Band Interviews

Monster Magnet Makes Their Way Back To The Sunset Scene

November 2, 2013

Space Lords of stoner rock, Monster Magnet, land at the House of Blues in Hollywood on Nov. 27. It may have been 10 years since the New Jersey band toured the states, but they’ve been plenty busy playing around Europe and releasing numerous albums, including the latest, “Last Patrol.”

“Since we’ve been away for so long I plan to do a couple songs off the new record but we’re going to be primarily focused on more overtly psychedelic Monster Magnet material and that would be from the first three or four albums,” lead singer, guitarist, and founding member, Dave Wyndorf said.

“Spine of God” was the 1991 debut on German label, Glitterhouse, followed by “Superjudge”, “Dopes to Infinity”, and the gold record, “Powertrip” which all came out on A&M.

“It’s important for me to remind people that this thing started with album number one and keeps on going.”

Monster Magnet performed a couple of the earlier albums, “Dopes to Infinity” and “Spine of God”, in their entirety in Europe. There’s talk of doing something like that in the states after they finish touring “Last Patrol” around the world. If people want to see it, they’ll do it.

“Playing albums in their entirety is especially cool. It’s a challenge to make that one release an entertaining evening live. We love to do it,” Wyndorf said.

“When transferring a studio album to a live setting, there’s changes that have to be made. Some of the music is made longer, more tripped out, stripped down in certain ways. “

While writing the lyrics for “Last Patrol”, Wyndorf noticed a recurring theme about a guy giving up.

“I’m writing about this guy, of course this guy turns out to be me, and I’m like, ‘wait a second, I recognize this guy’,” Wyndorf recalled.

“And it’s just me in a bleak February in 2013 going, ‘you know, I don’t particularly like what I see; I turn on the news, I get disgusted; I spend too much time on the internet; and I’m disgusted with myself.

“I’m like, ‘can I get out of here? Can I leave? This is the last patrol. This is it. I’m not trying any harder in life. I’m leaving.’

“I’m not going to commit suicide, I would rather go into my own delusions and get a ten foot blonde with giant tits and move to the moon. Then nuke people and have some adolescent style revenge on the rest of the world.

“So ‘Last Patrol’ seemed like a dramatic way to say ‘ok, this is it, fuck it, I’m leaving.’ Unless, of course, I get some more bookings in which I’ll come back from the moon and finish up my contractual obligations. I can be persuaded.”

Wyndorf finds there’s more pressure when writing the lyrics than writing the music because he wants it to be very good and he never seems to give himself enough time.

“When the deadline happens it’s like giving birth to a watermelon. What’s going to come out? It’s an excruciating experience for me every time.

“Maybe if I ever get my mind completely right I’ll come up with a new method that will have me writing all year. But for rock and roll songs and the kind of music I write, it seems there should be a little pressure.”

But Wyndorf finds that coming up with the music “is fun, it doesn’t have any literary expectations.

“I write the words to the music then what happens is I tend to beef it up. I’ll trip it out more, I’ll use a lot more metaphors, explain through the vernacular of science fiction or religion or something to give it an operatic, over-baked feel. Words and music should compliment each other at all times.

“I think if I wrote words first, I would probably write country and western.”

Wyndorf seemed to always know he wanted to be in a band. He never had any formal training but he was always the guy that knew all the words to all the songs.

“All I did as a kid was buy albums, bags of pot, and go to shows. That was it. That was the training ground.”

To this day, Wyndorf is a huge fan of vinyl, and he has managed to keep most of his albums from when he was a kid.

“They’re like magnificent works of art. What a way to deliver music,” Wyndorf mused. “It’s like a Christmas present compared to the stuff that you get music on now.

“There was this time in the 60s and 70s, and any vinyl freaks will totally agree with me, there was this spot in publishing and album making that was so good.

“It was a golden age. When commercial art is delivering stuff like ‘Sgt. Pepper’ that’s an amazing time. That doesn’t usually happen.

“Last vinyl I bought was a Blue Cheer reissue, ‘Outside, Inside’. It was really, really nice. I mean I’ve got the original cover, but mine was kind of banged up. I’m always looking for reissues that are art specific. I hate when they reissue and chintz on the art. You can keep your 125 grand vinyl, I want the cover.

“But the granddaddy of them all, thee best vinyl cover of all time: Hawkwind’s ‘Space Ritual Live’. It must fold out 16 times! It’s the size of a small child when you open it up. It’s amazing. Talk about getting your money’s worth.”

Monster Magnet is happy to be on the road and they’re excited to play L.A. again after such a long time.

“There’s so much rock history there. For the longest time L.A. was the center of the universe as far as the record industry was concerned,” Wyndorf said.

“L.A. crowds are fickle. They’re tough. It’s great. It’s the way it should be.”

 

 

Shaggy Brings His Reggae Style On The Road

November 2, 2013

Coming off a three-week tour of Europe with Sly and Robbie, performing in front of audiences of over 2000 reggae fans, Shaggy will start a stateside tour beginning with The Coach House on Nov. 13.

“It’s almost as if I forgot what fun touring was all about! We haven’t been to some of these places in the neighborhood of 11 maybe 12 years. It’s been awhile,” laughed Orville Richard Burrell, best known by his stage name, Shaggy.

“I am sure I’ve played Orange County but it’s been many, many moons back.”

With the new classic reggae album, “Out of Many, One Music”, produced by Sly and Robbie, Shaggy realized the best way to promote it was to take to the road.

“Obviously you don’t have a lot of reggae radio outlets besides your two hours on any major station on Sundays,” Shaggy explained. “So we’ve gone back to basically getting into the marketplace and playing shows and promoting this record.”

However, with the numerous hits and well-known songs in Shaggy’s catalogue, they will probably only play a couple of the new tracks live. They are well aware that the fans that come to see them will want to hear the earlier songs.

“We got too many big records that people know,” Shaggy said. “We have to do the catalog. We’re talking big songs like ‘Oh Carolina,’ ‘Boombastic,’ ‘Luv Me, Luv Me,’ ‘It Wasn’t Me,’ ‘Angel,’ these are massive, massive records and you have to do these records.”

Many of Shaggy’s songs include samples of other artists such as the single “Angel” from the 6x Platinum album, “Hot Shot.” It included two song samples – Merrilee Rush’s 1968 hit “Angel of the Morning” and The Steve Miller Band’s 1973 hit “The Joker.”

“My producer is Sting International. We have a musical marriage and a very musical relationship. And he’s a DJ,” Shaggy revealed.

“He’s a collector of records so he’s the one who normally comes up with all these crazy, crazy samples. He’ll give me a file of like 20 or 30 samples and when I listen to them, whatever I catch melody on I’ll go, ‘Oh I have an idea for this.’ Once I write the idea, he just puts the bells and whistles around it. It becomes something magical.”

The stage name, “Shaggy” originally referenced his shaggy hair, like a shaggy dog, and he claims it was never a sexy name.

“Until I did ‘Oh Carolina’ which blew up in England, ironically, I found out that ‘shag’ in England meant something else. Then all of a sudden it became a sexy name,” he laughed.

“So, ‘He’s shaggy, why do they call you shaggy? Is that because you’re a good shagger?” And I’m like, ‘uh, yeah, I was good at it!”

Although Sly and Robbie will not be joining him on this leg of the tour, he has the whole crew including Rayvon and Jimmy Coziet.

“I’m looking forward to seeing everybody in Orange County,” Shaggy said. “I’m psyched about going out there. I’m psyched about rockin’ it. I’m psyched about people coming to see us. It’s been awhile.”

 

 

Foxygen Side-Project Comes To The Constellation Room

October 26, 2013

Shaun Fleming (Foxygen) will be bringing his side-project, Diane Coffee, to The Constellation Room Nov. 8. The band is currently on tour with Those Darlins.

Diane Coffee’s debut album, “My Friend Fish,” has been described as “60s-slumming-round-the-West Coast gospel-pop” and was recorded in Fleming’s New York apartment over two weeks. He had just moved cross country from Agoura Hills, CA so he improvised by using a pseudo drum kit consisting of a snare, one broken cymbal, and a metal pot, recording parts with an iPhone’s voice memo app, and playing a detuned guitar rather than a real bass.

According to his website, the album was “shaped by an adolescence spent hunched over records by the Beatles. Beach Boys, Bowie and Bill Withers (“the four B’s” as Fleming calls them) as well as modern troubadours Sufjan Stevens, Feist, St. Vincent and Bon Iver.”

Foxygen band members, Sam France and Jon Rado also lent a hand. “I grew up with those guys. They were writing way before I ever was,” Fleming said. “I remember thinking, ‘wow, these kids are so young, I really need to get my shit together’.”

From the age of 6, Fleming has voiced characters in Kim Possible, the Lion King and other kids’ cartoons. “What can I say, it was an amazing time in my life,” he laughs now. “Eventually I just really started to fall in love with music and fell out of the acting thing.”

Performing live with Fleming (drums), will be Jared Walker (guitar), Emily Panic (vocals), Joey Lefitz (bass), and Steve Okonski (keyboards).

 

 

On The Road With Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band

October 18, 2013

The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band likes to play live. So much so that they play nearly 250 gigs a year and they’ve been doing this for a while. They will be playing their country blues at The Slidebar in Fullerton on Nov. 6.

While playing around the country, lead singer, Josh “The Reverend” Peyton, also likes to get in a little fishing. They travel with fishing poles and go fishing almost everywhere they go.”

“I play guitar and fish. That’s what I do. Especially when I’m on tour. I’m always working on the shows and looking for the next place to wet a line,” Peyton said.

The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band is a trio from South Indiana best known as a live band, although they have released several albums, too.

“Southern Indiana culture kind of permeates everything,” Peyton explained. “It’s a very unique subculture. It’s like Appalachian foothills people have a way of talking, a way of doing things. I’m always mining the southern Indiana roots for songs.”

Peyton’s favorite guitar to play is a 1935 National Trojan, wooden body, that he calls, “Brown”. It goes with him everywhere and he’s had it longer than any of his other guitars.

“It’s been with me on every show we’ve ever done on the road. It looks like it’s been through the ringer, because it has,” Peyton said.

“People aren’t really fond of the wooden body Nationals, they like the metal body Nationals. I’ve got some of them, too. But the wooden body Nationals are my favorite. I just love the way they sound, love the feel of them, and the weight and everything.”

“Washboard” Breezy Peyton plays the washboard and a little harmonica. “The way she’s able to break apart rhythm can not be taught,” Peyton emphasized. “She was simply born with it.”

Ben “Bird Dog” Bussell plays drums and a five-pound bucket. “Ben is fairly new with us,” Peyton said. “He is so awesome and so much fun to play with. It’s reignited the excitement over playing and touring again.”

While The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band may be generalized as country blues Peyton says it’s basically rural blues.

“At its heart that’s what it really is. But I try to take it different places, places it’s never been before. A lot of people that play ‘Country Blues’ they’re not really writing songs. That’s one thing that I’m always doing is writing songs.”

“Between the Ditches” is their most recent album and was produced by Peyton and Paul Mahern (John Mellencamp, Iggy Pop). The previous six albums and EP were recorded live.

“It’s kind of funny to say but I think I’ve got making records figured out. I think I’m going to be all right now,” Peyton laughed. “Finally, I think we made a record that stands on its own.”

The Big Damn Band has previously played in Orange County, including a stop in Fullerton.

“People that come out to the show will see real, from the heart music played by people that are good at it,” Peyton promised. “Every time we play a show we get better. Even if people have seen us before, they’ve never seen us this good because we’re going to be better tomorrow than we are today.”

 

 

Ladies Of Electro-Pop Play The Constellation Room

October 15, 2013

The Blow will erupt The Constellation Room on Oct. 27 with a set of electronic pop music from the New York duo, Khaela Maricich and Melissa Dyne.

“We love old Madonna, and stuff like that,” confessed Maricich.

Their live show features Maricich alone on stage and Dyne on her own stage at the back of the room playing electronic instruments. The performance takes on a sort of call and response thing between them.

“We kind of hug the crowd in between us,” Maricich joked. “We try not to make them do anything. We don’t make them form a human pyramid, or wave signs or anything like that.”

At one time, Maricich had a solo project in Portland called, “Get the Hell Out Of the Way Of the Volcano.”

“That seemed like an awfully long band name so I shortened it to ‘The Blow’, which seemed like a similar concept of a volcano erupting but, an easier way to say it,” Maricich said.

Her solo project transformed into a duo when she began to work with Jona Bechtol, releasing two albums in Portland.

“Melissa and I didn’t start making music together until we got to New York,” Maricich recalled. “We met in Portland in 2004, started being friends and making stuff together, then we got involved and moved to New York in 2008.”

“Working in a little place (Portland) is different from working in a big place (New York) where people are busy. In Portland you can just sit around and people have time to help you do things. But in New York everyone’s kind of in a hurry and got their own thing going on so it’s a different kind of challenge. It’s actually harder but in other ways it’s really exciting to be in a city.”

Their self-titled album was just released on Kanine Records and was written and recorded while the two travelled around New England.

“We spent a lot of time in weird off-season ski resorts and stuff because they were cheap places to be and we worked on composing and recording,” Maricich said. “Melissa had a portable rig that she could take with her and do the engineering herself so we didn’t have to be in a recording studio.

“It was really cool. It was an adventure. It was definitely in the spirit of me and her being out there and trying something we had never tried. It became a real odyssey of experimenting and not really knowing how it would turn out. But it turned out ok!

“I wrote the words and lyrics then Melissa and I composed the songs together. I would hammer out brief melodies on a keyboard and then she’d make it really refined and layered and beautiful. But we produced it together and composed it all together.”

Currently The Blow are doing a lot of touring and they’re looking forward to coming to Orange County especially after being big fans of the former television show, “The OC”.

“We’re excited to come out and be in the OC. The album that I made in 2006 came out just after they finished wrapping all the TV episodes for The OC,” Maricich recalled.

“I really wanted to have music on that show so bad. My friend was actually a music supervisor for that show and I talked to her and she said, ‘Aw, we just wrapped the last episode’.

“We have some OC fantasies that’s for sure. We were big fans of that show. It put you guys on the map!”

After the current tour is completed, the duo will head to Los Angeles during December and January to do more recording.

“It’ll be a nice change from New York and I have family in Seal Beach,” said Maricich. “That’s in the OC, right?”

 

 

Resonant Sounds Of Surfer Blood Fill The Constellation Room

October 8, 2013

Surfer Blood will display their melodic rock at The Constellation Room on Oct. 23. They have previously played in both The Constellation Room and The Observatory.

“It’s always a really enthusiastic crowd in the OC, we’re looking forward to it,” lead singer, John Paul Pitts said.

Their sophomore release, “Pythons” came out earlier this year and was produced by Gil Norton (Pixies, Foo Fighters).

“It’s a much fuller sounding record because of Gil,” Pitts said. “Gil is a really enthusiastic and also a really intense guy. He’s really opinionated and lets you know what he thinks. He’s definitely not the most laid back guy but it’s really good because he’ll push you to do more than you would usually do.“

During pre-production for the album, Norton met the band while they were running through the songs in a really dark, poorly lit rehearsal studio.

