WORDS & PHOTOS BY FIESTABAN PHOTOGRAPHY!
Disco is definitely not dead. In fact, the resurgence of nu disco with bands like Tuxedo, Escort, Chromeo, and Miami Horror are only the newest chart-topping tips of a much larger phenomenon of Giorgio Moroder and Nile Rodgers-inspired style of slick synth-funk. But Tuesday night’s Luxxury (aka Blake Robin) show at the Moroccan Lounge cemented his place in the pantheon of great disco funk masters with his first live LA show in over two years, along with openers Limón Limón, Inspired & The Sleep, and Alex Siegel.
Opening up the show was Limón Limón, a duo consisting of Jason Gallo-Gaffner and Clyde Hill who fuse vintage guitar and chill wave, indie-pop sounds along with Jason’s lush, almost sorrowful croon into something modern yet familiar. Songs like “Ride Out” or “Trying Not To Think About You” have a contemporary sound, but harken back both to early 2000s Phoenix or Postal Service, while also making nods to yacht rock, latin soul and g-funk (at one point Clyde busting out his Talk Box voice modulator for their unreleased upcoming single “Normal Now”). If you want to dance, but still be in your feelings, check this band out here.
Inspired & The Sleep, a trio originally from San Diego, but now LA locals, is out to kill you with kindness. Their songs, replete with thick walking bass lines, vulnerable falsetto vocals, surf guitar licks and lyrics that may very well make you well up, pull no punches and spare no emotion. Vocalist-songwriter Max Greenhalgh, guitarist Bryce Outcault, and drummer Ryan Dawson brought that heat that is one part butterflies in the stomach and one part groove-till-dawn energy. Their latest track “Big Wide World” is out, along with their self-titled album. Check them out here.
A bit more low-key, Alex Siegel is a tender-heart whose sound is the melding of Neil Young, Bon Iver and Mac DeMarco. Alive with honesty and virtuosic guitar playing, Siegel is a dazzling display of lovelorn and forlorn, taking an almost folk trope and adding brilliant layers of lush bedroom pop sound to create songs to find and lose love to. Check him out here.
And then there’s Luxxury. Starting around 2003, Luxxury was originally a Bay Area electroclash rock trio with tongue-in-cheek dance tracks like “Drunk,” “Sweet And Vicious” (featured on the show “The Hills”), or his cover of ABBA’s Anni-Frid Lyngstad’s “I Know There’s Something Going On.” After the initial success of several singles being used in commercials and video games, Robin released his first album Rock And Roll (Is Evil) in 2006. After the subsequent departure of his bandmates, Robin took a six-year hiatus from releasing music, but returned in 2012 under the moniker “Baron Von Luxxury” with his album “The Lovely Teresa” about the tragic double suicide of his friends and artists Teresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake in 2007. The album coincided with Robin’s reflections about their untimely passings (and how it may have been precipitated by The Church of Scientology), as well as how their lives inspired him to honor their memory in a way they would have loved. The album featured a far more disco-focused sound, stepping away from the punk sensibilities of previous projects into a more Rhodes-centric 4/4 indie-pop. Highly acclaimed by critics (Duran Duran’s John Taylor even listed it as one of the top albums of 2012) Robin wasn’t finished yet. He began doing a series of popular song remixes in 2014, which culminated in a legal battle with Warner Brothers Music. However, after six years of performing as an international DJ, all the while tinkering and releasing tracks and various EPs, Luxxury was back on Tuesday night, heralding a fresh new album It’s Not Funny, which includes funktastic tracks like “Take It Slow,” “What Do You Really Want?,” “Be Good To Me,” and “I Need You.” Describing the new sound as “LCD Soundsystem + Bee Gees,” it was 4-on-the-floor, pulling out all the stops to create a highly infectious, crisply-rendered, “Random Access Memories”-esque dance parade of music. Backing Robin was bassist Zach Robinson and drummer Sam KS whom fleshed out the songs with grooves that Kool & The Gang would have been proud of. It was large, it was in charge and it was rocksteady. This show was the only scheduled live appearance of Luxxury in Los Angeles, but we’re anxiously awaiting more from this nu disco impresario. Check out more here.
LUXXURY
INSPIRED & THE SLEEP
LIMÓN LIMÓN
ALEX SIEGEL
JANUARY 14TH, 2020
MOROCCAN LOUNGE, LOS ANGELES, CA
PHOTOS BY FIESTABAN PHOTOGRAPHY!
*CREDIT THE PHOTOGRAPHER IF IMAGES USED, PLEASE!
NO EDITING AND/OR REMOVAL OF WATERMARK(S)*