The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: Band

  • Femme Fronted: local bands to check out

    Femme Fronted: local bands to check out

    By Mia Costales

    Jude Daughdrill playing the drums and Jack Hallinan playing guitar with Porcelain Dog at Richards’ Goat Tavern. Photos by Paige Main

    Picture this: you’re mindlessly scrolling through your Instagram feed when you stumble across a repost of a hand-drawn show poster and the words, “DM for address.” After a quick pep-talk to the reflection in your mirror, you muster up the courage to DM the account and get the address for quite possibly the greatest night of your short 16-year-old life. As you walk up to the door you are instantly hit with the smell of American Spirits, PBR and a gaggle of grown men who are way too old to be hanging out with teenagers. 

    The music is great and you’re right—this is probably the best night of your life. But you can’t help but feel a little out of place in the sea of mustached, rolled beanie, American traditional tattooed guys that will inevitably ask you if you’ve ever listened to Sonic Youth. The unfortunate truth is that this may sound all too familiar to femmes. Luckily, Arcata has a small but mighty music scene. While there is always room for improvement, there are a handful of queer and femme musicians that are putting in the work to make the scene safer and more inclusive for everyone. Here are two Arcata bands who are diversifying the scene and putting on damn good shows while they do it. 

    Porcelain Dog

    Porcelain Dog is the indie three-piece composed of guitarist Jack Hallinan, drummer Jude Daughdrill, and bassist and singer Vivian Spear. The self-proclaimed loser-rock band has made strides in the Arcata music scene, playing house shows, local venues, and even playing a live set on Cal Poly Humboldt’s very own student-ran radio station, KRFH. Spear has been open about her queer identity and has actively encouraged other queer femmes to join the scene on platforms such as Instagram and KRFH.

    “I think Arcata is probably better than most places,” Spear said. “It’s such a small scene. I feel like we all look out for and support each other. I just wish there were more queer girl bands here. I know there’s a lot of creative queer femmes here, I think we’re just more inclined to feel self-conscious about putting ourselves out there.”

    Spear attributed iconic femme musicians such as Kathleen Hannah of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, and Kim Deal of Pixies and The Breeders to inspiring her openness to vulnerability in her songwriting. 

    “I held myself back for so long because I felt not good enough,” Spear said. “Now that I’ve been in this band for six plus months, I know that I’ve been ready for a while. If you feel you have something to say or just want to play then go for it—you’ll pick it up along the way.”

    Heart Eyes

    Heart Eyes, the feminist queercore punk trio, is bringing back the gritty enthusiasm of 90s riot grrrl, but with a modern twist on the genre. Members Kianna Znika, Lexi Takaki, and Milo Lorence-Ganong aim to make music with punk and emo influences that portray an authentic depiction of the highs and lows of the queer experience. Local scenes can be a breeding ground for casual misogyny and bigotry. However, Heart Eyes have used these experiences as inspiration for their songwriting and hope to expand Arcata’s scene to be as inclusive as possible. 

    “It’s been hard to overcome being labeled as a ‘girl band,’” Takaki said. “We are a punk band regardless of our gender and identities. We want to be seen as musicians in the local scene, not a token band because of our perceived gender.”

    The band also encourages fellow queer and femme musicians to reach out to them and get involved in the local scene by making connections with like-minded people. 

    “Go to open mic nights and local shows, talk to musicians you like and make connections,” Lorence-Ganong said. “Your unique perspective as a femme or queer person will be appreciated, don’t feel the pressure to cater your artistic message to a wider audience. Maybe most importantly, just do it! Even if you are new to music, even if everyone else in the room knows more than you, even if you can’t afford nice equipment, don’t be intimidated. Your creative spirit is valuable, and don’t let anyone have you believe otherwise.”

  • Molly Tuttle inspires a packed Van Duzer

    Molly Tuttle inspires a packed Van Duzer

    by Carlina Grillo and Brad Butterfield

    “She makes it look easy, but I assure you – it is not,” banjo player Kyle Tuttle said to an audience of over 800 packed into the Van Duzer theater on Saturday, Oct. 7. Tuttle was referring to the guitar-phenom standing center stage who had sold out the venue, Molly Tuttle. The Tuttles were joined onstage by stand up bassist, Shelby Mea, and mandolin player, Dominick Leslie, calling themselves Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway. For over an hour, Molly and her band put on an absolute clinic of bluegrass musicianship to a unanimously captivated audience.

    The night began with opener Cristina Vane who detailed the hellish 37 hour drive that the performers recently made from Nashville. She clarified that it was the most beautiful hell you can be in.

    Vane’s set consisted of skillful guitar playing, stellar vocals and ultimate confidence on stage. Her style of music both tipped the hat to traditional country, folk and bluegrass, while remaining distinctly unique with a contemporary sound. It would have been a tough act to follow, had the next performer been anyone other than two-time International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) guitarist of the year, also the first woman to win the award, Molly Tuttle.