“Tom (Fekete) was playing this guitar part and he (Norton) would walk around us while we were playing, circling us, like a vulture kind of,” Pitts recalled. “And he came up to Tom and said ‘Hey mate, you have to make that part fly’. We had no idea what he meant but he kept saying, ‘No, no, make it fly, make it fly’. So I think Tom played it every possible way then finally he did one thing where Gil was like, ‘Yes, that’s it. You made it fly.’ We’re still not exactly sure what he meant. Maybe that’s his whole strategy to get you to try new things.”

Although the album is titled, “Pythons”, none of the band members actually own any snakes.

“They’re not the most loving animals to have as pets,” Pitts laughed. “Maybe that’s why so many people got rid of them in Florida and that’s why they’re over-populating the Everglades. That’s kind of what pushed us over the edge when it came to coming up with a name.

“We liked the name a lot and it was one of our forerunners. Then we saw something about a python hunt in Florida. They had an open hunt and you just go and shoot as many pythons as you can. Which, we didn’t participate in because that’s really creepy. But we were like, that’s just too weird. We have to pick this name for the record. It’s a crazy world.”

Surfer Blood are currently in the middle of a large US tour through November, and will be working on writing material for the next album over the winter.

 

 

Danish Duo Makes It Back For A Night In The OC

October 5, 2013

The Raveonettes will perform their dreamy, ethereal, guitar-driven music at The Observatory on Oct. 11 and headlining the Culture Collide Festival at the Echoplex on Oct. 12. Sune Rose Wagner (guitar, vocals) and Sharin Foo (vocals, bass) comprise the Danish duo.

Their debut album, “Chain Gang of Love” was released in 2003 on Columbia Records followed by “Pretty in Black” in 2005. “Lust, Lust, Lust,” “In and Out of Control,” “Raven in the Grave,” and the 2012 album, “Observator” were released on Vice Records.

OC Concert Guide recently caught up with Wagner.

OCCG: Have you previously played in Orange County, California and if so, what do you remember/like about it?
SRW: Yes, many times. Always a good time and now that both Sharin and I live in LA, it feels like home almost. I go to OC quite a lot to watch the surfers.

OCCG: Are you currently performing as a duo or are there other musicians joining you live?
SRW: We’re three people in the band these days ( Adrian Aurelius, drums).

OCCG: What sort of set can fans look forward to – will you be playing a lot of songs from “Observator?”
SRW: We’ll mix it up, there are so many songs from so many different albums people wanna hear so we try to please to everyone.

OCCG: The Raveonettes formed in Copenhagen, which is where the two of you met. What affect or influence did this have on the music you created?
SRW: I think we saw RnR from the outside, if that makes sense. Growing up in a country where RnR is pretty much non-existing forced us to create our own branch of RnR. I kinda like that.

OCCG: Was there a specific moment when you realized you wanted to do music?
SRW: I got a drum kit for Christmas when I was 5 years old but I didn’t really decide upon music till I was about 15 or 16.

OCCG: What’s your favorite Doors song and why?
SRW: The End. So epic and incredibly beautiful, we just did a cover version of it, it’s amazing!

 

OCCG: I read somewhere that the album “Chain Gang of Love” was written in the key B-flat major, which must have been an interesting challenge. What unexpected obstacles did you run into and how did you get around them?
SRW: I try to be very creative when it comes to songwriting and sometimes you have to limit yourself in order to fully flourish. We didn’t use any hi-hats either☺☺

OCCG: It must have been pretty special to work with Ronnie Spector. What was it like?
SWR: Amazing singer and performer, she nailed that song within a few takes. She’s quite the diva but hey, she was in The Ronettes so she has every right to be. Love her.

OCCG: How would you describe The Raveonettes to someone who isn’t familiar with your music?
SWR: RnR with a twist. Someone once said “surfing in the rain”. I kinda like that.

OCCG: What’s next on the horizon?
SWR: We’re working on 2 new albums and we’re still touring, so basically a lot of fun!

 

 

The Return Of Peter Murphy, A Delight For OC Fans

October 2, 2013

Peter Murphy will be playing a set of Bauhaus songs at The Observatory on Oct. 20. This will be the second time that he will be performing a set of Bauhaus only material enabling him to pull even deeper into the massive catalogue of classics and obscurities.

“Orange County, it’s actually The Observatory, that I’ve enjoyed playing. I really like that venue a lot,” Murphy said.

“At the end of the day, it’s about music and audience and coming together. Taking ourselves somewhere else, which is what theatre and art does, isn’t it? It gives us another output of another level of being, even if it’s just for an hour and a half, or so.”

Last winter, Murphy decided to put on two surprise shows with little advance notice at The Observatory. At one of the shows he performed his solo album, “Deep” in its entirety. At the other show he played exclusively Bauhaus material.

“Jon at The Observatory was very happy to put that on. It was almost like a pilot, a test-run for me as to whether it would really stand up in terms of being integral to the band’s music and my own work on that level. And, it was a first,” Murphy said. “Both of those shows sold out within 15 minutes and that was an indication of the popularity of not only my own work, but also, the Bauhaus one was unexpected.”

The success spurred a world tour, The Moonlight Tour, which gave audiences an opportunity to hear an authentic Bauhaus show.

“It really did address those people that do, and have loved, Bauhaus and never had the chance to see them. Even when the actual (Bauhaus) band did the final ‘Death Rattle Tour’, I’ll call it, where it was finally obvious we were no longer a band.

I told Jon, once we’ve done the world tour I’m going to come back here to complete the circle. This is like the epilogue to the Moonlight Tour. Orange County will be the final scene of the play.”

Bauhaus formed in the UK in the 80s and was one of the early bands to be part of what came to be referred to as Goth music. Songs such as the infamous “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”, “In the Flat Fields”, and “She’s In Parties” were forerunners of that era.

Following the breakup of Bauhaus, lead singer and front man, Peter Murphy, began an illustrious solo career. Murphy is known to be quite theatrical and expressive on stage through his movements and appearance.

Accompanying Murphy will be Andee Blacksugar, guitar, Nick Lucero, drums, and Emilio China, bass and electric violin. He will also be playing a preview of his upcoming album, “Lion”, before the show, which was recorded and written in seven days.

“It’s probably the album that Bauhaus could have made and the album that I have made,” Murphy said.

In addition to listening to his new material, he is currently listening to Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois’ “Apollo”, Phillip Glass among others.

“I can’t be bothered to look for new bands because it’s difficult to find who they are and where they are now. I prefer to chance upon things,” Murphy reasoned. “The labels have lost their power and it’s all out there for anyone to find in one big sea of digital subsistence. I listen to everything and anything I can but I often also conscientiously not listen to a lot of music because I don’t want to be too affected. I want to kind of keep myself in a vacuum where whatever I come up with comes out of nowhere. That comes out of a place that is not necessarily being influenced. “

In advance of the release of “Lion”, Murphy will be selling VIP tickets to the third ‘Miracula’ event.

“I’ve done two of them and I’m doing the third Miracula on Oct. 26 which, will be at a secret location in Los Angeles,” Murphy teased. “I’m going to be playing a preview of what I have so far of ‘Lion’, which is 15 or 16 songs. I’m going to be presenting it even before it’s mixed and it’s literally off the mixing board.”

“I’m offering special VIP tickets and I’m going to entertain and host the guests for a whole day and give them dinner and also raconteur and give them insights and field questions. The only thing they can’t ask is about my sexuality and how big I am and all that stuff.

As a final thought, Murphy urges, “Tell everyone they must drop their notions of love and then find it.”

 

 

Hank 3 Genre Blending Sounds Heard In The OC

October 2, 2013

Hank Williams III aka Hank 3 takes over The Observatory with his eclectic mix of country, hellbilly, metal core and punk for two nights, Oct. 9 and Oct. 10.

“I always say there’s no opening band at our shows. We play so long that we try to tell everybody to be on time,” Williams said. “I also tell the girls don’t wear open-toed shoes just in case some of the guys with the big heavy boots step down hard.”

Over the course of the two nights, there may be a few similar songs that he’ll start with but overall, each night will be different.

“We always start off with our country show the first hour and a half, and then we move toward the hellbilly sound, or maybe a little bit of the punk rock, and then the doom, and then the ‘3 Bar Ranch’ as the night goes on,” Williams explained. “If some of you all don’t want to stick around and see the other half of the show, we’ll see you next time.”

Although Hank 3 plays multiple styles of music in the same evening, “the performance is always one performance to me,” Williams said.

“I’m doing everything I can that day to try and to get the voice where it needs to be, and the body and the mind and all that stuff that comes with it.

“I think the reason I’ve been interested in the varieties of the styles of music is because when I was young, I was a drummer. That was my first instrument. I would listen to Elvis, ZZ Top, Waylon Jennings, Kiss, Queen, and all these kind of different sounding bands. As I got older, that rhythm of the drums kind of went into my guitar playing.

“When your father is already famous and your grandfather is famous it makes it a little tricky to figure out what your niche might be or what your style is going to be to separate yourself to create your own thing.

 

“Over the years I’ve felt comfortable with the niche I carved and it took a long time to be accepted for what I do. At first a lot of people didn’t get it but now people see the work ethic in the show and the way that I have it laid out. I’m trying to give everybody their money’s worth for the ticket.”

The double country album, “Brothers of the 4×4” and the single punk album, “A Fiendish Threat” hit the stores in October. Williams not only wrote and played many of the instruments, but he also engineered, produced, mixed and mastered all the songs over a four-month period.

“The country record is my sound. There’s a couple of really deep slow sad country songs; there’s a couple of happy go lucky ones, and a couple of weird ones. Just kind of covering all the bases.

“A Fiendish Threat gives the older punk rock sound a different take on it. That’s the reason I was approaching it with the acoustic guitar. Acoustic with fuzz and distortion on top of it. The stand up bass and a little bit of the stand up steel guitar are there in spots. You hear a lot of influences on that record. Violent Femmes, Minor Threat, Janes Addiction, Misfits, Ramones, there’s all kinds of inspiration on it.”

During the winter, Williams likes to hole up writing, recording, mixing and mastering new albums, dedicating virtually every day to the project. Since he plays all the drums, some weeks may be spent getting one drum track where it needs to be. Sometimes it may take at least 175 takes to get it right.

“Some players are different. Some can walk in there and nail it on one take. For me with my music and the way my brain operates I try a lot of different ideas. And that goes back to being a drummer and wanting it to be tight,” Williams explained. “Both of the records came to me pretty smooth. It wasn’t like pulling teeth to get the songs out of me.”

The majority of the lyrics and music are written by Williams although, the song “The Outdoor Plan,” from the country album, was co-written with Eddie Pleasant who has been like a second grandfather to him.

“On the punk rock record, the inspiration for the song ‘Fight My Way’ came from a band called 7 Seconds. I contacted them and said, ‘man, if I’m going to write this song, I’ve got to have y’all’s permission because this song came from y’all. You all gave me the inspiration. The whole idea is based around your band. They were super cool to give me the opportunity to put it out there with my take on it.”

Although Williams comes from a musical background, his parents never pushed him toward it. Instead, he naturally progressed to the drums and then the guitar.

“My father, was thrown out on stage when he was like nine years old and they were telling him, ‘get out there and sound like your dad’. I never had that. I got into music ‘cause I wanted to. I was able to have a normal upbringing. School was always kind of hard for me and then I found my niche in playing music.”

As a hobby, Williams has taken to finding copies of the “Kill By Death” compilations.

“When I’m out on the road, I’m always looking for some of those because there’s supposedly up to a thousand of them. I have close to 42, 45, around in there,” Williams said.

“It’s kind of old punk rock from the ‘70s on up. It’s worldwide and has bands from England and Germany, some you can’t even understand what language it’s in. It’s cool; I like all the different sounds.

“I’m kind of out of the loop a little bit with some of the current stuff because I’m still so blown away by a lot of stuff from the ‘60s and ‘70s. I’m a really big fan of compilation cds because it helps me listen to so many different bands within one listen. Then I find out what band that is that I was liking the sound of, then I do my homework.”

Hank 3 has a diverse fan base from 18-80 that comes out to the shows.

“On some nights you might have your cowboys, your average, everyday person, some of the punk rockers, or the metal kids, or the skaters, the surfers. There’s a pretty wide variety as far as the fans go,” William said.

“After every show I always try to shake every hand, or sign every autograph for whoever wants to do that. I know it’s not for everybody but that’s kind of the old country way. You do your show and you say hello, saying that we appreciate you all supporting us throughout the years.

“I’ve always had a high drive, a lot of creativity, and I’m just doing what I can with it.”

 

 

A Pop Metal Original Rocks The Grove Of Anaheim

September 25, 2013

Multi-platinum rock band, Tesla will play The Grove of Anaheim on Sun, Oct. 6 performing their ‘80s brand of melodic, hard-hitting songs.

“We’ll be playing a lot of stuff that we’re famous for, a lot of radio stuff, maybe a couple obscurities,” drummer Troy Luccketta said. “There is also a broken down acoustic set, maybe three tracks inside the show, so we can kind of revisit that whole ‘Five Man Acoustical Jam’ for a minute. It’s a good little show.”

The 90s “Five Man Acoustical Jam” album was innovative in the sense that it was an acoustic album by a pop-metal band, which had rarely, if ever, been done before. It inadvertently inspired MTV’s “Unplugged” series and led to an “Unplugged” craze for many well-known artists of the time such as Eric Clapton, Nirvana, and many others who released acoustic live albums.

In addition to playing acoustic versions of some of their own songs, they also covered a few favorites. One of the covers, “Signs,” became a Top Ten hit as well as the band’s highest-charting single.

“You would think after playing all these same songs all these years that you’d get bored but quite frankly that’s not really the case at all,” Luccketta said. “I think you’re just constantly inspired by the people and your fans that you’re not really thinking about it. You’re just selling it because you believe in it, and you love it, and you can do it. You’re just so grateful that you can do it.”

Tesla formed in the Sacramento area and played locally in the early days, noticing other nearby bands such as Y&T.

“They’re out of the bay area and we all loved that band. When I was young I was watching those guys, and the rest of the band was watching them, too. And there was some influence. That stuff creeps out and creeps over; it has a way of self-pollenating. It’s a natural progression of where you’re at, where you’re living in, how you’re influenced, ” Luccketta recalled.

 

“There was a good scene in Sacramento – things were pumping, it was good. Back in the day, maybe because we were young, we chased after everything. It seemed like there was always so much local support and bands trying to get that Friday night gig. There was a good scene out there.”

One of the band’s most well known songs was the ballad, “Love Song” from the 1989 album, “The Great Radio Controversy.” It was a Top Ten hit that made the band stars.

“Tesla is a band that’s been through a lot over twenty-seven years,” Luccketta noted. “The last 10 years there’s not even been one ounce of alcohol or drugs, not even one beer, backstage. We’re a band that figured out how to do this thing and enjoy it for all the right reasons.”

He continued, “We get it man. We know how lucky we are. We are a lucky bunch of guys and we all know that. We kind of live in that gratitude world.”

Joining Luccketta are original band members Jeff Keith, vocals, Frank Hannon, guitar, and Brian Wheat on bass. Dave Rude also joins on guitar and has been playing with the group since 2006.

