Wavves has teamed up with Vice Magazine and NYC clothing company Mishka to create a demented video game called Weed Demon that resembles something like Paper Boy, only if the paper boy drank too much of the acid punch. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/30/23669/ …

I can’ remember the last time I attended a concert where I got chills, teary eyed, and had thoughts of erectile dysfunction. Taking that into consideration, Saturday night was a singularity experience. Ok, perhaps it wasn’t “a hypothetical region in …

"Let me just tell you what I'm looking at." Alyssa Jacey calls late on a Saturday morning from her new digs in Madison County, in Nashville Tennessee. "I'm on the patio and there are these beautiful trees blowing in the …

Jazz, and all of its myriad sub-genres, is the kind of music that is best experienced live. There is something about actually seeing the performers--and what it takes to produce the music that adds an extra dimension to understanding and …

It’s a solid weekend for classical music. While there aren’t too many options, the concerts that are out there are top shelf. The Barber of Seville completes the 2012 season at San Diego Opera with performances at the Civic Theater …

The blossoming, technologically savvy, music pioneers of the state have joined forces to create the California Electronic Music Exchange Concert series. I am referring to the grad students of leading California universities: UCSD, UCSB, CalArts, Mills and Stanford. Your chance …

"It's a brand-new configuration of musicians for me so I'm expecting some pleasant surprises and magic to happen," says San Diego vocalist Sharon DuBois of her upcoming concert at Liberty Hall Theatre in National City, on Sunday, May 6, 7 …

Halfway through a two-month U.S. tour with dates joined by Cults and Hot Snakes, vintage surf rockers Mrs. Magician (Reader contributor Dave Good called their songs “likeable period pieces culled from the rich musical bone-yards of the late ’70s”) recently …

Note to Nobu: extend your hours to accommodate psychedelic-rock bands passing through town. “I tried to go, but it was closed,” said Christian Bland, guitarist of the Black Angels, which whizzed through San Diego on Thursday to play at Belly …

San Diego Opera has released its 2013 season. The operas are:Daughter of the Regiment, Samson and Delilah, Murder in the Cathedral, and Aida. Samson was last here in 2007 and Aida was in 2008. Daughter of the Regiment was here …

L.A. cornetist/flutist Dan Clucas' new release with his Lost Iguana Ensemble, Do You Know The Ways contains just four pieces, though two of them clock in at more than 20 minutes each. Those two were composed by the hornman while …

The San Diego based independent record label, 31G, is giving away 5 MP3s in exchange for sharing 31G from your Facebook account. "Who doesn't like free stuff, especially good free stuff," says Justin Pearson, founder of 31G. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/23/23379/ It is …

On Friday, April 20, self-proclaimed “swag-rock” quartet DUDES posted a collection of unreleased songs and recorded conversations on Bandcamp under the title #RARE. #RARE by DUDES “#RARE is a collection of song islands and candid skits birthed in my room,” …

“I never played scales. No exercises either. Never. I began with Chopin’s first Nocture and then, the E minor Etude. I’ve been watching a documentary about Sviatoslov Richter. He is a confusing character. He always went his own way and …

When Danny Tatulli and John Langan head up to Las Vegas this week they hope their band Danny and the Tramp will hit the jackpot. But the action won't be at the slots or on the tables. Instead, the gaming …

Don't let the white hair or the huge, thick glasses fool you, even with 90 candles on the birthday cake, guitarist Mundell Lowe remains a vital force in the pantheon of jazz guitar. Last night's birthday concert celebration at Tango …

Three weeks after being released, Hills Like Elephants’ debut album, The Endless Charade, broke the CMJ Top 200 Chart at #191 and premiered its “Invisible Ink" music video on CMJ's blog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK4VNTAp2Ck Directed by Eric Casas from the Visualists. As …

For the past year-and-a-half, forward-thinking electronic music collective Liquid Geometry has been playing a huge role in cultivating San Diego’s beat scene with a monthly showcase at the Kava Lounge curating local and out-of-town luminaries including Free the Robots, Freddy …

Kelsea Rae Little, indie rock harpist: "I love the expressions on sound guy's faces. Most of them have never miked a harp before." Little phones from the road; she and her boyfriend and her band, the 78s (drummer Jose Guerrero …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/19/23204/ Former San Diegan, drummer, vibraphonist, composer Nathan Hubbard will be making the trip from his new home in Arizona to debut a new release from his highly original group Ogd_S(11) Translation Has Failed titled, This Middle Ground. The band …

Swedish garage-rock group the Hives is in the midst of a four-day Coachella intermission, fitting in a few Southern California shows between the festival’s two weekends. The self-described “punk-rock aristocrats” blew through San Diego on Tuesday, squeezing in some beach …

