Famous Former Neighbors Song Contest, Mraz Gets the Axe, Astra VS Vinx, Return of Ron Silva, Free Band Names, Reelin' In the Brit Invasion

Last year, the song “Overheard in San Diego” by Cathryn Beeks and Sven Erik Seaholm became that comic strip’s heavily-promoted and oft-played theme song at www.sandiegoreader.com.

All entries will be playable on the Reader website – public votes a winner on March 24.

Winning performer gets their name and URL published with every FFN comic strip in 2010, website spotlights, and a gig showcase at the Ruby Room!!

Winner will be announced at the OVERHEARD AND FAMOUS IN SAN DIEGO ART GALLERY RECEPTION on March 29 at the Ruby Room, where the winner will be invited to perform on an all-star bill that includes Bart Mendoza, True Stories, Wendy Bailey, Cathryn Beeks and more!!

Winner keeps all song (and bragging) rights – we just want to be able to post it all over the Reader website, along with your name and links to your performer pages!

If you wanna see a list of over 1,900 San Diego bands, with links to full profiles, photos, discographies, articles, MP3s, etc, checkout http://www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/search/

Believe it or not, you can click on ANY LOCAL MUSICIAN'S NAME (around 4,900 musicos listed!) and bring up bios of every notable band they've ever been in! Try it here with Rob Crow ---

AND, if that wasn't cool 'nuff, click on an instrument, say like this here link to "Drums" - BAM, a list of EVERY DRUMMER IN SAN DIEGO!!!

We've been working on this massively cross-linked Local Music Database for over two years now, covering a century of San Diego history --- if you're a local performer who wants to add or edit a page, go to http://www.sandiegoreader.com/band/edit/

AntiMusic.com reports: Jason Mraz has spent the past thirteen years performing everywhere from local coffee shops to stadiums with his Taylor guitars. Along the way, Mraz has released three studio albums, several EP's and live albums including the recently released Beautiful Mess - Live on Earth DVD/CD. Mraz's live shows have garnered critical acclaim around the world and his albums have earned multiple Grammy nominations. Late last year, his hit single, "I'm Yours", set a music industry record for the most weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

In early December, Mraz visited the Taylor factory to meet with the company's design team and to complete work on his own Taylor model, the Jason Mraz Signature Model (JMSM).

The JMSM is based on Mraz's go-to guitar, a Taylor nylon-string NS72ce, a guitar he says "nurtured a whole album's worth of songs" and in performances, "gave me a way to communicate with the audience without a guitar standing in my way. It felt like it was part of me, it was a part of the energy that I wanted to put out there."

Crafted from a back and sides of Indian rosewood and a top of Western Red cedar, the JMSM includes key design touches provided by Mraz. The fretboard inlay, in Mexican cypress, features the phrase "Be Love" set below a design that features a triangle within a circle, which mirrors a forearm tattoo he got in July 2009.

"I chose this symbol simply because I want to be whole in mind, body and soul," Mraz explains. "I think that's a divine trinity there. What is 'Be Love' but cutting out the middle man. You don't have to have a certain someone to be loved. You don't have to have certain conditions to have love in your life. You can just be love. So, it's basically a practice of unconditional love, a practice of unabashed generosity." - more on this story

ASTRA VS VINX - WINNER GETS TO THROW JANUARY 23 ALBUM RELEASE PARTY AT RUBY ROOM

Astra Kelly says she almost had to cancel a scheduled west coast tour over the first two weeks of December. “I actually just had my backline bail on me, ‘cause they realized this late in the game that they couldn’t actually afford to go on the road. What else is new? But, as luck and opportunity would have it, I managed to pull in new players within 24 hours. Not because I’m extremely resourceful, but simply because it was meant to be. Whew!”

The tour kicked off in Hollywood, where she once had an odd run-in with Sting’s occasional percussionist and singer Vinx.

“I had a show at the Coconut Teazer, and I was asked to perform at a private venue located in Vinx’s studio in Hollywood. There was also talk of me doing backups on his record, and they offered to put me up at the studio while I was there. Vinx’s manager came out to take me back to the studio and I stayed the night, which was awkward, since it was just a couch in the studio.”

“The next day, I hung around waiting to be called in to do backups, listening to Vinx call all his interns ‘whitey.’ [The backup singing] never happened. At the show that night, they put me on last, after I sat and listened to one bad comedian after another telling white jokes, while staring me directly in the eye. Weird.”

“Two months later, I heard that someone broke into Vinx’s studio and stole all his gear. Karma, I guess.”

Kelly, whose last record was in 2004, has a release party for her new EP Battling the Sun scheduled at the Ruby Room, Saturday, January 23. “The new songs have a really cool vibe that I haven't touched upon before in my set,” says Kelly. “Local artist Billy Martinez, who did the EP cover art, will be there doing live artwork.”

"The sun is a metaphor for our personal power and confidence and how it's a waste of time to battle ourselves - it's a battle that is impossible to win. Being a musician seems like a battle much of the time, but in the end it is a shared dream, that takes more than just the players to realize. So battling yourself, is like ignoring the bigger picture and the common goal."

“She was born in Marvel, Arkansas, and delivered by Dr. Wise,” it says on Astra Kelly’s website. “Early interest in music was fueled by family jams, school choirs, and formal music studies.”

Classical and jazz trained, Kelly began her professional singing career after taking note of Chicago's subway performers while en route to her job. After working on her guitar technique, and with a few pointers from a veteran subway performer, Astra earned 50 dollars in two hours and quit her job.

Her subway performances began not only to draw a steady audience but also a steady request for copies of recorded material. Her first CD, Stones, Bones and Boxes, self-released in December 1996, was recorded in her apartment using professional equipment and engineers who later became friends.

Kelly later moved to Southern California and to San Diego in September 2006. She’s been hard at work on her fourth record “for a long time now. I just want it to be great, and I'm indie so I have to work on it as time and budget allows.” Her previous albums are Subtown Rituals, Acoustic Soul Live, and the aforementioned Stones, Bones and Boxes and a 2004 EP.

She’s also been in the band Not Your Mom with Cathryn Beeks, Marcia Claire, and Bernadette Gallegos. She plays frequently in and around San Diego solo/acoustic or with her backing band, which features Sam Johnson (of Stepping Feet and Michael Tiernan’s band) on bass, James Rhinehart (Fight the Fear) on drums, and Cathryn Beeks on backing vocals.

Two legendary groups with San Diego connections are making appearances at The Tower Bar this February:

Then on Feb. 19, Silva and Ward return with the recently reunited, Bay Area based, rhythm & blues combo, Ron Silva and the Monarchs. This time out, Silva is frontman and the group features another San Diego ex-pat, Nick Rossi (ex- Loved Ones) on guitar. First established in the early '90s, this band is a monster! If you like your R&B, gritty, sixties styled and incredibly danceable – this is the band for you!

Steve White is a world class touring musician who has spent much of his life on the road, singing and playing guitar and harmonica, often as a one-man band. In 2009, due to cancer, he lost his vocal chords and is no longer able to sing or play harmonica.

“Steve is a major inspiration to all,” says San Diego musician Suzanne Reed. “He no longer has his vocal cords, but that has not stopped him one bit. He’s right back out there playing when his energy permits. He knows his music is healing, and a message to others to ‘accept what we cannot change.’ His guitar-playing is better than ever!”

In the tradition of Philfest, Old Time Music's first fund raiser, Reed and OTM are throwing a big party/concert/event benefit for White, to help him pay his medical bills and, essentially, to reinvent himself as amusician.

CHE UNDERGROUND SHOWCASE PRESENTS - JANUARY 30, 2010 @ The CASBAH - A NIGHT OF RARE AND REUNION PERFORMANCES

Mod legends MANUAL SCAN, Alt-country pioneers The TOWN CRIERS and San Diego All Star Group, The BLUES GANGSTERS

The evenings special guests; guitarist Mark Neill, bassist Dave Doyle and drummer Craig Packham will round out the night with a short set, their first gig in more than five years. Its Been 29 years since the release of the Unknowns incredible Dream Sequence EP! Neill is also a legendary producer having worked with The Black Keys, Old 97’s, Billy Zoom and many more.

"In January, some friends of mine, the California Guitar Trio are coming to town and we'll be performing together at Acoustic Music San Diego," emails local Stick specialist Tom Griesgraber.

The Trio is comprised of Paul Richards from Salt Lake City, Bert Lams (originally from Brussels, Belgium, now in Harrisburg) and Hideyo Moriya from Tokyo. "They've been together about 20 years now and met while studying with guitarist Robert Fripp of King Crimson," according to Griesgraber, himself a Crimson devotee and former student of Crimson's own Stick player Tony Levin.

"They play acoustic guitars, but tuned in 5ths more like cellos. Their music is instrumental and mostly originals but draws from the widest sources of influences imaginable. The covers they incorporate include music from Pink Floyd, Beethoven symphonies, Bach preludes, King Crimson, Yes, Queen, surf guitar, traditional japanese music and spaghetti westerns." The Trio regularly tours, have been on Grammy nominated albums, had NASA use their music to wake the space shuttle astronauts, and shared billings with people like King Crimson, John McLaughlin, Adrian Belew, John Scofield and many more.

http://www.stick.com/instruments/grand/grand.jpg

Local opening act Griesgraber is best known as a Chapman Stick player (a 12-string guitar/bass hybrid played more like a piano). "I saw Tony Levin playing a Stick at the 1997 NAMM trade show in Anaheim, and I bought one that year," he says. The 12-stringed Stick (popularized by Levin during stints with King Crimson and Peter Gabriel) is played by tapping the strings like piano keys, with bass strings tuned in ascending fifths and melody strings in descending fourths, providing a wide tonal range of sounds.

"Locally, I do mostly solo shows (well known from doing 30-60 shows a year at the SD fair, plus events like Artwalk) but tour with several duos including one with Bert from the Trio and another called Agent 22 with Ryan Moran of Slightly Stoopid. I've done several tours with CGT as their opener and guest and will be doing several shows with them on this tour that passes through OC, San Diego, then off to Arizona and New Mexico, before winding up back in LA."

Griesgraber has done two solo CDs to date, plus two with Agent 22 and one with Bert Lams. He also guested on several of the Trio's albums, performed five times for various Grammy events, and he regularly opens local shows at the Belly Up, the Coach House, and elsewhere.

EVENT INFO: California Guitar Trio with special guest Tom Griesgraber
Saturday January 30, 2010 - 7:30pm, all ages
Acoustic Music San Diego
4650 Mansfield St
San Diego, CA 92116
619-303-8167
www.acousticmusicsandiego.com

"Hon, we're gonna need a bigger can of Raid!" Is there no end to bugs who wanna be Beatles?

Brady kids go solo, sometime after Peter's voice stopped breaking but before Marsha found a bra that fits.

Good gawd, is...is this album's title being squeezed out of someone's butthole?!

Doesn't look like SHE's enjoying the Sounds of sax..."No sax tonight, dear, I have a headache..."

A Christmas WTF - so much weirdness here, from the rubber chicken and sausages on the tree (?!) to kids' longjohn underwear serving as Xmas stockings, and the fact that Santa is climbing in-or-out of European bathroom bidet!!

And you thought those old Schoolhouse Rock cartoons were the birth of math rock --

The big WTF here isn't the phallic design, which is funny - rather, it's his SADDLE.

Judging by the huge erections on those horny trumpets , something's gonna pop, all right...

Free for all who wish to use, here’s a list of band names I’ve been dreaming up, all so far unused (as far as I know). I designed most for maximum internet search possibilities and cult tie-in potential – if anyone ends up getting rich and/or famous using any of my band names, I expect you to at least buy me a large pizza....and maybe a Porsche ---

Oh yeah, I design band logos, record sleeves, and cocert flyers too, so maybe hire me for that…

Jay Allen Sanford

Danish Plato

Watchers From the Blind

P Test

Duodnym Duo

Same To You Bud

Why You I Oughtta

George LeRoy Tirebiter

<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Logan’s Sun

Rizzuto’s Revenge

The Hell You Say

Sickon U

Strapon Dickoff

Schwing Kings of Bling

Aiiieeeggg!

Manos Hand of Fate

Zoey Loves Zeus

Aaark Aaark

The Steekin Badgers

There’s No Need To Fear

Restless Natives

Nightmare Feet

The Saggy Baggies

My Fellow Terrariums

Pudding Pipers

Things Won’t Leave

Crooow!

Not Wearing Pants

Spa Fon

Squa Tront

Quitcher Wining

Opposing Bums

MiniMiniMini

Icy London

Icy France

Eye See Eeew

I.C. Underpants

He’s Dead Jim

Giant Rats of Sumatra

Monsters Due

Orion Slave Traders

Jenna’s Douche

Way 2 Bigg

Mylar Zone

Bees, She Sees

Lionel and the Security Blankets

Thank You Mask Man

So Far So What

Zoso Mofos

The Whoop Woops

Jerkin Gerkins

WTF Whitey

Alba’s Abs

Overlord Obscura

Yorga Counts

I Said Goode Daye

Broken GayDar

Suckit

Stickit

Takeit

Tara La Bouvier

The Shoephones

Tents On Fire

Bitten by Barnabas

Attaway Castaway

Jay Men Forever

Beware of Torgo

Milk Me Dammit

Freaky Fantasm

Phrankly Phinks

Wish You Were Beer

It Takes Beef

Coconut Radio

Eggplant Revenge

I Got a Rock

Who Killed Todd Loren?

The Phoneups

The Homegrownups

Minor Murders

Max Madder

Themes of Josette

Chef Schweaty

The Shaft Workers

Scary Serling

Servants of Sexploitation

Cathouse Theater

The Hairy Poms

See Thru U (abbreviated as C/U)

Put That Thing Away

Robert’s Ridge

Munchin Brady

Mystic Hamburg Highway

Future Faire

Joel VS Mike

Miss B. Natural

Psycho Tsunami

The Friendly Giants

The Fraidy Scats

Sax Afire

Margo Escargot

The Pullout Nows

Nobody For President

Ducking Howard

Bare Whiz

The Golden Hind

Planxton

Kitten Kundalini

Bunches of Hooey

Knot Insane

Fuggit Forgot

SlamSlam

Fleas on Feet

Peeble’s Pet

Wholly Moley

Klondike Kittens

Cheez Toe

Demons of Demi

Penisaurus

The Tube Grooves

Groovy Groo Bees

Bozo Buskers

The Dwarf Crushers

Rotten Cratchet

Cartman’s Probe

More Science High

Steppenfetch

See Sigmund

The Vulcan Itch

Whynot Measles

Ribsey’s Treat

Clams Got Legs

HellCowz

Highway Bloody Hwy

Starkweathermen

Whacko Mole

R.U. Nutts

Tearaway Newsome

WrongWrongRight

SaveSum

Eyes of Bohemia

Duz Not Die

Know Duh

Nose Hoes

Harden Gardens

Ghostly Trioka

Takeout Wrenched Ankle

Gallery of Night

Lowbrow Unibrow

The Unibrowser

Bundy’s Bride

Buddy Buddha Breath

Zeta Zilch

The Beta Rays

Already1

Almighty1

The Crankups

Indoor Outhouse

Freddie Fullasheet

Return of Mr. Hand

Faster Phoebe and the Fallouts

Wot the Hey

V.A. Jay Jay

Gamma Made Me Green

Collector’s Attrition

Lela’s Eyeball

Tubby La Mesa

Finches of Attica

Busted Chifarobe

Busted by Boo

The Tumblin’ Tombstones

Stewie Luvs Rupert

The Giggity-gigs

YesNoMaybe

Pigga Fuggen Name

Sea Wolf burst into 2010 in the Twilight: New Moon movie, with their song, "The Violet Hour." This followed the release of the band's sophomore album, White Water, White Bloom, on Dangerbird Records, as well as a national headline tour.

On February 3, Sea Wolf will team up with The Album Leaf for a West Coast run that will stretch as far north as Vancouver and culminate with a hometown show at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. Sea Wolf's orchestral pop narratives will serve as a perfect primer for The Album Leaf's dreamy and cinematic soundscapes. Alex Brown Church, aka Sea Wolf, will also be guest hosting MTV2's "Subterranean" in the coming months.

Heralded by Amazon.com as one of the Top 100 albums of 2009 and described by the Austin-American Statesman as "an eclectic brand of indie-folk in the vein of the Decemberists," White Water, White Bloom, is a masterful marriage of vivid storytelling and intricate instrumentation. Relix exclaimed: "Church and his fellow musicians craft an overwhelming sonic landscape that is almost visually palpable."

The Album Leaf officially began in 1998 as the solo project of Jimmy LaValle, who had performed in several other local bands, including Swing Kids, the Locust, and GoGoGo Airheart.

When the band formed, LaValle had been playing guitar in the post-rock instrumental band Tristeza. Being a multi-instrumentalist, he began playing drums for San Diego band Gogogo Airheart during downtime in the fall of 1998.

