Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Joe Jackson – “Steppin’ Out” (mp3)

Each week I rip a song from vinyl and post it up here. This week’s song is “Steppin’ Out” by Joe Jackson.

Detroit Bar – Costa Mesa, CA
Live Review: 9/28/11

The last time I spoke with drummer Austin Tufts of BRAIDS, he described the band’s current live performance as having more “energy and fire” to its rhythmic feel. It’s hard to imagine how much more energy this four-piece could have, given their outstanding performance as an opener for Toro Y Moi back in March. Showing off some new songs and mastering those from their debut album, BRAIDS returned to the Detroit Bar on Wednesday night demonstrating their on-stage chemistry and building up to several cathartic moments. →

The Precision and Sheer Velocity of Haze’s Art
Known Gallery – LA, CA
Ongoing thru

Known Gallery proudly presents “New Mathematics”, a new collection of paintings and drawing by one of the godfathers of graffiti art, Eric Haze. Throughout the years, the New York-based artist has crafted a distinct vocabulary of stark, abstract symbolism imbued with deep meaning. Recognized worldwide for more than three decades for his iconic design work and artistic productions – from the Beastie Boys to Casio to Nike – those years also revealed Haze’s concentration towards his fine art roots. →

Art and Black Los Angeles
The Hammer Museum – Santa Monica, CA
10/2/11 thru 1/9/12

The Hammer Museum proudly presents Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980, a comprehensive exhibition that examines the vital legacy of the city’s African American visual artists. Now Dig This! comprises 140 works from 35 artists that have rarely been shown in a museum setting and includes early pieces by now well-established artists.

The exhibition expands the art historical record by presenting an array of artists, some not widely recognized by a broad public, and connecting their work to the movements, trends, and ideas that fueled the arts in Los Angeles during this period. The work of these African American practitioners was animated to an extent by the civil rights and Black Power movements →

Wallace Berman and Robert Heinecken, 1961-1976
Armory Center for the Arts – Pasadena, CA
10/2/11 thru 1/22/12

The Armory Center for the Arts proudly presents SPEAKING IN TONGUES, an event curated by Claudia Bohn-Spector and Sam Mellon. The Opening Reception will be held at the Caldwell Gallery on Saturday, October 8, 2011, 7-9pm as part of PST Art Phenomenon! This landmark exhibition brings two seminal yet under-studied Los Angeles artists into close conversation for the very first time. Berman and Heinecken bridged modernist and emerging post-modernist trends →

Retrospective Work by Eriberto + Estevan Oriol
Carmichael Gallery – Culver City, CA
10/1 thru 10/29/11

Carmichael Gallery is pleased to announce Like Father, Like Son, a retrospective survey of works by renowned Chicano, Los Angeles-based father and son photographers, Eriberto and Estevan Oriol. The exhibition will comprise twenty-five limited edition prints from each photographer, including black and white, color, silver gelatin and digital c-prints. →

A Tribute to the Days of Classic Goth
Hyperion Tavern – Silverlake, CA
9/30/11

Part of dublab’s Sound Expansion Series, featuring film, music, fog. Djs Ale Cohen [dublab, Pharaohs, Psychic Powers] John Girgus [Dick Isreal, Non Ultra Joy], and Farzad Moghaddam [Geographic North, Lynnonais] and Joe Rihn. The event is Free, admittance is 21 and over. →

Katrin Fridriks

Mike Stilkey’s Group Art Exhibition
LeBasse Projects – Culver City, CA
10/8 thru 11/10/11

LeBasse Projects is proud to announce, ʻThe Future Is Not What It Used To Be,ʼ a group exhibition curated by Mike Stilkey. Stilkey is one of the represented artists at LeBasse Projects and this exhibition is his first curatorial effort.

The title of the show was inspired by a quote from the French poet Paul Valery, “The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.” This idea resonated with Stilkey because the future seems to show as much promise as when we were young. →

PB&J’s Gimme Some Food/Art Tour Across the U.S.
Figueroa Street – LA, CA
9/29/11

After giving some to the fine citizens of New York and Chicago, Los Angelenians(?) will be the next lucky people to be a part of the travelling GIMME SOME art exhibition.  When Jonas Torvestig was approached by Peter Bjorn and John about doing their cover for the 2011 album GIMME SOME, there were requests of sticking to objects of three (as all of their prior covers), and some thumbs up. →