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June 2010

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I love you. I love you for your ice cream truck painted with cholo clowns, calling kids out with a warped

version of the Tetris theme song at 7 pm on what should be a school night; I love the way you make deodorant between my boobs sound like a good idea; I love pressing my face against a wall and watching you swim in your invisible waves; I love how you make me wish I knew how to swim; I love the way you paint my body with the darkest shade of brown, but always seem to miss a few spots (damn you!); I love your illegal fireworks on the 4th of July, and the tales of survival they leave behind; I love the way you make Spring look like a lame younger sister that your mom makes you take with you everywhere; I love that you can make walking into an air-conditioned building feel as good as peeing after holding it in for a really, really long time; I love how you make me wish I had a car to cruise down Whittier Boulevard and bump the oldies with; I even love you for your memories of hold-your-breath-love and hold-your-ribcage-heartbreak, but most of all I love you for reminding me that even the best things are temporary, but still damn worth living. --- --- Vaya means GO, which means DO SOMETHING. As adults, summer doesn't have the same connotation it did as when we were kids. Some of us work. Some of us still have to go to summer school (ugh, me). Some of us have our own damn kids now (not me, gracias a Dios). But for a moment, pretend you're in the third grade and it's the last day of school. Think about all the things you planned to do with your break from the evil clutches of long division and Ms. Hong's banging on that apple-shaped bell with her Parker pen. You planned to sleep in everyday and play outside from whenever you woke up until after sunset when your mom had to throw her chancla at you to come inside right?! We had absolutely no concept of time! And though our lives are governed by the clock these days, it doesn't hurt to want more out of life. Contributing your art and ideas to this world does not ensure that your existence will become eternal, but it makes you exist now. The motive behind creating art shouldn't be an ego-boost, and there shouldn't be a single ounce of pretentiousness behind it; create art to show that you refuse to live passively. In the most amazing words of poet Bonafide Rojas, "learn to live /live to write /write to love /love to learn." All in the present tense.

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Local small businesses you should support! Prepare yourself for excessive exclamation points!!! The Daily Brew - Montebello, 90640|M - Sa - 9pm |(323) 888-4201|137 N. Montebello Blvd. Unit A| + Bomb Mexican Mocha Latte and artwork! Come karaoke Cielito Lindo on Tuesday nights! No pre-gaming necessary! Tierra Mia Coffee - South Gate, 90280 |daily - 11:30pm|(323) 563-3948|4914 Firestone Blvd.|tierramiacoffee.com|+ Great music, comfy chairs, and coffee art! Open - books . music . magazines . art - Long Beach, 90814 |early hours! closed Monday|(562) 499-OPEN | 2226 E. 4th St. |thestoryofopen.com| + They support local writers, bands AND sell zines! Woohoo! Portfolio Coffeehouse - Long Beach, 90814|daily - 11pm|(562) 434-2486|2300 East 4th St.| + They sell Mexican coke and their staff is super duper friendly! Bougeois Pig - Los Angeles, 90028|daily - 2am|(323) 464-6008|5931 Franklin Ave.| + The coolest. Why? Because they have billiards, a forest, campfire, and cottage...indoors! Lost Souls Cafe - Los Angeles, 90013|weird hours?|(213) 617-7006|124 W. 4th St.|lostsouls.com|+ Hidden in an alley. In a warehouse. Sounds shady, right? But they have board games to play! Vegan Goodies - Catering all over Los Angeles!|http://www.myspace.com/vegan_catering| + Ran by the so adorable Stephanie! Beware meat-eaters: soy tacos so good, you'll convert.

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Andy Kneis – Long Beach, CA

Ribcage

“Let’s play that game again,” she said. “The one where I say the weird things I see?” I said. I flipped onto my stomach. Closed my eyes. “Okay. Give me a second.” “Hmm, okay, well there’s a hubcap with light shining through. Now it’s the ridges from a lighter. Where you put your thumb.” She was quiet. Didn’t move. “Now there’s a ribcage with a blue sky behind it. The back of a ribcage. It almost looks like the ribs of a lawnchair. What you lay on in summer. The ribs of one of those.

