Twilight Concert Series, No Age, Tijuana Panthers: July 25, 2013

JULY 25, 2013

FREE, THURSDAY NIGHTS, 7-10PM

No Age Tijuana Panthers

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No Age

Table of contents

page 6

Joining forces Familiar promoter Rum & Humble joins forces with Spaceland to produce this year’s Twilight Concert Series

pages 8-9

Map page 4

Where’s the bathroom, dude?

Punk on the Pier

pages 10-14

No Age ready to rock out loud

Future shows

page 5

Learn about the line-up for the summer

Twilight Concerts insider’s guide

Photo play Last week’s show in pictures

Twilight Concert Series Schedule

Aug. 22

Nick Waterhouse with Boogaloo Assassins

July 25

No Age

Aug. 29

with Tijuana Panthers

Trombone Shorty with The Dustbowl Revival

Aug. 1

Xavier Rudd

Sept. 5

with Aus Rocks Us

Gardens & Villa and Mr. Little Jeans

Aug. 8

Hanni El Khatib and Bombino

Sept. 12

Jimmy Cliff with The Delirians

Aug. 15

The English Beat with Maxwell Smart & troup

Twilight Concert Series Partners Myspace Cirque du Soleil KCRW OneWest Bank 98.7 FM G'day USA Quantas Airways Shore Hotel Chili Beans Eyewear Michelob Ultra

LA Weekly Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Mambo Cotton On Australia.com Loaded Boards Rum & Humble Spaceland Laemmle Santa Monica Daily Press

Drum Workshop Uber Barefoot Wine Sabian

ALL FORMS, ALL TYPES, ALL STATES

BACK TAXES • BOOKKEEPING • SMALL BUSINESS SAMUEL B. MOSES, CPA

(310) 395-9922 100 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1800, Santa Monica 90401

page 15

The 411 on this year’s shows

TAXES

WSR Creative Bagavagabonds Heal the Bay Del Frisco's Grille Mariasol City of Santa Monica Pacific Park of Santa Monica Studio 16 City TV Whole Foods Buy Local Santa Monica For more information, visit

www.SantaMonicaPier.org

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No Age

Punk on the Pier No Age ready to rock out loud P

unk music is all about individuality and about being yourself, says guitarist Randy Randall, one-half of No Age, the decibeldestroying experimental punk duo slotted to play the Twilight Concert Series on the Santa Monica Pier July 25.

Randall and drummer-vocalist and occasional bassist Dean Allen Spunt make music that doesn’t shy away from that definition. It’s raw, often times loud, distorted and different, yet recognizably punk rock. No Age sometimes uses electronically-distorted samples as melodic fillers, which makes it more than just a guitarand-drums band, Randall has said in interviews. Randall’s riffs and the group’s samples launch their music into the stratosphere, while Spunt’s erratic and on-beat poundings keeps the package grounded.

No Age’s music is often labeled as Do-itYourself Punk, a sub-genre defined by pioneering punk bands of the 1970s who shrugged

off corporate sponsorship in lieu of complete creative freedom. To Randall, calling punk music anything but punk is a contradiction.

“Being punk is … thinking for yourself and adding your two cents into the pot of what your interpretation of the world is and what your place and your role can be,” Randall told us.

Punk can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people, he added, but it’s about doing everything yourself and it can’t happen any other way.

“Unless it’s maybe Do-it-For-Me, DIFM,” Randall said, jokingly. “I put my shoes on myself, I’m not a DIY shoe-wearer.”

The duo’s new album, “An Object,” drops Aug. 20 and gets a little closer to DIY for those who insist on the label — both band members had a close hand in all aspects of the album’s production, down to the album art and packaging.

“An Object” is also a little different from its three predecessors, Randall said.

“It’s a fun, explosive, weird, confrontational kind of mind-trip. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s also a lot of fun,” Randall said. “You’ll like it if you’re into trippy music or maybe something that’s a little bit different than what you would normally hear oozing out of the radio.”

