Soda Bar Is Almost Here

I just got back from a quick little tour of Soda Bar, the new club owned by Cuong Nguyen and Adam Cook (who also own Bluefoot and Cafe La Maze)located at what used to be Chasers. There's a lot of work still to be done in the next couple days if they're to be ready for their soft opening on Friday night but it is looking great. They have a show planned on Friday to include The Shake-Ups, Mr. Muggles, and Someday Assassin, and Saturday's lineup includes Crocodiles, Anasazis, Christmas Island, and Strangeboys.

They've put in a huge bar and will have up to 20 taps, added a couple more booths, upgraded the men and women's bathrooms, put some nice striped paint on the walls, will have a pool table, a projection screen for independent films, and some nice shutter windows that open out to the street. The biggest change is the solid stage (packed with sand!) and great sound dampeners behind the wall. Which has been moved to the back of the room, with a DJ/sound booth area at the front of the room. They'll be adding some LED lights, too.

I was going to take some pictures but it still wasn't quite camera ready, but hopefully by late tomorrow I'll be able to swing by again for some photos.

Breaking News: Chasers Bought By Bluefoot; Closed Without Notice

I just got an email from T-Bone and a text from The Punkboard that the owners of Bluefoot bought Chasers and have closed it without notice.

This means all the shows currently booked at Chasers will need to find a new home.

I will gather information as it comes in, but if your band was scheduled for any Chasers shows, they are cancelled pending further notice/arrangements.

Here's the ABC license with no notice of change.

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.

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.

Thursday Recap: S.A.F.E. Party, Birdmonster @ Casbah, Low Red Land @ Chaser's 3.6.08

I always know that I shouldn't make plans because the best times are always the ones that happen when I don't try to control anything. I thought Thursday would be fairly standard...head to TNT then catch Writer and Low Red Land at Chaser's. Turns out I added a couple more stops to that night.

First, there was a party at Bondi to benefit S.A.F.E., which is the Special Emergency Fund for Advertising. Basically it's a charity that distributes money to help people within the local ad industry should they experience some sort of catastrophe that makes them unable to work, like a major illness or a bad car accident. I had forgotten about the party, but at about 3 pm, my boss asked if I wanted to go and I was all over it. I always loved media gatherings and its yet another reason why I'm happy to be back in the media biz. I ran into many old friends and had a blast. It was at Bondi and my opinion about that place hasn't really changed. The party had some amazing tray passed appetizers- fish n chips in individual servings, sliders, calamari in little Chines take-out boxes, and rack of lamb (though the sushi was terrible)- but honestly Bondi, do you think you could buy some more glasses? At least twice I heard people complain that they had run out of wine glasses, and I had two drinks in freshly washed glasses. I should mention last time I was here, you not only ran out of glasses, but you ran out of Jack Daniel's. WTF? It's nice that you have dishwashers that steam clean the glasses, but nobody wants their cold beverage poured into a hot glass. I don't mean "warm", I mean like a coffee mug full of hot tea. I guess it doesn't matter, since it's a place I'll only go for an event and would never go there on my own accord and definitely not to spend my own money but one would think for the prices they charge that they'd get it together.

On the left are my coworkers, on the right, my Rocky's drinkin' buddy, Brian.



From the party I made my way to TNT, but all the bands were finished and the sponsor was Hornitos tequila, so I didn't stay. I was a little sad to see they moved the bands back to the new wing along the train tracks, I really prefer the shows on the patio at One America Plaza, hopefully that was a one time move.

Abraham and Malinda were there and convinced me to swing by the Casbah before I headed off to Chaser's, so I let the peer pressure get the best of me and followed them.

It didn't take too long to be so glad that I'd made that choice. The Submarines were onstage and I liked their sweet dreamy indie pop. I thought of Kite Flying Society and how unfortunate it is that they called it quits. Anyway, I liked the Submarines and hope to catch them again.



I wasn't going to stay because I wanted to get to Chaser's, but I decided to stay for a couple Birdmonster songs and they ended up pulling me in and I stayed for the whole set. It wasn't just their sound that I liked, but they had such amazing charisma onstage, all the while appearing that they were having a great time. I was having fun taking pictures of them, and since Jake was on sound, I joined him in the back for a while and doing the lights, then I kinda turned them up high, took some pics, then gave him the cue he could turn them back down.







After their set, I was in the bathroom and met the mother and grandmother of the guitarist. I guess he grew up here and his family still lives in Rancho Bernardo. I personally love to see the families of bands coming out to shows and they were all very sweet. They also had great merch so I had to buy a shirt.

