Rocking the actual nightlife in actual Berkeley et environs in these wild recent years, The Recyclists have made two (TWO!) (that’s 2) albums since I last checked in with ‘em. On the streaming services you may find their latest plus all their lovely organic jams at your recycling leisure. Is there a more Berkeley name than The Recyclists? No. The correct answer is No. And no need to crow, but crow I will, I really like their latest sunny blast o’ fun, No Need To Crow from their new One More Sunny Day album. As an unrepentant morning person I love a good morning song, and in the Recyclists’ musical world, it somehow always feels like a brisk and hopeful new day.
Here they are on Pandora, and Spotify, and Apple Music, and by gosh, I bet you can catch ‘em live at an East Bay venue soon. Let’s look it up.. Ah! Like magic, an Oakland gig in one week, Elbo Room on Broadway, Caturday Feb. 24.
Recyclist-guitarist Stace Wright also continues to operate the fantastic Bandworks program, for which for a time I also worked as a band coach. This was during the end of The UpTones (apparently) final run, and after the big horrible fires hit NorCal in 2017, The Recyclists stepped up and joined us for a benefit concert to help those impacted by the disasters. Skank Bank and Matt Jaffe were also on that show, and indeed, these artists also have a history with Bandworks, as young students and as coaches. So there’s a lot of mutual Berkeley love flying about between these entities, and of course Ashkenaz, which hosted said benefit AND many Bandworks concert events over the years.
