For kids like me who were in elementary school when Whitney Houston got big, she wasn’t so much a singer as a touch point for the times. She was everywhere. She had a million great videos, with more youthful smiles and a broader color palette than Nicki Minaj (and quite often bra-less, my 12-year-old self wants to mention). She performed live on VH1 and MTV all the time, with a voice so powerful that it could kow-tow the Warrants and Whitesnakes that surrounded her. She broke records set by the Beatles, and was very much the template for the female R&B pop stars that grew to control the charts today–she controlled them too, but she did it single-handed, and she did it first (well, second, but Michael Jackson wasn’t a woman, and he’s proved far less influential 25 years later than Houston). And even if Mariah Carey did come shortly afterwards to kind of wipe away Houston’s gains by doing the same thing bigger and better, heck, she never got to cover Dolly Parton or get carried offstage by Kevin Costner while wearing Egyptian/Metropolis/ Blade Runner gear.

And of course, Mariah Carey never got embroiled in a purposeful copyright infringement acid house club track by an early version of the KLF!

I know there are dozens of things to make fun of about Whitney Houston, even discounting the past decade’s debauched reality shows and cocaine quotations. And there are many horrific things about the music industry that Houston either perpetuated or created in her own image, and I would have been a much happier teenager if the world had embraced, say, Dinosaur Jr. or Public Enemy with the fervor it gave to her brand of soulful-sounding but often vapid pop. But perhaps it’s a better world for her having been in it. I’ll always associate the age of my own innocence with the sound of her voice, and the way she looked on the small screen. Whitney, you will be missed.

-Dan Collins

Bodies of Water “Under the Pines”

Bodies of Water are from Highland Park and are hoping to get a pet goat someday. Their newest A Certain Feeling is out next week on Secretly Canadian.

