When the beloved and much too-short-lived Midtown venue Witch Room (ex-Bows and Arrows) shut down late last year, they sure did go out with a bang! “Sac Go Home Fest” was an epic, two-day, mostly local music free-for-all, and if you were there for any of it, you know how special the vibe in the room was. It was a little bit celebratory, a little bit mournful, with a shit ton of great music and craft beer to wash down the bitter feelings. If you weren’t there for some dumb reason, the next best thing would be to listen to sound guy Drew Walker’s live compilation album that he recorded during the fest. The comp, which is available for free right now online at Sacgohomefest.bandcamp.com, features 20 live recordings from locally tied bands like The Kelps, Lite Brite, Honyock, Pregnant, Appetite, Dog Party, Instagon, Musical Charis, PETS, DoofyDoo (Walker’s project) and a bunch of others. If you’re a local music nerd like us here at Submerge, looking down the list of tracks might give you a little ADD, as we really just wanted to listen to all the damn songs at the same damn time. “I really appreciate every band that took part,” Walker (who also plays in the rad local band Gentleman Surfer) recently wrote on Facebook. “This is definitely one of my favorite projects ever.” We’d like to thank Walker for putting this thing together, because years from now we’ll still be able to listen back to this live album recorded at Witch Room and remember the days the venue was alive and well. RIP, Witch, you’ll always be missed!

Lite Brite distills the energy of their high-powered live show on a brand new album

A rock concert might be the only place in the world where it is acceptable to thrash around with full force, scream at the top of your lungs and push random people to the ground. If you tried this on the street, a grocery store, or a restaurant you will be kicked out and given the cold shoulder by society. Whether it’s moshing in the crowd or playing guitar on stage, rock concerts welcome your inner beast with open arms. There is one local band that produces this kind of high-energy show that can make anyone want to jump around. Submerge caught up with brothers Eddie and Matt Underwood, members of Sacramento rock-trio Lite Brite, in front of Peet’s Coffee to discuss their new self-titled album and rocking out on stage.

“If we have any underlying rage, [performing] is a good way to release it,” said vocalist and guitarist, Eddie Underwood.

“Instead of stabbing each other in the face,” continued drummer Matt Underwood. “It’s an expensive habit really.”

Eddie, Matt and Robert Lander, bass, are ready to bring their high-energy show straight to your living room. Their goal was to make their new self-titled album as close to the band’s live show as possible, making Lite Brite’s stage-fueled passion completely mobile.

The opening track of Lite Brite’s new album are recorded sounds from the band having fun with an analog phaser, creating eerie sounds that set the stage for their 12-track rock album. “We had an idea that it was going to be a theme in the record. I don’t think it ended up being exactly the way we thought it was going to be but it was a good way to tone the record,” Matt said. “I like the way that it turned out. It’s a noisy record.”

Lite Brite is excited to unleash a record that it can completely claim as its own. There is only one track, “Heaven,” on which the band collaborated with a musical engineer.

“We did it all ourselves. We mixed it all ourselves. We recorded it all ourselves. It was exactly what we want,” explained Eddie.

“It’s going to be really cool though, getting our music done, because we never really had a whole album that is just the way we wanted it to be,” Matt added.

Lite Brite hopes to give the new music as much exposure as possible, including a tour in the near future and to make the tracks easily accessible and sometimes free online. Matt Underwood wanted to adopt a business model that was made popular in the ‘60s by bands such as The Rolling Stones, where they would release numerous singles at a rapid pace.

“It would be really timely,” Matt explained. “It’s sort of this idealistic vision that I had, get something out and get it out on the street really fast. It would be the right song at the right moment.”

So far the Underwoods have been very successful in getting their music out quickly even though they have only played music professionally for the past few years. While in high school, Matt and Eddie would jam out to cover songs in their parent’s garage with their friend Bob.

“We just started playing covers and stuff. It was fun playing stuff that we like and Bob came over every day. He didn’t do homework. That worked out well,” joked Matt.

Since then, Lite Brite has been on two West Coast tours including one with Middle Class Rut. During their past tour, life on the road never seemed to get dull for them. Every city had a new adventure waiting for them. While stopped in Minneapolis, they had their van broken into early in the morning.

“What really pisses us off is that they stole our lunch meat,” Eddie said. “All of the equipment was in the back, and they could have easily gotten thousands of dollars worth of equipment, but they just went though our ice chest and downed 10 Red Bulls and ate our lunch meat on the spot.”

But missing lunch meat wasn’t their only problem that day. The thief decided to break in through the passenger window and crack the windshield causing Lite Brite to rush to get it fixed before a show. While on the same tour but this time in Wyoming, Eddie and Bob almost landed in a bar fight over the topic of Nickelback.

