We TURN TO CRIME in LOS ANGELES!

TURN TO CRIME, newest sonic assault from acclaimed Michigan guitarist Derek Stanton (pictured above left on classic Epiphone Wilshire guitar) and Ian Saylor (above right on bass and additional guitars, reverse order below) played the Pehrspace gallery, downtown L.A. Apr. 4th on their tour across the U.S. with Protomartyr and others. They were a blast of fresh air with a sui generis sonic signature, in front of film montages they provided to accompany their set. 

Like fellow noisesmiths NIN, TTC sounds always are rooted in rock music structure, so no matter how music concrete they fashion the overall racket, these recognizably are songs, lead vocals by Derek.

It makes perfect sense that Derek's sonic preferences with their echoplexes, delays and weird beats mixed and derived from an oldskool videotape recording backing the duo onstage would have evolved from his former band Awesome Color. Even in that Detroit-style/noise-power trio he experimented live, seen below utilizing a tiny practice amp as slide for his guitar. It indeed sounded as fun as it looks.

I

Smelly Tongues, 
with two guitarists trading off lead vocals amidst interesting lighting were one of the opening acts.

AWESOME COLOR: better and better but gone

Amazon's product description of their newest release Mass Hypnos (Dig): The psych-garage-noise purveyors jump back in the minivan to play every rock club, basement, & skate park they can, leaving a trail of broken guitars & pizza crusts from Michigan to Mars.

Cute, but this isn't quite fair. Indeed, Awesome Color remains a category-busting young power trio of the most maximum enjoyment possible for rather more reasons. Their 14,457 fans on Myspace, as their own contemporaries, completely fathom whatever references abound that remain completely indecipherable to yours truly. And I don't care.

No, I'll be addressing you, Mr., Mrs. and Ms. Over Forty Rock Fan. You complain and criticize (and say I'm nothing in your eyes. Boomer referential, sorry) that nothing new sounds as good as the favorites of your own youth. Balderdash and crockola. Step outside your demographic for a moment: the air's fine out here.

It's just a question of quantification (they're aren't that many of them) and medium (strangely enough, the exponential growth of the web to promote all that is spankin' new in correlation to the decline of open-minded, free to hear radio stations willing to play something different has resulted in muddy miasma of millions upon millions of new bands online about whom you never will know a thing and will have broken up by next Thursday anyway, so why bother.)

Awesome Color are just the exceptions for you, fellow hard rock geezers. Their three releases on Sonic Youth's boutique label Ecstatic Peace each present a progession from frantic urgency, earliest Stoogean minimalism (you're going to love their 2-note songs,) head in the clouds stream of consciousness, and noise afficianado-ing to excellent musicianship and groove-on-groove sound vibrancy, all within the same cd. And each cd proves more wondrous than the next.

Full sonic descriptions in my earlier AC blog here.

So just buy at least one already and bliss out to something novel for a change. If you don't, Dr. House knows you're idiots. Stimulate those regressing brain cells with good new music. Of course, the band itself is going to hate me for pitching their life's work to their grandparents. And I don't care.

Annotation to my live photography of Awesome Color here, 4.26.10. As with many youngish bands, their gigs mutate throughout any long tour, and I found myself traipsing under onramps and running across freeway offramps in downtown Los Angeles searching for the impromptu club to which their cancelled-that-night venue was transferred. (thank gawd I checked online before I left. I'm not that much of a geezer. Hmm. Strike that. I am insofar as I forgot the exact local dates and missed the easier to find, static club gig of the night before. Sorry, Derek.) In actual fact, I never would have found the "club" (the patio of a government building) at all had I not heard it from afar down the street (which caused it to move all bands indoors after complaints from the slum next door) and into the gallery space therein. Hence the white walls.


Below is one of the patio bands, Garbaj Kaetz, who get a B+ for their efforts thereupon. Their grade might rise if they're still playing past next Thursday.


Stop the presses, unfortunate addenda as of 5.6.10 : on the heels of ending its latest cross-country bread and water tour, the band Awesome Color is no more, although all its recorded legacy remains available for purchase and all its members remain alive, well and open to new creative music endeavors, especially Derek Stanton. I'll never joke about bands playing past next Thursday ever again, I swear!

JAM for RON ASHETON 1.13.10, Roxy, LIVE PHOTOS

all photos (C) 2010 Heather Harris. All Rights Reserved.

Leanna Asheton just did a nice thing for her late uncle, guitarist Ron Asheton who passed away unexpectedly a year ago Jan. 6th, as well as did a highly accomplished, professional thing. As promoter, she commemorated his Stooges' legacy in her tribute to Ron Asheton Jam at the Roxy, Hollywood, Calif., January 13, 2010.

