Precocious over-educated hipsters generally HATE it when actors jump into music. After all, how could someone who wakes up at 4 AM to be on “My Name Is Earl” ever truly know the ecstasies and agonies of seeing a band close out the Echoplex? But actor Adam Goldberg, most famous for getting stabbed by a Nazi in Saving Private Ryan, proved to everybody with 2009’s LANDy that he can make an album in his spare time as good or better than what most kids in Echo Park do all day. With his newest project, the Goldberg Sisters, he and a slightly-solid lineup of musical recruits have woven together an intricate album that puts a psychedelic sheen across the treble-timbered sounds of the 70s. This interview by Dan Collins.

You’re not new to music: ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic nearly derailed your acting career.
I’m still bitter about it! That’s the sad part. My schadenfreude can outlast twenty-plus years. In 1988 I was asked to read for this movie called Super 8 and ‘play a young budding Woody Allen type!’ I was beyond ecstatic, so I went in and I read, and then I got a callback. I spent that summer with this young director shooting five scenes to show the studio. I had really put my heart into the thing, and I got the call towards the end of the summer that it wasn’t happening. I went off to college, and when I came home, I saw that this movie starring Weird Al Yankovic called UHF was playing—and in the credits it was the same exact production company, it was the same producer, everything was the same—it was clearly the movie they chose to do instead of what could have been my launch to stardom! Much as Weird Al’s film catapulted him to leading man status, Super 8 would have forever cemented my career instead of relegating me to character actor-dilettante-bon vivant.
UHF was filmed in Tulsa, and you also spent some time in Oklahoma on the Flaming Lips movie.
At the end of 2002, I had a couple friends who knew the Lips, and they would say, ‘Steven Drozd wants to meet you,’ which was pretty amazing because I was fairly obsessed with them. Then Steven and I had this mutual sycophantic Through the Looking Glass moment. Steven admitted that he had had a man-crush on me—that he kept a list of his top ten man crushes, and that I had made it to number two on the list, right below the Belle & Sebastian guy …
Stuart Murdoch? I have a man crush on him.
Who doesn’t? I would do Stuart Murdoch in a heartbeat! But anyway, I started hanging out with all those guys, but mainly Steven. I had asked them as a whole if they wanted to do music for this movie I was about to shoot, I Love Your Work. Ultimately only Steven could do it, and I needed music immediately because there’s a musical sequence in the film. I ended up writing most of the scene music for the film. When he’d come into town he’d kind of take my demos and re-record them. That was the first time Steven and I had worked together musically. And then a couple years later, in 2005, it was like my first stab at saying, ‘OK, I’m going to try and pull together all these recordings.’ Because at the time I had pulled together X amount of recordings, and I didn’t know if they were demos, or going to be re-recorded. In a couple instances, I went to Norman, Oklahoma, and just had Steven add drums to a couple of songs I had already recorded, and then we did three from the ground up— interestingly enough, not the song ‘BFF’ which people often attribute him to having being a part of, but was just me. I say often, meaning eight people, because nobody really knows that song! But in the world that revolves around me, everybody knows that song. So that was it: that was our musical collaboration. And then I was in the Christmas From Mars thing.
How many instruments do you play?
Mainly guitar and keyboards. I’m really crude! I came to playing guitar really late. I sort of had assumed I was this one thing—I would just be this music fan. For the most part, it was like I woke up one day and I was 23 years old, and I bought a guitar, Tascam, digital delay, reverb pedal, wah-wah pedal, and an amp and started recording shit. It sort of came out of nowhere. I swear you can listen to a tape from 1994 when I was just starting out and, sadly, while I think my songwriting has improved considerably, I don’t think my playing has changed. I’m part prodigy, part thwarted moron.
You’d talked about your love of the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson. Is that what it is? That you know how to use the studio to get around your admittedly limited abilities?
There’s no question that the studio is a far more comfortable place for me. I’m trying my fucking darnedest to get something that resembles that feeling across with this live thing, whether through making loops and having some sequences … I’m surrounded by fucking effects and a big guitar board. And I have a keyboard board, a little percussion board at my feet, a thing for my vocals—I’m not using this shit all that much, most of it ends up being employed on one outro for one song, but it looks good! I’ve never been a lead guitar player. I think I have a guitar sound, but for the most part, I’m a rhythm guy, I’m a rhythm piano guy. I use them as songwriting implements; I feel I have a good grasp of sound and I can communicate sound, and I have a really good grasp of the technology, and I feel like I can whip up a pretty interesting recording. And I can do it really often—like, just last year, I opened up a stupid Tumbler page as an exercise in OCD, but I think it’s actually helped me write the record. Every other day I have to make a recording.
‘Shush’ seems to have emerged as the single of the record, and I think it signals the difference between this and the last album. LANDy was compared a lot to the Beach Boys, but when I hear ‘Shush’ I hear a serious glam rock streak—especially when the falsetto hits.
