Alter Egos

Martini Nation and the Jaded Broads are two bands with two attitudes but the same players, and either could be the purveyors of James Bond’s favorite soundtrack.

Shaken not stirred or shaking and stirring, Martini Nation, that small musical republic, will be performing Wednesday night at Wine Lovers in Ventura. Along with the ever-affordable free cover, the pizza guy will be working his culinary and financial wonders outdoors, offering free slices on the patio.

Martini Nation is a trio composed of sisters Wendy and Gabrielle Childs and the guy between them, Ware Christiann. The band does a Las Vegas-style review, which typically begins as a lounge-lizard affair featuring lots of blues, jazz and torch songs, most of which interfere little with the usual bar chitchat.

As the evening progresses, the show turns wilder and Martini Nation becomes the Jaded Broads, during which the sisters assume the personas of Bubbles and Boom-Boom, a couple of burned-out, sex-starved crooners. While the transformation wouldn’t exactly rival Dianne Feinstein turning into Madonna, the show entails lots of costume changes and even more attitude, according to Wendy Childs.

“We know hundreds of songs,” she said. “Although every gig is different, you will hear some of the same songs each gig. But I think over the years, we’ve become more wilder, more brazen, more sexy, more outrageous and more bodacious than ever before. We give the people what they want.”

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Wine Lovers, which also sells beer, is small and cozy with easy chairs and couches. The venue has live music three days a week--a piano bar on Thursdays and acoustic music or blues on Friday and Saturday. Thus, a Wednesday gig is something special because the ladies of Martini Nation and Lisa Hicks, the owner of Wine Lovers, have a history.

“When we first got here, we had trouble finding a place that would pay us . . . and Lisa heard our tape and loved our music,” Wendy Childs said. “She let us play there three out of four weekends a month and we were able to build up our following to what it is today.”

The trio arrived in California from New York a few years ago. The three live in Westlake Village but they like to drive, playing up to four times a week everywhere from San Diego to the Bay Area to Las Vegas.

“We have no social lives--this is what we do,” Wendy Childs said. “In the past, we’ve made a lot of money playing music. I used to have a brand-new Cadillac that I paid for myself. . . . But we played Vegas a lot, which is not very creative and not much fun. It’s like being in a box. What we’re doing now is fun.”

It’s hard to hide anyone in a trio, and Martini Nation is no exception. There are no weak links: Wendy Childs plays drums, guitar and mandolin.

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Gabby Childs plays guitar mostly, but also mandolin and banjo. Both of them sing while Christiann plays everything else. And all three write. And dream.

“We do have a master plan,” Wendy Childs said. “We want to open up new rooms for us to play, since we only play at places with no cover charge. Gabby and Ware do the scouting and I do the phone work. We’re working on a CD, which we want to finish soon, but it’s very expensive and we’re paying for it ourselves. We definitely want to have a hit record, and we want to build a major fan base. And, we’re always writing new songs--we want to have at least one new song and one new cover song at every other gig.”

While martinis and pizza may not sound very appetizing, this time they may be.

The pizza thing originally was only Wednesday nights but now has expanded to Saturdays as well. The pizza dude makes his creations outdoors, cooking them in a kiln over an open fire. No word yet invented can describe how good these things are.

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DETAILS

Martini Nation at Wine Lovers, 1067 E. Thompson Blvd., Ventura; Wednesday, 7 p.m.; free; 652-1810.

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Driver of the world’s slowest-moving land vehicle--a VW bus--and player of lots of blues songs, Hippie Mark & the Total Strangers will play a Christmas gig at Calypso’s Bar & Grill in Ojai.

Hippie Mark is, in fact, Mark Searcy, a Ventura local who has been playing his version of the blues for about 25 years.

Searcy plays the guitar and harmonica, plus he sings (not all at the same time) and is joined by a revolving cast of Total Strangers who have been known to include Dan Wilson, Jonathan McEuen, Orest Balaban, Jonathan Raffetto and Stephen Cooley. Searcy also jams with local blues gods Ashford Gordon and Jackie Lomax. Hippie Mark describes his stuff thus: “Acoustic. Dead set. Experimental. Folk. Bluegrass.”

This is one of the few gigs in any town on Christmas. It’s either Hippie Mark or “The Philadelphia Story” on PBS.

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DETAILS

Hippie Mark & the Total Strangers at Calypso’s Bar & Grill, 139 E. Ojai Ave., Ojai, Saturday, 9 p.m.; free; 640-8001.

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If swing is your thing, than you probably already know about the long-running Wednesday-night gig at Nicholby’s in Ventura that features swing dance lessons by pros Lee & Jen. Swing dancing involves lots of action on the floor with people dressed to the nines, and this week, there will be live music by the Starlighters.

Swing began at the Savoy Theatre in Harlem in the ‘20s, having been influenced by ragtime and the Charleston. A few years later a further refinement was introduced, the Lindy Hop. Now, 70-something years later, there’s scarcely a night of the week without a swing dance or swing dance class. The Nicholby’s event is one of the longest running and one of the best.

If you’re one of the dozen or so people in the state who doesn’t swing dance, don’t fret. Lessons begin at 7:30 with Lee & Jen, and the band goes on two hours later. Even if you dance like an oak tree, that’s not a problem, according to Lee Moore himself.

“In swing dancing, you meet great people, go to cool clubs, hear cool music and do a cool dance with a cool chick,” he said. “Even if you don’t know how to dance, you can do this.”

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DETAILS

The Starlighters at Nicholby’s, 404 E. Main St., Ventura, Wednesday, 9:30 p.m.; $7; 653-2320.