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Local LICKS - FEATURED BANDS

Howlin' Rain

They did it. Everybody else wishes, wonders, and dreams about whether they’ll ever be able to do it. There are no songs built for radio...no repetitive choruses...and there’s no amount of time that they won’t spend jamming at the end of their songs. A local band trying to make it with an 8 track album that sounds like early 70’s pop rock with a Grateful Dead mentality is like asking for a miracle. But remember folks, the Lord works in mysterious ways. Howlin Rain has done it, and they’ll be doing it live at the sure to be epic Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival on August 22. A miracle has truly been performed.

"Magnificent Fiend," Howlin Rain’s second album released in a partnership between Birdman Records and American Recordings has gained the group enough recognition to be put on bill for the best summer festival in San Francisco and on a tour with the Black Crowes. Friends to the local venue 12 Galaxies, Howlin Rain has created a mix between late seventies energy and psychedelic structure (which usually means there is a lack of structure). In this day and age, structure is everything. The length of each song is an issue and a catchy chorus is everything. It’s fair to say that Howlin Rain couldn't care less about this day and age. The songs are long and jams go up and down as if they were the new reincarnation of the Dead. Dynamics are strong on the album, adding a strange quite power to otherwise cumbersome lyrics. For example, in “Lord Have Mercy” the lyric goes, "I took your wild peacocks down to the sawmill and ground their bones into dust and blood meal."

Lead singer Ethan Miller’s voice carries lyrics like that and makes them sound almost too easy. His voice is strong but gets soft enough to calm the worst of panic attacks. There is a sense of freedom in this album, lyrically, stylistically, structurally, and instrumentally. A trumpet and piano duet begins the album as if to say, "Take a deep breath because this is going to be different." It certainly is different. The long jams that are heard on this album are hard to find. Crime oriented, convoluted, and metaphorical lyrics such as these are so strange and different that it’s hard resist diving into them and becoming a part of the crimes that Miller sings about. What audacity, what gall, and what grit it took to lay this album down. A listener can find something new in the songs that they didn’t catch the last time they heard it, understand a lyric a different way the second time, and enjoy the jams and invest in these songs. Who gets to make that kind of record and find success in today’s industry? Who has the nerve to make the album everybody wants to make and then think that they might make a living off of it? Howlin Rain does, and it’s working.

The band is great and their approach is something that hasn’t been heard in a long time.

Their sound doesn’t make musical history, but their willingness to be free and do music the way they feel it should be done serves as a great lesson for us all. There are hundreds of local bands wishing for the same miracle that was performed for Howlin Rain; the chance to make an album that doesn’t have to play by the rules. Maybe this means that more of the miracles are yet to come, I surely hope so. Check out Howlin Rain at the Outside Lands Festival; but if the ticket is a bit too pricey then don’t worry, we got you covered. You can hear them by staying up late on Sunday night with Joe Rock as he hosts Local Licks on 107.7, the Bone!

- Shannon Koehler

http://www.howlinrain.com/ or www.myspace.com/howlinrain

THE SERMON

"Doctor what does it mean?/Who will be the one to lower me down?/Who will be the one to lower me into the ground?" Never before have I ever been so ready to accept my mortality.  I have a good feeling about who’s going to be laying me down, but after hearing these questions from the song “Sickbed,” I might be asking The Sermon to bury me instead.   

Articles of War, The Sermon’s sophomore effort from 2007, captures a good deal of darkness.  Song’s like “Sickbed” and “Pilot to Gunner” aren’t exactly Raffi tunes.  Mixing bites of garage and punk with the larger meal of rock and roll, The Sermon allows themselves to explore all kinds of sounds with their Biblical and war tainted lyrics.  It’s a tad ironic that they open the album with a song called “A Choice of Weapons”, not because of the meaning of the lyrics but because The Sermon has so many different ways that they come at the music.  The opener makes one think about the Stooges more that the Rolling Stones and track two, “Time Zone Blues” (which is a great song, by the way) will make one think more of the Stones than the Stooges.  “Invitations” which is a duet between lead singer Mike Gabriel and guest Penelope Houston (lead singer for the legendary punk group The Avengers) sounds like Nirvana could have written the verses.

And “Sickbed,” well, let’s just say it runs pretty close to even with Bob Dylan’s “Love Sick”.  It is important to note that I don’t invoke the name of Dylan all willy-nilly, understood?  Unlike many of the harder rock/punk bands in the Bay Area, The Sermon is able to change their dynamics and sound at will without losing their identity. Even throwing some honky-tonk piano in on a few tracks doesn’t make you say, “What the hell?”   It makes you say, “Pass me a sasparilla..and The Sermon’s second album!”

I shouldn’t be making light of Articles of War because it’s an album that really doesn’t make light of anything.  To hear this kind of heavy material done so well from a local band is almost unheard of.  They are strong, versatile, lyrically sound, and hard to escape.  Go get the album physically, electronically, anyway you can!  But if you’re held up in your sickbed and only have the energy to flip on your FM radio, then give yourself a chance to hear The Sermon as Joe Rock hosts Local Licks on 107.7, the Bone!       

- Shannon Koehler

www.thesermon.com/band.htm or www.myspace.com/thesermon

MY REVOLVER

Mark Joseph was down on to his knees, on the ground…off of the stage.  The way he was convulsing and yelling into an SM58 made it hard to tell whether he meant to be on the ground or if he had tripped over a monitor.  But by watching his face, and listening to his voice strain as he screamed, it became clear that he was a mad man, possessed and lost.  You can’t blame him though; the songs that he sings with My Revolver are so big, loud and commanding that you can’t help but be taken over by their sound.

