In case you haven’t picked up our last couple issues or aren’t following us online (which you should be!), Submerge turns 10 years old in 2018! Yes, time sure flies when you’re always on a deadline. It was way back on Feb. 4, 2008, when we distributed our first issue around the greater Sacramento area. To celebrate the past decade of our local music, art and culture coverage, we’re throwing a party on Saturday, Feb. 3 at Holy Diver, an all-ages music venue located at 1517 21st St. in Midtown Sacramento. It’s sure to be a good one, so keep on reading to get to know the artists playing the show, and please come on out.
SCREATURE
Genre: Dark Psych/Goth/Punk
Must Hear: Old Hand New Wave (2018, Ethel Scull Records)
Listen: Screature.bandcamp.com
Bow down. This is Screature’s world and we’re all just living in it. This local four-piece is a force to be reckoned with, and this is their moment—a dark, heavy, powerful moment. Having just seen them live in late 2017, I can say they must be experienced in person to be fully appreciated, as they are very well-rehearsed and firing on all cylinders right now. Their new album, Old Hand New Wave, was released just weeks ago on Jan. 19, and it is a fucking monster. Produced by Chris Woodhouse (known for his work with Oh Sees and Ty Segall, among many others), it is easily one of this local music geek’s favorite albums to come out of Sacramento in a long time.
“Whenever and wherever Sacramento’s Screature take the stage, they bring a 4 a.m. world of dread with them, embodying completely a dark strain of rock music that first sparked in the underground nearly 40 years ago … Play their music in a darkened bedroom, and things begin to crawl.”
— Submerge contributor Andrew Russell in his piece on Screature from issue #257. Click here to read more!
HORSENECK
Genre: Rock/Post Hardcore/Stoner Metal
Must Hear: Heavy Trip (2017, Self-released)
Listen: Horseneck.bandcamp.com
Get ready for a sweaty good time, because local headbangers Horseneck are back and ready to melt faces! Made up of members of notable Sacramento bands like Will Haven, Chelsea Wolfe, Eightfourseven and Red Host (just to name a few), Horseneck are veterans in the scene, yes; but they still rock like limber youngsters. Guitar strings might be broken, drum heads will likely be smashed, there may even be a little blood and ear plugs will most definitely be necessary. Horseneck hasn’t played a local show in many, many months, due in part to their badass drummer Jess Gowrie being out on tour for much of 2017 with the aforementioned Wolfe, so don’t miss them at our party!
“Existing somewhere within the sonic field of Murder City Devils and Red Fang, Heavy Trip sounds like a band unafraid to push the coveted tenets of heavy music to more nuanced volumes.”
— Submerge assistant editor Ryan J. Prado in his piece on Horseneck from issue #232. Click here to read more!
DESTROY BOYS
Genre: Punk/Rock
Must Hear: Sorry, Mom (2017, Uncool Records)
Listen: Destroyboys.bandcamp.com
One of the most exciting and promising young acts to come out of Sacramento in recent years, Destroy Boys are doing things the old fashioned way: playing lots of shows up and down the West Coast, winning over fans with their raw and infectious garage-punk sound, and having fun while giving zero shits. No marketing gimmicks here, folks; Destroy Boys are the real deal. Self-described as, “What would happen if Blondie stumbled into a Misfits recording session,” Destroy Boys even earned a mention in Rolling Stone by Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong in 2016, before the band’s two main members, Alexia Roditis and Vi Mayugba, had even graduated from high school! These days, they are playing as a four-piece, with Enzo from the band MT. EDDY on bass and a “very special guest playing drums.” Rumor has it Destroy Boys has been recently doing some recording in a Los Angeles studio, so we’re beyond excited to see what comes of that.
“Scrambled up, punk-ass garage rock—songs ranging from folky to full of angst and rage … Make no mistakes: The band, however wacky, loud and obnoxious, still wants to be taken seriously. They’re not just a bunch of fuckups.”
— Submerge contributor Josh Fernandez in his piece on Destroy Boys from issue #216. Click here to read more!
