The Most
rip this joint
by Sean Blake

“We just kind of had the audacity to assume that people would watch our shitty music,” says drummer/singer Jennie Gruber, describing the very early shows of her band The Most. “...We play songs because this is what we want out of music, like finding a groove, and that’s what we’re about. Anything else, like intellectual lyrical content, comes second. Wankery, and technical impressiveness, comes fifth or sixth.”

Now three people, four when performing live, The Most started as a two-piece garage band in Santa Cruz. While attending college and living in a co-op together, singer/guitarist Ryan LaPlant would find Jennie banging away on a drum set that another resident had stashed in the garage. “I would go in there and jam with her,” says Ryan, “and after a month we knew a lot of Pixies and Bob Dylan songs, and thought it might be a good idea to have a band and play some shows.”

And that’s exactly how it feels to see The Most live. Like you’re watching a bunch of friends who are making music for no other reason than they thought it might be fun. “We both worked in a recycling center in Santa Cruz,” says Ryan“so a lot of our lyrics tended to come from the things our crazy homeless customers would say.”

Eventually Ryan and Jennie were joined by two other friends to form The Most of today. Cody James, on bass, was a friend from another band who hopped on for a tour and never got off, and Brian Martinez is a friend who used to jam with the band, and now plays live as back-up percussion/hype man. “He plays bongos and floor toms, and dances around really good. He just has a good time and gets the crowd going,” explains Ryan.

“He’s good-looking too,” adds Jenny. Ryan confirms.

The four now live together in an apartment off Folsom in the Mission. Sharing their music just as much as they share their food, chores and bills. “Living with anyone forces you to relate to them on a financial level,” says Ryan. “And when you’re in a band, you want to relate to them on a creative level…you don’t want to be going into the practice studio wondering if somebody took the garbage out.”

Of course, living together does have its upsides. Sitting together, listening to records, the band is constantly talking about music: their’s and everyone else’s. And sometimes, the whole band will agree that a song is just too good, and needs to be added to The Most’s repertoire of cover songs. When I spoke with them, their latest cover was Wilson Pickett’s “99 ½ Won’t Do”.

More style than substance, The Most’s main objective is always to make you dance. “We live in an age where people think ‘Oh, if I feel like dancing I’m gonna go see this dance band. And if I wanna go see a rock’n’roll band, I’m gonna stand there with my arms crossed. And playing rock’n’roll should be all about dancing” says Jenny.

Filtered through time, The Most’s music ends up sounding like a combination of the lo-fi indie of Beat Happening and the Vaselines, and the late 60’s/early 70's driving chords of the Stones, CCR and the Velvets. “Welcome To The Breakfast Show”, their second EP, was released a few months ago. The band recorded and mixed it themselves, but got a little help putting together the cds’ illustrated paper case. “For like two weeks, any friends that came over, we just put a glass of wine in their hands and said you’re gonna fold,” said Jenny.

“Breakfast Show” does a great job of allowing The Most’s songwriting skills to show, something that may get lost within the frantic nature of their live show, where the band obviously enjoys turning everything up, from their instruments to their personalities. “I guess if there’s one thing you can say for us no matter what, it’s that we’re always a god-awful racket.” Says Ryan, “Whether we play good, or we play bad, 99.9% of the time it’s loud.”