RIGHT NOW'S COOLEST THING

Young Beard

Just guessing, but my bet is that it isn't too often that guys form bands with their Dad and somehow produce something anyone would want to see or hear. Somehow Vacaville, California trio Young Beard has broken through that perceived barrier to produce cross-generational new-Grunge that is utterly infectious. Who woulda thunk it?

According to their website, "Guitarist Frank Garay III (Papa Frank) called his son, bassist/singer Frank Garay IV (Little Frank), and asked him if he'd like to form a band together. Little Frank thought is was a great idea and quickly recruited his childhood friend and previous band mate Kevin Escalante to handle the drums. After an initial meeting at a Dickey's BBQ, the band started writing songs and rehearsing. With influences between them all ranging from Rush, Led Zepplin and Pink Floyd to Cursive, Two Gallants and Modest Mouse they developed a very 'simple and honest' sound that ranges from hard hitting fast songs to songs with an almost folk psychedelia. After crafting about 10 songs they whittled them down to their favorite 5 and decided to record their first EP - The Big September. Recording sessions were handled by engineer/producer Robbie Gardunio in Vacaville, and the EP was finished in August of 2016 just before Robbie moved to Los Angeles CA. The band and Robbie quickly hit it off which is easy to hear in the completed project, and the band plans on recording future songs with him in Los Angeles early next year." This band is dynamite and unsigned. They would like inquiries sent to Info@YoungBeard.net.

EARWIG

Columbus, Ohio-based band Earwig is out with a new LP, Pause for the Jets. Lizard McGee's upbeat and edgy rock unit has been around for almost a decade now; long enough that Lizard has lost his hair and his daughter now sings with the band. The video shown here is from 2008, and the band has changed since then, though the songwriting and vocal talents of McGee remain at the heart of the act. McGee is a strong, melodic songwriter, not quite as lyrically clever as he could be, but very musical. The new album, which began last year as a Kickstarter project, has a kind of bookish conceit. From their press kit - "The unpublished novel “My Own Secret Service” details the origins of the underground band Earwig and their fantastic adventures as they battle to save the Multiverse from a secret society of invading demons who occupy a parallel dimension." Hear Earwig with Lydia Lovelace, and find Earwig on Facebook.

BOBBY RUSH

Bobby Rush carries the title "King of the Chitlin Circuit", and having him still around educates and reminds us all of the role that Blues music has played in our ongoing effort to become more whole as a human community. Rush is into the 65th year of his music career, one that once paid him only chitlins in return for his marvelous talents. Rush has a new album out on Rounder Records, Porcupine Meat. As this video from earlier this year shows, there is still a lot of life left in Bobby Rush, and listening to him is a pleasure. Early reviews have noted Porcupine Meat as one of Rush’s finest recordings. “One of his best albums in ages … fresh funky and fun,” said AllMusic in its four-star review. No Depression called it “already a first runner for Record of the Year.” Learn more about Bobby Rush at www.bobbyrushbluesman.com.

Mathias H. Tjønn

And now for something pretty close to completely different. This video of Norwegian singer/songwriter Mathias H. Tjønn talking with his mother may not get your heart racing, but perhaps this track from his new LP Racing Heart will. Tjøn is said "to make music that is both complex and catchy, with lyrics that are not afraid of taking on bigger issues in a personal way." That sounds fair. The quirky songwriter is supported on this LP by some of the best and most noteworthy musicians from both Norway and the US, such as Jenny Hval, Hanne Hukkelberg and previously members of The War on Drugs, St. Vincent and Sufjan Stevens’ band. Listen to another track here. Find out more about Mathias here.

Juliana Hatfield

Juliana Hatfield's first vinyl pressing of her Whatever, My Love LP went so well that she has released another round. It is available from American Laundromat Records, Amazon, and Cargo UK (UK/Europe). She has also landed a track, "Needle In The Hay", on the upcoming Elliott Smith tribute LP out Oct 14th on CD, LP and Cassette at all those same websites. Juliana is a very effective songwriter, who most of us discovered through her song "My Sister", which she performs on this video. It was one of the rare female gems to come out of the Grunge era of rock. It is one of those classics, like Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner" and "Left of Center", which came out of that same era, that just never stops sounding great. Juliana is tough, smart and complicated and you sense that she could write more memorable tunes before she is done, which is saying something for someone who has been around now for more than two decades.

No Nets

This is cool - not the video, but the tune. No Nets is a rock band from Brooklyn by way of the Bronx and Jersey, made up of a few grown-up-ish punk and emo kids – and a metalhead. After playing in bands together for over six years, Sal Mastrocola, John O’Neill, Walter Shock, and Dave Hauenstein moved into an apartment in Brooklyn in 2012 – and No Nets was born. The band started by way of an electronic drum kit in their Brooklyn closet, and has grown over the last three years musically and personally. Their sophomore album Bright Light reflects that growth, exploring themes that bounce from topics like marriage, adulting, keeping your creative life while working that nine to five, and the painful reality that you might never be able to afford that fancy piece of New York real estate you always dreamed about.

Jason Rylan

Wow, so bitchy! Here is a nasty little ditty from California LGBT songster Jason Rylan, in which he taunts somebody for being a hot mess and not that good at doing some unspecified thing, but one gets the feeling it was probably sexual. There is not a lot of subtlety here. Rylan is sort of bedroom-Garage Band Brian Ferry, minus the lush cool. He released this third LP recently, titled "The Charm", which might be tongue in cheek, or perhaps "charm" is a word that doesn't mean what Rylan thinks it means. He says he draws his inspiration from classic rock legends such as The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, but he's really more of a Calvin Harris kind of deejay type, an EDM-inspired flamethrower who would like to think of himself as an acid Madonna or Alanis Morrisette, eager to call somebody out for the crime of being overly puffed up about him or herself. Probably too much mirror time. Go to Jason Rylan's website.

