Ah, Los Angeles. 99% of the time this place kicks ass. The other 1% of the time I’m left wondering whether or not I miss the changing seasons, or my old friends, or my family. Also it’s going to be 100 degrees here this week! Maybe I’ll drive to the beach Wednesday and relax in the sun for a few hours. Grab a sandwich from Bay Cities and listen to the Mets game on my phone. You never know what each day here will bring. We can go skiing, or surfing, or hiking, or party in Vegas. The possibilities are not quite limitless, but…there’s a lot of fucking possibilities.
This week’s theme for the An Album A Day series is “LA Past And Present.” That is, I’m going to be highlighting five very unique albums that were recorded by locals. Maybe one day you’ll get a weird vanity/private press album, and the next will be a modern artist/group. I’ve been browsing my shelves for the past hour trying to think of a fun theme for this week and I think I’ve come up with a decent one. It’s not “The Five Worst Records I Own” (thanks, Ian!) but it’s also not another lame “Here are five albums I own from some goofy limited edition series” or “Forever 27” club or something. Actually I might use both of those further down the line, but for now…let’s keep on loving LA.
Ah, VUM. At least I think it’s VUM. It might be Vum? Either way, these Topanga Canyon experimentalists (they’re a far cry from days of CSNY or Lowell George) were introduced to me by a girl I met a few years ago. What is it you East Coasters (or Mid Westerners) do when you’re stressed out and just need a relaxing day? Out here in Southern California you do shit like take a yoga class or have a spa day or get a massage. So I met this girl at one of those places, and whenever I saw her we would trade music recommendations. I hipped her to groups like White Hills and Earthless and in return she told me about her friends’ band VUM. I think I might have played dumb and said it sounded familiar — it didn’t — but I had her write it down for me so I could check them out. A few days later — August 5th 2012 — someone traded in a copy of Night Sun to the store so I snatched it up for myself. Mine’s number 158 out of 300 originally pressed by Secret Lodge. There was a second pressing in 2013 with different artwork.
On their official Bandcamp page, Night Sun is described as being, “Recorded in the canyons of the west coast and the jungles of the South Pacific…soaked in their unique brand of cinematic noir featuring deep, powerful vocals, psychedelic guitars, dark wave synths, and thumping Suicide-esque drum machines; all this intertwined with manic field recordings of jungle choked latitudes… Night Sun is pressed on high quality vinyl and comes in eco-friendly packaging, including recycled paper jacket printed with soy inks in the the traditional offset printing process by Stumptown Printers. 10% of the proceeds from the sale of Night Sun on vinyl here will be donated to the Atitia Center in Mo’orea, French Polynesia; a place where traditional Tahitian culture meets cutting edge scientific concepts.” I don’t know why, but I like the idea of proceeds being donated. That’s something you don’t see very often, especially from a band who I imagine isn’t huge outside of their hometown. This isn’t fucking U2 we’re talking about… it’s the band you’d see at Spaceland on a Monday night, you know? Either way, it’s an awesome humanitarian gesture and it doesn’t hurt that the album is really good too.
Check it out. I don’t know if they’re sold out of the 2nd pressing vinyl but I imagine if they are, you can still download Night Sun from that Bandcamp page. They also have a new album I called Psychotropic Jukebox that’s quite good as well, but I’m partial to this one.
VUM
Night Sun
(Secret Lodge Recordings – 001, 2011)
A1. Octagonal Church
A2. The Jungle [MP3]
A3. Echo Mountain
A4. Illusion Only Is Scared
A5. Savage
B1. The Sliding Hour
B2. Eighteen
B3. Mad Desires
B4. Holler Rain
B5. Remember Me
