We might be rained in this gray October morning, but just last night I devoured my very first dragon fruit (a sweet, fuchsia bulb that looks like an egg from Alien and tastes like sorbet when chilled), giving me yet another reason to love life in Southern California. And dragon fruit in October is just one of the hundreds of treasures spotted at the Silverlake farmers market on Saturday.
If you think that garage sales are the only place to find epic record collections, think again. Wombleton Records in Highland Park is a used vinyl shop chalk full of rare and original LPs and 45s, which are hand selected from all over the world. The store is a collaboration between husband and wife record fanatics, Ian Marshall and Jade Gordon.
There’s really no other way to describe a place like Wacko than through a laundry list of superlatives, though stuff like Big Lebowski action figures, Tim Burton miniatures, plush Cthulu monsters and absinthe dental floss kind of speaks for itself.
Japan’s very own Shonen Knife sliced into Silverlake’s Spaceland on their current Freetime tour. As would be expected of such an occasion, the crowd was exponentially fashionable. For anyone who hasn’t yet had the pleasure of discovering Shonen Knife for themselves, imagine three adorable girls from Osaka, Japan who play garage-rock pop-punk perfection with titles like “Antonio Baka Guy” “Twist Barbie” and “Sushi Bar.” Their musical dollops of ear candy have charmed the likes of Kurt Cobain (see the video below), Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Redd Kross. The latter even named an album for them, 1989′s Every Band Has A Shonen Knife Who Loves Them. Shonen Knife countered with a love song about Los Angeles entitled “Redd Kross” extolling their longing for long haired boys and hard music that come with the territory.
Sunday I sun screened, loaded up my ‘concert purse,’ stocked up on carbs and headed to the Sunset Junction. As I walked through the gates, I stumbled right into a mini techno fest with DJs spinning and girls dancing on the Electro Stage. After bouncing from stage to stage, I settled in at the Bates Stage for Girl in a Coma. I’d never seen them play before but was intrigued by a mixture of things I have heard about the trio and the fact that they are named after a Smith’s song. It was a bit angry chick rock at times but I liked it overall. The singer has powerful vocals and it was refreshing to see female guitar players rock out on stage. They played Static Mind, which was a catchy tune and then chose Femme Fatale for the encore. The crowd was filled with stylish-haired hipsters, many proudly equipped with Girl in a Coma merch. After the set, a festival attendee turned to her friend and said, “Wow! That was tight.”
On Saturday, the Department of Flying Vehicles opened its doors for the first time to a motley crowd of art and music-starved east-siders. Nestled right in the beating heart of Silverlake, it’s a new creative space conceived and brought to you by the inexhaustible masterminds behind LACMA Muse and Bizzarmy.
I fell in love with the Silversun Pickups shortly after Carnavas came out. For me that album takes me back to New York City in a dingy hotel room, with an incredibly hot sexy stranger, and an ipod set on repeat. (ok replace dingy with corporate, and stranger with my husband and that’s pretty much how it went down). However, my emotional memory plays it back as the soundtrack to a torrid affair. And discovering that music, that way, was hot.
So imagine my impatience at waiting for the next installment of the Silversun legacy. Swoon does not disappoint. If you are sick of hearing their sound described as picking up where the pumpkins Gish left off, too bad. It does. But they have also made it entirely their own. The first single, Panic Switch ebbs and flows in perfect time, riding the rails between slow moody melodies and rocking the F out. Thoughtful lyrics and driving rhythms abound on this articulate album front to back. If you listen to it with the lights off, burning a candle, you will see your whole future in front of you (ok maybe that was the kid from Almost Famous – but it applies).