This summer, actor Jackson Rathbone will be in two movies expected to be among this season's blockbusters: he'll reprise his role as Jasper the vampire in ''The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,'' the latest in the romantic series, and will play Sokka the warrior in ''The Last Airbender,'' the live-action adaptation of the popular animated Nickelodeon TV series, '' Avatar: The Last Airbender.''
But for now, he's got music on his mind.
Rathbone is on a 100-show tour with 100 Monkeys -- the quirky, experimental rock-and-blues band he has formed with fellow actors Ben Graupner, Ben Johnson and Jerad Anderson and movie musician ''Uncle Larry'' (M. Laurence Abrahms). The tour stops Thursday at Allentown's Crocodile Rock Cafe.
The band is also working on another studio album -- some of which Graupner says was written when Rathbone and the band were holed up in Philadelphia and Reading during last summer's shooting of ''The Last Airbender.'' And they plan a double-disc live album from the tour. Graupner says all the shows, including Croc Rock's, are being recorded.
Rathbone, 25, also is shopping an independent movie, ''Girlfriend,'' that he and Anderson produced and starred in, as well as wrapping up its soundtrack, which includes new 100 Monkeys music.
''Well, I'm just preparing myself to travel a lot'' this summer, Rathbone says with a laugh in a telephone call from a car ''ripping up through Georgia'' on an interstate highway between 100 Monkeys shows. ''And basically I'm just kind of getting my ability to drink as much coffee as I can.
''That has to be my super power,'' he says in a reference to ''Airbender.'' ''The ability to keep going and never sleep. But that's what I've been doing for a while.''
That's not an overstatement. After playing Nicholas Fiske in the ABC Family channel's ''Beautiful People'' since 2005, Rathbone landed the role of Jasper in the 2008 movie ' 'Twilight,'' based on the wildly popular Stephenie Meyer novels. He reprised his role in November's ''The Twilight Saga: New Moon.''
Now ''Eclipse'' opens June 30 and ''The Last Airbender'' on July 2.
In between, Rathbone formed 100 Monkeys.
Graupner, also talking from the tour road, explains that he, Rathbone and Johnson met at a private high school for the arts in Michigan. He and Rathbone were living in Los Angeles 21/2 years ago when Johnson flew out from his Philadelphia home ''to kind of keep me company'' while Rathbone left for a month to work. But that work was postponed.
''So the three of us were kind of suddenly in L.A. with a bunch of recording gear,'' Graupner said. They invited Anderson, a friend, to join and started recording. They also invited Uncle Larry, whom Graupner and Rathbone had met playing the flute on the set of the film ''The Daze.'' Uncle Larry runs a Los Angeles music studio, Jazz Rhythms Unlimited.
The group started playing Tuesday nights as The 24 Carat Lounge, a nightclub owned by the producers of ''The Daze'' -- simply, Graupner says, ''because we had no place that we could set up drums and play them without getting the police called on us.'' Within a month, the shows were drawing crowds and adding supporting acts that the band, by then called 100 Monkeys, followed onto the road.
''In L.A., you're kind of always touring anyway,'' says Graupner. ''It feels like it takes you an hour and a half to get to any gig you play there.'' So when Rathbone went to San Francisco, then Vancouver for work, the band simply followed and played shows on the way, at the location, and on the way back home, Graupner says.
They also put out an album, ''Monster Delux,'' and several singles, and wrote and recorded another disc, 2009's ''Grape,'' while on the road.
'' 'Grape' was spread, literally, all the way from Lockhart, Texas, up to Vancouver,'' Graupner says. ''We started recording the backtracks down in Lockhart in this sweltering summer heat,'' then recorded more in hotel rooms in Dallas, Los Angeles, ''and then all the way up the coast'' before mixing and mastering the disc in White Rock, Canada.
Graupner says the band continued that model, following Jackson's work for shows. They even wrote some of the upcoming disc and played at Croc Rock while living for a month and a half in Philadelphia and Reading as Rathbone filmed ''The Last Airbender'' in Bucks County, Reading and Carbon County last summer.
Finally in December, 100 Monkeys started a formal tour with the idea of routing 100 shows based on fan voting. But Graupner says many of the places that got the most votes had no suitable venues. ''So we picked the cities that are closest to them with the gear and space that can accommodate us.''
There has been talk of 100 Monkeys appearing on the ''Eclipse'' soundtrack, but Graupner says, ''I think we know just about as much as anyone else who's out there.''
''Obviously, they know who we are,'' he says. ''We played a couple of cast parties and stuff ... you wind up meeting those people. They know the music, but there's been no formal approach from either side concerning that. So I think at this point it's all just sort of Internet buzz.''
Graupner says the band hasn't ruled out signing to a major label, ''but music is changing. It's at a point where you don't need a $50,000 package or a $40,000 advance to make a record. You need time and focus, but in terms of the actual cost of producing something and the gear that you're going to need, you just need a couple of dedicated engineers and you're all good.''
Rathbone says his music is as important to him as his film career, which, admittedly has a much higher profile.
''It's definitely something that I'm putting a lot of my time and my energy in ... It's a very important part of my life that takes precedence from any girlfriend or any love interest. Music and art -- that's my love. That's going to be my life,'' he says with a laugh.
He also says he doesn't mind that 100 Monkeys is getting lots of attention because of his blockbuster movies.
''Whenever people come to one of our shows, they're going to get a show,'' he says. ''They're going to have a great time, regardless why they walked in the door. We don't care. What we care about is putting on an amazing show for the audience.''
He says he tries to keep acting and his music ''separate but equal. At the same time, I like to integrate it. Like with 'Girlfriend,' where I act, produce a movie and then the band does the score for it. I really like the way that kind of goes together. ... I've always loved film and I've always loved music. And I really love being able to keep doing them both at the same time.''
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Since, I'm seriously addicted to anything of a literary nature, I'm going to fill you in on this little tidbit: 100 Monkeys claims that they have written a book!!
