Its Been A While
Well, I’ll admit, I’ve fallen behind in my reports. Spring is in the air, the flowers are in bloom and man, it’s been hot! Even a lovely weekender to beautiful Santa Barbara wasn’t enough to help me beat the heat around here. But here’s all the latest to keep you cool:
Holding true to the motto of “the Girls’ Guide to All that Grooves,” Cool Grrrls hosted a bash along Hollywood Boulevard to celebrate the 
release of the 2nd Cool Grrrls Compilation CD.
Gathering at the Thursday night hot spot known as Thunder Pussy, the Cool Grrrls Party featured a lineup that included Switchblade Kitten, spunky punk pop tarts The Randies, brazen rockers Blare Bitch Project and San Francisco’s glamsters The Substitutes.
The crowd consisted of local luminaries such as Coyote Shivers, Eden Knevel, Motochrist’s Marc Diamond and Danny Nordahl, Teenicide’s Jim Freek, Cheap Trick Pam, Josi K. of Piss Ant, director Allan Arkush, and Susan Hyatt of Stimulator (whose new CD is awesome by the way!) And while cocktails flowed and the bands were rockin’, the big talk of the night was the Cool Grrrls gift bag with outstanding swag including a Bleeding Edge Goth Doll and KinderGoth stuffed animals, Lucky 13 tank tops, a Cool Grrrls CD, Tony & Tina essential oil perfume, stickers from Punk Rock skateboards, and a Unit F CD.
A big thanks to publisher Frank for organizing the event and Taime Downe and Ricky Vodka for being our hottie hosts for the night! You can read more about it in Frank’s Cool Grrrls report HERE.
The start of summer marks the start of concert season. I checked out a couple worth noting. First, Cooper Temple Clause, broody alternative pop by a six-piece of pretty English lads. The band actually impressed me more live than on their recently released CD, “Kick Up the Fire and Let the Flames Break Loose.” While the CD’s melancholy pacing proves far too slow and ambient for my stereo mood, they amped it up live 
and held my attention.
Next on my agenda, after fully loving the new Vines CD “Winning Days” I was so excited to go see them at the Wiltern Theatre. The show got off to a rockin’ start with one of my current faves Jet. The retro, garage-infused Aussie rockers proved to have arena quality in their live show. They didn’t even lose any momentum when they slipped into the sensitive side of their smash CD “Get Born.” Each song sounded full bodied, rocked out, and ultra sexy cool. They are the band of the year as far as I’m concerned.
Within in the first few notes of headliners the Vines, singer Craig Nicholls proved that producer Rob Schnapf must have worked miracles on that album to get him to sound so good because it was clear that he can’t sing a note. Of course that was probably aided by the fact that he was so fucked up he could barely function or properly work his guitar. (And no Chris, dragging your guitar around on stage doesn’t usually help tune it.) At one point he just tossed the guitar into the crowd in front of him. I glanced around at the audience’s display of puzzled faces who at first wondered if this act was a joke then started leaving in droves. Those that stayed looked at each other wondering if Nicholls could possibly be that awful. Then many of us burst out laughing and shaking our heads at him. Poor sod, he’s got a way of bonding his audience! He went on to slaughter his entire set and embarrass himself as fellow Vines members and frustrated roadies clearly seethed at his antics. I stayed merely because I couldn’t believe how bad it was. Never again.
I had a better night at home watching The Heidi Fleiss story “Call Me” on the USA channel. The two-hour made-for-TV movie of the famous Hollywood Madam (portrayed by Sopranos’ star Jamie-Lynn DiScala, who had Fleiss’s mouth and mannerisms down to the last hair-tossing gesture) was surprisingly well done and displayed scenes the public may not know about Fleiss’ legendary path to infamy. Only in Hollywood can someone rise and fall so fast – and have such a great roll in the money doing it.
Didn’t catch the movie? You can read all there is to know on Madam Fleiss in my interview with her HERE.
I got my literary fix by stopping by the UCLA/LA Times Festival of Books and attending a discussion featuring writer Rachel Resnick (author of one of my favorite books “Go West Young F*cked Up Chick”) and erotica writer Susie Bright who proved to be quite an entertaining and informative porn historian discussing her early turn ons and her adventures in seeking out the sexual taboos in places she visits around the world (Israel’s Nazi-Jew taboo? Who knew!) as well as trends in sexual fetishes such as blood play during the rise of the AIDS epidemic and the submissive male trend at the height of both Iraq wars. My oh my sex education is fascinating! They never taught me THAT in school! Be sure to check out Bright’s book “The Best American Erotica” for more.
I ran into local wordsmith Bruce Bauman talking up the newly launched literary magazine Black Clock. Founder and editor Steve Erickson hosted a launch party for the magazine at the Disney Concert Hall recently for local fans of the written word. Inside the magazine is work by such prestigious LA writers as Bauman, David Ulin, Samantha Dunn, Greil Marcus, Michael Ventura and Aimee Bender. Check it out and feed your head.
Stay cool,
K.
Leave a Reply