SAM I JAM (LE TWIST)
Genre: Electronic/Indie/Dance
Listen: Soundcloud.com/sam_i_jam
Sam I Jam is a local DJ and event curator known for his Le Twist parties inside LowBrau. Through Le Twist, he has introduced Sacramento showgoers to numerous cutting-edge touring bands that it might not have otherwise had the pleasure of being able to see, along with guest DJs and local bands. Whether it’s music, art, fashion, food, whatever, the man has exquisite taste, and we’re beyond stoked he’s on board to play some jams at our party. He’ll be downstairs setting the vibe along with special guests popping in throughout the night.
Come see all these artists and some special guests on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018, at Holy Diver for our 10-Year Anniversary Party! Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and all ages are welcome. While technically a free show, we are asking for a $5 to $10 donation at the door to raise money for a cancer charity in honor of our dearly missed assistant editor Mandy, who passed away in December 2015 after losing her battle with cancer. So please, bring some donations in Mandy’s honor! Follow us @SubmergeMag on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter for more.
Anthony Paganelli has been at a monster truck rally all day long with his son. When Submerge catches up with Horseneck’s guitarist/vocalist (affectionately called “Pag”), he’s slightly frazzled by the spectacle of the subculture drawn to such an affair, lamenting the unbroken yelps of a patron directly behind him for the entirety of the event. It’s an interesting anecdote, considering Paganelli’s notoriety as a bit of a screamer himself. The drain of the day’s events could be why most of the rest of Horseneck admit some confusion when our interview begins.
“We cleaned the house for this phone interview, just so you know,” says guitarist Lance Jackman.
Paganelli interjects, “Apparently I forgot to tell them this was a phone interview.”
“This is for the cover of Rolling Stone, right?” adds Jackman.
Levity is an undeniable ingredient in Horseneck’s auditory alchemy. The band—rounded out by drummer Jess Gowrie and bassist Lennon Hudson—are gearing up for the release of their first full-length album, Heavy Trip, which they are self-releasing. Unlike the somewhat spastic stoner thrashers of the band’s duo of 2013 EP releases, Heavy Trip was endeavored from the outset as a fuller, more realized artistic vision for Horseneck.
“The two EPs were essentially early songs that I just wrote quickly and didn’t put too much thought into,” admits Paganelli of the Belly Full of Blood and The Worst People Ever EPs. Both EPs were originally released only digitally via Artery Recordings, with whom the band cut ties shortly after. Consequently, neither EP can be heard online, save for a scant few YouTube clips.
Heavy Trip, on the other hand, revels in its musical inclusivity. Writing as a group for the first time, Horseneck fortified its typically ferocious brand of sludge-y, riff-forward metal with more expansive instrumentation—namely lots of keyboards and horns.
No, not devil horns. We’re talking brass here.
Existing somewhere within the sonic field of Murder City Devils and Red Fang, Heavy Trip sounds like a band unafraid to push the coveted tenets of heavy music to more nuanced volumes.
“We went into it with expectations of doing more,” says Paganelli. “Then we got silly and thought, ‘What if we put some horns on it? Maybe some background singers?’”
The result is no less abrasive on tunes like “P.A.G.,” a particularly punishing exhibition of stoner-metal that folds in tasteful B3 organ work, an accoutrement that levies new ciphers of sound into an otherwise brutish composition.
“There are some songs, like ‘Hangman,’ where there is so much going on in it that no one would know unless they were here recording it with us,” says Jackman, who recorded Heavy Trip at his studio, The Dock.
“Hangman” is perhaps the record’s most dynamic track, blooming slowly from a droning mellotron/trumpet intro flourished by a slide guitar lead before more organs, refined drumming and thudding bass begin to open a wormhole of impending noise. The song’s shapeshifting is indicative of Horseneck’s varied musical inspirations, as well as their desire to feature both the light and dark of their nature as a band.
“We’re the band that every person in a band wants to be in but can’t because everyone is too serious all the time,” explains Paganelli. “If we wanna put horns on our record, we’ll put horns on our record. We’re just doing it for ourselves.”
