vosotros » juan

drumpad + bunny

admin — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:36:49 +0000

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.

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

The Origins of Vosotros

admin — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:38:36 +0000

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.

vosotros presents: ¡ YES WE PUEDE !

admin — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:02:51 +0000

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)

thrill jockey // indie 103 // the roots

admin — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:05:48 +0000

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)

the world is a vAMpire

admin — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:39:37 +0000

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:

Category 76

Best Polka Album
(Vocal or Instrumental.)

El Maestro Del Acordeón Y Sus Polkas
Paulino Bernal
[Urbana Records]
Speechless
LynnMarie & Charlie Kelley As The Boxhounds
[Squeeze Records]
Back To Back Hall Of Fame Polkas
Walter Ostanek & His Band, Jerry Darlak & The Touch And Bob Kravos & His Band
[Sunshine Diversified Ent.]
Hungry For More
Polka Family Band
[Polka Family Music]
Let The Whole World Sing
Jimmy Sturr And His Orchestra
[Rounder]

thank you for voting // show on monday

admin — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:53:24 +0000

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.

happy halloween and happy voting

admin — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 18:23:25 +0000

out of sauce / shazam / daddy donkey?

admin — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 03:14:29 +0000

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…

vosotros goes to ireland

admin — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:42:03 +0000

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

radiohead … woah

admin — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 06:07:45 +0000

vosotros live at sunset junction

admin — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 04:54:05 +0000

Sunset Junction is this weekend … and lucky for me I live 1 block away! And lucky for you-all, vosotros will be making three (count it –> 3) appearances around the festival. In celebration of their 2 year anniversary, the fine folks at Found Gallery will be hosting thirteen free performances throughout the weekend – including Sunday’s lineup of all cover sets. In addition to our doubleheader at Found, check out vosotros at El Cid on Saturday at 4pm!!

cc + dublab launch intoinfinity.org

admin — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:08:14 +0000

Our friends at Creative Commons launched a new website today with LA-based dublab. I didn’t understand exactly what they were doing when I first read about it – but I just spent some time on the site and it’s definitely worth checking out. Into Infinity is an online art + music exhibition based upon circular canvases (the ‘eye’) and audio loops (the ‘ear’). They distributed 12″ paper circles to a number of visual artists and commissioned some musicians and producers to create 8 second audio loops. Hit refresh on the exhibition page to see a new circle and listen to a new loop. There are download links for the sounds and images – all of which are licensed under a CC Attribution-Noncommercial copyright license, meaning that you are free to share and remix them for noncommercial purposes.

“Sampling, remixing, and repurposing other people’s work has resulted in some of the greatest art of our times,” says Eric Steuer, Creative Commons’ creative director. “With this project, we want to make the statement that this sort of creativity should not only be legal, but also explicitly encouraged.”

If you’re not familiar with Creative Commons, visit their website and get to know them a little bit. We’ve been supporting them since we started vosotros – and I continue to believe their ideas are shaping the future of music on the web. [CC interview with vosotros, Feb 2008].

vosotros on pandora // learning music at tangier

admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:08:59 +0000

if you haven’t used pandora, give it a try …. it’s a free online radio service that builds stations based on your listening preferences – their team of “senior music analysts” wade through thousands of records each month and add selected songs to the music genome project - using over 400 criteria, each song is categorized based on a number of factors designed to get at the “musicological elements of a song” – these criteria are used to hone in on your listening preferences. here’s how it works –>> you type in a song or artist that you enjoy and pandora builds you a playlist of artists from the database that share similar criteria … here’s the cool part – the player will always explain why a song was chosen … and you can vote a song off the island if you’re not feeling it and the station will adapt accordingly.

i was excited to discover that a handful of tracks from the lazy susan have been added to the genome. noelsson schmoelsson was tagged as “featuring jazz influences, heavy use of vocal harmonies, acoustic sonority, intricate melodic phrasing and use of a string ensemble”. this gave me a lot of faith in the service … these guys are really taking the time to listen. next I created a station around “PB&J … and g” … and I think gabe would be happy to know that they played me a T-Pain song because of its “modern r&b stylings, electronica influences, a subtle use of vocal harmony, mild rhythmic syncopation and extensive vamping.” anyways, check out pandora – type in one of your favorite artists – and see where it takes you…

in other news, learning music continues their monthly residency at tangier tomorrow night at 10pm. they’ll be playing for the next 3 wednesdays – go see this band!!!

