Less screamo, more hardcore — at least since 2008. That was the year Las Vegas quintet Escape the Fate made a course correction and swapped singers with the announcement that Craig Mabbitt would replace founding …
January 14, 2014
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Stories by Dave Good
Escape the Fate: Less Screamo
Is Pinback a band?
Gloomy music pretending to be happy: that’s Pinback. Their particular vibe comes as the result of living here in the banana belt of San Diego where the weather is almost always balmy. Or so says …
January 8, 2014
What’s shaken at the Kraken?
The Kraken puts an end to the Doug Allen-hosted Monday- and Tuesday-night jam sessions due to insufficient bar sales.
January 8, 2014
Author & Punisher to premiere voice-modulating masks at Soda Bar
“Yeah, the music is dark. It’s what comes out, but it’s kind of heartfelt. But some people think it sounds like nightmares.” Music from one of Dante’s seven circles of hell: ex-metal guitarist Tristan Shone, …
December 31, 2013
ProSound: unplugged
“Carlos Santana picked up an unplugged electric guitar I had here in the office and he played three notes.” Michael Krewitsky sits in what used to be the mixing studio at ProSound in Mission Valley, …
December 31, 2013
Not really church music
“The number could be off by a few in either direction, but I think it’s been around 520.” Carey Driscoll says he’s lost count of the number of shows he has produced over ten years …
December 30, 2013
Terraplane Sun doesn't need to show off
If the ’60s taught us anything, it is this: exactly how a rock and roll band should look. As a quintet, Terraplane Sun, which lists Venice Beach as their hometown, surely agree. Pick any British …
December 25, 2013
Country showdown
Suzanne Harper, after losing the locally based “3 Minutes to Stardom” music performance contest and accompanying $10,000 grand prize, goes on to finals in the Texaco Country Showdown contest, with a prize of $100,000.
December 25, 2013
Heffern’s redemption
Interview with Gary Heffern, former frontman for the Penetrators.
December 18, 2013
Scary Stuff with TV Ghost
Here’s another late-breaking young-band-on-the-rise alert: TV Ghost. I can say this even though they started in 2006 because each of their albums has sounded a little different. They grew up as musicians in the garage-punk …
December 18, 2013
The Comeback of Jake E. Lee
The news is that Jake E. Lee’s on the comeback trail with a new band and a new record and everything is okay. For fans of ’80s hard rock, not a whole lot about that …
December 11, 2013
Not necessarily on the comeback trail
"So it's the old Spirit?" That's Jake E. Lee's reply when I tell him Brick by Brick was once the Spirit Club of old. "When they told me we'd be playing in San Diego," he …
December 7, 2013
Dinosaur Bones on the launch pad
Write this down: Dinosaur Bones is a band to watch. Stick a little memo on your record collection (or wherever you store music). One day, you will be glad you did. Listen to Shaky Dream, …
December 4, 2013
Cage the Elephant gets honest with their music
Interview with Brad Shultz of Cage the Elephant, who recounts the story of his brother eating a fish taco in San Diego and his face “swelled up huge.” Not bad fish, just a clogged salivary gland. His bro “squeezed it out.” Eww, gross, amirate? LOL!
December 4, 2013
Capsula = Strokes + Hives
Steve Jobs would have loved this band. Capsula’s songs are perfect for any Apple product rollout: a quick burst, exhilarating and different — but not too different. Capsula sounds like a lot of other things …
November 27, 2013
Mossy mystery solved, maybe
Who put that Mossy Nissan jingle in your noggin? Tim Hosman. He says he was surprised to see a Reader article that included an interview with a Leonard Tucker, who took credit for writing the 30-year-old song.
November 27, 2013
Hang a flag for rock and roll
El Cajon Business District to honor San Diego musicians with its new banner project. Beryl Forman marketing manager for the district, says she’s had no trouble getting local musicians involved.
November 27, 2013
Improvisational DJs
Thievery Corporation drummer Congo Sanchez talks about his solo work and the compilation he worked on with Sector 9 skateboard manufacturer Garrett Meister.
November 20, 2013
You'll love the Limousines
“We got together over the internet.” This is taken from the Limousines’ self-penned backstory on their Kickstarter page. The Limousines are two guys: Giovanni Giusti and Eric Victorino. The virtual meeting took place while Victorino …
November 20, 2013
Privet, a band in a box
Privet the duo of Sean Walsh and William Hagan and an ever-changing cast of sidemen, recently film-scored a documentary, and did sound design for a feature-length movie, Sweet Sexy Ocean, about a San Diego urchin diver.
November 13, 2013
Migratory Crowes
Interview with Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman. Band is scheduled to play Balboa Theatre on December 11. Band recently announced this tour is their last.
November 13, 2013
Wild Child: a story of two bands
Wild Child: a story of two bands that share the same name but couldn’t be less alike. One Wild Child is a Doors tribute act, the other Wild Child a freak-folk band from Austin. The …
November 13, 2013
Child of the ’70s
Rick Reed, frontman for ’70s–’80s hard-rock band Child, hears from an Orange County label interested in reissues of his band’s music.
