The Ladybug Transistor formed in Brooklyn in 1995, and frontman Gary Olson has been the band’s sole constant member. Clutching Stems (Merge) is the group’s seventh album and the first to be made following the 2007 asthma-related death of drummer San Fadyl. Since, the band’s lineup has solidified behind Olson, featuring Kyle Forester, Julia Rydholm, Mark Dzula, Eric Farber and Michael O’Neill. The Ladybug Transistor will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with Olson.
Eric Farber: I don’t believe in umbrellas. I understand that some people think they are better off carrying one around “just in case” it rains. They should consider this: It is a universally agreed-upon fact that 80{e5d2c082e45b5ce38ac2ea5f0bdedb3901cc97dfa4ea5e625fd79a7c2dc9f191} of the total time people spend carrying around umbrellas, it’s not raining. Well, I definitely don’t believe in burdening myself by partnering with a function-less object for an entire day. That’s just foolish. Of all the things you could carry around, the umbrella makes for a particularly dull companion. I think that if you’re going to carry something around that you don’t need, it ought to be a real conversation starter. Like maybe a large piece of driftwood with a hand-carved pun about rainbow trout. That’s something that I’d be into bringing with me everywhere I go “just in case.” But the umbrella is a nuisance without benefits. (To be clear, we’re talking about those black, nylon, spring-loaded projectiles that retract into themselves to form an inconvenient, dripping package evocative of a shriveled-up wet poodle. Full-sized umbrellas that can double as a cane can, by contrast, be quite useful multi-taskers, and they therefore receive a mulligan from this critique on umbrellas.)
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iQRXuAo6Eg
