When listening to Death Party at the Beach’s eponymous first EP, it’s hard to believe the band was actually a one-man project during the time of its recording.

Lance Derouin played in bands in Sacramento and San Diego before he realized he wanted more creative control of his music. That’s when he created Death Party at the Beach.

“I got into a band with Jesse [Mancillas] from Cemetery Sun, but we only played two shows or something like that,” Derouin said in a recent interview with Submerge. “I was just the singer of the band, I didn’t write any music, so after that I just figured, ‘OK, I need to just start something from scratch myself,’ and I started just writing everything. That’s kind of what the first [Death Party at the Beach] EP was.“

Looking to round out the sound and play live shows, Derouin decided to add members to the project.

“After the EP, I got together with Nate [Webb], our guitar player. He and I were a two-piece for a year and a half or so,” said Derouin. “Later we looked for other people and found Aaron who was in the same practice room two doors down.”

With the addition of current band members Kevin Stefanescu (drums) and Aaron Aparicio (bass), Derouin decided to share creative control of the music. That’s when Death Party at the Beach’s sound came alive.

I was able to sneak a listen to a couple of songs from the new EP, Absence, and right away, you feel how much the music opens up, allowing for each member to accompany each other’s contribution. The songs feel less frantic than those on the previous EP, which adds a new depth to their sound.

Recently, I sat down with Derouin and Aparicio to discuss the new EP, how the writing process has changed once members were added and, of course, their upcoming release show with a DJ set from !!!.

Death Party at the Beach has seen quite a few changes since its conception. Are you looking to add any more members?
Lance Derouin: The dynamic we have now is perfect. What I wanted when I started this was to have it be a real, live thing and it’s changed as well. Everybody contributes to it. Aaron plays guitar on one song, but he plays bass on most of the other songs.

Are you guys switching instruments at live shows?
Aaron Aparicio: Yeah, it’s more of a recent thing. With the drummer we have now, it makes it so all four of us are multi-instrumentalists, and we can all sing, so it’s great when we get to jam and write.

When writing new music, do you guys want to stay consistent with the sound of the first EP?
LD: From the way we sound on the older EP to how our next EP is going to sound, it’s going to have familiar elements, but it’s going to have more of a whole band kind of vibe.

How was the songwriting process different when writing Absence?
AA: Well the first EP was Lance in his bedroom, recording all of the vocals in his closet.
LD: Yeah, I did all of that myself and I sent it off to get mixed and mastered but the first EP was all me.

All of the Instruments?
LD: Yeah, everything.
AA: Yeah, that was the first thing I heard, a couple tracks off of the first EP and that’s what sold me to play with them. But yeah, there definitely is a feel from one EP to the other.
LD: Usually you know exactly how you want a song to sound when you are doing everything by yourself, but when you get other people involved things fluctuate.

Lance, how was that change for you?
LD: It has been a little bit of a transition, but at the same time it takes some of it off of me. If I like an idea or something, and if the rest of the band likes it, too, it’s nice to get other input because you can get kind of obsessed about something when you’re doing it by yourself.
AA: I think our songwriting has been cool. It’s been a group effort. We send stuff to our collective Dropbox all of the time, whenever anyone has an idea. We chat everyday or every other day, and it has been really cool hearing everybody’s individual ideas for a song.

Do you guys have a general structure when writing? Does everyone write their own parts?
AA: It depends. On the track “Losing Sleep,” I came in with the rhythm and lead and Lance altered the rhythm a little bit.
LD: Yeah, we wrote each other’s parts actually.

The lyrics on the newer tracks sound a little more personal. Have there been any changes to your writing style?
LD: There are, yeah. “Overnight” is particularly personal. It’s funny, too, because you can apply that song to any situation. I mean, it was written about somebody, but it’s cool that it can be about anything, too. I like to write songs that are personal to me, but at the same time somebody else can connect to it as well.

Does Lance write the majority of the lyrics?
AA: This isn’t a bad thing, but I don’t think Lance has ever run the lyrics by us, but I don’t care.
LD: Yeah, but Aaron is pretty good at telling me things like, “This could be sung a little better,” or he’ll ask, “What’s going on right here?” and I trust his opinion. In a way, he’s kind of producing me. He has a good ear for stuff that maybe I’m not hearing at the moment. That goes for all of us. I trust everyone’s opinion 100 percent. I feel it’s not just about me, even though it started out that way.
AA: There are a lot of opinions flying around the band, but it’s never personal. Everyone has the song and the band’s interest at heart when we are critiquing each other.

Are you guys looking to go on tour to support the new EP?
AA: Since we’ve gotten this group together, me, Lance, Nate and Kevin, we’ve been playing a lot more out-of-town shows. Mostly in the Bay Area, but we’ve been getting a pretty good response there. We would like to go to L.A. and play with friends down there. We haven’t been on a tour yet, but we have been talking about what we want to do as a band after this release show. I think our goal is in the springtime to at least do a West Coast tour from Seattle to L.A.

Where did you record the new EP?
AA: We recorded in a couple places. We recorded with Ira Skinner at Gold Standard. It was a really great studio. He definitely helped us out while we were recording. He wasn’t our producer, but I think he was still enjoying the music and gave us good insight on tones and stuff. He’s a really good engineer to work with. Then when we decided to move up our time schedule, we took what we had worked on with Ira to my friend Mika Whitfield who has a nice home studio in Sacramento. We had basically open availability at his studio, so having that and not worrying about how long we were there definitely helped when we were trying to hustle.

It seems like you guys are pretty excited about your upcoming show at Le Twist.
LD: Yeah, we got offered the show and I thought, “We probably should make this our EP release because it’s such a great opportunity!”
AA: The aspect that it is free is cool, because we want people to spend money there enjoying themselves, and if they like the music it will be out. Also, that way we can get as many people that want to come to come.

Did committing to the show move up the release date at all?
AA: Not to put it out sooner. Before we were offered the show, we were already in the studio mixing and going over the tracks. Once we figured out if it was a full length or an EP we said, “OK, we need a time table of six months.”
LD: Yeah, Aaron said that and it made us hustle, and now the show happened, which is making us hustle even more.

