It's never fun to report when a local band gets their gear jacked. Unfortunately, that happened to Human Behavior and Karima Walker near Humboldt and Mendocino counties while touring.

On Aug. 24, the band's van was broken into while they were swimming in a nearby river. The band estimates about $5,000 in equipment and personal effects were taken from the vehicle, including a Chuck Lee banjo and a vintage Mossman acoustic guitar. Andres Parada of Human Behavior says those instruments were collectable, but also very valuable in a sentimental way. The van was also damaged and Walker's journals, phone, wallet, money and credit cards were taken. 

Parada said that a pastor and his son waited with him until the police arrived and simply told Walker and him that they had chosen them.

"Everything he said was pretty mystical and open," he said. "I understood the meaning to be that when we choose, we invest our identity. So when it's taken, it feels like we lost that part of ourselves, the part that chose."

While that semi-supernatural sentiment would make for a great future song for the band's existing aesthetic, it won't help them on the final week of their tour, which takes them from Portland to Salt Lake to San Diego and more. The band has already had to cancel two dates on their Western tour and that's where you come in. 

Human Behavior has a few suggestions for those looking to lend a hand to their cause:

1. Tell your friends to come to our remaining west coast shows. We make beaucoup dolares from that. 

2. Buy an album. Give it to your idiot brother. Then buy another.

3. Scour the Pacific Northwest (specifically Humboldt and Mendocino county) for some well equipped mouth-breathers playing bluegrass on stolen gear. Or, just check Craigslist in that area.
(The big hitters: A cherry, 12", open back, Chuck Lee banjo with a pickup in the body. In a light brown hard leather case -velvety green interior- SERIAL NUMBER 688. And a 1975 Mossman Great Plains with pickup in an off white hard plastic case.)

4. Tell your idiot brother to bring his friends to our west coast show.

5. Donate [to the Indiegogo campaign], what you can.

If you haven't already bought Human Behavior's latest release, Bethphage, you really should because "it’s folksy and bluesy and murky, dripping with religious influence and bouncing from a full spiritual chorus to barren and abstract shouting"—it's good. 

If you already have a copy, why not just pitch in some cash to their Indiegogo campaign. It won't bring those special items back, but it will at least help them continue making music—and that's good for everyone.