THE LORDS OF SCRUMTOWN EAR CANDY

The Detroit-based band Lord Scrummage is more than just a musical act — it’s an experience. UCMag experienced that experience fi rsthand during this year’s Teva Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado — you see, Lord Scrummage crashed with us in our swank suite at the Vail Mountain Lodge. Like any good band, the Scrum Dog Millionaires spent a lot of time drinking, smoking cigarettes, and copping free Internet. Before Vail, the band members, Alex Lauer, Ben Christensen, and Connor Edwards, had just kicked off a tour to promote their new album, “From the Future,” during which they lived out of their 1984 Ford Econoline conversion van. Then, at an American Alpine Club after-party at Moe’s Original BBQ, Lord Scrummage did their music thing. Not easily described, their performance involved costumes, keyboards and little boxes with dials and sliders, a box of novelty sunglasses for sale, and projected imagery harkening back to the 1970s. Today, the trio’s back in Motor City, playing shows and working on new recordings. (For more with Lord Scrummage, go to click here.)

Who is Lord Scrummage?
He’s a robot from the future that has appeared to each of us individually in dreams and spiritual visions. He’s bent on world domination, and we believe his message. For us, technology replaces religion and we choose to follow; it gives us peace of mind.

What equipment you use to make music?
Any keyboards or samplers we can get our hands on. Most commonly, we use an MPC1000 combined with midisequencing software like Reason. We also sample old Casios and junk keyboards we fi nd around town.

In 25 words, describe your new album, “From the Future”?
From the Future is an upbeat electronic mix tape of psychedout pop songs inspired by and about your favorite pets, past, present, and future.

If the members of Lord Scrummage were forced to fight to the death using ninja swords, who would win?
We would all die and consider ourselves winners at the same time.

Any new developments for the band?
We’re always working on new music, a lot of which is available for free on the Internet, and we plan on touring the great United States again soon, so keep checking out our Myspace page (myspace.com/lennystoofy). In the meantime, give our album to all your friends (it’s available for free through our Myspace and various blogs).

For a chance to get your (or a friend’s) band profi led in UCMag’s Ear Candy, brought to you by Millet, go to our Ear Candy forum (forums.urbanclimbermag.com) and post up your info — we’ll give a listen!