Attention, fans of rock/reggae bands along the lines of 311, Incubus, Slightly Stoopid, The Expendables, Pepper, Iration, Sublime, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers – you  might want to pick up Wait For Green‘s new self-titled album, which they are releasing this week.

If they sound familiar, it might be because we here at BtH have already posted about the dudes in WFG, highlighting a show they put on at the Roxy back in February of this year.

Well, they’ve recently finished working on their new album, which is filled with some excellent new songs like Elevate and Nobody Listening and some re-worked older jams such as How Far I’ve Come, Next Wave, and Day One.

The end result is an album that should hopefully help Wait For Green rise to the top of the class of the current reggae-rock scene.

What helps them stand apart from their peers is their willingness to branch out creatively. Bassist AJ Larson channels the funk energy of 311′s Aaron “P-Nut” Wills, often serving as much more than just a source of the songs’ rhythm. Vocalist/guitarist Drew Dockerill, who alternates between normal singing and talk-singing throughout the record, is a solid front man, as well. His vocals and guitar work match up well with Larson’s bass play and Will Hopkins‘ steady drums, and the new record demonstrates how they have improved upon the sounds explored on their previous EPs.

With their new album, Wait for Green should strengthen their case to be considered among the more talented bands of this genre, and you can catch them tomorrow night at Saint Rocke in Hermosa Beach. They’re hitting the stage around ten o’clock, so why not spend your Thanksgiving Eve with their funky, reggae-tinged rock music at one of the coolest bars/venues in the extended LA area?

If you’re interested, you can currently listen to the entire new record over at The Roxy’s blog, so give it a shot if you want to inject some WFG into your Tuesday afternoon listening.

Click here to snag some tickets for tomorrow night. See you there!

Santa Barbara’s own Rebelution will release their first new music since 2009′s Bright Side of Life on January 10th, on a triple album (!) titled Peace of Mind.

Released on their own label 87 Music, Peace of Mind is really a pretty sweet package.

Besides the first disc of 12 new Rebelution jams, the 2nd and third discs are acoustic and dub versions of the album, respectively.

The Peace of Mind experience may find the band in uncharted territory, which could result in some new musical adventures for them:

Expanding beyond their usual self-production, Rebelution collaborated with five different producers including Goldwasser (Easy Star All-Stars), Amplive (Zion-I), Yeti Beats (Kool Keith, George Clinton), Keith Armstrong and Errol Brown (Stephen, Ziggy, Damian, and Bob Marley), building upon their signature style and venturing into different musical landscapes.

You can go to the band’s website and grab a free download of the album’s first single, Sky is the Limit, a driving, up-tempo number that is an inviting sense of what’s in store on the album. Oh, and the free download is all three versions of the song, too.

The past two years have found Rebelution graduating to the top of the reggae class, and the sheer size of their newest projects implies that they’re bound to reach even loftier heights.

In a genre cluttered with similar-sounding bands, it can be hard to stand out on your own. It really takes a special band to have that certain ‘something’ and stand out from your peers.

The genre in question is reggae/funk, and Wait for Green is that band with ‘something’.

Originally from Florida and now centralized in Venice, Wait for Green hit up the Roxy on Sunset on Saturday night. I made sure to go and witness my first WFG show.

The most impressive aspect of the band (comprised of Drew Dockerill on guitars/vocals, Rafael Britto on lead guitar, AJ Larson on bass and Danny Morledge on drums) is the thickness of their live sound. They played to a sparse crowd, but didn’t let that slow them down one bit. Even after some technical difficulties, which forced Dockerill to give up his guitar to Britto and perform the rest of the set without his instrument, they jammed through their roughly 30-minute set with determination.

Watching them play, I realized what it is about them that makes them stand out in my mind from the contemporary reggae/dub bands such as Rebelution, Iration, Passafire, The Dirty Heads and The Expendables, to name a few: Wait for Green aren’t afraid to jam out their songs into space-y dub, as evidenced on songs like How Far I’ve Come. When they do, it’s pretty mesmerizing.

Another thing that appealed to me was AJ Larson’s onstage bass work. Not only was he using a Warwick bass, the chosen model of 311 bassist extraordinaire Aaron “P-Nut” Wills, but he even moved around onstage with a similar energy to that of the Nut himself. It led me to believe that Larson and the band are fans of 311, which scores them immediate points in my book.

Besides the personal bias, Wait for Green’s songs are just really well done. Day One stands out among the rest, probably why it is going to be in an episode of the NBC show “Chase” tonight (I think that’s what Dockerill said at the show). They have an easygoing vibe that is somewhat more substantive than some other bands of this genre, lyrically and musically. The guitar work by Britton and Dockerill play off each other very well, creating a thick, layered guitar melody in nearly every song.

They played a lot of brand new songs at the show, songs off of an upcoming album, which they are currently recording.

I could easily see this band catch on with Law Records and get on tours with some of the aforementioned bands. Wait for Green definitely deserve as much attention, if not more, than others that are currently packing mid-sized concert halls from coast to coast. They do the “reggae vibes” thing that so many other bands do, but with greater precision and a maturity seemingly beyond their years.

They’re playing the Viper Room on March 13, so if any of this sounds like your thing, make sure you check out the gig and see how good Wait for Green are.

Here’s a video of How Far I’ve come from one of their previous Roxy gigs:

“If you like-a da marijuana, make some noise!!!  If you smoke-a da marijuana, make some noise!!! I shit da marijuana shits!!!” –Collie Buddz

West Beach Music Festival…Ah! A two-day gathering in Santa Barbara of reggae bands, four-drink maximum restrictions to the beer garden, occasional whiffs of pot clouds from  lucky attendees who somehow snuck it in through maximum security, and the Jose Cuervo games, sponsored by Cuervo, despite the “no hard alcohol allowed on the premises” policy. I could end this story right here, with “enough said” because I didn’t leave fulfilled musically, but will instead enlighten you on my questionable contraction of black lung, an almost broken neck and my mission to rekindle a childhood crush on the lead singer from UB40…while of course sprinkling in the musical experience, too.

