Rubydiver

You know you "Like" RD on Facebook

2010-12-31T11:20:00.000-08:00

Hello music mates. There's lots happening at the Rubydiver Facebook Page. Like it yet? After all these years, why does www.rubydiver.com still exist? Because many like you still visit this site and we don't want to leave you hangin'. Thanks for coming and we'll see you on the flip side at our FB Page. Go ahead and "Like" us now...

Greg Jamison likes

Ruby Diver

Old skool flyer...

2009-09-14T18:59:00.000-07:00

Some RD art from back in the day...

Thanks to Jen Bonomo on Facebook.

Keep it coming!

2009-01-23T21:23:00.000-08:00

Wow. Rubydiver is still loved!

It was only a little over a week ago that I asked the big inner-net audience if anyone had any Rubydiver stuff they'd like displayed here on the RD web site. Well, I tell ya', many long-time Rubydiver fans have very graciously answered the call. Now I have quite a few items I'll post here and our Rubydiver photo album.

While I've received many materials--photos, photo negatives, flyers, reviews, and even some audio--I have yet to receive any video or photos at all from our House of Blues shows. So my "all call" for RD memorabilia remains. Please drop me an email about any Rubydiver goods you may have. No piece is too small or large. And, of course, the item(s) remain yours. Please tell me what you have at rubydiver *AT* gmail *DOT* com or post a comment on this blog post.

A few contributors have asked me why I'm collecting and displaying RD stuff now after all these years...Why not just announce the show and play? Though I'd love to tell all, I can't at this time. You'll know soon. Patience, buckaroos!

A sincere "thank you" to all of you!

Here's a pic sent to us anonymously. A few of us have the loves of our lives in this photo. It was taken after we played our show at the Imperial Palace as part of the EAT'M music convention in Las Vegas, NV, in approximately summer 1999.

L to R: Nicole Halvorson, Roger Halvorson (keyboards), Yvonne Sanders, Todd Sanders (bass guitar), Erik Hanson (guitar/vocals), Paula Duke (lead vocals), Carrie Jamison, Greg Jamison (drums).

Have you got the goods?

2009-01-15T23:31:00.000-08:00

As I was redesigning the Rubydiver web site a few weeks ago, it became obvious that there are many more Rubydiver photos and even videos out there that I don't have. Proof positive is the camera guy in the background of this pic I took from the stage just after we finished our 2002 reunion show.

I used to see guys like this all the time at our shows. Kind of like paparazzi but since we weren't all that famous, I guess they're baby-razzi. So...everything RD that I possess is what you see on this web site.

Here's my question, do you or anyone you know have any RD photos or videos? We'd like a copy of 'em. In today's world of Youtube, Facebook, MySpace, new media, and Web 2.0--whatever that is--there's a shortage of Rubydiver stuff published to the web but I know it all probably exists in hard-copy form. Please post a comment below or email me at rubydiver *AT* gmail *DOT* com to work out an arrangement.

Also, do you know who owns the name "rubydiver" at youtube and myspace? They both appear dormant (except for the omnipresent "Tom" on myspace) and no one in the band knows anything about who owns them. We'd like access. We promise we'll love them, feed them, and take good care of them every day.

To help offset the dearth of RD stuff, I'll post a couple videos I think you'll like. Here's fluxis created by Andrew Huang.

And here's Depeche Mode meets vintage Tron...

More stuff coming soon...maybe even RD!

Where ya been?

2009-01-05T07:32:00.000-08:00

Today marks seven long years since Rubydiver's last show. We're feeling that 7-year itch to play a special little ditty.

Ruby Diver Acoustic 2002

2002-04-27T20:09:00.000-07:00

RUBYDIVER history lesson 1/11/2009: Still buzzing after the success of our reunion show in January of oh-two, we decided to play an intimate acoustic show at Long Beach's now-defunct Java Lounge on April 27, '02 to follow up the love.

