HANS!
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HANS!

Sacramento, California, United States | SELF

Sacramento, California, United States | SELF
Band Alternative Singer/Songwriter

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

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"Darkness, Then Light"

on Eberbach's album "HANS! - Up Is The Only Way Out" Aaron Carnes had this to say-
"....The final result is a well-recorded, cohesive batch of songs that sound like a cross between Maroon 5 and Jamiroquai, neatly balancing heartfelt expression, cerebral ponderings and groove...." - The Sacramento News&Review


"HANS! at KVMR performing "hushBREATHEhush""

A live performance of original song "hushBREATHEhush" - youTube


"HANS! (featuring Ryan Hernandez and KAZ) perform Can't Stop Loving You"

A stripped version of Can't Stop Loving You. - youTube


"HANS! performs "I'll Get You Over It""

a vid of a new song - youTube


"HANS! at the HOT MESS perform Lightning"

why can't we simply put youTube links up on this EPK? - youTube


"Fans are eating up the Nibblers' funky sound"

Fans are eating up the Nibblers' funky sound
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By Carla Meyer
cmeyer @sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Jun. 3, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 6TICKET
It takes a hot second for the Nibblers, a band rooted in funk and raised in the sweaty confines of the Torch Club, to get people dancing.

With the first burst of trumpet at the band's CD-release show Sunday, the few seated fans were on their feet. The small dance floor filled with middle-aged couples just over from the Sacramento Jazz Festival and Jubilee, as well as with women in their 20s and 30s there to see a septet of nice-looking guys playing funkified, horn-driven 1960s and '70s soul.

With little space for expansive moves, fans grooved happily within their allotted floor space just in front of the stage.

"There is not that much of a separation between the audience and the performer" at Nibblers gigs, guitarist Jon Wood said. "It is like we are all in it together, as opposed to, 'We are the performers, we are in a fishbowl.' "

The Torch Club, where until recently they were fixtures on Sundays, is the 2-year-old band's unofficial home. But a lack of separation between fan and band exists at all venues the Nibblers play.

"I seriously thought this guy was going to kill me by high-fiving me last night," Nibblers lead singer Hans Eberbach said about a Jazz Festival gig the night before.

Though a veteran of local bands Sweet Vine and Looking Glass, Eberbach had never experienced anything like the "all-encompassing explosion" of a Nibblers set, he said.

The band's hands-on approach and frequent local gigs have generated a loyal crowd of fans, friends and fly fishermen.

"They have a unique sound for Sacramento " said Jeff Putnam, 39, a fly- fishing instructor who came to the CD-release gig with his wife, Angela, 38, brother Jason, 41, and Jason's wife, Tammy, 40.

Putnam is a friend of guitarist Wood. The pair trade lessons in their chosen fields, sharing tips on reels and frets.

Wood and bass player Lynn Michael Palmer, band mates in Sacramento roots-music mainstay Mumbo Gumbo, started the Nibblers side project a few years ago, when the economy tanked and Gumbo's gigs slowed a bit.

"I love to dance, and we wanted to play music that was undeniably danceable and was going to get people shaking it," Palmer said.

Rather than trot out another version of "I Feel Good," Palmer and Wood culled vintage B-sides and regional hits by lesser-known artists such as Mary Jane Hooper ("I've Got Reasons") and Rufus Thomas ("Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown").

Nibblers then added or rearranged horn parts, and "combined elements of sort of more modern grooves, more hip hop," Palmer said.

"It is perfect, because I was afraid I would be some dude singing 'Heard It Through the Grapevine' for the millionth time," Eberbach said. "(But) we are owning what we are doing."

Songs on "So Much Trouble," the band's debut CD, were written by others but carry a Nibblers stamp. The goals now are to write original songs, find a booking agent and expand the band's reach to other cities.

The CD is a calling card for more gigs and answers a call for original music from the band's avid fans, some of whom lined up Sunday night outside the Torch Club during the Nibblers' show, waiting for the capacity crowd to thin.