“Follow your heart and stay true to your passion,” Luccketta offers new musicians starting out today. “Don’t give up if you’re inspired, even if it’s going against the grain and against the world. If you believe in it, and you believe in a cause, go for it. Dreams, that’s how we all got here. We all picked up an instrument at one point and we had a dream to do what it is we’re doing.”

 

 

Space Jams On Sub Pop Go Live At The Constellation Room

September 13, 2013

Sub Pop duo, Helio Sequence, bring their spacey/ethereal music to The Constellation Room on Sept. 30. They will be co-headlining with their Oregon neighbors, Menomena.

With five full-length albums, an early EP, as well as a split 7” with Menomena, Helio Sequence is no stranger to playing live. OC Concert Guide caught up with Brandon Summers (vocals, guitar) who along with Benjamin Weikel (drums, keyboards) make up Helio Sequence.

OCCG: How did you two meet and what made you decide to create music?
BS: We’ve been making music together since we were kids. So we’ve been together over 15 years if you consider when we first started working together.
We started real small, then started playing shows, and then over the years we started touring nationally, put out some records with Sub Pop out of Seattle and things have just sort of grown.

OCCG: Do you both write?
BS: We both write, we’re a duo. It’s just the two of us, and a lot of electronics.

OCCG: How did you hook up with Sub Pop?
BS: It’s kind of a serendipitous story. When we first started we self-released and recorded a little EP called “Accelerated Slow Motion Cinema.” It was something that we had at shows and that we gave out to people in hopes of getting shows. One found its way down to KXLU in Los Angeles and the program director was Tony Kiewel. He was a DJ and he was very excited about the EP. We got a call from him that he was spinning it on his program, which were all demos.

Then years later Tony became the head of A&R at Sub Pop. We’d been touring steadily and working really hard up to that point. He reached out and asked us if we’d like to make records for Sub Pop.

OCCG: It seems like Sub Pop always puts out unique music that’s always good.
BS: Yes. They care first and foremost about music and not limiting themselves to a genre or what’s going to sell mass loads necessarily. They just have their ear out for things that they all like and can agree on.

OCCG: What’s the connection with Menomena? You did a split 7” a couple years ago and now you’re doing a tour together?
BS: They kind of came up with us from years, and years ago. They were a band in Beaverton, as well, which is the suburb we grew up in. They were this amazing band that were kind of out in this suburban wasteland area, like we were, making music that no one else was making, or listening to, because it was really a sort of mainstream culture.
They sought us out and we bonded over the fact that we were following our own visions out in that sort of area. We started playing shows together in Portland and kind of grew together as bands throughout the years.
We’ve been talking about touring together forever and it finally worked out.

OCCG: Have you played in Orange County before?
BS: I’m not sure of the exact boundaries of Orange County but we’ve played all over Los Angeles, Costa Mesa, and Santa Monica, all around.

OCCG: What plans do you have coming up?
BS: We’re going to do the whole tour with Menomena then when we get back we’ll be working on new material for our new record, which hopefully we’ll have done really quickly.
Also, we’re in the middle of a production job. We have our own studio. We’ve always produced, engineered, and recorded our own records. There’s a band, “Corto Negro” from Sao Paolo, Brazil that we’ve been in contact with and they’ve come up here. We’re about three quarters of the way through having a completed record. It will be the second record they’ve put out. We’ve been heading up all the production and working with them. They’re going to fly back pretty much right when we get back from touring and we’re going to finish that off.

OCCG: Anything else you’d like to add?
BS: Just that we’re really excited to come back down and play.

 

 

Dub Reggae Takes Its Root From Michael Rose w/ Sly &Robbie

September 13, 2013

Reggae legends Michael Rose with the prolific rhythm duo Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare will spread the love at The Coach House on Sept. 25.

“We came to the Coach House in the early years with the Fully Fullwood Band. It’s always nice to come to Orange County,” Rose recalled.

Rose first gained notoriety stateside with Black Uhuru winning the first-ever Grammy Award for reggae in 1985 for the album “Anthem.” His unique vocals are featured on such well-known songs such as, “What Is Life?” “Solidarity” and “Try It.”

Prior to and following his departure from Black Uhuru, Rose released a number of Sly and Robbie produced singles in his native Jamaica.

“My brother and Sly were friends from years ago,” Rose said. “My brother was in a car accident and died. He wasn’t interested in music, he was a civil engineer, and so it was more of a hobby. When he died I decided to do music.”

One of Rose’s earliest songs was “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” with Niney the Observer (Winston Holness) and Dennis Brown producing.

Last year at a festival in Spain, Rose called Niney up to the stage to play some songs with him.

“It was a great reception, the people liked it very much,” Rose said. “It felt good to me because Niney was the first one to record me when I was coming up. “

His American debut as a solo artist was with the album “Michael Rose” on Heartbeat Records and included the single “Short Temper.”

“We have a new album that just came out called, ‘Showdown Inna Bloody Town’,” Rose said. “It’s a sign of the times right now. It’s kind of crazy.”

The title track refers to “all the things happening in the world right now. The killings and everything,” Rose explained.

“Sometimes we go to a bar and we want to have a good time but sometimes the other man comes in and just smash up the party. That’s what (the song) ‘Gunfighter’ is referring to.

“’Dutty Road’ is like Babylon road. You come up the road, you have a good time, you have a spliff, and I want to lock you up.”

Naturally the live show will showcase the new songs as well as classics such as “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, “Clap the Barber”, “Freedom Over Me”, and “Some Love Between Us.”

“We keep it upbeat. Give thanks. Rastafari every time,” Rose said.

 

 

A Few Friendly Faces Of OC Music Make Up The New Hellbound Hayride

September 5, 2013

Hellbound Hayride is back! It is their thirteenth year and they will be tearing it up at Hogue Barmichael’s on Sep. 21.

“The music that we play is geared toward you having a good time,” vocalist, Eddie Wilson said. “There’s lot’s of partying, everybody having a good time. Playing live is the most natural place on earth, for me.”

After a 5-year hiatus, Wilson has put a new band together with Doc Pittillo (guitar), John Maurer (bass), and Ronnie Cambra Jr. (drums). Everyone in the band are Orange County-based players.

Doc Pittillo, the guitar doctor of Orange County, has played in some of the O.C.’s biggest roots bands since 1978. He’s toured the nation in White Line Fever, and with Chris Gaffney and The Cold Hard Facts, among others. Doc also plays in Space Rocket, a local roots rock-n-roll band.

Maurer is an O.C. punk rock legend having spent 25 years touring the world and recording with Social Distortion.

Cambra Jr. is also a known punk and roots rock drummer who has recorded and toured both the U.S. and Canada for the last five years.

Hellbound Hayride’s sound is a combination of Howlin’ Wolf, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams meets ZZ Top, Fabulous Thunderbirds and Link Wray. Of course, there’s some Social Distortion thrown in too.

The new group is currently writing material for an upcoming album to be released Spring 2014.

“I got sober three and half years ago so there’s a lot of stories from along that line, what stuff changed my life, but there’s still that same hell raisin’, caution to the wind in there, too,” Wilson said.

In the meantime, they will be honing their live set with old and new Hellbound Hayride songs along with a few choice covers.

 

 

Kyuss Lives! On And Brings The Peace

September 3, 2013

Kyuss Lives! Currently known as Vista Chino, will be performing songs from their debut album, “Peace,” along with classic Kyuss songs at House of Blues Anaheim on Sept. 14, 2013.

Two of the original members of Kyuss, John Garcia (vocals) and Brant Bjork (drums), are joined by Bruno Fevery (guitar) of Kyuss Lives! and recent addition Mike Deans (bass) of Corrosion of Conformity.

Their music has often been described as “stoner rock,” which wasn’t actually a style of music at the time Kyuss began.

“Lucky for me I don’t have to come up with the name of the genre of which my music might be considered. It’s hard enough thinking of names for a band,” Bjork said. “As far as stoner rock goes, in the early ‘90’s we were doing our thing and we were stoners. We were smoking a lot of grass. I’m sure it had a lot to do with how our music came about.”

A couple of years ago, Garcia approached Bjork and Nick Olivieri to get Kyuss back together, knowing that Josh Homme probably wouldn’t be interested.

“I thought it was a great idea, I thought the timing was perfect. The fact that I wasn’t expecting it made it super appealing,” Bjork recalled.

“As for Josh, I don’t talk to him a whole lot. I don’t really know where his head’s at, nor has been, for the last 20 years. We kind of knew going into it that he would not want to participate. Thank god we got Bruno Fevery because he’s an exceptional guitar player and we were able to do it.”

The new album “Peace” was written, produced, arranged and recorded all while going through an intense lawsuit that Homme and Scott Reader filed against them.

“By the time we got to the end of the record and it was time to give it a title, we thought ‘Peace’ would be a good name to kind of keep us centered. Keep our feet on the ground, keep ourselves focused on our love, which is music,” Bjork explained.

“And also to send out a message that conflict is not something we were ever interested in. We weren’t looking for a fight. We didn’t start that war. And really we just want peace and to do what we really love to do, which is to play music.”

Now that the lawsuit is behind them, Vista Chino is looking forward to playing some of the new material live.

“We want the people to come out and experience the band and the fresh music along with the Kyuss classics, and have a good time!”

 

 

New Electric Sounds Down At The Observatory

August 31, 2013

Gary Numan will preview the dark and heavy tunes of his upcoming album, “Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind)” due out mid-October, at the Observatory on Sep. 4.

“I haven’t played here for quite a few years,” Numan said. “The thing about playing live for me is, and has been for a long time, it’s the most exciting part of being in a band and being involved in music.”

The live show will be built around the soon to be released album, including the lights and projections. There will be new music as well as some older songs mixed in.

“I’ve got a few changes with the band,” Numan continued. “Mark Thwaite, he’s a guitar player with Peter Murphy. He’s a friend of mine but has not played with me before.”

Robin Finck, played on the album but wasn’t available to do the tour as he is currently out with Nine Inch Nails. Fortunately, Thwaite just completed touring with Peter Murphy and was available.

Also touring with Numan are long-time drummer, Richard Beasley, keyboardist, Ade Fenton and bassist, Tim Muddiman.

“Ade produced the new album so he’s kind of the technical brains behind it all as well. Tim, who’s been with me a while, used to play with another band called, ‘Sulpher’, who are a really big industrial band in the UK. He also plays in the current lineup of Pop Will Eat Itself.”

“Splinters (Songs From A Broken Mind)” will be Numan’s 20th studio album although it’s been 7 years since the last one.

“The last few albums I’ve done, people have talked about them being quite industrial. The new album leans more toward electronic again. I guess it would still fall into the industrial thing but it’s kind of heavy, and dark, very electronic, still has guitars on it, obviously, because Robin’s on it and a lot of other guitar players are on it. But I think the emphasis of the new (music) has changed from being guitar-driven electronic music, to full on electronic again, much as it was when I started.”

Always prolific, the 7-year hiatus since his last studio album was not for lack of ideas but was set aside while working through some extremely challenging issues in his personal life. Now, everything is in perspective and Numan is looking forward to touring and writing the next album.

“I’m 55. If I don’t make another album, I’ll be dead,” Numan said. “The aim is to have another one ready to go by the end of 2014.

“The reason for the last one being 7 years apart was an awful lot to do with circumstances. My wife, and I, had 3 children very close together. So we went from just being us as a couple to having 3 children over the space of a few years and to be really truthful, I adapted badly to that. I love the children desperately but I really miss my old life.

“When I turned 50, my wife had post-natal depression with the second baby on into the third. Then she got pregnant so she was on medication for that, and I was (on medications) for mine. We were both in a real state. We stopped getting on so well, we were struggling with things. And so when all that was going on, the thought of starting another album was the last thing I wanted to do, really.”

“Luckily we’ve come all through that and it’s brilliant now. I love being a Dad. My work ethic is back and stronger than it ever was before. We moved to America. Everything is fantastic now. But we definitely went through this very difficult period on many, many different levels.”

“So, it took me a long time to start the album. It didn’t take me 7 years to make it. It just took me a long time to get going with it. But when I did, I had all that stuff to write about, there was a lot of food, if you like, for the creative process.”

All of these struggles inspired the title of the album, “Splinters (Songs From A Broken Mind).”

“I was genuinely broken for quite some time and just not at my best. It’s amazing to me. Life can sometimes take you into a place you just can’t imagine coming out the other side. Can’t imagine how it can ever become ‘good’. And yet it does.”

“I seem to have somehow magically found time to do everything. I really love the album, really looking forward to the tour. The most exciting thing you can do is being on tour playing new songs.”

In 1979, Numan had a breakthrough hit with the single, “Cars”, in the UK. The following year it cracked the Top 40 in the US.

“I must be honest, for a long time, I worked very hard to distance myself from it because it seemed to over shadow everything else that I tried to do. I started to get a sort of negative vibe about it. But I got over that and I now appreciate it for what it is. I think most people that write songs would like to write something that successful.”

“Having said all that, I do have a real problem with nostalgia and retro. When I play live and when I’m even thinking about music, it’s really about what I’m going to do next. I don’t do that many old songs live.”

“I do “Cars” because obviously I’d be kind of stupid not to. I do a song called, “Metal” that Nine Inch Nails covered. I do a song called, “Down In the Park” that Marilyn Manson and Foo Fighters have both covered. I tend to find songs that have some kind of connection to relevant people now.”

“Apart from that I’m not a great fan of doing old stuff. I’m much more interested in what I’m going to do tomorrow than what I did yesterday. That’s why I’m in music, because I’m interested in what songs I might write tomorrow.”

“When I stumbled across electronic music, which was, oh, 1978, what attracted me to it was that it dealt with sounds. You created sounds. Not just tunes. It was entirely different from anything I’d worked with before. I found that very experimental and very forward-looking.”

“I really hate people that base their careers on past glories. What you’ve done in the past is kind of done. I’ve learned to be proud of it but I certainly don’t want to live on it. I think you have to keep on earning it.”

“When I sit down to write a song, it isn’t just about coming up with a tune, it’s about the very sounds you’re going to listen to. You try to create sounds that nobody has heard before.”

“You shouldn’t say ‘I wrote a really famous song 30 years ago and everyone should come and see me.’ That’s rubbish. You have to earn it. I think with the new album, that’s my attempt at me earning it again.”

At a young age, around 4 or 5, Numan became intrigued by the electric guitar. He saw someone playing it on television and wasn’t really fascinated by the music or the guitar but by the fact it was electric.

“My mom and dad went out and bought me an acoustic guitar which was something of a disappointment because I wanted an electric one. But that got me into writing music and playing music. Through most of my childhood years up until my early teenage years, I just strummed the guitar.”

“I remember my parents and grandparents saying to me many times ‘why don’t you play something we know?’ and I’d say ‘well, I don’t want to. I want to write my own tunes’.”

Around age 8 or 9, Numan got into The Monkees, going around to people’s houses and miming to their songs with a friend.

“We’d put the record on in the corner and I’d stand there with my little guitar and my friend would pretend to be the singer and we’d mime to a couple of songs, get people to give us some money, then go and buy some sweets or something.”

As a teenager, upon discovering T Rex, Numan knew he wanted to be a musician, realizing he had a focus and a need for it as a career. David Bowie, Ultravox (the John Foxx years) and Depeche Mode all contributed to his growth as a musician.

