No One & the Nobodies finish West Coast tour
By Aitor Zabalegui
Good news: Santa Clara is developing a music scene.
Capable bands are coming together, forming creative relationships and actually pressing material. These students are hard at work scrounging up money to record tracks and play shows to get their music heard so they can, well, record and play more shows.
The latest band to emerge from this rising local music scene is the modestly-named No One & the Nobodies.
The mostly all-student band consists of Thomas Hall, Mario Diaz, Stryker Matthews, Tommy Hall, Owen Watson and Hans Hsu, though Hsu attends San Francisco State University. They made their way up and down the West Coast during this past spring break, playing venues in Portland, Ore., Seattle, Los Angeles and San Diego. The band will wrap up their tour tonight with a huge show at Rickshaw Stop featuring local psych darlings Butterfly Bones and Greg Ashley, a member of the late Gris Gris.
No One & the Nobodies recently got together with Ashley, who they touted as an "extremely talented producer and musician," at his studio in Oakland, Calif., to record their debut album, "Grew Some Feet."
The warehouse studio, which the band referred to as a "ghetto barracks," left the album soaked in reverb, which helped to create the Nobodies' signature sound -- laid-back, hazy guitar, fuzzy organ and lazy, drunken vocals, which are all showcased on their first single, "Dilapidated Girl."
According to the band, the album was funded mostly by recycling cans from the area. "It's definitely a green record," remarked Hall, the lead vocalist.
The night before their first recording session, the band met and recruited keyboardist Watson. He recalled how the rest of the band invited him to join by saying, "You play keys. Come with us."
The Nobodies recently purchased a vintage Wurlitzer organ which, according to Hall, "takes three to five people to carry," and was one of the main reasons the band had to organize two cars for their tour after a fiasco involving a U-Haul and their van's towing capability.
For the most part, the band wanted their album to carry a "live to tape" sound, which was fully realized due to their happenstance recording methods.
Guitarist Diaz's solos were mostly improvised, and Watson's keyboard parts were all written just minutes before recording. The instrumental track, "J-27," was a jam Diaz had been working on earlier, but was included on this album due to Hall's absence during a recording session. The entire album was recorded in 10 sessions using analog equipment.
"Tell people to buy record players," the band encourages, as a limited vinyl pressing is on the way.
Hall claims that the entire tour was planned on his laptop during class.
When asked about the possibility of being nervous for their first tour, Hall replied, "I'm just excited." The band expressed that they were more interested in how the record would be received.
Ample projects exist on the horizon for No One & the Nobodies. They are scheduled to record an EP in May, and Hall spoke of a subsequent summer tour of the Midwest in the works.
Look for their debut "Grew Some Feet" on iTunes May 12, and check out No One & the Nobodies with Butterfly Bones and Greg Ashley tonight at the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco and on the web at www.myspace.com/nooneandthenobodies.
Contact Aitor Zabalegui at (408) 551-1918 or azabalegui@scu.edu.