San Diego CityBeat • Mar 6, 2013

2 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 3

Filner mulls fee and tax on pot Last week, after his monthly, hour-long session with the press, San Diego Mayor Bob Filner pulled CityBeat aside and told us that’s he’s considering, as part of a new medicinal-marijuana ordinance that would take another crack at providing a framework for pot dispensaries to operate legally, imposing a $10,000 permit fee and a 2-percent excise tax on the sale of marijuana products.

As long as Filner can make the case that the high permit fee is necessary to recover bureaucratic and law-enforcement costs associated with legalizing medicinal-marijuana storefronts, we’re fine with it. Frankly, it might be necessary to help secure enough votes on the City Council to win passage of the ordinance. We’re hearing that, as far as the local medicinal-marijuana community is concerned, the permit fee and excise tax won’t be deadly poison pills; advocates are open to them as long as dispensaries are allowed in enough types of land-use zones that patients have relatively easy access to them.

Zoning was one of the problems the last time the city tried to legalize nonprofit marijuana collectives, in the spring of 2011. Under the ordinance passed by the City Council, collectives were limited to far-flung industrial zones and required to shut down for months before they could secure permits under the new rules. The council repealed its ordinance after marijuana advocates threatened a referendum. Subsequently, the U.S. Attorney’s office and the City Attorney’s office cracked down on the collectives that were operating in a legal gray area, effectively shutting down the industry in San Diego.

All that occurred during the tenure of Mayor Jerry Sanders, who wasn’t a fan of the manner in which he saw pot dispensaries operate. But Filner campaigned on a promise to help legitimate patients get access to marijuana, and one of the first things he did was tell the city’s code-compliance division to stop referring violations to the City Attorney’s office.

Filner’s legal advisor, Lee Burdick, has been meeting privately with marijuana advocates and crafting parameters of a new ordinance, and Filner had planned to propose the ordinance to the City Council this week, but it’s been pushed back to

March 25, we’re told.

Alex Kreit, an associate professor at Thomas Jefferson Law School and chair of a task force that made recommendations in the run-up to the 2011 ordinance—recommendations that were largely ignored—said in an email that the permit fee and excise tax are reasonable. While he worries a bit that the tax will be burdensome for the most needy patients, “right now, patients do not have safe and reliable access to medical marijuana in San Diego.

I think that the mayor and his staff are in the best position to know what sort of proposal will be most appealing to council members.

“I think that some medical-marijuana advocates may have let the perfect be the enemy of the good in the last go-around,” Kreit added, “and I would hate to see that happen again.”

Eric Wolff We hope the mayor is counting City Council votes. He needs five of them to pass his ordinance. We believe that Todd Gloria and David Alvarez would vote for a proposal that’s less restrictive than the one that passed 5-2 in 2011. Lorie Zapf voted against the 2011 ordinance because it wasn’t tough enough, so, presumably, she’s a no. That means Filner needs three votes from a group that includes Democrats Marti Emerald and Sherri Lightner and Republican Kevin Faulconer, who all voted yes in 2011, and Republicans Mark Kersey Lee Burdick and Scott Sherman, who weren’t on the council two years ago. Filner’s best hope might be Emerald, Lightner and Kersey—we hope he’s working to ameliorate any concerns.

San Diego’s elected officials—Filner, a majority of the council and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith—need to present a united front for legal and safe patient access to marijuana and against federal enforcement of an archaic law that puts the herb on par with the most dangerous drugs known to society.

We believe that the public is closing in on a tipping point of favoring marijuana legalization, and it’s long past that point for legalization for medicinal purposes. We urge the council to stand strong against community NIMBYism and ensure that people who use marijuana as an herbal remedy for pain and other symptoms have easy access to it.

What do you think? Write to editor@sdcitybeat.com.

This issue of CityBeat is EXTRASPECIALGOOD.

Volume 11 • Issue 30 Editor David Rolland Associate Editor Kelly Davis Music Editor Peter Holslin Staff Writer Alex Zaragoza Events Editor Shea Kopp Film Editor Anders Wright Web Editor Ryan Bradford Art director Adam Vieyra Columnists Edwin Decker, John R. Lamb

Contributors Ian Cheesman, Derrik Chinn, David L. Coddon, Seth Combs, Jeff “Turbo” Corrigan, Katrina Dodson, Dave Maass, Scott McDonald, Jenny Montgomery, Kinsee Morlan, Sasha Orman, Mina Riazi, Jim Ruland, Marie Tran-McCaslin, Jeff Terich, Quan Vu Interns Crystal Tellez-Giron, Rees Withrow Production Manager Efraim Manuel Senior account executive Jason Noble Advertising Account Executives Sean Eshelman, Beau Odom, Paulina Porter-Tapia

Cover illustration by Adam Vieyra director of marketing Chad Boyer Circulation / Office Assistant Shea Kopp Vice President of Finance Michael Nagami Business Manager Angela Wang Human Resources Andrea Baker Accounting Tracy Lowe Alysia Chavez Vice President of Operations David Comden Publisher Kevin Hellman

Advertising inquiries: Interested in advertising?

Call 619-281-7526 or e-mail advertising@sdcitybeat.com. The advertising deadline is 5 p.m. every Friday for the following week’s issue.

Editorial and Advertising Office 3047 University Ave., Suite 202 San Diego, CA 92104 Phone: 619-281-7526 Fax: 619-281-5273 www.sdcitybeat.com

San Diego CityBeat is published and distributed every Wednesday by Southland Publishing Inc., free of charge but limited to one per reader. Reproduction of any material in this or any other issue is prohibited without written permission from the publisher and the author. Contents copyright 2013.

4 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

Correction In the lead photo on Page 23 of last week’s issue, we misidenitied three of the five sound artists whom Alex Zaragoza wrote about in her Art & Culture featire, ‘The mad scientists.” The SNAFU was a result of Zaragoza getting “clockwise” confused with “counter-clockwise.” Zaragoza claims to be from Mexico; we now suspect she’s really from Australia (h/t Adam Vieyra).

At any rate, counter-clockwise from bottom left, they were: Scott Nielsen, Demetrius Antuna, Sam Lopez, Bart Stull and Clint Davis. Sorry, guys.

cock say at face value [Letters,” Feb. 13], I doubt he’s interested in facts, but I’ll try.

First, yes, there is security staff at Sidwell Friends, where the Obama children go, but they are not armed. There’s also no evidence at all that any of the shooters he mentioned are registered Democrats; as a matter of fact, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence at all to figure out which party any of them may have been associated with.

I was able to find out all of this very quickly with a simple web search. Mr. Thompson might want to try that before he writes his next letter to the editor.

Lenora Dody, Hillcrest

Too soon Wow. I’m compelled to comment on the recent restaurant review by Jenny Montgomery [“North Fork,” Feb. 20]: I found it in very poor taste that she joked around about “pervs in the suburbs” and the “swingers” reference, due to the fact that the area/community was traumatized about 10 years ago: the Danielle Van Dam murder. I think CityBeat might have done a better job of editing this piece. Just sayin’.

Barbara Radford, Escondido

Check your facts Since Craig Thompson seems to take everything that Breitbart.com and Roger Hedge-

The fallacy of need I don’t always pick up CityBeat, but I’ll make more of a habit of it after reading Edwin Decker’s piece on the pro-gun control argument that “no one needs an assault rifle” [“Sordid Tales,” Feb. 20]. He did a fantastic job of pointing out its fallacy: In a free country, the rationale for banning or regulating something should not be perceived “need.” It’s not that some things shouldn’t be banned or regulated, but that vacuous argument is a dangerous slippery slope.

John Nienstedt, Sr., Bankers Hill

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 5

David Rolland

100-percent right all the time and should shove my beliefs down anybody else’s throat,” he adds. “It’s taught me to, I believe, love people, regardless of who they are.”

W

Like Mayor Bob Filner, Bruce Williams wants to focus on neighborhoods.

Man with no party Council candidate and devout Christian Bruce Williams left the GOP

by David Rolland On March 26, voters in the 4th City Council District will replace Tony Young, who recently resigned. It’s an important election because the district represents a swing vote on the council, at least in partisan terms. This is our final candidate profile. All of them can be found at sdcitybeat.com.

B

ruce Williams left the Republican Party last November. A casual observer or a cynic might conclude that he did so because Republicans simply don’t get elected in San Diego’s City Council District 4, and it was the expedient thing to do. But if you dig deeper, you realize that there is no major political party that represents a guy like Williams.

Black Americans overwhelmingly favor Democrats, but Williams, a fiscal moderate, is socially conservative, which puts him out of sync with the Democratic Party. That’s why he’s been a Republican since Ronald Reagan was president.

But Williams says that when he watched his party attempt to suppress voter turnout among African-Americans

6 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

and other groups that favor Democrats, he’d finally had it.

“When you look at the election coverage last year nationwide, and in states where people of my then-party were causing Florida and Ohio—these long lines of people that looked like me, that ticked me off, man,” he says. “The party’s got some challenges; I did not care for that.”

Williams, talking to CityBeat in a conference room at the George L. Stevens Senior Center in Encanto—named for a former District 4 City Councilmember—says his social conservatism comes from his community upbringing and, in particular, his paternal grandparents, who made sure that he and his siblings went regularly to church.

Williams, 50, has long been conservative on wedge issues like abortion and gay rights. However, it’s clear that he’s trying hard to be—or at least appear—more broadminded. During our interview, he returned repeatedly to the theme of tolerance, at one point saying that it’s the church— the very institution that shaped his hardline views on social matters—that’s compelling him to be more accepting of people who are different.

“I knew that if I was going to be successful, I had to please God,” he says. “So, I needed to live right. I was pretty strict— on myself and with everybody. I’ve since grown out of that.

I’m grateful for that time, but I’m a very unbiased person.

“Just because people aren’t like me doesn’t mean I’m

illiams’ parents divorced in the early 1970s, leaving his mother to care for him and two younger siblings in Lincoln Park’s Bay Vista Methodist Apartments.

“We were welfare people,” he says flatly. “Mother did her best for us. We had to be on welfare. We had to have food stamps, and we had to get commodities—chopped meat, those powdered eggs, powdered milk, that government handout food—and Mom didn’t like it.

“She did not like telling the state her business,” he continues. “Because when you’re on welfare, you gotta tell ’em your business, and that was her motivation to get off. And, eventually, she did.”

Williams attended Knox Elementary School and Morse High School, serving at the latter as student-body vice president. He says his desire to serve the public dates back to the night he watched the 1968 Democratic National Convention on television. As far as the 6-year-old Williams was concerned, Hubert Humphrey was the man.

“I just kind of knew that that was where I wanted to be,” he says.

He went to UCSD and earned a degree in political science, becoming the first member of his family to attend a four-year college. After he graduated, he worked days at 7-Eleven and nights doing data entry at Reece-Stealy Medical Centers, but his political career started when he scored an internship with Democratic county Supervisor Leon Williams, which eventually morphed into a full-time job.

The GOP’s pull was too strong, though, and Williams’ next job was with the Republican Party of San Diego County. He’d attended the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, where President Reagan was nominated for a second term, and conservative televangelists like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell had long been influences on him.

“This was a time when folks loved to hear Jimmy Swaggart—and I’m talking in black households,” he says. “People just turned it on.”

Williams joined the Republican Central Committee and became its treasurer. “That’s the great thing about my experience, is that I’ve worked with both sides of the aisle,” he says. “Party is party, and Bruce is Bruce. I’m going to be me, and I may not fall into anybody’s box.”

But in the 1990s, he was a Republican through and through, and he added working for a conservative U.S. Congress member to his résumé.

Which one? Williams pauses and smiles, as if to ask, “Do I have to tell you?”

“Uh,” he says. “Duke Cunningham.”

Williams worked out of the Congress member’s satellite office in College Grove for a while, but he downgraded to part-time when members of his family, led by his aunt, de-

cided to open a beauty-supply business. Eventually, he left Cunningham’s staff to devote all his time to the business and its delivery service, allowing him to network throughout southeastern San Diego.

“I met so many people that I still have relationships with, in that delivery service, going to different beauty shops, barber shops,” he says. “So, I got to know this area a lot.”

After the business ran its course, Williams went to Regent University, a Christian school in Virginia founded by Pat Robertson, to earn a master’s degree in public policy and get back into politics. He won a fellowship in Sacramento and worked for state Assemblymember George House, a Republican from Modesto. Williams talks with pride about the one bill, out of roughly a dozen that he worked on, that passed through the Legislature and was signed by Gov. Pete Wilson—a piece of legislation that barred teachers from practicing psychology on children without certification.

Williams returned to San Diego in 1996 to take a job with Mayor Susan Golding, who was beginning her second term. He remained with her until she termed out in 2000, and stayed on in the Mayor’s office, earning a promotion to director of community affairs under new Mayor Dick Murphy. While still working for Murphy in November 2004, Williams took his first shot at elected office, running in a special election for the District 4 seat after Councilmember Charles Lewis died unexpectedly—he came in fifth place in an eight-candidate field, drawing 917 votes (a little less than 7 percent).

Without a job some eight months later when Murphy stepped down amid the city’s financial scandals, Williams took a position with the Coalition of Neighborhood Councils, an umbrella group of District 4 land-use advisory boards. After Republican busi-

nessman Steve Francis announced his candidacy for mayor, Williams joined the campaign, helping Francis gain support in Districts 4 and 8.

Williams ran for District 4 again in 2006, the only challenger to incumbent Tony Young and lost, 72.2 percent to 27.8 percent. Evidently, there were no hard feelings after the election—Young’s chief of staff, Jimmie Slack, with whom Williams had worked for Leon Williams some 20 years prior, called up and offered a job. Williams has been working in the District 4 office ever since.

Williams had long been determined to run again when Young was termed out in 2014, but the chance came early when Young announced late last year that he would resign.

“I’ve lived in this district all my life,” Williams says.

“I’ve built relationships with people. Partnerships is the way to go; in the new era, it’s all about partnerships, and I know how to do that.”

He’d seek those partnerships to attack his issues: public safety, senior care and education. He says he’d be a fiscal conservative for the most part, but he’d work closely with Mayor Bob Filner on making neighborhoods San Diego’s priority. He believes that already working in the District 4 office positions him well to hit the ground running, particularly given that the winner of the election will assume office in the midst of budget negotiations.

Becoming that winner will be an uphill battle; a recent reporting of campaign finances showed that several candidates have raised far more money than Williams. Still, he’s ready for the fight.

“This district is worth it,” he says. “I love this place, and, as my grandmother says, ‘If it kills me, let me die.’ This place is worth every ounce of sweat that I can put into it.”

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 7

edwin

sordid tales

decker Why it’s perfectly acceptable to download free music Do you want to know why I don’t feel sorry for the not only when compared with previous, awesome record companies when they complain about file Van Halen albums, but also when compared with sharing and other piracy? Because, when you think hand jobs from skittish lobsters. You owe me for the about it, they still owe consumers a lot of money. first four Eagles’ releases, which I procured based Recorded music is one of the few products for on the strength of Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), which you can’t get your money back if there’s only to learn that the only notable songs on those something wrong with it. Oh sure, they’ll furnish a records were also on the greatest-hits album that I refund if, say, the disc is scratched or unplayable. already owned.

But if the music itself is inferior, and the disc beYou owe me for Black Eyed Peas’ Elephunk becomes just another $20 coaster, well, then you’re cause of the group’s deceptive and sinister qualities. screwed. Because it’s the music—not the medium— When I first heard it on the radio, I was like, “Yeah, for which you are paying. man—where is the love?” But when I brought ElepI can’t count how many times I bought an album hunk home, it quickly became evident that Fergie is only to find that it’s half-good, or quarter-good, or The Devil and will.i.am is the pulpy dreck that drips no good even, save for the song on the radio that out The Devil’s ass. tricked me into thinking the thing might be listenYou owe me for The Rolling Stones’ Dirty Work (et able in the first place. tu, Stones?). You owe me for the original motion picThe way I see it, if the entire track list sucks, ture soundtrack to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club the record company owes me a full refund. If half Band, which was so inadequate that Sgt. Pepper got of it sucks, I’m owed half, and so on. In my lifebusted down to Private. You owe me for Patti Smith time, I have purchased approximately 3,000 CDs, and Patty Smyth because I accidentally bought a Patty MP3s, LPs, cassettes and 8-tracks. Adjusting for Smyth record thinking it was by Patti Smith and, traginflation, price changes and the varying degrees to ically, put it on the turntable. After the ear-bleeding which different albums bite subsided, I went back to Sam barbecued earthworm gizGoody and bought the corzards, I’ve calculated that rect Patti Smith album, only Suffice to say, I passed the the record companies owe to discover that “Because the me $16,187.50.

Night” is the only good song dutchie and a kidney stone on What’s that you say, reon it (yeah, I said it). the left hand side. cord companies? It’s not You owe me for all those your fault the music blows? one-hit-wonder albums. I’m Wrong! It is your fault—for talking to you, Universal Records! That Chumbawamba album, Tubthumping, intentionally creating a culture of mediocrity in was just Dumbawamba. the industry; for the payola and plugola scams you Are you hearing this, MCA? The Musical Youth perpetrated against the consumer; for signing and debut was so bad it knocked something loose from promoting only sexy recording artists, leaving all my ureter. Suffice to say, I passed the dutchie and a the awesome ugly ones to wither in the dungeon of kidney stone on the left hand side. obscurity; and for pressuring artists to dumb down And do not, RCA, for one second think I have their songs for the mainstream, even though everyforgotten about you. Although I enjoyed Lou Bega’s one knows that music written for the mainstream version of “Mambo No. 5,” you should have warned sucks on industrial-sized wet-vac hoses used for me that Mambos 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 were going to kill all hazardous-waste spills. Oh, yes, record companies, the exotic fish in my aquarium. So, you not only owe it’s your fault alright, so you owe me. me $20 for the CD, but you also owe me for a batNot that I’m acting on it. It’s just too scary. I’d be fish, a jawfish, three seahorses, two emperor angels, that guy who lifted just one Dylan song and Columone painted grouper, a black-banded cat shark and bia Records Chairman Rob Stringer would get an 26 assorted gobies and grunts. email alert telling him what I downloaded, where I Ditto The Disturbed, Aldo Nova, Biz Markie, The live and a quick note about which type of hammer is Waitresses, The Busboys, Kajagoogoo, Big Country, best for pulverizing a person’s mouse-hand.

The Vapors, After the Fire, Flying Lizards, Red RidThat said, record companies, you still owe me. er, The Proclaimers, Young MC, Art of Noise, Pat You owe me for all the Genesis albums I purchased Travers and—well, those are just some of the artists after Phil Collins replaced Peter Gabriel and turned whose discs I purchased that had only one decent them into a faerie band. You owe me for Alicia Keys’ song and for which you now owe me.

Girl on Fire because you did not disclose that the So, remember this, record companies, when music was embedded with a subliminal directive you’re whining about losing money over copyright to slice open my scrotum and use my testicles as infringement: Just be happy your customers don’t earplugs. You owe me for the three crappy R.E.M. file a class-action suit and let’s call it even. cassettes. I don’t know what you did to those fellas after Murmur, but you must’ve done something Write to ed@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcity to turn them into an enormous puddle of tedium; beat.com. Listen to “Sordid Tales the Podcast” therefore, you owe me. at sdcitybeat.com.

You owe me for Van Halen’s 1984, which sucked

8 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

by Mina Riazi mina riazi

Il Postino’s strawberry Napoleon

One Lucky

Spoon

North Park ‘postman’ delivers North Park’s Il Postino was buzzy on a Saturday night, its entrance crammed with diners itching for a seat. The Italian eatery’s name is an allusion to director Michael Radford’s 1994 film about a lovesick postman who woos his doe-eyed sweetheart with poetry. The movie keeps it simple with a scenic village setting and a straightforward plot.

The Il Postino of 30th Street (3959 30th St., ilpostino-sandiego.com) spins a different kind of story. Brick walls and chunky silver pipes create a look that’s more industrial than provincial.

The restaurant’s menu is a multi-paged affair split into sections like “Carne Rossi” and “Pesce.”

Some may find its heft overwhelming, especially if starting with an empty belly. Luckily, there’s bread and a dish of marinara for that. While scanning the menu, I dunked a carby morsel into the red sauce and popped it into my mouth. I like

my bread bold—with a thick, crackly crust—and found Il Postino’s a little too timid. The marinara, though, was strong and flavorful.

The salads brought even more flavor to the table. The Insalata d’Antra featured smoked duck breast, pine nuts, raisins and crumbled bacon atop warm spinach. I’ve always been a front-row fan of sweet and salty combos, so I dutifully helped myself to two servings. Zippy arugula joined forces with Belgian endives and radicchio in the Insalata Trecolori. A walnut-studded slab of goat cheese topped the leafy heap and vinaigrette dressing pulled the flavors together.

My loyalty to sweet and salty mash-ups is matched only by my dedication to hearty, well-seasoned meat sauces. I skipped many of the menu’s promising pasta options and decided on the Penne alla Bolognese. When my dish finally arrived— puffing steam, the penne plump and glistening—I scorched a few taste buds as I rushed into the first bite. Thankfully, my grub buddies slid spoonfuls of their food onto my plate so I could keep busy while anticipating the cool-down.

They offered me a slice of the Prosciutto e Funghi pizza, flecked with strips of ham and fleshy mushrooms. Thin-crusted and chewy, my sliver boasted a perfect sauce-to-cheese ratio. A few forkfuls of Il Postino’s Halibut alla Siciliana came next. With its capers and olives, the wellintentioned fish dish packed a salty punch and wasn’t my favorite. The nicely sized hunk of halibut, though, was moist and tender and dressed in a tangy oregano sauce.

With its full-bodied flavor and chunky texture, the Penne alla Bolognese won over everyone. The slow-cooked ragú was carefully seasoned and the penne prepared just right, with a slight springiness to each bite.

The meal ended as all meals should: with a firm thwack of sugar. I had drooled over pictures of Il Postino’s strawberry Napoleon and needed to try it. The dessert arrived looking better than its photos: cream slow-oozed between layers of sliced strawberries and filo pastry. A smattering of powdered sugar capped the showy confection, and my first and last forkfuls tasted equally sublime.

By the time I left Il Postino, I felt like most do after gorging on carbs: full and content and contemplating Round 2.

Write to minar@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 9

by ian cheesman

beer &

chees A taste of high Societe

Walking into Societe Brewing’s tasting room at noon is akin to arriving a bit too early for a party. All the heady anticipation you felt on the drive over slowly dissolves into the awkwardness of appearing overly eager for festivities to begin. Similarly, strolling into the cavernous tasting room when it is sparsely populated gives me the sense I’m stepping into a revelry vacuum, a space longing to be filled with craft-brew super-fans. Thankfully, it takes far more than a little awkwardness and shame to deter me from having a drink.

Societe’s tasting room (8262 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. in Kearny Mesa, societebrewing.com) is large enough to house dozens of people and accommodate everyone’s desired configuration for carousing. Societe smartly kept its barstools tucked to one side of the bar so as not to impede incoming drink orders. This frees everyone from the uncomfortable practice of puncturing other patrons’ space-bubbles with rapid gesticulations for a beer.

Little considerations like the streamlined thoroughfare to order beer are what make this place for me. For example, while I wouldn’t make it common practice to drag my kid here, it’s nice to know it’s an option after the rigors of attending her friend’s princess-themed birthday party nearby.

I especially liked that the room supplied a small exterior patio, because enjoying beers against the backdrop of open sky is often prohibited by the alcohol licenses at these establishments. It’s certainly preferable to sprinting with my pint to the nearest exit while evading security’s clutches.

Serving 3-ounce tasters for only a buck makes for an inexpensive and liver-friendly way to survey all the available taps, which covers a majority of the core Societe brews. I’ve previously been able to sample most of them while out and about at my favorite haunts, so I was

10 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

quietly hoping for some experimental recipes or blends in their own house, but you’ll not get any complaints out of me when I have a freshly poured The Apprentice in my hand. It’s a resinous IPA with a faint biscuit-malt profile set against an onslaught of orange rind and herbal notes. It masks its 7.5-percent ABV pretty well, so be sure to grab a few refreshing gasps of that outdoor air between pints.

Societe brews tend to favor India pale ales of various stripes and Belgian-inspired concoctions, so expect a variety of big flavors to emerge from the taps. It’s an unusual combination, but it’s hardly out of bounds for brewers with roots that extend back to The Bruery, a Placentia brewery that’s notoriously freewheeling with ian cheesman

ingredients and styles. My favorite of the bunch is The Widow, a Belgian strong ale I’ve previously cited as being one of the best in San Diego and a great representation of the style.

Societe Brewing is a distinctive and notable brewery worthy of your attention. It skillfully marries the hop-centric San Diego palate with the gentler (though no less nuanced) Belgian flavors, ensuring it will please a wide variety of tastes. If you love beer and old-timey mustaches in equal measure, it may well be your ultimate destination.

Write to ianc@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

urban

scout Where can I find…

Olive oil?

by Katrina dodson

Katrina Dodson

Olive-oil specialty stores have been popping up all over town, so I thought I’d do some digging to see what the home chef or amateur foodie might find in these trendy boutiques. To determine my favorites, I used a method: At each location, I tried a lemon olive oil, a “house specialty” olive oil or vinegar and the house basic olive oil, and I also checked out the gift offerings.

Baker & Olive (locations in Del Mar Highlands Town Center and Encinitas, bakerandolive. com): A favorite of local chefs, this shop has the best prices and some of the freshest offerings I encountered. Its balsamic vinegars come from Italy, but most of its oils come from California, Chile, Australia and Tunisia. It offers several blends and infused oils, but what set Baker & Olive apart were the single varietals, such as Hojiblanca from Australia, with its creamy finish. The lemon olive oil was light with very little rind bitterness, and the basic blend had a strong green-olive start and a smooth finish. My favorite was the espresso balBaker & Olive’s tasting bar samic, with a hearty bite that would hold up well on a grilled steak. Prices here were reasonable, a kick from start to finish and a stand-out White with the 12.7-ounce bottle going for $16.99. A gift Truffle olive oil that I dreamed of smothering on pack—four 3.4-ounce samplers—is $24.99. I liked popcorn. The lemon olive oil was more bitter than watching local chefs and regulars stream into the others I tried, but the Ultra Arbosana basic the store for fresh-baked bread and conversation was creamy yet light. Seaport has a good selection with the friendly and knowledgeable staff. of gift offerings, but they were pricey, starting at Temecula Olive Oil Company (locations in $39.99. It had an interesting assortment of flavored Old Town, Solana Beach and Temecula, temecusalts gift packs that I liked better.

