The Los Dos Bros

Last updated
The Los Dos Bros
Origin San Diego, California, United States
Genres Alternative country
Americana
Post-rock-experimental
Years active1992–2009
LabelsAdventure Pop Records
Website Official website
MembersLouis Caverly
Derric Oliver
Past membersTommy Becker
Michael Taylor Hahn
Mehrdad Alaei
Takashi Saito
Clayton Payne
Jory Lyle
Steve Malone
Mark Reeves
Keith Dusko
Kevin Erikson
David Machlan
Greg Novak

The Los Dos Bros are an American rock band from San Diego, California and Big Sur, California.

Contents

History

Early Years: 1992-1997

In the spring of 1992, three musicians Tommy Becker, Louis Caverly, and Derric Oliver attending the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA formed the band, Phacehead, drawing people toward a new, positive sound. They began exploring many of the musical and lyrical ideas that would later become the basis of their Adventure Pop sound.

Louis and Derric both grew up in San Diego enduring formal classical training while also absorbing a world of musical styles and genres from J.S. Bach to Rock Music. Despite having both grown up in the same town, they didn't meet until one fateful day hanging out in a garage on Rosemarie Lane (right off University of Pacific campus) playing music with members of the Archania house band. In 1993 they recorded their first studio demo (produced by George Frangadakis) of songs written by Tommy Becker.

In spring of 1994, after graduating from University of Pacific, the band relocated to San Francisco, California and started recording and playing out in clubs such as The Last Day Saloon on Clement Street, San Francisco

In 1996, the band produced a self-titled EP (at Found Sound in South San Francisco) and officially changed their name to The Formers. The session captured the interest of several San Francisco club promoters and received airplay on college radio station KEXP in Berkeley, California.

In the fall of 1997, the band decided that time off was necessary for them to individually refine their sound and rediscover sanity, or in some cases, insanity. This turned out to be a five-year break.

Rediscovered: 2002-2004

In the summer of 2002, the original three members Tommy Becker, Louis Caverly and Derric Oliver reunited and resumed rehearsing and recording new material while assembling local musicians for live performances.

Louis Caverly had moved back from London, UK in early 2002. Derric Oliver had been working with Pro-Tools and was writing and recording under the name Holiday. Prior to 2002 they ran into each other a couple of times and would trade new recordings. Louis Caverly quotes, "we would literally run into each other in airports and Derric would hand me his latest demo as we were running to catch our respective flights, it was surreal. The demos sounded hot, I knew there was something there."

The band name again changed to Holiday and the Adventure Pop Collective, marrying the idea of the great Billie Holiday, taking a holiday, the Adventure Pop sound, and the influence of everyone that had left their mark on the band, respectively, the collective. [1]

GOOD (album) Holiday and the Adventure Pop Collective, released early June 2003, was quickly followed by Start All Over again (EP), Wide Open (EP) and Potential is a Dangerous Thing (EP), all released before the end of 2003.

Early reviews were positive and the band started to get noticed after being reviewed by highly acclaimed American music critic Dave Marsh. He referred to their sound as "instantly memorable music with an ultimately unified sound." [2]

Commercial Releases: 2004-current

Become (album) Holiday and the Adventure Pop Collective was recorded October 2004 with Ben Moore at Big Fish studios in their home base of Encinitas, California. Striving for an organic, live sound, the album was recorded and mixed in 21 days on 24-track analog tape. The album included several local musicians including Dennis Caplinger (banjo and mandolin), Andy Powers (electric guitar), Billy Watson (harmonica), Brian Nucci (drums), and James East (bass). They also collaborated with photographer and graphic designer Kevin Bishop on a video for “Out On A Limb,” which is featured on the enhanced portion of the album. Become was distributed nationally by Sony BMG.

