Local promoter Brian McKenna recently confirmed the much-hyped garage-punk trio Le Butcherettes for a Sept. 14 gig at Harlow’s, and we here at Submerge could not be more stoked. This in your face, rowdy-as-fuck band had one of the most blogged-about sets at this year’s Lollapalooza, recently toured with Sacramento’s own Deftones, and will soon embark on separate stints with Iggy and the Stooges and The Flaming Lips. You don’t score gigs like those unless you’re doing something right. The Los Angeles-based group has local ties in bassist Jonathan Hischke (pictured on left), who has played with and/or toured/recorded with such local-ish bands as Hella, Agent Ribbons, Casual Fog and a ton of others as well as national acts like The Mars Volta and Broken Bells. If you’re a fan of spastic, energetic, borderline obscene live performances, you’re going to want to mark your calendars for this one, as lead singer Teri Gender Bender is known to throw shoes into the crowd, spit a lot and douse herself in fake blood–you know, the whole nine. Hischke and drummer Gabe Serbian (formerly of The Locust) get down too, which creates a sort of chaotic, yet somehow controlled vibe. It ought to be interesting seeing a (hopefully) primed and drunken Sacramento crowd react to their onstage energy. I’m forecasting much spilled beer, intermittent mosh pits and a high possibility of stage diving in Harlow’s near future. Show is $8 in advance, 21-and-over only and doors open at 8 p.m. Opening the show will be locals I’m Dirty Too and Diciembre Gris. For more information, visit Harlows.com, Abstractsacramento.com or hit up The Beat or Dimple Records to score tickets.

Sugar and Spice Specialty Desserts
1201 F Street – Sacramento

Words by Adam Saake | Photos by Nicholas Wray

Pastries, I believe, are the truest product of epicurean excess that have never fallen out of favor like many cooking and baking trends, but rather have gained popularity. We turn them away because they’re “sinful” or pass because we’re trimming the fat, but in the end we succumb and rarely are we disappointed (if only just a touch guilty). Recipes for cakes and cookies, scones and muffins are endless on the Web, and TV shows suck millions of viewers in with racy food porn in the form of decadent icing and exotic flavors. We’re eating it up–literally. Sacramento is no different and our options to satisfy our own sweet cravings just keep getting better.

Pastry chef and owner of Sugar and Spice Specialty Desserts, Carissa Jones, opened up shop in January after building the business for three years with encouragement from her father.

“My Dad has always owned his own business and he said, ‘You need to do what you’re passionate about. If you do what you’re passionate about, then you’ll be happy,’” she says.

With her undergraduate degree, “living the dream” wasn’t paying the bills. And it also wasn’t making her happy. After working in the financial industry for far too long, the day came to put the icing on the cake.

“I had a really bad day at work, which is all it takes sometimes to be that catalyst for change,” says Jones. “So I went and talked to the California Culinary Academy and I started three weeks later.”

Her historic shop is boutique and quaint–a corner spot on 12th and F in the Alkali Flats neighborhood that once upon a time was a pharmacy. The light rail tracks are parallel to her street-side window. As we spoke, a train passed by, a yellow and blue blur that shook the shop momentarily, causing the orb-shaped paper motifs dangling from the ceiling to bob and sway. Pink polka dot curtains flanked the windows, luring curious pedestrians and 12th Street traffic into the tiny lobby where a display case full of tasty treasures awaited. Regulars were in the shop, picking up an item or two on their lunch break from maybe the neighboring state EPA building or the courts that are only a few blocks away. Now that folks know that she’s there, Jones says she’s been getting some special requests.

“I had a gal come over the other day and she wanted to do a thank you for a girlfriend; she’d bought her this lip gloss called Pink Cookie. She came to me and said, ‘I need you to take any cookie you have and make it pink,’” remembers Jones. “So we did a mixed berry butter cream on top and some pink sprinkles with some white chocolate. We boxed it up all pretty and she was tickled.”

On the afternoon of my Wednesday arrival, Jones was busying herself with a batch of peculiar and wildly seductive cupcakes–cupcakes in the shape of breasts. I bite my tongue in restraint of the plethora of jokes that might occupy the next couple sentences, and I can only imagine what might come to your mind. Pour some ice on it and relax, because Sugar and Spice isn’t a Silicone Valley pastry shop. Jones wanted to be sure that was clear.

“Don’t take pictures of these by the way. I don’t want this to be what we’re known for,” says Jones, half serious.

