The Devil Makes Three teams up with a country music legend to create their darkest album to date

If The Devil Makes Three was playing music 80 years ago, they would likely be playing saloons with maroon interiors and raucous patrons.

Pete Bernhard, Lucia Turino and Cooper McBean emerged as The Devil Makes Three in Santa Cruz in 2001, after making their way as far west as possible from their hometown in Vermont.

“It was about as far as we would get from Vermont; it seemed like an adventure to us,” Bernhard says. “[California] was somewhere I had been before, but really didn’t know much about.”

Since their beginnings, traveling has been a constant. They bounced around the United States, even landing in Midtown Sacramento and Davis while Turino attended UC Davis. (Bernhard still has a 916 area code, in fact.)

As far as traveling goes, “We really had it in our minds,” Bernhard says. “But the band gave us a reason to do it… We had no idea how much we would end up doing it as a band, but it suited us. It definitely suited us, and I think it still does.”

Along the way, they have mastered a sound that falls somewhere in the realm of jug bands, blues and New Orleans ragtime, playing renowned festivals like Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and sharing the stage with the likes of Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris.

With both Bernhard and McBean on banjo and guitar, McBean on the musical saw and Turino on upright bass, it is easy to let your ears take you back in time.

In October they released their fourth studio album, I’m a Stranger Here. Days from now, they will embark on a tour to promote the record, making a stop in Sacramento in early February for the first time in more than three years, Bernhard estimates. The band will play Ace of Spades with The Brothers Comatose on Feb. 7, 2014.

“Harlow’s is the only venue we’ve ever played in Sacramento,” he says. “This is the first time we have played a venue in Sacramento that’s bigger than Harlow’s.”

The last studio album the band released before I’m a Stranger Here was Do Wrong Right in 2009, recorded at a house in Davis, and mixed at the Hangar, Sacramento’s well-known recording studio.

As far as I’m a Stranger Here goes, it is their first studio record that they have not self-produced. Instead, acclaimed country musician and producer Buddy Miller took on the task, after meeting the band through a shared record label and management company.

Miller suggested they record at Easy Eye Sound, Dan Auerbach’s (of the Black Keys) recording studio. In addition to playing on the album himself, Miller also brought on members of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, of New Orleans, to perform on the record.

The result? An album that is impossible not to listen to without bouncing or smacking your knee.

“One of the things we’ve always tried to do with our records is capture the feeling we have playing live, and it’s always been a really hard thing to do,” Bernhard says. “I think this record was the most fun to make, of any record we’ve ever made, and I’m hoping, if anything, that that’s transmitted.”

Beneath the thrill of the fiddles and banjos, however, are somewhat dark and sobering words. Though religion has never played much of a role in the members’ lives, biblical themes crop up throughout the album.

“I know this album is definitely a little bit darker than some of our previous records, and that’s just circumstantial, honestly,” Bernhard says. “I didn’t set out to do that necessarily, but as we put the record together, those were the songs that came to the surface as the best ones.”

In “A Moment’s Rest,” he laments “Lord, I got a heart full of hatred, for me there sure ain’t no cure. I wake up and I’m running, I don’t know what I’m running for.”

Simply put, it’s a song about ceaseless dissatisfaction, he explains.

“I think I’m a pretty dissatisfied person, and so are lots of people. It’s just a song about how there isn’t escape from whatever it is that you might not like to think about in life. There’s no way out,” he says. “We’ve done a lot of traveling, we’ve done a lot of playing, we’ve done a lot of drinking, just like anybody trying to, you know, figure out how to get around these things. Ultimately, the song is about how there is no way around these things.

“That’s another thing that keeps me going, as far as being a musician goes, is I’m never satisfied with anything that I do, either,” he adds. “I always think that I could do something better, and I hope that I always could. So, dissatisfaction is a theme in my lyrics, and probably always will be.”

Performing runs in each band member’s blood; all three come from a line of performers. Turino’s parents were dance teachers, and Bernhard and McBean both were surrounded by musicians growing up.

Bernhard and McBean bonded over music early on.

“Both of our families had huge record collections, and I think that’s really where we got our start,” Bernhard says. “When I was 12 years old, my brother gave me all the Willie Dixon recordings, and Howlin’ Wolf, and the complete recordings of Robert Johnson, and a lot of other blues artists that he thought I would like.

“And I love that stuff. That’s still what I love,” he adds.

Even before Devil Makes Three became a band, they were friends first, as far back as high school.

“We’ve always wanted to do this, and we’ve been pretty single-minded about it,” Bernhard says. “And that’s held us together.”

What are you most excited about right now?
I think I’m most excited about this tour we’re about to go on. Well, actually, I’m more excited about our new record that just came out. I’d say that’s probably the thing I’m most excited about. This tour will be the first time we bring the album out to the West Coast. Other than the two shows we did in San Francisco and the two shows we did in Santa Cruz, we haven’t actually toured the West Coast with this record yet.

Regarding I’m a Stranger Here, what prompted that title, because for me that is a familiar feeling.
Us doing what we do, it is a problem that we are strangers everywhere we go. Every day we’re in a different city, and we don’t spend a whole lot of time at a home. It also comes from an old Gus Cannon song.

I think I read that it was Buddy Miller’s idea to go to Dan Auerbach’s studio?
Yeah, it was Buddy’s idea. I had never even heard of Dan’s studio. A lot of good stuff has been recorded there. Dan and Buddy are friends, and he thought it would be a cool place to do it, and that it would have the right feel. And I thought it was perfect, it was a great idea. It was a lot of fun, and we really enjoyed working with the engineer, too.

How long were you guys there?
Not long. I’d say two weeks. We recorded the whole album live, for the most part—all the basic tracks and live vocals—so when we got a good take it was pretty much done. We didn’t take a ton of time in the studio. We spent probably as much time mixing as we did recording.

How did you guys pull the Preservation Hall Jazz Band into playing?
That was Buddy. He played with them before. He suggested it, and I thought it was a great idea, but I had no idea that it could actually happen. He called them up, and we got them on the record. It was amazing. I was really happy that all that came together.