That was completely unintentional. I didn’t setouttodoit….Therewasapianoriffin that song that was eventually pulled from the mix, but as I was playing it I was thinking, ‘Wow, this sounds like a glam song, like a T. Rex-ish type of riff.’ So I’m like, ‘Fuck it, let’s do a glam rock song!’ So we fully took it in that direction, and I’m really happy with that, because it really was just this thing on a solo piano, so the fact that it became a big glistening guitar thing is cool—can you hang on one second? I totally heard some weird random thing around my house. Sorry, I had like a weird thing happen a couple weeks ago, and I’ve basically been completely fucking paranoid ever since. There was a guy standing in our fucking kitchen at 3 a.m. that woke my girlfriend up, and basically we have not been the same since. You can just add to the article that I’m becoming a paranoid schizophrenic.
How did you get him out of the house?
I heard her screaming, and my girlfriend doesn’t scream, like ever—she’s much tougher than I am. It was pretty terrifying. I came bolting down the stairs with my fucking 65 Gib- son 330 in my hand—ha ha. And there was this dude who looked like the guy from the Facebook movie, not the main guy. In fact, for two seconds as I was fueled with testosterone and completely out of my mind, I remember trying to postulate whether or not, and why, if so, the guy from the Facebook movie was in the kitchen. I started fucking screaming at him at the top of my lungs, and aggressing him with this guitar, and he just had no affect. He didn’t respond to my girlfriend screaming and crying hysterically, and didn’t respond to me, you know, really out of my mind. You want to tell your readers, we created a site called douchebusters.com where Roxanne made a sketch for anyone who has information about this douchebag. Anyway, he finally backs up and goes, ‘I’m sorry, sir!’ Which first of all I think was implicitly insulting my age, not to mention that he completely destroyed our lives, at least for the evening. And he receded out into the yard into the darkness. And then I slammed the glass sliding door as hard as I could, and went to lock it at the same time, and my finger got caught in there, bled profusely, had to go to the hospital, got stitches, and luckily I can still bend it. That’s my life!
Are you sure he was making fun of your age? You haven’t aged much since I’d see you in movies in the 90s. In your song, ‘Don’t Grow,’ was that a command to yourself?
It’s going to happen all at once, and it’s going to freak me out. It kind of started to happen in the last year—I still don’t really have wrinkles, but you can see where they’re going to be, and it’s not a gray hair you can pluck anymore. The good news is that I feel worse than ever and I feel older than ever. And I feel like now when I sing, I feel immediately like it’s me. I’m not sort of thinking about it like I used to. I know what my schtick is, even if it’s similar to something else. I had always wanted to sound like Elvis Costello or Chet Baker! I guess the harbinger of things that are maybe coming I would venture to guess is the song ‘The Heart Grows Fonder.’ There’s a part of me when we did that song, I said literally, ‘Next time I want to do an America album.’
The band America?
The band America. That’s what that began to remind me of. I can’t deny there’s kind of a Jeff Lynne-y thing happening. It’s funny—I was never a fan, but I’ve now fully embraced the fact that he possesses me. If you’d told me fifteen years ago, I’d be like, ‘Whaaat?’ I had this really vitriolic thing about ELO! I don’t know why, but I couldn’t stand them! And of course in the end, I’ve made this baroque-y pop shit. Their stuff is far more complex and intricately produced, but I can’t deny their influence. But it’s only because they were doing their version of the Beatles, and everybody in a way is channeling their version of the Beatles.
Why don’t you get Van Dyke Parks to arrange? He did Inara George recently.
Look—I have dreams about Ringo Starr being my drummer, but I think you have to do your own version of it. I feel like with my stuff, it’s ambitious and it completely falls short. But it’s done on my own terms and it’s where I am and represents my skill level. So when there are certain successes, like the arrangement on ‘Don’t Grow,’ that’s a success to me that I want to take credit for! It also means you have to take credit for not knowing what you’re doing easily half the time, and feeling like you’re out of your element.
If you could take your studio skills and focus them on another musician, who would you like to take a crack at using to make an Adam Goldberg album?
The only one I’ve thought of is Claudine Longet! I really want to write music for her! I mean, the woman has been fully in hiding, so I don’t anticipate that happening. But I love the idea of doing that. But at the same time, I really enjoy the visceral experience of playing, and I’m getting better! I’ve been practicing scales and shit.
What’s your favorite minor scale? I like the mixolydian, because it’s like ‘The Jetsons.’
Here’s the thing: anything that’s in Latin, forget it! I’m happy that I can play a pentatonic scale and play it backwards—and I prefer to play it forwards and record it and then reverse it in post! Can I tell you what that question reminded me of? Remember in Manhattan, when Diane Keaton and Woody Allen are on the lunar surface, and she’s like ‘How many of the moons of Saturn can you name?’ And he’s like, ‘None of them, and luckily it never comes up in casual conversation.’
I don’t remember that part!
Go back and see it, because you were just Diane Keaton!

