Stagecoach 2014: Susanna Hoffs Talks About Old Songs And New

Susanna Hoffs performs April 27 at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Perhaps the most likely to act on Stagecoach Country Music Festival last weekend, Susanna Hoffs acknowledges that she does not keep up with the latest sounds of Nashville act. But Bangles singer and guitarist known for such pop MTV -era hits like "Manic Monday" and " Walk Like an Egyptian " has to do with the roots of the music - in his case, the influential mid- '60s folk- rock of the Byrds and Linda Ronstadt singing "Different Drum" with the Stone Poneys .

In 2006 , Hoffs recorded a version of "Different Drum" for the first of a series of album covers he has done with the power- pop veteran Matthew Sweet. And Stagecoach performed the song on a crisp drive show which also included "Hazy Shade of Winter" and Big Star "September Gurls” as well as new versions of some of the biggest hits of the bracelets. After his set, Hoffs, 55, answered questions backstage.

"Manic Monday" and "Eternal Flame" sounded great today - a kind of strange but beautiful, like something by the Velvet Underground.

Velvets were the band I learned in college as part of this wave of information coming to me at the time of my life. It is a very rich moment: You graduated from high school, but you do not have to live in the real world, however; you just get to have four years to make a lot of mistakes and learn a lot of things. I was a theater and dance major at UC Berkeley, and for me it was all about becoming an artist. I went to the music through the Sex Pistols and Patti Smith and Television, and then headed back to the Velvet Underground.


It is remaking his old songs about what is fun to play with them today?


Course. I did this live show " Portlandia " with Fred [ Armisen ] and Carrie [ Brownstein ] a couple of years ago, and I just told them to choose what they wanted me to do and I would. They chose "Manic Monday" and "Sunday Morning" [ by the Velvet Underground ] , so I went to the sound check and had this cool reverb on my amp and started playing this type alternative "Manic Monday" version , and I just started jamming . And I had this idea that just because the song was recorded in a certain way does not mean I have to play is always the case; do not have to live in that box. So when we were rehearsing for Stagecoach, we were playing with it again and it's a little more Rolling Stone - sort of “Honky Tonk Women”.