You’d think that the organizers of the wildly successful three-day blowout TBD Fest would be worn out and ready for a break from producing large scale events, but you’d be wrong! Just as our latest issue was going to press (#175, Nov. 17 – Dec. 1, 2014) we got word from TBD’s Clay Nutting and Michael Hargis that they are already back in business and are planning a massive New Year’s Eve Block Party in the heart of Midtown at 20th and J streets and that Submerge had been tapped to be their exclusive media sponsor! And oh, what a party it will be!
We’re excited to announce that headlining will be the insanely popular Montreal-born and New York-based DJ A-Trak! Besides being one of the most sought-after DJs/producers in the world (having worked with the likes of Kanye West and Jay-Z), A-Trak is also the founder of the influential, taste-making label Fool’s Gold Records (home to Danny Brown, Run the Jewels, Kid Sister and tons of other rad hip-hop and/or electronic artists). A-Trak’s DJ sets are super diverse, crazy energetic and full of dance floor bangers. Co-headlining will be a producer/DJ duo known as Oliver who have gotten crowds moving at some of the world’s largest electronic festivals and have toured with and/or remixed tracks for popular groups like Chromeo and Foster the People. Also receiving top billing is Minneapolis-based producer/songwriter Gigamesh and there are more acts to-be-announced soon, so keep an eye out at Tbdfest.com or Facebook.com/tbdfest for more artist announcements, further word on ticket prices, VIP options, etc. The party will be 21-plus and will kick off at 7 p.m. Keep an eye out for more coverage in our next couple issues!
UPDATE: Promoters have added a couple more acts to the bill! Fool’s Gold Records’ Nick Catchdubs and Sacramento favorites Sister Crayon will join in on the party!
You could say that local brother/sister alternative/pop duo Connor and Karlee are doing what they’re meant to do. They’ve been exposed to music their whole lives, learning to play when they were old enough to sit at the piano or their dad’s drum set. Their father worked in the radio business, which gained Connor and Karlee all kinds of access to big-time entertainers over the years, both backstage and in the front row. “Each and every encounter has left its mark on who we are as musicians/songwriters… and the kind of artists we hope to someday become,” they wrote in their bio. When Connor was 11, he played drums with Shania Twain at ARCO Arena in front of 17,000 screaming fans. In 2012, Karlee tried out for the show The X Factor in San Francisco and out of 8,500 contestants she made it to round two with just 300 other performers. These kids are definitely on the right path and they are releasing their debut album on Friday, Aug. 1, 2014, when they will be performing at Harlow’s alongside fellow Sacramento-native songwriter Julianna Zachariou (who moved away to Nashville for college, but is back in town for the summer, so this is a rare local show!). It’s an early show, doors open at 6:30 p.m., and it is all ages with an $8 cover. Trust us when we say that Connor & Karlee are artists to watch. Guaranteed within a year or two they’ll be blowing up and scoring all kinds of incredible gigs and getting their music placed in movies and TV and all that stuff that comes with the natural talent that these two possess. Get on board the Connor and Karlee train now, Sacramento! Visit Connorandkarleemusic.com for more information.
Grab a couple of beach vibes, sharp Vampire Weekend influences, and the sounds of Beach House’s chilled-out persona, and you’re halfway to understanding the coolness of Cayucas. Forming in Santa Monica in mid-2012, Cayucas embodies what would ideally be played at a really awesome summer BBQ featuring amazing ribs and excellent margaritas. Though it isn’t quite summer (hell, it isn’t even spring), California’s weather is giving us some serious early-June impressions, so why not make the best of the situation? Let’s kick off an early summer with Cayucas at Harlows on March 14. Tickets are $12 in advance ($14 at the door) and can be found at Harlows.com, so throw on your best beach outfit and get ready for Summer 2014!
