Photo by Dan Collins

Bomba Estereo on the main Coachella stage were playing the best midday Cumbia it might ever be my pleasure to hear.  Though I wouldn’t have minded more of their psychedelic flourishes, singer Liliana Saumet’s enthusiasm was infectious and invigorating, and reminded me in no small part of Drew Denny’s exclamatory “yips!” in Big Whup.

But I found myself gravitating over to the Outdoor stage to catch Here We Go Magic.  There’s something about a red Fender bass that just screams summer (maybe because it’s the same ruby red as the vintage low-riders that appear in Hollenbeck Park every June).

Here We Go Magic by Dan Collins

Once again, here was a band proving that moody vocals over bright chimey reverb compliment hot sunny days more than ice cream and sweaty nooners.   A couple of the songs seemed a bit shaky: maybe the band was feeling a little nervous, or maybe there were sound issues, and it would be hard to beat Warpaint from basically the same slot the day before.  But Here We Go Magic was making the summer spread before me like warm butter on toast—and it’s not even Easter yet!

I headed back to the press tent to prepare for some interviews, just in time to be VIP side when Gogol Bordello hit the stage.  And this is where you, fair reader, and I will likely part.  Because unlike you, I find Gogol Bordello to be the most overrated, unimaginative band to hit the big time since Phantom Planet.  Have you ever seen Michel Basquiat in the seminal post-punk film Downtown 81 and wondered why a movie about graffiti and No Wave would feature three whole songs of Kid Creole and the Coconuts?  Gogol Bordello is the exact same thing for the Kill Your Idols crowd.  They’re a band that somehow conned their way into the No Wave platform through spectacular hucksterism, and history will leave them on the dust heap with the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies.

I’ll admit, their acoustic guitar and accordion did seem to fit the 4^th of July atmosphere of mojitos on the green in the VIP area.  And everyone else, from my fellow L.A. RECORD writers to the staff at the press tent to the bartenders, all loved this shit.  But if you closed your eyes and couldn’t see all the leg kicks and moustaches, you’d basically be hearing ska punk with a little accordion, and I’ve heard better from the Red Elvises on the 3^rd Street Promenade.  I love gypsy music, love polka, love Klezmer, love punk, love international folk music, and even love ska, but the “Hey look I’m foreign!” shtick of Gogol Bordello is a scam to hide the fact that they have no artistry or ideas whatsoever aside from becoming actors and colluding with Les Claypool.

But maybe I’m a hypocrite, because I left Erykah Badu’s lovely set early to see a child actress and her boyfriend play country music, and I loved it!  Part of me felt dragged towards Jenny and Johnny at the Mojave because of seeing Jenny Lewis in movies like The Wizard, and part of it was because she has the most gorgeous smile, dammit (I can’t help being white)!

Jenny Lewis by Dan Collins

Jenny and Johnny by Dan Collins

But the main reason was that Johnny and Jenny’s 2010 CD, I’m Having Fun Now, was the type of album you want to like but feel like you just can’t get into, and I was hoping their live set would show me the way.  Instead, I came away really respecting Jenny Lewis as a performer, but appreciated more the contributions from boy-toy Johnathan Rice (his song “We’re All Stuck Out in the Desert and We’re Gonna Die” was the anthem of the fucking WEEKEND), and slide guitarist Farmer Dave, who gave the whole shebang more of a country feel than any Jenny Lewis project I’d ever heard, including that tease she pulled with the Watson Twins.  True, this wasn’t country, or even squarely alt-country, so much as it was indie rock with a twang.  But the best-kept secret of country music is that it’s the musical genre that pays the least attention to its traditions: otherwise, we’d all be wearing Jimmy Rogers caps.  And there were definitely times when Farmer Dave’s crazy slide and Lewis’s voice, which somehow echoed both Jessi Colter and the Divinyls chick, approached a haunting exuberance that was a thousand times more country than whatever Toby Keith video I saw while bowling last week.