Friday night, I will admit that Katchafire, a band out of New Zealand held my attention their entire set.  Unlike most of the other bands, they had the crowd not just swaying, but skankin’ enthusiastically.  I love them and will commit to purchasing their music.

Collie Buddz, who shits marijuana shits and who could be compared to Shaggy, also impressed and had me thoroughly intrigued.  The headliner from Friday, Rebelution, dragged on and on so much, I abandoned ship early and slumped out of the venue with a slight tickle in my throat from the dirt dust floating around the festival.

Saturday, I knew that at 4:00pm I had to participate in the Jose Cuervo games.  Waking up with a black lung-esque cough, I couldn’t be less excited if I tried.  However, my three teammates and I trekked to Santa Barbara in hopes to hear decent music and to win a trip to Vegas through Cuervo.  I also anticipated running into UB40 (side note: according to Wikipedia, “UB40” stands for “Unemployment Benefits form # 40″…really?).  We arrived and bands including Passafire, Loomis and The Lust, Tyrone Wells, and Giant Panda, were less than impressive.  The crowd had been sparse all day and I will blame that on the lackluster energy on stage.

Finally, the time arrived that led my team and me to the Cuervo tent to prepare for our event.  We signed our lives away and chose “The Situation” as our team name.  I cut my sleeves off, ripped the crew neck to a v-neck, strapped on a helmet, knee and elbow pads, and made my way to the Waterfall Climb event.  “The Situation” strapped into its harnesses, one by one, on opposite sides of the rock climbing wall.  We had 45 seconds to climb to the top and ring the bell.  I had this!!!  Forty seconds after the gun shot, three of four bells had rang, mine NOT included.  I reached a point of the wall, with a monsoon amount of water violently gushing down onto my face, that stopped me dead in my tracks.  I failed.

The second event, a Barrel Roll relay, had us climbing an inflated Mayan pyramid to retrieve a flag while Donkey Kong barrels were thrown at us.  If you creatively dismounted from the top, your team would receive extra points.  I reached the flag with stealthy speed but dismounted with a high-jump-bounce-halfway-down-flip and inappropriately landed on my neck.  I could’ve died.  I didn’t receive creative points and our team lost by a hair.  I failed, once again.

The third, Margarita Madness, made one teammate balance an oversized glass on his/her head, dipping it in salt, filling it with margarita mix, catching limes in it thrown by the teammates, walking across (glass full) the stage and finally dumping the cocktail into a measuring cup.  I made three limes but we somehow lost that event too.  I did not fail, but our team did as a whole.

"Your team did not win, but we hope you had a legendary experience."

“The Situation” did not advance to the Vegas championship, but as far as I’m concerned we were successful in missing more mediocre bands in exchange for good times and death risks. Victory!

Once changed from our soppy clothes, we sat through Still Time.  The bassist had a handsome demeanor to him, so I watched fixated until the John Popper look-a-like lead singer spoke. His accent sounded like a southern man moved to England, moved to Compton and then relocated to Amarillo.  I later asked the band his origin and they answered, “San Louis Obispo.”

Handsome Man, Bad Band

After two days of this festival, UB40 arrived to the venue.  As a child, I made eye contact with the singer as his limo passed me as they departed from a concert; I felt a spark then and wondered what I would feel as an adult.  I made myself available in their area in hopes of a run-in.  After my friend told my man to wait behind him in the bathroom line, I bailed and took position in the field for viewing their performance. No eye contact, no spark.  I failed.

They sang three old songs including “Red Red Wine,” “Fools Rush In” and “Here I Am” …Other than that, I would not recommend buying their newest album “Labour of Love IV,” which holds every other song they sang; not notable.

Could've Been a Contender

Soja closed the night (for me at least…my black lung led to an early departure).  Although I didn’t dig the music, the crowd’s excitement infected me and I would consider it the highlight of the musical journey.

Over all, I hated the West Beach Music Festival but concluded that with good company and Cuervo (not the liquor, but the sponsor), a dusty atmosphere, boring bands and a near death experience can be overlooked- even with the contraction of a stiff neck and a black lung.

Soja

Hermosa Beach’s own Tomorrows Bad Seeds released their second album, Sacred for Sale, last week. Besides the sweet artwork on the cover, the disc is a big step up from their debut album Early Prayers, and another great addition to the reggae/rock pantheon of bands that keep outdoing each other. Coming out after great new albums by The Expendables, Iration, Passafire, and Rebelution’s 2009 record Bright Side of Life, Sacred for Sale finds TBS (no, not Taking Back Sunday) primed to become one of the genre’s major players.

Reflect kicks things off with a pounding guitar riff and drum beat, all of which sound crisper than they did on the first record. TBS have really improved as musicians this time around, and have expanded their sound to cover a variety of different styles of music.

Lead singer Moises Juarez delivers Reflect’s lyrics with determination, crying out to those of us who take life for granted and don’t appreciate what we have, choosing instead to think we’re indestructible by using booze and drugs. Focus on the present or tomorrow could be taken away, he says. How true.

Ill Repute starts out quietly, building to a juicy, rich guitar-driven melody, courtesy of guitarists Mathew McEwan and Sean Chapman. Juarez sings this time of worldly issues, such as the war for oil and how we’re “tired of waiting” for peace and justice. Reflect and Ill Repute form a powerful 1-2 punch to start off the album.

Uplift is next, and it’s probably my favorite song on the record. It has an irresistible vibe, led by more lush guitar melodies and some great vocals by Moises. It fits very nicely with the island vibes of a band like Iration, and especially on a playlist designed for maximum relaxation.

Not to be left out, I should note that drummer Pat Salmon and bassist Andre Davis do their jobs with great precision, providing the beat and rhythm upon which TBS layers delicious guitars and Juarez’s vocals very efficiently. They run a tight musical ship, these guys.

