Posted on 12/21/2016 by Mickey McCarter	in Live Review and tagged Basement, Black Cat, Bleached, Blood Orange, Broods, Echostage, Eskimeaux, Fear of Men, Howard Theatre, IAMX, Kristie Chua, Lincoln Theatre, Paivi Solonen, Peter Hook, Peter Hook and The Light, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Rock and Roll Hotel, The Cure, The Fillmore Silver Spring, Twilight Sad.
It’s been a good second year for Parklife DC, particularly as we really improved our concert photography game.
Our little blog recruited some excellent photographers, notably Paivi Salonen, who is really quite good and sticking around with us into 2017! We also had the pleasure of working with Kristie Chua, who has moved onto other endeavors.
Posted on 10/13/2016 by kristiechua	in Live Review and tagged Beach Slang, Bleached, James Alex, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, punk rock.
Beach Slang and Bleached announced a shared tour earlier this year and launched it at the Black Cat on Tuesday.
To the surprise of many, however, Bleach Slang band leader James Alex revealed only hours prior to the show that he would undertake the tour alone and without his three bandmates.
Posted on 10/04/2016 by Mickey McCarter	in Live Review and tagged Beach Slang, Black Cat, Bleached, Hunny, Philadelphia, punk rock.
Philadelphia punk trio Beach Slang make impressively dynamic punk, at turns explosive or reflective.
James Alex (vocals, guitar), Ed McNulty (bass), and Ruben Gallego (guitar) play songs about finding your place or making your way forward on their second full-length album, A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings, released Sept. 23 via Polyvinyl Records. Beach Slang are touring to promote the record, and they stop at the Black Cat on Tuesday, Oct. 11.
By Beach Slang’s account, “teenage feelings” consist a lot of looking out for yourself but they also involve a heck of a lot of energy. The new song “Atom Bomb” for example is a wonderful two-minute rock-n-roll celebration of feeling larger than life.
“We need endorphin-heavy, heart-on-sleeve, major-chord, grin-inducing punk rock right now. I mean we need it. There’s a goddamn duty of care: punk has to hold people to account and spit against authority, but sometimes you need to smile like an idiot and let go,” Noisey said of Beach Slang.
The punk gents of Beach Slang are touring with the punk ladies of Bleached on a double bill at the Black Cat. (Revisit our review of Bleached from their show at DC9 in April.) California rockers Hunny open the show.
Posted on 04/18/2016 by Mickey McCarter	in Live Review and tagged Bleached, DC9, Los Angeles, No Parents, punk rock.
The ladies of Bleached brought some resplendent guitars and a devil-may-care attitude to DC9 last Wednesday in support of a punchy sophomore album, Welcome the Worms.
Jennifer Clavin sings and plays guitar with a bright vitality that often covers up a subversive lyrical streak. Early in the band’s set, Jennifer sings “Keep On Keepin’ On,” ostensibly a new song about powering through a challenge, but the narrator’s challenge is forgetting the past and the mistakes she’s made so that she can hook up with the guy she desires.
Lost love is a recurring theme in the songs of Bleached, and although it comes up quite a bit on the new album, the band also sang a lot of broken hearts and missing partners on its debut album, Ride Your Heart, from 2013. Songs like “Searching Through the Past” and “Waiting by the Telephone” from the debut album concern themselves with that absent mate but also offer up rollickin’ guitars in a sunny, punky stampede of strings.
Posted on 04/15/2016 by Mickey McCarter	in Live Review and tagged Bleached, DC9, Los Angeles, No Parents, punk rock, skate punk.
Readers of L.A. Weekly voted No Parents as “Best Band” of 2015! And the goofy skate punks, who opened for Bleached at DC9 on Wednesday night, sure have a way with words.
“No Parents are like a John Hughes movie starring the Menendez brothers: a cute comedy loaded with violence and splattered adults. For the layman who reads about punk rock in fashion mags, they’re the next FIDLAR — the new torchbearers of skate-punk,” said L.A. Weekly.
No Parents are four men strong, although there were five of them at DC9. An additional touring guitarist perhaps?
Posted on 04/05/2016 by Mickey McCarter	in Live Review and tagged Bleached, DC9, garage, Los Angeles, No Parents, punk rock.
The talented Clavin sisters, Jen and Jessie, once fronted a garage band called Mika Miko in Los Angeles. Despite the band’s popularity, they left it to join bassist Micayla Grace in a new garage project, Bleached.
The resulting punk band borrowed a sneer from Joan Jett and girl band pop vocals from the likes of The Shangri-La’s. Thematically, they deal with bad romance and bad habits. Bleached released a debut album, Ride Your Heart, in 2013, and they now have returned for their sophomore effort, Welcome the Worms, released April 1! The ladies have hit the road on a tour in support of the album, and they stop at DC9 on Wednesday, April 13.
L.A. punk quartet No Parents open for Bleached. Tickets are available online!