Inside, band members got a workout. Mumbo Gumbo's large, diverse repertoire offers its own challenges, Palmer said, but that band's performances generally are "more paced" than Nibblers sets.

"A lot of the bass parts are really fast and syncopated," Palmer said of Nibblers tunes. "The horn parts are challenging and the drumming is challenging and the vocals are challenging …"

Wood and Palmer said that playing in Gumbo, also a septet, informed their work with the Nibblers.

"You have to really be aware of what the other members are doing, and not stepping on (band mates' playing)," he said.

Mumbo Gumbo's Tracy Walton and Chris Webster added background vocals on the Nibblers CD. Mumbo Gumbo also provided an in-house expert in '60s and '70s R&B and soul in saxophonist Reggy Marks, a Nibblers band member as well. Marks once performed with Sam & Dave.

"He has a deep knowledge, a deep history with this music," Palmer said.

Added Eberbach: "He is the superstar of the band – people go nuts for Reggy."

Eberbach's affinity for R&B was less certain. A self-described "drama geek" and punk and new wave fan as a youngster, Eberbach grew up in Maine with little awareness of rootsier American music.

But his gritty, expressive voice always suggested molasses more than maple syrup. Wood, who knew him from the local scene, thought of him when seeking a Nibblers frontman.

The Nibblers' R&B and retro-soul sound requires him to dig deeper vocally, Eberbach said, and try out flourishes like falsetto.

"Every show is more and more," he said. "It keeps feeling bigger."

The venues vary in size, from Swabbies, where the Nibblers play Saturday - The Sacramento Bee


"Go Ahead, Take a Bite"

The Nibblers
Friday, Aug. 13, 2010 • The Torch Club • Sacramento
Words & Photos by Adam Saake
“Thank you for showing up early. It’s going to be a long night, and we can’t think of anything better than spending it with you,” announced Hans Eberbach, The Nibblers’ frontman.
A good 75 people were in the house at The Torch Club to hear the funk and soul grooves of The Nibblers, and it was only 9 o’clock (good thing I was on time!).
Eberbach is supremely cut out for his job, with a charismatic personality that was trumped only by his outfit. Donning a huge metal belt buckle that matched his chains that hung over his black tank top and vest, he peered out from behind a pair of black sunglasses as he approached the microphone to exhale his lyrics. Behind him, an eight-piece band was bangin’, strummin’ and blowin’.
A good funk tune is something of an aphrodisiac for the older crowd, apparently, because there were some love makers on the dance floor. The 35-to-60 crowd was out in full effect, and unlike the wallflower crowds seen all-too-often at dance and indie clubs, mom and dad can cut a rug. Not to say that I’m surprised, it’s just that I’m used to seeing young whippersnappers having a hard time walking from too many shots of Jameson, not from a recent hip replacement.
But I digress. The Nibblers are a solid band with members that have musical credentials as long as my arm. Jon Wood (guitar), Mike Palmer (bass) and Reggie Marks are of Mumbo Gumbo fame, and the very talented Ryan Robertson was sitting in on trumpet. All the elements to crush a set were in place, and the boys ran through a mix of originals and covers that you could tell were picked out very carefully. Songs like “Who’s Making Love to Your Old Lady” by the late Johnnie Taylor absolutely killed. One of my favorite covers of the night was a song called “Snatching It Back” by Clarence Carter. Eberbach smoothly and soulfully sang, “How can I get your love, when you keep on snatchin’ it back?” Great question.

