The thumb piano is a wondrous object, simple and hypnotizing. It’s like a handheld video game that hooks up to your soul. With this instrument, Konono No 1 creates spellbinding dance music. Seeing the Congolese band in person is monumental enough, and yet Konono was only 1 of 6 acts at the KCRW World Festival.

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Introducing someone to a band you know backwards and forwards is almost like watching someone lose their virginity. Awkward, confused, they make funny noises and shy remarks; their eyes widen as they try following different rhythms; a little sweat breaks on their upper lip; their hips quake. “It makes me feel warm…There’s a lot of them…” My friend’s simple statements suggested she was deeply involved in revelation. “I feel love.” She also commented, “It sounds like Simba being born…”

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L.A. darlings Local Natives have had a big year—a UK tour, a record deal, and a road trip with Fool’s Gold and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. Bassist Andy Hamm stepped outside on a chilly afternoon in Seattle to share with us some of the highlights. This interview by Amber Hollingsworth.

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The other day I was at the bar, telling this lady about the show, and she asked me to compare seeing Edward Sharpe to a dessert. What kind of dessert would it be? I answered pretty quick that it was a caramel apple, something kinda natural and old fashioned, a little over the top, definitely delicious, easy to share, but not always the most filling.

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Download: Best Coast “When I’m With You” [audio:http://larecord.com/audio/bestcoast-whenimwithyou.mp3] (from the “When I’m With You” 7″ produced by Fool’s Gold Lewis Pesacov and available now from Black Iris) And Best Coast is playing with Gowns, Tearist and 60 Watt Kid tonight at the Echo! (and an MP3 of Best Coast’s “Make You Mine” available here!)

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paul rodriguez | styling by ton y van van Download: Fool’s Gold + Mariah Carey “Surprise Emotions” (Wallpaper mash-up) [audio:http://larecord.com/audio/foolsgoldmariahcarey-emotions.mp3] Eric Frederic of Wallpaper. dropped Mariah Carey’s “Emotions” into Fool’s Gold‘s “Surprise Hotel” to create this little beauty, the first in a bi-weekly series of releases from Wallpaper.’s latest project, SiSTRS from different MiSTERS. From [...]

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Live, Fool’s Gold turns a room upside down with sexy hip-rolling, but on the recording the details pull dainty flower petals from peduncle. Chanting and drums support the sunshine on “The World Is All There Is,” urging it to peek over the smoggy mountains of L.A. just as it does in Africa and China and Brazil. “Poseidon” evokes some Far East feelings before “Yam Lo Moshech” inconspicuously strolls over to Stevie Wonder-land, then unfurls into the stormy, horny “Night Dancing.” (I mean “horny” like the brass kind. Okay, the kinky kind too. Sex at this intensity is awesome.)

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Even in a jumpsuit with enough pockets for the apocalypse, no one is fully equipped for this weekend. People will lose flutes in teepees and see alligators in guitar-neck shadows chomping on the heads of musicians; and emerge from Pioneertown alleys on Sunday morning without pants.

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Finding the teepee involved receiving intentionally vague directions from two groups of kids, navigating a sudden neighborhood with way too many lawn ornaments, and sneaking into someone’s backyard via a labyrinthine system of wooden gates I opened by tugging on bits of fishing wire tied into little loops. Inside the teepee we found Matt as well as Ed Sharpe (“Has anyone seen my metal flute?!! Who took my magical flute?!”) and a pack of orgasmic chickies in face paint.

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