Hicks with Sticks
San Francisco Bay Area Twang Calendar Highlights
Bands / Clubs |
Thur, Aug 7:
Hacienda Brothers w/Dave Alvin @ Last Day Saloon, 120 5th St., Santa Rosa 830pm $15 |
Fri, Aug 8:
Hacienda Brothers w/Dave Alvin/The Iguanas @ Slim's, 333 11th St., SF 9pm $20 |
Fri, Aug 8:
Wayne "The Train" Hancock/Buckaroo Bonet @ Mystic Theatre, 23 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma 9pm $15 |
Sat, Aug 9: Saints
Car Club 10th Anniv.: The Badmen/77 el Deora/+ @ Country Club Bowl, 88 Vivian St., San Rafael 2pm |
Sat, Aug 9: Wayne
"The Train" Hancock/Careless Hearts @ Blank Club, 44 S. Almaden Ave., San Jose 10pm $12 |
Sat, Aug 9: Music
Store 10th Anniv. Party: The Bluegrass Revolution/The Cowlicks/Kemo Sabe/Trainwreck Riders/+ @ The Music Store, 66 W. Portal, SF Noon free |
Fri, Aug 15:
3rd Annual Save the Wild Mustangs Benefit: Chickwagon/Kitty Rose & the Cowgirl Orchestra/Starlene/Misisipi Mike @ El Rio, 3158 Mission, SF 9pm $10 |
Full Calendar |
TRUE FREEDOM, THE NEW CD FROM RANCHO DELUXE
A strong, though not over-powering, guitar presence permeates the new Rancho DeLuxe CD, True Freedom, thanks to the playing and production
from the band's guitarist, Jesse Jay Harris. Typical results from producing your own CD are either that everything comes out just right or inexperience dooms the final product. Fortunately,
Harris was able to produce this CD with the same craft he showcases in his playing. The CD's two instrumental tracks, "Bone Rock Breakdown" and "Templeton Gap," tell the tale.
There's a touch of Bakersfield in "Ghost Town" and "Pine Street Saloon," but for the most part True Freedom works the SoCal sound pioneered by Gram Parsons. Pedal steel hall of famer
Jaydee Williams, who played with Parsons, lends a hand and half of the CD's 14 tracks clock in over four minutes since the SoCal sound provides as much room as it takes for a song to develop. True Freedom
splits the difference between the quintessentially California sounds of Parson's Flying Burrito Brothers and the Eagles. The production and Mark Adams' singing impart a
peaceful, easy feeling to the CD which features better production than the Burritos could ever muster, yet without the bombast of the Eagles.
Harris, who lives in San Francisco, and lead vocalist Mark Adams, who lives in Paso Robles, have played together since their college days in Chico, which
provides experience beyond the years that they've been together as Rancho Deluxe. http://www.ranchodeluxe.org
TEXAS STEVE AND THE GIT GONE TRIO DEBUT CD
There's a lot to be said for quick and dirty CD production for a rockabilly band. Texas Steve and the Git Gone Trio, like a lot of rockabillies, have released their debut CD, At Your Door,
because there comes a point where a band needs a solid demo if nothing else. Steve and the boys spent 11 hours live in the studio recording their music warts-and-all. Rockabilly's retro-analog
world is a world of first takes, no multi-tracking, no fidelity tweeking and no remixing. At You Door is stripped down to the shaddap-and-play essentials that have
more in common with the '50s rockabilly of the Johnny Burnette Trio than the '80s slickness of the Stray Cats.
The band wants its fans to buy the CD as a souvenir and because the band
needs gas money, not because they're looking for fame and fortune. They know that rockabilly will return to the charts on the twelfth of never, so it's more
fulfilling for them to issue a CD as a retro statement rather than as a big career move. At Your Door is a reminder for fans to get out and see the band live
which is where the real rockabilly is at, daddy-o. Hear six cuts, including their boppin' cover of "Paralyzed" at www.myspace.com/texassteveandthegitgonetrio.
NEW ARBITRON VOODOO RATES RADIO STATION POPULARITY
For years the market research firm Arbitron has compiled ratings that establish
the popularity, and hence the ad revenue, of radio stations. Nationwide, hundreds of millions of dollars hinge on Arbitron, as does radio programming
itself, because if Arbitron determines that a format isn't popular, away it goes.
 The trouble is that Arbitron, a
multi-million dollar marketing firm, publishes ratings that are about as credible as Ouija Board predictions. Arbitron gathers its data by finding
people who are willing to keep diaries of their radio listening habits. Their reports are compiled monthly and out pop the ratings.
There are problems. First, Arbitron's sample sizes are too small to be statistically significant. Second, the sample group is skewed toward the ever-shrinking
minority who are willing to keep diaries. And third, people are bad at keeping diaries, as anyone who ever tried to keep one knows. Is a commuter going to
log every entry while stuck in traffic flipping through stations? If an Arbitron diarist's routine is to wake up to a certain station and after five minutes head for the kitchen to have coffee and watch the
Today show, should that really count as listening to the radio? Are a teen hip-hop devotee or a native Spanish speaker likely to become Arbitron diarists? These are some of the universes of
radio listeners that Arbitron doesn't know diddly about.
Radio stations have always known that Arbitron ratings are voodoo yet, as the
only game in town, Arbitron has quite literally called the tune. Still, pressure mounted for Arbitron to clean up its act, and a threat by the radio industry to
come up with its own rating system forced Arbitron to respond with a "people meter," a cellphone-sized automated diary that listens for an encoded broadcast
signal that tells the device what station the device's wearer is hearing.
Hearing differs from listening. If a wearer of Arbitron's device walks into a store
that's playing easy listening music or is waiting somewhere where a nearby boom box is blasting, Arbitron will now count that as listening.
