Pinback Is Back

Rob Crow Talks Music and Star Wars

by Patrick Moore

For those of you not familiar, Pinback is a mellow indie-rock
band from San Diego who’s been playing together for about eight
years. They come off as rather relaxed on their home recordings,
yet are also known for playing the same songs more aggressively
when in the flesh. The principal members are Rob Crow and Zach
Hill, who, by the way, are also involved in a separate project
called The Ladies, a band that will start touring at the end of
May, after Pinback wraps up their current tour. That tour begins
tonight with a sold-out show at UCSB.

“Last time I was in S.B.,” mused Rob Crow on the phone a couple
weeks back, “I found a stuffed R2D2 … but it didn’t have any
batteries for it. It was just a doll I found on State Street. I
didn’t want to take it away from any kid who wanted to play with
it, so I put it back.”

Star Wars memories aside, this tour is technically
promoting their 2004 release Summer In Abaddon, which has
sold about 70,000 copies so far. The long-awaited next album will
hit stores by spring 2007, about a year from now. It will be
recorded in much the same fashion as the last: mostly in a small
rehearsal space in San Diego as well as in Crow’s home using a
simple computer setup running the recording program Cubase. With
three years between releases, fans are curious whether the band
will unveil any new stuff tonight.

“Well, it’s still coming together,” said an elusive Crow, “but
we have a limited amount of time to practice, so we’re trying to
get in as much as we can for the next couple weeks. … Today we’ll
all practice for a good five hours.”

Crow claimed that Pinback is not dependent on outside
influences, neither their side projects nor the punk rock of G.G.
Allin and the Jabbers, which is the only music he’s been listening
to for a while. None of that, Crow said, affects the structure or
tone of the music that he creates with his other bandmates.
Speaking of which, their new drummer, Chris Prescott, will not only
be touring with Pinback but will also be playing in The Jade
Shader, the band that’s opening for Pinback during the majority of
the coming tour.

It’s sure to be a good kick-off for their tour and, as it’s sold
out, a refreshing reminder to Crow and his cohorts just how much
Santa Barbarans back Pinback. Guard those tickets, if you got
’em.

4•1•1 Pinback, with opening band The Jade
Shader, kicks off their current tour tonight, with a sold-out show
at The Hub, in UCSB’s UCen.