Open Melody (a new experimental/underground festival in LA)

So there's been a little talk on the LA thread on ILE but I wanted to give it its own thread here:

https://openmelody.la/

The backstory is that back in the late 2000s/early 2010s I realized that all of a sudden UC Irvine was getting in some great show bookings again and that was thanks to a dedicated undergrad at the radio station, Sam Farzin, who did both those (including Jandek's first ever SoCal show) as well as a couple of minifestivals at the campus. Sam went on to do more music and work in Media Jeweller and the like and last year decided to do a new version of those kind of festivals; at his asking I helped with some official testimonials so some non-American bands could get visas.

Anyway, it's two weeks out and the schedule and full lineup and details are posted at the link but to share it here:

Agriculture US
Artificial Go US
Ben LaMar Gay Quartet US LA debut
Container UK
Cyrus Pireh + Mike Watt US LA debut
Deerhoof US
Dummy US
France FR LA DEBUT
Growing US/CA
Human Error Club US
Kassie Krut US
Lay/Haug US
Lightning Bolt US
Lubomyr Melnyk EU LA DEBUT
Maral US
Mason Lindahl US FIRST LA PERFORMANCE IN ten years
OOIOO JP FIRST LA PERFORMANCE IN ELEVEN YEARS
Paul de Jong US LA DEBUT
Supercollider US FIRST PERFORMANCE IN TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS
Tara Clerkin Trio UK LA DEBUT
Tussle US FIRST PERFORMANCE IN THIRTEEN YEARS
Valentina Magaletti + RP Boo UK/US IN DUO FOR THE FIRST TIME
Water Damage US LA DEBUT

& A Guided Tour of the Ocean Soundscape CA

Going to be really fun and Sam's hoping to make it a regular annual thing. If you're planning on going, chime in!

Supercollider is THE big one for me, a band who I dearly love and have since the release of their second and (so far) final album, but who I never saw at the time. ILM thread with links to things like my interview with them at the time of some initial 2020 reissues:

Supercollider: king of the overlooked

I am SO excited about this!

France were a new name to me on this lineup, but the other week I listened to this album of a live performance that came out last year and now I cannot wait to have my head caved in by them

https://standard-in-fi.bandcamp.com/album/destino-scifosi

also FYI all you Magaletti-heads: Moin's playing at the Echo on 4/1 (I'll be there too lol)

Yeah I've known about France for a bit, remarkable act. They were one of the acts I wrote an official testimonial for! (The other was OOIOO, I'm pretty sure.) Would be fun to show up a day or two early but Go Kurosawa of Kikagaku Moyo has his first SF solo show on April 2, so, priorities -- I am VERY glad it wasn't a day or two later, though!)

I would love to drive down for this but work prevents me from

I protest. Tell them it is needed research.

sarahell you definitely need to speak to the manager ;)

it's a really good lineup, it's just happening while our schools are on spring break so a very hard sell for the family, as much as I want to introduce them all to Growing.

Its so nice someone is doing something like this. I will be there.

France rules. learned about them through chatting with Water Damage ... who also rule.

That looks great. Venue is fantastic too.

With some spelunking just now I've been able to find my old OC Weekly stories profiling Sam Farzin when he was organizing shows at UCI -- including two pieces about the earliest iterations of Open Melody there, and as you'll see he had a good eye for lineups even then. Here was my profile of him for the 2008 music issue:

https://www.ocweekly.com/feedback-2008-kuci-dj-sam-farzin-takes-the-term-college-rock-literally-6399002/

My interview with him previewing the first Open Melody in 2010:

https://www.ocweekly.com/acrobatics-everydays-open-melody-a-20-band-fest-born-out-of-previous-disappointment-6596261/

And my interview with him previewing the second (and at the time final) one in 2011:

https://www.ocweekly.com/acrobatics-everyday-presents-open-melody-2011-at-uc-irvine-this-saturday-6589676/

I'm going on Friday night. they opened up single day ticket sales recently. if my energy holds up, Theo Parrish is DJing that night in LA.

pre-party on Thursday 4/2 with Deradoorian, Aaron MF Olson and a secret guest at Permanent Records

https://openmelody.la/#preparty

likely can't go as I have a DJ thing that night but will probably be fun

Yeah right, YOU'RE the secret guest. Standup routine. "Thank you thank you, great crowd here tonight, tip your waitstaff. Hey, record buyers, amirite?"

