From the archives: East Side Indian's 1994 self titled album

Plus, Haunt returns to Fresno (a concert review) and who will be in the second class of the Valley Music Hall of Fame?

One sad fact about scene-specific music is that it tends to get lost to time.

Either you just had to be there, out at the clubs where the music was being made, or you had to be lucky enough to have held on to whatever record or tape or CD your favorite band may have released at the time.

Because mostly, those things end up a in box in someone’s attic or garage (trust me as someone who still has CDs of his high-school ska band tucked away somewhere).

Then again, we’re living in a great time for the musical archivists, because those old albums can be found, easily digitized and shared. See: the long-lost album from IG88 or the East Side Indians 1994 self-titled release, which has just been made available on Bandcamp.

“I was talking to Anthony Bustos over the weekend and we were talking about the good ’ol days (ha ha), and we thought we should make the album available since we both get people asking about it from time to time and it’s long out of print,” says Rich McCulley, who started the band with Bustos in 1989.

“We were tired of the rock music that was on the radio at the time. We wanted to do something more raw, just rock n roll. We were listening a lot to The Rolling Stones, Black Crowes, The Cult ‘Electric,’ and U2 ‘Rattle and Hum’,” he says.

“It took awhile to get the right guys. The line-up on the album was the longest running and the version who did the most gigs, all over California and the best Fresno spots, Club Fred, The Wild Blue.”

The 10 track album was recorded at Wolfsound and features Bustos and McCulley, along with Peter Wolf, Shawn Gatlin and Gary Skaggs.

Haunt, Allied Forces tour, @strummer’s, 4/30/22

It’s been two years since Haunt has played a hometown show.

They returned Saturday night for a packed (though not ridiculously packed) show at Strummer’s.

It was a stacked lineup of retro-tinged heavy metal.

Saber opened the night with a set of sunset-strip sleaze rock. Think Motley Crue before the bio picks and celebrity status, back when they maybe seemed dangerous.

Traveler and Screamer filled the middle slots representing an international contingent of traditional metal enthusiasts. The former came down from Canada, the latter was visiting from Sweden. Both brought a kind of double guitar attack and Priest-meets-Maiden vibes (in the vocal pitch especially). It was good from some head banging, first pumping sing alongs (even if you didn’t quite know the words).

Haunt was exactly a good as you’d expect from a band returning home after busting its ass every night out on tour for a month.

Meaning, quite. The band played tight, was high energy furious and fast.

While Haunt is certainly bred from that new wave of traditional heavy metal (and carry the aesthetic down to the bullet belts, ripped jeans and high-top sneakers), the band’s catalog is elevated by Trevor Church’s playing and songwriting. The music is riff-laden and driven by speed, yes, but also punctuated by Randy Rhoads style guitar solos and a some heavy pop sensibilities (on “Beautiful Distraction” for example).

Haunt’s seventh album will be available in digital formats May 14. Physical copies drop July 1 on Iron Grip/Church Recordings.

Valley Music Hall of Fame teases its second class of inductees

The Valley Music Hall of Fame is installing its second class of inductees, though we don’t quite yet know who made the list.

The official announcement is slated for May 22 with a presentation at Fulton 55 that includes performances from Dying Suns, Heavy Weather, Cody Allred Band, Screaming Eagle and Ujal Gummi. The show starts at 5 p.m.

For those not following, the nonprofit had been in the works for several years before announcing its inaugural class in 2021. There was a televised presentation and everything.

The first five inductees represented a timeline of the music scene stretching back to the 1940s and offer a reminder of what an influential place the Central Valley once was and can continue to be (and included Audra McDonald and Dick Contino, among others).

Any thoughts on who might make the second class?

Reminder that this is as much a community action as anything and nominations for the 2023 Inductee Class are open now. The deadline to submit is December 31.

That’s it for this week. Remember you can now hear me on the Homegrown Show Sundays at 8 p.m. on New Rock 104.1 FM. If you have anything you think I need to be looking at or listening to, feel free to let me know: jtehee@gmail.com