Local band issue

If there is any question as to whether Chico has as big and eclectic of a music scene as it often boasts, we should find our answer this April. In addition to the 10th anniversary of the CN&R's Chico Area Music Awards celebration happening that month, there is the huge matter of the month-long attempt to break the Guinness world record for longest continuous concert at the Tackle Box Bar and Grill. See the piece in this feature package to learn more about the ambitious music freaks behind the effort.

And to get you in the mood for that huge feast, we chose four local bands to highlight this year: two brand-new garage-rock beasts that have come roaring out of the gates, a roaring frontwoman whose band is tearing up the road, and the antiroar of a harmonizing crew of Chico dudes.

Dr. Luna

For a lot of local musicians, playing in bands with your friends at shows in front of other bands filled with your friends is a mark of ultimate success. Chico’s scene is a warm, fun place, and if that’s as high as your musical aspirations go (and you have another job that pays the bills) it’s a pretty happy place.

But for a handful of Chico bands—like the hard rockers of Dr. Luna—their happy place, and the only place to make a living as a band that plays original music, is on the road. “You can succeed very well off the same 100 people for a good two years,” said frontwoman Rachelle DeBelle, “and then it will die, like it has for hundreds of bands that started and ended here.”

Thanks in large part to the efforts of the tireless DeBelle, who does much of the band’s booking (while simultaneously promoting shows from California to Washington with her DeBelle Productions), Dr. Luna’s schedule has them playing the bulk of their gigs outside of Chico, and they have a growing following that stretches from Nor Cal to Seattle to show for it.

“We do have a mission. We have a certain level of success we are expecting to achieve with putting in our work and our time and our money,” DeBelle added. “And I know a few of us have dedicated our other careers to making sure this is possible—working our lives around it. Because it is what we do for a living.”

DeBelle started Dr. Luna and the Straight Jackets way back in 2004 as a punk band at Butte College. The band shut down after a few house parties until 2010, when DeBelle switched it to a solo project and was soon asked to open a tour for Portland band Floater before gradually adding (and sometimes subtracting) players over the years and settling on the name Dr. Luna and the current five-piece format, which features drummer Donovan Campbell, guitarists Enoch Narayan Marsh and Gray Harris, and bassist Eric Thompson.

“We all have such similar musical tastes,” DeBelle explained about the current lineup. She and Campbell cited the notorious Brooklyn goth-metal crew Type O Negative as a common influence.

“We’re actually all metalheads,” said Campbell. “It’s funny, because when we write, we don’t necessarily write with that mentality. A lot of times we’re really writing to Rachelle’s strengths. She has a really unique voice, and so we’re really trying to find a good style of music to complement it. Often times, hard, aggressive metal isn’t the way to do that.”

As a group, they mix that Type O-style darkness and hefty crunch with DeBelle’s huge, somewhat soulful voice, into their own energetic brand of in-your-face hard rock.

The band is currently putting the finishing touches on Rude Awakening, their third album (recorded at Heirloom Studios with local engineer/musician Dave Elke) and second release in less than a year. After its digital release on Feb. 13, and a handful of shows in the west (including a spot with L.A. nu-metal heavyweights OTEP at Reno’s Knitting Factory), there will be a CD-release party at LaSalles on March 13, followed by a 12-date West Coast tour.

“This year, [our goal] is regional success. We’d like to have a four state gap where we can comfortably play and expect a guarantee and a draw at every place we play. And we are 70 percent of the way there right now,” DeBelle said, adding that this year the band will have played 25 shows in four different states by April 1.

“We’ve had successful moments throughout the last couple years with Dr. Luna, but we had them in much smaller doses,” DeBelle said. “Now it’s consistent. Every show we get is that exciting.”

Dr. Luna performs Friday, Feb. 13, at the Knitting Factory in Reno, Nev. Next Chico show: CD-release party, March 13 at LaSalles.

www.drlunamusic.com

—Jason Cassidy

Trox and the Terribles

“I think I’m a really nice guy most of the time,” Trenton “Trox” Burnham said recently over a cocktail on the patio of the Maltese Bar and Tap Room, and it’s likely the others present—his wife, Christina (of local band The She Things), and Trox and the Terribles bandmate Elliot Maldonado—would attest to his generally mild-mannered and congenial character.

“So this is like an alternate personality of mine and I get to express myself in ways I might not normally do.

Burnham was speaking of his stage persona Trox Von Ulch, who, sometimes wearing a gimp bondage mask, has been letting his smuttier side stand front and center since early last year, when Trox and the Terribles formed.

“Sometimes people can walk all over you,” he continued, “so you have to have that other side that can call people on their bullshit. [As Trox], I get to be a dick.”

With Trox and the Terribles, vocalist/guitarist Burnham continues to pound out primitive rock akin to what he did in the now-defunct Hasta la Pizzas (formerly The Hambones), albeit with less pop flavoring and more pure grit. “We shoot for super raw, straight-ahead rock ’n’ roll,” Burnham said, citing classics The Stooges and contemporaries Nobunny as inspiration.

