Old Photographs: Greg Laswell @ Anthology, 6/11/2010

Some more old photos...Greg Laswell performed at Anthology (June 11, 2010) and it was a bit of a homecoming as well as a CD release show. I started my night at the Casbah, catching Old Tiger's debut there, then hurried to Anthology to catch the end of Brian Knight and all of Greg's set. This was a rare show at Anthology, where the tables had been moved and the crowd was standing in around the stage. Some yuppie chick with a giant purse kept pushing me with it, letting me know that she was saving her friend's spot with the luggage on her shoulder. Greg, I love you, but the more your music spreads, the more I hate your bitchy stalker fans.



Another thing of note was the ring on Greg's finger. My friend later told me that Greg and Ingrid Michaelson were wed, however this week I talked to Cary Brothers about it and he said they're engaged, but not yet married. Either way, I'm happy for the talented couple. More pictures if you click 'keep on reading' below.

Jeff's Weekly Pick: Greg Laswell @ Anthology Friday June 11, 2010

Greg Laswell has been an integral part of the independent music scene in San Diego for many years. Earning his chops by playing in small bars and clubs was the way for him to gain an audience while learning his profession. Since going out on his own, Greg has recently released his fourth LP, Take A Bow. While listening to his music, it becomes apparent how emotionally charged his songs are and always have been. Greg has started a new chapter in his personal life with a recent move to Brooklyn. This is reflected in his songwriting and shows an artist really hitting his stride. It is easy to take things for granted, since Greg plays live music in San Diego on a regular basis. Now that he is based on the East Coast, there is no telling how frequent his future visits will be. Fortunately for local fans, Mr. Laswell will be performing at the beautiful Anthology supper club this Friday. Here is as opportunity to listen to songs from his newest effort (cd release show), as well as songs from his previous albums. This promises to be be a special evening and a wonderful way to start the weekend.

Brian Wright sets the stage.

Watch a video of Take Everything below.

Greg Laswell "Take Everything" from Vanguard Records on Vimeo.

Free Vanguard Records Sampler

I had this in my sounds like Christmas post but after a full listen, there's nothing holiday or Christmas-y about it, so I thought I'd repost here.

Click here for a Holiday Sampler (not Christmas music) courtesy of Vanguard Records. I hate calling things free that are not. While this doesn't cost money, you do have to give up your e-mail address, but the artists on the label are great (Greg Laswell, Joshua Radin, Brandi Carlile, Josh Ritter, and more).

Greg Laswell on KCRW

Greg Laswell is always working hard and his latest project is called Covers which will be released on October 6. And, despite the "LA based" description, we all know he's another product of San Diego that we can all be proud of. You can catch him on KCRW performing a cover of "Your Ghost" and make sure you download it for free. Now I'm even more bummed to have missed his Saturday night performance at the Casbah.

While I'm at it, did you know he played North Park Music Thing (or NXNP) last year? Here's part of that stellar performance (and the loud as hell fan attempting to cool the room):

Overdue Recap: Joshua James, Casbah, 2.6.09

It recently occurred to me that I haven't been doing so much in the way of show reviews and that has certainly got to change because I haven't been going to any fewer shows than before. That said, I'll go all the way back to the beginning of the month, when I posted video from Joshua James' performance at the Casbah.

He had a full band once again, and once again, I was blown away, and for at least the first few songs of the set, I think the rest of the crowd was impressed, too. Then, of course, they hit the bar and got chatty, but it still wasn't enough to suck the life out of the performance. The show was sold out with Greg Laswell as the headliner and Jesca Hoop performing as well. However, since the show was sold out, I was asked to return to sell Casbah merch. I agreed on the condition that I could watch Joshua's set.

The truth is that watching him was a little exhausting. As I said before, I have to remind myself to breathe when I watch because he puts so much into his performances. He played a couple new tunes and the new album will be released in April which I am really looking forward to hearing.

After the set, I spent the remainder of the night in the Atari Lounge (since it rained that night) with Joe, the bassist for Joshua, and Jesca for a bit after her set, where I learned her name is actually pronounced "Hope", and where she was aggressively pursued by some very drunk French guys. Her set was solo and as such I didn't hear much from the back room, but I have her previous album and know she's an incredible performer. Of course, Greg was brilliant as usual and I was able to watch pieces of his set from the smoking patio while Jesca manned the booth. It was a lovely night, my only regret being that I didn't even remember to buy a shirt from Joshua. Next time around, I suppose.

