The Oracle gives a brief overview of the musical tastes and styles of some bands that have a presence on Gunn campus.
DevilclefDevilclef attempts to fuse classical music components with metal rock. The band is composed of guitarist and back up vocals junior Mike Lee, violinist junior Jonathan Kuo, cellist sophomore Brooke Lieberwitz, vocalist freshman Nomi Carmen from Paly and drummer freshman Sai Boddupalli from Palo Alto High School.
It started off with just Lee and Kuo putting on duel performances, but they soon expanded in order to create a rock band.
“[We] had to work to accompany the violin into this band,” Lee said. “We decided that we needed a cello and started recruiting someone to play cello. Then we started recruiting for drums and we began to slowly grow.”
The band’s name comes from the metal rock music they play along with the classical components of having a violin and a cello. The name is a satanic play on the musical symbol treble clef. “The treble clef is a symbol of classical music, so it represents our classical taste,” Lee said. “But we also have a metal taste so we wanted to have the devil in there to show our metal side. Not to say that the devil represents metal music, but since devil rhymes with treble it all works out.”
He said their music has several different characteristics. “We have a heavy metal side, a mellifluous classical side and since our vocalist is female we also have the sweeter side,” Lee said.
The band has had several band members come and go throughout the past year. But their overall musical goal has remained the same throughout.
UndeclaredDespite this band’s lack of a name, they still rock it up with booming drums, guitar solos that are reminiscent of Eric Clapton and vocals that range in style from emo to blues.
The band was spurred from the jamming sessions of senior guitarists Russell Wynne and John Barley. While preparing to perform at an upcoming Open Mic they asked senior Patrick Rundell to back them up on drums. After the performance it was decided that senior Eric Stewart would play bass and the band was formed.
Their music includes a broad range of influences from classic to modern rock, which is reflective of the band members’ diverse musical preferences. “We play all kinds of music,” Barley said. “We’re pretty versatile.”
Currently the band plays covers of their favorite artists and their own original songs. “Russell writes a lot of our songs, I write a few and Eric has one,” Barley said. “We all write our songs.”
The band has performed at Open Mics along with a recent senior fundraiser. They have already recorded one song and Barley said there is a possibility of developing a CD with several tracks in the future. “We might put a couple songs on a CD and give it out at our next gig,” Barley said. “We’ll see, though.”
Best described as “contemporary porno groove,” The Return of the Horse is sparking interest all over campus. First created from weekend jams of senior guitarist Alex Kerckhoff and senior drummer Roscoe Linstadt, the band soon expanded to include senior keyboardist Adam Dohner and freshman bassist Alex Rusoff.
The idea that has helped shape the band’s music came to Kerckhoff and Linstadt while jamming one weekend. “Out of boredom one day we were all like, ‘want to make some porno music?’” Kerckhoff said. The track they then recorded on the computer was then dubbed over the track with sporadic guttural vocals that “you would hear during a porno,” as Linstadt described.
After interest started spreading about their recorded creation they decided to invite Dohner and eventually Rusoff to join their jams. Dohner described the music that resulted and cleared up any confusion about their chosen genre of music. “That can be a little misleading, we are not actually nudists,” Dohner said. “It’s a simplistic improvised funk band, one that you might hear in the background of a porno.”
The band’s name was created in response to a part of their first track where the vocals come in and murmur, “they call me the horse.” So one time when they were jamming all together it was declared that “the horse is back,” and thus the origin of The Return of the Horse.
Their influences include James Brown, Fela Kuti, Jimi Hendrix and The Meters. They are building a repertoire of original songs.
The band practices two to three times a week at Linstadt’s house, appropriately named the “stable.” They have already performed at the Mitchell Park Community Center and at the Jungle Copy downtown. Students interested in hearing The Return of the Horse should check for posters around the school for information.
Post your own thoughts and comments.