Making their first LA appearance at The Echo, the mysterious Manchester band WU LYF  was welcomed by fans who sang along loud and proud to their album “Go Tell the Fire to The Mountain,” which was just released in June. No one could keep still as sweat and hair flew all over the place. WU LYF just announced a world tour which will end back in LA at the Troubadour in November. But will they have merch this time around?  Opening for WU was Long Beach’s Crystal Antlers who had just completed a Monday night residency. Photos from July 26, 2011 by Debi Del Grande.

WU LYF:

[View with PicLens]

[View with PicLens]

Download: Judgment Day Mixtape

Bloody Death Skull – Judgment Day
Nostalghia – Cool For Chaos
Halloween Swim Team – Science Fiction
Peter Himmelman – The Pigeons Couldn’t Sleep
Ash Reiter – 2012
Mexicans With Guns – Death And Rebirth
Jenny O – Earth Has Won
The Silent League – Here’s A Star
Yacht – Dystopia
William Strangeland – Last Breath
The Rock N Roll – November Rain
Crystal Antlers – Parting Song For The Torn Sky
Bobby Blunders – Wound Too Tight
Nihiti – Who Will Be Your Messenger
Sister Mantos – Fin Del Mundo Yankee
The Thermals – Here’s Your Future
National Park System – Sad And Fucked (Not Moving)
5-Track – A Beautiful Song About The End Of The World
DRVGDEALER – Smoke Lightning Fuck Unicorns

Download: Moon Duo “Mazes”

(from Mazes out now on Sacred Bones)

Wooden Shjips guitarist and singer Ripley Johnson assembled Moon Duo (with keyboardist Sanae Yanada and samples pried from a bunch of primitive drum machines) to channel even more powerful drones and tones from the forbidden zone of rock ‘n’ roll. Moon Duo will play the Echo on Tuesday. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