Do Not Miss Friday At The Casbah: Joshua James & Greg Laswell

Friday night at the Casbah will be the ultimate soul soothing remedy for all that ails you. Get there early enough to catch Joshua James. Easily my favorite album of 2008.

Joshua James "Soul & The Sea"


And of course, the headliner, Greg Laswell:

Recap: Greg Laswell @ Casbah 10.29.08

Last night, Greg Laswell performed the second of two shows at the Casbah. Matt Curreri and The Ex-Friends opened the night. Unfortunately, I arrived after they had finished, but if you read this site, you know I love them, and unlike the people who were there but were supposedly loud and chatty near the bar, I would've been up front and center, most likely making faces at Kevin.

Greg Laswell has been on tour for quite some time now. He said the longest he was home in 6 months was 9 days. Unfortunately for us, "home" is now Los Angeles, so we don't even get the good fortune of seeing him around the neighborhood anymore, but his tour has come through a few times, so he always makes sure to give San Diego his love.

He's touring with a full band, so even his saddest songs sound a bit more upbeat, though at times they take a break and he graces the crowd with the most beautifully sad songs you have ever heard, taking the time between the songs to tell little stories about the origins of his music. He plays music from both his full length albums and his EP, and though I didn't keep track or get a setlist, I'm having trouble even trying to think of any songs he didn't play.

Without dissing the crowd, I have to say it was a very non-Casbah crowd. As Greg played, there was a 4 foot gap between he and the crowd. A couple people were sitting on the floor. Girls giggled at his every word while their boyfriends talked at the bar. It reminded me of being 17 at Java Joe's and swooning over Steve Poltz.

Anyway, it was a great show and even though all the lights at the Casbah are now functional, my pics are terrible, so you only get video .

"Sing, Theresa Says"


The show was done by midnight, so Jake and I checked out the Tower Bar where Miggs (from Taang! Records) was spinning records and we geeked out on Shazam on Jake's iPhone. It was great seeing Mick again; I hadn't been to the Tower since they've stopped hosting live music, and it's one of my favorite dives so hopefully I can work it into my rotation more frequently.

Overdue Recap: NXNP, 8.2.08

I had been looking to North By North Park all summer and when it was all said and done, I think it showed how great this town can be for musicians. I arrived at a little later than I planned, just before noon, checked in to registration, and went into my first panel, Music 101. (panelists Robbie Lloyd (Silva Artist Management), Ben Moore (Independent Producer), Steve Churchyard (Producer INXS/The Pretenders), Chris Cantore (X1FM), Ken Leighton (San Diego Reader), Nathan Dinsdale (San Diego CityBeat), Paul Abbott (Zen Mastering)) and I found the disagreements by the panel to be the most interesting part of the deal. Cantore suggested that MySpace is dead (I very much disagree) while he plugged Twitter, though I think it's premature to assume Twitter can work in any meaningful way for bands. Leighton plugged his own club and held up his flyers, which Dinsdale ended up writing about in the following week's CityBeat. Then there was a lot about how Blink 182 and how great they were and their marketing machine and how they did everything right and how everyone should be just like them. I ended up joining Bart and Al in the back. Like last year, everyone recommended reading All You Need To Know About the Music Business and Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991. Click keep on reading for the rest.


Between sessions, we went to the bar for a drink and mingled in the lobby, then returned for the keynote speaker, Jerry Heller. He told entertaining stories about the early rap scene and his part in making things happen. I listened with a bit of skepticism because clearly the dude made a fortune off the music of others. He gave his own list of ten rules, but then he jumped around so I didn't catch all ten, but here's some of the advice on how to make it in music. 1. Work harder than everyone else. 2. Emphasize your strengths. Strengthen your weaknesses. 3. Take every "no" personally, use it as a starting point to a "yes". 4. Be imaginative. 5. Don't be discouraged. Remember most people are mediocre. 5. From a label perspective, look for artists that are trendsetters, unique, and the very best at what they do. As artists, be unique, remember it's always great to be 1st, and you should always be involved with people who are the very best at what they do. 6. Be scrupulously honest in everything you do (or it will bite you in the ass later) 7. Always be ruthless on behelf of your projects or clients. 8. From a label perspective, the only thing you have in common with the artist is that you both like what they do, and that is enough. 9. Remember to turn out the lights before you go to bed. (chuckle, chuckle.)

