Young Dubliners Show Review for Submerge Mag

Whats the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the term Celtic rock? Hopefully not U2, maybe Flogging Molly but more accurately you should think of Young Dubliners. After all they are one of the most influential Celtic rock bands from the United States. After five years of skipping over the Sacramento area on tour the southern California based Irishmen brought there flavor of traditional Irish folk and modern rock to Harlows Night Club Thursday Night. I had the privilege of witnessing it first hand. After arriving a few minutes late and getting over the shock of a large portion of the crowd looking about the right age to have gone to high school with Betty White, we found the merrymaking in full swing. To fully appreciate the pub like Irish folk instrumental jam the Young Dubliners had broke into, I ordered a shot of Jameson with a Guinness back from the more than obliging bartender. Watching local Irish rockers The Black Eyed Dempsey jump and bounce on the dance floor to the guitar driven punk rock inspired song “The Foggy Dew” really gave the room a Pogues vibe. Lead singer Keith Roberts made the casual announcement that since they haven't been to Sacramento in so long they would be playing songs from all eight of there albums. Young Dubliners showed a softer side with a few heart felt acoustic ballads like “In The End”. A great deal of the lyrics off there new album Saints and Sinners speak out against how bad things have gotten internationally without losing the profound belief that things can and will get better. Traditional folk instrumental pieces such as “Ashley Falls” really allowed the well seasoned musicians space to showcase there individual talents; specifiably allowing fiddle player extraordinaire Chaz Waltz some room to show off his chops. Not since Gilles Apap has such fine fiddle work been laid down; Waltz solos are a perfect blend of classical training and folk improvisation not to mention he plays in a intense Johnny Ramone style power stance! Touring with the five piece rock n roll group was famed Uillean piper (electric bagpipe) and pennywhistle master Eric Rigler. On some of the darker power ballads he was able to make the already ominous bag pipes sound a little spookier with a slight delay on it. You might know Rigler for his work on such small movie soundtracks as Brave Heart and Titanic. The accomplished piper treated the audience to the theme song of Brave Heart which I assume is the equivalent, for people of Celtic decent, as an American watching Jimmy Hendrix shred “The Star Spangled Banner” at Wood Stock. Traditional Irish folk songs “Molly Malone” and “Seven Drunken Nights” really brought a bounty of dancers and hip shakers to the floor and ending the show with the Dropkick Murphy's-ish power song “The Rocky Road To Dublin” set the small but enthusiastic crowd on fire. After the great set and a few more Guinness I had a chance to chat with Keith Roberts. Through a barely understandable Irish accent he first apologized for coming to Northern California and having allergies. After I apologized for arriving fifteen minutes late, he assured me with a sly smile that those precious early minutes of the set where indeed the best part. Roberts did inform me that Young Dubliners planned on making Sacramento a regular stop on there touring schedule, “We are in the same freaking state for gods sake” he excitedly barked. Hopefully these words will hold true because an evening spent with the Young Dubliners is an evening well spent. Make sure to catch there next Sacramento performance and you to will fully understand what Celtic rock means.

