It’s been a long time coming but the gritty, run down building located at 1517 21st Street that for many years has been known as TownHouse Lounge has finally been sold and is being remodeled and re-branded. The new name: Starlite Lounge. New owner Shannon Cannon (her partner is Charlie Coyne, part owner of The Delta King), who previously helped open up and acted as bar manager for establishments such as Park Ultra Lounge, Mix Downtown and Firestone Public House, told Submerge that the downstairs portion of Starlite will have a “classic mid-century vibe” and will be a “hangout spot with a pool table, photo booth and several other large vintage items, like a ‘37 Harley Knucklehead.”

“I say ‘mid-century’ meaning an early-to-mid ‘50s vibe, but not in a ‘Mel’s Diner’ hokey way,” Cannon clarified. “It’ll be more true to the era,” she said.

Besides having plenty of oddities to look at, Starlite’s downstairs area will also serve what Cannon calls, “Classic American comfort food.” As for the upstairs portion? She says it will have more of an “early ‘60s, old Vegas lounge vibe” and she also pointed out, much to Submerge’s delight, that’s where live bands and DJs will continue to play. “We’ll do everything from live, local bands to DJs, local and not. It’ll be pretty eclectic,” she said. No word was given as to who will book and/or promote the shows.

It should come as no surprise to Submerge readers that had visited TownHouse anytime in recent months or years that the place needed a ton of work. We’ll just say it, we’re all thinking it: it was a dump. Love it or hate it (we were always sort of in the middle) you can’t deny TownHouse was a borderline health hazard. Remember those bathrooms? Yeah, we’ll just leave it at that. Cannon went as far as to point out that the building had been running without gas or hot water.

“That’s why the health department shut it down,” she said. “My goal is to spruce it up and restore back to its better days,” Cannon said of the bar/restaurant/venue. “We have been working on the remodel nonstop for months, six days a week.” She says they hope to be done working on it by the end of July and will then look to do a soft opening event for charity.

Two other points that need to be addressed, as they seem to be very important to plenty of locals who took to Facebook ranting and raving last week when the news of Starlite first hit the Internet: the name change and the old neon sign coming down. Cannon says she did struggle with whether or not to keep the TownHouse name, admitting that it was a “Sacramento staple.” But because of liens the previous tenant had on the name, she said they “couldn’t come to an agreement on my buying the rights to the TownHouse name.” As for the classic neon TownHouse sign that has already been taken down from the front of the building, Cannon says they are not selling it or destroying it, which should hopefully chill out some local history buffs.

“I have spoken with the Downtown Preservation Society, and we are considering donating it or displaying it,” Cannon said, pointing out once again that she doesn’t own the rights to the name “TownHouse” so it cannot be displayed in her business in that manner. “I’m considering keeping a few of the letters in the upstairs portion of the bar as decor but again, it can’t read ‘TownHouse.’”

Sometimes change is good. Yes, it’s a bummer the old neon sign is down, but hopefully it’ll find a new home (all of the letters!). The building is finally getting some much-needed TLC and the upstairs will still host live music and DJs, which for Submerge at least, was one of our main concerns. We all know this town can use as many venues as possible for local and touring talent to play. So we say, “bring on the Starlite!”

I’m Dirty Too reap the generosity of others to record their first full-length album

“Who do we think we are?” was the question looming over the heads of Sacramento heavy hitting two-piece I’m Dirty Too. After time spent in supporting roles in other bands, the duo’s members are stepping out of the shadows to be co-lead singers on their upcoming full-length debut, The Downhill Dive.

After being acquainted through the local scene for seven years, Zac Brown and Jess Gowrie formed I’m Dirty Too in 2009 to explore the rawer sides of rock they were unable to express in their former and current bands. Gowrie was part of The Drama and Red Host, while Brown was a performing member of Doom Bird, Dusty Brown and Tycho.

The duo jammed in a stoner rock and grunge style, but neither had ever fronted a band. When it came time to record a demo for the purpose of booking shows, they faced the music, as it were, to handle the duties themselves.