Like I said, I lost count. After that, I went back to the bar for drinks and ran into friends and hung there for a while before returning to my last panel of the day, which was about touring and booking gigs. (Panelists: Bart Mendoza (Touring Musician), Len Paul (SOMA San Diego),
Steve Poltz (Singer-Songwriter), Candace Mandracia (Live Nation/House of Blues), Kristen Worden-Harris (Croshal Entertainment), Tim Mays (The Casbah)) and that ended up being mostly a Q&A, with people asking how to get shows at Casbah, HoB, and Soma and how to get noticed, and what other places there are to play. Some kid asked a really weird question asking if it was ok to call in a bomb threat on a competing venue in hopes of getting more people to your own show and everyone was puzzled at the question, but later I was told that there were rumors in the past of Len from Soma doing just that, so I guess the kid was trying to call him out. Bart also gave me a huge shout out on the panel as the music source in town which was pretty awesome. I wish the past couple of weeks weren't so crazy and I could live up to that kind of compliment.

After the panel, I hung out in the lobby/bar where they announced the San Diego Music Award nominations and we enjoyed the free beers. I thought it was a really great event and hung out for quite a while with various people before heading home. My plan was to catch the shuttle at the Ken and start my night at Chasers, but Matt didn't know where Chasers was, so I had him pick me up and we went there together.

SayVinyl kicked ass and I was happy to see a full set for the first time in a while.
I hear their new record is almost complete too, so I look forward to that. I hadn't been to Chasers in some time, but I still really like the bar. I hope the neighborhood cleans up some more so people aren't so sketched to go there. Hotel St. George were fun as always, and Matt was performing really loose to the small crowd.



I felt bad leaving after their set, especially after talking to Justin from OAKS, but we had planned on meeting people at U-31 for The Silent Comedy. When we got there, it was insane. There were two lines, each with maybe 50-75 people in each. One was for people paying cover, the longer was for people who already had wristbands. I was also disappointed to hear that people were being given priority if they paid $20 at the door. We found Erika and she walked us in, but then I realized that The Silent Comedy was breaking down their gear. Turns out that the venue decided to switch around set times and move Buddy Akai later. Not cool. It was crazy packed at U-31 and I was out to see music, not "to be seen" as so many people seemed to be, so I left. Matt and the rest of them stayed.

I was trying to figure out where to go and what to do and ran into a couple friends and told them about the lineup switcharoo. North Park looked like downtown, with crowded sidewalks and lines at every bar, which is good for the owners and good for the event, but I was ready for an escape. My friends ended up agreeing to drive up to Lestat's and that's where we ended our NXNP experience, meeting up with Dagart and Jake and watching Greg Laswell. I posted video here and here of the performance. Seeing Greg perform always gives me chills and if you haven't bought his new album, get on it.

After his set, we went to Lou Jones for a quick drink, and intended to go back to catch Steve Poltz, but we ended up staying there and some more friends came and met up with us. There was also some lame bar fight, which I guess, in a way, punctuated the end of a long but fulfilling day in San Diego.

For obvious reasons, Sunday was a lazy day for me, spent with family and a last dinner with my God-sister Claudia before she returned back to Alabama a couple days later.

Greg Laswell, Lestat's, 8.2.08

I was having some major technical issues tonight when I intended to upload the rest of my pictures from last week, so I guess that will have to wait until the weekend, but I was looking through my photos and couldn't resist posting this one of Greg Laswell from his set at Lestat's for NXNP. Do you ever look at some people and just say to yourself, "Hot damn! This person is too good looking for me to actually know them in real life?" Yeah. That's how I am with Greg. And, on top of it, they're incredibly talented, devastatingly kind, and shamefully humble? We are very lucky to have such people in San Diego and Greg deserves all the success in the world. It almost makes me look like I'm a good photographer.



Here's another video from that night if you didn't take the time to go to my YouTube page. I love this one because the chords sound like "Canon in D" by Pachelbel which is my all time favorite and most listened to piece of music. I even like the effect that the fan on the floor gave to this recording.

Greg Laswell "That I'm Home"

NXNP: Greg Laswell At Lestat's, 8.2.08

This weekend certainly kicked my ass. I'm going to do my best to take it easy this week, and I'll post this week's listings on Monday, because I'm going to bed early tonight, but since 80% of NXNP attendees stuck to North Park proper, here's what you missed over at Lestat's.

Greg Laswell "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" & "High and Low"



There are a couple other videos on my YouTube page. (link on the sidebar)

Radio Sophie 1 yr. Anniversary feat Ingrid Michaelson & Greg Laswell

When I babysat on Tuesday night, I didn't get home until after 2 am, so I was looking forward to a short nap after work before heading to the House of Blues, but at the end of the day, my friend who works over at Sophie, called to invite me to the private pre-show performance and party at the Delta Room, so how could I say no? I had enough time to drive home, let my dog out, change, and went to House of Blues. I got princess yellow-curb parking and tried to pick up my tickets and photo pass, but the list hadn't been submitted, so instead I went to the other side of the House of Blues and gave my name to get into the party. The performance was supposed to start at 6:30, but fortunately they were running a little late, so my 6:45 arrival was still in time to catch Ingrid as well as catch up with other friends at the station.

