BeatNonStop A Weblog by Chris Macias Bee pop music critic Music geek (n. myü-zik 'gEk) 1: A person who proudly wore KISS commemorative pajamas in third grade. 2: A person who owns multiple copies of the same album, still buys vinyl and has a room dedicated to 2,000 or so CDs and records. 3. A person who wrote a five-part series about traveling with a local band in their stinky van - and loved every minute of it. 4: Chris Macias, the Bee's pop music critic, serving Sacramento's music scene since 1999.

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June 30, 2006

PodNonStop 023: Turning the tables

Pop music critic Chris Macias podcasts with DJ Rob Fatal on Saturday night's DMC USA American Battleground Tour competition in West Sacramento. (See story)
Download PodNonStop 023

Posted by rprice at 1:27 AM | Comments |

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June 29, 2006

Hey yo, you want to battle?

See that dude sitting on the bed? That’s DJ Rob Fatal, taking a practice break in the bedroom of his parents' Pocket-area home. He’s fine-tuning his scratches for a big DJ battle on Saturday night, the DMC American Battleground 2006. It’ll be held at the Collings West Sacramento Teen Center (1541 Merkeley Ave., West Sacramento), and starts at 7 p.m. It’ll cost $10 to watch Rob Fatal and other local DJs battle for bragging rights and a chance to move on to a West Coast regional battle.

That hand holding the iPod belongs to yours truly. I recorded some audio snippets and samples of Rob Fatal’s battle routines for a podcast that will be posted tomorrow. Watch this space for some *wiki wiki* sounds.

Posted by cmacias at 2:33 PM | Comments |

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June 27, 2006

R.I.P. A&W

OK, so this isn’t the most music-related post, but the A&W on Freeport Blvd. was destroyed early Monday by a suspicious fire. So right now I’m pouring a 40 oz. of root beer for this fallen fast-food spot. And that picture of the A&W going up in flames just about breaks my heart, the same one that might be a little clogged from too many A&W bacon cheeseburger combos.

If you grew up anywhere near south Sacramento, chances are that you were practically weaned on the root beer floats at the Freeport Blvd. A&W. Sure, you might feel your bacon cheeseburger in not the best of ways the next day, but A&W was all good for generations of Sacramentans. Unlike the hit-it-and-quit-it style of most fast food places, you usually had to wait a while at A&W for your grub. But that was OK. That gave you time to goof around with your buddies, check out the car hops (if you were around back then), and just savor a summer day near the Executive Airport. Nobody really builds memories at a McDonalds (and who really takes the time to eat inside one?), but A&W will be missed in all its brown and orange, deep-fried glory. So I send my condolences to the great Root Bear and will keep singing, “A&W root beer’s got that frosty mug taste/A&W root beer’s got that frosty mug taste …”

Posted by cmacias at 11:43 AM | Comments |

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June 23, 2006

From the north side to the Sicc side

Looking for G-Macc's apartment in Natomas. The heat from the parking lot concrete practically hurts.

G-Macc comes outside, clutching his latest CD ("Graveyard Shift") and a two-way pager. We go into his apartment. There's no furniture, save for a couch and a TV set. He explains that he just moved in. The rapper who also calls himself V.A.M.P.I.R.E also has a house near 24th St. in south Sac. But right now G-Macc's laying low. He says that when summer comes, the vibe gets heated back in the old neighborhood. Too many people are outside, and it's easy for old tensions to boil.

G-Macc's from the south side of Sacramento, in a neighborhood dubbed the Garden Blocc. This 'hood is infamous for two things: its Crip sets, and its hip-hop. Brotha Lynch Hung is from here, the rapper who put Sacramento on the hip-hop map with horrorcore tales of life on 24th St.

Mr. Doctor also reps the Garden Blocc. So does C-Bo, and X-Raided (who's serving a murder rap in state prison) and so many other rappers that Garden Blocc hip-hop is its own mini-industry.

G-Macc talks about this, until the call comes and we're on our way to Tre-8's place. He's got an apartment on Riverside Blvd. in Greenhaven, where a guest bedroom doubles as the office space and production studio for Orakle Records. G-Macc needs to pick up his car, which is parked across the street from Tre-8's, and if the vibe's right he'll lay down a verse. But right now, all of this sunlight isn't sitting right with the V.A.M.P.I.R.E. He curses the sun and heat instead.

