The Syncretist International » los angeles

Culprit Sessions @ Standard Rooftop

stellar magnet — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 01:12:13 +0000

Earlier this month I went to a party at the Standard Rooftop in Downtown L.A. for Shaun Reeves, Droog (who have recently launched their own record label, Culprit), Matías Aguayo (of Cómeme & Kompakt) and John Wander (of Roam Music). Music was great, met some new people as well. One of them is Yelva, and she does a fashion blog called Fashion Puttana. Another guy was James, or how I like to call him: T-bird James, and besides working at the Standard he is in the band Meho Plaza. Snapped some photos of these people with their tattoos or accessories.

Matías Aguayo spinning and singing as the sun begins to set

Matías’ whistle and awesome tattoo

The fabulous Yelva, showing off her Bowie cig-case

Close up shot of superhero Bowie

T-bird James with his T-bird Tattoo

Spacemen 3 Art Opening, L.A., 10/10/09

stellar magnet — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:03:18 +0000

Natty Brooker, ex-Spacemen 3 drummer, and also the artist who has done a lot of album covers and packaging for Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized, is having an art opening in Los Angeles. William Carruthers (another ex-Spaceman) is helping promote the art opening. The question is, will Sonic Boom show up since he is in L.A. producing MGMT, and will there be a Spacemen 3 jam session?

Facebook Invite:

Date: Saturday, October 10, 2009
Time: 7:00pm – 11:00pm
Location: Substrate Contemporary Fine Art Gallery
Street: 709 North Ridgewood Place
City/Town: Los Angeles, CA

Artist Natty Brooker, who is most known for the enduring imagery related to the music of Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized is debuting his body of work in the United States in October 2009 at Substrate Contemporary Fine Art Gallery in Los Angeles.

Brooker’s body of work will be exhibited here first in a series of exhibitions to be shown nationally and internationally. Other cities include New York, London, Berlin and Amsterdam.

Prints of his body of work are available in a signed and numbered set of 14. They are also available individually, signed and numbered.

Due to the artists’ poor health Natty will be represented at the opening by his friend and former bandmate Will Carruthers.

DJ Set: THE MEEK.

Please join us for an evening of fine art. Complimentary beer and wine.

From Mickie’s Zoo:

Prints of all the works are available as a signed and numbered set of 14 for $1600. Individual signed and numbered prints are available starting at $200.

Part Time Punks – Rainbow Arabia/Bridez

stellar magnet — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:32:53 +0000

I drove up to Los Angeles for Part Time Punks last night. The headlining band was Rainbow Arabia, who are two white people (husband/wife) that reside in Los Angeles, and like their name, play Arabian sounding post-punk flavored music. Inspired by music heard on the Bishop brothers’ Sublime Frequencies label. Here is a weird music video that contains both rainbow and Arabian (desert) elements.

So, the party was fun, the DJ highlights were Silver Apples by the punx and JAMC “Surfin’ USA” by Cobain in a Coma (that was louddd!). I really enjoyed the opening band, Bridez, from San Francisco. They had this raw punk grunge energy which drew me in, and front-woman Liza’s vox reminded me of Kim Deal at times. Drummer was awesome and wearing an Annihilation Time t-shirt which I admired. Catch them January 27th @ Hemlock tavern.

Bridez on vuhrtoob:

Rainbow Arabia’s live act was good, they got people dancing (”Let them dance”!) but I feel like there was something missing. Maybe they need bigger amps? Maybe they need to add more atmosphere to their show by adding a strobe light and fog? not sure. Here is a picture of dude’s Casio, though. Next to “CASIO” is some Arabic calligraphy that translates to “CASIO”. I could read it because I am familiar with some Farsi characters.