Melvins vs. Unsane || The Blank Club -SJ, CA || April 11, 2012

One year in college I was working at the radio station and I was assigned to play a 3 hour rock block of the Melvins.  I relived that memory last night, except in technicolor.  Sonically their original sound blisters your soul.  It is good, articulate rock and roll with a middle finger directed straight toward the upper class.  All with such bad ass style that keeps people coming back again and again for more loud, destructive art.

Buzz and Dale may be the founders however it is definitely a sum of the parts.  These are not the Melvins I was introduced to almost 20 years ago.  They have evolved into a hard-rocking machine that draws from everyone in the band.  A prime example of that is the utilization of all their voices, building dynamics through a song...let alone their "Stripes Inspired" chants.  The addition of another drummer hits you harder across the face, and let's just face it....it is completely showing off.  Two mo' fo' bad ass drummers that played a long night last night, filling in for the opening band Unsane, due to their drummer having a hip injury.  Go figure that this too was a hard hitting set.  I had heard of these guys back in the 90s, but some bands just never got a good listen during those pre-internet days.  I was really glad to experience them the way the need to be experienced; live and in person.  So heavy and hard but with the beautiful juxtaposition of sweet Fender Tone!  Yes, you heard me right.  The guitarist rocked a Tele (which looked pretty damn stock) hard into what appeared to be a late 60s Fender Dual Showman.  A true workhorse of an amp and this guy gave it a good run for it's money.  They had an interesting touch of blues too.  Definitely the most over-the-top, hard-rocking blues I have ever seem.  Anybody who busts out a metal slide and harmonica loves the blues.  And it was very apparent last night.  A really unique sound. I don't know what else to say about Unsane, except- 1) I need to do a little more research on the and 2) Go see them Live!

Both bands cannot really be truly captured and appreciated recorded.  Why?  Because what they do cannot be spliced together inside a computer or on analog tape and then spit out.  They do their work on their instruments and in front of a crowd.  And that is why I keep coming out to see it.

Still, I must include a sampling of this onslaught at the Blank Club last night:

Sometimes it is just hard to Rally || February 3, 2012 || Caravan Series

Friday night can be tough.  Especially as you age, which is inevitable in all of us.  Weeks drag, winter nights are dark and cold...listen to me?  I am bitching and I live in California.  Shit, I think it was in the 70s here yesterday.  After work I had 20 minutes on the couch with feet up in the air listening to tunes.  I was ready to roll.

I also find it hard to bitch with the Caravan being a less than ten minute car ride doorstep to doorstep.  Still, it is so much easier for one to sit on the couch and plug into god knows what electronic gadget, than get your ass off the couch and go out.  So, along with myself, I applaud all you people who went out on Friday night.  I applaud you all the more for making it down to the Caravan and listening to the music of The Pinks, Bibles & Hand Grenades and Them Slack Jawed Sons of Bitches.  I apologize for some who had to wait in line and missed some of the set.  Especially on a Friday night.  Warm days always help.  Rainy nights tend to hinder.  Either way, hopefully you can all make it down some other night to join in on the fun of live original musicians that tend to be local day-job yokels.  Here is a little taste of last night:

Nels Cline is God!!! || Wilco || January 28, 2012

Jeff, I kid. But seriously, has anyone seen this dude live? I have a little crush on the mind blowing work of the sideman for Jeff Tweedy's pet project of the last twenty years, Wilco.  I have seen Clapton, I have seen Frusciante and I have seen Van Halen...this guy tops the bill in overall playing tonality and attitude.  The only person that I can think that may come close to getting tones from his amp may be Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo. Another Repeater (Definition of a Repeater: Guitarists and bands that I have no problem seeing over and over again).

It's funny because because the night was summed up by just another wonderful evening cruising through downtown San Jose on bikes with some good friends. I had an idea that I wanted to write a review of Wilco's first performance in the Bay Area.  My biggest concern was to either do it on my regular Blog or this one that is specific to that "underground" scene in San Jose.  My answer became apparent as I walked into the San Jose Civic Auditorium and saw nicely framed pictures of live performances there by many of my idols; Buddy Holly, The Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds....the list just goes on.  This place is a unique  San Jose shrine and should be worshiped as such.  Well, last night surely didn't disappoint by the legend of Wilco.  This band had been on my list of "must sees before I die" since my daughter was born.  I missed their last bay area appearance with Jeff & Steve at The Mountain Winery.  They described their experience as like one from another world.  And these boys have seen some live music in their past.  I had to go. Little did I know that they were going to play 10 minutes from my doorstep, on a Saturday Night and at a legendary auditorium that I had been waiting to visit for the first time.