Katrina Dodson laoliveoil.com): The who’s-who We Olive (1158 Prospect St. of olive-oil venues, Temecula’s in La Jolla, weolive.com): This Old Town store had more jams, storefront for all things Califormustards and lotions than acnia-olive has a wine bar at the tual olive oils, and tastings back, serving California wines were limited to staff picks and to be paired with the store offerseasonal items. It didn’t ofings and also a small-bites menu. fer a lemon olive oil, but it did Given its location, I thought the have an excellent blood-orange store might be stingy with samEVOO with a sweet, strong flaples, but it offered tastes of evvor. The house specialty—911 erything. The lemon EVOO had Hatch Chili Vinegar—was a a buttery start and a peppery welcome assault compared Temecula Olive Oil Company finish, and the Triple A Blend of with the barely there flavor of Arbequina, Ascolano and Arbothe cilantro EVOO. The house-specialty basil sana olive oils was We Olive’s excellent basic with olive oil—made with 20 pounds of basil to every zero bitterness and a deep olive flavor. My friend 100 pounds of olives—was perfect. I liked the and I went back for seconds on the Champagne “Just Dip It” blend of oil and vinegar with spices Mimosa and Pineapple white balsamics. The giftfor $16.99 but wasn’t wowed by the sampler pack pack sampler of five 2-ounce oils or vinegars is of three 3.4-ounce oils for $23.99. It seemed more $29.99, but it had a wide selection of other gifts of a tourist stop then a chef’s grab-and-go. packs from an array of California olive-oil producSeaport Oil & Vinegars (Seaport Village, seaers. We Olive buys its oil direct from the growers portoilsandvinegars.com): Smack in the middle of and sticks to an all-California palate. Its 12.7-ounce this tourist spot is a beautifully laid-out shop that bottles of basic oils and vinegars are $22.19. I loved encourages tastings and conversation. In fact, Seathe wine and olive oil combo—I’ll be back to resample and imbibe. port hosts parties and catered events on-site and off-site. It sources from some of the same olive Write to katrinad@sdcitybeat.com groves as Baker & Olive, but its blends are interand editor@sdcitybeat.com. esting and different, like the Chipotle EVOO with

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 11

the

SHORTlist

1

THE COOL-EVARD

El Cajon Boulevard has shifted in the last few years from being the boulevard of broken dreams to a vibrant stretch of cool new businesses. The evolution has been fostered by the El Cajon Business Improvement Association (ECBIA), which creates events that help promote the area.

The campaign continues on Friday, March 8, with Boulevard Nights, a semi-regular block party featuring art vendors, live music, good eats and an introduction to some of the highlights along the street. The upcoming installment serves as an after-party for the Latino Film Festival and, therefore, will feature awesome Latino-tinged elements.

The ECBIA’s Beryl Forman tells CityBeat that the Media Arts Center will unveil its new micro-cinema and will screen two short Latino film staring at 6:30 p.m. There’ll also be live sets by Tijuana bands Shantelle (8:30 p.m.) and Celofan (9:30 p.m.) along with vegan street tacos from True Kitchen Creatives and a sidewalk DJ set by Beto Perez.

“When the Media Arts Center moved to El Cajon Boulevard, it was a big win for us,” Forman says. “It’s such a large space and great about educating the community in media, arts and video. It’s a nice place to hang out.”

Since the Media Arts Center set up shop, unique businesses have moved in close by, like The Homebrewer and Coffee and Tea Collective. Together, these new establishments have aided in the overall change in the boulevard’s reputation.

2

COORDINATED BY ALEX ZARAGOZA

PARTY DOWN

You’re currently holding in your hands the 2013 edition of CityBeat’s Local Music Issue, the ultimate compendium of San Diegocentric music writing in all the land. To celebrate the release of this fantastic labor of love, we’re throwing a Local Music Issue Party, and we’ve invited some NICOLE ESPINA rad local bands to play at The Griffin (1310 Morena Blvd. in Bay Park) on Thursday, March 7, starting at 8 p.m. Psych-rockers Wild Wild Wets, indie-popsters The PalWild Wild Wets ace Ballroom and rock loonies Schitzophonics will perform. But don’t miss Teenage Burritos, whose scruffy garage-pop tunes are so infectious that we declared them “EXTRASPECIALGOOD” in this issue’s Great Demo Review. Oh, and if you got slammed in the Demo Review, don’t be shy. We’d be happy to meet you. $6. thegriffinsd.com

12 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

ART Art in the Park at Bluefoot Bar & Lounge, 3404 30th St., North Park. Live art by Jawny, Nicole Lovejoy, Michelle Lai, Lyle Abrahams and others. Marcus Russell Price guest DJs. At 7 p.m. Thursday, March 7. 619-756-7891, facebook.com/ events/510649168981016 From a Silhouette at San Diego Art Institute-Museum of the Living Artist, Balboa Park. Opening reception for Jonathan Williams’ new series of works. On view through April 7. From 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, March 8. $3. , sandiego-art.org Hart of body : body of art at theFRONT, 147 W. San Ysidro Blvd., San Ysidro. The theme for the sixth annual Dia de la Mujer juried exhibition focuses on the art of the body. The evening includes a live performance by La Bomba Liberte, a craft market and food from Mariscos German. From 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, March 8, facebook. com/events/518575861527701 HKettner Nights. Check out galleries and shops on and around Kettner Boulevard in Little Italy. Highlights include glasswork and furniture at Kettner Arts Studio and Gallery, works by Clay Walker at Meyer Fine Art and new works by photographer Paul Cava at jdc Fine Art. At 6 p.m. Friday, March 8. kettnerarts.com, jdcfineart.com, plmeyerfineart.com North Park Artist Studio Tours. View nine art studios where 20 local artists create their work. RSVP: 619-795-4850. At 1 p.m. Saturday, March 9. $15-$25. 619232-3821, northparkmainstreet.com

Art and craft vendors at Boulevard Nights “I think once people come out and have good time, and walk into the businesses and really enjoy the atmosphere, they’ll definitely have a different perspective on El Cajon Boulevard,” Forman says. “I wanted to do something that draws in the community and showcases what’s creative about the neighborhood. All in all, it’s a great party!”

3 STREET SCENES

Folks who’ve visited Tijuana and ventured beyond Avenida Revolucion know what a visually rich city it is, where street art—from simple promotional posters to elaborate graffiti— turns TJ into an evolving urban gallery. Photographer Jill Holslin captured these scenes for Tijuana Alley Art, photographing what she refers to as “that which remains”—vibrant, sometimes offthe-beaten-path graffiti that, given its transitory nature, may no longer exist as Holslin captured it with her camera (disclosure: Holslin’s son is CityBeat’s music editor). Check out “Emek” by Jill Holslin her photographs along with wheat-paste art and paintings by Tijuana artists 1102, Panca and Spel Uno from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, March 9, at Visual (3524 Adams Ave. in Normal Heights, visualartsupply.com). TJ brewer Francisco Garcia will be serving his Teodora craft beer.

HWeird Enough at Habitat House, 1008 21st St., Golden Hill. View art by Shoko Hachiya, Danica Molenaar, Hugo Fernando Fierro and Keith Milgaten. Music by Keith Sweaty, Mystery Cave and Balloons.

From 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday, March 9, facebook.com/events/523764011009166 HTijuana Alley Art at Visual Art Supply, 3524 Adams Ave., Normal Heights. See photography by Jill Holslin that captures the urban history of the alleys of Tijuana.

Artists 1102, Panca and Spel will also have work on display. From 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, March 9, visualartsupply.com HOne Plus Six Equals Seven at Distinction Gallery and Artist Studios, 317 E. Grand Ave., Escondido. Curator Christopher Polentz features original works by six of his students, shown alongside his work work. On view through April 6. From 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, March 9. 760-7815779, distinctionart.com HHerb Turner: Realist/Idealist at Oceanside Museum of Art, 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside. View 50 paintings and select photographs of the architect’s environmentally conscious structures. On view through May 19. Opening from 5 to 7 p.m.

Saturday, March 9. $10. 760-435-3720, oma-online.org HKindred Spirits at Thumbprint Gallery, 920 Kline St., #104, La Jolla. A group show featuring work by Aaron Moore, Alli Bautista, Exist 1981, Keemoworks and others. On view through April 7. Opening 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, March 9, thumbprintgallerysd.com Ray at Night. The monthly art walk features vendors, art and musical performances on and around Ray Street in North Park.

Highlights include the closing reception for cuarenta y dos, drawings, paintings and sculpture by Carlos Castrejon at San Diego Art Department. From 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, March 9. rayatnightartwalk.com Mujeres de Ayer, Hoy... y Siempre at Centro Cultural de la Raza, 2125 Park Blvd., Balboa Park. Dozens of artists from the U.S.,

Mexico, Latin America and South America display work to mark Dia Internacional de la Mujer. At 7 p.m. Saturday, March 9. 619235-6135, centroculturaldelaraza.com HUCSD MFA & PhD Open Studios at Visual Arts Facility Gallery, Russell Lane, UCSD campus, La Jolla. Featuring 37 graduate student artists. Film screenings will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. From 3 to 8 p.m. Saturday, March 9, visarts.ucsd. edu/open-studios-2013 Contagio at Santos Fine Art Galleries, 978 North Coast Hwy., Encinitas. Santos Orellana presents a cerebral, 15-piece collection. On view through March 31. Opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, March 9. 760633-1644, santosfineartgalleries.com Two Perspectives from Two Generations at Mission Trails Regional Park, One Father Junipero Serra Trail, San Carlos.

Work by award-winning photographers Joan Everds and Nancy Everds. On view through April 5. Opening from 1 to 4 p.m.

Sunday, March 10, mtrp.org HBedroom Eyes at Thumbprint Gallery, 920 Kline St., #104, La Jolla. Andrea Welton displays new oil paintings inspired by her portraiture and figure studies. From 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, March 10, facebook. com/events/213568165455805 A Constant State of Change at Basic, 410 10th Ave., Downtown. Visual Culture presents new paintings from Tommy Picht that depict states of flux down to the atomic level. From 7 to 11 p.m. Tuesday, March 12. 619-531-8869, facebook.com/ events/306380662818053 HSpeaking Volumes: Transforming Hate at Gotthelf Gallery, 4126 Executive Drive, La Jolla. Montana Human Rights Network acquired 4,000 volumes of white supremacist propaganda for this exhibition. The opening reception includes a talk by Frank Meeink, author of Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead. Advanced registration required for security reasons.

Visit www.adl.org/speakingvolumes to register. On view through June 6. Opening at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 13, sdcjc.org

BOOKS Rorke Denver at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The author discusses and signs his book about the Navy Seal training program, Damn Few. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 6. 858-4540347, warwicks.indiebound.com Patricia Briggs at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. The author of the Mercy Thompson urban fantasy series signs her latest, Frost Burned. At 7 p.m. Thursday, March 7. 858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com Weekend with Locals: Lou Pechi at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. As part of their continuing series, Warwick’s hosts Lou Pechi, author of I Am Lubo. At noon Sunday, March 10. 858454-0347, warwicks.indiebound.com Dan Wells and Claudia Gray at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Clairemont. Join the authors for the book store’s mini-Dark Days Young Adult Tour. At 7 p.m. Monday, March 11.

858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com

COMEDY HNBT for Kids at Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, South Park. Nest Best Thing hosts a night dedicated to the kid in us all with comedy from Cameron Esposito, Rhea

CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 13

Butcher and Brian Simpson. At 8:30 p.m.

Wednesday, March 6. 619-284-6784, facebook.com/events/532221060142246

DANCE HPre-Swing: The Cake Walk and the Charleston at Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park. The first workshop of the Roots of Swing series explores two styles from 20th century American popular dance.

From 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, March 7. $10$15. 619-239-0003, mingei.org HGiselle at Spreckels Theater, 121 Broadway, Downtown. Inspired by a poem written

by Heinrich Heine, this ballet tells the story of a peasant girl who saves her lover from evil spirits. At 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 8-9 and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 10. $29-$69. 619-235-9500, cityballet.com HMalashock Dance 25th Season Celebration at Birch North Park Theater, 2891 University Ave., North Park. Malashock teams up with pianist Gustavo Romero for choreograped short stories performed to Leos Janacek’s music. At 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 8-9. $21-$47. 619239-8836, birchnorthparktheatre.net Dance Brazil at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. A fusion of Afro-Brazilian movement, Capoeira and traditional martial arts. At 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 10. $20-$85. 619-235-0804, sandiegosymphony.org

FOOD & DRINK Pliny the Younger at Tiger! Tiger!, 3025 El Cajon Blvd., North Park. Admission gets you a .4L glass of Pliny and entry into a raffle for additional Younger pours. All proceeds go to charity. At 11 a.m. Saturday, March

9. $12. tigertigertavern.blogspot.com Anniversary Party at Latitude 33 Brewing, 1430 Vantage Court, Suite 104, Vista.

Celebrate the brewery’s first year with food, music and craft beer From noon to 7 p.m. Saturday, March 9. $20 online, $25 at the door. 855-598-2337, lat33brew.com Third Annual Corned Beef Festival at Seisel’s Old Fashioned Meats, 4131 Ashton St., Bay Park. Sample barrel-cured corned beef and get tips on preparing a St. Patrick’s Day feast. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 9. 619-275-1234, bestmeatssandiego.com

MUSIC Celtic Groove at Meyer Fine Art, Inc., 2400 Kettner Blvd., Ste. 104, Little Italy.

Hear traditional Irish music with Wanda Law, Beth Ross, Jon Szanto, Jeff Pakarek and others. At 6:30 p.m. Saturday, March 9. $40-$50. 619-358-9512, brownpapertickets.com/profile/80111 The Arc Trio at Villa Musica, 10373 Roselle Street, Ste. 170, Sorrento Valley.

San Diego Center for the Arts presents Rick Helzer on piano, Justin Grinnell on bass and Nate Hubbard on drums. At 8 p.m. Saturday, March 9. $10-$15. 858550-8100, villamusica.org Tafelmusik at Sherwood Auditorium, 700 Prospect St, La Jolla. Tafelmusik’s “House of Dreams” plays Purcell, Handel, Vivaldi and Bach against a stage set-up inspired by 18th-century Venetian culture. At 6:45 p.m. Saturday, March 9. $25-$75. 858454-3541, ljms.org Celebrating Creation at California Center for the Arts, 340 North Escondido Blvd., Escondido. Featuring a 50-voice choir and 50-piece orchestra with guest performanc-

14 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

es by North County Children’s Choir and Sand Diego Jewish Men’s Choir. At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 9. $12-$21. 760839-4190, artcenter.org/performances Global Spotlight: Dende & Band at Museum of Making Music, 5790 Armada Drive, Carlsbad. The Global Spotlight Concert Series kicks off with a funk performance by the Afro-Brazilian multi-instrumentalist and his band. At 7 p.m. Saturday, March 9. $15-$20. 760-438-5996, museumofmakingmusic.org Wild Jammin’ Women at Unity San Diego, 3770 Altadena Ave., Oak Park. Celebrate International Women’s Day with performances by Montana singer-songwriter Judy Fjell and local singer-songwriters Lisa Sanders and Peggy Watson. At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 9. 619-280-2501, wildjamminwomen.com/1/index.htm Rajko Band at Scripps Miramar Ranch Library, 10301 Scripps Lake Dr., Scripps Ranch. An authentic Gypsy ensemble from Hungary performs classical and romantic favorites by Strauss, Brahms, Offenbach, von Suppe and others. At 4 p.m.

Sunday, March 10. $5-$15. srfol.org

10. Free. 619-594-6031, facebook.com/ events/458729380860776 Choral Classics at Lighthouse Christian Church, 4700 Mesa Drive, Oceanside. North Coast Symphony and the San Luis Rey Chorale present selections from Verdi, Bizet, Masacagni, Handel and others. At 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 10 and Tuesday, March 12. 760-726-0590, northcoastsymphony.com Athenaeum Mini-Concerts at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla. The free afternoon concert series presents The Windsong Consort. At noon Monday, March 11. 858-454-5872, ljathenaeum.org/miniconcerts.html Jeremy Denk at Neurosciences Institute, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, La Jolla.

The pianist joins members of the San Diego Symphony’s string section to perform Beethoven’s Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Archduke Trio. At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 12. $30. 858-626-2000, sandiegosymphony.org/calendar

PERFORMANCE

Teresa Walters at California Center for the Arts, 340 North Escondido Blvd., Escondido. Hidden Valley Community Concerts Association presents the international classical pianist. At 2 p.m. Sunday, March 10. $10-$20. 760-839-4190, artcenter.org/performances

Breaking The Chains: A Burlesque Benefit at Sunset Temple, 3911 Kansas St., North Park. Not So Demure productions presents a burlesque performance to benefit children with autism. At 6 p.m. Saturday, March 9. $25-$30. 619-795-3630, burlesqueforautism.eventbrite.com

Lorraine Castellanos at Rhapsody Hall, SDSU, 5500 Campanile Drive. This classical guitar concert features Castellanos performing works by Bach, Regondi, Barrios, Malats and more. She’ll be joined at the end of the recital by Fred Benedetti, Gilbert Castellanos, Rob Thorsen, Claudia Gomez, Halysson Da Silva, and Claudia Lyra. At 7 p.m. Sunday, March

Straight from the Page at San Diego Center for Jewish Culture, 4126 Executive Drive, La Jolla. Ten playwrights present 5-minute sketches ranging from comedy to drama.

Directed by D. Candis Paule. At 7 p.m.

Monday, March 11. $8-$10. , lfjcc.org

POETRY & SPOKEN WORD International Women’s Day Stop Violence Against Women at World Beat Cultural Center, 2100 Park Blvd., Balboa Park. An evening of poetry with a speech

by Dr. Gorgias Romero and an art display

by Eva Malhotra inspired by the Cuidad Juarez femicide. At 7 p.m. Friday, March 8. 619-230-1190, worldbeatculturalcenter. memberlodge.com Long Story Short at Space 4 Art, 325 15th St., East Village. Storytellers of all ages are welcome to come share a 5-minute story on the theme of “Alter Egos.”

From 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday, March 10. $5 suggested donation. sdspace4art.org Jewish Poets-Jewish Voices at Astor Judaica Library, 4126 Executive Drive, La Jolla. Local Jewish poets read their work.

Following the readings is an open mic.

At 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 12. 858-4573030, sdcjc.org/ajl New Writing Series: Kate Greenstreet & Cynthia Arrieu King at Visual Arts Performing Space, UCSD campus. The two authors read from their work. From 4:30 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 13. Free. 858534-3210, literature.ucsd.edu

POLITICS & COMMUNITY LGBT Asylum and Immigration in the U.S. at San Diego Public Library, 820 E St., Downtown. Alliance San Diego hosts a community forum on the history of antigay and lesbian bias in U.S. immigration policy. Free to the public. At 6:30 p.m.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

THEATER Love, photojournalism in focus in Solana Beach It’s not enough to be good at your craft. You have to be good at your relationship, too. That’s more than photojournalist Sarah can handle in Donald Margulies’ Time Stands Still. But who can blame her? Her face and body are collaterally damaged on assignment overseas, and when her journalist boyfriend James brings her home, walking cane, bandages and all, he’s hovering over her like one of those choppers back in the war zone.

But is Sarah too obsessed with her work for a meaningful relationship (or marriage, which James decides he wants)? Or is James, who’s replaced his own emotional scars from covering the world’s ugliness with cooking and watching old movies on Netflix, unreasonably trying to change Sarah? These are the uneasy and paramount questions of Marguiles’ 2009 play, which is getting a snappy and intelligently realized production at North Coast Rep under the direction of David Ellenstein.

The cast of four is led by New Yorker Mhari Sandoval as Sarah, a role played on Broadway by Laura Linney. Sandoval projects all the grit and passion of a hardened photojournalist, one for whom time stands

KEN JACQUES

questions of a journalist’s role (whether to document the dark world or try to change it) and whether it’s better to accept grim reality and brood about it or to take Mandy’s attitude that lemonade can be made out of lemons. Those are my words, not hers, but you get the idea. Margulies’ smart script proffers no pat answers. Nor does the North Coast Rep staging force any upon us. You can easily foresee the play’s resolution, but getting to it is a thought-provoking exercise.

Time Stands Still runs through March 17 at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach. $37-$54. northcoastrep.org

—David L. Coddon Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

Mhari Sandoval (left) and Francis Gercke still, as the title goes, when her critical image is in focus. As James, Francis Gercke exudes the appropriate concern and exasperation, though the character seems no match for Sarah in intensity. John Nutten and Stacey Hardke lighten the domestic drama (when not comically heightening it) as editor Richard and events planner / eventual super-mom Mandy, whose May-December romance is as dewy-eyed as Sarah and James’ is desperate.

The foibles of love and commitment aside, Time Stands Still stands tallest when its inhabitants compel us to confront the

OPENING: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder: In this musical comedy set in Edwardian England, a man in need of treasure to win the love of a woman learns he’s a distant heir to a fortune and begins murdering his way to the top of the family food chain. Opens March 8 on The Old Globe Theatre’s Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in Balboa Park. oldglobe.org Willy Wonka: A boy wins a contest, takes his gramps on a tour of a spectacular chocolate factory and realizes what’s really important. Presented by Pickwick Players, it runs March 8 through 16 at C3 Performing Arts Center in Grantville. pickwickplayers.net

For full listings, please visit “T heater ” at sdcit yb eat.com

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 15

events/128331607345700

sandiego.gov/public-library

ConDor 2013 Science Fiction Convention at Town & Country Hotel, 500 Hotel Circle N., Mission Valley. Meet and discuss science fiction with authors while enjoying films, gaming, shopping and more. From noon to midnight Friday, March 8, 10 a.m. to midnight Saturday, March 9, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, March 10. $15-$40. 619-291-7131, condorcon.org

Family Winemakers of California at Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. Join other wine enthusiasts for this tasting event with over 170 wineries. From 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday, March 9, and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, March 10. $55$65. 858-755-1161, familywinemakers.org

HBoulevard Nights at the 2900 block of El Cajon Boulevard, North Park. The event includes live music, short film screenings at the Media Arts Center, food from True Kitchen Creatives, a look at the homebrewing process at The Homebrewer and more. From 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, March 8. 619-291-7131, facebook.com/ events/481063871958979/

“#12 Boy’s Room” by Arnold Kramer is part of Interior Views, an exhibition of photographs of interior spaces at Joseph Bellows Gallery (7661 Girard Ave. in La Jolla) through April 13.

Wednesday, March 6. 619-236-5800, sandiegolibrary.org San Diego Green Scene at World Resources Simulation Center, 1088 Third Ave., Downtown. Emily Young and Bill Clint discuss population increase, its impact on climate change and how to mitigate damage. From 5:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, March 7. 619-865-5904, greenscenemarch2013.eventbrite.com People’s Power Assembly at World Beat Cultural Center, 2100 Park Blvd., Balboa Park. Families and community leaders discuss police brutality, border

patrol, the Prison Industrial Complex and other issues. From 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 9. 619-230-1190, facebook.com/ events/561895710489787/

SPECIAL EVENTS Luxury Car Showcase at Event Motoring, 4109 Sports Arena Blvd., Sports Arena. Find your dream car while enjoying cocktails by Kill Devil Spirit Co. and food from Devilicious Food Truck and Cupcake Inn. From 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, March 7. 619-223-2221, facebook.com/

16 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

Lil Wayne & Same Ol’ Two Step at War Memorial Building, 3325 Zoo Drive, Balboa Park. Bon Temps Social Club hosts its 21st anniversary dinner-dance with Cajun gumbo and a live zydeco performance. At 5:30 p.m. Saturday, March 9. $10. icajunzydeco.com 5th Annual Shave-a-Thon at The Commons, 901 Fourth Ave., Downtown. Participants shave their heads in solidarity with children with cancer. Shaving provided by The Factory Salon and all proceeds go to St. Baldrick’s Foundation. At 12:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 9. $10-$20. 619-6968888, stbaldricks.org Korean Culture and Cuisine at Earl and Birdie Taylor Library, 4275 Cass St., Pacific Beach. View two documentaries about ancient Korean art, witness a live reenactment of a traditional wedding ceremony, and end the afternoon with a complimentary meal. Registration is required: 858-581-9934. From 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, March 9. 858-581-9934,

San Diego Vintage Flea Market at Heartland Masonic Center, 695 Ballantyne St., El Cajon. This market sells vintage and vintage-inspired goods. Vendors include Atomic Retro Girl, Crown City Vintage, The Salvaged Home, Velvet Klaw, My Lucky Dragon, Sight and Sound Preservaation and two-dozen others. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, March 10. facebook.com/ events/267916026672757 Chloe Coscarelli at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. Meet the winner of Food Network’s Cupcake Wars and have your own dessert judged by her at Warwick’s bake-off. At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 12. 858-454-0347, warwicks. indiebound.com/event/chloe-coscarelli

SPORTS Battle for the Troops at Rock Church, 2277 Rosecrans St., Point Loma. Victory Gym co-hosts this amateur boxing event to benefit wounded veterans. There will be three mixed-martial-arts matches. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 9. $10-$20. 619-226-ROCK, sdrock.com/ events/10332

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS HJennifer Luce at NewSchool of Architecture & Design, 1249 F St., Downtown.

As a part of their series to bring in designers from around the world, NewSchool hosts Luce on the topic of “Deliberate Blur.” At 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 6, NewSchoolArch.edu HSilent Spring Series: Global Climate Change and Emerging Infectious Disease at Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, Balboa Park. The fourth discussion of the series focuses on human impact on natural habitats and how this affects climate and the spread of disease. From 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Wednesday, March 6. 619-238-1233, silentspringmarch2013.eventbrite.com Lunchtime Lecture: Dale Chihuly at Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park. Museum director Rob Sidner discusses Chihuly’s installation and his other works from the museum’s permanent collection. Attendees are invited to bring their own lunch. At noon Friday, March 8. Free with museum admission. 619-239-0003, mingei.org The History of Israel in 10 Objects at Schulman Auditorium, 1775 Dove Lane, Carlsbad. Dr. Risa Levitt Kohn hosts a lecture inspired by BBC’s radio series, “A History of the World in 100 Objects.” From 7 to 8:30 p.m. Monday, March 11. 760602-2012, sdcjc.org H4th Annual Keeling Lecture at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 8602 La Jolla Shores Drive, La Jolla. Professor Emeritus Richard Somerville discusses climate change and his book, The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change. From 6:30 to 8 p.m. Monday, March 11. $5-$8.

