The Standard

It’s time for our next round up of musical talent this week. This Wednesday is Desert Nights, our weekly party at The Standard Hollywood with 3 musicians granting us an intimate acoustic performance. LA’s big bad radio station, KCRW, declared this Wednesday’s Desert Nights as “Pick of the Week”. Here’s a little summary of our 3 talents this week.

(Listen to Mia Doi Todd here)

Mia Doi Todd returns with her ninth album, Cosmic Ocean Ship, produced by Jonathan Wilson. Recorded in Los Angeles to analog two inch tape, the album has a warmth and depth that showcases Mia’s beautiful, powerful, unique, and at times delicate voice. The album was released by the City Zen label in May. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, trained as a classical vocalist in her adolescence and teenage years, Mia began writing songs while a student at Yale University, inspired by the mid-90’s Indie Rock movement. Mia is a true artist — an expressionist in many forms. Her garden of song is vast with flowers of infiniteshape, color, size, and individuality. Mia has toured the US and Europe, headlining and opening for other artists, including Throwing Muse Kristen Hirsch, LouBarlow’s Folk Implosion, Saul Williams, The Books, and Dungen. Having released records with labels as major and established as Columbia and as progressive and boutique as Plug Research, Mia is now enjoying her return to the homegrown approach. In addition to her lengthy music discography, Mia has choreographed and performed three solo dance pieces and dances with the group, Body Weather Laboratory.

(Listen to Paleo on MySpace or Facebook or Partisan Records)

Paleo (aka David Strackany) has traveled the country for the last six years playing roughly 150 dates a year. He self-released Misery, Missouri in 2005 and recorded a song a day for 365 days in 2006-2007, a project which is still available online, titled Song Diary. Paleo’s debut release for Partisan Records (Deer Tick, Holy Sons, Middle Brother, JBM), A View of the Sky, received continued praise from national press outlets and elevated the artist’s already infamous status as an extremely prolific and touching songwriter and performer.

“A View of The Sky is an endearing album with intimate music, aggressively eccentric lyrics and shamelessly quirky tunes. They sound like what you’d get if you rubbed Daniel Johnston and Jeffrey Lewis together and added a touch of the last Iron and Wine album with its lush, exotic mix of instruments” writes Blurt Magazine. Rock and Roll Guru calls it “Modern folk at its finest.”

(Listen to Paris Loves LA here or follow her on Twitter)

Glamour, sex, passion, love… The French Pop Culture of 1960’s Paris swings back into life with Paris Loves L.A., Los Angeles’s sensational new revival of the songs of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot. Adele Jacques, French-born singer and actress, plays and sings Bardot with such skill and feminine guile, one finds oneself looking back over their shoulder during the performance, expecting to find Godard shooting in 16m. Paris Loves L.A. is a paroxysm of French Sexiness and Cocktail Cool. No cigarette required.

“No more crying in your Bordeaux about how they don’t make pin-up girls like they used to: cabaret kittens Paris Loves L.A. don’t cover as much as downright channel the gravely purr of francophonic mic-wielders like La Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg” writes Shana Dambrot of Flavorpill. Read more on Paris Loves LA in Huffington Post. 

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What is Desert Nights?

Desert Nights is a weekly gathering at The Standard, Hollywood. Every Wednesday, we curate 3 musical acts on the rise to perform a special acoustic set in our hotel lounge. The vibe is warm and intimate, evoking an impromptu jam in a musician’s living room. Also, expect 2 clever cover songs delivered by each performer. The sets begins at 7:30 pm in the Cactus Lounge (thus the title of the evening, Desert Nights).