There’s no way to know what exactly to expect from Proverb Trio—the latest project by renowned Latin-Afro-Jazz drummer Dafnis Prieto—because even the band members don’t know.

The trio, performing Saturday at San Jose Jazz Summer Fest, features Prieto on drums, Jason Lindner on keys and Grammy-nominated vocalist and rapper Kokayi on vocals, is so cutting-edge that they create completely improvised, free-form songs, but are able to quickly find patterns in the music and create what sounds almost like prewritten songs.

“The whole idea is improvisation as spontaneous composition as though it was preconceived,” Prieto says. “We just look at each other and whoever feels like starting it starts. We like to stretch out as much as possible. We stretch out in many different styles or genres.”

As good as they are in creating order out of thin air, what makes it unlike watching a standard group is that every moment is completely spontaneous. The potential for anything to happen exists in every moment. In other words, it’s about as vibrant as you can get.

“It always comes out different. It’s a very exciting event, as much for us the performer, for the audience as well. They are experiencing something that is very unique at that exact moment as well because we don’t have anything planned. We are completely open to anything that happens. We cover a lot of different music and styles when we play, but always from a very personal point of view, from our point of view. We’re not trying to imitate anyone,” Prieto says.

Proverb Trio recorded an album in 2012 titled Dafnis Prieto Proverb Trio, which, like their shows, was completely made up in the studio while tapes were rolling.

As strange as the concept is, it’s really not that unusual for Prieto, who, ever since he moved to the states from Cuba in 1999, has been impressing people with his innovative fusion drumming styles, and unusual musical philosophies.

When leading his own band, he sees his role as something more than just keeping the beat. He is there to also compose music. He plays beats as though they were a melodic instrument, whether influenced by Latin, jazz, African beats, or even sound atypical to drums.

“For me, creativity isn’t a formula that you just put a little bit of jazz and a little bit of punk or a little bit of this and a little bit of that. That’s a very obvious process. It’s obviously easier, but in my way, I try to personalize that. So when it comes out it’s sincere. I’m not copying something. I internalize the music. I try to capture the meaning of it. I try to capture the essence of the music, more than just the rhythm,” Prieto says. “Sometimes I play rhythms I don’t even know where they’re coming from. It’s irrelevant to me in the moment. I am trying to convey what the music means according to my point of view.”

Dafnis Prieto Proverb Trio
Sat, Aug 10, noon
San Jose Rep Stage

ALSO READ: Make it Funky: Lyrics Born Discusses James Brown Tribute Show at San Jose’s Jazz Summer Fest

When Dan Vado first got word he would have to close his comic shop and local music venue SLG Art Boutiki on Market Street in San Jose, he figured he’d just move all the graphic novels to his garage and continue to run the publishing part of his business, Slave Labor Graphics.

But then he found a new location on 44 Race Street. He has transformed the new building into a space that is much cozier than the downtown location, plus it’s situated just off The Alameda where he’s getting more foot traffic than ever before.

“We would go days without seeing someone walk in the front door at the old place, whereas we have customers coming in here every day now,” Vado says.

The front room of the new building is now a small, but spacious, inviting retail store with graphic novels, comics, local music and oddball gifts. The back room doubles as a tiki-themed lounge and a live-music venue, which will be tested for the first time on June 29 with Art Boutiki favorites Picture Atlantic, Cartoon Bar Fight and Cold Eskimo.

Vado has already placed several couches in the lounge, and plans to install a coffee bar, as well as several shelves packed with comic books and graphic novels. “People can just come in here and buy some coffee and sit around and read comics all day if they wanted to,” Vado says.

As different as the new space is, there still remains the iconic wall of vinyl records, which is situated directly behind the stage. This time around, Vado has added a row of enlarged CD art by several of the local and national bands that played the Art Boutiki on a regular basis during the Market Street location’s four-year run as a music venue: Curious Quail, Cartoon Bar Fight, Drop Dead Sixty, Dogcatcher and Picture Atlantic. There’s even a fake jazz-style cover of Zen Zenith, singer of the now-defunct Please Do Not Fight, who was a big part of the club’s music scene.

