Talking House Productions put together a stellar line up last Sunday night to celebrate the Preview of Luke Franks or the Federalists’ debut CD, The Way We Ran, new from Talking House Records this month.

The show kicked off about 7:30 with up and coming rockin’ folk trio David Luning and the Third Wheels. I have written plenty already in previous blogs about David’s natural gift and his raspy provocative vocal style. Let me just say that his talents were very much in evidence as he and drummer Zak Garn and bass John Luther performed 8 of David’s original songs. David’s lyrical style is conversational, organic and you feel like you know the guy when he’s singing. He can put a song over, and that’s a rare gift. Zak, sensitive percussionist with some nice brushwork and foot tamb, and John’s solid acoustic bass guitar skills kept it all locked down. I think I heard a new one, Did Nothing Wrong, which is more complicated songwriting than David’s earliest stuff — demonstrating David’s continued growth as an artist. David was a recent guest on the Palo Alto-based Cable Access television show. View David’s five song set on blip tv.

Nic Russo, Jeremy Robins & Sloan Denton make up Soft Stories, alternative R&B with a lot of flourishes that kick. I don’t know what it is about these three, but we’re invited to play with them in their musical world. Their music is characterized by an open transparent sound, fun vocal arrangements either in duet or counterpoint with some light false setto tossed in, interesting mix of rhythms, all the while with a solid driving rock beat thundering away delivered by a competent no-nonsense drummer. They’re finding a unique voice, and they are worth monitoring.

The third band, Soft White Sixties, channels 60s R&B beautifully, but brings it up to us with melodies that are current, fresh and with a rolling lyrical movement. Octavio Genera, Aaron Ferguson, Ryan Noble, Joey Bustos and Aaron Eisenberg piled it on with three, (were there three guitars?) plus bass, and a set of keys with a punky rocky drummer pounded it out for us. They would get the dance band award of the evening perhaps. However, for me they were not balanced for the room and the vocals were overpowered. Having a weakness for lyrics, I like to hear enough of them to follow the song — which was not possible for me Sunday night — except in the lovely ballad I’d Rather Lie. The lead vocal has very compelling voice and he connects well with the audience. I hope to hear a CD from them someday. Any plans for a CD, guys?

Personable Luke Franks took the stage with the Federalists, Jason Roysdon on Guitar, Ruben Rios on Drums, and Aaron Schmidt on Bass. Luke played guitar and sang us through 15 highly differentiated solid songs, shapeshifting easily from indie pop to rock country. Their clean and polished sound was stand-out without sounding affected or self-conscious. I’ll attribute that balance to Luke’s down-to-earth personality (I spoke with him after his set), some excellent production work and of course caring enough to practice to that sweet tightness. Luke’s songs are well-structured and have great hooks and twists, with unusual story lines that I could get. So they gave us good arrangements, solid musicianship and melodies with gotcha choruses. What else? Luke’s got another one of those wonder voices. What is it about it? Conversational, relaxed, mellifluous, smooth like good coffee and rich without artifice. If I heard Benjamin and Bonnie and Over It’s Over played every hour on the radio tomorrow, I would not be surprised. Excellent song-crafting there.

I gather the band used to be “The Federalists”, but with some personnel changes due to the rigors of touring, and with Luke stepping up as the lead vocalist and the principal songwriter, the name change seemed the way to go and kicks in with this CD.

The band kicks off its November Western tour with a show on November 12 in Portland, Oregon. They’ll be back in town on Thanksgiving weekend for their official CD release party at the Rickshaw with Dizzy Balloon on November 28.

Wow, there’s always good food to be had in downtown Palo Alto, but is there always good music? Last night, there was a feast of sounds. Scott and I got out into it early and stayed late.

Songwriter/Artist David Luning opened the United Nations Associations 12th Annual Film Festival “busking” at the Aquarius Theater. He appeared by arrangement with West Coast Songwriters. (If you need music for your event, call them first!) He sang his usual fare of folksy-blues and gave us a new one last night. David was our guest on American Songwriter a few weeks back and his “episode” is now playing on Comcast Channel 27 in the Midpeninsula. Click here for show times! You can also catch the show on out blip.tv channel.

We ran over to Junoon to the kick-off reception for UNAFF, and there was multi-instrumentalist Jesse Norfleet playing the drums in a trio performing standards from the Jazz repetoire. Jesse is a gifted musician and a gifted television producer and director as well. He was formerly the programming manager at the Media Center. Now in addition to managing, booking and performing in bands, Jesse works with teens getting them ready for college at College Track.

