Nacho Business
Posted on June 3, 2011 – 5:41 AM | by Admin
By Tony King
As a rule, Sunday nights in Sacramento are chill at their best, and downright dull at their worst. As the drudgery of the working week waits just around the corner, most people usually opt to crack open a beer, veg out on the couch, and watch The Simpsons try to out-vulgar Family Guy. Then along comes a fella like Rick Ele to take Sacramento’s sleepy Sunday notions and turn them on their ears.
Ele, one of Sacramento’s best show promoters – as well as a living legend at KDVS 90.3 FM – has transplanted a show originally slated to take place at the recently-shuttered underground live music venue known as The Hub to the Sol Collective art gallery’s ample floor space. Tonight’s bill features Brooklyn shoegazers Crystal Stilts, Sacramento’s scrappy indie-rockers English Singles, and an opening band that’s been getting quite a bit of well-deserved notice ‘round these parts lately: Nacho Business.
As the crowd huddles around the venue’s makeshift stage, the two girl-one guy trio launch into a honey-sweet set of harmonies, simple riffs and delicate melodies. Standing front and center in the audience is a beaming Charles Albright, who will be releasing Nacho Business’ debut 7” in June on his Sacramento Records label. The band’s set is going off without a hitch. In the fourth song, however, some bass chords go all… squiffy.
“Sorry,” laughs Candice Adams, Nacho Business’ bass player and vocalist, apologizing a few more times. Guitarist Heather Crocker and drummer Alec Roberts join in the chorus of apologies, evoking laughs from the audience – and themselves. Their bashful, self-deprecating stage presence is refreshing, especially from a band this talented, and whose popularity around town is steadily growing.
Adams and Crocker got their start in the local music scene back in the ‘90s with a popular all-girl punk band called The Riff Randals – an abrasive, sexed-up Ramones romp that was pretty much the polar opposite of their current project. After The Riff Randals split, the members went their separate ways. Adams filled the bass slot in The Knightmares, where she and Roberts made up the rhythm section, and she and Crocker later teamed up again in The Pantyliners. Adams also did time in Milhouse with Sacramento Records’ impresario Albright, whom she’d known since high school. Then after a decade of playing in bands, both Crocker and Adams quietly packed it in.
“I was sick of playing punk music,” recalls Crocker. “I totally felt like I’d been playing the same type of punk drums for I dunno how many years. It felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere, like I was playing the same types of songs over and over again. So I quit the band I was in and I kind of just took a hiatus.”
For Adams, change came in the form of becoming a mom in 2006. “I thought that I didn’t have a place in the music anymore,” Adams laughs. “Then I changed my mind, and Heather and I started practicing together.” They formed Nacho Business in 2009.
Crocker, tired of “being in the back,” retired her drumsticks, and with Adams’ encouragement, took up the guitar. “Candice and I just decided to start doodling around, trying to play super-girlie, ‘90’s twee music,” Adds Crocker. After writing a handful of songs, the pair decided it was time to add a drummer.
“Alec called me one day and asked, ‘Do you still need a drummer?’” Adams says. “Is that how it happened?” Roberts says. “I don’t really remember…”
Upon hearing the three songs Nacho Business recorded to promote itself on Myspace, Albright knew he had to put out their record. “There was a single in there,” Albright says, enthusiastically. “Once you have that out, then you can use that as a legitimate thing to get shows out of town and convince someone else to put out an LP. That kind of legitimacy from a record is important.”
“I’d say we have a ‘90’s feel,” says Crocker of the bands’ sound. “There’s definitely that twee aspect, because we kinda sing really softly. There’s also this ‘90’s indie kind of thing.”
Nacho Business’ brand of lo-fi cardigan-pop (or “lady punk,” as Roberts refers to it) definitely nods towards their inspirations; namely The Shop Assistants, The Marine Girls, Henry’s Dress, Dreamdate, and former “riot grrrl’ locals Tiger Trap. But while Nacho Business may cull from their influences, their confectionery sound is distinctly theirs – honest, sincere, sweet, and – oh, yeah – apologetic.
Back at Sol Collective, Nacho Business are wrapping up their set with a quiet number. As Roberts taps on his cymbals, Adams whispers into her microphone and the sound of her bass guitar fills the room. Midway through the song, Crocker slides in with a guitar solo. When she’s finished, Crocker bashfully leans into the audience towards Albright, laughing. Albright puts a hand on her shoulder and assures her, “That was great! You guys were fuckin’ great!”
Albright, Ele and the rest of the audience claps and cheers as the band says goodnight. This crowd knows good music when they hear it. Even on a Sunday night.
Nacho Business’ debut 7” record is available exclusively at Phono Select Records.