Seven bands five years ahead of my time

RTX by SASHA EISENMAN

Fifty-some weeks on this page and apart from abuse and hurtful misconception—I try to tip well whenever possible—I have also missed a lot of chances I should have gotten; deadlines and one page a week mean many musicians don’t always get a place to fit and so I end up with to-do playlists becoming guilt indexes. So here are some hopes for the next 52 issues—a few locals I will recommend now until I get the chance to fully feature them in the future.

LMNO
Most-Long-Beach-Visionary LMNO—grandma in Bixby Knolls, says Key Kool—just released a new record with majority production by comer Kev Brown, who (with LMNO) will be opening for Pete Rock at the Vault for a reason. Early listens to Selective Hearing find consistency suiting LMNO, who rolls over Brown’s stripped golden-era beats with particularly striated lyrics pushing that near-and-dear mix of hope and urgency.

BAD PARENTS
Bad Parents make rarely rattled Rik L Rik rock (F-Word or Negative Trend) or maybe like Weiffenbach on Wipers four-tracks, and they do have a song called “Needs More Than Faith”—it’s legit for particularly within-the-box drumming from ex-Street Trasher Mike Shelbourn, Anthony Tchovsky singing Ballard like Brannon, ex-Geisha Girl John Roller using kite-string Ventures leads to hold chorus and verse together, and bassist (and ex-Alleged Gunmen) George Navarro making sure the song doesn’t get off the hook and run for daylight. Silkscreened one-sided 12” EP says they care; depleting first pressing says others do, too.

HALFWAY HOUSE EMCEES
For the duration, someone said about these guys—Eighth and Dawson records has been crunching out these self-released singles (among some like “Shit on a Shingle” and “No Need to Act” and with feature spots from locals like J. Rocc and LMNO) and locking down the opening spot for half the worthy touring shows (recently: Edo G. and crowd) for a long respectable time. Whatever they’re doing, they aren’t quitting.

MAGIC LANTERN
Hawkwind’s space ritual summoned bands like Magic Lantern from the outer dimensions: therapeutic repetition and yonic drone aligned to make a new (or very old) form of transportation. “Decorative but not intrusive,” says percussionist/brass/etc. Phil French, who with these four other lighthouse keepers makes deep and wild (like forest primeval) instrumentals for another green world.

RTX
Beyond the real deal is the unreal deal, from which descend RTX, who are Jennifer Herrema from Royal Trux—she who skins her own furs—plus four iron-hided shred-men, one of whom is on drums simply to underscore such a happy surplus of shred capability. RTX is music from Decline of Western Civilization Part 2 and vocals from Decline of Western Civilization Part 1 and they are hesh perfection so pure the graves at Trenton stir wary anew. I was saying Guns ‘n’ Roses with Roky Erickson—cf. Roky’s Enigma years—but that falls short on both counts, and I was as shocked as you to figure that out.

PHILIEANO
Skunk records regrouping with new acts like rapper Philieano, a vociferous weedian who’s shared stage space with Dub All Stars and Visionaries members and who released his Holy Homework full-length last winter. Bare production leaves lots of room for Philieano to bounce around the corners—agile phrasing and the full run of backyard-party philosophizing point the way to a hometown label making its return.

FAST DRAGON
Reis-rock from ex-Days End (among others) who opened for Night Marchers at about their second show—nowhere to go but even further up! Fans of the ’90s heaviness that didn’t always involve amphetamines or reptiles—but did involve karps and godheads and silos, which I guess just reneged the earlier statement—will crack knuckles cheerfully for these four dudes whose strongest riffs got there on the guts of the weakest riffs. One of their best on the coming Fidotrust comp.

THE VALLEY ARENA AT THE DISTRICT ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY PARTY THE CELLAR | 201 E BROADWAY | LONG BEACH 90802 | FRI 9PM | $10 INCLUDES FREE DRINK TICKET | 21+

Tags: bad parents, fast dragon, halfway house emcees, lmno, magic lantern, philieano, rtx