Now You Know: Grand Tarantula

Jordan Clark moved to San Diego from a small town in Connecticut when he was 16. Inspired by local groups such as Boilermaker, Pinback, No Knife, Tanner, and Drive Like Jehu, Clark and three friends from Serra High School formed Hot Like a Robot. The band began touring right out of high school, with Clark making ends meet working pizza delivery between road trips.

Performing on the Warped Tour, they befriended My Chemical Romance and put out an album through the guitarist’s label, Skeleton Crew. Hot Like a Robot fell apart a short time later.

These days, Clark spins webs with bassist Manny B. and fellow ex-Robots Christoff Kolek and Barker as Grand Tarantula, which played their first show in March at the Radio Room.

“We’re trying not to spend too much time overthinking it,” singer-guitarist Clark says over chips and salsa at Ponce’s Mexican Restaurant in Kensington. “We did that with Hot Like a Robot and let ourselves down a lot. So now we’re at a place where we can just have fun, which is the best part.”

Clark is in the process of launching nonprofit Pretty Awesome Records with friend Tess Passero. They expect it to be up to full speed in about a year. Their vision is to match up bands with artists in order to benefit a charity of their choice. All proceeds from the upcoming Grand Tarantula seven-inch “I’m Not Gonna Let You Go” (with sleeve art by local Kelsey Brookes) will go toward the Carlsbad-based Keep A Breast Foundation, a breast-cancer-awareness organization.

“It’s cool to have music that is a piece of art that someone can take home and it won’t just end up on their car floor scratched up,” Clark says. “It’s ambitious, but I think if we keep it local we can find something we can have an effect on and see a change.”

The seven-inch release party is Thursday, October 28, at El Dorado with D/Wolves and benefits the Keep A Breast Foundation.

Got a wicked pissah new band? Let us know by sending the MySpace thing to barnaby_monk@sandiegoreader.com. We’ll check you/them out for our next installment of “Now You Know.”