by Steven Sanchez
Having worked in the music industry for the past five years, I can guarantee that every person employed in the field had the same reaction I did when the pandemic happened:…s***! Once the virus hit and the lockdown went into effect, the immediate activity banned was concerts. How can it not? All those people in an arena or bunched up in a club. So the venues shutdown, and the promoters, roadies, techs, staff, and musicians were left scratching their heads. How would the music industry be able to thrive when the outlet that makes the artists and record labels money—which is touring—was eradicated?
by Steven Sanchez
What do you get when you mix the elements of intelligence, beauty, talent, attitude, drive, ambition, spirituality, and tenacity? The concoction result would be local on-air personality, actress, and now activist, Rebecah Rye. She’s the nighttime voice for 105.1 The Blaze, “Fresno’s Best Rock,” playing headbangin’ metal anthems and the traffic coordinator for the rock station and the hip hop format Q97.1.
by Mallory Moad
Here we are in the 12th week of the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying shutdown, with a return to normal—whatever that was—still far away. We’ve worked from home, done our best to keep our kids mentally stimulated without going flat-out mental ourselves, practiced social distancing on those rare occasions when we braved going out in public, and embraced facial coverings as a fashion accessory.
by Steven Sanchez
Filmmaker, editor, musician, producer, these are the many titles that shape Robert J. Thissen’s identity. This Central Valley artist has made a name for himself in Hollywood for his work as a television and associate editor on several TV shows ranging from Hart of Dixie, Life In Pieces, Rizzoli and Isles, and that’s just naming a few. He’s become a go-to from the big studios in Tinseltown, maybe you’ve heard of them, the selection being Warner Bros. Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Universal, Disney, along with others. But now he’s shifting gear and his focus to another craft…music.
by Lorie Lewis Ham
Despite all of the terrible things happening in the world right now, there are a lot of amazing things happening online. Performers of all sorts are going online to provide concerts, classes, readings, and many other wonderful things-both locally and worldwide. Local musician/actor Nate Butler is involved in something local that not only provides entertainment for the rest of us, but helps out local musicians who aren’t able to go out and play their normal gigs. I chatted with Nate recently about this.
by Steven Sanchez
You hear the tapping sounds on a ride cymbal, the strums of a guitar, then chiming in is a funky bassline, accompanied by a second riff from a guitar, this continues on and builds up until you hear a guttural and primal scream shouting, “Are you ready?” These are the rhythms and lyrics stitched to the song “Blind,” that belongs to the band, Korn.
by Rebecca Potts,
Mallory Moad & Terrance McArthur
The Rogue Festival is here! You can find all of our Rogue Festival articles, and our upcoming show reviews in our Rogue Festival section! We will be posting reviews throughout the festival.
by Steven Sanchez
It’s 2020, not only a new year, but a new decade. Last year was a phenomenal 12-month timeline for events in the Central Valley. It definitely did serve as a worthy exclamation point to what was a good decade of entertainment options. The 2010s did set the bar, but I hope that the 20s will take it to another level. This past January and February was a very good warmup as the year is taking shape, and it’ll continue on as more acts will be announced on who’ll be trekking to the area to provide music, laughs, and good times. Here are some of the acts that came out of the starting gate to set the benchmark for the rest of the year.
by Excursions, Amelia Ryan, Spencer/Morris
Here are three Rogue Festival Shows that all involve music! The Excursions, Songs & Stories, and Spencer/Morris
by Steven Sanchez
If you had a time machine and went back in time, and collected 60/70s rock legends Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Queen, then went forward to the 90s and picked up Blind Melon, and finally came back to today to concoct a band with a classic rock sound with some alternative edge to it, the end result would be local band The Dying Suns.
by Steven Sanchez
Heavy metal and burgers are two great tastes that taste great together. For Grant Mohler, he’s one lucky individual to make both of those things into a career. Not only is he the vocalist of local heavy metal band, Crushing The Deceiver, but is also the owner/cook of the Clovis restaurant, Cravings. A cook by day, but rock star at night, a very unconventional man Grant is, and his life is best exemplified by his restaurant and music.
by Steven Sanchez
I hope everybody had a great holiday season. I hope everybody got what they wanted for Christmas because I for sure did. This jolly time of year was a little bit different for me this time around. I really can’t say that I was super festive once the holidays rolled on because, to be quite honest, for all of 2019, based on the amount of shows and events I went to, almost every day felt like Christmas. On behalf of Kings River Life, it felt like we were Santa in a way, our gifts to our readers were the photos and reviews of all the events we were most privileged to be a part of. And the last months of the year were no different.
by Lorie Lewis Ham
Local entertainment photographer and filmmaker Steven Sanchez, who has covered many shows for KRL, recently released his first book, Rock and Roll For Everybody: A Photographic Tour of Today’s Bands. We took a moment to chat with him about it this week.
by Steven Sanchez
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and no one in the Central Valley is better or more qualified to bring much-needed holiday cheer than the man, the myth, the legend: Nate Butler! He’ll be hosting the 27th Annual Mmm-Mmm Christmas: The Island of Misfit Toys Edition at Fulton 55 on December 13.
