Tag Archives: Torch Club

Singer-songwriter Austin Lucas Brings His Immortal Americans Tour to The Torch Club • Oct. 10, 2018

Touring the United States in promotion of the release of his new album, Immortal Americans, Austin Lucas is bringing his introspective and sometimes dark brand of Americana to Sacramento. Following a battle with alcoholism and helping his partner fight cancer, this album explores those struggles through honest and vulnerable lyricism, set to stripped-down twang that at times gets heavy and raucous. Influenced by punk and mountain music, Lucas grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, and has risen to fame. Immortal Americans is his 14th release and by far the most meaningful record he’s put out. Catch him while you can at the Torch Club (904 15th St., Sacramento) on Wednesday, Oct. 10. Tickets are only $8 and three opening acts will support Lucas: The Brangs, Chad Price and Michael Dean Damron. Get your tickets at the door or on Eventbrite. Swing by Torchclub.net for more info.

**This write-up fist appeared in print on page 11 of issue #275 (Sept. 26 – Oct. 11, 2018)**

Peter Petty

Show Business • Local Music Vet Peter Petty Talks About His Debut Album and His Natural Affinity for the Swing Era

The dim nightclub is thumping with the wild sounds of the most swingin’ jazz band in town. The crowd is rhythmically flailing to the music—possibly fueled by a number of cocktails. Everyone in sight is dressed to the nines in their slender suits and tight cocktail dresses. This might sound like a scene from the 1940s, but if you’re from Sacramento then you know this is another night with local jazz connoisseur and eccentric band leader Peter Petty.

He may not be from that bygone decade, but Petty and his various bands have the ability to take audiences back to the swing era rather than simply pay homage. He’d be the first to tell you that his shows are not of the “bland, polite clapping set” variety. No, a Peter Petty gig is an energetic affair—something akin to a pack of dogs in a frenzy. It’s all a part of who he is as a person. This is the music he loves, and being a showman comes naturally.

Petty has been a part of Sacramento’s music scene for years. He performed with the Sacramento Opera for eight seasons and has recorded with Cake. However, his debut album Ready, Petty, Go! was released only back in September, and he has plans to take his act on tour in 2018. Until then, he has put together A Hepcat’s Holla’Day, Peter Petty’s Swingin’ Yuletide Revue, which is set for the CLARA Auditorium on Saturday, Dec. 23, 2017. The variety show is scheduled to feature a slew of local musicians like Hans Eberbach, Dana Moret, Spacewalker and more along with a burlesque show, stand-up comedy and a visit from Santy Claus.

In anticipation of this bawdy holiday event, Petty took some time to answer a few of our questions.

You’ve been a part of Sacramento’s music scene for a long while, but you just released your first album this past year. Why haven’t you released an album before?
I had misgivings about wanting to do an album well. I didn’t want to just get an album out there to have it out there, because I didn’t want to have a mediocre product. A CD these days is virtually just an expensive calling card for the artist. You just got to have it.

I’ve been out in the chute with my own band for five years, and we certainly had enough material. I just don’t have enough edification on the production side of things to make sure the album would be decent. Also, I was just broke. I had no bread, and this ain’t free. I was waiting for someone who was enthusiastic about what I was doing.

I was putting feelers out there and [local music promoter] Mindy Giles recommended Kid Anderson in San Jose. He’s a great blues aficionado and converted his home into a studio. People come from all over the damn place to play his little studio, and, man, it is small. It’s a duplex and every room except for one bedroom is repurposed into a potential recording space. My isolation booth was in his laundry room.

I wanted to do it right, so I brought my 12-piece band. Everyone, the whole band, had serious misgivings like, “how is this going to work?” After the first song, everyone was just like, “Alright!” and we had a party. It was pretty miraculous.

Many of your live shows are essentially variety shows. How do you find what talent to bring in?
Like you were saying, I’ve been on the scene for a little while and I love to meet people who are not assholes and love what they’re doing and get it. There’s a lot of them out there and Sacramento is full of talent—it is full of talented individuals doing interesting things. There’s just too many fun genres of music to pick. So, I’ll bring a little country western and a little classic rock, even. It’s all fun and hopefully a little out of left field so it’s a little surprising and enjoyable.

There’s a certain thrill playing with people you don’t normally play with. It’s always super fun and to have them on the bandstand, even for a song or two, is just great.

You bring a nostalgic take with your music. How did you get into that?
I get this question a lot, understandably. I’m 50 now and so my parents are straight out of the swing era. So, that’s kind of their music. I heard a lot of ‘40s and ‘50s pop—top of the pops, hit parade-type stuff growing up. The radio was always turned to that station. I don’t think they have it in town anymore, but they always played that era of music, and so that was always set in my ear. It’s that kind of nostalgia, the sweetness of it.

I knew all of those tunes and I think it was just in my ear. I had a natural affinity for that style of interpreting a lyric. Sinatra is not necessarily one of my heroes, but you cannot help but emulate the man when you’re singing that kind of music.

I’m fortunate enough to have an instrument [Petty motions to this throat] that is able to do it all. I’m able to have enough versatility. I get bored doing the same thing always, so it’s just fun to switch it up.

I think it was just in my mind growing up. It was all there. When I was in high school, I was all over the place. I was having a good time, but no one could pin me down because I would dress up in a different way every day. Kind of in the same way, I’m still doing exactly what I was doing back then. If I feel like a cowboy, by George, I’m putting on a hat.

When I was in high school, I thought it would be cool to emulate the look of the ‘40s. I was kind of sick of the ‘60s thing, and so I think it was kind of a deliberate choice to go to the ‘40s. I love the design of that era.

I also felt a real kinship with it. I’m not a very mystically minded person, but I really felt like when I’d go to the Grand Island Mansion, I felt like was coming home. It was a weird feeling like maybe I had been there before.

I think that also sets that in my mind. So, when I sing a song, I think I bring that swing vibe to it.

This style seems to make sense for you because you just seem like a natural showman. How do you find all that energy you bring out?
It sounds vainglorious, but I can’t help it. I just can’t help it. I am untrained in every sense of the word. It’s just like aping it, do as best you can. It’s close enough to what it’s supposed to be that it works. I’m like, bad, raw, untrained. I’m amazed that people tolerate it sometimes. But I actually have enthusiasm for it and I’m having a good time.

There’s not much of a formula except for going [on stage]. I love the emotional center of a song and that’s what really attracts me to most stuff. If there’s not some amount of pathos in it, I’m usually not interested.

