I wish I were viral: The rest (and best?) of the Southland's summer music fests

Thursday 2
Where have all the rude boys gone? Back to school! And campus collective Ché Café has booked a weekend of winners to welcome back UCSD’s student bawdy. Tonight, the heady, socially conscious punk of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists will fill the script at the U. The trio hit their stride in the early Oughts, with Tyranny of Distance (’01) and the best inroad to the band, imho, Hearts of Oak (’03). The label-jumping Leo found himself on indie stalwart Matador for this year’s Brutalist Bricks, a hit-and-miss disc of punk-rock politicking. Speaking of Matador, who got lucky with tix to the Lost Weekend in Vegas? That one’s the rock-roll event of a lifetime. Anyway, local post-punks Mrs. Magician open the Ché show, and Ted Leo et al. will be at Casbah on Friday night for the beer-belly set.... Casbah’s gonna move your shoes tonight as Spanish electronic dance band Delorean drives into the Middletown mainstay behind electro-pop act Cold Cave (N.Y.C.) and L.A.’s Smell dance punx Abe Vigoda. Delorean’s spanking-new disc Subiza is wowing indie critics with its “build-and-burst tempos of ’90s house and techno music.” I’ve no idea. Techno gives me agita. But and however, Abe Vigoda’s anticipated new collection, Crush, will drop end of September. In the mean, get yer mitts on their very excellent Skeleton.... Else: Portland-based electro-duo Blue in the Face will play Eleven (née Radio Room)...while Brazilian garage-rock sextet Garotas Suecas will hit Bar Pink “with a sound that falls somewhere between Otis Redding and Os Mutantes.” O’side glam-pop band Duchess will grace the stage first.

Friday 3
Nutty punx the Dickies slam 4th&B Friday night. The self-proclaimed “clown princes of punk” broke out of L.A.’s ’77 scene and are reportedly the first punk act to play on network TV (C.P.O. Sharkey with Don Rickles). I knew they had a hit with the Banana Splits theme song, but I didn’t know that song reappeared this year in that flick Kick-Ass. Didn’t see it. I did see Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988), though, which is featured in Nathan Shumate’s Golden Age of Crap: 77 B-Movies From the Glory Days of VHS (now available in paperback) and which the Dickies scored to bloody perfection. SoCal throwback hardcores D.I. will set the downtown stage for what promises to be a fun one, if only for stirring one of the oldest, slowest pits ever.... Up the Fifth Ave. hill, Tin Can Ale House furnishes Jana Hunter’s Lower Dens, whose Twin-Hand Movement is one of the more engaging discs to drop this year, trading Hunter’s abstruse folk fare for full-band atmospherics — think Beach House for roots rockers. With Black Mamba and Blessure Grave digging in first, this bill’s considerable. I have no idea what abstruse means, but I am not deleting it.... Nothing but shows ’round North Park on September 3, 4, and 5, as Awesome Fest 4 and a herd of indie kids take over the neighborhood nightspots. Click this for the particulars: awesomefest4.com.... North of town, it’ll be Dave Wakeling’s English Beat skankin’ up the race place at Del Mar...and Ché Café hosts a benefit for the Chiapas Mexico Art Community, headlining hardcore faves Unbroken.

Saturday 4
Some days I wish I were viral. I wish I were Agent Smith. Too many places to be Saturday, as the FYF Fest takes over the L.A. State Historic Park with one of the better fest lineups I’ve seen this summer. Check it: fyffest.com.... Meanwhile, back at the ranch, 40-year-strong Texas trio ZZ Top will play the infield at Del Mar. The blues-rock radio staples are supposedly dropping a new Rick Rubin–produced disc this year, but details are sketch as of yet.... And country bumps’ll love the later lineup at Belly Up, featuring JC tribute Cash’d Out with fellow beerhall bands Pushin’ Rope and Off the Wagon.... Staying up that way, Rhode Island’s noise-rock perennials Arab on Radar apparently will not play the Ché Café: “Due to personal blah blah blah”.... Dizzy’s downtown offers Kyrgyzstan’s Ordo Sakhna, “a ten-member ethno-folk musical theater troupe that popularizes the traditional melodies of the central Asia nomad civilization.” Stretch your boundaries, sez Diz.... Honorable mentions go to the Moviegoers‘ record-release thing at the Tin Can....and Casbah’s “evening of devastating burl,” with the Long and Short of It, Rats Eyes, Terremoto, Gloomsday, and In the Red. What’s burl?

Sunday 5
Belly Up books Philly flavor-of-the-month Free Energy. It’s fine, fun fare, if a bit formulaic — something like Target + Shaun White = Free Energy. Jersey blue-collar rockers Titus Andronicus will balance the act with their pub-crawl songsmithing and VOLUME. Take a Space taste from this year’s Monitor: myspace.com/titusandronicus. So rad.... ’80s new-wave staples Modern English will stop the world and melt at Anthology. The English pop-rock quartet reformed behind original singer-guitarist Robbie Gray to tour the U.S. last year and recorded an album (Soundtrack) while on the road that was released in May by Darla Records. Two out of two Amazonians gave it five stars.... Beauty Bar books Manchester new-wavers the Chameleons (Mark Burgess of Chameleons UK) with Repeater from Long Beach and SanFran electroclash band Veil Veil Vanish.... Casbah hosts one of its long-weekend Jivewire joints with all the trimmings.

Monday 6
Couple gigs to get to Monday night, Agent Smith, as Soda Bar fills a sa-weet slowcore bill with Crooked Fingers, Mynabirds, and Little White Teeth. Crooked Fingers is led by ex-Archers of Loafer Eric Bachmann. Enough said with his cred. Mynabirds is a classic-sounding folk-pop band from Omaha that’s enjoying crit-hit press for Saddle Creek debut What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood. And lo-fi locals Little White Teeth will set it all up nicely behind their chiming debut, which I understand is both eponymous and self-titled.... Talk about your Anti-Mondays... Casbah’s staging one for the ages: Mojo, Joey, and the Farmers. Get yer beers while you can.

Tuesday 7
Reformed Detroit garage-rock act the Gories come to Casbah Tuesday night. I guess In the Red has signed the old-school blues-punk trio for some singles. Check with the merch guy.... Bubblegum Berliners Stereo Total plug in at Tin Can Ale House with Oakland electro-popper Hawnay Troof for an Art Fag-curated bill.... And from Italy, psych-pop quartet Plastic Made Sofa (that just has to be a mistranslation) visits their Smoking Kills debut Charlie’s Bondage Club on Soda Bar.

Wednesday 8
I’m going over...either go see blues-rocking Deadboy Dax Riggs at Casbah...NorCal big band the Doobie Brothers out at Humphrey’s by the Bay...or Sea Wolf Alex Brown Church strumming and humming a solo set at Soda Bar.... Aaarrggh, hang on, there’s a super-solid double bill at Bar Pink, where Bay Area blues duo the Ferocious Few will hook up with Austin country-rock quartet the Black, if that sounds like your thing...and Belly Up books a benefit for the San Diego Music Foundation — which should be everybody’s thing — featuring up-and-coming locals Riddle the Roar, Dead Feather Moon, and Lights On. I’m out.
— Barnaby Monk