Massive Delicious settle in Sacramento and find home after time on the East Coast

Before you start to complain about the scorching 100-degree Sacramento weather, try and remember that there is no place like home. Even though Californians start to sweat at 9:30 a.m., our vast variety of culture, music and art make the heat bearable. After living on the East Coast for nearly five years Andrew Conn, bass and synthesizer player from band Massive Delicious, missed his home in the Golden State. When Conn decided to move back he asked his band mates, vocalist and guitarist Dylan Crawford and drummer Josh Rosato, the ultimate question, East Coast or West Coast?

“I was always telling those guys I am moving back to California with or without you, East Coast is too cold. I always knew I was coming back to California and I was basically like, ‘You know it’s a better scene out there so if you guys want to come with…come with,’” said Conn over the phone.

Shortly after his band mates decided to follow him to Sacramento, and they are now making a name for themselves as Massive Delicious. Only after living in Sacramento for nearly a year they feel welcome and see more support for their music in this town then they had ever experienced on the East Coast.

“East Coast was very like every band for themselves, there’s much more of a musical community out here,” said Rosato.

Massive Delicious is a fast-moving band that is quickly picking up momentum in the Sacramento music community. During the past few months they have received positive feedback from fans and other local bands.

For the rest of the summer season they have shows lined up for almost every week all over California–in Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Pismo Beach and a CD release show at Harlow’s in late July. The trio is also boarding their live show on a train (the Sacramento Beer Train) with local band ZuhG and beer from Sudwerk Brewery on July 21, 2012.

Their quick popularity comes as no surprise because their style of music contains a catchy blend of reggae, jazz and funk. Massive Delicious adds new spice to make jazz and funk contemporary but still manages to keep a traditional feel to their soulful music. While listening to one song you might get a chill jazz vibe or a “funky psychedelic jam session” in another.

“We definitely go toward more of a reggae side of things. The jazz and funk are dispersed in-between it,” explained Conn.

All three members have been working toward their latest self-titled album, that will give you smooth jams to dance to during those warm summer days by the American River. The album is complete with seven songs that make up 45 minutes that will help you unwind at the end of the day. Massive Delicious has been working on this album for almost a year and a half and some tracks were even created two years ago. “This album has been a long time coming,” Rosato explained.

Each song sounds like a continuous smooth jam session. While listening to Massive Delicious’ music you can’t help but feel relaxed and content.

“We just want to get our positive energy working so that the crowd can be positive about it and get moving because if people aren’t moving, then we aren’t really doing our jobs,” explained Conn. “We want the little kids and the grandmas dancing.”

“What we are trying to do is go for a universal music.

When anybody hears it they are going to be like, ‘Wow that is good music. It may not be my thing but I appreciate it,’” added Rosato.

And before playing their good music there’s only one thing a drummer needs to get ready for a high-energy show.

“Cheeseburgers for Josh,” said Conn with a laugh.

“Maybe if a cheeseburger is available, if not I’ll have a few beers and then I’m chilling,” joked Rosato. “We’ve done so many shows at this point. Andrew and I both did 200 shows in the bands that we were in before. It’s just like another thing. We go out there and do it.”

Just after playing a first few shows in their new home of Sacramento, they all knew that they had moved to the right place. From making women in the front row at Harlow’s dance to their jams to making the crowd move at the Reggae in the Hills Festival in early June, they have become a part of the unique musical community in the area. They found it surprising that being an unknown reggae band people were still dancing and grooving to their jams.

“It’s really refreshing after being back East for a couple of years, where the scene seems to be oversaturated. There’s not much love going around to local bands like out here,” said Conn. “There’s a lot of love going around [here] so we really appreciate that.”

Even though their musical scene had changed for the better, the East Coast has served them well in the past. Conn, Rosato and Crawford have a strong musical background and education. Crawford studied music for four years at the University of Idaho, Josh has a degree in classical percussion, and Andrew has a degree in contemporary writing and production for music. The trio officially became good friends while studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Massive Delicious uses their education, musical influences and previous band experience to create a sound that is truly unique and fun.

“One thing going into the band, I really [didn’t] want to sound like some other band. I wanted to come out here and retain my own sound,” Conn said. “I think all of us do a good job of that, not trying to sound like anybody else.

Through their own sound Massive Delicious wants to spread positive energy, to the West and East coasts. “When it comes down to it we love what we do,” said Conn. “I think we’re really just trying to spread good vibes and have a good time.”

Massive Delicious will play their CD release show at Harlow’s on July 26, 2012. Also playing will be local jam-rock powerhouse ZuhG, Awkward Lemon and Adrian Bellue. To purchase tickets, go to http://harlows.com/. Get there early because the first 100 people will get a free copy of the CD.

Urban artist Lady Remedy gets ready for her big debut

Wearing sweet kicks, acid-wash skinnies, sports memorabilia and shades, Lady Remedy walks up to Kasbah Lounge on J Street like she’s done it a million times. Midtown is her neighborhood, Sacramento is her home. And now that this smooth-talking wordsmith/producer has turned her sights to singing and MCing full time, she says she’s ready to go beyond her streets.

Before Lady Remedy, there was Tori Redd. Redd wrote, produced and hung out quietly around the Sacramento hip-hop scene in which she grew up. She loved the music but didn’t really want the attention.

Fast-forward a few years and the spotlight’s just the beginning.

Remedy’s first EP, Freak, with eight songs–including her single “The Way U Do” out now–releases digitally July 26. [Submerge has received word that this release date has been pushed back. Check http://www.ladyremedy.com/ for up-to-date info on the album’s release.] A 13-track mix tape, The Steez-Tape, is already available online and also showcases Remedy’s producing skills. She’ll follow those up with an 18-track reloaded version of her EP, more music videos and at least four other projects, including an all-female MC compilation called Venus x Bars and her label Block Starz Music’s compilation album, of which a few more installments are in the works.

And of course, the touring to promote all this music starts soon, with an official kick-off lined up during San Diego Pride Week, July 21, 2012.

Before recording, Remedy spent the last two years highlighting what she could do on stage, in person. Now she wants to see what the world thinks of her music.