The other side of Art Boutiki’s live-music scene is jazz. Vado brought in jazz musicians to perform during some First Fridays, which was the Art Boutiki’s busiest day of the month, and monthly jazz jams. With the new venue, he will continue to do jazz events, but he hopes to expand into even more musical genres as well.

“There’s not a lot of venues for rock music, but there’s really not a lot of venues for music beyond that,” Vado says. “Bluegrass? Country Western? Americana? Who’s booking that kind of stuff? I’d like to try to start to build an audience that will do stuff like that.”

This is just one of the many ideas Vado has floating around his head. He wants to continue to book only about three to four rock shows a month, like he did at the old location, but he’s considering adding comedy nights and shows for songwriters to play songs, and then do a Q&A with their audience explaining what inspired songs.

In 2009, when Vado started booking live music, he got a lot of different kinds of bands. He refined his booking to include mostly indie rock. The Art Boutiki really became a mainstay in the local indie-rock scene once Zenith and Picture Atlantic’s Nikolaus Bartunek started to curate the successful bi-monthly Rock Hop series, which started in 2011.

Though the Rock Hop is no more, Zenith and Bartunek are also floating around ideas for the new Art Boutiki space.

“We have a lot of plans of curating there, events that are music related, but don’t necessarily always have a band playing,” Bartunek says.

One new idea Vado has already implemented is Midtown Beat, held every fourth Friday with live jazz and local art—The Alameda’s answer to First Fridays in the SoFA District. This Friday, the second Midtown Beat will feature comic book artist Mick Gray’s work.

Vado is trying to talk the rest of the businesses in the area to participate in Midtown Beat. So far tattoo shop the Arsenal and clothing and boutique store the Usuals have joined in.

“It’s very difficult in today’s environment to sell anything because people can find it ultimately cheaper online,” Vado says. “What you need to be able to sell is an experience—a neat place to come to, a place that’s not going to chase you out, a place that wants people to come in and get into this stuff, music or comics or whatever. We’re trying to sell that experience.”

Picture Atlantic, Cartoon Bar Fight and Cold Eskimo
Art Boutiki San Jose
June 29 7:30pm
$10

Rihanna shined bright, loud and long Saturday night as San Jose played host to the pop star’s ‘Diamonds’ World Tour, a showcase of the singer’s resume of hits, theatrics and her well-groomed image as one of pop music’s leading provocateurs.

The singer, who emerged as Jay Z’s protege in 2005 and unleashed a string hits that continues to dominate the charts today, showed off the many turns of her career during the nearly two hour performance, from the cute reggae “Pon de Replay” vibe from her early years to the blunt-smoking, tattooed S&M bad girl image she promotes today in magazines and Instagram photos.

Opening in a prayer-like pose dressed in a black cape, Rihanna started with her good-girl look, solemnly singing “Mother Mary” with dancers in modest, neck-to-toe black clothing surrounded by staged ancient Roman décor.

Channeling the hardness from her most recent album Unapologetic, Rihanna moved into her next sequence shedding the cape and singing sexed-up hits including “Birthday Cake” and “Cockiness.” It was all tough and sexy business, complete with crotch grabbing and booty popping, yet withholding mystery as her outfit revealed only the slightest of skin.

PHOTOS: More Images from Rihanna’s Diamonds World Tour at HP Pavilion.

As a rock ‘n’ roll motif emerged, RiRi came out in a sexy NASCAR jumpsuit and broke out the air guitar with a rock-ified version of Ginuwine’s R&B hit “Pony” with bursts of fire warming the crowd. Musically, the band and backup singers did most of the heavy lifting until the coke-bottle songstress brought out more hits like “My Love is Your Love” and “Rude Boy.”” This time, dancers reappeared in oversized baseball jerseys, hoop earrings and baseball caps circa 1990s Mary J. Blige.

