Exquisite Corps Release Their Sophomore Album, Vignettes

Exquisite Corps’ debut, self-titled album hits like an orchestral tidal wave, then sweeps you up with an unconquerable undertow. I had no idea who they were when I stumbled into a show they played last summer at the now-defunct Luigi’s Fungarden, but by the time the show ended, I was happily overtaken by cello and violin crescendos swirling above the swelling pulse of melodic and melodramatic rock. 

So when I heard that they had ditched the strings on their sophomore album, Vignettes, I shook my fists at the sky and deplored, “WHY?!” as their symphonic rock quality set them apart in our local live music scene. Then I took a listen and quit tripping. 

A major departure from their first record, Vignettes has a stripped-down, pounding and sometimes psychedelic pure rock ‘n’ roll sound that is more than welcome to invade my eardrums anytime. It’s more laidback, and could make a great driving or party time soundtrack—whereas Exquisite Corps was intense, passionate and dark. The impressive versatility of Exquisite Corps, coupled with their synchronous, enveloping live performances, makes this band one of my favorites out of Sacramento. 

I met up with Bryan Valenzuela (vocals/guitar) and Robby Dean (drums/vocals) of Exquisite Corps to talk about their new album and their plans for its release show—taking place at the Witch Room on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014. 

For those readers out there that don’t already know, can you give us a brief history of the band? 
Bryan Valenzuela: We’ve all been in other bands for years, but this band started out as a duo, with a cello and just me singing. We quickly went from that to a quartet with a rotating cast. Then we went from that to a full-blown sextet with a cellist and violinist. And then, sort of pared that down, and are falling back into the rock ‘n’ roll life. 

I’ve seen you play live before and loved the string element. It was rad having a cellist and violinist. So why did you forego the strings on the new record?
BV: So when we put that record out, almost two years ago now, right after that we started touring a lot; and like, you know, you start touring, and certain people aren’t able to go on the road for long, and people start being able to come and do certain shows but not be able to go for a longer stint, so I think it was just a pragmatic thing. At that point, we started maneuvering the songs we had and writing new songs based on the lineup that we could take on the road. 
Robby Dean: It kind of just evolved.

So are the string sounds on the new record now achieved via the organist?
BV: Kind of, a lot of that full sound that you can get from a string section comes from the organ. 
RD: We still bring the string players to some of the big shows.
BV: We’re doing a show for our record release at the Witch Room on Sept. 20, so we’ll have the full strings for that show. But writing a new record, you want to actually represent what you can take to L.A., San Francisco…
RD: Yeah, this record is more of what we’ve been doing as a four piece. Our band goes anywhere from a trio up to a sextet. This new album was more of a collaborative process. On the first record, Bryan wrote the songs and the other parts including the strings were written around that, but this record we wrote the songs together collaboratively more.
BV: Since we started being more of a rock ‘n’ roll band rather than this very orchestrated band, it sort of evolved into everyone contributing to arranging the songs. It started from this more rhythmic, more raw sound. We tried to focus a lot on the drums and capture that rawness, rather than a refined thing. 

It has this psychedelic, rock sound to it for sure. You’ve also gone with a different recording studio—it was Scott McChane on the first record, and the new one was Ira Skinner, so is there a specific quality in Ira’s work that helped capture the new sound you were going for? 
BV: It sounds more of like, a live thing. There were only a couple takes on vocals, for example. We went to Ira basically because of how he makes drums sound really good. He’s a drummer, and a great drummer sound engineer. 
RD: The album still sounds tight because we’ve already been playing these songs for a year on the road, so we just went in there and laid it down.
BV: I think that’s just kind of where our tastes evolved to after playing out of town a lot and not having the strings all the time…
RD: Yeah, you kind of start carving out how you’re going to approach things. We’re really inspired by people like Beck and Badly Drawn Boy where every album is different and you never know what’s going to come up.
BV: The awesome element of Beck is that he’s able to be pretty eclectic—he’s not pigeonholed. 
RD: We’re always going to be a rock band, with elements of rock ‘n’ roll, but it could go anywhere from more grandiose, to more stripped down, to acoustic, to electric,
to psychedelic…
BV: Unpredictability is kind of nice.

How are you guys making a living selling records and touring?
BV: We’re super DIY. We sell records out of the back of our cars. Right now, we signed a contract with a licensing company, and that’s a step in really trying to make a living. The licensing company is trying to place our songs in commercials, all that kind of stuff. We have all our stuff up on iTunes, Bandcamp… We definitely sell physical copies. A lot of people still like that. But that’s not necessarily the way the world is going. 

Are you planning on doing a tour with the release of the new album?
BV: We’re still finalizing details, but we are planning on carving a route out down the coast…
RD: We’re always playing around California, you know… from San Diego to the Bay, to Nevada City, Sacramento, Chico and coastal towns in-between. 

Do you have a favorite local venue, these days? 
BV: We haven’t played Witch Room yet, but it’s really cool. We’re excited to play there. We have a residency every first Thursday of the month at LowBrau, too. We’re not doing it this month because of our release show, but next month, we’re doing it and it’s kind of the TBD kick-off party, it’s the night before the festival starts. The guys that run LowBrau are such good guys.

How would you guys describe the sound of the new album?
Pistol Pete (a close homie of the band who came along with Valenzuela and Dean to the interview): Cashmere.
RD: It’s very silky, but edgy, and empty… 
BV: Silky smooth…
RD: Silky, smooth and badass. 

For more information, visit Facebook.com/excorpsmusic.

