And I was actually one of the early ones. Nature’s Son was a great band that didn’t have the crowd they deserved, though that meant I got a better view of ‘em. They had a total Strange Boys/lazy garage vibe, which was perfect on a sunny day like today.

Considering that young garage rockers from the Back from the Grave era were mop-headed young ‘uns, ain’t it odd that you see more mustachioed young men in this genre than in any other? There was a fantastic mustache on one of these guitar pickers, though my heart looked right past him and leapt a bit when I saw what looked like a Farfisa organ under the fingers of the keyboard player! Later I found out it was something even stranger, a far rarer indie-brand Italian combo organ from the 60s. But at least I guessed the right country of origin—does that make me a good music journalist, or a lousy nerd?

There’s something that’s so perfect about seeing a young garage band in a bar in the desert with the sun blazing into the bar through an open doorway. It makes sense when you think of how Tucson and Texas and Florida and Arkansas all these HOT HOT places produced some of the best no-hit screaming wonders from garage’s golden days. Zakary Thaks and the Outcasts probably played hundreds of shows just like this one, though maybe at all-ages venues considering how young those teen rockers were back in their golden days. Tropical Popsicle may have been of legal age, but they took the teen sound mantle even further than Nature’s Son had: this garage vibe had perhaps a tiny bit of the Texas border sound to it, with just a hint of Swingin’ Medallions, more Allah Las, and more… I dunno what, not really the Sir Douglas Quintet, but something that felt good to watch with cowboy boots on, something a tad bit more down home and dusty. They pitched their tent in the Strange Boys camp too, but the Strange Boys never admit to how much the 60s inform their sound; Tropical Popsicle wore their appreciation of American proto-psych on their sleeve, like White Fence, though with some sentiments that sounded more pissed-off than Tim Presley ever seems to be.

Actually, Incan Abraham outside were more tropical sounding than Tropical Popsicle, especially on their song “Sunscreen,” a sentiment probably lost on the many pink-hued members of the Desert Daze audience. Incan Abraham were also more 80s sounding, their guitars tempered by loads of bright chirping electronic arpeggios, which I assume were preprogrammed on the Macbook prominently displayed in front of one of the dudes. However you’d peg them stylistically, they had the hippies dancing. Their lyrics were sonorous, just a little too rounded to be New Romantic, but definitely something that Molly Ringwald could have fallen in love to.

I kind of preferred Pity Party, a female/male drum/guitar duo that the vast majority of our readers probably are familiar with (Hey! An ex-Raveonette’s in the band!) but whom I hadn’t seen outside of their incredible videos. Heisenflei is actually not the “drummer” so much as she’s the entire band, whacking keys between cymbal crashes and laying down more or less the entire structure of each song, with guitarist M (yeah, like the Peter Lorre film) kind of just accenting what she’s doing.

Yet again, here’s a sexy damned duo—it’s like rock ‘n’ roll is living up to everything the newspapers accused it of in the 50s! Definitely Heisenflei was on a rhythm-driven rampage, but a mid-tempo one, with sparse beats that mostly kept away from the snare and cymbals except as punctuation during the crescendos. She had strong, professional vocals, too, and in the wrong hands they might easily have veered towards a Melissa Etheridge “I wanna move, I wanna wake up!” kind of thing. But Heisenflei phrased her songs a little jazzier, a little funkier, almost like a New Jack Swing chanteuse—envision what might have been if Jane Child had formed the White Stripes! But that’s not quite right, either… I almost want to say this is like a Prince spin-off, like Wendy & Lisa but with more… balls. (Urg, I hate using that masculinist turn of phrase. Testicles do NOT equal great rock ‘n’ roll. Can I just say “swollen labia” instead? As in, “Sure, on some late 70s recordings, Mick Jagger successfully mimicked the staccato exclamations and off-key groans of Richard Hell and Stiv Bators–but he never had their swollen labia!”)

I know I already said this about Ahkiyyini two days before, but Pity Party may have been the best thing on the menu for all three days I attended. Like an abusive lover, Heisenflei pulled us into her world by socking us with those muscular vocals, then making it all about her: “You, you, you, you, you, you, you, you shine! I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I want what’s mine!” We feared what might happen if she didn’t get it! And once we were good and spooked, she freaked us out even more on the second to last song, structured around evil John Carpenter zombie synths and very few words, like something ADULT. would cover.

