Music Scenes

Music scenes come and go so fast these days.

By the time you buy your new fluro top for “New Rave” it’s all about new grunge and going back to live in Seattle. Then as soon as you buy your new flannel and ripped jeans its time to go back to the year 2000 and don the suit jacket with all the “The”(Vines, Strokes, Hives, Datsuns, White Stripes) bands.

Even harder to follow are the music scenes that are associated with a place or a city. It seemed every band with a disco beat during the “Eletroclash” movement was coming out of New York City (!!! ,Rapture, LCD Soundsystem, Juan Maclean) and then around the same time every Post Libertines band in England were coming out of shitty towns such as Leeds (Cribs, Kaiser Chiefs, Pigeon Detectives) and Sheffield (Arctic Monkeys, Long Blondes, Milburn). But by the time you go to these places the scene has died out or everyone has moved on to another

We could go on forever on each music scene from each city but that would be boring, so ill quickly leave you with another scene known as “The Smell”

Now this place is predominately a punk venue in downtown Los Angeles, California founded by Ara Shirinyan, Jarrett Silberman, and Jim Smith. It has a strong community and DIY ethic which keeps the place going since opening in 1998. It is also non for profit and volunteer run. The amount of coverage this scene has got is largely due to the high profile indie bands that are known as “regulars”, no matter how popular they have become. This has given the place a sense of community and also a place many bands started out, becoming friends, tour buddies etc.

Some of the acts associated with “The Smell” are Abe Vigoda, No Age, HEALTH, Mika Miko,

Lucky Dragons, Silver Daggers, BARR, The Mai Shi and many more.

Now I’m planning a trip to America next year in October but by the time I get there it will be all about spandex, bike shorts, heroin addiction and Guns n Roses.

Please no!!!!!!