Weekend Recommendations January 11-13, 2013

For those of you who have been experiencing the post holiday live music slow down, fear not. The upcoming weekend is filled with shows worthy of your attendance. Kicking off the weekend this Friday is none other than the recently name changed trio Boy King, headlining a four band lineup at Soda Bar. Be sure to catch LA rockers Hi Ho Silver Oh, touring with their sophomore release in tow. Actress/musician Charlyne Yi and locals Mothlight round out the lineup. Saturday offers a terrific bill at the Casbah. The Howls and Mrs. Magician will be taking the stage as the month long anniversary continues at the Middletown venue. These two bands seem to be headed for bigger and better things in 2013. The Short Eyes and Teenage Burritos will get things rocking and rolling.

Sunday night marks the return of British rockers Keane to San Diego, fresh off their recently released album Strangeland. The absence of guitars has not diminished the popularity of this band. A full house is expected at the House of Blues for what promises to be an outstanding show. LA 5 piece Youngblood Hawke set the stage. If you are still yearning for a nightcap, head over to Soda Bar for Chris Brokaw (Codeine) and Jennifer O'Connor. Sounds (and looks) like a great weekend to me.

To get you in the mood, watch a video of Keane's Sovereign Light Cafe below.

Photos: SDDialedIn 6th Anniversary!

Once again, Happy 6th Anniversary to SDDialedIn and we all owe a debt of gratitude to Rosey and her tireless efforts that benefit our local San Diego music scene. It is a rare occasion that I'm at a show where I've never seen or shot any of the bands on the bill, but I'm certainly glad I had the fortune to see these bands that turned out to be a super talented lineup. After the jump are some essential shots of all four bands, or click here for a full gallery.

The Howls

Tonight's The Night: SD:Dialed In 6 Year Anniversary at the Casbah

I am so excited for tonight! In fact, it was one of those nights where I was up all night working just so I wouldn't have the cloud of email hovering over my head. Instead of sleeping this morning, Darren and I went on a nice bike ride to test out the Biria I'm likely going to purchase. Now I'm completely wiped out and ready to catch some sleep, but in a few hours I'll be all revved up. I hope to see some friendly faces tonight at the Casbah. I also want to let you know that the SoulCal Gourmet Food Truck will be outside if you need to get some tasty grub, and if you don't feel like driving, my friends at Uber set up a promo code. If you create a new account and use the promo code "ubersddialedin", you'll get a $10 credit for your first ride in the car service and since your fare and gratuity are linked to your account, you don't have to worry about having enough cash to get home. Darren and I tested it out a couple weeks ago and it is a pretty sweet service. Hope to see you all tonight!

Thursday, November 15, 2012 at The Casbah

featuring

The Howls

Trouble In The Wind

Michael McGraw and the Butchers

Burning Jet Black (formerly The Whiskey Saints)

$10
Doors 8:30pm/Show 9pm

From the San Diego Reader:

“'Opinions expressed are subject to being personal, unfunny, and full of typos.' Rosemary Bystrak, blogger and all-around all-arounder, will celebrate six years of her very excellent reportage on the San Diego scene @SD:Dialed In. I like how the colon and the big D in “Dialed” make a smiley face, just like every picture I see of her on her site. She’s a fun-lover and just about the best booster of local bands San Diego ever had. Go celebrate with Rosie tonight at Casbah, buy her a beer, and enjoy rootsy barroom rock by The Howls, Trouble in the Wind, Michael McGraw & the Butchers, and Burning Jet Black."

San Diego: Dialed In Six Year Anniversary!!

It was on this day in 2006 that I was sitting in my cubicle at an architecture firm and a lightbulb went off...maybe I should stop writing my diary online and I should focus on life in San Diego minus the details of who I was dating and how hungover I was from the night before. I launched San Diego: Dialed In on a fluke, no real goal in mind, just that I wanted to be personal without divulging every private detail. Of course, nowadays I live out loud anyway, so you still get my diary posts, my constant barrage of tweets and foursquare check-ins and facebook details, but hopefully this site has evolved enough to be informative and helpful for locals and tourists alike to get a feel for the amazing city we live in. I certainly never thought this would become a job or launch my other duties, among them publicity for the Casbah, writing for SoundDiego, booking, managing, band PR, being a member of the nominating committee for the San Diego Music Academy, and many other moving parts that keep me plenty busy. There are now over a dozen volunteer contributors to this site and to all of them, I am eternally grateful for all of their tireless efforts.