Slow Down changes things up a bit, as it’s a more energetic punk-inspired surf-rock party type song, complete with ska guitars. All it’s missing is a horn section. This is the song off of Sacred for Sale that I routinely have stuck in my head, specifically the chorus of you should know me better than thaaaaat. I like that TBS tried something a bit different than the standard reggae jams, as this song works very well, making it one of my faves from the album.

Only for You re-visits the easy vibes, sounding oddly familiar in the process. It’s another guitar-driven piece, just with a less excitable vibe than Slow Down. Another notable track.

Further starts out almost Led Zeppelin-ish with acoustic guitars, before moving into yet more uncharted territory for TBS. It has an almost old school throwback doo-wop feel to it, thanks to the beat and Juarez’s vocals. It threw me off a bit at first, but is a great exercise in the band’s newfound depth.

Tell Me Why and It Had to Be keep up the energy, with the latter another chance for TBS to branch out, reaching the same type of feel that Slow Down had, but with Juarez’s vocals on overtime duty. It’s another demonstration of the band’s ability to branch out to different styles that is a main characteristic of Sacred for Sale.

Sacred for Resale is a punked-up version of the disc’s title track, an interesting and worthwhile decision by the band. It acts like an “alternate version”, which I assume was probably the intention.

Creation has a vocal hook of whoooa toward the middle part that explodes into a more lively, bouncy second half that makes it another of my highlights.

Memories closes out the album as a straightforward piano-driven ballad, not something I was expecting from TBS. It’s decidedly more low-key than the rest of the tunes, but it’s a good way to end the record.

As I’ve said over and over, Sacred for Sale finds Tomorrows Bad Seeds really expanding their sound in a great way. Early Prayers was good, but it was more genre-specific than its follow-up, an album with a lot of variety that is evident in the songs I’ve mentioned.

TBS has really made a name for themselves with Sacred for Sale, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find them toward the top of this genre of music in the months to come.

Their CD Release show/party is tomorrow night (June 5) at the Roxy on Sunset…be there or be lame.

The Expendables’ killer new album, Prove It, was released a few weeks ago. I sat down with lead singer/guitarist Geoff Weers (on their posh tour bus!) before the band’s gig at the Ventura Theater last night with Tomorrows Bad Seeds, Big B, and Dirty Penny to chat about the album, the tour, and the genre, which seems to be increasing in popularity by the minute. I’ll have you know, this interview was my first experience on a tour bus, and man, it made me feel like quite a golden god.

When I climbed on board, Geoff was watching the final moments of Karate Kid 2, and shortly thereafter, DUNE began (and was muted for our interview, but still visible on screen for our viewing pleasure, due to its epicness and David Lynch weirdness, of course).

Geoff, myself, and DUNE

Cheese: How has the tour been so far?

Geoff: It’s been really good. On our tours we like to take out bands that not only we like their music, we also like them as people, so having Tomorrows Bad Seeds out, we like all the guys, we like their music, having Big B, DJ Klaw, we like them, they’re awesome musicians. And then, our friends Dirty Penny from Santa Cruz, we like to have a bill where it’s, you know, this tour starts with Dirty Penny, they’re like throwback hair metal, rock & roll, and then Big B, which is like rap/hip hop. And then we’ve got Tomorrows Bad Seeds, which is kind of like what we do, and then us, so we have a very diverse bill, so people hopefully don’t get bored.

Cheese: Going along with that, the Dirty Heads seem to be blowing up everywhere with Lay Me Down, Prove It is doing well on the charts, Tomorrows Bad Seeds’ album is doing well on the charts, and Pepper & Rebelution keep getting bigger and bigger. I’d say it’s a good time for this kind of music, right? Where do you see this kind of stuff going?

Geoff: I’d see it keep going, you know, getting more and more popular, because we’ve been around for quite some time, almost 13 years now. It’s good to see the bands that started a little bit after us keep it going, and some of them are really starting to make a name for themselves.

Cheese: I went to the West Beach Festival last year in Santa Barbara, and it was a great show, they were in trouble with the zoning or whatever, and I heard that they saved it and it’s going to happen again this summer. Everybody was there, pretty much, except for –

Geoff: Except for us, we were recording our album.

Cheese: Well that’s a good reason not to be there.

Geoff: Yeah.

Cheese: In my review of Prove It, I mention that I usually don’t like to use the phrase “it’s the most mature album” any band has made, but that’s kind of what I felt with this one. You guys have done the reggae stuff,  you’ve done the hard rock stuff on other albums, but not as cohesively as it’s done on this one –

Geoff: Right.

Cheese: And I’ve seen some fans on your Facebook page saying things like “There aren’t enough reggae songs, it’s too polished”, and all that, and I’ve defended it a few times, saying “what are you guys talking about, are you listening to the same stuff I’m listening to?” –

Geoff: Haha, yeah.

Cheese: How do you feel about Prove It and how it’s doing?

Geoff: I agree with you that we’re maturing; we went into the studio pretty much the most prepared out of any time going into the studio. This is our fifth full-length album, we’ve kind of learned a lot by trial & error, but for this album we really came in with a lot of songs. Each song that we had was pretty much ready to go, as far as it was written, the arrangement was there, all of our parts we kind of honed in on and picked what we were going to play, so that, and plus we had some really good producers and a good studio.

Cheese: Yeah, I wanted to ask how was working with El Jefe from NOFX, he was there on a couple songs, right?

Geoff: He tracked a lot of songs, he didn’t mix them, but he tracked like half? A little less than half of the record. It was good to have him in there, he went to music school, he knows how to sing really well.

Cheese: The song Wells, in particular, my friends saw the tour a couple months ago, and it was just you playing it by yourself. Then the song became more fleshed out, and G. Love joined in. How did that come about?

Geoff: It worked out because we used to call that song ‘G. Love Song’ because when we went on tour with him, we didn’t think our music really blended well with his music, because we’re more reggae and metal, and that song was our only song that we had that we could play that was sort of along the lines of his genre, so we could get some fans from his fan base during the tour, so we wouldn’t alienate ourselves with our music. It never had a name, we played it that whole tour, and during that time I always thought it was kind of like his vibe, and thought he would sound really good on it.

