The Melvins are coming to Spaceland for a Friday night residency in January and have just revealed via L.A. WEEKLY what they’ll be playing live:

First show 1/17:
Melvins set.
(Colossus of Destiny)
Lysol record
Eggnog record…

Second show 1/14:
Melvins 1983.
Melvins set.
Houdini record.

Third show 1/21:
Melvins Lite.
Melvins set.
Bullhead record.

Fourth show 1/28:
Melvins set.
Stoner Witch record.

ALL SHOWS  8:30pm / $20 / 21+

WHITE ARROWS – DOUBLE RAINBOW MEGAMIX by L.A. RECORD

01. Arthur Russell “A Little Lost”
02. The Millennium “There Is No More To Say”
03. Cody Chesnutt “I Look Good In Leather”
04. Dion “In And Out Of The Shadows”
05. White Arrows “Save Me A Place”
06. Elvis Presley “Crying In The Chapel”
07. Chambers Brothers “Time Has Come Today”
08. Gal Costa “Baby”
09. Phil Collins “Don’t Lose My Number”
10. Edwyn Collins “A Girl Like You”
11. Thin Lizzy “Dancing In The Moonlight”
12. Van Morrison “Domino”

Mickey is the singer for White Arrows, a tropical-shirt-wearing lo-fi-meets-electronica six-piece. Their influences range from uptempo power pop to psychedelic rock and they perform tonight as part of their residency at Spaceland. This mix has more Collinses than the time our section editor Dan Collins interviewed Mick Collins. Enjoy! This interview by Kristina Benson.

Where do you all live?
Los Angeles. In our mountain compound, the Eagle’s Nest.
What was the first show you ever played as a band? Where was it and when?
Our first show ever was at the Unknown Theater. It was an all ages show in July of ‘09. Strings broke on both guitars.
What’s the weirdest show you ever played?
The weirdest—and best—show was at Pappy and Harriet’s in Joshua Tree. People got arrested, psyched out, shot at and scorched by the sun.
Who was the first person you ever sold a record to?
We have been giving the records away for free. We gotta start charging.
What song do you like to play first in your set and why?
I like to start with ’8050 (Too Fast, Too Slow)’ lately because it starts off pretty sparse and comes in strong. It’s a good introduction to body movement.
If you could cover one L.A. band’s song, whose would it be and why?
Anything by the band Weeping Jesus.
What was the last live performance everyone in the band went to together?
Black Lips at the El Rey.
What kind of gear would you buy for use in this band if you each were given $200?
Love your questions. I’d get samplers and an MXR pedal.
What is the best record, tape or CD that any of you ever scored for $1 or less?
Warren G and Nate Dogg’s “Regulate” single on cassette tape.
If you had to be in a different L.A. band besides this one, what would be your first choice? No fair just saying you’d remain in this one!
The Beach Boys. Does everyone say that?
If you could play a show at any California venue, which one would it be and why?
On the deck of the Goodyear blimp. ‘Cause ‘the world is yours.’ [from Scarface].
How do you define ‘success’ insofar as your music is concerned?
Siring at least one child on every continent.
The flyer for your residency promises ‘más chicas bonitas.’ Are there really más chicas bonitas at your shows?
Yes.

WHITE ARROWS IN RESIDENCY EVERY MONDAY IN AUGUST AT SPACELAND, 1717 SILVERLAKE BLVD. SILVERLAKE. 8:30 PM / FREE / 21+. CLUBSPACELAND.COM. VISIT WHITE ARROWS AT MYSPACE.COM/WHITEARROWS.

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)

Download: Princeton “Calypso Gold”

(from Cocoon of Love available now from Kanine)

You think Ivy League or tennis rackets when you see the word ‘Princeton,’ but the Eagle Rock-based band isn’t named after the school. The fact that twins Matt (a one-time L.A. RECORD writer, too!) and Jesse Kivel, Ben Usen, and David Kitz made some songs about famous dead writers has only fueled more crazy assumptions that they’re both creative and smart. It can only help them get girls, which means heartache, which means more material to translate into their signature string-and-synth pop. This interview by Daiana Feuer.