858-534-3624, scrippsnews.ucsd.edu

Fo r m o r e list ings, visit “E ve nt s” a t sd c it yb e a t.c o m

seen local A weird farewell Approaching artist Shoko Hachiya as she sips an iced mocha and reads The Sun Also Rises at North Park’s Caffe Calabria feels intrusive. The scene looks like the perfect weekday morning, and it seems a shame to disturb it. However, Hachiya smiles warmly and closes her book, happy to talk about the work she’ll show in Weird Enough?, a group art exhibition happening at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 9, at Habitat House (1008 21st St. in Golden Hill).

Originally from Chiba, Japan, Hachiya moved to San Diego to study art at Palomar College and later at San Diego State University. She’s made the city her home during the last six years, but she’s bidding farewell and will return to Japan in April.

While the warm weather is what drew her here, it’s the large community of artists and musicians she’s befriended that has most fueled her work.

“I don’t know if the content of my art is heavily influenced by San Diego, but just being around friends and creative people has inspired my art,” Hachiya says. “Everybody is making something. It’s just really good.”

Musician and artist Keith Milgaten, who’ll show his digital art in Weird Enough?, organized the exhibition as a chance for Hachiya to share her work in San Diego one final time. They’ll be joined by artists Danica Molenaar and Hugo Fernando Fierro.

There’ll also be electronic music from Milgaten’s musical alter ego, Keith Sweaty, plus Mystery Cave and Balloons. Hachiya’s architecturally inspired pop-surrealist pieces lend perfectly to the offbeat quality of the event.

“The whole show is not mellow,” Hachiya says with a laugh. “They’re all kind of crazy. What we’re gonna try to do is blast the whole place with color.”

Studio time

“A Scene” by Shoko Hachiya out a symposium, “The Nature of Space.” Attendees will see and learn about some of the work being produced in the department, through discussion sessions, screenings of video projects, art displays and more (go to visarts.ucsd.edu and click “Events”).

“What we’re offering to the population of San Diego is a unique thing,” says Matthew Savitsky, a visual-art grad student who’s organizing the event.

“To walk into an artist’s studio is exciting and enticing because you can see things in practice and in their natural setting, not in an intimidating art space.

You’re closer to its source.”

Among the work to be shared is an experimental gardening project taking place in Los Laureles, an impoverished section of Tijuana, and an ambitious, nine-channel video installation by Adrienne Garbini in the main gallery. Garbini’s thesis show features the repetitive building and destruction of ceramic smiling faces.

“People will see things they won’t immediately identify as art,” he says. “It’s really exciting to be here at this time when everything is being figured out and feeling like the students have a say. We have room to shape where things are going. It’s an interest way to work as an artist.”

Since the Structural and Materials Engineering (SME) building opened at UCSD last September, there’s been an onslaught of fascinating work being created there, especially in the school’s Department of Visual Arts, which has more than lived up to the legacy of experimental work UCSD is known for in its art, theater and music departments.

From 3 to 8 p.m. Saturday, March 9, the public can tour the SME building’s graduate-student studios, Write to alexz@sdcitybeat.com and before that, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., folks can check and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

—Alex Zaragoza

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 17

Paranoia strikes deep German film set before the wall’s fall boasts some great acting

by Anders Wright If the German film Barbara, which opens at Hillcrest Cinemas on Friday, March 8, were a Hollywood picture, you’d have heard about it already.

Hell, you probably would have seen it represented at last week’s middling Oscars ceremony, and with good cause. The writing is tight and smart, and the acting is spellbinding. It’s precisely the kind of small, intense drama you wish they’d make more of in the United States.

Of course, the movie’s subject matter is pretty specific to its country of origin. Barbara is set in East The charismatic Ronald Zehrfeld Germany prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, and its protagonist is played by Nina Hoss, one of Germany’s this rebellious girl, who’s had everything usurped by top actresses. She’s a former big-city doctor, who, we the state, Barbara sees something of herself. At the learn early on, has been exiled to a small clinic in the same time, Barbara’s the only person who ever treats sticks, and she’s not happy about it. Her crime? She Stella with an ounce of kindness or respect. dared to apply for an exit visa, and now the Stasi, the All of this complicates matters. Barbara’s profesEast German secret police, are watching her around sional obligations are making it harder to leave and the clock, suspicious that she’s determined to re- forcing her to determine what’s truly important, a unite with her West German lover on the other side decision that’s eventually thrust upon her by an unof the wall. anticipated event. Throughout it all—the hard breaks, They have good reason to be suspicious, because the awful interrogations, the utter unpleasantness of that’s exactly what Barbara hopes to do. She, in turn, living in what Stella refers to as a “shit country”— is suspicious of everyone around her. She’s cold and Hoss makes Barbara a truly fascinating character. prickly, and her standoffishness makes things tricky, She’s not terribly likable, but it’s not her fault; she’s because there are very real become justifiably bitter bepeople with whom she has to cause of the way her country Barbara deal. Foremost among them is has treated her. As she starts to Directed by Christian Petzold André (Ronald Zehrfeld), the warm up to the people around Starring Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, clinic’s chief physician. He’s a her, the character truly blosgentle bear of a man, a dedisoms, becoming warm and raRainer Bock and Jasna Fritzi Bauer cated doctor and, as he makes diant, slowly tearing down the Rated PG-13 it clear early on, an informant wall she’s built around herself. for the Stasi.

It’s a terrific performance.

Zehrfeld is a wonderfully charismatic actor, deChristian Petzold’s film has a great deal in comspite his constantly exhausted, pained look, and this mon with The Lives of Others, the movie that won the is a terrific role for him. Barbara is never sure wheth- Best Foreign Language Oscar a few years ago. The er she can actually trust André, and neither are we. dehumanization and paranoia of that closed society At times, in fact, it seems as though André isn’t to- is painful to experience in both cases, and both show tally sure, either. But there’s real chemistry between a side of the Stasi agents we don’t expect to see. That them, even though she’s in love with someone else, was a huge part of The Lives of Others, but it’s much and his dedication to his patients and his practice be- more subtle and unexpected in Barbara, and when gins to melt that icy veneer of hers, just a bit. it comes along, it’s like a hammer, one that actually Then there’s Stella (Jasni Fritzi Bauer), the teen- gives the film back a measure of humanity that we, age girl who’s repeatedly run away from the labor and Barbara herself, thought was lost. camp where she lives. Usually, when she gets to the clinic, she’s faking illness, but this time she’s really Write to anders@sdcitybeat.com sick, and it’s Barbara who catches it. It’s clear that in and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

It was 20 years ago today

Father’s Chair

18 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

Programming a film festival is hard enough as it is, especially one as diverse as the San Diego Latino Film Festival, which screens shorts, documentaries and features from a slew of countries, all of which have their own film cultures. But this year’s festival (sdlatinofilm.com), which kicks off Thursday, March 7, at the

Digiplex Mission Valley Cinemas and runs through March 17, was even more challenging, since it marks SDLFF’s 20th anniversary.

To put things into perspective— and to celebrate, of course—artistic director Lisa Franek, programming manager Glenn Heath and documentary curator Mario Diaz assembled a showcase of 10 films designed to represent the last two decades of Latino cinema.

“We want this to be special,”

Heath says. “We want this to be something that people remember.”

It’s a unique collection of movies from several different countries, and the directors include Pedro Almodovar, Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron and Robert Rodriguez, whose entry is Desperado, the follow-up to his breakthrough hit, El Mariachi. Yes, an American movie made the cut.

“It really helped grow Latino cinema in the public’s mind,” Heath says.

Franek adds that Rodriguez “changed the face of independent cinema as we know it.”

Along with the 20th Anniversary Showcase, there’s an overwhelming number of films to watch during the festival. So, allow me to recommend two movies that the San Diego Film Critics Society—of which Heath and I are members—is co-sponsoring. The Brazilian movie Father’s Chair has two screenings: 10:15 p.m. Thursday, March 7, and 8 p.m. Sunday, March 17, at the Digiplex Mission Valley Cinemas. There’s also the dark Mexican comedy Fecha de Caducidad, which also plays twice in Mission Valley: 7 p.m. Thursday, March 14, and 5 p.m. Sunday,

March 16. Some critics will be on hand to discuss these movies.

But back to the anniversary: Coming up with a small collection of films that represents 20 years is no small task. Franek, Heath and Diaz started with almost 30 movies and had to whittle them down.

How do you make that happen?

“Lots of arguing,” Franek says.

—Anders Wright

Opening Barbara: Marvelously well-acted film about an East German doctor in the 1980s who’s assigned to a small-town clinic, where she must balance her professional obligations with her desire to escape to the West. See our review on Page 18.

Dead Man Down: Colin Farrell is mobster Terrence Howard’s right hand man, until he falls under the spell of a woman (Noomi Rapace) who wants a shot at his boss.

Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey: This doc was the opening-night movie of last year’s San Diego Asian Film Festival. It’s about Arnel Pineda, the Filipino singer whom the band Journey found on YouTube and eventually hired as its frontman.

Emperor: Matthew Fox plays a U.S. general in Japan after that country’s World War II surrender, trying to determine if the emperor should be hanged as a war criminal. Tommy Lee Jones swings by as Douglas MacArthur.

Greedy Lying Bastards: Longtime en-

vironmental activist Daryl Hannah executive-produced this doc, which looks at the greedy lying bastards who do their best to convince us that climate change isn’t real.

The Monk: Vincent Cassel is a 17thcentury Spanish monk who, despite living a pious life, is going to have a run-in with Satan.

Oz: The Great and Powerful: Sam Raimi directs this big-budget prequel. James Franco, Michelle Williams and Mila Kunis are all off to see the wizard.

Rocky Mountain Express: The IMAX theater at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center was recently overhauled. This latest entry takes viewers through the Canadian Rockies without leaving San Diego.

Yossi: A closeted Israeli doctor, who grieves for the lover he lost in a military event a decade ago, is trying to survive a life where everyone thinks he’s straight.

One Time Only King Kong: Not a remake! Nope, this is the terrific 1933 original. Screens at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 6, at the Central Library, Downtown.

2001: A Space Travesty: North Park’s Sea Rocket Bistro kicks off its Leslie Nielsen film series with this 2001 parody.

Screens at around 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 6, in North Park.

Pulp Fiction: Quentin Tarantino gave John Travolta his career back in this timeline-shifting, hysterically funny criminal tour de force. Screens at 8 p.m.

Wednesday, March 6, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.

Zardoz: The latest Trash Talk screening will kick off with San Diego filmmaker Bill Perrine’s documentary Children of the Stars and conclude with this Sean Connery sci-fi cheeser. Bring your phones and iPads—tweets about the movie will show up on screen. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, March 7, at the Victory Theater in Grant Hill.

Alien: Ridley Scott’s 1979 outer-space horror film is still the best of all of them.

Screens at noon and 7 p.m. Thursday, March 7, at Reading Town Square in Clairemont.

Batman: Don’t confuse it with Christopher Nolan’s trilogy. Tim Burton’s movie stars Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as the Joker and features that theme song from Prince. Screens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 7, at ArcLight La Jolla.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen: Ewan McGregor is a fisheries expert hired to help a sheik populate the Yemen River with salmon. Along the way, he falls for Emily Blunt. Screens at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 8 and 9, at Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills.

Park Chan-Wook retrospective: Beth Accomondo of KPBS hosts the Korean auteur’s Vengeance trilogy at Reaching Cinemas Town Square in Clairemont.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy screen at 4 and 7 p.m. Saturday, March 9, while Lady Vengeance screens at 7 p.m.

Sunday, March 10. Attendees will receive a pass to the director’s new film, Stoker, which screens Monday night.

Board Shorts Surf Film Festival: The second iteration of this fest, which features short surf films by and about women, starts at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, March 9,

at Bird’s Surf Shed in Ocean Beach. Food and booze will be dispensed.

Night of the Hunter: Robert Mitchum is a serious creep, playing a religious fanatic who marries a widow so he can get her two young children to tell him where their dad hid a stash of cash. Screens at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 11, at the Central Library, Downtown.

Raging Bull: One of the greatest. Scorsese directs Robert De Niro, who won the Best Actor Oscar, as self-destructive boxer Jake La Motta. Screens at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 11, at ArcLight La Jolla.

Thermae Romae: The San Diego Asian Film Festival presents this time-traveling comedy about an ancient Roman who’s transported to modern-day Japan.

Screens at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 12, at ArcLight La Jolla.

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story: Just when Vince Vaughn is about to give up on his dreams of becoming a dodgeball champion, he runs into Lance Armstrong, who gives him a bullshit motivational speech. Really. Screens at 8 p.m.

Wednesday, March 13, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.

Wrongfully Accused: Leslie Nielsen’s parody take on The Fugitive starts at around 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 13, at Sea Rocket Bistro in North Park.

For a complete listing

of movies pla ying locally, please see “F ilm S creenings” at sdcit yb eat.com under the “E vents” tab.

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 19

THE LOCAL MUSIC ISSUE Kelly Davis

Dustin Illingworth used to play in Kite Flying Society and Gray Ghosts.

Out of the wilderness A scene veteran channels grief into a gorgeous folk-pop tribute · by Seth Combs Dustin Illingworth has always been a scrupulous songwriter. He has an innate, some would say God-given talent for pop hooks and composition, but it doesn’t always come easy to him. You can hear it in the two local bands he’s fronted, Kite Flying Society and Gray Ghosts: His unsettled, insecure lyrics, the meticulousness of their folksy pop. As the bands gained local and national buzz in the ’00s, bloggers and critics fawned over what seemed like a perfect balance of catchy melodies and Illingworth’s melancholy lyrics and voice.

For those who happened to catch one of those bands’ shows, there was often another mainstay aside from the music: a tall, pretty, young woman with short blonde hair dancing near the stage. That was Amy Cole, Illingworth’s girlfriend of four-and-a-half years.

“We met the first time Kite Flying Society played The Casbah,” Illingworth recalls. “I saw her in the crowd and

20 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

thought she was beautiful. We were introduced, and she and her friends ended up following us to Imperial House.

We were both really shy and introverted, but we talked about music and how she made her own outfits and we just ended up making out for, like, 30 minutes. It was an instant connection.”

Illingworth and Cole were practically inseparable.

Though they had their ups and downs, as most couples do, they’d bring out the best in each other—her with his music, him with her painting and design aspirations. When Kite Flying Society broke up in 2008 and Gray Ghosts imploded, Cole remained Illingworth’s muse, inspiring him to continue with music.

“I could feel passion just radiating out of her. She had an eye for the exceptional that I didn’t have,” Illingworth says. “I used her as a litmus test, and if she liked a song that

I wrote, I felt especially good about it.”

At the time, Cole was working on art and pursuing a master’s degree at SDSU with a focus on special education.

But she struggled with alcoholism and depression. She checked into a rehabilitation facility for a few months, and Illingworth says she did well after getting out.

However, the day after Independence Day, 2010, Cole had too much to drink and accidentally drowned in the bathtub. Illingworth and the couple’s roommate found her.

Devastated, Illingworth didn’t pick up a guitar for more than a month. He got laid off from his job and eventually moved back to Orange County, where his family is originally from (he now splits his time between there and San Diego). Music didn’t come easy at first.

But, over the years, a new project took shape: Tide Pools.

With help from former bandmates, he recorded an album, Grief is a Wilderness, which serves as a tribute to Cole.

“The process of writing the songs was very difficult just from an emotional standpoint,” Illingworth says. “The descriptions in the songs was particularly difficult, because my memories of that day are very vivid.”

Illingworth’s family worried that the process of making the album would be too intense, but he says he never had a moment where he wanted to quit. The process itself became cathartic, as if it were part of grieving. Working on the songs would pick him up when he was overwhelmed with other things. The project became an escape, and something he had to do.

One of the first songs that came to him was “Tambourine,” a jangly folk ditty that, while full of emotional weight, could be about any relationship. Subsequent songs become more descriptive. In “Faultlines,” he recounts touching Cole’s face at the funeral and breaking down. In “Porch Lights,” he describes her “yellow hair in water like wind through trees.” In “Grief is a Wilderness,” he sings: “Closing her eyelids I lost her / leaving me as cold as the water.”

The album’s closing track, “The Color of Gardens,” came flowing out of Illingworth after he had a dream about Cole—dressed like an angel, walking him through a garden, singing the song he’d end up writing after he woke up.

Grief isn’t an album about tragedy, or even death. It’s about love, and like with most great pop records, love and loss often go hand in hand. But while Illingworth believes the album could help others who’ve endured similar loss—he says it’s “a personal statement that has universal applications”—he didn’t necessarily create it for listeners.

He created it for her.

“I wanted to make it meaningful for her—that more than anything,” he says. “I wanted it to be so where, if she heard it, she’d get a big smile and say, ‘Sugar, you’ve done it.’”

Tide Pools will celebrate the release of Grief is a Wilderness at Luce Loft on Thursday, May 23.

The show will also be a benefit for the Amy Cole Memorial Scholarship. soundcloud.com/tidepools-1

Man with a plan

Hip-hop artist Aki Kharmicel is full of brilliant ideas · by Peter Holslin

Aki Kharmicel can’t stop. A local rapper and self-described “beat head,” he keeps his two Akai MPC beat machines on 24/7, and brings them along whenever he travels. When he comes up with an idea for a beat or a rhyme, he starts working as soon as he can, to keep his inspiration fresh.

“I get bombarded with ideas, so I gotta move quick,” Kharmicel says.

“As of lately, it’s to the point where I’m so overwhelmed with ideas and concepts and whatever that I don’t even take time to write lyrics. I just plug my mic in and record.”

Prolific, resourceful and wildly inventive, Kharmicel—whose real name is Kennuf Akbar, a name he once used as his rapping moniker— has been putting out albums on his own since the late 1990s. Though he also has a day job, a wife and two kids, he always finds the time to craft beats and record vocal parts at his home studio in Encanto.

“He just has tons of shit,” says Jamal Smith, aka 10-19 The Numberman, a member of Parker & The Numberman. When Smith recently asked Kharmicel to send him some beats, he gave him more than a dozen. “And he’s, like, ‘Yo, if these don’t work, I got some more!’” Smith says.

For all his beats, Kharmicel (soundcloud.com/akikharmicel) also has a range of aliases. The name Aki Kharmicel is a reference to Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the black-power movement. Aki sees Kharmicel as a militant “raptivist,” and he touches on racial profiling and police brutality in his track “@thebeach#circa94,” a cut off of The Return, a forthcoming sequel to his album Aki Kharmicel, which came out last year.

In the track, he recounts a lovely trip to the beach that turns ugly after the police show up. Describing how the cops brutalize a young black woman, he adopts his signature, laid-back flow. His cool-headed intonations betray only a mild sense of surprise, underscoring just how common this type of abuse is.

But he isn’t always so intense. He gets extra-romantic as Aki Khalaq & The Blak Prints, a one-man soul band that he considers his own version of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, a classic Philadelphia group that Kharmicel’s parents listened to when he was growing up in City Heights and southeastern San Diego.

Over the smooth beat of the stunning Aki Khalaq tune “Ursmilingface,” which came out last year along with a gorgeous video shot by Robert Espiritu, Aki describes the tantalizing traits of a beautiful woman, and then drops some ballsy pickup lines: “You look so pretty, girl, I almost wanna stare at you. / Girl, you feeling me, that’s almost like a miracle.”

Kharmicel came up with Aki Khalaq as a way to explore ideas of true love and sexual attraction.

While he’s previously tackled issues like the black struggle and the teachings of Islam, he’s now been pushed in an emotional new direction—he’s even begun singing in a soft, breathy falsetto.

“When I do music, I can’t do it unless it’s sincere in my heart. So I almost have to channel my energies and almost, like, really kind of fall in love to make

Kurtis Solis

Aki Kharmicel as soul man Aki Khalaq this shit real,” he says. “I mean, it sounds crazy. Shit, it might sound straight-up weird. But that’s kind of what I ended up having to do.”

Kharmicel, 36, has an impeccable sense of style, and his own way of doing things. He often uses recording effects to alter the pitch of his voice, making it deeper or higher to suggest that the lyrics are coming from different points of view. Taking influence from the ’90s-era breaks of producers like Pete Rock, he likes some distortion in the bass and coats his soulful beats with grainy texture.

“My beats, if it was a person, would probably kinda look like me. Kinda gritty but still kinda fly, you know what I’m saying?” he says. “Almost an acquired taste, but an outsider can still see the beauty of it, the art of it.”

He first got into hip-hop in the early ’90s, and he taught himself how to use a sampler in a class at Mesa College. In the mid-’90s, he formed the hip-hop crew Nocturnal Scientists with his friend Sumach Ecks, aka Gonjasufi. Still repping the crew, they recently recorded an album together under the name The Nok. Now, Kharmicel is juggling several projects at once (including an Aki Khalaq video series), and he’s slowly working out all the details. “He’s very strategic,” says his friend Beatsmith Resist, a local producer. “He has an exact plan of how he wants everything to be put out.”

Meanwhile, the ideas just keep coming. Recently, he finished a song called “The Mourning,” a heartfelt tribute to nearly 20 of his beats that were erased after the power went out in his neighborhood. Heading out to Seaport Village with his family, he’d kept his MPC on, as usual.

“On the real,” he says, “I almost cried when I came home.”

Write to peterh@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 21

ad

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i ey ra

Silly styles

Some of the genres to watch out for in 2013

by Peter Holslin

It used to be that music snobs would turn up their noses at genres like pop-punk or soft-rock.

These days, though, even the most uncool sounds are cool again, as we’ve seen with the rise of sentimental soft-rockers like Bon Iver and M83. With so much music available at our fingertips, it seems that any old sound is fair game for plundering. Here’s a look at some genres we predict will have new life in 2013.

Psych-rock: Garage-rock may be all the rage these days, but let’s be honest: Most of that stuff is dreadfully boring when you look past the lo-fi / punk / vintage flavorings. What the kids really need to get into is psych-rock.

Wah-wah guitar solos and droning synths can spice up even the most boring band, and the PR potential is undeniable: Announce that you wrote an album entirely on LSD, and the bloggers will eat it up.

Jug bands: Amid our continuing love affair with Americana, it’s only a matter of time before the public demands something older and dirtier than The Lumineers.

That’s where jug bands come in.

If you thought Jeremiah Fraites looked good in suspenders, just wait till you see some scraggly old rocker in grease-stained overalls.

And “Ho Hey”? Psh. That doesn’t stand a chance against the toot-

22 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

toot-toot of an old clay jug.

Tropicália: Plenty of bands have dealt in sunny vibes and African polyrhythms lately, and plenty more have put the word “tropical” in their name. Problem is, some of these artists aren’t tropical at all. How can you prove you’re the real deal? By reviving the late-’60s Brazilian “tropicália” movement pioneered by artists like Gilberto Gil and Os Mutantes, of course.

What, you’ve never heard of it?

Well, get off your hammock and start googling!

Happy hardcore: With all those people waving glow-sticks and snorting molly, modern-day EDM shows don’t look a whole lot different from the raves people went to back in the 1990s. We might as well just call a spade a spade and bring Vengaboys back into the fold. Take a walk, Skrillex.

Your dubstep bass is no match for their ultra-cranked BPMs and super-cheesy lyrics.

Reggae: Hipsters have been hating on Sublime for years, but if lo-fi balladeer How to Dress Well can do wonders with the most sentimental R&B, a resourceful bedroom artist can do the same with the whitest of white-boy reggae. All you have to do is record everything on GarageBand and be really ironic. As much as they’ll hate to admit it, everyone will secretly love it.

Amateur Pool Party

The 2013 Great Demo Review

W

e got a lot of demos for this year’s Great Demo Review. No, seriously. We got a lot— way more than we usually do. We got 223, to be exact.

I think this may have been because we started accepting emailed submissions right off the bat this year (we accepted them for last year’s Demo Review, but only a week or so after making our initial announcement). But I’d like to think that lots of people are just really excited about getting their music reviewed. As cruel as our reviews sometimes are, even artists that have gotten smeared in the past were game for another round. Courtyard Roots, I tip my hat to thee.

Though I initially worried that we’d be para-

lyzed by the huge number of submissions, we CityBeat critics still did our jobs in 2013. As we do every year, we asked the public to send us music, and then we reviewed everything that came in. Always honest in our appraisals, we had to get nuclear with some artists. But we also deemed nine standout submissions to be “EXTRA SPECIALGOOD.” Alas, we couldn’t run all of the reviews in print, but you can read the rest online at sdcitybeat. com. Whether you’re thrilled or not with what we wrote, we welcome all 200-plus of our submitters to hang out with us at our Local Music Issue party at The Griffin on Thursday, March 7.

Angelshade

Ana

—Peter Holslin

RN: ReverbNation, FB: Facebook, SC: Soundcloud, MS: MySpace WTF? chelsealeaf.bandcamp.com

And the winner of my favorite demo-submission band name goes to—7hundercun7! Also, by a pretty wide margin, the maestros behind these eight tracks of incoherent noise take home the award for best band photo. But when the music sounds like an ill-fated cross between the TV from Poltergeist and a backyard pool party at the bottom of a pool, I can’t imagine anyone listening for long.

Chris Acquavella

—Peter Holslin

7hundercun7

Praeludium

This is a very pretty album of solo classical mandolin music. If you fell asleep reading that sentence, it’s understandable, so let me repeat: It’s a 20-song album (!) of classical solo mandolin music. wkdbDC Wwh sf asdnfasnf What?! Oh, sorry, I fell asleep and my head hit the keyboard. Yes, it’s very pretty —Scott McDonald music. Oh, and that cannot be your real name, dude! If it is, uh—condolences. If it’s not, perhaps consider adding the “topher” back to Chris Some Shit I Had or picking a stage name that doesn’t Laying Around sound like a bad aftershave or a JerEven when he’s just tossing off sey Shore cast-member nickname. rhymes with his buddies, 10-19 chrisacquavella.com The Numberman proves to be one —Seth Combs of the city’s finer MCs. On this four-track collection, the deepvoiced rhymesmith (a member of hip-hoppers Parker & The Numberman) skewers white cops, says Actions Most Ridiculous some nasty shit about Big Bird and offers up stunning verses about a Oh. My. God. These outdated, clitroubled romance. Quality. 10- ché rock tunes sounds like a bad 19thenumberman.bandcamp.com version of the worst part of the ’80s.

They’re not even properly retro: It —Peter Holslin sounds like the kind of music an ’80s sitcom character would play during the one episode in which he A Map of Chelsea Leaf decides he’s going to start a band.

This band seems confused about It’s that corny. Lyrically, they hit what it wants to be. If they’re not every cliché imaginable, with such strumming out crunchy riffs in a a lack of irony that it’s almost adWeezer-style emo anthem, like in mirable. The last song, “The Week“I’m in Love (With a Dream I Once end You,” is the most listenable, but Had),” they’re imitating Animal that’s not saying much.

