Arts DEVO

Gimme a C! In case you missed it, check out newsreview.com/cammies to see which local bands have been nominated for the 2011 CAMMIES awards. Go ahead, I’ll wait here.

So, what do I say in this space about this annual local-music marathon that the CN&R sponsors? The newspaper will soon be promoting the CAMMIES nonstop for several weeks straight, but since we haven’t yet gotten into the festivities proper, there’s not a whole lot on which to comment—other than the behind-the-scenes process. And actually, that’s worth talking about.

Each year around this time we start getting questions like, “What does my band have to do to compete in the CAMMIES?” The short answer is: Play shows in town.

The long answer is: The artists nominated in the 12 different CAMMIES genre categories were chosen by a committee of 60 or so local musicians, DJs, sound persons, bookers, promoters, music fans, music-store employees and journalists. And that committee chose the nominees from a master list of 250-plus local bands that we populate by staying on top of what groups have been playing shows locally. So, as I said, playing shows in town (and letting us know about your gigs) is where it all starts.

We’ll soon be announcing the CAMMIES show schedule, so keep an eye on newsreview.com/cammies and find us on Facebook for the latest updates.

Kinda like riding your bike through a valley of quicksand … with an anvil in the basket and a stack of pancakes in your belly. That’s the way the sludge will flow as I see it this Friday, March 4, at the 1078 Gallery at the Sludge as Fest metal marathon. Or, maybe it could just be a kick-ass group of Chico’s heaviest heavy-makers—Armed For Apocalypse, Teeph, Cold Blue Mountain, Amarok, Epitaph of Atlas and Into the Open Earth—taking turns tickling the brown note in a seismic-shifting night of noise. Same diff’.

By the way, did anyone who read those CAMMIES nominees notice something? All of this year’s Hard Rock/Metal nominees are on this bill. This show could’ve been the CN&R’s Hard Rock/Metal showcase—a CAMMIES appetizer. … Quick, someone get a banner down to the 1078! This column counts as promotion!

Seeing Red Woah! It was only a matter of time before new Feather Falls Brewing Co. brewmaster Roland Allen added one of his own recipes to the menu at the casino’s brew house, but this is even better than I could’ve imagined. Tuesday, March 8, Feather Falls is throwing a release party for none other than Roland’s Red, the signature amber ale Allen used to produce when he owned Butte Creek Brewing Co. And the release is happening during the brew house’s Mardis Gras party—let’s celebrate Fat Tuesday in the red.

Can music heal all? If you’re familiar with the world-famous classical piano group the 5 Browns (performing this Friday, March 4, at Laxson Auditorium), then you also probably have heard the recent sad news of how the father of the five Juilliard-trained siblings, Keith Brown, pleaded guilty last month to sexually abusing his three daughters when they were young (the daughters now range from late 20s to early 30s). After hearing that their father—who had once managed their group—was supposedly planning on managing other child music acts, the daughters called the police.

The five Mormon siblings have decided to continue touring, choosing to immerse themselves in the music—which seems like a remarkably brave and exceedingly sane choice. What better way to work through the ugliness than to lose themselves in the beauty of the classics on piano, in the round facing your brothers and sisters?

DEVOtions

• Raymond Carver biographer: Carol Sklenicka’s biography of short-story master and one-time Chico State student Raymond Carver (Raymond Carver: A Writer’s Life) was named one of The New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2009, and tonight, March 3, at 7:30 p.m., Sklenicka will speak as part of Chico State’s Writer’s Voice series in BMU 210.

• Nor Cal Roller Girls: The Shamrock Slam, the Roller Girls’ season-opening bout—Nor Cal vs. Kern County—takes place Saturday, March 5, 8 p.m., at Cal Skate.