***Our Fault, the sophomore album from Los Angeles’ RUBBER BLANKET, thoroughly trounces the laziness cabal. Its 10 tunes beckon listeners to embark on a preternatural sojourn under the collective Blanket of BRAD EBERHARD, LARS FINBERG and JUN OHNUKI (survivors all of WOUNDED LION), three artists and composers, working together forever and then some. Before today, Rubber Blanket had never visited the racetrack in Santa Anita. They agreed to meet there for one specific reason: betting it all on a horse named Pepsi. They’re in queue at the ticket window wearing matching Wall Of Voodoo shirts, which even they think is absurd. It’s a $35 bet to show. They lose but vow to return. Unless there’s literal goo-goo-gah-gah, the notion that Rockish Musics with discernable peculiarities must possess childlike predilections is shite nouveau, serving only to signal that the experimental market is not blonde enough to churn hype butter. This kind of trash-think ignores the existence of real wonderment, as if the constant ingestion of multiverse stimuli couldn’t / wouldn’t / shouldn’t impact the capacity for marvel within the living human sponge. Our Fault is bright enough to recognize and even reproduce this strange ever-growing awe. Rubber Blanket eat Del Taco late-nite while cruising in a convertible yellow Miata, chit-chatting loudly over a skipping Shadow Ring compact disc playing out of the dash console. There’s lettuce everywhere, which is refreshing if you really think about it. They hit a red light, let it turn green, then yellow, then back to red...
LP $18.50
07/07/2023
***"Hi. RUBBER BLANKET is a new group, and this is their first LP. Their names are BRAD EBERHARD (WOUNDED LION), LARS FINBERG (INTELLIGENCE), and JUN OHNUKI (WOUNDED LION). They recorded it themselves over the past year on Lars’ 8-track tape machine in Brad’s painting studio, with everyone mostly using old keyboards and a new drum machine. 'Machine' sounds so substantial—it’s really just a $5 app, but, man, is it versatile. Jun played some driving, actual drums here and there. Lars played some angular bass guitar parts and even a few lost-satellite guitar parts. Brad wrote and sings most of the songs. Some friends popped by and sang back up, played percussion, and took a few giant steps on the saxophone. The main guys had/have a lot of fun playing in an art-y garage band called Wounded Lion. A few years ago, Brad entered a guitar songwriting desert/famine/Bermuda triangle. He wanted to escape this dead zone via more life-affirming rock music, but didn’t know how. Gradually, the time reserved for practicing and playing shows became more occupied by partying and listening to records. No one complained. When you don’t know what to do, don’t do anything. Eventually, the compass stopped spinning and locked into a resting point, but it wasn’t north—it was the song 'Matar Dolores' by the Screamers. And 'Penny Lane' by the Better Beatles. And the extended 12-inch of 'Mug’s Game' by Soft Cell. Maybe they too could make some songs that didn’t have overdriven guitars taking up almost...
LP $19.95
03/06/2020
***RUBBER BLANKET is the new project of BRAD EBERHARD and JUN OHNUKI—both of WOUNDED LION. “New Garbage Truck” b/w “Pedestrian Walkway” is their debut 7”, recorded by LARS FINBERG (The Intelligence). The record is limited to 300 copies and comes with a silk-screened cover, designed by Jun Ohnuki and printed by Brad Eberhard.
7" $7.75
01/18/2019