PodgyPanda Creates Art That Makes You LOL

Gut-wrenching, thought-provoking, nostalgic, arousing, anger-inducing… these are some of the common impressions that artists often seek to evoke through their art. This intentional pulling of heartstrings is either accomplished by means of cognitive antecedents or clear messaging through powerful imagery. It is often argued by art critics that good art isn’t just a pretty picture; moreover, it makes the viewer feel some kind of way. But Richard Kuoch, known in the art world as PodgyPanda, just wants to make you smile. Maybe even chortle or LOL.

In his first ever solo show in the United States, Kuoch is revealing his newest digital illustration series at Dragatomi in Midtown Sacramento. The series places his cute little characters, familiar to fans of his previous works, into recognizable Disney movie scenes. In one of these pieces, his panda character replaces Ariel as the mermaid bursting out of the foamy ocean and onto a rock while in song. In another, the panda as Tramp shares a single strand of spaghetti with Lady in Little Italy. Another illustration depicts PodgyPanda as Simba from The Lion King being held up by a baboon character over Pride Rock in the iconic birth announcement. You get the idea.

The effect is like being bombarded by adorableness and humor, although people who like to read into things could probably extrapolate some meaning in the theme in regards to pop culture, icons, blah, blah, blah. Kuoch says he just wants the viewer to feel happy. Beyond his little dudes’ unabashed cuteness, his use of cartoonishly vibrant colors also lends to the visually pleasing and uplifting result of looking at his pieces.

A New Zealand native, Kuoch just moved back home to Auckland after a two-year stint in London. While in England, he was lucky enough to land a job at Kidrobot, the famous adult toy company (not that kind of adult toy—the collectible, endearing figurine sort) and was able to bolster his art career to new heights. He has shown his work in the United States in group shows, as well as in Canada, New Zealand and Europe. His first solo show was in Calgary.

The solo show at Dragatomi opens on Second Saturday, Aug. 9, and will be coming down on Sept. 12, 2014. If you’ve never popped into Dragatomi before (it’s on J Street between 23rd and 24th streets), it serves as the perfect venue for this show. Dragatomi is a gallery and boutique that features toys, apparel, art books, and art inspired by urban pop culture—PodgyPanda fits right in.

Besides his popular digital illustrations, Kuoch also creates logos, drawings on wood or paper, resin toys, and apparel. His updated website launch (Podgypanda.com) is slated to correspond with the solo exhibit at Dragatomi, and his online shop is bustling, though Kuoch says it usually experiences a spike in sales following a show. Exhibit attendees can also purchase his work in person at shows—Kuoch likes to attend his shows so he can meet the people who come to them.

With a background in animation, Kuoch’s cheerful imagination led to the birth of the characters that are depicted in a unique world throughout his work. PodgyPanda is sort of the main character, with a cast of supporting pals. The characters are adorable little chaps in odd situations or locations that support his overall motto about art—“Blink, smile, share.” His father influenced his outlook by being a funny guy that loved to make people laugh, and for Kuoch, making art is all about the importance and contagiousness of happiness.

In addition to sharing his art on his website and at exhibitions, PodgyPanda is all up in the social media, too—Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest, Twitter—and Kuoch has participated in Creative Mornings in Auckland, a breakfast lecture series for the creative community which takes place in cities around the world. These rad and inspiring themed talks are available to view online at Creativemornings.com.

“’Blink, smile, share’ refers to an emotion, what I want people to get out of experiencing my art. I try to evoke some sort of feeling, mostly a happy thought worthy of sharing,” explains Kuoch, who hopes to see your smiling face at Dragatomi.

Kuoch’s solo show featuring PodgyPanda will be at Dragatomi, 2317 J Street, from Aug. 9 to Sept. 6, 2014. For more info, visit Podgypanda.com or Dragatomi.com.

Trick Pony

2031 S Street • Sacramento

The expression “one trick pony” refers to someone who is only good at one thing. Although it sounds like an insult, I’d prefer a one trick pony to a jack of all trades, master of none—at least the ponies are great at something. My partner in crime Melody, photographer Liz Simpson and I decided to put my theory to the test when we checked out Trick Pony, the brand spanking new Midtown pizzeria that recently took over the old Tuli Bistro location.

We took a seat at the bar in front of the wood-fired pizza oven so we could creep on how the alleged magic happened. We were cheerfully greeted from everyone behind the line and on the floor. “Dang, they really are one trick ponies—there’s only like, seven things to choose from on the menu, and it’s either pizza or salad,” I mused when they handed us menus. They do also serve beer, wine and other non-alcoholic beverages. Mel and I, winos that we are, ordered a half carafe of wine, while Liz grabbed a local microbrew draft.

The atmosphere at Trick Pony is comfortable, relaxing and understated, while also having a somewhat contemporary feel. In addition to the bar that stretches along the line, table seating is available inside as well as on their enclosed patio. Fans circulate along the ceiling of the interior to mitigate the heat from the wood fire oven. It was rather empty when we visited, likely due to the fact that they were still in “soft opening” mode. They planned to celebrate their grand opening during June’s Second Saturday.

We were brought four narrow slices of the special to try, a pizza that was topped with San Marzano tomatoes, sopressata, house-made buffalo mozzarella and a house-made cherry tomato and braised leek pesto. The pizza was served with two dipping sauces, both of which were also house-made: a chili oil and a basil pesto. The pesto spread on the pizza had a tangy, savory and sweet flavor profile that was well balanced and scrumptious, and I immediately took note of the fan-fucking-tastic crust. Theirs is a near perfect equilibrium of chewy and crispy, while also managing to be a skinny bitch—thin, foldable, yet sturdy. I was really impressed, and asked the curly-haired ginger chef, Paul Caravelli, what the secret was to this magnificent dough and cooking process that led to some arrestingly good pizza crust.