“I remember when we first started we didn’t even want to sing in front of each other,” Brown said.

“We were halfway up to Tahoe [for our first show] and I wanted to turn around and go home. I needed a Xanax I was so nervous about singing in front of people.” Gowrie chimed in, “I think after I sang my first song I moved my head away and the whole mic stand just fell over. It was a nightmare coming true.”

Booking an out of town show was part of their plan to gain confidence and receive honest feedback beyond their friends. They also played a game they called “Best Voice,” which involves singing along to radio songs. “You have to belt it out and nail it,” Brown said. “Like outside of your range.”

I’m Dirty Too sought the help of generous strangers on Kickstarter to record The Downhill Dive. They reached their goal and hit the studio in April, splitting time in The Hangar and Dusty Brown’s home studio. With the help of Kris Anaya of Doom Bird on production and Robert Cheek in the engineer’s chair, I’m Dirty Too recorded 12 new songs. When asked if any of the songs from their original demo release made onto the full-length record, Brown offered a quick and jovial, “No, that’s cheating, man!”

Why did you choose the Kickstarter route to fund your record?
Zac Brown: It’s pretty simple. We didn’t have the money to make a record on our own [laughs]. With a tool like Kickstarter out there we thought we might as well utilize it. It’s been really helpful for us.

And you reached your goal with only 39 backers.
Jess Gowrie: We had some special guests donate more than we ever imagined.
ZB: One guy in particular put quite a bit of money in. I think he first donated $100, which was very generous. Then, a few days later the guy upped the donation. It was crazy. Then, he did it again. Jess and I were like what’s going on, is this guy playing a joke on us?

We actually contacted him to say listen, you’re more than generous, and so what’s the deal? But, he just really liked the band and wanted to see the record made.

JG: Yeah, we would have had to ask parents and family members.
ZB: Or have a car wash.
[The donator was Matthew Woods Wilhoit of Prieta and Nine of Swords]

You guys went $215 over the goal amount. Do you have special plans for that extra cash or did you end up using it?
JG: We went way over budget. It just covered the recording costs. It didn’t cover the mixing and mastering.
ZB: It was a great starting point. We were under the delusion we could pay for the whole thing with it, but it didn’t happen. It ended up having to come out of pocket.

What were some of the goals you wanted to achieve with the sound that you discussed with Robert and Kris?
ZB: Well, first of all we’re a two-piece. Live, I put my signal through a bass amp and a guitar amp. I think we achieve a pretty full sound live for a two-piece. We were kind of up in the air on whether we wanted to play bass on the record. Kris basically said we should do exactly what we do live. We were both worried that it wasn’t going to have that low end, that growl a full traditional rock band four-piece gets.

We explained what we wanted to do with Robert, and he totally nailed it. I showed it to my friends and they said things like, “Oh, there’s bass on this part,” but nope, there’s just two guitars and drums. There’s one song with a Moog that my cousin Dusty Brown played. Other than that we achieved an accurate representation of what we do live. We wanted it loud but not overproduced like a lot of rock sounds now.

The grunge and stoner rock influences are there, and I even got a Beth Gibbons of Portishead vibe from a few moments within the record…
ZB: You just made Jess’s day right there. [Laughs] You honestly nailed our three biggest influences.

Is there anything within the record that I possibly missed? Some subtle influences that people might not catch upon first listen?
JG: Well, there is some hardcore country western in there [laughs]. It’s pretty cut and dry. That’s one thing I really like about our band, we stay to the point. A lot of people think there’s some Jesus and Mary Chain in there, but that’s the ‘90s, so we’ve got it covered.

Jess, how difficult is it to sing and hit those pretty notes, while playing the drums? There are drummers that sing, but it’s usually more of a punk ethos of shouting, rather than truly singing.
JG: It’s pretty difficult just because I don’t want to compromise the drums. I find that I’m concentrating way more on the vocals. You have to find that balance of hitting that note, while still playing a cool fill or whatever. I just have to get better at splitting my brain in two.