The Speed of Sound in Seawater is Ready to Take the Next Step
Words by Andrew Scoggins • Photo by Phill Mamula
Sacramento produces some odd bands. From the barbaric yawps of industrial-rap duo Death Grips to the hedonistic dance-rock in short shorts of !!!, Sacramento has never had a concrete “scene” in the usual sense. Sure, there were a few smatterings of crust punk and that unfortunate period in the mid-‘00s where it seemed you couldn’t go to a venue without hearing Christian hardcore, but no one genre has ever truly dominated the scene. So it makes sense that math-rock band The Speed of Sound in Seawater would spring through the cracks in the concrete and onto the national stage. The Speed of Sound in Seawater is alternately geeky and totally badass, and it’s this awkward dichotomy that makes them so interesting and, well, completely endearing.
Everyone in the band looks like the quintessential laidback 20-something college student, which makes sense because two-thirds of the band is still going to school between tours. Damien Verrett just graduated from UC Davis with a degree in technicultural studies, bassist Luke Ulrici is currently studying microbiology and drummer Fernando Oliva is studying architectural design. These aren’t the easiest majors but it makes sense to have smart guys in a math-rock band.
On a recent visit to the band’s practice space (guitarist Damien Verrett’s parents’ house in deep Elk Grove suburbia), the living room is crowded with amps and instruments. The guys pick them up, and, after fiddling with a Mariah carey sample, Verrett looks over to Oliva, who counts off. And the band just goes.
The first thing you’re struck by is the technicality of the music and how seamless the transition is from their recorded songs. The beats are crisp, the melodies are spot-on and the band simply motors like it’s another day at the office. It’s like it’s not a big deal that Verrett is shredding with the frenetic energy of The Fall of Troy or that Oliva is beating every inch of his minimalistic kit to create the thundering, jittering rhythms that hold the intricate workings of the song together. But in between the complexities and musicality you find yourself humming along to the fat, glimmering pop hooks in songs like “Lots of Love for Logan,” and “The Oddest Sea.” Verrett’s crystal-clear voice brings comparisons to Circa Survive’s Anthony Green or even to some more pop-y indie acts like Freelance Whales or even Ben Gibbard. All these disparate elements blend and shift, and work in a way that doesn’t quite make sense, but is incredibly intriguing. And that’s The Speed of Sound in Seawater’s charm. The band is utterly without pretension, they’re simply really good friends who make really, really good music.
The Speed of Sound in Seawater is a band that readily rejects most, if not all of the typical rockstar clichés. There’s no band drama, the guys don’t party (“I’ll drink a little bit but then we have to get up and drive for 13 hours, so I can’t really drink that much,” Verrett said). They don’t have groupies (“It’s really just a lot of like really young girls and some old creepy guys, which is kind of disturbing,” Oliva said). They just come together and rock their balls off. And that is exactly what they did when they came together in August to record their first proper LP in Seattle, First Contact.
“In this one we just participated a lot more in the songwriting process together. Before it was just Damien who’d come and be like, ‘Hey check out this sweet riff bro,’ and then I’d be like, ‘Check out this lick bro,’ and then it’d be like, ‘You wanna put it together bro?’ and then we’d high five.” Oliva said with a laugh.
“I just wanted it to be really polished, really clean where you still have that verse-chorus structure but with some different elements thrown in to keep it interesting,” Verrett said.
This marks a departure from the band’s previous, admittedly brotastic, method of simply jamming out songs until they worked.
“Before, we would really just kind of feel out the songs and the time changes on the fly. It was super stressful,” Oliva said.
“It’s like one time it’ll be really good and the rest of the time it’s just going to be awful,” Ulrici said.
But this change to a more structured approach has not been without its detractors. The band has gotten a few calls from their “fans” to return to their older, more chaotic style that was present when they released their first two EP’s, Blue Version and Red Version, four years ago.
“It’s like you spend hard-earned money, you work for hours and hours writing and practicing, and then you go to a really nice studio to put out the best thing you possibly can. And then some stupid idiot on the Internet just goes, ‘well, it’s not as good as that one song you wrote in two hours and recorded in your fuckin’ bedroom.’ It’s just frustrating,” Oliva said.
But these small hiccups seem to just be growing pains for a band that is attempting to plan a national tour for the summer.
“I think every band goes through something similar,” Verrett said. “We’re just growing up I guess.”
“It’s just about writing good songs and good melodies. It’s about musicianship rather than just being like world’s best fucking drummer!” Oliva said.
