This year’s MusicFest is bigger and better than ever!

Along with slews of music films – docs, mocks, videos and shorts – we have live concerts most nights, from legendary rockers to rising local acts. Come on down and see for yourself why Spin magazine recently called Silver Lake the hub of the indie music scene in the USA.

ASCAP PRESENTS MUSIC FEST 07 AT SLFF

Thursday May 3rd- The EchoPlex
Friday May 4th- The Echo
Saturday May 12th- The Echo
ASCAP Music Fest access will be accessible only to MusicFest passholders, SLFF filmmakers and additional All-Access Festival passholders.

For the first time in Los Angeles, ASCAP (a membership and performing rights  association of more than 275,000 U.S. composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers of every kind of music) has curated an extra-special line up of auditory treats for you lucky Silver Lake Film Festival attendees. Eclectic and seminal bands will be performing in the heart of the Eastside music scene: The Echo and the brand-spankin’ new Ex-Plex.

Thursday, May 3:  Opening Night Gala & programming by ASCAP at the Ex-Plex on Sunset Blvd. Featuring Circle Jerks, 400 Blows.  MUSIC VISIONARY AWARD: KEITH MORRIS

Friday. May 4:  Programming by ASCAP at The Echo on Sunset Blvd. Featuring Dengue Fever, Sea Wolf, The Little Ones, The Bird and the Bee

Saturday, May 12: Closing Night Gala (sponsored by ASCAP and Filter magazine):  featuring THE HIGH WIRES, IGOR SPECTRE and THE FUXEDOS. MUSIC PIONEER AWARD: JOHN DOE-
PLEASE NOTE: VENUE CHANGE Screening 6PM at the Los Feliz 3, music 8PM at The Echo.

Additional support provided by Filter and Radio Free Silver Lake

CINCO DE MAYO SHOWCASE

Saturday, May 5- Jensen Rec Centers
Curated by Ian Brennan
MusicPass accessible; tickets also available at the door.

On Cinco de Mayo (Saturday, May 5) the Silver Lake Film festival celebrates the rich-history of Chicano rock music in East Los Angeles from Lalo Guerrerro to War to Los Lobos. The evening will feature performances by Dios Malos, Lysa Flores (1997 Independent SPIRIT debut-performance nominee for the film "Star Maps"), Ollin, The Revolts (featuring Jonathan Velasquez, star Larry Clark's "Wassup Rockers"), and culminating with the grand finale of 1970's punk-legend Alice Bag being presented with the MUSIC PIONEER AWARD and her performing a song by The Bags for the first time in decades.

Saturday, May 5: Cinco de Mayo showcase, Jensen Rec Center in Silver Lake, featuring Alice Bag, Dios Malos, Lysa Flores, Ollin, The Revolts. MUSIC PIONEER AWARD: ALICE BAG

PEER MUSIC SHOWCASE

Tuesday May 8th- The Derby
MusicPass accessible; tickets also available at the door.

Sponsored and programmed by Peer Music, the major indie music publisher. A showcase of Peer Music artists in performance, including:  Upground, The Procession, Foolproof, Robert Shields, Monty, Los Pinguos, Eddie G, Champagne Socialists, Static Revenger.              .            

FILMS!

MUSIC DOCS AND MOCKS
Curated by Saskia Wilson-Brown

It is with no small amount of pride that we emphatically state that nowhere in America is the music scene so vibrant and innovative as in LA’s Eastside. Incubated in clubs like Spaceland, the Echo, Silverlake Lounge and The Smell, indie bands, Chicano rockers, hip-hoppers, drag performers and folk singers all coexist and work together in the neighborhoods surrounding Silver Lake.

Music Docs and Mocks celebrates the freeform musical innovation and heterogeneity that marks our neighborhoods through a series of films about and by musicians showing a helluva lot of innovation. 

The nine programs include films from such luminaries as Academy Award-nominated actress Ronnee Blakley and legendary filmmaker Wim Wenders (I PLAYED IT FOR YOU), locals Dengue Fever (SLEEPWALKING THROUGH THE MEKONG), music icon Les Claypool (ELECTRIC APRICOT: QUEST FOR FESTEROO), the fiercest queen Jackie Beat (MY NAME IS JACKIE BEAT), first-time filmmakers Austin Young and Barry Pett (QUEEN OF THE BOOGIE), a hard-scrabble look at Silver Lake's Music Scene (DESTROY THE ROCKER), a look at the rise and fall of thrash metal (GET THRASHED), a documentary about rockabilly (REBEL BEAT), a doc profiling the southwest music scene featuring such bands as Supersuckers and Calexico (HIGH AND DRY), short-form viewer-created content from Current TV, and shorts (COLE NOBODY KNOWS; SONIC YOUTH: DO YOU BELIEVE IN RAPTURE; SHEPARD FAIREY).

CUBAN MUSIC IN FILM
Curated by Adolfo V. Nodal

The rich history and myriad influences that went into the formation of the world’s most unique set of musical styles can be heard in the energy, diversity and vivacity of Cuban music itself. In their quest for originality, Cuban musicians - from congueros to hip-hoppers – have looked both to their country’s long history and to the best of what the world has had to offer in order to find new elements from which to draw. Both self-referential and cosmopolitan, the development of Cuban music has evolved into a rich and varied genre. Cuban Music in Films will provide a window into the extensive field of films about Cuban music, films that are as contradictory and fascinating as the music itself. Adolfo Nodal, one of Los Angeles’ most prominent Cubans, presents three programs exploring aspects of the cultural output of the island.

