The Commons Block Party
Banzai Cliff
Golden Gram
Join Civic Center Commons for the 2018 Commons Block Party on 3rd Thursdays — June 21, July 19, Aug 16, Sept 20, and Oct 18 — from 5 to 9pm at Civic Center Plaza. Enjoy FREE performances by local bands curated by Another Planet Entertainment and food trucks and bar from Off the Grid.
Learn more and RSVP on Facebook here and see photos from last year here.
Also part of the 2018 Commons Block Party series is our 1st Sunday event, happening on on Fulton Street from 11am to 3pm on July 1, Aug 5, Sept 2, Oct 7 and Nov 4.
“It was before Covid, I had this big free empty studio in the hills, I was supposed to be painting, that was my initial plan, and I just began making songs on an old guitar, songs about being alone, songs about failed men, some dark tales of longing. I was reading some old western paperbacks, and I would go on these walks in the hills, come inside and write these kind of lonesome country songs. Then the pandemic began, and everyone was alone now, and it felt like it had been strangely prescient to write about being alone” Smith speaks about the birth of this record. It sounds like it’s part of a genre that should have happened: a sixties teen country music that merged with sixties pop. New Day with New Possibilities, the latest ‘country’ offering by Sonny & the Sunsets, is clearly a companion piece to the cult loved third Sunsets release Longtime Companion, the laid back country record which marked the beginning of the Sunsets as an explorative project and not just locked into one sound. New Day With New Possibilities joins with a kind of Michael Hurley home grown sound but also leaning into Chelsea Girls baroque strings sound as on Driftin’ and The Lonely Men. Pedal Steel maestro Joe Goldmark lifts the record into Doug Sahm and Buck Owens territory. As much as the music ushers in a laid-back country feeling, the lyrics are where this album depart. Lonely Men, a Bill Calahan-ish dry observational take, is a searing damnation of broken men who cannot find the capacity to fully love. Lyrically Smith sets the goals high, Earl and His Girl and Ride the Dark Trail both sound like William Burroughs wrote a Louis L’amour style Western paperback: “Looks like I’m fat but I’m tough as new rubber, I heard you chose your last rancho cause he’s rough, But, I am rougher, My boots may be full of mud, I have no bullets for my gun, But if you want to come, We can ride the trail together” a love poem of sorts, with subtle connects the song to the late David Berman. ‘Heartbreak is my obsession/I teach the school of rejection…I’m on the board of depression/and I’m up for re-election’, he sings during Love Obsession, lyrics that sound like they could have sailed out of Hank Williams. “I didn’t make any paintings at the studio, the time I was at the studio just turned into music, music, music, and these empty canvasses just sat in a corner, which is great, which is perfect. Seems like when I set out to do something really specific, it just fails to start, and I realize my ego isn’t really steering things… stuff comes out from the deep inside and knocks me around and tells me who’s really in charge , re-orients me to a new possibility.”
Graham LeBron is an American musician, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and film composer from Oakland, CA.
He became Golden Gram in 1999 upon moving from Texas to California. After explaining to a friend that he’d been made fun of as a kid by being called Golden Grahams, etc, said friend informed him that it was actually an awesome name. Since then, he has worked and played in various musical capacities all over the world .
Putting his music degree from Rice University to work, since 2010, he has composed music for film, commercials and online spots, among his clients are Square, Levi’s, Asana, NearFuture and Ikea. He is represented by Portland music agency, Marmoset. A multi-instrumentalist formerly of Rogue Wave, Port O’Brien and The Album Leaf, he is also an accomplished DJ and recording engineer. In 2013, he scored the independent feature length film, I’m obsessed with you (but you’ve got to leave me alone). The film debuted at the Sonoma Independent Film Festival in April 2014.He is currently at work on several recording projects for his record label, Outer Sound, including the third Golden Gram album. He plays drums with Outer Embassy (members of Daring Ear, Extra Classic) and is a touring member of Easysound Recording Artist, Fruit Bats.