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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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If you just rolled out of a bus and wanted to immerse yourself in the newest funnest music playing at artsy dives like Pehrspace and the Vermont House, you’d do well to start by dipping your toes into these tunes, curated by the kids at Cal Arts (way cheerier than those dicks at Otis) and full of mirth and humor and wonderment and lo-fi gung-ho do-it-yourselfitude. Not all of these songs seem to be world premieres, and only a few of these groups actually attend Cal Arts, but with small-band dynamite like Pizza! and Voice on Tape, you just can’t go wrong.

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The pink-polo shirted Regan Farquhar commanded the stage, spouting rhymes I didn’t even try to keep up with while his heroic sidekick, Anti MC, calmly manipulated a swath of drum pads and synth sounds, an electric guitar and pedals without breaking a sweat. I was having a hard time keeping my cool ’cause a pair of teenage lesbians were getting’ freaky right in front of the stage, grabbing each others’ crotches and grind dancing. Oh, how happy I am to see the ’90s coming back!

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Sean Carnage has done so much for L.A. music that there had to be a movie made to help document it. He’ll be celebrating four years of DIY shows (across six venues!) all this month at Women during his traditional Monday night residencies, and he’ll have the official Sean Carnage birthdayversary spectacular on July 27. This interview by Drew Denny.

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Watching X and My Bloody Valentine put into perspective all these kids making noisy pop music by recalling the rich and fabled genealogy of this newfangled uprising and putting a sincere (albeit wrinkled) face on sounds that were once something controversial and that today’s babies take for granted… it must be oddly pleasant to play a show you never would’ve been asked to play in your own heyday, knowing that tropes you helped invent are propelling smooth-skinned foals into stardom from what middle-aged critics are carelessly referring to as the “outside” or the “fringes” while you wonder where the hell that leaves you?

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