A Week In Review: August 31- September 4, 2009

Several months ago I got this crazy idea in my head that I was going to move this site to WordPress. It still might happen just as soon as the thing in my head can be actualized and it becomes worth the time and effort. But as I sought guidance and was convinced it wouldn't take that long to do, I chilled out on updates on the site. Now I find myself still using my original Blogger template with months of photos (dating back to May, to be exact) and a whole bunch of stuff between then and now that I just never posted about. I mean, it's not like I stopped going to shows and taking pics, but I've just been brief about those updates.

Now that it's looking more and more like my move to WordPress is postponed at best, and since I think I'm finally inspired enough out of my writer's rut, I wanna get back to the old days, when I wrote like nobody was reading, if you don't mind. I may never get back to most of those 4 months of photos, but I don't want to keep putting off the present because of the past. I was trying to break my writing into digestible, tagable, and web-searchable nuggets, but fuck it. My brain doesn't work that way and it's been so long since I've really wanted to write, so now you get a deluge.

With that said, last week, once recovered from Street Scene was a pretty good one. Click 'keep on reading' to read all about it.

Bad Veins at The Casbah, 2.1.09




My post-Street Scene adventures started on Sunday when I went to Jimmy's party with Josh Damigo. Jimmy hosts open mic at Lestat's and it was a beautiful day among warm people. I recognized a few faces- photographer Steve Covault was there, with his new bride Sweet Joyce Ann, Sara Petite, and others had gathered to celebrate the birthday. Dat Phan was there and naturally when at a party, one doesn't leave a conversation with a comedian. He had us in stitches until it was time to go. On the ride home I snapped Josh singing along to his music. Next time he better be careful or I'll shoot video.



Monday was eaten up with projects and stuff and just as a break, I walked over to Lestat's to catch Josh for a couple songs during open mic, which is where that video for "Indescribable" that I posted last week came from. I stopped into Lou Jones, too, but Tuesday was another early day for me so I didn't stay long. Let me tell ya, though, if you ever want total extremes, go to Lestat's for Open Mic Mondays, then to Lou Jones to visit Chrystal on Metal Mondays.

Tuesday night was all about the Casbah for me. LoveLikeFire from San Francisco opened the night and sadly my photos are beyond terrible. But they're really great with a highly energetic female guitarist vocalist up front.

I was there for two more bands living on the Dangerbird label that for me, so far at least, can do no wrong (Silversun Pickups, Eulogies, Dappled Cities). On this night, it was Bad Veins and Division Day who are co-headlining the tour. As I mentioned last week, I've been listening to both albums religiously and I was not disappointed by the live performances. Bad Veins, being just a two piece, rely on prerecorded beats that are usually played through a reel to reel, but "she" broke the night before so they were bummed they had to iPod the stuff, but I don't think it made a difference to the crowd.



I'm not gonna lie. The crowd was much thinner than I expected. And much, much smaller than I'd hoped. These are some incredible bands doing really great things and I guess me saying so can't get someone like Daye convinced that it's ok to miss Big Brother. I especially felt bad for Division Day because my city wasn't very courteous to them when they played Bar Pink during NPMT. In fact, apparently there were some not nice words from the drunks at Pink that night when DD said they were from L.A. Maybe Bar Pink should charge a $20 cover to anyone with a True North stamp on their wrist as a filter.

Regardless, the band performed a great set and hopefully will be back soon. I noticed Bad Veins is booked at Soda Bar in October, so perhaps more shows will excite more people about them.



Since I was pretty sure the few photos I took sucked (as evidenced above), somehow I convinced the boys in Bad Veins to pose for me after the show so at least I could get them with some light.



Wednesday I took it easy, going to dinner at Tita's Kitchenette, a filipino place in National City with Jake, but deciding that a night at home wasn't a terrible plan. Plus I had work to do. When I talk about 'work', btw, I'm still not working, but I'm hoping some shit falls into place soon and the 14 or so hours a day I'm online actually turn into the kind of work that pays money. So there that is. Haven't brought that up in a while, have I? Money or not, an email inbox with hundreds of emails crying for attention, to me, is still work.