Naturally, the best way to celebrate is with a show at the Casbah, my home away from home.

Here's the info:

Thursday, November 15, 2012 at The Casbah

featuring

The Howls

Trouble In The Wind

Michael McGraw and the Butchers

Burning Jet Black (formerly The Whiskey Saints)

$6 advance/$10 day of show

Doors 8:30pm/Show 9pm

I hope to see all of your beautiful faces. Note that advance tickets have a small service charge, but are still cheaper than waiting until the night of the show. 

Video: The Silent Comedy at NAMM

I went to the NAMM convention back in January and captured The Silent Comedy performing in the Taylor Guitars demo room. Being the slacker that I am, I uploaded these videos but never got around to adding titles and such so I never posted them. Since The Silent Comedy are playing at the Belly Up tomorrow night with Dead Feather Moon and The Howls, I thought it was about time that I shared them, even if I still haven't added titles. The tickets are selling quickly and the show is expected to sell out soon, so if you want to catch it, I suggest you BUY TICKETS NOW. In case you haven't seen the three bands joining forces for "The Homestead Sessions", check out the three videos below.

Friday Night at The Loft: The Heavy Guilt, The Howls, Low Volts

Tonight is an amazing lineup of local talent at The Loft. The show features The Heavy Guilt, The Howls, and Low Volts. If after all this time, you still haven't been to the venue, tonight is the perfect excuse to try something different. It is Al Howard's birthday, so he's gonna go even more ballistic on the chains than usual. See you there tonight!

SXSW: CHAPPO at Elysium, Tonight at Bar Pink!

Last week, I excitedly wrote about CHAPPO while I was watching them perform in Austin. They're in town tonight, playing a free show at Bar Pink (along with The Howls and Kelli Schaeffer). It's true that I spent the majority of my time in Austin tailing San Diego bands as best I could, but I did happen to catch plenty of bands from other places and in retrospect, CHAPPO was still one of my standouts.










Perhaps you recognize their music in this clip?



Here they are at SXSW:

The Howls/ The Love Langage/ Telekinesis @ Casbah- 02.25.11

Last Friday night, the Casbah rocked out courtesy of performances by local act The Howls, The Love Language and Telekinesis. My memory of the evening is a little fuzzy courtesy of half-day Friday and several hours of some good ol' day drinking in celebration of a friend's birthday. The lesson learned there is that the fear of doing something stupid to expensive camera equipment outweighs the enjoyment of a good buzz. More after the jump...



The Howls:

The Love Language:

Telekinesis:

For a few more from the evening click here, and for the rest of my concert photography click here.

_______________________
All Images copyright © Nate Vandermeulen, All Rights Reserved.
Please ask for permission before downloading or linking to them.

My FM 94/9 Coup d'eTat

I have had such an excellent weekend and I know I have three months of photos to post (not to mention those 200 emails that I haven't gotten to yet), but I need to burn off some energy and try to shut my brain down, so I thought I'd bust out a quick post about my day.

It started in typical fashion, with me firing up the laptop as soon as I woke up, only instead of working through e-mail, I was designing a setlist. On Saturday night I saw Tim Pyles at the Casbah and he told me that they didn't have a scheduled guest to do Sunday night's Coup D 'eTat on FM 94/9, and asked if I wanted to do it. I've never done the Coup before, and of course I love chatting on air with Pyles whenever I can, so naturally I agreed. I played with my iTunes (realizing how much of my music still isn't loaded) and put together a 42 minute set of music, with seven local songs and five under the radar songs, had a couple glasses of wine with my friend Christopher at Kensington Cafe, then headed down to the 94/9 studio.

Unfortunately, there was a mixup at the station and they did, in fact, have a guest scheduled. It was Matt Burke and he was the sweetest kid (and hopefully future sd:dialed in intern!!) and had a great setlist. What Tim decided to do was to have me play my non-local music during FTP and my local stuff (to promote North Park Music Thing) during The Local Pyle.

In case you missed it, here are the songs I played tonight:

FTP:
Frightened Rabbit "Nothing Like You" - I played this song for my friend Natalie. We share a mutual love of this band. They're playing at the House of Blues (presented by the Casbah) on October 14. Find tickets here.