Paula Duke (lead vocals)

Paula

Erik Hanson (left), Paula Duke (right), Mike Carillo sitting in on accompanying percussion (middle). Thanks Mike!

Todd Sanders on bass guitar (left), Roger Halvorson on keys (right).

Erik Hanson (guitar, vocals)

Photos by Lynne Mosakewics of SoCal Band Photos.

Rubydiver Reunion Show 2002

2002-01-05T22:02:00.000-08:00

RUBYDIVER history lesson 1/12/2009: Years of pleadings from hardcore Rubydiver fans propelled us to play a blowout show for old time's sake. A full two years and three months after parting ways, we enjoyed a gracious sold-out crowd at the Java Lounge in Long Beach, CA. Join us now as we check out a few selected pics...

(Click HERE to view a full photo album of this show)

The night starts out right here.

Before the show. A packed house.

Here's Paula backstage immediately before going onstage.

Here's the lovely crowd right before we started our set. We dedicated our first song 'Emerald City' to the memory of Brian Williams, our rhythm guitarist from when Rubydiver was just starting out. Emerald City is a Dramarama song that Brian turned us on to years ago. Rest in peace Brian.

Here's Erik playing the intro to “Long Beach.”

The highlight of the night was when Jay Buchanan sang 'Kill You (If You Leave)' onstage with Paula. Jay originally wrote the song years ago. (Jay, you rule!) This was right when Jay first came up onstage.

If you're happy and you know it raise your arms! Dena Diver is happy.

Paula Duke. Wow.

Paula Duke and Todd Sanders doing their thang.

Our elusive keyboardist Roger Halvorson, finally caught on film... Goan lives!

Paula and Todd gettin into it.

Todd Sanders - Todd did double duty this night by playing with both Jay Buchanan and Rubydiver. Time and-a-half for overtime?

Erik and Paula sharing secrets.

Erik Hanson digs in.

Paula Duke preaches the good word.

Greg Jamison (drums), Todd Sanders (bass). That's me playing drums back there. Kinda hard to see me but I get to rock the spotlight soon.

Here's a pic of your humble drummer, Greg Jamison.

The debonaire doc himself. Aww yeah.

Can anyone guess where this picture came from?

Erik Hanson, Karen, Roger Halvorson, and Kurt Hoffman. After the show.

Todd Sanders, Roger Halvorson. This is not what it looks like.

"Superstar Black" was in the house too! Thanks, Peter Cate.

Special thanks to Mark & Marilyn DiPiazza and all our friends at the Java Lounge! Thanks and much love to everyone in the house.

(Click HERE to view a full photo album of this show)

"Diving for a Kiss" by John Canalis

2002-01-03T20:50:00.000-08:00

Press-Telegram (Long Beach, CA)
January 3, 2002
Section: BEACHWEEK
Edition: AM
Page: BW1
Column: Beach Buzz

Photograph: Members of Ruby Diver are, from left: Erik Hanson, Paula
Duke, Greg Jamison and Todd Sanders.

DIVING FOR A KISS
by John Canalis

Sometimes it's hard to stay friends after a break-up. Not for the band mates in Ruby Diver.

Members went their separate ways a couple years ago, but they still get together every now and again to play the groove-pop that took them to the top of the Long Beach-Orange County music scene in the late '90s. Lucky for us, Ruby Diver plans to do a reunion show at 8:30 p.m. Jan. 5 at the Lava Lounge, 3800 Pacific Coast Highway.

Opening are the talented Jay Buchanan, fresh from a strong appearance outside the Blue Cafe on New Year's Eve, and D.J. Bix.

Despite a huge local following, Ruby Diver split up in 1999 when lead singer Paula moved to Hawaii. She'll be on the mainland for the show, but there are no plans for a fullfledged reunion beyond that.

An e-mail from the band says Paula will give longtime fans a kiss: ``Limit one per customer.'' I'll be there for mine.

