"Valentine's Day is an extra special day for me this year," says Steven Ybarra, whose song “Angel in My Life” (titled “Love Love Love” on his Love Love Love CD) appears on the new Valentine’s Day collection, Date Night. "The …

On February 11 during the countdown to Mardi Gras Drew Miller will celebrate his tenth year as host of the Second Line Parade on KSDS Jazz 88.3 FM. As a whole, the Second Line Parade features authentic New Orleans funerary …

This Thursday, Feb. 2, Athenaeum Jazz concludes its winter concert series with an all too rare performance by the critically acclaimed collaborative ensemble known as Trio M. The trio is comprised of forward-leaning pianist Myra Melford, NYC drum veteran Matt …

Typically, when a rock band is under contract to play a big festival, they contractually agree not to perform other shows within a certain perimeter around the festival grounds. This is to avoid cannibalizing the sale of tickets for the …

Earplugs would be a good idea but nobody at Amp Fest has any. You’d think there’d be a little dispenser of them at the door, considering the combined wattage that awaits inside but no. No such protection for either the …

Last night, another in a an excellent series of monthly jazz concerts was produced by the folks at Liberty Theatre at Paradise Village. This time, the featured act was the KSDS Jazz 88.3 All Stars, loaded with some of San …

Stage Kids are six dudes from Mira Mesa (including two pairs of brothers) who like to brew beer, have known each other forever, and have been jamming together for just about as long. “The name Stage Kids came from our …

Salome, Salome, Salome. What a mess. Histroically, Herod did not kill his brother to marry Herodias but Herodias did divorce Herod's brother in order to marry him. Before long, Herod starts lusting after his new daughter-in-law, Salome, who happens to …

Stereogum.com has called Noel Gallagher "the man who wrote virtually all the songs for Oasis, and sang a lot of the best ones." The Daily Mail reviewed Gallagher's solo project — named after a song by San Francisco rockers Jefferson …

On Tuesday, Jan. 24, the one-man cultural juggernaut behind San Diego's most vibrant jazz venue, Chuck Perrin, received an e-mail from a San Diego Wine & Culinery Center Sales Consultant informing him that the grand piano loaned to him by …

Having just curated the third annual San Diego Experimental Guitar Show at Soda Bar, promoter and noise musician Sam Lopez (aka Zsa Zsa Gabor) will continue to provide a forum for San Diego weirdlings with the monthly Stay Strange night. …

"Today is my birthday," Adam Lambert tweeted this morning, "and for my 30th I'd like you all to help me change the world." His request was that fans join him in "giving up" birthdays, to instead to make donations to …

The Feel Good Music Project (FGMP) is a non-profit musical tour and compilation CD, featuring ten positive music artists who hope to change the lives of thousands of at risk youth with positive music and healthy lifestyle choices, including yoga, …

Tonight/January 28 at the Griffin (formerly O'Connell's), Kevin Martin is finally doing an official release party for his 10-track full-length Throwback Pop. "We only printed up a hundred new copies," says Martin. "This is the physical CD. Throwback Pop was …

This Saturday, January 28, La Escalera Records will be hosting Otro and The Marsupials for their split 7" record release show at Bar Eleven. Moosejaw will also be performing songs involving electric guitars, drums, and human voice - but no …

My mom’s gardener found it in the trash. She wasn’t entirely clear about details like what trash and from which side of the border it came, but best not to look a gift horse in the mouth. And that’s what …

Third Story is the name of the collaborative group comprised of double bass phenomenon Danny Weller, guitarist Jeff Miles, pianist Joshua White and LA drummer, Jens Kuross. Weller and Miles live in Brooklyn, N.Y. now, but both are from San …

“We grew up in East County, so we were always chillin’ in Mission Trails,” says Theo Adams of the Liquid Geometry electronic music collective. “Parks are a special place for us and we think for a lot of other people, …

Seventeen songs: by the end of this year, that’s how much material V Child would like to have in the can and readied for release as their debut full-length. No gigs — the band will instead hunker down in Fallbrook …

Last night, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, from London, and conductor Charles Dutoit breezed into town to play a little concert for us. Jean Yves Thibaudet came too. Charles Dutoit is a world class conductor and one of the few who …

It’s ej from Grizzly Records with this news: “We just put up the new Kynan single/video, hope you can check it out.” So I do: the track is a fusion of pop styles at the heart of which lies an …

Combining the music of Michael Jackson with the choreography and pizzazz of Cirque du Soleil made for an electrifying performance at the Valley View Casino Center. The Immortal World Tour's program describes a "unique view into the spirit, passion, and …

While drilling holes into records, Colin Tappe talks about Standards, a record store he is preparing to open in Vista on February 4th. "I just wanna' do something for North County. That's where I am, and I like it here. …