“Since I’ve been performing out as an artist, I haven’t been putting out music, which is good too, but I don’t think people have a complete perception of what I do and who I am so the music is important to me,” she says. “This will show my position as an artist.”

Remedy’s catchy, throwback style falls into the realm of singers like Brandy and Queen Latifah, as well as rappers like the late Notorious B.I.G. and one of Remedy’s influences, Jean Grae. Remedy is hip-hop, but more.

“I am very much an urban music enthusiast,” she says, pulling up to her hookah at Kasbah Wednesday night. “It’s kind of watered down now because everybody feels like in order to be mainstream you can’t really do urban but mainstream is urban to me. It’s kids and people who are living life in the streets, or living life just out in the world; that’s urban. Those who say urban is just hip-hop, that’s not true. It’s real music.”

Remedy is a lyricist first and foremost, but she says she also wants to show her balance of singing and emceeing, and be the best at both.

“I try not to get boxed in but it’s hard,” she says. “People always ask, ‘Do you like to sing more or rap more?’ It’s fun to do both. When I sing it’s like a different part of me. I can be sweet, soft, sensual, whatever. Soulful and very emotional. Same with MCing, I can talk about subjects that can draw emotion, and just be transparent. Emceeing is a little bit more exciting because it’s more in your face, parental advisory, ha ha, but I don’t like people saying I should be doing one more than the other.”

What listeners may not know is that Remedy started out in soul, singing backup or producing and writing. She’s transitioned into a performer easily because of her past experiences with Sacramento-based R&B/soul artists like Marknoxx, her music partner, and brings the neo-soul, new age vibe she started with to her music now.

“I was always working, producing and writing with local artists and working with whoever knew what I did in music,” says Remedy. “The spotlight never appealed to me. I thought, I just want to write songs. But when I stepped out I got a really warm welcome, and it gave me more confidence and made me want to continue on and grow more.”

Working behind the scenes paid off. Local hip-hop musicians Righteous Movement featured Remedy on their tracks and Turf Hop Alliance, a collective started by local MCs Remedy knew well pulled her into the group. Coupled with her musical relationship and vocals with Marknoxx and the Young Legends, Remedy was set.

“So when I started rockin’ I was affiliated with all these artists and so the same audience who saw them saw me,” Remedy says of her first shows. “Being one of the only girls, they were really excited to see another female doing it so it was a good start.”

When Remedy joined Block Starz Music, the label helped her get more viral attention. Block Starz is also releasing her upcoming albums and mix tape, and has included her on available and upcoming compilations and booked her summer tour dates.

Other upcoming projects include a Turf Hop compilation coming out soon for which Remedy shot a video June 24.

“I wasn’t shooting videos before…Lady Remedy, but it’s fun,” she says, noting her brother, Los Angeles-based photographer and creative director Tyren Redd, has shot all of her prior videos. “Especially when you’re getting into singles and songs that mean something and you want to do a whole story and be artistic and creative. It’s cool to put it out and see how people react to it.”

So what’s this 24-year-old music maker doing when she’s not working? For now, she’s getting ready to move to L.A. “to be seen” more and launch her music statewide. Remedy also has multiple other talents, from basketball to graphics, and she weaves the two into her career when possible. The laid-back sneaker-holic also loves to buy more kicks–her single “Sneaker Freak” is the plain truth–and she rides her fixed-gear around Midtown before sitting down to play video games.

Remedy’s relaxed, comfortable attitude reflects in her quick-hitting lyrics that rely on her life experiences and clever pop culture references, but that doesn’t mean she’s not anxious about her big debut.

“The EP release party is July 25 here at Momo Lounge–Oh my gosh,” she stops and laughs. “I’ve never done anything like this. I think every artist is sensitive about their music. They put it out there. Even a mix tape–it’s just a mix tape but it’s the first thing I’m putting out, so it’s like, you know, I just want it to be received well.”

A welcome reception in her hometown might help, partly because, Remedy says, the talent in Sacramento goes largely unnoticed. If artists like her make it big, she’s hoping more attention will come this way.

“I think it’s a good place to say you’re from, especially with the push that a lot of us are giving right now, we’re reaching masses and that’s bringing attention to Sacramento,” she says. “Eventually everyone [from here] working as hard as they are in music, it’ll turn into something and we can say, ‘I’m from Sacramento,’ and people will be looking for talent in Sacramento. For now, it’s not all the way like that but it’s good we’re going out and bringing attention to where we’re from.“

She continues, “I think Sacramento’s dope. People don’t know. Even for the other genres. Alternative bands, rock bands, we got great hip-hop acts, we got amazing singers, there’s so much talent here, people just don’t know.”

With all that’s in store in the coming months, Remedy says she’s excited about reaching out. Some of the shows she has lined up will be in Sacramento, but she is very focused on the whole state.

“But like I said, I’m from here, and it’s important to get the support of Sacramento,” she says. “I’m excited about reaching out. Reaching back actually. My region, my area, my city.”

Lady Remedy will celebrate the release of her new single “Give It To Um” on July 25, 2012 at Momo Lounge. The show gets underway at 10 p.m. and is presented in conjunction with L!FE. She will also have a show at Shenanigans on Aug. 4. To hear Lady Remedy and get the latest info about release dates and the tour, visit http://www.ladyremedy.com/.

La Bombe
3020 H Street – Sacramento

Words by Adam Saake | Photos by Nicholas Wray

Veteran restaurateur Jennifer Dare Sparks, of the long-time Sacramento Spanish food establishment Aioli Bodega Espanola that’s been around nearly 20 years now, as well as the now defunct Habanero Cava Latina, Port Rouge and Barbarosa, has opened a new ice cream parlor in the heart of East Sacramento. On May 19, 2012 Dare Sparks and partner Bruce Strickley Jr. welcomed customers inside La Bombe, a small and attractively painted storefront in the McKinley Square shopping complex on the corner of H and Alhambra. Serving over twenty flavors of Gunther’s Ice Cream, espresso drinks and sandwiches, their real specialty is a unique frozen confection called bombes, or if you’re not into brevity, les bombe glacés.

