Last week, local artist, musician and graphic designer Ben Henderson took down the plastic banner—which had hung above Cafe Stritch’s main entrance for more than a year—and replaced it with a hand-painted sign featuring the venue’s name and logo. Next week, the first of three shows booked in coordination with “boutique” production company (((folk YEAH!))) will kick off at the SoFA bar and restaurant. And in September, Cafe Stritch will host the two-night C2SV Local Music Showcase, featuring a handful of San Jose indie bands, including Darto, Dinners and No Maps.

Those three events may seem unconnected, but to Maxwell Borkenhagen, artistic director of Cafe Stritch, they are all indicators of something much larger: a resurgent live music scene in downtown San Jose.

As far as Borkenhagen is concerned, it’s impossible for any city to have a thriving arts scene without great live music. And as artistic director of Cafe Stritch, Borkenhagen says he feels it is “his responsibility” to try his damnedest to resurrect the “glory days” of the ’80s and ’90s, when bands like Sublime, Nirvana and Green Day played at legendary venues, such as The Cactus Club, Ajax Lounge and F/X.

“The music thing is key to me,” Borkenhagen explains. “Music is my life, it’s my passion.”

He doesn’t want to live in a place without it. Nor does he want to move to find it. He is fiercely loyal to his hometown. “I’m from San Jose, I live in San Jose, I want to live in San Jose,” he says. “We’ve got huge potential. We just need to show a lot of the people that live in the suburbs surrounding San Jose that it’s worth going downtown.”

Since Borkenhagen’s family rebranded the space formerly known as Eulipia, he has been working tirelessly to book shows that not only bring patrons through the door, but which also carry a certain level of cultural cachet. “I want to show the world that San Jose doesn’t suck,” Borkenhagen says—straight faced, without the slightest hint of irony. The idea is to get people stoked about going out to see live music in San Jose again.

That means bringing in national, critically acclaimed acts, such as Built to Spill—who played a blistering “secret” show at Stritch last April—as well as working with the taste-making  (((folkYEAH!))) Presents production company, which has booked three highly anticipated shows at Borkenhagen’s SoFA restaurant and bar this month, featuring Sonny and the Sunsets (Aug. 13), The Fresh and Onlys (Aug. 19), and The Entrance Band (Aug. 25).

It also means championing local talent, which is why Borkenhagen, is working in coordination with C2SV (Creative Convergence Silicon Valley) to present two nights of local indie and punk, Sept. 12-13) at Cafe Stritch.

The C2SV Local Music Showcase will feature Darto, Dinners and Plume on Friday, Sept. 12.

No Maps, Breathing Patterns and Li Xi will play on Saturday, Sept. 13.

Each night of the showcase will provide a peek into the diverse array of young indie bands coming out of the South Bay—proving that in a region better known for cover bands and DJs spinning Top 40, there are still plenty of musicians pushing themselves to create new and interesting tunes. There’s the artfully fractured noise- and post-rock of Darto and Breathing Patterns, the chugging, fuzzy indie of Dinners and No Maps, the bouncing, poppy, garage-punk of Plume. Li Xi—the only non-San Jose band in the bunch—crafts reverb-soaked, psychedelic beats of Li Xi.

Borkenhagen is very excited about the upcoming (((folk YEAH))) shows. “I’ve been a huge fan of Folk Yeah for a long time,” he says of the production company. “The bands that Folk Yeah works with are my dream bands that I’d love to book and work with and play in San Jose.”

He’s also pumped on the great local talent he’s been able to book at Stritch since it opened last March, as well as the support he’s felt in the community for live rock & roll shows. “There’s a lot of like minded peope in San Jose right now that realize that if you don’t like where the culture is at, you’ve got to build something,” he says, adding that he is keeping his fingers crossed that the trend continues. “I don’t know why so much is happening now, but it definitely feels like we’re on the rise again.”

Brothers Damien and Eric Wendel are harnessing the power of YouTube to promote San Jose’s music scene with a new online series called “Different Spaces.”

For the last year and a half, they’ve been recording videos of San Jose bands in the space above Café Stritch. The videos are shot with multiple cameras, with professional audio capturing the live performances with no overdubs.

“San Jose has good bands that people don’t hear about,” says Damien. “These good bands don’t get a lot of exposure partly because they are from San Jose. The SJ music scene is disparate and divided. We hoped that making these videos would help spotlight the talented bands that are making music here and would help them connect to different fan bases as the styles and geographic locations of the bands that are a part of Different Spaces change.”

Ironically, the name “Different Spaces” references what they thought would be a primary element of the videos—that they would shoot each video in a different location. But thanks to Maxwell Borkenhagen, co-owner of Café Stritch, they were able to do many recordings in the former home of SoFa Lounge, which was at the time simply collecting dust. But now that Café Stritch is open, that space is no longer available, and they have to return to their original concept of filming bands in different locations. They have also moved away from the original idea of only filming San Jose bands, though locals will always be a highlight.

