Memorial Day Music

Since I haven't posted at all this weekend, I thought I'd just post a couple songs that I think of when I think about vets and Memorial Day.

Rewind: Squeeze & Steve Poltz at House of Blues, 4.10.2012

Sometimes it is challenging to remember what I've posted and where. I mean, sometimes I upload photos to my Photobucket account, sometimes I send them to SoundDiego, sometimes I post them on Facebook, and sometimes they just sit in a folder organized by date just waiting for something to happen.  I mean, I still have a diary post that I started BEFORE I left to South By Southwest and never posted. Don't count on that ever getting finished, though I wish I knew where to pick up from there.

Other times, like in this instance, I just post photos randomly weeks after a show because when I'm given a photo pass, it is expected that there is some evidence that I used it. That said, all the way back on April 10, I went to the House of Blues to see Squeeze and Steve Poltz.

Steve kicked off the night with a signature set, performing old and new songs, playing some serious ones and then following immediately with his more tongue-in-cheek songs. The show wasn't quite sold out, but it was pretty close, and the crowd was mostly people who were in their teens and twenties when Squeeze was most popular in the 80s, so very generally speaking, they're affluent and this was a big night out for them so everyone was especially drinky & chatty, but Steve did his best to play to those of us who were paying attention. He performed a new song called, "The Days Are Beautiful" that was amazing, and wouldn't you know that you can already here a live recorded version of it. The song is about Cpl Nick Kimmel, a 21-year-old wounded veteran of Afghanistan that Steve met when he sang the national anthem at Petco Park.




Squeeze came out shortly after Steve finished and they sounded so perfect. It's amazing how familiar their music is even if you think you only know a handful of the hits. The crowd ate it up and were dancing and singing along throughout the night. I kinda moved around throughout the show, starting in the photo pit for the first three songs, then a couple rows back for a few songs, then back by the bar for the middle of the show. Incidentally, while back there, I met a rep from Taylor Guitars who was super cool. He was taking notes on the setlist because he was going to be interviewing the band a few days later, so I shared my setlist photos with him. For the encore, I moved over toward the side where Tim Mays and his group were in a roped off area and I shot a couple videos from there (which is why they are so bad). It was definitely a worthy show and I'm glad I went because there was no chance I was gonna see them at Coachella at the time they played. You can see the photo slideshow after the jump (including some of the photos of Housse De Racket, which was after the Squeeze show) as well as a couple videos I shot.

Steve Poltz 50th Birthday Bash

It's been a Steve Poltz-a-palooza in San Diego of late, as he's been playing around town a little more than usual, pimping his new record Dreamhouse, and celebrating his 50th birthday with a huge epic show at the Belly Up. He played an in-store on Friday and those videos are uploading as I write this, but I was able to capture some videos at the Belly Up and thought I'd share them here. Also, be sure to check out Sara's blog about the show here.

Steve Poltz CD Release: Friday @ Belly Up Tavern

My dear friend and occasional sddialedin.com contributor Steve Poltz has his big 50th birthday party this Friday night at the Belly Up. The party doubles as the CD release party for his latest, Dreamhouse. He made an appearance on KUSI news over the weekend that you can check out here. He's got a broken finger but the show will go on, and you can be sure that with a full Rugburns reunion and tons of guests including Mojo Nixon, Anya Marina, AJ Croce, Berkley Hart, Gregory Page and more that it's gonna be a helluva good time.

Merry Christmas!

I have so much writing and catching up to do that it is beyond ridiculous at this point, but tonight, I'm gonna leave you with two takes on Christmas...one from Gregory Page that is my favorite Christmas song of all time (and he's gonna make me take it down the second he sees that it is online) and the other a totally funny one from Steve Poltz.

Happy Christmas Eve to all...

Daytrotter Session: Steve Poltz

It's hard to find anyone who loves music that doesn't love what Daytrotter does for musicians and fans alike, and this week they posted a Daytrotter Session with none other than Mr. Steve Poltz.

It might be that Steve Poltz is bat shit crazy. No, on second thought, he's probably not. He's fine, just a regular Joseph. Or is he? Nope, he's fucking nuts, demented - but screwed up on endorphins and sugary cereals, draft beers and a generally harmful amount of sleep deprivation. You'll go back and forth between the original thought and the counter thought as you make your way through his all-encompassing, nine-song Daytrotter session.
-Sean Moeller, Daytrotter.com

Go to the session here. Steve will be popping up around town with a show at the bar in Oceanside that is not to be mentioned on this site on Friday, and you can usually count on him showing up at the Casbah for C.L.A. and Exile On Kettner before he takes off to Australia for a while. You can also follow his whacky brain on Twitter (@StevePoltz).