Anthony

Ps. I know I can't spell or punctuate correctly

Silent Comedy Show Review for Submerge Mag

Photos by Adam Plantz

Do you ever feel like you missed out on an era? The era portrayed in such films as Casablanca or Gone With The Wind. Do you ever feel like you should have lived in a time when people dressed up to go out on the town and drank highballs? Well Wednesday night Shady Lady Saloon, with the help of musical guest The Silent Comedy, brought that generation back to life. Granted I saw far fewer men in full suits, women in flapper dresses and far more tattoos in the room then I would imagine the 1940's but the spirit was alive. The classic speakeasy look of Shady Lady paired perfectly with the O Brother, Where Art Thou threads of The Silent Comedy. Their digs were complete with slacks, vests, pork pie hats, and mustaches; the mustaches were so glorious a walrus would turn away in shame. Shortly after this brilliant display of fire and mixology by one of the owners, musical entertainment of the night, The Silent Comedy took the stage. These fellas didn't waste any time with the first song “The Prince”. It had dark over tones of swamp blues, an obvious New Orleans Dixieland jazz influence, matched with raspy rock n roll vocals and a stomp beat that rattled the walls. In fact, the stomping beats these guys laid down the entire night had so much power the main vocalist Joshua Zimmerman brings his own box to stand on because he “put his foot threw so many stages”. The very next song slowed the tempo way down, lead guitarist Jeremiah Zimmerman took over the microphone and played keyboard on the track. Jeremiah's vocals gave a nice Billy Joel quality while the rest of the band brought an ominous folky gospel tent revival vibe to round out the song. The rest of the night continued this way; they would “bring you down and pick you back up”. The entire saloon jumped, stomped, and danced to the original bluesy devil inspired rock roll songs such as “Moonshine”, “Poison”, and “49”. We all swayed and locked arms to the slow sad melodies of indie folk, slightly country ballads like “All Saints Day” and “Regrets”. Tim Graves, who also played guitar and shared vocals duties, brought a lot of the bluesy feeling with damn impressive harmonica playing. Implementing advanced precision harmonica technique called tongue blocking; actually using your tongue, while playing, to block out notes. The three part singing harmonies by brothers Zimmerman and Graves was magnified by the other three band members shouting lyrics in the background. Giving an exceptional two tone amphitheater texture to some of the vocals. Between songs set off a musical fire drill, they exchanged instruments and spots on stage. On any given song one of the band members might be playing; acoustic guitar, slide guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin, violin, concertina (a small accordion), keyboard, harmonica or drums. Finishing off the night was piano driven gospel inspired song “The Well”. It was nothing short of the church scene in Blues Brothers. People were dancing, singing, and generally being over come by the power of the soulful music. The Silent Comedy draws from influences from across the board, time periods and genres, culminating to something along the lines of a Killers, Muddy Waters, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Django Reinhardt sound. Not to mention an intensity in their live performance that rivals some of the top punk rock bands. I highly recommend you pick up a copy of The Silent Comedy's new album Common Faults on itunes or at there next Sacramento appearance.

Anthony

Ps. I know I can't spell or punctuate correctly

The Expendables interview for Submerege Mag

To call The Expendables a reggae rock band is an understatement. They have been playing there own unique blend of music for nearly fifteen years. Growing up in Santa Cruz, California instilled many different musical influences in them; everything from reggae, punk rock, surf, and 80's metal. I guarantee you have never heard a reggae song with blast beats and an Iron Maiden style shred solo in the middle of it. According to The Expendables, “We surf, skate, party and play music”. This laid back attitude has taken them from playing frat parties to their own nationwide headlining tours to support on amphitheater tours with international acts such as 311 and G. Love & Special Sauce. The Santa Cruz locals have also had the privilege of sharing the stage with such bands as Slightly Stoopid, Pepper, NOFX, Pennywise, Fishbone, Ziggy Marley and Kottonmouth Kings. Guitar Hero World Tour even used their song “Sacrifice” off the Gettin Filthy album as a playable song. You'd think after four records and countless tours, the four piece would be ready to take it easy, but no, “idle time is not an option”. March of this year saw the announcement of their fifth album Prove It along with a nearly two month summer support tour. Paul Leary of Butthole Surfer's and El Hefe of NOFX grabbed the reins as producers on the new record, “bringing a vibe to the studio as only two punk rock guitar legends could...they dug our weirdness”. And for anyone out there that thinks The Expendables have lost there originality, they have this to say: “We are bringing something new to the table, while still staying true to the sounds that make us who we are.” I recently had the chance to chat with Adam Patterson, the back bone of any good band; the drummer.

Hey how's it going?

Pretty good, we had a night off last night, I partied pretty hard. I am extremely hung over but stoked to do this interview.

[Laughs] I understand. So The Expendables have been together since 1997

Yeah we where just 16 year old kids from Santa Cruz messing around with different types of weird music. We didn't get serious until around 2000 when we recorded our first record.

Santa Cruz is known as being one of the surf and skate capitols of the world. What was it like being a sixteen year old kid coming up in that music scene?

Oh man it was a lot of fun, there were always shows going on, plenty of good local bands to play with. It was really a great time to be a band. There was always a big band coming through; NOFX, Strung Out, Less Than Jake or 311. We actually became friends with some of those bands and have been lucky enough to tour with them. Not to mention people in Santa Cruz are super respective to all styles of music. It was really a good time.

