Blogs | Rock Around the Town
Farewell K23 Concert, plus 75 Secrets, 25 Rock Chicks, and Creepy Old Guy Goes to a Rave
By Jay Allen Sanford | Posted November 29, 2008, 12:59 a.m.
Plus Racist Rock, Dark Metal, and Goths for Jesus
CONTENTS:
1 – Farewell K23 Concert December 5th
2 – 75 Secrets About 75 Local Musicians
3 – Rocker Chicks Do San Diego
4 – Underage Swing Dancers Battle Local Law
5 - Hello Satan: Dark Metal In Dago
6 - History Of Death Metal – comic strip by JAS & Scott Pentzer
7 - Goths For Jesus: Pastor Dave’s Christian Goths
8 - Racist Rock: Do The White Thing
9 - Creepy Old Guy Goes To A Rave
10 – Where’s the Reader’s Hip-Hop Coverage? Plus, 10 Songs That Define San Diego Hip-Hop
11 - The Last DJ: The Life and Times of DJ Jim McInnes
12 - The OB Ranger Rides Again: Return of a '70s FM Counterculture Icon - Radio legend Gary Allyn recalls the dayz of the OB Ranger
13 - Local Jock Alleges He Was Stalked
14 - Star Trek: The Continuing Mission - Interview with Patrick McCray, one of the creators of the new Trek internet series
FINAL CURTAIN DECEMBER 5TH FOR ALFRED HOWARD’S K23 ORCHESTRA
You may recall a small brou-haha a couple of years ago, when Alfred Howard’s K23 Orchestra got a San Diego Music Award nomination (again) in the hip-hop category (again!). Local rapper Celio Skilz told Blurt at the time “Alfred Howard may be a good musician, but I'm sorry, he's not part of the San Diego hip-hop scene.”
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2006/aug/31/lil-bit-miffed
"I think it shows whoever does the nominations doesn't necessarily listen to the music," said Alfred Howard. "What our group is doing is funk/rock/psychedelic/Afro-beat with spoken word. I think the SDMA people acknowledge that we are doing something different and original, yet have a difficult time genrifying it. We do appreciate the acknowledgement, though, we're not a hip-hop band."
Alfred Howard and the K23 Orchestra (AHK23) combines in-the-pocket funk, staccato spoken word, classic soul, aggressive rock, and vintage psychedelia. Their musical style moves seamlessly through tightly arranged changes to extended open jams with powerful crescendos and quick shifts in dynamic.
The band's five strong rhythmic voices (Rhodes & organ, guitar, bass, drums, and vocals) sculpt a collective and cohesive expression delivering a high-energy live show fueled by rapid-fire conscious lyricism. As it says on their website, “AHK23 has found an audience in the world of funk fiends, indie-rock fans, hip-hop heads, reggae followers, and even poetry lovers.”
Sadly, the band’s final gig is December 5. "We will be kicking it Tupac style with a posthumous release somewhere down the line," says Howard in a message posted to his fans, said to be written on a Greyhound bus ride.
“It has been a wonderful seven years…I'm sure everyone in the band has different highlights, memories, people to thank and reasons for exploring new paths, but here are mine.”
“For years this band defined me and reflected me, kept me up at nights in excitement, anticipating the next gigs and our next moves creatively. Hundreds of shows, thousands of miles of interaction, new friends, family, places that I never would have seen otherwise, everything I loved in life, wrapped up into one entity. Eight years ago, on a Greyhound bound to New Orleans I was excited, hopeful, engaged, thirsty and restless. But today, on this particular Greyhound, a different person is riding back home, hoarse, sick, jaded, sore, tired and achy. I felt like I had overdosed on miles, hung over on traveling, jaded by the same things that once fueled me.”
“But at 30, as a struggling artist, pouring out soul into an empty dive bar, waiting for the stools to learn to applaud, filling up a hundred dollar gas tank and getting paid peanuts, heartache and headache at the end of the night has become very tangible. There have been great shows in midst of slow nights, but those slow nights have taken their toll. These hard times are the large and leaden straw to break this camel's back.”
Alfred Howard & the K23 Orchestra's final show will be at Winston's on Friday, December 5.
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/alfred-howard-and-k23-orchestra
http://www.myspace.com/alfredhowardandthek23orchestra
75 SECRETS ABOUT 75 SAN DIEGO MUSICIANS
We asked 75 locals in the music biz to reveal something about themselves that few would ever know or guess.
GAYLE SKIDMORE: “One thing people are always surprised by is that I enjoy backpacking and surfing. I guess I don’t seem like the type. I hear that musicians are always up late a night because they are afraid of sunlight.”
JOEY GUEVARA, I WISH I: “I party with monster java and mango suckers!”
JUNE CATE, I WISH I: “I'm a mellow drunk. I did pee walk once on my way home from Nu Nu's.”
NICK, THE DMONSTRATIONS: “I am double jointed in my elbows.”
GREASER, SINGER/GUITARIST: “I got hit by a car when I was 3.”
BIG DADDY MASCARAS, DRUMMER THEE CORSAIRS: “I love lounge music.”
REX NAVARRO, BASSIST: “I shoot blanks.”
MC FLOW: “My friends and I were celebrating my 30th birthday down in Mexico, and I was dared to make an appearance at the party wearing nothing but my birthday suit and a birthday crown. I did it, and I wasn’t even that drunk!”