So then we ran back to catch the last few moments of David’s gig. And then we were over to Jungle Copy on High Street. The heppest copy shop around. They host regular open mics and if you organize yourself a show you can book it there. Per Se’s Emily Gibbons opened with a lovely acoustic set of her originals. Joining her on harmony was Nick Giordano of Picture Atlantic. Unfortunately we missed indie screamo band The Bridge who were up next because we wanted to meet Joanie and Ian Crombie of WCS and Allison and John Williams also of WCS (Ali was working publicity for UNAFF and her husband was snapping the pictures at the Aquarius) at the Rose and Crown for a quick one. After downing some Welsh Rabbit and a Murphy’s we rushed back to Jungle Copy and caught emerging band Playground Adventure. They were pretty good. It was their second gig. I think I caught some interesting lyrics. Their songs to me sounded a bit similar which was okay since it was basically a very cool sound, rich, lush and loud. In the future, I’ll be looking for the way they use their signature sound and branch out and build on that.

Next up was the surprise of the night (for me). For those who are already familiar with the band Sister Crayon, they may have been surprised in a negative way. Lead vocals Terra Lopez’s mic cut out every time the keyboards kicked in. She ended up running her mic through a guitar amp and carried on. I think they were disappointed with the sound, but I wasn’t since I hadn’t heard them before. So Terra adjusts her own voice in real time through some effects processing. They’ve got a sensitive keyboardist Genaro with a stack of synths, and a solid drummer, Nicholas who looked like he was beating his drumkit to a pulp. Dani, the fourth member plays a drum pad and a Korg Synth, creating smooth back-up harmonies and counterpoints. A highly processed sound in clean real time. Startling and fresh. So I’ll be watching Sister Crayon you bet.

And next up, what can I say, Picture Atlantic just delivers – even when Ryan had to bail due to illness for part of a song, and I found out from Patrick that they are all battling the crud. So they delivered a great set, despite illness. They added a new guitarist since they were on American Songwriter last Spring. Grant is a fairly energetic fellow who is able to play his part in a variety of poses, including with his back to the floor. Lead singer Nick’s energetic elasticity is organic. His naturalism just reels you in. I can’t say enough about these guys. Nick’s incredible range and beautiful sustained false setto is amazing. And he is still creating strong original music which the band delivers in tight ethereal rock – if that isn’t an oxymoron. By the way, the band recently lost their euphonium which I totally miss. So if you know someone who’s got one of these old school instruments lying around in their attic, have them contact Brian. He’d love to have it.

Scott and I went up to San Francisco to meet with David Luning and his band last night to discuss the upcoming taping of American Songwriter this Tuesday at the Media Center. David will be the guest artist for our 20th show.

After our meeting on the sidewalk outside the Brainwash Cafe on Folsom we ducked into catch the last three songs of Todd Haemmerle’s set. I’ve seen Todd before and always enjoy his open string finger-pick style and his mellow soothing voice. He treated us to a world premier of his new song, an upbeat love song Come On Out.. And he covered Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide and then ended with Hard to Dream. You can listen to Todd on his myspace page.

David was up next. I’ve only seen him solo with his acoustic guitar but he has recently acquired a band: John Luther on bass and Zach Garn on drums. They played a thirteen song set made up mostly of David’s originals with a few covers through in. David hits the usual themes of heartbreak, bad luck and drowning it all in alcohol. But David masters the fun side of heartbreak and loneliness. That’s what I really love about his unique folkyblues with rock elements – there’s always an upside, even if it’s only the fact that the singer is so painfully aware of his misery that it feels alive and thrilling to be connected to it. His flirtation with self-awareness is very different from self-consciousness – of which he appears to be refreshingly devoid.

David is relaxed and natural before a mic. He tells strong stories and paints vivid pictures with his lyrics. His patter between songs draws you in and you’re carried through a window into David’s world. His song have strong hooks, are wonderfully melodic, and natural phrasing. His voice has an unusual timbre, rich and sonorous but with a little catch in it, that really sets it apart, gives it an emotional edge.

And the band sounds really established. For being just a few months old, they are tight with solid arrangements. John plays an amped acoustic hollowed-body bass guitar. I never saw one of those before so that was something new. And I must say it goes great with David’s acoustic guitar. Zach on drums was really pro at using the full spectrum without overpowering the acoustic feel of the set. His liberal use of brushes, a tambourine on his foot! And some shakers were nicely blended in as well.

