nancysanchez.com

​Hi Nancy,

My name is Ryan Ritchie and I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you. Let me explain.

A few days ago, I was browsing this here blog when I came across Gabriel San Roman's post about how you created a Kickstarter page in hopes of coming up with $15,000 for your full-length debut. One thing I am is honest, so I ain't gonna lie: That picture of you atop that blog was enough to get me to keep reading. Seriously, you are one good looking woman, the kind who makes lame dudes such as myself continue to read blogs they might not have otherwise read.
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Nicole Nodland

Lana Del Rey sounds like someone from the 1990s--find out who after the jump

​There's a reason old people are curmudgeonly at rock shows: It's because they've heard it all before, new music sucks, it's boring, yada yada yada.

But no, really, when someone over 30 tells you a new band sounds familiar, well, it's probably because it is. Think of the Interpol-Joy Division connection, Lady Gaga-Madonna, Belly-Best Coast. Not that it's always a bad thing. After all, every new Interpol record made is like the album that Ian Curtis never got to do, so it's  win-win for everyone involved: fans get to hear new music, Interpol sells records.

Anyway, to help you relive the time you wore braces, saved up for CDs, and use a payphone to call people, we found five new acts that sound like bands from the 1990s. Enjoy reminiscing about your youth!
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​Here's the thing about the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra's POPS! concerts: You might not think you'd want to go, but you'd be wrong. Take me for example.

When I was a wee lad, I thought the music world began at the Germs and ended at Jawbreaker. I guess you could say I've expanded my horizons since then because I've been attending the LBSO's POPS! and classics concerts for about two seasons now and I might say they are my favorite shows to see. 

Now before you get all freaked out about going to a show where a sweaty dude in flannel's crotch isn't pressed into your backside, perhaps you should know that POPS! concerts aren't traditional classical music shows. This season's opener, for example, is on Saturday at the Long Beach Arena and features singer Tony DeSare doing a bunch of tunes from the Great American Songbook. That means songs written by the likes of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and George Gershwin--you'll probably hear "My Funny Valentine," "Just One of Those Things" and even Prince's "Kiss," along with some DeSare originals in the vein of the classic material he performs.


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​The Miles Davis Experience
Oct. 21, 2011
Samueli Theater, Costa Mesa

Writing about jazz, to me, is just about the dumbest thing anyone could do. I mean, in a literal sense, the genre says nothing because much of the music (including the Miles Davis Experience show that took place Friday night at the Samueli Theater) is instrumental. However, the music itself speaks volumes about damn near everything, so people of my ilk are left wondering just how we're supposed to justify or explain music that's already saying a hell of a lot more than some measly words ever could.


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​Not everyone can play guitar, or spit out rhymes, or even hold a tune--but whistling is the one thing that you can do with a song anywhere. Even if you can't whistle that well, it's never atrocious, and it lets you carry a song anywhere, giving you a sense of ownership over a tune (especially when it invades your headspace for hours).

And while there are memorable whistling songs of yesteryear that still act as ear worms ("Winds of Change" by the Scorpions, or "Young Folks," anyone?), this is not that list. After the jump, the ten best new whistling songs of today.
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​Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and Joe Lovano
Hugh Masekela
June 22, 2011
Hollywood Bowl

If you don't believe that music is a universal language, do yourself a favor and check out Hugh Masekela. The 72-year-old South African played for approximately 45 minutes last night and during his set, the singer sang maybe 20 words in English. Did that stop the crowd from enjoying his emotive voice and suggestive hip thrusts? Of course not.
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​Hollywood Bowl Opening Night with Harry Connick, Jr., and Gloria Estefan
June 17, 2011
Hollywood Bowl

The Hollywood Bowl opened its 90th season Friday night with its Hall of Fame concert featuring the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Youth Orchestra LA, Cirque du Soilel performers and sets by HOF inductees Harry Connick, Jr., and Gloria Estefan. That might sound like a lot of entertainment for one night, but the Bowl operates in such a smooth manner that the evening moved quickly without feeling rushed.
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Sarah Cass/www.myspace.com/dirtyprojectors/

​
Dirty Projectors' mastermind Dave Longstreth has a strong aesthetic sense that is obvious with each listen to 2009's Bitte Orca. After nailing every critic's top 10 list, collaborating wiht Bjork and David Byrne, then touring the world, the band released an expanded edition of last year's breakthrough album. The expanded Bitte Orca has an extra CD of previously unreleased tracks; Longstreth says it was a way for the band to take "odds and ends from this whole period in our lives and put it out as a single entity. It feels like a nice way of tying the bow around the whole thing before going back to writing."

Before he takes the stage tonight at the Glass House, Longstreth revealed more of his eclectic aesthetic--including his thoughts on being compared to Phish, and who else they want to collaborate with.

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​ By Jack Grimshaw

The names Cannonball, Coltrane and Art Pepper do it for you? Always wanted to see the Bill Holman Band, the Steve Hufstetter Big Band, the Carl Sanders Be Bop Band, the Gerry Gibbs Quartet and Frank Capp--on the same bill?
 
You up for 12 straight hours of straight-ahead live jazz guaranteed to leave your heart pounding, your head ringing and you a better person (as it's all for a good cause)? Then you owe it to yourself to experience an unprecedented day of jazz at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott this Sunday. From 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., there'll be continuous live jazz in three rooms, plus raffles, silent auctions, door prizes, vendors and a whole lot more.
 

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