You could even bring an ironic sense out of it. Like, one of my favorite songs “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” is very “la la la” kind of tune, but really, with all this nonsense, your Christmas will be anything but merry. There’s a lot of shit going down these days. Judy Garland interpreted it that way and it’s always very powerful. Like, my God, it breaks your heart.

As an audience, if someone is just up there doing a song, I don’t think people are engaged. I definitely like to try to engage the audience, because then there is a communication happening. That’s not only gratifying, but it’s absolutely necessary. It’s the human condition to connect with other people. I guess we’ve evolved to do that, to have that connection. That’s one way I can do that.

So, your performance is just as much for you as it is for everyone else?
Absolutely. I’m loathe to admit, but it’s very selfishly motivated. I just love to do it and if I can actually get the chance to do it, it’s just awesome. It’s something that I can do to contribute. There’s not a whole lot that I can do that contributes to society, but this is something I can offer. I’m honored to be able to do that.

Peter Petty’s aforementioned A Hepcat’s Holla’Day Swingin’ Yuletide Revue will take place Dec. 23, 2017, at the CLARA Auditorium (1425 24th St., Sacramento) at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, go to Peterpetty.biz. This event is for cool cats 18 years of age and older, dig? You can also catch Petty at Torch Club (904 15th St., Sacramento) on Jan. 24, 2018, at 9 p.m.

**This interview first appeared in print on pages 22 – 23 of issue #255 (Dec. 18, 2017 – Jan. 1, 2018)**

As You Like It • Dangermuffin Offers Myriad Experiences Through Music

It can be a daunting feeling to try and understand art that feels over your head. A dense novel, an age-old opera—these experiences can be intimidating enough to avoid altogether. That’s the beauty of projects like Dangermuffin, a band that can be enjoyed from any level, whether it be for their airy, easy Americana feel, or the lyrical, more analytical examination of our very existence. Tune in however you feel.

“Folks can take from it whatever they want. I don’t think it needs to be insistent upon itself at all,” said Dangermuffin frontman Dan Lotti. “People can come out, and whether they listen to the lyrics or not, it’s of no consequence because they’re gonna take what they wanna take from it. You can look under the surface of this and find enough there to really dig deep, but if you just wanna take it at a casual level too—that’s sort of the approach we have, almost like a yin-and-yang.”

Back in 2005, Dan Lotti and Mike Sivilli began playing locally around the Folly Beach area in Charleston, South Carolina. Over the next few years, the duo picked up Steven Sandifer (and more recently Markus Helander) and formed officially under the name Dangermuffin, an odd juxtaposition chosen precisely for that reason.

“It started off as something to remind us to not take ourselves too seriously,” Lotti said. “One of the best explanations we have is there’s an old T-shirt design we have that’s sort of like the garden of Eden, Eve by the tree of knowledge, and she’s picking a muffin off the tree, so it’s kind of like the forbidden fruit, if you will.”

By 2010, Dangermuffin had begun touring nationally. Throughout the last decade, the band has recorded six albums, with their newest, Heritage, having been recently released at the end of March. Heritage delves into humanity’s collective roots, how we’re connected spiritually and how that relationship differs from a religious context.

“I think religion is more like a collectivized perspective, a one-size-fits-all sort of thing, whereas a spiritual approach would be a very individual path,” Lotti said. “With Dangermuffin’s music and what we do, it’s a very unique, independent musical expression, so it’s more along the lines of a spiritual pursuit. Less dogma, a little more open-ended, esoteric. Lyrically we use a lot of very old symbols or archetypes—it’s always about the ocean or the sun—these natural themes that everyone all over the planet has a relationship with and can connect with in their own way.”

Coincidentally, the band decided to record part of the record at the Unitarian Church in Charleston, a national historic landmark founded in 1772.

“We got into the space and immediately recognized its phenomenal energy and vibe, and acoustics,” Lotti said.

The church sits in an area of downtown Charleston that is known for being haunted, with frequent ghost tours offered to tourists. Rather than playing into the space’s spooky reputation, Dangermuffin sought out a spiritual connection with the past.

“It didn’t have an eerie feeling, but it did feel like you were tapping into the ancestry of the place,” Lotti said. “We wanted to do the lead vocals late at night with the lights off, and it definitely felt like the place was coming alive energetically, particularly for the songs ‘Ancient Family’ and ‘The Sea and the Rose;’ those two songs, when we laid down the vocals, it was very vibey in the room. It kind of became this reciprocating synergistic situation where it was imparting itself on the performance. It was really cool to do.”

On previous albums, there has been a level of electric grit in Dangermuffin’s music, a spark that would ignite more loosely formed Americana instrumental breakdowns. Though the fluidity remains, there’s a more breezy feeling to Heritage, in part because the album is completely acoustic, with more forward percussive elements.

“Dangermuffin has always been really eclectic musically. We’re running the gamut of all these different grooves and genres,” Lotti said. “We like to call it roots music, because it’s bluegrass, a little bit of reggae, some island-y vibes. The term ‘Americana’ itself is an ever-expanding sort of genre. What is the American experience? It’s all of this amazing music and influences kind of melting together in the American soundscape.”

The result is something easily enjoyed, the kind of laid-back music you’d equate with a lazy afternoon at a festival like High Sierra in Quincy, California, or the now-defunct American River Music Festival (which Dangermuffin has played). However, if you’re looking for a little more to chew on, there’s the deeper message of Dangermuffin, the one that questions where we come from, and how we each on our own relate to this planet and its past inhabitants. It explores our greater need for peaceful resolution and healing, which coincidentally could begin to be found in that laid-back sound.

“In particular, this record is about just further recognizing your roots as a human being and how much your natural surroundings are connected with you,” Lotti said. “That’s really what our heritage is—it’s realizing the truth that’s always around you, and the healing that could take place if we just get back to some of these traditions that have been sort of hanging on by a thread for quite some time. My wife for the past few years has been studying herbal medicine and now she’s a practicing herbalist, and I’m learning so much just from her growth and understanding of these older traditions that are so phenomenal when it comes to bridging the gap through plants. There’s a guy named Immanuel Velikovsky who was a brilliant psychoanalyst who made the connection between planetary trauma and the condition of humanity, and that each one of us carries around this trauma on a daily basis. The most important thing we can do in our lives is to try to heal. I think one of the greatest tools that we have to facilitate that is music.”

The beauty of layers is there’s no pressure in the choice. Whether you want to ask the hard questions or hear the light acoustic hooks, it’s all meant for the taking and for Dangermuffin, about the offering.

