May continues to be an impressive month here in San Diego, with many musical options for one's evenings. Some noteworthy shows for the week leading up to the Memorial Day weekend are:
JJAMZ (LA) return for a great night of music on Tuesday at The Griffin...The Presidents of the United States of America headline the Belly Up...
The Casbah offers two shows of note on Wednesday...Twin Shadow plays his biggest local show yet at the Belly Up...If experimental rock is up your alley, Tera Melos headline the Casbah...
Thursday songwriter Mikal Cronin begins his US tour at the Casbah...his sophomore release is impressive...Juliet Commagere (Hello Stranger) makes a rare SD appearance at The Griffin...
On Friday LA buzz band The Mowgli's bring their entourage to The Loft at UCSD...
TV Girl return to Soda Bar on Saturday...Cold War Kids begin their first of two sold out shows at the Belly Up...
Enjoy Sunday before Memorial Day with outdoor activities, a BBQ perhaps, but mostly be thankful we live in the greatest place in the greatest country...
The North Park Festival of Arts is finally here! I'm so excited about my stage performers and also excited to get a chunk of time back in my life. But all the work and meetings and emails and time are totally worth it and I hope everyone comes down to say hi and check out the amazing talent, the great vendors, and all of the unique art. So that you can access the lineups from your mobile devices, I've posted all of the set times after the jump. Also a heads up that there are two whisky tasting events at Seven Grand, the Craft Beer Block (which is going to sell out), and the Beer Garden where the Bar Pink Stage is located.
It has been an amazing week and I can't wait to share it all in another diary post, but for now I'm just so excited for the weekend ahead. I mean, we are in the glory of outdoor festival time here in San Diego and there's so much fun stuff to do this weekend that it's going to be hard to miss things that are overlapping, but I'm looking forward to jumping on my bike and doing as much as I can. Weekend listings are below, listings through Thursday are after the jump.
Sun God Festival feat. Kendrick Lamar, Portugal. The Man, Andrew McMahon, Danny Brown, Youngblood Hawke, Soda Pants and more @ RIMAC Field, UCSD (3pm-12am)
The Burning of Rome, Low Volts, The New Kinetics, Zero Zero @ Casbah
91X Presents: Jimmy Eat World with IAmDynamite and Reason to Rebel @ House of Blues (SOLD OUT)
Warehouse1425 feat music by Family Wagon, Spirit Vine, Dirty Sirens, DJs Persue & Sake @ Warehouse1425 (1425 E Street, 6-10pm, $5, All Ages)
The Styletones @ Bar Pink
Super Buffet @ Riviera Supper Club
Janka Nabay (Gang Gang Dance), Illuminauts, Vertigo @ The Void
Stage 11, Subsurfer, Freak The Mighty, Stone Iris @ The Ken Club
Ben Wanicur & his quartet featuring Peter Sprague, Ian Tordella, Charlie Weller (CD Release) @ Dizzy's
The Amalgamated, Ssssnake, Coda Reactor, Hobo Torch @ Soda Bar
Brian Ellis Band, Joy (Tour Homecoming Show), Sacri Monti @ Tin Can
Casey Turner (5:00), Tommy Dubs & Seismic Leveler w/ Year of the Dragon (9:32) @ 710 Beach Club
Rattle Rockin Boys, Roy Rapid & The Rhythm Rock Trio, The Poppin' Firecrackers @ The Tower Bar
Mike Pinto with Natural Vibrations, DJ Clint Westwood of Whiskey Avengers (8:30)
Lynette Skynyrd, Badd Co., ZZ Too @ Brick By Brick
Millionaires, Joy Island, Ashland High, Beneath The Sun, Lancifer, Chasing Claymores, Super Groupie, Figueroa @ Epicentre
King Schascha & Irusalem, DJ R2 @ Gallagher's
Temple of the Dads (5:00), Detroit Underground (9:00) @ Humphrey's Backstage
QuitSleep, Fresh Bakin and the Madero Group Presents: LowRiderZ, Black 22s & Girl Friday @ Ruby Room
2B, Gorilla Disko, Digital Jammer, Von Kiss, Preston Morrill, Fatal Inertia @ Soma
Lady Cellie Presents: Life of Zion, Soulective, Ladie Cellie @ The Griffin
Beheading The King, Raise The Guns, Squirrelly Arts & Draind @ Shakedown
The Ballad Mongers @ Tio Leos
Rewind Crew, Maine1, Hevrock, DJ L, Habitat @ U31
The Soultones @ The V Lounge
Popvinyl @ Dreamcatcher
Tristan Garner @ Voyeur
Austin Train and Lyle Brown (6:00), Battle of the Bands with Finals Pool Party, Blue Still and the Orange Pickers, Irieality and Devocean @ Winston's
Saturday, May 18, 2013:
North Park Festival Of Arts Main Stage: The Palace Ballroom, I*Wish*I, Bulletins, Michael McGraw and The Butchers, Midnight Pine, Chess Wars, School of Rock. Bar Pink Stage (21+): Wild Wild Wets, Tropical Popsicle, The Widows, Stevie & The Hi-Stax, The Kabbs, Okapi Sun, Gone Baby Gone, Bloody Mary Bastards Ray Street Stage: We Are Sirens, Vice Versa, Full Strength Funk, Josh Damigo, Santana Brothers, WindWalker & Wind Spirit Drum, Tyler Kelley, Revery Broadcast, Mimi Zulu, Donna Larsen plus 3 more stages! @ University Between 30th & 32nd, Free, All Ages, 11am-6pm, Bar Pink Stage/Beer Garden open till 9pm!)