In order to create the perfect cacophony to back Trox’s straight-from-the-id lyrics, Burnham recruited bassist Maldonado, drummer Max Joy and guitarist Cale Hamm because of his respect for their other projects: Master Lady (Maldonado) and Skull Kids (Joy and Ham). So far, the band’s high-energy and raucous interpretation of “terrible” has gone over well with most live audiences. Mostly.

“We played a wedding once—that was awful,” Maldonado said. “It was probably the worst show I’d ever played, in this band or any other, but I still had a great time.”

“I think some people enjoyed it, but it was a little, uh, out of place for a wedding,” Burnham said.

The Trox frontman said the band’s penchant for dressing up and getting rowdy is something best experienced live: “Anyone can go online and listen to songs, but I really want people to come out to shows and feel engaged and involved,” he said. “When you see it live, everyone has a better time and appreciates the whole experience more.”

The band recorded seven songs and a video with Butte College recording arts students, the audio portion of which is posted on the band’s Bandcamp page under the lovely title “Raw From Butt College.” They also recently recorded with Scott Barwick at Origami Recording Lounge to release a tape as part of Barwick’s latest endeavor, Crystal Flower Cassettes. Burnham and Maldonado said Trox and the Terribles’ next show likely will be the cassette release party, with just some minor studio tweaks and artwork pending.

In the near future, the band hopes to record more for a vinyl release and tour this summer.

www.troxandtheterribles.bandcamp.com

—Ken Smith

The She Things

Since playing their first show in October of last year, The She Things have captured audiences’ imaginations in Chico. That performance was rock ’n’ roll power, kitschy spectacle and, even more important, a bold mission statement.

The trio—bassist-vocalist Kerra Jessen, guitarist Christina Burnham and drummer Chelsea Tucker—are doing what seems to come naturally, bashing out Ramones-inspired punk jams and having a debauched good time while doing it. Jessen, whom many know from her time in several local bands, including The Persian Skirts and longstanding garage rockabillists The Shankers, says The She Things have helped the members tap into their inner Hydes.

It’s exciting,” Jessen said, pointing to bands like The Mummies and The Cramps as visual inspiration. “Not to be cliché, but we’re girls and we like to dress up. It turns you into a different person.”

In a town where everybody knows everybody, and bands are often just your pals on stage, The She Things have been able to create a bit of distance—even if only for the 30 minutes they’re performing. Their live debut included a glowing red pentagram backdrop, and the members donned black veil-like masks. While the band has helped the members unleash their unfiltered personalities, Jessen says it’s also played a big part in getting her through a difficult time in her personal life.

“It pushed me out of complacency,” she explained. “I always want to be doing something musically, whether I’m balling my eyes out or laughing with friends. This band has been integral in this process.”

Mind you, though they seem to have tapped a nerve with locals starved for spectacle, The She Things have only been around a few months, and Burnham (who played drums in The Shankers and bass in The Hambones) is still making the transition to guitar while Tucker is playing drums for the first time. They don’t even have an official recording yet—practice recordings are the only sonic documentation you’ll currently find. The music plays to the members’ love for ’70s punk and sock-hoppin’ garage rock. And songs like “Pussy Stomp” and “Hymen Again” put an exclamation point on the band’s playful, we-ain’t-fuckin’-around feminist message.

It seems reasonable that the best is yet to come. And these three women have lofty goals for The She Things. They’ll be recording a demo soon, with the intention of shopping it around to labels. More shows should follow; tours, too.

“We love Chico, and we love the reception,” Jessen said. “But we want to broaden our scope and our focus beyond Chico.”

The focus right now is feeling good about being a woman, and exploring the power of rock ’n’ roll. It’s good for you. It’s good for Chico. And it’s great for The She Things.

“It feels good to make music with girls,” Jessen said. “It feels more our own thing—we call the shots. It’s authentic, empowering and special.”

www.facebook.com/theshethings

—Mark Lore

The Mondegreens

Since forming in 2012, The Mondegreens have pursued specific goals for playing music in Chico, some of which they’ve yet to realize—such as, playing the Sierra Nevada Big Room, or sharing a bill with The Mother Hips.

But they’ve crossed plenty more items off the list, including playing alongside local musicians they’ve long looked up to.

“The Shimmies, Surrogate, Pat Hull—those are not just our favorite Chico bands, but some of our favorite bands of all time,” said bassist David Friedlander.

Whom they admire reflects who they are as a band. The trio, made up of local guys—Friedlander, Russell Rabut (acoustic guitar) and Jack Knight (electric guitar)—played in bands together while attending Chico High School. Now, they specialize in rootsy indie rock that doesn’t quite twang enough to be categorized as full-on country. As all three members have performed as solo singer-songwriters—they share vocal duties—there’s an emphasis on lyrics and vocal harmonies.