Another thing that I heard on this record was a number of religious references. So why the religious references, and why even did you guys choose Devil Makes Three? Did it just sound cool, or was there anything behind that?
Devil Makes Three was chosen by a friend of ours, actually, when we were all having a big argument about band names. We all agreed upon it, and that’s how we ended up with that name. I guess it did just sound cool, but also there were three of us, and it’s a reference to a song, which, like I said, we like to do that in our songs.

And the sort of biblical references…
Oh yeah. I love gospel music, it’s definitely a big inspiration to me. I listen to a lot of old gospel groups, and I just love their music. A friend of mine in Santa Cruz got me interested in it a long time ago, and I’ve always really loved that kind of music… Also, the Bible is a story that everyone knows. Almost everyone, or it seems like almost everybody, knows part of it in the United States… The stories in the Bible are some of the oldest stories around, and I think it’s an interesting place to draw from in terms of material, and just to sort of try to tell a story within it.

What sort of impact were you hoping to have on your listener, or your listener’s ear, with this album?
Oh, well, I kind of leave that up to the listener, you know what I mean? I think that music is up for interpretation. Whatever impact I hope to have isn’t necessarily going to pan out… People’s interpretation of music is a strange thing. Sometimes people are talking to me about a song, and they’ll say it meant this to them, and I’ll think, “It didn’t mean that to me at all,” but that’s the great thing about music.

The Devil Makes Three show at Ace of Spades has Sold Out. Be sure to check out I’m a Stranger Here at Thedevilmakesthree.com.

Backstreet Boys, The Fray

Ace of Spades, Sacramento
Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013

What could be sadder than a 38-year-old man going to a Backstreet Boys concert by himself? Well, to be honest, probably a lot of things. For instance, that last copy of Zoppi’s Suspended CD that remained untouched at The Beat since it was released in 2000 is pretty heart-wrenching. And images of the abandoned Ferris wheel at The Neverland Ranch are downright depressing. So, I dunno, there are things.

But here’s the weird part: Right when I heard Backstreet Boys were coming to Ace of Spades (and that the show was sold out), my first thought was, “I need to cover this” without even questioning for one second why in 2013 I would actually want to see the Backstreet Boys. And even weirder: After a bit of thought, it dawned on me that I don’t know any of the members in the Backstreet Boys. And the only song I can recall is the one that goes, “Backstreet’s back alright!”

Which is when my existential crisis kicked into high gear.

“Why?” I thought. “Why would I beg to review this concert? What is the point? Why is this band important to me if I don’t even know the members or any of their songs?” Even more difficult to understand was at the end of every question came only one answer: BACKSTREET BOYS. It made no sense that I could think no further than that, as if my mind was somehow clouded by their stardom.

Why do I want to go to this concert? BACKSTREET BOYS.

Who are the members of Backstreet Boys? BACKSTREET BOYS.

What is the … BACKSTREET BOYS.

It’s like a satanic curse that landed me in a hellish underworld of dramatic finger pointing, waxed male nipples and stylishly choreographed dance moves.

However, because I am a professional, my research began, and through that I learned that Justin Timberlake is, in fact, not a Backstreet Boy. And I found out there’s a Backstreet Boy named Howie. And I guess one of the guys, Kevin, is back (hehe, get it?) and Nick Carter, the tall baby-faced blonde with porn star qualities, had a cameo in Edward Scissorhands … So, armed with as much Backstreet trivia as my brain could handle, I set off for Ace of Spades.

A band called The Fray took to the stage at 8 p.m. I actually listened to a few of their songs before seeing them live—enough to determine that their whitebread form of rock ‘n’ roll sounds like music a menopausal woman might listen to right when she says, “Fuck it,” and tries heroin for the first time. The Fray went on for an hour-and-a-half. A long, grueling hour-and-a-half that I mostly spent standing next to Mark S. Allen, analyzing his beautiful and flawless face. If that ageless man isn’t handsome I don’t know who is. Anyway, the most interesting part of The Fray’s set was when two bleached blonde soccer moms fistfought by the bar.

When the Backstreet Boys (there are five of them, I learned) finally took to the stage, my life force had been uncomfortably moistened by The Fray’s steaming pile of music. However, I was quickly intrigued by their presence. They looked healthy and spry, like a boy band should. And their voices, while a little on the low end and muffled by the loud backing tracks (yup, no live band), sounded competent enough. They hit their melodies and demonstrated complete control of their voices (let’s be honest: not even Lauryn Hill can do that anymore). And all that while dancing in tight pants.

After a few classics and a performance of their new song “Show ‘Em (What You’re Made Of),” a surprisingly sparse and catchy single, Nick Carter announced that the Backstreet Boys aren’t just a boy band. “We can play instruments, too,” he said, which took us down a long, boring road of acoustic pop songs.

To be honest, all their songs sounded the same, but I sort of enjoyed standing there in that fog of Axe Body Spray, watching good-looking people sing and dance—if only for the change of scenery. It was certainly a change from watching death metal bands while standing in a crowd half-filled with methed-up neo-Nazis.

Halfway through the Backstreet Boys’ set, I felt the tip of a fingernail grinding into my shoulder. It was a woman, probably in her 50s, wearing an obscene amount of eye shadow and blush.

“Hey, you need to move because I’m trying to keep an eye on my daughter,” she said.

“No,” I said. “There’s no room for me to move.”

“I’m trying to watch my daughter,” she shot back, pointing to the teenage girl in front of me.

“If you cared about your daughter you’d leave the bar and stand with her,” I said.

“How dare you?” she yelled, as if nobody had said no to her in her life. “Why won’t you move?”

I grinned, because the answer, of course, was BACKSTREET BOYS.

Charting the Meteoric Rise of Sacramento’s LAUNCH Festival

When the Canadian duo Chromeo unleashed their brand of electronica-imbued funk on the masses at Cesar Chavez Plaza last year, it was like a shockwave of electrofunk energy surged through the crowd, sending thousands into a music-induced trance as the hoard heaved in time with the synth-laden beats.

It was at that moment that Sacramento’s LAUNCH Music Festival appeared poised to join the music festival glitterati. And now, after five years on the summer music festival circuit, the little festival that could appears ready to take on the mainstream.

“The basic ethos [of LAUNCH] is celebrating the overlaps of art, architecture, fashion, music—music really being the backdrop of it all—and celebrating the creative culture,” says LAUNCH founder Michael Hargis. “And really, since we’ve grown into this, it’s really about creating a culture that keeps the local creators here in Sacramento.”