The album is “sinewy,” a sort of “noisescape collage” that references bands like Throbbing Gristle or Psychic TV, two experimental bands of the late-1970s, early-1980s.

“Collage-makers,” Randall called them.

“I think there’s still an element of rock music or punk stuff, but it’s kind of a unique capsule in and of itself,” Randall said. “I think all of these songs make sense together, but wouldn’t make sense on other albums.”

Randall credits the close association between tracks on “An Object” to the fact that

all the music was recorded around the same time. No Age is known for turning out albums quickly.

As for the lyrics, “An Object” stands in opposition to the status quo and unspoken complacency, Randall said.

“You go through life and you get older and start labeling things like ‘I’m a punk, I’m going to protest this, war is wrong’ or ‘oil for blood,’ you know, those kinds of black and white messages that I feel you can just stand in opposition of really easily,” Randall said. “But then there’s the small little subtext things like buying Chinese-made products that are created in sweatshops that are the only option. You go, ‘How do I protest that? Do I not wear shoes or not buy Chinese lead paint for my kids or do I not drive a car?’ … It’s not a very political record, but I think it’s more just calling out the comfortability in finding your place in the world and what sort of compromises you make.”

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WATCHING THE SHOW from the beach tonight?

Don't forget to recycle your glass bottles and aluminum cans.

2411 Delaware Avenue in Santa Monica

(310) 453-9677

Twilight Concerts insider’s guide Tickets

Smoking

No tickets necessary, this is pure free summer fun (remember that?) all thanks to our partners and sponsors who have brought us another season of awesome free concerts at the beach. Make sure to show them some love.

Don’t even think about it, it’s a 100-year-old wooden Pier, and we really like it.

Pets Dogs are welcome, but must be on a leash.

Time 7 p.m. — 10 p.m., but those in the know stake out a good spot early.

Parking Parking is available in the 1550 Pacific Coast Highway Lot next to the Santa Monica Pier on a first-come, first-served basis. Those wanting to avoid long waits should try one of the municipal lots around Second Street and Colorado Avenue or grab the ParkMe app for live data of parking availability and prices.

Go technology!

Weather & attire It never gets too cold, but sometimes it gets a little chilly once the sun goes down. So bring something or head up to the Pier Tent on the deck to grab this year’s limited-edition sweatshirt or T-shirt!

Seating Seating is not provided, so feel free to bring your own chairs, blankets, etc ...

Food & drinks Bike & skateboard valet Park your wheels at the free bike and skateboard valet located next to the beach bike path just south of the Pier.

There are plenty of great food and beverage options on the deck and at the various restaurants on the Pier. Most even have to-go options perfect for munching during the show. As a reminder, alcohol consumption is not permitted in public spaces, but there are several full-service bars in the area.

Friends & family

The Concert Garden

Bring them, the more the merrier. You will not regret it. This is one epic summer tradition.

There is a 21-and-over Concert Garden featuring Barefoot Wines, an assortment of cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages.

Do not miss this view.

First aid/lost & found If you need first aid or assistance, please visit the Pier Tent or flag down a security officer. If it is an emergency, please call 911.

E-mail list & special offers Sign up at TwilightSeries.org for special announcements, offers and invites.

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Santa Monica Recycling Center

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Joining forces Familiar promoter Rum & Humble joins forces with Spaceland Presents to produce this year’s Twilight Concert Series Y

ou can’t begin to know everything that goes into a concert, but Martin Fleischmann and Mitchell Frank, co-owners of RH&S Concerts, do.

As concert promoters, Fleischmann and Mitchell book talent, participate in marketing, deal with lighting and sound.

“Everything that goes into a concert one way or another we have to handle,” Fleischmann said.

Since 2011, Fleischmann and his concert promotion company Rum & Humble have handled music production on the Santa Monica Pier for the Twilight Concert Series. He does all the hard stuff so we can sit back and enjoy the show.

This year, Rum & Humble has teamed up with Mitchell and Spaceland Presents — a full service music event company and one of the most innovate independent club promoters — to provide us with our concert entertainment.

