In Los Angeles the weather doesn’t change much with the seasons. So how do we know when it’s summertime? It’s concert season at The Greek Theatre. Time for another ticket giveaway at one of my favorite venues.
One lucky Rock Is A Girl’s Best Friend reader will win a pair of tickets to see Andrew Bird and Sharon Van Etten, at The Greek Theatre LA , Sunday August 12. Here’s what you need to know to enter:
The contest begins now and ends at 11:59pm EST August 7, 2012
You will see there are several ways you can enterand you can get additional entries for each thing you choose to do. You can follow us, tweet about us, like us on Facebook, and more. ENTER NOW
Winner (1) will be selected by random.org and notified via email on August 8, 2012. Winners will have 12 hours to respond before a new winner is selected
Your tickets will be available for pick up at Will Call at The Greek Theatre on the evening of the show
Chicago-based film score composer, multi-instrumentalist and lyricist Andrew Bird picked up his first violin at the age of four and spent his formative years soaking up classical repertoire completely by ear. As a teen Bird became interested in a variety of styles including early jazz, country blues and gypsy music, synthesizing them into his unique brand of pop. Since beginning his recording career in 1997 he has released 11 albums, his first solo record Weather Systems coming in 2003. Bird has gone on to record with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and perform at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Most recently Bird composed his first ever film score for the movie Norman (hailed as “a probing, thoughtful score” by The New York Times; available now on Mom + Pop), contributed to the soundtrack of The Muppets and collaborated with inventor Ian Schneller on Sonic Arboretum, an installation at New York’s Guggenheim Museum and Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
Bird is touring in support of his latest album, Break It Yourself. Produced by Bird, Break It Yourself was recorded at his barn in Western Illinois near the banks of the Mississippi River.
Over the course of releasing three full-length albums celebrated by fans and critics, alike – Because I Was In Love (Language of Stone; 2009), epic (Ba Da Bing; 2010), and now Tramp (Jagjaguwar, Feb. 2011), the Jersey-bred/Brooklyn-based Sharon Van Etten has affected a multitude of hearts and minds over the past couple of years. Tramp, a stunning album nuanced in a language of striking rock, minimal beauty, and pious strength, showcases an artist in full control of her powers. Over the last several years, Van Etten has opened the Pitchfork Music Festival, played Bonnaroo, Sasquatch, The Hollywood Bowl, Radio City Music Hall, sung on new albums by Beirut and Ed Askew, collaborated with Justin Vernon and Megafaun.
For “official” information about The Greek Theatre, you can check out their website, but here’s my take: The Greek Theatre is one of my all-time favorite music venues. Start to finish, The Greek Theatre is an EXPERIENCE! You can get there early, picnic, and drink wine. If you don’t mind a walk, you can park on Vermont and enjoy the walk to and from the venue. If you’re reading Rock Is A Girl’s Best Friend, chances are you’re not the type to leave the show early, so you can take the easy route and commit to the stacked parking option. The venue is beautiful, outdoors, surrounded by trees. The sound is impeccable. I’ve seen some of my favorite shows at The Greek and I’m very excited to share these opportunities with you.
I’m so happy to be working with The Luckman Fine Arts Complex to bring more ticket giveaways your way! I saw India Arie at Luckman Fine Arts Complex last year and the experience was amazing. It’s a beautiful venue with great sound, every seat is a good seat, and there are wonderful indoor and outdoor areas to gather and drink wine (or water) before the show.
Five lucky Rock Is A Girl’s Best Friend readers will each win a pair of tickets to see Nikka Costa, at The Luckman Fine Arts Complex on Saturday, May 12th. Here’s what you need to know to enter:
The contest begins now and ends at 11:59pm EST May 9, 2012
You will see there are several ways you can enterand you can get additional entries for each thing you choose to do. You can follow us, tweet about us, like us on Facebook, and more. ENTER NOW
Winners (5) will be selected by random.org and notified via email on May 10, 2012. Winners will have 12 hours to respond before a new winner is selected
Influenced by classic Motown artists,Nikka Costa has been at the forefront of the jazz, funk, and soul revivals. With roots in Japan, Australia, and Los Angeles, Nikka Costa combines jazz and blues melodies with her ferocious rock & roll vocal style. With a career spanning 30 years, Nikka Costa has collaborated with some of the best in the business including Mark Ronson, Adam Lambert, and Eric Clapton. With these collaborations, among many others, Costa has furthered her synthesis of funk, soul, and contemporary R&B. Costa will grace the Luckman stage and perform songs from her current release PRO*WHOA! along with hits including “Like a Feather” and “Push & Pull.”
