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Japanese Motors: Not only a wise choice in automotives, but a fine decision in the world of audio pleasure. Straight off the beach, this Orange County garage-pop-rock band is fronted by pro surfer Alex Knost. And the band sounds like it... and oddly enough, in this instance that's a compliment. While there are surf rock guitar riffs, they're used sparingly and there's enough angst and grit to never let it get too saccharine or cheesy. Now don't get the wrong idea, these are up-beat party sounds, stuff you'd rock as the BBQ starts getting weird. Vice Records released their debut earlier this year and word of their wild shows is slowly spreading across the land. Japanese Motors still have a few dates left on their tour, info available here.

Name: Al Knost
Band(s): Japanese Motors
Instrument(s): I sing and play guitar sometimes
Nicknames: Al, short for Alex
Place You Call Home: California
Last album to flip your lid: The Muslims, self titled
Album you always take on tour: Weezer's first record, and rockabilly tunes

What would someone always find in your van or tour bus? What supplies don't you leave home without?

Cigarettes, usually Bugler Rollies, or Camel Lights, coffee, and water bottles full of piss, sunglasses--almost always Ray Bans.

What personal rituals do you have to help keep your sanity while on tour?

Coffee, night and day, this and new socks, or just old socks that feel new.

Speaking of rituals, does the band have a pre-show ritual to help prepare for the stage?

Tuning. I am making an honest effort to tune before and during sets. In the past I have glazed over this necessity.

Audiences come in all shapes and sizes. What's the screwiest fan encounter you've had?

I try to be one with the crowd no matter what, but I am finding it beneficial to take notice of who in the crowd enjoys music (fans), and who are the critics that just wanna knock it. Arms distant to those thieves who don't understand.

What's the strangest thing you've seen from the stage while performing?

There is no room for strangeness; it doesn't exist in this world of music and those who surround their life with it.

What's the first thing you like to do after a show?

Get our gear unplugged and out of the way, then we usually have a beer and discuss human emotion in general, this gives way to social lubrication.

Tell us about a great road food stop you've discovered in your travels.

On this tour, pizza in New York. But prior to that, on the way to Vegas there is PEGGY SUES '50s diner, that is the jam, we highly recommend it.

If I weren't a musician I'd probably be a (blank) because (blank).

If I weren't a musician I'd probably be a writer because it's one step taken from what we do and apply now as Japanese Motors.

(Fill in the blank) are the baddest mothas on the planet.

The Black Lips are the baddest mothas on the planet.

Your band mates will often reveal strange things about themselves during a tour. What stuff have your fellow musicians shown you that took you aback or delighted you?

There is something to be said for the emotional and physical connection that a band contains, much like a commune we discuss ideas and grow together. Some of this is instant good, other times reality hits and you wake up in a daze, blinded by science, and the ideology that everything works out. Names are dropped and blow out references are made. Soon change dawns on a new day in the face of a new member in the commune.

What was the musical highlight of your last or current tour and why?

It will be tonight, as the future is one that comes in highlighter pen underlining what's to come in all shapes and sizes, chew it up and spit it out.

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