Tag Archives: CD release

Get On Up!

After numerous projects, local musicians find a home in Mondo Deco

Sacramento is in the grips of another icy cold night in November. Twenty or so local musicians and music aficionados have escaped the cold, spread around the living room of an apartment talking over each other and wine.

This is a listening party, and these people are part of a tight-knit circle of friends who have been asked to be the first to hear local band Mondo Deco’s debut album, Pleasurefaith, a blend of ‘60s-esque pop rock combined with gritty rock ‘n’ roll. A friend of the band, I too stand in a circle of people as the album plays from the big speakers set up around the room.

“This is not a focus group,” vocalist Jeremy Greene and bassist Steve Robinson jokingly reassure us. They are, however, asking friends to listen for which song is their favorite.

Meanwhile, an ongoing slideshow of band photos plays on a TV screen. To hear the full sound of the album, I walk into the next room, passing the wall lined with electric guitars to one of four chairs where a pair of headphones awaits on a seat. This once average room has been transformed into a full-fledged recording studio. On the other side of the chairs is a former closet now functioning as a sound booth. To the right is a massive hand-built desk where the mixer and computer are set up.

This is where the mastered album we are now listening to was recorded, mixed and engineered by Robinson.

For the past several years, this apartment, Robinson’s apartment, has more or less become Mondo Deco’s headquarters. It’s where they rehearse, where they record and now where they have interviewed.

Only an hour before, I was sitting with three of the four guys in the group (minus drummer Billy Ewing) around the fireplace talking about the album and everything that has gotten them to this point.

It was two and a half years ago that Mondo Deco, named after the opening lyric from the one-hit wonder “Motorboat” by Jimmy Jukebox, became an official band, they tell me. That’s when “the magic happened.”

As Greene sees it, forming Mondo Deco came out of necessity. Up to this point, members have worked on their other local projects, including Matinee Idols, Wanchai Daggers, Electric Teenage Bedroom or GGM (formerly Goodness Gracious Me!).

But Mondo Deco is the band Greene and Ewing envisioned would get people moving and shaking again at local shows, engaging an audience to do something other than just stand around.

Reuniting long after high school when Ewing moved back to Sacramento from Monterey, Calif., the two began planning Mondo Deco. Greene found Robinson in his audio engineering class at Sacramento City College, and guitarist Kolton James would later be introduced through mutual friends.

The band was almost complete, except they knew they wanted a woman’s touch. They had go-go dancers and doo-wop girls in mind, or female-backed ‘70s funk bands like Sly & the Family Stone or Parliament.

Female counterparts would not only add another dimension to the songs and the live performances, but they would also provide a sexy element.

They discovered their girls soon enough. Keturah Gibson and Jessica Carter were added to the band as backing dancers and vocalists earlier this year. Gibson has more than 10 years of dance experience and Carter was recruited from a video shoot with local burlesque group the Sizzling Sirens.

As a six-piece, the band is now looking to shake up a local music scene that seems to have faded over the last three or so years.

“I think a lot of people would rather go to a DJ night, and we want to start to put on shows rather than just be the background music for people trying to get laid in bars,” Robinson says.

To sum it up, there is a widespread disinterest in live music these days, Greene adds.

This explains why Mondo Deco has had such a methodical approach to putting their music out into the Sacramento scene, whether it is in the form of an album or performance. Since their beginnings they have played a modest number of shows, perhaps 15 to 20. They have been selective of which shows to play around town and what nights of the week they fall on.

“Every single time we played, we wanted to reinvent the wheel with what we were doing live,” Robinson explains.

Along with the desire to be an attention-grabbing band, similar music taste is also a strong force in the group–throwback genres and what they agree are the greatest musical eras: the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. Names like Bowie, T.Rex, The Beatles or the Stones bear great weight.

Occasionally, newer music has been influential. For instance, James and Greene share an appreciation of The Raconteurs, which encouraged both of them to sing leads.

“I think that we all have an appreciation for what Jeremy adds as being a frontman, but we also do everything we can to bring him down from his pedestal,” Robinson says.

Keep in mind that while he maintains a straight face, half of what Robinson says is in jest.

He regains seriousness and continues, “There is a very deliberate effort for it to be a full band; everything should be a collaboration. There is an effort to make sure all of our egos are in check.”

“That’s why everyone sings in the group,” Greene adds.

Giving Pleasurefaith a listen, the vocals sound noticeably harmonized. This is because most of the vocals were recorded in the same room at the same time using a mid-side mic pair.

“We set up a couple of mics and really tried to feed off of the chemistry between us, rather than just tracking the vocals individually and placing them on top of everything,” Robinson says.

This pertains not only to the vocals, Greene points out. Most of the rhythm and beats were recorded live as well, in an attempt to keep the album as organic as possible.

Then they would incorporate effects. For instance, the tremolo effect or “wah wah” of the guitar is used in both “Lost Her Number” and “Young Man.” They recorded the guitar, sent it to another amp and upped the tremolo to give it a more “lush” sound.

On the first few listens, the lyrics on the album aren’t easily comprehensible. To write the songs, vocals are used more as instruments to match the musical arrangement of the songs.

“For the longest time I’ll just be throwing in garbage for lyrics that don’t really pertain to anything, they are just about the feeling,” Greene explains. “Cadence and melody and all that come first, and then you can piece in something that’s worth hearing, worth reading.”

Wordless melodies are then crafted into something meaningful. In “Far to Fall,” Greene and James describe an ominous telling of the apocalyptic ways in which the human race is doomed, either by the nuclear war, global warming or crashing economies.

“A fun aspect for writing lyrics with this particular group is bringing in a sense of fable or storytelling in general…things that slightly hint toward Snow White or alchemy,” Greene explains. “All of these things are greater stories that are out there and have been for thousands of years. Why not write more about them?”

Like most newer bands, the band is still in the works of defining their sound. Despite the influence of the great musical eras, they strive to keep theirs unique.

“There’s way too much era rock going on these days. People have a hard time finding their own voice,” Greene adds. “But if you can pick and choose from what you really appreciate, different genres or different eras, you can kind of put your own twist on it.”

Now the band is in the mindset of releasing another EP within the next six months. Robinson suggests that while Pleasurefaith songs bear a more classic, ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s rock ‘n’ roll feel, some of the post-Pleasurefaith songs they have written in the past few months may be evolving into less predictable prog-rock territory, alluding to unconventional time signatures and tempos.

Now that they are a record deep, the clock is ticking to figure out a musical direction and birth the next record, Robinson says.

Aware of this clock, the group continues to methodically consider all options–putting out singles versus EPs or full-length albums.

“As much as the Sacramento music scene might be slightly dormant right now, I think there are people out there that want new music to constantly be coming on the horizon,” Robinson speculates.

“We want there to be an effort to actually captivate and get Sacramento bands to put some kind of conscious effort into putting on the kind of show that people want to pay to see.”

Pleasurefaith is a reference to this very idea. The album is named after a phrase from the Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked that encourages hedonism and indulgence as the greatest good.

