MusicFridayLive | Music Junkie Press

Interview with Dree Mon: sassy and ironic and hard to miss. By Patrick O’Heffernan

March 15, 2018

Patrick O’Heffernan (Los Angeles) Dree Mon has a unique talent for making people feel good with her videos and her music. She is kinda’ funky, kinda’ rocky, kinda’ silly, and kinda’ really incisive – and always a lot of fun. She has been called the sardonic valley-girl love-child of David Bowie and Wonder Woman, which does not mean that she isn’t a prolific talent. That she most certainly is. In addition to racking up a shelf full of awards, her debut song Rebel Soul will be in the upcoming Netflix film “High Strung: Free Dance”, plus she also has songs in the TV shows Parenthood and White Collar, as well and films and web series. Her new single No Chill, was just released. Not a bad record for a woman whose career in music was an accident – literally, in a car. We were lucky enough to snag her for a quick interview as she dropped the new single. Patrick: Dree Mon. Is your name an intentional play on words – dream on, [Read More]

Uniquely Reckless. Eric Zayne’s latest single and video. By Patrick O’Heffernan

October 7, 2017

(Los Angeles) The word “unique” is thrown around a lot these days. Every artist wants to be “unique”. Every promoter gushes how “unique” a band is. Every festival is creatively “unique”. So before I sat down to write about Eric Zayne’s new single and video, Reckless, I took a look at the word “unique” because, as I have gotten to know him, that word keeps popping up. Eric was born in Montreal in a South Indian family. They moved to the Indian community in Congo when he was very young and that was his world — South Asians living and prospering in a former Belgium colony now an African nation, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This was not unique; there were South Asian communities throughout Africa and still are. But it meant Eric was raised listening to the Indian music of his parents, the Bantu rhythms of the Congo, and western music on the BBC. A combination that can be legitimately called unique. What wasn’t unique was that Congo was unstable. Congo (later [Read More]

Latinas Out Loud at The Hammer. By Patrick O’Heffernan

October 7, 2017

Patrick O’Heffernan (Westwood, CA) The Hammer Museum in Westwood Friday night opened is Pacific Standard Time:LA/LA art exhibition, Radical Women: Latin American art, 1960 -1985, with Latinas Out Loud”: ¡Párriba! a wild concert led by Lido Pimienta and introduced by LA’s own joyful punk, funk Latin rock band, Sister Mantos. It was the perfect combination of musical and plastic arts to showcase the power of Latinas in our culture. The Hammer Museum –“The Hammer” — is a blocky edifice that could be an office building. Other than the word “Hammer” on the side in large letters it is pretty much like the office towers around it. Opened free to the public in 1990, The Hammer was founded by Dr. Armand Hammer, the late Chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, for his collections of old masters plus traveling exhibitions. Four years later everything changed. UCLA took over The Hammer’s management and operations and launched programs that encompassed the entire Los Angeles Community with film, theater, music and dance as well as static art. Latinas Out [Read More]

Interview with Francisca Valenzuela by Patrick O’Heffernan

September 30, 2017

Patrick O’Heffernan (Los Angeles, CA) Singer, songwriter, poet, designer, entrepreneur and unstoppable force of nature, Francisca Valenzuela is a phenomenal multifaceted artist who has commanded stages in Latin America, Europe and the US. Born in San Francisco, USA, of Chilean parents, Francisca’s career includes platinum and gold albums, world tours, a Latin Grammy nomination, and founding a major music festival. She has shared stages with U2, Café Tacvba, Ximena Sariñana, and many others. She received the 40 Principales América Award and the Best International Artist at the MIN 2015 Independent Music Awards in Madrid, Spain. She designed and launched two clothing lines with the Chilean retail brands: Work it! and Look Sharp! Currently, Francisca is an ambassador for the It Gets Better Foundation and has been selected as a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum. Last year Valenzuela founded and organized the Ruidosa feminist festiva. Her most recent album is Tajo Abierto. I interviewed her 9/20/17 in Spanish and English with Dianna Carolina of Gypset Magazine. This is the English interview. The [Read More]

Frutas: Sin Color’s debut album set to rocket to the top.

August 22, 2017

Patrick O’Heffernan (Hollywood) You can always tell when an artist or band is going to rocket to the to the top. They collect an award or two before their first release, draw big crowds when they play locally, and have an overflow audience for the album release party. Sin Color – the duo of Crisia Regalado and David Aquino – has done all of that and something else – their debut album, Frutas, is more than debut – it is ready now for prime time. Not bad for two kids who just turned 20. Frutas is a tour de force of musical craftsmanship and sheer talent. Each of its ten songs is a gem – there is no filler here. Crisia’s opera-trained voice soars and swoops and soothes, supported by David’s superb guitar chops and the backing of Latin Grammy-nominated accordion mistress Gloria Estrada, the great border blues duo The Dank Band, and the percussion genius of Buyepongo, all guided by top producer Eugene Toale. For artists so young to assemble such a highly regarded group of artists and [Read More]

Jackie Venson Live at Strange Brew hits you in the gut where real blues belong.

August 14, 2017

Patrick O’Heffernan (Los Angeles) Austin-born and still Texas-based Jackie Venson is a Berklee College of music trained-blues rock guitarist – not a common combination – who blows the roof off every venue she plays in. Trained in classical piano, Venson has multi-instrumental chops plus a voice that can drip with emotion or belt with blues. She picked up the guitar shortly after graduating from Berklee and made the giant leap from classical music to raw and gritty blues and the rest is history. A new page in that history is the release of her latest album, Jackie Venson Live at Strange Brew. This is a knock out blues triumph. Put on your headphones, clear your schedule because Jackie Venson Live at Strange Brew will hit you in the gut where real blues belongs. Venson has always been a standout in the blues world, not only because she has a voice that goes from delicate and seductive to in-your-face-with-the-pain-of-the-blues, but because her guitar playing achieves a level of precision at the top [Read More]

Gaby Moreno and Caloncho create a magical night at Grand Performances 2017

June 22, 2017

Patrick O’Heffernan LOS ANGELES. Gaby Moreno and Caloncho created a magical night Saturday at Grand Performances in California Plaza in downtown Los Angeles. About 2000 people filled the two-level sunken plaza, facing a sparkling pond in front of the expansive stage, backed by dancing water spouts and skyscrapers sporting the projected Grand Performances logo. Lights twinkled all around, families opened picnic baskets or queued up at the restaurants surrounding the Plaza and the bars in the Plaza. They settled into chairs or brought their own while the sun went down, auguring the arrival of música especial. Accompanied by urban sound effects, Caloncho and his band filtered on stage, plugged in and took their positions. The party was on as the Sonoran-born, Guadalajara-based singer songwriter kicked it off with his soothing summer night anthems of soft tempos and Latin indie-dream pop, animated by a very active trombone/keyboard player who added not only notes, but humor. At one point, the fans’ heroine, Guatemalan-born LA-based Latin Grammy winner Gaby Moreno joined Caloncho, eliciting applause so loud [Read More]