Have you considered vocal calisthenics? Like singing while running?
ZB: That might be a good idea, Jess.
JG: Yeah, when I do my aerobics in the morning I’ll sing to the EP.
ZB: I’ll film it, and we’ll throw it up on Facebook.

Zac, with being in Tycho, Doom Bird and Dusty Brown, what do you get from I’m Dirty Too that’s not present in those bands?
ZB: Well first and foremost, I finally get to rock out. I’ve not gotten to rock out playing music in a long time. I started with Dusty Brown, and his music is so full. When I first came into it the songs were written and I’d just try to do something over the top of it. There wasn’t a whole lot of room for that visceral release.
With this, I get to jam on my guitar and also it’s my music. I write in the other bands, but I’m less a part of it. I just occupy the guitar sphere. With this we collaborate. Jess has a lot of input on guitars and writes some of the riffs. We’re very hands on with everything. I’m basically creating this and if I blow a note on stage, it’s more of a release. I get to blow off a lot of steam. My playing has always been more of a feel or expression, so when I play this I get to channel that visceral and raw emotion.

I’m Dirty Too’s CD release show at The Townhouse Lounge is on Aug. 3, 2012. The show kicks off at 9 p.m., and those who donated to I’m Dirty Too’s Kickstarter campaign will be able to collect their rewards at the show.

Grimey: Death Grips

Tuesday June 7, 2011
Townhouse Lounge, Sacramento, California

On Tuesday, June 7, DJ Whores booked dubstep DJs from distant lands like New York City and France. But when the downstairs cleared for an upstairs Death Grips set, for once Sacramento showed some goddamned pride.

Death Grips bears the rumblings of a strange new era for hip-hop–if the genre is even appropriate. Between Death Grips and the teenage riot of Los Angeles’ Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (OFWGKTA) crew, hip-hop seems to be embracing a DIY and punk mentality that hasn’t been prevalent in the genre since Fab Five Freddie was kicking it with Debbie Harry in the Lower East Side. Devoid of heavy-handed derivatives, Death Grips respectfully appeals to Sacramento and the indie world-at-large’s iTunes playlist without losing an ounce of visceral gnarl. The Ex-Military mixtape is the group’s call to arms through heavy bass warbles, juke break beats and vintage psych-samples from Link Wray and The Castaways. Critics jumped the gun when they hailed New York-based MC Waka Flocka Flame as the first metal god of rap. No one could have predicted Death Grips’ Stefan Burnett, a Kimbo Slice-looking dude from Oak Park, was lurking in the trenches with a deeper-seated metal intent with lyrics, “Dismiss this life/Worship death/Cold blood night of serpent’s breath/Exhaled like spells from the endlessness/In the bottomless wells of emptiness,” over the thunder of Zach Hill’s drums.

The Sunday prior to the Grimey set, Death Grips played a secret show at Press Club, a set that made its way to YouTube in record time. The Grimey announcement was as last-minute as it gets, with most of the curious anticipating a Davis house show as the unveiling of the mysterious Zach Hill project. The cloak was off entirely, as was frontman Stefan Burnett’s shirt as he stalked the stage, like any moment he might snap and start cracking skulls. No one was injured during the set, nor did a full-on mosh pit ever break out. The surprise was the rush to be on top of Death Grips without taking the stage–an instant embrace virtually unheard of for a local act. Burnett’s coined grunt of “Yuh” was mimicked on cue and other times in brief quiet moments, affirming his bark as the group’s battle cry. Sacramento is excited for its locally raised rap beast–enough to shed the cool, shed the cynicism, shed the apathy and get buck for 40 minutes in ToHo. It caught me off guard so much that I’m reluctant to mention it for fear it might backfire and curse the unabashed enthusiasm.

Whether we sustain our buzz in the home front or not, Death Grips is in takeover mode with or without us. This week (June 15), the group performs L.A.’s Low End Theory, a weekly melding of art and music held every Wednesday at The Airliner, a stage that made the careers of DJ Gaslamp Killer and producer/musician Flying Lotus. In the end, if Death Grips maintains an indifference to hype present within the music, it will always have a home in Sacramento. The nihilistic candor on tracks like “I Want It I Need It (Death Heated)” and “Spread Eagle Across the Block” boasts a lifestyle prevalent in Midtown yet to be captured sonically. I, for one, hope this is the beginning of many voice-shot nights shouting “Yuh” to come.

