Kenny the Dancing Man: Who the Hell Does He Think He Is?

A Japanese proverb goes like this: “We’re fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance.” Other adages draw connections between the act of dancing and pure joy, or at the very least a sense of “FUGGIT,” to lessen the blow of mundane, grueling life.

Kenny the Dancing Man, an often shirtless, wacky and mischievous dancing fixture at many indoor and outdoor Sacramento music events, has figured out a way to find happiness in spite of bipolar disorder and the soul-sucking ho-hum of the daily grind. Dancing, you are probably thinking, due to the lead in. Nope. It’s girls.

But dancing gets him center stage in a sea of free-spirited and open-minded girls that will dance, talk and laugh with him. Plus, it’s a good workout (hence the Iggy Pop lookin’ figure), it’s fun and it makes uptight patrons feel uncomfortable—a real perk for Kenny.

I sat down for a Q&A with Kenny the Dancing Man on his way to Concerts in the Park, but it was really a bunch of “A” and not a whole lot of “Q.” Listening to him talk was just as amusing and unusual as watching him dance.

{Photo by Niki Kangas}

What kind of dance were you trained in?
It’s an ongoing thing, like forever! I’m with a ballroom in California where they are training me to be an International Latin Show Dancer! International Latin Show Dancing is a little known world that not a lot of people know. Everyone knows hip-hop, breakdancing. They’re jumping up and down like cockroaches on crystal meth, but it’s for children and teenagers, and when you get older you will never dance with a girl. NEVER. All they’ll do is dance with boys and kiss the concrete. That’s all they will do! If you look at their faces, they’re all young. My world is…samba, paso doble, cha-cha and rumba. We come out as big divas. It’s all about us, Niki; it’s all about us. We love that!
When I go out dancing, I’m practicing what I’ve learned in the studio—I’m practicing International Latin Show Dancing movements.
Girls want to dance with someone fun who doesn’t take a run at them, you know? Or make them feel like a piece of meat at Raley’s. I know that because I was a bartender most of my life, and because I have a background in dancing.
I dance with girls that are looking for boys to dance with. Is that such a crazy thing? I’m not into this bro and man cave crap. I’m into girls. I like girls, guns, God and Corvettes. I want to have fun like Donald Duck and Elmer Fudd, they’re my heroes!
I want to get my own TV show called The Dancing Man Hoochie Mama Show. I’ve got it all figured out. I want it to be like the Dr. Oz or Opera Winfrey Show where you talk about stuff, but I want to have fun, I want to talk about dancing and stupid stuff, I want to throw food at each other, I want to dance and do the weather, and just go nutty, and talk about the cumulus clouds that are accumulating over Yuba City while I dance with a girl.

Where do you dance?
Normally I go to the big outdoor events, like Concerts in the Park or Second Saturday, and I go to Mango’s on Friday because there’s like a thousand girls there…there’s just jillions of them. Sometimes Faces on Friday or Saturday. Other places are too little for me. I need space, and I’m most comfortable when there are hundreds of people. I like to terrorize or torment them, or have fun! With girls like you that like to laugh and have fun. The old people think I’m disgusting and slutty.

{Photo by Nicholas Wray}

Eh, fuck ‘em.
Exactly! Screw them! I don’t care about them, because I only care about the ones that care about me. The old ones are fat and out of gas, and they see someone like me who comes at them like a bat out of Hell, and they don’t know what to do with someone like me! But the girls jump out at me and do their little hoochie coochie moves, and that’s the whole point. Have fun. We’re all gonna die. Life is short, and life isn’t fair. I believe in doing it now.

Do you work?
I used to be a bartender, but I have a bipolar disorder. I didn’t know what I had, I just knew something was wrong, and I got fired years ago because I couldn’t control it anymore. I was diagnosed with it and I had to go on pills, and I couldn’t work anymore. I felt like strangling people.

I feel like that every day, too.
Yeah! I just wanted to blow them off the Earth with a huge cannon and roll them over with a tank, so I wasn’t suitable to work anymore. But I loved bartending because I got to meet fun, sweet girls like you that made me laugh. I had to go on Social Security and disability, but I needed something to replace the social aspect, which I love so much. So I started dancing.

Why no shirt?
I want to show off this 125 pounds of eye candy! I’ve been working out with weights for 25 years, two or three times a day!
What I really want is television. I want the whole world, millions of people… I want to be on your aspirin bottle. I want to be in your rear view mirror. You can’t get away from the Dancing Man! He’s always there! You can’t escape him!

