the hum / By Bob Doran

Do Something

Getting down for the Gulf with Moksha, plus The Preservation and a Petty Tribute

(June 24, 2010)  It’s the viral video of the year (at least so far) the ugly underwater shot of the endless stream of oil befouling the Gulf of Mexico. After three months of spewing and too many futile attempts at stopping the leak and its devastating toxic mess, things seem pretty hopeless. What can we do? That’s what Sarah Pick of Eureka was wondering.

“I’d been following the news about the oil spill and felt like I needed to do something,” she told me, calling to tell me about “Get Down For The Gulf,” a benefit she’s throwing Saturday night at the Arcata Theatre Lounge (her first). Money raised will got to the National Wildlife Refuge Association, a nonprofit working to clean up oily pelicans and other birds before they die and struggling to preserve habitat for other animals. Sarah’s originally from Las Vegas, so she enlisted Moshka, a Vegas funk rock combo to headline the event with somewhat like-minded locals Moo-Got-2 opening.

Moksha PHOTO COURTESY OF MOKSHA

GALLERY >

Bass player John Heishman formed Moksha three years ago in Vegas, pulling musicians from two bands that had disbanded. “Now we have a really cool collaborative effort; we’re creating a nice little fanbase in Vegas and have become one of the biggest local draws there,” he said. An album released earlier this year with help from Brian Stoltz of the Neville Brothers and DJ Logic brought them new attention and they landed big-time gigs at the Hard Rock Café and the House of Blues. The band’s sound is relatively eclectic, mostly on the rock side but leaning toward funk.

“We try to be diverse stylistically, but it really boils down to the groove-based funk rock stuff,” said Heishman. “We’ll throw a little bit of everything in for our shows with influences ranging from jazz to hip hop.” They jam, but watch what you call them. “We try to stay away from being called a jamband. When I hear ‘jamband’ I tend to slough it off as a live show that might be fun, but without good songwriting and whatnot. We’ve been focusing on our compositions, trying not to be pigeonholed in the jam genre.” Want a preview? Moksha plays live on KHUM on Friday, 5-ish.    

BTW, elecro-funksters Moo-Got-2 have a busy Saturday. Before the Gulf benefit they play at Sequoia Park Zoo kicking off Summer Concerts at the Zoo (see Calendar for details).

The listing on the Mazzotti’s website is kinda confusing. It says The Weary Boys and The Marauders are playing there Saturday night. A little history: Those are both bands that started locally, moved to Austin, then disbanded. Before he returned to Cali, Dustin Littlefield had recruited Black Joe Lewis for The Marauders — the band split up when Dustin left. It was a similar story for former Weary Boy Mario Matteoli: The Boys grew weary and split up; he went solo and got married. He and his wife Cayce have been singing and recording together. So what’s with this show? I called Mario to ask.

“My new band is coming to town and for some reason they billed it as The Weary Boys,” he apologized. He noted that the band is actually called The Preservation, emphasizing that it’s more than an extension of his solo work. “It’s more of a band effort — I was tired of being a bandleader. It’s still me and Cayce, but with some younger guys; still lots of harmony singing and stuff.”

He recruited Andy Bianculli, a guitarist from New York, trumpet/keyboard player Kullen Fuchs (who will not be at Arcata show) plus bassist Ben Burdick and drummer Joshua Wienholt, both formerly of The Marauders. So, since Dustin is around, he’ll reunite with his rhythm section for an Arcata Marauders reunion.

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