Jeff's Weekly Pick: Manuok @ Wonderhaus Building August 5, 2010

Scott Mercado is a very creative and talented guy. He designs websites and can literally perform all the instruments on his albums. That in and of itself is no small feat. In addition, his songs are so emotionally charged that it is easy to see the passion he has for his trade. The band is called Manuok and will be performing at the Wonderhaus Building downtown this Thursday. I have not personally seen the performance space, but I have heard it suits intimate shows quite nicely. Manuok is releasing their latest full length, The Old Horse, this week. Having seen Scott play drums, keyboards and guitar in his band and other bands as well, it will be fun to see him playing lead guitar this time around. Get out of the house and go see one of San Diego’s best kept secrets this Thursday. For directions and general info, click here.

Drew Andrews sets the stage.

Watch a video of Serves You Right below.

Drew Andrews CD Release At Casbah 1.13.10

Casbah- Wednesday night- Dual CD Release Show - Drew Andrews and Boomsnake + Writer, and Metrofique in the Atari Lounge $8

I kinda suck at previewing shows, but since my friend and blog contributor (who owes me a tour diary post) is having a CD release, I thought I'd give you an extra nudge to come out to the Casbah on Wednesday night. For one, Drew Andrews has an EP being released digitally, so if you pay your $8 at the door, you'll get a digital download card a month before it's available at iTunes.

Drew will be performing with his full band, Spectral Cities.

Additionally, you've got Boomsnake releasing new music, and they're joined by Writer (one of my faves, duh) and Metrofique will be playing in the Atari lounge, and honestly, I can't stop listening to the stream of their record. So 4 awesome bands at $2 a pop...and free music to retrieve from the interwebs when you get home. Beat that!

I also wanted to give y'all a heads up...Drew Andrews and Spectral Cities will be performing on Thursday at Pappy & Harriet's out in Pioneertown, which from all accounts is a super fun bar in the middle of nowhere. Some people camp, some just brace the 3 hour-ish drive back to San Diego, but if you have time on your hands and can make it out, it is certain to be a killer time.

Overdue Recap: Magnetic Morning, Drew Andrews, John Meeks @ Casbah, 11.4.08

After a historic election day (but not quite tinged by the news that Prop 8 would eventually pass after all the votes were counted, Jake and I decided to hit the Casbah. It was an incredible show with Magnetic Morning, Drew Andrews (whose CD & Vinyl was released nationwide on election day), and John Meeks, but with the lights ultra dimmed so much so that I didn't even attempt pictures. Still, you can read about the bands if you 'keep on reading'.

Also, courtesy of Minty Fresh, you can download a free track off of Drew's album HERE.


Unfortunately I missed Musee Mecanique because we lagged a bit, but we arrived in time to catch John Meeks in the Atari Lounge. It was pretty crazy because I was still in my Obama shirt and I was getting high fives from strangers and everyone was just buzzing about how incredible the night was, how history was made, and how everyone’s outlook was just so positive and full of hope. Believe me, the magnitude of the election was not lost on the crowd. Jimmy Lavalle stepped in on bass with John and the beauty of the set was amplified with the energy of the crowd.
After John Meeks finished, the crowd meandered into the venue for Drew Andrews. It was his CD release and it was great to see such a huge show of response from so many other local musicians and fans alike. Drew and his band had just come off a mini-tour and the band really gelled for their hometown crowd. The lights were completely dimmed which not only meant I wasn’t even going to attempt photos, but it meant I was standing there wishing I could curl up into a little ball on the floor with a warm blanket and let Drew’s sweet voice completely envelop me.

Between mainstage acts, John Meeks played a second set, this time with Martin of Republic of Letters on bass (since Jimmy was setting up with Magnetic Morning). Again, a lovely set, and the violin, along with John’s voice, could make a grown man cry.

Magnetic Morning finished up the night. With Jimmy Lavalle on keys and synth and vocals performed by Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin, it was nothing less than perfect. Everything Jimmy touches is gold and this project is no exception. Check it out if you're lucky to get the chance.

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.

Overdue Recap: Rocky Votolato, Owen, Drew Andrews @ Casbah 7.23.08

It's not a secret that Rocky Votolato is my favorite musician, so it shouldn't be surprising that I'd been anticipating this local show for a while. When Drew Andrews was added to the bill, it only made me that much more excited for the night to arrive. I tried to make sure I was there early, but Drew had already started when I arrived. There was a decent sized crowd at the Casbah and it filled up as the night progressed; not quite a sell out by the end of the night, but close. I anticipated the show would be crowded with the Comic-con people decending on the city, but I forgot how disrespectful crowds can be for solo artists. When Drew was singing, it was ok, and his voice filled the room, even over the chatter, but during his instrumental moments is when you could really hear the crowd. He took it in stride and still delivered a great set.