"Diver Down" by Tim Grobaty

1999-10-08T20:40:00.000-07:00

Press-Telegram (Long Beach, CA)
October 8, 1999
Section: LOCAL NEWS
Edition: AM
Page: A2
Column: What's up

WHAT'S UP: LAVA AT JAVA
by Tim Grobaty

Photograph: Ruby Diver is calling it quits tonight. The group's last
appearance will be at the the Lava Lounge at Java Lanes, 3800 E.
Pacific Coast Highway. The festivities get under way at 9 p.m.

DIVER DOWN:

Longtime Long Beach rock fave Ruby Diver is calling it quits tonight. Paula, the band's lead singer, is scampering off to Hawaii, which spells the end of the alt quartet that's been a regular draw at the Blue Cafe and other venues around town.

The Divers are playing their swan song, as a matter of fact, at Long Beach's current hottest rock venue, the Lava Lounge at Java Lanes, 3800 E. Pacific Coast Highway.

"They came to me in a panic looking for a place to play their last show, because Paula's moving on Sunday,'' says Lava boss and famed local restaurateur Mark diPiazza. ``I said sure, but it's going to be a weird show.''

Weird because the bill includes Rock Griffith, a 6-foot, 8-inch Elvis impersonator, and smarmlord Wink Musselman & His Quartet of Shame.

The Lava Lounge has been enjoying the limelight since diPiazza opened it adjacent to the Italian restaurant that bears his name. Earlier this year the lounge was used in the video for the Anaheim alternative band Lit's hit, ``My Own Worst Enemy,'' and later this month it will be used for a Touchstone production called (we think) ``Coyote Ugly'' with John Goodman.

Tonight's show starts at 9 (with the giant Elvis guy), and carries a $7 cover. You need to be 21 to get in.

A&A CD Review by John Worley

1999-02-08T21:36:00.000-08:00

Rubydiver
Superremote
(Turftone)
reviewed in issue #176, 2/8/99

I recently was a judge in the IDN 1998 contest. This was my favorite album of the bunch (I had previously reviewed a couple of the other good ones, and the Radio Free America is another good one). Pulling the sword from the Family Stone, Rubydiver kicks out funky, soulful jams. And like the Sly man, each groove undulates into another. Bass into snare into bass drum into cymbal into guitar into bass...

This is how you do it. Topping off the fine music is Miss Paula Helekunuhi Duke, whose vocals are easily some of the finest I've heard. Period. She can go from slinky to brick in two seconds, and you'd swear she never changed. The trippy, highly stylized lyrics fit right into the concept. The total package.

The songs just roll off like candy. I mean, these folks have figured out how to make the funk really funky. They made sure there was plenty of soul to go along with the syncopated snare. If it was as easy as it sounds here, there wouldn't be so many dreadful funk bands.

Rubydiver is a gem. This is one of the few bands I would really like to see live. I have to see the spectacle. A truly energizing album.

Sonic Garden Review

1999-02-01T21:46:00.000-08:00

Yes, Virginia. The Long Beach music scene cranks out more than just sh*tty Sublime rip-offs.

RUBYDIVER, a very palatable mix of funk and R&B, comes to you out of Long Beach bringing deep, guitar-based grooves and drum loops with self-described "intoxicating soul melodies and positive lyrics." Considering that their 1998 debut release Superremote sold among the top-ten category in the immediate OC area, the future looks quite luminous for these local SoCal funksters.

The band boasts both solid writing and excellent vocals by singer Paula Duke. Opening locally for national names, their talent-laden sound draws hundreds every time their name is headlined at Orange County venues. RUBYDIVER takes a very Southern California sound, adds their own secret blend of eleven herbs and spices, and puts it into a show you don't want to miss.

