Gabe and I first heard Bobb opening for Wilco at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago.  They had rigged these pulsating bursts of light to his drumpad. The audience loved it.  I remember standing in the beer line before Wilco’s set – and everyone was talking about him.  ”Dude – what’s up with that bunny?”  Well thanks to the internet - we were able to track him down – turns out he lives in the neighborhood!  Vosotros historians will remember Bobb for opening up our first show EVER in Little Tokyo almost 2 years ago.  And now, we’re very excited to announce the release of Bobb’s new EP, “Dreamt On”, coming February 17 on vosotros. Get ready for 6 new Bruno songs – including a track with fellow Angelinio Nels Cline on lap steel guitar!

It sounds like you graduated top of your class, trained hard, became an astronaut, flew to the moon, and then found out it was actually made of cheese. ~ Gabe

If you’re not familiar with Bobb, check him out on MySpace and read this feature from New Angeles Magazine.  The headline ….  What do you get when you mix Disneyland, Paul McCarthy and French black metal? It’s not a riddle, silly wabbit, it’s Bobb Bruno.

Join us on February 21 at Betalevel in Chinatown to celebrate Bobb’s new album.  It’s a free show – booze by donation (courtesy of Beta Level) – and limited edition Bruno EPs on hand.  We’ll kick off the night with some music by vosotros – followed by Bobb Bruno – and then Keenhouse.
And if you’ve never been to Betalevel, follow these directions carefully.

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Bobb Bruno – “Dreamt On”  (Dreamt On EP) [MP3]
PRE-ORDER HERE  (shipping next week)

John and I met in 7th grade Spanish class.  And later, after attending the same high school, and while attending the same college, we began vosotros.  And after seeing the following SNL clip, I was struck with such nostalgia I decided to link to it…enjoy.

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To celebrate the inauguration, we asked some of our favorite Los Angeles bands to record cover versions of public domain patriotic songs. The entire album is licensed under Creative Commons and available for free download from the project’s website: yeswepuede.com

oh mega super sí shout out to Obi Best, Learning Music, Dream Kids, weyou, B.R.A.M., Mooey Moobau and Max Markowitz for throwing down so hard – the album literally came together in a couple of weeks … a testament to how talented these guys are…

(please send the link to everyone you know who loves america)

[YWP Around The Web]
     • Good Magazine    
     • Tiny Mix Tapes    
     • Creative Commons
     • Soup Greens
     • BHAM.FM
     • Skips On The Record
     • web in front
     • LAist
     • Future Sounds
     • Largehearted Boy
     • Rock Insider
     • Boing Boing
     • Mikey Wally
     • Buzzbands.LA
     • Fly, fly, balloon man. Savor the Void!
     • Twitter (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
     • NOVA (cell phone company in Iceland)

Celebrate the holidays with Thrill Jockey – they’ve created an advent calendar (with some stunning snow flake graphics!) to give away an mp3 every day until the Christmas!!  TJ distributes a lot of great independent music … so you’re likely to find some gems.  vosotros listeners should be especially excited about DOOR #4.  The triumphant return of My Moon Boots … the perfect soundtrack for this holiday season!!!  [and while you're there, check out the vosotros catalog in their FINA download store]

The extended vosotros family got some serious love on Indie 103.1’s “check one, two” on Sunday evening.  Mark Sovel played “Messages” from B.R.A.M. and “A Window”, a song off Learning Music’s “The Greatest Hits So Far EP” [out now on vosotros - available from FINA for $5  and AmazonMP3 for $4.45! ].  Pick up this EP now – and catch Learning Music in full force on December 20th at pehrspace…

As you-all may remember, Gabe advanced to the finals of The Roots Remix Contest (thanks to your voting!!).  Well the final round is coming to close – you can listen to our submission on Indaba’s site – and please vote if you’re so inclined – but the winner of this round is up to the judges.  Gabe’s mix once again features The Years (gene coye -drums, sam barsh – keys, gabe – bass).

