NOISE POP 2010 REVIEW: CAFE DU NORD SHOWCASE

Photo courtesy of Kimberly Chunn

This past Friday night the Noise Pop Festival presented an epic night of music befitting the musical roots of San Francisco. Featuring THE FEROCIOUS FEW, SONNY & THE SUNSETS, THE GROWLERS and THE MUMLERS - a virtual dream Future Sounds of Bay Area bands; this lineup took the packed crowd at Café Du Nord back some forty odd years to time that all that mattered was the music. The only indication of modern times was the faint glow of cell phone screen illuminating the dark walls of the club.

First up were The Ferocious Few, a two piece led by troubadour Francisco Fernandez. More accustomed to serenading passersby on the streets of SF; Fernandez looked right at home playing aggressive acoustic cuts off their soon to be released full-length, Juices (Birdman). Accompanied by Daniel Aguilar on drums, The Ferocious Few steadily kicked off the night with sincerity and heart. I first caught The Ferocious Few when they tore up the small stage in the Blue Palms room at the Hollywood Brew Fest back in November and was glad to see that they still played with such fervor.

Clad in Beach Boy’s esque Hawaiian shirts, Sonny & the Sunsets took the stage and captured the crowd their simple and sweet guitar plucked tunes. Led by Sonny Smith, this four piece was minus singer/guitarist Thalia Harbour, her absence forcing a more stripped down performance, but the nonetheless emotive and entertaining. Their 10 song set was packed with light jangley gems, including my current obsession, the heartfelt “Too Young to Burn.” Sonny and company are a welcome change from the lo-fi grunge pop filling the scene right now, as their songs packed the perfect amount of punch, yet still retained the genuine sweetness of 50’s/60’s pop.

The Growlers channeled their own Almost Famous, as their traveling entourage included 60’s styled groupies with floppy hats, thigh skimming dresses and face paint. Their alcohol induced bravado lent itself to a soaring jam session that looked as if it was ripped from the pages of Rolling Stone, when they used to write about music and be headquartered in San Francisco. Noticeably absent for the first song, lead singer Brooks Nielsen stumbled on stage, sorrowfully announcing, “I fucking passed out,” paving the way for a raucous set featuring soon to be classic tracks like “Barnacle Beat,” Soul of Coral” and “Something Someone Jr.” Nielsen’s vocals combined with bassist Scott Montoya’s skillful playing showcased The Growlers patented brand of psychedelic surf rock and most definitely added to this night of throwbacks. All fur hats, dancing band-aids (Penny Lane!) and impromptu make-out sessions on stage, this Long Beach staple by way of Costa Mesa made me proud to be from the OC.

Culminating this night of vintage influenced sounds, San Jose natives, The Mumlers brought down the house with a soul wrenching live performance that won’t soon be forgotten, Will Sprott’s vocals harkens back to era of bourbon soaked jazz and blues clubs, thus the vintage speakeasy vibe of Café Du Nord (also the new home of the SF Rumble) was very fitting. A beautiful collision of clarinets, keys and horns, The Mumlers delivered a mind blowing set full of cuts off albums Thickets & Stitches and Don't Throw Me Away. A sea of couples emphatically danced to “Shake That Medication,” which sounded even better live. Personal fav’s included “Coffin Factory” and “Raise the Blinds.” The Mumlers are the kind of band that always keep you wanting more, as their legitimate musicianship, soulful lyrics and tenderness recall a time when music was meant to make you feel. The Mumlers live performance is heartbreak hotel personified, and I mean heartbreak in the best way possible.

Posted by Veronica Pulcini

TONIGHT IN LOS ANGELES: THE MUMLERS PLAY SPACELAND

San Jose's THE MUMLERS roll into town tonight for a gig supporting THE BLACK HEART PROCESSION at Spaceland. If you have a copy of FUTURE SOUNDS 32, you should remember the throwback track, "Shake That Medication" from this young act from up North.

TONIGHT IN LOS ANGELES: MORE GREAT SHOWS

LA is a virtual playground this week of amazing music, making everyone have fits as to which show to go to on a given night. Here are my favorites tonight...

