{"id":2996,"date":"2014-11-14T18:34:56","date_gmt":"2014-11-14T18:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/music\/vaguess-talks-long-beach-le-shok-and-getting-high-on-live-music\/"},"modified":"2014-11-14T18:34:56","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T18:34:56","slug":"vaguess-talks-long-beach-le-shok-and-getting-high-on-live-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/music\/vaguess-talks-long-beach-le-shok-and-getting-high-on-live-music","title":{"rendered":"Vaguess Talks Long Beach, Le Shok, and Getting High on Live Music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"p1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-32080\" src=\"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Vaguess04.jpg\" alt=\"Vaguess04\" width=\"640\" height=\"390\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>Photos courtesy of Vaguess.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Grimy, unkempt, do-it-yourself makeshift venues are typically places the garage-punk band Vaguess prefers to perform.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Sure, the year-old band has graced the stage at Alex&#8217;s Bar, but Vinny Earley said it doesn&#8217;t compare to crappy warehouses decked in art and inundated with music fans high on live music, booze and edibles. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignleft size-full wp-image-32081\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Vaguess03.jpg\" alt=\"Vaguess03\" width=\"300\" height=\"420\" \/>Music fans shouldn\u2019t expect anything inspirational or revolutionizing from Vaguess. The majority of Earley&#8217;s lyrics are inaudible in recordings and he mainly sings about partying or drugs, but in live performances\u2014at least for Vaguess\u2014lyrics aren&#8217;t nearly the most important thing to focus on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Vaguess is the type of band that thrives on live performances. Each track differs in style, even though Earley admits to heavily borrow from Long Beach&#8217;s &#8217;90s synth punk band <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Le_Shok\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Le Shok<\/a>. He creates psychedelic surf tracks, quintessential 60-second punk ditties and also fuses in styles from whatever else he&#8217;s listening to at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Earley ended up using the moniker coworkers gave him for his side-project. He writes lyrics; plays guitar, bass guitar and drums; and he uploads his songs onto <a href=\"http:\/\/refryrecords.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bandcamp<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCyWOuGWwhpByz6WMe37mXug\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">YouTube<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It didn&#8217;t become a serious project for him until a boy messaged him on Facebook asking if Vaguess could perform at a warehouse show in El Monte.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">&#8220;I didn&#8217;t even know what El Monte was, but I said &#8216;yeah, we&#8217;ll be there,'&#8221; Earley said. &#8220;But I didn&#8217;t even have a band or anything. I just got my friend to play drums\u2026 and another friend to play bass. Since then anytime someone offers shows, I&#8217;ll take it and the lineup changes depending on whoever can do it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-32083\" style=\"font-size: 15.5555562973022px;\" src=\"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Vaguess02.jpg\" alt=\"Vaguess02\" width=\"640\" height=\"465\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Even though Vaguess has become Earley&#8217;s full-time band, it isn&#8217;t something that he takes too seriously. And if he hadn&#8217;t already release three full-length albums and a few demos under the name, he&#8217;d change it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">&#8220;I spelled it weird because in the mid 2000s, there were indie bands that spelled their names vaguely and stupidly,&#8221; Earley said. &#8220;It was a total joke, but now I fucking hate it. People always ask me how to pronounce it and it was fun but then it turned into what I was making fun of.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Despite the lack of satisfaction with the band&#8217;s name and a complete FML moment\u2014the band even altered <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/vaguessISdead\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their Facebook page<\/a> to read, &#8220;VaguessISdead&#8221;\u2014Earley said he noticed his band has gained a moderate following of fans after performing throughout the Los Angeles and Orange County area.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">&#8220;Eventually people, besides my friends [whom] I made listen to my stuff, started getting into it,&#8221; Earley said. &#8220;There&#8217;s, like, actual fans. There&#8217;s a bunch of little kids that come out to our LA shows who know all the words and sing along.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignright size-full wp-image-32086\" style=\"font-size: 15.5555562973022px; float: right;\" src=\"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Vaguess05.jpg\" alt=\"Vaguess05\" width=\"300\" height=\"299\" \/>Earley&#8217;s favorite performance was when he opened for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/JAPANTHER\/22378113409\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Japanther<\/a> at the Church of Fun.&nbsp;Not only did the DIY venue reek of pot and Granpappy&#8217;s medicine, more importantly, nobody cared if the place got trashed. Music fans instigated destruction and danced wildly in a mosh pit with jugs of cheap wine in hand.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">&#8220;This was the first time we played a show where they didn&#8217;t know us and [the audience] still had a lot of energy,&#8221; Earley said. &#8220;Usually a lot of people are like, &#8216;Whatever,&#8217; if they don&#8217;t know a band but it was just awesome\u2014it was crazy during [our] set.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Vaguess is set to perform this Tuesday at the Prospector for their first Long Beach show. Earley said rock \u2018n\u2019 roll fans shouldn\u2019t be disappointed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI always try and have a lot energy\u2014I go out into the crowd and rustle them up,\u201d Earley said. \u201cWe\u2019re not a technically challenging band, but if you want to dance and mosh or whatever, [it\u2019ll be] have fun.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>Vaguess performs on Tuesday at 9 PM at the Prospector located at 2400 E 7th Street. The event is for those 21 and over. Tickets are $5 with an RSVP and $7 without. For further information about Vaguess, visit&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/vaguessISdead\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>{FG_GEOMAP [33.775159,-118.16308900000001] FG_GEOMAP}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">Grimy, unkempt, do-it-yourself makeshift venues are typically places the garage-punk band Vaguess prefers to perform.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":68280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","pmpro_default_level":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","footnotes":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1249,1265],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2996"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2996"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}