Skaters Turned Troubadours

Top 10 Skateboarders Who Became Musicians

Duane Peters, punk as, well, you know. 

OC Weekly

By Arrissia Owen 

Thursday, February 28, 2013 

Skateboarding and music mingle nicely, from the soundtracks of skate videos to the shredders themselves hitting notes. For some skaters, it's hard to say what comes first, the music or the maple. It's not uncommon while learning about a band to find that a member or two has skateboarding in their past, so we thought we'd take a stab at a Top 10 of sorts. That's not to say there aren't gazillions of skater savants who are melodically inclined. But here's a rundown of our faves.

Ethan Fowler, observing the Sabbath.

10. Ethan Fowler

Bands he's been in: Green and Wood

Longhaired, bearded wild card Ethan Fowler wowed the kids back in post-Toy Machine, Big Brother days as one of the elite in videos such as Stereo Skateboards' Tincan Folklore (with My Name Is Earl's Jason Lee) and more. He and Stereo owner Chris Pastras did the music for the video as the Bucket Brothers, to boot.

More recently, the 35-year-old fronted LA stoner-doom rock band Green and Wood. The group have been around since 2007 and played South By Southwest in 2010. He sings, plays guitar and drums on the band's self-titled album. He's not a real chatterbox, and he's not big on the social media that is hip with the kids these days, so it's hard to know what the hell is up with him.

I't's the General Fucking Principle of the thing for  Tony Alva.

9. Tony Alva

Bands he's been in: The Skoundrelz, G.F.P.

Tony Alva, one of the original Z-Boys skaters, was the first to form his own skate company, Alva Skates, back in 1977. His aggressive style took the industry by storm, putting Dogtown on the map.

In addition to his skating talents, Alva also rips on bass. In the 1980s, he was a member of the Skoundrelz with Mike Dunnigan and Mike Ball (Suicidal Tendencies) and Dave Hurricane (Wasted Youth). 

Currently, he plays in the hardcore punk band G.F.P., a.k.a. General Fucking Principle, which also includes vocalist Tom Paul Davis (DFL), whose friends call him Crazy Tom for a reason; guitarist Greg Hetson (Circle Jerks, Bad Religion); and drummer Amery Smith (Suicidal Tendencies). They are working on new material with Mario Caldato Jr. of Beastie Boys fame.

Steve Caballero, left, with The Faction in Orinda, Calif., 1982.

8.Steve Caballero

Bands he's been in: The Faction, Odd Man Out, Shovelhead, Soda

"Skate and Destroy" became a bit of a skateboarding mantra in the mid-1980s, thanks to the Faction, a skate-punk band featuring Steve Caballero on guitar from 1982 to 1985. The song with that title was prominent in Powell Peralta's Bones Brigade Video Show, prompting the phrase to be lovingly placed on many a skate deck at the time. The band was composed of all skaters, including singer Gavin O'Brien, guitarist Jeff Kendall, drummer Craig Bosch and others rotating in and out. They played their first gig opening for Social Distortion in San Jose.

Caballero, who was named Skater of the Century by Thrasher in 1999, went on to be in alt-rock band Odd Man Out (1987-89) and rock band Shovelhead (1991-94) and played pop-punk with Soda (1995-96). Session Records released a compilation CD with his various bands called Bandology Vol. 1.

Ray Barbee, center, seeing double with the Mattson 2.

7. Ray Barbee

Bands he's been in: Solo artist, BLKTOP Project

From San Jose hails Ray Barbee, who is best known in the skating world for his no-comply variations and stellar parts in Powell Peralta videos such as Public Domain and Ban This. The current Long Beach resident has a signature shoe with Vans and bragging rights as one of the first African-Americans pro skaters.

And while his skating is stylish, it was his 2003 debut EP on Galaxia Records, Triumphant Procession, that caught the ears of guitar lovers with his jazz-influenced surf-rock instrumental tracks. That led to 2005's In Full View. In March 2007, he recorded in Japan with the Mattson 2 and released Ray Barbee Meets the Mattson 2. Their music has been featured on NPR, a number of surf videos, as well as a Ford commercial. Barbee gets extra skate points for his collaboration with Tommy Guerrero for BLKTOP Project, which also included fellow skater Matt Rodriguez, who is in the band Sacramento Storytellers.

Mike Vallely, left, with Greg Ginn. It's all good. 

