[Written on Sunday, April 9; Printed in Issue 237: Monday, April 10, 2017]

I don’t even know where to start.

As we were working on this issue, we got word that one of Sacramento’s most beloved artists and DJs had passed away—Dan Osterhoff, known to many as DJ Whores. It all seemed to happen so fast and seems like it came out of nowhere. I am still in shock and probably will be every time I’m at an event and won’t see his smiling face.

I don’t remember the first time I officially met Dan, maybe it was around the time he painted the sign at Anthony’s Barbershop, or maybe it was at Press Club after dancing my face off at his Wednesday night party called HUMP. It was probably around 2008 or 2009, and it feels like a lifetime ago. I will always remember the numerous encounters I was lucky enough to have with him whenever it was that we broke the ice, which seemed like every time we saw each other. He was everywhere, and I mean everywhere: birthday parties, art exhibits, block parties, Dan was always there supporting his homies and Sacramento’s creative community.

I think when we started Submerge, I didn’t want to be the person who became best friends with everyone in town, just because of what I was doing, making Submerge. I wanted to have a more journalistic approach, to tell stories and not be biased. However, when a friendship forms organically, and you discover who someone really is beyond their music, beyond their art and you truly enjoy running into them and sparking up conversations every single time to shoot the shit, that’s someone I can genuinely call a friend and one I hold dear to my heart. My husband and I had that sort of friendship with Dan.

Dan was beyond special. As a visual artist, he was probably the most talented lettering guy I’ve ever met. I remember when I was going to school for graphic design, it was so frustrating drawing an ampersand over and over to prefect it. So I had nothing but admiration for all the signage Dan has done around town: Sail Inn, Dad’s on S Street, his collaboration with Shaun Burner on the side of Dimple on Broadway and so many others.

As a music lover, Dan was always telling me who he was listening to at the moment, trying to turn me onto new stuff. He was true to himself, too, because when he wasn’t feeling his Press Club night, he stopped it to do something he was feeling, and that was the dubstep night at Townhouse called Grimey. He was always talking about local up and comers, trying to mentor them along the way. He was seriously always chopping me up about his homie Jurts.

As I’m typing this I can’t help but be sad that Sacramento lost such an amazing guy, and am super bummed that when I saw him at the ArtStreet exhibit last month I didn’t go chop it up with him. I guess that will be one regret I’ll always have.

However, I will go forward knowing the impact and friendships he also had with so many others, and judging from the amount of love being shared on social media, I think he was a genuinely nice guy to everyone in town.

Rest in peace my friend,

–Melissa

The persevering, rugged spirit of the Wild West is well-summarized in the alliterative phrase, “Come hell or highwater.” In non-cowboy terms, it means, “despite any obstacle.” And in that spirit, says DJ Rogers of his recently opened restaurant and bar Highwater, in a rare straight-shooting answer to a goddamn question, “Though the trials many and tribulations toilsome; come hell or highwater, it was to be.”

Mick Stevenson and Rogers, both veteran local musicians and owners of Dad’s Sandwiches, laid claim to a golden opportunity in late 2015 when they purchased Pour House on Q Street from Trevor Shults, the enterprising creator of a laundry list of local bars and restaurants in the Sacramento area. Biding their time, and partnering with Justin Isaacks, Ben Dewey, Matt Hagstrom and Isaac Fratini, they continued operating the establishment as Pour House until mid-August, when they launched the new concept, Highwater, which better fit the space.

I mean, it was kind of off having a vape lounge/cocktail bar in a train trackside saloon smack dab in the middle of a historically Old West city. Why not embrace the cowboy theme and run with it? But rather than Gold Rush western, Highwater’s inspiration is decidedly Albuquerque western. Evidence of their ties to rock ‘n’ roll can be found throughout, too. The brick interior is gussied up with trippy murals by local artists Shaun Burner and Dan Osterhoff.

“I asked [them] if they had ever seen the movie Holy Mountain. They both said yes, which was a shock because I know they don’t do drugs. A few cans of paint later, and our customers have traveled to the desert with us,” explains Rogers.

When I asked him how they think Highwater stands out in a pretty crowded restaurant and bar scene, Rogers accurately described the Highwater difference: “Promising up-and-coming UFC prospects are less likely to slap the Monster Energy with vodka out of both your girlfriends’ hands here.”

But in all seriousness, Stevenson lived in Albuquerque prior to planting his flag in California, and Rogers expounds, “I had also spent a lot of time in New Mexico. Since I met Mick, we had always talked about doing a menu like this. We weren’t really setting out to be unique, just to put out the best food we knew we could. Pairing drinks with the menu is where our head bartender came in; because of the nature of the food, he ended up going with a lot of mezcals and tequilas—as it turns out they make for incredible cocktails.”