Jenny Lewis and Dave Scher by Dan Collins

Now, if you’ve never been to Coachella, you probably aren’t aware of how odd the teeming masses of people are.  Columnist Albert Ching sees the positive in this, and I felt that, too—but when I again and again found myself surrounded by tens of thousands of people splayed out on blankets, going out of their minds on ecstasy, with glow sticks around their necks and  LED lights strapped to the tips of their fingers, dancing HARD to rock bands I have only heard once in passing on KROQ, well, that’s a form of soul-sucking loneliness that’s hard to endure. That’s why all weekend for me had been a lead-up to see Wire.

Wire by Dan Collins

I had seen the Buzzcocks live in recent years, and they were one of the best live bands I had EVER seen.  And since Wire was even more agro and had even MORE of a snarl and was even MORE hip of a pivotal punk influence, I expected equal vivacity and icepick-to-the-heart bombast, with some Situationism and political-is-personal rage thrown in.

Wire by Dan Collins

What I got instead was a gaggle of tired old men who seemed to go through the motions like pack animals, with only long-haired youngster Matt Simms on guitar to prod them into anything like the vivaciousness of “Three Girl Rhumba,” which they may or may not have played, since I was incapable of staying for the whole show.

Instead, I took a plate of delicious vegan thai noodles out in the direction of the Outdoor stage, where Big Audio Dynamite was playing.  I am only roughly familiar with their oeuvre, and most of that is from hearing Big Audio Dynamite II as a kid, which wasn’t so good—basically Mick Jones sampling his old Clash material and writing songs about ravers that you couldn’t rave to.  Well, fuck it, I should have been here instead of at Wire, because B.A.D. was G.O.O.D., even if I couldn’t really get close enough to see more than the big projection screens due to the dense throngs of folks captivated by this performance. I’ve gotta say, the Coachella video capturers were getting great angles, and the chemistry between Mick Jones and Don Letts was contagious even halfway down the polo field.  Well played, old men.

There was a solid throng of glow-lit children stretched from the Outdoor stage to the Coachella stage, with no division, and I almost literally waded through them in semi-darkness in an attempt to see Animal Collective.  I couldn’t see them, but I did hear them: a lot of the time they did in fact sound like prescient geniuses, though at other times they sounded exactly like the New Radicals’ “You Get What You Give.”  And so I figured it was time to see the London Suede.

The London Suede by Dan Collins

And I chose right.  I remember these gentlemen from the nineties as being dandies in foppy glam wear, and though on the Mojave stage they dressed all in black (more or less looking EXACTLY like the Riverboat Gamblers had at SXSW, they still made up for it in triumphant poses and an excellent usage by singer Brett Anderson of the little monitor platform at stage center: maybe playing in a tent was “camp” enough, ha ha!  Anderson is a handsome man—I’d tried and failed to be gay in my youth, but watching his face, which was lithe yet beefy, brown, and with veins popping, like well-marbled pork, I honestly felt like maybe I understood what I’d been missing with this whole dating-dudes thing.

And the energy just kept up!  With the Animal Collective and Arcade Fire fans distracted by the main stage, we had a core of enthusiastic Brit-pop fans to adore and roar along for the ride, crowded but not too crowded.  Was Suede now the best band of the weekend? Surely each song, from “Killing of a Flash Boy” to a fuck-me-gently rendition of “The Drowners,” was a classic, played better here than in most live footage I’d seen of any Suede era.  And when they slowed things down for “The Asphalt World,” I was touched by the sentiment and the melodic bassline, yet also a bit amused by the lyrics about supplying a girl “with Ecstasy.”  Has Brett Anderson looked out into a Coachella audience to see how unromantic Ecstasy use can be?  I wonder if this is how all drug trends start—one day you’re floating around with slurred giggles drooling out of your mouth on a brand new pill, and the next day the frat boys are spiking their dates’ drinks with it.  Arg.

My crew and I headed over to see Daedelus at the Gobi tent, but things were running behind schedule (shocker!) and Raphael Saadiq was on stage, which was AMAZING.

Raphael Saadiq by Dan Collins

This cat can fucking dance, and he wears the same pants I got at a thriftstore and wore to Seventies day in 1993 (I’m talking serious Jack Nicklaus).  He and his band were in final call, let’s-pull-out-the-crazy-on-stage-antics mode, so I didn’t see as much tight soul as I did wailing, audience-fluffing, and balloon dodging (a yellow balloon somehow followed him around the stage like a lost spherical puppy).  But fuck it, another great set by another great artist!  I’d almost completely forgotten that Gogol Bordello even existed.