—Aaron Carnes Collective with primal screams and cheapo keyboards (“Eate”). They get somewhere on “Neverends,” laying down a heavy groove and Demo adding some scorching guitar, but then some dude with a strange ac- It should take these hardcore punks cent starts rapping, and I’m, like, about 20 seconds to get a mosh-pit going at a show. That’s the amount

10-19 The Numberman

Actions Most Ridiculous

A Map of Chelsea Leaf

Ad-Seg

of time you get before the hammering riffs and frenzied drums kick in on this 11-track, 20-minute offering. There’s no turning back from there, so grab a 40 of Olde English and enjoy the ride. MS/adsegavhc —Peter Holslin

Agave

Elegance and Decadence “Nasty Reputation” is a hard rocker fit for a crummy dive bar. “Powdered” is a bland, sentimental arena rocker that might’ve sounded good on the radio back in 1999, but probably not. “Waste Your Time” is a laid-back ska rocker with some nice guitar. Nope, I don’t see myself seeking Agave out any time soon. agaveband.com —Peter Holslin

Animal Steel

Angel

extraspecialgood

—Ryan Bradford

Beatsmith Resist

Apache One Tribe

Philthy Phalangez

Whether or not Beatsmith Resist is an official member of the local Kilowattz beat collective, he’s tapped into their horror-movie aesthetic.

This instrumental project is dark and ominous. The title track, with its relentless bass line and tense background static, feels like a trip inside the mind of a serial killer while he’s on the hunt for his prey. But Philthy Phalangez wisely avoids the macho, “Look how dark I am!” posturing. Resist is on some other shit, toying with the very concept of otherness: Speaking for “savages” and the “wretched of the earth” (taken from two song titles), he portrays their darkness while also shedding light on their beauty. On opener “Garden of Heathens,” a stand-up bass guides you through strange trails before soaring flutes and watery synths open up a full view of the strangely alluring world. Needless to say, Resist is a producer to watch out for. beatsmithresist.com Rudy Vargas

7hundercun7

step up the lyrics. The world’s oversaturated with sappy troubadour 2B balladry like “Oh, you angel, can you Seriously, guys? The whole idea of teach us how to fly?” (is he talking to this demo review is that you send in himself, I wonder?). Come on, Anyour shit after you’ve fine-tuned it gel, you can do better than that. a bit. Not recordings of you in your —Seth Combs garage dicking around with the bass way too high. The only positive thing about this demo is that it might come in handy for interro- “Catastrophe” / gators when they torture terrorism “Tell a Vision” Metallica knockoff Angelshade is suspects. ms/amateurpoolparty —Seth Combs made up of four reasonably talented musicians, which should be fine for the Tuesday-night sportsbar circuit. In any other context, Caverns though, the music comes uncomWow. This is some serious drama. fortably close to parody. On “CaThis is man-on-a-mountaintop- tastrophe,” bassist / vocalist David screaming-“Why, God?!”-level dra- Marshall does his best James Hetma. Ana (which I believe is a band, field impression, but it really just not a person) has a staggering sounds like Tenacious D doing the range of dynamics. The songs will back half of The Crow soundtrack. go from the absolute quietest, at- FB/AngelshadeMusic mospheric, barely audible sounds —T. Loper to a complete, fully encompassing primal scream. It can be pretty uncomfortable, in the same way a complete stranger at a bar telling All the Wrong Planets you every detail about his divorce There are moments during Animal is uncomfortable. It’s just too in- Steel’s album that feel downright timate. I mean, I don’t even know propulsive, reminding me of The Walkmen at their most urgent. you, Ana. anakata.bandcamp.com —Aaron Carnes Singer Rodrigo Espinosa’s powerful croon is dynamic; he aims for the rafters, even on the more delicate tracks. While none of it is 6 Songs incredibly original—the Walkmen This demo’s namesake has a gor- influence is obvious, in addition to geous voice resembling Damien Ju- some Radiohead jangle and Bloc rado and Dolorean. It’s easy to see Party time signatures—the result him opening at a local show for one is purely enjoyable. The only gripe of those artists, but if he wants to is when the band tries its hand at take it to the next level, he’ll have to Black Keys-style garage-blues. Animal Steel are so good when they keep their sound clean, but it’s a shame to see them drag it through the dirt. animalsteel.com

—Quan Vu

Apache One Tribe

A lot of Apache One Tribe’s work sounds similar to that of UNKLE, with its deep musical scoops, sturdy hip-hop beats and amazing samples. Notably present is an overarching FTP theme, which was prevalent in many of our hip-hop submissions this year. But whatever these guys have going on behind the meaning of their music, all I can say is that, sonically, it makes sense. SC/doublebookedrecords —Justin Roberts

Joe Arrasmith Joe Arrasmith

Joe! Do me a favor—take the clothespin off of your testicles. Now

CONTINUED ON PAGE 24

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 23

sing. That Owl City voice of yours is not going to win back these girls you’re whining about. You need to either find a style of music that embraces the high voice, or learn to lower it—because whining about love is never the answer. You’re an adept guitar player, and the caliber of plucking you’re capable of might lend itself well to country music.

SC/fuzzwalkman

their name and more.

—Seth Combs

Authentic Sellout Authentic Sellout

This is SoCal punk rock that sounds pretty much like every other band that ever rolled through Anaheim’s Doll Hut around the turn of the century. According to —Sammi Skolmoski their bio, Authentic Sellout started as a novelty act. That, ladies and gentlemen, is called leading with the chin. authenticsellout.com

Had these guys been around in the mid-’90s, post-Nirvana haze, they probably would’ve gotten a record deal. They have everything the labels were looking for: moody, guitar-driven alt-rock; songs with a lot of dynamics; tons of texturing; and a well-produced recording. However, they wouldn’t have lasted past two albums. All the songs sound the same, and they seem to be lacking in passion; besides, there were better bands playing this kind of music. It certainly doesn’t hold up these days, unless you’re feeling nostalgic and you want to get your sulk on. us.arrivealiveband.com —Aaron Carnes

As Obscure as Enoch Day One of Conquering the World

Grunge isn’t dead, or at least it isn’t for As Obscure As Enoch, whose punchy power-chord rockers hark back not to the halcyon days of Nirvana and Mudhoney, but the mid-’90s major-label clusterfuck that gave us Candlebox, Sponge and Seven Mary Three. Vocalist Gene O. Simmons (yes, his name is Gene Simmons) hams up his hunger-dunger-dang bellow to the point where his earnestnessto-the-extreme becomes a parody of itself. There aren’t too many bands doing this right now, but only because the ’90s have been over for 13 years. RN/jerrywarila

—Sammi Skolmoski

Bluebloodred “Little Wing”

This is a well-trafficked cover of a Jimi Hendrix song. Having previously been covered by Sting, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton and Skid Row, it’s nothing terribly new or novel. But Bluebloodred have chops, and they pull their take off with soul and instrumental prow—Jim Ruland ess. ms/bluebloodred

Arrive Alive Arrive Alive

worth taking yourselves seriously.

SC/blackwaat3r

Authentic Sellout Demo

Every punk band since the ’70s has done what this band is doing, and they’ve done it a thousand times better. There will always be a market for this more aggressive breed of pop-punk, but it’s anything but authentic. authenticsellout.com

—Jeff Terich

Bo Revere

Hellnote Presents: Lost Tapes Vol. 1 (The Beat Tape)

Samples and machine beats. No hooks, no frills. Really good for what it is. Maybe this could be the backing track of a great Ice Cube album, but it’s missing someone —Seth Combs or something to make it come together. The song on Side A of the cassette, which starts about 14 minutes in, could be someone’s hit Jester single. If you’re an MC and you’re Spacey and echoic, this 7-inch looking for a DJ, look this guy up. captivates the body and mind with hellnote.bandcamp.com punk-rock synesthesia. The buzz—McHank ing, electrifying undertones are bone-rattling. Choppy drums and droning vocals lead to a euphoric, pleasant sound attacking your Through my Hands ears in that “It hurts so good” kind As I listened to this album, the image of Jason Mraz wearing mom of way. beaters.bandcamp.com jeans at a roadhouse bar, minus the —Bethany Farrington bar fights, popped into my head. I could also imagine this playing in the background during a scene on The O.C., with Mischa Barton deTelegraphs EP If Coldplay and Fun. had weepy ciding whether or not she should sex and got each other preg- cry or go to a fraternity party. If nant, Belmont Lights would be you’re driving from SDSU to Pathe doe-eyed result. The band’s cific Beach to order some vodka arena-friendly histrionics aim and Red Bull, then this is the alfor “sweeping and cathartic,” but bum for you. robbondurant.com

Beaters

Rob Bondurant

Belmont Lights

—Bethany Farrington mostly sound unearned. Middleschool-diary poetry like “Oh, I wish she’d feel the same / So I don’t have to feel insane no more” doesn’t help matters any. belmontlights.

Nick Bone & the Big Scene —Jeff Terich bandcamp.com —Chris Maroulakos Nick Bone couldn’t give a damn what I write about his album. The swagger, the sleaze and debauchPooTao ery that waft out of this music is I’ll never know whether this was Waat3r for Fir3 that of a man who couldn’t care intended to sound like Alice in You know, if your computer’s “e” less about what some nerdlinger Chains jamming with the Magic key is broken, that’s a relatively thinks. His voice sounds grated Band (minus any of the talent) in- simple fix. Otherwise, please through years of cigar smoke side a toilet with the lid on. Look, promptly stop writing in the style and time spent in lowly, borderI’ve been accused in the past of of an 11-year-old AOL user. This town bars. There’s an intriguing being a little too quick to say that track, “Waat3r for Fir3” (ugh), menace to his Tiki-tinged blues certain demos sound like shit, or is really strong—soulful vocals, that’s simultaneously comical and crap, or the aural equivalent of a a strutting guitar riff and funky frightening, like a Rat Fink carskid mark, so even with song titles drum fills that keep my head bob- toon. There’s not much variation like “Sorry for the Poo” and the bing. Hey, the stupid spelling is to the songs, but the Big Scene is rather indicative album title, I’ll confusing your vibe and makes just say that Ass Clowns live up to me want to write you off. You’re CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

Ass Clowns

24 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

Nick Bone & the Big Scene

Black Waat3r

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 25

an incredibly tight backing band that can make the tunes burn.

—Ryan Bradford

Andrew Pittman

extraspecialgood

Brooklyn G Demo

Even before seeing Brooklyn G’s name on the CD, I got a kind of East Coast feel from these instrumental soundscapes. I pictured someone running from the police through dark alleys in a dense, murky city. Gritty samples and drum breaks are slowed down, sped up and glitched out at the beat conductor’s will. Distant words and occasional vocals show up without distracting from the beat. Different. Dirty. I dig it.

—Jesse Ross

Bogsey and the Argonauts Sampler Plate Special

Boom

Something Different A whimsical, rather spastic digital mixtape full of bumping beats that incorporate bloopy video-game sounds and pop-music samples that’ve been chopped to oblivion. Imagine Flying Lotus being shoved through a wood chipper of Negativland-style sound collage, and you’ll get the idea.

—Peter Holslin

Bruin

Thug-Wave Mix Tape Mash-ups are hard to review—it’s like critiquing a volume-control knob. But when they’re not mashing up tracks, Bruin deal in solid beats, seamless sampling and smooth-groovin’ pop. In-house guitar parts have been added to a lot of the tunes; they’re responsibly well-developed and make it difficult for electro-naysayers to cry unoriginality. Cool sound, but I’d like to see even more of their own sonic contributions start to eclipse the use of sampling in the next run. bruin.bandcamp.com —Sammi Skolmoski

Bruisecaster Bruisecaster

Finally! Here, all the universe’s greatest outsider interests have been rolled into one—Bogsey and the Argonauts. The subject matter of this punk-folk effort orbits tightly ’round science fiction without being kitschy or self(nerd)-deprecating. As a member of the forgotten social group known as geek-punks, I revel in this band’s sci-founded lyrics, which lend themselves swimmingly to the storytelling medium of folk music (see: filking). And yet I can also indulge in the instinctual need to shake my hair around to a punk song. They seamlessly pull off this intergalactic marriage of punk and folk through rapid-fire guitar licks, banjo shredding and sheer mandolin-sanity. The vocals are raw and absolutely honest. Songs like “Sci-Fi Movie Night” and “Not Today, You Mayan Bastards” nail another essential element of geek-punks—satire. Though intensely genuine, these songs exemplify that our kind speaks in snark. If we ever send out a Voyager 3 and a follow-up Golden Record, I nominate this one. bogseyandtheargonauts.bandcamp.com —Sammi Skolmoski

ic mix of ’50s-pop jingle-jangle and punk-rock snarl that’s been driving the indie kids wild lately. What they don’t have on this tiresome, sixsong EP is an ounce of charisma or a single catchy hook. If they spent less time getting ripped (see: the 7-second “Get Ripped”) and more time working on their songwriting, they might have something worthwhile. FB/buddybantermusic

26 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

Demo

A great little two-song set from a band that seems primed to take the next step. Lorelei Plotczyk’s vocals are perfectly suited for these nicely crafted pop tunes, and the rest of the band backs her with real chops. It’s well-paced and -executed indie rock from a —Peter Holslin four-piece to keep your eye on— especially if they can come up with an entire record that sounds like this. SC/bulletins

Buffalo Picnic

Meat and Cookies EP

Looking past the fact that the anDisco sludge. The sounds to accom- thropomorphic foodstuffs on the pany ancient sacrificial ceremonies cover of Buffalo Picnic’s Meat and as performed today by electro- Cookies kinda creep me out, the punks in their tin-trash-can se- band does a slick, if somewhat cret lairs. Death from Above-y, but awkward, mixture of ’90s-era altstranger. More akin to primal emis- rock. There’s pop-punk, there’s sions of filthy tribesmen than to ac- grunge, there’s ska and there’s nütual rock songs. My brain’s bruised metal—and that’s just in the first song, “Mr. Clock.” There are some in the best way. FB/bruisecaster —Sammi Skolmoski good songs, but when the band so clearly seems dialed in to 91X circa 1997, it’s hard to get past the dated sounds. Song titles like “RollBuddy Banter ercoastah!” don’t help. buffalo Another failed buzz-band in the picnic.bandcamp.com making, Buddy Banter has that iron—Jeff Terich

Buddy Banter

Bulletins

—Scott McDonald

Bully Blinders Kayakoy

I don’t know why there are separate tracks on this album. After giving this a listen, I bounced around the seven tracks in my music player, hitting random spots in each track, and it all sounded the same. That’s not to say it’s necessarily bad—you could do a lot worse than The xxlite atmospherics here. But why not create something a little less inconsequential? And since Bully Blinders are normally rappers, a disc of rudimentary instrumentals

seems a little lazy and half-baked. I guess there’s always a need for better Muzak, though. bullyblinders. bandcamp.com —Ryan Bradford

Butler

We Wanna Be Your Butler With their use of polyrhythms and time-signature changes, Butler leave little doubt as to their technical prowess. But if the mathrockers want to make music that’s enjoyable for anyone other than them, they’ll need to inject some heart and soul. As it stands, We Wanna Be Your Butler tries to rock hard but ends up rocking flaccid instead. SC/bandofbutlers

songs do not a punk band make.

They aren’t bad songs, they just feel forced, like this is Hollywood punk. The vocals are so much cleaner and louder than anything else in the mixes that the whole thing reads like recorded karaoke.

The singer (Epiphany, is it?) has the potential for a Jello Biafraesque style if she’d explore the weirder places her voice could go rather than just toss in cheesy guttural throat rolls at the end of every line. Don’t be afraid to sound ugly; it’s more genuine. RN/chicadiabla

Conceptus

conceptus.bandcamp.com —Hutton Marshall

Trebly Feelings

Conceptus’ folk-rock is undeniably catchy and polished—almost to the point of being robotic.

Their song structures, technical skill and production value certainly hint at maturity and dedication, but Trebly Feelings leaves one wanting more depth and exploration, especially when it comes to the lyrics. They’ve certainly got potential; the key is not worrying so much about —Sammi Skolmoski how they’ll market themselves.

Corna Boy Hustlaz (C.B.H. Starr Gang) Loud Pack

One of my pet peeves are rappers who make lazy, overly laid-back hip-hop. I’m not referring to the chill West Coast rappers; I mean those guys that barely exert the slightest effort: Tyga and Big Sean, for instance. Corna Boy Hustlaz are like the K-Mart version of Tyga, which means the one song

he sent irritated me instantly. Oh well, I’m sure he’ll do fine. This form of rap isn’t struggling to find an audience. RN/cornaboyhustlaz —Aaron Carnes

Corna Boy Hustlaz “Take a Shot”

This is a standard party jam.

The bass is mixed strangely and sounds like a tuba, which I actually like. Could do without the second verse’s burst of misogyny,

CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

—Chris Maroulakos

Caprice Strings Tango de Caprice

Classical strings, Parisian gypsy serenades, moody Turkish phrasings—this wedding-music combo gets plenty romantic on this CD. They’re a bit rough-and-tumble compared with the likes of Calder Quartet, of course, but if you’re wine-drunk at the reception, you’ll barely tell the difference. caprice strings.com —Peter Holslin

Castillo Demo

Enjoyable and poppy, if not wholly predictable rock en español in the vein of The Gipsy Kings and vintage Jaguares. I wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to them again, but I wouldn’t leave if they were playing live in a bar.

One suggestion, though: Lose the English-language choruses and hair-metal theatrics on tracks like “Stop Playing” and “Blind.” Stick with what you’re good at. castillo band.com —Seth Combs

Chemical Imbalance Chemical Imbalance

No liner notes, no song listing, possibly recorded on a boombox in the late ’80s. I think I hear long Dickies shorts and knee-high tube socks, a Charvel guitar overflowing with artificial harmonics, caged rack toms and a flanger on the vocals. If your favorite albums of all time are Suicidal Tendencies’ Join the Army and Excel’s The Joke’s On You, keep an eye on this band.

—McHank

Chica Diabla Chica Diabla

Writing songs that sound like punk

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 27

extraspecialgood Grind + Bare It

Lisa Miller

There’s almost no information to speak of about Grind + Bare It: This two-track demo lists only the song titles and a phone number, and there’s apparently nothing about this project online. But the mystery about him / her / them is part of what makes this throbbing electronic sleaze so intriguing. The first track, “It’s Over,” juxtaposes subtly ominous and vaguely licentious soundscapes with samples of sexually frank dialogue that climaxes in, well, sexual climax. But it’s not about overt stimulation as much as strangely alluring seduction.

Meanwhile, “Binary Space” offers a slightly different variation, with popcorn beats bubbling underneath haunting, ominous slices of bass and several subtle shifts in tempo. The end result is a porno-theater take on Andy Stott, or Flying Lotus gone Blade Runner. I don’t know who or what Grind + Bare It is, but I know I want to hear more.

but otherwise I know a lot of people who will probably get drunk to this song. FB/corna-boy-hustlaz —Sammi Skolmoski

Courtyard Roots Money Grip

So we meet again, Courtyard Roots.

This is the third year in a row that I’ve taken on these guys for the Demo Review, and I’ve come to respect them, if not exactly like them.

Offering an improvement on last year’s crummy rap-reggae-rock, they drop a number of half-decent raps and juicy grooves on this album, even marshaling some UFOstyle synth sounds for “Sit Back Rewind,” a near-perfect basementstoner jam. There are plenty of stinkers, too, but it’s not too shabby.

—Peter Holslin

Crooked Rulers Demo

The worst part about ’90s nostalgia and/or revivalism is that it took less than 20 years for any asshole with a guitar and a pedal to figure out it doesn’t take a shitload of talent to play like Dinosaur Jr., Archers of Loaf or Sebadoh.

These three songs made me want to either hang myself with a Fruit by the Foot or cut my wrist with a slap bracelet. But, hey, if you listened to any of the bands above, then Crooked Rulers has your number. FB/crookedrulers —Seth Combs

Crucial Blend Demo 2013

Crucial Blend’s eight-song demo

28 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

home to deserts, flowers, leather, harmonicas and reasonable song length. These songs, particularly “Nothing to Say” and “Head Up High (Shark Head),” could sit alongside any of the top-tier Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Brian Jonestown Massacre tunes in perfect reverb harmony. Peter Hayes’sideburns-approved. darkthirty. bandcamp.com —Sammi Skolmoski

Spud Davenport “I’m the Only One”

Gotta give Spud Davenport credit: On his earnest crush song “I’m the Only One,” he doesn’t rhyme “insane” with “brain.” He does, however, slur “I’m the Only One” about 87 times throughout the song, which quickly wears thin.

The song is catchy, the harmonica work by Dan Byrnes is impressive and the production is decent (if a —Jeff Terich little too crisp). Davenport could stand to lower his vocals in the should’ve been easy to hate. With mix; maybe that will help make their chillaxed stoner-brah vibe, the lyrical repetition less grating. reheated ’90s-ska sound and Cali- spuddavenport.com centric palm-tree cover art, Cru—T. Loper cial Blend court cliché like it’s an SDSU chick pounding 21st-birthday shots. But there’s something Pineal Gland about the band’s crisp, spacious production and airy vocals that I gathered that his name is slang turn songs like “Ring the Alarm” for San Diego, not from where we and “Amigos Con Beneficios” Italians were thinking. While Dayinto irresistible fun. crucialblend. go Dave has much further to go before his flow is as seamless as the bandcamp.com impressive guest artists featured —Chris Maroulakos on this 22-song mixtape, there are definitely some highlights. The prime jams are about weed, along LSD26 Made Cary Grant with bangers “Tiger” and “Murder This four-song demo literally Dance.” The sexist barks typical of broke my CD player in the middle this genre were relatively miniof Track 4. Yeah, the player was mal, but really needn’t be there at old, but I’d like to think that it was all. datpiff.com trying to tell me something around —Sammi Skolmoski Track 2 (“Orange U Glad”)—that there was only so much awful, burnout space-rock it could take.

Deep Blue Sea Unfortunately, I couldn’t hear my CD player’s wails of pain over Da As if the name didn’t give it away, Da’s jammy noodling and inept at- this is probably the schmaltziest tempts at singing. I’d use my disc adult-contemporary balladeering drive on my computer, but I’m I’ve heard in a long time. In the Carafraid my MacBook might also nival Cruise ship of my mind, the band’s guitarist is playing one of his break and/or get a contact high. epic solos right after we get strand—Seth Combs ed in the Gulf of Mexico, all while I eat onion sandwiches and shit into a plastic bag. Except the ship is also Demo sinking and the band just plays on.

A wistful collection of five oozy deepblueseaband.com grooves by some local psych—Seth Combs fiends, featuring members of Wild Wild Wets. The guitars are wet and wavy, the vocals smoothOfficially Official ly grainy, the drums smart and chunky, the vibes all killer. Fear Def Shon would be wise to reisnot, spacey-hippie haters—this is the accessible side of psych that’s CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

Daygo Dave

Da Da in Denial

Deep Blue Sea

Dark Thirty

Def Shon

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 29

sue this album under the title Official, a much more forceful title.

Redundancy aside, this is a fairly decent album of West Coast-style street rap, full of classy beats and memorable lines like this one: “I keeps it funky like James Brown taking a shit.” Easily the most memorable boast I’ve heard in a while. RN/defshon —Peter Holslin

Detta

Into the Green-Gold Morning Detta put forth a five-track EP of accommodating instrumental rock that feels like it’s on the edge of something amazing. I hate to say it, because I appreciate a good instrumental album, but what this trio might need is a modest dose of staunch, unshakable vocals thrown into the mix. The result could very well be awe-inspiring. dettatheband.com —Justin Roberts

Dexter Riley Xperiment Dexter Riley Xperiment

I can’t take a man seriously if he spells “experiment” with a capital X. But there’s a lot of good stuff on this mini-album, from the rubbery blues-rock clank of “Left Leg Drag” to the blazing pop of “Aviette” to the cosmic folk of “Snake Bite for Jesus.” There’s Tom Waits and Beck vibes all around, but Dex has a style all its own. Keep it up, but please consider a name change. FB/dexriley —Peter Holslin

Cassidy Diane Cassidy Diane

one who’s involved in it, or what they’re trying to promote as a specific current release. Daniel “Too Dope” Diaz is at the front and is involved in all the one-off collabs here. The whole thing needs to be a bit more streamlined, but there’s enough to start paying attention.

FB/dmndzent —Scott McDonald

Doug K

Time Ravages Time Ravages offers a sensitive spin on surf-influenced easy listening. Appropriately, its safe grooves are reflected in its cover: a sadlooking pelican alone at the beach.

Aside from lame cover art, it’s clear Doug K puts a lot of himself into these recordings. His Bowieesque guitar work works well, too.

He just needs to upgrade from the drum machine and lay off the borrowed Beatles hooks. RN/dwk —Hutton Marshall

The Drabs Ponto

David Bernat’s distinct, Lou Reedesque vocals might feel contrived at times, but as he sings over the band’s pop-rock melodies, they give this album an unconventionally gratifying sound. The track “Record Collection” is one fucking fun song, with its Louis XIVlike spit-spoken lyrics: “I need your record collection / because I need to get high.” CityBeat ended up getting duplicate copies of this album, and music editor Peter Holslin finds it profoundly unremarkable (“Boooooooring!” he says). I, on the other hand, think The Drabs have more than just a little aptitude for this music thing, and I wouldn’t mind hearing what comes next from them. tinyurl. com/bz8roob

Eddie Dougherty I Might Be A Dog

I Might Be A Dog, essentially a hyperactive child’s wet dream, is a string of choppy, arrhythmic guitar chords underneath mostly indiscernible lyrics. But look! A lyrics cheat sheet was provided for my curious mind! After following along through each of the mind-numbing songs, I realized how much better they’d have been without knowing what the hell Dougherty was prattling on about. One interesting thing about Dougherty: One of his latest “liked” items on Facebook is a, um, “band” called Carly Rae Jepsen Sex Tape. Cute. You might want to hire a better PR manager, dear sir. FB/eddie.dougherty1 —Justin Roberts

Dub Sutra

The Rise of Downtempo Dub Sutra want to make music that’s “perfect for chill, yoga, lounge and moving meditation,” and their new album, The Rise of Downtempo, definitely fits that bill. Songs like “Ascentia” and “Buffalo Dance” are cinematic but amorphous enough to suit any mood. The steamy guitar on “Electric Slide” feels as suited for doggy-style as it does downwardfacing dog, but judging by the awkward nude yoga on the LP’s artwork, that might be exactly what the husband-and-wife duo had in mind. dubsutra.bandcamp.com —Chris Maroulakos

Sharon DuBois Here I Am

This breed of mostly bland elevator jazz hits my ear in the same way a thick, chalky, liquid antacid would hit my tongue if I were dy—Justin Roberts ing of thirst. The music has fewand-far-between expressive moments, but more often causes my index finger to fondle the “next “We All In” track” button on my CD player.