THE GOLDBERG SISTERS WITH HANDS, CORRIDOR AND VENUS ILLUMINATO ON THUR., MAY. 12, AT THE PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS BENEFIT FOR JAPAN HOSTED BY MISCHA BARTON AT THE BOOTLEG THEATRE, 2220 BEVERLY BLVD., ECHO PARK. 8 PM / $10-$12 / 21+. FOLDSILVERLAKE.COM. THE GOLDBERG SISTERS’ SELF-TITLED ALBUM IS OUT NOW ON PLAY IT AGAIN SAM. VISIT THE GOLDBERG SISTERS AT ADAMGOLDBERGDILETTANTE.COM.

In honor of Low End Theory’s Japan benefit show tomorrow, we are posting VJ/artist/electronic musician Strangeloop’s guide to sci-fi, avant-garde anime and films that feel like DMT trips. He brings the psychedelic visuals that accompany the sonic landscapes of Flying Lotus, who he met in college. His favorite film may or may not exist in full and we might never know because its creator is an internet-phobic lunatic. This interview by Lainna Fader.

FANTASTIC PLANET (RENÉ LALOUX, 1973)

“Fantastic Planet is an animated science fiction film directed by René Laloux. I think Flying Lotus was the first person to show it to me when we were going to college together. I love the artist and I strive for a lot of his aesthetics in my drawings. I really like the alien worlds he makes. It’s totally idiosyncratic and unique and doesn’t have any counterparts. There’s nothing like it.”

TEKKONKINKREET (MICHAEL ARIAS, 2006)

“It’s from an animation studio called Studio 4°C and they’re probably my favorite animation studio today. I sample more clips from them than anyone else, like Tekkonkinkreet, Mind Game, Noiseman Sound Insect. Very avant-garde Japanese animation. Pretty consistently when I play shows people come up to me and ask about the clip with the nuclear explosion and it’s always either Tekkonkinkreet or another Studio 4°C film. In the last few decades there’s been a handful of really incredible animated sci-fi films like Ghost in the Shell and Miyazaki stuff, and in the last ten years, in this century, the champions have been Studio 4°C. Philosophically they’re dealing with a lot of stuff we’re dealing with as a species.”

