Music from My Friends 4: Linus the Band

So what, I don't care
The first time I heard Linus the Band was about two hours before I was supposed to play a gig with them. Back then I was guitarist / vocalist / keyboardist / bassist / tambourinist / drummer in a band that shall remain nameless--and I was feeling flush with confidence, cocky even, that I was in the best band in Hawaii. We had just gotten a pseudo-recording deal with a specialty label in California, despite having only played about three gigs (two of them at what used to be called King's Crab, in Waikiki). So yeah, even though I was a pretty lousy guitar player, and a worse singer, I was feeling good about being in Hawaii's best band. Although no one else thought of us in the same way, and no one ever would.

The show we had that night was at Cafe Ground Zero, which everyone now knows as Mercury Bar, just across the street from Mark's Garage. I was over at the drummer / guitarist / bassist / keyboardist's apartment just tuning up my guitar or whatever, and he was playing Linus's first EP over his computer. I couldn't help but listen--even though they'd recorded it at Junk studios live, it sounded great. "This is who we're playing with tonight," he told me.

I put down my guitar. "We gotta play with these fucking guys?"

"They're pretty good, right?"

Obviously I didn't feel as confident walking into that show.

When we got there we found out we had to play after Linus, which made us--or me, particularly--even more nervous. I think Nik was wearing a T-shirt, and Dave was playing a Danelectro then, torquoise-colored. Danmerle and Sandeep were still in the band. While I sat and watched their set I felt myself grow pale. Their songs were catchy, sometimes danceable, sometimes moshable, sometimes spooky in a very good way. These were the days of "The Construction," "Sad to Say" and "Girlfriend." One of us said he didn't want to do the song he usually did. I said I hardly wanted to do the show at all. We ended up doing okay, I guess, though I never felt so ridiculous playing the Rhythm King drum machine as I did that night. After their show I paid five bucks for the EP (the one with the rhino on it) and spent the next week listening to it and seething with envy.

Since then I've played shows with Linus a couple of times, and seen them less often than I would like. But every time I go to their show I have fun, whether I end up dancing or simply digging their music while sitting down. The bottom line is, you can't fuck with Linus, For They Are Better Than You. They play a better guitar, they have a better rhythm section. As an audience member I'm always torn between dancing to their groove or listening to their music, because almost every song inspires you to do both.

I've included sound clips of Dave--the band's lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter--from a solo live performance on KTUH's Monday Night Live. I wish I could have also included tracks from the band as well, but 1) the widget I use, which I detest, would not allow me to use the format of song file in which I have my Linus recordings; 2) these songs are great and should be checked out; 3) you can get a sense of some Linus tracks possibly coming up in the future, which you haven't heard before. Enjoy.

To stay abreast of the latest Linus news, you can check out Dave's blog here:

http://blog.myspace.com/linusthebanddotcom