Judgement Day String Metal, Ty Segall's Melted, and Saccharine Trust — It's a Sexy Week at Soda Bar

Thursday 16
Los Angeles electropop trio Autolux will get all Transit Transit on Belly Up tonight. The shoegazers’ sophomore record dropped last week and is sure to be the batch to put ’em on the map. They really pushed the guitars up on this one, and it comes off like My Bloody Valentine covering Heatmiser/Sebadoh/Pavement/slacker-rock pick ’ems. Web press on the live experience: “Seeing Autolux live is like being placed on a conveyor belt at an android factory. Bit by bit, song by song, they replace the eyes, ears, limbs, and hearts of everyone in the crowd.” Gimme some of that! Gold Panda and the Dabbers set the Solana Beach stage.... Come join JEFF the Brotherhood at Casbah and enjoy all the psych-pop benefits of said bro’hood with your v. own copy of their stellar debut Heavy Days. Roxy Jones and the Kabbs will go first.... Couple of fun ways to spend Mexican Independence Day (yes, it’s today — ¡doscientos años, ése!), as Dizzy’s downtown slathers hot sauce and guac all over Latin jazz standards...or hoof it over to House of Blues, where Mexico City alt-rockers Jaguares take the stage.... Epicentre in Mira Mesa will host a Brick by Brick bill, featuring psychobilly band the Nekromantix. The Danish trio dropped their last Hellcat disc, Life Is a Grave & I Dig It!, in ’07, catching the ear of Rob Zombie, with whom they’ve since toured. Love the coffin bass. Surgeon General’s warning: Strikers, Howlers, and Mutilators will set the stage. Sounds like it’s going to be a bloodbath.... The super-cute ticket at the Cricket this week would have to be Disney boy band the Jonas Brothers, or as we say at the Monk house, the Cojones Brothers.

Friday 17
“String metal” trio Judgement Day comes to Soda Bar. The East Bay punks are armed with violin, cello, and drums as they tour in support of their latest, Peacocks/Pink Monsters. It’s got classical gas, y’all: stringmetal.com.... For those of you thinking, Big whup, they can play heavy-metal cello. Can they smash a watermelon with it? watermelon whacker Gallagher drags the sledge to Ramona Main Stage on his Stuck in the ’60s tour.... Roots-rocking throwbacks Dirty Sweet have got a new one out, American Spiritual, that finds the fivesome grooving on ’60s boogie and some gospel and blues. The SDMA nominees will be at Bar Pink with Geezer from the Crypt and Uber Monk (no relation). GFTC is the Colour Me Badd boys donning the old-guy guises to play Rocket songs. Stupid fresh.... Portland-based indie-rock trio Menomena digs Mines — “a gassy obese boy’s saga” — at Casbah.

Saturday 18
It has to be the Walkmen/Japandroids gig at Belly Up Saturday night, right? Unbelievably, those super-value $16 tickets are still available at this typing. NYC quintet the Walkmen are out to tout spanking-new Fat Possum set Lisbon, another clattering collection of vintage gear and Leithauser throat scorch. Vancouver duo Japandroids hit it bigtime with last year’s garage-punk debut Post-Nothing. They re-collected their first two EPs for this year’s lukewarmly received No Singles. Gimme the one-two punch of “Young Hearts Spark Fire” and “Wet Hair” and who cares.... Udderwise, Chapel Hill quartet Southern Culture on the Skids visit The Kudzu Ranch, more songs about dancing, sex, and fried chicken, on the Casbah crowd...the roots-rocking Shaddox brothers and their band Billy Midnight bring the front porch to Tin Can Ale House...Soda Bar sets up local pop rockers Get Back Loretta...English toaster Pato Banton shuffles into Bay Park bar Brick by Brick...and House of Blues has Tulsa bubblegum brothers Hanson, or as we say in the Monk house, the original Cojones Brothers. Okay, we don’t really say that.

Sunday 19
SanFran garage-rock man Ty Segall gets Melted at Soda Bar with Tyvek and the Northern Tigers (ex-Sess and Beaters). Segall’s been getting some overdue attention for his third disc’s “tireless musical assault on ears and minds.” Available now via Nashville garage gurus Goner Records, Segall says it sounds like “cherry cola, Sno-Cones and taffy.” It totally does. Taste his “Girlfriend”: myspace.com/tysegall.... What’s Godzilla got to do with surf rock? Get your ass to Bar Pink and find out from Daikaiju. This Alabama band is one fuzzed-out four-piece, sporting kabuki masks and names like Secret-man, Rumble-man, Hands-man, and Rock-man. Highly rockommended for fans of Man...or Astroman?... Indie-pop flavors of the month Local Natives and Love Language at the Belly Up woulda been a good one to get to if didn’t sell out so fast. You might get lucky with tix on Cedros, though. I’m not condoning, I’m just saying.... Grammy-nominated folkie Eliza Gilkyson plays and politiks the Acoustic Music San Diego showcase this week.... Casbah’s curating a couple Sunday night, slapping NYC electronic club-rockers Ratatat on the House of Blues stage and screening L.A. psych-pop band Film School at the Kettner club. Word on the web is that Film School bassist Lorelei is moving to or has moved to San Diego. She’s probably in witness protection or something.

Monday 20
One of my favorite bands to see live, Calexico, will bring the Tex-Mex brass to Belly Up Monday night. The Tucson-based big band is in the middle of a world tour for last year’s Carried to Dust. Sergio Mendoza y la Orkesta set the stage.

Tuesday 21
SoCal punks Saccharine Trust set up at Soda Bar with a couple of bands from Italy (a lot of bands from Italy coming through town this summer), Neo and Tribraco. It’s been 20 years since his SST days, but SacTrust frontman Jack Brewer still brings it live. The uninitiated should get with ’86 post-punk staple We Became Snakes for a primer.... Super-huge French pop act Phoenix will fall in, fall in, fall in to the Open Air Theatre at SDSU. I don’t know if those are the words, but that’s what it sounds like he’s saying. Over and over and over and ov—. I just looked it up, he’s saying “fold it.” That makes no sense.... Speaking of politicking (?!), Austin songsmith James McMurtry will strum-n-hum at the Belly Up behind his latest, Just Us Kids, which features the Bush-bashing “Cheney’s Toy.” Novelist-screenwriter Larry’s his dad. James punched dogies in Lonesome Dove.

Wednesday 22
English alt-rock trio Muse has got some of the more powerful sides on the airwaves these days. Muse will inspire Viejas Arena with last year’s commercial breakthrough, The Resistance.... Chicago bluesman Tab Benoit will bring that fat strat to Anthology.... Belly Up pulls jammy String Cheesers EOTO.... L.A. punk-pop perennials Paul Collins’ Beat (née the Beat) delivers The King of Power Pop to Soda Bar. Baja Bugs and Jungle Fever also on the bill. (It’s been one sexy week at the Soda).... And English garage-rockers the Jim Jones Revue programs Casbah with its latest collection of overblown 12-bar blues, Burning Your House Down. Don’t drink the Kool-Aid, brah.
— Barnaby Monk