“I think the record shows our lighter side a little, too,” adds Gowrie, who also drums for Chelsea Wolfe. “We take the music seriously, but we don’t really take ourselves seriously. In doing that I think it allows us to experiment with different sounds. So you get to see both sides of the band.”
“We’re the only band like us rocking Doobie Brothers,” says Jackman. “Half the time we go out to our practice space and just jam on ‘70s tunes for hours.”
Horseneck’s humorous side plays a big role in their reputation. One needs only view the band’s hilarious video for The Worst People Ever’s “Driving to Idaho Alone,” featuring the band and a dozen other friends performing and partying entirely inside of an RV. Their most recent clip, for Heavy Trip’s “Michael Caine,” follows the costumed foursome pillaging and partying in downtown Sacramento, dressed as forest creatures and haunting Old Ironsides, among other locations.
“We just like to get goofy and have fun,” says Paganelli. “Plus videos are easy to make. Just throw on a rabbit suit and do whatever you want to do and it looks good. The band always had sort of an air of fun, like a party band. But not everything I write about is about partying. The music isn’t party music.”
Besides, beginning with Heavy Trip opener “Bird Worried,” it’s clear Horseneck are marching to the beat of their own bunny rabbit. Exploding in a classic-rock riff, the song’s rock tropes are applied thickly, with Paganelli and Jackman’s guitar runs accenting musical segues between song sections. Featured largely in the track are the backing vocals of Sharlotte Gibson, who was once backup singer for Whitney Houston. The contrast of the song’s churning thuds with Gibson’s soaring tenor is a revelation, and just one of many things that makes Heavy Trip a remarkable album. Gibson was even nice enough not to give the band too much guff about their song “Bobby Brown.”
“She was like, ‘What’s this Bobby Brown song?’” said Jackman. “And I was like, ‘uhhhhhhhhh.’”
Those keeping score at home may note the inclusion of one seemingly nepotistic song title in “P.A.G.” (it’s about post-alcohol guilt), one ode to one of Britain’s finest actors in “Michael Caine” (in reference to a web video of people reading the words “my cocaine” and realizing it’s how Michael Caine says his own name) and to one of R&B’s most notorious bad boys in “Bobby Brown.”
“A lot of bands write a song and have a working title for a song until they finish it and then they name it something serious,” explains Paganelli. “We just never change it.”
For their album release show, Horseneck plans to perform the new record with everyone who featured on it, including adding a horn section and keys for the first time in a live setting. Managing the release of the record on their own, they’ll have a limited run of cassette tapes, followed by a digital release. With Gowrie bound to extensive touring commitments with Chelsea Wolfe, and with Paganelli’s duties as guitarist in seminal Sacto noise-rockers Will Haven, Horseneck is likely to keep things regional for the time being.
“If someone finds out about the record and wants to talk to us about it, we’ll probably talk to them,” says Paganelli. “I feel like we can do most of the stuff ourselves. We’re not going on tour 300 days a year, but we’re not opposed to touring either.
“I don’t wanna fall into a category or anything, but … I don’t know what I’m talking about. I’ve been at a monster truck jam all day, man.”
Horseneck releases Heavy Trip Friday, Feb. 17, 2017, at Harlow’s (2708 J St.). Co-headlining and releasing their own new record are Kill the Precedent, and opening are Peace Killers and The Moans. Doors at 8 p.m.; show at 9 p.m. 21-and-over. Tickets are $10-12. For more info on Horseneck, visit Facebook.com/horseneckmusic. Stream the track “Bobby Brown” via the player below.
Music is awesome, isn’t it? Whether intentional or not, music is a big part of everyone’s lives. It’s all around us: on TV, in ads, in our headphones and earbuds attached to our smart phones with streaming audio. Chances are if you’re reading Submerge, you love music too. Even though there is more great music being made than ever and access to it is becoming easier and easier, it’s still sometimes hard to know where to look to discover new tunes. Enter Submerge’s annual year-end best-of list! In 2013 there were so many amazing albums released that we actually expanded this story to feature the top 30 instead of the top 20. You’ll notice that a lot of this list, approximately 50 percent, is local. That’s not by mistake. That’s not because we tried to include local albums just to round out our list. No, we just have that much talent right here in our own city.