Think of them as a joint task force of jamming, a coalition of listening ... or something like that.

RH&S is a joint venture that combines the best of the old familiar Pier concerts we’ve come to love with the daring of the indie scene.

What can we expect from this partnership?

More up-and-coming artists will be rubbing elbows with well-known acts and old favorites, which in itself will be symbolic as we usher in a new era of the Pier as the place where local history rubs elbows with the future.

Or if that’s too many words, Pier Administrator Jay Farrand said he likes to distill it down to “classic meets contemporary.”

“The combination of Rum & Humble’s experience at the Hollywood Bowl, a classic outdoor venue with classic artists, and Spaceland’s experience as an incubator of emerging talent, they seemed to fit perfectly,” he said.

Rum & Humble is certainly no stranger to the series, or to the Westside.

“I’m pretty much a Santa Monica, Westside native,” Fleischmann said.

He’s lived here since he was 6 years old, and has been working with music almost as long.

Mitchell has a background in finance, but switched to music and opened one of the first Pro Tools Studios in Los Angeles. He currently owns downtown Echo Park venues The Echo and Echoplex.

“We helped bring some Eastside sensibili-

ties, crowds and demographics to the Westside,” Mitchell said.

And it’s the local understanding that grounds this combination of celebrated and cutting edge entertainment.

“TCS is at heart a community event,” Fleischmann said. “We’re able to convey that grassroots feeling in a very natural way while also being able to access talent of a very high caliber.”

Fleischmann has previously promoted some interesting mashups. Standouts include arty, alty legends Radiohead at L.A.’s own Hollywood Bowl, as well as a series of concerts that juxtaposed world music in sacred spaces. The idea was to utilize the opposite of what you would expect, Fleischmann said.

“Arabic music or gospel in a Jewish temple,” he described it. “That kind of transposition of cultures has always stayed with me.”

Mitchell has had his own share of putting people in the spotlight. The coveted Monday Night Residency position at the Echo has been held by such indie rock royalty as the Silversun Pickups, Foster The People and the Airborne Toxic Event.

Considering that history, is it any surprise

that this year’s lineup is so exciting?

“Jason Bentley on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic played an incredible TCS set recently: Jimmy Cliff, English Beat, Surfer Blood and Hanni El Khatib,” Mitchell said. “It made me very proud.”

By the way, if you like what you hear, stick around after summer, because in September and October RH&S is staying on the Pier to promote some more music: Sept. 21 and 22 will see KCRW’s feel good Beach Ball Soul Revue and Reggae Fest, you can catch the Newport Folk Festival’s Americana and indie folk show Way Over Yonder on Oct. 5 and 6, and then get your comedic fix with Tenacious D’s star laden Festival Supreme on Oct. 19.

No matter what day you head our way, expect music you haven’t quite heard anywhere before and memories you can’t quite capture anywhere else.

“This partnership is a huge shift, and it has resulted in a different complexion to the Twilight Concert Series,” Fleischmann said.

It’s a complexion we’re looking forward to facing, and a partnership that’s just perfect for our Pier.

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2013 Twilight Concert Series

Xavier Rudd

Aug. 1

Xavier Rudd with Aus Rocks Us “Rudd’s status as one of Australia’s most talented artists has been reinforced” 9.5/10 Tone Deaf Xavier Rudd is back with his #2 ARIA debut album, Spirit Bird.

With an identifiable array of guitars, yidakis (didgeridoos), stomp box and percussion, Rudd’s has reintroduced Australians to the sounds and stories of the land’s original owners, while introducing the rest of the world to an entirely new sound altogether.

Over the course of a decade, he has taken this sound to every corner of the globe; producing seven studio albums, two live albums, multiple ARIA nominations and a global fan-base of like-minded souls.

From 2002’s To Let, his first studio album, through to 2007’s White Moth, Rudd gradually refined his globally-influenced collage of world music - a matchless mixture of reggae, funk, blues, folk, and nearly every other sort of song with the ability to stimulate people’s spirits.