The good girl gone bad slowed it down in a red-hot dress singing the sensual “Love and Affection” off her latest album, immediately rendering a loud roar from the crowd cheering on her every body roll against the mic stand. Followed by a sequence of fast, high-energy dance dance tracks, complete with lasers. A few minutes into “Where Have You Been” the Barbadian beauty made a tour around the crowd in front of the stage, swiping audience hands and even giving hugs.

As the nearly two-hour show reached its end just before midnight, the crowd didn’t lose energy as Rhianna started her tour’s namesake “Diamonds” in an encore.

“You have truly set the bar for the rest of the tour and I’m not just saying that,” she told the crowd. “I’ve been wanting to come to the Bay for a while and now we can’t wait to come back.”

Despite relying heavily on backup singers (and possibly prerecorded tracks), the unapologetic singer gave us a big, bright, memorable show. And with so many musical merits including several Grammy’s, it’s easy to forget she’s only 25.

Saturday’s show gave us a taste of her multiple music personalities, putting us on a pop hit bender and proving she’s not slowing down anytime soon.

When Derek See and Angeline King started the South Bay R&B girl group the Bang in late 2008, it wasn’t because they had some fleeting interest in 1960s music; the project was the byproduct of a lifetime’s obsession with the golden decade.

See, notably, has been running a website for the past six years called “Derek’s Daily 45,” which presents and reviews a different ’60s/’70s 45 record nearly every day, something he does because “the music is too good to not share.”

Before starting the Bang, King sang in a ’60s girl group in Chicago called the Deccas. It was an experience she says was “far more rewarding than anything else that had ever happened to me up to that point.” Though, more revealing is an admission that she always secretly wanted to be Tina Turner.

“This is not some schlocky, make-fun-of-the-’60s kitschy band or being ironic,” King says “It’s respecting the decade, because it’s such great music, and it has such great artists.”

King’s introduction to the music of the era actually came via her father, who had been in bands ever since she can remember. He was in one group in particular called the Id that released an obscure single called “Stop and Look” in 1967. And yes, See has reviewed this 45 on his blog.

One thing King’s father never got to do was cut an LP, though he told Angeline that she fulfilled his dream last November when the Bang released their debut album, Soul Shangri-La, appropriately on vinyl.

“He couldn’t believe it,” King says. “It blew his mind.”

The album is the perfect introduction for anyone yet unfamiliar with the Bang’s music. Shimmy Soul Shangri-La displays the wide range of content the Bang uses in its live sets. The ratio of covers to original material is about 70/30. The Bang’s current crop of covers ranges from recognizable classics like “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes to completely obscure tracks that only obsessive record collectors like See and his bandmates would ever recognize.

Besides King (vocals) and See (guitar), the lineup also includes Rachel Mae Havens on vocals, Tish Peterson on vocals, Richard Gutierrez on drums, Jafar Green on bass and Curtis Meacham on keyboards.

What is most impressive about the LP is how solid the original material sounds next to the covers. Listeners without some serious archivist’s knowledge of the music wouldn’t be able to pick out which songs were written by the Bang and which were penned back in the day.

The only real giveaway is the content of the lyrics. The Bang original “Drink in Hand,” for instance, includes clever stanzas in which singer Mae describes the ways that different alcoholic beverages affect her. Otherwise, this is precisely the kind of tune that could have been penned and released by a Phil Spector–produced girl group almost 50 years ago.

What makes the Bang’s original work so effective at evoking the ’60s spirit is due, in no small part, to their fanaticism. These armchair experts own 15,000 45s and 3,000 LPs.

“There’s a criteria for songs from the ’60s: They’re short, they move, they’re interesting and they have hooks,” See explains. “It’s just getting you in the gut. Even if it’s a ballad, it’s still moving.”

They also give the covers their own personality. While remaining faithful in their renditions, they transcribe the songs with a rhythm, pacing and overall feel that fits their distinctive groove, rather than trying to play all notes exactly as they sounded in the original.