Cheese: The song 2 Inch Dub, off of Prove It, caught me off guard at first. It’s like seventeen minutes long; your older dub songs are shorter songs, but this one is so expansive, and the horns midway through are really cool. It’s sort of like Pink Floyd-ish, I thought –

Geoff: Yeah, there’s a lot of Pink Floyd in there, for sure.

Cheese: Did that come out of a big jam session, or what?

Geoff: Yeah, I mean, it’s called 2 Inch Dub because basically, we took two inch tape, and we had this chord progression and we just jammed it out for however long the tape lasted, and pretty much all the effects on the guitar are done with our own pedals, and all live in the studio. When we’re at home and we jam, we sometimes just dub, jam out a weird trippy reggae song and go for twenty minutes and just not think about ending it or where it’s going to go; you know, we just play.

Cheese: I don’t assume that’s one you guys play on this tour, right?

Geoff: No, people would get bored, but that’s pretty much how we jam when we’re at home.

Cheese: The first time I heard Sacrifice, I thought it was cool enough and then it broke into the second half and I was like “oh shit, this is awesome”…how do those harder-edged metal songs come about as opposed to the easier reggae ones like Drift Away and Tight Squeeze, songs like that?

Geoff: It’s not really a conscious decision, I mean when I try to write a song, I try not to have a definite plan, and a lot of times the way we write music is someone comes up with a chunk of a song, a chorus of a song, a verse and a chorus, or a whole song, and we jam it out in the jam room, and see what happens from there. Sometimes, when we’re jamming it out, someone will push their distortion pedal, and play the same progression in a distortion or a metal fashion, and we’re like “wow, that sounds pretty good”. It’s really not planned out.

Cheese: I’ve seen 311 twenty-some odd ridiculous number of times, and I saw you guys open two different tours, including in Central Park in NYC last year. How was it playing with them every night?

Geoff: It was great, I mean personally, I kind of got along with P-Nut the most, because we played basketball a lot out there. I didn’t really get a lot of personal time with those guys, but whenever I hung out with them they were super cool guys. They run a really tight production ship, they really take care of their crew, really make sure their people are happy on the road. Whenever I think about it, it was kind of like ‘rock n roll summer camp’. I forget how many buses there were… and then there were two or three crew buses, and the Ziggy Marley buses, and then we had our bus. So every day at the venue we’d come in and everybody would get out of their cabin and go into the cafeteria because they brought catering every day, so that’s a common meeting place. From the Ziggy Marley band to 311, there’ s a lot of older, more wise rock & roll people, so we learned a lot. There was a lot of listening going on; it was a good learning experience to see how a top notch rock & roll band really does the goods. They’ve been doing it for years, with radio play or not, they’re extremely successful, so being able to learn from them was huge for us.

Cheese: Coming from a fan’s perspective, the whole band has always been really cool and they always go out of their way to interact with us, but I’d say P Nut’s always been the most approachable, the most outgoing, at least to us –

Geoff: Yeah, me and him, and Ryan, our bass player, and one of the Ziggy Marley guys, we were on a basketball team, whenever we played together we were undefeated. It wasn’t my fault, I’m really the worst basketball player of all time, but that was really fun, getting all the crew and bands out there, playing a little basketball.

Cheese: When you’re back home in Santa Cruz, what do you do besides recording and band stuff?

Geoff: I try to not travel that much, hang out with my family, my girlfriend, my friends that I haven’t seen in a while, I like to golf with my good friend Cam. I’m employed at a golf course right now, but my buddy that got me the job, he quit, so I don’t know how much longer I’m going to keep doing that when I get home.

Cheese: What’s next for the band? I mean, you have a new album, you’re touring, and all that –

Geoff: Right, right.

Cheese: You guys are very proficient when it comes to recording albums, you take your time to make them, but then they keep coming out.

Geoff: I feel like waiting the two and a half years since our last album was a little bit too long. It’d be nicer to give the fans more stuff to listen to more often, but rushing an album is the worst thing you can do, probably. When the music comes, it comes. We always try to push ourselves, the metal songs are always the way we push ourselves, as far as musically. It would be nice to start exploring different styles but still keeping it The Expendables, you know?

Cheese: I remember seeing you guys about six or seven years ago in the Bay Area, you were playing some really random show that you didn’t really fit with…I forget what it was –

Geoff: Yeah, we’ve done some weird bills, but…I mean, our music’s weird too.

Cheese: You think of Dirty Heads and Rebelution, they’re basically reggae. But then you guys throw in…

Geoff: Yeah, we can play with a lot of bands, even though it’s a little weird, it still works for the most part. We can go out and tour with NOFX, or a harder rock band, and still go out and tour with Slightly Stoopid and Steel Pulse, coming up in a couple weeks. It’s going to be great.

———————-

That concluded our interview…I got off the bus, and returned to normal civilian life. But it was a pretty kickass 20 minutes.

A few hours after our interview, it was time for the actual show to start. Leading things off was Dirty Penny, another band made up of Santa Cruzians (Cruzites?).

Dirty Penny

Their twenty-five minute set was full of glam-soaked fist-pumping 80’s arena throwback metal, set to songs with titles such as If I Were You I’d Hate Me Too, Runnin’ Wild and Push Comes to Shove. They were fun, the sort of band I’d expect to have seen all over Sunset Blvd. in the early 1990s.

Next up was Big B, a Las Vegas rapper who I’ve seen at various shows over the past couple years. He and DJ Klaw busted through a set filled with tunes about partying, odes to white trash, and being a hooligan.

Big B

Big B also performed the song Sinner (the studio version features Scott Russo of Unwritten Law, and was a moderate hit on rock radio last year).

Hermosa Beach’s Tomorrows Bad Seeds were direct support for the Expendables, and they played a few tunes off of their new record Sacred for Sale, including Reflect, Uplift, Slow Down, and Creation, as well as ones from their first album Early Prayers (such as Vices, Early Prayers, Love Street, and the set-closing, metal-infused Warrior Poet).

