This sucks.

Everything must be so hunky-dory in LA that the LAPD now can occupy its time busting small Silver Lake and Echo Park venues for hosting interesting music shows for cheap.

First there was trouble with the Hyperion Tavern and live music and now da police has decided to shut down the beloved Echo Curio, a venue whose terrible crime was to book small, weird, up-and-coming, quirky acts in a very cozy environment.

You know, the kind of environment that any city DESPERATELY NEEDS for good music to find an audience and thrive.

Meanwhile, the boutique hotels' “industry showcases” and the music publishers' paid-for showcases continue to thrive unmolested.

(If we had a penny for every piece of insistent PR spam we get trying to get us to cover music that sucks because someone's getting paid to push it, we'd gladly donate the pile of money to “take care” of the Echo Curio's (and the Hyperion Tavern and many other small venues') “peculiar” licensing issues with the surely-reputable-and-honest city authorities…)

Again, this sucks.

According to this LA Times report,

It was only a matter of time before the city noticed that the art and music venue on a busy stretch of Sunset Boulevard, open since 2006 and known for its loosely enforced $5 admissions, was missing a few other permits as well, namely the one permitting live music.

On Saturday, the venue posted a blog item noting that due to another city intervention, all shows in the space have either been canceled or moved to venues such as the Fretted Frog (for a stateside visit from Francophile folkie Francoiz Breut) or founders Grant Capes and Justin McInteer's houses while they procure the proper paperwork to continue hosting live shows.

How can the music community help the Echo Curio, and the cause of good music in general? LAPD has been notoriously difficult and anti-arts, but one would think our civic leaders would actually want to ENCOURAGE genuine artistic expression to counterbalance all the industry crap being shoveled down our throats, right?

Right?

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