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I’m publishing this video interview on substack so that you don’t have to watch ads on YouTube. I will continue to also publish these videos on YouTube in order to reach a wider audience. If this works out, I will publish future videos in both places. Please let me know if you have any problems with either platform. If you choose to share, please use the substack link to this post. However, if you do prefer YouTube, here’s the link. And thanks.
The Hominoids interview on YouTube
If you love live music, then you likely have a favorite local venue that you frequent. Mine is Winter’s Tavern. On any given night I can drop in and hear some good music in a variety of styles – often very good. Occasionally that very good music is from the avant-garde. Meet the Hominoids.
When I first saw them live early last December, their sound grabbed my attention immediately. I could hardly believe what I was hearing. Their youthful rock band energy was churning out a melange of proggy, jazzy, improv that lately I was only hearing from bands with a much older lineup. What they were doing was well outside of the mainstream. The bar was celebrating an anniversary and had a good size audience to see the many bands playing that day and night. Would they start heading for the exits? No! They cheered loudly after each song. By the end of the set it was “More Hominoids!”
After they left the stage I chatted with a couple of the band members, inviting them to have a look at my blog and see if they might have some time to do an interview. That time would come about two weeks ago.
They were back at my tavern, and yes, they were interested in doing an interview that night. Being the last band to play, I had plenty of time to go home and get my gear, which at this point is simply a recording microphone and a gimbal for my phone-cam. This interview would be a bit trickier for me to pull off than my usual internet video meeting from my sofa. This time I’d have to be the live camera and sound person as well as interviewer.
When the interview was over, I frankly didn’t expect to have anything useful on the recordings. Between the blaring juke box music and the bar chatter in the background, not to mention the lack of any lighting for my camera, all I could do was hope for the best. And I got it.
I mean, it’s not the best lighting and sound, but it’s not bad at all. Given the improvisational nature of the whole setup I was pleasantly surprised with what I got. Of course, YOU will be the judge. All I can say is I’m very much looking forward to doing more in-person interviews, and I can only get better at it from here.
After hearing The Hominoids for the first time last December, I was delighted and a bit surprised to see in their bio that they self-identified as an “experimental rock band”. It’s not a label many bands are eager to attach themselves to. There were two main forces that drove these guys, who’ve known each other almost since birth, down this path to musical weirdness. The first was the Catholic Church, where they went to grade school and apparently became steeped in the devil’s music. It was in their high school days that one singular event changed their destiny.
One evening in 2009, they took their altered minds to a show in San Francisco featuring an Italian trio called Zu. When they first mentioned this to me, my ears perked up. Could this band be related to Bill Laswell’s 1978 Zu Band … the band that would become the first incarnation of Material … the band that I’ve written many stories about already at The Non-Writer?
I was unfamiliar with this Zu they’d just mentioned, and when I told them about Laswell’s Zu Band they seemed to think there might be a connection. I haven’t found one yet, but I haven’t looked too hard.
Back at the SF Zu show in 2009, the yet-to-be Hominoids were having their minds blown as the Italian trio were joined on stage that night by Mike Patton on vocals. They had just released a critically acclaimed album together called Carboniferous, which Wikipedia describes as “experimental metal”.
Soon after this show, the high school buddies would start playing music together. By the time they formed The Hominoids in 2018, they definitely had gigging on their minds. Finding it necessary to cast a wide net to locate any venue willing to display their brand of experimental rock, they got a gig at a dive bar on the coast, just south of SF, over 50 miles away from them. The only thing that might slow them down now would be traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge.
Winter’s Tavern in Pacifica is not just any dive bar. It’s MY dive bar. When I moved from SF to Pacifica, it was considered a slightly seedy, even dangerous place. I loved it from the start, even if the only live music were the occasional local blues bands. Fortunately for The Hominoids (and me), by 2018 the bar had new owners that by then had turned the place into one of the best live music bars in the entire SF Bay Area. Touring national acts will sometimes play, including Agent Orange and Mike Watt, just to name two that I’ve seen.
According to The Hominoids, when the owner/booker C. J. got their gig request, he was enthusiastic about them from the start. It’s this incredibly supportive atmosphere that he’s built around the bands that makes Winter’s Tavern such a fun place to be. “It’s all about the Music”. And the beer selection coming out of the 16+ taps isn’t bad either.
Somehow I did not see The Hominoids play in 2018, and maybe that was for the best based on the band's own description of their first gig. I think I missed them a couple more times before seeing them last December. As it turns out, Winter’s Tavern is the only place the band has played so far. I’m hoping this interview will help connect them with other like-minded bands. I know plenty, but none that I can think of come from Marin County like The Hominoids. Maybe they could ask San Rafael residents Metallica for some tips.
In the meantime, there’s still Winter’s Tavern in Pacifica … home to The Hominoids, and experimental rock bands everywhere.
Why not let us know about your favorite live music venue in the comments section? And while you're at it, tell us about some experimental music that you’ve heard there. Until next time, may all your live music experiences be adventurous.
Find The Hominoids at:
The Hominoids interview at Winter's Tavern