GREG LASWELL: “Sometimes, when no one is around, I’ll pop in an Avril Lavigne album. And thoroughly enjoy myself.”
MARK DECERBO, FOUR EYES/ROCKOLA GUITARIST: ”Believe it, or not, I can be kinda funny after a few beers.”
JOEY HARRIS, GUITARIST: “I love Mariah Carey.”
TED FRIEDMAN, GUITARIST GRAVEDIGGER V: “I golf naked.”
ELI LIEBERMAN, SINGER/GUITARIST STRIVE ROOTS: “I like all music and try not to judge, but Justin Timberlake really makes me uncomfortable.”
BILLY HORVATH, CRUNCHBERRY GUITARIST: “I lock myself in a closet at night dressed as a ballerina, work myself into a frenzy by listening to Dokken and then escape and go kill butterflies with a pistol.”
HANS JENSEN, COLLAGE MENAGE: “I ran away from home when I was fifteen and I cheated on a test in high school by writing the answers on my arm.”
FRITZ JENSEN, COLLAGE MENAGE: “I have a flower garden for my love.”
COLIN CLYNE: “When I was nineteen, and drunk, I got a Superman tattoo, after seeing one on a poster of Bon Jovi (argh, cringe).”
BRIAN KARSCIG, LOUIS XIV: “A well-known promoter once made posters of the group, and was selling them without our permission. They were extremely ugly, and kids were being ripped off. I walked up to him in the club, asked him how many more were there, grabbed them out of his hands, unzipped my pants, and urinated all over them in front of him.”
BRENDA XU: “[I watch] reality shows, like America's Next Top Model.”
DAVE HOWARTH, BLUE SHIFT GUITARIST: “We're a bunch of nerds, disguised as dorks.”
CJ GLADSTONE, SINGER ROSES ON HER GRAVE: “I own 4 cars and only one works”
NATE MILLION, DRUMMER: “I am an avid gardener and have a bunch of plants.”
BEN TAYLOR, DRUMMER: “I do have a serious side, at times.”
MARK GOFFENEY, BASSIST: “I’m a degreed martial artist with about nine years training in Okinawan Kenpo.”
DAVE GILBERT, GUITARIST: “I actually do give a sh--t.”
JACKSON PRICE, SINGER/GUITARIST: “I once spent three nights in SD county jail for resisting arrest and drunk in public.”
JOEY SUTERA, SINGER/BASSIST: “I'm scared of lizards, they freak me out. They're so fast, they could crawl right up your sleeve or, god forbid, down your pants, before you knew what happened.”
BRENDAN CONCANNON, DRUMMER: “I worked through college as a ‘Mad Scientist’ at kids’ birthday parties. I nearly burnt or maimed so many kids, I’m surprised no lawsuit was ever filed against me.”
ADAM GIMBEL, ROOKIE CARD: “I'm painfully shy.”
ANDREW McNALLY, DRUMMER: “I cultivate young minds.”
DYLAN MARTINEZ, GUITARIST: “I was once a Marine and I served during Desert Storm.”
BENNIE HERRON: “I don't play video games, but I am an internet head.”
AMBER OJEDA: “I have an extreme phobia of L.A. freeways!”
ALAN IGLESIAS, GUITARIST: “In my ‘other life,’ I’m a 3D animation specialist working on all kinds of visual effects, including for feature films.”
SAM ROBERTSON, GUITARIST OFF TRACK: “I had a bit role in the movie Almost Famous.”
JIMMY ZADAI, BASSIST: “I spent four years in the military.”
JAYE FURLONGER, BASSIST: “I collect ceramic cats.”
BEEZELEY, DRUMMER NAUTICAL DISASTER: “People tend to make me uncomfortable.”
ALFONSO DE LA ESPRIELLA, SINGER/GUITARIST: “I really enjoy a good death metal band. For a while.”
BRIAN SHEERIN, MOWER VOCALIST: “We all have big hearts.”
JASON WILEY, SINGER/GUITARIST MOONTUCKY RISIN: “[I like] cigarettes, Burger King french fries, and of course midget porn.”
MOLLY JENSON: “I'm going to start teaching group classes at 24 hour fitness (if I pass my training courses).”
KEITH JACOBSON: “I graduated from college as a Ceramic Engineer. (And yes, Ceramic Engineers do make toilets!)”
JOSH DAMIGO: “I can name all the U.S. Presidents. In order.”
JON BISHOP: “Never broke a bone, but I've had six shoulder dislocations. Once during sex, which was pretty embarrassing.”
JODI V: “I constantly get told that I come off as intimidating or snobby, but the truth is that I’m sweet and very interested in what you have to say.”
JJ MORIN: “Babies think I hung the moon. My picture must be hanging in the Baby green room. Even as we read, infants from newborns to toddlers are out there on the streets, looking all over for me. I am Babyman.”
JENN GRINELS: “I'm so boring, though there is a certain amount of alcohol that causes me to break into the National Anthem. Once was under the Eiffel Tower. Well, at Paris Las Vegas.”
HARGO: “I've always been a pensive person, and I’m really interested in astrophysics, Chinese acupuncture, as well as physiological psychology, or neuroscience, if you will. Not exactly rock ‘n’ roll, is it? But I guess I’ve always been interested in why people do what they do, and in helping people make themselves better and happier. I try to do that through my music, to the best of my ability.”