Like Dare Sparks’ previous endeavors, bombes are borrowed from the European culinary experience. The typically French dessert is spherical and can be layered with ice cream, cake, waffle cone, fruit preserves or syrups. Besides the fact that they’re delicious, Dare Sparks didn’t have to travel across the ocean to make them just as you don’t have to to enjoy one.

“I’m interested in starting something that is unique to the American market by utilizing materials that we have locally like Gunther’s Ice Cream, and combining them and composing them into unique European items,” says Dare Sparks.

And she’s done just that. Her influence and points of reference come from when she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, Italy, in the early ‘80s and when she later married an Algerian chef (Aioli co-founder Reda Bellarbi), now her ex-husband and business partner. Dare Sparks spent time in Paris and Algiers and speaks four languages including French, Italian and Spanish. Her passion for European lifestyle and cuisine shows through on the specialty dessert menu that includes Affogatto, vanilla ice cream topped with espresso and candied orange peels or the Granitta di Café con Panna, an Italian iced coffee with sweetened espresso topped with whipped cream. But the dessert she says is most unique to the shop is the frozen hazelnut fudge in a cup and topped with whipped cream, Gianduia con Panna.

“I don’t know anybody, anywhere who’s doing that in the United States,” says Dare Sparks. “I’ve only had that in Italy.”

The bombes at first seem a little curious, but once you bite into one your sensory memory will remind you that it’s ice cream and other sweet goodies you’ve already had before and most likely already love. What is also attractive about these desserts is the portion size. It’s roughly equal to a scoop of ice cream and a cone, so you’re not trying to wolf down a giant dome of ice cream in once sitting. It’s just right. Some notable creations were The Colonial Bombe, a combination of coconut, chocolate and banana ice creams with chocolate cookie wafers, dusted with cocoa and topped with toasted coconut or The French Bomb, which has chocolate ice cream, black raspberry sorbet and vanilla ice cream layered with chocolate cookie wafers, raspberry jam with raspberry syrup. And as La Bombe gets all settled in, you can expect bombes du jour as well as rotating creations changing on the menu.

It’s July and it’s hot, and foot traffic and families spilling over from McKinley will surely keeping the ice cream scoops a-scoopin’, but La Bombe isn’t only serving up sweets. They’ve got a very focused sandwich menu that is killing with the cold cuts.

“I’m hoping to get the word out,” says Dare Sparks. “Between what the chefs are doing with the simplicity of adding herbs to mayonnaise and quick pickling the cucumber and then we have a great rep; Steve Campanelli at Tony’s Fine Foods.”

A great deli sandwich starts with two slices of quality bread, theirs being from Bella Bru. And then is closely followed by high quality meats; Tony’s Fine Foods has got it covered.

“I knew what I wanted. I wanted the purest flavors for our meats,” says Dare Sparks. “We’re trying to do something of a really high quality.”

Upon our visit we tried the Proscuiutto Cotto ham and Emmi Gruyere Swiss cheese sandwich on a baguette as well as the Deitz and Watson Rare London broil with white cheddar. Both were of exceptional quality–simple and delicious without being overcrowded or over complicated. It’s the perfect sandwich to pick up to go and hop across the street to watch the ducks in the park or pull up a chair at the bar that lines the bright front windows, perfect for people watching.

“We fell in love with this location and I said, ‘I’ve been working on this idea for five years.’ You know, when young people started saying, ‘It’s the bomb?’ And I like playing on words,” jokes Dare Sparks.

La Bombe is “the bomb” and it won’t take long before this place blows up.

The fine folks behind Sacramento Bacon Fest are bringing you the inaugural BLT Week from July 16—22, 2012 where restaurants all around town will feature special bacon, lettuce and tomato sando concoctions all week. The main event though is the BLT Bike Crawl on Saturday, July 21. Join fellow bacon lovers on a leisurely bike ride to nearly two dozen restaurants, where each will be serving bite sized BLT’s for the day. Vote for your favorite, get a sweet free BLT bike Crawl T-shirt and a beer out of it, and don’t forget to hit up the after party at Fat Face inside Bows and Arrows for tunes, more BLTs, drinks and the first ever Bacon Fest Sacramento BLT Week Award presentation. Participating restaurants include: The Golden Bear, Bacon and Butter, Mulvaney’s B&L, Magpie Cafe, Restaurant Thir13en, Grange, Blackbird, Shady Lady and Fat Face at Bows and Arrows and more. Tickets are $30 each and all profits will benefit the Center for Land Based Learning and the American River College’s Culinary Program. Hurry up and visit http://www.facebook.com/SacramentoBaconFest for more info.

Lite Brite distills the energy of their high-powered live show on a brand new album

A rock concert might be the only place in the world where it is acceptable to thrash around with full force, scream at the top of your lungs and push random people to the ground. If you tried this on the street, a grocery store, or a restaurant you will be kicked out and given the cold shoulder by society. Whether it’s moshing in the crowd or playing guitar on stage, rock concerts welcome your inner beast with open arms. There is one local band that produces this kind of high-energy show that can make anyone want to jump around. Submerge caught up with brothers Eddie and Matt Underwood, members of Sacramento rock-trio Lite Brite, in front of Peet’s Coffee to discuss their new self-titled album and rocking out on stage.

“If we have any underlying rage, [performing] is a good way to release it,” said vocalist and guitarist, Eddie Underwood.

“Instead of stabbing each other in the face,” continued drummer Matt Underwood. “It’s an expensive habit really.”

Eddie, Matt and Robert Lander, bass, are ready to bring their high-energy show straight to your living room. Their goal was to make their new self-titled album as close to the band’s live show as possible, making Lite Brite’s stage-fueled passion completely mobile.

The opening track of Lite Brite’s new album are recorded sounds from the band having fun with an analog phaser, creating eerie sounds that set the stage for their 12-track rock album. “We had an idea that it was going to be a theme in the record. I don’t think it ended up being exactly the way we thought it was going to be but it was a good way to tone the record,” Matt said. “I like the way that it turned out. It’s a noisy record.”

Lite Brite is excited to unleash a record that it can completely claim as its own. There is only one track, “Heaven,” on which the band collaborated with a musical engineer.

