It’s time to give some love to local musicians doing their thing in the Old Pueblo.
This weekend is a potpourri of local music. We have a record release gig, a handful of bands celebrating a Tucson punk legend and a Marana music school hosting a two-day audio exchange where you can buy, sell or trade gear.
Lara Ruggles comes out from the shadows
It’s been nine years since Tucson singer-songwriter Lara Ruggles released anything under her real name.
We’ve known her since 2016 as Sharkk Heartt, her electro-pop persona that she used to release the 2021 album “Wars Our Mothers Fought” and a trio of singles.
But her name is on her weeks-old album “Anchor Me,” which returns Ruggles to her acoustic-leaning singer-songwriter side.
“This album represents a return to myself in a way,” Ruggles said in a news release.
“Anchor Me” is a collection of songs Ruggles has been gathering over the past decade that were too intimate, personal and acoustic-leaning for Sharkk Heartt. On “Anchor Me,” Ruggles rediscovers her vulnerability, taking listeners on a journey of compassion and warmth even in the midst of songs that circle the depths of pain and loss.
She recorded the album over three days on Gregory Alan Isakov’s farm in Boulder, Colorado, before bringing in Emmy-winning composer Tyler Sabbag to add percussion. She finished the project with Steven Lee Tracy at Tucson’s Saint Cecilia Studios, where she recorded an additional song with her Tucson band.
Ruggles and the band will perform a release concert at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, at Splinter Collective, 901 N. 13th Ave. Admission is a suggested $20; no one will be turned away if they offer less. Details at splintercollective.org.
Who says punk is dead?
Local Love is celebrating legendary Tucson punk rocker Lenny Mental’s birthday with a punk rock showcase at 191 Toole on Saturday, Dec. 7.
“Punk’s Not Dead Yet III: Lenny Mental’s Birthday Bash” is not your early-2000s pop-punk, with fast-paced vocals against a backdrop of punk’s quintessential five chords and thunder-struck percussion.
This is raw, “gutter punk meets ‘80s hardcore,” the kind of utter musical chaos that sends a “we-don’t-care-what-you-think” message, only add a few f-bombs to the sentiment.
That’s how Slope Records, which has Mental and his The Besmirchers band on its roster, described him and the band’s 2016 EP “Hard On Love.”
Taking their lead from the tatted-up Mental, The Besmirchers put on a show that could actually frighten grown men, if reviews are to be believed.
Tucson music promoter Carl Hanni, in a 2009 Tucson Weekly story, called Mental “one of the greatest lunatics ever to bash himself bloody with a mic and carve himself up with a broken bottle on stage.”
“The Besmirchers’ flavor of punk rock is aggro, confrontational, filthy and fun in the grand, martini-sipping, smoking-jacket-and-cigarette-holder tradition of GG Allin, Dwarves and The Mentors,” Hanni wrote.
In addition to The Besmirchers, Local Love Presents’ “Punk’s Not Dead Yet III” lineup includes Spunk, PS9, Corky’s Leather Jacket, Umera and Methadont.
The show starts at 7 p.m. at 191 Toole, 191 E. Toole Ave. and tickets to the all-ages show are $10 in advance at rialtotheatre.com or $12 at the door.
Buy, sell or trade, and an open mic
Marana’s Tempo Music and Arts Academy and HotSoundZ Audio is hosting a two-day audio exchange Dec. 7-8 in the academy’s parking lot, 8555 N. Silverbell Road.
Vendors and sellers will have audio gear, instruments and other equipment as well as sheet music and other supplies for sale and exchange from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Private sellers with a few items to sell can scan the QR code on Tempo’s website (tempomusicandarts.com) to register.
Food trucks will be on hand and students from the academy will participate in a Holiday Student Open Mic at 1 p.m. each day. There’s also an instrument petting zoo.
Vincent and Tonya Hotz founded Tempo in 2019 with plans to open in March 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic pushed that off until summer 2021.
The academy has 175 students and about 20 instructors, most of them multi-instrumentalists, teaching everything from piano, violin, guitar and voice, to percussion, folk instruments and strings.
The academy also has an audio production program and a recording studio.
