Every year Amoeba kicks off Mardi Gras with a Fat Tuesday celebration, and this year once again a portion of the proceeds from all three Amoeba stores will benefit relief efforts in New Orleans.

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band

Taking place Feb. 12, the celebration will include a performance by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band at 2 p.m., DJs spinning New Orleans sounds starting at 1pm and our annual Second Line Parade follwing DDBB. The family-friendly event draws crowds every year.

This year Amoeba will be exclusively distributing the CD Congo Square Vol. 1, the first of six planned volumes tracing the development of New Orleans music, with all proceeds of the sale benefiting New Orleans relief efforts. Read more about The Congo Square Project in Billyjam’s interview with Congo Square producer Fabian Jolivet. Additionally we invite you to check out Amoeba.com’s Vinyl Vaults, featuring more than 100 remastered songs by blues great Louis Armstrong, from the years 1923 to 1932, many exclusively available from Amoeba to download for the first time ever. Read more about our Louis Armstrong archives here.

Southern California’s Local Natives are playing Amoeba Hollywood Jan. 29 at 6 p.m. Prior to that, and the release of their much-anticipated second album, Hummingbird, that same day, I caught up with lead singer Kelcey Ayer about the band’s development, the nearly four-year break between their albums and what went into creating the band’s new album.

PST: Some bands force a second record out quickly, while you guys have seemed to take your time, refining and changing your sound over the past couple of years. Did you aim to take your time with this record, or was that a byproduct of touring or other priorities and obligations?

Ayer: It’s kind of both actually. People think we took all this time off, but we practically didn’t take any. We toured all of 2009 and 2010, and planned to start writing at the beginning of 2011, but then these offers came in that we just couldn’t say no to (opening for Arcade Fire, playing the Walt Disney Concert Hall with an orchestra, traveling and playing throughout Mexico, etc.). We finally locked down our own rehearsal/recording space together that summer, but diving into writing got postponed yet again because of a death in my family. From there we spent a year writing and making the record, and by the time it was finished last September, we decided it would be better to release it the beginning of this year. But none of that bothered us since we’d always told ourselves that we wouldn’t rush things. We thought if there was any way to avoid the sophomore slump, it would be by taking our time and not giving ourselves that unneeded pressure. We figured that it doesn’t matter when a record comes out if it’s not your best effort.

LA’s FIDLAR ripped through most of their new self-titled album at Amoeba Hollywood Jan. 24 with hardly a pause for breath.

From the outset, when they broke into the four-chord, “I’m Not Your Steppin’ Stone”-style stomp of “Stoked and Broke,” things were loud, loud, loud. That continued through the next couple of songs on their album, the breakneck-speed “White on White” and quirky surf riffery of “No Waves.” It was a shame that you could hear barely a word of vocals from the band and its two singers, Zac Caper and Elvis Kuehn, whose true-to-life detailing of being in your mid-20s, in a band, without a proper job and getting drunk every night is a big part of FIDLAR’s appeal. Musically, though, the band never faltered, inducing trance with the looped opening notes of “Whore” before smashing through the song’s nasty, Sabbathy punk rock. Things came through loud-and-clear enough for the band’s shout along chorus to closer “Cheap Beer,” echoed by the sizable audience: “I! Drink! Cheap! Beer! So! What! Fuck! You!”

The show was a perfect example of FIDLAR’s ethos (“Fuck it Dawg, Life’s a Risk,” is what their name stands for). They don’t play the volume they should. They don’t wait to make sure their vocals are loud enough or fuss with the sound guy. They just play. And the kids went wild.

British songstress Jessie Ware emerged dressed down, looking like Stevie Nicks in a black ensemble and hoop earrings, Jan. 22 at Amoeba Hollywood. It’s only worth mentioning as it coincided with the difference between her live show, raw and organic, and her more digital records, on the covers of which she appears glossy and glammed up.

Ware, known as kind of the hipster Sade, began with “Devotion,” the title track to her Mercury Prize-nominated debut album, which will see a physical release in the U.S. later this year. Her voice sounded quiet against her band’s booming basslines, but by the set’s second song, the title track to her EP, “If You’re Never Gonna Move,” everything locked into place as she began loosening up, and tried to loosen up the audience too, who laughed when she called out their serious faces. “Sweet Talk,” which appears on both the album and EP, sounded lush and bassy as her four-piece created an approximation of the recordings, with one guy handling both guitars and keys. Her voice sounded incredible on “Sweet Talk” as well as “What You Won’t Do for Love,” a cover of the Bobby Caldwell quiet storm classic.

Ware’s voice and manner grew more confident over the course of the show, with each subsequent song, like “Wildest Moments,” sounding better than the last. She hurriedly introduced her band and gushed about playing with The Roots on “Jimmy Fallon,” pulling the audience in with endearing gratitude for her success. The show demonstrated how Ware is still developing as a central performer (she rose to prominence guesting on tracks by Joker and SBTRKT) and learning how to work a stage, but her voice was impeccable, reserving her belting for a spine-tingling finish in “Running.”

Amoeba Hollywood is hosting the cast of the stage show Backbeat direct from London Feb. 4 at 7:00 p.m for a performance and CD signing. You can also win tickets through Amoeba to the show, which is running now through March 1 at the Ahmanson Theatre. Enter to win a pair of tickets for the Feb. 7 show here. You can buy tickets as well at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org/RINGO or call  213.972.4400 and mention code RINGO — special pricing runs through Feb. 3.

The show tells the story of The Beatles before they were famous, when there were five members (even before Ringo was a member) and they were five working-class lads from the docks of Liverpool, playing seedy nightclubs while honing their epic new sound. The London press loves the show, calling it “edgy and cool” in the Sunday Express. The hit show is written by Iain Softley and Stephen Jeffreys and directed by five-time Tony award nominee David Leveaux.

The show features renditions of Beatles songs such as “Twist and Shout,” “Love Me Do,” “Long Tall Sally,” “P.S. I Love You,” “Rock and Roll Music” and “I Saw Her Standing There.” Sample two songs from Backbeat below.

Montage: Love Me Do, PS I Love You, Twist and Shout by Center Theatre Group
Long Tall Sally by Center Theatre Group