The sky is moving up. There’s glowing neon green hills. Bright green. There’s a little bit of red at the top of the sky. Two black eyes up there. Not scary though. Like dog eyes or something. The red is pushing the hills down with the sky. Just red now. Oh. Black. There are two buildings rising up. It’s going fast now. Too fast.” My shoulders started to turn on their own. “The buildings are glowing blue now. Lighter blue. They’re going up and up. I don’t wanna play anymore,” I said. Joking. But true. I was embarrassed Those were my feelings in there Somewhere.

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Guillermo Millan – Montebello, CA

“Communication”

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Kayla Crow – Long Beach, CA http://madcaplaughed.wordpress.com/

Tom Waits some mornings, i ease in to you. enjoy you sip, by sip. finding stability in the sweet drip of your full rich voice.

i perk up when i sense your subtle strength.

you accompany me in the quiet moments. when the jostling of mourning doves knocks blossoms off the t rees.

and the thud of the morning paper reminds me there’s no honesty but in you, and your bold bold heart.

and alone, in the middle of the night- that could never be as dark as you; i walk along the train tracks humming your praises.

and dive right in. burning myself in your intensity. reminding myself how to feel.

your heat peels verses from the lining of my throat.

and i drink your bitterness, on nights when you aren’t prepared to be smooth.

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Miguel Escobar – Pico Rivera, CA blurofserenity.tumblr.com

“Train Tracks by the Ocean”

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Josue Mendoza – Lynwood, CA Cliffs Notes on Humanity God impregnates the ocean after a Big Bang. The ocean bears slime. The slime grows up and beats the living shit out of its mom. How to ruin his adolescence Your dad banged your mom. You can’t comb your pubic hair. That girl you like poops. Boners are virtually impossible to conceal. The Journey An exhausted mule drags itself through the desert. Its hooves are sand-bleached. Its teeth are dry as the air. It travels south, towards God.

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Francisca Escobar – West Covina, CA

“Neverending Land”

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Juan Carlos Chavez – Ontario, CA The Bestest Generation

She pulled the book off the shelf, putting it between her knees. On the cover, two horses were

meeting in a field for the first time in a long while, judging by the rather slack-jawed impression of the horse on the left, the mustang. The mere kept her composure, yet her tail said she couldn't be happier. That, or a fly had landed on her ass. Juliette managed to skip the first page, the one with the lengthy scrawl by some second floor, sophomore year - fling? She said so, but the pained twitch at the corner of lips said otherwise. That, or the thought of that fly had tickled her face.

This second-floor boy had written a rather lengthy note blanketing the dedication page, in what could only be described as the scrawl of a Man Going On About Town – a smallish town however, where the Dairy Queen had to consolidate with Orange Julius to stay competitive. She recognized the imprints from his mechanical pencil throughout the first chapter. The book detailed the life of the teenage Jesus, titled, Jesus Watches "The Last Temptation of Christ," but really it was an earnest, direly so, plot against the reader's ability to associate words to the rest of their lives. The horses figure in to the story, inextricably, as some literary critics would describe, seemingly apathetically, or worse, sadistically, for their readers in the subtitle of their review - "And yes, he explains those horses," or, "There's not just two asses on the cover of this book!" Oh, the hilarity of critical scorn, in diminutive. The summary excerpt - that is, an excerpt turned into a summary, featuring various words actually used more than twice in the breadth of the novel - read like her last March 26th:

"Jesus knew what he wanted to be, and will be, by age 33. The time between now, 12 CE, and then, was going to be something of a wash though. He knew nobody minded, nobody cared, so he wouldn't either, alleviating some of the stress of his case. People told him he had a martyr complex, so he stopped talking about it, that day in 21 years. He went to the movies often, trying to find the value of the scenes, the characters, whether they talked like he did or whether he'd have to learn to talk like them. Not so secretly he wished they were his life. Jesus told his friends about it once and they thought, 'Man, that's one thoughtful kid. He has to be full of shit.' Which he was, he knew. Not that shit is all that bad, or dishonest. Sometimes dishonesty is all a man, or divine being, could count on to be true. He sat in the middle of the middle row, having most of the theater to himself during the matinée."