“Sometimes I think artists, and I’m not judging anybody, but in a lot of it the message can become insistent, like, this is how it is, we all should do A, B and C,” Lotti said. “It can turn people off. I think it’s more pure if you can approach it from a casual perspective. And a lot of people are really open to the deeper discussion, and when the time’s right to have that conversation I really value it, and we’re just getting back to continuing that conversation and connecting in this lifetime. It’s both of those things, it’s up to them.”

Get down with Dangermuffin any way you see fit at one (or more) of their three upcoming shows in the greater Sacramento area. On May 20, 2017, they play Coloma Gold Trail Grange 452 in Coloma, May 24 they’ll be at Torch Club in downtown Sacramento, and May 26 they play the Strawberry Music Festival in Grass Valley. Learn more at Dangermuffinmusic.com or Facebook.com/dangermuffin. Below you can check out the video for “Ancient Family” off their new album, Heritage.

**The article above first appeared in print on pages 18 – 19 of issue #239 (May 8 – 22, 2017)**

Michael Ray

Torch Club Will Host Local Blues Musician Michael Ray’s EP Release Show • April 14, 2017

Michael Ray has had a helluva year. The local blues musician has seen his popularity skyrocket due not only to his enjoyable sound, but because of his hard work, tireless promotion and frequent gigs around town. Whether he’s hosting an open mic at a small bar or opening for a national touring act in a 1,000-plus capacity venue, Ray always brings his A-game. One of his usual haunts, the legendary Torch Club in downtown Sacramento, will host Ray’s upcoming EP release show on Friday, April 14, 2017. Dope, Ray’s second EP and first on Radiant Soul Records, will contain six original songs featuring some of the best players in the region. Come on out to the show and see what all the fuss is about! Todd Morgan and Element Brass Band will also perform (they are both also featured on Dope). Doors open at 9 p.m. and it is 21-and-over only. If you can’t make the Torch gig, catch Ray at Kupros on Saturday, April 22, 2017. Learn more at Michaelrayblues.com or at Facebook.com/michaelray916. -JC

Michael Ray for Submerge

Fake It Until You Make It: Local Blues Musician Michael Ray Proves That Dedication Pays Off … Eventually

Honestly, not many artists make it out of my part of town. Carmichael is an idyllic suburban soccer mom paradise, which is not the most conducive for music of any emotional weight. This is why I’m especially thankful there are still artists like Michael Ray (not to be confused with the hunky yet ultimately mediocre Nashville country singer), who can throw down deep, technical blues like nobody’s business, instead of the usual bevy of white 18-year-olds on Ableton rapping about how much they like rapping to their Abletons at their parent’s house.

Ray’s newest EP, Live at the Old I, is a stripped-down tour de force. Take for instance the final song “I’ll Be Doing Fine.” What starts as a pacing, prowling guitar solo echoing in the silence, slows and elongates into a classical piece (by a famous composer I should be able to name as a “music journalist”), before sliding again into a gritty rock ‘n’ roll lick right into Ray’s sandpaper smooth growl. The simple blues riff stretches the tension to a breaking point until Ray explodes out into the power chords and does the ultraviolence to his vocal chords.

It’s cathartic. It’s raw like an exposed nerve. And it’s just one guy and an electric guitar. For the sake of critical objectivism, I should say that the recordings are rough, the song compositions are simple (again, one man, one guitar), but what’s exciting here is the potential. Ray has only been working as a musician full-time for the past year and a half or so, and yet he’s booked a regular gig at the Torch Club, he hosts an open mic at Dive Bar and is signed to Radiant Soul Records. He’s putting out his live EP in a few weeks, he’s recording a new album and collaborating with big name artists in Sacramento and booking a tour where he plans to paratroop the West Coast by spending months in Portland and Seattle respectively to spread his music to as many people as he can.

We met recently at an Insight Coffee shop, where he took pity on a young man with a crippling hangover (me) and laid out his plans for world domination, his early hip-hop career as a rapping evangelist and his beef with Taylor Swift.

Michael Ray for Submerge

When and how did you get started playing music?
I started playing harmonica when I was 8. My parents were kind of splitting up around that time. I don’t know if that had anything to do with it, but my dad gave me a harmonica right around then. He said, “Start messing with this,” and he played some. So I played blues and stuff and played a few performances at churches and things like that. I’d sometimes do this thing where I’d rap. I used to do this Jesus rap thing.

You did some Jesus rap? Did you kill it?
When I was like 10 or something. I mean I was terrified but it was kind of cool because I got to get that out of the way when I was young. So I did a couple performances.

So you did the church thing and then you started playing guitar?
Yeah I started playing guitar around 12. It was a “fake it until you make it,” kinda thing. Like if you had asked 13-year-old me I’d be like, “Oh yeah I’m one of the best guitar players ever!” When I didn’t know shit, I was trying to work out a blues scale or whatever. So I just dove into it. I went to the high school I did because of the music program, and at that point music was all I did. For the most part, I didn’t really go to too many of the other classes, you know? I played guitar in the jazz band and then played trombone for a year or two too for the concert band. I’d play three to five hours at school every day and then go home and play for another five or something. I got experience gigging and how to be a professional. It’s no joke over there, Rio Americano has a better band than some college bands. Then after high school, I started producing making beats and rapping.

You stayed with the rapping?
Yeah I got into rap after high school I guess. I mean as cool as all the jazz and stuff I was learning at Rio was, if you asked that guy sitting over there what he knows about jazz, it’s not going to be much. A lot of people know hip-hop. You want music that’s going to be able to speak to people about something they’re going to understand. Like, a lot of people don’t get tritone substitutions over rhythm changes, you know?

Yeah, I’m one of them.
[Laughs] So yeah, I started getting into that. And basically I was just practicing doing my thing, recording and about a year and a half ago I just really dove into it. I decided I was just going to be a musician no matter what. I spent the first four months … hungry, trying to pay rent the best I could. Then things finally started to click. It took a lot of grinding and a lot of meeting people, getting out there, playing every gig and open mic I could. I just found a way to make it happen. After six months or so, it became a viable way to make money. But like, don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a car, I rent a room in an apartment and I’m moving real soon, it’s just kinda crazy.

