Interview: GAYNGS n' Prince

Suddenly I'm feeling quite 2005...

I woke up today, shaved and made it to my literary agency job by 9:30. There, I mindlessly scanned author contracts into the server while compulsively changing my Myspace profile song and listening to that new Akron/Family self-titled on repeat. I bemoaned my sorry post-collegiate existence on the subway ride home to Queens, listening to Feels on my obsolete CD Walkman and grabbed a Cuban sandwich under the deafening 7-train at 82nd street. When I reached my cluttered apartment, my brother was practicing his palmas along to a Flamenco album blasting in the living room. The grinding of my teeth accompanied the stereo's guttural screams overlain by my brother's jackhammer clapping. I fled for the bedroom and closed the door behind me. When I turned on my computer, I found an email from Marvin saying he'd posted another band interview of mine.

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Even if it reminds me of some not-so-special days of yore, I'm always happy to have something new up on Tiny Mix Tapes, the charmed music journalism kingdom of my college comrade Marvin Lin. Today, they posted my interview with Jake Luck of GAYNGS and Leisure Birds fame.

The interview centers on Jake's encounter with Prince at the recent GAYNGS show in Minneapolis, where I also attended college. It brought up memories of my time in that city where I absorbed the singular relationship between Minneapolis, Prince and First Avenue. I remembered an old friend of mine in the dorms who closely followed Prince's website, looking for coded messages. On random nights, Prince would use the website to coyly announce open parties at Paisley Park Studios, outside the city near Lake Minnetonka. The doors opened at about 1 am and the hundreds standing in line were each charged $7.77 to enter. Prince and his band would jam on stage until about 4am and, reportedly, the only food and drink provided was Doritos and Diet Pepsi.