Ventura Music Photos: July 2016

Posted on July 3, 2016 by venturarocks

Music Under the Stars at Historic Olivas Adobe – July 30, 2016
Queen Nation

Members of Queen Nation with Pam Baumgardner, Loree Price, Eve Mimiaga & Tammy Mullins

Four Brix Winery – July 29, 2016
Kelly’s Lot

W20 at the Watermark – July 24, 2016
Alastair Greene

Tequila and Taco Music Festival – July 24, 2016
Metalachi

Surf Rodeo – July 17, 2016
Raging Arb and the Redheads (Photo credit: Felix Cortez)

Surf Rodeo – July 16, 2016
Hy Brasil

Surf Rodeo – July 16, 2016
Spencer the Gardener

Surf Rodeo – July 16, 2016|
The NaVaNaX

Pam Baumgardner (Ventura Rocks) interviewing Shayne Mihalka (The NaVaNaX)
(Photo Credit: Elizabeth Rodeno)

Surf Rodeo – July 16, 2016
Herbal Rootz

The Star Lounge – July 15, 2016
Whiskey Stone

Margarita Villa – July 10, 2016
The Swillys (Photo credit: Maggie Ramos McKinney)

The Wine Rack – July 7, 2016
Ian Soloman Duo with Hans Ottsen

Squashed Grapes – July 6, 2016
Sheldon Brown (Publisher Ventura Breeze), Bobby West, and Pam Baumgardner (Owner VenturaRocks.com). Photo credits: Rich Barth (VenturaCountyJazz.com), and Jack Lee.

: Sheldon, Bobby & Pam

: Bobby West

Downtown Ventura – 4th of July Street Fair – 2016
Raised on Vinyl and UnUsual Suspects

: ROV

: Unusual Suspects

Grapes and Hops – July 2, 2016
Doug Pettibone w/ Herman Matthews

Ventura Rocks in the Ventura Breeze – 6/22 – 7/5

Posted on June 20, 2016 by venturarocks

Ventura Music Scene
“American Roots Alive in Ventura”
by Pam Baumgardner
VenturaRocks.com
Pam@VenturaRocks.comRoadshow Revival is finally here the weekend of June 25 and 26 and will once again will be held at Mission Park downtown Ventura. I asked owner and found of RSR, Ross Emery, about the shift away from a tribute to the Man in Black and he told me, “The change to Roadshow Revival came about after much consideration and moving away from restrictions and monetary investments with the JR CASH estate (I was authorized to use the Johnny Cash Music Festival name on an annual basis). The Emery Family decided to open up the branding to a celebration of American Roots Music; so we’re now celebrating and showcasing influential music in the 21 century!”

Some of the acts to look for at this year’s Roadshow Revival include John Doe, The Paladins, The Blasters, Robert Gordon, James Intveld, along with local favorites The Vonettes, Jackass, Hard 6 plus a dozen or so more bands. Along with top-notch rockabilly, outlaw country/American Roots music you can check out the awesome Kustom cars and bikes, a Pin-up girl pageant, tons of vendors and a kid’s corral. Get more information and tickets at RoadshowRevival.com.

The City’s 41st annual Fourth of July Street Fair continues this year starting with a Pushem Pullem parade followed by over 300 arts and crafts, vendors, food booths and music. The City is expecting 30,000 residents and visitors this year. The music line up on several stages includes Rhythm 805, Tom & Milo, Raised on Vinyl, Bar B and the Ranch Hands, the Unusual Suspects, Caliente, and the Iron Mountain Boys. If you want to beat the parking the City will be offering a free bike corral on California Street at Santa Clara as well as free shuttle service from the County Government Center.

The Mighty Cash Cats are making their fourth trip to the Emerald Isle this Summer, as The Pullmen return for their umpteenth tour of France.

Ones to Watch Productions have added additional shows for their showcases at Grapes and Hops on Main Street, downtown Ventura. You won’t want to miss the Doug Pettibone Band when they play there on Saturday, July 2. As you may know, Doug Pettibone has toured with Jewel, Tracy Chapman, Lucinda Williams, Marianne Faithful and more recently supporting John Mayer on lap steel and guitar.

Sunday Punk Rock Party for June will be held on Sunday, June 26 at Sans Souci with Conquer the Martians, Public Enema, Hymen Blasters and the Schadenfreuders out of Portland, Oregon.

And finally, congratulations to Mark Masson for tying the knot. Mark’s band, Shaky Feelin’ has been racking up the views on our Ventura Rocks YouTube channel. The next band in the studio to be featured on Ventura Rocks at CAPS Media will be The NaVaNaX!