Robinson brings the conversation full circle.

“I think that idea that the most important thing, like the Holy Grail, is the pursuit of that enjoyment [is] an analogy of why we formed as a band,” he explains. “Music is something that we enjoy doing, but it’s also something that we want to be enjoyable to go see. We want to be a show that assaults the senses.”

Didn’t Mean to Freak You Out

The Kelps show a flair for the theatrical on stage and on their latest album, Head Like a Mouse

If you have ever watched or listened to The Kelps and thought they were unlike any other band you have seen or heard before, then the band has succeeded in being exactly the kind of act lead vocalist/guitarist Cory Barringer wants it to be.

Just over two weeks ago, the Lincoln, Calif.-based band released their debut album, Head Like a Mouse, on Soundcloud, a site that allows sound-sharing. The band received so much positive feedback on the album after streaming it online for just a few days, they made it available for free download over a three-day period in early September, during which hungry listeners snatched up almost 400 free copies.

The album, which has since returned to stream-only status, was recorded within a six- to seven-month frame at Shattered Records in Citrus Heights by producer Jack O’Donnell. The Kelps are hoping for an official album release around Oct. 30, 2011.

Meanwhile the band has been nominated for a Sammie award for the second year in a row, this time as best rock band.

The Kelps is Barringer, Cameron Betts and Tony Reyes, all a mere 19 to 21 years old. Online they have classified themselves as alternative, indie rock, southern Goth and blues punk. This was really just for the sake of providing information, Barringer explained, as the band doesn’t care much for labeling their sound.

“We should sound like The Kelps,” Barringer said.

Labeling can put a band at a disadvantage, particularly being lumped into the blues genre, he said, because comparisons are quickly drawn to traditional blues bands.

“I have been pulled aside by countless old men who have informed me that we are not a blues band.”

Some of their musical influences are more evident than others: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Bright Eyes, David Byrne, Dr. Dog and Roger Waters.

If there is a genre the band is striving to fit into, it is something completely new and different from anything that has already been put out there by other musicians.

“Even if [listeners are] freaked out, I want to have an effect, whatever that effect might be,” Barringer said.

By freaked out, Barringer is referring to the sometimes taken-aback looks he sees on the faces of an audience during one of their live shows, a reaction he associates with seeing something new or different. “And to me, that’s the whole point of creating anything is just bringing something new into the world,” he said. “Even if they hate it, it’s new.”

What immediately stands out about this band is its distinctly eerie lyrics and fiery vocals. Within the nine sonically crisp tracks of Head Like a Mouse, some entwined with poetry, Barringer and Betts cogently howl tales of getting locked up and tainting the innocent over gnashing guitar riffs. It is cryptic rock ‘n’ roll bearing dark elements comparable to the Murder City Devils or The Misfits. Not enough bands rock this hard.

Watching The Kelps live, you’ll notice the crazed facial expressions, the finger twitching, hands grabbing for the sky. A dramatic performance. This is not a coincidence. Prior to starting The Kelps officially in the summer of 2009, the three were in theater together at school back in Sheridan, Calif., where they first discovered that they clicked creatively.

After watching so many live shows, Barringer concluded that although there is a lot of talent out there musically, live performances are lacking energy these days.

“I quickly realized that if I was going to do anything up there, it would have to be something that people would want to talk about. Something more. Give them their money’s worth, don’t just stand there and play,” Barringer explained.

While they are unmistakably dark in both their songwriting and performance, in person these guys are anything but anguished or depressing, which Submerge quickly realized during an interview outside the Naked Coffee Lounge with Barringer and Reyes. The following is an excerpt of the conversation.

My observation is that your lyrics tend to be pretty dark. Is this reflective of your guys’ personalities at all?
Tony Reyes: Nope! I wouldn’t say so.
Cory Barringer: I’d say that it’s reflective of a part of us all if that doesn’t sound too hokey. What it is is just everyone has a bit of that dark side and we’re fools to deny it. I consider myself an overall fairly happy person. But there is that dark side and for me it’s the music that can kind of exorcise the demons, especially in the performance, the live performance. That’s how I can get it all out of my head for a while at least, and then it crawls back. Yeah, I’d say that one of the reasons that the lyrics tend to sway to the dark side–wow, that sounds like Star Wars, doesn’t it–is just I find that the most emotive ways of writing are often the sad, twisted things. Those come easier to me. It’s not like I force either side of it, I have written happy songs before. They weren’t very good but I’ve written them. To me it’s the idea of no matter what I do, I try to be sincere so whatever comes out comes out.

And I imagine that this kind of allows you guys to put your theatric experience into use.
CB: It definitely does, yeah.
TR: As far as performance goes, I’ve always felt like I’ve never had a choice. Because like Cory was saying earlier I did spend a lot of time in theater. And I don’t want to say I really know anything about drums, but there was a point where I was uncomfortable playing on a drum kit and [then] there was a moment in time I became comfortable. And after that point I felt like I didn’t have a choice about how I acted back there. And I didn’t realize I was putting on a show until someone said, “Dude, your face is crazy when you’re back there screaming.”

How or why did you recruit Reggie Ginn [for “Blood Poem” on Head Like a Mouse]?
CB: It was partly just because we knew we needed a woman’s voice. We also liked her a great deal. We had done a bunch of stuff with her. It all just kind of worked out perfect, because she’s also recording her album at Shattered Records with Jack so she was already kind of in and out of there. And I kind of liked the idea of having the poem set behind a piano piece and none of us can really play the piano quite so well. I really wrote it on the guitar but with the piano in mind. And I also just really liked her voice.

We had no idea if she could do it because if you’ve heard it there are different portions. There is the beginning where she is doing the poem but then it gets darker and darker and she’s just screaming and we had no idea if she could scream, because she has a great voice, a great, powerful voice, but it’s a different beast altogether when you’re giving an emotive performance of screaming and being dragged away. She nailed it.

And it was just so cool to watch someone so out of their element.

During your June show earlier this year at the Naked Lounge you had introduced “Grimoire” as a bit of an anthem “for everyone different like us.” I don’t know if you remember saying that…
CB: Yeah, I did say that.

So, I wanted to ask you…
TR: Cory, did you just get quoted?
CB: Yeah, I did. I didn’t think anyone was listening. It’s not technically about that but that’s the neat thing about our songs because we all kind of have different interpretations of our own stuff. And even though there’s a different story that goes along with that song that nobody will ever get because the lyrics are just that cryptic, we wrote them that way, it was intentional, so no one knows what they’re about. But I kind of took it as what could be an anthem for being different. Again, I’ll go back to when we started as a band, I wanted to be a band for other people like me. And by that I mean the band nerds, the theater geeks, the kind of social outcasts that kind of feel they don’t really belong with a lot of people.

You can stream the album at Soundcloud. For more info on The Kelps check out their Tumblr page (Thekelps.tumblr.com).

