It’s all about the dough, baby, at the Pizza Dough and Grilled Pizza Workshop on Thursday, May 30, 2013 at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op (1900 Alhambra Boulevard). Whether you enjoy thin, pan or Chicago-style deep dish, the Pie Belle, aka Tracy DeVore, is back to demonstrate to the natural food-loving masses her tips on mastering the foundation of pizza. Starting from the building blocks of traditional New York-style thin crust, DeVore encourages participants to learn the basics, and then explore by putting their own individual twists when creating their own pie. Students will produce their very own dough to take home and will even create a rustic, thin crust during the workshop for sampling. For more information on this workshop and others like cooking with sea vegetables or cancer fighting foods, visit Sacfoodcoop.com

Horror film masterminds George A. Romero and David Cronenberg are just a few of the inspirations behind the latest film from Desperate Visions production company director and horror enthusiast, Jason L. Rudy. Mondo Sacramento 2 shares the more horrific tales of this busy little city and pays homage to the Mondo style of filmmaking popular throughout the ’60s and ’70s. The term “shockumentary” is commonly associated with this genre of films, where staged sequences presented as actual documentary footage are presented and sprinkled in with generally taboo subjects like sex and death. While Rudy’s Mondo Sacramento released last year told stories of the Vampire of Sacramento, Richard Chase, and Batgirl, Michelle Cummenski, Mondo Sacramento 2 invites audiences to learn just what really happened in the home of Dorothea Puente. Puente, who ran a boarding house in the ’80s, was convicted of cashing her elderly and mentally disabled boarders’ social security checks. Any complainers were killed and buried in her backyard. Horror legend Lynn Lowry, from films like Romero’s The Crazies and Cronenberg’s Shivers will star as Puente. Besides the Puente murders, Rudy’s film includes the first husband and wife serial killer team, the ill-fated assassination attempt on President Gerald Ford at the Capitol and even tales of worship and sin at the family friendly drive-in theater. Mondo Sacramento 2 premieres on Thursday, May 16 at 7:30 p.m. at the Crest Theatre (1013 K Street). There will be two encore screenings on Saturday, May 18 at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., also at the Crest. All seats are just $10, tickets are on sale now at Tickets.com or via the Crest Theatre’s box office.

Even though their sound generally fits the bill, to call Yo La Tengo an “indie band” would be a great disservice to the legacy they’ve built over their nearly 30-year career amongst their cult-like following. Members Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley and James McNew have forged their own path, landing on critics’ best-of lists countless times, playing the world’s best concert halls and festivals as well as the diviest of dives. Earlier this year the group released their 13th album, Fade, and it is being hailed as one of their best albums in years. See Yo La Tengo live on Sunday, May 12, 2013 at Harlow’s (2708 J Street). Tickets are just $20 in advance, available at Harlows.com. Show starts at 9 p.m. and is 21-and-over. For more information on the band and to sample some tunes off of Fade, visit Yolatengo.com.

Let’s talk rap music, specifically how pumped we are that two of our favorite MCs T.I. and E-40 are headlining KSFM’s 102.5 Live concert on Saturday, May 18, 2013 at Discovery Park in Sacramento. This is an all-day ordeal, people, so eat your Wheaties because doors open at 10 a.m. Also on the bill are Far East Movement, Baby Bash, Drop City Yacht Club and Royalty. Tickets are just $19 (plus fees, of course, there are always fees) but that is still a steal for this lineup. Check out Facebook.com/KSFM1025 or Ksfm.cbslocal.com for more information and to purchase tickets as well as learn about giveaways, meet and greats and more.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bust out your best derby attire—or hit up local boutiques if you don’t have any—and head to the Kentucky Derby Buffet at Cal Expo’s Miller Lite Grandstand on Saturday, May 4, 2013. Wager in style and watch the sure-to-be exciting 139th running of the Kentucky Derby via satellite while pigging out on tons of great food and beverages. Breakfast will be served from 7:30 a.m. until 11 a.m., when it will switch to a lunch buffet until 3 p.m. Tickets are $34 per person and doors open at 7 a.m. Call (916) 263-3279 now to reserve your seat in the clubhouse or view Calexpo.com/events/kentucky-derby-buffet for more information.

Folksy and poetic in the studio, Chicago’s Angel Olsen turns up the volume on her current tour

Angel Olsen’s name isn’t enormously familiar—yet—but once you hear her voice, you’ll recognize her immediately the next time around.

Olsen is on tour promoting her sophomore album Half Way Home, released by Bathetic Records and will be in Sacramento April 24, 2013 at Bows and Arrows. This is her first West Coast tour for a solo project.

The 25-year-old St. Louis native, now a Chicago resident, has been so successful that Bathetic insisted Olsen find a bigger label. They couldn’t produce copies fast enough.

Earlier this month, she signed with indie rock label Jagjaguwar, whose roster includes Bon Iver.

Olsen’s sound is distinct and raw, even more so on her first Garageband album Strange Cacti that she recorded lo-fi in her echo chamber of a kitchen. She describes her music style and dreams as “nostalgic.”