Of all the work that went into Soul Shangri-La, a good portion was devoted to the recording method. See, along with recording engineer friend Brad McGowan, worked diligently to use, whenever possible, the same kind of equipment and techniques that were used by the bands they were covering. The rhythm section, for instance, recorded all its parts live. When the girls overdubbed their vocals, they did so all at once, in the same room with only two microphones for the three vocalists, the way they did it in the ’60s.

“Every other recording situation I’ve been in, I’ve compromised my vision. But this was the first time I said, ‘No. It has to be done this way,’” See tells me. “Brad had done a bunch of research about the Motown micing techniques. He was ready, and he was in our corner and just a great cheerleader for the whole thing.”

When the Bang make their next record, they plan to record mostly, if not exclusively, original material. They’ll never stop playing covers in their live set entirely, however. As See points out, the covers have their own spin to them. They are just Bang songs.

The Bang and the Bionic Vixens Revue
Saturday, April 6
More info.

Stanford will celebrate the end of the academic year this spring with MGMT, Delorean and Kuroma at the Frost Music and Arts Festival.

The May 18 concert could mark a new tradition for the university, which reopened the Frost Amphitheater last year for a Modest Mouse “Frost Revival” concert after the venue was closed for several years.

MGMT is finishing its spring tour with the show. Tickets go on sale April 1 for students and April 8 for the public.

MGMT

Delorean

Kuroma

http://youtu.be/a_4K5QQ9dLk

Although they’re brothers, it wasn’t until 2010 that San Jose musicians Raul and Mexia Hernández made a serious attempt to collaborate. The resulting song, “Todos Somos Arizona (We Are All Arizona),” a protest against the anti-immigration law SB 1070 that had just passed in Arizona, quickly earned the duo more attention than anything either brother had ever released separately.

The song went viral after they uploaded a surprisingly simple, single-shot video to YouTube of them performing the song at their home. Raul played the keyboards and sang the chorus in Spanish (“I just want to succeed/and now they want to deport me”), while Mexia rapped in both Spanish and English, advocating for immigrant rights. They were joined by younger brother Giovanni who gave the song rhythm by beating on a trash can.

They were surprised by the immediate response. It wasn’t just other Americans frustrated by what many considered to be a racist law but the media, too. They got an email from a staff member at “Al Punto,” a popular Spanish-speaking news program hosted by Jorge Ramos, who invited them on the show.

“This was the first time we realized that what we were doing had an impact,” Mexia says.

What the producers hadn’t yet realized was that they weren’t just anybody; they were the sons of Hernán Hernández, bass player of Los Tigres del Norte, one of the most famous and politically outspoken Norteño bands in the past 40 years.

“Once they found out, that’s when it escalated a little bigger,” Mexia says. “They were like, ‘Here’s the sons of who we consider to be the voice of our generation.’”

The song’s response made it clear that they had a good thing going on together. They decided to shelve their respective solo careers and work on an album together under the moniker Raul y Mexia. The duo performs at Pagoda Lounge for a record release party on March 30.

Part of what gave “Todos Somos Arizona” a unique sound was how the brothers combined their different musical tastes. Raul has always loved hip-hop, while Raul has a penchant for writing tender, romantic ballads.

For Raul y Mexia, they wanted to continue this fusion of styles by allowing room for all the American music they grew up listening to, not just hip-hop but also electronic and rock music, while still paying tribute to the music of their cultural heritage, like banda, Tejano, cumbia and Norteño.

“We didn’t try to push too much for one thing, we just wanted it to be a fusion,” Mexia explains.

http://youtu.be/ydIVy7wqGZQ

After working with a couple different producers in Miami, they met Toy Selectah, from pioneering Español hip-hop group Control Machete, who invited them to come down to Monterrey in Mexico to work on some songs. The brothers really felt like he was the first person to understand their vision.

“Toy was the catalyst that’s been able to bridge the gaps between the United States and Mexico,” Raul says. “It was really important for us to express the music of our culture, and Toy would do that, and then add in synths and things like that.”

