Are you sitting down? I've got some news. You should probably just grab a seat.     In July, I will be moving to Nashville, Tenn. Stop it. Please. Don't cry. It's not you. It's me. You're an angel, a snowflake. You're gonna make someone very happy one day. I'm going to miss you at least as much as you miss me. Probably more. Are we OK? You're composed? It's all good? Good. You know what I'm gonna miss more than you? Harlow's. Yeah, Harlow's. The nightclub.     ‘Cause it's awesome? To say that I like Harlow's would be a gross understatement. I used to get my mail sent to Harlow's. A little more than a year ago I went to my first show at the venerable J Street m

Five bucks. It sure doesn't go as far as it used to. What follows is a short list of things that you can purchase for $5: 1.25 gallons of gas 1.33 gallons of milk 3.875 songs on iTunes 2.86 tacos from Chando’s or 4 from Lalo's (Lalo's are better anyways) 1 foreign or microbrew at Streets of London, if it's happy hour A large white mocha or caramel macchiato or pumpkin latte or whatever the hell the kids are drinking these days .8333 $5 foot-longs from Subway ($5 foot-longs actually cost $6. It's tough all over.) A Sunday Chronicle and a bagel with butter (maybe) 3 pictures of this chick with the slogan of your choice written on her face 1 picture of that same slogan on a piece

The first time a band plays a gig in a new town can be a dicey proposition.  It often takes a show, or three, for a band to build up the fanbase that they deserve.  That first inroad into uncharted territory often results in half-filled venues without much intrinsic energy. Thursday night, Harlow's hosted not one but two bands making their first ever Sacramento appearances: Duluth, Minnesota's Trampled by Turtles and Nashville, Tennessee's The Apache Relay.  If you didn't know any better, you might have assumed that both bands had been playing here for years. The venue, owing in large part to recent triumphant appearances by TBT at High Sierra and Coachella, and in very small part to t

High Sierra Music Festival 2010 was one of the highlights of my young life, and one of the highlights of High Sierra Music Festival 2010 was Trampled by Turtles. So, by the transitive property, Trampled by Turtles effin rock, and you'd be a fool not to check out the Minnesota thrashgrass maestros when they visit Harlow's Thursday night.  "Yes, you in the back, in the "Beck" t-shirt?" "It's Billy. What, the Hell, is Minnesota thrashgrass?" "Well, Billy, I'm glad you asked. Minnesota thrashgrass is bluegrass, as played by the AK47-weilding future viking straddling the space unicorn on the side of this van." "Could you extrapolate on that a bit?" "Sure can Billy! TBT are a classic five

“Baseball is a slow, sluggish game, with frequent and trivial interruptions, offering the spectator many opportunities to reflect at leisure upon the situation on the field: This is what a fan loves most about the game.” –Edward Abbey First off, let me get this out of the way: Your Sacramento River Cats continued Sactown's ownage of all things Anaheim with Tuesday night's 2-0 victory over the Salt Lake Bees, the AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of that town in Orange County that tried to steal the Kings. Anthony "Home" Recker, who extended his hitting streak to seven games with a second inning double, had a hand in both River Cats runs. After Adrian Cardenas led off the home half

Monday was a good day for Sacramento in its suddenly burgeoning rivalry with that Disney-and-sun-soaked menace to the south, Anaheim.  First, there was the morning announcement that the Sacramento Kings would remain in town for another year, an unexpected cup check to supporters of the would-be "Anaheim Royals," which just a few short weeks ago was considered a fait accompli. Then, to add salt to the wound, your Sacramento River Cats smoked the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's AAA affiliate, the Salt Lake Bees, 5-1 on a pleasant evening at Raley Field. I don't even like writing the "A" word. Never again. Sacramento-2, Orange County's second largest city in terms of land area- 0. River

"In a lot of ways I think food is starting to take the place in culture that rock and roll took 30 years ago, in that eating has become incredibly political. And just as the street has always dictated fashions on music and other things, it's starting to happen that way in food." –Jonathon Gold, LA Weekly food critic In 2008, the Sacramento City Council, under pressure from brick-and-mortar restaurants, voted 8-0 to pass Measure 5.68, which requires all mobile food vendors to relocate every 30 minutes, remain at least 400 feet apart and close at sundown. It was, at the time, effectively a death sentence for the Sacramento food truck. If food is rock ‘n’ roll, then Sacramento is Beaumont,

