The visceral allure of Electric Guest’s music is perfectly counterbalanced with a philosophical intelligence in the spirituality-infused lyrical storytelling.

[pullquote quote=" Honestly, I think the reason why we're so culturally isolated is because technology, capitalism is f**king us up." credit="Asa Taccone"]Charmingly intense, Taccone infuses his typical laid-back demeanor with diplomatic, yet ardent expression of his personal beliefs–including the imposed cultural isolation of the internet:

“I just read these two articles. One guy in the New Yorker…He’s basically a really progressive thinker and he’s a computer programmer; he’s the guy who kind of coined the term ‘virtual reality.’”

“He was at the forefront of creating virtual reality. He had this kind of utopian vision for it, thinking that it would actually connect us…He just wrote this book about how he is basically disappointed in the past ten years of technology.

“He’s like ‘I go around the country and around the world…although everybody is connected to Facebook and lives by it, they are more connected out of fear than they are love.’”

Emphasizing his point, Taccone brought up the phrase “All the fun is happening somewhere else” which he saw on a satirical piece of graffiti art by the controversial British street art activist Banksy:

“[This signifies] our whole culture–it’s not here; it’s not to appreciate what’s right in front of you. The grass is greener in every facet of our lives. Honestly, I think the reason why we’re so culturally isolated is because technology, capitalism is f**king us up.”

“The most ironic part of this for me is the fact that people always get nostalgic and romanticize the past decades and parts of history,  like ‘Oh, they were so connected. They had a meaning, this communal idea.’”

“And, I’m like, ‘Never before in history has it been more important and have their been more reasons to come together than right now.’”

[pullquote quote="Never before in history has it been more important and have there been more reasons to come together than right now. " credit="Asa Taccone"]“I think that this will be the biggest thing we will have to face. Finding a balance in this totally imbalanced culture.”

Perhaps, Electric Guest’s time-period transcendent sound, personal life stories, and philosophical views can be summed up best by an “esoteric” old woman that Taccone met at Dunkin Donuts.

Not only did the woman signify Taccone with a sort of spiritual mission on this planet, Taccone explained that she provided his future band with a meaningful name:

“When I got the boot from high school, I went to this…”Get Your Life Together” [school]…They have school six days a week and on the seventh day, on Sundays, you had the day off and you could do something…There was this Dunkin Donuts, which, kind of, for me, symbolized freedom from that place. A couple times they let us stop in there.”

“Each time I went in there, I ended up talking to this old woman that worked in there and she was this kind of esoteric, New Age-y type person…we got into these conversations.

“The last time I saw her she grabbed my arm and said, ‘You are an electric guest of the universe.’”

“This Head I Hold”-[lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Electric Guest[/lastfm]

Check out Electric Guest for free at 10pm The Echo in Echo Park tonight!

• Before you go, read my review of Electric Guest’s opening slot performance at the Foster the People show last month at the El Rey Theater.