“It has a lot to do with what you’re comfortable with,” she says of why she chose this particular style. “Some people are comfortable in a certain zone. It makes sense to me in my mind. That’s real music.”

She indeed sounds like she’s from another time, invoking comparisons to icons from Joni Mitchell to Patsy Cline.

More contemporary comparisons could be made because of her folksy poet approach on some tracks—she would have fit well on the Juno soundtrack with “You Know Song”—or because of her Spanish and Middle Eastern influences, like on the track “The Sky Opened Up.”

She can quiver, yodel and deepen her voice in ways that lend her lyrics another dimension.

Her words are haunting even before the manipulation: “Deep in the nest of an endless dream, when a stranger thought becomes of me, it can slowly turn my blood,” she sings on “Safe in the Womb.”

Strangely enough, Olsen doesn’t give away any deep, dark secrets of her past in her music or in chatter. For now, she is a self-taught, down-to-earth young woman looking to make good music, and has already gained some life-changing experiences along her journey.

Look up Olsen on YouTube, and you’ll find her alongside indie artists Will Oldham, also known as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and Emmett Kelly of the Cairo Gang. Kelly produced Half Way Home and plays keyboard and drums on the album next to Olsen’s guitar strumming.

“We tried to keep it as simple as possible and not sound overproduced,” she says of Half Way Home.

You might also find video of her in camouflage pajamas as a shrieking reincarnate of German singer Dagmar Kraus, part of an Oldham side project called The Babblers.

The experience benefited her music and musician connections, more so perhaps than when she first entered the scene as a teenager.

“For a hot minute, yeah, I was in a ska punk band and into reggae, in the late ‘90s early ’00s,” she says. “It was a weird moment in my life. We had a good time, but at that point I was just singing in the band and writing lyrics. I still listen to reggae.”

Olsen has yet to achieve her dream of a future steeped in nostalgia. She wants to be part of an old school rock ‘n’ roll band, the kind where everyone is a part of the process—everyone sings and writes honestly and is critical of each other, she says.

“I’ve thought about it a lot, and it’s a dream. And once it occurs I’m sure there are weird dynamics and other stuff that would have to be worked out,” she says. “Now, people have to be everything on their own—they have to be sexy and dance—but all you really need is to just be able to play music well.”

This earnestness has paid off in the form of fans and raving reviews, and Olsen is a little closer to her dream with her current setup. Though she performs solo for parts of her shows, she also brings a full band: cellist Danah Olivetree, drummer Joshua Jaeger and bassist Stewart Bronaugh.

“We don’t play the same way the album was recorded,” Olsen says about the tour, which started at the beginning of April. “We practiced together for only four days and now we’re on our fifth show and it’s going great. I get to change the songs a little bit, and they’re adding different things.”

Olsen says to expect a louder band than what might be expected if you’ve heard her recorded music.

“It’s been really fun to work with a group of people who have been patient with me and let me direct them,” she adds. “I’m learning a lot.”

Catch her if you can at Bows and Arrows, 1815 19th Street, before she heads overseas to the Land of Guinness.

Angel Olsen will play Bows and Arrows in Sacramento on April 24, 2013. It is her last U.S. date before heading overseas, so be sure to give her a proper send off. Villages and Olla will also perform. Tickets are $10 at the door and $8 in advance, which can be purchased through Bowscollective.com. Learn more about Olsen at Angelolsen.com.

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

Diana Vitantonio

The California Spirit Festival brings together the ever-so-connected worlds of yoga, music, dance, meditation and community in a three-day event filled with workshops, concerts, organic food and yoga, lots of yoga. It all begins April 26, 2013 at the Masonic Temple in Sacramento, so grab your mat and get ready. Visit Californiaspiritfestival.com for information on passes, guest instructors and musicians performing. Pro tip: don’t miss MC Yogi on Saturday night—really good, vibe-y hip-hop with uplifting, positive messages! Sure to be a chill time.

Foals continue their evolution with latest release Holy Fire

With the release of their third full-length album Holy Fire, Oxford, England-based rock quintet Foals have shown immense growth as a band, proving they have more diversity in their sound than most critics and reviewers thought possible. Much more ballsy and hard-edged than Foals’ 2010 sophomore album Total Life Forever and especially more mature sounding than their 2008 debut Antidotes (which has since become sort of a relic), Holy Fire is the band’s most direct and focused work to date. As their official bio puts it, “This is the sound of Foals arriving.”

With an intense couple years of touring ahead of them playing sold-out club shows and giant festivals all over the world, Philippakis took some time to chat with Submerge over the phone from Zurich, Switzerland, in anticipation of their April 20 Sacramento show at Ace of Spades, just one day after the band plays Coachella.

