Electric Bunnies Win MOCA's August Battle of the Bands

Last week I wrote a little run-down of the acts who would be playing the Museum of Contemporary Art's last summer battle of the bands, which took place last Thursday night.

Well, a winner's been announced: Congratulations, Electric Bunnies!

I have to admit I'm a little surprised, not because the Electric Bunnies aren't pretty rockin', but because of the way the rest of the event unfolded. The set lengths were probably overly generous, and the lags between them were definitely unnecessary. By about 10 p.m., only three bands had played, the last being Airship Rocketship. The first two acts, The Pots N Pans and TV Club, had punkier, distorted styles that suffered big-time from poor sound engineering. (Too bad, because TV Club does boast some really excellent fuzzy punchy songs).

Airship Rocketship, in the third slot, were then a breath of fresh, if histrionic, air -- the pencil-legged singer seems to be channeling the slicked-hair drama of Avalon-era Roxy Music. What with the humidity and all the rest of the evening's loudness, synth-fuelled, 10-minutes-long songs wailed by a cracked actor crouched on his knees. And they even did a pretty swell version of "Take On Me" -- that always goes down well! With the crowd thinning and flagging in the heat, I figured they'd win sort of by default.

I'll admit that I booked it after this, beaten down by the swamp air and the drying-up of the free Vitamin Water supply that was keeping me afloat... So, I cannot attest to the quality of that evening's Electric Bunnies performance. However, having seen them other times, I'll say that their surfy, psych-y brand of punk pop can really reel 'em in, so they must have impressed the crowd. For their efforts, they get a guitar, and a day at JamRock Studios in Hollywood, and a chance to vie for the grand prize (oh, click the earlier link for all those details). -- Arielle Castillo