HANK EASTON, GUITARIST STEELY DAMNED: “I love to cook, and I’m pretty good at it! Of course, I love to eat, too.”
GREG DOUGLASS, GUITARIST STEVE MILLER BAND: “I'm a total dork. I have an extensive collection of original vintage horror and science fiction movie posters, and I also collected butterflies as a kid. All that's missing is the adhesive tape on my glasses. I'm a true Dweebus Americanus, disguised as a rock star.”
RACHAEL GORDON: “I like running out into the ocean and swimming at night alone.In my birthday suit or whatever I'm wearing just to get my head together, because it feels good. Then I'll get out and lay in the sand and drink whiskey. It makes me feel like there isn't anything I can't do, and there isn't.”
PAUL LIZARRGA, BASSIST: “When I was six, I asked my mom relentlessly for a Michael Jackson glitter glove. I cried when I lost it.”
EVAN ROBINSON, SINGER/KEYBOARDIST WAR STORIES: “I hate opening gifts in front of people.”
MARCOS FERNANDES: “I don’t like Brussels sprouts.”
TIM RALDO: “Although my music and stage show is very violent, love is still the most powerful feeling in my heart. I really don’t wish harm on anyone. Unless they happen to be looking for it.”
JD BOUCHARDE: “I’m huge in Paraguay.”
SIMEON FLICK, SINGER/GUITARIST: “I have this irrational fascination with the shallow frivolity of tabloid journalism, in both its TV and print manifestations.”
RICHARD VAUGHAN, GUITARIST: “I'm a huge fan of William Shatner.”
STUART SCLATER, BASSIST: “I can't share milk.”
CONOR RILEY, GUITARIST/ORGANIST: “I wake up every morning and watch the first fifteen minutes of a random Saved By The Bell episode to get the day started.”
DAVID HURLEY, DRUMMER: “I suck at basketball.”
BOB GARRITY, SINGER/BASSIST SCRIBE AMIDST THE LIONS: “I have a nipple in my armpit.”
ADAM JACOBS, GUITARIST/KEYBOARDIST: “I have big knees.”
KRISTOFER TOWNE, SINGER/GUITARIST: “I have one really big toe.”
NATE BALL, DRUMMER: “I weigh 65 pounds.”
JAMIE RENO: “I've never illegally downloaded a single song in my life.”
VOZ, STILL ILL SINGER: “I drool.”
TONY GRIESGRABER, BASSIST/STICK PLAYER: “I can't drive stick shift. Quite the issue while touring Europe.”
STEVEN BRADFORD, SINGER/GUITARIST GET BACK LORETTA: “All of us in the band are dating each other.”
DAN BOISSY, SAX PLAYER STEPPING FEET: “I once carried a 203 bowling average, and bowled 11 strikes in a row.”
REX HERMOGINO: “When I was in middle school, I attempted to do standup comedy at a talent show and got booed off the stage. No career there for me. I'll just stick to my music.”
RUSS CHRIST, AKA THE MUSICAL MIND RAPIST: “I listen to Ani DiFranco.”
JASON BANG: “Well, aside from my fear of being strangled to death in my sleep by midgets dressed as Pirates, I'm really good at giving butt massages. But should I really believe everything that my Grandfather tells me?”
MELISSA VAUGHAN: “The first car I ever drove for transportation was a 15-passenger white van.”
BRIAN SHEERIN of MOWER: “We all have big hearts.”
JACKSON MILGATEN of VISION OF A DYING WORLD: “For the last time, we are not a Christian band!”
JAYME RALPH of WRITER: "Most nights I sleep on top of my comforter so when I wake up my bed is already made."
JAC: “My alter ego is Brown Sinatra. You have to hang around me long enough to find out why.”
MARY DOLAN: "My pinky toes have stubby toenails."
MANUOK: "I play soccer three times a week, and suck terribly, but that was probably guessable."
ROSEY BYSTRAK, SDdialedin blogger: “I was class president and a homecoming princess in high school. I actually had to wear a tiara. For a whole week. Scary.”
SCOTT PACTOR, catdirtsez blogger: “I dislike children.”
“It’s not easy being a chick rocker,” says Vv Loveland of Scary Mary. “One time at Scolari’s, when I went up to play, this guy shows me his penis while I’m onstage. He was drunk and dancing and jiggling it around and I told him ‘Mine’s bigger than yours’ and he put it away.”
She says her fiancé Patrick brings a camera to shows and gets to witness fan lust firsthand. “He hears all the guys talk about how they want to touch me in naughty places. I dance around and I'm alive so I guess people get the wrong idea. It's funny these guys have no clue who he is, Patrick just takes it in stride. He tells me after the show how many drunk guys wanted to put their hands up my skirt.”
“Sometimes,” she says, “the drunks are onstage. We played before Terror Whore at Scolari’s and, next thing I see, the lead singer is barfing everywhere in the bar. Does he stop playing? No, he gets down on the floor of the bar and starts humping the ground where his spew is. Yikes! The strangest thing was the band was totally unfazed by his behavior, they acted like he f-ks barf puddles all the time.”
“At the same show, there was a fight outside when I was leaving and the bartender had to clean that up as well as the puke inside. He doesn't get paid enough for that sh-t.” Loveland’s new side band is VV Morgue (“Scary Mary is in hibernation for now”).
