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Your Mom Likes Sad Sackery
Thursday 24
Dood, say hi to your mom. Seattle songsmith Eric Elbogen dropped “Your Mom” in ’08 and simply calls himself Say Hi these days. He’s out to tout this year’s Barsuk offering Um, Uh Oh, which the Pitch summed up thusly: “Elbogen has been settling comfortably into indie-pop middle age, slowing down his tempos and digging for deeper veins of sad-sackery.” Your mom likes sad-sackery. At least she did last night. Ohhhh! Listen, the guy writes some super-catchy songs and will be laying them out live at Casbah with NYC trio Yellow Ostrich, who apparently killed at South by Southwest last weekend.... Up and around the bend at Anthology, Poncho Sanchez checks into the Little-It supper club for four shows over two nights. The Mexican-born bandleader/conguero won a Grammy in 2000 for Best Latin Jazz Album (Latin Soul — great record, worth the price for the cover of Herbie Hancock’s ’62 chestnut “Watermelon Man” alone).... Little further up the hill, Tin Can Ale House puts up indie-pop Portlandians the Parson Red Heads. The Red Heads have had a fun run over the past few years in their adopted Echo Park area of L.A. but are heading home to Oregon. You like your folk rock wrapped in paisley — think early Byrds — go check ’em out. Ivan & Alyosha (Seattle) and Il Gato (SanFran) go first. BTW, fun interview with head Red Heads Evan and Brette Way in Thrasher Magazine, which you can find online if yer so inclined (URL’s way too long for me to put here).... Curious what Puerto Rican garage rock sounds like? San Juan’s Davila 666 visits it on Til-Two with TJ’s San Pedro El Cortez and like-minded locals the Plateaus.... And look who’s hopping back into your life, Glen Phillips and his ’80s alt-pop act Toad the Wet Sprocket will bounce into Belly Up behind L.A. chanteuse Lucy Schwartz. Who else just thought, May the Schwartz be with you?
Friday 25
Whistle Stop’s got a funion Friday night, featuring barroom rockers Midnight Rivals and the Darrows. Speaking of Funyuns, don’t let them munchies get you down, Bob, as Miho Gastro’s in the house. Well, just outside the house. Pesto flatbread, mmm.... Sticking uptown, Soda Bar sets up Missoura’s Ozark-rock act Ha Ha Tonka with Philly folkies Hoots & Hellmouth. That’s a kill double bill right there if your libido needs some tough love, your heartstrings a vicious tug. Look, I just wrote a song lyric.... Brooklyn quirk-pop band Miniature Tigers play Casbah behind last year’s wicked recommendable indie-crit hit Fortress. The always-fun Pepper Rabbit and Cuckoo Chaos share that bill. Like having cereal for dinner!... Tin Can Ale House puts up a coupla bands from Nova Scotia, dontchaknow, Duzheknew and Cousins. Duzheknew is a psych-pop trio in which, apparently, all three members play a “forest floor tom.” I don’t know what it is, but Cousins are two of the guys from Duzheknew, so more of that from them, I guess.
Saturday 26
I just read a sucky review of Rainbow Arabia’s Kompakt debut Boys and Diamonds, but it won’t dissuade me from wanting to check out this L.A.-based husband + wife band at Soda Bar. Artsy affectations aside, their brand of microhouse visits all-world beats and has a pretty pleasant new-wave aftertaste. And with Johannesburg’s Afro-beat rapper Spoek Mathambo and Brooklyn dub-step dude Jahdan Blakkamoore, this is one worldly watchamacallit.... Best of the rest Saturday night: Tin Can Ale House stacks up KRS electro-pop artists Milagres with the New Assembly, D/Wolves, and Wet Years...Dizzy’s draws jazz-n-blues dudes the Cole Collective to their Culy space...and John Waite of Brit-pop’s the Babys (“Every Time I Think of You”) plays Ramona Mainstage behind his new t’do Rough & Tumble.
Sunday 27
The Shakedown’s Sunday matinee stages rockabilly royalty. You get Blaster Phil freaking Alvin, Royal Crown Revue’s Eddie Nichols, and Chula Vista’s tatty honky tonkers Hands Down South. Put the top down, roll your sleeves up, and meet me on Midway for some greezy treats. Nope. Nevermind. This gig was moved to Saturday, April 2. See you there and then. Whassup, Barnesy?.... OMG, it’s OMD at 4th&B. Click to Reader rock critic Andrew Hamlin’s review of the British synth-pop band’s latest: sandiegoreader.com/news/musicreviews/.... And Casbah has Men. (I don’t think I’m betraying any trust by disclosing that.) (They’re actually the old Le Tigre.)(If you liked them, you’ll like Men, too.)(Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
Monday 28
Soda Bar sets up the witch house Monday night with deep-woods Michigan trio Salem, big-beats locals Ale Mania, and goth-pop duo Raw Moans...while L.A. acousticats Ferraby Lionheart, Henry Wolfe, and Charlie Wadhams fill a folkie bill at the Loft at UCSD. Lionheart’s The Jack of Hearts was one of last year’s more engaging folk-pop records. This year’s, too.
