Nolan Davis is RAD. How one simple idea spawned a full on music support system in Fresno
Plus, Blake Shelton brings honky tonk back to the Save Mart Center and new music from Milo Medrano.
For a decade now, Nolan Davis has served as owner/founder and all around random task guy for RAD Music, working as a support system for underground bands.
He’s released a series of sampler CDs with RAD Music, and runs its website and newsletter and for a while did a podcast called RAD Chat, (which he’s hoping to revive eventually).
He also occasionally DJs under the name “hell & u,” runs another website, Records You Should Hear (it’s exactly what the name suggests), and does band management type work, most recently with Artificial Language.
In May, Nolan hosts a celebration for RAD Music’s 10th anniversary with a pair of festival-level concerts; Sounds Heavy and Sounds RAD. I emailed Nolan about the shows and his longtime support for the music scene.
People probably know you mostly as a promoter now, but you started out doing these compilation music samplers. What was the original idea for RAD Music and how did you go about curating the samplers, especially the first ones?
“As a teenager, I was always grabbing issues of magazines like AMP Magazine or Metal Hammer, which would include free sampler CDs of bands. I would find SO much new music that way. I’ve been a sucker for that format ever since.
Back in 2014, I was working at Rasputin Music and we would get all these promotional CDs sent in to our store. I grabbed a copy of the Bay Report from Thizzler on the Roof, which was a free CD that highlighted different up and coming Bay Area rappers. I remember thinking, ‘Wait, why hasn’t someone done this for Fresno? And why not have every type of music on it?’
A few friends and I reached out to anyone we knew who made music in the Central Valley and made sure that these samplers had a really diverse mix of genres. Everyone kept saying that it was a ‘rad’ idea, so the name RAD Music just felt natural. As the music submissions came in, I just put together a playlist on iTunes and my dad and I burned and printed labels for hundreds of these RAD Sampler CDs.
A couple years later, I did a few samplers of Orange County artists with my friends in Orange County Music League. At the time, Orange County seemed like a scene that was being overshadowed by the A Market next door (Los Angeles) and that just felt relatable to how Fresno always gets overlooked.”
Those samplers are up on Bandcamp and are a cool little archive. Was that part of the thought process? Or was it really more about helping get distribution for those bands?
“I honestly just wanted to share music with people and show that these scenes can be cool, too. We would mail these CDs to record stores all over California and major cities like Austin, Nashville, Denver, etc. Basically any record store that we could find that would answer their phone.
I’m really glad we put the samplers on Bandcamp. CDs were already a novelty long before 2014. So yeah, now we get to see them as a bit of an archive.
Also, not everyone knows this, but the RAD in RAD Music stands for Recording Artist Distribution … which is kind of ironic since I haven’t done distribution since.”
When did you start the move into promotions and when did you know that was going to really be the direction of things?
“I think the summer of 2015 was when I really started to enjoy doing live events. I had done some shows with friends and booked my first tour package that spring. At some point I was just like, ‘Yeah, I love this.’”
The two things are obviously related to me. Can you talk about that, in terms of offering logistical support for the bands you admire?
The samplers were fun, but I just kept hearing these horror stories of artists being taken advantage of … especially by promoters. I wanted to offer artists a break from the promoters who do pay-to-play (which, if you’re an artist and reading this, pay to play is literally never worth it), never promote their own shows, or run off with all the money from the show. Awful stuff like that.
It also seemed difficult for touring artists to stop through Fresno. So, I wanted to be someone who could get them a show and help put ‘Fresno, CA’ on more tour flyers.
I’ve helped book tours for artists, manage their social media accounts, get them onto bigger shows as openers … anything I can do to help the artists and the scene. Recently, I’ve been working a lot with my long-time friends in Artificial Language, mainly as their booking agent, but we all wear a lot of different hats. If you haven’t listened to their new EP ‘Distant Glow,’ you’re missing out.”
Do you keep track of the shows you’ve booked? What was the first? Which was your favorite? Is there a white whale show/band you’d love to land?
“I lost track a while ago, but counting through the event pages, there’s gotta be at least 300 shows for RAD. Sounds Rad might actually be my 300th RAD show.
How many overall? I’ve got no clue. I’ve also booked shows under Numbskull Productions, Orange County Music League, Full Circle Brewing and a handful of other venues and promoters.
The first show I ever booked was with the OCML guys at The Copper Door in Santa Ana. The guys in [Fresno psych band] Style Like Revelators were on tour with Ape Machine and we added on a few other bands and some DJs I was friends with. It was a pretty mixed bill, but I feel like we made it work.
