After a short hiatus, Les Savy Fav returned with a vengeance last year dropping ‘Let’s Stay Friends’.  Next up is the digital-only live disc After The Balls Drop, recorded at a 3AM performance at New York’s Bowery Ballroom on Jan 1, 2008. It is being released at the end of this month as they head to Coachella, but DC is gonna get a little foreplay this Friday at the Black Cat (along with The Dodos and The Big Sleep) from this notoriously good live act. We had a little chat over the internets to see how they were doing…

Harrison Haynes: Hello, Brightest Young Things, I am Harrison, the drummer of LSF.

Brightest Young Things: Right on! First can you add a caption to this picture:

HH: Yes, the caption is:
“‘We must burn the house down!’ said the Rabbit’s voice.”
That’s a line from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

BYT: What are you doing right now, besides this interview?

HH: Listening to Thin Lizzy pumping through the wall that separates my art studio from a restaurant. The kitchen staff always play extremely loud music between lunch and dinner. Typically it is Talking Heads’ ‘More Songs About Buildings and Food’, but today they seem to be playing a mix featuring lots of Thin Lizzy. I love Thin Lizzy, but it’s frustrating to have to identify it only through bass lines. I am working in here on some new collages. Right now I’m making text out of cut-out photographs of pine tree trunks. But I’m not sure what it’s going to say, yet. I’ll get back to you.

BYT: You so crazy. Wikipedia told me a lot of sports video games use Les Savy Fav tunes, what’s up with that?

HH: The other dudes like to play all sorts of video games. I like to watch. There was a several month-long era during which Tim would play ‘Silent Hill’ and I would watch it the way I would watch a horror film. We both got pretty scared a few times.

BYT: On your web site is says ‘Missing Out On Cashing In For Over a Decade’. Except for video game soundtracks? Not giving you a hard time, really, I’m all for selling out.

HH: Well, when we failed at our attempts to attain 501(c)(3) status, we had to turn somewhere.

BYT: I don’t play sports games because my father forced me to play real sports as a kid and he was the coach and that always turns out badly, but I have this racing game for my Wii that you can play your own music with and I have often times in the past thrown some Les Savy Fav songs on there and it compliments it very well. I feel like there is more than just a coincidence at work here.

HH: Maybe it’s the bass lines. Syd is an avid ice hockey fan and player (that’s in real life, mind you, not in a video game). So maybe his bass lines are inspired by his movement across the ice, bashing into people, then gliding, then pivoting and spraying ice dust all over that plexi divider.

BYT: Speaking of your web site, how come you haven’t updated it in 8 months?

HH: I’m the drummer.

BYT: Fair enough. Speaking of Wii, a few days ago I put on The Sweat Descends and played some vicious air guitar to it while using my Guitar Hero guitar. Seriously one of the greatest songs I’ve ever air rocked out to. This isn’t so much a question as a statement, but you can feel free to add your thoughts, or not.

HH: We once all played Guitar Hero together from a gigantic overstuffed bed in a suite at the historic Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas.

BYT: You guys should totally get a cameo on Tim and Eric Awesome show. Sometimes I laugh so hard I have to pause it in fear of permanent physical damage to my innards, and I’m not even kidding.

HH: Don’t kid about that. We are obsessed and ‘this’ close to hanging out with those guys. Lately, my favorite bit is the competitive dads where Team Heidecker goes to the park (’You’ve got a great one here. Maybe one of the best.’) But ‘The Snuggler’ with Zach Galafianakis is tops.

BYT: The Snuggler is hands down my fav episode. Did you see the one with the old lady doing this karaoke style video about having her neighbor come over and give her some sexing?

HH: No, but I’m already smiling.

BYT: What is your favorite/least favorite Les Savy Fav song?

HH: favorite: ‘Dishonest Don Part II’, least favorite: ‘Dishonest Don Part I’

BYT: Did you know you get less wet if you walk through the rain than if you run? It’s true, I saw it on Mythbusters.