But the cupcakes are for a party–a bittersweet party where a female customer will be saying, “Goodbye to her boobies.”

“She’s having a radical mastectomy. This is her second round of breast cancer and so these are favors for the party,” explains Jones.

Jones should be known for her “booby” cupcakes, because it’s a perfect example of the kind of transcendence that something simple and sweet like a cupcake can achieve. Jones is shaping Sugar and Spice to be the kind of business that caters to the customer, to the hopeful survivor, to the vegan wedding guest and to the passerby who is simply craving a tart.

Jones’ selection covers much ground. Croissants, crème brulee and cream puffs anchor a pastry menu that offers the classics, reinvents the usual and even adds a bit of kitschy fun. For example, a must-have is the s’mores pop tart with house made pastry dough, graham cracker, chocolate ganache and topped with a slab of marshmallow that is toasted per order. Look out, girl scouts ‘cause this s’more is grown up. Also, be on the lookout for anything with fruit in it, especially if it’s seasonal. Jones makes frequent trips to the farmers market to hand select fruit, and that means that the freshness and sweetness will be on point.

Sugar and Spice is available for weddings, special orders or unique requests. Whether you desire something elaborate or simply must have a peach cobbler, Sugar and Spice is a destination well worth your investment. And try not to feel guilty, because I sure as hell never do.

If you are in need of artistic release, look no further than the OPEN Interactive hands-on abstract art exhibit, one of more than 100 artist exhibitions featured at the 6th Annual Capitol Artists’ Studio Tour, held by the Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento. The participatory exhibit, designed by Northern California abstract artist Lisa Fernald Barker, will be stationed at the Art Foundry Building at 1021 R Street. Fernald Barker and art mentors from University Art will help participants paint their own abstract expressionist pieces, free of charge. Fernald Baker’s work will be on display, and participants will be entered in a drawing to win one of her paintings and art supplies. University Art is sponsoring the exhibit–they are providing the paint, easels and canvases. All you have to do is show up to get your paint on. The exhibit is open between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The finished products of OPEN Interactive will be displayed in the windows of University Art after the tour. For more on Fernald Barker, check out her site at Lisafernaldbarker.com. More information on the Center for Conemporary Art, Sacramento and Capitol Artists’ Studio tour can be found at Ccasac.org

Jackass star Steve-O has re-scheduled Sacramento dates for his Entirely Too Much Information Tour to Nov. 17—20 at Punch Line. You may remember that we did a cover story on Steve-O back in June before he was originally scheduled to be in town, but unfortunately the death of fellow Jackass star and longtime friend Ryan Dunn forced him to postpone. Glad to see he’s getting back out on the road! Check out our website (Submergemag.com) to read our interview with Steve-O. Hit up Punchlinecomedyclub.com or call (916) 925-5500 for more information and to purchase tickets.

“Where fashion meets art,” says the slogan of Forum Boutique, a brand new shop at 2310 J Street, Suite C (just upstairs from our Submerge office!), which celebrated its grand opening this past Second Saturday. Spend a couple minutes with the two young, passionate ladies behind Forum, Alma Campos and Nerina Edwards, and their slogan starts to make more sense. “The idea is basically we are marrying our two genres,” Edwards recently told Submerge. “Alma is a fashion guru mastermind, and then I’m the artist.” Forum carries everything from Edwards’ handmade jewelry (her necklace design that says “Midtown” is really popular; she can even create custom pieces that say whatever the client desires) to their own line of handmade organic soaps and skincare products, from re-discovered home décor to super cute clothes from brands like Dolce Vita, BB Dakota & Jack, Local Celebrity and more. “I know a couple boutiques carry Local Celebrity men’s T-shirts, but it was hard to find the ladies tees, so I brought those in. And I’ve got some pretty fabulous shoes on the way too,” Campos said with a huge I’m-not-supposed-to-tell-you-what-brand sort of smile. The two agreed that their grand opening was a success, stating that because they had a DJ and artist (DJ M4nik and artist Oscar Padilla) painting and playing music out on their “front porch” as well as a hairstylist from Lush Salon, it really drew people in. “It was extremely successful. We had tons of people and a good atmosphere,” recalled Edwards. “It was a great turnout from friends, family and the community,” Campos added. “It was such a great attraction as far as the DJ, the live art, the hairstylist, just everything going on outside.” When Submerge stopped in during the grand opening, the place was bustling with activity and we even scored a cute owl ring for our boss-lady Melissa Welliver. We were beyond stoked to see the building we’ve been in for nearly a year finally being used to its full Second Saturday potential, and we’re looking forward to Second Saturdays from here on out. To learn about our awesome new neighbors, visit Forumboutique.com or just stop in and say hi. They are open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Sacramento Skimfest Puts The River City on the International Skimboarding Map

One day every summer, people line the American River to watch guys, and the occasional girl, go airborne on skimboards at Paradise Beach. Riders, as they’re called, propel themselves along the water before launching off ramps and grinding rails.