Steve Poltz + North Park Festival of the Arts

I was reading this little press release about Steve Poltz (read it here) and noticed a date on his calendar...May 18 for the North Park Festival of the Arts, and I got curious because I consider myself to be quite the street fair aficionado and I'd never heard of said fair.

So I googled and thought I'd share with you that the 12th Annual North Park Festival of the Arts takes place on May 18. I don't know how this one has slipped under my radar, though I guess I've always been more of a Saturday festival girl myself, but clearly I've got some self educating to do. Applications are being accepted now for artists, musicians, and vendors. Click here for more info.

The rad thing is they already have their mainstages set and it's a freakin great lineup, particularly the back to back sets from Silent Comedy, Get Back Loretta, Truckee Brothers, and Steve Poltz. Check the rest out here. I'll be there with my dog and some slathered on zinka fo sho'.

Steve Poltz & Truckee Brothers, Casbah, 3.25.08

Tuesday night I was on the fence about going out, but it was a good day, I was back to full energy and any residual sickness was gone. I came home and cleaned, did some laundry, and by the time I was done and realized how many bad shows are on tv at the moment, and feeling accomplished for having finished my whole week's worth of listings, I went down to the Casbah. I got there as the Truckee Brothers played their last two songs.

It's been a while since I've Steve playing his own music; last time was for the CLA show, and I have to say it felt a little foreign to me. It's no secret Steve was quite the man-whore around town and I was one of the many who had a crush for quite some time. My crush has long since passed, and there's something kinda nostalgic about that, but the music just doesn't hit that spot for me like it did back then which is a little bit sad. Looking around the room, I'd have to say I was alone. There were lots of girls in the room and they all still seemed to have the googly eyes for the man onstage.



That's not to say it wasn't a great set. Early on, Steve called AJ Croce onstage to play with him, and he played a lot of new stuff, old stuff, and some Rugburns stuff. It took a while to get into the mood of the music because the crowd was pushed back from the stage, but finally Steve told everyone to move up and it chilled the room out a bit, and Steve felt more in his element.





There wasn't any craziness- no wild stage antics, no rolling on the floor, no nudity, and no crowd surfing, but it was a good refresher course in Poltz 101.

SXSW Lineup Announced: More San Diego Bands

Here's the full list from Rolling Stone

I posted this post a couple weeks ago with the list from Austinist.

Here's the San Diegans who made the list on Rolling Stone:

Augustana
Tom Brosseau (out of LA now)
Correatown (Angela Correa was a San Diegan)
AJ Croce
Delta Spirit (listed as Orange County)
Dirty Sweet
Earthless
Grand Ole Party
Greg Laswell
Kush & Jah Bloodfiyah Angels
The Muslims
The Prayers
John Reis (The Night Marchers)
The Shining Path
Steve Poltz

More Pics: Steve Poltz & Dennis Borlek, Joanie & Ray

I forgot to add these pics to the last post and decided to make it a new one:


First, here's Steve Poltz and Dennis Borlek. There's an interview with Steve in the Nov/Dec issue of Music Matters. Pick up a copy at the Casbah.


Here's Ray Suen and Joanie Mendenhall. Ray just got back from Australia after a tour with Louis XIV. Joanie's band Joanie + Secretaries is playing on Friday night at the Tower Bar with The Roman Spring and Emery Byrd. In that same Music Matters mentioned above, there's a great pic of Matt, the singer of Emery Byrd. Someday that mag will come online, but till then, check out the glossy.

Thursday Recap: Bartender's Bible, Mr Tube, MEX

My plan was to see Silverbird at the Beauty Bar on Thursday night, but I got a late start and decided to just head to the Casbah instead. Later I heard that Silverbird didn't play until almost 11, so I could've caught them, but I was glad to be at the Casbah. T-Bone has been drumming for Silverbird, but on this night they apparently went drummerless because T-Bone was at the Casbah playing in Mr Tube and Bartender's Bible.

Anyway, it was my first time ever seeing Bartender's Bible and I really have no excuse or reason why, but they sounded amazing. Good time country music, with full stand up bass, a couple guitars, banjo, keys, and Pall Jenkins was even onstage playing a saw, which I haven't seen anybody do since last year's Adams Avenue Roots Fest.







