Look Daggers look to Long Beach with new album and DVD

There’s a moment halfway through the live performance/documentary DVD Alive For Now in Long Beach when Lord Zen (of Visionaries/Writer’s Block/LVX Collective) joins Look Daggers onstage at the Prospector during “The Youth is Getting Restless” and we see the band captured at or very close to a moment of zenith, a gloomy dub beat pushing steadily in the background as Lord Zen passes 2Mex his drink, compliments (an undeniably stunning) Mendee Ichikawa and nods over to Ikey Owens before launching into a freestyle that carries the song out of frame and into the next chapter on the disc. The scene is one of many highlights on Alive For Now, released later this month with Look Daggers’ debut Suffer in Style. Alive For Now tells the story behind Look Daggers, founded by 2Mex and Ikey and joined by Chris Clawson, Travis Laws, Jesse Wilder and Mendee. It’s about how they formed (2Mex wanted to craft a sound that was “hip-hop and rock that doesn’t sound like the Roots”; no offense meant to the Roots, he notes); about how they made the record (in two parts, over two years, all live, with no Pro Tools and helped by most of Long Beach, it seems, from Matt Wignall to Veronica Cruz to Marshall Goodman and nearly a dozen others); and in a way, about Long Beach itself—specifically, the concentrated talent within this city and the outskirts of its footprint. Suffer in Style will own your iTunes; Alive For Now your DVD player. Both will leave you loving Long Beach more than you may have ever known possible.

LOOK DAGGERS WITH LES CLAYPOOL, RZA, TOM MORELLO, DILATED PEOPLES, Z TRIP, MURS, BUSDRIVER, QUNITO SOL, FREE THE ROBOTS AND MANY MORE AT WE THE PEOPLE LOS ANGELES STATE HISTORIC PARK 1245 N SPRING ST | LOS ANGELES 90012 | SAT 4PM-MIDNIGHT | $45 MYSPACE.COM/LOOKDAGGERS AND WETHEPEOPLEFESTIVAL.COM | “SUFFER IN STYLE” AVAILABLE SEPT 30 FROM UP ABOVE RECORDS

Tags: 2mex, ikey owens, Long Beach, look daggers, the prospector