San Diego pianist/composer Danny Green released this album in 2009, and it won a SDMA music award that year, but I didn't get my hands on it until a few weeks ago, after his solid quartet performance at UCSD's "The …

I got in to the see the piano dress rehearsal of Salome last night. It is impossible and unfair to review a rehearsal but I must say that Allan Glassman, in the role of Herod, is off-the-charts exciting. I loved …

Orchestra Nova San Diego announces it has achieved unprecedented fundraising heights in its recent 2011-2012 fundraising drive conducted in December. This follows on the heels of ending its 2010-2011 season in the black, a rarity in the arts these days. …

Sonny Romeri of local beat soundscape outfit Illuminauts played an experimental guitar set dedicated to his brother (who recently took up the instrument) at Park Gallery on Saturday evening. His setup included a hollow body guitar, a sampler, effects pedals, …

South Psycho Cide has recorded the new 2012 X-Man Oldies Show intro, hosted by Xavier the X-man and now heard every Sunday at 3pm on Magic 92.5 FM. Xavier grew up in a "Mexipino" household (Xavier’s mother is Mexican and …

A release party for the La Mesa band compilation Picture Head happens January 28 at Pete's Place, a show which will include the first Manganista performance in around three years. Picture Head features all-new tracks from several La Mesa performers, …

Tenor saxophonist Ian Tordella assembled a quintet of some of San Diego's finest musicians for his gig at the increasingly vital venue,98 Bottles's "The Back Room." Fronting an unusual format of two electric guitarists, Tordella's concept drove the packed house …

I just heard an interview about Ralph Fiennes’s new movie version of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus. It reminded me that Beethoven had written a Coriolan Overture. Beethoven wrote the music for a play but the play was by Heinrich Joseph von Collin …

Saying that Burning Man will change your life forever in ways you could never possibly imagine is about as cliché as harping on how poorly San Diegans handle rainy-ish weather like today's. Incidentally, it’s also just as true (these Uptown …

The "Godfather" of San Diego contrabass, Bert Turetzky played at 98 Bottles last night, with his chamber ensemble featuring wife Nancy Turetzky on flutes, Alyze Dreiling Hammer on violin, Francesca Savage on viola, and Lorie Kirkell on cello, playing the …

I know many of you are interested in reading Gonjasufi's words that didn't end up in print, so here ya go: San Diego, being that it’s a border town and shit, and the military - it’s just a weird city …

It was New Year’s Eve about 15 minutes ago, right? “My thing is the plight of Tibet.” It’s Joe Walsh on the phone from L.A. and he’s got a cause: saving the Gaden Shartse monastery. He says this with the …

Candye Kane "regrets to announce that I have been diagnosed with cancer again. I will meet with my oncologist on Monday and take it from there. In the meantime, I will continue to play as much as music as I …

Last night at UCSD, Art Power, and the department of music's , Wednesday @ 7 opened the 2012 concert season with a triumphant performance of legendary 20th Century Classical composer Steve Reich's works, including his groundbreaking, "Music For 18 Musicians." …

Fresh Sounds concert series producer Bonnie Wright is back from hiatus in New York. She plans to resume her soirees, as she refers to them, in February. She’s hosted eight or ten of them since 2009 in her Mission Hills …

The “Shit (any classification of people you can think of)s Say” internet meme recently went crayzar with the viral popularity of the “Shit Girls Say” series, which features celebrity appearances and a dude in drag reciting lines that (some) girls …

Hyperactive Oceanside rockers Burning of Rome have an eponymous India Pale Ale in the works by Pizza Port Ocean Beach’s head brewmaster Yiga Miyashiro. “It’s to support our new record out in the spring,” says guitarist Joe Aguilar. “When you …

Lise: "It was really nice. At the cocktail party the other night, I can't remember who said it, but they told everyone, 'By the way, she takes all her clothes off.' I was, like, fabulous." We're continuing with our discussion …

Chuck Perrin and Dizzy's are partnering again for a performance held in The Back Room at 98 Bottles in Little Italy, Jan. 19, at 8 p.m. Contrabass pioneer Bert Turetzky will perform an evening of music composed by Astor Piazolla, …

I sat down this week with Lise Lindstrom and Greer Grimsley. Lise and Greer are the stars of San Diego Opera's upcoming production of Richard Strauss' Salome. They happen to be two of my favorite singers in the world. We …

Burning Man is all about building rad things in the middle of nowhere, partying in them, and then deconstructing or, better yet, blowing them up at the end of the week. Last year, a team of about 20 volunteers built …

"It's a relationship song about being in love with someone and then realizing that you're basically living on two different islands and there's no way this is going to work," says Italian Japanese frontman Allen Nicholas of the band's new …

