Alyx Poska is from Orange County, CA. He likes weird show locations, #smoothmusic and critique of the capitalist wasteland. He’s the founder of diy4lyfe records & zine and co-founder of OC DIY as well as local cult leader. He is a strong proponent of genres like bummer punk, yacht rock, new weird americana and smooth music.

Diners came through Southern California multiple times in 2015, each show gathering larger and larger crowds to watch their smooth desert pop jams. With the departure of drummer Tristan Jemsek to Seattle, frontman Tyler Broderick began 2016 with a “solo” tour that featured intimate performances throughout the great state of #Kali. I was lucky enough to catch him at Bridgetown DIY in La Puente, as well as in Orange County. This show, booked by Aaron Kovacs from Lauren Records, featured three locals that tended toward the indie rock and bummer punk side of the spectrum, and all three were quite loud in Bridgetown’s boomy but narrow space.

Panoramic started off the night with two bass amps but no bass player in sight. They were one of the two power trios playing, and by the time their set started a small crowd had formed. Heavy hitters Settling played second and pushed the limits of people’s eardrums with songs from their digital single “Ava/Pretty Dream” and their demo EP. Diners was a welcome relief for the ears as people crowded around Tyler’s guitar amp and keyboard. Tyler treated the crowd to old favorites (even tracks from their first EP “Throw Me a Ten”), and songs from the latest Diners 7”, “It’s All True”, put out by Asian Man Records. His subtle musical showmanship was captured in the different performance stunts like medley-ing short songs together, grand pauses, continually rising key changes, and repeated chordal motifs that would show up randomly in other songs. The crowd was enchanted and definitely left wanting more of his unique brand of smooth ‘60s and ‘70s pop music.

The band members of Winter Break were visibly under the weather but they still delivered a tight set of songs at the end of the night from their 2015 self-titled release, and some new songs. The anticipation is building for the new Diners LP, tentatively titled Diners III according to Tyler, which will be out on Asian Man Records before the end of the year! – Alyx Poska, photo credit: Ryan Mo

2016 is a leap year, and you know what that means: February gets five Mondays! Moonlight an extra night at these FREE Los Angeles residencies. Lena Fayre graces the Bootleg after a sold out show at Chicago’s Art Institute — and possibly with new songs from an upcoming release? The bar stage gets a fifth Monday sendoff from Marjorie Fair. From Aliso Viejo to Los Angeles, trio Adult Books begin their monthlong stay at The Echo, switching it up on the third Monday with a performance at the spaced out Echoplex — read their latest interview with Lo-Pie. Pom Poms and The Controversy share four nights at The Satellite. Finally, Bright Missiles tear it up on Tuesdays at Silverlake Lounge, after Silver Snakes‘ last free Monday with AEGES, Minnow, and The Royal. – Ryan Mo

Lena Fayre at The Bootleg (21+):

Feb. 1 — with Vox, AKW
Feb. 8 — with TRACE, Lush Guts
Feb. 15 — with YASSOU, Me Yow
Feb. 22 — with Phebe Starr

Adult Books at The Echo (21+):

Feb. 1 — with The Molochs, Drinking Flowers, Terminal A
Feb. 8 — with Colleen Green, Psychomagic, Mother Merry Go Round
Feb. 15 — with Numb.er, Tracy Bryant, Wyatt Blair
Feb. 22 — with Part Time, Billy Changer, Noah Kwid (at The Echoplex)

Pom Poms and The Controversy at The Satellite (21+):

Feb. 1 — with Mothertapes, Chasing Kings
Feb. 8 — with Artists TBA
Feb. 15 — with Artists TBA
Feb. 22 — with Artists TBA
Feb. 29 — with Artists TBA

Bright Missiles at Silverlake Lounge (21+):

Feb. 8 — with Steps of Doe, Fan Fiction, Judy Gloom
Feb. 15 — with The Modern Age, Yo, The Noogles
Feb. 22 — with Pizza Friday, Deep Breaths, V.V. Friendly
Feb. 29 — with Jubilo Drive, Bedbugs, Ghosts In Pocket

On February 5th, local music collective Diy4lyfe lines an arthouse stage with five up-and-coming bands from disparate cities across Southern California. Originally billed as a release party for The Human Machine‘s Patterns, the event was postponed to add Young Lovers with Hollow Ran, Pedestrian, and Twentytwofourteen (who recently released the "Please Go Quietly" EP). Each band performs with their own projections, along with a special music video premiere by live-loop duo Time and Energy.

