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Avant-guardians
Thursday 11
A pair of seasoned punks from the Palm Desert scene — Circle Jerk Zander Schloss shredding an acoustic and wordsmith Sean Wheeler of Throw Rag — bring their folk-raunch shtick to Brick by Brick tonight. I’ve seen this set a few times, and it’s a grinner from beginning to end, not just because of who they are but for what they bring — raw, melodic, oft-hilarious ditties. And, also, let’s face it, because of who they are. The duo’s got a real earworm in “So Low She Rose.” Check it out: myspace.com/seanwheelerzanderschloss. Fellow desert rockers Masters of Reality will headline behind their sixth studio set Pine/Cross Dover, making this the gig to get to tonight, y’all.... If you’re feeling like it’s got to be tighty whities and scary rabbit masks, howev., that garage goof Nobunny will hop into Soda Bar with his Goner debut, First Blood. It’s a catchy batch from the “loopily leporine rock ’n’ roller.” Local up-and-comers Stalins of Sound set the stage.... Else: Dizzy’s is doing a Neil Young trib for Grampy Grunge’s 65th at the Culy Warehouse space downtown. Bevy of players taking the mic, so click this for the specifics: dizzysjazz.com/calendar.php...Stevie Ray’s big bro Jimmie Vaughan brings everything that he learned about blues guitar from the three kings — Freddie, Albert, and B.B. — to the Belly Up in Solana Beach...and NYC indie hits Pains of Being Pure at Heart — “one of the best new British bands from the U.S.” — pop in the Loft at UCSD.
Friday 12
For those of you who like your indie pop with grand gestures, get with that big band with the big name, Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s. This year’s Buzzard finds the septet getting its noize on and stretching out between hooks to mixed effect. “New York City Hotel Blues” would be the Tootsie Roll center of that Tootsie Pop. The Indiana band marches into Casbah with fellow Indianans Jookabox and SanFran fuzzed-out psych-pop band Burnt Ones.... Tex-Mex punx Vatos Locos are on a West Coast run with their latest Loaded Bomb Records release Until the Wheels Fall Off. Loaded Bomb labelmates the Lonesome Ones will set the stage at SD’s newest old-school punk club the Shakedown.... Bliss and Void Inseparable. Portland raga shaman and performance artist Enrique Ugalde, aka Soriah, will layer whispered mantras over ritualistic beats and creeping synth sounds for what’s sure to be an hour of holy terror at Tin Can Ale House. Locals Riververb and Kenseth Thibideau will be serving more trad appetizers.... A Pocket full of acid jazz will groove Bar Pink.... And there’s a Beer Week thing at Eleven with the Yeasty Boyz, a bunch of local brewers doing songs about all things beer — “Ba-a-a-arp, there it is!” — I love that one.
Saturday 13
Casbah bills the gig to get to Saturday night, as San Diego sons the Soft Pack (née the Muslims) headline sets by Philly noise-pop auteurs Kurt Vile and Purling Hiss. You know about Soft Pack and Vile, but what makes this one a triple treat is heady Hisser Mike Polizze, who lays down “serious ’70s-style aquarock.” This year’s Woodsist disc Public Service Announcement sounds as if it was recorded underwater, but what bubbles up is pure pop oxygen. Go get his “Run from the City” in yer earholes now: myspace.com/purlinghiss. Your mileage may vary.... Soda Bar stages Portland solo goer Boy Eats Drum Machine with local notables Primitive Noyes. Dave Good’s got the goods on BEDM in one of this week’s “Of Notes,” so flip to it.... Canada band and Broken Social Scenesters Stars shine on House of Blues behind this year’s so-so Five Ghosts. Brit-pop pinups the Delays set the downtown stage.... Best of the rest: Cursive wordsmith Tim Kasher will play The Game of Monogamy at the Loft at UCSD...one of the Wu-Tang gang, Ghostface Killah, will rock the mic at Brick by Brick...and 94/9 will host a kiss-your-own-ass anniversary bash for its eighth year on the air. That’ll be down at 4th&B with sets by the hip-for-hire Hold Steady and local notables the Night Marchers. The good word is that the morning-show God squad will be in the house to play Cheap Trick classic “Surrender” for you — if Mikey can remember the words.
