Rebel Punk’s debut album, Love/Hate, is scientifically proven to make you more badass
“Rebel Punk isn’t punk,” clarified drummer John Quesada. “It’s kind of how The Killers aren’t killers.” Rebel Punk is an El Dorado Hills band with roots all over the world, who play good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll. No crazy dramatics here, the lyrics are clean and all sounds are the cries of guitars, drums and bass only. Simple rock ‘n’ roll from experienced musicians who can rely on their honed skills with instruments.
The band will release their first album, Love/Hate, at the end of the month at Blue Lamp.
“We first started out as a cover band. We would be working on everything from Johnny Cash songs to The Clash,” said Quesada. One practice session, however, founding member and vocalist/guitarist George Palacios showed up with some original material. Eventually the band found itself cranking out so much original content that they struggled to narrow it down to the 12-song track list that would become Love/Hate.
The band reminded me of Social Distortion with a hint of The Clash. They encompass a sort of badassery that is expressed with class and cleanliness. Love/Hate blends the classic rock that you imagined was played in garages throughout the ‘70s, tinged with an attitude that would get these tunes blasting through the speakers of a dude flying down the 101 on his Harley. The band says they are “High octane rock ‘n’ roll,” after all.
Rebel Punk consists of a bunch of really hardworking dudes. For instance, Craig Dieterich plays bass and backing vocals but is a construction superintendent by day. Matt Vijeh does guitars and backing vocals but also works as a garbage man (the garbage man, according to him). When Quesada isn’t holding it down on drums, he can be found cruising down California’s freeways as a big bad truck driver. Cue the Sons of Anarchy opening song.
The band regularly shreds in a garage in EDH, where they have shockingly only had the police called on them twice. “When they showed up, they said, ‘We followed the kickass music to this garage. Rock on, but ya gotta stop by 9 p.m.’” Quesada fondly reminisced. “Then the cop cracked a beer and threw up some devil horns while we played our next song.” Keep it brutal, EDH.
Before every live performance, the group sticks to a strict regimen of pre-show rituals, mostly consisting of shots, “typically Jäger for Craig, Patron for Cack [Quesada’s nickname], Jack for George, and cold Tanqueray for Matt. Cack usually screams for a few more shots during the set,” the band said via email. You can find Rebel Punk playing everything from indoor venues with two-hour sets to large outdoor events including food truck parties, marathons and charity events. They also played Pat Walsh’s anniversary radio show on 93.1 KFBK. They are even looking forward to finally breaking through and possibly playing the Sacramento Concert in the Park series.
The new album was written from 2010 to 2014, and recorded at the superior Pus Cavern with Joe Johnston. Pus Cavern is the local alt-music recording Mecca where everyone from Cake to A Lot Like Birds to The Brodys has laid down tracks. Most of the material was written by Palacios. Originally hailing from Spain, he penned the songs to reflect his relationship with American culture and assimilating to it. Palacios expresses his disparity with some aspects of our culture, as well as his love for it (hence the album title Love/Hate). The song “Down in the USA” is easily the tune that most reflects the feel of the album as a whole. It is about Palacios coming to the United States on vacation from Spain, meeting his now-wife and deciding to stay in the States to be with her.
The album naturally progresses from tamer jams in the beginning and starts to loosen into controlled chaos in the end. The drums become more heavy-handed and quicker, the vocals are a tad more demanding and embracing of said chaos.
The second to last track off of the album, “What I’m Looking For,” starts with an Elvis Presley-type entrance before osculating into guitar riffs that would make Brody Dalle swoon. Track five, “Breaking Down the Walls,” is a perfect example of this band’s seamless rock ‘n’ roll style. It focuses on the relationship between the guitar and vocals and rolls smoothly binded together until the end of the tune. The band’s influences, which include Social Distortion, Metallica and The Ramones, ring true in their music. Stylistically and lyrically, they have the attitude and they certainly have the guitar playing to back it up.
