Fred Armisen on Record Store Day, His New EP, and Punk Rock

Fred Armisen remembers the candy man. Or, rather, Armisen remembers, “The Candy Man,” sung and performed in 1972 by the great Sammy Davis Jr.

In fact, Armisen says, it’s his first musical memory. The famed comedic star of Saturday Night Live and Portlandia and house band drummer for Late Night with Seth Meyers, says he played the song “over and over” as a kid. Music, even then for Armisen, as Davis Jr. put it so well, helped make the world taste good.

But as the years progressed from those salad days, Armisen, now 54, who holds the honorary title this year of Record Store Day Ambassador, and who will again observe the vinyl holiday this summer on July 17, began to explore more new sounds and songs. His tastes grew from the Davis Jr. confectionary bop into more rugged sonic landscape. Enter: the burgeoning thought-provoking genre of punk rock.