A few years back, one of the coolest things about living in Chico was that there was this dude, Donovan Phillips who paid college girls and local dirtheads like $500 to come to his studio and take a bunch of naked pictures, then he would sell them to amateur porn websites, or just use them on his own sizeable stable of web sites. This provided an unending stream of lulz for myself and other bored Synthesis employees, who would spend hours looking through these web sites looking for girls we knew so we could bookmark that shit and fap afterhours. Best of all, thanks to our Secret Data Mining Tool, this was all done for the all-time low price of FREE. But then one day the fun ended. Donovan Phillips, whose real name is Donny Pauling decided to give up his empire of local porn for a higher calling. He gave away his web sites and started getting pissed about porn. So he joined up with the folks at XXXchurch.com, which might sound scandalous but is actually just a bunch of dudes trying to exorcise the porn devil from America’s good Christian folk. From their website:

I guess deep down inside all we want is to know that everything is going to be all right. We ask ourselves the question…is there something wrong with me because I am struggling with pornography? With this issue comes a lot of shame and guilt. It’s a dirty little secret that you can’t let out and in the meantime you feel like pond scum.

At XXXchurch we want to let you know that you are loved by God and by the people involved in this ministry. You are not alone. You do not have to carry this burden any longer. The entire reason for having this website is to give people hope and to let them know that there is help.

Right now it comes down to a conscious decision to do something about it. We know it’s easy to simply click away and view porn sites. It’s free…it’s accessible…and everybody is doing it!! You can decide today to get honest about your life and where all this is heading. Do it today!

And this is fine. I’m down with being down with the King and all that. And besides, the amount of fame Donny Pauling stacked as Donovan Phillips is paling in comparison with his fame as Donny Pauling, Porn Avenger. Next week, he will be appearing on ABC’s Nightline, debating the merits of porn with none other than Ron Jeremy at Yale University. And Pauling thinks he got the best of Jeremy, and his partner on the pro-porn side, adult film star Monnique.

“I think we spanked them; I think we won,” Pauling said via telephone from his Corning home. “Their arguments were freedom of expression, but just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should.

I definitely recommend checking out Donny’s blog about his experiences here, especially his Porn Stories about the often untold personal costs of being involved in porn. Makes me glad those photos of me never got out…

 Our good friends and perennial winners of Best Unsigned Band Competitions,  Brighten just announced that they are hitting the road with another band we are quite fond of, Envy on the Coast for a couple weeks next month before they head to Irvine for Bamboozle Left. If you’re lucky enough to live in any of these cities, attendance is mandatory!

Mar 16 2008
Cambridge Room @ HOB w/ The Maine and more! Dallas, Texas
Mar 18 2008
The Social Orlando, Florida
Mar 19 2008
Studio A Miami, Florida
Mar 20 2008
The Orpheum Tampa, Florida
Mar 21 2008
Landshark Cafe Atlantic Beach, Florida
Mar 22 2008
Rocketown Nashville, Tennessee
Mar 24 2008
Bulldog Cafe Louisville, Kentucky
Mar 26 2008
Mac’s Bar Lansing, Michigan
Mar 27 2008
Mojoes Rock House Tinley Park, Illinois
Mar 28 2008
The Basement Columbus, Ohio
Mar 29 2008
Xtreme Wheelz Buffalo, New York
Mar 30 2008
Siren Records Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Apr 5 2008
Bamboozle Left Irvine, California

So for this week’s Meet the Synthesis, I’d like to introduce you to our hometown, the lovely, if not somewhat remote, Chico, CA. I would regale you with all the stats and whos, whats and wheres, but that’s why they invented Wikipedia. Instead, I will just post this YouTube clip, which in 30 seconds, encapsulates perfectly the real heart and soul of Chico.

Now you know.

So the thing that probably sucks about being in a punk band with horns and singing in Spanish is that no matter what, people are always gonna have to talk about Voodoo Glow Skulls. But though today’s Synthesis Band You’ve Never Heard Of…OF THE DAY!!!111, San Francisco’s La Plebe, doubtlessly owe something of a debt to the venerable VGS, they are definitely doing their own thing. For one thing, ALL of La Plebe’s songs are in Spanish. And if anything, musically La Plebe sound more like Less Than Jake than they do VGS; their songs are for the most part pleasantly mid-tempo and straight forward, even if I have no idea what the fuck they’re saying. But don’t just listen to me, if you’d like to personally compare the two, and live in the Northern California area, you shall soon have your chance as La Plebe and Voodoo Glow Skulls are playing together not once, but TWICE in the next couple weeks:

I had the chance to check the band out live this past weekend right here in good ol’ Chico, CA and let me tell you what, better bring your fucking skanking shoes because the dudes on the horns can BLOW. Check out the band on their Myspace and DO NOT hesitate to get them to come to your godforsaken town.

Known mainly as being the drummer for every band in Chico for awhile, Jake Sprecher starting interning at the Synthesis for shits and giggles after realizing that if you play in more than one band in Chico you are legally obligated to work at either Woodstock’s Pizza or the Synthesis, or in his case, both. After proving his mettle by taking on all the lame interviews that no one else wanted to do, like Pete Best and Five Finger Death Punch, we felt really bad for him after his Pinback interview for Issue 9 of the Synthesis Digital got rescheduled like 234 times and decided that we would actually start paying him to do all the shit that no one else wanted to do. So now he’s here most days of the week stacking ultimate fame, while his nights are spent fronting the fucking bad ass Candy Apple who will be on tour next month.  Check them out on the Space or in one of the following cities and tell Jake to hurry back, because there’s always a bunch of shitty bands that need so coverage BRO!

When we found Video Matt aka Matt Wilson at the local troubled teen shelter [actually it was Butte College, but close enough] he had been on the grind for a minute, setting up interviews with bands and filming live footage totally guerrilla style, working with bands like Paramore and Dance Gavin Dance and repping Gridley, CA like a motherfucker. Since no one else at Synthesis even knew how to turn on a video camera, let alone had the balls to stand in front of it, we immediately hired Matt to be our guru of all things video, allowing him to slay 234 times more tang on YouTube and in the process, giving him a chance to work with most of his all time favorite bands, including New Found Glory, Cartel, Jacks Mannequin and Danger Radio to name a few; get super hammered at SXSW before even turning 21, and learn all about industry rule #4080. Check out our YouTube page for all sorts of Video Matt madness and be sure to hit your boy up on the comments, maybe he’ll holla next time he’s kicking it at The Boardwalk, nahmean?