Here's the review of our record by Gabe Paredes on www.musicaloccupation.com


Channel One - Pose & Posture
Posted in Reviews on March 10th, 2009 by Gabe
2009 Megalith Records

"If there’s one album that stands out as different this year, it’s Channel One’s Pose & Posture. The band hails from San Antonio, Texas where not only do they know what salsa is supposed to taste like they know what good music sounds like to.

Think of all those great early Jamaican musicians that incorporated that country music influence such as Toots And The Maytals or Lee Perry and The Dynamites.(EX: My New Name/Solid As A Rock) Take those elements and dip them in some Texas made hot salsa with it’s rock ‘n roll flare, alt-country edge, and great story telling and your starting to get an idea of what this album is like.

With songs ranging from topics of love lost to losing faith, Pose & Posture has a little bit of us all in it. The songs are very well written and the attention to detail is very easy to pick up on. So good in fact that I would say they can be played on the radio and the average listener could get into it in no time. It has just the right amount of alt-rock and country flavors that they would be familiar with yet those sounds are carried by a very distinctive ska and reggae rhythm that grabs the listener by the ears and screams this is different! The ska and reggae elements are never compromised to sound like some pop song.

Hum is one of those songs that stands out. Feel good horns, with a great bed of organ and bouncy bass line that’s complimented by a crisp offbeat. The intro to Let Her Run gives you a taste of Gerald Hooper’s vocal country twang and right there you know they are set apart from the pack. This is their signature sound that comes to mind when I tell anyone about them. This one can be a hit on the radio and be a great bridge for someone to find out about ska music. Right Behind One Another has a kind of calypso feel to it and transitions to a rock ‘n roll bridge seamlessly. And Till it’s To Late is an acoustic tune which shows off those country/reggae roots in all their glory making you feel happy and sad at the same time.

Singing with passion and conviction in his voice singer Gerald Hooper knows how to pen a tune with feeling and true life experiences that will have you singing along in no time. And the band is no Rudie Come Lately, the members have been around since the mid 90’s playing ska and reggae music in various groups. I gotta say at first I skipped through these songs thinking I would not really like them since it didn’t appear to be familiar ska territory. But as I turned up the volume I found that is exactly what I love about it, it’s far different from what many bands are doing right now, they really do have a sound all their own.

In my opinion they are up there with the likes of The Dualers and Babylove and the Van Dangos in terms of a tight polished different sound."

Check em’ out! myspace.com/channe1

Buy it at www.megalithrecords.com

WOW! How small the world is! The Suspects from Houston, are one of my heroes. We used to play with them a DECADE ago, when we were kids, and they were kings! We get the honor of opening for these guys in houston this week, and I am PUMPED! There's no reason that these guys aren't as big as any band you've heard of - the slackers, the toasters, the aggrolites...WHATEVER! This band is the SHIT! Anyway, i can remember at Fitzgerald's, when i was 17 or 18, and thinking the 2nd floor was gonna give way when they played "Caffeine". 700 people jumping at one time is....s c a r y. seriously, it's fucking scary.

Anyway, we're joining them this week - Friday - in Houston. If you're a fan of the Texas scene, this isn't one to miss. Viva The Suspects!!

g

Our debut album is almost finished! It's nearly two in the morning and I am waiting to reference mixes being done in NYC by our "staff magician", Jerry Fuentes. Jerry is hard at work at Metrosonic studio in Brooklyn, putting the final touches on the last 5 songs of the record. I have little time to be excited, as we still have to master the songs, and design the album art, etc...and then actually press it! And, as you all know, every single person that has helped us out on the record has done it for FREE. SIKE!

The reason nobody that has touched this record (besides us) has worked for free is because - they ALL fucking KICK ASS! One of those people who recently agreed to help is graphic artist extroidinaire - Tattooed Boy. We call him Ray, but sometimes i feel like calling him MISTER Ray, just because the guy fucking rocks.

I must say, I was late to the Tattooed Boy "party". He's great friends with the Spies Like Us guys, AND the Girl in a Coma peeps, and...well, now the Joan Jett crew as well. Why? Because of this shit: www.myspace.com/tattooedboy

Check his work! Ray will be designing our album art, tour t-shirt(s), and the posters we send to clubs and sell at the shows. Show support and add our favorite artist!

peace,

Channel One

So, I attended the Spies Like Us "secret show" last night at Limelight. If you weren't there, or didn't know about it - i'm sorry to tell you - it was fucking incredible. It was a word of mouth, last minute warm-up for their shows over the next two weekends. They played from 9:30 - 10:30pm to a small group of very surprised patrons. Needless to say, the boys are ready to rock - the band is tight!

