With the holiday fast approaching, this week is pretty thin for concerts, but Numbskull and Good Medicine have one very fine show lined up next Thursday, Dec. 30, when The Coffis Brothers & The Mountain Men play The Siren (7 p.m.; 21-and-older; $13 plus fees presale at eventbrite.com or $15 at the door), with Morro Bay folk duo The Turkey Buzzards opening.

• Photo Courtesy Of Connor Quinto
• SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAIN MEN The Coffis Brothers play The Siren on Dec. 30, bringing their high-energy rock 'n' roll.

• Photo Courtesy Of The Turkey Buzzards
• MORRO BAY BROTHERS IN ARMS Eric Patterson (left) and Dylan Nicholson (right) are The Turkey Buzzards, a rustic folk duo opening for The Coffis Brothers on Dec. 30, at The Siren.

The band's core members, Jamie and Kellen Coffis, were born and raised in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Northern California. Together they play a rootsy style of rock that's reminiscent of Tom Petty, The Byrds, and The Jayhawks, and as they note in their bio, the brothers are "positioned in a long line of sibling duos that stretches back to the Delmores, the Louvins, and the Everly Brothers."

They first formed the band in 2010 along with childhood friend and neighbor Kyle Poppen, releasing their self-titled debut album in 2011. Their single, "Waiting For You," was released in 2012, and their second full-length album, Wrong Side of The Road, came out in 2014—all produced by Andy Zenzcak at Gadgetbox Studios in Santa Cruz.

After Wrong Side of The Road came out, Aidan Collins joined the band on bass guitar ahead of recording their third album, Roll With It (produced by Zenzcak at Barefoot Studios in 2017). The next two years was filled with near-constant touring with Sam Kellerman added on drums.

The Coffis Brothers' last album, In the Cuts, came out on April 24, 2020, just as it became clear that the pandemic was going to put the kibosh on touring and promoting it. The album was produced by Mother Hips member Tim Bluhm, "recorded at 25th Street Studios in Oakland at the beginning of 2019, and finished over several months at Bluhm's home studio in Fairfax."

Now the band has ventured out on the road again, playing around California and Nevada into the new year. According to the brothers, they "don't tend to overthink their music. Nothing in the repertoire is overwrought or outstays its welcome. This is pure roots rock, focused on melody, harmony, rhythm, and mood."

The album's 12 tracks were written and sung by Jamie (vocals and keys) and Kellen (vocals and guitar), and were performed by Poppen (lead guitar), Collins (bass and backing vocals), Kellerman (drums and percussion), and Bluhm (backing vocals and guitar).

If you've got a hankering for some classic California rock, this show will slake your thirst.

Stromsoe highlights the Central Coast

• Photo Courtesy Of Nicole Stromsoe
• SHE'S ARRIVED On her new video for "I Am Fine," local chanteuse Nicole Stromsoe proves her country bona fides.

Last Friday, Dec. 17, local singer Nicole Stromsoe dropped her new video for "I Am Fine" on her YouTube channel, and it really captures the look and feel of the Central Coast. See it at youtube.com/NicoleStromsoe.

Though she describes herself as "a jazz vocalist at heart," Stromsoe proves her country music bona fides on the track, which she said "takes the listener on a dark comedic ride of betrayal, juxtaposed by a playfully upbeat and cool-headed presentation of facts."

She sings, "Did you think that she was me? Have you been trying hard to see my legs as they wrap around your own? And with eyes clenched tight, afraid of the light, did you think you heard my voice as she moaned? 'Well I'm the luckiest man alive,' was your go-to line when you'd awake to see my face lit by the dawn. Now you're calling out to her, 'Good morning, beautiful.' Your words the same—you must not realize I'm gone. I'm fine, yes I'm fine. I see she's wearing my old clothes and she's even got my nose, but I've washed you off my skin and I am fine."

The video highlights the scenic Central Coast, filmed in Morro Bay and Los Osos by her younger brother Sean Stromsoe, "Who spends his time in Ethiopia running the nonprofit Ethiopia Skate when he's not working on videography projects," she explained. "The video's Los Angeles based director, photographer Rhea Aldridge, spent time absorbing the magic of the Central Coast and really captured the atmospheric quality of our unique and awe-inspiring area."

It's a great narrative song about a guy who hooks up with a look-alike of his ex, and it finishes with the old adage "love can make you blind." Stromsoe called it "an ironic take on every romantic's worst nightmare [that] somehow brings a smirk of honesty with each brokenhearted punch."

Here's to hoping she pens and performs some more country and folk songs. Δ

Contact Senior Staff Writer Glen Starkey at [email protected].