"We all get into music ranging from Sting to Tribe Called Quest to Miles Davis to Bob Marley to Beck, and I think that shows in the music we write, whether it's a conscious thing or not," says guitarist/songwriter Erik Hanson. Regardless of what they draw upon for inspiration, what comes out of their hard work is something definitely to taste for yourself.

OC Weekly - Rich Kane, 1998

1998-10-29T20:24:00.000-08:00

Ruby Diver Doesn't Make MTV's The Cut...And that's a very, very good thing

It's Saturday night in a really creepy, industrial-looking part of Burbank. Outside Empire Studios, a crowd of hip-hop and alterna-rock fashioned youths are fluttering around, waiting to go in for a taping of MTV's latest, "hottest" new show, The Cut (it's only hot because MTV says it is, even though the show's Sept. 28 premiere was still two days away at the time). Basically an MTV take on Star Search, with brief, Real World-like vignettes thrown in, each half-hour episode of The Cut features four unsigned, largely unknown artists performing a song, after which they're judged on points by a three-person panel of alleged "experts." The winner of each episode moves on to the next round and so on, until, out of 160 acts, only one is left standing among the carnage. The grand prize after all this is an MTV-financed video, which will air on the network. Probably once. On a Tuesday. At 3 a.m.

I meet up with Kurt Hoffman, manager of Ruby Diver, and the Long Beach band's drummer, Greg Jamison. Both look a bit nervous, since Ruby Diver is competing on the show this night. Well, sorta: weeks earlier, Hoffman saw an ad for the show in one of the trades. He sent in a copy of Ruby Diver's Super RemoteCD, and he got a call back from MTV and an invite to appear. Cool!

Except they didn't want the band, just singer Paula Duke. And they insisted on picking the song she'd do. And on the show, she'd have to sing to a tape with the vocal track removed.

Hmmm. . . . Still, this was MTV, which means exposure. So Hoffman and the band reluctantly agreed to be molded into MTV's image. After passing through a metal detector, Hoffman, Jamison and I grab seats in the studio audience. I make sure my ugly puss avoids any audience-reaction shots, but I've been practicing my middle-finger quick draw just in case. The mostly teenage crowd-many obtained through a casting agency-fills in the stands. A tech armed with rolls of tape eyeballs everybody, covering any unauthorized product endorsements that might errantly appear on camera (a standard, stupid MTV policy), including, oddly, one guy's Oakland Raiders hat. An annoying, unfunny comedian, whose job is to get everybody all excited and hepped up so that it'll look like they actually give a shit, starts offering everybody free T-shirts and CDs. Suckers that these kids are, they screamingly comply.

Here come de judges: R&B crooner Brian McKnight and two label execs, Thornell Jones from Epic and Dominica Johnson of Immortal Records. Then the show's host arrives: Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes of TLC (apparently still in need of dough since her group declared bankruptcy a few years ago), looking very trippy with weird glitter around her eyes. The taping begins. Lopes looks straight into the camera and blurts her greeting: "YO, EVERYBODY, WASSUP?! [The "YO" is actually written on her cue card.] I'm Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes, and this is MTV's . . . The Cut!" On cue-and because the MTV people say we must-we all leap up, holler, applaud and act like we're having a bitchen time. I clap jadedly but refuse to yell, opting to stand there with my mouth open so it looks like I'm into it. If there wasn't such a thing as scream-synching, there is now.

Hip-hop beats fill the room, and Lopes dances a forced jiggy jig. She then introduces the first act, a Puerto Rican rapper named T-Bone who throws down mile-a-minute rhymes like a mutha-pretty impressive. The judges think so, too, and give him a great score.

Next up: two brothers who call themselves Hillside. Yawn. All I hear are unimpressive vocal gymnastics of the kind you hear on every deathly dull "urban contemporary" station in the land. The judges give them an okay score-but not as good as T-Bone. Hillside will not be making . . . The Cut!

Now it's Duke's turn. First, there's a seconds-long, black-and-white clip of her walking around the grounds of the Long Beach Museum of Art, followed by a few soundbite sentences from Duke on what music means to her.

