Tag Archives: CD release party

Experience the “Dark Side of Americana” at Banjo Bones’ CD Release Party for His New Album, Cowboy Dreams, at Blue Lamp • May 11, 2017

Fans of roots music and songs that feature honest, vibrant storytelling are going to find a lot to like in the music of JL Espada (aka Banjo Bones). A perfect example of this can be found in a song on his upcoming third album Cowboy Dreams entitled “The Rodeo Clown,” a video for which can be viewed on Banjo Bones’ Facebook page. The song is a sinewy and gritty dirge in tribute to Sam Royster, a real life rodeo clown. “He has the kind of wisdom that is only acquired with time,” he writes of Royster on Facebook, “and he has stories that no amount of draft beer and a barstool could possibly cover.” Not only will Banjo Bones’ show at Blue Lamp on May 11, 2017, celebrate his CD release, but it will also mark the debut performance of his new full-band setup, featuring Giorgi Khokhobashvili on violin, Ron Smit on bass and Steve Gust on drums. Also performing will be Bruce Tuttle and Clay Dogs. As if all that wasn’t enough, this show is absolutely free! For more info, go to Bluelampsacramento.com.

**This write-up first appeared in print on page 10 of issue #238 (April 24 – May 8, 2017)**

Father Knows Best

Ross Hammond discusses his new album with The Ross Hammond Quartet and His New Muse

Interviewing Ross Hammond on a Friday afternoon while his wife was out of town meant a secondary task of taking his 18-month old daughter, Lola, for a stroll around the 17th and L block of Midtown.

Lola led the way, while Hammond and I discussed his upcoming Ross Hammond Quartet record due this month. As we strolled and pointed out flowers, dogs and trucks (Lola loves trucks and buses), it became apparent the little blondie was responsible for changes and inspiration in her father she’ll not understand for years. The record, Adored, and Hammond’s artistic growth displayed on the album would not be possible without her.

Our walk began in the alley outside Old Soul Coffee. We did roughly three laps of the block and if we stopped the question was posed, “Lola walk?” In answering, Lola formed her first contribution to the interview tape “Lola walk.” Many of Hammond’s responses were fractured with quick “stay close” requests, but we eventually got down to brass tacks. The immediate information to hash out: Who are the players in the Ross Hammond Quartet?

The ensemble came together mostly through the intricate web of the jazz scene involving booking, travel and of course, collaboration, although Hammond first came to know each member from owning their albums. Whether on stage or in the studio, he said he had several surreal moments that left him pondering, “How did I get here?” The Quartet comprises Hammond on guitar, Vinny Golia on saxophone, Steuart Liebig on contrabass guitar and Alex Cline on percussion. Hammond said he’d known Golia from booking him a gig at the Cool Cat Gallery on 24th–back when it existed–and Cline in a similar fashion. Cline is the twin brother of legendary guitarist Nels Cline, who’s currently playing lead guitar in Wilco. “It’s freaky, dude,” Hammond said regarding the Cline brothers. “They’re identical and both really tall.”

As for Liebig, “I don’t know how I met, Steuart… I guess through the scene.”

He played three to four gigs, including the In the Flow Festival in Sacramento last year, with the members, planting the seed for the quartet. After he’d enlisted the three musicians for a studio session in Los Angeles, the makings of an official ensemble came to fruition.

When it came time to name the project, Hammond was surprised by the other members’ suggestion of naming the quartet after him. At 34, Hammond is the youngest member of the group while the rest were born as far back as the ‘40s. It is a humble and impressive gesture coming from three renowned L.A. jazz musicians who have each had ensembles bearing their namesakes.

“For lack of anything better that’s what it is,” Hammond said. “I’ve never had a quartet before. I also feel like I couldn’t replace any of those guys and still call it the same thing.”

Recorded at Newzone Studio and engineered by Wayne Peet, the album was tracked in six hours with only a few songs needing alternate takes. It’s a feat that speaks to the veteran musicianship of Hammond’s quartet. Hammond would play the riff he had in mind for a song and the ensemble would offer a nod or “OK”–no further tutelage required. He said after each track, it was understood that it felt good and they would move on to the next song.

“Playing with these guys it’s just about staying on the wave,” he said. “You don’t have to give them much instruction at all. I think one of the instructions I gave Vinny was, ‘OK, as soon as this song starts you have to come in like an elephant,’ and that’s what he did.”

