Neon Indian/Vega

"I think my initial desire to conceive separate projects tends to be kind of compulsive to begin with, so most of the planning and distribution of time happens after the fact," muses Alan Palomo by e-mail about the pull of his two creative outlets, Neon Indian and Vega. "I'll get majorly stoked about the concept behind it, write some songs, and make a band page for it before having that realization of: 'Oh shit! I gotta play this live.'

"That definitely happened with Neon Indian."

Neon Indian surprised more than just Palomo. After registering initial success last year with Vega's Well Known Pleasures EP (Vogue College), an unabashed romp of 1980s-saturated beats and neo-glam grooves, Palomo delivered Neon Indian's Psychic Chasms (Lefse), an LP whose suave, sighing synths acted as a smooth comedown to its counterpart's summer rave-up.

"Vega for me has always come from that pure unadulterated sensation of listening to pop music," offers Palomo. "Watching something like Purple Rain or realizing that song that made you blush when you were 5 was 'Bizarre Love Triangle' and getting so stoked that you have to wail on a guitar, even if you can't play one, is definitely its essence.

"Neon Indian, however, seems to be the antithesis of that. In fact, it started as some sort of reactionary exercise to break away from the tediums of producing Vega. I was pretty burnt out after the Well Known Pleasures EP and tried to maintain my sanity by just making music devoid of any particular goal or reference other than my own life and experiences. It's a bit more transparent in that way. And the fact that the template was so loose, it gave me leeway to include all the crazy shit I never managed to find the context for in Vega."