Hundred Waters Challenge the Conventions of What It Means to Be a Band

Hundred Waters Challenge the Conventions of What It Means to Be a Band
Mark Ortega
LA Weekly
November 29, 2017

Since forming in 2011, Los Angeles–based art-pop band Hundred Waters haven't done many interviews. That’s what made it interesting when singer Nicole Miglis insisted on meeting in person.

We meet at Coffee Commissary on Sunset Boulevard, just a few minutes south from where she lives in Beachwood Canyon. Three albums into their career, Miglis and bandmates Trayer Tryon and Zach Tetreault are starting to come around on the promotional obligations that come with being a full-time musician.

“I’m still rectifying it today, I think, in being proactive with this interview,” Miglis says with a nervous laugh, while fidgeting with her cup of coffee. “It takes a lot for me to face anything that isn’t music, almost foolishly, I think.”

The band have a Dec. 1 show at the El Rey, and after five years in Los Angeles, it’s the first gig that feels like a true homecoming. Their roots were planted in Florida, with Tryon and Tetreault performing music together for a few years with a former member, Paul Giese, before Miglis came into the picture. They signed to Skrillex’s OWSLA label in 2012, a connection that has, for the most part, only affected how they approach live shows, according to Miglis.

“I think OWSLA made it so we’re playing a lot of shows to people that wouldn’t have otherwise heard our music,” Miglis says. “It’s forced us to adapt and I think helped us be confident in who we are. It can be a valuable experience, different from playing just to crowds who are already familiar with you.”

With the release of Communicating in September, the group hit a high mark. The album marks the first time the band got to focus on writing material while not touring or, earlier in their career, working other jobs.

It’s one of the more gripping breakup albums in recent years, but with a hopeful twist. It’s at least in part inspired by the romance between Miglis and Tryon, and Miglis says she knew she would have to face things head-on more than usual with the new record.

“I think in general, it’s a personal goal just trying to be more exposed and share more,” Miglis says. “For me, it’s really hard. Even music, it takes a lot of people to tell me to put something out. I’m not a super extroverted ‘check out our art’ type.” Talking about a daytime set the band played at Outside Lands this year, Miglis mentions the challenge of not being able to hide behind fog or lights the way you can when you’re playing at night or inside a dark venue.

“It’s definitely weird, to force that upon yourself," Tryon writes via email about discussing the subject matter of Communicating in interviews. "Having to examine difficult, hyper-personal shit with people you don’t know, for anyone to read.

“There wasn’t really any way around it though, other than to not do interviews," he adds, "which would be a shame, because biography is great, an inherent human interest. Honestly it’s kind of helped us, because it’s made it impossible to ignore our issues.”

When it came time for Hundred Waters to do an album release show, the band, true to form, decided to try something unusual. They used the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery but changed the room’s layout completely. While the band performed a few of the songs, some songs played over the PA to a light show, and others featured choreographed dancers.

“I couldn't just play it because it would have felt so exposing,” Miglis said of the show. “I think all those other things lightened it up and made it more of a fun experience. We brought in couches, hauled them all up there, just to make the environment more like a place you’d actually listen to an album and not a classroom.”

Miglis worked with a choreographer, Sara Silkin, who had been putting together dances for a couple of Hundred Waters songs for a class she teaches. One song that got choreography at the show was “Better,” the album’s closer.

“Did I, did I, did I, did I, did I, did I/Did I treat you right?” Miglis sings longingly in the chorus. Silkin had the difficult task of bringing across those heartbreaking words, and two other songs, with her choreography.

“It’s knowing Nicole [and] understanding what a process it was to birth this album,” Silkin, a recent graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, says of the process.

“I knew right away that I wanted to create a duet for ‘Better’ because of the intimacy of the lyrics and melodic questioning of Nicole's voice, which inspired the dance between myself and the [other] dancer to explore the push and pull that she describes in the song.”

It was a particularly moving way to experience an album for a first time.

