'Let's put on a show.' Blake Jones gathers forces to celebrate new record, '... and still'
Plus, inside a renovated Rainbow Ballroom and a new E.P. from Elder Devil.
If Blake Jones has learned anything from growing up (and also doing music) in Fresno, it’s this: If you want something fun to happen, you gotta make it so.
“You gotta gather your friends and just like in the corny old movies, say, ‘Let’s put on a show!’ ”
Which Jones has been doing in some fashion for 25+ years.
For a year or two in the mid or late 2000s, he was a driving force for a big, bang-up showcase of local rock bands the Tower Theatre. Later, he helped organize the Fresno Urban Sound Experience (and was the idea man behind this compilation CD).
And all the while, he’s been writing, recording and releasing music with his band The Trike Shop out of his Whispermaphone home studio.
Its latest, “… and still,” was released across platforms (but also on vinyl and compact disc) on Big Stir Records on Friday and gets a proper release show, Sunday Aug. 25 at Fulton 55.
Here, I chat with Jones to get the gory details. Conversation edited some for clarity.
Let’s start with the release show.
“This party taking place at Fulton 55, will be free, early (6-9 p.m.) and include lots of performers. Along with the Trike Shop, we’ll see the Terry Barnes Trio, my daughter Chelsea Jones, the Brazen Tassel Belly Dance troupe and our good friends in Sedan Delivery (who describe their own indie-rock music as ‘four chords and a cloud of dust).’
We’ve had lots of folks play under the flag of ‘The Trike Shop’ over the last 30 years and greatly look forward to bringing the band together at our ‘Record Release Party.’ We have the wonderful crew of Mike Scott on guitar, Michael Snowden on bass, John Shafer on drums and Scott Hatfield on the keyboards.
To add to the cast of thousands, we have our sponsors Ragin’ Records and Tower District Records each bringing a few crates of LP’s for your between-bands browsing fun.”
Can we talk about the album? Maybe starting with the name, but also working through the logistics of it. I won’t have you run down the full track list, but is there a song or two that holds particular import for you these days?
“… and still” … I think you could sort of speak that phrase before every cut on this new record and it would have meaning.
Maybe it’s in the sense of after ‘this,’ or in spite of ‘that,’ or that we ‘still’ have this wonderful thing between us. Our community. Our shared loves.
I think that’s the link between the songs on this collection. It might be railing at the Proud Boys when they invaded our beloved Tower District (on ‘Fascist Bumble Bee Winter Formal’) or the whimsical look at used record stores (on ‘Used Record Stores.’)
We (all of us) continue on, and love continues on. And still…
Maybe it also refers to the fact that we’re the older guys on the scene. And yeah, we still wanna make a joyful and crazed noise just like all the rockers coming up after us. And those who had come before.
The songs ‘Record Cover Girl,’ ‘Mock Stoner Voices,’ and ‘Fascist Bumble Bee Winter Formal’ have got a lot of attention (with videos and a push from the label as singles), but the song ‘What’s Enough?’ is a key to the album for me.
It’s about identity, mortality. I think everyone relates to the question. At what point have I done enough, in my life or whatever? At what point am I a legit ‘fill in the blank?’
For me … ‘When am I a legit ‘musician’?’
We performed the song for the first time at the Rogue Festival in 2022, and a few days after that, I ended up getting ambulanced to the hospital with heart failure. It woulda made a pretty cool ‘swan song.’ … and still.
For 25+ years, our own recordings have been made in my home studio, on an antique reel-to-reel 8-track TEAC tape recorder.
It just happens to be the machine I came across when I came across it. I’m sure this has influenced our output. It gives me a chance to worry over details of the performances and the mix without having to think, ‘Yikes, I already spent all my money on the last session; that take’ll have to do.’
So, I can enjoy obsessing, I guess.
But an old machine, like an old car, has it’s quirks. If you wanna record on Track 3, you have to reach behind, and send the wire over from Track 4. Weird stuff like that.
About a year ago, my tape recorder began having too many quirks. So, I took all the tapes, the backing rhythm tracks, over to Maximus Studios, where cool guys like Ray Settle and Eric Sherbon work. We dumped all the tracks into their super modern computers, did some overdubs (lead vocals, a few piano bits, fancy guitar bits) and then did the mixing there.
I think that combo of ‘homemade’ and ‘pro ears on the final lap’ has made this our best sounding record yet.
This is your second album on Big Stir. How did that relationship come about? What is it like being on a record label after years of going the self-release route?
“Big Stir began in a parking lot, really a curb, outside a club in Los Angeles. These bands of a similar feather, would hobnob at the International Pop Overthrow Festival, these events that happened annually and featured a lot of guitar-based, melodic rock bands playing for one another in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
We all became friends over the years and thought we needed more than just meeting up a couple of times a year. Rex Broome and Christina Bulbenko (of the band the Armoires) took this to heart and started organizing things. There were monthly shows in Burbank. There was a ‘zine that lasted about two years (and was quite wonderful). There were CD’s compiling all the friend bands and their latest singles.
And then the pandemic hit and Rex and Christina dove deep into becoming a legit record label. Our last album, ‘Make’ (2018), was Big Stir Records #5. Rex told me, ‘Ah man, I wish we had that record now, because things have grown exponentially.’
And that’s how it is.
Over the last few years, what had been a pooling of everyone’s resources, contacts and energies, turned into something much, much bigger due to Rex and Christina’s relentless hustle, hope and hard work. Already, we’ve gotten 20x more attention on internet and broadcast radio, on podcasts and reviews from all over the U.S., UK, and Central Europe (and a little bit in Canada and a little bit in Brazil, no kidding). Thank you Big Stir Records.”
I know you try to keep tabs on the youngsters in the scene. Is there anyone that’s pulled your interest lately?
“Wonderful local Fresno music goes on. And still …
I keep up on it by going to the occasional gig. Recently, I’ve loved shows by Dying Suns, Sun Umbra and G.A.V. (which includes the son of my buddy Ron ‘Doc’ Morse, who was part of the first rock band I was ever part of, formed in the library of Tioga Jr. High!).”
A refresh at the Rainbow Ballroom?
As part of my work with The Fresno Bee, I’ve had a series of stories lately looking at some of the city’s music iconic venues.
This one on the old Wild Blue Yonder nightclub, for example.
This one on the Tower Theatre now that its under new management.
And now, this piece on the Rainbow Ballroom, which is in the midst of (though almost done with) a major interior renovation. The place is angling to become the go-to mid-sized venue for Fresno (pulling shows at that 1,800 capacity with standing-room general-admission requirements); our version of Sacramento’s Ace of Spades or the various theater spaces in SF.
It would be a kind of return to the late ’90s, early 2000s, when the Rainbow hosted Social Distortion, Beck, Offspring, No Doubt, Morrisey.
New music: ‘God Will Welcome Me,’ Elder Devil
Fresno grindcore band Elder Devil dropped a new, three-song EP via Bandcamp last week. It’s one of those name-your price deals, which means its free to download, if that’s your deal.
As anyone who follows the band would expect, these songs are dirty loud noise, equally dirgey and raging. The opening track carries an industrial vibe (which seems new for the band) before jumping into the blast beats. The closing track has a layered-on guitar squeal that is fist clenchingly wonderful.
10 out of 10, no notes. Or whatever the meme is.
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. This week I have a conversation with Matt Orme of That’s OK and the I Love Yous. Follow my other writing at The Fresno Bee. If you have anything you think I need to be looking at or listening to, feel free to let me know: jtehee@gmail.com