Anywhere L to R: Christian Eric Beaulieu, Mike Watt, Cedric Bixler Zavala

Anywhere began as a LA/SF collaborative project started by musicians Christian Eric Beaulieu (Triclops!) and Cedric Bixler Zavala. In early 2010 while in Los Angeles to perform at an art opening of mutual friend artist Sonny Kay, [Beaulieu] befriended Cedric (singer of The Mars Volta) who was DJing the event. The two exchanged numbers and... months later the pair met in Los Angeles, enlisted the mobile engineering talent of Toshi Kasai (Big Business) and tracked an album's worth of material in 2 days at The Melvins practice space in downtown Los Angeles. During that same visit Christian played live on "The Watt from Pedro Show" as the musical guest of Mike Watt (of The Stooges, fIREHOSE, Minutemen). After the show, before leaving San Pedro, Christian realized they needed bass on the new material, and boldly asked Watt if he'd contribute. Watt agreed immediately, and a few months later delivered the entire projects bass tracks. Returning to San Francisco, Christian decided to reach out to vocalist Rachel Fannan, who had recently parted ways with Bay Area psych rockers Sleepy Sun and had relocated to Los Angeles.

Anywhere are welcoming a new single, their second, via Valley King Records, a limited-to-500 pressing of 7"s featuring artwork by Alan Forbes. Preorder your copy at Valley King.

One of Mike Watt's many other projects, Spielgusher, also has an album coming out this month, and he's keeping busy playing shows as usual too. As previously mentioned, Mike is performing Minutemen songs as a duo with George Hurley at an ATP in the UK in March. Before then he also plays with the Missingmen in LA in February, and he's taking part in a memorial for his friend Doug Rockett in Memphis this Friday (1/13).

More importantly... We've already seen the lineup for Coachella 2012, so we know Anywhere WON'T be on hand for the festival (or Mike with the Minutemen), but Coachella WILL feature reunion performances from both fIREHOSE (with Mike Watt - their first show in 8 years) and, as you definitely know by now, At The Drive In (with Cedric Bixler Zavala). No word on any other scheduled fIREHOSE shows at the moment.

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of ATDI (and Mars Volta) will also do double duty at Coachella. He's also playing the festival as part of Les Butcherettes (like he did at Fun Fun Fun Fest). Check out an NPR Tiny Desk Concert of Le Butcherettes below alongside a Le Butcherettes LP stream.

Continue reading "like ATDI, fIREHOSE are playing Coachella (Le Butcherettes too); Anywhere releasing limited 7""

by BBG

My final day at Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 ran the gamut from 90s-indie-worshippers Lemuria to the poppy-hardcore of Kid Dynamite, the Prince-clad hardcore of Ceremony to the glitchy dance of Flying Lotus, and the operatic/enigmatic Austra to the great Slayer. Of the bands that I was not familar with prior to that day (namely OBN IIIs and Les Butcherettes) OBN IIIs set was my favorite; high energy punk/garage was an excellent way to turbo-charge the day. Le Butcherettes were no slouches though, playing fun and spazzy garage-punk featuring the endlessly watachlbe Teri Gender Bender up front and surprise guest Omar Rodriguez-Lopez on bass.

I'll save the "Fun Fun Fun" knee-slapper for pretty much every single band's pre/intra-show banter ("Are you having fun? Are you having Fun Fun Fun?") but yes, Fun Fun Fun Fest lives up to its name.

Previously posted pictures are here: day 1 & day 2, and day 1 & day 2.

More pictures from day three including shots of Lemuria, Le Butcherettes, OBN IIIs, Davila 666, Ceremony, Nobunny, Kid Dynamite, Zero Boys, Eyehategod, Austra, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, Cannibal Corpse, Boris, Del The Funkee Homosapien, Slayer, Blonde Redhead, and much more, below...

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 -- Day 3 pics (part 1) -- Slayer, Blonde Redhead, Kid Dynamite, Zero Boys, Boris & more"