Adored is carved from a foundation of folk songs with the title track being a lullaby Hammond sings to Lola at bedtime. Hammond said three of the songs are lullabies he sings. After she’d go to sleep he would figure out the notes and write out the lullaby. The writing is at its most encrypted on “Maribel’s Code,” in which the melody is an intervocalic code built from Lola’s initials: LMH.

“Most of the stuff I write has either a dedication or an idea, be it political or romantic,” Hammond said. “I’m never just like, “oh this is a cool riff, I’ll call it…’”

Three years ago when I first interviewed Hammond, he shared a similar sentiment. The inspiration behind the album title An Effective Use of Space came from a saying his wife frequently used. He said it’s one she still uses to this day. Hammond listed his wife as still his deepest muse, but the birth of his daughter is the primary source of inspiration behind Adored.

The immediacy of the recording is palpable, but it’s done in maturity. Hammond said the difficult task in preparing the music was giving the songs a collected feel, but without being united to the point of bleeding the songs together. Adored roars in, spastic and angry, with “Adored” but as “Sesquipedalian” mellows out it introduces the soft lullaby of “She’s My Little Girl.” Consider the album to be much like Hammond’s day-to-day with Lola; awake at 6 a.m. and full of energy, a settling in period, a mid-day walk with small fits of exuberance and crankiness, a lullaby for a nap or the night’s tuck-in. It is all lovingly expressed in the sea changes of Adored.

“Alex [Cline] told me he doesn’t think you mature as a musician until after you’ve been a dad,” Hammond said. “The gist of it was you stop trying to impress people and focus on filtering this feeling you have and this beautiful thing and turn it into a song. Your muse is different. The goofy songs aren’t there anymore. Having a kid forces you to grow up and you grow up in everything. If anything it’s more purposeful now.”

With the particulars of the album discussed and rocks and leaves in our pockets courtesy of the tyke, Hammond asked Lola, “Wanna go swing? Lola swing?” She offered her second sentence of the afternoon; a sharp “Lola swing.” With that, they strapped into a bicycle and road off to the park.

Adored by The Ross Hammond Quartet will be available Feb. 27, 2012. You can preorder it now at Rosshammond.bandcamp.com/album/adored and also listen to the title track. Hammond and co. will throw a CD release party on the very day of its release at Luna’s Café in Sacramento.

Rock ‘n’ Roll All Night!

Dog Party’s new album cause for extra exclamation points!

What do teens and preteens do these days? What are they into? One could guess: Twilight? The Kardashians? Justin Bieber?

Maybe. Or maybe that’s just brushing the surface.

Local sister duo Lucy and Gwendolyn Giles have been playing in their rock band Dog Party since they were only 9 and 11 years old, respectively. Now Gwendolyn is a sophomore in high school, and Lucy will have her first taste of high school starting next year. At 13 and 15 years old, they are preparing for release of their second album, P.A.R.T.Y!!!, which they spent a good half year recording.

The Giles’ mother drove the two to Shine café in downtown Sacramento for an interview with Submerge about their upcoming release. They look older than they do in the pictures. Bits of bright purple and pink flash from underneath Lucy’s brown bob. She is wearing a Ramones shirt beneath a black pleather jacket with skinny jeans and Chucks–a Joan Jett in the making. Gwendolyn appears a bit more subtle, dressed in a gray hoodie, jeans, Saucony tennies and a checker belt.

One thing you should know about these girls is their musical upbringing. Their father, bless his soul, chose to introduce the two to “good” music at an incredibly young age–their musical tastes include The White Stripes, The Black Keys, the Beatles, the Ramones, the Beach Boys, Green Day, LCD Soundsystem and CSS.

Take a listen to P.A.R.T.Y!!! and you get the idea. From the screeching of Gwendolyn’s phaser pedal on the album’s first track, “That’s What You Said,” the sisters brandish their rock roots. But in the midst of the album’s power chords and cowbell taps, other songs expose a folksier side, like “Mixed Up Lovers,” or a gypsy punk flare, like “Red Ribbon.” Lucy was listening to a lot of Gogol Bordello at the time, she discloses.

Then there is “Memories,” which is by far the hardest song on the album, plunging into a metal sound. It’s about not being able to ski in the summer, Lucy says to me. Note that most of their songs are not so melancholy. They sing about the likes of a furry friend on “Chih-Iro,” for example, or their photographer acquaintance on “Andy Wu.”

