Review: Summer Twins and Blank Tapes at the Constellation Room on May 29, 2013

DJ Meow Mix, one of the hosts of Jelly Jive airing Friday's 12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., saw Summer Twins and Blank Tapes at the Constellation Room in Santa Ana last Wednesday. Her show review and photos are below. For more from DJ Meow Mix visit http://jellyjiveradio.tumblr.com/.
 
 

Summer Twins

I took a nice break during the week by seeing The Summer Twins on Wednesday night at the Constellation Room in Santa Ana. Summer Twins are two cute sisters that sing dreamy harmonies in 50’s inspired rock n roll songs. Just think of a modern girl version of the Everly Brothers – they even cover “All I Have to do is Dream,” which was just released on their new EP Forget Me. The title song of that EP is definitely one of my favorite songs by them, so you could imagine how happy I was when they played it as the last song of the set.  Another one of my favorites of the night was “I Will Love You” which they faded into and made a sort of medley out of the previous song. It was awesome and impossibly hard not to dance to! They are a great band to see live, and luckily they have an LA residency coming up in June where they play every Monday night at the Bootleg Bar, so there are plenty more opportunities to see them. DJ Cow in a Shoe Store and I built up the courage to talk to them afterwards and they were very nice and approachable. We talked about having them come into KUCI to play a live set on Jelly Jive so we hope to have that happen in the future. They also gave us a free copy of their new EP so get ready to hear more of that on our show!

Surprisingly Summer Twins were not headlining the concert, they actually went on first out of four bands. The main attraction was The Blank Tapes who put on quite a show themselves. Their style is pretty different from the Summer Twins – a lot more folky which is why I was kind of surprised they played together. The lead singer shredded on the guitar and had some impressive solos, while the drummer played on two floor toms instead of a full drum kit. Overall it was a unique and memorable show.

Blank Tapes

Review: Mikal Cronin at Echo on May 24, 2013

DJ Meow Mix, one of the hosts of Jelly Jive airing Friday's 12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., saw Mikal Cronin at the Echo in Los Angeles last Friday. Her show review and photos are below. For more from DJ Meow Mix visit http://jellyjiveradio.tumblr.com/.

Mikal Cronin swooned LA with his feel-good rock n roll last Friday night at the Echo. Although he is a Southern Californian native, it is not a common occurrence for him to play in the area as it seems he is always on some sort of tour (he has been to Europe twice this past year!). His next tour in June is to promote his new album MCII which came out just earlier this month and is definitely a must-have. He played a good mix between old and new songs – the highlights of the new, in my opinion, are “Weight” and “Change.” In the car ride there I told DJ Cow in a Shoe Store I really wanted to hear his old songs “Situation,” “Is it Alright,” and “Apathy,” and funny enough he started off the show with those exact songs, in that order! But I think my favorite of the night was actually a song I had forgotten about, called “Again & Again.” All of the songs seemed to be hits with the crowd, who started out to be mellow but got more energy as the set went on. The peak was when one guy from the crowd managed to get on stage and harmonized with Mikal. Eventually Mikal just let the excited fan have the mic for a while, until he jumped back into the hands of the crowd. Another highlight of the show was the encore – he had played pretty much all of his hits during the concert so I was wondering what he would play when he came back. He ended up doing a cover of Wreckless Eric’s “Whole Wide World” which was a nice treat.

                  I cannot end this review without mentioning the opening Burger act Pangea. They’re LA natives as well and have accumulated quite a following. Their fast rock style creates enormous energy in the building with some of the craziest crowds I have ever been in. This time I got knocked in the face and had an unidentified stinky drink spilled on me – but that’s just part of the fun!

 
Pangea 

 

Review: The Presets at the Constellation Room on May 23, 2013!

Dagmar, the host of German Radio Broadcast airing Sunday's 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., saw The Presets at the Constellation Room last Thursday night. Here are her photos from the night. For more from Dagmar visit germanradio.kuci.org. 

 

Not gonna lie, happening into the The Presets DJ set on the 23rd was a happy accident. My lil sis and I were at The Observatory in Costa Mesa, to catch Turbonegro, a self proclaimed deathpunk band when we noticed the second show going on later that night in the much more intimate Constellation Room... Just the other side of midnight on the 24th, Elke Klaus celebrated her birthday and The Presets took to the stage and serenaded us for just over an hour.

They covered all the good stuff, like Girl and the Sea, This Boy's in Love, Yippyo-Ay, If I Know You, Kicking & Screaming and new yummy stuff from their latest release, Pacifica: Promises, Ghosts and Fast Seconds. AND THE ROOM DANCED. That's pretty much all you need to know. They came, they played and they delivered. :)

And it's no wonder, the duo is in town from Australia where they are much loved. This round, The Presets hit up the Orange County venue sandwiched between an LA show they had just played at Avalon with Dragonette and Classixx and as a part of a mega international DJ lineup for LED in San Diego over the following Memorial weekend (A-Trak, Baauer, The Presets, Gesaffelstein, Brodinski, Digitalism, Congorock, Just Blaze, Feed Me, Axwell, Diplo, Martin Solveig, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Clockwork, TJR, GTA, Hook N Sling and Desctructo).  

Truth be told, I believe the OC show was a bit of an amazing fluke - according to their Facebook flyer - they were originally supposed to have been in Oakland. Lucky, lucky us!

Curious? You can listen to The Presets on Soundcloud. :)

Photos: Turbonegro at Observatory May 23, 2013

Dagmar, the host of German Radio Broadcast airing Sunday's 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., saw Turbonegro at the Observatory last Thursday night. Here are her photos from the night. For more from Dagmar visit germanradio.kuci.org.

 

 



 

 

Lightning in a Bottle Workshops and Speakers Announced!

Lightning in a Bottle is a festival that goes beyond music and entertainment. LIB also features speakers and workshops. Some of this years speakers include David Wilcock, Michael Tellinger, John and Ocean Robbins, Daniel Pinchbeck, Jamie Janover, and many more. LIB will also feature yoga classes, Sanskrit - Sound & Calligraphy, Essential Oil Wizardry, Social Permaculture - Redesigning Civilization, Partner Massage, Body Painting, Sketch Cabaret, Bamboo Building & Knotty Knot Tying, Glass Blowing, Healing Sound Orchestra, Metal Weaving, Tea Ceremonies, Quill Pen Writing Station, Create a Temple, and the Temple of Awakened Vision. For more info visit www.lightninginabottle.org.

Tune in to KUCI to win tickets to see Mumford and Sons at the San Manuel Amphitheater on June 2nd!

Tune in to KUCI to win tickets to see Mumford and Sons at the San Manuel Amphitheater on June 2nd! For more info about the show visit http://www.livenation.com/events/233304/jun-2-2013/mumford-sons.

Photos: Widowspeak and Sisu @ Echo April 2, 2013

Photos taken by Allie Ihm, a current KUCI trainee.

Widowspeak
 



Sisu