TruckerDeluxe’s home base of Chico,CA – besides being home to one of the awesomest, most pristine city parks this side of Central Park, and more amazingly buxom college girls than you can shake your stick at (trust me, I tried) – is also home to a surpising amount of underloved, perennially undiscovered musicians, going about their music-making much to the joy of the assorted townsfolk but rarely ever making waves in the broader music world until relocating to some more urban locale, usually Portland, San Francisco or southward to Los Angeles. But when it comes to music, obscurity is oftentimes the mother of awesomeness, and if there was ever an attestation to the untapped awesomeness of the Chico music scene, it’s the new collection of low-fi, collaborative songs “Thank You Chico, Goodnight” collated by local scene stalwart Maurice Spencer, who himself is packing his bags for Portland after toiling ten years in the sweet obscurity of Chico’s music habitat. As a parting shot, Spencer asked many of the musicians who he’d played alongside over his years in Chico to pen a song about Chico, and record a scratch version to tape, which Spencer and whoever happened to be there at the time, would then add on layers of whatever instruments happened to be laying around, in a semi-spontaneous, beat happening sort of style. As haphazard as that may sound, the resulting 21 songs on “Thank You Chico, Goodnight” are an intriguing, if not infectious collection of heartfelt, sometimes humorous, other times forlorns, ode to a shared locale. And though many of the names on the disc might not be recognizable outside of Chico, there are some that, somewhat conversely, are perhaps more recognizable outside of Chico, such as former 28th Day/SF Seals frontwoman Barbara Manning or ANTI Records artist Danny Cohen whose idiosyncratic, cerebral style is on the whole a little too heavy for the college bar crowd. Also included are songs from Armed for Apocalypses Kirk Williams and Surrogate‘s Chris Keene who represent the younger guard of bands trying to place Chico into the pop culture zeitgeist as producing good shit that’s not Sierra Nevada beer or fraternity hazing scandals. However, despite the occasional small musical victories and future hope of musical victories to come, Chico will never be Brooklyn, or Austin. It’ll be Chico, an insular hub halfway between nowhere and somewhere, where urbanites in training and future farmers of America try to co-exist peacefully with the help of copious amounts of alcohol and awesome bands that no one outside of Chico will ever have a chance to care about. A special place, in both the positive and negative meanings of the word. As Spencer says in the notes to the record, “Thank You Chico, Goodnight” is ultimately “21 songs about a special place we all hate and love. I hope you like it. I think it came out pretty good.” I think so too. You can check it out for free on Bandcamp here.
We took advantage of the beautiful weather yesterday, and our proximity to the sprawling confines of Chico’s Bidwell Park to shoot some photos of our best and brightest Spring/Summer gear for postage on TruckerDeluxe.com. Thanks to Marshall from M Masters Photography for holding it down behind the lens, and to Zach, Ryan and the lovely ladies of the Chico Trucker store, Noi, Julia, Kristiana and Laura (looking fly courtesy of Lulus.com) for standing out in the sun all day and indulging us in our various half-baked ideas. A good time was had by most, and a sunburn was had by me. Photos after the jump. [click to continue…]
Like every other Americanized holiday, whatever meaning St. Patricks once had (wasn’t it something about snakes?) has long since been obscured by seemingly arbitrary traditions like wearing green and, at least around here, getting absolutely hammered before breakfast, which are obviously way more awesome than whatever it was that people did on St. Patricks Day before college kids figured out it was an awesome excuse to wear Celtics jerseys and drink enough Car Bombs to completely blot out the politcally incorrect implications of the whole thing. To that end, TruckerDeluxe has dedicated the new arrivals area of our front page to green gear, including the super dope Jelly Bean Vans Authentics and the Burton BSC Starter snapbacks in preparation for what always ends up being an epic day here in our hometown of Chico, CA. Even if you don’t live in a college town where every incidental holiday is an excuse for an all-day booze binge and St. Patricks Day is just another Thursday, adding a touch of green to your wardrobe is never a bad idea. After all, think of all the cool shit in the world – trees, money, weed – and they’re pretty much all green. Get your recommended daily dose of greens on TruckerDeluxe.com and never get pinched on St. Patrick’s Day ever again.
The tsunami generated by last night’s 8.9 (they’re now saying it was 9.0) earthquake off the coast of Japan, hit California early this morning, and despite ample warning, a Northern California man who was trying to take pictures of the surge was swept out to sea, along with three other people in harbor town of Crescent City, CA. Of course the damage to California, Hawaii and other Pacific coast regions pales in comparison the the damage sustained by Japan. The tsunami created a 33-foot high tsunami that washed away basically anything in it’s path: people, buildings, cars. The death toll is currently expected to exceed 1000, while the damage is already in the billions and growing. You can see some of the raw footage of the quake and it’s aftermath below.
…meanwhile in San Francisco, tourist shirt vendors never pass up a chance to make a quick buck.
The RVCA Skate Team has been in our neck of the woods lately, skating, dying, doing all the usual skate tour shit like ripping sick tricks in shitty skate shop parking lots. The “Enjoy Weed” shirts they’re sporting in the still frame above are, of course, one of the leading exports of our not-too-far-northernly neighbor Weed, CA home of the quaint, but forlorn College of the Siskiyous, disenchanted lumberjacks, hippies, and people who own gas stations that sell “Enjoy Weed” shirts. Anyway, check the video above courtesy of Thrasher, and check out our full selection of RVCA apparel, including Leo Romero signature gear like the Romero Stretch Twill II pants below, on TruckerDeluxe.com.