Do you have any music related news or upcoming shows you want help publicizing? Send all information short or long to Pam@VenturaRocks.com, and for updated music listings daily, go to www.VenturaRocks.com.

Ventura Rocks in the Ventura Breeze 9/16 – 9/29

Posted on September 14, 2015 by venturarocks

Ventura Music Scene
Ventura Keeps Rockin’
by Pam Baumgardner
VenturaRocks.com
Pam@VenturaRocks.com

Michael John and the Bottom Line return this year to the California Blues and Brews Festival.

It’s that time of year again when the California Beer Festival rolls into town with several events during the week including a food pairing competition, a Craft Beer Heaven day and of course the highlight of the event the California Blues and Brews Festival on Sunday, September 20 at Mission Park, downtown Ventura. The day promises to be filled with the some of the hottest blues around on two stages featuring Walter Trout, Booker T, Mingo Fishtrap, Mr. Sipp, The Bomb and Michael John and the Bottom Line. You can get all the ticket information at www.CaliforniaBluesFestival.com. While you’re there, be sure to swing by the VenturaRocks.com tent to say hello!

Punk Rock Sunday features seven hours of punk-filled music on Sunday, September 27th with the Hymen Blasters, Cupcake, the NaVaNaX, All-a-Blur, My Modern Valentinue, Kang Gang and more. This one’s being held at the Ventura Beach Club at the very end of Main Street right before the 33 Freeway.

The Rock on the Dock series continues at the Ventura Harbor on Saturday, September 19, with the Hard-Times Band, then the following week they’ll have two days of music, first Friday the 25th with two sets at 2:00 and 4:30 with Unkle Monkey, then Saturday the 26th with Smokey & Friends. Saturday set times run 3-6 pm.

The Pullmen will be releasing their new album, “Going Dark” on October 9, then they’ll hit the road to support it with their first stop in Paris, France; but before they go all European on us, you’ll be able to catch them live at their Europe Tour Pre-party at Bombay’s on Friday, September 25th. The new release includes ten new songs featuring their high energy alt/rock thrashing country vibe which will also be available on vinyl.

Congratulations to Zachary James and Alexandra for tying the knot earlier this month up in Oakland, California. The two have been supporting each other the past few years musically speaking with their bands, Zachary James and the All Seeing Eyes, and Alexandra and the Starlight Band.

And finally, just a head’s up that the good folks at CAPS TV have approached me recently to talk about hosting a music program highlighting local bands and I’m happy to report the project has been given the “Green Light!” More to come as we close in on our debut episode, but we will feature Ventura music news updates, we will have local photographers sharing their favorite photos of live music, and we will have bands and solo artists in the studio performing along with a Q&A session. If you don’t have cable, the programs will be available online, and soon, we plan to offer live streaming. Yeah, this is going to ROCK!

Ventura Music Photos: July 2015

Posted on July 5, 2015 by venturarocks

W20 at the Watermark – July 30, 2015
Anchor & Bear

Sans Souci – July 26, 2015
My Modern Valentine
All-A-Blur

The Wine Rack – July 26, 2015
The Swilley’s – Steve and Sally Williams

The Star Lounge – July 25, 2015
Arockalypse Now

Squashed Grapes – July 24, 2015
Jerry Vivino & Friends, guest appearance by Jacob Scesney

Surf Rodeo 2015

Pam Baumgardner, Staci Brown and Mark Hartley

Pierpont Beach – July 11 – 12, 2015
Surf Rodeo

Saloon BBQ – July 10, 2015
Charles and Christine Law

Ventura Beach Club – Hi Hat Entertainment – July 10, 2015
Hot Roux CD Release Party

Peirano’s – July 10, 2015
Lola Haag & the Back Beat Boys

Sandbox Coffeehouse – July 4, 2015
Kevin Stanley

Ventura Street Fair – July 4, 2015
UnUusual Suspects
Ventura Street Fair – July 4, 2015
Iron Mountain Boys
Ventura Street Fair – July 4, 2015
Singing Valentines (for hire!)

Discovery Ventura – July 3, 2015
Queen Nation

Sans Souci – July 2, 2015
Burien (Seattle, WA)

Ventura Rocks in the Ventura Breeze 6/10 – 6/23

Posted on June 8, 2015 by venturarocks

Ventura Music Scene
Classical to Reggae
by Pam Baumgardner
VenturaRocks.com
Pam@VenturaRocks.com

Paul Chapman of UFO touring with Killer Bee

We had a few heavy hitters play through the last few weeks including Paul Chapman of UFO who has been touring with Killer Bee, they played The Tavern on June 3, and Grammy winning songwriter Jeff Silbar (“Wind Beneath your Wings”) at W20 at the Watermark for their Thursday night Guitar Pull. By the way, I looked it up and found that a “Guitar Pull” is a southern tradition where a small group of musicians sit around and take turns playing songs on a guitar. You’re welcome!