M was a good sport, too, about being somewhat insignificant when compared to the might of his band leader. But he wasn’t inconsequential, and his backup vocals and ornamental riffs did add a lot to some songs that otherwise would have been sparse. It was like a condiment to her main meal, though on the last song he did hit a few loud fat rock notes, with plenty of swollen labia!

Here We Go Magic outside was even more gentle, though not simple—in fact, if you took Avi Isenberg of Avi Buffalo and sped up his aging process, your cruel science experiment would pump out something a lot like singer Luke Temple, whose band collapses a lot of notes into songs that percolate rather than boil from all that busy energy. Some songs had a country vibe, and others more a Paul Simon vibe, especially “Moon,” which had Temple exclaiming gently about something falling into “The Pacific OOOOOOooooooooooooocean…” a straight-up seventies Simonism if ever I heard one. The rest of the band didn’t exactly “harmonize” so much as they uttered and whispered intriguing non-harmonies, sometimes in unison, sometimes filling in the gaps, with a lot of “la da da da da” from the bassist.

These songs were better live than what I’ve heard on album, but I still feel Temple and friends stop just this side of true memorable greatness. I can’t look into a man’s soul, so maybe I have the wrong idea, but you get the vibe watching Temple that he’s very content with where his songs are now and feels no need to try to fix what ain’t broken. There was no showboating and no arrogant posturing, but there was something in the way Temple carried the band from one song to the next that felt undeservedly confident, reminding me a bit of Anthony Jeselnik’s standup act: “That was an excellent song. Here’s another one…”

And maybe my comparison of Here We Go Magic to Avi Buffalo was what soured the experience for me, and maybe that’s unfair, because Avi Buffalo is just a standard four piece, whereas Here We Go Magic has all these keys and drum pads and call-and-response vocals and vibrant personalities on stage. But I think that’s my point. Here We Go Magic is not stupid music by any means, but like I would say about 70’s Frank Zappa, adding complexity isn’t the same thing as inspiration, and a lot of Here We Go Magic’s frills and spills were just that: ornamentation. Lovely but not lush. Quiet but not poignant. Maybe a little stupid would do them some good.

Well, aside from “Moon,” a transcendent, vivid song which no amount of criticism from a crank like me can dissipate. At first, I thought it was merely a fitting tribute to the Moon Block party, but then it hypnotized me, transporting me to a specific moment of awe I had never personally experienced; yet it felt like he was reciting my own memories back to me. And I’m not a fan of Paul Simon’s solo career, but on this tune, Temple’s Simon-y vocal grabbed my fucking feet, dragged me under, and then spit me back to the surface way out on the high seas—but all so fast that I never once lost my breath in the water. And when I came up, I literally had this vision: a glassy surface with gently lapping waves, in the dark, with a huge moon reflected in the surface. More like this, please, Luke.

And what an eye this was before the storm of Akron/Family, who followed Here We Go Magic on the outdoor stage and proceeded to tear that mother out! I am even more skeptical of R-A-W-K music than I am of gentle indie rock, but there was no standard rock trope at work here (and if this was folk, it was folk the way Gilbert and George are sculpture): it looked and sounded a lot like the Minutemen, but with better vocals. And almost as if it was planned, they busted out “Another Sky,” whose lyrics carried us from the desert right back to that ocean that Here We Go Magic were just singing about: “Escaping all the glitter and the fray…. you and I were cast into the waves.”

It was the kind of music that makes you stop and stare as you go over the lyrics in your head. But the boys in the band had no patience for our thought processes, and just when we thought we were all mellow adults who would just stand there and reflect knowingly on this stoic art, singer Seth Olinsky jumped down offa that thing and started herding people forcefully with his arms, flinging gals and guys into each other, making the mob sway and jump! And when that still wasn’t frantic enough for them, Miles Seaton actually took off his goddam Nikes and flung them full-on into the crowd, then jumped in after them himself, where Olinsky took to picking him up and spinning him, and/or vice versa.

