Arts Devo

Street Punk Want to make the world a better place? Be more punk. Start a band, sing songs that call bullshit on the bullshitters, and team up with fellow punks to help those who need a hand. Arts DEVO has a seen this strategy in action in Chico on many occasions, and the latest example of local punks combining badassery with kindness is the Out From the Cold compilation CD dropping this Friday, Feb. 2, 8 p.m., at the Naked Lounge. Proceeds from the disc and the show will benefit Safe Space Winter Shelter.

Out From the Cold was recorded by Josh Garcia at the new Electric Plant studio (a collaboration with Dale Price of the former Electric Canyon studio) and released on Heartburn Records, the label Garcia started with his partner, Alex Kokkinakis. The CD features two songs each from three local bands—a couple of super-overdriven bursts of nasty garage rock from Sex Hogs II; a pop-rock gem and a fierce anti-Trump punk anthem from The Empty Gate; and a couple of punk ragers from Splatter Party—including “In and Out of Step,” an appropriate slice of street-view social commentary.

All three bands will perform at the release party. And on top of all the fun, hand-screen-printed posters for the show that were designed by East Bay artist Richie Bucher (the dude who did Green Day’s Dookie cover) will be for sale, with all funds going to Safe Space as well.

Music matters When it comes to the Grammy Awards show, there is always something worth complaining about—usually a snub of an artistically significant release in favor of something less challenging yet more appealing to the masses. This year, that’d be the densely packed Damn. by Kendrick Lamar losing out to the empty calories of Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic for album of the year. A lot of folks, myself included, disagreed with that choice (though I do enjoy Mars’ style, too), but unlike a lot of the commentators in the press and on social media, I don’t think that necessarily poisoned the whole 2018 show. I’m not a fan of the Grammys, but looking at the nominees and the performances after the fact, I’m actually pleasantly surprised at the diversity and the energy of this year’s offerings.

For one, for the first time ever (refreshingly), there were no white dudes among the album of the year nominees that included three black dudes, one white chick and one dance-happy Puerto Rican/Filipino-American. And while there were some performance duds (Elton John and Miley Cyrus’ boring version of “Tiny Dancer” was a far cry from Sir Elton’s collaboration with Eminem at the awards a decade ago), there were also some very enjoyable musical moments (Mars with Cardi B, Kesha, SZA, plus Emmylou Harris and Chris Stapleton paying tribute to Tom Petty) and, in the case of Lamar’s show-opening set, an incredibly inspiring one.

With a pack of wild dancers surrounding him, Lamar tore through a thrilling medley, beginning with “XXX” off Damn. (complete with brief cameos by U2’s Bono and The Edge). Dave Chapelle interrupted the performance a couple of times to interject commentary, first saying, “The only thing more frightening than watching a black man be honest in America is being a black man being honest in America,” and later asking, “Is this on cable?” And it’s frankly refreshing that it wasn’t, that on CBS a black man kicked off the biggest music-awards show by bluntly addressing racial inequality in America, complete with the sound of gunshots taking down each of his dancers one by one.

The Grammys might not have been perfect, but that opening was pretty close.