With 2008’s Dark Shades of Blue, the world was welcomed into a darker, more somber side of Rudd’s music. The album was indeed musically rich, with an international influence still inherent; however, the overall aura carried a different tinge compared to that of his previous work.

“Dark Shades Of Blue was something that I didn’t realize at the time. It was like I could feel the shudder of an earthquake, but I didn’t know it was coming” explains Rudd. That metaphorical earthquake manifested in the form of the most tumultuous year in Rudd’s personal history, and one he was more than

happy to put behind him when starting to pen 2010’s Koonyum Sun. This album was a new awakening for Rudd, perhaps because it was his first with bassist Tio Moloantoa and percussionist Andile Nqubezelo under the unified banner of ‘Xavier Rudd & Inzintaba’. Thanks to the input of Inzintaba, Koonyum Sun presented a staggering amount of vigor to this release that Xavier Rudd fans hadn’t seen to date.

Which brings us to 2012’s Spirit Bird.

Already producing Rudd’s highest-selling single and most played radio single to date with Follow The Sun, 2012’s Spirit Bird is Rudd’s deepest and most explorative album. The album saw the ever socially-conscience Rudd delve into his musical and spiritual ancestry and took him from the threatened landscape of Western Australia’s Kimberley region, to the hills and lakes of Canada.

The Spirit Bird sees Rudd to sell-out shows and festivals across Europe, UK, Australia, US and Canada.

Xavier Rudd is a singer, songwriter, multiinstrumentalist, a surfer, environmental and cultural activist, and one of Australian’s most iconic voices.

Spirit Bird is out now through all good retailers.

winding back through punk and psychedelia to rock ‘n’ roll and early R&B and finally the first scratchy years of the blues, he’d record song after bare-bones song — in between day jobs and night life — just because he had things he wanted to sing about. Then in 2010 from a chance meeting, up-and-coming indie label Innovative Leisure recognized that there was something huge hiding in those little songs. And so El Khatib made his official fullpower debut (on vinyl too) in 2010.

Soon his music would overtake him completely. By the time his first album “Will the Guns Come Out” was released in 2011, he clawed out a space of his own musically and left his job as creative director at streetwear label HUF as well as his hometown of San Francisco to become part-owner of Innovative Leisure in Los Angeles. It had been the kind of year where anything that could happen would happen.

Bombino Omara “Bombino” Moctar, whose given name is Goumar Almoctar, was born on Jan. 1, 1980 in Tidene, Niger, an encampment of nomadic Tuaregs located about 80 kilometers to the northeast of Agadez. He is a member of the Ifoghas tribe, which belongs to the Kel Air Tuareg federation. His father is a car mechanic and his mother takes care of the home, as is the Tuareg tradition. Bombino was raised as a Muslim and taught to consider honor, dignity and generosity as principal tenets of life.

Bombino spent his early childhood between the encampment and the town of Agadez, the largest city in northern Niger (population about 90,000) and long a key part of the ancient Sahara trade routes connecting North Africa and the Mediterranean with West Africa. One of 17 brothers and sisters (including half brothers and half sisters from both his mother and

SEE LINE-UP PAGE 12

Aug. 8

Hanni El Khatib and Bombino When Hanni El Khatib started out, he was just a skater kid playing the world’s worst guitar and singing by himself. Inspired by a long line of determined do-it-for-themselves musicians

Hanni El Khatib

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Bombino

LINE-UP FROM PAGE 10 father), Bombino was enrolled in school in Agadez, but he demonstrated his rebellious spirit early on and refused to go. Bombino’s grandmother took him in to keep his father from forcing him to go to school, and, like most Tuareg children, he grew up living with his grandmother.

Aug. 15

The English Beat with Maxwell Smart & Rusty’s EAC Dave Wakeling is a hell of a nice guy!

