Earlier this month during what was known as the annual San Francisco Noise Pop Festival by all the hip and cool indie music scenesters seeking out and celebrating the next big Casio-noodling, beat-box driven, acoustically sincere or just plain subtle new music sensation bound for the big-time only very reluctantly as fame and the pursuit of it can seemingly spoil the sensitive, unique or D.I.Y essence of the shy eccentric or purist stance of those labeled (although they defy labels) Noise Pop, I saw a particular showcase that truly seemed a bit out of place for this multi-showcase multi-day event/happening, the only one that I was actually able to get tickets for as this Noise Pop thing has become a big deal with out of course meaning or wanting to. Anyway, The show I caught was at Slims and the featured acts were two of my very favorites over the past couple of years, The BellRays from Riverside California and our very own S.F.-based Zen Guerrilla, two bands who are very much hard and intense R&B and Blues-based ass-kicking fundamental rock, nothing precious or programmed or pretentious about them, and they certainly don’t skimp on the sheer raw power. These two bands serve up that thing about Rock & Roll that makes me wanna scream and stomp and bang my head till my neck hurts the next day and sweat and fuck and laugh and scare the people around me with the reckless abandon of my movement, propelled as if by demonic possession or some primal out of body force. This is the delicious feeling that I consider the pure essence of Rock and Roll, the magic that takes over your body with movement, the punch that rolls your eyes back in yr head, the indescribable feeling that makes life worth living that comes when electric guitar, bass, drums and a vocalist all take it over the top with a certain synonymous force.
The BellRays have definitely achieved this aforementioned phenomenon before, yet some would argue that their vocalist Lisa Kekaula definitely tipped the scales in the balance of greatness, leaving her players just a touch behind her with a fiercely magnificent voice. We walked into Slims in the middle of their set right as the band laid into one of my favorite songs, “Say What You Mean” and what I saw onstage was a shock. Two members of the familiar line-up, the lead guitarist and the drummer had been replaced. The bass player was now handling guitar and two new guys were filling in on drums and bass and it took little or no time to see that it wasn’t working. The bass player was bouncing all over and mugging at the crowd like he was a member of the Offspring or something equally ridiculous and incongruous to the BellRays and the drummer, while being exceptionally handsome, lost the beat so obviously you could tell Lisa was upset as she grimaced and allowed him a chance to catch up which he blew again and she threw a small towel at him. It was very clear that she was most unhappy and my heart kind of sank, thinking The BellRays as I’d known them would never be the same, or from the looks of things, might not be around much longer. I don’t know if the change in line-up was permanent or if perhaps there had been an emergency but it seems all is not well for the hardworking combo who have stood on the verge of widespread popularity and certainly have garnered copious shares of critical acclaim over the last few years.
About two weeks after that show I discovered a new release at the record store that possibly sheds some light on the overall situation concerning the Bellrays , or at least their vocalist. The record, Watch For Today, is by a group called The Now Time Delegation and from what I can see it’s a band made up of people from other bands mostly involved with the independent record label called In The Red Records, and Lisa Kekaula is the primary vocalist. One element that always set the Bellrays apart from other bands was the unusual pairing up of a hard rocking band with a soulful gritty black female vocalist, drawing comparisons to Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin only paired up with a band having far more in common with MC5 than say an R&B Soul Revue. Well, with the Now Time Delegation, Lisa and these assorted musicians take a firm step into the musical style one might find more suited to that incredible voice and the result is a really great record. The more I listen to it and play it for others the more her vocal performance not only stands out but stops a person mid-sentence to say, “Damn, she is good,” often repeatedly. She just is. These songs really showcase and encourage a more broad and subtle range of her natural-born talent, a voice I’ve heard likened to a number of legendary women of Soul and R&B, like Ann Peebles and Etta James. It’s a sure thing, and the musicians in The Now Time Delegation really rise to the occasion with similarly adept capabilities and a firm understanding of an R&Bgroove, the tradition of a style and reference, and on top of that a modern twist here and there through feedback, distortion and production values to add a little present-day grind and attitude. In all there’s not a bad song from one end of this smart mix of original and cover tunes to the other.
Among the songs you’ve likely heard before on this disc is an old favorite that I hadn’t heard or thought of in years called “Nothing But A Heartache” done originally by a group called The Flirtations in the late 60’s. The Now Time Delegation keeps the girl group sensibilities of the original intact with the high drama vocals, swirling rushes of Hammond organ, and that good old Detroit girls in curlers, housecoats and heroin sound. This cut is the kind you want to play over and over again and if I were a drag queen I’d be lip-syncing it somewhere. Then they do a very minimal and slow version of Curtis Mayfield’s gospel number written for The Impressions, “Keep On Pushin,” that’s almost too eerie of a dirge to be fit for church people. There are a few more cuts that are obscure covers of other artists work like the mournful ballad “Handle Me With Care” by King Floyd but generally the original songs are so steeped in a variety of historical musical references and tips of the hat to other influences (all of which are broken down for you in the liner notes) these songs sound and feel like you’ve heard them before and I consider that quite a feat.
The Hammond Organ playing is an absolutely amazing part of the bands sound, like life’s blood coursing its way through and around and between the other instruments, adding emotion and atmosphere and occasional riotous explosion. The player responsible for this magic is Kari Luna who plays in a band I’ve never heard called The Gospel Swingers. I’ll definitely be seeking that one out in the near future. The rest of the band has credits stretching through a number of great bands like Blacktop, Jack O’Fire, The Lord High Fixers, The Big Boys and Monkeywrench. The liner notes describe The Now Time Delegation as more a legend than a band. I hope that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to tour because I can just tell after one listen that this outfit would burn red hot live, and I’d much prefer to see Lisa Kekaula having the good time she seems so at ease with on this record. Buy it and see for yourself. The songs melt into each other and before you know it you’ll be pressing play again.
Now look what I’ve done! I’ve gone on so much about this record that now I don’t have any room to write about the headlining band at Slims that night, Zen Guerrilla, who put on the most mind-blowing performance of their career. It’s difficult to describe just exactly what they do, but it was potent and had me feeling that way I described in the beginning of this column. I also picked up some merchandise in the form of 7-inch singles, one of which is a cover of the Who’s “The Seeker” backed with an original cut called “Half-Step” which has been knocking people dead when I play it during my DJ sets. There’s no doubt in my mind that Zen Guerrilla are the purest most definitive example of Rock and Roll salvation this town has to offer. So deranged and thick and driven, their sound is like a hallucination for your ears, a fast-paced trip, harder than you’ve ever tripped before, and by their set’s end you know you’ve been somewhere you’ve never been taken before. A friend of mine who is a big fan as well told me that as he listened to them play one time he fully heard within their huge entity of sound a large group of cheerleaders screaming out cheers repeatedly. He was certain it was there—like a tape-loop or something. See what I mean? Witness this band for yourself. That’s all you need to know.
Damn, now I don’t have any room at all to write about how the kid who shot up his high school looks just like a baby Richard Ramirez in his orange suit and all, or how straight people who have dogs that kill other people are probably fucking their doggies and adopting grown prisoners, or how our power rates are going up 140% and PETA is petitioning to make sure Timothy McVeigh’s last meal is vegetarian so it can “end the cycle of violence,” or how liberal weenie protesters convened outside San Quentin to protest an execution that the condemned killer had wanted for years. Hey kids, guns aren’t just for school anymore. See how many protesters you can pick off between verses of Cumbahya.