HH: I can’t say I haven’t wondered. My instincts told me to run.

BYT: Exactly, even now that I know, it’s still hard. So, the live album, what made you pick that show?

HH: New year’s eve is a monumental moment, even when it’s anti-climactic. If you aren’t raging, you might be high on the stress of making the moment special, or trying to call someone on the cell phone over and over again. I was actually feeling pleasantly devoid of all of those shortcomings, I think we all were that morning. The occasion had a sense of purpose outside of us playing a show. We had a lot of friends and family gathered there and things were falling apart in just the right way.

BYT: Why not a DVD?

HH: We already released a DVD (with ‘Inches’) and I think we like to keep the live show as integral to the actual experience as possible. The word of mouth thing is important, and therefore it’s good to make people have to see it for themselves, in person.

BYT: Yeah, I watched half of that DVD one time (sorry, that joke was stolen from Pitchfork). I see a cover of Everybody’s Gotta Live on the tracklist, can I formally make a request for that at the DC show? Unless you suck at it.

HH: I think most of the covers from that morning are/were site-specific pieces.

BYT: Why don’t more of your indie rock contemporaries do cover songs? Everyone loves to hear a cover.

HH: I think we have all been really excited by the idea of re-interpreting great songs. It’s another way of connecting with the audience. Besnard Lakes did the most unbelievably awesome cover of ‘You Make Lovin Fun’ by Fleetwood Mac at the CitySol Fest in NYC last summer.

BYT: Do you guys feel obligated these days to perform some wacky live hi-jinks at every show now that you’ve set that precedent?

HH: I think the performance aspect of the show has always been intrinsic to LSF, and ultimately, it’s second nature.

BYT: Are you looking forward to Coachella or is it going to just be a giant stressful clusterfuck?

HH: Not stressful at all, but yes, a clusterfuck, or maybe a 3-ring jugfuck. I’m probably going to put on my dashiki and cruise through it all.

BYT: Do you have your ipod with you? Can you put all songs on random and tell me the first 5 that come up. Don’t lie. If you don’t have it with you, take a guess what they might be.

HH: Honestly, I did what you said and here they are:
1.’One Minute Woman’ from ‘1st’ by The Bee Gees
2.’Corrina, Corrina’ from ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’ by Bob Dylan
3.’Don’t Lie to Me’ from ‘Live’ by Big Star
4.’Paint a Vulgar Picture’ from ‘Strangeways, Here We Come’ by The Smiths
5.’Cada Macaco No Seu Galho’ from ‘Expresso 2222′ by Gilberto Gil

BYT: You totally conquered that. Ok, I’m gonna do it too:
1. ‘Be Quiet Mt. Heart Attack!’ from ‘Drum’s Not Dead’ by Liars
2. ‘Two People In A Room’ from ‘154′ by Wire
3. ‘Unused Dedication Sound Effect’ from ‘Free Internet Album’ by Deerhoof
4. ‘Un Poison Violent’ from ‘Comic Strip’ by Serge Gainsbourg
5. ‘Oh My Golly!’ from ‘Surfer Rosa’ by The Pixies

Phew, indie cred still in tact, although that was close, #6 was Alive by Pearl Jam and #7 was Ladies Night by Kool & The Gang. Ok, finally I have interviewees pick one song for my mom to review. She’s old and goes to church a lot and doesn’t like movies with too many bad words and listens to top 40 country music and has knee problems, so choose one from the new album that you think she’ll like.

HH: ‘The Lowest Bitter’

Ok, here it is:

Well…not my favorite….thought the song a bit monotonous, but it really isn’t my favorite kind of music….may be good instrumentally, but didn’t connect with the words, and thought it was a lot of continuous periods of “shouting”….again, just not my favorite type of music….a bit discordant, and repetitious melody…sorry! Thanks for asking my opinion….Love, mom

Love you too mom.

Les Savy Fav
The Big Sleep
The Dodos
Black Cat Mainstage
Fri Apr 4, 9:00pm
$15

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