“I think the Depeche Mode, ‘Songs of Faith and Devotion’ album was really important to me round about the ’94 period. That kind of steered me toward the industrial route that I’ve been doing ever since.”

“Nine Inch Nails, is also a big influence, love what they do. Very inspiring stuff the way Trent puts music together. I’ve been very impressed by over the years.”

Looking forward, Numan is doing a film score, as well as writing specific songs for a few films. There’s the next album to begin and of course, a great deal of touring.

“All I know is at the moment I’m loving it. I’m looking forward to everything that’s coming and I’m working harder than ever. I’m really happy with the songs I’m writing. It’s all going well at the moment so I just hope it continues.”

 

 

Black Angels Display Psychedelic Sights And Sounds To OC Fans

August 14, 2013

The Black Angels are bringing their brand of psychedelic rock and light show to the Observatory on August 23.

At times droning and trance-like with exploding guitar sounds and riffs, organ grooves, and emotionally dark and light vocals, the Austin band’s rhythms add to the musical experience, leading an audience to take the ride with them.

“Indigo Meadow”, released earlier this year, is their fourth studio album and features Alex Maas (vocals), Christian Bland (guitar), Kyle Hunt (keyboards, bass) and Stephanie Bailey (drums).

OC Concert Guide spoke with Alex about the psych movement, working with Roky Erickson, and more.

OCCG: How will the show at the Observatory differ from the show at the Glass House in Pomona a few months ago?
AM: Whenever we come back and do a show this quick it’s fun to revisit some stuff we haven’t played for a long time.

OCCG: Will you have the psychedelic graphics in the background?
AM: We always envisioned a light show with our music. It goes hand in hand. It’s really fun for us and it’s fun for Bob Mustachio who does our lights.

OCCG:What do you think got this current psychedelic movement going?
AM: It’s something that the community started. Something that the fans backed up and started, too. It’s like a very communal vibe. This wouldn’t have happened if people listening to music around the world didn’t want it to happen.

I think it’s great for the music scene all over to have the underground being the psych scene. Hip hop artists and pop musicians these days are looking into the psych world for new stuff. You look to the underground for the cool shit that happens. I can’t wait to see what bands come out of this.

OCCG: What inspired you to gravitate to this type of music?
AM: Maybe because the way it sounded, honestly. Getting into psych music, especially in the beginning, I would discover a band and I would discover who they were listening to and it branched out into this big tree, like a central nervous system. That discovery process is always really fun to me. I like actively searching out these new bands and educating myself with their style of music. Music from different countries, different cultures, different time periods, it’s almost like a game to see who can find the coolest, most rare stuff. Things are popping up all over the place. But as much as you try you can’t even catch up, keep up with everything.

OCCG: What have you found recently?
AM: A while back I was getting into music from the South Pacific. Folk music that kind of became psych music in the ‘60’s. I think Light in the Attic Music has discovered these rare musical gems, strange sounding bands, maybe a Vietnamese folk band, Tibetan folk music, or songs from Cambodia in the ‘60’s.

I see the future of psych music being grounded in these folk and rare psych compilations. There are probably record shops in Viet Nam and record companies in Viet Nam that never released anything. That’s going to be where everyone’s looking.

OCCG: What was it like playing a Black Angels set followed by a set as Roky Erickson’s backing band on Halloween 2008 at the El Rey?
AM: You can’t ask for more. It was such an honor to be asked to play with someone like Roky Erickson. When we got the offer we were like wow this is awesome we’re going to play all 13th Floor Elevator songs. But the truth is, Roky hadn’t played a lot of songs in 30 or 40 years so he had a whole other catalogue and he wanted to focus on the whole shebang.

It took several months to learn his new material and kind of Black Angelize it and turn it into something that we felt comfortable playing. We’re not really a band that will do cover songs of other bands and sound like them. But being on stage and really seeing how therapeutic the music was for him and to see how he transformed before and after the show was a real pleasure to see.

OCCG: What did you find interesting or surprising when you worked with Roky?
AM: I found it surprising and really interesting when we would go into the studio and sometimes it would seem like Roky didn’t really want to be there. Sometimes he’d be a little cloudy, or maybe he’d rather just be doing other things. And we’d be playing these songs, teaching these songs, and considering Roky’s age and everything he’d been through he was probably like, ‘why do I need to do this? I’d rather be at home watching cartoons.’

Playing his music, his eyes would become more focused and his mind more clear. After the sessions with him it was really easy to talk to Roky. Music kind of lifted up a veil and we could talk to him about his past and his youth and when the songs were written. Then as we got further and further away from the session musically, the veils slowly went back down and he became slightly extroverted again.

This is where the music therapy comes into play again. When he was playing music, these veils were lifted and he saw the world differently. That was magical to me. To see that, be a part of that and to apply it to what I do outside of working with Roky Erickson and apply it to my own life. That was probably the best gift I could take away from that.

OCCG: Did associating with Roky Erickson influence your songwriting and if so, how?
AM: It taught us patient and it taught us to be less stubborn as a band. It was like we had a member that didn’t see exactly how we saw and wasn’t the same age as us. Incorporating a new person to the group you always learn a lot about yourself, patience being the first thing.

OCCG: The Black Angels song “Always Maybe” sounds like it has a faint jug sound in the background reminiscent of the 13th Floor Elevators. What is it?
AM: It’s a backward vocal we manipulated to sound like a jug. It sounds kind of like a quail (mimics the sound). I think that was just me singing into the microphone to make effects and it ended up sounding like this bubbly thing. We ‘re trying to figure out how the hell to do that live.

OCCG: When did you realize you wanted to do music?
AM: I still try to piece that together myself. I got into music kind of late in life. I took a piano lesson and a guitar lesson when I was 10 or 11 and I just wasn’t good. It just seemed like a lot of work and I’d rather be doing other things. I’d rather be playing outside. I’d rather be running through the woods and doing what boys like to do. So I didn’t ever play music as a passion until my 20’s.

It was probably in college when I realized that the creative part of the music was easy for me. I was able to share melodies over a blank track. This was when you could get instrumentals of songs through Limewire or Napster. I used to get these instrumentals and I would hear another style of a vocal, and I started listening for that, it was almost like an audio hallucination.

I grew up in a nursery, a plant nursery, and my dad collected animals and he had lots of exotic birds. I remember hearing all of those animals and birds and trying to mimic them when I was younger. I think doing that helped me set up this kind of weird musical ear for what I could do and what I could possibly make exist. I think that first onomatopoeic connection had to have been when I was a child, growing up and seeing the world through nature’s eyes and not through the eyes of a piano player or guitar player.

My parents used to always play music at the nursery, too. In walking around the nursery I’d always have this magical, musical experience. I’d walk by a waterfall and I’d hear this music playing, I walk past some exotic African Crowned Crane bird then in the background I’d hear the wind blowing through the trees.

Music was never something that felt like work. It was always something I did because it felt good. If it feels good sometimes you just have to do it again if it’s not harming anybody.

OCCG: If you could be anyone other than yourself, living or deceased, who would it be and why?
AM: I always thought it would be really interesting to be Charles Darwin and see life through his eyes. Look at all the things he discovered and how he saw species and nature. I wonder how the world looked to him. It had to be very fascinating and very clear. In the beginning it was probably just confusing. Again I think he started lifting up these veils and all of a sudden he started seeing how the whole world was connected. I think it would have been fascinating to see the whole world interconnected through this beautiful pattern. I think that would be an interesting person to be in that time period.

 

 

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Keep Swingin’ Jive Alive

August 13, 2013

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, swings into the Coach House on Aug. 24 in celebration of their 20th anniversary.

“We’re out touring this whole year. We’ve been out and about promoting our newest album, “Rattle Them Bones”, which came out last year,” said trumpeter, Glen Marhevka. “We’re out touring, celebrating the 20th year anniversary, doing what we do on the road. In between that we’re actually recording a new album. We’re recording a Christmas album.”

Scotty Morris, guitar/vocals, and Kurt Sodergren, drums formed the nine-piece band in 1993. The rest of the members joined soon after bringing a mix of woodwind instruments, a double bass, and piano to the mix. In the 1990’s they became one of the prominent bands of the swing revival with their combination of jazz, swing and Dixieland music.

The Coach House has been fortunate to have Big Bad Voodoo Daddy perform on a somewhat regular basis.

“It’s just a fun, old concert venue. It’s been there for a long time. Everybody has played there,” Marhevka said. “The reason we’re able to perform there more often is because we’re a Southern California based band so I think it’s a little easier for us to schedule that in around our touring schedule. You’ll see a lot of great artists play there all the time. It’s one of those fun, classic, American music halls.”

Back when Big Bad Voodoo Daddy first started to play live, they were often greeted by stages too small to fit the whole band.

“Up in San Francisco we used to play Club Deluxe which we couldn’t even fit on at all. So half of the band had to stand on the floor,” Marhevka recalled. “We’ve been so tight on stage it’s been difficult but we always make it happen!”

One of their most notorious singles, “You & Me & the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight (Baby)”, was featured in the soundtrack for the film “Swingers”, as well as “I Wan’na Be Like You” and “Go Daddy-O”.

This success led to three albums on Capitol Records, the platinum selling, “Americana Deluxe,” and the follow up albums, “This Beautiful Life,” and “Save My Soul.”

The group is currently recording a Christmas album that will feature both traditional and original Christmas songs with a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Holiday Tour in the works from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

In the meantime, catch them at The Coach House.

“We’ll be doing stuff from all of our albums and quite a bit from our newest album, “Rattle Them Bones,” said Marhevka. “We’ll kind of do an eclectic mix of everything.”

“We’re excited to be down there again. It’s going to be super fun!”

 

 

Southern Culture On The Skids Gives The OC Gigs They Dig

August 5, 2013

Halloween is coming early to The Constellation Room with a visitation from Southern Culture On the Skids on August 16. In celebration of the 30th year anniversary of the band, they re-recorded their album, “Ditch Digging” and are calling it, “Dig This.”

“It’s 13 new recordings of a classic record that we’re going to release Oct. 29,” Rick Miller (guitar/vocals) explained. “It may be available at our merchandise table. We’ll be playing a lot of songs off it like, “The Little Things”, “The Fly That Rode To Buffalo,” and “My House Has Wheels,” It’s going to be fun!”

During the course of their career they have played in Orange County numerous times. However, they have fond memories of playing what they consider was of the best clubs in Southern California.

“It was in Signal Hill called the ‘Foothill Club’. We used to play there all the time and it was awesome. It was an old Country & Western bar and it still had red, embossed, fake velvet wallpaper, big mirrors, and a big, long bar,” Miller said. “I think the previous owner was really old and she lived right behind it and maybe had a little bit of Alzheimer. Her son used to run it for her. It was so funny because she used to wander around at load out and ask for money. She’d say, ‘you got my money? Do you have my money? You owe me money’ and we were like, ‘What?’”

Hailing from Chapel Hill, NC, Miller is joined with Dave Hartman (percussion) and Mary Huff (bass, vocals) to complete the lineup of the group. Miller started the band with his college roommate who both shared an interest in old rockabilly, old rock and roll, and blues.

“It was about the time every band sounded like REM. It was 1983. We got real tired of that, real fast,” Miller recalls. “We just started writing a bunch of songs and we got a little thing together. It made money from day one so when I got out of school it just seemed like we could keep it going.”
“My roommate and I were making a mix tape with some Johnny Burnett Rock n Roll Trio and some bands like that. When the cassette tape ended and the local college FM radio station came back on, it was the very end of a REM song. The DJ says, ‘That was REM, the new sound of the new south.’ I turned to my roommate and said, ‘You know, I think I liked Southern culture when it was on the skids.’ He goes, ‘That’s a good name for a band!’”

It’s been said that the group likes to write about dancing, sex, and fried chicken.
“Yea, the fun things in life!” Miller confirmed.

The latest release, “Zombified” was a Halloween record. The upcoming fall compilation with The Fleshtones and Los Straightjackets, “Mondo Zombie Boogaloo” is also a Halloween record. Miller claims he wasn’t in the mood to write any more Halloween songs but since Los Straightjackets did 5 Halloween songs he realized it would have to be a Halloween compilation.

To get himself in the mood to write another Halloween song, Miller started to read a bunch of ghost stories from Mark Twain to O’Henry and some pulp writers. At the same time, he ran across something about how in real estate, the hardest houses to sell are those where something bad happened.

“I’m reading all these ghost stories where the ghost is always there because something is unresolved. They got murdered or committed suicide or something,” Miller said. “And then I thought, what if you’re a ghost and something bad happened to you in this house and nobody wanted to buy it and there’s nobody to haunt? You just have to sit around and put on all these big shows like your ectoplasmic reveries with nobody there to watch. So I wrote a song called “The Loneliest Ghost In Town.”

“We’ll probably also play some of the Halloween songs. Get your spook on a little bit early!”

 

 

Aussie Roots Grooves The Coach House

August 1, 2013

Experience the World Roots vibes with Aussie care taker spirits coming through at the Coach House when Xavier Rudd performs on August 5.

Often performing as a one-man band surrounded by three didgeridoos, a guitar, a stomp box and an assortment of drums, banjos, harmonicas, bells, and a bass guitar, this time Rudd is bringing someone with him.

“I have a drummer from Australia called Bobby Alu, who is super groovy and unique. I love the way we vibe together,” Rudd said.

Rudd is a self-taught musician who seemed to always know deep down that making music was something he wanted to do.

“I had a connection to the yidaki (digeridoo) since I was little. I used to play it on the vacuum. It’s just in my blood I think,” Rudd said. “I always wrote songs since I was a little fella, even before I knew what I was doing and taught myself to play different instruments all my life.”

He doesn’t have a clear-cut favorite instrument but he likes playing them all. Each instrument is hand made and has a story, making each one special in its own way.

Many of Rudd’s songs have themes such as spirituality, humanity, environmentalism and the rights of the Aboriginal peoples. According to his website, the 2012 album, “Spirit Bird” contains hypnotic ceremonial rhythms that ease effortlessly into tender folk songs. Gritty guitar blues sit perfectly alongside entrancing yidaki passages.

Like many musicians, Rudd also likes to listen to other people’s music. Lately he’s been “listening to latest from Fat Freddy’s Drop, Midnite and your local, amazing Sista Beth Preston.”

There’s new music and a possible debut tour in South America on the horizon. And although Rudd has been coming to the states for over 10 years, he says he’s “just lookin’ forward to groovin’ wit da good folks of the west coast!”

 

 

Ten Years After Cures The Summertime Blues

July 28, 2013

Ten Years After, icons from Woodstock with their ten-minute rendition of “I’m Going Home”, will be part of the Rock ‘n’ Blues Fest coming to the Grove of Anaheim on August 2.

In 1971, the band had a Top 40 hit with “I’d Love To Change The World.” Although lead singer/guitarist and founding member Alvin Lee passed away earlier this year, Joe Gooch has been filling his shoes since 2003 when Lee severed ties with the rest of the group.

Leo Lyons, bass, Chick Churchill, keyboards, and Ric Lee on drums originally started Ten Years After with Lee back in 1967 and remain active members. They released their self-titled debut album that same year.