Dave loves to tell you the stories behind his songs, either from stage or after the show. Ask any one of the thousands of fans who have met him over the years and that’s what you’ll hear. Never mind that Dave is the singer/songwriter from two of the most popular bands of the end of the millennium, The English Beat and General Public, he’s a stand up man from Brum. Whether it’s the personal as political in “How Can You Stand There,” making politics personal in “Stand Down Margaret,” taking a stand against global warming as he did making Greepeace’s Alternative NRG, or helping little kids stand tall with “Smile Train,” Dave has always stood for something.

And like the mighty Redwoods of his adopted home of California (dude!), it’s easy for Dave to take a stand because of his strong roots.

Hailing from working-class Birmingham, England, Dave and The English Beat entered the music scene in the troubled times of 1979.

When The English Beat rushed on to the music scene it was a time of social, political and musical upheaval. Into this storm they came, trying to calm the waters with their simple message of love and unity set to a great dance beat.

Over the course of three albums, The English Beat achieved great success in their home country, charting several singles into the top 10. In addition to their UK chart success, in America the band found a solid base of young fans eager to dance to the their hypnotic rhythms and absorb their message of peace, love and unity.

Their constant touring with iconic bands such as The Clash and The Police helped to boost their popularity in the States.

Despite his huge success, Dave didn’t stop singing and acting on the problems caused by what he called the “noise in this world.” The band donated all the profits from their highly successful single version of “Stand Down Margaret” to the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament.

Aug. 22

Nick Waterhouse with Boogaloo Assassins

Nick Waterhouse

Nick Waterhouse is the new breed — an R&B fanatic who combines an uncanny oldschool sensibility with a charged, contemporary style. At just 25, he joins the ranks of a growing cabal of similar acts and producers of recent times — Mark Ronson, Mayer Hawthorne, the Daptone Crew et al — that are all moving forward into the past, yet all quite different. For Waterhouse, his muse is the over-modulated sound of vintage R&B, and his take on such a time-honored tradition evokes the back-alley thrill of New Orleans, Detroit and Memphis in their heyday. He combines an astute attention to detail with an honest desire to match the emotional impact of the music that inspires him.

When asked to pinpoint the sound or style he strives for, Nick Waterhouse simply shrugs and responds, “American music. And I know that’s pretty general, but it is what it is. I have spent so much of my life immersed in this stuff, because I wanted to figure it out, [yet] all I figured out was that there was no plan.”

In other words, whatever musical style Nick may choose to espouse, it’s not done because someone else did it, but done for the same reason someone else did it.

Growing up in the Southern California, Waterhouse eschewed his surroundings and found emotional authenticity in the vintage wax of Ray Charles, Roy Head, Little Willie John and the whole panoply of American music, where feel so often trumps technique.

Boogaloo Assassins The Boogaloo Assassins’ name might hint at homicide, but their efforts are strictly life-saving. Dedicated to re-creating and re-interpreting the boogaloo craze that swept East Harlem, the Latin Caribbean and South America from 1965 to 1969, the Los Angeles nine-piece band attempts to do to R&B, doowop, Afro-Caribbean jazz and salsa fusion what the Dap Kings do to classic Stax soul.

Aug. 29

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

hear or are influenced by, it naturally comes out in what we’re trying to do. It’s just our sound, and it happened naturally.”

Andrews wrote or co-wrote all 14 tracks on the new album, including collaborating with the legendary Lamont Dozier on “Encore,” while this time playing as much trumpet as trombone, as well as organ, drums, piano, keys, synth bass and percussion. Indeed, he played every part on the swaying, Latin-tinged “Unc.” He’s also come into his own as a singer, honoring the hallowed legacy of the great soul men of the 1960s and ‘70s. Like its predecessor, the new album turns on a rare combination of virtuosity and high-energy, party-down intensity.

The Dustbowl Revival The Dustbowl Revival is a Venice, Calif.based collective that merges old school bluegrass, gospel, jug-band, swamp blues and the hot swing of the 1930s to form a spicy roots cocktail. Known for their inspired live sets, The Dustbowl Revival boldly brings together many styles of traditional American music. Imagine Old Crow Medicine Show meeting Louis Armstrong’s Hot Seven Band in New Orleans or Bob Dylan and Fats Waller jamming with Mumford & Sons on a front porch in 1938.