The new approach seems to have paid off as First Contact is easily the band’s catchiest and most polished record to date. The technicality of the math-rock element of the band is still preserved in songs like “Soulmate 2.1” and “Anyanka,” but these sections are interspersed with hooky vocal melodies that give the tracks some breathing room. Instead of unhinged, frenetic jamming, the songs feel like songs. The dynamics build, ebb and flow. One of the highlights of the album, “The Macabray,” even takes a few interludes with violins, accordions and clarinets to build and layer the song brilliantly. It is in these instances where the technicality is honed to a heartbreaking point, that the band’s gift for writing simply beautiful music shines through.
This is not to say that The Speed of Sound in Seawater has given up the immediacy that made their early works so enduring in the eyes of their fans. The stomping payoff to “Apples to Apples, Dust to Dust” is as great a crescendo as the band has ever written. And if that isn’t enough, the band still uses their prog-y, rowdy shout-along “Hot and Bothered by Space” as a bombastic live finale.
Overall, The Speed of Sound in Seawater is simply a brilliantly talented band that somehow manages to stay humble even at the onset of their wider success.
“Honestly I get more excited to meet the fans than they are to meet me,” said Oliva, “I still get stoked when we’re hanging out in a parking lot in Oklahoma or something and somebody comes up to me and goes, ‘I drove six hours to see you guys and you fucking killed it!’”
“It’s like someone will get a tattoo and I’ll be like ‘Let me take a picture so I can show my mom!’” Verett said with a laugh.
The Speed of Sound in Seawater is still a young, growing band but look to see these guys blow up in a big way. Sacramento is lucky to have them, for at least a little while longer.
Start the New Year off right with The Speed of Sound in Seawater when they play what is sure to be a must-see show at Luigi’s Fungarden in Sacramento on Jan. 2, 2014. It will be the first show of the band’s Unsinkable Tour, so be sure to send them off properly. Feed Me Jack and Paper Pistols will also perform.
Just last week it was announced that America’s largest and most prestigious cycling event, the Amgen Tour of California, is returning to Sacramento in 2014. The race is a Tour de France-style cycling road race that will see some of the top athletes in the world travel more than 700 miles throughout some of our state’s most scenic (and challenging) terrain. Stage one of the eight-day race will start and end at the State Capitol on May 11, 2014. The following day, Folsom will host the individual time trials (stage 2). This is the first time Folsom has hosted the tour. Sacramento previously hosted 2009’s prologue as well as stage finishes in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011. The event is highly sought after by towns and communities, as it brings in tons of money and media attention. In Sacramento, it’s estimated that the event will draw 65,000 to 70,000 spectators, 2,700 hotel room nights and $8.5 million in economic activity. Other California host cities include San Jose, Mt. Diablo, Monterey, Cambria, Pismo Beach, Santa Barbara, Santa Clarita, Mountain High, Pasadena and Thousand Oaks. For more information, visit Amgentourofcalifornia.com
If you’re even slightly interested in Sacramento’s music culture, you’ve more than likely heard, or at the very least heard of, the beloved local indie-pop group known as Musical Charis. The prolific group of young artists sure does play around town a lot, but even so, it’s impossible to get sick of their catchy, harmony-rich tunes. There’s just something about the soon-to-be-married lead vocal duo of Jessie Brune and Blake Abbey that works musically, over and over again. The band is currently readying the release of their fifth full-length album, Cherish the Charis, on Thursday, July 18, 2013 with a celebratory release show at Harlow’s.
“We’re still going strong and working harder than ever,” Brune recently told Submerge of the group’s non-stop work ethic. Brune pointed out that the new album is special not only because it’s a whopping 23 tracks combining songs from the past five years (including some covers and new material), it also has a unique “hands-on” element to it. Brune explains: “The track listing will not be revealed except to those who actually have the album in hand because the titles are each covered with a diamond scratch-off sticker that must be scratched to reveal the songs on the record.”