Walt Disney realized, many years ago, that it is indeed a small world after all. And that was BEFORE the internet. Now, the world feels like the inside of elevator, where like it or not, you’re gonna get real familiar with everyone else because, well, there they are. Fortunately, we not only like it, we love it. Maybe we’re just people people, but this weekend when, via our exceptional data mining skills we discovered a shout-out to TruckerDeluxe on the website of Dassel’s Petroleum, who were once upon a time the proud owners of the Kenworth Semi-Truck door that now functions as one of the doors to our dressing rooms, we were pretty pumped:
We received a picture text from a good friend of a Dassel’s Kenworth propane transport truck door that had been re-purposed to be used as a dressing room door at the TruckerDeluxe men’s clothing store in Chico, CA. This was really fun for us to find, we think TruckerDeluxe has an awesome sense of style and brilliant use of creativity & sustainability.
You hear that “You guys are a fraud! You have NOTHING to do with the Trucking industry” Facebook haters? Even people who operate trucks for a living think we have an awesome sense of style. If that’s a fraud, then baby, I don’t want to be whatever the opposite of a fraud would be. Thanks to Dassel’s for the shout out. If you live in the Hollister/Hanford area, definitely hit up Dassel’s for your propane, gasoline, diesel, oil, or lubricant needs.
As some of you probably know, TruckerDeluxe got it’s start way back in 2003 as Trucker, a retail store in a beautiful, out-of-the-way little college town in Northern California named Chico, which as anyone who spends any time in Chico knows, is pretty much the only spot between Sacramento and Oregon to get any sort of decent men’s fashion. To honor our roots we’ve started up our own in-house t-shirt label, Trucker. The t-shirts are designed and printed right here in Chico, CA on American Apparel tees, so they’re 100% American. Keeping with that spirit, our first two designs, the Trucker Warriors t-shirt above and the Trucker Stamp t-shirt (below), pay homage to American history with vintage-inspired graphics. Our third shirt, the Trucker State shirt (bottom) is inspired by our collective alma mater and the central nexus of our hometown, California State University Chico, from which the majority of the TruckerDeluxe staff graduated Cum Laude in a wide range of disciplines including, booze, beer, partying, women and playing in shitty bands. Yeah we’re a pretty diverse group. Check out the full line of Trucker t-shirts on TruckerDeluxe.com here.
The Trucker Stamp t-shirt in black available on TruckerDeluxe.com here.
The Trucker State t-shirt in black available on TruckerDeluxe.com here.
Unlike 99% of major sporting events, both of this past weekend’s sporting spectacles, Saturday’s UFC 126 and Sunday’s Superb Owl XLV were actually badass, if you don’t count the rampant commercialism and sickeningly pervasive marketing imbued into the very core of both events…but I digress. In Saturday’s UFC 126′s main event, our man Vitor Belfort squared off against Anderson Silva, and promply got dropped in the first round by an unreal front kick (above), a move apparently taught to Silva by none other than Stevan Seagal. Yeah, Steven Segal as in the actor. Check the post-fight interview with Seagal:
On Sunday, however, our other man, fellow Chico native Aaron Rodgers not only led his Green Bay Packers to victory, but was also named MVP, winning himself a new Chevy Camaro (which is cool because I don’t think he could’ve afforded one otherwise) and daps from Chuck Liddell.
The downside to all this, however, is now no matter how hard we try, TruckerDeluxe will at best be known as the SECOND coolest thing to come out of Chico, CA. But like the Steelers are probably telling themselves right about now, if you’re gonna get beat, might as well get beat by the best baby! Seeing a hometown boy bring home the hardware is almost enough to make Northern California football fans forget that the San Francisco 49ers could’ve drafted Rodgers instead of Alex Smith way back when. But that’s OK, because we’ve got…Troy Smith. Alright, maybe it’s not OK, but whatever. Maybe the 49ers will have their chance to redeem themselves in a couple years when the youngest Rodgers, Jordan, comes out of Vanderbilt? Either way, Chico hasn’t gotten this much TV time since Ross drank a bottle of Chico’s finest Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on Friends. Alright…so maybe we’ll only ever be the third coolest thing to come out of Chico. Football and beer are tough things to beat. But that’s cool with us, I guess. Fuckers.
For dudes who are into sports, this weekend is one of the greatest sports weekends to come along in recent memory. Not only are the Steelers and the Packers, two of the National Football League’s most storied and beloved franchises set to battle it out in Super Bowl XLV, but Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort will battle it out as part of UFC 126 as well. And though we usually hate to pick sides, in both of this weekend’s contests we have something of a vested interest in one side being the victor. First and foremost, we gotta go with the Packers when it comes to the Superb Owl, because Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, like us, was born and raised in the cutty Northern California college town Chico, CA, so we gotta rep our city! In addition, he’s probaby one of the nicest human beings you’ll meet, so we’re gonna have to go with the Pack on this one. Sorry PA. Hopefully you’ll still buy our clothes. When it comes to UFC 126, our interest is a bit more pecuniary: Anderson Silva is definitely a great fighter and all, but we don’t carry any Anderson Silva signature apparel on our website. What we do carry, however, are the RVCA x Vitor Belfort Fight Shorts, so we’re definitely gonna be in the homie Vitor corner on Saturday night. However, no matter who comes out on top, when there’s this much badass sports action on TV in one weekend, we’re all winners right guys? Who wants a hug?
Vitor Belfort Fight Shorts from RVCA available on TruckerDeluxe.com