Death Party at the Beach will unveil their new EP Absence in style at the Le Twist Holiday Party at LowBrau (1050 20th St., Sacramento) on Dec. 19, 2017. The show is free and starts at 9 p.m. Death Party at the Beach will be performing in support of a DJ set courtesy of !!!’s Nic Offer and Mario Andreoni. To get a sneak peak of the band’s new album, go to their website (Deathpartyatthebeach.com) on Dec. 12 to stream a single from the EP.

**This interview first appeared in print on pages 12 – 13 of issue #254 (Dec. 4 – 18, 2017)**

Eleven of Sacramento’s best chefs are taking it to the streets for LowBrau and THIS Is Midtown’s first-ever “Sausage Fest,” a block party featuring music, dancing, a hot dog eating contest, a beer garden, cocktails and, yes, many delicious sausages. It’s going down Saturday, Oct. 21 starting at 5 p.m. outside the MARRS Building on 20th Street between J and K. It’s free to attend the event, but tickets to taste a sausage from each participating chef are $25, which also includes a free beer and swag bag. Chefs like Mike Thiemann from Empress Tavern, Oliver Ridgeway from Grange, Tyler Bond from Kru and Matt Masera from Hook and Ladder will all be on hand, plus many others. Enjoy all your favorite dance hits with a performance from One More Time: A Tribute to Daft Punk, as well as local DJs Roger Carpio, Adam Jay, and Shaun Slaughter. To get your sausage tasting tickets ahead of time, visit Eventbrite.com and search for “SausageFest.”

**This write-up first appeared in print on page 11 of issue #250 (Oct. 9 – 23, 2017)**

Local experimental electronic band Petaluma will be celebrating the release of their new self-titled LP with two shows in Sacramento this month. Following a show at The Press Club on Saturday, May 13, 2017, with Death Party at the Beach and Sunhaze, Petaluma’s official album-release party will be a free show on Tuesday, May 23, 2017, at LowBrau with Ben Browning of Cut Copy. Petaluma started in 2013 as a two-piece music production duo made up of multi-instrumentalists Rob Habel and Pat Sweeney, but the group has grown since then and they are now a five-piece band. Petaluma’s first release is a combination of dark alternative electronica, psychedelic pop and ambient chillwave. Come out to either of these shows and prepare for a unique live music experience that combines calming and mesmerizing electronic riffs with on-the-spot improvisation. The show at The Press Club on May 13 starts at 6 p.m. and is for ages 21 and over. Tickets can be purchased at the door. The album release show at LowBrau on May 23, 2017, starts at 9 p.m. and you must be 21 or older to attend. Entry is free. Stream Petaluma’s album via the Bandcamp player below.

**The write-up above first appeared in print on page 8 of issue #239 (May 8 – 22, 2017)**

Trophii was definitely not intentional. The way they tell it, it’s hard to tell whether or not you’re hearing the story of how a musical act formed or how a couple met.

Is there a difference?

Richie Smith has been a mainstay in the Sacramento indie rock scene as a member of popular acts such as Wife and Son, Sunmonks, as well as numerous other local projects. Lindsey Pavao found regional fame and national recognition when she participated in the second season of reality competition show The Voice.

The story goes that, while Smith and Pavao had met previously (a little back and forth messaging on Facebook after they had both participated in a local Radiohead tribute show), the true start to their collaboration was born after Smith’s ex-wife, Mallory, had left her role in the project Life in 24 Frames following their divorce, and Smith needed to fill that vacancy with someone with similar vocal and musical talents.

Mutual friend James Cavern suggested Pavao. Smith says he didn’t think she would be interested.

“He probably said something along the lines of ‘Oh, she’s a flake’ or something,” Pavao said during a phone interview with Submerge, followed with “I flaked on you once,” directly aimed at Smith, and with a tone of playful jabbing.

The project wasn’t immediate. Following their time together in Life in 24 Frames, the two kept in contact, and when Pavao was in need of some assistance for her own project, she reached out to Smith.

“I asked him to help out with my solo record that I was trying to put out. Richie looked me dead in the eye when I showed him the songs that I wanted him to help out with, and he’s like, ‘I’ll do this, but I need to be a part of this whole record. We’re going to do this together,’ and there was something about how confident and how inspired he was to help me,” Pavao said. “About three months later it just became too entangled for it to be just my project. I didn’t even feel comfortable pretending like I was this solo artist anymore because the music wasn’t just mine. We were writing songs together. By the end of the summer we were Trophii.”

A few years ago, they began the recording process in their Sacramento apartment, and on Dec. 6, they will finally have a release show for the album Vitamins and Flowers, the fruits of their recording labor.

While the two have a fairly seasoned resume when it comes to music projects, the self-recording aspect was not exactly one they had a ton of familiarity with from the get-go.

“I’ve done a lot of positive self-recording and arranging. But, for a long time I didn’t have any recording equipment of my own,” Smith said. “Lindsey has some pretty nice gear, and once we started working together, I was able to use some of the stuff that she has, and start the demoing and pre-production process for what is now our first record.”

“I’m self taught,” Pavao added. “I’ve been recording since I was in high school. It’s an ever evolving process.”

When it comes to learning on the job—no matter the field—one has to expect a certain learning curve. For Trophii, the speed bumps were limited and the DIY approach gave them plenty of time to get things done right.

“I think mainly when it comes to parts arrangement, as far as capturing the sounds going in, I’ve been doing recording long enough to know how to achieve certain sounds that I want to get,” said Smith. “I think the arrangement part was tough … a lot of the engineering logistics as far as within the software programs—we recorded in Logic Pro X—was a challenge. Lindsey got Logic Pro X certified, and because she did that, we didn’t have to bring in an engineer to track our stuff.”

“Basically all of that happened within the last two years … She learned the program, I learned based on what she learned, and we did it together,” he said.

Post-production work was taken on by Sacramento legend Robert Cheek, well known for his work with projects such as Band of Horses and Chelsea Wolfe.

While most of the recording of Vitamins and Flowers was done at their leisure in the comforts of their apartment, they did track some acoustic drum arrangements with percussionist Christian Midthun.