Highwater serves up lunch and dinner seven days a week until 10 p.m., and brunch on Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m.–2 p.m. Happy hour is daily from 3–7 p.m., and they’ve stuck with the train shots from the Pour House and Whiskey Wild days—when a train goes by, house whiskey shots are two bucks. Rotating drafts feature a mixture of local brews and Mexican imports, and the back bar is well-stocked with a curated selection of artisanal scotches, bourbons, tequilas, mezcals and other high-end liquors.

First, we ordered up a Peach Rose from our trusty bar dog. This bourbon-based drink was poured with Four Roses, lemon, ginger, simple syrup, peach liqueur and angostura bitters, and garnished with a lemon peel and whiskey stone ice cube. Drinkable, smooth and carefully striking a balance between sweet, boozy and bitter, the Peach Rose had a frothy, creamy texture, while merely hinting at peach and citrus.

The Pinto is Highwater’s answer to the current beer cocktail trend. Made with Botanist gin, St. Elder, simple syrup, lemon, grapefruit and Track 7 IPA, the Pinto tastes like a Fresca (that grapefruit soda that was popularized in the ‘90s). It was refreshing, bitter, citrusy, light and crisp.

Highwater’s Bloody Mary is the self-same Preservation and Co. recipe that Pour House mixed—no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. This award-winning hair of the dog cures hangovers with vodka, obviously, and Sacramento-based Preservation and Co.’s Bloody Mary Mix, sriracha salt and pickled olive, green bean and pearl onion garnishes. Note that it’s available during brunch only, upon request.

Time to eat. Stevenson busily procured one plate after another for the Submerge team to try, and upon delivery, gave us the rundown of each awesome dish we were to try. The salmon cake Benedict, a brunch item, arrived first. Made just like a crab cake, the savory, breaded salmon cakes were seared to a crisp on the outside, topped with poached eggs and a housemade hollandaise, and garnished with microgreens. The side of Deli Lama’s Papas are Highwater’s delicious version of breakfast potatoes.

Vegans! The stuffed portabella tastes almost as good a juicy steak and is 100 percent veg. Marinated portabellas are stuffed with a not-overcooked, marinated mix of grilled carrots, summer squash and zucchini, and drizzled with a balsamic reduction. Dirty rice comes on the side.

The chicken adobo street tacos were up next. Doubled up corn tortillas are stuffed to the max with cabbage, chicken adobo, housemade salsa, roasted jalapeño, cilantro and Cotija cheese. I suggest removing the bottom tortilla and eating the taco over said tortilla so when hella stuff falls out, you have another taco. Stevenson plans to add a pork taco to the menu soon.

I am told that it’s football season? Whatever, the Super Bowl Nachos are grub whenevs. Tri-color chips, cheddar and jack cheese, housemade salsa, New Mexico green chiles, green onions and black beans are heaped in a pile of simple, timeless goodness.

The rebrand, new menu and events (see below) have been a hit with locals thus far, and it would seem that neither hell, nor highwater, have come to stand in the way. After more than a decade of working together, be it making music, throwing rad events or running businesses, you’d think Stevenson and Rogers would get sick of each other sometimes, but they seem to be having a blast in all of their partnerships, with no signs of slowing down. That’s probably due to a shared attitudinal working dynamic, summarized by Rogers with this metaphor: “When there’s only one slice of pizza left in the box, we leave it be.”

PARTY CRUSHERS
Highwater’s Events Offer Quality Alternatives to Your Couch

We asked Rogers about which events have proven the most popular so far, to which he replied, “The Midtown Spring Formal comes to mind. Who doesn’t like to dress up? I’ll pin a corsage on anything that moves.” But their weekly events keep bringing people in, too. Keep on eye on their events calendar, it might just upgrade your social life.

Here are some of the highlights:

TOTAL RECALL & FUNK IN THE TRUNK
Every first Friday, Total Recall brings the heat with your favorite ‘90s hits.

HEAVY MONDAYS
Mondays suck, so commiserate with some metal together at the back bar.

TUSSLE
Every Tuesday, get down at this weekly trip hop and soul dance night.

ONLY THE GOOD STUFF
Every Wednesday, that good good hip hop and R&B dance party gets you past the mid-week slump.

MOVEMENT
A monthly party featuring all vinyl sets of synth pop, ‘80s and new wave, spun by Eric and Juan.

Highwater is located at 1910 Q St., Sacramento. For more info, go to Highwatersacramento.com.