And then Saadiq ended, and the buildup for Daedelus’ set began.  Normally there’s not a lot to do to set up someone like Mr. Darlington—just let him plug his Monome into an iMac and you’re ready to bleep.  But no, this time Daedelus had something special, and pretty soon we saw him wheel out three huge walls of crazy-looking mirror segments attached to little hydraulic motors.  Theoretically this was called the “ARCHIMEDES” and he’d built it at his parents’ house or some such thing, but would it work?

Indeed it would!

Daedelus by Dan Collins

Now, I’m not part of the Plug Research/Daedelus cult that some people fling themselves into madly, partially because D-Dog and I have a long personal history that involves USC, house fires, and dublab: I think of him less as a guy on stage and more as the dude I used to play Bust a Move with at TV Cafe in college while waiting for our $1.95 beans and rice.  I just can’t idolize him, but I do adore him, and I loved seeing the thought processes crawl across his face as he strung all his disparate elements together via the Moneme into a mad genius concoction (my favorite sample being from Crystal Waters), the occasional incorrect Monome punch revealed by a bemused smile or a lick on his thumb.  He even did something that could in lesser hands signal the death of the beat—a switch to waltz time, and back again, without losing one dancer!  And let’s not forget the simple bravery of adding Bjork and Smashing Pumpkins into the mix.

Daedelus by Dan Collins

It was such a great set that my crew stayed until the end of Coachella’s evening—a bitter mistake that meant hours stuck in the parking lot going nowhere, while we watched strangers walk to their cars with odd-looking balloons in their hands.  Why would anyone buy a soggy plastic ball thingie with an LED light in the middle?  Only later did we hear that Arcade Fire had dropped their balls into a gleeful crowd while we’d been looking at our reflections in Daedelus’s wall of wizardry.  But who cares!  We were just gleeful to have seen so many great artists and that we could catch up on some sleep for the long day ahead of us Sunday.

—Dan Collins

Entrance Band “I Want You”
(out April 16 on Black Tent Press)

The Entrance Band has done a mighty cover of The Troggs’ “I Want You,” which will be released on April 16th as a vinyl single for Record Store Day through Black Tent Press. The B-side is a cover of Love’s “A House Is Not a Motel.” Until then, Los Angeles has a chance to hear the trio do these tunes live during Entrance’s March residency, Thursdays at the Satellite in Silverlake. It ain’t free. Before getting too bummed out about the $10 cover, look at the word “Entrance” again and say it enough times that it seems like you’ve never said it before. Now you’ve forgotten what you were upset about and can go on with your day merrily.

Did you miss Sun Araw, The Allah Lahs, and Afghan Hounds? Bummer. But there are still three shows left:
March 17th – **acoustic show** WHITE FENCE and FARMER DAVE SCHER
March 24th – JEFFERTITTI’S NILE and MY PET SADDLE
March 31st – BIG SEARCH and MATT BALDWIN

L.A. RECORD’s been at pretty much every music festival this summer – New LA Folk Fest, Power of the Riff, Posse on Broadway, Buskerfest, Sunset Junction, FYF Fest, Waved Out  – but our favorite to date was yesterday’s Abbot Kinney Festival in Venice. We partnered with dublab to curate the Brooks Ave. stage with a 100% dublab/L.A. RECORD all-star alumni line-up: John Carpenter, Farmer Dave Scher, Puro Instinct, Crystal Antlers, Abe Vigoda, and Dam-Funk & Master Blazter, with DJs Chris Ziegler and Dan Collins (L.A. RECORD), Ben Knight and Mega Farmer D (dublab), and Heather Gram (Calistonia Dreamin’). Besides being totally free, which is fantastic and rare in itself, Abbot Kinney Fest was so shockingly well-organized that I almost forgot that we were even at a festival. No lines? Sets starting on time? Manageable crowds? Lots of affordable food options? Amazing! Why aren’t they all like that?