The band released nine albums together including two of the most popular FM radio albums of the late ‘60’s, early ‘70’s, “Ssssh” and “Cricklewood Green”, featuring classic tracks such as “Good Morning Little School Girl” and “Love Like a Man.”

While Ten Years After plays most of their classic songs live, they also have the albums, “Now” and “Evolution” with Gooch instead of Lee, to round out their live set.

Other rock and blues legends appearing with Ten Years After are the Edgar Winter Band, Canned Heat, Rick Derringer and Pat Travers.

“All the members of Ten Years After are enthusiastic about reuniting with Edgar, Rick and especially Canned Heat again,” Lee said. “Original members Chick Churchill, Leo Lyons and I first performed alongside Canned Heat at the legendary Fillmore Ballroom on our first tour of the United States in 1968 and have remained good friends ever since. We are also excited to tour the U.S. as we pay tribute to band-mate Alvin Lee, while igniting a new wave of youthful excitement and appeasing long-term fans.”

Who said there ain’t no cure for the summertime blues!

 

 

The Heavy Takes Over The Constellation Room

July 25, 2013

The Heavy are going to do their best to tear things down and get everybody involved when they play for the first time in Orange County at The Constellation Room on Aug. 6.

Their runaway hit, “How You Like Me Now”, still seems to be everywhere even though it came out on the 2009 album, “The House That Dirt Built”.

Interest in that song was a sort of turning point for the band and led to the David Letterman performance among other things. Letterman was so impressed with the band’s music and stage presence that he asked the group for an encore, which had never been done before.

“I don’t think any of us had a clue it had never been done before. I think not really being American, and not realizing the full scale of how important the Letterman show is was a bit lost on us the first time we did it,” drummer Chris Ellul explains. “It was all a surprise and it was also a surprise to find out how great a thing that was at the time. It’s probably for the best, really. Otherwise we would have been so nervous that we would have ruined it!”

The Heavy has a unique style of music that is difficult to pin down as it combines funk, rock, blues, and soul.

“Whenever I describe it it always sounds so wrong and so terrible but it does work,” Ellul said.

The band was originally started by Kelvin Swaby, vocals and Dan Taylor, guitar with Spencer Page, bass and Ellul joining later.

“The intention was always to do something old but make it sound new,” explained Ellul. “It was blues and rock and roll and then taking it and treating it like hip hop. Mixing stuff from the ‘50’s, ‘60’s, ‘70’s and bring it up to the now. That’s how it started really.”

They listened to just about anyone – Tom Waits, Muddy Waters, The Sonics – while discovering their own sound.

“The Glorious Dead” is the latest album from the band and features the funky single, “What Makes a Good Man?”.

“New Orleans, big band, voodoo, the vibes from down there” inspired the title, Ellul said. “It just seemed like ‘the Glorious Dead’ made the most sense. Like a lot of things we do, it ties in with the films that inspire us. It felt like a great name for it.”

The album was self-produced with the band doing the entire recording and producing.

“The only thing we went to someone else for was for the more elaborate horn and string arrangements. We went to work with Gabe Roth from the Dap Kings. He contributed some of the lines, some of the horn parts,” Ellul elaborates. “And then because we’ve know Paul Corkett (The Cure, Placebo, The Chameleons producer) for a long, long time it seemed to make sense to work with him. He knows what we do. He just sort of took it, mixed it and presented it. We are all quite involved and Paul is very diplomatic and good assessing where to take it.”

They might approach the next album slightly differently.

“We usually start with a demo and then build it up but a lot of the original elements from that demo will be kept,” Ellul said. “I think we may want to do something a little outside our box. You know, try writing the whole album out of rehearsals and working a tune that way. Hopefully work with a producer from start to finish to sort of get their input on the whole record and the whole process, which we’ve never done before. It’s always been a bedroom thing, or you know, essentially it’s just the four of us.”

There are a lot of shows on the horizon, including festivals over the summer to keep the band busy.

“Then I think it’s time to take a minute, take a couple months off and then start writing again for the next record. It’s how it is. It’s pretty much a never ending cycle,” Ellul laughs. “You write, you record, you finish your record, you promote that record. Then when that cycle is done you write another one, record another one and promote another one and it goes on and on like that until we make it as successful as it can be.”

Swaby’s impressive high-energy performance accompanied with heavy-guitar and a mash up of funk, rock, soul, and r&b music is an experience not to be missed!

 

 

Love The Way The Furs Play

July 12, 2013

The Psychedelic Furs will be performing a mix of their classic 80s songs at the House of Blues on July 12 as part of their current 40 nights US tour.

“We always love playing in Southern California, crowds are energetic and that really makes for a great show! Plus the House of Blues is a fantastic venue in the shadow of Disneyland!” co-founder Tim Butler (bass) said.

Numerous songs such as “Love My Way”, “Heartbreak Beat” and of course, “Pretty In Pink”, have become staples on college and mainstream radio stations over the years.

Which songs will they be playing on tour? “Everything you’d expect and more,” Butler promises. “We’ve reached back and grabbed a few songs we haven’t played at all since the very early 80’s, and we’ve got a couple of new songs too. We’ll cover it all!”

On stage fronting the Psychedelic Furs is charismatic Richard Butler (vocals), Mars Williams (sax) and Paul Garisto (drums) who joined the band during the “Midnight to Midnight” era, Rich Good (guitar) and, Amanda Kramer (keyboards).

OC Concert Guide caught up with Tim Butler to find out how the tour is going and more.

OCCG: How is the tour going? Have there been any surprises or do you have interesting stories to share?
TB: It’s been going really well. It is exciting to get out there and experience summer all throughout America. We’ve been surprised as to how enthusiastically some of the more obscure songs have gone over with the audience. It’s been great.

OCCG: How did the name “Psychedelic Furs” originally come about?
TB: When we first started in England, a lot of the bands had pretty hard aggressive names like Sex Pistols, Clash and Stranglers…so we wanted something that would stand a bit apart. We had admired bands from the “psychedelic” era such as the Velvet Underground and Love, so “Psychedelic” sounded like a good start. So we would be the Psychedelic something and “Furs” was just something we pretty much thought worked well with it. People would see that in a club listing and think, “what’s THAT all about?”

OCCG: Some artists have claimed to be distracted or annoyed by audiences holding up their cell phones to video a song or take a photo during the show and others seem not to mind at all. What are your views on this current trend?
TB: It really doesn’t affect us all that much when we’re playing. It seems like most of the audience is really more into experiencing the show in the present, rather than concerned about taking pictures or videos.

OCCG: What is on the horizon, post-tour for the Psychedelic Furs?
TB: We are believe it or not….working on a new album. We’ve really taken our time on it, there has been no pressure put on us, and that suits us fine. But there will be new music coming.

OCCG: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
TB: We’re excited to be back in Orange County…and we hope to see you all in Anaheim!

 

 

Love and Her Music At The Grove Of Anaheim

July 12, 2013

Courtney Love, singer, songwriter, guitarist and front woman extraordinaire, is performing at the Grove of Anaheim on July 27.

“I have a lot of friends from OC. I went to rehab in OC once. It worked, too, good rehab. Over charged like crazy, though, Laguna. I always thought of the OC as part of L.A. really,” Love reminisced.

Love said the material they will be playing at each show will depend on “whatever strikes me that night.”

“This guy from the Boston paper told me Live Nation was advertising the concert like ‘Courtney Love Sings the Hits.’ I called the poor girl at Live Nation and chewed her head off!” Love chuckled. “I’m like, ‘have you seen what my audience is made of? It’s little girls and gay guys, and a few really smart dudes that aren’t going to see a death metal band that night.’ Sings the hits! I don’t even have quantifiable hits like that!”

“Although I’m really heartened today because I found out Queens of the Stone Age have the number one record in America, which is awesome and it’s on Matador, which if you’d have told me that ten years ago I would have laughed in your face!” Love continued. “If you’d have told me that a month ago I would have laughed in your face. I’m really impressed. It’s amazing. It’s kind of like a Subpop record getting to be number one. It’s crazy. But, I mean, it’ll last for 10 minutes. But it’s still cool.”

Love doesn’t play under her former band name “Hole,” any longer, but she has been performing with the current lineup, Micko Larkin (guitar), Shawn Dailey (bass), and Scott Lipps (drums) for a number of years. “Micko’s been with me as long as Eric’s (Erlandson/former Hole guitarist) been with me. He’s been with me 8 years. He’s an English-Irish lad,” Love mentioned. “And then Shawn’s been with me since ’09 and Scott’s been with me since 2011. Micko’s the one that I’m closest to and we do the most co-writing together.”

During rehearsals for the upcoming summer tour, OC Concert Guide caught up with Ms. Love for a quick chat.

OCCG: As a woman in rock, what significant changes for women have you seen in the music industry from when you first started to now?
CL: Shrinking. There’s not a lot of other women in rock, put it that way. Girls that play rock tend to know each other and there’s just not a lot of us. And it’s true. There’s a lot of duos. There’s a lot of girls that sing. But there’s not a lot of players.

OCCG: Personally, who would you still like to play music with, write a song or perform with?
CL: I don’t know. Probably, PJ Harvey, if she could go back to being a little more rock. I’d love to write a song for Marianne (Faithfull) because she doesn’t really write her own songs. She gets real neurotic about performing her own material. It’s just Marianne. I’d be really honored to write with Leonard Cohen. Nick Cave. I’m trying to think of super-genius younger people. I like the Arctic Monkeys a lot.

OCCG: What inspires you now to make music that is different from when you first started and what hasn’t changed in your music?
CL: What hasn’t changed is I’m still as ambitious as I’ve always been. I’m a little more mellow. You know what hasn’t changed is, I’m still writing about the same old shit. You know – sex, death, love, hate – same old shit everyone writes about. It’s just my take on it – rage, the economy. Nothing’s really changed. I’m just older. I have a guitar player that’s really well suited to me that I wish I’d been playing with the whole time. And a band I really love.

OCCG: Next year marks the 20-year anniversary of the album “Live Through This.” Are you considering anything special, a re-issue, a tour playing the album in its entirety, anything like that?
CL: No. I mean I’m not. Maybe some agent or manager or label will think of something like that.

The thing with this tour is that we have new material and there was supposed to be a new single to accompany it. The reason we’re not playing LA but we’re playing Anaheim, and smaller venues is because I have to wait for the first of the year. My book comes out at Christmas, and the single will come out probably as an album at that point because we’re very fast and we have 8 songs already recorded. But I can’t play the single live because then everyone would hear it already and you can’t just do that. You can’t just give the songs away straight up.

We have about 4 songs that are really, really, really excellent. Four songs that are really good. But the really excellent ones are the ones I want to play and I can’t. I mean I don’t do well unless I’m playing new material. I like to play old songs, too. It’s a little tour. It gets me out of the house. It gets you out of the house. It’ll be really fun. It’ll warm us up.

 

 

The House Of Blues Anaheim Goes ‘Electric’ With The Cult

July 10, 2013

The Cult’s ‘Electric 13” tour makes a stop in Anaheim at the House of Blues on July 26. The group will be performing their classic third album, “Electric” in its entirety, which includes fan favorites “Love Removal Machine” and “Wild Flower”.

The band will also reissue “Electric” along with the original recording of the album initially titled, “Peace” but never released, as part of a double-disc set.

Long time Cult guitarist, Billy Duffy, talked with OC Concert Guide about the upcoming tour and the album, “Electric”.

OCCG: The Cult has previously played in Orange County, California, what do you remember/like about it?
BD: Love the OC. I live in So Cal so how could I not? Always, always great shows down there.

OCCG: How was “Electric” chosen to be the album performed in its entirety?
BD: Seemed to make chronological sense after the success of “Love” in ’09.

OCCG: In addition to “Electric”, what sort of set list can fans look forward to?
BD: We are always very much about new music as well as honoring our heritage. So a fair bit from the last album, “Choice of Weapon.”

OCCG: “Electric” was perceived as a harder rock record at the time. Was this primarily Rick Rubin’s influence, or had the band already started evolving in that direction?
BD: It was both. We had started to move that way but could not capture what we wanted until Rick came along and “reduced” The Cult’s sound (his quote).

OCCG: The album, “Electric”, was initially recorded by Steve Brown, who also did the “Love” record. What was the motivation to release the Steve Brown version now?
BD: I would say a few differing motives depending if you are our old UK label or Ian and myself. The end result is I hope satisfying a demand from the fans for it to be made widely available at last.

OCCG: What was going on at the time that inspired the songwriting both musically and lyrically?
BD: We were touring in North America a lot. Absorbing more and more old and new rock than was around in the post punk UK of the time. That and the rather hedonistic piratical lifestyle that comes with a bunch of 20 something year olds let loose with unlimited booze, drugs, and a tour bus.

OCCG: Is there an interesting or surprising story you can recall and share from any of these recording sessions?
BD: Coming into Electric Ladyland Studios to find all three Beastie Boys jamming on our equipment like little chimps at a mad tea party.

OCCG: It appears there is a lot of touring on the horizon. Is the group also working on new material?
BD: We are always trying to work on new stuff. It’s the lifeblood of The Cult. Sometimes it comes quickly. Sometimes, well, not so quick. But it’s always on our horizon.

OCCG: Who is in the lineup for the tour?
BD: Same band since 2006, Ian (Astbury), me, (John) Tempesta and (Chris) Wyse. Plus an as yet officially, unannounced rhythm guitarist as “Electric” is a total two-guitar attack record.

OCCG: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
BD: Be nice to people. It’s hot out there.

 

New Album Brings Jonny Lang Back To The Coach House

July 8, 2013

Jonny Lang brings his blues, rock, soul, and gospel music to The Coach House on July 24 in support of his first album in 7 years.

“Fight For My Soul” is set for release in September and is the follow-up to the 2006 GRAMMY winning album, Turn Around.”

Lang started playing the guitar at a young age, releasing his debut album, “Smokin’” at fourteen. The following year he signed to A&M records, releasing “Lie to Me” in 1997. His next album, “Wander this World,” was released in 1998 and earned a GRAMMY nomination.

Over a period of three years, Lang collaborated with producer/songwriter Tommy Sims (who co-wrote Eric Clapton’s GRAMMY-winning “Change the World”) crafting the album’s elegant rock ‘n’ soul tracks from the ground up.

Textured arrangements, gorgeous vocal melodies, and expressive guitar playing are all found in generous abundance on “Fight For My Soul.”

“This album is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” offers Lang. “Some of these songs may surprise people, but that’s what it’s all about. It keeps it fresh, and it keeps me growing. Creatively, I think there is a lot more going on inside of me than I’ve been sharing on record so far. Much of what I’ve experienced through music and life in general is in these songs.”

According to Lang’s record label, Concord Records, he is currently in the midst of a full North American tour to be followed by his first extended European tour in over a decade.

Lang also appears regularly as a part of the Experience Hendrix Tour along with many other well-known guitarists to pay tribute the deceased guitar legend.

 

Ted Nugent The Man, The Myth, The Music

July 3, 2013

Outspoken, outlandish, over-the-top, controversial, however one chooses to describe Ted Nugent, he writes some catchy songs and plays a mean guitar. Catch him at the Grove of Anaheim on July 16.