Owen was up next and again had the chatter to deal with. As he was talking at the beginning of the show, there was that annoying sound a cell phone makes when interfering with speakers. He joked about it. Then it happened again and I realized it was my phone. Fucking embarassing. Damn you, Twitter! So anyway, I turned off the phone and all was good, and I was glad it happened before he actually played a song. His performance was great, and he was engaging with his chatter on stage, talking about his wife, his day at the Wild Animal Park, and trying to get feedback from the crowd.



Finally Rocky was up for the night and the chatter of the crowd finally subsided and the room was quiet, riding on his every word. His old label, Second Nature Recordings, has recently reissued some of his older albums and released Suicide Medicine on vinyl for the first time ever, so he while he played stuff from Brag and Cuss and Makers (White Daisy Passing, Makers, Tinfoil Hats, Portland is Leaving), he also went into the archives, playing several songs from Suicide Medicine (Suicide Medicine, Mixtapes/Cellmates among others) and from Burning My Travels Clean. He also played a new song ("Sparkles", see video below) and an old Waxwing song.

A poignant moment in the night was when he explained the story behind "Automatic Rifle", about a young Palestinian suicide bomber who in an effort to avenge the murder of a relative, strapped a bomb to her chest and ended up with one casualty, am Israeli girl who had been raised most of her life in San Francisco, and described how the two girls looked like they could've been sisters. It was pretty heavy listening to the song, as I always thought it was hypothetical and didn't realize it was based on a specific reality.

There were a couple girls up front who were talking, singing, and telling him how much they loved him, and at one point he discreetly leaned into them, presumably to ask them to chill out, but it resulted in them being louder. Kind of a bummer, but he was classy and just played on, even obliging them with their requests. I could listen to Rocky perform all night, and my iTunes playlist definitely sees a lot of usage.




Rocky Votolato, "Sparklers"


As always, it was great to see Rocky and April, his wife, again, and I'll just be counting down until the next time they make it down.

Drew Andrews & Manuok At Beauty Bar, 7.25.08

This week was another one where I went out every single night so again I'm backed up with posts and pictures, but I've seen some really great shows this week. Last night I caught Manuok and Drew Andrews at the Beauty Bar, so I decided to capture some video. And then my battery died. Such a rookie mistake. But anyway, here's the video I did capture:

Manuok:





Drew Andrews:

Press Release: Drew Andrews San Diego Dates

Remember last week I mentioned that Drew Andrews signed with Minty Fresh Records? Well, he's got some local dates coming up that his label (already on the ball!) wants you to know about, so check it out:

THE ALBUM LEAF MUSICIAN DREW ANDREWS TO DEBUT SOLO WORK AT LOCAL SAN DIEGO VENUES

Drew Andrews, guitarist from The Album Leaf, and singer/guitarist/keyboardist from Via Satellite, will release his forthcoming solo album, Only Mirrors on the Minty Fresh label this fall. Andrews will preview songs from Only Mirrors with July and August dates at San Diego area clubs.

July 23rd (playing solo)@ The Casbah, 9:00PM
July 24th @ The Beauty Bar 9:00PM
August 7th @ Bar Pink Elephant 9:00PM
August 8th @ Habitat House, 1008 21st St 9:00 PM (BYOB!)
August 12th @ The Kava Lounge 9:00 PM
All venues listed are 21+

Here's a couple pics I took a few months back at the Whistle Stop

Off The Grid/Newsy Bits

I know my posting has been really limited this week and honestly, readers might not even care, but I hate not writing because then all that stuff just sticks in my brain in the form of self-dialog chatter and then everything I do or say becomes diluted. But, it hasn't been for nothing- I've been busy.

I mentioned the shows I did last weekend. This week started with Anti-Monday League at the Casbah (with one of my favorite performances by a band this year), babysat for the guitarist of Boris on Tuesday, went to a private performance by Ingrid Michaelson at the House of Blues, celebrating the one year anniversary of Radio Sophie (103.7) before seeing the full concert with opener Greg Laswell, and closing the night out at the Ken Club. Then last night I worked for The Album Leaf at the Belly Up, peddling goods to the crowd, breaking my personal record for amount of merch sold in one night and dampening the pain of all the money I lost/spent in Vegas last week. It has been a great week but I'm really looking forward to resting, reading, writing, and cleaning my house which has been completely neglected since I've been home.