Regardless of whatever sound they’re going for on a given day, they have always loved music, they say. Gwendolyn had picked up the guitar and was playing talent shows at school by fifth grade. Lucy wasn’t far behind. Looking to Meg White of The White Stripes for inspiration, Lucy wanted to play the drums as early as first grade, she remembers.

“I thought it was normal to be a girl drummer,” Lucy says.

Her dad bought her a Reuther drum set that year, but she would have to wait until third grade before she could take drum lessons.

Unlike many of their peers, they managed to escape the magnetism of Miley Cyrus or Kelly Clarkson. With a little push from family friend Zach Goodin, they formed Dog Party in 2007 instead.

The White Stripes and The Ramones are high on their influence list, the latter of which Lucy admits an obsession with. While the girls were in Southern California for a photo shoot with Tom Tom Magazine over the summer, she insisted that her family stop at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery to see Dee Dee and Johnny Ramones’ graves. An artist as well, she pulls out her phone to show pictures of stencils she made of each Ramone’s face.

Indeed, the girls are comfortably familiar with a lifestyle that their friends are strangers to. The last show Gwendolyn tried to drag her friends to was a Secretions show at Luigi’s. And apparently it freaked them out, in the same fashion that their friends are scared to come to Midtown in general, preferring the ‘burbs of Carmichael, Gwendolyn bluntly says.

“I don’t like being in the ‘burbs,” pipes Lucy.

This is not to say that the girls don’t have friends their age. Ski team and cross country help to keep the girls socially connected. In fact, ski racing in Squaw Valley was one reason why the album took so long to record, since often the girls only could record one to two days a week.

But when it comes to playing music with friends their age, the pickings are slim, they say. The kids at school are mostly “band people,” Lucy states dismissively. Rather, the two find musical support from Midtown musicians, namely adults. They’ve played a number of shows with Kepi Ghoulie, who just released an album himself. In fact, the Giles family had just spent their past Sunday at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco for Kepi’s show.

Goodin has been helpful schooling the girls on gear. They rattle off gear specifics with ease. Gwendolyn rotates between her sister’s Fender Squire Strat, a couple of Silvertones, and a Hofner paired with a Fender Pro Reverb amp and Marshall cabinet.

Goodin also released P.A.R.T.Y!!! on his label, Half of Nothing records.

The girls have grown accustomed to playing with musicians older than themselves. In addition to Dog Party, they are also half of Sacramento band Little Medusas with two older counterparts.

They also just completed a two-week tour through Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California over the summer with Ghoulie and Sacramento band Pets, playing half their shows in houses and the other half in bars. By far, their best show was at a house party in Flagstaff, Ariz., Lucy says, because people were actually moving instead of just standing around the way people tend to do at Sacramento shows.

Here in town, the girls are also accustomed to playing house shows. They have garnered enough local notoriety to play for the last three years at Concert in the Park at Cesar Chavez. Luigi’s is a favorite all-ages venue. Aside from that, there are only so many 21-and-up venues the girls can get into at ages 15 and 13. Old Ironsides is no longer one of them.

“We used to play Old Ironsides all the time. Now we can’t,” Lucy says.

As youngsters daydream about the 21-and-over venues where they one day hope to watch shows, the Giles sisters daydream about the venues they would want to play if they were of age. The Roxy Theatre or Whisky A Go-Go in Los Angeles, says Lucy unabashedly.

All in good time, we can hope. The girls make it clear that music is a crucial part of their life–not just a phase.

Gwendolyn acknowledges that she will likely go to college in the future. But her intentions remain the same.

“We will play forever,” she says.

Dog Party will celebrate the release of P.A.R.T.Y!!! at Luigi’s Fungarden on Dec. 30, 2011. Also playing will be Kepi Ghoulie and Nacho Business. P.A.R.T.Y!!! will be available on CD and pink vinyl! For more info, look up the band on Facebook, or go to Dogpartyrocks.tumblr.com.

DJ RAted R

Get It Together

Live Manikins conquer distractions to focus on new album, Full Canvas

As DJ Rated R put the scratch to his crewmates’ reflections on the intro to Live Manikins’ Full Canvas record, the rappers speak with disbelief about their three-year lapse between albums. “I’m sitting here looking at the credits and the album cover and there’s a lot of growing up,” he said. If the hip-hop group’s first record, Still Life, was merely a snapshot or Polaroid, Full Canvas is the result of three years spent revising the portrait in the midst of what one of the group’s members, Self, calls real life shit.