AKIRA (KATSUHIRO OTOMO, 1988)

“There’s a handful of quintessential sci-fi from the last few decades. If someone tells me they’re interested in anime but don’t know where to start, this is the film I tell them to see. I still don’t think it’s been topped. It’s all hand-drawn. The amount of work that went into making that epic is phenomenal and it’s prophetic on certain levels. As far as the philosophy they get into, it’s pretty heavy. I love that film a lot.”

NAQOYQATSI (GODFREY REGGIO, 2002)

“In a way I could say Koyaanisqatsi—it’s kind of a better film, but I put Naqoyquatsi on this list because I’ve sampled it more, and I was more influenced by its aesthetics primarily because there are sequences in the film that are like downloads. It’s not a narrative film at all. It’s this download of history and imagery and I was influenced by that notion that in media you can move away from narrative into this place where you give people bursts of information and association. And since I’m a total fractal geek, it’s one of the first films that I know of that has a full-on fractal sequence in it—a mathematical visualization.”

ENTER THE VOID (GASPAR NOÉ, 2009)

“Dopest fucking film of the last five years. Everyone’s talking about it right now for good reason. It’s historical because it’s a film which brought DMT and mystical experiences into a more mainstream form and from a mythological standpoint it manages to capture the look and feel of altered states, like the DMT trance or other hallucinatory states. It’s the first film I saw where I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s it.’ Trippy sequences in film aren’t always cohesive–they can be confusing and weird and they don’t capture the sort of cohesiveness and complexity and visuals on altered states.”

PI (DARREN ARONOFSKY, 1998)

“Pi was one of the first films to put the computer nerd in this punk rock protagonist position. The main character is this software engineer on a search for God in the computer. It’s an exciting pursuit and it’s one of the first films to successfully make the software geek someone exciting and interesting. I want to highlight the idea of people using technology to search for God and the divine. When I was really young that blew me away. Even though the main character is pretty schizophrenic, on some levels I kind of wanted to be him.”

STALKER (ANDREY TARKOVSKY, 1979)

“Tarkovsky is probably my favorite filmmaker if I’m thinking of the whole spectrum of a filmmaker’s work. Stalker is great because it’s kind of a sci-fi film but it’s also not. Tarkovsky managed with Solaris and Stalker to make a totally unique branch of sci-fi where nature is the alien element and civilized human life is what is keeping us from that alien element. In Stalker, he manages to make normal nature landscapes these foreboding, mystical places. Very few sci-fi films get to that more interesting, deeply philosophical territory.”

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY, 1973)

“There’s nothing like this film. I love that it’s become this default video put on at events. Holy Mountain playing at music events is almost a cliché at this point, but for good reason. It’s a truly psychedelic film but it’s also deeply rooted in mystical symbolism and is intelligently constructed. It’s silly and ridiculous. You don’t see that much effort and time and money put toward those kinds of ideas that often. It’s kind of a unique thing that that film could even be made.”

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (STANLEY KUBRICK, 1968)

“It blew the lid off so early. It was maybe the first film to try to reach so far in scope—from the birth of man to the transcendence of man—and it manages to take the viewer on that whole journey. It also has this narrative structure I love where the third act is like the undoing of the narrative. In a way it’s the quintessential narrative of the mystical state. At a certain point the ego, time and space go out the window, and 2001 did that for a lot of people. It’s still one of the most important films ever made.”

SAMIZDAT (ROBERT DAWD, ?)

[video clips do not exist!]

