MAGNET knows a thing or two about good music, art and interesting people, so when Dengue Fever was asked to be guest editors, we all replied within minutes: ”Yes, please!” We have had our noses to the grindstone as of late because that’s what you need to do when you release your latest full-length studio album, The Deepest Lake, on your own label, Tuk Tuk Records. It’s a hell of a lot of work, and us sitting down and writing about subjects other than ourselves sounded like a great respite. So thank you, MAGNET. Enjoy the info, rants and inspirations. Who knows where they’ll take you …
Ethan Holtzman: Having spent my youth climbing through the creeks and hillsides of Topanga Canyon, I would eventually find my golden nuggets. During one of my first “real” post-high-school jobs, when I delivered organic produce to the locals, I had encountered the coveted delicacy: the chanterelle mushrooms. My boss at the time had collected probably a half-dozen grocery bags full of these bright yellowish gold beauties. He cleaned them off with a toothbrush and said, “Ethan, these are gonna put my boy Conner through college.” The next day he was covered in poison oak. Not just a little red rash; he had pustules on top of pustules puffed out like his skin was covered in pink cotton balls. His wife banned him from ever going to collect the delicious chanterelles again. I asked him several times where he had found them. Yet he wouldn’t give me his secret spots, just waved me off with a general location.
So after the rains, I went mushroom foraging, which entailed combed the hillsides searching diligently beneath oak and bay trees, making a conscious effort to avoid areas that contained eucalyptus as they are a known natural fungicide. You could look under a thousand oaks and never find a single chanterelle, but when you do eventually find one, mark my words, there are always hundreds camouflaged nearby. With the current forecast predicting an El Nino winter, I know this year will be one decked in gold.
Video after the jump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75WOK_E0QKI