What was the band name that was second-choice to Hitler’s Gay Son?
David Metcalf (singing/guitar): Once somebody comes up with Hitler’s Gay Son, there’s no need to really discuss further. You know a winner when you hear it. I was probably seventeen.
Meredith Metcalf (organ/singing): We had a reprise when we first met—we did one free jam of Hitler’s Gay Son right after we were married.
How do your changing band names reflect your development as human beings?
M: When we very very first started, before we were even really a band, David and I played music together in the house, and [drummer] Jessie [Conklin] and [bassist] Kyle [Gladden] were with us but not playing shows. So we just used David’s email address, which was Unicorn of Death. I’m glad we ditched it before the unicorn craze! You realize anything that’s pretty funny and that you really latch on to—that kind of humor? Snark-core? So weird and lame that it’s cool—I really like that kind of thing. But I know now to avoid those things because it’s in a three-year cycle. If you think something is the most original thing you ever thought, in three years Urban Outfitters is gonna have a shirt with that logo. You have to restrain yourself. It takes a lot of willpower. And ‘Bodies of Water’—I don’t think anything about it. It doesn’t bug me. ‘Oh, there it is.’
That’s the kind of enthusiasm we love.
M: I’d rather be indifferent than embarrassed.
D: In the long run, people who don’t care come out on top.
M: Sometimes I really wish I could be one of those people who don’t care. Historically people who care too much are people who go crazy. Sometimes I sense this in myself. I have friends who are wired totally differently. They don’t have that sense of urgency. I’m like that in everything. Whatever I do, I’m really invested in it. I can’t just kind of halfass something.
Which Os Mutantes album is most like A Certain Feeling?
D: I like the first one so much—I like all of them and I don’t like anything beyond the first three. I bet I would probably get into it now, though. At the time, I was like, ‘Prog blows!’ Now I’d sit down and enjoy it. When I first went to college, I had a drawing teacher, and drawing labs are like free hours. He’d play that later-era Leonard Cohen stuff, and I’d never even heard Leonard Cohen then, and I was like, ‘This is the lamest thing I ever heard in my life.’ Cohen and Dead Can Dance for three hours repeating—pretty relentless. ‘This DOES NOT ROCK!’ But every record I really like now, I actually disliked when I first listened to it.
Which was your biggest reversal?
D: Ziggy Stardust I really didn’t like. And my friend’s older brother had Aladdin Sane. ‘This is sick!’ I was like twelve or something. And the first Os Mutantes record—I didn’t hate it but the mix is all weird and the guitar is the only thing you hear when it comes in, and then you kind of get it.
M: It’s a real inspiration to listen to that, especially when you’re recording. If Os Mutantes cranks that totally weird line-in guitar to be the loudest thing and it’s awesome, you’re like, ‘Oh, you can totally do that kind of thing.’ Because it just seems so wrong.
How many auxiliaries can Bodies Of Water muster up?
D: Joe and David both play trombone—Joe plays bass trombone and David plays tenor—and Andrew plays trumpet, Heather plays viola and she’s on the first record, and Laura is also on the first record. But they don’t play live with us anymore.
M: Noah plays drums and Adam plays guitar sometimes. For a while—last December—we did our first show with horns and strings and thought, ‘Oh, that’s the way to go!’ But then we pared down again for tours, and we just tour as a four-piece. Most of the bands I really like aren’t more than four people. It’s a really different thing. With more people, you don’t have to work as hard to bring the energy on stage, which I kind of really like sometimes! Everyone feeds off each other. But there’s something more raw with four people, and I like watching smaller bands better. You can focus on the members rather than the big experience. It’s more compelling for me. Audience members are like, ‘It’s so epic with all these people!’ But I think it’s more epic when it’s fewer people totally going for it.
How do you maximize your bombasticism?
M: I think of horn trills and extra drums. It’s more raw-rocking with fewer people. Our sound is different. It’s the same songs, but people walk away thinking, ‘Orchestral indie pop!’ And when it’s just us, they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s like the B-52’s! You’re like a really raw B-52’s!’
Can you describe what you were doing when you wrote the line ‘the love I have for my axe is weak’?
D: When did I write that?
With your shirt off and a lightning storm outside?
D: I have no idea. I think I pulled it out of my book of writing. Usually I write all the lyrics before the music, and change pre-existing lyrics to get the meter right. Make them rhyme if I have to, but that’s not always that case. Usually I’ll have the skeleton of a song and a melody, and I’ll kind of show everybody the way it goes. More so on this record, I’d have a couple sort of movements and we’d link them together.
Did you fit the songs on the album together in a particular way?
M: It just felt very good—it felt like it had an ending like a movie I would like. Kind of left you going, ‘Huh. OK.’ You put song order together the same way you put a song together—especially our songs, with so many different parts. Just fitting more fully formed pieces into a bigger structure. My favorite is when it goes into ‘Darling, Be Here!’ It strikes me as funny—it lulls you down and then it’s like, ‘Alright! Come on!’
What do you think of the quote ‘soul makes you fear God more’?
M: This would be a really amazing game show. I would like it and nobody else in America would like it.
It’s from James Brown.
M: I bet he totally pulled that out his ass. ‘I gotta say soul and God in the same sentence—people love that shit!’ It’s hard with transcribed things. That’s why I’m afraid to do interviews. When I read things I say, they’re totally different. I’m afraid I’m horrible! I say the most horrible things, and if you didn’t know me, you’d think I was horribly racist or really stupid.
Is your label concerned about this at all?
M: It’s kind of our edge in this market—the stupid and racist market we’re cornering.
D: Toby Keith has cornered it too long.
M: I’m still thinking about that quote. I can’t shake the idea that he just said that and didn’t know what it means. It sounds powerful, but maybe… my idea of soul music is a pretty strong feeling you get.
He was the Godfather of Soul.
D: He wasn’t actually related to soul.
M: If soul’s parents die, would he take care of it?
D: You shouldn’t pay so much attention because he hasn’t been involved in it for a while.
Well, he died.
M: I never understood the godfather-godmother thing—does that really happen? Do they really take the kids?
How come you picked Lefty Frizzell’s ‘I Want To Be With You Always’ and not Webb Pierce’s ‘I Don’t Care’ as your favorite love song?
M: Because that’s the song David and I danced to at our wedding. And I just love that song. When we first met, David made me a mix CD of old country music and that won my heart over. Whenever I hear it, I’m like, ‘Ohhhhhh, the salad days!’ That’s what country is genetically engineered to do—for when you’re bummed out or when you fall in love.
D: There’s something almost biological about the appeal of that kind of stuff. That show Radio Lab was saying country music is popular all over the world. Australian aborigines are really into older country music, and it’s really popular in sub-Saharan Africa. People I’ve never heard of will sell out stadiums in Kinshasa. Some Texas crooner that isn’t popular in America.
Which is your most tear-in-your-beer heartbreak song?
M: ‘Love Will Call You By Name.’ It has steel guitar—totally like an old country song.
D: On the first EP we put out.
Is that the one available only with a special cash offer?
M: Yeah, someone emailed me and said, ‘I’m willing to pay upwards of twenty dollars!’ And I’m like, ‘Hmm, I could really use that money…’ I’m so sentimentally attached. We made them all by hand, and I always think, ‘Well, nobody wanted them then—they can’t have them now!’ But if I can tell someone is a superfan—well, paypal me five dollars.
Why is the new record more passive-aggressive than the old one?
M: That’s such an off-handed thing! It didn’t mean anything!
D: I meant every word of it. The first one is more in-your-face. And this one is not like that.
M: It’s not aggressive—it’s assertive!
D: ‘Assertive’ is a euphemism for ‘aggressive.’ The emotional tone is just different. It doesn’t run up into your face. It’s kind of doing its own thing. This crept up toward your face. The other one ran at your face.
M: This doesn’t make any sense—I don’t think you should put that in the interview!
We always put in what people say not to put in.
M: Good to know—goodbye!

