YEAR LONG DISASTER ON MONDAY MAR. 8 AT TROUBADOUR, 9081 SANTA MONICA BLVD., LOS ANGELES. 7PM / FREE IF OVER 21 AND $3 IF UNDER 21/ ALL AGES. HTTP://WWW.TROUBADOR.COM.

—Erik Ehlert

(from Reservations out now on Volcom)

L.A. RECORD presents the release party for Tweak Bird’s Reservations EP with Tweak Bird and Pterodacdudes plus DJs Former Fat Kid and Husky Jeans! Read our Tweak Bird interview here and then come out all riled up!

TWEAK BIRD’S RESERVATIONS RELEASE PARTY WITH PTERODACDUDES ON WED., SEPT. 17, AT THE SILVERLAKE LOUNGE, 2906 SUNSET BLVD., SILVERLAKE. 9 PM / $7 / 21+. FOLDSILVERLAKE.COM.

Download: Tweak Bird “Eternal Squaredance”

(from Reservations out now on Volcom)

Was your very first band a Fisher-Price version of Tweak Bird?
Caleb Bird (guitar/vocals): Honestly, yeah. Our very first band was Tweak Bird twelve years ago. Ashton had a thrift-store $50 drum kit and I was playing guitar through a bass amp—not even knowing what a bass amp was. We just played heavy riffs. It was really really not good.
Ashton Bird (drums/vocals): Eventually that transitioned into ‘Oh, now we learned some songs—now let’s cover songs!’ And then he was in high school, and he being younger and me being Ashton, he started a cover band and after that was like, ‘Hey, man, can you play drums?’ So that band was your pretty sweet heavy rock funk band.
Is there an alpha brother and a beta brother or is it two omega brothers?
A: Depends how the moons are aligned, man.
C: Now you sound like a hippie.
Who’s your favorite Sneak Bird sit-in so far?
A: My favorite was when Dale [Crover] and Toshi [Kasai] hopped on down at the warehouse when we played with Altamont. That was pretty wicked. Dale did the solo on the recording, and Toshi turned all the knobs and made us sound cool, and they hopped on guitar and jammed out.
C: Right before we played I was like, ‘Dale, wanna solo?’ And he’s like, ‘How about Toshi and I solo?’ ‘Yeah, totally!’ Being in Tweak Bird, we hadn’t played with any other band members, and the sound was instantly like, ‘Hell yeah, man—shreddage!’
A: It’s cool to dabble in being a three-piece band. We’ve had tons of cool dudes come play with us. We played with Ancestors—pretty much all of them. Scott Martin from 400 Blows.
Does it permanently change people to pass through Tweak Bird?
C: Playing with Scott changed the way I think about our songs—the way he interpreted them. It wasn’t like he just sat down and did things over it. We rehearsed like two or three times and he integrated a totally alternate view. It sounded like a different song to me. Kind of bizarre.
Did anyone tape it?
C: I’m sure somebody’s got some YouTube. Where was Videothing when we needed him? ‘It’s cool, man—I got five seconds of it!’ No, Mike’s totally awesome.
What is the most tragic American folk song?
A: ‘Put My Little Shoes Away’ by Woody Guthrie.
C: ‘Put My Little Shoes Away’—totally!
A: I was just gonna say it’s the saddest song in the world. I wouldn’t say you could beat it.
C: I guess we listen to a good amount of folk music in the car and at home. If you listen to the words—I’m not a parent, and Ashton is—
A: —it’s heavy.
Did it get heavier after you became a father?
A: Even beforehand it was like, ‘Whoa, this is heavy.’ Even from a kid’s perspective. ‘Whoa, this is a sad sad story. Give my toys to all my playmates, but save my shoes so you’ll remember I was your kid…’ Whoa! Yikes! Yeah, that’s a downer. Let’s talk about really crappy stuff for the rest of the interview. Other really sad songs.
C: And world hunger is bad.
Want to make this the first L.A. RECORD interview that makes people cry?
C: Let’s go there, man.
When was the last time you saw a total stranger cry, or cried in front of a total stranger?
C: You’re totally going there!
Step by fateful step.
C: ‘Comedy’s not working! These guys are terribly unfunny! Let’s make this a drama!’