Hargis says LAUNCH was born out of a passion for all things creative and a commitment to expanding the reach of the Sacramento brand. Through his experience as an architect and fascination with the entirety of the local creative culture, Hargis’ “Why not here?” mentality is what inspired him to bring a little bit of the Coachella magic, a source of his inspiration for LAUNCH, back to Sacramento.

Michael Hargis

With major buzz surrounding the event, LAUNCH has also become a major talent magnet, bringing in acts that are blowing up on the national and international scene. Case in point: this year, Hargis is flying in Van She from Australia to complement this year’s already stellar lineup, which includes indie-rock powerhouse Imagine Dragons..

“This year…bands started coming to us,” says Greg Patterson, one of the LAUNCH partners and co-founder of the ticketing and concert logistics company Ground(ctrl). “So, Blonde Redhead is a prime example of where, it’s a band that I wouldn’t even have thought that we could have gotten, but their agent reached out to us.”

“This is the top agent, the owner of The Windish Agency, which is one of the biggest independent booking agencies,” Hargis adds. “He’s the owner and the personal contact for that band, [and he] reached out to us, and that’s kind of a big deal.”

In just five short years, LAUNCH has grown from a single-day event exhibiting the talents of local creative types to a few hundred attendees, to a multi-day, multi-venue collaboration of local and international artists exposing their talents to a few thousand voracious music, art, fashion and design enthusiasts. Proving that last year’s surging crowds wasn’t a fluke, Patterson says this year’s event is on track to sell as many tickets as it did last year. And with a budget in the high six-figures, you know this year’s event is going to bring it.

Riding the wave of success from 2012’s behemoth of an event, after which the festival was nominated for a 2012 V.I.B.E. (Visionary Innovators in Building Excellence) award by the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, the worlds of music, design and fashion blasts off again on Sept. 4. And its partners are convinced that this year’s festival will prove that Sacramento can hang with the festival big boys.

With the meteoric rise of the festival, Hargis realized that in order to really pull off an event that could top last year’s spectacle, a team of local producers, booking agents and technicians had to be employed. This year, Transmission Events is managing the fencing and some of the other logistics once managed by Hargis and crew. Eric Rushing, owner of Ace of Spades, took on the role of booking the bands. Rushing says the process of developing the lineup was like assembling a dream list of acts.

“We basically sat on a committee and kind of put together a bunch of acts that we’d like to see,” Rushing explains. “LAUNCH has a certain demographic and art about it that Michael really wants to bring across, so it started as more of an electronic and art festival and it’s kind of evolved a little bit, but [we’re] still keeping a lot of the creativity of the festival intact now that there are a lot more partners involved in the festival.”

Local multi-media company Ground(ctrl) also proved to be a major asset to the LAUNCH team, handling some of the other logistical details like ticket sales, website design and helping the LAUNCH team realize their staggering vision to transform the park into something that would top last year’s staging.

“You’re not going to believe you’re in Cesar Chavez Park,” says Patterson. “You’re not going to believe what you’re going to witness. It is going to be freaking incredible.”

From its humble beginnings, including a heavy personal investment from its founders—yes, even Hargis had to dip into his 401(k) to make it all happen—this year’s party in the park promises to deliver big.

“I feel like, from my perspective, it grew from a very organic, really small arts and fashion and music festival into a multi-day, multi-location festival,” Rushing says. “We have the MARRS location with the kick off on Wednesday, Thursday night we have a pre-party at Ace of Spades, Friday night we have the fashion show and then Saturday and Sunday we have the big blowout as well, and we have after-parties planned. It’s one of the biggest things Sacramento has ever seen when it comes to music in the inner city.”

So, if you think that you have to caravan down to the dust bowl that is Coachella or jet out to Austin for South by Southwest to see some of the best music acts to hit the scene, then think again, and prepare to unpack your bags, because LAUNCH is about to jump off, again.

2009

• In 2009, the inaugural Launch event featured local music heavyweights Sister Crayon, electronica maestro Tycho, family trio Dusty Brown, DJ Mike Diamond and Must.Not.Die.

• A contingent of out-of-town bands ripped through the Green Hotel enclave, including L.A. Riots, Wallpaper and Dances With White Girls.

• Set up like an interactive wonderland, the Greens was transformed into a three-stage, mid-century modern homage to Sacramento’s vibrant artistic community. The main stage, poolside deejay station and electro lounge provided booty-bumping grooves while the hotel rooms served as vignettes for vendors and artists to showcase their wares and talents. Adam Saake also helped plan
the event.

2010

• The fashion set included designs by several local design mavens, including Adrienne Cheng’s Reject Clothing line and the futuristic designs of Van Der Neer, Velvet Leaf and Artifacts.

• Invigorated by the success of Launch’s first year on the scene, Hargis set up shop at The Artisan Building, a premier, multi-use facility in Del Paso Heights.

• Live musical performances from visiting artists included a deejay set by The Faint’s alter ego, Depressed Buttons, out of Omaha, Neb.; Woodhands, an outfit out of Toronto specializing in ambient electro-pop tunes; Oakland’s HOTtub; and Los Angeles’ RESA.

• Bands representing Sacramento included The Generals; New Humans; Shaun Slaughter’s project, D.A.M.B.; Sea of Bees; DoomBird and Exquisite Corps.

• DJ sets throughout the night featured the turntable prowess of Jon Droll, Mike Diamond, Sex and Weight, DJ Whores and John Michael Michaels.

2011

• The runway oozed with styles from Krazy Mary’s boutique, R. Douglas Custom Clothiers, Van Der Neer, Fringe and YSJ Vintage.

• The spacious venue also provided ample gallery space to a slew of local and not-so-local artists, photographers, stylists and furniture designers, including Los Angeles-based illustrator, painter and digital artist Brady Tuazon, who also plays in the band RESA; Seattle’s John Horton and Joel Lee; ISO50’s Scott Hansen, aka Tycho; and Sacramento artist Alexa Wolfe.

• Completing the artistic circle, furniture designers David Tracy of Lego, Steve Hamm of Urban Design, Mike Whisten of 12mm Design, Marvin Maldonado of Inform Design, Scott Tiesing of Tiesing Design and Brian Fuller of Brian Fuller Design converged on the scene to display their creations.

