Hear This

What happens when record collectors step out from behind their musty LPs and start a band? Usually, the result sounds like a starched and plodding high school group weaned on Mel Bay instructional songbooks. Luckily, the record geeks in the Fevers -- guitarist Brian Hermosillo, drummer Travis Ramin, and vocalist/bassist Gavin May -- are rare exceptions, ably proving that vinyl connoisseurs cando their favorite albums right.

Details

The Flakes headline and Nagg opens at 10 p.m.

Tickets are $4

550-0393

Saturday, Aug. 31, at the Parkside, 1600 17th St. (at Wisconsin), S.F.

Related Content

• Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music
  May 2, 2012
• Bomb Squad Investigates Shady Package; Streets Closed, Muni, BART Slowed
  May 4, 2012
• Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music
  March 14, 2012
• Cop Who Kicked Cyclist's Ass Used Excessive Force, Court Says
  March 7, 2012
• The Real Life Superhero Files: Do-Luck
  December 14, 2011

More About

• Travis Ramin
• Gavin May
• San Jose
• Hermosillo
• Kathy Walker

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

The Fevers began in San Jose in 1997, when former Retardos Hermosillo and drummer Kathy Walker teamed up with May. After the stripped-down, crash-and-bash punk of the Retardos, the three musicians decided to pay tribute to their true love -- music that survived only on oldies stations.

This past April the Fevers morphed slightly, as Hermosillo left the Bay Area for Minneapolis, lured by the Twin Cities' historic garage rock scene, a potential love interest, and, most important, famed drummer Travis Ramin. (In bands such as Tina & the Total Babes, the Short Fuses, and his solo project, Candygirl, Ramin had shown a knack for hooks that would make '80s power-pop icon Paul Collins blush.) Soon Hermosillo and Ramin began writing together, with San Jose native May traveling to Minneapolis to record.

On the Fevers' debut long-player, Gaan Daar Waar de Meisjes Zijn -- roughly translated, "To Go Where the Little Girls Are" -- the self-described "stupid dummies" show they know their musical history. The Fevers collapse 20 years of music -- from '60s Dutch beat to '80s power pop, with a strong dose of '70s bubblegum -- into a sound that's manic and unshakably catchy, tying everything together with a strong, simple rhythm.

Those who thrive on musical minutiae often make their bands' influences obvious in the clothes they wear, the songs they cover, and the record designs they ape. While the Fevers are guilty of all three -- the players sport moppy hair and beloved-band T-shirts, name a wonderfully sticky pop song after the Ohio Express, and have chosen an album cover with red, wavy bubble-lettering -- they stand out by melding disparate sounds into bouncy packages, instead of copying a single style. The Fevers prove that there just might be hope for the legions of would-be musicians holed up in their bedrooms, dreaming of someday being collected themselves.