San Diego has so many great bands and I was lucky to catch two of them, Swive and Psychlops, at The Black Cat Bar in City Heights on Saturday night. Not only that but both bands played new songs live for the first time on this night!. I’ll have more on both bands coming up soon, but in the meantime here is Psychlops playing their new song, “Eye of the Night”…
And here is San Diego indie-rock band, Swive, playing “Sky High” live for the first time…
From the MaxSounds Vault…
Birdy Bardot – The Casbah, San Diego – Feb. 24, 2016
I won’t pretend to know how all the members of local super-group, Birdy Bardot, are interrelated. It seems that every San Diego musician of note is in at least 3 bands and this group has collected many of them together. I do know that the creative duo in the group are Birdy Bardot, who also sings for the New Kinetics, and the indefatigable Al Howard, who must be in at least 27 bands including: The Heavy Guilt, Midnight Pine and Black Sands, and more…
I have wanted to catch Birdy Bardot ever since I read a great feature on them late last year in CityBeat magazine. It was only after reading that article that I went to my first New Kinetics shows and I was curious to know how the same singer would front both the frenetic garage rock of The New Kinetics and the retro/psychedelic influence promised in the CityBeat piece.
It turns out that Ms. Bardot handles both styles with ease and though there is not a lot of overlap in sound, she does seem to lose herself in the songs in both configurations. Where the New Kinetics are all about raw, relentless energy, Birdy Bardot is a much more restrained affair. Though the group does let go and rock out, like on the track “Hearts and Smoke”, it’s really just enough to provide a contrast to the soulful, torchy atmosphere created throughout the rest of the set.
The 7 pc band (which is a lot of players on a pretty small stage) creates a sound and mood on stage that mixes a lot of influences without ever camping out in any one style. There are touches of the blues, hazy psychedelia, retro-60′s pop and even some alt-country. Mixed together, Birdy Bardot – both the band and the singer – put on a fantastic show and will clearly be a mainstay of the resurgent San Diego music scene, and hopefully can find a way to break out and receive more national, and even international, attention.
Check out Birdy Bardot and her label-mates at Redwoods Music/Birdy Bardot
San Diego – Jan. 14, 2017 Dirty Pennies, a rock band from San Diego, California play their new song, “Bad Machine” at the Ray at Night street festival in North Park. This song, written only two weeks prior and performed only once before, was created as a reaction to what our whole political process has become and is perfect timing considering the controversies surrounding the incoming president. Continue reading
[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
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
The last stop on my Art Around Adams tour was to see Mittens back at the library stage. I had seen the band play about a month ago at The Kava Lounge so I already knew how much fun they were. Mittens play a style of indie-pop that looks back but still has a modern feel to it. Their band bio mentions being inspired by groups like Rilo Kiley, The Cranberries and The Cardigans – and I can certainly hear the influence of those bands in their sound – but there’s also no mistaking their love of early ’60s girl groups like The Ronettes, The Shirelles and Martha & the Vandellas. Throw in some surf-rock licks and well-timed blistering guitar solos, to go along with their 3-part harmonies and big hooks, and you have Mittens! Continue reading
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