The show is one of many efforts to fundraise for The Frida Cinema, a non-profit community-driven arthouse cinema in Santa Ana. Founded in 2014 by director and OC native Logan Crow, The Frida Cinema has featured critically acclaimed and underrepresented films for Orange County residents. Last May, Crow announced to LA Times that once the theater developed a solid audience, he would celebrate with a screening of The Room. Godspeed.

Set times and ticket information on the event page. – Ryan Mo

Less than a year since his last album Ghost, the animated avant-pop statue Julius Smack releases Tomb Songs, a collection of works expressing the individual pains of the post-industrial world. The San Francisco transplant’s effete voice swims through isopropyl synths, reappropriated samples, and layered drums to create maximalist narratives ("Poetics I") as dance-y as they are contemplative. Catch Julius Smack as he performs at pehrspace tonight with Practical Records siblings Michael Vidal, Lucky Dragons, Grand Lady Dance House, and Mo Dotti. – Ryan Mo

We’re enthralled with "Gravity", the first track from Alex Rajabi’s alias Plaster Cast since last year’s debut "Sunless". A spiritual transmigration of the prophecized "future of R&B" duo Malta, Rajabi shifts weight in this tandem production with the self-proclaimed GodKing BRAH1M. A current that rides the minimal structure of "Gravity" exemplifies the sublation of hip-hop and electronic music without washing out the je ne sais quoi of Plaster Cast’s past life, from the vocals of Michaela Wilson (previously featured in Malta’s "Out of Bounds") to the permeating future rhythms. But something was left behind in the metempsychosis, whether real or perceived, and we can’t help but listen again and again to find this void, this absence that haunts and beckons our ears.

Stream "Gravity", the first track from Plaster Cast’s debut EP "Permanence" — out March 4th on Los Angeles’ Zoom Lens. – Ryan Mo

SFV’s raw modal-soul polymaths The Unending Thread have released a video to "La Casa De Mi Padre", the second song to their split EP with Forget It — which is out and free to stream, by the way. Cooped up at the Henhouse Studio (confimed that Julian Tallman-Rogatini raises chickens), the trio delve into lyrical self-actualization and drool-worthy double-tapping that splashes near-obscene amounts of color over the grisaille landscape of the forseeable future.

"I know I don’t know anything | And that’s the best part of this journey that hasn’t happened yet"

Like, if someone were to make a Youtube AMV for Over The Garden Wall, it would be criminal not to use this song.

On a more serious note, The Unending Thread faces off with Forget It at The Smell on February 4th’s "AMP vs. AMP Deathmatch" where the two bands will celebrate the Los Angeles release of their split EP by performing songs and piledrivers on each other. The trash talk surrounding Dustin and the Explosions, Haricort Vertt (fka Josh Abrahms), Love Nothing and Ferbus also comes to a head — there will be blood, or at least some drawn-out carnage. Expect an obscene amount of chairs, tables, ladders, and maybe even a kendo stick to be pulled from under the stage. – Ryan Mo

In a twist of events, Los Angeles’ occult punks Sextile were recently hand-picked to tour parts of the West Coast with self-actualized Oakland-turned-Venetian EBM project The Soft Moon, following the dropout of headliner Killing Joke due to health reasons. Taking financial difficulties into account, Sextile launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for touring expenses —  the band has reached almost $1000, nearly 120% of their goal, with 13 more days to go. The support does not come unwarranted, either — since the release of their debut album A Thousand Hands, Sextile have made a name for themselves performing across Los Angeles with darker dance partners like The Electric West, L.A. Drones, and Terminal A. With expanding coverage from shore to shore, their purgatory sounds evoke perfectly the spiritual unrest and emotional agitation that scrapes the back of our thoughts.  