Juliette stood up, fitting Jesus on top of her other books, and the one in the designated "To Buy, If I Don't Win Those Shoes on eBay" pile, and moved back to her desk.

Sitting down, she slid the envelope out from under her graphic design book. The boy on the cover of the book, enjoying the adulation of his classmates for a job well done, had made a sign advertising a new sleeper booth on a Boeing 786 ("86 those red eyes!" it announced). The colors of the cover were warm, like the timeshare out the porthole, like the fresh brew product x, like the sweet and savory product y, like the reception desk from the third world hotel z. The seal on the envelope seemed to have been broken and resealed a half dozen times, each time a new layer of dust congealing with the glue and saliva forming a weak moustache of black on its lip. The note slipped out and drifted on the tabletop. This is about as far she gets, usually. Juliette wanted the note's pity, yes, but couldn't decide whether unfolding it meant she was asking, explicitly, for it to kiss her on the forehead and tell her it's going to alright. Nobody wants pity pity.

The time was close to 3 p.m., a time when, two weeks ago, she should've been in her design class, sitting a few rows in front of the boy she was meeting in an hour. Juliette sighed. The book shouldn't be in her bag when he shows up. Boys always find Jesus a bit too imposing, a little too full of shit.

The bookstore, equally renowned for its glass tumbler sets of Honré de Balzac's head and his disproportionate right hand, had situated a deli in between the glass blowing booth and the Non-Fiction stacks, where she worked on not minding the amoral universe (the bastard), and her oceanography maps.

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Here, she thought about the places she wanted to visit, about the variety of things she wanted to enjoy; most of which she read about on the floor. She also thought about her place on the floor, and whether it meant she was chained to the floor. Moving her hand up down to test the bindings, she couldn't feel the weight. Good enough sign, she guessed. She tried lifting her head. There was no choke collar tightening on her esophagus. She'd get up from the floor, dusting off the lint and dirt from her tights. It was romantic, at any rate.

Very much like: "Yes, but what do you think of me, really? Not that bullshit about goodness, niceness, and all that.

Do I have a nice body? Do I say interesting things?" Juliette organized the salt and the pepper she had poured out on the table in a line, then spread it

thin across the surface. She remembered someone with a hunchback had to clean up after her, and felt bad. The boy, after ten or so minutes, demonstrated something of a disregard for the so-called ‘pleasantries’ of deli dates. Juliette tried to remembered what was so pleasant about them in the first place, and when she might’ve mentioned that this was a date.

She looked up from her seasoned mess and said, "I think your glasses make you look sharp. And that time you said, something - god, what was it? We were outside the bookstore and you said..." She thought, she squinted, she thought about squinting even harder to convince him she was thinking harder, even though she already knew which words to say. She knew he liked coy girls, ones who were surreptitiously smarter than him, who won't gloat about the Proust they've read, the Tati they've watched, the Prius they've test drove, but still make sure he pronounces denouement correctly in company.

"Oh," she spouted, then cleared her throat with a "Ha." "What? What did I say? I can't remember saying much after the bookstore. I wanted to die in

there. Those book recommendations from the store clerks were so bad. So bad." "Yeah, well - you're gonna like - ha. You said something, like, 'I think the worst part about being

gifted' was that you were expected to do something with it, like your happiness depended on it. Even though you never wanted to do much for anyone and couldn't dream a better outcome for anyone who didn't have a vested interest in your ego. I liked that. You sounded like a person who could tell me something very mean about myself and I'd just find it complimentary that you thought about me at all."

"You bitch," he said. "Thanks." He took offense to it at first. Mind you, this was the crudest of men, a real artist in the realm of

most things douche bag, and the thought that the only other battle tested douche in the area could best him proved unthinkable. So much so that the thought left him as quickly as it entered, as if to say, while tapping its toe and checking its watch, "Well, I best be off now. Might email you, maybe." He was an asshole, you see, offenses came frequently, but never quite as often as to remember them. It's the quiet dignity of an artist to move forward, wreckage in its wake. His wake left ripples in the Graphic Crime Dramedy Novel aisle on his way out. She returned to her map, wondering if she would’ve left more ripples given a dramatic exit down, say, the London Cyberlove Vampire aisle. She probably couldn’t have mustered it, she thought, but Jesus could have. Jesus could have probably opened her letter too, getting all the pity he deserved, and none of which he asked for. Jesus could be such a dick sometimes.