Tuesday 29
I was going to type “up-and-coming rock-n-soul act Fitz & the Tantrums,” but they’re all in, aren’t they, selling out their Belly Up set Tuesday night.... So, what else? You got The San Diego Music Awards (flip or click to Stampone’s exclusive with TSDMA/Creedle fronter Devon Goldberg for more on that weird science) at Casbah with art-punk supergroup Ghetto Blaster...funky white boys Pocket downtown at El Dorado...and dance-pop “Poker Face” Lady Gag (not for you, Typo Patrollers) and the Scissor Sisters at the Viejas Arena.
Wednesday 30
From New Orleans, funkin’ jazz band Galactic lands at Belly Up behind last year’s Ya-Ka-May, their first Billboard penetrator. You like the Meters, check these guys out.... “Don’t call Them Twinkies,” indie elders Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey, Steve Wynn, and Linda Pitmon make up the Baseball Project, a band mad about America’s favorite pastime. They’re on deck at Casbah behind this year’s no-hitter (ooh, sorry), High and Inside.... Brick by Brick brings the black metal to town with a whole buncha bold type: Rotting Christ (Athens, Greece), Melechesh (Jerusalem), Hate (Warsaw), Abigail Williams, Helsott, Ruines of Abaddon, and Greenskull.... And there’s a killer Commune Wednesday at Whistle Stop this week, featuring food from you-know-who, music groups the Stereotypes and Trap Gold with DJ Ryan Hand spinning round sets, and wicked bitching horticulture by Magpie Cacti. They’re setting up “a trunk show.” Check these succulents out: facebook.com/pages/Magpie-Cacti. Beautifulness.
— Barnaby Monk
Here's something you might be interested in.
Your Mom Likes Sad Sackery
Your Mom Likes Sad Sackery
Thursday 24
Dood, say hi to your mom. Seattle songsmith Eric Elbogen dropped “Your Mom” in ’08 and simply calls himself Say Hi these days. He’s out to tout this year’s Barsuk offering Um, Uh Oh, which the Pitch summed up thusly: “Elbogen has been settling comfortably into indie-pop middle age, slowing down his tempos and digging for deeper veins of sad-sackery.” Your mom likes sad-sackery. At least she did last night. Ohhhh! Listen, the guy writes some super-catchy songs and will be laying them out live at Casbah with NYC trio Yellow Ostrich, who apparently killed at South by Southwest last weekend.... Up and around the bend at Anthology, Poncho Sanchez checks into the Little-It supper club for four shows over two nights. The Mexican-born bandleader/conguero won a Grammy in 2000 for Best Latin Jazz Album (Latin Soul — great record, worth the price for the cover of Herbie Hancock’s ’62 chestnut “Watermelon Man” alone).... Little further up the hill, Tin Can Ale House puts up indie-pop Portlandians the Parson Red Heads. The Red Heads have had a fun run over the past few years in their adopted Echo Park area of L.A. but are heading home to Oregon. You like your folk rock wrapped in paisley — think early Byrds — go check ’em out. Ivan & Alyosha (Seattle) and Il Gato (SanFran) go first. BTW, fun interview with head Red Heads Evan and Brette Way in Thrasher Magazine, which you can find online if yer so inclined (URL’s way too long for me to put here).... Curious what Puerto Rican garage rock sounds like? San Juan’s Davila 666 visits it on Til-Two with TJ’s San Pedro El Cortez and like-minded locals the Plateaus.... And look who’s hopping back into your life, Glen Phillips and his ’80s alt-pop act Toad the Wet Sprocket will bounce into Belly Up behind L.A. chanteuse Lucy Schwartz. Who else just thought, May the Schwartz be with you?