—Chris Ziegler

BODIES OF WATER WITH THE HENRY CLAY PEOPLE FOR RELEASE PARTY FOR A CERTAIN FEELING ON THUR., JULY 17, AT THE ECHO, 1822 SUNSET BLVD., ECHO PARK. 8:30 PM / $8-$10 / 18+. ATTHEECHO.COM. BODIES OF WATER’S A CERTAIN FEELING RELEASES TUE., JULY 22, ON SECRETLY CANADIAN. VISIT BODIES OF WATER AT BODIESOFWATER.NET OR MYSPACE.COM/BODIESOFWATER.

Telomere Repair @ The Prospector
AM / Abe Vigoda / Crystal Antlers @ Pehrspace
Beirut / Devon Williams @ The Wiltern
The Fiery Furnaces @ Spaceland
Darondo /Nino Moschella @ Detroit Bar
The Cure @ The Hollywood Bowl
Swervedriver / Xu Xu Fang @ The Henry Fonda

Beach House “Gila”

Alex Scally (guitar/keyboards) and Victoria Legrand (vocals/keyboards) are Beach House. Their soft, atmospheric music seems made for lovers (or at least the lovelorn), evoking emotion through tender vocal harmonies and wave-like melodies. Alex Roman speaks with Victoria about her love for pop music, success and, well, beach houses.