Is the ‘J’ in ‘Wooden Shjips’ from a typo on the back of a Crosby, Stills and Nash live record? Or is it because people should always have a ‘J’ in the middle of listening to those records?
Ripley Johnson (guitar): Absolutely not! Those are both really funny. A ‘J’ in the middle? No one ever said that before!
What is your favorite place to visit in Morocco?
My favorite place to visit there is Fez. Fez is a medieval walled city—about a million people inside the walls. Completely nuts. There is a modern part outside it, but the old part is massive. And you literally can’t drive a car into it. So everything goes in on donkey carts or people’s backs. I highly recommend it. I’ve only been once and I stayed in a—like a guest house. These old houses they restore. They’re fantastic. It’s such a closed society. You never see people’s houses. It’s just a door, and walls everywhere. But if you get beyond the door—if you can—there’s fantastic courtyards in these houses, and they’re quite beautiful.
What’s the most isolated you ever felt on planet Earth? Out in the Moroccan desert?
The most isolated I ever felt was in Joshua Tree walking around there. Until a plane flies over. You can feel like you’re the last person on earth and you see a place in the sky and brings you back.
What effect does that environment have on you?
It gives you a sense of how small you really are. I’m into that whole existential experience. I’m not a thrill-seeker. Some people jump out of airplanes to feel alive. Being in places like that makes me feel alive and causes me to think about the big picture.
Wayne McGuire wrote that the drone in the Velvet Underground’s music is an expression of a kind of existential ‘death drive.’ Is there a connection between that music and the experience of isolation?
What I find interesting about the Velvet Underground—lemme go off on a tangent! In New York, the Velvet Underground are considered this art-rock band. And I could see how you might think the songs are this kind of ritualistic thing. But if you read some of their interviews, they talk about being outside of New York and playing sock-hops. In the late ‘60s going to high school gyms and people are dancing. Even in ’67 and ’68, maybe people aren’t as hip in these smaller towns—they just wanted to dance. And they would play ‘Sister Ray’ and people would dance. That to me is the key to the repetition and drone. You hear it in dance music, you hear it in early rock ‘n’ roll—then I think rock ‘n’ roll lost some of that in the ‘70s. It got a little wanky. But to me, the Velvet Underground were a great dance band. And they’ve said that in interviews. I think that’s missed a lot. That’s how I respond to that stuff.
Kim Fowley said, ‘They shut off the heat of the beat.’ Same concept?
I did meet Kim Fowley once. He’s a funny guy. Is he writing a book? He really should be. Anyway—I don’t know why that happened. Some people blame cocaine. People got all self-centered and self-focused and you do a bunch of coke and think you can do anything, and people got really into the virtuosic kind of thing. But not everyone—there’s always stuff going on beneath the surface.
If the ‘60s were acid and pot and ‘70s and ‘80s were coke, what chemical substance controls American society today?
Meth? I don’t know? Caffeine? Sugar? People are addicted to food these days, it seems. I don’t know what the kids are doing. It’s hard to say.
You said that you thought Johnny Thunders was the best thing that ever came out of New York—what’s the best thing that ever came out of L.A.?
I really like Wallace Berman. He did an art magazine and was tied into the avant-garde scene—I’m no expert; I just have a book by him that’s amazing—and he was one of these guys in the underground art scene in L.A. in the ‘50s and ‘60s. He was a polymath. He did everything. He did photography, he did any kind of thing he could get his hands on and knew every artist. He was one of these inspiring figures. When I think of L.A., I think of him and of these people that are sort of working in the underground there. When I think of L.A., I think of the underbelly. There always seems to be like really interesting things you can discover about L.A. that don’t get exposed very often. I’ve just started getting into L.A. noir fiction. Ross McDonald, Raymond Chandler—I’ve started reading him obsessively.
Who’s the most Chandlerian character you’ve met recently?
I don’t run in interesting enough circles! I don’t know any tough guys or tough chicks.
What is the most awe-inspiring African rock reissue you own?
My favorite is the Chrissy Zeppy Tembo—My Ancestors. I think he may have been the drummer in Witch. These are things—you buy the reissue and don’t get around to reading the insert cuz you just get obsessive about listening to it. All of that stuff, it’s just so good. I love a lot of the afrobeat and afrofunk stuff—the Nigerian stuff, and even highlife stuff—but this zamrock stuff isn’t funky. It’s just rock bands from Africa. Really amazing songwriting and guitar playing.
What kind of beneficial health effects are there to playing repetitive rock ‘n’ roll music?
I’d hope there’s some stress relief.
Like a hot tub for the mind?
Something to take your mind off your troubles. I listen to a lot of music when I’m driving and it allows me to zone out for a while. There are benefits to not thinking about things—that’s the goal. Maybe not while you’re driving! But I tend to have crazy ideas when I’m driving, and get inspired by that. Sometimes things will pop into my head. I’m constantly taking notes or sometimes I dictate to someone else in the car.
Which of those crazy ideas is most exciting for you now?
We’re talking about doing a tour 12” in October and we’re gonna do this Halloween thing—this came up while I was driving! But we’ll do a variety of custom t-shirts for the tour, and we’ll each have a custom t-shirt we can wear on tour. I’m really into tour gear right now. Like I make handmade t-shirts and take them on tour and wear them every day. It’s a consistency thing. Every day I’m wearing a similar thing. Right now I’m into shapes. White t-shirts with geometric patterns. Triangles and circles.
Doesn’t that come out in the wash? Or is that not an issue on tour?
We do the wash every once in a while, but you just got to get it on thick! Just do layers! I’ve been talking about this record a lot in interviews and now we have to do it—it’ll probably be more instrumental, but maybe we’ll do a cover. ‘The Monster Mash’ or something. We wanna do something spookier. I think of it as a soundtrack to a Halloween party, or if you had kids trick-or-treating in your neighborhood, you could crank it on your porch.
A soundtrack to a guy pretending he’s a stuffed dummy but then he jumps up and freaks out a bunch of six-year-olds?
Exactly! There was a house that everyone was afraid of in my neighborhood growing up. This really dark gothic stone house overgrown with ivy.
How many people in American suburbs have been denied the gothic creepiness of childhood?
The suburbs are scary in their own way! The Stepford Wives kind of thing. I find that sort of conformity incredibly creepy. I think it’s gotten worse, actually. Some of the older suburbs are somewhat interesting. You can find certain neighborhoods—weird subdivisions that were the precursors to the suburbs. Like in Oakland, one were like Disney made it and the lampposts are all the sames—like ‘50s-style art deco. But today things have gotten cheaper and worse. I don’t these McMansions are gonna last very song. They don’t seem made very well. But I like the idea of some of these modular homes—these prefabs. Some designers are making really interesting prefab homes that you can pretty much plop down anywhere. They’re designed smart and low-impact. I have a small dream to buy some land in the desert and plop one of these boxes down.
Fort Ripley? What do you think you’d look like when you came back to town once every three months for supplies?
Probably exactly the same! I already look like that. We’ve talked about going to Detroit and doing that. It’s not a blank canvas, but it’s a place where the American city can be re-imagined. Like suburb-type communities with mass transit. In suburbs and exurbs, everything looks the same. If they let people go crazy and be individual, I think you could have really cool neighborhoods. Like gated communities—my parents live in this retirement community in Florida and there are rules. Your bushes have to be trimmed a certain way. To fulfill this idea of how a neighborhood should be. That’s scary to me.
What do the security guards at this gated community think of you?
If your family lives there, it’s fun to be the freak who comes to visit cuz it throws things off a little bit. I haven’t started golfing yet, but I kind of want to.