For the songs, they created a blueprint by first laying down tracks of traditional Norteño instruments: accordion, bajo sexto (a traditional 12-string guitar) and the double bass. From there, they would twist and pull the songs in modern ways by playing with electronic instruments and drum machines. They even sprinkled in instruments that were traditional to other Latin American countries.

“It’s a little bit of everything; it’s what America is today,” Mexia says. “You go eat Italian food, then go down the street and eat Chinese. It’s all in one spot. That’s what we want to do with our music.”

The duo also took a step back from political songwriting and focused instead on writing fun songs that tinkered with different genres. By the time they’d finished their debut album, Arriba y Lejos, they’d gotten some interest from major labels, but it never worked out.

Selectah sent a copy to Nacional Records, which is known for working with innovative and cutting-edge Latin artists. The label was very interested in the brothers, but it took a year of discussions before Raul y Mexia was signed.

“A lot of people expect because we were sons of somebody famous, that the process would be a lot easier, that the doors would just open,” Mexia says. “Yeah, we get people’s attention, but it took a lot of work.”

Part of what stood in Raul y Mexia’s way was the very fact that people knew who their dad was, and they expected them to make music exactly like Los Tigres del Norte. But being first-generation American, they’ve had an entirely different experience than their father, something they hope to explore more on their next album.

“When we got to Mexico, they can tell right away that we’re not from there,” Mexia says. “We come back home, and we face those same kind of issues. You get stereotyped, especially with this whole SB 1070 law.”

So far, their debut album, which was released in February, has already been a success, primarily with other young Latino Americans, who relate to the vast pool of musical influences with which Raul y Mexia grew up.

“Latino youth of today are pretty much open to everything,” Mexia says. “There’s really no barriers, no limits. They’re listening to Los Tigres del Norte then listening to Dr. Dre.”

Raul y Mexia
Saturday, March 30; 10pm; $10–$20
Pagoda Lounge, San Jose

It’s been three years since East Bay’s all-girl sun-pop group, the Hot Toddies, put out their last record, Get Your Heart On, released on local label Asian Man records in 2010. Now they’re back as a trio with a five-song EP, Bottoms Up, released by Tricycle Records.

Even with the slight lineup change (keyboardist Jessica left the band), Bottoms Up still delivers a similar sound—easy-breezy, surf pop songs, boundlessly catchy vocal harmonies and dry witty lyrics about fun times and sexual innuendos. However, in the absence of keyboards, the Toddies have taken a somewhat heavier, more guitar-centric sound.

It is the heaviest tracks on Bottoms Up, in fact, that are the strongest. Opener “Jaguar Love” is a female-empowering sing-along rocker about fast cars and sex, with lots of tongue in cheek humor. Even with the distortion, there’s no lack of bubbly energy to the song. Another strong track, closer “Hey Hey,” while slower, still has a heavier sound—almost a power-ballad with a slow head-banging beat.

There has been a steady increase of retro girl group rock bands since the Toddies started in 2005, but they continue to distinguish themselves from the new crop of younger girl bands by softening up their twee elements on Bottoms Up and keeping that humor deadpan. We’ll have to wait to see what sound their next full length brings.

The Hot Toddies play the Blank Club on Saturday March 30, opening for Shinobu. Tickets are $10. The show starts at 9pm.

In the scheme of things, Robert Glasper knows that winning the 2013 Grammy Award for Best R&B Album is a very big deal. But the jazz pianist’s immediate reaction in the hours after he scored an unprecedented triumph with his Blue Note project Black Radio was to fall soundly asleep.

“I flew into L.A. from Japan five days before the Grammys to produce Chaka Khan’s record. Once we won, my body just crashed, and I slept for about 24 hours,” says Glasper, 34, who plays two shows Saturday at Theatre on San Pedro Square with his Experiment as part of San Jose Jazz’s Winter Fest. “Then I went to Lagos, Nigeria for two days with Maxwell—and I just got back.”

With his serious jazz chops and love of the piano trio format, Glasper might not seem to be a likely candidate to spearhead a soul revival. But his R&B-infused Experiment, the band featured on Black Radio, is steeped in the cadences of the African American church, which is where Glasper learned to play.

