December 2009 Archives

There was a lovely event at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills on Sunday afternoon. The event was in honor of the family and The Christmas with the King Family documentary that has been seen on KOCE locally and around the country.

Dozens of members of the King Family came to the event and Cam Clarke - who was a partial MC - and Marilyn King - one of the original King Sisters - were the most vocal.

After the screening of the slightly-shortened movie, Marilyn King entertained the crowd (some of whom had come from as far away as Michigan) by singing Christmas carols. Many of the members of the family stayed after the screening to sign autographs and take pictures.

The event was planned weeks ahead, but unfortunately, Yvonne King - also one of the King Sisters who appears in the movie - passed away a week before Sunday's celebration.

The Paley Center sells copies of the movie on DVD as well as several King Family music CD's. The Center is open 12-5pm Wednesday through Sunday if you're interesting in getting one of the CD's or viewing some of the family's television specials.

Their address is 465. N Beverly Dr. in Beverly Hills.

Bob Strauss has a great story in today's paper about the Fender Music Foundation, based in Agoura Hills.

If you haven't already seen it, its here.

Check out the cool Danish band VOLBEAT tonight at the Troubadour at around 10. You'll not be disappointed.

The band Rush was spotted in Beverly Hills last night. Let's see, one of the three guys is based here now (the other two live in Canada) as is the Snakes & Arrows album producer Nick Raskulinecz. Wonder what that means? New record being planned?

Last night, the Paley Center for Media honored The Simpsons with an event at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Actor Hank Azaria semi-hosted the event and executive producers James L. Brooks, Al Jean and Matt Groening all accepted the honor and spoke.

Many clips of the series were shown, including short pieces of the Morgan Spurlock special The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special in 3-D on Ice, which will air on January 14, 2010. The documentary special will be the conclusion to the year-long global celebration of The Simpsons that launched in January 2009. It will examine the cultural phenomenon of the show in Spurlock's distinctive and innovative style.

Other Simpsons voice actors Yeardley Smith and Nancy Cartwright appeared as did Jonah Hill, made a comical speech about The Simpsons show being his Sesame Street growing up. Josh Groban - whose song was featured on the show - rounded out the show with singing three songs live.

Azaria was a funny host, riffing on the mispronunciation of his name and introducing guests, speakers and clips in various Simpsons characters voices.

The Simpsons made its debut in 1989 and is now the longest-running primetime series in the history of television.

There is a band that America hasn't heard much about, but if you're Danish or have seen Metallica on tour in the last four years, you're probably familiar with them. Be on the lookout for VOLBEAT, a Danish band that sings in English and mixes heavy metal with melodies, rockabilly and old 1950's influences and creates a unique sound not heard from many bands these days. They have a new album out called Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood which is available in CD form and on iTunes.

The four piece band - formed in late 2001/early 2002 - consists of Michael Poulson on vocals and guitar, Thomas Bredahl on guitar, Anders Kjolholm on bass and Jon Larson (drums) who successfully mix the 50's sensibility and melodies with the fast driving punk and metal sound - occasionally playing acoustic guitar parts that sound like they'd fit into a Western movie soundtrack.

According to Poulson, that early musical influence came from his father and growing up listening to early American music. When the younger Poulson started listening to metal, he fused elements of both together.

"I wanted to keep the melody from the earlier stuff and mix it with metal" said Poulson. "I didn't want to paint myself into a corner. I had Little Richard and Elvis songs stuck in my head."

The result of the blending is interesting and fans of Metallica have responded well during the tours. Poulson said about the crowds they are playing to with "the response has been amazing. It's a dream come true."

The band has been playing in Europe in the past week and will come to the United States in the next couple of days to play The Troubadour by themselves and in Las Vegas with Metallica for seven shows. They'll go back to Denmark in December.

The band made the news earlier this week when Poulson - who had a serious case of the flu - collapsed onstage during a performance in Holland. After some rest and recovery, he's healthy now and you can see these guys rock the house next week.

Go to the Troubadour on Wednesday the 9th at 10pm and check 'em out. In the meantime, hear their stuff here and on facebook.

