Orange County Music Blog

How the hell did we miss this? Not only did NBC recently launch a fluff-tastic version of "local's only" online news, one of our Local's Only bands were actually on it. On Oct. 27 The Growlers were invited to the newsroom of NBC LA to answer a cavalcade of the world's most generic questions. You could say it was just another score in a busy year for the Costa Mesa four-piece, chock-full of record releases, insane music videos and big time tours with Devandra Banhart and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. 

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.

Stephanie Williams

This week's Locals Only features Orange County band Janu and the Whalesharks, opening up for Tim Kasher of Cursive and Azure Ray at tomorrow's swell show at the Glass House in Pomona. A lot of juicy tidbits from our conversation with Janu singer/guitarist Jake Pappas got left on the proverbial cutting room floor, so enjoy this Q&A with Pappas and read more pertinent details about how the band came together, their influences and highlights of their young career.

Travis Schneider

Our talk with Army Navy's Justin Kennedy was lengthy enough to (hopefully!) justify two separate blog posts--last time we talked about the LA band's return to Orange County and the acts that helped shape their refined pop sound, this time we talk about their excellent self-titled debut record, their appealingly wacky videos and Kennedy's musical past with Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie megafame.

Travis Schneider

Really, it's almost embarrassing how much I like LA-based pop band Army Navy. After seeing them open up for the Shys last October at Detroit Bar, I pushed their self-titled record (released on their own label, Fever Zone Records) on anyone that would listen. Songs like "Slight of Hand" and "Saints" are simply way too much fun not to be shared.

I'm pretty giddy that they're coming back into town this week--Thursday, June 25 at the Yost Theater in Santa Ana, in a show sponsored by UC Irvine-based community radio station KUCI--and even more giddy that I got a chance to talk over the phone with lead singer Justin Kennedy for the latest installment of our blog-exclusive Talk Talk Q&As. The Yost show tomorrow is $8, and Army Navy play at 10:45 p.m., with OC acts the Jakes and the Colourist and Long Beach's Valley Arena also on the bill.

Here's the first part of the Q&A, with part two up bright and early tomorrow!

KCRW music director Jason Bentley and I chatted for so long, that I was left with little choice but to split the Q&A into two parts. Part one is here, and enjoy, if you will, part the second, where we talk about upcoming Morning Becomes Eclectic guests, the Stars of Santa Barbara benefit event at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa tomorrow (Wednesday, June 24) and more.

Q: What acts coming up on MBE are you looking forward to?

A: Phoenix [June 29] is going to be awesome. Adele is going to stop in on Friday the 26th. Kitty, Daisy and Lewis are coming on Monday, the 6th of July. They're really cool. They're three teenagers from England who do kind of an American rockabilly thing. They're opening for Coldplay on their stadium tour. they do a mix of originals and covers of rockabilly songs. It's just an interesting mix, because they're English, they're teenagers, they're siblings. Ray LaMontagne is going to come on the 10th of July. We're trying to confirm Grace Jones on the 24th.

Deadly handsome man.

Jason Bentley, pictured, hosted Metropolis on noted Santa Moniac-based public radio station KCRW for 16 years, before taking over on December 1 of last year as both music director and host of the long-running and beloved Morning Becomes Eclectic.

He'll be DJing at, of all places, South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa this Wednesday, June 24 as part of the "Stars of Santa Barbara" event, a wine-tasting benefiting the  Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. Tickets are $65.

So what better time to catch up with the guy, in the first installment of our new blog-exclusive Q&A column, Talk Talk? (A: No better time.)