6. Mike Vallely

Bands he's been in: Black Flag, Good for You

Mike Vallely is many things: skateboarder, actor, stuntman, minor-league hockey player, professional wrestler, punk-rock musician. Vallely was famously discovered by Neil Blender from atop a ramp at a spring 1986 vert contest in Virginia. Blender, along with Lance Mountain, watched Vallely skating in a car park next door. That impromptu intro led to an amateur deal with Powell-Peralta. By August, he was on the cover of Thrasher. The next year, his mug was in Search for Animal Chin. Most recently, he started Elephant Brand Skateboards.

Vallely's long, storied skating career ran parallel with his musical interests. He first joined Resistance in 1985, but he only played one live show, opening for 7 Seconds, before exiting to focus on skating. He fronted his own band, Mike V and the Rats, in the early 2000s, followed by Revolution Mother in the late 2000s.

In 2003, he joined Greg Ginn to sing for Black Flag at a reunion show in LA. Nearly a decade later, the two joined forces to form Good for You, which saw its debut album on SST, Life Is Too Short to Not Hold a Grudge, hit the streets Feb. 26. Good for them.

Matt Costa, not so pitiful after putting his skate career behind him.

5. Matt Costa

Bands he's played in: Solo artist, Reverend Baron

If you've read any articles about Matt Costa, even ones here in OC Weekly, you're probably already aware of his past as a kick-flippin' crooner. However, early in his pro skating career, a bad landing off a 10-stair ledge abruptly cut his skating career short, shattering his leg. He was 19. The bright side was that the Huntington Beach resident picked up his guitar during the 18 months he was laid up and started putting together some low-fi tunes. No Doubt guitarist Tom Dumont heard his demo and offered to record his first album. 

Soon after, Costa signed to Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records and released Songs We Sing (2006). Since then, he has played Coachella twice, filmed music vids with Emmett Malloy, and had songs placed in movies such as I Love You, Man. Most recently, he teamed up with producer Tony Doogan (Belle and Sebastian, Mogwai) for a self-titled release, which came out Feb. 12. Pro skater Danny Garcia plays on the release, and Costa returns the favor for Garcia's band, Reverend Baron. 

Salba, second from right, with Powerflex 5. Corey Miller is second from left.

4. Steve Alba

Bands he's played in: The Wild Ones, the Flame Throwers, Screaming Lord Salba and His Heavy Friends, Slaves of Rhythm, Dirty Bastards, Powerflex 5

Badlander Steve Alba, a.k.a. Salba, owned Upland's L-Pool and Combi Pool, as well as Baldy Pipe, back in '70s and the early '80s, giving the Dogtown boys a run for their money. As part of the Santa Cruz team, the now-50-year-old father of two terrorized the coping, sniffing out secret spots and documenting his exploits in Thrasher, Heckler and more. He's still at it.

Growing up, Salba's best friend was George Bellanger, a fellow skater. Their first band was the Wild Ones and featured another skater, James McGarrety; he and Bellanger left to start Goth-rock band Christian Death. Salba met up with Kurt Ross, then in Kent State, a.k.a. Red Brigade. Ross started to play with the band as they shared stages with Agent Orange, 45 Grave and others. 

That band slowly transitioned into the Flamethrowers, which played with T.S.O.L., Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Replacements and more. As the band started to lean more toward glam rock, Salba returned to his first love: skating. He now plays in Powerflex 5 with tattoo artist Corey Miller of L.A. Ink fame.

Tommy Guerrero with Free Beer, circa 1984. Photo by Murray Bowles.

3) Tommy Guerrero
Bands he's played in: Free Beer, solo artist

The 46-year-old co-founded Real Skateboards, and his improvisational style transformed asphalt for many a skater to follow. Most recently, he has been collaborating with Indy Trucks. The ad for the signature trucks features Guerrero skating with a walker, natch. At the 15th annual TransWorld SKATEboarding Awards on Feb. 27, he received the Legend Award.

Guerrero started out in the skate-punk band Free Beer in 1981 with his brother Tony. The band broke up in 1983, but not before playing shows with Social Distortion, Bad Brains, the Adolescents, Minor Threat and others. Guerrero moved on to the experimental group Jet Black Crayon with Monte Vallier (of Swell) and Gadget on turntables. 

But Guerrero achieved his biggest success as a solo artist with mostly instrumental soundscapes, starting with Loose Grooves and Bastard Blues, recorded in 1995 for a skate video he filmed. The compositions were filled out with guest vocals by Lyrics Born and Gresham Taylor. Guerrero released Lifeboats and Follies in 2011 on Galaxia.

Matt Hensley squeezing all he can out of life post-skateboarding. 

