I've got a group of friends who are addicted to going to raves, the cheaper the better, and they constantly invite me even though I didn't like ecstasy when I was 15, I don't dance, I don't like big crowds of people, I don't like stupid people, I don't like dance music, and I don't like bright flashing lights because they give me headaches and make me feel dizzy.

So of course, last night I decided to go the route of Yes Man and say yes and go.

We ended up at this Mexican nightclub that had free entry before 10pm. We got there at about 9:40 after driving all of Sunset and Hollywood trying to avoid traffic on the 101, so we were a train of three cars trying to navigate rush hour traffic together and it was a lot of fun. The whole time I was driving I was listening to Handsome Furs' Face Control. Cruising Los Angeles with Handsome Furs playing made me almost feel like I was one of those people who goes clubbing on the weekend, cool as fuck and chilling with no worries.

There were about 100 people in line, it was an all-ages rave so the line was primarily composed of awkward teenage guys and then underage jail bait wearing attire that made me feel like I was guilty of statutory rape just by looking at me. After half an hour we go up close enough to see that there was a handwritten door on the front of place that says, "NO ALCOHOL SOLD," and by 10pm the rave was going to be $10. We debated.

The owner of the club came up and talked to us, and told us that the venue had been ready since 7 and he had been trying to get the event organizers to let people in, but they were purposefully slowing the line (it was practically empty inside I guess?) so everyone would have to pay.

We left, and I used my phone to find another rave in Downtown. It was $5 but they promised cheap liquor, so we drove there, and it was in a dance hall attached to an apartment building. We paid the $5 to get in and walked in to discover they had a really awesome laser ball and a total of about 20 people in the place, nothing but wallflowers.

One of my buddies went and asked around for ecstasy pills and the first person he walked up to had red whales for ten bucks. Everyone with me at this point was pretty drunk. One friend, who came out from Arizona, started dancing like a robot and poplocking and it was so fucking hilarious, because he did it well and he looked like a muscled white construction worker.

I hung around for a bit and danced around a little bit (though all I could think about through all the dance music was how much I'd rather be listening to Handsome Furs) but then started to feel kind of ill so I went to my car to take my jacket off and ended up sitting it and calling my girlfriend. After being on the phone for a while I noticed that there was some guy standing across the street just kind of walking in circles aimlessly. He was wearing knee-high rubber rain boots and a full rain slicker with the hood pulled over his head. He kept looking at my car and slowly walking toward it, then walking back to the sidewalk, then he'd turn and pause, then walk slowly back toward my car.

I got freaked out and rolled out, sending my friends a text message that I got the wiggins and decided to leave. On the way home I listened to the Handsome Furs and decided this was one of the most fun albums I've heard in a long time. It's not my style, but it's so...

Sincere. Pitchfork's review says that in comparison to their first album (which I haven't heard), Face Control sounds like a band committed to their sound and craft, that the husband and wife team have achieved greatness, and I am inclined to agree.

Almost all the songs on the album are brilliant. Legal Tender is just fun to listen to; Evangeline sounds like it would be the perfect song to watch a woman do a striptease to; Talking Hotel Arbat Blues has a great sort of anthemic Bruce Springsteen vibe to it; this song I'm posting here is one of those songs that sounds immediate and familiar, like I was born with it in my head just waiting all these years to hear it; I'm Confused and the rest of the album just ooze polish and passion for the music.

Handsome Furs are definitely something everyone should be listening to.

~fin.

Happy Easter. Late post today as I was hungover and puking at the normal time I'd be posting here.