“I haven’t slept in three months,” he joked. But seriously, he added, “I’m obsessed. I’m living that dough life.” He wouldn’t go into too much detail on the recipe itself, but did disclose that he uses a sourdough yeast. The dough is hand-stretched, stored for at least 24 hours and cooked at 800 to 850 degrees Fahrenheit for 60 to 90 seconds.

For pizzas, we elected the Margherita and pepperoni, and also decided to try their take on the Caesar salad. The Caesar salad was served first, and was comprised of red romaine hearts, a house-made Caesar dressing, parmesan crisps (known as frico in Italy, or fried cheese) and shaved parmesan, and came on a plate garnished with the basil pesto and cracked pepper. Eric, the other chef manning the line that day, explained that the Caesar dressing recipe was his own; it had a slightly spicy quality which gave it a unique flavor.

Then we got our pizzas and oh my damn! They were picture-perfect (as evidenced in Liz’s photos), and were not sliced! They schooled us on how that is how true Neopolitan pizza is served—you use a knife to tear your slices out, which eradicates the annoying cheese-falling-off-your-slice situation that often happens when pizza is sliced the way we do things in America.

The Margherita had the same ideal, thin crust and a house-made tomato sauce that was again equally sweet, savory and tangy and made with fresh, local tomatoes. It was also topped with the buffalo mozzarella and fresh basil leaves. The pepperoni pizza was awesome, too, and only differed from the Margherita in that it had pepperoni rather than basil on top, and was a bit spicier.

These guys are really on to something special. Check them out at 2013 S Street—open daily from 5 p.m. until the dough runs out.

Mixin’ it Up for National Martini Day

People often default to ordering a Martini because of its familiar name and its connotation of sophistication, but do many people really know what makes a Martini, and what does not? Honestly, no one knows when the first Martini was even born, but several similar recipes for what is now considered a Martini that emerged in the late 1800s. It was prohibition that gave rise to its prominence and proliferation in the hands of American lushes, as bathtub gin was a readily available alcohol in the absence of diversely stocked liquor stores.

A Martini is traditionally made with gin and vermouth, and garnished with a lemon twist. Famous variations include the Dirty Martini (instead garnished with an olive and mixed with olive juice), and the Gibson (a dry martini with cocktail onions as the garnish).

{Gin Martini}

Martini Facts

A vodka Martini is not really a Martini. It’s called a Kangaroo Cocktail.

Just because it’s served in a Martini glass does not mean it’s a Martini—drinks like the Appletini are made of completely different ingredients, although served in the iconic glassware.

A shaken Martini tastes different than a stirred Martini. It is debated that shaking a Martini “bruises” the gin, so stirring is preferred by some, although James Bond popularized the request to have it “shaken, not stirred.”

The name “Martini” comes from Martinez, California.

At the Algonquin Hotel in New York City, they serve a $10,000 Martini to fancypants rich folk, garnished with a real diamond.

The Martini glass was designed during Prohibition so that when the Five-0 showed up at a party, people could quickly discard the liquid in the glass.

{Dirty Martini}

Famous Martini Drinkers Talk Shop

“I never go jogging, it makes me spill my martini.” – George Burns

“Martinis are the only American invention as perfect as a sonnet.” – H. L. Mencken

”I had never tasted anything so cool and clean… They made me feel civilized.” – Ernest Hemingway in Farewell to Arms

“Happiness is…finding two olives in your Martini when you’re hungry.” – Johnny Carson

“I like to have a Martini, two at the very most… After three I’m under the table, after four, I’m under my host.” – Dorothy Parker

“He knows just how I like my Martini…full of alcohol.” – Homer Simpson

“If it wasn’t for the olives in his martinis he’d starve to death.” – Milton Berle

Shady Lady’s Travis Kavanaugh Sounds Off on the Wildly Popular, yet Misunderstood, Martini

In honor of the upcoming National Martini Day (June 19), Travis Kavanaugh, a well-known and talented bartender at the Shady Lady, took the time to clarify some common misconceptions about the Martini. Here’s our little Q&A that ensued…over a couple of beers.

Tell me about Martinis and why the misconceptions about them get on your nerves.
It started in Martinez, California, where a dude came in that had struck gold, and was so excited, and wanted the bartender to make him a drink. So the bartender, Jerry Thomas, basically the guy that started cocktails with his book in the 1800s, made him a drink that was Old Tom’s Gin, sweet vermouth, cherry liqueur and orange bitters.
And after that it kind of got adopted into a gin Martini, which is dry gin, dry vermouth, and occasionally a twist of citrus, or orange bitters… No one knows where the olive juice came from—I’m assuming the ‘80s and cocaine? That’s the only thing I can think of because anyone who orders that is that style of person, I hate to say it!
So I think that’s where it started, I was like, “People need to know.” Because even a vodka Martini, which everyone thinks that’s what a Martini is now, is actually called a Kangaroo, it’s not even really a Martini. It’s a whole other thing. So I wanted to educate people so I won’t have to yell at them anymore.

Assuming people actually read this.
And those that will are probably not the group of people I want to know!

So have you ever flashed on someone for using the wrong terminology?
No, it’s not their fault. It’s just people that drink mass-produced products, you know, that’s what TV says, that’s what magazines say, that’s what popular, that’s what you know. We’re in a society where everyone is told what to do. They don’t want to think when they come to a bar—they want to be told. They just go to what’s on the billboard on the drive here. So I think it’s a good idea to educate them. I’m not really going to yell at someone for not knowing. Just because it comes in a Martini glass does not make it a Martini.

Like the Cosmopolitan, annoyingly popularized by Sex and the City, which is the dumbest show ever.
I actually thank Sex and the City, because it actually helped the whole cocktail movement. Because people saw that and wanted to start ordering it, and then craft bartenders started coming up with a bunch of other cocktails. And that show doesn’t bother me! I should never admit that.
It’s just funny to me that people drink a certain cocktail for 15 years and have no idea what’s in it.