Looks Can Be Deceiving

Hero’s Last Mission’s Debut LP Not as Metal as You’d Think

“People will look at us like, ‘You are the most metal-looking, pop rock band I’ve ever seen,” drummer Julian Mendoza from Hero’s Last Mission told Submerge over coffee recently. With their black T-shirt, long hair and goatees, the local five-piece certainly looks like a metal band. However, their metal look is a running joke, Mendoza said.

“I mean, I wear shirts like this all the time,” he said, looking down at his black Electric Zombie T-shirt. “And our bass player is always wearing Converge shirts and Protest the Hero shirts.”

So when they begin to play at an open mic night at, say, Pangea, Fox and Goose, Townhouse or Old Ironsides, sometimes the audience is surprised.

“We’re so happy when we’re playing,” guitarist Art Padilla laughed.

The band’s first full-length album, Stay on Course, available online for free download throughout May, is a far cry from metal. Rather, the album strikes a solid balance between rock and pop. Songs like “Gamblin’” feature fast tempos and guitar shredding, while other songs, like “Right Here,” are unmistakably pop, brimming with harmonies, melodic guitar solos and pop-y choruses.

Lyrically, several of the songs speak of dealing with hard times, reflecting some of the experiences the band faced while recording. In “Killing Me,” for instance, vocalist Lee Hurtado laments trying to keep his composure during heartbreak.

“Any time there’s a situation that may be negative, it’s something that inspires us,” Mendoza said.

Despite break-ups and break-ins during the recording process, HLM has managed to stay positive and focused, which is why they chose to title the album Stay on Course.

“It’s hard to promote yourself and be an independent band and keep on going,” Padilla said. “Other bands stop because they get frustrated, but we love playing. We’re not going to settle.”

Hardships, along with three major tours, including last summer’s Let’s Get Dangerous tour, have allowed the current band members plenty of time to bond since they came together in 2009. They can laugh about the time they spent the night in a police station while on tour. It wasn’t because they were in trouble; it was because a cop let them stay there after finding them pulled over in a “nice neighborhood” to sleep for the night.

Sharing van space has also allowed them plenty of opportunities to influence one another’s music taste. Rolling down long stretches of highway in the tour van, anything from Slayer to Journey, Rascal Flatts to Coheed and Cambria, is fair game.

“And we’ll sing to all of them,” Padilla said.

“I used to be into harder music,” Mendoza said. “But there’s just so much. We listen to everything.”

Even when they’re not on tour, the band mates spend a lot of time around each other. Lee and twin brother/guitarist Luis Hurtado, both from Amador County, now live with Padilla in Sacramento.

“I’ve adopted twins!” Padilla laughed.

Though the band spent part of its time recording the album at Pus Cavern recording studio in Sacramento, the rest of the album was recorded at the Padilla-Hurtado house.

“People just come in,” Padilla said. “It’s like a sitcom with Kramer where he opens the door and says, ‘I’m here guys.’ So there’s no knocking anymore. If you want something from the fridge, go get it yourself.”

Recording pieces of the album within the comforts of home helped to spark the band’s creativity, Mendoza said. Without having to work under time constraints, the five had the ability to work freely and try different things, like adding more guitars to a track.

As a result, the songs on this album are more diverse than those on the last two EPs released by the band in 2006 and 2008, Mendoza and Padilla agree.

Most importantly, the musicians agree that what has really brought them together is their pure love for playing music.
“We’ll play anywhere,” Mendoza said.

If someone were to say, “You guys wouldn’t play there.” Padilla said, “Yeah we will.”

“And we’ll just get in a little corner probably about this big,” he said while motioning a small space. “And we’ll just play a show.”

Sometimes the band will play an acoustic set, and Mendoza will bring a cajón, kick, snare or high hat.

“Or whatever, it doesn’t matter, because I think people will see that we love to play,” he said.

On more than one occasion the band has been caught off guard and unequipped for a request to hear some of their stuff.

“And we’re like, ‘We don’t have our instruments.’ And then one of the five of us will be like, ‘Well we can do a cappella,’” Padilla said.

Even when they’re not dropping songs a cappella style on the spot, rarely does the band spend time doing things unrelated to music.

“It’s kind of like non-band time doesn’t exist because we’re always on band time. Even when I’m at work,” Padilla said. “I’m getting a text right now from a band I manage; they need help and they’re always asking for my advice.”

HLM has also received overwhelming support for their dedication. Their album was partly made possible through donations made by supporters on Kickstarter.com, a site that allows artists to collect donations in order to fund their creative projects.

The band offered anything from hugs, hard copies of the album, invitations to album screenings or concert tickets based on the size of the donation made. In the end, they received an amount greater than what they had asked for to fund the making of the album.

A $1,000 donation came from a café owner in Amador County who really wanted to see the band’s success.

“So now she gets a show, it’s the least we could do,” Padilla said.

With a growing fan base and the release of their latest album, HLM has no intention of slowing down.

“We know we need to get out and we just want everyone to see us, whether that’s going to be a more organized tour or just a bunch of shows every day, even if it’s open mics,” Padilla said.

So should you see five guys dressed in black at an open mic night around town, hold off on the head-thrashing. They might not be the metal band you were expecting.

Hero’s Last Mission will celebrate the release of Stay on Course at Shenanigans in Sacramento on May 21, 2011. Tickets are $7 in advance, $10 the day of the show, which gets underway at 7 p.m. To download Stay on Course for free or to purchase a ticket to the show at Shenanigans, go to Heroslastmission.com.

American Originals

From small-town Nevada to far-off France, Sacramento’s The Alkali Flats spread the gospel of authentic country music

Words by Anthony Giannotti

The Alkali Flats is a country band. Now, I know some people don’t like country music, and to be honest, I can’t blame them. Modern-day radio country has become a lame honky-pop hybrid that leaves some listeners with the distinct impression that most country fans, let alone musicians, are narrow-minded overzealous hicks. Don’t worry, The Alkali Flats is not that kind of country band. They don’t want to put a boot in anyone’s ass, and they don’t think tractors are sexy. Occasionally they are known for having an achy breaky heart, but majority of the time they have a true-blue, old school honky-tonk country band that would make Hank Williams Sr. proud.

Tim White, one of four multi-instrumentalist singers in the five-piece band, has this to say to people who don’t like country music, “Country music is not something you can pretend to like. You don’t like it because it’s cool. Either it hits you in the heart or it doesn’t.”

This tug on the ol’ heartstrings is what led to The Alkali Flats being formed back in 2002. Chris Harvey, one of two remaining founding members, confirms their passion for the music, “We’ve all been playing in bands since we were just teenagers but we started this band because it’s the music we grew up with and love.” Laughing, he adds, “There is a great picture on Facebook of Tim at about 8 years old wearing a big cowboy hat and plaid shirt on stage singing some country song.”

These honky-tonk heroes have been lucky enough to spread their lifelong love affair with country music to six albums, the latest of which will be released in May. Their music has also taken them far and wide: two European tours, one full U.S. tour and countless “Nevada tours.”

