San Diego Reader

San Diego Music Encyclopedia & Database Online Now

NEW COMPREHENSIVE LOCAL MUSIC DATABASE IS LAUNCHED

IT'S DONE!!!! And growing every hour....

If you wanna see a list of over 1,800 San Diego bands, with links to full profiles, photos, discographies, articles, MP3s, etc, checkout http://www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/search/

Believe it or not, you can click on ANY LOCAL MUSICIAN'S NAME (around 4,800 musicos listed!) and bring up bios of every notable band they've ever been in! Try it here with Rob Crow ---

AND, if that wasn't cool 'nuff, click on an instrument, say like this here link to "Drums" - BAM, a list of EVERY DRUMMER IN SAN DIEGO!!!

We've been working on this massively cross-linked Local Music Database for over two years now, covering a century of San Diego history --- if you're a local performer who wants to add or edit a page, go to http://www.sandiegoreader.com/band/edit/

More soon!!!! JAS

HERE'S THE NEW Overheard in San Diego

ARCHIVE OF Famous Former Neighbors

LOCALS HEADLINE ART FAG FEST

Crocodiles is a two man band featuring Brandon Welchez (The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower, The Prayers) and Charles Rowland (Some Girls, The Prayers). Welchez is the vocalist and programmer, while Rowland plays guitar, keys, and electronic drums.

The Dum Dum Girls features former Grand Ole Party singer/drummer Kristin Gundred - who is married to Brandon Welchez of the Crocodiles - a Castro Valley native who plays a 1969 Slingerland drum kit and studied classical and jazz voice. Gundred sang in choirs during high school and college, and holds a degree in modern literary studies.

 CATHRYN BEEKS’ WEEKLY LISTEN LOCAL HOTSHEET  

 TODAY'S "WHAT THE F-CK" ALBUM COVER

Not JUST a spy - a HIPPY spy! "Spy Guy with the Glass Eye" ----

Yep, that's one big dame! WTF is with the arrows sticking out of the safari hat?! Who's hunting who out there?

In low-fi, all you get is a slight buzz...note one guy is humping the coach, there's a dead lady behind the sofa, and the guy on the far left has his headphones HOOKED UP TO A GIRL'S ASS!

One man's treasure is another man's WTF -

Ahhh, Joyce - like Cher, she only needs one name. And, like Bjork, she shouldn't be allowed to dress herself.

This WTF cover doesn't scare me as much as the "Special bonus full color activity poster and lyric sheet" --- wait, is that Martin Short/Ed Grimley in an afro???

A tinfoil faux-Barbarella bikini?? The only way to get THIS spaced out was to take the brown acid at Woodstock -

This is actually the soundtrack to a "wild" biker movie that I just know I'll hate myself for watching, assuming I ever come across it. Can anyone tell me why it looks like the bikers are peeing on midget versions of themselves??

The 1970 film What Do You Say to a Naked Lady was actually a spin-off of the Candid Camera TV show, done by Allen Funt for adults only. Originally rated X (I have it on video), the movie catches people reacting in public to, well, a naked lady - how THAT translates to a RECORD ALBUM, only Satan's Sadists can say....

If "Do the Arousal" was an actual dance ala "Do the Twist," well, let's thank gawd it didn't catch on.

Semi-soft squirting thing in Tijuana. Riiiiight -----

Uhhhhhh...words fail me. Make up your own punchline...

An album full of xylophone music - particularly one by Mr-Rogers-On-Crack here - gives me nothing but BAD vibes! Checkout the two guys in the back buckling down to do all the work, while Dexter Dickweed dorks out in the spotlight ---- 

I do NOT wanna know why that guy in the middle is so effin happy ---

Oh yeah, Bud in a glass - now THAT'S how to seduce a REAL lady! In a trailer park, anyway -------

Mae West, "way out" rock and roller - as far as musical Bad Ideas go, this ranks right up there with Pat Boone's heavy metal album, the New Monkees, and Fleetwood Mac's Rumors followup Tusk (okay, maybe it's not THAT bad) ---

PREVIOUS WTFs - http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jul/24/wtf-album-covers---strange-bizarre-and-butt-clench/

TOP 12 WEB CELEBS TO WATCH FOR IN 2010

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I frankly don’t know how the world ever got by before the internet. Seriously. Over the past few years, I’ve been so hardwired to the web that I swear I dream in html.

So much of my time is spent clicking --- my left hand can barely hold onto a pencil, while my right hand can crush a Volkswagen ---

In the year or so since we set up www.myspace.com/sandiegoreadermusic, and since launching the new website and blog around two years ago, a lot of amazing online video auteurs have come to our attention.

Here are a dozen up-n-coming webheads that we think are the TOP 12 WEB CELEBS TO WATCH FOR IN 2010…………………

12) MICHAEL TIERNAN

“I’ve been toying around with live internet broadcasting from my home,” says singer/songwriter Michael Tiernan. “In the past couple of months, my audience has really begun to grow.” Tiernan’s “interactive internet concerts” stream live from his laptop computer every Friday at noon on www.tiernantunes.tv.

“I usually perform three or four songs, all focused around a certain topic or theme,” says Tiernan. “Viewers aren’t just viewers, either. They are participants, even more so than at a club show…they can enter chat sessions, make requests, and discuss the [musical] theme.” Tiernan also sometimes shows photos and slides, as well as polling viewers on a variety of topics, not necessarily musical. “It usually turns out to be part talk show, part concert.”

“So far, the most amazing experience I’ve had broadcasting is after my daughter was born… [November ‘08]. I was playing a brand new song I wrote for her. In the middle of the song, my wife brought the baby into the room after a nap, and I sang the song to her, tears in my eyes. I received tons of feedback after. There were about fifty people watching from all over the world, and many of them wrote me that it was one of the most touching things they’d ever seen. I had a lot of them crying, too.”

His internet audience can range from a dozen people to around a hundred. “But compare that with getting in your car, filling up the tank, and driving up to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />L.A. or San Francisco to play at a club that may or may not have fifty people in it, and it’s a pretty good deal. I can also sell sponsorship for my shows, and in the future, will be putting on pay-per-view online festivals.”

Michael Tiernan’s songs “Better Life” and “Distractions” were featured on MTV’s Real World earlier this year. In 2007, his song “I’m Ready” was licensed for an episode of the ABC TV series Men In Trees. “It basically just came out of the blue,” he says. “When I got the call, they were ready to send the contract.” He pocketed a $1,000 fee. “Residuals will depend on frequency of repeats and hopefully syndication.”

The program placement was Tiernan’s first network TV sale, though he says he previously licensed his music for exercise videos. “I was hoping the Men In Trees deal would include a date with Ann Heche, [who plays] the main character, but no dice. I'm actually not sure what side of the [bi-sexual] fence she's on these days anyhow.”

Tiernan also won the 2007 Songwriter of the Year Award from the Pacific Songwriting Competition. “I was actually the runner-up,” says Tiernan, “but when the actual winner, from Nashville I think, got into a scuffle with the people who ran the competition, they offered it to me instead.”

www.tiernantunes.com

www.myspace.com/tiernantunes

 11) SCOTT WILSON

Scott Wilson’s video for his song “Too Tired” matches the tune with a hand-animated film by Takeuchi Taijin, “Stop Motion With Wolf and Pig.” The video, uploaded to YouTube in April, uses 1,300 sequentially-shot photographic prints which roll out across a room and all its furniture, in an approximation of the frames-per-second method used to create vintage cartoons. In early July, Wilson got a message from a YouTube browser stating “The Pen Story completely robbed you.”

“I did a search on the Pen Story,” says Wilson, “and I found a video by Olympus about their cameras that was almost identical to my video.” Viewed side by side, the Olympus film and Wilson’s are so similar they could be mistaken as two segments from one longform video. The Olympus clip was accompanied on their website with a note reading “We shot 60,000 pictures, developed 9,600 prints, and shot over 1,800 pictures again…thanks to all the stop motion artists who inspired us,” with no mention of Wilson or Taijin.

After several people posted comments noting the similarities between the Pen Story and the Wilson/Taijin video, Olympus offered clarification. “Some of the comments we have read suggest that we should mention the creator of A Wolf Loves Pork [not the correct title, but rather the opening text line], Mr. Takeuchi Taijin. While we were looking for a way to realize a story describing ‘a journey through time’ based on printed images, we were inspired by Mr Taijin’s brilliant work. For this reason, we intentionally quoted his work in our little movie, while showing full respect to his original idea. We didn’t mention his name because we did not want to do so without his prior agreement. However…we have decided to add credits to him and his work, which we obviously absolutely love.”

“I still have not heard from Takeuchi yet, so I don’t know what he thinks of all this,” says Wilson. “I don’t think they owe me anything, but I do think that it’s a little weird that this major corporation is plagiarizing someone else’s video, without their permission.”

Wilson also points out similarities between the 2005 video for his song “Coffeehouse 101,” which featured around 50 local stars, each lip-synching a line, with a Nickelback video around two years later using an identical format and cadence, albeit with more famous guests, for their tune “Rockstar.”

“I look at it as a strange cosmic joke,” says Wilson. “I don’t think it’s possible to copyright an idea, so this is a fairly common practice. Although it shouldn’t be.”

Wilson’s ode to fame for fame’s sake, “She Won’t Stop,” hit number one on the Big 50 list at aicmusic.com.

“Everybody's wet dream/Save it for the big scene
It's headed for the big screen…Doesn't make a difference to me.”

“Independent Artists Company is a website that features indie musicians, and has a number of radio stations on the site,” says Wilson. “You can sell your downloads with no upfront cost, and you get a hundred percent of the profits, unlike on Snocap which takes 39 cents out of every sale.” The Big 50 is a list of songs on the IAC site with the highest traffic.

The song seems to spin a tale not unlike the true-life stories of media mega-messes Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan, and Britney Spears.

“I was looking at a picture of Paris Hilton in the back of a police car crying, and I know that inspires laughter in a lot of people, but for some reason I felt really sorry for her.”

Says Wilson, “I personally think that there's a spiritual dimension to all of this. Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, and even Paris Hilton were studying Kabbalah shortly before all this stuff went down for all of them, and I think it's a dangerous cocktail to be messing around with the power of God when you're involved in the kinds of antics that those three are up to.” 

Scott Wilson “Too Tired” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOxpgatyERs>

Pen Story - http://www.youtube.com/user/PENStory

“Coffeehouse 101” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VnoQyRUf9A

http://www.myspace.com/metapunk

http://www.metalogicmusic.com

 10) ALEXANDRA DEMATTIA

If, like me, you’ve been around since the Stone’s age, then – like me – you probably can’t tell a Demi Lovato from Miranda Cosgrove from Selena Gomez from Aly from AJ from Taylor Momsen (hey, wasn’t she Cindy Lou Who in the Grinch movie?). Not even if you – like me, just now – do Google searches on ‘tween pop stars, Disney Channel, etc.

Now the Runaways, Suzi Quatro, Cherie Currie, Louise Goffin, Annabelle from Bow Wow Wow, Robin “Times Square” Johnson, THOSE teen girls could rock a video --- but, hey, my sideburns are probably older than a lot of the people reading this blog ------ 

 Anyway, soon-to-be 13 year-old Alexandra DeMattia is an aspiring pop tart from New Jersey whose YouTube persona fabmoviestar13 racks up over 200,000 views for her Sunday episode web show – equally popular are the various homemade music videos, resulting in a devotional fan club base that keeps DeMattia busy signing and mailing upwards of 200 autograph requests per week.

“I have worked with vocal coaches since kindergarten,” says DeMattia, who – besides serving on the Student Council since the 3rd Grade and doing All- Star Cheerleading at Star Athletics for six years - has also been involved with local theatre and undergone dance and acting training.

DeMattia has a vaguely ethnic Mila Kunis look, though she tends to rockout more like her idol, Hannah Montana. Or rather Miley Cyrus. Wait – (Google) – okay, Miley Cyrus. Wait, as in Billy RAY Cyrus?!?! Billy Achy Breaky Heart Cyrus?

“I would love to record a song with Miley Cyrus,” says DeMattia. “I would love to do a remake of Miley’s Hit Song ‘See You Again’ with her. That is my favorite, song and I think it would rock.”

DeMattia’s music vids – full of energetic dancing and pantomime – are surprisingly engaging and professionally shot and edited, looking for all the world just like (or better than) the KidVids I’ve caught on my way from CSI shows (real and fake) to History’s Mysteries, the SyFy channel, VH1, IFC, BBC America, and upper dial reruns of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Rod Serling’s Night Gallery.

(Really, Billy Ray Cyrus, huh? AND he’s on her TV SHOW?! Like, with the mullet? --- Google Images --- wow, that’s even WORSE! He looks like somebody slapped one side of his head with a paint-covered scuba flipper)

DeMattia’s debut four-song EP, recorded in L.A. in March 2009, features her YouTube hit “Cool Without You” and was recently launched on iTunes ----  the other three songs are “Snapshot,” “Love the Hype,” and “Telephone.”

“I worked closely with a producer on the music for the tracks,” says DeMattia. “We came up with ideas together…I recently started exploring songwriting. Being creative is one of my favorite aspects of music.”

In addition, she says “I am involved in re-designing and doing the cover artwork. I like being involved in all the creative aspects of my career…the music videos I make for fun on YouTube are edited, directed, and filmed by me [and] I do my own web show filming, producing, and editing.”

Indeed, her slickly presented MySpace page and other online hangouts are so professional and promotional, and filled with loving fan testimonials, that you’d swear she’s already got her own show/movie/album/DVD/tour/book/comic/clothing/fragrance/ringtone/themepark/cult/breakfast cereal tied into the Disney Channel or Nickelodeon.

And, by the end of 2010, she probably will.

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/alexandrademattia
Twitter: http://twitter.com/AlexandraDe13
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alexand...
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/fabmovies...

9) TOM CARROLL

“I’m an unabashed Barack Obama fan,” says local artist/songwriter Tom Carroll of entering the “Obama in 30 Seconds” in the short film competition obamain30seconds.org. His short -- Pie in The Sky -- opens with huge shadows cast across a landscape by vast circular shapes in the sky. A narrator intones “Is it pie in the sky for government to be both transparent and responsible? Is it pie in the sky that one man’s vision could inspire a new politics based on hope rather than fear? Is it pie in the sky for a black American to attain the highest office in the land?”

“The final seconds take place in Washington, D.C.,” says Carroll, “revealing the circular shapes floating overheard are huge cherry pies. The last shots were inspired by the film Independence Day, where viewers see only the shadows of huge spaceships.” Carroll says the video was made free with borrowed equipment and took him around 12 hours: the viewer-rated prizewinner will receive $20,000 worth of audio/visual equipment.

 Carroll is also behind the stage production "I Survived the Bush Administration (and All I Got Was This $%^&@ T-Shirt!)," a musical variety revue co-created with Four Eyes guitarist Mark DeCerbo and others. He says the show is about “One disenfranchised neo-conservative with a gun for a nose, two steadfast women at opposite ends of the political spectrum, a three-headed general, a salsa-dancing terrorist, and a conflicted peacenik, all striving to validate their lives and work in the months leading up to the 2008 Presidential election.”