And oh, beloveds, if you’ve ever known me you’ll know that what happened next was akin to taking Dumbo’s feather—Olinsky actually TOOK OFF MY HAT, dear readers! He took my hat, and started wearing it, and dancing in and around the crowd, and then he passed it to Seaton who put it on HIS head, and all the while the music was going around with just drums and feedback and pre-programmed bloopy things. And while I was flattered, the more Seaton started spinning around in the crowd, the more I began to fear for my iconic fashion statement, which I retrieved from Seaton’s head—and then Olinsky took it back AGAIN, finally flinging it to me when my fashion fears had reached an all-time high. And they didn’t even give me the courtesy of letting me hate them, because the show was just that good—Olinsky’s vocals growled like Frank Black’s, and his guitar noodled wickedly when they whipped out songs like “Suchness,” virtual homages to a young boy’s id.

And please don’t think that’s where my head is when I keep having to praise all these musicians for being sexy—that’s just how they were shipped from the factory. Case in point, the Entrance Band, who played inside next, in the dark, where Paz Lenchantin on the bass was all legs and hair and long long arms, crouching now on top of her amp, now slinking lower than Johnny Ramone’s guitar playing had ever done, all barefoot and sexy/sinister, like the girl in the well from The Ring. But if I admired her slinky sexuality, it’s more because I wanted to be her, to have that kind of confidence and groove, which more or less overshadowed her equally sexy frontman Guy Blakeslee, eight years her junior but a man with classic tastes (and yes, I would gladly taste any part of his body with my tongue, as long as he strums a guitar while I’m doing it). About four songs in, they covered Love’s “A House Is Not a Motel,” and brought such a sinister feeling to the room that it stretched across virtually their whole set, which only slammed back into full-throttle rock and roll lust with another cover, this time the Troggs’ “I Want You.” It was psychedelic and garagy, with very specific reference points, and yet somehow not at all like bands such as Thee Oh Sees—perhaps the Entrance Band is aiming for late 1967, and most bands are January of ’67 at the latest.

Whatever the case, it was late enough for me, and for the cops, who as I learned midway through the Entrance Band’s set had actually caused a ruckus outside during Akron/Family and nearly caused the whole festival to implode! And so Akron/Family was to conclude their set indoors, and by gum, to stick it to the man, I should have stuck around!

But having had enough sex and death for one night, plus the dust of the desert, and the memory of all that great music (and some cauliflower seasoned like popcorn!), I decided to hurry back home to Los Angeles, where it would take me over two weeks to recuperate enough to turn in this report. Happy trails.

-D. M. Collins

Charlyne Yi is a comedienne and musician who has opened for Akron/Family, has had members of Man Man and the Vandals cover her songs, and pees while being interviewed. She does not know who Spike Jones is, has never been high, and is not dating Michael Cera. This interview by Dan Collins.

