Cafe Eleven

Cold War Kids

Thursday March 22nd, 2007 - $8

ullerton, CA’s Cold War Kids make music with roots that go deep and wide, embracing influences as diverse as Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, Jeff Buckley, and the Velvet Underground. Matt Aveiro, Matt Maust, Jonnie Russell, and Nathan Willett began crafting their soulful, blues-inflected take on indie rock as Cold War Kids in 2004, recording demos in Los Angeles soon after they formed. After signing to Monarchy Music, Cold War Kids released their debut EP, Mulberry Street, in spring 2005. The band’s unique sound and impassioned live act generated a buzz — particularly from bloggers — that grew with each tour and release. Maust’s clean but eye-catching designs for EPs like With Our Wallets Full and Up in Rags and the group’s website also added to Cold War Kids’ mystique. They spent much of 2006 on the road with Tapes ‘n Tapes, Figurines, Sound Team, and Editors and appeared at that year’s Lollapalooza. That summer, they signed to Downtown Records, also home to Art Brut and Gnarls Barkley. The band’s full-length debut Robbers & Cowards arrived that fall.

Cold War Kids “Hair Down”

Coco Montoya

Thursday February 22nd, 2007 - $15

Though he grew up as a drummer and was raised on rock roll, Coco Montoya became an outstanding blues guitarist in the ’90s after stints in the bands of Albert Collins and John Mayall. Montoya debuted as a leader in 1995 with the Blind Pig album Gotta Mind to Travel and garnered an award for Best New Blues Artist at the following year’s Handy Awards ceremonies.

Born in Santa Monica, Montoya played drums for a local rock band that toured the region during the mid-’70s, playing in area clubs. Although he had recently been turned on to blues at an Albert King show, he was somewhat unprepared to sit in with another blues legend — “the Iceman” Albert Collins — when a bar-owner friend of Montoya invited the bluesman to play at his nightclub. Though his inexperience showed, the young drummer impressed Collins enough to hire him for a Pacific Northwest tour three months later. The tour soon ended, but the pair’s affiliation remained for more than five years, while Montoya learned much about the handling of blues guitar from “the Master of the Telecaster.”

By the early ’80s, Coco Montoya was back in the small-time nightclub business, playing guitar with several regional bands. At one night’s show, he realized that John Mayall was in the audience, so he dedicated a cover of “All Your Love” to the British blues maestro. The song prompted Mayall to hire Montoya as lead guitarist for a new version of the Bluesbreakers he had formed. Despite the enormous pressure of filling a spot once held by Eric Clapton and Peter Green, Montoya jumped at the opportunity.

His first album with the Bluesbreakers came in 1985. Mayall had not released an album in five years at that point and the Bluesbreakers had been dead for more than 15, but the live album Behind the Iron Curtain proved Mayall’s viability thanks mostly to the fiery work of Montoya. The guitarist appeared on three studio albums with Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, but then struck out on his own by the mid-’90s. Signed to Blind Pig, Montoya released Gotta Mind to Travel in 1995 with help from Mayall and another former Bluesbreaker compatriot, rhythm guitarist Debbie Davies. After years of toil under Collins and Mayall, Montoya was finally in the spotlight and his award as Best New Blues Artist of 1996 proved quite ironic, given his years of experience. His second album, Ya Think I’d Know Better, was followed by 1997’s Just Let Go. At that point, Montoya and Blind Pig parted company and he signed with Alligator Records. Suspicion was released in 2000, followed two years later by Can’t Look Back, a disc that incorporated a definitive soul/RB approach.

