I had been wanting to see Cass McCombs play live for some time now. For one reason or another, things never lined up for me. I thought it was going to be yet another failed attempt as it was a sold out show at The Echo in Los Angeles. I stopped into my favortie record store, Origami Vinyl, to see if Neil there had any tickets left. No tickets, sold out. But, as I asked the question, a gentleman overheard and had an extra ticket to spare. I guess it was meant to be… the show was rad… Cass McCombs and band played in complete darkness except for the light display providing a back light and silhouette of the band. Live, it sounded just like his albums… perfect.

Here are two of my favorite songs…

Echo Park, the neighborhood we live in is a little village. You can walk down the street, grab a taco, a beer at El Prado, catch shows at The Echo, and in that short time, run into old and new friends. The kind of running into that you wouldn’t think happens in vast Los Angeles…. car honks, “Hey Ted and Angie!”… we got that a couple of times this weekend from our friends Frosty and Dublab and Marc at Seso.

Even in a packed club, checking Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, realize we are standing by an electronic friend that turns into real friend, Jon Setzen of LA’s Creative Mornings. Those beeps and honks, those coincidental encounters on the street turned into some adventures over the weekend… they remind us of what life is in the real world. As much as I love the global, online village, I absolutely, truly love the real world village.

Tennis at The Echo

A run in with Marc of Seso turned into a beer and a bike ride the next day up to Angeles National Forest. I must tell you, I am not an endurance biker just yet, but want to get myself there someday. I love biking so when Marc (a triathlete) invited me on this ride, I took it up. I could at least learn from a pro. Let me tell you, it was border line crazy. 62 miles total, about half of that uphill, it almost killed me. We got to elevations where there were “Icy” signs! When we get to the top at sunset, the road we planned to get us back down was closed due to floods and fires. So, imagine this, two bikers, on a narrow, winding, near desolate canyon road, occasional speeding cars zipping by (probably thinking, are they crazy?)… pitch black, only the new moon to guide us… we laughed the whole way down in fear…. when we got to civilization… you have no idea…. but, it was all worth the adventure. Love life in the LA village.

Only because I’m very proud, here are the stats.

Total Distance: 62.55 miles
Top Speed: 40.4 mph
Calories Burned: 5,600
Total Elevation Gain: 4,485 ft
Start Elevation: 657 ft
Max Elevation: 3445 ft

In Village life, chilling too is a way of life. Nori excels at this.

You guys have probably been hearing of the band, Tennis lots lately, especially with their hit this past summer, “Marathon”, which had huge success on the indie blog and radio circuit. Minimal, lo-fi, and beautiful melodies of yesteryear, you can’t help tap your feet and close your eyes when that song comes on.

Tennis – Cape Dory (Underwater Peoples Records) from RichsLaw on Vimeo.

Tennis is Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore, a husband/wife duo, sold all of their belongings and set out on an eight month sailing expedition of the North Atlantic Coast. Relying on the wind to take them where they did not know, they ditched TV, radio, internet, all of the modern distractions and took in the light of the stars and chill of the ocean. During their adventures they wrote music and documented their experiences, which became Tennis, and their album to be released January 18th, “Cape Dory”. They are touring right now, and for the Angelenos, they’ll be at The Echo on February 4th. I was stoked my friend (and sailing enthusiast) got the tickets, see you there!

Tennis – South Carolina from Fire Talk on Vimeo.