'The band started out as a one-off thing, to play a Halloween party with our friends in the band Three Piece Unit," says Dave Howarth, guitarist for Blue Shift. "When we started getting gigs at places like the Second Wind in Santee, we figured we might as well keep playing and see how it goes."

Howarth describes the band's music as "instrumental surf rock with a little punk mixed in. You know, 'spunk.' We're playing with a few vocal song ideas but haven't really done anything about them yet." The band includes drummer Andy Richardson ("who likes to beat on old animal skins and yell") and bassist Gary Robertson ("He taught himself to play, though I suppose that's true of almost all bassists").

Howarth offers his side of an event that was mentioned a while back in the Reader's "Crasher" column. "We were playing a house party. Halfway through our set, the crowd really started to thin out. We figured since the house was so small that you could pretty much hear us everywhere...that everyone left to get another drink or something. We didn't find out what had really happened until we read about it later [in "Crasher"]...turns out some Internet male porn star happened to be at the party, and he was doing some impromptu performing with his date on the back lawn. How the hell did he know about the party? I guess his date was invited."

Unaware of their carnal competition, the band kept playing. "We had no idea there was a porn star in our midst, nor did the person throwing the party. I guess he [the porn star] didn't last all that long because the entire crowd was back within five minutes. I think there were a lot more people there at the end of our set, and they were definitely, um, in aroused spirits. The party people should've told us what was going on at the time, so we could have gone to watch, too. Punks."

The trio answered our lists queries collectively.

WHAT'S IN YOUR MUSIC PLAYER?

1. Made from Technetium, Man or Astro-Man? ("Without them, Dave would never have picked up a guitar in the first place.")

2. Wincing the Night Away, the Shins ("Our bass player listens to it before sleeping because it gives him good dreams.")

3. How the West Was Won, Led Zeppelin ("It's such great mood music that it takes the mind off work in no time flat. Not that we need much help in that regard.")

4. Chemical Bomb, the Aquabats ("What kind of laughing gas have they been huffing anyways?")

5. Criminal, Eminem ("Our drummer's choice.")

6. Operation: Twang!, Jonny and the Shamen ("Really fun surf band who broke up.")

DESERT-ISLAND DVDs?

1. American Psycho ("Best darkened twist on a yuppie lifestyle ever.")

2. The Big Lebowski ("Rivals Monty Python and the Holy Grail for sheer number of quotable lines.")

3. The Fifth Element ("This movie has it all: action, sci-fi, comedy, romance, and even a good moral.")

4. Snatch ("Guy Ritchie films are awesome.")

5. V for Vendetta ("Everything comes together to make this movie fantastic, with an intriguing story that has parallels to current world situations, amazing acting and cinematography, a hint of philosophy and politics, all wrapped around a plot of mystery, tragedy, violence, and romance. It's Shakespeare meets 1984 meets Kill Bill, and let's not forget it has Natalie Portman.")

6. The Rocky Horror Picture Show ("Yeah, we're a lot more twisted than your average surf band.")

FAVORITE TV SHOWS?

1. Invader Zim ("The jokes are so surreal and random.")

2. Futurama ("A few of our songs are based on that show, and we're really looking forward to the new ones in 2008.")

3. Mythbusters ("Now that's gotta be a dream job, to build and destroy things all day long for the sake of entertainment, plus the girl is pretty damn cute.")

4. The Simpsons ("At least prior to the 2000 season.")

"OVERHEARD IN SAN DIEGO": WORST PICKUP LINE?

"Are you from Tennessee? 'Cause you're the only ten I see!"

STAR TREK OR STAR WARS?

"Star Wars, because the spoofs are funnier, and because of Princess Leia's metal bikini. Plus, Star Trek never got its own Christmas TV special with Bea Arthur and Harvey Korman."

BIGGEST POLITICAL CONCERN?

"Another Dick and Bush."

ADVICE TO RON JEREMY?

"Turn around slowly in china shops."

SOMETHING ABOUT YOU FEW WOULD KNOW OR GUESS?

"We're a bunch of nerds disguised as dorks."