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Steven Martinez – San Gabriel Valley, CA www.stevenmphoto.com

Untitled

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Mae Ramirez - Montebello, CA

The First/Last Taste of Summer

speak, sultry sunset, slow.

pull me in deep to taste your mandarin orange-sweet

sun-kiss and sun-kissed vanilla pudding layers that stare my heart into a drunken daze.

swing me high

up on your trapeze, burrow me low

beneath your burning plateau, or slip me into

your skinnier-than-a- capri-sun-straw shadow,

'cause i know this is a dream.

our minutes countdown on rosary beads, so i steep

my body into your concrete and reach

but you dance too tall on tip-toe

between appetite and apathy, then sail your soul into the sea.

i could speak,

sultry sunset, slow so

still I can taste your brief

b r a m c

e e

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M[...]GO – Lynwood, CA scarrletreaper@aol.com

(Untitled .5) 5 April 2010

I am not your average man: my organ is drawn inward in a strange origami of folds and pinks.

Goddess II 5 October 2009

If I were a Goddess, I would love to explode like an ancient star, inside of you and travel all the particles of a future world being pushed and pulled along your canals, to settle down on your grooves, on the pit of your millionth abyss, And there I would stay until I ferment, become the skin you shed, your hair, your fingernails all the rich material you cast away remove myself from you each day Every morning when you arrange yourself, be the little germs you send away on your brush, on your blouse When you shuffle through papers and cut yourself, be the drop of blood In your sleep, the saliva that slowly spills from the fleshy corner of your mouth.

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Maritza M. Lizarraras – Los Angeles, CA Lithograph 9”x12”

“Gifts of Love”

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Nate Musser – Long Beach, CA / Santa Rosa, CA Handshakes

Your handshake holds a spot in my memory like palms pressed into newly-poured concrete. Concrete cracks over time though, I suppose. So did the ones you forgot to carry along. We forgot about words like “family” and remembered ones like “forever.” How long you said you'd be gone, that is. They say I have a firm grip. Not from lack of letting go.

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Randalí De Santos – Temple City, CA Windows

A slice of kiss so ordinarily small (in fact all matters are strange) in circles that we run traveling past the windows of our eyes into the height of tomorrow we never knew this could go on still we chase unbelievable lights. Never close enough to feel far enough to long this is why we can't ever come home.

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David McCabe – Nuevo, CA www.dsmccabe.com

Thank You Grandpa Carter for Saving the World On this day we honor, remember, and recognize the military men and women of the United States of America for their courage, their sacrifice, their duty, and their commitment to protecting our great nation. On this day, we are neither liberals nor conservatives. We are neither Democrats nor Republicans. We are neither black nor white. We are neither Christian nor Jew nor Muslim nor Atheist. This is the day that we are Americans united. United to pay tribute to those brave souls who made it possible for us to have the luxury of liberty and freedom for all within the United States of America. On this day, as well as everyday, I think of my Grandpa Carter, my Papa. A quiet, unassuming Virginia farm boy, petty officer serving his country on a Navy destroyer, patrolling the Pacific Ocean. He never kept a scrapbook commemorating his service, didn’t display his pins and metals commemorating his 20 years of service to his country and as far as I know, he never really kept in touch with the men of his caliber who went through the hell of war. Whenever the subject of the war came up, his humble response was always, “we had a job to do, and we did it.” He was my hero, for more reasons than his service to our country. In so many ways, he showed me by example, what it meant to be a man. In the 1950’s he met my grandmother, a single mother of three girls, and he married her and gave my mom and my aunts his name. He raised them as his own, and later, helped bring my uncle into the world. He worked hard, spoke little, and ended his day quietly, sitting in his recliner, watching the news... often drifting off to sleep with his after dinner toothpick still in his mouth. He took me into his home when I was a troubled, heading-for-nowhere-fast teenager, and saved my life, just as sure as he saved the world from Germany and Japan. In his quiet, unassuming way, he laid down the law, and set into motion a series of events that ultimately shaped me into the man I am today, the kind of man I hope to become, and if I am very lucky, he will influence the great grandson he never met, my son, Carter. Now, my Papa didn’t die in battle, but he did die in service to his country... as a father and grandfather. I had to say goodbye to Papa eight years ago, but I still think about him, I miss him and I honor him on Flag Day, Independence Day, Veterans Day, December 7th, Memorial Day, and I suppose, every day that I take in a free breath. Thank you Papa. Thank you for doing your job, thank you for saving the world, and thank you for saving me.

