Why Fresno's Tower Rats might be the most, or least, punk band on the bill
Plus, RIP to Warnors Theater, Pizza and Pipes organist Ron Titus.
Fresno’s Tower Rats is the collected influences of its members; a smattering of late ’90s ska punk, indie-rock and metal, plus some alt. country, western and bluegrass.
Depending on the night, the band might be the least or most punk thing you hear at te club; equally at home opening for OG punkers like Agent Orange, or a surf garage act such Archer O.
Or the Dirty Nil, who play Strummer’s on June 21 with Daniel Romano’s Outfit.
Tower Rats open.
These are players that are obsessed with music, who love to talk shop and jam, says Nick Kennedy, who sings and plays guitar in the band, along with his brother Jesse Kennedy, Jackie Bootstraps and Patrick O’Brien.
“We like to say we’re a giant Venn diagram.”
They’ve never actually drawn the thing out, but you could probably extrapolate it from the bands they’ve been in before (Old Tire Swingers, RMS Olympic, Matyrs, Dependence, Witholder, Airplane to Nowhere, From Indian Lakes) and from the songs on its Studio 9 Demo, which will be released as a series of three singles throughout the summer.
The first single, “Carnivorous,” was released in May across digital platforms, including Bandcamp. It is a raucous metaphor of life as a meat-eating plant that seems to channel late-era Against Me.
As the name implies, the songs on Studio 9 Demo were originally slated as pre-production stuff; recorded and produced at the band’s studio space as a proof of concept for promoters.
But as the band started playing live and getting enthusiastic response, it became clear they needed to get something released sooner than later.
“Had we understood from the beginning this would be released, we would have done some things differently,” says Jackie Bootstraps, who shares guitar and vocal duties in the band and served as engineer for the demo.
“We were well rehearsed,” Jackie says.
“We just went through the songs and got the good takes.”
Follow Tower Rats online at: towerrats.com
RIP, Pizza and Pipes, Warnors Theater organist Ron Titus
If you passed Warnors Theater earlier this month, you may have seen its tribute to Ron Titus, who died May 5 at the age of 89.
For decades, Titus served as theater’s go-to organist, performing on its Robert Morton pipe organ. He was also well known around town and played for the after-dinner crowd at Pizza and Pipes for more than a decade.
Note to self: Find out more about Pizza and Pipes.
Titus also played at Fresno Falcon’s hockey games (“Three Blind Mice” every time the officials came out on the ice, according to his obituary), at Fresno City College graduations for more than two decades and at every church he ever attended.
Here’s a video of Titus playing the organ at Visalia’s Fox Theater in 2016.
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 and 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