Friday 25
Whistle Stop’s got a funion Friday night, featuring barroom rockers Midnight Rivals and the Darrows. Speaking of Funyuns, don’t let them munchies get you down, Bob, as Miho Gastro’s in the house. Well, just outside the house. Pesto flatbread, mmm.... Sticking uptown, Soda Bar sets up Missoura’s Ozark-rock act Ha Ha Tonka with Philly folkies Hoots & Hellmouth. That’s a kill double bill right there if your libido needs some tough love, your heartstrings a vicious tug. Look, I just wrote a song lyric.... Brooklyn quirk-pop band Miniature Tigers play Casbah behind last year’s wicked recommendable indie-crit hit Fortress. The always-fun Pepper Rabbit and Cuckoo Chaos share that bill. Like having cereal for dinner!... Tin Can Ale House puts up a coupla bands from Nova Scotia, dontchaknow, Duzheknew and Cousins. Duzheknew is a psych-pop trio in which, apparently, all three members play a “forest floor tom.” I don’t know what it is, but Cousins are two of the guys from Duzheknew, so more of that from them, I guess.
Saturday 26
I just read a sucky review of Rainbow Arabia’s Kompakt debut Boys and Diamonds, but it won’t dissuade me from wanting to check out this L.A.-based husband + wife band at Soda Bar. Artsy affectations aside, their brand of microhouse visits all-world beats and has a pretty pleasant new-wave aftertaste. And with Johannesburg’s Afro-beat rapper Spoek Mathambo and Brooklyn dub-step dude Jahdan Blakkamoore, this is one worldly watchamacallit.... Best of the rest Saturday night: Tin Can Ale House stacks up KRS electro-pop artists Milagres with the New Assembly, D/Wolves, and Wet Years...Dizzy’s draws jazz-n-blues dudes the Cole Collective to their Culy space...and John Waite of Brit-pop’s the Babys (“Every Time I Think of You”) plays Ramona Mainstage behind his new t’do Rough & Tumble.
Sunday 27
The Shakedown’s Sunday matinee stages rockabilly royalty. You get Blaster Phil freaking Alvin, Royal Crown Revue’s Eddie Nichols, and Chula Vista’s tatty honky tonkers Hands Down South. Put the top down, roll your sleeves up, and meet me on Midway for some greezy treats. Nope. Nevermind. This gig was moved to Saturday, April 2. See you there and then. Whassup, Barnesy?.... OMG, it’s OMD at 4th&B. Click to Reader rock critic Andrew Hamlin’s review of the British synth-pop band’s latest: sandiegoreader.com/news/musicreviews/.... And Casbah has Men. (I don’t think I’m betraying any trust by disclosing that.) (They’re actually the old Le Tigre.)(If you liked them, you’ll like Men, too.)(Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
Monday 28
Soda Bar sets up the witch house Monday night with deep-woods Michigan trio Salem, big-beats locals Ale Mania, and goth-pop duo Raw Moans...while L.A. acousticats Ferraby Lionheart, Henry Wolfe, and Charlie Wadhams fill a folkie bill at the Loft at UCSD. Lionheart’s The Jack of Hearts was one of last year’s more engaging folk-pop records. This year’s, too.
Tuesday 29
I was going to type “up-and-coming rock-n-soul act Fitz & the Tantrums,” but they’re all in, aren’t they, selling out their Belly Up set Tuesday night.... So, what else? You got The San Diego Music Awards (flip or click to Stampone’s exclusive with TSDMA/Creedle fronter Devon Goldberg for more on that weird science) at Casbah with art-punk supergroup Ghetto Blaster...funky white boys Pocket downtown at El Dorado...and dance-pop “Poker Face” Lady Gag (not for you, Typo Patrollers) and the Scissor Sisters at the Viejas Arena.
Wednesday 30
From New Orleans, funkin’ jazz band Galactic lands at Belly Up behind last year’s Ya-Ka-May, their first Billboard penetrator. You like the Meters, check these guys out.... “Don’t call Them Twinkies,” indie elders Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey, Steve Wynn, and Linda Pitmon make up the Baseball Project, a band mad about America’s favorite pastime. They’re on deck at Casbah behind this year’s no-hitter (ooh, sorry), High and Inside.... Brick by Brick brings the black metal to town with a whole buncha bold type: Rotting Christ (Athens, Greece), Melechesh (Jerusalem), Hate (Warsaw), Abigail Williams, Helsott, Ruines of Abaddon, and Greenskull.... And there’s a killer Commune Wednesday at Whistle Stop this week, featuring food from you-know-who, music groups the Stereotypes and Trap Gold with DJ Ryan Hand spinning round sets, and wicked bitching horticulture by Magpie Cacti. They’re setting up “a trunk show.” Check these succulents out: facebook.com/pages/Magpie-Cacti. Beautifulness.
— Barnaby Monk