Besides garnering Best New Band, what’s new with The New Archaic?

The New Archaic (Photo by Dave Harrison)

What’s so “new” about The New Archaic? That’s a question some were asking at the San Diego Music Awards three weeks ago, when the North County indie rockers won Best New Artist, joining such past honorees as Switchfoot and someone who went by the single name of Jewel.

True enough, The New Archaic has been around, in one form or another, since early in 2007. But TNA “really just solidified our lineup, I think in 2008,” said guitarist and keyboard player Joe Harrison, who along with drummer Sean Carroll and then-bassist Dillon Casey welcomed lead singer and rhythm guitarist Tolan Shaw. And the current version of the quartet, which performs tonight (Sept. 30) at U31 in North Park, is even newer, with the recent addition of bassist Tim McNalley, son of jazz contrabassist Joe McNalley (the Hutchins Consort).

Shaw came up with the name The New Archaic, “which we all agreed on, because it kind of is what we’re trying to do, something new mixed with something old. And it also sounded cool,” Harrison said. There’s an impressive mix of the new and old on TNA’s cool new five-song EP, “Outlined,” available now at Lou’s Records in Encinitas and online at CD Baby (and soon on iTunes and Amazon).

TNA’s influences “range from Radiohead and The Beatles to Adrian Belew-era King Crimson and Talking Heads,” noted Union-Tribune Pop Music Critic George Varga, who added that “the band could be a major force to be reckoned with.” (”Adrian Belew, it seems like he can make any sound he wants with the guitar,” Harrison said, “and I think that’s pretty cool.”)

Indeed, the EP’s grunge-worthy title song makes good use of both Radiohead’s ambiance and the melodic noise of My Bloody Valentine, a band Harrison caught while in Sweden this year (”They do the wall of noise for about 10 minutes”). “I mean, it’s typical alternative, indie-rock format, but we were just trying to do something more musically interesting for us, to use different instrumentation,” Harrison said of the band’s approach. “One of the things I like with our newer tunes is that we’re trying to make them with song structures that aren’t just verse-chorus, A-B.”

TNA’s instrumentation may get even more diverse now with the addition of McNalley. “He’s studying with one of Ravi Shankar’s disciples. So he’s actually better at sitar than he is at bass,” Harrison said.

The new addition also makes an already youthful group even younger, as the 19- and 20-year-old band veterans are joined by McNalley, 16. Of course, age has never been a deterrent to the TNA musicians, with Harrison and Carroll playing together since they were in the fourth grade. About four years after that, they formed Wrecking Crew, which took its name from a song by iconic Orange County punks The Adolescents.

“I learned to play guitar listening to their blue record (the ‘81 “Adolescents”), their big first record,” Harrison said, and it came in handy when he, then just 15, was given two weeks’ notice to replace original Adolescents guitarist Frank Agnew for an ‘05 tour. At 19, Harrison has been a member of that band longer than its two other replacement musicians (and it’s why he found himself in Sweden recently).

Doing double duty “hasn’t been that big a conflict so far,” Harrison said, and that rings true for a band that has to juggle a music career, work and school: Harrison (Palomar College), Carroll (MiraCosta College) and Shaw (University of San Diego) are all collegians, while McNalley goes to San Dieguito Academy. And for now, TNA can savor its San Diego Music Award and look to the future.

“It was really cool,” Harrison observed on winning Best New Artist. “I was actually a little surprised, just because it was done by online vote and I figured that at least one of the other bands would be on the computer. It seems like something that could be easily rigged somehow.” (Somehow, one expects fans of the Radiohead-influenced TNA to have at least OK computer skills.)

“We just keep writing songs and hopefully we can get out on the road,” he said. “But it’s kind of hard when you’re trying to support yourself. I guess our future plan is to put out a full-length (album) and conquer the world.”

Event info
What: Defamation League, Josh Damigo, The New Archaic, 1989
When: 9 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 30
Where: U-31 Bar, 3112 University Ave., North Park
Tickets: $5; 21-and-up (unlike The New Archaic)

Stevie, rave on: The Belly Up celebrates Stevie Ray Vaughan on Saturday (9 p.m.; $20), when the electrifying and inspiring blues guitarist would have turned 55 (he died in a ‘90 helicopter accident), with a tribute show featuring Alan Iglesias & Crossfire. Of course, it isn’t only cover bands that carry on the legacy of Vaughan, once ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the top 10 guitarists of all time: Dave Gonzalez, profiled last week along with his “country and soul” band, the Stone River Boys, attests to Vaughan’s wide-ranging appeal. The Paladins, Gonzalez’ longtime North County band, opened for the guitarist at a “little punk-rock club in Hollywood called the Cafe de Grande” in the early ’80s.

“We were more into country music and rockabilly music, but Stevie Ray was wicked. And he was a real nice guy,” guitarist Gonzalez recalled. “So we kind of hit it off real good. Stevie Ray had Tommy Shannon, who was Johnny Winter’s bass player for years and years, so it was just exciting. And I think he did so much for the scene, to bring blues back around and to get the old guys back out playing again, much like Dwight Yoakam did for country music and Buck Owens.”

Brooks and done: Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, Nashville’s perennial chart toppers and award winners (Sugarland finally usurped their best-duo crown), currently are making their next-to-last trip around America, including a sold-out show Saturday at Viejas Concerts in the Park, with a victory lap scheduled for 2010. Hanging up their spurs after two decades together, Brooks & Dunn have become “the true modern day honky-tonkers,” fellow country star (and road warrior) Dierks Bentley e-mailed last week. “I’m glad I got a chance to tour with them in Australia. Their show has it all and they’ve earned a spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame one day.”

Meanwhile, tickets are still available for Brad Paisley’s appearance, with Bentley in tow, Friday at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre (7:30 p.m.; $38 and $58 at Ticketmaster). And if you happen to be in Nashville the following weekend, Bentley has organized the Miles and Music for Kids benefit, an Oct. 11 “celebrity motorcycle ride and concert” that also features the likes of Wynonna, Darius Rucker and Michelle Branch. “Every year different artists are involved in Miles and Music,” Bentley wrote, “which keeps it fresh for the returning fans and I never really know what to expect. I think that and the overall down-home vibe of the event makes it fun for everyone involved.”

High intensity lonesome: When Patty Loveless turned off the Nashville superhighway for the back roads of her native Kentucky, she didn’t slow down. On her terrific new album, “Mountain Soul II” (Saguaro Road), out this week, the coal miner’s daughter tears through traditional material with gospel fervor, notably on “(We Are All) Children of Abraham” and (with Del McCoury) “Working on a Building,” and duets beautifully with Emmylou Harris on Harris’ “Diamond in My Crown.”

Mikel Toombs writes about music for SDNN. Check out more of his stories.

Tags: Dave Gonzalez, George Varga, Jewel, Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, Patty Loveless, Radiohead, San Diego Music Awards, SDNN, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Switchfoot, The Beatles, the new archaic, the Paladins

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