Tag Archives: Lodi

Preface to a Purple Tongue

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

Prog Rock Extravaganza!

The Pride of Lodi, In Oceans Prepares to Play Sacramento

Before the progressive rock group In Oceans starts band practice, they prepare to embark on a mini journey. All six band members pack up their instruments and meet at a cottage, located in the “boonies” to get the creative juices flowing. While jamming in the small cottage, the band has turned their random guitar strums, bass notes, drumbeats and song lyrics into music that can make anyone want to jump around in a mosh pit.

The Lodi, Calif.-based group is ready to share their five-song EP Earthwalker with music fans everywhere. Submerge caught up with vocalists Stephen Parrish and Matt Miller over the phone after a day of practicing for an upcoming gig.

“We just came together and made this awesome collaboration of magic. We’re really stoked to see what people think about it,” Parrish said.

During the year and a half they’ve been playing music together, the group has created a unique rock sound. “Our music [has] extremely progressed and we got our signature,” Miller said. Each band member (Parrish, Miller, guitarists Ryan Hinch and Jake Knutson, drummer Jesse Reeves and bassist James Garner) played a vital role in making their EP sound stage ready.

“Music-wise we make sure everyone puts in their stance. Everyone has different stuff: funk, mainstream, experimental, we all [have] our different little traits,” Parrish said. “That’s why we’re glad that everything came together in this EP.”

“Everyone brings their own influences,” Miller added. “What we aimed for is something that a lot of people can relate to.”

Even though the music was just released in the beginning of June, the band has already received positive feedback through social networking sites, gaining more than 4,000 likes on their Facebook band page. And if you decide to like them on Facebook, you can expect to see them interacting with almost every fan through status updates, comments and likes. Even though they are gaining strong momentum in the small city of Lodi, their music is spreading across the United States. The Facebook page tells them that they have tons of fans that live in Seattle who are waiting for them to take their show north of their hometown.

“We would like to take a trip up to Seattle and walk around the streets and see if anyone knows us there,” Miller said.

The band also caught the eye of Jonny Craig, lead vocalist for Dance Gavin Dance, after playing the 2010 Battle of the Bands Ernie Ball stage at Warped Tour. “He came up and talked to us afterward and he was pretty impressed with our set, so that was a nice little booster for us,” Parrish said. Both members agree that they hope to play Warped Tour again but are now focused on prepping for upcoming gigs, including a headlining show at the Ace of Spaces in downtown Sacramento.

“It’s our first show in Sacramento. I think it’s my first show out with the band in Sacramento, besides the Boardwalk,” Miller said.

If you decide to catch their first headlining show in town, be prepared to find yourself jumping around the stage one minute then laughing the next, because these rockers like to act “goofy” on and off stage. They take the music very seriously but seem to go with the flow for everything else that jumps in their way–even when deciding upon their band name, they just chose it as a “safe” name and hoped that it would catch on with people that listened to their tunes. They even joked that they could be called the “Fluffy Farts” as long as it would catch on.

“We paid for a guy to go to Sizzler, and he gave us the rights to the name [In Oceans],” Miller joked. “We just want people to listen to the music really.”

The members of In Oceans are the type of rockers that anyone would want to hang out with and tell a few jokes with after their shows. Especially in their hometown, they chat with fans and eat tacos at the local Jack-in-the-Box. “We sign the receipts,” Miller said. “I’m just kidding, we don’t sign the receipts, but if they want us to sign the receipts we would love to.”

They also like to have fun during their mini road trips to different shows. They play rounds of their own version of a word make-up game, where they improvise and start to rap in the car. “We start to freestyle. It gets insane,” Parrish said. After the band finally arrives at their destination, they have a pre-show ritual of huddling together backstage to get revved up to take the stage. “The whole focus is on playing a good show and keeping the energy up,” Miller said.

“I like to put on a show that we would like to go watch,” Parrish added.

According to both vocalists, “fun, crazy, extravaganza and awesomeness” are a few of the things that a member of their audience can expect from one of their live performances. Residents in Stockton might have caught them playing a high-energy show at one of their favorite venues called Empire Theatre, an old movie theater that houses film screenings and live shows. But outside of local venues, they hope to place their music in as many ears as possible. “Hopefully something crazy happens with it because it’s something everyone definitely needs to hear,” Miller said. “We love anyone and everyone that listens to our music. Come out to a show and see; it’s going to be a party.”

In Oceans’ new EP, Earthwalker, was released June 1 and can be purchased on iTunes. If you’d like to keep abreast on the band’s latest happenings, or maybe find out where they’re eating tacos, friend them on Facebook at Facebook.com/inoceansband.