“I might have said something like, ‘Nickleback sucks,’ and one guy said, ‘Hey, hold on a second, I like Nickelback. I’m about to knock your teeth in.’ And then all of a sudden someone comes in from another room where Bob was playing pool and he said to me, ‘You better come quick… Your friend is about to get his teeth knocked in,’” Eddie said.

They decided to leave the bar before anyone would have to make an emergency trip to the dentist. But the highlight of their previous tour was the high-energy and jam packed shows, full of people who have never heard of them before but loved every minute of it. “The last two U.S. tours that we did were awesome,” Matt said. “Pretty much every show was just tons of people to play for.

“We completely sold out of CDs really early on our last tour. We had to burn thousands of CDs so we had something to sell.”

Recently, you might have caught them at Friday Night Concerts in the Park in early May. That night was one of their most memorable performances because there were over 7,000 people watching them at Cesar Chavez Park.

“You can’t really beat that,” Eddie said.

Before playing a high-energy show, whether it’s in front of a huge park or small venue, there isn’t much that Eddie needs to get himself pumped up to jam on stage. “The best way to warm up is to have a couple of beers. You don’t want to overdo it but not too little, because we don’t want to stand there like a couple of stiffs,” Eddie joked. “And not too much or else Bob and I will start yelling at each other on stage.”

But now Lite Brite is ready for Sacramento to join them at Ace of Spaces on July 6, 2012 for their CD release party.

“The music scene has been ridiculously awesome to us in Sacramento, and if it wasn’t, we probably would have quit doing it a long time ago,” Matt explained. “Recording an album is stressful and everything but pay off is definitely worth it, it’s very gratifying, just having this giant project for months at a time come to an end. What’s cool about an album is that it’s always going to be there. It’s always going to exist. It’s always going to be around. And you will always have that work that you did.”

A stacked lineup will help Lite Brite celebrate the release of their self-titled CD. Stuck, Musical Charis, Simpl3jack, The Hungry and The Trees will all join Lite Brite at Ace of Spades in Sacramento on July 6, 2012. Tickets are $10 in advance/$12 at the door. For ticket information, go to http://aceofspadessac.com/.

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.”

Lite Brite, Mondo Deco, The Babs Johnson Gang
Friday, Feb. 11, 2011 – Luigi’s Fungarden – Sacramento

Thirty minutes into watching a live band, the singer tells you, an audience member, to waddle. If you’ve ever seen local duo The Babs Johnson Gang play, you’re already prepared to start shaking your ass, because if you’re the best waddler during the “Waddle” song, you are finely rewarded. This time, the band offered up a tiny trophy, which was immediately swiped by a middle-aged woman who stepped onto the stage and started swinging her hips.

The Babs Johnson Gang opened Friday night’s show at Luigi’s Fungarden with Mondo Deco and Lite Brite, a local lineup that brought a night of ass-shaking rock ‘n’ roll to the cramped all-ages music venue.

The Babs duo play music that is both grungy and honky-tonk, rock ‘n’ roll and punk at the same time, using little more than distorted guitar coupled with crashing drums. Ten or so people were standing in front of the stage at the start of their first song. The two band members exchanged messy vocals that began in rants and would crescendo into shrieking howls over the drums and guitar, and then abruptly alternate into psychedelic, reverb-rich melody. Drummer Cory Gorey piped viciously into his harmonica between singing and drumming. More people filed in to watch. Smashing away intensely at the drums, Gorey tipped over his tom and later shoulder-bumped his mic into an obnoxious swivel around his head. Unaffected, he kicked the tom away and the two carried on, rarely pausing between songs. Midway through, guitarist Tim Pronovost stepped into the crowd, beating one of Gorey’s toms and handing it off to an audience member to play before returning to the stage. By the time they started playing “Waddle,” the crowd reached to the back of the room.

The Babs Johnson Gang was followed by Mondo Deco, one of Sacramento’s newer rock acts. The six-piece band stepped on stage looking like they walked out of a ‘60s film, sporting black and white pants, button-down shirts, suit jackets and bowties. In addition to two guitarists, a bassist and a drummer, the band featured two shimmying back-up singers/dancers in sparkling attire and boots. Singer/guitarist Jeremy Green, who also fronts local band Goodness Gracious Me, has the voice of a quintessential rock vocalist, hitting shrill, high-pitched screams and low notes, too. Guitarist Kolton James’ fingers glided along the neck of his guitar, delivering smooth solos and progressions with ease. Green counted in the last song, “Mouth Without a Muzzle.” At this point the crowd was thick and the room was hot. The band delivered one more dose of heavy guitars joined with a danceable beat, riling up the crowd to clap and sing along. Then the drums and bass slowed, the dancers slowed to a sway, and the crowd sang with Green until the song came to a harmonious halt.