L.A. RECORD PRESENTS MOON DUO WITH CRYSTAL ANTLERS AND XU XU FANG ON TUE., APR. 12, AT THE ECHO, 1822 SUNSET BLVD., ECHO PARK. 8:30 PM / $10-$12 / 18+. ATTHEECHO.COM. MOON DUO’S MAZES IS OUT NOW ON SACRED BONES. VISIT MOON DUO AT MOONDUO.ORG.

Hanni El Khatib (say that 5 times fast) kicked things off at the Glasshouse. With only guitar and a drummer, Hanni played his own brand of stripped down 1950s influenced dirty blues rock with dashes of rockabilly and soul. “Loved One,” full of testosterone and one two many beers, feels like a car gunning its engines before a street race. “You Rascal You,” with its chunky over-modulated sound and piercing lead jabs, is slicked back and tattooed up and cruising for a bruising, and “Dead Wrong” is a dancy doo wop skirt twister. Dirty guitar, sultry sandpaper vocals—awesome.
Adler Bloom

Drug Cabin is Nathan Thelan’s (Moonrats and Pretty Girls Make Graves) solo project. I was not able to catch their entire set but what I heard was really wonderful. “Nobody’s Ghost,” with its airy chords and meditative cadence and Thelan’s beautiful vocals, wraps you up in your own daydreams. “One I love” moves along like a water running over rocks, Thelan’s guitar picking dancing while the bass happily walks along. Very cool dreamy stuff that pulled me back to Steeler’s Wheel or elements of the masterful Beach Boy’s Holland album or the earthiness of Neil Young. Cool beans indeed.
—Adler Bloom

As soon as Tijuana Panthers started warming up, a crowd began to form tightly in the Glasshouse full of many fans and many curious observers that hadn’t heard them before. They started out with “Don’t Shoot Your Guns,” which reminds me of a British-pop-punk that differs from their general surf sound. The crowd was pushing to get to the front and there was a small amount of moshers, but everyone was dancing and singing along. All three members were on point with their vocals and playing; they sounded phenomenal. When they played audience favorite “Creature,” absolutely everyone began to jump, dance, and scream out the lyrics. They played “Boardwalk” beautifully, and dedicated it to “Pee Wee Herman” making him a lucky lad because this song is sensual and sweet. They ended their set with “Prayer Needs.” After Chad played the beginning of it once before and left us wanting to hear it, we finally got our fix and it sounded as amazingly catchy as ever.
—Alyssa Holland