“We did it all ourselves. We mixed it all ourselves. We recorded it all ourselves. It was exactly what we want,” explained Eddie.

“It’s going to be really cool though, getting our music done, because we never really had a whole album that is just the way we wanted it to be,” Matt added.

Lite Brite hopes to give the new music as much exposure as possible, including a tour in the near future and to make the tracks easily accessible and sometimes free online. Matt Underwood wanted to adopt a business model that was made popular in the ‘60s by bands such as The Rolling Stones, where they would release numerous singles at a rapid pace.

“It would be really timely,” Matt explained. “It’s sort of this idealistic vision that I had, get something out and get it out on the street really fast. It would be the right song at the right moment.”

So far the Underwoods have been very successful in getting their music out quickly even though they have only played music professionally for the past few years. While in high school, Matt and Eddie would jam out to cover songs in their parent’s garage with their friend Bob.

“We just started playing covers and stuff. It was fun playing stuff that we like and Bob came over every day. He didn’t do homework. That worked out well,” joked Matt.

Since then, Lite Brite has been on two West Coast tours including one with Middle Class Rut. During their past tour, life on the road never seemed to get dull for them. Every city had a new adventure waiting for them. While stopped in Minneapolis, they had their van broken into early in the morning.

“What really pisses us off is that they stole our lunch meat,” Eddie said. “All of the equipment was in the back, and they could have easily gotten thousands of dollars worth of equipment, but they just went though our ice chest and downed 10 Red Bulls and ate our lunch meat on the spot.”

But missing lunch meat wasn’t their only problem that day. The thief decided to break in through the passenger window and crack the windshield causing Lite Brite to rush to get it fixed before a show. While on the same tour but this time in Wyoming, Eddie and Bob almost landed in a bar fight over the topic of Nickelback.

“I might have said something like, ‘Nickleback sucks,’ and one guy said, ‘Hey, hold on a second, I like Nickelback. I’m about to knock your teeth in.’ And then all of a sudden someone comes in from another room where Bob was playing pool and he said to me, ‘You better come quick… Your friend is about to get his teeth knocked in,’” Eddie said.

They decided to leave the bar before anyone would have to make an emergency trip to the dentist. But the highlight of their previous tour was the high-energy and jam packed shows, full of people who have never heard of them before but loved every minute of it. “The last two U.S. tours that we did were awesome,” Matt said. “Pretty much every show was just tons of people to play for.

“We completely sold out of CDs really early on our last tour. We had to burn thousands of CDs so we had something to sell.”

Recently, you might have caught them at Friday Night Concerts in the Park in early May. That night was one of their most memorable performances because there were over 7,000 people watching them at Cesar Chavez Park.

“You can’t really beat that,” Eddie said.

Before playing a high-energy show, whether it’s in front of a huge park or small venue, there isn’t much that Eddie needs to get himself pumped up to jam on stage. “The best way to warm up is to have a couple of beers. You don’t want to overdo it but not too little, because we don’t want to stand there like a couple of stiffs,” Eddie joked. “And not too much or else Bob and I will start yelling at each other on stage.”

But now Lite Brite is ready for Sacramento to join them at Ace of Spaces on July 6, 2012 for their CD release party.

“The music scene has been ridiculously awesome to us in Sacramento, and if it wasn’t, we probably would have quit doing it a long time ago,” Matt explained. “Recording an album is stressful and everything but pay off is definitely worth it, it’s very gratifying, just having this giant project for months at a time come to an end. What’s cool about an album is that it’s always going to be there. It’s always going to exist. It’s always going to be around. And you will always have that work that you did.”

A stacked lineup will help Lite Brite celebrate the release of their self-titled CD. Stuck, Musical Charis, Simpl3jack, The Hungry and The Trees will all join Lite Brite at Ace of Spades in Sacramento on July 6, 2012. Tickets are $10 in advance/$12 at the door. For ticket information, go to http://aceofspadessac.com/.

Looking to switch up your typical 4th of July routine? Getting sick of lighting off weak-ass (yet still somehow super expensive) fireworks in your driveway? Think about joining REI on a night hike to the Castle Peak area where you can see firework displays at Donner Lake, Truckee and possibly even Lake Tahoe, all while enjoying the Sierra Nevada Wilderness. You’ll strap on headlamps and head up to a vista point where you will eat a big meal and wait for the fireworks shows to begin. After the grand finales, the small group (limited to 12 people) will make its way back down the trail through the dark listening to owls and learning about other nocturnal animals as well as the constellations overhead. Transportation and meal included for $90 for REI members and $110 for nonmembers. For more information call the Roseville REI store at (916) 724-6750 or visit their website at Rei.com/stores/74.

Jonah Matranga

Hot Lunch Concert Series, Fremont Park, Sacramento – Thursday, June 14, 2012

Yes it’s cliché, but it’s true what they say: you don’t realize what you’re missing until it’s gone. After passing time in a microcosm with a population of just over 1000, where you are lucky if there’s a live band playing once a week, or if a tree reaches 10 feet, a visit back to Sacramento reminds you of all that you have been missing.

Take the free Hot Lunch Concert series at Fremont Park, for instance. A makeshift stage planted between tacky, whimsical ceramic statues and towering trees triggers moments of nostalgia that only this city can provide.

Singer/songwriter Jonah Matranga seemed to feel the same way when he played there last Thursday. Matranga spent a chunk of his musical career in Sacramento, developing his former band Far, in addition to his solo project Onelinedrawing. He lives in the Bay Area now, but he came to town to play a few shows, including this one at the park.

“I can’t thank this place enough,” he said to a crowd that had grown from about 20 to 75 middle-aged adults and kids spread out on picnic blankets and lawn chairs.

For the music scene, cheap rent and all-ages clubs that allowed him to flourish as a musician, he owes Sacramento his gratitude, he explained.

Appearing at ease in his white tee and khakis, he was a one-man show and sustained an ongoing conversation with the crowd, his acoustic guitar and the PA system being his only accompaniments onstage.

