I mean, when we heard from our musician friends that there weren't enough rehearsal spaces and music venues in the San Francisco area, we had no idea it was this bad. The Heavenly States, a locally based indie power-pop outfit that features a violin-forward aesthetic (that's how we guessed that "a California indie rock band" meant "a San Francisco indie rock band") came up with the idea of being the first Americans to rock Libya. Known for their progressive politics, but not necessarily known for their command of Arabic, the band is taking their sound to the Roman ruins of Leptis Magna, and hope to draw crowds at other stops by leafletting.

They were last spotted in town on December 8th at the Bottom of the Hill opening for New York blogger 'it' band The Arcade Fire, and have also shared a seven inch with Coldplay and the Postal Service. They are currently promoting their self-titled debut, and you can watch the video for their single Carwash in Quicktime.