“We like to play off the beaten path, places like Al the Wop’s in Locke [Calif.]. But our favorite thing to do is play small towns in Nevada,” says Scott Prawalsky. “We get to play to people that dance and drink all night long and love the music as much as we do.”

I had a chance to sit on a front porch, crack open a couple of beers with all five honky-tonkers (including Sasha Prawalsky and Mark Miller) and get the lowdown on the new album, some country music history and more on why they continue to play country music.

With this style of country music being so far off most people’s play list, what attracted you guys to this style?
Tim White: I think we all got it from our parents. We all grew up with country music in one form or another. Mark got a lot of it from his parents, so did I and Chris grew up with some awesome old-timey stuff.
Chris Harvey: Tim here has been playing this style of music for well over half his life; he introduced me to a lot of the cool stuff about 20 years ago.
Sasha Prawalsky: I think playing this style of music brings us to the place we enjoy playing; our music seems to appeal to the crowd at Al the Wop’s, the down dirty crowd. That’s just where we like to be.
Mark Miller: I know one thing that draws all of us to this style of music is we all enjoy bands that have a shtick, kind of a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor to it, and our style of country music definitely has that.

How long did you work on the new album?
Tim: Well we tracked the entire thing in four hours. [Laughs] But we did set about recording it differently than we have recorded in the past. Our friend JR had the idea to record it at The Hangar using some of their vintage equipment and record it live. We huddled around a single mic in the center of the room just like they did in the ‘40s and ‘50s. We wanted to get that real raw, gritty sound.
Scott Prawalsky: It was the funnest recording session I have ever had. We invited 30 or 40 of our friends, made it a potluck dinner and recorded 18 songs in four hours in front of a live audience.
Chris: To be fair we practiced our asses off so we could record so quickly; we nailed most of the record on the first take and the rest of it in two or three [takes]. There are some little imperfection but that’s what we wanted.
Sasha: I like the imperfection. It’s who we are. I think the new album is a very good representation of what you would get if you came to see us live.

A couple years ago you were playing a song called “The Spade Cooley Stomp”; were you able to include any more dark humor on the new album? [Spade Cooley was known as a Western swing musician and an actor from the ‘50s but is more infamously known for being convicted of beating his wife to death.]
Scott: Not dark humor but there’s some ridiculous humor, some barnyard humor. We cover “Ugly and Slouchy (That’s How I Like ‘Em).”
Chris: [Laughs] No nothing as dark as “Spade Cooley Stomp.” We kind of stopped playing that song. Most people would stare at us like we were from outer space when we played it.
Tim: Yeah most people have no idea who Spade Cooley is. If you know who he is, you think it’s funny but only about one in 40 people at the shows would get it.
Mark: And I think those people were drunk. We should start playing that song again. It’s a good song.

So you guys are headed back to Europe…
Chris: Yeah we are basing out of Belgium and hitting several other countries; we are just waiting to hear back from our friends over there. We have been really lucky in Europe. Last time we went we had never played France before. We had over 200 people show up dressed in cowboy hats and boots, and they line danced all night. They really have an appreciation for old authentic American country music over there.
Mark: There are a lot of bands going over there and doing rockabilly or other American roots music but not a lot doing honky-tonk. I thought it was interesting that they had seen the upright bass before and the hollow body guitars, but everywhere we went they were really impressed by the steel guitar. It was a real novelty for them.

Any plans for more U.S. tours?
Mark: Yes. There’s more that we want to do but we have to be realistic about it and decide what’s best for the group.
Chris: We get asked to do more than we can. We get invited to some really cool stuff that we’d like to do but we just can’t. After all, we all have day jobs

Anything you guys want to add?
Chris: I’d like to mention the Kickstarter thing. Kickstarter is a new thing online, we appealed to our friends to make a donation on Kickstarter to help us make the new album. We had 81 friends donate between $10 and $500.
Mark: We had a $2500 goal and our friends really came through and helped us well exceed that. We were able to put out a much better record than we expected.
Scott: What was really cool was in the past all our records were do-it-yourself, burned discs with stickers and lost money. Because of our friends’ help we could actually afford to have it professionally packaged, mastered and mixed.

ZuhG for Life

A New Album, A New Leaf

Since 2007 ZuhG has been representing Sacramento with its groove-funk style and earth-centric liberal aesthetic. They play a bit of blues, a bit of jazz and a bit of psychedelic rock. They mix hip-hop and saxophones, flutes and Rastafarian herbal idolatry. Yet, despite the multiple influences and wide range of instrumentation, ZuhG is able to sound crisp and precise. The songs on the bands upcoming CD Free Love are well produced, the bass lays in the pocket with the drums, it shifts in and out of blues guitar movements and references other standards like “Footprints.” On a musical level the group invokes a wide variety of influences, all courtesy of the guitar work of JR Halliday and Bryan Nichols, the drum work of Matt Klee, the beatbox-flow of Charlie Wheeler, and saxophone melodies from Jake Gleason. Bianca Wright holds down the luscious background vocals. All of these performers create movements that build, ebb and hit in syncopation under the optimistic experiential vocals and lyrics of Nichols.

Through multiple incarnations, ZuhG has pushed forward and with a backbone of Nichols and Klee, they’ve found a level of success, a degree of professionalism–dare we call it such–that enables the members to identify themselves firstly as musicians, secondly as anything else.

Curiously enough the group collectively (with a few friends) operates ZuhG Life, a store inside of Downtown Plaza where everything sells on consignment, and the music culture of Sacramento holds some 1,000 square feet of retail space in a largely corporate environment. Submerge was able to catch up with Nichols and discuss the upcoming album, the storefront, the popular pastime of parking-lot camping, optimism and the ever fashionable burrito windshield.

Tell me about the ZuhG Life store, how did that come about?
It’s a local music store basically. All one wall is CDs, and we’ve got local band T-shirts as well. I was booking live shows for the mall, and I needed to get paid in advance for a road trip to Oregon. When I went to get paid they brought me up to this empty store. I thought they were going to fire me, but they asked, “Hey you want to open some kind of music store?” And we just did it. The stores helped us get a lot of recognition. We’re on the news and stuff. Sometimes people think we’re called ZuhG Life, I’ve seen it on flyers. That’s funny.

Did you have any retail experience? How was that transition into owning your own shop?
I don’t really have any experience. I worked at Surf & Skate, and I hated it. I had to follow the customers around the store. The owner was all on me about it. Even when it was obvious that people just wanted to look around.

ZuhG has to be one of weirdest names I’ve ever heard for a band. How’d you decide on that?
ZuhG means to be unlike others, and to do something different. I think it’s German. I found it in a Rolling Stone ad. I turned it in for a homework assignment. I asked my teacher, after we’d been playing, “Hey I named my band that, do you think I could get that ad back?” But he said it was a really good example and he wanted to keep it. At the time I was like cool, I’ll just pick up another Rolling Stone, but I never did. I’ve never seen it since. My friend has searched countless dictionaries, and she’s never found the word.

