Anglos Live In LA! Sunday @ Tangier!

Angus Khan meet Cheech and Chong.

A sneak peak of one of the many awesome tracks from the upcoming Beat LA compilation. Check out this awesome clip from Angus Khan's set at Taix last month playing their contribution to the comp - Cheech and Chong's "Rock Fight"...



The even got props from Cheech and Chong themselves! Check it here (scroll down!)

VOTE FOR NO AGE!!!

As if the F'N MTV appearance wasn't weird enough. Our friends in No Age are now up for a Left Field Woodie award. Voting ends 11/7 so get your votes in soon. Si Se Puede!!!

http://woodies.mtvu.com/nominees/left_field_woodie

Congrats USA! + Awesome pop show this month!

Congrats USA! We're stoked! Yes! ... bummed about Prop 8 though ... c'mon California we're way better than that (or so I thought...) (sigh) but still we got the right guy in office to get us on the right path again...

So in other news if you are in the Los Angeles area you should totally go see our friend Luke Top on Saturday night at Little Radio. I got an advance of his new record and its amazing. No joke. I get those little chills at the back of my neck on some of the songs.

VOTE!

Go Obama! No on 8! Yes on 2! No on 4!

Brother Reade Fall Tour with Mates of State!

Brother Reade will be destroying the East Coast and dirty South with Mates of State throughout November... and they'll be dropping all those mind-blowingly awesome new jams along with the old faves.... too rad...

Here are the dates:
11.7 Asbury Park, NJ @ Wonder Bar
11.8 Philadelphia, PA @ The Trocadero
11.11 Washington DC @ The Black Cat
11.12 Charlotteville, VA @ Gravity Lounge
11.13 Charlotte, NC @ Neighborhood Theatre
11.14 Lexington, KY @ The Dame
11.15 Louisville, KY @ Headliners
11.16 Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle
11.17 Nashville, TN @ Exit/Inn
11.19 Jacksonville, FL @ Freebird Live
11.20 Atlanta, GA @ The Loft
11.21 Greenville, SC @ The Handlebar
11.22 Chapel Hill, NC @ Cat's Cradle
11.23 Baltimore, MD @ The Ottobar

Tonight! Moon Dogg @ The Verdugo!!

Our friends No Age on The Late Late Show

Two more Obvious Books London dates added this month!

Should you find yourself in London be sure to check out our favorite band Obvious Books at The Metro on October 20th and at the Tower Tavern on October 23rd!

The boys also posted some new pics from their gig at the Cosh Club over the weekend. You can see them all here.

Pelican were robbed in Rome...

This statement from our friends in Pelican:

"Our other​wise excel​lent tour of Europ​e hit a sever​e strok​e of bad luck this week.​ Two days ago we had a spare​ half hour to spend​ in Rome befor​e headi​ng to the venue​,​ so we decid​ed to go see the Colis​eum.​ We parke​d nearb​y and went to take a brief​ twent​y-​minut​e walk aroun​d the area.​ When we retur​ned to our van we found​ that it had been broke​n into,​ despi​te being​ parke​d on a major​ stree​t in broad​ dayli​ght.​ Four bags were stole​n,​ the conte​nts inclu​ding compu​ters,​ passp​orts,​ walle​ts,​ iPods​,​ our sound​guy'​s micro​phone​ colle​ction​,​ and, most devas​tatin​gly,​ a numbe​r of perso​nal journ​als and two porta​ble recor​ding devic​es conta​ining​ hours​ of song ideas​ that are now lost forev​er.​

The calcu​lated​ loss of this theft​ is sever​al thous​ands of dolla​rs.​ Unfor​tunat​ely our band only earns​ us a very meage​r livin​g and some of us are alrea​dy in the hole from years​ of tryin​g to make a livin​g as music​ians.​ This incid​ent there​fore poses​ a devas​tatin​g loss and puts us in a very compr​omise​d finan​cial posit​ion.​ Altho​ugh we reali​ze that there​ is a world​wide finan​cial crisi​s going​ on, if there​ are those​ of you who have the means​ and desir​e to help out our grati​tude would​ run deepe​r than words​ could​ expre​ss.​ We'​ve set up a PayPa​l accou​nt at the addre​ss pelic​anrob​bed@​gmail​.​com.​ Anyth​ing you can offer​,​ even simpl​e condo​lence​s,​ would​ go a long way. Thank​s so much for readi​ng.​"

Please give anything you can!

Should you find yourself in Camden this weekend...

Brother Reade Southern Dates...

Another episode of Moon Dogg at the Verdugo

The Return Of Moon Dogggggggggg!

Filter Magazine digs on Anglos.

