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Lavender Love

December 18th, 2008     by Anna Leventhal     Comments

The holidays can be a rough time for many people; what with the excessive family time (“Yes, Auntie Zelda, as a matter of fact I am trying to scare away husbands”), trauma caused by shattering of previously rock-solid resolve to be healthy, and the complete and utter panic attacks brought on every time you hear a “funky” remix of Jingle Bell Rock, the season of joy can sometimes turn into a nightmare. Well, I know what you need. You need a bunch of latter-day Los Angeles hippies dancing down the street in decrepit party dresses. You need Lavender Diamond.

The video for Open Your Heart from last year’s album Imagine Our Love is so feel-good it kind of makes me uncomfortable, like I start wondering what kind of sick creep I am that I keep excepting Becky Stark to get hit by a Good Humor ice cream truck as she wobbles down the street like a new-born deer on her vintage rollerskates. But the thing that saves this video from total saccharine cheesitude is that it’s 100% for real. As far as I can tell, Lavender Diamond are total dyed-in-the-hemp A-1 genuine peace-and-love-loving lovers. The way I see it, having that kind of image in an industry built on cynicism, cooler-than-thou attitude, and general hateration will get you absolutely nowhere, so I’m pretty sure it’s not posturing. They really believe love can change the world, and they’re not afraid to wear their hearts on their thrift-store sleeves. And for that I really have to respect them. In addition to which, somewhere deep in my soul there is a fifteen-year-old girl in John Lennon shades and flowered ankle-length skirt, marching in the annual Peace March because, you know, just give it a chance already. And sometimes I have to give her what she wants.

Tags: picks from planet venus, playlist

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