Whether you got up early to buy the Feist/Mastodon split or went to one of the many free shows in town yesterday, it's safe to say that yesterday was a good day. Stinkweeds celebrated its 25th anniversary and Record Store Day with a barbecue and live performances by Dylan Pratt, Mergence, Source Victoria, Colorstore, Tobie Milford, King Fathand, and The Love Me Nots.
"Our actual anniversary is May 1, 1987. That was our opening date, but it's so close to Record Store Day that we just lump them together," says Stinkweeds owner Kimber Lanning.
Customers lined up as early as 6:30 a.m. for Record Store Day goodies at Stinkweeds. "We had total chaos, like clowns in a Volkswagen. A few people ran out because they had claustrophobia and just couldn't deal with it. Total chaos until about noon, then we had intermittent chaos," says Lanning.
The Love Me Nots contributed to the chaos (in a good way) by announcing that Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World would join them for a few songs.
It was a pretty warm day, but free water, shade, and an intermittent breeze helped out.
The Love Me Nots set up in a corner of the Stinkweeds parking lot to play a 35-minute set. These garage rockers were able to play most of "Keep Talking" until they experienced a brief power loss. Frontwoman Nicole Laurenne laughed it off by saying "This happens at Yucca [Tap Room] all the time; we blow the PA," then thanked the crowd for coming. As soon as power was restored, the band finished "Keep Talking" and invited Jim Adkins on stage.
Adkins picked up an acoustic guitar and contributed backup vocals to "The Girl Lights Up," "You Don't Know a Thing About Me", and "Rough Boys" (a Pete Townshend cover). In case you couldn't make it or were preoccupied with wiping sweat from your brow, we caught it on video-
The Stinkweeds set was The Love Me Nots' second Record Store Day performance and fourth show in 24 hours. The fifth was at the Thunderbird location of Zia Records, where Nicole told fans that they came to the right show because it was indoors and had air conditioning. This was especially good news for Laurenne, who fainted at Revolver Records earlier yesterday. The band stayed cool at Stinkweeds, thanks to fans and water spritzes.
At all three shows, The Love Me Nots sold raffle tickets for signed T-shirts to benefit the Ear Candy charity. Laurenne encouraged fans to buy the bands' albums through the record stores, with colored vinyl being a major incentive. "It's orange, it sounds better on orange," said Laurenne.
After the Stinkweeds performance, we had a brief Q&A with Laurenne and Adkins. Things got a little silly toward the end.
Jim: You just gotta send me a text in the morning for what color go-go boots we're doing today.
Nicole: We try to use some discretion.
Jim: I don't want to show up with the wrong ones.
Nicole: When in doubt, go white, because they sparkle.
Jim: You can clash with panache, but white really does just go with anything. The heat really is messing with me, I think.
Nicole: He's now a fashion maven. Everything is just awesome.
Last Night: The Love Me Nots at Stinkweeds. The Crowd: Adults wearing T-shirts and sunglasses and kids with puppies. Overheard in the Crowd: "Source Victoria was a total mom-fest." Random Notebook Dump: Note to self: leave big, floppy hat in my car at all times.