Well can you go into what you’re working on for your upcoming album?
It’s kind of a quirkier sort of …

Quirky?
I mean like, this live one, like I said it’s really raw. You’ve heard it, you get a feel for it. It’s not like Taylor Swift songs. [Pauses] Not to say that this next one is like Taylor Swift songs or anything, but there’s a little more humor in it, little more wordplay. Kinda silly, pop-y I guess, for a blues album. There’s these little contradictions in the lyrics sometimes. For instance there’s a song on there called “The Flame Club Song,” and the idea is that I wrote it after going to the Flame Club one night with my friend—feeling the way you were feeling this morning—the next day. The lyrics at one point are like “I’ll tell you right now/I’m never going to the Flame Club again,” tongue-in-cheek kind of stuff, like I’m never drinking again. It’s a blues album, but it’s not a gut-wrenching, scream-your-soul-out kind of blues. A little more pop-y, I’m not doing like “Shake it Off” covers or anything like that.

So you’ve really got something against Taylor Swift, huh?
Don’t know why I keep bringing her up, it’s just an accident I swear … No, no, she’s good. Yeah, it’s blues, there’s guitar solos, harmonica and uh all kind of bluesy stuff, but at the same time it’s a little lighter. I’m just really stoked about it.

I’ve interviewed some artists who kinda complain that there wasn’t enough places to play or not enough attention in Sacramento, what do you think about the scene here in Sacramento?
Yeah, I’ve heard a lot of that, too. It’s one of those things that comes up over and over when you talk to musicians or on Facebook or whatever. I couldn’t disagree with it more. Even this morning I was playing that farmer’s market thing and they hired two musicians themselves. Myself and a guy playing keyboards and singing within a block of each other. But between us, there’s a friend of mine who’s busking and then when I’m playing my set, City of Trees Brass Band comes marching right up through the middle. Then I just found which key they were in, so I started jamming with them because what are you gonna do? You can’t overpower a brass band. And I know a couple guys in the band so I say what’s up and they go marching on doing their thing. I mean, if you were there walking on that block, you would’ve seen four different musical acts outside for free for the public. I mean, it’s a beautiful town for that.

Join Michael Ray to celebrate the release of his EP Live at Old I at Old Ironsides (where else?) in Sacramento on July 1, 2016. The show gets underway at 8 p.m. and will also feature performances by Honey B. and the Cultivation and Century Got Bars. If you pay your entrance fee in advance, you’ll even get a copy of the album. To purchase a presale ticket, check out Michael Ray on Facebook at Facebook.com/michaelray916.

Spiral Stairs

Pavement’s Scott Kannberg brings Spiral Stairs back to Sacramento

Range Life

Scott Kannberg’s resume has a bolded header that slaps you right across the face: Founding member and guitarist of Pavement. There isn’t much need to explain, because that single sentence says a lot of things. But Kannberg is more than one arm of a multi-limbed rock ‘n’ roll giant. Over the years, he’s led solid outfits like Preston School of Industry and Spiral Stairs. The latter (also his longtime alias) is where Kannberg lands in 2016, polishing his first release (Doris and the Daggers) since 2009’s The Real Feel. Produced in Los Angeles by Dan Long, the forthcoming LP will at some point be touched by the hands of San Francisco mainstay Kelley Stoltz, and features well-worn players like drummer Justin Peroff (Broken Social Scene).

Spiral Stairs taps into the brilliantly loose mood that defined Pavement. It’s not sloppy, or undercooked—it’s something more akin to your most intelligent, good-job-having friend that shops exclusively at thrift stores simply because they prefer it. “Cold Change” is a prime example; a song that belongs to Spiral Stairs, yet just as easily could have been on Terror Twilight. And reminding people of Pavement is not a bad thing. It’s actually quite good. For all the ‘90s alt we look back upon with sheepish smiles (Pearl Jam? Soundgarden? Bush??), the lazy rock ‘n’ roll swagger of Pavement still stands tall. And Spiral Stairs, with a looming show at Sacramento’s Torch Club alongside Ian Moore, will showcase just that. Submerge recently caught up with Kannberg, who happens to be good-humored and an all-around nice guy, with a fuzzy recollection of Sacramento lore to boot.

Spiral Stairs

So it’s been six years since the last Spiral Stairs record. Why now?
After the last Pavement tour I moved to Australia for a few years and had a kid and lived on an acre of land and kinda mowed the lawn everyday. I lost track of things and didn’t make a lot of music, so when I moved back to the States I just started doing it.

Has the lyrical focus shifted at all now that you have a family?
It was kinda weird. I had a bunch of ideas for songs. Not really anything about the kid; I’m not singing about my kid like Paul McCartney did, or whatever [laughs]. I guess it’s in there a little bit. But we were all set to record in Seattle last May, and the drummer I’ve had for years, Darius, passed away. Big shock. He just had a heart attack and died. He was 39, four days away from his 40th birthday. And like a week away from seeing the very last Rush show—of course a drummer’s favorite band is Rush [laughs]. So it was quite a shock, and I kinda refocused a lot of the songs [to be about] this guy, and loss and friends; life and death, really.

What’s behind the title Doris and the Daggers?
I’ve always had this fake band name, Doris and the Daggers. It’s like a punk rock, fake band from the ‘80s that you’d see at the Cattle Club. It’s gonna be weird playing Sacramento again. I went to school there and lived there in the early Pavement days. I guess the show got moved to the Torch Club, which is even weirder, ‘cause I used to go to that place when I was like 20 years old.

Is it ever a give and a take being inextricably linked to a name like Pavement? Are there times when you’re grateful and others you’d prefer the anonymity?
No, no, I’ve always been very proud of Pavement. I mean, it was my band, ya know? Over the years it’s become such a bigger thing and you’ve gotta respect that. I love it. It made me who I am today, besides my parents I guess [laughs].

I grew up in the ‘90s, and i think it’s interesting to look back at what was popular at what time, and what holds up and what doesn’t, and Pavement’s a good example of a band that has held up. Do you ever contemplate what it is about Pavement that lasts where say, Smashing Pumpkins doesn’t?
You know, I kinda look at it like R.E.M. and their career. When you really care about every record you do, and every single you do and you kinda have a sense of humor about it; you take it seriously but you don’t take it seriously. It’s only rock ‘n’ roll. And what we always tried to do was respect our influences. We didn’t try to say we were creating the Holy Grail. And I think people respect that and it resonates.

Have you ever come across somebody who turned out to be a big fan that you didn’t expect, and have it kinda blow you away?
We played a festival once in the mid-’90s or something, and I remember Oingo Boingo played. And I remember the guitar player came up to me and was just like, “Man, you’re my favorite band.” And I was like, “That is fucking weird.” [Laughs.] That’s just a random one. Probably the coolest one ever was Nick Cave taking me aside and saying, “I like you guys.”

