Salvage also got signed and they are now touring with The Black Crowes. They'll be playing Los Angeles with the Crowes in November. More on that later.

If you can, see Stanford play or get his album Big Drop. It's really good - particularly the title song, "30,000 Feet," "Downriver," "My Own Worst Enemy" and one song that's not on the album but still great, "Meet Me in Los Angeles."

He is also playing at Crane's on Wednesday October 14th

Hotel Cafe is 1623 1/2 N. Cahuenga Blvd in Hollywood.
Crane's is at 1611 El Centro Blvd, in Hollywood/Los Angeles.

You can find the album on iTunes and Stanford's music page on Facebook and here.