Riding a wooden board over hand-built ramps made of wood and PVC, in water that is only inches deep, is risky business as far as Krolczyk is concerned.

Lon Porteous

Little did Skimfest cofounders Lon Porteous and Mark Robinson realize that when they began blending the features of skateboarding with flatland skimboarding in the ‘90s, they were pushing the sport into new territory that would have wide-reaching influence.

Matt Matteucci, a local flatland rider whose past sponsors have included Kayotics Skimboards and Ground Zero Boardshop, is currently the primary organizer of Skimfest. After competing in 2005 he became increasingly involved with Skimfest in the following years.

Matt Matteucci. Skimfest, 2010.

Along with Porteous, he did most of the legwork to produce Nothing Is Cool, a film of the flatland skimboarding scene in Sacramento that came out under Blister Productions in 2007.

Submerge had an opportunity to speak with Porteous and Matteucci about the evolution of Sacramento’s skim scene, the shortage of female competitors and the far-reaching influence of Skimfest. The following is an excerpt from the conversation.

2nd Annual Sacramento Skimfest, 1998.

So tell me a little bit about the scene, the skimboarding scene here.
Lon Porteous: In the ‘20s, they started flatland skimboarding down South, the lifeguards did, so they could travel faster up and down the beach. So from there, flatland skimboarding started. It progressed in the ‘70s. It went more toward ocean skimboarding, which is more, “OK, let’s ride out into some waves.”

So, where I come in, is growing up in Sacramento, part of the skateboard side of it [was] we realized we could do a lot of our skateboard tricks on our skimboards. So, we ended up taking a lot of stuff and crossing it over, at a time where people were just basically sliding down the beach or trying to do headstands or basic tricks.

We turned around and were like, wait, we could ollie a board, we could make rails. You know, we could do a rail slide, we could do everything we do on a skateboard. So me and a guy named Mark Robinson… we ended up progressing it.

In terms of who’s putting together all the ramps and stuff…
Matt Matteucci: You’re looking at us right here. I mean we have other people that build. Most of the time we build at [Porteous’] house.

So I get the impression that this is more of a guy’s sport. Is that accurate?
LP: Yes. And no. We had more girls in our first year at Skimfest than we have now, which was great. There are some really, really talented girls that skimboard. Unfortunately, the girls that came through in Sacramento are no longer living in Sacramento. They have also progressed. There was a girl on my skimboard team, and she is now an ocean skimboarder. She competes.

And so, I think it just depends, because without a major influence like that, you know, somebody that a lot of girls can look up to and say, “Yeah, I could be as good as her,” or “I can do that” … they don’t have anybody to really be that role model. But there are scenes that have a really good girl turnout, like Washington, Vancouver. I would even say Utah had a pretty decent girl turnout.

I would be happy if I could just have four girls come that want to compete. I would bend over backwards to do whatever they want. But you go down to the river and it is all guys.

Lexi Hutchings. Skimfest, 2010. Photo by Kevin Fiscus - www.kevinfiscus.com

Yeah. I was hanging out over there one day, and some guy tried to show my friend how to skimboard. She got a nice red raspberry on her ass. I mean, it was her first time.
LP: Yeah, and I have the same raspberries, so tell her not to feel bad about it.

Speaking of [that], I was looking at some of those videos, there are some really crazy ways that people go down on those boards. Do you get people who are really injured, or …
LP: We never, ever, ever have had people get really messed up or anything. I mean, yeah, the normal rashes, scrapes. Most of the time, the worst thing that happens are elements in the water. So glass or something like that. Or nails. Like I’ve seen one kid have a nail go completely through the bottom of his foot. Yeah, and there’s nothing better than a rusty nail that’s been lying in the water. You probably end up with the same injuries you’d get skateboarding, like you break your hand or you break your wrist.

