There was a time when The Movielife seemed to be opening on every pop punk tour that came through Boston back in 2000. My favorite song the band did was off “The Movielife Has a Gambling Problem” EP and it’s called “Walking on Glass.” It looks like Caruana has been playing it at his solo acoustic shows, so hopefully he’ll play it on Friday.
When this song pops up on my iPod it still makes me smile and think of the sweaty clubs on Lansdowne Street in Boston back before I retired from the mosh pit.
Also playing on Friday is Rickly. Thursday wasn’t nearly as poppy, but they were game changers when emo turned to screamo. “Understanding in a Car Crash” is still one that stands out to me.
Empire of the Sun performs at the Outdoor Theatre during the 2011 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio. (2011/File Photo)
There’s been a lot of buzz about the new Empire of the Sun record “Ice on the Dune.” The Australian purveyors of electro pop put on of the most memorable Coachella Festival sets in my tenure of covering the festival back in 2011. I hope they’ll be back in Indio in 2014–I had to leave the set a little early to make sure I was at the main stage in time for Arcade Fire.
Anyway, it was unlike anything I had ever seen–like Prince meets the Solid Gold dancers from outer space.
Brochure for the 50th anniversary of the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland. (Vanessa Franko/Staff Photo)
Happy 50th birthday to the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland. It’s my favorite attraction, but I’ll admit that I drive Charming Husband and the family a little nuts when I decide I need to sing the song repeatedly.
Since I went to Disneyland to celebrate the Tiki Room’s 50th birthday, I thought I’d throw in some of my favorite songs you hear at Disneyland. And if you love Disneyland and all other SoCal theme parks, check out Fielding Buck’s Theme Parks blog.
Another one of my favorites is “Grim Grinning Ghosts” from the Haunted Mansion. Here’s the Dapper Dans version.
And you can’t talk about Disneyland music without channeling your inner pirate.
Ghost B.C. performs at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Sunday, April 14, 2013. (Charlotte Bray/Freelance Photographer)
Ghost B.C. was one of my favorite sets at the 2013 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. I love the theatrics, the costumes and most of all, the metal.
The Unforgiven in their 1980s heyday. (Contributed Image)
The Unforgiven was from the Inland Empire, merging Spaghetti Westerns with arena rock. And I’ve had the band’s music stuck in my head for days.
They reunited (sadly, without the great Johnny Hickman) at the 2012 Stagecoach Country Music Festival. They were fantastic there.
The Unforgiven performs at the 2012 Stagecoach Country Music Festival. (Vanessa Franko/Staff Photo)
Here’s a story I did on the band before that Stagecoach return. I couldn’t find the link since we’ve changed the website around, so here’s what originally ran on April 27, 2012, by yours truly. I’m sprinkling in the videos, too.
The Unforgiven rides again
BY VANESSA FRANKO
STAFF WRITER
The Unforgiven’s story is the epitome of the parable of the music business, with a plot line as strong as the Spaghetti Westerns that inspired the image of the Inland Empire-based roots rock band.
The legend of The Unforgiven starts nearly 30 years ago, long before there was a Clint Eastwood film or a Metallica song by the same name.
The short version goes a little something like this: friends start a band after taking a film course, band builds huge buzz in the European press before ever playing a show, band is at the center of a bidding war among major labels in the heyday of big music in the U.S., band makes a video for MTV hit “I Hear the Call” that actually looks like a Spaghetti Western with a power pop soundtrack, band’s lone album flops, band gets wild, members quit and by 1988 The Unforgiven is no more.
“We were unmanageable at the time,” lead singer/songwriter Steve “John Henry” Jones said in a telephone interview last week.
But, on Sunday, under the blazing sun and amid the dusty winds of Indio, the scene is set for The Unforgiven’s next act at the sold-out Stagecoach Country Music Festival, a reunion spearheaded by Paul Tollett, head of festival producer Goldenvoice.
Tollett, who was a student at Cal Poly Pomona the same time as Jones in the 1980s, had booked the band in its early years and approached drummer Alan Waddington in 2010 about reuniting the band for the 2011 festival.
“I didn’t see it happening,” Jones said. “I’m in my third career as a TV producer.”
Jones found a second career was in the business side of music and now Jones is the producer of the reality show “Turbine Cowboys” on The Weather Channel.
Likewise, the band’s other members were working on various things. Waddington teaches at Citrus College, bassist Mike Finn and guitarist Mike Jones are teachers with the Los Angeles Unified School District and guitarist Jay Lansford lives in Hanover, Germany, where he works in the music business as an A&R man and still plays in the punk scene.
Growing up, Steve Jones, Mike Jones and Finn were all lifeguards together in Corona, and Steve Jones and Lansford were in seminal Inland punk band The Stepmothers together.
Additionally, original Unforgiven member and Redlands native Johnny Hickman, who won’t be out for the reunion show, is a member of the band Cracker.
Another former member is in poor health and one couldn’t be found.
When the band split up, there was some bad blood among the members, but after the initial reunion proposal, Waddington continued to work on getting everyone back together.
Mike Jones, Finn and Waddington have played throughout the Inland region in the band The Hickmen as well as at the annual Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven Campout.
Waddington’s persistence is what made the reunion happen.
“Alan kept at it. He is the great Gandhi in this group,” Jones said.
One of Jones’ concerns was that he hadn’t played live and wasn’t up for it and there was a lot of healing that needed to be done.
“For me, the moment was when I got back in the room with the guys,” he said.
“I was a very tough guy to be in a band with,” Jones admitted.
The legacy and the music of the band has lived on, influencing others and still talked about and remembered in the Inland music scene. The Unforgiven inspired racks at Hollywood vintage stores filled with bolo ties, long leather jackets and wide-brimmed hats.