Damien Jurado, John Meeks, Matt Curreri @ Soda Bar
Rage Again, Wicked Garden & Smack This @ 710 Beach Club
The New Rivers, Shark Blood, Green Leaves @ Ken Club
Motionless, Nite Ritual, Electronic DJs @ The Void
Barrio Tiger, Stalins of Sound, White Mule, Kodiak @ Tower Bar
Power Animals III: Spirit Guides @ The Spot Barrio Logan
ONE YEAR anniversary of DIAMOND DUST! dance party + fashion show @ The Flame
Mothlight, Ditches @ Tin Can
Neon Beat- The Best and the Worst of the 80s @ Bar Pink
Waywards Sons with Betamaxx @ Belly Up
Easy Axxxess @ Brick By Brick
Bang Data, Taluna @ Til-Two Club
The Phenomenauts, Save the Swim Team, Niño Zombi, Be Like Max @ The Ché Café
The Rob Thorsen Trio featuring Joshua White, Duncan Moore and Rob Thorsen (CD Release) @ Dizzy's
Battle of the Bands featuring: Scary Garry & The Deity Girls, Radio Active, Aim To Kill, Once Upon A Time, Ramon's Flowers, Terminal Velocity @ Epicentre
The Plastic Revolution, thatwasthen, DJ Chelu @ Gallagher's
Revolt Age (7:00), Makai (9:00) @ Humphrey's Backstage
Allison Lonsdale, Jupiter, A Mayfield Affair @ Lestat's
SD Union Presents: The American Jungle Documentary Filming, HYBRIS (MetalHeadz), Sub Killaz, DJ Evlo, hosted by Ridda, Subliminal, CSD @ Ruby Room
Lord of War, Wrath of Vesuvius, Into The Flood, Suntorn, Nihilitus @ Soma
Atlantic Starr & Evelyn "Champagne" King @ Sycuan
PBR Streetgang at Boys & Girls @ El Dorado
Lady Cellie Presents: Tito Minott, Lady Cellie @ The Griffin
I have to say it was a very, very good week. I posted that really long diary post a few days ago, but I'd rather not get so backlogged and since I'm awake and somewhat alert and avoiding my inbox, I feel like sharing.
I feel like my vocabulary is so limited these days. Amazing and epic and great and beautiful and exciting seem to be so overused in my posts lately, but when I think about how I was a year ago, dealing with my eviction and moving, I was a total mess, completely depressed, and living in a constant state of anxiety. I was binge-living. Binge eating and binge drinking and binge sleeping and binge working. It wasn't pretty. Since then, work fell into a better place with a Casbah promotion, regular site sponsorships, and it turned out that my eviction was a total bonus because I'm so much happier in my current location than I was in Kensington. And of course, Darren. There's something pretty amazing about meeting someone who is my partner in every way- supportive and kind and loving and funny and smart and an incredible dad and generous boyfriend and no offense to anyone who came before, but this love is completely unprecedented in my life. After 8 months, none of the glow has worn off. Read the post after the jump.
The last place indie bands might reside is Lawrence, Kansas. A smallish university community is indeed home base for the two bands playing the Casbah this Sunday. They are veteran band The Appleseed Cast and relative newcomers Hospital Ships. Both bands share the same label, Graveface Records. The Appleseed Cast moved from LA to their current home in 1999. Many lineup changes have occurred within the band, with lead guitarist and founder Christopher Crisci being the lone remaining original member. Their eighth album, Illumination Rituals, was recently released on April 23. Many have described the band as emo or post rock. I would lean toward the latter, as many of the songs tend to feature drawn out guitar riffs, with little emphasis on vocals. Make no mistake, this a blue collar indie rock band, unafraid to play their brand of music to those who either know their style or still desire to discover them. A recent van accident destroyed much of the band's gear (thankfully nobody was injured).