He began the set with three velvety, acoustic Prince covers, including “Purple Rain,” “Kiss” and “The Cross,” tributes to the legendary performer, who had apparently been spotted around town. Then he delved into his own material, stopping frequently, sometimes mid-song, to comment on being badgered for singing “The Cross” despite being Jewish, or about his love for Neil Young and Eddie Vedder.

Despite his quirky, spirited demeanor, at any given moment Matranga’s songs shifted from uplifting to depressing as he played pieces both from his solo career and from Far. He would sing about springtime, fingerpicking a cheery pop song, and then alternate to a minor key, pounding his guitar strings while delivering cryptic lyrics on spending too much time thinking about ways to die.

Someone who has been in the music scene as long as Matranga has plenty to sing about. Throughout his career he has grown accustomed to the workings of the music business and watched his daughter grow up. He sang frequently of both.

“Every Mistake,” he said, was for his daughter, words of wisdom insisting that living is about making mistakes and embracing them with grace.

Whatever he was doing on stage was working. As he progressed through the set, audience members young and old trickled forward to make donations and pick up a CD from the box that lay at Matranga’s feet.

At some point a disheveled drifter wandered up to Matranga to make a litany of song requests, which included artists Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney and Elton John. In acquiescence, Matranga played “In My Life” by the Beatles.

Soon enough, the shade receded from the crowd back toward the trees, and the relentless sun hanging overhead prompted several onlookers to start packing up their blankets and chairs. By this time Matranga was preparing to play his last two songs.

“There are lots of mopey songs in the world. I’ve written about half of them,” he said, offering an explanation of his next song, “Smile,” which extends a dose of optimism regarding life.

“If you’re here right now you are ridiculously privileged,” he added.

Just then, a group of fashionable young women happened to ride past on their pink and sea green cruisers with shiny silver handlebars, outfitted in sundresses and shades.

Indeed, an afternoon spent listening to music on a picnic blanket beneath trees isn’t so easy to come by in other places. If you are living in the City of Trees, do us a favor and take it in, and don’t forget that you’ve got it made.

Community celebrates fine artist Milton 510 Bowens’ 20 years of service to art and education

Beatnik Studios on 17th between Broadway and X Street blends harmoniously with Milton 510 Bowens’ latest solo exhibition, Echoes of the Sweetest Sounds.

The former is an urban loft-style gallery made of brick that brings photography, music and local artistry to a shared space. The latter is a well-honored fine artist’s resolve to educate about music, history and social justice through art.

Echoes… celebrates 20 years of Bowens’ work with pieces never before seen in Sacramento and gives a unique spin to this year’s local Black Music Month events (renamed African-American Music Appreciation Month by President Barack Obama).

In the last 20 years, Bowens has reshaped his philosophy as a fine artist and taken the approach of a community activist and documentarian. Since, he has achieved great recognition nationally. Starting in 2009, his art became part of the syllabus for a course study in the Harlem Renaissance at Cornell University’s Africana Studies and Research Center. He is also a spokesperson for the K—8 art immersion program Any Given Child in public schools across the country in conjunction with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Bowens has had paintings showcased at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn.; been touted by local newspapers as having the largest solo exhibition (150 large pieces) in the United States in his hometown of Oakland; received this year’s Sacramento Artistic License Award; and received a resolution from the California Legislative Black Caucus for his work on arts and education in public schools.

Undoubtedly, this unconventional exhibition has a message.

“After you’ve done something for 20 years, it’s hard to choose what to show, but instead of doing a montage of random pieces…I chose those [pertaining to] music,” Bowens says, leaning back and looking relaxed on a sofa at the gallery after grabbing lunch at Slice of Broadway. “Beatnik, jazz, counterculture…it all goes together.”

The pieces come from Bowens’ Afro-Classical collection and some from his Soul Music series. He journeys through the jazz era and its historical importance in Afro-Classical with recurring images of everything from records, piano keys and musicians’ portraits to railroad tracks, slave ownership documents and tally marks. On his pieces, he writes what he feels, quotes that he admires and pushes the viewer to take a closer look, “Don’t just hear what the work is saying, listen.”

Bowens mixes media with organic materials like cloth, doilies and prints for “richer depth and more substance.” In pieces like God Bless the Child and Straight No Chaser, the use of children’s building blocks and rope along the top of the canvas adds another three-dimensional element.

“I am trying to poetically encourage people to linger a little bit,” he says of his collages with lyricism that sometimes holds a double meaning.

Bowens says he doesn’t approach his art with a “painterly perspective,” though he has the training and knows the techniques. He attended art schools early on as a high school student in Oakland and later at the California College of the Arts and multiple schools while serving in the Army Special Forces. Two military museums collected and showed his work, and his time in the service helped shape his current philosophy.

“I was in a rapid deployment unit with special forces so I got to travel and see art I’d only ever seen in my textbooks,” he says of the experience. “Seeing it in its original environment was uniquely transforming for me. I was exposed to the fact that there is no magical pixie dust when it comes to art. I learned the definition of art–skill, emotion, spirituality, commitment–and that’s where I’m at today.”

The title Echoes of the Sweetest Sounds originally came up in 1998, Bowens says, when his philosophy and technique changed, and it has become a recurring theme.

Eye Too Am America

“When I listen to music, it’s not just for its commercial appeal,” he says, working up to a more pronounced position in his seat. “There is a poetic standpoint, an emotional response. Quality music to me is like a snapshot of history.”

Take Bowens’ piece Chain Gang for instance, named for a Sam Cooke song. It has photo images of black men in striped garb imposed onto it, as well as a white man with his dogs and gun off to the left, and a worker looking down, holding a hoe to the right.

“I love Sam Cooke’s ‘Chain Gang,’ and when you start to listen to the lyrics, that could be considered one of the first civil rights theme songs,” Bowens says.

The top corner is a bright yellow, followed by bright blue and red. The bright colors sit atop Bowens’ neutral base, like all his pieces, of brown and black to portray not only his urban environment but also to hark back to the Harlem Renaissance, and before that, to slavery.

“The only true colors are what rest on top of the surface, and below that the colors are all muted,” he says. “That’s because when I went to a California museum, or the Oakland Museum…nothing there reflected my Oakland, or my California. In my paintings, you will see the gritty undertone of Oakland, because I grew up seeing concrete buildings and basketball courts.”

