Since bassist Sam Johnson first joined Mr. Plow back in the summer of 1998, there has always been an ongoing joke among the members that someday the band would move to California and hit the big time. Well, at least half of that joke is turning out to be true as the Ames group prepares to pack up and chase its dream to Los Angeles.”It was always the running joke,” Johnson says. But after the band played the CMJ Music Festival in New York this past October, the group decided to make the joke a reality. Mr. Plow called a band meeting and decided to go ahead with the move.Mr. Plow is no stranger to the City of Angels though; the group put on showcases for interested record labels last summer. And although Johnson can’t deny that the attention of those major labels was very influential in bringing the band to California, the move also provides the band with more opportunities than are available in Iowa.”Considering our manager lives out there and we have some of the few hook-ups we need to get going out there, we’ve got an advantage on a lot of the bands that make this move, I think,” Johnson says.