Barber of Seville opens on Saturday the 21st at San Diego Opera. It has been a favorite of audiences for years because of its sparkling wit and vocal fireworks. Having YouTubed the cast, I’m stunned at how young and phenomenal …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/18/23146/ One of the greatest things one learns from developing a taste for jazz is an inherent respect for your elders and the magnificent body of work that has been forged long before you came into the picture. When I …

“In 2010, my first year at Burning Man, I danced myself to the medic's tent,” says Ninja Bunniez Entertainment promoter Hopper, who partially credits sporadic alcohol consumption for her crippling dehydration after seven days in the Black Rock desert. “Pinch …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/18/23095/ Local firm AV Concepts are responsible for bringing Tupac back from the dead via hologram to perform with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg at the 2012 Coachella Music Festival. The firm specializes in "immersive technology solutions," as a provider …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/18/23091/ Reverend Stickman is recording a full-length with co-producer Bob Bartosik on the SDJazz label. Says the right Reverend, “This album moves in the blues/jazz direction, while remaining true to Reverend Stickman’s eclectic roots.” "It includes great new original material …

San Diego’s experimental scene has an ebb and flow, says Bobby Bray, co-curator of the Makeout Weird experimental/dance/punk monthly at Whistle Stop. "Right now, there are a lot of freaks moving in, and the ones that have been here are …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/17/23083/ The all-star San Diego lineup known as Road Work Ahead recently reunited and landed in Pacific Beach on the last stop of a 9 date tour. Comprised of NYC pianist Bill Mays and SD bassist Bob Magnusson, guitarist Peter …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/16/23000/ Guitarist Wayne Riker has spent a lifetime in music, developing skills and mastering many genres of music. He is extraordinarily versatile, and his latest record Guitar Decathlon is a celebration of his stylistic range. The disc pairs Riker with …

San Diego via Tübingen, Germany pop songwriter Maren Parusel layers reverb-drenched guitar hooks with an assortment of vintage synths on her sophomore album, Tightrope Walker, which is set to be released June 19 on Requiemme Records/BMG Chrysalis. Parusel’s revamped synth-driven …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/15/22908/ Charlie Imes has been producing and booking shows for the past three and a half years for the Oasis House Concerts series in Sorrento Valley, in an intimate setting with space for less than a hundred patrons. "The venue …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/15/22901/ Italian Japanese have a new single "NYC," which you can download for free at http://filtermagazine.com/index.php/media/entry/mp3_italian_japanese_love_nyc_filter_premiere Though the song just recently came to fruition, the inspiration dates several years back before Italian Japanese even came to be. Allen Nicholas and …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/14/22885/ 10-18-70: Pink Floyd performed in San Diego for the first time at the Intercollegiate Baseball Facility (a.k.a. the Polo Field) at UCSD. Touring behind their Atom Heart Mother album, they had played the previous month for their largest audience …

In a recent rehearsal, the conductor shared an idea that I loved and had never considered. The conductor was Italian and struggled a little getting the idea across but we received the message none the less. He was speaking about …

San Diego's longest running electronic music monthly, Dragon Lounge, celebrated their 14 year anniversary in January with a special two-day dance music extravaganza at the Kava Lounge and a private warehouse space. “One thing is for certain: if you like …

Whether it's due to a mean boss, shortage of cash, or the dreaded red “sold out” screen when you went to buy tickets back in January, you're not going to Coachella. And that sucks. But there's a way to get …

In January, on their web site, Kiss declared an overwhelming response to their own Kiss tribute contest. Over 200 bands from around the world had entered. They included: Kissexy from Italy, Spain's Kiss of Death, Kiss Czech Company from the …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/12/22765/ Contrabass virtuoso Mark Dresser and the criminally underrated pianist Diane Moser first met in San Diego in the 1970s, where they began a long, deep musical communion that continues to this day. I received this advance copy of their …

Some concerts for this weekend: Saturday night the Canterbury Cathedral Choir is performing at Mission Valley United Methodist as part of their 2012 North American Tour. The concert is at 7:00 pm. The choir is composed of 18 boy choristers …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/11/22687/ KSDS Jazz Live continued their concert series at the Saville Theatre last night with some rarely heard big-band music, featuring the SDSU Jazz Ensemble, helmed for the last 27 years by Bill Yeager, and showcasing three special alumni guest …

I’ll be putting the finishing touches on the mail-order FateLine™ quantum reality split kit I won in a box of Count Chocula a few months ago just in time for this Thursday (April 12), when it will be necessary to …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/10/22646/ Last night's second installment of Bonnie Wright's Fresh Sound concert series at Space 4 Art featuring classical guitarist James Moore was a prime example of out-of-the-box programming — and a knockout success for all involved. Space 4 Art was …