Though he makes his home in Copenhagen, Steven Jess Borth II’s electronica project CHLLNGR has deep Sacramento roots

The Red Bull Studios Copenhagen website is written entirely in Danish, but search “CHLLNGR” and you’ll likely land on a video mostly spoken in English, aside from a few locals in a bread store. The video features CHLLNGR (stylized, vowel-less Challenger), an experimental dub music project masterminded by Steven Jess Borth II, laying down tracks in the Red Bull Studio for its sophomore record, Form of Release. The documentary mostly depicts scenery from Copenhagen and the studio, recording artists in indigenous garb from New York City and rappers from the United Kingdom, but in the midst of this global project is Sacramento. Oddly, our city has played a pivotal role in Borth’s project since its inception in 2010.

CHLLNGR performed at the Submerge 50th Issue Party in 2010, having graced the magazine cover in anticipation of his then-untitled debut album. At the time CHLLNGR was in a larval state, still largely faithful to dub music traditions of instrumental reworkings of recordings that slug along at a reggae beat stripped to its “riddims,” which translates to bass and drums. It’s a genre pioneered by artists like Lee “Scratch” Perry, Errol Thompson and King Tubby.

In those days CHLLNGR consisted of Borth, Andrew “Young Aundee” Southard and Dan “DJ Whores” Osterhoff in the live setup. But behind the scenes, the project relied on a troupe of local collaborators who continue to be influential cogs four years later on Form of Release, namely Dusty Brown and Justin “Dr. Echo” DeHart.

Much like British outfit Unkle, CHLLNGR defies simplistic classification because Borth seemingly doesn’t have “no” in his vocabulary. It loosely takes the form of a collective, rather than a solo project, as each release hosts a revolving cast both credited as guest features and buried in the fine print of liner notes. The only consistency across CHLLNGR’s two LPs (Form of Release and 2011’s debut Haven), outtakes release Hidden Tracks, and the Datter EP are Borth and the mastering finesse of Dr. Echo. Well, perhaps one other: Sacramento.

For example, Haven’s closer “Dusty” features vocals from Jessica Brown, a long-time contributor to her brother’s eponymous project Dusty Brown. The lyrics to “Dusty” were written by Young Aundee, while the title of the song is assumed to be a reference to Dusty, who opened his studio to Borth to create early Haven demos.

“Dusty gave me access to all his vintage gear,” Borth said. “In that period Young Aundee was there in Dusty’s studio most of the time and he played a really big part. He did most of the arrangements for [“Dusty”], also he did the lead synth on ‘Ask For’ and quite a bit more.”

In the initial Submerge interview, Borth mentioned a few particularly noisy recording sessions with Zach Hill of Death Grips, although it is unknown if they were utilized for Haven—given its nocturnal, downtempo qualities I’m inclined to think not. But in those early sessions Borth’s mindset was hinged upon experimentation. Whereas on Form of Release, CHLLNGR has evolved into a wish list come true of vocalists and co-producers.

“Form of Release, I really wanted to have a vocal album,” he said. “I was comfortable with some instrumentals, but I definitely wanted something that was not necessarily traditional pop songs, but a weird pop music.”

The detraction from having Red Bull’s insoluble budget was that Borth got his wish in the form of a curse. The album features JOSIAHWISE IS THE SERPENTWITHFEET from New York City, Dels from the United Kingdom, Grace Hall of Skin Town from Los Angeles, Blaqstarr from Maryland, and no possibility of uniting this group for a live set, particularly JOSIAHWISE, who contributes to five tracks.

“It’s pretty much just been me,” Borth said. “I’ll sing the songs in their place. With JOSIAH’s songs it’s very tough because he’s an insanely talented vocalist and writes complicated melodies I can’t exactly pull off.”

When I ask about his live setup for his New Year’s Eve performance at this year’s TBD’s New Year’s Eve Block Pary, Borth laughs at the thought as he mentions he’ll have to rely on Sacramento once again. “I need to start sending some emails around because I need to borrow some equipment,” he said. “But I want some old friends to join me on stage as well.”

If Borth is the captain of CHLLNGR, Dr. Echo is his first mate. Through emails he wrote that he and Borth never met properly in Sacramento, though he theorizes they were “probably in the same place at the same time on numerous occasions.” Though his connection to Sacramento has faded, Dr. Echo began as a drummer in dub band The Defendants with former !!! member Tyler Pope, and later ran Soundlab Studios in various Midtown locations before moving to Los Angeles in 2002. Having mixed “98 percent” of CHLLNGR’s output, Dr. Echo was flown out from his current home in Anaheim to Copenhagen on Red Bull’s dollar at Borth’s request. Dusty Brown was also flown to the studio in the last week for the task of “filling in the gaps,” according to Borth.

“Dusty was crucial,” Borth said. “It’s always been in the back of my head to collaborate more with him. I just have a lot of respect for him, his stylings, how quick he is and how he can really bring his ideas to the table and they can be very well thought-out. He has so many years of experience with electronic music that he can just get in there and finish up any ideas that I had started. He tied up the loose ends in a huge way.”

