Guitarist Bill Reynolds of the garage-surf band Lo-Fi Nipple describes how they prepared for this Saturday's show at Strangers in El Centro. “We sent them a box of CDs to give out before we got …

On Tuesday morning (July 26) sheriff's deputies were on the greens at Fallbrook Golf Course just before 7 a.m. The cops were there because of veteran golf-course operator Harold Vaubel, who just a few weeks …

One brewery owner laments that the City of Vista’s music scene is stuck in neutral even as its beer industry is exploding. “We’ve been working with the city to do live music,” says Hans Haas, …

The cofounder of Quel Bordel, San Diego’s “world punk” band, first discovered the site for their upcoming music festival when they were scouting for a site for band photos. “We were looking for abandoned train …

The music store credited for helping launch the career of country artist Barbara Mandrell is folding after 60 years. Oceanside Music Supply, which maintained the same old-school, full-service music-store vibe it had from when it …

“Being able to DJ at this year’s Pride Festival is a surreal kind of homecoming. I get to come home and do what I love to do in front of my hometown crowd...but as my …

Most jobs associated with concerts have been around for years — musician, roadie, sound tech, merch guy. Jimmy Ovadia created a new job description, and he says it’s been his primary means of support for …

Is it another case of DJ musical chairs or a key player jumping off of a sinking ship? Hilary Chambers, who only uses her first name on the air, spent the past eight years at …

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Freak Out!, the first of some 60 Frank Zappa albums. Last weekend a new documentary called Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words was released to …

On June 30, the Fallbrook Village News reported that the beleaguered Fallbrook Golf Course was closed “due to change in management.” The paper missed a major detail about the 56-year-old course, which has come under …

The most surprising thing about last Friday’s “Mosh for Orlando” show in Chula Vista wasn’t that local punks played for free for the Pulse/Orlando victims, it’s that it was held by a church. And moshing …

Is it a case of DJ musical chairs or a key player jumping off of a sinking ship? Hilary Chambers, who just uses her first name on the air, started as a local alt-rock DJ …

KPBS-FM’s programming chief is not happy with how his station’s network was depicted by the Wall Street Journal. A June 17 article painted NPR as a sinking network with an aging and shrinking listenership. Young …

Chim Arrieta Espinoza, singer/guitarist with Tijuana-based Rabbit Fever says the Mexican government has opened up to live-rock events. Arrieta has put on a number of multiband shows in small venues in TJ and San Diego …

On June 5 the Los Angeles Times noted how bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Guns ’N Roses survive while the scenes they created 30 years ago have “withered” due to fewer …

It pays to play well. Even if there aren’t many people there to see you. “The other day I went to the Ché Café and there were, like, ten kids there,” says singer/songwriter/guitarist Vic Fuentes …

The three punk Mice have been playing for 21 years. “We actually started two years before as Billy Club,” explains singer/bassist Travis Poe. “Our lead singer Matt went away to rehab and never came back. …

While the local booking company Gigtown remains controversial, one San Diego band and a hardcore critic are glad they’re here. Launched last year by Andy Altman with a reported $3 million investment by his father, …

Hosting original bands without a cover charge has become a successful business model at three San Diego nightspots. The owners of the Salty Frog in Imperial Beach, the Manhattan in Chula Vista, and the Pour …

The boys in Shit Outta Luck are protective of their turf, which they say is slipping away. “We are old-school punk, and we all grew up in Oceanside,” says the drummer, proudly named One-Eyed Jew. …

When pop-culture columnist Alex Zaragoza was approached about hosting a weekly TV show about music, she wasn’t sure if the guy was for real. “The first thing I said was, ‘You do know I’m not …

While Bill Walton’s son Luke is getting all the media attention for being named the Los Angeles Lakers’ new head coach, his backyard teepee stars in a new music video. “Bill was so nice to …

The band that once put on their own free show at Altamont with drugged-out bikers as security now rolls a little differently. Anticipated demand for the Rolling Stones (along with The Who, Neil Young, Paul …

John Reis went on FM 94/9’s local music show this past Sunday to talk about the record-release party for his local band compilation Hardcore Matinee next Sunday, May 15, at Bar Pink. The musician/producer/bar-owner, who …

If you go to Sweetwater High, chances are good you are into hip-hop. “That’s just what all the kids from National City are into,” says Andy Saldana, singer/guitarist of Los Shadows. “Our area is gangster …

Chris Cote was returning from Australia last week when he says he almost triggered a biosecurity brouhaha. “I was bringing my wife back this tiny cactus in this cool little aboriginal vase when I realized …

