The Young Gods were the impetus for the recent revolution of mass electronica—Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson and Rammstein. Second Nature, one of this Swiss trio’s most fluid albums, was released overseas through the scarcely known Intoxygene label. Nearly two years later, audiophile Mike Patton’s Ipecac Recordings has released it here. Although the Young Gods thrive on psychedelia, their most promising moments are found in up-tempo, knee-jerk-inducing numbers. From the mind-altering “Supersonic” to the single, “Lucidogen,” the Young Gods continue the magic found on their early Interscope releases, such as Only Heaven. What separates this group from the amalgam of wannabe industrial crybabies is its configuration of drums, keyboards and vocals. Live, the band is devastating; in the studio, it weaves intricacies and subtleties that, upon repeated listen, become more and more addicting.
The Apes know how to make the Moog keyboard work to their advantage. Under the direction of vocalist Paul Weil, this Washington, D.C., quartet plays a gritty, retro-influenced bastardization of rock ’n’ roll, like the Liars and Brainiac reduced to their most primitive forms. The Fugue in the Fog should dispel any notion that the Apes’ hometown hasn’t produced more than one good band. Jeff Schmid’s drums, coupled with Amanda Kleinman’s colorful organ work, make for one hell of a sonic experience. As evidenced in “Mountain of Steel” or “Land Of Ruin,” the Apes know how to create soundscapes without the addition of the electric guitar. Even fans of stoner metal, à la Sleep or early Kyuss, will enjoy what the Apes bring to the table. A bunch of lower primates cashing in on rock music’s new subculture? I think not.
Media-savvy Luxt aims for the title of hardest-working band in local show business
Luxt, with Anna Christine (obviously not Anna Nicole) on the left and Frost, Erie Loch, David H. and Crash on the right, from top to bottom.
CD-release party 7 p.m. Saturday, January 25; at the Colonial Theatre, 3522 Stockton Blvd.; all ages, $10. With Beat Officers, Simplistic and Lowboy.
A few short years ago, bands were nipping at the heels of major-label A&R weasels, hoping to land that all-important, self-indulgent record deal.
Today, bands are taking back from the now-moribund record industry what is rightfully theirs, realizing that most of the resources to make a good, nationally distributed album are just a mouse click away. Though the Internet may have given away too much—take Napster or Kazaa, for instance—some of the info transferred over the wires managed to enlighten and teach the masses.
Luxt, Sacramento’s largest consistently drawing hard-rock act since the Deftones, just released its newest album through Blackliner Records, a label run by Lynn and Sonny Mayugba, best known for their local bands the Skirts and Daycare, respectively. Luxt’s new record, American Beast, is distributed nationally though indie-label distributor IDN.
The current lineup of Luxt—Anna Christine on vocals, Erie Loch on guitar and keyboards, David H on guitars, Crash on bass and Frost on drums—is easily the band’s strongest. As evidenced on American Beast’s standout tracks—“Cease”; “Infinite”; and “Death,” which closes the album—the band’s influences are far and reaching. Imagine a juncture where early Garbage, Lacuna Coil, the Gathering, KMFDM and White Zombie meet, and you’re ready for the Luxt experience.
As far as Luxt’s members’ ages go, let’s just say that they’re experienced. “You’re gonna have to fistfight Anna for that info,” Loch joked. “We’re all about 19, spiritually.”
Touring is integral to a band’s success. Without a live show to promote and sell music, most record labels won’t touch an act. Fortunately, Luxt is a self-contained touring machine. Besides having a fully functional van-trailer combination, the band has a very impressive merchandise booth, one that puts even major-label-funded ones to shame.
“We want to tour 366 days a year,” Loch said, “but we’ll do as much as we possibly can. There’s nothing better than having the ability to promote your own CD instead of waiting for someone else to do it for you. Between recording, re-recording, releasing an album—we started the process back in October—and politics, we were only able to play 60 shows in 2002. The two previous years, we had done about 100 a year, so we’re really champing at the bit to be playing a lot more.”
And, though most bands don’t understand what goes into making a successful record, Luxt’s members have the inside scoop. Because the band was signed to indie labels early on, it’s attained quite a savvy and has learned from its mistakes. As Loch puts it, “Metropolis Records only functioned as a distributor for us, so I can’t speak for them. But, as for [former labels] 21st Circuitry and Knight Records, yes, we’ve learned that good intentions don’t usually materialize into actions.”
However, Luxt has a game plan now, and the band’s singer and businesswoman is leading the charge. “Anna is our shark,” an enthusiastic Loch said. “She takes care of business and is the reason this band is not only still afloat, but prospering.” Although signed to an indie, Luxt is positioning itself alongside major-label bands by taking part in the radio and marketing game. Once a costly proposition that was out of reach for indie labels, costs for national advertising and marketing have changed with the economy.
