Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: “Bat Chain Puller,” Jan. 15

Illustrations by Jamie Morton.

Some die-hard fans of Captain Beefheart, a cult experimental rock musician from the 1970s, have probably already heard the frequently bootlegged album “Bat Chain Puller.” But the fact that this album will be officially released 36 years after its planned release date is worth a mention. The album is due to release on the birthday of Don Van Vliet (also known as Captain Beefheart, who died in December 2010). The album is sure to prove a treat for those who have been awaiting it patiently, for this release will be properly mixed (unlike its predecessors) by members of Captain Beefheart’s accompanying ensemble, The Magic Band. This serves as a kind of poetic justice, seeing as the album’s release was delayed by disagreements between producers. Although Captain Beefheart isn’t what one might describe as “casual listening,” anyone with as experimental and open a mind as the master himself will undoubtedly enjoy his free and poetic approach to music.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Air: “Le Voyage dans la Lune,” Feb. 7

With music as light and ambient as the band’s name itself, Air’s new album “Le Voyage dans la Lune” resembles a trippy medley of funk, acid rock, psychedelic and electronic. The French duo originally premiered this collection as a score for Georges Melies’ 1902 silent film, “A Trip to the Moon.” The process of creating the 10-minute-long film score produced enough extra material for a full-length album to be released. If you like what you hear, check out the silent film as well — the two go hand in hand. This album will be a good one for those long hours of winter, and a lovely, white-noise-type background music for studying purposes.

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Listen to the new song here.
Phenomenal Handclap Band: “Form and Control,” Feb. 14

“Regurgitated psyched out dustbowl funk” is how the Phenomenal Handclap Band has been described in the past. Their new album “Form and Control” will be released on Valentine’s Day this year. Their already-released single “Following” has had a warm welcome in the music world, with sounds reminiscent of a combination between Chic, Fern Kinney and the Human League. Writer and co-producer Sean Marquand dedicated this song to the “energy takeoff in the room” at “a truly great dance party.” You know when you feel this thing at a party, and you know everyone around you is feeling the same thing? That is what this song is for. I’m sure, as winter often calls for spontaneous bedroom dance parties, we can all relate.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Winter Music Guide—New Tunes For the New Quarter

Photo courtesy of Dan P. and The Bricks.

While the homeless community in Santa Cruz struggles to get by, local band Dan P. and the Bricks gives money back to the community. On Jan. 21, Kuumbwa Jazz Center is clearing its seating for a dance floor and hosting the band’s latest album release. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the Homeless Service Center of Santa Cruz.

With a five-piece horn section, two guitars, an organ, a bass and drums, Dan P. and the Bricks are a rocking 10-member ska band from Santa Cruz. Their latest album, “Watch Where You Walk,” was released from Asian Man Records in November 2011 and was voted No. 1 of the top 10 albums of 2011 by Upstarter Punk Reviews.

“We’re a local band, we play local shows, so we wanted to help a local charity that helps the homeless,” said Dan Potthast, the band’s lead singer.

Since the band formed in 2009, their goal has been to play locally and raise money for local charities. Their fundraisers have included a concert for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Hospice of Santa Cruz County, and the Surf City AIDS Ride that benefited the Santa Cruz AIDS Project.

Dan P. and the Bricks, who regularly play street shows on Pacific Avenue, said they play most of their shows for the homeless community.

“We show up on Pacific with a piano, a drum set and play free shows for anyone on the street,” Potthast said.

In this event, as in their past philanthropic events, the band feels supported in their efforts.

“You discover other people in the community that are like-minded and want to help out,” Potthast said. “We’re fortunate to have a lot of community to help out with this show.”

The Santa Cruz Homeless Service Center is an organization dedicated to providing emergency and transitional services to homeless individuals and families. It has four different programs that offer an abundance of resources like shelter, hot showers, meals, phone use, an address from which to send and receive mail and many other benefits.

Mareisa Weil, Homeless Service Center development manager, is thrilled about the band’s donations.

“It’s really special when an artist wants to get involved with our program,” Weil said. “There’s something really special about music and art that brings a community together. It has a lot of power and impact.”

Both Potthast and Weil predict the show will sell out. With a 200-person venue capacity and tickets at $9 a piece, that is a potential donation of $1,800. The funds will be used for general operating funds within the organization.

The Homeless Service Center is also enthusiastic about the event being held at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, another nonprofit.

“It’s two great local organizations with a great local band, coming together to help people who just need a little bit of extra support to get them on their feet,” Weil said.

Clutch Couriers, a local bike messenger service, has been supporting the event by donating its printing and poster distribution services.

Richard Graves, who works for the Couriers, said the organization donated its time because all the sales were going to benefit the Homeless Services Center.

“Big ups to Phil and the band, as well as the Kuumbwaa for setting this up — true humanitarians,” Graves said. “Myself and other crew members have been homeless at one time. I have seen how when you give a leg-up to someone, you never know how far they can go.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Local Band Gives Back to Homeless Community

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Blink Now and You’ll Miss a Revolution.

DJ Clockwork and Mac Miller take the stage at The Catalyst downtown. Photo by Marielena Verdugo.

Rapper Mac Miller, 19, gained fame after establishing a presence on YouTube. Photo by Marielena Verdugo.

DJ Clockwork, Mac Miller’s official DJ, woke up at around 4 p.m. on Nov. 2. He casually walked out of the lobby of the Holiday Inn, toothbrush in hand, drove to The Catalyst — where he was headlining that night — and lit a blunt.

With retro eyeglasses, a “the color granddaddy purple” shirt, a sleeve of tattoos, and a solitary golden owl hanging from his neck, DJ Clockwork is ready to perform another show on the Most Dope Tour.

Clockwork, a Cincinnati native, has been touring for the past two years with Mac Miller, a fresh-faced young rapper new to the hip-hop scene.

“We all feel like we’ve known each other for years we’re so comfortable with each other,” Clockwork said. “He lives above me on the tour bus. We call the bunks ‘cribs’.”

The duo’s album, “Blue Slide Park,” was released on Tuesday.

At only 19 years old, Mac Miller has already made his name as an internet sensation.

“Mac’s got a million followers,” Clockwork said. “That’s a fucking lot.”

The group went viral after posting just a few videos on Youtube.

“Our internet presence is crazy,” Clockwork said. “VH1 and MTV pay attention to things like that and caught wind of us.”

A few weeks ago, Clockwork and Miller performed at the MTV Online Music Awards in front of 100 handpicked, devoted fans.

Clockwork, who has been DJing for the past 11 years, has coined his own genre, “Time Zones,” also the name of a mixtape he released over two years ago.

“When I DJ, I play music from around the world,” Clockwork said. “I’ll play some Brazilian hip-hop with some French house — I just try to mix everything in.”

The duo believes musical appreciation is international. At each show they promote enjoying a variety of music, not just one genre.

“If you listen to some hip-hop, then one day put on some fucking Mozart,” Clockwork said. “Just be open.”

Clockwork, who’s 26, said he admires his younger musical partner.

“Mac is one of the most talented 19-year-olds out right now,” he said. “A lot of people don’t know he produces and writes a lot of his own music.”

With lyrics like “one day I’ll be so rich I can buy my moms a house” — from his song “Oy Vey” — and uplifting choruses like that in “Live Free,” Miller draws a younger crowd who can both relate to the music and be inspired by it. In “Nikes on My Feet,” he talks about how good it feels to get a brand new pair of Nikes. Miller looks like he could be any one of the kids standing in the crowd, wearing high-top Air Jordans and a snap-backed hat.

Clockwork explains people used to tell Miller he would never be a rapper, but Miller proved them wrong. Now he’s touring the country, performing sold-out shows. The kids at these shows look up to him, thinking, “if he can do it, I can do it,” Clockwork said.

“If you want to do something, be sincere about it,” Clockwork said, “and don’t stop until you burst through yellow tape and you’re the first-place winner.”

After the show, groups of fans stood behind The Catalyst in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Mac Miller and DJ Clockwork. A group of girls wearing handmade glitter shirts with “Mac Miller” written on them came all the way from Sacramento to see him.When asked why they like him, they responded unanimously, “He’s our age!”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at DJ Clockwork, Mac Miller Bring ‘Most Dope Tour’ to the Catalyst

“The X Factor” is a music competition televised across the country and in dozens of countries worldwide in search of newsinging talent. The show originally came from the United Kingdom and was created by Simon Cowell, best known in the United States as a former judge on “American Idol.” Fellow Santa Cruz local James Durbin had a similar journey to Rene on “American Idol” and made it as far as the top three.

Rene, 28, recently made it to the the top 12 out of thousands of contestants who auditioned across the country. He began his audition with an original piece titled “Young Homie,” which mentions his personal struggle with addiction, which persisted for 10 years: “Yeah, it’s been two months [and] three years now. Haven’t had a drink and I’m starting to see clear now, I’m putting all my fears down, I can hear the cheers now.”

Rene, who grew up in Santa Cruz and up until recently earned a living hauling trash, said on the show that he “couldn’t have asked for better parents and brothers and sisters.” Rene decided to audition on “The X Factor,” which served as an unexpected gateway to the spotlight for him.

“At auditions, Chris shared his struggle with addiction and how he was turning his life around for his son,” according to a statement released by the show. “We loved him already, but we loved him even more with his original song ‘Young Homie.’ Now, he’s still bringing the ‘truth’ to every performance.”

Rene said his past gives him drive to succeed and empower himself through singing.

“My ‘X Factor’ is triumph over struggles, at least for today,” Rene said on the show. “The passion I have and the experiences I’ve been through — I channel that emotion.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Local “X Factor” Contestant Makes Final 12

Photo by Sal Ingram.

Storytelling and music are two of the oldest, most well-known art forms. Put them together and you get a fusion of auditory and mental entertainment appropriate for adults and children alike.

Erica Lann-Clark and Michael Gaither, a local storyteller and a musician, respectively, have collaborated on a show geared toward families. It features Lann-Clark’s exquisite storytelling skills set to Gaither’s music, followed by a related song by Gaither in his intimate Americana style.

The show will take place at Don Quixote’s International Music Hall on Sunday at 1 p.m., an early time scheduled to draw families.

Gaither and Lann-Clark have collaborated twice before, but putting together a show targeting families is new for them.

“Stories, Songs and Silliness” includes fiction and non-fiction stories spanning a range of themes.

“For instance,” Gaither said, “we tell a story about a pig who rescues a boy in a pool. There’s also a Jewish story and a Native American story. We try to mix it up and not stick to one genre. We put in a lot of variety.”

Gaither, a loving dog owner, uses animals as characters in many of his stories.

“Animals are great metaphors. It’s easy to relate to an animal,” Gaither said. “On my first record, I wrote about a mule that lived down the road.”

Gaither draws inspiration from a variety of other animals as well.

“[The dog] was a hybrid and had spots all over it, so the angle of the song was, ‘It’s a misfit, it’s one of a kind. If you’re a misfit, you’re a friend of mine.’”

When it comes to the age-old question of music or lyrics, Gaither has a strong preference.

“I’m a lyric guy,” he said. “For me, the music supports the story but it’s always about what the song is trying to say. I usually think about what I want to write about and the music follows it.”

The music itself is a strong example of the Americana genre — acoustic guitar, harmonica and all — and Gaither cites his influences as ranging from John Hiatt and Ray Davies to Robert Earl Keen, Jr.

Tom Miller, the Don Quixote’s concert programmer, said he is happy to have the duo return to their stage.

“[Gaither] has a way of engaging the crowd and he is one of the most outstanding singer-songwriters in our area,” Miller said. “I love his ability to tell a story with a song. The opportunity to get one of the nation’s premier professional storytellers on our stage is very exciting.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Storytelling and Music Attract Wide Audience

Musicians gather at The Catalyst on Monday night to perform in the Jazz Jam. Billed performers and audience members collaborated and jammed together. Photo by Kyan Mahzouf

Members of the service industry crowd the bar, and a small group of metalheads shoot pool quietly in the game room. On the other side of the bar, chaos reigns supreme, as jazz musicians, both young and old, take part in the creation of what the players call “truly American music.”

Every Monday night through Oct. 17, The Catalyst is hosting Monday Night Jazz Jam, an old-school, open-mic style jazz odyssey in which audience members — whether they be vocalists, keyboardists, or horn players — sign up to play alongside the band. The results please the ear and embody the philosophy behind jazz.

Esoteric Collective, the quartet foundation upon which audience members construct their jazzy musings, kicks off with variations of works by some of America’s greatest jazz musicians. They cover everything from Miles Davis to Cole Porter.

“Jazz is America’s classical music,” said Esoteric Collective bassist Jamie Brudnick. “Each song exists as a template upon which we impose our improvisational skills.”

The knowing grin drawn across Brudnick’s face suggests the entire number is rehearsed — scripted — but he insists upon its spontaneity.

“We don’t use papers,” Brudnick said. “And we never play a song the same way twice. Hopefully we inspire other musicians to expand upon what they hear here tonight.”

Indeed, Brudnick makes it look easy, closing his eyes and plucking along in violent accord with a rapidly evolving rendition of George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm.” Such is the nature of Monday Night Jazz Jam. There are no auditions, no agendas, and no “papers.” The experience is entirely organic, with the musicians playing off each other, each sound expounding upon the last. One can’t help but feel that every aspect of the event is in perfect harmony with the impromptu, frenetic nature of jazz.

After a 30-minute set, Esoteric Collective opens up the stage to the audience for collaboration. A group of horn players joins the band, as well as a keyboardist, who relieves Esoteric Collective’s own Jon Dryden. Then, as if they had been playing together for months, the newly formed ensemble launches into a smooth, yet appropriately chaotic jam. Singers soon emerge from the audience, offering their vocal variations on the classics.

“It was like time travel,” vocalist Joy Rush said after her performance, “a real old-school jam session.” This sentiment was undoubtedly shared by the audience, which was warm and attentive throughout of the event, applauding each musician after their respective solos.

“This is the hottest thing going on,” said trumpet player Robert Reisman. “I’m coming back every chance I get.”

The event is limited to people ages 21 and up, but if you’re of age and looking for an inexpensive ($5 to $10 donation), intimate setting to listen or contribute to the sounds of a group of jazz sages paying homage to the chaos that surrounds them, then Monday Night Jazz Jam might just be your thing.

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Jazz Comes to The Catalyst

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

“Helplessness Blues”
Fleet Foxes Album Review

The Fleet Foxes are enjoyable on such a basic level. Their music is like a picnic on a lush field during a sunny day. It’s like taking Prozac and going to the aquarium. Lighthearted but ambitious, full-bodied melodies rise out of their instruments and gently caress your ears and mind. Their most recent release, “Helplessness Blues,” mirrors the beauty and wonder of their 2008 self-titled album and their “Sun Giant” EP from the same year, delivering everything their fans have come to know and love while still managing to include a few new surprises.

The monotonous optimism of the Fleet Foxes’ early efforts has disappeared, now replaced with an ever-so-slightly darker

worldview. The band has become more honest and inquisitive on this album, openly exploring concepts like age and death. But this change just serves to highlight the Fleet Foxes’ considerable talent, as they tackle the complexity of the subject material with wisdom and thoughtful contemplation. On the record’s second track, “Bedouin Dress,” the band muses, “If to borrow is to take and not return, I have borrowed all my lonesome life… The borrower’s debt is the only regret of my youth.”

In a way, the album divides itself in half, with all its questions and concerns answered through the sixth song and title track, “Helplessness Blues.” After closely examining their role and place in the world through songs like “Lorelai” and “Battery Kinzie,” the band declares on the title track, “I don’t know who to believe. I’ll get back to you someday soon, you will see,” before finally settling on a direction to follow and a dream to pursue. However, despite this triumphant conclusion, the album is at its best during its darkest songs.

Instant classics like the album opener “Montezuma” and the sprawling epic “The Shrine/An Argument” are hardly heartwarming, but by wrapping vivid descriptions in ambitious harmonies, the Fleet Foxes have successfully presented their topical range. On “Montezuma,” as the rest of the band hums in the background, lead singer Robin Pecknold displays his considerable vocal talent, belting, “Gold teeth and gold jewelry, every piece of your dowry. Throw them into the tomb with me.” Lines like these add a sense of mystery — and thus a welcome complexity ­— to “Helplessness Blues.”