This week Filter Magazine featured Anglos as-yet-unreleased debut ep as a pick of the week. Thanks Filter! You can check it out here: http://www.filter-mag.com/index.php?id=94&c=picks

Introducing ANGLOS

We're extremely excited to introduce the latest members of the greatminds family. Anglos are a four piece Los Angeles based band, that in our minds are creating some of the best music around. Upon listening to a demo of their upcoming single "Cleopatra" we knew we could not pass up the chance to put this record out. This song is an instant classic and will be part of an amazing debut ep out this October, but until then you can stream the ep at the Anglos myspace page.

Brother Reade announce East Coast dates!

Radness Documented.

Brother Reade unleashed a sneak peak of their upcoming greatminds! release at the Fuck Yeah Fest benefit concert at our friend Dave's place on August 12th and the LA Weekly was there to snag pics. Check this rad shot by Timothy Norris. You can see the rest of the pics here.

Another Rad video from our friends No Age.

Amazing Alex Ross Painting

She Lunch.

Moon Dogg tonight at the Cha Cha

The Maestro

My friend Kristin sent me this great video of Dali and a rhino. Too good not to share. After that is a video tribute to the great surrealist that ends with a pair of commercials starring the Maestro you have to witness...

Brother Reade Tonight and Tomorrow!

Brother Reade are performing at a pair of events this weekend. The fun kicks off tonight when Jams and Bobby Evans hit the The Getty with Mr. Dan Deacon. Its free so you have no excuse! It goes from 6 - 9 so hit it right after work if you can! More info here.

Then you can catch them tomorrow night at the benefit to stop child exploitation at the Pool trade show w/ Lakes. Here's the address: 2900 Rowena Avenue Los Angeles!!

BLOW THE DUST OFF IT No.2: Bill Nelson's Red Noise

Welcome to the second installment of Blow The Dust Off It. A monthly post where we highlight a record that was special to us, and we feel needs to be rediscovered, or for some discovered for the first time.

This months record is Sound On Sound by Bill Nelson's Red Noise. I chose a fairly obscure record from 1979 this month because 1) its awesome and 2) its as old as me (and I'm equally obscure!) After disbanding his prog meets proto punk group Be Bop Deluxe in 1978, Bill Nelson added this razor sharp album to the post punk canon. Sound On Sound is a largely unheard classic. It sounds like how you wish the future would sound. Fans of Devo, Eno's rock work and current spazzes Ex-Models and Polysics would be doing themselves a favor to pick this up. All you young moderns - welcome to the atom age!!

Key Tracks: A Better Home in the Phantom Zone, Radar In My Heart, Revolt Into Style

MySpace

www.last.fm

Buy It

Hammer And Tickle: The story behind the smiles.....

So we realised we had a full album worth of Obvious Books material and that it would be an interesting idea to try and capture some of this stuff in some form or another. We met a few different producers and engineers and they were all wonderful people but we decided we were going to work with this serious looking guy called Dimitri Mandrelovich, a Russian Stalinist living England who seems to spend most of his time with his eyes on the stocks and shares he has sunk his money into. His gains and losses are vocalized with grunts of rage or whoops of delight depending on his luck. He takes a lot of phonecalls and we suspect he is selling guns but that is his gig, as they say in Volgograd. He agreed to make our album because we have a song entitled Sputnik and allegedly his grandfather worked on the Soviet Space Program or something. This same grandfather also chased the Nazi's all the way to Berlin in 1943. True Russian grit. A wild horse, as they say in St Petersburg......

The thing is, this guy is an uber-producer! He hears things nobody else's ears can detect, he suggests things we never thought of and he threatens our lives several times a day. When Russia were eliminated from a recent European Football tournament he was rolling his eyes with anger and claiming he would burn all the tapes. All of us have wept at least once during the recording of this album. It has been a great campaign indeed and we hope that it sounds as exciting to other people as it does to us. Dimitri tells us that he has already had the Moscow Mafia on the cellphone informing him that they want a copy of the disc when it is fininshed. We may not live long enough to record a second album but if we do, I hope we record it with Dimitri Malendrovich.

Jimmy Obvious Xx

No Walking.

I posted earlier about our friends No Age and their video's debut on Mtv (which was both strange and amazing to watch.) The video is gorgeous and the song is great (good job Dean and Randy!)... anyway here's a Mtv viewer review of the video that we thought was awesome:

Save the Knitting Factory!

People. The Knit is in risk of closing down forever! All of our artists and most of our friends have played at this venue! LA is just starting to get really rocking again and here comes "the man" trying to steal one of our few all ages venues! Put a stop to this bullshit. Its mega-fucked. If you want to help protect live music in LA and stop the powers that be from shutting down other LA venues, please let your voice be heard! Send letters of support to the Knit @ 7021 Hollywood Blvd Ste 209 Hollywood, CA 90028! Here's a letter from our friend Morgan:

I’m writing this letter to garner support for an upcoming public hearing by the LADBS (Los Angeles Bldg. and Safety) against our venue on Thursday July 17th 2008.

