FYF Fest Preview: Girls vs Boys Part II

KCRW DJs Marion Hodge and Mario Cotto are both really excited about the lineup for the upcoming FYF Fest so I asked them to highlight some of their favorites – girls vs. boys. We kicked off this two-part post with the ladies, and now we preview the gentleman.

Also, we have a pair of tickets to give away to one lucky winner. Send an email about why YOU should get the tickets to giveaway@kcrw.org with FYF Fest in the subject line and we will notify a winner on Wednesday, Aug 25!

The fest will be held Saturday, September 4 at Los Angeles State Historic Park.

From Mario Cotto:

Marion has given you some rad Girls of FYF Fest artist options, and it got me thinking, “what about the Boys?”…What about the Boys? I think Gloria Estefan said it best when she sang, “Boys will be boys, baaaad boys, baaaad boys…”

FYF Fest has its fair share. It goes without saying that ALL the headliners this year like to make the kind of racket that would make your mom rage and repeatedly rap at the ceiling with a broomstick. The Rapture’s anthemic discopunk, !!! (CHK CHK CHK)’s wobbly funk, and Panda Bear’s harmonic drones are all going to demand ear-plugs, unless you want to bleed out of every orifice and die. You should see them, ALL of them.

But the bad boys I’m excited about are all goofy, sloppy, drooling, ranting drunks.

Puerto Rico’s Davila 666 are insanely surly 60’s garage revivalists. They dress like The Ramones, but kind of Caribbean. They play these amazing 2-3 minute simple chord punk jams, in Spanish. And scream about girls, drugs, and wolfmen, sometimes in three-part harmony. The best description of them is how they describe themselves: “Menudo on drugs.” A couple of years ago, In The Red released their self-titled album, and it was instantly my favorite album of the year. I love Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans, and snotty, spitting punk rawk…so, I’m super psyched.

I never use the word shambolic. In fact, I’m not even sure I know what it means…but whatever it means, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti is it. The last time I saw Ariel Pink perform, he was opening for Animal Collective last year, and he was wearing a black American Apparel unitard and a recyclable Trader Joe’s shopping bag as a vest. He was drinking red wine out of the bottle and passionately singing new songs from his latest album and one of the year’s best, “Before Today.” Although his performances have the reputation of being potentially implosive affairs, they are ALWAYS entertaining and completely sincere in a way that is priceless. Don’t miss it.

Abe Vigoda. Some people might be all like, “Hey MAAAANN, YOU CHANGED!” when listening to the stuff off their forthcoming “Crush” album…but, guess what, it doesn’t matter because it’s AWESOME. They got a rad new drummer who looks like he’s 10 years old and should still be in school, but again, it doesn’t matter because he killllls it.

Anyhow…this is a kind of conceptual primer, but as the date fast approaches, Marion and I will continue sharing our less gender-based personal Favorites of FYF Fest.

EFFFF YEAH!

– Mario Cotto