Santa Cruz’s Proe just posted the official video for Don’t Wake the Babies. Check it. I heard another record is coming out next month. Bout damn time homie.

Visit angelcitybrewing.com for more info.

What’s unexpected is how well the night is about to go with one of San Jose’s favorite bands. I hid out for a bit and shot some film while they started practice; songs ranged from progressive stoner metal to ear-bleeding thrash.
Towering Peavys, GKs, amp heads that go beyond 11, and a drum set with two kick drums surround vocalist Paul (“The Prophet”), “Dr. Crazyfingers” on guitar, Frank on bass, and drummer Zack.

What’s clear – immediately – is that this is a group of proficient and hysterically funny guys with more to them that belies their hard stage presence and aggressive songs.

BACON EXPLOSION
With a range of musical influences, the guys agree on one major factor: Slayer. They’ve also got a thing for gangster rap, and name everyone from Boar Hunter, The Shitkickers, UGK, Prince, Ludicra and Tragedy to Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Neurosis, Econochrist, Fingerprint, Hank III, Waylon Jennings, Bad Brains and David Allen Coe with reverence.

“Some of the stuff I listen to may not be a musical influence, but it’s stuff I can appreciate now but could never play… Like with the Vindictives, they’re great but I could never go do pop music,” Paul says.

Outside of their band life, talents and influences are just as varied for these guys. Paul cites both his dad and Mickey Rourke (“Because he’s such a badass”) as huge influences, while The Dr., who has a degree in philosophy, notes physics, history, Bruce Lee, and Kubrik. Frank cites his dad, papa and someone named Juan, while Zack simply claims “pirates” have made him who he is today.

I am surprised to learn Paul has held multiple state BMX titles in 20”, 24” and cruiser categories running over six years. An accident during a 20” event landed him with a broken tail bone needing heavy back surgery. Between the surgery and band stuff picking up, Paul eventually drifted from BMX; “I’ve got a 20” now though, I want to get back at it,” he grins.

The group is also aparently the “Best Dancing” band in metal. “Watch out at weddings,” they laugh, “we’re not afraid to cut some rug.” I’m not sure they’re serious but Zack says dead-on, “We are the best dancing metal band in the world. We will fuck your crew up in a dance-off.”

Not as surprising is the band’s enthusiasm for food; in fact, I don’t think I’ve had a proper interview worth sharing that didn’t involve food at some point. Paul’s got a “top secret” BBQ method but divulges part of the process: he uses wood pre-soaked in beer and drilled out to hold garlic cloves. The wood smokes during cooking to bring out all the beer and garlic, and coupled with some kind of rub, his BBQ’d meats pretty much kill it.

The Dr.’s BBQ arsenal is just as solid, and one mention of “Bacon Explosion” has everyone’s attention.”You have to go in depth with the Bacon Explosion,” Paul says. “He turned my vegetarian daughter into a meat eater.”

Apparently, Bacon Explosion is just that. The Dr. explains, “it’s bacon inside sausage, wrapped in an outer bacon weave.” “But you have to cook it over a tri-tip in a drip pan,” Paul adds, “that’s where you get all the extra bacon goodness.” So it seems, they are both the Best Dancing, and Best Cooking band, thusfar, in metal.

STONED RHINO
By day, they’re two salesmen and two skilled-tradesmen. On how the four met and formed Beerijuana back in 2007 with Zack, Paul and The Dr. from San Jose and Frank originally from Los Angeles, they admit “We all started smoking weed and drinking together in our teens and twenties.”

Between high school and college, they were in and out of Mother Fucking Ragweed, Apeface, the “top-secret” Swamp Donkey project, and finally brought Zack and Frank’s metal past to Paul and The Dr.’s influences from the hardcore and punk scenes.

In that time they’ve developed a solid stage presence, a following, a self-titled record, a mysterious demo tape floating around, and some other curious souvenirs.

“We don’t really have any band drama though,” The Dr. mentions.”Maybe a few blacked-out wrestling matches, but who hasn’t gone through that?”

“Nobody actually knows any of our songs, except maybe ‘12 Packs and 20 Sacks,’ or ‘Drunk Power’ because of the video.”