“Basically, he was performing slash interpreting drum arrangements that Lindsey and I composed for the record,” Smith said.

The first incarnation of Trophii’s live act was as a six-piece, and Smith and Pavao found that too much to manage, both in regards to scheduling and on stage. Now they’ve cut that down to four members: Smith and Pavao, drummer Midthun and Ryan Tillema on guitar and bass guitar.

“They were the first to be on board with the project a couple of years ago. They’re good friends, and really talented players,” Smith said. “They’re both songwriters themselves, and multi-instrumentalists, and they have a really good understanding as far as songwriting goes and what’s appropriate … they really do a great job of interpreting the parts that we’ve arranged for this project and bring their own flavor to the stuff, which is really exciting for me to hear. They’re very capable.”

One thing that you notice about the record is that there are definitely differences from both Smith and Pavao’s previous sounds. When it comes to Smith, there is the addition of more electronic elements and that “dream pop” aesthetic that is hardly escapable, something not really found in his prior projects. As for Pavao, the work is far more layered, and while her vocals are a clear focal point, they’re far from alone in that sense.

“Our brains see music in different ways, which is cool,” said Smith. “I think it’s always changing … Every time we write a song it’s always different. I will say the more we do write music together, the more we do strike a balance.

“I’ve always kind of been interested in electronic music and electronic elements, and I love a good marriage of electronic music with rock music,” Smith continued. “When it comes to percussion, four of the ten songs had no acoustic drums, so I was left with the question of how to get these songs to move rhythmically, so I ended up programming all of our digital percussion and trying to blend that with shakers and tambourines and other auxiliary percussion instruments.”

The record, now finished and on its way to the hands of their followers, has the feel of a testing ground. While they certainly are proud of their work, Pavao and Smith were getting to know each other like any new relationship. Along with that comes the ability to reflect and perfect—something you are unable to do when you have no history with a person or group.

“I see us as always changing,” said Pavao. “We didn’t have a gameplan with this record. It’s like a whole lot of ideas all crammed into one hour. There are some things we could have done a lot differently, so moving forward we have a strong vision of where we are headed musically.

“I’m learning how to be the writer I want to become,” she added.

However, whether they felt the album was a learning experience, it’s not as if they aren’t proud of the completed project.

“My opinion on what we do aesthetically is that … our sound is evolving,” said Smith. “We’re brand new. We’ve only been running together for the last two years. But, we’re enjoying the process.”

“We’re not fucking apologizing for it, you know what I mean? I think it’s great,” he added.

See Trophii live Dec. 6, 2016, at LowBrau (presented by Le Twist) at their album release party. Doombird will also perform, and the show is FREE. LowBrau is located at 1050 20th St., Sacramento. The show will get underway at 9 p.m. For more on Trophii, go to Facebook.com/trophii. Listen to their album Vitamins and Flowers via the Bandcamp player below.

As the Sacramento summer heats up so does THIS Midtown! A Second Saturday block party series with music, art, beer, food and local vendors, THIS Midtown is returning on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015, for the second-to-last show of the series. The lineup of live talent for this one is seriously incredible and we all should be thanking the organizers for throwing a party like this that is free to attend! Headlining will be Oakland-based indie-pop band Trails and Ways, whose new album Pathology came out recently on Barsuk Records. Regional groovers Sunmonks are also on the bill, so if you missed their set at Concerts In the Park recently, you can catch them at THIS. San Francisco rock outfit Tiaras, which features ex-members of Sacramento’s beloved garage rock band Ganglians, will also be on hand jamming out and Young Aundee will spin a DJ set. The party kicks off at 4 p.m. and runs until 9:30 p.m. Once things on the block wrap up, the after-party will be cracking off inside LowBrau with DJs Shaun Slaughter, Adam Jay and special guests playing nu-disco, tropical, house and funk tunes. THIS Midtown takes place on the MARRS Building Block on 20th Street in between J and K streets. Learn more at Facebook.com/thismidtown.

On Thursday, May 14, 2015, organizers of the super popular TBD Fest held a “lineup release party” at their bar, LowBrau. DJ Greg J spun tunes from artists performing at this year’s event (happening Sept. 18 to 20) while an animated screen behind him announced the names. It was really quite the unique spectacle to see a couple hundred TBD fanatics losing their shit as headliners like Cut Copy, Pretty Lights, Tears for Fears, Tyler The Creator, Death Grips, Madeon, RATATAT, Purity Ring, Twin Shadow, Tycho, Dr. Dog, Mobb Deep, A-Trak and others were announced live, right in front of us. The collective sense of, “No fucking way?!?” was palpable each time a popular band or DJ’s name popped up on the screen. More acts are expected to be announced in the coming weeks, but for now, we feel obligated to point out that TBD’s undercard this year is no joke, either, boasting such acts as K Flay, Holy Ghost!, Black Lips, Coathangers, Ty Dolla $ign, A Place to Bury Strangers and so many others that we literally don’t have the space to list them all. Submerge was also very stoked to see a strong list of locally tied acts that will be playing TBD this year, including Chuuwee, Dusty Brown, Two Sheds, Jonah Matranga, Doombird, Sleeprockers, Tel Cairo and Dibiase. Visit Tbdfest.com to see all of the acts announced thus far and to buy early bird tickets through May 31 (three day general admission passes are a straight up steal at just $159 right now!). Also be sure to follow TBD on Twitter and Facebook (@tbdfest on both) to keep up to date.

-J. Carabba

11 Sacramento area bars where beer rules all

Intro by Jonathan Carabba

If there is one thing that’s for sure about Sacramento, it’s that we love our beer! The last few years have been an exciting time for regional hop-heads. New breweries and taprooms are opening left and right, it’s becoming the norm for restaurants and bars to up their beer list game, and our palate as a whole is growing with the rising popularity of sours, farmhouse ales and other interesting/experimental brews. Another thing that’s for sure is there is no lack of great bars to enjoy craft beer in the Sacramento region. Throw a rock in any direction and you’re bound to hit a spot with a killer beer list. With the return of Sacramento Beer Week, which runs from Feb. 26 to March 8, 2015, we figured it would be a perfect time to highlight a few of our favorite downtown-area beer bars. This is by no means a “best of” list, it’s simply an attempt to shine some light on bars in or near the heart of the city whose focus is on beer 365 days a year. Honorable mentions could of course include traditional pubs like Fox and Goose, Bonn Lair, and de Vere’s; or other downtown hot spots like Alley Katz, Burgers and Brew and The Rind; brewery taprooms like Track 7, Bike Dog and Berryessa; or even outlying spots like Sam Horne’s and Final Gravity, but then this list would never end… Read on to learn about 11 of Submerge’s favorite beer-focused downtown-area establishments and to get a hint of what to expect for their Beer Week events and offerings.