2. Matt Hensley
Bands he's played in: Flogging Molly, Spy Kids

San Diego's Matt Hensley found his way to the accordion and Irish punk band Flogging Molly by way of a skate deck. The squeezeboxer fell in love with the band Operation Ivy in an H-Street Skateboards video, the same company he went on to skate for in vids such as Shackle Me Not. 

Around that time, he played in a female-fronted ska band in the early '90s, Spy Kids, along with members who went on to play in Unwritten Law and Buck-O-Nine. But he hadn't yet picked up an accordion. He'd fallen in love with it while on tour with a band. Hensley met Flogging Molly lead singer Dave King by chance at LA bar Molly Malone's, just as King was putting the band together.

"I believe I have been really lucky; my life has been skateboarding and playing music," Hensley told Ride Channel in an interview. "If I can continue to do these two things and somehow put a shirt on my son's back while I am doing it, I am a lucky. Man. I would not be playing accordion in this crazy band if it weren't for skateboarding—I know that to be the truth. Skateboarding has given me everything."

This is a stick-up with Duane Peters Gunfight. 

1. Duane Peters
Bands he's played in: U.S. Bombs, Political Crap, the Mess, Exploding Fuckdolls, Duane Peters and the Great Unwashed, Duane Peters and the Hunns, Duane Peters Gunfight

The Master of Disaster is a punk-rock and pool-skating legend, credited for inventing the Acid Drop, the Indy Air and his signature move, the Fakie Hang-up, a.k.a. the Disaster. Peters, aside from being unbelievably candid about everything from copulating with blow-up dolls to doing time to shooting up in his neck, is punk as fuck. He received TransWorld SKATEboarding's Legend award back in 2003. There's even a movie, released by Black Label Skateboards, titled Who Cares: The Duane Peters Story, if you'd like to go up close and personal.

Here is what I originally wrote about Duane Peters. It got edited down for space. But this is my blog, and I want to publish it in its entirety:

The Master of Disaster is a punk rock and pool skating legend, credited for inventing the Acid Drop, the Indy Air and his signature move the Fakie Hang-up, a.k.a. The Disaster. Peters, aside from being unbelievably candid about everything from copulating with blow up dolls to doing time to shooting up in his neck, is punk as fuck. He received TransWorld SKATEboarding’s Legend award back in 2003. There’s even a movie, released by Black Label Skateboards, called Who Cares: The Duane Peters Story if you’d like to up close and personal.

Peters is said to have ushered in skateboarding’s love affair with punk rock dating back to the 1970s. He’s known for his time in bands U.S. Bombs, Political Crap, The Mess, Exploding Fuckdolls, Duane Peters and the Great Unwashed, and most recently Duane Peters and the Hunns, which changed its name to Die Hunns but broke up. They reunited in 2012 at the Orange County Punk Rock Picnic under the band’s original name.

The Master also took part in An Evening with Charles Bukowski in Germany, an interactive stage play narrated by Peters. Fender issued the limited edition Duane Peters Sonoran SCE “61” model with red and black stripes and a skull reminiscent of his Pocket Pistols deck.

Back in 1989, he told Thrasher magazine: “I’ll always be in a band, guaranteed. I dig music and I hate too many musicians not to be in a band.” The tattooed, toothless wonder has proven darn near indestructible.

Last we heard he was playing with Duane Peters Gunfight. After being hit by a car in November 2012, he postponed a show with the band at Slide Bar in Fullerton. But that scamp was up and playing again within a month despite a ruptured lung, bruised kidney, sprained left wrist and a smashed foot. He’s the epitome of hardcore. 

Here's the original link to the story in OC Weekly:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/2013/02/top_10_skateboarders_that_became_musicians.php

Ticket to Whoville

Scott Devours and Zak Starkey

Sometimes Facebook comes in handy. A friend of mine from years ago, Scott Devours, has gone on to become quite the drummer, globetrotting as Roger Daltrey's sticks man for the last couple of years. So when he recently got a call to fill in for the Who's drummer Zak Starkey on the band's current Quadrophenia tour, pretty much everyone who knows him lost their minds. It was like a collective high-five throughout the social networking circles. I was honored to tell his story. 

Here's a part of it that I couldn't squeeze into the article, which ran in OC Weekly. That story follows this little blurb. 

When Scott first moved to Los Angeles he was living the dream, sleeping in his car in Santa Monica for the first couple of weeks. This is especially funny because right now word is he lives in an old bus. Apparently, it's an awesome bus with flat screen TVs, but that is still ironic. He is on tour so much that it doesn't make much sense to put down roots. He has come full circle.

