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!!

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].

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) 

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?

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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 —->>>

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but in light of today’s big news, it seemed appropriate to post the kxlu finale on its own – the remix of the remix …

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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!

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…

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…

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!

¿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).