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Indie Up!
Thursday 3
Courtney Love’s Hole will fill 4th&B tonight. Let me start again. Nineties alt-radio staples Hole have a new collection out on Mercury Records, Nobody’s Daughter, their first in a decade. Heard a pixilated version of explicit lead single “Skinny Little Bitch” on the radio and made it all the way through. According to contributor Will Crain, it’s an assured set of rockers from Ms. Love. Flip to Will’s "Of Note" this week for more on her and her Hole.... Cleveland’s “Curbside Prophet,” that funky white boy Bushwalla, brings his new thing, The Man Who Invented the Sky, to Belly Up. L.A. hip-hopper Pigeon John and our own eclectic pop playa Rafter set the Solana Beach stage.... Blues-rock guitarists Johnny Lang and Robert Cray will play Humphrey’s by the Bay.... While acoustic crooner Greg Gibson and honky-tonk cover crew Rio Peligroso split a bill at Bar Pink. Multi-instrumentalist Gibson dropped his debut Black Glass this year. Fine folk fare.
Friday 4
Why? Wolf brother Josiah plays Soda Bar behind his solo shot Jet Lag, a breakup album in the true-bluest sense. Have a listen to the “Opposite of Breathing” here: myspace.com/josiahwolfjetlag. Doesn’t have his kid brother’s spit, pitch, or timbre, but I root for all things Anticon. With like-minded locals Boomsnake and Cars and Trains rolling in from Portland, these’d be the sets to see Friday night.... Staying uptown, Zonie ragtime rockers Hooves gallop into Ruby Room to join our own bar bands Bloodflowers, Dead Feather Moon, and Republic of Letters...and you got San Dago-via-Jalisco sextet Marquez! at Radio Room. I’m assuming these cats are soccer fan(atic)s, naming the group after a popular Mexican national player and calling their debut disc The Passing. If si, good luck in the World Cup, guys. Oh yeah and by the way, all Crawler followers should bone up on the beautiful game, cuz I’m gonna be dropping football refs like bombs up in this mother throughout this summer’s Cup.... Back to it: San Diego psychobilly mainstays Deadbolt and the Embalmers bury one at Bay Park rock spot Brick by Brick. This is a CD-release thing for the Bolts’ new t’do Voodoo Moonshiner. Go support your local spook-rockers as they head out on a Southwest swing to shill the thing.... Heading downtown, it’ll be indie kids Red Pony Clock at Tin Can Ale House with SanFran band Eux Autres, Le Ra, and Endless Bummer. Pop trio Eux Autres have their own Lego people, Leg-autres. Awesome.... Jesse LaMonaca and the Dime Novels will drop their debut disc, Until the Stars Came Out, at Marble Room. They call it Americana soul. I’m at a loss. But swinging keys player Ed Kornhauser’s at the piano, and you can check him out solo on Saturday up at the Quail Botanical Gardens in Enci. Nice place.... And rock en español poster boy Enrique Bunbury plays 4th&B behind Las Consecuencias. That means “the consequences.”
Saturday 5
Tin Can Ale House hosts a CD-release for Solana Beach soul-central Snuffaluffagus. The Snuffs will be kicking off a Left Coast summer run behind Gnome Records collection Brazil Wood Poetry, my midyear pick for best local set yet. Microphones fans, take note of these beardos. With locals Mothlight and the moldy peachy Dusty Highway in support, these’d be the sets to see Saturday night.... Else: the English Beat will be at Belly Up. Dave Good "Of Noted" that one, so flip there for more.... Soda Bar sets up the well-named Mr. Rock Dude, throwback supergroup Midnight Rivals, and Spider Fever. Spider Fever’s got Earthless trapsman Mario R. on guitar, and what he lacks in chops, he makes up for in VOLUME. Good ear-numbin’, head-thrummin’ fun.... Cleveland rap master Bizzy Bone hits Brick by Brick sans Thugs-n-Harmony. Bizzy’s got a new wack track, “Paz,” up on the www with Latin soulman G.No. Go get it.
Sunday 6
Never noticed this before, but you can get “kegs and eggs” at Ruby Room come brunch time on Sundays. Hangover hangout, huh?... English folk-rock act Mumford & Sons sold out the Belly Up Sunday night, but there’s another good one upthataway at the Ché Café as Grand Rapids’ lo-fi acousti-punk Paul Baribeau and like-minded locals the Preteens, Sani, and Mandarin Dynasty take the campus stage. First time I heard Mumford & Sons’ “Little Lion Man,” I thought it was Dave Matthews covering the Pogues. Catchy tune, and these guys are just killing it in the colonies, with sold-out shows left to right and cracking Billboard’s top 100 in six categories.