If Hell has a Club Punk Cabana then Death Hymn Number Nine would be the band. If music is blaring in Charlie Sheen’s head when the “poles” in his brain are playing tug of war, then Death Hymn Number Nine is that noise. With the blood red paint spatter on their t-shirts and the chalk powder faces they looked Día de los Muertos punk puppets. The music is frantic and balls out punk with the lead singer screaming so hard that it made my throat sore, but Death Hymn Number Nine’s songs also have some cool vibes that lift them above standard punk fare. Some of the tom tom beats almost sounded punk big band, some of the guitar almost sounded like a punk version of Duane Eddy twangy surf guitar. Splash some blood red paint on your t-shirt and check them out.
—Adler Bloom

Crystal Antlers seriously sounded fucking magnificent tonight. They always do, but for some reason tonight everything just came together perfectly and Jonny Bell’s voice sounded so good it was like a recording (so we recorded it of course). The crowd got denser, and moshed powerfully, as I was standing directly behind their biggest fan. He was reaching his hands out to Crystal Antlers and screaming along to each song. They began with new songs, “Fortune Telling” and “Until The Sun Dies Pt. 2,” which both sound very strong, hard-hitting, energetic, and experimental. When they played “Summer Solstice,” not one person wasn’t moving. The drumbeat forces your hips to move, and the Cora’s keys get stuck in your head for days (making my days better). This is honestly one of my favorite songs, ever. The song that captured the audience the most was “A Thousand Eyes,” which starts out heavy, fast, and loud, and drops down to a bluesy passionate slower chorus. Before they ended their perfect set, Bell said “up next is Audacity at Aladdin’s, then Growlers. Growlers…we played on your roof five years ago, don’t forget that.”
—Alyssa Holland

When you watch Audacity, that surf/garage/rock band from Fullerton, California, you feel like you’re at a backyard house party. Maybe it is because the guys are so unpretentious about what they do—which is play solidly crafted garage rock, have some beers and call each other bitches. The crowd at Aladdin’s Jr were totally on board, dancing and asking the boys to play their favorite Audacity songs. If only there had been a swimming pool to jump in—it would of totally felt like the OC.
—Adler Bloom

Growlers started their set as Brooks said over the screaming crowd, “This song is called ‘Gay Thoughts’.” I was in the middle of the crowd, with absolutely no room to even breathe anything but the smells of 3 different kinds of smoke, many different alcohols and sweat. I don’t know what the hell the crowd was doing. We were just falling back and forth together and squished up so tight that I’m pretty sure my bones are now crushed. So after this song I left this weird wave of people with many others saying, “Why can’t we just dance?”—made my way backstage and then on stage with the Growlers, and danced my heart out with all the other girls surrounding the band. The crowd went wild for “Acid Rain,” an obvious all time favorite for most of them. It’s definitely one of the most addictive songs out there right now, and it’s impossible to not enjoy. They slowed it down with “Empty Bones,” but that didn’t stop people from crowd surfing constantly and getting thrown back into the wave of people by the Glasshouse security. I died when they played “Old Cold River,” and I sang along adoringly to Brook’s fantastic vocals. A drunk person almost pushed me off the stage but I retaliated and continued to dance to all of their tropical-bluesy-surf music that holds hypnotic sway over so many die-hard fans who will never get enough of the Growlers’ genius. When they finished, we of course screamed for more, and they played “People Don’t Change Blues,” which Matt Taylor sang after he took a bra that was thrown on stage and put it on a coyote that sat next to the drums (I swear I was not tripping). We got our last hoorah, danced and sang along, until the dear Sean Carlson told us to get off stage at the end of another magical FYF night.
—Alyssa Holland

Remember that amazing loft space on Maple Ave that looks like a New York flat, which Peter Bjorn and John played their secret show in? Well here we are again, for a secret show consisting of two extremely talented bands; Crystal Antlers and Surfer Blood. I owe my life to Sean Carlson because he never fails to give me the greatest shows imaginable. I don’t know how he pulls off such amazing bands, at awesome locations, for such great costs (AND he manages to provide the people with free beer).