— Lainna Fader

[View with PicLens]

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Wolfe’s presence summed up adorably at the Hotel Cafe. He was dressed for a cruise ship and has a nice beard. He introduced his new band tonight and they enhanced this tropical theme, fleshing out his rhythms. They’d be playing by the pool on the cruise, not in the lounge. There’s a big difference. He doesn’t need a band, but they sounded good. Even a grasshopper rubbing its feet together could add enough accompaniment to the in-your-ear sensation enhancing this Wolfe’s attack.

Jenny O kicked things off. She took us from insecurity to revelation of personal greatness, from her trembling opening notes and stuttering side chatter to the grander strong beauty in the songs she saved for last. She holds back. It seems she resists belting out when she obviously has the chops, but her message is scrawled somewhere in the tangled restraint. There’s a method to the quiet invitation. If you got a dime, she’s trying to collect some on kickstarter to pay for her new album.

Jenny sang some harmonies for Farmer Dave Scher later on. “You Pick Me Up” stands out as the tingly jam. It has a “Don’t Worry Be Happy” sensibility that eased the worrisome self-reflection induced by Henry Wolfe. Scher’s music takes you to the seashore but not necessarily out to water. It’s more for staring out at the vanishing point and feeling ok about things.

This night was nice and fancifully romantic all around, but some asshole out on Hollywood Blvd will plant your feet back on cold concrete reality. He sees a girl walking alone, as he passes by with five of his friends, and throws out one of those insulting flirtations—fusing a diss and a come-on for some smelly weenie compensating reason—”Damn, if I wasn’t so in love with myself I’d be after you, heffer.” And that’s the difference between beautiful music and real life.

—Daiana Feuer

illustration by Chris Sanchez

Is Mia Doi Todd better wrapped in scarves and knit socks or leopard print pants? She was a jungle cowgirl in these pants. Clothing is language and seeing her songs in denim spots and shiny animal face rather than the warm, soft cloak her music drapes around your ears, gave Todd a certain jungle cat ferocity—Playtime Mia if she were a Barbie. Surrounded by her friends, Becky Stark, Farmer Dave Scher, Jenny O, and Andres Renteria (percussion) and Hijikata Tatsumi (bass), and Michel Gondry—who watches, with a drink, smiling when he’s not corralling people to the stage or playing drums. By the end of night three, he’s drunker, wrangling his focus on the slit drums as the rhythm toyed with his pursuit. His nose makes him look curious all the time. Mia may have noticed his tipsiness, as she giggled watching him play. It’s Hallmark stuff. It’s best when someone like Mia Doi Todd is in love, as it fuels the nurturing instinct, and she pours her sweet stuff into songs of earth, morning bed touches, and world peace—her voice round as sunshine in a window turning from dark to light or light to dark—it’s sitting in the window staring at birds or the mailbox, very peaceful-like. The first time I heard Mia Doi Todd was at Tonalism, late on a cold, strange night, foggy with tea, after prolonged exposure to digital tones and wavering trees. Everything else had been about electronics, but Todd was there with bongos and a ukelele. Even in that strange setting, Big Sur mountainside at 1 am, she could take you out of your clothes for a dip in the “River Of Life.” A most epic song. Mia Doi Todd’s love song about world peace, and vice versa. All the rhymes with “ssion” at the end melt like oil to smooth on your soul ammunition, a call to arms for freedom (from oppression)…”Yes yes yes yes yes” whispered, mumbled, don’t know if she’s practicing mind control or meditating on justice, repeated until out of breath. It’s got a nice sound. She usually sings deep and low, as if speaking to whales, but tonight when she harmonized with Becky Stark, and two weeks ago when she sang in French—she filled her words with breath and scales, winding around notes on the path to a secret garden. About the guests: Becky Starks’ bangs reveal she’s whimsical but clever. She’s got lady power, swinging her gown, confident eyes. That’s what she gives off in her guitar songs. Jenny O harmonized with long shy bangs and raspy lisp softness. Farmer Dave Scher had the coolest instruments, a melodica, a lap guitar, and he held his microphone below his lips like a game show host. His music was casual yet epic, the way a surfer feels about the sea. He also evoked seals and seagulls, and The Police, David Byrne, and Beach Boys. He’s special, you can tell right away. And there was Aska. She plays how French pop feels and was backed by a dream team, Butchy Fuego (octopus, if we’re sticking to the sea theme) on drums and Corridor on bass and cello. Despite the rapture Mia Doi Todd and co. can inflict, the power of social wanking often clouds people’s better judgments. They pay money for a concert and spend the whole time trying to talk over the music. Someone’s got the music on loud, right? It’s not meant to hum in the background behind your cocktail party. So  a good old “Shut aaaaaaaahhhhp!” from Adanowsky can do it better than Mia Doi Todd trying to “shh, you guys…” She should have asked Adanowsky to stay near a mic for crowd control. The “Shut up!” command from this open-shirt-charm-popper seems to be something he enjoys when it comes from a sexy place, but not when the crowd sucks—when most are probably the bands’ friends. He didn’t twirl a lot at this show, but he did set up a makeshift cafe serenade using a rug as tablecloth and served wine to a lucky lady from the audience. Adanowsky’s appeared suddenly in all the cool places, demanding attention, and dancing, and sitting, and “quieeeeettt!,” speaking Spanish, French, English, and body language. I enjoy this kind of cocky entertainment, especially as it isn’t wearing a white jesus robe. Rather than starting a cult of the masses, Adanowsky seems like he’d happily take his conquests one on one, one night at a time. In the end, Mia Doi Todd’s residency was all about love, both in the bed and with the universe. —Daiana Feuer (words and photo)