Growing steadily from a small string band playing up and down the West Coast (hundreds of shows in the last two years), DBR has blossomed into a traveling collective featuring instrumentation that often includes fiddle, mandolin, trombone, clarinet, trumpet, banjo, accordion, tuba, pedal steel, drums, guitars, a bass made from a canoe oar, harmonica and plenty of washboard and kazoo for good luck.

With an enthusiastic and growing national following, DBR released their first LP “You Can’t Go Back To The Garden of Eden” to rave reviews. Their tune “Dan’s Jam,” received Americana Song Of The Year honors by the Independent Music Awards (Tom Waits, Ozzy Osbourne judging). The group has placed songs in several independent films and TV projects including “Made In China” (IFC) which won SXSW, and in an upcoming episode of “American Idol.” National radio play includes L.A.’s KCRW and KCSN, Austin’s KGSR, San Francisco’s KPFA and Seattle’s taste-making KEXP.

with The Dustbowl Revival Since the release of their Grammy-nominated 2010 debut album, “Backatown,” Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue have grown creatively while winning hordes of new fans performing nonstop on five continents.

Their latest album, “For True,” offers substantive proof of their explosive growth, further refining the signature sound Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews has dubbed “Supafunkrock.”

“There was excitement from everywhere,” said Andrews of the experience on the road and how it fed into the creation of “For True.”

“We did over 200 shows in the last year and a half, and every night we allowed the music to take us over. Musically and creatively, we wanted to shoot for some different things.”

The band — Mike Ballard on bass, Pete Murano on guitar, Joey Peebles on drums, Dan Oestreicher on baritone sax and Tim McFatter on tenor sax — stirs together old-school jazz, funk and soul, laced with hard-rock power chords and hip-hop beats, and they’ve added some tangy new ingredients on “For True” as they keep pushing the envelope, exploring new musical territory.

“We never sat down and really thought about concepts and what we wanted our music to sound like,” Andrews explained. “It’s just that, over the years, we allowed each one of the band members to bring their influences and taste in music into our music. Anything we

Sept. 5

Gardens & Villa and Mr. Little Jeans Gardens & Villa is the project of five college friends from Santa Barbara, formed following the collapse of a noisier post-punk band and a hitch-hiking journey up the West Coast.

Members Chris Lynch, Adam Rasmussen, Levi Hayden and Shane McKillop began playing in earnest as Gardens & Villa in 2008.

The name is pulled from the location of their house on Villa Street, and the property’s lovely garden to which they tend. The music they make is very much connected to the coastal city they call home — the stoney bike rides, dance parties and a scene free of judgment.

For two weeks in the summer of 2010, the band camped behind visionary and now-labelmate Richard Swift’s Oregon studio. No shower, no kitchen, but all the magic you could ask for. After taking a band oath to always play all parts live — a la Talking Heads’ “Stop Making Sense” — the band added member Dusty Ineman to supremely execute the live incarnation of the band.

SEE LINE-UP PAGE 14

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LINE-UP FROM PAGE 12

Mr. Little Jeans Meet Mr. Little Jeans, a.k.a. Monica Birkenes. She is small and Norwegian and she makes music that will leave you reeling.

Her pop dances left of center, a curious thing of equal parts organic magic and buzzing electricity. She has worked hard to get to this place, traveled far to find it. On some unmarked pasture between St. Vincent’s prettiest moments and Debby Harry’s wilder inclinations, she stands fronting an army of bright ideas and sharp sounds, a shipbuilder’s daughter with a voice that could part a sea.

SANTAMONICAPIER.ORG Monica grew up in the middle of the woods in a seaside town called Grimstad. Her dad built catamarans and her mum was a secretary whose love for music was infectious. They didn’t have much money, but put their daughter through years of piano and voice lessons which she’d attend wearing her mother’s oversized outfits from another era. There were four black cats called Missy, and some neighbors who killed a man, but otherwise it was all Nancy Drew, dancing through the trees, and singing to mum’s records.

