San Francisco-based Mata León opened a growling late-night indie show at Hollywood club Boardner’s last week.

The band performed on an outdoor stage inside a smoke-filled patio while a crowd of rebellious 18-year-olds and leather-stricken twenty-somethings watched with a hint of awe.

The set was short, but the four-piece put out some serious soul in its bluesy brand of indie-rock.

Comparisons are hard to draw, but both classic and modern influences are clear in the moody, hook-driven songs.

The four Bay Area musicians – vocalist Spencer Dräger, guitarist Brian DaMert, bassist Greg Sellin and drummer Sam Totty –  have been playing together for eight years.

But until about six months ago, they were going under the name Overview.

The group started in high school, playing lunchtime and local shows before growing into a buzzworthy act that AbsolutePunk called “refreshing, refreshing, refreshing” after hearing the 2007 EP “Forty-Four Stone Tigers.”

Overview played its final show in July, and since then, the tigers have stepped back from playing every show they could get their hands on (three national tours across 43 states, according to Sellin).

Instead, they went back into the studio and found a new focus: something more simple and literal that fit the four’s San Francisco style, culture and taste.

“We laid low for four or five-months, spending every day in the studio writing and scrapping songs, deciding a new direction to go in. We got into different tastes in music, [and wanted a] fresh start,” says Sellin.

The band members, all in their mid-20s, quietly reemerged as Mata León, which means the lion killer in Portugese.

“I want to bring the love and culture from SF out,” says Sellin. “It’s like nowhere else in the world. You take it for granted a lot growing up in such a musically cultured and politically-minded place. But it’s unbelievable when you compare it to someone who spent their life growing up in Iowa.”

The new band has only a handful of tracks on Myspace, and plans to release an EP in the spring.

Sellin says Mata León’s sound isn’t the epic orchestra of sounds that Overview was.

“We’re concentrating more on a vibe of a song. Less trying to show off with complex instrumentation and just concentrate on creating a feeling, an emotion throughout a song instead of just great parts,” he told me after the Los Angeles gig.

The group hopes to do things one better this time around. Sellin says they will “pick their shots” and be more selective with performances.

Keep an eye on tour dates, as the band will be up and down the West Coast in the coming months. And if you’re checking out South by Southwest next month, you can catch Mata León on the Pabst Blue Ribbon stage.

Check out this track. It’s called “Sun Hand” and its by Local Natives.

I first saw this band open up for one of my favorite bands, Facing New York at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. That was in October 2008. Phew, that sounds like a longgg time ago.

Anyway, one of the openers was a group called Local Natives, who true to the name, looked like a bunch of barefoot hobbits bouncing around on stage playing guitar, jumping, stomping, screaming and singing. It was a spectacle.

My friend Jon was even more blown away than I was.

I never got around to listening to them because I was so infatuated with FNY’s new release, “Get Hot.”

Which, by the way, was hot.

Now, the Natives are buzzworthy, receiving rave reviews from NPR and coverage on Pitchfork.

The five-piece has an eclectic, energetic folk-heavy indie rock sound with a roots in the ground kind of feel. They were just signed onto Frenchkiss Records, the same label as Passion Pit. Now there’s a winning combination.

I chose “Sun Hands” because right around 2:55 into the song, shit starts getting really good. Right at the breakdown, I’m jolted awake. It’s not hard to fall asleep to the shimmery guitars and airy vocals of a lot of indie, but as soon as the stomping and clapping kicks in, it turns the song into something much stronger. I just wish they could have a whole song like that. So I didn’t have to wait three minutes just to get to the good part.

The Natives’ debut album “Gorilla Manor” isn’t actually “out” until Tuesday February 16, but I’ve had it for a couple weeks now. (Don’t tell the RIAA!)

And it’s sounding real good. “Airplanes” is the single-ready track, which I’m sure will blow up in exactly six months until this band becomes revered along the lines of Yeasayer, Passion Pit and maybe even MGMT.

KCRW is all over these guys, so catch on while it’s hot. You’ll thank me later.

Catch an acoustic version of “Airplanes” below:

President Barack Obama at the State Of The Union

This post originally published here on the Current TV News Blog.

I’ve been out of college for a little while now.

Six months, two weeks and one day to be exact.

Thing is, I’m not totally sure what I’m doing.

Then again, who is?

Options for college graduates are slim in this economy. And recovery isn’t happening overnight.

Jobs — or at least good ones — are still hard to come by.

