TOP 25 RELEASES OF 2010

Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma (Warp)

Four Tet – There is Love in You (Domino)

– Lainna Fader

Avi Buffalo “What’s In It For”
(From the self-titled LP out now on Sub Pop)

Avi Buffalo gets hated on by a lot of L.A. bands. I couldn’t believe the catty whispers from the musicians around me when I saw these kids—who really are just kids, fresh out of high school— play the KXLU/Smell showcase in Austin. Part of it was jealousy at the raw skill on display—in a pretty Surfer Rosa, almost-Joe-Satriani kind of way, band leader Avigdor Zahner Isenberg shreds the fuck out of his guitar. But I think what freaks people out most is that at Avi Buffalo’s emotional core, there’s a frustration that’s remarkably pitiful and world-weary. For some people, it must feel like a put-on—how dare four little kids play dress-up! But the blues is about feeling good, and each song on Avi Buffalo is like a Lucian Freud painting or a Raymond Carver short story. These are portraits of misunderstood, unloved, ugly things yawping into the void about their lusts and losses. And they are beautiful. You feel affection for these first-person characters, and maybe even a little mirth at their self-pity. Hell, on those rare occasions when Mr. Zahner-Isenberg allows himself to write like an actual teenager—such as on the literally sophomoric “Summer Cum”—there’s a downright J Mascis laziness to his vocals that matches the characters’ inability to clear up their confusions. The girl protagonist of “Summer Cum” makes dessert out of a pre-made pie crust, and the male narrator can taste a “robot’s fist.” The yawp drawls into a laid-back final “yep!” So what if, say, Flaming Lips mastered some of these sounds a decade ago? Avi Buffalo has the same guitar/bass/Nord/drum line-up we’ve heard for years, but have we ever really heard a song like “Where’s Your Dirty Mind” in which a frail boy and frail girl recite verses over a plinking piano and dixie-doodle Southern-fried guitar, using pervy middle-school urges as an ineffective shield against mortality? And that’s only the last in Avi Buffalo’s string of familiar yet highly original hard-luck songs about broken, bad-mannered losers. Like J Mascis, Zahner-Isenberg’s reedy voice contrasts sharply with the virtuosity of his band’s instruments. With Avi Buffalo, the brightness of intricately plucked guitars and occasional keys sweeps the darkness hither and yon—never dissipating it, but never letting it overwhelming you. (Only 60-Watt Kid has channeled this kind of sunny, wave-lapping beauty in recent times.) In fact, the only bad feeling I get after listening to Avi Buffalo is that it makes me want to go back in time to slap the shit out of myself at age 19 for not also being able to squeeze poignancy out of phrases like “summer cum” or craft Arthur Lee-ish song titles like “What’s In It For?” Technically, this band is a solo-project and the other members brought in later, but my favorite part of the album is when keyboardist/vocalist Rebecca Coleman takes the reins in “One Last”—a fantastic call-and-response ditty, almost like a Lee Hazlewood/Nancy Sinatra song, but replace Lee with Neil Young and Nancy Sinatra with a good vocalist. Zahner-Isenberg is great, but Coleman’s voice is emotive in a bolder, almost-country way. I wish she got mixed louder on some of the other songs. Or maybe it was a genius choice to haul her out as a secret weapon—a Bizarro-world Dee Dee Ramone who actually bests her lead singer. Taste is the hallmark of this record, even more so than in the band’s live set. At one point, Mr. Zahner-Isenberg reminds us that “no one could make you lose your faith, except for someone who you love.” Somehow, Avi Buffalo takes a sound I thought I had no love for and makes it rekindle my faith in guitar rock. Not since the Smiths has a band taken recent tradition to such new heights, and I suspect this won’t be Avi Buffalo’s last great album.

—Dan Collins

My Morning Jacket made their return to the Greek Theatre & played a high energy two hour set to a crowd of very excited fans. Los Angeles band Avi Buffalo opened.

Setlist
1) At Dawn
2) Golden
3) It Beats
4) Gideon
5) Anytime
6) Mahgeetah
7) War Begun
Circuital
9) Where To Begin
10) Touch Me pt.1
11) Dancefloors
12) Tonight
13) Wonderful
14) Dondate
15) I’m Amazed
16) Highly Suspicious
17) Smokin From Shootin
18) End of Run Thru
19) Touch Me pt.2

—

20) Wordless
21) Off the Record
22) Steam Engine
23) One Big Holiday

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This was my second year at SXSW and it was just as fantastic as last year. Part of my strategy for enjoying Austin this time round was to: a) drink less free booze, b) carry around less crap, and c) try and relax and see more bands I’ve never heard of. And in order to do this I decided to take less camera gear and photograph fewer shows. But I still wanted to take pictures so I brought along my Lomo Kompakt Automat and and handful of film and this is what I came home with. I’ve tried to put captions beneath each photo, hope you enjoy them.

