"Lots of people in San Diego listen to and/or make emo and/or screamo music (which is hard for me to consider music), and it just sounds so bad to me and lots of them have …
June 15, 2006
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Stories by Jeremiah Griffey
Beatmaker, Pot-Stirrer
Bring the Noise Project
This weekend, former Ché Café sound engineer and booker Bob Bellerue will enter the UCSD venue for the first time in 15 years. He'll perform as Halfnormal, his L.A.-based noise project. Bellerue ran the boards …
June 8, 2006
When Former Unbroken Vocalist
When former Unbroken vocalist Dave Claiburn left San Diego for the Midwest, he had no idea how much he'd miss the city he called home from 1991--1994, or three of the greatest years of his …
June 1, 2006
Go Sit in the Corner
Solo vocalist Naomi learned what it's like to be an immigrant trying to work on a recent tour in England. "I got stopped at customs on my way in," says Naomi. "They were asking me, …
May 25, 2006
Small Labeled
"31G's financial situation is not [the] best at the moment," says record-label co-owner Allysia Edwards. "We left our old distributor, the Lumberjack Mordam music group, to go with Redeye. Lumberjack wasn't too happy about us …
May 11, 2006
Heavy, Beautiful
"I can still rock," says Danny Weis, cofounder of Iron Butterfly. The guitarist, who lives in Canada, spent the majority of his youth in El Cajon. "I fondly remember the years I would go see …
May 4, 2006
Rock Riff-Raff Crashes Mickey's House
"A good percentage of the musicians who got involved had all taught themselves to read [music] in a day or two," bassist Tara Barnes says. She and another San Diego musician, Wilson Drozdowski, were among …
April 20, 2006
Of Commies and Comestibles...
The "Ché" in the Ché Café's name refers to Argentine-born revolutionary Ché Guevara but also serves as an acronym for "cheap, healthy eats." But the vegan fare at UCSD's campus venue has been unavailable for …
April 13, 2006
Meanwhile, on Punk's Demon Highway...
At Die Princess Die's recent South by Southwest performance, vocalist Pete Chekvala threw his guitar into a wall, picked the guitar up, threw it at another wall, and then dove into his band's rhythm section. …
April 6, 2006
Fractured Scene
After a four-year respite from playing music, Jade Shader vocalist Terrin Durfey missed the music he used to play with his Leucadia-based band, Boilermaker. "I regret that as lost time," says Durfey, who spent the …
March 30, 2006
Let It Bleed
If you pick up a copy of Zack Wentz's novel The Garbageman and the Prostitute, you might notice that William T. Vollmann is quoted on the front cover. Vollmann, author of Europe Central, The Atlas, …
March 23, 2006
Name That Fiend
Mikaela's Fiend returns to San Diego this week for the first time since their November recording fiasco that involved a Santee record producer. The producer, whom the band did not want to name, owed a …
March 9, 2006
Surprise, Surprise
When the Black Heart Procession plays the Casbah on March 12, about nine months will have gone by since the locals played their hometown. The show will be on the eve of the band's jaunt …
March 9, 2006
Filling the Ché
Jessalyn Aaland, who started booking shows for the Ché Café collective in 2001, left for San Francisco at the end of February. Andrew Caddick, who shared the majority of booking duties with Aaland, moved to …
March 2, 2006
Gratitude for Switchfoot
On the way to town last year, Gratitude's van broke down in a Ralphs parking lot about 30 miles from their show at Mira Mesa's Epicentre. "An axle had broken on our trailer, or something …
February 23, 2006
It's the Stupid Music, Stupid!
At the CMJ New Music Festival in New York City last fall, Loud and Clear Records owner Brad Lee got a rude awakening after trying to explain to industry execs why music sales are down. …
February 23, 2006
Mood Modifiers
New York City hard rockers the Hold Steady count their October 22, 2005, appearance at the Casbah as one of their best shows ever...probably because their tour bus accommodated 17 people after the show. "The …
February 16, 2006
Driven to Beers
When I saw Los Angeles underground rapper Busdriver would make his only San Diego appearance on January 21 at Escondido's Metaphor Café, I decided to go. I'd never heard of the Metaphor Café, and its …
February 16, 2006
Where's Devendra?