Over forty-five years after the Beatles sparked the legendary 'British Invasion' that forever changed the face of popular music, Reelin' In The Years Productions, in association with Voyage Digital Media, is proud to announce the release of the initial four DVDs in the new British Invasion series. The four titles are Dusty Springfield - Once Upon A Time 1964-1969, Small Faces - All Or Nothing 1965-1968, Gerry & The Pacemakers - It's Gonna Be All Right 1963-1965 and Herman's Hermits - Listen People 1964-1969. Distributed by Naxos of America Inc., all four DVDs will be available separately and as a deluxe boxset featuring a bonus fifth disc with over 2 hours of additional content.

Produced by Reelin' In The Years Productions, each DVD features complete 1960's television performances filmed at the time the songs were hits and while the artists were at the height of their careers. Interspersed between the performances, original band members and others who helped create their classic music, talk about each song and recount special moments in the history of the group. In addition, all performances have been transferred from the original master tapes and include best-possible video and remastered audio. Each DVD also includes a 24-page booklet with insights and essays by noted rock historians as well as previously unseen photos and memorabilia. The series, originally released only in the UK in September of 2009, has received both commercial success and critical acclaim, with four-star reviews and inclusion in many year-end “Best Of 2009" lists in the British music press.

Reelin' In the Years is the San Diego-based company that has produced some of the most highly-regarded anthology DVD series including the four-volume, GRAMMY-nominated American Folk Blues Festival series, the multi-platinum selling Definitive Motown series (Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles) and the award winning Jazz Icons series. As in all of their projects, each DVD is produced with the full support and cooperation of the artists or their estates.

Features 20 definitive complete television performances by Britain's greatest pop diva including “You Don't Have To Say You Love Me," “Son Of A Preacher Man," “Wishin' And Hopin'" and “I Only Want To Be With You." Dusty's story is told through new interviews with Burt Bacharach, Madeline Bell (who sang back-up for Dusty in the '60s), Simon Bell (Dusty's back-up singer from the '70s to the '90s), and a newly discovered interview from 1978 with Dusty herself. Bonus features include Dusty's complete 1965 and 1966 New Musical Express Poll Winners Concert appearances as well as a duet with Burt Bacharach on “A House Is Not A Home." Annie Randall, Dusty's biographer, wrote the accompanying essay.

In the mid-1960's the Small Faces challenged the Who, Kinks, Rolling Stones and even the Beatles for UK chart domination. This is the band's first official anthology and features 27 complete performances capturing every aspect of their brief but brilliant run including early Mod/R&B classics such as “What'cha Gonna Do About It", “Sha La La La Lee" and “All Or Nothing", timeless rockers like “Tin Soldier" and later psychedelic treasures including “Itchycoo Park", and “Green Circles." Nine songs are included from the band's masterwork Ogden's Nut Gone Flake including “Lazy Sunday", “Song Of A Baker", the title track and the six song “Happiness Stan" suite. Also included are interviews filmed exclusively for the DVD with original members Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones and Jimmy Winston as well as archival interviews with the late Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. The 24-page booklet includes an informative essay by pop historian Ken Sharp as well as rare in-studio photographs by famed engineer Eddie Kramer.

The first band ever to have their first three singles top the British charts, Gerry & The Pacemakers rivaled the Beatles in the early years of the British Invasion. Their first official anthology DVD features 17 classic complete performances including the smash hits “How Do You Do It?," “I Like It" and “You'll Never walk Alone" as well as the timeless classics “Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying" and “Ferry Cross The Mersey." Also included is an interview with Garry Marsden that was conducted exclusively for the DVD at Liverpool's legendary Cavern Club. Bill Harry, founder/publisher of Mersey Beat, the music paper that originally chronicled the Liverpool scene, also tells the band's story both on screen and in his accompanying liner notes.

The DVD is their first official anthology chronicling their meteoric rise melding a traditional British music hall influence with good time rock 'n roll. Among the 22 full-length performances are all of their biggest hits including “I'm Into Something Good," “Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter," “I'm Henry VIII, I Am" and their later evocative masterpieces “No Milk Today," and “Listen People." The Herman's Hermits' story is told by original members Peter Noone, Keith Hopwood, Karl Green and Barry Whitwam as well as in the accompanying essay by GRAMMY-winning music historian Rob Bowman. A complete concert filmed in 1966 for Australian television is included as a bonus feature.

David Peck's Reelin' in the Years Productions maintains an archive of over 10,000 filmed musical performances, as well as representing others with footage to license for broadcast or video releases. VH1 probably couldn't make shows like I Love the '70s and Behind the Music without Peck's ever-growing database of footage.

Peck told staff writer Dave Good about how the Reader played a role in his Grammy-winning career as a music video archivist.

“I was in Off the Record one night. I was 18 at the time. The guy who worked there turned me on to all these great Stones videos. This was ’84, when video collectors were underground. There was no YouTube; there was nothing. Collecting videos was a swapping thing. So he turned me on to this great rare stuff — the Stones playing with Muddy Waters — and that’s when I got the bug and started collecting.”

“In ’86, John D’Agostino, who was then writing for the Reader, wrote an article about me as a collector, and it kinda went from there. I started doing research and consulting on projects. By ’98, I started representing video libraries, and now I have amassed the world’s largest library of music footage.”

Peck once told me a great story about locally-shot footage that includes longtime local DJ Jim McIness.

Reelin' holds a piece of historical footage featuring McInnes, which it has licensed for use to VH1. "I got ahold of a piece of film that was shot at a backyard party here in San Diego , around 1981," he says. "Weird Al Yankovic was there, before he really broke big, when he was still doing 'Another One Rides the Bus' on [syndicated radio show] Dr. Demento. Jim is playing with him, and he's playing Weird Al's accordion and somebody comes by and spills beer on the thing. Weird Al got really upset with him, because it was a brand new accordion! And Jim is just shrugging his shoulders, like, 'hey, it's just an accordion, not a Les Paul,' but Weird Al wasn't laughing. Shows which one of them actually had the sense of humor, huh?"

McInnes explained to me in a phone interview "What happened was that my friend tried to pour a beer in my mouth while my hands were occupied trying to play accordion for the first time, and it spilled into the [instrument's] bellows. [Weird] Al was a good sport about it - he'd just had the accordion cleaned!"

Artist of the Week: Anna Bell is back in town. Her second time visiting us, she's become a Listen Local favorite.

Link of the Week: My buddy Ken has just launched a great LOCAL resource for Songwriters! Log onto SongSwagger.com and sign up today!

Listen Local Music Mixer at the Onyx Room on Sunday, January 24th from 7 to 11pm. Music from Shant, Folding Mr. Lincoln, Dave Howard, XIV and more plus networking and music related services. Email me to reserve table space for your music related shwag, no cover.

The Game takes place at Desi N Friends in Point Loma on January 19th at 7pm. Write a song to the title USED TO BE and show up to play it. All styles and abilities welcomed, unplugged (no pa) stage, $5 suggested donation for performers and spectators, no one turned away. See you there!

My Friend Jen wrote a short article regarding the cultural relevance of South Park, she's brilliant and this is awesome, enjoy! Read on...

http://www.reverbnation.com/c/fan_reach/pt?eid=3160780_13060946&url=www.derbydolls.com/sd

Tune into The Homegrown Hour every Saturday night at 9pm at 102.1 KPRIfm in San Diego or www.kprifm.com from anywhere. On January 23rd, I chat with San Diego's Derby Dolls... good times.

http://www.reverbnation.com/c/fan_reach/pt?eid=3123160_13060946&url=http://www.cathrynbeeks.com/wish-rock-ranch.html

Wish Rock Ranch. For years I've been annoying anyone who will listen with stories about my dream of having a bedNbreakfast, dude ranch, outdoor venue kinda thing. Recently, I got Jonny on board with the idea so I decided to name the place and start visualizing it a little more clearly. Enter Wish Rock. Here's hoping everyone's dreams come true this year!

TOM DELONGE'S sd HOUSE JUST GOT A LOT CHEAPER - Mark Hoppus says the neighbors are a-holes

WSJ.com reports: Tom DeLonge, frontman for blink-182, has cut the price on his Rancho Santa Fe home to just under $5 million, about 25% less than what he spent on the house, renovations and décor.

The single-story house, first listed for $6.25 million in 2007, sits on 1.1 acres in a gated golf community of Rancho Santa Fe, about 25 miles north of San Diego. The guitarist and vocalist paid $5.5 million for the house in 2005 with his wife, Jennifer, an interior designer who redecorated the home. The five-bedroom, five-bath house of 6,500 square feet was built in 2003 and comes with a pool. The DeLonges are looking for a bigger property for their family, according to their agent, Laura Barry of Barry Estates.

I guess it makes sense that rockers as rich as the guys in blink 182 can afford to deep discount. "I guess this is growing up..." and all that, dontcha know.

So it's kind of a hoot to discover that in 2007, three years before Tom DeLonge opted out of homeownership in Rancho Santa Fe, the debut album by +44 with Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker included a track dissing Hoppus' former neighbors in oh-so-upscale neighborhood.

His rage against the Rancho is mainly directed at the neighborhood's homeowners association. Hoppus told newstimeslive.com “There's a song called ‘Lillian’ on the record that's about people that try to control other people's lives...And there's a place in San Diego called Rancho Santa Fe, which is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in my life. It's country sides, rolling hills, there's trees everywhere. It's this gorgeous place, and it's filled with some of the most backstabbing, evil, just bitter, bitter people in the world."

"The homeowners association is very strict and it's strange because everybody who lives there is very wealthy…They're just bitter and it's a sour, sour community. The woman who started the homeowners association there is a woman named Lillian. So it's kind of about people trying to control one another.”

Hoppus seems pretty bitter and sour himself, judging from the tune's lyrics:

"The place I used to live, made me feel like a tourist - I couldn't coexist with the cold and suspicious - When the last remaining left was starting to filter - It seemed the perfect time to step into the future

Your heart is no grave to be perfectly honest - Your mouth's a smoking gun -And you smile while your twisting the knife in my stomach - Until everything is gone - Take all you can from me I've got weak constitution - I'm led so easily So easily

I left it all behind, in the dead of last winter - I left it all behind, but the question still lingers - So long forgotten friends, no, you don't know the difference - Between love and submission, and I'm not that obedient

I expect the next +44 album will include a tirade against Hoppus' Porsche mechanic ("Fixed my air with faulty parts, now my leather interior smells like farts").

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FREE ANGELS & AIRWAVES ALBUM

In a recent Modcam, Tom DeLonge revealed the tracklist for the new Angels and Airwaves album LOVE, according to AbsolutePunk.

The site reports that album will be offered as a free download and will be followed up with a physical release that contains 30 extra minutes of music used in the LOVE movie.

Track Listing 1. The Flight of Apollo 2. It Hurts So Badly 3. Young London 4. Epic Holiday 5. Clevor Love 6. Triumphant 7. Hush 8. Dear God 9. Hallucinations 10. Atomic 11. Seque (sunshine) - AbsolutePunk

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STRAWBERRY ALARM PUMPKINS

Antimusic reports: Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan is not only hard at work on new music of his own; he's busy inking bands to be on a brand new label. The eclectic label will feature a diverse roster ranging from underground punk legends The Germs to 60s psychedelic rockers The Strawberry Alarm Clock as well as The Electric Prunes, Starchildren, Fancy Space People and YaHoWha 13.

The announcement was made in the following blog entry on Wednesday:

A quick update on the Pumpkins recordings for Teargarden By Kaleidyscope: We have 5 songs mixed and another song is tracked and ready to be mixed. Song number 2 should be ready for download within the next 2 weeks. I will let you know when we have a solid date.

Billy and I are happy to announce the birth of our record label! The name of the label will be made public soon. (We need to make sure that we have the name rights before we can announce it.) We are very excited to be collaborating with amazing artists that have made a huge impact on the underground music world... From the psychedelic garage rock of the 60's and the punk rock insanity of the 70's and 80's to the post-punk Pleiadian power-pop that is now. - more on this story

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"TOO MANY TRAILS, MAN" - OR "WHY I STOPPED TAKING PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS....."

Because who can get any work done with all THIS going on????

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SDMA Youtube Channel!

FYI San Diego reports: There is a major anniversary ahead for the San Diego Music Awards and in prep, a Youtube channel has gone up featuring clips from the show throughout the decades! More clips and items will be posted soon, but 70 exclusive videos are now up, including Jason Mraz, The Zeros, Rocket From The Crypt, Switchfoot, Jewel, The Beat Farmers, The Album Leaf, Slightly Stoopid, Jack Tempchin, Charles McPherson, Mojo Nixon and many, many more! Solid proof of just how incredible our music scene is!

http://www.youtube.com/user/slammsd1

Angels & Airwaves, featuring Blink-182 guitarist Tom DeLonge, will release their third studio album, Love, for free, on Feb. 14, aka, Valentine's Day.

Anya Marina performed "Satellite Heart" on The Bonnie Hunt Show December 2^nd

Benedictum front-woman Veronica Freeman will be guest singer on, “The Gods Have No Reply,” a song from the Chilean band, Vastator, who will be releasing a new CD this year!

Blink 182 is the latest group to be getting a biopic. To be directed by Brandon Flores?

An album collecting songs penned by Dave Howard, but recorded by other artists, is in the works.

Dave Humphries is wrapping up his new album with contributions from Zeros bassist Hector Penalosa and Regina Leonard.

Frankie Laine will be the first inductee in the Little Italy Walk of Fame. The ceremony will be March 23 2010.

Jason Mraz and the Muppets teamed up with the Muppets on Dec. 24 for a “special” version of “I’m Yours.” Look for it on Youtube and in syndication.

Mark DeCerbo is compiling a second volume of Four Eyes rarities.

Mike Keneally is working on follow up albums to 2009’s Scambot 1 and Scambot 2. They will be called Scambot 3 and Scambot 4. Also look for a re-issue of Beer For Dolphin’s, Sluggo.

Mower head out on tour Jan. 16, hitting eight states before they perform in San Diego again on Feb. 19 at the 710 Beach Club.

New Day Mile’s song, “Between The Guns” will appear on the DVD / new film “Gamer.”

Anoushaka Shankar appears on Joshua Bell's new album, At Home With Friends. They perform the track titled "Variant Moods - Duet For Sitar & Violin,” which was written by Ravi Shankar.

Patric Petrie is working on a new album tentatively titled, Evergreen.

Skid Roper’s new album is set to be called, Rock ‘n’ Roll Part 3.

The Zeros follow their January 2 show at the Casbah with a tour of Europe, opening January 5 in Munster, Germany and also including shows in Spain.

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MORE CASBAH REUNIONS

Jan. 2 – The Zeros

Jan. 16 - Creedle

Jan. 22 – The Dave & Deke Combo

Jan. 23 – The Dragons

Jan. 30 – Manual Scan, The Town Criers (NOTE: The previously announced Penetrators reunion announced for this date is NOT happening - the band cites "personal reasons")

www.casbahmusic.com

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LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, CBS

Mo 1/18: Kristen Bell, Randy Jackson, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Tu 1/19: Dwayne Johnson, the Swell Season
We 1/20: Claire Danes, Will Arnett, James Taylor & Carole King
Th 1/21: Harrison Ford, Blind Boys of Alabama with Lou Reed
Fr 1/22: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jeff Stilson, the Heavy

THE JAY LENO SHOW, NBC

Mo 1/18: Emily Blunt, Ringo Starr & Ben Harper
Tu 1/19: Chelsea Handler, Michael Jordan
We 1/20: James Cameron, Selena Gomez
Th 1/21: Billy Crystal, Zoe Saldana

THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, NBC

Mo 1/18: Martin Scorsese, Colin Firth, a performance from Cirque du Soleil's "Kooza"
Tu 1/19: Tom Hanks, Paul Bettany, Spoon

JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE, ABC

Mo 1/18: Chevy Chase, Elisha Cuthbert, Melanie Fiona (R 1/12/10)
Tu 1/19: Dennis Quaid, Ty Burrell, Orianthi
We 1/20: Paul Bettany, "Bachelor" Jake Pavelka, Pearl
Th 1/21: Dwayne Johnson, Dwayne Kennedy
Fr 1/22: Jared Harris, Heartless Bastards

Mo 1/25: Joan Rivers, Dax Shepard, chef Paul Bartolotta (R 1/15/10)
Tu 1/26: Harrison Ford, Kristin Bell, Silversun Pickups
We 1/27: Mel Gibson, Kate Micucci, Mayer Hawthorne
Th 1/28: Will Arnett
Fr 1/29: Josh Duhamel, John Mayer

Mo 2/1: Evangeline Lilly, Katharine McPhee (R 1/14/10)
Tu 2/2: Lady Antebellum
We 2/3: TBA
Th 2/4: The Bravery
Fr 2/5: Ozzy Osbourne

LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON, CBS

Mo 1/18: Marion Cotillard, Steve Jones
Tu 1/19: Alan Alda, Anna Kendrick
We 1/20: Keri Russell, Jake Johannsen
Th 1/21: Adam Goldberg, Abbie Cornish
Fr 1/22: Jamie Hyneman & Adam Savage, the HotRats

Mo 1/25: Carl Reiner
Tu 1/26: Quentin Tarantino, Adrianne Palicki
We 1/27: Eddie Izzard
Th 1/28: Rosie O'Donnell, Wilco
Fr 1/29: Jon Heder, Corinne Bailey Rae, Dana Eagle

LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON, NBC

Mo 1/18: Ashley Judd, Jimmie Johnson, the Cribs
Tu 1/19: Randy Jackson, Paul Teutul Sr., the Mountain Goats
We 1/20: Switchfoot
Th 1/21: A performance by the Broadway cast of "Fela!"
Fr 1/22: Brendan Fraser, Tracey Ullman, Beach House

LAST CALL WITH CARSON DALY, NBC

Mo 1/18: Weezer (R 11/26/09)
Tu 1/19: Adam Scott, Leticia Bufoni, the XX (R 12/10/09)
We 1/20: David Duchovny, Tor Hamer, Anya Marina (R 12/11/09)
Th 1/21: Dita Von Teese, Tanith Belbin, Ben Agosto, Ben Gleib (R 12/15/09)
Fr 1/22: Joel David Moore, David Guetta, Gossip (R 12/16/09)

Mo 1/25: Jason Reitman, Kenna, Franz Ferdinand (R 12/17/09)
Tu 1/26: Snoop Dogg (R 12/18/09)
We 1/27: Glenn Howerton, Chad Hedrick, Cold War Kids (R 10/9/09)
Th 1/28: Chris Kattan, Nuttin But Stringz, Lily Allen (R 10/13/09)
Fr 1/29: Charlie Hunnam, Erin Hamlin, Phoenix (R 10/14/09)

TAVIS SMILEY, PBS

Mo 1/18: Harry Belafonte
Tu 1/19: Marion Cotillard
We 1/20: Jason Reitman, Paul Ingrassia
Th 1/21: Jim Wallis
Fr 1/22: Keri Russell, Walter Isaacson

THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART, Comedy Central

Mo 1/18: David M. Walker
Tu 1/19: Colin Firth
We 1/20: Jim Wallis
Th 1/21: Julie Andrews

THE COLBERT REPORT, Comedy Central

Mo 1/18: Dr. Margaret Palmer, Emily Pilloton
Tu 1/19: Amb. Stephen Bosworth
We 1/20: Dick Ebersol
Th 1/21: John Farmer

CHELSEA LATELY, E!

