The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: rock and roll

  • Musician Feature: Ultramafic

    Musician Feature: Ultramafic

    HSU graduates form stoner metal band with a new ‘garage prog’ sound

    Tom Norman, Kaito Figeira and Russell Stroud make up the three piece instrumental rock band, Ultramafic. The inspiration for the name, which refers to a heavy igneous rock found in Earth’s mantle, stemmed from Norman and Figeira’s majors of art and geology.

    “We both graduated and we were like, let’s make an artsy-geological rock band,” Norman said. “Do something with our degrees a little bit.”

    In 2015, Norman and Figeira started the band. Norman plays the guitar, Figeira’s on the drums and Stroud plays the electric bass. Figeira and Norman have been in a relationship for eight years and share a home in Arcata that doubles as a space for band practice.

    Ultramafic performing a private song in their eclectic basement which doubles as jam room on Oct. 19. | Photo by Jerame Saunders

    After recording a small demo for fun, Norman and Figeira showed some friends. Under the impression the demo was from a band, they were asked to perform at a show in three weeks. Norman and Figeria agreed, but lacked a bass player. Russell Stroud was the man for the job.

    “Three weeks and a few blood blisters later we got our first gig,” Stroud said.

    Ever since, the band has acted as a cohesive unit. Producing music they call “garage prog,” it fits into the stoner and metal music categories. The added garage aspect represents their distorted, psychedelic sound accompanied by heavy, slow blues rhythms. The progressive nature of their rock is influenced by 70s and 80s progressive rock musicians such as Frank Zappa, Rush and Yes!

    “Most of our songs are five or six small songs crammed together, but there’s a flow through it and some themes,” Norman said. “We have kind of a lot of Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath comparisons.”

    Initially, the band struggled to find the right shows to play with artists that share similar music styles. But their success began in 2015; when the band found Humboldt they felt at home, becoming an immediate influence on Humboldt’s musical community.

    “We are small, but bands you would never expect to come through town, come here and play,” Figeira said. “It’s a really cool scene and it brings a lot of interesting people to this area.”

    Connections in the musical scene secured Ultramafic a six show tour across three states: Montana, Oregon and Washington.

    “Music is life man,” Stroud said. “I can’t live without music in my life. It needs to be there everyday and playing it is even better. Getting to be apart of the collective that is creating music and getting to be one of the people that not only has put in time to play, but is decent at it too.”

    The band released their newest album ‘Pyroclastic Flow’ on Oct. 31 and performed at the Siren’s Song on Nov. 2 with WitchRipper and Thundercloud.

  • Rockin’ philanthropic

    Rockin’ philanthropic

    Delta Phi Epsilon Male Beauty Pageant.

    From silly to serious, pageant contestants brought their finest swimsuits, talents and rock and roll air guitars to the Delta Phi Epsilon male beauty pageant on Feb. 24.

    The annual Deepher Dude pageant raised $714.50 this year for the the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, an official partner of Delta Phi Epsilon. The Humboldt State University chapter of the sorority also played a video created by members to uplift women and promote body positivity.

    Kinesiology major Andrew Pedroza, a member of the HSU fraternity Chi Phi, is the 2018 Deepher Dude. Pedroza sang to one of his fraternity brothers in the crowd as his talent. In addition to being crowned Deepher Dude, Pedroza also recieved a hand painted paddle, a ticket to the Delta Phi Epsilon spring formal and bragging rights.

    Pedroza said he was too embarrassed to participate last year, but decided to this year after pep talks from friends and discovering a talent for singing. He said his biggest influence, however, was his girlfriend Stephanie.

    “I did it for my number one fan,” Pedroza said.

    The pageant featured formal wear, swim wear, special talent and Q&A categories for seven contestants to show off in. The pageant theme was rock and roll, and contestants participated in an electrifying air guitar competition.

    Some contestants, such as Tayler Fant and Tracy Wright, performed spoken word as their talents with themes of women empowerment and creative encouragement.

    Wright read an open letter to the man who got his cousin pregnant.

    “You must have an organ donor sticker on your driver’s license, because your heart is missing,” Wright said through tears.

    Fant read two poems, one of which was his own.

    “Why is it always beautiful before the storm, and why do you have to be cold in order to get warm and are we alive before we are born or is that something to leave up to the Lord?” Fant said.

    Others did live tumbling, caught food in their mouths, performed a lip sync and performed a live improvised piano piece in dedication to survivors of anorexia and bulimia.

    Sam Caudill, pageant judge, alumna of Delta Phi Epsilon and the current membership development alumnae advisor, said there was a lot of genuine talents this year.

    “The singing, gymnastics and spoken word all blew me away,” Caudill said. “In the past, the talents have been more comical.”

    Though Pedroza won the crown, two other categories were available to place in. Contestant Colin Slave won Rock ‘n’ Roll King and Fant raised the most money as a contestant.

    All proceeds from the Deepher Dude pageant went to ANAD.