Premiere: Rademacher, ‘State of CA’

Kevin Bronson on
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I don’t quite know how to close the book on Rademacher’s “Baby Hawk” album trilogy except to say that it’s as masterful as music about the music life can be. Ostensibly a body of songs that follow the career trajectory of the mythical indie band Baby Hawk, the albums bristle with morality tales, commentary that ranges from caustic to tender and anecdotes about chasing The Dream – and, subtly, how that dream morphs over time.

The first two installments of “Baby Hawk” were not far sonically from Rademacher’s lamentably overlooked 2007 album “Stunts” – prickly licks and even pricklier lyrics from singer-guitarist Mike Mancillas, aka Malcom Sosa, who for years juggled a two-city existence between his native Fresno and L.A. It helped to have a working knowledge of the scene in which Rademacher paid its dues these past years, but Mancillas’ insights weren’t so inside-baseball that you couldn’t get a feeling for the tug-of-war between his artistic dreams and practical realities.

“Baby Hawk Part III” (out March 6, and the band’s third release in just over eight months) is revelatory. Mancillas, along with standout keyboardist Kim Haden and co-conspirators Mike Walker and Daniel Brummel, has incorporated heavy electronic elements including programmed strings and horns into the trilogy’s final eight songs. Toned down is the tartness that made Rademacher a torchbearer for indie tryers everywhere; in its place is a measure of serenity that suggests our heroes are winning some kind of war, probably with themselves. An album that can stand on its own outside the trilogy, “Baby Hawk Part III” is, dare we way, beautiful. And if this is what a baby band grows up to be after years of bumps and bruises and treks across the Central Valley, we should be happy to know and have known Rademacher, even if too few people do. 

||| Previously (and this helps): “They Are Always Into That” from Part I. “Honestly” from Part II.

||| Live: Rademacher plays March 30 at the Mezz Bar.