FRICTION NYC

Abe Vigoda: Tropical Noise Punks

I first stumbled across Los Angeles tropical punk outfit, Abe Vigoda, while checking out Brooklyn faves High Places’ West Coast tour dates. I was initially intrigued by the quartet’s peculiar moniker, taken from the “late” Abe Vigoda, the American actor who’s been “reported dead as many times as he’s been reported alive.” However quirky the name, it soon became irrelevant after soaking up the group’s recorded material and checking out some of their live vids.

Abe Vigoda comes from the same experimental downtown LA scene as bands like No Age, Mika Miko, Health, Mae Shi, and Barr, which is centered around the infamous all-ages venue, The Smell. Abe Vigoda dishes out quick and catchy island dance music, where Caribbean melodies and conga beats meet speedily strummed no wave guitars and molesting walls of noise. Their songs thrash and bounce at the same time and have been described as “a cross between Captain Beefheart and Crass” by No Age guitarist Randy Randall. Think of High Places on speed with thrashing guitars and you have Abe Vigoda, well, something like that at least.

Check out “Animal Ghosts” below and head over to RCRD LBL to get a taste of the group’s new track from their forthcoming record, “Dead City/Waste Wilderness.” Given the weather here in the Northeast for the last few days (dull grey skies), these two tracks are a blast of warm and colorful tropical island air.

[MP3]: Abe Vigoda  ”Animal Ghosts”