What is it that you like about the ability to command attention?
The fact that they’re forced to look whether they like it or not. I’m not a mean person, but I’m mischievous. My favorite thing is to find a place where hundreds of people are waiting in line for a show or something, and they’re trapped, and I’ll get out of my car and dance, and they have to look at me! They can’t leave because they want to go to some event—I love that! I like to make them uncomfortable, or freak them out, or irritate them, or make them love me. I like people to look at me and say, “Who the Hell does he think he is?!”
And I say, “Kenny the Dancing Man, for God’s sake!”

Where people gather, you’ll find Kenny. Look for him just about anywhere.

Any Radiohead fans out there? If so, would you like to see, hear and experience a bunch of Radiohead classics in a live environment without having to pay, like, $87 for a ticket and without having to drive to the Bay Area and back? You’re in luck! A huge group of some of Sacramento’s most talented musicians are bringing you the second ever Radiohead Tribute Show at Marilyn’s on K on Friday, May 30, 2014. Hosted by local boy on the rise James Cavern (who also headlines Concerts in the Park earlier that same night), this show will feature a special performance from local ambient rockers Life In 24 Frames and an exciting set featuring names such as Lindsey Pavao, Autumn Sky, Eddie Pig Underwood, as well as members of local bands Saint Solitaire, Odamé Sucks, Cold Eskimo, Joseph in the Well and more! The Facebook event page says “From the rabid guitar play of ‘Electioneering,’ hypnotic sounds of ‘All I Need,’ to the haunting sounds of ‘Exit Music’ we will cover an array of Radiohead favorites!” This show gets underway at 9:30 p.m. and is just $5, but as the official CIP afterparty, if you’ve got your wristband on, it’s free.99! To learn more about the event’s host, hit up Facebook.com/JamesCavernMusic

!!!, all about the groove since 1996

Long-distance relationships are rarely successful. Dance-punk band !!! (Chk Chk Chk), whose six members are spread out between Sacramento; Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Pittsburgh, Penn., have somehow figured it out. When you share a passion for something as strongly as these gentlemen do, you make it work. That passion? The love of a groove. “The focus for the band has always been about a feel and a groove,” guitarist Mario Andreoni tells Submerge while sipping coffee on a park bench in Cesar Chavez Plaza in downtown Sacramento. “Usually everything is started from a bassline and/or a beat. That’s what brought us together and that’s what has always sort of stoked the fire.”

!!!’s fifth album, boldly titled Thr!!!er, was released on Warp Records in late April. And while it shows a great progression in the band’s sound, which is in no small part due to working with Spoon’s drummer/producer Jim Eno, Thr!!!er still has !!!’s rump-shaking, dance-floor-burning, signature groove. It is much tighter and more focused overall than their 2010 release, Strange Weather, Isn’t It? There are more catchy, sing-along moments on this record, too, namely in the album’s opener “Even When the Water’s Cold” and on closer “Station (Meet Me At The).” Whereas with !!! albums before, it might have been more about the groove, vocalist Nic Offer really stepped up his game on this one, offering listeners vocal lines and melodies to really latch onto. The Guardian couldn’t have said it any better than they did in a recent article on the band, stating, “The thing is, Thr!!!er kind of is !!!’s Thriller, inasmuch as it’s their best album.”

When Submerge met up with Andreoni, he was only in town for a couple days, just back from gigging in the United Kingdom and on the verge of meeting up with the rest of the band on the east coast before embarking on a U.S. tour. That tour will bring them back to Sacramento on Friday, May 31, 2013, to headline Concerts in the Park, a gig the guys are looking forward to very much. “Even with playing New York, Los Angeles, all these places, this gig is one of the ones I’m most excited about,” Andreoni said, just as a homeless guy barged in on our conversation, choosing our bench to sit on even though the park had plenty of empty seats. We laughed, walked to our cars and said our goodbyes.

Read on to learn more about !!!’s best album to date, how they make the long distance thing work and why they value space in music.

You guys have made the long distance thing work for so long, is it even something that you think about anymore?
No, I haven’t felt that it’s been a problem, per se, for a good eight or nine years. I think that maybe after the guys first moved over there, we were kind of thinking this is a hassle. We had just started working on the single that sort of put us over to more of a national audience, the “Guiliani” single. We had started working on that here and then everybody left and we were kind of like, “Well, what are we going to do with this? We have to finish it.” I kind of flew out there on a lark and for some reason the momentum just seemed to carry. We played a lot of shows…some really great shows out there. We just thought we’ll see how long this works. Touring has been a big part of it, since they live there and I live here, we can rehearse on either side. Everybody always has just made an effort to do whatever we can to maintain this connection.

It seems like it keeps things fresh. As a band, you’re never really stagnant or in one place for too long, right?
When we all lived together here when we started the band and we had various bands that we were working with, there was always a tendency for practice to get cancelled because so-and-so has to do this-or-that. There’s no question the band would be different if we were rehearsing three or four times a week in the same city.