“It has six comedy sketches, as well as eleven original songs,” says Carroll. “After the first song, actors jump out onstage and launch wadded-up T-Shirts into the audience, like they do at sporting events, with I Survived The Bush Administration on the front, plus And All I Got Was This $%^@ T-Shirt! on the back.”

The show’s original songs include “The Road to Utopia” (“We've got the money now/No Democrats around to slow us down”), “The Terrorism Cha-Cha” (“My name is Bin Laden/Am I alive or dead/I could be lying in a crater/Or doin’ Cha-Cha in bed”), and “It Hurts When the Congress Thinks You’re Nuts.”

Is Carroll worried about attracting unwanted attention from the government?

“While there’s always the possibility that some agency of the government might give me a hard time,” he says, “it’s for that reason that plays like ‘I Survived…’ should be written and performed. We should always be vigilant in how our freedoms are being restricted, especially the freedom of speech and expression.”

Obama Pie Video: http://www.myspace.com/isurvivedthebushadministration

http://obamain30seconds.org/vote/?v=view-1391-hV1s0H

8) MONO MONO

“I bring exploding foam, snow machines, confetti cannons, pinatas and remote control space ships,” says Mono Mono’s one-man bandmember Jeffrey Beringer of his “interactive, inflatable stage show.” Interactive? “The lights and other special effects are operated by radio control, and I give control boxes to the audience,” he says. “In my show, you touch and are touched. I dress in drag and sit on your lap, and you will suck and touch my fake boobies and scream. You will blow my clothes off with my leaf blower and I will run naked through the venue.”

Okay. Inflatable? “I put on an inflatable Sumo costume and blow up like a huge, obese marshmallow man, and [audiences] squeeze, hug, grind, hump and bounce me,” he says.

 “I have an arsenal of inflatable monkeys, sex dolls and blow-up toys…Sometimes [audiences] jump on my toys and destroy them. I place balloons into the crowd, they hold them on their lap, and we jump on each other, exploding the balloons.” Musically, he says “I have help from my iPod and my computer…The vocals are live, and the music and sound effects have been electronically programmed. I use Reason and Ableton Live loop-sequencer programs.”

His prop-heavy show can cause problems. “I had a major fight with the stage manager and engineers at the House of Blues,” he says. “Before I walked onstage, they said [HOB] was ‘not for clowns’ and that they didn’t have sufficient staff to clean up streamers or confetti…I had to do an extremely limited show. At the end, a huge box of streamers somehow accidentally slipped into the crowd and they went wild, making a huge mess. Ooops!” 

“I had a couple of instances where the managers of the venue were absolutely horrified when they witnessed their clean venues be transformed into a massive hurricane of confetti, streamers and foam. Of course, drink sales are usually high, and cleanup is easy and quick if you have a big broom, so I almost always get asked back. At present, my show is completely soft, stainless, and dry, or at the very least it evaporates quickly. Sometimes things get a little rowdy, but I have never had a notable injury to report.

Beringer says he finally reached a point as an artist where “the same old same old concert experience just didn't cut it for me anymore.  I was tired of vague, cliche lyrics that I don't understand, or don't care to. I was tired of performers who get on stage and dress like sh-t and think that the mere fact that they play guitar or sing is going to hold my interest. I wanted more, and I know my audiences wanted more. They wanted crazier, they wanted wilder, they wanted a show that was as interesting to see as it is to listen to. Something that brings them to the next level.”

Mono Mono shows are dubbed "Debauchery, Desmadre."  “It’s a sonic and visual orgy that appeals not only to the ears, but to all of the senses, including touch, taste, smell, sight and sound. The music is electronic and danceable. The subject matter is taboo, interesting and instantly accessible. Pansexuality. Promiscuity. Profanity. Gender Bending. Breaking rules. Pushing limits. Sacrificing Virgins. Good and Evil. Extraterrestrial Life, etc. etc. etc.”
   

The goal, says Beringer, is to eliminate the barrier between performer and spectator. “I am the spark, and the audience the fire...but we are all performers and we are all spectators. In my show you touch and are touched. You watch and are watched. You throw things and destroy things.  You scream, you dance wildly, you sweat.  We all entertain each other, we lose our preconceptions and inhibitions, and enter a state of pure consciousness where anything is possible.”

According to Beringer, “Over twenty of my inflatable monkeys have been kidnapped at shows…Now they appear in photos all over MySpace.” I highly recommend any and all of his insane online videos - you'll feel like you're on LSD, without the comedown!

www.myspace.com/jeffreyberinger

www.myspace.com/monomono 

www.jeffreyberinger.com

 7) KING KRUK

“As a singer, I sound like Elvis Presley, no matter how hard I try not to,” says Oceanside impersonator James Kruk, who disbanded his former group Fake Booby Judy and became, for a time, one of Poland’s top Elvis impersonators.

“The Elvis show happened from a karaoke contest in Krakow [around 2004],” says Kruk, who was teaching English in Poland at the time. “I went up on stage and the crowd went crazy, like I was really Elvis. They made me sing every Elvis CD they had, and the crowd loved it. I was shocked! I won the karaoke contest that night.… The prize was some Russian champagne.”

Though popular, Kruk says Poles didn’t pay much for his Elvis act.

“The most I got was 200 Polish zloty for a 45-minute gig. That was around $70 U.S. Now, it’s worth something like $120.”

Before settling in San Diego with his Polish-born wife, Kruk spent two years touring the U.S. as Elvis in Steve Martin’s stage play Picasso at the Lapin Agile, about Albert Einstein meeting Pablo Picasso in a bar before they become famous.

“Elvis shows up as a time-traveling deus ex machina, to juxtapose the impact of fame and genius. I was paid $1500 a week, plus $600 weekly per diem for food and hotels.”

Comedian Steve Martin authored the play but didn’t appear in it. “He was around for rehearsals and for some shows, though,” says Kruk. “He had the cast over for dinner when the tour stopped in L.A., which was cool. Some cast were swooning and telling him his greatest movies. I told him mine was The Muppet Movie. He was not amused.”

Earlier this year, Kruk emailed to report “I placed fourth at Pechanga’s Ultimate Elvis Tribute contest, but then I rallied and won first place at the [Del Mar] Fair, beating the second and third place contestants from Pechanga. One of the three male judges at Pechanga obviously didn’t like me, as he consistently scored me ten points lower than the other two.”

The Pechanga competition is part of a national yearly contest run by the Presley estate with a $25,000 top prize, while the Fair’s one-off contest paid Kruk $1,000 for his win. “My act at the Fair was a little different. At Ultimate, you have to be more true to what Elvis would have performed wearing a specific stage outfit. For example, if you wear an Aloha From Hawaii Eagle jumpsuit, you can’t perform songs he didn’t do during that era. At the Fair, you have a little more freedom, so I could wear the fringe jumpsuit from the ‘70s and still sing songs from the ‘50s and ‘60s.”

Both Elvis contests attracted impersonators from all over the country, as well as L.A. Elvis George Thomas (third place in Del Mar) and locals like Kruk and Paul Monroe (whom Kruk outscored at Pechanga). “San Diego is tough. Paul and I don’t gig as often as we’d like. People still sometimes hire terrible Elvises without looking into whether they have rank and standing among Elvis impersonators”

Now that Kruk has achieved championship cred, he’s hoping gigs – and the attendant paycheck - will increase. “I can now say I’m the best in southern California, as I defeated all the best from the area, so I’m officially on the national Elvis map.”

Earlier this year (late July), Kruk competed at the next Ultimate Elvis elimination at Lake Tahoe. “I placed second,” he emailed after the event. “The crowd though was clearly on my side as I receive the most rousing applause of the evening. Judges, who can figure them. But, I tell you, I am close, Jay. I get better with more experience. I still have a shot at Memphis and the big contest, so I will keep you posted.”

www.kingkruk.com

June 21 Ultimate Elvis Contest at Pechanga - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlgNxPOwjyo

6) THE BUGS

“I wrote the song when he was on that Rock Star Supernova show,” says David Swain of the Bugs about the inspiration behind “Dave Navarro’s Goatee F-cking Sucks.”

“He used to be in Jane’s Addiction/Now he’s on TV trying to earn a buck

He was so much cooler when he was on drugs/Dave Navarro’s goatee f-cking sucks”

“All that makeup and jewelry,” says Swain, “what a f-cking jerk. Where the hell is he getting off, wearing all that crap? He’s so full of himself, anyone with any soul would wanna tell him to go f-ck himself.”

The problem may be with the band’s video, which features around two dozen huge photographs of Navarro on a screen behind the group as they mock his facial hair. “I keep waiting to hear from his attorney about the video,” says Swain. “I’m sure they wouldn't appreciate us using his pictures without consent. If they do email me, I’m printing it in the insert of the next album.”

With tours booked around California and overseas, are the Bugs worried about running into Navarro himself? “I'm really not the fighting type. But if he came at me, he’d definitely get a little chin music. I don’t really want to [meet him]. He may try to french me.”

The band’s other songs (most with accompanying homemade videos) include “No More Emo Haircuts,” “Meth On My Mind,” “Lesbo Lesbo,” “Email From a She-Male” (also a funny video), and “I Wish I Was A Mexican” (“Kicking back after work/drinking a Bud/take off my shirt….”)

“I get called racist sometimes. Not sure why. I’m one of the most liberal persons there is…white people are usually the most disrespectful.”

Clocking in at around two minutes each, the songs will appear on the Bugs’ upcoming Cabana Records seven inch vinyl album. “Yeah, that’s right, the whole album fits on a  seven inch. And there's still room for another song or two!”

Video – Dave Navarro’s Goatee: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juf3yFscMFo

The Bugs/Dangerous Dave on MySpace

5) THE WRONG TROUSERS

All in their late teens or early ‘20s, the Wrong Trousers can often be found weekends at Balboa Park, performing a jaw-dropping version of the Buggles’ “Video Killed The Radio Star,” on mandolin, standup bass and full-sized concert harp.

“On our best days at Balboa Park, we make about $300,” says harpist Kelsea Rae Little. “Low ends for a set are about $20 to 30. It all depends on the weather and the size of the crowd.” Park Rangers give out ten free music permits on the first Saturday of each month. “This permit allows you priority to one spot,” says Little. “We usually set up across from the train museum.”

Mackenzie Leighton (from Minneapolis, Minnesota) plays standup bass (“He has no experience with bluegrass, so his playing comes from his strong jazz background”), while the band’s youngest member Joseph Lorge (born in San Diego) plays mandolin.

“We formed in 2006 when we met in a performing arts program at Coronado High school called Coronado School of the Arts, AKA Coosa,” says Little (born in Fort Collins, Colorado). “One day, Mack and Joseph were jamming on a fiddle tune called Blackberry Blossom and I joined in. After that we tried covering Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips and we automatically clicked.

The band’s setlist is evenly split between offbeat originals and covers of acts like the Traveling Wilburys and Joanna Newsom. “Mostly, we choose songs that we think will sound cool with our instrumentation. Our most popular cover to date is Such Great Heights by the Postal Service,” according to Little. “It won us our Coronado High School talent show.”

The Wrong Trousers recorded a CD with local jazz mainstay Peter Sprague, who they met while recording tracks for a mutual friend at his studio. Two original songs from those sessions posted on MySpace have already been played over 20,000 times.

“We actually get stopped in the streets of San Diego by people who recognize us from the park, MySpace, or YouTube,” says Little. “A fan on the street even asked us to play at her birthday party once…People are nicer in person than they are on the internet.”

“There will be the occasional person who can't stand my voice and them feel the need to tell me to never sing again. It's all been very interesting to take in.”

The band is named after a famous award-winning clay-animated Wallace and Gromit short, by the later-creator of the movies Chicken Run and Curse of the Were-Rabbit. “A lot of people recognize the Wallace and Gromit reference, and they deem us 'really cool nerds' for it,” says Little. “We take what we can get.”

YouTube clip – video killed the radio star

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSUX9byu6NY

The Wrong Trousers Myspace

http://www.myspace.com/thewrongtrousers

"Calvin" (Melodica solo written by Peter Sprague)
"Such Great Heights" (Postal Service cover)
"Handle With Care" (Travelling Wilburys cover)

4) HAPPY RON HILL

As of 2009, Happy Ron Hill had done over 1000 open mic performance at the Blarney Stone Pub. “I started in 1997 and, believe it or not, poetry open mics are the most borderline violent. I’ve really thought people were going to come to blows over poems. Last year in L.A., this one poet started badmouthing this other poet on the stage and wouldn’t let him finish a sentence…he rushed the stage like he was going to punch somebody, but the club kicked him out.”

The worst local open mic contestant he’s seen calls himself the Wolf. “This guy showed up for years at Hot Monkey Love and would put on a CD of random industrial music, with him saying ‘I am Luke Skywalker, I am Darth Vader, you must die’ and flailing around stage with his light saber. It was interesting for thirty seconds, and then it got real uncomfortable.”  

As for his own most offbeat open mic gig, he says “I was on stage at Fannie’s [10/08/2005], and I kept feeling that something was whizzing by my head. Then I heard this voice saying ‘Mom, quit throwing your tampons!’ The club crew picked up numerous tampons as I was getting offstage, and I put them in my hat. Fortunately, they weren’t used, and nobody was injured.” 

“It kind of reminded me of how people used to throw jelly beans at the Beatles, and then the Beatles complained that they were hard and they hurt.”

As for his most offbeat open mic appearance, he says “I was at Harbin Hot Springs for a retreat thing, and they had a talent night, so I performed in the nude, wearing only my hat, in front of a hundred mostly-naked people. I did my classic song Boy Toy, which includes the line ‘don't touch/don't touch me there." Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R5GnxKUAwc to checkout the song in performance context.

“Performing is really about facing your deepest fears.  Most people have dreams about singing naked in public.  I used to too and so I figured to finally let go of my final fears regarding performing I should just go ahead and perform naked somewhere.” 

Last year, Hill attended the “How Music Really Works” seminar, a week-long Canadian retreat with music biz author Wayne Chase. “One of the last days,” says Hill, “I had the opportunity to perform my song ‘All She Needs is a Spankin’,’ and I was a bit concerned that people might be offended by the rude lyrics, especially this one serious looking lady.”

“Something no man would give her/Something that made her quiver

 A little smack on the butt/And she’ll no longer be a nut”

“After I finished, the lady I was worried about jumped up and said ‘I teach this kinda stuff, does anyone want a spanking demonstration?’ I told her that I’m generally the spanker not the spankee, but a braver man than I volunteered to be the spankee, and suddenly this serene mountain paradise was transformed into a bizarre class in spanking. It went on for 10 more minutes!”  

“The leader of the group turned to me and said ‘Your songs sure have an interesting impact on people.’ It wouldn’t have been so funny if these were a bunch of swinger types, but they were all fairly typical, normal people, who suddenly threw an impromptu spanking party in the woods.”

Among Hill’s favorite open mics have been at Cosmos Coffee, where he played most Tuesdays for more than four years. “They have a salad there named after me,” says Hill, “the Happylicious.”