Enter Lite Brite. Frontman Eddie Underwood kicked off the set with a power-driven guitar riff, summoning the start of the three-piece band’s hit “Big City.” Underwood’s gritty, reverb-filled screams matched with surging guitar distortion and grinding bass conjured up an amphitheater-style performance. The Led Zeppelin influence is apparent. Underwood leapt in the air, shredded his guitar and thrashed about his mane of curls simultaneously, pausing ever so often to thrust his guitar high above his head. Sweat dripping from his chin, he turned to jam his quivering guitar up against the face of his amp, delivering pulsing feedback throughout the room. Heads were rolling in the front row by the time they played their final song, “Space Shuttle.” The guitars shot off like sirens and the massive drums rolled in. By the end of the song, Underwood was on his knees face-down on the stage, moaning into the drum mic cupped in his hands.

At the end of the show, Submerge asked Babs Johnson Gang for their set list. Gorey answered, “We never use set lists. Stick that in your Submerge.”

Then he offered us a free CD.

Lite Brite

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.

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+

Mike Farrell, Lite Brite
Old Ironsides “¢ Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009
Words by Adam Aaake “¢ Photos by April Fredrikson

In our last issue, no. 47, local musician and show promoter Ira Skinner said that “Sacramento’s music scene is probably in the worst condition that I’ve seen it in my life.” Sadly, I’ll have to agree with that. But in the season of giving thanks and on the eve of our nation’s holiday, I was thankful for the bands that are continuing to kick ass year after year, night after night.

A crowd of over a hundred gathered inside the warm walls of a familiar Sacramento venue that happens to be celebrating its 75th year of operation—Old Ironsides. Jerry Perry, another icon of our local scene and the man responsible for the majority of the booking at Old Ironsides for the past who knows how many years, has put together an all-star series of shows featuring the best acts our city has to offer. Last Wednesday’s bill began with a block party set from the always entertaining Lite Brite. Imagine Buzz Osborne with a voice like Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, a drummer from the school of Tom Bonham and a bass player with a warm and fuzzy Rickenbacker; throw in a solid lead guitar player and you’re close to their sound. Their opening song, “Space Shuttle” lifted the crowd from their seats and had them orbiting around the stage like well lubricated satellites. Singer Eddie Underwood was belting lyrics through his thick, dirty-blond hair that sprawled across the front of his face, flailing his arm to the ceiling and arching his body forward as a he played an arpeggiated guitar riff with his free hand. An exhibitionist? Maybe. Pretty bad ass? Definitely.

Their fourth song in was ghostly reminiscent of Far circa Tin Cans With Strings to You. What added to this poltergeist was Far bass player Johnny Guttenberg looking on from the side of the stage. Later he would play with Jackpot, who was also on the bill that night, so I guess it wasn’t too strange. It’s great to hear and see the influence that a great Sacramento band like Far continues to have on the current scene.

A skinny-framed man with a tight fitting white T-shirt and a thick head of greasy brown hair that was slicked back over his head approached the stage. He slowly picked up his guitar and slid it over his shoulder in a routine manner, adjusting the leather strap that was decorated with the suits of a deck of cards. A dense crowd was surrounding the stage at this point and it was clear that they were here to see the next act. His name was Mike Farrell and he needed no introduction. The second his guitar was strummed and the set began, the experience and tenacity of Sacramento’s guitar legend proved true once again. This time with his own band, Farrell played a set of grimy rock ‘n’ roll tunes that were layered with keys and violin from the talented multi-instrumentalist Liani Moore. Veteran drummer Mike Curry did his thing on the skins while keeping the back end pocket with bass player Shawn Hali.

This performance was all about Farrell, though. When he solos you listen; touching every part of the guitar and producing sounds from his instrument that seem otherworldly. He raised his hand over the guitar as it hummed, controlling it like a shaman—he owns its soul. His mouth pursed, and he stepped to the microphone and muttered his lyrics, more concerned with the noise of his chord that continued to linger.

His music is a rare fixture of the scene that we as the local fans have the pleasure of seeing, and that, my friends, is what I am thankful for. I am thankful for the huge crowd that gathered on a brisk Wednesday to support a bill of favorites and a venue that has housed the sounds of thousands of bands over the course of its live music lineage.

Tonight, Ira would be proud.