The Bad Penny (beta)

You say your band has a big following on Facebook? Well, San Francisco’s Exray’s can do you one better: One of their songs is featured in David Fincher’s related movie “The Social Network,” which appears well on its way to a Best Picture nomination. The experimental lo-fi group just released its debut EP; here’s a downloadable song from it – along with one of the bandmembers’ contribution to “My City Rules,” a new Bad Penny series.

On their Ammunition Teeth EP (Howells Transmitter) – available digitally and on cassette – Exray’s are joined by members of the Decemberists, Evangelista, the Fresh & Onlys and more; expect to hear the same slew of musicians on the self-titled Exray’s LP that is due January 25.

Here’s a cut from the EP:

• Bad Penny download: Exray’s’ “Ways to Stop Time”

And here are some informative, amusing and forward-thinking thoughts on San Francisco that Jon Bernson gave to the Bad Penny:

“San Francisco rules because we just completed a network of conduits for all our electricity, air, water and transportation. Our city looks like a massive field of seaweed. Each twisted tower has an algae farm that allows us to harvest power from the hydrogen. It’s all pretty new, but so far, so good.

“We’re not sure how to use all this inexpensive energy, or how to protect it from pirates. Another issue is whether to share our juice with China and India, given that we owe them so much money from everything that went down in the 2050s. They own a lot more real estate on the neighboring planets; maybe we should make a deal?

“Then again, I’m old school. I think we should spend our money on this planet. Let’s take it back to the way it was (instead of dumping all this time and energy into making Venus comfortable). We have the means to remove our excess water. Think of all that great soil just waiting beneath the ocean … live on level ground … breath unfiltered air … see the moon with your naked eyes!

“My big dream is to walk the valleys of San Francisco [and see them] like they [were] back in the day. I’d walk down to the base of the Golden Gate Bridge and spend the whole day there. I’d watch the tide pass by and fill up the Bay. I would sit there until it emptied out again. If we can get the fog to come back, I’ll become a redwood farmer and dedicate my life to public service.”

Exray’s will show their love for their hometown with a pair of upcoming gigs: an Ammunition Teeth EP release show on October 30 at Distillery, and a performance at the Terrorbird Holiday Extravaganza on December 4 at Bottom of the Hill.

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This entry was posted on 10/27/2010 at 7:14 am and is filed under Features, Interviews, MP3s, My City Rules with tags Evangelista, Exray's, the Decemberists, the Fresh & Onlys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.