Dre the Fifth’s Bay Area heritage Curiously, in one of DuBois’ less is apparent from the first hit of tone-deaf ditties, she repeatedly the kick drum on this single. An and somewhat frantically nameauthentically hyphy beat accom- checks Dick Cheney and Donald panies Dre’s polished, E-40 / Mac Rumsfeld. I’m just thankful she Dre-inspired vocals. The obliga- didn’t do that during her 52-sectory references to Henny, Remy, ond sex jam, “Seduction.” sharon Patron, being “all in the club,” dubois.com 20-inch rims and Mac Dre are all —Justin Roberts there, so he’s got his bases cov—Justin Roberts ered. Throw in the feature from the garden-variety singer on the hook, and you have an average Bay Demo Area club banger that sparks just Looks like San Diego has a killer Demo enough interest to wonder what new folk band. With its homespun This is a new San Diego hip-hop else he’s got. i80media.com melodies, boy-girl vocal harmocollective, and for the uniniti—Jesse Ross ated, it’s difficult to discern everyCONTINUED ON PAGE 32 17-year-old Cassidy Diane shows herself to be a talented vocalist, albeit slightly Auto-Tuned, in demo opener “Beautiful Design.”

Co-written by local music heavyweights Bryan Stratman and Astra Kelly, Cassidy’s demo pushes her ahead of the pack in the race to become San Diego’s next breakout female pop star. Though it’s difficult to determine from these three tracks where Cassidy’s musicianship ends and where that of her co-writers begins, it’s safe to say she’s well on her way to building a successful career in our arguably crowded local music scene. cassidydiane.com

DMNDZ ENT.

30 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

Dre the Fifth

Ed Ghost Tucker

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 31

nies and lush arrangements, this five-song demo is as welcoming as a well-worn La-Z-Boy. “Swans” is the obvious highlight, full of bracing guitar and glorious vocal parts, but opener “Anyone” is lovely and infectious, and “Virginia Woolf” has some classy lounge guitar. If only more bands were as versatile and surprising as Ed Ghost Tucker. FB/ edghosttucker

post-punk / post-surf genre that’s come to characterize San Diego’s indie-rock scene in the last three years. But while other bands— such as New Mexico and Mrs. Magician—have made that heavydistortion style something worthy of the national stage, Fake Book sounds a little all-ages to me, or, at best, an opening act. fakebook. bandcamp.com

—Peter Holslin

—Dave Maass

—Seth Combs

Friend of a Friend Coldhead Full EP

There is a good deal I like about this little EP: It’s a bit of a minimalist approach to new-wavy ’80s pop, and, at certain points, sounds like a young American version of Phoenix. If Friend of a Friend can build on their strengths (particularly their keen sense of melody and solid vocal delivery) and avoid the spots where they fall into some pitfalls of predictable, radiofriendly rock, they might truly have something special. Even after a fourth listen, I still want to overlook the shortcomings.

Blaze Eisner

Far from Ya Average

Is it just me, or is Blaze Eisner just begging for somebody to smash his acoustic guitar? With this stale, neutered EP of all-American folk music, the singer-songwriter might as well just take a shit right on Bob Dylan’s head. I’m particularly appalled by “The Way it Goes,” a cynical political ballad in which Eisner strings together a bunch of clichés (“Everybody wants a piece of the action / everybody’s got their hand in the bowl”) and throws up his hands in surrender (“That’s the way it goes”).

Barf! blazeeisner1.bandcamp.com

As decent as this 76-minute hiphop record is, it’s only slightly above average. The beats are solid, and several MCs featured have nice flows and fresh rhymes. But the beats also sound like they were made with factory presets, and there are some really bad lines, like “You’re gonna get served good ’n’ plenty / And we can go 24 —Jackson Milgaten hours like a Denny’s” in the latenight sex jam “Me & You.” Yeah, because Denny’s is so sexy. RN/ Don’t Call Me Chocolate EP farfromyaaverage —Peter Holslin The first track eased into my ears with a mellow, dulcet groove, but was quickly interrupted by an irritating din that pierced through “Summer Sand” the smooth foundation. RememIt’s easy to imagine Gilchrist play- ber when Jim Carrey offers up ing solo to friends sitting around a the most annoying sound in the beach bonfire. The night sky, cold world in Dumb and Dumber? sand, bare feet and ripped jeans That’s the one. The EP only gets are all there in the acoustic guitar, worse from there, descending violin and Gilchrist’s quirky vo- deep into a valium-heavy, dubstep cals. Unfortunately, so is the influ- / hip-hop hellhole. fuckparade. ence of Dave Matthews. fighting bandcamp.com withirons.com —Justin Roberts

American Spirit

Stage Crasher... The LP

—Peter Holslin

The Electrocarpathians Cafe Bego

There’s nothing quite like some plucky Eastern European folk tunes to get you feeling nostalgic for the old country. The Electrocarpathians bring all the fixin’s on this CD—accordion drones, bouzouki flourishes, clarinet and trumpet melodies, even their own take on “Koroboushka,” the madcap Russian folk song made famous on Tetris. tinyurl.com/ckmf9dx —Peter Holslin

Elektric Monk Veer

Think suburban Midwest block party—your friend’s dad, who really loves U2, is jamming with his high-school buddies next to a parked F-150, drinking Bud Light.

Sounds fun, right? This collection comes complete with a whole song dedicated to their band name (“Elektric Monk, Elektric Monk, Elektric Monk”), entire verses consisting of the sound “oh oh oh oh oh” and a painful acoustic number.

But with enough beer and some delicious barbeque, you could be convinced to stick around for a bit.

Maybe. elektricmonk.com —Natalie Jacobs

Fake Book

Sea Turtles Rising Fake Book fits squarely into the

32 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

further prove that a guy with a MIDI keyboard and a Macbook is even more soulless than the guy with the acoustic guitar thinking he’s gonna be the next Bob Dylan.

Fuck Parade

Fighting with Irons

—T. Loper

The Flowerthief Natural Selection

Future You Meant to Be

It might be The Flowerthief’s mix of honesty, vulnerability and irony that forces me to crack a smile against my will. With song titles like “Teeny Bopper Baby,” “Cowboy Song” and “La La (Singalong),” it’s deliberately tongue-incheek, embarrassingly so—corny in its irony. I like that. The music is simple and consistently off-kilter, for which I also have a soft spot.

They play different rock variations: country-rock, alt-rock, ’60s rock. But it’s always rooted in that good ol’ fashioned rock ’n’ roll. theflowerthiefmusic.tumblr.com

Between Portland and Brooklyn, there are plenty of guys in western shirts making dreamy, wistful, teary-eyed indie-pop, but Future You add a worthy contribution to the mix. Here, the five-piece group elegantly balances the reverb-laden balladry of My Morning Jacket with stunning slide surf guitar à la Santo and Johnny. The world may not necessarily need another sad-bastard indie-pop group. But with strong songwriting; sublime, heady arrangements; and a whiff of romanticism, Future You is one worth keeping around. futureyou. bandcamp.com

—Aaron Carnes

—Jeff Terich

Forbidden Image

Garbo

Thanks to the mainstreaming of “EDM,” this kind of half-baked electro schmaltz will only become more prevalent. Two individual tracks, both equally incompetent,

Garbo describe themselves as Americana. Really, they’re a bar band, playing roots-rock and ’70s classic rock. They’d be great to see if you were having a drink at

Demo

4 Song Demo

Jessica Sledge

some dive somewhere in Central California, or if you were at an arts-and-crafts fair on a Sunday afternoon. They’re solid in their execution, so, as long as these guys know they’re just playing generic bar music, I say more power to them. RN/garbomusic

extraspecialgood

demo, they bang out some good ol’ fashioned boogie-woogie, honkytonk and electric blues, ratcheting up the tempos and pulling off wicked solos. Songs like “North Park Gal” and “Shady Ladies” are a tad corny, but you don’t see me complaining. jimmyfamous.com

—Aaron Carnes

—Peter Holslin

G-Code

Hapizzez

G-Code is made up of vets from what some have deemed San Diego’s hip-hop Golden Age, during the days of The Underground Improv open mic. The experience definitely shows in the rappers’ solid rhymes, especially on the knowledge-kicking “Wake Up Time.” Their attempts at making songs for the club fall short, though, with uninspired hooks and beats. When they stick to boombap and raw rap, they’re golden.

Pseudo-conscious rapper over supremely unspectacular beats.

Some might find his lyrics uplifting and inspirational, but the political and religious references seem forced and confined within a done-to-death cadence. For a rapper boasting superior word play (as you hear on “Dancing”), he seems stuck in elementary rhyme schemes: “I may be a liar / But I speak the truth / Sometimes you get lost / When you lose your roots.”

Way to say absolutely nothing, buddy. hapizzez.bandcamp.com

Demo

—Quan Vu

Generik

Sweaters in the Summer Solid beat-boxing, on-point versespitting and abstract psy-fly / hiphop rhythms come together to make one of the more interesting demos I’ve heard this year. Generik (aka Jonaire’) delivers lyrics whose meaning isn’t immediately evident. Often, though, obscure words make for a more alluring piece of art, which Sweaters most certainly is. FB/generikLNC —Justin Roberts

Gone Baby Gone Demo

GBG’s bio says their main focus is “to have fun,” and they deliver on that promise. Every one of these throwback rockers seems out for a good time, while frontwoman Dizzy ties the whole thing together with her easy swagger. Though the quartet’s still unproven, it’ll be interesting to see if their upcoming EP can take them to the next level. RN/gonebabygonemusic

Island Boy EP What is chillwave (or glo-fi or coldwave or—) if not a modernday update of a John Hughes movie soundtrack? Whatever genre classifications are cleverly coined to describe the sound, it seems there’ll always be a market for synthy teenage symphonic odes to God or underage sex or pharmaceutical drugs, or whatever. This local duo would’ve done well had they released this EP two years ago, when everyone was freaking out about chillwave bands like Neon Indian and Washed Out. But the sentiments on this EP—and, more importantly, the music—are timeless. The music-video treatment runs through the listener’s mind throughout the opening track, “On the Rise”: The broken-hearted girl jumping into the back of a friend’s car and going somewhere, anywhere dark, so she can just dance and hope nobody notices her mascara running. The other two tracks, the danceably forlorn “Heart Attack” and the suitably named “Unrequited TV Love,” are just as catchy, with frontman Richard Hunter-Rivera bemoaning wasted days and waiting for that special someone to call. Hopefully she didn’t, because these guys have a lot to offer and, sad as it is to say, no good song ever came out of the girl calling you back. islandboyandgirl.net —Seth Combs

GMG

dannygreen.net

Look, even borderline doofs like Cypress Hill can pepper their albums with mentions of money and bitches. So why can’t these guys, who are otherwise capable MCs, talk about anything but weed for nine tracks? Fuck it; one man’s schwag is another man’s Purple Kush, so if you really like weed (I mean, really like weed), then this album has some appealing beats (“Smokin’ All Day”), solid flows (the Lissie-sampling “Hands on the Wheel”) and more mentions of “hydro,” “high” and “blaze” than a Humboldt State dorm room. day goproduce.bandcamp.com

H.Wood-Fos (Fosta Child)

Free Fosta Child

There are great rappers, terrible rappers and just-OK rappers.

H.Wood-Fos falls into the OK category. Being OK in hip-hop is a death sentence. H.Wood-Fos’ songs are packed with clichés about how much he grinds and hustles and is serious about this rap game. It’s exhausting. If you’re going to be pure bravado, you —Scott McDonald should at least be creative with phrasing. “Thanks God I’m Me” starts off kind of strange, but then —Seth Combs Make an Appointment with he quickly reverts to just thankDisappointment ing God he grinds and hustles the way he does. Yawn. RN/thereal This is some pretty swell lo-fi fostachild slacker-rock, and I can’t help but A Thousand Ways Home think that, had it been heard by Some jazz-by-numbers with ele—Aaron Carnes the right ears around the time it ments of bossa nova and classical was recorded (2005, according to music. Nice enough if that’s your the CD sleeve), it would’ve gotten thing, but mostly it sounds like Demo both local and national attention. something you’d hear on the way If they’re not together anymore, into some bourgeois gala or play- Hands Down South might just be then I’m thinking some reunion ing over an iPhone while on hold the ideal house band—the one in gigs are in order. with a credit-card company—al- Road House or the one Downtown.

Either way, in this solid, four-track —Seth Combs beit a cooler credit-card company.

The Goomies

Danny Green

Hands Down South

Heavy Empire

The verses on this single pay homage to the band’s ’80s European influences: They rely on the guy with the cool accent and add a straightforward but dark-andstormy guitar-drum interplay.

But the weird breakdown in the chorus is uncomfortably ’90s altrock—it’s trying too hard to serve as an anthem for the NRA. RN/ heavyempire —Natalie Jacobs

Hello Penelope

Hello Penelope EP

Built to Spill, part deux. Fun, washy indie tunes that are the musical equivalent of corduroy pants. “California Sinking” is a Folk Rockin’ Blues catchy whirl that borrows vibes Taking cues from old-school San from Pixies. Perfect for those of us Diego rockers like Joey Harris and stuck in the ’90s, as well as sensiCountry Joe Montana, HarpCo tive dudes with beards and Doug dish out down-home acoustic bal- Martsch. FB/hellopenelope lads with tons of heart. This five—Sammi Skolmoski song demo might be low on polish and shine, but that makes it all the more endearing. RN/harpco —Jesse Ross

HarpCo

John Henry

—Peter Holslin —Seth Combs

Dispensary Music

—Natalie Jacobs

“Shoot, Shoot, Shoot”

Breaking the Mask

Island Boy

’cause accents are hot. The Tikistyle guitar riffs on “Empty Tables” are neat, but I could do without the synthesized, repeating vocals. “Shot Gun Device” is straight-up dead weight. The other two are forgettable. RN/heavyempire

Chris Hassett

This I Promise You

That Ain’t Me

John Henry announces at the beginning of “That Ain’t Me”: “This is what the city’s been waiting for.”

Based on the sound of the track, he must think we’ve been waiting to go Dirty South. The vibe brings to mind a variety of other MCs —T.I., Gucci Mane, UGK—but never quite lives up to any of them. Let’s talk when there’s a “What You Know” or “International Player’s Anthem” in the MC’s future.

This is the type of easy-listening piano-pop they’d play at a rest home for 70- and 80-something couples. The silver-haired folks would sway to Hassett’s crooning vibrato, because it almost reminds them of Elvis’ more terrible ballads. Even though their hearing aids likely wouldn’t be able to pick —Jeff Terich up the progressive references, like “Earl’s haunches would make the cowboys swoon” on “I Wanna Feel the Heat,” it’d still be endearing. Heart of a Clown Johnny High-Hat could be your chrishassett.com —Andrew Scoggins dad. He’s a local country crooner who’s produced an album of respectable covers, including “Route 66.” As dads are wont to do every C’mon! Just Take One now and then, High-Hat apparThere’s nothing heavy about this ef- ently needed to flex his musical fort: It’s mellow alt-rock to the max, muscle, and he and his rootsy band with no risks and no rewards. Ap- would make anybody’s heart melt parently, the band is based here, but with their steel guitar. These guys four of the five members are from may never make it big in the music elsewhere. Someone sounds British world, but I’ll bet they don’t give a on “She Wanted Love,” and he’s try- hoot about popularity. It appears ing really hard to be as cool as Rob- the crew behind Heart of a Clown ert Smith, but he doesn’t quite make it. Still, there’s potential in that one, CONTINUED ON PAGE 34

Johnny High-Hat

Heavy Empire

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 33

—Justin Roberts

Idyll Wild “Polyken”

“Polyken” is a dark, neo-goth indie-rock song. For the first minuteand-a-half, it builds from a mellow, “Jean Marie,” “California atmospheric section with wordless Sun,” “Eyeball Skeleton” vocal-swells—which is my favorite I was going to write about all the part—to an amphitheater-friendly, ways that the repetitive, barely co- drum-pounding rock tune, which herent “Jean Marie” is a disgrace oddly loses steam real quick. They to pot smokers everywhere, and were already riding the “Is it too how “California Sun” would make dramatic?” line pretty closely, but sense only as the soundtrack to a in a good way. Once those drums cheesy dance party on Saved by kick in, they tip over into melodrathe Bell, but then “Eyeball Skel- ma, and not in the good Morrissey eton” came on and I told myself way. idyllwild.bandcamp.com to shut up. With his weird voice, —Aaron Carnes Hines channels Ariel Pink, Lux Interior and Fred Schneider. And all the psych-rock instrumentals he’s been trying so hard to mimic Demo come together expertly on this There’s some promise on this eightsong. He’s best when his goofi- song demo, even if it starts by channess is balls-to-the-wall. Now, let’s neling the worst parts of Coldplay and grunge balladry. After Track 3 dance until our eyeballs fall out.

—Natalie Jacobs (no song titles included), the band jumps from genre to genre like it ain’t no thing and seems more than capable of creating some clever The Humble Crab indie-pop and Elvis Costello-style Has Spoken ballads. The singer could dial down Vocal and guitar harmonies paint the earnestness at times and maybe a chill, seaside picture of buy- take a writing class, but there’s poing Hummers, getting “Astro- tential here. smashed” and carrying a cheese—Seth Combs burger in your fanny pack. Using beach-bum vernacular, The Humble Crab expresses a range of emotion, from “harsh” to “bum- Stay Awhile mer” to, well, drunk. He may not If you’ve ever experienced bland have the best voice or guitar skills, dad-rock in some dingy restaurant but I’ll be damned if he doesn’t or bar with a couple of drunken have heart. Even at their most silly 40-year-old housewives dancing and immature, his songs are witty to it, you know exactly what Isam and entertaining. My personal Rand sounds like. Clichéd lyrics favorite? “(Girl) Your Shit is Gar- like, “She said you’ve got to live evbage (Girl),” a tune just waiting to ery moment / You’ve got to love like be put on a spiteful breakup mix. you’ve never been hurt / You’ve got Go forth, Humble Crab, and tell to dance like no one is watching,” the world of your sun-baked, ciga- make me want to die. But I guess if rette-scented, beer-battered glory. these guys have been going for this —Jesse Ross long, there’s no reason to stop now.

Get those cougars, gentlemen!

Rick Hines

IMA

The Humble Crab

Isam Rand

iD the Poet

—Andrew Scoggins

Instrumentals vol. 2-4: LOGOS, ETHOS, EROS

fuckin hard, and if you saw him sitting on the fuckin curb singing his fuckin songs, ya’ll might throw 35 fuckin cents into his Styro-fuckinfoam cup. But if you actually fuckin stuck around for a few fuckin minutes and heard his lyrics—”I give you almost everything / Not enough / Still you want to take all my stuff / You’re a bitch / You annoy me like an itch”—you’d realize that Johnny Fuckin Reese is a fuckin dick. The saving fuckin grace of his four-song demo is that all the fuckin tracks were recorded on a fuckin Tascam four-track recorder for ya’ll fuckin analog nerds.

—Dave Maass

Luke Andrew Johnson Wrote You a Song

Johnson’s songwriting is a good balance of earnestness, country melancholy and humor, and he usually manages to avoid cliché. Violin, organs and sparse drums are a nice touch, too. Johnson and his band just need to find a style of their own, because Dawes is already doing the Jackson Browne-knockoff thing.

RN/lukeandrewjohnson

—Quan Vu

34 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

Band in Amerikkka If you only knew about National City through press releases, you’d note with amusement that the home of the Mile of Cars is also the region’s “Most Walkable” city.

What the propaganda leaves out is that National City also leads the county in violent crime. For that info, you’d need to turn to Old English rappers Saviorself and Nothin’less, whose latest record inspires images of a Belfast-level urban war zone. Featuring guest vocals from Gonjasufi and what sounds like a naughty bass line ripped from The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” Band in Amerikkka is a triumph of dystopic hip-hop, with a little something for gang-bangers and white-boy Rage Against the Machine fans alike. oe1904.bandcamp.com —Dave Maass

singer-songwriter thing nailed.

With a bevy of worthy inspirations behind him, it won’t be long before he learns to use them effectively. For now, it feels a bit like a work in progress, despite multiple stretches of deadpan niceness. But with a healthy dose of recreational drugs and/or Jeffrey Lewis records, I think Laguna could really —Alfred Howard be onto something. chrislaguna. bandcamp.com

Corey Johnston

Grave / Low on Cash

I’ll assume that it’s coincidental that this guy shares a surname with Daniel Johnston and sounds almost exactly like Daniel Johnston. The weird sampling and electronic textures on Grave are a nice touch, and on Low on Cash, Corey does Eels almost as well as Eels does itself, but there’s nothing on either of these discs that weirdoes like Daniel, Mark Everett or Jeff Mangum haven’t already covered.

Just in Case

Greg Kester

—Scott McDonald

Balance EP

I have no idea what Greg Kester looks like. The pictures on his Bandcamp page are of a pastoral sunset and a full moon. But if he looks anything like Bret Michaels, dude could easily give up his own gig and start a Poison cover band.

Their voices just sound so unnervingly similar. Then again, he could —Seth Combs just lie in wait: I’ve heard Michaels has some health problems. gregkester.bandcamp.com

Demo

Kinetic Circus “7 Off”

With its big riffs, driving beat and fist-pumping lyrics, this six-anda-half-minute single sounds like something out of a cheesy Broadway musical about teenage punks living in the ’80s. Except guitarist Brian Davis has trouble keeping on beat and singer Yolonda Johnston —Peter Holslin is a bit rusty, so more like off-offBroadway. FB/kineticcircus

Jonathan Karrant On and On

Lake Reflector

There are some halfway decent ideas floating around in these lofi / bedroom instrumentals. Unfortunately, they’re all in such a rudimentary state, any chance of an overall coherency—or a translatable identity for that matter—seems impossible. Hopefully, these songs will serve as very rough demos for a more complete —Scott McDonald vision somewhere down the line.

SC/lkrl

Demo

Jazz Domingo

Johnny Fuckin Reese Ya’ll

Old English

Bishop’s “On and On” is mellifluous and busy, yet tasteful. But the music lacks even the slightest edge of originality. It would sound at home in a Miami hotel lobby, perfect for when you lock eyes with that love—T. Loper ly post-cougar and your mind plays out exactly what you’re gonna do after your Matlock hot-tub session. jonathankarrant.com Better Start Digging Your

Just when I thought pop-punk had died off for good, Just in Case came along to haunt my dreams.

Covered in Jazz Whatever goodwill this band gains It’s kind of impossible to tell much with its rocking, At the Drive-Inof anything from these three songs. style riffs it soon squanders by Clocking in at just under nine min- letting a whiny frontman sing his utes (premature ejazzulation?), poor little heart out over some anything brewing here is long gone background singer’s totally obbefore it even really starts. jazzdo- noxious, totally clichéd screams. mingo.bandcamp.com RN/justincaseofficial

Each project in iD the Poet’s instrumentals series focuses on a different theme related to its classical Greek name. LOGOS, representing order and knowledge, has a strong Asian influence, I guess because Asians are benignly stereotyped as extremely disciplined and wise.

ETHOS, representing fundamental —Scott McDonald values and character, explores hiphop’s roots in funk, gospel, reggae and jazz. EROS interestingly portrays love as a battlefield. The projects are conceptually cohesive, Demo but they’re more intellectual than Hey, ya’ll, this fuckin guy can groovy. idthepoet.bandcamp.com fuckin strum a fuckin guitar really

extraspecialgood

RSI

just wanted to have fun. Mission accomplished. johnnyhigh-hat.com

Chris Laguna

—Scott McDonald

Landis

Landis EP

You know how when you’re listening to a really cool metal band like Opeth or Porcupine Tree, and they just throw in some epic Renaissance Fair-style romantic ballad, and you’re all, like, “What the fuck, man?! I was just about to throw up my devil horns and yell at that hip—Peter Holslin pie!” Well, imagine an entire foursong EP of that kind of emo melodrama and you’re getting close to the sound of Landis. The booker

Everything about this music is done correctly. The players are excep- The Cycle tional, the vocals proficient and the Laguna’s only 21, and he has the guitar solo in the cover of Stephen

CONTINUED ON PAGE 36

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 35

of SOMA would probably jizz over found out that it wasn’t. Listening this band. FB/landismusic all the way through is like walk—Seth Combs ing across a desolate wasteland as Weird Al describes the scenery to the tune of “My Sharona.” It hurts. michaeldavidlewis.com

Lazy Cobra

No Horizons

This is just the sludge-metal cup of coffee I needed this morning.

Lazy Cobra’s riffs are as heavy as fat Val Kilmer after a free Vegas buffet. Singer Joshua Zinn screams in such a way that I’m going to go ahead and preemptively diagnose him with vocal nodes: Try some throat-coat tea as you whisper hoarsely through your day job, Joshua. All in all, I’m sold.

Also, I don’t want to slam them ’cause they sound perfectly willing to stab someone in an alley at night. FB/lazy.cobra.1

Scott Lingner

LoveMason

Occasioni Musicali

Scott Lingner’s ambitious solo project is excessively abstract, noodly and hard to follow, but that doesn’t mean he’s a lost cause. Songs like “Across the Sea” and the album’s title track show that he’s an inspired songwriter and musician. Lingner just needs a little help from his friends. Get some bandmates and enlist their help in distilling these 14 ideas into five solid songs. scot—Alfred Howard tlingner.bandcamp.com

Michael David Lewis

alt-country sadness centered on frontwoman Heidi Mason’s extrasappy lyrics (“You are not just my night fire / You are more than my bright star / You are my life-giving sun / You are the only one”). That’s probably pretty flattering for who—Natalie Jacobs ever’s on the receiving end, but the sentimental overdose is a bit much. That said, the crisp guitar licks and thick layers of Hammond I’m Over It organ make the lyrics go down a The “Mason” in LoveMason is little easier. lovemason.com singer-songwriter Heidi Mason, —Jeff Terich whose style can evoke anything from slow-burning alt-country à la Neko Case to adult-contemporary pop. “Words Obscure the Truth” Demo follows the awkward opening line, I’m going to let Lunarray speak “You’re awesome / I love you,” and for themselves on this one: “At the track picks up into a subdued the moment the mixes only have rocker in the vein of The National. guitar and drums. Bass and vocals A little all over the place, some- will be added soon, but we figtimes the EP works, sometimes ured it was better to send someit doesn’t. The professionalism is thing in rather than nothing.” It’s there, but it’s a little too slick—get- a halfway decent start, fellas, but ting a little grittier might do this a folded piece of bread does not a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich band some good. lovemason.com —Jeff Terich make. SC/lunarray

vocalist arrives at some distorted R.E.M.-meets-Live fork in the road.