Ingrid took the stage and sounded perfect. She sang a few songs that were interspersed with an interview by Jennifer White and broadcast on the station's website. You can see the session in it's entirety here.




After the session, I caught up with Kallao and finally met Jen, had some more of the free champagne, then went upstairs and waited in the lengthy line at the box office to get my tickets. By the time I got in the venue, Greg Laswell had just started his first song. Unfortunately there was no photo pit and there were camera guys in the tiny space between the railing and the stage, but some kind people let me up front when they saw my photo pass. It's really nice when people are nice, so thanks to those anonymous strangers who let me in.

It had been a while since I've seen Greg, and it's so clear that he's embracing the spotlight he deserves, owning the stage and playing strong enough to drown the HoB chatty crowd. He joked about how sad his songs are by introducing "Sing Theresa Says" with a story. "I had a dream I was visited by my grandmother and she told me to sing a happy song. So I wrote another sad one."








After his set, I got a quick chance to say hi to him before he whisked off backstage. I hung out in the Delta Room between bands, and talked to Dave about pictures, so he gave me the go ahead to get in the space between the stage and the railing, and I talked with the camera guys to make sure I wouldn't be in their way. They were cool and shot mostly from onstage so I was never in their way. I was happy to be the only one in that space with a photo pass because otherwise I might not have been able to get close.

Ingrid Michaelson and her band took the stage to some excited fans. The crowd was probably 80% female with a significant lesbian following which I only mention because there were a lot of sighs, like 'this is our song' when she played "Breakable".

Standout songs of the night were "Die Alone", "Oh What A Day", and of course, "The Way I Am." Oh, and my favorite part of the night was an all crowd singalong to Death Cab For Cutie's "I will follow you into the dark," which is the lullaby I've been singing to Johanna since the day she was born. For her encore, she played a song solo on the Eukelele which was pretty damn awesome, too.













I was really happy to finally have the chance to see Ingrid and especially happy to see Greg again. I got home relatively early, so decided to take my laptop to the Ken, but unfortunately I couldn't get a signal, so I hung out with some friends before finally calling it a night. I probably should've gotten more sleep for my Thursday plans, but I'll get to that later. time for sleep.

Contest: Tickets for Ingrid Michaelson & Greg Laswell

Ingrid Michaelson and Greg Laswell are on tour and will be in San Diego on Wednesday, June 25 at the House of Blues. I've got a pair of tickets to giveaway to one lucky winner. E-mail sddialedin AT gmail DOT com for a chance to win. I have to submit the winner's name by Tuesday, so get on this.

Ingrid Michaelson "The Way I Am"

Have you ever seen a cuter clown than Greg Laswell?

New Music: Greg Laswell "How The Day Sounds"

I feel like such a jerk. In all my celebration about JayMay's CD release, I completely forgot that my friend and quasi-neighbor, Greg Laswell, released a new EP. It's called "How The Day Sounds" and the only thing that sucks about it is that it's only an EP, because it leaves you wanting a full album- or a full day- of listening to Greg's beautiful voice. He's out on the Hotel Cafe tour (which sold out at the Belly Up last week) with Ingrid Michaelson, Cary Brothers and Jim Bianco, but hopefully when he comes back home, he'll play another show with the full band at the Casbah. Otherwise, we'll just have to count on bumping into him at the Ould Sod.

You can stream some of the new tracks on his MySpace page here.

Just Can't Seem To Get Right Today

There's a Kia commercial that has a Laswell-esque song playing while the driver backs in and out of a gas station, the point being that it's so long between fuel ups that it's easy to forget if the tank is on the driver side or passenger side. The magic of Google helped me find the song.

It's called "Can't Get It Right Today" by Joe Purdy and it reminds me of those really off Monday mornings when you wish you'd taken better advantage of the weekend.

And, this lovely world wide web has a place for you to download the song.

SXSW Lineup Announced: More San Diego Bands

Here's the full list from Rolling Stone

I posted this post a couple weeks ago with the list from Austinist.