Tell us about your latest band, Old Lumps.
It’s scary! I feel like that’s one of the more serious bands I’ve been doing, just because we’ve been practicing, and it’s five of us… sorry, I’m out of breath! I’m running upstairs.
Do you work out often?
Lots of weights! Big ones! And now I’m going to pee with you on the phone, because I’m disgusting.
Wow! Okay… so, how would you describe the Old Lumps sound?
Pain! Emotional pain! I’m realizing that most of my songs sound the same now. I’m trying to define each song so they don’t sound like a mass of songs.
You’re also in Chandelier Teeth, and the Glass Beef, and Helen Hunt and the Twisters. How many bands are you in?
Ha ha, I think it’s only five, but the Helen Hunt thing is just random, whenever me and Kate [Micucci] happen to be free. We don’t practice really. They’re bands, but they’re not that serious. These are just like, ‘You want to play music? Okay, let’s do it!’ Helen Hunt and the Twisters haven’t performed in over a year. I think we’ve only performed four times.
Now that your movie career is taking off, do you think you could get Helen Hunt on stage to sing with you guys?
We have an idea that we would have, you know, one of those cardboard cutouts of her? And we thought it would be funny if that was our thing, and then one day when we were playing, she’d be hiding behind the cutout of her and she’d pop out!
You have a project called the Music Scientist, where you record demos at home, and fairly talented bands you hardly know record their own, more fleshed-out versions of those songs and post them on YouTube and whatnot. How did you get that project off the ground?
I don’t know! I wrote a lot of songs, but I don’t actually like singing. I was like, oh, this song would sound so much better if I was a man with a burly voice, or I wish I had more range, like an opera singer. I can’t hit any of these notes that I hear in my head. I can play them out on a piano, but never give the song justice. And so I wrote a song. And this band I listened to on MySpace, Twain, this guy had a really great voice. We didn’t even really know each other, but he had seen me perform, and I liked his music. And so I asked him, and he did it. And after I got one person to agree, I was like, ‘I’m going to ask everyone!’ It’s been pretty cool, to see what people come up with.
Shel Silverstein wrote ‘A Boy Named Sue’ and a bunch of other songs for Johnny Cash. Is there a really famous singer you’d want to write for?
Celine Dion! She has such a good range. I used to sincerely love her as a kid. She goes like ‘whooooooaaa’ a lot! I’d be funny to make her do that too much, where it’s overboard, and people are uncomfortable. I think it’d be really fun to make her sing something really sincere, but something really ridiculous coming out of her mouth. Maybe something really redundant, like ‘I LOOOOVE him! I LOOOOVE him!’ Like twenty times, singing the same thing! Besides that, I just want to hear her say really cheesy stuff, like complimenting a boy. ‘Your skin is so soft and silky, and I want to kiss it! I want to kiss it bad!’
You haven’t snagged Celene Dion yet, but you did have David Quackenbush and Warren Fitzgerald from the Vandals cover one of your songs. Did you know who they were when you got in contact?
No! But David came to a Glass Beef show, and I met him. I was like ‘Oh, I really like their music!’ And I just wrote him. ‘Hey, we’re doing this project, for fun. And there’s no money, and we just give away the song for free. If you have time and you’re into this idea—it shouldn’t feel like homework, it should feel like something you’re actually passionate about—then I want you to do a song.’ And he did it, hee hee! But no, I live in a bubble. I didn’t know who the Vandals were.
Do you identify with John Travolta’s character in The Boy in the Bubble?
I’ve never even heard of it, really.
That’s too bad! We’re all Scientologists at L.A. RECORD. If you had a child with undiagnosed autism who died, what kind of song would you write for his funeral?
I would burn his body, and then I would use it in my coffee and drink it, so we could be one. And I would play ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon, and I’d imagine that he was here with me.
When you were a child, what music did you listen to? What are your primal influences?
I listened to K-Earth 101 a lot! And Elvis. And Queen. But I don’t think I sound like any of that stuff at all. I wish that I could, but I think it’s impossible for me.
Do you get inspiration from other musical comedians, like Spike Jones and Eric Idle?
I didn’t even know Spike Jonze did music! That’s really funny, ha ha!
No, not the director guy! Spike Jones from the thirties. He did ‘Der Fuhrer’s Face.’
Oh, ha ha, I’m way off! I’ve never heard of Spike Jones! I like Loudon Wainwright III. His stuff is a mixture of sincere stuff and comedy, too! And someone else just introduced me to Jonathan Richman, which I think is the same thing. It hits you instantly, and it’s funny, but there’s this undertone of sadness in what he’s singing. I found that really interesting, because when I do music, I like to throw people off by doing something silly and then doing something serious. People are like, ‘Whoa, should I not laugh at this?’
