Save Music in Chinatown 2 preview: Channel Three’s Mike Magrann

Yes, it’s awesome to throw DIY benefit shows to raise money for music education my daughter’s elementary school and great to help the community where my grandparents and in-laws have hung out. But on a purely selfish level, it gives me an excuse to work with some of my favorite bands and people. So while I have Mike Magrann committed to playing our February 9 show at Human Resources, I figured I’d ask him the latest about Channel 3. They were OG punks on Posh Boy records, they were on not one but two Rodney on the ROQ compilations, and now they are playing Save Music in Chinatown. Rad!

CH3 seems to be playing more than ever. How did this run of shows begin?

As we grow more, ahem, mature it is a lot tougher to get us four guys together for a weekend jaunt or two-week tour but we do okay. And it seems that playing out a lot breeds more gigs, ya know? If we can make a point to hit certain cities or go to Europe each summer, then we can count on the shows being a little better next time through. A few more familiar faces and–most importantly–we know the good places to eat!

You’ve been touring with friends, playing festivals, and getting your portrait done by the dude who draws Allroy and Milo. Why are you playing our rinky dink benefit?

Ha! It’s all due to the persistent nagging of one Martin Wong! But it’s actually an honor to be able to put your music to a good use, and music education is something near and dear to our hearts. Kimm and I, who are famously friends since second grade, always shared a love of music growing up and we actually learned to play guitars together at an after-school program in seventh grade.

Besides, it’s always nice to play at venues out of the norm.  I mean, we’ve played enough 1 a.m. sets at mildewy dive bars to last a lifetime. Let us do a matinee with cookies and coffee once in a while, for God’s sake!

Did your band play much in Chinatown back in the day? Got any stories?

We played at Wong’s Chinatown venue once but it was well after its prime. But we did play a lot at Esther’s Santa Monica venue, where she would always chase us out of the kitchen for making out with girls and trying to steal beer!

Our first-ever gig after making the Posh Boy EP was across town at the Brave Dog on 1st Street…

Whenever I Google Channel 3 or look up the hashtag on Instagram, I always see Thai TV starlets. Do you know anything about that scene?

I know, right? All I know is we get an awful lot of posts on our Facebook page in Lanna and Lao scrīpt! I don’t know what the hell they’re saying but a fan’s a fan, even if they do think they’re logging onto their fave soap opera page!

Looking back, pre-Interweb, it was a pretty bad idea naming the band CH3. You Google us and we always come up on page 2 after Methyl compounds of hydrogen and Thai television stations. Although we are able to get some pretty cool T-shirts from the local CH3 news teams throughout the Midwest, so there’s that…

Check out the very funny Channel Three blog HERE.

And get advance tickets to the show HERE.

Then watch some video below…

See ya at the show!