Why do you think they do that?
Because they don’t care. They just want to get drunk.

What’s your go-to? Mine’s an IPA and a shot of tequila.
I was just going to say that! I think being from California, we like piney things. We love marijuana, we love IPAs, we love our Chartreuse, we love our Frenet…herbal. And tequila—herbal. To me, that’s California. Stuff with a robust aroma on it.

Dank.
Yes! It all goes hand in hand.

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.

Michael Sarich’s Work Comes to Sacramento

Butting Heads, a solo art exhibit by Michael Sarich at JayJay Gallery ending May 24, 2014, is a visual exploration of pop iconography through painting and sculpture. Sarich’s modern, allegorical, layered compositions are each tornadoes of symbolic imagery that include elements of nature such as birds and fish, intertwined with commercialized imagery like Mickey Mouse, a recurring illustrative devil girl and the Virgin Mary. Large-scale, differing, yet related pieces tell the story of the state of our culture and the banality of its plasticity.

A professor of art at University of Nevada, Reno, Sarich’s own education in painting, drawing, sculpture and printmaking spanned the globe from Illinois and Oklahoma to Austria. His work has been spied by gallery and museum patrons throughout the United States, and even overseas in London and Germany.

While he makes some money off his art, his main source of income is teaching. Says Sarich, “It’s always nice to see how somebody else perceives the visual world.” He works at the university with students that include his kids, and he smiles as he discloses, “I paint right along with them.”

Sarich resides in Reno, where he creates his work mainly in his garage that he has converted into a studio, and spends the bulk of his waking hours allowing social and political themes to take shape beneath his diligent hand.

In spite of being afflicted with Parkinson’s disease, Sarich is a prolific painter and sculptor, and a collection of 30 years of his work was recaptured in a book by Anne M. Wolfe and Kirk Robertson, entitled Like, Love and Lust.

I met with Sarich—a soft spoken yet thoughtful and eloquent man who brought my own questioning voice down a few decibels—at his art opening at JayJay Gallery in East Sacramento on March 8 to talk about his life and the exhibit.

{Sybil • Acrylic on Canvas • 75” x 75” • 2012}

Can you explain the significance of the recurring, intertwined themes of Christianity and Disney characters in your art?
It’s kind of a duality, a hate-love relationship. Disney meant something good, but now it’s been commercialized and spread all over the world. It’s the same thing with Christianity. Icons have taken on a commercial value. The Virgin of Guadalupe is on T-shirts and bumper stickers, so it’s kind of lost some of its identity I think, in terms of reverence.

At the onset of beginning a sculpture or painting, do you have a preconceived notion of a message you’re trying to convey, or is it more organic?
It’s more stream-of-consciousness. I just go with the imagery and let it roll, and I react in a subconscious way. The paintings and drawings just take over. With sculpture, you’ve got to make sure they stand up, so structurally, you have to think about the integrity as you work. But when I glaze and paint them, I just react to the form and tattoo it.

{Good-Bye • Acrylic on Canvas • 78” x 78” • 2012}

You’ve done shows all over the world and throughout the United States. When you do shows, solo shows specifically, do they tend to have a unified theme?
For me they’re all unified, they’re all related, like a theme I’ve been working on for 10 years. Pop iconography as opposed to high art and low art, and what that means…again, they butt heads, high and low. So I push both ends of it.

Do you have a favorite show you’ve participated in?
I guess the retrospective at the Nevada Museum of Art. It’s where my book came from. It’s 30 years of my work. So that was kind of amazing to see all the shit I did in 30 years. Revisiting the past through imagery is kind of a weird thing.

How or why did you begin doing art?
I’ve always drawn since I was a kid, and I got some recognition for it so it kind of kept my interest. When I was in high school I was in-school suspension for a year, and the art teacher would say, “Can you do a drawing every week?” or, “Can you do a painting every three weeks?” It raised my standards of work ethic, and I just loved it, because it was something that I felt was mine, that no one could take away. Growing up with six brothers and sisters in a tiny house, that was real important to me to have something I could keep as my own.

{Photo by Niki Kangas}

What media/materials do you use for your sculptures and paintings?
Well, it’s all about the mark. There’s a variety of applications but it’s all about the speed of the mark: slow, clumsy marks as opposed to rendered marks; airbrushed marks versus the painted mark…so I’m using the language of mark-making to put all these pieces together. Some of the sculptures are glazed and some are painted—mostly ceramic but I do wood, too. I did a series of puppets. I call them puppets but they’re wall pieces that are hinged.
It’s slowed down a little bit because I have Parkinson’s. Lately it’s affected my ability to make ceramics. I can still paint and draw. I get about six hours every day. I’m good in the morning, till about 2 o’clock, then I take more pills. I’ve got a sort of window of work time. I get a window of work time, it’s about six hours but it used to be eight. I’ve had [Parkinson’s] for 14 years, and it gets worse over time, but I’m still maintaining.

{Head Pin • Ceramic • 43” x 43” x 14” • 2006}

As I walked around the gallery to take in his exhibit, I was overwhelmed by a dizzying sense of feeling lost within and sickened by the “bankrupt on selling” nature of today’s world, while simultaneously being drawn to the imagery of icons that are an ingrained part of the modern consciousness collective, akin to archetypes. I highly recommend paying a visit to Jayjay Gallery to experience Sarich’s world before the show comes down on May 24, 2014. JayJay Gallery is located at 5520 Elvas Avenue.

Sacramento’s New Classic Sports Bar, Fieldhouse

My homegirl Liz Simpson and I stepped outside of our Midtown comfort zone to check out and document a new sports bar that had recently opened in the Arden-Arcade area, Fieldhouse. I grumbled about the name— doesn’t it seem like every new place opening up lately uses the trendy formula “Prefix-house?”

