This Weekend: San Diego Music Thing!!

The weekend is nearly upon us and so it's time to talk about the San Diego Music Thing. I've actually been a little bit surprised at how so many of my own friends don't know about or understand what exactly goes on, so here's the basic rundown.

Friday, September 14 and Saturday, September 15, sees the return of the San Diego Music Thing. Think of it less as a "festival" and more of a conference. In the daytime, there are workshops and keynote speakers at the Lafayette Hotel. Topics like Music Industry 101, Marketing, Publishing, and Touring will all be covered. Keynote speakers include Martin Atkins of Public Image Ltd, Wayne Kramer of MC5, and Chuck D of Public Enemy.

By night, the city's music venues open up with showcases featuring local and touring bands. You can see the full schedule here, but I'll also put them after the jump so you can get them on your mobile device easily throughout the weekend.

It seems the biggest point of confusion is the ticketing, so just to clear things up, you can buy tickets here. You can buy a wristband for the full weekend for $55 or for just one day for $35. These wristbands get you into all of the workshops, panels, and keynotes as well as ANY of the nighttime showcases (based on venue capacity, of course). There are also PRESALE tickets for certain showcases available on the same ticketing page. This is recommended if you're not interested or available for the daytime events and you know you just want to go to one venue for the night. For the showcases that don't have presales, they too, will be charging cover at the doors for people without wristbands. The cover charges are usually $10 per venue. If you have a wristband, you do not need to purchase additional venue tickets, but venues will be subject to capacity so plan your nights accordingly. It's gonna be tough hopping around, but I think I'll be hitting up Bar Pink, Casbah, and Sunset Temple on Friday night, with Bar Pink, Claire de Lune, and the Casbah on my Saturday agenda. Of course, that could all change depending on transportation, so we'll see, but you can be sure I'll be Foursquaring/Tweeting all weekend.

Full schedule after the jump.

Awesome Fest Five: Keep It Awesome, Keep It Fast

Awesome Fest/Fast is back for it's fifth year (third year in San Diego). For what started as a relatively small event, the Fest has turned into a force to be reckoned with, now occupying four of San Diego's main venues for three days/nights with wristband-only access to see the best of underground punk, garage, and shit too cool to have a genre. These are bands you'll find on the pages of Razorcake; Pitchfork- not so much. Organizers limited ticket sales to 400, and they're close to sold out, with NO passes available onsite. Once you miss preregistration, you're out.

Awesome Fest attracts bands and fans from around the country. This year's bands include Shark Pants, Muhammad Ali, Be My Doppelganger, Toys That Kill, Madison Bloodbath, Soviettes, David Dondero, Rumspringer and more. The DIY ethos keeps the event growing year after year. "At AwesomeFest, there are no corporate sponsors or no direct dealings with any managers. All bands playing have been personally asked by one of the organizers." Like last year, night shows happen on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at Soda Bar and Eleven, while afternoon shows are on Saturday and Sunday at The Office and U-31. Additionally, they've added a pre-fest shows on Thursday at Soda Bar and Eleven, a lawn party on Saturday, and a foos ball tournament at Luigi's on Sunday.

Organizers encourage attendees to have fun while respecting the hotel and venues that host them, while the bars are staffed up and ready for some heavy drinking. A bartender told me, "last year we ordered a pallet of PBR. That's 100 cases, 12 tall cans per case. We ran out by Saturday afternoon. It is easily our biggest weekend of the year."

All the information you need can be found here.
Passes
Bands
Schedule

Update: I just got off the phone with Davey and there are less than 10 passes left. Buy them now, or try the message board. Pre-Awesome shows are $7 each or $10 for both, but there will be no paid admissions allowed at any of the venues during Fest. You must have an event wristband to get into any of the shows.

