Some musicians thrive in the pool-party, palm-tree, freeway fantasia of Los Angeles. And Electric Guest, the two-man band made up of Asa Taccone and Matthew Compton, seems to be such a group. Their debut album, Mondo, was produced by the Midas of Music, Danger Mouse. And their month-long residency in February at L.A.’s The Echo became a bazaar for trading hipster cred. But that would be incorrect. One need only to watch the dark video for their single “American Daydream,” directed by Asa’s brother Jorma Taccone of The Lonely Island fame, to be convinced of their latent disdain. Taccone, whose warble channels Jamiroquai and who resembles a skinnier, feral Mark Wahlberg, crashes a classic valley party and launches an airborne assault on the otherwise anodyne, if vapid, guests. Taccone ends bloody but triumphant. This all is accompanied by a simmering catchy chant of a chorus: “They keep sellin’ / We don’t want it / So close to it / Almost found a way.”
