Firemelon is a rock and roll band. Pure and simple. No need for the latest hip term like “Americana” or “Alternative Country”. Rock and roll. A little bit of the Heartbreakers, a little bit of The Beatles, a little bit of the Stones and Elvis Costello with some Faces, Blasters, Beat Farmers, and blues added to the mix; and a lot of attitude and tone.

Firemelon plays original music, mixing the individual styles of the members perfectly. The tones are sublime, the melodies catchy, the energy fierce. In their twenty years of playing music together members of the band have played music clubs and small bars in Orange County, Long Beach, and Los Angeles, as well as opened for the likes of Robben Ford, Dr. John and The Fabulous Thunderbirds.

Firemelon is:
Matt Samia – lead vocals and guitar
Scott Schueneman – lead guitar
Chris Harvey – pedal steel guitar
Ron Larson – vocals and bass
Jeff Cassens – drums

The Whereabouts are the kind of act it’s hard to write about, but easy to enjoy: A straight-ahead rock band, rooted in album-oriented classic rock and all that classic rock itself is rooted in. Whether they know that or not.

Singer CJ Hazard’s voice harkens back to a time before auto-tune (he doesn’t need it) and multitracking (he doesn’t want it.) Songs like “Gypsy King” and “Misty Mauve” beg to be listened to in a bar where you can still smoke — the sheer length of the raw, lyrical guitar solo on “Misty” is an act of bravery in 2016. The band will tell you their current fave is “Truth or Dare,” an all-out arena rocker.

Formed late in 2012 in Laguna Niguel, California, The Whereabouts have played the run of SoCal venues where clubgoers still show up to listen than to be listened to, to see rather than be seen. These four guys — Hazard, bassist Tim von Gremp, drummer Andy Gardikas, and freshly returned founding guitarist Andrew Talley — have at least six feet of hair between them. But poseurs they are not.

At a time when rock’n’roll has become an ironic term, and bands have been replaced by wannabe celebrities whose live appearances are scripted marketing events, The Whereabouts want to remind you what rock music was all about in the first place: Not an onramp to Hollywood, but a road trip to wherever we end up.