Seth Combs Gets The Bieb For Charity

I thought I'd posted a link to my photos from last week's fundraiser, but alas, I had not. The party at U-31 got off to a slow start, I imagine you working folk couldn't quite get there at 5, but once it got going, there was a great turnout. A representative from the San Diego Humane Society was on hand to receive the total of $966 in donations (well over the $300 for the hair and $700 for hair/beard/mustache). As party-goers got in on the beard and mustache fun, Rob Deez performed with Josh Damigo as his sidekick, and of course they played the Seth Combs song. As Seth got his hair cut, courtesy of Salon Tonic by stylist Dario, Gregory Page performed a set, followed by Long Live Logos. It was a super fun time and Seth was as good a sport as any. All of this now is even funnier as some media outlets try and get a juicy story out of Josh and Seth in regard to Josh's SDMA acceptance speech which he closed with "and Seth Combs can suck my balls".

The Burning of Rome Altercation At U-31

I don't know anything about this story other than what is spreading on the web, but The Burning of Rome were alledgedly attacked by security at U-31 over the weekend.

You can read details here.

Overdue Recap: Frightened Rabbit, The Spinto Band, Dynamite Walls @ U-31, 11.5.08

Wednesday night I was ecstatic to see Frightened Rabbit, The Spinto Band and Dynamite Walls at U-31. I was all caught up on sleep and had a productive day checking out the new Soda Bar, working on my brother-in-law’s website, doing some job searching, and I was rearing for a good night. I made sure to get to the show early so as not to miss any of the music. Click 'keep on reading' for the full post and videos.


There was plenty of time so I chatted with the band outside for a bit since it has been ages since I've seen them. Eventually they took the stage and started the show with a short set and played two new songs, then gave an encore of another new song that they had just been recording and hadn't yet played live. Tom had told me about the new songs before the set so I made sure to have my camera ready to record, so you can hear two of them here.

Razorback


Stay Awake


It was funny, too, because after the song, Tom introduced “Mystery Girl” by saying “This is another new one, Rosey.” In the chorus he sings something like “Her kisses are sweet like Roses” but it sounded like “Her kisses are like Rosey’s” and I felt mildly embarrassed. No, Tom and I have not made out.

The Spinto Band performed second and after having listened to their latest album "Moonwink" about 20 times in the past couple weeks, I was really looking forward to seeing them. They definitely did not disappoint, though I'd retract my earlier assessment that they remind me of Snowden. There's one song that has a similar hook, but overall they are really very, very different. The lead vocals alternate and the voices are so different, they could easily be two bands, but that turned out to be a really good thing because every song sounded very different but unified by the same quirkiness and backing energy.

The Spinto Band Setlist

(funny thing about that setlist...I asked one of the guys for it, and he said, "I even drew California." When I told him it was backward, he laughed and said "It's the dyslexic California.")



And holy shit, they played kazoos!


By the time Frightened Rabbit played, it seemed like the crowd there for the bands had dwindled and people were showing up for the dance party portion of the evening, which to me is just so sad, because the band is incredible. I don't really like to call people out, but to the drunk girl who thought she was so cute by GETTING ON STAGE while the band was playing, you aren't cute, it wasn't funny, and in speaking to the band after, they were not happy. I grabbed Gary to get her off the stage and the fucking gall of this chick to think it was ok to stand first behind the keyboardist, even after he tried to discreetly tell you to get the fuck off the stage, was not cool. Then she moved behind the amps next to the drummer who was clearly irritated. Either way, the set was beautiful. I read somewhere that the singer sounds like Adam Duritz with a Scottish accent and I was glad someone else thought so, because I could listen to Frightened Rabbit alongside "August And Everything After" without any change of mood or emotion.

You can hear the singer pissed off here at the end. "We've got a brand new member. Don't what the fuck her name is."





I highly recommend checking out their Daytrotter Session, too.

Anyway, despite the dumb broad onstage and despite the too loud DJs between bands and despite the crowd who was just waiting for the bands to be done so they could dance, it was a great show. Should've been at the Casbah, but that's the way it goes sometimes. After the show I attempted to hit the Beauty Bar, but it was closed early. The Ken Club was also closed because a pipe had burst. So I went to Pink Elephant where it was completely dead and decided to call it a night. Maybe I'll get back on a life schedule.

