Foxygen @ Silverlake Lounge

FOXYGEN is playing at Silverlake Lounge on WED July 27th.

Devendra Banhart: 2 shows in LA

The Fold presents...
Two nights with

DEVENDRA BANHART

Friday, July 15
55 Degree Wine

3111 Glendale Blvd. (in Atwater Village)

10pm - $35, 21+

and

Thursday, July 21

Bootleg Theater

2220 Beverly Blvd (across from Brooklyn Bagel)

8:30pm - $25, 18+

Tickets for both events on sale to the general public this Friday, July 8th at 11am at Ticketfly.com...

Devendra came to our attention back in 1999 or so when he would sit on stage at the Silverlake Lounge, singing nervously (and excitedly) along to recordings he had made on his boombox. Before long, Devendra began making wider waves in underground music circles with a debut album compiled from the voluminous collection of audio recordings he'd accumulated whilst hoboing around the world. Over the next few years, he recorded a series of ground-breaking albums supported by international touring that earned him a devoted following and critical acclaim the world over. Banhart appeared on the covers of The Fader, Signal To Noise, Arthur, Paper, Harp, both the German and Japanese editions of Rolling Stone, and was featured in Vanity Fair, GQ, Spin, Filter, The Believer, Blender, Sunday New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Washington Post, Mojo, the Village Voice and Under The Radar, Magnet and many, many more as well as received countless ecstatic CD and live reviews.

In 2005, we asked Devendra to curate his own mini-festival at Los Angeles' El Cid , out of which came the 5 night extravaganza he named "Hypnorituals and Mesmemusical Miracles Hanging in the Sky: 5 Nights of Soleros and Bandoleros," and then he was a guest curator in 2006 for the All of Tomorrows Parties festival in London. In 2007 Devendra headlined the "Welcome To Dreamland" bill at New York's Carnegie Hall, a bill hand-picked by ex-Talking Heads frontman David Byrne that boasted acts from Devendra's extended musical family: Vetiver, Vashti Bunyan and CocoRosie.

Next week's show (in the wine cellar!) at 55 Degrees is something we've had in mind for quite some time, so it will be a special evening to remember.

The following week's full band performance at Bootleg Theater will help Devendra warm-up for this summer's upcoming tourdates in Australia and Japan.

WIRE @ Slim's SF

All photos by Alexander Laurence

Gliss on tour

Glasvegas on tour

Brendan Perry @ El Rey

Cults vs. Richard Swift

IS THIS PLAGIARISM OR HOMAGE?

CULTS has released one of the most anticipated records of the year. They claim in interviews that they wrote all these songs on this debut record in two hours. One of the best and most complicated songs on the album is "BUMPER." You can listen to this song above. You can read in interviews about CULTS' retro sound, much like Lesley Gore, The Ronettes, and The Shangri- Las all in one. This band CULTS is supposed to be both excitingly fresh and retro too.

The problem with this song "Bumper" is it a rip-off of a previously released song "The Bully" by Richard Swift. I don't understand why CULTS decided to rewrite "The Bully?" I can't say that "Bumper" is a better song. At best, it sounds like a clumsy cover with some changed lyrics. I have, when I tried to write songs, pulled out something like the Noel Coward songbook and played song chord sequences, and changed it a bit, until it was something different and something more original. I am wondering how much of CULTS is original. Most of their songs have a deja-vu moment recalling something in the past. It's just up to some musicologist and lawyers to figure out which songs were actually lifted?

I can't believe that a band like CULTS would take credit for someone else's work. Swift himself was not negative (on his facebook page) and considers it "a homage." I know that PJ Harvey refers to Eddie Cochran in a recent song, and Death In Vegas "Scorpio's Rising" has the same riff as Status Quo's "Matchstick Men" but those new songs were entirely different from the originals. I don't understand why a band as big as CULTS doesn't even get challenged for their slight plagiarism? I wonder why not one journalist has asked CULTS about their song "Bumper?" I guess what passes for "journalism" nowadays is a bunch of fan's notes and laziness. Please move on from the press materials next time, you so-called writers.