Orange County Music Blog

Those wacky Cold War Kids. Not simply content with being one of the most successful indie rock acts to come from Orange County, they're now putting their imprints on different forms of artistic expression--starting with drummer Matt Aveiro, whose short film Jen In The Painting premieres at 9:45 p.m. next Thursday, October 15, at the Art Theatre in Long Beach. Tickets for the screening can be reserved here.

Check the trailer out up there (contains some very slight near-nudity in a figure-drawing context; might be considered NSFW for those with less libertine workplaces), and then read our Q&A with Aveiro, to learn more about the film, his experience putting it together and what's next for the now Long Beach-based band.

Death Cab for Cutie--led by the newly slimmed down (and engaged to Zooey Deschanel) Ben Gibbard--are going back on tour this spring in support of last year's Narrow Stairs, and they're getting help from two acts from 'round here; Long Beach-based Cold War Kids and Huntington Beach singer/songwriter Matt Costa.

Cold War Kids are taking the first leg of the tour along with Syracuse's much-buzzed about Ra Ra Riot, with Matt Costa picking up CWK's slack in May for the final five dates (because the general public just can't handle two OC/LB acts on one bill). Sadly, the closest the tour comes to here is the RIMAC Arena, with the DCFC/RRR/CWK lineup, in San Diego on April 29.

..for honorable nominations in this year's Plug Awards. Wha Plug? Indie backpatters sez:

PLUG is different from all of the institutional accolades for the music industry – the American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, Radio Music Awards, GRAMMY Awards, Teen Choice Awards, MTV Music Awards, etc. etc. Those are all devoted to recognizing the mainstream hits. Very rarely do these honors reach, let alone embrace, independent music or the community of artists and fans who now represent more than 25% of the global music market. We're a community that thinks for ourselves – we don't take our cues from mainstream media or marketing.

PLUG is about the independent music community coming together to recognize our own. We're fans from every walk of the music world who gather together each year to celebrate these artists who live and flourish in the margins. PLUG is about the artists who inspire and the music that disrupts the artistic and corporate mediocrity that dominates our culture. Some of the artists on the ballot each year are well known to us, but most all are no where close to the household names we wish they were.

We've discovered these records on blogs, in magazine blurbs, fanzines, recommendations from our local record store, in IM conversations, in links from friends and passionate testimonials overheard in line outside a club... PLUG is the experience of trading mix tapes with friends. The most satisfying thing for us is to see how often fans of one artist become new fans of another during each year's get-out-the-vote campaign.

Aw, so anyway: KUCI is up for "college/non-comm station of the year" and "online radio station of the year (with terrestial counterpart)" (or something) alongside LA stations like KXLU (cool) and KCRW (weak) plus nationals like KEXP in Seattle and KALX in Berkeley plus intimidating monstercaster WFMU. And Cold War is on for "new artist of the year" against Arctic Monkeys, Black Angels, Tapes 'n' Tapes and other stuuuuuffffffff. Can't really tell what you actually win but probably at least a nice little graphic to paste on your Myspace page. Vote local and vote often here.