Arts DEVO

How was your gig? Arts DEVO‘s favorite local music busy-bodies, the righteous dudes in Clouds on Strings, are at it yet again! This time, COS has joined dude-forces with the local rockers in Hail the Sun to create a one-stop online rock-venue store called GigIndie.com where bands can peruse rated reviews of more than 100 live-music venues from Chico, the Western U.S. and beyond, and get intel on what to expect when booking shows from those who’ve gone before. The ratings look at those sometimes unknown quantities when working with a venue for the first time—the sound, promotion, staff, audience, compensation—giving bands a sort of insider’s scoop. The site launched just last week and there are already some helpful tidbits (guess the Chico venue at which “you pay for great sound"). It’s just getting populated with reviews, though, and something like this will need a wide range of many voices to be useful (and fair to the venues). So, after your next show, log on and let your fellow musicians know how the gig went.

Beer Advocator in our Midst So, there I was, chillin’ in the homeshack this past weekend with Mrs. DEVO, reading a story about beer-brand loyalty in the new issue of Beer Advocate magazine that had just come in the mail when out of the corner of my eye I noticed “Chico News & Review” in a paragraph at the bottom of the page. Turns out, “retiree and part-time jazz writer for the Chico News & Review,” Miles Jordan, was interviewed for the story as one of the OG appreciators of the local Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.: “The brewery was still in its infancy in the early 1980s when he and his friends would show up on paycheck Thursdays for half-price cases of overfilled and underfilled bottles of Pale Ale, and free drafts from the warehouse kegerator while they waited.”

Jordan says in the article that the brewery’s beer is still great: “Through all the moves they made, it’s gotten better,” and, of course, anyone who knows him knows that he and his fellow Sierra Nevada “Citizen Advisory Board” members can still be found at the brewery on Thursdays, yucking it up at the end of the bar and enjoying the good life. Stop by the brewery some week and say, “hi” (and tell him for me, next time he’s being interviewed in a big fancy national magazine to think about name-dropping his local editor!).

Bring back the cassingle! It takes Rocky Mountain-sized cojones to cram the amount of heavy noise that Chico’s Cold Blue Mountain has recorded for its second album onto a cassette. But undaunted by the challenge, the five-piece will drag their iron sacks into Origami Lounge this Friday, Aug. 10, for a tape-release party/tour kickoff. (Side note one: If you buy the analog product, you get a code to download a digital version.) (Side note two: Check out the sweet cassette packaging, provided by Vulture Print, the new art print/T-shirt/cassette design/printing company started by CBM vocalist Brandon Squyres and his girlfriend, Michelle Camy. Visit www.vultureprint.blogspot.com and check out the goods.)

DEVOtions:

• Charity rocks! Two charities. Two concerts. First, it’s a Boys and Girls Club benefit, Saturday, Aug. 11, at the Chico City Plaza, with a packed lineup that includes performances by The Hooliganz, Furlough Fridays, The Melodramatics and more. On Sunday, Aug. 12, 3 p.m., at St. John’s Episcopal Church (2341 Floral Ave.), bring it down a few decibels for a classical recital benefiting the Torres Shelter, with pianist Robert Bowman, violinist Michael Eby and tenor Alex Frankel.

• Hogan lives: The friends of local legend Matt Hogan are getting together to remember the late musician in the best way possible—with a kick-ass rock ‘n’ roll extravaganza at Duffy’s Tavern (Saturday, Aug. 18). There’s still time to get in on the show—contact organizers Carey Wilson or Lisa Marie via Facebook or email lisaoner@yahoo.com for deets.