A: Ok, I was getting off the bus and walking through a parking lot and there’s this lady sitting there crying. Like 25 years old—bawling her eyes out! And I’m like, ‘What makes a 25-year-old woman cry in the middle of a parking lot?’ And she stands up and turns around and yells at this guy standing like 100 to 150 feet away who is standing there on a bike and holding another bike, and she’s like, ‘Give me my bike back!’ And he says, ‘You ain’t getting your bike back’ and he rode away. With both bikes.
C: He doesn’t need two bikes! That’s wrong.
A: And they were well into their twenties. They were old people.
C: My story was way less resolved. This lady was crying at the bus stop, and I was like, ‘Are you gonna be OK?’ And she was like grabbing her chest and the guy next to us was like, ‘Do you need an ambulance?’ ‘I gotta get to UCLA hospital.’ And I’m like, ‘Uh, the bus is not the way you wanna go.’ We offered to call her an ambulance, but, ‘No, no, no—I’m gonna be ok! I’m gonna get on the bus!’ And that was that. Fade to driving away on the bus. Like a sad scene in a movie. It happened two days ago.
When was the last time you broke the heart of an animal?
C: Oh, our dog Raven! Our dog was gay! I was a young teen and I caught him humping a dude dog and I hit him because ‘THAT’S WRONG!’ He honest-to-God ran away the next day and I never saw him again.
A: I didn’t know that happened!
C: Obviously, now—dogs do that! And it doesn’t matter!
A: Either way it doesn’t matter! You can have sex with whoever you want to!
C: Free to be you and me, man! But I didn’t know then! I was confused!
A: That’s a harsh time.
C: Good lord, man. What else?
What regret could you never bear to leave this life with?
C: I’ll let the dad answer that one.
A: For me, it wouldn’t be anything too grandiose.
C: In a really general sense, you wanna leave things at least as good as you found them. Try to leave it better—try to make a difference.
I can hear your voice breaking.
A: And not leave anybody mad at me. It would be relationships. To make sure I’m on good terms with anyone that I crossed paths with.
Who is the best pistol shot in the band?
A: I’ll tell you exactly what it is. I am consistently pretty decent and he is not-consistently amazing.
That’s kind of how you have to go through life, too.
A: Whoa! Hey now! He goes for the bulls-eyes, you know, but a lot of times he misses. And I’m just like, ‘Eh, pretty close will do it!’ I’m just trying to injure the guy, you know?
C: It’s always been like a competition—anything we do we make a sport of it.
Which of you has the most ridiculous championship status?
A: I’m pretty much the champion of NBA Freestyle Jam.
C: Just to give you an idea of how the game works—it’s not played in a video game system. You choose a character from the game you want to be and play in the driveway. You say, ‘I’m Shaquille O’Neal from the Magic!’—it was the Magic then—and then you do a 360 dunk on a Fisher-Price hoop like four feet high.
A: We actually manufactured our own basketball hoop and built it into a tree in the yard so we could slam dunk at like five feet and seem like we were trying.
C: And no one else was around, so we’d judge each other and get into arguments. But Ashton was pretty good. I’ll give him that. I was always Barkley. Why was I Barkley?
Have you read his book?
A: I didn’t know he had one! I need to check that out. I was always into the showy basketball players. Like Hakeem Olajuwon—‘Look at this! The windmill dunk!’
C: Oh my God—I specifically remember that one.
A: I was like twelve. ‘Start the windmill!’
C: And your feet didn’t leave the ground!
A: I was real chubby so I didn’t get air. It was like start the windmill with my left foot on the ground and finish with my right foot on the ground.
C: And it was a mini-basketball. Like a baby’s head. The free giveaway basketball.
What’s the best free gift you ever received as children?
A: I could go deep for that. The best thing anybody ever gave me—when my dad and I went to Chicago or something, he taped these CDs his buddy had. It was like We Sold Our Soul For Rock ‘n’ Roll and Dark Side Of The Moon on the other side, and that was pretty sweet for someone to give me.