Who knows, we could have broken up a long time ago. I wouldn’t start a new band in this configuration right now, but it’s been what I’ve associated with this band forever. Once we all get together, it only takes like 10, 15 minutes. We’ve been able to keep in pretty constant contact. I really don’t go more than maybe a couple weeks without talking to anybody. We’ve been friends for a long time.

One thing I notice and appreciate about !!! is all the open space in the music. Not everyone is doing everything all the time. As a guitar player, is it ever hard to hold back from writing even more riffs to go over all that groovy stuff?
I think any effective dance music has a big sense of space. I’m always conscious of that. I’ve never really been a guitar player that’s wanted to sort of like get choppy, it’s just never really been my style. I really want to benefit the song and the groove as much as possible. I value the sense of space. Even as a guitar player, there are certain things where you can really kind of pick your spots and be heard even a little better versus people just going all out all the time. It suits my personality and this band to sort of contribute more to the overall aesthetic. Just as someone that listens to a lot of groove and dance music, having the bass and drums be the primary focus is what I love. The people that I sort of emulate were people that really knew how to sit in the background and knew how to work rhythmically with the band.

How was it working with Jim Eno on the new record?
It was really gratifying. Jim was very seasoned. He’s made tons of records. We just hit it off and he pushed us in new ways that we’ve never been pushed before and challenged things. Where we might take a groove and say we’re going to do this over the course of seven minutes, he would always be asking, “Why are we doing this?” I’m sort of paraphrasing him obviously, but he forced us to look at things differently.

Are there certain songs on the record that have more of Eno’s touch than others?
I think all the songs he did, which are the majority of the tunes on the record. The one thing we loved about Spoon was that it was a rock band that really had a sense of space, like we were talking about earlier. So we kind of trusted him with that.

I think the whole allowing and enjoying more space in music thing might come with getting older and being more mature. Younger musicians tend to want to play louder and want their parts to be heard more, you know?
Right. It’s ultimately about the song. Jim got us to focus on the song. That was something that was at the forefront every day when we were working together. Coming in with our demos and things like that, we had to really distil things down to, “What makes this the best song?”

Tell me how you guys settled on the name Thr!!!er.
Constantly we’re tossing around ideas. We do a lot of riffing. A lot of the stuff we come up with is kind of funny, or at least we think it’s funny. It was one of those things where we knew we were going to have to come up with a title, so we were always just rifling off. Nic had written it down; literally it was one of those things where writing an idea down on a napkin made me go, “Well that looks fucking cool.” The whole other part of it, the sort of folklore behind Michael Jackson’s Thriller… We’re all fanatics of music. We know the cultural significance of his record. But at the end of the day I thought it looked really fucking cool. I thought it was a good idea then and I still really love the title. Aside from it maybe seeming like we’re taking a piss, which there’s some of that to it, as a statement I do think that this is sort of our most varied record. Michael Jackson’s Thriller is a varied record. We talked a lot in the studio, like, “What’s the folk-rock Thriller? If Thriller was the pop/R&B Thriller, the actual Thriller [laughs], how can you apply that sort of significance across other genres?” It really just kind of all fit together.

As a longtime fan of the band, I’ve often found myself asking, “Why haven’t they blown up? Why don’t more people know about them?” But then I’m like, “I’m glad they aren’t huge, I can keep them to myself!” Have you encountered that a lot?
Yeah, and coming up as music fans, we’ve shared that. Discovering Sonic Youth and Nirvana when you’re a kid or whatever and thinking, “This is a cool thing,” and you want to keep it as a cool thing. How people perceive our band, whether or not they do it that way, it’s fine with me. I guess I’ll be somebody’s cool thing. I think that we’ve strived to sort of push it across to as many people as possible. While that’s not necessarily our goal, it’s certainly not lost on me that a big segment of our audience is that way. I know people that share that sentiment, like, “They should be bigger,” or this or that. Because we love doing this so much, as long as we can keep playing to more people, it’s something that we still really have a lot of fun doing. I try not to get too locked into our popularity-buzz-ratio-output thing. There are other people that can worry about that.

I think the keyword there is fun. I can tell you guys still have fun and your music is fun to listen to and to dance to. I can’t imagine, for example, that you went into this record thinking, “This is our make it or break it album,” you know what I mean?
I haven’t felt that way. As a musician, anytime you put something out you want to show it to people and say, “Hey check this out, listen to this, this is what I did, this is my band.” You’re always wrestling in a band with multiple people weighing in on things. You want to be proud of it. Every time you start a new record, you want to come away with something that you’re proud of. I feel very proud of this record and what we’ve done. The goal from the start of the band has always been to create this swirl of energy. When we’re playing there’s this very visceral thing that happens. It’s important for it not to come across as being forced. It’s not forced. In some respect we’re not careerists like that. It’s still ultimately about creating that swirl of energy. Some days it doesn’t happen, but fortunately more often than not it happens and it’s really, really gratifying.

