Gothic Tropic was new to me and they took their time setting up before having a blistering pass at “Stigmata Jazz Hands.” Rumspinga’s Cecilia Della Peruti’s power chords unloaded a reverb-soaked bit of the old heavy metal thunder only hinted at on their Awesome Problems EP. These crowd-pleasing salvos kept up throughout the set, which Ms. Peruti interrupted at intervals with offers of glittery fake fruit and remarks concerning the poor quality of graffiti in the unisex bog nearby.

Romana Machado

Eastern Conference Champions began with a characteristic shimmer and burst of speed. Mainman Joshua Ostrander and drummer Greg Lyons are about as old as hands get in the indie-rock biz, having originally partnered in half-forgotten Philly mod-rock sensation LaGuardia early in the Noughties. ECC’s debut full-length was picked up by Interscope in 2007, just before the bottom fell out of the economic universe. Back this year with Speak-Ahh, the band picked up a sparkplug bassist in Melissa Dougherty, who slung her axe aside to pound away at a snare while Lyons uncoiled an ear-denting tribal stomp at set’s end, as the room howled and swayed. A girl near the stage fainted dead away and was borne by a companion out to the pavement, where she was soon up and bouncing.

Romana Machado

In a short while later, so was Sarah Negahdari, and soon, so was everyone else. The Happy Hollows’ guiding genius was as wound-up giddy as ever, leading the veteran art-rock trio through a set of mostly new songs that I’m glad to report are as warm and wobbly as their entire output from 2006’s Bunnies and Bombs EP to date.

Romana Machado

Negahdari’s turned into something of a guitar wizard in the past few months, finger-tapping expertly and looking momentarily nonplussed when a string broke. “I think I’m handling this crisis well,” she giggled, while tuning up trusty guitar # 2 for its public debut. A few deft-fingered seconds later, she and bandmates Chris Hernandez and Charles Mahoney took up the skein of merrie melodics when an accident snapped it off. Soon, Sarah was thrashing with impish abandon like Laurie Anderson invoking Night of the Living Sharkey, riding these perky shoals of sounds until just after the midnight hour, whereupon she thanked us for listening.

- Ron Garmon

The Happy Follows are giving away some “pay what you want” B-Sides from Spells here!

After school tutoring program 826LA asked its students to write songs and then brought in local bands to sing and record them. On March 6th, 826LA is hosting a release party at the Echo for the Chickens in Love album written by its students and performed by She & Him, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Crystal Antlers, among others. The release party starts at 1PM, with live performances by The Submarines, Summer Darling, The Happy Hollows, The Growlers and other special guests. Echo Park salon The Hive and the Grill ‘Em All Food Truck will be on hand during the party to provide punk rock hair do’s and amazing food. Vote on the 826LA website for your favorite song by making a pledge. The pledge-a-thon will continue through April 30th.

In December, we put together a songwriting workshop with local band The Submarines and students wrote their own songs under the guidance of the band and local volunteers. A group of some really amazing bands (including She & Him, Fiona Apple, Crystal Antlers, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and Dum Dum Girls) got involved with the project and recorded covers of the songs the kids wrote, keeping them as close lyrically to the original version as possible. The end result is an unbelievably fun record with tracks like “Mexican Food”, “Boring”, “Am I Going Crazy?”, and “Jerk Anthem”. All of the profits from the release will go to 826LA, which keep our workshops and after school tutoring programs free for the community.”

For more information, visit 826LA Chickens in Love website.

http://www.mtvu.com/music/the-freshmen/nominees-020110/

Stream: The Happy Hollows “Silver”

(from Spells available now from Autumntone Records)

The Happy Hollows’ debut album, Spells, was just put out on Autumntone Records. L.A. RECORD reviewed the self-released album back in September, and spoke to Sarah and Charles about the fruit fly theory of GDP growth.

This was a great show for a larger sized venue. Usually I’m used to seeing names like The Happy Hollows or Useless Keys on the Spaceland marque, however on this particular Sunday, the venue lent it’s stage to a couple of my favorite bands: Manhattan Murder Mystery and Dirt Dress. Matthew Teardrop, singer/guitarist for Manhattan Murder Mystery, always has this, “I’m going to kill myself,” type of energy and often thrusts his army helmet to the ground with great force during the majority of his performances. Katya Arce holds down the bass line along with a kick ass drummer who plays one of my favorite kits ever. And adding to the sound with both percussion and mandolin are Gabe from Health Club and Elaine Layabout.

Dirt Dress is a small three piece with an unconventional surf/experimental sound. They go from catchy dance songs to crazy experimental beats, which I find amazing. It was good to see them on a bigger stage as they can hold it down.