It's not every day you get a chance to see the next big thing before they blow up. It's more like every fourth or fifth day. . . depending on how many gigs Walking Spanish is playing that week. This week, four is the magic number. They are playing Wednesday night at The Torch Club, following up Saturday night's gig at The Naked Lounge. Walking Spanish recently released my favorite album of 2011, "Wishbones," and may not be long for venues as small and awesome as these. Alex Nelson (lead singer, guitarist and songwriter) and the boys (Timothy Picchi on bass, Christopher Haislet on keys, Robert Mills II on drums and Thomas Gunterman on violin) put on a phenomenal, high-energy rock show,

It is a rare treat to see a band play at a venue that they have long since outgrown. On a tour filled with dates at places like the Fillmore (capacity: 1,250) and Montbleu Resort (1,400), bluegrass behemoth Yonder Mountain String Band stopped in Sacramento for the first time ever and played a nearly packed house at our very own Harlow's. Capacity? 300 and change. It was amazing. "We're gonna have some fun tonight!" frontman and mandolinist Jeff Austin proclaimed a few songs into the first of two rollicking sets. "This is the most intimate show we've played in a long, long time." As you might expect, this proclamation was met with an enormous, prideful roar from the gathered throng. I

 This Sunday Harlow's nightclub continues it's spring-long blitzkrieg of High Sierra Music Festival performers, once-and-future, with Colorado's pied-pipers of bluegrass rock, Yonder Mountain String Band. "Yonder Mountain String Band has always played music by its own set of rules.  Bending bluegrass, rock and countless other influences that the band cites, Yonder has pioneered a sound of their own."  Yonder has been a stalwart on the festival circuit for more than a decade, playing their unique brand of feel-good jamgrass for massive crowds at Bonnaroo, Rothbury, Austin City Limits, Telluride Bluegrass Festival and their own Northwest String Summit. I, and about 200,000 of my closest f

YouTube's Digitour rolled into Sacramento Thursday night, planting its two gigantic tour buses on J Street for an early show at Harlow's. The Digitour features a menagerie of the ubiquitous site's biggest musical celebrities (over 1 billion views between ‘em!). Now, I consider myself fairly Internet-savvy for a 32-year-old. I mean, I surf the interwebs ... a lot. My myriad of Facebook friends, many of whom I've never met, would probably say too much. I have a blog that I haven't updated in eight months. I know about both "Charlie the Unicorn" and "Charlie bit my finger." I've created numerous memes of varying quality. I've even had a taste of Internet celebrity. I'm plugged in. Or so I

or·gone n. A universal life force, a cosmic unit of energy, the creative force in nature. Orgone n. A banging nine piece soul/funk ensemble from Los Angeles. A staple on the festival circuit (High Sierra Music Fest, Moe.down, South by Southwest, Jazzfest, to name a few) Orgone has opened for the likes of Al Green and Sharon Jones, and toured with the Roots and Greyboy Allstars. "With a rooted sense of funk, soul, afrobeat, deep rhythms and an intimate understanding of dj culture as well as each others' individual talents, Orgone seamlessly slides through multiple styles and dynamic performances. The group continuously injects whatever they play with a heavy brand of raw funk power." (or

Friday night your Sacramento River Cats hosted the Tacoma Rainiers in the second game of their season-opening four-game series. Though the air was warmer than it had been during Thursday night's opener, the home team's bats were much, much colder. Blake Beavan and four Tacoma relievers combined to hold the River Cats to just four hits while striking out 13 in a 3-1 Rainiers victory. Cesar Jimenez (1-0, 1.2 IP, 3Ks) picked up the win. The Rainiers wasted no time getting to Sacramento starter Guillermo Moscoso. Dustin Ackley led off the game with a single to right, Greg Halman reached base on a fielder’s choice, and then Matt Tuiasosopo crushed a ball that center fielder Matt Carson couldn