Monday 7
Buzzcocks and Dollyrots play at House of Blues Monday. The Buzzcocks are English punks from the Class of ’76, whose reunion has gone on 15 years longer than their heyday. Whether you need a refresher or a primer, get yer mitts on Cooking Vinyl retrospective 30. It’s all there — the singles, the deep cuts, “Orgasm Addict.” Like-minded Los Angelinos the Dollyrots have done well to score this dozen-or-so-dates tour. The trio’s out to tout their new one, California Beach Boy.... Indie-rock-meets-trip-hop provocateur Sage Francis will bring L(i)fe to Belly Up. The Sage corralled Califone, Jason Lytle (Grandaddy), Chris Walla (Death Cab), and the late Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) to “indie up” the beats and bleats on his lukewarmly received new one. Check out the track he did with Will Oldham a couple years back, “Sea Lion.” Irrepressible earworm, that.... The Ché stages Screaming Females from Jersey with Jehovah’s Fitness, Jeans Wilder, and Teenage Space Undead. I don’t know anything about any of them, I just wanted to type those band names.
Tuesday 8
xx marks the spot at House of Blues Tuesday night. With drum machines set to “R&B,” the English indie-pop act cooked up a crit hit with their s/t debut. This Casbah-curated affair will likely sell out the House, so interested chicks should get on the stick. There, I said it, they’re a chick band. Sue me.... Prizzy Prizzy Please, Ooh Barracuda (shouldn’t that be “Ooo”?), and teamAWESOME! pop off at Soda Bar. Casio punks PPP come to us from Chicago, Illinoize, and gave me my biggest discovery grin of the day. Check out “New Shoes”: myspace.com/prizzyprizzyplease.... Else: Radio Room dials in indie-pop act Napoleon Complex, which returns from a quick run up the coast...and rock-n-soul quartet Delta Spirit brings new one History from Below to Belly Up before they head out on a national summer run.
Wednesday 9
Couple of humpnight highlights to consider, as radio hits Cage the Elephant (“Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” is like white noise to me now) lumbers into House of Blues...and the Ché stages psych-rock sets by Incomplete Neighbor, Scribe Amidst the Lions, and Brooklyn’s Boombox Renaissance. (That how you spell that?)
—Barnaby Monk
Here's something you might be interested in.
Indie Up!
Indie Up!
Thursday 3
Courtney Love’s Hole will fill 4th&B tonight. Let me start again. Nineties alt-radio staples Hole have a new collection out on Mercury Records, Nobody’s Daughter, their first in a decade. Heard a pixilated version of explicit lead single “Skinny Little Bitch” on the radio and made it all the way through. According to contributor Will Crain, it’s an assured set of rockers from Ms. Love. Flip to Will’s "Of Note" this week for more on her and her Hole.... Cleveland’s “Curbside Prophet,” that funky white boy Bushwalla, brings his new thing, The Man Who Invented the Sky, to Belly Up. L.A. hip-hopper Pigeon John and our own eclectic pop playa Rafter set the Solana Beach stage.... Blues-rock guitarists Johnny Lang and Robert Cray will play Humphrey’s by the Bay.... While acoustic crooner Greg Gibson and honky-tonk cover crew Rio Peligroso split a bill at Bar Pink. Multi-instrumentalist Gibson dropped his debut Black Glass this year. Fine folk fare.
Friday 4
Why? Wolf brother Josiah plays Soda Bar behind his solo shot Jet Lag, a breakup album in the true-bluest sense. Have a listen to the “Opposite of Breathing” here: myspace.com/josiahwolfjetlag. Doesn’t have his kid brother’s spit, pitch, or timbre, but I root for all things Anticon. With like-minded locals Boomsnake and Cars and Trains rolling in from Portland, these’d be the sets to see Friday night.... Staying uptown, Zonie ragtime rockers Hooves gallop into Ruby Room to join our own bar bands Bloodflowers, Dead Feather Moon, and Republic of Letters...and you got San Dago-via-Jalisco sextet Marquez! at Radio Room. I’m assuming these cats are soccer fan(atic)s, naming the group after a popular Mexican national player and calling their debut disc The Passing. If si, good luck in the World Cup, guys. Oh yeah and by the way, all Crawler followers should bone up on the beautiful game, cuz I’m gonna be dropping football refs like bombs up in this mother throughout this summer’s Cup.... Back to it: San Diego psychobilly mainstays Deadbolt and the Embalmers bury one at Bay Park rock spot Brick by Brick. This is a CD-release thing for the Bolts’ new t’do Voodoo Moonshiner. Go support your local spook-rockers as they head out on a Southwest swing to shill the thing.... Heading downtown, it’ll be indie kids Red Pony Clock at Tin Can Ale House with SanFran band Eux Autres, Le Ra, and Endless Bummer. Pop trio Eux Autres have their own Lego people, Leg-autres. Awesome.... Jesse LaMonaca and the Dime Novels will drop their debut disc, Until the Stars Came Out, at Marble Room. They call it Americana soul. I’m at a loss. But swinging keys player Ed Kornhauser’s at the piano, and you can check him out solo on Saturday up at the Quail Botanical Gardens in Enci. Nice place.... And rock en español poster boy Enrique Bunbury plays 4th&B behind Las Consecuencias. That means “the consequences.”