I later learned that Fieldhouse owners weren’t using some hack formula to name the restaurant, but that a field house is the structure at a ball field that houses all of the equipment and maintenance supplies for the venue. Shows how much my smug ass knows.

Fieldhouse is set in a strip mall on Fulton Avenue with a 24 Hour Fitness and other boring chains, but at least this means that the parking is a-plenty. It is decorated with sports memorabilia, old-timey sports photographs, a barrage of mounted flat-screen TVs blaring every kind of sporting event wherever one casts an eye and antique sports equipment. Fieldhouse is modern and comfortable, with understated furniture, dark wood accents, a welcoming bar at the center of the space, gray and brick walls, a shuffleboard table and darts.

The restaurant opened on March 5, 2014, by the elbow grease of Shady Lady owners (who act as consultants for Fieldhouse) Jason Boggs, Alex Origoni and Garrett Van Vleck, and owners Amir Daliri, Steve Squaglia and Mike Doherty.

Says Origoni, “Fieldhouse is a throwback inspired sports bar that pays homage to all sports, popular and obscure, throughout all eras… The menu consists of classic American pub fare with great care taken in sourcing the highest quality raw ingredients and the bar program is anchored by a large selection of high quality draft and bottled beers, as well as carefully constructed craft cocktails. All of these features combine to make Fieldhouse a casual, comfortable sports pub set in a classic environment with outstanding food and beverages.”

I was totally OK with all of those things, and by now the thirst and hunger were getting real.

We posted up at the bar and were immediately greeted by a cute, freckled redhead with bangs named Kristin, who quickly and skillfully procured our drinks that Midtowners will recognize from the Shady Lady cocktail menu: a Jameson and the Giant Peach and a Paloma. Beyond the signature cocktail list borrowed from Shady, Fieldhouse offers an expansive list of draught microbrews and cheap domestic beers one would expect of an upscale sports bar.

Although I sucked mine down fast, having had a rough week, I was impressed by the Paloma’s methodical distribution of tequila and grapefruit. The cocktails here are also easy on the eyes.

While we bullshitted with the bartender and whetted our whistles, we made a game plan for grub, ordered, and were soon served a smorgasbord of radness. We learned that the head chef is shared with the Shady Lady—Kevin Ritchie. His culinary background includes Executive Sous Chef at Michael Mina in San Francisco, Sous Chef at Fog City Diner in San Francisco and Line Cook at Waterboy.

The Rally Nachos are not the thrown-together pile of low-grade Sysco ingredients you’ve become accustomed to expect from a traditional sports bar. Rather, they are a thoughtful and picture-perfect assemblage of top quality elements. The fresh tortilla chips are carefully topped with roasted green chilies, Cotija cheese, fresh cilantro, black beans, red jalapenos and drizzled with a cumin-lime crema. They are nearly too pretty to eat, but after a first bite of these slightly spicy beauties, Liz and I had no problem destroying them.

Another dish we ordered with the intention of warding off gut brick and keeping things moving through was the Oregon Bay Shrimp Louie Salad. Also a meticulous plating, it was a bed of lemon cabbage slaw and cucumber slices, upon which was stacked avocado, Vega Farms hardboiled egg, tomato horseradish cocktail vinaigrette and, of course, Oregon Bay shrimps, which were tossed in a mustard seed dressing. At the apex of the salad, two sprigs of chives were crisscrossed. The salad was a lovely balance of textures and flavors—crisp, creamy, saucy, savory, sweet, tart and awesome.

For a little Southern comfort, we requested the Fried Green Tomatoes, a dish I was fuzzily familiar with from late nights at Shady Lady. Green heirloom tomatoes are encased in a homemade breadcrumb batter and flawlessly fried crunchy but not overdone, with the edges a slightly darker shade of brown from the overall golden color. They float above a thick, sour, yet sweet tarragon remoulade below a crown of fresh-as-a-daisy microgreens.

When Boggs became aware of the purpose of our visit (to review the menu offerings), he generously engaged his head chef to bring from the kitchen a couple of additional dishes. To get a feel for their take on sports bar grub, they recommended the Whiskey Burger and the Vietnamese wings.

So there we sat, happy campers, with a five-plate spread before us, showcasing every color of the rainbow and bestowing a wealth of amazing flavors on our eager taste buds. Those sitting at the bar around us had to ask why two svelte women such as ourselves were so damn hungry.

The half-pound Whiskey Burger elicited an, “Oh dang.” This is quite possibly one of the best burgers in Sacramento. Served on newsprint food service paper with black peppercorn fries, the Whiskey Burger comes on a toasted bun with spicy, bitter arugula; bacon on point in the shape of a stiff ‘X’; a whiskey-soaked patty of local ground beef; and cheddar cheese that melts and flows like lava over the whole masterpiece.

I’m not usually a fan of wings, as I find them fatty and gristly, and feel too animal-like gnawing flesh from bone with fingers covered in hot sauce. But with the Vietnamese wings, I took no issue with picking them bones clean with my teeth. The skin is sticky, spicy and sweet, and the crisply fried exterior gives way to juicy meat marinated with cilantro, mint and Serrano chilies, with chips of fried garlic.

Stuffed to the gills and smiling, I noticed that in spite of the recent opening, the place was already beginning to fill up with patrons. Origoni gratefully explains, “We have been warmly received by the community since opening and are continuing to see more new faces as word spreads.” Looks like another home run for the team at Shady Lady and their new partners.

Fieldhouse is located at 1310 Fulton Ave. in Sacramento. Open Monday – Thursday and Sunday from 11 a.m. – 12 a.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. – 2 a.m. Check them out at Facebook.com/fieldhousesac for more details.