“As for promotion, we’ve secured radio through the Syndicate in New Jersey, who work with acts like Tori Amos and Mudvayne down to small metal and indie bands. We’re part of the Music Monitor Network [a coalition of indie retail stores] for retail support, which means we’re included in a lot of listening stations and end caps [typically, paid-for placement in record-store end racks],” Loch said. “That, coupled with advertising, touring, a good publicist and just an assload of really hard work by the whole band, the label and other people in our camp should give us the push we need to move forward in a big way.”
Time for this American Beast to leave its mark, no?
Dude! Where’s my flesh? The dudes in Deeds of Flesh, one of many bands playing the Colonial Theatre during Metal Meltdown 2003.
Unlike Milwaukee, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, which hold annual events with metal bands from all over the globe, the Sacramento Valley has yet to host a festival of metal bands. Until now, that is. Habeas Corpus singer and manager Don MacMillan has put together a two-day fest called Metal Meltdown 2003. On Friday, January 17, the lineup includes Sacrificial Slaughter, Deeds of Flesh, Brick Bath, Habeas Corpus, Psypheria, Irritant, Skribble, Solstice of Suffering, Bloodfed, Mask of Sanity, Tyrant, Soultorn and Zdeth. The show starts at 4 p.m. On Saturday, January 18, it’s Vile, Benumb, Uphill Battle, Severed Savior, Machine Called Man, Burial Ground, Sangre Amado, Zero Tolerance, Zyle, the New Plague, Sacrificial Slaughter, Face of the Enemy, Isolate, Spiritual Eclipse, Maelstrom, Disharmony and Hate Release Project. That day’s show starts at 1 p.m. It’s at the Colonial Theatre, 3522 Stockton Boulevard. For info and ticket inquiries, call (800) 594-8499. A single-day ticket is $15; a two-day pass is $25. Dust off that leather jacket and spray-paint an indecipherable band logo, and it’s on!
It’s easy to kick back in the confines of your La-Z-Boy and claim that the Sacramento scene sucks and that there’s no good music coming from the valley. It can be argued, however, that this area has produced more viable music per square mile in the last 10 years than San Francisco has in the last 20.
“The Subject of Us has been together for one year next week. That was the first time all four of us got together,” said Rob Myers, a schoolteacher by day and vocalist by night for Sacramento’s brightest entry into the hardcore-emo sweepstakes.
Myers is joined in the Subject of Us by a rhythm section that features drummer Andrew Simpson and bassist Nathan Castillo, along with Jason Garrett, who weaves swirling guitar riffs to create the band’s angular fusion of Fugazi-styled fare. With a median age of almost 27, these guys could teach a lot to the burgeoning hardcore scene. The band’s members came together starting with Myers’ initial trek to Sacramento. “I moved to Sac from Southern California in September 2001 and met Jason that November,” Myers said. “He was looking to start a new band and had also talked some to Nathan and Andy about it.”
The other members already had spent plenty of time on the local club circuit; Castillo, Garrett and Simpson had played together in Leisure Sports, a highly visible band from a few years back. “Jason and I spent some time hanging out and discovered, to our surprise, that we had some common influence and direction, and we decided to give it a go,” Myers recalled. After talking to Simpson and Castillo, whom Myers hadn’t met, in December 2001, the four made plans to get together after their holiday vacations to start writing songs.
Their band’s first and only release so far is a self-titled, four-song CD released in June 2002 on Reactivation Media, a bedroom label started by friends. Although the EP is less than 15 minutes long, such songs as the opening “Preclusion” and “Into Distress” showcase the band’s musicianship as well as its Fugazi-like focus. As it does for that Washington, D.C.-based band, ideology plays an important role in the Subject of Us’ focus, as the band remains steadfast on its all-ages show policy.
“We are fairly idealistic and determined that if we are going to do anything, it should be done on terms that we can stand behind. Otherwise, why put your name on something?” said Myers, who teaches fifth grade full time and plays, with the band, a regimen of three to five shows per month.
“We have been playing mostly on weekends, around Northern California and Nevada,” Myers said. In addition, the band plans to release a full-length CD next summer, release a new EP through local promoter Charles Twilling’s Anodyne Entertainment label in February and tour the Northwest in the interim. The recording for the EP will be done locally, and the full-length most likely will be recorded in Orange County by Paul Miner of Death by Stereo. He engineered the band’s self-titled release.
Although the Subject of Us vehemently opposes categorization—singer Myers compares genre classification to a marketing strategy—band members still are rooted heavily in elements of their childhood, which they can’t deny.