C: I remember getting Jared Wheetly’s G.I. Joe collection and that was way better! Half the G.I. Joes were missing their bottom half, and all the missiles were missing from the jets, but it was still awesome.
Did you go through that stage where you melt G.I. Joes with lighters?
C: No, we weren’t allowed to play with fire.
A: But that’s not really true. We were building fires with stolen matches.
C: But we’d get whupped if we were caught. If we did mature Boy Scout stuff it was fine. But then someone would light a stick on fire and it’s ‘Let’s play warriors!’ and throwing flaming sticks at each other.
Do you prefer being called ‘teenage-appearing’ or ‘elfin’?
C: ‘Elfin?’ You brought up the elfin thing!
A: The first time this has ever been brought up! Maybe three days ago I was listening to my CD—we just got our CDs back—and this girl in the room didn’t say it to me, but she said it to someone near me—‘These guys kind of sound elf-y.’ And I was like, ‘What?’
C: Great, man, now it’s officially a thing. We played a show with Qui and as soon as we were done David Yow comes up totally wasted as usual and the only thing he says: ‘You guys sound like girls.’ Thank you? I don’t know. Sure. Just print ‘elves.’ Just go with ‘elves.’ Like if you watch the old Snow White cartoon—they had some jams! Those were musicians! They got this hoedown thing they do. I’m not offended.
Those were dwarves.
A: Joanna Newsom is like an elf to me. But I don’t even know her. I don’t wanna offend people I don’t know. But that’s elf-y to me. To me—obviously, I think my brother looks like a young person. And I’m a pretty young-looking person as well. So we look young. It’s cool to me. We’re young. I don’t mind. Soon enough we’ll stop looking young, and people will stop talking about that.
Then what will they talk about?
A: Probably how insane we are. How we’re changing the world one album at a time.
What changes have you noticed so far?
C: Besides massive amounts of Myspace friend requests?
A: The world, though, man—I think in general, and this is Ashton the hippie—the world is spinning more positively now. I feel there’s more vibes and electricity and what-not in the world, and there’s positivity right now.
C: I’ll agree with that. You can kind of feel it. If there’s energy about your band going on outside of you, I think you can feel it. It doesn’t always have to be people like, ‘Your band is great!’ It’s out there and that’s a weird feeling—a cool feeling.
When did you figure out this was happening?
C: When you called me to do an interview.
Are your shirts off in every photo from every road trip you ever taken?
A: I don’t think we’ve ever been on a road trip with shirts on.
For fuel efficiency?
A: It makes you feel like you’re going faster for sure.
What would be your most valuable skills in a partisan-warfare situation?
C: We grew up in the woods, man. We could live outdoors probably indefinitely. We don’t need running water and stuff. And we wouldn’t freak out.
A: If it was like world chaos, if there were two people who could be like, ‘OK, guys, let’s not be chaotic…’—we’re good at that.
C: We know who’s got skills in what areas! We could reorganize! Repopulate the earth! Organize colonies!
What are the most valuable modifications you’ve made to your own gear so far?
C: I put new strings on my guitar.
A: You built your cabs! Talk about it! That’s what he’s talking about!
C: When I got my guitar, I rigged all the electronics out. I put a single pick-up and volume and it was a total guess but it worked out. I love it. Mostly you get burned by the soldering iron. I get my face too close and the solder smoke is really toxic, and you kind of space out, and you lay it down on your lap and it burns through your pants.
Is this why you don’t have kids?
C: Probably. I’d definitely leave them at McDonald’s. I have to wait til I live in a small town where people know me and return them.

