Behind the Scenes: Ed Stoner
A 200-capacity beacon for local musicians and touring alternative and hip-hop acts, the Blue Lamp this month marks a decade in business at Alhambra and N Street in Sacramento.
Lending the club the same name as their (since-closed) San Francisco club, brothers Ed and James Stoner transformed what had been the Club 400 topless bar into an open, concrete-floor space where the women's restroom gets used by more than just the employees.
Ed Stoner, an amiable 38-year-old who plays a little guitar himself, explains how the venue has stayed in business 10 years.
What distinguishes the Blue Lamp from other clubs around town?
We make music the main focus of our business. Some places don't even have a stage or a sound system. They just have (the band) set up in the corner and play. We are always trying to make it more professional.
Are people coming out regularly to hear live music despite the economy?
It's really fickle. Some shows are like nothing's ever changed, but on other nights, it's like, "What's going on here?" On top of the economy being bad, the music scene is a little run-down. … A lot of the younger kids coming up aren't bar-band material but more house-party (material). That, and some of the bands who were headliners are just getting older, and they really have to buckle down and get a job or focus on their families.
Do you ever hear from patrons of Club 400?
Yeah (laughs). In Sacramento, guys still want to go to the first bars they ever went to, no matter what they are! And we get the phone calls still.
What are the phone calls about?
Whether we are having a midday "show." I (also) get the calls from the girls looking for audition nights.
You have the same phone number as the strip club?
Yes, we bought the whole business, including the phone number. Having the same phone number has been more helpful than not. … (But) you would figure when people call and you answer "Blue Lamp," it would be a big indicator that it is not the Club 400 anymore.
Source: www.sacbee.com
Rock: '95 percent … is attitude'
Evan Daly helps Camille Renaud, 11, of Davis adjust her keyboard. Cecilia Harris, 14, of Davis plays guitar beside her.
Davis' RockBand University offers young musicians amplifiers, a stage and a clear mission.
"We want to create a music scene," says Mike Clements, 28, the long-haired, granny-shaded founder of the music program for aspiring shredders ages 10-18.
A privately run offshoot of a rock camp offered last summer through the city of Davis, RockBand University distinguishes itself from other kid-rock programs that sprouted in the wake of "American Idol" and the film "School of Rock" by focusing on live music rather than contests or recordings.
Operated by Clements, fellow multi-instrumentalist Evan Daly, 20, and Clements' girlfriend, Sandy Thai, 22, a recent UC Davis grad who runs the office and teaches vocals, the 3-month-old RockBand University covers everything a garage band might need to form and perform.
Grouping students together by age, instrument and musical interest, the program provides an Olive Drive warehouse rehearsal space shielded from noise complaints and offers opportunities to play in public around Davis.
RockBand University students, many of them carry-overs from the summer program, already have played two showcases and will cap the program's current six-week session with a concert Saturday at Odd Fellows Hall.
"We are trying to give them the rock experience – like, 'Oh, we played that venue and that venue,' " said Clements, who hopes to add midsession shows during the program's next session, in January.
Though Odd Fellows Hall and Veterans Memorial Center are not the Whisky or the Fillmore, performing live is performing live.
"Sitting in your bedroom and playing is a lot different than playing onstage," said Daly, who, like Clements, teaches private guitar lessons at Watermelon Music, the Davis retailer loosely associated with RockBand University. "We want to give them as much information as possible to help them become professional musicians."
As one watches youngsters rehearse on the RockBand University stage, many of them gazing at the floor in typical adolescent fashion, "professional" seems a ways off. Yet there always are glimmers of what could be, in an assured guitar solo or in the way a coed, eight-person band – called Public Indecency before its members discovered an existing band had that name – hangs together while performing "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
"You really learn to rely on your band mates" through RockBand University, said vocalist Maggie Ohama, 14, who arrived at the rehearsal space with band mates and pals she met through the program, Christian Anglin and Cecilia Harris, both also 14.
Though Anglin and Harris say the stage can get crowded with eight people – "There is no room to move, and you keep getting hit by instruments" Harris noted – all agree that playing "Teen Spirit" on a real stage, before a live audience, can feel close to, well, nirvana.
"It is the most fun I ever had," Ohama, 14, said of a Halloween show at Veterans Memorial that capped RockBand University's previous six-week session.
Frustrated that his private-lesson students weren't playing live or in bands, Clements came up with the idea for the summer program. When that proved a success, Clements "totally blew my savings and racked up my credit cards" to transform the warehouse space into RockBand University's headquarters.