The opening act was beyond proficient.  One would figure that would be as natural as soft skin on a newborn with the expertise musicianship in Wilco.  These boys ain't gonna be no hacks!  White Denim caught ya.  I have seen a lot of mediocre openers and I am for some lame reason I am always on precaution about it.  They had a jazzy little Pat Metheny thing going on and then the main dude would explode into a Ted Nugent raged solo.  Pretty cool.  My only real critique of them is that the bass tone needed to be a little fuller.  I blame it on his Rickenbacker 4001.  Those things rate high on extremely cool looking, however unless you are going for the Lemmy in Motorhead sound (which is a thing of beauty), don't bring it to a chili cook off.

Then Wilco came out.  They started slow then built about every song into a towering crescendo.  They are the best at writing hot, catchy hooks. Then they develop a complete and total wall of wonderful tones around those hooks.  Usually lighting them on fire with an incredibly insane solo from Nels Cline like this one here:


As Steve noted about Nels, "He was like a mad professor over there."  But he was quick to follow up with how good the entire band is at making the entire entire band sound so good.  It is definitely a sum of the parts.

I can go on and on telling you what songs I thought were brilliant and what not.  When I write one of these I always try to add a little video.  Last night I had the perfect seat (Thanks Koobs!) to sit there and document so much of the evening all the while not get in the way.  I sat next to this dude who, like me, was a "first timer" on the Wilco train.  I'll bet he'll be seeing them again too by the way he was getting into the performance.  At one time I said "look out at the crowd", everyone was just grooving along to a Wilco song.

Here's a heavy amount of Wilco footage to quench a hearty thirst.  There will be more posted on at my youtube account if you are in need of even more.  And I apologize to others who are yet to see them on this tour.  I would wait on the video, or maybe just watch one or two to get yourself amped up for the show ;-)




To make it align up in the Lofi San Jose category, we did end up going on down to visit Rachel at The Caravan.  We did see a performance of a band that name slips me at this time, but I did catch a little video of one of their songs.  Not bad, though their setlist started getting weak halfway through.  Probably just another new band in downtown San Jose.


The night began at a beer festival at the Women's Club and a cocktail at Original Joe's.  Peeked at Wilco. It ended with a nice ride on down to the local Jack in the Box by the college, which was loaded with characters that time of night, for a little late night, sobering snack.  Koobs was so proud to have ordered the  jumbaco all the while the dude behind the counter didn't even flinch.  Brilliant marketing, Jack!


"They are the best American band we got!" -Steve Laflen on Wilco

Inspiring...|| 74 yr. Dick Dale rocking The Blank Club || January 6, 2012

There was nothing more I needed Friday night than to roll into The Blank Club and hear the legendary Dick Dale blast through his setlist with his son, Jimmy Dale on Drums and Sammy Bolle from Agent Orange & Slacktone.  It was a thing of beauty and the exact therapy my little brain needed.  My good friend and artistic sage, Joe Izzo, succumbed to his long battle with cancer the day before.  Seeing a man who himself has been battling cancer for the last 3 years of his life get up on stage and totally and completely rock it (like no other 74 year old I know could ) was very inspirational.  And I believe it was an inspiration that was felt throughout the packed crowd that night.  It is good to see a sold out show at The Blank Club.  It is even better when the artist is deep into his golden years.

60s Dick Dale

The show was phenomenal.  Me and my buddies (thanks guys for dragging me off the couch) sidewinded right up to the front side of the stage and enjoyed a man who was truly in his element. Heck, he has been doing this the majority of his time on earth and I am sure he will be doing it even more where he is going.  It was great seeing Jimmy rocking it out on drums and really expanding as a musician too.  A while back he was playing guitar with his father and really learning the ropes.  Dick Dale is known for being a task master to his band.  Never a set list and always keeps the band guessing.  I saw Jimmy look over at Sammy several times and give a big sigh of relief while wiping his brow after nailing the untold direction that his father was heading into; a true jam.  It was brilliant. 
But I noticed something else in Jimmy's eyes.  This twenty year old kid was enjoying the moment.  He knows that these live performances with his father are a gift and that they will not go on forever.  He is seizing the opportunity that is in front of him and making the most of it.  Truly inspirational.

It was an energetic show and the crowd ate up every last moment of it.  They did not wander home after catching half the set.  Even the ones who were mostly grey on the head were still front and center watching history unfold in front of their eyes.  Life has only one direction; death.  We are all going to be there some day.  The only thing we can do until we find ourselves knocking on the gates is enjoy ourselves.  The men on the stage that night were doing just that.  To quote Dick Dale up on stage that night, "a while back I had tubes coming out of me, doctors opening me up and radiation shooting through my body...but I'm still here."  And if you are reading this, so are you...

To sum up the performance, the last thing Dick screamed into the mic while closing out his set is...