Mo 1/18: David Arquette, Michelle Collins, Randy Sklar, Jason Sklar
Tu 1/19: Arden Myrin, Eric Price, Chris Hardwick
We 1/20: Kaley Cuoco, Ross Mathews, Heather McDonald, Lavell Crawford
Th 1/21: Sarah Colonna, Guy Branum, Michael Yo
Fr 1/22: Giuliana & Bill Rancic, Brad Wollack, Natasha Leggero, Matt Braunger (R 1/11/10)

LOPEZ TONIGHT, TBS

Mo 1/18: Amber Valletta, Mark Valley, Christian Lander
Tu 1/19: Brendan Fraser, Khloe Kardashian, Lamar Odom
We 1/20: Tyrese Gibson, Betty White, Hannibal Buress
Th 1/21: Samuel L. Jackson, Omarion

THE VIEW, ABC

Mo 1/18: A day of hot topics
Tu 1/19: Megan Mullally, Dr. Doris Day
We 1/20: Martin Short, Erin Karpluk
Th 1/21: Julie Andrews
Fr 1/22: Diane von Furstenberg

Mo 1/25: Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos
Tu 1/26: TBA
We 1/27: TBA
Th 1/28: Kevin McKidd
Fr 1/29: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Angela Lansbury, Oscar de la Renta

LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY, syndicated

Mo 1/18: Jeff Bridges, Ian Somerhalder, Peter Gros and animals, Carrie Underwood
Tu 1/19: Randy Jackson, Ashley Judd
We 1/20: Dwayne Johnson, Becki Newton
Th 1/21: Brendan Fraser
Fr 1/22: Harrison Ford, Lucy Lawless, guest co-host Anderson Cooper

Mo 1/25: Glenn Close, Tracey Ullman
Tu 1/26: Martin Short, Josh Duhamel
We 1/27: Claire Danes, guest co-host David Duchovny
Th 1/28: Julianne Moore, guest co-host Jeff Probst
Fr 1/29: Kristen Bell

THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW, syndicated

Mo 1/18: Keith Urban, "Bachelor" Jake Pavelka, 10-year-old twin singers Darius & Demetrice Gillespie
Tu 1/19: Jeff Bridges, Tom Ford, Matt Morris, Justin Timberlake
We 1/20: Dennis Quaid
Th 1/21: Colin Firth, Dr. Drew Pinsky
Fr 1/22: Sean Hayes, Ingrid Michaelson

Mo 1/25: TBA
Tu 1/26: Will Arnett
We 1/27: Jenna Elfman, Chris Harrison, Lady Antebellum
Th 1/28: Corinne Bailey Rae
Fr 1/29: Josh Duhamel, Matthew Bomer

THE BONNIE HUNT SHOW, syndicated

Mo 1/18: Billy Ray Cyrus, Keke Palmer, J.J. Virgin
Tu 1/19: Richard Simmons, Patti Stanger, Adam Scott
We 1/20: Kara DioGuardi, Chris Parnell
Th 1/21: Camryn Manheim, Cat Cora
Fr 1/22: Paul Bettany, Robyn Okrant
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TOP 10 COVERS BY LOCALS

(Bart Mendoza) It’s true that San Diego’s musicians (past & present) have penned a slew of incredible songs, but they’re also not adverse to throwing in the occasional cover tune into their live set list. Here’s ten interesting pairings:

1) Switchfoot / Beyonce – “Crazy In Love” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heiswnjSVuU
2) Ratt / Fleetwood Mac – “Oh Well”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deHM9w4vDcE
3) The Beat Farmers / The Sex Pistols – “Anarchy in The UK”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVIz_RhqgH0
4) Blink 182 / The Cure – “ A Letter to Elise” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p5Ct6-hHTs
5) The Softlightes / The Talking Heads – “This Must Be The Place”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3-KNMIsnmw
6) Cindy Lee Berryhill / Tears For Fears –“Mad World”
Live at a benefit concert to help cover medical costs for her husband, author Paul Williams.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGqLfhjnHiM
7) Pea Hix & Marie Haddad / Yazoo – “ “Nobody’s Diary”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=496vAA8jY3g
8) Sara Petite / Johnny Cash – “Folsom Prison Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYDsGikd6xE
9) Nickel Creek / Britney Spears – “Toxic”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuN2AhGq0Hs
10) Barbara Mandrell / Kenny Loggins – “Footloose”
This clip from her network variety show will leave you speechless... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqyhg39ixn4

Bonus:
11) Backdraft / Blink – 182 – “All The Small Things”
Kid band opening for Rockola – check out the crowd they are playing to at the end of the clip!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONzbJrVN4-Y

TOP 20 LOCAL BEATLES COVERS

Forty years after the fact, the Beatles have the top selling album of the decade, so it’s no surprise that they are probably the most covered act of all time, the “classical” music of the modern era. San Diegan’s have not been immune to this phenomenon:

1) Kenny Eng / “Come Together”
Live at Lestat’s July 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-rMaMzU7FQ
2) Jason Mraz / “In My Life”
The final song at his Cricket Amphitheatre concert Oct 11, 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XRxA1tcK2o
3) San Diego Men’s Chorus / “Let It Be”
Live at the Balboa Theatre April 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz0lQUwaNuw
4) Jon Foreman and a bunch of other guys / “With A Little Help From My Friends”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdL7UGvRI4s
5) Rusty Jones / “I’ve Just Seen A Face”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK5vkzyPQ8k
6) Stephen Bishop / “I Call Your Name”
Live in London, before Sir George Martin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezwKr7BUTqY
7) Schmooze / “And Your Bird can Sing”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMNHAlZeOJ4
8) AJ Croce / “Maybe I’m Amazed”
With singer Ari Hest and Coco Love Alcorn. Yes, this is technically a solo McCartney track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK05QodE45Q
9) Rookie Card / “Back In The USSR”
It’s said the timing is everything. Here’s proof.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TJIrHKkkEw
10) Peter Sprague & Fred Benedetti / “She’s Leaving Home” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq5Ub2a65MI
11) Mark Goffney / “Let it Be”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XtCcvU6eVM
12) The Big Fellas / “With A Little Help From My Friend” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AZBH-XbEvk
13) 921 / "Day Tripper"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78Mcg-7UbW8
14) Rhythm & The Method / “Come Together”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSh_9tKg_zo
15) Lexington Field / “I’ve Just Seen A Face”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlHmCVSQlR0
16) Gregory Page with The Shambles / “I’m Only Sleeping”
My band backing the esteemed Mr. Page on November 29, 2009 at The Casbah.
http://www.youtube.com/user/LosShambles#p/f/9/EEFivLnaFSI

In A Category of their own:

17) “Yellow Trolley Line”
A song about The San Diego Trolley System, sung to the tune of …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxeZhii0Mt0
18) Exclamation Films / “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”
It takes a little while to get there, but this clip features the song set in Balboa Park http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2XblEruKzc
19) “Day Tripper”
A short clip of two fans lost in the music at Seaport Village :- ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzVbq8w5cfI
20) “Hey Jude / Let it Be“
From the description: “This is a collection of songs recorded on my camera in the back of my friend Matt's truck in the parking lot of the San Diego Zoo” Spot on, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG8IxvzdtFU

BONUS) I-8 / “Flying”
Just what it says! Footage shot driving down I-8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHvufmPbAl0

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TOP 12 WEB CELEBS TO WATCH FOR IN 2010

I frankly don’t know how the world ever got by before the internet. Seriously. Over the past few years, I’ve been so hardwired to the web that I swear I dream in html. So much of my time is spent clicking --- my left hand can barely hold onto a pencil, while my right hand can crush a Volkswagen --- In the year or so since we set up www.myspace.com/sandiegoreadermusic, and since launching the new website and blog around two years ago, a lot of amazing online video auteurs have come to our attention. Here are a dozen up-n-coming webheads that we think are the TOP 12 WEB CELEBS TO WATCH FOR IN 2010…………………

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/nov/30/top-dozen-web-celebs-to-watch-for-in-2010/

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TOP FIVE MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS OF THE ROCK ERA

5) Heavy Metal - lots of songs done just for the movie, with Blue Oyster Cult even providing thematic backstory for the Harry Canyon segment accompanying their song "Veteran of the Psychic Wars." The soundtrack came out on vinyl in 1981, but problems over song rights kept the movie out of video stores for almost two decades. Other great cuts include the title tune by Sammy Hagar, "Working in a Coal Mine" (Devo), "Reach Out" (Cheap Trick), "Queen Bee" (Grand Funk), and an alternate verion of "The Mob Rules" by Dio-era Black Sabbath.

4) Rock & Rule - mostly songs done for the movie, including Lou Reed (singing the Jagger-like lead baddie's theme song "My Name is Mok"), Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry (who played a role too), Cheap Trick, and a fantastic Earth Wind & Fire cut. The movie almost bankrupted legendary Canadian studio Nelvana, while the somewhat more adult-oriented Heavy Metal feature stole much of Rock & Rule's thunder - the fascinating tale is told at The Rock & Rule Homepage .

3) Lost Boys - space goth representing the best work ever done by Foreigner's Lou Gramm, plus Echo and the Bunnymen doing a cover version of "People Are Strange" that makes the Doors look like the stoner-led lucky hacks they always were.

2) Hedwig and the Angry Inch - great rock opera, all original music by Steven Trask and John Cameron Mitchell. Probably the best movie ever made about a transsexual East German rock star with a one-inch penis ----

1) Velvet Goldmine - a few original glam tracks, but mostly new versions done by various glam supergroup lineups for the soundtrack (I think they let Ewn McGregor sing one of the songs in the movie, but it's someone else's voice on the soundtrack album). The 1998 movie essentially took the true tales of David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, and Lou Reed, to craft an imaginary and colorful account of a Ziggy Stardust-like seventies glam rock superstar -

As detailed on Wikipedia, the English musicians who played under the name The Venus in Furs on the soundtrack were Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, David Gray, Suede's Bernard Butler, and Roxy Music's Andy Mackay. The American musicians who played as Curt Wild's Wylde Ratttz on the soundtrack were The Stooges' Ron Asheton, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley, Minutemen's Mike Watt, Gumball's Don Fleming, and Mark Arm of Mudhoney.

The soundtrack features new songs written for the film by Pulp, Shudder to Think and Grant Lee Buffalo,as well as many early glam rock compositions, both covers and original versions. The Venus in Furs covers several Roxy Music songs with Thom Yorke channeling Bryan Ferry on vocals, Placebo covers T.Rex's "20th Century Boy," Wylde Ratttz and Ewan McGregor cover The Stooges' "T.V. Eye" and "Gimme Danger", and Teenage Fanclub and Donna Matthews cover The New York Dolls' "Personality Crisis." Lou Reed, Brian Eno, T.Rex, and Steve Harley songs from the period are also included. The album is rounded out by a piece of Carter Burwell's film score.

All three members of the band Placebo also appeared in the film, with Brian Molko and Steve Hewitt playing members of the Flaming Creatures (Malcolm and Billy respectively) and Stefan Olsdal playing Polly Small's bassist.

http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/large_images/305/40143305.jpg

I debated hard over whether to list Times Square (1980) rather than one of the above choices, because I probably play that soundtrack album more than any of the others - but only a few of its songs are unique to the soundtrack. And some of the tracks that turn up elsewhere, like Patti Smith's "P-ssing in the River," are early versions that are kinda plain by comparison.

Plus, the movie has Tim Curry in the cast, one of the greatest and most versatile rock/cabaret/Broadway singers ever, but they don't use him on the soundtrack. Great little rock movie, if kinda surreal and goofy - I found a website with the whole 2-album set - http://vinnierattolle.blogspot.com/2007/02/no-sense-makes-sense.html

Same website has downloadable audio files with two of Tim Curry's best albums, and an offbeat "Greatest Hits" collection of Curry cuts --

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ALSO SEE:

Tim Curry Rocks - Tim Curry has enjoyed a vastly and inexplicably underrated music career. Curry’s big, booming voice was perfectly suited for the theatrical rock opera-esque songs, most of which managed to be both gritty urban and feather-fay at the same time – think Springsteen concert as staged by Twyla Tharp... www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/nov/17/tim-curry-rocks---a-custom-designed-dream-concert

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HEROIN HEARTACHE: MEGADETH VS EX-MEGADETH

Antimusic reports: It appears that a full-scale verbal war has broken out between Dave Mustaine and former Megadeth guitarist Jeff Young. Mustaine fired the first salvo during a recent interview with Undercover.com.au. Classic Rock reports that in the interview Mustaine claimed that the band's 1988 Australian tour had to be cancelled because Young had run out of heroin and insisted on going back to America.... Inevitably, Young has hit back, calling Mustaine "a lying piece of sh-t". But there is more

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COMING IN 2010 - ROCK 'N' ROLL COMICS: JOAN JETT AND THE RUNAWAYS

Here's a sneak peek at the cover art for the full-color Runaways issue of Rock 'N' Roll Comics, which will be released to tie in to the Runaways movie --- www.myspace.com/rocknrollcomics

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DEBATING JOSS WHEDON'S DOLLHOUSE - THE ABBEY ROAD OF TELEVISION??

ccn43 Joss Whedon’s newest TV show Dollhouse = it took me awhile to get into the debut season. Starring the actress who played Faith the Vampire Slayer in Whedon’s Buffy series, it’s kind of about mercantile Stepford Wives of the Future, with a secret organization that rents out programmed humans whose brains are emptied and refilled of skills and life histories like they were hard drives.

Which, essentially, is what brains are. But the open question is what happens to the soul if the rest of whatever makes up a person is digitized and stored away in the Dollhouse “attic.”

Dollhouse IMO at first played too much with Mission Impossible/Charlie’s Angel identity-swap adventures but, by the end of the season, much more was revealed about the more metaphysical and philosophical aspects of the storyline, especially as to the nature of the soul and the fluid morality (or lack thereof) of all involved ---

ccn44 At the 2008 Comic-Con, they screened the unaired 13th Dollhouse episode, Epitaph One. BUT, you don’t want me to spoil anything by revealing what it’s about, do you? You DO? Well...it takes place in the future, within the long-abandoned Dollhouse, beneath a city that may also have been destroyed. You’ll have to get the season one DVD set (out at the end of the month) to see it –

Whedon did reveal that Alexis Denisof, the actor who played Wesley in Buffy and Angel, would be in the next season of Dollhouse, as would Summer Glau from Whedon's short-lived Firefly series (and the cancelled Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles).

This year's SECOND (and, as it turns out, final) season immediately pulled a Serling/Shyamalan/O Henry turnaround of everything the viewers thought they knew ----

As Dollhouse continues to astound with its mind-blowing final episodes, I realize that creative mastermind Joss Whedon is the Beatles of television. Breaking new ground, in new ways, and creating all new storytelling templates that people will still be trying to figure out for years to come ---

Buffy was his Sgt. Pepper - perfecting the formula, then rewriting it from scratch --

Angel, his White Album - some wonky sidetrips, but even his most dense and dare-you-to-follow-me work is engaging and, ultimately, timeless.

