Head for the fallout shelters, the Atomic Aces are set to ignite a fiery explosion of upbeat, down and dirty rock ’n’ roll. “You’ll want to dance to our songs,” explains Mercy Vasseur, lead singer and debutant of the Aces. “They’re a nice fusion of different things for every age group.” And there might just be something to this. Atomic Aces dissect elements of country, rockabilly, and Western swing, only to splice them together with the best parts of rock and punk. The result is a blaze of hip beats and head-nodding twang, showing the young kids something new and giving the old timers a flash of something familiar.

Pianist Robert Edward Thies revisits the past
When most children were dreaming of becoming firefighters, doctors and astronauts, 4-year-old Robert Edward Thies was aspiring to be a classical musician.

On Oct. 2, the now 39-year-old distinguished pianist will help kick off the Santa Cruz Symphony’s 2010/2011 season with a concert called “Out of this World,” which will showcase three pieces, two of which inspired him as a young boy.

Thies will play George Gershwin’s jazzy “Rhapsody in Blue,” a composition originally written for the Paul Whiteman Band, which has held a special place in his heart since childhood. While he has been given the opportunity to perform the piece on several occasions throughout his career—this will be the third time this year. To him, it never gets old.

Standing in the center of Metavinyl, the record mecca in Downtown Santa Cruz owned by drummer Jonathon Schneiderman, the first thing the four members of The Terrible tell me is that they’re not really much of a band. Qué? Friends who’ve been jamming for a decade, they don’t play shows very often (a handful this year) and they don’t really practice (“I’ll practice the day of the show onstage at the Blue Lagoon,” guitarist Nick Gyorkos laughs, referencing this week’s gig). Like a space rock vampire that emerges after long bouts of sleep to clench audiences with a piercing attack before retreating, the hard-driving quartet may not take itself seriously, but listeners do. Plus, lining the wall behind the guys is a big clue that begs to differ with their claim: a slew of copies of The Terrible’s new record, their brown cardboard sleeves screenprinted with art by Stacie Willoughby and neatly wrapped in plastic. There are 300 limited-edition prints of the record, with a 21-minute haze of throbbing psychedelic rock on each side ready to melt your player needle, and it’s the impetus behind The Terrible’s performance with Mammatus and Indian Giver at 9 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 1 at The Blue Lagoon.

Deakin crafts tunes, and more, on his own
In certain circles, Animal Collective is a veritable god-like force, essentially unassailable critically for creating some of the most important experimental music of an entire generation.

Conversely, member Josh Dibb (aka Deakin, coming to the Brookdale Lodge on Tuesday, Sept. 28 with supporting act Price Rama), doesn’t have the kind of confidence you’d expect of a prophet. However, he does have at least one thing in common with Jesus Christ.

“Carpentry, I think, has been my other really big source of money and work, aside from music,” says Dibb, recalling his days as a set-builder for what he calls “off, off Broadway” productions in New York City. This was during a time after dropping out of Brandeis University in Massachusetts, a decision that clearly still weighs on him.

With so many street performers on Pacific Avenue hacking their way through played-out classic rock covers, it takes a unique sound to even catch my attention. Take, for instance, Matador: I’m still captivated by its music almost two years after I first saw the duo perform. With Mathew on guitar and Dorota strumming the violin, both going only by first name, Matador formed by chance when Mathew was couch surfing at a mutual friend’s house. “It was just random,” says Dorota. “[We] happened to be at the same place on the same day.” That meeting resulted in the two writing music the very next day. Three years later, they are still at it. “Writing music is kind of like a science experiment,” Mathew states. “We start with a little piece and then we work on it,” explains Dorota. “We’ll try it a billion different ways until it grows into a complete mess, then we bring it back.” With this method of controlled chaos, Matador unleashes a river of melody that’s hauntingly beautiful one moment and dangerously explosive the next.

Owen Ashworth reflects on 13 years as Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
"I don’t think I’m a particularly good interview,” laments Owen Ashworth about halfway through my interview with the purveyor of indie electronic act Casiotone for the Painfully Alone—coming to the Crepe Place on Wednesday, Sept. 22 with opener Otouto.

This is a half-truth. It’s not so much that Ashworth isn’t a good interview—rather, I feel like I’ve learned a great deal about the Chicago-via-San Francisco musician during our 30 minutes. His answers are methodical, philosophical, and engaging. However, Ashworth is correct in asserting that his musings are distinct (read: much headier) from other indie pseudo-stars. And I feel like this is because he knows all my tricks and secrets.

All that jazz and more
The Monterey Jazz Festival is the West Coast equivalent of a jazz Stonehenge—a touchstone that has consistently provided the world with phenomenal acts since its inception in 1958 (featuring Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie and others). Now in its 53rd year, nuzzled within the 22 oak-studded acres of the Monterey County Fairgrounds, the MJF has created a heavy weekend that defies and expands the notion of a jazz festival with a musical smorgasbord of auditory delights. For this year’s incarnation of the fest, 500 artists will share eight stages starting Friday night, Sept. 17 through Sunday night, Sept. 19. 

Jimmie Vaughan is still a blues speed racer
Getting a call from one Jimmie Vaughan on my cell phone at 8 a.m. recently had me doing a double take. “Hi, this is Jimmie Vaughan. I hope it’s OK that I’m calling this early, but I’m sitting in my hotel room with nothing to do and have time do the interview sooner if you can,” his message says after I let the unknown number hit my voicemail while brushing my teeth at home. When I checked it I had to wonder, was I awake or just groggily mishearing things? Blues legend, Vaughan is a founder of the hard-driving Fabulous Thunderbirds. The guy used to open for Jimi Hendrix—the two infamously swapped Wah pedals. Oh, and he’s the older brother and first mentor of the late Stevie Ray Vaughan. There’s more than four decades of blues and rock noodling filling his well-worn boots.

Kuumbwa Jazz celebrates 35 years
Starting a nonprofit jazz organization in a little coastal town just south of San Francisco doesn’t seem too promising, and naming it an often mispronounced Swahili word can’t be the best marketing ploy. Still, in 1975, a 19-year-old Tim Jackson joined forces with KUSP programmers Rich Wills and Sheba Burney to do just that. The project would swell into the Kuumbwa Jazz Society, the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, and decades of hosting the top jazz musicians from town and from around the globe.

In a world of disposable music in which many bands study fashion more than the songs they play, Denney Joints from the Midnite Snack has one thing to say to you: “Blow my head off with your guitar. Give me something moving, that’s how beauty should sound.” And the 26-year-old knows a little something about music. Besides being the lead singer-songwriter and guitar player for the Snack, he eats, breathes and studies music at Cabrillo College. It was there, in 2008, where he met drummer Trevor Hope (of the Vox Jaguars) and the two formed Midnite Snack, adding bassist Sam Copperman a year later and recording their first EP, Soup Samwich. “I wrote most of the stuff we play like four years ago, but I’ve been sitting on it because I didn’t have a band and I hated the way my voice sounded,” Joints explains with a smirk.