Compiled by all of our contributing writers and staff, we hope this list will help you discover something new. And because all of our attention spans are so short nowadays (are you still with us?), we kept our reviews to 140 characters or less, because we all know that reading someone’s short, to-the-point Twitter post is a helluva lot better than reading someone’s four-paragraph-long Facebook rant. Now, set forth and discover some new jams! Who knows, your new favorite band/album may be waiting for you somewhere on this list.
30.
Danny Brown
Old
Fool’s Gold
What can you say about Danny Brown? He’s rap’s Jim Morrison, The Lizard King. Old has been on repeat since the day I got it. And will be.
29.
Run the Jewels
Run the Jewels
Fool’s Gold
As dope as promised, it gets no better than this. Killer Mike is at his best, and El-P provides the perfect sonic-scape for destruction.
28.
Biosexual
The Window Wants the Bedroom
Debacle
Fantastically produced debut album of avant-garde supergroup featuring the great Jocelyn of ALAK, brother Michael RJ Saalman and Zac Nelson.
27.
Paper Pistols
Deliver Us From Chemicals
Self-released
2 can do it all. Skinner & Lydell are all binary: beard/belle; drum/voice; age/youth; decadent/austere; beautiful/music.
26.
EGG
Overly Easy
Self-released
If Cake and Phish had a baby? Close, but doesn’t quite describe this amazing band. An infectious sound that makes you wanna get up and GO.
25.
M.I.A.
Matangi
N.E.E.T.
M.I.A. is pissed off, and still fresh as ever, rapping over aggressive beats and keeping the Sri Lankan sound alive.
24.
The Men
New Moon
Sacred Bones
Brooklyn noise punks retreat to a rural cabin, finding a balance between a Mudhoney dustup and a Grateful Dead peace-in.
23.
Gauntlet Hair
Stills
Dead Oceans
Gauntlet Hair dropped the dopest, weirdest album we’ve heard in a minute and then immediately broke up. Spacey, strange, with a dash of pop.
22.
Jacuzzi Boys
Jacuzzi Boys
Hardly Art
The Miami trio switched things up with a more polished than pure garage sound. Still playful and infectious, just adding new dimensions.
21.
Gap Dream
Shine Your Light
Burger
Mid-tempo sex appeal born of psychedelic melancholy and rock ‘n’ roll disco; drugs, dance, drugs, booze, dance, fuck.
20.
Miley Cyrus
Bangerz
RCA
Crying cats ftw! The most dissed/discussed AoY; w/ hits by Dr. Luke, Pharrell & Mike WiLL, twerk! This is Miley’s year.
19.
Chuuwee
Thrill
Self-released
With rap albums you usually either get bangin’ trap beats OR real lyricism. On Thrill you get both. One of Sac’s best in top form.
18.
Century Got Bars & Bru Lei
Midtown Marauders
Self-released
A flawless Tribe tribute and audible tour of this fair city’s nucleus. If you’ve spent more than five seconds in Midtown, you want this.
17.
David Bowie
The Next Day
RCA
Charming, confidently progressive with kick-ass guitar solos. It’s classic Bowie with a modern, enthusiastically suspended twist.
16.
Black Sabbath
13
Vertigo/Universal
Pure smokin’ stoner doom rock at its finest! Timeless lyrics and riffs. This album picks up where the band left off with Ozzy 30 years ago.
15.
Nails
Abandon All Life
Southern Lord
Yeah, it’s a light version of Unsilent Death (the most brutal album ever), but it’s still hard and evil enough to kill your grandma.
14.
Bombino
Nomad
Nonesuch
A perfect album for trekking the Sahara. Blues guitar, smooth Tuareg vox, steady rhythm. Produced by Dan Auerbach (of The Black Keys).
