The lovely Joan Hiller over at Sub Pop records asked that I pass along this unfortunate news about their friends in Ryan McPhun & the Ruby Suns.

“New Zealand’s Ryan McPhun & the Ruby Suns are friends of Sub Pop’s, and as some of you may have heard, while on tour here in the states, their RV (along with all their vintage & new equipment, passports, clothing and one member’s insulin medication) spontaneously combusted on the freeway outside of the Tri-Cities here in Washington. The Tri-City Herald wrote a story about it. Our buddy (and part-time member of Ryan McPhun & the Ruby Suns) Gareth runs a label called Li’l Chief Records in NZ, and he has donation information on the label’s site. It would mean a lot to the bands if you could get the word out about their totally undeserved bummer mishap so that people could perhaps open their hearts and help `em out.”

I’m impressed by the humor they’re demonstrating in the face of such an expensive and depressing disaster—the picture on the Li’l Chief site is priceless. As an aside, I bet that label gets alot of grief about their name.