Um . . . uh-oh . . . the MTV people aren't calling Duke "Paula"; they're calling her Ruby Diver. Hoffman whispers that the switch was his decision, based on future name-recognition potential. This disturbs me: Ruby Diver as a band name is fine, but Ruby Diver as a solo female singer's name makes Duke sound like a porn star or stripper. Still, I can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing.

Duke steps to her stage mic, ready for her closeup. "Broken String," a track from Super Remote, starts playing, minus Duke's vocals. Despite the odd setting-no band working behind her-she still nails it. But the jazzy, mellow song is about the farthest thing from what the heavily funk-and-R&B-influenced band is all about, a ditty that they usually only whip out when someone breaks a string. Duke winds it up and then goes off to an alcove to await her fate.

While the scores are tallied, I notice Jamison looks really, really nervous. Duke seems very calm, though. Judgment time: an insipid comment from one judge about how Duke should "work on her look." Can you tell this is MTV? Another judge says she should go "more organic" with her jazz sound, which would be great if Duke was a jazz person. Duke/Ruby Diver gets a final score of 23 out of 30 possible points.

Still one more act: a trio of singing, dancing teen girls, the youngest of whom keeps sticking her not-very-developed breasts out as if she learned it from one of those extremely disturbing JonBenet Ramsey beauty-contest videos. After they're done, T-Bone gets trotted out and positioned next to them. Their score isn't enough, however: T-Bone wins and moves on to the next round. He's made . . . The Cut! Then-again, just as MTV told them to-some hand-picked members of the audience walk out onto the set and start shaking their booties while the end-credits and canned-applause reels roll. Alas, I am not one of them, too old for the show's obvious target youth market-why else would The Cut air every day at 5 in the afternoon?

Afterward, Hoffman, Jamison and Duke (who, it turns out, was this episode's token white chick) seem relieved that their brush with MTV is over. They came, they tried, they failed, but they'll get over it. In fact, when we all convene outside the studio, they already have. Jim Carrey lost on Star Search, we recall, so what do judges know, anyway?

A few days later, an MTV publicist calls me, wanting to set up an interview with one of the show's producers, apparently thinking I'm writing about what a wonderful show The Cut is. But The Cut isn't wonderful. It's a demeaning, slanted MTV dog-and-pony show-why else would musicians not be allowed to choose which song they'll perform?-that exploits artists by dangling the carrot of fame before their faces.

Ruby Diver didn't win, and it doesn't matter. They're better than MTV. And definitely too good for . . . The Cut!

LA Times Review by Mike Boehm

1998-09-25T21:20:00.000-07:00

Rubydiver Tends, Alas, to Cool Its Resources

By Mike Boehm

Los Angeles Times, September 25, 1998 in print edition F-24

There’s an attractive polish on this ruby. The Long Beach funk-rock foursome is skilled, tight and diversified. But when the flame starts flickering, Rubydiver’s tendency is to play it cool instead of pouring on the gasoline.

The singer, Miss Paula Helekunihi Duke, has a flexible and nuanced voice that drawls comfortably to generate funky attitude, or injects a bluesy husk for plaintive effect. Johnette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde and Linda Perry, the former 4 Non Blondes singer, sometimes come to mind, though Duke doesn’t push a song as hard as those two wailers can. Behind her, a sharp bass, drums and guitar trio, with two members doubling on keyboards, manages to be funky yet sleek.

But when Rubydiver comes to the point of getting down, it pulls back. The heated instrumental solo that might kick a song to another level never arrives, and Duke’s clear, full-bodied voice isn’t quite big and sassy enough to do all the cooking on its own.

Solid songwriting makes the album more than a groove exercise. On the opening three songs, Duke sings about various ways of seeking magical escapes: through a band’s close-knit vibe with its audience (“Supernatural”), through mental travel (“Mission to Mars”) and in the communal embrace of a welcoming, unpretentious Long Beach dance club (“Superstar Black”).