“We went out and forged our own way,” Lansford said.
The Unforgiven performs at the 2012 Stagecoach Country Music Festival. (Vanessa Franko/Staff Photo)
Fans who catch the band Sunday can look forward to the old songs off the lone album, as well as a few surprises.
“We have been writing new songs and we will be playing a couple of new things,” Jones said.
The Stillwinter is playing the Vans Warped Tour on Thursday, June 20. (The Stillwinter Facebook/Contributed Image)
Today’s the day–the 2013 Vans Warped Tour kicks off its twin dates at the Pomona Fairplex. If you’re going, there are a number of local bands playing, including The Stillwinter, out of the Redlands/Yucaipa area.
Vans Warped Tour, 11 a.m. June 20 and 21, Pomona Fairplex, $35 for a one-day pass, $69 for a two-day pass, all ages. Visit www.vanswarpedtour.com for more information.
Mad N Mack will perform at the Vans Warped Tour on Thursday, June 20. (Contributed Image)
The Vans Warped Tour visits starts its twin visit to Pomona on Thursday, June 20. We have at least seven local artists playing the shows, which also includes Black Veil Brides and Reel Big Fish, among others.
Among the local artists performing are Mad N Mack and Service Interruption, both of whom are playing on Thursday.
Rancho Cucamonga-based Madison Marie and Mackenzie Paige, are known as Mad N Mack and they have a huge following. Now with a full band, the band has a new album, “Everyone’s Watching.”
Vans Warped Tour, 11 a.m. June 20 and 21, Pomona Fairplex, $35 for a one-day pass, $69 for a two-day pass, all ages. Visit www.vanswarpedtour.com for more information.
Divide the Day is playing the Vans Warped Tour on Friday, June 21. (Travis D Photo/Contributed Image)
The Vans Warped Tour visits Pomona in just two days. Yesterday I posted about Assuming We Survive and the Chase Walker Band and today’s spotlight is on two other Inland artists performing this week at the Pomona Fairplex–Divide the Day and Grieve for Tomorrow.
Divide the Day has signed with two major record labels in recent years and has had their music on national television, like “WWE Smackdown.”
The Inland band is playing Warped on Friday, June 21.
Also, Grieve For Tomorrow is playing Warped on Thursday June 20. They were one of the contestants in X103.9’s Localpalooza last year and also were hand selected to play Warped.
I can’t resist their cover of Haddaway’s “What Is Love?”
Vans Warped Tour, 11 a.m. June 20 and 21, Pomona Fairplex, $35 for a one-day pass, $69 for a two-day pass, all ages. Visit www.vanswarpedtour.com for more information.
Assuming We Survive performs at X1039’s Localpalooza at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012. (2012/File Photo)
The Vans Warped Tour is coming to Pomona Thursday, June 20 and Friday, June 21 and we have a bunch of locals on the bill.
Here’s a look at two of the artists: Assuming We Survive and the Chase Walker Band.
Assuming We Survive has had a busy year. The Rancho Cucamonga band just released the new EP “Get Busy Living” for the summer that has some notable guest stars—Dan Arnold from A Static Lullaby and Tyson Stevens from Scary Kids Scaring Kids. This is the band’s second year in a row playing Warped. They will be on the Ernie Ball stage on Friday, June 21.
The Chase Walker Band will also be at Warped this week. Led by Riverside bluesman Walker, the band will play Warped on Thursday, June 20. Walker, who is in his teens, is an incredibly gifted guitarist. The Chase Walker Band will also be playing the Irvine Lake Blues Festival in August, as well as Yucaipa’s July 4th celebration and the Norco Fair.
You have to hear his take on Jeff Beck’s “Blues Deluxe.”
Vans Warped Tour, 11 a.m. June 20 and 21, Pomona Fairplex, $35 for a one-day pass, $69 for a two-day pass, all ages. Visit www.vanswarpedtour.com for more information.
Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin (1998/File Photo)
Happy Father’s Day to all of the dads out there. For today’s Audio Files, I’m dedicating these songs to my awesome father, who taught me about football, took me to my first real concert (Metallica) and makes me laugh every day
His favorite band is Led Zeppelin. I remember listening to his worn out tapes of “Led Zeppelin IV” and “Houses of the Holy” on car trips after my mom would doze off. I thought “Stairway to Heaven” was the coolest thing ever, how it was mellow and then how it rocked out.
But as much as I loved that, I loved the opening drums for “Rock and Roll” even more. And my all-time favorite Led Zep song is from that same album, track one, side two, “Misty Mountain Hop.”
Years later, at the ripe age of 8, I argued with my dad about Bon Jovi swiping Led Zeppelin’s influence when “New Jersey” came out. This prompted a day of music education on the hi-fi, where we listened to everything from the familiar (Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin) to what was obscure to me at the time (Blind Faith, Traffic and Wishbone Ash). Back then, my parents owned a restaurant and bar in Atlanta and spending a whole day together at home and not at the restaurant at all was a special occasion.
Seven years after that, we were living in Maryland and my dad took me to my second concert–Page and Plant at the long-gone Capital Center in Landover. They didn’t play “Stairway to Heaven,” but they did play “Four Sticks.”
But Zeppelin wasn’t my only musical education–I remember listening to Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” on cassette. I loved the sci-fi cover. He’s an Ozzy-era Sabbath fan.
Sabbath is coming to Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Irvine on Aug. 28 (which totally puzzles me considering that San Manuel Amphitheater in Devore was where Ozzfest was born and out here in the I.E. we ARE heavy metal) to support the new record.
