newsy bits/Art Around Adams Ken Club After-Party

I have to admit that even though I live a block away from the Ken Club, I was finding it hard to motivate to head over for the Art Around Adams official after-party. With a little coaxing, I made my way over, but specifically went without my usual baggage. I took my keys, my phone, some cash, and my I.D and ATM card. I specifically left my camera at home. I wanted to enjoy the show, enjoy the crowd, enjoy the pool challenge that Kevin threw down and not feel like I was "working". It ended up being a really great night.

The show was slated to start at 8 pm, but the bands started much later. The lineup had been changed; originally billed with Arrows, White Apple Tree, Monsters From Mars and Scarlet Symphony (in that order), they were rearranged so that the lineup was the same with the exception of Arrows being moved from the first spot to the last. I got there shortly after 9 and the bands hadn't started, so I had the pleasure of meeting Harvey Bodie, Brett's father and original owner of Bodie's, the Chee-Chee, and other bars in San Diego for years. He asked if I had a drink and when I told him I was just having water, he said, "I don't trust anyone who doesn't drink." Naturally I ordered myself a cocktail.

Kevin finally showed up, so after a couple games of pool (Current series score was left at 1-1), White Apple Tree kicked off the night with a great set. I seriously love this band and apparently so did the modern dancers that hit the dancefloor toward the end of the set. You'll have to check TheMixsterSD.com for the video of that fun.

When the band finished, Kevin and I attempted to finish our pool showdown, but the tables were taken, so instead we got our clocks cleaned by the fierce pairing of A.J. and Matt who ended up running the table for most of the night.

I joined some friends at the bar and I guess that's when I felt a release...it was nice just to hang out with friends for a change. As much as I love live music, I tend to over-immerse myself in the experience at times, worrying so much about getting photos and video, that I sometimes miss the little things that make going out so much fun. It was a great night, and while I was there I had several conversations that make me really appreciate living in San Diego...a huge city and a small town all at once. Some of my chats are just for me, but some of them I can share.

My friend Jared, bass player for Augustana was there, along with guitar/mandolin player of the band, Chris, who told me they're off for about a month before hitting the road again with Counting Crows and a few shows with Switchfoot, too. Some of the tour dates are available here. Unfortunately the tour is mostly in the midwest and east and won't be coming around the west at all. They were at the Ken in support of Arrows...Jared has mixed their EPs and is helping to record their first full-length record.

I have to say it was really great talking shop with them and time flew by before I'd realized I'd missed the rest of the bands. The bands got so behind that it was looking like Arrows wouldn't get to start until nearly 1 am, so they decided not to play. I have to say that I can't blame them for making the decision, and in no way should it reflect poorly on them since they were there from the late afternoon for soundcheck and all. Perhaps the booking of four bands was a little over-ambitious.

So then there's last call, Careless Whisper on the jukebox, final shots, the bar sweep, and then there's dozens of people on the street, filtering to after parties, waiting for cabs, making burrito plans. I bumped into John Paul, formerly of Grand Ole Party and currently in The Hot Moon. He's got a solo project in the works. He told me it's called Vegetarian Werewolf, a nickname he apparently gave himself at four years old, and he's making his debut at Tin Can on July 8. Aaron Swanton is recording his record.

As I wandered across the street, there was Aaron, and we chatted for an hour or so about everything; music, recording, the show, the Ken Club, his studio, and his own solo stuff that he's recording. It's really great that in a musical landscape that can be so hard to navigate, that there are people like Aaron who deeply believe in creating and sharing without regard to some ultimate scheme.

As I said, ultimately I was glad to go out, to revel in a packed Ken Club on a Saturday night. Having lived in the neighborhood for almost a dozen years, it was kinda like back when I first moved in and I appreciated the nostalgia. Looks like I have to make a point to soak it all in more often.

Augustana, House of Blues, 6.12.08

As soon as Troy's book reading ended, I headed back south to downtown San Diego to catch Augustana at the House of Blues. I scored a pair of tickets from fellow blogger, Chickrawker, and got in touch with Jared (bassist of Augustana) to work out a photopass. He also left me a pair of tickets, but fortunately they didn't go to waste. As I was getting my stuff, a girl at the ticket window discovered she'd mistakenly bought tickets for the show in Anaheim, not San Diego, so I handed her the tickets.

If the show wasn't sold out, it was pretty close to it. It was packed. It was one of the shows where the floor was all ages and the balcony was 21+, but HoB has started opening the Delta Room as a bar. I missed both openers, but was there in plenty of time to catch all of Augustana.