I arrived 10 minutes to 10:30, when the show would kick off. A woman began yelling at everyone saying, “I am going to call the LAPD and this show is cancelled everyone go home!” My immediate tactless response was “She’s totally on her period, pee on her face!” I stood with the men in charge, and listened to Sean over the phone saying she can’t do this, and everyone should just run up to the 6th floor where the show was. We ran on in, with our fool-proof plan, and we were welcomed by the two bands just sitting around trying to figure out how to get some music playing before they started. Jonny Bell of Crystal Antlers said, “Anyone have an ipod?” and this exact moment being one of my musical fantasies, I said “Yes I do!” Cora Foxx, also of Crystal Antlers, and I tried to figure out a way for me to DJ. I hooked up my ipod, and played a playlist that got the crowd flowing. As if I wasn’t happy enough, Crystal Antlers began playing after just 3 songs off of my playlist, and the FYFestivities began.

Crystal Antlers initiated playing “Knee Deep,” a song fitting to be played at night time on a carousel in the middle of the city. The guitar definitely takes a hold of this song, with the clear passionate vocals of Jonny. Next they played “Summer Solstice,” where Cora and the drummer Kevin Stuart shine with drums that force your hips to sway, and keys that make you swoon. Everyone was definitely on point, and Jonny’s vocals were again heard perfectly. The percussionist Damian Edwards was hitting hard and strong, while dancing and giving his energetic vibe to the audience. They followed with “Two Way Mirror,” another song that is addictively dance inducing and compelling. The whole band got energized for this one, which affected the crowd as well. Lastly they bestowed upon us “Baby Blue” a Bob Dylan cover. They do this song wonderfully, a faster paced harder version of Dylan’s. It was a nice way to end their set, with something that sounded completely different from the previous songs, to amuse all of those Dylan fans bustling about in the loft space.

Surfer Blood commenced their set with all songs from their album Astro Coast and three new songs. First was “Fast Jabroni,” a wonderful upbeat song that wakes you up. J.P the singer/guitarist moves while he is playing as if he is posing, as he sways back and forth and stops in different directions. He embodies his music, and everyone joins in. Next up was “Floating Vibes,” a song that has a heavy Sonic Youth sound, yet it still has a surf influence. The drums are at a medium tempo, and the guitar has that subtle distortion that personifies grunge. J.P thanked us saying, “Thank you guys all for coming out, I know there’s a lot of confusion. It’s that damn basketball game.” as they went in to the next tune ‘Twin Peaks,” which is playful and tropical, yet hard and commanding at the same time. J.P. said “Everyone say your favorite team in unison. 1 2 3 BASKETBALL!” which roused up the crowd for the next song. This song is new, and J.P. told me that it doesn’t have a name yet. It sounded like it upped the ante from their first album, staying true to their sound but becoming a bit more powerful. They followed it with their most well known song “Take it Easy,” and it sounded fucking amazing. This song is definitely something that no one can deny in terms of dancing, with that surf tropical resonance. They played “Swim,” which was well received by the audience and played with effortless energy. Another new song entitled “I’m Not Ready,” was played next, and the crowd seemed to like it just as much as their well known songs. They played “Catholic Pagans” after that, a song that absolutely bleeds surf. We couldn’t get enough, and J.P. said “Another new song, why not,” and played another phenomenal untitled. They ended their perfect set with my utter favorite “Anchorage,” and I sang along devotedly as the crowd bounced. This song is also very Sonic Youth influenced, therefore it’s lovable and gets in your head. It is unquestionable that Surfer Blood bleeds surf, and Crystal Antlers, crystallizes antlers?

