L’Aventure :: A Los Angeles Music Sampler – 2010

Last year Aquarium Drunkard released RAM On L.A. — a local music compilation featuring eleven Los Angeles artists each covering a track off Paul McCartney’s 1971 LP, RAM. Today we’re following that up with L’Aventure — a local music compilation featuring eight Los Angeles artists paying tribute to Television’s sophomore LP, Adventure.

Like its predecessor, L’Aventure is an attempt to capture, if only for an instant, a slice of what is happening musically in L.A. in 2010. Or more specifically, it’s an attempt to highlight eight Los Angeles artists that have individually caught my ear over the past couple of years. By no means all encompassing, L’Aventure is a great jumping off point for those interested in the diverse landscape that is L.A.’s music.

Why Adventure? Why now? Like RAM, the album is used as a template—as a cohesive force—bonding these, at times, disparate artists together. A post-punk landmark, Television’s debut, Marquee Moon, tends to garner most of the adulation. It’s follow-up, Adventure, is now a classic album in its own right that seems to regularly get lost on the mix. In short, it is time for a reevaluation—perhaps this is the beginning of that conversation.

Available as a free high-quality download (FLAC and/or 320kbs mp3), we are encouraging those who have the means to donate to the Los Angeles based Silverlake Conservatory of Music. 100% of all donations go directly to the conservatory. Huge thanks to the artists who generously donated both their time and talents to this project. Artwork by Jeremy Benson, layout by Ben Kramer.

Download: L’Aventure :: A Los Angeles Music Sampler – 2010

The Players: The Henry Clay People :: Glory, Foreign Born :: Days, The Happy Hollows :: Foxhole, Local Natives :: Careful, The Deadly Syndrome :: Carried Away, Imaad Wasif w/ Lykke Li :: The Fire, Dirt Dress :: Ain’t That Nothin’, The Growlers :: The Dream’s Dream

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38 thoughts on “L’Aventure :: A Los Angeles Music Sampler – 2010

  1. Can’t seem to get the download to work; it keeps telling me that my cart session has expired…?

  2. hey – if i donate the $, do I still have to join e-Music?

    I joined a while back and didn’t like it. Not sure if I can even do free trial. Either way – for me, it’s never risk free. 🙂 I’ll forget to cancel before the month end and they’ll start billing me … etc.

  3. Never mind. I figured it out. Misunderstood it . But I just tried the donation/download and it just kept saying “your cart session has expired …”. so I couldn’t do it.

  4. I paid, downloaded, and finally gave it a listen. I’m sorry to say that if this is a slice of where LA music is right now, it’s in a pretty sad place. Most of these are inert and have very little energy. I didn’t expect them to improve on the original songs, which have some cracking bad lyrics, but some of these were lame pisstakes–like the version of “Ain’t that Nothing.” Even groups I like had pretty tired versions of these songs. I appreciate all you make available, but I’m throwing this one back in.

  5. I suppose I’m not crazy about Ain’t That Nothing either, I must admit, but the general assessment here is that this a great, successful project, with covers doing what covers should do, which is to give you a chance to reassess the source material’s worth that you may have listened to 1000 times already. Several of these make me love Adventure more and that new esteem is entirely due to the thoughtful playing and mild rearranging. A really welcome idea, well executed, with the $ going the right way. It led me back to Ram as well which is also very worthwhile and a great chance to remind people that early McCartney was great and maybe people shouldn’t revile him so these days.

  6. I love this re-make so much, I’m Twittering links to it and giving CDs of it to my brother and friends who love Television. So sad that this band did only 2 official albums, though Tom Verlaine’s solo work is just about as good. Thanks to all the bands who did this album, and I hope to see more ReImagined projects soon. Perhaps something by The Slits, Raincoats, Au Pairs, or Tuxedo Moon?

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