Based in Vista and founded in 2016, the Lost Monarchs is an original jam band which cites among its influences Gov’t Mule, Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers, Phish, Pink Floyd, Spafford, and Twiddle. They’re currently booked …

A lot of people have made very predictable lists of “Stuff I learned from the Twilight Zone,” but here’s 12 unexpected and important things I figured out that few seem to “get” from Rod Serling’s …

“King Taylor Project is soul, funk, blues, and jazz,” says singer-percussionist Sandi King. “We improvise and have a blast playing off of each other and like to incorporate everyone’s musical style into the band and …

Rancho Peñasquitos punk metalheads Neurotic Mirage will premier Psycho Carnival at Navajo Live on May 5. “We're going to be performing the new album in its entirety,” says singer-guitarist Nathan Mansi. “Most of the songs …

The spring Acoustic Evenings at the Athenaeum series opens with a concert featuring Jamie Shadowlight, the Jefferson Jay Band, and Mikerotones. Based in Pacific Beach, violinist Shadowlight plays jazz and Latin-flavored music, usually infused with …

Sitar master Anoushka Shankar takes the stage April 18 at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center. Shankar and her family moved to Encinitas in the early 1990s, while her father Ravi Shankar worked as a …

“You know, when my son was born, I stopped playing music,” John Reis told the Reader after returning to the recording studio from a hiatus. “And all of a sudden I’m back, and everything I’ve …

Lindsay White is organizing a local women’s music collective known as Lady Brain Presents, in part to combat “the toxic comparison and isolation social media often breeds, [which] can leave you feeling like you’ll never …

This year’s La Escalera Fest takes place over four days (April 11–14), at six locales in San Diego and Tijuana, with over fifty band performances, many of them local acts. Host venues include Tower Bar, …

“Although we recorded the music in Joshua Tree, it wasn’t written about the area necessarily,” says guitarist-singer Daniel Cervantes of the upcoming Creature and the Woods EP. “Some seeds of these songs are grown by …

Singer/guitarist/keyboardist Rick Elias attended Azusa Pacific University, a local Christian college, and first earned local notice with Harlequin, a keyboard-heavy mid-1970s progressive rock band in the same vein as Yes, Genesis, Starcastle, and local Andy …

After releasing a series of EPs, electronic hip-hop collective Boostive will drop their debut full-length Cream Supreme at 710 Beach Club on April 5. “The band will be featuring many of the vocalists from the …

Guitar bands spotted in the wild Here’s a fun-fact: contrary to popular opinion, guitar-based bands aren’t on the endangered species list. They may not generate the national coverage they once did, but if you venture …

“I’m working on a new presentation of the Bach Cello Suites, B2C: Bach Cello Suites to Choir, a recording project of Bach Suites Nos.1 and 3 for Solo Cello, alongside my own original arrangement for …

Marshmallow Highway formed in the late 1960s, with its definitive lineup of guitarist John Edward Ruckle, drummer Rod Howard (whose family home in Linda Vista served as their rehearsal studio), and Marc Intravaia, who played …

“We always try to make it clear that we’re not on some kind of anti-Comic-Con crusade,” says San Diego Comic Fest co-founder Mike Towry. “We just miss the kind of event we had back in …

“Ego is the first of three releases that describe the struggle between parts of oneself, each named after Freud’s constructs of self,” says electro-opera singer-songwriter Trish Hosein, aka one-woman band Trishes. “Ego will be followed …

The Luke Perry biographical comic book was produced by Hillcrest-based Revolutionary Comics in 1992.

Jazz trumpeter Stephanie Richards pays tribute to New York City on her sophomore album Take the Neon Lights, due March 1. A video is streaming online for “Brooklyn Machine,” named from Allen Ginsberg’s poem “My …

“This project is an analog-digital hybrid,” says former Big Bad Buffalo drummer Jordan Krimston of his new group, Band Argument. “It’s a classic rock band setup — two guitars, bass, drums, vocals — but everything …

“I think the last show I played in Lemon Grove was a place called the Pelican Pub a million years ago and, prior to that, an all ages venue called Mesopotamia,” says Manganista singer-percussionist Matt …

