At its peak, this Sacramento newspaper spotlighted local musicians, promoted shows and featured columns built around nontraditional interview formats — creating a free product that kept Sacramento’s music scene alive.
In 1991, longtime music promoter Jerry Perry who ran music venue The Cattle Club, wanted to prove Sacramento’s music scene had a pulse, so he came up with an idea and launched a monthly newspaper he named Alive & Kicking.
The newspaper was dedicated strictly to Sacramento musicians, and featured bands like Deftones, Cake, The Skirts, Groovie Ghoulies and many more.
Rock band Primus graced the cover of Alive & Kicking’s first issue.Keyshawn Davis/CapRadio
“Once we got The Cattle Club started, I wanted a way to reach the people,” Perry said.
He had always wanted a newspaper since he was in high school, but didn’t want it to be like a traditional one. He came up with the idea to interview bands in a fun way — on late-night drives to the movies, over food from local brick-and-mortar restaurants, or even while fixing up an old house.
Perry’s movie column was centered around going to local drive-ins in Sacramento with bands andhe would interview them while also reviewing the movie.
A notable entry was Issue #3 in 1991, in which Perry interviewed Deftones while watching “Terminator 2” and “Boyz n the Hood.”
“It would be a story on the band, but we would write it as a review of the movies on the big screen, and that was called “Drinkin’ & Drive-in,” Perry said, reminiscing about the old times.
Not only did A&K do interviews with artists, it also highlighted every show that was happening in Sacramento. He would call different venues to find out the cost and time of the event and ran it in their newspaper free of charge.
“We would get a hold of every single club we found,” Perry said. “If the band was playing a restaurant on a Friday night, we saw that restaurant and called their number and added it to [A&K] because we wanted everything to be found.”
Perry said the publication was able to put out 12 issues in five years before ramping up production. A&K was able to publish 158 issues before it ceased operations in 2008.
Alive and Kicking Columns
Along with the Drinkin’ N Drive-in, A&K’s additional columns were just as fun and whimsical.
One standout was “Chewing the fat,” where Perry would take bands to mom and pop, brick and mortar restaurants where he would interview bands while also giving a food review.
One of the Chewing the Fat columns in Alive & Kicking featuring Nothing but a Nightmare eating burgers at The Squeeze Inn.Keyshawn Davis/CapRadio
Additionally, the paper also included a column repairing an old house with band.
“I would call a band and say to them, ‘You’re gonna fix this at my house,’” Perry said. “So every band would be fixing the gate, fixing the broken window, fixing the ceiling band, whatever, but in the meantime, I would be interviewing them.”
Perry said in the beginning, he wrote about 70% of everything that came out of A&K, but he eventually got some help over the years. In 1997, former Sacramento Bee writer and current journalism professor Rachel Leibrock, joined the paper as a columnist.
Leibrock’s “Guided by Voices” column was a mix of stories about local and national music that was happening at the time. She recounted the time where she had to cover the band The Knockoffs, but the catch was, Perry sent her to interview them at a water park.
“I followed the band around, and they went down like the water slides, and I just kind of recorded everything, and it was just kind of chaotic, but a lot of fun,” Leibrock said. “We had a photographer out there, and so it was sort of emblematic of like Jerry always wanted something kind of fun and different from his band profiles.”
Leibrock mentioned she was always a fan of Perry and A&K and would frequently pick up copies at the Cattle Club, which drew her to write for the paper.
“That publication was a lot of fun to write for, it was a lot of fun to read,” Leibrock said. “[Perry’s] personality came through in it, so you never knew what you were going to get when you picked it up, but you just knew you were going to get Jerry.”
Lastly, A&K had a recurring column called “Gutter Punx” where his bowling team named “Bleeders” faced off against bands while interviewing them at places like the Country Club Lanes on Watt Avenue.
Eric Bianchi, former sound person for The Cattle Club, would frequently attend the interviews that Perry had with the bands. He would also occasionally write and proofread stories before publishing.
“Jerry’s great,” Bianchi said. “He felt like the media wasn’t really covering bands in a way that he wanted it. So if you know Jerry’s way, he’s like, ‘”I’m just going to start my own paper and do it my way.’”
Still Alive and Kicking
Paid advertisements are what funded the free newspaper over the years. Perry did the majority of the design work for years before receiving help.
Graphic designer and musician Ted Angel, started helping with the graphic design and the layout in the early 2000s.
“If I recall, asked Jerry if I could help out, and had me help design ads at first, and then gradually I moved on to doing some more layout,” Angel said. “Then I started taking pictures of bands for like the cover, and then eventually, I think near the end there, I was laying out pretty much the whole book.”
Angel designed ads in the newspaper for Old Ironsides, Harlow’s and many more he said.
With the invention of Facebook and Myspace, Perry said that was what ultimately led them to cease operations in 2008. The social media age helped users find shows online instead of reading the music publication.
Perry would tell people it’s not the same. “You’re not gonna see the same freedom,” he said. “As such, it knocked me out of business.”
Although the paper is no longer in production – one thing that Perry said he missed about A&K is it kept the music scene alive.
“It had everybody learning about everybody else,” Perry said. “It wasn’t like you opened up and see one club, you open it up and see all the clubs.”
A&K can still be read in town with copies at Sacramento State and the Sacramento Public Library and online on Sacramento Digital Room.
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