You guys seemingly became popular very fast. How did you deal with it?
We were surprised by the internet response, but we are very much operating on a small scale. We’re not at the Vampire Weekend level or anything. I think we are doing something that is appealing to certain people, and the internet is helping to spread knowledge of us. I think you could say the same for a bunch of groups right now.
Were you surprised by the response?
In no way do I feel that we have had the kind of overnight sensation that damages groups. I suppose the popularity is growing quite normally and modestly—I can tell by the attendance at our shows, which varies from 50 to 200 people. There is still a broad range that makes me feel that the Beach House is still fundamentally intact, solid and not overwhelmed with bullshit!
Did the increased popularity and, therefore, increased expectations of the band make it difficult for you when you were working on the new record?
Not really. The only obvious pressure we felt was finding the time between touring and email to be creative, relaxed and inspired.
What did you try to do differently on Devotion?
We expressed more of ourselves. I personally stepped forward lyrically more than before.
Mood seems to be a pretty big factor in your songs. Where did that aesthetic develop for you?
I think that we’re moody people at our worst. I suppose you could say that I’m personally obsessed with images and emotions. I think we have a predilection toward the passionate.
Does living in Baltimore play a part in that?
Baltimore is a simple yet complex habitat. There is violence, but there is also, more importantly, a great amount of serenity and protection. A haven if you take the time and, also, a silence in which to hear things.
I heard that you both are into soul music, Motown and the like. What is it about that music that draws you in?
The grooves, the production, the spirit, the impeccable style. Also the melodies and character of it. It just speaks directly and hits you where it counts in many directions.
Do you feel that passion and emotion in music today is gone?
Yes, but that doesn’t mean that people aren’t trying. It just feels sometimes that there exists a vacant emotional plagiarism that really doesn’t have a lasting feel. There are, especially in Top 40 Muzak, a lot of imitators. It’s OK to want to sound like someone, but to leave no room for your own voice is merely a disservice to yourself. Personally, when I hear a song and I immediately feel something physically or a memory is triggered, it feels right. A style of sound might not be the best replacement for true content or actual timeless substance.
You’re also really into pop songs. Who are you listening to right now?
In pop I like a broad range of artists—Kylie Minogue, Kelis, Ciara, Eve, Aaliyah, Missy Elliott, The Knife, The Cardigans, Beck, Rick Ross and T.I. I’m not constantly listening to pop, but I do like the occasional dip into its sugary pool. The van is usually the best time for listening.
Have you guys added any additional musicians to play with you on this tour?
We are currently touring with The Papercuts, and Jason Quever is playing percussion with us. It seems natural for us to remain two, but having another feels great sometimes, especially live.
Do you still have day jobs?
I work in the service industry; that’s pretty crappy, but the place which employs me is kind to me. Alex does carpentry.
You probably get this question a lot, but when you think of beach house, you generally think of fun and sun. Yet, when you think of Beach House the band, some may think the complete opposite. How did the name of the band come about?
I wish I could give you a real tale — we pulled it out of a cat! No, we conversed about the world of our music and thus it was born.
Have you ever stayed at a beach house?
I’ve stayed in several in my life and they’ve all been different. I once had a boyfriend who had probably a million dollar beach house in the Hamptons. Personally, I prefer the smaller, cozier types; practical cabanas with outdoor showers so you can moon the outdoors. Maybe I can go to one soon. Any offers? I can see it now, ‘Beach House looking for a beach house of its own.’

BEACH HOUSE WITH THE PAPERCUTS AT THE ECHO, 1822 SUNSET BLVD., ECHO PARK. 6:30 PM / $10 / ALL AGES. ATTHEECHO.COM.

Darondo “Let My People Go”

Darondo recorded three singles and played four shows in the ’70s and then stopped and drove home in his Rolls Royce after he opened for James Brown. Later he traveled the world collecting interesting artifacts, became the king of Bay Area cable with three shows per day, and worked as a physical therapist coaxing patients to walk again. He plays tonight, Sat., Mar. 8, at Crash Mansion for his first-ever L.A. show.

