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

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Whigs at Harlows 2/26

Last night at Harlows Nightclub marked the first date for BRMC on there tour to support the up coming album "Beat the Devils Tattoo". I have never been a super huge fan but a few of my beer loving friends decided to go so what the hell I'll go just to check out the scene. I also figured seeing BRMC at a 200-300 club like Harlows could be really cool. I usually enjoy seeing bigger bands in smaller venues, get up close and personal with them. Rub elbows with the life I never quite made it into. As we rolled up to the front door a 35 person line stood in our way. Not a good sign. While we waited in the freezing cold I looked around at my fellow concert goers...more skinny jean wearing, trendy beard sportin hipsters than you could shake a stick at. Not a good sign. When I finally made it threw the door I realized why it took so long; the show had been close to double oversold. Not a good sign. I hate it when clubs or promoters over sell shows by that much, it's dangerous. Anyway I had to bump and grind my way to bar it was stacked about four people deep. The only way I even got a drink was because a friend of mine was working, sweet I grabbed two drinks cause I wasn't about to wait in line again. I turned in circles to find a place to stand but it was so over crowded I could barley move, then some kind sir aloud me to cozy up to the corner of his reserved table pretty close to the stage. About this time Georgia's finest three piece garage rock band The Whigs hit the stage. I couldn't help be a little disappointed that there wasn't a local band on the bill, it's always good to see local guys getting a shot at a big time show. But The Whigs were pretty cool. They had sort of a grunge/southern rock sound to them, as if Kurt Cobain tried to sing like Waylon Jennings. The southern rockers brought some good hooks and riffy songs, but I do think they over used The Pixies style song writing. A lot of there songs used palm muted power chords to get that throatie chugin guitar sound then when they went into the chores an open chord to get a much larger wall of sound. On A few songs the vocals followed the scale the guitar and bass played which is bitchin. It's extremely hard to write songs in that style, that don't just sound like some sort of middle eastern hack job. IE White Stripes song Conquest. By the time The Whigs left the stage I was convinced to buy an album, good stuff. So of course BRMC takes forever to get to the stage. Nothing I like more than sitting in a hot, humid, over sold show with no drink in my hand. I don't understand why you don't add another band to the bill if you are going take your sweet ass time getting to the stage. At Least give us something to watch. Needless to say I was not in a good mood. Like I stated in the beginning of this piece Im not a huge BRMC fan but I DID like them. When the rock stars finally sauntered on stage they came out with a powerful, ambient song? The rest of the set continued to underwhelm. I never noticed how many effects are on the singers voice, live he sounds like an unoriginal version of Billy Corgan. I guess musically speaking they played well, no missed chord changes or off beat train wreck moments but my god I have not been that bored at a show in months. BRMC player mostly their mid-tempo songs, you can only listen to a band rip off Smashing Pumpins (without the good guitar player) for some many songs. Not only that but I think they said as many as two sentences to the audience the entire show. Both the guitar player and the bass player changed instruments between almost every song, Ive done entire tours without turning that much! The drummer played some pretty good drop beats but the bass player played root notes the entire night...BORING. The guitar player used a Capo to play lead parts, how does that?! Most guitar players consider this cheating. When the night came to a close I swore I'd never see BRMC again. They did not come close to living up to quality of there albums and to boot they bored me out of my mind. I do have to give props to The Whigs, good stuff I recommend it. As over sold as the show was the Harlows staff did a great job, from sound to bar, grade A.

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