Brent Lippincott. Skimfest, 2010. Photo by Kevin Fiscus - www.kevinfiscus.com

Would it be accurate or fair to say that more people know about Skimfest outside of Sacramento than the people in Sacramento? And how far out do we have a reputation?
LP: Global. Worldwide.

Put it this way, you don’t know how big of an influence you have on other places until you go.

When [Price] got here, I had chests of old swag, Skimfest shirts, stuff like that, that are new. And he said, “You don’t even understand how much this stuff would be worth [in New Zealand].” And I was like, “What do you mean?” [He said] “People covet you guys, you don’t even know, because you’re from Sac.”

And so here are these people saying how much influence we’ve had on their scenes. And it was nuts, because I just thought I was giving him some Skimfest shirt.

Sacramento Skimfest 2011 will celebrate its 15th year on Sept. 10 at Paradise Beach (Glenn Hall Park). Registration runs from 9—11 a.m. and the competition will take place from 12—4 p.m. Registration fees vary depending upon your level.

The Naked and Famous’ formula for international fame

Parents often discourage their children from getting involved in creative fields. Rightfully so. Success in music, art or filmmaking is difficult to obtain. Not only is talent necessary, but you need to be thick-skinned and not get caught up in the hedonistic trappings that often surround such pursuits. Parents have no shortage of cautionary tales they can pull from to dissuade their offspring from trying to be an artist. The Naked and Famous, however, is not one of them. In less than a handful of years, the band has already become renowned not only in their home country of New Zealand, but internationally. They almost make it look too easy. Maybe they’re just that good.

New Zealand is a small island nation in the Southern Hemisphere that most Americans probably confuse as Australia. According to Google, New Zealand’s population was just 4.3 million in 2009–roughly half of that of the United States’ largest city, New York, which is where Submerge caught up with David Beadle, bass player for The Naked and Famous, and one of the band’s newest members. The Naked and Famous was set to play a sold-out show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn later that night. It was one of the last dates in a small tour of the eastern United States, which revolved around this year’s Lollapalooza in Chicago. A short video taken from The Naked and Famous’ performance at the mammoth alternative music (if that’s what it’s still called) festival was posted to the band’s blog on Tumblr (Tnaf.tumblr.com). The video–a quick panorama of the band’s eye view from the stage–was taken mid-set of the band’s performance on that brutally hot and humid Midwestern summer day in early August. It’s a sweeping shot of the crowd and back to the stage, ending on electronics wizard Aaron Short, one of The Naked and Famous’ three main songwriters. It shows a sea of people in Grant Park glued to the stage, arms raised and howling despite the sweltering temperatures and downpours. It was a transcendent moment not entirely lost on Beadle, who, when we spoke, was still trying to process the magnitude of it.

“Honestly, my knowledge of Lollapalooza was the episode of The Simpsons, where Homer gets shot in the stomach,” Beadle joked. “I know Lollapalooza is a massive festival, and big bands have played there. Alice in Chains played it in 1993 when it was a traveling festival. For us to be able to play there had been an amazing opportunity–and very surreal.”

Surreal is an accurate adjective for Beadle’s life since joining The Naked and Famous. In February 2011, the band left their hometown of Auckland, New Zealand, and have relocated to London, though Beadle said that he and his mates “haven’t really lived in any one place at all since then.”

“We’ve spent enough time there to get a feel of the place,” Beadle clarified. “Where we come from is pretty quiet–comparatively. It’s a quiet beachside town. London’s a huge, massive, bustling city.”

Though they may not have spent much time there so far, The Naked and Famous have already become accepted in their new home. The United Kindgom’s NME awarded the band its coveted Philip Hall Radar Award, which is given to promising up-and-coming bands. So surprised by the award, co-lead vocalist and songwriter Thom Powers remarked in his acceptance speech, “Thank you very much. I’m not even sure anybody even knew who we were here. We’re not from around here, but cheers!”

“It’s really interesting, because there’s no comparison in New Zealand,” Beadle said. There’s no NME, there’s no BBC. When we found out about that, like, none of us really knew what to do, what the consequence of it was or anything. We had to sit down and Google it and find out who the other artists were that we were nominated alongside. If anything else like that ever happens again, we’re probably going to have to Google it.”

Beadle echoed Powers’ sentiments regarding the award.

“We never had dreams of grandeur in that respect,” he said. “We all wanted to be musicians, and we all wanted to have that as a career, but to expect that was amazing.”

