Our favorite ex-Weekly music editor, L.A. Record's head honcho Chris Ziegler, just sent us an invite to a free, all-ages Friday night “UNOFFICIAL OFFICIAL PARTEE” with In The Red Records. In the Red Records was born in Anaheim, and Ziegler calls it “one of the most crucial LA labels in LA history.”
The Spits and the seminal '80s garage band the Gories are headlining, with the rest of the lineup to be announced. Just so you know, L.A. Record will have a limited number of Reigning Sound LIVE flexidisc record glued in copies of the new issue at the show, too. So, if you're going to SxSw, RSVP here to get on the list, then mark March 16 on your calendar and head over to Emo's new Austin location. After the jump, Ziegler turns all fan boy for the Gories and In the Red.
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OC Weekly: Why did you partner with In The Red Records?
Chris Ziegler: In The Red is one of my favorite labels and I have dedicated a
considerable part of my record-collecting life to working backwards to
find and secure all the amazing records they put out when I was a little
kid in Arizona and didn't know where records came from. Larry
Hardy–who runs In The Red–has some kind of innate animal sense for
rock & roll, and like six of my favorite 20 “contemporary” records
are on In The Red: Wounded Lion, Andre Williams, Reigning Sound, Spits,
Davila 666, Dirtbombs, Strange Boys, Clone Defects and Human Eye,
Deadly Snakes … Larry Hardy can pretty much fire when ready as far as
I'm concerned.
Where are they now?
In The Red relocated to L.A. somewhere and I hear they do an awesome movie night!
How did you choose the bands?
This was the best part! We are doing this show not just with Larry and
In The Red, but with Shannon and Mike from Blundertown Booking and
Franki Chan from Check Yo Ponytail 2.
Once we got a chance to help with
this show, I just talked to Shannon about my “dream” bands–bands I love
and have never ever seen, usually because of either an L.A. Record
deadline destroying my social life or the band not existing anymore.
It's a short but distinguished list, and the Gories were right at the
top–so Shannon went and used her considerable Shannon powers and got
the Gories to play their only Austin show!
We've been
teaming up with her Blundertown Booking for tons of shows all over L.A.
because we love all the same bands and it's such a good fit. I have
loved the Spits since trying to bribe them with 100 beers to play an
afterparty in front of a skate ramp at Juvee in L.A. in like 2003, and
they did an L.A. Record show with us and Shannon this summer that was so
great they actually caught fire as they played. This is completely true
but I don't know if I have the photo. Anyway for SXSW, she basically
went out, wrapped 'em all up and said, “Here, look–it's your record
collection come to life!”
Why are the bands awesome?
We have four more bands playing we'll announce soon, and guess what?
They are all pretty damn awesome, and one of them did one of the
funniest interviews for L.A. Record I have ever done–plus I think we
both own or are trying to own the same Midniters 45. Anyway, the Gories
are one of the ultimate Chris bands. From Detroit, produced by Alex
Chilton … they basically invented what people call “garage” music now.
The Spits are human-killing robots who come crawling up from that
basement the Ramones were afraid to go down to. They are into skating,
drinking and nuclear war.
What makes this SxSw different for L.A. Record?
People are always very supportive of us at SxSw, and we get to be a part
of a lot of great things through the years–once we did an official SxSw showcase, once we had a campfire under a bridge where Audacity
played using electricity from a source I still can't figure out, but I
think it involved a car battery on a skateboard. This year, however …
this is some amazing wish-fulfillment for me. I have always wanted to
see the Gories, and here they are. I have always wanted to put flexis in L.A. Record, and here they are. We get to help an L.A. label I have
loved since last century do a show where anybody can come for free to
see a bunch of bands that never all play together. It's awesome to team
up with Larry, Shannon, Mike and Franki and dump this crazy thing into
the world. I plan to freak out at this show and I invite you to join me!
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