What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you on stage?
I caught on fire at Northstar ski resort. They always have these little propane heaters on stage. The back of my shirt caught on the little flame, and I started patting myself out when I realized I was on fire. Then JR comes over and tries to pat me down. We’re playing at the foot of this ice skating rink and everyone is watching by now. JR couldn’t put me out either, so I threw my guitar down and literally stopped-dropped-and-rolled right in the middle of the stage. It went out. The whole back of my shirt was gone. I have one little scar. It was bad at first but it healed fine.

Did you finish the set?
Yeah, we played three more songs. I think more people checked us out that day than ever.

That’s flaming! You got any other cool road stories?
We don’t ever get hotels because that would be all our gig money. Every night on the road we try to find some friends or get someone to let us sleep at their house. Sometimes we don’t get so lucky. Once in Ventura we played a shitty show, no one was there, so we just slept in the parking lot. There was this big rundown bus in the parking lot so we just pulled our cars next to it. Random [Abilideze] was with us. He was pissed that night. Six people were sleeping in the van, which is ridiculous because it only sleeps three comfortably. Dudes were sleeping in the front seat of the van. I have a little tent and I posted it up right on the concrete. Jake, our sax player, was sleeping on a cot right outside. Our roadie was sleeping in the trailer. That was fun.

You hear about bands that hate each other when they’re in the van, but when they get on stage they have amazing shows. Does that describe ZuhG, or do you get along all the time?
We bitch at each other for sure. There’s definitely some hissy fits out there. Usually whoever is pissed will just play with a ton of energy on stage that night. One time after a show in Oregon at like 3 in the morning, we stopped at a Taco Bell, and we didn’t hear our drunk bass player say he wanted a taco, so he walked out of the van. He went and sat on a curb in the parking lot. When we got up to the window we ordered him a taco and a burrito, because we forgot. I went over to our bass player. I said, “Here’s a burrito, sorry we forgot.” He grabbed the burrito and walked over to the van and threw it hella hard at the windshield. There was a whole fight in the parking lot. The Taco Bell people started calling the cops. It was hilarious. Stuff like that happens every once in a while.

Do you have any thoughts on the recent tsunami in Japan?
I was thinking of throwing a big benefit show at the ZuhG Life store to raise some money we could send over there. I want to do something to help.
 
If you turned into a human-instrument mutant because of Japanese radiation that had made it over to Sacramento via the Pacific winds, what instrument would you prefer to be combined with?
My right arm would be a melodica, my left arm would be the neck of a guitar, my upper torso would be the body of a guitar, my right leg would be a high hat, my left leg would be a rain stick. That way if I did a handstand I could work that noise out. My head would be a djembe, and all my fingers would be kazoos! This would be a cool painting; one rad man band.

How often does ZuhG go skinny dipping together?
Ha! Never. I don’t want to see these guys naked. We do bathe in the ocean and rivers often when we’re on the road, but not naked.

Why are you such an optimist in such trying times?
In our song “New Shoes (Hippy Feet),” the hook of the first part of the song is “I’m feeling so good, I’m alive today/I’m feeling so good, and I can’t complain.” Living the ZuhG Life makes me happy, might as well be positive and peaceful. Life’s too short to be so serious. There’s no point in being pissed off all the time or pessimistic. I get stressed out every once in a while with everything that’s going on, but I love everything I’m doing, so it works out.

You sing a lot about the environment, wouldn’t it be better for the earth if ZuhG hitchhiked when you all went on the road?
Our mechanic friend, Ryan Casey, is looking for a diesel for us that we can covert to run off veggie oil. Then we’ll be green and smell like French fries all the time, but it’ll be worth it.

Theodor Adorno hated Jazz because he said the fans and musicians who thought it deviated from more traditional song structures failed to realize that it always maintained a relative steady beat, and therefore they were pretty much just hipsters–in so many words. Why do you hate jazz so much?
I love Jazz! What’s a hipster? People always say that about people but I don’t get it. Am I one?

ZuhG

ZuhG’s CD release show will take place at Beatnick Studios on April 9, 2011. The band will also play an Earth Day show on April 13 at Sierra College in Rocklin.

Bob Woods Band CD Release & Video Shoot on March 12 at Marilyn’s on K

Photo by Kurt Bertilson

Bob Woods Band CD Release/Video Shoot

Sacramento musician Bob Woods goes way back. He started playing music in 1971 with the Sacramento Western swing band Tokpela. He then went on to form the Nevada City club favorite band the Bob Woods Trio. He’s played with a slew of notable cats, including Tiny Moore, Bill Kirchen and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, among others. Now, his current four-piece band (Woods on guitar and vocals, Pete Kmeto on bass and accordion, Steve Namie on drums and Ray Elzey on pedal steel), is readying their full-length, This Town, for release on March 12, 2011 at Marilyn’s on K. The group will also be shooting a music video that night, so bring your dancin’ shoes and your best moves, and you just might end up in the final cut. Also performing will be Nothin’ Personal and Dirt Nap Band. Doors open at 7 p.m. and tickets are just $10 at the door. If you RSVP ahead of time, you’ll save yourself five bucks. Call (916) 524-9671.

Picture Perfect

Sister Crayon Steps It Up Further on Debut LP

It was a gray and windy afternoon on the beaches of Malibu. A tidal wave warning was in effect, but there local band Sister Crayon stood, fully-clothed, sharp shoreline rock at their ankles, as photographer Eliot Lee Hazel barked orders to capture the frozen chaos of crashing white caps for the band’s debut album art.

Lead singer Terra Lopez slipped during one shot, cutting her leg, but Hazel ran his shoot like a drill sergeant. “He just said, ‘Get up. Don’t smile. Don’t look at me,’” Lopez said. “Well, he’s a sweetheart, nice guy, you can sit down and talk to him, but when he’s taking photos he is so intense.”

As absurd as it feels to the members of Sister Crayon, Lopez and drummer Nicholas Suhr spoke of the shoot as one of their most memorable music experiences–even though it had little to do with music. Along with Hazel’s artwork, the band has a high-def music video done by celebrity photographer Robert Ascroft. Browsing both photographers’ websites, perusing the tastefully gratuitous images of Devendra Banhart, Usher, Mariah Carey, Edward Sharpe and Brad Pitt, Sister Crayon will be the first to tell you how privileged, yet out of place they feel. Are these the last remaining minor moments of Sister Crayon before they receive Coachella bookings and Japan tour offers?

In the next few weeks, the band is playing humbler venues like Townhouse for the Sacramento Electronic Music Festival and Luigi’s Fungarden for the Bellow album release party. So our indie darlings have yet to grow too big for our sleepy city. Lopez looks like a siren Viking vixen in the video for “(In) Reverse,” but when I met with her and Suhr at Mondo Bizarro (formerly Butch & Nellie’s) for an interview, she was back in her Midtown garb, a second-hand green army jacket and jeans–the Lindsay Weir of Freaks and Geeks look. She’s still the same shy songwriter, fronting a gloomy pop act that seeks inspiration in the lonesome despair of poets like Jean Genet and Fernando Pessoa.