Naturally Thursday I was ready to hit the nightlife again, so I was back at Casbah for Local Natives and Heartless Bastards. If the show didn't sell out, it was pretty damn close, but I was there to see Kelcey and the band once again. This was my third time seeing the band (this time without the girl), and they're the kinda band where you almost shouldn't check out their music beforehand, because while their EP is good, it really does no justice to their live shows. I especially dig when the band busts into 4 part harmonies. They just got picked up to tour with White Rabbits which makes so much sense because they're so percussion heavy. Maybe Britt Daniel will jump on board when they put out a full length and get them the attention they deserve. Though I should say they're touring their asses off and when they're not, they're playing Spaceland residencies and such, so it's not like they're being ignored.



Heartless Bastards headlined that night and while they sounded great...man, does that chick have a powerful voice, or what?...I was more into chatting with Local Natives and Andy in the back bar. No photos. I don't think I could've gotten through that crowd anyway. I had gone to the show with Jeff and he loves Heartless Bastards and was stoked they played an extra long set. From Casbah, we checked out Expressway To Yr Skull, Mario's Thursday night thing over at Soda bar, and as Soda Bar goes, bands were still playing, though no appearance by Crocodiles as listed.

Friday was tough because as much as I wanted to see The Styletones at X1FM, it's been a couple years since I've seen Pete Yorn and I'm really digging his latest record, Back & Fourth. I also had an afternoon meeting with a label rep who gave me an advance of Break Up, his album with Scarlett Johansson that comes out next week (9/15), so I had even more incentive to go. When I got to the track, we stopped by the 91X booth, and got hooked up with wristbands for the patio and even got a pair of tickets to The Honey Brothers.

We had time to kill and bet on a couple races. (My girl, Kicking Vixen held on to her lead for the first half mile before burning out). 3 races later and we found our spots on the patio to wait for Pete. And wait. And wait. It was about 7:45 before he finally started, but it allowed for more people to see him and he kept gushing about how playing Del Mar is his favorite gig of the summer. Judging by the 21 song, hour and a half set that he played, I would say he was being truthful, and it was worth the wait. And maybe the wait wasn't even that long, but we were surrounded by those loud-talking track drunks who brag about how much money they won or lost in their khakis and polos and it was just nauseating. Unfortunately it is to be expected. What can ya do?

Anyway, I was pleased because Pete played a variety of music from all of his albums, focusing mostly on his new album and then reverting back to his debut, musicforthemorningafter, a lot, but also throwing in some tunes from the in-betweeners. Since we were in this VIP patio, we were above and behind the stage. Here was our view:


After the show I looked for setlists but no luck, but someone who did get one was kind enough to let me take a picture. A couple notes: "Social D" is Social Development Dance from the new record. Bizarre Love Triangle is the New Order song, played more like Frente's version but not quite that slow. Fans should know that "Chain" is "Life on a Chain" and "Crystal" is "Crystal Village". Super great set.



From the track, we stopped by Subtext but had already missed Swim Party's set. It was my first time in the gallery, however, and the building is beautiful, as is the driveway/common area where the band played. We hung out for a bit to chat with friends for a while before noticing it was already past 10:30.

We headed to Bar Pink to check out The Weight and fortunately for late band sets, we arrived before they started with time to spare. I wrote about them last week, too, so I don't need to say much more except that they're "from Brooklyn", which means they're all from all over the place...the singer having lived in Athens and Atlanta, and everyone else from Connecticut, Jersey, PA, wherever. As they said, "Nobody in Brooklyn is from Brooklyn, unless you're Puerto Rican." I guess I expected them to look a little less Brooklyn and a little more countrified like their sound, but what do I know.