Yet since forming, they have hit a couple minor bumps in the road; a doomed show at San Francisco’s Thee Parkside, alongside Skarp and Acephalix, left the band essentially 86’d from the venue – or as The Dr. puts it, “they haven’t asked us back.”

“Nobody liked us. [The show] sucked. We had had nothing but success as a band up to that point. That experience was very humbling,” Zack noted. Frank had a more optimistic outlook; “[Our biggest disaster as a band] is yet to come. [We’re] still on our first drummer.”

TIME BANDIT
The group is not entirely sure they’d classify themselves as a “metal” band but you definitely can’t leave that out. Zack’s drumming is pure madness (to say the least), Paul mixes vocal elements of punk and metal, The Dr. brings guitar riffs from face-melting fast to stoner-fog slow, and now that Frank has swapped out his bass for the same in a 5-string model, Paul is proud to announce that this “takes the band to places we couldn’t go before. With [the 5th string added] now we have that rumble.”

As the house band for a well-known 8th street spot, and rotation on local stations 90.5 KSJS abd 103.3 KSCU, Beerijuana’s approach is surprisingly uncalculated. From playing shows to writing songs, the entire thing just seems organic – As The Dr. once told Stubble Magazine, “This is just kind of like all the stuff we wanted to do in other bands just kind of happening all at once.”

Paul and The Dr. inform me the song “Time Bandit” is about “bosses taking your time, people talking in your ear that don’t deserve your attention, those kind of people.” “Not the movie Time Bandits,” The Dr. says, “And not named after the ship on Deadliest Catch,” Paul confirms.

Several of the songs share the basic frustrations and annoyances we all feel, as The Dr. notes, “we’re not some technical band that’s going to do some elite musical stuff that no one relates to. We make music for people to enjoy and have a good time.” People often come based on the name “Beerijuana” alone, having never heard the band play. “We attract people that like to party,” Zack laughs.

SUPERFANS
In fact, some of their fans have such a good time and want to be a little too much a part of the show – there is now “Code Jay” (“Let me just tell you the truth of what it means,” Paul says, “It means, ‘Please come help us. Call the police’.”), and the notorious “Ankle Breaker.”

Still, with such a dedicated following, the guys laugh when The Dr. adds, “nobody actually knows any of our songs, except maybe ‘12 Packs and 20 Sacks,’ or ‘Drunk Power’ because of the video.”

The song titles themselves are worth noting, whether real or humorous suggestions for the new material: “Bottomless Whore,” “Buddha Fucker,” “Dodge the Police, Stay in the Lines,” and of course “The Righteous Beatdown” which carries a story of its own. “Girth of the Universe” becomes a favorite working title of the evening.

DRUNK POWER
Being rooted in this town with such a tight knit group of family and friends, Beerijuana’s music video for “Drunk Power” is packed with everyone you know or might have met at least once at your favorite downtown San Jose dive bar.

With a heavy GMRMC presence, SJ Drunx, and tons of friends, the video encompasses not only all the personalities but what it feels like to live and breathe (albeit drunk) in the San Jose “bubble”: the kind of long time friendships that breed a peculiar strain of love and hate, angst, bicycles, weed, and lots and lots of beer.

“The clubs that are left either don’t have our kind of shows or we could never get our friends in to these places, which will cause its own problems.”

AND ALL IS LOST
Getting outside San Jose, the guys have played out of state with several past bands but The Dr. informs me, “As Beerijuana, we haven’t really left the crescent of the Bay Area. We’d love to get out, go on a tour.”

He mentions Modesto as one of the furthest, and best places they’ve played: “You get out there and everyone’s just starved for entertainment. You get some real metal fans who are stoked you’re there, and some people who just need to [go crazy].”

Zack throws in some more favorite spots: “Santa Cruz [CA] for the vibe, Vegas for the sinning, San Jose for the homies, and Eugene [OR] is just plain fun‚ Slim’s [SF] is one of the best place I’ve ever played. I miss Voodoo [SJ]. I hated Cactus Club [SJ] but miss it dearly.”

Paul stops the conversation and says, “I have to just tell you: we miss The Voodoo VIP treatment.”

