After forming in late 2003, releasing an EP in 2004, and touring the West Coast on and off for a few years after that, regional indie/punk/queercore duo Butch Vs Femme went on what they thought was going to be a permanent hiatus. Then in August 2014, drummer Kimberli Aparicio and keyboardist/vocalist Chavez D’Augustine decided to get the ol’ band back together for some shows and even more exciting, to finally release a full-length album titled Eat Yr Heart Out.
“It feels great to be back together,” the band recently told Submerge. “When we first started Butch Vs Femme we were both pretty young and probably didn’t make the best decisions for the band. We made some awesome music and knew that there was a strong connection between us. We always had a lot of fun playing together but we just kind of grew apart.”
Now that they are back together, the duo says they have a clear goal of what they want.
“Even though the songs for Eat Yr Heart Out were written eight to 13 years ago we still play them with the same amount of energy and passion. We love these songs and it’s about time they got recorded!”
Eat Yr Heart Out is 10 tracks total, one of which (“Down for Me”) is streaming for free on the band’s website Butchvsfemme.com. The album will be available for purchase on CD or by download card at the band’s Sacramento release party on Saturday, March 28, 2015, at Starlite Lounge (1517 21st Street). The show will also feature opening sets from two other solid local acts, PETS and Ghostplay. Doors open at 8 p.m., cover is just $7, 21-and-over only. Welcome back, Butch Vs Femme, the local scene has missed you!
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!
Dog Party’s new album cause for extra exclamation points!
What do teens and preteens do these days? What are they into? One could guess: Twilight? The Kardashians? Justin Bieber?
Maybe. Or maybe that’s just brushing the surface.
Local sister duo Lucy and Gwendolyn Giles have been playing in their rock band Dog Party since they were only 9 and 11 years old, respectively. Now Gwendolyn is a sophomore in high school, and Lucy will have her first taste of high school starting next year. At 13 and 15 years old, they are preparing for release of their second album, P.A.R.T.Y!!!, which they spent a good half year recording.
The Giles’ mother drove the two to Shine café in downtown Sacramento for an interview with Submerge about their upcoming release. They look older than they do in the pictures. Bits of bright purple and pink flash from underneath Lucy’s brown bob. She is wearing a Ramones shirt beneath a black pleather jacket with skinny jeans and Chucks–a Joan Jett in the making. Gwendolyn appears a bit more subtle, dressed in a gray hoodie, jeans, Saucony tennies and a checker belt.
One thing you should know about these girls is their musical upbringing. Their father, bless his soul, chose to introduce the two to “good” music at an incredibly young age–their musical tastes include The White Stripes, The Black Keys, the Beatles, the Ramones, the Beach Boys, Green Day, LCD Soundsystem and CSS.
Take a listen to P.A.R.T.Y!!! and you get the idea. From the screeching of Gwendolyn’s phaser pedal on the album’s first track, “That’s What You Said,” the sisters brandish their rock roots. But in the midst of the album’s power chords and cowbell taps, other songs expose a folksier side, like “Mixed Up Lovers,” or a gypsy punk flare, like “Red Ribbon.” Lucy was listening to a lot of Gogol Bordello at the time, she discloses.
Then there is “Memories,” which is by far the hardest song on the album, plunging into a metal sound. It’s about not being able to ski in the summer, Lucy says to me. Note that most of their songs are not so melancholy. They sing about the likes of a furry friend on “Chih-Iro,” for example, or their photographer acquaintance on “Andy Wu.”
Regardless of whatever sound they’re going for on a given day, they have always loved music, they say. Gwendolyn had picked up the guitar and was playing talent shows at school by fifth grade. Lucy wasn’t far behind. Looking to Meg White of The White Stripes for inspiration, Lucy wanted to play the drums as early as first grade, she remembers.
“I thought it was normal to be a girl drummer,” Lucy says.
Her dad bought her a Reuther drum set that year, but she would have to wait until third grade before she could take drum lessons.
Unlike many of their peers, they managed to escape the magnetism of Miley Cyrus or Kelly Clarkson. With a little push from family friend Zach Goodin, they formed Dog Party in 2007 instead.
The White Stripes and The Ramones are high on their influence list, the latter of which Lucy admits an obsession with. While the girls were in Southern California for a photo shoot with Tom Tom Magazine over the summer, she insisted that her family stop at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery to see Dee Dee and Johnny Ramones’ graves. An artist as well, she pulls out her phone to show pictures of stencils she made of each Ramone’s face.