Hill hopes his many online video performances will lead to a TV gig. “I want to appear as myself in cartoon form on South Park and sing one of my songs. I definitely know people who know people who are in a position to help, my goal is to meet the people who are can make it happen. South Park needs a new Chef-like character someone to break randomly into song.”

Happy Ron Hill’s album Terribly Happy - produced by Sven-Erik Seaholm – includes his ode to spankin,’ as well as “The No Tantric Woman Blues,” “Sick of Her Sh-t,” and “Dickless Wonder.” Guest locals include Kelsea Little (The Wrong Trousers), Robin Henkel, and Cathryn Beeks.

http://www.myspace.com/happyron

Tampon video: 10/08/2005 Fannies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=may430gXfyo

“If You’re Bored in San Diego…” http://www.happyron.com/?page_id=55

http://www.happyron.com/?page_id=55

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyl959eNoXk&feature=channel_page

3) WHITE GOLD

The most famous music act among local kids may not be the Jonas Brothers OR Miley Cyrus, but rather White Gold and the Calcium Twins.

The Spinal Tap-esque glam rockers, created for the iconic “Got Milk?” advertising campaign, are featured on over 750,000 school book covers being distributed free throughout local school systems, in hopes of keeping textbooks in good shape for future students.

White Gold’s spandex-clad singer plays a milk-filled guitar and encourages milk consumption in a series of humorous ads, alongside two soulful female black singers. So who is White Gold? The California Milk Processor Board (CMBP) declines to say, and there’s no hint on their website or on the White Gold site, whose url simply states “[www]WhiteGoldIsWhiteGold.”

The CMPB is funded by a coalition of California milk processors, and administered by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. However, with the help of Dialed-In Rosie at http://www.sddialedin.com , I managed to find the man behind the “luxurious white mane” himself, the elusive (and entirely fictional) White Gold ------ 

White Gold is played by Joe Hursley, vocalist for the Ringers. The raunchy L.A. rockers are known for songs like “Beaver Fever,” “Backseat Lover,” “Moan N' Bitch,” and “Tokyo Massage.”

White Gold’s music is performed by Detroit-based Electric Six, whose own tracks include “I Buy the Drugs,” “Feed My F-ckin’ Habit,” “Sexy Trash,” and “Gay Bar Pt. 2.” Most San Diego public school administrators are likely unaware of those raunchy band connections to the massive book cover distribution.

“The students are really amused by White Gold,” said Heidi Anderberg, administrator at San Diego’s Sarah Anthony School. “The band is really funny, and it gets your attention. Plus, you can’t help but enjoy the group’s lyrics about the benefits to milk.”

In a phone interview, “White Gold,” aka Joe Hursley, said “I improvised almost all of the promos they recorded…I was saying stuff like ‘Yeah, I like to inject my balls with meth,’ and they were just shaking their heads, like, ‘no way can we use that.’”

“I’m actually an actor too, so that was part of what attracted me to the role of White Gold, but it’s not exactly what I want to be known for. I don’t think many people would just see me [as White Gold] and automatically recognize who I really am.”

So is that milk-filled guitar that he plays for real? “Nah, that piece of sh-t was leaking milk all over the place. There weren’t any electronics hooked up to it or anything. But it looked pretty good, huh?”

The “Calcium Twins” who sing and pretend to play bass and drums in the White Gold spots are actually Sonya and Sabrina Millen, a soul duo known as the Millen Sisters. “We auditioned to a rock song singing and dancing,” the sisters said in an email interview. “We’re in talks now to shoot the second phase of the campaign, hopefully to be released in 2009.”

The schoolbook covers have brought the Millen Sisters a whole new fan base entirely unaware of their real-world act. “We do get recognized from the campaign. Teenagers love it, because it’s different and fun.”

The Millens and Hursley confirm that, in light of White Gold’s popularity, there are new videos being posted online in November and December, 2009. With millions of YouTube plays for their videos, it could be the most successful imaginary TV commercial band concert tour since The Archies (unless you count the current incarnation of Kiss, with imposters dressed as Peter and Ace).

That is, unless the Free Credit Report.Com band gets out on tour first -----

Me, I love the White Gold Videos – they remind me of both the worst ‘70s rock opera-inspired movies (The Apple, Lizstomania, 20th Century Oz) and the best (Tommy, Phantom of the Paradise), with hysterical Spinal Tap touches and some impressively produced anthem-like tunes.

Think Zappa-Meets-Grand-Funk, as produced by Jim “Meat Loaf” Steinman ----

I give each vid a four-finger salute and recommendation ------ this first song, “Is It Me, Or Do You Love My Hair” is our profile song at http://www.myspace.com/sandiegoreadermusic.

The milk-filled guitar, “One Gallon Axe” – checkout the totally authentic Sly and the Family Stone groove, with Captain Beefheart-style vocals!

“Tame the White Tiger” – how can you beat a milk river, “provocative pumas,” and guitar licks played with bare feet! Note that he sings about how milk turns you into “a sexy beast” – if you check the lyrics at the White Gold website, the Milk Council wrote the lyric as “healthy beast,” so this version appears to be one of Hursely’s improvisations slipping thru the cracks. “Hey, kids, drink your milk and be a SEXY BEAST!” Yeah, I notice weird sh-t -----

  2) MC FLOW

“You say domestic partnership / Is just the same -- It isn't true
You mask your hate in Bible verses / What would Jesus do?

Last time I checked, the Bible said "Love thy neighbor" and I do
But I remember history, when weddings were forbidden too

For interracial couples / How silly does that seem to you?

Someday when our kids look back, they'll ask us why we froze in fear

Why we wrote hate on the books, why we made rights disappear

We'll be forced to answer to them, why we backed discrimination
Why we broke up marriages and families with no hesitation  ---  ”

*

Rapper MC Flow's video for "Created Equal" continues the project born last year on November 5, after Californians opposing legalized marriage between gay couples voted Proposition 8 into law.

Flow responded in verse – the video for the song was filmed on the streets of San Diego, with cameos by a number of sign-carrying (if not flag-waving or Bible-thumping) locals:

“This film is about community, hope and equality for all,” says Flow. “No project has ever been closer to my heart!”

 The vid below comes with my rarely awarded five-finger recommendation –

Flow -- aka Abby Schwartz -- raps about politics and women's issues. She grew up in New York City and moved to San Diego in 2000 to study holistic medicine at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in Mission Valley.

"I left my master's program to go into treatment for anorexia," she says. "Through the process of healing and empowering myself, I found my voice and began writing spoken-word and performance pieces based on issues surrounding women and body image."

She started her MC career performing open-mic nights at coffeehouses like Claire de Lune and Lestat's. "When I first began, I joined a networking group called the Community," she says, "and my first shows were with that group of artists. We get together regularly to share demos, talk about hip-hop, and listen to music."

Recalling her 30th birthday in 2007, she says "My friends and I were celebrating 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."

Employment multitasking is nothing new to her. She describes her worst job: "Selling shoes at an upscale boutique in Cambridge, Massachusetts, one summer while I was in college. First, any job involving feet is no fun. Second, any job involving rich women asking you to run up and down the stairs a hundred times is no fun. The lowest moment was when we had a flood in the basement where all the shoes were stored -- we had to go downstairs, change into giant rain boots, and wade through the water to get the clients' shoes. Then we were expected to come back upstairs and act as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Not a good day at the office."

Though Flow won Best Hip-Hop Album at the 2008 San Diego Music Awards, for her record Incredible, she says rapping doesn't yet pay her bills. "I work as a dog walker and pet sitter, and I love my job. It provides me with flexibility to do shows, and I walk around all day listening to my iPod. If you see a woman walking dogs through Balboa Park and rapping away on high volume, it's probably me."

Blurt - "Flow With It"

http://www.myspace.com/mcflow

1) GARFUNKEL AND OATES

Named after two famous musical sidekicks (Art Garfunkel of Simon and Garfunkel and John Oates of Hall and Oates), this female duo includes Riki "Garfunkel' Lindhome and Kate "Oates" Micucci. You may know Micucci a sometimes-cast member on the TV show Scrubs (Gooch/Ukulele Girl), which has used her music and allowed her to sing and play in various eps.

Their hysterical video “Sex With Ducks” (659,000 YouTube views) was inspired by a Pat Robertson quote from earlier this year, wherein the demented televangelist made this proclamation about gay marriage and gays being protected under a proposed hate crime bill: “This is just the beginning in a long downward slide in relation to all the things that we consider to be important…ladies and gentlemen, just figure this. You’ve got somebody who’s really weird, and his sexual orientation is he likes to have sex with ducks. Ducks. Is he protected under hate crime?”

Other Garfunkel and Oates songs and videos include “This Party Took a Turn For the Douche,” “Pregnant Women are Smug,” “One Night Stand,” “Present Face,” “Worst Song Medley,” “I Would Never (Have Sex With You),” and “Silver Lining.”

Here ya go, checkout “Sex With Ducks” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXPcBI4CJc8 - and sing along with the lyrics below -

Sex With Ducks

Pat Robertson once said

It’s a long downward slide....

That will lead to legalizing sex with ducks....

If two men can stand, side by side....

God I hope he’s right....

Cause if gay marriage becomes lawful....

Gonna find myself a duck....

And legally do, something awful....

Ducks, sex with ducks....

We’ll do it in the rain....

Ducks, yeah, ducks....

Got those webbed feet on my brain....

We’ll find a pond, we’ll find a puddle....

Put your beak in mine and we’ll cuddle....

It’s a feeling I can’t name....

When sex with ducks and gay marriage are one in the same....

Gonna goose that goose, gonna quack that swan....

Gonna rubber my ducky, all night long....

Gonna wack that mallard til it’s feathers plume....

Gonna huey duey luey all over the room....

Scrooge McDuck gonna give it you....

Dive into your gold until you say duck tales, woo hoo

Ducks, sex with ducks/We’ll do it in the rain/Ducks, yeah, ducks/Those feathered bodies are insane ....

We’ll find a pond, we’ll find a puddle/I’ll be the wind beneath your wings and we’ll cuddle

It’s a feeling I can’t name/When sex with ducks and gay marriage are one in the same

www.myspace.com/garfunkelandoates  

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/garfunkelandoates

www.itunes.com/garfunkelandoates

http://www.merchco-online.com/garfunkelandoates/ 

HONORABLE MENTION – DRAMA CAT:

Yeah, I know, this crazy-eyed kitty is already a huge web celeb, with over two and a half million YouTube views and more charismatic cache than Drama Squirrel, Dramatic Gopher, Sneezing Baby Panda, and Tay “Chocolate Rain” Zonday combined.

But Drama Cat’s gonna be even bigger in 2010 --- word on the street is that this cool Cat has been signed to co-star in the upcoming Hotel For Dogs/Snow Dogs crossover sequel, Dogs Eat Cat and Poop Fur in Eddie Murphy’s Condo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plWnm7UpsXk 

NEW MUSIC NIGHT - JUMP & JIVE

The "Burrito Brothers" are Action Andy (Haunted Honky Tonkers, Sleepwalkers), along with Victor Penalosa (the Zeros, the Fuzztones, the Records, the Melanies). Penalosa is currently recording a new album with Mike Kamoo...

FORTY ONE SIXTY FREE SHOW

Celebrating the release of Forty One Sixty, an album with artists covering the songs of The Shambles, San Diego's FM94.9 is hosting a FREE performance from the band at The Casbah, Sunday, November 29. 

Putting a twist on the proceedings, The Shambles will be joined by guest vocalists for a special, one time only mix of covers and originals. On hand will be Joey Harris (ex- Beat Farmers) and San Diego Music Award winners Gary Hankins (Scarlet Symphony / Best Alternative Album 2009) and producer Gregory Page (Jason Mraz, The Rugburns/ Best Americana Album 2009) plus: Lee Harding (Echo Revolution), Wendy Bailey and more surprises!

The free night of music includes sets from two further Blindspot Records groups; Celtic fusion quintet Skelpin and garage-rockers The Shamey Jays, as well as closing tunes from indie heroes Lualta and The Canton Mudders in the Atari Lounge.

As if that's not enough, free Mexican foodwill be provided by Lucha Libre, giveaways will be provided by Black Cherry Music Group and there will be a live FM94.9 broadcast of "The Local Pyle," with DJ Tim Pyles, beginning at 8 p.m. You can tune in at: www.fm949sd.com/listen/index.aspx>

Shambles manimen Bart "Bartman" Mendoza and Kevin Donaker-Ring have been musical partners since 1980, when they paired up to form the mod-inspired Manual Scan. "You had to own a metal scooter to be mod," Mendoza says, referencing local scenesters who used to hang out at Vespa Super Shop and Gelato Vera in Mission Hills, checking out the Tell-Tale Hearts at the old downtown Soma or rallying to see Quadrophenia at the Ken Cinema.

Mendoza is currently cowriting a book covering "every record released from every San Diego performer" from the turn of the 20th Century through the '90s. - more on this story

SHAIMUS GRABS FANS WITH PLASTIC CONTROLLERS

In an age where record labels are cutting back on band signings and the Internet is over-saturated with bands and artists vying for attention, Los Angeles-based alt-rock band Shaimus found a different strategy for standing out in the crowd: video games.  When their song, "All Of This," appeared as a bonus track in the first Guitar Hero game in 2005, Shaimus' first album wasn't even finished.  

But as Guitar Hero began proving itself to be a smash hit, the band scrambled to get the album released in time to capitalize on the instant international exposure that being in a popular music game brought them.

"We hadn't even mastered the album yet and we saw people on message boards asking where they could buy our music," says lead singer/keyboardist Phil Beaudreau.  "That gave us extra incentive to get a product out there."

After moving from Boston to California, Shaimus began work on a second album, The Sad Thing Is, We Like It Here (2009).  When they learned that the album release coincided with the launch of Rock Band 2 (another game by Guitar Hero creators Harmonix Music Systems), the band jumped on the opportunity to include the song "Like A Fool" as a free download, once again building game-related buzz for their music.

More recently, Shaimus has been branching out to other mediums, including music on TV shows (One Tree Hill, Ruby and the Rockits) and even an on-screen appearance in the Sony/Screen Gems film The Roommate, due out in 2010.  But it all started with a video game.

Shaimus appears Tuesday, November 24, at Winstons in OB.

Listen to Shaimus for free and learn more at www.shaimus.com

THIS WEEK'S NEW MUSICIAN INTERVIEW

Eddie Jason Coven by Jay Allen Sanford “I play acoustic rock with a twist of country and a dash of the blues,” says Eddie Jason Coven, who arrived in San Diego in 2004 after a two-year stint as a musician-for-hire throughout Northern California. He worked as a session ...

ARTICLES OF INTEREST

Here are some articles local music and technology fans might be interested in - click any title link for more:

Is Facebook Getting Uncool for 18-24s?
According to comScore, as it has gained a broader audience, the older teens and twentysomethings that drove Facebook's initial popularity are using it less. And research by WPP Group's Mindshare suggests that group is reevaluating the site's worth as a tool for developing friendships.