Tomorrows Bad Seeds

I’ve seen them a few times, and they have a really powerful live sound that transitions well from the studio recordings.

I’ll review Sacred for Sale in the next few days, so stay tuned for that.

The Expendables hit the stage to the tune of the Lonely Island’s I’m on a Boat, which was great, before ripping into Down, Down, Down and Drift Away. Over the next hour and a half, the band (Weers, guitarist Raul Bianchi, Ryan DeMars on bass, and Adam Patterson on drums and vocals) touched on a lot of their back catalog, even going as far back as No Time to Worry (with the song Strive).

The Expendables

Highlights, for me, were their fun cover of Eek-A-Mouse‘s Ganja Smuggling, Burning Up, and the new tunes from Prove It: DCB, Positive Mind, Get What I Need, and Wells (which began the encore).

Eric Rachmany of Rebelution came up to play acoustic guitar on Bowl for Two, which was a neat surprise.

Then, at the end, everyone from all the bands came onstage for a goofy sing-along of Paradise City, with the Dirty Penny guys doing guitar/drums/vocal duties. It was a great way to end the show.

everyone on stage!

In all, the show was a lot of fun. Even McLovin was there!

I know I say this in most of my articles, but if you haven’t seen the Expendables before, make sure you do. They’re always on tour, so you don’t really have any excuse to miss out.

Thanks to Geoff for devoting 20 minutes of his day for this interview, and the folks at Silverback for making it happen.

Until next time…

It’s been a great year for reggae rock. Excellent new albums by Passafire, Iration, and Rebelution, as well as the sudden new success of the Dirty Heads have proved that the genre is going strong. Eager to leave their mark on things, The Expendables, the reggae/rock/surf/fun band out of Santa Cruz, released their fifth album, Prove It, this week. I’ve been a fan of the band for a while, as their eclectic brand of reggae music with tinges of hard rock and metal is a lot of fun, as are their live shows.

Prove It, released on Slightly Stoopid’s appropriately named label Stoopid Records, is, dare I say it, the band’s most cohesive album to date. I hate phrases like “the band really matured on this record” but that’s honestly what they’ve done with the new album.

When I first heard Prove It’s opening track, How Many Times, I was confused. Lead singer/guitarist Geoff Weers has always had a unique vocal style, a bit quirky and different but one that suits the music very well. I’ve gotten used to his voice, and expect it to sound a certain way. The opening track almost sounded at first that someone else was singing, as Weers’ voice is in a lower register and delivered in a different manner than he usually sings. I was surprised, and hoped that this wouldn’t be the way the rest of the album sounded.

The next track, Get What I Need, assuaged any concerns I had, as it has all the best elements of a great Expendables song – summery reggae beat, Weers’ voice as I’m used to hearing it, and noodly guitars courtesy of axeman Raul Bianchi. It’s a laid back tune with echo-y vocals and a dancehall-ish percussive tone during part of the verse, which is great.

Of course, every Expendables album needs a song about a certain leafy green substance, and this time around that song is Come Get High. The new song isn’t as one-dimensional as Bowl for Two (from Getting’ Filthy), instead being a bit more substantive, with upbeat lyrics and a nice mix of laid back grooves and hard driving guitar riffs.

Trying to Focus is an impressive mix of chugging guitar chords and rich melodies, set to a hard driving beat, with Weers singing about being “run over by the hangover truck”. There’s a sick dual guitar shredfest toward the end, before slowing things down to a more reggae-ish outro. Niiiiice.

Night Mission is another exercise in aggressive guitars, morphing into a mosh-friendly brofest about halfway through. The song’s in-your-face energy is one of the album’s strongest moments.

Their take on the Brady Bunch?

The best part of Prove It is the album’s middle sequence. Brother’s slick, mesmerizing rhythm and thick, delicious melody make it easily one of my favorite songs from the set. The album also comes with an alternate version of the song, and that version is even better; instead of being guitar-driven the alternate version relies on heavy keyboards and a slower pace, and the result is even more powerful than the album version. I’m glad they included both.

Donkey Show starts out with acoustic guitars that build to an all-out metal assault, before finally taking off to a fast-paced punkish tune that, much to my excitement, also includes Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers-esque power chord shredding toward the end of the song. Hell yes.

I Ain’t Ready comes next and immediately slows things down to an easy pace, complete with some smooth horns (provided by DeLa of Slightly Stoopid) accentuating the feel-good vibe. It’s another one of Prove It’s gems.

D.C.B. starts off like a Metallica song, with dark synth and acoustic guitar plucking that builds and builds into another instrumental mosh pit anthem, as always led by the guitar blitz provided by Weers and Bianchi. The lead guitar is on display here, frequently taking charge in the form of bombastic solos and riffs. The song builds at the end, leading right into Mind Control, creating one of the best transitions I’ve heard in a while. The song is also one of the strongest on the album, with all the Expendables’ talents on full display yet again. Atmospheric guitar tones, aggressive bass work by Ryan DeMars and pounding drums by Adam Patterson give the song a full, crunchy sound that make its under-three-minutes length seem like too short of a time for such a fun ride.

Wells, featuring G. Love on vocals and harmonica, is another high point on the album. Starting out with Weers and an acoustic guitar, the song has an irresistibly happy feeling to it, partly due to the great guitar work and the overall upbeat feeling. The song has changed a bit from its early version as a stripped-down acoustic song for Weers, but the studio version on Prove It was definitely a good idea.

The album ends with a seventeen-minute dub reggae jam called 2 Inch Dub. I didn’t expect this to be one of my favorite moments on the album, but it really is. The instrumentation is just amazing, as the combination of guitars, synth, bass, drums, and occasional horns is layered and stunning. At times even sounding proggy, with Pink Floyd-ish keys and an overall absolutely mesmerizing quality to it, 2 Inch Dub is just flat-out awesome. I didn’t know the band was capable of something like this.