The Bellow sessions scattered across the span of a year and a half. The newly realized lineup of Sister Crayon crammed in 18-hour shifts at The Hangar with engineer Scott McShane, who described the process as “tense” and a “guerilla recording style.” McShane produced the first Sister Crayon EP, Enter Into Holy (Or)ders, and the band never entertained the thought of working with anyone else. “Recording already is a really intimate thing. We bond so well with him. He gets what we’re trying to do, even before we understand it,” Lopez said.

“He’s able to throw out ideas that’s not in an insulting way. It’s just full-on experimenting and you know that it’s for the best. He pushes us to succeed,” Suhr added.

The tension came from the hourglass pressure of paying for studio time and the unfamiliarity of having a new drummer join two weeks prior, writing his parts on the fly. Suhr was not a complete stranger, knowing Lopez from her stint in The Evening Episode, but he and Lopez talked of the anxieties surrounding a debut full length. “We were zombies. We’d spend 18 hours in the studio and you can hear it in the record,” she said.

Originally, Bellows was intended to be a five-song EP, written by Lopez and synth-keyboardist Dani Fernandez, with “I’m Still the Same Person” being the only pre-released song to make the album. But once the band wrapped recording those five songs, creativity was running high and five more songs were written collectively. “Scott kept telling us there was a lot of tension on the record,” Suhr said. “If you know what was going on at the time it makes sense. There was a lot of time spent coming to an agreement on things, but whenever we’re writing together there’s no awkwardness. It was easy to go into the next five songs with an open mindset.”

Indeed, the settling in is brazen and culminates with a spacious piano ballad called “Ixchel, The Lady Rainbow,” in which Lopez’s visceral croon soars over a piece written by former member Genaro Ulloa. “Ixchel” was the last song the band recorded, a one-take recording done well past the midnight hour. “We did it live tracking,” Lopez said. “He was in the other room and I was in the main room singing. We could see each other through a little window, but that was it. It was the first take and it was incredible. I know it sounds corny, but there were tears in everyone’s eyes. We were all exhausted. Even Scott had tears in his eyes.”

Suhr added, “It’s one of those songs. Every other song on the record we did multiple takes because we felt we could do better. At the end of that song, everyone was just like what the fuck. It’s one of those songs where if it didn’t sound like that, with the imperfections left in, it wouldn’t have worked.”

The gloomy pop instrumentation informed by the troubled words of dead poets is an appropriate setting for an album titled Bellow, but Suhr said a lot of the mood is owed to McShane’s guidance. “I heard the five songs written before I joined, but the mood had changed through Scott’s ears.” Lopez said his touch is most prevalent on “Here We Never Die and “(In) Reverse” as he took the band’s ideas and focused them into a cohesive sound.

In addition to McShane, the Sister Crayon sound, most notably the lyrics, is in homage to the writings of Fernando Pessoa, a 20th Century poet and literary critic. Lopez only admitted her obsession with Pessoa’s work. She has a Pessoa tattoo and her Pug’s name is Ophelia, after Pessoa’s secret crush to whom he never confessed his love. “It’s the despair,” she said. “It sounds dramatic, but he was such a lonely individual. He was very mysterious and obviously people are drawn to that.

“I think that is a huge part of Bellow. ‘Here We Never Die’ is my talking to a lover in that way. The despair and sadness that he wrote is so sad that I can’t even finish one of his books. I have to read a sentence a day sometimes because it’s so much. It just floors me. I have no option when it comes to his presence in my music.”

As intense as Sister Crayon is sonically and visually portrayed, Hazel’s insistency that the band stop smiling as the chilly Pacific waves capsized on their heads speaks of the band’s unbridled joy in its work. As arresting as “Ixchel, The Lady Rainbow” is, Bellow closes with “Souls of Gold,” a cheery campfire sing-a-long with a blasting brass section and woozy synths. “We’re always such a serious band and a lot of our songs are really dark,” Lopez said. “I do like that the album ends on a lighter note than what it could have been.”

See Sister Crayon live at their release party for their new album Bellows at Luigi’s Fungarden on Feb. 19.

Sheet Rock

Goodness Gracious Me is Leaving the Garage

Goodness Gracious Me practices near Sacramento City College in a tiny garage that barely houses Skyler Henry’s drumset, let alone the rest of the three-piece rock band’s equipment. Cables snake all around the floor and unfinished sheet rock hangs in the balance from the ceiling.

“It’s always kind of a work in progress,” explains Henry.

For this humble Sacramento band, this is all they need—and frankly, all they can afford. They’ve just finished a new record: a 12-song collection of rock ‘n’ roll tunes spiced with hints of Americana, grunge and classic rock. They didn’t have to mortgage their houses to get it done, but they did have to play a pretty steady stream of gigs in order to raise the funds. And even after that, they had to put the album on the shelf for six months before they could do anything with it because the dough dried up. The album, appropriately titled Waiting Room, was recorded at their friend Steve Robinson’s Shooting Range studio literally as it was being built. The surrounding raw materials, akin to their practice garage, must have felt comfortable, because they dialed in an album with all the right textures. With time on their side, it wasn’t hard to be patient and let the tracks develop as they should.

“We had the liberty to actually give it time. You can do live takes and get a lot of honesty out of it, but we wanted to experiment a little bit and take certain liberties to achieve the album,” says singer and guitarist Jeremy Greene.

The band’s genesis began in an audio engineering class where Henry and Greene met for the first time. Greene offered his guitar-playing talents to a recording session during class and Henry took notice.

“We ended up wrapping and going out and getting a couple of drinks afterwards,” remembers Greene. “Our voices paired well together and we decided to take it from there.”

Henry, who was pursuing the guitar at the time, wasn’t looking to play drums in a band. His crossing of paths with Greene changed his tune and he readily agreed to fill the shoes of drummer even though his experience was limited.

“I just kind of told Jeremy that I played drums,” laughs Henry. “I figured I would pick it up as we went along.”

So with Henry finding his way around the kit, and Greene one member stronger than he started out, the two embarked on the tiresome journey of auditioning bass players. After “a trial and fail process,” the two finally stumbled across bassist Sean Arrant on the World Wide Web. They wasted no time and quickly put out a small EP and then a couple months later played a 35-minute set with their new bass player. From there it was solidified—Goodness Gracious Me was whole and ready to move forward.

The boys in GGM have made their Sacramento rounds—they’ve played the Concert in the Park series and gigged with local favorites like Lite Brite, Prieta and Musical Charis. With the completion of the new record comes a new set of goals and new opportunities to pursue, though. First and foremost is getting the record out there.

“I’d just like to get it into as many hands as possible,” says Arrant.

A West Coast tour is also in the works and before that a CD release show at the Blue Lamp with the aforementioned Lite Brite and Musical Charis. Along the way, GGM will be distributing Waiting Room to college radio stations, an audience that the band feels will be very receptive to the sounds they’re creating.

By no means are the boys in GGM done with Sacramento. In fact, the way in which they speak of Sacramento and all the bands that make up the rich music scene is with true fanatical admiration.

