Sonic youthful

Sure, some big-name acts roll through Chico State and the Senator Theatre, but on any given night, you can see some homegrown bands (some of which are composed of Chico State students) play just about any style of music imaginable. All right here!

Take advantage. It’s a good way hear some great artists, meet new people, and if you’re musically inclined, you could find yourself sharing the stage with a few of them.

We’ve listed many bands you’ll come across and highlighted some of the big players in town; if you’d like more info or want to take a listen, check out the acts’ MySpace pages. And, of course, pick up CN&R every Thursday for comprehensive coverage of the local music scene as well as our complete calendar listings.

Rock on.

Abominable Iron Sloth
metal

The Americas
Though The Americas have a couple of spiffy demo EPs that showcase their schizoid sound adequately, it’s in the live setting—where you can watch exactly how the sounds are made—that you see that the duo is like no other band. Drummer Casey Deitz and guitarist/vocalist Travis Wuerthner have been making the noisy music of The Americas as a duo in Chico for roughly five years, touring the entire time and racking up a couple-hundred shows along the way. Deitz has been adding even more miles to his rock resume as drummer for Santa Rosa’s The Velvet Teen.

Arrangement Ghost
indie

Aubrey Debauchery
Aubrey Debauchery started out as a wide-eyed 16-year-old with the short-lived post-punk band Stars Upon Thars (where she learned to play guitar) before going solo and trading in the distortion pedal and agro-screams for an acoustic guitar and powerful, angelic vocals. Aside from natural talent, Aubrey’s endearing stage presence has made her one of the most popular draws in Chico, where she plays at venues like Café Flo and 1078 Gallery.

Audio Therapy
funk, jam

Bear Hunter
indie

Becky Sagers
hip-hop

Botchii
experimental noise

Boy Tiger
Bethany Miller takes a minimalist approach with her music—voice, guitar, raw emotion, and nothing else. Miller, who took the name Boy Tiger from a subtitled kung fu movie, began writing songs five years ago and taught herself how to play the drums and acoustic guitar. The singer/songwriter released her four-song EP Opportunity for Growth last year, a stripped-down affair that travels through topics of sex, love and anger. The first thing you’ll notice at a Boy Tiger show is how Miller can captivate the crowd with her intimate, sometimes unhinged, performance.

Brighten
indie rock

Cabrini Green
pop rock

Cair Paravel
indie

Chingus
Many a partier at a crowded LaSalles gig can attest to the infectious, highly danceable nature of Chingus’ original music, which can also be found on the band’s CD, Butter and You Like It. Lead singer/guitarist/songwriter Mark “Gonzo” Gonzalez, keyboardist/organist Glenn Keithly, bassist/singer Marcus Schmidt and drummer Zack Bowden—all Chico State students—are the main ingredients, often spiced up by the popular Tu Madre horn section.

Cochino
Dub rock in Chico? Yes, but Cochino is pretty much it. With a setup of turntables, congas, horns, plus drums, bass and guitar, the crew leans as heavily on the rock as it does on the dub. Add Latin, punk, and straight-up reggae to the mix, and Cochino is the ideal band for the Chico party. With a lineup of nearly all Chico State music majors, Cochino regularly plays at college parties and local bars like Off Limits and LaSalles.

Crazygrass
hillbilly bluegrass

Dave Elke Trio
jazz

Deerpen
rock

Dialecs
The name Dialecs is a nod to the fact that the members are from all regions of America, from New York to South Central Los Angeles. The idea is that each member has his own unique perspective on life and music, as well as different styles and deliveries. Dialecs has been on the scene since 2001, and the five-man crew met each other in Northern California and discovered a common ambition to create what they call “conscious raw hip-hop.”

Josh Funk
emo singer-songwriter

Goldmind
classic rock

Gorgeous Armada
party rock

Greebo
bluegrass

Gruk

The punk rock aesthetic of short, fast and loud reaches a near-ideal embodiment with Gruk. The band puts on an energetic and destructive live show, and the songs are blistering sonic assaults rarely lasting more than one minute. When they aren’t touring, they’re releasing records and playing a heavy show schedule, as well as setting up shows for touring bands and keeping the Chico scene on the map.