The Luckman Fine Arts Complex delivers cutting edge music, dance, and visual arts from around the world to the Los Angeles community. A professional arts entity on the campus of California State University, Los Angeles, located just five miles east of downtown.
I’m really excited about this show and here’s why: I missed all four of Vanaprasta‘s residency shows at The Satellite in November. Missing the shows due to scheduling conflicts (on my side, of course) was a disappointment. I hate to miss a show – especially an outstanding show – and I certainly don’t want to miss FOUR shows. While missing Vanaprasta every Monday night was hard, it wasn’t nearly as devastating as waking up four Tuesdays in a row to Tweets, text messages, and reviews from some of my most-trusted music sources saying how amazing these shows were.
Thankfully, I have another chance to experience Vanaprasta and so do you:
One Rock Is A Girl’s Best Friend reader will win a pair of tickets to see Vanaprasta at Central SAPC in Santa Monica on Friday, December 16, 2011.
Here’s what you need to know to enter:
The contest begins now and ends at 12:01 am EST December 16, 2011
You will see there are several ways you can enterand you can get additional entries for each thing you choose to do. You can follow Vanaprasta on Twitter, tweet about the contest, like us on Facebook, and more. ENTER NOW
Winner (1) will be selected by random.org and notified via email on the morning of December 16, 2011. Winner will have 5 hours to respond before a new winner is selected
Your tickets will be available for pick up at Will Call at Central SAPC on the evening of the show. Photo ID will be required to pick up tickets
You must be 21+ to attend this event
Transportation and accommodations not included
About Vanaprasta:
Vanaprasta knows where rock music has been, and the Los Angeles quintet knows where it wants to take it. “Someplace mystical,” singer Steven Wilkin says, “where there’s arena-sized sound.”
In less than three years, Wilkin, bassist Taylor Brown, drummer Ben Smiley and guitarists Collin Desha and Cameron Dmytryk have circumnavigated the nebulous L.A. indie-rock universe, releasing an EP, teasing with a couple of singles and turning in enough neck-snapping live performances to give Angelenos whiplash from Silver Lake to the Sunset Strip.
Finally, after three forays into the studio, Vanaprasta unveils Healthy Geometry (out Nov. 1, 2011), a forward-thinking, galactic-sounding debut that draws from the indie, experimental, psychedelic and R&B worlds to shape music that is at once visceral and visionary. Critics have name-checked the Killers (LA Weekly), Kings of Leon (Consequence of Sound) and Mew (Buzz Bands LA), but Healthy Geometry‟s broad dynamic also finds antecedents in the work of Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Muse, Modest Mouse and Black Sabbath.
“For a while, we called our sound ‘guitarwave,’ and the guys joke around that it should be ‘Indie Rock Guitar Hero’ or ‘Epic Karaoke,’” Wilkin says with a smile. “But whatever it is, I‟m glad we had the patience to find the best way to capture it, and to cultivate who we are as a band.”
And who is Vanaprasta? It is five technicians from divergent backgrounds (with equally broad tastes) who comingled in L.A.’s musical melting pot in 2008. From their first jam session, the mixing of molecules in the room generated an energy that was palpable, and end result of that night was, Vanaprasta.
The key ingredients in the quintet’s stew are the colliding guitars of Dmytryk, a former punk-rock kid from Oregon, and Desha, a native Hawaiian with a foundation in slack key guitar, which wrestle atop powerful, shape-shifting rhythms from Brown and Smiley. Wilkin’s balletic tenor (he was a child opera singer in Utah) holds the mold together.
The band’s stadium sound illuminates themes ranging from the highly emotional to the dauntingly intellectual. Vanaprasta (whose name derives
from the Sanskrit word for a forest-dweller who has given up much of his worldly possessions) is fascinated with numerology, geometry and patterns, and what any or all them might mean in a world seemingly ruled by inefficacy and chaos.
Healthy Geometry was produced and mixed by Dave Schiffman, who recorded the band using mostly live takes with minimal overdubbing. It was mastered by Howie Weinberg, who kudoed the band on what he heard. “Working with Dave was super smooth,” Wilkin says. “He came out and saw us live, and basically we let him run with his interpretation of our live show.
Healthy Geometry, which can‟t be categorized into any particular genre but stands on its own as a complete body of work, encapsulates all the different moving parts and ingredients that make up Vanaprasta.
-Kevin Bronson
I used to discover a lot of great bands at music festivals. Lately it seems they’re booking more mainstream, established bands, which is understandable because it helps deliver ticket sales. Yet, I’ve really missed the days of discovering my new favorite bands at music festivals. Thankfully, one band changed that, with their appearance at Outside Lands Festival this year: The Stone Foxes.