"You people are my medicine.  Thank you!"

Metal, Metal || Your Life is a Mess || Caravan Series

Now I am not the biggest fan of metal, let alone Death Metal or Thrash Metal completed in substandard forms, however I am a fan of free, live entertainment (substandard quotient adjusted).  And, thus, I found myself at the Caravan again on a Friday night, listening to the moody tunes of a couple of Bay Area metal bands.  All  aural pleasures were free and the beer was cheap.


We showed up at the witching hour and missed the first band, Crooked as Fuck.  I was a little bummed out about it because with a name as adolescent as that; it was almost a guarantee that they would bring the attitude.  The next band that came out of the gates was, Ladies Night.  Talking with Murray Bowles (all photos courtesy of Murry, also more available here) before their performance he had mentioned that he wasn't sure if these guys had even played a show before.  He hadn't seen them, but he must have heard of them because he was there to shoot some film.  They were okay, and I mainly blame the venue on this...yeah, I know you get what you pay for!  They all seemed like competent players and screamers, they definitely brought a crowd too.  So, it was a fun event, but with so much powerful noise exploding in front of me, I needed more balance.  Definitely not enough balance.  Check out for yourself:




Next up; Nihlotep....worth the price of admission.  We saw them putting on their face make up at the end of the second band's set.  I am just like Putty, and I am a big fan of face painters.  I wish I had enough cojones (or whatever it takes) to put make up all over my face before a performance.

Needless to say, face painters are full throttle.  There is no half stepping face painting....and if there is, then it is kind of funny.  However, Nihlotep take their craft very seriously and LOVE death metal.  And the fans of death metal who were at the show loved Nihlotep.  I mean what can be better; face painting, crazy ass Metal font on a crazy ass metal name, and a two song 45 minute set.  The dual guitar driven band was on.  They had their licks dialed in.  But the prize must go to the badass drummer.  The guy was insane.  With honorable mention definitely going to branch-carrying lead singer.  The guy had a set of pipes and could really let out a cackle.  Mad props to Nihlotep.  Enjoy the partial vids of their two songs (sorry arm got tired):

Mixed Nuts Night || December 2, 2011 || Caravan Series

The name says it all. It was definitely a bag of mixed nuts last night at The Caravan. Then again this is the reason that we love this bar so much. And every once and a while those nuts taste so damn good...almost as good as the the vices that we were also there for.  It started out with a small chat and hello to bouncer Phil.  He is the one who inspired the headline.  "Hey, Phil!  How's it going?  Who is playing tonight?"  He appropriately replied, "Well it is kind of a mixed bag tonight."  He was sure right about that.

We paid our admission of one flash of the i.d. for a stamp and atmittence into the bar.  They had a decent early crowd with just a few regulars.  The first band was already playing.  My guess was that it was a newly formed band called  Bottle Kids.  They were competent enough.  The guitar player had a good tone and as many agree, not enough female singers out there in the scene, so it is always nice to see a women chiming through with her natural pipes, which sounded good.  Too many covers though.  They probably just need to spend more time writing and recording.  A good opening to the evening though.

Next up to the plate were the old time punks, Five Fingers of Death.  Now I don't know how long that these guys have been doing this, but it sounded like they had been at it quite a while from all the quirps and rips about being old and rumors of breakups and what not.  Let alone, their sound placed me smack dab right back in the 1985 punk scene.  They were tight, with the exception of the drummer, John Surrey.  I don't think that was his real name but it was last night.  The bass player was full of stage banter and classic punk ribbing that had me in tears I was laughing so hard.  A couple of the better rants were, "Hey we have a celebrity in the audience tonight.  Ladies and gentlemen may I introduce you to Roberta Gonzales of the Channel 5 News Team.  She is hiding right behind Rob Zombie."  It wasn't them, but damn near close. 
 
The two veterans up front really let the drummer have it.  He took the brunt of the humor, but they were damn right about the goofy look on his face as he played in time to the punk beat.  All three looked like they were having fun and they sure were entertaining.  Plus who cannot love such hits as "Lick my Balls", "Fat Bitch" and "The Drunk Side of the Moon".  I concur that I had not seen Five Fingers of Death before.  I would've remembered the schtick.  I will see them again.