Speaking of 311, I see you guys got to do an amphitheater tour with them last summer, how crazy was that?

It was wonderful they showed us an entirely different side of touring we had never seen before. The level of professionalism is crazy, they basically set up a musicians city everyday. The amount of preparation they do everyday just to put on a good show is amazing. It's a lot different doing our own headlining tour this summer. [Laughs] We try to carry the same professionalism but much smaller venues.

How did you guys fit recording an album into your busy tour schedule?

Actually the first part of last year (2009) and the last part of the year before (2008) were incredibly busy but we got to take the last six months of 2009 off to record the album and get ready to do some heavy support tours. We aren't used to having time off, it was kinda hard to stay focused. Since we had been writing the new record over the last 3 years we only had to take a few months off to finish it and really focus on doing the best job we could. Which is why we brought in the producers we did. And I think we accomplished that, it's my favorite album to date. I think it's our best representation of the band and what we are capable of.

I was reading the album credits and saw you had Paul Leary of Butthole Surfers and EL Hefe of NOFX produce the album

We met Paul threw Pepper, he came to a show in Austin in a few years back, and we spent the next two years talking with him. When it came time to actually get a producer he was all in, he likes our weirdness. El Hefe had contacted our label, Stoopid Records, looking to work with one of the bands and we are huge NOFX fans so we jumped on that as quick as possible. We got along well and wrote a song together, “Donkey Show”, it turned out really good. The album also features some of our friends from Slightly Stoopid as well as G. Love

The new album, Prove It sounds slightly more general rock than your previous releases

People have been telling us we lost our dub(reggae) sound. We are a guitar driven band, always have been. I feel like we did a little of everything on this record. We did a six minute metal songs, a few punk songs, a seventeen minute dub song and pretty much everything in between. We're a weird band we like to play every type of music.

Pick up you copy of Prove It at The Expendables live show May 30th at The Boardwalk or June 1st at Freeborn Hall on the UC Davis campus.

Anthony

Ps. I know I can't spell or punctuate correctly

She & Him Volume 2 Cd Review

In mid 2008 I happened to be lucky enough to catch a four sentence blurb in Rolling Stone about Zooey Deschanel and M. Wards new band She & Him. Ive always liked Zooey's(She) voice, she sings in every single movie she has ever been in, and M. Wards(Him) guitar driven raspy voiced indie tunes have always been at the top on my play list. I decided to pick up there first album Volume One: I fell in love. I recently scored a copy of there second release Volume Two. Contrary to Volume One's peppy almost overly enthusiastic love songs Volume Two is mostly comprised of angry, bordering on spit-full, break up songs. The display of emotion on this album allows much more connection between the band and the audience. Starting the album off is a throw back country music Raul Malo-ish song titled Thieves; which is about how someone stole her and her lovers love. You can really feel a lot of pain behind such songs as the simply comprised Gunna Get Along Without You Now and the sixty's doo woop styled Ridin' in My Car. However, they cover the sad-bastard lyrics with cute quirky happiness by using cheery melodies and Zooey's charming phrasing. Although I do really like Zooey's easy smooth vocals she seems to use less of the vibrato in her voice which what I fell in love with. I know Deschanel doesn't have a very powerful voice but the background vocals over power her quite a bit and she is flat on several of the songs. Zooey and Ward maintain some of the catchy Patsy Cline meets Aretha Franklin with a piano vibe from Volume One with the tracks Over It Over Again and Home. The delightful use of ukulele, slack key guitar and reverb on the guitar solos allowed the duo to turn over a new leaf portraying much more of a sleepy 1950's Hawaiian feel. Almost giving the album Wanda Jackson combined with The Beach Boys quality. The musical ability of Ward paired with the song writing skill of Deschanel has brought us another solid, fun, and chic album. Volume Two also delivers something that has been missing from mainstream music for a long time; BELIEVABILITY. Hopefully we will be getting more heartfelt music from She & Him very soon.