The Los Angeles Building Department is aggressively trying to revoke our CUP (Conditional Use Permit), for those of you who don’t know, a CUP is the conditions that all Restaurants, bars, clubs etc must run under in order to keep their doors open, if you lose your CUP, you are essential closed for business. After eight years in a crime riddled Hollywood corridor, the LADBS and vice, states that our venue is a “nuisance” and we do not comply under “upscale restaurant guidelines” (nonsense, food is always served and continues service and will someone please define “upscale” for me). They are also trying to say we do a steady stream of Erotica here, which is absurd, as we’ve only had 3 Adult Entertainment parties over 8 years and 10,000 shows.

Knitting Factory was lured to this location and has served as the anchor tenant to re vamp this neighborhood. Suddenly, as the neighborhood has pushed the drug dealers out, the rents up, built condos and turned our complex from an Entertainment Center to a retail center, we are no longer wanted. When we moved into this location the crime statistics where 3 times higher than the city average, the corner of Hollywood and Sycamore sat only 1 block North of the 18th street Gang. In 2004, this corner was used as the first corner to install cameras as a test to stop crime.

We’ve endured tremendous hardship from 2004 to 2007 in this complex, whilst LA Fitness, DSW, Longs and Fresh and Easy were built around us (joy and thrill to be in a mall) and Galaxy Movie Theatre, Hollywood Ent. Museum, Tower Records all went out of business. We still have “no” visible signage from Hollywood Boulevard except for a banner hanging at the back of the plaza. CIM, the landlord, claims that our cueing is a problem to some of the retail outlets; of course there wasn’t a complaint while the jack hammers blasted for 3 years and our parking structure shut down for 26 weeks. Still, we are jammed to the back of the plaza, with no access to the Sycamore door (by law) and no where to line up our patrons.

Our Public Hearing is scheduled for Thursday July 17th at 10am @ 200 N. Spring St, room 1020. Zoning Administration. I would greatly appreciate anyone willing to get up on our behalf, just show up and be a part of this fiasco, or at least send in a letter to me, supporting the need for Knitting Factory as a live Music venue in the Hollywood corridor.

Warmest,
Morgan

Moon Dogg! Tonight at the Cha Cha.

Power to the No Age.

Our friends No Age are playing for FREE at the Getty on Friday the 27th at 7pm! While you're at the show be sure to set your dvr/tivo/vcr what have you to record Mtv at 8pm when the video for their new single Eraser debuts! Apparently they'll be on Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy's show called F'NMTV. Funny! Thats a do not miss!!!

Here's the info on the live show:
J Paul Getty Museum
1200 Getty Center Drive
Los Angeles CA 90049-1687
http://www.getty.edu

Rest In Peace George Carlin

This Jazz Ain't Free Vol. 2

Summer is almost here! To help usher in the sweltering heat I've posted this here mixtape of my favorite dub and reggae jams... you can stream it here: THIS JAZZ AIN'T FREE Vol. 2
Enjoy!!

bringing it.

UPDATE: Bah! Brother Reade won't be on the tour! Bummer!!!

If you reside in the cities of Houston, Austin, Fort Worth or Memphis you are about to have the best time you've EVER had all June. Brother Reade will be killing it on a string of dates through Texas and ending in Memphis... Don't miss out...

Brother Reade dates: bah!

BLOW THE DUST OFF IT No.1: Clikatat Ikatowi

Welcome to the first installment of Blow The Dust Off It. A monthly post where we highlight a record that was special to us, and we feel needs to be rediscovered, or for some discovered for the first time.

This months record is Orchestrated & Conducted by Clikatat Ikatowi. Clikatat was a band that emerged from the mid 90s Gravity Records explosion and quickly became the band to see, and emulate. Those of you familiar with the band know that attempting to describe their sound would be nearly impossible. They delivered a sound that at the time felt more DC than So Cal. A insane rhythm section, mixed with the angular guitars and equally angular lyricism made for one of the most explosive bands to ever come out of the Southern California area.

Key Track: Science Fiction Reality

MySpace

www.last.fm

Interpunk

Tonight at the Cha Cha in Silverlake!

Barack Obama: Lakers in 6.

My friend Brian sent me this clipping from CNN: "Perhaps with an eye to California's 55 electoral votes, Obama also predicted that the Los Angeles Lakers would defeat the Boston Celtics in six games for the NBA Championship." Go Lakers! Go Barack!

Introducing Obvious Books...

When my good friend Josh told me about his new band in London I didn't realize they'd turn out to be my new favorite band. Obvious Books are the for real jam. Elements of The Fall, B-52s, Wire and The Screamers all smashed together into their own razor sharp sound. I seriously can't wait to release their debut album "So Be It You Neon!" this Fall!

Check them out live in London three times this month:
June 7th @ Lord Hood
June 21st @ The New Cross Inn
June 25th @ Nowhere To Run Club

And while you're at it, watch this:

Welcome to the official Great Minds Website!

We're stoked to launch! Check back here often for news and random stuff from all the Great Minds family...

Yay!