“Masonic ended up being perfect for a few reasons,” Tetreault says. “We all worked super hard to bring the different aspects of the event to life, from the dance component with Sara to the volumetric projections with [frequent Flying Lotus and Daedelus collaborator] Timeboy and just the overall atmosphere of the evening. It felt really good seeing it all come to life and sharing the record in a meaningful and memorable way.”

Tetreault is also the main member of Hundred Waters involved in the development of FORM Arcosanti, the music festival in Arizona that the band launched in 2014 as a means to debut their last album, The Moon Rang Like a Bell. The festival has now grown beyond the trio’s wildest dreams; this past year it featured Solange, Father John Misty, Tycho and a rare piano set from James Blake.

“We never really intended on starting a festival. It just sort of happened, as crazy as that sounds,” Tetreault says. “It’s become this ever-evolving annual project that we work on and it becomes crazier and more multifaceted each year.”

As music festivals become more homogenized and saturated, FORM has popped up as a welcome, unique addition to the festival landscape — a highly curated, intimate, invitation-only event held amid the alien-looking structures of the town of Arcosanti, an experimental eco-village in the desert north of Phoenix.

“There weren’t any music festivals anywhere near us [in Florida], so we didn’t have much experience with them prior to playing them,” Tryon says. “Zach and I drove 10 hours to Bonnaroo with a bunch of friends in high school. I had nothing, so I had to break into a barn to sleep. My best friend didn’t make it back home — he hitchhiked the other direction and dropped out of school. It was a huge experience. FORM wants to be a huge experience like that, but without any of the you-are-cattle mentality.”

With their album-release show and with FORM the past handful of years, Hundred Waters have become experts in giving concertgoers a unique experience. And with Communicating, their music is becoming just as unique and powerful as their vision for what a band can do in 2017.

Hundred Waters perform at the El Rey Theatre on Friday, Dec. 1.

"Howard the Dancing Man" Is 66 and Goes to More Concerts Than You Do

"Howard the Dancing Man" Is 66 and Goes to More Concerts Than You Do
Mark Ortega
LA Weekly
November 21, 2017

If you attend concerts in Los Angeles regularly, chances are you've noticed an older man with long white hair dancing and twirling at a few of them.

His name is Howard Mordoh. He's 66 and a retired clinical laboratory scientist. Not only does Mordoh go to four to five shows a week on average, he drives all the way from Woodland Hills to get to them. He's one of Los Angeles' most infamous characters but few people know him by name. To some, he's just "the dancing man"; on Facebook, he's known as L.A. Rocker.

"My license plate was where the name started," Mordoh says. "LAROKRR was as close as I could get to L.A. Rocker, when personalized plates became available. Going to shows more often started happening when I got interested in a lot of the newer bands, especially after going to my first Coachella [in 2004]. Luckily, saving my 401(k) for 35 years made me able to afford to go to more shows."

As for his distinctive dance moves: "My sister and I would try and imitate the moves we saw on American Bandstand, and I started to take my own liberties," Mordoh says, specifically referencing his peculiar twirl. "My mother says I was dancing before I was walking."

I've enjoyed Mordoh's antics from afar for years. This year I took a shuttle to San Francisco music festival Outside Lands and there was an open seat next to him, so I sat down and introduced myself, and we had our first conversation about his life as "the dancing man."

Mordoh says you can see him for a split second, as a young man holding an 8mm movie camera, in The Last Waltz, the documentary film about The Band's 1976 farewell concert. He also had me look up a hilarious video of him dancing prior to LCD Soundsystem's supposed final show at Madison Square Garden in 2011.

This year alone, Mordoh attended Coachella, Arroyo Seco Weekend, FYF Fest and Music Tastes Good — with Coachella coming two weeks after he had arthroscopic knee surgery. Despite occasional pain, the surgery did not slow down his dancing much.

"My left knee does go out a little bit when the weather changes, but thank God I can still dance and there is no constant pain," he says.

