[photos by Happy Place Media
San Diego – June 29, 2016 After guitarist Rachel Ratner announced they were going to play “a bunch of songs in a short amount of time”, wimps, a 3-piece punk band from Seattle, launched into “Vampire,” a short, relentless blast of rock ‘n’ roll which as far as I can tell is about being a vampire (or not!). Continue reading
San Diego – July 20, 2016 With song titles like, “Men Explain Things to Me”, “FDP” (first day period) and “Hey Girl” (about dudes that cat-call), it’s clear that Tacocat, a 4-piece punk/pop/surf band from Seattle, are not writing songs for me (a 56-year-old man who still likes early Blue Oyster Cult). But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate their surf-inspired melodies, clever lyrics and infectious energy. Continue reading
San Diego – June 18, 2016 Like many others there are certain bands, and songs that draw me back to very specific memories. I was 19 when Joe Jackson‘s first album, Look Sharp!, arrived in the spring of 1979. I was just finishing my freshman year at UCSB and music was undergoing an upheaval. I arrived at my dorm the previous fall listening to bands like Rush, Queen, UFO and Blue Oyster Cult. I was aware of punk rock and new wave but just hadn’t really been exposed to it. But as that first year in college went along there were a lot of different sounds blasting out of the dorm-room doorways. Blondie, The Boomtown Rats, Elvis Costello, The Records, The Beat (Paul Collins‘ version), The B-52’s were competing with the classic and hard-rock records I grew up with. And this record by Joe Jackson just seemed to cement it all together, sending me down a power-pop/new wave rabbit hole that I didn’t emerge from for a few years. Continue reading
San Diego – July 20, 2016 The Joy Formidable, a Welsh band that mixes elements of 90’s alt-rock (Garbage, Cranberries), shoegaze (Slowdive, Lush) and modern all-over-the-place indie rock, played the Irenic in North Park this week for a good sized and very enthusiastic crowd. Sometimes I wonder how groups like this get discovered by so many people. There is really no rock-radio or video channel supporting bands like this but tours with groups like Muse and Editors must have helped them build a solid following. Continue reading
San Diego – July 20, 2016 According to the bio on his FB page, Ilan Rubin from San Diego, has played with Nine Inch Nails, Angels & Airwaves and Paramore. I didn’t know all this when I arrived half-way through his band The New Regime’s set opening for Welsh act, The Joy Formidable, at The Irenic in North Park. Continue reading
San Diego – July 17, 2016 I’d never been to a show at The Irenic before, even though my daughter lives on the same block. That proximity worked out well, as we (myself and both daughters) only had to walk across the street for the show after having a pre-show adult beverage. Continue reading
I was 21 years old when MTV started back in 1981 and it was pretty awesome back then. Before that all we got was Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert and Burt Sugarman’s Midnight Special. Those were great shows but only filled 2.5 hours per week on Friday and Saturday nights. We all know that MTV doesn’t really do music videos anymore and the format went relatively dormant for a long time. Then YouTube, Vimeo, Vevo and others came along and music videos have once again become an important part of presenting and marketing a song.
That’s a lot of words to say that this song and video by wimps, a 3-piece punk rock band out of Seattle, is pretty fucking rad! Check out the video and then go see wimps play the Soda Bar Wednesday night when they open for Katie Von Schleicher...
I know everyone is wondering, “what show should I go to Wednesday night this week – there’s no one playing that I’ve heard of…”
The answer is easy – get to the Soda Bar to see Katie Von Schleicher, wimps and Gravyyard. This will be one of those shows that you can’t believe you saw at a venue like the Soda Bar (and don’t get me wrong – I LOVE the Soda Bar, but it is astonishing that bands like this, especially together, are playing such a small venue).
There – problem solved. See you there!!
In the meantime check out this video from Katie’s new album Bleakspoitation on Ba Da Bing! Records…
San Diego – May 6, 2016 The next band up, after Retra, was Mittens. I had heard quite a bit about Mittens and now I know what all the fuss was about. Mittens’ blend of ’60s girl group sounds, ’90s alt-rock (think Cardigans not Smashing Pumpkins – though I have no doubt that Paul Mitten could unleash some great Billy Corgan riffs!), and modern indie pop really was just as good as I was warned it would be. Continue reading
San Diego – May 6, 2016 On a recent Friday night I was in the mood for new music and this show at The Kava Lounge looked interesting. I had heard of Mittens and The Fresh Brunettes but didn’t really know anything about them and I had no idea who Retra was. But I love checking out new bands so I headed on down to Kettner.
First up was Retra, who I soon found out is a relatively new band featuring Haven Blue on vocals, James Howard (Imagery Machine) on guitar , Chris Gorrie (Boychick, Giant Surprise) on bass, Carmen Martinez (Boychick) on drums, and Martin Sohikish (who didn’t play this night) on keys and guitar. Continue reading
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