If you're not a fan of the show The Soup on E!, you should be. Right now. Do it. Seriously.

There are dozens of reality shows on TV with so many ridiculous people on them, that they need to be made fun of. (Sure, ended that sentence with a preposition...sue me.) Joel McHale is just your man. Every Friday night at 10, he presents the stupidest parts of the dumbest shows and cracks wise about them. Sometimes he even targets E! shows or personalities themselves - The Kardashians, Ryan Seacrest, Billy Bush and Mario Lopez are some of them. (Lopez is in tonight's show - Seacrest is mentioned almost every week)

You may watch some of the quality television programs that are frequent targets of McHale's - The Wendy Williams Show, Jon & Kate Plus 8 (not anymore since its off the air), I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant - a show that has been on the air for more than one episode, which itself surprises McHale - For the Love of Ray J, The Tool Academy, The Hills, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, So You Think You Can Dance and that Bret Michaels dating show that was on TV for whatever reason.

When you watch The Soup - Fridays at 10pm on E! in case you forgot from 10 sentences ago - there are all kinds of graphics and a cool set, but all of that is green screen. When shooting, McHale just stands on a mark in front of the small audience of between 10 and 30 (I got bored with counting after 12). Some of his staff appears on the show - sometimes in costume, sometimes with their headsets still on and one of the guys gets fake-shot about every third week. In tonight's show, there is a costumed guy and a producer who appear on camera.

If you get the chance to go to the show and sit in the limited audience, good for you. Its a tough ticket to get - much like the Latin Grammys or a Kardashian wedding.

Its very fun. McHale talks to the audience in between the comedy joke fixing and the stopdowns. Very personable and nice, McHale will also pose for some photos after he shoots - which is a considerable gesture, since he also films the NBC show "Community" daily (which airs on Thursday nights) and, by the time of the Soup shoot, he had been working since 6AM.

Check out the Soup (Friday) and watch Community (Thursday on NBC). Both are very funny and one has Chevy Chase on it. And one doesn't.

Molly Malone's is hosting an interesting band on Saturday night. Red Rooster, a New York band that is mostly a bluegrass/country/folk/gospel group that also adds a little hip-hop. Did I mention that they're from New York City?

The group has a new record out called WALK and it's really cool. The main two people in the band are Jay Erickson (lead vocals) and Nat Zilkha (lead guitar) and at any given time (on record or live) the songs might be either just those two or it could be expanded to include up to nine piece band. The core group other than Nat and Jay are Susannah Hornsby (vocals and accordion), Andrew Green (banjo), Dave Gould (saxophone), Brandon Doyle
(French horn), Lucas Ives (drums), Daniel Engelman (bass) and and Pete Nilsson (keys).

WALK is their third album and the most mature of the three so far. The songs on the album are infused with the band's musical blend of the traditional and the modern - fusing bluegrass and country with hip hop beats and some jazz (like on the song "Borrowed Money"). Erickson has a cool singing voice and Hornsby has a sound that has elements of Natalie Merchant and Jewel and she blends very beautifully with Erickson - who sometimes sounds a little like Leonard Cohen (who Erickson counts as an influence). The album is really great at mixing the musical styles together and the a couple of the horn players have jazz backgrounds, so you'll hear a little of that sometimes too.

Asked about the blending of the musical genres, Erickson said.

"The purists don't like it so much. It's a blessing though. (The mixing) gives you a broader audience. We're part of the jam band scene and part of the Americana scene."

The Molly Malone show on Saturday - which starts around 9:30 - will feature a six or seven piece band, unlike Red Rooster's Newport Folk Festival lineup - which had 11 people on stage at once.

Red Rooster has been touring the country for the last couple of months and, no surprise, have seen the biggest positive reaction come from people in one specific region - although Erickson says that every part of the country has reacted positively.

"The audiences have been very supportive of us and the South seems to like us the most."

Along with the Molly Malone show, the band plays at the Boom Boom Room in San Francisco on Friday night (the 4th) and at The Clubhouse in San Luis Obispo at 6:30pm on Sunday night.

Check them out either on their own site or on facebook