"Are you tired of this world where your only options are oblivion and nostalgia? Do you want to wear the styles of 20-years-on? Hear music that makes cars fly? Watch silver screens that make everyone a star? Do you dream of natural riots and desire armed?"

Thus begins the foray into the bizarre and surreal world of "the Church of the Amplifier", lo-fi 60s psychidelia-influenced indie pop, and the Shimmer Kids Underpop Association. Lyrically remniscent of the stylings of Stuart Murdoch and instrumentally eclectic in the same fashion as artists such as Olivia Tremor Control from the Elephant 6 label, the Shimmer Kids are clever, original, and a refreshing change of socks from the hellishly unrelenting and agonising assault on the senses that is much of modern pop music.

Most of the group members are California born and bred, having made each other's acquaintance while taking courses at the University of California at Santa Cruz. After some bold and vague movement throughout the state of California, eventually ending up in San Francisco, they made the transition from loosely-formed collective of friends to a fully-fledged and official band in 1996, calling themselves the Shimmer Kids Underpop Association. (Well, why not?)

For the sake of pretentious artsiness and because it's a damn cool thing to do, the Shimmer Kids began accompanying their live performances with film footage (made by theremin player Lorelei David) and other sorts of visual stimuli. To fund their exploits and cover gig expenses, they began to sell home-made cassette tapes of their music recorded in basements using minimal equipment with even less processing. Apparently sales and gigs were successful enough to acquire for them a solid fan base because 2000 saw the release of their first full-length album, entitled Bury My Heart at Makeout Point, albeit in extremely limited quantities (only 500 copies, in fact) on their own Underpop label. The album met with immediate success and (niche) critical acclaim, especially among proponents and hangers-on of the Elephant 6 Recording Company and lovers of weird lo-fi indie rock. The album was later picked up by the independent music distributor Parasol, and all copies of it were sold out with great alacrity; it is now sadly out of print, but available in MP3 format from the group's website (http://www.underpop.org).

In 2002, the Shimmer Kids in a bid to increase the range of their musical sphere of influence sold their souls to a label based under the umbrella of Parasol (sorry) called Hidden Agenda. Later that year they released a second full-length album, entitled Natural Riot, as well as the Prairie Prayers EP in between and the Book of Mirrors EP following.

As it stands as of now, the band lineup is as follows: Josh Babcock - guitar, vocals, illustrations (moonlighting as the producer) Lorelei David - theremin, visual projections and creation of Shimmer Kids-related films for gigs and for kicks Adam Dobrer - bass guitar Alex Orloff - saxophones John Lakian - drums David Isbister - keyboards Robin Wageman - melodica, percussion, vocals Justin Walsh - trumpet and mixing boards

Discography (Please note that cassettes and other recordings made prior to 1999 are rare-ish; if you own one or several or heaven forbid all of them, be happy and know that I envy you.)

6 Ways Til Sunday - 1996 Carne Levare - 1997 True Believer 7" EP - 1998 Constante Dolores de la Cabeza - 1998 The Kids Are All Fucked Up EP, Vol. 1 (cassette) - 1998 The Kids Are All Fucked Up EP, Vol. 2 (cassette) - 1999 The Kids Are All Fucked Up EP, Vol. 3 (cassette) - 1999 Strange Signals 7" EP - 1999 Bury My Heart at Makeout Point LP - 2000 Prairie Prayers EP - 2001 The Natural Riot LP - 2002 The Book of Mirrors EP - 2003

Sources: http://www.underpop.org http://www.allmusic.com