Future Sounds loves THE YELLING, straight up. They play at The Viper Room tonight at 11:30pm. This band's blitzkrieg will blow out your eardrums. Prepare for it or expect to say "what?" all day tomorrow. This band will be everyone's darling in 2009, say you saw them when now.

All the way down from San Jose, it's THE MUMLERS, someone we featured on FS32, finally coming into the city and playing the Silverlake Lounge. Completely fresh and original!

We've played him a lot on the radio show, but then again, so has everyone these days. He's an "it" guy right now, but worth seeing and talented > MILES BENJANMIN ANTHONY ROBINSON at The Echo.


And not to be left out, the frontman for THE RINGERS is a freak from another planet, and I mean that in the absolute best possible way. Some might say he's electric (boogie-woogie-woogie) but he's nothing if not entertaining, and we've been playing them quite a bit on the radio show. THE KNIVES are also on this bill at The Roxy.

All this and we ain't counting Vampire Weekend again tonight at The Wiltern or Tokyo Police Club at The Fonda. Good luck making a selection.

TONIGHT IN SAN FRANCISCO: THE MUMLERS

My favorite band from San Jose is playing The Rickshaw Stop tonight - so go see THE MUMLERS if you're in town. I can't stop playing their release "Thickets & Stitches" (Galaxia).
They go on at 10PM.

NEW FEATURE: GIMMIE 5

Friday's GIMMIE 5 - Five jams for your enjoyment

1. THE MUMLERS - Shake That Medication

2. SOCIETY OF ROCKETS - Time

3. CHESTER FRENCH - She Loves Everybody

4. THE ROSEWOOD THIEVES - Silver Gun

5. THE BOTTICELLIS - The Reviewer

NEW SOUNDS: THE MUMLERS

While up in San Francisco this past weekend for NOISE POP, MR ROBOTO tipped me off to a band out of San Jose that have me all excited. The band is a seven-piece called THE MUMLERS, and they just dropped their debut record on February 12th on Galaxia Records called "Thickets & Stitches".

I've seen where they've been compared to people like YO LA TENGO, CALEXICO and LAMBCHOP, which all knock on the door to a sound, but to me they move it back to DR JOHN, MUNGO JERRY, BOOKER T & THE MG'S, and even 'Family Affair' SLY & THE FAMILY STONE. I hear a bit of THE BAND ("Across The Great Divide"), LEON REDBONE, ARCHIE BELL & THE DRELLS, and even JOHN CLEARY, because it feels part New Orleans and part Stax. A little ways back I fell for the band, LITTLE BARRIE, for preciously this same sort of sound that hits the mark so dead on, and have been waiting for someone else to pop up and claim it. Of course it will always come from a place such as San Jose, or Tulse, or someplace like that where the hipster crowd has aped themselves so many times they don't know whether or not they are trying to be the "new" Arcade Fire this week, Beirut, or Vampire Weekend (all great bands btw). Their track, "Shake The Medication" is simply outstanding and you should head over to their Myspace page and listen immediately.

Spin, Filter, Rolling Stone and NPR have caught wind of this act, and thankfully I finally have caught up as well. You'll hear me yap about these guys plenty going forward, watch out.

Download “Red River Hustle” HERE (mp3)

The band is built around Will Sprott and he kindly gave me some time and answered my questions. Here goes...

Q: The Mumlers are a seven-piece unit, and I’ve read of the wild instrumentation within the band, can you provide a rundown of all the players and their respective instruments?

Sure. Our main rhythm man is Andy Paul. He mainly bangs on drums but has also been known to bang on a marimba now and then. I mention him first because he's always hiding behind his drums and nobody sees him. For some reason whenever he's photographed he gets red eyes & looks like a cyborg. Paolo Gomez is our master of lower frequencies. He usually sticks to his upright bass. He's a deep reservoir of talent. He also plays guitar and saxophone like a dream but we have not yet called him to duty in those departments. Mercedes El Vencere handles the tambourine, shaker and harmonica playing. She keeps us all laughing by constantly laughing (at us). She also makes jewelry. James Fenwicke plays French horn, trumpet, keyboards, guitars and can whistle better than the devil. He's prone to enigmatic declarations. Müller plays guitar, pedal steel and other slide-type instruments and clarinet. He's our technical wizard. He's like that guy James Bond goes to see for new devices in the spy trade, except with music. I'm Will Sprott. I mostly play guitar and piano and sing the songs. Everybody else sings harmonies and stuff too. Then there's Felix Archuleta...