There does seem to be tenderness at the heart of your tunes. You and Kate Micucci might be singing about a booger trying to find its way back to the nose, but it’s sad at the same time.
We did do a weird booger song! I think sometimes me and Kate hide a true song with comedy, because we’re embarrassed of talking about something. That was like a mix of, ‘Oh, let’s sing about this lonely person!’ And we were like, ‘What if it’s a lonely booger?’ And we start laughing, because we were kind of getting depressed about what we’re singing about! It’s sad, but it’s also kind of gross and stupid. It’s fun to not take music too seriously. I think music is a great way to do comedy and still do sincere stuff. And I think comedy can be really sincere, too. It’s fun mixing with that kind of stuff. I have been reading Harpo Speaks, a book that Harpo Marx wrote, and I find him the most interesting guy ever. I starting taking up harp because I was reading that book! Something I related to is that he liked to play music, and back in those days, it didn’t have to always be funny. Like Steve Martin would tap dance, and play banjo, and some of the stuff he was doing wasn’t necessarily hilarious. But I was like, ‘I love to watch this! It’s kind of funny, but I love this song!’
Steve Martin’s Wild and Crazy Guy was one of the funniest comedy albums ever, but the song ‘King Tut’ sucked ass. What’s the secret to making a funny song funny?
I have no idea! My songs I think are kind of funny, but I don’t even know if they are funny. I did this one song where I almost cry in the middle of the song, but I’m not really crying, but I try to trick people into thinking I am, and people start laughing! Nothing about the words is funny—it’s just about the way the song is delivered, and how uncomfortable it is to see someone almost break down in the middle of the song. I’m not sure if my songs are funny, and I don’t understand why people laugh at them! I have no idea.
Steve Martin would open for bands when he was getting his start, like the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Earl Scruggs. Have you opened for any acts that L.A. RECORD readers might know?
I have. It’s really scary! I’ve opened for Akron/Family, and I’ve opened for Sasha Smith. One time I opened for Man Man, and my set was broken up into two chunks of fifteen minutes. So I opened at the very beginning, and a band played, and it was supposed to be me again, and then Man Man. And when the band went off, they were like, ‘And now, ladies and gentlemen, Man Man!’ And it was supposed to be me next! And my friend from Man Man, Honus, carried me out, and I was like ‘I don’t want to go! People are going to boo me! Last time I went up, there was like 30 people there. Right now there’s hundreds of people who don’t know who I am from the last performance!’ And I go up there, and people are like, ‘Go back to Jersey! Get off the stage!’ And there was this guy who was like ‘I’m going to fuck you up! I’m going to go up there on stage and fuck you up!’ Thank god he didn’t go up there, but they booed me so I couldn’t talk at all! It’s rough sometimes.
Have you ever considered getting revenge by getting a band to open for your stand-up act, and having the audience boo that band?
I’ve thought of other ways to mess with them, in a non-malicious way. I opened for the Akron/Family in New York at the same place, and I thought, ‘I’m at the same place—I’m going to get booed again!’ And I thought if they boo me, I’ll be like, ‘Uh, the Akron/Family didn’t show up today, and so they asked me to fill in for them, and I’ll have to play each instrument alone, but just pretend they’re all playing at the same time. So it might take awhile.’ And so I’d just go do guitar, then go do drums… That was my back-up plan. But I didn’t get booed. So that’s nice!
Who do you think works harder, musicians or comedians?
I think both equally work as hard, just in different ways. Most comedians don’t get paid for 95% of their gigs, if not more! I’ve only been paid like twice in my life. It’s kind of disgusting, the realization that oh, I perform comedy for free—I’m like a big nerd! I just do this out of a hobby! I really like performing, and don’t get paid really! The way the venues work, most musicians get paid for their gigs, even if it’s a couple bucks. They get a cut of the door and stuff usually. But with comedy, you get a reaction with the laughter, and know immediately how you’re doing. With music, at a bar, people will talk over your music, and that kind of shocks! But then there’s the energy of the room. You’re like, ‘I think this is going well, but I have no idea why!’
There’s a lot of press recently about the renaissance in L.A.’s music scene, and we also have a bumper crop of funny comedians nowadays. But those scenes don’t connect nearly enough. How can we bridge that gap?