Before last summer, The Mondegreens were only able to record and perform intermittently because they were attending separate West Coast universities—Knight at Chico State, Friedlander at University of Oregon, and Rabut at San Diego State. They toured during breaks from school, and released a three-song EP, El Avance, last July. After earning their college diplomas last spring, they agreed to put their respective nonmusical careers on hold in order to pursue music full time.

As Rabut put it: “There’s nothing we’d rather be doing than this.”

Of course, getting serious about music involves logistical stuff, like purchasing a heavy-duty van for touring. (They’ll be able to do so thanks to the $5,500 they raised with a recent Kickstarter campaign.) It’s also meant spending serious time in the studio. The Mondegreens’ forthcoming album, Kid Tell Time, set for release March 6, is a Chico creation through and through. It was recorded and engineered by Scott Barwick of Origami Recording Lounge; mixed by Chris Keene, frontman of local indie-rock band Surrogate; and features collaborations with Sean Galloway of Ave Grave and The Shimmies. In terms of musical direction, the album has higher ambitions than their previous release, Rabut said.

“We were reserved, marginalized by our minimal means with [El Avance],” he said. “As we’ve grown, we’ve gotten more brazen in our songwriting, more open to trying new things.”

The effort is also more polished than their previous recording.

“This will be the first time we’ll hand somebody an album and not have to qualify it with, ‘this was recorded in my mom’s living room,’” Friedlander laughed.

The band plans to graduate from the Chico music scene this spring and will relocate to Seattle in May, hoping to test itself in a bigger pond. But that won’t preclude them from returning to Chico (and maybe playing the Big Room someday).

“No matter if the move to Seattle proves to be semi-permanent, or we move somewhere else, Chico will always be our common thread,” Friedlander said.

The Mondegreens perform Friday, Feb. 13, 9 p.m., at Duffy’s Tavern. Whiskerman and Ave Grave open. Cost: $5.

www.themondegreens.bandcamp.com

—Howard Hardee

Longest multi-artist concert?

Last October, musicians flocked from all over the world to perform at Rí Rá, an Irish pub in Las Vegas, where, over the course of 372 consecutive hours (and 10 minutes), they set the current Guinness world record for the longest multi-artist concert event. But this April, a couple of Chicoans will oversee an attempt to break that record, and they’re not just hoping to tack on a few more hours—they’re doubling it.

Local musicians Julian Ruck and Jeff Fox are organizing the event, hoping to create a 720-hour musical marathon at Chico’s Tackle Box Bar and Grill. Dozens—potentially hundreds—of bands will be there, alternating sets for an entire month, 24/7, with only five minutes allowed between performances.

For Ruck—longtime musician (formerly of Soul Butter) and current member of singer-songwriter supergroup Electric Canyon Convergence—the ambitious project stemmed from a desire to firmly put Chico’s music scene on the map. “A lot of performers and musicians have to leave Chico to get recognized and compensated,” he said. “So I wondered, how can we draw the attention here? [Beating the world record] was one of the many random ideas I think of in a day, and it went from there.”

Since October, Ruck’s been in communication with Guinness World Records officials, outlining regulations necessary for meeting—and beating—the current title. And there’s quite a bit to be done.

“We don’t want any gray areas when it comes to Guinness’ regulations. There is no prerecorded music allowed, no DJs, and all acts need to be rehearsed and concert-proficient,” he explained. Of course, “concert-proficient” is a subjective term.

“That’s why we always need two witnesses in the audience, convinced that what they’re hearing is a real song,” Ruck said. They also need 10 audience members at all times, and, of course, lots of bands.

“We have about 20 percent of the 720 hours booked so far,” he said, including local favorites like Furlough Fridays, Bogg and Dylan’s Dharma, with a large number of new and up-and-coming bands, plus a handful from outside Chico, including the Bay Area.

With the gig fast approaching, 35-year-old Ruck has been spending countless hours organizing what’s become the biggest project of his life. When asked if he’ll be living at the Tackle Box come April, he laughed. “Yep, basically.”

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The traditionally country-style bar, with the slogan “food.beer.guns,” has formed an unlikely bond with the Chico music scene in recent years, hosting a variety of bands weekly. “They just got a new dance floor and stage. And owner Richard Peeples has been 100 percent behind us with this project,” Ruck said.

With no online campaign fundraisers in the works, Ruck is hoping to find local sponsors to help fund the event, provide equipment, or just show up and “offer some woohoos!” from the crowd.

“The whole thing has to be documented on film for Guinness anyway,” he said, “so we’re adding a few more of our own cameras to turn it into a documentary and hopefully sell it to Netflix.”

As if putting on the event won’t keep them busy enough, Ruck and Fox plan to contribute their own musical talents during the month-long event, including a 12-hour set for Ruck. But in general, he said, he prefers to be the guy behind the curtain.

“Jeff and I are just providing a perspective to what’s already here. We couldn’t do this if Chico weren’t awesome. I think [this event] will draw together musicians who are willing to work together, not as much for their individual music, but for the scene.”

Find “Chico Breaks the Record” on Facebook for more info and instructions on how to sign up as a performer or a volunteer.

—Rachel Bush