“My killer band of Mick Brown, Greg Smith and Derek St. Holmes is so good
it’s stupid,” Nugent said of his live band. “We are the tightest, highest energy, most intense R&B and R&R band on earth and anybody that doesn’t absolutely love our concerts is weird. We are the last of James Brown’s children.”

His high-octane performances are loud and his stage persona is unique. He is always a clever showman, with his stage often sporting American flags, rifles and an Indian headdress. And of course, a lot of guitars!

The mighty Gibson Byrdland is his favorite guitar to play. It “has a life and voice of its own, feedbacks like an angry, sex starved animal at a minimal volume threshold, and forces me to play a more pummeling, throttling percussive attack just to keep up with its self-driven sonic bombast,” he explains. “This American made guitar is indeed the physics of spirituality personified.”

Ted Nugent has been playing music for five decades and sold over 40 million albums. Needless to say, the urge to create music hit him long ago. “I had a powerful trembling occurring down below at a very early age and knew instinctively that Chuck Berry’s music would be the soundtrack by which I could hope to manage my indefatigable pure animal breeding calling, and cleanse my soul,” Nugent recalls.

For people starting out in bands today, Nugent advises to “stay clean and sober, surround yourself with kind, considerate, conscientious, good, driven people dedicated to a soulful musical dream. Practice till it drives you crazy and never forget that the soulfulness of Chuck Berry, James Brown and the mighty Motown Funk Brothers should constantly drive your creative juices.”

“All the original influences and inspirations from the founding fathers of American R&B are alive and well in my music and all dedicated musicians today. You will feel the soul of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, James Brown, Wilson Picket, Sam and Dave, Booker T, Stax/Volt, Chess records, the mighty Motown Funk Brothers and more in all the best touring bands today.”

When asked if he could be anyone other than himself, living or deceased, Nugent’s uniquely replied, “I would have made the best advance scout and meat procurer for Lewis & Clark the world could ever imagine. God knows Sacajawea would have been better taken care of.”

Crazy, high-energy doesn’t begin to describe a Ted Nugent concert. It’s something that truly needs to be experienced for the full effect. With songs like “Stranglehold” and “Cat Scratch Fever,” it’s difficult not to jump around and shout the choruses out loud.

 

Latin Alternative Rockers Prepare For OC Debut

June 16, 2013

Panda (aka PXNDX), a Latin band that sings in Spanish, will make their Orange County debut at the House of Blues Anaheim June 28.

With six studio albums, one live record, and a MTV Unplugged session, current band members Jose Madero (guitar and vocals), Arturo Arredondo (guitar), Ricky Trevino (bass) and Jorge “Kro” Kross (drums) are well known throughout Latin America.

OCCG: Will this be your first visit to Orange County, California, or have you played here before?
MADERO: We´ve never actually played in OC, but we have done some shows in Hollywood, which I think is pretty nearby. We always have great response from our Californian fans, and we love the area so much.

OCCG: What can fans look forward to at a Panda concert?
MADERO: Our shows are characterized by screaming and jumping fans. Everybody sings all of the lyrics. It’s a pretty long show, with songs ranging from our first albums throughout the last one released last year.

OCCG: I believe there will be a new album released sometime this year. What is the name? How does it differ from the previous album, or does it?
MADERO: Yes, we´ll be releasing a new album later this year. We have the name but we are saving it as a surprise for our fans for some time to come. It is a much heavier album than the last one, but it’s got the same sensibility. I think it’s a much better record.

OCCG: Will you be playing any new songs on the tour?
MADERO: No. We´d rather play songs that the fans know so they can sing to them. Anyway, we haven’t even practiced the new songs yet so it would be kind of difficult!

OCCG: Going back to the beginning of Panda, what were some of your early musical inspiration?
MADERO: Well, we listened a lot to punk rock bands (I still do) like Rancid, Blink 182, Everclear, Weezer, Lagwagon, NOFX, etc. We wanted to play fast and melodious music, and we had lots of fun doing it. Obviously our musical tastes have broadened with our age but we still rock.

OCCG: What inspires your music today?
MADERO: We do what we do only if we like it and only if it makes us have a good time. If there comes a time when playing a show becomes boring, that´ll be the time to quit. Meanwhile, we are enjoying ourselves, and hoping that our fans enjoy our music as well.

OCCG: What is next for Panda in 2013?
MADERO: We just signed to Universal Music, so we will be releasing our 7th album later this year, and we´ll keep playing songs here in the U.S., Mexico and the rest of Latin America. That’s our plan for this year!

Some Mars Volta Members Strike New Chords With New Group

June 6, 2013

Omar Rodríguez-López ’s (The Mars Volta, At the Drive-In) new group, Bosnian Rainbows will appear at the Observatory on June 26. Teri Gender Bender (Le Butcherettes), Nicci Kasper (Kudu, KRS-ONE), and Deantoni Parks (John Cale, The Mars Volta), complete the new band.

Their self-titled debut album will be released June 25 via Sargent House. According to their label, “Rodríguez-López has moved away from the pounding post-rock he was known for with At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta, instead crafting “alternative pop” like the sensual “Torn Maps” and the dreamy “Turtle Neck.”

Bosnian Rainbows have been playing live since August 2012, touring extensively in North America, Europe, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Onstage, the members group themselves together so closely that the backline, once assembled, is literally a single structure.

Rodríguez-López befriended Gender Bender after seeing her duo, Le Butcherettes. While working on arrangements for Le Butcherettes debut album, “Sin Sin Sin,” Rodriguez and Gender Bender discovered an inspiring collaborative spark between them. He eventually joined her on bass in 2012.

Simultaneously, Rodríguez-López began a series of studio projects with Parks and Kasper. Soon after, Rodriguez released “Octopus Kool Aid,” the first of a series of solo albums featuring Gender Bender on vocals.

A tour of Europe in support of “Octopus Kool Aid” was booked in 2012, so Rodríguez-López, Gender Bender, Kasper and Parks convened in a Hamburg studio in order to rehearse. However, the quartet spontaneously created a collaborative songwriting process, which produced immediate, inspiring results. With each of the four contributing equally, the new group quickly developed its own direction and vision, taking on a life of its own.

They decided to call themselves Bosnian Rainbows, and embarked on the tour then set about developing their skills as a live band, refining their new songs and defining their aesthetic.

After the tour they recorded what would be their debut album. The music they recorded is remarkable, haunting and powerful. Bosnian Rainbows is no less adventurous or fearless than the music the four of them have previously released, but perhaps it’s more immediate, more accessible.

 

Gary Hoey Brings His Blues Back To The Coach House

June 6, 2013

World-renowned rock guitarist Gary Hoey brings his take on the Blues to The Coach House on Friday June 28.

“I love coming back to the Coach House every year because it’s a great intimate venue,” Hoey said. “It’s all ages so folks can bring their kids. It’s always a great vibe with the fans and the staff is so nice.“

Hoey has recorded 19 albums with five top-20 Billboard hits. OC Concert Guide caught up with him to find out more about the new blues album and more.

OCCG: What can fans look forward to at your upcoming show? Will you be featuring the latest album?
GH: The Deja Blues Tour will feature songs from the album as well as some older songs the fans want to hear. It’s a Blues/Rock show. We always come out after the show to sign stuff and meet the fans. Sometimes the autograph signing can be as long as the show.

OCCG: Your most recent album “Deja Blues” is as the title expresses, a blues album. What prompted the idea to do an album of original blues songs? Have they been accumulating for a while, or did you just decide to switch it up?
GH: “Deja Blues” is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. I grew up on the Blues and then I shifted to more of a rock sound. This was the time to come back to my roots and do a blues-rock album. I recorded two covers, “Born Under A Bad Sign” and “Going Down” made famous by Jeff Beck. Some of my favorite players and my biggest blues influences are BB King, Freddie King, SRV, Gary Moore, and Albert King, to name a few.

OCCG: What inspires your music today?
CH: Life inspires me just seeing things I want to write about. The song “Hold Your Head High” was inspired by a mother I saw on the news who lost everything and still had a great attitude. “Stranger” is about a man coming home from the military and no one knows him. He’s a stranger in his own town.

OCCG: Who is in the lineup and what do they play?
CH: My drummer Matt Scurfield has been with me for 9 years and 3 albums. He’s amazing. My bass man is Brad Russell from NY City. He is the newest member of the band and he is a monster player and we are happy to have him.

OCCG: I just have to ask about scoring the roller coaster “California Screaming”, which is an awesome rush to have blasting in the speakers next to your head! How did that come about?
CH: I worked on creating the music for Disney’s California Screaming roller coaster. It was a blast! We got to ride it so many times. It was very complicated to make it fit with the ride. We had trigger points all over the track so all the riders would hear the same music at the same time. I was living in So Cal at the time and Disney wanted a guitarist who was known and had a connection to the surf world and the So Cal life style.

OCCG: I read on your website that you have toured and traded licks with a variety of well-known guitarists. What surprised you about one of them?
CH: Well, Brian May from Queen surprised me when he let me play his guitar he and his dad made. At the Tokyo Dome he asked me to show him how to play “Hocus Pocus,” my first hit single.

OCCG: What’s next on the horizon for 2013?
CH: We are planning on lots of live shows. I’m recording a new Ho Ho Hoey Christmas album and also doing some producing with other artists.

OCCG: As a final question, what do you like to do when you’re not playing?
CH: I don’t get much free time these days and when I do I shoot hoops with my son, Ian, or teach him guitar. My daughter, Allison, and I hang out and play piano. I’m also a big fight fan. I grew up on martial arts so I still train and support other fighters. It prepared me for this crazy music business.

OCCG: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
CH: Yes. I want to encourage kids to learn an instrument and to go to garyhoey.com for free guitar tips. Music will enhance your life in so many ways.

 

Spindrift Plays At The Beachcomber For Xemu Records

June 3, 2013

Spindrift performs the psychedelic western, “The Legend of God’s Gun” at Don the Beachcomber’s in a special one-night only reunion on Saturday, July 6. This will also be the last Xemu Records event for several months.

The members from this era of Spindrift, will gather in Huntington Beach, unrehearsed, to perform this legendary piece of music. The various members are coming from different areas to meet up and do this for the fans.

“The original people that made the records, “God’s Gun” and The West” will be there,” explained drummer, Jason “Plucky” Anchondo. “It will be myself, David Koenig, Henry Evans, Kirpatrick Thomas, Bobby Bones, Julie Patterson, Marcos Diableros, and our friend, Spike. The only person missing is Frankie Emerson. He’s out in New Orleans. Oh, and Dan Allaire. Both Frankie and Dan play in Brian Jonestown Massacre. They’re the only ones that aren’t going to be able to do it.”

“We’re just going to get together and see what happens which is pretty much what we used to do,” said Anchondo. “We never used to rehearse anyway. Anyone who ever saw us back then saw it was real powerful and raw. The rehearsal was up on stage and that was about it.”

According to Magpie Music, for several years beginning in 1992, Spindrift front-man Kirpatrick Thomas began to self-release records with an East-coast line-up, before eventually joining the Brian Jonestown Massacre to play guitar on a national tour, re-locating to Los Angeles, and starting a West-coast version of the band.

In 2001, the west-coast version of Spindrift released the iconic Spaghetti Western themed “Legend of God’s Gun”. Followed by a film of the same name many years later.

“The record is way older than the movie,” Anchondo noted. “The record is probably over 12 years old. KP and I went to our friend Rob Campanella’s basement. His recording studio was a 4-track cassette player and that’s how we recorded the record. We recorded it on cassette tape. Over time they made the movie and we went back in and re-did stuff. Kind of weird the record came before the movie.”

Although no longer a member of Spindrift, Anchondo went along as tour manager on their last tour. He has a lot of road stories but this last tour “takes the cake,” as he put it.

Basically, the radiator blew right before we left California. It got fixed by the side of the road by this one guy that ripped them off pretty good. Then the battery completely died when we were in Tucsan. Then the brakes started going out when we were coming down this mountain in Taos, New Mexico.

THEN as I was driving from Taos straight to Austin for SXSW, we were pulling into my friend Bob’s house, who’s the visual guy for the Black Angels right now, right as we pull up to his house at five in the morning, the second radiator blew!

Later on while we were in Charlotte, NC, they set up a last minute show in Nashville. By the time we’re leaving Nashville, the next day, driving 80 miles outside the town, I fill up the gas tank with a hundred bucks and then the transmission drops right at the gas station! So then we have to rent a van just to get to Atlanta to make the show. We did that. We rented a van in Chattanooga, but they wouldn’t let us take it one way, though, so we had to return it. We had to rent a box truck because that was like the only thing they’d let you take.

So basically the band lives in the back of the box truck and this is freezing cold, snowy weather from Atlanta all the way up to New York City. It’s about a week and a half they lived in the back of a van getting stoned and watching movies while I drove. And they have no idea what I was driving through.

That was probably the most messed up tour I’ve been on. But, everything worked out. We got a new van in New York and finished up the rest of the tour. We ended it in Vegas and that was just amazing. But out of all the tours I’ve been on in my life, that was the worst tour, it’s number one on the list.

Fortunately the upcoming show is one night only so there shouldn’t be any nightmares. Although Anchondo did warn, “I’m telling everyone in advance ‘I’m sorry if I throw beer on you.’ It might happen.”

Xemu Records Hosts OC Psych Rock Soiree

May 30, 2013

Xemu Records announces their second Tiki party at the legendary Don The Beachcomber in Huntington Beach on Sat., June 8.

Now for a second and special time, Xemu Records along with their bands, Dead Meadow and Strangers Family Band with special guests The Abigails and Old Testament, will be filling the old thatched walls with the volcanic shaky sounds of modern Psych rock.

Don The Beachcomber, originally named Sam’s Seafood, has been an OC beachfront staple since the 1920′s that was known as a good guys hangout and a favorite of John Wayne. The Prohibition period speakeasy bar in the basement still exists with a tunnel that leads to the ocean for smuggling.

Revamped in the early 1960′s as a Tiki bar and restaurant, the back portion has been a perfect alternative for live concerts. In the 60′s even revered LA band ‘Love’ did time playing the back stage, as remembered by many locals.

Dead Meadow owned label Xemu Records have never been ones to shy from the support of all things tiki. In their 2010 film “Three Kings”, the band has an extensive tiki sacrifice scene. Now as the band ramps up to the fall release of their new album “Warble Womb” and reissuing of their classic albums from the late 90s this is a party to celebrate.

Supporting the bill is Strangers Family Band, newcomers to the Xemu flock and to the Los Angeles scene. They bring their own flare to the party where Syd Barrett stylings meet Mothers of Invention explosions. When they throw in a good bit of well-oiled pop, the groove is infectious.

OC Concert Guide caught up with bass player, Scott Seltzer of Strangers Family Band to find out more about their beginnings and they’re upcoming self-titled debut release.

OCCG: Strangers Family Band has recently finished recording an album, when is it coming out?
SS: It’s almost been a year since recording it and we finished mixing it a couple months ago. Steve Kille from Dead Meadow recorded it and he’s putting it out on his label, Xemu Records June 11. So our album release show is Saturday at Don the Beachcombers.