At times, it is easy to compare the Fleet Foxes to Simon and Garfunkel or the Local Natives, but these comparisons can just as easily be dismissed. The Fleet Foxes, while occasionally employing a derivative sound, have again produced a unique and inspiring record. If you liked their previous releases, you’ll like “Helplessness Blues.”

~~~~~~

“Thor”
Film Review

Barring the gritty “Dark Knight” approach, comic book adaptations should be all balls and bluster, jumping from sex to explosions to comic relief. The good ones accomplish this, as a viewing of “Iron Man” proves, but “Thor” fails to deliver the goods — pun intended. The film makes obvious attempts to seem sexy, but never really succeeds, and considering “Thor” stars Chris Hemsworth as the title character and Natalie Portman as Thor’s love interest, Jane Foster, this is quite the damning fault.

Despite Hemsworth’s decent performance, Thor fails to become a likable character. The movie attempts to portray a tale of redemption, but after a moment of critical analysis it’s obvious that the main character is actually pretty douche-y. A race of individuals referred to as “Frost Giants” supposedly provides us the antagonists of the story, but how do we know the Frost Giants are evil? Well they’re ugly and kind of growl when they speak, but past those physical characteristics, “Thor” doesn’t really delve into the specifics. During one portion of the movie, after the Frost Giants attempt to reclaim a stolen artifact, Thor breaks a tenuous peace treaty by callously murdering a handful of Frost Giants and one ugly but lovable Frost Dog. Some hero.

Granted, Thor is banished from his homeland of Asgard for his actions, but that doesn’t seem to be much of a punishment, considering he promptly falls into the arms of Natalie Portman. The two have excellent chemistry, and the film doesn’t waste Portman’s acting talents, but it’s a bit unbelievable that viewers are supposed to accept Thor and Jane’s connection when the two characters share only a few minutes of screen time. Early on, the film indicates that it will progress the romance, but the time never came. Thor never seals the deal. Why under-utilize such attractive leads? This isn’t a Disney movie. It’s a Marvel Comics blockbuster.

Sadly, the action fails to distract from these pressing concerns. This isn’t necessarily the film’s fault, but the 3D was so poorly incorporated that it’s different happening onscreen every time the fighting began. Candy-colored blurs streaked by without leaving any real evidence of what was happening.

The good news about “Thor” is that it makes a great date movie. As the inevitable 3D-induced headache distracts you from the film, and after the poor picture quality causes you to give up on following the plot, all you’ll have left to do is piss off your fellow moviegoers and have a nice conversation with your romantic companion.

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Reviews: Feeling “Helpless” About “Thor”

Photo courtesy of Shannon Corr.

Drummer Eric Kuhn and guitarist Robin Landy are returning to the road as Bay Area instrumental group Silian Rail. The two will be touring to support the deluxe vinyl release of their second album, “Parhelion.” Santa Cruz’s own Caffé Pergolesi will be hosting their April 14 performance at 7:30 p.m.

The band has a history reminiscent of a quirky indie movie, one that would perhaps be perfectly scored by their music. Kuhn and Landy first met as pre-teens in North Carolina.

“We were both dating each other’s best friends at the time, but then we lost touch completely for years and years,” Kuhn said.

After leaving North Carolina to attend college at UC Santa Cruz in 2001, Kuhn honed his musical talents the Santa Cruz way.

“I did a lot of street performing downtown and on Pacific,” Kuhn said. “My friends and I would all go to the sidewalk and play percussion pieces.”

It wasn’t until several years later that Kuhn and Landy would cross paths again.

“I moved in randomly with one of Eric’s friends,” Landy said. “We ran into each other for the first time in years at his birthday, actually.”

A short time later they decided to form Silian Rail. The decision to create an instrumental band came naturally, because, as Landy said, “neither of us can really sing.”

This musical format has its drawbacks. The use of a vocalist and song lyrics allows musicians to easily express different emotions, stories and beliefs, along with innumerable other topics. A good instrumental band has to convey the same subject matter without the luxury of a singer. Silian Rail tackles this challenge with enthusiasm and skill that are in equal parts invigorating and impressive.

The creativity found in their music is also reflected in their name.

“The name doesn’t mean anything,” Landy said. “It’s actually the name of a font from the movie ‘American Psycho,’ when they’re comparing business cards.”

This sense of whimsy has made the band a good fit for notable do-it-yourself, Oakland-based record label Parks and Records. The label is known for its eco-friendly approach to music production and for launching the careers of bands like the Velvet Teens and Xiu Xiu.

“We both relate to [Parks and Records’] mission statement for sure. That was a big motivating factor for us in working with them,” Kuhn said. “We’re both environmentally aware people and feel concerned for the impact people have on their natural environment. It was cool having a label that was about something, as opposed to just the process of putting out music.”

Parks and Records helped Silian Rail produce the limited edition orange vinyl version of their critically praised second album, “Parhelion,” which triggered the band’s decision go on tour.

Kuhn spoke of the fond memories he has of UCSC and his history with the venue hosting the show.

“UCSC provides a really unique educational opportunity, and we’re really excited to be coming back to Santa Cruz as a town,” Kuhn said. “It’s a place that’s very supportive of music and very open-minded, which is always refreshing. I love Caffé Pergolesi. I used to hang out in there all the time.”

Hiram Coffee, the booking agent for Caffé Pergolesi, offered a similar review.

“We love [Silian Rail] — they’re the sweetest people ever. I saw them play for the first time at a house show in Davis and they were great,” he said. “I’ve seen them play a couple times since and it’s just absolutely amazing.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Silian Rail’s Instrumental Tale

Tyler Wardwell, KZSC’s music director, picks out some of his favorite records. KZSC’s library holds an extensive vinyl collection that is constantly growing. Photo by Molly Solomon.

Reach into your pocket.

It’s likely your hand is now in contact with a music player or audio storage device. Whether it is an MP3 player, a multimedia phone or a flash drive, music is incredibly compact and portable in the 21st century.

However, in the age of digital sound there are still those who opt for the smooth, black disc that has charmed audiophiles for decades — the vinyl record.

While CD sales and digital downloads constitute the majority of music purchases today, vinyl has made its way back from relative obscurity to be the chosen medium of a significant portion of listeners.

National vinyl record sales reached 2.8 million in 2010, more than tripling from the 858,000 sold in 2006, according to Nielsen Soundscan, a sales tracking system that has been tabulating music sales since 1991.

While the company does not track some small music vendors, the sales leap reported by 14,000 participating businesses indicates a changing music culture.

Daniel Munoz, a Ph.D. student in cross-cultural musicology at UC Santa Cruz, is currently doing field work for his dissertation on noise music in Los Angeles.

He said in an email that vinyl has a special connection to the human condition, which makes it attractive.

“To make a vinyl record [is to] put a physical object back in the hands of the consumers,” Munoz said. “It also says tacitly that this music is going to die over the years. It will not live forever, just like we won’t live forever. Vinyl and magnetic tape (cassettes, 8-tracks, etc.) deteriorate over time, while digital technologies don’t.”

In their recent history, vinyl records have been subject to a cycle of popularity that is influenced by new audio technologies and the subcultures that react to them.

Vinyl made a comeback in the 1980s when DJs sampled records to rap over or to combine into a new song. CDs gained popularity in the 1990s, but critics claimed their compressed audio files produced a different, more metallic sound.

Munoz said some youth embraced vinyl records as an alternative to CDs that flooded the music market.

“Some kids rebelled against CD distribution on the grounds that records were cheaper, cooler, sounded better, and that the cover art on vinyl records was superior since there was a larger space for the art,” Munoz said.

Most vinyl records were cheap in the 1990s. Often you could find vinyl records at flea markets or at Goodwill being sold for change. Vinyl record stores were stagnant, and the music world prepared for a digital overload.

The illegal music pirating boom beginning in the late 1990s produced a generation with access to a multitude of MP3s. Many old vinyl singles never made it to MP3 format, and some music buyers scoured newly reemerging record stores and eBay to collect them.

KZSC music director Tyler Wardwell said the unavailability of some recordings in digital format has led UCSC’s radio station to covet vinyl copies accumulated over the years.

“A lot of the material that we have was acquired or sent to the station in the ’70s and ’80s,” he said. “A fair amount of it is hard to find digitally. It wouldn’t make sense for us to get rid of this vinyl because a lot of it isn’t being pressed anymore.”

By 2006, music giant Tower Records filed for bankruptcy and was forced to close its doors after more than 45 years at the forefront of music distribution, though it still maintains an online presence.

The early 2000s saw a rise of British and American indie rock, which has been marketed by labels that press vinyl. Recently, a whole youth culture has sprung from the “indie movement” that has commercialized the novelty of vinyl records.

Munoz said the recent vinyl revival is reminiscent of the youth CD resistance two decades prior.

“Fast-forward to contemporary hipsters pressing vinyl,” Munoz said. “This is much the same phenomenon that started in the 1990s, with a twist of course. Digital technologies that are shared using a computer take the object-hood out of the process of listening to music. In other words, there is no longer a physical object to hold in the hands.”

Nostalgia for a medium that provides a tangible representation of music has enchanted young music buyers. For a sample of commercialized “indie” culture, go to Urban Outfitters on Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz.

You’ll find a small display of vinyl records on the left side of the store. Roughly 125 vinyl records, the vast majority of them still in cellophane, sit in the store.

“Urban” has framed “Pet Sounds” by The Beach Boys and put it on display above the rest, indicating that the aesthetic value of older vinyl record covers fascinates some consumers.

Other artists represented in the store include She & Him, Belle and Sebastian, the MC5 and re-pressings of Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan and Jefferson Airplane albums.

This new generation of record collectors is not generally looking for the authenticity of an original pressing. Most of these albums can be easily found digitally so access isn’t the draw either; it is the novelty of the vinyl record that entices them.

Of course, there is a market for vinyl beyond the trendy “Urban” consumer. It is one that marks up older albums that once lived in the 10-cent bin at De Anza Flea Market in Cupertino, Calif. just over a decade ago. It produces indie rock, metal and pop, among other genres.

Why do Labels Press Vinyl?

New vinyl records are comparable in cost to CDs. Metavinyl Records, a store on Cedar Street, is entirely dedicated to vinyl records. Within its walls, new vinyl is mixed with the old and alphabetized by genre.

On the right when you walk in there is a wall for $1 albums, a new arrivals bin to your left, and a classical bin in the far left corner.

The owner, Jonathan Schneiderman, said he buys vinyl records from over 40 distributors internationally. Some are locally owned in the Bay Area and others are operated overseas.

Similarly, local radio stations receive and purchase albums internationally. Indie rock labels like Matador and Merge press singles and full-length albums on vinyl and send them around the world.

KZSC music director Wardwell said the station frequently receives indie rock vinyl singles.

“We get sent new vinyl from artists and labels,” Wardwell said. “A fair amount of new vinyl is from indie rock artists and they will send us 7 inches with one song on each side.”

While indie labels may be best known for pressing vinyl records, consumer demand has encouraged labels that had seemingly moved on from the medium to return to it. Schneiderman said small labels aren’t the only ones cranking out vinyl.

“Even the major labels are pressing vinyl,” he said. “There’s nothing that’s not available right now.”

Some music lovers note a difference in intentions between small and large labels.

Zachary Watkins, a lecturer in the UCSC music department, teaches History of Electronic Music and lower division studio courses. He writes for Foxy Digitalis, an online music site where he reviews albums. Watkins said money is a great influence on large labels.

“Independent labels are more interested in putting out music than profit,” Watkins said. “Major labels don’t care about music. They care about money.”

Watkins said choosing vinyl gives labels an edge in the music market by setting themselves apart from other mediums.

“Right now there are so many labels out there, and it’s kind of hard to break out of the noise of the output being created,” he said. “Sometimes it takes spending money, meaning putting effort into the design, packaging and creation of the object. Vinyl is the apex of that.”

The quality of new vinyl records is highly regarded. Often pressed at 180 grams, thick, new vinyl plays cleanly.

However, records deteriorate as the stylus, or needle, wears down the grooves that hold information about the sound. Cross-cultural Ph.D. student Munoz described the process in terms of geologic erosion.

“For example, think about the Grand Canyon,” Munoz said. “The grooves in a record are like a canyon, and the needle reads the depths of the canyon, and then that information is outputted to a speaker (or is amplified and outputted to a speaker). But the needle itself erodes the grooves. Thus, records deteriorate over time each time the needle reads the information of the grooves.”

As Munoz points out, new vinyl records cannot stay perfect forever if you play them frequently. Many new record players have USB capability, allowing for transfer of records to digital format.

“The old technology is so prevalent that manufacturers have capitalized on it by making the integration between analog and digital media ever more easy,” Munoz said.

Many labels include MP3 downloads of the vinyl record purchased to increase appeal and provide a similar access to turntables with USB ports.

Metavinyl Records owner Schneiderman said the practice of including an MP3 download code is strategic to appealing to a variety of consumers.

“Labels figure that if you’re going to buy it then you should only just have to buy it once,” he said. “If you buy the record you should get a free digital copy because then there’s really no reason not to buy it.”

Why do we Love to Consume Vinyl?

Labels produce vinyl to meet demand from music buyers. DJs, radio stations and listeners with private collections note many reasons why vinyl is a great option.

Wardwell said vinyl records are an important part of KZSC’s library.

“We maintain a vinyl collection because we play it,” he said. “Music purchases are split between CDs and vinyl. We also get donations, so our vinyl collection is always expanding.”

For Wardwell, the experience of watching a vinyl record spin into music is an enjoyable aspect of the medium.

“I like the physicality of vinyl, and that it’s all done in open space,” he said. “The CD plays behind a plastic shield and you don’t really get to see what’s going on. With vinyl, there’s a human attraction where you lift that tone arm and drop the needle down into the groove, and as the plate spins the disc, the 33 or 45 RPM, you can experience that visual cue of seeing motion become sound.”

Wardwell said the station’s DJs sometimes bring in vinyl records from their “really extensive personal collections” to play on air.

Musicology student Munoz said DJs of live events often prefer vinyl, and have turned the vinyl record into an instrument.

“DJs in the dance music scene (and other genres) still tend to prefer vinyl to spin at live events, especially for scratching and other purposes,” he said. “In this way, vinyl records are more than just a recording medium, but are actually musical instruments.”

Mark Augustine, aka DJ Swift, is co-founder of a music promotion group based in Redwood City called Abide Productions. He DJs at weddings, events, dances and birthday parties.

Augustine emphasized the importance of gauging the audience’s idea of “the classics” in terms of artists and songs. He said he keeps anything considered a classic of its genre.

“As a DJ, I’m always having the audience in mind. I don’t know exactly who I come across, so if it’s a record that I think someone will want to hear in the future I’ll keep it. You have to keep the classics.”

While he does use MP3s often, Augustine said vinyl records are the most respected medium to play among DJs. He said there is nothing like the feeling of a record under your fingers.

“The sound that vinyl has is clean, raspy and gritty,” he said. “Although digital is crisp, vinyl is clean. DJing is my drug. It’s my addiction. And it’s a positive addiction.”

The unanimous complaint about vinyl records is their stationary status. Large and heavy to pack around, vinyl records are meant for in-home listening.

The Future of Vinyl

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

Many think vinyl will never go out of style. Augustine said nostalgia and appreciation for predecessors will keep vinyl in people’s collections.

“I think the record will always be around,” he said. “Vinyl will be the classic thing that people have.”

Munoz predicts that vinyl records’ appeal will end sooner or later.

“My personal prediction, which is really more of a gut feeling, is that eventually vinyl records will go out of style,” he said. “Vinyl records are already too big and heavy. Their one sonic advantage, quality — that the sounds are continuous rather than discreet — will eventually fade as MP3s are replaced by smaller files with broader frequency responses.”

Some say they will always want vinyl because it’s the best of its kind. Watkins doesn’t foresee anything getting in the way of vinyl’s popularity.

“Culturally, people respect vinyl as a medium and will always seek vinyl, I think,” he said. “It’s the best analog mass-media that we have.”

Digital recordings have surpassed vinyl in convenience and size. However, the warm vinyl sound is still a priority for many. For some serious audiophiles, the further products get from the physical mechanics of producing sound, the worse music is going to translate on a recording.

Metavinyl Records owner Schneiderman said as long as vinyl is top quality there will be a demand for it.

“Vinyl will always have a cult following,” he said. “Unless a better format comes along and surpasses its quality.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Vinyl Revival

Illustration by Kristin Talley.

For a moment of fame on YouTube, past “celebrities” have generally been witty, loathsome or incredibly lucky. Now there’s also lip dubbing.

Rising in popularity at universities all over the world, lip dubbing is the latest trend to hit UC Santa Cruz. A lip dub video features hundreds of costumed students lip-syncing to a song, one continuous and unedited camera shot winding through different areas of a building and  millions of hits online.

UCSC Weekend Activities, a student-organized club through OPERS, is bringing lip dubbing to the West Coast for spring quarter. Tony Dianda, organizer of the club, said that no events were organized for this quarter due to fears of further inclement weather.

UCSC’s lip dub video will join the many that can be found online — a quick YouTube search reveals a veritable plethora of other works. These range from the University of Montreal’s library-based rendition of Offspring’s “Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)” to Rosemead High School’s “I Gotta Feeling,” a cover of the Black Eyed Peas’ song.

Dianda said that the club’s biggest motivation is to allow students to reach out and be brought together from opposite sides of campus.

“Because there is no real central part of campus or football games that everyone goes to, meeting people is more difficult [than at other schools],” Dianda said. “Anyone can participate in our activities. It’s not targeted towards any particular group. It’s targeted towards everybody.”

