Spotlight on: Elevado

We weren't even intending to start a band at first, says Cain Wong of Elevado, the group he formed with Justin Sias, Don Dudenhoeffer, Dave Sandridge and Mark Duca four years ago as a recording project to compose via the Internet. "We just wanted to make music for the fun of it."

Originally, says Sias, the members were divided between Atlanta and Los Angeles. "We were all recording random instruments in different rooms in different time zones." Now centralized in the ATL, with a few personnel changes (including the addition of Jonathan Vance and Maryn Vance of Divided Like a Saint's), the band's second album, Dedicated to the Memory, is its first real-time collaboration. "Now everything revolves around 'the band,'" says Wong. "I don't have any time or desire anymore to sit in front of a computer with headphones chopping up drum loops."

Now the band members will be spending quite a bit of together time as they embark on their first tour. To celebrate the impending journey, album release and the recent purchase of a refurbished school bus on eBay, the psychedelic outfit is planning a circus-type party at the Dojo Gallery near Georgia Tech. "A big, fun party," exclaims Vance. "Hot chicks in monkey masks and pasties! DJs! Dancing!" And, of course, Elevado will be there, playing its often chaotic, hook-laden, pop-rock, art-damaged collages.

"As a band comes of age, so does its music. From my perspective, Dedicated is a solid representation of the band and the people involved," says Dudenhoeffer. "This is Elevado, fried, on a stick."

Elevado's CD release circus is Fri., May 13, at the Dojo Yakko Gallery. Dames A'Flame, DJ Eric Yerlow, Ripley Bangman and Kitty Snyder also perform. See www.elevado.com for more info.??