Allmusic rated the album four stars out of five saying "by the time you start to listen to "Her Daze" you wonder why these guys aren't on year-end lists. A gorgeous collection of tunes that would make groups like The Connells envious." [3]

Steve Malone (pedal steel) who also recorded on "Become", joined the live line-up along with Jory Lyle (electric guitar), Takashi Saito (bass), and Michael Taylor Hahn on drums. They started touring relentlessly in June 2005. One-by-one the band dwindled to three, morphing the longest running, consistently solidified line-up featuring Derric Oliver singing and playing guitar and horns, Louis Caverly singing and playing fiddle and keys, and Michael Taylor Hahn playing the drums. They played more than 200 shows from 2005-2007 before Hahn departed the band late in 2007.

On March 6, 2008, Dallas, TX, day two of Holiday and the Adventure Pop Collective’s first U.S. tour (supporting Atlantic Records’ Louis XIV (band)), their new drummer went AWOL in the middle of the night, quitting the tour without a word or note of explanation. [4] The trio quickly became a duo facing a choice: quit the tour and go home, or continue without a drummer. The decision to continue took about four seconds, and their second decision took about four more seconds. They officially changed their band name, once and for all, to The Los Dos Bros.

They released two new albums in 2008 (recording under the name Holiday and the Adventure Pop Collective but later re-manufactured the albums under the new name The Los Dos Bros), Songs for Feeling Strong (EP) The Los Dos Bros, and Greek Gods in the West (CD + DVD ‘Live from the Henry Miller Library, Big Sur, CA’) The Los Dos Bros. Both were recorded in June 2007 (with drummer, Michael Taylor Hahn) at Red Barn Studios in Big Sur, California, owned by Al Jardine of The Beach Boys. [5]

Discography

Related Research Articles

In the United States, California is commonly associated with the film, music, and arts industries; there are numerous world-famous Californian musicians. Hardcore punk, hip hop, country, and heavy metal have all appeared in California. Furthermore, new genres of music, such as surf rock and third wave ska, have their origins in California.

Mr. Bungle

Mr. Bungle is an American band from Northern California, United States. Having gone through many incarnations throughout their career, the band is best known for their experimental rock period. During this time, they featured a highly eclectic style, cycling through several musical genres within the course of a single song, including heavy metal, avant-garde jazz, ska, disco, and funk. This period also saw the band utilizing unconventional song structures and samples; playing a wide array of instruments; dressing up in masks, jumpsuits, and other costumes; and performing a diverse selection of cover songs during live performances.

Third Eye Blind American alternative rock band

Third Eye Blind is an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1993. The songwriting duo of Stephan Jenkins and Kevin Cadogan signed the band's first major-label recording contract with Elektra Records in 1996, which was later reported as the largest publishing deal ever for an unsigned artist. The band released their self-titled debut album in 1997, with the band largely consisting of Jenkins, Cadogan, Arion Salazar, and Brad Hargreaves (drums). Shortly after the release of the band's second album in 1999, Blue, with the same line-up, Cadogan was released from the band under controversial circumstances.

OPM is an American band based in Los Angeles, California. OPM has a distinctive sound, combining hip hop, rock music, and pop with laid-back reggae.

Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band is an American soul and funk band. Formed in the early 1960s, they had the most visibility from 1967 to 1973 when the band had 9 singles reach Billboard's pop and/or rhythm and blues charts, such as "Do Your Thing", "Till You Get Enough", and "Love Land". They are best known for their biggest hit on Warner Bros. Records, 1970's "Express Yourself", a song that has been sampled by rap group N.W.A and others.

Game Theory (band) 1980s power pop band founded by Scott Miller

Game Theory was an American power pop band, founded in 1982 by singer/songwriter Scott Miller, combining melodic jangle pop with dense experimental production and hyperliterate lyrics. MTV described their sound as "still visceral and vital" in 2013, with records "full of sweetly psychedelic-tinged, appealingly idiosyncratic gems" that continued "influencing a new generation of indie artists." Between 1982 and 1990, Game Theory released five studio albums and two EPs, which had long been out of print until 2014, when Omnivore Recordings began a series of remastered reissues of the entire Game Theory catalog. Miller's posthumously completed Game Theory album, Supercalifragile, was released in August 2017 in a limited first pressing.

dos is an American rock group composed of Mike Watt and Kira Roessler, who both sing and play bass guitar. Critic Greg Prato describes their unusual instrumentation as "a haunting yet intriguing and original sound."