"WHAT is the DEAL with obi strips on American records???"

Meantime a nice post from Sam about more of the deep back story and etc

https://www.instagram.com/p/DWPRrfDAe_Q/

Under a week to go! Anyone else joining in?

Going on Saturday!

got a weekend pass and planning to make the most of it! (although will probably miss some of the early friday acts and late sunday acts)

Okay first act soon to start…

Interested in hearing others' impressions. it seemed shockingly well run. everything started right in time. Highlight by a mile was Valentina Magaletti & RP Boo, though I think she should have been louder in the mix, I found it was often hard to hear her contribution. Inl liked that he used a some pretty familiar tunes (everybody loves the sunshine. Isaac Hayes' walk on by) to built some of the pieces around.

The food truck was good but I was surprised by the lack of merch from participating artists.

Agreed on all counts re: VM and RP Boo, both that it was my favorite performance of the night and it was tough to hear her. Their mutual energy was so great though, both of them all smiles throughout. I got to chat with her a bit afterwards, she was lovely (tried v hard not to fanboy out lol).

Greatly enjoyed Supercollider’s set too, not having been very familiar with them previously. They gave Ned a shout out!

They did! That was fun!

And I’m very sorry to have missed that headlining performance but I’d hit my limit (it was a long day for me!). Not surprised it has been so well run, Sam’s been doing the work for so long and Brooke, the other key organizer, and the overall team just seem to all know not only what to do but to do it very well. Really great venue and experience! See folks here in a couple of hours!

I love Kassie Krut but when I saw them last summer the bass was so blown out, hope they get better sound there

The one-two of OOIOO and France was a hell of a thing, friends.

What a great day of music!

just waking up after getting home at 1:30, lotta thoughts on yesterday but chief among them for now: OOIOO are goddamn LEGENDS

Cyrus Pireh + Mike Watt on April 5 today 5 pm

So Pireh is a 40-something Michigan guitarist who has music on bandcamp

Amazing last day and my mind is mulch. No regrets.

Tussle -> Deerhoof -> Water Damage last night melted my brain. i left during Agriculture (not super my thing, though i did like some moments - also my partner happened to be nearby as they took the stage so he swung by to pick me up lol). managed to restrain myself merch-wise, bought the festival hat and a beautiful OOIOO shirt.

what an amazing weekend!! whatever tiny nitpicks i may have had about acoustics or whatever are pretty much negligible, all things considered. Sam & co. did an absolutely incredible job organizing everything, there really needed to be something like this in SoCal and they 100% delivered. and it was super cool to hang with ned, elvis T and whiney and see a lot of other pals too! really hoping this becomes a yearly thing.

btw OOIOO and Lightning Bolt are playing at Zebulon on Friday, just got announced last night. (i can't make it but still, cool - OOIOO were for sure one of the highlights of the weekend)

Def hoping this becomes a yearly thing. Feels like the type of thing that would be pretty common 15 years ago and now doesn't happen anymore.

Highlights are a lot of the mentioned things (Magaletti/Boo, OOIOO, Growing, Deerhoof) but I'll add Paul de Jong and the Guided Tour of the Ocean Soundscape

Which given the original Open Melodys were fifteen years back fully tracks!

Tara Clerkin Trio were my fave new discovery. Hope this becomes a yearly thing too

More thoughts on it tomorrow but a nice post from former ILXor Jeff Treppel here:

https://hotrailstohell.ghost.io/space-is-deep/