Do you have any old, dusty Sac stories? Maybe spin a yarn or two?
Geez. So long ago … my memory’s terrible. It’s basically where Pavement kinda started. I mean we did start in Stockton, jamming and recording, but I was living in Sacramento after the first single. We were around that town when there was nothing going on. But there were great shows; Cattle Club was a great club. And then before that, Club Minimal is basically where we grew up. It was where all the punk rock bands came. I did my first stage dive at Social Distortion when I was like 14 years old.

It was a big part of my life, that town. I went to Sac State. I didn’t finish. I was actually about a semester short of finishing, and Sonic Youth called us up and said they wanted us to tour and open up for them in Europe. So Steve [Malkmus] called me up and said, “Can you put off school for a little bit?” And I never went back [laughs].

I think you made the right decision.
I think so too! My urban planning teacher was like, “What are you doing?” I was working at this door and bathroom hardware warehouse, and I remember telling the boss, “I’m goin’ off, I’m gonna be a rock star.” And he was like, “Alright, good luck with that, we’ll see you in a month!”

Spiral Stairs’ tour with Ian Moore comes through Sacramento Jan. 30, 2016 at The Torch Club, located at 904 15th Street. Admission is $15 for this 21-and-up show, with things getting started at 9 p.m. Find more info at Torchclub.net.

16 Parties to Usher In 2016!

It’s time to say goodbye to 2015. From rock concerts, to dance parties, to comedy shows and everything in between, here is your ultimate guide to Sacramento-area New Year’s Eve parties! Have fun, be safe and please don’t drink and drive.

Ideateam
1) If you’re looking for a funky dance party head to Torch Club and get down with two fantastic local bands: IdeaTeam (featuring Aquifer) and Black Star Safari. Cover charge is $25, 9 p.m., 21-plus. Torchclub.net for more info.

Mustache Harbor
2) Enjoy a soft rock explosion at Harlow’s with Mustache Harbor. Tickets are $30 in advance, doors open at 9 p.m., 21-plus. Hit up Harlows.com for a link to buy tickets.

Radio Heavy
3) Sing along to your favorite hard rock hits with Radio Heavy at our favorite downtown Roseville watering hole, Bar 101. This party is free and 21-and-over, with a 9:30 p.m. start time. Bar101roseville.com for more info.

DJ Crook
4) Groove to late ‘80s and early ‘90s hip-hop, hip-house, and R&B at “New Jack Fling” at Press Club, brought to you by DJs Crook (featured in our current issue), BenJohnson and Satapana. $7 cover, 21-plus, 9 p.m.

Y&T
5) Ace of Spades wants to party hard with you on NYE when they host legendary heavy metal band Y&T, with opening sets by locals Skin of Saints, ONOFF and Roswell. Tickets are $35 in advance, available at Aceofspadessac.com. 7 p.m. doors. This show is all-ages!

DJ Whores
6) The newest dive bar on the grid B-Side invites you to check out their digs and get down to sounds by DJ Whores and friends. No cover, 21-plus. Search for “B-Side” on Facebook for more info.

Shaun Slaughter
7) We here at Submerge are teaming up with the Lipstick crew for an epic NYE dance party at Old Ironsides featuring live music from local dreamy/synth-y pop group The Good Fortune, as well as DJ sets by Shaun Slaughter, Roger Carpio and Adam Jay. 9 p.m., 21-plus. $8 advance tickets available at Cuffs.

Keith Lowell Jensen
8) Laugh away the new year at Punchline Sacramento during “2015’s Last Laughs” featuring sets by Ngaio Bealum, Keith Lowell Jensen and many other local faves. Two shows: 7:30 p.m. ($20) and 10 p.m. ($25). 18-and-over. Punchlinesac.com for more info.

Figgy
9) Blackbird recently re-opened and they’re throwing a party this NYE co-presented by Rue 27, THIS Midtown and 1810 Gallery featuring live tunes by nu-disco act Figgy, and a DJ set from Sacto faves Sister Crayon. 7:30 p.m., $40 per person, $75 for VIP upgrade. Studio53.eventbrite.com for more.

Bow-Tie Beauties
10) Visit historic Grass Valley for Center for the Arts’ “Laughs, Lolo and Legs” party featuring comedy from Katie Rubin, neo vintage jazz pop music of Lolo Gervais, burlesque from the Bow-Tie Beauties, DJ dance party hosted by Jamal Walker and more! 8 p.m. doors, tickets start at $22. Hit up Thecenterforthearts.org for advanced tickets.

Ebo Okokan
11) For a family-friendly daytime celebration that everyone can stay awake for, head to Crocker Art Museum’s “Noon Year’s Eve” event, which is free for all ages and runs from 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Performances from Germar the Magician, Ebo Okokan, Ohana Dance Group and many more.

Jackie Greene
12) Enjoy some amazing homegrown talent at Crest Theatre when Jackie Greene and his band perform a special NYE concert! Doors open at 8:30 p.m. and tickets start at $35 in advance.

13) The kind folks over at Blue Lamp are throwing a free NYE bash featuring great music, plenty of booze, good company and a champagne toast at midnight. 9 p.m. start time, 21-plus, no cover.

557380_466004206766059_1984340918_n
14) Groove to some soul, funk, disco, reggae, latin and more from a few of Sacto’s best selectors at Fox & Goose. DJs Larry Rodriguez, MC Ham and Wokstar will be spinning all night! $10 cover, 21-and-up, 9 p.m.

Jack U
15) Bundle up and head up the hill for three days of SnowGlobe (Dec. 29–31) in South Lake Tahoe featuring headliners like Jack Ü (aka Skrillex and Diplo), Kaskade, Dillon Francis, Run the Jewels, E-40 and many more. All-ages event. Check out Snowglobemusicfestival.com for details.

DJ Rated R
16) NOW 100.5 FM and MIX 96 are throwing a masquerade party for the ages at the Hyatt Regency Sacramento featuring cover band and headliner Apple Z, plus DJ Rated R, Quinn Hedges and Ryan Hernandez. $75 in advance for general admission, 9 p.m. start time, 21-plus.

Jackie Greene

Ringing in the New Year with Jackie Greene

Tones of Home

Jackie Greene spent his teens recording in his parents’ Cameron Park garage before graduating from high school and rolling down the hill to Sacramento, where he formally embarked on his professional music career.

He owned a cassette player with two decks on which he learned how to merge two recorded tracks onto one. That would free up the second deck so that he could repeat the recording-and-merging process again and again, adding layer after layer to his original songs—dirtying up the quality with each overdub.

