D-Pain Pimping "App 4 Dat"

Dan Reed (from SD band SayVinyl) is featured on FunnyOrDie.com. Just be careful before opening, as it is NSFW.

D-Pain -- App 4 Dat - watch more funny videos

Fuel TV: Swim Party & SayVinyl

I totally forgot to post Swim Party's Fuel TV performances, and while looking for them, I found some awesome SayVinyl songs, too. San Diego, represent!

Swim Party "Dead Rot"


Swim Party "Parliament of Rooks"


SayVinyl "Love At First Sight"


SayVinyl "Your New Hobby"

Mi Vida Loca: September, Pt. 1

I keep saying how busy things have been and it's getting pretty old, but between my day job keeping me busy and this town offering so many great things to do every night of the week. So, for the first night that I recall in a very long time, I stayed home tonight. I'm looking through pictures and realized that while I updated here and there, I have a lot of pictures that I haven't posted. So I'll do my best to catch up on photos and where my time was spent, after the jump.

I should really just start this entry with "Dear Diary".

In looking back, I spent quite a lot of time at the Ken Club. One, because I can do my listings and attempt to at least keep the basic stuff updated on my site, but also because it's so damn close, so it's been fun hanging with Todd, Scotty, and my other bar buddies. They've been having more weeknight shows, too, which makes it pretty convenient. On September 11, I walked over to see the show, but missed Tape Deck Mountain. I saw just a little bit of Crescendo but finally caught The Feelings Mutual and I enjoyed seeing them after having listened to their CD a few times. We know my pics suck there, but here are a couple anyway.

The Feelings Mutual


Come Friday, I decided pretty late that I was going to go out at all, so again, walked over and it was packed. It was a Secret Scooter Society Club night and both sides of the bar were packed, which was great because it was the debut of Kerrie's band, Heavy Love, who play a great mix of 50's classics. Kerrie is a classically trained vocalist, so her covers of the Supremes and others were spot on, backed by a full band with a horn section. They were really, really good.

http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z160/divebarchick/?action=view¤t=DSC07647.jpg

Saturday night I was supposed to see The Counting Crows, Maroon 5 and Augustana at Cricket, but Counting Crows cancelled and since I was supposed to take photos of them, it freed up my night to chill out and go to Kristian's housewarming party. If I haven't said so before, Kristian is one of my best friends, all the way back to when he was a freshman and I was a senior in high school. He contributes to this blog as "KZ" (though not enough), and he recently moved back to San Diego after living in LA for a while. He lives in a killer house in South Park and was having a housewarming party. There was an ice luge and a keg and it was like all the college parties I never really went to. What a great time.





Sunday was a chill day, I checked out Ponce's that night for the final night of "Behind Your Daddy's Back" which was pretty fun. They have a DJ playing lounge music, they have a limited menu of TJ tacos and drink specials. I think they're gonna bring it back around next year. Then I chilled at the Ken to wrap up the weekend.

Monday night was The Juan Maclean at the Casbah, and since it was a late show, I started the night at The Chee Chee. The Juan Maclean were really fun, and Kristian and Beau came and partook in the dance fest at the Casbah.



The next night, I ended up seeing a couple of the people from The Juan Maclean at 4th and B when I sold merch for Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. That night was crazy. I have never sold so much merch in my life and the line for people buying t-shirts was about 30 deep from the time the doors opened at 8 until Nick Cave took the stage at 10, and was consistent even while the band played. I wish I could say that I saw the show, but really I only had a few moments when I could actually pay attention and listen to them, but they sounded phenomenal and the crowd was really enthusiastic for the whole show. I worked through the manager and no, I didn't get to meet or even see the band.

The last catch up I'll get to for now was the San Diego Music Awards. I already posted the winners but I did take a few pictures that night that I wanted to post.
I drove out with Matt, Elizabeth and Andrew, we had a couple beers in the parking lot and actually got there in time before the show started. To me, the San Diego Music Awards is not about the performances, and not even really about the awards, but a chance for people from the entire music community...musicians and fans alike...to hang out and celebrate the progress the music community has made here. Think back, even just a year, to the number of music venues and opportunities for bands to play and mix and network and play together compared to now and it's easy to see that this city has it going on.

Writer (left-Best New Artist Nominees) SayVinyl (right-Best Local Recording)


As I Lay Dying closed the show, and I couldn't resist taking pictures because there was a full blown (planned?) mosh pit in front of the stage.


As I mentioned, after the show, Lady Dottie & The Diamonds played the V Lounge, where people mingled, danced, drank, and if you were me, found a video poker machine to spend the money I'd earned selling Nick Cave's merch. But eventually we had to go, same 4 of us and Dagart. And I had to post these pictures. There are a lot of things I don't understand about guys, but one is why guys sucker punch one another in the nuts. It's weird though mildly entertaining for bystanders. I love these pics, after Dagart messed up Andrew, trying to make peace and then looking at me like "What?". I think Andrew is still seeking the right moment for revenge.



So that was the early part of my month. I already posted all my Street Scene stuff, so I'll pick up after that when I give myself the opportunity to upload and write some more, hopefully this weekend. There's always my twitter feed, I guess.