Her first instrument has always been her voice. Monica sang in the church choir at 5, then around town wherever and whenever her mum saw fit: malls, old folks’ homes, theaters, even on local television once or twice. At 10, she recorded a cassette of children’s classics and shopped it around to gas stations mainly.

By 15, she was singing in bars, clearly underage but backed by a band of boys in their 20s. She focused on music in high school, then relocated to London to study drama.

A year later, Monica was on her own in England, having left college to chase singing leads gleaned from the “wanted” pages.

Mostly she spent an endless string of years as a terrible waitress and, after an exploratory trip to Los Angeles, a couple more years sofa-surfing, country-hopping, and racking up credit card debt as she wrote with different producers — Peter Moren (Peter Bjorn & John), John Hill (Santigold) — and shaped her sound into that of the inimitable Mr. Little Jeans we now know.

Sept. 12

Jimmy Cliff with The Delirians “I got one more shot at the goal/Straight from my soul/I’m in control,” sings reggae legend Jimmy Cliff on “One More,” the lead track from “Rebirth” the new Universal Music Enterprises album from the Grammy-winning musician, actor, singer, songwriter, producer and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, produced by punk icon Tim Armstrong, of Rancid and Operation Ivy fame.

The release, his first studio album in seven years, is the next step in their collaboration on last year’s “Sacred Fire” EP, an effort Rolling Stone called Cliff’s “best music in decades ... [his] tenor still soars.” With the groundbreaking 1972 film “The Harder They Come” celebrating its 40th anniversary, Cliff — who starred in the movie and contributed the title cut, “You Can Get It If You Really Want,” “Many Rivers to Cross” and “Sitting in Limbo” to the soundtrack Jimmy Cliff

— is still going strong in a career that has spanned almost 50 years and includes his native Jamaica’s highest honor, the Order of Merit.

In the autobiographical “Reggae Music,” Cliff recounts going to see famed Jamaican producer Leslie Kong in 1962 to convince him to work with him, releasing Cliff’s first hit, “Hurricane Hattie,” when he was just 14.

“Jimmy is one of my musical heroes and I’ve been responding to his music my entire life,” said Armstrong, who had never met Cliff before, but was once recommended to him by mutual friend Joe Strummer of The Clash.

Gathering Armstrong’s studio band, the Engine Room (bassist/percussionist J Bonner, drum/percussionist Scott Abels, organ/percussionist Dan Boer and piano/lead guitarist Kevin Bivona), the first song they tackled was a cover of Rancid’s “Ruby Soho,” a ska- tinged number from the band’s 1995 album “... And Out Came the Wolves” about a musician having to tell his lover he’s headed for the road.

“I had no idea it was one of Tim’s songs, but I liked it and could identify with the sentiments,” said Cliff. “I never really had the opportunity to hear his music, but it was a great thing how we hit if off in the studio.”

They also worked on a cover of The Clash’s “The Guns of Brixton,” a song about the growing tension in Brixton at the time.

Ironically, Strummer’s last session ever was with Cliff on “Over the Border,” a song from Jimmy’s 2004 album, “Black Magic.” It was at that time Joe talked up Armstrong as someone who might make a good collaborator for him.

“It was inspiring working with Tim because even the sound of the album feels like we went back to the ‘60s and ‘70s,” said Cliff. “I had forgotten about a lot of the sounds and the instruments we used then, and we brought that all back.”

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Snap shot Meshell Ndegeocello, The Record Company kept the crowd going during week two B

ass diva Meshell Ndegeocello rounded out a night of pure rock gold during week two of the Twilight Concert Series.

Ndegeocello said it was a joy to play the Santa Monica Pier, a place she’s been known to visit to unwind while she’s in L.A. This week’s show opens with the Tijuana Panthers and punkers No Age close it out.

photo courtesy Brandon Wise

Meshell Ndegeocello

photo courtesy Brandon Wise

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