Some of the bands they’ve shot videos of include the Record Winter, Amonie, Breathing Patterns, and Ugly Winner.

With the instant availability of studio manipulation and infinite overdubbing possibilities, a lot of the current indie bands have lost the rawness that was standard in the late 80s/early 90s lo-fi era. Froadz continues that tradition with all the elements of an experimental guitar-driven post-rock outfit, while still maintaining that raw underground sound.

Formed last year in San Francisco, Froadz sticks closely to the rules of the power-rock-trio format with some nice subtleties. The guitarist plays soft arpeggios and quiet strumming while the bassist and drummer give the songs a steady driving rock beat—but never overpowering the guitar’s sparkling notes. Froadz are deconstructing post-rock, stripping away the excessive texturing and reformulating it into the simplest terms possible, but their rawness comes not just through simplicity, but from bringing back a sense of jamming and organic dynamics to the indie-rock sound.

Froadz play at the Blank Club on October 3 at 9pm. Admission is free. Dream House and Breathing open the show.

A four-piece comprised of Takashi Makino, Maxewell Borkenhagen, Todd Flanagan and Nick Lopez, Ugly Winner’s latest album Inside Your Wave will be available on 180-gram vinyl, a testament to the band’s commitment to sound.

The San Jose-based band celebrates the release with a record release party at Black and Brown this Saturday, July 21st, with Dinners, Hazel’s Wart, and Breathing Patterns. We checked in with Takashi for an interview before the show.

What’s this new album about? What were you major influences when writing the songs?

I tend to tell myself that this album doesn’t have a specific meaning or influence, but that’s not true. The meanings/ideas are scattered and so vaguely documented/written down that it took me a while to understand mostly what this album’s general meaning would stand for.

Inside Your Wave, for me, is about what has happened or is happening to me and what I’m surrounded by, specifically in the past few years until present. The most personal of personals is what this album is written about, and also the changes and growth any person can go through. Being truthful and understanding, whether it hurts feelings or you end up being alone. So the meaning is vast, from heartfelt aches, health, not partying and holding the door open for a stranger.

I think for everyone in the band this album means something different and unique. This doesn’t concern the instrumentation side, just the words. Instrumentally, we all have are own influences that shapes the way we play as individuals. It ranges from old folk to punk to classical and old Reggae.

Where did you record the album?

The record was recorded entirely at home sweet home.

Did you stick with your sound on your new album or did you guys experiment with different setups and sounds?

We did stick with our band sound, for the most part, but tried to sound bigger for this album. There is some minor usage of melodica and organ synths for a couple songs, but all and all we stuck with our usual set up. We also acquired a second guitarist, Maxewell Borkenhagen to play lead parts and share rhythm.

You’re doing a tour in early August. What’s that going to look like?

Our tour in August is starting off here in California and going through Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and consists of 18 shows. Playing in different cities is one of our favorite things to do as a band. It’s definitely a refreshing way to travel and see the country. Hopefully we’ll be able to do a second tour in late fall/early winter further out East but we’ll see.

You guys are the band most associated with the Gingerbread House.  Where is that 7^th Street sound going? Starting with the Unit Breed, up to you guys now and everything that came in between, that little block south of Keyes has produced a lot of quality music. Why do you think that is?

I think we’re most associated with the Gingerbread House because our bass player Todd Flanagan lives there and curates all the shows that are thrown there. Timing and location has been the main factor of why these shows have existed.

In one house, Joe Demaree threw shows at a rehearsal space for a handful of years where Unit Breed practiced. Some amazing shows have happened with bands coming through on tour from all over the country/world. After Joe moved, Todd began doing the same thing in the house next door as an alternative to going to bars and clubs to see a live show, and it kinda just continued form there.

It really just came down to them willing to open up their home for bands to come in and express their craft. San Jose has been really lucky to have it as a venue. As far as where that 7th street sound is going, not sure, but it’s going to continue to make some noise I’m sure.

Where do you see the SJ music scene heading?

The indie music scene only has room to grow in San Jose and I see it doing tremendous things in the years to come. There’s some awesome music around, musicians seem pretty motivated right now, bands are taking things into their own hands, and that’s when things get interesting. We can only wait and see what the future will hold for this little big town.

You guys play some unique venues, Do you see the idea of a standard “music club” diminishing, or will traditional venues always play an important role in live music?

There will always be music clubs and traditional venues and there is nothing wrong that. As far as us playing at unique venues, we enjoy that side of it because we like playing for all ages and there is a lot of freedom and creativeness that comes with playing at DIY events, galleries and houses that are based more on supporting each other’s projects.

Our record release show is being held at Black and Brown. They’ve always been very supportive towards artists and musicians, local and touring, and we love what they’re doing as a business & gallery. We want to support them as well, and so for us it’s the most ideal space to host this show.

Ugly Winner performs Saturday, July 21st, 2012 for a record release party at Black and Brown 7:30pm. Admission is $5.