Promoter and noise musician Sam Lopez (aka Zsa Zsa Gabor) is curating his third monthly Stay Strange installation with experimental pre-Hispanic music and a local collaboration between Michael Zimmerman (keyboards) and M.J. Stevens (guitar, noise). “I happened upon Aztlan Underground …

On Good Friday I got a chance to sing a piece of music I've always wanted to sing. The piece was Dubois' Seven Last Words of Christ. I was invited to sing at Church of the Nativity in Rancho Santa …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/07/22409/ I last experienced, and commented on SD musician Steph Johnson four months ago, right when she was taking her first steps in transforming from her comfort zone of soul music with a dash of jazz to a more jazz-centric …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/07/22407/ Comedic rapper Grammatical B is now backed by a DJ crew: Grand Marceny, Hype Woman Extraordinaire, and newest addition DJ Dub Baloney. Grammatical B is the alter ego of Ben Johnson, longtime Casbah bartender and member of Hostile Combover, …

The Little Match Girl Passion is a setting of the Hans Christian Andersen story as influenced by Bach’s St. Mathew’s Passion. At least this is what the composer, David Lang, claims. The Little Match Girl is a story about a …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/05/22293/ Last night's double-bill presentation of local jazz artists at The Loft was by far the most successful program I've seen at that venue... ever. The combination of the free-funk-jazz chaos of the Jeff Kaiser Quintet paired well with the …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/05/22271/ P.O.D.'s first studio album in four years, Murdered Love, is set for release this summer, with a preview track called “Eyez” (featuring guest singer Jamey Jasta) now streaming online. Shortly before its release, they’ll play the Rocklahoma music fest …

"Smile and you'll chase Mr. Trouble away." They are singing which makes them not hard to find on this otherwise quiet evening. Barbershop quartets have a sound all their own, a cloying four-part harmony premeditated to draw listeners. In this …

A Map of the Floating City may be Thomas Dolby’s first album in two decades, but any indication of the time lapse since his early ‘80s hits “She Blinded Me with Science” and “Hyperactive!” is obscured by the English innovator's …

Research into Elvis Presley’s first-ever California concerts, over the first week of April 1956, has yielded new material about the San Diego dates, including unpublished photos of the rock icon backstage at the long-gone San Diego Arena at Eighth and …

As music fans, we often adopt bands into our being, embody them, pull them into our personality; but, as with the friends we've known since youth, we do not always grow with them. Delta Spirit has grown. Having fallen in …

It's gonna be like a Burning Man sideshow," says Tim Hines. "There's gonna be a lot of stuff going on, not just music." Hines, of La Mesa, is referring to an event being billed as the first annual Desert Daze …

"De playin', De playin" Over the weekend, members of the Montalban Quintet announced they booked what will be their first show at the Casbah on April 24. The band, whose sound can be filed under, well, anything from jazz, to …

The final section of Faure’s Requiem is in paradisum — in paradise. It is not a traditional text that is set for a requiem but is reserved for burial. Faure included it on his own volition. The text seems pretty …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/02/22077/ In a stunning display of absolute indifference to artistic excellence, San Diegans avoided Saturday night's Vinny Golia / Rick Helzer + Burr / Unruh Duo concert in droves--which was a shame, on multiple levels. Despite the low attendance, those …

"I will be laid up until June following surgery on March 27th to remove a substantial tumor from the space between my eyes and my brain, which had already caused me to lose most of my sense of smell," legendary …

Local beatmakers Sleeve (Liquid Geometry), Mastah Syphe (Liquid Geometry), and Mystery Cave (Kill Quanti) make an appearance on a compilation released yesterday by Portland-based label and artist collective, STYLSS. Sleeve↓ [Liquid Geometry] - Naked Lunch Bug by STYLSS The 34-song …

There's trouble on the stage at Winston's. The sound guy has boosted the drums to full arena sound. The electric bass likewise thunders. The only place left to set Willie Nelson's guitar in the mix is at full gain, which …

Before the concert on Sunday we were reminded that the San Diego Symphony is a “tier one orchestra”. That is not in dispute. How about the San Diego Master Chorale? They’re a tier one church choir but I’m getting ahead …

"I want the bad music night to function as a 'safe' space for anyone who wants to perform some material that is new and might not work at all. The audience is expecting you to be bad from the start, …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/apr/01/21974/ You've got to hand it to Dan Atkinson, the Jazz Program Coordinator, and the rest of the folks at the Athenaeum Jazz concert series. Each Athenaeum production, whether it's held at the Music & Arts Library, The Studio on …