“I’m not sure anyone’s ever heard of this film. I’m still trying to get a hold of a full copy. I was at Burning Man four or five years ago tripping on acid and I saw this VJ performing on a dome and doing the craziest things I’ve ever seen by far. I’ve based a lot of my imagery off his stuff. I talked to him and he showed me a film he was working on. He had all these crazy ideas about making films that could hypnotize people to the point where they would literally lose themselves completely into the film and forget about their lives and basically have a mystical experience. He had a lot of cool ideas but he seemed kind of crazy and I was coming off acid so that exaggerated it. The film was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Really sophisticated fractal imagery all perfectly synched to sound. It was mind-blowing. He was attempting to finish it and showed me twenty minutes of it. It was going to be about an hour long. I’ve been in communication with him for a while over e-mail but he’s totally enigmatic. I can’t find any information on him anywhere. I think while being a total lunatic VJ he’s also internet-phobic—the total real deal. I’ll be collaborating with him at some point hopefully on some sort of film. That’s my favorite film. My friend told me ‘samizdat’ is something in a sci-fi novel. There’s this sci-fi novel called Infinite Jest and it describes this piece of media that sounds like what the dude was trying to create. It’s a piece of media someone starts watching in Los Angeles in 2010 that’s so mind-blowing, so entertaining, that people die from it. They stop eating, they stop drinking, they just sit and home and watch it till they die. I don’t know if he read that and was trying to make that piece of media, but it’s all pretty interesting.”

STRANGELOOP WITH Z TRIP, DADDY KEV, NOBODY, THE GASLAMP KILLER, D-STYLES, NOCANDO, JONWAYNE, RAS_G, AUSTIN PERALTA AND SAM XL PLUS LIVE SCREENPRINTING BY HIT + RUN ON THUR., MAR. 31, AT THE LOW END LOVES JAPAN BENEFIT AT THE ECHOPLEX, 1154 GLENDALE BLVD., ECHO PARK. 9 PM / $10-$12 / 18+. ATTHEECHO.COM. 100% OF DOOR TO JAPANESE RED CROSS SOCIETY. VISIT STRANGELOOP AT MYSPACE.COM/STRANGELOOPTV.

Picture Con Secuencia: A Show of Exquisite Corpses

Presented by walt! productions and Eraser Zine

Free opening reception November 12th, 2010 8pm
with DJ sets from KXLU DJ Molly
Echo Curio
1519 Sunset Blvd. Echo Park, CA 90026

Featuring a (not so) silent auction to benefit Echo Curio.

Missed Connections cassette presented by No Girls Allowed Records
featuring music by the following artists (and members of):
Moses Campbell, XBXRX, kit, No Babies. Charlyne Yi, Michael Nhat, Magick Orchids, Lola Loshkey, Big Whup, Pizza!, Heller Keller, Sugar Frosted Light Bulbs, Tusk, Peter Pants and more!

New video and animation collaborations from:
walt!, Eri Hawkins, Sean Solomon, Chloe Mandel, Steven Sanchez, champoyhate, Sam Yurick, Joan Zamora, Andrew Lush, Dave Sirus, Jordan Santos, Joe Holliday, Michael Reyder, Julie Orlick, Rachel Cole, Craig Miller, Anthony Anzalone, Steven Andrew Garcia, Carla Orendorff, Vim Crony, Lillie West, Austin Wolf-Sothern

Featuring new work in drawing, painting, collage, writing, installation, music, video, animation, and more!

what’s an exquisite corpse? see here
questions? e-mail
corpseshow@gmail.com

http://www.echocurio.com/
http://www.waltproductions.com/ec.html
http://www.eraserzine.com/
http://www.nogirlsallowedrecords.com/

Radiohead will play a surprise show at the Henry Fonda Theater this Sunday and are auctioning off tickets starting tonight at 8 PM to “raise as much money as possible” for Oxfam Haiti. More details From the band themselves:

We’re doing a show this Sunday (24th January) to raise funds for the relief effort in Haiti. The venue is The Music Box Theatre at The Fonda in Los Angeles, doors at 7pm. All proceeds are going to the Oxfam Haiti relief fund. We’re trying to raise as much money as possible, so tickets will be sold by auction at this site from 8pm tonight until 11am Saturday (PST):

http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/09004434FC1C86AC

We’re in the middle of recording at the moment, so you’ll be catching us on the fly…. but if you’re up for it, then we are too.