Indeed, the girls are comfortably familiar with a lifestyle that their friends are strangers to. The last show Gwendolyn tried to drag her friends to was a Secretions show at Luigi’s. And apparently it freaked them out, in the same fashion that their friends are scared to come to Midtown in general, preferring the ‘burbs of Carmichael, Gwendolyn bluntly says.
“I don’t like being in the ‘burbs,” pipes Lucy.
This is not to say that the girls don’t have friends their age. Ski team and cross country help to keep the girls socially connected. In fact, ski racing in Squaw Valley was one reason why the album took so long to record, since often the girls only could record one to two days a week.
But when it comes to playing music with friends their age, the pickings are slim, they say. The kids at school are mostly “band people,” Lucy states dismissively. Rather, the two find musical support from Midtown musicians, namely adults. They’ve played a number of shows with Kepi Ghoulie, who just released an album himself. In fact, the Giles family had just spent their past Sunday at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco for Kepi’s show.
Goodin has been helpful schooling the girls on gear. They rattle off gear specifics with ease. Gwendolyn rotates between her sister’s Fender Squire Strat, a couple of Silvertones, and a Hofner paired with a Fender Pro Reverb amp and Marshall cabinet.
Goodin also released P.A.R.T.Y!!! on his label, Half of Nothing records.
The girls have grown accustomed to playing with musicians older than themselves. In addition to Dog Party, they are also half of Sacramento band Little Medusas with two older counterparts.
They also just completed a two-week tour through Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California over the summer with Ghoulie and Sacramento band Pets, playing half their shows in houses and the other half in bars. By far, their best show was at a house party in Flagstaff, Ariz., Lucy says, because people were actually moving instead of just standing around the way people tend to do at Sacramento shows.
Here in town, the girls are also accustomed to playing house shows. They have garnered enough local notoriety to play for the last three years at Concert in the Park at Cesar Chavez. Luigi’s is a favorite all-ages venue. Aside from that, there are only so many 21-and-up venues the girls can get into at ages 15 and 13. Old Ironsides is no longer one of them.
“We used to play Old Ironsides all the time. Now we can’t,” Lucy says.
As youngsters daydream about the 21-and-over venues where they one day hope to watch shows, the Giles sisters daydream about the venues they would want to play if they were of age. The Roxy Theatre or Whisky A Go-Go in Los Angeles, says Lucy unabashedly.
All in good time, we can hope. The girls make it clear that music is a crucial part of their life–not just a phase.
Gwendolyn acknowledges that she will likely go to college in the future. But her intentions remain the same.
“We will play forever,” she says.
Dog Party will celebrate the release of P.A.R.T.Y!!! at Luigi’s Fungarden on Dec. 30, 2011. Also playing will be Kepi Ghoulie and Nacho Business. P.A.R.T.Y!!! will be available on CD and pink vinyl! For more info, look up the band on Facebook, or go to Dogpartyrocks.tumblr.com.
Kepi Ghoulie gets ready to release his fifth solo album in just four years
Most sharks are renown not only for their prowess as predators, but because they never stop moving, even when they’re asleep. They do so in order to keep breathing. Such is the case for local pop-punk impresario Kepi Ghoulie, who lives in a state of perpetual motion as far as his music career is concerned. In fact, his rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle even inspired the song “Rock ‘n’ Roll Shark” on his upcoming album, to be released Nov. 29, 2011 on Asian Man Records, aptly titled I Bleed Rock ‘n’ Roll. Funny enough, Kepi says he wrote that song while hiking Mount Shasta, singing into his iPhone.
When Submerge spoke with Kepi, he was at home, but true-to-form, certainly not at rest.
“I came home last Monday, and I played Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and then I’m painting for this art show, and as soon as that’s done, I’m recording for my kids record,” Kepi says. “So even though I’m at home, the pace is still as if I’m on tour.”
Recently, Kepi hit the road with Canadian pop-punk icons Chixdiggit. He played bass for the group and also opened for them, its members serving as his backing band during his set. As for the children’s record he mentioned, he says he will start tracking that in December for release in March or April 2012. Mike Park, head of Asian Man Records, convinced Kepi to write children’s songs.