Their set was incredible and it was nice to bump into friends who were just at the Bar to hang out gushing about the band by the end of the set. Comparisons to Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, The Band, and The Rolling Stones were thrown around. I have their record "Are Men" (as in "The Weight Are Men") and if any of those musical influences turn you on like they did me or Andrea or Tim, go pick it up or buy it off iTunes.



After their set I introduced myself because it's what I do when a band's publicist takes the time to write me a personal email about a specific show and I couldn't help but adore how Joseph said hi and gave me and awkward hug, then immediately excused himself for sucking at conversation and for not being good at talking with strangers. I asked him about the tour, about their hometowns, and incidentally, he doesn't suck at conversation.

We stayed a bit for Bartender's Bible but the bar got packed quickly, and usually I can tell the A/C is on there, but that night it was out or too crowded to feel a thing, so we decided to bounce. We decided to check out Ruby Kitchen and got burgers, though we were disappointed that the "late night comfort food" menu has been suspended for now.

With that, I'll close out. I want to write about Saturday in a separate post because it was that awesome. And shit. Did I just write until the sun came up again? Dammit. See you tonight at the SDMA's.

Rosey's Diary: 3.3.09-3.11.09

You know, I had a conversation with a friend about blogging and I've been doing this since 2003. Crazy. It all started as these long diary-like posts where I rambled about everything I did and saw and everyone I talked to or hung out with. So while this might be unfamiliar to readers of this site, it's really the most natural way for me to write and the best way to get it done because it feels less like work and more like I'm just chatting with an old friend. That being said, I am picking up where I left off on that last "diary" post...at least I got past February and am finally writing about March, right? I'll probably keep labeling my posts as such, now that there are so many people contributing to this site these days and since someone jumped down my throat for all my "overdue recaps". So to read my 'diary', click 'keep on reading'.


3.3.09: Neko Case @ Casbah, Joel P West & Matt Curreri @ Soda Bar

I already wrote about spending the day at the Casbah for the free Neko Case show and hopefully you were following me on Twitter and were able to make it to the show because it was a good one. Neko Case played a long set and kept the crowd (well, maybe with the exception of photographers) happy, but as it was an early show with no opener, after the show I made my way to catch Joel P. West and Matt Curreri at Soda Bar. I was pretty exhausted from the day, however, so I didn't take photos, rather just hung out with my friends and enjoyed the show.



3.4.09: This was an all internet day for me, save for lunch with some friends at Souplantation and catching up on much needed sleep. This was the day the CityBeat demo review came out, so I have to admit I spent a day digesting the reviews.

3.5.09: It's no secret that I love Twitter and when Burger Lounge offered free fries to their Twitter followers, it seemed as good excuse as any to walk across the street from my apartment and meet some Twitter friends for a nice lunch. From there, Jake and I went to Gelato Vero to catch up with Daye. I also bumped into Josh from Silent Comedy and chatted a bit before heading home for a bit before making my way to TNT to see Writer and Joel P West as the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. The crowd was a little thin at the start, partly because now the City permit requires that the patio be fully enclosed with a temporary fence and open only to those 21 and up, but by the time the music was full swing, there was a healthy crowd there to enjoy both performances.



After the show, I met up with Petro, Kris, and their visiting friends for some beers at their apartment before they called it a night. From there, I joined Jake, Pall, Jimmy, Hoth, Gabriel and a few others who were at Lou Jones before we all walked to Ould Sod and watched some karaoke before it was finally time to call it a night. I know writing about this portion of the night sounds really boring, but in reality it was one of those rare nights that happens when you least expect it. I guess I should just thank those guys for letting me be a part of it.

3.6.09: Friday I woke up with a sore throat and a cold but I wasn't going to let it stop me from my evening plans. In retrospect that might've been a mistake because I got my ass kicked with illness, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

The night started picking up Dagart, meeting at Alex's, then grabbing Natalie on our way to National City for Hotel St. George @ X1FM Open Door Session.
Here are a couple pics I took:





Local Bands should all be trying to get on the Open Door. The crowd is all ages and exposes bands to prospective fans who might not otherwise know the band, there's people watching from across the world via the live stream, the sound is impeccable as a recording studio, and all bands should know how to stretch their performances to an hour when they're accustomed to sticking to 30-40 minute sets. Plus the bands are given a recording of their performance and it is added to the X1FM.com archives (then embedded here).

