World Famous In San Francisco

Speaking of photos, there's a bunch from the last time I went down to LA with Hard Place.

The kids down in LA are kinda totally fun. A party with three bands that doesn't start until 11? Announced kinda last minute? They are there. No, they're even fashionably late -- while up north we're all heading home at that time. This party was super fun. A Monster America party for the Fourth of July with Logo Moi, Hot Tub, and Hard Place. Logo Moi is super enthusiastic and friendly with keyboards, guitar and drums. A kind of twee pop I never envisoned myself liking, but its growing on me mostly due to this band's stage presence and the quirky nature of the songs. Song introductions (and the occasional song I'll wager) come to a screeching halt so that the band can introduce the audience to somebody they met just before their set. Honestly, they're really happy you came so don't be a jerk and miss them at the Stork Club this month.



Next was this band Hot Tub, from Oakland by way of the White Rapper Show, played. From what I heard, I think they think that being from Oakland is all you need to do to rap. They're kinda old school, maybe retro even. Very 2005. Ok, actually I heard somebody in the audience say that so its totally ok for me to hate on this band because I'm not the only one (for once).

Then Hard Place came out and reminded us what this nation is all about: rock 'n roll, budweiser and girl on girl action covered in whipped cream. Check:





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logo moi

playing at Oakland's Stork Club with Greg Ashley and the Passionistas August 17th

A few weeks ago we went down to the OC & LA for some shows with Hard Place, remember? You didn't think we weren't going to share our California adventure did you? Its totally cool for me to write about Hard Place since I'm not in the band. Seriously!

Actually, there isn't much to write about for the first portion of our trip. Elton is sick and I get to drive us down to the OC for a half an hour show at The Clinic. Originally this was supposed to be a five band bill with Curls and The Bubonic Plague, but Curls broke up (total trauma 2007 I guess) and The Bubonic Plague miss a lot of shows. The plague will take it out of you. We get there and its almost hilarious how disorganized it is -- "Oh... Hard Place... um, I guess there'll be three bands playing tonight then". Except not really since one of the other bands was Actually Huizenga, otherwise known as Ashley from Hard Place because the club got the band's name wrong.

FYI, traffic was terrible. It took us three hours to get from just north of LA down to Huntington Beach. The rest of Hard Place leave around six and we're worried if there's really only one band playing tonight. But they showed up around the same time as us because, as it was explained to me, of the influx of the wave. They also bring news that Logo Moi is playing so we're up to three bands! Then we wait for a long time in the car and watch a weird Chinese man.

First up is Ploon whose myspace page I had a hard time finding -- "Its easy, its spelled like it sounds!", except I thought Ploon would be spelled Plune. What do I know? Anyway, these guys do a noise thing and had the privilege of performing it for hard place and me and the nice people working at The Clinic and nobody else. I have a love/hate relationship with the noise but these guys bring a much needed sense of humor to the affair. Its almost performance art. Check this clip, it'll explain it better than I can and its hilarious:

Apparently, and sadly, this was their last show since one of them is moving back east. Just remember that the next time you think you should sit at home instead of go out to a show. But, word on the street is that Ploon will continue as Ploon-D and Ploon-B, with each member taking on their respective coast.

Logo Moi hasn't shown up so next is Hard Place and now they have the privilege of playing for me and Ploon. And they were super good. Does that happen to you, the things you do are always super awesome when nobody's looking? Anyway, Logo Moi appear right at the end of the set and are excited to see Hard Place and that they made it and decide to play even though nobody is there to watch them because those kids are super fun. Except we left because we had to get the sick one to bed. Sad. But its cool because there's another show with hard place and Logo Moi in LA and there'll be more on that soon!