Pilgrimage

Live at The Catalyst: July 21

28 | saturday
E3 Playhouse
When: 1 p.m. Where: 435 Front St., Santa Cruz. Cost: $3. Info: 466-9033.

Jackie Rocks (JR) may be one of this town’s hardest-working local bands. Having played more than 90 gigs since they first formed in February of 2006, there’s no doubt that the six members of JR are serious about their commitment to their music. They are also all in middle school. Wait a minute—what? “Our biggest fanbase is probably first through third grade,” says Jackie Partida, the band’s frontwoman, founder and vocalist, who just turned 13 last month. Partida took to music early, finding her voice at age 3 and later, picking up the guitar at the ripe old age of 8. “I taught myself the guitar,” says Partida. “My dad had a few chords that he knew, so he showed them to me and I took it from there.” A love of music and an increasing desire to perform drove Partida to form JR at age 12. Less than a year and a half later, Partida and her band have played the gamut of Santa Cruz venues from intimate coffee shops to outdoor festivals to the cavernous Catalyst. If you’re wondering about stagefright, Partida says it’s not an issue. “I love the whole idea of performing in front of a lot of people,” she says. “It makes me feel free. I feel at home on stage.” With its growing repertoire of originals, all penned by Partida, JR’s music seamlessly folds the effervescence of pop into the badass attitude of rock ‘n’ roll, achieving a perfect synthesis of hope and angst. “Rock On” captures the unaffected euphoria of youth, with its upbeat instrumentals and lyrical tour of some of Santa Cruz’s most beloved, bohemian hangouts. “Sinking Star” kicks off with an ominously chromatic guitar and bass line, a perfect prelude to its heavy lyrical exploration of apathy and dissatisfaction. A source of inspiration to so many young minds, Partida offers this advice for her fans: “believe in yourself.” 

21 | Saturday, Moe’s Alley
When: 9:30 p.m. Where: 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. Cost: $10/adv, $12/door. Info: 479-1854.

When the eight men of local band Universal Language (UL) take the stage at Moe’s Alley this Saturday for the first time since last November, it will be the result of a simple principle—supply and demand. “There’s been a lot of community support for seeing us perform live again,” says lead vocalist and founding member Moshé Vilozny. In putting out the homing beacon to stage the band’s reunion, Vilozny literally summoned the band’s members from various corners of the Earth—workshops in Africa, studies in Cuba, tours of the Middle East and for the band’s percussionist and other founding member, David “Pacha” Alvarez, cozy, domestic bliss with his wife and new child in their newly built house in Mexico. Vilozny and Alvarez started the band back in 2002, after the two met while engaging in that timeless Santa Cruz pastime of busking on Pacific Avenue. Soon thereafter, they recruited Ethan Sanchez (bass), Jon Cavanaugh (trumpet), Joel Ford (saxophone), Nate Fredrick (drumset) and Italian brothers, Renzo (Spanish guitar) and Gianni Staiano (piano). Add to the mix Vilozny’s Israeli ancestry, Alvarez’s Mexican heritage and the band members’ shared penchant for the study of international music and you have the band’s driving appeal—diversity. “Our sound is a collective of all of the different influences and cultures in the group,” says Vilozny. Indeed, UL’s sound is a lively mélange of Middle Eastern melodies, Latin beats and chord progressions and African rhythms that fluently incorporate more traditional elements of hip hop, funk, reggae and jazz. The result—soulful, often sexy and explicitly danceable instrumentation that according to Vilozny, is the perfect device for disseminating UL’s earnest lyrical missive of peace, unity, political-consciousness and freedom. “It’s not boring. It’s not like sitting through a class,” says Vilozny. “People are involved. They get to dance. They get to shout. They get to radiate their energy. I feel like it’s more of a give and take. Hopefully, people will take home some of the messages in our lyrics.” UL will be joined by special guests Radioactive and Salif and Mandjou Koné. 

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So often, the special occasions of our lives are marked with music, from the momentous sincerity of a wedding to the casual luxury of dining out to the awkward inebriated antics of your average office party. The pomp and celebration may take center stage, but the ambiance comes courtesy of the hired band and nobody knows this better than local jazz outfit Blue C Trio. “I admit that at weddings, especially when I’m doing songs during the ceremony, I have felt a little pressure to get the mood just right,” says singer Sarah Melton. “I mean, I remember my own wedding and how important it was to have every detail right. When I can see that people are really getting into it though and enjoying themselves, it’s worth it.” When it comes to jazz, the Blue C Trio sticks to the classics, and when Melton adds her smooth, unpretentious alto to David Robinson’s playful piano and Ned Kraft’s rich, dexterous bassline, the effect is discreet elegance—simple, nostalgic, romantic. “I really like the mix of glamour and rebellion that the whole flapper and swing eras personified,” Melton says. “I mean, really, flapper girls were the punk rockers of their day, doing things that for that period in time were absolutely scandalous and unheard of. And yet they did it with such style and grace—what was racy and unruly then, became the standard for class in later decades.” The concert this Tuesday at Bocci’s Cellar will be the band’s last for some time. Melton is scheduled to have heart surgery and will need to take time off to recover. “I’ll definitely be back,” Melton says reassuringly. “I can’t imagine going too much longer than a couple of years without performing.” And to the trio’s fans: “Just thanks, really,” Melton says. “Thanks to everyone who’s supported us. I hope to be playing for all of you again soon.”

If you ever hit a Six Steps To Hell show hoping for some good, clean, user-friendly radio crap and four-chord punk, chances are you went home drunk and disappointed. For the last three years, the four men of local punk rock outfit Six Steps to Hell (SSTH) have brought Santa Cruz a no holds barred punk experience in four parts, which, as blazed in all caps across the band’s myspace page, read: “one part early West Coast hardcore, one part street punk and two parts good ol’ fashioned ass kickin’, bar brawlin’ rock ‘n’ roll!!” According to frontman Jason Graham (pictured above), whose deeply disturbed, fierce guttural growl is clearly responsible for at least the first five steps of descent implied by the band’s title, punk rock was less of a choice for the band when it came to musical expression and more of a way of life. “Punk rock is just something familiar that I grew up on,” says Graham. “Its just the life I know.” Graham’s story-driven, poetic-edged lyrics culled from personal experience, and lead guitarist Gabe House’s rich rock riffs set SSTH’s sound apart from the mainstream pop punk movement. “Our music manifests more from personal growth,” Graham says, “which ends up being more of an adult, dirty-style type of punk rock, instead of the ‘smash the state’ driven punk.” Sound compelling? Well, unfortunately you’re too late. SSTH played their last show at the Blue Lagoon on June 29th with the 29-year-old Boston punk relic The Freeze, an experience Graham describes as “amazing. What better way to say goodbye than with a band we’ve all grown up on?” As for SSTH’s epitaph, “Here lies Six Steps to Hell,” Graham says, without a trace of melancholy, “they’ve been rocking your mama’s booty since 2004.”

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