Tahoe-bound Rebelution has been headed in a positive direction now for more than a decade.
The quartet which formed when the members were Santa Barbara college students has remained intact.
“We are not just synching musically, but also as friends,” lead vocal and guitar player Eric Rachmany told Tahoe Onstage. Marley D. Williams (named after Bob Marley) is the bassist, Rory Carey is on keyboards and Wesley Finley plays drums and disc golf. Finley gets a change to hurtle round plastic Aug. 13 at the course at Tahoe Vista’s North Tahoe Regional Park, where that evening starting at 4:30 p.m. Rebelution headlines a “Count Me In” tour appearance with Iration, the Green and Stick Figure. TICKETS
Rebelution will be joined onstage by its usual touring horn players Zach Meyerowitz on trumpet and Khris Royal on saxophone. Evan Hawkins, the front man for the San Diego band Through the Roots, will play rhythm guitar.
“There is something special about reggae music,” Rachmany said. “It makes you move. It makes you happy. I think it brings out the good vibes, both live and on our album.”
Rebelution’s fourth album, “Count Me In,” is the third in a row to reach No. 1 on Billboard’s Reggae chart. Don Carlos, a founding member of Black Uhuru, plays on of the tunes.
“Don Carlos got me into reggae,” Rachmany said, pointing to a show he attended as a teenager in East Berkeley. “He inspired me to start singing and writing music.”
Carlos performed a few years ago on a tour with included South Shore with Rebelution and Slightly Stoopid.
“He told me, ‘You guys got my style,’ ” Rachmany said. “He wants to stay positive (with) music like we do. The connection was meant to be.”
Rebultion’s sound engineer is Errol Brown, a Jamaican who worked with Peter Tosh and Marley and many others.
“I was in between two legends,” Rachmany said. “Getting to make that track together was a cool experience.”
Rebelution started as a reggae cover band. When the members began to write original material, its rock, hip-hop and funk influences were introduced. But more than anything, Rebelution is a reggae band, considered to be among the “Cali-reggae” mostly Caucasian coterie, pioneered by Sublime in the early 1990s.
In 10 years, the band has performed in South America, Europe and New Zealand. It still considers itself an independent group with its own 87 Music label, although for the new album had an assist from Easy Star Records.
