The Yucks

Extant since the late 1990s and fronted by Jeff Freedman, The Yucks were founded by drummer Bill Yuck. They’ve been a longtime staple of the local scene, with a five-song EP called Full Of It released in 2019. The band is working on a new album, World’s Gone Blind, recorded at bassist Rowland Bluntz’s home-based BluntCave Studios with a band lineup featuring him with Yuck, Freedman, and “Mad Dog” Matt Murphy on guitar. “This will be the second release from the Yucks with this new super tight lineup, recording some new material along with a few unreleased and unrecorded oldies,” says Bluntz, a vet of Resevior Tips, Ramblin’ Outlaws, FuckLordz, and Punk Floyd who joined the Yucks around eight years ago. “We had planned on going to DoubleTime Studios last year, but covid hit and put those plans off, so we started recording everything ourselves.” The album, which features cover artwork by Shannon Roscoe, will be highlighted in their opening set for D.R.I. at Brick By Brick on October 15.

SeeYouSpaceCowboy

Screamo metalcore band SeeYouSpaceCowboy features former members of René Descartes, alongside players from Letters To Catalonia. A four-song debut EP was released in 2016, issued on cassette via Structures/Agony and on CD from React With Protest Records. The following year saw the release of a six-song seven-inch EP, Fashion Statements of the Socially Aware. Earlier this year, they released a split-EP via Pure Noise Records with If I Die First, a new metalcore band with emo-trap artist Lil Lotus and members of From First To Last, alongside fellow emo-trap artists Nedarb and Zubin. A new single just dropped for “Misinterpreting Constellations,” in advance of the sophomore SeeYouSpaceCowboy full-length The Romance of Affliction, due November 5 via Pure Noise. The album features guests such as singer Keith Buckley (Every Time I Die) on “Life As A Soap Opera Plot, 26 Years Running,” singer Aaron Gillespie (Underoath) on “Intersecting Storylines to the Same Tragedy,” rapper Shaolin G on “Sharpen What You Can,” and the title track features their recent split-EP collaborators If I Die First.

Crush of Souls

Crush of Souls features Charles Rowell, best known from a string of experimental noise rockers such as Some Girls and the Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower. A debut EP called Bad Trip was released during the 2020 pandemic shutdown, with a single and video for “Pain & Ecstasy” that featured guest Tuna Mess. The project just issued a cassette single for “Call You,” the title track of a new EP released this month via Kill Entertainment. A video for the song again features Tuna Mess, along with Zeynep Kaya of the French band Hermetic Delight. The EP also includes “J.G. Ballad” featuring guest saxophone player Tobias Johannes Pfier (who played on the Crush of Souls EP Bad Trip) and two remixes, one by California dub drone artist Caligears and another from techno starlet Mila Dietrich. The “Call You” cassette single is packaged in a plastic bag filled with dirt from the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, France, the final resting place of Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison.

Tolan Shaw

Singer-songwriter Tolan Shaw (the New Archaic) says scrambling for work during the pandemic has allowed time for reflection, as well as offering new money-making opportunities. “Time and again, I’ve been asked ‘what are you? Who is Tolan Shaw? An artist? A writer? A performer? Pop? Singer songwriter?’ And I get it. Lately, I’ve released songs via my pop solo artist project, had a songwriting credit on a newly released country song, written and produced a Christmas EP, finished two kids songs for a production music library, wrote songs with a group of talented peeps at a sync songwriting camp, worked on my alternative rock side project, sung two jingles, played guitar for a bunch of demos, and performed live at the Bluebird in Nashville. And you know what? I love doing all those things. I love that every day is different. Am I crazy and all over the place? Maybe. Is it inhibiting the industry from knowing what to do with me? Maybe. Do I need to pick a lane? Maybe. But for now I’m wearing a bunch of hats, because it’s the only way for me to work full time in music.”

JT Moring

“A year into the pandemic,” says Gemini Junction guitarist JT Moring of his upcoming solo album Only Just a Man, “I found myself with a room full of musical instruments, a bunch of songs, and time on my hands. Despite being only just a man, I decided to embark on producing the best album possible. I had made albums before with my bands, but knew to get the product I wanted this time, I would have to upgrade my recording setup and upgrade my technical and performance skills. Ronan Chris Murphy [King Crimson, GWAR] helped with the former and Eve Selis helped with the latter. Ramona Ault [Prairie Sky Band] added vocals. Finishing that project called for all the tenacity and humor I could muster. These qualities bled over into the album itself and became a unifying theme tying the material together. Besides inspiration from my songwriting heroes like John Prine and Steve Earle, the work is influenced by the concept albums of my youth, like Dark Side of the Moon. I use six instrumental pieces to help tie the 13 songs into a coherent whole. While we wait for Only Just a Man to hit the digital platforms, I’ve made a private page where select folks can check out the album. Recognizing that CD sales are largely history, I’m giving away copies, but requesting that in return folks drop ten dollars in the next musician tip jar they come across.” Guest singer Ramona Aunt arranged and performed the female vocals that appear throughout the 19 tracks (13 lyrical songs and six instrumentals). Moring will open for occasional Rugburn Gregory Page on November 19 for a San Diego Folk Heritage event at Templar’s Hall in Poway.