Gram Rabbit

The Germs

Sunset Junction Street Fair

Silverlake, CA

August 24th 2008

text & pixs by Victoria Joyce
(SugarBuzz USA)

This artsy ‘hood street fest is the last best hope of starving artists in the LA basin. Not no more. Not here. Over all, this year’s Sunset Junction was a let down. Not as many performances stages. Not as many local bands or emerging artists. Headliners were radio-ready, one-hit wonders. Cold War Kids, and !!! ??? What were they doing here? In the good old days we got X and the New York Dolls.

Isaac Hayes was scheduled for the first night and Sam Moore (Sam & Dave) was booked, last minute. Nice try. Once SJ was free. Inflation, man. Now it’s $20. Hey, it worked. People stayed home.

One band was playing that we had to see, Gram Rabbit, beloved LA Art band. (Love that genre. As opposed to what? And LA Sports band?) They are very different. Hometown: Joshua Tree, California. Isn’t that near Area 51?

Gram Rabbit is somewhere between the Talking Heads and the Ting Tings with a touch of Devo. Very electronic, highly rhythmic, smashy cymbals, buzzy bass, insane samples and the hypnotic voice of lead singer Jesicka Von Rabbit. Yes, she wears rabbit ears on stage.

Gram Rabbit was the break out band of Coachella 06 where the hot item was to wear the signature rabbit ears of the devoted fans. And their “Devil’s Playground” was featured in John Cusack’s film “War, Inc.” Today Gram Rabbit opened the main stage of Sunset Junction on Sunday afternoon in the blasting white-hot sun.

Silhouetted in the sunshine, Jesicka was a stunner in her cut-out jump suit looking like a Playboy Bunny gone all Emma Peel. This cutie pie quartet consists of multi-tasker Jesika von Rabbit on vocals, keyboards, bass and guitar; Todd Rutherford on back up vocals, bass, guitars and programming; Ethan Allen on lead guitar and Hillary Hack does samples, keys and backing vocals. You get a lotta bang for your buck.

We loved the “F*ck Burning man” tee worn by Hillary Hack. Break out song was the new one “While the Rest of Us Sleep,” a sassy comment on the modern media brainwashers. Silly sweet hip-hoppy thing with rap-like lyrics and a catchy back beat punctuated with bells and whistles. A sampled brass section bouffs out this thing nicely. Irresistible.

Jesika got a little impatient with the crowd and scolded for not dancing. It was just too damn hot for that. For the last few numbers they were joined on stage by a go-go dancer all bunnied-up and a second lady in full blown fuzzy. Loved "Off With Your Head" another new one with a marimba beat that reminded us of "Stupid Girl" by the Stones.

We took a short stroll down the midway that had way too many corporate-type booths hawking their wares and not enough local artisans and craftspeople. Boring.

As we left the Germs were just taking the stage. This reunion band had been playing gigs all week around town to promote the official theatrical release of bio-pic “What We Do Is Secret” (premiered last year at the LA Film Fest and reviewed in SugarBuzz by Lucky).

This amazing film is having a staggered release all around the country. Get infected.

www.myspace.com/gramrabbit

www.gramrabbit.com

www.myspace.com/germsmovie

The Shug