I don't really need to get into too much detail about the night- it was a full on party. It was a celebration of the birthdays of Tim Mays, Mario Escovedo, Dennis Borlek, and I think like 5 other people. I just know that when I got there and saw Dave Jass and Andrew McKreg, I got excited that there might be some Uncle Joe's Big Ol Driver action on stage. Dave said no, but that Andrew would be playing a song or two with MEX.

Mr Tube and the Flying Objects played a great energetic set per usual and it's cool that the band shares members of Bartender's Bible even though the music is very dissimilar, with more of a Chicano/Santana vibe to it.















Last up was MEX, whose set didn't even start until almost 1 am. I love seeing them because the covers they do are stuff my parents played when I was growing up...Texas Tornados and stuff. And I know they're not gonna disappoint ever as long as they have Whiskeytown's "Excuse Me If I Break My Own Heart" in their set. On this night, they had up to 5 guitars onstage at any given moment, and Andrew not only played with them, but did his own mini set of rock n roll classics. I had such a crush on that guy when I was in high school and seeing him now so many years later was definitely a highlight. Then Mario took over the mic again and finished out their set with the house lights already on, well beyond last call.



























This was the setlist for the portion of the night when Andrew took over the band

This was the regular MEX setlist

It was a particularly fun night at the Casbah because so many people were there who have in some way been a part of San Diego's music scene. I mean, how rare is it to catch Steve Poltz out on the town these days? It just doesn't happen often is all I'm saying. And it was particularly funny to me that after that whole Voice of San Diego thing, that all those idiots talking about the glory days of '93 weren't there to see the guys they go on about all the time. So I'm done defending the local scene. The people who claim their isn't good San Diego music anymore- the ones holding on to 93- are only making excuses. They got older, they got tired, and going to shows has been replaced by sitting at home and watching CSI. It's ok if people got married and had kids and can't make it out to shows, or even if they don't want to, but they need to shut up about local music today because they don't know what they are talking about if they aren't out experiencing it.

They quit music; the music didn't quit them. And the great part is that music is forgiving and will take them back should they ever venture out of their suburbs to check it all out.

Steve Poltz "You Remind Me" Featured in Jeep Commercial

We've known for some time that Steve Poltz's song, "You Remind Me" would be used in a Jeep commercial, but it took a while to actually find it online, and there was some lag in the spot actually airing, but I caught it on tv tonight while watching the news, so I thought I'd track it down and post for your pleasure. I only hope for his sake that he struck a better deal than the one he got with Sycuan for his "minutes away and miles apart" jingle.

Calendar

Until I get a calendar feature working on here, I'll preview the things that have my interest this week:

Tonight, Monday: Poprocks @ Beauty Bar. Two bands I've never heard of, but I trust Tim.

Tuesday: Sia, The Bird and the Bee, and Greg Laswell. Greg cannot disappoint. The Bird and The Bee have lots of indie blogger nation buzz, and Sia was great in her role in Zero 7 and has supposedly become more upbeat than before.

Wednesday: CityBeat "Best of San Diego" issue release party at HoB as Andrea's plus one, from 6-9 (with free food and beer!), then walking over to Hard Rock San Diego for the KPRI private listener show with Ray LaMontagne.
All of that is followed by Fifty on Their Heels at Pussy Galore, but I don't know if I'll have anything left in me.

FIFTY ON THEIR HEELS go on at 11....

Thursday: I'll probably stay home, but I'd like to see A Scribe Amidst the Lions, Get Back Loretta, and Goodbye Blue Monday at the Belly Up, but cost + commute +going out every other night= not freaking likely.

Friday: My best friend and her husband are coming to town, so it really depends on what they are up for, but I would love to see the show at the Casbah with The Rugburns, Rookie Card, and Steve Poltz playing solo. This may or may not happen, as I've mentioned.

Saturday: Shon Sullivan, aka Goldenboy, is doing an instore at M-Theory at 3. I met him when he opened for Neil Finn a few years ago at 4th and B and he was nice and I took a zillion pics of him. There are a shitload of shows that night, take your pick. I'll again, have to see what Neil and Alex want to do.

Here's some of them:
Brandtson & The Myriad @ SOMA
FM 94/9 4th Anniversary with The Hold Steady, Sparta and OK, Go! @ 4th and B (sold out)
Sirhan Sirhan, This Year Stereo, Viva in Stereo with Lands On Fire @ The Ken Club

And the week is still young...