Anyway, from Santa Monica Scott moved to Hollywood. "I was thinking Hollywood would be a nice place," Scott says with a laugh. That didn't turn out as glamorously as he hoped it would. He was about to pack up again and accept defeat. But then he saw a flier for a Long Beach band called Speaker. 

"I loved the way their ad sounded," Scott says. "I could tell the kind of guys they were from the way they worded the ad. It was very blunt. I could tell they had disdain for all the things about LA that I did, too."

Things went well, but Scott still didn’t feel like he could make things work on the West Coast and he was still considering giving up. He walked into Fern’s, a legendary LBC punk rock watering hole on Fourth Street, and met the first decent, optimistic person he’d come into contact with in Southern California, bartender Jackie Hayden. His entire destiny turned around.

"I didn't have anywhere to go, no friends, no money," Scott recalls. "I didn't know whether this band was going to pan out. I didn't think I could live in Hollywood much longer." He had money for one beer. 

"I was totally considering hopping back in my car and driving back to Maryland because I was so downtrodden and had no hope even though the audition went so well," Scott says. "I know now that I was looking for a sign." Jackie was that sign. "As soon as I left there, I remember thinking I would give Long Beach a chance."

The guys in Speaker saw the "squalor" that Scott was living in and offered him a place to sleep on the floor, which everyone conceded was better than his situation in Hollywood. During his years in Long Beach, he gigged with nearly every musician in the vicinity, known for being able to jump in and raise not only the bar, but the intensity of the performance from behind his kit.

"All that comes from believing that when you are performing you give it everything,” Scott says. “I know that sounds stereotypical and generic, but my favorite performers my whole life when I see ’em play—and the Who are the absolute pinnacle of that description to me, it doesn’t get any higher or more respectful than that—when I saw my heroes play, it felt like they were giving it everything.” 

Thanks to Jackie, Scott gave the Who everything, too.

Here is the original story as printed in the OC Weekly:

How Local Drummer Scott Devours Scored a Gig With the Who With Four Hours to Learn 'Quadrophenia'

Scott Devours with Roger Daltrey February 10 at the Joint in Las Vegas. Photo by Brett Bixby.

OC Weekly

By Arrissia Owen 

February 19, 2013 

Scott Devours' friends nearly dashed his dreams. Long Beach's 46-year-old drummer extraordinaire got a call February 5 from The Who—yes, that Who!—to ask if he could fill in THAT night for their drummer who pulled a tendon, Ringo Starr's son Zak Starkey. Devours' buddies surrounding him at home advised him in no uncertain terms to politely decline.

They're not saboteurs. On the contrary, Devours' friends, fellow musicians, were terrified for him and adamantly said he should refuse because The Who--obviously one of the most famous rock bands evah--was going to hit the stage at San Diego's Valley View Casino Center in front of more than 10,000 people in merely seven hours. Impossible.

Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and crew were to play the full version of the band's challenging 17-song rock opera Quadrophenia. And Devours, until that day, had only played one song from Quadrophenia live evah. He said yes.

"For all practical purposes, it could have been the worse moment of my career," Devours admitted days after the career-changing performance. "Instead it was the greatest thrill ever."

The next morning, nearly every concert review led with the substitute's miraculous feat. In hindsight, Devours' friends did him a huge favor. "It made me fight them," he said, instead of caving to self-doubt.

Townshend introduced Devours to the crowd fittingly on stage, rehashing the famous Cow Palace night in 1973 when infinitely inebriated drummer Keith Moon famously passed out on his kit. They plucked a young drummer from the audience and obscurity to save the show.

Photo by Erik Kabik

"His name was Scott," Townshend told the audience. "As in the man who came in like the fuckin' cavalry and saved us [tonight]!" The crowd went wild.

Reliving the phone call, Devours rehashed what made him agree to the show despite his well-wishers' urging. "What became crystal clear at that second was that they were right," said Devours, who grew up idolizing Moon's bombastic chops. He also knew he couldn't refuse. "That is the call I've wanted my whole life."

It's a drummer's evolution that started early, in a small Maryland town called Middletown. To hear his mother Joyce tell it, Devours started pounding skins early, his chest actually, to the family stereo while still in diapers. He obliterated Snoopy and Ringo Starr drum kits soon after.