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.

The Morning Benders & SayVinyl, Beauty Bar, 1/9/08

My plans changed a little today, and instead of a pre-show nap after work, I hung out at Bully's with a client and my coworkers. By the time I got home, it was time to head back out but I knew I couldn't do it without at least a lite nap, so when I got up and headed out, SayVinyl was already mid-set at the Beauty Bar.

They sounded great, but it was pretty cold on the patio, so I listened from inside while chatting with Erika and Gabe. For anyone wondering about the future of the Beauty Bar, Gabe still has some shows coming up at the Beauty Bar, and will also be booking shows at U-31. The Beauty Bar hired a new manager who starts on Tuesday. I got her name, but for the sake of those lurkers who take shit I write here then publish it like it was information they gathered, I'll keep it to myself. I'm a little tired of the methods of some of the writers in this town who don't go out, then write about shit and don't source information when all they do is lurk the blogs and punkboard. I bust my ass to go out, to get information, and aside from my column, I do it all without pay. It grates me especially because it is their job to be reporters and writers. Do the freaking work.

Anyway, enough of the rant. SayVinyl sounded rad, at some points even making me think of Postal Service, but mostly reminding me how many times I've listened to their 3 song EP in the short time I've had it. I need more! I didn't take pics, but I think Natalie might have, so check It's Too Sunny for pics. In fact, when she's around, I get pretty lazy about taking pics, because I know they are so amateur, but here are some of The Morning Benders.







Matt Binder's doppleganger?



Another shoe pic...

The band sounded great, though they might've benefitted more from a larger crowd. The patio was sparse, though the people there were quite enthusiastic. The singer's range made me think of Vampire Weekend which was great, and at times, I thought he sounded like Paolo Nutini without the accent. They even move their mouths the same when emphasizing words. I almost bought their two EPs online but after asking the band if I should, they wrote back that they'd have them at the show for $5 a pop, so I gladly purchased both.

The show ended later than I planned, so I didn't make it to the Casbah, and I was tempted to hit the Pink Elephant or something, but I thought it better to get home, clean the house a bit, catch up on this blog, and get some sleep since I have happy hour and a show afterward tomorrow night.

I've got some pretty good things in the works for the blog, by the way...I've got some cool ticket giveaways and stuff coming up, so check back. I appreciate all the people sending me their band listings, but the inbox is overloaded, so try not to send me your stuff too far in advance or it just gets buried. I do listings on a week by week basis, anything more and I'd have to quit my dayjob and hold a sign up: "Will Blog For Food." It just can't happen.

Sun/Mon The words that accompany the pictures.

It was a really great week for me personally, albeit exhausting. Starting with the show on Sunday night all the way through Friday, it was quite fulfilling. I'll take it from the top.

Sunday I finally got to see sayvinyl, and it was an even better night because we were celebrating Andrea's birthday. You can see all the pics I posted here. I got to the show right at 7 pm and was one of the lucky handful of people to be there in time for the food, hosted by Bety's Mexican Restaurant in Encinitas. Abraham works there, so he hooked that up, though for future food contributors...make an extra tray of stuff for the Casbah staff, otherwise only about 10 people at the show actually get to sample your food, and the whole point is to get people into your restaurant, isn't it?

Anyway, A Beautiful Noise started the night and they sounded great. It was a challenge to take pics because the singer is so freakin tall, but their sound reminds me a lot of the early 90's Manchester stuff that I used to love...Stone Roses and The Charlatans UK and that first Blur album with "She's So High" on it. They also have some pretty instrumental stuff (thus the name). If you happen to catch them out, pic up their EP. They give them away free at shows and it's very good.

The Austin James Band was up second, and I really like them a lot, as I'd written here before but I ended up missing most of their set because we were all in the Atari Lounge, toasting Andrea's birthday and hanging out and mocking Tim while he was on-air. I did make sure to get my ass in for at least a few pics and their awesome rendition of The Band's The Weight. If you like layered harmonies, this is your band.

Last was sayvinyl and I was so glad to finally catch them live. There's something about the timing that kinda reminds me of Bright Eyes and I look forward to seeing them again soon. They are playing tonight at epicentre, but I don't think I can make it up there in time.

On Monday I went to The Casbah again, but missed The Donkeys. I watched The Vision Of A Dying World who make me happy as always, but I was pretty wiped out. I watched a couple songs from White Magic, but they rubbed me the wrong way. I don't know, maybe it was just me being grumpy, but when the chick kinda snapped at Jake on the soundboard, I kinda wanted to clock her. And she didn't really say anything, but the way she told him to "kill the reverb, I like to sound clean" was so irritating to me. So I left. Maybe I'm just more anti-Brooklyn than I thought.

As it turns out, I'm running late for a date with my niece...so I'll have to get to the rest of the week later. I'll post another Rocky video though.

The Pics: SayVinyl, Austin James Band, A Beautiful Noise, Andrea's Birthday

I'm still at the Ken Club and I will post comments about the last two days, but in the meantime, here are the pics...