Halloween is coming up this weekend. I think the university is getting ready to go into crisis mode. Thousands of people descend on Isla Vista with the intent of cramming as much of a good time as possible into two days. I've had no prior experience of the chaos, but if all the fliers and warnings and community preparation meetings are anything to go by, this is going to be madness. I think I might dress as the tooth fairy. I have a white dress, and now I need some teeth. At the moment, it'll be enough of a celebration if I don't have to do schoolwork for a day.
The weekend following Halloween (and the US and NZ elections, eek!) is a long one; we get the Tuesday off, so I think we're stealing the Monday too. I'm hoping to take a trip, to LA, San Diego or even Ensenada in Mexico. Looking forward to that beacon of relaxation, and of course Thanksgiving! Which I'll be back in Berkeley for. Mmmm, composting, coffee and the Cheese Board... But more on the culture shocks of SoCal some other time.
I spent a delightful Sunday night at the Biko Garage, a performance space attached to the student housing co-operative. I love going there, because it's like going home among the ironed-perfect blond-tanned California sorority girls and the associated frat guys. This place is filled with hippies and hipsters wearing vintage. They all seem pretty nice, and I'm planning to infiltrate them like all those viruses I've been learning about in school.
The first (and last) band on Sunday was called Girl Band. They sound like the kind of music I came to America for; three girls with charming voices, a harp, a guitar, a ukulele, occasionally a glockenspiel or cheap keyboard. It was beautiful and the crowd obviously loved them. I get the feeling they're IV natives (one of their members is in another indie pop band, Watercolor Paintings) and don't play all that often. They were extremely lovely, although it would also be good to see them branch out a little more from the mold. At the moment they sound like a cross between Joanna Newsom and Au Revoir Simone, and while that is a beautiful combination, no one wants to be a mixed drink. Be a cocktail!
Desolation Wilderness, a four-piece (maybe? I couldn't see properly) had psychedelic wafty indie-rock that it was nice to hear again. They have that one great thing going for them: a very attractive lead singer, and it was good to jiggle along. I feel like their music might benefit from repeated listening. Maybe. That's a maybe.
L.A.K.E. were the headliners of the night, if there can be headliners in a small garage packed to the gills. It was like a pressure cooker in there. I'll add "hot steamy gigs" to my list of outside-the-box energy solutions. The other one so far is gyms. I've started actually going to the rec centre here (!; yes) and thought about all the energy that people are burning up. Literally. If we could somehow mine this resource, turn the treadmills into mousewheels that power some kind of generator, then maybe our energy problems wouldn't be completely solved, but I for one would stop feeling like gyms are the most useless places on earth.
Anyway! L.A.K.E.! Releasing new album thingie! They have actually have a track on the first Bicycle Records comp. for those people back in NZ who have acquired the above from the Polka Dots. I bought their first album after the show which is very minimalist sweet indie pop and not fantastic. But their live show was good. They've started bringing funk and indie together, and I like what they're making, and you can dance to it, and people did, and it was awesome. And they're cute. The Biko garage crowd are very nice. They are friendly and share their water. I like it.
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