—Chris Ziegler

TWEAK BIRD’S RESERVATIONS RELEASE PARTY WITH PTERODACDUDES ON WED., SEPT. 17, AT THE SILVERLAKE LOUNGE, 2906 SUNSET BLVD., SILVERLAKE. 9 PM / $7 / 21+. FOLDSILVERLAKE.COM. TWEAK BIRD’S RESERVATIONS RELEASES TUE., SEPT. 9, ON VOLCOM. VISIT TWEAK BIRD AT TWEAKBIRD.BLOGSPOT.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/TWEAKBIRD.

After you gave your kidney to your dad, did you weigh yourself to see how big it was?
Valient Himself (vocals): The kidney didn’t even weigh a pound, but I actually lost eighteen pounds to do the thing. I started getting in shape—running six miles a day. I stopped drinking in December, and by March that was it—and I stopped drinking caffeine and started eating a lot more healthy. No candy and no snacks.
What was your favorite candy?
I do different things. I’m a Reese’s Pieces man. I hate when people say ‘Reesee Pieces.’ You know the kids with with Kool-Aid mouth on your street when you’re little? The kids who don’t know how to wipe their mouths off? That’s who says ‘Reesee Pieces.’ It’s supposed to rhyme—get it right.
Who is your favorite barbarian tribe from the ancient world?
The Huns? I might second-guess that. I’d have to re-think it. Really study my Conan movies. When it comes down to it, there are Time Masters and wizards. There are a lot of bands using wizard imagery and you can’t get that mixed up with a Time Master. The guy on our record is Moebius, the Master of Time. Father Time. That’s totally different. A wizard is just a wizard. I’m scared of wizards—I’m like a dude in Conan.
Why? Did something happen to you?
I just don’t trust wizards. Unless you know counter spells, what are you gonna do? Turn around and your buddy’s a frog and you gotta carry him around in a box.
How about witches?
I love witches. I’m pretty much into whatever chicks come around regardless.
What records did your producer Jack Endino have that you wanted?
He had everything. Every Hawkwind record and all the side projects. Every Budgie record. Stuff I was looking for was like Socrates Drank The Conium. He had the original press of Sir Lord Baltimore. He had everything. I have a list, and since I put it out there that I have a list, dudes have been contacting me with things. I picked up the T2 record, the second Dust record and Orang-utan’s self-titled. I joke about bands like that where they press 420 copies and only three are left but they actually really did that.
When you toured with Motorhead, did Lemmy really play with you every night?
He didn’t play but he came out and tapped his foot and bobbed his head. Mikkey Dee partied with us every night. Everybody was warning us like, ‘Aw, man, these guys are gonna be tough!’ But we were hanging the first fucking day! Super-awesome dudes full of amazing stories. We hung out and I listened to his solo stuff that’s unreleased as of yet. I can’t even probably tell you about it. He has a solo album that’s two songs apiece with a bunch of different bands. I really wanted to do a split seven-inch with one of his songs but the record label won’t let him because it’s still in the works. He’s funny—everything he says is funny.
What’s he listen to when he’s relaxing?
I don’t wanna call him out but… he was listening to some wack shit! Well, a lot of different stuff—I don’t want him to cut me! But definitely some questionable jams going on. But people listen to different things to relax. People might laugh at what I listen to—Gram Parsons, but fuck it!
Who would laugh at that?
Yeah, but maybe people don’t understand. And maybe I don’t understand Evanescence.
Have you heard his old band Sam Gopal?
Yes—Endino has all that on vinyl. He’d pull shit out I never heard of—but I had shit he’d never heard. Like a band from Texas in 1971—Iota. Most of the stuff I nerd out about is 1970-1973 heavy boogie rock or heavy psych. Lots of people say that’s exhausted territory but that’s horseshit—there’s so much out there. And so much that’s good, and every once in a while, you’ll find a nugget of something bad-fucking-ass and you get a new jam. Endino said he’d put that shit on and it was face-melting. It’d run people out of the room. He’d clear a room with Sir Lord Baltimore.
You said once Valient Thorr can fit on any bill from death metal to bluegrass—when did you ever play with a bluegrass band?
Back in North Carolina—a band that’s about to be gigantic. They just signed to American—the Avett Brothers. I’m into traditional bluegrass. I always say metal purists and bluegrass purists are of the same ilk. They both listen to something and if they’re elitists at all, they’re like, ‘That isn’t metal! Death to false bluegrass!’
You’ve mentioned Yuri Gagarian as an influence—are you familiar with the stories of the lost Soviet cosmonauts?
Yes, I am. I used to call space travel out—call NASA out. I haven’t in a long time but I think it’s all horseshit. You never know. There are so many experiments they did—there could be lost astronauts, not just lost cosmonauts. Nobody ever talks about all these things like Star Wars and the missile-defense field—it’s basically the Tesla template. They ran his ass out of Colorado Springs and fucked him up just like Wilhelm Reich. It’s fucked up when you try to reveal big ideas. You gotta get some tough-ass dudes to help you.
Should the mafia start a space program?
They probably already are. All these cats who are super-rich because they invented iPods and Blackberries and Sidekicks and whatever new thing—those dudes gotta have a lot of help these days. Not like Blackwater ops dudes—
Don’t they have some kind of private air force?
They’re above the law completely. And they had that base in the swamps. I’m pretty sure most of South Carolina is covert-ops—it’s just Charleston and swamps. Some big-ass secret base.
And the South Carolina lizard man.
Yeah—or a lizard man house. I think they scare people with the lizard man. If you believe David Icke, maybe they have lizard men—a race of lizard men because they cloned them. Blackwater may just be a race of lizard men cloned and trained to kill.
Have you ever seen a UFO?
Tons. All the time—we’re from space!

