ROCKTALK / NOTES : Loud Times at Brewhouse Not Something to Dwell On

Whoever rented out the apartments above the Brewhouse in Santa Barbara could probably sell an umbrella to a cactus. One apartment in particular, the one right over the band room, is where the answer to any Trivial Pursuit question asked on a weekend evening is “Huh?”

The turnover rate is, not surprisingly, brisk. It’s no doubt perfectly quiet most of the week, but Mt. St. Helens was mostly quiet, too. When bands like Leadhead or Creature Feature get it going on a Friday night, well, it’s a cat-scaring, china-busting bass concert upstairs.

“You see them coming and going a lot,” Brewhouse owner Ramon Cano said. “Some of the tenants used to go away for the weekend, go camping, something like that. When we first opened, I used to live in that apartment myself, but I was always down here, so the bands were never a problem for me.”

Banging on the floor with a broom handle won’t work when it comes to quieting down Spencer the Gardener or Evil Farmer. Not even the cops will work when the tenants are craving a double order of “shut up.”

“As part of their lease, they can’t call the cops on us,” Cano said. “They have to give us an hour notice to quiet things down.”

The tenants in question could not be reached for comment. Probably couldn’t hear the doorbell.

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Spencer the Gardener is set to inflict the band’s third effort on a willing public during an endless, serial CD release party this weekend. Twelve new songs on “Kiss Me in the Deep Blue Sea” will be for sale on 2,000 CDs and 1,000 tapes.

The dance band with that happening horn section will have Party No. 1 tonight at the dance-happy Beach Shack. Another CD release party will be Friday night at the Ventura Theatre--Loaded Zilla and the Baseline Therms will open the 9 p.m. show. Even I can afford this one--it’s free. The party ender will be Sunday night after the Bundys at the Brewhouse. Zoo Story will open that one.

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Los Guys, that daffy duo out of UCSB, have just released their folk rock debut CD called “We’re Getting Nowhere on Our Looks . . . and Fast.” It’s got some hilarious lyrics by Jeremy Donaldson (he’s the folk) and some mind-bending guitar pyrotechnics by Harold Lee (he’s the rock). Songs that will never be on the radio as we know it are “Barbara’s Song” and “Ode to the 41st President.” In addition to all the usual “Thank yous” on the Los Dudes’ liner notes, there’s this: “Los Guys does NOT thank: Ramon at the Brewhouse. BOYCOTT THE BREWHOUSE.” And they never even lived upstairs. . . .

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My other favorite S. B. band, Tao Jonz, is all finished with their second CD, “Keeping Up With the Jonzes.” All they need now is the cash to get the dang things made. Singer/guitarist Jimmy the Working Man just got his Ph.D. from UCSB in electrical engineering. So I guess that’s Dr. Jimmy now.

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An L.A. band, the Bottom 12, made a brief stop by the Beach Shack last month long enough to play three songs. Maybe they should have stayed home and watched “The Simpsons.”

According to Beach Shack co-owner Paul McGuiness, the band was disparaging Santa Barbara in a way that would not please the Chamber of Commerce.

“But the worst part is that people were leaving in droves,” McGuiness said. “You know how these co-eds are, so I decided to cut my losses and we pulled the plug on them.”

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Well at least they got to play. The Tearaways almost made their Ventura County debut last week at Jake’s in Oxnard. The band’s debut CD, “See the Sound,” is full of Beatlesque harmonies and pop hooks. The two main brains behind it all, Fin Seth and Greg Brallier, have also been in the Volcanos, Five Cool What, plus they’re two-thirds of Fin, Greg & Dave.

Anyway, Jake’s, formerly Bobby McGee’s, is a DJ/cover band place that decided to experiment with live original music. Didn’t work. Not with Sinister Fisch (bar pop), Raging Arb & the Redheads (raunchy blues) or the Roadhouse Rockers (rockabilly). Definitely not with the Tearaways.

“We got there real early, 2-2:30 in the afternoon, and some other band’s stuff was on the stage,” Brallier said. “We didn’t get to play. No one even called us.”

According to Jake himself, the club wasn’t making enough money to support the local bands. As for the Tearaways, “we decided not to use them.”

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Hard rock queen Liz Larin is easy to spot--she’s the good-looking one in black. Choosing her wardrobe in the morning is as easy as it is for Fidel Castro. Soon, she’ll be wearing a whole lot less. Larin is slated to appear in the July issue of Playboy.

“My publicist from Atlantic Records called and told me Playboy had called--I thought she was kidding,” Larin said. “The actual shooting was pretty funny. The photographer was telling me stuff like, ‘Just show me a little bit more and I’ll make you a star.’ ”

Larin’s last album, “Test Your Faith,” recently received a 5-star rating from that metalhead mag, Kerrang! When she’s not deciding what black outfit to wear, Larin spends a lot of time working with AIDS patients at the Heath House in Santa Barbara.

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Recommended S. B. Road Trips:

June 4--Dashboard Saviors, Toes Tavern

June 4--Square Roots, Beach Shack

June 5--Blackbird (with Firehose), Anaconda Theater

June 11--Dave Wakeling & the Free Radicals, Beach Shack