I finally took of and made my way to Chaser's where I'd missed Writer, but was just in time to catch Low Red Land. I saw them a few months back when they'd played at Scolari's and I liked them so much then that I bought all of their CD's. This time they rocked just as hard, but I think the sound at Chaser's is much better than Scolari's so I was glad I made it in time to catch them.







While standing outside Chaser's, I noticed there's a weird shop next door that sells religious statuettes. Being raised Catholic, I've always thought that religious relics, art, and icons were creepy, but nearing two a.m. with little light, they're downright frightening.



So my Thursday finally concluded and kicked off a great weekend, which I'll have to post about later because I'm tired and have to be bright and shiny in the morning.

Friday Recap: Team Abraham, Swim Party, Jamuel Saxon 2.22.08

Friday was a good night, wasn't it? I worked a little late but it was just fine because when I did finally leave the office, I was ready for my weekend to get going. I mentioned I sat at home reading a movie script, the I got ready and headed out, arriving at the Whistle Stop right around 9 because I'm never quite sure when everything's gonna get started there.

Team Abraham took the stage at 10, which gave plenty of time to catch up with friends and ease into the night. I think the band sounded great, no mic problems like they thought they had at the Casbah a couple weeks back, so from start to finish, they sounded clean, and the harmonica sounded beautiful accompanying the music.

Team Abraham




Then, of course, after Swim Party got all their equiment and lights set up, they got
to playing to a pretty crowded Whistle Stop. We know I love them, end of story there.

Swim Party




After they finished, I quickly left and made my way to Chaser's to catch Jamuel Saxon. It wasn't until Randall pointed out that its a mock of Samuel Jackson that the lightbulb clicked. I'm so dumb sometimes. But anyway, there was a good little crowd at Chaser's dancing and getting down, and Jamuel Saxon was awesome. There's some prerecorded beats, a dj, and Isaac from Get Back Loretta and another guy banging their hearts outta a couple drums and bongos, all the while Keith singing and sounding killer. Those brothers Milgraten never cease to amaze me with not only their talent, but their diversity of talent.

Jamuel Saxon




of course I chatted with T-Bone a bit and took a pic of the best hoodie I've ever seen...


After Chaser's, I hit the Ken for last call and it was packed for Roses on Her Grave and Desert Diamonds, even though they'd already finished. I ran into Aaron and we played half a game of pool, I did a couple shots, and for once actually went home after closing time and went to sleep.

Scolari's Out; Chasers In

After a night at the Casbah, Andrea and I scouted the hood in search of T-Bone. It's been a couple weeks since I've seen him and I wanted to get to the bottom of the Scolari's sitch. My attempts to reach him at the club have been unsuccessful.


So anyway, we got to Scolari's really late. T-bone wasn't there, but another guy was, who told us he was gone, but tried to convince us to stay. He told us we might find him at Chaser's.


I haven't been to Chaser's since they kicked The Long and Short Of It off stage and refused to go there since that bar fight that went down a while back. Well, the place has changed. I mean, there was still some creepy menacing guy at the bar giving icky looks...but we talked to Donny and the bartender (from the Screamin Yeehaws). Turns out that Donny and T-Bone will become regular fixtures at the bar. The bartender also assured me that the bar is safe, that the problems from before are gone. I'll get to updating my Things to Do, and will start including Chaser's in the listings once again. I believe many of the shows that were booked out at Scolari's will now find placement there. All this is great for me personally, since Chaser's is just a hop, skip and a jump from my house in Kensington. Yay.

Chaser's: Time to Boycott?

About a week ago, I posted about The Long and Short of It playing at Chaser's and getting the plug prematurely pulled because the girl at the door panicked. CatDirt has also reposted this bulletin, but I thought it was worth reposting. If a bar wants to step up to being a venue, they not only need to make sure they can handle the bands they are booking as far as musical styles, noise level, etc., but they need to ensure that patrons will be safe. Chaser's seems to be failing on both counts and unfortunately, I will not feel safe going there again until something significantly changes. Here's the bulletin (unedited, uncensored):

TO CHASERS: I can't believe you would call "people" to a bar to "bodyguard" that would actually resort to hurting people by throwing them into walls. ( My arm is fucking black and purple.) There was no harm in playing music, but there is harm in being too fucking ignorant to get it that trying to bully people is not the answer.