It’s weird. A lot of musicians I’ve met want to be comedy writers and perform comedy, and a lot of comedians want to perform music. Like my friend Paul Rust, he wanted to be in a band and stuff, and somehow we got mixed into comedy. And my friend from Man Man, he studied script-writing and stuff.
You not only co-wrote the script for Paper Heart, but you co-wrote the score! How did that happen?
Me and Michael Cera had never scored anything, had been writing music just in general, and sending these songs to Nick, the director. And he was like, ‘Why don’t you guys score the movie?’ And we were like, ‘That sounds awesome. But we have no idea how to do that.’ And so through the whole process of filming the movie and editing, me and Michael had separately been writing songs, and we would place them into the editing thing and see how the song would change the scene. And from that we ended up with this guy named Alden Penner from the Unicorns. I had never heard of them, but Michael was a really big fan of them, and sent me a CD of his solo stuff, which is music that Alden had just written in his bedroom. And I was really into that stuff, and so we contacted him and told him what we were doing, and showed him clips. And he was into producing it, and he had never produced a movie score either! So we were all new to this idea, and he flew up from Canada, and we all kind of experimented with the songs and tried to get them in different variations. It was fun!
You seem to have incurred the wrath of thousands of female Michael Cera fans by having a relationship with him.
It’s so strange! I have crushes on characters in movies, but I wouldn’t understand actually hating someone because of that. I don’t think that hate is true, because you can’t hate someone unless you actually know them. These people are crazy! How can you not like someone based on some weird form of jealousy that doesn’t even make sense? And me and Michael aren’t dating, actually, which is stranger. I’ve had people come up to me after shows who are like ‘Oh my gawd! That’s that girl that’s dating Michael!’ And one of them will come up to me and be like, ‘How old are yeeew?’ And I’ll lie to them and say I’m really old, and they’ll be like, ‘Ew, that’s so gross!’ Ha ha, okay!?! And how can they know and like someone if they don’t actually know them, if they only ever see glimpses of characters, or interviews. I’ve gotten weird hate mail regarding Michael. And I wrote them like, ‘Hey, we’re not even dating! I don’t know why you hate me; if it’s because of Michael, we’re not dating, so I guess you don’t hate me anymore?’ And they’ll just write, ‘Fuck you, you fucking bitch!’ I don’t take it personally. They don’t really know me.
You and Michael aren’t dating anymore?
No! How did you know that we were dating, if we were dating? People will say a lot of things! People said that I’m 33, and that was like a big issue, because people were like, ‘Why would a 33-year-old not believe in love in this documentary?’ It’s not even like a true documentary! There’s a lot of misconceptions about who I am and how old I am and who I’m dating. Two people came up to me and said, ‘Oh, where’s your husband?’ I don’t have a husband!
It sucks that people are judging you based on characters you portray! I mean, your breakout role was a stoner in Knocked Up, which isn’t you at all.
I enjoy acting, but I think it’s hard for people to cast me in things, because I don’t really fit a lot of things, and I don’t have much range. I’m not really a great actor. And after that movie, a lot of people wanted me to play a stoner, too. I didn’t know how I played a stoner! I think I did a really bad job, actually. I think I was just tired that day, and I sound like I’m stoned when I’m tired, and I was laughing at nothing! And I’ve never actually even been high.
Paul Reubens had to create a whole stage show for his Pee Wee Herman character before he could evolve past doing little roles in Cheech and Chong films and make his own mark. Do you think Paper Heart is a good way for you to present your best self to the public?
I think our movie has a lot of things I do in normal stage performances. I like mixing reality with fiction—whenever I bring an audience member up and make them do a half-hour show with me, that’s like them playing with me and taking them for this ride. It isn’t real, but it is real, because it’s a real person and they’re really interacting with me. In Paper Heart, I tried to play myself as much as possible, since I am playing a character named Charlyne Yi, and I am interviewing real people. But sometimes I am weird and I don’t come off natural, even when I am being myself. I think this is a good representation of me trying to be myself, ha ha! I don’t know if I always want to be myself in other roles, but I don’t know if I have a choice, because I don’t have range. I wish I had more range. That’d be awesome!