While the Philip Hall Radar Award may not have been familiar or expected, The Naked and Famous have become no strangers to accolades in their short existence. The band’s debut full-length album, Passive Me, Aggressive You, available through Universal Republic in the United States, has consistently charted in the top 100 globally, but in their home country, The Naked and Famous received a rare distinction by topping the pop singles chart with the utterly infectious “Young Blood,” which propelled Passive Me, Aggressive You (released Sept. 10, 2010) to No. 1 on the New Zealand albums chart. They were the first homegrown band to do so in 16 years. Beadle said that New Zealand’s Top 40 is usually dominated by American and British artists. But The Naked and Famous’ heady electropop, infused with the snarl and explosiveness of ‘90s era alternative rock, helped the band buck that trend.

“To be amongst the Katy Perrys was really strange, but it was especially strange for us because we’ve been around since 2008, and all we wanted to do was get in the Top 10 of college radio/alternative, to be No. 1 on that would have been a big deal,” Beadle explained. “When ‘Young Blood’ was released, that’s what we were expecting. We were like, ‘Hopefully we will get to the top of the college/alternative chart.’ But then we had our managers calling us and saying, ‘You’ve got to come down here and have a beer. You’re on the top of the pop chart.’ We were like, ‘What does that mean?’ It took a long time to sink in for us. They were really excited, but we were like, ‘OK, but can you just wait until work’s over? I still got another three chapters to read.’ It wasn’t registering for us.”

What it all ended up meaning for the band was their songs in popular U.S. TV shows such as Degrassi and Gossip Girl and numerous trips around the world. Not bad for Beadle, who before his time in The Naked and Famous, played in metal bands around Auckland, as did Powers and drummer Jesse Wood. The latter two, Beadle said, have been known to bust out Deftones songs during sound checks (Powers named White Pony as his favorite Deftones album).

“We all grew up listening to ‘90s alternative rock–Tool and Deftones,” Beadle said. “That kind of stuff. When you grow older, you grow into new things.”

Beadle said that The Naked and Famous have already started working on new material. The band recently had time at a studio in Wales. He joined the group along with Wood just around the time when Short, Powers and co-lead vocalist and songwriter Alisa Xayalith were beginning to work on Passive Me, Aggressive You. Beadle admitted he didn’t have much to do in the writing of the album, but things may be different when the band comes to compile a new one.

“For this next record, because we’ve been with each other now for about two years, we’re able to have demos set and work in a room together, and come together that way as well,” he said.

Beadle called the songwriting trio of Powers, Short and Xayalith inspiring and prolific. Considering that they have already produced two EPs and a full-length album in just a few years, those adjectives may not be hyperbole. Though the new material Beadle and company had worked on in Wales is most likely still in its formative stages, he said that the band wasn’t making any radical tweaks to its sound just yet.

“Passive Me, Aggressive You is different from the first two EPs, but we’re coming now to formulate a very solid sound that we’re all happy with, so that will continue,” Beadle said.

It would be difficult to argue with those sentiments, considering The Naked and Famous’ success thus far. Parents, if you want to scare your kids away from wanting to be rock stars, you may just have to find examples elsewhere.

The Naked and Famous will play Harlow’s in Sacramento on Aug. 31, 2011 with White Arrows. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased through Harlows.com.

Tim Holland (aka Sole) hones his craft on his latest album with the Skyrider Band

It’s OK if you think Tim Holland is pretentious. It’s not something that bothers him. Otherwise known as Sole, Holland was co-founder of Anticon, an avant-garde hip-hop label based out of Oakland that has often been accused of being hipper-than-thou.

Holland says that the change of direction was a “natural progression,” but over the course of our interview, the artist also expresses a desire to reach more people by becoming more populist and less abstract. Submerge awoke Holland from a well-deserved nap and had the following conversation.

How’s it going? Are you getting ready to go on tour?
I was actually taking a nap. We’re putting together a DVD. It’s like a documentary kind of thing. On Final Cut, you have to render shit, and, like, this thing has been rendering for 24 hours. We were up all night working on this thing… We’re about to go until 2 a.m. again, so I thought I’d take a little nap to get recharged.

How’s the documentary coming along?
[Laughs] It’s really pretentious! It’s ridiculous, man. It’s supposed to be a documentary or something, but it almost ended up being a really in-depth two-hour interview about history and philosophy. It’s just fucking absurd, man!

Lately, I feel like my approach to rap is how much can I get away with.