—Alyssa Holland (words + photos)

The Budos Band come from Staten Island but seem like they climbed out of a colossal pile of Ethiopiques comps after strength training from Fela Kuti and inspirational interludes with Dennis Coffey. Their newest album is out now on Daptone and they discuss now their own plans for an impregnable Budos compound. This interview by Jonny Bell of Crystal Antlers.

Your drummer said that he gives Budos Band songs working titles off the top of his head, and that they usually come from Dungeons & Dragons or HP Lovecraft.  Are there any other fantasy role-playing card games that influence you?
Jared Tankel (baritone sax): I don’t know, he’d be much more qualified to answer that question. He’s really the man of that world in the group—I’m not sure what else could even be out there. We certainly appreciate the titles that he comes up with so we let him run with it, and then take it to Daptone and see what they say about it which is usually something like, ‘change the title.’
When I first heard your music I was convinced it was recorded in 1968. How do you do that? A friend of mine who listens to a lot of old music loaned me a burned CD with no info, and I was just totally convinced it was an old funk group.
Yeah, it’s the recording techniques. We use an all-analog studio. We use tape—we don’t do anything in computers. We really try to use the techniques that made those old records sound great—you know the horns, shared microphones, and it’s all recorded live, so there’s a real nice natural bleed between the instruments. No crazy overdubs—it’s a real live feeling recording, and to boot it’s all analog tape with that warm sound that old analog records have.
Your music reminds me of the music from Blaxploitation films. Do you have any personal favorites? Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song/Darktown Strutters/The Final Comedown?
You know we get that a lot and it’s funny, I don’t really think that’s a big reference point for us. It just kind of ends up going that way for whatever reason. Black Caesar is a classic and obviously the soundtrack is killer—that’s the one that springs to mind as a favorite. We don’t go in with that outlook, but it ends up taking that form on some occasion.
Where does the name ‘Budos’ come from? I googled it and the only thing that comes up is a commune in southwestern France.
There’s actually a town of Budos, France that we drove through while we were on tour over there, and there’s a Budos Castle, Château De Budos. Actually, the negative release of that is on the backside of the Budos III album artwork.
Oh right—I saw one of the press release pictures had a picture of you guys in front of a castle.
Yeah that’s the Budos Castle. Our French tour manager knew about this ahead of time and told us we were taking a ‘very special trip’ one morning, and he wouldn’t tell us where we were going. He said there’d be naked women hanging from the trees on the side of the road, which got us excited, but it ended up just being a random town on the side of the road in southwestern France called Budos. Anyway, tangents aside, ‘Budos’ actually comes from a name that we used when we first started the band ‘Los Barbudos,’ which means ‘The Bearded Ones’ in Spanish. It sort of loosely referenced Fidel Castro’s revolutionary posse/baseball team, and that’s what we rolled with for a minute. Then it took on political connotations that we either just didn’t feel comfortable with or want to make part of our ‘thing.’ We’re not really communist revolutionaries you know—just a bunch of guys playing music from Staten Island playing music. We decided to just shorten the name and make it ‘Budos,’ which doesn’t really have any real meaning other than what it originally derived as, and coincidentally a town in south western France, and apparently a commune as well…
You guys are part of Daptone Records. Most of the Daptone stuff seems to be heavily influenced by the music of the 1960s. Do you ever feel like you’re revivalists?
It’s an influence of ours, but we’re just making the kind of music that we like and sounds good to us. For Budos, we’re trying to jump a decade or two, and get into more 70s-influenced stuff right now, and make it our own.
I think you stand out from other groups on the label because of that and it seems like you’ve explored some new territory since the beginning of the band. I’m a fan of Sun Ra, and it doesn’t seem like too big of leap from what you guys do. You’ve got the right instruments—do you think you’ll ever venture in to Sun Ra territory?
