Yesterday, an unfortunate message appeared on the MySpace blog of Charleston, SC band The Explorers Club:

As it so happens, misfortune has struck The Explorers Club. Just outside of Forsyth Montana (which is in the middle of nowhere) our big green monster of a van came head to head with a 250 pound deer… We are now stranded in Forsyth, waiting to hear from the mechanic tomorrow on what the damage is going to be. Needless to say this puts us in quite a hole. We’re not going to be able to make the Seattle or Portland shows, but will do our best to catch back up in San Francisco if we can get repaired in time… A Paypal Donate button has been added to our page as well… Love you all, we’ll hopefully be back on the road soon!

Well, as fate would have it, good luck intervened and the Explorers Club have bounced back! (I wish I could report the same for the deer.) I just spoke with multi-instrumentalist Dave Ellis on the phone, who told me: “It was the damnedest thing. These mechanics in Forsyth, Montana were able to get us a new radiator, so we’re back on the road. We’re at the Doug Fir right now. We missed the Seattle show, but we are GO for tonight.”

MP3:
The Explorers Club - Do You Love Me?

As you can hear above, the Explorers Club make sunny, vocal-harmony-drenched pop songs that sound very much like another band… whose name I can’t place right now… you know, one of the quintessential American bands of the ’60s… the Surf Kids? or something? The Sand Lads? At any rate, thankfully it takes more than a deer to the radiator to keep the Explorers Club down, but after mechanics’ expenses and hotel rooms, they could still use any extra cash. They’ve set up a Paypal donate button on their MySpace page, so if you’re feeling generous, you can click to help them out. OR you can go to the show tonight and buy lots of merch!

The Explorers Club open for Lightspeed Champion and Flowers Forever tonight at the Doug Fir; 830 E Burnside, 9 pm, $12