Past events hosted by UCSC Weekend Activities have included campuswide games of Capture the Flag and stargazing outings. Their upcoming lip dubbing event is set to take place sometime during the first three weeks of spring quarter.

The event will be free for participants, who can register on the group’s Facebook page.

“Last quarter we tried to do stargazing and ended up with 140 confirmed guests,” Dianda said. “I’m expecting somewhere between 100–600 people for this.”

Students have spent the last month voting on the group’s Facebook page for the song they feel would best represent Santa Cruz. After much deliberation, Smash Mouth’s “Walking on the Sun” lost to the B-52s’ “Love Shack.”

Third-year Robert Culpi, the organizer of the UCSC event, said he first had the idea of staging the lip dubbing event after watching one of these videos.

“My friend suggested I try to do it myself,” Culpi said, “but I quickly realized that it was far too big of a project to do on my own. I realized I needed a bigger group to get it going so I handed off the idea to the UCSC Weekend Activities club by writing on their Facebook wall.”

For the UCSC Weekend Activities’ lip dubbing project, Dianda has brought together a small team of about eight people, whose jobs include makeup, costume design, choreography and filming.

Second-year America Whitten, the advertisement director, said she is doing everything she can to publicize the event.

“We will be tabling, putting up posters, making announcements in lecture halls and sending messages via Facebook,” Whitten said.

The team said the hardest part of organizing the event has been choosing the location where the filming will take place. After much debate, OPERS was selected as the best location for filming, narrowly edging out the Music Center. Film director third-year Andrew Burgher had the final word on choice of location.

“We chose that location mainly because the area there has a lot of places for us to move around in,” Burgher said.

Burgher hopes to mesh the past styles of lip dub videos — such as filming in large spaces — with “a little twist of Santa Cruz” by potentially adding in shots of the bay and campus.

As the videographer, Burgher said one of the most challenging aspects of filming a lip dubbing video is producing one continuous take.

“To make it possible, I will be using a Steadicam,” Burgher said. “To pull this off successfully, there will have to be a lot of moving parts working in unison — this meaning that all logistical elements of the production from camera and crew to sound and choreography will have to be prepared, practiced and rehearsed.”

Efficiency and practice are key to the success of a lip dub video, which demands split-second synchronization, hundreds of props and personnel and zero errors in the final cut, so at least one pre-event meeting will be arranged. There will be a preset path and specific casting for each particular moment in the song.

Culpi, who had the idea to create this video, said the project is in good hands and could be quite successful.

“The team that I met with are all really approachable,” Culpi said, “and I feel they have a good handle on the event.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Read These Lips

Professor Sean Burns and his band The Lilac Field perform at the Crêpe Place Thursday evening. Later on in the show, he sang with Emily Moldy. Photo by Morgan Grana.

For Professor Burns and Emily Moldy, community is key. It is recognized not only in their music but also in their performance. Teacher and lyrical-narrator Sean Burns and young soul-shakin’ UC Santa Cruz student Emily “Moldy” Moldenhauer shared their songs with each other and the lively audience of The Crêpe Place last Thursday.

The combination of these two artists makes for a beautiful night. The audience and the performers have obvious connections: Students yelled out, “Yeah, Professor Burns!” and friends of Moldenhauer’s sang along to her songs while enthusiastically promoting her extended play, “E is for Eleven.”

In between the plucks of the bass strings and the sharp crash of the snares, the conventional student/professor relationship was being destroyed and reformed.

Sean Burns came to UCSC in 2002 to pursue his Ph.D. in the History of Consciousness Department as a graduate student. After receiving his Ph.D., he started teaching social movement and history in the American Studies and the community studies departments in 2006. Moldenhauer — who prefers to be called by her moniker “Moldy” — was a community studies student pursuing a music career.

Through his community organizing class, Burns met Moldenhauer for the first time as his student.

Now a fourth-year at UCSC, Moldy explained how she came to work with Burns, a story that — to her — truly exemplifies what makes studying communities so worthwhile. She laughed while recalling how their musical relationship began.

“I was trying to hitchhike off campus one day, and Professor Burns picked me up. I gave him one of my EP’s, ‘E is for Eleven,’” Moldy said. “The next day, he was playing it in front of my entire lecture hall — he always played music before class. I guess he liked it.”

Eventually, however, Burns opted to leave Santa Cruz and UCSC to pursue his music career more seriously. For Burns, the challenge of stepping in front of a lecture hall, of focusing on his students and creativity in that context, is the same challenge as being a performing artist.

“I find an intense continuity between teaching and music,” Burns said. “I strive to be present and creative in a way that will help me grow and that in turn will reach others.”

After Burns left, Moldy found the perfect balance between her passion for music and community studies within her field study in Oakland. She loved the well-fitting field study opportunity at Youth Movement Records, where she helped empower Oakland youth through music.

At the end of Moldy’s field study, Burns asked her if she would be willing to open his show for him at the Crêpe Place in Santa Cruz.

“Hell yes, I was so honored,” Moldy said. “I’m so happy to be reunited with Professor Burns here tonight, in Santa Cruz, where our paths crossed for the first time.”

Anyone speaking with Burns can see how passionate he is about what he does, on and off the stage. The Lilac Field comprises of Adam Kirk, Lathan Spaulding and Adam Burstein and began playing together last year.

After working solo for almost a decade, Burns says he cherishes his “Lilac Field.” The band, which released their first EP “Orange Blossom Blinds” in 2010, is planning on recording new material later on this year. In the meantime they are playing as many shows as possible.

“‘Lilac Field’ is not only a lyric from one of our songs,” Burns said. “But it is also a sonic state of mind. The idea captures the notion of the ecology, beauty and expansiveness of a lilac field.”

Emily Moldy’s performance captures the sounds of soul, alternative-rock, jazz, neo-folk and indie-pop, and gets the crowd funky.

Burns and the Lilac Field change the feel a bit by proceeding to perform a vast array of songs that are types of lyrical narratives. Each song has a story and — fitting for a Georgetown graduate and ex-professor — a lesson. Burns said he kept his stage name, “Professor Burns” because he still considers himself a teacher, just in a different way.

“Although it was a great blessing to be up there on the hill teaching kids like you,” Burns said, pointing behind him in the direction of campus, “it is even more of a blessing quitting that job, starting a rock band, and teaching you similar lessons through my music.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Professor and Student Jam to a New Beat

Photo Courtesy of Rick Walker’s loop.pool.

This is Loopfest.

Last month, Rick Walker hosted his 10th annual Loopfest, a live digital looping festival. Seventy artists came out from 17 different countries to perform in three different cities over the course of nine days. Four shows took place in Santa Cruz occurring from Oct. 13 through 17.

Walker, a longtime friend of and familiar face in the Santa Cruz music community, plays a huge role in spearheading the movement of bringing live digital looping out of obscurity.

“Part of the reason why I started this festival in the first place was that I was really excited that there’s this new mode of communicating,” Walker said.

Electronic music has been around since the advent of synthesizers in the 1960s. Aided by technology, music looping came into play around the same time. It generally uses repetitions of sounds, layered on top of each other to create a complex rhythmic sound texture.

“When digital looping came out, what it did was that it completely freed the musician to either think of new sounds, or to re-contextualize their instruments,” Walker said. “Looping freed us to start thinking more about sound and rhythm over anything.”

From 1999 to 2000, Walker hosted around seven small-scale festivals in Santa Cruz at What Is Art, featuring 35 artists, 30 of whom had never played live before.

“Everyone was in their closets. I felt like I wanted them to get out and do it,” Walker said. “And since then, tons and tons of artists have put records out and are out there performing their music.”

Many of the performing artists who fell under the umbrella of Walker’s new interest are newbies who had the talent, but not the opportunity, to perform in front of a live audience.

“It’s wonderful to come out here and be with other Loopers, because I am the only one out in Finland doing this,” said Finnish performance artist Mir-0.

In fact, all 70 artists travel from all across the world entirely on their own expense. None of the artists are paid for their performances.

“People think I’m crazy out there, and then I come here and suddenly it works,” Mir-0 said.

Digital musical looping is widely applicable to any genre of music, and serves simply to expand an artist’s selection of instruments and rhythms, thereby generating a huge variety of musical sounds that have never before been produced.

“With a tape loop, you’re free to use all kind of sounds that you would not normally use,” Walker said. “I can basically make a whole drum set using Frisbees.”

Walker said he will not host another Loopfest next year because of the work it demands.

“It’s just a tremendous amount of work,” he said. “I haven’t been able to produce any of my own music because it just takes up so much of my time.”

Although Walker will not be putting on the event next year, he hopes that it will happen. He said the Loopers are determined to make it work.

“Loopfest will continue on next year,” said Scott Erickson, a member of the audience at Loopfest. “This event was put on through a collaborative group effort. Most of these people here have contributed something to the putting together of this event. That’s not going to stop. This is Santa Cruz we’re talking about.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Live Loopfest Event Hits Santa Cruz

Student pianists third-year Lucia Del Guerzo (left) and fourth-year Diana Chau (right) will perform together in the orchestra concert tomorrow and Saturday. The program includes pieces by Sergei Prokofiev, Francis Poulenc and graduate student Noah Gideon Meites. Photo by Isaac Miller.

It’s normal to see orchestral pieces that contain one piano. The UCSC orchestra decided to do something more unique.

Both tomorrow and Saturday, the orchestra will feature two music majors — fourth-year Diana Chau and third-year Lucia Del Guerzo — in a one-of-a-kind piano duet. The orchestra will play three pieces: Sergei Prokofiev’s “Classical Symphony,” Francis Poulenc’s “Concerto for Two Pianos” featuring Chau and Del Guerzo, and “Night Blooming” by Noah Gideon Meites, a composer and musician in the UCSC Doctorate of Musical Arts Composition program.

Del Guerzo and Chau brought Poulenc’s “Concerto for Two Pianos” to the attention of the music department for consideration as a performance piece after their piano teacher, Mary Jane Cope, introduced it to Del Guerzo.

“Mary Jane suggested that we check out some Poulenc, who wrote the two-piano piece, and I figured, ‘OK,’” Del Guerzo said. “It was the first link on YouTube, so I clicked it, fell in love, and said, ‘I just have to do this.’”

But Del Guerzo needed another pianist — which is where Chau came into the picture.

This is not the first time the two pianists’ paths have crossed. In fact, Chau and Del Guerzo attended the San Francisco School of the Arts together.

“We’re both from San Francisco, so it’s been really easy for us to get in touch and get together and practice during the summer,” Chau said.

It’s been a year since then, and the two have drilling the keys the entire time. During the spring quarter, Chau and Del Guerzo won the orchestra’s concerto competition.

The pianists work to stay in sync with one another as performers, using nonverbal communication and timing.

“Sometimes it gets frustrating to get exactly what you want out of the other person, but we work it out,” Del Guerzo said.

Piano instructor Mary Jane Cope has taught at the campus since 1977 and has had both Chau and Del Guerzo as her piano students since their first year.

“I think [Diana and Lucia] play well together; they both came from the same School of the Arts in San Francisco, so they are a good match and have played together before,” Cope said. “I suggested this concerto to them last year because it isn’t heard a lot, and it seemed to be a piece that suits them both, and it did. I mean, they really love the piece and have committed to it.”

The piece is “a brilliant, charming, and witty three-movement pastiche with nods to Mozart, Balinese gamelan and Parisian nightlife in the ’30s,” Cope said in an e-mail.

“It’s a concerto for two pianos, and that’s a difficult ensemble, because you have to have two good pianists who play together a lot,” she said.

Chau said she couldn’t imagine playing the piece with anyone else.

“It would be very different,” she said. “I mean, we’ve been under the instruction of the same teacher, and went to the same high school, so we just have that built-in connection.”

Del Guerzo said it would be a wholly new experience to play the piece with another person.

“I could see myself playing with another person, but the piece just takes skills, and there are certain passages where I would be hesitant if someone else could do it or not,” she said. “It’s also the same feel and the same touch on the keys.”

As the production’s opening night looms closer, the two musicians’ anticipation is heightening.

“We’re so ready,” Del Guerzo said. “This is not just boring classical music. This is an extravagant piece, and we are just so excited and honored to be playing it with the UCSC orchestra.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Student Pianist Duo Teams Up

Illustration by Bela Messex.

Students in the wind ensemble practice four hours a week. Although the ensemble avoided elimination last year, budget cuts continue to threaten the survival of the program. Photo by Andrew Allio.

UCSC’s concert choir rehearses in the Music Center every Wednesday, under the direction of Nat Berman. This may end soon, due to budget cuts that threaten to eliminate entire sections of the music program. Photo by Andrew Allio.

The 40th Annual Santa Cruz Band Review brings marching bands from all over Northern California to march from Santa Cruz High School to the Beach Boardwalk while performing their best songs. Photo by Andrew Allio.

Jay Arms can’t play his music.

As a fifth-year in classical guitar performance at UC Santa Cruz, he has seen prices rise for individual lessons. Arms has also witnessed multiple programs in the music department, including the classical guitar ensemble, ear training and the piano program get slashed and cut. He is quickly realizing that his circumstances are not about to change any time soon.

“The cost of [music] classes has gone up for me, and that’s coming out of my tuition,” Arms said.

Arms finds himself caught up in the budget crisis and feels especially targeted as a classical guitar student. Many of the ensembles that he used to participate in have either been cut completely from UCSC curriculum or don’t have enough spaces to accommodate all of the 15 to 20 declared classical guitar students on campus.

In 2009, Chancellor George Blumenthal announced that the university would be taking a hit upwards of $28.7 million, an approximately 20 percent reduction in funding. Those budget cuts were passed down to the separate divisions, including the music and art division, which was told to retrofit the music department.

Graduate student Camille Chitwood, who studies conducting at the university, commented on how the inaccessability to teachers and lessons could inhibit students who want to embark on a career in music.

“It’s a hard career as it is, because we’re always going to have to rely on outside [resources of] funding,” Chitwood said.

Budget cuts to music programs haven’t just affected the university but programs in the city of Santa Cruz and across the nation as well. Taxes that would fund music programs in Santa Cruz elementary schools were reduced by roughly $500,000.

As a result, teachers’ jobs are being cut, and they are afraid that without proper instruction, students won’t be interested in the arts anymore. Because students’ learning improves with art and music in their basic curriculum, these cuts are having adverse effects on students’ academic and social skills.

Arms has tried to find ways to get around music funding and class cuts at UCSC to little avail.

“A lot of us got stuck with Jazz Big Band, in which there are only two open slots a quarter, and the Early Music Consort,” Arms said. “So what we do now is play in a chamber music group that we formed as a quartet. The problem is we don’t get as much time with an instructor as when we play with a large group.”

By playing in a larger ensemble, students get about four hours a week with an instructor. In the smaller ensembles, like the one Arms participates in, they only get about one.

“That’s not really enough time to learn how to play with a group well, so we’re just trying to figure it out ourselves,” he said.

The piano program has also been cut back, and the piano placement exam that Arms would have had to take if he had entered UCSC a year before is no longer required for his entering class. Arms said this was disappointing because the basic skills he would have gotten from that exam could have helped him later on in his music career.

Ensembles in the music department have been hit especially hard by a lack of funding. The two largest ensembles on campus, the concert choir and wind ensemble, were on the financial chopping block until bridge funding was made available at the end of last school year.

Those bridge funds are supposed to “bridge the school through bad times,” said music department chair and director of concert choir Amy Beal.

The funding comes from surplus pool money that was left over in the division at the end of the school year. There is no way to determine if it will last any longer than one year, so the two large ensembles may be cut eventually anyway.

“Music departments are really expensive to run,” Beal said. “You need so much extra equipment. People say that the only thing more expensive than a music department is a medical school.”

Beal says that a main reason the department is expensive to run is because all music students receive one-on-one tutoring during their time at UCSC. Teachers are a large expense, and so their hours have been cut, making it harder for students to get the required amount of instruction needed to graduate.

Chitwood said the cuts make it more competitive for students vying for those few hours of instruction.

“Of course priority goes to people who have already been here and have been taking lessons, which also makes it a little unfair,” she said. “And I know for a fact that there are some teachers teaching students that they’re only supposed to teach for a half hour for an hour, because they know that’s what the students really need.”

Beal said that reducing instruction hours is one of many strategies for dealing with the funding crisis.

“Layout design, layoffs, reduced hours — that’s how we’ve dealt with the budget, but that’s only part of it,” Beal said.

As department chair, Beal was a part of redesigning the music department’s curriculum for this year in a way that she hopes will save money. The department has put classes, especially ensembles, on rotation. Now, instead of ensembles being offered every quarter or every year, they are offered every few quarters or every few years.

Beal is trying to make the most out of restructuring by dealing with the budget crisis as a creative opportunity for a new, and hopefully better, curriculum. She thinks the department is secure for the time being.

“Things are stable,” she said. “Things were bad last year, but now they really have stabilized and tightened. It’s been an incredibly painful process, but it looks like it’s going to be better.”

She also hopes that part of the $3 billion granted to the UC system for the 2011–2012 school year makes its way to the music department.

Wind ensemble director Rob Klevan has a positive outlook as well.

“I’m hoping the budgets will improve and, you know, I’m pretty optimistic, because it happened for us this year,” Klevan said. “It happened at the last minute, but we don’t care. We’ll take it.”

Although the wind ensemble was not cut for this school year, Klevan has fewer students participating because of circulating rumors that the ensemble would be cut, he said. Students signed up for other classes and then weren’t able to change their schedules when they found out the ensemble was going to be offered. Wind ensemble is down to 60, but it ended last school year with close to 80 students.