It's a running gag among my friends who work at local venues that if Howard Mordoh is at your show, it means you have the best show on the calendar that night. His taste is broad; you'll catch him at more age-appropriate shows such as Sheryl Crow and Paul Weller but also at concerts of millennial-leaning acts like Odesza, Moses Sumney and even Katy Perry.

When still working as a clinical scientist, Mordoh didn't let his work get in the way of landing hot tickets to shows. A former co-worker, Eudinne Dalupang, recalls that Mordoh scheduled his work life around his concert habit when they worked together at Esoterix, an endocrinology lab in Agoura Hills.

"He always timed his lunch breaks for when tickets would go on sale," Dalupang recalls. "He started at 5 a.m. and I started at 6. He'd always be playing music, turning it down a bit when the administrators would come into the office. People in the office knew him as the guy that loved to go to shows and dance."

Since retiring in 2012, Mordoh and his partner of 38 years, Ken Warren, work multiple browsers on two computers to try to score tickets to shows the minute they go on sale. You won't be surprised to learn that Mordoh and Warren's first date was a concert — an Oingo Boingo show at the Whisky A Go Go. Warren doesn't make it to as many shows as he used to as he's dealt with some health issues, but anytime it's a seated venue, you can usually count on him being somewhere nearby while Mordoh is off dancing.

"When he goes to shows with me, he'll put in air quotes, 'Your "fans" are coming over.' They've sometimes pushed him out of the way," Mordoh says.

"Sometimes when I'm at the Hollywood Bowl and I'm dancing, girls would tell their boyfriends, 'Look at that guy dancing, I'm gonna go dance with him.' And then I'd see the boyfriends and they're fuming," Mordoh laughs. "I get really nervous that they're gonna come over and whack me — but then I tell them, 'Relax, I'm gay.'"

Though Mordoh has forged friendships at various venues that sometimes help him get into the most exclusive gigs, he's also willing to go to insane lengths when all else fails. When The Rolling Stones played the Wiltern in 2002, he camped outside beginning at 6 a.m. When the venue finally released a handful of tickets for $50, Mordoh was one of the lucky few to obtain one.

Mordoh isn't just famous among L.A. concertgoers and venue staff. He's known to bands that tour regularly through the area as well. On an Oct. 16 episode of KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic , British synth-pop duo Oh Wonder recounted one of their favorite moments performing in Los Angeles, which included Howard the dancing man.

"I vividly remember that guy dancing up on the balcony at the Troubadour," singer Josephine Vander Gucht said. "He was just like this 50-year-old dude absolutely loving life. And I was just like, 'This is why I wanted to make music, this guy right here.'"

Later that same week, Alana Haim ran out into the audience and danced with Mordoh at Haim's sold-out concert at the Greek Theatre. The band later uploaded video of the moment to an Instagram story with the caption, "best. dance. partner. ever."

Concerts in Los Angeles can oftentimes be stuffy, almost as if some people are too cool to give themselves over to what's happening onstage. Part of what makes Mordoh's presence on the L.A. concert scene so memorable is that his energy usually rubs off on those around him and takes their enjoyment level up a notch.

"It's my addiction," he says of dancing at shows. "From when I first started going to concerts, I pretty much would let the music wash over me and take me over. It's nice that everyone still enjoys my presence."

Mordoh's show schedule is often insanely packed. In November, he's hitting 20 shows in 18 days, including Bruce Springsteen's Broadway show in New York. (As much as Mordoh loves concerts, he's equally enamored of musicals.)

He's also found a way to turn his love for dancing into something charitable by lending his time and dancing skills to dementia and Alzheimer's patients, working with them as a pool and gym buddy at the Motion Picture & Television Fund near his home in Woodland Hills.

I ended up seeing Mordoh at Outside Lands later on the same day I rode the shuttle with him. He was wearing a pair of yellow sunglasses, dancing by himself, his hair blowing in the wind as he twirled like there was no tomorrow to singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers. Around him, other festivalgoers watched in amusement and admiration, taking pics and Snapchatting his moves.