Singer Amber Ojeda says “For a young girl trying to get recognition in the music industry, your morals are tested on a daily basis. My first experience meeting a record producer seemed to go very smoothly. He told me he loved my voice and liked my style. However, as soon as I left to use the bathroom, he told my manager that he couldn’t wait to sleep with me…yes, there was a couch in his studio.”
Ojeda was later hired as lead singer and songwriter for a female vocal group, but she says the first recording session wasn’t much of a group effort. “The other girls were p-ssed that I was in the booth 75 percent of the time, and not them, and one of them stole my lyric book. Someone later left a comment on my website message board with the words of a poem I had written in that book, with a note bragging ‘I have something you don’t have.’ I couldn’t believe it!”
She has since gone solo, but Ojeda says would-be impresarios still assume a single female needs some kind of gimmick to succeed. “I was recently offered a record deal, but they didn’t even want me to use my name or sing my music. They just wanted my look, and they wanted me to sing hard rock, which is so different from what I actually sing. I felt totally disrespected for my voice and musical style, like a piece of meat.”
This year, Ojeda has aligned herself with Sellaband, which connects performers to investors interested in their music. According to Sharon Holleran of A&R Management, “It’s a free service the artist signs up for, where ‘Believers’ buy stock in the music they love. The Believers then become like a street team, one who has a vested interest in promoting the artist, because they all continue to make money off that artist’s success.”
Sellaband.com posts music samples by participating artists, for potential Believers to review. Purchasing a single Part (ie stock) in an artist costs $10, with no quantity limit. Purchasers get a limited edition CD by that artist, plus a percentage of income from downloaded music files. Sellaband sells tracks at 50 cents per download through Amazon, with Believers receiving a percentage based on the size of their Part investment in that artist.
Once an artist has sold 5000 Parts at $10 each ($50,000), Sellaband provides the performer with a range of recording, mixing, and production services, at no charge. “The company is owned by former music executives from the big labels,” says Holleran. “They’re doing a lot of advertising, to bring in more potential Believers.”
Amber Ojeda joined Sellaband on February 24. Within the first thirty days, she reported selling 100 shares of herself, totaling $1000.
Local rock chick Eve Selis may not sell shares of herself, but she WAS involved in a government-related cover-up.
On September 9, 2000, she was to sing the national anthem at the America West Arena in Phoenix. The performance was supposed to be capped by an American bald eagle being released from a balcony to circle the arena and land on its trainer's wrist. However, the bird instead chose to land on top of Selis's head. She maintained her composure and even managed to bow for the audience, most of whom likely thought the landing had been planned that way.
Says Selis on her website, "The trainer asked us not to speak of it, for fear of the eagle losing his congressional approval. This bird, which is an endangered species, was the only bald eagle sanctioned by the U.S. government to fly free at sporting events, rallies, military celebrations, etc. So we understood and kept it on the down low. We recently heard that the bird had retired, so what the heck. The truth must be told."
Selis says her music has been legally downloaded over two million times on the Internet due to her successful self-marketing. She's sold 35,000 CDs, her music is heard in four movies, and she has performed on CNBC, ESPN, and the BBC. She has opened for Travis Tritt, Crosby Stills and Nash, the Doobie Brothers, Joan Osborne, Heart, Dwight Yoakam, Garry Allan, Chris Isaak, and Hootie & the Blowfish.
The Selis band frequently includes "Cactus" Jim Soldi and Sharon Whyte who, along with Mark Intravaia (the Monroes) have their own band, Cactus Twang & Whyte. Soldi played with Johnny Cash for four years and Ricky Skaggs for two years. She's frequently seen around town playing with Tim Flannery and the duo Berkley Hart. Her album Angels and Eagles was released in early 2008.
Last year, when Anya Marina appeared on the Sirius Radio program "The Sh-t Show” with comedian Andy Dick, she took it in stride when Dick introduced her as “Nuts Anya Chin.” “We made out once, I know you don’t like to admit it,” Dick told her. “We were drunk and I took advantage of you. I mouth raped you.”
“Well, it wasn’t really my choice,” Marina replied with a laugh. “I did ask for it, though. I was wearing a miniskirt.” Marina sang backup on Dick’s all-music album, and the duo performed a bit of one tune, singing “Loving you is very nice, but not as nice as drugs.” Later on the show, she played her tune about Lindsay Lohan, “Lindsay Goes To Rehab.” Dick interrupted to announce “I wish I’d mouth raped her [Lohan] too.”
Marina’s fame has been spreading far afield of San Diego. She was name-checked in TV Guide and on Entertainment Tonight after performing at the September 1 ‘07 wedding of Grey’s Anatomy star Kate Walsh’s and film executive Alex Young. Marina played at the couple’s rehearsal dinner in Ojai and sang the newlyweds’ post-wedding dance song, “Someday My Prince Will Come,” from her album Miss Halfway. Music from Miss Halfway has been featured on Grey’s Anatomy.
A TV ad for Jeep features a song by Marina, “You Remind Me,” co-written with Steve Poltz.
Few chick rockers rock as hard as the all-female Zeppelin cover band Zepparella. “We got dissed on the Howard Stern show!” says drummer Clementine. “He played our version of ‘The Lemon Song’…someone told us about it and we downloaded it off the internet.”
