iration – Ted Mills

Best friends forever: Rebelution’s opening act Iration have known each other since college days

August 15, 2014September 14, 2014 tedmills Leave a comment

Iration has strong ties to the band Rebelution Photo courtesy Mitch Schneider Organization — Iration has strong ties to the band Rebelution

Photo courtesy Mitch Schneider Organization

The venues get bigger but the friendship between Iration and Rebelution remains just as strong as ever. The two bands go back to their days playing keggers on Isla Vista’s Del Playa, and now Iration is opening for Rebelution’s return to the Bowl. It’s the bands’ third tour together.

Like Rebelution, Iration plays sunshine reggae, positive vibe music. With three albums and three EPs under their belt, they haven’t risen to the same heights as their friends, but the two bands have a symbiotic relationship.

Constant touring fuels Rebelution’s growing status as festival favorite

August 15, 2014September 20, 2014 tedmills Leave a comment

From left, Marley D. Williams, Rory Carey, Eric Rachmany and Wesley Finley started the band Rebelution in Isla Vista

They may call Rebelution’s genre “sunshine reggae” and it may appear that the band is as laid back as a beach barbecue, but there’s very little rest time for these guys. The band averages 120 shows a year, not including travel dates, according to Marley D. Williams, their bass player, with tonight’s Santa Barbara Bowl concert just one of those dates.

“We’re really hustling right now, trying to take advantage of every opportunity we’ve got,” he says. “We have to have a personal life too. The thing that we got from UCSB, apart from our degree, you learn to consolidate things. Two birds with one stone. That’s how our recording process came down to Miami and Burbank.”

Sublime’s new singer Rome carried on Nowell’s tradition at KJEE’s Summer Round Up

June 14, 2010May 19, 2022 tedmills Leave a comment

When Rome Ramirez was about 6 years old, Bradley Nowell, lead singer of Sublime, died from a drug overdose. That was 1996. Now it’s 2010 and the 22-year-old finds himself stepping into Nowell’s shoes as the frontman of a resuscitated Sublime (with the appendage “with Rome” added after Nowell’s family complained).

A Sublime fan since he was a kid, Mr. Ramirez is now playing in front of crowds like the one that gathered at the Santa Barbara Bowl on Saturday, most of whom probably never saw Sublime play when Nowell was alive. As a capper to the day-long KJEE Summer Round Up, it was a fine enough way to see the sun set.

The Glory That Is Rome – After 14 years, Sublime returns with a new singer, and a caveat

June 11, 2010June 1, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Call it the ultimate fan’s dream. Rome Ramirez, just about to turn 22, grew up worshipping the band Sublime from his Fremont, Calif., home. He decorated his room with their posters, and when he picked up a guitar at age 11, the first song he learned to play was “Wrong Way.” Fate, luck and talent had their way with Ramirez, despite his leaving home at 14. He’s now the new lead singer of Sublime and about to headline KJEE’s Summer Round Up, stepping onstage with bassist Eric Wilson and drummer Bud Gaugh, who are both twice his age.

The shoes he fills are those of lead singer Bradley Nowell, who died of a heroin overdose just as the band released its third album in 1996. A life was cut short, and the band’s success was, too. Their singles “Santeria,” “Wrong Way” and “What I Got” became hits, and the videos showed Gaugh and Wilson gamely doing their best, trying to incorporate Nowell’s ghost into the proceedings (sometimes, through computer graphics, literally).