—Chris Ziegler

VALIENT THORR WITH EARLY MAN AND SKELETONWITCH ON FRI., AUG. 15, AT THE TROUBADOUR, 9081 SANTA MONICA BLVD., WEST HOLLYWOOD. 8 PM / $13-$15 / ALL AGES. TROUBADOUR.COM. VALIENT THORR’S IMMORTALIZER IS OUT NOW ON VOLCOM. VISIT VALIENT THORR AT VALIENTTHORR.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/VALIENTTHORR.

Volcom Entertainment and Matt Maiellaro co creator of Aqua Teen Hunger Force teemed up on the new Year Long Disaster video for their song Leda Atomica off their album Self Titled album. Also check em out on tour……

Year Long Disaster (w/ The Cult):
5/23/08 Viejas Casino Concerts in the Park – Alpine (San Diego), CA
5/24/08 The Joint – Las Vegas, NV
5/25/08 Grove of Anaheim – Anaheim CA

Year Long Disaster (w/ Burning Brides):
6/10/08 The Playground – Park City, UT
6/11/08 Marquis Theater – Denver, CO
6/12/08 The Black Sheep – Colorado Springs, CO
6/13/08 Cowboy Saloon – Laramie, WY
6/15/08 7th St. Entry – Minneapolis, MN
6/16/08 High Noon Saloon – Madison, WI
6/17/08 The Double Door – Chicago, IL
6/18/08 Magic Stick – Detroit, MI
6/24/08 Middle East – Cambridge, MA

((Sounder)) “Good Things”

Good Things Come and Go Like Bad Things
Volcom Entertainment

Every once in a while I’ll hear an album that pushes all of my music-fetish buttons, and this is one of them. The whole album has that great murky production value that so many of my favorite records share. At times it’s hard to tell whether or not the vocals were recorded in a studio or in someone’s garage, and the instruments bleed together when there’s more than a couple in a given song. The album features some great piano and acoustic guitar work, as well as some fuzzy distorted guitar and weird synth sounds that really color the mix. Some tracks lean toward folk, while others rely on the classic loud/quiet/loud indie rock formula. Even the cover art is great: a painting of what appears to be a bird wearing a turtleneck sweater against a wooden background praying to a star. One of my favorite moments comes in “Things Are Gonna Get Worse,” which includes the word “worser.” Rap artists get away with chopping up English, so why not? Keep up the gooder works!

— Adam Fisher

Birds of Avalon “Bicentennial Baby”

Birds of Avalon formed out of the bust-up of the Cherry Valence and recently released their Outer Upper Inner EP last month on Volcom. Drummer Scott Nurkin speaks five minutes after finishing recording a new song with Tim Green.