Stern was discussing a new compilation of female tribute bands “Girls Got Rhythm,” which also features tracks by Hell’s Belles (AC/DC), Ms. Fits (Misfits), Mistress Of Reality (Black Sabbath), Cheap Chick (Cheap Trick) and the Iron Maidens (duh).
“Howard said he didn't know why in the heck anyone would ever put out a record like this, he wanted to know why anyone would buy it. He was just dissing the concept. Honestly, I was wondering similar things about the compilation too, Howard wasn't saying much that I didn't agree with. When I want to listen to a record, I wouldn’t usually think ‘tribute band.’ But, even though I sort of agreed with his comment, I know there are a lot of great musicians on this record.”
Her bandmates didn’t take Stern’s commentary so lightly. “The girls have a problem with Howard judging naked chicks, but I don't think anyone's dragging those dumb girls on there and it makes for good entertainment. I think it's funny. Howard cracks me up, I listen to him pretty regularly.”
A.M. Vibe vocalist Lisah has a rockin’ story, about the time she got her throat slit on Valentines Day.
“It was the end result of a horse accident,” she says. “My C4 and C5 discs were touching each other, and I had Spinal Stenosis, which means my spinal chord was being smashed. You couldn't even see the protective canal around my spinal cord.” She was told that virtually any movement could cause crippling damage.
“It was horrific,” she says. “The only option was spinal fusion surgery, unless I wanted to live a sedentary life. But I was very concerned about my vocals. My surgeon told me they’d be cutting through or very close to a nerve that affects my vocal chords and voicebox. He couldn't guarantee that my voice would go back to normal.” While awaiting her operation, she says “I lost all the strength in my arms and hands, and trying to play guitar was brutal. I had to sit down to play, and eventually I had to stop playing at all. I can’t even tell you how many Advil I ate.”
On February 14, 2007, “They [doctors] went in through my neck to my spine. Afterwards, I found out that they discovered a piece of my crushed disc lodged in my spinal chord, which could have paralyzed me for life just from turning around or bending over.”
A little over a year later, she says “No harm was done to my vocals! Sometimes my shoulders and neck get tired…I have a Titanium plate in my neck, and sometimes I can feel it in there behind my esophagus, especially when I laugh really hard, then I can totally feel it. It’s funny and strange all at the same time.”
Elan is a female Latin performer based in San Diego, who counts among her rockin’ guitarists Slash of Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver. Her 2004 Street Child CD (sung in English) was self-written and recorded on Elan's Silverlight Records ("a home studio in my apartment in La Jolla"). The album earned the then-22-year-old two Rolling Stone en Español awards in 2004.
"Some fans who've followed me for years thought it was weird, having Slash on the record and in the video [for Street Child]," says Elan of the album's guest guitarist. "But I grew up on hard rock; the first rock concert I ever saw was Guns N' Roses in Guadalajara, when I was, like, eight years old." Elan says the Velvet Revolver guitarist "definitely likes to drink beer, he's into it! He always had one in his hand."
With her 2005 album London Express, Elan gave fans another reason to cry "what the...?" On the cover is a photo of her with her long blond mane shorn to jawline-length. "Some people act real upset. They say, 'How could you?'... I get insane fan mail. I got a letter about a pink jacket I wore to an awards show in Mexico, and it was practically a death threat if I ever wore it again. I don't want to get strangled over my fashion choices."
In August 2006, Elan filed an 11-count lawsuit against Wailers singer Elan Atias, who had begun using just the name Elan for solo recordings. “This is the kind of thing that made my brother and I start our own company,” says the local Elan. “They don’t care about music or who they hurt.” The lawsuit alleges "craft, yet overt maneuvering" to take over local Elan’s given name (which she trademarked and has always recorded and performed under) by defendants Atias, Interscope Records, and public relations firm the Mitch Schneider Organization.
The other Elan's PR company used to represent local Elan, and a link on their website that formerly led to local Elan’s site now sends users to Mr. Atias's webpage instead. Interscope Records told the Los Angeles Times’ "Calendar" section in 1999 that signing local Elan was their "second highest priority after Enrique Iglesias' new album."
“I am shocked that now, my former PR firm and a label that actually wanted to sign me, would try this,” says local Elan. “They thought they could just run us over and get away with it and we wouldn’t say anything. They were wrong!”
"If you take a look at the timing, you have to be very disappointed in how these music industry players behaved," said lawyer Matt Rifat of Manning And Marder, Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez LLP, who is representing local Elan in San Diego federal district court. “The sequence of events is unbelievable. Interscope and the Mitch Schneider Organization deal with Elan one day and the next they are slapping her name onto Atias, who never went by the one name until this year…it is as unseemly as it is illegal."
Elan's new album is What Can Be Done at This Point.
Lindsey Troy was once part of a rock duo with her sister Anna, the Troys. “We were signed to Elektra on my fifteenth birthday, but the record was never released” says Lindsey says of the album she and her sister Anna recorded in 2002. “They kept pushing the release date back and they didn't do what they had promised, which was to make a window of time where they would only promote our single. Instead, they were pushing a bunch of different singles to radio stations at the same time, including Missy Elliott's. I think there was a lot of turmoil within the label, because they were on the verge of folding into Atlantic.”