Klevan has been teaching at UCSC for 13 years and says he stopped trying to recommend to the department that the school have two ensembles, one basic and one more prestigious, even though many colleges across the United States do. He knows there’s no money for it.

“It is unfortunate that we have these funding restraints because there’s so many things that could be done here that would open up new doors for repertoire,” Klevan said. “We have the faculty to do it, there’s interest from the students, but there’s just a lack of funding.”

Elementary through high school art programs don’t look any better. Significant cuts to music programs have not remained at the collegiate level, but have affected public schools K-12 throughout the country as well.

Recently, band was cut completely from elementary schools in the Santa Cruz County School District. Sandy Cherk, former arts coordinator for Bay View Elementary, said she was laid off because of a lack of funding and that art and music teachers at Bay View are now struggling to find work teaching.

“The teachers are overwhelmed, because now they are teaching multiple levels a day,” Cherk said. “Their hours have been cut, and the students aren’t getting as much instruction.”

These cutbacks are a result of a number of financial factors. Over the past few years, funding from the Packard Foundation, which has been offering grants to Santa Cruz, Monterey and Santa Clara Counties since 1997, has shifted focus and no longer offers money for art and music in schools. Parcel taxes P and B2, initiated by Santa Cruz voters to pick up where the Packard Foundation left off, have been reduced from approximately $1,635,347 a year in 2005 to only about $1,103,256 now.

The main concern for Cherk is that the education elementary students are receiving now, after the cuts, is less than what is essential.

“It’s not providing all the tools necessary to give kids who might have a talent for art the chance to start early,” Cherk said. “They cut kindergarten classes and those seem pretty important. Art affects the kids in how they learn, cognitively and socially and in every other way.”

Elementary schools besides Bay View have been able to salvage art and music programs through active parent involvement. Westlake Elementary School is one that has been able to do just this.

Dorothy Franks, arts coordinator at Westlake, said that her school fundraises for different types of art enrichment, whereas other schools in the district are not capable of doing this because they don’t have parent bodies that are willing or able to do the same.

“It’s a little bit of a political hot-potato right now,” Frank said. “Money was cut quite a bit.”

Vocal music is now only offered one hour a week for fourth and fifth grade, whereas it used to be offered two hours a week for fourth-graders, and fifth-graders were offered the choice between vocal, strings and band. Now they are only offered vocal, and even that provides limited instruction.

“What is happening at the elementary schools will affect us in a few years,” said Christina Latham, band director at Santa Cruz High School. “My job is not affected now, but it could be in the future because if there’s not students to take band, then there’s no students to teach.”

Latham is worried that without proper instruction, students will not be interested in taking band in high school at all. As of this year, two of five music teachers at the elementary and middle school levels were laid off, and hours of instruction have significantly dropped.

Although the arts are still surviving in the Santa Cruz County School District, UCSC graduate student Chitwood does not see an easy way out of this crisis any time soon.

“Until the economy of California turns around, I just don’t think it can turn around here either,” she said.

Chitwood adds that she is proud of the faculty at UC Santa Cruz and hopes that the department is not hit any harder than it already has been.

“It would be a huge shame if any of [the faculty] were cut,” Chitwood said. “I think it’s terrible that many of their hours have been cut already.”

Wind ensemble director Klevan believes that public school districts like Santa Cruz target arts unfairly, and that the city has not yet realized that it is a mistake to do that.

“I could go on and on about how wrong it is,” Klevan said. “In California, we haven’t realized how arts can affect academics and other social aspects of a student’s life and development. We continue to cut programs. It’s hard for me to understand. My grandchildren will not have the same quality education that I had when I was their age, and that’s sad.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at The Sound of Silence

The Özgen trio stands on the stage. The three musicians, who include music lecturer Mesut Özgen, performed a hybrid of Western and traditional Turkish music for the UCSC Friday Night Live concert series. Photo by Andrew Allio.

The auditorium creaks with the sound of tuning instruments, the stage is flooded with blue lights, and in the center sits the Özgen Trio. The crowd quiets and the room quickly fills with the sound of Turkish-inspired music, the kemençe, a small bowed instrument, enrapturing its listeners.

The performance, the opening show for the music department’s Friday Night Live concert series, is a rare experience for the Santa Cruz community. The stage is not only graced by the master kemençe player, Neva Özgen, but it is also the foreground for the premiere of David Evan Jones’ piece combining podcasts and live music.

“This is one of the unusual programs,” said music lecturer Mesut Özgen, who is a classical guitarist and cousin of Neva Özgen. “[Friday Night Live] is mostly the traditional Western classical repertoire.”

The program consisted of performances of traditional Turkish folk songs, including taksims — improvised preludes — by Neva Özgen, and an original composition by Mesut Özgen, called “Anatolian Fantasy.” However, the performance is not an “authentic” representation of Turkish music, but rather a “hybrid” combination of Western and Turkish styles.

“[Mesut Özgen is] doing Western music, but his ears are full of Turkish classical music from his childhood,” Neva Özgen said. “Because of that he combines [the styles] very well.”

The draw of the performance for many, however, was the opportunity to see Neva Özgen play the kemençe. Nakul Deshpande, a second-year earth sciences major from Merrill who also studies and plays the kemençe, was excited to hear Neva play.

“It’s really a treat that she’s here,” Deshpande said. “Personally, I would have liked to hear more traditional tunes. Every musician has a little flavor, and I really just like the way Neva plays.”

Amy Haberman, a local resident, described Neva’s playing as “expressive,” while Mesut Özgen described Neva’s musical style as “special.”

“If the same notes are played on a violin, they may not sound like anything special, but her playing style, with the Turkish accent, it makes it completely different,” Mesut said. “Each note is not one pure simple pitch.”

However, the night’s performance was more than just the meeting of Western and Eastern music, but also of technology and art.

Porter provost and music professor David Evan Jones premiered his latest composition, “News from Afar” during the second half of the show that evening. The composition takes news podcasts, and uses a program to add pitches to the voices, creating a song-like quality. The podcasts are overlaid on computer-generated instruments. The piece was played while Mesut Özgen and Neva Özgen performed accompanying music.

“I began thinking about the relationship of the arts to the news,” Jones said. “The arts don’t tend to change very much on the surface with what happens on the news … so I wanted to see a more direct relationship between the art that I make and the news that I hear.”

Jones was also inspired by a general appreciation for “language” and intonation.

“I’ve done a lot of work with the sounds of speech,” Jones said. “I’ve synthesized speech … changed the sounds of voices and words in a lot of different ways.”

The use of technology in Jones’ piece is a new frontier for Neva Özgen, who normally plays traditional Turkish music.

“David Jones’ piece was a challenge, but [Neva] wanted to experience the challenge,” Mesut said.

Despite Jones’ use of technology in his composition, he still holds some apprehensions about the role of technology in music, maintaining a “love-hate relationship,” he said. The human aspect of music, the ability to make mistakes and not be perfect, still has its appeal.

“For real people making real music, mistakes in music aren’t a big deal,” Jones said. “It’s like an eggshell, letting you know it’s real eggs in the omelet.”

Jones’ music not only attempts to bridge a gap between technology and music but also aims to make a connection between people and the world at large.

“We all have individual lives that we try and make as positive and pleasant as possible [but] we live in a world where we’re hearing news that is mostly about things unpleasant,” Jones said. “We’re constantly in a state of dissonance with those things. We live with this incongruity between our daily lives and what we’re hearing about all the time [on the news]. [The composition] tries to bring together … these bewildering reports of what we get every day.”

The night’s performances were tied together by one idea: the convergence of opposing musical styles, technology and art and the individual and the communal spaces.

“[The concert is a way] to attract new audiences to classical concerts,” Mesut Özgen said. “Although it is classical, [there is] a kind of synthesis between East and West.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Classical and Contemporary Merge in Faculty Performance

Illustration by Ramille Baguio.

UC Santa Cruz graduate Rula Al-Nasrawi illegally downloaded 1,500 songs from the time she was in high school to the end of her sophomore year in college. By then, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) gave her a choice — pay a $3,000 settlement, or go to court, hire a lawyer and potentially pay upwards of $1 million.

Al-Nasrawi is just one of 3,000 UCSC students since 2001 who received notices from various entertainment companies alleging copyright infringement for downloading media illegally using the Internet provided by the university. She is also one of many college students who grew up having the Internet at her fingertips.

As much as Al-Nasrawi felt the financial repercussions of her actions, the music industry as a whole has had to deal with significant economic loss as a result of piracy. Global music piracy costs the music industry $12.5 billion every year, according to a recent analysis by the Institute for Policy Innovation.

Paddy Spinks, vice president of international sales and marketing for Concord Records, has witnessed firsthand the shifts within the industry.

“The music industry is currently in a state of transition, or reinventing itself, basically, and this has been going on for several years now, and will continue for several years more,” Spinks said. “Big corporations change slowly.”

Reap what you sow

The Internet has caused many problems for the entertainment industry, which has had to fight against the illegal distribution of copyrighted material since the dawn of Napster in the late ’90s.

Since those days, corporations such as Electric & Musical Industries (EMI) and Sony Music Entertainment have done what they can to fight back against the rising tide of illegal downloading. In 2000, the music industry took on the legendary Napster, which at the time was the leading source for digitally downloadable content. In A&M Records Inc vs. Napster, Napster was found to be in severe violation of copyright laws, forcing the shutdown of its website and leading it to file for bankruptcy two years later.

Illegally downloadable music is still easy to get a hold of. Although Napster is now dead, from its carcass peer-to-peer clients such as eDonkey and BitTorrent have risen to power.

BitTorrent is a form of peer-to-peer file sharing that allows large amounts of data to be transferred between Internet users without exceedingly high bandwidths. Users of BitTorrent are separated into seeders and leechers. A seeder is someone who has a copy of a torrent and offers it up to leechers, who are looking to obtain the file. The more seeders there are, the better the download speed the leechers will experience. When a leecher has fully obtained the torrent file, the leecher becomes a seeder, and the cycle continues. eDonkey, though, is based upon a network system that a user connects to in order to search and find the specific files he or she is looking for.

BitTorrent and eDonkey make up 90 percent of copyright infringements on the Internet, according to a one-year study in 2008 by BayTSP, a firm that specializes in tracking piracy and where copyrighted content appears. Overall, it found 306,227,001 cases of copyright infringement, and those are the numbers for just their clients.

First-year Kresge student Andy Stine is one of the many individuals who choose to download music through peer-to-peer file sharing. Despite the potential financial risk that accompanies this decision, Stine believes the convenience outweighs the cost.

“Well, when you compare the accessibility of torrenting and online downloading, buying music on iTunes is just sort of obnoxious,” Stine said.

Stine wrestles with his justification of such acts, though.

“The way I tackle that issue is that by considering whom it is exactly I’m stealing from. For me it doesn’t really strike me as an issue when I’m illegally downloading music from large artists, because they are backed by huge labels, and I don’t really care much for huge record labels,” Stine said. “But it’s when I’m downloading a local or underground artist that I start, morally, feeling in the red.”

Illustration by Ramille Baguio.

The price you pay

The UC system is known for categorically following federal law. This is no different in the case of copyright infringement. A hard-nosed approach to the situation is to be expected.

“We don’t monitor the networks for the purpose of finding illegal activity, so what I know about the status of copyright infringement is based on the number of notices we get from copyright holders,” said Janine Roeth, director of client services and security for Information Technology Services at UCSC.

Starting this coming July, UCSC will be required by the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) to enact a plan that will further crack down on students who pirate copyrighted material, Roeth said. ResNet currently allows a maximum download of two gigabytes in a 24-hour period.

“Although using P2P file-sharing technology is not in itself illegal, if you share copyrighted material without permission — even unwittingly — you are breaking both the law and UC policy and could be subject to university, civil and/or criminal sanctions,” according to the ResNet website.

Roethe said that although ITS does not monitor the networks “for the purpose of finding illegal activity,” once a student receives notice of a copyright infringement, ResNet staff begins tracking those individuals.

First-time offenders are notified by the university that their Internet access has been blocked for a two-week period and will remain so until completion of a copyright education quiz. On the second offense, the same process happens, but the student is also required to meet with the student judicial officer, and access is restored after a four-week period and completion of the meeting and the same quiz. For third-time offenders, all of the above occurs, but Internet access is blocked off for the remainder of the year.

UCSC graduate Rula Al-Nasrawi was taken aback when she received a letter from the university courtesy of the RIAA regarding her infraction.

“It’s kind of ridiculous because pretty much everyone I know downloads music, or has downloaded music, or doesn’t even buy music at all, not a single song,” Al-Nasrawi said.

Al-Nasrawi received one of the 514 notices from UCSC that were sent out during the 2007-08 academic year. The previous year, 895 letters were sent out to students, which was the peak number from the period of 2001 through the start of this year.

“The RIAA had a well-publicized campaign throughout 2006-07 and 2007-08, which contributed to our higher numbers in those years,” Roeth said. “They are also responsible for a large number of the notices we received thus far this year.”

Third-year Stevenson student Hannah Kreiger disagrees with the tactics of the music industry. She often uses a website that that makes music videos on YouTube accessible to rip as MP3 files.

“I just feel like the transition to digital music could have been handled a little bit better,” Kreiger said. “It’s really unfair to the people who get prosecuted and get their asses handed to them in lawsuits for downloading a few songs. That’s honestly why I don’t download all that often.”

Illustration by Ramille Baguio.

Change on the horizon

In the two years since Al-Nasrawi paid her $3,000 copyright infringement fine, the RIAA has spent less energy prosecuting individuals who have illegally downloaded copyrighted material. Instead it has switched its focus to people sharing copyrighted material. This has allowed the RIAA to hone in on peer-to-peer sites that host and share the content throughout the Internet.

The music industry could very well win, thanks to a group of bipartisan senators that wrote up S.3804, also known as the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act. The bill was proposed Sept. 20, and it is currently in the process of being referred to the Senate judiciary committee.

In layman’s terms, the bill gives specific powers to the U.S. attorney general that would allow the attorney general to go after websites that are “dedicated to infringing activities,” such as copyright and trademark infringement. The bill also allows for the attorney general to create two lists: “required to block” and “suggested to block.” Sites that appear on the list would be blocked from viewing.

Spinks said that this bill is a common one in a world of technological expansion and free distribution.

“Bills just like this proposed one have already been passed in France,” Spinks said. “This is an idea that already has some traction in other parts of the world.”

The industry is trying to adapt to these changes in two ways, Spinks said. First, at the top end of the business, the four major corporations, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, are all becoming smaller companies, and are dealing with a narrower group of artists. At the same time, they all maintain a back catalogue that keeps them alive.

Second, there has been an uprising of “middle-class musicians, who are basically doing it all for themselves, or doing it all on a much smaller level,” Spinks said, “whereby touring becomes very important, whereby they are in business with themselves, and they are building their own databases through the use of new media like Facebook or Myspace.”

Some artists have already tried to adapt to these new ways. In October 2007, Radiohead released its critically acclaimed seventh album, “In Rainbows,” as a free digital download. The band allowed its fans to decide what would be a fair price for the recording, and while it was not available for free from, fans could pay as little as 45 pence, equivalent to 45 cents.

Literature graduate student Trevor Schack wishes the music industry could look at bands like Radiohead and licensing distributors like Netflix and Art Store for guidance.

“I really think that there’s going to be a reliable online licensing network for probably everything,” Schack said. “We’re going to see a good one come out for music — I mean, you could almost say that Pandora is it right now. But at some point, for a nominal monthly fee you’re going to be able to access all the music you could want.”

Hannah Kreiger said that everyone should be afforded the right of institutionalized protection of unlimited Internet access.

“You should be able to look at whatever the hell you want,” Kreiger said. “I don’t think that it’s necessarily right to say, ‘You can’t look at this, whatsoever.’ You should have the freedom to look at whatever you want.”

On the other hand, Spinks has no sympathy for those who break the law.

“At the end of the day, if you’re stealing something, you should be stopped. It’s as simple as that, really,” Spinks said. “And you are stealing something if you go to BitTorrent, or wherever, and download some music for free.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Free Music? At What Cost?

Julia Simone finds inspiration for her folk pop tunes in people and human emotion. Courtesy of Julia Simone.

Upon entering her Cowell apartment room, it is clear Julia Fogelson is a music buff. Every inch of the once-white walls are plastered with band posters: The Beatles, Jack Johnson, Bob Marley. Under the stagename Julia Simone, Fogelson recently released her first demo — her mellifluous voice flows smoothly with her guitar, as if her vocal chords are doing the strumming. We sit down at the dining table in her apartment as she peels back the foil of a yogurt container, pours in some granola, and begins to tell me how it all started.