Holocene
indie

Holger Honda
Sweden’s best export since pornography, Holger Honda creates the kind of electronic music that he claims “isn’t cheesy, thumpy or, well, sucky.” Honda’s music ranges from very laidback dub style to more upbeat techno, with a well-seated groove always present. It is all performed live on a modest rig of samplers and synthesizers right there in front of the audience. His sound has been described as dark and trancey, sizzling from within.

Hooliganz
hip-hop

Idle Discourse
indie rock

Aaron Jaqua
country singer-songwriter

Kunst Conspiracy
industrial metal

La Fin du Monde

Local instrumental experimentalists La Fin du Monde’s ever-shifting sound, assisted in its sonic diversity by liberal use of effects pedals and sampling, is hard to pin down. One thing the groups does agree on is that LFdM is “a collective.” All of the band members constantly, even intuitively, take turns on stage being a sort of sonic focal point and mood-setter. LFdM plays all the time at LaSalles and Off Limits and has two EPs to its credit.

Living Alliance of Love
world

Lott Lyzzyrd
garage rock

Lysistrata
metal

MC Oroville
hip-hop

Machinegreen
Machinegreen has already released a standout debut album, Origami, as well as played a number of shows outside the area. The band fuses elements of 㥘s new wave with riff-heavy rock to create short, well-structured bursts of pop that are infectiously catchy. Guitarist/vocalist and songwriter Scott Barwick has followed through with his vision of creating rock music that doesn’t rely on machismo.

The Makai
The Makai brings in elements of 㥘s punk and 㥢s thrash and mixes them into a strong metal base. The result is a furious sound with enough time changes to discourage the most determined mosh-pit hessian. Complex fast-and-slow parts are brought off well with superior guitar work on both axes, while the vocals alternate between high-pitched screams and deep growls—heavy and fast with impressive technical playing that doesn’t get in the way of metal’s simplicity.

Mossy Creek
bluegrass

NewmanAmiYumi
Created in January 2005, this innovative jazz trio derives its name from the surname of NewmanAmiYumi’s confident and creative frontman, tenor sax player Mike Newman, and popular Japanese girl-rock duo Puffy Ami Yumi. Upright bassist Christine “Ami” LaPado and piano/keyboard player Shigemi “Yumi” Minetaka make up the vibrant two-woman rhythm section.

P.A.W.N.S
punk

PYRX
hip-hop, rock

Red With Envy
hard rock

Reverse Order
metal

Charlie Robinson
jazz

Secret Stolen
indie

The Shankers
Although a rockabilly band, everything about the Shankers screams punk rock. Head Shanker Johnny Crackrock quit his most recent punk band, taught his girlfriend how to play bass, wrote a bunch of songs with sneering attitude and recruited a drummer who didn’t even have a kit. If you crossed Buddy Holly with the Cramps and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, you might come close to what the Shankers sound like.

Sleepyhead
indie experimental

Slow Down Theo
indie

Socially Pink
punk

John Staedler
singer-songwriter

The Stationary Legs
indie, metal

Three Fingers Whiskey
Remember the “Rawhide” scene in Blues Brothers? Where the brothers’ decidedly not-a-country band just repeats that one-and-only C/W song they know to a very disappointed barroom crowd? Well, the kind of band those rowdy roadhouse folks really wanted was one like Three Fingers Whiskey. This is outlaw-country/country-rock/roots-country for kickin’ up some dust and tossin’ a few back. The band mostly plays at LaSalles in Chico and also regularly hits places like Old Ironsides in Sacramento and the rodeos in Red Bluff.

Vext Intent
hard rock

West By Swan
Together nearly three years now, bassist Conrad Nystrom, drummer Daniel Taylor and guitarists (and brothers) Dan and Dave Greenfield actually live up to the promise of their collective musical pedigree. Dave, the bespectacled appliance technician, does the heavy lifting with seriously meaty chords that provide much of the support structure that his painter-brother decorates with spiky and dissonant color experiments. Add the hell-on-wheels drumming of Taylor and Nystrom’s tube-driven melodic bass, and WBS is a stunning display of rocking experimentation in the vein of Sonic Youth, Fugazi and Kinski.

Zabaleen
punk