Decadance Finds Success After Forming Own Label

Decadance (pronounced “Dekka-DANCE”) is the name of the latest local act to break nationally. The dance-pop duo of vocalist Cathy Cohn, 25, and keyboardist Jim Rauch, 26, formed their own independent label, the Mission Gorge-based Inertia Records, primarily as a means of self-promotion. It worked.

Last month, Decadance’s single, “Good Things (Happen to the Heart),” made it onto a compact-disc sampler distributed by the radio-industry trade publication Hitmakers. The sampler is a compilation of pop, dance-oriented and mainstream tracks the magazine believes will break into the national Top 40. Soon thereafter, “Good Things” was picked up for airplay by six stations in Arizona, Oregon, and California, including San Diego’s Z-90.

One listen convinces that “Good Things” has the goods to go over extremely well in the world of “track” music--the prerecorded stuff heard in the bigger dance clubs. These features include a pummeling rhythm track and a Madonna-like vocal by Cohn, complete with a “Vogue”-ish spoken passage. As if to prove the song’s club-orientation, Decadance performed to an enthusiastic crowd at Tijuana’s Club Oh! on July 13.

Even as they try to capitalize on their initial radio success, Cohn and Rauch are weighing inquiries from several major labels, including Charisma Records, with the goal of signing a distribution deal that would increase the single’s sales potential. Meanwhile, “Good Things” and its flip-side, “Love Factory,” are available on cassette-single at local Tower Records stores.

UPDATE: The lineup of live talent is final for the San Diego Music Awards to be presented at the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art’s Sherwood Auditorium on Aug. 19.

The performing acts, most of which are nominees, include the Rugburns and A. J. Croce (both nominated in the best solo or duo category); Rockola (best classic rock); Earl Thomas and the Blues Ambassadors (best blues); and the Beat Farmers (stupid human tricks category).

Making a special appearance is former Oceanside resident Stevie Salas, recently voted the fourth-best new guitarist in the country by Guitar World magazine. Salas and his band, Colorcode, have made waves in the biz and in local shows, but for this event the guitarist will be backed by local musicians Craig Zarkos on drums, the ubiquitous Peter Skrabak on bass, and vocalists April Doyle and Angel O’Brien of Mar-Dels fame.

The first-annual San Diego Music Awards actually is an estranged descendant of the North County Entertainer Awards. Local booking agent Kevin Hellman, who directed the North County shows as an employee of the Entertainer publication, left that company before last year’s awards program. Hellman is founder-director of the new San Diego version, which he feels has a more legitimately county-wide focus.

Following in the tradition of the Andy Williams golf tournament, the San Diego Music Awards recently added the name of sponsor Mark Silver to its official moniker. By Hellman’s estimation, Silver, a local attorney, picked up as much as 90% of the program’s production costs. All proceeds from the Mark Silver San Diego Music Awards will go to the Mary Lou Clack Center for Handicapped Children in Vista.

PLAYBACK: Those of you who attended Robert Palmer’s July 29 concert at Theatre East might have wondered about the muddy sound mix and the comparatively low volume on Palmer’s vocal microphone. You should know that neither was the fault of the promoter or the theater. Apparently, Palmer takes his own sound man on the road, and it was he who set the levels that rendered Palmer’s singing, at best, a separate but equal element of the instrumental mix, and, at worst, barely audible.

While the show was in progress, a complaint voiced to an assistant at the mixing console brought the explanation that “that’s the way Robert likes it,” which in turn led one to speculate that Palmer was trying to reproduce the homogenous wall of sound heard in his MTV videos. However, a source connected to the show opined that Palmer’s sound man is, simply, incompetent. For all that, the show was a gas.

GRACE NOTES: From L.A., it’s “Club Gidget,” a multi-act show that has sold out appearances in the Big Orange and descends on the Spirit for an 8 p.m. show Friday. The lineup includes Weatherbell (featuring ex-Blood on the Saddle, ex-Bangle Annette Zalinskas), Dos, Mourning Glories (playing acoustic), Universal Congress Of, D.C.3, and “psychedelic banjo” player Dave Travis. . . .

Diana Ross, who will play the Starlight Bowl on Sept. 26, hasn’t been to San Diego since a 1983 concert-in-the-round at the Sports Arena, with a full orchestra to one side of the stage. At the time, the feather-boa-clad Ross was just coming out of her dance-diva phase, and her show included a disco-fied medley of Supremes hits. She might inspire rapier parodies of her everybody-join-hands-and-love-each-other schtick, but Ross proved that night that she can command and hold the attention of 10,000 maniacal fans. Tickets to her concert at the comparatively more intimate Starlight (4,500) go on sale Sunday. . . . Steven Curtis Chapman will perform at Brown Chapel at Point Loma Nazarene College on Sept. 26, tickets on sale Friday at all TicketMaster outlets as well as at Christian bookstores.

The Aug. 28 Hall and Oates show at Symphony Hall, which was to have included Pat Benatar with Roomful of Blues and Vinnie James, has been canceled. Recently, the itinerary for that touring package was rerouted. As a result, Benatar decided not to do the San Diego show. This caused a domino effect on the entire booking. . . .

The Doobie Brothers and Joe Walsh perform Sept. 1 at the 32nd Street Naval Station (stay tuned for tickets sale date). . . .

Crowded House comes to town for a Sept. 8 date at Symphony Hall (on sale at 3 p.m. Friday). Opening act will be Richard Thompson.

CRITIC’S CHOICE: GIPSY KINGS AT SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY

Because of a deep-seated skepticism as to the motivations fueling the musical whims of the public, I usually reserve judgment as to the legitimacy of international “sensations.”

The Gipsy Kings provide a perfect example of an ethnic outfit whose “exotic” quotient attracted hordes of believers with the 1987 release of its self-titled debut album. They were featured on all the talk shows, critiqued in all the major magazines, and drew their share of breathless, albeit unsolicited hosannas from Hollywood celebrities.

Now, four years later, one doesn’t hear much about the sextet of French Gypsies whose singles, “Bamboleo” and “Djobi Djoba,” still are heard on a variety of FM radio stations. But the group, of course, has not gone away, and the music they make on their third and current opus, “Este Mundo,” is no less stirring than that on their first effort.

The lineup of six guitarists--three of whom sing--stirs a caldron of locomotive rhythms, dramatic folk melodies (sung in Gitane--a mix of Spanish, French, and Gypsy tongues), and contemporary arrangements that deserves to be more than a flash in the pan. Sincere fans can make it so by attending tonight’s Gipsy Kings concert at San Diego State University’s Open Air Theatre.