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Download: Imaad Wasif’s Mixtape

L.A. RECORD alum Imaad Wasif is in residency three Thursdays this month at Spaceland, and each show is curated to reflect a different theme—tonight’s “Bad Vibes,” next week’s “Faith Folk” and finally “Cock Rock.” In honor of vibes, faith and rock, Imaad put together this awesome mixtape for us! Listen and download above and read about the songs below!

01. The Savages “I”
A desi-psych band from Bombay (Mumbai) late ‘60s or early ‘70s, fronted by my long-lost uncle, Bashir Sheik. Perhaps the first known lyrical exploration of Jung’s disassociation theory of the “I.”

02. Ramleh “There Must Be More Than This”
Heavy power-electronic music to wash your memories of 1990 away.

03. Jonathan Halper “Leaving My Old Life Behind/I Am A Hermit (My Mind Is Not The Same)”
From Kenneth Anger’s Puce Moment, circa ’66—sounds like a cross between Barrett and the Clean.

04. Swamp Rats “I’m Goin’ Home”
Flower punk at its finest before its lips turned black. ’66 near Pittsburgh.

05. Karen Dalton “Katie Cruel”
From the 1962/63 Green Rocky Road Loop tapes, recorded on two-track reel-to-reel at home or in a coffin—probably at home since coffins don’t have phones.

06. Bob Lind “Cool Summer”
This is one of the most tragic and beautiful songs ever written, a perfect expression of sorrow. ’66.

07. Jake Holmes “Dazed and Confused”
In the tradition of all great bluesmen, Jimmy Page lifted this song and later re-hashed it in a far less creepy version for one of his far less creepy bands. ’67/’68.

08. Brigitte Fontaine “Le Goudron”
Translation: tar = auditory pornography. ’69.

09. Sharon Tandy with Les Fleur de Lys “Hold On”
Get high off the smoke in Sharon Tandy’s vox. This song has one of my favorite British psych guitar solos ever. ’67.

Download: The Soft Pack “Answer To Yourself”

(from the self-titled LP out Feb. 2 on Kemado)

We interviewed the Soft Pack (then the Muslims) the day they moved to L.A. and we have been happy to see all the wild insanity that has developed for them since—the latest being a ten-shows-in-one-day marathon set for this Saturday (Jan. 30) to go along with the release of their new album on Kemado. Line-up and info below!

LOCATION #1:
MATTY’S HOUSE
5227 Irvington Place
LA, CA 90042
START TIME: 10:00am

LOCATION #2:
FRANKY’S (SUNSET JUNCTION)
3323 West Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
START TIME: 12:00pm SHARP
W/ TIJUANA PANTHERS

LOCATION #3:
FMLY MANSION
1210 Appleton Way
Venice Beach, CA
START TIME: 1:00pm
W/ AVI BUFFALO

LOCATION #4:
FINGERPRINTS
4612 E. 2nd St
LONG BEACH, CA
START TIME: 3:30pm
MEGA GIVEAWAYS AT THIS SHOW

LOCATION #5
SECRET BEACH SHOW
FOLLOW AT TWITTER.COM/FYFFFEST or TWITTER.COM/THESOFTPACK FOR LOCATION
START TIME: 5:00pm

LOCATION #6:
6382 ROCHELLE
WESTMINISTER, CA
START TIME: 5:30pm
W/ CRYSTAL ANTLERS

LOCATION #7:
HOUSE PARTY AT A FANS HOUSE IN DOWNEY, CA
FOLLOW ON TWITTER DAY OF FOR LOCATION
START TIME: 7:30pm

LOCATION #8:
VACATION VINYL
4670 HOLLYWOOD BLVD
START TIME: 8:00pm
W/ DUNES

LOCATION #9:
SILVERLAKE HOUSE PARTY
START TIME: 10:00pm
W/ WOAH HUNX

LOCATION #10:
SECRET LOCATION
LOS ANGELES, CA
W/ GUESTS TBA
START TIME: 12:00am

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