San Diego Rocktoberfest Returns!

I feel like I failed you, San Diego, because if you weren't following me on Twitter or Facebook, my only mention of the $5 blind ticket sale for Rocktoberfest was in one of my Things To Do posts, but now that the lineup has been announced, tickets can still be purchased for just $15, so that ain't too shabby for an event that has become a not-to-miss party in the past few years. Yes, the joint effort of The Casbah, West Coast Tavern, and FM 94/9 is back and offers a great lineup.

Here's the skinny:

Saturday, October 20, 3pm - 10pm
Buy tickets at sdrocktoberfest.com for $15. Prices go up the day of show.
2 Stages
9 Bands
Beer/Full Bar
Food
Dancing
University Avenue and 29th Street (parking lot behind North Park Theater)

The lineup features Mariachi El Bronx, The Silent Comedy, Transfer, Hyena, Blackout Party, Mrs. Magician, Family Wagon, New Mexico, and Euphoria Brass Band.

I know there are a ton of great shows that night, but if you're like me, this is definitely where you'll start off your day, even if you have to cut out early for Frightened Rabbit, the Livewire Anniversary Party, or any other show that night. This doozy of a lineup runs from 3-10pm, so you can still hit up all of the other places, and keep in mind that this is an event that allows re-entry so you can eat/drink inside the party, or leave to patronize local surrounding businesses.

This Saturday: The Rumble Returns to Bar Pink

The Rumble returns to Bar Pink this Saturday and this time around, Vanaprasta has followed the Rumble trail down the coast and will be joined by our own New Mexico and d/wolves. It should be a pretty stellar night if you consider that 2000 of your closest San Diego friends will be drinking the day away at Citybeat's 2011 Festival of Beers over at the Lafayette and will be in close proximity to Bar Pink (I think you can catch the 1 to 30th, then hop on the 2 south if you feel like using public transit).

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about this one because d/wolves were also asked to play the Rumble the following day in Vegas, so if we can just find a drum kit for them to share, I get to exercise my band mom powers and travel with the boys. We'll see if that works out.

You can take a listen to all of the bands here.

The Rumble San Diego is brought yo you by Future Sounds, Indigenous, Owl & Bear, Bedouin Vintage Collective, Friends With Both Arms, Strong Screen Printing, Eventbrite,Veoba, Pabst Blue Ribbon, and yours truly at sd:dialed in.

There will be PBR specials all night, and you can tag your pics, videos, tweets, and twitpics with #rumblepabst

new New Mexico video

I love Sundays because everything seems to slow down a bit, and on a good day, I get less than a dozen emails....compared to the three hundred or so I get on Monday (dread). Today, I was happy to see this little gem arrive...a new video from New Mexico. I love these guys sonically and they're all great guys to boot and they've definitely made their mark in the San Diego music scene and beyond.

This is the new video for "Motion Sickness"

New Mexico - Motion Sickness from Grant Reinero on Vimeo.

NYE 2011: Ticket Giveaway for Casbah & Eleven

I was up until 7am attempting to compile the most comprehensive NYE guide that I could. My listings are all here, but being a live music oriented site, I wanted to highlight two huge shows going down.


The first is taking place at the Casbah featuring Transfer, Rafter, The Shape of Future Frames, and Low Volts in the Atari Lounge. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door (if it doesn't sell out beforehand) and can be purchased HERE.

The other biggie is taking place at Eleven. The show features The Zeros, New Mexico, The Dabbers, Gun Runner and the Wild Weekend DJs. This show is $13 in advance or $15 at the door and can be purchased HERE.

There are plenty of other live music events that night, including a free show at Tin Can with DJ Ryan Hand, Lights On, Dudes, D/Wolves, The New Kinetics, so don't write off your usual music hotspots for your New Years Eve festivities.

The Casbah and Eleven have both generously given me a pair of guest list spots each to giveaway. Send me an email at sddialedin at gmail with the venue of your choice in the subject. Include your first and last name and a phone number. I will pick a winner for each show tomorrow evening and notify you via email. Must be 21 to enter. Tickets will be at will call and are non-transferable.

Update: Congrats to Mark A and Kevin K for winning the tickets.

New Music Tuesday: New Mexico's Have You Met My Friend? Out Today

I love when my San Diego friends start to break out of San Diego. Everyone locally knows that Apes of Wrath were firing up the San Diego scene for a long time, but as New Mexico they've certainly gotten themselves noticed beyond our little town. Today the band celebrates the release of their debut EP Have You Met My Friend? It's available everywhere...iTunes, bandcamp.

To celebrate the release, catch them this Saturday, November 20th, at Tin Can with Grand Tarantula, Scruffles, and Mrs. Magician. The show is only five bucks and starts at 8pm.

You can watch a session of the band from Pinpoint Music below.

Case Closed from Pinpoint Music on Vimeo.

San Diego Music Roundup

This week some of our San Diego friends have been making waves, so I thought I'd do a little local roundup.

The Drowning Men are kicking off a west coast tour Saturday night at Hensley's Flying Elephant. I don't get to Encinitas very often, but that place is super cool and I throughly enjoyed myself when I checked it out for the first time a couple weeks ago, not to mention my hamburger kicked ass. The band is heading north, with shows at Hotel Utah in San Francisco on 7/20, The Blue Lamp in Sacramento on 7/21, Rotture in Portland on 7/22, Lucky's in Eugene on 7/23, and a huge show on the Neumo's stage at the Capitol Hill Block Party in Seattle on 7/24. (The Nightmarchers are also performing.)

Crocodiles have a new video that made its exclusive debut this week at Spin.com. The video is for "Sleep Forever" which you can download here frm Fat Possum. (right-click, save as) The video is super fuzzed out with several layers of visuals, but the live performance appears to be shot at the band's recent Casbah show, or more likely during the soundcheck,since that show was insanely crowded and the lights were barely on.

Tim and I were driving today saying how it's strange how we never see Andrew Bernhardt like we used to. He used to be everywhere. I did see him a couple weeks ago and he's all in love and shit, but he's also been really busy with Lights On, who recently celebrated their CD release and are currently in New York playing some shows with New Mexico (formerly Apes of Wrath). I hope they kill it in Brooklyn, just don't get too comfy because we want you back home. They were featured on Brooklyn Vegan and Insomnia Radio (though the latter has the CD release info incorrect. The CD release was July 3rd at Tin Can).

D/Wolves released their first self-titled CD. It is available FREE on Bandcamp, or you can (and should) buy a physical copy for $5. I seriously love these kids and am so happy they're playing my showcase at NPMT, though I had to fight someone else off who was trying to steal them to another showcase. I feel like mama bear with this band and will do what I can to both help and protect these guys.

The Reader asked me to mention that they are constantly working to make their music database the most comprehensive in San Diego. You can check it out here, where they added a "This Just In" section that has a ton of updates from local bands.

San Diego's Canobliss was High Times Unsigned Band of the Week.

Lastly, I mentioned that West Coast Tavern is hosting music on Thursday nights. I'll be booking these nights, so if you're interested in playing, please feel free to reach out. These are one band shows for about an hour to a crowd as the restaurant winds down restaurant service around 9 or 10 pm.