Music in San Francisco

I saw King City on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at the now-closed-for-good Annie’s Social Club in San Francisco (Annie’s last show was December 31, 2009).  I have seen KC several times and they have never let me down, seeing them is always a rollicking good time.  Their music is upbeat and cartoonish, perhaps the soundtrack to an animated acid trip.

So with that in mind, I thought it would be fun to write an article about King City and give a little history of its illustrious members.  So, without further ado, let’s learn a little something about the group.

It’s safe to say that King City grew out of the punk movement of the 1980s, the real question should be: how?  To look the band’s background, you might think this a project like KC is impossible with these musicians.  However, being multifaceted, they don’t limit themselves to playing a certain style of music.

KC began as a recording project of a group of musician friends based in San Francisco.  The idea grew in the mind of the band’s founding member, Rich Morin, a few years ago.  He apparently thought it would be fun to try playing some shows around town and he convinced the others to join the project.  It turned into a five-piece group performing an odd mix of ragtime, tango, Latin music and spaghetti westerns ala Ennio Moricone.  The members include the afore mentioned Rich Morin on guitar, Boz Rivera on drums, Joe Raposo on bass, Chewy Marzolo on percussion, Chris Rest on Guitar and Keith Douglas on trumpet.

In a recent interview, Marzolo said King City’s 2003 founding was “kind of just a big accident. Rich, who’s the main guitar player and writer, basically pieced a bunch of songs together that had nothing do to with metal or punk. It just seemed like a really fun excuse to drink beer and play cartoon music, and it’s continued to be fun.”

The music at times is fast, fiery and whimsical in a Raymond Scott style cartoon tune or a circus performance.  It’ll hold you to a certain set of notes, and then run you over with a quick turn that somehow carries you along with it.  After a couple of upbeat tunes, they will go into a slower number, a waltz or a tango and invite you to another glimpse of the many sided maelstrom of music.

All of the members of KC come from a punk and/or metal background.  Most of the bands are connected through Fat Wreck Chords or the San Francisco metal/punk scene.  (As an aside, if you are interested in the San Francisco punk scene, a good book to read is “Gimme Something Better” by Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor).

Here is a brief history of King City’s members:

Three out of the five members of KC came out of the hardcore punk band RKL (Rich Kids on LSD), including Boz Rivera, Joe Raposo and Chris Rest (founding member).  RKL was a Californian hardcore punk band formed in 1982 in Montecito, California, a suburb of Santa Barbara. They were associated with the “Nardcore” scene that evolved out of nearby Oxnard.

After a couple line-up changes in RKL in the late eighties and early nineties, the original vocalist Jason Sears returned to the band in 1994 to help finish their European tour. This sparked the band to record its fifth album, Riches to Rags. The band suffered an ill-fated break-up in 1996 which led most of the members of the band to go on to other projects and form new bands. However only a year later did the band return with most of its previous members minus drummer Dave Raun and guitarist Barry “D’Live” Ward who had their spots filled by Boz Rivera and Chris Flippin.

Rich Morin plays guitar and is known for performing with such bands as Osgood Slaughter, Breakout, The Other, and The Big Meat Combo.  Excluding The Big Meat Combo, the bands he has played in are primarily punk and/or metal.  The Big Meat Combo is bluegrass.

Guitarist Chris Rest and the bands original drummer Richard “Bomer” Manzullo, formed The Other with Mad Caddies drummer Boz Rivera. Boz would later go on to join RKL when they reunited in 1997.  Aside from RKL, Chris Rest was in Lagwan starting in 1990 and joined No Use For A Name in 2009.  Both those bands grew from his punk roots with RKL and both bands are on Fat Mike’s label Fat Wreck Chords.

Chewy Marzolo is mostly known as the drummer for the epic sounding Hammers Of Misfortune.  But Chewy was also in such Bay Area bands as Osgood Slaughter, Thunderchimp, Pantz Noyzee, Acid King, Breakout and a bluegrass group called The Big Meat Combo.  His percussion work in King City is nutty and he seems to be the spokesman for the group, announcing the songs, making observations and whatnot.

Joe Raposo, the bassist of RKL starting in 1987, is most known recently for touring with the Real McKenzies, a Celtic punk outfit.  In addition to playing the bass, he apparently now works as a Software Analyst for Sony Computer Entertainment of America.

Drummer Boz Rivera was in RKL starting in 1997, he has toured with the Mad Caddies as well as The Other.  He also filled in as drummer for The Real McKenzies during the Warped Tour 2007.

Trumpeter Keith Douglas rounds out King City’s population.  He comes from a ska punk background, having started out with the Mad Caddies.  He has played with Boz Rivera in other groups as well,

You can catch King City playing around San Francisco in clubs like the Café du Nord, Elbo Room or Argus Lounge.  They have a record out called “Last Siesta” that is widely distributed, but I recommend seeing them live before getting their CD.