Visceral reactions and valentines

Kevin Bronson on November 20th, 2008

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[From the clipboard of an Interweb sieve:]

‣ This almost qualifies as a brazen theft: An upright bass belonging to Mike Ibarra of the local music collective Killsonic was stolen from his van in downtown L.A. about 2 a.m. Nov. 16. There’s a benefit to help replace the instrument at 8 p.m. Saturday at Edgar Varela Fine Arts (542 Alameda St.). Shame on you, thief.

‣ So what’s the next Trail of Dead album like? My former L.A. Times colleague Casey Dolan, who had a preview of the Feb. 17 release, went to last week’s Echo show and talked with Conrad Keely, says: “The still-untitled album is an enormously expressive work that acts as a summation of everything that came before and points toward a future of greater musical complexity. There is a majesty, a maturity and gravitas that suggests “masterwork.” Dolan’s full discourse at the International Review of Music.

‣ It doesn’t take much to get Depeche Mode fans excited, apparently, if these in-studio “teaser” videos have them all atwitter.

‣ Up-and-coming LBC kids Local Natives take to their backyard to show how easy it is to be Vampire Weekend (thanks, LA Underground):

‣ Speaking of benefits, the annual Christmas Sweater Festival for Doctors Without Borders is set for Dec. 13 at the Echoplex with a fantastic lineup of L.A. bands, including: the Deadly Syndrome, Castledoor, the Pity Party, the Happy Hollows, Amnion, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros and more. By the way, the Pity Party’s Julie Edwards had some interesting things to say about the duo’s recent tour — she diarized over at Web In Front.

‣ For some reason, I always thought the Get Up Kids were the Hold Steady of their time.

‣ M83 solicits video help from fans. Hmm.

‣ And finally, even the mighty Associated Press wire service makes mistakes. This corrective that was sent out this week will amuse music fans — supply your own punchline: NEW YORK (AP) ”” In a Nov. 6 story about AC/DC, The Associated Press erroneously quoted producer Brendan O’Brien as saying the band’s music was aggressive in a way that’s catchy and “hokey.” The word he actually used was “hooky,” which is music-industry parlance for a song full of irresistible refrains, or “hooks.”