Now You Know: Trap Gold

“I’ve got one band I can run around and scream to,” says Michael Turi, vocalist for the Old In Out, “and now with Trap Gold I’m sitting down and actually singing.”

The Old In Out formed as a release for Turi’s caged gusto after he was floored by an incapacitating spinal condition for nearly a year. Having vented his steam with the raucous Old In Out for the past two years, Turi and In Out guitarist Ryan Bohan joined singer Kelly Sullivan and synth-bassist Chase Elliott (the Kabbs) to form lo-fi dark-pop band Trap Gold.

“It started with Great Fridays,” Sullivan relates over beer at Toronado. “Me, Mikey, and Ryan always had Fridays off. We would get food and coffee and go to the park. One day we just started playing around.” Turi assembled a drum set by asking friends for spare parts. “My dad calls it a ‘suicide set-up,’” he says, “which I think is awesome.”

“Mikey and Ryan are always on the same page with music,” says Sullivan. “Then Chase comes into the picture, and he knows exactly what these fools are talking about!”

“Last year I made it a point to say ‘yes’ more often, to everything,” Elliott says. As a result, he bought a microKorg, went broke, and joined Trap Gold. Having honed his improvisational skills playing in a cover band at the Sandbar and the Beachcomber, Elliott quickly integrated into the group. Turi/Sullivan’s haunting harmonies and the jangly, reverb-washed instrumentation have drawn comparisons to the Kinks, Jefferson Airplane, T. Rex, and the Velvet Underground, while the group cites influences from Thee Oh Sees to O.V. Wright and Sonny Boy Williamson.

Trap Gold’s tentative name, Tramp, didn’t sit well with Sullivan. “I didn’t like it because I’m the only girl in the band,” she laughs. A singer since the fifth grade, Sullivan grew up in Rochester, Minnesota, listening to oldies, R&B, and doo-wop. “I also grew up on musicals: The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins, Parent Trap. I love musicals, but I can’t play an instrument for the life of me.”

“She plays excellent tambourine,” Mikey replies.

Download their free EP at trapgold.bandcamp.com or strike gold live on February 25 at the Tin Can Ale House (with School Nights and Lovely Bad Things) or March 7 at the Soda Bar (with Night Beats and TRMRS).

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.”