In fifth grade, Devours' school's music teacher asked if anyone played an instrument. He bored classmates playing an obscure, complex song. At the teacher's gentle urging, Devours played by ear a Bee Gees' song overheard in his mom's car that morning.

"It was a silly disco song," Devours said laughing. "But all the girls in the class stood up and screamed. I remember thinking, 'I know what I'm going to do with my life.'"

At 25, with a 9-to-5 and a mortgage, he left the keys and deed on his kitchen table and drove to LA to live in squalor as a struggling musician. February 5 was not Devours' first ballsy move.

Nearly 30 studio recordings later with bands like Speaker, Oleander, Ima Robot, Rocco Deluca and more, in 2011 Devours got the call that paved the way to Whoville. Devours landed the drummer gig on Roger Daltrey's solo tour, which included hammering out material like "Tommy." His bragging rights already included sharing the stage at benefits with the likes of Robert Plant and Dave Grohl and touring with Eric Clapton.

Someone pinch Scott Devours. His first Who show.

Still, Devours didn't know Quadrophenia, not like he needed to play it in front of dedicated Who fans. As his friend and fellow drummer Chris Caldwell sped toward San Diego, Devours rode shotgun scribbling notes while listening to a recent recording of Starkey drumming Quadrophenia. The disheveled Devours wondered whether he was completely nuts or the biggest egomaniac alive.

That night, Devours' standing ovation shattered the place making his clan proud. There was one family member Devours especially wanted to impress, but it was three weeks too late. His father, Hurshel, passed away January 11 from lung cancer.

"Taking that bow on stage that night compared to the depression and how low things felt earlier that morning," Devours said, fighting through tears in reflection, "and then all the frantic pace, all the cramming of the material, all the self doubt and all the nervousness--then I am at the highest point of my life. How did that tidal wave come in and sweep me clean?" He's still riding high.

As of press time, Devours told the Weekly that Starkey has made a recovery and resumed his post with the band to finish out the last date on the tour on Feb. 28. But even though the drummer's speedy recovery stamped Devours' ticket home, that brief ride will likely live on as stuff of legend in his household. "I'm still flying," he said. "I can without a doubt say that nothing even comes close to being the highlight of my life like that experience."

For video of Scott performing, click here:

For the original story in OC Weekly, click here:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/2013/02/the_who_drummer_scott_devours.php?page=2

Matt Costa's Favorite Stage is Still the Sidewalk

Matt Costa's Favorite Stage is Still the Sidewalk

Matt Costa unleashing his inner Dylan. Photo by Nolan Hall. 

OC Weekly

Tue., Feb. 12 2013 at 10:49 AM

By Arrissia Owen

Huntington Beach-bred troubadour Matt Costa headed to the misty moors of Scotland to record his latest self-titled release, out Feb. 12 (yeah, that's today!). He intended to record a rootsy, melancholy album entrenched in Americana, but once the jet landed, things got a bit cuckoo.

Instead, producer extraordinaire Tony Doogan (Belle and Sebastian, Mogwai) helped transform Costa's folky sound into sing-along handclappers full of lush orchestration, gorgeous melodies and good times.

The song "Good Times," although not really about carefree frolicking, will fool you into fun. "Early November" is reminiscent of '60s French pop, and "Ophelia" is unabashedly Dylanesque, with plaintive, sublime harp blowing. "Shotgun" sounds like pure mirth.

Costa is keeping with his tradition of performing at indie record store Fingerprints on record-release day, bringing old favorites, as well as stripped-down versions of the new songs. He likes the face-to-face time with fans and looks forward to showing off what he calls his "more mystical" sound. The Weekly caught up with Costa for a bit of a blether. 

Do you seek out the interaction with fans at intimate venues such as Fingerprints?

I try for that at any show. I like to get to know people who listen to the music. Sometimes it's interesting hearing their stories and putting a face to the people listening, and vice versa. We get to interact with one another outside of where the song takes the listener or myself.

Not so pitiful. Photo by Nolan Hall.

I saw you at a Sea Shepherd fund-raiser in Riverside back in 2010. You played a set inside the museum, and then afterward, I saw you sitting on the corner, strumming for a few fans. Do you do that a lot?

I do that sometimes because people will come out after, and they're like, "Oh, I was hoping you would play this song." And so I'm like, "I've got my guitar; I'll play it."

I know how much songs mean to me when I hear them, and musicians I respect have done that for me. There is really nothing better than that. So yeah, I'll sit there and play some songs on the sidewalk. That's why I'm out there: to play songs. So I might as well do it until the lights go off.

Who has done that for you?

