FUTURE SOUNDS PICKS: DIOS MALOS & AVI BUFFALO

I get by with a little help from my friends, and this weekend, two friends slipped me new music by two Southern California bands that made painting the baby room a hypnotic experience.

The first album came from my good friend, El Diablo. As usual, he's right on the money and he gave me the latest release from a band I've loved since Future Sounds 12, DIOS MALOS, as they are about to release their third full-length album. They've always leaned towards THE BEACH BOYS in sound, having grown up near Hawthorne, but this release is far more "Smile" (Windchimes/Vegetables), while giving us the creaminess of 'Deserter's Song' era MERCURY REV or BEACH HOUSE or more recently the lushness of PANDA BEAR. I also got nostalgic on the opening track as it samples a scream from my childhood from my favorite Halloween LP that my parents played in our garage for our neightborhood haunted house each year to scare the trick-or-treaters. Song, "Tel Mee Theen" has the most gorgeous-George Harrison like guitar rip! This is a record of maturity, or depth and of vision. I have no idea yet when this album will be released or what it's called.

Someone else that's listened to many of these references, is the teenage AVI BUFFALO from Long Beach, California. Thanks to Jax of ROCK INSIDER for this gem! What's more impressive is after finding out how young Avi and his band are, as he started writing and recording at 10 years old, and are now only 17. I was trying to talk my parent's into letting me get my learners permit and earning some coin as a busboy at THE PUB when I was this age, not writing music that is so gentle and advanced. I received a collection of songs from various recordings, but tracks like "Truth Sets In" and "Where's Your Dirty Mind" are impressive and have me eager to see this live and have a conversation with the person behind such grand ideas.
Avi will be playing a half dozen times over the next six weeks in Southern California, with gigs on Oct 29th at The Smell, and the 30th at the Echo Curio.