The Sacramento City College Film Club is having a fundraiser at Bows & Arrows this Saturday the 26th at 7:30.The event will feature live music by Dusty Brown and Paper Pistols, showings of student films, and a raffle.  The Sacramento City College Film Club is only in its third official term as a club, but they’re already well established on campus, with 34 members and several student-made films to show for it. ”This film department at SCC is growing, but is probably the smallest out of all departments on campus,” said club President Miles Fargo. “Because of this, my goal has been to promote and expand the film community at SCC. We make short films as well as help to answer question of as

A variety of rappers brought the house down Thursday at Ace of Spades. From individuals dancing in the middle of the floor, to those at the front of the stage, the artists brought Sacramento a top-notch show. The lineup came together from Reno, Black Rock City, Vallejo, Los Angeles and Sacramento. Hip-hop artist DeSaint Reed, reigning from Reno, started off the night with a diverse collection of material ranging from club bangers to slower R&B jams. Following up Reed were Nevada natives Black Rock City All Stars. With a five-member group, each brought their own musical style and sound to the stage. A mixture of rap, heavy bass and ethnic sounds, Black Rock City All Stars brought the m

Concerts 4 Charity is putting on a very special show at Bows and Arrows featuring Talkdemonic, Two Sheds and Fine Steps on February 1st at 8 PM.  Clay Nutting started Concerts 4 Charity with a group of friends in college in 1999, aiming to “introduce nonprofits to a broader audience, help them meet a younger demographic, raise awareness, and maybe even cultivate a future donor or volunteer.” Although they were very successful for a few years, and even had a documentary they produced premiere on HBO, ultimately their model wasn’t sustainable. Eventually Clay moved to Sacramento and started a new branch of Concerts 4 Charity in 2003. The two aims of Clay’s project are to support music ed

Cake. Simple, home-baked, yet such a delicacy. The five member band will start the academic year off right for UC Davis students. The local favorite will perform at University of California, Davis’ Freeborn Hall this Thursday and Friday, October 6 and 7. While the band's tunes are so rollicking and varying that they are essentially without genre, Cake is known for a number of hits including, "The Distance" and "Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle." "Never There" and "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" also function effectively as cult classics for the current twenty-something generation. (Even if some have now reached their thirties.) The band's newest album, "Showroom of Compassion," was released in Januar

The corner of 20th Street between J and K Street usually serves as the unofficial epicenter for Second Saturday in Midtown, a monthly celebration that seems to be slowly losing it's focus on the art and music culture aspect of the event in recent years. This past Saturday, however, something was different. The Sammies, Sacramento's annual music awards show, turned 20 this year, and that afternoon there was no mistaking that music and hometown love reigned supreme over excessive drinking and partying. I sat on my patio just around the corner from the celebration, listening to the sweet sounds of the best of the best in Sacramento, before heading out around 7pm. By the time I had reached th

Davis musician Antoinette Clinton, who goes by her stage name, Butterscotch, is releasing her first EP this fall called “Perfect Harmony.” A music video directed by Robyn Twomey for the album’s title track is going to released online in a few weeks. Butterscotch, who is known for her incredible beat-boxing, will be doing a lot more than just recording music. She will also be performing at the fifth annual Davis Jazz and Beat Festival on Oct. 22. The event will include her along with many other performers and will be located at 521 First St. in Davis. In recent months, she has traveled to places as far away as Hong Kong and Germany. “A lot has happened lately,” Butterscotch said, referri

Harlow’s night club was converged upon Friday night by artists, musicians, designers, community leaders and culture enthusiasts to help support and celebrate the creative hub of Sacramento known as Midtown. The 2011 Midtown Business Association Annual Gala included exhibits by various local businesses, performances by local musicians and artists, and a lecture by Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Policy, Planning and Development and author of, “The Warhol Economy: How Art, Fashion, and Music Drive New York City.” Harlow’s was elegantly decorated with round tables on the dance floor topped with black linen, centerpieces of w

The Reverend Horton Heat was preaching to the choir Wednesday night at Ace of Spades. The legendary psychobilly phenomenon has been on tour since December 2010 promoting their new album, Laughin’ & Cryin’ with the Reverend Horton Heat, as well as those old Horton Heat classics we love them for. Mass began with the local Sacramento punk band, Another Damn Disappointment (A.D.D), who seriously tore up the stage. Don’t let their name fool you, there is nothing disappointing about A.D.D. Their high energy act, which channels sounds similar to punk greats like NOFX and Bad Religion, tore into the admittedly small crowd of early arrivals. A few diehards at the front of the stage made a sad att

Sacramento musicians and their followers are waiting to see whether this summer brings an end to an era of live music at Old Ironsides. Countless local bands broke into the music business at the bar/restaurant known as "Old I" over the last two decades. But there's currently only one weekend show booked for July. Two shows that had been set for next month have been moved to another location, one has been canceled and future bookings have been postponed for now. The family that has owned the bar at 1901 10th St. for 76 years is working to replace a rented sound system that was removed Sunday. The Kanelos family rented the system for about 17 years and was unable to negotiate a lower fee

The So-Cal Speed Shop Warehouse was in full swing Saturday as it hosted Sacramento Swing Time 2011. This family friendly event included a wide variety of activities including a car show, pin-up pageant, arts and crafts workshops, swing dance lessons, an amazing lineup of rock-a-billy, psychobilly and big band swing bands. There was also, of course, a plethora of retail and food exhibits. The parking lot was scattered with vintage cars dating from the 1920’s through the 1960’s, many with custom paint jobs and rebuilt engines. The chrome sparkled in the sunlight as the participants enjoyed beverages and relaxed in the sun, showing off their hard work and admiring the work of others. Also o