13.
Meat Puppets
Rat Farm
Megaforce Records
Return to form for desert-baked Brothers Kirkwood. Simple, honest, catchy… Bare bones and poignant. May the Puppets live forever.
12.
Foals
Holy Fire
Transgressive
With Holy Fire, these British boys delivered their most focused (and heaviest) album to date, bringing a new meaning to “modern rock.”
11.
City of Vain
Back Against the Wall
Self-released
Sacto punkers bring forth one of the best punk rock records of the year, not just locally, but globally. Warm tones and classic style!
10.
Middle Class Rut
Pick Up Your Head
Bright Antenna
More fierce rock ‘n’ roll from Sac’s Dynamic Duo…and we <3 it! Grimy grooves and distorted chaos mark MC Rut’s best album to date.
09.
Horseneck
The Worst People Ever
Artery
Booze-fueled bone-breaking sludge metal with a sense of humor. This EP gives Sac’s heavy music fans something to smile about.
08.
Tel Cairo
Voice of Reason
Illicit Artists
Tel Cairo is the best kind of weird. If Kurt Cobain made hip-hop music in space it would sound like Tel Cairo’s Voice of Reason.
07.
Foxygen
We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic
Jagjaguwar
Flamboyantly lilting pop with occasional Jagger twists; creates proneness for nymph-like prancing, sometimes mincing.
06.
Death Grips
Government Plates
Self-released
A dizzying mix of poetry, yelling and other stuff people hate. But in the eloquent words of MC Ride, “Fuck your idols/ Suck my dick.”
05.
Screature
Screature
Ethel Scull
A solid debut by the Sacramento quartet. Guttural lyrical torrents coalesce with shadowy, rhythmic tones, blending into a dynamic framework of sound.
04.
!!!
THR!!!ER
Warp Records
Your favorite dance-punk band is back again with more rump shaking, baby making, all-night-party-inducing tunes. Instant classic!
03.
Cove
Candles
Self-released
It’s an insightful album. An emotional excavation replete with lyrical fluidity, melodic flirtations and a groovy aftertaste.
02.
Doombird
Cygnus
Eightmaps
Vivid percussive landscapes seen through a celestial-tinged lens. Spacey harmonies embedded within hypnotic textures and bright timbres.
01.
Chelsea Wolfe
Pain Is Beauty
Sargent House
A beautifully haunting album. Wolfe’s ghostly vocals, layered with cascading guitars, violins and synths, will put you in a trance.
Horseneck: Born out of Booze and Ready to Rock Your Face
Most of us would agree that bars are wonderful places. They’re great places to go with your friends or significant others, or to meet new friends or significant others (at least significant for a night or so). And, hey, if you go alone, your bestest buddies Jack Daniels and John Jameson are already there waiting for you. Besides sources of booze, bars can also be houses of inspiration. Artists, writers and musicians have flocked to bars for as long as they’ve existed hoping to find their muse—either at the bottom of a glass, or hidden in the cacophony of overheard conversation. As Sacramento heavy music purveyor Anthony Paganelli tells us, his newest band Horseneck owes a lot to local bars.
He had known bandmate Lennon Hudson through their mutual manager, Eric Rushing. Paganelli and Hudson were both entrenched in the music scene as members of other bands (Paganelli as part of Tenfold, Shortie and Will Haven, and Hudson as part of Still Life Projector). The two got together one night at Golden Bear with Hudson’s longtime friend Matthew Ison, and the conversation eventually turned toward the three playing music together.
“We weren’t doing anything else but drinking and having fun,” Paganelli says. “We were like, ‘Might as well start jamming, kill time that way.’ We started a band. It wasn’t this band. Then we changed it to Horseneck and it just felt right.
“Will Haven wasn’t really doing much. They’d put out a record and did a little bit of touring in Europe, and that was it,” he goes on to say. “I was getting really bored and I wanted to start something new. I had all these riffs and ideas, so I called Matt and Lennon and said let’s do this.”