OCCG: How did you meet Steve from Dead Meadow?
SS: We played with them a long time ago in Florida. But we really met when we first moved here during a show downtown at the Redwood Bar. We’ve been friends for a while and he wanted to record the record. And then when we were in the recording process he decided that he wanted to put it out on his label. So he recorded and produced it and put it out. That’s cool!

Tell me about something interesting or unusual that happened while recording.
I guess Steve producing it. We sort of had a rough idea of what we wanted to do but the album started coming together in the studio. We had general outlines for songs, then he was producing it and guiding it along the way. We took mushrooms in the studio and it really came together after we did that. It was sort of a turning point.

OCCG: How long has the band been together and who is in the band?
SS: I’m the bassist, my brother Ric Seltzer is the singer and guitar player, and Juan Londono is the drummer. That’s the main group right now. We moved to California about three years ago.

We sort of have a constantly changing group. Like right now we’re playing with a horn player and a keyboard player. Sometimes we play with two keyboard players. It’s always changing but those are the three core members of the group.

OCCG: What do you like about playing live?
SS: That’s what keeps you going as a musician. The pinnacle of playing is playing a good live show. Live shows in L.A. and San Francisco are some of the best places to play. I think that’s what really drew us out to the west coast. There are a lot of people doing cool stuff live and a lot of good bands to play with that it makes for really good live shows on the west coast more so than the east coast. Like especially in Florida where we’re from. This fall we’re going over seas with Dead Meadow, which will be exciting.

OCCG: How would you describe Strangers Family Band to someone who isn’t familiar with your music?
SS: It’s a blend of psychedelia with new sounds. We like to use synthesizers and vintage organs and a lot of vintage gear. It’s sort of a 60s psychedelic sound with a little bit of a modern twist on it.

OCCG: What other bands do you listen to besides your own and what is the last “record” that you bought?
SS: I really like Dead Meadow and I also like this South American band, “Modular” a lot. Those are probably my two favorite new bands. As far as old stuff, “Soft Machine” and 70s jazz, Sun Ra, early Pink Floyd. Those are probably my favorites. Sixties British stuff like Kaleidoscope and The Hollies.

OCCG: What’s next on the horizon?
SS: Six weeks in Europe, we’re going to be doing West Coast tour dates and we’re also planning a trip down to South America as well, probably early winter.

OCCG: As a final question, what do you like to do when you’re not playing?
SS: I like animals a lot. I like dogs. The band as a whole is into music gear. We like collecting, buying, selling, and things like that. Also record collecting.

Luckily this is only the beginning of the Dead Meadow / Strangers Family Band double bill as an upcoming tour is in the works before the end of the year. Catch it first here in classic SOCAL style. Have a mai tai and hopefully there won’t be any young virgins to sacrifice.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Revs Up To Show The OC Some New Tunes

May 27, 2013

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (aka BRMC) is en route to play the Observatory on June 2, after more than a month on the road. They’ve been playing their darker, psychedelic rock and roll in a lot of places they haven’t toured for awhile. In fact, people have been coming out of the woodwork, showing their friendly faces.

“We’re playing a pretty decent amount of the new record. Usually we don’t play as much off of the new one as we have been,” Robert Been said. “We’re coming to the realization that we can’t play as much off every record because we have too many albums now. Which is a good problem to have but a problem none the less.”

What’s new and different about the live show? “We have an incredibly blinding light show. People tend to leave half blind afterwards,” Been joked. “Enjoy that. The deaf part is expected, but the blind part is a whole new thing,”

The title of the band’s recently released sixth studio album, “Specter At The Feast”, was inspired by a chapter in ‘Macbeth’, among other things. “The word ‘specter’ was always intriguing to me, an apparition, a spirit of another place. I always liked the word,” Been explained.

“I went to see this play called ‘Sleep No More’ in New York which was really inspiring. It was a take on ‘Macbeth’, a different way of telling the story. ‘Sleep No More’ was a chapter from ‘Macbeth’ and then I found ‘Specter At The Feast’ was a chapter as well,” Been continued.

“Then I was listening to Joy Division’s, ‘Shadowplay’, and I found out ‘Shadowplay’ was a chapter in ‘Macbeth’, too. All roads kept leading back there. It felt right.”

BRMC produce all their own records, “But we’ve had the good fortune of working with very talented engineers and mixers that have been very influential to our process,” Been said. “Michael Patterson helped us engineer and mix our first album and then we worked with him again on this one.”

“Hopefully you find people to work with that you don’t need to talk to that much. It’s kind of the key because as a musician it’s not your strong point – talking. So finding people that can kind of relate to the music in their own way, a respectful way, that’s the trick to it all. And Michael’s great at knowing where we want to go before we have a chance to mess up saying it.”

Been (vocals, bass, guitar, piano) and Peter Hayes (vocals, guitar, bass, synthesizer) have known each other for quite a long time having started BRMC in 1998. “When we first started playing it was lofty dreams of trying to become something, hopefully. We had a long way to go and we just took it easy writing and developing songs. Which is most of it.”

Been elaborates, “People that work on developing their attitude, or their outfit, or their philosophy kind of waste a lot of good time when you could be working on the songs. It’s the music that really points the way. We just wrote songs forever. We didn’t want to put out something we weren’t completely confident in. It took us a while. We weren’t sure what it was going to become. We’re still not sure what it’s going to become. We’re still working, still writing, making sense of it all.”

“It’s different having two writers, two lead singers. If you can pull it off it’s the greatest thing in the world. A lot of my songs get cut off the album and a lot of his get cut off the album. You only have room for your best six songs versus if one of us were making the whole record we’d have to put in the other six songs that were a little halfway there. It’s a good thing to collaborate with people. It’s a healthy insanity.”

Leah Shapiro (drums) used to play in a band called “Dead Combo” that toured with BRMC during the “Baby 81” album. “She was drumming with this other band and we had them open up for us on a tour. So we got to watch her play every night before we went on,” Been recalls. “There’s a power that hits you right from the first second she started playing. We kept in touch and she was really the only person we thought could ever maybe fill the shoes of our old drummer. When that day came she was the only person we called to take over.”

In this digital age, it seems like a good time to be playing music. However, Been cautions, “You got to do it because you have no other choice. It can’t be something that’s just a fun thing to hit on girls with and say you’re in a band. Or, to hang out with cool kids because of drugs or something. It’s got to be from the heart and not money because there’s really no money in it. Unless you’re a boy band or something!”

“There’s a band that toured with us just now called “Bass Drum of Death” and I really fell in love with their music,” Been said. “Just ‘throw and go’ rock and roll, the way it should be done. No bullshit. Maybe one of the best bands around.”

BRMC are headed back over to Europe to do a bunch of summer festivals then possibly Japan, Australia, and South America.

“A lot of people have been asking where we’ve been so we’re going to try and answer them the best way we know how. Kind of connecting with people through music. There’s not a better way to relate to people that I’ve found, yet.”

“It’s been crazy going around seeing fans that we’ve known for over 10 years that are still showing up and following us around to different gigs. Some people are at five or ten shows in a row! It’s great. We have this little travelling family out here. We never thought we’d be one of those bands. It’s a good thing.”

When all of the current touring is said and done, sleep will be the first thing on the agenda. But not for long. “We usually take a couple of road trips ironically. It’s good to slow down the momentum. It’s like bodies in motion stay in motion so you try to get out of town because it’s a little too intense to be still and at home the second you get off the caravan,” Been said.

They like to “go out to the desert, kind of clear the mind, tamper with some psychedelic drugs to try to remember who you think you are. Then ease back in to home and family. Catch up on some movies, old books, pretty simple. Then go back to playing music again.”

“It’s the best,” Been confirmed.

Mighty Death Pop Tour Brings ICP Back To The OC

May 24, 2013

Insane Clown Posse is in the midst of their national “Mighty Death Pop” tour, which makes a stop at City National Grove of Anaheim on Tuesday, May 28.

The face painted duo, Violent J (aka Joseph Bruce) and Shaggy 2 Dope (aka Joey Utsler), offer a hardcore, hip-hop style that has made a surprisingly huge impact on mainstream music, receiving several Gold and Platinum albums.

“The Mighty Death Pop!” is their most recent album and debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200. The album has received much critical acclaim, with many critics complimenting the duo on addressing issues such as the existence of God and social problems such as bullying and domestic violence.

It is also part of the ongoing Dark Carnival mythology that Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope have shared with the world, through their lyrics, which range from the philosophic to the humorous, and through their over-the-top live performances.

In 1992, Insane Clown Posse released the first in what would become six full-length albums about the Dark Carnival mythology known as the first deck of Joker’s Cards.

While touring on “Ringmaster,” the second in the series, one of the Clowns’ most infamous concert traditions began: Dousing the crowd with hundreds of gallons of Faygo soda.

Since the group regularly referred to Faygo in their songs, they felt it only made sense to have some on stage with them when they performed. During one now-notorious show, Violent J sent a two-liter bottle into the crowd. Soon the entire venue erupted in a Faygo throwing frenzy, and today this continues to occur at every ICP concert.

In 2009, the second deck of six Joker’s Cards albums began with “Bang! Pow! Boom!” The album featured the song “Miracles,” which went viral on You Tube with more than 12 million views.

Today Insane Clown Posse are considered true underground icons with millions of fans, known as ‘Juggalos’ which have become one of the most studied and talked-about musical subcultures of all time.

 

Country Sounds Of Junior Brown Resonates The Coach House

May 10, 2013

Now that winter is coming to a close, Junior Brown is on the road and will be playing at The Coach House on June 14.

“This is the time of year we really enjoy touring. The winter time everything sort of closes up so we don’t tour as much,” Junior Brown stated.

Brown doesn’t only play traditional country music. In fact, he plays a blend of many different styles of country along with honky-tonk, swing, blues, Tex-Mex and even a bit of surf-rock!

His latest ep “Volume 10” came out October 2012 and is the first new material in quite some time.

“I look for inspiration in a lot of different places.” Brown explained, “One of my more recent songs has been taken from the lingo that I hear these young people saying on the internet like, “lol, laugh out loud”, you know, all that stuff. “brb, be right back” and “bff, best friends forever”. So I put all that into a love song that I’ve written called “24/7”. Using the new lingo to express an old sentiment.”

Also part of the group is his wife Tanya Brown on rhythm guitar and vocals. “Of course we’ve got the bass and drums, too,” Brown said. “It’s a small little group but we get a lot of music out of them!”

“We’re really excited about the new record. We didn’t have any kind of promotion or anything with it and it’s taken off on its own,” Brown said. “It’s just been phenomenal the amount of crowds and sold out shows. So we’re thinking it must be the album that did it because we can’t explain it any other way! You know these days with the internet, word of mouth is so much more important than it ever was.”

Brown is also well known for his unique double necked “Guit-Steel” as well as his unique approach to singing, playing and songwriting.

Rather than constantly switching between both the steel guitar and traditional 6-string guitar, he combined them into one. Now he can easily switch mid-song between the two while singing. He’s a one of a kind performer not to be missed!

Growing up listening to music of the 50s and 60s, “that sort of formulated what I do now, my style, the music of the 60s, early70s,” Brown said. “I write most of my own music so I’ve recorded mostly things that I’ve written. I’m always looking for new ideas to keep things fresh. I do what worked in the past but make it new and fresh.”

Brown has more new songs that he’s planning to put out in the next six months, or so. “These days I’ve been recording in Austin with the same fellow I started out with on my first album. I’m using a lot of the same musicians that I used on my first records, too. I suppose when you find something that works there’s no reason to moving on too far. Keep the old, familiar people and they’ll grow with you.”

“Of course, you know in Austin there’s a lot of musicians that know me and I’m on a good relationship with all of them. We come down and just kind of make a party out of it when we record,” concludes Brown.

The Detroit Cobras Swoon The Constellation Room

May 10, 2013

Sexy bad girls Rachel Nagy (vocals) and Mary Ramirez (guitar) bring the rest of The Detroit Cobras to the Constellation Room (inside the Observatory) on Sunday, May 26.

The Detroit Cobra’s brand of traditional, retro garage rock is always a party and one not to be missed. Reminiscent of early 60s female soul with a splash of punk, they cover obscure classics by Irma Thomas, The 5 Royales, Betty Lavett and Wanda Jackson to name a few. “Hot Dog (Watch Me Eat)” is their sole original song and appeared on the 2005 album, “Baby.”

Nagy’s smooth, seductive voice has been belting out other people’s songs since the late nineties. The band prefers to pay homage to lesser-known numbers than the familiar, making it difficult to imagine that they aren’t all originals.

“Picture yourself in a smoky speakeasy, with the Detroit Cobras just cranking out this sweet sassy mixture of R & B and Rock. Rachel, the blonde bombshell vocalist, just soulfully wailing out like a siren, calling the sailors in to crumble at her feet. What a blissful way to go… “I could die a million times over and over!” exclaims Chris Andrews, Promoter, Rims On The River Hot Rod Show.

Their first full-length album, “Mink Rat or Rabbit,” was released in 1998 followed by “Life, Love and Leaving,” three years later. The group has released five albums all together on Rough Trade or Sympathy For The Record Industry, while recently joining the roster of Chicago based, Bloodshot Records.

Bloodshot Records refers to Nagy and Ramirez as “the bad girls by the exit doors at the school dance, all leather and heels, sneaking smokes and passing the flask. They have no time for dewy-eyed love songs or girl group decorum; they’ll take care of business themselves with a bat of the eye or an elbow to the kidney.”

Alternating between slow-burning soul and R & B to ass-shaking anthems, the Cobras are THE go-to party band for those in the know. They sing about “good times, wild times, and the highs and lows of L-U-V” according to their record label.

Be in the know.

Classic 50s Rockin’ R&B Rolls Out At Blues Fest

May 5, 2013

JD McPherson’s modern take on retro American 50s rock, r&b and rockabilly will be tearing up the Doheny Blues Festival on May 18.

“I have some great musicians in the band so it’s a good time, it’s a party,” McPherson said of his live show.

Joining McPherson (vocals/guitar) will be Jimmy Sutton (upright bass), Jason Smay of Los Straitjackets on drums, Ray Jacildo of The English Beat on keys, and playing saxophone, second guitar and “a bunch of other stuff” will be Doug Corcoran.

JD McPherson’s debut album, “Signs and Signifiers,” was released in 2012 on Rounder Records. The title came about as a “tongue-in-cheek, overly analytical response to a fairly straight forward idea,” McPherson explains.

“Signs and signifiers allude to the concept of semiotics which is sort of like a pseudo mathematical way of explaining cohesion of metaphors and themes. It’s used a lot in art and literature as a way of explaining symbolism.”

“Signifiers also rhymes with ‘liars,’ which is a line in the song,” he laughed.

The band is working diligently on a new album while balancing a very demanding tour schedule. “It’s kind of going slowly,” McPherson said. “We’re in the writing/demo phase. I would love to see an album out in the world by next spring.”

When asked how he would describe his music to the uninitiated, McPherson put it this way, “We’re very into American roots music. I told somebody recently, and I don’t know if it’s clever or stupid as there’s a fine line between clever and stupid, but anyway, somebody asked me four words to describe it and I said ‘Bo Diddley meets the Buzzcocks’.”

