Love Pollution is the type of band I normally distrust.

Any band that lists influences like Pavement and Radiohead, then follows it up with Phish and Otis Redding (oh, and Iggy Pop), totally has something to hide.

Only with Love Pollution, it sorta makes sense.

Yes, they can hold their own with the indie-stars (and starlets) of the day. But the band's got soul too. It's got a groove and a bit of an attitude. And that's got to mean something.

Famous talks with the band on the eve of their CD release show, 9 p.m. Aug. 11, at Zapps Park. Three bucks gets you in the door.

Or, see them at Tokyo Garden tonight.

Band info: Who plays what and how long y'all been around?

Well, we've got Kevin Agrava on the bass, Craig Finster on lead guitar, Blake Gollmer on the drums and E.J. WerlyKlein on rhythm guitar/lead vocals. We've been around in name for almost four years, and after lots of lineup changes we're finally here. We're certainly not the same band that we were when we began, so I guess we could have changed the name with the lineup changes, but we really dug the Love Pollution.

Maybe a more in-depth band history?

Not much. We're all pretty shallow.

Love Pollution, the album: Tell me about it?

First of all, we recorded the entire thing with live takes, where the whole band was playing at once. As far as I know, most bands nowadays usually separately record their parts in order to get everything perfect. To us, that kinda takes all the soul out of it.

I mean, when you go to see a band play, you want them to all play at once, right? That's the impressive part, that they're all playing as one, reading each other. And we're a great live band. The constraints of separately recording us would be like trying to put a tiger in a birdcage: First of all, it's gonna eat your bird. But then eventually, its gonna get hungry again and bust out of the cage. And guess what? There's no more bird, your cage is busted, and you lost your tiger.

You've been described as cross between Dave Matthews and the RedHot Chilli Peppers, with hints of Gin Blossoms and Van Morrison (hey, it's on Fresnobeehive.com). I'm not sure I'd like that band. But I like Love Pollution.

No question here, but feel free to describe your music if you wish.

That's always a tough one. We do have a pretty diverse range of styles in our originals, but at our core we're just a catchy new retro-ish indie-rock band.

The band plays at lot at Last Call (which used to be Zapp's Park, which used to be an actual amusement park), which is a totally under-valued venue. Why do you play there so much?

We love playing there because it's this hidden hole-in-the-wall spot, where the beers are cheap. But mainly it's cool because it's a little out of the way, and well worth the effort to get there.

What local bands are you guys excited by (not sexy excited. Or maybe that too)?

Via Zen is a great up-and-coming band that we play with a lot. Other than that, I'd have to say Grow Back. It's tough, because all of the great local bands from Fresno don't really play in Fresno anymore. They all go to other cities where there are bigger crowds.

We all know you guys've got day jobs. What are they?

E.J. waits tables, as does Blake, Kevin arranges all that pretty produce that you see at Whole Foods, and Craig fixes broken air conditioners and recycles the copper sometimes.

Do you hope beyond hope to one day not have day jobs?

Well, that's a stupid question. Of course not.

You've got one sentence to convince me (OK, not me) to drive down from north Fresno to see you play. Go.

If you don't have a great time, we'll refund all of your money (in scrap copper).

Ever play Mad Libs? Here's one: Give us a verb, a noun, a plural noun and adjective and a noun.

Love Pullution will (fly) the living (EltonJohn) out of all the (tigers) is this (retuned taco).

Let's start a band feud. Who's the one local band you hate? (You can be serious or not.)

It's been hard enough for us to get gigs to begin with, so burning bridges (as satisfying as that would be) is a pretty bad idea. There are a couple of bands that we dont particularly care for, but they're doing fine for themselves, hell, better than we are.

Like whoever said it said: "If it sounds good, it is good." I guess our main pet peeve is just unoriginal bands out there. Hey, if your band sounds just like some previously successful band, that's not a good thing. Quit wasting your time and go buy their CD and play Karaoke at home.