Q: Tell me about Felix Archuleta?

Felix is a crazy genius if I've ever met one. He's one of of those guys that can play anything he touches. For The Mumlers he mostly plays baritone horn, trumpet, various keyboards, and guitars. He is also a tornado on the dance floor.

Q: I’m going to hit you with the very familiar “what are your influences” question, mostly because your band doesn’t seem to be playing from the same deck of cards as most. After hearing the tracks on “Thickets & Stitches”, I need to know what old albums are in your collection that are worn out.

I can't speak for the whole band because there are so many of us. Our listening really goes far and wide. Every time I'm in Felix's car, for instance, he's listening to either the classical station or the Mexican station. Paolo knows a lot about Jazz. Personally, I like a lot of old soul music and a lot of old folk music. If I was stuck on a desert island I'd probably take Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music and the Stax/ Volt Singles collection 1968-71.

Q: I need to see you live, what are your touring plans for this album? Do you need a bus like the Partridge Family to fit all of you for road shows?

Well, right now we're trying to get it together with a booking agent. If that happens we'll be getting on the road as soon as possible. I would love to play all over. For now we've got a bunch of Northern California shows booked. Our record just came out a couple weeks ago so we've been playing as much as possible just to spread the word around. We've done a few shows in far flung places in the past and it is pretty funny to see us all crammed into a van with all our stuff. Stand-up basses take up a lot of room. Usually somebody has to sit on the floor.

Q: Where was the record recorded and with whom?

The bulk of the record was recorded at Snowghost Music in Whitefish, Montana with Brett Allen in November of 2006. Brett was nice enough to let us stay at his his studio so we braved the snowstorms and the icy interstates and recorded it out there, which was great. It was really good to be so far from the distractions of home and just do nothing but work on music. Over the next few months after that we did some other recording back in San Jose. Muller is a recording engineer as well so we did it at his house which he calls the Felony College of the Streets. We added a few more touches with John Baccigaluppi at his studio, the Hangar, in Sacramento. Then we mixed it at the Hangar with Thom Monahan.

Q: “Red River Hustle” is such a cool track, and I understand there’s a story behind it – can you share?

I hate to break things down to much but basically I was moved to write it by all the shady things that we're happening outside my window. I was living in a corner apartment on the second floor of this beautiful old Victorian house that had been converted into dirty little apartments. The windows looked out over this intersection and there was always something going on so I used to just sit there and watch the world go by. On one corner there was a house full of transvestite prostitutes who used to stand on the corner and wave down tricks. On another corner there was a crack house which one night erupted in a giant street-brawl and a police raid. There was a guy who used to push shopping carts down the street full of stuff at four in the morning. I'd hear the clatter of the cart and look out and see him with a television and a lamp hanging out of his shopping cart and I'd wonder what he was up to. So basically that song is a little glimpse of that world.

Q: Your home base is San Jose, CA, which I remember as being a very pop-punk & emo kind of town, with a fair amount of jock-rock thrown in. How does the home crowd react to this blues-infused funk?

People in San Jose have been nothing but supportive. I honestly didn't think anyone would care about us here either but I guess maybe people are excited for something different. Through making music here I feel like we've unearthed a whole secret city within the city. A city this big has a lot woodwork for people to hide in.

Q: Are there other bands on the SJ scene that we should all be aware of? What’s the best venue?

Some bands I like a lot are the Stars Misplaced, Doctor Nurse, Beachkrieg, Thee Mansion, Eiafuawn, Worker Bee & Settler. There's really a lot of good music here but it's pretty insular. There's a lot of people who have no commercial ambitions making music for themselves. If they have ambition they usually leave. I could rattle off a list of people you wouldn't know are from San Jose but that's their business. I heard COOLIO is from here. That's just a teaser.

Q: What’s the best thing about San Jose?

Lots and lots of Mexican food.

Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions Will, and I’m hoping to see you many times in the upcoming years and wish you success with this release.

“Thickets & Stitches” was released on February 12th on Galaxia Records and is also available on Itunes.

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