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Earthless
Earthless is the brainchild of Mario Rubalcaba, Mike Eginton &
Isaiah Mitchell. Rubalcaba a prolific drummer has worn the alias of
Ruby Mars during his stint with Rocket From The Crypt, went on to bang away for the Hot Snakes, was the drummer for hardcore art-punks Clikatat Ikatowi and previously was in the Black Heart Procession…
and prior to that? Mario was a member of Tony Alva’s Alva Team
skateboarding crew. He now finds himself, along with bassist Mike
Eginton and guitarist Isaiah Mitchell, knee deep in the near opposite
direction of all things punk rock, ensconced in the world of jam, space
and “cosmic nodding” a.k.a. Earthless.
The trio, based out of San Diego, met through mutual friends and a
fondness for under the radar record collections. Mario explains how the
band connected, “We discovered a mutual admiration for a lot of
Japanese psychedelic hard rock bands, as well as primitive ‘60s garage
music. After combing over each other’s record collections and lending
out records, we came upon the idea of, ‘Let’s specifically start a
Japanese-psychedelic-heavy-Kraut-rock-band.’ With the Japanese bands,
it was always a really kind of heavy, blues, twisted take on Black
Sabbath or Led Zeppelin. Isaiah is an awesome guitar player & Mike
is an amazing bassist, playing with the both of them really sealed the
deal. Magic happened in the room. Since then, we’ve followed that
formula.”
Recently signed to Tee Pee Records, Earthless issues their debut album, Rhythms from A Cosmic Sky,
this May. While Mario, Mike and Isaiah can be the most precise of
musicians, the group also revels in adding a healthy amount of jam to
the mix, as evidenced by the album’s two extended tracks “Godspeed” and “Sonic Prayer.”
“ There’s a lot of improvisation, a lot of room to be spontaneous and
wander off. We always have certain riffs that we know to go into. If
the beat changes a little bit, and we give the…we call it the ‘cosmic
eye’ or the ‘cosmic nod’ to go into this other part that we have, we
just have these certain sections that we go into, and it always seems
to work out.” The album’s third track is a cover of The Groundhogs’ “Cherry Red.”
Earthless’ sound is so far-reaching they’re already being asked to play
with a wide sweep of artists including - Mastodon, Big Business, The
Fucking Champs, Nebula and High on Fire. However, don’t expect to hear
faithful renditions of either of their new album’s songs when the band
plays live. “No brakes – just one, long continuous song to us. Even
though some people that have seen us think, “That third song you
played…” because it will shift into a different mood. But to us, it’s
just one long song. It can range anywhere from 25 minutes to an hour
and a half… just full-on, loud, sonic power. Some people might not be
able to take it, and some people love it. We just hope that someone can
get enjoyment out of it like we do [laughs]. We have a couple of
different jams – probably four or five different ones, and sometimes we
mix them up. We liked to keep it spontaneous and somehow mix up parts –
if it works it works, if not, then better luck next time.”
With its band members’ previous commitments to other bands keeping them
from fully focusing on Earthless in the past, this appears to have now
changed. “Earthless has always been around other bands that we’ve been
in, because I was touring a lot for Rocket, and then after that, I
played with Hot Snakes, so we never really got a chance to play too
much outside of San Diego. But now, we’ve been consistent for a couple
of years.” Dates outside San Diego are being lined up, including a spot
at the South by Southwest Festival in March.
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