The Shack
5201 Folsom Boulevard | Sacramento

Humphrey Bogart once said, “The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind.” The Shack is there to catch you up, East Sac. The Shack location originally opened in 1931 as one of the first drive-ins turned drive-thrus in our area. It was home to the nickel hot dog and dubbed “The root beer king.” Owners Gary and Jen Slaeppy claim that “The Governor of California ‘Sunny Jim’ Rolph was said to have had his first beer after prohibition in our beer garden, which is now the kitchen.” Today, The Shack remains a prime destination for US-made craft beers as well as Belgian ales/sours/lambics with over 100 options on draft and in bottle. The bright green hut used to serve up some of the best breakfast in town, but sadly, they recently discontinued it because it was exhausting the dining quarters. However, their award-winning burgers are still available to devour with a nice Knee Deep IPA, or a malty Belgian dubbel. If you are into the more exciting, foreign beers, they’ve got you covered with trappist specialties, diverse Belgians (from unfiltered whites to heavy quads) and even a couple of sour options. During Beer Week, the location will host the ticketed event, “Shack Fest,” an East Sac rager in celebration of all that is beer and food. In proper homage to their roots, “Shack Fest” (Sunday, March 1, 2015) is an event full of unlimited tastings and an abundance of food as a continuous middle finger to prohibition all these years later.
-Words by Alia Cruz | Photo by Evan E. Duran

Hot City Pizza
5642 J Street | Sacramento

Hot City Pizza is the tiny pizza joint inconspicuously cuddled between a few businesses in a strip mall in deep East Sac. While the Hot City location is visually unimpressive and void of decor, their food and drinks confidently make up for it. Owner Colby Pettenger opened the place more than seven years ago, with the dream of bringing this town the least boring pizza around. It quickly evolved into the natural marriage of good beer with good pizza. Their pizza and beer is literally so good, they can completely rely on it to keep customers loyal and plenty.

The pizza itself is damn good. Notable spicy options, like the spicy veggie and the angry pig pizza, will make a ‘za lover sweat. Also, their vegetarian options are plentiful, and they are generous with toppings. The variety of pizzas gives you the feeling that its creator was somewhat of an evil genius, being completely liberated by the access of toppings and the power to execute them into what he’s always dreamt of.

An experience at this place is always full of unexpected delights. This small, laid-back pizza joint has some of the best beer options in town. The little 7-Up branded fridge in the main dining area has a beer selection that even the town’s most ritzy bottle shops can’t get a hold of. Yes, there are plenty of local offerings like Knee Deep IPAs, but they also have an exciting and unique option from more specialty breweries too. For example, they are bound to have something great from Mikkeller, Prairie Artisan Ales, and you never know who else. This place is the epitome of a hidden gem.

Aside from the bottle choices, they have 14 beers on tap that consistently rotate and keep options fresh and exciting. Spicy meats and peppers on certain pizzas will find a friend in a dank IPA, and a fresh veggie pizza can shine with a pairing of a farmhouse ale or blossoming saison. I think that while pizza has rarely been seen as something culinarily complicated, the pairing of unique beers with pies is a no brainer. If you break down all of the ingredients of a pizza, and think about all of the spices and elements, certain beers can actually help accentuate those things. Hot City Pizza has such a variety of funky and unique brews, that with each bottle you pop or beer you have poured, there are so many flavors waiting to work together to give you a whole new experience.

While Pettenger says he has yet to plan anything for Beer Week, rest assured you can always find something here that consistently respects the craft of the draft.
-Words by Alia Cruz | Photo by Evan E. Duran

University of Beer
1510 16th Street, Suite 300 | Sacramento

The original University of Beer in Davis rose to popularity with a 60-tap system, the sort of beer list undertaking few dare brave. For its Midtown location, University of Beer expanded its curriculum, installing a 100-tap system. We do not advise a latenight cram session of studying the beer list. With campus roots, the ambience follows suit, mixed with the hyperstimulation of a sports bar—seemingly as many flat screens as there are taps. Accommodation is supreme at U of B. The hundred taps are not squandered on appeasing the domestic big brothers of beer. Even the bottle list is home to specialty brews and manufactured in limited runs. Eleven of the taps are locals only, with the remaining flavor profile spanning Belgians, sours, nitros, pales and ciders. For Beer Week, U of B will have its Rare Beer Night on Sunday March 1 (the list still under lock and key), and Tuesday is hosted by Saint Archer Cellar Manager Greg Peters, serving flights and fielding your beer nerd and homebrewer inquiries.
-Words by Blake Gillespie | Photo by Jenny Price

Capitol Beer and Tap Room
2222 Fair Oaks Boulevard | Sacramento

The dogwoods are in bloom in the courtyard adjacent to Capitol Beer and Tap Room’s secluded patio, a picturesque setting for a post-shift pint. Tucked away from the commuter traffic of Howe Avenue and Fair Oaks Boulevard, Capitol Beer exists as a quaint and folksy retreat. Strip malls tend to stifle character (think four corners of taupe), but this nestled neighborhood watering hole created a lived-in look by building a brick arch behind the bar and mounting 20 chalk boards against a hop-print, painted backdrop to display its rotating taps. The 20 boards are for the 20 taps that are ever-rotating with an emphasis on Pacific breweries, but a serious soft-spot for national breweries like Clown Shoes in Massachusetts. The beer rotation is highly curated, but also democratic. Got an elusive brew in mind? Place it on the beer wish list and they’ll do the leg work.

