What's Up! Magazine

The Keaton Collective are Alex Jones (guitar), Adam Taniguchi (guitar), J.D. Ucls (drums), Chad Fox (guitar), Bill Jennings (bass) and Ricky Penalba (drums, engineer) and it should be noted that all six members write songs, and with the exception of Adam (who simply rocks too hard to sing), everyone else sings vocals. With this variety of talent, the KC doesn’t just have one sound, in a word the music can be described as “diverse”since it ranges from rock ‘n’ roll to folk/country to dance music.

When discussing how they handle songs between the three main singers in the band, Alex replies, “We can play whoever’s song we want at that moment.” JD adds, “and rock, paper, scissors helps.” Each member has a different sound and it makes for an interesting (if not long) band practice hearing what everyone has to offer. As Bill puts it, “Anything anybody brings to the table is going to be worth playing.”

To sum up how Keaton Collective came to be, Chad and Bill (the native Bellinghamsters) met Adam, J.D. and Alex in 2004 while touring California and over the years they stayed in touch, playing back and forth while maintaining their other bands (The Braille Tapes, young/lost ones and Polar State, to name a few). Adam suggested one big band that would cover the whole group of friends’ material. Adam, Alex, J.D. and Ricky moved here in April and now the members not only live in the same town, but in a house together.

“The album is migratory, it made the journey as well….half was made in California and the other half was made in Washington,” Chad says. The name Keaton Collective was chosen because they had already released albums from their bands through that name so it made the most sense to turn the collective idea into a band as well as a label. Alex (aka DJ Jazzy Jones) tells me his inspiration for the name came from the family featured in the 80′s sitcom “Family Ties.” Keaton Collective have been hard at work practicing, touring, recording and generally depriving themselves of sleep. “Everything always gets done” Bill says. Chad backs up, “It is a big sacrifice, we are broke and tired a lot but we want to be a working, touring band.”

The KC already have a full length album titled The Wash and an EP called El Segundo which is a perfect example of their variety of sound in just four tracks. The album they are focused on right now is The Wash, which is out already and will be available for purchase online shortly. There will be new recordings in the coming months and years, you can imagine the backlog of songs that have yet to be recorded.

They have already played a handful of venues in Bellingham since April, including at The Green Frog Acoustic Tavern, The Underground Coffeehouse and The Wild Buffalo.

Taking from a Polar State lyric “We’ve been friends for a long time”, no doubt it will be a long time to come.

Catch Keaton Collective on August 5 at the Rogue Hero with Rooftops. For more about the band, visit their MySpace