“Mike at Asian Man said, ‘You’ve got to make a kids record. Your songs are already kids’ songs,’” Kepi explains. “I have stuff about taking a bath; and I was in Canada for a month, and I ended up writing this song about the provincial flower of each province. It would be cool to have something like School House Rock, where you learn something with each song.”
The children’s songs will be short and catchy–as you should probably expect from the ex-Groovie Ghoulies frontman. He says School House Rock had some of an influence on the songs he’s writing for the forthcoming children’s record; however, he says that some of those songs were too long. His inspiration mainly came from the acts that have inspired him all along.
“I wanted to make [my songs] two minutes,” he says. “A Ramones song, or a Little Richard song, two minutes is perfect–sort of get in and get out. I wanted to do a song about the U.S. presidents or something, but I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll do two songs, so there are only 20 presidents at a time,’ so there are no four- or five-minute songs. I remember when I was a kid, slow songs were weird, and long songs were weird.”
Until then, though, Kepi is focused on his latest release, his fifth since The Groovie Ghoulies went their separate ways in 2007. He has a record release show planned for Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco on Dec. 2, 2011, which is where the paintings he’s been working on will come into play.
“I’m hand-painting 30 album covers for the release show, and I’m going to be selling a test pressing with a hand-painted piece of art for $150. I’m going to do 15 on the show and 15 online,” Kepi says. “I’m going crazy doing that.”
Much like Kepi’s songs, his paintings are fun and perhaps simplistic, but instantly indelible. It’s a straightforward, honest approach that has served his music well over the years.
“A lot of my songs are so minimal, I don’t want to make them do anything else,” he says. “Like, ‘This song doesn’t need a bridge.’ Like, T. Rex, Marc Bolan would just play this riff, and that would be enough for him. I don’t want to mess it up by adding too much.”
Kepi carries his love for minimalism over into I Bleed Rock ‘n’ Roll; however, as he told Submerge, he was eager to inject a healthy dose of huge rock energy into his songs. The veteran songwriter answered questions about the process of making his new album in the following interview.
How’s it going? You’ve got the album coming out in a couple weeks?
Yep! New record coming out. Everything’s great. I’m super excited. I think it’s the best-sounding thing I’ve ever done…
I spent about a month making it in Oakland, because usually I make a record in three days or a week or something. We don’t usually have a lot of time, but my buddy down there had a studio, and we spent a lot of time tracking everything. It was really fun, six layers of guitars sometimes, just stuff I’ve never been able to do because of budget concerns and that sort of thing.
How come you had a little more time this time around?
It was the flexibility with the studio and no rush… I think the songs on this record were a lot more fleshed out. I don’t know what it is, but it was just really fun, and a difference–bigger than what I had been working on.
It definitely sounded like more of a rock record. Was that something you were going for when you wrote these songs?
Yeah, totally. I was in Austria a couple times early this year, and there’s a club called the PNK, and in Europe, after the rock show, there’s DJs playing The Bouncing Souls and The Ramones, and all that stuff, and people are dancing and hanging out. I wanted to make a record that people can dance to at the after party–just big, loud, fun. Songs like “Nikki Lee,” “Part Time Romeo,” “Break My Heart,” those were made for rock ‘n’ roll after parties… It was a goal to make a big rock record that you could dance to. That was part of my mission here.
Usually, you said you make a record in three days, but this one took you a month, on and off. Did that affect your creative process at all? Did you have to tell yourself to slow down in the studio because you’re used to doing things so fast?
No, actually, music and lyric-wise, it came really fast. It’s this big, loud, three-chord rock ‘n’ roll. When I got in, it was like, boom, boom, boom. Like, you know, don’t think about it too much. This isn’t some super profound record lyrically, this is just a big rock ‘n’ roll record. When I went in, I tried to be super up. The other thing was, if I wanted to go somewhere and just sing to the backing tracks, I can. I’m getting these weirder and weirder gigs. I was just flown to Oslo, Norway, for a show, and I was also flown to Nebraska to play a zombie walk… You can’t fly a band to Norway to do one show, usually, so you have to have alternate options. This record was also made for that. Last year, I was in Rome, and I was supposed to play acoustic at this really loud club, and there was no possible way I was going to be able to play acoustic. The DJ happened to be playing a Groovie Ghoulies record, and I just started singing along with it as a joke. He just kept playing more records, and my show ended up being this live karaoke set. I was singing The Monkees and Kiss and Johnny Thunders, and he was trying to stump me, but I knew the words to every song. And people were blown away, like, “Whoa, what was that?” I like the kind of anything-goes factor that’s in my life right now.