Darling Chemicalia Releases Album Number Three, Spun in White

The word “evolution” implies not just adaptation to a changing environment, but also alludes to the increasing complexity of an organism. Local band Darling Chemicalia has been a fixture of the Sacramento live music scene for several years now, and they’ve reshaped, compounded in intricacy and proven their fitness to potential mates (you, the listener and showgoer) with the creation of their third record. Spun in White makes its official emergence in March.

Spun in White is the first Darling Chemicalia effort being put out by a record label— New York’s A Wicked Company. They recorded it themselves at their practice space, House of Hits, on Marconi. It showcases what the band is like live, and exhibits the new additions since Darling Chemicalia’s first two records, Valleys and Ghost Sketch, which were self-recorded by Ian Bone (vocals, guitar), Stephine Bone (vocals, keyboard) and Justin Gonzo (drums). Andrew Henderson (also in the totally rad band G. Green) lends a second guitar, and ex G. Green member Michael Feerick adds bass to the new record and evolution of Darling Chemicalia.

The 11 tracks that comprise Spun in White are each distinct from the last and catchier than a motherfucker upon repeated listens. The songs are spun together into an insidiously inviting web by common threads: youthful post-punk melodies; low-fi yet complex layered soundscapes; energizing pop influence; a dreamy underwater quality; Ian’s shaky, desperate vocals and Stephine’s raw, urgent, and longing vocals. Though they’ve preciously been compared to My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth, for me, Built to Spill qualities were immediately recognized when I first heard track one, “Final Girl.”

The album name comes from a Charles Bukowski poem, an excerpt of which reads:

“… And then the spider from his dank hole
nervous and exposed
the puff of body swelling
hanging there
not really quite knowing,
and then knowing—
something sending it down its string,
the wet web,
toward the weak shield of buzzing,
the pulsing;
a last desperate moving hair-leg
there against the glass
there alive in the sun,
spun in white;
and almost like love:
the closing over,
the first spider-sucking:
filling its sack
upon this thing that lived…”

As you can probably extrapolate from the tone of the poem above, the album is dark, and as Henderson described, “Claustrophobic—so much going on all the time in most of the songs… It’s what you’d feel like if you were in a crawl space and someone’s banging on the floor above you, but it’s good.” Henderson’s manner and voice reminded me of Mordecai from Regular Show. 

It’s decidedly a loud, rocking record. Explains Ian Bone, “Growing up, I was super into Nirvana, and I never tried to do something like that. This doesn’t sound like Nirvana, but it’s as close as we can come to sounding like Nirvana. When you’re young, you get one record and obsess over it, immerse yourself in it. We don’t play a lot of shows where there are teenagers, and I want to know where the teenagers are. Because I wanted to make a record where some kid somewhere would listen to it and get obsessed. Actually listen to it all the way through.”

There’s so much going on musically in spite of managing to maintain minimalism, that it requires listening to it over and over again to really capture all of the things. Kind of like watching The Big Lebowski—no matter how many times I rewatch that movie, I catch some nuance in the dialogue that I’d never picked up on before, which makes it superior to a work that can be absorbed in one sitting. 

“We’ve exhausted every melodic possibility for each song,” adds Ian, and while that’s mathematically improbable, the record is full of sound.

“Maybe we need to add a horn or something,” Henderson says jokingly.

“Yeah, that’s the next step,” concurs Ian sarcastically.

“We’ll make a ska record,” quips Gonzo.

Band dynamics will make or break even the most skilled group of musicians, and Darling Chemicalia is a tightknit alliance possessing pretty damn cute dynamics and dexterity to boot. In the beginning, it was just Gonzo, Ian and Stephine (the latter two had a baby three years ago). They added a guitarist momentarily but she didn’t work out.

One night in December 2012, when longtime homies Henderson and Feerick were going in on some booze with Gonzo and the Bones, Ian declared, “You should come join our band.” And so it was decided.

“It’s cool that we’re a band that is just friends anyway, and we’ve just become better friends,” Henderson elaborates. “We just like to play music together. We all look forward to band practice because we get to hang out with each other.” That camaraderie is palpable in the new record.

They rehearse once a week, randomly intersperse local shows, and on occasion venture out to San Francisco to perform. Their songwriting process varies. Ian brings ideas to the table half of the time, and as far as the other half goes, they’ll just be jamming at the beginning of practice and something worth exploring further arises. It took about a year to write the new record, and a year to record it—this was no haphazard process, but a painstaking and methodical one. 

The album cover artwork for Spun in White is on par with the quality of the record itself. For the previous two albums, they utilized found photos, which are very cool images, but the new one was the first thing they actually did where it was a bit more premeditated.

“After we got married, Ian grabbed me and some residual wedding stuff…,” Stephanie Bone starts to explain.

“That sounds like a sexual thing, ‘it was our wedding night…’” teases Henderson.

“It wasn’t our wedding night, it was after we got married,” she clarifies.

The resulting picture is a beautiful, haunting image of a woman, spun in white, in itself a work of art.

Lofty future goals for the band? Define lofty…

“I’m still stoked every month that goes by that we’re all still doing this,” Ian says. “I don’t have any delusions of grandeur that we’ll be on the cover of the Rolling Stone or anything like that… if we can keep making something that’s good, as long as all of us are interested in doing it, then that’s good enough.”

“We’re finally going to go play in the Northwest, and that’s a huge step for this band,” adds Gonzo. 

I disagree. Maybe they won’t get richer, or get their picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this band is asked to play festivals like SXSW within the next couple of years, or is at least pleasantly surprised by a wealth of affirming, great reviews by notable music publications—not unlike this review.