“I find myself constantly surprised,” says Henry. “It’s easy to get into that mindset of, ‘I’ve pretty much seen everything there is to see in this town.’ I have to eat those words over and over again. There is some real talent in Sacramento.”

Goodness Gracious Me sits comfortably in the middle of all that talent. The band is most commonly labeled “garage rock,” and the boys themselves even say that their sound is unpolished. “There’s no polish, no glitz and no precision,” according to their band bio.

“The beats started off a little choppy, but we wanted to evolve from there and not get stuck in any specific genre,” says Greene.

That evolution is clear if you’ve ever seen them live, and the time that’s been spent on crafting their sound is even more apparent on their record. Their progress is in part due to their chemistry as a band. They are three levelheaded guys who enjoy making music with each other, accept their faults and are inspired and humbled by others rather than jealous. GGM breaks the status quo; no band beef.

“There’s not a lot of ego dispute,” says Greene. “If there’s something that we actually need to talk about, we’ll squash it in five or 10 minutes. There’s never been any real butting of heads.”

GGM’s sound will continue to evolve and the once unpolished garage band that played that first show three years ago will eventually buff out the blemishes. You’ll still get that grime that you know and love, but with greater focus and louder riffs. Don’t sleep on watching this band go from good to great.

Goodness Gracious Me
Catch Goodness Gracious Me at their CD release show on April 3 at Blue Lamp. Also performing is Lite Brite and Musical Charis. Show starts at 9 p.m. and is 21+

Family Soul

Ex-Cuesta Drive’s Dane Drewis Takes His Music Solo”¦
Well, Sort of”¦

With the disbanding of Cuesta Drive last year, lead guitarist and vocalist Dane Drewis refused to go quietly into obscurity. Drewis’ work ethic speaks for itself as he’s already completed his solo record, Rock & Soul, and scheduled a release party April 30, 2010 at Harlow’s. The album may bear his name, but it’s largely a product of a strong family bond woven by generations of musicians.

Drewis’ familial and discovered influences seep into his style on Rock & Soul, be it a nod to jazz-rock or the heavy riffs of Led Zeppelin. His path to a solo career is not as inevitable as one might assume, but then again some people are fated to rock by stronger forces than blood relation. Although a fondness for DMX might not be apparent in Drewis’ sound, take a few minutes to ask him, and he’ll probably find the connection.

Honestly, the connection is there. While discussing the minor details of composing the drums on the record, Drewis said he listened to a lot of modern music, including sampling drum sounds from N.E.R.D. and The Neptunes. “We definitely studied modern production, even if they were not our style, to listen to the tones they were getting on guitars and drums,” he said. “The music itself still has the classic rock, bluesy, funk and soul edge to it.” He even listened to Lenny Kravitz, admitting he was not a fan of the musician, but an admirer of his production value. “We listened just to understand that if we could put my playing with that tone it would be awesome,” he said. “No one will ever know. It still sounds like our jazzy jam band sound.”

Let’s talk about your family’s involvement in the production of the album.
I guess I’ll start from the beginning. My parents were jazz musicians. They played in cover bands throughout ’70s and ’80s. That’s what they did full time, until they had their second kid, my sister Deena, then they had to get real jobs.

Both my sisters are very musically inclined. I tapped them on the shoulder for the album to come out and sing. Actually, my whole family came out to sing in the studio for the song “Friday Night,” which is the single we’re pushing. We did group vocals and individual vocals. My little sister Janel and I have written a couple songs and Deena is a really good writer. She works for a publishing company called Flatmancrooked. So she’ll shoot me lyrics all the time. We’ve done a couple gigs together, just fooling around. We definitely rehearse at home, but we’ve never got a full, official band going. But, it’s always been a possibility in the back of my mind.
 
Since you’ve got your family involved in the recording, do you think you’ll invite them on stage to sing with you at your release show or one of your local gigs?
Well, my little sister is opening for me at Harlow’s for my record release party. She’s 18 and she has no idea how good she is. I always joke that someday I’ll be opening for her. My dad plays bass for me now. But, we’ve talked about doing a couple songs together live. At the Cuesta Drive CD release show two years ago I had both my sisters and my mom come sing backup on a couple songs, but it was so loud. They’re not used to loud rock stuff. They had a hard time hearing themselves through the monitors.

Definitely a possibility. It would be really great to capture on video since we’re filming the whole show. I’ll leave it undecided to surprise people if we do it.
 
How has music being the family business strengthened the bond between your parents and your siblings?
It’s come to fruition more so lately than it has in the past. All through high school I was anti-jazz and rock ‘n’ roll. I was into hip-hop. My parents couldn’t stand it. I didn’t touch a guitar until I was 19. I got one in college.

My parents own a restaurant, Strings Pizzeria on Bradshaw, so we’re all working there, but music is our outlet. It’s a way to relax, let loose and de-stress. It’s the number one activity we all participate in, besides working at the restaurant. We do an open mic [at Strings] every Tuesday. When Janel is home, she comes and sings. My dad and I are always there, so it’s our new thing we do.
 
So it was never a family tradition to sit and have a drum circle after dinner?
No. When I moved home from college about four years ago, it changed. We’d be sitting around and after a couple glasses of wine that’s when it would start happening. My parents’ friends would make us play or something.
 
One of the write-ups on you said that because you were raised in a musical family it was inevitable that you’d be a musician. That notion struck me as strange, and I wanted to know if it felt that way.
It is kind of strange. It was a huge compliment, but so much of it is behind the scenes grinding and self-promotion that takes a strong personal drive. A lot of my friends are incredible musicians and I look up to them, but they don’t have the motivation beyond singing a couple songs around a campfire.
 
With the idea of inevitability toward music in mind, did you have a rebellious stretch where you didn’t want to go into the family business? Maybe during your hip-hop days?
I did. My parents joke that all Asian kids play piano, and my parents made me play when I was a kid. I played for two years, and I was pretty good. The day they said I didn’t have to take lessons anymore, I was 14 and I stopped that day.

I couldn’t stand all the stuff they listened to when I was growing up; all the Motown, lots of bossa nova and Latin jazz. I heard it millions of times, but went out of my way to block it out of my mind. Now that I’m older it’s coming back in waves I would never have imagined. They never really pushed it on me. When I asked for a guitar for Christmas, while I was in college, it took them both by surprise.

I heard Led Zeppelin for the first time when I was a senior in high school. That’s how into hip-hop I was. I used to be able to go through whole DMX and Tupac albums word for word. In hindsight, I listen to those records now and there’s a lot of musical stuff going on there. It was my way of rebelling, but it led me here. Couldn’t have been that bad.
 
Since your dad is a seasoned musician, has he given you any tips for the road of touring?
He tricked out my van, gave me his amps and some of his guitars. My mom is worried because he’s going out on the road with me.
 
She knows what the road is like, too.
She’s having a heart attack. She knows how much we drink and smoke. She’s like, “Keep an eye on your dad.” But, I’m thinking, “Keep an eye on my dad? He’s supposed to keep an eye on me.”
 