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Josef Lemoine – West Covina, CA you broke the news

you broke the news of ladies sawed in half and Chinese water torture cells and men that steered the Turk. You broke the news of rab- bit eggs and flying sleighs and traded mid- night teeth. you broke the news of scraped-up knees and birds and bees with deer that leaped the frog. you broke the news of broken hearts and time collapsing spines. and though you did divulge the chemistry of art, and algebra of mystery, you also broke the news of hummingbirds and butterflies, and al- so fresh cut lawns; of movie blood and watch collections, also winds upon my cheek. So when I faced the cool mirage, the shells and bright facades, I raised my chin and stepped ahead with blindfold tossed aside, yes, all because you broke the news because you broke the news.

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Ricardo Vidana – Long Beach, CA www.flickr.com/photos/cosmicasthenia/

“Hideaway”

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SELECTIONS FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH

I left my first Twin Suns show back in February thinking Holy shit. My mind has been blown. I couldn’t believe

that a local band could be that good. Their debut E.P. “Searching for a Reason”, weaves elements of experimental rock with Latin roots under the direction of five guys with damn impressive musical

backgrounds. Embracing an unwavering DIY ethic, Twin Suns are setting themselves apart from the fast-food music scene and transforming what we know about what it means to be “homemade.”

Check out a video from this practice session on the ¡Vaya! website.

May 3, 2010 Allen’s Garage Montebello, CA

Vaya: When you guys came together as a band, did you have a set idea of what you wanted to sound like, or was it something that just came about organically? LONNIE: I just wanted to make music. And I got tired of covering RX Bandits songs and I wanted to write my own shit. ALLEN: The main direction we wanted to go in was to kind of sound like RX Bandits, and branch off from that. Lonnie and I started jamming out probably like, my senior year of high school. And we just had the same song. We had Aaron jam out with us on bass a couple of times. And then we brought in Danny a couple of times, but it was never really set in stone. We were just kind of jamming and recording the songs on our own. And I kept telling him, let's start a band, and he was like nah, I just wanna play music, no strings attached. Eventually he caved in cuz he got tired of just playing in the garage - he wanted to play shows. We already knew we wanted Aaron, Danny, and Justin in the band, so we just got them. AARON: Once we formed the actual band, Lonnie was the main song writer for five of our original songs, and we kept two of them: those two are on the E.P. - Missing and Racing. And then Machete and Voices just came out from jamming. So I guess you can say those were all just collaboration songs. Not that we didn't work on Lonnie's songs, or add our own style to them, but he was the main writer for those two. Vaya: How do you handle the writing process? Do you each come with your own parts, or do you contribute a bass line here, or guitar part there... ALLEN: We're all just in here, and someone plays something and whatever happens, happens. If we like something enough, we have to trust ourselves to remember it. AARON: It really just varies with each song. ALLEN: With the two new songs that we have, Lonnie just came in and was like 'alright you're playing this, you're playing that, and then the next part goes like this' and that was that. And that's how Missing was written. Missing has not changed, with the exception of the jam part in the middle. AARON: And that's cool too, cuz it makes life a lot easier. But occasionally we'll just jam and work off of 'oh, hey that sounds cool, let's build off that.' DANNY: I think for me - well, I have a problem with getting to practice sometimes, cuz I'm so busy, so these guys work around and have a lot of ideas already set up, and I'll just come in, listen a couple of times, and just make something up. AARON: Cuz that's what he does! Cuz he's a music major. Vaya: Well, you all have music backgrounds, right? ALLEN: We were all in marching band together.

