N.L. BELARDES MUSIC REVIEWS - KARMAHITLIST GIVES 'THE DIRT' - BY N.L. BELARDES February 21, 2005 7:00 pm Early Sunday evening I walked into Riley’s tavern. The bar was nearly empty so I inquired when the bands were going to play. “9:30. They start at 9:30 and Karmahitlist will go on either first or second.” What did I care if they were first or second? I just wanted to see these guys perform. I’d been getting emails from frontman Seantastic who promised me ‘the dirt’ a few weeks ago. So I was after it if I had to wait all night. Not feeling like a drink, I wandered across the street to Downtown Records and said hi to owner, Jake Chavez.

“Did you read the article where I mentioned you, man?”

“Oh yeah. Thanks. I should have smiled in the pic though.”

“No way. You look great,” I said.

Downtown Records had been filled with bands earlier in the evening, but now all the jams were coming from the clothing store next door. I wasn’t in the mood to check out what was going on so I went back home for a while and listened to more Karmahitlist on the Internet. At 9:40 I went back downtown, expecting the bands to be late in setting up. I was wrong. There was a band playing, but it wasn’t Karmahitlist. I’d seen Seantastic’s pic on Illpressed, and these guys who were playing did not look like the rock star image of Sean I had in my head. Sean definitely has star appeal, so when a tall guy in make-up, red jacket, sporting tattoos in intriguing patterns and colors passed by, I thought, hmmm. This guy stood a head and a half above everyone else in the bar. Could he have been Seantastic? I wasn’t sure…

I went across the street. Downtown Records was now closed. But there was a lot of keyboard sounds and trumpet blasts echoing from Gigantic. I wandered inside and watched as a kid stood out of the top of a pup tent with a black light in one hand pointed toward himself and a mike in the other. He wore oversized Public Enemy style glasses. There were balloons in odd shapes and balls of every size. People threw them at the stage as this kid rapped and performed like he was some cool theatre geek beckoning the masses. They didn’t need an aged ass like me in there hanging out and writing a review. Alex in his big dark fro passed and I stopped him. “Hey, who are these kids?”

“I don’t know, man.”

“Are they from Bakersfield?”

“No, out of town.”

Ok, doesn’t Gigantic belong to Alex? Shouldn’t he know if that band has a name or not? Oh well, he couldn’t answer me and I wasn’t staying anyway. I was on a mission to meet the rock star himself, Seantastic of Karmahitlist. JR writes about this guy like he’s a cult phenomenon. I’m telling you, I had to find out. Last I heard from Seantastic was on Friday, the 18th. He’d written:

Right, what the hell was I getting into? Some good music definitely. But would I get the dirt? I was ready. Now or never. Where is this guy? I headed back to Riley’s tavern and there was the tall punk in the red rock star jacket and tie. I stopped him. “Are you Sean?” And that was it. He had friendly, dark eyes and punked hair. He said it was indeed him and we shook hands. “Just tell the truth,” he later said. He wanted nothing but honesty from me in my critical review, and he praised JR for his honesty too. “It’s Ok, I know we’re good,” he said. He wasn’t worried, and neither was I.

“Confidence is good,” I returned. I snapped some photos. Karmahitlist all stood in a doorway, and Sean, a natural, struck the poses along with his cool bandmates. He introduced me to them and there were handshakes all around. He said they’d been around for more than two years and so plopped a demo in my hands so I could give it a strong listen. Karmahitlist in red on black on the cover—dark, I like it. But I want more, even better packaging. And I wanted to know more, where the band came from. That’s a little 'dirt' I needed to know.

“We’re mostly from around Bakersfield but live down south in places like Studio City. We play a circuit that includes Huntington, LA, and Bakersfield. That’s our fan base and we keep it going, constantly putting on shows. We’re serious about what we do.”

And what about the music? I had to know about the musack.

“These guys put down the tracks, the core music and I came back on top with vocals and here we are today, plus a couple of changes in personnel, you know, when I came in...”

But there’s more to the dirt: the music isn’t just great, Seantastic himself is a supreme showman. This is performance hardcore at its best. Seantastic himself puts on a show like you haven’t seen before. He’s got the facial expressions, the hand gestures, the rockin’ grabbin’ the mike swoon. He’s got the character and persona that can take over a room and does. He’s quite the frontman, center of the universe--rock and roll post hardcore style. After a couple of gliches in the show: a near fall turned into a killer handstand, and guitar sound problem; their recovery was masterful, and their bantering with each other and the folks attending made for an energetic fun show. My favorite songs were the fast-moving Uncle Sam—I enjoyed Seantastic’s performance and ability to put on the dance—he’s not afraid to move like a lot of frontmen are. But then, he doesn’t have a guitar to weigh him down either. Not that I think that would have stopped him much. No kind of love was catchy and I found myself humming it long after the show. That’s a good mix, homies. No wonder JR knows your lyrics.

Cesario on the drums was no slouch. He looks so…nice guyish…and then he tears it up and you feel like he just kicked your ass and was completely calm about it. He had a following last night and he bantered back and forth with the teasing crowd in between hard-hitting post hardcore drum rolls. The guitarist—crap I forgot his name…doesn’t matter, you won’t forget HIM. He teased me because I forgot the camera’s memory card again and he’d read about me doing that the first time. Dammit, people aren’t supposed to remember such details. But then this is a guy who remembers intricate guitar riffs and solos; no escaping his memory skills. He and the bass player tore through the set with so much energy that they rivaled Seantastic’s antics. They are clearly the genius behind the music, the force behind the sound, while Sean, the performance master of affairs is voice that glues their musical hardcore attitude together; a perfect mix.

My only criticism: get a website, Seantastic and crew. And put together a big cd packaged all pretty and nice. To be big you need those elements don’t you? Create in the music world the mystique that you guys are as big as you sound and look: post-hardcore rock gods, man. These guys already play big and I will be back to review more shows—there’s no doubt about that.