You’ve been tagged as a literary band since the Bloomsbury EP was about early 20th-century intellectuals. How would you compare the experiences of books and music?
Matt Kivel (bass/vocals): Looking at a painting of a mountain—a photo, a film, all of a mountain and writing a song or book about a mountain—they can describe the same thing but the beauty of these different mediums is they do it in different ways. What’s interesting is you can convey nuances of the same object using different mediums. In music, melody and mood and texture create a much more immediate reaction in a person’s mind. You can feel a certain way and you don’t have to think about it. That’s one of the greatest things about music. When you read a book it takes a lot more of you. You have to put more of yourself in it—into the characters. When a book is made into a film it’s always a surprise how that person visualized the character. Another difference is with music—if you enjoy it you wanna experience it over again. A book, I maybe feel like reading it once or twice, but it isn’t something I wanna spend a lot of time with. Actually I don’t think there’s anything similar about them at all. The overlap is all superficial. You can cover the same terrain, the same theme, but the overall effect and the way the medium transports the person is different and that’s what makes both of them relevant art forms.
Bloomsbury was inspired by the writers, but what book would you like to make a soundtrack for?
Matt Kivel: That sounds like a neat idea. I think the best way to go would be to do something a little more poetic so you could have lyrical inspiration to draw from. Who would be good for that? John Cale did something like that with Dylan Thomas—it was poems and prose. Jesse says American Psycho. I would do The Sound and the Fury if I had a large enough budget. There’s a lot of complexity to it and lots of perspective and that would be fun to make a soundtrack about.
What was the last fight you had with your brother Jesse?
Matt Kivel: That’s easy because it was a day ago. We’re getting some shoes and then what happened was basically me and Jesse have some side projects and I took a photograph at a site that Jesse wasn’t planning that I’d know about. And so we had a big argument about that and it lasted for a while. Not very interesting but we fight often enough. [And they do a little, before this interview is over.]
The whole band grew up in Santa Monica. Were you always friends?
Matt Kivel: Jesse, Ben and I were good friends growing up—but we did know of David. We were friends with his sister because she was in our grade. He was in the same Hebrew school and high school as us, except not elementary school, so we go back pretty far.
Are kids that grow up in Santa Monica saved from the ‘born and raised in L.A.’ affliction?
Matt Kivel: A lot of wealthy people live in Santa Monica and a lot of those kids are raised a certain way. In Hollywood—also wealthy—the kids are raised a certain way. Then there’s the ‘less wealthy.’ The wealthier kids’ influence is pervasive. They’re noticeable. It draws very strong distinctions at school. But it’s not necessarily a personality thing. There are dicks and nice people and that’s the way it is. I think Hollywood and Santa Monica might as well be the same place. People who grow up in Los Angeles usually go from one extreme to another.
How did the environment influence what you do now?
Matt Kivel: When we were young, me and Jesse weren’t that interested in being in any form of scenes or cliques. We were really wrapped up in imaginative ideas and we’d get our friends to do elaborate projects, whether it be film or music or making up some game. There was a strange sort of reality that in a way has carried on. I think it’s become more socially accepted for us to do it now. We found a way to make it more socially accepted that when we were younger was considered weird—doing strange projects at our house. Like getting wasted, there were a lot of drugs and alcohol in our school and parties and things but for whatever reason we were not really a part of that. Although Ben and David were definitely more a part of that!
Did you decide to do a Hannukah concert this past December to balance out all the Christmas shows?
Matt Kivel: Yo La Tengo does a Hannukah show so that’s why we thought it was a good idea. They do it so successfully every year. They were inspirational. There’s a lack of overt Judaism in rock music. We’re a band that is not particularly religious but culturally we are Jewish so it’s interesting to try and talk about that. People in the type of music we do, it’s something people don’t talk or think about. We like holidays. We did a Thanksgiving show one year but that was borderline offensive so I don’t know if we’ll do that again. We did a Halloween show. We’ve done all kinds, come to think of it. We like to celebrate the holidays and somehow integrate that into what we’re doing. It’s festive!
Not being religious, how would you describe what it means to be Jewish?
Matt Kivel: I can’t tell anyone why it’s important to be Jewish or any religion. I am not that attracted to the idea of religion. The Jewish religion is unique because it’s more cultural—it’s like an ethnicity. Most who identify with Judaism identify it that way. We have a distinct culture and influence and that’s something important to identify with. It’s unique. Everyone is raised in a household, with traditions, things you don’t think about, it’s part of your life. We enjoy certain elements of our culture and we’re not ashamed to eat bagels or anything like that. I think the world has had its up and downs with Jewish people but deep down I think they like us.
Cocoon of Love has been described as a collection of memory bits from past romances. Based on what you’ve experienced, what do you know about love?
Matt Kivel: Man, these are some profound questions. I think I have been in love one time in my life and that’s really all that I know about aside from watching films. It’s an interesting point because in those art forms there’s a perfecting of reality—that love can have this quality where it’s unambiguously positive or negative. But the truth is that love is a totally ambiguous emotion. It can mean so many things and have so many conflicting emotions in it. ‘Love’ is a word that may not even be a good word for people to use. The word is fine, but the connotation implies something that is not even real: ‘Love that lasts forever.’ I don’t know if that’s necessarily true. It’s not a sad thought, but we should think about it. If you will be married for 50 or 60 years, people get old and ugly and lose limbs and get growths on their eyeballs—it’s hard to keep loving someone. I am not saying you shouldn’t get married, but the idea that marriage should last forever is a strange thing. It doesn’t really make sense. Society sees it as a rule. Divorce is still seen as something negative. —But I am young. I don’t know anything. I’ve had one meaningful relationship. Can you ask me in 30 years?
For something less profound, what’s the best bodily function to make jokes about?
Matt Kivel: Ha! This is the most candid interview I’ve ever done. Obviously farting would be the number one bodily function to make jokes about. [Brief argument with brother.] The other people in the van are trying to censor me. It’s funny because it makes a funny sound and it stinks. Especially in an environment where it’s almost impossible.

PRINCETON IN RESIDENCY EVERY MONDAY IN FEBRUARY AT SPACELAND, 1717 SILVERLAKE BLVD., SILVER LAKE. 9 PM / FREE / 21+. CLUBSPACELAND.COM. L.A. RECORD PRESENTS PRINCETON WITH CASXIO, RAFTER AND THE JUBILEE SINGERS ON MON., FEB. 8, AT SPACELAND. PRINCETON’S COCOON OF LOVE IS OUT NOW ON KANINE. VISIT PRINCETON AT PRINCETON-BAND.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/PRINCETONMUSIC.