The drummer is stuck in quicksand, barely keeping his own rhythm, let alone anyone else’s. None of it makes any sense together—or apart, —Andrew Scoggins really. tinyurl.com/bgpd2qu

—T. Loper

Headin’ North: A Rock Opera

Lost on Our Way

I thought a rock opera about a man called “The Protagonist” trying to find God would be at least a little interesting. After 38 minutes and 33 seconds of nasally, static melodies, some sort of ’80s drum kit pounding out repetitive, stale beats and a countless number of underwhelming wah-wah solos, I

The band name pretty much sums it up: It sounds like the members have never met, and they’re actually walking through isolated time warps, carrying their respective instruments and antiquated tape recorders. The guitarist’s path brings him to hair-metal heaven. The

Assembly Line

36 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

Lunarray

LoveMason

“The Perihelion”

Lunitorpia

has a penchant for the bizarre.

This aptly titled EP sounds as if it were broadcast from another planet, with eerie bits of theremin emerging through heavy squeals of noise-rock guitar. It’s not that the three-track set doesn’t groove—“2C Hummingbirds,” in particular, is a hypnotically tasty slice of exotic space-age dub. But the title track sends Nath’s spacecraft soaring into the outermost cosmos, as rhythms and melodies barely maintain any semblance of organization or synchronicity. Apparently, there’s plenty of bad acid on the moon. SC/lunitorpia —Jeff Terich

M&M Blues

Blues Will Never Die

You know that scene in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure when he’s riding on the train with the singing / sardine-eating hobo and everything is cool until the guy starts singing “Jimmy Crack Corn”? And then he just keeps singing it until —Scott McDonald Pee Wee can’t take it anymore and jumps off the train? Yeah, me too.

SC/m-567/sets/blues-will-neverdie-long-live

“The Perihelion” is just a single, How to Save Home comprising three minutes and 47 Planet EP seconds of slow, weepy, waltzing Lunitorpia’s Carlos Nath clearly

—Scott McDonald

extraspecialgood Adam Powell

Stark in the Dark

Chelsea Powell

Who released my favorite Adele cover in recent memory? Why Adam Powell did, that’s who. And he even claims to have recorded it in the buff. More importantly, the other three songs on 2011’s Totally Stripped and Ill Equipped are pretty darn good, too (I reviewed it for this issue last year). Flash-forward to his latest, and things still seem to be going quite well. Even though it’s only three lightning-quick tunes, the likeable, original ditties on 2012’s Stark in the Dark are as catchy and interesting as ever. Alongside Powell’s collaborative 2011 full-length, the lovely Adams and Eves, this singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist has amassed a nice little pile of pleasantly crafted songs. Let’s all hope no one ever forces him to put on pants. adampowell.bandcamp.com —Scott McDonald

Macy

seriously. The whole thing is ultra lo-fi, seemingly ready to fall apart Demo at any moment and snotty to the Listening to this demo, it’s hard point of ridiculousness (sample to get past the feeling that singer- lyric: “There is no God / And if songwriter Eric Macy McClana- there is, he’s a dick”). McClanahan isn’t taking his music all that han sounds like he’s having fun, at

Malevolence

ening,” in which the British lady who lives inside my GPS bemoans a lack of independent thought in our society. Unfortunately, independent thought seems to be absent from much of this EP, with —Peter Holslin most of Sanford’s lyrics relying on easy political observation. The best track is “Last to Say,” a personal story about growing up with Mascara Monsters domestic violence. More like that, Mascara Monsters describe them- please. tinyurl.com/alx24d9 selves as “electronic love punk.”

—T. Loper They have an unnecessary surplus of Die Antwoord pictures on their Tumblr page. They clearly long for the days when pornographic Au Revoir hi-NRG acts like Lords of Acid The first track starts with a womreigned supreme. This is essen- an having an unconvincing ortially four obnoxious, beat-driven, gasm over sparse drum programsadomasochistic, minimal takes ming and some Halloween-style on the dirty-disco Peaches already slasher-movie piano. Then, the covered a decade ago. I’m not sure MC bids “Au revoir to the game.” if this is supposed to be sexy—I Seems we’re in for some classic don’t even know what lyrics like self-bolstering rap, but the record “Fuck me up / Fuck me down” are takes a sharp left on the second supposed to mean—but it sure is track, as a reverb-drenched guitar that’d work on a Thurston Moore bratty. SC/mascaramonsters —Jeff Terich record leads the charge. The album is filled with surprises; not all of them work, but it makes for an interesting listen. maal.band Evolution camp.com “Rap/punk/political” artist MC —Alfred Howard Reason (Kyle Sanford) kicks off his EP with “Prelude to Awak-

video game. Marco Polo might need a bigger budget and a live drummer to really take their music to another level, but they’ve got enough pomp —Jeff Terich and charm to woo me as it is. SC/ marcopoloband

least, but this demo’s ramshackle, jokey nature makes it seem not quite ready to be heard by the public at large. MS/macygetsmeracy

Cool As the Other Side of the Pillow As Gangstarr’s Guru once said, it’s mostly the voice. Malevolence raps in a glorious rasp that’s like a hybrid of David Banner’s indignant drawl and Krondon’s lisp. Clearly, his voice was designed solely for rapping. Unfortunately, most of these beats sound like stencils for rap-song archetypes, from the Southern club banger to the maudlin, introspective track. With better production, Malevolence and his voice can make a big splash. malevolence.bandcamp.com —Quan Vu

Marco Polo Demo

Sounding at once awesome and ridiculous, electro-rock anthems “Theme Song” and “Midnight Rebels” have crunchy power-chords, romantic keyboards, poorly recorded vocal parts and chintzy drummachine beats fit for a low-budget

Mascara Monsters

M-Double-A-L

MC Reason

CONTINUED ON PAGE 38

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 37

Torrey Mercer “Looking Glass”

Young singer-songwriter Torrey Mercer makes a strong showing on this new single. Singing with a powerful voice over a consistent piano melody and driving kick, she offers a refreshing change from big radio names like Katy Perry and Rihanna. That said, I have a hard time figuring out what demographic this very young, very poppy, very overproduced song is attempting to cater to? Teen?

Tween? If it ends up on Radio Disney, I’m sure the kids will love it. torreymercerofficial.com

The Midwinters All There Is

The singer for this lush indie-folk band is just a hair off from being good. I like how he’s off; it gives him character. The band, however, are not off, which I don’t like—they could use a little character. I dig the piano work, though; it’s a perfect companion to the indie-pop songwriting and Americana overtones.

Nothing mind-blowing here, just some contemplative sing-alongs —Jesse Ross and dramatic tunes. Maybe if the band loosens up a bit, they’ll blow some minds next round. themidwinters.bandcamp.com

Mexican Hexagon Mexican Hexagon

The opening track, “By Machine, For Machine,” includes an interlude with a distinct Pixies feel, which sounds really, really good.

I wish these guys were a little less screamo, because they manage to pull off some quality sonic feats in this not-so-bad EP. “Rochester,” for example, features great vocal harmonies and, strange as it may seem, comes across with a They Might Be Giants feel. Hopefully, their long-awaited “pre-post-punk” full-

—Aaron Carnes

Miguel Muniz aka San Di Ill Surprise

This is the type of shit that drunken sorority girls find deep when they’re not busy barfing up Jägerbombs in their dorm room. You know the type of fella who plays this—the one who just learned some basic guitar chords and sere-

38 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

A-side. On the track, Diego plays a mean guitar, and vocalist Tara sounds like she’s straight out of the Memphis scene. The B-side, “Lover,” is just as good; its reverbheavy Twin Peaks swamp blues is —Seth Combs a classic answer to the more upbeat “Gone.” Only complaint: This husband-and-wife duo did a mean thing by only sending two songs.

Demo RN/mockingbirdsandiego A friend told me that Taken was —T. Loper the greatest action film of 2008. I walked into the theater with high expectations. I walked out disappointed, with one less friend. I Every Second had this experience in mind as I MohaviSoul’s first recording exset out to listen to Mikey Trax’s hibits some good ol’ pickin’ and demo. I entered with low ex- pluckin’, carried out by an enpectations, noting that he spells semble of clearly talented folk and “tracks” with an X. Turns out, he bluegrass musicians. There’s also offers an interesting take on ambi- some thoughtful songwriting and ent electronica. Some of the live catchy choruses. Without soundinstruments could use work tonal- ing old or irrelevant, the manly, but “Plunge” was hypnotic and dolin-violin-banjo-fiddle combo nuanced, with elements gradually gives off an air of authenticity. introduced to maintain the slow- Best part? It’s not fucking Mumford & Sons! mohavisoul.com paced pulse. FB/mikeytrax

nades the bonfire folks with drivel like, “I want to settle down now” —Justin Roberts and “I want to light a candle in your name” while casually flipping his greasy hair back to take another toke. Sooooooo beautiful, bro.

length will see the light of day in 2013. FB/mexicanhexagon

MikeyTrax

MohaviSoul

—Alfred Howard

Mockingbird Dos

If Tara and Diego Alvarado’s Dos is a single, then the electric country shuffle of “Gone” is the perfect

—Jesse Ross

Moosejaw

on the listener, his voice suddenly shifting from a tense murmur to a psychotic scream as he drops lines like, “Painting the walls with a colostomy bag!” Put this on the next time you find yourself getting dragged off to the loony bin. RN/ moosejaw —Peter Holslin

Mudgrass

Just That Way Fuck yeah! Mudgrass define their music as a “freight train of country-fried rock,” and I don’t think a more apt description could ever exist. Taken with a few shots of whiskey, Just That Way is quite the toe-tappin’, ass-slappin’ album.

I’m not much for country-fried anything, to be honest, but this is a band I think I’d really enjoy seeing live—with a requisite warm flask nestled in my jacket pocket. Bring it on, boys! mudgrass.com —Justin Roberts

Multiplex Multiplex

I’d tell you that I’m sick of tonguein-cheek, danceable, math-rocky As his mates lay down a solid bed synth music, but who am I kidof indie-punk riffs, singer Eric Mc- ding? I’m not. Multiplex is San DiClanahan gets all Jekyll-and-Hyde ego’s answer to the cosmic disco

We Are the Hunters

—Dave Maass

MyAmalgam 5 Song Demo

There is an incomplete quality to MyAmalgam’s demo that’s not anything like the cool Guided By Voices incompleteness. It’s more like the “I don’t think these people finished their thoughts when trying to write songs” kind. The execution and structure doesn’t make a lot of sense: It’s straightforward, but just wrong. They need to go back to the practice space and, instead of going with their gut, do everything they think they shouldn’t do. Maybe then they’ll churn out some good tunes.

—Aaron Carnes

The Natives Salutations

extraspecialgood Rum for Your Life Demo

Rum for Your Life apparently hail from Pacific Beach, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re aliens, because this four-song demo sounds like a transmission from another planet. Coated in lo-fi crackle, the 17-minute effort finds them drawing up a storm cloud of angular guitar riffs, reflective trumpet harmonies and limber, metallic rhythms. While the textures are often harsh, the quartet takes a patient approach, laying down repetitive, slow-changing patterns that could go on in a trance-inducing infinity loop without getting tiresome. Though they clearly take cues from shoegazers My Bloody Valentine—particularly with their sweet, murmured vocals—their songs sound truly foreign, in part thanks to the rough nature of these recordings: Opener “Bronco” is so loud that it pushes the limits of the recording equipment, and it cuts off abruptly (and somewhat frustratingly) after two-and-a-half minutes. And while this may be the demo-iest demo I got this year, it’s also the most incredible one. I’d be perfectly happy if their subsequent recordings were just as raw. rumforyourlife.bandcamp.com Dave Appleton

coming out of France—Justice, Jupiter, Zombie Zombie—with, as the name implies, a tendency toward the same aesthetic I’d expect from soundtracks for Arnie’s 1980s sci-fi films. multiplexmusic. bandcamp.com

I appreciate punk intensity just as much as the next aging hipster, but I hope these guys know they’re wearing their influences on their sleeves. You’ll get just about every hardcore and punk band in less than 20 minutes: Black Flag (“Native in the Cupboard”), Dead Kennedys (“Zigroopha”), Bad Brains ( just about every other song). Sure, it has fun moments (“TJ Hooker,” needless to say, is not about the TV show), but mostly I’m just thinking that youth is wasted on the young. Grow up. Get off my lawn.

FB/pages/the-natives

—Peter Holslin

me dry heave (and I did), but it’s a really beautiful song. The piano melody is sprawling and comforting, each note emitting a chorus of twinkling splendor. The vocals are simple, moving, ethereal (cue more heaves). The two a cappella songs were well-done, but the shtick is akin to a kazoo or an armpit fart, and the clapping as percussion on “11:11” sounds like a fancy masturbation technique.

This talented dude needs a band, San Diego. With instruments, he —Seth Combs will flourish. SC/danielnewheiser

if her voice is wasted on coquettish, schoolgirl-style come-ons.

Still, if they play their cards right, they could land an opening gig for Paramore or Taylor Swift. I can’t stand it, but not bad for what it is. noisefloornoise.com —Seth Combs

Okay!Okay!

Dear California

I was disappointed to find out that a band calling itself Okay!Okay! was not an insane avant-garde —Sammi Skolmoski troupe, but instead a super-slick, emo, alt-rock band. Oh, darn. The singer can sing—I’ll give him that.

Starfisher EP It’s not really the kind of singing I always gauge rock acts, especially Swanky I like; nor are the polished, beefy those with guitars so prominently Scattershot collection of rap licks and reverb-heavy drums my out front, by their live shows. I tracks mixing club-ready swagcup of tea, either. It is flawlessly haven’t seen this band yet, but the first three songs on this six-song ger, socially conscious messages, executed, though. And I’m sure EP are straight up, Camaro-driv- Southern rap beats, Lex Luger- they woo the ladies with their ining R-O-C-K tunes, joyously not style horn honks, etc. There are tense, aggressive, emotional songs. watered down or encumbered by some alright moments, but I’m Consider me not wooed—but then any “indie” or “alternative” trap- over it by the end of the album. again, I’m not a pretty lady, so I pings. The second half doesn’t These guys need to develop a dis- doubt they care. RN/okayokay —Aaron Carnes come close to matching that same tinct style if they want to really get kind of uncomplicated energy, but somewhere.

—Peter Holslin I’d still be interested in seeing how they reconcile it all on stage. nttn. ??? bandcamp.com I appreciate the name of the musi—Scott McDonald Demo cian (or band?), and I do like the I wanna hate on these guys. I re- medieval imagery of centaurs and ally do. Yet, I have to admit they such in the lyrics, but, otherwise, may be onto something with their it’s a tough listen. It’s kind of metDaniel Newheiser A song title like “All I’m Miss- mix of indie, pop-punk and EDM. ing is You” would typically make The singer has some pipes even

Neighbors to the North

Nns & Telegraph

Old Man Wizard

Noise Floor

Daniel Newheiser

CONTINUED ON PAGE 40

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 39

al, kind of goth, kind of rock opera and kind of power-pop, but it’s not really any of these things. It’s just weird, but in an off-putting way.

At least it’s not bad in the “sounds like every band on the radio” kind of way. Maybe they’re on to something I’m just not caught up on yet.

Who knows. oldmanwizard.com

Adam Urban and Jeremiah Wesseling

extraspecialgood

—Aaron Carnes

One Hundred Miles Demo

You’re really stretching the definition of “demo” with one song, but “Be Happy” is pretty solid. Dude is from the East Coast, but this track has a chill, Cali feel like something off of Souls of Mischief’s hip-hop classic 93 ’til Infinity. Would love to hear more. FB/mmilez —Scott McDonald

Oye!Simpson Ghost Party EP

Oye!Simpson make a form of electronic-style dance music. There are beats, whooshes, bleeps and boops, and once in awhile, someone says “hey” or “uh.” A person could conceivably dance and / or consume drugs to this music if they were so inclined. SC/oyesimpson

Teenage Burritos Kamikaze

Don’t be fooled by the clean, crisp sound on this collection of doowoppy pop-punk ear candy—these songs have a subversive heart.

Once “Danya” (a love song dedicated to a teenage anarchist) wraps its warm tortilla around your heart, it doesn’t let go: “I remember the day you called a bomb threat to school / You got caught and I thought that you were cool.” “Kamikaze” continues in a similar vein: “Kamikaze fly with me / I wanna die when the moon is high and I’m young and free.” Never has going out in a blaze of glory seemed so romantic. The female-fronted trio features former members of Christmas Island and has a 7-inch coming out soon on Volar Records. I’ll take two with extra salsa. SC/teenageburritos —Jim Ruland

—Chris Maroulakos

Rudy Palos Demo

Anyone nostalgic for the glory days of trip-hop and DJ Shadow-style sampling, or just always wished The Avalanches made another album, might want to check this guy out.

These five songs are a bit of a stylistic mish-mash, but anybody who can channel the best parts of Air (“Magic”), RJD2 (“Trap to the Sky”) and even Manu Chao at his experimental peak (“Pagans”) will get a tip of the hat from me. SC/rudypalos —Seth Combs

Pan Am

The Shade Between Two Hemispheres Turn the lights down, pop open a bottle of wine and get a bubble bath going—it’s time to let Pan Am singer Rodney Hubbard whisk you away with his smooth, supple, exquisitely soulful voice. With lovely flute, sexy sax and Spanishstyle guitar rounding out the proceedings, this EP belongs on every newlywed’s honeymoon playlist.

RN/earthflossyahoocom —Peter Holslin

Paper Plane Pilot Demos

If Paper Plane Pilot had been com-

40 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

posed of my 17-year-old high-school classmates during the Y2K scare, they might have actually had some success. And by “success,” I mean second place at a battle of the bands, or maybe a well-attended show at a rec center. Everything from their whiny heart-on-your-sleeve lyrics to the prominently featured Casio synth parts screams early-2000s emo. This demo isn’t terrible, but at best it would have been mediocre a decade ago. dl.paperplanepilot.com —Jackson Milgaten

Parker & The Numberman

amazing background track for a horror film: Even as I sit on my couch typing this, I feel an intense sense of foreboding. The rest of the album is more in the dance realm, though still dark. It’s good, solid electronica, but a little dated. All I can think of is ’90s raves. They should make more songs like the opening track and sell them to Hollywood. ppatricide.bandcamp.com —Aaron Carnes

Pearl Demo

If you’re the type of R&B listener who finds Rihanna and Beyoncé too contrived but still can’t emSM58EP brace the experimental tendencies Working with local beatmaker of Erykah Badu and Emeli Sandé, Room E, Parker & The Number- then this offers a nice middle man give us nine tracks and 19 min- ground. Five tracks of come-hither utes of glitchy beats, space-y loops or get-the-hell-away affirmations and super-short interludes that accompanied by some respectable could all benefit from more time, beats and a more-than-adequate love and attention. There are truly voice. I don’t know. Maybe I’m good musical blips here, but every- just drunk and the singer is hot. thing feels unfinished. Where’s the pearlmusic.com rest of the album? prkrandthenm—Seth Combs brmn.bandcamp.com —Justin Roberts

Patricide

The Pheasants Demo

This demo is a sampler of what’s sure to be a fun, fast-paced and The opener is a creepy, dark elec- innately weird rock album. Fast tronic song that would make an power-chords and jumpy, treble-

Roast Dimension

heavy guitar solos encounter shouted-out, youthful-yet-surreal stories about pilgrims, witches and train robbers. It’s rough and not incredibly groundbreaking, but it’s fun and catches your ear until shit gets weird. Unless you’re a witch or an opponent of time travel, you’ll want to keep listening. the-pheasants.com

Plato’s Bacon Demo

city music for a stoney—er, sunny—afternoon, opening with the super-chill “Sun Dried Tomatoes” and drifting through excellently mixed electronic hip-hop beats under sexy-sleek samples. Rebuilder’s Jordan Leal clearly has a lot of talent, but he could explore a wider-ranging emotional land—Natalie Jacobs scape. What he’s given us here isn’t a failure; it just might need to —Jesse Ross take a couple-day vacation from the antidepressants in order to We Are Going to find some new footing. FB/rebldr

Great fucking name—that’s a given.

But this self-proclaimed “progressive-jazz-fusion-funk-metal band” is just starting to try new sounds after an apparent quest to perfect Metallica’s “Orion” and making YouTube videos that are more talk than music. I applaud the desire to expand your horizons, young dudes, but you’re going to have to start taking yourselves a whole hell of a lot more seriously if you expect anyone else to.

—Scott McDonald

Polish Mexicans Polish Mexicans

This fuzzy garage duo makes chunky, reverb-heavy songs that would benefit from a shift in guitar tone and more dynamics. Right now, all of the songs are just thick blocks of boring tone begging for sectioning. The stonier “Fountainheads” is drippy and closest to being right on. A lot of the titles and lyrics are silly and poetic, which is nice—like “I Want to Build You a Cake” and “Rubber Duckies on Parade.” SC/polishmexicans —Sammi Skolmoski

Purl

Summer / Winter A two-CD, two-hour-plus collection of stark, math-y instrumental rock recorded on a four-track in El Cajon circa 1995-96. There’s some good stuff on here, all in the spirit of Don Caballero and Explosions in the Sky—angular piano, layered guitar and crashing crescendos.

But it gets pretty boring after a while. Next time, just send the greatest hits.

slightly spastic shoegaze, they don’t seem sure about what to do with Johanna’s voice. Sometimes she’s too dreamy; other times, the melodies don’t quite match up. But once they figure things out, they’ll be on their way to something original and maybe even quite good. projectanalogue.bandcamp.com

Quor

be Awesome

With their fast rhythms, melodic transitions and heavy breakdowns, Quor seem to be testing the waters of several genres, mostly rock and nü-metal. They sound very professional, but you come away without an understanding of what exactly you’ve just listened too. If Quor is “going to be awesome,” they aren’t there yet. quorbackstage.com

—Justin Roberts

Red Beard, Red Beard FBM

An album by an ambient postrocker who’s proficient at introducing esoteric sound samples to sleepy guitar riffs. My favorite track, the twangy “Room 361,” ends in a jazzy cacophony of —Jesse Ross piercing whistles, plunky synths, nasally horns and other discordant sounds worth digging. The second half of the four-track EP TRSW Live 1989 is a duo of sleepy interludes fit for The Exxon Valdez spill. The stargazing, driving in the rain and Stockton Massacre. The Tianan- whatever else those sappy postmen Square protests. What do rockers pretend not to enjoy. red these tragedies from 1989 have beardredbeard.bandcamp.com in common? I’d rather revisit any —Sammi Skolmoski one of them than listen to this recording of the Radical Molesters’ performance at the Del Mar Fair that same year, which includes Dig That Entertainment poorly recorded covers of The Mix Tape Vol. 1 Who and The Doors at the “Pic- Well-produced jams with quirky nic Stage.” I probably wouldn’t beats and relatable subject matter, have minded some of their origi- such as meeting women (“Fantanal compositions, if I’d been there sy”), breakups (“Tryna B A Man”) live. But then again, I’d probably and premature ejaculation (“I Bet have enjoyed George H.W. Bush’s I Bus’”). But the highlight is when inauguration address if you gave Lady Emanon and Insatiable lend their velvety snark to a few tracks, me a churro.

—Dave Maass enlightening listeners to the oftneglected perspective of badass chicks of local hip-hop. rembrant. bandcamp.com

Radical Molesters

Rembrant

Skyla Rayne 2 Song Demo

Skyla Rayne is somewhere between Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift. For such a young, independent singer-songwriter, her production and songwriting is impressive. And her songs are catchy, so catchy. Even if you don’t want to like it, you will. You. Can’t. Help.

It. Hopefully Rayne can act, ’cause —Peter Holslin she’d be a perfect fit for the Disney Channel. Then your 13-yearold daughter will listen to her all day long. You’ll tell her to turn it El Lizardo off, but, secretly, you’ll be singing Johanna Motos’ voice could make Rayne’s songs in the shower. skyla you do anything. Though it works raynemusic.com nicely with Project Analogue’s —Aaron Carnes other vocalist, Joey Tan, she isn’t using her gift to its fullest potential. As the band splits its efforts between warm and fuzzy indie- Memories in Stereo pop and darker, more interesting, This is perfect walk-through-the-

Project Analogue

Rebuilder

—Sammi Skolmoski

Rembrant

No Apologiez Rick Ross may have found huge success by glorifying the hustle, but rapper Rembrant is closer to the conflicted hustler image that T.I. has perfected. His hustle is a tiresome grind and Rembrant reveals his everyday struggles, to say nothing of his moral struggles.

Pain is his strength and he smartly stays in his lane. The beats are nothing to write home about, but they operate well enough, if only for not distracting from Rembrant’s lyrics. rembrant.band camp.com —Quan Vu

CONTINUED ON PAGE 42 March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 41

Reptile Dysfunction 1983

Challenging, reflective, highly experimental indie-rock workouts covered in four-track tape hiss.

Some tracks on this CD feel like one-off experiments, with lots of noisy guitar texture throughout.

But there are flashes of inspiration, like the slow-blossoming jam of track No. 7 (the CD came unlabeled) or the beatific bed of guitars that guide No. 8. Consider me intrigued.

lot of time snorting Adderall and listening to Fugazi, The Misfits (Kellen Minor’s voice is a deadringer for a young Danzig) and, to a lesser extent, Tortoise and —Ryan Bradford Built to Spill. It’s OK, but most of it just sounds like some kids fucking around in the basement. FB/ pages/rock-paper-tiger

hear during your step-cousin’s awkward wedding reception. Mr. Robbins, we’d appreciate a little —Justin Roberts more cohesion. And maybe a Facebook page.

nightmare scenario, I can confirm for you that your theory is wellfounded. FB/riververb

Bruce Robbins

“Don’t Cry for Me (Elvis Tribute)”

Methinks we might have a hipster Elvis impersonator on our hands.