Herd It's New Take on Music Apps - Online music apps are all over the place these days. It seems like Facebook has a zillion of 'em. But Herd It, a new casual music game/music discovery tool developed by a team of students at the University of California, San Diego, is unique

The Night Marchers  --  Review of the Night Marchers at the Fillmore: To begin the review, I'll say I truly despised the first act of the night, the Night Marchers. Their 3 chord/1 riff "rock and roll" was lame and truly fell short in light of the show's overall expectations. The best way I can describe it: Everyone has that one uncle, right? The middle-aged guy who listened to too many Beach Boys records when he was 20...

Study On Online Music Piracy And Purchasing Habits
There has been high-profile debate in the media about whether file-sharing has a positive or negative impact on music sales. The study below, which is original text from Jupiter Research, analyses in more detail the different spend of file-sharers, digital and physical music purchasers.

Despite Economic Woes, Consumers Not Scrimping On Entertainment Subscriptions
According to the latest update to the “Entertainment Trends in America” consumer tracking studies conducted by The NPD Group, even as newspapers and other traditional forms of subscriptions have declined, most forms of entertainment-content subscriptions have been maintained by U.S. consumers this year, and mobile data plans and other newer kinds of subscription services have expanded their customer bases. Overall monthly per-capita entertainment-content subscription spending rose to $115, which is an increase of nearly 7% since last year.

E-Readers Will Take Off For Holiday Shoppers In 2010
2009 is likely to be remembered as a watershed year in the evolution of e-books and e-readers with several milestones and product launches standing out as catalysts for change in the market, according to Gartner, Inc. However, Gartner said that while the number of electronic readers sold is likely to increase in 2009, it expects 2010 to be the year when e-book readers really become popular consumer electronic devices, culminating in e-reader “mania” for the 2010 holiday season.

Like, Totally Wired
According to findings from Alloy Media + Marketing's 9th annual College Explorer Survey, projected annual technology spending among college students (ages 18-30) has reached an all time high at $6.5 billion, ranking 3rd in overall discretionary spending for college students, just below food and auto.

Monetizing Mobile Content
The long debate over how to monetize digital content has gained new life in the economic downturn due to the slumping ad market. The question of paid models versus ad support is particularly urgent in the fast-emerging mobile space. eMarketer predicts that by 2013, nearly 50% of mobile phone users will access the mobile Internet at least monthly.

In Tough Times, 10 Ways Retailers Can Bring Holiday Cheer
While beleaguered shoppers will be looking for ways to make the season bright, retailers can do their part by bringing some much needed holiday cheer to the shopping experience.

"Friending" Brands Egocentric, Finds Razorfish
Have social marketers been kidding themselves that consumers “friend” brands on social media because they are passionate and want deep and meaningful relationships? Recent data suggests that perhaps all consumers really want from brands on social media is a good deal and great customer service.

Coupon Use Continues Resurgence
Consumers have re-embraced coupons as a way to get more for their money. In the third quarter, year-to-date coupon redemption was up 26% to 2.4 billion redemptions, making it the fourth consecutive quarter of growth, according to new research from Inmar in collaboration with The Nielsen Company.

Illegal File-Sharing Has An Overwhelmingly Negative Impact On Music Sales
Demos, the UK political think-tank, has released a widely-reported survey on music downloading which may be misinterpreted as suggesting that illegal file-sharing stimulates rather than reduces legitimate music sales.

Playing Games With Media Usage
It's no secret that time spent online is a major rival to traditional media usage. But among some segments of the population, at least, time spent gaming is in the same ballpark as time watching TV or surfing the Web.

Touchscreen Mobile Phone Adoption Grows At Blistering Pace In U.S. During Past Year
comScore, Inc. recently released a study of touchscreen mobile phone adoption in the U.S., which showed a significant 159% growth rate during the past year to 23.8 million users in August 2009. The growth in touchscreen device adoption substantially outpaced the already strong 63% growth in U.S. adoption of smartphones.

When It Comes to Entertainment Options, U.S. Consumers Turning To Social Networking, Texting, And Twitter
According to the latest update to the “Entertainment Trends in America” tracking study conducted by The NPD Group, many consumers expect to be spending the same amount on traditional entertainment categories during the coming holiday season, even as their participation in newer forms of entertainment continues to rise.

Web To Drive Holiday Retail Sales
Retail sales will probably be flat this holiday season, but online sales are expected to reach $44.7 billion, an 8% jump over last year, according to the latest data from Forrester Research.

Seven Ways To Tap Social Shopping
Marketers must understand that customers use social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter to communicate with and gather information from their friends and colleagues. As a result, your presence on these sites must be integrated into the multi-directional communication when consumers want to interact with your firm. Here are seven ways to maximize social shopping results.

Will iPhone Lead The Growth In Portable Gaming?
A study by DFC Intelligence, released on Friday, predicts that games for the iPhone and iPod touch (an iPhone without the cellular capabilities) will be the principal drivers for growth in the overall portable and mobile gaming market in five years.

4 Emerging Trends Of The Real-Time Web
There is a lot of hype surrounding the real-time web, and much of the feeding frenzy reminds me of the RSS space four years ago — though there is a lot of potential, there is also a lot of noise.

A Shift In Mobile Computing From Laptops To Smaller Devices Is Forcing PC Makers To Adjust
The smartphone market will surpass laptops in unit sales this year, and will easily surpass the latter market in revenue by 2012.

Google's Eric Schmidt On What the Web Will Look Like In 5 Years
Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions a radically changed internet five years from now: dominated by Chinese-language and social media content, delivered over super-fast bandwidth in real time. Figuring out how to rank real-time social content is “the great challenge of the age,” Schmidt said in an interview in front of thousands of CIOs and IT Directors at last week's Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009.

Does Social Media Work For Small Biz?
Small businesses are not hitting it off with social media, according to an August 2009 study from Citibank. More than three-quarters of U.S. small-business executives surveyed did not find social networks helpful for generating leads or expanding their business.

‘Gradual Greening' Of U.S. Tech Consumers
‘Green' or environmentally friendly policies and programs are becoming more top of mind for U.S. consumers when making technology related purchase decisions, but few are aware of specific policies, according to the annual Ipsos Green Technology report.

Online Retailers To Emphasize Free Shipping, Social Media This Holiday Season
The economy is not only impacting shoppers, it's affecting online retailers, too. According to results of Shop.org's eHoliday Study, conducted by BIGresearch, shoppers will see changes in retail marketing and promotions this holiday season in response to economic uncertainty. With an understanding that many of today's shoppers use Facebook and Twitter regularly, and because these tools are more cost-effective than traditional advertising, 47.1% of retailers surveyed will be increasing their use of social media this holiday season.

Top Ten Holiday Trends For 2009
BIGresearch shares 10 insights of what to expect this holiday season based largely on findings from NRF's first holiday survey.

Flat Is The New Up: Web Buzz Also Suggests Soft Holiday Retail Season
Despite increased optimism about the economy, the social media landscape indicates that we are in a similar place to where we were this time last year when it comes to spending; buzz about Christmas and holiday shopping is down 3% year-over-year.

FINAL SHOW EVER BY THE STRANGER'S SIX ------------------------------------------------

BOOTLEGGING AT CRICKET/COORS - Bart Mendoza

  Anyone wondering how effective all those “no recording devices” and “no cameras” signs and searches are at concert venues, here are a baker’s dozen of fan shot clips live from Cricket/Coors Amphitheatre. For some shows there are numerous videos posted by different fans / different vantage points… <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> 

1) Fleetwood Mac – “Beautiful Child” 06/22/04

This is notable because a stage invader comes in half way through the song. Check out

Stevie Nicks comment at the endJ

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vigBfdMs2y4

2) Tom Petty & The HeartBreakers – “I Need To Know” 09/27/06

With surprise guest Stevie Nicks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCtTctgrHeI

3) Radiohead – “Paranoid Android” 08/27/08

There are lots of clips from this show, but almost all of them are distant- not this one! Fair sound.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1IE4sz4-ig

4) Muse – “Invincible” 09/22/07

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_ubvqOsAd8

5) Slightly Stoopid @ Street Scene 2007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A02ph72h7RM

6) Augustana – “<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Boston” 09 / 22 / 07

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiaxeQJ5C48

7) Artic Monkeys – “Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor” 09/23/07

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OULlisJoqtA

8) The Police: Highlights 05/24/08

lots of other fan shot clips out there, but this is one of the few with decent sound http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2XRC0sMaLc

9) Gwen Stefani – “Cool” 04/22/07

Decent close up footage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UclKQ5tl6c

10) Coldplay – “Billy Jean” (07/16/09)

A live acoustic tribute of the Micheal Jackson classic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vpXY4r-2ak

11) ZZ Top / “I’m Bad I’m Nationwide” 08/19/07

Nice vantage point for this one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mzW3hstBfA

12) The Killers – “Mr. Brightside” 09/23/07

Looks like second row footage...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVtl7yAXA8o

13) Fall Out Boy – “Beat It” 07/07

Another Michael Jackson cover

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x23Q8MjxP1w

TOP FIVE MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS OF THE ROCK ERA

  5) Heavy Metal - lots of songs done just for the movie, with Blue Oyster Cult even providing thematic backstory for the Harry Canyon segment accompanying their song "Veteran of the Psychic Wars." The soundtrack came out on vinyl in 1981, but problems over song rights kept the movie out of video stores for almost two decades. Other great cuts include the title tune by Sammy Hagar, "Working in a Coal Mine" (Devo), "Reach Out" (Cheap Trick), "Queen Bee" (Grand Funk), and an alternate verion of "The Mob Rules" by Dio-era Black Sabbath.

 4) Rock & Rule - mostly songs done for the movie, including Lou Reed (singing the Jagger-like lead baddie's theme song "My Name is Mok"), Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry (who played a role too), Cheap Trick, and a fantastic Earth Wind & Fire cut. The movie almost bankrupted legendary Canadian studio Nelvana, while the somewhat more adult-oriented Heavy Metal feature stole much of Rock & Rule's thunder - the fascinating tale is told at The Rock & Rule Homepage .

 3) Lost Boys - space goth representing the best work ever done by Foreigner's Lou Gramm, plus Echo and the Bunnymen doing a cover version of "People Are Strange" that makes the Doors look like the stoner-led lucky hacks they always were.

  2) Hedwig and the Angry Inch - great rock opera, all original music by Steven Trask and John Cameron Mitchell. Probably the best movie ever made about a transsexual East German rock star with a one-inch penis ----

  1) Velvet Goldmine - a few original glam tracks, but mostly new versions done by various glam supergroup lineups for the soundtrack (I think they let Ewn McGregor sing one of the songs in the movie, but it's someone else's voice on the soundtrack album). The 1998 movie essentially took the true tales of David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, and Lou Reed, to craft an imaginary and colorful account of a Ziggy Stardust-like seventies glam rock superstar -

 I debated hard over whether to list Times Square (1980) rather than one of the above choices, because I probably play that soundtrack album more than any of the others - but only a few of its songs are unique to the soundtrack. And some of the tracks that turn up elsewhere, like Patti Smith's "P-ssing in the River," are early versions that are kinda plain by comparison.

  Plus, the movie has Tim Curry in the cast, one of the greatest and most versatile rock/cabaret/Broadway singers ever, but they don't use him on the soundtrack. Great little rock movie, if kinda surreal and goofy - I found a website with the whole 2-album set - http://vinnierattolle.blogspot.com/2007/02/no-sense-makes-sense.html 

 ALSO SEE:

Tim Curry Rocks - Tim Curry has enjoyed a vastly and inexplicably underrated music career. Curry’s big, booming voice was perfectly suited for the theatrical rock opera-esque songs, most of which managed to be both gritty urban and feather-fay at the same time – think Springsteen concert as staged by Twyla Tharp... www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/nov/17/tim-curry-rocks---a-custom-designed-dream-concert

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 THE KIDS OF WIDNEY HIGH - A ROCK 'N' ROLL COMIC!

The Kids of Widney High: Beyond the Sky’s the Limit is the latest in a long line of accomplishments by The Kids of Widney High, a music group composed of students with developmental and/or physical challenges from J. P. Widney High School, a special education center in Los Angeles.

 Written entirely by members of the band and illustrated by some of the comic book industry’s top talent, the 36-page book is a milestone event in both rock 'n' roll and comic book history. Contributors include award winning artists Jim Mahfood (Clerks, Jay & Silent Bob), Chuck B.B., and Rafael Navarro, along with up and coming new talent like Rikki Niehaus, Neal Von Flue, Robbi Rodriguez, and Chris Brandt.

All the dialogue spoken by characters in the book was drawn directly from quotes recorded during story sessions, effectively capturing the spirit and attitudes of the bandmembers.

 The Kids of Widney High first formed in a songwriting class in 1988 and has grown into a world-wide sensation. They've performed on stages all along the west coast including The House of Blues, The Key Club, and Chain Reaction, and they were recently featured in the movie The Ringer. A documentary detailing the history of the band is currently in production.

Bandmember Tony Whitfield proudly says the comic is “the music that will rock your eyes!”

www.kidsofwidneyhigh.com

(Knitting Factory: photog Mathew Klickstein)

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 Antimusic reports: As I Lay Dying is currently holed up with Killswitch Engage guitarist/producer Adam D. and Daniel Castleman at Lambesis Studios in San Diego, recording and writing their follow up to 2007's An Ocean between Us. The band will be recording and writing throughout the rest of 2009 and vocalist Tim Lambesis has issued the following update via the band's myspace page:

"We've released little bits of information here or there in previous news posts and blogs, but there are still questions coming in concerning what we've been up to. Below is an unquestionably obvious outline concerning our future plans…

1) We started working on new album.

2) We started recording the new album a few weeks ago with Adam D & Daniel Castleman at the reigns (and JMR for a couple weeks).

3) There are only drums for 8 songs tracked so far. One of them we're undecided about, but maybe it'll feel different when the vocals are done. Either way, we need write more than 8 songs (since they aren't as long as the 8 songs on Master of Puppets). Therefore we're working on writing MORE new songs as soon as we finish recording what's been started.

4) The only break in working on the new album will be our short trip to Mexico and Sri Lanka to play two of the best shows of our career. 5) All of us can't stress enough how grateful we are to be writing music that we love while still receiving a paycheck. This can only be credited to OUR LOYAL FANS! Sometimes bands need to rush out a crappy record so they can start touring again to pay their bills.

"In our case, we plan to make a record worth listening to (hopefully), and start touring again when we're done. Thanks for your patience and understanding. We care and we're working. In fact, I haven't had a full nights rest since March when the coolest kid ever made me a DAD!" - more on this story

 As I Lay Dying (named after the book by William Faulkner) formed in 2001. The lineup consists of Tim Lambesis (vocals), Jordan Mancino(drums), guitarists Nick Hipa and Phil Sgrosso - bassist Clint Norris was replaced by Josh Gilbert in May 2007.

Hipa describes the band’s music as “brutal, energetic, melodic metal”; Mancino calls it “metal with ska breakdowns.” The band signed with Metal Blade Records in 2003 and spent 2006 supporting their album Shadows Are Security with opening slots for Slipknot and performances at Ozzfest events around the country.

“I never realized, until Ozzfest, about our utterly weird fans,” says Lambesis. “We were signing autographs...this guy brought out his two-week-old baby, and he actually has us sign the baby — our autographs are right there on its body.”