• After Neon Indian unexpectedly bowed out of the 2011 Launch lineup, an unfettered Hargis forged on without ruffling a hair on his perfectly coiffed head and invited the reverb-laden Ganglians to join the bill when the festival returned to the Greens Hotel, billed as “Back to the Hotel.” At this point, local promoter Clay Nutting stepped in to help Hargis, and has contributed to the festival ever since.

• Music was front and center when Juli Lydell of the Dreaded Diamond opened the annual fete. The robust cast of musicians also included Chain Gang of 1974 (fresh from Lollapalooza), Sister Crayon, Who Cares, Little Foxes, Exquisite Corps, Favors, Evrika, Sam I Jam, Adam J and Taylor Cho.

• Swimming-pool shenanigans cooled down party-revelers and bathing beauties chilled out poolside while soaking in DJ sets by Mike Diamond, My Cousin Vinny and Jon Droll.

• Local vintage virtuosos Citizen Rosebud and Fringe boutique joined furniture designers Reclamation Art + Furniture and Tiesing Design.

2012

• In its fourth year, the Launch organizers unleashed a fury of events on the Sacramento scene by busting out the heavy guns and showcasing a selected discipline at different locations throughout the grid, concluding with an all-day music festival for its 2012 extravaganza.

• One of the festival’s highlights included a raucous performance by King Tuff at Harlow’s, with equally engaging performances by rockers Jaill and the Coathangers.

• The festival kicked off at Hot Italian with a pop-up shop by Model Citizens NYC, an independent collection of furniture and industrial designers. The crew over at Bows and Arrows then commandeered the reins with a screening of three independent silent films with original scores performed by live musicians.

• The ultimate block party at the MARRS building block erupted as Exquisite Corps set the corridor on fire with a free album-release party. Local architectural group SacDigiFab, longtime partners and collaborators with the Launch squad, created interactive installations constructed out of recycled cardboard that littered the street. The brew team at Ruhstaller was also on hand.

• The festival’s finale, at its new home in Cesar Chavez Plaza, brought the crowd of nearly 6,000 to its collective feet as Chromeo, Grouplove, Chk Chk Chk (!!!), DJ Shadow and others performed throughout the day.

LAUNCH kicks off Sept. 4, 2013 with LAUNCH X MARRS, a free block party at 20th Street between J and K, and features a kickass event every day of the week (LAUNCH X Party Sept. 5, LAUNCH X Fashion Sept. 6) before culminating in LAUNCH x Music at Cesar Chavez Plaza Sept. 7 and 8. All events are all-ages. For tickets, the full lineup and more info, visit LAUNCHsacramento.com.

Dogfood look toward the release of their latest album and beyond

Dogfood bassist Matthew Harris began doing what countless 15-year-olds set out to do: buy an instrument, practice for hours and start a band with friends with the dream of being the next big thing. After playing in a few bands in his hometown of Sarasota, Fla., Harris met Skyler Michael, who admits to having an interest in singing but felt the need to learn an instrument in order to be taken more seriously. Michael quickly picked up a guitar and eagerly set out to start a punk-influenced group. The two began Dogfood as somewhat of a fun experiment where they’d spend hours in rehearsal spaces spitting raps or angst-ridden tunes into Pro Tools with backing synth drum tracks.

After a few years of getting songs together, Dogfood began playing some shows in their hometown. However, the group soon realized that the cozy, conservative confines of Sarasota were becoming too restrictive. There were strict city codes and limited (if any) venues would allow their brand of music. So Harris and Michael decided to make the bold move of relocating to California in 2008 with every intention of taking their music to the next level, and soon recruited drummer J.T. Reed.

Though an early punk sound can be heard on their debut, Alabama Voodoo, their upcoming sophomore release, Blink of an Eye, is more in the vein of several California-based bands such as The Offspring, Sublime or Red Hot Chili Peppers. Dogfood’s influences surely bleed through in their sound, but in no way can be considered a carbon copy of any of their idols.

Pay no mind to the silly name—Dogfood take their music very seriously, as do their fans and peers. Dogfood will be releasing Blink of an Eye at Ace of Spades on Friday, Aug. 2, 2013. In the following interview, Submerge had the pleasure of discussing the past, present and future of the spirited and savvy group.

How did you start this band?
Matthew Harris: We got our start in Sarasota, Fla., near Tampa. My parents bought me a bass guitar for my 15th birthday. I started playing with some friends for about a year and then met Skyler in high school.
Skyler Michael: They had a band going and I wanted to be in it, but didn’t play any instruments so they wouldn’t let me join. I bought a guitar, learned fast and got good at it and they let me join. We started playing small shows in our hometown but were essentially living in a conservative retirement community. There wasn’t a single venue in town that would allow loud music.

Where did your band name come from?
SM: When we started we were 15 years old, playing punk music and not taking ourselves too seriously. Our conversations would always shift to wondering, what’s the stupidest band name you can think of? We originally chose the name, but when we started getting some recognition, it was too late to go back. We didn’t want to sound too epic or be the “The” band. The only problem with the name is if you were to do an Internet search for our band, but combining it to one word makes us easier to find. We’ve actually had multiple dogs sing along at
our practices.

How did you decide on the move to California?
SM: We knew we had to move out of Sarasota if we were going to continue playing music. California has a lot more to offer for music; more venues and big cities up and down the coast. There’s also more competition, which allows you to test yourself as a band. Sacramento has the small pond thing going on. If you’re halfway decent with talent, you can get a show.
MH: Sacramento is pretty centrally located on the West Coast. Plus, we have a van with a trailer, so we’re able to go down to San Francisco and Los Angeles or up to Portland and Seattle no problem. Growing up, we were very influenced by California bands like Sublime, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Incubus.

What did you do to get established in the Sacramento area?
MH: We recruited J.T. on drums to complete our band. He’s very open to experimenting with new beats and coming up with ideas that outshine what we’d envisioned for a particular song. He had to come in and add his flair to several pre-existing songs. His drum beats accent the vocals very well; he keeps in the pocket and his background as a jazz drummer shines through quite often.
SM: We played our first show at It’s a Grind coffeehouse. But we really got our start at the Powerhouse Pub in Folsom. Andy Hawk took a liking to us and gave us opportunities to play. At the time, there were good walkup crowds because it was free to get in. Later on, he booked us for Concerts in the Park events and helped us with getting on the 98 Rock radio station.