His mother, Kim Yvette Glasper, was a Houston institution, a pianist and vocalist who led a soul band and played regular jazz gigs. She was also the music director at the East Wind Baptist Church, which is where Glasper started performing in public. She was killed in a double homicide with Glasper’s stepfather in April 2004.

“I was the only child, and I grew up just with her,” Glasper recalls. “She was one of those moms who didn’t want a babysitter, so when I wasn’t with my aunt, I was at a lot of rehearsals and gigs. She sang everything, and every night [played] a different kind of gig: jazz, R&B, Broadway, pop, rock. I grew up with no understanding of genre, like an iPod on shuffle. That was the vibe.”

Glasper started accompanying his mother in his early teens and co-wrote many of the gospel tunes that she recorded on two albums for Born Again Records. Another pianist who often played with her sparked Glasper’s interest in jazz, showing the aspiring teenager interesting chord voicings. When it came time for him to audition for Houston’s vaunted High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (which also produced drummer Kendrick Scott and pianist Jason Moran), the pianist taught him the Spider Man theme as a minor blues, and it did the trick.

Glasper made the move to New York City in the mid-1990s to study at the New School, which is where he met neo-soul belter Bilal Oliver, who ended up introducing him to numerous hip-hop and R&B artists. For the past decade, Glasper has maintained an enviable double musical life.

He landed a series of high-profile gigs with jazz heavyweights like guitarist Russell Malone, trumpeter Terence Blanchard and bassist Christian McBride while also leading a sophisticated post-bop trio featuring drummer Damion Reed and bassist Vicente Archer. Jazz’s most prestigious label, Blue Note, cemented his status as a rising star by signing him in 2005, the first new addition to the label in five years.

At the same time, he has sustained deep ties to the world of hip-hop, collaborating with artists such as Q Tip, Kayne West, Jay-Z, Talib Kweli, Common and, most importantly, Mos Def (a.k.a. Yasiin Bey), who hired him as music director.

He tried to bridge the two musical realms on his 2009 Blue Note album Double Booked, which he divided between his straight-ahead trio and the Robert Glasper Experiment, a quartet featuring Casey Benjamin on saxophones, flute and vocorder, electric bassist Derrick Hodge and drummer Chris Dave.

On Black Radio, Glasper stepped away from jazz to deliver an R&B manifesto featuring a host of soul-drenched singers, including Bilal, Lalah Hathaway, Erykah Badu, Chrisette Michele, Meshell Ndegeocello and East BayÐraised Ledisi (on the Grammy-nominated track “Gonna Be Alright”).

A clever play on words, Black Radio can be seen as a cri de coeur over the sorry state of R&B on the FM dial. But the title track refers to the indestructible black boxes recovered from plane crashes, using the familiar image as a metaphor for the enduring power of black music.

“It has a double meaning,” Glasper says. “When music is crashing around us, this will not burn in the flames. Good music always stands the test of time.”

Whatever side of the street Glasper chooses to play on, his music embodies timeless values, delivering a welcome dose of smart and buoyant soul.

Jose James

Other Festival Picks:

San Jose Jazz’s Winter Fest (March 6-15) brings an impressive array of talent to the South Bay over the next 10 days, though some of the best acts overlap this weekend at Theatre on San Pedro Square and San Pedro Square Market. Here are several recommended concerts. The action continues on March 15 with the Vijay Iyer Trio.

Jose James
Friday at 8pm, Theatre on San Pedro Square; $25/$30. Always on the lookout for fresh blood to join the thin ranks of male jazz singers, the scene has readily embraced JosŽ James, though he’s still in the process of figuring out where he fits. A soulful crooner, he has explored jazz tunes with pianist Junior Mance and interpreted ballads with McCoy Tyner (in a project based on the classic album pairing vocalist Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane). But his new album on Blue Note, No Beginning No End, taps into hip-hop, soul and electronica, styles he references with authority and fluidity. A real talent to watch.