You mentioned that the lyrics weren’t meant to be very deep, but toward the end of the album with songs like “I Just Wanted You to Know,” “Love to Give,” “Break My Heart” and “Cupid Is Real,” there seemed to be a heavy love theme. Was that something you noticed when you were writing lyrics for this record?
It’s funny. In the Ghoulies, I never really wrote love songs, but this time a bunch of them came out. “I Just Wanted You to Know,” that one I heard a little T. Rex riff in my head. I demoed it. I tried to send it to Kevin Seconds, but I failed. It was on my GarageBand or something and I ended up recording that. Rusty Miller [of the band Jackpot] played on some of those songs. He did that one and played exactly what I heard in my head. “Break My Heart,” I woke up one day and thought that was a cool little title, like, I know you’re going to break my heart one day, so let’s just get this over with… I don’t know. They all just came. Songs come to me, and if they’re catchy, I keep them. As far as them all being at the end of the record, I always try to pace my records like a movie or a roller coaster ride. I put a lot of thought into how it was going to end, like, “Hard to Forget” is a good song that will hopefully keep ringing in your head after it’s done.
This is your fifth solo album since the Ghoulies split up. That’s not even that long ago. It’s only like four years ago.
I’m averaging about one a year. The first thing I did was put out an acoustic and electric record at the same time, so people couldn’t be, “Oh, he’s doing this or he’s doing that.” I’m doing a bit of everything. It’s really cool. I’m in a place like Neil Young or Johnny Thunders, where I can do whatever I want, and I really like that.
Kepi Ghoulie will play his CD release show at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco on Dec. 2, 2011; however, Sacramento fans will only have to wait a week after to see him live in town. On Dec. 9, 2011 he will play an acoustic set at Naked Coffee with Pets. Later in the month on Dec. 30, 2011, Kepi will plug in and play with Dog Party as his backing band at Luigi’s Fungarden. Look for I Bleed Rock ‘n’ Roll on Asian Man Records on Nov. 29, 2011.
Beloved Sacramento punkers The Secretions are celebrating 20 years of being a band (congrats fellas!) with a three-day festival they have dubbed “Suck-Fest,” in honor of their slogan, “We Secrete, You Suck,” from May 27 to May 29, 2011 at Fire Escape Bar and Grill in Citrus Heights. The lineup is absolutely insane, boasting over two dozen of Sacramento’s and the Bay Area’s best bands including The Mr. T Experience, The Left Hand, Bastards of Young, Pets, The Enlows, Brian Hanover, The Snot-Cocks, The Hybrid Creeps, Ashtray, The Secretions (that’s a given) and many more. Friday, May 27, will see The Secretions playing an “alumni set” where former band members Julie Bruce, Morgan Giles, Tom Working and Kevin Stockton will make guest appearances. On Saturday, May 28, The Secretions will play a “20 Years in 60 Minutes” set where they will blast through a solid hour of tunes spanning their entire two decades as a band. And finally Sunday, May 29, will be “Secreti-oke,” where The Secretions will play a set featuring guest vocalists hand-picked by the band from some of their favorite local groups. Good luck picking just one night to attend, as they all look really, really good. You might want to just plan on camping out in the parking lot. Anybody got an RV?
-J. Carabba
Pets Return to “Kill The Boredom” For Second Album
Most people watch TV and play video games in their living room, but Allison Jones and Derek Fieth of the rock band Pets use their house space a little differently. For the past few years, the rock couple has used their living room as an area to practice their music for upcoming gigs and recordings.
“Our living room is set up so one side is a couch and the other side is all of the amps and guitars set up against the wall,” said Fieth with a laugh. “So when it’s time to practice we have to drag it out, like we are setting up for a show. It’s not that big of a deal. It’s great to practice at home but it does make it a bit of an event.”
Although they would like to have a separate music room in their home to rehearse in, the only thing they seem to need is each other to begin the creative flow.
“He just doesn’t write a song and then I am like, ‘OK show me how to play it,’” explained Jones. “We write at the same time.”