"That guy's my hero," I overheard one girl say to her friends.

Interview with Big Black Delta: How chatting with a friend landed him a dream Debbie Gibson collaboration

Interview with Big Black Delta: How chatting with a friend landed him a dream Debbie Gibson collaboration
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
May 4, 2016

Jonathan Bates was sitting with a friend at a bar discussing his solo project Big Black Delta. Bates wasn’t even sure he wanted to continue the project, but his friend asked him if he could work with anyone, who would he choose?

“I just said Debbie Gibson, because I love her music,” Bates relayed via phone in a chat with Grimy Goods. “When I first came to the United States, that was one of the first American acts I heard, and just by chance, she was down [to collaborate].”

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Must-See Coachella Undercard: The Dead Ships — a ripe dose of rock ‘n’ roll for your soul

Must-See Coachella Undercard: The Dead Ships — a ripe dose of rock ‘n’ roll for your soul
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
April 13, 2016

Los Angeles indie rock band The Dead Ships have had a helluva start to 2016.

They were added to the Coachella lineup around the time it came out. While trying to track down a contact number for the band and even having his Coachella family reach out to those that may have The Dead Ships contact number (including a text to our editor) — Paul Tollett, the man at Goldenvoice who curates the festival’s lineup, called the band’s manager and offered them a spot on Saturday’s bill. This was accomplished without a label or booking agent (but a lot of Grimy Goods love), quite the feat in today’s music landscape.

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Interview with La Sera: Discussing their new record and the role Ryan Adams played in producing it

Interview with La Sera: Discussing their new record and the role Ryan Adams played in producing it
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
April 4, 2016

If you read anything about indie pop darlings La Sera‘s new record Music For Listening to Music To, you undoubtedly will see the name Ryan Adams somewhere in the first paragraph (like I did just now), maybe even the sub-headline. While Adams worked his magic on the production side of things, newly-married Katy Goodman and Todd Wisenbaker put the songs for the album together and had them ready to go, before showing up at Adams’ PaxAm Studios to record between Coachella dates last year.

I spoke with both members of La Sera (who play the Fonda Theatre on May 23 with Titus Andronicus) over the phone last week about the fourth La Sera record. First, it was Goodman on the phone. When asked how they came up with the cheeky name for the record, Goodman let me know it was Wisenbaker’s idea and she tried relaying the question to him in another room of their house.

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Hot New (To L.A.) Band Alert: The Soft White Sixties Bring Their Vintage Rock n’ Soul Sound to Los Angeles

Hot New (To L.A.) Band Alert: The Soft White Sixties Bring Their Vintage Rock n’ Soul Sound to Los Angeles
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
March 29, 2016

For the second year in a row, rock n’ soul band The Soft White Sixties sold out a gig during San Francisco’s Noise Pop Festival last month. Over the years, the four-piece had gained a big following in the Bay Area city that they made their home. But just a few months ago, they decided to pick up and move to Los Angeles for a fresh start.

“We were doing what we were doing in SF and it felt really good,” frontman Octavio Genera told Grimy Goods after playing one of many shows at this year’s SXSW. “But I’m very much in that psyche that when something becomes too comfortable, I get kind of nervous and have to shake it. And the band just said, yeah let’s do it. And it’s been nice for us to be able to do all that together.”

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Top 10 Most Booked U.S. Festival Acts of 2016

Top 10 Most Booked U.S. Festival Acts of 2016
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
March 28, 2016

There is basically a major music festival in the United States once a weekend once festival season “officially” kicks off with Coachella in mid-April. While most of these festivals do a great job of curating unique lineups tailored to their usual base of patrons, there’s a handful of acts that you’ll see on more than their fair share of bills.

We’ve done some research using a spreadsheet that covers Coachella, Levitation, Shaky Knees, Shaky Beats, Hangout, Boston Calling, Sasquatch!, BottleRock, Governors Ball, Bunbury, Bonnaroo, Firefly, Forecastle, Pitchfork, and Panorama’s lineups to nail down the top 10 most booked acts on the U.S. festival circuit this spring and summer. Take a look at who you might get to see multiple times if you’re lucky enough to be hitting more than one festival this year.