“Pretty much everyone who originally worked at the label when we were signed lost their jobs when Elektra folded,” says Lindsey. “I believe Elektra still owns all of the recordings that they paid for. We don’t have the masters but we do have a copy of the album, which is nice for memories and what not. Elektra owns the recordings but not the songs so, theoretically, if we ever wanted to, we could sell those songs to someone else.”
Lindsey Troy says neither sister regrets their album as a duo going unheard. “Anna and I were getting older and couldn't really relate to those songs anymore. We both kind of felt that our fetters had been taken off, we were finally free to play and do whatever we wanted. And to grow up.”
Cindy Lee Berryhill’s song “When Did Jesus Become a Republican?” has spent the better part of the last year being featured at Neil Young’s “Living with War Today” website, where songwriters are encouraged to submit political music. “They actually have a kind of ranking system there for the protest songs,” she says. At one point, her tune went from ‘Newly Added Songs’ to number 13. “I didn’t even know it had been added until L.A. Air America radio called and said they found my song on Neil’s site and would I do an interview.”
Among others who offered political songs for inclusion were Steve Earle and Kris Kristofferson. Berryhill says she went through the regular submission process, and the song’s embrace on Young’s webpage is unrelated to the fact that, a few years ago, she worked for Young’s manager Elliot Roberts and Lookout Management.
“One day at that job, I was to go to the Santa Monica airport and pick up David Crosby and bring him back to the office. I had this 17-year-old Toyota station wagon that was filled with boxes and chairs in the back 'cause I was moving and here’s David Crosby climbing in.” She says the two of them talked about “science fiction books and terraforming of the planet Mars.”
Featuring backup vocals by local underground comic icon Mary Fleener, “When Did Jesus Become a Republican?” includes lyrics such as:
“When did Jesus turn the tables on tender and join the money lenders?
'Stead of sharing with lepers, he's sellin’ shares of Haliburton?
When did Jesus tear away the heartland from the New York Island?
Start throwin' stones at the helpless
when you can't get health insurance?
Take away the shelters for the homeless?
This don't sound like you, Jesus.”
Berryhill performed the song at a May 2007 Songs of Protest event she organized in L.A., where she had a notable brush with fame. “Jackson Browne hung out with us after the show,” says Cindy Lee. “After my little set, I introduced the next songwriter and made my way to the back of the room. On my way, someone at a table touched my sleeve and said, ‘That was great.’ I patted them on the shoulder and whispered 'thanks.' As I was walking away, I realized it was Jackson Browne!
“After the show, Jackson came up to me and told me how much he loved the show, and I noticed he'd even bought a poster. I introduced him to my husband Paul Williams, who started the first rock magazine in 1966, Crawdaddy! Jackson looks at Paul for a minute and says, ‘Wow, I haven’t seen you since you were 15 years old.’ They were both actually 17 when they met in New York City, during that first year of Crawdaddy! So it was all very cool, and Jackson has shown an interest in joining us at one of the next shows.”
More Songs of Protest concerts are planned. The multiperformer event is sponsored by Neil Young’s web project “Living with War Today,” which at this writing includes around 1900 songs, ranked according to visitor votes. Other locals represented on the site include Joel Rafael, Mark DeCerbo of Four Eyes, and Reverend Madison Shockley, a pastor at Carlsbad’s Pilgrim United Church of Christ.
Jenn Grinels grew up in Northern California, before landing at UC Irvine to study musical theater. After graduating, she moved to San Diego and began appearing in local stage productions, which she still does from time to time. One of her most challenging roles was in reverse-drag, playing bearded rock musician Yitzhak in the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, at the Cygnet Theatre. Most recently, she portrayed Janis Joplin in the '60s musical “Beehive,” at the Theatre in Old Town,
She tours and plays locally as a solo singer/songwriter. “Many of my songs are inspired by my boyfriend, Marine Captain David T. Russell, who was recently re-deployed overseas. I write about the pain of separation, and how difficult that can be. Before he left, quite a few of his coworkers and guys from his platoon came out to see me play. A lot of them brought their girlfriends and wives, or they bought one of my CDs to send home to their girlfriends and wives. It’s amazing to play for people who so strongly relate to the music. I just got an order from a friend serving in Iraq right now, who bought six CDs because she wants to give them to fellow marines for Christmas.”
“There are a couple of songs on the new album that deal with [my boyfriend's] past deployments. He happens to be highly decorated -- Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart -- which he doesn't like to talk about, but I'm very proud of him.”
The story of how Captain Russell earned his Purple Heart and Silver Star awards was featured in a December 2006 GQ magazine article, "A Few Good Medals."
“They ran a photo of him smiling and covered in blood,” says Grinels. “That picture was taken right after he was shot. One of his Marines joked with him, 'Sir, can you try to look injured?'”
The couple met two years ago when a group of Marines caught Grinels performing at a pub. “I heckled the Marines from the stage,” says Grinels. “I made them put their arms around each other and do a kick line while I sang. When I got off stage, Dave approached me and said 'You have characteristics I'd like to pass onto my children.' It worked!”
Grinels says the captain helped get her new album made. “He acted as executive producer and was involved every step of the way,” she says. “He gave feedback on the music, offered a few lyrics here and there, was present for the recording when he got back from his tour, enlisted graphic designers, and dealt with the duplication company. He also wrote some of the mass emails, and he’s always my roadie when he's available.”