I hear that totally, and I think some of it can translate, but I think his stuff is a little too in outer space for us. We’re not trying to go into the jazz realm much at this point, as much as rock. We used to do a cover by this band Cairo Jazz Band that sounded more like some east African funk that went more in the Sun Ra direction, so I can hear that similarity. But we’re not blasting off to outer space anytime soon.
Cairo Jazz band, didn’t Soul Jazz re-issue that record? I feel like I have that record somewhere…
Yeah it’s definitely possible.
Speaking of labels, there’s a lot of really great re-issue labels out there right now like Numero Group, Soul Jazz, and Now Again. Do you have any favorite labels, reissue or otherwise?
Classics like Motown, Chess, Stax—all that stuff. What’s that new label that in the past year put out a bunch of Nigerian psych rock? Oh, Soundway.
Are there any other old gems you could turn me on to?
Are you familiar with this old orchestral group called Orchestre Poly-rythmo? I think they’re from Benin, which is next door to Nigeria. They’re pretty smokin’ stuff. And one of our biggest influences that kind of come through on our second album was ‘Ethiopiques’—that whole compilation series of Ethiopian jazz. It was put out by a French label called called Buda Musique. And there’s like 25 volumes or so out now.
You guys originally started off as a straight afro-beat group?
When we were Los Barbudos, it was mostly straightforward Afro beat.
So you must be big fans of Fela Kuti. Have you seen the Broadway musical Fela?
Yeah definitely—we know the guys that play in the band. It’s kinda funny that they made a Broadway musical out of it. It’s one of those things that on one hand is cool and on the other doesn’t necessarily make sense. At the end of the day I think it’s a good thing, but it’s definitely at first glace a little bit of a head scratcher.
Have you ever considered running for political office or starting a polygamist colony like Fela?
No, but not necessarily opposed to the later. It would be cool to set up our own state within New York City, where all we did was smoke pot, write music and have sex with a lot of women, but I don’t know if that will ever happen, and I don’t know if that should be printed or not, some of us have girlfriends and they might not appreciate it!
Fela was influenced politically by the Black Panther party in the US, and I always stare at an Emory Douglas poster on my wall when I listen to your band. Do you feel like your music carries any of the political spirit from early afro-beat?
Yeah—Antibalas, for example.  They’re good friends of ours and definitely influenced us early on. I feel like they have a pretty explicit political message, and I think we don’t have as much of one partially because we don’t have lyrics and it’s hard to convey a political message without lyrics there to do it. We’ve done an Obama event and a couple of other political things, but we don’t consider ourselves to be on the front lines of any political music movement.
What was it like to play the Getty?
It was cool. I’d never been there before, and it was quite a structure to take in while playing. It was pretty sweet there up in the hills overlooking the city. We had a great time and it was actually our first time playing in LA. And Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, our label mates, were playing the Hollywood Bowl that same weekend so it was kind of a big label thing and it was awesome.
I was reading that J. Paul Getty’s grandson was kidnapped in Italy in the early 70s, and held for a $17 million ransom. Long story short, Getty refused to pay until they started mailing body parts and ultimately negotiated them down to $2 million. Have you ever played anywhere run by someone as blood thirsty as J. Paul Getty?
No. Wow, that’s pretty crazy.
How would the Budos Band negotiate with kidnappers?
I think we’re big enough that hopefully we could take down the kidnappers ourselves.

THE BUDOS BAND ON FRI., JAN. 14 AT THE EL REY, 5515 WILSHIRE BLVD, LOS ANGELES. 8 PM / $19.50 / ALL AGES. THE BUDOS III OUT NOW ON DAPTONE RECORDS. VISIT THE BUDOS BAND AT THEBUDOS.COM.

NO AGE, SOFT PACK, OFF!, DANGERS, CRYSTAL ANTLERS, BIG FREEDIA, LA SERA, LOVELY BAD THINGS, AND TIJUANA PANTHERS ON SATURDAY DEC. 11TH AT THE GLASS HOUSE, 200 WEST SECOND STREET, POMONA AND ALADDIN JR., 3161 NORTH GAREY AVENUE, POMONA. 7:00PM/ $12/ ALL AGES.