Somehow, Avi Buffalo takes a sound I thought I had no love for and makes it rekindle my faith in guitar rock. Not since the Smiths has a band taken recent tradition to such new heights, and I suspect this won’t be Avi Buffalo’s last great album.

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The group plays in a sordid psych style delivered with plenty of bam-bam and woo-woo. They claim Can influences, but something else is going on—maybe a steady white man funk, akin to Motown’s Rare Earth.

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Billy Bragg has been mixing pop and politics and hoping to save the youth of America since he started out as ‘one-man Clash’ in 1977. After projects with Wilco and Woody Guthrie, he will present the U.S. premiere of his vocal version of Beethoven’s ‘Ode To Joy’ in Santa Monica. This interview by Dan Collins.

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The Dream Syndicate found whatever was in Sister Lovers and Tonight’s The Night still breathing in L.A. in 1984 and used it to make Medicine Show, still a nervous and wild local classic. Guitarist-singer Steve Wynn will perform the album in its entirety tonight with his band the Miracle 3. He speaks now from a quiet park in New York. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

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Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion was called the best record of 2009 even back in 2008, and as usual the band penetrated that sort of cloudiness to shine light down on everyone who was looking for it. They speak now over free french fries (and later via email) after their last Los Angeles show. Deakin (Josh Dibb) was not present on this tour. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

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The Monks were one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands ever. They came from nowhere—five G.I.s about to muster out of the Army when Vietnam and the Beatles were both heating up—and they sounded like nobody else on their album Black Monk Time. Founders Eddie Shaw and Gary Burger (who reveals the location of the lost last Monks session!) speak now about the Monk times. These interviews by Chris Ziegler.

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The Monks were one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands ever. They came from nowhere—five G.I.s about to muster out of the Army when Vietnam and the Beatles were both heating up—and they sounded like nobody else on their album Black Monk Time. Founders Eddie Shaw and Gary Burger (who reveals the location of the lost last Monks session!) speak now about the Monk times. These interviews by Chris Ziegler.

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Long Beach’s Greater California release their long-awaited All The Colors album tonight at Fingerprints, so we are reviving this interview from the ancient L.A. RECORD volume 1 archives in their honor. They remain Long Beach’s closest thing yet to S.F. Sorrow or Odessey and Oracle and its farthest thing yet from Sublime. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

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shea M gauer

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