Borth is the captain of CHLLNGR, there’s no questioning it. In a Skype call we discussed the process of recording in the Red Bull Studio and he notes that the majority of the songwriting was done on his laptop with a micro-Korg and spring reverb prior to their three-week recording stint. He said the documentary just captures the focused grind of piecing an album together in three weeks.

“Most of it was doing really nerdy stuff,” he said. “Just running the sounds I’d already made and having the other collaborators record their vocal parts. Dels came out and JOSIAH came out. Justin [Dr. Echo] was there pretty much the whole time with me.”

As first mate, Dr. Echo has witnessed the evolution of CHLLNGR from dub homage to a spacious nocturnal metamorphosis on Haven, and into the Form of Release sessions, which reveal CHLLNGR at its most pop-y and universally catered state. He attributes the early alterations to Borth’s love of R&B as a heavy influence on the distinct sound, particularly in the melodies and harmonies, and the more recent growth to his prolific mind for collaboration.

“I think it should be evident that dub music from the ‘70s to ‘80s is a major influence on his sound,” Dr. Echo wrote. “However, ‘dub’ can be a vague term these days. Qualities such as spaciousness, sonic subversiveness and otherworldliness seem to remain appropriate to CHLLNGR’s sound throughout the years… I really think CHLLNGR’s music truly exists in the cracks of today’s genres.”

Ring in the New Year with CHLLNGR and an A-list lineup at this TBD’s New Year’s Eve Block Party, which will take place Dec. 31, 2014 (duh) on 20th Street between J and K streets. A-Trak, Sister Crayon and Gigamesh (among others) will also perform. Tickets start at $45. Check out Tbdnye.com for more info. NOTE: #TBDNYE IS ALMOST SOLD OUT! LIMITED AMOUNT OF “LAST MINUTE” TIX ARE STILL AVAILABLE, BUT THEY WON’T BE FOR LONG! ACT NOW IF YOU WANT TO GO!

Whether you ride low, got a Dyno with black mags, test your guts on a fixie or cruise casual, if you’ve got a bike and love art, we’ve got an afternoon activity with you in mind. In celebration of May Is Bike Month, Submerge rode through Midtown mapping out a mural tour with eight points of interest. It should be noted this is not a comprehensive listing of Midtown murals, as we could send you down J Street or through seedy alleys on a dangerous mission to enjoy art. Our mural tour is a list of staff favorites that can be viewed safely as you happen to cruise past local businesses we frequent. Please ride carefully, stay hydrated and respect Omri Casspi’s handsome face.

A fairly solid launch point to cruise past the history of Sacramento and some psychedelic butterflies of Laserium, then hang a sharp right before Macy’s to pass the parking garage as it transitions into Metamorphosis by Centro de Artistas Chicanos.

T Street / between 6th & 7th streets
Built in 1934, the Amphitheatre rests on the north side of the park and won’t look like much upon pulling up, but pedal around to the stage and bask in the Chicano-centric art by members of the Royal Chicano Air Force. It’s a great place to rest in the grass or on the stage and hydrate if needed.

915 S Street / between 9th & 10th streets
Painted in 2005 by Stephanie Taylor, the mural on the eastern wall of Beer’s depicts the grandfather of California literature Jack London along with several quotes from the author. Explore Sacramento’s history even further by perusing the stacks of local publications, or just stop in to pet Raffle the bookstore’s furball mascot.

1918 16th Street / between T & S streets
Bikes on 16th require self-assured riding, so if you have the chops for it, make a stop at Constantly Growing on 16th between S and T streets. The graffiti burner is well crafted and wraps around the establishment.

16th Street / between Q & R streets
Painted by Anthony Padilla, the Kings mural might be a bit dated given a few trades, but it’s always nice to cruise by either with hope for another year, to catch a glimpse for the last time ever or just to check on Omri Casspi’s face. Be sure to check out the biker friendly schwag and appetizers at Hot Italian across from Fremont Park.

between 167h & 18th streets
The tremendous 200-foot mural painted in 2009 by John Stuart Berger and Dolan Forcier means you are halfway finished, but given its length, taking it all in will slow you down. The good news: Old Soul Coffee Shop rests in the alley to caffeinate for the remaining trek.

Corner of N & 24th streets
Be mindful of pulling up to the American Market mural by Shaun Turner and Dan Osterhoff. The gorgeous woman stoically watching over the corner of 24th and N is liable to cause accidents. Oh, there’s a peacock too.

Bon Air Deli & Market and First Edition Murals
Corner of J & 26th streets
The corner of 26th and J is an active one for artists. Within a stone’s throw of one another is the graffiti mural by Sam Flores on the side of First Edition, formerly Upper Playground, the mural on the northeast corner of Bon Air Deli by Joshua Silveira and Gabriel Romo and University Art supply store should you be inspired to create your own.