November 13, 2013
Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band is pretty small
Breezy Peyton reminds an observer of a line straight out of “Witchy Woman,” that old Eagle’s song where sparks fly from fingertips. Only in the case of Breezy Peyton, they actually do. “She wears these …
November 6, 2013
Alejandro Escovedo on writing songs and the substance of big family reunions
Alejandro Escovedo checks in with the Reader from Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he is hunkered down with a wicked case of allergies. "At least, I think that's what it is. It just started this …
November 3, 2013
The Avengers of rock and roll: meet the Split Squad
"Josh Kantor." Michael Giblin, the Parallax Project bassist, checks in with the Reader to talk about his side project, a band called the Split Squad that includes Eddie Munoz (Plimsouls), Clem Burke (Blondie) and Keith …
November 1, 2013
Seaside Beach trash battle "kinda ongoing"
Surfer Rob Machado succeeds at navigating state bureaucracy to have new trash bins (seagull proof) at Seaside Beach in Cardiff.
October 30, 2013
Hard-rock heist at the SDMAs
Suicide Chords bassist Dylan Wills hijacks Best Rock Album award from Author & Punisher, Tristan Shone.
October 30, 2013
On the road with Nik Turner: warships, Warhol, and Lou Reed
"I played San Diego in 1994 with a band called Sleep, I think," Hawkwind founding member Nik Turner tells the Reader. "I was on my way to Mexicali. They flew me in to San Diego, …
October 29, 2013
Slapjazz Danny: Hambone around the world
Slapjazz Danny settles his muscular frame onto a stool in a La Mesa coffee shop and he goes to work, first with his left hand, then his right. The hands move from thigh to chest, …
October 25, 2013
Geezer and Weezer on the same cruise? It could happen.
After Weezer announced a contest to play on a cruise with them, Geezer launched an all-out social media blitz to get enough 'likes' for their video to win. "We're the only San Diego band and …
October 24, 2013
Did San Diego parrots come from Mexico or Pasadena?
Most parrot species in the wild are threatened or endangered, yet, here in our urban jungles, parrots are flourishing.
October 23, 2013
Bake like Jehu
Former Drive Like Jehu drummer Mark Trombino opens a donut shop in downtown L.A. Donut Friend is the name, add-ins on demand is the gimmick.
October 16, 2013
The perils of having a rock star for a father
Sixteen-year-old Tennessee Kamanski speaks of the difficulty producing a record in the same house as her father, former Beat Farmer Paul Kamanski.
October 16, 2013
The Restorations
“Music for aging punks.” The Restorations, from Philadelphia, have been described in this manner by the music press, but I’m not buying into that. There are legions of 50- and 60-something punks still out there …
October 16, 2013
From La Jolla's Bottom Scratchers to today's scuba divers
San Diego spear fishermen of today come from a lineage that began in the ’30s, with the Bottom Scratchers of La Jolla. Today there are less fish but the equipment is superior. Nevertheless, it’s easy to drown when a big sea bass takes you for a ride through a kelp ball.
October 9, 2013
Green vinyl
Tower Bar owner Mick Rossler chooses the Lumps as the first band on his Tower Bar Records label.
October 9, 2013
Sandollar holds it down for San Diego
Baron Lunbeck admits surprise at learning his band Sandollar was singled out as San Diego’s best unsigned band and thus taped for an appearance on the web TV series Indie Across America..
October 9, 2013
Murder folkies Vandaveer
What stands out about the new Vandaveer album is not so much the material — murder ballads and songs of self-ruin — as it is the way that it has been presented. Mark Heidinger is …
October 9, 2013
Holo-rap
Like Tupac Shakur at Coachella in 2012, ODB and Eazy-E were holograms produced by San Diego company AV Concepts. Interview with company co-owner Nick Smith.
October 2, 2013
Ben Schachter, straight ahead
It’s a tough gig, straight-ahead jazz. To wit: on a Sunday night not so very long ago, I stopped in at a Thai eatery on Adams Avenue to check out the talent. It was just …
October 2, 2013
Wish rock
Heartbreak, wishes, and advice from Cathryn Beeks, musician, promoter, and host of ListenLocalsd.com for the past ten years.
September 25, 2013
The Standells
No one among us (with the possible exception of our parents) underrated the place of the Standells’ “Dirty Water” in rock and roll history. Years later, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame would include …
September 25, 2013
The Naked and Famous
By the time the Naked and Famous play here, their new CD, In Rolling Waves, will have been released. I got to preview a track from the forthcoming disc earlier. “A Stillness” is no doubt …
September 18, 2013
Backout Party heads to Nashville
“We have a new tune about Vietnam that sounds like a pissed-off Hall & Oates,” Brian Holwerda tells the Reader. “It was inspired by a crazy PBS documentary, but it could definitely be interpreted and …
September 18, 2013
The Toasters
My desktop screensaver is of an anonymous woman sitting poolside, back to the camera, showing an inscription tattooed onto her right shoulder: “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” That’s solid advice. And I’m guessing …
September 11, 2013
Here comes the Thing
MxPx front man Mike Herrera and Sonic Youth front woman Kim Gordon, rock-star headliners of this weekend’s San Diego Music Thing.
September 11, 2013
Indie takes a hit
San Diego Indie Fest takes a hit this year, but producer Alicia Champion is undeterred.
September 4, 2013