Posted by cmacias at 10:59 AM | Comments |

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June 21, 2006

Everybody Get Up

Just got word that Pitbull will be performing a 45 min. set on Thursday night at Avalon (805 15th St.). For those not in the know, Pitbull is a Cuban-American rapper and the pride of the 305 area code (Miami), and he’s one of the hottest dudes in hip-hop right now with such tracks as “Toma,” “Dammit Man,” “Shake” and “Everybody Get Up.” It’ll cost you $30 if you want to shake to Pitbull’s Miami-style crunk, and plan on getting there early because pre-sale tickets are already sold out.

Pitbull’s performance will also kick off Avalon’s “Latin Quarter” night, which will be held on the third Thursday of each month. “We’re going for a Latin themed party,” says Jason Alvarez of E&J Events, the booking team behind Avalon. “Next month I’ve got Vida Guerra (the Playboy playmate and FHM cover girl) coming out. She’s going to do a meet-and-greet and then she’ll be partying all night at the club.”

On a sort of related note, Alvarez says that Bubba “Ms. New Booty” Sparxxx is booked for Avalon on July 6. Check www.avalonsacramento.com for more information.

Posted by cmacias at 5:01 PM | Comments |

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June 20, 2006

All the cool kids are doing it

Some of my colleagues here at the Bee hive just launched a collective blog called 21Q. So click on over, check out how cozy they look on that couch, and see what scoops they’ve got on clubbing, fashion, theater and other stuff that’s shaking in pop culture.

Each contributor has a little Teen Beat-styled questionnaire as part of their bio, and hey, I want to play along, too. Just like the West Coast Rap All-Stars said, “We’re all in the same gang.” Here goes …

Middle name: Jesse; that’s my dad’s name and it’s “Jesse” as in rhymes with “yes,” not “Jesse” like “Jessie’s Girl.”

What I’d do with a spare $100: If Angelo Auriana was still cooking at Masque, I’d be on the road to El Dorado Hills faster than you can say “piatto unico.” Otherwise, I’d use that “Benjamin” to fuel some vinyl shopping at Records on K St.

“The Daily Show” or the “Today Show”: “The Daily Show,” no question. (Thank goodness that “Good Day Sacramento” wasn’t an option here).

Childhood ambition: I wanted to be Ace Frehley from Kiss!

Theme song: “I Wanna Rock,” Luke

What’s on my iPod: It starts with “2 Tone” (a folder with Specials,. Selecter, etc.) and ends with Zappa. In between, there’s the Beatles, a “booty bass” playlist, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Bebel Gilberto, Beck, Billy Childish, Ben Folds, Boston, Brian Eno, plus more stuff that starts with “B” and about 15 gigs of songs and artists that span the alphabet.

Who’d play me in the story of my life: Ralph Macchio

Signature drink: Coffee in the morning, water in the afternoon, Spanish tempranillo or California cabernet with dinner (wouldn’t mind spending that spare $100 on some vino from either Karl Lawrence, Pride or Arietta).

Converse or cowboy boots: Converse … yee haw!

Sacramento in a word: Home. This is where my family and friends are, and I have lots of allegiance to the 916, even if the area’s starting to look like one giant strip mall. If you look beyond the Jamba Juice-ification of Sacramento, there’s a great music scene and creative folks who are trying to keep the River City energized.

Posted by cmacias at 10:52 AM | Comments |

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June 15, 2006

Time killer of the day

Check out this YouTube video of the Deftones playing “Some People” back in 1990.

Wow, it’s safe to say that this early version of the Deftones was biting Primus pretty hard. So was just about every other local band back then. The thrash-funk scene was huge, and everyone around town was doing their best Primus/Faith No More/Fungo Mungo imitation. But good for the Deftones for sticking it out and finding their own sound, that moody-and-melodic metal vibe that spawned its own copycat bands.

Compare the old clip with this recent footage of the Deftones rocking Cesar Chavez Plaza to see what I mean.

Posted by cmacias at 1:46 PM | Comments |

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June 14, 2006

Dy-no-mite!