El Benny
Just in from the island, El Benny makes its Los Angeles premiere. Presented by Marlene Dermer, Latino film expert and director of Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival.

Cuban Music in Film: Una Noche de Cachao
Presented by Tu Ciudad and Caribe Culture Foundation
Israel "Cachao" López (born in 1918 in Havana, Cuba), often known just as "Cachao, is the inventor of mambo, and Cuba’s pre-eminent mambo musician and composer. He helped bring mambo music to popularity in the United States of America in the early 1950’s and, having become internationally famous, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Lopez is considered a master of descarga (Latin jam sessions). He has won several Grammy Awards for both his own work and his contributions on albums by Latin music stars, including Gloria Estefan: in 1995, for Master Sessions Volume 1; in 2003, for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album, together with Bebo and Patato Valdés for “El Arte Del Sabor”; and a third Grammy in 2005, again for his own work, “¡Ahora Sí!”. A tribute to the life’s work of Grammy-winner Israel Lopez Cachao, considered to be the most important Cuban musician living today. Presented by Cuban actor/filmmaker Andy Garcia and Adolfo V. Nodal.

LOS ZAFIROS: Noche Azul! Double header!
Los Zafiros: Music From the Edge of Time at 8:30PM, followed Los Zafiros: Locura Azul. Presented by Hugo Cancio and Lorenzo DeStefano, this evening is devoted to one of the 20th century’s most important Cuban bands.

RAMBLIN’ JACK ELLIOTT
Live and onstage for a Q&A Following the screening of the documentary THE BALLAD OF RAMBLIN’ JACK.

**Don’t miss this great chance to see Grammy Award-winning, legendary folksinger/storyteller Ramblin’ Jack Elliott in person!
Starring Ramblin ’ Jack Elliott, Kris Kristofferson, D.A. Pennebaker, Dave Van Ronk, Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Alan Lomax With the help of her mother, family, friends, and fellow musicians, Aiyana Elliott reaches for her father, legendary cowboy troubadour, Ramblin' Jack Elliott. She explores who he is and how he got there, working back and forth between archival and contemporary footage. Born in 1932 in Brooklyn, busking through the South and West in the early 50s, a year with Woody Guthrie, six years flatpicking in Europe, a triumphant return to Greenwich Village in the early 60s, mentoring Bob Dylan, then life on the road, from gig to gig, singing and telling stories. Now in his 75th year, Ramblin’ Jack is experiencing a career renaissance of late with his new Grammy-award nominated album “I Stand Alone,” featuring Lucinda Williams, Flea, David Hidalgo (Los Lobos), Nels Cline (Wilco, Geraldine Fibbers), Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney), and DJ Bonebrake (X, the Knitters) which was released by Silver Lake’s own ANTI Records. THE BALLAD OF RAMBLIN’ JACK was the Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival as well as the Winner of the Producers Award at the 2001 Independent Spirit Awards.

JOHN CAGE: ONE11 WITH 103
At LACE

John Cage created his only feature-length film in the year he died. A sublime performance for camera person and light, One11 is a film without subject, in black and white, composed of images of the chance-determined play of electric light. The final impression is of another, timeless place - freely roaming the clouds or, perhaps, under the sea. Cage said of this work, "Of course the film will be about the effect of light in an empty space. But no space is actually empty and the light will show what is in it.” Each of the film’s 17 parts is based on approximately 1200 random operations devised by a computer that determines how the lighting is controlled and the movements of a crane-mounted camera. The result, aided by the distinguished cameraman Van Theodore Carlson, is a film entirely without plot or actors, which Cage hopes will enable viewers to find for themselves. Cage’s orchestral work 103 musically accompanies One11. Like the film, 103 is 90 minutes long, divided into 17 parts - its density varies from solos, duos, and trios to full orchestral tuttis. This opus has two distinct soundtracks for large orchestra to accompany the film: one taken from the premiere of the piece by the prestigious WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln of the German Radio in Cologne, the other by the Spoleto Festival Orchestra.

ROCK'N'ROLL GEARHEAD
4 DAYS WITH BILLY F GIBBONS

Rock and Roll Gearhead is a rare and intimate behind the scenes look at legendary Texas guitarist Billy F Gibbons of ZZ Top. For the first time history Billy allowed a camera to follow him after the conclusion of his 2005 North American. Billy, whose recording career spans over 35 years was said to be one of Jimi Hendrix’s favorite guitar players. His personal life has remained an enigma to many who have known him for decades. Rock and Roll Gearhead is the ultimate backstage ticket that documents the release of Billy’s first book, rare studio and radio appearances, his diverse fan base, and the people that surround him. This is unprecedented access to one of the most dynamic artists of his time.

THE SLOG MOVIE

David Markey's 1981 homespun documentation of the Los Angeles/Orange County early 80's hardcore punk scene plays like a fanzine on film, with a raucous backstage feel. Interviews, incredible live performances, and humorous interludes with Circle One, Symbol 6, Wasted Youth, Red Cross, TSOL, The Cheifs, Sin34, Fear, Circle Jerks, and Henry Rollins, Chuck Dukowski, Robo & Dez Cadena, and Erratic. Expect one of a kind coverage of an era only touched upon by The Decline Of Western Civilization or Another State Of Mind. A history lesson from the So Cal early 80's hardcore underground. See the Los Angeles Hardcore scene explode, and in retrospect connect the dots from 1981 to 1991, The Year Punk Broke.

More information on all MusicFest programs can be found on our schedule and ticketing section.