Firefly was his surprise left turn into Yellow Submarine/Magical Mystery Tour - at least a cool movie came out of it, one still Whedon-tronic, if somewhat diluted so the masses could at least peek in the door.

Dollhouse is Joss Whedon's Abbey Road. Pitch perfect, every note. All together now, nothing he can do that can't be done - he makes it look so easy!!

I anxiously await the final three eps when the show takes its final bows, beginning January 8th ----

COMIC BOOK CREATOR SS CROMPTON (Demi the Demoness) REPLIES: While I agree with most of what you said about Joss’ work, I have to say that Doll house if far more like his “You know my name look up the number” or the Beatles Christmas Fan Albums, than Abby Road. Dollhouse was virtually unwatchable and pointless. And like some of the Beatles at their drug-induced silliest, it proves that not everything someone does is always a classic – sometimes, it’s just bad.

Sorry, guess it just wasn’t my cup of tea – love the rest of his stuff though - Steve

JAS REPLIES: Hey Steve,

Unless you've been watching ALL the eps from the beginning thru the last few bugfuggen crazy two-hour blocks, I'm afraid I must discount your opinion as uninformed. Much like the best work of, say, Rod Serling and Charles Beaumont, the beginning of the show was mostly "red herring" misleading, in that it chose NOT to set up a framework for future events.

Rather, the earliest eps instead lulled you into the complacent belief that you were settling in for something akin to Stepford-Wives-Meets-La-Femme-Nikita, only to instead flip the script into a far more wide-ranging and mind-blowing take on Sartre's No Exit vis-a-vis Gibson Neuromancer and the second story arc of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series (also called, not coincidentally I'm sure, The Doll's House).

Fellow Revolutionary Comics contrib Alec Scott compared Dollhouse's stream of consciousness storytelling to none other than roach-crazed WTF-specialist William Burroughs ----

You and I tend to have similar tastes in fiction, Steve - I bet if you watch the inevitable box DVD set of Dollhouse sometime down the line, including/especially the unaired "future" ep from the season one set, you'll be thanking me for drawing your attention to this epic twist on TV sci-fi and horror (you may have stopped watching even before the "horror" flavor brewed to the top of the mix - if so, you're REALLY missing out ---- ).

Even more so than the final eps of Star Trek Enterprise (which you chided Jamie for not sticking around long enough to witness), Dollhouse is going out with one of the biggest bangs to end all bangs ---- It's too late (and too involved) to jump into thu final three eps cold, but you could always stream older eps from the website and THEN enjoy the finale(s) ----

JAS

SS CROMPTON: Well I only watched the first 4 episodes, so maybe you are right, but those four episodes were so bad…Here were my beefs and probably why the show failed with the general public…

Because she’s a “different personality” every episode, you never get to really know or like the main character. When she’s in Doll mode –she and the rest of the “dolls” are basically like retarded adults – not much to like there either. The main programmer purposely gives the “Doll” weaknesses (like anxiety attacks and blindness?? And nobody in the organization even questions that – wtf?) That would be like the defense department having a cruise missile that randomly turns off it’s radar or explodes if it’s raining – makes no sense.

People seem to be able to find and hire the dolls with no trouble at all, but somehow the CIA the FBI and the NSA can’t find them. Even though they have a permanent fancy headquarters filled with scientific equipment and lots of people working there.

No main villain or enemy group (at least not in the first 4 episodes) Just a different generic bad guy she could defeat each week. Kind of like the old Superman TV show, where you knew there was no way the gangster was going to defeat Superman. (I suspect that’s why they added (weaknesses) to the Doll, because otherwise, she would just walk in and defeat the bad guys in 5 minutes with no trouble at all.

But – You are probably right, it sounds like it got better. Joss just waited too long to get the story moving forward. You can fool the audience successfully in a 2 hour movie - (Sixth Sense is a great example of this) but you better make the story that viewers think they are watching be engaging and somewhat logical – and the beginning episodes of the show just were not. Trying to drag it out for an entire season was just a terrible idea. He should have introduced at least some MAJOR hints about where the show was going early on. If those hints where there – he hid them too well - Steve

JAS REPLIES: I'll concede the slow (and ultimately misleading) startup - I almost tuned out. BUT, to carry the Beatles comparison even further, what if you had given up on Abbey Road after the third song, Paul's "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," which John refused to even perform on, calling it just another of Paul's "Granny songs." By almost any measure, a kinda crappy song (until/unless performed by Steve Martin!) You would never have gotten the back of your skull blown off by subsequent side-one cuts like "Oh! Darling" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)."

That's how sharp a left turn Dollhouse took. The "mission of the week" aspect was just one of the red herrings I mention - the drama has since become much more internal, not just by withdrawing into the Dollhouse(s) but into the very minds of the characters themselves.

Well worth giving another shot, I assure!

AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR ALEC SCOTT CHIMES IN: Hey, Jay, been reading the back-and-forth. Have to say, I agree with you. Steve's point, about the first few eps, is a valid one -- no real personality to identify with -- but, as you pint out, only when taken by themselves. Taken all together, we realize that, from the beginning, Echo, a real identity and character of her own -- whose existence is only informed by the existence of Caroline, not to mention all the characters she's been over time -- and that THAT'S who's been trying to, and is now succeeding at, breaking through into her own.

I agree, too, that these last episodes are mindf-cking brilliant, the kind of stuff that only people like Lynch and Kaufman (Charlie) have dealt with on any comparable (cinematic) level in the past -- and even *they* didn't have this broad a canvas to work with.

So Abbey Road as performed by Philip K. Dick is how I'd put it - Alec

WRITER/RESEARCHER JAMIE RALPH GARDNER: Dear Steve, How much of Joss Whedon's work have you seen? You told me that you saw part of 1 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and part of 1 episode of Angel. Have you seen Firefly, Serenity or Alien: Resurrection? During a conversation about Buffy on the phone, your description of the episode sounded like one of the episodes from the 5th to 7th season.

I think Buffy at it's best was during the first 4 seasons. I like later episodes but I think the show became much more uneven during the last 3 years. I think some of the weaknesses of the last 3 seasons have been brought in to the Buffy comic books. Sinn Sage (Vampirooni) was a viewer of Buffy and she thought the show went downhill in later seasons. She quit watching the show. I continued watching
Buffy, most of the time, through the final season.
Jamie Gardner

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HALFORD-GNR-ZEPPELIN VETS FORM TEMP SUPERGROUP

BW&BK reports: The Halford Slash Bonham Supergroup performed at 95.5 KLOS' Mark And Brian Christmas Show, which took place at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California on Wednesday, December 16th.

The band featured singer Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Slash (Velvet Revolver, Ex-Guns N' Roses) and Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin). Other guests included Steve Lukather (Toto) and Keith Emerson (Emerson, Lake & Palmer).

Halford's Metal God team captured exclusive rehearsal, sound check and performance footage. Once edited, the footage will be made available as a free download on a date to be confirmed next month (January 2010). - Set list

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MRAZ MEETS MUPPETS, SAVING SWITCHFOOT, ROLIE'S ROLL, MORE

Spend Christmas Eve with Jason Mraz and the Muppets. Mraz will be on Sesame Street Dec. 24 to sing a special version of "I'm Yours". more

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Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame inductee Gregg Rolie, best known for his vocals and keyboard work with Tijuana native son Santana and Journey, has caused a flurry of excitement with the release of his latest CD 'Rain Dance".

This live CD captures Gregg and his all-star band performing at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in 2007. The music press and fans alike have been raving about the new CD and have even compared Rolie's band to that of the original Santana group, in which Rolie was a founding member. "The reviews have been great," says Gregg. "The band and I are anxious to get out on the road and play as many cities as possible in 2010, 2011, 2012 and so on..."

'Rain Dance' features electrifying versions of several Santana classics such as :"Evil Ways", "Black Magic Woman" "Soul Sacrifice", "Jingo" and "No One To Depend On" as well as tracks from Rolie's previous effort 'Roots' and new songs. The Gregg Rolie Band consists of founding Santana member Michael Carabello on Congas, Adrian Areas (son of original Santana percussionist Jose Chepito Areas) on Timbales, drummer Ron Wikso (who was also in The Storm), Kurt Griffey on guitar, internationally acclaimed bassist, Chapman Stick artist and Santana alumni Alphonso Johnson and former Jean Luc Ponty keyboardist Wally Minko.

"The band is great, because we all really enjoy each other and I think the sound reflects the fun we are having," Gregg recently told Voices of Latin Rock. "We subtitle the band; 'Santana- the way you remember it' And at that gig in New York recently, we had half of the original Santana, that's about the closest you're ever gonna' get, to seeing that band together again! Michael Shrieve came down and sat in and it was fantastic! He is such a lyrical player and he makes me smile when he would do a certain thing or a fill and I'd remember his playing style, very much on the jazzier end but just so stylish. Ron Wikso my regular drummer is heavier and a real solid player too."

Gregg Rolie 'Rain Dance' CD is available through CD Baby. For more information visit the official website: - http://www.greggrolie.com

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Switchfoot will kick off 2010 with a performance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on Monday, January 4th. Later that week, the band will be one of two groups playing the ESPN National Championship Tailgate, which will take place at the Rose Bowl Stadium just before the Alabama Crimson Tide face the Texas Longhorns in the Citi BCS National Championship Game on January 7th.

The band has been playing sold-out shows since November, coinciding with the release of its latest album, Hello Hurricane, which debuted in the Top 15 of The Billboard 200. The North American tour, which has been extended through January, features Switchfoot playing the album in its entirety, followed by an assortment of fan favorites from its previous albums.

Switchfoot will continue to collect donations for local food banks along the way, so fans are encouraged to bring non-perishable items to the shows.

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Time and Space by Jay Allen Sanford

Experimental electric-soul songsmiths Children of Nova came together in summer 2007, featuring members of Atlas of Id and Temperature Delete... More

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DAVE MUSTAINE'S EGO VS SUICIDE SILENCE

Antimusic.com reports: Lambgoat is reporting that Suicide Silence left the Megadeth tour on not so good terms with the headlining act. While the tour was in its final days, there was apparently some behind the scenes trouble between Megadeth and Suicide Silence that was so bad that the band wasn't able to finish the trek.

Lambgoat reports: The official announcement from Suicide Silence is fairly standard: "We're sorry to announce that we won't be playing tonight in Reno, NV. Megadeth, Warbringer, and Arcanium will still be there so head out and show your support for those awesome bands!"

However, interestingly, we received the following news submission this morning: "Suicide Silence not allowed to play Reno due to Dave Mustaine's ego. Kicked off last two days of tour and had laminates removed." After digging around a bit, it appears that Suicide Silence drummer Alex Lopez posted the following update via Twitter: "Dave Mustaine kicked us off the Megadeth tour cuz he wanted to take our laminates for a little incident weeks ago, so we told him to f*ck off." That update has since be removed - more at Lambgoat

Rock Radio has a related story: Mustaine haS confirmed there will be another Megadeth album after Endgame - and he's already nearly finished writing it.

The revelation comes after months of speculation that Mustaine was planning to retire when he escaped from his current record deal with Roadrunner, which he's been unhappy with for some time. Even the album's title hinted that Megadeth might be winding down.

But now the thrash icon tells Metal Hammer: "I'm excited with what's going on in my band. I've got my book coming out and I've got this tour coming up with Slayer." On the new album: "I've got almost my entire next record ready to start recording, so I can start packing my bags." - more on this story

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS RECORDING NEW ALBUM TOO!

Scott Weiland tells Spinner.com that the band is "almost finished" recording its Don Was-produced new studio album. "There will probably be 11 songs on the record and we have nine completed already," he says. more

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FREE TRILLION DOLLARS FROM OBAMA!!

The government is handing out Trillions. Now you can too! Help spread the wealth and holiday cheer by forwarding this Trillion Dollar gift to all of your friends! Print and pass it on!

Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page to print out Trillion Dollar Bills and share the wealth!

Want another Trillion Dollar gift for your friends? Get the Trillion Dollar Bailout game! The perfect stocking stuffer only $7.99. Check it out!!!!

www.obamanationcardgame.com!!!

And HO HO HOBAMA!!!

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WHY ARE SO MANY PEOPLE HATING ON PATHOLOGY???

Jay Allen Sanford If you're into bands like Cattle Decapitation, the Locust, Megadeth, Entombed, Disgorge, or Cannibal Corpse, you'd probably like Pathology. Loud, dirty, metal, morbid imagery - not bad, nor special, but certainly not a band worth getting upset or worked up over.

Even considering the new press release announcing they've signed to Victory Records, which is written with such cheez and oblivious cluelessness that it practically cries out to be mocked. Which is what's happening, especially at www.blabbermouth.net ---

Album cover First, the press release, in italics - annotated in NON-italics are some of the reaction comments from site visitors (who are really into their metal).

San Diego, California-based death metal/grindcore band Pathology has inked a deal with Victory Records. Commented the group: "We have been working tirelessly at writing new music and are ecstatic to be putting our next album out through Victory."

posted by : crazytaco_12: Victory records f-cking sucks

"We would like to thank Tony and the Pathology team for their diligent efforts in bringing Pathology and Victory together. Most of all, we would like to thank the fans who've been there from day one to support us every step of the way. We are very excited and can't wait to release our yet-untitled 2010 album!"

posted by : X-Box: pure crap. Victory Records staff and trend jumpers

Pathology recently announced the addition of singer Pascual Romero (STRANGLED BY STRANGULATION, IN THIS MOMENT) to the group's ranks. According to the band, "Pascual is best known for being the vocalist of underground death metal band STRANGLED BY STRANGULATION as well as his tenure as the bass player for Century Media band IN THIS MOMENT. He brings years of writing, recording, and touring experience to the plate and we are very enthusiastic for what the future holds for us. He brought the presence and power that the band needed to reach the next plateau of true blasphemous death metal."

posted by : brutalcali23: What an utter joke. The new singers presence and power compared to Matti Way is laughable...Hell compared to Levi he is a joke. I saw them play in riverside and the drums on the cd are obviously edited because he can not even double bass properly or even play close to the cd. And the vocals wow, he has no power or presence at all. And the line about them touring across the states to spread there gospel in front of thousands of fans. I can barely type iam laughing so hard.

The band toured across the states on some self-booked tours and spread their gospel of filth to thousands of fans. The guttural bowl shaking vocals of Romero combined with Tim Tiszczenko's chainsaw guitar and Astor's lightening-fast blastbeats and breakdowns make for an earth shattering experience of pure, vomit inducing metal."

posted by : sinewayve: Why is thei news peice so full of bullsh-t? They have never "toured across the states" like it says in there! They've cancelled 10 times more than they have actually completed.why are they signed again?

posted by : brutalcali23: They have done like 5 f-cking shows for 3 full length cds. So obviously victory has never even seen them live. Just more proof of how gay a label is that signs a band and never sees them play live before hand. One thing is for certain this band with all its claims, lies and terrible live performances will always provide a good laugh. F-CK OFF pathology you guys could be the poster boys for the word posers. And with all the lies and false claims you guys make, well lets just say karma can be a bitch.

Pathology's latest album, Age of Onset was released in May via Comatose Music. The CD was recorded at Double Time Studio in El Cajon, California. The cover artwork was created by Pär Olofsson.

posted by : Punisher of Weaklings: This band f-cking sucks!... This band is total bullsh-t! Victory sucks hard.

Pathology was formed in the beginning of 2006 by Dave Astor (Being Killed, the Locust, Cattle Decapitation). The band's debut album, Surgically Hacked was released in September 2006 on Amputated Vein Records (Japan). In July 2007, Pathology signed with Grindhead Records (Australia) to release the band's crushing malpractice, Incisions Of Perverse Debauchery (2008).

posted by : sinewayve: This sh-t is incredibly boring and has zero to do with the locust, in this momnet or even cattle decap! And didn't cattle decap kick out the guy because he didn't want to tour? Boring ass stuff and like 10 years too late haha sounds like 6 feet under trying to play broken hope and failing. Another waste of time and money for victory records.

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=131889

Jay Allen Sanford Wow! I guess some people really get worked up over Pathology, and over Victory Records. They DO go thru members - just this year, secondary singer Mason Gregory left the band, as did lead singer Matti Way in September, coming after the previous defection of singer/guitarist Levi Fuselier.

I just played a couple of Pathology songs off Surgically Hacked - certainly better than at least half of Megadeth's recorded output. Or Anthrax's, for that matter, and those are supposedly among the biggest, most successful metal acts ever ---

I wonder what Pathology/Victory have done to p-ss so many people off, just at the mention of their names????

