They wear vests, and they look quite classy in ‘em. The perfect reason to download a free track from San Francisco’s Strangefeather. Click here for previous Tracks Of The Day.

Classic Rock’s Sleazegrinder takes up the tale:

Lately, I’ve been thinking about taking up vest-wearing. Nothing crazy, just a suit vest over the slacker-casual dress shirt. I think it’ll look classy. I just need a mini-trend to develop first, so I don’t like some maniac wearing a vest all by myself. And that’s why it is important that you support San Francisco’s Strangefeather. They wear vests, and they look quite classy in ‘em. If they become famous, and get their picture in, say, Classic Rock magazine, then I’ve got it made.

But listen, you don’t have to like them just because of their dress sense. Their music is substantially boss, a white-hot fuzzgasm of late 60s power-blooze, not unlike a bar-brawling Stones. They’ve got piles of jukebox-ready jams at their disposal and a balls-first twin-guitar team (Cook and Jones!) that build up an impressive wall of sugar-splattered crunch. And they’re unsigned, which is nuts. Also, they have somebody that paints. I know, so does Cloud Cult, but this dude dresses way better.

Wanna know what they’re like? Let’s go. These questions were answered during a bumpy ride back to town after a successful LA run where many hearts were broken and many more faces were rocked.

First, the vitals: How’d this all happen?
A band called Ride The Blinds broke up in November of 2007, so the Cramer brothers took their talent and teamed up with frontman Josh Cook to start a new project. Chris Jones, who was a close musical friend, joined the band in a pinch when they fired their original guitarist, and painter Jesse Mosher joined thereafter. By the end of March 2008, Strangefeather was born.

The 60s conundrum: Tina Turner or Grace Slick? Please pick one and tell us why. Also, Altamont or Woodstock?
Grace Slick, simply because she represents the best of San Francisco rock’n'roll. And Altamont, of course, because I’d rather be stabbed by Hells Angels than sit through 30 minutes of John Sebastion solo.

Anybody famous ever audition for the band? Also, do people tend to quit or get fired? Has anybody ever left in tears?
Blood in, blood out.

Can you give us some highlights of your live show history so far? Also, any gigs from hell you can recount for us?
Our last tour was a two-month US extravaganza in a 1964 International Harvester school bus. Our specialty is that we can play all night long without stopping, so there have been shows that have ended at six in the morning before. It’s such a bummer to have to come all the way to a gig just to play 30 minutes, we really like to give people the full experience, you know? A classic example is when we played the Jury Motorcycle Clubhouse, which is actually a 155,000 gallon oil tank. They fed us Jack Daniel’s until we fell and couldn’t get back up. None of us remember what happened after that.

Probably our most hellish gig was getting up at 8am to play at the San Bruno street fair (Never heard of it? Neither has anyone else), only to be followed by an ecological puppet show named ‘Let’s Go Green’, which featured middle-aged dads rapping with rasta accents to a cassette tape and pathetic puppets constructed from recycled socks and popsicle sticks. If I’ve told them once, I’ve told them a thousand times, it’s Strangefeather, THEN puppet show!

Does anybody in the band have weird/awesome/worrying hobbies outside of rock n’ roll?
One member of our band has an alter-ego as an internationally-acclaimed electronica composer called Veem.

What’s there been more of in Strangefeather so far, blood or puke?
Chris puked out the bus the first time we rode in it. He had alcohol poisoning, and pretty much hit every window, starboard to port, bow to stern. I remember we were going to meet with our booker, and he was vomiting as he walked and had to turn back and lay on the bus floor until we were done. Coincidentally, that was the same day we decided to call ourselves Strangefeather. We’ve had our fair share of stabbings, but no one makes us bleed our own blood!

Can you name three bands, besides Strangefeather of course, that Classic Rock readers would love, if only they’d heard of them? Lay your obscure faves on us!
The Lonely H (Seattle), Dark Skies (Portland), Lions in the Street (Vancouver).

What’s coming up next for you guys?
We leave for our West Coast tour on August 13th, and are finishing up the mixing on the first four songs of our upcoming album, which should be finished by the end of this year.

So there you have it. The band-name story is pretty good too, but we don’t have all day. Ask them when you see ‘em. In the meantime, here, courtesy the band, is the positively chooglin’ Ramblin’ Round the Bend:

http://www.strangefeather.us/Strangefeather-RamblinRoundtheBay.mp3

If you dig – and how could you not, really? There’s plenty more where that came from:
www.myspace.com/strangefeather

Thank you for your time. And remember, vests are the new cocaine.

– Sleazegrinder