I’m getting super pumped up for Roadshow Revival: A Tribute to the music of Johnny Cash. The event has moved to Mission Park downtown and will cover two days, June 27 and 28th. Both days are jam packed with National touring acts including the Reverend Horton Heat, Billy Joe Shaver and John Doe of “X”, but both days will also include plenty of local bands such as Medicine Hat, The Vonettes, 50 Sticks of Dynamite, and Big River (yep, they’re back!). Tickets can be bought at www.RoadshowRevival.com.

9 Mile Skid will play at Bombay’s on Sunday, June 14, to kick off the Grateful Dead 50th anniversary, Ventura style that is. And you won’t want to miss the The NaVaNaX CD release party also at Bombay’s on Friday, June 19; this show promises to be off the freakin’ hook!

The Ventura Jazz Orchestra will have a concert at the Poinsettia Pavillion on Friday, June 12th with appearances by Donna Greene, Smitty West and Remington Graham. Aaron Carter’s rescheduled show will be at Discovery on Friday, June 19. Café Fiore is once again offering Reggae on Sundays.

The 69th Ojai Music Festival runs June 10-14. They have music lined up throughout the week, some events start at Sunrise, others late night (10:30 pm) at Libbey Bowl, and several of the concerts are free to the public all held throughout Ojai. Piquing my interest is the Saturday, June 13, free concert at the Ojai Valley School where world renowned artists (including Glenn Kotche of Wilco) will play the music of Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Nirvana and Led Zeppelin all on cello, electric bass and percussions. See www.OjaiFestival.org for information on all concerts, artists and pricing.

Surf ‘N’ Suds beer festival with a surf twist featuring over 50 breweries will also offer live music from Rising Son, After the Smoke and Crosscut. This event is held at the Ventura Harbor Saturday, June 13.

And finally, Ventura Music Week? It’s been postponed. I’ll get you details when I hear anything. It might happen during the Fall.

If you have any music related news or upcoming shows you want help publicizing? Send all information short or long to Pam@VenturaRocks.com, and for updated music listings daily, go to www.VenturaRocks.com .

Album Review: The NaVaNaX

Posted on June 1, 2015 by venturarocks

The NaVaNaX
The NaVaNax
Review by Pam Baumgardner
June 2015

Alrighty, they’re a tad bit obnoxious, they’re tenacious, they’re funnier than shit, and I adore them. They are The NaVaNaX. Yeah, capital N, little a, capital V, little a, capital N, little a, capital X (hence a tad bit obnoxious); they’re all about networking, promoting and social media (hence tenacious); and technically speaking, the band’s name means sea slug (so you know, they’re funnier than shit).

One evening recently over margaritas at Casa de Soria, I sat down with Shayne, Mike, Jerry and Scott to talk about the band. Each comes to the table with a family of their own, they’re productive members of society, but each with an itch to scratch, that itch being music and performing and the adrenaline that comes with creating the music they love, punk. I’ve caught several of their lives shows and these guys deliver the goods. Raw energy, an unabridged drive, intensity, commitment to the moment, attitude. The guys know how to burn off steam and they reproduce that ambition in their first self-titled release, The NaVaNaX.

The CD is full of tunes about their observations of people in their lives, which it turns out, are people pretty much in all our lives; case in point, the opening track, “Let it Go”, is a tribute to those assholes in your life, you know the ones who are always trying to one-up you; always pointing out your failures. “Deranged” is about Paris Hilton and people’s fascination with the celebrities. “Can’t See” reflects on Shayne’s uncle who committed suicide and how it’s hard for him to understand how he could not see another day. “Divisions” is about two sides of politics and humanity.

The band’s inspiration comes from all facets of life, and I have to admit my favorite is called “Dishes” where the song is about Shayne’s wife who is yelling at him about doing…well, the dishes! He refers to it as the age old battle and is stoked he got his musically talented wife, Laura to sing on it.

If you get punk, you’ll get The NaVaNaX, a band that proves growing up doesn’t mean you have to get boring, mundane or monotonous, they are everything but.

www.TheNaVaNaX.com
www.Facebook.com/TheNaVaNaX
To book: band@TheNaVaNaX.com

The guys are getting the CD placed in stores around town, but you can pick one up at their CD release party on Friday, June 19th at Bombay’s.

Surf Rodeo promo (notice Shayne’s t-shirt):