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns largely influenced Bowens’ transformation as well. The artist loved Burns’ idea of taking black and white historical photographs, putting music behind them and then putting the interviews conducted in the documentary in bold color. It was the idea of combining “time, space and history” that enveloped Bowens, so much so that it was all he could do. He even went “cold turkey,” he says, on his other techniques.

Since this change, Bowens says his message is becoming clearer, his work more calculated, his compositions tighter. But the exhibition still shows his reach, including a huge drawing done completely in pencil called Ancient Musicians, a collage of jazz masters and cultural icons that brings Bowens’ collection to a detailed, pictorial climax.

Another influence is Bowens’ family. He gives his mother the credit for helping him reach his career today. Being the youngest of 10 children, and the fifth boy (hence 510), Bowens said his mother could have had less patience with him, but instead she gave the notorious child scribbler scrap paper by having his siblings cut Safeway brown paper bags for him. Bowens incorporates brown paper into his works because of this.

Now, the younger members of Bowens’ family are his biggest influencers.

Autumn In New York

“I have two special goddaughters who help me as an artist see how art can affect young people,” he says.

Bowens works with goddaughter Mizauni, a second-grader, spending time with her as she learns to read and write. She recently won her school-wide reading competition and her family has seen “amazing success” in her educational ability since the two have been spending time together.

“I want to model what I’ve done with Mizauni to help hundreds of children in Sacramento,” Bowens says. Sacramento became the pilot city for Any Given Child, in which Bowens helped place local professional artists in schools to provide an integrated art curriculum and one-on-one interaction with students. Schools in other parts of the state, as well as in Portland, Ore., and Las Vegas, are following suit.

“We take what they are studying, like California history or ancient civilizations, and add art as a teaching mechanism,” Bowens says. “Studies have shown that students have better retention of information this way, instead of just memorization.”

Bowens says he is working toward other projects with youths, including starting a mentor diversion program in Alameda County with the juvenile court system and an art and literacy campaign in Sacramento.

“I’m getting ready to rival [my largest exhibition in Oakland] with the Art of Storytelling exhibition that will engage a program for fine art and literacy, specifically one for third grade literacy,” he says.

Bowens is basing the program off a study that upcoming correctional facilities decide on the number of beds they need by looking at the local third grade reading level.

“It’s not something terrible, it’s just if we see a problem coming, we need to prepare for it,” he says. “We need to get involved now. I’m not a minister… I’m not a counselor, I’m a painter. But I believe I have the skills to make a change and inspire young people to read.”

Some messages like this one are loud and clear in his work, while others take a little longer to see. But that’s the beauty of contemporary fine art, and though Bowens says his art “isn’t to decorate, but to educate,” he adds that he does enjoy seeing it hanging on the walls.

Alone With Three Giants

To catch Echoes of the Sweetest Sounds, visit Beatnik Studios at 2421 17th Street by June 26, 2012.

Composer Danny Cocke gets to work on scoring his first feature film and prepares to release a new album of trailer music

For some, getting to the cinema early for the trailers is just as important as seeing the feature presentation. Who can blame them? The trailers are often more exciting than the actual movies they’re meant to market. Trailers fuse all the best parts of the movie into an endorphin-drenched nugget of excitement, loaded with quick cuts, epic voice-overs and even more epic music. Los Angeles (by way of Sacramento) composer Danny Cocke handles the latter. Though just eight years ago, his music career and his life were in serious jeopardy.

In 2011, Cocke released From the Blue, an album of short but dramatic tracks, through L.A.-based licensing and publishing company RipTide Music. At the time, Cocke admits he was “dirt broke.” Much of From the Blue was even recorded in his old bedroom at his parents’ house.

“I was recording bands at the same time just to pay the bills, and all of a sudden it was the first Thor TV spot, and then Conan…Captain America, Green Lantern, and then I got called into custom score the first The Amazing Spider-Man trailer where they actually gave me picture–where he was in first-person running across the roof,” Cocke says. “I was a huge Marvel fan as a kid… It was totally surreal. I did not expect that level of explosion.”

Portions of Cocke’s music have also been used to promote what will likely be the biggest movie of the year, The Avengers. A full track from From the Blue, “World Collapsing,” was used in the trailer of the recently opened fairy tale adventure flick, Snow White and the Huntsman. Having a full song used throughout the entirety of a trailer is a rarity, according to Cocke.

“It was like, ‘What the hell?!’” he says of his reaction to the news.

Cocke says it’s a rush each time he hears something he wrote in a trailer, even though at this point it’s happening a lot more often. “They Came from the Blue,” another track off From the Blue, was placed in about a dozen trailers, he reports.

“Some of my composer buddies are like, ‘Knock it off!’” Cocke says.

Currently, he is poised to release another album’s worth of trailer music, this time through Position Music, titled The Verge of Total Chaos. The album is scheduled for a July 3 release, but Cocke has already started releasing tracks to his SoundCloud page. He also just started working on scoring his first feature film, The Devil’s in the Details, starring Goodfellas’ Ray Liotta.

His career is on the upswing, but just eight years ago, it almost ended before it really began. Cocke was diagnosed with stage IV testicular cancer, which he managed to fight off after a tough struggle. When Submerge spoke to him, it was the day after his eighth anniversary of his diagnosis, and today he stands cancer-free.

When we caught up with Cocke, he was enjoying some time away from Los Angeles back home in Sacramento. He admits that the concrete jungle of L.A. does wear on him. “There’s a hum of constant sound and lack of nature,” he says. “After about two months, I start going crazy.”

However, luckily for him, his work affords him the chance to leave town often, not that it’s a complete vacation. Cocke enjoys home cooking, creatively speaking, and still composes in his old bedroom at his parents’ house while he’s in Sacramento. We open the following interview talking about his process for scoring The Devil’s in the Details before discussing his latest album and his battle with cancer.