My Revolver has been playing their hard, and I mean hard, rock around at the best local venues that San Francisco has to offer.  After releasing their self-titled debut album in 2007, the band did a self-booked tour around the U.S. during the summer. 

No matter if they’re in a small venue with a small crowd, or at the Independent when there’s no room left to move, they leave it all on the stage.  Their album feels the same way; it pounds and keeps hitting harder and harder till there’s nowhere else to go.  Their first track “The World Outside” and fourth track “On My Bed” give the band a chance to show that blues/rock riffs are at the root of their madness.  Mark doesn’t scream so much on these tracks and it almost feels like they took AC/DC's intensity and tried to do them one better.  But on tracks like "Leslie, Get Your Pistol," the blues-based riffs disappear and the band goes into a scream and thrash frenzy.  This is where the band’s conflict becomes apparent.  Somewhere between the sounds of 70’s metal and current metal they’ve become lost.  But getting lost isn’t always a bad thing, and in their case they’ve found some gold coins along the way.  “Big Kahuna” and “Mascara” are but a few of the tracks where My Revolver found their happy medium that doesn’t sound so happy but always sounds good. 

Their album, much like their shows, eases your head into a back and forth movement.  Pretty soon you’ve been head banging for twenty minutes.  They might not be a bunch of virtuosos and they may not look as hardcore as they sound (notice the bandana around one of the guitarist’s heads), but if you trust them and get lost then you may not find home before dawn.

With such a huge sound, My Revolver can seem almost too big if there isn’t a quality sound system in a venue.  But if things are done right, like they are on the album, My Revolver can bring the house down.  It’s not easy to demand respect, but My Revolver does, and you ought to give it to them.  We give it to them, and that’s why you can hear them played on Local Licks with Joe Rock, on 107.7, the Bone!

- Shannon Koehler

www.myspace.com/myrevolver

RIDE THE BLINDS

Four bands, one cooler full of beer.  By the time the second band had reached the stage all the beer was gone.  Chris, Bill and Nick had drunk it all.  They weren’t trying to screw anybody out of a beverage; they were just having a really good time.  It didn’t really matter because as soon as they started playing, everyone else started having a really good time too, sober and all.

Ride the Blinds has been doing more than make local bands salivate at the thought of having their musical chops.  Playing some of the finest local rock venues over the past five years, they’ve earned respect and love for a brand of blues that seems to be elusive in the San Francisco scene.  Right out of the gate on their self-titled debut album, Ride the Blinds made sure that people didn’t forget how heavy blues was supposed to sound.  Chris Guthridge’s guitar riffs are archaic, and his solo’s are sleek but cut as if Mike Bloomfield’s style crashed into Clapton’s sound.  His slide work on "Last Match" will make you wish not only that you smoked but that you grew up in Louisiana.  Nick Cramer’s right foot is so heavy it can move a song like early Black Sabbath.  The fact that he dares to take a drum solo on "Wind up Clock" makes him one of the bravest drummers around, and a good one at that!  And his brother Bill Cramer...well, let’s just say he can take a walk on a bass and teach it a thing or two.  Though there isn’t much intellectual satisfaction in many of their lyrics, songs like "Whiskey in Church" groove so well that you just might consider taking some Jack into a Sunday morning service. 

Their second album, Start Running, came out in 2006.  It doesn’t run over the ears with one hard jam after another like the first, and at times, it seems like the band was trying a little too hard.  But, once the band hits their Sonny Boy Williams cover, "Sugar Mama," the album takes off and doesn’t disappoint with some hard blues and soft numbers like "Broken Wheel" to counter balance. 

Their record label, Klepto Records, went out of business after their second album and they haven’t released anything since.  The band was also on hiatus for months, but they've started playing shows again this spring.  They jam so tightly and rock Chris’ bluesy riffs so hard that they can make you move anyway they want you to.  Who cares if they drink all the beer, they’re as good if not better than any local blues band you’ll see in San Francisco.  If you haven’t seen them live or don’t have their records, consider yourself out of touch.  But don’t worry; Joe Rock wants to help you.  Hear Ride the Blinds and other great local artists on Local Licks with Joe Rock, only on 107.7, The Bone! 

- Shannon Koehler

www.ridetheblinds.com
www.myspace.com/ridetheblinds

LEOPOLD AND HIS FICTION

That’s it?  Just guitar and drums; that’s all they got?  Yah, and they don’t need anything or anybody else. 

The Kentucky kid, Ben Cook, and Detroit native Daniel Toccalino came together in San Francisco and started their raunchy rock and blues duo called Leopold and His Fiction.  A year later in 2006, they released their self-titled album, which is virtually like having one of their live performances ingrained into a compact disc.  With their Local Licks favorite "Shakey Mama Blues" leading the way, the album crunches, distorts, and revolves around the room with a hint of psychedelic reverb.  Filled with the rock of the Stones, the country of the Johnny Cash, and quirky blues of the Doors, Leopold and His Fiction do it all relying on Ben’s solid 60’s style beats and Daniel’s twangy riffs.  Though Daniel’s voice seems to be shot when having a conversation, his vocals grab attention with a raw yet sensitive speak/sing style.  It doesn’t sound full, it’s not complicated, and it’s not pretty; but Ben and Daniel sound real, authentic, and good.  They’re one of the few bands in The City that have remembered that country, rock and blues are supposed to stick together. 

Do yourself a favor and check the local rock club calendars so that you can catch the duo doing their stuff live.  When you finally do catch them when they’re back in The City, consider it a treat.  But if all else fails, they can be found with Joe Rock on Local Licks when you tune in to 107.7 The Bone!

- Shannon Koehler

www.leopoldandhisfiction.com
www.myspace.com/leopoldandhisfiction

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