We all stop and reminisce as this past March 2011 saw The Voodoo Lounge, one of the cornerstones of the downtown SJ music scene, close its doors after years of mind-blowing live shows and an epic end-of-times party.

This closure added another live music venue to the casualty list and another blank storefront to the downtown cluster of expensive condos above the commercial spaces and dance clubs lining the blocks between Santa Clara and San Fernando streets.

“The clubs that are left either don’t have our kind of shows or we could never get our friends in to these places, which will cause its own problems,” Paul continues.

The Dr. looks serious for a moment, adding “The police presence here does not want live music. There is a lack of decent venues for bands in San Jose now, 18-and-up clubs, places we can play in… San Jose bands are lying and saying they’re from Oakland now. You can play shows there, or smoke crack on the porch and the police don’t give a shit, they won’t fuck with you.”

JESUS LOVES BEERIJUANA
That’s not to say they’ve had the worst luck by any means – so many local bands or bands touring to the area have suffered the collateral damage. If there’s only been one seemingly-disastrous show, they’re making out pretty good. And if anything, the badass show this past New Year’s Eve with High on Fire and dozens of memorable local shows have more than made up for it.

In fact, there is possible evidence that Jesus loves Beerijuana. After having several issues with getting enough microphones around for recording main and backup/guest vocals, Paul recounts the story of a mysterious package that showed up on his doorstep.

Packed with Christian literature and mis-delivered for a Church down the street, the box contained a set of wireless microphones and receiver system. There were two distinct possibilities, he says, “I know it’s got to be one or the other: Satan sent me this Christian Electronics box and weird literature, or Jesus sent it to me knowing that we’d do much better with it. I’d like to think that’s what really happened.”

Beerijuana plans to be recording again this year; check them out on Facebook.

Kreayshawn Photo: FADER

If you didn’t kill yourself after Rebecca Black’s “Friday” took over YouTube and gave The Internets a free pass (just this once!) no doubt you’ve heard Kreayshawn’s “Gucci Gucci” — Or at least, the controversy surrounding everyone’s newest “favorite white [girl] rapper we love to hate.“

One side of the fence believes the hype, with cred among the guys from Odd Future, a string of music video directing credits, a recording session with Snoop Dogg, Oakland roots and a playful take on the rap game. Even NPR knows who she is. The other side of the fence is crammed full of haters throwing the race card, calling her a cartoonish parody of rap music, over-intellectualizing and under-appreciating. OK she’s no Guru, but give it a break.

This kind of discussion is fascinating from several stances. Being friends with Kreayshawn’s mom on Facebook (through mutual East Bay friends and her tenure in the punk/surf band The Trashwomen), I hadn’t even realized just how big this controversy got until the articles and comments went from supportive and excited to jaded, elitist and downright cruel. It’s even more fascinating to see how people shift from music and talent debates, to handle the race discussion in today’s world. If we are to believe The Internets, Kreay somehow became the “Based Goddess” and Satan practically overnight.

Pretty much every article you read on her is going to start out with “white girl rapper from Oakland.” So you know this much about her. She has since moved to LA, but to people questioning her “authenticity” like she’s any other over-privileged hipster who dropped out of school and still lives off a trust fund: it’s not exactly like this girl grew up in Rockridge and just wrote a song about being from the Avenues, West O, etc. That kind of made up personal history is incredibly common in commercial rap music, and even more so in lo-fi and urban art arenas. People will gently debate the “street cred” of many hip hop artists, but passing any judgement on it is beyond taboo because some of them became icons. The “inflated hustler image” should be accessible to anyone who wants to, well, inflate it. Go ahead! Would Kreayshawn selling crack make her more legit?

Did she make a mistake by throwing out “N-bombs” in the past? Yes. Perhaps indefensibly so. Shit comes back to haunt you, and once it’s on The Internets, it will never, ever die. [Ed Note: If you're ever in doubt about that, check any twitter aggregation RSS feed (even after you think you've deleted a tweet), or a trip to the Wayback Machine should fix you right up.] One of the many write-ups on her so far pointed out the sad fact that the N-word & racial discussion will never be obsolete. Socially this may be true for years to come, but you’d think the multicultural artistic arena would be able to detach and discuss that shit without being a necessary supporter of it.