"All Leather is no longer a band. No last show, no reunions, no final record," decrees Nathan Joyner, guitarist of the now disbanded All Leather. With drummer Jung Sing living in Mexicali, and synthesizer player Eric Livingstone living between San …

“We've been working really hard since November to make sure this is an incredible night,” says Liquid Geometry promoter Theo Adams. “Not only will Thursday night be Kaminanda's album release, but it's his birthday as well. He will be gracing …

Like most of America, I had never heard of Lana Del Rey when she took the Saturday Night Live stage on Saturday, January 14, to sing two songs apparently from an upcoming album set to drop at the end of …

Now that the somewhat underwhelming Second Coming of blink 182 is apparently backburnered, Tom DeLonge's more adventurous outfit Angels & Airwaves is prepping for a world tour, but first they'll hit hometown tavern the Belly Up on February 1. "Five …

It’s a Monday morning and ex-Syndicate drummer Jeffrey O’Brien is on the phone to pimp his new project. It’s an indie post-punk dance rock trio (his words) called East of Sweden. East of Sweden? Is this a footnote to John …

Chuck Perrin and Dizzy's first production in The Back Room at 98 Bottles, featured former San Diegan and current Vancouver pianist Paul Keeling, performing with local stalwarts Rob Thorsen on bass and Duncan Moore on drums. Apparently word got out …

As the final sonority of the brass lingered in the air of the hall, I felt as if in some way we had become a better people. I felt as though all of us had received an opportunity to exceed …

A relatively new Italian alt-metal group named Klogr will be playing their very first U.S. show right here in San Diego on Thursday, January 19, at Eleven. Klogr (pronounced Kay-log-are) released their debut CD Till You Decay this month on …

Last night's Friday 13th Improvisers Summit (featuring Han Bennink) at the Neurosciences Institute was a wildly successful affair, by any criteria. Bennink is a that rare performer who can set off waves of laughter, while playing explosive and uncompromising music. …

“I think Hemmingway and maybe Bukowski are the only writers who I’ve read all of their books,” says keyboard crooner Sean Davenport, whose new Hills Like Elephants (the name is a Hemingway reference) project is preparing to release their debut …

"As I sit in hospital and wait for my brain surgery, I have been let go. And nobody's had balls to tell it to my face. I have to read the news in a post that's not even directed to …

The year is 2012 and everything is awesome. There’s a taco shop on every street corner. Indian summers have been enhanced with Yankee summers, which peak in January and run through May, thanks to global warming (finally). Televisions have ten …

Add Danny Green to the list of great pianists living and working in San Diego County. Green is a young musician with impeccable chops who has staked out his own personal improvising aesthetic, (heavy on the music of South America), …

The new Mike Wofford biopic opens with the pianist approaching a Steinway grand. He shuffles some sheet music, then punches out a little Horace Silver tune. The film maker leaves just enough of the Silver lead-in to establish Wofford’s credentials: …

“We believe in the Occupy movement and others like it,” Scott Stephens, manager and vocalist of local pop rock entourage Liquid Blue, told the Reader last month. “We’ve been an activist group for many years. We’re really hyped to support …

Athenaeum Jazz is kicking off a terrific series of concerts for the Winter of 2012, starting out Jan. 13, with a rare West Coast appearance by the Pilc/ Moutin/ Hoenig trio, at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, (1008 Wall …

There are concerts again this weekend and good ones at that. The San Diego Symphony is presenting both sides of the Romantic War we discussed earlier. Representing Leipzig is Schumann's Piano Concerto and Brahms' Symphony No. 3. On the Weimar …

Sharon Hazel, of Sharon Hazel Township, an indie folk-funk-rock group explains the origins of Crumb Records, the name she gave her record label: “My mother’s nickname growing up in Texas was Sugar Crumb.” And over time, she says, that got …

Gary Sinise, star of "CSI-New York" and bass player for the Lt. Dan Band, is getting the band together for a March 1 benefit show in Temecula's Town Square Plaza. On Tuesday, Sinise appeared at the Temecula city council meeting …

Last November, musician/promoter Michael Mannino and friend Arian Banki threw a party called Inner Vibration at a private residence near Vista in celebration of an electronic musician and close friend, Preston Grover, who passed away in June. Golden Vortex // …

Music rehearsals for Moby Dick started last night for San Diego Opera. Usually it's not too difficult for me to hate contemporary "classical" music but in this case I have a tall order. To the contrary, I think I'm in …

The Ché Café threw a three day benefit festival over the weekend to raise money for a new insurance policy. The event touted one of the best line ups I’ve seen at the venue in about a decade including notables …

“I would love for my music to be successful so I could have the means to find my mother.” Joshua Scott hasn’t seen her, he says, since he was six years old when she up and left him one day …