Last, but not least, were the newcomers to the scene, Loose Cuts.  Don't have a clue what the name means....sometimes its better that way.  Shit, these kids came out blazing.  First off, I dig the young, hipster humor.  The drummer in cutoff red pants, headband and a Bob Marley shirt with a portrait of Hendrix on it.  Though they may be young they steal all of their swagger in the likes of Mick and the boys circa '64.  They are basically a tight blues band with a rippin' guitar sound.  The guitarist has some licks and it is easy to do when he had a great rhythm section backing him up.  The vocalist sounded very similar to Jeremy Powers of Red Planet and once he gets the confidence behind him and starts strutting like Howlin' Pelle Almqvist these guys will really become contenders.  Like I mentioned, they came out blazing however the set got a little weak toward the end.  Typical of a young band.  My only other constructive criticism would be for the guitarist to keep the Fender Blues Jr. in the bedroom and get a higher wattage amp for clubs.  The tone was fine, it just wasn't in balance with the rest of the band.  I will be on the lookout for these guys in the future.

Mixin' up the genre's.  All and all another great night of good bands all for the cost of some liquor at the Caravan.  If I am able to find any pictures from the show I will post too.

Red Planet || The Laws of Tonnage || Hidden Rock'n'Roll P.8

Technically they would loved to be known as a San Francisco/East bay (by way of Alameda) band, but these boys roots run deep in the Santa Clara Valley.  Red Planet is/was (??? Not too sure of their current status) an amazing band that as the rumor has it met while attending Santa Clara University. I heard they were part of a small allegiance of tribesmen working at the college radio station attempting, once again, to resurrect a flailing southbay scene.  I don't know much about them except this was another Jeff Okubo find during his all-too-short tenure at Zero Magazine.  He was really diggin' the bands on the Gearhead Records label when he got his hands on "Let's Degenerate", which happened to be the sophomore full length effort by these local boys and it definitely their best.  This genius production is loaded with sniveling adolescents that creates a masterpiece of an album .  The sheer energy in which they go through the line up of tracks turns this whiner-fest into attitude packed fist punch to the face.  I love it.  Through and through.  They run the gamate for straight ahead punk rock to Van Halen & Cheap Trick inspired licks and solo's that firmly place Chris Dunn into the "master-craftsman" status of noodling together loose riffs into a powerhouse of rock and roll.

To see the live show is to really believe the magic.  My introduction came by way of an 80-something toyota corolla hatchback and Sylvain Sylvain.  Colin Kutch was an intern at the now defunct Zero Magazine.  He had offered (maybe forced into) giving his co-worker and I a ride up to San Francisco's legendary The Pound to the Sylvain Sylvain show where he got to take care of us.  Red Planet opened up the show and just blew down the doors.  I heard it was the first show of a tour across the U.S. with Sylvain Sylvain and you could tell they were pumped up on what lay ahead.  You could feel the energy they were soaking in from the hometown crowd.  I immediately tried to see them again when the tour was completed and they were opening up for The Epoxies at the Bottom of the Hill.  I learned my lesson and had to listen to RP from the stoop of the entrance due to it being a sold out show.  Next, I tried to catch them at The Starry Plough in Berkeley.  By this time family obligations led the drummer, John Messier, to leave the band.  This is unfortunate because John is a tasty drummer and his chops would be missed (as luck would have it I had the opportunity to jam with Mr. Messier out in the east bay way back when.  An honor bestowed upon my little consciousness).  The Starry Plough show would falter with a broken bass drum and an unenthusiastic motivation to move forward, soon after brought the band to a halt.

Where are they now?  Good question.  I believe Jeremy is still rocking with The Parties.  I hate to say it, but it is a luke-warm power pop band that I caught once.  Chris Dunn is behind the board engineering albums from The Parties as well as taking part in Trevor Childs & The Beholders along with Gordon Evans.  John Messier did a stint with The Police cover Band, Stung and now it looks like he is getting paid with PopFiction.

I understand that their was personal differences of opinion in the band, but I truly believe that this line up mentioned above was definitely a "sum of the parts" making one of the most energetic live shows to come out of the bay area.  Heck, even Lennon and McCartney didn't get along all the time!  I think they owe it to the fans to reunite plays some more shows.  Or at least, if they have old video footage put it up on Youtube.  Their is very little video out there on the web. 

And I am not the only one that thinks so highly of this band.  I found this little jem of a quote on the web about the boys in RP,

"But the crowd, the rock & roll crowd, wants more. They need closure. Red Planet has to take the stage. Yes! That sound! Those songs! It's only rock & roll. But, oh, it is such a show! Punk rock energy (if they could afford it, you just know Red Planet would smash stuff), smoke bombs, and tin cans full of fire. An audience member holds up a bottle of Jack Daniels; the band passes it around. How very rock. How very roll. All the time, Scotty Bruno--the manager--sits behind the stage, chain smoking, and looking like a Brit-pop music mogul. Right here in San Francisco! Can you believe it"-Melinda Whitehouse, Posthoc

Please reunite forces and conquer the world!


While researching for this article, I came across this video.  Looks like the boys played a "one off" gig down in L.A. back in August.  This is really positive to see.  Please enjoy!