Hot Band Alert: With Phases, 'there's just no ego anymore'

Hot Band Alert: With Phases, 'there's just no ego anymore'
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
September 21, 2015

Los Angeles indie pop band Phases — formerly known as Jjamz — is comprised of four people that have all been involved in music for most of their lives. Z Berg (The Like), Jason Boesel (Rilo Kiley/Bright Eyes), Alex Greenwald (Phantom Planet), and Michael Runion have enjoyed varying degrees of success but currently find themselves in their happiest situation if vocalist Z Berg is to be believed.

“Most of us were in our first bands when we were like — 15?” Berg said in a phone interview last week.

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Jenny Lewis brings The Voyager tour to close at Observatory

Jenny Lewis brings The Voyager tour to close at Observatory
Mark E. Ortega
Ellenwood-EP.com
August 27, 2015

Along the way, I managed to see Jenny Lewis play 15 stops on this tour. From festival stops at Coachella (twice) and Hangout and Sasquatch and Life is Beautiful, to a half-dozen shows in LA, to shows in the OC, Oakland, Petaluma and Pomona, I saw Jenny Lewis “more days than I’ve seen my mom this year,” as one friend put it to me.

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Jenny Lewis delivers mini-Rilo Kiley reunion, HAIM collab at Coachella

Jenny Lewis delivers mini-Rilo Kiley reunion, HAIM collab at Coachella
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
April 13, 2015

Longtime Jenny Lewis fans like myself had been waiting for what happened Sunday at Coachella’s Outdoor Theatre for a long time.

Fellow former Rilo Kiley member Blake Sennett showed up to play guitar on “Portions for Foxes,” as his new project Night Terrors of 1927 performed earlier in the day. Sennett gave a spirited effort, though his timing was a tad off having probably not performed the song in awhile since the band disbanded in 2007.

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Ryan Adams and Jenny Lewis take chemistry from studio to stage at Fox Theater

Ryan Adams and Jenny Lewis take chemistry from studio to stage at Fox Theater
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
December 14, 2014

It wasn’t enough that Ryan Adams produced Jenny Lewis’ career-defining album The Voyager released earlier this year. Adams went ahead and brought Lewis on tour with him — and the magic that was made in the studio translated to the stage Thursday night at the Fox Theater in Pomona.

Lewis took the stage first and started her set the way she usually does with the last single from her days as the frontwoman of Rilo Kiley, singing “Silver Lining” to the awe of the crowd. Lewis was wearing her signature white blazer emblazoned in rainbow colors that graces the cover of her critically-acclaimed 2014 album that was produced at Adams’ Pax-Am studios.

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Jenny Lewis takes fans on emotional roller coast at The Roxy

Jenny Lewis takes fans on emotional roller coast at The Roxy
Mark E. Ortega
May 8, 2014
GrimyGoods.com


Tuesday night, Jenny Lewis debuted her new band at an intimate show at The Roxy in West Hollywood as she begins playing new songs from her forthcoming album, The Voyager.

Lewis took longtime fans of hers on an emotional roller coaster, mixing in new songs with songs from her days as the front woman of Rilo Kiley as well as select songs from her earlier solo albums. Fans waited anxiously for an hour once doors opened, swapping Jenny stories like they were baseball cards. One fan at the front was believable in saying he hadn’t missed a Jenny Lewis or Rilo Kiley show in California in about a decade as he recalled opening bands and song selections with impressive memory.

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