On the night of their CD release at Blue Lamp, Rebel Punk will release their first ever music video. A1 automotives was more than happy to let them film their video amongst his hot rod collection, some with paint jobs that surpassed more than $35,000.
“It was so fun, yet tedious,” said Quesada. “We had to redo our song at least 50 times to make sure we got the right shot. The folks over at MC2 productions produced the video by rigging the garage with tons of Go-Pro cameras. It was cool because we even strapped one to the back of a hot-rod, and we all loaded in the car and let the camera tape us speeding off into a cloud of dust.” The video will be released at Rebel Punk’s album release show on Jan. 31 at Blue Lamp, where their 12-song lineup will keep that rock rollin’ all night long.
As we age, our sense of taste becomes more refined. What we used to find disgusting as teenagers may now be quite delectable as adults. For example, you used to hate fish as a child and now you can’t stop cramming sushi into your mouth. You warmed up to that flavor over time and now find it highly enjoyable. Wine presents another fine example of this phenomenon.
Nature doesn’t fuck around, so of course the grape is an amazing thing. In my book, the only bad grape is a seeded grape. Even in their fruit juice or Kool-Aid forms, grapes retained their deliciousness. I haven’t always been able to say the same about wine.
When I first tried wine, I thought it tasted real funky. It wasn’t until college that I started to actually appreciate the flavor, and even then I progressed slowly. Like many people, the sweet stuff was easier to stomach, so I stuck with whites and rosés at first. Eventually, I moved up to their more pungent red cousins and never looked back. It took time to develop a taste for wine and it involved a lot of trial and error. If nothing else, you get drunk off wine from time to time and this is not a bad thing.
If experimentation is your game then there really is no better way of getting to know wine than to go wine tasting. We in Northern California are lucky enough to be surrounded by several excellent regions for a bit of vino. Napa is an obvious first choice as its number of wineries boggles the mind and causes my liver to shiver in fear. It’s quite beautiful there and the weather can be very nice, but it’s also a bit snooty for my taste. Instead, try Healdsburg and its surrounding areas for a few nice surprises.
Closer to home we have the Lodi area, which looks like a dirt patch but manages to come up with some tasty Zinfandels. I have heard great things about the El Dorado Hills region but unfortunately I haven’t been. I’ve even heard cries of Livermore enough that they should start calling the town Liverless.
All of these can be fun places, but for my money (or lack thereof), the Amador Valley is the place to be. Amador has the beauty of Napa, the civility of Healdsburg, and wine that is as good or better than any of them. Tasting is usually free in Amador, which is not the case in Napa or Healdsburg, and they will usually let you re-taste whatever you like.
The wineries are cool like that in Amador. You won’t be dealing with some sucka-ass sommelier with high opinions of him/herself. Instead your wine will more likely be poured by the owner, winemaker or friends and family of one or the other. Which is to say, no one in Amador is going to try to make you feel stupid if you don’t know shit about wine or how wine tasting works. Of course, they will appreciate it if you do.
The good news for those eager to learn is there really isn’t much you need to know to avoid looking like a total dipshit. As with most public places, you should avoid fighting, breaking things and vomiting wine all over the place. Drink what you like and pour out what you don’t into the buckets on the counter. Don’t forget to eat crackers, pretzels, cheese or whatever the winery has laying around for you. You need to cleanse your palate between different wines so you can taste the difference between them and you also need to eat something to soak up all that booze, ya lush.
Once you got all of that, the real fun can begin. You can hold your glass up and look at the wine in the light if you want, but that shit gets old pretty quick when you are tasting, so do what ya like! Once you are done staring at it, swirl the wine around lightly to aerate it and open up its flavor. Take a sip and savor it. Remember if you like it and move on to the next. Repeat the process until you are finished with your flight. Buy a bottle of that good shit if you want or say thanks and go to a different winery and repeat. Easy peasy!