But after much practicing, Pets are ready to unveil their second album, Ready the Rifles with 10 new tracks that will turn your mundane day into a rock out session. At first, they chose their album name because it simply sounded cool, but Jones and Fieth soon realized that the title had more meaning than they thought.
“The ‘rifles’ are whatever you use or we use to kill the boredom,” Fieth said. “So it’s like a call to action…your rifles kill the boredom. The last song is called ‘Bored to Kill’ and that’s what the whole thing is kind of about. If you’re bored, then make it better.”
The amount of footwork Pets put into their new CD could make them one of the hardest working bands in the area. The guitar players made sure that every part of their new album, from the artwork to the packaging, was under their control.
“It was cool to be so hands-on with the company making the CD though,” said Fieth after sipping his $1 Olympia beer. “It just shows that anybody can do it, if they get into it and go for it.”
Both band members agreed that if you mixed the music from The Raveonettes and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club it would equal their new rock sound for Pets’ upcoming album.
Ready the Rifles is fully equipped with live drums and has a “straight rock ‘n’ roll” feel to it, compared to their debut album Pick Up Your Feet, which prominently featured a synthesizer and a drum machine. These days, the duo decided to drop the old drum machine and only play with a live drummer for all of their shows.
“So that’s a big difference. It’s always going to be a live band from now on, which is fun,” said Fieth. “We love the drum machine, but we had pretty much had that machine run its course… But the energy playing with live drummers is awesome, especially with the new songs.”
“There’s obviously extra energy on stage,” added Jones.
Pets recorded Ready the Rifles with Ira Skinner at Alley Avenue Studios and hope to book him for future shows as their drummer.
“We would have had to buy a new [drum machine] and learn how to use it,” Fieth stated. “Or hire a regular full time drummer, but we love being just a two-person band. We don’t want to officially have a third member.”
One of their personal favorite tracks on the new album is “Sweetspot,” because it only took them about two afternoons to put together, unlike some of their other songs which took them months to produce.
Both members are Sacramento residents. Jones, from Citrus Heights, and Fieth, from Yuba City, feel like they have played at almost every local venue such as Old Ironsides, Marilyn’s, Press Club, The Distillery, Luigi’s, The Blue Lamp and even Sacramento State. But with the rapidly changing music scene in Sacramento, booking shows for their new music might be a different experience for Pets.
“When we had the drum machine it seemed like sometimes people didn’t know where to put us on a show,” said Fieth. “Now we’ve got this full, loud, rock ‘n’ roll set up. So we’re excited to see what happens.”
In 2010, Pets were pleasantly surprised to win the Sacramento Area Music Award (The Sammie) for “Outstanding Pop,” because they have been nominated multiple times but in different music categories.
It took Pets five years between their two albums, because they never feel the need to force the music out of their heads. They only play rock ‘n’ roll to have fun.
“If it gets hard, then we kind of put it off,” Fieth said.
“We go out instead,” continued Jones.
Even when choosing a band name in the summer of 2003, they decided to keep things short and sweet.
“We made a few simple rules,” said Fieth. “We wanted something that didn’t tell you what kind of music it was going to be. A lot of bands you can tell what you are going to hear just by reading the name. Pets was pretty unassuming.”
But when the fun-loving rockers aren’t on stage, they enjoy a good night out on the town in Sacramento’s downtown grid, mini vacations to San Francisco, and taking care of their pet cat named Townes. They even like refer to themselves as local “happy hour hounds.”
“We can tell you all the good happy hours,” said Jones. “We would have moved if Sacramento wasn’t so good… If there were no downtown, we wouldn’t be living in Sacramento. It’s comfortable, it’s nice.”
When the duo is on stage playing their loud rock set, it is easy to expect both members to be full of delicious pizza every time they perform. When it is show day, Pets have their pre-show ritual food at their weekly downtown eatery, Pete’s Pizza.
Whether its happy hour hunting or guitar practicing in their living room, Pets’ are ready to rock Sacramento and Ready the Rifles definitely won’t kill anyone from boredom, with their raw guitar sounds, synchronized vocals and live drumbeats.
If you are 21+ and missed their all ages CD release show at Luigi’s Fungarden in Jan. you can see them this coming Friday Feb. 4 at the Townhouse. Show starts at 9 p.m. with DJ SAMiJAM, Shaun Slaughter, Adam J, Taylor Cho and Roger Carpio.
