CARP ROCK
OUT WITH THE . IN WITH THE NEW.
ONLY at Dr. Neal Handel 225 W. Pueblo Street Santa Barbara, CA 93105
In appreciation to Santa Barbara for embracing
VANQUISH:
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TREATMENTS
normally $700 each
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Pleasure
Offer good until Labor Day
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To paraphrase a pal, Pleasure (pleasureus.bandcamp.com) belongs to a little-known subgenre of the musical universe best described as “patchouli metal.” A no-frills four-piece, the band makes for curious visual company at first blush. Drummer Tony Melino, bassist Taylor Hellewell, and lead guitarist Wes Wilson all look the part of a high-energy heavy-rock band: good head-banging hair, dark clothes, etc. But then there is vocalist and frontman Chris Everett, who, with his blond dreadlocks, big beard, disdain for footwear, and soft, sympathetic brown eyes, seems more a surfed-out, crystal-gazing neo-hippie than the lead vocalist and axe wielder in a band that can make your eardrums bleed. Case in point, at a Saturday-night show at the Deer Lodge in late July, Everett, who had just driven in from the woods of Mount Shasta, wandered his way through the band’s first song, prompting a cat call of “Stoner!” from the crowd. He responded with a sly and smiling look of cocked-head disbelief before laughing back, “For sure!” and then dove straight into a mojo-rising and ripping technical guitar riff that woke the whole place up and then some. That, in a nutshell, is Pleasure. “People always tell me, ‘You guys are a metal band’ or something crazy like that,” explained Everett during an early-morning interview a few weeks back. Shoeless and dressed in a poncho and short shorts that seem hijacked from 1986, he tugged at the curled corner of his mustache, “I just don’t see it that way. We are more of an old-school ’70s rock band. You know, Thin Lizzy, Blue Öyster Cult, or ZZ Top or Cactus. I guess we can be pretty fired up sometimes, and we like to play fast, so maybe that is what they are responding to.” And respond they do. Just ask the management at The Palms, who hosted a Pleasure show a while back
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HIPPIES HAVE EDGE: Don’t let the dreadlocks and sandy bare feet of frontman Chris Everett (left) fool you: Pleasure (above) makes fast, harddriving rock and roll that is guaranteed to quicken your pulse and fire up your stoke meter.
that featured everything from raucous crowd surfing and tripped-out, spinning, noodle-armed hippies to a makeshift mosh pit and one extra-zealous fan shaking a front window until it smashed.“For sure, it can get radical,” said Everett matter-of-factly. Interestingly enough, Pleasure, which originally included current Pacific Haze frontman Zach Doiron, had broken up and all but disbanded earlier this spring. Doiron was gone, drummer Tony Melino left the band due to frustrations over scheduling difficulties, a proper new drummer was hard to find, and Everett and the others were kicking the tires on different projects and interests. But then the surf world came calling. An early EP, For Your Listening …, had been discovered by Conner and Parker Coffin, two brothers from Montecito who are rising stars in the international surf scene. The Coffins had scored some of their videos with Pleasure’s tunes. Conner even showed up to jam with the boys on occasion. Then, shortly after Pleasure started fading into oblivion, Conner hit the band up requesting new tunes for a bigger film project, set to be released later this year. “It was the slap in the face we needed,” said Everett. “And we have been putting it back together ever since.”
Continued
805-312-6367
 august 7, 2014
THE INDEPENDENt
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