Los Angeles City Councilmember Jose Huizar and Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock present the Eleventh Annual Eagle Rock Music Festival, the yearly FREE music festival with a unique and independent neighborhood vibe, taking place on Colorado Blvd. in Eagle Rock, on Saturday, October 3, 2009, from 4p.m.-11p.m.

The Eagle Rock Music Festival will welcome the eclectic and local lineup for which it is known, highlighting the ethnic and cultural diversity of the Los Angeles music scene and going beyond the traditional genre boundaries that define most festivals. 

 From Filipino rock, pop and soul cover band AM/FM and The Gears, Glassell Park veterans of the East Los Angeles punk scene of the early 1980s, to Highland Park’s Fol Chen, No Age, SASSAS, The Happy Hollows, and a Future Roots stage curated by the prolific Los Angeles based collective DUBLAB, the festival gives voice to the multiplicity of endeavors that find their home in Eagle Rock, its surrounding communities, and— in a few cases— greater Los Angeles, reflecting the hybrid multiculturalism of 21st Century Los Angeles.  Unique to the festival is its ability to attract a people of a wide range of backgrounds and ages, creating a gathering place for Angelenos to come together to reveal the cultural tapestry of our city’s neighborhoods.

Musicians perform at fifteen unique one-night-only venues ranging from auto shops and formal stages to coffee shops and a motel balcony along Colorado Boulevard, which will be open to pedestrians between Eagle Rock Boulevard and Argus Street.  Festival highlights include:

-The Future Roots Stage, hosted by DUBLAB founding DJ Carlos Niño of KPFK’s Spaceways Radio, in celebration of DUBLAB’s 10th anniversary.  Merging the sounds of global Los Angeles, the stage will include live cumbia by East L.A’s Buyepongo, organic jazz from former Alice Coltrane violinist Michael White and his Quintet, cosmic experimentalism by Human Ear Music’s Julia Holter, and Indonesian gamelan from Bali and Beyond (courtesy of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Recording Industries’ Music Performance Fund through the assistance of the Professional Musicians Union Local 47).  Between live sets, Nanny Cantaloupe will share vibrant sounds from around the universe, The Gaslamp Killer will spin Middle Eastern psych from the 60s and 70s joined by mystic dancers, Mas Exitos will throw a Central and South American dance party, and Dub Club Echodelic Soundsystem will close out the evening with dub, dancehall, and reggae and live toasting by the legendary Ranking Joe.   

- The Faraway Places, Leslie and the Badgers,Fol Chen, Free Moral Agents, Jail Weddings, and No Age on the Emerging Stage, showcasing noted up and coming artists in Los Angeles and highlighting five of six bands who are residents of Eagle Rock and Highland Park.

- A Latin showcase at Rantz Auto Center with Japanese-salsa by the East Los Angeles-based KoTolan, plus East Los favorites Ollin, the Eagle Rock High School Latin Jazz Band and an exploration of the genre of trova, a blend of bolero, blues, ranchera, folk, bossa nova, and son jarocho by Esteban Leon

- A stage blending electro, international, psych, hip-hop and funk with djs and live acts in conjunction with Soul In the Park and Future Music, including Filipino electro from Free the Robots, psych selected by Filipino-Puerto Rican DJ Nobody, plus Peanut Butter Wolf, Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Computer Jay, Mochilla's Coleman and B+, Jeremy Sole of KCRW, Grainshifter, Rani D, and Suckapunch, plus The Black Dynamite Band featuring Jack Waterson, proprietor of Highland Park's Future Music

-Two back-to-back stages by the Eagle Rock Block— the recording studios The Ship Studios and Kingsize Soundlabs— featuring The Happy Hollows, U-N-I, Nico Stai,Ovideo, Amateurs, The French Semester, and Wonderground (The Ship); plus Dusty Rhodes and the River Band, Patrick Park, Alaskan Summer, Our Future, Andrew Lynch, Blank Blue, and Linus of Hollywood (Kingsize Soundlabs) at a historic auto body shop built in 1929