She has been criticized for making a parody of Hip Hop and hip hop culture; while her image and persona may be a bit cartoonish, it seems just as absurd to assume her representation of a culture she is immersed in is any less authentic or genuine. Further, if she were merely a parody of the culture and music, does that mean artists such as Snoop are merely patronizing her? Or is he in on the joke? Are these critics ballsy enough to be calling him, along with P-Diddy and Columbia Records, assholes? People seem incredibly possessive of talent — or if the talent is debatable, then at least, success — that is not theirs to trumpet or regulate.

Timmhotep Aku makes the assertion that “White America likes to see white people rap, even if they’re bad at it. It’s part of a misguided notion that white people doing “black things” are complex and therefore noteworthy” (The Kreayshawn Myth). Picture the uproar if someone started talking about “White things.” Even throwing down the reverse-race card is boring — I’m not here to police or discredit something that is still very real. The line is so incredibly precarious even to this day that there will always be tension around it, but NYMag’s Nitsuh Abebe made an interesting cultural assessment of the Bay Area — and indirectly, the boo-hiss clamor around particular members of Kreay’s “White Girl Mob” — when he put it this way: “You nearly get the sense that folks from Oakland view the rest of the country’s racial sensitivities the way Europeans view Americans’ attitudes toward sexuality.”

While that doesn’t excuse anyone acting ignorantly or disrespectfully, I’d say it is reasonably accurate. Nevertheless it is just sad that it has to be about “that.” I have mixed  feelings on Aku’s article linked above, but if you want to read a well-written though incredibly polar boner killer, check the link. If you’re still lost as to what is being over-intellectualized, well, here’s the video in question:

“It’s interesting to what depth they were willing to intellectualize it. They paint [an] odd picture. You can live in the same neighborhoods and exist in the same financial circumstances, etc. and yet, the fact that you happen to be Euro-descended, that somehow means that you have more “power” and that it’s “easier” for you. They really didn’t flip the script and talk about how hard it is for a legitimate artist to be taken seriously in hip-hop because your skin color automatically makes you less “authentic.” [Critics] even go so far as to imply that [Kreayshawn] couldn’t be possibly speaking from her own experience or perspective, but that she’s simply “mimicking” behaviors and mannerisms of another group, to which she cannot possibly belong, solely based on her skin color,” noted Lincoln Smith, a friend of her mother’s, during one of our many Facebook discussions of Kreay’s latest press.

All this over a song that drops Arby’s, Adderall, shitting in litter boxes, and Google maps into a catchy as hell three-minute bumper.

If you happen to be on the side of the fence that is actually stoked for her, good news: she’s blowing up. My boys the Rock-It Scientists, also from the East Bay, just dropped a hot remix of the Gucci Gucci track, too. Her next gig happens to be directing the “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie” video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Just sayin’.

• fresh basil leaves
• balsamic dressing
• blue cheese crumbles (not my personal fave but hey, to each their own)
• sliced pepperoncinis
• pesto or red pepper spread
• cayenne pepper
• spinach leaves
• grilled bell pepper slices
• seasoned mushrooms (perhaps sauteed in a garlic olive oil)
• and lets not forget… BACON.

As far as drinks go, why not muddle some strawberries or mint or squeeze some oranges in that lemonade or iced tea?? And then add vodka and possibly a little sparkling water.

DIRTY Issue 4: Vol 1 No 4 (Version 1)

June/July issue featuring Beerijuana and LA MOCA’s Art In The Streets

Super hot & colorful pinup spread of RUCA shot by the awesome Miss Missy, some guest photos and writing, tons of pics from Art In The Streets, a feature on San Jose’s favorite metal band, and all for the low price of $6.66!!!

Since February, when I ordered the feathers, I have had about 10 new clients come in JUST for feathers, as well as my regular clients getting them.  And I’m not talking about a couple feathers.  Most clients get 4 to 6 feathers, and some get up to 10 in different colors.

Feathers come in almost every color you can think of, in both thick and thin sizes.  I have even done them on my client’s moms!  I didn’t realize what a huge trend these would be, but it seems to have really taken off.  You can even flat iron and curl them so they’re perfect for pretty much anyone looking to update their style for much less than coloring their hair, since the feathers are only about $5 each piece.