Jordan Mancino recalls, “The hardest thing [about Ozzfest] was getting stuck on a dirt road with our bus in the middle of the Arizona desert.”

Nick Hipa: “Lots of sloppy, gross old ladies walking around with their gross old boobs painted. Definitely a bum-out.”

Asked about being occasionally called “Christian metal,” Hipa says “All of us in the band are Christian dudes and we’re vocal about it and I think our lifestyles and our lyrics reflect that. But at the same time, we also tend to opt to play in the normal music scene because that’s what we love doing.”

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 WHAT I'M WATCHING - The Prisoner remake on AMC

 I just watched the first four of six episodes of AMC's remake of the classic cult '60s TV series The Prisoner - as a HUGE fan of the original U.K. series (I bought two different DVD sets), I have a major problem with the Prisoner suffering memory loss instead of refusing to divulge his secrets.

 

 It negates the entire point of the show, ie a (Danger)man standing up for his individual rights and refusing to be a number.

 

 DC's Prisoner comic book miniseries "Shattered Visage" was the only sequel/continuation of the Prisoner that creator Patrick McGoohan ever authorized in his lifetime, and those were wonderful comics. I don't think he would have ever let this new version do what it's doing to his creation ---

 

I would have changed the channel for good two different times tonight, had not good old Rover the malevolent weather balloon suddenly showed up to provide the only semblance of a connection to McGoohan's singular series ----

Here's my review so-far (referencing the druggy subtext of both series) ---

The Original '60s Prisoner = taking Orange Sunshine acid at Disneyland. In the '60s.

 

The 2009 Prisoner remake = taking the brown acid at Woodstock. In Hell.

 The only cool thing I've seen in the first four new Prisoner eps is the scene where Six asks a classroom full of children "Who is Number One?," and they all raise their hand, with one of them offering her rote-memorized reply to "the oldest question in the history of the Village."

If only the remake producers had just posted the little girl's reply on Facebook or Twitter or something, instead of creating the miniseries, they could've saved all the hassle, expense, and inevitable mocking they'll get over ruining the entire concept of Patrick McGoohan's Prisoner ----

Here are some rarely seen pages from an unpublished Prisoner comic book created by the late king of comics, Jack Kirby ---

ALSO: Southland Tales is on cable tonight - man, I feel like I just dropped acid! What a lineup of bizarre guest stars, like John Waters on steroids - I've never read the comic book it's based on, but the movie reminds me of some weird mix of Cafe Flesh, Repo Man, Brazil, the Man Who Fell to Earth, Escape from New York, Zardoz, and the Harry Canyon segment of the Heavy Metal movie!

I wasn't sure if I was digging it until the Justin Timberlake music video dropped out of nowhere, like the plane engine in Donnie Darko. I'll definitely have to rewatch - what a wonky movie!

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 MONICA LEON (a.k.a. Danger from For the Love of Ray J) HAS SOME ART FOR YOU -- November 28th

Organic Blood and Dangeress Productions present with Love: Danger in Wonderland, Saturday, November 28, 2009 at the Kava Lounge in San Diego, CA. Danger in Wonderland is the debut art exhibit of artist Monica Leon aka Danger from For the Love of Ray J season 1 & 2.  San Diego is the first city of this multi-city tour - the evening will begin with an art exhibition and end with a VIP ONLY after party hosted by Danger.

Artist Monica Leon first became a household name in 2008 thanks to her appearance as Danger on the VH1 show, For the Love of Ray J.  Reportedly, viewers have been inquiring about her artwork after they caught of glimpse on it on T.V.

The art show will be hosted by vlogger Andrea Brooks of www.Youtube.com/AndreasChoice, where she's racked up over 1,000,000 views per month.  According to an event press release, "She has won the support and undivided attention of men, women, and teens throughout the world.  Andrea has mastered the art of keeping an audience engaged in her and will lend her artistic swagger and personality to us for the evening."

Monica will be debuting new paintings --- showcasing alongside of her are other artists from the lowbrow art community featuring custom shoes, wood and canvas paintings, and glass pieces, tho the names of those artists do not appear in the aforementioned press release.  The scenery will be filled with models showcasing art in place of clothing, as well as a live musical performance from neo-soul recording artist J. Carter & the Science.

Immediately following the art exhibition is our VIP after party hosted by Danger with two rooms of music featuring DJs spinning Hip Hop, reggae, and electronic music.

Organic Blood is a local "lifestyle brand" (that's really what they call it!) offering an array of events. "Organic Blood always takes a conscious approach to all of our events incorporating the best of what nature has to offer," according to their website. "It's the way we live and who we are.  Refusing to live life mundane. We seek to inspire, educate, and entertain organically."

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LOCAL NINE INCH NAILS DRUMMER HAS A NEW REGIME FOR YOU

Antimusic reports: We've been warned. "Things are about to get MANIC," so says Rock Sound magazine. What's behind that declaration? The New Regime, the "true solo project" of current Nine Inch Nails and former Lostprophets drummer Ilan Rubin. No mere time-keeper, the adept multi-instrumentalist wrote and recorded every note of bass, drums, guitar, piano and vocals on The New Regime's 2008 debut, Coup (Command! Music).

Feeling energized by the new crop of fans he's collected due to Nine Inch Nails' recently concluded "Wave Goodbye" tour, Rubinhas put together a special limited edition deluxe package of Coup set for release November 10 exclusively on the band's website (www.thenewregimemusic.com ). For $45, fans will get a 180 gram vinyl, the CD, a DVD featuring live performances and an interview with Rubin, a 16-page full color 12" x 12" booklet, and an exclusive website link to download instrumental mixes from The New Regime's website.

All 1,000 limited edition copies will also be hand-numbered and signed by Rubin. A stand alone digipak CD will also be available on the band's website for $7. To celebrate the package's release, the band will be performing at the Viper Room in Los Angeles, CA on Thursday, November 19. Tickets are currently on sale.

In a true sign of support for his new band member, Trent Reznor is encouraging his hardcore fans to get to know The New Regime by offering a free download of the album in its entirety on NIN.com the same day as Coup's release. Nine Inch Nails' camp will also host the download on a direct link, http://thenewregime.nin.com , starting at midnight on November 10. - more on this story

Drummer Ilan Rubin. started his music career while still in grade school, with the local band Freak of Nature, which performed at Woodstock 1999. Nine Inch Nails announced this week that Rubin is their newest drummer in early '09. 20 years old at the time, Rubin used to take drum lessons from Travis Barker of blink-182 and David Uosikkinen, from the Hooters.

Astute Reader readers may remember that one previous NIN drummer, Jerome Dillon, had a medical mishap during a 2005 San Diego gig, only to find himself quickly replaced in the band.

Here’s the Overheard comic from September 2005, when NIN played in San Diego shortly after having done a show at Soma, only to have drummer Jerome Dillon fall over onstage ----

Dillon told MTV.com at the time "It was absolutely the most stressful thing I've been through in my life…During the third leg of the tour, I noticed that I was not feeling good. A few years ago, I was diagnosed with a thyroid malady and I was taking medication for it. I didn't know that [the medication wasn't working] and was building up in my system on the road."

A few NIN shows were cancelled, and then Dillon called NIN management to say he was back on his feet, healthy, and ready to get back behind his kit. But Dillon said Reznor and company showed "complete apathy and no sympathy for what I'd been through…I was not welcomed back with open arms, which I didn't understand, since I had been in the band for six years."

After booting Dillon from NIN, Reznor posted a message on the band’s website, saying “Jerome continuously has to see himself as the victim in all circumstances. He lives in a world where he is always being wronged by someone or something. That could be me, that could be management, that could be his drum tech, that could be the girl who mistakenly washed his permanent press designer jeans, that could be the person that didn't cook his chicken properly before the show, or that could be the record label that wont give him tour support for his new band to play a show…you look like an a-hole in your picture.”

Congratulations, Ilan, for becoming NIN’s new drummer...and, uh…..good luck!

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RYAN SEACREST HAS AN EVENTFUL FOR YOU

San Diego-based Eventful, Inc. and Ryan Seacrest Productions have announced a "strategic marketing and technology alliance." The alliance brings together Seacrest, the American Idol host and syndicated radio show producer, with Eventful, a digital service connecting fans with entertainment and local events.

Seacrest will produce entertainment content and marketing programs leveraging Eventful's proprietary technologies including the company's robust email technology platform and Eventful's unique Demand it! service which will empower Seacrest's audience to engage and vote on programming topics, "Demand" their favorite celebrities and participate in contests and promotions for entertainment and live events. The alliance is at the forefront of a movement in which performers and entertainment properties partner with leading social media companies to combine unique and engaging content with the latest technology platforms in order to reach and engage consumers.

 To begin their new alliance, Ryan Seacrest and Eventful are announcing the launch of the 'Ryan Rock My Town' contest through Eventful's Demand it! service which allows fans to demand a free concert in their city featuring Kris Allen, Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta. The city with the most Demanders will win the concert and participants will be eligible to receive the free tickets.

Fans can demand the concert online by going to RyanSeacrest.com. The winning city will be announced January 8, 2010 on Seacrest's radio show, On Air with Ryan Seacrest, and on KIIS FM in Los Angeles. The announcement will also be posted on RyanSeacrest.com immediately following the broadcast.

By hosting and producing multiple television and radio programs, Ryan Seacrest continues to be a force in entertainment media. The host of American Idol and the global radio countdown show, American Top 40 also has a market-topping #1 nationally syndicated entertainment morning drive-time radio show with On Air with Ryan Seacrest.

His RSP company has multiple shows in production including Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and the socially conscious Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution with famed British chef Jamie Oliver, premiering in 2010 on ABC.

Eventful is a digital social media service which connects consumers with entertainment, live events and performers. Along with Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, Eventful is part of the digital connection between fans and performers and a marketing resource for the music, film and entertainment industries. Reportedly, nearly 13 million people use Eventful's online, email and mobile services every week to discover what's happening in their local market and decide what to do. Eventful's unique Demand it! service "empowers fans to influence the location and content of events and entertainment."

"It is imperative we continue to engage and create dialogue with our audience," says Ryan Seacrest, "Eventful is at the forefront in the world of digital media and I am thrilled to be partnering with them."

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 "We're honored to work with Ryan Seacrest who is among the most talented and creative people I've ever met," said Eventful CEO Jordan Glazier. "The strategic alliance between Eventful and Ryan Seacrest brings big benefits to both of our companies and, most importantly, will bring exciting content and entertainment opportunities to consumers."

As part of the alliance, Seacrest joins Eventful's Board of Advisors.

Terms of the alliance were not disclosed.

 

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30 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH.........

11-10-79 - the Dead Kennedys played the final concert ever staged at the city’s first punk venue, downtown’s original Skeleton Club on Fourth Avenue, across from Horton Plaza. Owner Laura Fraser was forced to close the basement level club due to problems with the hundred year-old building meeting fire codes.

In addition, plainclothes police frequently ticketed patrons for everything from public drunkenness and drug possession to weapons violations, lewd behavior, and even for spitting on the sidewalk outside the club, prompting Fraser to allege municipal harassment.

When the Dead Kennedys hit the Club’s four-inch-high stage, lead singer Jello Biafra had just recently run for Mayor of San Francisco, coming in at fourth place. Around 300 patrons paid $3.50 to see the band speed through a topical set that included the anti- totalitarianism anthem “Holiday in Cambodia,” “Kill the Poor” (concerning urban neutron bombs), and “California Über Alles,” about a world where political punching bag Jerry Brown is President.

One local paper called the mosh pit “a battleground that formed in front of, and at times on, the stage.”

The Skeleton Club reopened on December 7, 1979, at 202 West Market Street, in a locale abandoned by the previous – and ultimately doomed – tenant; Climax Limited Disco World.

12-14-85: The Dead Kennedys played one of their final shows with original singer Jello Biafra, at downtown’s California Theater. As the set wrapped up, raucous fans tore up the seats and pulled curtains down from walls, causing police to call out a riot squad, though officers stayed outside the building until the crowd dispersed on its own.

The fifteen song set included tunes off their newest album Frankenchrist, as well as “Triumph of the Swill,” “Police Truck,” and the encore “Holiday in Cambodia.”

The show's promoter - future Casbah owner Tim Mays - recalls "The police were called in by the fire marshalls - who were freaking out about fans not staying in their seats and clogging the aisles. Some seats got destroyed...At one point I went outside to get some air, and there were police on all four corners surrounding the block the theatre was on. They weren't going to let me go back inside."

"Finally, one of my production managers convinced a female cop he happened to know that I was indeed the promoter and not just some random fan who had wandered outside."

The next night (12-15-85), the DKs performed at Tijuana’s Teatro Casa de la Cultura, in a show also promoted by Mays (tickets: $5). Outside the venue, Mexican police arrested several San Diegans “for no apparent reason,” according to newspaper columnist George Varga.

After the DKs, the California Theater only hosted a handful of punk shows for the remainder of its existence as a concert hall. After TJ, the band with Biafra only played three more concerts before calling quitting the concert trail a few weeks later.

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SHIPPING SUMMER 2010: ROCK 'N' ROLL CARTOON HISTORY - THE SIXTIES

Here's the first look at the cover art for the 300 page graphic novel Rock 'N' Roll Cartoon History: The Sixties, shipping summer 2010 from Bluewater Productions. www.bluewaterprod.com  --  www.myspace.com/rocknrollcomics 

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LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, CBS

Mo 11/23: Robin Williams, Ashley Greene
Tu 11/24: Zac Efron, Carrie Fisher, Rihanna
We 11/25: Natalie Portman, Adam Lambert

THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, NBC

Mo 11/23: Taylor Lautner, John Cleese, Timbaland with Nelly Furtado and So Shy
Tu 11/24: Jack McBrayer, Marisa Miller
We 11/25: Norm MacDonald, Gretchen Bleiler, Dan Cummins
Th 11/26: Pee Wee Herman

JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE, ABC

Mo 11/23: Andre Agassi, Weezer
Tu 11/24: Charlize Theron, a special guest appearance by Regis Philbin, the winner of "Dancing with the Stars", Ron Artest
We 11/25: Charles Barkley, Peter Facinelli, Leona Lewis

LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON, CBS

Mo 11/23: Margaret Cho, Carl Edwards
Tu 11/24: Maria Bello, Peter Capaldi
We 11/25: Robin Wright Penn, Wolfgang Puck

LAST CALL WITH CARSON DALY, NBC

Mo 11/23: Brett Dennen
Tu 11/24: OK Go
We 11/25: David Gray
Th 11/26: Weezer
Fr 11/27: Juliette Lewis, Joe Firstman

Mo 11/30: Joss Stone, Bat For Lashes (R 10/8/09)
Tu 12/1: Glenn Howerton, Chad Hedrick, Cold War Kids (R 10/9/09)
We 12/2: Chris Kattan, Nuttin But Stringz, Lily Allen (R 10/13/09)
Th 12/3: Charlie Hunnam, Erin Hamlin, Phoenix (R 10/14/09)
Fr 12/4: Mike Rowe, Alissa Geving, Keane (R 10/15/09)

Mo 12/7: Ron Artest, Eva Amurri, Natasha Leggero (R 10/16/09)
Tu 12/8: David Duchovny
We 12/9: Olivia Munn

LOPEZ TONIGHT, TBS

Mo 11/23: Eva Mendes, Craig Robinson
Tu 11/24: Sandra Bullock, Derek Luke
We 11/25: TBA
Th 11/26: Taylor Lautner, Kristin Cavallari, LMFAO

THE VIEW, ABC

Mo 11/23: Zac Efron, Claire Danes, Norah Jones
Tu 11/24: Robin Williams, Matthew Rhys
We 11/25: Natalie Portman, the latest castoff from "Dancing With the Stars"

LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY, syndicated

Mo 11/23: Mark Harmon, David Cook, the winner of "Project Runway"
Tu 11/24: Jimmy Kimmel
We 11/25: Thomas Gibson
Th 11/26: Michael J. Fox, Jennifer Lopez, Annie Lennox, Hugh Laurie (R)
Fr 11/27: Neil Patrick Harris, the cast of "The Beatles Love" by Cirque Du Soleil, Uncle Kracker

THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW, syndicated

Mo 11/23: Penelope Cruz, the latest castoffs from "So You Think You Can Dance", Kris Allen
Tu 11/24: Bon Jovi
We 11/25: Sandra Bullock
Th 11/26: Rerun TBA
Fr 11/27: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Kelly Osbourne & Louis van Amstel, teen violinist Justus Rivera

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 WHAT I'M WATCHING - QUEEN OF THE DAMNED (2002)

It's never a good sign when the deleted scenes and DVD commentary are more enjoyable than the stand-alone film, but Queen of the Damned surprised me. It's got a lot of flaws - but it's not at all a horrible movie. It messed with and compressed/redid the Anne Rice novels so much that few people seem to like it - but I think if you go into without expecting it to be Anne Rice's Lestat, but rather a story loosely "inspired by" her books, it's a decent little goth movie.