Leading up to the release of Holy Fire, I was shocked to hear how heavy and gritty the first single “Inhaler” was. Then when “My Number” dropped, I was equally thrown off by how polished, clean and dance-y it was. What was the thought process behind releasing those two contrasting tracks first?
Just to throw people off the scent, really. I guess to show the diversity in the record. Definitely putting out “Inhaler” was the kind of thing where we relish in surprising people and being unpredictable to some extent. I think it was the song that we felt was the furthest from what had come before. And then “My Number,” you know, it was just the second song released, there wasn’t a particular tactic. I think it’s good to show people the scope of the record.

It keeps listeners off guard and seems like it’s a fun way to make it playful.
Yeah, exactly, playfulness is the right word. It keeps things exciting. It makes it feel less like you’re putting a product out and it actually becomes more psychological I guess.

Quite a few parts on the new album have a sticky, swampy, sort of delta-vibe to them. Where did that come from?
I think it came from different vantage points. One of the formative experiences was recording in Sydney, outside. We were in a studio, and it wasn’t really gelling. It just felt unnatural to be in a dark room while it was gorgeous weather outside, so we relocated to a river house. I think being surrounded by the natural environment and by insects in particular, things just sounded different in that environment. We felt it was an inspiring way to textualize the songs. It also similarly came from an imaginary understanding of things like the Delta and the Bayou, like old Alan Lomax recordings. You can smell the sweat on a lot of old blues and gospel recordings. There is a zealous energy to it. It just seeped into our pores basically, and it started to become what subliminally we were trying to achieve on certain tracks.

How was it working with Flood and Alan Moulder, two people who produced and engineered some of your favorite albums growing up?
It was great. It definitely brought stability to the recording process. There was a trust there. We were working with these elder statesmen of the British recording business, you know? It brought a balance. It made us feel content and confident. It turned the volume down on the neurosis that sometimes plagued our experiences of making records before.

Holy Fire has been out for a while now, and the reviews are all in. You’ve had time to breathe and sort of let things settle. What is it like to look back on it now? Relieved? Anxious to write new material?
I feel good about it. I feel like I kind of want to make another record already.

After the last two records did you immediately feel that urge?
Maybe not as much, but I don’t think it has anything to do with this specific record. At the moment I’ve got kind of an impulsive urge to produce more. Maybe in some ways it’s the pressure of the time that it takes, you know? It takes two years to tour and write. I want to be able to spend more time creating and then releasing quicker—not such a retracted period. There is such a long build up before we actually get to put music out into the world. A little of it is coming from that. But in terms of how I feel, I feel good about the record. It is what it is. It is a document of where we were at the time, and I think it sounds great. I have no real urge to re-do the record, I just want to make another one. I want to write the next paragraph in the book.

I thought I read somewhere that you said you have one more album in you lyrically. Still think that holds true?
I can’t say for sure, but I definitely have one more, then we’ll have to see. I feel like musically speaking we could write music and instrumentals, like riffs and pieces of music, for a long time. I don’t think there’s any kind of cap on that. I’m just not sure lyrically if I can… Trying to write songs is a different task. I definitely feel like I’ve got enough right now to do one more, but it just depends I guess on the life experience I have in the next two years. I feel like there’s a trap in contentedness. You slow down, you start to enjoy cooking, you have a pleasantly moderate social life, everything gets comfortable. And then that booming desire to spend all of your time working on music and trying to get yourself mentally into a place where you can write songs that you feel are meaningful is something that maybe the inclinations for it lessen. What I don’t want to do is make music without…I don’t want to do it for applause, or for money, or for security. I just want to feel like I’ve got some burning desire to make something and to say something. So, it depends.

The last time you were in the States you had a weird experience in Detroit, right? What can you tell me about that day on tour?
We had been touring for a while, and we got to Detroit. It was just a special moment. I felt something in that city, and I’ve felt it every time I’ve been there. But I had a specific encounter with a street drummer named Larry. He and I hung out for a little while and he was playing these incredible drum rudiments, real precision drumming but on a couple of trashcans. We got high together, and it was just kind of a semi-spiritual moment.

That’s pretty cool. Were you just out wandering the streets?
Yeah, kind of. We had played the show and it was great, it was fun. I just crossed the road and I could hear the sound of him drumming. I followed the sound. I was kind of entranced by it. Then you know there’s like these burnt out tenements behind him and the whole thing was just very surreal. For a middle class boy from England, to be in that sort of environment, the experience is just sort of a special one for me.

You and Larry are from two totally different worlds yet music, more specifically the rhythms that drew you to him, were sort of your guys’ common ground.
Yeah, exactly. There was just a real beauty to the way that he was playing, and that was kind of all he had on him were these two trashcans and some drumsticks.

Maybe Yannis will run into a Sacramento street performer and have another semi-spiritual tour moment when his band Foals hits Ace of Spades on Saturday, April 20, 2013. Locals Cold Eskimo and Desario will open the show. Doors open at 7 p.m. and all ages are welcome. Hit up Dimple Records, The Beat or http://aceofspadessac.com/ for tickets. Foals will also be at Dimple Records on Arden at 2 p.m. on April 20 for an in-store performance and signing.