Bruce Robbins’ old-fashioned croon is serviceable enough, but his gritty lo-fi aesthetic is what gets me: That cheap drum ma—Peter Holslin chine beat and synthy-sounding guitar could’ve come straight from an Ariel Pink record. Robbins might consider hitting up a Mushrooms & Speed hip boutique label like Art Fag or Who the fuck would ever think Volar. RN/brucerobbins about doing mushrooms and —Peter Holslin speed at the same time? Apparently, the same kind of folks who enjoy making “psychedelic noise ritual” sounds (read: “noise rock Pop Rock sludge”). I would rather put out The only online mention of Mr. a lit cigarette in my eye than have Robbins I could find is his particito listen to another millisecond of pation in a guitar duo called Take this dissonant, grating crap, which Two, but the music on Pop Rock the quartet describes as coming is not the work of a duo. In fact, from “channeling energies from the two tracks don’t even sound the 93rd current.” For those of like the same band: The first track you who picture the combination is a sugary, generic country tune, of psilocybin and methamphet- and the other sounds like a Casioamine as a murderous, horrifying laden yacht-rock ballad that you’d

Riververb

Bruce Robbins

42 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

Bruce Robbins

Sombres del Tiempo

—Seth Combs

I would’ve liked to hear this one after listening to Robbins’ intriguing Elvis tribute (see above), but the CD-R was broken when it Rough Mixes came in the mail. Next time, use a Robinson didn’t give us much to work with in his two-track, fourjewel case.

—Peter Holslin and-a-half-minute demo, but he appears to have a good ear for mixing and the ability to play a wide range of instruments, inPop Music Take Two: cluding mountain dulcimer, NaCafé La Maze tive American flute and the everEither this CD was blank or he’s so-important Casio. A few more offering a refreshing take on John minutes would’ve been helpful Cage’s “4’33.” in providing a more insightful re—McHank view. Next year, perhaps? andy robinsonmusic.com

Andy Robinson

Bruce Robbins

Rock Paper Tiger Demo

More stuff from Corey Johnston (I’ve also reviewed his solo stuff and his band, The Goomies, in the Demo Review). This time, he’s on drums and surrounded by a bunch of dudes that, I assume, spend a

—Justin Roberts

Roger!

his band, and, for the most part, it paid off. Only one complaint: Candice Campbel-Earnhart is underused. The album’s best track, “Dull,” features her gloriously smoky voice, but it’s buried in the middle. rogersd.bandcamp.com —T. Loper

S. Chaparral

“Canyon” / “CT” Vivid storytelling, restrained-butrich instrumentation and excellent production make these tracks a joy to play. It’s great to hear lyrics about nature in Southern California that aren’t centered on the beach. You can almost feel the thorny oak leaves and smell the sage of the canyons. The only thing about this music that isn’t like chaparral is that it’s slowburning—and that’s a good thing. tinyurl.com/ag585tz —T. Loper

Sabotawj I.EMCEE

Beautifully constructed hip-hop, with musicianship and lyricism Many good things have been found that outweigh egotism. It’s obvious on craigslist, and Ernesto Garcia from the stark organ on “Get ’Em Jr. knows this well. Garcia used High,” bold horns on “Right Now” the classifieds site to assemble and ear-tickling guitars on “Wan-

Dark Matter

nabe” that Sabotawj understands masterful composition. These complex, serious songs are also party jams—rich with thumping beats, groovy melodies and perfect pacing. How many albums do you own that you love to dance to, but also contain philosophical discussions about, say, how life mirrors art? This album is worth spending time with, whether you’re pensive or partying. sabotawj.com

Becky. She sounds like she’s being swallowed into hell, whereas the male singer sounds like the devil doing the swallowing. Somehow that makes her more relatable. The rest is sloppy at times and not particularly innovative—pretty much the standard lo-fi-metal entry—except for the hidden track of people talking about a giant penis. That was weird. Bad weird. saviorself. bandcamp.com

—Sammi Skolmoski

—Sammi Skolmoski

Carlos Sánchez

repetitive acoustic-guitar chords give the album a sedating effect similar to accidentally taking Sudafed at 11 a.m. Most of these songs have solid foundations; they just need backing instruments and more effort on the production side.

—Hutton Marshall

Sixties Guns Demo

Serving up new-wave synths, computerized conga beats and multitracked vocal chants, Sixties Guns Shadowgraphs strike a balance between pop and This self-titled experiment opens grit on these three tracks. “Atypiwith a mellow-simmering ston- cal Weirdos” is the winner, with a er groove, “Rand,” and pushes dense, bass-heavy pull and allurthrough a somewhat confusing ing digital textures. They could electronic soundscape that is as groove a little harder, though. FB/ inviting as it is confusing. Elec- sixtiesguns tronic schizophrenia, perhaps?

—Peter Holslin There’s some quality work in here, but at this particular stage, these songs need a lot more time to gerBeing Nice is Still Cool minate. SC/shadowgraphs —Justin Roberts You know you’re either in for a world of hurt or a pleasant surprise when a demo comes in on an actual demo tape (as in a cassette XXXy EP tape, youngsters!). Luckily, it was This band might try being more the latter with these guys. Gorinteresting and less repetitive: geous and catchy folk angst with If they played live, the audience hints of vintage Bright Eyes and might leave. If you make songs The Decemberists. Almost picked in a bedroom, good enough is it for an “ExtraSpecialGood,” but good enough. But there’s value it’s extra special nonetheless. sled in understanding what keeps an dingwithtigers.bandcamp.com audience involved. Their stron—Seth Combs gest song is “At First.” The track sounds like an ’80s horror movie, in a good way. At best, they sound inspired by Moby and Kavinsky. $5 Mixtape I could see them benefiting from I knew I had to pick up this CD picking up Lou Reed’s Transform- when I saw the cartoon Crocodile Dundee dude smoking a blunt on er. SC/sideways-heart —McHank the cover, and it more or less met my expectation: White guy raps about rapping, girls in the club and being a laid-back SoCal dude.

J2C 1-7 Soundtrack If this is sincere, it’s even harder This Jesus-loving English profes- to take seriously than if he were sor plays guitar, occasionally sings joking. But if his life really were and mostly blathers on and on an endless orgy of weed and bare about his recent road trip through breasts, who am I to tell him not to the American Southwest. J2C celebrate it? sloatdixon.com 1-7 Soundtrack—what the fuck is —Jeff Terich up with that name?—sounds like someone ripped the audio track from a monotonously dull documentary and packaged it as an ex- Snakesuit EP perimental album. Those were 55 Full of moody beats and cosmic minutes of my life I will never get guitars, this five-track selection back, Silva. You owe me. FB/cali would be fairly decent were it not for Snakesuit’s singer: His goofy, forniaauthor —Justin Roberts strangled croon is worse than bad standup comedy. His voice does sound good, however, in Keith Sweaty’s remix of “Celebration,” Jesus when it gets chopped into snipSadly, the album name doesn’t pets and scattered across the steappear to be ironic. While Silva’s songwriting is his strong suit, the CONTINUED ON PAGE 44

Shadowgraphs

1st Intent

This salsa CD sounds like something from a scene in Dexter, when the camera pans over the colorful aspects of Miami. There’s some great musicianship on these tracks and some outstanding percussion work. Some of the guitar, keys and bass tones sound a little dated, though not overwhelmingly so. Most impressive is the fact that lead man Carlos Sánchez plays piano, bass, congas, bongo, timbales, guiro, clave, keys, drum programming and lead vocal, yet the album maintains a live feel. carlitossanchez.me —Alfred Howard

Sauvi, Dre Trav and EzPennybagz

Pyramid Scheme / DGC Pink These two hip-hop collab compilations by Sauvi, Dre Trav and EzPennybagz are quick proof that underground hip-hop is alive and well, especially in San Diego. On Pyramid Scheme and DGC Pink, this trio makes it known that skilled rhymes, intelligent lyrics and great beats are a priority. watstoday.com/audio/pyramidscheme —T. Loper

Savannah Philyaw Savannah Philyaw

These five commercial countrypop songs were written by a 17year-old whom I could see becoming a hit among the country top40 crowd. I just don’t have any appreciation for this shit. Jesus, take the wheel and drive me off a cliff, because it’s got to be better than suffering through another second of Philyawn’s teenage-countrygirl drivel. savannahphilyaw.com —Justin Roberts

Saviorself Demo 2011

Loud, chugging doom tunes with demonic vocals—my favorite of which are by the female singer,

Sledding with Tigers

Sideways Heart

Sloat Dixon

Alan Lewis Silva

Snakesuit

Alan Lewis Silva

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 43

reo field like sonic confetti. FB/ second album under the S.P.A.M. snakesuitband brand. Well, serve me up a double —Peter Holslin helping of that mystery meat. It’s a juicy, tender, intestine-twisting mix of bumping beats, deft rhymes and classic samples, mixed by CoGamma Rays lumbus, Ohio-based sound engiSocial Club have more than neer Choz1n. Choice cuts include 44,000 likes on Facebook. That’s the piano-tinkling “G.O.V. (God of about 35,000 more than CityBeat. Victory)” and the clap-and-bass So, something tells me that the “Do it BIG.” spam.bandcamp.com band has done a pretty good job —Dave Maass of stirring up its own publicity.

But for those who haven’t heard them, they play crisply produced, crunchy alt-rock that would be perfectly at home smooshed be- Good News for Bad People tween The Black Keys and Muse on FM-94.9. They’ve got a bluesy These guys don’t fuck around. Insensibility, a touch of soul, and finity Gauntlet make gritty beats more than a little stadium ambi- with dense, atmospheric elements tion. It’s not totally novel, by any that could’ve come from an Almeans, but definitely not bad. fred Hitchcock thriller. Splurgeo After all, 44,000 Facebook users serves up no-nonsense rhymes can’t be wrong, right? FB/social about growing up in the city and staying true to yourself: “Fuck clubjams the world and what it thinks / You —Jeff Terich gotta be free and go hard.” This debut full-length isn’t the catchiest thing out there, but it’s solid. red lotusklan.com Construction Slop

Social Club

Splurgeo & Infinity Gauntlet

Sociawki

popular songs with smatterings of atonal and discordant noise strewn over them. I’m not really sure what the intent was here, or who’d want to listen to this. SC/ submarinemusic —Jackson Milgaten

Sunday Clothes Demo

Most of these five indie-folk tracks are fairly dull, but “This Ship Will Sail” is a winner. Sounding like something Mirah would write, it finds Sunday Clothes’ Marielle Acac murmuring over a gentle guitar suffused in light effects, setting the stage for a night of sweet dreams. If Acac can write eight more songs with the same breathtaking subtlety, she’ll have a fantastic album on her hands. SD/ sundayclothes —Peter Holslin

Sun Set at Duck Pond Demo

Gloomy industrial grooves, schizophrenic electro-house beats, buzzDemolition —Peter Holslin ing synths, cloudy ambient textures, Ultra lo-fi psychedelic sludge. For moody strings—all of this and more a demo that was recorded live clash in this three-track, ADDwith one mic onto a cassette, these Demo rattled jumble. The deep, tense “In tracks have no right sounding this Dust” could be the blueprint for a good. The first two songs, “Freaks On these two tracks, Stained Glass rad electro-goth anthem, but the Treat” and “Erase My Brain,” are Windows offer distilled versions rest gives me motion sickness. amazing in a my-ears-are-ringing- of T. Rex, The Allman Broth—Peter Holslin and-it-feels-so-good kind of way. ers Band and Pink Floyd. Decent musicianship, but the recording sociawki.bandcamp.com is not the best, and the mostly in—Jim Ruland decipherable and/or clunky lyrics Winehand don’t do it any favors.

This curiously decorated vinyl LP

Stained Glass Windows

Tar Halos

Sounddrug

—Scott McDonald

Noparts

From the moment Sounddrug’s Noparts started playing, I felt as if I had become the dude in the old Maxell ads, my hair, sunglasses and lamp being blown into oblivion by the insane sounds coming out of my headphones. There’s a massive array of influences going into the dizzying stylistic melange the group cooks up, from punk-rock to Nigerian highlife, Afro-Cuban jazz, spazzcore, pop and prog-rock. Noparts is a lot of things—a little confusing, for one. But most of all, it’s super-fun. sounddrug.bandcamp.com —Jeff Terich

S.P.A.M. Gourmet

“We are the unwanted information that is sent to your inbox, we are the cheap processed food product that feeds the poor, we represent the working class that staff factories across the globe...”

So write rappers Mannyfesto and Holiq in the liner notes of their

44 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

The Stalins of Sound Pool of Piranha

provided a combination of Pink Floyd-ish psychedelia (good!), an over-the-top, crammed-in-yourmouth dose of guitar distortion (bad!) and the bad-acid-trip feeling of a Black Rebel Motorcycle Club nightmare (fun?). At times Winehand felt like it could have been part of the Natural Born Killers soundtrack. But mostly it made me want the damn thing to end already. tarhalos.bandcamp.com

Picture DEVO with Flying V guitars and steel-toed jackboots, and you’ve got The Stalins of Sound.

The A-side of this 7-inch is fit for a mosh-pit-stomping frenzy, thanks partly to their shredding cover of Metal Urbain’s 1977 scifi punk tune “Panik.” Side B con—Justin Roberts sists of a synth-infused, gothedout death-ballad called “Rapture in Blood.” Righteous. stalinsof sound.com Demo —Peter Holslin I’ve always had a spot in my heart for gruff-voiced punk—Leatherface, Hot Water Music, Hüsker Dü—and there are moments of that gritty transcendence on Tes16 Sound Clashes seract’s demo. Moments. When This is a collection of sound-bytes, they turn off the distortion and samples and cheesy stock effects opt for The Cult-like psychedelic that have been haphazardly woven rock, the singer just sounds like together to create what’s closer to he’s straining, out of his range, and an audio collage than original mu- constipated. Just stick to being sic. Some of the tracks are simply loud, lean and mean (and drop the lengthy sections of well-known “Uptown Girl” cover, please), because if you keep pushing like you

Tesseract

Submarines and Astrophysics

are, you’re just going to make shit.

—Ryan Bradford

They Feed at Night Deprivation

They Feed at Night go for a horror-thrash-punk sound and the cover art shows them dressed up as zombies. They don’t really transcend any real musical limits, either; they’re a bit like Misfits, only playing faster and screaming more. The saving grace is an uncharacteristically surfy sounding, mostly instrumental song unfortunately titled “Tsunami Victim Cannibalization.” Oh, and the first song of the album is called “Circumcision (Jesus is an Alien),” so there’s that. FB/theyfeedatnight —Jesse Ross

Three Minute Monsters

But these guys don’t know how to play their instruments and they —Peter Holslin suck ass. Circus is full of amateur indie-rock—clumsy guitar solos, beginner’s beats, slovenly vocals, even some stumbling surf licks (“Fast Forward”). Be forewarned, listener: The DIY dream dies at The Tunnel of Dysfuncthe feet of Vadun, Holtwick and tional Love Stecki. vhs-sd.bandcamp.com Making an 11-song release re—Peter Holslin quires time and effort, unless it’s The Tunnel of Dysfunctional Love.

I could make this album in under an hour. Almost all the back- 2 Song Demo ing instrumentation is sampled Andy Vereen sounds kind of like recordings, and the music they what I imagine Sting would sound actually play sounds closer to my like now if he’d never gotten so 6-month-old niece vomiting on obsessed with jazz—and if he sudan out-of-tune guitar. I would be denly started writing terrible lyrics. shocked to learn the lyrics weren’t Take these lines: “I can’t change the made up on the spot. The Tunnel way the wind blows / I can’t make of Dysfunctional Love has no dis- the night’s sky day / I may never cernible redeeming qualities. know the reasons / but I have faith makes me think of Smash Mouth.

FB/translationaudio

The Tunnel of Dysfunctional Love

Andy Vereen

—Hutton Marshall

Sunny All Over the World Not bad songwriting, but please leave your harmonica at the avocado festival and away from your recordings. While I can name almost every influence, they’re mostly good influences—the poppier end of The Clash alongside hints of The Beatles, The Kinks, America, Buddy Holly and The Raspberries. But there’s nothing strong enough to be as memorable as any of those. Plus, I notice an occasional fake British accent. If they were playing at The Casbah, you’d probably leave. If they were the band at your dad’s next wedding, you’d be relieved.

—McHank

Adam Townsend “On My Own”

This is a nice song: There’s sparsely picked acoustic guitar and a fragile but fairly confident vocal delivery, like a Josh Ritter lullaby without as strong of a voice.

It could use some harmonies or accompaniment, as it gets a little monotonous before the end—but not painfully so. adamtownsend. bandcamp.com

Ugly Boogie

Train of the Damned There’s no shortage of acousticpunk / bluegrass bands these days. While Ugly Boogie doesn’t stand out amongst the herd, they’re good at playing some footstomping, punk-inspired acoustic jams. The accordion is a nice touch, and they even throw in a little klezmer. Probably the weakest part of the band is the lead vocalist: He’s perfectly in tune, and all the harmonies are spot-on, but he’s got a whiny voice that grates on me. FB/uglyboogie

in providence.” I feel embarrassed just typing those words. I can’t tell if he’s Christian, “spiritual” or just likes to write really odd love songs.

Either way, please take a poetry class and check back with me in a couple years. SC/andy-vereen —Aaron Carnes

Veronica’s Headache Demo

Recorded live from recent rehearsals, this demo shows a group of guys in the garage making some Doors-ish jams. They need a new drummer, preferably one with better recording software. When you get past the poor sound quality and —Aaron Carnes the lackluster rhythm section, this would resemble something that might have been cool many moons ago. veronicasheadache.com

Unidentified Fusion Orangement Abducted by UFOrangement

I’m not really sure how to rate this demo. It’s certainly unique.

Chances are, if you like super-outthere instrumental psychedelic jams, then you’ll like this. It’s oddly goofy (their use of the Moog is excessive even by early-’70s standards). They switch gears, playing some solid free-jazz, and combine nutty ’60s psychedelic freak—Alfred Howard outs with Ornette Coleman sax spasms. You’ve got to give these guys props, even if you can’t stand more than 30 seconds of it. RN/ Pain and Joy Translation: Audio manage to unidentifiedfusionorangement —Aaron Carnes give me a nice, fuzzy feeling with their lean pop-rock, but they’d probably go off better with the P.B. crowd. They have some endearing, hooky, almost Strokes-y moments, but I can’t take it when Circus they dip into ska-rock on “101” Plenty of amazing punk bands and “Pain and Joy.” That, and didn’t know how to play their intheir singer’s barking dude voice struments and still sounded great.

Translation: Audio

Vadun, Holtwick and Stecki

—Jesse Ross

Vermz

In Search of Downers Pt. 1 If someone slipped Trent Reznor a thousand hits of acid and locked him in a bedroom with a lowbudget studio setup, he’d probably end up with something like this: a fevered hellscape of creepy murmurs, distorted screams, heavy beats, sludge-bucket synths and electric-guitar squall. I’m probably the only one, but I’d be curious to hear Pt. 2. tinyurl.com/avzybkx —Peter Holslin

Viscous Demo

The bass tone, simultaneously muddy and tinny, nearly made me shit my britches. Not the best way to start. They hit their stride in “Dogs of War” for a second, but

CONTINUED ON PAGE 46 March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 45

the instrumental metal prowess was cut short before it reached its peak. Good musicianship is hindered by dated tones and a sour vocal delivery. Seeking Humility is some strange merger of coffeehouse cadences, adolescent epiphanies and big, muscular metal riffs. Not all mergers are great: Homer Simpson invented something called Nuts and Gum. viscousmusic.com

Simon Ritchie

extraspecialgood

—Alfred Howard

Void Lake Demo

Pretty close to being an “ExtraSpecialGood,” the three songs on this demo were made by an engaged couple and would almost certainly appeal to anyone who likes Beach House, Lower Dens and vintage Mazzy Star. Somnolent, electro-accented ballads perfect for cuddling up on a cold night or cutting yourself in the bathtub, whichever you prefer. voidlake.bandcamp.com —Seth Combs

A.J. Wesolek

Endear Romance A.J. certainly strikes me as an earnest dude. He also strikes me as a dude who’s listened to a shit-ton of Death Cab for Cutie. The one-note songs here are strange derivatives of those Northwestern mopey masters, coupled with Wesolek’s good-natured energy. Unfortunately, they end up reading more coffeehouse open-mic night than introverted emo jam. tunecore. com/music/endear-romance

Tropical Popsicle Dawn of Delight

The synthesized vocals and garage-style production make the songs on this debut record sound like they exist beneath a layer of chromosaturated static. You have to work hard to see what’s happening behind the clouds, but there’s a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. The meandering guitars, sweetly sung lyrics and soundtrack of interludes are all unselfconscious and experimental, without being douchey, and that feels refreshing. After giving it more than a few listens, you’ll realize it’s really just as the graphic cover art promises—a slightly naughty, ’80s-style collage of earthy and synthetic pieces that don’t at first make much sense, but then suddenly become beautiful and grimy, shallow and deep all at the same time. Despite what the name might suggest, the album sounds best when listened to on a long, straight, empty road in the dead of night. As frontman Tim Hines sings: “It’s easy to wander blindly and that is all.” tropicalpopsicle.bandcamp.com —Natalie Jacobs

instrumental route. But Wiseleg play with dynamics and textures, while keeping it low-key. They don’t go into weird, holy-fuck, Godspeed You! Black Emperor territo—Scott McDonald ry (no offence to GPY!BE); they’re just solid players with some solid chops who seem like they don’t need to show off just how hard At the Heart of Staying they can rip. That’s something I in Love EP This EP is reportedly the result of can respect. FB/wiseleg —Aaron Carnes an intense breakup with a former bandmate, and Wilson digs into some deeply personal feelings on here. In spite of that, it’s a pret- Demo ty, laid-back, gentle listen: “You Oughta Know,” this ain’t. Rather, These three well-produced hipWilson has a classic jazz-pop sen- hop tracks are all different but sibility, adding touches of Motown equally creative and very chill. and Brill Building pop. It’s almost “Wavy Part 2” is in instrumenanachronistic in its aesthetic, but tal, spacey beat that works well altogether charming. Something without vocals. On a bizarre-yettells me she’ll get through this one impressive remix of the Wu-Tang Clan’s famous “M.E.T.H.O.D. OK. SC/normandiewilson MAN,” the banging beat is sub—Jeff Terich stituted by a weird flute you’d expect to hear in the dentist’s chair.

“Raunchy” is another trippy instrumental with a loop derived 3 Song Demo This three-song EP is a simple, sur- from guitar harmonics. San Diego prisingly pleasing batch of instru- rappers: Find this man and beg mental post-rock songs. Most new him to produce your next album. bands lack this kind of subtlety and SC/chaddwoo

Normandie Wilson

Chadd Woo

Wiseleg

nuance, especially when going the

46 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

—Aaron Carnes

The Worst

Honey, I Shrunk My Dick!

From the opening lyrics of their first song, “And it Tastes Like ASS” (“The girl next door, she’s got a big ol’ butt, and that’s how I like it”), it’s clear The Worst are not sensitive, poetic types. In fact, they’d probably kick your ass for describing them that way. The Worst are a grungy, hard-rock band who don’t give a shit whether you like them or not. Sadly, you probably won’t.

—Hutton Marshall

Youth Martyrs Gender Roles

Listening to Youth Martyrs, I feel like the manager of Chotchkie’s in Office Space, chastising Jennifer Aniston for wearing only 15 pieces of flair. On this 25-minute effort of basic blues-rock, they show no flair—no memorable melodies, no catchy hooks, hardly any bluesy attitude. It’s up to them whether they want to do the bare minimum, but people can get bluesrock anywhere. gonzalomeza. bandcamp.com —Peter Holslin

if i were u

BY peter holslin

Wednesday, March 6 PLAN A: Maserati, Detta, Stage Kids @ Soda Bar. Taking their name from an Italian luxury car company, Georgia’s Maserati play the kind of propulsive instrumental rock you could imagine blasting while cruising the autobahn at 100 mph—think blazing guitars, cosmic synths and disciplined, dance-floor-ready rhythms. PLAN B: Maniqui Lazer, Batwings, Boys Don’t Disco, Pablo Stanley + J40 @ The Office.

If you dig freaky bands like Arab on Radar and Numbers, you’ll love Maniqui Lazer.

The recently reunited Mexicali outfit plays a spazzed-out brand of dance-punk that incorporates sassy screams and delightfully queasy synths. BACKUP PLAN: The Stone Foxes, Family Wagon, The Paragraphs @ The Casbah.

Thursday, March 7 PLAN A: The Palace Ballroom, Wild Wild Wets, Schiztophonics, Teenage Burritos @ The Griffin.

We’ve enlisted the help of some dope bands to help us celebrate the release of this week’s fantastic Local Music Issue. Check Page 12 for more details.

PLAN B: The Spits, Mrs. Magician, San Pedro el Cortez @ The Ché Café.

Seattle punk loonies The Spits just released a new, self-titled album, and it finds them in top form: In 12 tracks and 19 minutes, they pack in chaotic riffs, Ramones-y hooks and lots of weird vocals.

PLAN C: Vince Staples, Chazz Shabazz, ET & Jona @ Porter’s Pub. Up-and-coming L.A. rapper Vince Staples has a rich, leisurely flow, but keep in mind: He spits some dark, real-life shit. BACKUP PLAN: Earthless, Zig Zags, Tar Halos, Harsh Toke @ The Casbah.

Isaac Delusion, Hills Like Elephants @ The Casbah.

Saturday, March 9 PLAN A: Darwin Deez, Caged Animals, Emerald Rats @ The Casbah. Mop-haired songsmith Darwin Deez can be grating, but he has indie-pop hooks up the wazoo. I’m just as eager to see Emerald Rats, a new sideproject of Wild Wild Wets singer / keyboardist Mike Turi, whose garage-synth tunes have a nice, narcotic pull. PLAN B: Roc Marciano, Stuntdouble & Tenshun, DJ Kid Riz, Mighty Moses One, Daeta, Norm Rocwell @ The Ruby Room. Even at his most grim, New York City rapper Roc Marciano is full of style. That much is clear on his well-received 2012 album, Reloaded, as he dishes out breathtaking rhymes about the city’s violent underbelly. BACKUP PLAN: Bad Religion, Polar Bear Club @ SOMA. Keith Marlowe

Sunday, March 10

PLAN A: The Silent Comedy, The Heavy Guilt, Strange Vine @ The Casbah. Local folk-rockers The Heavy Guilt recently finished recording a new album, so don’t be surprised if they bust out some new tunes at this show. Incidentally, they also do a The Spits killer cover of “I Wanna Be Your Dog” that I wouldn’t mind hearing.

BACKUP PLAN: Guantanamo Baywatch, Midnight Eagle, Lenz @ Soda Bar.

Monday, March 11

PLAN A: McPullish, Eddie Turbo, Rashi @ The Office. Anybody who digs Jamaican dub stars like King Tubby and Augustus Pablo would find this show tantalizing. Using analog gear and sometimes collaborating with reggae singers, Texas producer McPullFriday, March 8 ish draws up spellbinding dub music onstage, PLAN A: WHY?, Dream Tiger @ The soaking his deep grooves in reverb and echo.