Early American rock and roll, especially the beginning of the era, as well as art school rock and punk rock “are constantly informing what we do and how we present it.” McPherson continues, “I think most people’s initial reaction is that we’re a 50s rock and roll band. That’s certainly really close to hitting the nail on the head.”

“There are so many great rhythms and ideas that happened in a short window of time when rock and roll was starting to come about, rhythm and blues, and all these things,” he elaborates. “The avenue between New Orleans and Chicago started to open up. There are so many cool rhythms that happened in a really short period of time. There’s so many sort of cool things that got left (behind) and we’re obsessed with that stuff!”

“At one time in art and music there was this big push to find the next movement, especially in art. That stuff is really regimented and laid out. Then all of a sudden everybody realized now we have all these things open and everybody is free to do whatever (they want). I think it’s the coolest time to be around because you have all this history to look at and explore those things.”

The lyrical process of the music comes “out of what’s happening at the time. A lot of the material for the first record was material that I wrote for a specific kind of audience. The new material that’s coming out is pretty esoteric in subject matter. So we’ll see what happens.”

Outside musical interests are as varied as the music McPherson writes. “I’ve been stuck on this Irma Thomas kick for a long time. Especially the stuff she did with Alain Toussaint in New Orleans in the late 50s, early 60s. She’s a beautiful singer, amazing production, very forward thinking kind of stuff,” he says.

“There’s a punk rock band out of Tulsa called Broncho that I’m in love with. Their first record is incredible called, “Can’t Get Past Lips. There’s a band called Bleeding Rainbow that I really like. And I’m listening to a lot of Chan Romero, Bo Diddley and stuff. I’m getting a lot into these 50s Chicano rock and roll bands that were happening. There are all kinds of stuff. It changes though.”

2013 looks to be full of hard work and more touring. “It’s really cool to get the chance to collaborate with some other artists and to do some songwriting with other folks. I’m also looking forward to taking a much needed vacation at some point. Maybe sleep for seven hours at a time. A sleepcation!” McPherson joked.

When not touring or traveling, McPherson is a real homebody. He likes to crawl into the cave and dwell there for awhile. “The repository for lost hobbies at my house is vast and uncatalogued. My garage is where hobbies go to die. I mean I get obsessed with something then it makes a little pile somewhere. I have everything from magic books to long bow archery to leather crafts.”

But, for the moment, McPherson is on the road heading to California. “We’ve been playing so many gigs in cold weather I can’t wait to get out there. We played a snowy gig in Minneapolis and we did a winter tour in England. We’re ready for some warm dry weather!”

 

James Hunter Six Heats Up Blues Fest

May 5, 2013

Hot on the heels of his recent release, “Minute By Minute,” on GO Records, James Hunter Six is bringing their unique soulful blues to the Doheny Blues Festival on May 18.

Some fans may be wondering why the name changed from James Hunter to James Hunter Six. According to Hunter’s bio, it’s a nod to his longtime cohorts Lee Badau (baritone saxophone), Damian Hand (tenor saxophone), Jonathan Lee (drums), Jason Wilson (double bass), and Kyle Koehler and Andrew Kingslow sharing keyboard/piano duties who have been together for more than twenty years.

In the early 90s, Van Morrison caught one of Hunter’s gigs in Wales and proceeded to hire him as a backup singer for several years of touring and recording. Morrison also appeared on Hunter’s first solo album, “Believe What I Say.” Hunter’s 2006 breakthrough album, “People Gonna Talk,” was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.

OCCG: Have you previously played in Orange County, CA and if so, what do you remember/like about it?
JHS: I can’t remember anything about it but we had a great time! I think it was in 2006 when I was playing with the American line-up I had at the time. The audience was pretty wild.

OCCG: Who is in the lineup for the tour?
JHS: It will be the same as on the album but Dave Mason will be playing drums while Jonathan Lee is in Europe, suffering from a more lucrative tour.

OCCG: How would you describe James Hunter Six to someone who isn’t familiar with your music?
JHS: It’s soul music. Noisy and sort of funky (in that order) and very nice if you like that sort of thing.

OCCG: What inspires the music that you write today?
JHS: I just try to write about boring things in an interesting way. Admittedly, torrid love affairs aren’t boring if you’re having them yourself but other people’s are.

OCCG: Your current album, “Minute By Minute” was produced by Daptone Records’ Gabriel Roth. Do you have an interesting recording story that you can share from these sessions?
JHS: Gabe was very good to work with. He contributed quite a lot more to the arrangements than we’re used to and it was a great help. Actually I argued with every idea he came up with and ended up agreeing with all of them but one.

The studio was an interesting place. A big room in a state of disrepair that someone had been using as their apartment. Gabe was supposed to spend the week before we came testing the acoustics but instead he had to repair the roof and fumigate it from cat urine. When he asked the tenant beforehand if there was anything that could be done about the cat, the tenant had it put down, which was not only an upsettingly extreme measure but an ineffective one.

We were going to have a disclaimer in the sleeve notes saying: “Only one animal was harmed in the making of this record.”

OCCG: What have you listened to recently and what is the last record you bought?
JHS: In the interests of economy, I’ll give one answer to cover these two questions. I bought a compilation of early stuff by Allen Toussaint. He was funky before there was a word for it.

Power House Rock Returns To South OC

May 1, 2013

Just like the swallows annual return to Capistrano, Y&T are headed to The Coach House on May 11, playing their two-hour plus set for their loyal fans. “Y & T fans expect nothing but high energy and lots of tunes and we’re gonna give it to them again,” claims original member, Dave Meniketti (lead guitar/vocals).

The Coach House is an intimate venue that translates well for a Y & T concert. “I like the feeling of being up close to the fans, it’s very intimate, it’s like playing in someone’s extended front room,” says Meniketti.

“We’ll be playing quite a few songs from the Mean Streak record that was released 30 years ago,” Meniketti explains. “We’re giving that a bit of an homage because of the fact that we are having an anniversary year for that release.”

The group is working on something new right now that could be available in 2014. However, “I can’t really say more about it at this point as it’s a bit of a secret,” Meniketti mysteriously remarks.

“We are doing digital but we do have an analog console and also an analog machine with 2” that we use on occasion,” Meniketti continues. “But a lot of times we just go straight into digital and use tube gear to get the textures of the sounds that we miss from analog tape.”

John Nymann (rhythm guitar), Mike Vanderhule (drums), and Brad Lang (bass) complete the current lineup. “The band is just absolutely on fire,” says Meniketti. “We don’t need to put our moves together and choreograph how much we’re in to playing. We just hit the stage and it all happens naturally!”

Next year will be the 40th year anniversary of the band and they’re already gearing up for it. “It’s gonna be a huge year for us,” states Meniketti. “I believe we’re starting out in Japan in January and then we’re gonna start kicking butt through the year.”

“We love to play and I think that shows. That’s why a Y&T concert is always special. At least that’s what I hear from the fans.”

Queensryche Featuring The Original Front Man

April 16, 2013

The band also features bassist Rudy Sarzo (Ozzy / Dio / Whitesnake / Quiet Riot), guitarist Kelly Gray (Queensryche 1998 – 2001), keyboardist Randy Gane, guitarist Robert Sarzo (Hurricane) and drummer Simon Wright (AC/DC /Dio / Rhino Bucket).

The live set will also include well-known hits and rarities and a couple of new songs from the forthcoming album titled, “Frequency Unknown” also fondly referred to as “F.U.”, which was recorded with the same lineup.

OCCG: Geoff, you’ve played The Coach House as a solo artist, what do you like about the venue?
GT: It’s a historical venue; it’s been there a long time. The people who work there are music fans and the people who run it appreciate music.

OCCG: How do you think Queensryche fans will be able to keep up with 2 completely different lineups touring as Queensryche and both releasing albums under the same name?
GT: I don’t know. I don’t even presume to be able to answer that. I suppose it will just require a little bit of research on the internet to see which version is playing where and which album is being released when. These days people are pretty educated when it comes to the internet they know how to use it and find out information so it shouldn’t be too difficult.

OCCG: Since there is an Operation: Mindcrime2 release, what is the possibility of a Rage for Order 2 or Promised Land2?
GT: They’re not really meant for sequels. Operation was an unfinished story.

OCCG: I’d like to ask you about working with Dave Ogilvie, who is best-known for working with industrial music. What was the working relationship like and what input did he have to the sound of Rage? (What do you recall from those sessions?)
GT: He turned me on to bands of that ilk, like Skinny Puppy, Edward Ka Spell, people like that were real interesting to me. In fact Skinny Puppy was recording in the studio next to us and we became friends with them. We checked them out and hung out with them quite a bit. Dave’s contributions to Rage weren’t monumental in the sense that he was primarily a second engineer on that project. But he was great to hang out with and he always had a really good positive kind of outlook whenever he came to the studio. Every day he was one of those kinds of people that are easy to hang around because he’s enthusiastic about everything. I really liked working with him.

OCCG: I have found that some musicians are also music fans and some only listen to their own music. Are you also a music fan, and if so, what have you listened to recently?
GT: You know I’ve been a music fan all my life. I think I own between 2000 and 3000 records. Just everything from Classical music to Jazz, rock, hip hop, country western, I have it all. I was trained as a musician as a youngster, grew up in band class, played in the school orchestra and band. So I started my music appreciation very young. I listen to everything. As a writer, you’re always listening to what other people do and looking for inspiration of other artists and other types of music and working those inspirations into your own music. I’ve always had an ear for it. I just listen to everything.

OCCG: Is there anything else you’d like add?
GT: I’m very excited about coming out on tour and playing with my new band, guys that I’ve known for years. We’ve always wanted to play together on the same stage. I know Rudy and Robert are very excited because they’ve never played in a band together all these years and they’re brothers. I think all of our excitement as a band is going to be very evident to the audience. I think it’s going to be something very special.

Masters of Abominationz Mix For Their OC Juggalos

April 10, 2013

Twiztid is bringing the second leg of their Abominationz Tour to The Observatory on April 13. The Detroit natives and their unique combination of hip hop and theatrical stage show are not for the faint of heart. Much mayhem is expected!

The OC Concert Guide had a few questions for the masterminds behind the horrorcore duo and here’s what they had to say.

OCCG: What does Twiztid like about playing in Orange County?
Madrox: It’s all luv, and the Fam that comes out to the shows in Orange County always rock the dead with us.
Monoxide: Obvious reason is weather weed and the women but the reasons go a little deeper than even those! Orange County makes us feel like family. They understand what we are all about and like it or not they respect it. I can appreciate that.

OCCG : What can fans look forward to at a Twiztid concert in 2013?
Madrox : We are really coming into our own as performers and I feel that our live performances are just getting better and better from our level of charisma to lyrical delivery.
Monoxide: Again, aside from the obvious answers of awesomeness, pandemonium, and absolute insanity, there is a deeper under lying celebration of individuality! It’s the one place on earth I can guarantee, being yourself is what’s accepted! It’s the place you can let loose and no one cares or judges.

OCCG: How did the fascination with terror and pushing the limits lyrically first begin?
Madrox : We have always done dark rooted music, it’s what we enjoy and our listeners seem to agree with us. We like to be able to transfer the same feelings that a horror or suspense movie can, except we do it through music rather than film.
Monoxide: We knew right from the beginning we wanted to be different than what was out there but not to the point where it had no substance. We came from the hood so gangster rap was the easy path. Not just being from the hood but being in the streets. We were what you worried about in the city. That lead us to thinking of a common bond between us and that was horror! I also believe that when you have a gimmick of any kind, you have to push your talent that much further. Gimmicks usually hinder people but not ours because it’s from a genuine place in both of us. Do we kill people? No, but would we? You’re god damn right!

OCCG: What inspired some of the songs on the latest album?
Madrox : With every record we try to raise the bar one notch higher than before and that was really the inspiration for me, more or less bringing our A game so to speak.
Monoxide: We are and always have been inspired by hatred. There’s a few artists that I listen to that would get me hyped up to go write some shit but for the most part it’s a fire lit inside that is fueled by hatred.

OCCG: After the split with Psychopathic, what is the possibility of Twiztid continuing to participate at the Gathering of the Juggalos and related shows?
Madrox: The possibilities are endless. ICP are our brothers man so if we can all get together and make it happen we will.
Monoxide: Endless!

OCCG: I read that Monoxide was working on a solo album, what is the current status of its release?
Monoxide: It’s in the pipeline. I feel like I’m on fire right now! I feel like I can fuck with anybody in the booth so I’m just trying to keep it going. I think where Twiztid is as mc’s both in the booth and on the stage there’s maybe a couple other folks thats fuckin with us and what we do. We destroy your heroes and love doing it! The underground would destroy the mainstream in a rap battle right now and I’m down to lead the charge!!!

OCCG: What do you like to do when you’re not writing / performing or playing music?
Madrox: Drawing, collecting comics and toys… yeah I’m ya basic nerdy hahahahahaha
Monoxide: I can’t tell you because it’s illegal.

OCCG: Besides your own music, what are you currently listening to?
Madrox : “Heroin Diaries” by Six AM, “Seven and the Ragged Tiger” by Duran Duran, “Sonic Boom” by Kiss, “The Connection” by Papa Roach, “Teflon Don” by Rick Ross, and “Holding Onto Strings Better Left to Fray” by Seether, Those are on my current play list.
Monoxide: I’m bumblin some Tech 9, some Krizz Kaliko. Lot of Pusha T. Get down with Slaughterhouse Danny Brown and some Kendrick Lamar. All in rotation like a tour bus blunt session!

OCCG: What were your musical influences growing up, what did you listen to?
Madrox : Kiss! My Mom and Dad, bought me a Kiss record player when I was little and from then on I collected all their records and played them till the grooves were played off.

OCCG: Is there anything you’d like to add regarding the upcoming 2013 tour?
Monoxide: Twiztid is on a mission!

Dramarama Does ‘Anything, Anything’ To Rock The House Of Blues

April 10, 2013

Alternative rock group, Dramarama may have formed in New Jersey, but they call Southern California home and Orange County their base of operations. They will be playing with Berlin at the House of Blues in Anaheim on April 13.

Since this is a co-headlining show, Dramarama won’t be able to do their “Grateful Dead four hour marathon jam” according to vocalist John Easdale. “Unfortunately we’ll have to wait until we have a show all by ourselves.”

They still promise to do an entertaining mix of old and new.

Dramarama have been recording a much anticipated new album for the last couple of years. It will be ready to go after some final mastering and artwork touches. “We’re hoping to get it out before the end of the year but we were hoping that last year, too,” Easdale said.

With the internet, many artists self-release their material. “There’s always that option, “said Easdale,
“We’ve been doing it ourselves since our first 45 in 1982.”

“There are a thousand bands selling a million records and a million bands selling a thousand records,” he added.

The mid-80s radio hit “Anything, Anything” seems to have defied time becoming a “classic rock” song in its own right. “It is truly gratifying and rewarding. I wish that every song I wrote had that kind of impact and that people accepted it in the same way,” Easdale said. “My purpose with every song is what happened with that song.”

Three of the original Dramarama members Peter Wood, Mark Englert, and John Easdale continue to be in the band. The other two members bassist, Mike Davis, and drummer Tony Snow, have been part of the group for over fifteen years.

As a final thought, Easdale mentioned, “We hope that the people from the audience have as much fun as we do!”