:: John G (jay gee AKA J GILLA)

barsh is back

admin — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:46:27 +0000

Join us in welcoming Sam Barsh back to Los Angeles to celebrate the west coast release of his new album, “I Forgot What You Taught Me” on Avishai Cohen’s Razdaz Records. The show is this Thursday at LAND (the home of our lazy susan residency in Little Tokyo). Doors at 9. We’re lucky to have The Lady Tigra opening up the evening.. so don’t arrive too late!!

Barsh and Gabe will be in the studio most of this week completing The Years, an album inspired by the music of each decade – starting in the past and ending in the future …. [the core band for the years features Barsh on keys, Gabe on bass, and Gene on drums - and Gabe + Gene will be playing in Sam's band on Thursday, so expect to hear some songs from this new project].

what’s that address again?

vosotros on kxlu

admin — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 06:33:46 +0000

thank you to KXLU for inviting us over this afternoon – gabe and john wood performed a captivating 35 minute set that was nothing short of $ melon … you can listen here in its entirety —->>>

but in light of today’s big news, it seemed appropriate to post the kxlu finale on its own – the remix of the remix …R. Kelly – “I’m A Flirt” (grande iced bossa, unsweetened)

and speaking of john wood, learning music returns to tangier this sunday … don’t miss this show!!! after recording 12 consecutive monthly albums (all available for free download), juan wood’s learning music army is gearing up for a series of shows in the coming months…

Sunday June 16 @ Tangier – 9pm, $5

Charlie Wadhams (8:30), Learning Music (9:30), Colorforms (10:30)

and mark you calenders …. vosotros returns to LAND in little tokyo on June 26 for a special evening with Sam Barsh and The Lady Tigra …. details soon!

vosotros presents: the lazy susan

admin — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:56:16 +0000

Thank you to everyone who made it out to LAND on Thursday!! To ring in the leap year, we celebrated the one-year anniversary of our residency in Little Tokyo and the release of our third album as a label – vosotros presents: the lazy susan.

The lazy susan was a year long collaborative effort, and features 32 musicians on 12 songs written by bassist Gabe Noel. The album introduces music by Noelsson Schmoelsson, Someone’s Piano, First Good Feeling, PB&J …and g, masunday, Saltar, My Moon Boots, The Carrot and Stick, Touhy, ump-off Pause Tape, How Long It Takes To Know, and Our Song.

Order the physical CD direct from vosotros!! Each album is handmade for you-all. Includes custom letterpressed packaging and a beautiful 28-page booklet with photos and lyrics. The album comes in 100% recycled, non-plastic packaging and is wrapped in biodegradable wood cellulose. Can you taste that piano?

On the digital front, we are excited to announce a partnership with one of our favorite Chicago labels, Thrill Jockey Records. They’ve built their own digital download store, offering high quality, DRM-free albums from a select group of independent labels. Visit FINA to see our catalog.

The Lazy Susan is also available from these fine digital retailers: Amazon | eMusic | iTunes

In other news, vosotros was recently featured on the Creative Commons blog.

Y en más otras noticias, LAZY SUSAN LISTENING PARTY at FOUND GALLERY in Silver Lake …. March 23rd … details at foundla.com.

And special thanks to Charles Altura, Aaron Arntz, Sam Barsh, Gene Coye, and PONG for playing on Thursday … kap kun krap…

more accoutrement

admin — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 07:54:34 +0000

We just posted two new free songs on lazy susan’s podcast – a track by Circus Minor (who played at LAND in December) and Tales of Banyan – a new project from Marcel Camargo, the lead singer of Saltar. Marcel will be performing next Thursday at our show in Little Tokyo alongside menage a moi, Readers, Restuarant, and at the speed of need.

Enjoy the rain – and the mountains while they last…

holiday sotros

admin — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 05:23:18 +0000

I almost went the way of Sonny Bono on Monday … having not skied in over 10 years, I figured that going down the steep side of the mountain would be a fine way to get reacquainted. I don’t remember much leading up to the wipe out – and miracuously I wasn’t hurt. But a ski patrol safety man came flying down the mountain towards me … and he was white in the face. Apparently in his 11 years on the job, he had never seen anything like it. I was just that good.

Currently in Colorado … and as long as I don’t get snowed in, I’ll be back just in time for vosotros #11, tomorrow night in Little Tokyo. What better way to close out this holiday season than music from Circus Minor, LeTron, and WE THE BEST. ¡Feliz Naviotros!

dia de los brunos

admin — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 01:27:05 +0000

¿qué paso tío?

Stop by 2nd St Jazz tomorrow night (oct 25) for our ninth installment of live@land!

We are excited for the return of sotros legend Bobb Bruno – the man who kicked off our first show back in February. Not to be missed!!!

Music from Mooey Moobau (10pm), Bobb Bruno (11pm), and Touhy (12am).