So David sang some songs we can look forward to hearing on Tuesday night. His current “hits” include Humble Apologizing, My Baby Blues on Wheels, Northern California, Whiskey Bottle, American Nightmare and Waiting Room. Most of them can be heard on his myspace page. He also did a moving rendition of Steve Earle’s Ben McCullough among the handful of covers he did.

After David and the band’s set, Kevin Beadles took the stage with John Foster on vocals and guitar. I got to hear Mrs. Jones Cadillac, a really hilarious song, but had to leave before he got too far into the set. Kevin’s got a real mellifluous flowing voice that he uses well with his cursive wrap around lyric lines. I saw Kevin (and David coincidentally) at the West Coast Songwriters Conference a few weeks back. I got to hear some of his music then in some of the screenings. And I got to see Kevin work with performance coach Steve Memel during one of Steve’s sessions. Kevin is a dynamic performer and is well worth listening to and watching, too and he writes entertaining upbeat music to boot.

Scott and I ran up to SF to catch Greg’s CD release party held at the Union Room last night, September 26. We know Greg through West Coast Songwriters. In addition to everything else he’s got going, Greg’s in charge of the monthly Song Competitions that are held in our 10 chapters. I co-manage the Berkeley Competition held the 3rd Monday of the month in Berkeley.

Anyway, Greg has a big heart and makes big-hearted rock indie/alternative music. It’s hard to stay still when Greg fires up his band. Joining him were Dan Buch on drums, JoJo Styles on electric guitar and “Mr. Blyss” on bass. Mr. Blyss’s real name is a fine hoity
toity sounding same with a “the third” after it so he just goes by Mr. Blyss.

Greg is an excellent acoustic guitarstician (that’s my new word, I’m coining it today). He plays all over the place from rhythm-driving rock to delicately picked chords and counterpoints and harmonics. Also Greg’s voice soars, is just plain beautiful to listen to, and his range is incredible. His voice sounds very commercial – in a superb way and yet he makes music that is personal and intimate. He delivers each song with emotional impact.

And the band was just outstanding. JoJo could probably deliver a solo show playing every lick in the repetoire and then some for electric guitar enthusiasts. Dan Buch is just fun to watch. He’s an unobtrusive drummer in that he doesn’t have a lot of upper body machinations going on but the arms and legs are pretty much flying at cartoon pace. And I love it when he stands up to give us the tops of the cymbals so delicately tapped as to almost qualify as another form of percussion. And Mr. Blyss comes with the entire ackage ranging from the slow plucked bass to a driving running bass and then pulling off melodies and melodic grooves while playing the bass. I couldn’t quite figure off how he played the bass line and then through in a few riffs here and there all the while keeping the bass going.

Greg and the band took us on a musical oddysey across 15 songs from his three CDs: Every Drop of Good, Lift and his latest a four song EP, Where You Are. And he mixed them up nicely so that transitions felt smooth even when the songs were polar opposites in style and groove. A lot of the transition is helped along by Greg’s personal style and just great “patter” between songs. He helps you move from the last song and set expectations for the next. I haven’t seen it done better.

The show opened with “Mantra” from Lift. Greg offered up solo guitar and vocals before being joined by the full band who rolled in like a wall. There wasn’t a crack in the sound, very tight. And that’s how they played all night and they had wonderful arrangements and voicings.

The second song “Wally’s Backstage Cafe” from the first CD sounded unusual and at the same time familiar — it was rocking boogie woogie that really swung. You could have danced a bunch of different styles from across three generations to that song. Just fun to listen to and experience.

I can’t go over every song however:

The third song “Reason for the Rhyme” has a great message as do most of Greg’s song. Why do we do things that are hard and offer no “earthly” reward? Because we love doing those things. That’s my poor paraphrasing of a lovely ballad. In this song JoJo offered up some pretty amazing counterpoint melodies.

The fourth song, “Quiet Voice”, off the new EP, is a song of encouragement to make a change. It starts off with Greg’s vocal and guitar solo with the band coming in. The song just builds and builds to a quiet explosion. Very nicely done. Some great lyrics: “If you
change your mind, they might have to too” was very nicely built to and succinctly put.

The fifth song, “Where To”, is also off the new EP. It’s a semi-autobiographical song about not knowing where you’re going but knowing that what really matters is who you are sharing the trip with. A lovely ballad.

Then Mr. Blyss kicked off song number six with a running bass and the rest of the band joined in with a great funky groove. “Your World” is a great “join hands” song. I looked around the room and I felt that others felt it too. Greg is charismatic and he invites you to share his vision. A night of Greg songs is like opening up a window in a tiny room and seeing out to the big beautiful world beyond.