~~~~~~

City on a Hill Press (CHP): Have you always been a singer?

Julia Simone (JS): I was always interested in singing. My family has some videos of me writing songs off the top of my head — I loved improv singing — and dancing around on the fireplace. I had a bat mitzvah when I was 13, and got a lot of money as gifts, so I decided to buy a karaoke machine. I had all these country CDs, so I would sit in my room and sing Faith Hill and Shania Twain. I think that actually helped my voice. My mom finally enrolled me in voice lessons in a lady’s living room when I was 14. But I think I only stuck with it for like a year.

CHP: What would you say most inspires you when you’re writing your songs?

JS: Emotions. Human emotions and people. Not all my songs are sad. “Wishing Tree,” which is the new one, is about just really, really liking someone, and the uncertainty of whether or not it’s going to work out. I added fiction in that song. It was inspired by going to the Wishing Tree [in upper] campus. I read a note there that said, “I wish I could respect my girlfriend Emily more.” And I thought it was so sad and remembered it and began writing a fiction story about the guy who wrote the note. But then it took a different route to be partly truth about myself. So, I weave in fiction and truth together. But I’m mostly inspired by people.

CHP: How does your songwriting process usually work?

JS: It’s really changed over the years. It used to be that I would have a poem and then I would put the poem to music and find out where the verses were and the chorus and everything. Now, I kind of find a riff that I like with a few chords that sound well together, and I like to improv over it. … Usually when I start a song I’ll try to finish it in a couple days. I’ve got a lot of started songs. So, if I don’t finish them quickly, I’ll just forget about them.

CHP: Where do you record?

JS: My friend Jonah and I talked last year about recording together. He’s a music major, and he’s a genius with music and music programs on the computer. He has a studio in Bonny Doon, where he lives, and his housemates are all musicians, too. So we laid down one of my songs and his housemate played drums to it. … One of the songs [on the CD] I had recorded when I was 14 with my guitar teacher. Sometimes I record on GarageBand on my Mac, but I have to borrow a mic from my housemate. It doesn’t compare to when Jonah does it.

CHP: Do you listen to your own music?

JS: Only the songs I like. But I mostly just listen to them thinking, “Do I sound good?” I really like the ones I recorded with Jonah, and I’m not in love with the ones I recorded when I was younger. I’ve just come into my own style now.

CHP: What would you say your style is?

JS: Folk Pop. I just came up with that a couple weeks ago. I mean, my songs are pretty poppy and traditional. But I like the whole female singer/songwriter thing. It’s very organic with just a guitar.

CHP: Where do you want your music to take you?

JS: I would love to get picked up by a label and be given the opportunity to just have everything handed to me. A label that would help me get covers made, distribute my music, [and] send it out to college radio stations. I also hope to continue playing shows. I’ve finally developed stage presence, and I’ve become really comfortable on stage and it’s easier to talk and make little jokes.

~~~~~~

Julia Simone’s Myspace: myspace.com/juliasimone
E-mail: juliasimonemusic [at] gmail.com

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Q&A: Julia Simone

Photo by Isaac Miller.

In the first decade of a new millennium, at the rock bottom of a nationwide economic crisis, there is a tent full of people without a care in the world. A thick layer of fog fills the air, and the only sources of light are the multi-colored lasers zipping over people’s heads in perfect sync with the pounding base. In a place like this, people believe in fairies and free massages, and happiness comes in the form of a pill.

The Sahara tent at this past April’s Coachella Music Festival was a small-scale attempt to resurrect what was once — and still often is ­— referred to as a “rave,” a four-letter word with more color than a rainbow and more controversy than Tiger Woods’ sex life.

From its euphoric birth in the late ‘80s, rave culture spread from Europe to the U.S and generated a movement bumping with electronic music and powered by pills. However, just as quickly as the party started, by the start of the new millennium the scene was beginning to wither away.

Then and Now

Rave culture — a movement that is stale to many — originated in the late ‘80s long before the candy beads and the glowsticks. The birth of electronic dance music made way for an onslaught of new types of performance and produced a new kind of pop culture icon for the public: the DJ.

“DJ culture, club culture, electronic music, dancing in huge warehouses and clubs. That goes back to the 60’s, when it was discovered that with mixers [devices used by DJs] you can make sure the music never stops,” said Associate Professor of Literature Louis Chude-Sokei. Chude-Sokei teaches Topics in American Popular Culture: Writing Music and Listening to Culture at UCSC every year.

And indeed the music never stopped. With current electronic demigods like Benny Benassi and Deadmau5 (pronounced dead mouse), we now live in a day and age where as Chude-Sokei explained, “the DJ became the replacement for the rock star.”

“When I was out there in the earlier days, people who did live music would laugh at DJs and laugh at electronic music.” Chude-Sokei said. “They’d be like, ‘Who would want to listen to this? There’s no musicians, it’s not live,’ and this was just 15 or 20 years ago.”

Jason Sperling, co-founder of electronic music powerhouse Skills Productions, is currently producing the upcoming electro dance event “Pop 2010: The Dream.” Sperling has been producing this event for the past 13 years, since Skills Productions first started in 1997. Pop, also known as “Electro Techno Disco (ETD) Pop,” is one of the many colossal dance parties today that still offer all of the elements of a rave, without being referred to as such.

“Originally it was called ‘Electro Techno Disco Popsicle,’ which really fit the times back in ‘97, ‘98, ‘99 when the raver and candy culture was really popular, and was actually just starting to get really popular in San Francisco,” Sperling said. “We used to give out popsicles to everyone at the event.”

These days popsicle giveaways are long gone, due to a much larger attendance list. And as the audience grows, so does the excess of the event’s production.

“The first few years of doing Pop was mostly local artists, and slowly we started building up and using bigger venues and booking more internationally-known talent,” Sperling said. “Really now our passion is production and technology, and making the event look as beautiful as it possibly can.”

Beautiful is an understatement. With the growth of technology, these dance parties have shifted from crowded abandoned warehouses to sold-out sports arenas full of up-to-date sound systems and special effects, designed to literally transport ravers to a different world.

Derek Smith, the sole composer of the electro-glitch musical phenomenon Pretty Lights, felt a similar sentiment in the sense that although the word ‘rave’ may not be as prevalent, it may be in the midst of a new awakening.

“It’s interesting how similar things are sort of recurring and popping back up — even though there are no 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. all-night house massive rave parties, people are still finding ways to get that experience,” Smith said. “Right now it seems as if it’s through touring artists like Pretty Lights and Deadmau5, and the whole scene has gotten a lot bigger recently and has sort of been revitalized in a new sort of way.”

And The Beat Goes On

While the rave resurrection has been going strong across the nation, many in Santa Cruz have been made efforts to keep the party going on a local level, regardless of its reputation.

Don’t Panic is one of several electronic dance music (EDM) crews in the Santa Cruz area. The crew’s two primary organizers, who refer to themselves as Mr. C and Mr. J, host and DJ at dance parties in various locations, from local venues to the woods on campus.

“Don’t Panic itself is legal, but occasionally there’s an issue with public land; mostly it’s when it’s deep in the forest,” Mr. C said.

From the secret event invites, to the glow sticks illuminating the path to the party, Don’t Panic is all about less production and more simplicity, harkening back to the days of youngsters dancing the night away in an abandoned warehouse or somewhere out in nature. These secret events, in which party locations are not determined until hours before the party starts are often times referred to by some as “Easter egg hunt raves.”

“We’ve basically paid for everything,” Mr. C said. “We provide the sound system, lights, art. All of this stuff is in my garage right now.”

The Don’t Panic boys are not alone in their quest to revamp the electro music scene by any means. Local DJ duo RealBoy is another example of two college kids who love the music, and know how to host a good party.

Austin Jacobsen, one-half of RealBoy, sits outside of Jamba Juice as he describes his take on the rave scene.

“At a rave it’s all about the big bass that you feel, and you have lightshows, and the drugs and the candy on the wrists,” he said. “And at these new things that aren’t classified as raves, it’s not about the candy, it’s not about drugs, it’s not about what you’re wearing. It’s about the music.”

Jacobsen, a firm believer in electronic music and its healing properties, denounces self-proclaimed “ravers” who only attend EDM events to indulge in illicit drugs.

“People that call it a rave are still getting into it, and are mostly about the drugs and the good time,” he said. “Whereas the people that don’t call it that, are about the music and the technicality.”

And while electronic music may seem like one basic genre, it is part of an entire electro ecosystem where house, glitch, drum and bass, trance and others coexist peacefully.

“Trance is a lot slower and more progressive and a lot more energetic and I will say anthemy,” said Sperling, of Skills Productions. “There are a lot of genres that have split out of electro like dubstep, which is really growing fast.”

As dubstep slowly makes its mark in nightclubs everywhere, it is important to note that while the genre is shifting with the times, it is not going away any time soon.

When Sperling listens to dubstep, he hears “some drum and bass, some two-step, some hip-hop sometimes, some electro…a mash of some of the genres.”

Whether it’s a pounding bassline or a progressive track, many of today’s DJs have flocked to the ever-expanding genre of electronic dance music.

“Take a famous pop star like Justin Bieber, and let’s say he actually writes a song. So then he has somebody else help him with the recording, someone does the mastering, somebody rewrites some of the parts, different people do the instruments for him,” Jacobsen said. “But in [EDM] everything is under that one person, and that’s what electronic music is all about.”

The R-Word

In 1989, 16-year-old Clare Leighton suffered complications after taking an ecstasy pill at UK nightclub The Hacienda — the godfather of rave venues. She died that same night from internal bleeding.

The Hacienda, a breeding ground for drugs, youth, and electronic music, was where ecstasy made its first debut on the dancefloor, keeping partiers going and floating somewhere over cloud nine.

However, after Leighton’s death, the club’s “Madchester” scene began spiraling down a rabbit hole of negative media coverage and condemnation.

In a state of ecstasy, the rave had begun its fall from grace, and would continue falling through the ’90s.

“1999 or 2000 was when  ‘rave’ became a bad word,” Sperling said. “There was a lot of attention towards a lot of young kids on drugs at warehouses that were overcrowded, and they [were] going undercover and [the media] sort of exploited that part of it and didn’t show all of the other sides.”

The “RAVE” Act, also known as the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, was passed in 2003 as an addition to the AMBER Alert bill for child abduction protection. Pushed by current Vice President and former Senator Joe Biden, the “RAVE” Act changed people’s perception of the once praised rave culture.

“The word rave has just gotten a really bad rep over the years,” said Sperling. “It’s a shame, and hopefully one day that will change.”

With the passing of the “RAVE” Act in 2003, producers like Sperling can no longer refer to their events as raves, but instead as electronic dance events, simply due to the word’s recently-attached stigma. The word rave became associated with underage kids on drugs, which parents and community members saw as a recipe for disaster. However, it was not too long ago that a rave was considered just another party.

“I don’t call my events raves because of the media and the media’s view on that, just that word alone could possibly be negative, without even knowing what our event’s about,” Sperling said. “I don’t think our event is negative, it’s all positive. We spend all year-round trying to make it as positive as possible.”

Although the media is partially responsible for beating the credibility out of rave culture, the relationship between drugs and the movement is undeniable.

“Every single time a new musical popular form emerges, certainly in America and in Europe, the first thing the government does is say ‘Oh it’s drugs, they’re smoking reefer!’ Or in the ’20s they would say it’s all about gin and illegal alcohol, and oh it’s about marijuana in the ’60s and it’s about acid!” Professor Chude-Sokei said. “It’s thestory of popular music!”

Derek Smith of Pretty Lights recalled the crowd at Coachella, during various EDM shows, and the collective willingness to relive the rave as much as possible.

“That [Sahara] tent really did remind me of the real raves of the past, this sort of multisensory experience was a huge part of it,” he said. “Whether it’s just through dancing or ecstasy or whatever it is.”

Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, first became a street drug in the 1970s, and has been circulating since then. The substance most associated with rave culture, ecstasy is often referred to as E or X, and is a popular party pal for many a raver.

“When you’re rolling you just feel very open and you just want to talk to everybody,” said Chris Gonzalez,* a second-year at Cabrillo College.

Drugs, although an irrefutable element to rave culture, are not what the culture is all about. However, like any social movement, there will always be an excuse to label it as taboo.

“Who are involved and committed tend to have a much more open relationship with drugs, not all drugs, but certainly ecstasy,” Chude-Sokei said. “Yes it’s a part of it — no it’s not what it’s about.”

Peace, Love, Unity, Respect

Jasica Smith, a second-year at UCSC, is one of many who still believe in the thriving rave scene.

“I’ve been in the scene since maybe July 2008,” she said. “At every rave there’s always something crazy.”

Smith attends both massives — raves with about three thousand or more people — and underground events, with 100 people or less. She goes to massives at least every other month and undergrounds every other week.

Amid the smoke and flashing strobe lights, the die-hard raver style is definitely made to makes its wearers stand out. The three main rave essentials which are found at any dance event include glowsticks, sparkles, and candy bracelets.

Candy culture, which has carried over from the ’90s, was founded on the basis of sharing and trading homemade candy bracelets with other ravers. The bracelets are not really edible, but made of plastic beads, often with words spelled out on them using letter beads. Gonzalez explained the significance of candy, often spelled kandi, as he practiced a popular PLUR (peace, love, unity, respect) hand movement used to exchange candy.

“The candy is mainly [for] when you’re rolling, it’s another bonding thing,” he said. “[At raves] they usually give you these names, mine was Gravity ‘because I’m always down!’”

Glowstickers who peruse EDM parties also keep the idea of PLUR in mind, giving free light shows to whoever wants one. These are all elements that add to the friendly environment that rave culture embodies.

“PLUR rubs off on a lot of people who didn’t have the best life,” Sperling of Skills Productions said. “They could come to this type of event, and just be loved and be part of a family.”

And while this four-letter word “rave” has received so much flack over the years, much kudos are needed for events that promote the use of various creative mediums.

“We have a cuddle puddle, we have a giant eight-by-eight piece of canvas for people to paint, and everything you need for stage support is in the trees,” said Don’t Panic’s Mr. C.

“By expanding it and making it more interactive, it doesn’t just close it off to people who are using illicit drugs,” UCSC student Smith said.

The rave has evolved over the years to cater to a rapidly-changing society, with the need for constant sensory stimulation. However, it is the mysterious element of disguise that has sparked interest among many rave-goers to this day.

“I would describe it as the urge for carnivale,” Chude-Sokei said. “The urge to celebrate and to become someone else and to dance, that is a product of harsh economic times as well.”

Smith reminisces on a time when six female stilt walkers dressed in white Victorian garb and and put their stilts up on a police car, blocking it from breaking up a rave.

“Another time, I saw this guy wearing a lime green belly shirt with leopard print hot shorts and wearing pink fairy wings, and he was squatting between two cars taking a dump!” Smith said.

“The idea of a rave is coming from a lot of people who listen to mainstream radio who are now finding this culture, so it’s more of an excuse to dress up this way and take the drugs and go crazy and let loose because it’s new for them and it’s different from [the] mainstream,” RealBoy DJ Jacobsen said.

Regardless of whether we choose to condemn the culture or not, raves and electronic dance parties will always be part of what Chude-Sokei refers to as a “part of a longer continuum” of music and pop culture in the face of socioecnomic uncertainty.

So is rave culture on its way out for good? Are the glowsticks fading out and the DJs packing up? Take a trip down the rabbit hole and see for yourself.