Press release from Farmer Dave:

(((( News Flassssshhhhh )))))

There’s a musical expedition heading to Northern California the first week of November:

********* The Emerald Triangle Tour 2009 *********

Starring

* Andy Cabic * Farmer Dave Scher * Johnathan Rice * Jonathan Wilson

Living in Los Angeles fairly amazed by the results of the current Green Rush, and knowing the fertile regions of Northern California between San Francisco and Oregon to be bountiful this time of year, Farmer Dave Scher decided an investigation was in order. With the idea of getting to know more about that beautiful part of the state often referred to as The Emerald Triangle, Scher reached out to his musical friends Andy Cabic and the Jo(h)nathans Rice and Wilson about going on a musical trip to check the whole thing out, make new friends, and clear the way for future traveling and playing in the great Northern part of the state…

…. So now, a reality! Please join us for The Emerald Triangle Tour 2009, in which the Gentlemen combine musical forces to groove on Nature, the bountiful harvest, neighbors, family, friends, and friends-to-be, and most importantly, lay down some good sounds up in Northern California. Please pick a town or two and join them. Shoot to the stratosphere…..the sky’s the limit!

The Players

Andy Cabic is a San Franciscan who releases acclaimed records with his group Vetiver. The most recent, “Tight Knit”, is on the Sub Pop label from Seattle.

Johnathan Rice is a California resident by way of Virginia and Scotland who plays, writes, and sings. His self-titled releases “Trouble Is Real”, and “Further North”, are on Warner Records. Mr Rice also plays and sings with Jenny Lewis.

Farmer Dave Scher is from Southern California. He plays steel guitar and organ in the group Beachwood Sparks, and released the All Night Radio record on Sub Pop. His new album “Flash Forward to the Good Times” was released by Kemado Records of New York this year…

Jonathan Wilson is a singer, writer, guitar player, guitar builder, producer, and all-around steezer. His records “Frankie Ray”, and “Gentle Spirit” can be found on Pretty and Black Records…

Show Dates
Sun Nov. 1: Santa Barbara, CA — Soho
Mon Nov. 2: San Francisco, CA — The Independent
Wed Nov 4: Nevada City, CA — The Nevada Theatre
Fri Nov 6: Sonoma, CA — Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) fundraiser
Sat Nov 7: Caspar, CA — Caspar Inn

Musical Links
http://www.myspace.com/emeraldtriangletour

Download: Farmer Dave Scher “Bablone Nights”

(from Flash Forward To The Good Times out now on Kemado)

Farmer Dave Scher is almost the Chris Darrow of his day—he’s got the cosmic aplomb and the cheerful versatility to put him in collaborations with Elvis Costello, Jenny Lewis, Nobody and the Mystic Chords of Memory, dios, Miranda Lee Richards and more. He now lives in Venice, where he listens to KXLU—where he famously used to DJ—and where he is basking in the happy after-effects of his new solo album Flash Forward To The Good Times. This interview by Thomas McMahon.

