Los Angeles During The Winter Of '99

Los Angeles During The Winter Of '99 is our first CD. It's a few years old. Similar to mystery theatre, or, a radio drama, the atmospheric, made-for-headphones CD won a LA Weekly Music Award. Here are a few reviews of the CD and our accompanying live show.  It is totally different than what we do now.   

LA Daily News:

It's a steamy musical descent into Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles complete with the film noir sounds of heels against pavement, traffic, crowded nightclubs, ringing phones and the narrative of a hit man named Ritchie who makes a murderous mistake. Creepy, compelling and utterly fascinating, "Los Angeles During The Winter of '99" is a highly recommended listening adventure.  ***1/2

-Fred Shuster, Music Editor

Alternative Press:

If you're looking for something besides spoonfed beats and the same ol' hooks, Xu Xu Fang are the multimedia sensation you've been waiting for.  Dubbed a neo-noir instrumental thriller, Los Angeles During The Winter of '99 weaves hard-boiled dialogue through its compelling soundscape. A disloyal and comically inept hitman named Richie is relentlessly pursued by the gravelly voiced and equally ridiculous Boone. While the seductive trombone and trumpet blasts conjure the ghost of soundtrack maestro Ennio Morricone, the chunky percussive vamping, droney wall o' bass, gauzy organ textures and keening guitars of majordomo Bobby Tamkin need no such referents for validation. While the band are big, brash and swingin' sonically, familiar tropes like boozy MCs, the crunch of soles against pavement, the intermittent patter of rain and the slosh of ocean tide (along with the juicy verbal exchanges) make Xu Xu Fang a near-cinematic experience.

-Andrew Lance

Los Angeles Times:

Shove Ennio Morricone into a sonic blender with a 1940s radio and you might have some idea what Xu Xu Fang are all about. A true multi-media experience, you might not know whether to listen to the dialogue, get lost in the collage of video images or simply get swept away by the wash of keyboards and guitars. Any result is sure to be a pleasure. Think Los Angeles has to import all of the really interesting experimental music being made in the rock world? Give a hard-boiled glance toward Xu Xu Fang, a 13-piece collective with a name that sounds like a Chinatown lunch special but a sound that is definitely off the menu. Existing somewhere between the stark soundscapes of Labradford and some of the more aggressive touches of Mogwai would be challenging enough, but they manage to wrap their music around their own film--a slice of City of Angels-noir filled with enough inept hitmen and vengeful thugs to do James Ellroy proud.  See Xu Xu Fang now before we lose them.

-Chris Barton

To purchase Los Angeles During The Winter Of '99, click the button. You can also download it, track by track, on our Snocap player. We recommend buying the CD as it is meant to be listened to in one sitting, as a whole piece. You wouldn't buy chapters of a book or scenes from a movie, would ya?!?!?  It also saves you a few bucks!

Click here to purchase the CD: