| | Thrillist Los Angeles Friday August 21, 2009 Jason Bentley's Sunset Junction Playlist
With four stages showcasing mostly-obscure bands, your best bet for Sunset Junction's always been...getting sloshed at El Cid. Make your admission this year worth it, via KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic host (and Junction performer) Jason Bentley, who's provided you with some can't miss picks (can't miss hilarity by Thrillist):
Local Natives: Sun Hands
This band's playing Spaceland for free every Monday this month, so you've got another shot to experience this percussive, multi-part-harmony-driven helixing-guitar groove; in other words, now's a great time to hit the Porta-potties.
The Submarines: Brightest Hour (Morgan Page Remix)
This sunshiney, trip-hoppy song's composed by a married couple, the female half of which is the great granddaughter of F. Scott Fitzgerald, so they'll totally understand when you get crazy and rip off your Carraway pants.
Delta Spirit: Trashcan
Honky-tonky pianos; tinny, jangly guitars; catchily yelpy vocals -- all under a name that screams, "I am excited to be rushing your sorority".
Nortec Collective: Tijuana Sound Machine
Butt-shaking beats meet across-the-border horns and accordions -- exactly the music you'd expect from a song named for the only place where the government doesn't persecute the love between a donkey and a woman.
Warpaint: Billie Holiday
This hushed, lullabyish song's basically a sad-sack reinterpretation of the Motown classic "My Guy" -- get them mixed up, and some unfortunate kid's gonna have a very depressing bar mitzvah.
Love Grenades: Tigers in the Fire
An upbeat dance-pop joint from a duo led by a cute girl who brags, "I can screw anyone that's nice" -- so hey. What's going on? Your shirt looks great!
Les Nubians (feat The Roots): Tabou
A guest spot from rapper Black Thought highlights this Frenched up cover of a Sade song abetted by heavy organs (heavy organ joke layups're all you).
Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band: Nikorette
A jaunty Dylanesque number from the fest-headlining Bright Eyes frontman and his new band, who he recorded with on a "spiritual" retreat to Mexico, wherein absolutely no one listened to Tijuana Sound Machine. Swear to God!
Amp Fiddler With Sly & Robbie: Drama Inside
This eclectic tune is stuffed with random keyboard sounds and popping bass, the result of a collaboration between an American soul producer and the Junction-playing reggae legends, who've worked with everyone from Peter Tosh to Jimmy Cliff, to Ini Kamoze, who by this point is surely the daddy of countless illegitimate mack daddys (murderer!).
Dengue Fever f. Inara George: I Feel Love
This Donna Summer classic's reinterpreted by the singer of Bird & The Bee and this unique local band, led by a beauty from Cambodia, whose luminescence is mostly thanks to her strategic use of Khmer Rouge.
Click here to listen to all the songs
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