After the show, I grabbed dinner at In and Out before Alex took me to my car. The rest of them headed to Casbah, but I went to the Marquee to see The Howls, Matt Haeck & The Guiding Light, John Meeks. The venue is a converted church across the street from the Shell station on 25th, just north of the 94. The space is really cool and I'd been warned that there were shows there before that were peppered with religious sermons, which honestly would've made me walk out, but this was not the case at all and the people running it seem to be trying really hard to offer a cool spot for the under 21 crowd to be a part of the music scene, offering bands on weekends, open mic nights for poetry, spoken word, and music, and coming soon, "The Kids Are Alright" karaoke hosted by Adam Gimbel.

The arched ceilings and comfortable low vinyl couches were perfect for the alt-country sounds of The Howls, Matt Haeck, and John Meeks, and actually just what I needed as I felt illness creeping up on me. Since it was an old church, I kinda hoped there'd be hot chocolate and baked goods from grandma's, but maybe they'll work on refreshments in the future. My only complaint about the night is that between bands they played top 40 music that was louder than the bands had been. I know I wasn't the only one cringing as I listened to Fall Out Boy between bands.

As for the music, I'm already a fan of The Howls and John Meeks (who was backed by Jimmy Lavalle, Brian Holwerda, Hoth, and Matt Resovich), but I was glad to finally see Matt Haeck and The Guiding Light, who reminded me of Rocky Votolato both in style and appearance. My camera did not like the lighting, however, so you'll have to see him for yourself. At least you can kinda see the room in these couple snaps.



When the show ended somewhere between 10:30 and 11, I took off and made my way to the Casbah for Team Abraham's CD release show. I rejoined my friends from earlier in the night as well as seeing lots of other friendly faces that made it feel like a crazy house party more than a night at a bar, only I was sick and therefore perhaps the only sober person in the crowd. I wasn't there in time for Gray Ghosts, but noticed music in the Atari Lounge and remembered that Evan of the Parson Redheads was playing, so I went back to listen as best I could over the volume of the smoking patio and the DJ mix inside the venue. Evan was a trooper, though, and when a group of loud "Oh My God!" girls came in those of us listening just pulled up our stools to pay attention.



I'm not exagerrating about the non-sobriety of the crowd. As Team Abraham played and as Andrew mentioned, LJ threw her bra onstage and Dagart stripped to throw his boxers onstage. Nuts. The vibe between the crowd and the band made for a fun performance and I was a little sad I wasn't taking part in the rowdiness.



3.7.09: Saturday I woke up feeling better, so I took care of my household in the morning and then met up with friends and family at Blind Lady. My best friend was in town from Chicago after living in England for a while, so we hung out and caught up over the great organic pizzas and tasty beers that Blind Lady offers.


Eventually everyone had to go, but I was able to drag Todd with me to Jose's because I had to take pictures for an opportunity that seems to have now passed, but at least we had a couple good margaritas. After we ended up at Soda Bar for The Morning Benders and Cuckoo Chaos and I was in an alcohol mixed with cold medicine induced cloud so no pictures of that little adventure. Even Twitter failed that night. I guess it was going around.

I was feeling much better from my cold come Sunday and then I was hit like a truck by a flu that kept me at home and out of commission until Thursday night. Thank goodness for my wifi and Hulu.com as I pretty much laid in bed digesting medicine, liquids, and watching two entire seasons of Friday Night Lights over the course of four days along with my usual regiment of reading news and blogs and twitter and facebook and all these other glorious creations that can allow for someone to be out of commission for four days without feeling disconnected from their world. With that, I'll move on to the last of my diary posts that will make me all caught up.

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.