Hospital Ships formed in 2007 as a solo project for Jordan Geiger, who previously played keyboards during a brief period for The Appleseed Cast. Their sophomore release, Lonely Twin (2007), features a melodic combination of guitar, keyboards, drums, and vocals that gel quite nicely. Their third album, Destruction in Yr Soul, is due to be released in June. Guitarist Taylor Hollenbeck will be doing double duty for both bands.
Cap off the upcoming weekend with great music at the iconic Middletown venue. Tickets can be purchased here.
Watch a video of Servants, from Hospital Ships, from their yet to be released album, below.
This month is National Bike Month and there have been and continue to be several bike-related events and such going on. There are great resources in San Diego for all kinds of biking information, including Bike San Diego and San Diego County Bike Coalition. There was also a ride in conjunction with San Diego River Days which continues through next weekend.
Tonight, join the 10 mile SILENT RIDE. This is a national event that started in Dallas, but this will be the first one in San Diego. The ride is in honor of cyclists who have been injured or killed while cycling. We will be riding in honor of Barry Whittaker, Darren's father, who was killed by a motorist while cycling in Northern California in 2009. Here's the information from the Bike Coalition:
All people who ride bicycles are invited to join the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition on Wednesday, May 15 at 7 p.m. for a ride to honor cyclists who have been killed or injured and raise awareness that all people have a right to safe accommodation on San Diego's roads. The Ride of Silence is free, starts at the South Clairemont Rec Center and open to cyclists of all ages and abilities. Participants are asked to ride no faster than 12 mph, wear helmets, bring lights, follow the rules of the road and remain silent during the ride.
WHEN: Wednesday, May 15, 2013, 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: South Clairemont Recreation Center
3605 Clairemont Drive
San Diego, CA 92117
Friday is National BIKE TO WORK day. You can REGISTER and get all of the information here, Obviously registration isn't required, but it sends a message to our politicians and community that there are a lot of people who would ride bikes if facilities were safer, more convenient, and incentivized.
Finally, Sunday you can get ready for the big CicloSDias (August 11, 2013) with a Mini-CicloSDias at Marston Point Loop on the Southwest side of Balboa Park on Sunday, May 19. These are free and open to all levels of riders from 10am-4pm. Maybe you can hang out for a while, then ride down to Little Italy for Festa Siciliana which happens all day from 10am-6pm.
If you don't have a bike and are in the market for one, or you'd like to rent a good road, city, or mountain bike, go visit Mo down at San Diego Bike Shop or reserve a bike online and he'll take good care of you. Not to knock beach cruisers, but at most rental shops, that's what you're gonna get, and they're pretty laborious to ride if the road is anything other than flat. That's where my Biria came from, as well as my awesome lights and basket. Tell him @sddialedin sent you!\
I'll be adding a bike resource page up next to the music resources to this site in a couple weeks, so if you have good resources, feel free to send them my way. Also, if you didn't check out last week's 2013 Summer Guide from SD CityBeat, you can see plenty of bike stuff to do there, too.
A few weeks ago, I did a little roundup of newsy bits wherein I mentioned that my dear friends Kristian & Pat and their company, MySMN, created a new site for North Park called Living North Park. Tonight, they're celebrating the launch of that endeavor at URBN North Park. You can find the Facebook event listing here. It open to all from 8-11pm and they'll have food and drink specials as well as raffle prizes. It should be a nice pre-gathering for the North Park Festival of Arts happening on Saturday. Meet your friends, neighbors and business owners in the community over some tasty pizza and beer. Be there or be L7.
Incidentally, there's a Pre-Festival of the Arts Mixer at LiveWire from 5-8pm for festival participants. Not really sure if that means vendors or performers because I'm the main stage producer and didn't know about it, but whatever. Sounds like a good time if I didn't have other plans.
As I mentioned in my diary post, the past three days have been absolutely amazing, so I'll save all of that for another post and just remind you how lucky you are to live in San Diego. There is so much awesome in this city and you should take advantage that even if you're cash strapped, you can still get out to free events, parks, and beaches. You can also enjoy free music- like Local Brews Local Grooves every Tuesday at House of Blues or catch the Casbah Twitter Tuesday password for free entry. Here' the listings through Thursday. Weekend listings will come in the next day or two, but all you need to know is that on Saturday we have the FREE North Park Festival of Arts all day long. My stage is on 30th and University, so plan on being there!! Tuesday and Wednesday archives are after the jump.