Particularly the fully-realized music (and accompanying music videos, seen only in flashes during the movie but included on the DVD in their entirety, all framed ala German expressionism and surreal, very much Nosferatu/Doctor Caligary silent movie-inspired), by guys from Korn, Static X, Oingo Boingo, and even Marilyn Manson (who has one great album, Mechanical Animals, his Ziggy Stardust glam tribute/ripoff).

The whole vampire-goes-high-tech subtheme is intriguing, especially Lestat calling out his fellow vampires on the giant Times Square diamondvision screen ("Come out, come out, wherever you are"), and Lestat laying down inside a huge satellite dish and absorbing the entire world as it streams digitally and directly to his brain.

Some of the director's alterations from the two Rice novels the movie is based on (Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned) are actually improvements - such as keeping Lestat's debut concert to a one-time affair, thus explaining why the other vamps never went after him at other concerts (a vexing plothole in the Lestat novel).

 On the other hand, transforming female lead Jesse from a savvy vampire hunter and historical archivist with insider insight into a mere "Bite me, baby, one more time" groupie is among the filmmaker's WORST moves - eccch. Even if the actress playing Jesse is quite fetching (Marquerite Moreau, also seen in the highly underrated remake of Bedazzled).

The DVD's deleted scene showing the other Ancient Ones, as they gather to plot against the Queen SHOULD have been kept, as it provides all the motive behind the anti-Queen backlash acted out by present day-to-day vamps. I especially loved the Ancient Ones walking freely thru a goth concert, looking around incredulously and commenting "Ancient Rome had nothing on these people!" Why oh why was all that cut???

An improvement over the books - having the big concert outdoors in the desert in a remote and isolated Burning Man-style gathering is FAR better than Rice's dinky little indoor concert hall melee. Visually, the ensuing onstage battles need to be matched by the epic size and scope of the event locale, so the movie version is much more dynamic, and really more correct and apropos than in the novel.

The remote concert locale also goes a long way toward explaining how vampires can suddenly "out" themselves and their powers all over the stage, without a worldwide audience immediately finding out all about the head undead (UnDeadheads?) coming out of the shadows and into the spotlight.

Stuart Townsend as Lestat deserves particular praise. While no Tom Cruise, he's a lot better than you'd expect, and certainly believable as a rock star. As surprisingly dynamic as Cruise was in Interview/Vampire, there's no WAY he could have done the rock star turn without making everyone laugh while remembering the tightie whitey dance from Risky Business!

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LOCALS IN THE NEWS

Michael Robertson, the local webking whose original MP3.com and Sideload websites caused no end of legal troubles, has sold San Diego-based Gizmo5 to Google for $30 million. Gizmo5 specializes in internet telephony technology. Google Acquires voip Firm Gizmo5 for $30 Million

Antimusic reports: As I Lay Dying entered the studio in October with Adam Dutkiewicz (of Killswitch Engage) and Daniel Castleman (Winds Of Plague) to begin tracking their next Metal Blade Records release. more

Travis Barker spoke with MTV and told them a little about his solo album plans, "There's some stuff on my record that's not going to have a bunch of guitars, that are just straight-up hip hop records. Everything's going be real different. It's going to be really well-rounded," he told MTV News on Wednesday. "We got a new Blink song on there, I think I'm going to do something with Chester Bennington from Linkin Park. Slash is a maybe too

Former San Diego street urchin Linda Perry - who went on to front 4 Non Blondes and to write hits for Xtina and others - has signed Little Fish to her Custard label via Universal Motown Records, Little Fish's debut album Baffled and Beat is set for an early 2010 release. The album was produced by Perry herself, in her Los Angeles studio. The band is currently on tour in the UK supporting The Eagles Of Death Metal and will finish up a set of dates with Juliette Lewis in December. With a handful of CMJ dates already under their belt, the band will soon be hitting the States to strut their stuff. - go fishing here

Flogging Molly have announced dates for what has become their annual spring tour centered around the St. Patrick's Day holiday. The "Green 17 Tour" kicks off on February 9th in Dallas, Texas more

 Blink-182's Travis Barker appears alongside Taylor Swift and Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz,  and Weezer's Rivers Cuomo in Brett Ratner-directed commercial ad for Activision video game Band Hero where they recreate a scene from "Risky Business". "The premise is that we're sliding out into a living room and it's me and three other players. The three other players are some of my musical heroes," Taylor commented more

The Black Heart Procession are interviewed in the new Filter Magazine - Q: The first show of the tour will be at The Casbah in your hometown of San Diego. Is it symbolic that you start where the band began 12 years ago? (more Q&A: The Black Heart Procession)

Pinback are featured in a new article in the Washington Examiner - Pinback plays on: California band brings show to dc's Black Cat

Runhoney drummer Emily O'Bannon will appear in the November 25 episode of the new TV show Glee, which has proven to be a huge hit, having sold over two million songs online. O'Bannon plays the drummer for a rival band competing with the Glee crew. O'Bannon also works at the newly opened Gossip Grill, which is operated by Chris Shaw, formerly of the Flame.

AntiMusic reports: A lil Judas Priest Christmas cheer for Halloween? The new single "Christmas for Everyone" from Halford III Winter Songs is available as a FREE download from face=Arial>HalfordMusic.com . Four more new singles from "Halford III Winter Songs" are available for purchase from HalfordMusic.com as well:Get Into The Spirit, We Three Kings, Oh Come O Come Emanuel, Winter Song. more

Check out Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready performing "Ball & Chain" with Social D here Also be on the look out for video of Mike Ness and Jonny "2Bags" Wickersham joining Pearl Jam on-stage performing "Down."

We Are The Fallen, the new band featuring original Evanescence members Ben Moody (guitar) and John LeCompt (guitar) and Rocky Gray (drums) along with American Idol vocalist Carly Smithson is currently recording its debut album for Universal Republic in Los Angeles and expect to release it in early 2010. more

Stone Temple Pilots are just about to hit Canada with a couple of random dates set after that. Sounds like a perfect time to get to work on an album, and that's the plan according to frontman Scott Weiland: "When we get back[from touring], we're going to finish the album. And then when we finish the album, there will be a big tour around its release and that will probably be a long tour." more

Adam Lambert had this update for fans on his Twitter account: "Well here's some more album info for you guys! The upcoming single was produced by Dr Luke!!" he twits. "Debut single is called 'For Your Entertainment' get ready to shake yo asses to this song. It'll make ya dance for sure." more

Less than three weeks from its release day, Lambert's major-label debut album For Your Entertainment has been previewed. All of the fourteen songs on the album can be streamed for 30 seconds on Amazon U.K. more

(Lambert's Nagel-inspired cover art looks a lot like Rihanna's new album, not to mention below Kylie Minogue records! A new "Touch Yer Face" fad?)

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TEN SONGS BY LOCALS THAT ARE BETTER WHEN SOMEONE ELSE DOES THEM! --- courtesy Bart Mendoza

 Being a musician is great but being a songwriter can be even greater -  if your song ends up in the right hands, or with the right voice. Here are ten songs by ten <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />San Diego connected songwriters which fared rather well when performed by others. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

Phil Collins / “Separate Lives”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF0scfQ7_so

Written By Stephen Bishop. A huge worldwide hit, as heard in the 1985 film, White Knights.

 

Phil Collins & Phillip Bailey / “Easy Lover”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1kDmnHyOBg

Co-written by Nathan East. This one went all the way to #2 in 1984, hitting #1 in the U.K.

 

Dan Fogelberg / “Rhthym of The Rain”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djCUfGVd9lY

Written by John Gummoe. This is the lone track here that was a hit in an earlier incarnation as well, in this case by Gummoe's own group, The Cascades. Fogelberg’s 1990 version was a #3 Adult Contemporary Hit, and is till ubiquitous on soft-rock radio. Also one of only two songs by a local songwriter to hit near the top of the charts with more than one version of a song. So far.

 

Lynyrd Skynyrd/ "Call Me the Breeze"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaTZkIInYNw

Written by JJ Cale. This is the band in their prime, with a 1975 appearance on British TV program, The Ol’ Grey Whistle Test.

 

Steve Miller Band / “Jungle Love”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZHXMnC2qwk

Co-written by Greg Douglass. Some songs are lucky enough to get a second chance at hit status, as happened when Steve Miller’s “Jungle Love” was used as a theme song for CBS-TV sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.

 

The Monkees /  “Daydream Believer”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9m-hkvFDLk

Written by John Stewart. Many others including Anne Murray and Shonen Knife have had hits / singles with the song. With so many versions to choose from, we went with U2 live, with head Monkee, Davy Jones, in 1997.

 

The Matrix with Katy Perry / “Broken”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOoyiN3BfP0

Co-written by Anna Troy & Lindsey Troy. This single was recorded in 2004, but not released until 2009.  The Troys version of the song, was called “What Do You Do.”

 

The Ramones / “I Don’t Want To Grow Up”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU2SRNU955c

Written by Tom Waits and another tune with many versions – dig the Dan Clowes artwork in the video!

 

Johnny Rivers / “Slow Dancin (Swayin’ To The Music)”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQOmW_TVPxI

Written by Jack Tempchin, one of his many hit songs. This version is live, on NBC-TV’s The Midnight Special.

 

Various Artists / “Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-P3ClQfWks

Written by Jeannie & Jimmy Chetham. Many blues songs have been written by San Diegans, but only one is a certified standard, covered by hundreds of bands worldwide. Case in point, here’s one of a numerous local bands found online playing the tune, Band of Oz, from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

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 RIP SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON FOUNDER SHEL DORF

Longtime comic book historian Shel Dorf passed away November 3, at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, after a long hospitalization. His brother, Michael Dorf, was at his side. If you knew Shel, or just want to find out more about the man who founded the San Diego Comic-Con, I encourage you to visit (and maybe post to)  http://www.sheldorftribute.com/

The original San Diego’s Golden State Comic-Minicon was held on March 21, 1970 at the U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego. News of Shel's passing leaves me very sad - he knew Revolutionary Comics founder Todd Loren back when Todd was first doing comic conventions in around Detroit, and I've known Shel since his early '80s days at the San Diego Comic-Con and working with us at Blackthorne Publishing on the Dick Tracy comic strip reprints in the late '80s.

I didn't begin attending the local Comic-Con until 1983, when they were at the Community Concourse Civic Theater and Golden Hall, but from then I went every year, up until I retired from comic book publishing in 2000. Shel withdrew from running the Con in the mid-'80s, and my first-ever professional "comic-creator" Con pass came courtesy of friends of Shel, who let me attend his farewell party where I met dozens of comic creators and publishers who'd later be instrumental in my own career.

One of my biggest professional or personal thrills to date was drawing a little piece of skullface barbarian artwork on a gigantic wall-size paper card that everyone at Shel's party was drawing on that night, along with personal messages of cheer and well wishes - I sheepishly scribbled my art between drawings by the likes of Berni Wrightson, Frank Brunner, and John Pound, feeling for all the world like an interloper and imposter, brazenly defacing Shel's giant greeting card with my own inadequate scrawl.

But then Shel walked over, shook my hand, and thanked me ---- I cite that as the very moment I became a professional comic book creator ---

Many years later, around 1992, I went to lunch with Shel and Revolutionary Comics publisher Herb Shapiro. I was surprised to find that Shel actually remembered me from as far back at that '80s Comic-Con party, tho I imagine he only remembered because I was the one guy he'd never met before but who defaced his giant greeting card anyway.

During lunch, Shel looked at me and said "I had a feeling right from the start that you were one of the good guys in comics."

I've strived ever since to live up to that pronouncement ---- 

Shel Dorf was a rare true-life hero -- he'll be sorely missed ---

Jay Allen Sanford 11/3/09

 

Jack Kirby and Shel Dorf — November 9, 1969 - courtesy http://www.sheldorftribute.com/

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 THE RETURN OF ROCK 'N' ROLL COMICS!

Here's a sneak peek at the first promo art for the locally-produced Rock 'N' Roll Comics: Hard Rock Heroes, a 400 page graphic novel shipping from Bluewater Productions in early 2010, as well as the 240 page Beatles Experience comic, the Pink Floyd Experience, Led Zeppelin Experience, the Elvis Presley Experience,  and more -

JAS

 

First, here's the first look at the Elvis Presley Experience cover art:

And here's the scoop and a first look at the cover of the Pink Floyd Experience:

The Pink Floyd Experience: All five issues of the Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics series The Pink Floyd Experience have been out of print and in demand for over fifteen years. As showcased in Pink Floyd’s own official box CD set Shine On, the Floyd comics chronicle rock’s most enigmatic psychedelic warriors, from their early dayz with stoner icon Syd Barrett, through their split (and later reformation). With art by Marvel and DC star Ken Landgraf (Wolverine, Hawkman, Nightwing & Flamebird, etc.), the collection also includes update material, bringing the saga up to 2010.

 

 

 

Hard Rock Heroes: What goes together better than comics and rock music? With almost 300 pages of Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics, Hard Rock Heroes goes WAY beyond Behind the Music, to tell the real life, behind-the-scenes stories of rock’s most heavy hitters. Creators include Stuart Immonen (Superman: End of the Century), Ken Landgraf (Wolverine), Jay Allen Sanford (Overheard in San Diego..), Todd Loren (Beatles Experience), Scott Pentzer (Razor), Mike Sagara (Ninja High School), and many others.

