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0 The Cat Club may be a lot rock and roll, but starting this Wednesday it also gets a little bit country with JD Bender’s Hollywood Hayride, a new weekly residency that promises to put some Hollywood tinsel in your two-step. Country crooner turned club promoter JD Bender was able to hang up his boots long enough to speak with TheSunsetStrip.com about opening night of his Hollywood Hootenanny.
Does L.A. have a country scene?
There has always been a great country and rockabilly scene in L.A. Some truly special people got their start out here. Over the last three or four years, the scene has dropped off a little bit due to several factors like the economy and a mass exodus of L.A. country singers to Austin, Houston and Nashville.
There are still a handful of venues doing country in L.A. but none in Hollywood. And there are still a bunch of great bands, but they’re all getting older along with their crowd. That’s not a knock to either the bands or the crowd. Country music, like wine, only gets better with age. It’s the young scene that I’m trying to get started: A little rowdier, a little louder, more exciting. I want all the rockers to get into it. I want all the punkers to get into it. After all, some of the most famous L.A. punk rockers turned country once they hung up their bondage pants, like John Doe from X and Zander Schloss from The Circle Jerks. I want everybody to get into it!
What did you grow up listening to?
Growing up in L.A. you’re a little sheltered from real country. My folks were/are hippies, so I grew up listening to Neil Young, The Band and the Rolling Stones along with a little bluegrass. I found traditional country when I was a bit older and it was love at first listen. It’s so f*ckin’ honest, it’ll knock yer dick in the dirt and then make you happy about it.
Do you have a song about a tractor?
Hell no! I’m from L.A.! I don’t even know what they’re used for. Pulling stuff I assume.
I sing songs about drinking, and fighting, and prison, and heartache and women. You know, the important things in life. The whole point of my music is to make people smile and laugh and forget about all the crap that’s constantly raining down on them. If I can make otherwise unhappy people happy for a few hours, then I’ve done my job. Tractors aren’t funny or sad, they’re just farm implements of menial historical value.
Is what’s happening in popular country an accurate representation of the genre? Which contemporary artists do you like?
Pop country is the reason people make weird faces at me when I tell them I’m a country singer. I have to explain the difference: Pop country is the same as Hannah Montana and Britney Spears with a little twang. What I do is more like cow punk. What I do comes from a long line of drunken, pot smoking, pill popping outlaws. The only new artists that I like fly a little under the radar like Hank [Williams] III, Wayne Hancock and Reverend Horton Heat. I’m also a big Dwight Yoakam fan. Even though he’s gone a little mainstream at times, he’s still a L.A. cow punk at heart.
What can we look forward to on your new night?
My nights are all about fun! We’ll have hay bales to sit on, bartenders will be dressed up like cowgirls, and I’ll be DJing and hosting the whole night. I’m trying to create an atmosphere that kind of goes against the norm in L.A. I want people to come early and stay the whole night. I want them to know that they’re gonna hear great music all night and hang out with a bunch of great people…and come back every week.
At the end of each night I’m doing an all-star, honky-tonk jam. We’ll do traditional country covers and have special guests from national and local acts of every genre…We’re trying to make it as cheap as possible. So everyone can come enjoy it without worrying about breaking open the piggy bank.
Opening night of JD Bender’s Hollywood Hayride will feature The Lug Nuts, The Hopdown Bilby Band, Jolee Blon’ & Country Burlesque, and an end-of-night jam session Sarah Jeanette from The Mulhollands, and other special guests. Visit www.thecatclubonsunset.com for more information and a $5 entry coupon.
Photo courtesy Genie Sanchez
–Brent X Mendoza
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