His friend had a CD burner (the stand-alone kind, before they came standard on computers), which Greene used to burn five-song CDs. He printed out shoddy album covers at Kinko’s and sold the discs for five bucks at his café gigs in the foothills.

More than 15 years have passed since those first sessions, and Greene has left behind him a trail of acclaimed albums and incredible collaborations, but that free-flowing DIY spirit to continues to propel the process, with little regard to how his musical decisions will impact album sales.
Greene has played alongside legends like Phil Lesh and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead as well as Levon Helm, Joan Osborne and the Black Crowes, with whom he toured for more than a year.

In August he released his seventh solo album, titled Back to Birth, and is scheduled to ring in the New Year with a full-band show at the Crest Theatre later this month.

Cutting His Teeth in the Capital

Upon arriving in Sacramento, Greene began playing regular coffee shop shows throughout the city, but within a year or so, he secured gigs at the Torch Club and Blue Lamp every Tuesday and Thursday night. He would start with an acoustic set at the Torch Club from 4–7 p.m. and then head over to the Blue Lamp for a full-band set that lasted until 1 a.m.

He put himself out there, and in time locals began to take notice.

“We had a line around the Blue Lamp for a stand-alone Friday show,” said Greene of his earliest tastes of success. “It was such a cool feeling and I’ll never forget it.”

While living in Sacramento, he released his first two full-length albums, Gone Wanderin’ and Sweet Somewhere Bound, to wide acclaim. The new attention led to opening gigs for legends like Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits and blues legends B.B. King and Buddy Guy.

Although Greene’s first two albums are chock-full of Dylan-esque strumming and free-form harmonica, the blues are thickly slathered across both, a nod to his earliest influences.

“When I was about 14, I found an old record collection I assume belonged to my parents,” he said. “Old Ray Charles and Lightnin’ Hopkins records. This was around ’94, so the popular music was very different than that. It was this whole world of other music.”

Greene became a “blues nerd” in high school, dragging his friends to B.B. King concerts and championing the music of his old-school idols. His early influences came in the form of that dust-covered record collection, but as he got serious about his own songwriting, Dylan and Tom Waits entered his life, and he invited them in with open arms. On Jackie Greene albums, those influences exist right alongside one another from one song to the next as he dips from genre to genre as he pleases.

“They’re like elements in a periodic table,” he said. “I like to take several of those elements and put them together into some compound. I’ve always just sort of followed my muse. I write the kinds of songs that feel good for me at the time and never really apologize for it.”

This is great for Greene and his diehard fans, of which there are many in the Sacramento area. But it presents a challenge for his record labels and the marketing folks who are tasked with selling his music to the masses.

“Every label I’ve been on has had a difficult time selling my records,” he said. “They don’t know what to call it. Folk songs? Straight up blues songs? Some are kind of jazzy.”

For concertgoers, he says, it’s an asset. But from a business standpoint, it’s kind of difficult. “Who do we sell it to?” is the recurring question he gets, but it’s not one he’ll linger on long enough to let it guide his sound.

“If you start doing things you don’t want to do, your career’s gonna be real short,” he says.

Back to Birth

A few years before Greene began tracking his latest album in the Portland studio of Steve Berlin (Los Lobos), he set out to record Back to Birth by himself at his home. He wanted a stark and simple sound, and he thought the truly solo experience would be the path toward making that a reality.

Turned out he was wrong.

“I became a little disillusioned, so I put it on the backburner,” he said. “The sounds weren’t quite what I wanted.”

He shelved those demos and jumped on a gig with The Black Crowes, spending the better part of a year with them on the road. He also cut an album with a collaborative project called Trigger Hippy, featuring drummer Steve Gorman of the Black Crowes and singer Joan Osborne, of “What if God Was One of Us?” fame.

After a year of collaborating with other musicians, it was time to revisit those demos and think about how to dial them in to his liking. He looked to Berlin and his Portland studio to set the project back in motion. Simplicity was still at the forefront of his mind.

“I find that a lot of the best songs are when something is stated in a very simple and pure way,” he said. “Often times it’s the hardest to write. On this record I try to do that with the music as well as the lyrics.”

In Greene’s own words, Back to Birth is “not a fancy record.” He points to literary works like Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Catcher in the Rye—two books that can “kick you in the ass” but maintain a deliberate sense of simplicity and brevity. They make no attempt to be War and Peace or The Lord of the Rings.

“There’s a certain magic,” he said, returning the simplicity of the Back to Birth recordings. “We did the basic sessions in less than a week. There are no bells and whistles.”

A Full Album in the Age of iPhones

Greene says in his bio that he wanted to make an album that would “reward people who are willing to sit down and give it a couple of serious listens.”

It’s a bold move in the age of dangling ear buds and dwindling attention spans, but it’s one that Greene feels secure in making.

“It’s a little bit of a shame that music is so easily digested and spit out,” he said. “There was a time when you couldn’t wait for a band’s new record to come out and you’d wait outside Tower Records. A little of the magic is lost.”

Greene wanted to make an album that gets better with each listen—something that required top-to-bottom listening to get the full picture. He knows not everybody will grant him those 45 straight minutes of sequential listening, but many will, especially folks who have been following him in Sacramento for more than a decade.

New Year’s Eve at The Crest

Many of those diehards will be ushering in 2016 with Greene on Dec. 31 at the Crest Theatre.

“It’s a spirited event,” said Greene of the New Year’s Eve shows past. “There’s a fair amount of alcohol involved for sure. As a band, we try some stuff musically that we wouldn’t normally do. Everybody’s loose, so it’s a good time to do it.”

The band will play until midnight, at which point they’ll raise their glasses and lead a countdown to the New Year. After the clock strikes 12, they’ll launch into a closing set to punctuate the party and kick off 2016.

The past few years Greene and his band played their New Year’s Eve shows in South Lake Tahoe. Greene is excited to bring the party to the city where he got his start.

“We’ve never played New Year’s there,” he said. “It’ll be fun. Hopefully a lot of old fans will show up.”

Celebrate New Year’s Eve with the Jackie Greene Band at the Crest Theatre, located at 1013 K Street, Sacramento. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. for the 9:30 show. Tickets start at $35 and are available online at Crestsacramento.com

Lara Price

Lara Price’s Unique Journey to The Blues

Seizing the Opportunity

Lara Price landed in San Francisco on a flight from Vietnam when she was just a couple of weeks old. She celebrates her birthday on March 18, but only because the doctor who examined her upon arrival to the United States estimated that to be her birth date. That was April 8.