Uh oh, I’m talking about each song… okay… We heard a couple more songs “Lightning in a Bottle” and “Fate” (both from Lift; both strong songs) and then another new one off the new EP – “Always Been You”. This song incorporates simple snippets of nursery rhymes and some great background counterpoint by Jo Jo and such a simple arrangment. A
romantic song quietly and elegantly delivered.

Next up, “Let it Go” from Lift was next. I have to mention this song because it has a great hooky chorus that just soars and is so satisfying.

Then we had a little change in pace: “One in Million” rocks out. It’s like a love bomb. A
lot of people would give anything to be loved the way the song expresses love. Everything pulls toward the message. Arrangement and message a perfect match.
Next in “Phantoms”, Jo Jo got to open with a pretty classic sounding rock solo with liberal use of the wammy bar and distortion effects. Fun!

Then “Kerosene” offered up another change. Greg opened up pickin out the harmonics on the acoustic while singing the opening lines and then the build. And Don on drums drives the band in. A great arrangement with some pulsing grooves.

Our evening closed after a few more songs. And people were genuinely bummed the show was over. The Union Room was about as full as I have seen it. Of course I’ve only been there an average of once a fortnight lately. Steve is building The Union Room’s reputation as a destination club for Indie bands. He is ALWAYS looking for talent, so if your band or if you’re a solo act and you haven’t sent him your cd. Steve is a very nice guy and doesn’t bite.

And if you don’t know Greg, check him out on CD baby and his website. He is very nice as well nd ahe doesn’t bite either. His music will make you sit back and think if you’re in that mood to catch up with the lyrics or you can just cruise a long and enjoy a very smooth ride.

A quintessential Silicon Valley band, Monsters Are Not Myths played at the Media Center on Friday, July 19, 2009. They are quintessentially Silicon Valley because more than any other band I have encountered they address themes that have come to be associated with the flip side of the Silicon Valley dream : meaningless success, loneliness, alienation, and fruitless escapism.

That being said their music doesn’t need the Silicon Valley backdrop to be listened to and enjoyed. If you’re a lyrics junkie like me you’ll find a deep reservoir to swim in. However, if you just want to enjoy some fresh sounds cleverly arranged and brilliantly executed, you need look no further.

Lead vocal and keysman Evan Hamilton and guitarist Nick Giordano founded the band. They added Tyler Null on drums and Annie Nguyen on bass. Nick plays a transparent guitar, no messy chords, clean and crisp. Highly controlled, he’s a trustworthy guitarist who anchors the band. Bassist Annie behaves with extreme humility in every way except in her address of the bass guitar — she is spot on. Together with Tyler, they drive everything; even when the tempo varies in the arrangement – which it often cleverly does, they manage to stay locked in. Tyler is extremely subtle. Rock drummers are often seen flaying away in the back regardless of what’s happening in front. Not Tyler. He adapts his style to each song and to the overall voice of the band. He doesn’t overuse cymbals and is economical in his use of all the components. He uses brushes and other elements — even the glockenspiel effectively. Evan, as the lyricist and vocalist, he propels each song forward with an almost frenetic passion. Evan is an interesting contrast to the other players who in some way could be characterized as “laid back.” However Evan, not a petite fellow, is extremely mobile, active and graceful. He moves around taking the mic with him like a twisted dance partner. When he hits on the keys, he can often be aggressive. He uses his novelty portable electric organ in a way never intended by its manufacturer. The result is an exciting show with elements of controlled intensity juxtaposing with an urgent sense of losing control.

Monsters Are Not Myths opened their five-song set with “Sunday Morning Nightmare.” The slow seductive intro takes the song to a nice build which then hurtles into a driving breakdown that collapses back to a slow outro. Everyone was mic’ed and everyone sang harmony on the chorus. There is repeated use of vocal doubling and tripling — which works well for their songs. Evan as soloist typically sings of loneliness and alienation in several of the verses only to be joined by his “friends” in a “singalong” chorus – a very nice touch.

The second song, “Bits of Sins” has marked variations in intensity, which serve the song’s lyric well. Reggae-esque at the outset, the song’s intensity builds to an inevitable chorus that has frenetic reggae elements. Annie’s intricate and driving bass line pretty much drives the truck on this one. Nick, all business, delivers the textural elements of the song that keep us from going off a Rastafarian deep end.

“Netcat” is yet another cleverly arranged piece. Evan plays a masterful synth and Tyler throws in the glock to create a spooky, late night groove, which matches the lyric “Midnight is a bad place to be.” Nick’s figured chords and guitar arpeggios only enhance the light, transparent feel of this song, which is characterized by brilliant instrumentation, soulful lyrics and a little Leonard Cohen thrown into the mix.

