Arts DEVO

Metal make up For last week’s Local Music issue, we inadvertently left a crucial band—Taunis Year One—off the list we sent to Aberrance guitarist Jake Hollingsworth for his Metal-pedia guide. Since he doesn’t want to risk incurring the wrath of young men sporting axes and extremely heavy amplifiers, Arts DEVO is going to attempt to fill in the blank:

Taunis Year One: Imbued with the spirits of early Metallica and Iron Maiden, the five young Chicoans turn up the tempo on their hummingbird hearts to dangerous levels of speedy, screaming, death-metal thrashing. It’s as if Taunis is the last band on the bill and the promoter is shouting that they only have five minutes to play and so they blaze through every riff they know at the same time, shifting tempos and stopping and starting with a precision that snaps the necks and explodes the hearts of everyone in the room.

Babylon falls After a few months of hosting art and live music, the Babylon Community Arts Center has shut its doors. Ongoing issues with building maintenance at the warehouse space and eventually getting dropped by their insurance company have forced organizers to close down. The individual talents behind the organization—rapper/glassblower Tsunami; rapper/graphic designer TyBox and Strange Seed Studios owner/engineer Cameron Scott—will continue with their individual endeavors and also plan on rebuilding Babylon in one form or another. Visit them on Facebook to keep up with the latest efforts.

I wish them the best in the future, and I appreciate the earnest effort they are putting forth, but I’ve watched a lot of venues come and go in town, and an arts/performance space that gets its money largely from tickets alone has never been a workable business model in Chico. Unless you’re going the nonprofit route (e.g. 1078 Gallery) or are making your money from nonperformance components of your business—like food and beverage sales (Caf” Coda, Monstros) or just booze (the rest)—it’s not worth the headache.

Everyone hearts ukes! OK, maybe not everyone likes ukuleles. That singular tone for hours on end isn’t for all ears. But AD loves ’em, and so do the organizers of the We Heart Ukulele festival and fundraiser. This Sunday, Feb. 12, 1-7 p.m., the Chico Children’s Ukulele Group (or ChiChiUG—pronounced “chee-chee-you-gee") will be hosting six hours of workshops and performances at the Trinity Methodist Church (285 E. Fifth St.). The day’s festivities will be capped off by a two-hour show (5-7 p.m.), featuring performances by Mandalyn May, MaMuse, Kyle Williams, Eric Stetson, Scott Itamura (of Dick & Jane), Sonic Ukes and more. Visit mandalynmay.com for schedule and registration info.

Have you heard this one? A blind man, a stuttering woman, a guy in a wheelchair and a little person walk into bar É Wait, that is no joke. This Saturday, Feb. 11, the Comedians With Disabilities Act will be on stage up at Red Bluff’s State Theatre, and the act features four comedians from all over Nor Cal with the aforementioned disabilities (Eric Mee, Nina G., Mike O’Connell and Steve Danner), poking fun at themselves and inviting everyone to laugh with the disabled instead of at them. (O’Connell, whose muscular dystrophy keeps him in a wheelchair, has a business card that reads: “100% Comedy, 0% Stand-up.) Visit www.statetheatreredbluff.com for ticket info.