Thursday 23
“Jazz flute is for little fairy boys.” I dare someone to yell that out when Dungen master Gustav Ejstes whips out his flute. Just kidding. You stay classy, San Diego. The psych-rock Swedes will open up a can of Skit i Allt on Casbah tonight. The Stockholm-based quartet has left their prog-heavy tendencies behind on their newest, venturing into ’70s electric folk and more song-centric sides. The guy’s got a cool voice and knack for melody, often compared to Elliott Smith, I just wish I could understand what the hell he’s saying. With Canadian shoegaze duo No Joy fronting this one, you’re sure to get your RDA of psychedelics.... Belly Up books Jacksonville, F-L-A’s JJ Grey & MOFRO. This swamp-rocking septet is a party on wheels, dishing up a blue-funk stew that will save your soul. Take a taste of their latest Alligator Records offering, Georgia Warhorse, at myspace.com/mofroband and boogie to the bar.... Austin’s “choppy yet sincere” pop-punk fivesome the Riverboat Gamblers and L.A. indie act Victor Ship will dock at Bar Pink. Check out the wicked-cool cartoon vid for RG’s “Robots Will Break Your Heart.”
Friday 24
Ramona Mainstage lassos skate-punk faves D.R.I. (Still stands for dirty rotten imbeciles, Dad.) Kurt, Spike, and the rest of the Houston-based hardcores have been stirring the pit since 1982. Need a reason? Slap in 1985 punk-rawk staple Dealing with It. This year Beer City remastered a ton of that clatter. Check it out: beercityrecords.com.... Couple of hot-shit comics in town this week, starting with Drop Dead Diva and future Dancing with the Stars contestant Margaret Cho, who will yuk it up at Humphrey’s by the Bay. Indie kids’ll like this: Cho once declared on Canadian network TV her love for Broken Social Scene and asked if she could join the band “as a rainstick or a triangle.” The host of the show called BSS front man Kevin Drew, and Cho left him a message. The SanFran madam is out to tout her latest record, Cho Dependent, which features a bit called “Eat Shit and Die.” Nice.... Else: Teri Nunn’s new-wave band Berlin (“Take My Breath Away”) invades 4th&B...Soda Bar digs L.A.’s traveling “tropical-soul” show Fool’s Gold, which will be heading off on a monster Euro tour behind their spanking-new s/t debut...and Tin Can Ale House stacks up a trick triple bill with punk’d R&B bands Frankie and the Outs, Hunx and His Punx, and Colleen Green. For more on Frankie, flip or click to Will’s “Of Note.” And you just have to check out Oakland-based solo-roller Colleen Green. The lady’s the rage.
Saturday 25
Adams Avenue Street Fair kicks off Saturday. Tons to tell, but this ain’t the venue. Click this: adamsaveonline.com/StreetFair. How pissed am I that Peter Case and James Harman are playing at the exact same time on two different stages? Plenty. Don’t get me stahted.... Comic Aziz Ansari hits House of Blues for a couple sets Saturday night. Ansari’s on a break from hit TV series Parks & Rec and bringing his Dangerously Delicious tour to the peeps. Dude’s best known for his oft-visited Raaaaaaaandy shtick, a hyperkinetic crasher comic that can show up anywhere. If your sides start aching, take a break upstairs in the Voodoo Room with locals Little Hurricane, Republic of Letters, and Taming the Fox.... In the Meantime, one of my favorite alt-rock shredders, Page Hamilton, will put his new Helmet on at Casbah behind their seventh studio set, Seeing Eye Dog.... Blues-rock duo Black Keys unlock Soma’s main stage. Rock writers are loving this year’s Brothers, which is sure to get some Grammy nods and land in v. many top tens.... That tatted Stray Cat Lee Rocker will be slappin’ de bass at Anthology.... Soda Bar sets up a sonic smorgasbord with Earthless, the Loons, Joy, and Operation Mindblow.... Brick by Brick gives you the Business, an English Oi band with more than 30 years under its well-traveled combat-issue heels. Seattle sludge punks the Hollowpoints and like-minded locals Rat City Riot will set the Bay Park stage.
Sunday 26
The Fresh & Onlys will fill up Tin Can Ale House Sunday night, you betcha. The SanFran psych-pop band is getting great mileage out of last year’s Woodsist debut, the highly recommendable Grey-Eyed Girls. The quartet’s ready-set to drop follow-up Play It Strange in October. Little Deadman and Young Prisms go first.... From Berlin, the self-proclaimed “kings of geek bubblegum,” TV Buddahs, will turn on at Bar Pink. This is their first U.S. tour in support of this year’s s/t EP CD.... If you’re feeling flush, the big tickets are Willie Nelson at Harrah’s and Pixies and Fuck Buttons at the Rimac. Hey, Crackity Jones, has the Pixies’ reunion outlasted their original incarnation yet? They better check their cred report.
Monday 27
French pop singers Marianne Dissard and Françoiz Breut join our own show-stopping Miss Erika Davies to fill a femme fatale bill at Soda Bar, oo la la.... And — ladies represent — the Grammy-grabbing, Billboard-smashing countrypolitan superstar Emmylou Harris will grace the stage at Humphrey’s by the Bay.... Folk-rocking buskers from New York City, the Felice Brothers, headline Casbah’s Anti-Monday meet-up this week.