How did the documentary turn into something completely pretentious? Did it just start to get out of hand?
No, we were just like, “What are we going to do with this?” I was thinking, what would I want to see if I was going to watch a documentary about me, like, what would I want in it? I would want real shit, like what drives this fucking shit. It’s just funny, man. I don’t know if it’s pretentious. I think it’s borderline for sure, but no one’s called me out this year for being pretentious, so maybe they won’t this time. Who knows, man [laughs]?

What are your plans for the documentary once it’s done?
We’re going to sell it on tour, and then depending on the responses, we’re going to sell it in stores. But really, it was just like we had made all these videos, and we were like, “We should just sell this shit.” We figured out a way to pay ourselves for all this work we did. And then we were like, “We need some meat to it,” so we held it all together with this interview. It’s the first one. The next one will probably be my House of Representatives bid [laughs].

Do you have a platform in mind?
Denver’s first district, she’s like the deputy whip for the Democratic party. She voted yes for sending ground troops into Libya. That’s really all I know, but that’s enough at this point. Otherwise, she’s pretty cool. At first I was like, “How can we keep with the political commentary, do something different, more propaganda, more controversy. Oh, run for president.” John [Wagner, drummer of the Skyrider Band and the person filming Sole’s documentary] was like, “You’ll never win. Why don’t you start small? House of Representatives.” Yeah, get Soulja Boy to give me money.

That’s not a bad idea.
No! It’s not! I feel like if I came at Lil’ Wayne and all these millionaires, who knows? If I can get each of those dudes to give me $200,000, like why not? I’ll legalize crack in Denver. Whatever they want.

Hello Cruel World marked a new direction for you. Did that make this album pretty exciting for you, to expand in that way?
Yeah, this was around the time when I left Anticon, and I started doing the D.I.Y. thing pretty hard. Everything was new and exciting. It was almost like we had blocked chakras. Kind of scared to make any moves to the left or right, just chugging through. Then we just decided, “Fuck it, we’re going to go for broke now, make it all about doing new shit.” When you figure something out like, “Oh, we can be the first indie underground cats to do some really cool sell-out shit.” We were the first to think of that. Everyone else is trying to cross over to electronica or indie rock. We wanted to cross over to rap. It’s fun when you can trademark new movements. In that aesthetic–the Kanye West/Jay-Z big album aesthetic–I feel that it’s so rich. There are so many ways–we could hire a fucking philharmonic orchestra on our next album and have no electronic sounds, and it will still be consistent with the concept of a big rap album. We can do anything.

You mentioned before that you were frustrated with your situation. Was that creatively speaking, or was it your business situation with Anticon?
It all kind of ties together. When the stomach is grumbling, art suffers. Some people work really well under stress. I work really well under a healthy amount of stress, but we never had budgets for studios. We never could have made this album if Fake Four [Sole’s new label] hadn’t given us studio budget… It was also a shitty time for the music industry. The music industry was going through all these changes. Figuring out how to adapt to that over the years has been really crazy. My answer to it all has been to pull all my assets in so I could have a healthy iTunes cushion and a creative space so I wouldn’t have to go frantically searching for my next shitty thousand-dollar show I’d have to play so I could pay my rent.

Was it a case of not getting any younger and needing to get yourself more established?
I’m married, and my wife is a teacher. We want to have kids. We want a real fucking life. I hate that every couple of years I doubt myself, and I think, “Oh, I need to get a job, I should try to be a professor.” And that sucks. Some people function really well by taking the pressure off their art and getting a day job, but that’s not the life I envisioned for myself. I’m an artist. If anything, art will lead me to have a talk show or do something else down the road, not like, “Oh, I need to wash dishes right now. I need to drive a cab, because the IRS just wiped me out again.”

One of the lyrics on the first song, “Napolean,” jumped out at me, “At age 20, knowing everything was my style. I was older then, I’m younger than that now.” Does that play into this new direction you’re heading? Do you feel more optimistic now?
I do. First of all, that’s a Bob Dylan line. The irony is I discovered Dylan when I was 20. But that line sums it up for me. When I was 20, I was this miserable brooding kid. I was running a record label. It was this crazy workload. When I left Anticon, I had to decide. Am I going to start another record label? Am I going to put out other artists? What am I going to do? I decided to just focus on my art and focus on myself. I didn’t want to burn out… I realize I’ve kind of squandered some of my best moments in life by not making the most of what I had. Just being like, “When this happens, then this,” just living in some kind of future. What you’re doing has to be an end in itself. You can’t always be living in some fantasy where you’re going to be rich and famous in the future. I’ve got friends who I’m happy to collaborate with. It’s 10 years later, and people still like my music, and it’s more relevant than ever, and it’s a good time to be fucking around, you know?