-A stage of independent punk and hard rock curated by non-profit art and music organizations Razorcake Magazine and Zocaloc, showcasing Glassell Park's 1970s Chicano punk innovators The Gears, plus The Woolly Bandits (featuring Tracy “Skull” Garcia of Thee Undertakers), Carnage Asada, The Ignorant, Underground Railroad to Candyland and That's Incredible. The Zocaloc showcase offers a focus on historically-rooted Chicano punk local to Northeast and East L.A., while Razorcake highlights up and coming punk with a band from NELA and two from the South Bay, demonstrating the connection between these two centers for punk rock in Los Angeles

-Pehrspace Pehriscope, a stage of collaborations curated by Pauline Lay for the non-profit all-ages venue, at Swork and featuring collaborations led by Meredith Meyer,  Matt Eckel of Jack Wilson Jr./Natural Disasters,  Christian Biel of the Transmissions, Champoyhate of Magick Orchids and Die Rockers Die, and The Monolators, plus DJ Sets by Hungry Beat!: Marion (KCRW), Michael (Part Time Punks), B-Rok (Substance), Goodwill (Substance), and YY (dublab). From 9pm-10pm, a film including live video mixing by Sublamp (Ryan Connor) will be soundtracked lby Divisadero and Timonium.

-A stage at the American Legion Hall with Eagle Rock-based Not Not Fun label founders Pocahaunted and Robedoor, plus Wounded Lion, Random Patterns, Bobb Bruno, SASSAS and a folk/Americana showcase curated by When You Awake with The Street and Babe Shadow and Shakey Graves

-Revival rock at the historic Craftsman Women’s 20th Century Club by The AM/FM Band plus Morning Glory, Mumpo and The Joe Johnston Band at Colombo's, Eagle Rock's own 1950s vintage steakhouse

-Jazz at Colombo's with the Tim Yalda Quartet and at Camilo's with the Juan Vega Trio

-Multicultural progressive programming geared towards children on the lawn of Eagle Rocks City Hall with Spanish learning songs by Sandra Sandia, tween band The Tracs, local family favorites Artichoke, and vaudeville acrobatic visual jazz of the March Fourth Marching Band, who hail from Portland but got their start as students at Occidental College in Eagle Rock

-Projections of video work and site-specific installations by artists Julie Orser, Chris Peters (in collaboration with experimental composer Karl Montevirgen), Eric Siu, Nate Garcia, Michiko Yao, and the team of Christopher Carlton and Lakshmi Luthra

-Street performances by son jarocho collective Las Cafeteras, street dance crews LA Groove Styles and the Eagle Rock youth of the Yard Sale Crew, a capoeira demonstration by the XTC Xtreme Training Center, and more   

The growing line-up of artists and a complete schedule will be announced in the coming weeks on the Eagle Rock Music Festival’s Facebook and Myspace pages, as well as on the festival’s website: http://www.centerartseaglerock.org/

A free shuttle service to and from the festival will be available from the Eagle Rock Plaza, where limited free parking will be available for festivalgoers. The Plaza is located off of Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock where the 2 and 134 freeways meet.

The Eleventh Annual Eagle Rock Music Festival is being presented with the generous support of the James Irvine Foundation, Time Warner Cable, the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the L.A. County Arts Commission, Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce, Eagle Rock Plaza, Kingsize Soundlabs, The Ship Studios, Future Music, and the community and businesses of Eagle Rock.  Media partners include Pasadena Weekly, L.A. Record, DUBLAB, Razorcake, Brooklyn + Boyle, Arroyo Seco Journal, Citizen LA, Performer Magazine, Al Borde, Filter, 90.7 KPFK and 88.9 KXLU.

The Eagle Rock Music Festival is a centerpiece in the year-round free arts programming of Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, one of the last remaining arts and cultural programming centers in Northeast Los Angeles.  Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock is a non-profit 501(c) 3 organization whose mission is to provide multicultural, innovative arts programming to the communities of Northeast Los Angeles. Programs include exhibitions, community festivals, free and low-cost after school arts classes, a Summer Art Camp, and more. For more information on the Center for the Arts, and its creative community programs, call 323-226-1617 or visit