L.A. RECORD is happy to team up with the Academy, WESC and Crush Brothers to present this all-day-til-last-call event in downtown Long Beach at the Basement with L.A. RECORD alums like Dead Meadow, Rainbow Arabia, Restavrant, 60 Watt Kid, Scotty Coats and our superhuman Cha Cha buddy DJ Pubes plus many more! Stay tuned for more updates and info and hope to see you there!

Download: The Vaselines “Son Of A Gun”

(from Enter The Vaselines out now on Sub Pop)

While there are certainly some ‘80s bands out there that should call it quits and put their leather pants in a museum, there are also a few making a natural comeback. If it weren’t for Nirvana, perhaps the Vaselines would have never played again, or maybe it would have taken another decade to revive the Scottish twee-pop band from its slumber. But Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee are back with advice on how to grow up. This interview by Daiana Feuer.

What was the reason for the Vaselines’ breakup?
Eugene Kelly (guitar/vocals): Me and Frances McKee were a couple and we split up. We talked about trying to continue the band but it just didn’t seem like it would work. The thing is, the distribution company had gone bankrupt. The record label had no money to release any more records and weren’t in any rush to sign us for another, so it seemed like the band had come to its natural end. I saw Frances a couple months after we split and then we kept bumping into each other. And then Sub Pop were interested in releasing Vaselines records in America so we had to discuss that, and every so often someone would want to use one of our songs so we’d have to talk about it. So it was always a connection through the Vaselines. I’ve always said it’s like the child we never had. The Vaselines child is 21 now and it’s at the age where we can put it back out into the world now.
Did it come as a surprise when you began hearing about your own band in the ‘90s from Kurt Cobain?
The band had split up by the time Nirvana mentioned us in print. Suddenly there were fans in America listening to our records. I remember reading in one of the music papers here—The Melody Maker had a piece about Mudhoney on tour in America. It mentioned that Nirvana were playing Vaselines songs. It was surprising how the rest of the world could have gotten our records. Our records had only been released in England.
What prompted you to start playing together again?
Right about this time last year, Frances phoned me that her sister was working on a charity concert for orphans in Malawi and did we want to do a solo performance and maybe do some Vaselines songs? And I suggested why don’t we try and make it a special night and play an electric set? I’d been playing solo shows for a while and I’d gotten so sick of playing acoustic guitar on my own. I really wanted to get on electric. Then Sub Pop contacted us about playing their 20th anniversary show so by luck we thought we could make that happen as well. After that, we came back from America and thought, ‘Well, let’s see what else we can do.’
Are you writing songs together?
We’ve written five songs already. We’ve been playing two of them in our sets. We’re going to try and record now probably in Glasgow. We just sound like the Vaselines! We came up with the songs pretty quickly, and that’s the way we used to come up with songs years ago. The distinctive sound that Vaselines songs have is in the simple melodies—it’s got to be sort of quite catchy and not very long songs either. A lot of people have said the new ones sound like they could have been on the old records. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
Did the Molly referred to in ‘Molly’s Lips’ ever contact you?
I think she died a few years ago actually. She probably didn’t even know the song was about her. She probably never even heard it. She couldn’t Google it back then.
If you had to write a song right now, what would you write about?
Making dinner. Having a bath. I’m writing a song now called ‘I Hate The ‘80s’ We don’t mean old people—we just hate the 1980s. It’s been such an ‘80s revival right now. It’s a revival of the things that were terrible at the time that inspired the Vaselines to form because we wanted to make rock music rather than electric pop and new romantic music. A lot of the ‘80s weren’t that good. People are looking back as if it was a fantastic time but we were there, so we can comment on it.
Of all the decades in your lifetime, were the ‘80s your least favorite?
Most of the ‘90s was pretty shit. I wasn’t doing much in the ‘90s. The ‘80s was great for the Vaselines and for me and Frances. We had just finished school—entering the world as adults and doing what we want. I think musically the ‘80s had a lot of terrible music as well as some great music. But every decade is the result of the people in that time responding to the music two decades before it. So, in the ‘80s I was listening to music from the ‘60s and ‘70s. And it’s the same now. The people in their 20s are into the 80s. Which is why the Vaselines can exist again. There’s an audience for it that wasn’t around in that time that are interested in it.
What advice would you give to a 20-something-year-old artist?
Do what you want. Do your own thing. Some advice is good but listen to yourself—your own ideas. Try not to be put off by people. Keep doing what you’re doing. What we’ve done as Vaselines—people kept telling us we were terrible, but we kept having fun. You’ve got to enjoy what you’re doing. It’s not a competition—you’re on your own. Don’t try to compete with anyone. I think in your twenties you feel inspired by the world around you. Everything seems new. And when you get in your forties, it’s hard to think of good things to write about and aspire to. There’s other things to deal with. You get a bit burnt out at middle age. It’s kind of hard to get really inspired.
What’s good at being in your forties?
Not much. It’s overrated. I think I prefer to be in my twenties. But you’ve got to make the best of it. The good thing about being in your forties is you’ve got a confidence you couldn’t really have when you were younger. You know if what you’re doing is good and if you should continue doing it.
Do you still think there are surprises in your future?
I think it’s all going to be surprises and that’s how it should be. We didn’t even know what we were doing with the band at this time last year. And then suddenly we’re in a large venue in Glasgow and it’s such a shock and quite sweet. I am enjoying the fact that everything is sort of new. We’re going to see what comes up.
Where did the Vaselines name come from?
It was because Frances used a lot of Vaseline on her lips. She was always carrying some around with her. Somebody suggested it and we had struggled with a few different names that didn’t really work. And also it started with the letter ‘V.’ There weren’t too many bands that start with that letter. I can think of the Velvet Underground, the Von Bondies. I can’t think of any more. Some of the other names were really terrible. A lot of them involved strawberries because Frances was obsessed with strawberries. The Vaselines was much better than the Strawberry Somethings.