Catch Darling Chemicalia at Witch Room’s first show on Tuesday, March 25 with Wax Idols, Wreck And Reference, So Stressed and Hollow Sunshine. Starts at 8 p.m., $8 cover, 18-and-over. Witch Room is located at 1815 19th Street (Bows and Arrows’ old space). For more information, visit Witchroomsac.com.

The Cultured & The Cured brings West Coast Cheeses & Charcuterie (and more!) to East Sacramento

I love a good ol’ dorky pun. So it’s no wonder The Cultured and The Cured, a newly opened meat- and cheese-centric market and deli in East Sacramento, brought a smile to my face with their cheesy tagline, “Livin’ on the Wedge.” A scan of their menu brought a rumble to my tummy—who doesn’t love tasting fancy meats, cheeses and other savory finger foods? Oh yeah. Vegans. Sorry, vegans, good luck with that soy cheese crap—I’m unapologetically stepping out to The Cultured and The Cured.

Upon entering the shop, I was promptly greeted by a friendly, pretty young woman named Hannah, who eagerly showed me the menu and answered all my questions. The husband and wife owners, Chef Andrew Hillman and Kelly Heath, were also hard at work on site, until Kelly departed to go to her nursing job at Dignity Health.

The Cultured and The Cured is a smallish space (844 square feet) at 3644 J Street that is bright, clean and inviting, with a back wall of rustic wood planks, prominent eat-in menu boards, a few tables, an engaging deli case presenting distinctive meats and cheeses, and a row of shelving containing beautiful displays of locally made, epicurean dry goods.

Although tempted by the gourmet sandwich, soup and salad offerings from the kitchen, I thought it best to get a gouda sense of the meat of what this place was all about, and after a couple of questions for Hannah, decided upon the mixed meats charcuterie board and the goat cheese board, which change frequently based on the varying inventory of the shop.

The mixed meats charcuterie board we ordered was a display of small portions of Fabrique Delices Pâté de Campagne with Black Pepper, Fra’ Mani Nostrano, Creminelli Milano, Molinari Finocchiona and Creminelli Mortadella amid smatterings of almonds, mustard and dressed microgreens. The goat cheese board showcased the Cypress Grove Bermuda Triangle, Capri Classic Blue, Achadinha Capricious and Cabricharme goat cheeses, all equidistantly spaced on the wood plank and interspersed with pistachios, mâche drizzled with vinaigrette, dried cranberries and marinated fava beans. Both were served with a basket of assorted organic artisan crackers by Potter’s Crackers, made locally in Sacramento, and also available for sale on the shelves of dry goods within The Cultured and The Cured.

After sampling it all and trying to not draw attention to ourselves by suppressing the urge to moan at every bite, my favorite item of all was the Achadinha Capricious, a goat cheese made in Petaluma, with a rind that smelled like nasty feet and tasted like heaven. Chef Hillman informed us that a wheel of this cheese costs him about $560, and it dawned on me that it was truly a treat to enjoy samples of several such cheeses for only $12.

Also for sale on the shelves of The Cultured and The Cured is the entire line of Preservation and Co. products. Jason Poole, once a bartender at the Pour House, gained national recognition when Absolut Vodka declared his the Best Bloody Mary in California.

His handcrafted mix, coupled with his Sriracha Salt around the rim of the glass, were then in high demand by craft cocktail connoisseurs, and after partnering with Brad Peters, Preservation and Co. was born. You can find the Bloody Mary Mix, Hellfire Hot Sauce and the Sriracha Salt at The Cultured and The Cured, along with pickled items such as cayenne carrot sticks and balsamic beet slices. An array of other interesting and uncommon foods and beverages can be brought home from this East Sacramento meat and cheese shop to pair with your smorgasbord or elevated midnight snack.

“I have people that come in the store, walk over to the Preservation and Co. products, check out and walk right out the door,” says Hillman.

The bulk of their clientele purchases foods to take home rather than to dine in, although my guess is that once the shop secures their beer and wine license, more customers will be inclined to sit down with a glass of local wine and a cheese board as a decadent happy hour revelry. Bonn Lair bar flies across the street can also order cheese and charcuterie boards, which The Cultured and The Cured staff will deliver.

Hillman and Heath opened the doors in November 2013 with a locavore philosophy in mind. They source local products (or, at the very least, American-made) as much as possible. This ideology is even carried through in their shop’s décor, with reclaimed wood from Sonoma, Marin and Sacramento homes and barns, and earth tone paint formulated with goat’s milk from Pescadero. They focus on cheeses from the West Coast; only four cheeses are derived from Europe, and all meats in the case are domestic, although sometimes they will feature extra special imports if there is no comparable product created in our corner of the world.

Chef Hillman has been a member of Slow Food for 15 years, and has worked in restaurants for 30 years, having trained at the Culinary Institute of America in upstate New York—the same school where Anthony Bourdain and many other famous chefs earned their educations.

While the focus is decidedly to be a retail cheese and charcuterie store, Hillman and Heath recognize that unlike small European shops, they have to feature more items to catch a wider audience in America, where people normally shop at supermarkets rather than specialized stores, and they have to do more to capture the attention of their audience through events and partnerships.

“It’s an evolving animal that we have to figure out, that’s the hard part,” Hillman says.

They are planning to start holding cheese classes on Sunday evenings, and to participate in a major upcoming cheese convention at the Sacramento Convention Center.

“The ACS (American Cheese Society) is having their annual convention here in Sacramento at the end of July. It’s the first time it’s ever been out of the East Coast,” explains Hillman. As part of the festivities, they will be holding special events, and be featured on the ACS tour of local haunts to score hard-to-find cheeses. Additionally, they will be partnering up with Evan from Evan’s Kitchen to help with a cheese-focused wine dinner on Feb. 3.