    Photo by Brad Butterfield. Molly Tuttle sings to a packed Van Duzer theater on Oct. 7th.

    Molly’s booking at the Van Duzer theater is in large part thanks to Michael Moore Jr., the Associate Director of the Gutswurrak Student Activity Center and the lead of the Centre Arts program. 

    “Molly is early in her career and she’s really on the rise right now,” Moore said. “This is mostly a community show, there are some students here and it’s over 10% students, so it’s not like it’s a small number, but it’s mostly community.”

    Tickets to the show were free to all students currently enrolled at Cal Poly Humboldt. Allison Hair had a fun time despite the low student turnout.

     “I love Molly Tuttle,” Hair said. “I think she’s really beautiful and talented. I was kind of sad there were no students here, but I had fun.”

    Tuttle learned to play guitar by ear, only receiving a formal education in music when she enrolled in Berklee College of Music. Once the crowd had been warmed up, the bassist and mandolin player exited the stage for the Tuttle duo’s rendition of “San Francisco Blues,” which Tuttle described as a universal feeling. 

    “I got the San Francisco blues / Now there’s nothin’ left to lose / I can’t afford the dues and so I’m leavin.”

    In another ode to the Golden State, Molly Tuttle and the Golden Highway played a cover of “White Rabbit,” originally written by the San Francisco band Jefferson Airplane. While the song may not seem suited for a bluegrass cover, the band captured the essence of the song with brilliant musicianship and uninhibited vocals from Molly, who has also won IMBA’s female vocalist of the year for the past two years. 

    Photo by Carlina Grillo. Molly Tuttle closing up her performance without her wig on.

    An undeniable aspect of Molly’s performance and music is her acceptance of, and strength to share her experience with alopecia, an ailment which causes hair loss. 

    “I was inspired and moved to tears when she took off her wig before performing ‘Crooked Tree,’” said Jennifer Trowbridge, an accomplished guitarist and professor teaching music classes at Cal Poly Humboldt. 

    Not only did Molly hit each note perfectly throughout the performance, her band also played exceptionally well, continually weaving in and out of lead parts with ease. It was a special night to be in the Van Duzer theater and Molly’s confidence and conviction were infectious.

    Among the many empowering songs in Molly’s setlist was a song called “Side Saddle.” 

    I said I don’t wanna ride side-saddle / Side-saddle, side-saddle / I just wanna ride bow-legged / Bow-legged like the boys.

    “This song resonates with me as a female guitarist and teacher,” said Trowbridge. “In the CSU system, there are over 40 guitar instructors and only two are women.”

    Before her final songs, Molly told the packed theater that she was going to let her hair down and subsequently tossed her wig onto a chair lit by a spotlight. The band circled around a singular microphone and closed the show to an entranced audience.

    “She sang powerfully and looked like my imagination of a chic Amazon[ian] warrior,” Trowbridge added. “She absolutely glowed. As a woman, I felt proud of her strength and courage to share it on stage,” said Trowbridge.

  • Europe comes to Arcata: Italian duo Dumbo Gets Mad plays the Richards Goat Miniplex

    by Valen Lambert

    Originally printed April 12, 2023

    The Miniplex is jam packed as usual, tinted with the glow of liquid light show visuals. The crowd is chattering when the band’s first note lands like a meteor and their set blooms open like a flower, filling the room with lush synthy reverberations, distortions, and psychedelic riffs that immediately send the crowd into a dance party.

    Italian psyche pop duo Dumbo Gets Mad, has over 400,000 streams on Spotify. They made their way to the Miniplex on March 30th for an unforgettable night of astral funkadelia during the tail end of their U.S tour. The band is led by Luca Bergomi and Carlota Menzonni accompanied by touring musicians. 

     Unfortunately for the musicians, most of their gear was stolen in Vancouver a few nights before. The German krautrock band Sea Moya, who they’ve been touring with, was able to share their instruments for the rest of the tour, with promoters providing drums. 

    “Some of that gear was really hard to come by,” said Bergomi, lead singer and guitarist. “But that’s all in the past. Good vibes and keep on.”

    Bergomi, dressed in a gray suit akin to David Byrne’s from the Talking Heads only more fitted, looks more like a young businessman than the lead of an internationally acclaimed experimental psych-pop band. He’s a long way from home in a room full of Carhartt. 

    The band’s last album came out in 2021, but Bergomi has had a project in the works and even snuck a secret new song into the setlist. The band is famous for their 2013 album, “Quantum Leap,” that sports tracks like the popular indie anthem “Indian Food” and the surf rock bop “Before Kiddos Bath,” both of which were played at the show. Bergomi has been finding inspiration for the new album in works of art.