It’s a very Southern California album, as the characters always seem to be cruising in search of a better time–whether it be that mission to Mars or, in “Big Light Grinning,” circling fruitlessly around L.A.

A note of yearning and nervousness creeps into some of the songs about magical escapes, and lonely desperation takes over as the album progresses and Davis’ persona shifts to a lonely soul who looks to the bright lights as an escape from the existential blahs or the pain of failed romance.

The collection is varied, with clavinet-driven funk nodding to Stevie Wonder, a smooth, Latin number a la Sade, a flute solo on “Musicblanket 99” echoing Eric Burdon & War’s “Spill the Wine” and “Mission to Mars” done first with cool, Santana-style polyrhythms and dramatic sustained guitar tones, and again as an electronic trip-hop number.

The results are always listenable, but they would have been better if the music were at least occasionally super-insistent rather than semi-remote.

"Everything In Gravity Grows"

1998-08-20T20:02:00.000-07:00

'Everything in Gravity Grows'

Just what do those lyrics mean?

By Alison M. Rosen, OC Weekly
published: August 20, 1998

In the fast and exciting world of music fans, there are Lyrics People (LP), and there are Music People (MP). Then there's that rare beast, the Lyrics and Music Combo Person. LP are first attracted to songs based on the words, obviously, while MP often have no idea what their favorite songs are about because it was the beat or the groove that hooked them. I used to be an MP, but I've learned that that's dangerous because you can love a song and then get your hands on the liner notes and find out that your beloved song is about something stupid, like beer. And not even an elegant treatise on beer. (This is hypothetical; no offense to songs about beer.)If fact, I maintain that many Natural-Born Lyrics People are pushed into the MP camp because they can't make out the lyrics because their favorite singers model themselves after Kurt Cobain. I'm here to put an end to the madness. Armed with a phone, some phone numbers and a naturally winning personality, I embarked on a valiant quest to shake things up a bit by making local bands talk about their songs!

[...] 26-year-old Erik Hanson-guitarist/music writer/lyric co-writer from Long Beach's groovy, funky, whatever-y Ruby Diver [...] receives his life-altering call. There's something suspicious about bands from the LBC. Everything's "deep" and "groovy" and "beautiful" and full of "good vibes." I say, "Can the mystical mumbo-jumbo!" Hello. I've been to Long Beach! I don't get it! Make me understand! Song: "Superstar Black" from Superremote (Turftone Records) Erik Hanson: We wrote the song on an afternoon in Long Beach, and it's about positive summer vibes and a couple of shows we had been to, and it ended up evolving into a song about music and its effect on us. What are some of the lyrics? "Got an old car painted superstar black for the Sunday-afternoon drive/Got some Marvin giving me a soundtrack for the drift down to the East side." What is "superstar black"? It's literally the color of the car. It's painted a real shiny black, and it's an old Cadillac. Metaphorically, it was just that feeling that we had in Long Beach of going to gigs in classic cars and feeling like a star even if it is for that night only. Is there something star-ish about the color black? In a trashy limo, '80s way and in just a modern cool, refined way, yeah. What are some other lyrics? The chorus is: "And as the music plays/Oh, the groove gets so spiritual/Hours become days, and everything in gravity grows/The boys become amazed/To see the girls dance like angels/We're in the perfect place as everything in gravity grows." What does that mean, "everything in gravity grows"? It was something that grew out of the process of just feeling deeper and not necessarily partying, but having good times with good friends.