When you did From the Blue, it was an album’s worth of music, do you also approach a film score as if it was an album since it’s about the same length of music?
It’s a very different approach. It’s cool because I’ve slowly built up experience. Last summer, I helped out this bigger composer Paul Haslinger on Death Race 2. He gave me about 10 minutes of scenes to write music for. It was basically ghost writing. [It’s credited as if] everything was composed by him, but 10 minutes of it was me. And then I had two short films that I did, and then I had a bigger scale short film last summer, and then I just finished a 30-minute film that’s being used as a pitch, and that’s crazy looking. It’s like The Dark Knight meets The Bourne Ultimatum. It’s incredible. I had to do 30 minutes worth of music in two and a half weeks. It’s a lot different approach. My album was 30 minutes of music that took six months. Also, though, I’m doing whatever I want with the album. With scoring, everything has to be really tailored to picture, and each scene really dictates what you’re doing.

Have you started work on the Ray Liotta movie?
June 1, 2012, I move into a house just for the summer, down in L.A., in the valley, and that week I get reel one and sit down with the director and start spotting out the cues. It’s all got to be done on Aug. 10, 2012, too, so it’s about 100 minutes of music in two and a half months. It’s going to be crazy.

Do they breakdown the plot for you or anything like that, or will you be going into that June 1 session totally blind so to speak?
Well, I read the script beforehand–quite a while ago, actually, like last year. And I know the director pretty well, so he’s always telling me what his vision is. I just try to get in sync with what they’re seeing and imagining. With film score, there’s such a heavy reference on other film scores, so it’s like, “OK, in this scene I want The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s score meets these horror films…” So you have all this really nice reference so you’re not shooting in the dark. So it’s like, “OK, I’m just going to do my version of that.” Set up that kind of a palette, I guess.

Do you have an inkling of what you’d like to do with the film as of now?
I haven’t started making sounds yet. It will discover itself, but I have an idea. The way the movie goes, you don’t know what’s going on. It’s very peaceful, and then all of a sudden, the guy gets held hostage. And from then on it’s super tense. It’s going to be two parts, so there’s going to be some serene music to start off, and then the nastiest, on-edge music. It’ll be fun. I’ll start creating sounds and playing stuff over the picture and seeing what’s working. Creating orchestral elements that don’t sound mocked up is going to be the challenge, making them sound somewhat real.

You’re working on a new album of trailer music, The Verge of Total Chaos…
It’s just now finished. I was actually done with it at the end of March, but the mixer was busy on a film, but he just turned in the last mix. We’re just starting to release stuff online–one track here or there. All the trailer companies have eight of them, but they’ll have all 12 by Tuesday, and they’re already getting cut into a ton of stuff. Then it will come out on iTunes in a few weeks.

With From the Blue you said you didn’t have any expectations, but with The Verge of Total Chaos, you’ve already made a name for yourself. Your music is being used in a lot of trailers for blockbuster movies. With this album, did you, say, have films in mind that you knew were coming out that you thought the music you were making would fit in with?
I didn’t. I attacked it more from a musician’s standpoint. I did a lot of rock songs on From the Blue, and one or two of them got placed. I realized that this hybrid orchestral sound was what was working, what they were looking for, and all the editors responded saying that too. They love the old traditional stuff mixed with this new edgy stuff. But I kind of really wanted to expand on melodies and huge epicness, so a lot of the tracks have a really orchestral, epic feel. The other half is sound design-like, straight up electronic alien robot demons [laughs]. It’s always a risk each time. I just put it out and hope for the best.

Eight years ago yesterday, you were diagnosed with stage IV testicular cancer. When you were diagnosed, how did you react? Did you think, “This is it?”
Well, the first 30 seconds were a shock. I definitely had a panic attack. I’ve had panic attacks my whole life, and surprisingly at that moment after, I was super calm. Something otherworldly told me that there was going to be a lot more, and this wasn’t it. Then it was just going one day at a time. But if I had to go back and do it again, I would do it again–even lose all the hair and throw up every day for six months and get cut open–just to be who I am now. I ended up volunteering in a hospital for a couple of years after and helping other cancer patients. It was such an intense spiritual feeling of helping, and sometimes they wouldn’t make it and it was very heavy too. But it gives you such an appreciation of life. I think I put it all into music in a way that I never would have done.

Did you write a lot of music during that time?
Right before it, my band, we were signed. We were at Nine Inch Nails’ Danny Lohner’s house, and it was just like the most epic, exciting time. We were right on the verge of potentially having a really great band career, which at the time was a dream come true. I’m thankful now. I’m so much happier I’m composing. I’m glad I’m not in a band and touring and doing things like that. That was the biggest frustration. It wasn’t even chemo and all these cancer treatments, it’s that I lost the momentum of the band.

I tried to keep it up as best I could. I actually spent so much time learning even more computer production during that time, because I’d be in my parents’ house. I didn’t really have energy to go down into the band room and practice music live, so I’d just be working on the computer. Definitely after that, six months after treatment and I was in remission, I dove into music like crazy.

The Verge of Total Chaos will be available through iTunes and http://positionmusic.com/. In the meantime, you can hear songs from the album at http://soundcloud.com/dannycocke (or, just go to a movie, because you’re bound to hear something he did in a trailer). You can learn more about Danny Cocke at http://Dannycocke.com or at http://www.facebook.com/dannycocke.

Gypsy Mobile Boutique brings retail revolution to Sacramento

S Street between 7th and 8th looked deserted a day before the Second Saturday bustle, until a curious 1987 Chevy step van disguised as the “little black truck” with social media icons painted in white pulled into the Howard Skinner Art Gallery parking lot.

The driver straightened up with the help of her husband, pulling the vehicle into a shaded corner.

Clad in cute heels and a floral mini dress, Bridgette Maldonado jumped out of her Gypsy Mobile Boutique, ready to set up outside for the gallery’s Pop Up Shop preview night.

Gypsy is the first of its kind in Sacramento, but the concept isn’t new. Mobile restaurants, aka food trucks, have been parking along local streets for some time in Sacramento. But none of them looks like the inside of a Midtown girl’s closet, which is the shop owner’s inspiration.

In that department, Maldonado has the local market cornered, for now.