That sentiment is really true for the whole album. Prove It truly is the most complete work the Expendables have accomplished thus far in their career. Every quality of their music is on display to the highest degree, and it shows that they are easily one of the best bands of this genre. That they’re able to speed things up and show that they’d make a great metal band is just more of a testament to their strengths as a band. While some of the other bands in the new reggae rock movement tend to be one or two- dimensional, the Expendables are in a league all their own.

Check out Prove It if you like any of the other bands of this genre. If you don’t like this genre, pick up Prove It anyway. It might change your mind. It’s a very solid album by a band that finds new ways to impress me with each release.

Well done, dudes.

Hawaii’s own Iration released their second full-length album, Time Bomb, this week. The band held a special album release show/party at the Roxy this Tuesday to mark the occasion. The event was hosted by Pepper, Iration’s fellow Hawaii-based reggae friends and label mates on Law Records. This article will serve as a review of both the show and the album Time Bomb. (Check out the gallery at the end of this article to see pictures of the show).

The first band I saw at the show was Pacific Dub, a group of young kids who looked like they were fresh out of high school (if not still in high school), and who played a typical but pleasant brand of surf reggae, not unlike the other bands on the bill. They were young, but they showed some promise for the future.

Next up was Zen Robbi, who were great. The band’s fusion of funk, punk, reggae and jazz created a very bouncy and catchy sound which I loved, so I picked up the band’s latest album Heavy Lies the Crown to take the party home with me.

After that, it was time for the main attraction. Pepper’s Yesod Williams presented Iration’s set, as Pepper is obviously proud of their label’s newest and most promising band. The set started with Cookie Jar, one of the band’s most memorable tunes from their Sample This EP. Micah Pueschel’s soothing voice and slick guitar work set to Adam Taylor’s groove-heavy bass licks create quite an engaging sound in concert, accentuated by Cayson Peterson’s keyboard skills. Iration played a few tunes from Time Bomb, including You Don’t Know (which was aided by a vocal performance by the band’s friend Tunji), Time Bomb, Love/Hate, Wait and See, Dream (about their homeland of Hawaii), and my personal highlight of the album, Turn Around. That song in particular has an incredibly infectious rhythm to it, and the synth/keyboard in the background creates a delicious melody that forced me to replay the track about four times after my initial listen. It’s that good.

Iration

As for the album itself, Iration has really come into its own as a band with this record. While No Time for Rest was good, some of the songs blended into each other a bit, but this time around the songs are much more independently memorable. Turn Around is the best track on the album, and probably my favorite of Iration’s entire catalog (up there with Falling and I’m With You).  Tunji’s verse on You Don’t Know gives the song a great balance of island reggae flavor and hip-hop groove, with vocalists Pueschel and Kai Rediske’s layered, relaxing vocals off-setting Tunji’s aggressive delivery perfectly. It’s another great part of the record.

About halfway through Iration’s set, the curtain went back up and their “special guests” took to the stage, the guests being, of course, Pepper. The boys from Kona Town played a medley of songs off of their debut record Kona Town, including B.O.O.T., Stone Love, and Stormtrooper, after opening their mini-set with a new song called Wake Up. It was a nice treat thrown in the middle of Iration’s set.

I was getting anxious that the band maybe was not going to play Turn Around, but they saved it for right before the encore, which soothed my anxiety. It sounds even better live, making it easily one of my favorite songs of this newer crop of reggae/dub bands.

With Time Bomb, Iration has really focused their attention more on driving guitar chords instead of laid-back reggae rhythms, a change from their previous work. For that reason, the album sounds much more full and fleshed out than their previous work (which wasn’t bad by any means, but wasn’t as well-executed as the new material). All In You is driven by a steady beat and vocals (with lyrics including If you wanna be a star, you gotta shine), all set to two complementary guitar tracks that work together to make the song another shining moment on the album (see what I did there?).

Pepper

As a fan of bands such as The Expendables, Passafire (who also employ a guitar-driven approach to their new album as well), and Rebelution, I was pleased to find out Iration has gone in that same direction.

With Time Bomb, Iration is poised to reach a broader audience and hopefully reach the level of acclaim as fellow bands of this genre. Being on Pepper’s Law Records should only help the band rise in popularity, since Pepper have been the kings of this genre for a while now. At the Roxy Tuesday night it was apparent that the guys in Pepper are very proud of Iration, and they should be.

One thing that amused me was that Iration took some negative iTunes reviews of Time Bomb, printed them out, and taped the paper on the box office window and the main door to the Roxy, for all to see. The reviews on the sheet were the same type of criticism these bands always get, ones along the lines of “this isn’t real reggae, go listen to Bob Marley blah blah” or whatever. I like how Iration has a sense of humor about this, as their critics are just misguided. Music takes different forms over the years, genres and styles expand. To decry something as not worthwhile because it’s not “authentic” or whatever is just ignorant. If I lived in Hawaii I would probably be in a reggae band too. The atmosphere on the islands is just perfect for creating this kind of music. People who hate on such fun and relaxing music should just shut up and go listen to whatever it is they’re listening to in order to be ‘authentic’ and ‘real’ and leave this stuff for those of us who appreciate it for what it is.

Haters are funny

Time Bomb is one of this genre’s best albums thus far, up there with Rebelution’s Bright Side of Life, The Expendables’ self-titled record, and Passafire’s latest Everyone On Everynight. I’m very glad to see these bands growing and maturing, as each record that comes out tends to be even better than the previous one.

Iration is the latest of these bands to follow that trend, and I’m eager to find out to what heights Time Bomb will take them. I hope it takes them even further up the reggae ranks.

