The Pack A.D. || March 2, 2012 || The Rickshaw Stop -SF, CA

I am a man who loves women.  It's true, I do.  And, to a guitar player, there could be no better site than that of woman who can rock like nobodies business.  Looking past of my decree; The Pack A.D. concert last Friday night was a demonstration about the passion to not give a shit, go up on stage and play your brains out.  And that is exactly what The Pack A.D. did to a meager crowd at the hipster "no-name on the door" Rickshaw Stop.  They didn't even headline the show, a fellow Canadian band, Elliot Brood took the headlining honors.  Brood was good, but damn, it must be hard going onstage after a dynamite infused set that the ladies, Becky and Maya,  tore through.  They are living proof that if you practice real hard, you'll look like you know what you are doing.  They keep it real simple (unlike the opener Mwahaha who need to learn how to use their pedals before hitting the stage) and go for the classic formula of over-driven blues inspired rock and roll.  But it is the attitude that really sets them far apart from any other young band I have seen in some time.  It is like they have taken Mike Damone's 3rd rule in his "Five Point Plan" and they have mastered it.  I am really pleased to have seen them in such a venue, because I believe the next time it will be across town at The Fillmore.  And I will gladly shell out triple the cash and enjoy every minute of it.


Technical notes:
I figured that since I was able to get so close I might as well spew out Becky's rig setup as best as my memory can serve me.  She played at LTD carved top guitar with two humbuckers.  She played two amps, 1) '68 bassman amp through a newer Fender 2x12 Cabinet and a Marshall JCM900 through a Mesa 4x12 Cabinet.  She was masterful at switching between the two amps for effect.  As pedals go I believe she used a Boss SD-1 Overdrive and a Crybaby wah.  She also played a bolt-on hollowbody neck Aria guitar tuned open for one slide song.  I wish there was another one!


Top photo courtesy of Bagelradio and bottom two courtesy of Pat.

Here is the video I took:

The Graves Brothers Deluxe || San Malo || Reviewing Vinyl

The men who form The Graves Brothers Deluxe are living proof that the longer you play as well as study the artform of music, the better you get at it.  What we will be taking a look at today is their new LP out on Too Long to Chew Music.  On a recent Blogcast I caught the frontman, Stoo Odom, spinning the Tales of how the album came about.  It is a story based on an island in swampland East of New Orleans where the oldest living inhabitants from the far east escaped the oppressive Spanish who enslaved them.  Traveling across the atlantic in 1740 they lived for 150 years in peace as well as relative obscurity until a hurricane wiped their tribe completely off the map.  No Survivors.  Fast forward 400 years and Katrina did the same for a lot of residents of the City of New Orleans.  When prompted, frontman Stoo shared that the more recent event had a catastrophic effect on his loved ones and he felt a kinship with the story of San Malo.  Parallel lines.  Events never change, just faces and and numerics.  Besides the tales they spin, this album comes in custom orange vinyl decorated with pink and red dots, just like someone threw paint  on a wall.  A real beauty.  Not sure who or what is behind the album artwork, but you guys get an A+ for originality.

 Side One:
1.SanMalo National Anthem- Heavy Duty.  Let's you know where this album is about to go to.  2.I'm Fine-Chorus is arrogant and awesome.  3.Splinters- Vocal performance is one of the best on the album.  Drumming out of this jazzy world.  4.Five Foot Category Five- Primus meets Tom Waits (did I just say that?) The least favorite thing on this side is that little RHCP break.  It's not that I don't like the break, its just everything else is off the hook with originality up to this point on the album.  5.Vulture Sing- The Guitar work on this tune is spectacular, and I don't even want to about the tones these guys are getting down. Nice stuff!

Side Two:
1.My Heart Burned Down Today- This second side starts off with a sick and twisted love song.....just waiting for that coming train.  It teases you just enough with a sick groove that really comes to life on the second verse.  Then dumps you.  2.Papio Paio (The Swamp Ape Again)- We are back into religion.  Is it the religion of fast paced chase scenes a la McQueen in bullet?  I think so.  It builds drama and pace and I might add, is awesome to see live and in person.  3.La Balada De San Malo- Another brilliant number. Short pulsating buzzsaws sung in a foreign language.  God dammit!  That guitar is so short & repetitive...all the while being too good.  The buzz is created through the bass (which is the buzziest instrument in the band).  It adds just enough of a pause to build tension and it's littered through out this gem.  I wish I could cover this one.  4.Noisy Kind of Nothing- Noiso tales of life on the island of San Malo.  5.Fifty Years Later on the Bayou Skimmer -There is a goat on the album.  I keep listening to this song to try to understand the significance of it on the album, to see if there is something I am missing.  To the artist it must mean something, however I follow the live rule...would I want to see it performed live and in person. Probably not.  Everything else on the album I would and I have.  And hopefully I will see it again real soon.

Thumbs Up!

Here is a little live Graves Brothers Deluxe for ya...