Did you consider having the album be just ‘Farmer Dave,’ or did you need to have your last name on there to distinguish from other Farmer Daves?
Farmer Dave Scher: It just landed. It’s weird if you have a nickname—like the ‘Farmer’ nickname has been around since I was up at KXLU. I think that the last name sort of landed in the present a little more. Sort of like tethered the balloon somewhat.
Do you still listen to KXLU?
Farmer Dave Scher: Yeah—now that I’m living in Venice, I hear it much better and I’m excited. I couldn’t hear it when I was in Highland Park, and I was also on the road a lot the last few years. It kind of was like coming full circle to be able to hear it because that time at the station was pretty much what blew my mind—got everything going the way it is.
You give Long Beach a couple of shout-outs on the album.
Farmer Dave Scher: Yeah, I’m from there. I went to the high school downtown—Long Beach Polytechnic. Snoop Dogg was there, just a few years ahead. Sublime were playing in backyards at keg parties. And so it’s definitely always been on my mind, the LBC and all that. This particular record, I wanted to have a little fun like that—shout things out. The last record I made was a little more under the microscope, so this one I wanted to have a little fun with it like that. But, yeah, I’m stoked on Long Beach. I think I’m going to go play down there a bit. My friends have asked me to do something at the end of September. And then I used to work at Fingerprints down there when I was a young guy, so I might go play there, too. Either way, I like that city. When I would come home from tours the last few years, I would go there to chill out. It’s closer to beaches with good waves, and my family is there, and it’s relaxing. And it has good clubs and bands, and it’s happening a little bit.
Another place you mention is San Miguel de Allende.
Farmer Dave Scher: That’s in Guanajuato, Mexico, and my dad lives there. But if you ever look into it, it’s a beautiful town, and old colonial town that’s still pretty intact. Especially at the center of the town—it’s got the plaza and the church and the cobblestone. There’s also a lot of American expatriates there. A lot of GIs after World War II went down there and studied art or just chilled out. My grandfather went to Instituto Allende and studied fine arts for a bit in the ’60s. And then my dad moved to Cabo San Lucas and ran a boat, kind of like a catamaran that gave people margaritas or something. And then he moved down to San Miguel, and he met a lady and got married, so I have a rad family there. I put in as much time there as I can. When I was playing with Interpol, we played in Mexico City, and my family all rolled down to that. So that was exciting. I know there’s a lot of cool stuff going on in Mexico City, so I’m hoping to get into that. I’d also like to make some of these songs into Spanish language. But I kind of want to do it the right way. I think I’m going to go down over Thanksgiving and work with a couple of my cousins. My cousin and my aunt are actually these hip young ladies, so I think they can help me.
Are you talking about doing the whole album in Spanish?
Farmer Dave Scher: At least a few of the songs. I don’t think all of them are built for it, but I know a couple of them would be really fun. And here we get some records once in a while where people are using English as a second language, you know? Even ABBA or Shakira or Nico. I think it could be a little bit charming if my Spanish isn’t perfect. But yo puedo hablar Español un poquito—you know, I can do it.
Would you say that ‘We Have a Way’ has a sort of Motown vibe?
Farmer Dave Scher: It does. I had some friends over to visit. One of them was ‘Z’ [Elizabeth Berg], who has that band the Like. She sang a little bit on a song, and then when I played her that, she pointed out that I absorbed a lot of vibes from my neighbors. This part of Venice I’m in, the family next door is African-American. They’ve lived there for fifty years. I wasn’t surfing as much when I made the record in the winter, but I’d ride my bike every day. And I think that they were always playing really good soul music, and I think it gave that song a little extra of that mood than I had thought at the beginning. I didn’t want to copy anything specific. 92.3 has that guy Art Laboe, who plays really good soul music at night, and then he does the dedications. I think that might have spun it a little bit. Aside from loving Motown a lot, the musicians on that song are also really proficient. If I had played the instruments myself, it probably wouldn’t have made it to that destination.