Related links

Blurt: "Cyber Skullduggery" (May 20, 2009)
Blurt: "Strange Stage Moments"

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San Diegans on Saturday Night Live? (By Bart Mendoza) Ever wonder what San Diego-related music artists have appeared to date on Saturday Night Live ?? Here ya go, with artist / host:

02/21/76 Desi Arnaz

12/11/76 Frank Zappa / Candice Bergen

04/09/77 Tom Waits / Julian Bond

03/11/78 Stephen Bishop / Art Garfunkel

10/11/78 Frank Zappa

04/11/92 Pearl Jam / Sharon Stone

11/20/93 Stone Temple Pilots / Nicole Kidman

04/16/94 Pearl Jam / Emilio Estevez

05/10/97 Jewel / John Goodman

11/14/98 Jewel / Joan Allen

01/08/00 Blink 182 / Jamie Foxx

04/20/02 POD / Alec Baldwin

04/15/02 Pearl Jam / Lindsay Lohan

10/04/08 The Killers (w/ Ray Suen) / Anne Hathaway

01/31/09 Jason Mraz / Steve Martin

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DINOSAUR JR. REVIEWS SAN DIEGO AND THE BELLY UP - Lou Barlow's Tour Diary 11-4-09

Solana Beach, CA 11/4
Solana Beach is just north of San Diego. Our day begins in San Diego at a radio station. Dinosaur Jr is meant to do an acoustic session. So Tim and Noel have schlepped one of my bass amps and one of J’s to the tiny broadcast booth.

We are greeted by the DJ, who immediately and forcefully entices us with offers of free strings and guitar pedals. As he is mentioning all of the amazing free things he gets, I realize that I will be getting none of it. Do I ask for his number and then pester him over the next few weeks for his friend at insert-company-name’s number? Do I have “my people” contact him? I have no idea.

As confusing as that is, the performance and interview go well. The DJ is a pro. The best part, however, is J’s resistance:

DJ: Would you like to do another song?
J: Of course not.

Something about San Diego and its skate culture seems driven by a devotion to promotion. I find it bewildering. As the skate guys get older their long shorts, XL logo tees and baseball caps make them look like gigantic 7-year-olds.

As plugged in to that scene as Dino Jr are, I am alienated by it. Every time I sign a skateboard, I feel like a fraud.

Our friend O, photographer/musician, greets us at the radio station. I don’t know how he does it, but he$is there wherevmr and whenever e roll into towj. There may be |wo or three idebtical O’s in San Diego He is the most mysterious, down-to-earth person I have ever met. He seems to have superpowers, a knowledge of all amplifiers, recordinc gear and food. It’s always great to see him.

Off to phe club, a fancq place, usually$host to internapional blues actw and non-punk
fare. It’s the sister club to the Belly Up in Aspen. Aspen: the rich person’s playground. There is definitely an aspect of that here: seating on the sides, lots of wood. I guess we’ve moved up from the Casbah (the cozy punk-rock bar that has hosted 95% of my visits to S.D.). I’m ambivalent about that, but equally happy to have a new neighborhood to explore. There’s an antique mall across the street. I buy a vintage Preskool Little People school bus for $26. I want my kids to have the Little People experience. I buy Noel (our long suffering sound engineer) a Bruce Springsteen 7" (the Boss has been a theme on this tour). He’s been doing sound for Dino AND my band for a month.

Everyone’s got it easy compared to Noel: under fire every night, 36 speakers shooting knives, the audience screaming at him, "More vocals!: It’s a damn shame what we put that man through. He seems pleased when I hand him the single. There’s a version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town’” on the b-side.

The show goes smoothly. I’m happy to say that I am not nervous about playing L.A. tomorrow. The oft-dreaded hometown gig. Plus, Tom’s girlfriend is driving us home tonight. I’ll be back in my house by 3 a.m.!

(From Lou Barlow and Dinosaur Jr. Tour Diary - Tempe/Solana Beach - 11/3-4/09 - Paste Magazine )

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NEW MUSIC NIGHT - JUMP & JIVE

The "Burrito Brothers" are Action Andy (Haunted Honky Tonkers, Sleepwalkers), along with Victor Penalosa (the Zeros, the Fuzztones, the Records, the Melanies). Penalosa is currently recording a new album with Mike Kamoo...

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ARTICLES OF INTEREST

Here are some articles local music and technology fans might be interested in - click any title link for more:

Is Facebook Getting Uncool for 18-24s?
According to comScore, as it has gained a broader audience, the older teens and twentysomethings that drove Facebook's initial popularity are using it less. And research by WPP Group's Mindshare suggests that group is reevaluating the site's worth as a tool for developing friendships.

Herd It's New Take on Music Apps - Online music apps are all over the place these days. It seems like Facebook has a zillion of 'em. But Herd It, a new casual music game/music discovery tool developed by a team of students at the University of California, San Diego, is unique

The Night Marchers -- Review of the Night Marchers at the Fillmore: To begin the review, I'll say I truly despised the first act of the night, the Night Marchers. Their 3 chord/1 riff "rock and roll" was lame and truly fell short in light of the show's overall expectations. The best way I can describe it: Everyone has that one uncle, right? The middle-aged guy who listened to too many Beach Boys records when he was 20...

Study On Online Music Piracy And Purchasing Habits
There has been high-profile debate in the media about whether file-sharing has a positive or negative impact on music sales. The study below, which is original text from Jupiter Research, analyses in more detail the different spend of file-sharers, digital and physical music purchasers.

Despite Economic Woes, Consumers Not Scrimping On Entertainment Subscriptions
According to the latest update to the “Entertainment Trends in America” consumer tracking studies conducted by The NPD Group, even as newspapers and other traditional forms of subscriptions have declined, most forms of entertainment-content subscriptions have been maintained by U.S. consumers this year, and mobile data plans and other newer kinds of subscription services have expanded their customer bases. Overall monthly per-capita entertainment-content subscription spending rose to $115, which is an increase of nearly 7% since last year.

E-Readers Will Take Off For Holiday Shoppers In 2010
2009 is likely to be remembered as a watershed year in the evolution of e-books and e-readers with several milestones and product launches standing out as catalysts for change in the market, according to Gartner, Inc. However, Gartner said that while the number of electronic readers sold is likely to increase in 2009, it expects 2010 to be the year when e-book readers really become popular consumer electronic devices, culminating in e-reader “mania” for the 2010 holiday season.

Like, Totally Wired
According to findings from Alloy Media + Marketing's 9th annual College Explorer Survey, projected annual technology spending among college students (ages 18-30) has reached an all time high at $6.5 billion, ranking 3rd in overall discretionary spending for college students, just below food and auto.

Monetizing Mobile Content
The long debate over how to monetize digital content has gained new life in the economic downturn due to the slumping ad market. The question of paid models versus ad support is particularly urgent in the fast-emerging mobile space. eMarketer predicts that by 2013, nearly 50% of mobile phone users will access the mobile Internet at least monthly.

In Tough Times, 10 Ways Retailers Can Bring Holiday Cheer
While beleaguered shoppers will be looking for ways to make the season bright, retailers can do their part by bringing some much needed holiday cheer to the shopping experience.

"Friending" Brands Egocentric, Finds Razorfish
Have social marketers been kidding themselves that consumers “friend” brands on social media because they are passionate and want deep and meaningful relationships? Recent data suggests that perhaps all consumers really want from brands on social media is a good deal and great customer service.

Coupon Use Continues Resurgence
Consumers have re-embraced coupons as a way to get more for their money. In the third quarter, year-to-date coupon redemption was up 26% to 2.4 billion redemptions, making it the fourth consecutive quarter of growth, according to new research from Inmar in collaboration with The Nielsen Company.

Illegal File-Sharing Has An Overwhelmingly Negative Impact On Music Sales
Demos, the UK political think-tank, has released a widely-reported survey on music downloading which may be misinterpreted as suggesting that illegal file-sharing stimulates rather than reduces legitimate music sales.

Playing Games With Media Usage
It's no secret that time spent online is a major rival to traditional media usage. But among some segments of the population, at least, time spent gaming is in the same ballpark as time watching TV or surfing the Web.

Touchscreen Mobile Phone Adoption Grows At Blistering Pace In U.S. During Past Year
comScore, Inc. recently released a study of touchscreen mobile phone adoption in the U.S., which showed a significant 159% growth rate during the past year to 23.8 million users in August 2009. The growth in touchscreen device adoption substantially outpaced the already strong 63% growth in U.S. adoption of smartphones.

When It Comes to Entertainment Options, U.S. Consumers Turning To Social Networking, Texting, And Twitter
According to the latest update to the “Entertainment Trends in America” tracking study conducted by The NPD Group, many consumers expect to be spending the same amount on traditional entertainment categories during the coming holiday season, even as their participation in newer forms of entertainment continues to rise.

Web To Drive Holiday Retail Sales
Retail sales will probably be flat this holiday season, but online sales are expected to reach $44.7 billion, an 8% jump over last year, according to the latest data from Forrester Research.

Seven Ways To Tap Social Shopping
Marketers must understand that customers use social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter to communicate with and gather information from their friends and colleagues. As a result, your presence on these sites must be integrated into the multi-directional communication when consumers want to interact with your firm. Here are seven ways to maximize social shopping results.

Will iPhone Lead The Growth In Portable Gaming?
A study by DFC Intelligence, released on Friday, predicts that games for the iPhone and iPod touch (an iPhone without the cellular capabilities) will be the principal drivers for growth in the overall portable and mobile gaming market in five years.

4 Emerging Trends Of The Real-Time Web
There is a lot of hype surrounding the real-time web, and much of the feeding frenzy reminds me of the RSS space four years ago — though there is a lot of potential, there is also a lot of noise.

A Shift In Mobile Computing From Laptops To Smaller Devices Is Forcing PC Makers To Adjust
The smartphone market will surpass laptops in unit sales this year, and will easily surpass the latter market in revenue by 2012.

Google's Eric Schmidt On What the Web Will Look Like In 5 Years
Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions a radically changed internet five years from now: dominated by Chinese-language and social media content, delivered over super-fast bandwidth in real time. Figuring out how to rank real-time social content is “the great challenge of the age,” Schmidt said in an interview in front of thousands of CIOs and IT Directors at last week's Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009.

Does Social Media Work For Small Biz?
Small businesses are not hitting it off with social media, according to an August 2009 study from Citibank. More than three-quarters of U.S. small-business executives surveyed did not find social networks helpful for generating leads or expanding their business.

‘Gradual Greening' Of U.S. Tech Consumers
‘Green' or environmentally friendly policies and programs are becoming more top of mind for U.S. consumers when making technology related purchase decisions, but few are aware of specific policies, according to the annual Ipsos Green Technology report.

Online Retailers To Emphasize Free Shipping, Social Media This Holiday Season
The economy is not only impacting shoppers, it's affecting online retailers, too. According to results of Shop.org's eHoliday Study, conducted by BIGresearch, shoppers will see changes in retail marketing and promotions this holiday season in response to economic uncertainty. With an understanding that many of today's shoppers use Facebook and Twitter regularly, and because these tools are more cost-effective than traditional advertising, 47.1% of retailers surveyed will be increasing their use of social media this holiday season.

Top Ten Holiday Trends For 2009
BIGresearch shares 10 insights of what to expect this holiday season based largely on findings from NRF's first holiday survey.

Flat Is The New Up: Web Buzz Also Suggests Soft Holiday Retail Season
Despite increased optimism about the economy, the social media landscape indicates that we are in a similar place to where we were this time last year when it comes to spending; buzz about Christmas and holiday shopping is down 3% year-over-year.

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THE KIDS OF WIDNEY HIGH - A ROCK 'N' ROLL COMIC!

The Kids of Widney High: Beyond the Sky’s the Limit is the latest in a long line of accomplishments by The Kids of Widney High, a music group composed of students with developmental and/or physical challenges from J. P. Widney High School, a special education center in Los Angeles.

Written entirely by members of the band and illustrated by some of the comic book industry’s top talent, the 36-page book is a milestone event in both rock 'n' roll and comic book history. Contributors include award winning artists Jim Mahfood (Clerks, Jay & Silent Bob), Chuck B.B., and Rafael Navarro, along with up and coming new talent like Rikki Niehaus, Neal Von Flue, Robbi Rodriguez, and Chris Brandt.

All the dialogue spoken by characters in the book was drawn directly from quotes recorded during story sessions, effectively capturing the spirit and attitudes of the bandmembers.

The Kids of Widney High first formed in a songwriting class in 1988 and has grown into a world-wide sensation. They've performed on stages all along the west coast including The House of Blues, The Key Club, and Chain Reaction, and they were recently featured in the movie The Ringer. A documentary detailing the history of the band is currently in production.

Bandmember Tony Whitfield proudly says the comic is “the music that will rock your eyes!”

www.kidsofwidneyhigh.com

(Knitting Factory: photog Mathew Klickstein)

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Album cover Antimusic reports: As I Lay Dying is currently holed up with Killswitch Engage guitarist/producer Adam D. and Daniel Castleman at Lambesis Studios in San Diego, recording and writeng their follow$up to 2007's An Ocean between Us. The band will be recording and writing throughout the rest of 2009 and vocalist(Tim Lambeses has issued the following update via the band's myspace page:

"We've released little bits of information here or there in previous news posts and blogs, but there are still questions coming in concerning what we've been up to. Below is an unquestionably obvious outline concerning our future plans…

1) We started working on new album.

2) We started recording the new album a few weeks ago with Adam D & Daniel Castleman at the reigns (and JMR for a couple weeks).

3) There are only drums for 8 songs tracked so far. One of them we're undecided about, but maybe it'll feel different when the vocals are done. Either way, we need write more than 8 songs (since they aren't as long as the 8 songs on Master of Puppets). Therefore we're working on writing MORE new songs as soon as we finish recording what's been started.

4) The only break in working on the new album will be our short trip to Mexico and Sri Lanka to play two of the best shows of our career. 5) All of us can't stress enough how grateful we are to be writing music that we love while still receiving a paycheck. This can only be credited to OUR LOYAL FANS! Sometimes bands need to rush out a crappy record so they can start touring again to pay their bills.

"In our case, we plan to make a record worth listening to (hopefully), and start touring again when we're done. Thanks for your patience and understanding. We care and we're working. In fact, I haven't had a full nights rest since March when the coolest kid ever made me a DAD!" - more on this story

Album cover As I Lay Dying (named after the book by William Faulkner) formed in 2001. The lineup consists of Tim Lambesis (vocals), Jordan Mancino(drums), guitarists Nick Hipa and Phil Sgrosso - bassist Clint Norris was replaced by Josh Gilbert in May 2007.

Hipa describes the band’s music as “brutal, energetic, melodic metal”; Mancino calls it “metal with ska breakdowns.” The band signed with Metal Blade Records in 2003 and spent 2006 supporting their album Shadows Are Security with opening slots for Slipknot and performances at Ozzfest events around the country.

“I never realized, until Ozzfest, about our utterly weird fans,” says Lambesis. “We were signing autographs...this guy brought out his two-week-old baby, and he actually has us sign the baby — our autographs are right there on its body.”

Jordan Mancino recalls, “The hardest thing [about Ozzfest] was getting stuck on a dirt road with our bus in the middle of the Arizona desert.”

Nick Hipa: “Lots of sloppy, gross old ladies walking around with their gross old boobs painted. Definitely a bum-out.”

Asked about being occasionally called “Christian metal,” Hipa says “All of us in the band are Christian dudes and we’re vocal about it and I think our lifestyles and our lyrics reflect that. But at the same time, we also tend to opt to play in the normal music scene because that’s what we love doing.”

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LOCAL NINE INCH NAILS DRUMMER HAS A NEW REGIME FOR YOU

Antimusic reports: We've been warned. "Things are about to get MANIC," so says Rock Sound magazine. What's behind that declaration? The New Regime, the "true solo project" of current Nine Inch Nails and former Lostprophets drummer Ilan Rubin. No mere time-keeper, the adept multi-instrumentalist wrote and recorded every note of bass, drums, guitar, piano and vocals on The New Regime's 2008 debut, Coup (Command! Music).

Feeling energized by the new crop of fans he's collected due to Nine Inch Nails' recently concluded "Wave Goodbye" tour, Rubinhas put together a special limited edition deluxe package of Coup set for release November 10 exclusively on the band's website (www.thenewregimemusic.com ). For $45, fans will get a 180 gram vinyl, the CD, a DVD featuring live performances and an interview with Rubin, a 16-page full color 12" x 12" booklet, and an exclusive website link to download instrumental mixes from The New Regime's website.

All 1,000 limited edition copies will also be hand-numbered and signed by Rubin. A stand alone digipak CD will also be available on the band's website for $7. To celebrate the package's release, the band will be performing at the Viper Room in Los Angeles, CA on Thursday, November 19. Tickets are currently on sale.

In a true sign of support for his new band member, Trent Reznor is encouraging his hardcore fans to get to know The New Regime by offering a free download of the album in its entirety on NIN.com the same day as Coup's release. Nine Inch Nails' camp will also host the download on a direct link, http://thenewregime.nin.com , starting at midnight on November 10. - more on this story

Drummer Ilan Rubin. started his music career while still in grade school, with the local band Freak of Nature, which performed at Woodstock 1999. Nine Inch Nails announced this week that Rubin is their newest drummer in early '09. 20 years old at the time, Rubin used to take drum lessons from Travis Barker of blink-182 and David Uosikkinen, from the Hooters.