You will be releasing your second full-length album, Blink of an Eye, on Aug. 2. What can listeners expect?
SM: Blink of an Eye has a more expanded sound. This time around we experimented with vocal harmonies, added extra rhythm guitar tracks and spent more time crafting our songs; definitely had more fun making it sound the best we could, whereas our first record Alabama Voodoo was very live and raw.
MH: Sean Stack from Fat Cat Recording Studio produced the new record and was actually trained by Alex Hartig, who worked on production for our first album. Sean has really honed his craft, worked really hard and brought out our true sound. Our writing style has changed from education and experience, but we wanted to put a little of everything we have to offer on this record. No two songs are alike.

Where do you draw inspiration from with your lyrics?
SM: Songs just come to me out of thin air. It could be something as foolish as a quote from a movie that I’ll save to my iPhone or lyrics will be built like a puzzle based on random occurrences. I haven’t taken pen to paper in a few years now. Ideas for me are like little bits of pieces here and there that I’ll glue together like a magazine collage. Sometimes I’ll write autobiographical pieces, other times I’ll write from an outside perspective in the shoes of another person.

Now that your album is completed and soon to be released, do you have plans to tour?
SM: We’ve been really focused in the past year of getting this album out. The thought is always that you’ll get your album complete and released within a couple months, but it seems to take the better part of a year without fail. Now that the record will be out, we do have plans to tour, but want to initially keep within the confines of California. There are so many supportive bands and rabid fans in cities up and down the state that can keep us busy. Plus, we have so much love for the local scene. Ace of Spades and Harlow’s are the better venues in town for us, but we always have so much fun playing at the Press Club and feel at home there.

Will you be doing anything special for your CD release show at Ace of Spades?
MH: The bands alone will make it special. A great mix of artists from several different genres represented at this show. We got to hand-pick the lineup consisting of Element of Soul, Humble Wolf, The Three Way and an acoustic set by James Cavern.
SM: We’re printing out nearly 1,000 CDs of our new album to give out for free to every person who buys a ticket, so that should be incentive enough to attend this show. We’ll also be playing Blink of an Eye from start to finish as well as mixing in some of our favorites. There is also a possibility that members of some of the other acts performing might join us on stage.

What can fans expect from Dogfood in the future?
MH: The plan is to promote the album with shows up and down the West Coast. Also, keep pumping out songs that we like and maybe release an EP of new ideas we’ve been working on along with keeping the love here in Sacramento.
SM: We’re going to keep growing as musicians and focus on making better and better music while having fun and being creative. There’s nothing else I can physically do. We have immersed and invested so much into this that there’s no way we could stop now.

Don’t miss Dogfood’s Blink of an Eye release party at Ace of Spades Friday, Aug. 2. Lineup includes Element of Soul, Humble Wolf, The Three Way & James Cavern. Tickets for the all-ages show are $10. Doors open at 6:30 pm.

Cedric Bixler-Zavala has more inspiration than ever for his new project, ZAVALAZ

Known for his eccentric on-stage behavior, vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala has spent the last two decades somersaulting across stages all over the world, swinging his microphone around like it was some sort a circus act before diving into crowds of fans willing to catch him.

In the following interview, Bixler-Zavala discusses with Submerge putting together a new band with a new sound, how he asked the universe for twins and got them and how having those twins will affect his creative output for the rest of his life.

When it came time to take your solo work and form a band, was it easy to piece together the different individuals? Is this the group of guys you had in mind or did it just sort of fall into place this way?
Kind of half and half, you know? Some of the people that played on the record couldn’t really commit because some people had kids, some people had other bands. The core of the group ended up being Greg, Juan and then Dan, who I met when Hella opened up for this Mars Volta tour we did a long time ago.

Yeah I wanted to ask about Dan, because he is in a really great band from the greater Sacramento area called Them Hills. So you first met him back in the Hella days when Dan was playing with that group?
Yeah and I kept in touch sort of sporadically here and there. He was down to take the hit and be a member of the band. One of the main important things was that everyone that was playing on it was really chiming in artistically and had such amazing things to say songwriting-wise. I loved taking the criticism, and I loved taking the direction and it was just wonderful. It’s been this amazing experience to get to learn from these people, because in this band I play guitar predominantly.

Which is still kind of a new thing for you, right?
Yeah, I mean I always did it behind the scenes but never for more than a couple of songs, you know? I’m trying to understand what even tuning is [laughs]. My approach is so make-it-up-as-you-go-along, I think that’s what the guys like. I come in the other day and I’m just like, “I discovered a thing called a capo.”

Details are very sparse about ZAVALAZ and as of now the public hasn’t heard any songs. There’s this sort of shroud of mystery surrounding the band. What can you tell me about the new music? How would you describe the sound?
Well, there was this guy that always used to open up for Mars Volta shows who is a predominant fixture at Low End Theory, a popular electronic thing over here. He has this amazing taste in late ‘60s and ‘70s sort of AM and psychedelia stuff. Mellow, mellow stuff. I’ve always liked stuff like that. Like when I listen to Roky Erickson, I love his rock stuff, but I love more of the ballad stuff. Anytime I’ve played a show with any of the other bands I’ve played in, what I listen to afterwards is lots of super corny, fucking bittersweet ballads. I love that shit. So that’s just what I would start writing…
They are just love songs that I made for my wife. I’m at a point in my life where it’s probably the biggest revolution I could ever do. Especially because I’m just known for one thing. It’s acoustic-based stuff, some of it is rock, but it’s got a very soft touch. It’s just kind of me going back in time and taking cues from my parents’ music and remembering that I actually did love that stuff.

It sounds like this style of music has always been in you, but it’s just getting pulled out more now for one reason or another. That’s got to feel fresh, right?
Yeah, it does. It’s nice to sing songs that are really sparse, open and very direct in the message and to sort of exercise my personal taste in I guess what you’d call Americana. I’m sure a bunch of Americana snobs would be like, “This is not that” [laughs].