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AARON: Same marching band. At one time or another we were all in it. Vaya: Was this at Montebello (High School)? LONNIE: Montebello. Back when the music program was good. Vaya: How about your lyrics, is that a collaboration as well? ALLEN: Lonnie Brown. I wrote Machete, but he wrote everything else.

Vaya: Is there a theme throughout your lyrics? LONNIE: Just shit that bothers me. ALLEN: Looking at his lyrics, I would say, there's always some sort of struggle. Vaya: I've noticed there are a lot of injustices in there; do you have any sort of political views that influence that? LONNIE: I'm kind of 'live and let live', and if you step in the way of that, that's when I have something to say about it. I also don't like rich people. *Laughter* Vaya: Word. Would you guys consider yourselves a political band? LONNIE: No. Just observant. JUSTIN: It's more passive. His lyrics are about specific things, but the music isn't necessarily a jab at the system or anything. It's like a distraction, maybe not a distraction, but a getaway, an escape. Kind of. Sort of. Not in like a cheap way, like an action movie or anything. But something more meaningful. *Laughter* AARON: I understand, I mean for me, music has always been a positive thing in my life. Just to know that there are other people that have the same mindset as you do - like when you go see a band and you see everyone enjoying themselves. I think that's what you're getting at. Something positive for people to enjoy, even though this world is... DANNY: And if someone wants to look deeper into it, there's also that too. AARON: It's whatever you want it to be. LONNIE: Art is a matter of perspective. It's up to the individual who is looking, listening or whatever. I want you to think, as opposed to 'this is what I have to say and you should follow it.' AARON: And I think that's a big problem with music nowadays. ALLEN: *Singing in a high-pitched voice* Just dance! Just dance! AARON: Yeah - it doesn't make people think. People aren't able to take anything away from it other than 'oh, that song has a nice beat.'

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ALLEN: Don't stop! Don't stop! JUSTIN: Those are distractions! We're not distractions. Vaya: When people talk about influences for bands, they usually talk about other bands. But do you have any outside influences? When you guys are there, creating the music, is there a certain book that you've read that influences how you write, or a movie, or even family that influences you to create your music? ALLEN: Well, Machete - I wrote those lyrics about my Godfather who passed away last year from cancer. The thing about his cancer was that it advanced quickly. He wasn't in bed for three years or anything. Every two weeks, there was a huge progression in the cancer. It spread throughout his body in about two months. I overheard my parents talking about witchcraft and 'what if someone had tried to put something on his wife' - they had quoted her as saying 'I'm too strong, they can't put anything on me.' Or 'what if they had tried to put it on her, and it spread to him?' And it's kind of an interesting thing, whether you believe in it or not - my dad does. He said his aunt did that stuff. People would die if they did something bad to her. So he was for the idea that it was more than just cancer. So the song is about him, and a debate on whether or not witchcraft is real. LONNIE: Like the first line of the chorus is 'The almighty God has the key and the answers' - it's not sarcastic, but it's supposed to be ultimately what it all is. That chorus is just about respect to everything in a way. Embrace whatever makes you happy - as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. Vaya: You're talking about witchcraft, which when I think about, I think of Mexican voodoo and hexes. So there are obviously some cultural influences in your guys' music. How much of your culture do you chose to put? I know you have Spanish lyrics. Are you all Mexican-American? DANNY: Well...odd one out. I'm half El Salvadorian. - WHAT! *Uproar/riot/blasphemy/laughter* - Oh no! - I had no idea. - Ohmygod... - I'm just finding this out right now?! AARON: Just make sure you don't put that part in the interview or we'll lose all our fans. DANNY: Yeah, well we got Machete. ALLEN: When we wrote it, we were like 'oh. We like this nice Latin feel, let's just keep going with it.' The lyrics just kind of came. They all went to an RX Bandits concert and I was mad that they were there. So I decided to do something productive. I couldn't write my own songs, so I thought 'why don't I write lyrics for this Twin Suns song. Danny had tried writing lyrics, and he had a Spanish part and an English part and I was like, 'I can do better than that!' So I sat there the whole night. And one of the parts in the song - "Le cortaron la vida...como machete, machete..." - that part, I had written it specifically for.. I had the melody in my head, I just didn't know what I wanted to yell. So I based the song around that, and when I finally had it, then I just wrote everything else. And I like rhyming. AARON: I think, for me at least, I know for Allen too, when we were growing up, music in Spanish was always playing in our house. That stuff just sticks with you. LONNIE: Vicente Fernandez. All that stuff. AARON: I knew I grew up listening to that stuff. I think Allen especially. ALLEN: I still got it playing here on Sundays. LONNIE: I wouldn't say it's necessarily ethnic, because these guys come around playing fuckin' Michael Jackson and shit. I think it's mostly just what we grew up listening to and what we embrace as musicians. What we chose to learn and fuse with whatever we do. AARON: It's just in our blood. LONNIE: These guys play Megaman music. JUSTIN: I wrote Aaron a song, specifically with Megaman in mind. AARON: Danny and Lonnie are really into musical scores. I know Lonnie's really into Final Fantasy game soundtrack.