JAMIE KENT

This is sort of interesting, if you happen to be a San Francisco Bay Area type of person, or if you happen to have fallen prey to the hype machine surrounding Massachusetts singer/songwriter Jamie Kent. Kent somehow got named by RollingStone.com as one the "Must See Acts of CMA Fest 2016", and dubbed a "rising country star" by Fox & Friends, which are credits prominently featured in his press material, so for a guy who hasn't really done anything yet in his music career - if you call playing 200-plus shows a year not having done much - he has gotten a big early push. What interests me, personally, is Kent's connection to the Bay Area marquis act Huey Lewis & The News. That band augmented his studio unit for his All American Mutt album, coming out in October 2016. Kent is one of those opening act guys affixed to Huey Lewis & The News, The Doobie Bros, America, Brothers Osborne, Brandy Clark, and Marc Broussard. He uses social media effectively, has a grassroots fan organization, and he is endorsed by Durango Boots, BOSE and Telefunken Microphones. The Boston Red Sox used his song "Changes" all season, as their club morphed into a bunch with new, young faces.  "All American Mutt" was recorded in Nashville with Grammy nominated Producer Dave Brainard (Brandy Clark, Jerrod Neimann, Jamey Johnson). The title track in this video is good-hearted, but the sort of lightweight stuff that doesn't lead one to believe that Kent is going to develop into one of the important people in music history.

SOLILANS

Okay, not totally sure what this is, but I suspect that if you put it on as you are falling asleep that you might be visited by that creepy Lam guy conjured up by Aleister Crowley.

THE SUNDAY PAPER

This clip is something of a tip-of-the-hat to the East Bay Grease that has been of huge importance to the history of popular music in the San Francisco Bay Area. People who grew up here love the funk, as personified by bands like Oakland's Tower of Power. In fact, East Bay Grease was the title of ToPs first LP, released way back in 1970.  This quartet includes and Jeff Tamelier on Guitar, David Margen on Bass, T Moran on Drums, and Tony Stead on Keys, videotaped here at a benefit performance at Vallejo's classic Empress Theatre. They often perform as The Sunday Paper and each of these fine players are veterans of other East Bay funk bands, including Tower Of Power, Cold Blood, Sly & The Family Stone, Santana, and Herbie Hancock.

CHARLIE HUNTER QUARTET

Oh my God, please step aside for the great - and I do mean great! - Charlie Hunter and his extraordinary quartet. Hunter, who lives in Berkeley, has been a principal innovator of the 7 and 8-string guitar, and folks in the Bay Area can enjoy experiencing him in small club settings, like the great club Armando's in Martinez. Hunter attracts and inspires "next level" musicians, as you can see exemplified in this video. These guys are cool - as cool as the title of Hunter's most recent album: Everybody Has a Plan Until they Get Punched in the Mouth. Words to live by, an insight from the trenches. Hunter has played with another Bay Area luminary, the super-inventive bassist Les Claypool, though generally Hunter's 7 and 8-string guitar work render a separate bassist unnecessary. Just watch Hunter's amazing approach and technique in this video and ask yourself if there is anybody out there in the world today demonstrating this level of innovation and virtuosity? The answer may be yes, but you'd have to look pretty hard to find such persons.

Jinx Jones is one fascinating character. He comes out of the Denver area and was around in Boulder when I (RAR) was living there in the early 1980s. He was a little late for the hey-day of the Boulder music scene, and as an MTV-type of hair rocker he seemed not to get a lot of traction on the Boulder club scene. He did perform with the legendary Roy Buchanan while there, and in this video he is playing one of Buchanan's tunes, "The Messiah Will Come Again". Jones moved to the San Francisco area around the same time that I did and here he was reborn as a Rockabilly artist. He is a fixture now in West Coast music, and also known to play the Las Vegas lounge scene, but he is still way too little known. He is a great and inspired player, certainly the most innovative guitarist to ever come out of the Colorado music incubator. This video - sort of a casual performance at Bird & Beckett's Books and Records in San Francisco from 2015 - is just spectacular. Jinx is a world-class musician and way deserving of big-time recognition. I love this guy!

San Francisco Bay Area songwriter Deborah Crooks responded a couple months back to my (RAR) sad sack request for ideas about where one could find music these days, during a time when it was feeling to me like music had died, or at least disappeared for a time into the deep woods. Where could one go to find the muse? She told me there was plenty of good music to be found at The Lost Church in San Francisco, The Monkey House in Berkeley, and The Back Room in Berkeley. Deborah is a true believer, not just in music, but also in another of my personal obsessions: Bigfoot. It probably wouldn't surprise anyone anywhere to learn that there are a lot of us west coast types who believe in the mythical creature, or at least believe in the wonder of the possibilities that Sasquatch represents. Deborah is a dynamite songwriter and a good vibe and I hope she holds on to her childlike optimism that magic still exists out there in the wilderness, amid a world of banal nay-sayers and debunkers of all that is rare and beautiful. In fact, Deborah has a new album available titled Beauty Everywhere. Go to http://www.deborahcrooks.com/ to learn more and maybe order your copy.

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