One in 10 people in this country are unemployed. In California, it’s one in 12.

Fewer than 20 percent of 2009 grads that applied for a job have one, according to this survey. And it’s no better back in school.

State universities have been cutting courses and programs, like labs for science classes and student exchange programs. All with fewer days of education and tuition fees that keep increasing.

President Obama addressed the needs of the middle class during his first State of the Union address yesterday and expectations were high. He has plans on the way to help the job market, reform higher and lower education, cut taxes and keep his presidency accountable.

They’re minor in comparison to last year’s massive bailouts and the struggling healthcare overhaul, but not a bad start.

While the president attempted to bring back some of that hope we’ve all been missing, I was still left uneasy about the state of the nation.

My generation is experiencing the toughest times our age group has ever seen.

Today’s students, while often supported by their parents, have it harder than ever: we’re constantly under pressure to perform.

Between SAT scores, AP classes and GPAs, there’s always a new way of evaluating how qualified we are for the next step.

Yet, when do we have time to actually figure out what that next step is?

Personally, I’m in a hurry to stop losing money. I work part-time and freelance on the side, but the freelance market for writers isn’t exactly what it used to be.

Savings is a thing of the past. While my parents supported me through college, the deal was you’re on your own once you finish.

So I’m thrown into the wild with $15,000 in debt, not enough work in the field and little time to figure things out when rent is due each month.

There doesn’t appear to be any clear-cut path anymore.

“A high school diploma no longer guarantees a good job,” Obama told the nation yesterday. Yeah, well neither does a college degree.

But at least he’s listening. “In the United States of America, no one should go broke because they chose to go to college” was another line from his speech.

It was our generation that ushered him into office, after all, so we should be entitled to some high expectations.

Obama is promising a $10,000 tax subsidy for community college students and loan repayment reform that forgets a students’ debt after 20 years.

He’s also planning to give tax breaks to parents with kids in college, extend unemployment and create new green jobs.

It all sounds great. Let’s just hope it happens — sooner, rather than later.

For now, empower yourself: understand your student loans, watch the job market, and hold our president to his promises.

Today, our good friends in the government approved the merging of Ticketmaster and Livenation. The Justice Department, who oversees antitrust policy, says the joint will “preserve competition.”

I sincerely hope they are kidding. If we’re lucky enough to see ticket prices go down, the fees will surely only go up.

The latest in major corporate mergers gives the new company, Livenation Entertainment Inc. an 80 percent stranglehold on not just the concert market, but the music business as a whole.

The merger doesn’t significantly expand the market share of either company. Instead, it creates one company that will have a hand in just about every corner of the music business. - WSJ

This vertical integration gives one corporation a piece of the pie in just about every aspect of music from ticket sales to artist management and concert promotion.

It might as well be Clear Channel all over again. Which, if you don’t recall from the early ’00s, was the corporate juggernaut of last decade, (still) running the majority of radio stations and live music events, along with all the advertising needed to create one giant load of synergy. The conglomerate’s practices weren’t exactly friendly, and it pretty much forced any significant artist to run with Clear Channel stations and venues for fear of being dropped from of all of the subsidiaries.

For a much more recent example, we need only look back a little more than a month. General Electric just sold NBC Universal to Comcast on Dec. 9. With 51 percent in Comcast’s pockets (49 percent is still owned by G.E.), the nation’s largest cable provider now has even more power over what transmits through our tubes and how much it costs.

Consumer choice seems all but lost.

Perhaps today’s merger was unstoppable, but we have most assuredly created one more monster:

Live Nation stages more concerts and concert tours than any other promoter, and owns or operates 75 major venues in the U.S. Ticketmaster sells tickets for the majority of major sports and entertainment venues in the U.S., and has an artist management division that handles the affairs of hundreds of the biggest acts in pop, rock and country. Ticketmaster’s Front Line Management unit represents over 200 acts, ranging from veterans like the Eagles and Journey to newcomers like Miley Cyrus and Kings of Leon. - Wall Street Journal

The only good news? A few restrictions thanks to Obama’s new antitrust chief Christine Varney:

•Livenation Entertainment Inc. will not be able to retaliate against artists that use competitors for ticket services — like when Clear Channel threatened to pull bands like Blink 182 off all its stations in 2001.

•Ticketing and concert promotion will have be sold separately, not as a bundle, within the new company.

•Certain data will not be shared between departments to prevent the stifling of whatever competition is left.