Astute Reader readers may remember that one previous NIN drummer, Jerome Dillon, had a medical mishap during a 2005 San Diego gig, only to find himself quickly replaced in the band.

Here’s the Overheard comic from September 2005, when NIN played in San Diego shortly after having done a show at Soma, only to have drummer Jerome Dillon fall over onstage ----

Dillon told MTV.com at the time "It was absolutely the most stressful thing I've been through in my life…During the third leg of the tour, I noticed that I was not feeling good. A few years ago, I was diagnosed with a thyroid malady and I was taking medication for it. I didn't know that [the medication wasn't working] and was building up in my system on the road."

A few NIN shows were cancelled, and then Dillon called NIN management to say he was back on his feet, healthy, and ready to get back behind his kit. But Dillon said Reznor and company showed "complete apathy and no sympathy for what I'd been through…I was not welcomed back with open arms, which I didn't understand, since I had been in the band for six years."

After booting Dillon from NIN, Reznor posted a message on the band’s website, saying “Jerome continuously has to see himself as the victim in all circumstances. He lives in a world where he is always being wronged by someone or something. That could be me, that could be management, that could be his drum tech, that could be the girl who mistakenly washed his permanent press designer jeans, that could be the person that didn't cook his chicken properly before the show, or that could be the record label that wont give him tour support for his new band to play a show…you look like an a-hole in your picture.”

Congratulations, Ilan, for becoming NIN’s new drummer...and, uh…..good luck!

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RYAN SEACREST HAS AN EVENTFUL FOR YOU

San Diego-based Eventful, Inc. and Ryan Seacrest Productions have announced a "strategic marketing and technology alliance." The alliance brings together Seacrest, the American Idol host and syndicated radio show producer, with Eventful, a digital service connecting fans with entertainment and local events.

Seacrest will produce entertainment content and marketing programs leveraging Eventful's proprietary technologies including the company's robust email technology platform and Eventful's unique Demand it! service which will empower Seacrest's audience to engage and vote on programming topics, "Demand" their favorite celebrities and participate in contests and promotions for entertainment and live events. The alliance is at the forefront of a movement in which performers and entertainment properties partner with leading social media companies to combine unique and engaging content with the latest technology platforms in order to reach and engage consumers.

To begin their new alliance, Ryan Seacrest and Eventful are announcing the launch of the 'Ryan Rock My Town' contest through Eventful's Demand it! service which allows fans to demand a free concert in their city featuring Kris Allen, Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta. The city with the most Demanders will win the concert and participants will be eligible to receive the free tickets.

Fans can demand the concert online by going to RyanSeacrest.com. The winning city will be announced January 8, 2010 on Seacrest's radio show, On Air with Ryan Seacrest, and on KIIS FM in Los Angeles. The announcement will also be posted on RyanSeacrest.com immediately following the broadcast.

By hosting and producing multiple television and radio programs, Ryan Seacrest continues to be a force in entertainment media. The host of American Idol and the global radio countdown show, American Top 40 also has a market-topping #1 nationally syndicated entertainment morning drive-time radio show with On Air with Ryan Seacrest.

His RSP company has multiple shows in production including Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and the socially conscious Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution with famed British chef Jamie Oliver, premiering in 2010 on ABC.

Eventful is a digital social media service which connects consumers with entertainment, live events and performers. Along with Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, Eventful is part of the digital connection between fans and performers and a marketing resource for the music, film and entertainment industries. Reportedly, nearly 13 million people use Eventful's online, email and mobile services every week to discover what's happening in their local market and decide what to do. Eventful's unique Demand it! service "empowers fans to influence the location and content of events and entertainment."

"It is imperative we continue to engage and create dialogue with our audience," says Ryan Seacrest, "Eventful is at the forefront in the world of digital media and I am thrilled to be partnering with them."

"We're honored to work with Ryan Seacrest who is among the most talented and creative people I've ever met," said Eventful CEO Jordan Glazier. "The strategic alliance between Eventful and Ryan Seacrest brings big benefits to both of our companies and, most importantly, will bring exciting content and entertainment opportunities to consumers."

As part of the alliance, Seacrest joins Eventful's Board of Advisors.

Terms of the alliance were not disclosed.

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30 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH.........

12-14-85: The Dead Kennedys played one of their final shows with original singer Jello Biafra, at downtown’s California Theater. As the set wrapped up, raucous fans tore up the seats and pulled curtains down from walls, causing police to call out a riot squad, though officers stayed outside the building until the crowd dispersed on its own.

The fifteen song set included tunes off their newest album Frankenchrist, as well as “Triumph of the Swill,” “Police Truck,” and the encore “Holiday in Cambodia.”

The show's promoter - future Casbah owner Tim Mays - recalls "The police were called in by the fire marshalls - who were freaking out about fans not staying in their seats and clogging the aisles. Some seats got destroyed...At one point I went outside to get some air, and there were police on all four corners surrounding the block the theatre was on. They weren't going to let me go back inside."

"Finally, one of my production managers convinced a female cop he happened to know that I was indeed the promoter and not just some random fan who had wandered outside."

The next night (12-15-85), the DKs performed at Tijuana’s Teatro Casa de la Cultura, in a show also promoted by Mays (tickets: $5). Outside the venue, Mexican police arrested several San Diegans “for no apparent reason,” according to newspaper columnist George Varga.

After the DKs, the California Theater only hosted a handful of punk shows for the remainder of its existence as a concert hall. After TJ, the band with Biafra only played three more concerts before calling quitting the concert trail a few weeks later.

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SHIPPING SUMMER 2010: ROCK 'N' ROLL CARTOON HISTORY - THE SIXTIES

Here's the first look at the cover art for the 300 page graphic novel Rock 'N' Roll Cartoon History: The Sixties, shipping summer 2010 from Bluewater Productions. www.bluewaterprod.com -- www.myspace.com/rocknrollcomics

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WHAT I'M WATCHING - QUEEN OF THE DAMNED (2002)

It's never a good sign when the deleted scenes and DVD commentary are more enjoyable than the stand-alone film, but Queen of the Damned surprised me. It's got a lot of flaws - but it's not at all a horrible movie. It messed with and compressed/redid the Anne Rice novels so much that few people seem to like it - but I think if you go into without expecting it to be Anne Rice's Lestat, but rather a story loosely "inspired by" her books, it's a decent little goth movie.

Particularly the fully-realized music (and accompanying music videos, seen only in flashes during the movie but included on the DVD in their entirety, all framed ala German expressionism and surreal, very much Nosferatu/Doctor Caligary silent movie-inspired), by guys from Korn, Static X, Oingo Boingo, and even Marilyn Manson (who has one great album, Mechanical Animals, his Ziggy Stardust glam tribute/ripoff).

The whole vampire-goes-high-tech subtheme is intriguing, especially Lestat calling out his fellow vampires on the giant Times Square diamondvision screen ("Come out, come out, wherever you are"), and Lestat laying down inside a huge satellite dish and absorbing the entire world as it streams digitally and directly to his brain.

Some of the director's alterations from the two Rice novels the movie is based on (Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned) are actually improvements - such as keeping Lestat's debut concert to a one-time affair, thus explaining why the other vamps never went after him at other concerts (a vexing plothole in the Lestat novel).

On the other hand, transforming female lead Jesse from a savvy vampire hunter and historical archivist with insider insight into a mere "Bite me, baby, one more time" groupie is among the filmmaker's WORST moves - eccch. Even if the actress playing Jesse is quite fetching (Marquerite Moreau, also seen in the highly underrated remake of Bedazzled).

The DVD's deleted scene showing the other Ancient Ones, as they gather to plot against the Queen SHOULD have been kept, as it provides all the motive behind the anti-Queen backlash acted out by present day-to-day vamps. I especially loved the Ancient Ones walking freely thru a goth concert, looking around incredulously and commenting "Ancient Rome had nothing on these people!" Why oh why was all that cut???

An improvement over the books - having the big concert outdoors in the desert in a remote and isolated Burning Man-style gathering is FAR better than Rice's dinky little indoor concert hall melee. Visually, the ensuing onstage battles need to be matched by the epic size and scope of the event locale, so the movie version is much more dynamic, and really more correct and apropos than in the novel.

The remote concert locale also goes a long way toward explaining how vampires can suddenly "out" themselves and their powers all over the stage, without a worldwide audience immediately finding out all about the head undead (UnDeadheads?) coming out of the shadows and into the spotlight.

Stuart Townsend as Lestat deserves particular praise. While no Tom Cruise, he's a lot better than you'd expect, and certainly believable as a rock star. As surprisingly dynamic as Cruise was in Interview/Vampire, there's no WAY he could have done the rock star turn without making everyone laugh while remembering the tightie whitey dance from Risky Business!

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LOCALS IN THE NEWS

Michael Robertson, the local webking whose original MP3.com and Sideload websites caused no end of legal troubles, has sold San Diego-based Gizmo5 to Google for $30 million. Gizmo5 specializes in internet telephony technology. Google Acquires voip Firm Gizmo5 for $30 Million

Antimusic reports: As I Lay Dying entered the studio in October with Adam Dutkiewicz (of Killswitch Engage) and Daniel Castleman (Winds Of Plague) to begin tracking their next Metal Blade Records release. more

Travis Barker spoke with MTV and told them a little about his solo album plans, "There's some stuff on my record that's not going to have a bunch of guitars, that are just straight-up hip hop records. Everything's going be real different. It's going to be really well-rounded," he told MTV News on Wednesday. "We got a new Blink song on there, I think I'm going to do something with Chester Bennington from Linkin Park. Slash is a maybe too

Former San Diego street urchin Linda Perry - who went on to front 4 Non Blondes and to write hits for Xtina and others - has signed Little Fish to her Custard label via Universal Motown Records, Little Fish's debut album Baffled and Beat is set for an early 2010 release. The album was produced by Perry herself, in her Los Angeles studio. The band is currently on tour in the UK supporting The Eagles Of Death Metal and will finish up a set of dates with Juliette Lewis in December. With a handful of CMJ dates already under their belt, the band will soon be hitting the States to strut their stuff. - go fishing here

Flogging Molly have announced dates for what has become their annual spring tour centered around the St. Patrick's Day holiday. The "Green 17 Tour" kicks off on February 9th in Dallas, Texas more

Blink-182's Travis Barker appears alongside Taylor Swift and Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz, and Weezer's Rivers Cuomo in Brett Ratner-directed commercial ad for Activision video game Band Hero where they recreate a scene from "Risky Business". "The premise is that we're sliding out into a living room and it's me and three other players. The three other players are some of my musical heroes," Taylor commented more

The Black Heart Procession are interviewed in the new Filter Magazine - Q: The first show of the tour will be at The Casbah in your hometown of San Diego. Is it symbolic that you start where the band began 12 years ago? (more Q&A: The Black Heart Procession)

Pinback are featured in a new article in the Washington Examiner - Pinback plays on: California band brings show to dc's Black Cat

Runhoney drummer Emily O'Bannon will appear in the November 25 episode of the new TV show Glee, which has proven to be a huge hit, having sold over two million songs online. O'Bannon plays the drummer for a rival band competing with the Glee crew. O'Bannon also works at the newly opened Gossip Grill, which is operated by Chris Shaw, formerly of the Flame.

AntiMusic reports: A lil Judas Priest Christmas cheer for Halloween? The new single "Christmas for Everyone" from Halford III Winter Songs is available as a FREE download from HalfordMusic.com . Four more new singles from "Halford III Winter Songs" are available for purchase from HalfordMusic.com as well:Get Into The Spirit, We Three Kings, Oh Come O Come Emanuel, Winter Song. more

Check out Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready performing "Ball & Chain" with Social D here Also be on the look out for video of Mike Ness and Jonny "2Bags" Wickersham joining Pearl Jam on-stage performing "Down."

We Are The Fallen, the new band featuring original Evanescence members Ben Moody (guitar) and John LeCompt (guitar) and Rocky Gray (drums) along with American Idol vocalist Carly Smithson is currently recording its debut album for Universal Republic in Los Angeles and expect to release it in early 2010. more

Stone Temple Pilots are just about to hit Canada with a couple of random dates set after that. Sounds like a perfect time to get to work on an album, and that's the plan according to frontman Scott Weiland: "When we get back[from touring], we're going to finish the album. And then when we finish the album, there will be a big tour around its release and that will probably be a long tour." more

Adam Lambert had this update for fans on his Twitter account: "Well here's some more album info for you guys! The upcoming single was produced by Dr Luke!!" he twits. "Debut single is called 'For Your Entertainment' get ready to shake yo asses to this song. It'll make ya dance for sure." more

Less than three weeks from its release day, Lambert's major-label debut album For Your Entertainment has been previewed. All of the fourteen songs on the album can be streamed for 30 seconds on Amazon U.K. more

4P>(Lambert'w Nagel-inspired$cover art looks,a lot like Rihabna's new album, not to mention below Kylie Minogue records! A new "Touch Yer Face" fad?)

lamber

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TEN SONGS BY LOCALS THAT ARE BETTER WHEN SOMEONE ELSE DOES THEM! --- courtesy Bart Mendoza

Being a musician is great but being a songwriter can be even greater - if your song ends up in the right hands, or with the right voice. Here are ten songs by ten San Diego connected songwriters which fared rather well when performed by others.

Phil Collins / “Separate Lives”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF0scfQ7_so

Written By Stephen Bishop. A huge worldwide hit, as heard in the 1985 film, White Knights.

Phil Collins & Phillip Bailey / “Easy Lover”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1kDmnHyOBg

Co-written by Nathan East. This one went all the way to #2 in 1984, hitting #1 in the U.K.

Dan Fogelberg / “Rhthym of The Rain”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djCUfGVd9lY

Written by John Gummoe. This is the lone track here that was a hit in an earlier incarnation as well, in this case by Gummoe's own group, The Cascades. Fogelberg’s 1990 version was a #3 Adult Contemporary Hit, and is till ubiquitous on soft-rock radio. Also one of only two songs by a local songwriter to hit near the top of the charts with more than one version of a song. So far.

Lynyrd Skynyrd/ "Call Me the Breeze"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaTZkIInYNw

Written by JJ Cale. This is the band in their prime, with a 1975 appearance on British TV program, The Ol’ Grey Whistle Test.

Steve Miller Band / “Jungle Love”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZHXMnC2qwk

Co-written by Greg Douglass. Some songs are lucky enough to get a second chance at hit status, as happened when Steve Miller’s “Jungle Love” was used as a theme song for CBS-TV sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.

The Monkees / “Daydream Believer”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9m-hkvFDLk

Written by John Stewart. Many others including Anne Murray and Shonen Knife have had hits / singles with the song. With so many versions to choose from, we went with U2 live, with head Monkee, Davy Jones, in 1997.

The Matrix with Katy Perry / “Broken”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOoyiN3BfP0

Co-written by Anna Troy & Lindsey Troy. This single was recorded in 2004, but not released until 2009. The Troys version of the song, was called “What Do You Do.”

The Ramones / “I Don’t Want To Grow Up”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU2SRNU955c

Written by Tom Waits and another tune with many versions – dig the Dan Clowes artwork in the video!

&jbsp;

Johnny Rivers / “Slow Dancin (Swayin’ To The Music)”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQOmW_TVPxI

Written by Jack Tempchin, one of his many hit songs. This version is live, on NBC-TV’s The Midnight Special.

Various Artists / “Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-P3ClQfWks

Written by Jeannie & Jimmy Chetham. Many blues songs have been written by San Diegans, but only one is a certified standard, covered by hundreds of bands worldwide. Case in point, here’s one of a numerous local bands found online playing the tune, Band of Oz, from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

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RIP SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON FOUNDER SHEL DORF

Longtime comic book historian Shel Dorf passed away November 3, at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, abter a long hospitalization. His$brother, Michae` Dorf, was at his side. If you cnew Shel, or just want to find out more about the man who founded the San Diego Comic-Con, I encourage you to visit (and maybe post to) http://sww.sheldorftribqte.com/

The origibal San Diego’ Golden State Comic-Minicon was$held on March 29, 1970 at the U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego. News of Shel's passing leaves me very sad - he knew Revolutionary Comics founder Todd Loren back when Todd was first doing comic conventions in around Detroit, and I've known Shel since his early '80s days at the San Diego Comic-Con and working with us at Blackthorne Publishing on the Dick Tracy comic strip reprints in the late '80s.

I didn't begin attending the local Comic-Con until 1983, when they were at the Community Concourse Civic Theater and Golden Hall, but from then I went every year, up until I retired from comic book publishing in 2000. Shel withdrew from running the Con in the mid-'80s, and my first-ever professional "comic-creator" Con pass came courtesy of friends of Shel, who let me attend his farewell party where I met dozens of comic creators and publishers who'd later be instrumental in my own career.

One of my biggest professional or personal thrills to date was drawing a little piece of skullface barbarian artwork on a gigantic wall-size paper card that everyone at Shel's party was drawing on that night, along with personal messages of cheer and well wishes - I sheepishly scribbled my art between drawings by the likes of Berni Wrightson, Frank Brunner, and John Pound, feeling for all the world like an interloper and imposter, brazenly defacing Shel's giant greeting card with my own inadequate scrawl.