Catch !!! live for free on May 31, 2013 at Concerts In the Park, held every Friday during the summer at Cesar Chavez Plaza. Their new album Thr!!!er is available now online and at record stores worldwide. For more information, visit Chkchkchk.net.

Here is your first look at the 2013 Concerts in the Park lineup. Last summer saw record setting attendance for the Friday night series and by the looks of it this year shouldn’t be any different. Here is what we’re particularly stoked about: local hip-hop from the likes of Rasar, Live Manikins, DLRN and a couple others. Also Kill the Precedent is one of our absolute local favorites and we didn’t expect to see them on the listing at all, as they are rather heavy and in-your-face. And of course we’re pumped to see !!! (Chk Chk Chk) headlining a night not long after their new record THR!!!ER comes out. The Mother Hips are closing one night and they also have a new record out soon, same goes for Middle Class Rut. All in all it’s a pretty solid lineup in our opinion, but hey, what do we know? Best of all, the shows are all free. Let us know which bands you are excited about!

May 3rd:
Element Of Soul
Musical Charis
They Went Ghost
DJ Epik

May 10th:
Middle Class Rut
Jonny Craig
Dogfood
I’m Dirty Too
RCK:RMX (Blackheart+Buckdog)

May 17th:
Arden Park Roots
Syncro
Rasar (formerly Random Abiladeze)
Live Manikins
DJ Whores

May 24th:
James Cavern
Iconoclast Robot
Rock N’ Rhyme
DLRN
Heartworm

May 31st:
!!! (Chk Chk Chk)
Exquisite Corps
Paper Pistols
Sam I Jam

June 7th:
Mumbo Gumbo
The Quinn Hedges Band
Tel Cairo

June 14th:
Infamous Swanks
The Lesdystics
Avenue Saints
The Bar Fly Effect
Shaun Slaughter

June 21st:
Mother Hips
Jackpot
The Old Screen Door
Roger Carpio

June 28th:
Brodie Stewart
Nevada Backwards
The Carly DuHain Band
Big Trouble
DJ Rigatoni

NO SHOW JULY 5th

July 12th:
ZuhG
Joy & Madness
Harley White Jr. Orchestra
DJ Oasis and INKDUP

July 19th:
FallRise
Kill the Precedent
Restrayned
Fair Struggle
Z Rokk

July 26th:
The Brodys
Hero’s Last Mission
The Bell Boys
Humble Wolf
DJ Billy Lane

Local reggae/rock group Street Urchinz is celebrating the release of its debut album Dissolve on Friday, June 22, 2012 at Ace of Spades alongside Arden Park Roots, The Holdup, Simple Creation and Element of Soul. “We started two years ago,” says Doug Riggs, rhythm guitar, keys and backup vocals for Street Urchinz. “It was just the lead singer and I playing acoustically under the bridge in Old Sacramento. This is our first album, and we have come a long way since then.” Longtime drummer of Sacramento post-hardcore band Dance Gavin Dance, Matt Mingus, recently joined forces with the Urchinz. The group is rounded out by vocalist and lead guitarist Tommy Norman and bassist Trevor Ingram. If you can’t catch Street Urchinz on June 22, they’ve got quite a few other shows coming up in the area: Concerts in the Park in downtown Sacramento on July 6, 2012, G Street WunderBar in Davis on July 7, 2012, and Powerhouse Pub in Folsom on Aug. 18. For more information and to sample some tunes from the new album, visit http://www.facebook.com/streeturchinz. Fans of Iration, Rebelution, Pepper and bands of the like would be well advised to look into this band. They might be a new local fave.

Sexrat teams up with renowned producer Sylvia Massy on forthcoming album, Masters of Obscurity

Rock ‘n’ roll is alive and well.

It’s heard in the echoes of music from past greats and pulses between the new musicians of today. With seven years to their credit, Zach Goodin, Marc Kallweit and Devin Hurley of Sexrat look forward to releasing their second album, Masters of Obscurity this fall. A three-year labor of love in the making, the album was recorded at a 1900s vaudevillian theatre in Weed, Calif. that is now converted into Radiostar Studios by avid instrument and gear collector Sylvia Massy.