While touring, Grinels often performs at functions organized by KVN, the Key Volunteer Network (“Basically, the military wives club”), and she’s looking into a related charity in order to donate a portion of her CD sales (“Probably Operation Homefront”).
You may have heard Victoria Robertson singing in the chorus with the San Diego Opera over the past several years (M. Butterfly, etc.) or soloing the national anthem at a Miramar Air Show. Or you may have seen her modeling in international print ads and catalogs for Kyocera cell phones and Road Runner Sports. If you hung around La Jolla's Living Room on Thursday nights, you might have caught her with acoustic guitar (Taylor model 414, made in El Cajon) and perhaps a band, performing what she describes as "acoustic-pop-Sheryl-Crow-meets-Jewel-with-a-touch-of-Sarah-McLachlan"-style originals.
If you're in the armed forces, however, you probably know her as Miss USO San Diego, a post she's held since shortly after relinquishing her Miss San Diego crown from the 1998 Miss America competition. "People think the USO died with Bob Hope, World War II, or maybe Vietnam, but the entertainment department is still out there playing all kinds of training bases, all over the world, in war and in peacetime. We've even landed on aircraft carriers, coming down in this little plane on a postage-stamp-sized spot on the ocean and then playing on a stage at the flight line!"
Accommodations for her and her backup band are paid for by the USO when they perform far-flung places like Germany, England, the Netherlands, and Thule Air Base in Greenland (where only 700 troops were stationed). "The A-list performers are building morale in the war zones. We get sent to the other places, where the support troops are warming up." She says she'd have no problem going to a hot zone like Iraq. "I'll sing wherever they send me, wherever they think I can do some good. No matter what your politics are, whether you're for or against the war itself, the men and women in uniform are just doing their job. They deserve support."
Only one other state has a Miss USO -- New York -- and that post is voted annually via pageants and judges. "I'm told they'll let me be Miss USO San Diego until either the troops don't like me anymore or I can't sing. I hope that's a long time away. Boy, that'll be a sad day when they come up to me and say, 'It's time.'"
Originally from New Jersey, Robertson graduated from UC San Diego with a Visual Arts degree. Her album, Say New You,was released in August 2007, and her album Celebrating is often sent to troops overseas.
In February 2008, Robertson won the "Carlsbad to Karlovy Vary" vocal competition for the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus Young Artist program. Karlovy Vary is Carlsbad's "sister city" in the Czech Republic. At SDSU, Robertson is a part of the Artist Diploma Program. She runs her own side business entertaining at children's parties, Princess Parties and Friends.
San Diego native Rachael Gordon makes music ranging from classic sixties styled folk to straight ahead rock and roll. “ I’m into all sorts of things,” she says. “There's some garage rock, some powerpop and some folk. I grew up in the 70's, so there's all those influences from AM radio.”
Asked her influences, she starts off with “Joan Jett! All that Runaways and early solo stuff! And I really love Linda Thompson, anything she's done, Fairport Convention. And a guilty pleasure is early Heart, there's a folk side while still rocking out.”
Her recording sessions are known for including dozens of San Diego’s best-known and most accomplished talents. “There’s Hector Penalosa of the Zeros and Flying Colour, Bart Mendoza of the Shambles and Manual Scan, Ray Brandes of the Tell Tale Hearts and Mystery Machine, and AJ Croce, they’ve all written songs for me. And Frank Barajas of JuJu Eyeball and Richard Livoni of Comanche Moon have come up with some real great tunes. That's, what, 1000 years of songwriting experience?”
I asked her if it’s ever hard to get promoters to take her seriously because of her gender? “Absolutely, that’s always a problem. It's very hard to get someone to stop looking at your ass and listen to what your saying...believe it or not, it’s still considered pretty wild to be a girl fronting a rock band in this day and age. Occasionally, you'll see a girl fronting a punk band, but that doesn’t count.”
Asked about her worst gig, she says “It wasn't great being called a Nancy Sinatra wannabe in the San Diego Union in a review. But I think the worst was when I was forced to sing the Mary Tyler Moore show theme at a coffeehouse [laughs].”
Wild Weekend – an all-girl (mostly) tribute to local '70s/'80s punk innovators the Zeros -- signed a deal in November 2007 to release two vinyl singles with Spanish indie Munster Records. In the '90s, when the Zeros reunited, the same label released an album and three singles for the Chula Vista rockers.
On November 11, 2007, Wild Weekend actually found themselves performing in the Zeros' stead when the sometime-reunited band was unavailable to play Los Angeles punk club the Masque's 30th-anniversary show. The Plugz, the Eyes, and the Skulls also performed in the legendary venue, which operated for years in the basement of the X-rated Pussycat Theater flagship locale.
Former Zero Robert "El Vez" Lopez, who had caught Wild Weekend that summer at North Park'sPink Elephant bar, recommended the band for the recording project and anniversary show. Lopez's endorsement came to the group's attention when the Munster label MySpace'd the band with an offer to release their music.
"We just made these recordings for fun when we first started playing," says singer Maren Parusel, who also performs in Squiddo (with former Zero Hector Peñalosa) and the Baja Bugs ("They're kind of rough").
The Wild Weekend discs will include versions of "Don't Push Me Around" with "Wimp" on the flipside, and "Black and White" with "Cosmetic Couple" on the B-side. On the cover art, Wild Weekend struck the same poses as the Zeros did for their releases.