"The coldest winter I ever spent was … Thursday night at Raley Field" –Mark Twain (would have said had he been at the game last night) Your Sacramento River Cats opened their 2011 campaign on Thursday night, hosting the Tacoma Rainiers at the Frozen Tundra formerly known as Raley Field. To the delight of the home fans, who came out in droves in spite of the less than ideal (straight up Arctic?) conditions, the River Cats came out swinging, pounding out all 13 of their hits and six of their runs in the first five innings before coasting the rest of the way to a 6-2 victory. After the team wasted a pair of first-inning singles by Erik Sogard and Chris Carter, the bottom half of the River C

Chris Robinson Brotherhood played a show at Harlow's on Tuesday night in front of an exuberant and packed house. CRB consists of the eponymous once and future Black Crowes frontman, Neal Casal (Ryan Adams) on guitar, Adam MacDougall (Black Crowes) on keys, George Sluppick (Robert Walter's 20th Congress, JJ Grey and Mofro) on drums and Mark "Muddy" Dutton (Burning Tree) on bass. This was the eighth show on their spring-long pilgrimage throughout the Golden State, and I went into it not really knowing what to expect (other than a great show).  As of this writing, youtube only has two videos of CRB, and one of them is a Black Crowes song.  I arrived at Harlow's ten minutes before 9pm, and

Chris Robinson, the lead singer of blues rock legends The Black Crowes, wasted little time finding a new gig when the band went on hiatus following a six-night run in San Francisco at The Fillmore in mid-December. The Chris Robinson Brotherhood will be in town Tuesday night to play a gig at Harlow's. It will be the eighth night of a whirlwind 33-show spring tour of California that started last week. Joining Mr. Robinson in The Brotherhood are Neal Casal (Ryan Adams) on guitar, Adam MacDougall (Black Crowes) on keys, George Sluppick (Robert Walter's 20th Congress, JJ Grey and Mofro) on drums and Mark "Muddy" Dutton (Burning Tree) on bass. The band’s sparse website features a couple of d

The Sacramento Lady Lions, the official cheer squad for the Mountain Lions UFL team, held their final team tryouts Friday night at Dream Ultra Lounge. The event bore little resemblance to last month’s preliminaries, which were six hours long, closed to the public and held in a barn in Rio Linda. The finals had a party atmosphere, befitting the locale. The public was welcome, so the 51 hopefuls were supported by friends and family as they vied for the 32 spots on the team. When I arrived at 5:30 p.m., there was already a line to get in, perhaps 100 strong. Dream is basically a large, square venue with an ample, curved, wrap-around bar smack dab in the middle. As you enter the club, the

Baseball, more than any other sport, is meant to be seen in person. In this day and age, football is far better viewed from the comfort of your Barcalounger, especially if your team happens to be the Niners. If you have great seats, basketball is awesome, but from the upper bowl it's hardly worth it. And basketball is a dirty word here in Sacramento right now, anyways. I would grant you hockey, but … it's hockey. Baseball is the one. It's meant to be enjoyed in the sunshine or under the lights, with all the accouterments that go with it. The sights, of course, but also the sounds, the smells and the tastes of that can only be had at the ballpark. Mmmmmmm. The tastes. I often go all wint

Zach Deputy brought his feel-good brand of island-infused drum ‘n' bass gospel ninja soul to Harlow's on Tuesday night, and it was outstanding. One of the ways I can judge how good a show was is by how sore my legs are the following morning. I'm a dancer, you see. To paraphrase the great Dave Mustaine, dancing's my business, and business is good. Tuesday night, at Harlow's, it was business time. I woke up the next morning and could hardly walk. I also think I strained my smile muscles. It was a heck of a show. I arrived at 8:30 p.m. to find Harlow's mostly empty, so I went upstairs to Momo's where folk rocker Dan Bern was finishing up his set. What an unexpected treat that was. I caug

This past summer, for the first time, I attended the High Sierra Music Festival in Quincy, Calif. It was, without a doubt, the best music festival I have ever attended. We have been lucky to have a steady flow of past and future High Sierra performers coming through Sacramento recently, and the trend continues Tuesday night. Tuesday night, Harlow's plays host to High Sierra personified, the "Gospel Soul Ninja" himself, Zach Deputy. Although I do not have the official count, I estimate that the one-man-super-band from South Carolina played 38 sets in the 72 or so hours that he graced the Quincy Fairgrounds with his presence. You couldn't swing a dead cat (or a kind-vegan-ganja-gooball, i