“The script was written based on the high school scene in coastal North County San Diego,” says Fabulous Rudies singer Tom Voris, music director for the upcoming film Punk Rock High School. “It’s based on …

Joey Harris and the Mentals are promoting their new ten-track self-titled album with a June 14 release show at Brick by Brick. “Mojo Nixon and Paul and Caren Kamanski will be joining us onstage,” says …

“Is it really out of line to post your songs for sale on another band’s MySpace page?” posits rock trio New Day Mile. “Yes it is!” they say. Singer-guitarist James Brady is all for self-promotion, …

“I spent the night in jail after spending the day feeding the homeless,” says Joel D. Mutch, aka Point Blank, of hip-hop trio Even Keel. On April 30, Mutch says he and other artists from …

“Our music is very lyric driven,” says Eben Brooks. “If I had to choose a genre, I would call it progressive acoustic rock, but by progressive I mean politically and personally progressive. It’s possible for …

Before Taylor Swift appears at the Sports Arena on Sunday, May 24, her personal tour bus must be stocked with a bag of Tostitos tortilla chips, three boxes of Kraft macaroni and cheese, a bag …

“I wrote the song when he was on that Rock Star Supernova show,” says “Dangerous Dave” Swain of local punk-rock trio the Bugs. Swain’s talking about their controversial track “Dave Navarro’s Goatee Fucking Sucks.” He …

“It was our first gig outside of San Diego,” says Guava Belly singer-guitarist Dan Hammer of the band’s April 22 set at the Roxy in L.A. “The offer was to play a reggae night, provided …

“Every gig we’re surprised by someone who looks like a vocal outcast but who burns the mike,” says Pickford’s Party drummer Eric Ganci, whose band plays live behind amateur singers at Rock Out Karaoke. “We …

“‘What Do All the People Know’ was a fun song, and I still enjoy listening to it,” says Rusty Jones, whose San Diego band the Monroes toured with Rick Springfield, Toto, and Greg Kihn in …

Irradio will play a free release party for their album I Am the Horn on Sunday, April 26, at the Casbah. “All attendees can expect a night full of magic, free food, good spirits, and …

Wavves — the local duo brainstormed by former Music Trader manager Nathan Williams — are being called lo-fi poseurs by Columbus, Ohio, garage band Psychedelic Horseshit, which manufactured “Wavves Suxx” T-shirts after sharing three shows …

Ever since the Kadan on 30th Street in University Heights started hosting Guitar Hero competitions in January 2007, the video game has been bringing out inner rockers in clubs and music shops all around town. …

One question that’s often posed in the Reader musician interview is “Favorite local performer?” The most frequently cited is Manuok (pronounced “man-you-okay”), aka Scottish-born Scott Mercado, who’s been name-checked over a dozen times — by …

Wendy Bailey is an old-fashioned pop songstress with a big splashy sound akin to, say, Carole King or Sheryl Crow. “Most of my songs are short, sweet, and full of jangly pop hooks,” says Bailey. …

In the days following the South by Southwest music convention, several of the two dozen or so local bands who performed around Austin reported on their experiences. Drew Andrews: “It’s hard to describe the insanity …

“Someday I hope to have my own independent record label,” says Aileen Burns, who has spent the past four years touring with the Plain White T’s as their “merch girl.” “My responsibilities include picking designs, …

Around 20 San Diego bands performed as part of the annual South By Southwest festival in and around Austin, Texas. Writer band members gigged their way to SXSW in a Honda Element equipped with a …

Nightclubs in San Marcos offering live music have had an uneven history. The Longshot closed in September 2006, mainly over ABC violations. The Boulevard, opened in 2004, also had its liquor license suspended for a …

“I call my genre of music ‘reality rap,’ ” says hip-hop impresario Kayo. “It describes the things that I went through. It’s reality because I used to write the songs to myself — to motivate …

“We left the country in 1979, when I was four years old,” says Iranian-born violinist Bahman Sarram. “My family became exiles overnight, due to the political and social climate at the time, as revolutionaries enslaved …

Folding Mr. Lincoln’s release party for their debut album Within My Reach happens March 21 at Rebecca’s coffeehouse in South Park, and the band will play two shows at next month’s Adams Avenue folk and …

In the 2001 film Rock Star, former rapper and underwear model Mark “Marky Mark” Wahlberg fronts a tribute band that pays sonic homage to his favorite hard rockers, Steel Dragon. He takes the gig so …

Singer-songwriter Marie Haddad was five when she started playing piano, but she drifted into other endeavors a few years later. At one point she had to sell her piano in order to stay in college. …

Local hip-hop internet radio station JellyRadio.com broadcasts around a dozen live programs each week, including Royal Jelly Reggae Show and Fried Chicken and Hip Hop, claiming 1.5 million listeners. The site is now launching JellyFish, …

“I’m a residentially challenged entertainment engineer,” says one-man-band Ran Diego, who has been busking the Gaslamp for around two years. Usually seen performing on Fourth or Fifth Avenue between E and K streets, Diego says, …