I feel like the band's new album is a slightly more aggressive than the last, but the show would turn out to be chock full of ballads and some amazing acoustic renditions of their songs. Unfortunately for me, they opted to have the stage dimly lit, with about 6 white overhead lights pointing directly down on the band, with Jared and Chris almost completely in the dark for most of the set, and forget about Justin and John altogether. Even though it was a photo challenge, I maximized the first three songs of the set just to have a viewing spot, since the floor was packed.

During the first or second song, the band lost their timing and Dan stopped the song. It was pretty hilarious to find out that the drummer's bell-bottoms caught on his bass drum pedal. They had to try restarting a couple times, but eventually got right back into it. The next song had some issues, too, which made Dan joke about how professional they are, but the crowd loved it, finding their chatter endearing. And, yes, the girls were gaga, yelling "I love you" to their chosen band-member as they tuned to get the show going again.







During a couple songs, I just couldn't find a place to watch the show (it was that crowded), so I went to the Delta Room for a beer and to listen to the music that was broadcast on the sound system while playing on the flat screens around the room. I went back out when they played those couple songs acoustic. They played Fire with just solo keys, then Meet You There Someday with two acoustic guitars and mandolin, and Reasons with the whole band pitching in vocal harmonies with a solo guitar.

The show was great, but again, as soon as it ended, I bolted and made my way to the Casbah. Huge thanks to Augustana for hooking it up. Hopefully we'll see the boys around town before they hit the road with Counting Crows later this summer.

New Counting Crows Out Today

I can't help it. Ever since August and Everything After came out when I was in high school, I've been a devoted Counting Crows fan, even when I had to cringe with that horrendous Big Yellow Taxi cover and a few other misses along the way.

Well, apparently Adam Duritz is back, he's off drugs, over his depression, and feeling good about life, or so it seems from the interview I read. The new album is called "Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings" which I think was the name of a mixed tape I once made.



The band has also announced summer tour dates, including a show at Coors Amphitheater with Maroon 5 on September 13. Augustana supports that tour.

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

Random Stuff

I haven't done newsy bits in a while but there's some stuff I wanted to post that wasn't necessarily column worthy.

First, a couple local bands are offering their albums for free download. Today Cabron releases Mexican Shoe Thief for free download (though it doesn't appear to be posted yet.) From their MySpace blog:

Our 7 song EP Mexican Shoe Thief is going to be released online for free on Oct. 8th (or sometime around there), yeah thats right, for free. Who buys CD's anymore anyway? We've posted 4 new tunes on our myspace page. The songs were recorded live to 2" tape at Audio Design Studio in San Diego, CA and engineered by Dan Maier (Head Wound City, The Plot to Blow Up The Eiffel Tower, Some Girls). Bobrob (guitar) will be doing a limited run of about 500 silk screened wood block 12" covers that we'll sell at shows for about 7 bucks. We'll put a blank disc with a site you can download the tunes from in it along with an insert for lyrics.

Basically people will pay for the art if they come and see us and if people really want we'll mail them. We'll probably put it out on vinyl in the spring after we save enough kola nuts and bottle caps since people seem to actually pay for vinyl. Basically Bob talked to some of his high ranking industry contacts and was told that we wouldn't recoup the cost of making, printing, releasing a 'CD' and that it'd be better just to release that shit ourselves, which is cool with us.

Who needs record labels anyway? It's the same thing punk bands have been doing for the past 30 years. I am talking about bands that go from town to town in a crappy 15 passenger van with a trailer playing dives and making just enough for gas money and a taco bell bean burritos.

The other band, and I might have mentioned this before, is Fono. Their album "Too Broken To Break" is available at their regular website here for free just by filling out some info for their mailing list. Give props...Cindy and I went to junior high and high school together.
*****
Was anybody at home watching Cold Case on Sunday night? I was and was happy to hear two San Diego bands featured in the music. Both songs were played almost in their entirety through two central dramatic scenes. The first was Augustana's "All The Stars & Boulevards" and segued right into Greg Laswell's "Sing, Teresa Says" (which just picked up the SDMA for song of the year.)

It seems that Augustana is also one of those bands people love to hate, because on Monday night's "The Big Bang Theory", a character feels rejected when his hot neighbor is kissing another guy. "You're not gonna start listening to some trite emo songs again are you?" his roommate asks. Cut to scene of the guy in his living room singing Augustana's "Boston"...'you don't know me, you don't even care...you don't know me, and you don't wear my chains' Anyway, I'm just glad those music directors are paying attention to San Diego, even if they are poking fun at times.

