With Femmes Like These
After They Split with Label, Local Band Threes and Nines Hooks Up with Violent Femmes Front Man
After the Threes and Nines won the first Winery Music Awards competition in 2005, it was only a matter of time before they were set to release an album.
The top prize, after all, was a record deal with RNB.
But here it is 2008, and there is still no RNB record. And, in fact, there won’t be one.
The band and label have parted ways. But, fortunately for the young trio (none have hit legal drinking age yet), they have found a supporter in Violent Femmes front man Gordon Gano.
Interestingly, Gano was a teenager himself when his band was discovered by a member of the Pretenders in 1981. Now Gano is helping the Threes and Nines, whom he first heard when the band opened for the Femmes in Ventura.
In a radio interview posted on the Threes and Nines MySpace page, Gano announced that he was working with the band on some recording this month.
“The songwriter is now one of my favorite songwriters,” Gano said.
That’d be Arroyo Grande’s Jake Brebes, the leader of the band, who called himself a Violent Femmes fan well before the Threes ever opened for the folk-punk act.
The Threes and Nines also include Max Triplett on drums and Tasha Brittain on upright bass. You can hear samples of their music on MySpace.
Meanwhile, Violent Femmes fans can expect a new single from them, which is planned for release on iTunes June 24. The single is a cover of the Gnarles Barkley hit “Crazy.”
Tribune Photo: Joe Johnston