Catching up with San Antonio native Jake Garcia of The Ripe before his band plays the Lonesome Rose

San Antonio native Jake Garcia has been at the forefront of the Texas garage rock and psychedelic music scenes for decades now.

After cutting his teeth playing in the Alamo City, Garcia relocated to Chicago then Austin, where he joined renowned psych-rockers The Black Angels and started his own psych-rock club, The 13^th Floor.

Garcia is back in SA this Thursday for show with his own band, The Ripe, which specializes in power-pop in the Badfinger and Kinks mold. The group is playing the Lonesome Rose with San Antonio garage rockers Hacienda.

We caught up with Garcia to talk about his San Antonio upbringing, his time in the avant-garde scene and Texas’ often-incestuous garage rock scene. 

Tell me about your time in San Antonio.

My dad grew up on the West Side of San Antonio. He and a cousin had a ’60s garage group called the Rhythm Beats around 1965. Inspired by The Beatles. They had the West Side feeling, ya know? Garage-y, lots of covers. No recordings, unfortunately. They played at the Teen Canteen and a lot of the school dances. What a time that was for music. San Antonio garage rock is incredible. I read that article you wrote. The Pandas, wow!

They’re amazing.

My dad went to Vietnam and he got stationed in Hawaii. My mother lived there — about 18 years old. He fell in love with her and brought her from Honolulu to the West Side of San Antonio. She was so depressed because there was no beach. (Laughs.) My dad’s family taught her how to create all this incredible West Side Mexican food. We still have the recipes. It’s killer.

Quite the change.

Her mother and her sisters followed her to San Antonio. My great uncle Mago was the pillar of the family, big Garcia family over there. They all lived over by Garcia’s Mexican Food on Fredericksburg [Road]. No relation. Mago was the tax assessor for San Antonio in the ’70s, which is crazy. My dad and uncle became firemen. I love San Antonio.

When was your first band?

It was 1991. I was a teenager. My brother was a drummer. He was jamming with a band, they needed a bass player, so I went over and met Troy and Aaron Curry. My brother on drums, Aaron and Blaine, Troy on vocals and me on bass. We were into the grunge stuff. Scratch Acid, stuff like that. We were called Chicken Fried Steak. Band was named at Fred’s Fish Fry on Blanco Road. Because they were eating chicken fried steak. (Laughs.)

Classic stoner move.

We played around at the 1033 Club, which became Green Onion, and Reverb, and Rosie O’Grady’s off Perrin-Beitel [Road]. We played Cameo a couple times. We’d play with Evil Mothers, Cannibal Crew, Hickoids. Bands like that. I was in high school, but I was tall and had super-long hair and just blended in, so no need to show an ID.

What happened next?

We did a demo. We were getting serious but eventually disbanded. I’d become friends with the guitarist from Sons of Hercules, Dan Hoekstra. I met him at Wacky’s in the 90s, became friends with him, took guitar lessons with him. Incredible player. We’d show up at Tacoland with a drummer and Ram would have us get on stage. “Get up there, pussy!” (Laughs.)

I was living by San Antonio College and befriended Kevin Spencer, who started Robot Records. He turned me on to so much good stuff, all the Kraut rock and psychedelic stuff.

I had another group, Serpents of the Sea Cut in Three with Troy Curry, the singer of Chicken Fried Steak, and his brother Shane was the drummer. A three-piece, really into Kraut rock, avant-garde music. Like that band Harmonia. We got a flute player. (Laughs.) We played at Winner’s Circle, and we’d come to Austin and play at the Cathedral House, the house of this band that was around called Carbomb. It was a great time for exploration for me. No rules, totally free. Freeform. One long song, one set.

And you played with Tonalamotl?

Same era. Really cool San Antonio guys – Troy Curry, Ryan Sawyer, awesome drummer. Sam Sanford, awesome dude too. Andy Carabetta, great guy. And Chris Branca, one of my dearest friends. They asked me to play a house party, I didn’t even know it was being recorded. We did this great improv session. Chris was playing a shortwave radio through an echoplex. Then I found out they made a record of it. I was at the Austin Record Convention ten years ago and saw somebody selling it for $100. Labelled as “super rare.” (Laughs.) 

So when did you transition from avant-garde to garage rock?

I moved to Chicago and got into that late ’90s garage rock scene. I was discovering the Lyres and the Cynics and getting into my San Antonio roots. Texas psychedelia, Zakary Thaks, Kenny and the Kasuals, Golden Dawn, the [13th Floor] Elevators, of course. When I moved from Chicago back to Texas, I wanted a group like that. I met with the Sir Finks, old friends from Corpus who’d toured through San Antonio. The Sir Finks needed a guitar player, and we became the Ugly Beats.

I was with them until I started the Ripe in 2007. Chris Branca moved to Austin, and we started playing together. Power-pop, playing Big star and Badfinger covers. Chris came up with the band name looking at the apple logo on a Badfinger record.

And you started a club in Austin, right?

Yes, The 13^th Floor, named after the 13^th Floor Elevators. We have touring bands, local stuff. It’s a 200-capacity room.

And you ended up joining the Black Angels and Alex Maas with all his endeavors. How did that happen?

One of the Black Angels’ first shows was with the Ugly Beats at Emo’s, 2004 or 2005. I saw them back then and got it right away. At the time they asked me to join the Black Angels, 2012 or so, I was playing five nights a week, just a workhorse. I was playing pool one night with Alex, and he just asked me to join the band. I played with them, it fit in great and I haven’t looked back. I joined in 2013 for the Indigo Meadow record and started touring the world and writing with them, and it’s been awesome. They became family.

Back to The Ripe. Anything new with that band?

It’s still going strong. I have an EP with Chris Branca we did. We did a full-length through Get Hip Records. Then we have another record that’s unreleased, recorded in the north of Spain with my dear friend Jorge Explosion. He has a band Dr. Explosion. He has Circo Perrotti Studios, which uses all vintage gear and a Telefunken board. Need to release that. The quality of the recording is amazing, old plate reverbs, old mixing board, Neumann microphone.

What do you like to do when you come back to San Antonio?

For food, Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant. I love The Mix, Lonesome Rose. The San Antonio Botanical Garden, the McNay. …  Robot Monster Guitars is killer. And I like Faust. I’m excited to be back.

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This article appears in Aug 7-20, 2025.