    “What is really inspiring to me is paintings,” said Bergomi. “I love French surrealism, impressionism, expressionism.”

    It makes sense in the way that Bergomi produces experimental sonic compositions through many layers of texture and sound that paint the air with song and are lively enough to keep you dancing. Synthesizer covers of the pianist Debussy by the composer Isao Tomita have also been a big influence for Bergomi lately. Of course, the movie “Dumbo” was another big inspiration behind the beginning of his musical project and the band’s namesake.

    “It comes from the scene where Dumbo gets drunk with the little mouse,” said Bergomi. “It was a memorable scene from my childhood. Like, psychedelic scene. Pink elephant turns gray. That was the scene that made me realize how powerful psychedelic music is in your mind. The soundtrack of that scene was beautiful.”

    It’s the bands’ first time in Humboldt, and they definitely delivered despite our small town vibes. The energy between the crowd and the musicians was electric and palpable, and the show got wrapped up in a final frenzy of psych-rock crescendo and moshing. For a band that’s usually great to play relaxing on the beach on a sunny day, they got a sardine-packed room to groove and played a show that left everyone beaming for days afterwards.

  • Local bands rock the Gutswurrak

    Local bands rock the Gutswurrak

    by Ione Dellos

    Band members wait in front of the bathrooms, eyes anxiously fluttering from the stage to the growing audience in the Gutswurrak Student Activities Center. After the deepest sigh one could possibly take, they make their way to the stage and prepare their set. It’s Local Band Night at the SAC. Humboldt’s local bands overcame their nerves and brought the good times to the stage.

    Starting the night off, local duo Cowboy Daddy took to the stage. Composed of lead vocalist and guitarist Skye Freitas and drummer/keyboard maestro Conner West, the two have performed as Cowboy Daddy for a little over a year. They work well together, always looking to each other while on stage. They lock eyes to land the ending chords of a song, or to check on each other mid-set.

    This was Freitas’s first live performance in over a year, but aside from temporarily losing her guitar pick, the performance went off without a hitch. She soon discovered it in the right hand pocket of her jacket.

    “The right is always right,” Freitas said.

    Photo by Abraham Navarro | Shaggy Joon’s guitarist and vocalist Lily Worthington sings at the Gutswurrak Student Activity Center on April 28.

    The second band to perform was Shaggy Joon, composed of local duo Lily Worthington and Grant Apicella. Worthington plays guitar and sings, and Apicella backs them up from behind the drumset.

    They came up with the name for the band in Worthington’s dorm room, and they’ve been playing together for about a year. Complicated strumming patterns and rapid chord changes are handled without a sweat when Worthington is on stage, and the assured confidence with which they handle a guitar are nothing to point a finger at. Worthington dedicated one of the songs to their girlfriend.

    “If you got somebody you love, pull them tight,” they said.

    They encouraged the crowd to dance a little slower to the song. Concert attendees locked hands and exchanged loving stares as they swayed gently, the gentle guitar riffs and bubble lights setting a dreamy mood.

    Shaggy Joon closed out the set with “2 a.m.,” one of Worthington’s favorite songs to perform live. They thanked the remaining audience for sticking around until the end of the show, and began to pack up their things. Despite the small crowd size, most attendees stuck around until the end of the night.

  • Music Department returns to rehearsals

    Band, symphony and orchestras proceed with in-person instruction this semester

    While the world remains in lockdown, music lives on. Students attending Humboldt State University have returned to in-person music classes where they can rehearse without the complications of connecting online.

    Professor Dan Aldag teaches two classes face-to-face, jazz orchestra and jazz combo. Although students have returned, he says the jazz orchestra isn’t entirely in-person.

    “We’re doing a reduced instrumentation of what we would normally do,” Aldag said.

    The transition from 17 people to nine resulted in a significant difference in musical quality. Music depends strongly on how many people and which instruments are present. Changing those factors can change the orchestra’s sound entirely.

    With such limited numbers, students and professors alike miss social aspects of classes.

    “I miss the folks that aren’t here,” Aldag said. “The nature of the jazz orchestra is that a lot of people play in it multiple semesters and multiple years, and so it feels like we’ve got people missing.”

    Like the rest of HSU, in-person orchestra have restrictions and precautions like wearing masks, covering horn instruments and taking breaks outside to let air refresh.

    “We’re used to having two straight hours of rehearsal and instead we go for 30 minutes then take a 15 minute break, and then another 30, and another 15 minute break so rehearsals feel a little choppy,” Aldag said.

    Less rehearsal time for students can negatively affect their performance. Since student musicians had their time cut short last semester, finding the time and space to practice has been a challenge for students.

    Kayla Rodenburg, a senior at HSU, hasn’t had an opportunity to practice and felt out of tune with her instrument.