Sole and the Skyrider Band will play the Sol Collective in Sacramento on Aug. 16, 2011. This is an all-ages show, and tickets are $10. Aquifer and Defeye will also perform.

Lostribe’s JustLuv on nurturing the rap group’s latest album Sophie

Six years ago is a different lifetime as the body approaches 30 years of age. Marinate that sentiment with hip-hop’s culture in motion and an artist could risk making music on the wrong side of retro. Grass Valley’s Lostribe could have stuck to its 2005 script, but with personal growth comes valued artistic growth and even rebirth.

With Lostribe down to two core members, JustLuv manned the boards for Sophie, a record that meshes the lyrical dexterity of underground hip-hop in the early Aughts with the modern warble of dubstep’s woofer-blasting sound. Musicians out for the dollar and the relevancy can’t afford to take a five-year hiatus, but JustLuv talked of the extended process as a necessity that earned Sophie its coveted title.

Why the long hiatus between records?
A lot of life and shit happened. Agustus got married and moved away to Santa Cruz with his wife. They were down there for about a year and a half. He ended up getting a divorce shortly and moved back up [to Grass Valley]. I was going through a breakup at the same time, in between houses, and living situations were not very stable. I was like a gypsy living out of my car for a minute.

Life happened and we had to regroup. Then, in 2007 we started working on the video game, going through negotiations with those dudes. It took up a lot of our creative focus. So around 2009 we got our focus back with Agustus moving here. But again, it took time because we were going over material that was really old and we had some new material, so there was gaps between the sound quality and progression of the sound. We kept evaluating shit to try and refine our style. This last winter was when it finally came together.

The sound is definitely caught up to speed with its dubstep influence, while maintaining an organic feel closely associated with hip-hop.
That’s become my thing. Around 2006 that fool Agustus brought me to Burning Man and introduced me to dubstep. I was kind of into electronic music, and I used to break dance when I was a teenager, so that sound to me felt like the missing element into the synthesis of hip-hop and electronic music.

With the absence of MLB, you produced nearly the entirety of Sophie. How did you approach the opportunity to have full creative control over the sound?
That’s kind of how this project started out. I was making these new beats and my homie in Oakland heard them and said I’d kind of arrived, so it was time to put some shit out with this sound. So originally the focus was a solo project.

When it came down to me making this project and N8 [the Gr8 from The Cuf] started plugging these beats and Agustus heard it and said the shit was dope. We just decided to do a Lostribe album. It was a lot of hard work, but at the same time it was the most fulfilling and creative thing I’ve done. I tried to make a couple anthems. Try to make some shit that gets stuck in your head.

Why did you name the record Sophie? Because the first thing that comes to my mind is the old Jaz record with Jay-Z called “Hawaiian Sophie.”
I’m almost 30 years old. A large percentage of my friends are getting married or having kids or tied down in committed relationships. I don’t really have none of that shit. So, Sophie is the name I’d have given a daughter. So this is my firstborn. That’s why I named it Sophie.

You hear a lot of musicians talk about their records as their babies. That’s cool that you took that concept to a literal sense.
You know, I was kind of laying in bed the other day and realized everything I’ve done from making money, places I’ve lived, friendships to an extent… Everything I’ve done to gain momentum in my life for the last 10 years has been out of this music. So I’ve put my entire grown ass adult life and heart and soul into this album. So really I couldn’t call it anything else.

You went to boarding school as a youth. And recently you had a nephew get into some trouble, which prompted you to write the song “Live Like a Rebel.” I was wondering if he’s heard the record and if it had an impact on him?
No. I’ve not played it for him yet. He is more into rock music. He gives me a teenager response to everything, which is, “That’s cool.” He’s still 16. I can only live by example and try to show him what’s what. At the same time it is hard for me, because I still do young shit like go to the bar and get drunk. It’s kind of a paradox. I had a really deep conversation with the kid three or four months ago and then the next day he told his dad he figured it out and he got it. Then, the next day went out with his friends and did hella crazy shit. I can’t be mad though. The shit I was doing when I was his age was way worse.

