California Redemption

California Redemption (or CaRe) is a hardcore punk band from Thousand Oaks, California, a part of the Nardcore community, and a "major player" in the Ventura County Music scene. Their sound is a mix of hardcore and punk rock; fast guitars and politically minded lyrics fusing with "breakdowns and chanted back-ups, right out of the straightedge hawd caw [sic] playbook." Lyrical themes vary from political protests and critical analyses of American society to personal struggles and alienation.

Mikkei, Keegan, and Doug were formerly members of Mute before the start of the band. Two members currently play in side projects: Mikkei in Future Primitive and Will in Dead Alive. Alon is also the founder and president of LTE Records.

Biography

Beginnings

California Redemption was born in the summer of 2001. At that time, Mikkei, Keegan and Doug were in a band called Mute, a pop punk style garage band that experienced small success in their hometown of Newbury Park, California. In mid-2001 Mikkei began to feel that something in Mute was definitely lacking. Mikkei soon quit, citing lack of lyrical meaning and conflicts in MusicAL creativity. Mute broke up shortly thereafter.

After spending summer listening to Propagandhi and brainstorming lists of potential co-conspirators, Mikkei made up his mind. He called up two of his ex-mates from Mute; Keegan and Doug. He had been telling them he didn’t want to do anything musically for the past couple months, but now Mikkei asked them not to start a new band, but just hang out and jam Bad Religion songs. The new project didn’t have a singer, but there was already someone in mind. They called up a friend, Alon, who despite lack of singing experience, was obsessed with Bad Religion and was super-stoked on the idea of being in a band.

Eventually, the cover band became a full-fledged band. Their first song, “Dor Shalem Doresh Shalom” (which means "A Whole Generation Demands Peace" in Hebrew), was actually a tune written by Mikkei while he was still in Mute. Keegan and Mikkei began writing more material. Simultaneously, Mikkei and Alon colaborated on lyrics during classes they were attending at Moorpark College. In the meantime, the soon-to-be-named California Redemption played one show with a set consisting of nothing but Bad Religion covers under the name "Battery Legion". Shortly afterwards, the band recorded an eight song demo of originals and started thinking about a first show.

First Show

By then it was the summer of 2002 and Ill Repute was doing a small California Tour. Naturally, Alon and Mikkei set out to follow them. After meeting them, Tony Cortez of Ill Repute offered California Redemption a spot on a day-after-Christmas show with Ill Repute, Dr. Know, and the Nardcore All-stars.

Mikkei once said that "Before that first show we made a decision: that no matter how many people were there and no matter how the crowd was responding, to play like we had 30 minutes left to live and never stop making asses of ourselves. We’ve pretty much stuck to that ever since. That first show was good for us. I’m still not sure what anyone in the crowd thought of us, but the other bands seemed to dig us."

That show would be the first step towards California Redemption's acceptance into the Nardcore scene. It was also the beginning of their strange relationship with Ill Repute.

"This Time It's For Money"

It took almost another year after that for California Redemption to record a full length record. In the meantime, the band demoed two more tracks on their own and posted them to their website. Eventually, CaRe went into Bassline Studios in Simi Valley, California to record "This Time It’s For Money." The band says that they chose the album's name "because...seriously, it was basically the same thing as our free demo, except this time, we were going to charge for it." That record was not released until a year after it was recorded.

Split with Start The Panic

After years of touring, California Redemption hooked up with Simi Valley punkrockers Start The Panic. The two bands ended up playing numerous shows together and agreed to collaborate on a split record. They eventually released it on LTE Records in March of 2007 and went on tour to support the release. Recorded at Will Volkman's One Room Studios, the record sold more than 1,000 copies county-wide.

Addition of Joe Suburbia

For years, the Mikkei had been tossing around the idea of adding a second guitarist. After much deliberation, the band finally decided to add one in 2006. They recruited Joe Suburbia, a good friend and former frontman of the influential punk band P.O.S. Joe's addition gave California Redemption a fuller live sound and added to the band's dynamic. His first show with the band was at the Gate in Bakersfield, California on September 29th, 2006.

"Do Not Resuscitate"

At about that same time California Redemption returned to One Room Studios to record songs for a 7” record called "Do Not Resuscitate", initially intended to release on Texas-based AWOL Records. While the band had just added Joe to the fold, they decided to keep things simple and have Mikkei perform all the guitars for that record. Unfortunately, just as the recording was finished, AWOL records went under, Keegan left for a journey to Australia, and the band was left to shop the record to other record labels. A couple of months later, Dead Lamb Records agreed to press and distribute the record.

Switching Drummers

Keegan returned to the United States prior to the release of the record. However, Doug left the band to pursue his career. He left on good terms and was replace by not other than Will Volkman who, aside from recording the majority of California Redemption's work, had preformed at many of the same shows as them in his former band Misfire.

Discography

Compilations / Tributes

Articles / Reviews

• Live in New Mexico - Show Review, Kaffeine Buzz
• California Redemption: Band With a Mission - Article, The BS Report
• California Redemption Revisited - Article, The BS Report
• Smother Magazine - Album Review, Smother Magazine
• All Ages Zine - Album Review, All Ages Zine
• Ear Candy Magazine - Album Review, Ear Candy Magazine
• Impact Press - Album Review, Impact Press
• Razorcake - Album Review, Razorcake
• Maximum Rocknroll - Album Review, Maximum Rocknroll
• Punkrockers.com - Album Review, Punkrockers.com

Videography

• People With Guns Mixo-de-punko! Enhanced CD, LTE Records, July 31, 2003)

External links

• Official Homepage
• Punkrockers.com Profile