Not only is Massy known for collecting pieces of rock ‘n’ roll history, she’s also known for producing tracks for multi-platinum musicians such as Tool, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, R.E.M and more. What’s more is her collection of vintage gear and equipment, which, according to Sexrat guitarist and vocalist Goodin, all have a story behind them.

“She turned a 6,000-square-foot art deco movie theater, like a small version of the Crest [Theatre], into a recording studio with tons of vintage gear,” explains a smiling Goodin, his eyes gleaming with excitement behind a pair of dark shades. “Every piece of equipment has some crazy story like, ‘Oh, I got that from the Stones,’ or, ‘I got that from Led Zeppelin.’”

Strumming guitars held by respected rock ‘n’ roll pioneers and turning up the amplifiers created custom by companies like Marshall or Mesa Boogie for some of the biggest names in music history kept inspiration flowing during their time in Weed. Goodin says having access to Massy’s never ending collection of rock ‘n’ roll trinkets set the tone during Sexrat’s recording sessions.

“This place, just the vibe and the acoustics, makes for a way bigger sound,” says Goodin of Radiostar Studios. “We took our time doing it and [the album] sounds great. They’ve got great gear up there and they’ve got a good ear, so they really push you to do your best.”

The 12-song album, recorded by Massy and her main engineer, Rich Veltrop, features Bud Gaugh, drummer of Sublime and longtime friend of the band’s, and also Gaugh’s wife Nicole Hutcheson. Goodin met Gaugh while living in Southern California playing music for various bands and says Gaugh even hooked Sexrat up on tours with musicians like Matisyahu, Pepper and Fishbone.

Although Goodin says the band felt like “the redheaded stepchild” of that particular tour last summer because Sexrat sounded the least like Sublime, he feels shows with a fixed audience are perfect environments for his band, because it exposes them to a variety of listeners. At the end of the day, Goodin and the rest of Sexrat just want the opportunity to connect audiences to their music, despite genres.

“We get tied into the reggae rock scene, but that’s not really what we’re doing,” explains Goodin. “Maybe a little bit, but I would say we’re probably more psychedelic rock. We’re not really a reggae band.”

And they’re not.

Sexrat jam, intermingling neo-psychedelic organs with guitar solos, effects pedals and catchy lyrics prominently in their song, “Made in China.” The song features Gaugh on drums alongside Sexrat’s drummer, Hurley, who often plays keyboards simultaneously and is now adding backing vocals to his list of duties. But, at the moment, Goodin says his favorite track off their new album is “Walk of Shame,” a song he says is always fun to play. Packing a variety of sounds, the song starts off with surf rock-style guitars, mellowed out with the introduction of Goodin’s vocals resonating in ‘90s alternative rock, and then finished with hard-hitting drums.

“We’re all in our mid-30s, and we are a product of the ‘90s. That’s true to our sound,” says Goodin trying to pinpoint Sexrat’s genre. “We’re kind of hard to categorize. We cover a lot of ground. It’s all just music to me I guess, but we all have our own way of playing and together that’s what makes our sound.”

When they’re not rocking stages up and down California, the guys of Sexrat spend time in town with friends and family and Goodin has even acted as musical teacher and coach to the girls of punk rock duo Dog Party. He says witnessing sisters Gwendolyn, or his preferred “Gwenny,” and Lucy Giles’ eagerness to just play music and learn is refreshing to see in the youth of today. Especially as he and his two band mates continue to perform after all these years.

“I’ve been playing since I was 10 years old,” remembers Goodin. “It’s the same old guys that play music [in Sacramento]. As we get older, we see who’s more dedicated–like all those guys from Kill the Precedent, we’ve all played the same backyard parties with the Filibuster guys; it’s cool to see everyone who’s still playing.”

Although their album isn’t set for release until later this fall for those outside of Sacramento, Sexrat will be performing at next week’s Concerts in the Park series alongside Relic 45, Reggie Ginn and more. The guys will also have fresh copies of Masters of Obscurity for sale at Cesar Chavez Park offering those in attendance first dibs for an early listen. After their performance at the park, the guys of Sexrat are off for a weekend of music in Goodin’s old stomping grounds, Long Beach. But, what they’re really looking forward to is performing at Massy’s annual 4and20 Blackbird Music Festival in Weed.

After spending a year getting to know Sexrat in her massive studio, Massy invited the guys to play the main stage at her event this August alongside bands like Forever Goldrush and Merle Jagger. The two-day festival boasts seven outdoor stages, five indoor stages and myriad genres, vendors and street performers.

“They have managed to capture something rare in today’s musical offerings–true honesty,” says Massy of Sexrat. “They are organic, gritty and melodic. They are fun, and yet they express deep emotion in their music with inspired performances coming directly from the heart.”