How have the songs that started as a solo project changed since bringing in the other guys? It sounds like you’re really open to their influence on the songs?
Yeah, I just started implementing a lot of what their input was. Just sort of getting it down to the core of the song and making an entire album that is really song-based. I’ve spent 10 years being known as the guy that’s part of a band that does 30-minute songs. After 10 years, that gets a little old.

Are the majority of the songs on the ZAVALAZ album on the shorter side?
Four minutes and under.

I’ve seen you perform live many times and one thing I always loved was your crazy stage antics. With this new project you’ll have a guitar strapped on. Can people expect a more mellow Cedric on stage?
I think there will be plenty of other frontmen that can do that and that have borrowed from me, because I borrowed from a lot of other frontmen. They can take it and run. I’ve done it for years. That’s not to say I’m not going to have moments when I put my guitar down and dance still. But right now I really want to embrace playing and get all my mistakes out.

Congratulations on your recent twin baby boys, by the way! Do you think having kids has changed your creative drive? How do you see it affecting your music from here on out?
I think I’ll have more to choose from song-wise. They were born premature. They came out C-section. The nurse in the intensive unit said one of the best things you can do, which is funny because I was naturally doing it already, is sing to your kids. I still sing to them to this day. I record everything because I just love to make stuff up on the spot. It’s made me really identify capturing the moment and writing it down. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t get really overcome with emotions just being around them. They just bring out this indescribable feeling inside me. They really respond to singing. One of them had to come home earlier than the other, and the other wasn’t doing really well in the hospital, so I went in the middle of the night and sang to him for a long time. The next day he came home. Then the next day, my Dad sent me an article from some medical magazine saying live music and singing to your kids is really good for their heart and their stress level. I was like, “Yeah, you don’t got to tell me.” Then Juan sent me the same article being like, “Keep singing to them!”

That’s an amazing story!
They just stare at me, you know? If they’re really fussy it calms them down a lot to sing. They are actually kind of Grateful Dead fans. Anytime I play “China Doll” or anything from American Beauty they get really calm. The most rambunctious they get is when I listen to any kind of Rolling Stones. That’s when they would kick the most before they were born. We just knew they’d love rock n’ roll. One of them just screamed the other day, this intense loud bald-eagle-type-scream, and I thought like, “Did I hurt him somehow?” I just looked at him, and he had this smile on his face, like, “Oh! I can do that?”

It sounds like you have a couple little lead singers on your hands?
They have their little attitude already. Anytime they cry or get fussy I just laugh and think about how wonderful it is. Our story goes really, really deep with wanting to have kids. Long story short, you put something in the universe, you ask for it and you get it back. I did that in a song and I played the song for my wife. She cried, and then the next day we conceived. We went on this really late honeymoon, and she was really sick and it was really hard for her. Then the next day we come back from the honeymoon, she goes to the doctor, I had to go to rehearsal. She calls me and is like, “The fucking song worked.” I realized that I had put in a phrase asking for twins in this metaphorical way and she was just like, “The fucking song worked!” I just laughed. I laughed because it’s what I asked for from the universe. Not one day goes by where I feel stressed by them because it’s such a beautiful, amazing thing.

Where do you see ZAVALAZ one year from now? What’s your overall vision for this project?
I just really want to be a fully functional band and get back in the saddle, to sort of show this other aspect. I’ve always had people ask me why this band broke up, or why that band broke up. It’s always been the simplest answer: that I would never want my tombstone to be just one color. So now I really have this whole new sort of gust of wind to show the other color that I think people have sparsely seen, but now it’s really going to be a full color. I see the band really going for it and sort of embracing how uncool pop music can be in a certain kind of acoustic and softer setting.

Don’t miss Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s new band, ZAVALAZ, when they hit Ace of Spades in downtown Sacramento on Saturday, June 22, 2013. Tickets are available for $15 at Aceofspadessac.com or at Dimple Records, The Beat and Armadillo Music. Doors open at 8 p.m. and all ages are welcome.

Tyler, the Creator w/ Earl Sweatshirt

Ace of Spades, Sacramento • Friday, May 17, 2013

I know I’m supposed to be writing about the Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt show at Ace of Spades, but I really just want to talk about race and gender relations in America, so fuck it. Rap shows are all the same, anyway. They’re pretty much just talking, but with rhymes. But race relations in America are in our direct line of vision. Black people are everywhere. And, while we’re at it, so are Mexicans and homosexuals. The color-blindness of yesteryear is a myth. And guess what, Billy Bob? We can’t unsee people of color! And as much as we plug our ears, gay people are even louder. So let’s just talk like humans for a second. After all, the next step in homo-sapiens-ism togetherness is being as open as we can about race and sex—until all of us are squirming in our chairs and vomiting all over the linoleum floor.

Anyway, most youth—and I mean real youth, like the hormonally-challenged 16-year-old virgins with acne grease dripping from their chins—are a million steps ahead of old folks when it comes to social justice. And if there’s anything young people love more than masturbating in the shower, it’s talking openly about race, so much so that it’s actually kind of creepy. For example, today in line at the liquor store, a girl who couldn’t have been more than 15, described me as “super white for a Mexican,” and then she started laughing maniacally. It was awesome.

Even more amazing is that this new form of say-anything racial discourse is intertwined with popular culture. However, kids don’t sit down over coffee and trade quotes from Judith Butler and Gloria Anzaldua essays; they listen to Earl Sweatshirt say things like, “Hey, you’re a faggot!”

Harsh, I know. But, c’mon: youth!

Do you remember that Tyler, the Creator-produced Mountain Dew commercial that never aired? Something about a battered woman, a bunch of black dudes in a police lineup and a goat? Newscasters reported, “THE MOST RACIST COMMERCIAL EVER” and scolded young Tyler for his display of unschooled ignorance. But what they don’t understand is that the discourse has changed.

Popular culture has changed. Rap has changed. We’re in a new phase of race relations that might look a lot like racism to old people, because the new discourse doesn’t rely on manners. Young people don’t pussyfoot around issues. The new discourse relies on uncomfortable bluntness and awkward humor.

