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LOCAL MUSIC

By TUCSON TEX, The BLACKBOARD

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Hola amigos, I can’t believe the year is half gone already. I guess the old saying is true: life is short, so I say live it up, everyone, and go out and see local bands play at the clubs and bars around town. Now I know life and society’s demands can suck up our time, and I’m no different. I only made it out to a few shows this month. One was at LENGTHWISE. VEGABOUND was playing and these guys never cease to impress me on their will and ability to never say die. They were playing with a jazz trio, so the guys played the first half of the set with no drummer, then the very multi-talented PAUL CARTWRIGHT (violinist) played drums until Dennis got there. It was very cool to see these guys show how rock music is about taking chances and never say die. Plus I found out JEREMY CROSS (vocalist) just moved to San Luis Obispo and is going to travel in town to do gigs; that’s a how a band is to do things. I strayed. VEGABOUND didn’t let their ever-growing fans down. They ripped and were tight, feeling good and feeding that vibe to the crowd. Just one thing that throws me about LENGTHWISE: whose no-brainer was it to put the stage behind the bar and in front of the walk-in? The second gig was at DOWNTOWN RECORDS. Now the last few months I’ve been writing about these next bands and I feel like I’m force -feeding these bands to you the reader, but TED RIVIERA & THE 50 PERCENTERS’ full-electric sound was pretty impressive to a lot of people there who’d seen them play acoustic sets at DOWNTOWN RECORDS before. They had a few mistakes, TED (vocalist/guitarist) openly admitting with a joke that he forgot the third verse in one of their songs and then chancing the fourth verse to repair the mistake. Everyone just laughed. They had a sort of blue-collar indie rock thing going on. Next was MORGAN, who played some new tunes. A couple of them had a sort of indie METALLICA feel, which was cool cause they have a real strong HUSKER DU feel, also. Now those of you who remember HUSKER DU might say how do you go from those two bands with one singer? Well, MORGAN has two singers. They also did their WHITE ROOM cover and as always, the crowd ate it up. I have to say this real quick: DOWNTOWN records is truly an asset to this scene. Jake (the owner) provides a great place for bands to play, plus I’ll bust his ass to find any cd or record you’re looking for. The third gig I got to see was at PACO’S TACOS. It’s a small place, if you haven’t been. The band playing I’ll describe like this: take one part cover band, one part original band, two part solo-jam band, shake it (not stirred), pour it into a martini glass and you have 5 o’CLOCK ANGEL. The originals where pretty good; some of them they need to take some more chances with, like the covers they were doing. As always, it was good to see AMY MUNOZ (vocalist/ guitarist and former HAIRLESS MARY member) up there rocking. She sang a version of LOW RIDER. That I thought was cool. Their intro to the song was a little long, but it also looked like they were having tech problems. The ANGELS also did one of AMY’s songs from her acoustic project, which I thought was very cool. I trip on how she can do songs I’ve heard her do before and, with the members she is currently playing with she changes them up and they still come out cool as hell. I might add 5 o’ CLOCK ANGELS also contains former HIGHWAY JONES members JOHN (bassist) and DONALD (guitar).

Sometimes I feel like I rush the live reviews, but I also have to do CD reviews. So here they are. PRINTED IN SLOVENIA “AND THE MOON SAID” (11 songs). This cd reminded me of my old college radio days. A very college indie rock feel that I feel needs to make a comeback. MIMI DORSEY’s vocals are very strong and powerful. She has a style that is her own and the lyric writing is not your average empty lament. BEN’s guitars have a great tone, plus he seems to play the perfect amount of notes for the song, which is something a lot of players seem to screw up. JERRY and JADE seem like the perfect bassist and drummer for this band, not to forget RONAN’s trippy sounds, great production and mixing work. This cd also has songs that have a floating, rock-driven groove. The song that I identified with most is “CAST MY FATE,” and if I had a radio show again, I would play this track ‘til everyone was singing along to it. Hell, I don’t think I can say a bad thing about this disc. The more I hear it, the more I like it. RATE: A+ (PS-Now I’m especially sorry I didn’t make it to the LENGTHWISE gig.)

Next is KINETIC DISTORTION “THE COLOR OF THE #8” (8 songs). This cd is a cool and trippy techno trance-rave club cd. Many of these tunes I can hear being in soundtracks of movies that have club scenes (i.e. Blade, Matrix, Silverfish, Truth About Charlie,). In fact I think QUENTIN TARANTINO was looking for this type of sound for his new movie; I think it’s perfect for any movie. I don’t know where the guys are selling these cd’s, so just remember the name, KINETIC DISTORTION, and if this is the music you dig, grab it; I promise you will not be disappointed. RATE: A+.

Well, that is it for me again. Looking forward to writing for you again next issue. Remember, if you want your cd reviewed, mail it to TUCSON TEX 2076 WHITE LANE # 168 BAKERSFIELD CA 93304 or drop off your cd to DOWNTOWN RECORDS @ 1518 19TH ST; ask for JAKE or DAVE. Any questions, comments, suggestions, or if you want to help me start doing band interviews, email me at, tumbleweedpost@emailaccount.com. Well, adios, and read you later.

This article copied from The Blackboard, VOL.3 #6 June 2003.

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