Sexrat will play Friday Night Concerts in the Park at Cesar Chavez Park in Sacramento on June 15, 2012. To get up-to-date info, like the band on Facebook at http://Facebook.com/sexrat.

Last week marked the opening of the 2012 Concerts in the Park series, and the newly renovated Cesar Chavez Park hosted over 6,300 people, a record breaking crowd for the Friday night series says Play Big Sacramento’s Andy Hawk. “Three years ago Mumbo Gumbo did around 6,100 and that was the biggest up till that point,” Hawk told Submerge. “If you give people a reason in this town to go out, they will.” It only gets better from here on out. On Friday, May 11 catch Middle Class Rut live for the first time in Sacramento in over a year! The hard rocking (and hard working) duo, consisting of guitarist/vocalist Zack Lopez and drummer/vocalist Sean Stockham, have been serious road dogs touring constantly for the last two-plus years. “We’ve been finding out the cities we do best in and building fans there,” Lopez recently told Submerge. “Things were easy back when ‘New Low’ was getting spun all day everyday and I could just hang out at Flame Club and drink. This touring shit is hard work!” They were touring so much, in fact, that at some point things started to feel stale, according to Lopez. There were songs on their record they couldn’t pull off live as just a two-piece, and playing along to a laptop was out of the question. So, naturally, they brought in a couple new members into their live setup, Eddie Underwood and Bob Lander of Sacramento band Lite Brite. “Since we’ve toured with them a few times before, it was easy to gel,” Lopez said. “There’s no other guys in Sacramento we’d rather have steal our booze than them.”

See Middle Class Rut live alongside Lite Brite, Horseneck and DJ Whores on Friday, May 11 at Cesar Chavez Park. Every show of MC Rut’s latest tour has been recorded for a live album release, this one included, so let’s all show up and be loud. Visit http://mcrut.com/ for more information about the band and visit http://downtownsac.org/events/concerts-in-the-park/ to see the series schedule.

Submerge has got your first look at the lineup for this year’s Friday Night Concerts in the Park series. The 13-week shindig kicks off on May 4, 2012 at 5 p.m. at Cesar Chavez Park in downtown Sacramento. You can see the entire lineup right here. Major brownie points to anyone who can name all of the artists that have been on the cover of and/or featured in the pages of Submerge (hint: there’s a lot of them).

May 4
Arden Park Roots (reggae/rock)
Island of Black and White (acoustic/blues/reggae/rock)
The Storytellers (roots/reggae/ska)
Shaun Slaughter (indie/electro/pop)

May 11
Middle Class Rut (rock)
Lite Brite (rock)
Horseneck (rock)
DJ Whores (electro/indie/dub step/alt)

May 18
Nickel Slots (alt-country/Americana)
Infamous Swanks (rockabilly)
Blackeyed Dempseys (Irish rock)
DJ Adam J (indie/dance/alt)

May 25
ZuhG (funk/reggae/jam)
Element of Soul (acoustic/jam rock)
Playboy School (electronic indie/pop)
DJ X’GVNR (pop/top 40/electro/dance/dub step/house)

June 1
Oleander (rock)
Allinaday (rock)
Trackfighter (rock)
Verdugo Brothers (house/top 40)

June 8
Mumbo Gumbo (zydeco/roots/dance)
Todd Morgan and the Emblems (blues/rock/jazz)
DJ Mikey Likes It (top 40/‘80s/‘90s/party groove)

June 15
Relic 45 (blues/rock)
Out of Place (acoustic/alternative/rock)
Sexrat (alternative/rock)
Reggie Ginn (pop)
Shaun Slaughter (indie/electro/pop)

June 22
7 Seconds (punk)
Bastards of Young (punk)
City of Vain (punk)
DJ Whores (electro/indie/dub step/alt)

June 29
The Nibblers (funk)
The Coalition (world beat)
Diva Kings (folk/pop rock)
DJ Fedi

July 6
Full Blown Stone (reggae rock)
Dogfood (alternative rock)
Street Urchinz (reggae/rock)
DJ Nate D

July 13
Another Damn Disappointment (ADD) (punk)
Walking Dead (punk)
A Single Second (punk)
The Left Hand (punk)
DJ Blackheart (house/electro/punk/indie)

July 20
Walking Spanish (blues/indie rock)
Jack and White (alternative/pop rock)
Autumn Sky (folk/pop)
CrookOne (soul/pop/hip-hop/Motown/indie)

July 27
The Brodys (pop/rock)
Early States (pop/rock)
Hero’s Last Mission (pop)
Chaotic Fusion (DJ Oasis & !nkDup) (rock/top 40/dance/mash-ups)

As you probably know by now, this year’s lineup was not booked by longtime promoter Jerry Perry, but instead by a committee of local promoters, musicians and music enthusiasts that go by the name Play Big Sacramento. One committee member, Andy Hawk, who works at Entercom radio stations and promotes Wednesday night shows at Powerhouse Pub in Folsom, recently told Submerge of this year’s lineup, “As a committee we worked with venues, clubs, bookers and musicians in an effort to create a lineup of the best Sacramento has to offer. We have 13 weeks of shows filled with the biggest headliners in town, and have added the most talented DJs in Sacramento to play in the beer garden. Friday Night Concerts in the Park this year will truly be the centerpiece of entertainment in Sacramento this summer.”