    “We haven’t had the time to practice, so me going back now I’m really rusty,” Rodenburg said.

    Rodenburg is in the Humboldt Symphony and practices in person with her string trio. She’s still getting the hang of learning music online, especially with the symphony only meeting once weekly.

    “During COVID, it’s pretty different because we have to go online and record quick tracks so we can have everybody playing,” Rodenburg said. “The winds and brass and everyone that plays an instrument that you have to blow through, we can’t practice with them in person.”

    Music is strongly dependent on the people surrounding you as you play, and it’s harder to learn music without hearing the other musicians. Those in the Symphony who cannot join in-person join through a Zoom meeting.

    “There used to be more from the community, but a lot of them are more elderly and maybe they just don’t want to be in person right now,” Rodenburg said. “It’s a few of us but we make it work.”

    Joel Costello, HSU freshman, plays in the HSU Jazz Band twice weekly. Students meet when they’re part of a song that’s being rehearsed, however, with in-person instruction coming to an end in early Nov., that likely won’t last long.

    “It’d be cool if the school could find a way for there to still be in-person wind ensembles,” Costello said.

    Outside of group rehearsals, Costello currently practices in his dorm room. He said he felt noisy at first, but eventually realized he didn’t have any other choice.

    “Practice rooms is just too much of a hassle with pandemic requirements,” Costello said.

    The practice rooms are only open in certain buildings a few times a week, and students are struggling to get enough individual rehearsal done.

    Musicians are operating in a different reality, practicing music in dorm halls that are silent from a lack of students, little time to play with other students, limited ways to learn new music and a lack of community between musicians.

    “All in all, I think everybody is doing the best with the hand that we’ve been dealt,” Aldag said. “Hopefully we’ll be back to normal sooner rather than later.”

  • CT Bombers Explode on Arcata’s Music Scene

    CT Bombers Explode on Arcata’s Music Scene

    Garage-band veterans rock Humboldt with their psychedelic sounds and brutally honest themes

    The CT Bombers are a local band consisting of best friends Wyatt Brenner, Willem Kernkamp, Delphin Browne and Quonton Waull. Brenner and Kernkamp play guitar while Browne and Waull play double drum sets.

    The band formed in July 2016 after finishing high school in Temecula, California, where they grew up together and played in numerous bands over a span of 10 years.

    After high school, some members of the band relocated to different states, but the separation was short lived. They all eventually ended up in Humboldt and reformed the CT Bombers. Since then, the band has consisted of alternating guitars, drums and vocals to create a garage and psychedelic rock influenced sound.

    “The common theme is just spending a lot of money really,” Browne said. “People want to say it’s not about the money, but it is. That’s just the blunt truth.”

    The band says the Arcata music scene has been overwhelmingly supportive. Even though the band travels to many different areas, Kernkap says they have yet to find a place as unique as Arcata to display their musical talents.

    “The Arcata scene is really, really good for live music,” Kernkap said. “People love to dance and people love new ideas. No one here is stuck up and everyone just wants to dance and everyone doesn’t care if you’re weird. I don’t know what it is, but you don’t get that anywhere else. At least not where I’ve been.”

    Brenner is the mastermind behind orchestrating their music and boasts his songwriting contribution.

    “I think we thrive more as a live band than as someone you find online. Our internet presence isn’t nearly as big as our chops on the scene.”

    Willem Kernkamp

    “I learned how to lucid dream, “Brenner said. “And would go into my lucid dreams and just write songs. It sort of all comes together when I bring it to them. They’re the glue, you know? We record, we mix, we master, we send the masters to a pressing plant. Then we make designs for album art.”

    They release their music as physical copies, but also on streaming services such as BandCamp, Youtube and Soundcloud.

    “I think we thrive more as a live band than as someone you find online,” Kernkamp said. “Our internet presence isn’t nearly as big as our chops on the scene.”

    CT Bombers played at Richard’s Goat on Oct. 18. The band will also be releasing their second project with a music video. The name couldn’t be released, but will consist of new material and will be released on most streaming platforms. In addition, they’ll make physical copies through a label created by Brenner.

    “We have a label thing that we release our stuff through, just ourselves,” Brenner said. “We call it DataRoomRecords. So we have a website and we will do cassette tapes.”

    Along with the release of new material, music videos and shows, the friends have experience touring alongside other bands.

    “We haven’t done CT Bombers yet, but we’ve been meaning too,” Brenner said. “I think we are going to plan something for the spring.”

    Overall, the band has been more than just shows and money to the four friends.

    “It’s nice to be in a real band that actually does stuff, and it’s really fun,” Waull said. “I used to think music was very straightforward and you got to get paid and instant gratification. But I’m learning with these guys, they are showing me that it’s more than that. It’s something we can all be around and do.”

    CT Bombers has their EP, “Tsar Bombas” on their BandCamp.