Dressed In Roses
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Dressed In Roses

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Band Alternative Pop

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"Girl Power"

Jackie Partida of Dressed In Roses strikes a memorable chord in the local music scene and paves the way for other young women to follow their bliss and become empowered. (Could ‘The Voice’ be next?)

Most 4-year-olds get off on the likes of SpongeBob SquarePants or crooning “The Wheels On The Bus.” But when local gal Jackie Partida was a toddler, she was already strumming a different chord.

“I was really into Sheryl Crow and Heart and Pat Benatar,” Partida recalls. “Oh, and Linda Ronstadt. They were my big four when I was little.”

It’s a fine crop of crooners, for sure, but what makes the list particularly interesting, at least in this case, is that Partida is only 18. She was born in 1994. By the time she was 4, there were plenty of other performers whose songs were in the Top 40 and could have captured her attention. Jennifer Page’s “Crush” and Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”—considered to be one of the finest cavity-forming ditties of the decade—are among them. Not to be left out: that über popular—fine, let’s just call it what it is: dysfunctional—ballad/freaky anomaly by LeAnn Rimes, “How Do I Live.” (Judging by what’s currently unfolding in the tabloids, the answer to her sobbing desperation of yore may be: “Not that well, thank you very much.”)

But let’s not get off track here.

This is the story of a cool young local gal who sports plenty of smarts and talent and who has, intentionally or not, been using music performance and songwriting as one of her most empowering tour guides through the otherwise psychologically messy thing called life. In a day and age when most teenage girls may be desperately trying to ween themselves free of a Venti Frappuccino addiction or don’t have the strength to lift their eyes up long enough from the Twitter or Facebook feeds on their SmartPhones—relax ladies, this is not an attack; we all do it—Partida stands out for a number of other reasons.

She’s the headliner of two rockin’ musical commodities: Jackie Rocks and Dressed In Roses. The former is the three-member rock band she launched at age 11. (Yes, you heard that right.)

“I had been taking music lessons and decided it was going to be fun to have a band,” Partida says. She decided on the name Jackie Rocks thanks, in part, to her cousin, Isabel. “She had these parties at her house with UC Berekeley graduates and I played the electric guitar, along with another band, and they always used to just start shouting out: ‘Jackie Rocks! Jackie Rocks!’

“I thought, oh, that’s a good name for me to have.”

cover 1Originally, it was going to be solo project, but with the assistance of her music teacher (Caleb Murray of Shoreline Middle School), Partida decided that a band would be more adventurous, and within a week, she lured in a few other creative souls, one on bass, another on drums. Partida was the lead singer. The result proved to be fruitful—the band got gigs. Although a number of members came and went, by 2008, Partida, who had written numerous songs for the group, had given birth to the likes of “Clone,” an edgy, drum-heavy, heart-pounding musical question to science about cloning animals, genetically modified food (and human beings), and “Angels in Heaven,” a fierce, somewhat soulful look into theology (which she wrote when she was 9). The gang found itself producing even more songs and booking other concerts. And then came Seventeen Magazine’s “She’s A Star!” endeavor, a national girl-band contest in which Jackie Rocks nabbed honors in 2008.

In the years that followed, the group remained in the limelight, performing several pre-49ers games at Candlestick Park (2010 and 2011) and summer gigs at Great America (2009-2011). Somewhere in between, Partida managed to also land a sponsorship deal with the hip girl-guitar company Daisy Rock Guitars (2010) and also Grace Audio Units (the summer of 2011). Other honors, such as being named one of the top high school bands by the National Record Store Day competition (2010) and being chosen as being among the “Best Under-21” bands in Northern California in the Rock Battle of the Bay (2011), also factored into the group’s success.

Then, last year, Partida crossed paths with Samantha Maloney, the former drummer of Hole and Mötley Crüe. Maloney was set to host VEVO’s You Play Like a Girl contest. The event, spread out over a number of webisodes, found Maloney helping teenage girls get closer to “their dreams of rock star glory.” Partida was featured in one of the spotlights late last year.

These are stellar achievements, especially for a teenager. It’s certainly enough to instill some pride into any young person and illuminate how commitment and hard work can lead to good fortune. Partida could have stopped there. Instead, she went a step further and formed an all-girl pop band.

Enter Dressed In Roses.

But to understand how that entity came into full bloom, it’s best to look deeper into the origins of Partida’s creative juke - The Good Times


Discography

Stolen Heart (2012)
How Does It Feel (2012)
Here I Go (2012)
Galaxy (2012)
It's Not You It's Me (2012)
Wednesday Crime Day (2012)
Caught In A Daze (2013)
Regret The Day We Met (2013)
Let Me Call You Mine (2013)

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Bio

Dressed In Roses is an all girl alternative pop band from Santa Cruz, California. These unique individuals create music that is reminiscent of classic feel good pop from the 60’s & 70’s, delivered with a modern spin. You can hear their many influences come out in the variety of songs in their catalog.

The band was formed on a whim in early 2012 when Jackie (aka Jackie Rocks) was looking for an outlet for the songs she had written that would not quite fit in with her hard rock band.

Jackie wanted to do something musical that would also include her younger sister Madeline, so she wrote and re-arranged songs to include keyboard for her. Needing a bass player, she recruited her close friend and schoolmate Sophie, an accomplished violinist who had recently picked up the bass.

They began practicing and tinkering with the songs and before long, began taking it out into live settings where they have been receiving very positive responses from all age groups.

They are the real deal and together they are Dressed In Roses!