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Top 20 Badass Frontwomen in Indie/Underground Music

Top 20 Badass Frontwomen in Indie/Underground Music
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
March 24, 2016

There’s an almost infinite amount of killer women fronting bands these days. We’ve done our best to put together our list of our 20 favorite bad asses that currently front their own bands, while also including some of our favorite lesser-known acts that have the potential to grow into being some of the better known ones. We got some good insight from our readers via social media, as well as from our own staff. Here’s our list in no particular order.

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Must-See Coachella Undercard: Anderson .Paak

Must-See Coachella Undercard: Anderson .Paak
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
March 23, 2016

Oxnard rapper Anderson .Paak is poised to have a monster 2016 — and it couldn’t be happening to a harder-working guy.

Paak is part black and part Korean, giving him a different viewpoint from many within his genre. His 2016 album Malibu is one of the year’s best so far and much of the lyrical content of it deals with his upbringing and how difficult of a road it’s been to his current stature.

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Interview with POLIÇA: An in-depth discussion of their new politically charged album “United Crushers”

Interview with POLIÇA: An in-depth discussion of their new politically charged album “United Crushers”
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
March 22, 2016

On Friday, March 25, Minneapolis synthpop band POLIÇA returns to Los Angeles for a date at the Fonda Theatre. They had a busy week during SXSW in Austin, playing upwards of a half-dozen shows during that stretch. Their new album United Crushers dropped a few weeks ago via Mom + Pop Records and it is a very brilliant and politically-charged record. We talked with singer Channy Leaneagh about the album and some of the messages behind it, check out what she had to say in our interview below!

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Music Festival-ization: Which spring festival is right for you?

Music Festival-ization: Which spring festival is right for you?
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
March 22, 2016

Coachella takes place a little less than a month from now, which means festival season is nearly underway. There are now more music festivals taking place in the United States than ever before. Thievery Corporation’s Rob Garza told us last year that there’s a huge festival-ization going on right now, and he isn’t wrong. Here at Grimy Goods we’ve compiled a comprehensive guide based on the spring festivals we’ve covered over the past few years. Take a look to find out what festival is right for you.

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0 Best Coachella 2016 Niche Bookings

10 Best Coachella 2016 Niche Bookings
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
February 25, 2016

One of the things that makes Coachella special compared to every other festival is their ability to step outside of the box with their bookings. With more than 150 total acts on the lineup, they’re able to pull from niche genres that don’t get a lot of mainstream love without compromising the amount of name-recognition talent they can bring. Here we spotlight 10 of our favorite billings at this year’s festival.

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An Interview with Coeur de Pirate: Taking a linguistic leap of faith

An Interview with Coeur de Pirate: Taking a linguistic leap of faith
Mark E. Ortega
Grimygoods.com
February 23, 2016

Beatrice Martin is a musician in transition.The singer-songwriter also known as Coeur de Pirate returns to Los Angeles for a headlining set at the El Rey Theatre this coming Saturday armed with some awesome electro-pop tunes.

Martin is touring in support of her 2015 full-length release Roses, an album that sees her challenge herself in more ways than one. On this record, Martin sings more English-language tunes than French ones for the first time while also taking a deep dive into the burgeoning synthpop genre with tracks like “Carry On” and “I Don’t Want to Break Your Heart” — which features rapper Allan Kingdom.

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2016 Forecast: 10 Los Angeles Acts to Watch —- they’re on the rise!

2016 Forecast: 10 Los Angeles Acts to Watch — they’re on the rise!
Mark E. Ortega & Sandra Burciaga
GrimyGoods.com
January 15, 2016

2016 is in full swing and its time for us to release our annual forecast of Los Angeles bands we feel will make some serious waves this year. From the manic punk of Kim & The Created to the alluring sounds of synth pop duo, Pr0files — check out our 2016 Forecast: 10 Los Angeles Acts to Watch (yes, they’re on the rise!). We’ve also noted some honorable mentions who are definitely worth a listen.

