We Attend an Old Fashioned Freakout With Ad Astra Arkestra / Plus, Party Pics and More Shenanigans From Team Bear Club and Baiowolf

It was 102 degrees when we walked into the Replay for last night's Ad Astra Arkestra matinee and the band was rocking a 20 minute percussion-party. In our heat-induced delirium, we briefly thought we'd passed through some sort of Donnie Darko-style wormhole and landed in a Bonnaroo drum circle. Yes, we were pretty scared. Looking around, however, we spotted a veritable panoply (Chip: "?") of local scenester culture. Look: there's Hospital Ships docked (get it?) in a nearby booth. And there's @nuthousepunks filming the "happening" for the Pitch. And there's A. Ruscin snapping Party Pics that might eventually appear on L.com. So we relaxed, downed a PBR, and after the drum solos ended, the band took a break, regrouped, discovered an attractive female lead singer, and launched into some actual songs.



















The first song may have been our favorite: a cover of the Beatles' "Don't Let Me Down" that was occasionally punctuated by off-tempo strikes of a transparent upright bass drum that were as shockingly loud as shotgun blasts. Amazing. After that they leapfrogged through all manner of weirdness. Music-scholar King Tosser felt a bit of a Buena Vista Social Club vibe to some of the sounds (more like Buena Vista Social Club on bath salts!). And at one point the lead singer blew a whistle for a long time while the band counted off as in the midst of a cheerleading session. The set proper closed with an Ad Astra Per Aspera cover, the band's previous incarnation before morphing into an "Arkestra." And this was followed by an encore of a little more quiet and contemplative percussive plunking.

Verdict: three out of four PBRs that we sweated out immediately.

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Party Pics are back in action on L.com, taken at DanceItLawrence's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" party on July 15 at the Granada. Can anybody explain to us what is going on in these photos and why we weren't informed that nearly naked ladies would be on parade? Rob was out of town at Pitchfork Fest when this occurred, so we'll forgive him for not offering us an "all-access backstage boner pass."


























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Those little scamps in Team Bear Club are always doing dirty things, and tonight they're doing something called "Dirty Dirty Dirty" at the Granada. We love the info on their FB event page :

"These bastards sound too damn good. Mitmo sounds like Teriyaki covered shrimp. I H8 TASTY SOUNDING THINGS. And that nigga MORRI$ is way too swagged out, with his wooden jesus piece, and his GQ glasses. And that Fire For Effect dood, homie looks like Johnny Depp on fairy dust. Shit.

And the women, way too pretty. I hate rooms full of bad bitches. I mean srsly, this shit is ridiculous. It's like I died and arose in a supermodel grinding competition. It's like Noodles and Co. and 3 spoons merged to create the bad bitch hangout spot (incorporated). It's like a bad bitch family reunion.

And I wasn't that mad until I learned about the special guest. MUTHA FUCKIN BAIOWOLF? fuck this, all they rap about is video games and sex. why can't they rap about cooler things, like the kerbs cycle or dental floss. Im over this.

Watch Baiowolf perform "Dumptrucks" here .

Hopefully Phil Canty is going to send us some exclusive rare Bear footage one of these days!