Against Me

Tuesday February 20th, 2007 - $13

The roots of Against Me!’s rousing punk-folk sound lie in Tom Gabel’s guitar-and-stool troubadourship around his native Gainesville, FL, beginning in 1997. The then 17-year-old Gabel performed as a solo act wherever anyone would have him, drawing much influence from early acoustic protest music. The band around him would eventually solidify by 2001 — including guitarist James Bowman, drummer Warren Oakes, and bassist Andrew Seward — and get considerably louder as punk bands often do. But there would always be some anarchism and Billy Bragg in the raucous braggadocio. After a few initial 12″ and 7″ releases, Against Me! issued the fan-favorite Reinventing Axl Rose through No Idea in 2002. The underground hit blended elements of punk, folk, and country into socially conscious and impassioned anthems for late-night basement shows and bars. Continuing their reputation of always being on the road, countless tour dates were played around the country. The slightly more polished As the Eternal Cowboy followed from Fat Wreck in 2003, and after a DVD (We’re Never Going Home) and another 7″, the band returned with their most mature effort to date, 2005’s Searching for a Former Clarity. A subsequent headlining tour in support of the introspective and politically aggressive album saw the band proudly hitting every U.S. state. They signed to Sire Records in December 2005 and were back on the road by spring 2006 opening for the Alkaline Trio. That summer found Against Me! on the main stage at Warped Tour, their first time on the festival. Though the guys were officially now on the roster at Sire, they released the live album Americans Abroad!!! Against Me!!! Live in London!!! on Fat Wreck in August 2006. Recorded while on tour in London with Murder By Death, it harnessed the band’s notoriously invigorating live show as well as any album could.

Against Me “Don’t lose touch”

Ellis Paul

Friday - April 20th, 2007 - $12

Ellis Paul is one of the leading voices in America’s thriving singer-songwriter/ folk circuit. He was a principle leader in what has become known as the Boston school of songwriting, an urbane, literate folk-pop style that helped ignite the folk revival of the 1990s. His charismatic, personally authentic performance style has influenced a generation of artists away from the artifice of pop, and closer towards the realness of folk. Though he remains among the most pop-friendly of today’s singer-songwriters - his songs regularly appear in hit movie and TV soundtracks - he has bridged the gulf between the modern folk sound and the populist traditions of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger more successfully than perhaps any of his songwriting peers.

Yet to hear him at this crossroads moment in his career, you would think he was just getting started. For years, he has been among the folk circuit’s most popular and dependable headliners, with a mailing list of over 20,000 fiercely loyal fans. He has released 11 CDs, and recently explored new media avenues with a documentary/concert DVD called “3,000 Miles,” and “Notes from the Road,” a critically acclaimed book of poems and stories.

Ellis Paul “Black Top Train”

Explosions in the Sky (at the Alcazar)

Performing at the Alcazar Monday - Mar. 12th, 2007 - $10

Explosions in the Sky was formed in Austin, Texas in 1999, originally called Breaker Morant. Hrasky is from Rockford, Illinois, and the rest of the band hails from Midland. They quickly gained a reputation for themselves among other established local bands such as Lift to Experience. Their label, Temporary Residence Limited signed the band on the strength of its demo - submitted by fellow Austin band The American Analog Set with a brief note saying “This totally fucking destroys.”
They also garnered a small amount of media attention as a result of their second album, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever, due to rumors linking it to the September 11, 2001 attacks, a rumor the band denied in interviews. The album art shows an airplane with the caption “This plane will crash tomorrow.” The belief arose that the album was released on September 10, 2001, adding to its coincidental mystique, but this belief is incorrect. The concept for the album art originated in 2000, and the album was released August 27, 2001.
Their music was used extensively for the soundtrack of the 2004 Peter Berg film, Friday Night Lights.
Their song “Remember Me as a Time of Day” was used extensively throughout the pilot of Friday Night Lights (the series) on 3 October 2006. Episode two featured “Your Hand in Mine”.
Explosions in the Sky has had two songs from The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place “Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean” and “Your Hand in Mine” played in the background of a Cadillac commercial.
Explosions in the Sky has finished recording their next album, entitled All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone. It has six songs, ranging from three to thirteen minutes each. The artwork, again by Esteban Rey, is completed.[citation needed] The band recorded the album in Minnesota in August with John Congleton. The album is due for release in February with both a one disc version as well as a two-disc special editions featuing remixes by artists such as Eluvium and Adem.

Explosions in the Sky Live

Hammell on Trial

Friday -Feb. 2nd, 2007 - $8

Bad ass singer/songwriter, joke-telling Hamell On Trial defies all musical categories. “Punk acoustic” and “anti-folk” come close. Warbling, super-sensitive folk singer he definitely is not. If you’re looking for cum-bye-yah by some soft-strumming, tearful folkie, Hamell On Trial is going to offend you. On stage his raw, bold energy has Rolling Stone magazine calling him a “homicidal Otto Preminger.” On more than one occasion, opening act Hamell On Trial sent the headliner band, with all its Marshall amplifiers and Les Paul guitars, running for cover. “I’m a rock and roll show. Period,” Hamell says. “I love Iggy and the Stooges, Lou Reed, the MC5. Folk singers bore me. Insincerity incites me.”