No stranger to TV herself, Anya Marina's Miss Halfway is being released this fall in the UK and is already generating buzz, being added to the playlist on Music Week and added on Record of the Day (Oct 3) where they had this to say about "Miss Halfway."

San Diego singer/songwriter Anya Marina has had five songs licensed to Grey's Anatomy, with this track on the show's latest soundtrack. Avatar Records will release her album, Miss Halfway, through Pinnacle in the UK later this month. We like the poppy yet ironic lyrics and the catchy melody about this track. Given the
interest in her work stateside, we're glad that a strong PR and radio plot has
been put in place in the UK.

*****
If you happen to be up late this week, check out Ray Suen on Last Call With Carson Daly. He'll be joinging the Joe Firstman House Band on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.
*****
Alrighty...that's all I've got for now. Off to get a facial at The UnderCarriage. Things to Do will be posted later tonight. Guess I better do Tuesday.

BTW, congrats to my Two Gallants ticket winners, Corey S and Michael L. If you didn't win, try again next time, but the show will be well worth the money so you should show up anyway.

Street Scene 2007 Recap & Photos Day 2

By the time my ride arrived to pick me up on Sunday, I'd already missed some of the bands I'd hope to catch. I was also pretty bummed that I chose to wear shoes that ended up giving me blisters on both of my feet within the first hour of being at Street Scene. My friends and I headed to the 5 stage to catch People Under The Stairs for a while.




We were kinda unsure what kind of access we'd have for Sunday, but my friend Pete had arrived and told me he got me passes with Z-Trip so I headed back toward the entrance and caught a glimpse of Brett Dennen.


I went out of the venue only to find the tickets were en route. I ran into Steve from Dynamite Walls and Chris from Augustana, so we hung out at the will call until our passes arrived. At that point Natalie sent me a text that we had photo passes for The Album Leaf. After waiting about a half hour, the passes arrived and we entered through the artist entrance.

After hanging in the artist area for a while, Natalie and I mosied to the Album Leaf stage.






The sound on their stage was perfectly crisp though I didn't want to clutter up the photo pit for too long so I watched from a ways back for the majority of their set. I wanted to catch Paolo Nutini, so I headed back to the main stage to catch a few of his songs as well. "These Streets" sounded so amazing on that huge stage.


I had separated from Kristian so I met he and the rest of our friends in the electronica tent for Simian Mobile Disco. They were great, but it was a dj set so I didn't hang for long. At this point the moleskin the first aid guys gave me for my blisters had gotten dusty from the tent and I had forgotten my earplugs, so I took a couple pics but then was on my way.




Sexy and single...Kristian, Dave and Chris

In the tent I ran into the most famous bald head in San Diego, Mr. Tim Pyles.

I was running all over the place for most of the day. From the electronica tent, I went to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah for a few songs but this was my roughest point of the day...lack of earplugs, not enough sleep, blisters on my feet and I didn't hang at the stage for long.

I also had to catch Z-Trip for part of his set. It was familiar and felt like the same set he did at SoCo, but I knew he had a long set (an hour and a half) so I left to catch Spoon.


Britt and crew sounded awesome. I guess I've now seen them equally on small and large stages and I like both equally. I appreciate that the band is flexible and can pull off both quite well.

I then ran to see a couple songs by the Sweet and Tender Hooligans and I seriously think there are so many diehard fans of Morrissey and The Smiths, that I wouldn't doubt if the couple hundred people were at Street Scene only to see the Sweet and Tender Hooligans who really do the covers spot on.


Since Pete got me my passes, however, I had to make sure I arrived back at the electronic stage to catch his portion of the Z-Trip set. He blew it up yet again. The guy is amazing. I've mentioned before he's drumming for Z-Trip at the moment, but has also has played with Cake and Mike Doughty in the past. He blows me away everytime I see him.

After that, back to the artist tent for some tequila shots, a couple beers and a burrito before heading to catch Louis XIV on the main stage. Anya Marina came out to sing during "Finding Out True Love Is Blind" and Ray Suen has been playing violin with the band. He's definitely upping his demand by bands because he's absolutely amazing.

I spent the remainder of the night in the artist area. It was really fun back there, complete with a foosball table and an air hockey table, couches, and tv's to watch the acts.