Irenic. Splitting the difference between BACKUP PLAN: Bend Sinister, Just Like hip-hop and indie-pop, WHY? come with Jenna, Love & The Skull @ Soda Bar. infectious hooks, bright sounds and hyperliterate-but-heartfelt lyrics. Critics said singer / rapper Yoni Wolf was unbearable Tuesday, March 12 on their latest album, 2012’s Mumps, Etc., PLAN A: “Bonkfest” w/ Tiny Telephones, but they still have their quirky charms. Secret Fun Club, East of Sweden, DJ Mike PLAN B: MAST, KONE, Zochi, Illu- Delgado @ The Void. Local guitarist Nathan minauts, Mystery Cave, Beatsmith “Bonk” Joyner got hit by a car last SeptemResist @ Kava Lounge. To raise money ber, and he’s still recovering from what were for an orphanage in Tijuana, local orga- life-threatening injuries. Help raise money nization Project Donate will bring in two for his hospital bills by checking out these intriguing L.A. producers. MAST makes primo bands. Tiny Telephones are especially dense, atmospheric tunes that incorporate awesome, what with their gorgeous swells elements of jazz, while KONE lays down of string-laden, electro-tinged post-rock. measured funk with an organic, extrater- BACKUP PLAN: Frightened Rabbit, The restrial vibe. BACKUP PLAN: Fol Chen, Twilight Sad @ Belly Up Tavern.

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 47

HOT! NEW! FRESH! Roc Marciano (Ruby Room, 3/9), Heartless Bastards (Casbah, 3/25), Miner (Casbah, 3/12, 3/26), Trinidad James (Porter’s Pub, 3/31), The Weeks (Griffin, 4/1), Jarred Benton, Vital Mindz, Ryan Bowers (Porter’s Pub, 4/6), Foals, Neighbourhood (Porter’s Pub, 4/15), Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Sharon Van Etten (Balboa Theatre, 4/16), The Faint (Fluxx, 4/17), Cloud Nothings (Casbah, 4/19), Beach Fossils (The Irenic, 4/20), The Dunwells (Casbah, 4/25), Caitlin Rose, Daniel Romano (Casbah, 4/30), Adam Green & Bikini Shapiro, La Sera (The Griffin, 5/3), Beat Connection (Soda Bar, 5/5), Parlotones (Griffin, 5/6), Akron/ Family (Porter’s Pub, 5/7), Bleached, ExCops (Casbah, 5/7), oOoOO (Soda Bar, 5/13), Mobb Deep (Porter’s Pub, 5/24), Tame Impala (HOB, 5/31), Parquet Courts (Ché Café, 6/3), New Found Glory (HOB, 6/7), Peter Murphy (BUT, 7/28), Kenny Loggins (BUT, 8/9-10).

CANCELED Cradle of Filth (HOB, 3/9), Anais Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer (AMSDconcerts, 3/14), Steafan Hanvey (AMSDconcerts, 4/18).

March Wednesday, March 6 Maserati at Soda Bar.

Thursday, March 7 Flogging Molly at House of Blues. Hey Marseilles at Soda Bar. Toad the Wet Sprocket at Belly Up Tavern. Calder Quartet at Conrad Prebys Concert Hall

48 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

(UCSD). The Spits at Ché Café. Earthless at The Casbah.

Friday, March 8 Calder Quartet at The Loft @ UCSD. WHY?, Dream Tiger at The Irenic. GEazy at Porter’s Pub.

Saturday, March 9 Darwin Deez, Caged Animal at The Casbah. Yo Gabba Gabba! at Civic Theatre.

BOY at The Loft @ UCSD. El Vez at The Casbah. Roc Marciano at The Ruby Room.

Sunday, March 10 Guantanamo Baywatch, Midnight Eagle, Lenz at Soda Bar.

Monday, March 11 Bend Sinister at Soda Bar. The Hush Sound, The Last Royals, Sidney Wayser at The Casbah.

Tuesday, March 12 André Rieu at Valley View Casino Center.

Frightened Rabbit at Belly Up Tavern.

Miner at The Casbah.

Wednesday, March 13 Alicia Keys, Miguel at Valley View Casino Center. The Ruby Suns at The Casbah.

Thursday, March 14 Neil Hamburger, Brett Gelman, KStrass at The Casbah. Carl Stone at Space 4 Art. Anais Mitchell & Jefferson Harmer at The Casbah.

Friday, March 15 Swingin’ Utters, Sean and Zander,

Wild Roses at The Casbah. Caspa at Voyeur.

Saturday, March 16 Dengue Fever at The Casbah.

Sunday, March 17 Richard Buckner at Soda Bar. Color, Har Mar Superstar, The Virgins at The Casbah. Aeroplane at Voyeur.

Monday, March 18 Ivan and Alyosha at Soda Bar. Grass Widow at The Casbah. Imagine Dragons, Atlas Genius at House of Blues.

Tuesday, March 19 Matt Costa at The Casbah. The Specials at House of Blues. The Joy Formidable at Belly Up Tavern.

Wednesday, March 20 Merchandise, Wet Hair at Soda Bar. Citizens! at The Casbah. Andrew McMahon at House of Blues. Ducktails, Mark McGuire at The Void. Barcelona at House of Blues.

Thursday, March 21 Kenny Rogers at Belly Up Tavern. Doldrums, Blue Hawaii, Sean Nicholas Savage at Soda Bar. Wavves, FIDLAR, Cheatahs at The Casbah. Pure X at The Void.

Friday, March 22 Pennywise at House of Blues. Los Lonely Boys at Casino Pauma. Sex Panther at Voyeur. Pennywise, Anti-Flag, Death

by Stereo at House of Blues.

rCLUBSr

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave, Pacific Beach. 710bc.com. Wed: Open mic, open jam. Thu: Live Band Karaoke. Fri: BoomSnap, Harriet and the Tubmans.

Sat: Brothers Gow, Ezekiel Jay, Chocolate Revolution. Sun: Reed Street Sessions, Miles Ahead. Mon: San Diego Music TV Showcase. Tue: 710 Bass Club.

98 Bottles, 2400 Kettner Blvd. Ste. 110, Little Italy. 98bottlessd.com. Thu: Joe Garrison and The Night People. Sat: Steph Johnson.

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave, Downtown. americancomedyco.com.

Wed: Clayton Thomas Presents. Thu-Sat: Matt Braunger. Sun: Edwin San Juan and Friends. Tue: Open mic.

AMSDconcerts, 4650 Mansfield St, Normal Heights. amsdconcerts.com. Fri: David Wax Museum.

Bar Pink, 3829 30th St, North Park. barpink.com. Wed: DJ Grandmasta Rats.

Thu: Okapi Sun, Hindu Pirates. Fri: Pocket. Sat: Bella Novela, Spare Parts for Broken Hearts. Sun: DJs Joemama, Tramlife.

Tue: ‘Tiki Tuesday’.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave, Solana Beach. bellyup.com. Wed: Mickey Hart Band, African Showboyz. Thu: Toad the Wet Sprocket, Jessie Payo. Fri: Anuhea, Justin Young. Sat: Common Sense, Hazmatt. Mon: Willie K. Tue: Frightened Rabbit, The Twilight Sad. Blarney Stone Pub, 5617 Balboa Ave, Clairemont. 858-279-2033. Wed & Fri: The Barmen. Thu: David Dunne. Sat: The Fooks. Sun: Open mic w/ Men of Leisure.

Tue: Irish jam, Bob Tedde.

Block No. 16 Union & Spirits, 344 7th

Ave., San Diego, Gaslamp. blockno16. com. Fri-Sat: DJ Marc Thrasher.

Bluefoot Bar & Lounge, 3404 30th St, North Park. bluefootsd.com. Wed: ‘La Terraza’. Thu: Art in the Park. Fri: ‘Dirty Boy’ w/ Drew G. Sat: ‘M.A.N.’. Sun: ‘Soiree’.

Boar Cross’n, 390 Grand Ave, Carlsbad. myspace.com/boarcrossn. Thu: NaturalHeights. Fri: Club Musae. Sat: Fish Out of Water.

Brass Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave, Hillcrest. thebrassrailsd.com. Sat: ‘Calor’ w/ Sebastian La Madrid (6 p.m.); ‘Sabados en Fuego’ w/ Jay Valdez (9 p.m.). Sun: ‘Noche Romantica’ w/ Daisy Salinas. Mon: Junior the Discopunk.

Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave, Bay Park. brickbybrick.com. Wed: SD Music TV Open Mic. Fri: Salute and Support: A Benefit w/ Beheading the King, One Theory, Beneath Lanston. Sat: Queen Nation.

Sun: Ron Franklin, Grass.

Cafe Sevilla, 353 Fifth Ave, Downtown. cafesevilla.com. Wed: Gipsymenco. Thu: Joef. Fri: Malamana. Sat: Aragon y Royal.

Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. casbahmusic.com. Wed: The Stone Foxes, Family Wagon, The Paragraphs. Thu: Earthless, Zig Zags, Tar Halos, Harsh Toke. Fri: Fol Chen, Isaac Delusion, Hills Like Elephants. Sat: El Vez Punk Rock Revue, Schitzophonics (3 p.m.); Darwin Deez, Caged Animals, Emerald Rats (9 p.m.). Sun: The Silent Comedy, The Heavy Guilt, Strange Vine. Mon: The Hush Sound, The Last Royals, Sidney Wayser. Tue: Miner, Spero.

Che Cafe, UCSD campus, La Jolla. thechecafe.blogspot.com. Thu: The Spits, Mrs Magician, San Pedro El Cortez. Fri: My

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March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 49

Iron Lung, Vales, Idlehands, Keyes. Sat: Creative Adult, Holy Fever, Youth Code, Amigo the Devil. Mon: Iron Lung, the Rival Mob, Crime Desire, Nerve Control. Tue: Loma Prieta, Griever, Baptists, Nervous.

Croce’s, 802 Fifth Ave, Downtown. croces.com. Wed: Fuzzy. Thu: Gilbert Castellanos and The New Latin Jazz Quintet.

Fri: Lady Dottie and the Diamonds. Sat: Daniel Jackson (11:30 a.m.); Gio Trio plus 1 (8:30 p.m.). Sun: Elliott Lawrence (11:30 p.m.); The Archtones (7:30 p.m.).

Mon: Dave Scott and Monsoon Jazz. Tue: Steph Johnson.

Dirk’s Nightclub, 7662 Broadway, Lemon Grove. dirksniteclub.com. Wed & Sun: Karaoke. Fri: TNT. Sat: Zone 4.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Dr, Downtown. dizzyssandiego.com. Fri: The New Irving Flores Straight-ahead Jazz Quartet.

Sat: Chuck Perrin w/ Joshua White, Ben Schachter, Gilbert Castellanos, Danny Weller, Patrick Armenta, Jamie Shadowlight, Carmelia Bel. El Dorado Bar, 1030 Broadway, Downtown. eldoradobar.com. Wed: ‘Trill’ w/ Von Kiss, Andre Power, Sasha Marie, Sufficient Sounds, Kreese. Thu: ‘In the Cut’ w/ Unite, J-Blow. Fri: ‘Posse On Broadway’ w/ SRay, Big Daddy, Cros One, KidRiz, Felt1.

Sat: ‘Boom Boom Saturday’ w/ Corey Biggs, Hoff, Kimbo, Steve Mcqueen.

Epicentre, 8450 Mira Mesa Blvd, Mesa. epicentreconcerts.org. Fri: Nerz, Jodie Jo, Wolfe, X, K Spectro.

Creep Creature, Juicy Jo, Nebulia, Squad, Trifecta.

Mira The Sat: Riot

F6ix, 526 F St., Downtown, Downtown. f6ixsd.com. Thu: ‘Throwback Thursdays.’

Fri: ‘Fingaz Fridayz.’ Sat: DJ XP. Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave, Downtown. fluxxsd.com. Thu: AC Slater. Fri: DJ Cobra, DJ

50 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

Kyle Flesch. Sat: Rico DeLargo, DJs Sid Vicious, Craig Smoove.

Gallagher’s, 5040 Newport Ave, Ocean Beach. 619-222-5303. Wed: Lady Dottie and The Diamonds. Thu: Product, DJ Reefah. Fri: Daedly Birds, Crazy Indians, DJ RM. Sat: Brewfish, DJ Chelu. Sun: The Hips.

Griffin, 1310 Morena Blvd, Bay Park. thegriffinsd.com. Wed: CINE, Special Delivery. Thu: CityBeat Local Music Release Party w/ The Palace Ballroom, Wild Wild Wets, Schitzophonics, Teenage Burritos.

Fri: Pool Party, Brown Shoe, Counterpoint Culture, Real Things Are Good. Sat: The Soft White Sixties, Deadly Birds, Heavy Empire. Sun: Love and the Skull, Caldecott, Counter Culture, ‘d’, Roxy Moonslinger, Vignette. Tue: Small City Calling.

Hard Rock Hotel, 207 Fifth Ave, Downtown. hardrockhotelsd.com. Fri: Mike Attack!, Slowhand (207); Who, Static Prom (Float). Sat: Bamboozle, Kevinbrown (207); Lavelle, Scott Saunders (Float).

Sun: Ron Reeser, Sid, Kurch (207).

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave, Downtown. houseofblues.com/sandiego. Thu: Flogging Molly Green (sold out). Fri: Stephen Lynch. Sat: Garden of Evil. Sun: ‘Beatles vs. Stones - A Musical Shootout.’

Mon: Modern Day Moonshine.

Ivy @ Andaz, 600 F St, Downtown. ivyentertainmentsandiego.com. Thu: Tristan D, IDeal, Jounce, Kitty Violet, Airee, Ramiro V, Este, Mark Watts, Kreese. Fri: Lipstik Inc. Sat: Lipstik Inc. Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd, Midtown. kavalounge.com. Wed: ‘Elk Beats vs. Sub Pressure’ w/ EshOne vs. Kial, ADP, Lazerwolfe, P Man. Thu: Jonwayne, Zeroh. Fri: MAST, KONE, Zochi, Illuminauts, Mystery Cave, Beatsmith Resist. Sat: ‘Dragon Lounge.’

La Gran Tapa, 611 B St, Downtown. lagrantapa.com. Wed: Agave Guys. Thu: Dusty Brough Guitar. Fri: Juan Moro, flamenco. Sun: Grupo Bohemio. Tue: Tomcat Courtney.

Lestat’s Coffee House, 3343 Adams Ave, Normal Heights. lestats.com. Wed: Chi McClean, Savannah Philyaw. Thu: Brett Vogel, Matthew Frantz. Fri: Beatie Wolfe, Colin Clyne, Megan Combs. Sat: Daniel Moir, Josh Damigo. Sun: Mary Grasso, Sierra West, SONiA and the Disapear Fear.

Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. http://theloft.ucsd.edu. Sat: BOY. Mon: The Tritones.

Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Ave, Coronado. mcpspub.com. Wed: Tone Cookin’. Thu: Harmony Road. Fri-Sat: 4-Way Street.

Numbers, 3811 Park Blvd, Hillcrest. numberssd.com. Thu: ‘Tagged’ w/ DJ Angel X; ‘Varsity’. Fri: ‘Harness’; ‘Viernes Calientes.’ Sat: ‘Club Sabbat’ w/ Robin Roth.

Sun: Joe’s GameNite.

Office, 3936 30th St, North Park. officebarinc.com. Wed: Maniqui Lazer, Batwings, Boys Don’t Disco, Pablo Stanley, J40.

Thu: Ikah Love, Adam Salter, DJ Old Money. Fri: Gabe Vega, Dirty Mondays, The Saloon, Kid Wonder. Sat: DJs EdRoc, Kanye Asada. Sun: Tribe of Kings. Mon: McPullish, Rashi, Turbo. Tue: ‘The Void’ w/ DJ Colour Vision.

Pal Joey’s Cocktail Lounge, 5147 Waring Road, Mission Valley. paljoeysonline. com. Wed, Thu, Sun, Tue: Karaoke. Fri: Random Radio. Sat: Outta Sync. Mon: Vicious Phishes.

Patricks II, 428 F St, Downtown. patricksii.com. Wed: Mystique Element of Soul.

Thu: 145th Street. Fri: Blue Rockit Band.

Sat: Bill Magee Blues Band.

Porter’s Pub, 9500 Gilman Dr., UCSD campus, La Jolla. porterspub.net. Thu: Vince Staples, Chazz Shabazz, ET and Jona. Fri: G-Eazy. Sun: 5 and a Dime.

Propagandist, 835 Fifth Ave, Downtown.

619-238-7117. Fri: Reflex, Tres DuBois, Damn Juelz, Electrichead, Colour Vision.

Queen Bee’s, 3925 Ohio St, North Park. queenbeessd.com. Wed: Firehouse Swing Night. Thu: Cavalist (CD release), Matthew Jordan, We Are Sirens, The Akashic Records. Sun: Salsa. Tue: ‘Lyrical Exchange.’

Rich’s , 1051 University Ave, Hillcrest. richssandiego.com. Wed: ‘Mischief’ w/ Bianca, DJ Marcel. Thu: ‘Repent - Ladies Night’. Fri: DJs dirty KURTY, Will Z. Sat: DJ John Joseph, DJ Taj. Sun: DJ Kiki, DJ Cros.

Riley’s, 2901 Nimitz Blvd, Point Loma. rileysmusiclounge.com. Wed-Thu, SunTue: Karaoke. Fri: Sapient, AED. Sat: Hawaiian Islanders Party.

Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Ave, La Mesa. rivierasupperclub.com.

Wed: Kice Simko and Friends. Thu: Scooter and Nolan. Fri: Animal Steel. Sat: Bill Cardinal. Tue: Party Planet Karaoke.

Ruby Room, 1271 University Ave, Hillcrest. rubyroomsd.com. Wed: The Great Okra, Water Tower, MohaviSoul, Karina Frost. Thu: Revenge Club, Oddball, Some Kind of Nightmare, Cadstoff. Fri: Phutureprimitive, ill-esha, Project Aspect. Sat: Roc Marciano, Stuntdouble and Tenshun, DJ Kid Riz, Daeta, Norm Rocwell. Tue: ‘Ruby Tuesday’.

Seven Grand, 3054 University Ave, North Park. sevengrandbars.com/sd. Wed: Gilbert Castellanos Jazz Jam. Thu: Bill Caballero. Fri: John Reynolds Band. Sat:

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March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 51

The Midnight Pine, Boy King.

Shakedown Bar, 3048 Midway Drive, Point Loma. theshakedownsd.com. Fri: Cosmic Suckerpunch, The Sam Chase.

Sat: Abscission, Tormentor, Xpulsion, Fist Fight on Ecstacy. Sun: Nerve Control, The Rebel Spell, Vindictive, Spreading Evictions, Among the Enemy.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. sodabarmusic.com. Wed: Maserati, Detta, Stage Kids. Thu: Hey Marseilles, Deep Sea Diver, A Mayfield Affair.

Fri: The View, The Grass Heat, Said the Whale. Sat: Blackout Party, The Mallard, Hit Dog Hollar. Sun: Joshua James, Noah Gundersen (6 p.m.); Guantanamo Baywatch, Midnight Eagle, Lenz (9 p.m.).

Mon: Bend Sinister, Just Like Jenna, Love and The Skull. Tue: Deadly Birds, Ape Machine, Dirty Sirens, Wha?.

SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd, Midway. somasandiego.com. Thu: The Ghost Inside, Stick To Your Guns, Stray From The Path, Rotting Out. Fri: Fight the Future, The Frights, Sidekick, Welcome to Now, The Young Gents, DON. Sat: Bad Religion, Polar Bear Club.

Spin, 2028 Hancock St, Midtown. spinnightclub.com. Fri: Clyde Carson. Sat: Ted Eiel, Shane Stiel. Sun: Wolfpack Ent, Shotta Crew.

Stage Bar & Grill, 762 Fifth Ave, Downtown. stagesaloon.com. Wed: Bl3ndr, Mark Fisher/Gaslamp Guitars. Thu: Dubstep DJs, Van Roth. Fri: The Disco Pimps, Broken Vow. Sat: DJ Miss Dust. Mon: Reggae. Tue: DJ Von Kiss.

The Flame, 3780 Park Blvd, Hillcrest. flamesandiego.com. Fri: ‘Therapy’; ‘Darkwave Garden.’ Sat: Paula’s Pantsless 40th and Fabulous Freedom.

The Void, 3519 El Cajon Blvd, North Park.

tinyurl.com/axnjs56. Wed: Slumberland Nite w/ Heathers. Thu: Wax Idols, Cathedral X. Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd, City Heights. tiltwoclub.com. Sat: ‘Beat Kitchen’ w/ Question, Charlie Rock, Freddie Joachim.

Mon: Pony Time, Stickers, Batwings. Tue: Kim Gordon Comedy Night.

Tin Can Ale House, 1863 Fifth Ave, Bankers Hill. thetincan1.wordpress.com.

Wed: The William Hatchett Band, Matthew Frantz, Shea Webster. Thu: Oh and The Whats, Boats, Matt Curreri. Fri: The Amalgamated, Unsteady, The Combos. Sat: Tori Roze and The Hot Mess, Wooster, Rhyme and Rhythm. Mon: Tin Can Country Club w/ John Meeks. Tue: ‘(my way is my way is my way)’ w/ Ayari Kanezashi (art), Balloons, Brian Ellis Group.

Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St, Bay Park. tioleos.com. Wed: Bayou Brothers. Thu: Rockin’ Aces. Fri: Detroit Underground.

Sat: Bobby Sanchez Combo. Sun: Salsa.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave, City Heights. thetowerbar.com. Thu: Hobo Torch, Civil Satans, Media Control, Masteria, DJ Little Fists. Fri: Teenage Burritos, The Vomettes, Kids in Heat. Sat: DJ Mongo Style, Chango Rey, T-Murder. Mon: Monarchies, Hoodrat, Whales.

Turquoise, 873 Turquoise St, Pacific Beach. theturquoise.com/wordpress. Wed: Tomcat Courtney. Thu: Pan Am. Fri: Afro Jazziacs.

Sat: Peligroso Caramelo, Tomcat Courtney.

Sun: Sounds Like Four (4 p.m.); Blue 44 (7 p.m.). Mon: Pan Am. Tue: Afro Jazziacs.

U-31, 3112 University Ave, North Park. u31bar.com. Thu: DJ Slynkee. Fri: Beatknockers, DJ R-You. Sat: ‘Party Rock Saturdays’ w/ Saul Q, Kid Wonder.

Vin De Syrah, 901 Fifth Ave, Downtown. syrahwineparlor.com. Thu: DJ Giancarlo.

Fri: DJ Dynamiq.

Voyeur, 755 Fifth Ave, Downtown. voyeursd.com. Wed: UZ. Thu: Switch. Fri: Laidback Luke. Sat: Feenixpawl. Tue: 12th Planet.

Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, South Park. whistlestopbar.com. Wed: ‘New Best Thing: For the Kids!’ (comedy). Thu: 45 Calibre. Fri: Gone Baby Gone, The Hollerin, DJ Terryn S, Robin Roth. Sat: ‘Booty Bassment’ w/ DJs Dimitri, Rob. Tue: ‘Friends Chill.’

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St, Ocean Beach. winstonsob.com. Wed: Open mic w/ Jefferson Jay (6 p.m.); Revival, DJ Carlos Culture (9:30 p.m.). Thu: Frution String Band. Fri: Love and Light, JPod the Beat Chef, The Pilot. Sat: Smokey Hoof (6 p.m.); Tommy Dubs and Seismic Levelers, The Whiskey Avengers, Piracy (9:30 p.m.).

Sun: Arboone Party (2 p.m.); ‘O.B.-o-ke’ w/ Jose Sinatra (10 p.m.). Mon: Electric Waste Band.

52 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 53

Proud sponsor:

Ink Well Xwords by Ben Tausig

Across 1. Broadcasts, as seeds 5. Big initials in conspiracy theories 8. Federico Fellini’s birthplace 14. Rhyme scheme at the beginning of “Can’t Knock the Hustle” 15. Mighty long time 16. Encourages with chicken taunts, say 17. Chef’s note-to-self after dispensing soup with a measuring cup?

19. Left by someone 20. Economic bloc headquartered in Indonesia 21. One-named singer with “Die Young” 23. Shifty 24. Holy lecture 26. Braxton of Billboard 28. Platonic utensil that clashes with the other utensils?

34. Relieve oneself 36. How insistent sentences might be typed 37. It falls in winter 38. “Apocalypto” person 40. Coworkers of RNs 41. ___ voce (quietly) 42. Sizes above meds.

43. With everything, say 45. Lady octopus 46. Dishware emblazoned with the Ten Commandments?

49. “Master and Margarita” locale 50. Portmanteau in pitching 53. Inflationary meas.

56. Disease named after a Congolese river 59. How sun-dried tomatoes might be packed 60. Naked Lady 62. Cookware gorgeously adorned?

64. Major event in golf or tennis 65. Pooh-poohing word 66. Move, to a Realtor 67. Where one might hear a mazurka 68. Placeholder in a bracket 69. “Think of it ___ investment”

engaged?

8. Cinnamon candy 9. Cold-blooded, scaly vegetarian 10. “2001: A Space Odyssey” studio 11. Businesses that sprang up in the ‘90s 12. Liam’s brother in Oasis 13. “Last Crusade” protagonist, casually 18. Having nothing to breathe 22. Rises to the challenge 25. Three-time all-star reliever Robb 27. “In that event ...”

29. U.S. transit system that spans two states and a district 30. In a crazy way 31. About to fall 32. Uncritical learning style 33. Name that would be super easy to clue if this puzzle were in Korean 34. Hold from the top, as a basketball 35. Big name in golf carts 39. Bible study 101 guy 41. Preserve hermetically, as flavor 43. Break up 44. Sizes above 42-Across 47. Lame, with an accompanying hand gesture 48. Reindeer’s biome 51. John Cale’s instrument 52. 57-Down advocate John 53. PC key near “home” 54. Just meh 55. “The Voice” alternative, briefly 57. Queer initialism 58. Like Steve Jobs, partly 61. One may be hoppy 63. “Puzzle solved”

Last week’s answers

Down 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Viking stories Really moving the needle, in a way It’s read for flow Hanging in a deli A Clampett Ordinary people Bender one might go on before getting

Two $20 gift certificates to Mitch’s Seafood will be awarded weekly.

Email a picture of your answers to crossword@sdcitybeat.com or fax it to 619-325-1393.

54 · San Diego CityBeat · March 6, 2013

March 6, 2013 · San Diego CityBeat · 55