CALIFORNIA UPDATE : HALF MAN , HALF ANIMAL

Last weekend was the Manimal Festival in glorious Pioneertown, California, located on the outskirts of Joshua Tree National Park. Performing bands included the wacky Rainbow Arabia, Hebrew chanteurs and my personal favorite Fool’s Gold, and the band of merrymakers known as Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, all playing to a crowd of hundreds.

Pioneertown is apparently a fake Wild West town, erected for the purpose of shooting Westerns. Hence the row of old-timey buildings.

The region is also home to the exotic Joshua Tree, a tree that grows nowhere else in the world but here. They are everywhere, and they sort of look like a palm tree that’s been sipping that purple stuff (drank, drank).

The event was primarily a celebration of this new music sensibility that’s sweeping LA. I’m not sure it has a name yet, but it is typified by bands with lots of people in them, many of them bearded, playing happily earnest music with lots of percussion. It’s a movement that’s sure to sweep the nation/world. I recommend looking into it and getting down with it, because it’s pretty fun.

Right before the music kicked off, I walked out in the desert and got slightly (heavily) stoned with the guys from the band Pizza! so there is no video footage to peruse.

WORDS / PHOTOS : ALEX KLEIN