CHARLYNE YI’S PAPER HEART ON FRI., JUNE 25, AT THE L.A. FILM FESTIVAL AT THE LANDMARK 8, 10850 W. PICO BLVD., LOS ANGELES. 5 PM / $12 / ALL AGES. LAFILMFEST.COM. VISIT CHARLYNE YI AT MYSPACE.COM/CHARLYNEYI.

We weren’t able to get a hold of everyone in Southern California who is observing Record Store Day tomorrow, but we did ask a few of our favorite local stores what sort of special things they’ll be doing. If you aren’t at Coachella—or if you want to sneak away—be sure to go out tomorrow and get the something you can’t get off the Internet. (We recommend the This LP Crashes Hard Drives compilation, a joint effort between L.A. RECORD-loved labels like Sublime Frequencies, Light in the Attic and more!) And remember—as the good folks at Poo Bah in Pasadena remind us all, every day can be Record Store Day. List compiled by Steven Martinez.

AMOEBA RECORDS
12 NOON TO 6PM: T-shirt silkscreening from Family Industries! Make a $5 donation to one of Amoeba’s Green Charities (Sierra Club Angeles Branch or Conservation International) and Family Industries will silkscreen one of several cool designs on the spot onto a tee of your choice (courtesy of American Apparel).
1 PM: DJs Wendy and Lisa!
5 PM: DJ Babu!
ALL DAY: Limited-edition vinyl releases from Sonic Youth, Beck, Jay Reatard, Elvis Costello, the Smiths, Flight of the Conchords, Leonard Cohen, and so many more! Plus a limited-edition Record Store Day vinyl compilation featuring UNRELEASED tracks by Willie Nelson, Q-Tip, Franz Ferdinand, MGMT and more!
AMOEBA RECORDS, 6400 W. SUNSET BLVD., HOLLYWOOD. AMOEBA.COM.

FINGERPRINTS
NOON: Crystal Antlers live set!
2 PM: Listening party for Bob Dylan’s Together Through Life!
5:30 PM: The Bird and the Bee live set!
7 PM: Matt Costa live set!
ALL DAY: Limited-edition releases from Arthur Russell, Akron/Family, Bad Religion, Cold War Kids, Jesus Lizard, Lykke Li and El Perro Del Mar, MC5, Sonic Youth, Jay Reatard and more—plus the awesome This LP Crashes Hard Drives compilation!
FINGERPRINTS RECORDS, 4612 E. 2ND ST., LONG BEACH. FINGERPRINTSMUSIC.COM.

FATBEATS
In-store performances and signings from Houseshoes (FatBeats LA), Inka One (Boombox LA), Kutmah (Sketchbook, Dublab), Shafiq Husayn, Chikaramanga (Tres Records, Shibuya Club DJs), Yotah (Shibuya Club DJs), Jedi, Mona Lisa, J1 and more to be announced! Plus 10% off all items all day!
FATBEATS, 7600 MELROSE AVE., STE. J., LOS ANGELES. FATBEATS.COM.

FREAKBEAT RECORDS
10% off records and over 100 limited edition titles will be available!
FREAKBEAT RECORDS, 13616 VENTURA BLVD., SHERMAN OAKS. FREAKBEATRECORDS.COM.

ROCKAWAY RECORDS
Limited exclusive Record Store Day releases and storewide sale—discount to-be-announced!
ROCKAWAY RECORDS, 2395 GLENDALE BLVD., SILVERLAKE. ROCKAWAY.COM.

STREET SOUNDS
DJ sets (line-up to be announced) and 10% off all items all day!
STREET SOUNDS, 7704 MELROSE AVE., LOS ANGELES. STREETSOUNDS.COM.

VACATION VINYL
Limited exclusive Record Store Day releases and possible live guest TBA!
VACATION VINYL, 4670 HOLLYWOOD BLVD., LOS FELIZ. VACATIONVINYL.COM.

VINYL SOLUTION
10% off new records and 25% off used records!
VINYL SOLUTION, 18822 BEACH BLVD., HUNTINGTON BEACH. MYSPACE.COM/VINYLSOLUTION.

Download: Akron/Family “Ed Is A Portal”

(from Love Is Simple on Young God)

Akron/Family released their final album on Michael Gira’s Young God Records before leaving New York City to try something new as a trio. They will be finishing their residency at the Steve Allen Theater tonight. Bassist Miles Seaton speaks just before exiting a train. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

