The girls (and a boy) in Crazy Band—Jesse, Deana, twins Jazmin and Jennifer, Jenna and Anthony—are freaks that love each other and having fun. Lead vocalist Jesse Spears is a painter and not "really" a singer. She's kind of a writer/zealot, too. She's bounced from blogspot to blogspot to Tumblr over the last couple years, and the message she's been building there—echoed in the constellation of Zen Mafia (an umbrella term for the team at-large) blogs—is basically this: Being alive feels awful a lot of the time. You're sad, scared, bored or embarrassed, too hungry or too full. It's alright to smoke weed when your heart is broke, then try to quit smoking weed. Doing anything, especially anything you want (all the time) is the best you can do in spite of everything else. It's better to be excited than not excited, no matter what.
It's funny that a theology so simple would come across so precious and rare. But these ideas strike a chord because it is hard to put yourself out there, do something you're not "good" at or walk around in an outfit you love and other people might hate. Watching Crazy Band go for it feels really good, and maybe not just to me. The last time I flew on plane I read an interview with Anthony Kiedis in the in-flight magazine, and he called Crazy Band the best new thing in Los Angeles. This video for "I Like You," less than a minute long, is further evidence that dropping-out then plugging-in—to yourself and the people that love you—is totally okay.