L.A. RECORD PRESENTS THE PREMIERE OF MUSIC VIDEO “ETCHASKETCH TREES” BY ERNEST GONZALES FROM BEEN MEANING TO TELL YOU, THE FIRST FULL-LENGTH ALBUM RELEASED BY LOCAL LABEL FRIENDS OF FRIENDS…

We travel inside a pretty girl with long eyelashes in the snow. She’s in the woods. Her eyes are closed. The creek trickles nearby. A breeze shakes little red berries on a tree branch. You can hear nature sounds, but this is what it feels like: “Etchasketch Trees” by Ernest Gonzales playing as the girl, wearing less clothes, dances, maybe floating, behind colorful strings and wisps of smoke in a dark interior space.

This music video, directed by Air—remember her Pity Party vampire cupcake?—truly captures the essence of Gonzales. The songs on his new album, Been Meaning To Tell You, electronically describe or mimic the sensation of blissful moments. Bleeps and bloops come together through cinematic instrumental songs. “Etchasketch Trees” could very well be what this Persian beauty feels when she’s surrounded by snow.

We know the dancer is Persian because Air—aka director/editor Ariana Natale—told us. Her name is Nasim Haroun Mahdavi, and her moves were choreographed by Rani Welch. In the spirit of the Friends Of Friends label’s love for collaboration, Natale decided it was the perfect project to team up with the dancer.

Natale also describes zoning out on church television behind the scenes and some of the inspiration for her video:

“I knew I wanted to do something having to do with meditation because his first album is called Self Awakening, and I’ve been getting into that recently. I saw this installation in New York of a string piece and it looked like colorful energy to me so I had that in my mind when I heard Been Meaning To Tell You. The buzzy abstract sounds in the track reminded me of the energy in the installation and then we worked a dance around that. The whole process was as planned as we could make it, but there was a lot of spontaneous moments while filming where we’d have to tweak the dance or invent new angles for the camera, and it was super challenging to figure out how to edit the dancing.

The song is very cinematic so I wanted to give it a narrative framework in the video, a little opening and closer. We shot it in my grandparents photo studio in Brooklyn and threw their lives into upheaval for a week, which was fun. My DP closed her finger in the car door. That was cute. My grandparents’ were watching lots of church and Jeopardy in the other room. At one point we could hear weird Latin chanting when we were filming that string thing in the morning, lying in the middle of it. That was trippy.”

When Tim “Terrorbird” said there’d be new Rainbow Arabia songs and new Hecuba haircuts at this show, I blushed, “Hecuba Haircuts?!!” —Wow, a lot of them hairs was snipped. No bodysuit (Jerry) or wife beater (Tom) on these bods tonight. Instead, closed collar black long-sleeve shirts and matching sweatshop slippers, a lack of facial hair not framing some wide-open blue orbs—the prison camp high fashion twins thing going on can only be a metaphor for the great suffering of love for art. Or art for love. Or sacrifice inverting beauty and dang. No-eyebrow minimalism.

After Hecuba titillated mind, Rainbow Arabia got body shaking. Body hopped around a bonfire howling after keyboard yelps and cowbell rhythms. Body drifted to Caribbean seas and African deserts and colorful nonexistent places both sandy and wet to swing from trees. Are we not all creatures of the world? Rainbow’s manipulating “non-American” sounds into “American” dance structures stems from a nourishing place. What is it about their style that makes body so excited? The search for an answer continues.

Hecuba and Rainbow were meat and veggies in a DJ sandwich—which placed them comfortably in a rarely met (but fitting) context for them, a dance party. Ghosts On Tape and Lazer Sword were brought in by Friends Of Friends to celebrate the label’s ongoing collabo series. (The newest release is a Larytta/Bauchap split.) Ghosts On Tape’s samba-merengue-house beats had four people in the audience wiping the floor on their knees, booties whirling. It made me nostalgic for South Florida’s club scene, except without the thong contest. The bass hitting my limbs was a massage chair set on chill-out. Lazer Sword later capped the night. Tall and shorty tapped and swerved samples as if one mind floated before their eyes dictating the moves of a 4-handed beat monster. They operate heavy machinery like scientists or construction workers carving a shape with every twist and drop. At first I wondered if “lazer sword” was a penis thing, a man thing, but now I think it’s more of a video game thing, and the guys’ controllers grant them 360-3D-holographic manipulation. Racing against the electro clock to save the universe.

—Daiana Feuer (words and photo)

[View with PicLens]

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Download: Rainbow Arabia “Haunted Hall”

(from Kabukimono out now on Manimal)

Download: Hecuba “Miles Away”

(from Paradise out now on Manimal Vinyl and available from L.A RECORD)

Thanks to good ol’ Lazy Brow, L.A. RECORD has ONE PAIR of tickets to give away to tomorrow’s FRIENDS OF FRIENDS show at the Echo! The first person to tell us how they are friends of friends (or friends of friends of friends, or even friends of friends of friends of friends!) of anyone playing on this bill get the tickets! Email fortherecord [at] larecord.com with your full name and we’ll set you up!