Which brings us (finally) to the sold-out Tyler, the Creator/Earl Sweatshirt show at Ace of Spades. First, the place was packed with kids. And you couldn’t tell who was gay and who was straight because everybody dressed like freakish clowns—clashing colors, big, tie-dyed shirts, huge lensless glasses. Under all that weirdass clothing, even ethnicity was blurred. In fact, the only identifying mark of this Odd Future show was a shitload of cat-related T-shirts.

So when Tyler rhymed, “I’m not a rapper nor a rapist nor a racist/I fuck bitches with no permission and tend to hate shit,” it meant, “Fuck you if you don’t understand me.” Get it? Of course not. Much like racism, the new discourse makes no sense at all.

It’s hard. It’s weird. It’s contradictory. For instance, when Taco jumped into the crowd to attack a fan, nobody flinched. It wasn’t an attack. Taco’s fists meeting that kid’s face was the aggressive signification of a new America. That’s not to say the performance was entirely cryptic in message. Part of the show was about the music. Songs like the upbeat “Orange Juice” showed Earl Sweatshirt’s superior lyricism, while favorites like Tyler’s strangely paced “Yonkers” reminded the world why Tyler, the Creator isn’t just a hype machine, that he’s a kid with a worldview unlike anybody else’s. If the dude isn’t a genius, he’s pretty damn close.

And, of course, the show was not without its tender moments. In between the “Swag, swag, punch a bitch” chant and the gladiatorial portion of the evening where the crowd was to divide into two sides and then instructed to bash each other to death, Tyler took a moment to address the audience. “Enjoy this as humans,” he said. “Put your fucking phones away and enjoy this as humans.”

It was an epiphany of sorts. It seems that sometimes we’re so concerned with being compassionate humans that we’ve become afraid of each other—frightened of offending another race or sex. We’re so bent on being sensitive and politically correct that we forget to enjoy each other as the gross, disgusting humans that we are.

Well, fear not. We have sailed through this choppy storm of social injustice into a new era of race relations, with our fearless leader, Tyler, the Creator at the helm.

Just think about that for a minute.

Oleander Returns with a Defiant New Album, and a New Lease on Life as a Band

Don’t worry; you’re forgiven if you don’t immediately recall, recognize or even remember Sacramento modern rockers Oleander. Unfortunately, that’s just the way the music machine operates. The band, which got its start in Sacramento nearly 20 years ago, hasn’t released an album since 2003’s Joyride. Even more time has passed since the band had a successful single: 1999’s February Son featured the hit “Why I’m Here,” a modern rock radio staple that’s still played to this day. But in an age when content saturation—mostly online—is paramount for a band’s survival in the public eye, it’s possible that 15 percent or more of you have no inkling of what or who an Oleander is.

After a lengthy hiatus following the Joyride tour—the band insists they never broke up—Oleander have revitalized their outlook on being a band, and have taken their time to reinvigorate the rush of creativity that their first few releases inspired. Their new album, Something Beautiful, exudes that resiliency through powerful chord-mashing, heavy drums and anthemic rock ‘n’ roll. They’re ready to take the next step forward together, as Flowers discussed with Submerge from his home in Los Angeles.

Oleander has been described as underdogs. Is that a pretty accurate description of how you and the band feel?
I think the odds are stacked against any band at any given time to be able to be successful in the music industry. Very few bands get signed; fewer than that sell records. When we were coming up, we definitely had to fight our way to opportunities, and then we had to fight our way through challenges. We were fortunate enough to have achieved a certain level of success, at least once we got the first record out there. Certainly “Why I’m Here” went a long way for us. We’ve always played with a bit of a chip on our shoulder; that’s just who we are. After taking such an extended break from activity and the business, we feel like once again we’re going to need to defy some odds to reestablish ourselves. I think it’s a lot easier to come at it from a humble perspective rather than assume that you’re something that in reality you’re not. When you come at it from that perspective, you end up taking things for granted and that’s not a position we want to find ourselves in.

Things have moved at a deliberate pace for Oleander since you guys reformed a few years ago.
Yeah, we got back in the same room and back to enjoying each other’s company in a rehearsal setting, knocking the rust off of the guitars and the amps and reacquainting ourselves with some of the songs that we’ve played millions of times over the years. We slowly grew more and more comfortable with being in the room together and 15 minutes into the first rehearsal, we’d basically written “Daylight,” which is one of my favorite songs on the new album. We’re looking at each other and the hair on my arm is standing up and we realized that there’s something very special going on right now.

One of the positive byproducts of that break was that we were able to discard a tremendous amount of clutter and baggage that we’d accumulated after so many years of grinding it out on that treadmill of the industry. Constantly writing, recording, packaging, promoting, touring, again, again, again. The break really gave us an opportunity to breathe and gather our senses a little bit and get back to what we experienced with that first rehearsal where we were having fun. It wasn’t much fun toward the end before we walked away.

So it was more a series of events, not one in particular, which led to the hiatus for the band?
There was no identifiable moment. The year we started to step away for a minute was I think we’d come off about 200 days in that year that we’d been out on the road. We’d talked about taking a break for a while, a short break, just enough for us to go back home. You’ve got to imagine, when you’re living on the road constantly, we left behind our families and our friends, and we were missing out on birthdays and funerals and weddings and life all for the sake of promoting the album du jour. It’s an honor and a privilege to be able to do that for a living—don’t get me wrong, we’re incredibly grateful to have had that experience and to have it moving in the foreground again—but it comes at a cost. Before we took the break…everything we got into this for, everything we were enjoying at the beginning wasn’t there anymore. That’s not how it should be.

Did you always know you’d likely return to the project?
We didn’t know exactly when we were going to get back into the room and recommit to doing it again. I’ll be honest with you, we got home and it was really nice. The things that people take for granted or that they consider labor we considered fun. Doing dishes, mowing lawns, raising kids and having stability on a regular basis, that was kind of unfamiliar to us because we’d spent so much of our lives just getting into a vehicle, getting from point A to point B, waking up, getting ready for a show, doing press, shaking hands, meeting people, signing things, getting in the bus, taking off, going again. It took me about a month-and-a-half to get comfortable sleeping in an actual bed. I would always end up on the couch because the dimensions of the couch were similar to the bunk I’d been living in on the bus.