Just to clarify times for ticket sales

Auction starts Thursday 21st January 08.00 pm PST
Auction ends Saturday 23rd January 11.00 am PST

Well, that’s all clear now….

x
Philip

Kim Grant alerts us: Redwood bartender Laura Ann Masura was involved in a serious motorcycle accident in September and is facing thousands of dollars worth of medical bills, so Josiah from Light FM has put together a benefit including performances by Billy Corgan with members of the Electric Prunes and Ancient Chinese Secret plus Syd Straw, the Pity Party, the Happy Stars (Posies + Fountains of Wayne) and tons more—even fortune-telling by the Grammy-nominated Madame Pamita! Corgan will also be auctioning off the drum set used on Gish and the bass used at the first Smashing Pumpkins show. Show is at 4:30 PM on Sun., Nov. 8, at the Echoplex and tickets are $12. More info below and best wishes to Laura!

LOS ANGELES, CA—Dozens of musicians will perform a benefit concert Sunday November 8 at the Echoplex in Echo Park for fellow musician Laura Ann Masura. Masura, a former member of Evil Beaver, Motorhome, the Prescriptions and Dime Box Band, suffered a motorcycle accident in September that almost resulted in the amputation of her foot. As she heals at her Echo Park home, friends and fellow musicians have banded together to raise money for costs that Masura’s health insurance doesn’t cover.

Josiah Mazzaschi of the band Light FM has organized an impressive line up for the concert, which starts at 5 PM and costs a mere $12 per ticket. (ALL proceeds go to Laura Ann. This ain’t UNICEF. The Echoplex’s Liz Garo has generously donated use of the venue.) To appear: The Happy Stars (Brian Young from Fountains of Wayne and Joe Skyward from The Posies), The Pulsars (Dave and Harry Trumfio), Tim Rutili (Red Red Meat, Califone), Syd Straw (Golden Palominos) Pity Party, Light FM, and The Backward Clock Society, featuring Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, Kerry Brown of Ancient Chinese Secrets and Mark Tulin of the Electric Prunes. Rotary Rachel (Rachel Lichtman of luxuriamusic.com) will emcee and DJ between band sets.

JAM FOR LAURA ANN is more than a concert. There will be items raffled all evening long; a fortune teller (none other than Madame Pamita from cult all-girl surf band the Neptunas); and a BBQ in back of the venue. Jars of Laura Ann’s Jams, made artisanally by Laura Ann this past summer, will be for sale. (In fact Laura Ann was on her motorcycle, en route to a farm for strawberries for the jams, when a car hit her.)

Laura Ann Masura, a respected drummer and founding member of the bands Evil Beaver, the Prescriptions and Motorhome was a major presence on the Chicago music scene. Moving to Los Angeles several years ago, she quickly became a favorite personality on the East Side. A lifelong gourmet, she began making artisanal jams from local ingredients for friends and a few local restaurants. Word got out, and customers at the Redwood, the downtown bar where she worked, would ask to buy jars. The hobby was growing into a business (see lauraannsjams.com) until the accident put a hold on everything.

Leading up to the November 8 event, two very special items from the early days of the Smashing Pumpkins will be auctioned off starting this Wednesday without reserve via Ebay to help defray Laura’s medical bills from her accident. The first item up for auction is the drum kit that Jimmy Chamberlin used on the Smashing Pumpkins’ influential and platinum Gish album in 1991 and subsequent tour. The kit will be signed by both Jimmy and Billy. Billy will also be auctioning off the original Smashing Pumpkins bass guitar that he played at the band’s very first show (it is also the bass that he used for the early demos). Both items will be available for bidding via the official Smashing Pumpkins memorabilia ebay site: http://shop.ebay.com/officialspmemorabilia/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686.

Despite surgery scheduled for October 29th, Laura Ann will attend the benefit show—“Even if we have to wheel a bed in!” she says. People unable to attend the event may donate to Laura Ann’s recovery fund (no amount too small!) at lauraannsjams.com.