Jun Senoue Japanese video game musician

Jun Senoue is a Japanese video game composer and musician who works for Sega, known for his various contributions in the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. He is also the songwriter and lead guitarist for the band Crush 40, which has also contributed to many Sonic games.

Limbeck

Limbeck is an American rock band that formed in Laguna Niguel, California in 1999. The group featured Robb MacLean on lead vocals and guitar, Patrick Carrie guitar and backing vocals, Justin Entsminger on bass, and Jon Phillip, who replaced Matthew Stephens on drums in 2005. Their sound was a mix of alternative country with pop punk origins.

Jejune was an American rock band formed in 1996 at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. The band has been commonly identified with the emo genre, and was heavily involved with the scene at the peak of the "second wave" of emo in the mid-1990s. The three founding members, Arabella Harrison (Bass/Vocals), Joe Guevara (Guitar/Vocals) and Chris Vanacore (Drums), met while studying at the college. The band relocated to San Diego, California, in 1997.

Michael Quercio

Michael Quercio is an American musician. He is the founder, bassist and lead singer of The Three O'Clock, and coined the term Paisley Underground as the name of a musical subgenre.

Limp was an American pop punk band formed in 1994, with strong influences in both rock and ska, hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area. Limp released three studio albums on Honest Don's, a subsidiary label of Fat Wreck Chords, as well as an EP released on Fueled by Ramen, before their 2002 breakup.

The Mother Hips

The Mother Hips is a rock band based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Meet Me in St. Louis were a post-hardcore band from Guildford, Surrey, formed in 2005 and disbanded in 2008.

Wooden Shjips Rock band

Wooden Shjips is an American experimental and psychedelic rock band from San Francisco, California.

The Mowglis Band

The Mowgli's are an American alternative rock band from Calabasas, California.

<i>Mall</i> (soundtrack) 2014 soundtrack album by Chester Bennington, Dave Farrell, Joe Hahn, Mike Shinoda and Alec Puro

Mall: Music from the Motion Picture is the original motion picture soundtrack for the 2014 American drama film Mall, consisting of songs written, recorded and performed by Chester Bennington, Dave Farrell, Joe Hahn and Mike Shinoda with Alec Puro, drummer of American rock band Deadsy. It was released through Warner Bros. and Machine Shop on December 12, 2014. The soundtrack was produced by Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson, along with Rob Cavallo and Bill Boyd, who both served as executive producers.

Fallujah (band) American death metal band

Fallujah is an American death metal band from San Francisco, California, founded in 2007. Fallujah has toured with acts such as The Black Dahlia Murder, Carnifex, Thy Art is Murder, Dying Fetus, Between the Buried and Me, and The Contortionist.

Gil Ray

George Gilbert "Gil" Ray was an American rock drummer, guitarist, and vocalist, best known for his recordings in the 1980s and 1990s as a member of the bands Game Theory and The Loud Family. In late 2012, he joined Rain Parade as drummer for a series of reunion performances.

Make Out Monday is an American pop punk, pop-folk and pop rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 2014. The band consists of Jeremy Shada, Zack Shada, John Spicer and Seth Renken. In November 2014, they self-released an EP, Kicking Cars. It sprouted three singles namely: Hope Less Romantics, Sirens and Twixter. A Special Edition version was then released in September 2015.

References

  1. "San Diego Reader" . Retrieved July 16, 2007.
  2. "StarPolish review by Dave Marsh" . Retrieved June 17, 2003.
  3. "Allmusic review of Become by Jason MacNeil" . Retrieved April 30, 2005.
  4. "SD City Beat Locals Only" . Retrieved March 11, 2008.
  5. "Big Sur Holiday" . Retrieved September 13, 2007.