Thanks to all of my friends and posse who helped me out last night. You guys are great. Thank you thank you thank you. I love you guys soo much.
Bethany (Viola)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Below is a bulletin posted by VV Morgue regarding our show last night. My apologies to anyone involved. Ghost Ship as a band has never promoted violence in any way, however the circumstances left no other option. We realize that our music is not for everyone, and appreciate the patience of the many bartenders, and venues that have let us play despite the fact they may not like what we do. It's unfortunate that the bartender last night could not have shown the same understanding.

Body: I want to tell all of my friends about the horror that happened last night at my show at Chasers Cocktails and why if you ever go there TO NEVER GO THERE AGAIN!

I was playing a show with my really good friends Ghost Ship and if you're a fan you know it was their last show. We we're trying to give them a good farewell but a bar brawl instigated by skin heads called by the bar tender ruined the night for everyone.

This is what happened in a readers digest nutshell:

Ghost ship starts playing, the bar hag tells them to stop playing because she thinks a breaker has been switched off due to the outlets the band was using. She was wrong, the band stopped playing respectfully for a few minutes, and none of the amps or PA was off and we couldn't locate anything that had been switched off besides a light over the cash register. The freezer and fridge were fine so the band says FUCK IT and start playing their last two songs.

Well bar hag gets on the phone and calls up her sharp buddies. I know they aren't considered skin heads, but just to let you know the sharps disbanded because a group killed a homosexual man, and regardless they are just hoodlum brawlers that dress up like skins. So they show up and this one guy starts shouting everyone out of the bar i'm a sharp! I don't give a shit who you are. you booked us to play don't be a dick.

It comes down to this the bartender doesn't like noise/experimental music and wanted to shut down the show before they were done. She couldn't do it with her bullshit tactic so she called some dudes to fuck us up. SO ANYWAY one of the guys punches an innocent bar patron in the face and then we start yelling profanities at him and the bar hag. Like fuck you and things like that. The bar hag yells YOU'RE ALL A BUNCH OF WEIRDO'S GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE BAR! So Ghost Ship hasn't even packed up their stuff yet and they want us out. I'm like they need to pack up their shit! and the bar hag doesn't care and by this time someone that had come to the show to see Ghost Ship took a picture of the bar hag and the evil Sharp.

THIS IS WHERE IT GETS UGLY

The sharp goes GIVE ME THE CAMERA I'M GOING TO DESTROY IT! so this poor girl I can't remember your name honey it was either belinda, or bethany steps in front of the sharp raging for the camera and he attacked her! He hit her in the face and grabbed her and threw her against a wall! So then after the guys see this everyone just starts trying to kick the shit out of the sharp guy because he decided to attack a woman and act like a little bitch. Then it just becomes a full on bar brawl like you see on Most Shocking on Court T.V. bands equipment was damaged as a direct result of this brawl and it just fucking sucks all the way around.

THIS IS MY PLEA TO ALL MY FRIENDS. I WANT A FULL BOYCOTT OF THIS VENUE. DON'T PLAY THERE, DON'T GO THERE, DON'T EVEN LOOK AT IT.

They were wrong if they thought they could fuck with me and my friends.They were also wrong if they thought anyone would want to come back to the bar after that episode. Apparently if you're white or a rockabilly band they'll love to have you, but don't tell me that i can book the first Thursday of every month and try and shut down the bands I booked to play for the night. I also want to say i'm sorry to anyone who had to witness this evilness and a special sorry to The Beatles who didn't even get to play.

SO PLEASE RESPOST THIS AND REMEMBER FUCK CHASERS COCKTAILS ON EL CAJON BLVD THEY ARE HATERS WHO HAVE NO QUALMS ABOUT BEATING UP WOMEN

Genevieve Beebee

Wednesday Night Recap: Swedish Models, The Photo Atlas, The Mooney Suzuki, The Long and Short of It

After experiencing a Wednesday that felt like a Monday, I wasn't really in the mood to go out. I was happy in bed and completely unmotivated when Andrea called and twisted my arm with four words that are music to my ears: "I have drink tickets."

We arrived at the Casbah with a few minutes to spare before Swedish Models started. I already know this band is full of talent and love watching them play, but it is great to see them developing their own crowd, this being just their fourth show. It was great standing in the patio after they played and hearing strangers commenting on them positively. SD bloggers were out in full force, so you'll be seeing some great pics of the show on other blogs, so I'm just gonna post a couple with some captured video. Unfortunately, my favorite song from Swedish Models is one that Dusty sings while playing keys called "Victoria Prescott", and he was kinda tucked in the corner without any light really hitting him, but you can just hit play and listen.