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DANNY: Right before you got here, we tried something different with one of our intros. We tried to do a Waltz sort of thing. LONNIE: I think we're all just fans of music. It's not like, we like rock, we like this, or that. If it sounds good, we dig it. Vaya: Is the album a concept album? LONNIE: I was NOT here when they did those transitions! JUSTIN: Some things don't get ran by all of us. ALLEN: I always wanted to do a concept album since I was in high school in my and Aaron's band. We recorded these songs and had an idea of how to get them together. But the week I spent mixing was the week that the CD was going to be released. So everything was done last minute, and these guys were running around enough, so I did everything myself. The noise in between track 2 and 3 was all Aaron playing effects through his amp. We were sitting there yelling through his guitar pickups and through all his pedals and through the amp and recording it. AARON: I wanted to record some noise for transitions and it was like 15 minutes long, and Allen figured out where it would go and how it would fit nicely in the record. ALLEN: There was some stuff I through in there without any permission... LONNIE: Ahhh-HAH! ALLEN: Like that. There's a band called Hideo that Justin used to be in. They had this song "20,000 Almas" where the guitarist Ricky would sing, and he wasn't their normal singer. At the end of the verse he finishes it "------ Ah-HAH!" *super high-pitched voice*. So I threw in the Ah-Hah, as a tribute to him. Everytime I see him, everyone makes fun of him. If one person brings it up, no one will drop it the rest of the night. So it was to piss him off mostly. I put that in the day of the release show. I wasn't gonna wait around for everyone to show up and be like "Hey, is this okay?" So I just put it in. And nobody was pissed off about it! DANNY: So in short, it's not a concept album. *Laughter* ALLEN: Oh yeah. No, it's not really a concept album. We just like stuff that flows together. AARON: I'm a huge fan of albums with transitions. ALLEN: You have to listen to them front and back. Vaya: Can't put them on shuffle. Is that a Mars Volta influence? ALLEN: I was about to mention Frances the Mute AARON: That album sounds almost like a movie soundtrack. But a lot of albums - Dark Side of the Moon... JUSTIN: I think with the Mars Volta, they had the biggest modern day concept albums like that. I know these guys like Pink Floyd a lot; I like the Beatles a lot. So there were bands who were doing that stuff before.

Vaya: You guys were talking about mixing the whole album by yourself - you guys are a DIY band. I'm in love with the actual EP - the cover, the inside. That was all you Aaron? Mad props. AARON: Thanks! Well I came up with - Justin scare him! LONNIE: Allen’s dog walks into the garage. And he's afraid of Justin.

