Dec. 23rd: Evil Beaver At the Roxy/Million Kids At Beauty is Pain

On Thursday I went to the Roxy to see Evil Beaver, a band who I have been wanting to see for a long time. They are a two piece from Chicago, but currently reside in L.A. They consist of Evie the bass player and singer, and various drummers. They played some of my favorites like “Handz of Fate,” “Honey Pump,” and “Closer to Hell.” They also played some new songs like “Hey Man Hey” and “Cold” which sound pretty good I have to say! Evie playing is really good, she plays her bass like a guitar and gets some really good sounds, and the new drummer sounded great, I hope he will be a keeper because he really brought some cool stuff to the table at that show.

I then headed over to Beauty is Pain Boutique, which like Meowmeowz has music, art, clothing, and shows! I have seen some great bands there like The Swords of Fatima and Rocketblast Bath. This show was put on by the awesome Bob Cantu who is the main person who interviews, writes, and reviews for Baby Jeepers, a local fanzine. If you want a great magazine for three bucks I would definitely recommend going to Beauty is Pain or anywhere you can get it and buy Baby Jeepers. Back to the show, I walked in towards the beginning of the show which I am glad because the band I saw, Million Kids, was really kick-ass! They are a four piece punk band from L.A. and their newest release is L.A Is Gonna Make You Breathe E.P. I don’t know many songs by them, I didn’t know any at the show, but they were really awesome and did a cool versions of “Wild In The Streets” and “Los Angeles.” I am disappointed that I missed the Crystelles and Electric Children because I have heard great stuff about both those bands! Million Kids are playing again tomorrow Tuesday the 28^th at the Redwood with the Black Beverly Heels and Dirty Santas. I would definitely recommend going to that I bet it will be a good show!

Anything by Evil Beaver- http://www.evilbeaver.us/fr_tunez.cfm

L.A. Is Gonna Make You Breathe- http://www.reverbnation.com/store/store/artist_239005?item_type=music

Dec. 18th: Stab City At MeowMeowz

Last night I walked into MeowMeowz to see a great band named Stab City for the second time. MeowMeowz is a shop that sells vintage clothing, art, shoes and music. Not only do they sell all that stuff, but they also have shows there. I met Stab City’s newer guitarist Kyle for the first time, and said hey to Dan the bass player and singer and Bobby the drummer. They delivered a fast, crazy, and very energetic seven song set! These guys have some serious power with their instruments. Dan’s bass is heavily distorted, Kyle’s rig looks like he has ten pedals, and Bobby had beaten the drums so hard that he broke a wingnut off one of the cymbals. They had played four new songs, and by the sound of them I think the next release by Stab City will be great! But for now we have their debut release which came out in May of this year “Stab City.” I think some of my favorite tracks would have to be “VU Vulture,” “Up Shit’s Creek,” and their bonus track, “I Used To Be a Communist.” You can buy their album off of iTunes, but sadly it doesn’t have the bonus track. The only way you can get it is to buy the album’s download card at a Stab City show. I would totally recommend buying it wherever you can but you know its always cool to buy something at their show so they make money instead of iTunes, but you know the album is great no matter where you buy it from so if you want to buy it off of iTunes, knock yourself out! I am not sure if they are playing anymore shows this year, but I will definitely post their upcoming shows because they are a band that needs to be seen live!

You can download Stab City on iTunes at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/stab-city/id396753105

Or go see a show!

Dec. 4th: Zappa Plays Zappa At the Music Box

On December 4^th, as an early Christmas present, I went and saw Zappa Plays Zappa do Apostrophe (‘) live! After a couple of minutes of anticipation, they came on and started with “Gumbo Variations” from the Hot Rats album. This started the many times I had crapped my pants at this show! They then played “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” which was the fist song that I had ever heard by Zappa. This then started the album’s fusion of four songs, “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow,” “Nanook Rubs It,” “St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast,” and “Father O’Blivion.” They then did amazing jobs on “Cosmik Debris,” where good ol’ Frank sang the song through a video of one of his live performances with ZPZ playing in the background, “Excentrifungal Forz,” and “Apostrophe.” I was so amazed when George Duke, an old player form Zappa’s band, went on and played “Uncle Rhemus,” it was just so awesome!. They then did a lot of crazy versions of “Eat That Question,” “I Promise Not to Come in Your Mouth,” Keep it Greasy,” “Jones Crusher,” and a super cool version of “Baby Snakes.” I laughed so hard when they played “Titties and Beer,” and “Valley Girl.” They then proceeded to end the show with another pants-shitting song “Muffin Man.” I walked out of that two-and-a-half hour set very satisfied!

Please Allow Me To Introduce Myself

Hey my name is Wolf, and this is Rock ‘N’ Roll Explosion! Lately, I have been going to a lot of gigs, seeing a lot of bands, and listening to a lot of albums. I felt like I wanted to express my ideas through a blog. What I want to do is attend as many shows as I can, review them, review new albums, and try to interview bands. I feel like there is a lot of good music going on right now and I want to show awesome bands to people. I hope that this blog will get people to hear new things and to discover bands that they like, because that’s what I love to do. I am a very big music fan as well as a musician, and will take any form of music you’d like me to review. I hope to hear some new badass bands very soon! I would also like to add a nice Rest in Peace for Captain Beefheart, who sadly passed yesterday at the age of 69.