Fast-forward a few decades and Price is now a hard-working blues musician who fronts multiple, popular Northern California bands and has a stable of albums under her belt. This includes her latest, I Mean Business, being celebrated with an album release show scheduled for Nov. 14 at Sacramento’s Torch Club.

Her life probably would have looked a whole lot different had she not been plucked out of Vietnam in 1975 as part of Operation Babylift, a U.S.-led initiative that flew thousands of supposedly orphaned babies out of the war-ravaged country and put them up for adoption in America.

“We have no birth date or information about who our parents are,” said Price in a phone conversation with Submerge. “They set up this giant area at the Presidio in San Francisco and started checking in babies and sending us to our parents.”

Price’s adoptive parents had begun looking into adoption years before Operation Babylift. They thought they were adopting an Amerasian baby—a child born of one Asian parent and one American parent, in this case, the offspring of a U.S. soldier and a Vietnamese woman. For most of Price’s life, she thought she was Amerasian, and only learned semi-recently that both of her birth parents were actually Vietnamese.

“The whole journey is ever-evolving,” she said. “I didn’t do the DNA test before because I was afraid to find out.”

She traveled to Vietnam five years ago and has made a point to explore and understand her past, connecting with other now-grown babies who share her unique circumstances.

Singing Her First Notes

Price’s adoptive father was in the Air Force, so the family moved every few years. That’s how she ended up in London when she was 6 years old, where she took her first piano lesson. Her adoptive mother enrolled her in the course with a man named Howard Jones, who went on to create 15 Top-40 singles in the ‘80s and ‘90s and is now considered to be a defining figure in the history of synth pop music.

“I just happened to take lessons from this guy who turned out to be a rock star later in life,” she said. “When I moved back to the States he was on MTV.”

By age 12, Price was starting to put her voice to work. Her mom recognized her natural ability and enrolled her in voice lessons to help hone her talents. And with that, the singing never stopped. Price has gone on to build a life and a career on that voice, which can dip into everything from rock and reggae to many genres of blues music, which is where she packs her hardest punch.

Because she’s a woman of Vietnamese descent singing soulful blues music, she’s often asked about her path into music. Many people ask if she grew up in church.

“Yeah, I did, but not the kind you’re thinking of,” she tells them. “I didn’t open my mouth!”

The Blues & the Bay

As Price entered adulthood, she settled on her own in the Bay Area with the intention of making music her life. It was the height of the original dot-com boom and she found the place stacked with millionaires. She wondered if a life built on a hodgepodge of music gigs was really the smartest choice.

“But when you have a passion for something and you feel like it’s your calling, you can’t just become an engineer,” she said. “I didn’t plan on the blues. I started going to jam sessions and it chose me.”

In the years that ensued, she has toured and released albums, making a name for herself as a mainstay in the blues community throughout Northern California. She now plays in a number of distinct bands, all of which offer a different experience and require her to flex different muscles as a vocalist and as a performer. These include: The Lara Price Blues Revue, a seven-piece blues band with the singers of the duo Sweet Nectar on background vocals; Militia of Love, a reggae band; Lara Unplugged, an acoustic duo for intimate settings; and The Lara Price Band, a blues band.

Price also plays in Velvet Plum, Top-40 band that plays parties and helps large groups of people have an excellent time.

“It’s also a paycheck,” said Price. “A lot of people bag on it, but what’s wrong with making people happy and taking home a check?”

Lara Price

I Mean Business

The Lara Price Blues Revue show at the Torch Club Nov. 14 will be a record-release celebration for the Price’s latest record, I Mean Business, which was recorded with producer Kid Andersen at his Greaseland Studios in San Jose.

“Kid Andersen is so talented,” said Price. “This record was my vision, but he brought it to life.”

Price and her fellow musicians have created what she describes as a declaration to live her life with integrity and to do the right thing every day. That’s what she’s getting at when she says she “means business.”

The record was recorded over the course of several sessions during a six-month period, and Price confidently says it’s her best work yet.

“My voice has turned a corner,” she said. “I feel really proud of it.”

After the record was finished, it was picked up by VizzTone Records. The president of the label had seen Price’s band play at the prestigious International Blues Challenge in Memphis some years back, a trip she was able to make because the Sacramento Blues Society gave her their endorsement and sent the band there to compete.

Price has been playing Sacramento’s Torch Club since the early 2000s and has been a regular on the Sacramento scene since early in her career.

“I know the Sacramento area well and I love coming out,” she said. “They’re listeners. They come out and they clap.”

Price, who is playing several record release parties in cities throughout Northern California over the next month, looks forward to sharing her latest release with the Torch Club crowd.

The week of her interview with Submerge, Price played shows in San Francisco, Santa Cruz and San Jose (all with different bands), but on the Friday we spoke, she happened to have the night off.

“My voice needs a little rest,” she said. “I’m gonna stay in and cook it up in the kitchen tonight.”

Price is a fast and loose talker, unrehearsed and raw for the entirety of our 36-minute conversation. She’s both thoughtful and truthful, not only about her music, but also her complex beginnings.

As our conversation wound down, I asked her a side question about the migrant situation in Syria, which is similarly complex as the situation Vietnam in the ‘70s.

“When I see Syrians passing children over a broken down ship to safety, I think about how lucky I am to be here,” she said. “I don’t think they would let a bunch of Syrian orphan babies into the U.S. now.”

Connecting that thought to her own life, she added, “I wouldn’t be living the life of a musician if I was in Vietnam.”

That doesn’t mean she wouldn’t have lived a happy and fulfilling life had she remained in Vietnam and grown up an orphan; she’s clear about that. But it’s undeniable that she would have lived out a very different life, and it’s possible her path to a life of music would have been entirely different, or possibly nonexistent.

“I know that I’m very lucky to have had the opportunity,” she said. “I hope others can have the same life that I have.”

Catch The Lara Price Blues Revue in Sacramento Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015, at the Torch Club, located at 904 15th Street. The 21-and-over show starts at 9 p.m. Admission is $8 but be sure to bring some extra cash to pick up a copy of Price’s new album, I Mean Business. For more info check out Laraprice.com.

Black Star Safari

Though they didn’t set out to become a rock duo, two is the magic number for Black Star Safari

The Odd Couple

Whenever guitarist Dan Green and drummer Matt Mandella step into a new venue to play as the two-piece rock band they’ve incidentally dwindled down to, people will often just stare at them, not exactly sure what to make of the duo.

“It’s like they don’t know what they’re looking at, or they’re not sure how they should react to us,” Green says of the almost catatonic faces they get from blank-slate crowds.