It’s very hard to find young musicians, especially who know Latin music,” says 15-year-old jazz pianist Chase Morrin. “Not only to find the skill necessary but the maturity. It has been my ongoing challenge. Sometimes, …

Singer-songwriter Kenny Eng is a self-taught guitarist. “I took piano early on,” he says, “but basically picked up the guitar by ear. When I discovered that I could figure out songs on the radio by …

When the Homeless Sexuals play the Radio Room Friday night, it’ll be their first show in nine months. “The band was breaking up,” said singer Davit Buck. “The other four members wanted to do other …

Pop songstress Miz Mandy’s sophomore album Today’s the Day was released last week on BabyLove Records. “We did a soft release in December for presales to the fan club,” says Mandy (real name Mandy Gasparich), …

“The shooting that happened at Static Lounge during the DayGo Unity event last summer was due to the outside scheduling of gang members as headliners,” says local promoter Jimmy Powers. “It resulted in [Static Lounge] …

"The trip made me realize how much I miss my friends in San Diego,” says Penetrators singer Gary Heffern, now back home in Finland after a January 24 reunion performance at the Casbah. “Playing with …

Saxophonist Keith Jacobson is adept at playing alto, tenor, and soprano. He’s spent many hours taking lessons from Grammy award–winning saxman Eric Marienthal. “Those were great sessions, true cardio workouts on the sax,” says Jacobson …

“Two of us are lab-coat-wearing PhDs at Scripps Institute of Oceanography,” says Guava Belly bassist James Traer. “Mike [Pritchard, singer-keyboardist] works in the climate research group, building computer models to simulate cloud formation and understand …

“After the Chargers started to win some football games,” says Patrick Bernard of SD reggae act High Tide, “it was time to bring out our playoff song, ‘Chargers on a Roll.’ ” On January 3, …

Sorrow Underfoot, a Christian band featuring Fallbrook sisters Brittany and Shannon Taylor and their brother Justin on drums, has made several tours of Russia as part of the Calvary Chapel Church’s Planting Missions program. “I …

After publicly feuding with their former lead singer, the Taz Taylor Band has replaced vocalist Graham Bonnet (Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group) with another MSG vet, Keith Slack. U.K. guitarist Neil Taz Taylor moved to San …

Mike Keneally was fronting local band Drop Control when the invitation came in 1987 to join Frank Zappa’s touring band as a “stunt guitarist,” replacing Steve Vai. “The multivolume work I’m doing now, Scambot, shows …

In June 1978, Beach Boy Brian Wilson — without telling his wife or bandmates — decided to escape his life and hitchhike to Mexico. He wound up in San Diego, according to Steven Gaines’s biography …

Singer-songwriter Mary Dolan — a fixture in the San Diego music scene in the ’90s — was off the local radar for several years. “Our son Jack was born in November 2004, the day before …

“It’s outrageously hot on stage inside our ninja outfits,” says keyboardist Matt Liebowitz, one half of “karate-rock” duo Ninja Love. “Black pants, black shoes, black T-shirts, black hoodies with the hood up at all times, …

“I always knew that someday I would shake [Neil] Diamond’s hand and get to tell him how much he inspired me,” says David J. Sherry, the Diamond Is Forever bandleader and Escondido resident who met …

This collaboration was born at the UFO Club in Tokyo,” says Bruce McKenzie, one half of the local experimental duo Buzz or Howl. “We met famed Japanese psych-noise artist Astro through a mutual friend.… The …

Singer-songwriter Megan Combs — now an Ocean Beach resident — was 24 when she left Virginia on New Year’s Eve in 2007. She blogs about leaving her home, job, and husband behind: “I didn’t have …

Liquid Blue became the greenest band in the world in 2008,” according to bandleader Scott Stephens, “as we installed solar panels at our office and recording studio and implemented many other green programs.… “We use …

Happy Ron’s appearance on Sunday, January 18, at Clairemont’s Blarney Stone Pub will be his 1000th open-mike performance. “I started in 1997, and believe it or not, poetry open-mikes are the most borderline violent,” says …

Nam Chi Vu of San Diego’s Riboflavin is a rare multi-threat talent. As a bassist, she’s among the city’s two or three best, comfortable playing classical, jazz, and rock. Now she’s involved in a local …

Twenty-nine years ago this week (1/18/80), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers sold out downtown’s Golden Hall. It was the band’s first time in San Diego since playing SDSU’s Montezuma Hall two years earlier. Concert reviewer …

When Boyz II Men appear tonight at the House of Blues, they want only “white meat chicken, no fried.” They’d also like baked salmon, steamed lobster, grilled jumbo shrimp, grilled tuna, and pasta (“prepared in …

MC Flow’s new “Created Equal” video continues the project born on November 5, after Californians opposing legalized marriage between gay couples voted Proposition 8 into law. Flow responded in verse, with a video for the …