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JUSTIN: He thinks he can get away with everything... AARON: I came up with the design and did the first 30 myself and occasionally they would help me out. I came up with the idea of making our own CDs because personally I'm not a huge fan of putting them in those white envelopes and throwing them out there for people to throw in the trash. I figured if we made something that was actually cool-looking, like an actual CD, if we put care into it, then people would be like "Oh hey, they took a lot of time to make this, I don't wanna throw this away, and maybe I'll listen to it and like it." Just wanted to be creative - do something different. There are too many bands out there that are like "Here. Add me on Myspace!" That whole thing bothers me. So it was our way of doing something a little more worthwhile than just burning CDs and tossing them at whoever's coming out of a show. Stuff like Vaya is the new way to go. Nowadays, music is just oversaturated...generic. No bands are trying to do anything different in the way they get their music out there. No one wants to be creative. ALLEN: On top of that, so many things that can make you a famous artist are available to everyone: YouTube, Myspace, Facebook. You can buy a studio for 200 dollars in a MacBook and you're set. Suddenly you're a producer. So everyone is doing the same thing. No one is original. Handmade zines, CDs. I think eventually things will go back to that: putting in hustlin, putting in hard work. AARON: The people who matter, not to sound like a douchebag, but the people who matter are the people who really enjoy music and don't just buy one song on iTunes. They care about that kind of stuff. Vaya: You're part of the organic boom - going back to what's natural and good. Thanks for that. So I guess just a final question...What are your goals as a band? LONNIE: It depends on how much control we have. ...If we fuck up, then we fuck up - not because someone told us to do something. ALLEN: If anything, I'd want to stay DIY as possible. I wouldn't mind getting signed, but only if we still have creative control, we can do whatever we want musically. Cuz labels tend to fuck up bands and distort their image just so they can be cool with a certain crowd of kids. I wouldn't mind just doing DIY. Lonnie and I talked about starting our own record label. But right now we're just taking things as they come. AARON: A lot indie-label bands are huge right now, headlining the Palladium, the Wiltern. Major labels are in danger. There are a lot of great independent artists out there. LONNIE: I think it's cuz they chose to do what they did. The world is becoming more connected with each other because of advancements in technology. If someone downloaded our album, I'd be honored! AARON: We leaked our own album! ALLEN: We were still selling it at shows and giving it out online to people. If there was someone at a show who was genuinely interested in our band, we'd give them the CD for free. AARON: Sure you gotta make money as a band if you want to tour, but I think most importantly you need to get your music out there. Bottom line. Bands nowadays are too worried about getting signed and making neon-colored shirts and appealing to a certain crowd. It's like, just make good music. DANNY: We never went into this thinking we were gonna get signed, go tour, play big places, sell CDs. We just thought of it just as a way for all of us to get together and play. LONNIE: And of course you know, fuck as many girls as possible. *Laughter* Vaya: Alright you guys...any last words? - Bitches and bills! JUSTIN: We'd be nothing without our fans. If no one listened to our music then we'd just be... LONNIE: Five sweaty dudes playing behind a closed garage door. Doing what we do. JUSTIN: It's great though that we rely on the fans. I think it's cool cuz you realize it's little people that make anything possible. People have the power to make things happen.

Twin Suns is Lonnie Brown, Allen Casillas, Aaron Delgado, Daniel Escobar, and Justin Gomez

twinsunsmusic.net - myspace.com/twinsunsmusic

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is a handmade print zine birthed from recycled materials and the imaginations of

local artists, writers, musicians, breathers, and thinkers. She believes that creativity is everywhere and with everyone, and not with just an elite few. Her contributors

express themselves freely, without the need to please money-making publishers or conform to the mainstream. She circulates in small numbers as a means to counter the intellectual and cultural vacuity that mass-produced communication induces. She

does not believe in staplers. She wants you to GO. Get off your ass. Take the time to touch, learn, shit, and breathe real art. !V!

Eco-Friendly Zine-ing

Cover: Cereal boxes gathered from various donors, trashcans, and pantries. Photos taken over the years of stuff that reminds me of summer. Bookmarkers were made from the leftover cardboard. Paper: Scrap paper or Sustainable Forest Initiative certified paper product, depending on which version you got! Hand-stitch-bound

with craft thread.

¡V! would like to thank the contributors to this second issue: Juan Carlos, Kayla, Randali, Francisca, Miguel, M[…]GO, Andy, Joe Maritza, Steven,

Josue, David, Guillermo, Nate, Mae, Ricardo, and Twin Suns. Special thanks to anyone who volunteered their sweet-ass time to assemble this. And a big, fat, sticky,

sweaty, summer hug to the readers.

vayazine.tumblr.com vayazine@yahoo.com

¡Vaya! Issue 2 Created May - June of 2010