In a feeble attempt to keep it short, I’ll just list a few shows that always stand out to me as my favorites:
He.Cried.Wolf & Illudria at Strummers, Louis The Child at LF Gallery, Spite at CYC, Hotel Books at Mia Cuppa, Space Yacht at Strummers, Silent Planet at Full Circle, Artificial Language’s first show, Steaksauce Mustache at Programme Skate [in OC] and Kaonashi at Programme Skate.
As for my white whale of an artist … honestly, I think it might be Denzel Curry. He’s just one of those artists I’ve been listening to for so long. But I’d probably be a nerd and go way over the hospitality budget by filling the green room with a bunch of stuff that wasn’t on the rider.”
You always seemed to have a specific niche in the bands you booked (heavier, underground, often overlooked sub genres), which sort of plays out in both the Sounds Heavy and Sounds RAD shows. What curation do you do in your booking these days?
“Nowadays, I feel like a lot of the genres I was pushing for all these years kinda have a home in the scenes I’ve worked in. There’s a lot of great and younger promoters right now, which is what a music scene truly needs to thrive.
So, I’ve been a little more selective with what I book and I’ve been focusing a lot more on Sounds Heavy and Sounds Rad.
The lineup for Sounds Heavy focuses on exactly what you’d think: the heavy sounds of metal and hardcore that I’ve enjoyed bringing through the Central Valley.
Farooq and Reminitions are both bands that have been there since the very beginning for RAD. Then we got members in Goreshack and Avulsion who have been an influence for me long before I ever decided to book a show.
And of course it wouldn’t be a RAD show if we didn’t have some names that have yet to be added to my resume: Capra, Cold View, Last of Our Kind, and Goth Receptionist.
The lineup for Sounds Rad was curated in a way to highlight the wide range of artists I’ve had the privilege of working with over the years. I really wanted to make sure there was a little something for everyone on this bill.
I’ve been lucky enough to see my friends on this lineup grow throughout the last ten years, so if nothing else, it’ll be fun for me.
So far, the reception for this event has been awesome with ticket sales from all over the place. Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and from every corner of California.
Also, just like with Sounds Heavy, this wouldn’t be any fun without working with some artists for the first time.
There are still two more events to be announced for that weekend so stay tuned.”
Blake Shelton brings honky tonk (and county more generally) back to Save Mart Center
Fresno has long been a country music town.
The genre gets good radio support here, which means Fresno is often on the ground floor as up-and-comers move into being A-list acts.
Case in point: Blake Shelton and Dustin Lynch, who performed at the Save Mart Center on Thursday on Shelton’s Back to the Honky Tonk tour.
Both have performed in Fresno multiple times at this point, in venues big and small and otherwise. During his nearly two hour set to a full, but not quite sold-out crowd, Shelton specifically recalled the days of ole, playing in parks and parking lots (which got a cheer for at least one woman behind me, who remembered that exact show).
That was his segue in playing the old stuff, which seemed to be what the crowd was there for. It’s weird to think of Blake Shelton could be a nostalgia act.
For awhile, the Save Mart Center had a steady stream of county music’s biggest acts roll through each year. That seemed to have tapered off following the pandemic (with Regional Mexican and Latin performers filling the gap), though the arena does have a few country shows on the calendar for later this year.
Brooks and Dunn will play the arena in June, Cole Swindell will be there in July and Lainey Wilson in September.
If you want all the details about Shelton’s performance, there’s a full review up (with pictures) at The Fresno Bee.
New music: Milo Medrano, ‘Blasphemies Fly’
One could file Milo Medrano among the many unheard talents existing in Fresno.
For decades, the songwriter/musician has been consistently (if quietly) crafting songs and performing under a number of project names including King Pin and Wounded Knee and and most notably Gypsy Cab, which had good stint in the early- to mid- 2000s.
Under his solo moniker, Medrano, released two albums in 2019.
On Wednesday, he released “Blasphemies Fly,” the first single from a full album that is promised to be out soon.
The song is a 2:30 minute trumpet and piano troubadour-jazz ballad that brings to mind early-day Tom Waits. Medrano has always carried a bit of Waits in his vocal performance, but softens up on the gravel here, which adds a kind of longing that is intriguing as hell.
“Blasphemies Fly,” is up now on Youtube, Spotify and Apple Music.
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. Tonight I’ll have in studio the promoters from Great Room Shows. 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