Natalie and I had our geek out superfan moment backstage when we got the balls to approach Britt Daniels and get him to pose for some pics with us. He was really nice and didn't seem to mind us gushing like little schoolgirls.

Here's some more random backstage photos:

MC Flow & Crew

The one person I really wanted to meet was Joe Escalante of the Sweet & Tender Hooligans, The Vandals, and The Last of the Famous International Morning Show on Indie 103.1, but apparently he left as soon as their set ended because he has to get up early for his morning show. Bummer. I did talk to Jose for a while and he was really, really nice.

Jose, Sweet & Tender Hooligans

As things go, people were leaving and extra passes showed up, so we got The Roman Spring back in the artist area with us. Here's a pic of Joe.

Sean "Har Mar Superstar", Sean Na Na

All in all it was another amazing day at Street Scene. I am glad I took a chance and kept the faith about the event, and I know that no matter what form it takes next year, if it continues, I will be there. I hear the numbers didn't meet the expectations of LiveNation, but I enjoyed the space, the layout worked well, and the music was great. I guess the lawn stage suffered a bit from the Editors sound checking early which was lame, but as far as I could tell, the event went off without a hitch minus the usual complaints about charging for parking (when there is no alternative) and overpriced beer, but whatever. Those are pretty standard complaints about most shows.

I'm taking a night off from rock n roll and I'll try to get my things to do list up soon. Huge thanks to Dynamite Walls, Jason Burkhart, Conrado, Jake, The Album Leaf, Pete McNeal, Z-Trip, Kristian, Dave and especially to Chris for being my designated driver, and everyone else who was instrumental in making this an amazing weekend.

Street Scene Saturday: Recap & Photos

When I woke up on Saturday morning, it was to the sound of a heavy downpour of rain and I was scared that Street Scene was going to be cursed. I waited for friend of mine to pick up tickets from my house, so I got to Street Scene later than expected. I was disppointed to see that the venue forced everyone through the south entrance Coors Amphitheater and around, two cars at a time into one parking lot, but I got over it because the weather had cleared up and I was in a good mood.

Entering the venue, I was pleased that I arrived in time to catch most of Dynamite Walls set.







The band was able to get me an artist guest pass for the day, so after their set, we went backstage to the artist area where I explored the areas. There were movie trailer lined up so that every artist had a private lounge, but they're relatively small so we went to the artist tent. We thought it was funny how Street Scene spelled the band's name.



After some time in the artist lounge, I wandered off on my own and watched Dirty Sweet for a while.









It was funny to see that people were lining up for the Pacific Stage which was the actual amphitheatre stage. Lining up was really unnecessary because there were very few times that the staff stopped allowing the flow of traffic into the pit, but the diehards wanted to guarantee their spots.



I caught a bit of Schwayze's set too.



But the appeal of Street Scene for me ended up mostly being the artist lounge.


Dynamite Walls


Fair to Midland


Punk Rock Kid

Then we hung out with Augustana for a bit.









I caught Jaguares for a minute, too.



Then backstage again where I ran into Notorious R.U.G. and Kid Lightning



And everyone in the backstage seemed to like it that MIMS was hanging out.



Here's the Setlist for Jaguares that was being unloaded backstage.



Then I snapped some pics of Dirty Sweet.





Then I just kinda went crazy snapping pics-





I was having such a good time (maybe too much) that I didn't even really explore the other stages at the festival, with the exception of some of Ozomatli.











After wandering, we were hanging backstage and saw this, but it turns out it was not a real injury but was "staged" for one of the bands. I'm not even sure which.



My friend and I ended up on a stage platform during Jack's Mannequin, which is where I recorded that sketchy video that I posted earlier.





That is pretty much the end of my photos from Saturday. It was a great night, though I'm sad to say I didn't last for Muse. I was pooped and knew Sunday was gonna be a big day. I have to say that I was pleased overall with Street Scene. I will say that the guest pass made it amazing, but I thought the food vendor prices were reasonable to the general public and it was nice to use Coors Amphitheatres plentiful and spacious bathrooms instead of port a potties like the old days. I guess if I hadn't had a pass, I would've enjoyed the event a bit less because I would've grumbled over the $10 price of beer, but really if that is the only complaint, I'd have to say it was a success.

What I've been told is that this was Street Scene's final year. The reason LiveNation stepped in was so they could buy the Street Scene name, then bury the name, and replace it with a large festival of some sort next year and similar in scope. Maybe so, or maybe the word will spread that the people there had a great time and they'lll keep Street Scene in this format in the future.