Sunday 14
New York City no-wave trio Blonde Redhead hits House of Blues behind its latest, Penny Sparkle. I don’t wholly agree, but this rip from Pitchfork is pretty funny: “If you happen to be a music coordinator for Banana Republic, Penny Sparkle is an early Christmas gift.” Granted, after 20 years, Redhead’s lost an edge, but I wouldn’t relegate Ms. Makino et al. to background mall music. It’s “cocktail rock”; don’t hate on cocktails.... Hate on alt-pop act MAE, which will play the Loft on its “last tour ever.” Goodbye, goodnight. Someone must have played a Death Cab record for them.... Ruby Room sets up soul-rock jam band Hillside Fire. The Petaluma quartet’s out to tout debut Avoid the Rush. Lloyd St. Rockers and Hazmatt will set the stage at the Hillcrest hideaway.
Monday 15
Had never heard of Brooklyn band Bear Hands (there just has to be something in the Hudson) but they win this week’s unexpected grin for Burning Bush Supper Club’s mixed bag of off-tuned indie tunes that drag, skip, and scream with immediacy and confident (if a bit bold) vox. Soda Bar sets ’em up with vintage L.A. act Rumspringa and our own pop-rock throwbacks Gun Runner.... Casbah stages the avant-guardians of the neo-psychedelic school, the Legendary Pink Dots, who are on a world tour behind their, like, 40th release in 30 years, Seconds Late for the Brighton Line. Street of Little Girls goes first, and our own avant-guardian of the ’80s, DJ Robin Roth, will spin round sets.... Monster rockers GWAR will drag House of Blues down to Bloody Pit of Horror, the novelty act’s 12th studio set of taboo thrash-metal.
Tuesday 16
Grammy-winning singer-songer Marc Cohn (“Walking in Memphis”) plays Belly Up behind this year’s Listening Booth: 1970, a covers collection of golden oldies.... British bluesman John Mayall will hang Tough, his last studio set, at Anthology.
Wednesday 17
Pepper and Fishbone hook up at Belly Up for a night of ska punk. Pepper’s new do is called Stitches, and this is their Like a Surgeon tour.... Ohio-based art-pop quartet the Pomegranates rolls into Casbah with this year’s One of Us. Austin indie kids Oh No Oh My will set the stage with People Problems.... Have you caught chick-and-dude oi Nude Boy yet? Could be your last chance for “a long while,” as the band bares it all at Tin Can Ale House with fun-punk trio Tan Dollar.
— Barnaby Monk
Here's something you might be interested in.
Avant-guardians
Avant-guardians
Thursday 11
A pair of seasoned punks from the Palm Desert scene — Circle Jerk Zander Schloss shredding an acoustic and wordsmith Sean Wheeler of Throw Rag — bring their folk-raunch shtick to Brick by Brick tonight. I’ve seen this set a few times, and it’s a grinner from beginning to end, not just because of who they are but for what they bring — raw, melodic, oft-hilarious ditties. And, also, let’s face it, because of who they are. The duo’s got a real earworm in “So Low She Rose.” Check it out: myspace.com/seanwheelerzanderschloss. Fellow desert rockers Masters of Reality will headline behind their sixth studio set Pine/Cross Dover, making this the gig to get to tonight, y’all.... If you’re feeling like it’s got to be tighty whities and scary rabbit masks, howev., that garage goof Nobunny will hop into Soda Bar with his Goner debut, First Blood. It’s a catchy batch from the “loopily leporine rock ’n’ roller.” Local up-and-comers Stalins of Sound set the stage.... Else: Dizzy’s is doing a Neil Young trib for Grampy Grunge’s 65th at the Culy Warehouse space downtown. Bevy of players taking the mic, so click this for the specifics: dizzysjazz.com/calendar.php...Stevie Ray’s big bro Jimmie Vaughan brings everything that he learned about blues guitar from the three kings — Freddie, Albert, and B.B. — to the Belly Up in Solana Beach...and NYC indie hits Pains of Being Pure at Heart — “one of the best new British bands from the U.S.” — pop in the Loft at UCSD.
Friday 12
For those of you who like your indie pop with grand gestures, get with that big band with the big name, Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s. This year’s Buzzard finds the septet getting its noize on and stretching out between hooks to mixed effect. “New York City Hotel Blues” would be the Tootsie Roll center of that Tootsie Pop. The Indiana band marches into Casbah with fellow Indianans Jookabox and SanFran fuzzed-out psych-pop band Burnt Ones.... Tex-Mex punx Vatos Locos are on a West Coast run with their latest Loaded Bomb Records release Until the Wheels Fall Off. Loaded Bomb labelmates the Lonesome Ones will set the stage at SD’s newest old-school punk club the Shakedown.... Bliss and Void Inseparable. Portland raga shaman and performance artist Enrique Ugalde, aka Soriah, will layer whispered mantras over ritualistic beats and creeping synth sounds for what’s sure to be an hour of holy terror at Tin Can Ale House. Locals Riververb and Kenseth Thibideau will be serving more trad appetizers.... A Pocket full of acid jazz will groove Bar Pink.... And there’s a Beer Week thing at Eleven with the Yeasty Boyz, a bunch of local brewers doing songs about all things beer — “Ba-a-a-arp, there it is!” — I love that one.