Somehow, I get the feeling government isn’t really working these days. This is a failure of Washington on multiple fronts. These massive mergers are textbook cases for what our country’s antitrust laws are supposed to prevent.

Read the laws for yourself: http://www.ftc.gov/bc/antitrust/antitrust_laws.shtm

“…Certain acts are considered so harmful to competition that they are almost always illegal.”

So much for that.

A LOT seems to be going on these days.

First, Conan O’Brien gets kicked off the Tonight Show, only to be replaced by the aging Jay Leno (who, apparently, didn’t age as fast as NBC predicted). This will surely not work out well. I bet Leno’s popularity is declining by the day.

Next, the Supreme Court approves votes to allow corporations to sponsor politicians. Sure, it’s not direct financing. But this massive change to campaign finance reform will surely make someone regret this decision. Expect a lot of unwanted political advertisements in the coming campaign season.

NOW, our good friends the government approved the merging of Ticketmaster and Livenation. The Justice Department says it will “preserve competition.” You have GOT to be kidding me! This gives the new company, Livenation Entertainment Inc. an 80 percent stranglehold on not just the concert market, but the music business as a whole.

The merger doesn’t significantly expand the market share of either company. Instead, it creates one company that will have a hand in just about every corner of the music business. – WSJ

This vertical integration gives one corporation a piece of the pie in just about every aspect of music from ticket sales to artist management and concert promotion.

This might as well be Clear Channel all over again. Which, if you don’t recall from the early ’00s, was the corporate juggernaut of last decade, running the majority of radio stations and live music events, along with all the advertising needed for some good old synergy. The conglomerate’s practices weren’t exactly friendly, and it pretty much forced any significant artist to run with Clear Channel stations and venues for fear of being dropped from of all of the subsidiaries.

Perhaps this was unstoppable, but we have most assuredly created a monster:

Live Nation stages more concerts and concert tours than any other promoter, and owns or operates 75 major venues in the U.S. Ticketmaster sells tickets for the majority of major sports and entertainment venues in the U.S., and has an artist management division that handles the affairs of hundreds of the biggest acts in pop, rock and country. Ticketmaster’s Front Line Management unit represents over 200 acts, ranging from veterans like the Eagles and Journey to newcomers like Miley Cyrus and Kings of Leon. – Wall Street Journal

The only good news? A few restrictions thanks to Obama’s new antitrust chief Christine Varney:

•Livenation Entertainment Inc. will not be able to retaliate against artists that use competitors for ticket services — like when Clear Channel threatened to pull bands like Blink 182 off all its stations in 2001.

•Ticketing and concert promotion will have be sold separately, not as a bundle, within the new company.

•Certain data will not be shared between departments to prevent the stifling of whatever competition is left.

Thank you Corporate America. Let this be known as the beginning of the end.

Not everyone is as happy as Arnold is about California's public education system.

Originally published HERE 1/12/10 on Current.com’s News Blog:

Finally: a step in the right direction toward bringing public higher education in California out of the gutter.

The Governator last week proposed significant legislation calling for a reshaping of priorities, so that California will “never again” spend more on prison uniforms than on caps and gowns.

It will not alleviate the sunshine state’s education crisis immediately. But as long as we’re spending more on kids than criminals, we can all sleep a little better at night. Right?

Cuts to public education in this state have caused both outrage and outcry — near riots at UCLA, “Save the CSU” protest rallies in Long Beach.

No one likes paying more for less, yet that’s exactly what many of California’s college students have been faced with in the last year.

A former Cal State student myself, I managed to escape (graduate) just as things went south. But I can’t imagine what my friends and former classmates are experiencing right now.

So much for paving the way for future generations, eh?

California’s public universities have been giving students and teachers fewer days of school to save precious funding through “furlough days.”

All this while cutting programs, increasing class sizes and raising tuition as much as 15 to 35 percent.

Today’s students are now burdened with a whole new set of pressures.

And I’m not talking about final exams.

Living on your own? Finding a career? Paying off student loans?

Naw. How about making sure the courses you need to graduate are still being offered? Unlucky freshmen may even find their majors dissolved before they make it to upper division.

Skeptics will write this off as too little too late. But at this point, almost anything is a good thing.

Keep it coming Arnold.

–

*Reshaping Priorities from Prisons to Universities:  http://bit.ly/6wBBLW

*Find the latest CA info here: http://gov.ca.gov/