Until then, brie a sport and make your whey to Sacramento’s latest fromagerie and sample the bounty of West Coast cheese and charcuterie.

The store is open Tuesday–Thursday from 11 a.m.–9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m.–10 p.m.; and Sunday from 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Visit Culturedandcured.com for more info.

Local illustrator Jonathan Cole Buck Outlines the Varied Facets of his Art

You may have noticed some rad illustrations gracing the cover of the Sacramento News and Review of late, or hanging in windows in the form of show posters. You can thank Jonathan Cole Buck, a local up-and-coming illustrator who is working hard to hone his talent.

Beyond the commissioned work he’s done, Jonathan also creates somewhat disturbing imagery intended for galleries, and comic art that is thought-provoking, tear-jerking and rarely comical. His style continually evolves as he explores through practice and research.

Submerge sat down for an interview with this serious man who has the wisdom not to take himself too seriously, and found the artist to be much more lighthearted than would be expected after viewing his work.

When did you start illustrating?
For money, last year, but I’ve been drawing all my life. I tend to gravitate toward those things that I’m just naturally good at, and getting attention for something you’re good at helps boost your interest in it. The better I get at it, the more I realize not to take it seriously and just to have fun with it.

The first one I got that was paid for was last year. I got an inside illustration about DJs, how they’re dying out. I had to write out a W-4 and everything, so that was cool.

I do feel a little conflicted about having to do exactly what someone else wants [in order to] to get paid, so lately I’ve been a little loosey goosey and have been doing some abstract stuff.

Who are some of your inspirations?
Marcel Duchamp, Eva Hesse, Pablo Picasso and modern illustrators like James Jean, Daniel Clowes (who wrote Ghost World) and Chris Ware.

You mention on your website having pursued a number of majors without having ever completed a program course. Of all your interests, is illustration your primary interest, or are you pursuing other creative endeavors, too?
I kind of want to do everything. Everything is so interesting and fun. It’s hard to focus on one thing. It would be a really boring life to follow one pursuit. I got a scholarship for poetry initially, and started with a journalism program. I used to play in punk bands, until the scene got emo and I split for obvious reasons.

Describe the spectrum of illustration you do.
Right now I’m afraid that I’m pigeonholed into a style that looks like a graphic novel style. I really want to do abstract stuff.

Your comics aren’t usually very funny. They tend to be melancholy. Who are your comic art inspirations, and have any of your comics been published?
I haven’t published any comics; I’m terrified to show people a lot of them. I am working on a graphic novel based on a short story. I keep redoing it because once I get to the 15th page, my style has changed. I might end up abandoning the project and doing something that’s less serious. My favorite comic book illustrators are Sammy Harkham and Will Eisner.

Where can people view your art in upcoming shows?
I have a show at Insight Coffee Roasters beginning on Dec. 7—it’ll be up ‘til Jan. 2. Then at Tomato Alley Gallery, right across from La Garnacha—I have a couple pieces in there. The closing reception is Dec. 14. After that, I’ll be searching around galleries to see about group shows.

Where do you want to take your art career?
I enjoy art, but making it a career seems unlikely as it seldom pays the bills. I will always make things as I enjoy it more than anything else. If an illustration or fine art career blossoms somewhere down the road, it will just be a happy accident to a continuous activity that I already compulsively do. It is likely that I will end up doing some sort of animation, writing or film work, as that can pay the bills a bit better, and it’s something I’m interested in. But who knows. I can’t really predict the future. At my most optimistic, delusions of grandeur and all, I would prefer to be running my own media company and hire all of the people who have helped me along the way. At worst I suppose I would be working as a waiter somewhere, which isn’t really that bad. 

Describe some of your work, and the thinking and technique behind these pieces.

Jealous Guy
As far as inspiration goes for this piece, I think I was looking at a lot of illustrators that are notorious for being problem solvers, often shapeshifting two concepts to further the main idea. I bought the frame at a thrift store, which constrained the dimensions I would be working in to a long and slender shape. I pulled an image I had in a sketchbook from a year ago that I had been meaning to use and went with it. I penciled it out on alpha rag matte board that I often buy from the framing section at University Art. It is archival and takes most media extremely well as long as you don’t make mistakes. After I used watercolor to gradient the background I blocked in the main character with Holbein’s acryla gouache and inked the piece entirely with Speedballs scarlet acrylic ink. I went back and did some negative shading with a 6B pencil to make the characters a little more interesting. 

Luncheon in the Grass
This is my favorite and probably the best piece I’ve made. I was looking at a lot of Manet at the time and thought it would be cool to ride off an idea and make it weird. It was a title of the same Manet piece Le déjeuner sur l’herbe. I drew about 10 thumbnails before I penciled it on matte board. I had to mix my own inks to get the right color of blue for extreme opacity at minimal viscosity so it would be ideal for inking with a brush. Once I got that done, I sort of just went with it. Once I have a plan, I work extremely fast. 

 
Melvins Poster
I got the go-ahead for doing the poster from the promoter (Brian McKenna). I have always wanted to work with Laura Matranga so I sent her a line about doing a screen print for the project. She was stoked. I took the main image directly out of a sketchbook and showed it to Laura. She thought it would be a good fit for the vibe of the band, so she started setting up the layers and colors for transfer into screen-print. This was my first time screen-printing and Laura was extremely general in walking me through the process. 

Two-Face
I did this while working concessions at Tower Theatre. There was a lot of downtime at that job, and I took full advantage. I am somehow surprised that popcorn butter did not make its way into this piece. I used ink and just sort of brushed it in as fast as I could in between customers. I then used pencil to set contrast in the shadows. 

See more of Jonathan Cole Buck’s work at Nannerfish.wordpress.com, or at Insight Coffee Roasters and Tomato Alley Gallery this month.