'This LANDy is your LANDy'

(Credit: Apology Music)

Wisecracking virtuoso Adam Goldberg landed headfirst into the pop-cultural mainstream after a dazzling performance in Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" in 1998. But he has always boasted an expanded film repertoire, whether showing up in head-spinning indies like Richard Linklater's "Waking Life" and "Dazed and Confused," lighting up Oscar fodder like Ron Howard's "A Beautiful Mind," or repping his TV skills on "Friends," "My Name is Earl," "Entourage," and most recently, ABC's offbeat cop drama, "The Unusuals."

But Goldberg's musical chops are no joke either. His musical vehicle LANDy is that rare thing in the entertainment world: an actor-fronted band that doesn't suck. LANDy's debut effort "Eros and Omissions"—six years in the making and empowered by talents like the Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd, Earlimart's Aaron Espinoza and more—drops June 23. It's a potent dose of space-pop psychedelia that’s warmer and weirder than the majority of musical work released so far this year. Who knew?

Metromix caught up with the always quotable Goldberg for a goofy chat about the seriously catchy LANDy, Silverlake, Spaceland and his five favorite L.A. haunts.

Can you explain the band name? My brain's not awake yet.
The band name? Well, it's up to you. It's like I always say, "This LANDy is your LANDy. This LANDy is my LANDy." Actually, this is only the second time I've said it.

Fair enough. I love the space-pop atmospherics on "Eros and Omissions." Who are you channeling?
I'm channelling Lennon and Stalin. Stalin was fairly heavy into an early tape-delay rig, although this is a little-known fact.

I was thinking of playing the disc in time with a viewing of Richard Linklater's animated head-trip "Waking Life," which you were excellent in. A good idea?
Funny, I remember being fully immersed in The Flaming Lips' "The Soft Bulletin" around the time of shooting "Waking Life." I was driving through Texas listening to it with Linklater, with him mentioning that he wanted to use some of it for the film. In the end, he didn't. The Lips, namely "The Soft Bulletin," made it OK to love Henry Mancini and Sonic Youth in equal measure. I no longer had to attend my meetings.

Speaking of the Lips, you were in their strange film "Christmas On Mars" and you're pals with Steven Drozd, who plays on "Eros." How did you two meet?
Several of my pals seemed to know or had met Steven, and one of them worked at Warner Bros. and with the Lips on college radio circuit. I kept hearing he wanted to meet, and I was flattered and intrigued. In late 2002, I had just begun pre-production on my film, "I Love Your Work," and thought about asking Lips to do music for it. My WB friend took me to my first show at the Knitting Factory, then I met Steven after and he admitted that I had risen to number two beneath Thom Yorke on his list of man-crushes. He had me eating out of the palm of his hand.

Classic. You also signed up your pals in the Silverlake crowd for "Eros," including the Black Pine and Earlimart's Aaron Espinoza.
I met Aaron only very early last year at Taix, during a sort of practice gig Mark Eitzel was doing. Having said that, Andrew Lynch, who engineered some of and played on some of my newer tracks recorded with Aaron, also toured with Earlimart and was a member of the Black Pine for a while. It wasn't long after meeting Aaron that I hit him up and unloaded nearly six years of recordings on him, enlisting him in a massive mixing and re-recording process. He's my knight in shining Eagle Rock.

You've been a Silverlake resident for awhile now, right?
I have moved quite a bit, and it's not a pretty story. But I moved to Silverlake for the first time in 1995. Much of my recreational life consisted of going to see live music, and since Spaceland has always been more or less around the corner, that's where I would see a lot of it.

Any highlights you'd like to share, old man?
Seeing Elliott Smith play Spaceland, back in the days when you could see Elliott Smith play at Spaceland. I also met the Black Pine kids at Spaceland, who would fast become musical collaborators.

Your fabulous disc notes you only as AG. Why go by that, when everyone knows who you are? You should be proud. You're playing every instrument. What, actors can't play drums? Who decided this?
OK, relax, take it down a notch. I decided everything, I produced it. I'm broke now, if that's any proof. It goes like this: The first time a member of the LANDy enterprise is mentioned in the notes, they get their whole name. Then each subsequent time, it goes by first name, in part because of the limited space on each "singles cover" I made for the booklet and in part to lend an air of familiarity. Because I mention myself about 239 times on the first notes page, I thought henceforth I'd go by AG. Because saying just "Adam" made my tongue itch. We cool?

Absolutely. I feel much better now.
I love you, buddy.