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Knitting Factory News Welcome to the very first installment of Knitting Factory News, our intermittent bulletin of highlights from inside and outside
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Welcome to the very first installment of Knitting Factory News, our intermittent bulletin of highlights from inside and outside the Knitting Factory universe. It’s an opinionated guide to featured artists at our California venues, KFE-managed artists on tour, giveaways, and…well, things we like, no matter where they came from. |
First up is the duo The Two Tens, featuring guitarist Adam Bones and drummer Rikki Styxx. It’s been a heck of a week for them; their video of the single “Scene” from their debut EP Volume 1 debuted on Huffpo last week, with that rag calling them “garage punk at its best.” Then, this past weekend, they won Deli Magazine’s LA Band of the month reader poll, garnering more than 600 votes to become November’s poster kids. Catch The Two Tens live at the Redwood Bar in downtown LA this Saturday November 22. |
Indie/punk/rock outfit The Knitts have been incubated by Knitting Factory Entertainment since they were underage kids schmucking around the old Knitting Factory in Hollywood. With a slightly adjusted lineup that includes three brothers Charlie Volkens, Justin Volkens and Brandon Sinclair, along with Jaime “Jimmy” Luque and Victor Portillo, they’ve been working on their first full-length in a shipping container in Van Nuys. They’ll unleash some of that new material on fans December 11 at the Mint. |
Knitting Factory Management just signed Radio Moscow, for whom “trends come and go, but…playing the kind of music that makes the neighbors call the cops — that’s forever, and that’s Radio Moscow. The power trio led by Stratocaster genius Parker Griggs have found THE formula: powerful, crunching Sabbath-style chords and fiery solos that earn the right to be called Hendrixian and plants its flag firmly in the territory where psychedelic rock and cranked-up blues meet.” A ways to go for LA fans to taste them as their next dates are in Chicago, Des Moines, and West Virginia. |
We've been longtime fans of Swedish indie artist Jose Gonzalez and his collaborative project Junip—way longer than we've known Knitting Factory Entertainment managed them—probably since hearing the "Killing for Love" remixes from In Our Nature. Well, for those of you the really like to plan ahead (and woebetide those of you that don't), Gonzalez is playing the Regent April 29, 2015. You going to be there? We sure are. |
Knitting Factory Entertainment is one of the partners in The Regent, the gloriously restored movie palace turned concert venue in Downtown LA. The LA Times venerates the grand old space as “delightfully unrecognizable… modern in amenities, but with flourishes nodding to the regal atmosphere of downtown's pre-World War II boulevards…a transformative space for downtown.” We were lucky enough to see YACHT play there opening weekend, along with Jerome LOL. His recorded stuff, well, doesn't matter, but live, he's extraordinary. Upcoming shows at The Regent include Cold War Kids (November 20; they also play the Fox Theatre in Oakland November 21 and the Catalyst in Santa Cruz November 22). |
The Knitting Factory's two Southern California gastropubs—the Federal Bars in North Hollywood and Long Beach—feature a range of resident and one-off shows. |
On the radar for them in the next week are The Elixir Variety Show—“Mad Men meets the Rat Pack at the Playboy Club”—November 21, and Grammy Award Winner Delious Kennedy of All-4-One November 24 in North Hollywood. KCRW DJ and music supervisor Gary Calamar brings his renowned Mimosa Music series back to the Federal Noho this Sunday, November 23 with Spain and Special Guests The Legendary Housecats. |
Down at the Federal Long Beach, check out their free weekly "bring your own vinyl" series in their Parlour, "Digging in the Crates." Burlesque troupe the LaLa's return to Federal Long Beach January 22, 2015 and February 2015 brings The Blasters and The Vooduo. |
Finally, on each bulletin we send out, we will choose a non-KFE band we love to showcase to you (the people we think will also love them!). For each month, we will select bands from a different city in the US, and for the month of November, that city will be Santa Cruz, California.
Santa Cruz is slow-moving beach city just south of San Francisco that houses some amazingly well-respected venues such as The Catalyst and Moe's Alley. On many bands' cross-country tours, Santa Cruz is an important stop, garnering large audiences of local college students and counter-culture residents alike. Not surprisingly, some great talent can be found in such an alternative town, and while some leave for grander cities, like San Fran or LA, not all do! |
Featured this week is Camper Van Beethoven, who had their indie-rock heyday in the 80's. Most of the very early members of the band attended UC Santa Cruz during the formation of the band. And while they were (technically) founded during summer vacation in Redlands, CA, the band returned to Santa Cruz to begin its career. Camper Van Beethoven disbanded in the 90's after nearly seven years together, but has since reformed...so if you're looking for a throwback you can check out some of their older songs (like "Take the Skinheads Bowling") but those looking for something fresh will be happy to find new tracks like "Someday Our Love Will Sell Us Out" and it's quirky accompanying music video. Either way there is a whole lot to love! |
So here’s the part we call “fan engagement.” Every issue we’ll do giveaways and this week is no exception. This week it’s for FINDING FELA! Academy Award winner Alex Gibney’s feature documentary on Fela Kuti, available on iTunes and VOD now ahead of its DVD/Blu-Ray debut in January 2015. For those inclined to "Fela-brate" this holiday season, we're launching an apparel collection—Regular Trademark, starting Friday, November 21.
Want to win? All you have to do is like the Knitting Factory Entertainment Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/knittingfactoryent?ref=br_tf ) and comment on it. On Friday November 21, we'll pick 5--count 'em, five—comments (let's hope we have that many!) more or less at random and send each author a copy of the Finding Fela official 2-CD soundtrack---worth about 15 bucks—absolutely free. Think of it as getting paid to read! What's not to like about that? Like Let's Make a Deal, our prizes will alternately be some really groovy stuff--music, merch and film--or, literally, dregs from Knitting Factory's closet of leftover promotional materials sent to us by publicists. |
That's it for this week. We're writing you because you've expressed interest in Knitting factory shows, artists or productions. Like us? Want us to consider covering your artists or shows? Please tell us, your humble editors: heshelman@platformgrp.com and saeli@platformgrp.com; we can take it from there.
Hate us? As someone once said, "please confine your comments to compliments only." But we’ll (regretfully) accept your unsubscribe requests humbly and without question. Thanks for listening!
Next week? We talk turkey. |
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