With Beer Week days dedicated to locals only and the surrounding regions like the Bay Area, Oregon and San Diego, Capitol Beer has an inclusive mentality in its schedule. Friday, March 6 is of note though as Hops To Table magazine, a local brewer’s rag, will celebrate its second anniversary. “It’s not only a celebration of the magazine, but it’s a rare beer night,” bar manager Eric Newell said. “The idea [for the magazine] started here, talking about it one day about a love for Sacramento and its beer scene.”
-Words by Blake Gillespie | Photo by Melissa Welliver

Dad’s Kitchen
2968 Freeport Boulevard | Sacramento

Dad’s Kitchen is known for their commitment to showcasing mostly California beers. They designate their 27-draft lineup to these state-proud brews, especially those created here in Sacramento. What makes Dad’s so awesome is that it is a laid-back, totally unpretentious place with a knowledgeable and down to earth staff. This place is beaming with local pride and a reformed surfer dude feel. Year-round beer coordinator Tyson Herzog (who also runs Sac Brew Bus tours) completely submerges himself in the local beer culture, and that definitely reflects in the Dad’s draft list. Yes, they offer brews from local hard-hitters like Track 7 and Bike Dog, but this place also gives the spotlight to smaller breweries like Yolo Brewing Co., Auburn Alehouse and Mraz. One thing that is acceptable here, as should be in most professional beer places, is the right to taste. A place that lets you take a swig of something you are unsure about before you commit is highly appreciated. Not only does this allow you to ensure you like what you get, but it opens up the possibility for beer conversation and enhances the overall drinking experience. This year, Dad’s anticipates a packed Beer Week schedule. They will pay homage to Sacramento beers on Saturday, Feb 28. Other events for the week will include a Lagunitas brunch and Drake’s tap takeover. The one unmissable event is on Wednesday, March 4. This location will be hosting a local IPA tasting competition. Breweries will have guests drink up to determine who has the more superior hopped concoction.
Words by Alia Cruz | Photo by Mallory Moullay

Lowbrau
1050 20th Street | Sacramento

Much like craft beer wasn’t synonymous with Sacramento until the past five years, the Northwest corner of 20th and K was not perceived as a destination stop in Midtown. That is until it transformed in 2012 with the opening of Lowbrau Bierhall, widely regarded as one of the most popular hangouts in town—no matter the day of the week. Pioneered by Clay Nutting and Michael Hargis, the traditional name is not an affront. The bier menu at Lowbrau will challenge your comfort with the German language, always pouring Trappists, Dunkels, Doppelbocks and Hefeweissbiers. Tradition is cool, but this is California. To wit, Lowbrau keeps a steady rotation of experimental breweries both regional and worldwide. While a debut of a barrel-aged, peanut butter infused variation on Ballast Point’s Victory At Sea cannot be missed on Friday February 27, Thursday is Heretic For Homebrewers night, a chance for homebatch hopefuls to pick the brain of Heretic head brewer Jamil Zainasheff.
-Words by Blake Gillespie | Photo by Nicholas Wray

Der Biergarten
2332 K Street | Sacramento

Der Biergarten has some prime offerings in deep pours and a ping pong table, so naturally, I am a fan. Biergarten owner Sean Derfield was one of the first people in our area to put a business in a cargo unit, “an idea that was initially meant to make it so we can literally pick the whole place up and move it to different locations every few weeks,” he said. This idea was immediately shot down by the city, but that’s cool, because Midtown has made Sean feel more than welcome in his little lot on the corner of 23rd and K. Derfield came from a proud German heritage and wanted to give Sacramento a feel for a more casual outdoor environment where one can drink heavy pours of quality German beers and other ales. He wanted to bring the bar (and its patrons) out into the fresh air. “When looking for what to serve, I’m constantly tasting, doing research and listening to beer lovers,” said Derfield. “I’m always talking to beer reps and religiously on Beer Advocate. Being educated in beers seems to be key.” Initially, he came from a traditional bar background (he also owns The River City Saloon in Old Sac), where he says beer was not quite in the spotlight. Then, he became intrigued by the laid-back nature of the traditional biergarten and the beer boom. “I was aiming for a place to feel completely casual and fun, with the quality product to back it up. I want people to drink and be merry.”

The Biergarten is void of TVs, music and antics. Instead, they have corn hole, foosball, ping pong and community tables to meet new friends. Beer also helps with that latter part. In fact, these community tables were even shipped here from the owner’s German relatives to support those hefty steins of beer. The cargo-unit kitchen also serves up some light German grub like sausages, pretzels and salads. The few times that Sacramento’s weather is unsavory is when the business hours for Der Biergarten become murky. If it is raining, they have no choice but to be closed. If it is too hot, business tends to be slow. Sean has been tirelessly working on ways to keep patrons more comfortable in changing conditions. “We are putting in awesome misters for the summer and looking at electric heaters for the winter. We are also looking forward to possibly extending our hours through midnight.” Der Biergarten is a completely unpretentious, fun place to get your money’s worth for quality German beers and beyond. They implement an idea that community is built through drinking beer, as the Germans have religiously believed for years and years. Every week truly is Beer Week at Der Biergarten…. Well, weather permitting.
Words by Alia Cruz | Photo by Melissa Welliver

Firestone Public House
1132 16th Street | Sacramento

Firestone is a great option for the more casual craft beer drinker. It is loud, it is busy, it is haunted with televisions for sports enthusiasts (exactly their targeted audience), but it also has almost 60 draft beers to stumble through with uniquely large-sized pour options on considerably high-alcohol ales. Before Firestone was a restaurant, it was the huge tire company sticking out on the bustling corner of 16th and L streets. When I was a kid, I remember driving with my dad to the Downtown Plaza and always turning my head to watch the Firestone guys rolling and bouncing tires on the grease-stained pavement. About five years ago, The Firestone Tire Co. was gutted and made into the Firestone Restaurant. The restaurant retained the moniker as homage to its shared roots with the Firestone empire. A consistent draft list of everything from IPAs to heavy stouts and refreshing ciders is an option, along with about six handles that are constantly being rehydrated with a fresh option. If you are a hop head, I suggest the IPA flight, which usually includes five four-ounce pours of California style IPA varieties. Though they have very little planned as official Beer Week festivities, they do have a keg of 805 Firestone to offer around that time. Words by Alia Cruz | Photo by Evan E. Duran

Pangaea Bier Cafe
2743 Franklin Boulevard | Sacramento

Rob Archie recognizes that a craft beer cafe is an imperfect business model. As the owner of Pangaea Cafe on the Northeast corner of Franklin Boulevard and 3rd Avenue, he is aware the American way of business is control and consistency; the customer expects experiential repetition and a business is at the mercy of their needs. The American way of service, that “customer is always right” adage, does not translate to craft beer. The customer is at liberty to participate, explore, and if all goes well, enjoy at Pangaea Cafe.

