After making shock waves in the underground music scenes of his home state of New Jersey and then Los Angeles, cult icon John Trubee moved to Sonoma County some 20 years ago.
Yet, the songwriter far too seldom performs in his backyard, preferring to keep his longtime band, John Trubee & the Ugly Janitors of America, a recording project.
That project got a major shot in the arm in 2015 with the release of two Ugly Janitors records. Now Trubee returns with two new 180-gram, translucent virgin vinyl LP releases for 2019,
Salivary Excesses from the Kapok Embryo by John Trubee & the Ugly Janitors of America, and Ever Have I Crawled ‘Neath X-Ray Suns, by his revived high school band Gloop Nox & the Stik People.
What’s more, Trubee shares these tunes live onstage in a rare full band headlining appearance on Saturday, March 30, at Spancky’s in Cotati.
If you’ve not heard the name John Trubee, it may be because of his near-total rejection of self-promotion. “Here’s the thing that I think about, everybody loves music and it’s such a joy to make,” he says. “But when I think about music it doesn’t make sense the importance we attach to it. For example, you’re interviewing me to place this information about me in the newspaper. Now, I consider people who do contracting and put up drywall important because they built the house I live in, whereas the music I make is just vibrations in the air. But you don’t usually write articles about guys who are hanging drywall. “
For the people (like this reporter) who do value Trubee’s spacey psychedelic music and left-of-center pop sensibility, he offers both his most relatable material and his most cosmic conceptions on Salivary Excesses. One side of the record features four largely upbeat songs with titles like “Highway 99” and “Bright New Day” that reflect Trubee’s whimsical take on classic rock, while the other side consists of “Beyond Infinity’s Vortex,” one 18-minute track of electronic effects that Trubee calls “pure audio Hell,” with a laugh.
“It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea,” he adds. “But, I’m almost making the records for myself. I just want them out there. I call it my quest of perverse defiance. I’m making records regardless of what the feedback is or the reaction is. I just enjoy doing it so much.”
John Trubee & the Ugly Janitors of America performs with Set in Stone and Immortallica on Saturday, March 30, at Spancky’s Bar, 8201 Old Redwood Hwy, Cotati. 8pm. Admission by donation. 707.664.0169.