Lately it seems like the best time to check out a show is any day that's not a Friday or Saturday. Sometimes it's just good to check out a gig that's a little more on the downlow, when there's less of a chance to get a drink spilled on you and the cover charges tend to be cheaper. It's not always easy to swing a show on a "school night," of course, but why wait for the weekend when there's good music to be had right now?

So with that in mind, here's a plug for "Good Times," a hip-hop function that goes down every Wednesday night at the Blue Lamp. It's brought to you by the folks at Twelves Wax, the same promotion crew that helped bring that excellent Roots show to Empire last Sunday. The DJs at "Good Times," which include local mix masters Psol and Fooders, play nothing but party time music. So that means you might hear everything from classic De La Soul, to Corey Hart's "Sunglasses at Night," and a bunch of Miami bass that's designed for booty shaking. Hipsters take note: "Good Times" is the only place in Sacramento that's playing baile funk and B-More club music on the regular (e.g. bass-heavy tracks by DJ Technics, Booman, Scotty B, etc.). So plan your excuse for calling in sick, and head over to the Blue Lamp (1400 Alhambra Blvd.). The cover charge is $3, and the music starts at 9 p.m.

Posted by cmacias at 4:24 PM | Comments |

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June 12, 2006

Roots rock

Sunday night was especially slammin’ in Sacramento. Over at Empire nightclub, the Roots hipped and hopped through a two-hour set, and just about proved that the band is the best live act in rap music. After making my way past Empire’s ever-charming security crew, I got a spot close to the front of the stage, just a few feet away from bassist Leon “Hub” Hubbard and a huge stack of speakers that made me wish I’d brought ear plugs. But the Roots were so good that they’re an early frontrunner for “best club show of 2005.” The energy was relentless, like when the band jammed on drum and guitar solos, and dropped an amazing medley of classic hip-hop cuts that had the capacity crowd going buckwild (song snippets included “Shimmy Shimmy Ya,” “Method Man,” “Award Tour,” “Push It,” and “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang.’” The Roots also snuck in a few jazz references, playing bits of “My Favorite Things” and “Take Five.” Aw yeah.

It’s true that a lot of live hip-hop falls flat on the concert stage. I’ve seen a lot of my favorite rap groups in concert – De La Soul, Gang Starr, Ludacris – but always felt a little let down. The concept of “two turntables and a microphone” just isn’t that exciting to watch, and gets really muddled when the stage gets crammed with a bunch of hype men. It’s even worse when there’s no DJ, and just a DAT player in the background. It’s the opposite with the Roots. Their albums tend to be too sprawling for their own good (read: kind of “zzzzzz”) but their live shows kick with tons of flavor and excitement. And what other hip-hop group can have the crowd going strong for two hours?

So after the Roots bid farewell to Sacramento, it was off to the Blue Lamp for some dancehall reggae with DJ Wokstar. The club was pretty much packed by 11 p.m. with all the regulars and folks who’d been to the Roots show but weren’t ready to call it a night. So the positive vibrations kept going on and on … maybe not ‘til the break of dawn but long enough that there more than a few folks today with sleepy eyes and bottles of water on stand-by.

Posted by cmacias at 4:28 PM | Comments |

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June 9, 2006

MySpace, a place for Ribzy

Way back in the dark ages, when bands promoted "cassette release" parties and the Internet was just a seedling in Al Gore's mind, I discovered a punk band called Ribzy. This was when I'd tape the occasional episode of "Maximum Rock and Roll" off KPFA radio in Berkeley. And one night with especially fuzzy reception, this thrashy song called "Cyanide Pill" burst through the antenna. The track was from a snarling group called Ribzy, and once the song was over the DJ said they were a band from San Jose that was "really developing nicely." And that's all I ever knew about Ribzy - until I discovered their MySpace page a couple days ago.

It turns out that Ribzy was one of the prime bands in San Jose's punk scene during the early/mid-1980s, a bunch that included Los Olvidados, the Unaware and the Faction (featuring legendary skate dude Steve Caballero on guitar). Check out Ribzy's MySpace page for some cool photos and gnarly stories from back in the day, like an especially rowdy gig with 7 Seconds. And of course, you can hear that primordial hardcore blast of "Cyanide Pill" on their MySpace music player.

