‘Best Kept Secrets’ Showcases New Talent

The Coconut Teaszer club on the Sunset Strip has made a move this summer to step into a void and become the center of the L.A. club scene, championing the cause of promising, unsigned acts.

The keystone of the effort has been the “Best Kept Secrets” showcase every other Tuesday. On these nights seven unsigned acts selected by the club get to play before an audience that usually includes an impressive roster of music industry talent scouts.

“We have the industry people sign in,” said Len Fagan, who oversees the music at the club. “It’s been between 40 and 50 A&R; people, publishers and major managers each night.”

So far it seems to have worked. According to Fagan, in the seven showcases held since the nights were instituted in June, three bands have been signed to record contracts by labels that first saw them there: Kik Tracee to RCA, Food for Feet to Dr. Dream and the Slaves of Babylon to I.R.S. Others including Rhino Bucket, Rain on Fire and the Limbo Maniacs are making demos ordered by major labels who saw them at the Teaszer.

Particularly attractive to the industry people is the shows’ efficiency and comfort. The bands are limited to 20-minute sets and use house-provided equipment, keeping breaks between acts to about 10 minutes.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Island Records scout Kim Buie, noting that she can see five or six bands in one place in less time than it would take her to see three on a normal night of running around town.

“Mondays at the Whisky are kind of the same thing,” Buie said. “But Teaszer is making more of an issue of it to invite the industry people. And it doesn’t just cater to the industry. The kids seem to like it as well. I’ve made it to a couple, and the club’s been courteous to me. They’re supportive of the bands they let play there, and that’s the best thing.”

But one of the key ingredients of the “Secrets” shows--the club’s selectiveness about who qualifies to play--may spell an end to the series.

“We’re running out of acts we really believe are worthy,” Fagan said. “I think we can only do this through October, or else start repeating bands or maybe just do it once a month. Otherwise, the quality will start slipping.”

The next “Best Kept Secrets” show--open to the public as well as industry invitees--will be Sept. 26. Confirmed to perform are Rick Elias, the Limbo Maniacs, Red Alert and the Jeff Dahl Band.

NATE NOTES: The always-intriguing Nate Starkman & Son label is gearing up for a run of activity. Among the albums coming soon from the firm are Savage Republic’s posthumous “Customs” (recorded last year in Greece) and a new record by Red Temple Spirits, who will have the opening slot on Alien Sex Fiend’s upcoming tour. A new Drowning Pool album is also out on the label in Europe. Nate has also signed guitar goddess Sylvia Juncosa, from whom an album is expected in mid-October.

And if that’s not enough, label head Philip Drucker’s Jackson Del Rey Band is preparing to record, with atmospheric keyboardist Harold Budd in the producer’s chair. The hypnotic acoustic project also features former Drowning Pool singer Karen Schub and ex-Dark Arts flutist Stephanie Payne.

One more word on Nate: The label’s two shows for the benefit of the Tibet House have raised $600 for the organization, which is dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan culture.

Meanwhile, Independent Project Records, from which Nate Starkman sprang, has released Indian Bingo’s swirling debut, “Scatological,” and is set to issue “It’s Cozy Inside” by Woo, an eclectic duo of British brothers Mark and Clive Ives.

WALKING TALL: With accolades pouring in for Walking Wounded’s new “Raging Winds of Time” album, the band looks ready to jump from the L.A. club scene to greater things, giving Chameleon Records two of L.A.’s most-likely-to’s (the other: Mary’s Danish). “Raging Winds” rages indeed, with leader Jerry Giddens (whose recent solo acoustic effort, “Livin’ Ain’t Easy,” was also released by Chameleon) coming off with the righteous force of the Call’s Michael Been and spiritual/political singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn. Giddens is now joined in the group by an L.A. all-star cast: guitarists Eddie Munoz (ex-Plimsouls) and Roger Prescott (the Pop, Train Wreck Ghosts) and the Train Wreck Ghosts’ rhythm section of bassist Kent Housman and drummer Robert Williams (ex-Captain Beefheart).

BUZZWORDS: John Talley-Jones wrote to remind L.A. Beat that though he’s now singing with Trotsky Icepick, he and partner Michael Korda are still active with Radwaste, though that group’s four-piece drum corps backing has been pared down to just two: X-man D.J. Bonebrake and the Dickies’ Cliff Martinez (who composed the score for the lauded movie “sex, lies and videotape”). A Radwaste album, co-produced by ex-PiL guitarist Keith Levene and Trotsky’s Vitus Matare, is being shopped around. . . .

Look out for Chameleon’s “Radio Tokyo Tapes, Volume 4.” This time, the anthology of underground talent recorded at the L.A. studio of the title focuses on women, including Sylvia Juncosa, the Screaming Sirens, the Ringling Sisters, Salem 66, the Visiting Kids and--of course--the Del Rubio Triplets. . . .

Radio Tokyo’s proprietor, Ethan James, has been active in an eclectic duo with Erin Kenney. Songs the pair are working on draw winningly on elements of jazz, Celtic folk and Weill-y cabaret. In other words, it’s nothing like Blue Cheer, the proto-metal band James once played in. . . .

Hollywood trashsters Celebrity Skin are recording with producer Earle Mankey. . . .

Food for Feet, the longtime side project of Oingo Boingo’s John Avila and Johnny “Vatos” Hernandez, will celebrate the release of its Dr. Dream debut with a Sept. 26 show at the Roxy.