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Hot Band Alert: No gimmick — Teenaged rockers Regrettes are completely for real

Hot Band Alert: No gimmick — Teenaged rockers Regrettes are completely for real
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
November 18, 2015

A couple of months ago, I saw a teenaged rock duo called Regrettes open up for Kate Nash at the Echo and was surprised at how competent and legitimate they were – even more-so after learning they were just fourteen years old. A gimmick guitarist Lydia Night and drummer Marlhy Murphy definitely are not.

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From Spain with love: an interview with HINDS -- playing the Echo on Oct. 16

From Spain with love: an interview with HINDS -- playing the Echo on Oct. 16
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
October 9, 2015

Spanish four-piece HINDS (fka Deers) first burst into America at this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW), playing more than a dozen shows over the course of that week in Austin. I discovered the band while doing research for my first SXSW — their song “Bamboo” caught my attention immediately — and somehow didn’t manage to see them live that week. But they’ve long been on my conscience and have continued to release explosive high energy lo-fi garage rock jams, and with a gig coming up next week at the Echoplex on Friday, October 16, I got a chance to speak with Carlotta Cosials, one of the founding members of the band as well as one of the main vocalists and guitarists.

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Interview with Wolf Alice, the UK's latest and greatest fast-rising rock band

Interview with Wolf Alice, the UK's latest and greatest fast-rising rock band
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
October 7, 2015

It was only 9 months ago that we saw rising UK rockers Wolf Alice making their LA debut at School Night at Bardot. Their headlining set was one of the more anticipated of the weekly free with RSVP series as patrons packed into the small frat-house-like venue despite some anti-LA weather.

“I remember it like yesterday,” drummer Joel Amey told Grimy Goods in a phone interview earlier this week.

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Interview with Clean Bandit, who open for Duran Duran at Hollywood Bowl

Interview with Clean Bandit, who open for Duran Duran at Hollywood Bowl
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
October 1, 2015

UK outfit Clean Bandit opens for Duran Duran on Thursday, October 1 at the Hollywood Bowl, just less than a week after the two appeared Saturday on the Life is Beautiful Festival bill in downtown Las Vegas. Their unique blend of classical and dance music is great to hear, particularly in a live setting. We caught up with Grace Chatto (cello, vocals) and Jack Patterson early Saturday before their set, which was one of the best dance parties of the weekend.

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Interview with Catfish & the Bottlemen: On their way to stadium rockers

Interview with Catfish & the Bottlemen: On their way to stadium rockers
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
September 28, 2015

There’s this sense in indie rock with a lot of bands that they’re not out to conquer the world, that they’re too cool to outright say they desire to play to the biggest crowds out there.

With UK outfit Catfish & the Bottlemen, they’ve been vocal about their desire to play massive stadiums and blow up to becoming the biggest band the UK has seen since Oasis headlined at Knebworth House to the tune of 150,000 people in 1996.

This band is on the fast track given they sound a bit like if The Strokes were fronted by a British version of Brandon Flowers of The Killers. They’ve got a stadium sound, so who is anyone to call them cocky for dreaming they can fill stadiums in the next few years?

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An interview with Blackalicious' Chief Xcel: faith brings first new record in a decade

An interview with Blackalicious' Chief Xcel: faith brings first new record in a decade
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
September 25, 2015

“Never let life’s troubles block your flow. Have faith and keep where you’re trying to go, like a winding river in search of the ocean, you must keep your faith in motion.”

Those are the opening words from “Faith” off Imani Vol. 1 (off the label OGM) – which came out last week – the first Blackalicious album in a decade. The words are inspiring to listeners, but they also fit the hip-hop duo from Sacramento like a glove. Between Chief Xcel’s fire beats and Gift of Gab’s creative rhymes, this twosome has been an important pillar of California hip-hop for about two decades.

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