Adam Haworth Stephens "The Cities That You've Burned"- I was always a huge fan of Two Gallants and saw Adam earlier this year in Upland at a place called The Wire as well as at the Casbah. He was touring with my buddy Rocky Votolato so I loved those shows. He has his solo debut album being released on my birthday (!!) September 28, and is playing a short tour to promote. He'll be at the Casbah next Sunday, August 15. Tickets are available here.

Mumford & Sons "White Blank Page"-I've seen this band twice and absolutely love this band. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for another tour...maybe they should play this year's 94/9 Holiday Hootenanny. (Garett Michaels, can you hear me?)

The Kissaway Trail "Beat Your Heartbeat"- I saw this band open for The Temper Trap earlier this year at the Belly Up. In fact, it was the day before their CD was released, but they had copies available and I listen to it all the time. They're from Denmark, so I'm not sure when they'll be back around. This song was a dedication to my new friend Dave who told me he's been a fan of the blog for awhile but we barely met on Thursday. Funny how that happens, eh?

Not played: Jace Everett "Damned If I Do"- I didn't get to play this song, but I wanted to because it was one of my favorite recent shows and apparently this photo was quite controversial among some of my readers and some Jace fans. We didn't make out, it was all in fun, obviously we were just posing for the photo...I wanted to play this because it was in a recent True Blood episode (besides his singing the opening song for the show) and since it was Sunday, being on the radio meant I missed this week's True Blood episode.

We hit the local show and Tim let me hang around until all of my songs were played. I was there to promote my showcase and got a few other participating bands in, too.

The Moviegoers "Big High School"- playing Eleven, 8/13, 8pm
d/wolves "(shock)"- playing Eleven, 8/13, 9pm
Swim Party "Broke Ships Sink"- playing Eleven, 8/13, 11pm
The Kabbs "Golden & Blue"- playing Eleven, 8/13, 12am
Lord Howler "Down (Where You Belong)"- playing Kadan 8/14, 12:35am
The Silent Comedy "Bartholomew"-- playing U-31, 8/13, 12:35am

I also snuck in a couple other bands:
Zoo Seven "Lifesaver"- I've got a whole post to come devoted to Zoo Seven. Stay tuned.
The Howls- I don't remember which track Pyles played, but you can download their EP. I'm booking Thursday nights at West Coast Tavern, so they'll be playing there on 8/12 around 9pm. The show is free. We had fun talking about the awesome food and drinks at West Coast Tavern and I belive I said "Donkey Punch" at least three times on-air...as a drink at West Coast Tavern, it's a double mule, but perhaps you know its other meaning?

Anyway, it was a really fun time and thanks to everyone for the kind tweets and the few people who called in, too. Thanks to Tim Pyles and FM 94/9. I will come back in any time you'll have me. As Tim says, "I'll see YOU at the show".

Daydream Nation Presents Dirty Sweet and more at FLUXX (Ticket Giveaway)

Yesterday Jeff chose Dirty Sweet as his "weekly pick" here on sddialedin.com. I thought I'd give a little more info and give away some tickets.

The show is presented by Daydream Nation, the new promotion company run by Eric Howarth of Hi-Speed Soul Records and former owner of M-Theory. He's the reason Tim Pyles and I got a tour of the club before it opened and why we attended the soft opening. The club has now established itself in downtown, but it is ready to experiment and crossover to maximize the amazing sound system and setup the club provides.

The lineup includes Dirty Sweet, Scarlet Symphony, and The Howls. Tim Pyles will be hosting, I'll be there, and other people are involved, too, like party hostess with the mostess, May*Star.

A critical factor for the evening for someone like me is feeling comfortable in a high end nightclub. As such, there's no dress code for the night, so you know I'll be there in my standard jeans and hoodie. There will also be art from Eric Wixon, Andrew Rymer, and Steven Suiter and perhaps most important to those of us on a budget, there will be beer and shot specials all night.

The show takes place this Thursday, June 24, at FLUXX, with doors opening at 9 pm.

Tickets to the event are $10 in advance here, or $12 at the door.

If you'd like a free pair of tickets, email me at sddialedin at gmail with the subject "Dirty Fluxx". Include your first and last name and a phone number. (Must be 21+)