00 Soul plays a monthly gig at the Foothill called La Conga, and when it first started out, it'd be like 500 people, and everyone there was all about pulling up in their classic cars, coming and dancing. No bad vibes. Never any bad fights. People would toke up on the dance floor. It's just about the process of getting deeper through dancing and a community experience with friends and getting into the music. What do you mean by "getting deeper"? I think-for us, anyway-it's the process of growing up. It's a mid-20s kind of thing. You party in a different way, and you dance in a different way. When you're 18, you go get fucked-up and trashed at a party, and it's cool. But as you grow older, you look for different ways to celebrate. I guess the experience with the soul music and everyone feeling cleansed and just dancing your ass off like no one's watching, you feel like you're getting deeper and seeking out experiences that are more love-filled than just a crashing at a keg kind of thing. It's still a good vibe at the Foothill once a month. Describe how this song sounds? It's a groovy song, like most of our songs, but it's very single-y. It's our single on this album if there is one. Ruby Diver play an acoustic set at the Long Beach Art Museum, 2300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, (562) 426-7601. Aug. 23 (1998), 7 p.m. Free. All ages.

[So] are you a lyrics person or a music person? Well, I'm a melding of both. The music and the words have to match or else it doesn't work for me. It can't just be cool words and shitty music, and it can't just be cool music and crappy lyrics, you know? They've got to both be there.

Rubydiver CD Review by Holly Watson

1998-07-09T21:31:00.000-07:00

Ruby Diver's debut album mixes exciting generational sounds

CD REVIEW

By Holly Watson, On-line Forty-Niner
July 9,1998

"In Long Beach, there's a place you can go where you'll never want to come down," and local-sensation band, Ruby Diver, can take one there - via its dynamo debut album, "Super Remote."

"Super Remote," is delicious groove-rock confection dripping with brilliant melodies and lyrics and topped with smoothly-whipped vocals and instru-mentals.

The album's tightly-stacked tracks mingle grooving sixties and seventies freedom-band sounds with nineties tech-notronic-alterna-rock edges.

The melodies are hip and exciting and the lyrics are focused and intelligent. Moreover, musically and vocally, "Super Remote" is extremely well-executed.

Between Miss Paula Helek-unihi Duke's cooing voice, Cal State Long Beach English Department graduate, Erik Hanson's energy-packed guitar, Todd Sanders' grooving bass and Greg Jamison's jamming drums, "Super Remote" pleases and teases, providing mood elevation, dance inspiration and energetic ambiance.

Track one, "Supernatural" rocks from the go, featuring vocalist, Duke, "scatting," as she calls it, tricky phrases to a techno-aided groove-rock melody. The song has a Jefferson Starship feel in which Duke even sounds like Grace Slick.

Track two, "Mission to Mars," envelops a sinewy, soul-tingling approach, easing in seductively with soft, almost lullaby-vocals from Duke. The lyrics are lilting mind-teasers hinting at space travel and sexual eroticism; the melody is deep and appealing.

Track three, "Superstar Black" begins with the "In Long Beach" lyrics, written by Hanson. It is a local color song that streamlines from a smooth taunt into an energy-rush. Easily the most up-beat song on the album, it is packed with crisp phrasing such as "Everything in gravity grows" and "Tonight I'm flowing deeper on the inside."

Track four, "Drinkin'," features a catchy drum lead followed by an inviting bass jam and guitar session before Duke's voice takes flight into a Mama Cass sounding coo, "Now you got me drinkin' everything in sight," followed by "gonna find me a place; gonna make you all mine."

Track five, "Broken String" features an entire song full of Duke's scatting. Here, intelligent, saucy phrasing drives the song into a Latin groove. Partners on guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and drum machine sway in sultry samba style as well.

Track six, "Big Light Grinner," a lyrical stand-out, showcases mighty fast lip-work by Duke. Her vocal tone and texture sound a bit Alannis Morrissette-like here, albeit with quicker phrasing.

Track seven "Super Remote Control" features the clever line,

"Bring me inner vision just like Stevie Wonder," highlighting a pretty showy flute solo and a creative melody.

