All hail THE HAILERS !

The Hailers live at Molly Malone's, West Hollywood 5.19.12. They turned out to be great!

Singer/songwriter/guitarist/Welshperson Robert Mills had formed The Hailers in his native U.K. circa 1994, recording there with RIchie Galloni. WIth Robert's geographic moves the band has since evolved to this L.A.ensemble that includes bassist/songwriter April Carson, known for her presence in The Wild Hairs.

They sort of slid the best elements of '70s classic rock under the door into our modern times; i.e., the context of Gerry Rafferty with the sass of Boz Scaggs if both had actually been huge fans of Mick Taylor's stint in the Rolling Stones and then had amassed a considerable reggae and C&W collection while eating gumbo.

Despite my disastrously mixed metaphors above, The Hailers present a fun, pro sound both live and in the studio. Robert has a great rock and roll voice as well. Many notables choose to work with this band: click The Hailers own site LINK.

The Hailers personnel: Robert Mills, guitar, vocals; April Carson, bass, vocals; Tod Jasmin, keyboards, guitar; Oren Halmut, drums.

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Bob's Big Boy VINTAGE CARS Concourse

Above, my better half Mr. Twister and I go a-photoing at a
classic cars concourse at Bob's Big Boy, Burbank. The retro-burgerhaus built in 1949 (paleolithically ancient for L.A.) celebrates oldskool Southern California car culture with Vintage Vehicle Night every single Friday late afternoon/early evening of the year in the popular restaurant's ample parking lot. 'Not to be sniffed at: celebrated talk show host/local car collector Jay Leno frequents this weekly event every so oft.

Themes can be extreme...

...but the cars are restored beautifully.
Many are for sale there.

Above, automotive expert Twister espies a '50s Mercedes coup, but is more intent on selling his own recently inherited 1965 one-owner (his mother!) "Honey Gold" Mustang that we drove there as seen below. (Interested parties can contact me.)
Below left, looky-loos went way beyond kicking its tires, while
I, uncharacteristic for a Southern Californian, sun-protection fanatic that I am, admired the visor on this woodie (slang appellation of the surf music-celebrated, wood-paneled station wagons that were built the U.S. from the '30s to the 'late '50s,)
seen below right.

Tattooed young ladies in lowered vehicle make new friends above, as does the motorcycle club, below.

Non-SoCal residents and green uber-extremists might not associate oldskool car collecting/restoring as the wholesome activity it remains (besides tuning so-called "gross polluters" into great working vehicles again.) Below, we met Jon Nikas and his '53 Austin Healey restored for one purpose, to draw awareness to worthy cause Drive Away Cancer. You can read the story of its history, purpose and charitable good deeds herein: LINK .
Back home after car show, handsome and healthy! Car may be sold, cross your fingers...

P.S. rest in peace Carroll Shelby, January 11, 1923 – May 10, 2012, so important to the automotive world of design and innovation.

DENIZ TEK & The GOLDEN BREED (GODOY TWINS) ROCK LONG BEACH!

Powerful punk threesome DENIZ TEK & The Golden Breed (Deniz: guitar, vocals; Art Godoy: bass, vocals; Steve Godoy: drums, vocals) rocked The Blue Cafe, Long Beach, Calif. to the bone a week ago on April 27th.

Deniz Tek performances have proved stronger than ever since his participation with Iggy and The Stooges at the Tribute to Ron Asheton a year ago in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Once famed for his work in seminal 1970s Australian punk band Radio Birdman to whom he brought his native Detroit-style hard-coreness on guitar (and for other rather significant accomplishments,*) Tek has found his perfect partners in crime with the rhythm section of identical twins Art and Steve Godoy. They cook live!

Standouts in their punk canon (see set list below) were "Hand Of Law" and "Working Man," forcefully wailed, played with super-intensity. Long Beach punk afficianados were duly impressed to see the real deal in action! The Godoys (formerly of SoCal's The Exploding Fuckdolls) have worked with Tek on and off since 1994.

The Godoy twins also share notoriety in the professional skateboarding and tattoo artistry worlds. I was told a poignant anecdote by them about their ink work for cancer survivors who underwent mastectomies. The Godoys tattoo trompe l'oeil nipples and surrounding colors for these patients who couldn't afford complete plastic surgery reconstructions. If you've ever seen their famous photo-realism LINK that's just as expert as their more tat-trad wildstyle work, you well can imagine how happy these patients were with the results. Hearing that, I like these
guys even more.

  
~~PHOTO OPS~~

My stalwart co-adventurers were Jimmy Recca (bassist: the Ron Asheton/Machine Gun Thompson New Order, the Mach 1971 Stooges) and Paraphilia Magazine co-editor Dire McCain, seen above flanking Deniz Tek. Jimmy previously had graced my photo session (LINK) with Deniz and the Godoys when the band name was Last of the Badmen (session overtures arranged by Retrokimmer LINK.) Dire is pictured below happily
sandwiched betwixt twins Art and Steve Godoy.

Left, Dire and Jimmy
stroll the noir streets
of Long Beach; right,
worthy photographer
Anne Laurent
(a close, personal
friend of Deniz)
helms the swag
table featuring not only DT & Golden Breed t-shirts et cetera but Tek's "Citadel Years" double-CD and assorted Radio Birdman items.

Master of his percussion domain, Steve Godoy, below, post-gig.

Looking like size-variable Alice in Wonderland below, Dire perches atop the club's surreal, giant piano bench...

...and reflects while looking gloriously if deceptively angelic, particularly for a literary titan, albeit one in black patent leather.

*Beside being a punk rock legend, Tek is also an E.R. surgeon as well as former U.S. Navy "top gun" jet fighter pilot. Really.

Below, not from the gig in question, but fun and representative video nonetheless:



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THE BEASTIE BOYS, R.I.P. Adam MCA Yauch

The Beastie Boys circa 1989 on top of the Capitol Records building in Hollywood Calif. with a soupcon of showbiz panache courtesy of the Broadway sign behind them. They look like babies! It was nice, soft light considering it was an outdoor rooftop photo op.
Rest in peace, Adam MCA Yauch, May 4, 2012.

PEACOCK 5.1.12

Another desperate romantic: the ranch peacock 5.1.12. It was drizzling with no sunlight to set off his feathers' iridescence, so I used fill flash (telephoto on my purse camera, so he wasn't disturbed by flash on his perch in a horse's stall to get out of the rain) hence extreme colors. His honey the peahen was close by.
A living Maxfield Parrish tableau!