"No one has been able to explain to me how that happened yet," says Vetiver front man Andy Cabic. He doesn't know why the Casbah billed Devendra Banhart as part of the lineup in promotions …
February 2, 2006
Rude Awakening
The Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Casbah show sold out an hour after tickets went on sale January 21. The day after, an eBay member in Atlanta, Georgia, under the name "uneedsomethin," was scalping ten …
February 2, 2006
Prescription for Numbers
It's unlikely that San Francisco's Numbers will go to Tijuana when they return to San Diego this week. "It's, like, a lawless place," drummer/vocalist Indira Dunis says of their last visit to Tijuana. "As soon …
January 26, 2006
Crunk Event
When former Angel Hair and the VSS vocalist Sonny Kay moved to San Diego in 2001, he never thought his Gold Standard Labs record label would begin the ascent to become one of the most …
January 26, 2006
Expect Sex and Violence
Before they've ever played a show, the Prayers have received offers of sex and death threats via myspace.com. But, because three members of the new pop/rock outfit are in the Plot to Blow Up the …
January 12, 2006
Where's the Cocaine?
Sacramento dance punk septet called "!!!" (pronounced "Chk, Chk, Chk" or any other series of repeated monosyllabic words) have modest goals for their first show at the Casbah. For a few years they've played the …
December 8, 2005
Monster Dudes
Monster Dudes made a return visit to the Ché Café on October 25. The Boise, Idaho, quartet features five-year-old drummer Venec, his dad Jeremy, their friend Mike, and newly acquired banjo player Amy Vecchione (of …
November 10, 2005
Grannies Rock
Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces released their second album of the year, Rehearsing My Choir, on October 25. It's a concept album based on the life of their 83-year-old grandmother, Olga Santos. …
November 10, 2005
Head Wound City
Bass player Justin Pearson (the Locust, Some Girls) was struck in the forehead with a pint glass at North Park's Whistle Stop Bar October 9. "I was DJ-ing and that girl felt compelled to continually …
November 3, 2005
Grunt Out the Jams
Drummer Aaron Wade got that "not so fresh" feeling during Dmonstrations' performance at CMJ's New Music Marathon in mid-September. Playing at New York's Lit Lounge, Wade came close to pulling off a shocker reminiscent of …
November 3, 2005
Little Girl Power
The pre-pubescent gals in Smoosh made history October 19 when they became the youngest band ever to play the Casbah. After their set, they were probably the first band to play hide and seek and …
October 27, 2005
The Dawn Patrolman Speaks...
On the eve of the release of the Castanets' sophomore album, First Light's Freeze, Raymond Raposa seemed indifferent to the media whirlwind surrounding like-minded "neo-folk" stars Devendra Banhart, Iron and Wine, and Sufjan Stevens. "It's …
October 13, 2005
The Plot Softens?
The boutique record label Art Fag recently released its debut album, a three-track collaboration between Kill Me Tomorrow and Long Beach's Dance Disaster Movement. But local DJ Mario Orduno has higher ambitions for his new …
October 6, 2005
Hurricanes Blow
The Che Café, Kill Me Tomorrow, and www.auralminority.com will put on a show tomorrow night for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Half of the proceeds will go to New Orleans musicians Quintron and Miss Pussycat, whose …
October 6, 2005
Meanwhile, at the Urinal Cake Factory...
When Business Lady found the location of the first date on their first national tour -- a former urinal cake factory called the Bill Hicks Resurrection Laboratory in Houston, Texas -- they had a feeling …
September 29, 2005
Police Crackdown at Pizza Party
During the Mister and Misses Tribute to Ugliness set at Che Café's "Ultimate Pizza Party," a Che staffer hurried onstage to tell any bands who had parked their vans in the "unofficial" loading area next …
September 22, 2005
Obscured by Fog
Obscured by Fog and black hooded gowns, Goblin Cock tore through their debut show at the Casbah on August 20. The band, led by "Lord Phallus," crawled from the shadows to fuse the sounds of …
September 8, 2005
One Kool-Aid, Please
"This happens every night," guitarist Ricky Rene Maymi said while sneaking a smoke inside the Casbah on August 17. Anton Newcombe, the mercurial vocalist behind the Brian Jonestown Massacre, was in the midst of a …
September 1, 2005
Bugs, Blood, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
While drinking after a show in Europe last year, Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner and Blood Brother vocalist Jordan Blilie decided to start a thrash band. They drunk-dialed mutual friend and Locust bassist Justin …
August 25, 2005