Pretty sweet! Cherish the Charis is also different in that the band has opted not to release it on iTunes right away like they have done for their past records, because, Brune says, “We want people to invest in the tangible element of the album instead of just an instant download.” Submerge is down with tangible things, that’s why we make a paper! If you want to hear some tunes off the new album, visit Youtube.com/musicalcharis, and if you’d like to pre-order it for $12 (the CD will be $15 at the show), visit Musicalcharis.com. Doors open for the release show on July 18 at Harlow’s at 8 p.m., and there is a $6 cover. 21-and-over only. Opening acts will be Jesi Naomi and the Trippers and Orion Walsh and the Rambling Hearts.
Bands like Ol’ Cotton Dreary, 50 Watt Heavy, Drive Thru Mystics, Whiskey and Stitches, Drop Dead Red and dozens more will ring in a weekend of rock ‘n’ roll celebrating the 79th anniversary of Old Ironsides (1901 10th Street). The music performances begin at 7:30 p.m. with 14 bands performing the first night on Friday, June 14, hosted by Moe Better Man, and the following evening, hosted by Jerry Perry, kicks off at 6:30 p.m. Both evenings include a variety of food trucks and raffle prizes, plus tickets are only $10. Or, shell out five more bucks for the two-day wristband, which is a one-of-a-kind, anniversary collectible. Go on, be the cool kid and celebrate with music and familiar faces at one of Sacramento’s oldest bars and music venues. Visit Theoldironsides.com for more information.
Soul/rock group The Staxx Brothers return to Sacramento and this time they’re performing with local funk band Phat Butta Jam. On Friday, June 14, Marilyn’s on K will witness the band’s coined “hard ass soul” music, a mixture of funk, soul and hip-hop. The Seattle-based band’s latest album Jungle Cat was produced by none other than Scott Colburn, the man behind albums like Feels, Strawberry Jam and Water Curses from Animal Collective, and Neon Bible from Arcade Fire. The Staxx Brothers 10-track full-length album is available for only $10 on iTunes and Amazon, but stop by Staxxbrothers.com to brush up on their music before the show.
Tyler, the Creator w/ Earl Sweatshirt
Ace of Spades, Sacramento • Friday, May 17, 2013
I know I’m supposed to be writing about the Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt show at Ace of Spades, but I really just want to talk about race and gender relations in America, so fuck it. Rap shows are all the same, anyway. They’re pretty much just talking, but with rhymes. But race relations in America are in our direct line of vision. Black people are everywhere. And, while we’re at it, so are Mexicans and homosexuals. The color-blindness of yesteryear is a myth. And guess what, Billy Bob? We can’t unsee people of color! And as much as we plug our ears, gay people are even louder. So let’s just talk like humans for a second. After all, the next step in homo-sapiens-ism togetherness is being as open as we can about race and sex—until all of us are squirming in our chairs and vomiting all over the linoleum floor.
Anyway, most youth—and I mean real youth, like the hormonally-challenged 16-year-old virgins with acne grease dripping from their chins—are a million steps ahead of old folks when it comes to social justice. And if there’s anything young people love more than masturbating in the shower, it’s talking openly about race, so much so that it’s actually kind of creepy. For example, today in line at the liquor store, a girl who couldn’t have been more than 15, described me as “super white for a Mexican,” and then she started laughing maniacally. It was awesome.
Even more amazing is that this new form of say-anything racial discourse is intertwined with popular culture. However, kids don’t sit down over coffee and trade quotes from Judith Butler and Gloria Anzaldua essays; they listen to Earl Sweatshirt say things like, “Hey, you’re a faggot!”
Harsh, I know. But, c’mon: youth!
Do you remember that Tyler, the Creator-produced Mountain Dew commercial that never aired? Something about a battered woman, a bunch of black dudes in a police lineup and a goat? Newscasters reported, “THE MOST RACIST COMMERCIAL EVER” and scolded young Tyler for his display of unschooled ignorance. But what they don’t understand is that the discourse has changed.
Popular culture has changed. Rap has changed. We’re in a new phase of race relations that might look a lot like racism to old people, because the new discourse doesn’t rely on manners. Young people don’t pussyfoot around issues. The new discourse relies on uncomfortable bluntness and awkward humor.
