The Real Nasty is a

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

-based band. The band's members are Ryan Lukas (the main

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

, lead vocals,

upright bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

), Sean Williams (

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

) and Brian Huston (

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

). The music has been described as "countrified rock", and draws from a range of musical genres including bluegrass, world music, and country music. In 2009, ''The Real Nasty'' was signed to Ninth Street Opus, an independent record label out of Berkeley, CA. They immediately released ''Paper City'', a double disk album. The disks were EP's unto themselves as they each had their own title and genre. ''The Sticks'' contained country while ''Downtown'' was rock-based. In October 2010, the follow-up to ''Paper City'' was released. ''Strangers and Friends'' was described as compelling fusion of countrified rock. October 2011 saw the release of their third studio album, ''Dirty Dollars'', which incorporates elements of rock, country, blues, funk, and soul.

History

The Real Nasty was formed in Berkeley, California, in 2009. Groopman and Smith were also part of the San Francisco-based Afrobeat band
ALBINO!
Lukas later joined Groopman and Smith to form ''The Real Nasty''. Within one year, they were signed b
Ninth Street Opus

Band members

Ryan Lukas attended th
Crane School of Music
and has played bass professionally since 1996. His involvement in other projects include ''Persephone’s Bees'', Alex Torres and His Latin Orchestra and the Brian Patneaude Quartet. Ryan also teaches bass at th
Santa Clara University
Brian Huston began playing orchestral drums at age 11, started gigging in rock bands at age 16, and went on to earn his B.A. from Berklee College of Music in 2001, where he specialized in Funk/Jazz, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, and West African music. Matthew "Smitty" Smith is a former member of ALBINO! and a student of West African master drummer
CK Ladzepko
He was the original drummer, but now works as the band manager.

Albums

*2009 - '' Paper City'', a double disc EP ( Ninth Street Opus) *2010 - '' Strangers and Friends'' ( Ninth Street Opus) *2011 - '' Dirty Dollars'' ( Ninth Street Opus)

Singles

*"KC’s Blues" (''Paper City'') *"Bad Medicine" (''Paper City'') *"No Big Deal" (''Strangers and Friends'') *"Whiskey for Breakfast" (''Strangers and Friends'') *"Jezebelle" (''Strangers and Friends'') *"Dirty Dollars" (''Dirty Dollars'')

References

''East Bay Express'' article''SF Gate'' articleTahoe.com article

External links

*

Eureka Times Standard article

The Real Nasty at Ninth Street Opus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Real Nasty American country rock groups Musical groups established in 2009 Musical groups from Oakland, California Musical groups from Berkeley, California