Lostribe’s Sophie is available now in stores and through iTunes, Amazon and other online retailers. The album features guest appearances from Gift of Gab, The Grouch, Talib Kweli and others. Lostribe will perform at Sol Collective on Friday, Sept. 9 with Los Rakas, Danked Out and more. Hosting the event will be Mic Jordan. For more info, go to Lostribeproductions.com

The Garlic Shack
1830 J Street – Sacramento

Words by Adam Saake
Photos by Nicholas Wray / Nicholaswray.com

You may have driven by the corner of 19th and J streets and noticed that Plum Blossom is no more, and in its place is the newly opened and curiously named Garlic Shack. I’ve heard mixed feelings from folks about the closing of Plum Blossom; some couldn’t care less and never went there and others were bummed because sweet and sour chicken was “awesome” at 3 a.m. after seven shots of Jameson. Plum Blossom was a fun place, I agree, but I wouldn’t judge a place’s merits by how late it stayed open. And, if that’s all you’re bummed about, Garlic Shack is open late Thursday, Friday and Saturday to cure those late-night cravings. That deserves another round.

Before I begin, please do yourself this one little favor and stay off of Yelp before you try this place out. It’s OK to make up your own mind about restaurants, and for crying out loud they just opened. I am in no way discrediting Yelp or Yelp users (I used to be one before I began writing this column) but the lack of little stars can be harsh on new restaurants. Submerge prides itself on elevating the awareness and interest in all things Sacramento, and the “Refined Tastes” column is no different. I seek to tell you about places Sacramento loves or places that are new and worthy of checking out. Garlic Shack falls into the latter category, and it is up to you to decide if it falls into the former. Pardon me as I step down from my soapbox.

Submerge visited on a Monday afternoon; hot but not miserable and the newly installed roll-up door was wide open, giving the stoplight voyeurs something to gawk at. The table tops were draped in brown butcher paper and a glass of crayons rested in the middle. Our server grabbed the color red and in big cursive letters wrote her name, “Dre.” “I’m Andrea but my friends call me Dre,” she said with a smile from ear to ear. “How about we start off with the Nor Cal Green Beans,” she continued. Flash fried green beans tossed in hemp, sesame and sunflower seeds and served with a wasabi balsamic aioli dipping sauce. This dish was phenomenal and was a good indicator for how the rest of the menu might taste. Bold flavors and adventurous plates are the theme here, and it’s no surprise considering that garlic is in the spotlight. This isn’t The Tofu Shack (although they have some of that too); we’re talking about the stuff that wards off vampires here.

“We’ve been…trying to give them more garlic,” says owner Kenneth Powers. “It says it in our name, and they can’t get enough of it.”

And so garlic is integrated into many of the dishes, where it can be the star and leave you reaching for the breath mints or where it simply is used to accent what’s on the plate. The special on that Monday was a beer-battered waffle with roasted garlic, caramelized bacon and offered with fried chicken, if one would be so inclined. Inclined we were because it’s not smart to pass up chicken and waffles, especially when there’s bacon and garlic involved. This dish was not for the faint of heart but for the hearty enthusiast. The chicken was smaller pieces of tender and moist breast that were fried in a light batter, while the waffle contained bits of the roasted garlic. Strangely, the garlic was integrated so well into the batter that I almost didn’t notice the texture until midway through eating. I know what you’re thinking right about now–garlic in waffle batter? Yes, and chicken and bacon and syrup. Oh my! Again, a heavy and adventurous plate but fun and executed well.

For those with a lighter palate, the Daphne offers balsamic glazed portabella mushrooms with tofu, garlic mashed potatoes and fresh veggies. Pork lovers can get excited about the West Coast Philly, a new spin on a classic. Take away the cheese steak, add thinly sliced pork loin, Dijon glaze, sautéed mushrooms and onions and then top it with mozzarella on a ciabatta roll and you’re sittin’ pretty.

With the heavy to the light, Powers likes that he’s able to showcase two sides of people’s eating habits.

“We’re not trying to please everybody, but we’re trying to let more people know that people are aware of their diets. You can get the greasy food; you can get it greasy and deep fried or you can get it steamed with brown rice.”

The range of menu items that are all pretty interesting and made with fresh, local ingredients makes this place worth checking out. Taking your time to look over the menu will benefit you, because it’s not really laid out into obvious sections. There are sandwiches, burgers, wraps and entrees but you may need to read a little to figure that out. Local beers are offered, but I recommend the house-brewed ice tea. Ask for the simple syrup to sweeten it up a bit. And no, it’s not garlic tea.