Ace of Spades was in full groove Wednesday night as a high-energy and highly diverse group of performers rocked the stage, leading up to headliners Fitz and the Tantrums. The party began with Sacramento natives The New Humans, who warmed up the crowd with an enthusiastic set of electro-indie rock beats. The four-piece band, consisting of keyboard, synth, bass guitar and drums, has been making their mark on the Sacramento music scene for years, and they were the perfect opening act to get everyone ready for what was to be a magical night of music. As the music continued, the crowd grew, and by the end of the performance, the full house was in a frenzy, loving every minute of what The New

Sunday nights at Shady Lady Saloon are usually a quiet affair. A few dozen patrons, sipping drinks and chatting while listening to the band play, are the norm. This was not so this May Day, which saw the triumphant homecoming of local favorites Blvd Park and Musical Charis from their two-month, cross-country “New American Dream” Tour. The Afterlife was the first to take the stage at a quarter after eight. They played to an already sizable crowd, one that you would normally see on Friday or Saturday evening, rather than on a “school night” like Sunday. Tyson Graf on guitar and Zack Sapunor on upright bass warmed up the early arriving patrons and a small group of listeners that included a m

Local musician Bryan Nichols, of the reggae band ZuhG, opened an independent music store in the Westfield Downtown Plaza on Nov. 13. The store only stocks local musicians’ albums, the work of other local artists and apparel. Apparel includes styles by 215Grass, Calibis Clothes, Hippy Tree, Dome Apparel and independent craftspeople on consignment. In The back of the store, which is named ZuhG Life after the band, serves as a space for music lessons. “It just kind of happened” Nichols said. He had been booking live music for the mall when management offered him a space to open a music store. “We’re Sacramento’s local music shop” said Aaron Hoberman, a roadie who also operates the store

I wrote the following last January, after first being exposed to a new local band called DoomBird, and posted it on my blog, The Random Griffith. Clay Nutting, who's promoting a show at Harlow's this Sunday, August 29, with DoomBird, Aaron Ross and Bart Davenport on the bill, asked me if I'd resurrect it by republishing it on this space. I figured that might not be a bad idea, because I'll still stand by this album's greatness. Case in point: Recently, I was driving along listening to the Arcade Fire's summer release, The Suburbs, and I kept hearing these songs come into my head that were better than anything on that album. It took me a little while to figure out what diaphanous melodies I

Yes, that really did happen here. The complaints and rumblings about music in Sacramento have been mounting for years: a perceived disconnect between the local music scene and the community, the glaring lack of consistent all-ages music venues in the downtown area and a debilitating middle child syndrome caused by big name touring acts that often pass the Capitol City over for gigs in the Bay Area. In the face of the retrospective on local music provided by Downtown Sacramento Partnership’s newest walking tour, it becomes hard to find anything to complain about. Entitled “Locally Grown, Internationally Known: The history of the Sacramento Music Scene,” this hour-long tour offers not onl

Jazz enthusiasts should be aware of a new talent in town. If you haven't had the opportunity to catch the very beautiful and very talented Casey Lipka perform, opportunities abound this spring. When did you get into music? Music has always been a focal part of my life. As a kid, I would belt out pop songs, often along with my younger sister, in the car as we drove to school. My dad is a huge Beatles fan and plays guitar, so I was fortunate to grow up with live music in the house. My elementary school in Santa Monica, Calif., had a strong music and performing arts program, and it put on school-wide musicals each year. I was also exposed to Haitian music as one of the parents was from Ha

They already serve espresso ranked in quality the best two percent of the top ten percent of the world’s coffee, and now the Naked Lounge has also been dishing out a fair share of awesome talent, as well, in their recently opened Downtown Venue. With shows Thursday through Sunday, there’s a good chance you’re somewhere near this coffeeshop on one of those nights and there is no reason not to pay a minimal cover charge to hear one of these bands. It’s a place to have a beer and meet some interesting people, even if you only talk to the personable staff, some of whom you can also see performing on stage. Admittedly I’m here to promote my girlfriend’s show to be held on April 23, which is fa

Beatnik Studios was graced Thursday with performances by local jam band CFR and Oklahoma-based postmodern jazz band Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey (JFJO). Beatnik Studios hosted the benefit show for the Music Never Stops Foundation, as part of an ongoing Winter Jazz Concert Series running through April. The collaborative photography studio, off Broadway on 17th Street, has become a space for community engagement and a venue for the jazz series, band launches, a music school and local craft fair, to name a few. There was a real sense of community to the evening as supporters danced to the music of CFR, which has performed at Second Saturday and other local venues and has many loyal Sacramento

Seven local musicians are getting together at Old Ironsides this Friday to not only pay tribute to music legend Sam Cooke but also help with the Haiti earthquake relief effort. "Havin' a Party: A Tribute to Sam Cooke" was originally going to be just a show about Sam Cooke until concert organizer Jerry Perry saw the destruction in Haiti from the Jan. 12 earthquake. Perry decided to put on a benefit show to help. "When things like this happen, we like to try to put together relief shows," said Perry, who also organized relief benefit concerts for Hurricane Katrina and Sept. 11. "Whatever money we can raise through the door, we're going to take and give it to the Red Cross," he said. The

Brian McKenna is marking 20 years of booking and promoting shows in Sacramento. In the mercurial world of show business, that’s a long time. The event on Saturday also is his 40th birthday; McKenna figures the first shows he promoted in 1989 happened earlier in the year. But who wouldn’t want to throw a birthday party with a bunch of cool bands? “I decided to get all the people I started promoting shows with 20 years ago, who are also some of my favorite people,” McKenna says. The birthday-anniversary show at Harlow’s will feature Victoria, B.C. punk band Nomeansno, resurgent local stoner-rock combo Kai Kln, and Triclops!, a San Francisco band formed by members of Victim’s Family, Flesh