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Diamonds, Finches, and Flowers (Oh My)
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LA's Lavender Diamond has headlined shows in London and supported the Decemberists on their U.S. tour last fall. But tonight is their first-ever headlining gig in Los Angeles, with The Finches and Winter Flowers at Safari Sam's.
We last caught up with Becky Stark, Lavender Diamond's 25-year-old frontwoman with the delicate voice in June 2005. Last weekend, we were lucky to chase her down near chicken corner for an update.
So, what's up with you guys?
Well, we just signed with Matador Records -- Rough Trade in Europe -- and they're re-releasing our EP called the Cavalry of Light on the 30th. And we have a full length album coming out on the first week of May.
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You're heading to Europe next month?
We're going on tour with the Decemberists for a month in February and we're really excited about that. Berlin on Valentine's Day...
We're just excited about peace coming to planet Earth, ASAP. The end of war and everything is definitely coming soon, so we just want to say that everyone should come to our show for a celebration.
Do you think you'll collaborate with Colin Melloy and the Decemberists?
Yeah, I'm really looking forward to that -- we talked about it. On the last tour we sang one song with them and at the last show in Philadelphia Colin and I sang The Eagles "Take it to the Limit" -- it was really amazing... the crowd was singing along.
We'll see what happens. There are some harmonies that I sing along to on the Decemberists record -- I actually saw their live show before I ever heard the record... It's an amazing testament to the power of the computer -- MySpace. We actually ended up going on tour with them last fall because they found our MySpace page.
photo by Alyssa Andersen
Tell us about last year's 7-inch.
We put out a split 7-inch with the Queens of Sheba, which is Devendra Banhart and a bunch of other people. We put it out on Cold Sweat Records here in Echo Park.
And the new record...
It's produced by Tom Monahan. We had a really good time mixing this new record with Jim Scott. It was a really beautiful experience. He's working on the new Wilco record right now and I just think it's a really interesting testament to how fun it is to collaborate with people. It's gonna be called "Imagine Our Love."
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So what else is Becky Stark working on?
I'm working on a musical/comedy/variety show. And it's a musical narrative, like an old-school Hollywood movie, Ziegfield Follies-style. But the new one that I'm really excited about is this song that goes like [sings] "We build our house with toxic chemicaaaallls..." it's kind of a dance number [laughs]. I think we'll do a variety show sometime in March at the Upright Citizens Brigade.
Also, I have this other really great band called The Living Sisters with Inara George (The Bird and the Bee) and Eleni Mandell. We sing in harmonies and we wear matching costumes. It's really fun.
What does it sound like?
It sounds kind of like really old-fashioned country -- Andrews Sisters, Carter Family style. It's the harmonies with some guitar -- we each play -- and the occasional tambourine.... I'd really love play on A Prarie Home Companion with the Living Sisters.
Lavender Diamond plays tonight at Safari Sam's with The Finches and Winter Flowers.
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