[View with PicLens]

[View with PicLens]

Finally, after waiting almost an hour for Happy Hollows to set up, they hit the stage with a bang.  Beautiful Sarah Negahdari was all smiles and giggles as she stood at the mic and began playing their first song.  She emoted so much energy on the small Viper Room stage that it poured out onto the crowd and made the happy music even more of a jovial experience.  Throughout the entire show, Sarah never showed a sign of tiring, throwing her head up and down, bouncing and jumping around the stage.  Charlie and Chris possessed their own endless amounts of energy—not once did any of the three ever stop playing music to drink water, stall to relax or maybe even breathe.  To be honest, it is hard to focus on all the logistics and technicalities of the music because watching the band play is so enamoring.  The three bandmates stand in their individual space but flow together like a school of fish.  Each of the band members possess an acute understanding of their own instruments and each other that gives them the ability to pick up on each player’s energy and use that to strengthen the music.   I suppose that is what being a good musician and playing over a hundred shows does for a band.

Standing tall, Sarah emitted the Happy Hollows’ natural Silverlake / Echo Park vibe onto the Hollywood crowd in her striped cardigan and short black shorts.  “It means so much to us to come out to the Westside and see so many of you guys!” Sarah giggled.  She continued to verbally realize how close Hollywood actually is but how far away it feels.  Happy Hollows continued their set with yet another song for Sarah to exhibit her guitar skills and shred unlike anyone would expect.  Their second song was fast paced and energizing, getting the crowd just as worked up as the sweat flying off of Charlie’s forehead.  Sarah’s voice dipped to low lows and shreaky highs to match the melodic guitar and bass riffs and—Sorry, I completely just lost all focus on Happy Hollows because this enormous inebriated man has decided to play his drunken, erotic air guitar right in front of me.  And he is staring at me dead in the eyes. Still going, apparently this endless Happy Hollows energy is contagious.  Ah, finally he has exhausted himself and Happy Hollows moves on to their next song, which further exemplifies how Sarah’s energy commands how the song comes off to her crowd.  Their third song was darker than the first two and Sarah’s energy was there to match—the whimsical bouncing was replaced by more fixated stares as the music became more straight-lined.

Live, Happy Hollows resembles listening to their record—very acute and strong.  Nothing ever lingers, not even the ring of the cymbals.  They ensure keeping every note tight and finishing every song abruptly.  Their ability to essentially marathon-play leaves a stronger, unexpected impression.  They also manage to incorporate an instrumental breakdown in almost every song, and an awesome one at that, making all three of them much more reputable musicians.  By their sixth song, Sarah was on the floor spinning with her guitar and their seventh song switched the set up by having Charlie sing while Sarah clapped and made hand jives inspired by the lyrics.  Their back-to-back playing made the friendly relationship between Sarah and Charlie even more believable and the strobe lights increased the exciting effect of all their movement and the anything-but-monotonous music.  The ninth song had so many varying riffs that ADD and boredom couldn’t stand a chance and Sarah continually gave the music the personality it is meant to have through her spontaneous screams, impromptu dancing and the occasional putting her guitar on her head and wandering the stage.  Watching Sarah makes the music even more redeeming than simply listening to the record—she is funny to watch and reminds me of a happy child.

Their twelfth song further proved the true talent of the group through the fast paced playing and real test of how quick their fingers could move.  They easily aced the test and looked good doing it—There is rarely a stoic, thinking look. Instead, their faces are painted with big smiles and it seems impossible for the band to boringly stand still.

For a snippet what their live show looks like, don’t forget to check out their Samsung commercial!

—Britt Witt

Heisenflei writes hot-blooded rock with bandmate M, aka Marc, also a handsome feller on guitar + muchisimo pedals.  Barefoot in an oversized t-shirt/dress barely contained by a belt, she displayed her split brain musical abilities, playing drums and keyboard at the same time.

They began with a long song so we could adjust to M’s guitar science experiment. His many pedals provided him a chemistry set for churning tones and rusty machine gear sounds. Sometimes bubbling note to note; sometimes crushing the life from butterflies with heavy torture devices then tossing them over to his band mate so she could sew them into new flying frankensteins.

During the fourth or fifth song, I watched a guy who had been bobbing to the music turn to his friend and say, “This is a good one!” Reality became heavy for him and he stopped moving, closed his eyes, his hands stayed where they were for almost two minutes. He came back to life long enough to mouth the words, “They remind me of Helmet. You remember Helmet?” He blacked out again in slow motion, not drunk, but zoned in. I wondered if he was imagining Heisenflei’s bra.

—Daiana Feuer