Hamell on Trial Live

Enter The Haggis

Tuesday - Jan. 16th, 2007 - $10

Since its conception in 1996, Enter the Haggis (ETH) has built an international touring and recording career based on its unique approach to Celtic-based music and high-energy performances. After the success of 2002’s ‘Enter the Haggis -Live!’, the group teamed up with JUNO nominated producer Joao Carvalho (Slainte Mhath, Pilate, Hawksley Workman) to record its fourth album, ‘Casualties of Retail’ (2004). The result is a strong album and a sound that ETH can call their own.

‘Casualties of Retail’ features the catchy bluegrass-fusion singles “Another Round” and “Gasoline” as well as driving Celtic-rock instrumentals that showcase the group’s arranging and performance talent. The music is primarily a fusion of Celtic, bluegrass and rock, however, elements of Latin, blues and funk can be heard throughout. The instrumental, “Congress”, combines a traditional Irish reel played on electric guitar with Latin percussion as well as a section in which drum sticks are played on acoustic guitar. “Whereas on our earlier records we didn’t spend a long time in the studio, we recorded ‘Casualties of Retail’ over two months” says the group’s bassist Mark Abraham, who originally got a taste of Celtic music while growing up in Cape Breton. “Taking our time gave us the opportunity to experiment, getting everything exactly the way we wanted it. We also worked with some amazing guest musicians.

Enter the HAggis Live

Inspire Me! - Short Film Festival

Dec. 7th, 2006
Free

Go to FLeshprofitsNothing.com for more details

JJ Grey (lead singer from MOFRO)

Friday & Saturday - Dec. 8th & 9th, 2006 - $18

That warm, slow, southern, drawl. Words flow out of my Granny’s mouth like butter. Like many a southerner, she can also sit quiet and play the dumb one, never let on for an instant that behind those smoldering eyes she’s already read you like a newspaper. Her little tin roofed, heart pine, asbestos sided ‘cracker’ house sits here — an island in the high piney woods of north Florida.

I’ve lived all my life beneath the watchful eye of these towering oaks, long leaf pine, cypress and cabbage palms. These red clay roads blistered out to sand by the intense Florida sun, these tea colored creeks warm and full of fish, these beautiful gardens full of whatever seasonal crop we’ve laid down. These old chicken farmers who helped raise me have given me so much more than a place to hang my hat. They’ve given me a home, they’ve given me roots and honestly that has as much or more to do with who I am musically as any of the songs I’ve listened to growing up.

The heartbreaking southern ballad or the festive juke house romp. The joy to watch the butterflies beautiful dance in the summer sun by day or the mysterious fireflies by night, and then the hole it leaves in your heart, the sorrow, when they’re seemingly gone forever. The pain of walking this hard earth, and then the thrill of feeling your bare feet on the ground. The greatest inspiration of all.

These men and women who sing, whose voices move me, whose songs tell me the stories of living, loving, hating, hurting, healing and dieing. Lord I hope I do them proud.

- JJ Grey

Mofro Live Video for “Fireflies”

Cheryl Wheeler, Melissa Kauttu

Friday - Dec. 1st, 2006 - $15

If your idea of a folk singer/songwriter concert is a bunch of people clapping politely after songs, and then sitting quietly while the performer says things like “This next song is about …”, well, you’ve never seen a Cheryl Wheeler concert before.

Cheryl’s concerts are more like what you would find at a comedy club than expect to find at a folk music concert. She will tell a story that has you rolling in the aisles, and then sing a song that leaves you wiping tears from your eyes. She will talk about some serious current event, and then sing a song that will have you howling with laughter. Her entire concert is a emotional roller coaster.

Her set list used to be a crumpled piece of paper with a bunch of song titles. She has improved on that. Now she has a picture of her border collie James in a plastic holder with the set list written on a piece of paper tucked behind the picture. After each song, she’ll look at the list and decide what to do next. If somebody calls out a request, and her guitar is in the right key, she might try it, even if she hasn’t done it in a while. If she has two sets back to back, she almost never does the same (or even similar) group of songs.

Her funny stories between songs show as much diversity. Each time she tells a story, it will be a little bit different, so even if you’ve heard it before, you still find yourself laughing.

Cheryl Wheeler snippet from a live performance of one of her joke songs