LA Briefs [Cage the Animals Edition]

This Sunday, a fan-tabulous all-day concert event is happening in Los Angeles called Cage The Animals. You can find out more by reading our interview with the organizers, This is Tightrope. In anticipation of the event, we asked This is Tightrope to give us an introduction to each of the bands performing...

+ Palm Yard are friends of ours from Santa Cruz. They were looking to play an LA show in July. They've never played here before but have been booking some good gigs in Santa Cruz. I checked out their My Space and was impressed with what I heard. I hope people get there early enough to check them out because this event could be a great boost for them and hopefully afterwards they can come to LA more often.

+ Drug Warz got in touch with me about playing because they're good friends of Slang Chickens. They've been swapping shows back and forth in LA and San Diego. They are another band that will get some good recognition by playing the event and hopefully it will get them more LA gigs. They play fun punk music and I think they will being great energy!

+ Hotel St. George is a band we've been working with. We're helping to put out their record, City Boy Lemon which has already been getting great reviews. They're super passionate about what they do and it shows every time I see them play. They play music because it's what they love and I know great success will come from that. When I first saw them play, it was in a sketchy venue with hardly anyone there but they rocked out, jumping on their instruments and going crazy for the 10 of us who were watching. They need and deserve to be seen in front of a big crowd. The best part is, their music is accessible to all kinds of music fans. Three friends of mine saw them together: one who is a punk rock loving Smiths fan and two who were in to sports and being frat bros and all three were blown away.

+ So Many Wizards has been gaining a lot of recognition on local radio station, KXLU. In the past 2 months they've been asked to play live on the station twice and have been getting a lot of calls requesting their songs. Rightfully so. They have a completely unique sound where they mix an old-timey feel with smooth indie hooks. They even have samples from Breakfast at Tiffany's (the movie) on one of their songs, which certainly draws me in as a fan of the film. Their live show is unconventional and perfectly suits the music; you'll just have to see what surprises they have in store.

+ When someone asks me to describe Intricate Machines, their sound is so unique that I have to pick three polar opposite bands to compare them to: Fleet Foxes, Animal Collective, and Vampire Weekend. They have the experimental sounds of Animal Collective, harmonies of Fleet Foxes, and pop hooks and semi-world beats of Vampire Weekend (plus, sometimes the lead singer Lee Hepner wears boat shoes). Their live show consists of cool video work to go along with their unique sound.

+ Slang Chickens has been gaining a lot of recognition in LA. They've played Part Time Punks and other local shows that highlight up and coming bands. We were just lucky to get them before they blow up. All of the guys in the band are extremely talented musicians who have been involved in the music scene for most of their lives. This project could potentially be their most successful. I haven't seen them live yet so having them play is great for me since it gives me the opportunity to finally see them!

+ Cheetahsaurus are a great band formed in the ashes of The Colour. Wyatt the lead singer has a Jim Morrison way about him, and their sound echoes Radiohead in a fantastic, non-derivative way.

+ Black Apples have songs with the subject matter ranging from animals to Star Wars so obviously I am a big fan. They do that magic unconventional thing of having the drummer as the lead singer which makes their show even more fun to watch. I always admire that in a band since I could never keep the rhythm and sing at the same time! It shows true talent. With their energetic performance, they will be a fun one to look out for at the festival.

+ Swim Party is a great, fun band from San Diego. They’ve been gigging hard lately and we’re told by others that there live show is top notch.

+ Avi Buffalo has been blowing up in Los Angeles. After a recent residency at The Echo, he keeps gaining momentum and making his name bigger and bigger. With bluesy teenage love songs that harkens back to the 60's but with the new indie twang of the 00's, his music is truly addicting. With how big he's getting I was shocked he agreed to play but was even more shocked at how excited he was about playing. Probably since he's only 17, he was excited to finally have an all ages show his friends could attend.

Interview: Ilyse and Patrick from This Is Tightrope

In a city full of amazing talent, thankfully it is also full of amazing individuals who seek to promote that talent. The Cage the Animals all day event happening this Sunday [flyer above] is a showcase for great music, but it is also more than that. The event is presented by This Is Tightrope, a collective made up of Amanda Van Goethen, Alyssa Van Breene, Ilyse Kaplan, Patrick Presto and Zach Best. Patrick explains, "We originally all started as interns together at Filter Magazine and kept in touch over the years and always had the vision of having our stamp and ideas about good music go through us rather than other superiors." In anticipation of Sunday's event, we present our interview with Ilyse and Patrick...

What is This is Tightrope, and how did the idea originate? What are your future plans?

Ilyse: We though, why not take all the good and bad things we learned from that [interning at Filter] and start our own company? Our motto is "yes we do that," which leaves things pretty open to interpretation. We don't want to be limited with our endeavors. Each of us is really passionate about music and the best way to act on that passion is to involve ourselves directly with the music scene. We first met with some of our friends' bands (Intricate Machines and So Many Wizards) and started to help promote them. Things jumped off from there and we ended up making connections with people who have the same vision of us of what the music industry is doing wrong. We want to put the industry back in to the hands of the actual fans, the people who are truly passionate about music, because we ARE those kids. Right now, we're focusing on promoting bands and starting a small label. We'll be putting out a record by Hotel St. George soon.

Patrick: And look out for more impromptu events that are creative!

How did this event came together, and why did you decide to make it something more interactive as opposed to just a show?

Patrick: Because collectively we've gone to our fair share of shows and we know how people interact at them. Especially with so much talent out there we needed to appeal to not just people's music tastes but their food tastes/fashion tastes/ fun tastes. Once you hit them all then you're event becomes more than just a show.

Ilyse: At first it began as just a day party but as we kept discussing bands that we thought would work well at the event and they kept accepting our invites to play, it turned in to a slightly larger event than anticipated. We wanted to make it interactive so it could be a place to come hangout with good people and see live music. It is not just about showcasing the talent of our bands, we want to showcase our other talented friends by having them set up art, jewelry booths whatever. We would have had a full-fledged carnival if money would allow but homemade games and art booths will have to suffice this year.

This strikes me as a community-building type event - do you think LA's music scene makes it establish strong for community-building events?

Ilyse: The problem with the music scene is that instead of being about great bands, certain movements happened to make it about being seen or "scene." People would go see bad live music or shitty DJs only in hopes of being photographed. I think right now, the community needs strength again. It needs people who are music fans themselves pushing for people to hear great local acts because they are great local acts, not because of how big they are or whose blog they're on. Right now, you have great companies like Manimal Vinyl attempting to build the scene back up but it's more challenging this time around because instead of moving FROM something organic we have to move the scene BACK to something organic. That is what we hope to do with our event.

Patrick: It definitely is a community building type event. During the production process we took in many considerations that we thought would seclude people and figured out ways to welcome them and this dealt a lot with location, bands, stuff to do, etc. We figured in order to put something on like this we needed to get a little bit of everything out of LA and provide it to those coming.

Regardless of how much you end up paying, this is a pretty cheap event AND these are tough financial times. Do you think times like these call for events such as this? or are events like this just awesome and necessary - no matter what?

Patrick: Awesome and necessary no matter what. It's easy to see many of the big companies come crashing down during these times and slashing some awesome events AND/OR screwing people over by hiking up the prices for an experience.

Ilyse: Yes, this event is definitely awesome and necessary. Our goal in all of this is not to make money but to promote great bands, see great live music, and better yet--to have fun with great people!

Patrick: All events are just experiences. With that said, what better way to enjoy your Sunday with affordable fun? Come to Cage The Animals!