But then Shel walked over, shook my hand, and thanked me ---- I cite that as the very moment I became a professional comic book creator ---

Many years later, around 1992, I went to lunch with Shel and Revolutionary Comics publisher Herb Shapiro. I was surprised to find that Shel actually remembered me from as far back at that '80s Comic-Con party, tho I imagine he only remembered because I was the one guy he'd never met before but who defaced his giant greeting card anyway.

During lunch, Shel looked at me and said "I had a feeling right from the start that you were one of the good guys in comics."

I've strived ever since to live up to that pronouncement ----

Shel Dorf was a rare true-life hero -- he'll be sorely missed ---

Jay Allen Sanford 11/3/09

Jack Kirby and Shel Dorf — November 9, 1969 - courtesy http://www.sheldorftribute.com/

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Photo of Todd Loren Presents THE RETURN OF ROCK 'N' ROLL COMICS!

Here's a sneak peek at the first promo art for the locally-produced Rock 'N' Roll Comics: Hard Rock Heroes, a 400 page graphic novel shipping from Bluewater Productions in early 2010, as well as the 240 page Beatles Experience comic, the Pink Floyd Experience, Led Zeppelin Experience, the Elvis Presley Experience, and more -

JAS

First, here's the first look at the Elvis Presley Experience cover art:

And here's the scoop and a first look at the cover of the Pink Floyd Experience:

The Pink Floyd Experience: All five issues of the Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics series The Pink Floyd Experience have been out of print and in demand for over fifteen years. As showcased in Pink Floyd’s own official box CD set Shine On, the Floyd comics chronicle rock’s most enigmatic psychedelic warriors, from their early dayz with stoner icon Syd Barrett, through their split (and later reformation). With art by Marvel and DC star Ken Landgraf (Wolverine, Hawkman, Nightwing & Flamebird, etc.), the collection also includes update material, bringing the saga up to 2010.

Hard Rock Heroes: What goes together better than comics and rock music? With almost 300 pages of Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics, Hard Rock Heroes goes WAY beyond Behind the Music, to tell the real life, behind-the-scenes stories of rock’s most heavy hitters. Creators include Stuart Immonen (Superman: End of the Century), Ken Landgraf (Wolverine), Jay Allen Sanford (Overheard in San Diego..), Todd Loren (Beatles Experience), Scott Pentzer (Razor), Mike Sagara (Ninja High School), and many others.

Hard Rock Heroes is a book-length pictorial history, covering bands like Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, Motley Crue, Poison, Megadeth, Pantera, Anthrax, Motorhead, Sammy Hagar, and more. The cinematic stories are realistically drawn, researched from countless photo and video archives, with an encyclopedic eye toward visual accuracy, dramatic flair, and journalistic depth.

Also includes the never-before published “missing” Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics #8 from 1990, on Skid Row. The lack of an eighth issue has vexed collectors and catalogers for years – exactly 20 years later, the story can finally be told, and collectors can finally own ALL the Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics!

As a bonus treat, Hard Rock Heroes also features the Motley Crue comic story from their official box CD set Music To Crash Your Car To II, released in 2004 and written and drawn by original Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics creators Lyndal Ferguson and Larry Nadolsky. Shipping February 2010.

(colors: Christie Maconnell)

tod17 "Great ideas, like the marriage of rock 'n' roll and comics, have the half-life of Uranium and will always be popular," says series co-creator Jay Allen Sanford, who has worked on over 200 reality-based comic books and thousands of similar cartoon strips for the San Diego Reader, as well as for magazines like Rip, Spin, and Oui. "The folks at Bluewater clearly have their fingers on the same pop culture pulse that enabled the original Rock 'N' Roll Comics to become one of the top-selling indie comics of the '90s. Truth is often stranger than fiction...and certainly much more interesting!"

aerosmithcvr kk30 kk31 metallicahits

The Beatles are bigger than ever, now available online for the first time digitally, on the Vegas stage in “Love,” and in the new Beatles: Rock Band video game. Now comes the most comprehensive and encyclopedic illustrated Beatles story ever, the Beatles Experience! Over 200 pages, dramatizing one of the most compelling tales in pop culture history, drawn from thousands of photos and interviews, meticulously researched and featuring stunning art by Mike Sagara (Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics) and Stuart Immonen (Legion of Super Heroes, Ultimate X-Men).

Covering the Beatles’ lives from birth and beyond their breakup, dramatized in dialogue and scene recreations more akin to a film bio than a mere documentary, the Beatles Experience also includes a Chronolog timeline going down each page, with encyclopedia background and footnotes detailing related events happening at the same time in the world, in music, and in the Beatles’ own tumultuous and extraordinary lives.

beatles8snpaul kk68

The Led Zeppelin Experience:

RockComicHist2

www.rocknrollcomics.com --- www.myspace.com/rocknrollcomics

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BOOTLEGGING AT CRICKET/COORS

Anyone wondering how effective all those “no recording devices” and “no cameras” signs and searches are at concert venues, here are a baker’s dozen of fan shot clips live from Cricket/Coors Amphitheatre. For some shows there are numerous videos posted by different fans / different vantage points…http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/nov/30/bootlegging-at-coors-amphitheatre-aka-cricket-amph/

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MORE STRANGE STAGE MOMENTS - courtesy of Bart Mendoza

Zank Bennett: “At a gig, I was standing just behind our main speaker at the Tiki in PB, leaning against the map that is on the wall there. A little later I was playing a big solo in a song called “Saturday Night” and I went to lean back on the map/wall. It wasn't there. Unfortunately, I had spun another 45 degrees during my solo and hadn’t realized it. I was directly behind our front-of-the-house speaker; the one that sat atop an empty keg of beer. Still with my eyes closed, I leaned back and the three of us, the keg, the speaker on top and I, went tumbling the foot-and-a-half drop to the floor below. We were about three beats from the end of the song. The band never lost a beat and we finished the syncopated last few bars perfectly, more or less. And without a scratch.

Karin Carson: “One time I was playing shaker on a gig and getting really into the tune. So into it, that I lost the grip on my shaker, which went flying towards the guitar player, who, mid-riff, dodged the flying shaker in a matrix like move, sideways. The audience never caught on, but we still laugh about it.”

Carolyn Kallis / Coco and Lafe: “We were busking on the street in Boston and this very large man came down and sat down in front of us, almost right on the microphone, sort of assumed the yogi position and pulled out a can of colt 45. He started to mumble along to our songs, but then he lay down and fell asleep. Every once in awhile he’d wake up, mumble something and then go back to sleep. Homeless people really gravitated to us in Boston.”

Danny Cress / The Coyote Problem: “I was in a surf trio a few years ago. We were in a club playing a version of the old standard “Caravan,” when all of a sudden - and in unison, the guitarist and bass player just put down their instruments and walked off. They headed towards the bar, looking at me just long enough to say “drum solo.” It was probably only about five minutes before they came back, but it seemed much longer.”

Mary Dolan: “I was booked for a performance at an AA convention in Las Vegas. I got there with about 1/2 hour to spare. I had a raging headache from the desert drive, the air conditioning and the tension of bad traffic, so I asked a friend for some aspirin. She didn't have any, but she asked her sister and SHE had a bottle of Advil in her purse. So I took two. I'm on stage and I'm starting to feel weird, like maybe I had more than just a headache. I was having a hard time feeling my fingers on the fretboard and the audience was getting blurry. No one was saying anything. Maybe it sounded okay and looked okay, even though I felt a kind of lousy I've NEVER experienced before. For my last tune, I gave "Piece of my Heart" whatever I had left. I cut it short and then I started to dry heave as I was getting off stage. My friend and her sister came running up to me as I was telling them that I was really very sick. My friend's sister had tears streaming down her face and she was saying," I'm sorry, I'm sorry." What, huh, I thought? Then my friend told me that her sister had accidently given me her disguised muscle relaxants. I was loaded at the AA convention.”

Calen Lucas / Family Wagon: “We played a concert on Halloween and there was a giant pumpkin on the stage right in the center, where the monitors should be. As we were playing I decided to put one foot up on the pumpkin for dramatic effect. Except that my foot sunk right into the center of the pumpkin, which was hot orange goo under the stagelights.”

Abraham Nunez / Team Abraham: “At our Record Release Party (@ the Casbah) in March, we were mid-set when I suddenly see two bras hanging from the mic stand. One was very sexy the other was fairly large and sturdy. This was fine and I kept playing and all, but mid the next song, I see some boxers being pessed down toward the stage... tdey we're flanned and I could smell them as they$were being placed, by a fan, onto the mic stand. I wasn't sure how to respond...”

&jbsp;

Eric Schauer: “Strangest thing? A gig at a dirty dive called "The Double Down" in Las Vegas with my surf band on 6/6/06. We were playing surf instrumental versions of Black Sabbath tunes. Before we played, there was a side-show troupe. Their act included a young lady bending over and shooting darts from her ----- and popping balloons that were taped to a man's chest about 20ft away. That's not too disgusting, right? There were fire-breathers and our hula-hoopist was topless and donned in red paint and devil horns. We were set up on the floor and some girl in the audience kept taunting her and knocking her hoop down as we played. Finally, the hula-hoopist snapped, lept out of the hoop in mid-hula onto this girl and proceeded to beat her down. The band played on as the bouncers broke it up. I’ve seen a few girl-fights with this band at this bar. This one definitely sticks out.”

Anna Troy: “On stage at Lestats, I was singing a song with a friends band when a piece of hair went into my mouth. It was uncomfortable, but I waited until between songs to pull it out, complete with spit. Not very graceful, but it had to be done. For some reason the guys in the band loved it. The bassist said it was the highlight of the night.”

Jaime Valle: “Years ago, I was playing an underground Tijuana night club, it was a hot summer night, the band was jamming, the joint was jumping, suddenly, someone shoots the bass player. The bullet was aimed at the singer, missed and hit the poor bassist. All the cats in TJ know who I'm talking about.”

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UPSTAGING APPLE'S iTUNES: Electrical engineers go head to head with Genius on music playlists

UC San Diego engineers use their song-annotating algorithms to study playlists



		VIDEO: Electrical engineers at UC San Diego have created a new kind of music search engine that actually listens to music. This approach could help bands like Juna and S03 (both... Click here for more information.

Electrical engineers recently pitted Genius – the music recommendation system in Apple's iTunes – against two experimental music recommender systems. Genius appears to capture acoustic similarities among songs within the same playlist, the researchers found. The University of California, San Diego electrical engineers also discovered that the music recommender they built from scratch can generate song playlists that human subjects thought were as good as those that Genius generates. The UC San Diego system works for songs that Genius knows nothing about.

UC San Diego electrical engineering Ph.D. student Luke Barrington presented these findings on October 28 at the 2009 International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR 2009) in Kobe, Japan. (Read the paper at: http://cosmal.ucsd.edu/cal/pubs/Barrington-Genius-ISMIR09.pdf

"Our goal is to make a music recommendation tool that is as good as or better than Genius, but that does not require massive amounts of user data. The system we are developing can analyze and recommend completely unknown songs by new bands as accurately as it analyzes the most popular hits," said Barrington, who used the same underlying technology to create a series of music discovery games for Facebook (http://herdit.org) and a new kind of music search engine that will be available for beta testing next week (http://herdit.org/music/index.html). Watch a three minute video about the new music search engine at: http://cse-ece-ucsd.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-music-search-engine-on-way.html

Tools for creating automated music playlists are increasingly useful now that huge numbers of songs are available for download and streaming to anyone with an Internet connection. iTunes – the most popular music retailer on the planet – has sold more than 6 billion tracks. Genius uses "collaborative filtering" on these purchase statistics to help people organize their music and discover new songs they might like based on similarity to a "seed" song that they do like.

By averaging statistics about how millions of listeners purchase and play music, Genius appears to actually capture acoustic similarities between songs, according to the new research, which involved human evaluation of music recommendation systems and was led by researchers at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Because Genius is a proprietary system whose secrets are not available to the public, the researchers studied it by testing its song recommendations against comparable song suggestions from experimental music recommender systems that they fully understood.



		IMAGE: Electrical engineers recently pitted Genius -- the music recommendation system in Apple's iTunes -- against two experimental music recommender systems. Genius appears to capture acoustic similarities among songs within the... Click here for more information.

"At first we thought that collaborative filtering would just spot similar artists: if you like Daft Punk, it might recommend any song by Justice. However, we found that acoustic similarities come through in Genius playlists. Genius seems to find correspondences between songs that go beyond what you get by just matching artists. We don't think Genius actually knows anything about the acoustics of songs, but it still produces great recommendations since the data it is using is built upon acoustic analyses of the music done by millions humans," said Luke Barrington, an electrical engineering Ph.D. candidate at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, and the first author of the new study. Gert Lanckriet, an electrical and computer engineering professor from UC San Diego and Reid Oda, an undergraduate in cognitive sciences at UC San Diego are co-authors on this paper, available at: http://cosmal.ucsd.edu/cal/pubs/Barrington-Genius-ISMIR09.pdf

Smarter than Genius?

The UC San Diego researchers found that the playlist generator they built using their own algorithms performed as well as Genius under certain conditions. In contrast to Genius, which uses information about the songs people buy and listen to in iTunes in order to learn which songs in any iTunes library are related, the UCSD music recommender relies on auto-tagging algorithms that use machine learning to label songs with descriptive words based only on the acoustic content of the songs.

"Our computer system works by listening to the music – it doesn't know anything about artists or albums or charts. In some trials of our survey, we tried to remove these biases from the human listeners by hiding the names of the songs and artists and making sure that subjects liked the seed songs but had not heard them before," said Barrington. In these cases, the researchers found that people liked playlists generated by the UCSD auto-tagging algorithms as often as they liked Genius playlists.

This partial parity with Genius underscores how the UCSD auto-tagging algorithms can be used to generate high quality music playlists that incorporate lesser-known and unknown songs. Genius currently ignores relatively unknown songs because it lacks adequate wisdom from iTunes customers about how these songs connect to other songs. Systems like the auto-tagging music algorithms developed at UC San Diego could be useful in filling in the "blind spots" in Genius and other collaborative filtering systems that rely on the wisdom of the masses to generate playlists.

"We weren't expecting our system to beat Genius at making playlists based on the most popular songs – our system doesn't know about artists, popularity, release dates, albums or anything else that the average music fan is aware of. Once we add that information in, we think we can build something that is really smarter than Genius," said Barrington.

Music Games are Serious Research

The UCSD electrical engineers are always improving their auto-tagging algorithms thanks to a series of music discovery games they created for Facebook called Herd It (http://www.herdit.org/). Players listen to songs and compete with other online players to most accurately describe the songs they are listening to. The electrical engineers use the song-word combinations these games generate to improve the accuracy and breadth of their auto-tagging algorithms.

As with the Herd It games, the surveys the engineers created to study playlists also began with humans listening to a song clip. Next, the survey system produced two competing five-song playlists for the same seed song. Playlists were generated by one of the four possible recommender systems the researchers were studying: Genius; Artist Similarity – a music recommender that selected songs based only on similar artists; Similar Tags – a music recommender that selected songs based only on the audio content of the songs (this system was built upon the UCSD auto-tagging algorithms); or random playlist.

For each pair of playlists, subjects identified the list they thought was better. Playlists were built from the authors' personal music library of over 12,000 relatively popular songs that span the most common genres of Western popular music. The list of songs used to seed playlists is available at: http://cosmal.ucsd.edu/cal/projects/playlist/

People are moving more and more to streaming music, where listeners don't have the actual file. With access to every song on You Tube, deciding which of the 10 million songs you want to listen to next can be daunting.

"Playlists are an increasingly important tool for overcoming what otherwise might be an overwhelming amount of streaming music," said Barrington.

New Music Search Technologies

The algorithms that automatically tag songs with descriptive words that are at the foundation of the UC San Diego playlist generator are also powering a new breed of search engine for music as well as Facebook games that provide researchers with the information needed to improve the new search engine. To watch a video highlighting the capabilities of the new music search engine, go to: http://cse-ece-ucsd.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-music-search-engine-on-way.html

This search engine will be available for beta testing next week. Register for the music search engine beta test at: http://herdit.org/music/

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SPORTS ARENA MVP SPILLS ON 2.5 MIL REDO AND NEW ARENA NIGHTCLUB

“We’re putting two and a half million dollars in the building” says Ernie Hahn, General Manager of the Sports Arena for the past 13 years. “It’s been a year since AEG Live became a majority owner partner and, since there’s no new arena being built for awhile in San Diego, AEG is modernizing the facility with creature comforts like LCD TV screens, flat screens, redoing the entrances and the outer concourse, paint and colors and lighting, and all new lower level seats. The eight rows of riser seats at the Arena that have literally been here since day one are all getting replaced, [with] 2,200 state-of-the-art seats.”

Construction has also begun on “a special club for our sponsors and club seat holders,” in the old Arena Club space, set to open later this year. Club 3500 (the facility’s address) will be 6,500 square feet, with a 350-person occupancy and accessed via membership only. “When you walk in,” says Hahn, “it’s going to feel like a downtown club, really swank, hip, and sophisticated. It’ll be close to a dedicated seating section at stage right, which will be put aside for our club members.”