Well, Donovan Leitch [1960s Scottish singer famous for "Mellow Yellow"]. I did a show with him a couple of years ago at the El Rey. . . . It was a bit of a different scenario. We rehearsed the day before the show, and I sang "Sunshine Superman" with him. There were tons of people in the room.

Then, the day of the show, I went and hung out with him one-on-one. He played me a couple of songs, just me and him. It's one thing to hear something through a microphone and a PA. But to just hear it coming out of one of your heroes--it's pretty magical.

So for the new album, you traveled to Donovan's territory, Scotland, to work with Doogan. Did the songs' direction start to change before you went on that trip, or did you travel there looking for those big production arrangements with strings to go with what you were already dreaming up?

It's a bit of both. After the previous record, I wrote a number of songs, and some of them were intended to have full bands and more production. But then I spent a good year or so leading up to the recording of this record and getting more into finger-style guitar, learning more Mozart on guitar, learning how the phrasing works with the strings.

Also, [listening to singers] such as British troubadour-style musicians, including Davy Graham, Bert Jansch and John Martin--their stuff is really folky and mostly stripped-down. So I was imagining having some string production to those kinds of songs--rainy, sort of moody records.

I started talking to Tony, and he had a vision of doing them in a sort of Ennio Morricone production. He did a lot of the 1960s spaghetti westerns. It had a really cinematic, lush, big production with strings. He likes using a lot of landscapes and horizons in the mountain ranges as inspiration for the sounds.

Once, he suggested having the Belle and Sebastian people and other Glasgow musicians contribute, and especially once I got over there, I realized it would be a shame to not focus on songs that a year ago I loved and instead use songs I had written in the months leading up. So I decided to incorporate it all.

Matt Costa performs at Fingerprint Records, 420 E. Fourth St., Long Beach, (562) 433-4996; www.fingerprintsmusic.com. Tues., Feb. 12, 7 p.m. For more information about Matt Costa, visit www.mattcosta.com.

Absolutely Divine

Absolutely Divine

So we went to the Divine Fits show, and this is what we saw.

Divine Fits throwing down a Tom Petty cover.

And this:

Oh yeah, and this:

It was a buddy road trip on stage all night long. They were having as good of a time as us at Pappy & Harriet's Nov. 3.

A Thing That Just Fits

A Thing That Just Fits

Britt Daniel, Dan Boeckner and Sam Brown form one super trio

By Arrissia Owen

IE WEEKLY

Nov. 1, 2012

There’s not much of a chance you’re going to hear Sam Brown take the mic on a Divine Fits song anytime soon. The drummer, for what’s been touted as a bit of a super group, already has two pretty strong front men in Britt Daniel and Dan Boeckner, the former of celebrated indie band Spoon and the latter of much-hyped Wolf Parade and Handsome Furs.

“Those slots have all been taken,” Brown says with a wry laugh about his newest project, which recently released A Thing Called the Divine Fits on Merge Records. “There’s no hope for me being in the spotlight.”

But that’s not to say he doesn’t have a pretty sweet gig. Brown, who also does time pounding the kit for punk band New Bomb Turks, landed in the power trio that plays Pappy & Harriet’s Nov. 3 after a call from producer Mike McCarthy.

Brown, a power drummer known to back up Pappy & Harriet’s regular Tim Easton, was also serendipitously in Chris Burney’s pop-rock band The Sun, an act that shared a producer with Spoon.

As fate would have it, after Wolf Parade and Handsome Furs broke up, buddies Boeckner and Daniel decided to combine their woozy vocals and boozy baselines. When Daniel mentioned to McCarthy he needed a drummer, the producer knew just the guy.

“He threw my name Britt’s way,” Brown says nonchalantly. The drummer known for his consistency and professionalism flew to Austin to spend a weekend playing songs with Daniel. Next thing he knew he was on his way to Los Angeles to work with Boeckner, as well. “Right away it was really fun,” Brown says, especially since he had been a fan of both Daniel and Boeckner’s bands for years.

One of the first songs the band worked on was a cover of “Shivers,” originally by Nick Cave’s early band Boys Next Door. The morose, lovesick ditty caught Daniel’s attention during a trip to Australia because of its powerful lyrics and room for interpretation.

“The cover they did was very slow and gothy,” Brown says. “It didn’t have such a strong personality that you can’t cover it. This one is kind of a loose, blank slate of a song. You can definitely do something with it and not have people up in arms because you’ve defiled a classic.”