The documentary Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone, about the band Fishbone and narrated by Laurence Fishburne, will be screening at the Whistle Stop on Thursday, January 12, along with a post-screening Q&A with filmmaker Chris Metzler. "It's about the …

"It seems some people, like Cee Lo Green, have the audacity to re-write the lyrics to one of the most revered songs ever," says singer/songwriter Phil Bellante, whose cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” with its original lyrics and performed on …

LA multi-wind master Vinny Golia is on a roll lately, recording excellent compositions with a wide variety of musicians, and knocking them out of the park, like Barry Bonds after a trip to the restroom. Here, on his own label, …

In a previous post I said that Mario Lanza was the Andrea Bocelli of his day. I must emphasize that Lanza was an infinitely better singer than Bocelli. Mario Lanza could have been a legitimate opera star whereas Bocelli's opera …

Chairs Missing is driving up the coast to perform in support of their To The Hills 7”, which was released in October at the GlasHaus Gallery in Barrio Logan with Divers and a performance from Jessica Jeffrey of Cathedral X, …

Longtime Reader readers may have noticed I rarely do literal album reviews, preferring to let the Everyone's a Critic/Hometown CDs contribs shine in that department. But this singular local-centric release Keven Darklight, winner of my (not so) coveted WTF Album …

Jan. 13, at the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, represents the opportunity for a once-in-a-lifetime jazz experience for San Diego music fans. FIRDAY THE 13th IMPROVISERS SUMMIT. That's what they are calling this group led by the legendary Dutch drummer …

Kansas City native Jason “Captain Blackie” Blackmore has been playing guitar and singing in San Diego for over 11 years now, but before the Turf Club doorman began blowing the roof off of local venues with projects such as Sirhan …

Iggy Pop has his own action figure but now, Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone have likewise been immortalized into little tschotskes not unlike the Bill Clinton phallic corkscrew or the Obama Chia Pet: the two punks have been rendered (some …

The Beat Farmers were San Diego’s own favorite cowpunk band, enjoying a worldwide following throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, before the untimely death of band member Country Dick Montana. The Dick Blue Ball, a Beat Farmers Celebration of the …

Former San Diego pianist Paul Keeling is in town from his home in Canada, and is slated to perform at 98 Bottles in Little Italy on Jan. 14. Appearing with Keeling will be Rob Thorsen on double bass and Duncan …

“One thing is for certain: if you like dubstep, drum & bass, or break beats, you've probably been to a Dragon Lounge,” says DJ and promoter Aaron 'Arkon' Hastings, who has curated the 2nd Saturday monthly at the Kava Lounge …

“The very first time I sat in, I got kicked off the stage in the middle of a song.” Jazz musician Ben Wanicur is talking years ago about a jam session in Washington DC and he invokes a code used …

Almost five years ago, when Adam Gimbel and Cover Me Badd launched a monthly trivia contest (Musical Pursuit) and anti-karaoke night (Too Cool For Karaoke), who knew both would still be running in 2012? Well, that's about to end. "Cover …

How could I forget about George London? I was absently listening to the last act of Wagner's Die Walküre the other day and thought to myself, "Good Lord, this Wotan is off the charts". A quick check, it was George …

Post-grunge badass ass-ness: that’s how Jeremy Vara describes a local rock quartet he plays in called Monkeys in Space. Half way through “My Drinkin’ Buddies Have a Rock and Roll Problem” it occurs to me that he’s right: MIS sound …

New Year's Eve 1939 was not the first time the Viennese found solace in the waltz. When the waltz was at it's peak, Austria also had tremendous worries. The Prussians had defeated the Austrian forces at The Battle of Königgrätz …

"The new record is called Tragic Comedy, and we're doing a fundraiser for it on Indiegogo," says San Diego tenor saxophonist Ian Tordella. "It's going well. I'm trying to raise $4,000 to fund the whole project, I initially set the …

Unwritten Law's Scott Russo describes an onstage fight that took place March 23, 2005, at the House of Blues in Anaheim, that left Russo minus a tooth and guitarist Rob Brewer missing part of his pinky. "Long story short? [Rob …

Hurry up! Today is the first day to register for the lottery to buy tickets to next year's Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert. Tickets cost between 25 and 940 Euro -- plus airfare and accommodations. According to http://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at, these concerts …

On January 10, newly-turned-30 singer/songwriter Alyssa Jacey is moving to Nashville, where she recorded most of her upcoming full-length with producer/singer/songwriter Jim Reilley (the New Dylans). A new single “Gush” is on iTunes. "Going back in the studio three days …

The legendary trumpet player and bandleader Dan Terry passed away Tuesday, December 27, at the age of 87. The Kingston, Pennsylvania, native first earned notice in L.A., while leading the Hollywood Teenagers Band. After relocating to New York in 1948 …