Annual membership is $2,450.00, with the option to purchase up to four “dedicated seating” tickets for events you want to opt-in for. Other perks include VIP parking, a VIP entrance, and its own “Exclusive men’s and women’s rest rooms, with sound in them, new paint, mirrors, sinks, and counters, and stalls. The Arena Club in the past always had to utilize the rest rooms that are also available to anybody in [sections] A, B or C on the floor.”

Hahn is also outfitting Club 3500 with Arena memorabilia. “Few houses have this kind of history,” he says. “A lot of people saw their first concert here. We’ll have over 120 pictures showing the actual [Sports Arena] history, like Pink Floyd in ‘74, or the Stones in ’72. I’ve got a great shot of Elton John, one of Elvis in ‘73 or ‘76, and I think a Led Zeppelin ‘75 shot. We have a great photo of James Brown here in 1967, and one of John Denver in the mid-seventies, which I particularly like.”

The 42 year-old Hahn grew up in locally, with parents who were Mariners season ticket holders in the ‘70s (“Lower level one, two seats on the end, across from the visiting penalty box”). He began at the facility as an event coordinator in June 1991.

AEG runs, operates, or is involved with around a hundred arena facilities worldwide, though Hahn notes “We’re an open building. So, whether it’s Live Nation or AEG or anyone else, all shows are not only welcome but encouraged here.”

As for selling naming rights to the building (after a short-lived stint at the iPayOne Center), Hahn says “Through the global partnerships division of AEG, we’re working with a lot of sponsors, some who just recently stepped up, and we’re in discussions with a couple who will hopefully bid or ultimately come in as a naming rights partner.”

AEG sold naming rights for Berlin’s 02 Arena last year for $37.5 million.

And now, courtesy of Bart Mendoza, here are 15 video clips set at the Sports Arena, some pro-shot and some fan-made ----

1) Tribal Seeds @ Reggae Fest 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONzQ-w7zr84

2) Fleetwood Mac / “Dreams” 05/31/09 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eXXAth0i74

3) Metallica / “Enter Sandman” 01-13/14-92 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYlPUNEwGRU

4) Nirvana / “Heart Shaped Box” 12 29 93 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVGpbtv2mgU

5) U2 / “Beautiful Day” 09 28 05 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HhnRBOMJhY

6) George Micheal / “Careless Whisper” 06/17/08 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml1Qlpn_LQ8

7) Led Zeppelin Comes to San Diego on SD News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APplenzzKk4

8) Taylor Swift / “Hey Stephan” (really good footage of her interacting with concert crowd at 2:30 – kind of daring actually…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI4e8_fn80k

9) AC/DC / “Back In Black” 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiWX-7khEog

10) Janet Jackson / ….. (Janet gets overwhelmed by San Diego fan response)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcosWOI-dOs

11) Pearl Jam / “Jeremy” 1995 – not great pic quality, but really good sound!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCOZoUcPANI

12) JJ Cale & Eric Clapton / “Cocaine” 03/15/07

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg63-uOgUJ8

13) P.O.D. / “Boom” (just 8 seconds worth!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXEzvQtnC9w

14) Ozzy Osbourne / …end of the show (fake gunshots!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUpDN1gOx5s

15) Slayer / At the Sports Arena 1992 (a brief parking lot clip shot by a fan!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H_9zhpMDHY

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WHY MEXICANS HATED ELVIS!

May 1959: While Elvis Presley’s popularity in the U.S. was arguably at its all-time peak, Mexico was in the midst of a huge anti-Elvis backlash.

Tijuana tabloids called him a racist and homosexual, after the singer reportedly told gossip columnist Federico de León “I’d rather kiss three black girls than a Mexican.” A Mexican woman in the same column was quoted saying “I’d rather kiss three dogs than one Elvis Presley.”

Mexican Radio Exitos read de León’s column over the air and spearheaded a boycott of the “insolent artist,” while the powerful student group Federación Estudiantil Universitaria (FEU) held public record burnings.

When Elvis’ movie King Creole screened in May 1959 at the Américas Cinema in Mexico City, newspapers who’d advertised the film under the title Melodía Siniestra (Sinister Melody) reported a “riot” occurring.

Mexican counterculture novelist Parménides García Saldaña wrote a short story, “El rey criollo,” about the screening where several hundred gatecrashers reportedly shredded the seats and threw lit papers onto patrons from the balcony.

“Before the film began,” wrote Saldaña, “it was pure chaos, a f-ing riot as they say more vulgarly. The different gangs shouted ‘Here the Guerrero [neighborhood],’ ‘Here the Roma’ …And then some chicks come in with leather jackets with swastikas painted on them, pony tails and bobby socks, real rock and roller like…a group of guys gang up around them [and shout] “‘Dance!’”

Mexican reporters suggested Elvis’ hip-wiggling and mannerisms proved he was either maricón (homosexual) or actually a woman in reverse-drag.

The movie Los chiflados del rock’n roll, a musical spoof, was promoted with posters showing Elvis in drag, being shot by rifle-toting men in sombreros, under a banner reading “Die Elvis Presley!”

The book “Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture” (Berkeley: University of California Press, c1999) claims the original Elvis quote was fabricated. According to author Eric Zolov, “Herbe Pompeyo of Polygram Records in Mexico City claims that a high-up Mexican political figure wanted to contract Presley for a private party, for which he sent the performer a blank check to fill in as he wished.

Presley, according to the story, returned the blank check, so the politico, extremely offended, invented the storyline about Elvis not liking Mexican women.”

Who could have imagined that, four decades later, Mexico would be producing more Elvis velvet paintings than any other region in the world…

…not to mention giving us “El Vez, the Mexican Elvis….”

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Many of the artists from Revolutionary Comics, Rock 'N' Roll Comics, and Carnal Comics have joined forces once again to work on a new & unusual comic and reality based project – The Obama Nation Card Game!

Obama Nation makes good-natured fun of politics, republicans and democrats, government spending and the US economic meltdown. It’s a bit like playing Old Maid or Go fish, but half the fun is looking at and reading the hilarious card art – all very tongue in cheek. Though it’s called Obama Nation, the game makes fun of consumers, banks, environmentalists, the elite, congress in general and both political parties, all in a fairly good natured way. The goal of the game is to see if you can spend Billions of tax dollars faster than your opponents,

Former Rev Com artist (and Obama Game art director) Steve Crompton described how it all came together; ”It’s a bit like a cross between wacky packages, Old Maid and some of the stuff Revolutionary Comics might have done if they made card games. I thought it would be fun to get the old gang together for something like this, and I needed all the help I could get, so I contacted everyone I could find and I’m really happy with the response and great art I got from my Rev Com & Carnal pals.”

A quick look at the 54 card deck shows reveals an impressive list of RevCom & Carnal alums, including Lyndal Ferguson, Scott Jackson, Steve Crompton, Brad Foster, Gus Norman, Randy Vogel and Philo. There may even be a few others hiding in the set as a complete list of all the RevCom artists is hard to come by.

The full-color 54 card deck comes in a resealable box for a only $7.99.
http://shop.twistedrules.com/

You can also get it at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/shops/carnalcomics

http://www.obamanationcardgame.com/

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WHY AL KOOPER HATES LOCAL WRITERS (BUT LOVES SAN DIEGO)

Legendary keyboardist Al Kooper has played with Dylan, the Stones, George Harrison and countless others, but he still has time to beef about local music reporters like Buddy Blue and a certain Reader columnist... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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ANYA MARINA GETS STONED!

Rollingstone.com has added Anya Marina to their "breaking artist" profiles - http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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concert12 THE BEATLES IN SAN DIEGO

8-28-65 – the Beatles: For the Beatles' one and only local appearance, at Balboa Stadium, radio station KCBQ declared that Saturday "Beatle Day" and gave out pins saying so to attendees. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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UNEXPECTED BEATLES ART - The Fab Four turn up in the oddest places... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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yogi12

MAHARISH COMIX AND STORIES, OR "YOGI MAKES A BOO-BOO"

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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wb25 wb31

WEIRD BEATLES MERCHANDISE - WTF were these licensors (and bootleggers) thinking... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/feb/06/my-brunch-with-yoko-plus-weird-beatles

lennon4

MY BRUNCH WITH YOKO - Brunch with a Beatle bride... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/feb/06/my-brunch-with-yoko-plus-weird-beatles

yo7

YOKO ONO COMICS AND STORIES - When Johnny Met Yoko, with dialogue and captions paraphrased from published Lennon interviews. Plus John Lennon: A Life in the Day

... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/feb/06/my-brunch-with-yoko-plus-weird-beatles

bea10 bea2 bea3 bea4

LENNON OR McCARTNEY?? --We asked 25 local performers about their fave Beatle (and why), and got some surprising (and frequently revealing) answers...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/dec/13/we-asked-25-local-musicos-lennon-or-mccartney

CELEBRITY HOUSE HUNTING IN SAN DIEGO - Real estate broker Jeff Paiste has squired several famous musicians around San Diego in their search for decent digs to lease or rent, including Bread frontman David Gates and the late George Harrison.... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/13/celebrity-house-hunting-in-san-diego

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JOEY MOLLAND/BADFINGER INTERVIEW - Badfinger's last man standing, Joey Molland, reveals more about the tragic story of Badfinger, as well as meeting and working with John Lennon, George Harrison, and Todd Rundgren, plus the Concert for Bangladesh, and more. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/aug/21/x-jam-cancellation-controversy-plus-how-i-snuck-in/

The Dream Is Over THE DAY JOHN LENNON WAS SHOT - Local celebs share their recollections of December 8, 1980, plus guest essays from Al Kooper (who was recording with George Harrison that day) and others.... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/25/john-lennon-12-8-1980-we-ask-local-celebs-where-we/

LEGO ALBUM COVER RECREATIONS! Those wacky kidsters at toyzone.com put together this great tribute to OCD Legoholics everywhere... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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Exclusive preview and new interview with one of the creators/performers behind the new internet Trek series - click for more ---http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/oct/04/happy-rons-hormonal-harem---loving-san-diegos-musi/#

READER EXCLUSIVE - For the first time anywhere on the web, here's the promo trailer for Star Trek: The Continuing Mission, episode six: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/audioclips/66/

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The Twilight Zone made it's TV debut 50 years ago, on 10-2-59 - we asked local musicos to tell us their own favorite Zone episodes --- (more "What's Your Favorite Twilight Zone?" )

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black75

THE ROCKETEER AND OTHER FAMOUS '80S COMICS BEGAN RIGHT HERE IN SAN DIEGO - Here's a detailed history of local Pacific Comics, who recruited comic superstars like Jack Kirby to create one of the first successful indie comic book lines. Pioneers in the fight for comic creators' rights and royalties, former employees and operators reveal how they did it, and what went so terribly wrong...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/08/pacific-comics-the-inside-story-jay-allen-sanford

kissart

THE KOMPLETE KISS KOMIX KRONICLES - Comprehensive collection of stuff I’ve done about working with Kiss on a comic book series in San Diego, along with a bunch of never-before-seen artifacts from the Kiss Komix archives AND an article by Kiss comic author Spike Steffenhagen, offering his own very-different take, ala Rashomon, on the same events I describe in my essay...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/12/komplete-kiss-komix-kronicles

RockComicHist1 RockNrollComicsTributeArtSansLogos

ROCK 'N' ROLL COMICS: THE INSIDE STORY - In 1989, San Diego's Revolutionary Comics ("Unauthorized And Proud Of It") launched Rock 'N' Roll Comics, featuring unlicensed biographies of rock stars, most of which I wrote. Some performers, like Frank Zappa and Kiss, were supportive, while others like New Kids On The Block considered our comics akin to bootlegs and sued. In June 1992, publisher Todd Loren was found dead in his San Diego condo, brutally murdered...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/12/rock-n-roll-comics-the-inside-story

ac42 ac43

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK VS REVOLUTIONARY COMICS - The inside story of how a hugely successful boy band tried to sue local-based Rock 'N' Roll Comics over an unauthorized biography of the group, sparking a court case that established, for the very first time, first amendment rights for comic books. Illustrated by comic superstar Stuart Immonen (Superman, etc.)...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/13/new-kids-on-the-block-versus-revolutionary-comics

carn23.psd

OVER A MILLION CARNAL COMICS ARE IN PRINT - Here's how and why we made some of the top-selling erotic comics of all time, right here in San Diego, including what Gene Simmons has to do with it all, backstage tales of porn stars, and more confessions of a comic pornographer...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/08/carnal-comics-the-inside-story-jay-allen-sanfor

ac105 ac123

COMICS AND CENSORSHIP - DON'T BE AFRAID, IT'S ONLY A COMIC BOOK - A local-centric history of comic book censorship, and the fight for the rights of comic creators...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/06/comics-and-censorship-a-local-centric-illustrated

deep38 joblog50

TWILIGHT ZONE AND STAR TREK WRITER GEORGE CLAYTON JOHNSON PRESENTS - The inside story of a local horror comic book series featuring Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, plus sci-fi king Larry Niven, Zap Comix co-founder Spain Rodriguez, Matthew Alice artist Rick Geary, Vampire Lestat painter Daerick Gross, yours truly JAS, and many more...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/05/deepest-dimension-terror-anthology-twilight-zone

im51

THE BIRTH OF IMAGE COMICS: INSIDE STORY OF A LOCAL PUBLISHING POWERHOUSE - Illustrated tale revealing how Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and local comic artist Jim Lee (the Punisher, etc.) conspired to create the ultimate creator-owned comic books...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/03/the-birth-of-image-comics-an-illustrated-history

Down the Slippery Slope - Arrested For the Crime of Viewing Manga

On March 30, 2004, when Dwight Whorley found the Japanese website of Fractal Underground Studio via Yahoo and clicked on a couple of the thumbnail images... ( http://comipress.com/special/miscellaneous/down-the-slippery-slope-the-crime-of-viewing-manga )

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"Before It Was The Gaslamp: Balboa's Last Stand" - Cover story 6-21-07: In the late 70s/early 80s, I worked at downtown San Diego's grindhouse all-night movie theaters, for the owner of the Pussycat Theatre chain, Vince Miranda - this detailed feature recalls those dayz, the death of the Balboa Theatre, etc.

More Before It Was the Gaslamp

"Battle Of The Peeps" - feature article about a weird gig I had in the mid-'80s, running a strip club called Jolar, for the nation's second biggest pornographer, Harry Mohney (Deja Vu Showgirls founder).

More Battle of the Peeps - An Insider History of San Diego Porn Shops

"Field Of Screens" - Cover story 7-6-06: Complete theater-by-theater history of San Diego drive-ins thru the years, including a few which screened X-rated fare for awhile.

More Drive-In Theaters in San Diego: Complete Illustrated History 1947 thru 2008

"Pussycat Theaters - When 'Cathouses Ruled California" -- for the first time, the detailed inside story of the west coast Pussycat Theater chain of adult moviehouses, which peaked in the '70s but later died out. Told by those who actually ran the theaters!

More Pussycat Theater History: When Cathouses Ruled CA

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More Music on the Reader Website:

Find a Band

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Like this blog? Here are some related links:

OVERHEARD IN SAN DIEGO - Several years' worth of this comic strip, which debuted in the Reader in 1996: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/photos/galleries/overheard-san-diego/

FAMOUS FORMER NEIGHBORS - Over 100 comic strips online, with mini-bios of famous San Diegans: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/photos/galleries/famous-former-neighbors/

SAN DIEGO READER MUSIC MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/sandiegoreadermusic

JAY ALLEN SANFORD MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/jayallensanford

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Famous Former Neighbors Song Contest, Mraz Gets the Axe, Astra VS Vinx, Return of Ron Silva, Free Band Names, Reelin' In the Brit Invasion

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WSJ.com reports: Tom DeLonge, frontman for blink-182, has cut the price on his Rancho Santa Fe home to just under $5 million, about 25% less than what he spent on the house, renovations and décor.

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Famous Former Neighbors Song Contest, Mraz Gets the Axe, Astra VS Vinx, Return of Ron Silva, Free Band Names, Reelin' In the Brit Invasion

Tuesday

Famous Former Neighbors Song Contest, Mraz Gets the Axe, Astra VS Vinx, Return of Ron Silva, Free Band Names, Reelin' In the Brit Invasion

Tuesday

Custom Radio Station

Free MP3 downloads

Related links

Related links

Related links

Related links

WSJ.com reports: Tom DeLonge, frontman for blink-182, has cut the price on his Rancho Santa Fe home to just under $5 million, about 25% less than what he spent on the house, renovations and décor.

Time and Space by Jay Allen Sanford

Related links

Related links

Related links

UC San Diego engineers use their song-annotating algorithms to study playlists

More Before It Was the Gaslamp

More Battle of the Peeps - An Insider History of San Diego Porn Shops

More Drive-In Theaters in San Diego: Complete Illustrated History 1947 thru 2008

More Pussycat Theater History: When Cathouses Ruled CA

Find a Band

Today's Top MP3 Downloads

Subscribe and stay in touch

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