Here's the San Diegans who made the list on Rolling Stone:

Augustana
Tom Brosseau (out of LA now)
Correatown (Angela Correa was a San Diegan)
AJ Croce
Delta Spirit (listed as Orange County)
Dirty Sweet
Earthless
Grand Ole Party
Greg Laswell
Kush & Jah Bloodfiyah Angels
The Muslims
The Prayers
John Reis (The Night Marchers)
The Shining Path
Steve Poltz

Ingrid Michaelson Coming To San Diego

A few months ago, I posted "The Old Navy Sweater Song" on my site and it was obvious by the number of people who landed here by googling the song, that Ingrid's star was rising. She's been in numerous magazines, her song is on Billboard's top 200, and her independent album has sold almost 90,000 copies. Then she pleases all of us San Diegans by featuring our local hottie, Greg Laswell, in her music video for the song.




Ingrid is criss crossing the country over the next couple months and will be part of the Hotel Cafe tour, which kicks off in San Diego on March 6 at the Belly Up (tickets onsale Jan 9). In addition to Ingrid, the San Diego stop will include Cary Brothers, Greg Laswell, Kate Havnevik, Jessie Baylin, and Jim Bianco.

And for the other Laswell Lovers out there, you can catch Greg performing at the Casbah this Friday, along with Dialed In fave Emery Byrd.

Lindsay Lohan Goes Back To Rehab- Listen To Anya Marina's song, "Lindsay Goes To Rehab"

A while ago, friends Anya Marina, Tristan Prettyman, and Greg Laswell wrote a song for Lindsay Lohan called "Lindsay Goes To Rehab". You can listen to it here.

Greg Laswell + Mandy Moore?

I hate that I love gossip, but apparently Mandy Moore and Greg Laswell andan juntos; but go to Opening Band for the scoop. Of all the Hollywood ladies, she seems like someone I'd wanna drink beers with at the Ould Sod, so I give this my completely meaningless stamp of approval.

Newsy Tidbits: Tailgunner, SXSW, Greg Laswell, MySpace Case, Vanja James,

I don't have much news this week.

Tailgunner has gone on an indefinite hiatus. Ok, they're pretty much over. You can read the band's MySpace blog here.

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MySpace Case: A middle school teacher is under investigation by his school District after a parent complained about his MySpace profile. Keep them profiles private, people! You can read about the case here.
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Local musician Vanja James has permanently relocated to Northern California because she "wasn't finding what (she) was looking for in San Diego."
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Everyone in indie blogger nation has a boner over the SXSW band listings which you can find here. No major surprises from San Diego: AJ Croce, Rob Crow, Earthless, Steve Poltz, Rafter & Friends, The Softlightes, and Weatherbox. Who is Weatherbox?? Several other bands will be playing in the area that aren't a part of the official festival, including Republic of Letters among others.
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Congratulations to Greg Laswell, again. Indie 103 is now playing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun".
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That's all I've got today. Beauty Bar Recap and Things to do coming up, stay posted.

Newsy Tidbits: Jason Mraz, Two Word Name, Greg Laswell

Not much news, but here's what I've got for today:

"Local" boy Jason Mraz has written a song called "The Beauty In Ugly" for the ABC show Ugly Betty and their "Be Ugly '07" campaign. You can listen to it here.
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Local band Two Word Name played in Los Angeles on Thursday night. You might remember me posting their sale of tickets for the party bus for $35 to head to LA. In talking with some people this weekend, the trip worked out well for the band who had over 100 people show up to see them...but not without incident. The band was not on the bus which bummed some people out and there were allegedly underage kids on the bus partaking in the alcohol festivities. The bus got lost and had to call the band for directions and then the band was threatened by the club because there is a city ordinance that party busses and bus tours are not allowed on the Sunset Strip. Still, the band made a good showing and had a blast at their show. Also allegedly, the bus trip home had some wild stuff. I will neither confirm nor deny that I heard stories of 16 year old girls making out with 28 year old guys.
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Congratulations to Greg Laswell are in order. His cover of the Cindy Lauper song "Girls Wanna Have Fun" is number 1 on iTunes folk charts for 10 days running. Nice. Mock Mtv all you want but if you get song placement on one of their shows it can really only be good. I mean unless you're too cool and don't really want to make money playing music.
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A friend of mine went to the Fono/Swandive show at the Beauty Bar on Saturday Night. I like both bands myself, and I don't know if this comment reflected the bands or the bar, but he said, "The Beauty Bar is Dead". I've been interested in seeing the evolution as night after promoted night have left to other bars, i.e. Poprocks turning into the Anti Monday League at the Casbah and Pussy Galore moving to San Diego Sports Club. We shall see.