Saturday 13
Casbah bills the gig to get to Saturday night, as San Diego sons the Soft Pack (née the Muslims) headline sets by Philly noise-pop auteurs Kurt Vile and Purling Hiss. You know about Soft Pack and Vile, but what makes this one a triple treat is heady Hisser Mike Polizze, who lays down “serious ’70s-style aquarock.” This year’s Woodsist disc Public Service Announcement sounds as if it was recorded underwater, but what bubbles up is pure pop oxygen. Go get his “Run from the City” in yer earholes now: myspace.com/purlinghiss. Your mileage may vary.... Soda Bar stages Portland solo goer Boy Eats Drum Machine with local notables Primitive Noyes. Dave Good’s got the goods on BEDM in one of this week’s “Of Notes,” so flip to it.... Canada band and Broken Social Scenesters Stars shine on House of Blues behind this year’s so-so Five Ghosts. Brit-pop pinups the Delays set the downtown stage.... Best of the rest: Cursive wordsmith Tim Kasher will play The Game of Monogamy at the Loft at UCSD...one of the Wu-Tang gang, Ghostface Killah, will rock the mic at Brick by Brick...and 94/9 will host a kiss-your-own-ass anniversary bash for its eighth year on the air. That’ll be down at 4th&B with sets by the hip-for-hire Hold Steady and local notables the Night Marchers. The good word is that the morning-show God squad will be in the house to play Cheap Trick classic “Surrender” for you — if Mikey can remember the words.
Sunday 14
New York City no-wave trio Blonde Redhead hits House of Blues behind its latest, Penny Sparkle. I don’t wholly agree, but this rip from Pitchfork is pretty funny: “If you happen to be a music coordinator for Banana Republic, Penny Sparkle is an early Christmas gift.” Granted, after 20 years, Redhead’s lost an edge, but I wouldn’t relegate Ms. Makino et al. to background mall music. It’s “cocktail rock”; don’t hate on cocktails.... Hate on alt-pop act MAE, which will play the Loft on its “last tour ever.” Goodbye, goodnight. Someone must have played a Death Cab record for them.... Ruby Room sets up soul-rock jam band Hillside Fire. The Petaluma quartet’s out to tout debut Avoid the Rush. Lloyd St. Rockers and Hazmatt will set the stage at the Hillcrest hideaway.
Monday 15
Had never heard of Brooklyn band Bear Hands (there just has to be something in the Hudson) but they win this week’s unexpected grin for Burning Bush Supper Club’s mixed bag of off-tuned indie tunes that drag, skip, and scream with immediacy and confident (if a bit bold) vox. Soda Bar sets ’em up with vintage L.A. act Rumspringa and our own pop-rock throwbacks Gun Runner.... Casbah stages the avant-guardians of the neo-psychedelic school, the Legendary Pink Dots, who are on a world tour behind their, like, 40th release in 30 years, Seconds Late for the Brighton Line. Street of Little Girls goes first, and our own avant-guardian of the ’80s, DJ Robin Roth, will spin round sets.... Monster rockers GWAR will drag House of Blues down to Bloody Pit of Horror, the novelty act’s 12th studio set of taboo thrash-metal.
Tuesday 16
Grammy-winning singer-songer Marc Cohn (“Walking in Memphis”) plays Belly Up behind this year’s Listening Booth: 1970, a covers collection of golden oldies.... British bluesman John Mayall will hang Tough, his last studio set, at Anthology.
Wednesday 17
Pepper and Fishbone hook up at Belly Up for a night of ska punk. Pepper’s new do is called Stitches, and this is their Like a Surgeon tour.... Ohio-based art-pop quartet the Pomegranates rolls into Casbah with this year’s One of Us. Austin indie kids Oh No Oh My will set the stage with People Problems.... Have you caught chick-and-dude oi Nude Boy yet? Could be your last chance for “a long while,” as the band bares it all at Tin Can Ale House with fun-punk trio Tan Dollar.
— Barnaby Monk