Hopefully you haven’t been driving like a drunk lunatic all day. Getting a limo or car service to take you around is pretty sweet, but it can be expensive unless the whole gang comes along. If nothing else you better get your drunk ass a room near the last winery you go to and sleep it off before you kill us all on the freeway. Keep yourself alive long enough and maybe you’ll eventually become a full-fledged wino! Don’t worry, you can thank me later!
Bocephus Chigger
bocephus@submergemag.com
Island of Black and White Descend from a Reno Studio with a New Album in Tow
Alexander Graham Bell once said that when one door closes, another opens.
This was precisely the case when Island of Black and White lost its drummer hours before a show and band manager Nawal Alwareeth stepped up, picked up a pair of drumsticks and filled in without missing a beat. No small feat for the fledgling drummer, whose previous drumming experience consisted of banging on table tops and the occasional whack on the bongos.
“I played some percussion, like hand drums…and playing on tables and that kind of thing, but never a drum set,” Alwareeth says. “Chris [Haislet, founding member] said that we had a few hours to practice before the show [in] Humboldt so that’s what we did.”
“She knew all the songs, so it was perfect,” Haislet adds.
A caribbean-drenched fusion of funk, reggae, rock, folk and blues, IBW emerged from the foothills of El Dorado County in 2004 when multi-instrumentalist Haislet—his musical repertoire includes piano, guitar, accordion, melodica, flute—and a friend transformed their jam sessions into a full-fledged band. And, like the music they play, the band’s lineup has evolved; but at its core are Haislet, Alwareeth on drums and vocals, lead guitarist John-John Baguio and Justin Maddux getting down on bass.
“We play a lot of reggae and we play a lot of blues,” Haislet says. “And our favorite kind of music to play is reggae and blues. We listen to all different types of music. Good music is good music.”
“I think it stems from just playing music you love—music you love listening to,” Alwareeth adds.
While Island of Black and White has been celebrated for its idiosyncratic take on covers of classic funk, blues, rock and soul jams, it’s this love for music that prompted the band to also amass a prodigious catalog of its own original tunes. Tunes they’re now able to share with their large fan base on their debut album, aptly titled IBW.
IBW landed a producer for their debut release after winning the Hard Rock Battle of the Bands round in Tahoe in March, when their performance piqued the interest of veteran producer Douglas Patrick Vaughn—a staple of the Reno, Nev., recording scene for nearly 30 years. After having saved up money from their shows and throwing an album fundraiser in April for recording fees, the band hit the road and trekked up the hill to Reno to lay down the tracks on their first serious foray into the recording booth.
“We met Doug [at the Hard Rock Battle of the Bands], he was the sound guy, and told us he had a studio in Reno. He offered us a good deal at Sierra Sonics Recording Mansion, and they were just super cool people, super friendly and an awesome studio,” Alwareeth says. “We went there a few different times; we kind of started with one song then worked our way up. Then we [went home], saved a little bit more money and went back and finished the whole album. Doug also mixed and mastered the album with us so we spent some more time together and did that.”
The 12-track LP, released on Sept. 20, 2013, emerged out of everyday life experiences and draws heavily on their varied backgrounds—Alwareeth was born in the United States but raised in Egypt and Haislet hails from El Dorado County.
For instance, the album’s closing track, “Egyptian Lullaby,” is a serpentine jam that weaves in and out of tempo while incorporating Haislet’s honeyed vocals. A rattling tambourine slithers in and out of the track as gusts of energetic notes emanate from an accordion, while the lyrics pull inspiration from Alwareeth’s Middle Eastern roots.
“The songs were ready, and had been ready for a while,” Alwareeth says. “We were waiting to find the right person, and the right place, [and] the right time. It was awesome. It was perfect.”
“And the right price,” Haislet adds.
Their live shows are highly improvisational and have been known to run three hours in length, but the duo says that the ebb and flow of each performance relies heavily on the energy and vibe of the crowd.