Delhi 2 Dublin
Friday at 9pm, San Pedro Square Market; $25. Proving that the party music knows no borders, Punjabi bhangra, traditional Irish dance music and international electronica beats come together in British Columbia’s Delhi 2 Dublin. Originally assembled for a St. Patrick’s Day club night in Vancouver seven years ago, the Indian/Irish axis kept the dance floor so packed the musicians decided to turn the one-off project into a band.

Sean Jones
Saturday at 4pm, Theatre on San Pedro Square; $25/$30. A prodigious horn player who held down the lead trumpet chair in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra from 2004 to 2010, Sean Jones is a powerfully expressive improviser who has recorded a series of excellent albums for Mack Jazz focusing on his original compositions. Wynton Marsalis isn’t the only trumpeter who has employed Jones. When masters like Tom Harrell and Jon Faddis keep calling a cat for gigs, he’s got to be fierce.

Tony Monaco Trio
Sunday at 2pm, Theatre on San Pedro Square; $25/$30. On a scene rife with impressive young organ players who know their way around a Hammond B-3, Tony Monaco stands out as one of the very best. Championed by organ great Joey DeFrancesco, who produced his breakthrough 2001 album, Burnin’ Grooves (Summit), Monaco possesses superlative technique, sweat-inducing rhythmic drive and boundless imagination.

Mike Park, owner of Asian Man Records, has done his fair of touring over the last 25 years, whether it was with local ska-punk legends Skankin’ Pickle, the Chinkees, the B. Lee Band or with his solo material. He takes and interesting detour with his latest project: touring with popular children’s act Yo Gabba Gabba.

The tour with Yo Gabba Gabba comes to the San Jose Event Civic Center on Tuesday March 5th. We caught up with Mike to talk about the experience, thus far.

You are on a three-month tour with Yo Gabba Gabba. What exactly are you doing during the show?

I am the super music friend. The live show follows the TV format, so they try to incorporate parts of the TV show live. My segment comes in at the 15 minute mark; I play one song and then I’m done. It’s the easiest gig I’ve ever had in my life. I did one of the live shows last year and the right people saw it. When they discussed this year’s tour, my name was thrown into the mix and somehow they picked me.

This isn’t your first foray into kid’s music. Your album Smile is an accessible kid’s album that adults will enjoy listening to as well. What made you decide to get into kid’s music?

Being a dad of two young kids had me fiddling around on guitar making up silly songs. It made my toddlers smile and from there I just started writing songs. It’s a lot of fun and I hope to do a lot more of this in the future.

What have the Yo Gabba Gabba shows been like?

They’re quite surreal, to be honest. I’ve never been on a tour of this magnitude before. I get nervous before every performance, but that’s normal for me. It’s the same if I’m playing in front of 15,000 people or if I’m playing in front of 30 people. That’s what makes it still worthwhile for me at least. But it’s been a blast playing some beautiful historic theaters across the U.S. that otherwise I’d never get the chance to perform at.

How do children compare to adults as audience members?

They don’t go on message boards and talk shit about you. They’re just having fun and they don’t care what’s cool or not. That’s the big difference. I love playing music for both adults and children, but I’m having a lot more fun lately playing for kids.

Who are some of the other special musical guests that you’ve been on the road with?

Basically, the company gave me a green light to invite guests to join me on stage, so I’ve just had friends from my time in music come on out in different cities. Thus far I’ve had members of the following bands: Darkest Hour, Lawrence Arms, Big D and the Kids Table, Bouncing Souls, Suicide Machines, Lita from WWE, MU330, The Pilfers, Bomb the Music Industry, Five Iron Frenzy.

Do your kids come to see the show when you play locally? What do they think of seeing Dad on stage with Yo Gabba Gabba?

Yes, they definitely are coming to the show on Tuesday. I’m not quite sure what they think? It’s hard to gauge what goes through the mind of a 4 and 6 year old. They used to listen to Smile a lot more but these days it’s been a lot of Toots and the Maytals. Ha!

Biz Markie is also on this tour with you, right? Have you been hanging out with Biz?