There's a few new members in Spies. And just because i'm a fan, i have kept some tabs on former members. Gene and Carl Centeno played some of the earliest shows with Spies on Sax and Trumpet, respectively. (Carl, believe it or not, came to the first two rehearsals we ever had for The Resistors!) Gene now plays for PRINCE! And Carl has a killer R&B/Hip-Hop fusion band called Gonsemble. Kris Kamura, who played sax as well in Spies has his own solo jazz act and Diana Krall recently sat in with them. Josh, the old bass player, is a high-demand, gigging bassist in various groups in Austin and the same can be said about Sean, the old drummer here in SA. Buck, the original drummer, plays in the Horton Bros. - a kick ass rockabilly band in Austin. Buck was cool enough to come see Channel One play a few times in both ATX and San Antonio. I sure hope some of these great players get to make an appearance at the San Antonio reunion show.

All that history also started me thinking about The Resistors. Our old bass player, Skip, now plays in a crushing hardcore band called OCD. Chris, our old drummer, just opened for Rancid in his great band, Complete Control. and Laith and Jeremy are still playing with me in Channel One - and in a short time, we've opened for The Toasters, The Slackers, and The Aggrolites and we play regularly thoughout south texas. It may seem super small to some, but I'm very proud of those things.

As musicians we don't have a "coach". But we all sort of "try-out" when we start a band. And whenever bands break up or fizzle out, there's always hard feelings. It's not like in sports where a "coach" would "kick you off the team" or "bench" you. So, there's always drama when things don't work out with your peers. But I look back on everything now, and I see where people are today and I think, "everybody's right where they wanted to be." One of my favorite quotes is "In the long run, we only hit what we aim at."

It's so great that Spies are back playing. The original members that will perform all the shows - Jorge, Jason, and Gilbert - realize the magic that is Spies Like Us and I'm so happy for them. It was a lot of work to get this band back together, and they have done an amazing job.

The only thing missing now are The Mint Flames and Dieboy. And maybe a little Resistors ;)

So, i've got some serious dejavu going....

Back in the late 90's I LOVED and GIGGED with Matt Hole and Los Skarnales. Then, for 10+ years I had no contact with these guys at all. As many old San Antonio scenesters know, the shows in the late 90's were B I G. I was little, but I would bet that there were 400, 500 plus people at nearly every show i attended. The only venue in town that could house that number was the Rabbit. And for all the gripes we had with payment back then, you've gotta give it up for the WR for hosting, breeding, encouraging a scene that could have been relegated to the DMZ or Wacky's or what have you. Those venues were great in their own way, but there's something about a show at the Rabbit - it's a bigger event, more room to bring all your friends, etc...

Well, when we started Channel One, getting shows back to the Rabbit was a goal. We knew it would take a shitload of promotion - but more importantly, it would take GREAT SHOWS! The BILLS would have to DEMAND that type of attendance.

It took some time to get ready, but May 30th has that kind of bill. In my fucked up, underground opinion, both Los Skarnales and Matt Hole are REAL KINGS of our scene. Both these bands had broken up less than a year ago, and the moment they put it back together, I knew they were the ones to get our first rabbit show with....

Twin Productions has been great, to make this ride possible for us. They are other great venues in town, but I want C1 and Spies Like Us, and all the Kings of the Texas Scene - Ryan Scroggins, The Suspects, The Stingers, etc... to play a big room with a ton of people.

If you remember the old scene or want it to return - you have to be there Friday, May 30th. If you're young, and you've never seen Los Skarnales or Matt Hole, prepare to get your mind blown. If you're old as shit like most of us, then you know what it's about and you'd be there whether you read this blog or not.

Plus, everybody who comes to either the San Antonio show or the Austin show the next night will get our 5 song EP for Free!

PEACE!

C1

Hey everybody - this is gerald from C1.

one of the greatest gifts i have received was a book on cd called "Get in the Van" by Henry Rollins. It chronicles Black Flag's experience on the road during the years Hank was their vocalist. I was a teenager when an old friend and bandmate, Skip Brooks, handed me the four disc audio cd....of a guy READING! I thought, there's no way i was ever gonna get through it. Four discs!?

Sometimes I wonder how much of my work ethic came from that first, long listen to Henry's story. I too felt/feel my heart ripped out of my chest when i see touring bands roll into town, play, hang with the locals, load up and roll out again... I also understood Mugger, Duchowski, and Ginn's "no bullshit" attitude when it came to, not only the music and performance, but all the other intangibles that an audience never sees. People don't realize how incredibly easy it is for bands to get lazy about one or all of the following: rehearsal, gear, booking, merch, writing, recording, sound checks, etc... Things can fall apart so fast. Not in Black Flag though - there was no time or money for bullshitters, and in a way that is SO Rollins, the weak get weeded out...quickly.

In no way is this ALL that matters in music or with groups....there's beauty and magic and poetry in anything worth listening to... but the lessons i learned from Get in the Van are real, and apply to nearly every thing i'm a part of.

So, this blog is dedicated to Deal's Gone Bad, our friends from Chicago. They wrote some songs and bet their life on them. I'm nearly 30 now, but seeing a ryder trailer turn the corner, out of sight... is still hard to watch.