THE VASELINES’ ENTER THE VASELINES IS OUT NOW ON SUB POP. VISIT THE VASELINES AT SUBPOP.COM/ARTISTS/THE_VASELINES.

The date was June 21, 2008, but you’d be forgiven if you mistook it for a hot August night circa 1970. Onstage at the Troubadour were seven young men jamming and crooning in four- and even five-part harmonies. They wore fishermen’s caps, long hair and beards, and suits with oversize collars but no ties. Their lyrics told of last kisses, the summer sun and girls, honeys and darlings. They were the Explorers Club of Charleston, S.C., and they seemed determined to stake out a spot next to the Beach Boys in the pantheon of classic pop. With their guitars, keyboards, drums and an occasional accordion, lap steel or mandolin, the Explorers sailed through much of their recently released debut full-length, Freedom Wind, from the Wall of Sound march of “Forever” to the gospel eruption of the title track. The audience included several enthusiastic older folks who may have seen some of the Explorers’ forebears in this very room a few decades ago. And there were some younger folks who were probably there to see headliner Lightspeed Champion and seemed alternately amused and bemused by the jubilant spectacle. In a highly appropriate finale, members of the Tyde, the Wondermints and Brian Wilson’s current ensemble joined the Explorers for what may be the least likely Beach Boys number for a modern band to cover: “Fun, Fun, Fun.” Now with 10 men on the relatively small stage, ooh-oohing about Daddy taking her T-bird away, the sheer silliness of it all converged as the song ended and guitarist/vocalist Jim Faust launched into a successful back flip.

— Thomas McMahon

The Tyde / Audacity @ The Smell
Parenthetical Girls / Abe Vigoda @ The Troubadour
Frog Eyes @ The Echo
Living Legends / Blue and Exile @ The Glasshouse

Even at their greatest artistic creativity, most bands carve out a sound inevitably tied to their surroundings. The Beach Boys will always be associated with the burgeoning surf culture of the early 60s—you simply cannot separate their sound from that specific time. But far from the glossy sheen of The Beach Boys, The Tyde exhale the smoggy side of Southern California between breaths of the dark, seedy side that its locals know all to well. Darren Rademaker’s earnest and sometimes witty lyrics capture the bright promise and melancholic woe of living the city life, while the music pulls from the corners of psych and country and pop that seem to have become part of Southern California’s makeup. And, being that we can all decide to go the beach, mountains or desert and be there in mere hours, there is no better time to listen to The Tyde than while soaking in all the natural beauties SoCal has to offer. To prove that point, The Tyde will play their infectious songs under the trees at Griffith Park, where you, your dog and your children can relax in the warm sun and thank your lucky stars that you don’t live anywhere else.

— Alex Roman

THE TYDE WITH ANDERS & WOOD AT THE TRAILS CAFE IN GRIFFITH PARK, 2333 FERN DELL DR., LOS FELIZ. 4 PM / FREE / ALL AGES.

I’m a pedophile. Let’s just make it official because what I couldn’t take my eyes off of at the Tyde show was the delicious man-boy that reminded me of Stacy Peralta and I wanted to hold him in my arms and make all his possible sadness disappear while he practices his bass and I explain who Nabokov is. And, yes, Bill Ross had put surf movies on which go straight to my G spot, and yessss, I had been spending the 4 or so hours before the show picking apart and watching Equus, but that beautiful little bassist for the Tyde is simply adorable. Adorable! When did the Tyde, not exactly spring kittens, find like, a 17 year old boy to play bass with them? I don’t know but I love it. And I love them. The Tyde played a simply shimmering set as always, with rolling melodies, harmonies and fantastic rhythm to drive it all straight to your heart. Their particular kind of California folk rock beckons forth the kind of feeling you get driving on PCH with the sun on your face. Cliché, but true – their music invoke a feeling so particular to California it’s undeniable: blithely luscious, free, melodious, spirited and full of sunshine even in the dark corners of Haskell’s Prospector on a Saturday night. But just a tip for The Hubcaps? Love the covers, but y’all need a damn flashlight to help you find the notes.  Seriously. It hurt. Still a great show all in all.

— Chesney Higgins