Tonight! The Spinto Band, Frightened Rabbit, Dynamite Walls @ U-31

Tonight, Casbah presents a stellar lineup. The show is gonna be at U-31 and tickets are still available, so show up early and don't miss out.

The Spinto Band, whose latest release Moonwink is getting rave reviews from blogs, magazines, and was called "the hottest record in the world right now" by Zane Cook of BBC1 Radio are headlining. They've been a Spin Magazine "Band To Watch", compared to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and personally I've been loving the album because it reminds me a lot of Snowden with a little more pop and a little less dance.

Single for "Summer Grof" here.
Check out their MySpace.

This is the band toying around with their single "Later On". Pretty cool stuff.

"Later On"


Also on the bill tonight, Frightened Rabbit from Scotland. Not only amazingly talented, but they have great charisma on stage, they tell great stories, and I've been blown away entirely the couple times I've seen them.

Frightened Rabbit "Good Arms vs Bad Arms"


Joining the two touring acts, locals Dynamite Walls will be opening the show. They haven't played a whole lot lately (other than opening for The Black Kids) as they've been recording some new stuff up in LA, so this is a good chance to get a preview of new material from them. In the meantime, here's some video from their last CD release show at the Belly Up.

Dynamite Walls "Faces"


After the show, head over to the Beauty Bar to celebrate the election with $2 Firehouse Drafts, $2 wells, and $2 PBR tall boys all night long! And no cover! Try and beat that!

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.

Overdue Recap: Drew Andrews & Manuok @ Beauty Bar, 7.24.08

After seeing Drew Andrews with Rocky on Wednesday, I was looking forward to catching him again on Thursday with a full band and a more local crowd. I didn't think the show would start quite so early, however, so I missed the two openers, but arrived in time to catch Manuok.

Last time I saw them, I was selling merch at the Belly Up, so I didn't really get to take in the show so this time I was happy to be able to enjoy the whole set. I've been really enjoying shows there with the new lights and Sarah always takes care of me. Manuok are an incredible band. Check my YouTube videos for video of the night, but if you get the chance to see Scott and crew live, make sure to do so. There's just incredible depth of talent with every person in the band and the vocals will break your heart.


Drew Andrews is one of the nicest guys in San Diego music, so its no surprise that a lot of his friends came out to see the show. He was in a good mood, I think having the full band, while they're all tight musicians, meant a looser feeling show, perhaps less pressure and no bar chatter to compete with. Whatever it was, Drew played a long set and didn't shy from talking about his record being put out by Minty Fresh this fall, which I'm certainly looking forward to hearing. I posted video of a couple songs before, so check them out if you haven't already.



Being that Beauty Bar shows end early, we hung out for a little bit once the set finished, but then I headed to U-31 with Jake to catch a little bit of Shark Attack, but mostly we just hung out with Erika until closing time and put the seal on another fun night in San Diego.

Von Iva & Astra Heights at U-31, 7.9.08

After Rooney, Longsley, and The Bridges at House of Blues, I made my way to North Park. I walked in as Astra Heights was mid-set. I found Erika and she pointed out some changes at the bar, including digital lights, which was a nice change from all the dark venues I've been attempting to take photos at of late. I still hope Jake or Justin fix the gels at the Casbah soon because I don't think I can take any more of the all red & blue there. Tim Mays was at the U-31 show and I think I mentioned it, but I'll have to bring it up again some other time.

I liked Astra Heights a lot- good energy onstage and they were really nice after their set. I'll have to check them out again without so much distraction. (It had been too long since I'd had the chance to hang with Erika.)


