everybody's down

Not only are No Age the face of the Los Angeles underground, but they're easily my favorite band of 2007. Their perfect 'diamond in the rough' blend of lo-fi bombast meets artsy pop made quite a splash at last month's CMJ festival and their Sub Pop contract and new material show no signs of slowing down.

"Everybody's Down" - the standout from this years' Weirdo Rippers LP is two-chord rock at its finest (although the best part of the song is the one time Randy hits that third chord.) This is the 4th song of November's mix, and is what's beautiful about living in L.A. To know this song you have to see it live, so here's the next best thing:

lovers who uncover

This song showed up on my radar awhile back in the form of another Crystal Castles remix. I kind of like the original better - which is rare for a CC remix. Little Ones are from around these parts and this song is pretty much all I know of them. They're currently touring other countries with Kaiser Chiefs, becoming popular, and all that good stuff.


The video has some sweet shots of my dream Fender Jaguar guitar and sort a cute concept, so check it out:

run to your graves

November's second installment comes in the form of The Mae Shi's poppiest number "Run To Your Graves." Due out on their upcoming release HLLLYH, this has been a live staple of theirs for awhile now and always a fan favorite. Having randomly walked into their performances numerous times when I've been there to see other acts, this is the band I've probably seen 'by accident' more than any other band.
If you're unfamiliar with the band here's an introduction from their Myspace:

If you are just hearing of us now, you missed out on four records and 250 shows of busted electronics, spazzier-than-fuck drums, crazy-ass boogie guitar, distorted caveman bass and throat-destroying vocals. You missed us playing in 100 different basements and garages to 100s of different kids. You missed our 59-minute-long debut EP and our 5RC debut full-length, Terrorbird, which was a hyper ADD-afflicted hip-hop concept album about monsters and the Old Testament. You missed six different home-screened t-shirt designs and our 2004 mix tape, which collected our favorite 1200 songs in under 80 minutes. You missed Heartbeeps, which was the next step in our self-improvement plan, in which we put our best foot forward and tried to state our case powerfully and succinctly in 15 minutes.

Here's the brand new video (released last week) for Run To Your Graves featuring members of the band, HEALTH, 14 Year Old Girls, and DJ Kyle H. Mabson. Pretty fun concept, so enjoy:

November 2007

TADA! After a three-plus month hiatus, TapeRock is back just in time for the month of November's mixtape. I apologize to all (two) of you who were looking forward to the August, September, and October installments but we'll start up right where we left off...

This month our mix is going to be made up of songs from L.A. based bands. There are so many great bands that have been a mainstay in our scene out here as well as tons of up and comers. Expect some changes around here in the coming weeks, especially once I get my new computer up and running at home.

Our first song for November has been one of my favorites for a couple months. It's a remix of an L.A. band via a non-L.A. band - so it still counts as local. HEALTH vs. Crystal Castles - Crimewave is the track. HEALTH is a band that's been apart of the L.A. scene for awhile now. Head over to their MySpace if you don't know what they're all about or even read this terrific interview from WeShotJR. This song was the catchiest song of the summer and I'm excited for some of you to hear it if you haven't yet. It's one of those songs that makes you want to hit the Play button once it's over.