Tag Archives: Radio Venice S11.E13

Sunny War

October 20, 2021 Radio Venice 1 Comment

It’s no secret that great art comes from the margins. From those who are either pushed to create from inner forces, or who create to show they deserve to be recognized. Los Angeles based street singer, guitarist, and roots music revolutionary Sunny War has always been an outsider, always felt the drive to define her place in the world through music and songwriting.

As a young black girl growing up in Nashville, she searched for her own roots, looking first to the blues she heard from her mother’s boyfriend, and learning from a local guitarist. Moving to Los Angeles in her teens, she searched for herself in the LA punk scene, playing house shows with FIDLAR, and shoplifting DVDs from big box stores to trade at Amoeba Records for 80s punk albums. But here too she found herself on the outside, working to bridge her foundation in country blues and American roots guitar traditions with the punk scene she called home. She first made her name with this work, bringing a wickedly virtuosic touch on the fingerstyle guitar that sprang from her own self-discoveries on the instrument. But her restless spirit, a byproduct of growing up semi-nomadic with a single mother, led her to Venice Beach, California, where she’s been grinding the pavement for some years now, making a name for her prodigious guitar work and incisive songwriting, which touches on everything from police violence to alcoholism to love found and lost.

Her new album, With The Sun, out February 2, 2018 on Hen House Studios, is the culmination of years of burning curiosity as an artist, the result of many wandered paths to find some new way to speak her heart. For the first time, she’s writing songs first and crafting the guitar work second, focusing on her own poetry and trying to tell her own story. She’s an outsider artist in the truest sense, living on the margins of the establishment and fueled only by her own creative genius.

To help achieve With the Sun’s larger vision, Sunny War turned to the ragtag group of Venice Beach musicians she’s fallen in with, mainly members of psych folk band Insects vs Robot, including multi-instrumentalist Micah Nelson, fiddler Nikita Sorokin, and guitarist Milo Gonzalez. Produced by Harlan Steinberger at Hen House Studios in Venice Beach, which also doubled as the record label, the new album pushes and pulls between cleverly arranged orchestration and the DIY aesthetic that remains as Sunny’s throwback to her punk roots. For an artist with so many different influences, the album is remarkably cohesive, choosing to focus on Sunny’s songwriting and intricate guitar work. As an artist, Sunny borrows ideas and patterns at will from across the canon of American music. Her influences range from Elliott Smith, Black Flag, Joan Armatrading, and Tracy Chapman, to Robert Johnson (“To Love You” is her homage to Johnson’s “They’re Red Hot”), Elmore James, and Bessie Smith. “I feel like I am a blues guitarist, but I don’t think I’m a blues artist,” Sunny explains. “I only use the scales and techniques that I know and the only time I was trained in music was on blues guitar. I really love Elizabeth Cotton and Mississippi John Hurt. I still like to listen to them to feel that there’s nothing wrong with me playing the way I play.”

“…her right thumb plunks the bass part while her forefinger upstrokes notes and chords, leaving the other three fingers unused. A banjo technique, it’s also used by acoustic blues guitarists. Her fingers are long and strong – Robert Johnson hands – in jarring contrast to the waif they’re attached to. The walking bass line sounds like a hammer striking piano keys in perfect meter, while the fills are dynamic flurries – like cluster bombs. I haven’t heard a young guitarist this dexterous and ass-kicking in eons.”
– Michael Simmons, L.A Weekly

Sunny War on Radio Venice

Radio Venice presents Field Trippin’ Fest – October 24, 2021
Radio Venice Season 17 Premiere – May 16, 2021
Radio Venice S16.E11 – March 28, 2021
Radio Venice at Burning Man Day 5 – September 3, 2020
Radio Venice S13.E11 – March 29, 2020
Radio Venice 150th Episode – July 28, 2019
Radio Venice S11.E05 – June 2, 2019
Radio Venice S09.E11 – November 18, 2018
Radio Venice 100th Episode – May 6, 2018
Radio Venice S06.E13 – October 29, 2017 with Anus Kings
Radio Venice live at Timewarp – May 28, 2017
Radio Venice S05.E04 – April 2, 2017
Radio Venice S04.E08 – October 30, 2016
Radio Venice #23 – March 13, 2016
Radio Venice #6 – October 25, 2015

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Shows

Radio Venice S11.E13 – 150th Episode Live from Townhouse, Venice

July 28, 2019 Radio Venice Leave a comment

Featuring Sunny War (with Aroyn Davis), Ninja Academy + Unpopable, Golden Buddha, The Venice Philharmonic Orchestra and Petey Pete Continue reading Radio Venice S11.E13 – 150th Episode Live from Townhouse, Venice →

Musical Guests

Ninja Academy

July 22, 2019 Radio Venice Leave a comment

“An instrumental bass and drums fury.”

