Mike Bookey

Alex Toth, the trumpet player and bandleader of Rubblebucket, is riding in a van somewhere in Iowa on his way to Nevada while the rest of his Brooklyn-based octet is in Vermont – the band's other home – playing at a hot air balloon festival. It's one of the only times Toth has ever missed a show, but with big booking opportunities arising, like the High Sierra Music Festival this summer, some tough choices had to me made. And that's essentially why Toth found himself accompanied only by a sound engineer, cruising across the country to get things in order for the band's West Coast tour.
It's hard keeping this many people in order, which is why Toth is explaining the reason he keeps eight (or sometimes as many as ten) people in this band.
“When I first started this band, I wanted a medium to express the wildest ideas of my imagination while rocking the shit out of dance clubs,” says Toth.

He's a big dude. He's massively bearded. And when he sings, he sings about drinking and fighting and losing his mind and everyone in the joint listens because it's impossible not to. Add the fact that he goes by the name The White Buffalo and you've got a recipe for an imposing, if not slightly terrifying, figure.
But if you call The White Buffalo on his cell phone, he'll respond to his given name, Jake Smith, and he'll probably be driving through Los Angeles traffic near his home, where he lives with his family. Smith doesn't look much like a stereotypical dad, but more like someone who, if 25 years older, could have battled Jeff Bridges for the lead in Crazy Heart. Smith is, indeed, a dad, but that hasn't stopped the songwriting powerhouse from continuing to pen powerfully dark, boozy tunes that he's been booming through bars and clubs over the past few years.

“We both like the Beach Boys a lot,” writes M. Ward, answering e-mail questions about She & Him, the bubbly pop duo of which he makes up half.
This isn't shocking. One doesn't have to listen much past the first track of the band's newest album, Volume Two, to guess that Ward and the act's songwriter and singer, Zooey Deschanel, enjoy the work of Brian Wilson and company. She & Him has made a name for themselves in the past two years by reviving the sunshiny radio pop of years past, but doing so with an innovative edge that has attracted fans who've probably never had much interest in the Beach Boys.

There are only a few rock stars who can make a claim about how they want to pitch a television show about their band and be taken seriously. But Kyle Gass is one of those select few. First off, he's already been part of an act, Tenacious D, that was known for its TV series long before ever even releasing an album and secondly, his idea for his current band, Trainwreck is just crazy enough to work.
“So here's the deal. We tour around in a shitty wreckabago and we get mixed up in some crazy shenanigans and then we solve crime. Because, you know, you gotta have the Scoobie Doo element,” says Gass, outlining the basis of the show (the theme song for which appears on the band's album) he actually pitched to studio execs.

If you’ve already picked up the print edition of the Source this week, you’ve already seen the two-page spread we used to prove that (almost) every band in Bend is somehow connected.
Also, if you like local music, check out our FREE LOCAL MUSIC SAMPLER where you can stream and download new songs from some of your favorite artists.