In its earlier days, Live Manikins was a mainstay at Second Saturday events at Revive, The Body Shop and United State boutique, at which they were one of the first hip-hop crews to host events without drawing suspicions from Sacramento’s law enforcement. “We always coordinated with local businesses,” rapper J-RockIT said. “We threw shows right outside with DJs. When Second Saturday finally started blowing, it would just get packed.”

Self said the crew found sanctity in a specialized wording of the event, so that it never got shut down. “There was once a time we couldn’t even perform because we were hip-hop,” he said. “We’d bill it as spoken word artists with a funk rock background. That was our work around. But we also brought hella different bands just to fool the police.”

Live Manikins’ debut Still Life earned the crew numerous accolades and local bragging rights, but the Manikins put an immediate follow-up record aside to pursue solo projects. Linguistics, who goes by Mr. Lingo these days, dropped Anybody Want a Peanut? in 2010, which earned him a Sammie nomination. Self split time between Sacramento and Los Angeles recording his solo record. J-RockIT and Runt Rock formed Live Audible Soul, later renaming the group DefRockIT, and took their EP as far as the Philippines.

While Rated R won DJ contests, toured the West Coast with Random Abiladeze, formed a DJ crew called Sleeprockers and started a DJ night at Capitol Garage called Joints and Jams. For Rated R, the experiences came in such a whirlwind that Self kept reminding his DJ of the events, to which he replied, “Wow… I forgot already.”

The good-ole-days summation reads like a storybook: three years of continued success, but each storyline was eventually mired in tribulations that led each member back to the group project–well, except for one. After the release of Anybody Want a Peanut?, Mr. Lingo brought his own peanut into the world. As Live Manikins began to regroup for a follow-up record, Lingo chose to remain an auxiliary member to focus on his family. “We understand especially since it’s their first kid,” J-RockIT said. “It’s happened with a couple of our friends in the past who’ve done music. And then they come back when they’re ready.”

Self did record portions of his solo record (due in the spring) in Los Angeles, but he also lost his job at Hewlett-Packard and made vague mentions of an incident with the law in Seattle, while listing his trials. “After I lost my job at HP, mentally I wasn’t strong enough,” he said. “I’d never had to go through the loss of a job, losing investments…shit, I lost a lot. I had to get over it and find myself once again.”

Touring the Philippines in 2009 should have been a golden opportunity for J-RockIT, Runt Rock and DJ Rated R, but a car accident nearly claimed the group’s lives. The brakes gave out on their vehicle. sending Rated R, who was in the backseat, through a window. He sustained major head and spinal injuries as well as a broken collarbone and clavicle. Rated R fully recovered, but still bears a large scar on his forehead from the incident. “It’s right there in the mirror, every morning to keep on doing it,” he said.

J-RockIT continued, “My wife was with us and a couple other people. That was a big calling. It was hard on the whole crew when we got back. After things settled it turned into ‘let’s do it.’”

Live Manikins was never defunct in the passing years. Songs were casually recorded and archived; each member made appearances on the solo records. The group would get together for one-off shows, opening for nationally touring acts and billed slots at festivals. The members joked, though, of a divide which made the performances less about Manikins. “Me and Gabe [Runt Rock] would work DefRockIT stuff into the Live Manikins shows,” J-RockIT admitted, since his group had a new EP. Self chimed in, “Yeah, y’all strong armed us. He would suggest things like, ‘Let’s do this track,’ and I’d come back with, ‘That’s not even a Live Manikins track,’ and he’d say, ‘But we’re both in it.’”

The accruement of value-altering, trying events led to the solo Manikins’ regrouping. “We had a moment of reflection and remembered that we’d built something,” Self said. “We had a lot of sit downs that led to kicking it, hanging out and freestyling. After a couple times it just became apparent we can rock.”

Even with the lack of focus, the group recorded 30 to 40 songs to consider for the sophomore record. Full Canvas in final cut form is 15 songs deep. Largely produced by Runt Rock, Full Canvas explores a live sound aesthetic, but maintains close ties to hip-hop’s roots in flipping samples. Gritty funk licks propel the production, while subtle sonic tweaking prevents the beats from falling into static lapses. “Sleepy” is the oldest track to make the album, but it was still adjusted throughout the years from its original form. J-RockIT said the album title came from “focusing on ourselves to create this new chemistry.”