Modern day pitfalls can’t stop the release of A Single Second’s new album

Dead bodies, delivering babies, opening for punk rock legends G.B.H.–the guys of A Single Second have not only racked up the street cred, they seem to have seen and done it all during their nine-year career as one of Sacramento’s longtime post-punk bands. Call them music junkies or workaholics, they’ll accept either label, but these four musicians have surely logged the man-hours to earn either pseudo-title. Their musical resume boasts over 1,000 shows to date, including the Maloof Money Cup in Orange County two years running, our own California State Fair just recently, and not to mention a few dozen local shows sprinkled throughout their already busy schedule.

Despite witnessing their fair share of lineup changes, the guys of A Single Second–Shawn Peter (vocals, guitar, trumpet), Aaron Holt (lead guitar, vocals), Jason “Mogley” Tilsey (bass) and Dave Girard (drums, vocals)–are as eager as ever to tour California and travel the Northwest to promote their newest album since the release of 2005’ a Smiling Politely. After many bouts with computer and hard drive issues, ultimately delaying their second self-titled full-length album’s release, they’re itching to take the show on the road.

Why has it taken A Single Second so long to release another album?
Jason Tilsey: It was supposed to be out two years ago, but we’ve lost it a bunch of times. Computer problems, hard drive problems, but we’ve finally got it together. I think it was more of a blessing that those computer problems happened because the songs sound a whole lot better now than they did two years ago. They’ve been ironed out and just keep evolving to the point where we’re comfortable where they’re at now.

Tell me about collaborating with Lydia Gavin from Aroarah on this album.
Shawn Peter: We’ve been friends with Aroarah for a long time. I’ve watched them since high school evolve into not only beautiful people, but excellent musicians. I like to collaborate with as many people as possible. Lydia was just ecstatic just to do it; she was really stoked. The song “Wednesday” is a new song we have. We haven’t even played it live yet, and she just made the difference in bringing that song together vocally.

What song(s) do you feel most connected to?
SP: “The Guide.” I’m a Downtown Guide and I see everything. I’m a bumblebee on K Street. I’ve been doing this job for 11 years. I’ve been beat up, I’ve helped people, I’ve almost delivered a baby once. Dead bodies. I write about love, like in the song “You” is about finding the perfect mate and being afraid of losing it. “Dark Room,” that song’s about getting caught doing stupid shit and people calling you out on it, and you’re either going to lie or tell the truth.

How’s the band’s chemistry now?
SP: Playing with Dave, Mogley and Aaron over the last three years, it’s been the best the band has ever been. Not to say I didn’t like the moments before, but, we’re not afraid to try anything. We write for ourselves and we write music for ourselves. And, hopefully, our audience is going to like our material. It’s really nice to write something new and try it out and see how the audience is going to react to it.

Do you feel you challenge each other?
SP: Most definitely. Aaron writes the most intricate guitar stuff where I’m like, “Whoa.” My classic phrase is, when I write a song, Aaron smartens up my songs, and when Aaron writes a song, I kind of dumb him down a bit [laughs]. I’m not going to toot his own horn, but he’s probably the best guitarist I’ve ever played with.
Aaron Holt: We’re not scared to shit on everyone else’s ideas, too. Let it be known. It might be me, a lot. I got the big mouth.

What inspires you as a songwriter?
SP: Life. I write about my personal experiences. Personally, I went through some real tiring times in the last two years and if it wasn’t for my band mates, I don’t know where I would be, honestly. I had a lot of dark moments going on in my life and music helped me pull through and the lyrics revolve around those experiences. I’m just trying to take a positive step toward everything.

Tell me about opening for G.B.H.
SP: I’m an old school punk rock fan, and it was an old school punk rock show. You had your classic, mohawk-leather-jacket-with-the-patches kids in there. Classic punk rockers. We actually had two guys literally sitting on the stage while we were playing facing the audience and they were expecting hardcore punk that night, but we got a really good reception where they clapped after our songs, kind of like, “You guys are rad, not really what we wanted to hear tonight, but you guys don’t suck. Right on.”