“I think we have a good time,” Alwareeth says. “We enjoy what we do, and I think everything we do when we get up there [on stage] is on the fly and in the moment and whatever we’re feeling, and whatever the crowd is feeling, it all affects it, I think. We just play and have a good time and all of sudden three hours is over.”
Bringing this off-the-cuff methodology of performance into the recording studio, however, forced the band to focus this freewheeling style into a concise and deliberate vision.
“We definitely had to go about it a different way,” Haislet explains. “When you’re playing a live show, and when you’re recording, you’re kind of painting a picture and both [venues] are different in how you paint that picture. I think the hardest part for us was making the songs shorter.”
“Instead of 10-minute jams we had two [to] three-minute jams,” Alwareeth adds.
As solid contributors to the local music scene in and around Sacramento for nearly a decade, Island of Black and White has established itself as a soulful, musical powerhouse. Having played for the heaving crowd of thousands at the 2012 opening ceremony at Cesar Chavez Park’s Concerts in the Park series, the Hot Lunch concert series at Fremont Park and the Cosmic Family Gathering in Placerville, their music has gained a substantial and loyal following.
The band’s frenetic energy is only matched by its jam-packed tour schedule. With shows stretching up and down the state from Tahoe to Sacramento and as far south as Los Angeles, the quartet has performed at small coffee shops, restaurants and local hot spots like Harlow’s Restaurant and Nightclub.
“We play four shows a week,” Alwareeth explains. “We have some weekly gigs and then some weekend gigs that we do, but this is our quiet time. Summertime is crazy for us.”
“We get through it by getting lots of sleep,” Haislet chuckles.
Looking forward to their upcoming performance, including a local CD release show at the venerable Torch Club on Nov. 29, 2013, Alwareeth and Haislet, who met by chance at a Hacky Sack club meeting at Folsom Lake College, say it’s a privilege to play the music they love full-time. And, while their unrelenting tour schedule can be grueling and downright exhausting at times, you wouldn’t know it from their cheery dispositions and the sheer joy that seems to exude from every pore of their being as they are laying down a righteous jam on stage.
“We’re all about peace, love and music,” Haislet says. “And having fun.”
Island of Black and White’s CD Release show will be at Torch Club (904 15th Street) on Friday, Nov. 29, 2013. To view other upcoming tour dates and purchase the album, visit Islandofblackandwhite.com.
Hazel and Vine Go It Alone
El Dorado Hills’ indie pop sensation Hazel and Vine are making its way home. Currently out on a CD release tour, the group has spent the last seven months recording and re-evaluating its career with changes that include going DIY and becoming the procurer of its own destiny.
This month Hazel and Vine went DIY, self-releasing its self-titled album. Oddly enough, achieving this ethos of control involved the group leaving Ethos Records. Lead vocalist Kyle Monroe spoke candidly of his band’s departure from Ethos, stating it was a “no qualms” break up. “We signed on for one CD to ‘test the waters,'” he said. “It was absolutely great. Our CD was made and released in more places than we could have done ourselves, but in the process we felt like the CD wasn’t really ours. That’s why we decided to release our current album by ourselves.”
The boys took going DIY to heart, as the band’s recently released self-titled record is stripped to the core of Hazel and Vine’s musicians. Monroe said going into pre-production the group agreed that if they could not play it live, it would not be featured on the record. “I am pretty sure throughout our studio time I said the phrase, ‘It’s not real enough! Stop it!'” Monroe said. “I love the fact that we didn’t do anything we couldn’t accomplish live. What you hear on the record is what you will get live. As much as it would have been fun to make everything absolutely perfect, it wouldn’t have been that natural sound that we were going for.”
Indeed, Hazel and Vine successfully stripped its sound. The record is devoid of bells and whistles, opting to let each member contribute his respective talent to the process. Monroe said it was important that with the group’s third record, each member be present for recording. By taking this approach Monroe said it led to an understanding of each members’ significance in each song. “It’s always more positive when you have your band mates cheering you on and laughing at you when you mess up,” he said. “It allowed us to pick apart our songs and understand what each person was trying to convey with their instrument.”