Former Sleazybeats singer puts the kibosh on Kiss reunion

70s/80s cult DIY outsider Gary Wilson has enjoyed a renewed career since being discovered working at the local Jolar porn shop and having his eccentric but adventurous back catalogue reissued. Now a hot touring attraction …

Over a decade after their last album, 2007’s Sustain, ska-punk rockers Buck-O-Nine will drop a new full-length in April via Cleopatra Records. The band has been in semi-retirement, with only occasional performances and one-off releases …

“I’ve always written a ton of music, but I didn’t really have enough time to lead my own groups until recently,” says jazz bassist Sean Hicke, who just released his debut solo album Sunflower Sutra. …

His local Exhibit A Press published Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre and others

“I’ve been looking for that footage for 35 years,” says Ray Brandes of a recently uncovered 1983 video performance by his influential garage band, the Tell-Tale Hearts. “I don't remember much, other than going out …

Nine years after their last recording, Demasiado has reunited to release a two-song cassette, Dark Summer, featuring rerecorded versions of two vintage tracks, “Soul Coat” and “Blood Filled Fly.” The band essentially became inactive in …

What do you get when you mix VR, time travel, and mind control?

“It’s not an interpretation of Steely Dan,” says guitarist Hank Easton, whose tribute band Steely Damned II will stage a rare performance at the Music Box on December 30. “It’s like the records, but with …

“David Bowie embraced being different and made it sexy,” says the frequently masked frontwoman of Dani Bell & the Tarantist, who arrived in San Diego in 2005 but didn’t don a superhero cape and start …

“Many in El Cajon and La Mesa are committed to making this an annual event, kind of like a Mother Goose Parade for rock music aficionados,” says English professor Raul Sandelin, organizer of the First …

Klezmer musicologist Yale Strom has a new album with his Broken Consort, Shimmering Lights, featuring traditional Yiddish, Ladino, and Hebrew Khanike songs inspired by the sounds of Morocco, Poland, Spain, and elsewhere. "We have a …

Countless local bands made their first mark at 2812 Kettner, the original Casbah locale opened in 1989 with fixtures purchased from a defunct Farrell’s ice cream parlor that for some reason sported at least one …

“After all these years on the road together, we’ve come up with a few original songs, and we’re finally releasing an EP with three originals and one cover,” says singer-guitarist Jake Skolnick of BandàBordel, a …

Anal Trump, Rob Crow’s not-so-secret collaboration (under pseudonyms) with Cattle Decapitation’s Travis Ryan, dropped their album The First 100 Songs via Joyful Noise on Election Day. It features selections from each of their previous EPs …

“We’re producing the first animated series with a cast of actors with challenges, The Hunt For the Great Christmas Tree,” says singer-songwriter Jefferson Jay of the project he’s writing and directing. “I was working at …

“Being with the prisoners was a very rewarding experience,” says acoustic blues singer-guitarist Robin Henkel of volunteering for Jail Guitar Doors, a guitar and songwriting workshop then held at the East Mesa Reentry Facility, a …

"Jolar just let all the girls go and they are getting rid of the booths," reports a former employee of the longtime College Grove adult boutique where women have been performing private nude dance shows …

Due in November from Midnight Track, Lexington Field, the Lulls, Josie Day, Unwritten Law, more

“The hardest thing about being in a band with your brother is that you have a lifetime of history that colors every situation,” says Joshua Zimmerman of spending around a dozen years in the Silent …

“We checked prices for Abbey Road, and it actually wasn’t that much more than the services that we have used in the past,” says Dave Matthies, singer for the Gift Machine, of how their upcoming …

Breaking news RE Rick Elias, the Penetrators, Tori Roze, Red Dragon Cartel, more

Astra Kelly's horrific dating story

Slabratory, Jonathan Karrant, Blue Largo, League of Assholes, Meidai, Riston Diggs, more

Mystic Groove's Middle Eastern-influenced jazz fusion and folk

From Dick Clark's TV show Where the Action Is to the Union Gap

Live one-takes

Canadian Sister Speak German

Things were looking bright for Dolan Brotherhood in early 2015. Founded by surviving members of A New Day Mile, and named after that band’s late drummer Frank Dolan (who passed away in 2011 from esophageal …