Whole Lotta Aping Going On

Thursday 18
English goth-rockers the Damned will finish up their two-night stint at Casbah. Sold out, it is.... So go check out Motörhead Lemmy’s new joint the Head Cat at Belly Up. They’re a rockabilly super-trio, featuring Slim Jim Phantom of the Stray Cats on drums and guitarist Danny Harvey of the Lonesome Spurs. Lemmy’s naturally singing and ”slappin’ de bass.” Get a taste of the stage show off of Rockin’ the Cat Club: Live From the Sunset Strip. The Buzzbombs and Grass Heat go first.... Austin artist Bob Schneider plays House of Blues. His last one — his 11th full-length — was last year’s Lovely Creatures and was reportedly about his breakup with actress Sandra Bullock. Bob says, “Nu-uh”.... A new proggy post-punk project called Scales checks in at the Tin Can Ale House in Banker’s Hill. Give them a listen here: myspace.com/wearescales. They’ve got a bit of Slint/June of 44 in ‘em. That works.... Uptown, you got L.A. psych-rock outfit Lemon Sun shining on Bar Pink...and Soda Bar sets up garage gang the Old In Out with O.C. pop-punks Some Days. They’re all named Day, and the drummer is the singer. How fun.

Friday 19
Start your Friday-night club crawl at a bookshop. The iron man of metal, Ozzy freaking Osbourne will be signing copies of his new tome, I Am Ozzy, at Warwick’s in La Jolla. So bizarro. SHA-RON! I’ve come up wif a ti-tul!... Out with the old: some San Diego scene perennials will be hitting the boards Friday night, starting with Steve Poltz’s 50th birthday bash at Belly Up with his new band the Cynics, his old band the Rugburns, and Eagle killer Mojo Nixon sets the Solana Beach stage...barroom rockers Joey Harris and the Mentals fly over the Tiki nest in P.B. behind their s/t debut...while Brick by Brick in Bay Park exhumes the scariest band in the land, Deadbolt.... And in with the new: indie-pop chanteuse Maren Parusel makes a Whistle Stop stop. She’ll be off to SXSW in the spring...sunshiny folk-pop foursome the Donkeys clop into Casbah behind Hot Moon, the Modlins, and Joel West...and indie kids the Fascination, Drowning Men, and Deadly Syndrome fill a bill at the Beauty Bar.... Brooklyn screamo act Wild Yaks features guitarist Sean Kennerly from NorCal’s ‘90s punx Samiam. They’ll do whatever wild yaks do with Reverse Cowboys at the Ken.... Singer-songwriter J.R. Richards of alt-rock hits Dishwalla visits House of Blues. His debut solo, A Beautiful End, dropped via download last year.

Saturday 20
Got some serious aping going on Saturday night as the ‘80s for Haiti benefit hits 4th&B, featuring some of the more convincing tribute acts in the biz covering that decade’s darlings: U2, the Cure, the Smiths, Duran Duran, the Police, Depeche Mode, GNR, and on and on. Starts at 7p, and all the green goes to the victims of January’s Haiti earthquake.... And up at Belly Up, more of that with Platinum Rockstars playing like arena rockers Led Zeppelin, Boston, Journey, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, and Van Halen. Damn the Torpedoes, a Tom Petty trib, will warm it up.... Hip-hoppin’ rocker P.O.S. will take the mic at UCSD’s Loft space. The Minneapolis rapper is out to tout last year’s Never Better, which made Spin’s “Top 10 Best Albums You Might Have Missed.” Check him out: myspace.com/pos. Dude’s got it, and I don’t even know what it is.... Ladera skateboards’ Winter Blackout comes to House of Blues, featuring heavy-hit reggae by the Expendables and Hawaiian dub dudes Iration.... Uptowners can get with Recordable Colors, which is playing a CD-release at the Ken with Mia Valentine and the Canton Mudders...or troubadour Jack Tempchin (“Peaceful Easy Feeling”) at AcousticMusicSanDiego’s church on Mansfield Street.

Sunday 21
Austin garage-pop group Harlem meets like-minded Los Angelinos Thee Makeout Party at Casbah. With locals the Glossines, that’s a trick triple bill right there.... Banjo-jamming throwback Frank Fairfield rolls into Belly Up Sunday night. For more on this vintage cat, have a look at what rock critic Andrew Hamlin wrote in these pages last month: sandiegoreader.com/news/2010/jan/17/frank-fairfield/. Pop-rock Raconteur Brendan Benson headlines.... Up thataway at the Ché Café, it’ll be up-and-coming goth-rockers Blessure Grave with Blacklisted, OK?, and Nails. SanDago’s Blessure Grave is a stereogum.com band to watch.... SanFran instrumental band Silian Rail hits Bar Pink behind debut And I You, to Pieces. The boy-girl, guitar-drum duo hit like post-rock groping for classic-pop melodies and rhythm. Way cool. Go here: myspace.com/silianrailmusic. Fever Sleeves opens the show.... Else: Bedlam of Cacophony, Hanab Ku, and Dead Ghosts haunt Radio Room with grindcore...and L.A. big-band revivalists Royal Crown Revue swings into Viejas’ DreamCatcher thing.

Monday 22
Casbah’s Anti-Monday team tags local acousti-pop duo Metrofique, Hollywood-via-London one-man band Samuel Stewart, and Americana crew Longstay.... The Pyrate Punx shanghai Radio Room with Ms. Fits, Blood Stained Reality, Abject, and Nuclear Tomorrow. More on the Pyrates’ latest plunders in this week’s “Blurt”.... Comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade returns to the Loft.

Tuesday 23
Jersey boy and jazz-fusion guitarist Al Di Meola checks into Anthology for two nights starting Tuesday. Al D. recently reunited with his old band Return to Forever for last year’s live catchall Returns. Suffice to say, the player’s in fine form for you fusion fans.... Need something noisier? Get thrashed with Kavana, John Wayne Gacy Daycare, Toreback, and Race Against Space at Radio Room.

Wednesday 24
Hump-night highlights look like this: Casbah’s got Swedish psych-rock big band the Soundtrack of Our Lives, which is touring in support of 2009’s ambitious double disc Communion. L.A. alt-rock trio Nico Vega goes first.... Belly Up fills a locals-only alt-pop bill with ready-to-blow-up Dynamite Walls, Republic of Letters, and Tommy Graf.... And Scot indie-rock band We Were Promised Jetpacks lands at the Loft behind Fat Cat debut These Four Walls. Not bad once you get past the accents, but Jetpacks are so Hanna-Barbera.
— Barnaby Monk