Wild Weekend lost their girl-group status in late 2007, after drummer Melissa (aka "Christy Beats") and bassist Kaitlin Kait-O left to concentrate on their own combo, the Atoms. The newly co-ed Wild Weekend now includes guitarist Kelly Alvarez, former Prayers/Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower drummer Brian Hill, and Sexies bassist Wendy Jeffers.
In April 2008, the band released two 7-inch singles (tributes to the Zeros, 'natch), on Spain's Munster Records. Around the same time, they entered the studio with Keith Milgaten from Vision of a Dying World.
(Thanks to Bart Mendoza for Wild Weekend segment)
UNDERAGE SWING DANCERS
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/28/underage-swing-dancers-battle-local-law
DARK METAL IN SAN DIEGO - Glorifying Satan (portrayed as an actual anthropomorphic being) is a popular motif and marketing axis for many groups, amusing rock critics as much as it horrifies the PMRC. Most of these local bands have one thing in common; using morbid narrative, death-centered ideals, and grotesque imagery as their greatest focus and priority, often (IMO) at the expense of musical form...
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/28/hello-satan-dark-metal-in-san-diego
A HISTORY OF DEATH METAL - Comic strip by JAS and Kiss Comics artist Scott Pentzer...
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/28/hello-satan-dark-metal-in-san-diego
GOTHS FOR JESUS: PASTOR DAVE'S CHRISTIAN GOTHS - From the start, Pastor Dave was interested in starting a ministry for goth kids. He saw in them a fondness for the iconography and rituals endemic to church tradition (crosses, candles, incantations, etc.), as well as great intellectual capacity, emotional depth, and spiritual yearning....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/29/goths-for-jesus-pastor-daves-christian-goths
RACIST ROCK: DO THE WHITE THING - a History of SoCal Racist Rock - White power rock music provides the rallying call which unites racists and Nazi-inclined Skinheads who hope to develop a common culture - or at least present the appearance of one. Racist rock expouses hostile ideology, directed against non-whites, particularly anyone of Negro or Jewish descent; the lyrics are angry, nihilistic, and all about advocating intolerance, if not actual violence, against minorities....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/30/racist-rock-do-the-white-thing
CREEPY OLD GUY GOES TO A RAVE - For a tutorial in rave culture, I first read the message board archives at socal-raves. The group philosophy stresses individualism and a come-as-you-are acceptance of all who enter. However, at the parties attended by your humble-and-humbled forty-something narrator, an unmistakable dress code was evident, with certain constants seeming to be at least preferred, if not required.....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/30/racist-rock-do-the-white-thing
WHERE IS THE READER'S HIP-HOP COVERAGE? - “Rap isn’t synonymous with hip-hop,” I’m told by DJ EVS (real name Evan McGinnis), of the three-piece Mission Infinite. “I think KRS-One [a social/political rapper, co-founder of Boogie Down Productions] defined it best: ‘Rap is something you do, hip-hop is something you live.’ Rap is the style of how you compose your words, the rhyming and rhythm. Kind of like scat. Hip-hop is how you talk, how you wear your clothes, more of the lifestyle”.....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/30/where-is-the-readers-hip-hop-coverage
JIM McINNES - THE LAST DJ - DJ Jim McInnes spent 28 years in radio before being fired for the first time a few years ago by Clear Channel/101.5 KGB FM. McInnes had spent most of disc jockey career ["And over half my life!"] at KGB, where he helped launch the Homegrown local album series....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/01/jim-mcinnes-the-last-dj
THE O.B. RANGER RIDES AGAIN: RETURN OF A ‘70S COUNTERCULTURE HERO - “We were going after the progressive rock or the album rock crowd,” says radio DJ and programming vet Gary Allyn about his early seventies on-air gig in San Diego. “Of course O.B. was the center of the hippie movement in that period, flower power and the drug culture and all that”....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/02/the-ob-ranger-return-of-a-70s-counterculture-hero
LOCAL JOCK SAYS HE WAS STALKED - A REAL LIFE PLAY MISTY FOR ME? - The dark side of audiological obsession formed the basis of the 1971 Clint Eastwood thriller Play Misty For Me (the actor's directorial debut). Portraying a jazz radio DJ for station KRML in Carmel California, Eastwood's character finds his life upended by a high-strung female fan who repeatedly calls his show, to request her favorite song....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/02/local-jock-says-he-was-stalked-a-real-life-play-me
STAR TREK: THE CONTINUING MISSION - INTERVIEW WITH PATRICK McCRAY - Star Trek: The Continuing Mission is a fan-made noncommercial, nonprofit enterprise, not necessarily authorized by Trek owners at Paramount, but not discouraged either. Since the demise of TV’s Star Trek: Enterprise, productions like The Continuing Mission are helping to keep the franchise alive with fresh, new stories....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/02/star-trek-the-continuing-mission-interview
Like this blog? Here are some related links:
OVERHEARD IN SAN DIEGO - Several years' worth of this comic strip, which debuted in the Reader in 1996: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/photos/galleries/overheard-san-diego/
FAMOUS FORMER NEIGHBORS - Over 100 comic strips online, with mini-bios of famous San Diegans: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/photos/galleries/famous-former-neighbors/
SAN DIEGO READER MUSIC MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/sandiegoreadermusic
JAY ALLEN SANFORD MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/jayallensanford