In a recent interview with music blog Heathen Harvest, the band has announced that it will also perform at SXSW this year, and are currently writing new material for upcoming releases. Stream Sextile’s debut album A Thousand Hands on Bandcamp and catch them at The Casbah in San Diego tonight. – Ryan Mo

With regret, members are pulling the plug on Cruelty Code in two more shows. Known for their mixture of trepanating timbres and rusted-scalpel lyrics, the paragon of IE coldwave exemplified Salope Cassette‘s nursery of whispered auteurs including Contraciel, Shojo Winter, and Ambersmoke. The departure of Cruelty Code comes as a tragedy to Southern California’s close-knit and supportive communities of noise — the project is survived by The Victoriana and Pornography Ethics.

Their three-date send-off began last night in Riverside with Shitgiver, Band Aparte, and Sashcloth & Axes. Kevin McVey (Shojo Winter, ex-Crisis Arm) fills in synth for Kevin Martin (ex-Apathean, Eisenhower). – Ryan Mo, photo credit: Shojo Winter

1/30 Temecula @ The Dial with MATH, Wreckage and Black Cat, Shojo Winter

2/05 Los Angeles @ Timewarp with OCD, Toner, Shojo Winter, The Unending Thread

The pikachu backpack threw a lot of people off, including a couple who stood left of The Echo’s stage. Earlier, Nylo had lulled the audience with ease despite being a last-minute add. She lulled me, too. An indigo summer bathed the alt-R&B singer as bodies swayed to her glass notes. So when Meishi Smile set up, half of the crowd were none the wiser. Hidden among chillwave hopefuls, Zoom Lens’ cult following showed their true colors as Nadia Ulerich sat, fingers curled like a full lotus and a masked Lindsay Anne drew out the gong. Obscured by a black lace veil, Garrett began and people were grounded, some wounded by its immediacy — noise and synth, autotune and scream. But in the din of cyberpunk closer "…Belong", they understood. Briefly.

Survivors and the sated scanned their surroundings as Jeremy Malvin took the stage. And together, they entered the chrome forest. Need more be said? – Ryan Mo, photo credit: Joey Tobin

Dreampop darlings Crescendo are set for release of the sophomore album Unless, with plans for a national tour and performances at this year’s SXSW. Led by flagship single "Repulsor", trio Gregory Cole, Olive Kimoto, and Jess Krichelle explore hyperspace romanticism, diving in and out of star clusters with celestial melodies and post-punk rhythms. The band drives up their momentum following last year’s performances with diverse acts like PART TIME, Glasz, The Unending Thread, and Cruelty Code. Unless will release through Italian label We Were Never Being Boring on February 19th. 

Crescendo plays a free show with Crown Plaza at Pomona’s Acerogami next Friday — Gabrielle Costa (DREAMWAVE) and Jim Smith (The Smell) switch up shoegaze, dreampop, and post-punk hits in-between sets. Listen to "Haunted", the second track off Crescendo’s upcoming album Unless. – Ryan Mo

The Loop Goddess Linafornia is about to bless 2016 in swaths of vinyl scratch and emerald shine with her debut YUNG, through Alpha Pup’s sibling Dome of Doom. Since last summer’s "wetttt" and the more recent "brownies", Leimert Park’s underground empress has made waves playing a bevy of shows, including November’s Manifestival at Los Globos. Galvanizing a crowd is nothing new to the beat battle veteran, whose diverse sampling and creative change-ups have recently led to her induction to the Beat Cinema podcast family. 

Having swept up the Leimert Park crowd yesterday with her record release party, Linafornia crosses the Rubicon tonight at The Airliner with Ras G, Astronautica, SWARVY, and the Low End Theory pantheon. 

Find YUNG digitally on iTunes and in limited edition cassettes through Dome of Doom this Friday.

1/22 Pasadena @ Poobah Records

1/28 Santa Ana @ Diego’s

1/29 Los Angeles @ Shambala Studios

Open wide: tonight, decibel diner pehrspace serves up a five-course meal for East LA with sommelier Bed Weather and maître Diy4Lyfe. Alex Nevins (fka Songs for Ghosts to Haunt to) cleanses the palette with a selection of acoustic amuse-bouche as Simi Valley shoegazers SHEER stir a hunger fierce with their debut album Uneasy. 

Chicagoan settlers Young Jesus make good on their promise to sate volume-starved fans after a close call at Emerald House, and Portland touring bands Sioux Falls and Cool American will likely leave Echo Park yearning for seconds — you’ll be relieved to know that the Oregonians are also playing Thursday at Fullerton’s Programme HQ. Bon apetit. – Ryan Mo