“What’s humbling about beer is you practice a lot of impermanence,” Archie says. His statement applies to the challenge of replicating a recipe with consistency, the ever-looming possibility of a beloved brewery shuttering, and shortages, be it ingredients or competitive batch availability. “One day you have it [on tap], the next day it’s gone,” he says.

We are on the shaded patio at the Curtis Park location on an uncharacteristically warm February afternoon. It’s 4 p.m. and the patronage is steady from retirees with little better to do and businessmen enjoying a late liquid lunch, or perhaps an early day out of the office. Once an unassuming cafe for coffee and beer experts alike, it is now a pillar in the connoisseurial community of beer lovers. Tastings, judgings, and club meetings are a regular occurrence. Now in its sixth, nearly seventh, year of business the Pangaea identity is defined, unified like the supercontinent origin, and like the prehistoric Pangaea it was here before Sacramento became a craft beer city.

Back then, Archie was simply an ex European-basketball player who’d gotten a whiff of the Belgian beers and started plotting ways to bring them back to California. It began with five taps, pouring Birra Moretti (first tasted while playing in Italy), Affligem Blonde, St. Bernardus Belgian Quad, Lagunitas IPA and Blanche De Bruxelles. Bare bones compared to the 20 options now that include a sour-specific section.

“I tell brewers and people that open, to be a part of the culture you have to ask yourself ‘what am I bringing to the culture?’” he says. “In any small business it should be sharing your story and having a soul behind whatever it is you’re doing.”

Archie’s identity is education. First came his own. From traveling as a professional athlete, and then going back to learn more, he got his entry into Belgian beers. As the West Coast movement began to blossom, his travel distance shortened to the outlying brewers of Northern California, brief visits and bottle trades, just to absorb as much as possible. In opening Pangaea, Archie employed his knowledge to accrue customers who became regulars. First comes the flavored hook: “the first time they taste a Belgian quad and they think there’s fruit in there.” He’s got your interest and he counters with “then you tell them it’s all yeast and you get to talking about the magic of yeast.” From there he’s got you deep into the nuances of the process; some brewers refer to yeast as a woman, other brewers discount yeast as merely a fermenting agent and focus on hops, and on and on.

Craft brewing is still an emerging market; the craze is real, and yet, this is its cowboys and pioneers phase. Archie notes Bud Light alone out-sells craft beer. He sees it as millions of people yet to be converted that don’t drink good beer out of being domesticated on flavorless beer. “The people that are in it right now are still pioneers in the grand scheme of enjoying better beer. I just think that riding this wave from 13 percent to 21 percent to 30 percent will be insane. By then it’s like Pliny [the Elder] on tap at your house.”

Archie recalls the early days when most distributors didn’t know their stock beyond the Budweisers, Millers, Coronas and Heinekens.

“We’d have to call them and say ‘there’s this beer, I know you guys have it. It’s in your catalog,” Archie says. “They’d have to send a supervisor out here and it’d become this huge ordeal.” Companies like DBI grew alongside Pangaea, “simply because they were on the forefront of being a craft beer distribution and we were buying up the supply. What’s cool is you see the same thing in customers right now. They’re going out and they are chasing the way we did years back.”

For those deep in the chase, Pangaea’s Beer Week events will include a stouts and oysters day with a specialty Imperial Porter brewed in collaboration with his wife and the wives of Track 7 Brewing; a collaboration with Knee Deep and Altamont called “Hella Deep” and a special visit by David Walker of Firestone Walker Brewing Co. to hand-deliver a special batch sour keg.

“I like the collaborative thing,” Archie says. “Right now, you have to be appreciative of what’s out there. We have really good beers that are readily available that are right here. Everyone is looking for the newest thing, but the newest thing isn’t always the best thing.”

-Words by Blake Gillespie | Photo by Evan E. Duran

Kupros Craft House
1217 21st Street | Sacramento

Kupros Craft House is located in the renovated Victorian house that used to be Cheap Thrills. The restaurant environment feels like the casual dining quarters of a luxury cruise ship, or maybe dinner at your fancy aunt’s house. I always feel like I am in such a different place. Its full bar is absolutely gorgeous because of the signature stained glass ceiling, and the cool second story patio is top-notch to perch and people watch. Kupros often has a diverse draft list, usually consisting of Sculpin, Allagash and Anderson Valley as a few staples, and every now and then they will catch a rare keg. One amazing thing that must absolutely be highlighted here is a little thing called Can Roulette. Can Roulette is when you pay $2.50 for a can of beer that the server randomly and blindly picks out of an ice chest. Craft beer out of a can almost always tastes better and you can fill up on beer for really, really cheap. For Beer Week, Kupros will be hosting many events, including a Drake’s Brewing kickoff party on Friday, Feb. 27 with rare releases and classics on draft. The restaurant will also host breweries from San Diego and Oregon (the home of the country’s more well-known craft beer breweries) in a weekend-long battle to see who blows their kegs quicker. Winner gets bragging rights!
Words by Alia Cruz | Photo by Melissa Welliver