In OldSoul the electric guitar (otherwise Nick played acoustic) opens up with a classic rock riff, which is negated by Evan’s random organ trainwreck, forearms flat on keys. It totally works. The cacophony bursts forth into driving rock guitar, rock novelty organ licks, and then the wonderful use of vocal echoing effects.

The evening ended with Monsters Are Not Myths’ signature closing number “Burrito In My Heart.” Annie and Tyler doffed their instruments and donned shaker percussion. Nick played acoustic guitar and Evan expounded on the love of any Silicon Valley engineer’s life — a middle of the night burrito. Everyone sangs, and they even invited the studio audience to come up which they did. The cameramen stayed put, but pretty much everyone else came up.

Suprisingly I wasn’t hungry for a burrito after they played. But I was hungry for more music, which is why I’ll be at their CD release party October 9 at the Hotel Utah in San Francisco. I suspect they will probably play the burrito song then.

Monsters Are Not Myths on American Songwriter debuts Friday night, July 31, 2009 on Comcast Channel 27 in the Palo Alto Service Area. The show can also be viewed on Blip TV.

Through an Amazon S3 utilized by PEGMEDIA, the Monsters Are Not Myths show will be available, like all the other American Songwriter episodes, for download by the over 250 cable access stations that are members of PEGMEDIA. Other stations are joining every week.

Check us out from left to right: Nomi Yah, my co-manager of the WCS Song Competition, Mark Stein producer magnficent, Janice Maxie-Ried keyboardivadivine and so much more, Mark Weiss, artist management and promoter extraordinaire and me, Becky Sanders.

If you’re a songwriter in California you really ought to join West Coast Songwriters. And if you’re in the Bay Area particularly, WCS has crazy mad stuff for songwriters going on. Headquartered in San Carlos, WCS puts on pitch meetings, song screenings, works-in-progress events, conferences, concerts and song competitions.

I’m a co-manager of the East Bay Song Competition held (usually) the third Monday of the month at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley. At the end of the song competition season, the monthly winners for BEST SONG from WCS competitions all over California get to compete in the play-offs and the finals. Sara Bareilles of “I’m not Gonna Write You a Love Song” fame is an “alumna” of the WCS Song Competition. And hit song writer Jenn Adan (“She Wouldn’t Be Gone” recorded by Blake Shelton) came out of WCS as well.

So as co-manager of the WCS East Bay Song Competition, my job is to find industry pros who can judge a good song. This past Monday I was lucky to land Janice Maxie-Reid (myspace.com/janicemaxie), Mark Weiss (myspace.com/earthwiseproductions) and Mark Stein (myspace.com/imsteinrecordingstudio). Janice is a regular performer at Biscuits and Blues, the premier blues club in San Francisco run by Steven Suen. (Steven will be a judge at the next competition to be held on July 21 at the Freight, by the way.) She is an accomplished keyboardist, vocalist, vocal teacher, choral conductor, and composer. She gave us a taste of her tremendous talent Monday when she opened the second half of the competition with her interpretation of “What A Wonderful World”. Mark Weiss is an artist manager and concert promoter and has produced hundred of concerts through his company Earthwise Productions. Mark Stein owns and operates a full service recording studio in Sunnyvale, and himself is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist and vocalist.

The three judges listened to twenty songs and judged each performer for both performance and for song. The best song award went to Joe Rut and the best performance to The Levins. Joe won three hours of studio time and a chance to compete in the play-offs on August 3rd.

So there is great synergy between American Songwriter and West Coast Songwriters. At the conference last September held at Foothill College we met Johnny Law, Jason Overton, Rick English and Bill Leigh who later were guests on the show. At the Song Competition I met Matt Jaffe who was a guest on the show in February. And through the show American Songwriter, I’ve met great judges for the songwriting competition – Shelby Blackburn (manager of Picture Me Broken), Kate Carpenter (manager of Punchface), and both Mark Stein (producer who works with Johnny Law) and Mark Weiss (concert promoter who also works with Johnny Law).

At $70 a year ($40 for students), membership in WCS is a steal. The song competition is open to non-WCS members who just want to get judge’s feedback as long as space allows. But only WCS members get to compete. It’s great experience for newbies and more experienced artists can come and get critical feedback and another chance to play out. See you at the Freight on July 21 where our judges will be Michael Edell, head of WCS, Greg Lamboy WCS member and accomplished performer and Steven Suen, owner and manager of Biscuits and Blues.

Please check out www.westcoastsongwriters.org.