Which brings us (finally) to the sold-out Tyler, the Creator/Earl Sweatshirt show at Ace of Spades. First, the place was packed with kids. And you couldn’t tell who was gay and who was straight because everybody dressed like freakish clowns—clashing colors, big, tie-dyed shirts, huge lensless glasses. Under all that weirdass clothing, even ethnicity was blurred. In fact, the only identifying mark of this Odd Future show was a shitload of cat-related T-shirts.
So when Tyler rhymed, “I’m not a rapper nor a rapist nor a racist/I fuck bitches with no permission and tend to hate shit,” it meant, “Fuck you if you don’t understand me.” Get it? Of course not. Much like racism, the new discourse makes no sense at all.
It’s hard. It’s weird. It’s contradictory. For instance, when Taco jumped into the crowd to attack a fan, nobody flinched. It wasn’t an attack. Taco’s fists meeting that kid’s face was the aggressive signification of a new America. That’s not to say the performance was entirely cryptic in message. Part of the show was about the music. Songs like the upbeat “Orange Juice” showed Earl Sweatshirt’s superior lyricism, while favorites like Tyler’s strangely paced “Yonkers” reminded the world why Tyler, the Creator isn’t just a hype machine, that he’s a kid with a worldview unlike anybody else’s. If the dude isn’t a genius, he’s pretty damn close.
And, of course, the show was not without its tender moments. In between the “Swag, swag, punch a bitch” chant and the gladiatorial portion of the evening where the crowd was to divide into two sides and then instructed to bash each other to death, Tyler took a moment to address the audience. “Enjoy this as humans,” he said. “Put your fucking phones away and enjoy this as humans.”
It was an epiphany of sorts. It seems that sometimes we’re so concerned with being compassionate humans that we’ve become afraid of each other—frightened of offending another race or sex. We’re so bent on being sensitive and politically correct that we forget to enjoy each other as the gross, disgusting humans that we are.
Well, fear not. We have sailed through this choppy storm of social injustice into a new era of race relations, with our fearless leader, Tyler, the Creator at the helm.
Just think about that for a minute.
Local post-punk/hardcore band Number Station may be relatively new to the scene, but as the saying goes, this isn’t their first rodeo. Vocalist Ean Clevenger, formerly of Northern California hardcore punk band Pipedown, who were signed to A-F Records (Anti Flag’s label) and toured/played with bands like AFI, Thrice and The Bouncing Souls, started Number Station after he witnessed the local punk/hardcore scene “cave in on itself” while playing with his last band Dance for Destruction.
“It seemed bands, punk, hardcore, heavy, what have you, were beginning to be targeted for having too much heart and substance,” Clevenger recently told Submerge. “It was particularly hard to see the scene I was so closely connected to, one which I felt always had such a deep love for politics and meaning, drift toward a very provincial attitude.” So he said the hell with it, took some time to himself and started writing songs that were powerful and important to him regardless of what was cool at the moment. “When the energy was right, I sought out some of the best musicians I know, and luckily we were all on the same page.” Number Station is currently comprised of Clevenger and fellow seasoned musicians Theron Francis (guitar), Barry Crider (guitar/vocals), Pat Freeman (bass) and Jonathan Barklage (drums). They spent a fair amount of time working on material in the third story of a “fucked up art space” in downtown Sacramento and as Clevenger put it, “the magic seemed to happen.”
Number Station’s new five-song EP, recorded with Patrick Hills at EarthTone Studios, is sure to tickle the fancy of fans of Sacramento rock staples like Far (who they point out as a large influence) but it also will interest fans of, dare I say, screamo. Think The Used, Story of the Year, Hopesfall, bands in that vein—plenty of guitar riffage, melodic vocals with screaming mixed in, solid song structures and a mature use of dynamics. They might be one of my favorite new local bands, even if the style of music they are playing might not be the most hip thing in Sacramento at the moment. “Once the people get behind it, we can help break people out of their own fears about what is cool or approved by the status quo,” Clevenger says. “Its fucking music from the heart, we don’t care how cool we are, we just care how much we can help people be free.”
Number Station will have an EP release show on Saturday, June 1, 2013 at Assembly (1000 K Street). March Into Paris, Saint Solitaire and Goodbye Black Sky (featuring members of Will Haven) will also perform. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/numberstationtheband.