Victor || The Film Dude in San Jose || circa 2007

Inspiration is the reason we breath.  So when one writes a song they can only look as far as the air that they are breathing.  The small, subtle music scene in downtown San Jose back 2007 was part of my muse.  There was one character that always stood out; a guy named Victor.  You could spot him pretty clearly, a man of short stature with no hair on top, glasses and mustache.  He did not try to fit in because he couldn't.  I love Victor for that.  Most important, there was a freshness toward music that he took in.  It was very inspiring.


I met Victor at the Caravan one night back in 2007 and I got as much of his story that he would divulge to a complete stranger on some random night.  He was videotaping some band (usually with a women in it) and I started talking to him.  He told me that he just does it for kicks.  Bands don't pay him.  He doesn't really promote it.  Had barely even heard of Youtube back then and just loved to tape the performances of bands he liked.  I asked him if he'd seen our band and he replied yeah, "I saw you guys at Johnny V's back in January.  There was supposed to be some surf band from Spain you were opening up for but they didn't show.  I thought you guys really rocked.  I was bummed my battery ran out on the first band."  I told him when we were playing next and he showed and caught on tape some classic original "The Booty Cheterfield Trio" footage with Pickle on bass and Blue on drums.  One of our best performances at the time with full comedic routine and one, Joe Izzo, out in the crowd giving away T-Shirts.  Here are some highlights I decide to put up on Youtube:

This one is some recently uploaded old footage that Film Dude recorded for us back in 2008.  Recollecting back, it was a really fun night with a pretty full bar.


This is a portion of the song we wrote for Film Dude Victor.  We wanted to right a straightforward punk rock song that typified his attitude toward live rock and roll.  You can find a version of it on our first album, Sellin' Cookies.


And this last one is my favorite.  At about 10 seconds into the clip, the video pans around and you can see Film Dude Victor sporting a Booty Chesterfield T-shirt and dancing like nobodies business to the tunes.  What else can I say?  Like is about having fun....and FDV is doing just that!

Heather David || Passion Among the Decay || Mid-Century by the Bay

I first met Heather David while perusing the world wide web looking for artistic inspiration for the first Booty Chesterfield album, Sellin’ Cookies. I wanted to have something local. Being a fan of mid-century architecture and advertising, I googled (via images) the Western Motel on El Camino. Up pops a beautifully taken picture of the sign half lit as dusk begins to claim the day. Following the picture I came upon the modest site SV Modern. Someone was documenting all the untold beauty of Silicon Valley’s past? On the spot I wrote this person an email passionately thanking them for documenting our past. And if you know Heather, I received an even-more-impassioned email back thanking me for having interest in something close to her heart as well as an invite to lunch at the former Bob’s Big Boy (now flames) on Winchester Blvd. I had to meet this person.

Heather is an intense individual who knows what she likes and the things she likes are becoming rarer and rarer. During that first lunch at the Flames and she went on about local mid-century architects & designers most who's names I had never heard.  I had always considered myself “educated” in the realm of mid-century design. I was dead wrong, especially when it came to local knowledge. “Geez, Heather, you should write a book.” Her retort, “I am.”

After several years of research and a big chunk of her retirement savings spun into hardcopy, she self-released, Mid-Century by the Bay. This is the reference book for Bay Area mid-century. It  goes beyond just "cool" pictures.  The author has done her homework and tells a tale of mass growth, prosperity & expansion during this Bay Area time period.  I was privileged enough to see several drafts of the book while she was in the process. Let me tell you, when I received my hardback copy I was literally blown away by the final results. Heather is very particular. Initially she struggled getting her vision to conform to a hard copy. Pushing her dream along of publishing an undocumented history of Mid-Century Design she has fully achieved success with this book. I believe this book is going to a wonderful reference guide for the future bay area architects whom have yet to become established.  And, no doubt, this book will be sitting on the shelves of many future designers too.

One of the key ingredients in this book is the work of Arnold Del Carlo. Mr. Del Carlo was a San Jose based professional commercial photographer for nearly 40 years. And as Heather states it, “who successfully captured the evolution of the Santa Clara Valley from the ‘Valley of Hearts Delight’ to ‘Silicon Valley’.” There is an even better story behind this commercial lens. He basically was an “unknown” in the eyes of the preservationists of the Bay Area. His eye-catching visuals of shopping center grand openings and new bowling alleys sat in a box in his garage for 30+ years collecting dust. He just happened to have the luck of having Heather move into his neighborhood. After a chance discovery of his vintage portfolio, she went nuts with determination to make sure that the world had a chance to see this man’s work.  Mid-Century by the Bay is besieged with beautiful, full page Del Carlo images. These are my personal favorites. An important footnote that in this process Heather had an integral part in making sure these photos were preserved. The Sourisseau Academy at SJSU acquired the entire portfolio. 

Even though this book is about Bay Area architecture & design in the mid-century, it is south bay centric.  This is in part due to the massive transformation of growth through out the valley making it become the technology center of the world.  If you think that Silicon Valley started with the micro chip, semiconductor, and internet I encourage you to find out a little bit more about the roots behind this developing valley and never forget the past. In regards to cutting edge architecture and design for the times, Heather David’s book is a really good starting point.

For more information about the book, go here: Calmodbooks.com

And if you want more, she has a wonderful Flickr website!