PLEASE NOTE: JAM FOR LAURA ANN IS AN EARLY SHOW!
Sunday, November 8th
Doors: 4:30 Showtime 5:00 Tickets: $12
purchase in advance: http://www.ticketweb.com
The Echoplex, 1154 Glendale Blvd. Los Angeles, CA, 90026

Dangerbird Records co-founder Jeff Castelaz’s five-year-old son Pablo has a rare form of cancer, which led him to create the very personal Pablove Foundation to raise awareness and money to fight the disease. What better way to get the word out than a benefit show involving one of L.A.’s hottest bands with an album that just dropped on his own label? Silversun Pickups is an embodiment of the can-do spirit of Dangerbird, and their success is proof that this team’s perserverance will overcome the insurmountable. Opening the night were the Eulogies, fronted by Dangerbird’s other co-founder Peter Walker. The Eulogies have a bigger-rock sound than Walker’s eponymous work. His somber-rock vocals remain strong and his lyric writing is as catchy as it is insightful. “Eyes on the Prize,” from their new album Here Anonymous, was a standout with its floor-stomping beat. Introducing SSPU for their homecoming/send-off show was Shirley Manson, who called attention to the evening’s main objective of finding a cure for this cancer. Swoon, SSPU’s second full-length, just hit the Billboard 200 at number 7, so it is safe to say that they are well on their way to building on the success of Carnavas. They’ve expanded their sound (and song-length) on this sophomore outing and critics and fans alike will have plenty to dig into. They are a great live band and seemed especially excited to be playing the Echoplex for the home-crowd and Pablo. They played the majority of Swoon with new radio hit “Panic Switch” and yes, “Lazy Eye” and “Well Thought Out Twinkles” also made the list. These songs from Carnavas display an extra seasoning and “Kissing Families” (from their EP) has also taken on new bite. SSPU has the quietloudquietloud formula down: Nikki Monninger’s melodious bass line churning through the distortion, the rapid-fire drumming of Christopher Guanlao, sonic structure from keyboardist Joe Lester and effects-laden guitar work and ragged vocals from frontman/guitarist Brian Aubert. SSPU has found their voice and on this night they put it out there for the Pablove Foundation. Please go to pablove.org to find more information on how you can help fight childhood cancer with love.

—Erik Ehlert

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Arthur Magazine needs $20,000 by July 1 or it will die.

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UPDATE: More from Jay…

On the heels of lower than expected ad sales (although they are trending up), increased production and distribution costs (higher quality printing and paper, higher fuel costs, increased printrun), and an “under-performing non-magazine product” (the Living Theatre dvd, for which we’ve sold less than 25% of the printrun since launch, received zero reviews or notices, etc), spiraling debt service payments (now $2k a month) on startup costs, and most importantly ZERO NEW BACKERS… we’ve finally reached the point where

WE HAVE NO MORE MONEY.

If we don’t obtain at least $20k in the next six days, ARTHUR is done. Our long-term prospects are good, if we are fortunate enough to make it through this rough patch.

The Long Beach Police Department Miraculously found our van near Walnut street in LBC with ALL of the gear still in it…Most likely because our broke asses were driving it with almost no gas in it!

Apparently the Police have a new device that scans licesnse plates as they cruise buy & it just happened to spot our van.

There was substantial damage to the inside of the van & a few personal items taken, but the thieves were not able to get to caged up gear.
The ignition is wrecked as is the steering wheel and locks, but what dumb luck, eh???! Thanks to everyone for helping to make the situation easier. Now all we have to do is fix the van and off to SXSW!

No sad benefits to come, but the Alex’s Bar show on March 6th (with Paper Planes, Sonadora and Thee Makeout Party) will now be a benefit for The Long Beach Homless Shelter & Animal Rescue.

We’re also working on returning most of the Personal donations that were made to us to buy new gear (Thanks especially to Monkey Bucket & Darker My Love).

Thank you to everyone for being so supportive throughout this whole thing…