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Funeral Party on the USS Midway

This past Friday evening, atop the USS Midway, Funeral Party put on a show for a small group of loyal comic book and music lovers alike.  And as any Comic-Con after party goes, the drama never ceased to impress, making this, without a doubt, the best party I have ever been to... on an aircraft carrier. William Shatner has already landed his helicopter atop the out-of-commission WWII boat.  David Hasselhoff was spotted making his rounds and taking his dogs for a walk on the upper deck.  Lead singer Chad Elliott underwent a mysterious allergic reaction and was rushed to the hospital.  He never quite made it back to the boat, but Funeral Party still managed to put on a pretty sweet instrumental performance (don’t worry, Chad’s all better now).

Before the show, I managed to grab a quick Q&A with lead guitarist and back-up vocalist, James Torres:

So, can you tell me a little bit about Funeral Party’s history?
I wanted to start a band four years ago, and I approached the singer, Chad Elliott, and I asked him to start a band, and it kind of went from there.  We had other members.  Quite a few change outs of drummers, but officially for two years we’ve been a band.  We used to just play backyard parties and crazy stuff like that… people would get shot and stabbed.  We moved up from there to venues and then we got signed last year to Sony.  And our album is coming out in January.

Where’d the name Funeral Party come from?
Our singer [Chad] came into his sister’s room one day and she was listening to The Cure, the song called “The Funeral Party.”  He asked her about it… Long story short she told him the name of the song and he knew that was gonna be the title of the band.

Tonight, who are you most excited to party with on the boat?
David Hasselhoff’s daughters.

What can you tell me about your upcoming album?
Well, its our first efforts and the music itself captures youthfulness and the whole scene that we came from.  The theme of the album is escapism.  It’s like trying to leave.  Pick up from where you’re at and just take off on a whim, in a moment’s notice.  Which is what we’ve been doing, touring around the world.  Being able to escape Whittier, which is where we are from.  Which is so hard  - everybody that is born there is considered under the Whittier curse.  You know you’re never gonna escape, but luckily we managed to escape that whole stereotype.

Are you excited about all the hype behind the band and the dance-rock genre?
I’m more or less excited to just be able to be travelling.  Just be in a different city every day.  It’s really fun.  As for the album itself, yeah I’m really excited that we are gonna be projecting onto a higher level, a higher platform.  To be able to express our music and get what we want out there.  Yeah, I’m really excited.

Around 8:30, the band began to play… minus Chad.  They were still dead on, completely synchronized even with the absence of lyrical cues.  Playing for half and hour, I can only assume they played the majority of their upcoming album and even though I couldn’t exactly tell what the songs will sound like with vocals, instrumentally they all make for quite the dance party.  Should be a good time.  Who doesn’t love a funeral party?

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Funeral Party’s debut album should be out around the second week of January, 2011.  Check out their first single:

“Finale”

For more photos check out Danielle Polikoff’s set on flickr

MVM : The Runaways

After a long weekend of Comic Con-ing and boozing, I settled into the sofa Sunday night with a bottle of wine and a red box rental. I always get pretty bummed on my last day of freedom before the work week begins, but The Runaways was finally out on DVD and I couldn't have been more excited to see it. All of the drug induced scenes and aggro girl power got me jumping around yelling "ch ch ch ch cherry bomb!" much to the delight of my boyfriend and his roommates. There's something really special about knowing what you will be for Halloween three months in advance.

Here are the real The Runaways performing "Cherry Bomb"

MVM : MGMT

French artist, So Me, directed MGMT's latest crazy video for the song "It's Working." It feels like an Ikea furniture assembly on heavy acid ... not that I've ever done acid, but maybe I would if it looked and sounded this awesome. Have a nice trip and enjoy MGMT live this Thursday at SDSU's Open Air Theatre.

Festivus Quietus This Saturday

This Saturday, come celebrate the three-day weekend with an all-day, mini festival featuring stripped down, living room sets by:

Miss Erika Davies, The Finches, Chairs Missing, Jehova's Fitness, Jamuel Saxon, Logan Greene & The Bricks, Cuckoo Chaos, Trashcan Fires, Black Mamba, Jona, End The Whale, Lonesome Sparrow, Cousins.

This anit-music festival won't include huge stages, $8 beers and endless lines for the port-o-johns.  What you can expect is three intimate house venues, a block party vibe and some of the best music San Diego has to offer.

Show up between 3-11pm to The Maple / Montclair Houses (2611 Montclair)

Little White Teeth LP, Tour w/ Pinback

Coming off of their record release show last Saturday at Casbah, Little White Teeth hit the road tomorrow on a two week, west coast stint with Pinback.  You can sample a track off of the self-titled debut below, and if you like what you hear, you can grab the album off iTunes here.

Little White Teeth - "Nights Sands"

We'll be sending a pack of disposable cameras along with both bands for the following set of dates.  Cruise out and say hi!

July 01 - Detroir Bar (Costa Mesa, CA)
July 02 - Blank Club (San Jose, CA)
July 03 - Independent (San Francisco, CA)
July 05 - Neumo's (Seattle, WA)
July 06 - Wild Buffalo (Bellingham, WA)
July 07 - Doug Fir (Portland, OR)
July 08 - Domino Room (Bend, OR)
July 09 - Tonic Lounge (Reno, NV)
July 10 - Catalyst (Santa Cruz, CA)
July 11 - Downtown Brew (Paso Robles, CA)