Shelia E., the percussionist who was once Prince’s musical director, will make her first local appearance since her former fiance's death at a new North County outdoor concert series. Inspired by a sold-out David Benoit …

Things are different now for Rafa Reyes, the heavily inked former gangbanger from Sherman Heights who many of us know from the days when he slung veggie burritos at Pokez. “We got to meet the …

Last weekend marked the seventh time Spin Records has celebrated the annual Record Store Day. “It’s our biggest day of the year,” says Ken Kosta, who brought Spin Records to Carlsbad 23 years ago. “We …

The downtown venue that hosted James Brown, Kings of Leon, Black Eyed Peas, X, Snoop Dogg, and TV on the Radio during its 17-year run, and which was slated to be refashioned into a state-of-the-art …

Shane Zelm was one of the couple hundred friends who paid tribute to Toni Isbelle last Monday at Skateworld in Linda Vista. Tears were flowing as fellow members of the Starlettes roller-derby team paid tribute …

Making fun of hip-hop is part of Steven Briggs’s act. “Rappers are proof that freedom of speech exists. Most of them just talk about booty...over and over. If they didn’t have a beat behind them, …

The recent passing of Keith Emerson underscores how keyboards don’t play as big a role in pop music as in the days when Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, Deep Purple, Yes, and Edgar Winter ruled the …

Erica Buenconsejo’s father died when she was a baby. But his rock ’n’ roll spirit drives San Diego’s newest record label. “My dad had a great punk-record collection,” says Erica about her dad, Chuck Petrowsky. …

Viejas Casino, the once thriving host of touring music headliners, is about to unveil a new venue that may re-establish the resort as a host for major artists. The new Viejas in the Park venue …

On March 10, the Union-Tribune headline read: “Fallbrook Golf Course Closing Monday.” The next day, owner Jack Lamberson said he wasn’t closing his course after all. Lamberson says he decided to keep the 56-year-old course …

It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times — for electronic dance music. “EDM has become so huge in San Diego that we get some of the biggest artists, like Oliver Heldens, coming …

It was a book about making bold life choices that inspired Dail Croome to quit his job, sell his house, and hit the road with his two sons and two other musicians. Croome: “I had …

Tim Pyles loves Sundays. That’s when he gets to play the local bands that excite him... on 100,000 watts. “The Schizophonics…the Sesh…Adam from Burning of Rome…the Prayers, even though they are controversial. [Front man] Rafa …

“We were just outside of Ferndale, Washington, when the wheel from our Thomas the Train trailer completely flew off and shot a hundred feet in the air,” says Vokab Kompany vocalist Matt “Burkey” Burke. The …

After one year of operating the Bro-Am Studios, Encinitas’ multiplatinum band Switchfoot has moved on from their 600-square-foot practice studio/performance space on Highway 101. The space shared the name of the band’s annual Bro-Am Surf …

Some people know Davit Buck for fronting such wild and woolly local bands as Jack Septic, Bad Apples, Mother Russia, Subterranean Horses, Mother Bitch, and John Wayne Gacy Daycare. The only band name that caused …

Note to music fans who want to get on TV: it pays to be seen at shows. Or at least it did for the host of SoundDiego, the weekly half-hour music-and-interview show that is starting …

Jose Caballero has no problem that his race to unseat incumbent Republican Scott Sherman in city council District 7 isn’t thought to be “contested.” He says the media, pundits, and political bosses all seem to …

Anya Marina is a singer/songwriter who got her start in San Diego but has moved on. On to releasing four studio albums and opening for national acts such as Chris Isaak, Jason Mraz, and Paolo …

For the first time in over 130 years, Oceanside will not be home to a newspaper office. At the end of this month, the Union-Tribune is moving out of its leased headquarters in Oceanside and …

A gooey mess regarding band finances led to an ugly departure of a four-year member and some malicious slurs between bandmates including “thief” and “deadbeat.” Singer/guitarist Ron Houston founded the Sickstring Outlaws 12 years ago. …

The five organizers of Saturday’s fundraiser for presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders are amateurs. They have never promoted a music event or fundraiser before. “We did a [pro-Bernie] rally called ‘Enough Is Enough’ at the fountain …

For the Montell Jordans, news that Guns N’ Roses is regrouping at Coachella could go either way. “I know that time in history will never be re-created,” says guitarist Ryan Baghai. “But we want to …

“Look at these pictures. It’s shocking. Does that look like rehabilitated wetlands to you?” Retired Fallbrook elementary school teacher Joan McConnell had just returned on Sunday (January 24) from the site of the former San …