What does the Sacramento music scene need?
AH: More people need to go out to shows. I think in the last year or two it seems better. There are more venues opening up. We’re sitting across the street from Luigi’s right now, and there are people out on a Tuesday night. I don’t think [the scene is] as good as the days of the Cattle Club, but it’s better than it has been. There’s a lot more people that are going out, but more people could always come out for sure.

When will the band call it quits?
AH: We’ll call A Single Second quits when it’s not fun anymore. Who knows a year from now, two years from now, if someone’s not having fun? A Single Second or not, I guarantee in 20 years, I will still be playing my guitar whether I’m out playing at a club or something. I’ll have my acoustic out, trying to pick up on younger women at the coffee shop [laughs]. I don’t know. I just love to play music. It’s like therapy–well, not therapy, it’s an outlet.

Does a community of musicians exist within Sacramento?
SP: You go to any show and you really know who’s in what band. We all play with each other and collaborate with each other. Half the audience is always going to be other bands and the friends of those bands. I could rattle off for a half hour all the bands I like playing with: Kill the Precedent, First Class Citizen, Bastards of Young, the Secretions…bands who’ve been around since the ‘90s, like Will Haven’s still doing it. There’s a lot of bands and we’re all listening to and supporting each other.

Why do you continue to play music?
SP: We just want to keep doing things that challenge us. We’re not doing it for anyone but ourselves, and if people happen to like it, then that’s awesome. I play music on stage and it allows me not to be an animal in every aspect of my life. That’s my outlet to let it go. My frustration, my excitement, my everything. I give it all when I give a performance. I’m a music junkie. If there’s any drug in my life, it’s music. And I’ll never give it up.

On Friday, Aug. 12, 2011 A Single Second will play the first of two official CD release shows at Concerts in the Park in Cesar Chavez Park. Get a beer garden wristband and get into the guys’ show at the Distillery later that night for free. You’ll have another chance to catch the band Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. at Ace of Spades. Tickets to this all-ages show are $15. D.R.I., Kill the Precedent and Hoods will also perform.

Concerts in the Park
Friday, May 7, 2010 – Cesar Chavez Park – Sacramento
Words & Photos by Vincent Girimonte

Two things to take away from last Friday’s edition of Concerts in the Park: one, Sacramento has some exceedingly hip youth; so hip, in fact, that I felt like a tool toting just one lens with my Nikon. Seriously though, I saw way too many kids with thousands of dollars-worth of camera gear dangling from their thin little necks. And second, make sure to buy a beer ticket before you get into the beer line–just a friendly reminder I wish someone would have given me.

Full disclosure: this was my first CIP, and for all my faux curmudgoenliness (I still get carded, for everything) it was a genuinely unique and jovial Sacramento on display in Cesar Chavez Park. Young professionals rejoiced in public consumption as kids pranced around and people were wearing balloons as hats, which would be ridiculous if it weren’t a Friday signaling the beginning of our glorious summer.

Dotting the park were food carts of all shapes and specialties, reminding Sacramentans of a culture largely prohibited to them and satiating drunks and kids alike with fatty eats such as lumpia, rice bowls, Cajun crawfish and the night’s hot seller, tamales for $1.75. About the crawfish: “They’re back” announced promoter Jerry Perry from the stage, gleefully, but at $10 a basket, I was left to lick shells off the lawn. There was plenty of affordable grub to be had, though, and $4 domestics shouldn’t elicit too much whining from anyone, though it inevitably will.

2010’s first Concerts in the Park, now in its 18th year, was mostly about Perry and his talented lineup of youngsters, including Simpl3Jack and Dog Party of Sacramento News & Review Jammies fame and The Kelps. The show was headlined by the sugar-spiked Kepi Ghoulie, the biggest kids of them all, who played a lengthy set of punk nostalgia piped over zany PG lyrics.

If you don’t know Dog Party, you’re likely so thoroughly out of it, you probably didn’t even know they’re just a couple of adolescent girls with a penchant for neon. Gwen “Don’t call me Meg” Giles beat drums behind her sister Lucy, who strummed her Fender, playing original tracks off their debut album and then rocking a cover of Tegan and Sara’s “Walking With a Ghost.” Two men wrestled for a T-shirt after Dog Party threw out one of their sweet XL tees–such is the zeal of their following, or perhaps the state of things these days.

Part Pauly Shore, part Flea in the vein of Yo Gabba Gabba, Kepi shut things down with tunes about supermodels (gross!), chupacabras (ew, yuck!) and rabid monkeys (whaaa?!). He called on the beer garden for a sing-a-long, and they reciprocated like good sports without a worry on Friday night. “Man,” he said, clearly appreciative. “We got a pretty good town.”