Blackbird Kitchen + Beer Gallery
1015 9th Street | Sacramento

Based downtown, Blackbird Kitchen + Beer Gallery has an urbanite cool, slightly posh feel, acting as an art gallery, but not above the Portlandia-esque irony of “Put a bird on it.” Marginally upscale, yes, but Blackbird is not stuffy or bougie. Just like Budweiser would like you to believe craft beer drinkers are hipster caricatures, do not mistake Blackbird as too chic for the real and rugged of the craft community. The list is extensive and intelligently grouped by house-coined flavor profiles like “utmost drinkability,” “devilishly dark,” “pucker up,” “pales in comparison” and our favorite, “barley there.” For Beer Week, Blackbird is keeping it minimal with a locals night featuring Mraz, Bike Dog and Device on Tuesday, March 3. The following night is dedicated to barrel-aged brews and Thursday is a competition between Socal, Ninkasi, and Green Flash. The winner will be chosen by attendees, so be there, and be heard.
-Words by Blake Gillespie

Sunmonks and the Organic Evolution of Sound

The day after Halloween carries with it the reputation for temple-crushing recollections of a costumed evening prior spent howling at the moon. Burning the midnight oil. Chasing the dragon. Whatever your bag may be. When I catch up with Sacramento’s Sunmonks, it’s as if this were some distant reality unlikely to affect them, rather than the possibly rough-hewn phoner I’d partway anticipated. After all, we’re talking about a band here. It’s not as if musicians don’t hold their own reputations for debauchery even without the benefit of an annual excuse.

The fact that Geoffrey CK (vocalist, guitarist) and Alexandra Steele (vocals) were unaffected, uninvolved and ostensibly clear-eyed as we spoke Nov. 1, 2014, over what may have been a PA system/speakerphone hybrid at an unidentified house speaks more astutely to the nature of their music than you might think. Centered as they are around mitigating the dependencies of contemporary approaches of songwriting, Sunmonks’ tendency to side-step the familiar has become a strong-rooted foundation on the relatively new group.

“We’ve written a lot of songs that we haven’t recorded and that will never be recorded and that we wouldn’t be able to remember,” explains CK. “We’ve written a lot of songs we won’t perform, that are kind of dead. So in one sense, we’ve been a band for a long time, or at least a duo for a long time. But we just did it because it was part of life. Now we’re making our whole life music instead of having music be part of life.”

CK and Steele met in 2005, as they report, both immersed in a tight musical community in and around bucolic Auburn, California.

“We didn’t really care that the other of us played music,” says CK. “We just became friends and hung out a lot. I would write songs and play in bands and she would be around. Sometimes a band I would be in session with or playing live with would have a part they’d want sung and because she was there she would sing it. People liked it, so we started to play together.”

It wasn’t until around 2012 that CK and Steele settled on the direction they wanted to move toward as a musical entity, together. Prior to that, the duo wrote songs and sang together without any intentional path. Utilizing the admittedly modern benefits and staggered, textural whimsy of a loop station, CK began crafting songs like building blocks, creating demos by stacking parts over acoustic guitar and adventurous melodies and harmonies between himself and Steele. The formative wellspring of what would become the Sunmonks sound and ethos—so innately anti-modern—was stemmed from incorporating very modern technology.

This fact is important to the story of Sunmonks. Their debut EP In a Desert of Plenty—released Oct. 28, 2014, via Crossbill Records—explores themes, rhythms and melodies culled from myriad primal influences. Eschewing the parameters of what CK describes as a “paint-by-numbers” approach to songwriting, Sunmonks’ compositions are put through rigorous litmus tests by the band—now also including Julian Loy and Dave Middleton on drums and bass, respectively—unspoken though they may be.

“There’s no wrong way to make music,” begins CK. “But in terms of how much fun you’re having or how much you want to surprise yourself, I think it’s a lot more fun for us to play with people and even to start writing with people than recording yourself as a person on a computer.”

“Geoff still makes demos [with a loop station],” clarifies Middleton, “but he’s a great writer and arranger, so they come fully formed. A lot of music is written with loops in modern times, but one of the unique advantages from taking a looped composition and laying it out organically is you get these unique moments of chaos or these little human things that wouldn’t otherwise happen. I feel like that’s where we’re at now.”

For CK, citing inspirations like David Byrne and Fela Kuti (some symbiosis of the two may approximate the percussive-heavy, tribal pop R&B mish-mash of Sunmonks’ oeuvre) instigates the internal conversation he has regarding what the purpose or relevancy or resonance a particular song might have prior to even being shared with anyone else.

“It’s a more religious experience instead of a more scientific experience,” says CK. “That’s something that really excites me about music in general: some deeply profound or magical, primitive thing.

“People who write using plug-ins or gridded beats or things like that, I don’t know that they necessarily intend on having a religious experience while they write. Oftentimes it’s sort of feeling their way through it. It’s like, ‘this is super dark, so I like it,’ or ‘this is intense, so I like it.’ Then a listener hears that and they have a religious experience. Which I guess is the point anyway. But with me it has to start that way or else the song doesn’t survive the point where I can even show it to anybody else.”

On Desert of Plenty, the EP’s four songs play from most recent song written, to oldest song written, alluding to the recording’s nomadic snapshots, as this collection of songs was written and recorded over long periods of time and in mostly different locations. In an attempt to include some sonic congruency, the four songs were mixed together at Panoramic House studios in Stinson Beach by the band’s producer—and Tape Op publisher—John Baccigaluppi.

Special attention was given to eliminating the use of cymbals, as Afro-beat progressions bubble and bloom throughout the title track. Elsewhere, on the outstanding tune “The Deaf,” Sunmonks’ affinity for superb horn arrangements, densely layered textures and feel-good romps ripe for dance-alongs is made plain. Geoffrey and Alexandra’s voices weave together in primeval harmonies, expounding ancient melodies that create bridges between the organic inspirations they covet and the contemporary crutches they’re all but beholden to. To wit, the band says Desert of Plenty is a record of where they’ve been, with their upcoming 2015 LP aiming at where they are now.

The fantastic “Golden Words” ushers in yet another dynamic for Geoffrey and Alexandra’s quiver of songcraft, with fissures of funk cascading over sultry R&B melodies. Still, overused genre classifications do little to discern the lively vibe of Sunmonks’ sound. Those aural observations, as we’ve learned, are triggered by the energies dispersed during the composing of the songs.

“The Sunmonks stuff has to be instantly recognizable as Sunmonks stuff,” explains CK. “It just is Sunmonks stuff or it isn’t Sunmonks stuff. We tend to know that from the beginning of the song, when it starts to appear. When we get to the barking stages, and we’re barking at each other.