—Greg Garabedian

Filmed by Joshua Gibson at the Friends of Friends show at the Echoplex Thursday—thanks to Lazy Brow for the tip!

Download: Friends of Friends in ’09 Podcast

1. Ernest Gonzales “Dancing in the Snow” Been Meaning to Tell You out in October!
2. Daedelus “C’est Super” Friends of Friends Volume 1 OUT NOW
3. Daedelus “C’est Super” (Michna Remix) Friends of Friends Remixed out 7/28
4. Jogger “Nice Tights” (Nosaj Thing Remix) Friends of Friends Remixed out 7/28
5. Jogger “Nice Tights” Friends of Friends Volume 1 OUT NOW
6. Larytta “You Got Nothing” Friends of Friends Volume 2 out in August
7. Ernest Gonzales “Self-Awakening” (Take aka Sweatson Klank cover) Been Meaning to Tell You out in October!
8. Daedelus “LA Nocturn” Friends of Friends Volume 1 OUT NOW
9. Ernest Gonzales “Self-Awakening” Been Meaning to Tell You out in October!

L.A. impresario Lazy Brow started the Friends of Friends label this spring with the intent of letting one musician pick another friend to make a split release with, and then inviting in another visual artist to make a compact little package of goodwill. For the debut release, L.A.’s Daedelus tapped actual longtime friends Jogger (who back Daedelus and Laura Darlington in the Long Lost) to share the record—which happens to be their first official release. They also included dublab-friendly L.A. art duo Kozyndan, who have done fantastic illustration for (of course) Daedelus as well as Weezer and the Postal Service. The release show for Friends of Friends’ debut record—available as a t-shirt, an idea recently echoed by Mos Def—will be tonight at the Echoplex with a pre-party at Turntable Lab. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

How and why did Daedelus get to be the very first ‘friend of friends’? What makes him so well-suited to the label’s first release?
Lazy Brow: He’s one of the nicest guys in the world and without a doubt one of my favorite friends in music. When I brought up the idea of starting a label, he was the first one to push me. Without him, I’d still be twiddling my thumbs.
You’ve called him a ‘hero’ as well as a friend—what’s a particularly heroic moment in your relationship with Daedelus?
The sheer honesty he seems to run with. He works all the time and always keeps a happy vibe. It’s infectious—I wish I could leave people saying how nice a guy I am like he does!!
Your first artists are Kozyndan—what made you pick them as well? And what suits them to work with Daedelus?
Daedelus and Jogger actually invited KnD. I wanted the musicians i was working with to really believe in the art so I had them bring on their homies.
When was the last time the five of you were in a room together that wasn’t to make this release? What was happening? Where did the night end up?
I’m not sure we’ve all been in the same room? Kinda the beauty of the project is how it’s grown and expanded from a simple idea to a reality. Thursday night at the release party will probably be the first time—so come find out what happens then!
You mentioned that these are all L.A. people—why was staying local so important for a first release?
It’s just about working with close folks and being able to support the release. Funny though—the next one is a bunch of folks from Switzerland so it’ll be the complete opposite situation.
What do you think of Mos Def picking up on the t-shirt-is-the-album idea? Do you think this is where digital music is going?
I always knew people were going to have to adopt new release models. Just conceding to ‘music being free’ is just kinda lazy to me. It’s time for everyone to THINK about the people they want to buy their shit. If you do and really consider the things they may want and not what you want to give, then we really have the chance at re-valuing music and its consumption.
Who will be the next set of friends? And the next?
Larytta is the Swiss duo i referred to earlier. They invited their friend Bauchamp to do the other half of the music and Tatiana Rihs to do the art. Their Difficult Fun record was on top of my list last year so I was really really happy when they agreed to do FoF Volume 2. Everything’s been turned in so look out for it in August!
At what point will you have totally lost control of this project? And how will you feel about that?
I’m not worried about it at all, really!
Who is the ultimate friend you’d like to include? Like the other end of this long set of links—where would you like FoF to end up?
Hopefully it’s a never ending project! To me FoF is really just an expression of new ideas. The whole model we used for this first release will go away whether it be the way people are invited or the T-shirts. We’ll be changing this ish up to keep it interesting! Now when it comes to the ultimate friend, there is a HUGE list because I’m a music fan in general. To name a few: Erlend Oye, Fourtet, Matias Aguayo, Tunng, Mount Kimbie, Morgan Geist/Metro Area, Panda Bear, Studio, In Flagranti, Department of Eagles—too much good stuff out there!

DAEDELUS WITH PEANUT BUTTER WOLF, JOGGER AND MEXICANS WITH GUNS PLUS DJs LAZYBROW, D. FISH AND SODAPOP ON THUR., JUNE 25, AT THE ECHOPLEX, 1154 GLENDALE BLVD., ECHO PARK. 8 PM / $8-$10 / 18+. FOFMUSIC.NET. PRE-PARTY WITH MEXICANS WITH GUNS AND DJ RIGHTEOUS TRASH ON THUR., JUNE 25, AT TURNTABLE LAB, 424 1/2 N. FAIRFAX AVE., LOS ANGELES. 5:30 PM / FREE / ALL AGES. TTLAB.COM.