He’s an interesting person. He has his blu-tooth connected 24/7 and he’s constantly on the phone and so you have no idea if he’s talking to you or somebody else? But at least he knows my name, which is more than Tom Morello after touring with him for three weeks.

Yo Gabba Gabba! Live! “Get the Sillies Out” comes to the San Jose Civic Center on Tuesday March 5th.

The last record the Thermals released, Personal Life back in 2010, was not quite the frantic explosion their fans expected. It was a downright hook-driven, midtempo, New Wave production—quite different from the unhinged urgency present on early indie-punk recordings.

The band, in fact, received plenty of emails and letters from fans addressing the album’s change of sound.

“People like this band when it’s irrational and crazy, when it kind of rails against the world,” says lead singer/guitarist Hutch Harris. “We learned what made people fall in love with this band in the first place, ’cause they told us. They definitely told us.”

Those fans will be happy to know that the Thermals are returning to form for their upcoming record, Desperate Ground, which comes out April 16 on Saddle Creek Records. And those early classic Thermals records—the first three—will be reissued on vinyl on March 5.

According to Harris, Desperate Ground sounds a lot like More Parts Per Million (2003), their first record, and the critically acclaimed The Body, the Blood, the Machine (2006), their third album. He insists that the return to the noisy, chaotic sound is unrelated to the fans’ response but has more to do with what music has been playing in their iPods.

“We’ve just been listening to a lot of the bands that we grew up with, like the punk bands we loved: Agent Orange, Black Flag. When we were making Personal Life we were totally listening to the Cure and New Order,” Harris explains.

The first single off Desperate Ground, “Born to Kill,” released Feb. 11, isn’t quite the fiery mess that characterized More Parts Per Million, but it definitely swings the band back into punk-rock territory once again. As the title suggests, the lyrics talk bluntly about death, violence and war, which are ongoing themes on the album.

“Human violence is such a huge part of all our lives. The story of human history is mostly war and violence. It’s just inevitable. It’s not an anti-war record. It’s not a pro-war record. It’s definitely right in the middle. It’s more talking about how war and violence are inevitable,” Harris says.

This isn’t the first time the Thermals have taken on specific issues on an album. The Body, the Blood, the Machine discussed religion and fascism at length, which was, in part, why critics fell in love with the album.

When the Thermals do approach political content, they aren’t so much political in the traditional sense as they are sharing their own experiences, what they’ve seen as regular people and how these issues have affected their lives.

“Too many punk bands want to preach,” Harris says. “I don’t feel like I want to tell people that this is how it is, and this is what’s wrong. We’re not trying to tell people what to think or do.”

The immediacy found on those early records was actually a stark contrast to Harris and bass player Kathy Foster’s previous band, Hutch and Kathy, which they started shortly after moving to Portland. (They lived here in the South Bay until they were 21 and played in such bands as Haelah and the Urban Legends).

They spent a full year writing and recording their one and only album as Hutch and Kathy. It’s a carefully crafted, bouncy pop record that garnered almost no attention. For fun, they pulled out their four-track and wrote and recorded several songs without the extensive planning and meticulous recording techniques: just raw and intense. These songs eventually became More Parts Per Million. It wasn’t long before Sub Pop wanted to release it.

“A lot of times when you’re making something, you’re trying to do something different than what you just did. It was like writing a song in a day, recording it that day, mixing it the next day. It was fun and refreshing to work that way, which was the opposite way that we had been working,” Harris says.

Even though capturing that same immediacy was important for Desperate Ground, they spent nearly two years writing songs for it. They tossed out a lot of songs, anything that didn’t sound just like they wanted.

“We weren’t going to rush to make another record. We were going to make sure that we were going to make a record that we really liked,” Harris continues.

Instead of a four-track, they recorded Desperate Ground at a studio in Hoboken, N.J., with producer John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth). They finished recording only hours before Hurricane Sandy tore through the region. “We were holed up in the producer’s house with no power for another four days,” Harris recalls. “We’re just sitting and drinking wine in the dark waiting for the storm to pass.”