Indie Pop / Noise Pop
Los Angeles, California, USA

The Lassie Foundation is an indie band from Southern California. Their style has been described as “pink noise pop.” They disbanded in 2006 after having released three albums as well as several EPs, but have reunited several times since then. In of May 2007, Jeff Schroeder became the guitarist for The Smashing Pumpkins, although he was still featured on later recordings. Everett and Campuzano are both former members of The Prayer Chain and Starflyer 59.

The Lassie Foundation started during the last Prayer Chain tour in 1996, with Wayne Everett and Eric Campuzano discussing ideas for new music because they knew their current band was winding down. Everett decided to learn guitar so that he could make this band a reality. Prayer Chain guitarist Andy Prickett helped him learn to play. Everett and Campuzano never saw The Lassie Foundation as a full-time band, because the players were Everett and Campuzano plus whoever was available to play other instruments live or in the studio.

Tn 1996, The Lassie Foundation released their first EP, California for Velvet Blue Music. California defined the group’s sound, a mix of the smooth 1960s and early 1970s West Coast pop music and the sonic power of British shoegaze music. Lassie followed up its EP with their first full-length album, Pacifico. Pacifico caught British attention by being featured in the “What's on the NME Stereo” section of New Musical Express magazine. In 1998 the band released the El Rey EP (also featured in NME), whose title track was featured on TV's “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Popular,” “MTV's The Real World,” and “MTV Road Rules”. Singles in the U.S. and Australia followed, and the band continued its regimen of performing in Southern California clubs with bands like Phantom Planet, At the Drive-In, Mates of State, Creeper Lagoon, and Imperial Teen.

2001 saw a turn in the band’s musical direction with its split soundtrack for the independent film I Duel Sioux and the Ale of Saturn, followed soon thereafter by The El Dorado LP, their second full-length album. Both albums abandoned their traditional shoegaze elements for a cleaner pop sound. It also marked the end of the band.

In its two-year absence, Lassie received many requests for their catalog, for media placement, interviews, European releases, and tours of Europe, prompting the founding members and songwriters Wayne Everett (vocals), Campuzano (bass), and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) to start writing a new album. Supported live and in the studio by Happy Tsugawa-Banta (vibes & keyboards) and Joel Patterson (drums), The Lassie Foundation reinvented itself on Face Your Fun, citing influences such as Echo & the Bunnymen, The Jam, New Order, U2, A Flock of Seagulls, Guided by Voices, and The Jesus and Mary Chain.

After playing many shows throughout 2004 and 2005, opening for bands such as The Walkmen and The New Pornographers, the band agreed to call it quits in 2006. However, the band reformed in 2008 and released the Jetstreams E). In December 2008, American webzine Somewhere Cold voted Jetstreams EP of the Year on their 2008 Somewhere Cold Awards Hall of Fame.

In 2021, the band released remastered versions of California and Pacifico on BandCamp. Fan response to the California re-issue led the band to successfully launched a KickStarter to release California and Pacifico simultaneously on vinyl. That campaign also produced the Cave Sessions EP, which featured quick re-recorded versions of some of their older songs live at The Cave studio in Los Angeles.

1996 Velvet Blue Music (VBM007) / Brainstorm Artists International (BRD 4022)

Eric Campuzano
Wayne Everett

Julie Martin - Vocals on “I Can Be Her Man” and “I'm Stealin' To Be Your One in a Million”
The Doc - Bass on “I Can Be Her Man” and “Laid With Cool”
Jeremy Wood - Drums on “Laid With Cool”

1. I Can Be Her Man (4:32)
2. I'm Stealin' to Be Your One in a Million (3:19)
3. Laid With Cool (3:27)
4. Walking Spinning Backing Free (4:19)
5. Save Yourself and Watch You Win (5:46)

1. Walking Spinning Backing Free (demo) (3:24)
2. Save Yourself and Watch You Win (demo) (5:07)

1996 Velvet Blue Music (VBM 010)

1. I'm Stealing to Be Your One in a Million
2. Save Yourself and Watch You Win (4 Track Demo Version)

1997 Velvet Blue Music (VBM032)

Wayne Everett- Vocals
Campuzano - Guitar
Jeff Schroeder - Guitar
Jason 71 - Bass
Frank Lenz - Trap set

1. Dive Bomber (4:34)
2. You are Infinity (3:50)
3. She's the Coming Sun - She's Long Gone (live in studio) (3:11)
4. I Can Be Her Man (live in studio) (4:15)
5. I'm Stealing to Be Your One in a Million (live in studio) (2:55)

(…to be continued…)