Paganelli says that he formed Horseneck because “there weren’t very many heavy bands out in Sacramento that I could relate to.” A counterpoint to the many scream-o and metalcore bands on the scene, Paganelli wanted Horseneck to hearken back to a different, blues-based era of metal.
“I was drawing influences from all the classic rock like Led Zeppelin and stuff like that…blues-driven rock stuff,” says Paganelli, who says he first started playing blues when he picked up the guitar, inspired by the music his father would listen to, before he got into punk and metal later in life.
The music got heavier, though, when the band decided to put Paganelli behind the mic. He says Horseneck felt right as a power trio, and they really didn’t want to go out and find a vocalist that would possibly stir the pot.
“None of us could really sing, so I just grabbed a mic and started yelling and it just worked,” Paganelli explains. “We became this heavy band, but that was what we wanted anyway. We wanted to do what everyone else wasn’t doing.”
Their vibe must have been right as the band released two EPs in 2013. The first, Belly Full of Blood, is the heavier of the two—a low, throbbing, grungy, Melvins-esque five-song EP with similarly gruesome song titles like “Dirt Turkey” and “Hooker Toilet.” The second, The Worst People Ever, is still heavy but is less pure brute force and has more of a calculating attack.
“The first EP, we had just started playing. That was the first five songs we wrote. I was trying to figure everything out,” Paganelli says of the difference between the two EPs. “I feel like it was a little bit harder of a record, too—more metal influence. With The Worst… EP, we were a little bit more organic about writing. We were jamming more, and I felt a little more confident with my vocals. With the new stuff we’re writing, it’s getting more organic, and I’m even more comfortable with my voice.”
The differences between the two was one of the reasons why Horseneck ended up having two separate releases as opposed to one full-length album.
“We never planned on releasing anything,” Paganelli says. “I gave it to Eric Rushing, because he’s a longtime friend of mine, and I thought he could help me get on shows or just network and stuff, and he told me to hold on to it and not release it. He said, why don’t we go back and record more songs, and we’ll talk to the label, Artery Records, and maybe release it through Artery.”
Horseneck has a distinctly different sound than many of the bands in Artery’s stable; however, both Rushing and Paganelli thought Horseneck could help the label diversify.
Both EPs were recorded at Pus Cavern with the help of Matt Pedri, who’s worked with Armed for Apocalypse and Will Haven in the past. The Worst People Ever was mixed by Dance Gavin Dance’s Josh Benton.
“We went back and recorded seven tracks, which became The Worst People Ever EP, but they sounded totally different,” Paganelli says. “We recorded them in a different process and spent more time… We weren’t going to put them both together as a weird sandwich, like, we don’t care if they sound weird. So I said, why don’t we release them as they were recorded? That sounds better. It makes more sense. We felt comfortable with that approach, and Eric thought it was a better idea as well.”
Paganelli says the band is currently writing new material for a possible full-length, hopefully to be released early next year. He says that the confidence in his songwriting that he built coming into The Worst People Ever is continuing to grow on the new material.
“I feel like I’ve thought it out a little more than I did in the past,” Paganelli says of the new material he’s working on. “Having more confidence in my ideas helps.”
Paganelli also has a new songwriting partner, his 1-and-a-half-year-old son.
“I play guitar for my son, and when he likes it, he dances around. So sometimes I actually bounce riff ideas off of [him],” he says. “We play guitar all the time at home and sing songs and stuff. It definitely changed a bit of my songwriting.
“It’s more difficult being in a band as a parent, because, obviously, you have a lot more responsibility,” Paganelli says of being a rock ‘n’ roll dad. “Touring is a little harder, practicing is a little harder, but it’s still doable, and it’s still fun. We still do it. I don’t think I could not do it. He enjoys it. He watches me do it, and maybe when he’s a bit older, I could play with him, or he could play with me. It would be rad.”