What really does it for me when I’m watching a funk/soul band like The Nibblers is the presence of the keys player. I don’t want to play favorites here, but damn, a solid keys player like Jeremy Spinger takes a good song, turns it upside down, shakes out all the contents of its pockets and leaves it red hot like an iron in the coals. I just want to shout like James Brown!
At the 11 o’clock hour it was standing room only with the head count up to a hefty 125. The boys took a well deserved break and then returned shortly after for a second set that they dared to have rival the first. James Brown covers set the tone and their list of originals was standout rather than filler. It’s clear these guys are real students of the genre and really take the time to weed through what seems like an endless pool of music that dominated the charts of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Their sets just feel good. It’s too much work at times to come to a show and have to be seriously concentrated on what’s going on. There’s a time and a place for that, but it feels nice to see a band like The Nibblers and the only thing to worry about is spilling your drink on the dance floor. - Submerge Magazine


Discography

Sweet Vine: Sweet Vine
HANS! : Up Is The Only Way Out
The Nibblers: So Much Trouble
HANS! - The Bird on a Wire EP
Joy&Madness-self titled EP

Photos

Bio

Hans Eberbach was born on the west coast and raised in the northeast wilds of Maine, returning to the California sunshine after highschool to launch his career in the mid '90's as the singer for Sacramento based roots rock band Sweet Vine. Guided by industry contact/friend Geoff Bywater (Glee) - a music supervisor at FOX, the band was barely playing live shows locally when they were signed to a publishing deal with Warner-Chappell and then to a lucrative, long-term record deal with Sony/Columbia.
The bands vibrant, muscular mix of classic rock, blues, southern rock and jam band influences was stewed together and served up in the earthy, soul soaked vocal delivery of its charismatic front man, Hans Eberbach. Their fresh take on these classic sounds quickly gained them an intensely loyal following. Their live shows locally, and then across the United States were an explosion of rollicking, enraptured soul and blues soaked classic rock, culling from Eberbach's upbringing in rural Pentecostal churches
The band showed incredible promise and recorded their debut-self titled album at the legendary, now defunct Bearsville studios. Returning to Sacramento, they awaited the release of the album and began working new songs. As their label pushed the album release date back several times, the months stretched out and tastes in the pop music landscape began moving from roots rock and grunge to the teen pop of Britney Spears and a revolving roster of boy bands. Members of the band grew dissatisfied and subsequently quit, mid tour after the eventual release of their debut album.
With their founding members fractured, the band dissolved. Hans Eberbach moved to Los Angeles, spending his time submitting music for TV and film through his good friend, music supervisor Geoff Bywater, until two of Sweet Vines original members contacted him with a plan to put a new band together. Letting bygones be bygones, Eberbach returned to Sacramento and the band formed and named itself Looking Star.
In 2005, after gaining a local following and beginning to shop new songs in a completely changed musical landscape, the bands rythm section, repeating the past again fell apart, going their separate ways.
Eberbach, discouraged with the state of the industry and now the father of two children began working for the Sacramento Sheriff's Department, in the Booking and Central Control rooms in the main jail.
The myriad of incredible things Eberbach witnessed during this time, both horrible and beautiful, spurred him back to songwriting again. He was consumed with it, redeemed by it and moved inescapabley to return to his calling. Over the course of the next few years, with the help of local Sacramento musicians, Eberbach wrote, recorded, mixed and produced the lions share of a new solo album as HANS!. The catchy, electrorganic, deeply layered opus was entitled Up Is The Only Way Out and released November 12th, 2010.
At the same time, Eberbach joined local friends Jon Wood and Michael Palmer (members of Mumbo Gumbo) as the singer for their new retro R&B and Soul band, The Nibblers. The bands ecstatic outpourings of horn fueled deep soul meltdown quickly garnered them passionate fans from both old school music lovers, and members of San Francisco's DJ community.
The Nibblers recorded their debut album "So Much Trouble" in Sacramento in the spring of 2011 with a release on Memorial Day weekend.
After performing all over Northern California throughout 2012 with The Nibblers, the band fractured. Hans left the band to concentrate on his solo work and his band HANS! and the HOT MESS. In January of 2013, 5 of the 7 remaining "Nibblers" reunited with Eberbach to for "Joy&Madness", a continuation of the soul sound The Nibblers were known for with a new focus on original music. Eberbach will be releasing new material with both bands in June 2013 and playing select cities across America through out the rest of the year.