I was glad I did not miss Von Iva, especially after reading the rave reviews from Port O'Brien's blog. And, while it was no centuries year old cathedral, they killed it at U-31. The singer channels something really deep when she sings, like a 60's blues singer, while keeping it fresh and modern with a nice dance feel created by a full all-girl band. They were hot. And, by the way, it was funny to note the singer's tight red pants were exactly the same as the bassist's from Longsley. Red is the new black?


The girls from Von Iva were nice enough to give me a CD which I've been rocking a lot. I'm only sorry it took so long to post about it all...

More pics of Astra Heights and Von Iva when you click "keep on reading".

Astra Heights

Von Iva

Saturday, 5.3.08...the rest of the night

Saturday was a marathon night for me, and after Roots Fest and the Belly Up, Daniel and I were all over the place. He picked me up as soon as Natalie dropped me off and our first stop was at Chasers for Fkenal who were really kick ass.

They're all instrumental and the room was dark with all the lights out that allowed their projector to provide some video to their music. Definitely high energy and really smart song structures made for an entertaining set.



After they finished, we picked Natalie up from her house, but before U-31 we stopped at the taco shop across the street because I needed a quick taco, and the three of us were quite amused by the misspelling of "fajita".



We went across the street to U-31 and saw the Antic guys from Filter Magazine who were silkscreening t-shirts on the spot, but ain't no medium tee gonna fit these boobies, so I passed on the swag. While waiting outside for Natalie and Daniel's shirts to be made, we found out we'd already missed Wallpaper, and also that they were not gonna do the planned pop-up concert at La Posta, so I'll have to see Wallpaper some other time. We went in the bar and had a round, but we weren't really feeling the tijuana-esque scene and the bumping and grinding and people making out everywhere we looked, so we slurped our drinks and went to Bar Pink Elephant.



On our way, we were sad to see that Big Lots has closed down. Boo.



We got there before Two Sheds hit the stage and the bar was full of friends, and of course, my $4 stoli & tonic, so I was happy to be there. Two Sheds was pretty awesome and were a nice backdrop to us hanging in a couple booths with some friends. The vocals were beautiful and this style of music sounds better in the bar than the hard rock of Birds of Avalon, so maybe I wrote off Pink Elephant as a venue prematurely.



After the show, we swung by the Ken Club for one final bevvie and were greeted by my neighbor, Kittyhead who followed us home.



Then of course, we stayed up super late watching silly YouTube videos until Saturday turned to Sunday, putting the seal on another great San Diego weekend.

Elf Power & Flowers Forever, 4.21.08

Before the shutter button popped off my camera, I caught Elf Power, Flowers Forever, and the last couple songs from Agent Ribbons. It was one of those kinda quiet nights, where they let people in through the sidestage door instead of the main entrance.

Agent Ribbons is a two-piece girl duo and they were dancey pants and super fun. The singer was sporting a lime green dress which contrasted her Raggedy Ann red curls as she danced around the stage. I've heard great things about the band and the couple songs I saw were great, so I look forward to seeing them again. They seem like a perfect house party band, perhaps paired with Jamuel Saxon.

Forever Flowers, from Omaha, were up second, and I really liked them a lot but couldn't really place who I thought they sounded like, mostly because the singer reminded me of the singer from Material Issue with his bowl haircut. I kept humming "Valerie Loves Me" in my head. Had I taken more cash, I would've bought their CD, so I'll keep an eye out for them in the future.



Last up was Elf Power and I loved their last CD, Back To The Web so I had to catch them again, even though this time around, just like the last, they played stuff from their entire catalogue and I wasn't familiar with most of it. The singer has this intriguing look...I couldn't stop thinking that he looks like a cross between Mike Kamoo of The Stereotypes and Jeff Tweedy. Their set was sweet and the girls from Agent Ribbons and their friends made it a full on dance party up in front, which from the look on the singer's face, was a first. The jangly guitars and his sweet voice made it for an enjoyable night of music.









After the show, I went to U-31 to see the mechanical bull riding which was awesome, because Josh from Silent Comedy rode the bull like a madman. It was pretty fun and maybe one of these days, I might mount the little bovine myself.