On ruthless Web-rag Buddyhead.com, Travis Keller and Aaron
North skewer everyone from Fred Durst to Evanescence
to the chubby guy from My Chemical Romance (easy targets,
some might say), so it was a bit surprising when the guys put themselves on the
chopping block a few months ago as promoters of their own weekly rock club. You
had to wonder: If it sucked, would they talk smack about themselves? Well, Dive
Bomb didn’t suck, but it still crashed and burned. The club featured
some great local noise-rock and DJs spinning thrashin’ obscurities every Wednesday
at The Knitting Factory, but now that North, best known as
former guitarist for punk schlockers The Icarus Line, has
joined Nine Inch Nails, it looks like the party is living
up to its name. Last Wednesday (4/20, dude!), North’s going-away bash featured
a totally unironic grunge night with Penny Royal and Dirty Frank
(Nirvana and Pearl Jam copycats, respectively); Thursday
the 28th, the night’s final blast features Frausdots onstage and metal
he-man look-alike Thor from Canada on the decks. Crappy or happy ending
. . . you decide. L.A. boys Run Run Run didn’t escape the
wrath of Buddyhead, who had nothing nice to say about their cover of Mazzy
Star’s “Fade Into You” on the site. But if B-Head had seen these fellas
live, it might have been a different story. We saw RRR during their monthlong
residency at Club Moscow at Boardners, and their atmospheric
rock seemed to have plenty of appeal for the long-banged babes who frequent the
spot. (And we do mean babes.) Moscow’s promoter Keith Wilson first
got into the nightlife biz with Club 82 (formerly at the Echo,
now at Little Pedro’s) — named for the year he and his pals
were born! To put it into context, they were fresh outta the oven when the Go-Gos’
“We Got the Beat” and Hall and Oates’ “Maneater” were hits. Speaking of H&O, they’re
suddenly back on everyone’s radar: First they were on American Idol,
then Steve Jones gushed over the duo when they guested on Jonesy’s
Jukebox, and just last week we heard DJ Justin Sterling rock
the floor with “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” during Warhol Factory night at
Radio at Star Shoes. Uh, no can do is right. [Speak for
yourself, lady! —ed.] Those who actually admit to watching
Idol may have seen the cameras focus on a flamboyant blonde in the audience
last week after longhaired Greek god Constantine Maroulis’ (who
got voted out this week) performance. You read it here first: It was local artist/scene
chick Giddle Partridge, who attended the taping with Maroulis’ older
brother, Athan Maroulis — singer of now-defunct gloom-industrial
sensations Spahn Ranch and head of NYC indie label Sepiatone
Records. After the taping, Partridge took the bros to her favorite
eatery, Canter’s deli, and nearly caused a riot on Fairfax, as fans and
freaks flocked around their table — the very one where Rodney Bingenheimer
eats nightly. The Mayor of Sunset Strip wasn’t there at the time, but if he
had been, we wonder if he and Maroulis might have discussed the great injustice
of the week: Ryan Seacrest’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Now that his bio-flick is on heavy cable rotation, everyone knows Bingenheimer
is the more deserving jock, and some enterprising fans are actually doing something
about it. Check out www.rodneyonthewalk.com to find out how you can help
raise dough (it costs 15 grand!) and spread the word. By the way, in addition
to his late-Sunday-night shift, Rodney’s back on KROQ when we can all actually
hear him: every day around 12:45 p.m. doing a short but sweet new-music segment
called Flash Forward. And that’s “what’s happening.”

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