As I call it, the ‘white boy reggae’ scene has been thriving for the past couple years. Bands like the Expendables, Pepper, Slightly Stoopid and Rebelution have toured relentlessly in recent years to packed houses; I saw both Rebelution and the Expendables sell out the House of Blues on Sunset last year. Adding to this slew of talented young reggae bands is Passafire, whose album Everyone on Everynight dropped on September 15^th. The band, from Savannah, Georgia, is signed to Pepper’s own LAW Records, and has toured with them in the past. Their 2007 album Submersible was considered to be one of iTunes’ top reggae albums of that year, and Everyone on Everynight is the follow-up to that record.

And it follows up very nicely. While the lead singer, Ted Bowne, has a bit of a strange voice that takes some getting used to, it really fits with the music, a great blend of reggae and rock styles that makes them sound a little more substantive than the silliness of bands like Pepper and the punk-infused Slightly Stoopid. Also, the guitar work on Everyone on Everynight is rather impressive, as they employed the use of some ripping electric guitars which make the songs that much livelier; while Submersible was solid, the songs tended to have a similar overall feel and tempo to them. This time around, the songs are much more varied and have their own styles that are each memorable in their own way.

Casting of the Cares kicks off the disc, and it’s a melodic romp with some great guitar riffs and percussion. Keeping in Touch follows it up and has a nice gentle melody weaved throughout the tune, making it another highlight. Illuminate has a more aggressive rhythm, led by some kickass bass work by Will Kubly and a bouncy beat that I imagine is quite a hit in the live setting. I’ve only seen Passafire open for Pepper one time, before any of these songs were around, so I want to see them now that this album has been released to see some of these songs performed. On Here in Front of Me, the guitar again takes over, as the song is led by a riff that leads into one of the more catchy choruses on the album, with Bowne asking “Is it actually happening…right here in front of me?”. The chorus then goes into a sick melodic breakdown heavy on the percussion. The song reminds me a bit of 311, which to me is a good thing since 311 is my favorite band.

Carouser is another of the high-energy songs on the album, with more funky bass and electric guitar riffage that start the song off with quite a bang before it slows down into the verse. Leave the Lights On is another song that sounds like 311, with a crunchy riff propelling the song into mosh pit-territory (or at least the type of mosh pit that would be at this kind of concert). Keep in mind, now, when I say “sounds like 311” that’s not meant to take anything away from Passafire; the energy of these songs just echo the same type of catchy energy and masterful reggae/rock fusion that I find with 311 tunes (or at least older 311 songs). Prelectricity slows things down a bit after the power of Leave the Lights On, and as the ‘end’ of the album (before the two acoustic numbers) caps off a pretty impressive collection of songs.

This album really finds Passafire at the top of their game, and is a marked improvement over Submersible, which I found a bit too one-dimensional in sound. The band has since really fleshed out its feel and the structure of their songs, and the result is one of the better albums of this genre that I’ve heard in recent memory. Rebelution’s latest album Bright Side of Life, while also solid, is very similar in sound to their debut Courage to Grow, as the band apparently didn’t really expand their sound too greatly; conversely, this time around Passafire has expanded on their repertoire in the best possible way. I hope they soon attain the same kind of attention and fame as the other bands of this genre. They definitely deserve it.

They’re playing with the Expendables and Hawaii’s own Iration February 27^th at the House of Blues on Sunset. Get your tickets now. Beanie and board shorts required, of course.

Hailing from the beautiful beaches of Santa Barbara, California, comes an interview with a member of one of the highest rated modern reggae bands of this generation. Back with their second full-length album, Bright Side of Life,  bass player Marley Williams sits down to chat with me about the album, life on the road, family, and more. Sit back and enjoy the vibe. (All photos by yours truely, and my homegirl Caitlin)

Marley: Sorry I called you a little late. I got caught up in some…afternoon activities *laughs*

Flak: Oh man I got you, it’s alright! So what’s going on? I saw you guys at West Beach (Music Festival), how was that for you?

M: Oh man, West Beach was a really good experience because you know, it’s the hometown, and friends and family can come in, and a lot of great bands. And Twin Productions always takes care of everybody. It’s good to be home, and get to play, don’t have to play and then travel.

F: Exactly. You can just go home for the night or whatever.

M: Yeah for sure.

F: Did your folks come out for this one or…

M: No my folks didn’t come up for that one; usually they come out to the NorCal shows, cause that’s where they live.

F: Oh they don’t live down here?

M: Nah, well I grew up in Mendocino County, 3 hours up from like, San Francisco. So they go to San Fran shows, Reggae Rising shows, Petaluma, and sometimes Santa Cruz too though.

F: Tight man, well I only have a few questions for ya today, not too much.

M: Yeah man, no problem.

F: Well first off, what got you into bass?

M: Umm, well I think that everyone listens to music differently, and some people have an ear for, you know, focusing on melodies, higher notes. Some people like lower notes; bass, and some people like percussion or vocals, so you know everyone listens for a certain element of a song.

Mine was bass, so it was kinda like hip hop and reggae…groovable songs, and the bassline was so simple, but it would keep people moving.

F: Yeah I agree. I’ve played bass for ten years myself, so I’m with ya.

M: Yeah so you know exactly what I’m talking about! *laughs*

F: Yeah man, it’s like a groove thing for me. I dunno it’s like it was the one thing that always stood out to me in a song so I understand what you mean.

M: Yeah for sure, I’m in.

F: So what got you into reggae though, you know?

M: Umm…..well my parents for one, named me after Bob Marley…

F: I figured that heh…

M: Yeah they listen to reggae music way before I was even in the picture so you know, I was blessed to be named Marley and to listen to good music and have that in my background. And you know, songs always remind you of memories, and there are a lot of good memories with reggae music playing in the background for me, so it’s kept going on until this day.

And you know I’m always drifting to other genres here and there…I always stick with reggae, but I’ve really learned to appreciate hip hop and rap.

F: What’s your favorite album right now?

M: Ohh that’s a hard one…you know I don’t really go by albums much anymore. Songs just kind pop out of the blue and it’ll be my jam you know what I mean?

F: Hah that’s a really good answer.

M: I find myself listening to a lot of Snoop Dogg lately, some of his older stuff.