Saturday 5
Tin Can Ale House hosts a CD-release for Solana Beach soul-central Snuffaluffagus. The Snuffs will be kicking off a Left Coast summer run behind Gnome Records collection Brazil Wood Poetry, my midyear pick for best local set yet. Microphones fans, take note of these beardos. With locals Mothlight and the moldy peachy Dusty Highway in support, these’d be the sets to see Saturday night.... Else: the English Beat will be at Belly Up. Dave Good "Of Noted" that one, so flip there for more.... Soda Bar sets up the well-named Mr. Rock Dude, throwback supergroup Midnight Rivals, and Spider Fever. Spider Fever’s got Earthless trapsman Mario R. on guitar, and what he lacks in chops, he makes up for in VOLUME. Good ear-numbin’, head-thrummin’ fun.... Cleveland rap master Bizzy Bone hits Brick by Brick sans Thugs-n-Harmony. Bizzy’s got a new wack track, “Paz,” up on the www with Latin soulman G.No. Go get it.
Sunday 6
Never noticed this before, but you can get “kegs and eggs” at Ruby Room come brunch time on Sundays. Hangover hangout, huh?... English folk-rock act Mumford & Sons sold out the Belly Up Sunday night, but there’s another good one upthataway at the Ché Café as Grand Rapids’ lo-fi acousti-punk Paul Baribeau and like-minded locals the Preteens, Sani, and Mandarin Dynasty take the campus stage. First time I heard Mumford & Sons’ “Little Lion Man,” I thought it was Dave Matthews covering the Pogues. Catchy tune, and these guys are just killing it in the colonies, with sold-out shows left to right and cracking Billboard’s top 100 in six categories.
Monday 7
Buzzcocks and Dollyrots play at House of Blues Monday. The Buzzcocks are English punks from the Class of ’76, whose reunion has gone on 15 years longer than their heyday. Whether you need a refresher or a primer, get yer mitts on Cooking Vinyl retrospective 30. It’s all there — the singles, the deep cuts, “Orgasm Addict.” Like-minded Los Angelinos the Dollyrots have done well to score this dozen-or-so-dates tour. The trio’s out to tout their new one, California Beach Boy.... Indie-rock-meets-trip-hop provocateur Sage Francis will bring L(i)fe to Belly Up. The Sage corralled Califone, Jason Lytle (Grandaddy), Chris Walla (Death Cab), and the late Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) to “indie up” the beats and bleats on his lukewarmly received new one. Check out the track he did with Will Oldham a couple years back, “Sea Lion.” Irrepressible earworm, that.... The Ché stages Screaming Females from Jersey with Jehovah’s Fitness, Jeans Wilder, and Teenage Space Undead. I don’t know anything about any of them, I just wanted to type those band names.
Tuesday 8
xx marks the spot at House of Blues Tuesday night. With drum machines set to “R&B,” the English indie-pop act cooked up a crit hit with their s/t debut. This Casbah-curated affair will likely sell out the House, so interested chicks should get on the stick. There, I said it, they’re a chick band. Sue me.... Prizzy Prizzy Please, Ooh Barracuda (shouldn’t that be “Ooo”?), and teamAWESOME! pop off at Soda Bar. Casio punks PPP come to us from Chicago, Illinoize, and gave me my biggest discovery grin of the day. Check out “New Shoes”: myspace.com/prizzyprizzyplease.... Else: Radio Room dials in indie-pop act Napoleon Complex, which returns from a quick run up the coast...and rock-n-soul quartet Delta Spirit brings new one History from Below to Belly Up before they head out on a national summer run.
Wednesday 9
Couple of humpnight highlights to consider, as radio hits Cage the Elephant (“Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” is like white noise to me now) lumbers into House of Blues...and the Ché stages psych-rock sets by Incomplete Neighbor, Scribe Amidst the Lions, and Brooklyn’s Boombox Renaissance. (That how you spell that?)
—Barnaby Monk