The group spent 30 days in the studio with Josh Benton of Joshua Tree Studios and Dan Koch of the San Luis Obispo band Sherwood. It was a month-long regiment of arriving at the studio at 10 a.m., brewing coffee and recording until 10 p.m.
Monroe said his manager arranged for Koch to assist in recording. The band had half its songs written prior to Koch’s involvement, but Monroe insisted that had Koch not joined on, the record would not have been completed by deadline. “I am personally a huge Sherwood fan and have been since I was in high school,” Monroe said. “It was a great motivation to get off our butts and start working.”
Koch’s most significant contribution was shaping the song “The Radio Sound.” Once Koch heard the single-worthy song, Monroe said he was enamored with shaping it into a radio-friendly pop hit. The band worked with Koch in his Los Gatos, Calif. apartment, playing acoustic guitars and receiving helpful tips on roughly half the record’s songs. Monroe admits that after spending time with Koch the group applied its lessons to the remainder of the record. “The song was originally an upbeat number but very dark and very minor,” he said. “He really taught us how to focus on making a song radio-friendly without sounding like every pop band on the radio. Short songs that are to the point”¦ And I feel that is exactly what this record is… Despite our last song that is five minutes with a nice outro.”
Strict routines of locking oneself in a studio for 12 hours can lead to a slight case of cabin fever. The members of Hazel and Vine were kind enough to record video of its forays into the weirder side of studio time. Viewable on their Myspace page, one of the games played to alleviate the pressure was “sombrero time.” “We made a rule that while recording bass you had to wear this huge two and a half foot sombrero that was extremely uncomfortable and probably affected the quality of the bass tracks,” Monroe said. “But it’s OK, that’s what makes the record so special for us.”
Another entertaining video features Monroe and bassist Davis warming up in a bathroom before a show. The band jokes about the lengths it goes to find solace before a show and exercise its pipes in proper acoustics, but the bathroom singing is not limited to warm-ups. In true DIY fashion, the studio’s vocal booth was the bathroom. “Every time I would go into the vocal booth I had to go through the bathroom,” he said “It seemed that someone was always going to the bathroom while I was recording. It made it almost impossible to record when you are listening to it happen on the other side of the door.” I did not inquire further as to what “it” was that could be heard, but my hunch is it was not pleasant.
Despite a lifespan of three years and several lineup changes, Hazel and Vine have logged an impressive amount of hours touring. The band’s CD release tour takes them as far as Tucson, Ariz. and Las Vegas with a homecoming show at Club Retro on Nov. 27. Hazel and Vine will play the new record in its entirety as well as a yet to be disclosed cover. Monroe expressed an excitement for the night that will include a communal sing-a-long with friends and family. “We are going to have a lot of guest artist on stage with us; our friends in bands and people who have helped us out on this record. I’m pretty sure even my mom wanted to sing a song, but I will just have to veto that idea.”
The band plans to record the show. Those in attendance should be sure to sign the mailing list as it will ensure you two free songs to download from that night.
While Monroe seems pleased with the fruits of going DIY, Hazel and Vine are not making it the band’s staple. It’s no surprise the group enjoys reaping 100 percent of the benefits of its work. Monroe talked of this experience as an opportunity to be more business savvy with their creative passion. In his loose mentioning of the next album, Monroe said it won’t be as DIY. After the tour, the group is looking for a new studio with engineers and producers to keep the process from becoming stale.
There was no talk of finding a new label, but that could be the DIY ethic that sticks with Hazel and Vine. “We were just joking around about how we should look into managing and maybe un-officially signing other band in our area that wanted to work with us,” Monroe said. “We are always looking to help out the Sacramento music scene. Maybe not a label, but at least helping other bands get off the ground.”
Hazel and Vine’s homecoming CD release party was at Club Retro in Orangevale on Nov. 27, 2009.
