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This month, we’ve woven together a program consisting of original stories (courtesy of Joseph Mailander) and songs on some notorious LA neighborhoods and intersections.
We’d like to give special thanks to guest narrator Joseph Mailander and this month’s guest artists, Les Blanks and Dante Vs. Zombies.
TRACKLISTING:
Les Blanks “South Bay”
Sweaters “Dark Visions”
Rachel Fannan Featuring Michael Harris “Nuestra Reina de Los Angeles”
Johnny O’Donnell and Sacramento “Devil in Koreatown”
Dante Vs. Zombies “Penectomy Canyon Park Heights Adjacent”
Gabriel Hart and the Fourth Wall “Blacklight Night”
CHECK OUT OUR GUEST ARTISTS:
www.lesblanks.com
www.dantevszombies.com
ABOUT OUR NARRATOR: Mailander is the founder/writer of www.street-hassle.blogspot.com, a local L.A. politics/civic-ephemera site, the author of The Plasma of Terror and much other fiction and poetry. He lives in Los Angeles.
COME VISIT US:
www.thewesterncanon.tumblr.com
Hello, we’ve made some updates to our website and are gearing up to release our next episode,
“LA Neighborhoods”. Stay tuned.
We learn geology the morning after the earthquake.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
This month, Steve Moramarco hosts a ‘telethon’ benefiting survivors of the recent 9.0 Los Angeles earthquake.
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“The Save LA Telethon” was inspired by both the non-fictionalized fantasy of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio broadcast and the groan-inducing telethons of iconic comedian Jerry Lewis. The Canon decided to write songs imagining life in Los Angeles after the inevitable “Big One” of legend strikes. It seemed to us that a goony telethon for charity would be a likely way for the city to unite and face this disaster head on (and a fun way to tie our program together). We hope you enjoy “The Save LA Telethon”.
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Credits:
Johnny O’Donnell & Sacramento “Skeletal City”
Airships “Swingin’ Digs”
Rachel Fannan & Michael Harris “Sosneado”
Gabriel Hart & The Savage Gospel “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Cease to Shine”
John Carpenter “Slowly to the Shadows”
Warren John Thomas II & Jada Wagonsomer “Pearl Amidst the Plague”
Produced by Eric Rennaker @ Zombeat Recordings.
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Note: If you have any questions, please feel free to “Ask the Canon” (located on the left sidebar beneath our logo).
“Earthquake” by Snake Jagger.
tumblrbot: WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER WHEN YOU ARE IN A BAD MOOD?
A nice vodka soda at Taix.
a program so good, one canon resist.
The Western Canon is not a band, a record label, or the latest cocktail craze; the Western Canon is a gang of songwriters dedicated to challenging their abilities through an original project.
Conceived over several nights at fine establishments across Los Angeles (Musso and Frank, Taix, The HMS Bounty, Astro-Burger) the rules of the project follow thusly: every month parameters are chosen for the program. These parameters could include a lyrical theme, compositional constraints (i.e. all waltzes!), lyrical and compositional constraints (i.a. all waltzes about Royals!), or perhaps the score to a film or a mini-opera… it may even go into left field from there. Once the songwriters have agreed on the parameters, they then rush to write and rehearse an original piece of music (or beloved cover) within the agreed upon constraints. These songs are then recorded over two days in a marathon session under the watchful eye of Eric Rennaker @Zombeat Recording. Once the songs are recorded and mixed the Canon will then invite a local voice (an L.A. writer, comedian, artist, or musician) to write a narrative that ties the theme and the music into one unified program for you to enjoy.
The Western Canon goes above and beyond in its efforts to work completely outside of genres; within their brief existence they have already tackled sleazy rock, graceful pop, Rachmaninoff-Gone-Surfing, epic dub sessions, abstract choral arrangements, wild-eyed hippie campfire singalongs, moody post-punk, and of course big, dumb rock. As long as there are stories to tell, futures to predict, and lands to explore, the Western Canon will be there to cover them through song.