Once they set up, Green introduces the duo as Black Star Safari from South Lake Tahoe. Still, he says, the fixed gazes continue; the tension in the room builds. And, honestly, if you weren’t already familiar with what comes next, you might be inclined to stare at them too.

Green, with shaggy hair and a slim build, stands well over 6-foot-3, while Mandella—also thin, but not quite as shaggy—is well below 5-foot-9. It’s sort of like you’ve got a younger Billy Crystal and Gheorghe Muresan from the movie My Giant in front of you. And now they have instruments in their hands, and you don’t know what the hell to expect.

Will this be worthy of a scathing review, or will our minds be blown? The question lingers as Mandella taps his sticks, cueing their first song.

Even before Black Star Safari could hold audiences in bewildered suspense, they were really just a couple of up-and-coming musicians in Los Angeles—going to school, jamming with other bands and trying to make a name for themselves. Sadly, it wasn’t long after they received their certificates from the Musicians Institute that they realized Los Angeles wasn’t necessarily the best place to make a living for live music.

Residing in the heart of Hollywood and grappling with low payoffs from gigs in town, Green and Mandella decided to head north to South Lake Tahoe, where Green had grown up and established some professional connections prior to his SoCal stint.

“The first day we got back to Tahoe—I won’t ever forget—we got this house on a golf course for cheaper than our studio in L.A.,” Green says. “And just breathing the air was…just nice to catch your breath and get out of the madness for a minute.”
The move proved to be worthwhile.

Almost instantly, Black Star Safari got plugged into the Tahoe music scene and started exploring the Northern California circuit, including Sacramento. Eventually, the two got to know and play alongside Davis funk band Big Sticky Mess regularly, who generously offered to hook them up with some studio time to record their first EP Cut and Dry.

“They were like, ‘Oh, we have a studio.’ And I was like, ‘Oh man, we need to record,’” Green recounts, chuckling at the memory. “So we came down that next day, and we busted that one out that day.”

“I did the drum parts in like two hours,” Mandella adds.

Which is insane. While Cut and Dry—an effort Green and Mandella consider more of a demo than anything—does sound fairly raw on their Bandcamp page, it feels far from a one-day outing.

Yet, it was.

And so by June 2014, the two-piece was on the map with an official project out in the universe, something folks could point to and attribute to Black Star Safari. But just as Green and Mandella were beginning this new chapter in their lives—with ideas on their next album already getting underway—so, too, entered their elusive bassist Mark Mickens right around the same time.

Mickens, a fellow musician Mandella had gotten to know in Los Angeles, was “pretty funky” as Green remembers. And when they heard he was moving to the area, the Tahoe pair was more than happy to have him come aboard the safari.

With Mickens added to the roster, contributing a refreshing bassline to the group, things were looking up for the newfound trio. During that summer, they were booked for Tahoe’s annual Live at Lakeview concert series to open for Portland-based guitarist Scott Pemberton, while at the same time beginning to work on their sophomore album.

And then…poof. Mickens vanished.

As quickly as he had arrived, he had cut out even sooner, almost immediately following the band’s final recording sessions for their upcoming album.

So, what happened?

“The truth?” Green asks. “The truth is we have no idea.”

“Literally, no call, no message back. Nothing,” Mandella says. “He just completely disappeared. We went to his apartment, and he was gone.”

Naturally, Green and Mandella became genuinely concerned for their bandmate, that is until they finally heard from his roommate that he was alive and well. Mickens never personally contacted them again, however, and Black Star Safari grinded to a bit of a halt.

“I was actually calling to cancel a show,” Green says of one of their gigs at Sacramento’s Torch Club. “I was like, ‘He just… eh, I have no idea.’ And the owner of the Torch Club was like, ‘Are you fucking serious? Get down here, we don’t care. We saw you before; just come down here.’ And that was really big for us. You know? Because we were feeling pretty deflated at that moment.”

“When he left, we weren’t sure what to do,” Green continues. “But we just kept playing, and then we found that people were pretty receptive to the two-piece.”

And for good reason, too.

Black-Star-Safari-b

Once Mandella starts to unleash on his drum set, with Green’s electric guitar ripping through the room, the entire mood of their audience shifts, as I recently discovered at their safari-themed CD release show in South Lake Tahoe—the first of many to come this year, they say.

Whether it’s through the thunderous roar of their battle song “Signs,” or in the feel-good, open-ended track “Chapter X,” which allows for improvisation and long, inspired solos, onlookers are unanimously forced to their feet and into motion, having no choice but to surrender to the robust, rockin’ grooves of Green and Mandella’s Black Star Safari.

The band’s newer material is especially potent when played live, with standouts such as “Gold Man Sucks,” “Victims” and the strictly-instrumental “Never Again,” where Mandella races on his cymbals and snare at lightning-fast speeds, while Green strums a menacing riff over and over again before they both break out into a slow-burning, cathartic chorus.

Black Star Safari’s latest five-track EP, All In, maintains much of the same musical diversity found on Cut and Dry, but with a bit more bite to it this time around. While the album has hints of bluegrass and funk in some of the cuts, All In is undoubtedly a rock project through and through.

Despite their recent adversity, it would appear Green and Mandella have found a way to shine in their powerful live performances.

“We just have such a good energy and connection with the two of us,” Mandella says of he and Green’s rediscovered two-man dynamic.

“And I guess that’s kind of one of the perks,” Green adds. “I think that it does make us stand out. For better or for worse, [at] a lot of shows we play, people will come up to us and be like, ‘I thought you guys were gonna suck.’ And then we come and play a decent show, and I think that really catches people off guard.”

As their new album indicates, Black Star Safari is all in for their music—quite literally, it’s just the two of them running the show for now. The duo is planning a tour up and down the West Coast this summer, going as far north as Washington and, really, anywhere else they can park and set up their equipment.

“Not to give away our secret, but, you know, we bought a generator and we have my RV,” Green says. “So we were really just thinking about renegade staging, and just getting our name out there. Just playing all the time, doing festivals and just setting up in the parking lot.”

Almost like Breaking Bad.

“But making music instead,” Mandella says. “Make music, not meth.”

Green laughs out loud. “That could be a bumper sticker.”

Celebrate the release of All In at the Torch Club on June 6. Black Star Safari will perform as well as Island of Black and White. The show has a $8 cover and starts at 9 p.m. If you’d like to make a day of it, The Bathtub Gins play earlier that evening during the Torch Club’s no-cover happy hour (from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.). For more info, go to Torchclub.net.