What’s the best thing that ever happened to you because of your HEY MAN I WANNA PARTY WITH YOU t-shirt?
Miles Seaton (bass): The person that gave it to me is a dear friend and there was a point when he said, ‘This is just sad that I have this because I don’t want to party any more.’ So I took it around and wore it and at some point his life tuned around and he asked me to give it back. It’s a cool thing—‘I’m feeling better—I think I’ll take that shirt back.’ But I never gave it back.
Is that a happy ending or an awkward ending?
Super happy. I still have it, but I want to take the ‘h’ off of it so it says I WANNA PARTY WIT YOU.
Did you think about making him a shirt and you’d have this perfect little shirt trade?
That’s a good idea. I had a shirt that I gave him for his birthday once—the way I gave it to him, I was like, ‘Hey, man, can I borrow your shirt for a second?’ And I grabbed it from him and took my shirt off and I was bare-chested in the street. ‘Here you go—the shirt off my back!’
Are you often bare-chested in the street?
No, it was a sentimental moment. But there have been some bare-chested moments in the street. In Austin last year, we ended up in the street and I realized I was talking to people and wearing a headdress covered in confetti, and I was like, ‘Wow, what am I doing standing in the middle of the street like this?’
How many moments in the last year have you had where time freezes like that?
Only one.
So much of the press about the last album talked about how exhausted the band was—did you get the rest you needed yet?
It’s tough to tell. I feel rejuvenated with a new sense of searching for joy in what we’re doing. I feel making this record was a point of closure for us interpersonally and as a band. Just like our own lives. Everyone is growing and changing. Being alive can be exhausting. I think if you have the good fortune and blessing to live your life to the fullest, that can be a pretty tiring thing.
You said before that you want the music to be as screwed up as possible. Did you try that on this record?
All of us try and take care to speak from our personal perspectives when were speaking on behalf of the group, so that was me referring to myself in a lot of ways—but there’s a sense of building the whole thing up then stopping and going, ‘This shit sucks now.’ I also feel like you get to a point, especially when you’re touring and presenting something, that the process becomes less creative. For me, I’m digging for the energetic situation—that’s what the idea of raising the sparks is about. Or digging for fire. There’s this vibe of trying to throw yourself into the storm as much as possible and challenging yourself as a thinker, a problem solver and as a person and as a man and as a friend and as a collaborator to grow—because theres no other thing you can do on this earth than to make and die, and there’s this sense that screwing it all up gives that opportunity to find that really beautiful thing.
You spoke once about playing with guitarists from Mali who ‘wade into the river’—is that the same thing?
That’s another angle. It is that sense of stepping to the tradition and letting the momentum that is occurring burst around you, and it will take you back down into it.
I feel like we’re circling around something greater here.
Well, as soon as you identify it, it doesn’t exist. That’s the idea, isn’t it? You circle around the greater truth for the entire thing and you think you figure it out—then it’s time to circle around another million times.
What was the last big breakthrough for you guys?
All of us really like talking with each other frankly—we’re starting to honor the friendship of our band in a huge way. Playing with Megafaun was a huge experience for us because those guys process everything almost to ad nauseum. They talk about the show afterwards, they treat their relationship as the very most important thing and their music as a seamless and flawless expression of that relationship at any given time. The attention to that commonality and process creates a sense of warmth and brotherhood that’s unparalleled to me. We’re all kind of intense dudes and we try to play it off like we’re laid back, yet all of us have our own vision and ideas and strong opinions about life. And there’s just a sense to honor each other and get closer to one another because sometimes you get so excited and so into shit that you forget—you’re looking at your bro. You’re on stage and you’re like, ‘I fucking love you, man.’
Has that sentiment ever been vocalized?
Yeah, it has. Almost always it’s like, ‘I love you, too.’ And it’s great—it’s special. I really feel like these guys are my best friends and I feel really lucky to watch them grow. And that’s the ‘wade into the river’ thing—it refers to Seth having a great experience with his life as an individual and it’s great to watch him grow in a new direction. And same thing with Dana. You know—I like making coffee. I love espresso—you can always find me at Intelligentsia. I’m a barista geek—I can pull the best shot you’ve had. I can go travel and build relationships with farmers and there’s just a million things people can do, but the enjoyment of this is that the friendship in this is carrying over into life. That’s what all of us are trying to go for and it’s going to make our music so much better.
Has ‘Auld Lang Syne’ ever moved you to tears?
No, but I was moved to tears when we were cutting the take of that. I didn’t break down and end up in a heap.
Were they warrior tears?
Yeah! Cowboy tears. Actually, that’s the name of my new band: Warrior Tears. Just me with a loop pedal and somebody with a floor tom.
When’s the last time you played all night and walked out to see the sunrise?
We got close once. We played at a college once—it was so bad. Weirdly bad and keggy and crazy and we kept going out of tune and we were playing all these other songs—everybody a step out of tune from each other. It was so disgusting and we kept smashing it down again into really dark dark wicked jams, and it ended up going until five and we got out and it definitely was close to sunrise.
How many people dropped out of college after seeing that show?
I hope a few. No, just kidding. If your parents can afford it, stay in school.

AKRON/FAMILY ON THU., MAR. 12, AT THE STEVE ALLEN THEATER, 4773 HOLLYWOOD BLVD., LOS ANGELES. 7:30 PM / $15 / ALL AGES. COMPLETE LINE-UP AND OTHER INFORMATION AT STEVEALLENTHEATER.COM.