The Photo Atlas was second, but I was engaged in a conversation about Arcade Fire on the patio, so I didn't watch much of their set. They seemed to lean a little more pop punk and thus oddly paired with The Mooney Suzuki, but they were alright. They're playing Warped Tour this summer. Like I said, I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention. I think I was a little turned off by the comb-your-hair-forward-over-your-face emo boy haircuts. Seriously, when is that hairstyle going to GO AWAY ?? You can't really tell here cuz he's sweaty but

The Mooney Suzuki started around 11 and brought their infectious rock n roll and hand claps to the Casbah with a whole bunch of getting the crowd to repeat "Have Mercy" between songs like a southern church. I'm sure bands love the big stage (and the great sound) at Belly Up, but this band seems so much more connected to the audience on a stage like the Casbah's, jumping all over the stage, on amps, and into the crowd. And by the way, for anyone who saw me cleaning up the broken glass, it wasn't mine, the singer broke it by accidentally kicking it off the stage and I just didn't want anyone cut on it. I saw you guys looking at me like I was the culprit, and just wanted to clear the air that I don't need a plastic cup.

So while The Mooney Suzuki played, I was hanging over near the bar when we notice the singer yelling at some guy in the crowd. Apparently the douchebag made a comment about the band lacking originality ? or something? Anyway, I took a couple snapshots and realized "what am I doing?" These are the moments video capture are made for.

So I'm not really sure how late the Mooney Suzuki played, because I was ready for something a little more hardcore and wanted to go see The Long and Short of It at Chaser's. Andrea and I headed over and got there just as they started. Timing is EVERYTHING.

I'd only been to Chaser's once, and that was just to use the bathroom on a night that the co-ed ones at the Zombie were particularly scuzzy. I wanted to like Chaser's, I really did. I was all ready to talk about how clean the facilities are:

and how you could pretty much have your own party there because it's big and empty:

The Long and Short of It seriously rock.

Unfortunately, some cops apparently stopped by, the door girl overreacted and told them to turn down, and they stopped playing. With a stage like that, the band tried to explain, the instruments have to be up or the drums would be the only thing you hear. The band was pissed and called the show. Then the chick comes back and tells them the cops are gone so they can start playing again. They were not having it.

I know them having bands is a relatively new thing, and maybe it's not disturbing to the hookers of El Cajon Blvd when the music is loud on weekends, but I was really disappointed with the way the venue reacted. Here's an idea, Chaser's: how about closing the freakin front door? Oh, on top of it, Ben told us that the Taste of Silver canceled because they broke up and hour before the show. Nice. Anyway, here's what Brian from The Long and Short of It had to say about it:

So. We're sorry that THE TASTE OF SILVER (ARLINGTON, MASS.) and NAME (BAY AREA, CA.) couldn't get their shit together enough to play the show that our singer, Ben, jumped through hoops to get for them. Good work, guys. If you're going to break up, play the show first, and at least TRY to make some money to get back home, dudes.

Guess what...it wouldn't have mattered anyway. The MAN (cops) would've shut those touring bands down just like WE got shut down last night at CHASERS on El Cajon Blvd.. Good stuff!!!

Thank you SO much to the 15 or 20 people that showed up to see us play 3
songs on a Wednesday night at Chasers. Sorry. I guess we were TOO FUCKING
LOUD!!!, "Way too fucking loud" (cool door girl at chasers thoughts on the
matter) Right .. the front door. It's only 25 minutes.

We decided to stop by the Zombie with a couple of the guys from Demasiado but the Goldfish races were over. We didn't stay long but just said hi to a couple friends. I will mention that Peter was there. If you don't know him, he works at the Ken Club and I think sometimes the California Club. Anyway, next week is his birthday, so they're having a killer show on Monday night, July 2 at the Ken Club. They don't usually have bands on weeknights save for special occasions, so if you're not going to the Sunn O))) & Earth show at the Casbah, check it out. I believe Rat City Riot,The Postals and The Dissimilars will be playing and the Hell On Heels burlesque girls are gonna be there. Lineup could've changed since I last checked, but for sure The Postals and Dissimilars will be there. Maybe you should just bring your sleeping bag since Transfer is playing on Tuesday on the eve of Independence Day.

Anyway, it was a good night, albeit a couple of weird incidents. It definitely got me out of the funk that I had been in earlier in the day. Tonight, I'll be at the House of Blues, so come say hi. Dusty Rhodes and the River Band is upstairs on the 5th Avenue Stage, and The Gift/Curse and a couple comedians will be performing a free show downstairs in the Delta Room. Suh-weet.