Track nine, "Mission to Mars (Station MIR Mix)" is a groovier, more technologically-aided version of track two, emitting an out-of-this world dance club feel, equipped with warbling, mysterious voices backing the vocals. This track has received airplay on Y107 recently.

Overall, Ruby Diver's sound on "Super Remote" is rocking enough - to energize one all day and grooving enough - to keep one swaying all night. The album, released on the TurfTone label under executive production and management of Long Beach native, Kurt Hoffman - is available at Tower Records on PCH in Long Beach and Fingerprints on 2nd Street in Belmont Shore.

Additionally, Ruby Diver, which has already played such venues as Los Angeles' The Mint, The Dragonfly, Luna Park, Martini Lounge, and The Gig, Long Beach's Blue Cafe and the Foothill, Orange County's Glasshouse and San Diego's Belly-Up Tavern and opened for Common Sense, Reel Big Fish, Ozomatli and the Untouchables - boasts a few upcoming venues.

This month the band returns to the The Mint in Los Angeles, July 9 and 16, 1998 at 10 p.m. and performs at Hollywood Park, July 10 and 17, 1998 at 10 p.m.

For more information, one may visit www.rubydiver.com.

Rubydiver Impresses with New Album

1998-05-31T21:17:00.000-07:00

Concert Direct Music News and Information
May 31, 1998
By Evan Zelig

Turftone Records might not be one of the biggest record companies around, but they sure have something to be proud of with Ruby Diver's latest release. The band has been creating quite a buzz around Long Beach and surrounding communities with their often very crowded live shows. However, it wasn't until we received the album in the mail that we fully began to realize why Ruby Diver was creating such a buzz.

Superremote, Ruby Diver's release, grabbed my attention right from the first song, "Supernatural," and didn't let us go until their "Mission to Mars" was over. But after the album was over, it grabbed my attention again because I started the CD over! With nine fantasic songs, Superremote puts you in a mood undescribable by words alone. With stunning lead vocals by Paula Helekunihi Duke, the synthesizers and guitar rhythms of Erik Hanson, the steady beats of drummer Greg Jamison, and the bass guitar, keyboard, and sampled sounds provided by Todd Sanders, this album can make even the most uptight person feel relaxed.

Long Beach has been known for being the home town of many local bands, but Ruby Diver is one the city may actually be proud of! Their regular live shows is only one example of this. Upcoming shows are [ . . . ]. If you have a chance, get out to one of their shows. If their album is any indication of what you will see, you will not be disappointed!

Ruby Diver describes themselves as a young band from Long Beach on a modern groove mission. By the looks and sounds of it, their mission has been accomplished!

Itchy Grooves by Rich Kane

1998-04-24T21:49:00.000-07:00

OC Weekly Concert Review
"Locals Only" by Rich Kane
April 24, 1998

Rubydiver
at Taxi's, Huntington Beach, CA
Sat. April 11

We came to Taxi's to see Long Beach's Ruby Diver, whom we heard were getting wildly popular. But we had also heard rumors that they were nothing more than a lame 70's cover band, which had scared us away from their shows for a while. On that count, we were wrong, though we thought our worst fears had been realized when glamorous lead warbler Miss Paula not only come out looking like Patti LaBelle circa "Lady Marmalade" with all that glitter stuff on her face, but then she also started moaning the ultra-schmaltzy ballad "The Rose," which we despised even back in sixth grade, when it was happening.

Looks like Patti, perhaps, but Paula sounds more like Grace Slick, with her big-bottomed throat, which got the attention of even the most ignorant chattering assholes in the room. Then the rest of RD started pouring this wickedly itchy groove concoction of funk and R&B (were those extra fingers we saw on the nimble bass player's right hand?), and within seconds, our minds were free, and our asses followed. We don't remember much after that--we were too busy gettin' up on the down stroke, baybeh--so Ruby Diver must be great. Any band that can make us forget our [IRS] 1040 turmoil is hall-of-fame bound as for as we're concerned.