Professional Super Heroes and the relentless pursuit of justice

Like so many bands we feature in this space, I first became aware of The Professional Super Heroes at a house party a year ago. We were mingling, sharing drinks and laughs when suddenly a custom clad duo pulled out guitars and keyboards, turned off the stereo and hijacked our ears in the name of justice. Borrowing directly from the group's MySpace site, the ProHeroes bill themselves as a group of super-power enabled musicians who combat evil-doers by playing covers of obscure independent bands. Seems reasonable. I can say the group's covers of a few Neutral Milk Hotel songs at the party I was at did break up the monotony of the break-beat DJ stuff that had been the staple of the evening. The best part was, no one, including the host, had invited these guys or knew what they were doing there. All I know is that it was an fitting introduction to a band that, in recent months, has become one of the leading acts in Humboldt County, playing in basically any venue they can get into. The Times-Standard recently caught up with the ProHeroes before a free show at the Metro in Arcata on Friday. This is what they had to say:

ProHeroes: How did we grow band so quickly? Special lab equipment. Tubes and such. Military grade plutonium. Also, we let anyone that wanted to join into the band, so long as they were a superhero and had a good catch phrase. Rough transition you say? Yes. It is so hard to play a zillion crappy gigs and then play good ones all of a sudden. So hard. May we please go back to our lair of tranquility where no one listens to us at all?

T-S: You list Neutral Milk Hotel as a major influence. Explain to us a little about that group and why you guys admire it so much?

ProHeroes: We do? Hmm, I guess we're going to have to update that list of influences. That was back in our �lair of tranquility� days. We are actually influenced by every independent band that we play songs by. And Rozz the Bozz, the most amazing Scandanavian Linkin Park tribute band ever.

T-S: What led you to the pursuit of justice?

ProHeroes: The Bush administration. Someone has got to pursue justice, and if they aren't going to, then I guess we are mandated to by the U.N. Because we are f*****g superheroes.

T-S: How is it being a part of the Humboldt music scene? It sometimes feels like you're part of the new guard of music up here that includes Strix Vega and The Ian Fayes among others all of whom offer a poppier, more audience-friendly sound. Is this part of your fight for justice?

ProHeroes: The Humboldt music scene is nice because it really is better than any other music scene we have ever experienced. The ratio of musicians to non-musicians is incredible for this area. Our yearly census confirms this fact. Yes, we have a yearly census. Our fight for justice includes doing anything that Corey Haim and Ryan Reynolds would do. We have it on good information that The Ian Fays and Strix Vega follow the same credo.

T-S: You guys have a pretty big MySpace presence with 43 pages of friends and over 10,000 page views. Who's the brainchild behind this and how much has it helped your growing success?

ProHeroes: Dr. Light is behind this. After creating �Mega-Man�, he had a lot of spare time on his hands. It has helped us in a few ways. One is that we have met a lot of great bands that we wouldn't have met otherwise (Be Brave Bold Robot), also it is a good way to keep in touch with our fans from all over the world (like that girl from Latvia who made our t-shirt logo), and it makes us feel good that we have more �personal worth points� (profile hits) than ever. It also helps promote shows.

T-S: What future plans do you guys have for the group? As solo projects?

ProHeroes: We plan to overthrow professor Zarcozz and his army of mutant zebras. We need lots of money to make this happen. Everyone needs to donate to this for-profit venture. No solo projects though, except of course, Project Tank'd and DJ Jazzy-Jeff and the Fresh Prince.

T-S: Anything you want to say to your fans?

ProHeroes: By fans you must mean anyone that is still reading this article. Therefore, we say congratulations, you have passed the final test of the brood-wich. You win free brain surgery.