Here’s the next installment of My First Time, the interview series that gives a little peek into the musical firsts of some bands I’ve been crushing on as of late. This time, it’s San Fran’s own The Dodos! Below you’ll find a few highlights of the Dodos duo’s early forays into music; including venues catching fire, how to avoid beatings while practicing the recorder and what happens when the girl you like hears the first song you recorded.

MP3: The Dodos - Fools

My first musical crush of 2008 on a previously-unheard band probably belongs to the Dodos. “Fools” is a really outstanding track, but their whole record is really great. If you aren’t yet sold, check out this video of them performing in a tunnel. Also, they’re playing our Hot Freaks! SXSW party, so you better familiarize yourselves before the big day.

My First Time …with The Dodos

First Time Playing Live
LOGAN KROEBER, Drummer, Vocalist: In my early high school years I ended up playing for this punk band called Ludovico’s Technique, named after the eyelids forced open brainwashing method seen in A Clockwork Orange. The guitar player and singer were older than me and were on some real message oriented hardcore shit and how a green horned squirt like me got involved with them I still don’t fully remember. We ended up playing one party successfully (another was broken up before we got to play) and though we were received well I mostly remember that party for introducing me to the uneasy social dynamic between straightedge kids and underage party animals. However, my first real show in a club was with my late/post high school metal band Entragian. It was fairly idyllic. A room full of friends, an audience instigated drum solo, a decent pit and it was all caught on film. F.O.A.D.

First Tour
MERIC LONG, Guitarist, Vocalist: The first tour I went on was by myself opening for a band called Tracker out of Portland. I played two nights with them, the first night was at a gay and lesbian bar in Modesto called the Mustang. There were like five bands, and there were about five people in the audience who weren’t in bands. In the middle of Tracker’s set, the building caught on fire and everyone had to be evacuated. John from Tracker offered up a place to stay in Santa Barbara, so his bassist/driver gave me two aderral and we drove there over night. The next night in Santa Barbara was better, but I had to leave right after the show and drive to San Francisco to be at work at 8 in the morning.

First Instrument Learned, or First Piece of Equipment Loved
LOGAN: Everyone at my tiny elementary school started playing recorder in kindergarten or first grade. Many kids probably found this to be a mild injustice, but I instantly fell in love with my little plastic flute and was quite good at it too. I remember walking around the far side of school one afternoon playing Pachelbel’s Canon in D and feeling the first stirrings in my heart of the unreal beauty of the world. If you know what a recorder sounds like, you will agree that it is a miracle I was not beaten up.

First Song You Wrote, or Recorded
MERIC: First song I recorded was this guitar lick that sounded like a sucky version of the opening to Metallica’s “One” with some really prepubescent singing over it. I recorded it on a dictaphone and had brought it to school to show to my buddy. It was in study hall and I remember leaving to go to the bathroom, and when I got back he had ganked the dictaphone and was playing the song for this girl I had a fat crush on. I think he was trying to help, but she didn’t seem impressed.

First Band You Were A Part Of
MERIC: The first band I was in was when I was nine or ten. It was with my older brother on drums, my dad on a keyboard and I sang. I don’t remember our name, or if we even had one but I do remember the one song that we used to play, which was called “I live in Peto land”, which translated from Hawaiian means “I live in Bellybutton land.” I think we performed a couple times for some family friends.