Yukon Gold

Yukon Gold

The members of Alaska! prove you don't have to go Hollywood to be a diva

If you're one of the dozen or so people who saw the Frances McDormand vehicle Laurel Canyon, you may have noticed some familiar faces from the indie-rock scene on the big screen. McDormand's sexy, middle-aged record producer takes a much younger lover -- the lead singer of a rock band, the supporting players of which was portrayed by members of Lou Barlow's Folk Implosion. Among the players were Imaad Wasif (Lowercase) and Russ Pollard, both longtime collaborators of Barlow's (Pollard was also a member of Barlow's sweetly tortured Sebadoh, which is rumored to be regrouping), who formed their own project, Alaska!, in 2000.

While the band didn't get too much screen time in the film, the original music it contributed is solid, if unremarkable, which is consistent with the band's experience of making the movie itself.

"I don't know if I really feel comfortable talking about that. I don't really have anything positive to say about it," says Waasif cagily. "It was a really terrifying experience, and that's pretty much all I have to say about it."

But Wasif isn't getting off the hook that easily. For it is this reticent artist himself who clicks "Send" on the band's electronic press release, which touts the band's participation in the film. It seems only fair to press him a bit more.

Turns out he has a bit more to say about it after all.

"Being thrust into that environment on that level of performance was completely different from the performance aspects that I'm used to," grouses Wasif. "I just didn't feel comfortable in that environment. We had vocal coaches and all these