What do you like best about playing in a Dutch bathroom with Monotonix?
Well, we actually weren’t playing in there—but I think probably 100% of Monotonix shows are the best thing because you never know about every time they play. I’ve seen 25 shows and they’re all completely different. Ami—who is the lead singer—sort of surveys the perimeter before the shows starts and gets an idea what to do. At that show, he somehow managed to get everyone in the club in the bathroom. The night before, it was the kitchen. He knows how to work a venue. It’s generally the same things with every band—Monotonix or Black Mountain or you know—you never wanna slouch if the band you’re playing with is totally awesome. It’s like a circus every night with Monotonix. I’m never down about a show we’re gonna play with them.
What is Birds of Avalon’s never-fail crowd-killing song?
I wouldn’t be so bold as to say we never fail. But we’ll cater to whatever crowd we’re playing for. If it’s a mellow show, we might play a mellow set.
How mellow do you get?
Well, we got slower tempo songs—it’s not all bombastic. But on tour with the Fucking Champs, their crowd is definitely metallers, so we kept it lively. Sometimes we’ll play a cover here and there if we’re feeling it.
What is your most fondly regarded cover?
We haven’t done it recently but we’re covering a song by Jay Reatard.
Does he know?
I don’t know, but he’s a buddy. We talk about how neat it was back in the day when bands used to cover songs that were contemporary before they got really popular. Like Hendrix covering the Beatles or something—I’d hate to liken us to that ilk, but something instead of classic rock. Something coming out this year might be fun.
What kind of song did you just record with Tim Green?
I don’t know if I wanna reveal my cards. It’s an uptempo song that may or may not be influenced by California.
Could Jay Reatard do a worthy cover of it?
He’d probably smash it to pieces. The guy seems to turn anything he touches to gold.
How did you make sure your EP was recorded to 1967 standards?
Honestly, you got the wrong guy—I’m more or less the drummer!
Did you play a 1967 kit?
I think it probably goes into the way of the actual recording process. We recorded to four-track tape and then used some sort of arcane method that the guy who produced it—Mitch Easter—had read about. He’d never tried it, but he was excited and thought we were the best band to be guinea pigs. It was kind of laborious. We had to do a lot of stuff in one take because it wasn’t easy to fix things. But it was also kind of refreshing—keeps you on your toes. But I do play a ’71. Don’t print that.
So it’s like your drum set came from the future to help.
Ok, you can say that.
Which band prepared you better for Birds of Avalon—Guns of El Borracho or the Tim Smith band?
I was a hired gun, more or less—one is a jazz band and one is a funk/reggae mix that played weddings. I played a lot of shitty weddings. Lemme think of a romantic one. One time I played on a boat. It’s typical stuff—‘Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,’ ‘Chicken Strut,’ lots of Stax and Otis Redding stuff. I don’t think either band adequately prepared me for Birds of Avalon.
Why were you the only band member who never worked at Kings?
I’m the only one who doesn’t live in Raleigh. I live in Chapel Hill—thirty minutes away. But I certainly put my time in at Kings. They have an annual thing—the Great Cover-Up with three nights of cover bands. Birds of Avalon did Alice Cooper, Love and the Damned.
Who was hardest to rehearse?
The Damned were really tough. I wasn’t very familiar with their music, and it’s so frenetic and amazing. Short bombastic bursts of music. Lots of fun!
You’ve said ‘bombastic’ twice in ten minutes. Are you a particularly bombastic guy?
Tim Green’s used it four times in the last three days. It kind of caught me.
Did you ever see Napoleon’s death mask at the University of North Carolina?
I don’t think I’ve seen that. But I’d be quick to add that we have a vast array of wonderful musicians from our great state. Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, George Clinton, Nina Simone—and we also have the Tarheels, who you may or may not know are in the Final Four.
Do you have money on that?
I do not but the entire economy of where I live—Chapel Hill—has got some money on that.
How do you feel about South Carolina having the Lizard Man of Lee County and North Carolina having no lizard men at all?
I don’t know whether to be really happy about that or really sad about that.

BIRDS OF AVALON WITH IMAAD WASIF WITH TWO PART BEAST AND TIJUANA KNIFE FIGHT PLUS GUEST ON SUN., APRIL 6, AT ALEX’S BAR, 2913 E. ANAHEIM ST., LONG BEACH. 9 PM / $5 / 21+. ALEXSBAR.COM. AND WITH DRIVE A ON TUE., APRIL 8, AT THE KEY CLUB, 9039 W. SUNSET BLVD., LOS ANGELES. 10 PM / FREE / ALL AGES. KEYCLUB.COM. VISIT BIRDS OF AVALON AT BIRDSOFAVALON.COM.