We entered the festival on the afternoon of the second day, walking quickly to meet up with some friends. The Stone Foxes stopped us in our tracks with their great songs, energetic and authentic performance. We texted our friends the new meeting location: “The Stone Foxes at the Sutro stage.” We’ve been talking about that show since August.
One lucky Rock Is A Girl’s Best Friend reader will win a pair of tickets to see The Stone Foxes at The Viper Room in Los Angeles on November 16, 2011. Here’s what you need to know to enter:
The contest begins now and ends at 11:59pm EST November 15, 2011
You will see there are several ways you can enterand you can get additional entries for each thing you choose to do. You can follow us, tweet about us, like us on Facebook, and more. ENTER NOW
Winner (1) will be selected by random.org and notified via email on the morning of November 16, 2011. Winner will have 5 hours to respond before a new winner is selected
Your tickets will be available for pick up at Will Call at The Viper Room on the evening of the show. Please bring photo ID.
You must be 21+ to attend this event
Transportation and accommodations not included
About The Stone Foxes:
Here’s an excerpt from their official bio: It’s not just great song writing, warm guitars, a nut-tight rhythm section, and the occasional blues harp riffs that make The Stone Foxes’ second album, Bears and Bulls, so good; the Bay Area band consisting of brothers Shannon and Spence Koehler and Aaron Mort have captured something else that makes the whole thing huge, and very, very cool. There’s a genuineness here that’s rare and refreshing, and it’s something that can’t be achieved simply by grabbing a couple of vintage axes and plugging into a stack of tube amps. Because while The Stone Foxes may be influenced by the greats of the late 60s and early 70s like The Band, Bob Dylan, and Led Zeppelin, they never sound like they’re trying to be anything but exactly who they are. What makes the The Stone Foxes so unique is their approach to making music. “We’ll never be a traditional studio band,” says Aaron. That makes perfect sense to anyone that’s been to one of their shows: it’s clear the Foxes care far more about performing their music for living, breathing human beings than an empty room filled with microphones.
The band has been on the road winning over audiences all over the west coast including a opening for the Black Keys in Phoenix, and will continue on tour doing club and festival dates, including Wakarusa, Outside Lands, Deluna Fest, Jazz Aspen Snowmass Summer Series and The New Orleans Voodoo Experience. The band is writing and recording to support the upcoming summer dates on which fellow Bay Area musician, Elliot Peltzman is lending a hand on keys for the recording and tour.
The Stone Foxes’ new video for their song, “Psycho”, is comprised of fan-submitted footage, cut and edited by the band:
I have many fond memories of shows at The Viper Room, as well as some foggy ones (thanks to their strong drinks).
The Viper Room is a real rock venue. It’s located on The Sunset Strip, you can still chew gum there, it’s dark, the floor is sometimes sticky (quit spilling your drinks, people), the music is loud, and I’m certain I already mentioned the drinks are strong.
When you want to see a rock show in LA, The Viper Room is your venue.
You will see there are several ways you can enterand you can get additional entries for each thing you choose to do. You can follow us, tweet about us, like us on Facebook, and more. ENTER NOW
You can get additional entries by Tweeting about the giveaway each day. Be sure to Tweet from within the giveaway form so that your entries are counted!
Winners (2) will be selected by random.org and notified via email on the morning of November 8, 2011. Winners will each have 24 hours to respond before a new winner is selected
Your autographed Rise Against CD will be shipped to you directly from Universal Music
About Rise Against:
Rise Against: End Game
If you read the band’s bio, you will find that Tim McIlrath, bassist Joe Principe, drummer Brandon Barnes and guitarist Zach Blair infuse much care into the themes and messages in their music.
“It’s about a dangerous time in civilization, the end of life,” says vocalist/guitarist Tim McIlrath about Endgame, the band’s sixt full-length studio album. “What if the life that we’re living right now is this unsustainable bubble that cannot go on and perhaps does not deserve to go on? What if the world we created is a place that is so unnatural and ugly that it is a world that needs to come to an end, so that we could have a world that is better for everybody? It sounds very utopian, but it’s not about a perfect place, but maybe some of these things we’re doing, they need to come to an end.”
