Grouplove @ The Lobero Theatre, Santa Barbara, CA 4/16/12

 In support of their debut album "Never Trust a Happy Song," Los Angeles based GROUPLOVE played one of their first headlining-tour shows at downtown Santa Barbara's Lobero Theatre. I was unsure of exactly what to expect from this up-and-coming multi-vocalist band, having only heard their ubiquitous "Colours" and the incredibly catchy video/single "Tongue Tied." While the songs were indeed happy (which may have you not wanting to trust them, per their own advice), they did however have an underlying resonance & joyful comradery that shown through in nearly every song: aka: the show was quirky & pretty awesome...

Reminiscent of some kind of a Southern Californian indie-rock love-child-mix between Modest Mouse, early REM, Arcade Fire, and The Flaming Lips; the band consists of a cornucopia of discordant laid-back surf looking, tho enthusiastic sounding members including: Hannah Hooper (keyboards/vocals), Christian Zucconi (vocals/guitar), Sean Gadd (Bass/Vocals), Ryan Rabin (drummer), and Andrew Wessen (guitar/mandolin).

Having made the decision to officially form GROUPLOVE on the Greek isle of Crete, the band set to out by recoding their self-titled ep in the 2010 recording session at Ryan Rabin's Los Angeles studio. From that point, the band has been busy playing the LA area continually, as well as being national support for Florence and the Machine, and later for Young the Giant.

Meanwhile back at the night's show: the band played nearly their entire catalog-to-date, having the packed venue bouncing along one buoyant tune after tune. After their Coachella appearances the band is continuing across the US on their first headlining tour. Check them out on tour & see what I'm talking about...

Photo/Review by Clovis IV

www.fb.com/clovis.iv

...Setlist...
Lovely Cup
Itchin' on a Photograph
Naked Kids
Love Will Save Your Soul
Betty's A Bombshell
Gold Coast
Spun
Chloe
Close Your Eyes and Count to Ten
Slow
...Encore...
Don't Say Oh Well
Tongue Tied
Dance With Somebody (Whitney Houston cover)
Colours

...Tour Dates...
30-Apr  Carrboro, NC
1-May   Asheville, NC
2-May   Charlottesville, VA
5-May   Irvine, CA
8-May   Montreal, Canada
9-May   Toronto, Canada
11-May Detroit, MI
12-May Chicago, IL
13-May Milwaukee, WI
15-May Minneapolis, MN
16-May Des Moines, IA
17-May Omaha, NE
19-May Denver, CO
20-May Aspen, CO
22-May Salt Lake City, UT
23-May Boise, ID
25-May Portland, OR
28-May George, WA
2-Jun    Mountain View, CA
3-Jun    Chula Vista, CA
7-Jun    Manchester, TN
8-Jun    Manchester, TN
9-Jun    Manchester, TN
10-Jun  Manchester, TN
11-Jun  Philadelphia, PA
12-Jun  New York, NY
13-Jun  Washington, DC
14-Jun  Boston, MA
14-Jul   Cincinnati, OH
21-Jul   Dover, DE
18-Aug Tokyo, Japan
19-Aug Osaka, Japan

Brain-Cave Day 1 Photos 4/5/12 at The Bell House

Cara Bella Presents hosted the second year of the amazing music and art festival called Brain-Cave. This year it was a two day showcase at Park Slope's The Bell House. We sadly only caught the first night which featured the best female fronted Brooklyn bands. NYC Taper was there and hopefully some cool downloads of the bands sets will be available soon.
Jessica Larrabee on vocals and guitar and Andy LaPlant on drums of the Brooklyn duo She Keeps Bees tore it up with a tight as nails set filled with rocking tunes and Jessica's always comedic stage banter.

The promoter Luis came out for a heartfelt speech and thanked all the bands and the crowd for their support of his amazing Brian-Cave festival he put on with the help of Paper Garden Records.
It was quite a shock to see a violin on stage during Shilpa Ray's set. Her backing band was Caged Animals. Shilpa showcased some new songs she's working on.
Vin of Caged Animals played guitar for Shilpa's set.
Magali Francoise (Caged Animals) played some lovely violin and Patrick Curry (Caged Animals) played some cool beats during Shilpa's set both adding an amazing new dimension to her sound.
It was my time checking out The Family Band and it won't be my last. Singer/guitarist Kim Krans and crew put on an amazing set of stark and moody tunes.

Cat Martino played on the side stage and intrigued the audience wtih her amazing voice and her passion for looping a plethora of instruments and building up her angelic songs.
Sara Kermanshahi played a very engaging set with her band Natureboy. A lot of tunes from their new album called The Sweep. There set list: Pariah, A Flame, Lexies, Blow To The Head, Sight To See and the amazing Heart To Fool from there debut album.

Blast Off! was a real treat a three piece with guitar, drums and keyboards, saxophone who played between two sets on the side stage. They band was amazingly tight and had some very tight jams.

Fire Horse played a great set of hypnotic psychedelic jams.

They had live art being painted during the show.

Mr. Gnome Interview

We had a chance to chat with Nicole Barille and Sam Meister, who make up the duo Mr. Gnome, about their current tour, SXSW, tasty treats in Cleveland, Ohio, and their musical influences. Read the interview here.