Was ‘Our Love Is a Wave’ inspired by a wedding?
Farmer Dave Scher: Yeah! I guess it’s like a composite of two different weddings, but it’s actually made for a third. I first started to think about that for my friend’s wedding a long time ago, but I never finished the words, so it sat there. Then other friends got married on a cliff by the ocean in Malibu, and me and the two violinists who played on my record, Paz and Ana Lenchantin—Paz is on the cover of L.A. RECORD right now; she’s in Entrance. So Paz, Ana and I were playing in a little trio at this wedding, so when they walked off, we played this really sad music. That was the second wedding. And then a third wedding up in Big Sur, also on a cliff. They got lucky—there was no fog, a full view north to south, like, panorama. So I started thinking about that and also the fairy tale aspect. I’m single as hell right now, but someday I feel like I’ll be ready to do that. That song is my kind of hopes for that mood, you know?
In one song on this album and a few of your earlier songs, you’ve mentioned ‘ghost dance.’ Are you referring to the Native American ritual?
Farmer Dave Scher: Yeah. From what I’ve learned about those ghost dances and what I imagined was just a lot of motion, transcendence—it seemed to be their last hope to make it to a new plane. But I get motion and color when I think about it. When I just think about it, I can hear sounds. Kind of like a little maelstrom. If you’ve ever really stirred up your chi or just tried to get something really cooked up, you get in this kind of frenzied spot. The Whirling Dervishes did it; the Sufi mystics would get into that. A lot of cultures—even Americans, even a rave. If you dance enough, you get to another spot. To me, the idea of a ghost dance is just even a little more fantastic. I feel like there’s something that’s hard for me to describe to you that’s just pushing on the edges of everything that you consider a daily reality. Even that scene in that Doors movie when he’s got the kid in the car and he looks out the window, and they put the Indian music in there, and they drive past an accident or something. I’m just trying to figure out a way to explain that mood I get. I start to hear these kind of sounds. And I just like the idea of it, of this particular kind of a dance. And I’m actually making another song about it with the Beachwood Sparks guys. We got together, and we’re writing.
What do you guys have in the works?
Farmer Dave Scher: Well, I think that we’ve got a good shot to make a record. It took a while, but I think that everybody’s in good form. I went up to Santa Cruz and wrote with Chris [Gunst] and Brent [Rademaker], and we hope to take the ideas and get them ready. I’d like to record at the end of the year if possible, but we’re taking it comfortably.
How has the music scene in L.A. changed over the years that you’ve playing?
Farmer Dave Scher: When I got out of college and moved to Echo Park for the first time, it was 1998, so I’d say that I’m not really a fit candidate to say how it’s changed. Because I think a lot of people at my age probably don’t go to shows the same. I used to be out at Spaceland every night, and when I was in my 20s, I was completely steeped in it. And then Beachwood Sparks—the version that we formed eventually that went off and started touring, and then you start to notice when you come home maybe you don’t want to get as involved, you know? It’s like different levels of activity. So I don’t think I really know a lot of what’s going on. But I will say that I’ve been on the road for about five years playing the hired-gun kind of a thing, and I would like to plug in more again and see for myself. I’d like to get more involved in a lot of the projects that are going on. I would say that dublab for me is really rad. I like to see the events that they’re teamed up in. This Silent Movie Theatre that I’m going to play at is very exciting. It seems like a chance to gather a lot of really interesting visual media and just have another approach to what a concert should be.
Are you still selling the Hot Nuts?
Farmer Dave Scher: I hung up that business when I started playing. But I had it based on an aunt’s recipe. And Danny Preston from Rainbow Arabia used to run a supermarket up in Malibu at Point Dume. So I’d go up there and use an FDA-approved oven, and I sold them at the Echo, Little Joy, Sea Level Records and a few other spots. And I sold them to the catering for that show The O.C. [Laughs.] That was a good one. So, yeah, now that I’m home and have a little more free time, I think I definitely have to revive the nuts.

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