by Whitney E. Youngs
Just like The Byrds, GospelbeacH got its start as an accidental rock band in Los Angeles. It all began with two guys playing the same gig and later jamming over a couple of beers in a studio named the Crabshack.
“GospelbeacH got formed a piece at a time,” says lead vocalist/guitarist Brent Rademaker. “It sounds stupid, but I didn’t want to be in a band at the time.”
In 2014, Rademaker reconnected with Tom Sanford, the original drummer of Beachwood Sparks, a band Rademaker co-founded about 15 years earlier that attained legendary status, hearkening back to the countrified psychedelic-edged heyday of the late ‘60s LA scene that included the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and Gram Parsons.
The duo began messing around in Rademaker’s home studio, the Crabshack.
“We wrote two songs and we felt there was something there,” adds Rademaker.
Sanford recruited bassist Kip Boardman, while Rademaker asked singer/guitarist Neal Casal if he’d stop by the studio during a break from the road, where he was touring with bands Chris Robinson Brotherhood and Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, to name a few.
“Neal said if this was going to be a band, he wanted to be in it,” remembers Rademaker.
Singer/guitarist Jason Soda, who introduced himself to Rademaker via social media, rounds out the group, which picks up where Beachwood Sparks left off. GospelbeacH captures the quixotic, lackadaisical (but impeccably tuneful) tones quintessential to Southern California and made famous both by the Byrds and the Beach Boys.
“I don’t know what it is, but it’s something that was shaped by you being at the beach or in the desert all day,” says Rademaker. “The vocals are wispy. The harmonies, they are not two-part folk harmonies like Simon and Garfunkel — they are two- and three-part surf harmonies, and when you frame it with bending notes, it just creates that sound. But if you are from another era, the whole Southern California sound can be hardcore: SST Records putting out albums from the Minutemen and the Meat Puppets. So, when you talk about the SoCal sound, it opens up a lot.”
Rademaker and Soda co-produced GospelbeacH’s debut album, “Pacific Surf Line,” with Scott Hackwith. It features guest appearances by Nelson Bragg (Brian Wilson’s band) and Ben Knight (Beachwood Sparks).
“With this band, Kip [Boardman], he was really on me about strumming my guitar in time and I never really knew what that meant. And now I do. And the harmonies, we had Nelson, who basically played with the Beach Boys, help us. He’d tell us we were not in tune. It sounded good, but he asked us, do we want it to be in tune, so we really started striving to get the pitch.”
“Pacific Surf Line” showcases upbeat two-step time signatures and lingering guitar twangs (“California Steamer”), along with sweeping vocal harmonies (“Mick Jones”), but it also possesses a dark side with minor key signatures and reverbed distortion (“Alone”). It’s the sort of album you take on a road trip. The sound is pure California with its tones and moods reflected in the glassy currents of the Pacific and radiated from the sun-bleached dunes of the high and low deserts.
“Pure So Cal,” says Joe Firstman, the the sometime local singer-songwriter who headlines Sunday night’s bill at Saint Rocke with GospelbeacH. “Very clean parts, in tune harmony, and relaxed. The songs emanate sunshine….flowery and electric. Like sitting in the park on a sunny day at the top of Beachwood Canyon.”
GospelbeacH and The Joe Firstman Band perform at Saint Rocke (142 Pacific Coast Highway, Hermosa Beach) on Sunday, Nov. 15. King Courdoroy and Sutter Zachman are also on the bill. $5. Doors at 6, show at 7. See SaintRocke.com for tickets.