What’s the status of Cuesta Drive?
I think we’ll do a couple of reunion shows here and there. Thank God we’re still on great terms. It got to a state of the union last year about this time. We sat down in the back of Sweetwater and had a huge talk. We’d just finished that music video for “Rollin’.” We’d been a band for five or six years and we discussed what it exactly it was we were doing. I was pushing for buying a van, getting on the road, quitting your day jobs, be prepared. Originally that was the plan, but you know how guys are, they don’t talk about their feelings and shit.

We’re all gung ho as far as playing music, but our bass player Timmy got into grad school in Idaho on a long shot. We just kind of went our separate ways. I can always see us getting back together to play and jam, but right now I’m trying to make this my career. I have the drummer from Cuesta Drive still; he plays with me live. Timmy is coming home in May and is already talking about doing a couple shows. Why wouldn’t we? I’m sure we’ll always do a couple reunion shows—kind of like The Police [laughs], but on a small scale.

danedrewis-s-cover-copy.jpg

Dane Drewis will celebrate the release of Rock & Soul at Harlow’s April 30, 2010.

Lunar Landing

Keith Lowell Jensen takes off with a new stand-up CD

A comedian walks into a bar and says—well, he says lots of things, actually. The comedian is Keith Lowell Jensen and the bar is actually a juice bar: Luna’s Café, to be exact. Jensen’s new stand-up CD titled To the Moon was recorded live at Luna’s Café back in April of this year and features an hour of Jensen’s signature lowbrow, indie comedy. Jensen is typically known for his atheist, Christian-bashing humor that has grown in popularity due to the success of the Coexist? Comedy Tour that Jensen is a part of. The tour is a motley crew consisting of a Muslim, a Christian, a Hindu, a Jew, an atheist and a Buddhist. Jensen, along with fellow Coexist? comedian Tapan Trivedi, founded the tour after realizing their shared affinity for blasphemy.

To the Moon finds Jensen rocketing his material to new heights, touching upon anything from having a kid to the costumes in porn. Jensen gets introspective too, poking fun at his experience of attending continuation school as well as the constant confusion of whether or not he’s gay. But the most poignant moment on the CD is the closing track, a nine-minute story describing a childhood memory in which Jensen was duped by his older brother first into sitting in a pile of German Shepherd feces and then making his own deposit in a can, all to the dismay and laughter of his mother. What starts off sounding like a poop joke ends up being a window into the early developmental influences of a talented, comedic mind.

Standing at about 6 feet tall, with low maintenance attire and a unique voice that’s been described as “Muppet-like,” Keith Lowell Jensen is a true performer. He got his start in his early 20s when he was put on stage as an MC for the infamous Spike and Mike Festival of Animation, which reached the height of its popularity by showcasing shorts by such industry greats like Bill Plympton, John Kricfalusi, John Lasseter and Nick Park, just to name a handful.

“That to me is when I started doing stand-up.” says Jensen about his beginnings. “I could have said longer, because I was a ventriloquist in the fourth grade.”

From there his love of performing took him in the direction of sketch comedy, which would put his MC personality on the back burner. But for Jensen, being pulled away from stand-up to do sketch was all part of the process to becoming a better comedian. Biographies of other comedians that Jensen grew to love all had one thing in common: some kind of sketch comedy experience. Jensen wanted that experience too. So in 2001, Jensen formed the sketch comedy troupe I Can’t Believe It’s Not Comedy and focused his attention on writing, acting and directing.

“I just fell in love with it,” reminisces Jensen. “And not just performing it but when you write and direct something and someone else performs it; it’s a really satisfying feeling.”

ICBINC has performed all over Sacramento and also found its way up north to Seattle and down south to Los Angeles. The troupe, although currently on hiatus, is still in existence and all but one of the members is part of the original cast.

During the course of performing heavily with ICBINC, Jensen still found time for stand-up when he could.

“I did it once in a while to keep my chops up.” says Jensen.

Jensen made the jump back into stand-up when his friend and fellow comedian Brent Weinbach needed his help with booking a gig. One of the comedians on the bill, Tapan Trivedi, asked Jensen to share the bill with them and he agreed.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to talk about, it had been so long. So I did half the show on homophobia and half the show on religion.”

That night, his atheist comedy was born—and not long after, so was Coexist?. Trivedi and Jensen assembled four other comedians for the tour and what followed were gigs at some of the top comedy clubs on the West Coast including the Hollywood Improv and San Francisco’s Punchline. What also contributed to the success of Jensen’s atheist brand of humor was his use of YouTube as a means to broadcast his stand-up to a larger audience. Fan bases around the world have popped up, especially in Sweden, where his Swedish last name rings bells with the locals.

Since the conception of the Coexist? Comedy Tour, the past two and half years have been a learning process for Jensen, who has been extremely focused on his stand-up, always looking to improve upon his jokes and build upon the foundation that was formed from doing years of sketch.

“Sketch gave me a freedom in stand-up to play characters a little bit more, to change my voice when I’m giving the words of another person or in quotes within a joke. I think sketch certainly helped me with pacing,” he says.

For Jensen, the writing and performing process is ever changing and spontaneous. Some of the material on To the Moon was written the day it was recorded. Depending on how the crowd is that night, Jensen can add or subtract material at a whim.

“It’s just an interesting part of this art form; it’s so fluid and it’s such a back and forth with the audience. There are very few art forms where you put it in front of the audience and you go back and forth and you keep molding it and changing it according to how it sits with them,” says Jensen.
With a tour schedule that has brought him attention outside of Sacramento and the Internet at his disposal for promoting his stand-up, its seems that at this point in his career it would make sense for Keith Lowell Jensen to move to where there’s more work and a bigger market. But making the move to somewhere like Los Angeles just isn’t in the cards. In fact, being from Sacramento is part of his brand, says Jensen.

“It’s an unusual identity to be from somewhere like Sacramento, and to be proud of where you’re from and not feel the need to switch it up and go down to L.A. I don’t want to be an L.A. comic, I’m a Sacramento comic,” says Jensen.

Sacramento is lucky to have Jensen, who is more than qualified to be an ambassador for the River City. He’s practically a household name in the arts community, and for good reason. This past March saw the release of his documentary, Why Lie? I Need a Drink, a hilarious look at panhandling from a homeless and non-homeless perspective. The non-homeless perspective showcased Jensen in various costumes with a multitude of signs bearing clever phrases like, “Large bills OK, can make change.” It premiered at The Crest Theatre and had quite a successful run; look for a DVD release this September. And if a tour, a CD and a documentary weren’t enough, Jensen authored a book titled The Atheist Survival Guide: A Humorous Guide to Getting By in a God Fearing World that is slated for release in November.

Considering the breadth of his undertakings, it may seem like there’s no rest in sight for Jensen. However, he might have to take a break after all with the arrival of another important something—a baby girl due in October. With the success of all his other endeavors, fatherhood should be a walk in the park. Or should I say, a trip to the moon.