Following the food truck phenomenon, entrepreneurs and businesses across the country are putting their creative spins on mobile retail, a reaction borne from a shaky economy. Maldonado says she has seen everything from floral arrangements to men’s haircuts sold out of trailers and school buses in Los Angeles.

“I think Sacramento is ready for something like this,” she says with a wide smile while placing colorful, thin belts on a makeshift shelf below a line of spring dresses. “L.A. can’t have all the fun.”

The Sacramento native, jewelry designer, retail visual designer and mother of two little boys (and former flight attendant and NBA pro dancer) always wanted to add “boutique owner” to her list of accomplishments, but couldn’t quite grasp the right moment or the right corner space to make it happen.

Maldonado makes her own jewelry, working in leather and clay, so she started with an Etsy shop and hoped to expand to fashion through her site. But as Etsy became inundated with similar shops, a real world presence seemed a better option.

“I would get messages from customers for something tangible–‘how does it feel, how heavy is it’–and owning a store has always been a dream of mine. But then with this economy, and the overhead, well, this was just perfect,” she says with a sigh of relief, standing in the middle of her own shop.

There are drawbacks, as with any business. Maldonado has to deal with the elements and a lack of fitting rooms and restrooms, but these mid-May days in Midtown, as well as her stops in Roseville and along office-heavy downtown streets, are advantageous and out of the way of other boutiques.

“I’ve gone to Rancho Cordova, and I park where it’s all bought-up office buildings,” she says. “Women who are working and come out on their coffee break or lunch can spend some time shopping, since there is nothing else like it nearby.”

Looking at the success of big-name designers in cities like San Francisco, Maldonado says she thinks mobile retail in Sacramento is inevitable.

“Even in this economy, people still have the entrepreneurial spirit, and I’d welcome anyone who wants to go into this,” she says as more clothes magically appear out of hidden compartments inside the truck, lining the baby blue-painted interior. A small chandelier hangs from the truck ceiling, and the entire boutique scene comes together like a perfect date ensemble.

“It’s like food trucks. We wouldn’t have SactoMoFo [the Sacramento Mobile Food organization] if there was only one.”

Guests at the Howard Skinner Gallery, a little older than Maldonado’s target audience, stop by to ooh and ahh at the sight of maxis, minis, pastels and chunky jewelry hanging from the truck’s walls.

Pamela Skinner, along with four other organizers and designers, had invited Gypsy Mobile Boutique and food trucks to be part of the gallery’s first-ever Pop Up Shop, a similar idea to a mobile business, but leaning toward spontaneous art buying.

“The idea is ‘here today, gone tomorrow,’” Skinner says, noting the concept has popped up, like food trucks, in cities across the country and allows for artists who can’t afford a space, or don’t want to be tied down to one, to sell their work for a very limited time.

“Food trucks are very trendy right now, but pop up shops you only do a few times a year, so it’s the only time you can get what you see,” Skinner says. “People asked if we’re going to restock, and I thought it was funny. We’re not Macy’s or Walmart.”

For Maldonado, the concept is similar. She stocks what she can fit in her truck, usually one or two in each size. Once it’s gone, she looks for new items, trends and unique pieces as a way to keep things fresh for customers.

“I tell them they don’t need to wear the same thing as five other girls,” she says. “Plus, Midtown has its own unique style and I want to show that.”

Maldonado has connected with other fashion trucks in the industry, and reached out to the West Coast Mobile Retail Association (WCMRA) that started last spring to unite shopkeepers through events, educate city officials and maintain a code of ethics to respect communities and brick and mortar stores.

“We heard from several brick-and-mortar businesses that they like the idea of a mobile business and have thought about starting a mobile business in conjunction to their brick and mortar business,” says Jeanine Romo, charter member of WCMRA and owner of Le Fashion Truck in L.A. This has been the case for local restaurants like Willie’s Burgers and Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen, an arm of the Republic sports bar and lounge.

“I believe that more entrepreneurs will be launching a mobile business opposed to a traditional brick-and-mortar,” Romo adds. “There are currently around 40 mobile retailers in the United States and [WCMRA] believes that number will keep growing. There will still, of course, be plenty of new brick-and-mortar businesses; however, with the popularity and low cost of being mobile, this seems to be a more attainable approach for someone going into business for themselves.”

According to WCMRA, up to $30,000 in capital is needed to start a mobile retail business, which includes the vehicle and the inventory. For the Maldonados, the cost was still more feasible than the risk of failing in a bad, permanent location.

“We considered everything from trailer to camper to a Winnebago to a school bus,” husband Marvin Maldonado says, stopping to answer his wife’s question of which dress should adorn the mannequin. “And then I get asked fashion questions too.”

It took them a few tries, but they found their truck in Pacifica, Calif. Marvin’s architecture and design company inForm designed the Gypsy caravan, gutting and renovating the vehicle to make it Bridgette-friendly and the best possible utilization of little space.

“It operates and functions just like a brick-and-mortar store but our money goes to gas and insurance instead of rent and utilities,” he says. “Plus, I can’t always be out at every event because I have my company and we have two kids, so everything has to be lightweight and dual function for her. Everything has to be thought out.”

Future upgrades still include air conditioning and, Marvin jokes, possibly chairs to put outside for husbands and boyfriends to lounge in while their significant others shop.

“I enjoy it… It’s her thing,” Marvin smiles. “I think we’re launching at the right time, and that was her goal. It’s one thing to get a truck, but it’s another to be on trend and know fashion.”

And his wife is still thinking big. Maldonado says she plans to buy another truck and sell men’s clothes, but that’s after she expands the accessory department of Gypsy. She still sells her own jewelry, as well as items like head wraps called Urban Turbans made by her sister.

It’s only been a month since Gypsy hit the streets, but Maldonado has met success at Second Saturdays, downtown Tuesday nights in Roseville and private shopping parties she hosts for customers. She’ll also be joining other designers, business owners and food trucks next month for GOOD: Street Food + Design, an open-air market to be held every first Sunday through November to increase traffic to the Del Paso Boulevard business corridor.

To see where the “little black truck” parks next, check out Gypsy Mobile Boutique on Facebook or Twitter, or go to Maldonado’s website http://gypsymobileboutique.com/