~~~~~~

*Name has been changed to protect the anonymity of this source

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Rave Revival

due to budget cuts, the UCSC Wind Ensemble has temporarily been suspended. Photo by Isaac Miller.

Over the past 12 years, the UC Santa Cruz Wind Ensemble has grown from 25 to 80 musicians, played the national anthem before a San Francisco Giants game, and received a standing ovation at Carnegie Hall. Despite these accomplishments, the ensemble’s Spring performance may be the last for the foreseeable future.

Extensive budget reductions handed down to the Music Department resulted in the temporary suspension of the Wind, Balinese Gamelan, Contemporary Music, Central Asian, and Latin American Ensembles.

These groups are some of the few resources available for non-music majors to continue playing their instruments in college. Third-year business management economics major Hailey Sinder plays flute in the wind ensemble, which she considers an important outlet.

“It’s a great creative release for all of us outside of our studies and work,” Sinder said.  “I love it, I’m not a music major or minor, I just do it for fun and that is the case with most of the kids in the band.”

Wind Ensemble founder and director Rob Klevan did not learn his ensemble was on hiatus until he received the schedule for Fall Quarter 2010, sans rehearsal times. It wasn’t until later that the music department emailed him to disclose its uncertainty regarging whether or not the course will be offered next year.

“[The Wind Ensemble] is something to be really proud of,” Klevan said. “For the music department to all of a sudden cut it is really hard to understand.”

Department Chair Fred Lieberman said in an e-mail that the Music Department’s budget has been reduced by around $130,000 for the 2009-10 school year and could face further cuts in the future.  Fixed costs in the Music Department budget, such as salaries, leave few options of where to allocate reductions, placing the campus ensembles in jeopardy.  Lieberman said that difficult decisions must be made in planning next year’s available courses without knowing the exact level of funds available.

“[Some Courses] are on temporary hiatus until our budget is restored either by the state, Arts Division, or private donors,” Lieberman said. “We have already absorbed large cuts over the past several years, and everyone is aware that the new cuts will be painful.”

For students like Sinder, whose next year at UCSC will be her last, this quarter is her final opportunity to participate in non-major orchestras and ensembles.

“I was planning on being in it every quarter here,” Sinder said. “I would be extremely disappointed if [I couldn’t take it].”

Despite looming budget cuts and impending suspension, the Wind Ensemble looks forward to playing its upcoming Spring Concert in May.

Playing with the Watsonville Taiko drummers, the Wind ensemble will perform the world premiere of  “Antares Rising,” Op. 73 composed by Nicolas Vasallo, a UCSC graduate student.  Other pieces performed will include the Overture to “Candide” by Leonard Bernstein and the Led Zeppelin-inspired “Black Dog” by Scott McAllister, featuring Faculty member John Sackett on Clarinet.

Klevan is still excited about the Wind Ensemble’s 2010 culminating performance and remains optimistic that the group will find a way to persevere despite funding obstacles.

“There is something for everybody to come and enjoy music that is different and music that is very lyrical and beautiful,” Klevan said. “Its the last performance of this year and hopefully we will have more in the future … I just want to see it keep going.”

~~~~~~

The concert will take place in the Music Center Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m. May 15.
Tickets will be ($10, $8, $6)
More Info available at arts.ucsc.edu.

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Campus Ensembles Face Uncertain Future

Photos by Rosario Serna.

In Ocean View Park on a Sunday afternoon, the high lilting tones of fiddle, banjo, guitar and singing voices can be heard floating on the breeze. Four circles of musicians face each other furiously plucking, strumming, and sawing the strings of their instruments. Some of the children playing in the park stop what they are doing and come to dance. It is a bluegrass and old-time jam session, and everyone who has a thing for folk music is welcome to join in.

Santa Cruz has a thriving bluegrass community made up of those who have assembled this Sunday. They are an eclectic and welcoming bunch, having come together simply through the love of playing with others. They talk about their favorite bands and songs, make good-natured banjo jokes, and adjust their circles to let others in and make sure no one gets a fiddle bow in the eye.

Jessica Evans, who helps organize the jam, is impatient to start playing. She suggests a song to a banjo player, who knows the tune but can’t remember exactly how to play it.

Evans smiles and says jokingly, “Suck it up, this is bluegrass!”

The Roots

Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass, once described his brand of music saying, “It has a high lonesome sound. It’s plain music that tells a good story. It’s played from my heart to your heart, and it will touch you. Bluegrass is music that matters.”

Some of these songs are as old as the hills and hollers where the music made its home. The tunes may have been passed down through the generations or rediscovered from an old Alan Lomax collection. Bluegrass encompasses a great body of music — from “Soldier’s Joy,” a toe-tapping fiddle tune, to “Little Sadie,” a haunting murder ballad. The names of the original authors of these songs have been lost to time.

Jeff Place, musical archivist for the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, explained that bluegrass finds its roots in old-time music as well as the folk traditions of many different groups of people.

“With old-time music you have to go back to the beginnings of the country. People had to make their own music, and oftentimes people would even make their own instruments,” Place said. “There was a combination between the African instrument, the banjar, which became the banjo in the United States, and the European violin, which of course, is the fiddle.”

Bill Monroe took inspiration from folk songs, old-time string bands and baptist hymnals to create his entirely new genre. The name “bluegrass” comes from the name of his band, the Blue Grass Boys, which he founded in 1939.

Place explained the tremendous impact Monroe had on American folk music.

“Bluegrass is interesting because you have an entire genre of music basically coming out of one person, who is Bill Monroe,” Place said. “He had been playing old-time string band music with his brothers, which is a whole different tradition … and kind of made this string band music that went into hyperdrive.”

Currently, bluegrass comes in many different forms, as musicians perform the songs with their own style and bring them to new audiences. Nirvana’s “In the Pines,” Feist’s “Sea-Lion Woman,” and Dolly Parton’s “Silver Dagger” are all examples of how diverse artists find inspiration in old folk songs and reinvent them to keep the music relevant.

Place explained that despite having firm roots in the past, bluegrass is constantly evolving.

“[With] a lot of these old-time jams and even bluegrass, you have the song, but everyone puts their own stamp on it,” Place said. “Bluegrass nowadays has gone off in all different directions to create sort of hybrid forms. … A lot of this stuff comes from jam sessions and people playing together. It definitely has its audience, and that is as big as it has ever been.”

Play It By Ear

In the third and final class of the Mountain Music Workshop, 10 students file into Harvey West Club Room and begin tuning their banjos, fiddles and guitars. This is no average music class — the students have learned all that they know not by rote, but by simply listening and playing together.

“Some of them are brand new to their instruments!” Leslie Abbott said excitedly.

The Mountain Music Workshop is taught twice a year by the Abbott family, and tonight Leslie Abbott and her son Luke lead the lesson. Luke is confident that his protegés are ready to lead the jam while he sits back and facilitates.

“Who wants to lead the first song?” Luke asks.

Some of the students are clearly uneasy at this prospect, and his question is met by nervous laughter and glances around the room.

“The worst thing that will happen is that it will all fall apart, and that will be fun,” Luke assures them. “Don’t be shy, play nice and loud!”

One brave woman with her guitar steps up and suggests playing “Handsome Molly” in the key of G. In bluegrass, breaks between the singing give the instrumentalists a chance to showcase their talent and style. The first break in “Handsome Molly” is quiet and timid, but by the second round, the melody shines through. The voices get louder as the musicians gain confidence, and after a few more verses and breaks, the leader kicks out her foot to signal the end of the song.

The Abbott family is clearly onto something. In only three two-hour sessions, the students — most of them brand-new to their instruments — are now able to play multiple songs while singing. It’s no easy feat for bluegrass veterans, let alone newcomers.

Luke Abbott is only in his 20s, and when asked how many instruments he plays, he shrugs and smiles.

“Oh, I don’t know. Guitar, banjo, piano, fiddle and mandolin regularly.”

Remarkably, Luke has never taken any formal lessons. Instead he is self-taught, learning by ear and intuition.

After attending the Good Old-Fashioned Bluegrass Festival in 1997, the Abbotts, a local Santa Cruz family, fell in love with mountain music and never went back. Over the years, they recognized the benefits of learning music by ear collectively, and developed a method to share their discovery and teach others to play. They call it the “Toneway Project.”

Luke explained the Toneway method.

“When a child learns to walk, when a child learns to talk, they don’t understand what they’re doing,” he said. “As adults, we think that we need to understand it before we can do it. … Our goal is to get it so that you can hear a song, and then you can play it. We are helping your brain to make the connections between the sound and what your fingers do.”

Luke added that those who are convinced they have no musical ability can still benefit using the Toneway method.

“It’s kind of crazy how many people think that they don’t have it,” he said. “Half of the people in the workshops think that they can’t sing, that they can’t carry a tune, that they don’t have a voice. Most people severely underestimate their abilities.”

The Mountain Music Workshop is proof that the Toneway method works. In the course of only three classes, the Abbotts have given their students the tools they need not only to play music, but to jam with others.

The Jam Session

Those playing in the park this Sunday were drawn to bluegrass for different reasons. Some felt a calling, others were raised around it, some learned by rote, others by ear. All of them know that in order to continue learning and growing as musicians, playing with others is essential.

In 2008, Jessica Evans, a local musician and board member of the Northern California Bluegrass Society, organized a monthly jam session in Ocean View Park that takes place on the fourth Sunday of every month. Along with a little help from her friend Shirley Tudor and the Abbott family, Evans coordinated the jam to include any Santa Cruz musicians who were interested in playing together.

“We decided to try to create a jam that would be really big and inclusive and try to get the entire Santa Cruz musical community together,” Evans said. “The park is so big, it really is a venue for anyone who wants to come and play music. People can kind of go from circle to circle and find what they are interested in doing.”

Mike Bell, with his wolf-shirt and custom guitar strap, is a regular on the jam session circuit. He attends jam sessions three days out of the week as well as on the first and fourth Sunday of each month. Bell talked excitedly about up-and-coming bands and artists, praising the talent present at jam sessions.

“My roots are in rock ‘n’ roll, but I found a lot of talent in country and bluegrass music,” Bell said. “I have had to step up from the level that I was to try and be as good as these people.”

Bell experiences a real joy from playing with others. To him, music is central to living a happy, well-rounded life.

“It fills you up,” Bell said. “The most important thing in your life is spirit and soul, and bringing it from the ground up. You feel it. It’s medication, music is.”

Chip Curry is the editor of The Fiddler’s Rag, a monthly magazine produced by the Santa Clara Valley Fiddlers’ Association. He grew up in a musical family listening to bluegrass and old-time songs. It is his first time playing at the Santa Cruz jam session.

“My father used to play this kind of music, and he was born and raised in southwest Missouri in the Ozarks,” Curry said. “Someone came to the house [who was] dating my sister and left a banjo behind, I started playing the banjo and the rest is history. I had listened to it for so long that I knew how it had to sound.”

At the jam session, many of the artists play more than one instrument. They switch between them, depending on which one they are in the mood to play during each song.

Curry explained this trend.

“There is always another instrument to learn, there is always another chord to learn, [and] there is always a new level that you can improve,” he said. “So if you get on that train early, it will take you from now until forever.”

The shadows begin to grow longer at Ocean View Park, the day grows colder, and the sun begins to set. The musicians pack up their instruments, leaving with the promise to meet at the next jam.

Bell puts away his 12-string guitar and says, “It always ends too soon.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at From Appalachia to Santa Cruz, Bluegrass Endures

Album art from Petrychor's EP, Dryad, available to listen to and download at petrychor.com.

It’s been cloudy around the campus lately, which makes the fact that I’ve been listening to Petrychor’s Dryad EP, a gem of a black metal album, all the more appropriate. Petrychor is a one-man band out of California shrouded in mystery; the sole member, simply known as “T” according to the band’s Myspace page, plays all the instruments. “T” recently put this EP up on his website, accepting donations from listeners willing to give. Not much else is known about the band except what is found on his website, which details the band’s goal and sound: “This is music for meditation, for frustration and anger, for beauty, and above all for communication. Petrychor seeks to expand on and enhance those focuses typically associated with black metal by staying open to outside influences.” It’s these influences that set this short DIY demo apart from the crowd.

The EP opens with the title track “Dryad (I Make My Home),” a 10-minute journey from rain-spattered windows to dissonant and distorted riffs, played as if cutting through the very fog I found myself surrounded by; haunting and unseen. There’s melody throughout the song, it’s just hidden beneath the screeches and banshee cries. Petrychor plays the typical tremolo picking style guitars with crashing cymbals and blast beats, but the guitar solos stand out for their melodies. The end of the song really keys in on the themes of melancholy and isolation found in black metal. Mysteriously beautiful, the atmosphere and acoustic sections of “Dryad” manage to resonate the most within the songs.

“Gamma Leonis” and “…of Salt and Sky” continue the EP’s intimate nature. “Gamma Leonis” opens with sparse piano, setting a tension that is quickly released with such aggression and passion and build-up that you would think that post-rock gods Mono were playing. “…of Salt and Sky” whisks the listener to the ocean, watching the ebb and tide of the water, nature, and even life; an acoustic guitar and twinkling piano play alongside the sea.

Dryad leaves you craving more, fitting in perfectly within the black metal genre. Containing only three songs and clocking in at 22 minutes, Dryad could be longer. However, the proceeds of this EP go toward the creation of a full-length album, which is already in the works according to Petrychor’s Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/petrychor). Despite this EP’s short length, it succeeds in making the listener crave more, and does so without sounding incomplete.

I would give Dryad 4 zombie babies out of 5.

~~~~~~

You can get the EP from http://www.petrychor.com. Also look for news on the full-length album currently in production.

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Petrychor’s Dryad Surprises and Excites

Audiopharmacy performs at Kresge Town Hall, bringing visibility to minorities struggling in the face of ongoing territorial occupations. Photo by Morgan Grana.

Four centuries after the first white settlers landed in New England, Native American groups are reaching across the ocean to war-torn Palestinians.

Aiming to support a liberation struggle some think is analogous to the early days of America’s manifest destiny, the Bay Area-based Indigenous Youth Delegation to Palestine made their first international contact during a two-week tour through refugee camps along the Israel-Palestine border in August 2009.

Ras K’Dee, a member of the delegation and editor of Seventh Native American Generation (SNAG) magazine, shared his experiences from the trip prior to a concert in Kresge Town Hall. The event, a publicity venture in ongoing efforts to increase awareness of minority struggles, was hosted by UC Santa Cruz’s Native American Resource Center.

K’Dee described his goals.

“There isn’t that international wedge of support for Palestine either,” K’Dee said. “In the long run, we want to create a solidarity movement.”

An ethnic Californian Pomo Indian, K’Dee drew multiple parallels between the two groups. He equated the Cherokee Trail of Tears with the forced migration of Palestinians from Israeli lands, and compared placement of Native American children into boarding schools with Palestinian families separated by impassable military checkpoints.

“The U.N. created a land for Jews, who have been historically kicked around Europe,” UCSC student Eliot Rosenstock said. “[The Jewish people] wanted a base, and it hurts me to see my own people now marginalizing another religion.”

Native American Indians are a minority in their own home country. A 2008 diversity report revealed that they make up about 1 percent of the student population at UCSC.

Fourth-year Merrill student and attendee Amalia Coronado stated that as a Native American, she felt a connection to Palestinians in what she felt was a battle for visibility and equality.

