I knew what I was getting myself into. I made the appropriate mental adjustments to enjoy a show with a crowd I readily don’t frolic with, partly by chance, partly by destiny, and wholly by confusion. Still, I made the trek to “cosmopolitan” mecca Echo Park, California. I was there to enjoy the up and coming talent and doo-wop drone sounds of Dirty Beaches. Amongst the painfully nonchalant frequents of the now reputable The Echo, Dirty Beaches did work and interpolated some furious toe-tapping, of which I was no doubt a part of. Out the window went any concerns or reservation I had about thoroughly enjoying myself in an alien environment. Good tunes have a good habit of doing that.

Alex Zhang Huntai, the man behind Dirty …