Belying her youth (she's 18) Ms. Asheton ably produced a show that featured performers with connections to the Stooges, both as legendary participants or as edgy young bands on the ascent, with the following lineup of the jamming and groups: Billy Boy On Poison; The Entrance Band; Night Horse (from Leanna and the Stooges' native Michigan); The Living Things, a group of brothers like The Stooges; drummer Scott "Rock Action" Asheton (original and current Stooge) and Leanna's father; Mike Watt (current Stooge); Steve Mackay (original and current Stooge); Scott Thurston (original Iggy and The Stooges Stooge); Stephen Perkins (Jane's Addiction); Chad Smith (drummer, Red Hot Chili Peppers); singer Anna Rose; Derek Stanton (singer/songwriter/guitarist of Ann Arbor MI's fabulous Stooge-esque-but-noise-band power trio Awesome Color); Mike Jtone, singer of Circus Boy (from Ann Arbor MI as well); The Raw Power Rangers (a Stooges circa 1973 tribute band comprised of L.A. punk luminaries); Steve Baise and Don Bolles; and even a random audience member (one Trevor Swenson) pulled onstage to karaoke "I Wanna Be Your Dog." No bottles or cameras were thrown.

Pictured at top: Mike Watt, Scott "Rock Action" Asheton and Scott Thurston, Stooges all, left to right. Current Stooges reunion's Watt had not publicly performed before with Raw Power vintage Stooge Thurston, initially the keyboard player (I took live Stooges photos from that era!) here pinch-hitting on guitar for Raw Power's James Williamson who had to return to Anaheim that night for his pre-booked (way before the Ron Jam was announced) participation in the NAMM show, a giant electronics/technology/music/musical instruments annual event. In fact, I took the photos of James for Blackstar Amplifiers as showcased therein and for its current print ads (see photo blog HERE.)

Above, Leanna's dad, Scott "Rock Action" Asheton, the drummer who has influenced everyone, and her late uncle Ron Asheton circa 1992. (next, time warp to a two years later portrait of Leanna.)

Yet another original Stooge, saxophonist Steve Mackay 
of "Funhouse" notoriety (and an essential component 
of the current reunion tour spotlighted on Youtube in 
their Brazil Nov. 2009 gig that featured the return of James Williamson to the Stooges after his 38-year-absence, slashing out his breakneck-speed "Search 
And Destroy" simultaneous leads and chords as if 
he never had left. Mackay's riffing works as a 
second guitar fill, while his soloing provides 
an interlude to clear the stage of audience 
member-dancers invited onstage by singer 
Iggy Pop to rowdily commune, 
Stooges-style.)



Astonishing bassist/singer Mike Watt in action and with Scott Thurston, Stooge to Stooge.

Singer Lillian Berlin, right, of The Living Things, the band of brothers, is the husband of Floria Sigismondi, director of the new biofilm on The Runaways with Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie and that Twilight girl as Joan Jett, due for release early this year. Good pedigree!

Fetching and talented bassist Paz Lenchatin from The Entrance Band, an electronic effects-loving guitar/bass/drums trio.

The Raw Power Rangers (Stooges' tribute band) singer David Arnson gets backed by a real Stooge and a Germ.

Awesome Color guitarist Derek Stanton, right, nobly emotes while Circus Boy singer Mike Jtone prepares to trash his jam band members Steve Mackay and Scott Thurston's instruments, careening around spilling beer and unbottled water on keyboards, sax mikes et al. I found this a puzzling response to the recent redemption of the longtime feloniously undervalued, underdog Stooges, heroes of myself and most in the know for the last 40 years. IMHO, it came off as a lame shtick. Steve Mackay's onstage reaction is posted last...

AWESOME COLOR LIVE!

There's no excuse for everyone not to check out this incredible band: they tour the U.S. generally twice a year and have two cd's available. Awesome Color are an exceptional power trio of the faster/harder/louder mien, with a few twists.

They're monsters live, there's nary a weak link, they like to entertain themselves as well as the audience (when I saw them singer/guitarist Derek used a plugged in Vox practice amp as a bottleneck slide, with raucous feedback along for the ride,) and they don't sound like anyone else on the scene, despite occasional comparisons of drummer Allison to her onetime mentor Scott Asheton of the Stooges. I love it when young bands get everything right.

Photos (C) 2008 Heather Harris. Do not duplicate, reproduce or link, unless you're Awesome Color