DJ Shaun Slaughter Talks his Trade as Lipstick Turns 10
Words by Adam Saake – Photo by Matthew Burks

A jazz album plays in the background of Shaun Slaughter’s Midtown apartment as I sit down to discuss the 10-year anniversary of Lipstick, his indie dance club at Old Ironsides here in Sacramento. I guess maybe I expected a Phoenix song to be playing, or something along those lines, but then it all makes sense.

“I don’t want to have to play ‘1901’ ever again,” says Slaughter, half-joking. “I love that song, but I love it so much that I don’t want to play it so I don’t ruin it for myself.”

It’s like making burritos all day: you don’t hate burritos you just don’t want to have one right when you get off work. Alright, bad comparison. Indie rock isn’t really like burritos. But imagine for a second that Slaughter and Lipstick-partner-in-crime, Roger Carpio, are the tortillas. Wrapped up inside of these two musical encyclopedias is a plethora of songs that each have dug up from the depths of record bins and music blogs to play for a finicky crowd, week after week, year after year. Maybe you can’t eat Mexican food every day, but many faithful Lipstick-goers show up damn-near every Tuesday to see what the boys have drummed up now.

It wasn’t always as packed as it is these days; it was a bit of slow climb. And in the beginning it wasn’t always just Slaughter and Carpio. The original Lipstick lineup consisted of four DJs who all had very different ideas about how the night should sound. But what unified them was one simple idea–make them dance.

Slaughter was friends with a fellow house-head named Chad Nardine. Both he and Slaughter were new to downtown. Slaughter himself was a kid from the suburbs and barely 21, and they were given a slot at the Press Club to DJ. They cut their teeth there for a while but frustrations with the manager and too many randoms walking in requesting Madonna had them looking elsewhere. They were then approached separately and asked to DJ at Old Ironsides on one fateful Tuesday. Realizing they had both been solicited for the same gig, they of course decided to do the night together.

“Our first Tuesday ever was just Chad and I, and it was all electronica and it bombed,” says Slaughter. “No one was there!”

The two needed to revamp, so they went back to the drawing board to figure out how they were going to put together a better club night that would hit. The two of them were growing tired of DJing dance music and Slaughter had a taste for older alternative rock like the Rentals, Weezer and Sonic Youth. Nardine picked up on this and told Slaughter about Carpio.

“Chad said, ‘I have this friend named Roger who’s really into Britpop,” recalls Slaughter. “And I had no idea what that even meant.”

Carpio added his own ideas to the sound of the night and each peppered in their unique styles. To round out their indie rock dance night, Roger brought one more DJ into the mix.

“Then Roger said, ‘I know this guy Sean Meyers who DJs really good ‘60s rock.’ We heard him play this set one night, and it was just amazing. We added him on and then it was the four of us,” says Slaughter.

During that first year of Lipstick at the Press Club, the four played to lackluster response and were perfectly OK with that. The few that showed up showed support the best way a DJ could hope for.

“It was good, and we were happy with 30 or 40 people,” says Slaughter. “We couldn’t believe that people would dance to it.”

Nardine eventually ended up moving away and Meyers excused himself to pursue other endeavors. That left the two DJs, Slaughter and Carpio, who couldn’t have been more different from each other. But what at first may have seemed like a duo doomed to butt heads, disagree over music choice or altogether fail as partners ended up being the exact right pairing that would keep Lipstick running after all these years.

“We were both really particular about how the night went,” explains Slaughter. That’s why…it’s been around so long. Both of us were really stuck on the fact that it had to be a certain way.”

And that certain way was “some indie, Britpop and some old stuff” as well as no guest DJs. Whatever they were playing, they were doing something right and that mindset of sticking to a format was the foundation that drew in crowds night after night. Over time, though, the box they DJed inside of eventually proved to be too small and it was time for more legroom.

