SAT | JUNE 23 | KOO’S

SUMAKO by LEE MEREDITH

Koo’s calendar is part admirable fringe experimentalism and part Melrose/Santa Monica-style goof rock—never ever could I have imagined the day when bands playing Koo’s would proudly display blurbs comparing themselves to Third Eye Blind. But this is a new Koo’s and to put it constructively, they are learning again how to be Koo’s. Musician-slash-artists got their work on the walls and the stage simultaneously at tonight’s benefit, with experimental guitarist Sumako (in Mad Max motorcycle boots) carrying the night’s middle moment. His watercolors looked like Besant and Leadbetter thought forms and his very minimal music (played on a custom fretless guitar glowing with digital effects processors) held to a ribbon-thin dynamic—a second of Dream Syndicate unwound to short song-length. “Boy, that’ll relax ya!” said the installed MC, a cheerfully Huell Howser-ish old guy who interviewed Sumako post-set enthusiastically enough to get him to describe his music as an extreme sport—like surfing. Extreme relaxation? Well, I got whole albums that aspire to that (Rainy Day Raga) so that’s no news to me. After Huell stepped off—and his toppled mic hit the floor with so much authority I wanted to clap—the DJ accidentally cued a few seconds of Elvis, which sounded warm and full. But that was a mistake, and everyone laughed, and then the DJ put on the real music. No Elvis at the new Koo’s—they’re working on something different.