So what did Frank Sinatra think of your car?
Well, you know—they eyed on it til we was outta sight. They said, ‘Boy, you got something there!’ We were in Reno, cutting up and playing and gambling. I went up there before and they’d seen the car and they gave me a parking place, and everytime I’d go there I’d park for free, and Ol’ Blue Eyes and his entourage saw me—‘Boy, you got something goin’ on!’
How many ladies did you ever fit in the Rolls at once?
Ah, gosh—a few times I couldn’t get in the car. Those was the days. I got it in Modesto—they had a used car lot and across the street was a club, and we’d go down to the club, and the guy took me across the street and said, ‘Let me show you something! Check this here!’ I didn’t know what kind of car it was—he said ‘This is a double R! This is what you need to be in!’ So I came out with a white Rolls Royce—a Silver Cloud! I had an old Cadillac and I left it there and I came back with the Rolls. Driving on the wrong side!
So you had a couple bucks.
A pocket full of money!
What’s the most you ever spent in five minutes?
Probably gambling—I threw $2,000 on the table when I was shooting dice and I lost. Every night I was up there quite regularly. I had a thing going on with the dice. You took $1,000 up there with you, but you have to be disciplined with yourself and your money. I mght throw $10 and if I don’t hit, I come back with $20. And if I’m not hitting, maybe $100—and every time I hit, I start right back over! At the end of the evening—five hours or something—you won maybe two or three thousand dollars!
What’s the most money you ever held in your hand at once?
One time—fifty or sixty thousand in hundred-dollar bills! I was coming up selling real estate, and sometimes I made money and went to the bank. ‘I want the money in cash!’ It’d take ‘em about four or five hours. And then I’d walk out to the Rolls Royce and go home.
What’s the best gift you ever got yourself?
It was Martinique or maybe St. Thomas—where everybody goes and buys the jewelry at? All you see is military police because they got some of the biggest diamonds in the world. I went in there and the woman thought I was Little Richard—I had my hair up in the air! ‘Hey, Little Richard!’ I just played it on—‘Yeah… Little Richard!’ They had a gold stone ring—a gold stone with gold dust in it. It’s so rare it’s pitiful—you can’t even buy them anymore!
How did you start your first band?
Everybody wanted to be like the Temptations and have a group of something—you had the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, all the groups coming out. So I got with a little group. They had a club for teenagers—they served stuff called ‘near beer’—and that was really where I started gigging. ‘GLORIA—G-L-O-R-I-A!’ And Wilson Picket—‘Wait! Til the midnight hour!’ And we was getting paid—as teenagers! I was the only black guy in the group. I was singing and they were just playing instruments. We met a guy—a midget—his name was Mike—he could play drums! He was a midget who could play the shit out of the drums! He had it going on!
So you had a midget drummer?
Yeah, and we was doing good!
Is he on the records?
I hadn’t made records—I was a teenager.
So you had a teenage midget drummer?
He was the same age of all of us—about 18—but the man could play! Everybody loved him!
Was ‘Legs’ banned from the radio for being too dirty?
Yeah. Because of what I was talking about. They played the other side—‘Let My People Go.’ But ‘Legs’—they’d play it in the speakeasies! After two in the morning, you’d hear nothing but ‘Legs!’
And you only played four shows ever?
I didn’t do too many. I opened for James Brown—that was my best thing. Yeah, I talked with the Godfather of Soul—he said, ‘Keep on doing what you doing! You on the right track!’ And I said ‘Thank you, Mr. Brown, and thank you for putting me on your show!’ And after that I didn’t wanna do no more. I’d did it with James!
What did you think of that voodoo ritual you saw?
That was scary! That was on the love boat—that cruise I went on. I would never stay with the boat—they tell you don’t ever leave the group, but I said ‘I wanna find out what these people are doin!’ So I met some brother out there and they seemed pretty cool—I bought ‘em everything—Coca Cola, whatever they want—and got their trust and saw how they were living—terrible! So they had a little ceremony and showed me some stuff—scary stuff! You can’t take no cameras—that’s voodoo, and the soul do this and that stuff, and I watched ‘em walk on fire and eyes looked like it went up into their head! I was scared. It was real—it wasn’t no fake! That was the craziest thing I ever saw in my life. It was adventure—it was like Indiana Jones! I know what Indiana Jones is talking about now! And Caracas was exciting—I went in the jungle with the brothers there! I’ll tell you about the jungle—the jungle is so pretty it’ll blow your mind away. I used to watch Tarzan movies and the woman would go out in the jungle—I can see why. It’s so beautiful. You would do that.
I heard if you stand still in the jungle you can feel all the bugs start crawling up your legs.
I never did stand still! I kept moving!
What songs did you sing when you worked in the hospital?
The physical therapy? I’m a doctor in physical therapy.
Dr. Darondo?
They called me the miracle worker for a while. I went to one hospital—the lady had been sitting in the chair so long, acting like she couldn’t move her leg, so I kind of massaged her foot and was talking the talk, and I said ‘Stand on up!’ and she stood right up! Some patients—they won’t do it for anybody, but if they get to like who they’re talking to, they’ll do so much for you it’s pitiful!

ARTDONTSLEEP PRESENTS DARONDO WITH NINO MOSCHELLA, CONNIE PRICE AND THE KEYSTONES AND THE LIONS ON SAT., MAR. 8, AT CRASH MANSION, 1024 S. GRAND AVE., LOS ANGELES. 9 PM / $10 / 21+. CRASHMANSION.COM.