Jammies

She’s A Dead Man
Drawing upon influences like Jimi Hendrix, Streetlight Manifesto and Tenacious D, the 17-year-old members of She’s A Dead Man believe themselves to be “the greatest band in the universe”—or at least they want you to believe it. Michael Franzino, Alex Brown, Aaron Dempsey, Colin Chesbro, Nick Hanks, Trevor Grommet, and Brian McCalister have mastered the art of stage presence with their seemingly arrogant rock-star delivery of catchy ska/punk rhythms.

Taylor Neal
Taylor Neal returns to the Jammies in 2007 after bowling everyone over last year with his guitar mastery, wit and giant hair. His literate lyrics and dexterous finger work make for folk songs that are unique among his peers’. What other 17-year-old makes songs inspired by British folk tales or Dickens’ Bleak House as accessible as a tune about your last break-up? His delicate but confident voice (shades of Neil Young) and honest stage presence (comments about the drawbacks of his long hair) are a refreshing and fun respite from the posturing so prevalent in current music.

Hopefully, it will carry Neal to a long and successful career.

Green Light Blues!
Sometimes music is just about good times and good friends. 2006 Jammies veteran Green Light Blues! fills their audience with both. Definitively rock and blues, the band occasionally slows down the tempo to slip in a jazz influence. Joe Grijalva, Pat Sweeney, Nick Rieger and GLB! newcomer Scott Donahue are all students at Jesuit High School, where they perform in the school’s pep band.

Walking Spanish
If you’re taking a walk through middle class American suburbia, you don’t often expect to hear solid, gut-busting rock ‘n’ roll coming from a garage. But emanating from a certain home in El Dorado Hills are the sweet and smooth tones of the blues-driven, grunge-hashed, tight-laced melodies of Walking Spanish. Tired of being kids and even more tired of listening to “kid music,” Walking Spanish sought out to fight for a better sound. Consisting of Alex Nelson on guitar and vocals, Tim Picchi smoothing out the kinks on bass, and Craig Stoller setting the highs and lows of the peaks and subtleties on drums, the band returns again to the Crest stage to celebrate five years of the Jammies. The overall sound is something like a folk-rock-country-blues-jazz sponge, and it’s expanding. Keep an eye out for their first album, coming this spring.

Running Riot
If the name Running Riot sounds familiar to you, it’s because it should. Returning to their alma mater for now their third consecutive Jammies event, they also performed on the second stage at last year’s Sammies. Since, Kevin Hayes, Cody Howle, and Vinnie Guidera have continued to play together, but things looked bleak for a while after having lost drummer Aaron Trux. But as luck would have it, a solution presented itself. The role of drummer was filled by yet another Jammies alum, Ian McDonald, formerly of the group Fixed. The new foursome tells us its been nothing but cake from there on out, writing more songs and playing more gigs than ever before. Expect to be getting even more familiar with these boys in the near future.

Drobot, Stefan
The members of this five-piece are students in the Natomas Charter School Performing and Fine Arts Academy who collaborated to enter the Jammies, led by composer Will Finan. At the Jammies Battles in February, Finan’s voice soared above all the other performers of the evening—a cross between Chris Martin of Coldplay and Ben Folds—and his compositions featured strong narrative stories. Bassist Ira Mandella showed great chops improvising to Finan’s songs, while guitarist Chase Harrison and drummer Micah Krimetz supported with nuanced skill. Violinist Runar Dehuvyne added a memorable sonic tone.

Ounce of Heaven
Ounce of Heaven combines the styles of Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix into a modern package. Hailing from Folsom High School, Luke Rietzke holds down guitar and vocals, Justin Conway handles the drums, Tony Bongiovanni covers bass and Ben Mathews finishes up with guitar. With a love of classic rock, the band’s greatest joy is the special energy of live performance.

Ricky Berger
Ricky Berger, standing on stage with just a guitar, exudes the confidence of a performer with years of experience. Her pliable voice can move from a low, breathy rumble to a near falsetto, filling the room with a gentle, soulful sound and inspiring an audience to stare in rapt attention. Music is Ricky’s passion, and she says, “I love knowing that I can heal, touch, and befriend people through my music.” Her unusual chord choices—there’s a lot of jazz phrasing in there—and direct lyrics will make it possible for her to do that for years to come.

Indysisive
Three years ago, Colin Smith, Peter Mancina, Mikel Follette and Andrew Speciale formed Indysisive, a pop-punk band with a penchant for misspellings. One year ago, they took home the Jammies popular vote at the Crest, earning themselves 20 hours of studio recording time for their efforts. Citing influences like Blink-182, the Alkaline Trio and Rancid, the foursome’s back to revive the mosh-pit-inducing sounds of their punk-rock predecessors—only this time, no longer wet behind the ears.

Bullets & Romance
Now Jammies alumni, they first came to us under the moniker Gooser. Newly named Bullets & Romance after one of their songs of the same title, the band’s propensity to deliver a melodic mixture of modern and classic rock remains unaffected. Members Daniel Espinoza, Derek Diesen, Seth Mattson and Tony Ricker leave audiences with memorable hooks and catchy lyrics that blur the lines of power pop and rock. Alongside producer Brian Wheat of ’80s rock band Telsa fame, the band released its first album, aptly named The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, on February 14, 2006.

Nephilim
Nephilim takes audiences back to the mid-1980s when guitar acrobatics were king. Brett Rechtfertig recalls the axe-slinging skills of some of the greatest metal guitarists ever, like Dimebag Darrell of Pantera or Alex Skolnick of Testament. The rhythm section of Britt Green and Brian Gifford is a solid one-two punch to the gut, while singer Brian Curtain keeps the band’s on-stage presence flowing amidst his growling, mostly indecipherable lyrics. The band is tight and well-rehearsed, a must for such a metal assault. They are certainly poised for a run as Sacramento’s top metal band, before potentially taking over the planet.