What’s up with cash only restaurants?  Taco truck … I get it.  Sit down restaurant that serves booze?  Not okay.  The other day I picked up a roll of quarters to do my laundry (it was so overdue that I was taping into the archives … clown pants, my smash mouth t-shirt, the whole 9).  Anyways, I was driving home from work and had a serious craving for some Pho … they’ve got no love for the visa/mastercard … but their soup is soooo good.  I decided I could rock the clown pants for one more day ….

:: JohnG

(ps. bruno is coming)

gabe I and saw the smashing pumpkins tonight at stööniversal citywalk – after driving around for a while, we were lucky to find a space in jurassic parking …

a little vosotros trivia for you … my first rock concert ever was the pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Tour at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago!  my dad took my brother moo-daddy, my friend ceck cennett, and I.  epic evening … one might say it launched my music career…

my friend gingger was playing violin tonight and was nice enough to introduce me to billy corgan after the show – i told him the story of my first concert – all he said to me was “1996″

but i wanted more closure than that … on the way out, i walked up to him again and extended my fist for a fist bump … as he reciprocated the bump with a bump-back, i looked him in the eye and said “rosemont horizon” … hell ya

in other news, the grammy nominations were announced tonight:

Thank you so much for voting.  The polls have closed – and we finished in 3rd place!  The top 25 remixers move on to the finals – which start December 2nd.  Stay tuned…

[Listen to the top 25 remixes]

Gabe, Gene, and Barsh get back from China today!  Join vosotros this Monday evening for our first show in the States in over 2 months! Thanks to jess (aka cellogirl) for putting this together. Donation at the door. BYOB. Directions. Call Laura at 323-839-8894 when you arrive … she’ll let you in!!

Vosotros – 8pm

WeYou – 8:45pm

VOCO – 9:30pm

Calder String Quartet – 10:30pm

B.R.A.M. was just interviewed by Kevin Bronson on his new blog, buzzbands.la.  Check it.

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My computer is out of sauce, so I thought it was about time to rock some good ol’ fashion phone blogging… I’ve been back in the States for a little over a week now. I had a swell time in Dublin – drinking more Guinness in 4 days then I’ve probably had my whole life up until that point. Some exciting music happening over there (if you’ll be in New York in a few weeks, definitely stop by the Irish showcase at CMJ).

• Have you seen Shazam? It’s the much talked about iPhone app that can identify what song is playing by recording a short clip and sending it off to the Shazam mothership for analysis… impressive stuff. But get this – Shazam is keeping data on what is being shazamed! A friend of mine in London told me about a new Shazam-chart in the UK showing the most shazamed songs … and apparently a+r folk have started using it to spot unsigned talent – a very cool intersection of music, culture, and social media in my opinion. But how valuable can this data be if Shazam can’t even recognize masunday ….

• In other news, I spotted my first euro taco truck at a market in London! A valiant effort – but it remains pretty clear to me that TZONE would crush daddy donkey in a cookoff. I bet you 10£ Señor donkey hasn’t even heard of Suadero … But in his defense, the European market probably isn’t ready for those flavors …

COMING SOON: Harold EP, guest bloggers, vosotros goes to CHINA…

I’m headin to Dublin this weekend to attend the Hard Working Class Heroes Festival. Not only will I get to see over eighty Irish bands in 3 days, I’m honored to be representing vosotros as an international delegate at the festival. I’ll be speaking on a panel about innovative music companies plotting “alternative routes” and participating in some mentoring sessions with local artists. I leave this afternoon and I’m getting pumped up. After the festival, I’m going to London to eat massive amounts of kebab and explore some opportunities to bring vosotros to you-all overseas. Stay tuned….

In other news, I want to give a massive shout out to Cord Phillips, an incredible recording engineer and close friend of vosotros. Cord engineered the current #1 song on the country charts – “Do You Believe Me Now” by Jimmy Wayne. ¡Boo yaaaaa! Cord’s tearin’ it up on the Nashville studio circuit right now, so hit him up if you’re looking to do some work down there. [He's also a good candidate if your Twisted Sister cover band is looking for a drummer].

Finally, John Wood’s Learning Music continues their residency at Tangier this Sunday. Joining Learning Music will be vosotros cohort Bobb Bruno, Tom Brosseau, and …. vosotros. plus … the show is FREE if you know the password …. “your glasses match your hair”.

see you-all in a few weeks…. johnG