It’s funny to think that the good chemistry and momentum Horseneck has going probably started with a simple conversation between colleagues over drinks at a bar. The opening track on The Worst People Ever, “The Birth of the Neck,” is actually an homage to the band’s booze-y beginnings. It’s a short track featuring ambient bar noises—conversation, people fiddling about. In fact, the whole EP is based on the bar that Paganelli, Hudson and Ison usually hang out at, Cheaters.
“Most of the songs on that EP are reflections or stories or things that we went through hanging out there all the time,” Paganelli says. “It’s a bunch of inside jokes, well, not just inside jokes, but things that happened to us there. That whole EP is a little story about that bar…a little Cheaters storyline, I guess.”
So what is it that makes bars so inspiring?
“I love bars,” Paganelli enthuses. “I was a bartender for like four years. We collectively love to drink. Love beers and whiskey. I live on 32nd and Matt and Lennon live on 35th so Cheaters is smack dab in the middle and that is our home base. I love bars! I love bar noise. I love meeting people and the social interaction you get at a bar. It is different than any other place.”
So get out there and go to a bar. You never know. You might even become inspired. As if you needed another reason to go out drinking…
Check out Horseneck as they blow the doors of the place at Blue Lamp in Sacramento alongside Armed for Apocalypse and Death Valley High on July 12, 2013. Horseneck’s EPs are available via iTunes. For more on the band, go check ‘em out at Facebook.com/horseneckmusic.
Last week marked the opening of the 2012 Concerts in the Park series, and the newly renovated Cesar Chavez Park hosted over 6,300 people, a record breaking crowd for the Friday night series says Play Big Sacramento’s Andy Hawk. “Three years ago Mumbo Gumbo did around 6,100 and that was the biggest up till that point,” Hawk told Submerge. “If you give people a reason in this town to go out, they will.” It only gets better from here on out. On Friday, May 11 catch Middle Class Rut live for the first time in Sacramento in over a year! The hard rocking (and hard working) duo, consisting of guitarist/vocalist Zack Lopez and drummer/vocalist Sean Stockham, have been serious road dogs touring constantly for the last two-plus years. “We’ve been finding out the cities we do best in and building fans there,” Lopez recently told Submerge. “Things were easy back when ‘New Low’ was getting spun all day everyday and I could just hang out at Flame Club and drink. This touring shit is hard work!” They were touring so much, in fact, that at some point things started to feel stale, according to Lopez. There were songs on their record they couldn’t pull off live as just a two-piece, and playing along to a laptop was out of the question. So, naturally, they brought in a couple new members into their live setup, Eddie Underwood and Bob Lander of Sacramento band Lite Brite. “Since we’ve toured with them a few times before, it was easy to gel,” Lopez said. “There’s no other guys in Sacramento we’d rather have steal our booze than them.”
See Middle Class Rut live alongside Lite Brite, Horseneck and DJ Whores on Friday, May 11 at Cesar Chavez Park. Every show of MC Rut’s latest tour has been recorded for a live album release, this one included, so let’s all show up and be loud. Visit http://mcrut.com/ for more information about the band and visit http://downtownsac.org/events/concerts-in-the-park/ to see the series schedule.
Submerge has got your first look at the lineup for this year’s Friday Night Concerts in the Park series. The 13-week shindig kicks off on May 4, 2012 at 5 p.m. at Cesar Chavez Park in downtown Sacramento. You can see the entire lineup right here. Major brownie points to anyone who can name all of the artists that have been on the cover of and/or featured in the pages of Submerge (hint: there’s a lot of them).