 

Hard Rock Heroes is a book-length pictorial history, covering bands like Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, Motley Crue, Poison, Megadeth, Pantera, Anthrax, Motorhead, Sammy Hagar, and more. The cinematic stories are realistically drawn, researched from countless photo and video archives, with an encyclopedic eye toward visual accuracy, dramatic flair, and journalistic depth.

 

 Also includes the never-before published “missing” Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics #8 from 1990, on Skid Row. The lack of an eighth issue has vexed collectors and catalogers for years – exactly 20 years later, the story can finally be told, and collectors can finally own ALL the Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics!

 

As a bonus treat, Hard Rock Heroes also features the Motley Crue comic story from their official box CD set Music To Crash Your Car To II, released in 2004 and written and drawn by original Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics creators Lyndal Ferguson and Larry Nadolsky. Shipping February 2010.

 

 (colors: Christie Maconnell)

 

 "Great ideas, like the marriage of rock 'n' roll and comics, have the half-life of Uranium and will always be popular," says series co-creator Jay Allen Sanford, who has worked on over 200 reality-based comic books and thousands of similar cartoon strips for the San Diego Reader, as well as for magazines like Rip, Spin, and Oui. "The folks at Bluewater clearly have their fingers on the same pop culture pulse that enabled the original Rock 'N' Roll Comics to become one of the top-selling indie comics of the '90s. Truth is often stranger than fiction...and certainly much more interesting!" 

 

 

The Beatles are bigger than ever, now available online for the first time digitally, on the Vegas stage in “Love,” and in the new Beatles: Rock Band video game. Now comes the most comprehensive and encyclopedic illustrated Beatles story ever, the Beatles Experience! Over 200 pages, dramatizing one of the most compelling tales in pop culture history, drawn from thousands of photos and interviews, meticulously researched and featuring stunning art by Mike Sagara (Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics) and Stuart Immonen (Legion of Super Heroes, Ultimate X-Men).

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Covering the Beatles’ lives from birth and beyond their breakup, dramatized in dialogue and scene recreations more akin to a film bio than a mere documentary, the Beatles Experience also includes a Chronolog timeline going down each page, with encyclopedia background and footnotes detailing related events happening at the same time in the world, in music, and in the Beatles’ own tumultuous and extraordinary lives. 

 

  

 

 The Led Zeppelin Experience:

The Led Zeppelin saga is one of the wildest in rock history, and this graphic novel pulls no punches in dramatizing the backstage, behind-the-scenes story. From their early days as the New Yardbirds on through their rise to superstardom (and controversy), all five issues of the original Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics series are collected in one rockin’ volume, with art by Scott Pentzer (Razor), Marshall Ross (Deepest Dimension), David Neer (Sports Superstars), Francois Escalmel (Frank Zappa: Viva La Bizarre), and others. The collection also includes update material, bringing the saga up to 2010.

www.rocknrollcomics.com  ---  www.myspace.com/rocknrollcomics

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 MORE STRANGE STAGE MOMENTS - courtesy of Bart Mendoza

Zank Bennett: “At a gig, I was standing just behind our main speaker at the Tiki in PB, leaning against the map that is on the wall there. A little later I was playing a big solo in a song called “Saturday Night” and I went to lean back on the map/wall. It wasn't there. Unfortunately, I had spun another 45 degrees during my solo and hadn’t realized it. I was directly behind our front-of-the-house speaker; the one that sat atop an empty keg of beer. Still with my eyes closed, I leaned back and the three of us, the keg, the speaker on top and I, went tumbling the foot-and-a-half drop to the floor below.  We were about three beats from the end of the song. The band never lost a beat and we finished the syncopated last few bars perfectly, more or less. And without a scratch.

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Karin Carson: “One time I was playing shaker on a gig and getting really into the tune. So into it, that I lost the grip on my shaker, which went flying towards the guitar player, who, mid-riff, dodged the flying shaker in a matrix like move, sideways. The audience never caught on, but we still laugh about it.”

 

Carolyn Kallis / Coco and Lafe: “We were busking on the street in Boston and this very large man came down and sat down in front of us, almost right on the microphone, sort of assumed the yogi position and pulled out a can of colt 45. He started to mumble along to our songs, but then he lay down and fell asleep. Every once in awhile he’d wake up, mumble something and then go back to sleep. Homeless people really gravitated to us in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Boston.”

 

Danny Cress / The Coyote Problem: “I was in a surf trio a few years ago. We were in a club playing a version of the old standard “Caravan,” when all of a sudden - and in unison, the guitarist and bass player just put down their instruments and walked off. They headed towards the bar, looking at me just long enough to say “drum solo.” It was probably only about five minutes before they came back, but it seemed much longer.”

 

Mary Dolan: “I was booked for a performance at an AA convention in Las Vegas. I got there with about 1/2 hour to spare. I had a raging headache from the desert drive, the air conditioning and the tension of bad traffic, so I asked a friend for some aspirin. She didn't have any, but she asked her sister and SHE had a bottle of Advil in her purse.  So I took two. I'm on stage and I'm starting to feel weird, like maybe I had more than just a headache.  I was having a hard time feeling my fingers on the fretboard and the audience was getting blurry.  No one was saying anything. Maybe it sounded okay and looked okay, even though I felt a kind of lousy I've NEVER experienced before. For my last tune, I gave "Piece of my Heart" whatever I had left. I cut it short and then I started to dry heave as I was getting off stage. My friend and her sister came running up to me as I was telling them that I was really very sick.  My friend's sister had tears streaming down her face and she was saying," I'm sorry, I'm sorry."  What, huh, I thought?  Then my friend told me that her sister had accidently given me her disguised muscle relaxants. I was loaded at the AA convention.”

 

Calen Lucas / Family Wagon:  “We played a concert on Halloween and there was a giant pumpkin on the stage right in the center, where the monitors should be. As we were playing I decided to put one foot up on the pumpkin for dramatic effect. Except that my foot sunk right into the center of the pumpkin, which was hot orange goo under the stagelights.”

 

Abraham Nunez / Team Abraham: “At our Record Release Party (@ the Casbah) in March, we were mid-set when I suddenly see two bras hanging from the mic stand. One was very sexy the other was fairly large and sturdy. This was fine and I kept playing and all, but mid the next song, I see some boxers being passed down toward the stage... they we're flannel and I could smell them as they were being placed, by a fan, onto the mic stand. I wasn't sure how to respond...”

 

Eric Schauer: “Strangest thing?  A gig at a dirty dive called "The Double Down" in Las Vegas with my surf band on 6/6/06. We were playing surf instrumental versions of Black Sabbath tunes.  Before we played, there was a side-show troupe. Their act included a young lady bending over and shooting darts from her ----- and popping balloons that were taped to a man's chest about 20ft away. That's not too disgusting, right?  There were fire-breathers and our hula-hoopist was topless and donned in red paint and devil horns. We were set up on the floor and some girl in the audience kept taunting her and knocking her hoop down as we played.  Finally, the hula-hoopist snapped, lept out of the hoop in mid-hula onto this girl and proceeded to beat her down.  The band played on as the bouncers broke it up. I’ve seen a few girl-fights with this band at this bar. This one definitely sticks out.”      

 

Anna Troy: “On stage at Lestats, I was singing a song with a friends band when a piece of hair went into my mouth. It was uncomfortable, but I waited until between songs to pull it out, complete with spit. Not very graceful, but it had to be done. For some reason the guys in the band loved it. The bassist said it was the highlight of the night.”

 

Jaime Valle: “Years ago, I was playing an underground Tijuana night club, it was a hot summer night, the band was jamming, the joint was jumping, suddenly, someone shoots the bass player. The bullet was aimed at the singer, missed and hit the poor bassist. All the cats in TJ know who I'm talking about.”

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UPSTAGING APPLE'S iTUNES: Electrical engineers go head to head with Genius on music playlists

UC San Diego engineers use their song-annotating algorithms to study playlists

<!-- Begin video here -->

		VIDEO: Electrical engineers at UC San Diego have created a new kind of music search engine that actually listens to music. This approach could help bands like Juna and S03 (both... Click here for more information.

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Electrical engineers recently pitted Genius – the music recommendation system in Apple's iTunes – against two experimental music recommender systems. Genius appears to capture acoustic similarities among songs within the same playlist, the researchers found. The University of California, San Diego electrical engineers also discovered that the music recommender they built from scratch can generate song playlists that human subjects thought were as good as those that Genius generates. The UC San Diego system works for songs that Genius knows nothing about.

UC San Diego electrical engineering Ph.D. student Luke Barrington presented these findings on October 28 at the 2009 International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR 2009) in Kobe, Japan. (Read the paper at: http://cosmal.ucsd.edu/cal/pubs/Barrington-Genius-ISMIR09.pdf

"Our goal is to make a music recommendation tool that is as good as or better than Genius, but that does not require massive amounts of user data. The system we are developing can analyze and recommend completely unknown songs by new bands as accurately as it analyzes the most popular hits," said Barrington, who used the same underlying technology to create a series of music discovery games for Facebook (http://herdit.org) and a new kind of music search engine that will be available for beta testing next week (http://herdit.org/music/index.html). Watch a three minute video about the new music search engine at: http://cse-ece-ucsd.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-music-search-engine-on-way.html

Tools for creating automated music playlists are increasingly useful now that huge numbers of songs are available for download and streaming to anyone with an Internet connection. iTunes – the most popular music retailer on the planet – has sold more than 6 billion tracks. Genius uses "collaborative filtering" on these purchase statistics to help people organize their music and discover new songs they might like based on similarity to a "seed" song that they do like.

By averaging statistics about how millions of listeners purchase and play music, Genius appears to actually capture acoustic similarities between songs, according to the new research, which involved human evaluation of music recommendation systems and was led by researchers at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Because Genius is a proprietary system whose secrets are not available to the public, the researchers studied it by testing its song recommendations against comparable song suggestions from experimental music recommender systems that they fully understood.

<!-- Begin image here -->

		IMAGE: Electrical engineers recently pitted Genius -- the music recommendation system in Apple's iTunes -- against two experimental music recommender systems. Genius appears to capture acoustic similarities among songs within the... Click here for more information.

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"At first we thought that collaborative filtering would just spot similar artists: if you like Daft Punk, it might recommend any song by Justice. However, we found that acoustic similarities come through in Genius playlists. Genius seems to find correspondences between songs that go beyond what you get by just matching artists. We don't think Genius actually knows anything about the acoustics of songs, but it still produces great recommendations since the data it is using is built upon acoustic analyses of the music done by millions humans," said Luke Barrington, an electrical engineering Ph.D. candidate at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, and the first author of the new study. Gert Lanckriet, an electrical and computer engineering professor from UC San Diego and Reid Oda, an undergraduate in cognitive sciences at UC San Diego are co-authors on this paper, available at: http://cosmal.ucsd.edu/cal/pubs/Barrington-Genius-ISMIR09.pdf

Smarter than Genius?

The UC San Diego researchers found that the playlist generator they built using their own algorithms performed as well as Genius under certain conditions. In contrast to Genius, which uses information about the songs people buy and listen to in iTunes in order to learn which songs in any iTunes library are related, the UCSD music recommender relies on auto-tagging algorithms that use machine learning to label songs with descriptive words based only on the acoustic content of the songs.

"Our computer system works by listening to the music – it doesn't know anything about artists or albums or charts. In some trials of our survey, we tried to remove these biases from the human listeners by hiding the names of the songs and artists and making sure that subjects liked the seed songs but had not heard them before," said Barrington. In these cases, the researchers found that people liked playlists generated by the UCSD auto-tagging algorithms as often as they liked Genius playlists.

This partial parity with Genius underscores how the UCSD auto-tagging algorithms can be used to generate high quality music playlists that incorporate lesser-known and unknown songs. Genius currently ignores relatively unknown songs because it lacks adequate wisdom from iTunes customers about how these songs connect to other songs. Systems like the auto-tagging music algorithms developed at UC San Diego could be useful in filling in the "blind spots" in Genius and other collaborative filtering systems that rely on the wisdom of the masses to generate playlists.

"We weren't expecting our system to beat Genius at making playlists based on the most popular songs – our system doesn't know about artists, popularity, release dates, albums or anything else that the average music fan is aware of. Once we add that information in, we think we can build something that is really smarter than Genius," said Barrington.

Music Games are Serious Research

The UCSD electrical engineers are always improving their auto-tagging algorithms thanks to a series of music discovery games they created for Facebook called Herd It (http://www.herdit.org/). Players listen to songs and compete with other online players to most accurately describe the songs they are listening to. The electrical engineers use the song-word combinations these games generate to improve the accuracy and breadth of their auto-tagging algorithms.

As with the Herd It games, the surveys the engineers created to study playlists also began with humans listening to a song clip. Next, the survey system produced two competing five-song playlists for the same seed song. Playlists were generated by one of the four possible recommender systems the researchers were studying: Genius; Artist Similarity – a music recommender that selected songs based only on similar artists; Similar Tags – a music recommender that selected songs based only on the audio content of the songs (this system was built upon the UCSD auto-tagging algorithms); or random playlist.

For each pair of playlists, subjects identified the list they thought was better. Playlists were built from the authors' personal music library of over 12,000 relatively popular songs that span the most common genres of Western popular music. The list of songs used to seed playlists is available at: http://cosmal.ucsd.edu/cal/projects/playlist/

People are moving more and more to streaming music, where listeners don't have the actual file. With access to every song on You Tube, deciding which of the 10 million songs you want to listen to next can be daunting.

"Playlists are an increasingly important tool for overcoming what otherwise might be an overwhelming amount of streaming music," said Barrington.

New Music Search Technologies

The algorithms that automatically tag songs with descriptive words that are at the foundation of the UC San Diego playlist generator are also powering a new breed of search engine for music as well as Facebook games that provide researchers with the information needed to improve the new search engine. To watch a video highlighting the capabilities of the new music search engine, go to: http://cse-ece-ucsd.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-music-search-engine-on-way.html

This search engine will be available for beta testing next week. Register for the music search engine beta test at: http://herdit.org/music/

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SPORTS ARENA MVP SPILLS ON 2.5 MIL REDO AND NEW ARENA NIGHTCLUB

“We’re putting two and a half million dollars in the building” says Ernie Hahn, General Manager of the Sports Arena for the past 13 years. “It’s been a year since AEG Live became a majority owner partner and, since there’s no new arena being built for awhile in San Diego, AEG is modernizing the facility with creature comforts like LCD TV screens, flat screens, redoing the entrances and the outer concourse, paint and colors and lighting, and all new lower level seats. The eight rows of riser seats at the Arena that have literally been here since day one are all getting replaced, [with] 2,200 state-of-the-art seats.” 

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Construction has also begun on “a special club for our sponsors and club seat holders,” in the old Arena Club space, set to open later this year. Club 3500 (the facility’s address) will be 6,500 square feet, with a 350-person occupancy and accessed via membership only. “When you walk in,” says Hahn, “it’s going to feel like a downtown club, really swank, hip, and sophisticated. It’ll be close to a dedicated seating section at stage right, which will be put aside for our club members.”