F: Yeah we just saw him in concert the other day, and he’s got that new album coming out, Malice in Wonderland I think.

M: Yeah… well I’m more into the older stuff where everything was with Dr. Dre.

F: You mean like the 92’ shit?

M: Yeah man the 90’s! Everywhere it was Tupac, Biggie, Dre…and rap music was always good to dance to. And on the reggae side of it I always am listening to Bob Marley, Damien Marley, Julian Marley, Collie Budz (he goes on to name a few others I couldn’t understand…all those afternoon activities…), and a lot of dancehall artists.

And we’re just making it you know, with the bass, groovable. You know, people can relate to the beat so they get a message.

F: Yeah I agree. And you were talking about blessings earlier and families, so how does it feel to be blessed with being on the top of the charts forever? I mean, you guys are doin’ it in the reggae world.

M: You know, sometimes I don’t even think about it, but sometimes I’m like “I’m the luckiest man alive!” You know, I didn’t expect it. It was always just “let’s work hard and play good music, put out a good message, and be a source to have fun and listen to good music”. But I never thought that I would get this high, and I’m really stoked for it, and for everyone who supported us you know; our band mates too and our friends…

F: Good. But as always, there’s gonna be haters. What kind of haters do you guys experience, with you being a white guy in one of the most popular reggae bands in the world?

M: You know… I don’t really think about it. It rarely enters my realm…I know it exists…you know, all kinds of headspaces that are negative out there, and I just choose to ignore them. You know I think sometimes maybe I’ll be like…not even knowing that they’re going on because I just don’t care for it. I might be ignorant to the situation…I’m guilty of that.

F: Yeah, but sometimes there’s thing that you can afford to be ignorant to.

M: Yeah man, so I don’t really know about that. *laughs* I think a lot of people at our shows, we’ve developed a pretty close fan base, and it’s been very personal; being more of an underground band, and I think a lot of people who come to the shows, are representatives of that mind space (the no-negativity). We don’t like to trip on anybody, judging anybody, because this is about a certain movement that’s about everybody, that’s above Rebelution, that’s above people. It’s about the reggae spirit that started you know, as far back as Africa, as far as Jamaica, and that fused into the US and Europe; and we praise that spirit so hopefully we have those vibes around.

F: Right, and see, I was listening to your guys’ album today actually, your newest one and wondered, do you get to write the bass lines for that?

M: Well a lot of the bass lines are written by Eric. I guess a lot of em are started by ideas that come from Eric. There’s some that are written only by Eric, and others that we collaborate, where sometimes he’ll start it. But a lot of the bass lines are ideas based off the melodies of the guitar. He wrote a lot on this album, compared to the last…and on this one we let him get a lot of his musical expression out cause he’s feeling it right now and he’s a good musician.  The bass lines are definitely co-written by me and Eric.

F: Oh ok that’s awesome. My favorite songs on the album are Too Rude, Dubzilla, and Bump, you know those three in a row? What are your favorites though?

M: Oh of those three?

F: No I mean of the whole album…your favorite song on the album period, or even your favorite group of songs.

M: Actually a song Eric pretty much wrote everything on was More Than Ever. And I think the way that the melodies go into each other, would catch…more than a lot of other songs. So yeah that one’s really fun, I know you just mentioned Too Rude, and that’s a good one too. I feel like it’s one of the last songs we put on the album, it was sitting on the backburner and it came out good, and it had a new style…a new flavor to give a ‘to be continued’ to see what’s going on with album after this one.

F: Right and I definitely think it was a good song to put on the album. I did a review of your album when it first came out, and I loved it, I mean… it was a good groove (Too Rude) bass-wise…and message-wise. Very message worthy…and I think that’s important. It’s the key thing about reggae that I think a lot of people don’t understand. It’s not about whose in the band, what color they are, whatever with all that other BS…it’s a message thing, and how you groove to it.

M: Right.

F: And it’s good that you mention stuff that was on the backburner, or to be continued, but what’s next for the band…well personally, and for the band?

M: I think what’s next for the band is a lot of touring and trying to play in places that we’ve never played before. Always writing new songs, and always trying to improve our skills, and play as tight as we can. And really it’s a joy to part of a musical…you know… outlet for everybody and ourselves.

We’ve been talking about a Europe tour, Guam, Hawaii, and possibly Aruba. So you know, we’ve been touring the US four times in the last year or so, and we have another big trip coming up in January.  We’ve been establishing some really good crowds, and having a lot of fun at these venues with everybody and enjoying everything as much as we can.

F: Yeah and I was backstage with Jordyn (the band’s publicist extraordinaire) at West Beach, and we couldn’t even get on stage to see you guys because there were so many people there supporting you, so it was good to see.

M: Yeah it’s…its crazy and I can’t wait to see what’s next, but I’m trying to make the best of the ride and have fun.

F: Well one more question man, can you give me something that’s…you know, behind the hype…something that people don’t really know about you? Something personal…doesn’t have to be too personal, something that we don’t know though.

M: *lets out a heavy laugh* Ummm…..

F: It can be anything man, like listening to a certain type of music, maybe a Brittney Spears song that’s your favorite song…

M: Lemme think….lemme think of something cool… *long pause* hmmm.

F: I know it’s tough, but I always end my interviews with this one.

M: How about…when I was 15, I had hip surgery?

F: Hip surgery? For what?

M: I had a growing disorder. I grew too fast, so that’s a fun one for bass, cause you’re always moving your waist. So now I’ve got a pin in my hip! *laughs*

F: So you’ve gotta stay away from the bass magnet or else you’re in trouble? Hah!

M:  Heh, man there’s gotta be something cooler than that!

F: Shit well you tell me!

M: Man…fun fact…dang man I dunno, I’ll have to get back to you on that one. I’ll text you!

F: *laughs* fair enough man!

As of now, Marley hasn’t gotten back to me yet, but I’ll get back to you on what is behind the hype for this young groove master. Stay tuned for next year’s interviews, as they will be MUCH more frequent!

Until next time my friends,

~Flak