Rise Against are currently on tour in the UK, heading back to the US in early December. The band has also scheduled some stops at local record stores so they can meet more fans:
Houston, TX
Saturday, December 3rd @ 5pm
Cactus Records
2110 Portsmouth
Houston, TX
Las Vegas, NV
Thursday, December 8th @ 5pm
Zia Records
4225 S. Eastern Ave
Las Vegas, NV
One lucky Rock Is A Girl’s Best Friend reader will win a pair of tickets to see The Felice Brothers at The Satellite in Los Angeles on October 28, 2011. Here’s what you need to know to enter:
The contest begins now and ends at 11:59pm EST October 27, 2011
You will see there are several ways you can enterand you can get additional entries for each thing you choose to do. You can follow us, tweet about us, like us on Facebook, and more. ENTER NOW
Winner (1) will be selected by random.org and notified via email on the morning of October 28, 2011. Winner will have 5 hours to respond before a new winner is selected
Your tickets will be available for pick up at Will Call at The Satellite on the evening of the show. Please bring photo ID.
You must be 21+ to attend this event
Transportation and accommodations not included
About The Felice Brothers:
The Felice Brothers
“…what separates The Felices’ mud-stomping folk from that of their peers is their no-winking honesty – the sense that these songs and the places and people they’re singing about aren’t literary devices but actual people doing their damnedest to rage against the growing darkness.” – Filter Good Music Guide, 2009
Here’s what’s already known about The Felice Brothers: they are a close-knit band of two brothers and three longtime friends, all in their twenties. They are self-taught, not one of them played an instrument prior to the band’s inception in 2006 when they started busking in New York City subway stations. The Felice Brothers have released three full-length albums; their last, Yonder Is The Clock, on Team Love Records (2009). The majority of their work was recorded in a converted chicken coop in upstate New York near their hometown of Palenville. Esquire, Filter, The New York Times, NPR, Spin, Time Out New York, Uncut, and Under The Radar have praised them, among others. They are on virtually constant tour in the States and overseas, and have performed at festivals including Bonnaroo, All Points West, Outside Lands, Langerado, and the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Recognized for their live show, The Felice Brothers will play for their audience come hell or high water; the foremost example is their transcendent performance at the 2008 Newport Folk Festival, where they soldiered on, unplugged, in the rain, and barefoot in the mud after a lightning bolt shorted their stage’s power supply.
Here’s what might come as a surprise about The Felice Brothers: their new and fourth LP Celebration, Florida is an exhilarating amalgamation of frightening horn sections, unexpected 808s, ambient synth lines, schoolyard taunts, booming, primitive drum beats, heavy bass lines, piano, violin, accordion, ringing guitars, rave beats, and sinister acid jazz that captivates and mystifies. Recorded in the gymnasium and theater of Beacon, NY’s old high school, the band explores a multitude of sounds and instrumentation throughout the expansive album. It’s inspired, imaginative, heady, menacing, passionate, and rollicking. Most importantly, it’s as steadfastly authentic as ever, expanding upon the dark, woozy undercurrent of ramshackle barroom blues, vaudevillian atmospherics, and surreal storytelling of their previous albums. Under The Radar wrote in a review of Yonder Is The Clock that The Felice Brothers find “inspiration and freedom rather than constraints in the traditions of folk music.” Celebration, Florida revels in this inventive, outlaw spirit; it’s the sound of a band that knows its roots and knows where it’s growing. It’s a group who just might expand the definition of Americana music along the way.
Celebration, Florida casts scenes of dreamy characters and stories interwoven like a block of primetime TV. Among the tales: a young woman who sets off to find a secret paradise; a teenager who enters a boxing gym in Catskill, NY; a late night host recounting his rise to fame to his honeybee while traveling in a private jet; shady degenerates who get lost in a mystery concerning a Honda Civic; a young girl who crimps her hair and spies her dead father driving down the road; a Wall Street scandal hits a little too close to home; and even a trip through space to find long forgotten Hollywood parties and hopefully make it back there in time to walk down the red carpet.
The Satellite is one of the premiere music venues in Silverlake, located at: 1717 Silverlake Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Pros: 2 bars, great view of the stage no matter where you’re standing, friendly staff, strong drinks. Did I mention 2 bars?
Cons: small. But that’s not a bad thing if you like intimate shows like I do. I’ve seen everyone from Zwan (Billy Corgan) to Foo Fighters to The Scissor Sisters here. Well, actually the venue was called Spaceland at the time, but my point is: this place rocks.
For “official” information about The Greek Theatre, you can check out their website, but here’s my take: The Greek Theatre is one of my all-time favorite music venues. Start to finish, The Greek Theatre is an EXPERIENCE! You can get there early, picnic, and drink wine. If you don’t mind a walk, you can park on Vermont and enjoy the walk to and from the venue. If you’re reading Rock Is A Girl’s Best Friend, chances are you’re not the type to leave the show early, so you can take the easy route and commit to the stacked parking option. The venue is beautiful, outdoors, surrounded by trees. The sound is impeccable. I’ve seen some of my favorite shows at The Greek and I’m very excited to share these opportunities with you.