May 4
Arden Park Roots (reggae/rock)
Island of Black and White (acoustic/blues/reggae/rock)
The Storytellers (roots/reggae/ska)
Shaun Slaughter (indie/electro/pop)
May 11
Middle Class Rut (rock)
Lite Brite (rock)
Horseneck (rock)
DJ Whores (electro/indie/dub step/alt)
May 18
Nickel Slots (alt-country/Americana)
Infamous Swanks (rockabilly)
Blackeyed Dempseys (Irish rock)
DJ Adam J (indie/dance/alt)
May 25
ZuhG (funk/reggae/jam)
Element of Soul (acoustic/jam rock)
Playboy School (electronic indie/pop)
DJ X’GVNR (pop/top 40/electro/dance/dub step/house)
June 1
Oleander (rock)
Allinaday (rock)
Trackfighter (rock)
Verdugo Brothers (house/top 40)
June 8
Mumbo Gumbo (zydeco/roots/dance)
Todd Morgan and the Emblems (blues/rock/jazz)
DJ Mikey Likes It (top 40/‘80s/‘90s/party groove)
June 15
Relic 45 (blues/rock)
Out of Place (acoustic/alternative/rock)
Sexrat (alternative/rock)
Reggie Ginn (pop)
Shaun Slaughter (indie/electro/pop)
June 22
7 Seconds (punk)
Bastards of Young (punk)
City of Vain (punk)
DJ Whores (electro/indie/dub step/alt)
June 29
The Nibblers (funk)
The Coalition (world beat)
Diva Kings (folk/pop rock)
DJ Fedi
July 6
Full Blown Stone (reggae rock)
Dogfood (alternative rock)
Street Urchinz (reggae/rock)
DJ Nate D
July 13
Another Damn Disappointment (ADD) (punk)
Walking Dead (punk)
A Single Second (punk)
The Left Hand (punk)
DJ Blackheart (house/electro/punk/indie)
July 20
Walking Spanish (blues/indie rock)
Jack and White (alternative/pop rock)
Autumn Sky (folk/pop)
CrookOne (soul/pop/hip-hop/Motown/indie)
July 27
The Brodys (pop/rock)
Early States (pop/rock)
Hero’s Last Mission (pop)
Chaotic Fusion (DJ Oasis & !nkDup) (rock/top 40/dance/mash-ups)
As you probably know by now, this year’s lineup was not booked by longtime promoter Jerry Perry, but instead by a committee of local promoters, musicians and music enthusiasts that go by the name Play Big Sacramento. One committee member, Andy Hawk, who works at Entercom radio stations and promotes Wednesday night shows at Powerhouse Pub in Folsom, recently told Submerge of this year’s lineup, “As a committee we worked with venues, clubs, bookers and musicians in an effort to create a lineup of the best Sacramento has to offer. We have 13 weeks of shows filled with the biggest headliners in town, and have added the most talented DJs in Sacramento to play in the beer garden. Friday Night Concerts in the Park this year will truly be the centerpiece of entertainment in Sacramento this summer.”
Beloved Sacramento rock band Shortie will play on Aug. 20, 2011 at Ace of Spades, their first show since breaking up five years ago. Guitarist Anthony Paganelli (who currently plays in Will Haven and also has a new project called Horseneck) recently told Submerge, “The idea of the Shortie reunion came up because we all were chatting about music and projects we were currently and recently in. Ryan [aka Pogus, vocals] mentioned that we should all get together at some point and hang out and watch our old tour footage. He put up a couple songs from a show we played at CBGB on Youtube. Then, of course, the idea of us playing again came up.” The guys hit up Eric Rushing to see if he’d be interested in hosting the show at his new venue, Ace of Spades, and he didn’t hesitate to say yes. “Eric was our manager,” Paganelli said. “So it’s full circle.” Shortie saw a fair amount of success back in their heyday: record deals, sponsorships, legit tours and songs in movies (2005’s Hostel), television shows (Viva La Bam, CSI, North Shore) and in video games. What I’ll always remember Shortie for, and what I’m looking forward to seeing most on Aug. 20, was their balls-to-the-wall live energy. They put on a damn good show back when they were young bucks. Let’s hope they can still bring it. “We are just so happy to play this show and have our friends there so we can have a super good time and party all night long,” Paganelli said of the reunion. “So many people we haven’t seen since the last Shortie show will hopefully make it out.” A slew of killer bands will be opening, including F1rst Class Citizen, Eightfourseven, Self Centered, Above the City, The Seeking and Mark Wears Clogs. Hit up Aceofspadessac.com for more information.