 Arbitron says the device will bring big changes to ratings. It has already exposed the myth behind Arbitron's diary system in test markets where it
has shown that white boy rock is more popular, and hip-hop and Spanish radio are less popular, than previously believed. This has sent the Afro-American and Hispanic broadcasters into a
tizzy, claiming that Arbitron's new system is hopelessly biased toward geeky white boys who are willing to walk around with a people meter which no self-respecting cool cat, member of the female persuasion, or person
of color would be caught dead wearing. More. |
EVEN MORE NEW BAY AREA TWANG BANDS
 The ShitKickers are a San Jose band that
isn't new, it's just that they have have been under the Hicks with Sticks radar since they rarely play with other twangin' bands. HWS caught up with them at The Knockout on a
strange bill that included the rock band October Allied, and the noodle instrumental outfit King City.
The ShitKickers are an entertaining, born-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-trailer-park,
Johnny Cash meets the Misfits kind of band. They look like a bunch of guys who do dirty deeds dirt cheap and their music, though not punk, is as aggressive as acoustic instrumentation can
get. The tunes on their MySpace page are energetic enough, though they back off from the beer-fueled energy of their live show. www.myspace.com/shitkickers
 
The Wiggle Wagons are a new San Jose band with a southern rock flavor to their alt-country sound. HWS has taken some pokes at California's third largest city for being a tad on the sleepy side, so we're
pulling hard for the ShitKickers, Wiggle Wagons and another SJ twang band, the Careless Hearts, to breathe some life into Zombieville. Some never-say-die alt-twang
is just about right for the wake up call that sleepy ol' Saint Joey needs.
www.myspace.com/sacredprofanities
"Wiggle wagon" is a term for a truck pulling two trailers which, depending on the condition of the road, can oscillate itself into a nitro express if the trucker doesn't know his driving.
 We don't know much about this new band
beyond their cool name, but the Sacred Profanities out of Berzerkley are a honky-tonking outfit that's cutting their teeth at Peri's Silver Dollar Bar in Fairfax and
other venues around the bay. They describe their sound as, "Hackneyed suburban backwoods yuppie cosmic American country
folk-rock tear-jerkerin' lullabies straight out the saloon," and why not?!
http://www.myspace.com/sacredprofanities
  Kit and the Branded Men with Christina Lopez up front were born out of the Sure-Fires, who lasted about two gigs, and Glen Earl Brown Jr. and the Dickens
which is currently hibernating and leaving Brown free to play bass with the branded ones. MySpace
 The Midnight Trio are a rockabilly band that developed out of Livermore's other rocking sons,
The Pendletons. Brian Covey handles guitar and vocals, Matt Olivares plays bass and Mikey Covey sings and taps traps. MySpace
DIGITAL SWISS ARMY KNIFE PHONES MAKING IPODS OBSOLETE
 Apple's new iPhone is in no small part an attempt to
salvage something from the fading iPod market. MP3 player technology in cell phones has been evolving since 2005 when memory was expensive, computer interfaces
where limited and player software was weak. Like cameras in cell phones, 2008's celluars with MP3 capabilities have improved and consumers are reacting.
People want portable music, but they need
cell phones and they don't need to carry two devices, which puts iPods on the same road to oblivion already travelled by personal digital assistants (PDAs). The cell phone is
becoming a digital Swiss army knife with a phone, camera, PDA, game platform, MP3 player and more combined into one package. The catch for Apple is that
they will have to go head-to-head with some savvy cell phone makers like Motorola and Samsung which means leaving the comfort of an MP3 player
market that they practically own for the cellular market where they will have to swim with the sharks. The Institute for the Future has more at
http://future.iftf.org/2005/04/ipodcellphone_s.html
STARRY PLOUGH ALIVE AND WELL
 The East Bay club scene received a welcomed boost with a major makeover at the Starry Plough. The
floor, entry and marquee are among the remodeling changes, but the big news is the new sound system. The old system had fallen on such hard times that every night was becoming
an adventure in PA roulette. Now, a new 24-channel board, speakers and monitors have bands singing the Plough's praises.
The booking job has been upgraded as well. Matt "Smitty" Smith
has joined the Plough as more of a Music Director than a booker. He's been behind the PA upgrade, but more importantly, he's reworked the club's standards for bands.
The Plough offers live music seven nights each week which creates a lot of dates to fill. The only way to do it is to diversify the music and reach out to
younger audiences as Smitty is doing. The standard alt-rock and Americana bands are not going away, but they are being augmented with funk, hip-hop and jazz.
Thirty years ago, the club was positioned as an Irish bar, but neither its neighborhood nor Berkeley itself are particularly Irish, so almost all that's left of
the venue's Gaelic heritage is Sunday's Irish jam session and the ancient spelling of "plow." Times have changed and the Plough is now on target to thrive for another three decades or so.
URBAN MUSIC LEGENDS & JOKES
We all do dumb things, so it really isn't fair to peg musicians or their fans as
being any more "judgement impaired" than humanity at large. Disclaimers aside, there are some yarns that need to be true whether they are true or not, like the
one about the trombonist who almost killed the conductor, the third clarinetist and himself. www.darwinawards.com/legends/legends1998-17.html
And for an urban legend at heavy metal's expense, how did the Metallica fan die naked with a pickup truck on top of him? www.darwinawards.com/legends/legends1998-05.html
Then there are all those musician jokes. Here's a site that HWS has not linked to before that has some new and some recycled musician jokes. "Mommy, when I
grow up I want to be a guitar player." "Now, now, Johnny, you can't do both."
www.ducksdeluxe.com/jokes.html |