“There’s just so much going on everywhere, it’s great to make these cross-cultural ties,” Coronado said. “We’re all fighting for similar things.”

Debates rage over the legitimacy of Israeli settlements, pitting Israelis against Palestinians.

The divide permeates Rosenstock’s own life as well. While his family consists of unequivocal supporters of a Jewish nation, Rosenstock was found tabling on behalf of Palestine.

“To them, as soon as I stop supporting Israel, I become ignorant,” Rosenstock said.

The event culminated in a performance by hip-hop group Audiopharmacy, whose mellow-feeling beats incorporated lyrics of indigenous opposition, a message coinciding with the one carried by the delegation. Or in K’Dee’s words, “resisting the exportation of oppression with solidarity.”

Cross-continental connections were made with the youth of Palestine, who welcomed the delegation as the culmination of a program of study centered around Native American and immigrant populations of the United States.

“It was dope, man,” K’Dee said. “They were doing their traditional dances for us. We did an exchange with them, did some of our own cultural things.”

K’Dee spent two years prior to the trip learning about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the situation of displaced Palestinian refugees.

“We could never provide the real truth if we hadn’t been there,” K’Dee said. “We want to educate people … and the ultimate goal is change.”

In a closing remark, K’Dee noted that Palestinians have so far counted 42 years of what has been considered occupation, while American Indians have counted 560.

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Finding Common Ground

Yautlan band leader Alfredo Gutierrez performs in a public show at the community center in Watsonville. Photo by Devika Agarwal.

Fiends at Feast get sinister in the back alleys of Santa Cruz. Photo by Devika Agarwal.

Band members of Disengorified relax with their instruments after a rigorous practice. Photo by Devika Agarwal.

Ian Thornburgh, drummer of Disengorified, practices their song “Ballz Deep in the Dead.” Photo by Devika Agarwal.

For the love of the music; Santa Cruz headbanger rocks out to the SC metal scene. Photo by Devika Agarwal.

There’s brutality brewing in the city of Santa Cruz.

The city has always had a thriving music scene, whether it’s hip-hop, punk or Rasta-inspired reggae. Recently though, Santa Cruz has become known for its more headbanger-friendly stylings, specifically metal. With the recent success of local groups Decrepit Birth, Braindrill, and A Band of Orcs, the city is bubbling over with metal bands that are looking to create some musical mayhem of their own, within the city and worldwide.

The styles range, but currently the outcropping of death metal and black metal bands is quite promising. Death metal can be characterized by its vocals, which are usually indistinguishable growls. Think Cookie Monster from “Sesame Street” dropped into the pits of hell while guitar solos riff through the hellfire. Its subject matter usually deals with death, but also isolation, politics, motivations of serial killers, murder, and the activities of the undead, just to name a few gruesome topics.

Black metal, on the other hand, is characterized by its vocalists’ banshee-like screeches with blast-beat drums and lo-fi production. Black metal can also be very atmospheric, and usually contains lyrics relating to nature, anti-religious sentiments, and the overall misery of mankind. While each band has a different take on these genres, they are all united by one thing: their immense passion for the music they play.

Meeting the Bands

Yautlan is a Watsonville-based death metal band that sings only in Spanish. Lead vocalist Alfredo Gutierrez is a gruff, stocky man, menacing despite his short stature. Gutierrez is rarely out of his metal militia uniform of black shirt, slacks and combat boots. He started Yautlan as a reaction to the mainstream music scene that was going on in the Watsonville and Santa Cruz areas.

“We kind of got tired of listening to the mainstream stuff in the local area, so we formed in 2006 and decided to play a bit heavier music,” Gutierrez said. “In high school we used to listen to Slayer, Brujeria and Sepultura — old-school stuff like that, a lot of Mexican thrash and death metal bands.”

Yautlan keeps to that style in some different ways, like Gutierrez’s guttural growls in Spanish.

“We feel more comfortable using our native tongue,” Gutierrez said. “It’s easier to sing in English and fit in more, but we decided it’s who we are, it’s what we do, it’s what we want to represent.”

Yautlan’s lyrical content keeps up with their death metal style, but the band members are also influenced by their Latin backgrounds.

“We have a song called ‘El Corrido De Las Tres Marias’ and it’s about three avelitas, who were women soldiers in Mexico during the revolution,” Gutierrez said. “Avelitas are real and did fight, and we’re bringing them back from the dead. They’re being exhumed from their graves and are coming to get you.”

Disengorified is another Santa Cruz death metal band, comprising musicians who are students at UC Santa Cruz. Ian Thornburgh, the band’s drummer and head of Comprehensive Records, a local Santa Cruz-based record label, is also a third-year art major at UCSC. The band plays in Thornburgh’s garage, which he just recently turned into a studio.

“I just built this studio — had to redo the drywall, set up the acoustics, but it sounds sick now,” Thornburgh said. “It’s really DIY here in Santa Cruz. It’s way cooler to record your own album and keep your creative integrity than sign to a major record label right off the bat.”

Thornburgh said that although the band really just likes having fun, they are also serious about the music they create.

“We’re a pretty goofy group of guys, but we really like to push our instruments and creativity to the edge,” Thornburgh said.

A look at the band’s song titles, such as “Ballz Deep in the Dead” and the gag-inducing “Caught in a Septic Tank,” give insight to the band’s attempt at mixing dark humor with brutality.

“We have this song called ‘Infantgrinder,’ which is basically like a 50-second grindcore song we made,” Thornburgh said. “Initially we would just play it twice in a row. We would be like ‘Infantgrinder’! ‘Infantgrinder’ again! It’s just fun.”

It doesn’t end with death metal, though; there’s also Fiends at Feast, a black-metal band based in Santa Cruz. David Uttal-veroff, one of the band’s rhythm and lead guitarists, explained what he thought was great about the genre.

“I think the thing about black metal is that it provides a really dark, atmospheric and introspective sound, where melody can be emphasized, which is unlike a lot of metal in the past,” Uttal-Veroff said. “When people heard you were melodic they looked down on you, and didn’t think you were brutal enough to listen to.”

However, Uttal-Veroff said that metal doesn’t always gel well with the laid-back Santa Cruz lifestyle.

“I feel like metal doesn’t appeal to the mentality of Santa Cruz — you know, people go to the beach and hang out in the forest,” Uttal-Veroff said. “It’s a very mellow vibe, and our music just isn’t mellow at all. It’s definitely interesting being a metal band in this city.”

The Santa Cruz Scene

Metal is not the most profitable genre to make music in. Most bands spend years in the trenches building up a fan base, not making money, and dealing with the hardships of being a musician.

“The scene currently leaves a lot to be desired,” Uttal-Veroff said. “We play a lot around town and it seems that there isn’t that big of an audience, and if there is an audience it’s mostly the under-21 crowd — which leads to another problem, in that there are hardly any venues that cater to that crowd.”

“We just lost the Vets Hall,” interjected Trevor McClain, the band’s drummer.

The Veterans Hall was recently closed due to safety issues. Specifically, it was believed to have structural deficiencies that could be fatal in the event of an earthquake.

“Something I have noticed around here is that it’s always members of bands putting on the shows,” McClain said. “There’s no promoter in Santa Cruz, no club owner who’s booking the band. Bands always have to pay to rent out the venue, cross their fingers and hope that they make the money back.”

Morketiden Productions is a production company that focuses on booking and promoting local music shows in the Santa Cruz area. Jesse Williams runs Morketiden with the help of a group of friends, and together they do everything they can to set up shows.

“We mainly work with certain bars and bartenders that we get along with, and bands that we get along with,” Williams said. “We just try and set up the best shows that we can as cheap as possible and just have fun.”

Morketiden developed out of the issues Williams’ band, The Backup Razor, had with show demands.

“I was playing shows with The Backup Razor, and I was booking our shows, and eventually I was getting asked to set up shows on nights that my band couldn’t play,” Williams said. “I knew lots of other bands, though, so I would end up shooting them some messages and hooking them up with shows.”

Williams knows that setting up shows can be a real struggle for local bands.

“Starting out is not easy at all — it’s part luck and part just being really reliable and trustworthy,” Williams said. “There are not enough places to play, especially all-ages shows.”

Thornburgh is of similar opinion.

“There are a lot of good venues around town, but the issue is that they are all 21-plus, like the Blue Lagoon,” Thornburgh said. “I mean, we live in a college town, so there is money in all-ages shows; it’s just about getting the people out there.”

Uttal-Veroff feels that attendance at their shows depends on whether all ages are admitted.

“[In] the over-21 shows we mainly get friends of ours, and friends of ours who are in bands or appreciate the style of music,” Uttal-Veroff said. “When we play an all-ages show, that’s when you see people you don’t know rocking out to the music, which is a great feeling. Seeing young metalheads going out and enjoying themselves and the music is just really cool, because I know I would have killed to see metal bands when I was in high school.”

Living On Metal

Being a musician is not an easy task; in many cases musicians also work full-time jobs, leaving their music as their love and hobby.

Sammer Abualraghev, Fiends at Feast’s co-lead and rhythm guitarist, works at a grocery store.

“I work at the New Leaf Market downtown, an organic community market that’s been paying my bills pretty well,” Abualraghev said.

Gutierrez works in agriculture, while his fellow band mates in Yautlan work in the area.

“I work at a mushroom farm, our guitarist works for the city, and our drummer works at Staples,” Gutierrez said. “We have jobs just like everyone else, got to pay the bills some way.”

Many of the band members voiced the dream of being able to quit their 9-to-5 day jobs, and commit themselves fully to their music. Williams, though, may have said it best.

“My goal is to eventually quit my day job, and to commit myself to just working on music,” Williams said. “It’s your hobby [and] you do it for free, but if you get paid for it you’re like, ‘Fuck yeah!’”

There is hope out there that one day these bands can succeed within the scene and do what they love full-time. Matt Sotelo, lead guitarist for Decrepit Birth, is living that dream.

Sotelo has gone from working odd jobs to pursuing his passion — metal — full-time. He is currently working on Decrepit Birth’s new album, “Polarity.”

“We recorded drum tracks in January with KC, our drummer, but right now I’m just laying down some guitar tracks at my home studio,” Sotelo said. “The album should be ready before summer.”

Decrepit Birth has been together, in some form, since the ’90s, a time when Santa Cruz was known for bands like Good Riddance and The Expendables. Sotelo remembers some of the band’s crazy local shows.

“We would go play some parties in town, with a bunch of drunken guys, and everyone would get crazy and there would be huge pits and walls would get knocked down and everyone loved it,” Sotelo said. “It was not necessarily people who knew what death metal was, but they heard the aggression and they knew it was heavy and that it was from Santa Cruz too.”

Decrepit Birth has traveled throughout America and the world, but Sotelo notes that nothing beats coming home to Santa Cruz.

“We were just gone for two months touring with Vader, went through Canada, experienced that brutal weather — but once you come back home, it’s just awesome to be able to relax and just be home,” Sotelo said. “This town will always be my home base.”

Many of the bands have releases coming out in the near future. Fiends at Feast will appear on the album “Santa Cruz Underground Metal (S.C.U.M.) Volume 1: The Dark Side of the Cross,” along with The Backup Razor, Khan’Nos and Cursed for Eternity.

Disengorified is also heading into the studio, and shooting for a spring release.

“The album is titled ‘Metaphysical Malpractice’ and we are currently shooting for a 4/20 release,” Thornburgh said with a laugh.

Metal bands are up-and-coming additions to the Santa Cruz music milieu, though their rise has been slow and the road riddled with setbacks. Despite the struggles and sacrifice of playing in a genre not typically friendly to Santa Cruzan ears, these bands all persist for one reason: the love of music.

Sotelo had some positive advice for metal bands trying to make it on the city’s music scene.

“All I can say is just believe in yourself,” he said. “I’ve talked to different labels, musicians, production people, and in the end you just gotta stay true to yourself. You can’t give up after one or two tours — if you really want to succeed you’ll work through all the hard parts.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Santa Cruz’s Metal Militia

Courtesy of Big Hassle Publicity.

If you’ve ever seen Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros perform, you might already have an idea of what it was like to interview singer Jade Castrinos. Her answers sound as if she’s thinking them for the first time, strung together to the point that they don’t really seem like sentences at all. But, not unlike the very lyrics she helps write, they convey a feeling of something close to a memory, saying so much with so little.

I welcomed a chance for Jade to open up about herself and the band, beyond simply the songs they sing. I spoke to her over the phone as they geared up for their first major tour, on which Santa Cruz is the second stop. By the end of our conversation, the only thing Jade seemed sure about was that she was very excited about the trees. As for me, I knew that Jade’s eccentricity could only be described as magnetic.

~~~~~~

City on a Hill Press: So I just read a review that described your group as more of a ‘traveling vagabond family’ than a typical band. Is that accurate?

Jade Castrinos: I mean, that’s a part of it, but that’s not the whole thing — we’re definitely a band and gather around the purpose of music. But the family idea, it’s kind of the lifeblood of the whole thing. Like the song ‘Home,’ that’s Alex [Ebert, the lead singer] and I just professing our love for each other as best buds. But we are like siblings, so there is definitely a ‘vagabond family’ thing, yeah.

CHP: So with the large family/band-style group — there are at least 10 of you at each show — there have to be a lot of different ideas and influences. Has it been difficult to incorporate everyone’s input? How do you make that work?

JC: You mean like with making music?

CHP: Yeah, with the songs you guys write and perform.

JC: Well, everybody is a really talented musician. For the record, Alex had some ideas for songs, but everyone came in and played it, and it’s like, you play how you feel about the music — like, ‘What do you feel here?’ There’s no ‘Play it this way!’ It’s very … everyone’s involved.

CHP: And how would you categorize that music? The term ‘folk’ has been thrown around — does that fit your music and your group? What does ‘folk’ mean in terms of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros?

JC: I don’t know. (Laughs.) I mean — yeah, we’re definitely folk, but I don’t know — I always say our band category is happiness.

CHP: Can you tell me a little about the band’s name?

JC: Yeah, Alex wrote this novel, and the main character was Edward Sharpe, and he came to save the world but kept falling in love with girls, so he wasn’t completing his mission — I’m not sure I’m the one to ask about this, I might get it wrong but — (loud noise, Jade yells) — Wait, I completely lost track — what are we talking about? Could you repeat the question?

CHP: We were talking about the band’s name, and you were explaining about Alex’s novel.

JC: Oh yeah, yeah, he might be the best person to ask about this, but [the novel] is definitely, like, reflected in our songs and the videos we’re doing.

CHP: What about your debut album? Tell me about writing and recording ‘Up From Below.’

JC: When we started, the guitar player Nico — we recorded at his house, he and Airin had a studio in their basement and we would record there and it was so magical. Nico’s girlfriend Becky would make the most amazing food and we’d just have dinner and jam every night and come up with great songs. It was all magical, but definitely the beginning … and definitely Becky’s cooking was a huge part.

CHP: So last question, then I’ll let you go. Your kind of hippie-throwback vibe definitely has an audience in the students of UC Santa Cruz. Are you guys excited to play here, or do you have any expectations about the show?

JC: We’re totally excited to play there. I don’t know if we’ve played there before, but I’ve definitely driven through that area, it’s beautiful. Are there redwoods there?

CHP: Yeah, tons.

JC: I love the forest! … We’re definitely excited to play there.

~~~~~~

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros will play on Monday, March 1 at the Rio Theatre. Show begins at 8 p.m. Advance tickets are available at Streetlight Records or online at www.ticketweb.com. Tickets are $18 in advance or $22 at the door.