There is a bit of a Nick Cave trail with this new project. Boeckner has been quoted as saying the band chose their producer, Nick Launey, in part because of his work with Grinderman, Cave’s most recent band. “Shivers” has been a crowd favorite, so far, but that’s not to say the band’s played many shows.

Because all three band members are either in or just ended their relationships with other bands (Read: Spoon is only on hiatus, so calm down), Divine Fits was kept a bit under wraps. They did not play many shows until after A Thing Called Divine Fits was released, which makes for an unusual coming out party with expectations nearly as big as the crowds.

“An interesting thing happened after we started playing shows,” Brown says. “We became a different band.” And that made them a new band that already had a record out. As they play the songs and explore their parts more, sometimes they go in a different direction, Brown says.

“People’s personalities are sticking out more,” he says. “Everybody’s personality is on the record, but something about getting out on the road—you become more of a band.”

Admittedly, it’s strange hitting the road with a new band that already has a built in fan base. “I don’t think it’s been unwarranted,” Brown says. “It’s newsworthy that Britt has a new band. That initial push is settling down though. Now it’s just a matter of whether we connect with people.” They’re hoping for a perfect fit.

The Divine Fits with Cold Cave at Pappy & Harriet’s, 53688 Pioneertown Rd., Pioneertown, (760) 365-5956; www.pappyandharriets.com. Sat, Nov. 3. 9pm. $25. All ages.

Who’s the Man?

IE Weekly

By ARRISSIA OWEN

John Gourley may not be convinced but his role in Portugal. The Man earns him best vocalist

John Gourley is a guy, the very one behind the voice of Portland-based band Portugal. The Man. The gender may seem obvious the moment you hear the name John, but it wasn’t always so straightforward.

The first time Gourley attracted label attention for his music he was ecstatic. However the scenario didn’t quite mesh with his getting-discovered daydreams.

“Hey man, who’s the girl singing?” the record label guy asked. Gourley, whose celebrated, high-pitched vocals have graced stages at Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, was crushed.

“I stopped singing after that,” Gourley says. “I was like, ‘Everybody thinks I’m a chick. I guess this isn’t what I am supposed to be doing.’” He wasn’t exactly aching to front a band anyway, so he accepted defeat. Plus, coming from an Eskimo village, rock star ambitions seemed unlikely.

Gourley, who grew up with dog musher parents in an isolated area on the northern coast of Alaska, relied on AM radio for much of his musical upbringing. As he got older, Gourley saw how newer bands were recreating the past.

“Rage Against the Machine made me want to play bass,” Gourley says. “Oasis and Nirvana proved you could write really good songs still. I didn’t realize people could still do The Beatles like that. It was amazing to hear.” He started playing music with friends up until his early retirement.

Thankfully, Gourley’s childhood friend Zach Carothers coaxed the self-conscious singer away from building houses with his father to lay down some tracks. Carothers, who ditched Alaska to attend college in Portland had formed the band Anatomy of a Ghost.

Despite his reluctance, Gourley was looking for an escape after a particularly harsh breakup. The collaboration took hold, which led to the band with the odd name and even more puzzling punctuation.

Portugal. The Man recorded its first demo in summer 2004. The group hasn’t slowed down since. The band—its current lineup also includes guitarist Noah Gersh, keyboardist Kyle O’Quin and a touring drummer—works at a frenetic pace. It released six studio recordings in six years.

That urgency finally faltered after the band’s first major label release, 2011’s In the Mountain in the Cloud, on Atlantic Records. It’s been two years since the band entered the studio to record the critically acclaimed album released last July. Gourley says he still owes the album its due touring.

The workload has been intense, and not without its casualties. Portugal. The Man lost members to burn out, family issues and side projects—one touring drummer even quit mid-show at New Orleans’ House of Blues in early April.

After a whirlwind European tour with The Black Keys and a string of additional stateside dates recently—they stop at Pomona’s Fox Theater May 4—the band isn’t itching to hunker down in the studio anytime soon. Gourley, an admitted perfectionist, is ready to slow down to make sure they get it right, he says, and without making everyone insane.

It’s that old Alaskan stubbornness, the charismatic frontman explains. Gourley approaches music the same way he tackles building houses back home. So one might imagine that when someone piles on the accolades that he’d start taking victory laps and high-fiving.

Well . . . When the call came informing Gourley he was voted AP Magazine’s Best Vocalist of the Year back in 2008, he was more than humble.

“I think I said, ‘Didn’t Paul McCartney put out a record this year? Grizzly Bear?”’ Gourley recalls with a laugh. He kept naming off singers who he felt deserved the honor instead.