Apart from its lack of beer and the presence of parents sitting on a couch watching their kids play, the warehouse space looks like a place where a young working band might rehearse. With its cheerful purple walls lined with Metallica and Iron Maiden posters, the space reflects the sensibilities of Clements, Daly and Thai, amiable young people with thrash-metal souls.
Students should know their notes when they show up. The instructors will coach them on everything else, from timing to stage presence.
"They are always telling me to put on my rock face," said Michael Carriere, 15, who on Thursday afternoon played with fellow guitarists Derek Dimond, 15, and Raymond Long, 16, as Daly and Clements filled in on drums and bass, respectively.
"Ninety-five percent of playing live is attitude," Clements said. Hence his and Daly's constant coaxing of students to wail on instruments, posture like rock stars and punctuate numbers with a triumphant cries of "Yeah!"
The instructors, in turn, ensure any youngster who wants to rock and whose parents shell out $245 will be part of a band for six weeks – even if that band is composed almost entirely of instructors.
Such is the case with drummer Davi Gabriel, 12, whose pal had to drop out of the program and whose instrument of choice is harder to place in another band than say, a guitar.
During practice Sunday afternoon, Clements played guitar while Daly handled bass and Thai belted out Green Day's "When I Come Around." Sitting behind the drum kit, Gabriel kept time while deflecting the intense focus of Daly and Clements, who at one point tried to get her to play harder by urging her to envision the snare drum as the face of a rival in her other extracurricular activity, roller derby.
"We will use anything we have at any given moment" to rouse the young rockers, Clements said of his and Daly's motivational methods.
Davi, the mellowest 12-year-old ever to play rock drums and skate in roller derby, remained unfazed throughout.
"I went through the (summer) rock camp, so I am used to the one-on-one attention," she said with a shrug as she waited outside for her dad to pick her up.
Though their students might not immediately match the instructors' enthusiasm, RockBand University, at just 3 months in, already is seeing results.
Davi, her father reports, has asked for a drum kit for her birthday. The band formerly known as Public Indecency might enter a battle of the bands early next year. Carriere, who plays his ax as often as possible through RockBand University and private lessons and who already approximates Guns N' Roses' Slash on "Paradise City," recently joined a garage band, as well.
Meanwhile, Clements, who says his primary financial goal in starting the program was "to not starve," is paying the bills while meeting his goal of cultivating a local music scene. Plus, he gets to jam regularly with Daly, Thai and his RockBand University students.
"I could make twice as much money (just) teaching private lessons," he said. "But this is more fun."
Source: www.sacbee.com
Behind the Scenes: Dal Basi
Dal Basi, co-manager of and music buyer for R5 Records and Video, has spent much of his adult life in the record business. A Tower Records employee before that chain went out of business, Basi, 42, joined Tower founder Russ Solomon when Solomon opened R5 in the former Tower location at 16th and Broadway.
In honor of the holiday shopping season, we asked Basi about the ins and outs of ordering product for an independent record store that not only exists in a big-box retail and iTunes world, but still sells vinyl and cassettes in it.
How does the music in your store differ from what one will find at a big-box retailer?
In depth of catalog. We try to not just focus on the current hits. We try to focus on catalog. … You go into Target or Best Buy and – no offense to the other record stores in town – you go to "Stevie Wonder" and there are five titles: the newest, two different versions of the greatest hits, and maybe one other title. If Stevie Wonder has 12 CDs in print, we try to order at least nine of them. … We even look for the ones that aren't in print in America.
Because you order so many titles, can merchandise sometimes sit on the shelf for a while?
Yes, unfortunately, that is the down side. To counter that, we are trying to even out our inventory with more used inventory.
How else do you distinguish yourself from big retailers?
You really focus on your customer service. You kind of have to cater to people's needs and try to accommodate them as much as possible. … We do special orders, and we don't have any service charges for them. … We try to keep the stuff (around) that you are going to want to buy if you see it. You are not going to be thinking of a (1960s songwriter-performers) Boyce and Hart title … but people buy that stuff. Sometimes I think, "I can't believe I am (ordering) two of these – I'm crazy!" Then I look (in the store), and they are gone the first week.
Does your clientele skew a little older?
I wouldn't say you could peg it by demographic. The way we always describe our clientele is people who still like to come in and buy music physically. It does tend to be older people who like to have the album or younger people who tend to view music as more than just entertainment. It is like a lifestyle thing to them. There are certain segments of every (age) group where music is still a big part of their lives. … They might be the person who spends four hours (listening to music) and only 30 minutes in front of the TV.
Source: www.sacbee.com
