Bob’s Java Jive is where it all began for Nathan Markiewicz and Lori Peterson, the married couple that comprises Tacoma experimental band L.A. Lungs, which will play the iconic bar this Saturday.



Six years ago Markiewicz was hosting karaoke and Peterson was singing. The song? The Carpenters’ “We’ve Only Just Begun.”



Markiewicz liked her performance so much that he gave her an award — a Garbage Pail Kids sticker.



“It was Ultra Violet,” Peterson told me over a pitcher at the Parkway Tavern.

They’re one of those couples that just seem to fit. They finish one another’s sentences. They fill the other’s glass without asking. They ride the same wavelength. A wavelength all their own.



When you hear their music, you’ll know what I mean. They create by feel, not formula; by intuition, not logic.



As some old bluesman surely must have sung, there ain’t no logic in love.

“We have a whole attic full of weird shit,” Markiewicz said, when I inquired about their process. Guitars, keyboards, melodicas, recorders, strings, accordion, digital effects. 



“It’s really just goofing around,” finished Peterson. “With a lot of bickering involved.”

In advance of every live performance they create a fresh composition — trying new things in new combinations and listening for something that works. The final product is more like a recipe than a score. Something approximated, not just repeated, leaving room for what Peterson calls “pleasant surprises.”



They don’t dance onstage, and only rarely do they sacrifice live animals. (Kidding. They do it every night.) Their audiences don’t dance, either. It’s not that kind of thing.

Don’t ask the L.A. Lungs to play Skynard.



Still, it’s not just noise. Their work is frequently euphonious and sometimes melodic. It’s infused with sampled recordings that range from inspiring to intriguing to fun: Gandhi, salmon swimming, the sound of Markiewicz driving his car.



Inspiring, intriguing, fun. That, in a nutshell, is what to expect when they play in Tacoma’s favorite giant coffee pot.



Bring stickers.



[Bob’s Java Jive, Saturday, April 4, with Miss Massive Snowflake, Rainstick Cowbell, Smile Brigade, 8 p.m., $5, 2102 S. Tacoma Way, Tacoma, 253.475.9843]