Invigorating and exhausting, the hallmarks of a healthy music scene. We've got your backline, San Diego.
March 4, 2015
News & Stories
For fans and bands navigating the 2015 music scene
Walk All Over You
The stiletto boots in the back of my closet are restless, long to stroll the 3rd Street Promenade, looking for a red silk bustier. A Louis Vuitton bag. A lover who won’t let me down. …
March 4, 2015
Western networkings
Onstage is the favored setting for local melodic-punk band Western Settings. Since playing their first show in October 2013, the band has played more than 60 gigs, toured twice, and recorded two albums. Their new …
March 4, 2015
My spirit will live in the presence of God
Looking forward to no more sin, racism, sexism, murder, or deception.
March 4, 2015
Teen Burgermeisters
While “Burger Revolution” sounds like it might be the latest craft-beer eatery, it is a concept from Fullerton-based Burger Records that invites local promoters to throw concerts or other music-related happenings in their towns on …
March 4, 2015
To get the Trowbridge Computer
Judging by documents filed by San Diego Tourism Marketing District attorneys, the argument as to whether the hotel tax is legal rests on a legal technicality that could be found on a deceased man's computer. …
March 4, 2015
Deadbeat Doug
The computer-services outfit determined to collect on a federal court judgment of $466,310 against Manchester Financial Bank, a putative venture of U-T San Diego owner Douglas Manchester, is still trying. The financial institution never got …
March 4, 2015
Happy Fangs' first record could be its best
If you asked me to make a top ten list of my favorite bands of the year thus far, this San Francisco–based garage band would be somewhere near the top. Happy Fangs’ first full-length CD …
March 4, 2015
The Old Globe stages The Twenty-Seventh Man
Their crime: they compose in Yiddish, “from right to left on the page.”
March 4, 2015
360 degrees of spectacular
Hike to the roof of San Diego County and see Mexico and Arizona from one spot.
March 4, 2015
Dis the DST
Dear Hipster: I direct this question to you, because I feel that the world at large ought to be “over it” in regards to Daylight Savings Time and because hipsters are the masters of being …
March 4, 2015
Bonspieling San Diego
‘We are the only curling club in San Diego. There are five in the state — three in SoCal and two in Northern California.” On the phone with Brian Walsh, 40, president of Curl San …
March 4, 2015
It's just death
The 2012 film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel pulled in $137 million worldwide on a $10 million budget, numbers that seem especially impressive when you consider that the film was about, in the words of …
March 4, 2015
Touched by the hand of Mod
“Mod” has often been described as a “broad church.” Ask ten of its disciples to define it and you’ll get ten different answers, or forty. Well, a lot suffer from Quadrophenia, don’t you know. From …
March 4, 2015
Road repair dilemma in Chula Vista
Screaming the loudest for road repair is a waste of time.
March 4, 2015
Borderlanding
Baja and San Diego have a long history of partying together. These days, the atmosphere is less belligerence and more participants. Promoters from both sides work together to throw underground shows at new and inventive …
March 4, 2015
The visionary behind the Help Neil Catch Fish Foundation
“This is it. My bones are here. San Diego is the best place on Earth.”
March 4, 2015
Sound science
The creative-music scene at UC San Diego has long been a magnet for adventurous musicians from all over the globe. There is a singular sense of exploration and an emphasis on the new that separates …
March 4, 2015
Million-dollar Annie
Word that Ann Spira Campbell, formerly number two at the San Diego Opera, has become the senior executive director for principal gifts at UCSD has tongues wagging among local rainmakers. The ex-wife of former opera …
March 4, 2015
Crowd sourcing
What makes a music fest work in San Diego? Ten-thousand pounds of crayfish. That, plus accordions, those metal washboard things you wear on your chest, and Mardi Gras beads. Many San Diego music fests have …
March 4, 2015
Space for one big yacht and two little ones in Coronado
Situated on the edge of an inlet to the Coronado Cays, the luxury estate at 1 Spinnaker Way offers “the largest, most private, un-matched unobstructed bay and channel views from nearly every room,” according to …
March 4, 2015
Hock and roll
A songwriter looking for material could do worse than to work in a pawn shop. Moris Adato, the general manager of CashCo pawn shop in City Heights, hears the type of stories that make for …
March 4, 2015
Maximum cryptic effect
Dear Hipster: My friend told me she really wants a Herschel backpack, which I notice has become super trendy in the past couple years. This got me thinking about the relative coolness of fashionable clothing …
March 4, 2015
End of days for Ché Café?
The Ché Café Collective must get out or the sheriff’s will lock them out. That was the bottom line of a letter sent to the collective and distributed Tuesday evening from UCSD Vice Chancellor of …
March 4, 2015
Where the jazzcats jam
“I’m in it for the love of the music, I don’t get rich on doing this,” trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos tells the Reader on a static-heavy cell phone call from the Las Vegas airport. “I’m proud …
March 4, 2015
Wired for sound
Last year was a bloodbath for local music venues. So before we start our rundown of venues rocking 2015, we would like to pay homage to our fallen comrades of 2014, the clubs that won’t …
March 4, 2015
Studios for let
Sure, you can self-record your album in your bedroom with a laptop, some software, and a few decent mics. Or, you could go the traditional route in a recording studio. But where to book your …
March 4, 2015
Kilroy’s killjoys
The foundation of J. Douglas Pardee, former chairman of the board of the big housing development outfit that bears the family name, has been spreading the wealth to San Diego State University’s public broadcasting operation. …
March 4, 2015
Holy cows!
March 3 dock totals 6 Anglers aboard the Josie Lynn 1/2 Day AM run caught 6 Sculpin and 24 Rockfish The Daily Double 1/2 Day AM with 20 Anglers aboard reported 64 Rockfish, 10 Lingcod, …
March 4, 2015
Bands to watch
Anyone who has flipped through the music section of the Reader has seen the names of countless local acts listed under the banners of countless venues. In fact, there are so many bands in this …
March 4, 2015
When one door closes...
"There’s definitely not enough venues, especially with the closing of the Ché [Café].” Singer/guitarist Joshua Kmak laments the fact that while the scene is plumping up — thanks in part to garage-rock combos such as …
March 4, 2015
Readers share their thoughts
The American Fighting Man I picked up the Reader as I was on my way to the VA hospital in La Jolla, and I read the miserable nonsense of Mr. Josh Champlin (“Shane Held a …
March 4, 2015
Rest in Peace, Dialup Dad
They never did anything on their own unless the other person was included.
March 4, 2015