“Something stuck with me a while ago where someone was talking about arranging, and they were talking about there being certain rules for using brass, or certain rules for using guitar and a rule for Sunmonks is using [the instrument] not how it’s supposed to be used. Or at least trying to. The anecdote was described as everything being a drum. To not necessarily treat a guitar as Jimi Hendrix would have treated it or as Django Reinhardt would have treated it, but to treat it like Ginger Baker maybe would have treated it.”

Sunmonks vinyl release show for their debut EP, In a Desert of Plenty, is on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2014, at LowBrau (1050 20th Street). They will also perform at Old Ironsides (1901 10th Street) as part of Lipstick’s annual New Years Eve party on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014. For more info, visit Sunmonks.com

With their always impressive eclectic lineup of touring bands and DJs, Le Twist Tuesdays continues to be a driving force in Sacramento’s creative music scene. On any given Tuesday you can head to the corner of K and 20th Streets to LowBrau and, for free, see top-notch national (and sometimes international) electronic/indie live acts alongside local bands and DJs. Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014 will be particularly great as Le Twist hosts the minimal electronic girl/boy duo Xeno and Oaklander, on tour all the way from Brooklyn, N.Y. Their newest album, Par Avion, was released this summer on the wildly popular Ghostly International label. If synthesizer-driven music is something you gravitate toward, you won’t want to miss this show. It gets underway at 9 p.m. and will be hosted by Le Twist residents and local DJs Sam I Jam, Adam J and Roger Carpio. Visit Facebook.com/letwisttuesdays to see the upcoming schedule of performers.

The Perlick-Molinari Brothers Break the Boundaries of the Horn Section with French Horn Rebellion

What happens when you cross a classically trained French horn player with a dude who knows how to drop mad hot beats? Band geeks gone wild, of course!

The self-proclaimed “geeks,” brothers Robert and David Perlick-Molinari, founded French Horn Rebellion in 2007. The duo was inspired to explore their musical yearnings with a brand of plucky, ’80s-inspired electro-pop after producing MGMT’s “Time to Pretend.” Yes, that MGMT hit that reached No. 3 on Rolling Stone’s Best Songs of 2008.

And while FHR is a Brooklyn-based outfit by way of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, they’ve spent plenty of time in Sacramento: last December they rocked the house at LowBrau, they recently wrapped up a collaboration with the Sacramento Ballet and current indie-rock darlings HAERTS for the video “Swing Into It” and in July they’ll make an appearance at THIS, the MARRS Building corridor’s Second Saturday street party. Suffice to say, FHR’s got nothing but love for Sacramento.

“Well, I think it’s just the scene that’s going on in Sacramento, and from what I’ve noticed around the country, it really just takes a couple people to bring people together,” Robert, the younger Perlick-Molinari brother, explained to Submerge in a recent phone interview. “There’s a trend across the United States, which I’ve noticed, that a lot of towns are going local, getting local food, local restaurants, not chains—chains aren’t valued as much as they used to be, and places like LowBrau are kind of like the trend of the future, so to speak.”

Robert received an early education in music at the age of seven when his older brother TJ, now a lawyer for the family custom beer tap business in Wisconsin, thrust the French horn upon him, which he embraced feverishly. By the time he was in college he was a full-on musical impresario. But it was when he spent the summer interning at his brother David’s music studio in New York that he realized he wanted to rebel against the notion that classical musicians were bound to the orchestra pit.

“Rebellion is to say, that hey, French horn players around the world, you don’t have to sit in an orchestra, in the horn section and play music that’s on the page in front of you,” Robert explains. “We can do anything—we have way more power than we think. [So, I thought] yeah, I don’t really want to play Mahler anymore. I don’t want to listen to a conductor. I’m just gonna go make dance beats with my friends, and that’s French Horn Rebellion.”

A mix of driving, electronic beats and a hefty serving of camp and wry humor, FHR’s music isn’t your garden variety dance music. The brothers have dubbed their evolving sound as Next Jack Swing—funky with a classical music twist. Because when you’ve played the French horn since you were 7 years old, ascended the ranks in the pit to first chair French horn player as a sophomore in the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra and have had the honor of fisting your horn (yes, a common term for achieving certain notes by inserting your fist into the bottom of the horn’s shaft) next to some of the best in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, it’s not something that is easily forsaken for pop-music notoriety.

“I still play in some community groups, for sure, to feed the urge,” Robert explains. “But, at least playing at a high level, I guess I do miss that—that was pretty amazing, like playing with the Chicago Civic Orchestra was a real experience. But what you trade off for that is, [for instance], I was deejaying in Washington, D.C. and I’m playing my French horn and like 300 people are losing their minds on dance music; dancing and having fun. I think that’s so much more visceral and more fun than classical music, which is usually older people in a quiet room watching some guys in a tuxedo.”

Robert is getting used to this gig—spinning records to a heaving crowd of dance freaks, busting out his French horn periodically to ignite the crowd into a music-induced frenzy. But these days it’s largely a one-Perlick-Molinari operation.

“We don’t actually go on tour together anymore,” Robert explains of his brother’s absence from the live shows. “He’s a full-on studio man now. So, he…makes the beats with me, but he doesn’t actually participate in the live shows anymore.”

In between running a studio and a record label, managing the band business, preparing for a 26-date tour of North America and recording a new single with Spencer Ludwig, the trumpet player in the group Capital Cities who also frequently plays alongside DJs, the brothers Perlick-Molinari are gearing up to record a compilation album while hashing out all of those details around a musical war room table involving the brothers and a new management company.

“We’re in a little bit of a strategic war zone, of how we’re going to release this music at this point,” Robert explains sheepishly. “I can’t give any specific dates, but we will have dates soon.”

FHR is slated to play THIS Second Saturday Block Party on July 12, 2014 with Goldroom, Sunmonks, Gentleman Surfer, Be Calm Honcho, DJ Shaun Slaughter and Adam Jay. For more info, visit Facebook.com/frenchhornrebellion or Facebook.com/thismidtown.