Anthony
Ps. I know I can't spell or punctuate correctly

An interview I did for Submerge Magazine

Words by Anthony Giannotti
Brian Hanover is most well known for his years fronting the Sacramento-based street punk band Hanover Saints. After seven U.S. tours, two full-length records, four EPs and nearly 10 years playing together, Hanover Saints called it quits in 2005. Fast forward to 2010, Brian is about to release his second solo album, publish a book of his writings, continue running his own screen printing business and still finds time for his family. Brian’s mindset fully embodies the DIY lifestyle, going as far as to release his solo albums on his own record label Revolution Ink Records, casually saying “I work hard, it’s just what I do; I don’t know anything else”. This impressive work ethic has served him well in nearly two decades of playing music; Brian slyly smirks while saying “I’ll always play music because my mind won’t let me stop writing songs!” His easy going demeanor and friendly attitude makes it hard to not to like him. The story, depth, and honesty of his songs allow him to win over audiences with just an acoustic guitar and harmonica. Brian likes to involve the fans at his live performances by leaving a tambourine out for people to play. He laughs as he says, “You just hope whoever grabs it at least has a little rhythm.” He also does something a lot of older musician don’t do, “I want to stay relevant, I don’t want to be the crusty old guy that doesn’t know what the kids are listening to.” I had a chance to catch up with the 35-year-old punk rocker over a few pints of Guinness at one of my favorite Sacramento dive bars, The Press Club.

Thanks for meeting up with me here; I know you’re a busy guy
No problem, thank you. I’ve only been here a couple times. One of the first times I came to The Press Club was in the early ‘90s to see US Bombs, it was a crazy night I was over there behind Townhouse smoking and some kid got stabbed at the show!

So you’ve been around the Sacramento punk scene a longtime.
In 1984 I was skating a launch ramp with some friends, and someone down the street was blaring 7 Seconds Walk Together Rock Together. Later that day I made my mom drive me to the record store, back then there was Dimple, Record Factory and of course Tower. I got my first punk records that day, 7 Seconds’ The Crew, and Black Flag’s Damaged. I started going to local shows in the mid-‘80s. I even met my wife at a Suicidal Tendencies show back when Big Shots was still open.

SM: Yeah congratulations on the 10-year wedding anniversary, you just got back from a little trip?
BH: Thanks it’s been a good 10 years. We went up to wine country for the weekend

What’s it like trying to balance your own business, wife, kid and being a recording/tour musician?
[Laughs] There really is no balance; I think it’s priorities for sure. My wife knew what she was getting into, this is just what I do, and I was already in a band when we got together. One thing that really strengthens us as a couple is being able to do our own thing, it allows us to grow together, really surrounds us with love and grace, [laughs] a lot of grace.

Speaking of doing your own thing, I took a listen to the new release it’s very good, quite the departure from the Hanover Saints…
Yeah some of it is. For this album I wanted to strip most of the songs down so I really only used an acoustic guitar, tambourine, harmonica and on a few songs electric guitar. All accept the fourth track; it actually was a Hanover Saints song that never made it on an album. It was right toward the end of it, I had already been writing solo stuff, and I brought it to practice when we were playing as a three-piece with Chris from Killing the Dream on bass.

Some of the songs on here have a real Johnny Cash/Bob Dylan singer songwriter vibe jumping off them.
Each song is a little bit different from the other, they may have a common thread but I tried to get a large variety. Everything I sing about is all true stories, all personal experiences, kind of a Pete Seeger thing. I wanted to do this release differently because of all the different formats everything is coming out in. So the way I’m doing this release is in three volumes, every four months four more songs come out. The next volume is going to come out with a book I wrote and a coffee mug, because it all started with coffee and late night rants for me.

How did the book come about?
Like I said I was always at coffee shops writing. Some of the Hanover Saints lyrics I always really liked as standalone pieces. I had been cleaning out some old papers and I found old poetry, short stories and some other stuff I thought I’d like to publish it, I don’t know if it’s any good. Sometimes writers can think a little too much of themselves, think there a little bigger than life, but I went to a book store and picked up a book of poetry and one of the stanzas I turned to was literally 4 sentences. I thought, I can totally do this. It’s ridiculous.

Do you think it was the writing that attracted you to more of the acoustic style over staying in the punk rock genre?
Most of the Hanover Saints was written on acoustic or electric. It just depended on how I heard it in my head. One day I was playing the song “Bad Man” at home, Mike Ericson happened to be doing some work for me and heard it. He talked me into putting that song on Hanover Saints record Murdertown, which Pressure Point was producing. By the end of Hanover Saints I felt I had said everything that avenue would allow me to say. I really wanted to get that one on one connection with the audience. I definitely think there is a place for the loud thing. I’m always going to be into punk, and I’ll probably play it again, it’s just if you’ve said what you need to say for that part of your life I don’t feel the need to keep dragging that dead horse around.