It has been nearly three months since I've written a diary post. Jeff recently pointed out to me. He says that it is clear my life has changed, and with it my priorities have shifted. And while that may be true to an extent, between trying to keep up with marketing for the Casbah, writing for SoundDiego, booking the North Park Festival of Arts Main Stage, picking up some babysitting, and still working door or merch at the occasional show, nothing has slowed down except for my posts here. And I'm sorry for that, but I'd rather be out enjoying all that San Diego has to offer and I have a partner who has renewed my love of this city- the shows, yes, but also hole in the wall restaurants, bike rides, parks, and tennis and ping pong and archery and hikes and river cleanups and participating in civic activities. The reality was that I lived this critically unhealthy life of going out pretty much nightly, then I laid in bed all day writing about it. This face hadn't seen much sun, the only exercise this body got was the occasional walk to a bar or show, and I took intermittent naps until it was time to go out and do it all over again.
My daily life has had a major overhaul and I honestly couldn't be happier about that, even if it means less frequent posting here and just quick updates on Facebook and Foursquare and Twitter. Fortunately this site has grown with several contributors who keep you abreast of shows and photos. Still, sometimes I hit writing road blocks and the only way to resolve them is to purge all of my shit out into the ether in a long winded diary post. After the jump, if you dare.
The middle of May continues with many live music choices here in San Diego. A closer look at the upcoming week reveals some shows worth attending.
On Monday chillwave artist Christopher Dexter Greenspan, aka oOoOO (pronounced oh), brings his act to Soda Bar...Austin rockers Speak headline The Void...
Tuesday is "find a show from the listings and go" day...
Chicago rockers Filligar invade The Griffin on Wednesday...Dead Feather Moon open for a great bill...
Thursday roots/folk rockers Sons of Fathers make their San Diego debut at Soda Bar...Kisses play their sugary pop at The Griffin...
The weekend begins with a great local bands show at the Casbah with The Burning of Rome...say no more...
Head to Soda Bar on Saturday for Seattle based singer/songwriter Damien Jurado with John Meeks and Matt Curreri lending support...
Cap your weekend on Sunday with indie rockers The Appleseed Cast at the Casbah...a recent accident destroyed much of the band's gear...go show some San Diego support...
This represents only a few of the many live music events; most important is getting out and enhancing your life by watching live music...
Watch a video of Museum of Flight from Damien Jurado below...
I don't know about you, but this was kind of a long week. Super busy but super fun. I've been without a working phone all week, so maybe it feels even longer without immediate contact to everyone I know. Yesterday I even used a pay phone! (Fortunately, there are two in front of the Zoo for tourists) Anyway, this weekend is gonna be nuts, too. I'm heading to The Observatory with Jeff tonight, and tomorrow there are some great shows, and then back to the family tradition of Gator By The Bay for Mother's Day on Sunday. I'm leaving the listings through the weekend before the jump since I might not have a chance to update. Of course, it's all available in a simple format on your mobile device, too. Have a great weekend!!
For those of you lucky enough to have tickets to tonights Marina & the Diamonds show with Charli XCX tonight at the House of Blues are in for a treat. What you may not know is that Marina & the Diamonds and Charli XCX recently collaborated together on a new track. Here it is to get you in the mood for tonights show, and for people who do not have tickets enjoy the music and buy tickets earlier next time.
What a crazy world we live in, huh? The news about Tim Lambesis of As I Lay Dying being arrested for allegedly trying to hire a hitman on his wife is shocking, those kidnapped women that were found have been slightly overshadowed by Charles Ramsey, the hilariously awesome neighbor who busted them out, and that Arias trial is supposed to have a verdict today. I guess it is good just to be healthy and chugging along in this crazy world without any major crazy distractions. San Diego has a lot to offer this week so we're giving you the listings a little early so you can plan out your Mother's Day weekend. Wednesday and Thursday archives are after the jump.
Seattle five piece indie rockers Minus the Bear will be making their next San Diego appearance this Wednesday on the campus of UCSD. The Band released their fifth full length, Infinity Overhead, on Dangerbird Records last summer. Many have described their sound as math rock with the unexpected time changes. There is a certain precision to the overall effect, with guitar riffs filled with pleasant vocals throughout. Earlier albums focused more on the electronic aspects of their music, so one never quite knows what to expect. What is readily apparent is a band that is always searching to improve and add to their kaleidoscope of sound.
Minus the Bear recently finished a European tour and this headline show is one of only a few on the West Coast. Fans will be treated to a band that has found its stride and is clearly capable of delivering in the live setting. The show will be taking place at Price Center Ballroom West. Tickets can be purchased here.