It all makes you realize how good bands have it today in terms of networking and promotion. In Ribzy's day, word about a band was spread literally from mouth to mouth, or through homegrown 'zines and underground radio stations with janky reception. Now you can just surf around MySpace and discover more bands in one sitting than you might've once found all month.

Now if I can only find a MySpace page for Capt. America and the Avengers from Fresno ...

Posted by cmacias at 12:02 PM | Comments |

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June 6, 2006

666 mix

Today is 6/6/06, the unholiest of days (at least in terms of numerology). So be careful when listening to these songs today. They may get you in trouble with The Big Man Upstairs:

“Number of the Beast,” Iron Maiden
“Burnin’ for You,” Blue Oyster Cult
“Me & the Devil Blues,” Robert Johnson
“God Bless the Children of the Beast,” Motley Crue
“N.I.B.,” Black Sabbath
“The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” Charlie Daniels Band
“Chorale Prelude for Organ ("Jesus Christus, unser Heiland"), BWV 666,” Johann Sebastian Bach
“Altar of Sacrifice,” Slayer
“Sympathy for the Devil,” Rolling Stones
“Runnin’ With the Devil,” Van Halen
Anything by Venom
"Stairway to Heaven," Led Zeppelin (if you've got the record, spin it backwards after Robert Plant sings "It's just a spring clean for the May queen." It sounds like - choke! - "My sweet Satan.")

Posted by cmacias at 1:06 PM | Comments |

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June 5, 2006

Get jazzed

Great show last night at Old Ironsides. It was another installment of the “Prescott Showcase,” a freewheeling jazz gig that goes down every Sunday night. I arrived just as the Race!!! Quintet, the house band, was finishing up its final tune. Ross Hammond, the guitarist and mastermind behind the “Prescott Showcase,” took an especially groovy solo with angular lines and a little distortion to color his tone. The tune ended with two saxophonists honking away and some free-form improvisation that was pure liberation on an otherwise quiet Sunday night.

The vibe got even better when drummer Scott Amendola and organist Wil Blades took the stage. Some locals may remember Scott’s work with jazz-guitar virtuoso Charlie Hunter, and Scott’s latest duo was simply fantastic. I wondered at first if a drum and organ duo would keep my attention, but Scott and Wil produced such full and intriguing sounds that the whole room seemed to be in a perpetual head bob. Wil sounded really funky on his organ and explored some of the more percussive aspects of his instrument. The duo had almost a telepathic connection with the way they anticipated each other and bounced ideas back and forth. Props to Ross Hammond for bringing Scott and Wil to Sacramento, and be sure to check out Old Ironsides on Sunday nights if you’ve got a hankering for some jazz.

Posted by cmacias at 4:26 PM | Comments |

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June 1, 2006

Material Whirl

So I’m getting my bearings back after these last few days of Madonna-mania. I checked out the Material Girl on Tuesday night in San Jose, and the show came complete with a giant crucifix, roller disco, pole dancing and a crown of thorns. All that seemed to be missing in this sensational and sort-of sacrilegious show was Holy Water bottled by Voss.

Check out the full review here.

My seat was in about the 10th row, right next to a catwalk where Madonna did the wango tango with a pole. And every time Madonna came up this ramp, cell phone cameras were clicking all over the action and fans basically freaked out. It was kind of funny to see security try in vain to make people put their cameras away or turn off their flash.

What wasn’t so funny was the security guy who threatened to kick me out of the concert. It turned out that Madonna’s bodyguards didn’t like the sight of me taking notes, so a security dude tried to shake me down with, “Where’s your press pass? What are you doing?” When he thought I was getting too smart with him, the guard told me in language that might even make Madonna blush that he’d kick me out and have no problem with it. So he talked to Madonna’s security people again, and came back to say, “They’d like you to be discreet.” Well OK there, buddy. But it’s kind of ironic that Madonna, an artist who prides herself on freedom of expression (e.g. Ms. “Express Yourself”), doesn’t like to extend that freedom of expression to music journalists.

Posted by cmacias at 3:22 PM | Comments |

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