“They were like, ‘Just accept it.’  I said, ‘OK, I’ll take it, but I know these people are better singers than me.’ I wish I had the confidence to just say to them ‘Yeah, of course I won. Yeah, that’s me, best vocalist. I figured,’ and then just hang up.”

At least others know—he’s the man.

Portugal. The Man with The Lonely Forest at the Fox Theater, 301 S. Garey Ave., Pomona, (877) 283-6976; www.foxpomona.com. Fri, May 4. 8pm. $22.50.

 

Enjoy Every Sandwich

These guys are soft packin'

IE Weekly

By Arrissia Owen

The Soft Pack lives by the words of the late Warren Zevon

“This one’s for Warren Zevon,” singer Matt Lamkin shouted to millions of TV viewers just before his band The Soft Pack launched into a rousing rendition of its single “Answer to Yourself.” That was February 2010, and Lamkin and company were in New York promoting the self-titled LP on Late Show with David Letterman.
The LA-based band has been on tour ever since, promoting the tracks while writing and recording songs for its upcoming fall release. The unexpected shout out sent a jolt through Letterman’s staff, guitarist Matty McLoughlin fondly recalls.
Zevon was a frequent guest and friend of Letterman who choked up the host on air in 2003 during his last Late Show appearance months before he succumbed to lung cancer. The Matts, who are huge Zevon fans along with drummer Brian Hill and bassist David Lantzman, spent time chatting with staff afterward, getting earfuls of anecdotes about the sardonic songwriter.
That performance was one of many highlights for the band during the last two years. Letterman is up there with 2010 slots at Coachella and South by Southwest, “Answer to Yourself” fueling beer commercial bravado and opening for bands like the Breeders and Franz Ferdinand.
These days The Soft Pack heads through the IE on Wednesday, April 11, opening for Arctic Monkeys at The Glass House in Pomona, followed by the Moon Block Party Thursday, April 12, with Dengue Fever at Dillion’s Roadhouse in Palm Springs.
While the band shared stages with heavy hitters, The Soft Pack boasts its own dedicated followers. Its fans freak for the deadpan deliverance of jangly pop reminiscent of post-punk forefathers the Modern Lovers and Manchester band The Fall.
The Soft Pack formed in San Diego in 2007 after McLoughlin returned from Virginia after college. McLoughlin and Lamkin, who was still in high school, hung out and wrote songs while geeking out over their shared love for the aforementioned bands, as well as Hot Snakes, The Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop, The Kinks, R.E.M. and, for variety, Steely Dan.
“We wanted to do repetition and simplicity,” McLoughlin says, with a nod to Mark E. Smith’s musical philosophy, The Fall’s cultish frontman. “Everything else was just up in the air.” The result is Lamkin’s lyrics that dryly dismiss any sort of hype, adoration or ambition over grinding guitars, a stomping backbeat and funky bass lines that maintain that sought-after straightforwardness.
By 2008, The Soft Pack, then known by its much-maligned name The Muslims, relocated to Los Angeles. The moniker attracted negative press, even some racist rants. The music itself was getting rave reviews though, so the group ditched the diversion.
To give fans and the press something else to talk about, the band members set aside their apathy for ambition and tore through 10 shows in 13 hours throughout the Los Angeles area.
“It was cool, but really exhausting,” McLoughlin says about the marathon musical tour that the L.A. Times hopped on the bus for. “I think we will be doing something less exhausting this time.” The band has spring and summer to figure out its next move.
The upcoming release is more diverse, McLoughlin says, with more instrumentation added. Fans can also anticipate some robust beats thanks to Lamkin’s affinity for Funkadelic, Sun Ra and Sly and the Family Stone. “Sonically, there is more soul. It’s bare bones, but it’s still rock music, pop songs. It sounds bigger.”
The recordings are under wraps, but fans can catch sneak peeks as the band continues to tour, something they’ve taken little time off from. But don’t expect any road warrior ramblings to creep into their repertoire.
“When people start writing about the road, that starts sounding very Bon Jovi, and that’s boring,” McLoughlin says with a laugh, preferring Zevon’s take on the whole Wanted-Dead-or-Alive thing. “That’s dumb. Who wants to write about sitting in a van?” The boys are more excitable than that.
The Soft Pack w/Arctic Monkeys at The Glass House, 200 W. 2^nd St., Pomona, (909) 865-3802; www.glasshouse.us. Wed, April 11. 7pm. $35.

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