So then even when you got back into a room together to play you didn’t feel pressure to produce something right off the bat…
No. I don’t know if you’ve heard the record, and I don’t know what you think of it, but from my perspective it’s our best album to date. And I know every artist with every new album, they think it’s their best piece of work. But I honestly believe it. It’s a direct result of the fact that we had all the time in the world to spend every minute getting attention to every detail possible per song. We had zero pressure. We didn’t have a label over our shoulders telling us to hurry. It was just doing what we wanted to do, getting back to what we got into this in the first place for, which was just being creative. It’s very similar to what we did with February Son; we had our whole lives to write that. From that point forward, though, it was just a constant grind.

It sounds like a very resilient, uplifting album.
Yeah, it is. Something about this band and something about our experience as a band that harkens back to the underdog theme is that we definitely know what it’s like to get the shit beat out of us and to face a few options. You’re either gonna take the left turn or the right turn; you’re going to get up or you’re going to stay down. We’ve always rallied around our mistakes personally and challenges we’ve faced as a band and gotten back up. I really wanted to portray that kind of spirit and attitude in these songs, and I kind of always have. There’s a recurring theme to every album. That’s how my life’s been, a lot of ups and a lot of downs…mostly ups. We’ve figured out a way to turn lemons into lemonade.

Oleander is releasing their new album Something Beautiful Friday, May 3, 2013 at Ace Of Spades (1417 R Street). Allinaday, Track Fighter and G.O.D. open the show. Doors at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $15. Go to Aceofspadessac.com for tickets. For more information on Oleander, visit oleander.net, Facebook.com/oleanderband, or follow the band on Twitter at @OLEANDERBAND.

Jason Newsted knows metal. He’s lived and breathed it his whole life. He was Metallica’s bass player from 1986 until 2001 (so, basically back when they were good) and played on albums like …And Justice for All, their self-titled album (the best-selling Metallica release to date), Load and a few others. Since his departure from Metallica, Newsted has remained active in the metal scene playing with his project Echobrain, as well as with Ozzy Osbourne and Voivod just to name a few. Late last year he announced the formation of his own band, simply called Newsted, with drummer Jesus Mendez, Jr. and guitarist Jessie Farnsworth. Staind’s guitarist Mike Mushok joined just last month, rounding out the lineup and thickening up their sound. Newsted, who is up for a Golden Gods Award this year for Best Bassist alongside legends Geddy Lee (Rush), Lemmy Kilmister (Motorhead) and others, is hitting the road with his new group for just 12 shows in the United States before they head over to Europe for festival appearances. Don’t miss your chance to see a metal legend live, in the flesh, at Ace of Spades on April 27, 2013. Hit up http://newstedheavymetal.com/ or http://aceofspadessac.com/ for more information.

Local hard rock/metal band FallRise is celebrating the release of its new single/video “Make You Suffer” with a sick show at Ace of Spades on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. The lineup includes fellow hard rocking locals Prylosis, Misamore, Madison Avenue and White Minorities, along with Dimidium from Morgan Hill, Calif. FallRise has been making strides since its debut in the summer of 2010 when they released their seven-track EP Beginning. The band went on to release a full-length, Back from the Dead, and has earned tons of sweet gigs opening for bands like Adema, Taproot and most recently for Bush, Deftones and Stone Temple Pilots at the Aftershock Festival. If you’re into hard rock and metal do yourself a favor and don’t sleep on FallRise, that way you’ll be able to say, “I used to listen to them before they blew up.” Learn more and hear some tunes at http://www.facebook.com/fallriserock. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the Jan. 26 show with a $10 cover. All ages are welcome.

NOFX

Ace of Spades, Sacramento – Monday, Dec. 10, 2012

I haven’t witnessed a local venue more packed full of music fanatics than at last Monday’s NOFX concert.

Ace of Spades on R Street hosted an endless sea of punk rock music lovers when NOFX came to town Dec. 10. Other performances were courtesy of Teenage Bottlerocket, who tipped their hats to a Groovy Ghoulies song, and the guys of Elway all the way from Fort Collins, Colo. Many attending the show huddled shoulder to shoulder, corralled into the 21-and-over smoking section, others stood trying to get the busy bartenders’ attentions, but the majority were planting themselves near the stage, finding the perfect spot to watch NOFX’s performance.

When I first found NOFX, I was about 15 years old. I lived in Bakersfield, Calif., and I was immediately drawn to their Neapolitan-colored album, So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes. I’m not sure if it was the fast-paced percussion or the nasally sound of vocalist and bass player Fat Mike that I loved, but as I continued to listen, I appreciated the fact that the guys could actually harmonize.

Flash-forward 12 years, I’m in a different city and my CD resides somewhere in my overstuffed closet in downtown Sacramento. Still, after more than a decade, I have a soft spot for all of NOFX’s music, especially songs like, “Lori Meyers,” with those raunchy female guest vocals, or the epic, 18-minute classic, “The Decline.” Even though neither tune was performed live last Monday, El Hefe, Fat Mike (who isn’t so fat anymore, by the way), Eric Melvin and their longtime drummer, Erik Sandin killed every hit they chose to perform. If I was 15 again, and not able to legally purchase shots of Jameson and pricey beers, I would’ve been found front-row center having my ribs crushed by the safety bar. However, I do like beer. So, my boyfriend and I decided to stand on these cushioned, black seats and sing along while sipping along. Songs like “Stickin’ in My Eye,” “Eat the Meek” and “Dinosaurs Will Die” were of the most memorable of the evening for us and our ribs felt A-OK.

Their latest album, Self Entitled, just released September 2012, has yet to find its way into my heart, and I don’t know if I chalk it up to being a NOFX snob, sticking to all things classic, or if I’ve become a lazy listener. But I still think the boys have their routine down to a T, and that can be heard throughout their 2009 album Coaster, and heavily in their song, “Orphan Year.” During the song, the widely known four-four drum beats pep up the story of a man who’s lost both his parents, a mother to cancer and an absentee father who had dementia. If you, like me, stick to the old albums like Pump Up the Valuum or Punk in Drublic, stop and give Coaster a good listen.

For a band that has performed together for almost 30 years now, and not getting much younger, the men of NOFX still put on a kick-ass show filled with raunchy jokes, stage banter and Hefe still wails on his trumpet, which I know will always be sweet music to my ears.