“It was almost like a piece of all of us,” he said. “So the title represents the completion. Within the last year everybody got super motivated. You can hear the passion in all of our voices. ”

Outside production came from DJ Epik, Resource and Thiago Prodigo, who is from Brazil, while Random Abiladeze offers a guest verse on “Heights.” The group recorded in several studios around the Greater Sacramento area, including downtown, Visalia, Rocklin and Elk Grove–the home of their new label Freqy Music Group. With Live Manikins’ reestablished focus and individual growth the problems surrounding them were reduced to molehills, or in some cases, snake holes. While recording in Rocklin, the worst that happened to Self involved a smoke break incident. “There’s snakes way out there,” Self said. “One of the sessions I was out smoking a cigarette with Runt Rock and I looked down and there was snake. I’m not used to that being in the neighborhood. I’m fine with loose dogs, but not loose snakes.”

Rated R chided him with, “What, was it a green garden snake?”

Self, getting worked up, responded, “It was brown. It wasn’t a green garter snake. It was like… [stretches arms out to indicate its alarming size].”

Touring plans are in the works, but Live Manikins’ primary focus is their album release party on Thursday at Harlow’s. The group secured sponsorships from Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Scratch Live, among others. The purchase of exclusive VIP tickets means swagbags and a catered pre-party. Mr. Lingo is joining Manikins on stage as well. “We’ve been training…hard,” Self said. “Hours and hours and hours per week. I want to crowd surf. That’s my goal. I want to feel confident to be a six-five, 200-pound guy who won’t jump out and just crush one girl.”

Live Manikins will throw the Full Canvas album release party at Harlow’s on Nov. 17, 2011. The show will get underway at 8 p.m. Tickets can be purchased through Harlows.com and will cost $10 for general admission and $20 for VIP tickets, which will include a swagbag and a catered pre-party.

Sean Lehe of Izabella is a Dorky-Ass Hippie and He’s Just Fine With That

What’s More American Than Apple Pie?

Sacramento-based Izabella is set to have their CD release party for their third album, Drugs and Apple Pie, at Marilyn’s On K April 11, 2009. Politically inspired, the album is a product of the election, and a reflection of the supposed positive change that some feel has yet to materialize in the fledgling Obama administration. Now playing keys for Izabella, Jeff Coleman spent last campaign season as a deputy field director for Obama in New Mexico.

“The album is a comment on the bullshit we’ve all been through the last eight years,” lead guitarist Sean Lehe said from a thrift store in Provost, Utah, where he shopped for a Mad Hatter costume for the Alice in Wonderland-themed gig they had in Boise the next night. This is their third album in just more than two years, a “reflection of a young band trying to pull it together in today’s day and age,” Lehe said.

Drugs and Apple Pie comes from the lyrics in the second song on the album, “Bittersweets,” and though the album has political undertones, there is plenty of the band’s specialty—jam rock fused with funk, reggae, bluegrass and jazz. Or, “Norcal rock,” as Lehe described it.

While four of the group’s members claim Sacramento as home, another is from Chicago and the other from San Luis Obispo. “The six of us have a lot of history together,” Lehe said. “We sort of coalesced out of a number of different bands.”

And their musical style reflects that. At shows, they’ll cover the Beatles, Dylan, 2Pac and Ginuwine. They’re influenced by what Lehe calls “pop music from the last 40 years” such as Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Led Zeppelin, Phish and the Grateful Dead.

To pull the album together, Izabella spent two weeks in early February recording in Cotati at Prairie Sun Studio. There, the six-piece found their “natural element,” and they worked with producer and engineer Oz Fritz, who’s worked with greats like Tom Waits, Iggy Pop, The Ramones, Herbie Hancock and countless other musicians.

“Everything was really green in Cotati,” Lehe said, explaining the band’s name, Izabella, “represents the feminine energy of creation—not to sound like a dorky-ass hippie.”

Feminine energy of creation? Izabella is also the name of a Jimi Hendrix song, but these guys are some dorky-ass hippies, and they know it. “Yeah, we don’t mind tie-dyes, and we like to watch girls’ hips when they hula-hoop,” Lehe said.

When they finished in Cotati, the band hopped in the Portabella, a 40-foot 1988 MCI Bus, for their tour of the West. They’ve meandered down the coastline and through the Rocky Mountains, playing Denver for St. Patty’s Day and then Boise. Their tour will take them to Sparks, Nev., then on to Chico and finally to Sacramento for the release of Drugs and Apple Pie, where Seattle’s Flowmotion will open for them. The band is confident Drugs and Apple Pie will bring success.

“We’re dropping one of the hottest records a Sac band has dropped,” Lehe said. “And I’ve lived in Sac a long time, so I can say that with confidence.”