I do have a couple newsy things that I wanted to mention and will hopefully be able to go into some depth about at a later time, but for inquiring minds:

• Rumor round town is that Sunday is the last official night for the Zombie Lounge. I mentioned the bar was sold to Chris, owner of Kadan, a few weeks ago. The sale is complete, Zombie will be no more. There will be a private party on Monday for Zombie regulars, then the bar will close for about 3 weeks for renovations and a makeover. All signs point to the new Radio Room continuing as a music venue and Chris has been around a long time (Brick By Brick, Kadan) so I trust he won't let us down.
• Drew Andrews (musician, artist, writer, doorguy) has been signed! He's going to be on Minty Fresh and is really excited about what the future holds for him with this relationship. He's performing with Rocky Votolato and Owen at the Casbah on July 23. I think I might buy all of his hand-sewn EPs then resell them on eBay. kidding. But pick one up while you still can.
• Last, I keep talking about a BBQ at my house on Saturday. Team Abraham, Hotel St. George and The Stereotypes are all playing at the Ken Club on Saturday night, so the boys of Team Abraham designated my backyard as the pre-party spot (and probably expect a post-party, too.) It's a DIY thing- we'll have the grill going, Abraham will make some of his amazing smoked pepper salsa, and I'll buy a kilo or two of tortillas, but if you wanna come, bring food for grilling and booze/beer for sharing. I live 2 blocks from the Ken, and about a mile in either direction of Beauty Bar and Zombie Lounge, so even if you're not doing the Ken Club, it would be nice to see everyone for a bit. E-mail if you need my address. We'll get the Q going around 5 pm.

Happy Friday and I'll be catching up soon. xoxo. (Happy Birthday, Ryan!)

Newsy Bits

I had a whole list of things I'd been meaning to post about, and now that I finally have time to write, I can't think of most of them. Maybe they'll come back to me. I'm sick as a dog and I don't know where it came from, but it killed my weekend. I missed Silent Comedy last night, and today I didn't even get Easter brunch with my family and I'm missing both of Film School's performances today.

• When The North Atlantic played their final shows last year, two of the three members picked up and moved to Chicago. Those two parts, Jason Hendrix and Jason Richards are now back in action with a new project called Big Science. Cullen covered it on his blog here and you can check out the new project on MySpace here.


• Drew Andrews is featured in today's Union Tribune. You can read the full George Varga article here.


• The annual CityBeat demo review issue will be distributed on Wednesday and celebrated with a party at Anthology. Transfer, Get Back Loretta, and Sea of Cortez will be performing. The party is $10, but if you sign up for CityBeat's RedList (or reenter if you're already subscribed), you'll be on the guest list. Click here for entry.

I'll write more when it comes back to me and attempt to get at least some of this week's listings up, but just in case- Don't froget Jose Gonzalez is doing a special show at the San Diego Women's Club in Hillcrest with Mia Doi Todd. It's early (listing says 6:30 pm) so don't miss it. Info available on the Casbah site here.

Friday Recap: Shuffleboard Showdown, Drew Andrews, UBUV

After returning to work on Friday, I was still feeling kinda weak, so I took a nap after work and was planning on sleeping right up until I was going to head to the Whistle Stop. That plan changed when I woke up to my mom's voice yelling into my voicemail that I hadn't answered her calls all day and was I ok. It was kinda funny, actually, but being awakened from my nap gave me the momentum to get ready early and go catch up with the Shuffleboard Showdown, which was already at the Jewel Box. Frank won the first game at Downtown Johnny Brown's and the competition was entertaining to the rest of us who were there to witness. I never realized how long one game can go. We were there for a while, until eventually Larry took game 2.



From the Jewel Box we went to Hamilton's which was pretty crowded so our group was spread out in the bar. There was some dude- I guess he gave up the shuffleboard for them- but he thought that gave him the right to dictate the rules and then he talked shit about how long they were taking. Other than the ass, Hamilton's was a good time.








It was getting late, so I said my goodbyes and went to the Whistlestop. Drew Andrews was already playing, so I grabbed a drink and maneuvered around the side to get up close. Unfortunately from where I was, my camera just wasn't doing very well focusing, so I only got a couple decent shots. Drew sounded great and the full band helped drown the Whistlestop talkers. I'm really looking forward to his record coming out and hopefully he'll get a handful of shows in before he heads off to tour Europe later this spring.






Youtube of Drew covering "Send Me An Angel"


After the band I hung for a little while then headed back to my hood. Over at the Ken Club, the last band was finishing up. They're called UBUV and were really cool. Maybe a little more Kava Lounge than Ken Club, but interesting. I don't know how to describe the music...definite Eastern influences with their instrumentation, complete with a couple belly dancers, all backed with a DJ on turntables. I would definitely check out the band again. Plus, the Belly Dancers had live snakes which you just don't see very often.









Finally it was time for my night to be done so I came home and went to sleep. I woke up to a text message from Larry, who informed me that he took the shuffleboard championship in 5 games. I'm ready for them to have a ping pong tournament myself...I'll take them all.