“I think that if we would have stuck with that, it would have just died out, because ultimately people don’t want to listen to the same stuff,” says Slaughter.

So again, what the two shared in common was what kept Lipstick new and interesting over the years. Their shared passion for discovering new music coupled with Lipstick happening every week made for the right motivation to keep introducing the dance floor to new bands.

“Roger and I are super avid. All we do is dig for music and listen to new stuff,” says Slaughter.

At times it can be “a double-edged sword” Slaughter says, hand on his chin and thoughts on his mind. Keeping the night always new and always changing is fun when you’re a DJ because you’re never playing anything out. You’re able to keep a song like “1901” for your own enjoyment. Yet, certain songs are guaranteed to pack the dance floor and in the end, isn’t that your job as a DJ?

“You’re doing people a disservice if you don’t play some of that stuff,” says Slaughter. “You do it every Tuesday and you’re thinking, ‘Fuck! I’ve heard this song so many times.’ But then I think about the people who haven’t been coming every week and how excited they are to dance to a song they’ve never heard before.”

It’s rare for anything in the music and art scenes to last 10 years, let alone a club night. People change, bars close, relationships go south. It’s just the way it is. For Lipstick to have endured 10 years on an ever-changing music scene and all the while under what seems like constant scrutiny from naysayers calling Lipstick a club night for “hipsters,” is pretty amazing. This common misconception is immediately squashed when you walk through the doors on any given Tuesday. It’s a shot in the dark as to whom you’re actually going to find inside at the bar. Most likely you’ll find those same naysayers who are socializing with the “hipsters” while buying shots for your introverted co-worker from the office.

“We’ve gone through so many waves,” explains Slaughter. “Roger is like, ‘Dude. How many times have we gone through this?’”

Maybe that’s why Slaughter and Carpio have stuck it out all these years. Keeping the crowd showing up is one thing, but keeping themselves interested is another. But when each year brings a new crowd, with new friends and more good times to add to the memories, it makes it easier to stick around. Plus, Slaughter and Carpio switch it up around town and have been behind the wheel of many other successful, and most importantly, just really fun club nights around Sacramento. One of their most popular nights, FUCK Fridays at the Townhouse Lounge, is their sort of alter egos where they can completely let loose. Here they promote a “let’s lose our shit and go completely crazy” attitude while Slaughter is dressed up as say, an M&M or a rat costume [pictured].

What people don’t always realize is that many DJs and promoters in Sacramento, including Slaughter and Carpio, have their finger on the pulse of what’s good in the music and club scenes around the country. Slaughter frequently travels to other cities to DJ, and when he returns he brings back with him the best ideas he’s encountered to apply to his own club nights. In the words of Slaughter, “We stole everything from somebody.” Although, I prefer borrowed, for what are ideas without inspiration?

“Everyone always thinks there is something better,” says Slaughter. “Compared to a lot of other cities, we’re actually doing pretty well. The nights we’re throwing are really current.”

Recently, Slaughter has been focusing his energy on the production side with a new project called D.A.M.B. that just got picked up by DJs Are Not Rock Stars Records. “Daylight,” his first track released, plays with samples of Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O” backed by a tropical house beat. His second track, “Waiting,” has already been remixed by the LOL Boys, Mom & Dad and Wolfie and has found its way around a number of high-traffic blogs. Not too bad for his first two tracks. We’ll see where it goes in the coming months, seeing as how Slaughter has his hands pretty full booking up-and-comers for FUCK, scouring the Internet for Lipstick and doing the graphic design for all his flyers. It’s a lot of work, but he’s managing to make a living doing what he loves.

“I’m definitely super, super happy. I could be playing Top 40 every night,” says Slaughter. “I get the privilege of DJing with Roger too, and I get to hang out and get paid to do something amazing. I think it’s insane that after 10 years people are still there.”

Here’s to another 10.

Check out Lipstick Tuesday nights at Old Ironsides. For more info, go to www.blasefaire.com.