“We have actually been working on a cover of a mid-’80s Dischord release. The D.C. scene opened up a lot for me in terms of music and in ways of living your beliefs,” Myers confessed. “We don’t intentionally aspire to fit into any sort of the newer emo thing that has resurfaced over the past few years, but I can see where some of our songs have a bit of the emo feel.”
The band’s CD is available at local stores on consignment, or you can visit the reactivationmedia.com Web site. “If you can’t find it in the store,” said Myers, “e-mail us, and we’ll get one to you. Better yet, come by my house. I’ll get you a copy, make you some tea, and we’ll watch The Simpsons.”
With so much emphasis put on Christmas carols and choirs in the media, it was nice to hear a different, left-of-center take on the revered holiday repertoire. One more distilled version of “Silent Night” or “Auld Lang Syne,” and I might have been forced to sleep through the eve.
Choosing the “right” holiday event in which to take part is another issue. The Sacramento Ballet’s Nutcracker is usually a wise choice for the children. On the flip side, there is a plethora of Christmas-light festivals throughout the area.
For the last couple of years, the Christmas Jug Band, which features members of Those Darn Accordions and various Bay Area alumni, routed its West Coast tour to the beloved Palms Playhouse in Davis. Although the lineup has changed substantially since the band’s first incarnation, this 25th-anniversary tour did justice to its legacy. During some of the band’s early shows and on its current recording, the band even featured such talent as Dan Hicks, Angela Strehli and Maria Muldaur.
This year’s performance at the Winters Opera House, home of the new Palms, was the perfect setting, with its raised ceiling and high-school-auditorium-like stage.
Dressed up in red vests over T-shirts depicting a snowflake reading the word “Flake,” and some flannels, the ensemble played a loose set of standards and twists on traditional songs. From the opening “Winter Wonderland” to “Santa Lost a Ho,” the bulk of the set list was pure, slapstick comedy. Even when the between-song banter lost its spunk, such tunes as “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” and “Lonesome Reindeer Blues” made audience members feel fuzzy and warm all over. Members shared jugs, which supposedly were filled with various libations, and also indulged in a few pints of the Palms’ on-tap brews.
Certainly, some songs started off a little shaky, and band members had to be reminded of a song’s key. Miraculously, every song was working by its first verse. Like the Grateful Dead, the band meandered off during some tunes only to return with a resounding reprise. At one point, band members even walked through the audience while playing everything from washboard to kazoo.
The capacity crowd in attendance was treated to a lighthearted poke at St. Nick and was given the opportunity to join in on verses of “Hey Santa” and um, “Silent Night.” It’s no wonder why the Christmas Jug Band has returned to the Palms time and time again. After all, the holidays are about loosening that collared shirt and stepping out of work mode, aren’t they? What better way to start the festivities than by knocking back a little ale with a band that knows how to kick out the jams?
The Christmas Jug Band’s Uncorked CD is available on Globe Records. The band will return next year.
Florida-based Until the End—unlike the countless straight-edge hardcore bands that manage to clone themselves into their influences—has succeeded in producing a driving, believable listen. From the opening track, “Buried,” to the album’s live closer, “Nothing Between Us,” we’re treated to a healthy dose of Hatebreed/Death Threat hardcore with the groove of early Obituary and Machine Head. Vocalist Mean Pete couldn’t have chosen a better moniker, and drummer Wes Keely, guitarist John Wylie and bassist Dan Mazin keep the bulldozer rhythms coming. Although the band started in January 2000 and Let the World Burn is only its second release on Eulogy, it’s obvious these boys have grown and matured on the road. If Eulogy founder and guitarist Wylie can manage to run a label, tour and write songs like “The Bond to Breathe,” he must be doing something right. Let the hammer strike.
Mikael Akerfeldt has never rested on his laurels. As singer, songwriter and guitarist for the Swedish experimental band Opeth, he has upped the ante with each successive release. Fans of the now-legendary Blackwater Park will devour Deliverance on first listen. Five of the six songs on this full-length release are more than 10 minutes long. Unlike early Opeth releases, such as “Orchid,” songs on the new album, such as the album-opening “Wreath” and “Master’s Apprentice,” are effective on first listen. Along with his accomplished rhythm section—Martin Mendes on bass and Martin Lopez on drums—Akerfeldt and guitarist Peter Lindgren weave enormous soundscapes rooted heavily in 1970s progressive rock (Camel, Trapeze). Although songs like the 13-minute “By the Pain I See in Others” may not set radio stations on fire, they’ll have a place in the hearts of progressive-leaning metalheads for years to come. (SN&R)
Eddie