Have you found that one on one connection?
I wanted to try getting up and doing a solo show but I was too afraid. Then in 2005 Kevin Seconds talked me in to being on a bill with him. I just fell in love with it. Being able to play coffee shops, small bars, garages, living rooms and really some sketchy places is an entirely different, incredible, personal experience for me. You can get to know the people and the city you are playing in instead of rushing through to the next gig like when you’re in a full band. I’ve made some great friends all over the country playing solo.

Anthony
Ps. I know I can't spell or punctuate correctly

A show review I did for Submerge Magazine

7Seconds, Youth Brigade, Pressure Point, Boats!, The Knockoffs
Shire Road Club, Friday Jan. 29
Words Anthony Giannotti

When I heard about this show I was really excited for several reasons: First, I hadn’t seen some of the bands in almost 10 years; second, it showcased a wide cross-section of Sacramento punk rock talent; and third, it gave me a reason to get out of the grid and check out a new all age’s venue. So I made the trip all the way out to The Shire Road Club.
First up were The Knockoffs. The band consists of guys from other great Sacramento punk bands The Secretions and The No-Goodniks and Berkeley, Calif.’s Mr. T Experience. Right out of the gate these hometown heroes hit us with three-chord punk that would do The Ramones proud—songs chock-full of sing-alongs, power hooks and quirky choruses about girls. I found the drummer of this band to be very interesting; in fact I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Imagine if The Rock stopped taking steroids AND played with the exact facial expression/drumming style of Ringo Starr circa 1964.
Next up was the pop punk trio Boats! The set started out with some equipment malfunction that caused the guitar player to miss some notes and forget chord changes. Anyone that has played in a touring band understands every show can’t be the best one you’ve ever played; you just move on and play better next time. These guys did have some catchy tunes. Similar to something you might here on a late 90’s Screeching Weasel album, fun goofy three chord punk. The bass player David blew me away, honestly one of the best young punk bass players I’ve seen in a long time.
The third band, and arguably the best band on the bill, was Pressure Point. I really don’t know what else to say about these guys, they are just fantastic New York style hardcore punk. Apparently I was not the only person who felt this way because the previously motionless, expressionless crowd burst into a wild circle pit, fist-flying singing along to all the songs. These guys brought a little more musical complexity to the night, more than five chords per song and some flashy lead guitar. Pressure Point brought out an interesting observation; punks, skinheads and hardcore kids attended this show. Not a lot of other cities can boast such unity.
As soon as Youth Brigade hit the stage I was immediately unimpressed. Yeah I know, punk legends, been around forever, whatever. For some reason Shawn Stern (lead singer) had a problem with the majority of the audience not being born before his band started. He seemed to imply that we weren’t there so we don’t “get it”. This is the equivalent of Boss Hogg telling me I don’t “get” Dukes of Hazard because I wasn’t born in the south. I don’t see this in any other genre of music but for some reason some old punk rockers are ageists. Sorry for being younger than you. I don’t know what you want me to do about it. If you’ve seen the classic punk documentary Another Sate of Mind you’ve seen modern day Youth Brigade. They still play teeth grinding aggressive 80’s style barking hardcore punk. Shawn is still singing about politics and playing the same power chords, I didn’t get the impression that he wanted to be there. He acted as if he was going through the motions, to get paid.
7Seconds was the last band to take the stage, they immediately kicked down the doors and tore the roof off. They played fast, loud, and hard. I was surprised Bobby didn’t break a string the way he slammed on that guitar. Steve Youth played about as complicated of a bass line as you can fit into a blazing fast punk song. I loved Kevin’s vocals, that distinct higher range is one of the things that has made 7 Seconds so recognizable over there career. What an extraordinary band, they are celebrating there 30th anniversary so get out and see them!!!
All said and done it was a good night with very talented bands. It was a good reminder of what I love about punk rock. I hope Shire Road Club has more of these shows in store for us.

Anthony
ps I know I can't spell or punctuate correctly