Ninja Academy is an instrumental rock duo consisting of Indo-Ninja on bass and Outdo-Ninja on drums. They have performed at almost every club in Los Angeles, including Spaceland, The Echo, Safari Sam’s, The Viper Room, The Roxy, and The Whiskey. In 2009 they completed two national tours. Notable past performances include a 5 week, sold out residency at the Silverlake Lounge; a sold out show opening for Rx Bandits at The Roxy; performing along side famous actors such as Tim Meadows, Andrew Daly and Matt Walsh at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in L.A.; performing with esteemed live painter/artist, Norton Wisdom; playing an acoustic set at a private party for Rickie Lee Jones’ birthday; and performing on the KTLA Morning Show at the Queen Mary. One of their most important shows was the farewell show for their martial artist, Donkey Punch at The Echo in Los Angeles. This show was sold out beyond capacity and filmed and recorded by Spaceland Productions. It is distributed and available for purchase internationally. Other notable artists they have opened for are: Mike Watt & The Secondmen, Nels Cline Singers, Banyan (with Stephen Perkins), and Donita Sparks (L7). In 2008, Ninja Academy was awarded the ‘Hear in L.A.’ prize for original composition, by the City of Los Angeles’ Department of Cultural Affairs and the Center for Cultural Innovation. Most recently, Ninja Academy was awarded a grant by the City of Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the Division of Cultural Affairs, to perform in Spring 2009’s ArtNight Pasadena. They were also included in Music Connection Magazine’s “Top 100 Unsigned Bands of 2009”. All these performances have gained Ninja Academy a loyal and large fan base, in addition to numerous “Go” mentions in the L.A. Weekly. As Indo-Ninja so eloquently puts it, “You never know when a Ninja is going to show up.”

Although Ninja Academy is mostly a bass and drums duo, there are many guest ninjas that join them on stage. Gongis Khan is their high-priestess who bangs on the Taiko drum and dances beautifully. Ninjamamalickum executes vocal destruction every time she steps up to the mic. There are many other occasional guests, varying from violin to guitar to martial artist. It may be interesting to note that Indo, Outdo and the two ladies are all of Asian decent and yes, they do dress like ninjas. Indo and Outdo are also in-demand musicians in their own right. Both of them have toured internationally (with separate groups) and both have appeared on national television programs like Late Night with David Letterman.

Ninja Academy has four releases under their belts; three studio albums (one of which has cover artwork by Chet Zar, Tool’s live video artist), and the above-mentioned live album. These CDs have been played on various radio stations (terrestrial and Internet) around the country, as well as having been licensed to MTV, Quicksilver and other productions.

Ninja Academy on Radio Venice

Radio Venice S10.E08 – March 3, 2019

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Musical Guests

Unpopable

July 22, 2019 Radio Venice Leave a comment

Addi Somekh makes and plays a bass made 100% out of latex balloons and air. The balloon bass is 3 and a half octaves and ranges from booming low frequencies all the way to twangy sitar-like sounds.

In his trio, Unpopable, Somekh is joined by two amazing musicians: Joey Maramba on electric bass and Arlynn Page on vocals.

Their sound ranges from nasty funk to cosmic lullabies, and everything in between. PS – Balloons will be twisted.

“As an ethnomusicologist, I can tell you that the ballon bass defies the usual categories of instrument classification, falling somewhere between those called chordophones (string instruments) and membranophones (basically, drums). But such technical analysis is rather beside the point. It’s what you can do musically with an instrument that matters.

Addi Somekh’s “balloon bass” is one of those perfect marriages of the silly and sublime. Combining the humblest of materials with pure human ingenuity, the balloon bass’s surprisingly adaptable “voice” and musical potential reminds us all of the reasons we play and listen to music in the first place: for the sheer joy of making sounds and playing together.”
— Jonathan Ritter, assistant professor of ethnomusicology, UC Riverside

Unpopable on Radio Venice

Radio Venice Season 11 Finale – July 28, 2019
Radio Venice S11.E10 – July 7, 2019

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Musical Guests

Golden Buddha

July 22, 2019 Radio Venice Leave a comment

It’s a long story …

They are the originators of the Mantra-Rock sound of the 90’s which has now infused itself into the consciousness of the new millennia.

With Teo Castro on Guitar and Vocals, Billy Stobo on Drums, and Jeffrey Dimmick on Bass, Golden Buddha becomes a mixture of ancient tones and modern sounds, interwoven with funky tribal rhythms and a hard biting edge.

The pulsating grooves of the bass are sensual and erotic.
The unrelenting drums are thunderous and melodic.
The soaring guitars and mystic vocals are penetrating and chaotic.

Continue reading Golden Buddha →

Musical Guests

The Venice Philharmonic Orchestra

July 22, 2019 Radio Venice 2 Comments

The Venice Philharmonic Orchestra current lineup consists of Michael Jost on electric guitar, Hailey Demian on bass, Andy Kravitz on drums and Barry Conley on the OutofControl-atron.

The first use of ‘philharmonic’ was in London in 1813. An organisation was founded called the Philharmonic Society. The word ‘philharmonic’ translates to ‘music lover’. The sources I’ve found say this was taken from the French ‘philharmonoque’, but I think it is more likely that the word was taken right from the Greek. Greek is much more fashionable than French – especially if you’re living in London in 1813.