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Conversation With a Magnetic Zero

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

Rachel Flotard, frontwoman for punk-rock throwback Visqueen, sat down with City on a Hill Press to discuss her influences, background, and affinity for Wonder bread with barbecue sauce. Thanks in part to her longtime love of the “Lost Boys” film, Flotard’s trip to Santa Cruz won’t just be business, but pleasure as well. Accompanied by drummer Ben Hooker and bassist Cristina Bautista, Flotard says Visqueen is ready to just be “hilarious, fun, economy-friendly rock.”

~~~~~~

City on a Hill Press: The last time you were in Santa Cruz, you were performing with Neko Case. Do you have any sort of connection with Santa Cruz besides playing shows here?

Rachel Flotard: Well, the fact that I can recite the entire script to ‘Lost Boys’ on command makes me feel pretty connected. The times I’ve been there with Case were akin to visiting Wonderland. Santa Cruz might very well be the most beautiful place on Planet Earth. I’m making a point to drive there from our Portland show a day early, just to have the pleasure of being in town.

CHP: What are you looking forward to about coming back to Santa Cruz?

RF: That feeling of magic that only coastal Northern California towns can deliver. And … we were summoned! I got an email from Santa Cruz band the Fainting Goats asking us to come play. It was kismet. And the fact that 311 is in the main room of the Catalyst for 42 bucks, and we’re in the atrium for $5, is simply the best thing ever.

CHP: Where were you born and raised, and how has it influenced you?

RF: I was born and raised in New Jersey, moved to Seattle about 1995. Jersey is a big influence on my hair, specifically. We were just talking about spraying a wall of bangs back in the day. My hair is really very wavy, so I could never quite achieve that Lita Ford-Joan Jett bang situation I craved. It just looked like Orphan Annie trying too hard to be metal. I’ve come a long way since then. I’m au natural. Throw Seattle in there and its grunge roots and well, you’ve got me.

CHP: What is the most exciting thing about the success of your newest album?

RF: The fact that you called it a success is pretty exciting. To me, the success part has been simply booking this tour, which I do myself. Up until 19 months ago, I was taking care of my dad, who was the toughest prostate cancer patient this side of the Rio Grande. He was a huge motivating influence for me, and basically my secret source of determination. We lived together for over six years as I toured with Visqueen and Neko, and I tried to make some sense of my double life as a caregiver and daughter. Now, I think the success part is the fact that we finished what we started. We put the record out ourselves, pressed it, wrote it, and are now supporting it by playing town-to-town. Now if I can just get us all health insurance…

CHP: Tell us how you named your album. Was it difficult?

RF: Not difficult at all. “Message To Garcia” is an essay written by Elbert Hubbard about determination and getting the job done. It was published in 1899, but my dad photocopied it at the library and gave it to me around 1989. … My parents did a great job of making sure I was loved and cared for. So, to teach me how the world works, Dad gave me a message hoping I could use it in my own life. He would ask me every time when I would complain about some crappy problem, or a project that was daunting or looming in front of me, “Are you delivering it?” Basically saying, ‘Suck it up. And get to it. It can be done.’

CHP: How do you feel about all of the NPR recognition and making their ‘Top 10 Best Music in 2009’ list?

RF: I feel pretty damn awesome.

CHP: In December, Visqueen performed at the Deck the Hall Ball in Seattle. How did it feel to play with groups like Muse?

RF: Surreal and hilarious. We were like the dudes that brought the zucchinis to the White House barbecue wearing cut-offs.

CHP: Is it true that Visqueen is headed to the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas this March? What are you most looking forward to about that?

RF: I am mostly excited to mop up some barbecue sauce with some Wonder bread. Feels like [Austin] is the place to get away with that. And we are playing some incredible shows throughout the week.

CHP: Is there anything else in particular that you would like to add?

RF: That this show will be hilarious, fun, economy-friendly rock. I have some local friends celebrating their birthdays with me that night, and we plan on making it a night to remember. I hope folks make the trek out. And we can toilet-paper 311’s bus.

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Q&A: Visqueen’s Rachel Flotard

With friends and fans on the rooftop, the Jolly Llamas have been called the next Beatles. Photo by Nita-Rose Evans.

The Jolly Llamas get sweaty in the kitchen, on the streets, in bars and on the roof — any place where the audience has half a heartbeat.

With a combined total of 26 years playing music, Marc Cavigli and Roby Behrens are the atmospheric folky-pop-rock guitar duo The Jolly Llamas, bringing soul power to Santa Cruz since August 2005.

“They’re the best band on campus fo’ sho,” said fourth-year Moe Zarif, band manager and best friend, observing a rooftop photo shoot of the Llamas as they belted out a song called “Buffalo Moccasins.” “I think the night they wrote this we were having buffalo burgers.”

Behrens, Cavigli and Zarif, who are all fourth-year UC Santa Cruz students majoring in film and digital media, use their extra creativity to perform sparkling narratives crafted from real life.

“One time this girl fell asleep in my lap and I started thinking about how women are like cats,” Behrens said. “I brought it to Marc and he had a totally different take on it.”

After a night of hard songwriting, the girl who napped on Behrens had given rise to a song titled “My Cat,” which ends with a rousing chorus of mewing from both band members.

According to Cavigli, this is the basic process: idea, cram session, and a result that’s then added to an increasing repertoire. Most songs are written without repeating chorus lyrics, lacking a traditional anchor and making the pieces more like stream-of-consciousness.

“I don’t want to say it comes from the heart, because that sounds really cheesy,” Cavigli said. “It’s a raw unfiltered transmission from our innermost crevices.”

Some days can find the Jolly Llamas jamming on the streets, trying to reel in the crowds downtown. They play Llama songs for hours out in the elements, sometimes making up personalized lyrics for passersby, a tactic more likely to slow people down.

“It’s funny, people will pretend not to listen,” Behrens said. “They’ll tie their shoes, look at their phones, and everyone always, always looks in the guitar case to see how much money we’ve made.”

Cavigli agreed, commenting on the fun of people-watching and being in the midst of people who might not hear their music otherwise.

“Being able to connect people to the music is great,” Cavigli said. “We had one guy tell us we were the next Beatles. He said he wanted us to play at his wedding.”

The Jolly Llamas are reliant on this kind of social interaction. As an independent band, they lean heavily on nets of social connections instead of the promoting provided by labels.

At a barbecue in Behrens and Zarif’s backyard a friend urged the duo to play in Arizona, positive she could wrangle them an invite to the Scottsdale wine bar where she worked. A previous show in Santa Cruz’s Caffe Lucio worked much the same way, in that a longstanding rapport with employees gained the Jolly Llamas a show in a restaurant where live music is a rarity.

“They’re very fine-tuned in a really simplistic way,” Zarif said. “They’re really fun and they draw a crowd … Lucio’s wanted to have a party.”

Back on the roof, the gangly duo is directed closer, baring their teeth inches away from each other’s faces.

“Now put your tongue down his throat,” Zarif says from the sidelines.

Behrens shrugs, laughing.

“We’re not afraid, we’re llamas. Llamas have really long tongues!”

~~~~~~

The Jolly Llamas will be performing Feb. 13 at the Poet and the Patriot, 320 Cedar St. Ages 21 and up.

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Wild Llamas Spotted in Santa Cruz

Photo by Kathryn Power.

As melodies of Mozart drift about the recital hall at the UC Santa Cruz music center, one cannot help but notice the size of the choir rehearsing for this weekend’s upcoming performance of “Requiem.”

This year, the choir is noticeably smaller than previous years due to the fact that the Chamber Singers and Concert Choir were combined for the year, due to financial and staffing difficulties.

“[Conductor] Nicole Paiement is on leave in Winter 2010, so we would have had to hire a lecturer to cover [the Chamber Singers] course at a time where, for budgetary reasons, the hire was difficult to fund,” said Music Department Chair Frederic Leiberman.

Liberman also said that the division budget reductions, paired with the opportunity to form a collaborative ensemble, were the driving forces of the choice to combine the choirs.

The change, however, resulted in fewer opportunities for students to participate in the ensemble.

“Fewer spaces from last year resulted in fewer spots,” said Nathaniel Berman, lecturer and conductor of the UCSC Concert Choir.

In the past, the more rigorous Chamber Singers have been comprised mostly of music majors specializing in vocal training, while the Concert Choir was open to any UCSC student who was accepted by audition. However, due to the music department’s participation requirements, it was Concert Choir that took the cut in numbers.

“Chamber [choir] can’t be cut,” Berman said. “They are required to have a performance ensemble.”

Nicole Paiement, director of ensembles and conductor of “Requiem,” said that she hopes the large ensemble will be a challenge students rise to.

“My philosophy is to always work at the level of the best singers and instrumentalists,” Paiement said. “The end result is that the stronger musicians become great models and inspiration for the growth of the less advanced.”

While two separate classes still exist for each of the respective choirs, the large ensemble is taking advantage of its size.

“When we collaborate, we choose musical works that benefit from having a larger group of singers,” Paiement said. “The musical experience always comes first.”

The combination of the choirs has been met by positive and negative responses by the student participants.

“It is forcing me to step up — I can no longer only rely on the other very talented people in my section,” Brendan Hartnett, a third-year vocal major said. “I am always trying to improve as a musician.”

As of right now, Lieberman says that the department has every intention, barring further financial strain, of separating the choirs come next fall.

“If we are faced with large additional cuts later this year or next year, there will be some very difficult choices,” Lieberman said.

The faculty, however, are taking a positive outlook on the present situation, even in the face of the uncertain future.

“This year we want to raise the [skill] level of concert choir,” Paiement said. “We are hoping to attract a higher level of musicianship.”

Through “Requiem,” the music department intends to show audiences the skill level of its students and the worth of reinvesting in the music department.

“It is going to be a very high level, powerful, beautiful concert,” said Liz Baseman, second-year vocal major and choir participant.

Both Berman and Paiement said they hope not only to bring in audiences and raise funds, but to garner awareness for the arts.

“Support the department by attending shows,” Berman said. “It is not just a matter of money but a way of demonstrating our ensemble is strong — if we can have three sold-out shows, it will be a great demonstration of that support.”

By taking on one of Mozart’s most well-known works of music, support will be drawn in both locally and on a larger scale.

“Large collaborations bring a lot of visibility,” Paiement said. “We need that.”

With the hopes of sold-out shows on their minds, choir students finish preparations for the presentation of Mozart’s final work that they say will be spectacular.

“It is epic choral music,” Hartnett said. “Mozart went out with a hell of a bang.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Working in Harmony

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Photo Essay: Expression

Source: mickeyavalon.com

I had a naked moment with Mickey Avalon.

Gearing up for his tour to promote his sophomore album to be released this February, Mickey Avalon scheduled a phone interview to promote his show at The Catalyst this Friday.

“Can I call you back in three minutes?” he asked. “I just got out of the shower and got to put some clothes on.” Five minutes later, Mickey Avalon called back.

“You got some clothes on now?” I asked.

“A robe,” he said. “Good enough.”

He immediately set in to rambling about his room at the Red Rocks Casino Resort & Spa in Las Vegas.

“It’s like a club,” he sais, going on to describe the view of Sin City from his suite, which was outfitted with a grand chandelier, multiple flat screen TVs, two turntable booths, a stand up shower, several jacuzzis and a “crazy round bed with a disco ball mirror thing” hanging over it — fitting for Mr. Avalon, who is often described as a “glam rapper.”

The man comes with a story that supersedes his music, about how he grew up in Hollywood, sold pot with his mom at the age of 14 and eventually worked as a male prostitute to support his heroin addiction.

Avalon’s new identity as a musician began when he met Simon Rex (aka Dirt Nasty), the former MTV VJ, now rapper, who got him in the recording studio, as well as clubs with Hollywood’s rich and famous.

In 2006, Avalon rose to fame with his self-titled debut album which detailed his life journey and L.A. lifestyle, with it’s silicone, sex, drugs and of course, rock and roll.

Mickey Avalon spoke with City on a Hill Press about his views on Hollywood and hippies, false Wikipedia entries and the dirt on his falling out with Dirt Nasty.

CHP: I read the LA Weekly piece on what was essentially your life story. I’m sure you get a lot of questions about your past prostitution, drug use and family history. How does it feel to be so explicit about your life? Does it get old?

When we did the piece years ago, I wasn’t really thinking about hiding anything. I kind of said everything.

It feels like a different lifetime—not that its not relevant anymore, I don’t necessarily revisit those times in my mind. When they wrote all that stuff, I was still in the middle of it and was poking fun of it. I liked a lot of that stuff I was writing about.

It’s a little trickier now that I have success. People might misunderstand the jokes.

CHP: Most of your songs have to deal with a certain Southern California lifestyle. For example, “So Rich, So Pretty” talks about girls who obtain beauty through designer clothing, plastic surgeries and eating disorders. What do you think about the Northern California? What would you write about?

Being that I live in SoCal, I just kind of wrote was around me. People are a lot the same around, but then there are differences. Northern California is more hippie. I say that in a good way. I don’t think hippie is a bad word. It’s not as plastic.

People are still funny no matter what. I moved to Portland awhile ago. I got married and had a kid. I wanted to leave all the stuff I talk about in my songs. I wanted to raise my kids in a good area without that bullshit.

I was shopping at the health food store and had to get food for the kid and thought that the hippies loved everybody and were open-minded. They had like dreadlocks and tie dye and Birkenstocks. I thought that was uniform for loving everybody and being open.

However, they were really into everyone that looked like them. They didn’t treat me really nice and it felt like L.A. in a way. I thought I left this materialist shit, these people were still were like, “My club is better than your club.” I had a shaved head. Since I didn’t have dreadlocks and Birkenstocks I didn’t really fit in.

CHP: Speaking of L.A. culture, what do you like most about it?

Most is the weather and being by the ocean. Go somewhere where you like the weather.

CHP: Least?

Everyone’s into their career. If you met someone, rather than “How are you, what’s your deal?”, they would ask “What do you do?” Everyone’s so driven. Rather than going to parties and having fun they’re to trying to network and be ahead.

Where I live, it’s not easier because people are full of shit. It’s so hard to find people that aren’t.

CHP: According to Wikipedia, you attended Webster University in St. Louis before you signed with Interscope Records.

That’s the only thing that’s not true. I’ve been to St. Louis one time and I didn’t go to college.

I did a brief stint at a community college in Portland. I got some little loans to pay for the classes. I took some art classes and a few writing classes. I actually became a writing tutor and got paid. At the time, the most I’d gotten paid was minimum wage—five to six bucks. They paid me nine bucks.

I dig school. Some people are really anti-school. If you have the means to do it, do it. I didn’t—I was already married and had a kid.

CHP: I read you used to be apart of a well-known graffiti crew in Hollywood. What kind of art you doing now?

I did [art] when I was younger. I will [again] when the time’s right, when I have a nice collection of paintings that won’t be connected to Mickey Avalon. I do oil paints, paint figures and stuff.

Take for example Marilyn Manson. He’s a painter and does cool watercolors. But then people might want to go because of Marilyn Manson. I’ll rather them like the art and find out later that it was me.

My favorite living painter is a guy named David Choe. I went to school with him. I didn’t even know he was artist. He is the sickest painter. He does paintings on campus and painting outside. Graffiti, but not pieces with letters. He does the crazy figures and scenes and shit.

CHP: You were in a rap group called Dyslexic Speedreaders along with Dirt Nasty, Andre Legacy and Beardo. In a Myspace blog entry posted August 16th, you wrote that the Dylexic Speedreaders were “finito.” What happened?

Unfortunately, things happen that you hear happen to people but you don’t think will happen to you. Bands break up and hate each other. We thought that it wouldn’t happen to us because we’re boring.

Soon things got in the way. Money stuff. We were best friends. I had a manager, then we all had him, then I left him, then they stayed with him. That would’ve been fine, but things got worse and worse. Not only did they not help me out with that situation, they got in the other side and screwed me.

I still have to send money to my old manager, shit they could’ve helped me get out of but didn’t. Our first few tours ended costing me a ton. I come back in the negative and my manager paid them also. They came home with a certain amount of money and I came home with negative $50,000. Everyone got their commission except me, so I got deeper and deeper in a hole.

It got to the point where we couldn’t really talk.

CHP: You and Simon Rex (Dirt Nasty) aren’t friends anymore?

No, we’re not anymore. Or Andre Legacy. But Beardo’s on tour with us. He’s the only one I’m friends with.

CHP: Tell me about your new record. How’s that coming along? How is it different than your first?

The only difference is on my first record I hadn’t played any shows. I wrote from my head whereas now I still work in my head, but say for a chorus, I think about some things work better live. As far as the chorus, I think more of the audience and what they would take to better.

CHP: I first heard your music when I was cleaning some dude’s apartment in exchange for weed my freshman year of college. He was playing “Jane Fonda.” Under what circumstances do people usually play your music?

Sex, drugs and rock and roll. People said they get laid to my music. Boys and girls—people say they get lucky at my shows. Even if they don’t dig what I’m doing, they can pick somebody up.

Strip clubs play my songs a lot. People said they’ve worked out to it, appropriate for a song like “Jane Fonda.” That’s about everything—expect sleeping.

~~~~~

Mickey Avalon performs today, November 6th at The Catalyst. Show begins at 9pm. Tickets are available for $25 online or at the box office.

You can stream Mickey Avalon’s new single, “Stroke Me” on Myspace.

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at A Moment with Mickey Avalon