 

Annual membership is $2,450.00, with the option to purchase up to four “dedicated seating” tickets for events you want to opt-in for. Other perks include VIP parking, a VIP entrance, and its own “Exclusive men’s and women’s rest rooms, with sound in them, new paint, mirrors, sinks, and counters, and stalls. The Arena Club in the past always had to utilize the rest rooms that are also available to anybody in [sections] A, B or C on the floor.”

 

 Hahn is also outfitting Club 3500 with Arena memorabilia. “Few houses have this kind of history,” he says. “A lot of people saw their first concert here. We’ll have over 120 pictures showing the actual [Sports Arena] history, like Pink Floyd in ‘74, or the Stones in ’72. I’ve got a great shot of Elton John, one of Elvis in ‘73 or ‘76, and I think a Led Zeppelin ‘75 shot. We have a great photo of James Brown here in 1967, and one of John Denver in the mid-seventies, which I particularly like.”

 

The 42 year-old Hahn grew up in locally, with parents who were Mariners season ticket holders in the ‘70s (“Lower level one, two seats on the end, across from the visiting penalty box”). He began at the facility as an event coordinator in June 1991.

 

AEG runs, operates, or is involved with around a hundred arena facilities worldwide, though Hahn notes “We’re an open building. So, whether it’s Live Nation or AEG or anyone else, all shows are not only welcome but encouraged here.”

 

As for selling naming rights to the building (after a short-lived stint at the iPayOne Center), Hahn says “Through the global partnerships division of AEG, we’re working with a lot of sponsors, some who just recently stepped up, and we’re in discussions with a couple who will hopefully bid or ultimately come in as a naming rights partner.”  

 

AEG sold naming rights for <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Berlin’s 02 Arena last year for $37.5 million.

And now, courtesy of Bart Mendoza, here are 15 video clips set at the Sports Arena, some pro-shot and some fan-made ----

1)      Tribal Seeds @ Reggae Fest 2008

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONzQ-w7zr84

2)      Fleetwood Mac / “Dreams” 05/31/09 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eXXAth0i74

3)      Metallica / “Enter Sandman” 01-13/14-92 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYlPUNEwGRU

4)      Nirvana / “Heart Shaped Box” 12 29 93 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVGpbtv2mgU

5)      U2 / “Beautiful Day” 09 28 05 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HhnRBOMJhY

6)      George Micheal / “Careless Whisper” 06/17/08 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml1Qlpn_LQ8

7)      Led Zeppelin Comes to San Diego on SD News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APplenzzKk4

8)      Taylor Swift / “Hey Stephan” (really good footage of her interacting with concert crowd at 2:30 – kind of daring actually…

       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI4e8_fn80k

9)      AC/DC / “Back In Black” 2009

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiWX-7khEog

10)  Janet Jackson / ….. (Janet gets overwhelmed by San Diego fan response)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcosWOI-dOs

       11) Pearl Jam / “Jeremy” 1995 – not great pic quality, but really good sound!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCOZoUcPANI

12)  JJ Cale & Eric Clapton / “Cocaine” 03/15/07

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg63-uOgUJ8

13)  P.O.D. / “Boom” (just 8 seconds worth!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXEzvQtnC9w

14)  Ozzy Osbourne / …end of the show (fake gunshots!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUpDN1gOx5s

15)  Slayer / At the Sports Arena 1992 (a brief parking lot clip shot by a fan!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H_9zhpMDHY

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WHY MEXICANS HATED ELVIS!

May 1959: While Elvis Presley’s popularity in the U.S. was arguably at its all-time peak, Mexico was in the midst of a huge anti-Elvis backlash.

Tijuana tabloids called him a racist and homosexual, after the singer reportedly told gossip columnist Federico de León “I’d rather kiss three black girls than a Mexican.” A Mexican woman in the same column was quoted saying “I’d rather kiss three dogs than one Elvis Presley.”

Mexican Radio Exitos read de León’s column over the air and spearheaded a boycott of the “insolent artist,” while the powerful student group Federación Estudiantil Universitaria (FEU) held public record burnings.

When Elvis’ movie King Creole screened in May 1959 at the Américas Cinema in Mexico City, newspapers who’d advertised the film under the title Melodía Siniestra (Sinister Melody) reported a “riot” occurring.

Mexican counterculture novelist Parménides García Saldaña wrote a short story, “El rey criollo,” about the screening where several hundred gatecrashers reportedly shredded the seats and threw lit papers onto patrons from the balcony.

“Before the film began,” wrote Saldaña, “it was pure chaos, a f-ing riot as they say more vulgarly. The different gangs shouted ‘Here the Guerrero [neighborhood],’ ‘Here the Roma’ …And then some chicks come in with leather jackets with swastikas painted on them, pony tails and bobby socks, real rock and roller like…a group of guys gang up around them [and shout] “‘Dance!’”

Mexican reporters suggested Elvis’ hip-wiggling and mannerisms proved he was either maricón (homosexual) or actually a woman in reverse-drag.

The movie Los chiflados del rock’n roll, a musical spoof, was promoted with posters showing Elvis in drag, being shot by rifle-toting men in sombreros, under a banner reading “Die Elvis Presley!”

The book “Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture” (Berkeley: University of California Press, c1999) claims the original Elvis quote was fabricated. According to author Eric Zolov, “Herbe Pompeyo of Polygram Records in Mexico City claims that a high-up Mexican political figure wanted to contract Presley for a private party, for which he sent the performer a blank check to fill in as he wished.

Presley, according to the story, returned the blank check, so the politico, extremely offended, invented the storyline about Elvis not liking Mexican women.”

Who could have imagined that, four decades later, Mexico would be producing more Elvis velvet paintings than any other region in the world…

…not to mention giving us “El Vez, the Mexican Elvis….”

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Many of the artists from Revolutionary Comics, Rock 'N' Roll Comics, and Carnal Comics have joined forces once again to work on a new & unusual comic and reality based project – The Obama Nation Card Game! 

Obama Nation makes good-natured fun of politics, republicans and democrats, government spending and the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />US economic meltdown.  It’s a bit like playing Old Maid or Go fish, but half the fun is looking at and reading the hilarious card art – all very tongue in cheek.  Though it’s called Obama Nation, the game makes fun of consumers, banks, environmentalists, the elite, congress in general and both political parties, all in a fairly good natured way.  The goal of the game is to see if you can spend Billions of tax dollars faster than your opponents,

Former Rev Com artist  (and Obama Game art director) Steve Crompton described how it all came together; ”It’s a bit like a cross between wacky packages, Old Maid and some of the stuff Revolutionary Comics might have done if they made card games.  I thought it would be fun to get the old gang together for something like this, and I needed all the help I could get, so I contacted everyone I could find and I’m really happy with the response and great art I got from my Rev Com & Carnal pals.”

A quick look at the 54 card deck shows reveals an impressive list of RevCom & Carnal alums, including Lyndal Ferguson, Scott Jackson, Steve Crompton, Brad Foster, Gus Norman, Randy Vogel and Philo.  There may even be a few others hiding in the set as a complete list of all the RevCom artists is hard to come by.  <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

The full-color 54 card deck comes in a resealable box for a only $7.99. 
http://shop.twistedrules.com/ 

You can also get it at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/shops/carnalcomics

http://www.obamanationcardgame.com/  

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WHY AL KOOPER HATES LOCAL WRITERS (BUT LOVES SAN DIEGO)

Legendary keyboardist Al Kooper has played with Dylan, the Stones, George Harrison and countless others, but he still has time to beef about local music reporters like Buddy Blue and a certain Reader columnist... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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ANYA MARINA GETS STONED!

<P>Rollingstone.com has added Anya Marina to their "breaking artist" profiles - http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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 THE BEATLES IN <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />SAN DIEGO

 8-28-65 – the Beatles: For the Beatles' one and only local appearance, at Balboa Stadium, radio station KCBQ declared that Saturday "Beatle Day" and gave out pins saying so to attendees. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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 UNEXPECTED BEATLES ART - The Fab Four turn up in the oddest places... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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MAHARISH COMIX AND STORIES, OR "YOGI MAKES A BOO-BOO"

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

       

WEIRD BEATLES MERCHANDISE - WTF were these licensors (and bootleggers) thinking... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/feb/06/my-brunch-with-yoko-plus-weird-beatles

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MY BRUNCH WITH YOKO - Brunch with a Beatle bride... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/feb/06/my-brunch-with-yoko-plus-weird-beatles

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YOKO ONO COMICS AND STORIES  - When Johnny Met Yoko, with dialogue and captions paraphrased from published Lennon interviews. Plus John Lennon: A Life in the Day

... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/feb/06/my-brunch-with-yoko-plus-weird-beatles

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LENNON OR McCARTNEY??  --We asked 25 local performers about their fave Beatle (and why), and got some surprising (and frequently revealing) answers...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/dec/13/we-asked-25-local-musicos-lennon-or-mccartney

  CELEBRITY HOUSE HUNTING IN SAN DIEGO - Real estate broker Jeff Paiste has squired several famous musicians around San Diego in their search for decent digs to lease or rent, including Bread frontman David Gates and the late George Harrison.... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/13/celebrity-house-hunting-in-san-diego

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 JOEY MOLLAND/BADFINGER INTERVIEW - Badfinger's last man standing, Joey Molland, reveals more about the tragic story of Badfinger, as well as meeting and working with John Lennon, George Harrison, and Todd Rundgren, plus the Concert for Bangladesh, and more.  http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/aug/21/x-jam-cancellation-controversy-plus-how-i-snuck-in/

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THE DAY JOHN LENNON WAS SHOT - Local celebs share their recollections of December 8, 1980, plus guest essays from Al Kooper (who was recording with George Harrison that day) and others....  http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/25/john-lennon-12-8-1980-we-ask-local-celebs-where-we/

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LEGO ALBUM COVER RECREATIONS! Those wacky kidsters at toyzone.com put together this great tribute to OCD Legoholics everywhere... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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Exclusive preview and new interview with one of the creators/performers behind the new internet Trek series - click for more ---http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/oct/04/happy-rons-hormonal-harem---loving-san-diegos-musi/#

READER EXCLUSIVE - For the first time anywhere on the web, here's the promo trailer for Star Trek: The Continuing Mission, episode six: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/audioclips/66/

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The Twilight Zone made it's TV debut 50 years ago, on 10-2-59 - we asked local musicos to tell us their own favorite Zone episodes --- (more "What's Your Favorite Twilight Zone?" )

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THE ROCKETEER AND OTHER FAMOUS '80S COMICS BEGAN RIGHT HERE IN SAN DIEGO - Here's a detailed history of local Pacific Comics, who recruited comic superstars like Jack Kirby to create one of the first successful indie comic book lines. Pioneers in the fight for comic creators' rights and royalties, former employees and operators reveal how they did it, and what went so terribly wrong...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/08/pacific-comics-the-inside-story-jay-allen-sanford

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THE KOMPLETE KISS KOMIX KRONICLES - Comprehensive collection of stuff I’ve done about working with Kiss on a comic book series in San Diego, along with a bunch of never-before-seen artifacts from the Kiss Komix archives AND an article by Kiss comic author Spike Steffenhagen, offering his own very-different take, ala Rashomon, on the same events I describe in my essay...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/12/komplete-kiss-komix-kronicles

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ROCK 'N' ROLL COMICS: THE INSIDE STORY - In 1989, San Diego's Revolutionary Comics ("Unauthorized And Proud Of It") launched Rock 'N' Roll Comics, featuring unlicensed biographies of rock stars, most of which I wrote. Some performers, like Frank Zappa and Kiss, were supportive, while others like New Kids On The Block considered our comics akin to bootlegs and sued. In June 1992, publisher Todd Loren was found dead in his San Diego condo, brutally murdered...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/12/rock-n-roll-comics-the-inside-story

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NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK VS REVOLUTIONARY COMICS - The inside story of how a hugely successful boy band tried to sue local-based Rock 'N' Roll Comics over an unauthorized biography of the group, sparking a court case that established, for the very first time, first amendment rights for comic books. Illustrated by comic superstar Stuart Immonen (Superman, etc.)...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/13/new-kids-on-the-block-versus-revolutionary-comics

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OVER A MILLION CARNAL COMICS ARE IN PRINT - Here's how and why we made some of the top-selling erotic comics of all time, right here in San Diego, including what Gene Simmons has to do with it all, backstage tales of porn stars, and more confessions of a comic pornographer...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/08/carnal-comics-the-inside-story-jay-allen-sanfor

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COMICS AND CENSORSHIP - DON'T BE AFRAID, IT'S ONLY A COMIC BOOK - A local-centric history of comic book censorship, and the fight for the rights of comic creators...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/06/comics-and-censorship-a-local-centric-illustrated

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TWILIGHT ZONE AND STAR TREK WRITER GEORGE CLAYTON JOHNSON PRESENTS - The inside story of a local horror comic book series featuring Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, plus sci-fi king Larry Niven, Zap Comix co-founder Spain Rodriguez, Matthew Alice artist Rick Geary, Vampire Lestat painter Daerick Gross, yours truly JAS, and many more...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/05/deepest-dimension-terror-anthology-twilight-zone

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THE BIRTH OF IMAGE COMICS: INSIDE STORY OF A LOCAL PUBLISHING POWERHOUSE - Illustrated tale revealing how Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and local comic artist Jim Lee (the Punisher, etc.) conspired to create the ultimate creator-owned comic books...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/03/the-birth-of-image-comics-an-illustrated-history

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 Down the Slippery Slope - Arrested For the Crime of Viewing Manga

On March 30, 2004, when Dwight Whorley found the Japanese website of Fractal Underground Studio via Yahoo and clicked on a couple of the thumbnail images... ( http://comipress.com/special/miscellaneous/down-the-slippery-slope-the-crime-of-viewing-manga )

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"Before It Was The Gaslamp: Balboa's Last Stand" - Cover story 6-21-07: In the late 70s/early 80s, I worked at downtown San Diego's grindhouse all-night movie theaters, for the owner of the Pussycat Theatre chain, Vince Miranda - this detailed feature recalls those dayz, the death of the Balboa Theatre, etc.

More Before It Was the Gaslamp

 

"Battle Of The Peeps" - feature article about a weird gig I had in the mid-'80s, running a strip club called Jolar, for the nation's second biggest pornographer, Harry Mohney (Deja Vu Showgirls founder).

More Battle of the Peeps - An Insider History of San Diego Porn Shops

"Field Of Screens" - Cover story 7-6-06: Complete theater-by-theater history of San Diego drive-ins thru the years, including a few which screened X-rated fare for awhile.

More Drive-In Theaters in San Diego: Complete Illustrated History 1947 thru 2008

  

"Pussycat Theaters - When 'Cathouses Ruled California" -- for the first time, the detailed inside story of the west coast Pussycat Theater chain of adult moviehouses, which peaked in the '70s but later died out. Told by those who actually ran the theaters!

More Pussycat Theater History: When Cathouses Ruled CA

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Today's Top MP3 Downloads

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• View all MP3s

 

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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

• More Jay Allen Sanford
• More Rock Around the Town

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