Tuesday 28
The Felice Brothers will head to the hills over Joshua Tree to meet up with their friend and musical ally Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) for a night of roots-rock boundary pushing at Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown. If you’ve never been, this is more than enough reason.... But if homeways is rightways, dream-pop duo Beach House blows into Soma behind this year’s crit hit Teen Dream. Frat-pop act Vampire Weekend headlines.... Piano-pounding up-and-comers Jukebox the Ghost materialize at the Loft at UCSD.... Hitmaker Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers visit the Cricket with Texas blues-rock trio ZZ Top. TP’s out to tout this year’s well-received and laudable late-career collection Mojo.... Brit-born beat-boxing one-man band Jamie Lidell sets this year’s Compass for Belly Up.... And Ruby Room stages the California Blood Tour, featuring local deathgrind trio Cattle Decapitation and Dallas, Texans Devourment.
Wednesday 29
Hump-night highlights would be Steve’s son Justin Townes Earle playing Casbah behind this year’s Bloodshot offering Harlem River Blues.... Blues Traveler rolls into Belly Up. They’re ready to record the shows, so you can purchase a set to take home.... ’Round town, from Columbus, Ohio, rock-roll throwbacks Mount Carmel loom at Soda Bar...NYC noisemakers White Hills serve up the psychedelics at Bar Pink...and if you’re Young & Broke, or just broke, Tin Can Ale House and DJ Crystal Mess have got a deal for you: no cover. And bring in your utility bill for a chance to get it paid on the spot. Now that’s some savvy promo.
— Barnaby Monk
Thursday 23
“Jazz flute is for little fairy boys.” I dare someone to yell that out when Dungen master Gustav Ejstes whips out his flute. Just kidding. You stay classy, San Diego. The psych-rock Swedes will open up a can of Skit i Allt on Casbah tonight. The Stockholm-based quartet has left their prog-heavy tendencies behind on their newest, venturing into ’70s electric folk and more song-centric sides. The guy’s got a cool voice and knack for melody, often compared to Elliott Smith, I just wish I could understand what the hell he’s saying. With Canadian shoegaze duo No Joy fronting this one, you’re sure to get your RDA of psychedelics.... Belly Up books Jacksonville, F-L-A’s JJ Grey & MOFRO. This swamp-rocking septet is a party on wheels, dishing up a blue-funk stew that will save your soul. Take a taste of their latest Alligator Records offering, Georgia Warhorse, at myspace.com/mofroband and boogie to the bar.... Austin’s “choppy yet sincere” pop-punk fivesome the Riverboat Gamblers and L.A. indie act Victor Ship will dock at Bar Pink. Check out the wicked-cool cartoon vid for RG’s “Robots Will Break Your Heart.”
Friday 24
Ramona Mainstage lassos skate-punk faves D.R.I. (Still stands for dirty rotten imbeciles, Dad.) Kurt, Spike, and the rest of the Houston-based hardcores have been stirring the pit since 1982. Need a reason? Slap in 1985 punk-rawk staple Dealing with It. This year Beer City remastered a ton of that clatter. Check it out: beercityrecords.com.... Couple of hot-shit comics in town this week, starting with Drop Dead Diva and future Dancing with the Stars contestant Margaret Cho, who will yuk it up at Humphrey’s by the Bay. Indie kids’ll like this: Cho once declared on Canadian network TV her love for Broken Social Scene and asked if she could join the band “as a rainstick or a triangle.” The host of the show called BSS front man Kevin Drew, and Cho left him a message. The SanFran madam is out to tout her latest record, Cho Dependent, which features a bit called “Eat Shit and Die.” Nice.... Else: Teri Nunn’s new-wave band Berlin (“Take My Breath Away”) invades 4th&B...Soda Bar digs L.A.’s traveling “tropical-soul” show Fool’s Gold, which will be heading off on a monster Euro tour behind their spanking-new s/t debut...and Tin Can Ale House stacks up a trick triple bill with punk’d R&B bands Frankie and the Outs, Hunx and His Punx, and Colleen Green. For more on Frankie, flip or click to Will’s “Of Note.” And you just have to check out Oakland-based solo-roller Colleen Green. The lady’s the rage.
Saturday 25
Adams Avenue Street Fair kicks off Saturday. Tons to tell, but this ain’t the venue. Click this: adamsaveonline.com/StreetFair. How pissed am I that Peter Case and James Harman are playing at the exact same time on two different stages? Plenty. Don’t get me stahted.... Comic Aziz Ansari hits House of Blues for a couple sets Saturday night. Ansari’s on a break from hit TV series Parks & Rec and bringing his Dangerously Delicious tour to the peeps. Dude’s best known for his oft-visited Raaaaaaaandy shtick, a hyperkinetic crasher comic that can show up anywhere. If your sides start aching, take a break upstairs in the Voodoo Room with locals Little Hurricane, Republic of Letters, and Taming the Fox.... In the Meantime, one of my favorite alt-rock shredders, Page Hamilton, will put his new Helmet on at Casbah behind their seventh studio set, Seeing Eye Dog.... Blues-rock duo Black Keys unlock Soma’s main stage. Rock writers are loving this year’s Brothers, which is sure to get some Grammy nods and land in v. many top tens.... That tatted Stray Cat Lee Rocker will be slappin’ de bass at Anthology.... Soda Bar sets up a sonic smorgasbord with Earthless, the Loons, Joy, and Operation Mindblow.... Brick by Brick gives you the Business, an English Oi band with more than 30 years under its well-traveled combat-issue heels. Seattle sludge punks the Hollowpoints and like-minded locals Rat City Riot will set the Bay Park stage.
Sunday 26
The Fresh & Onlys will fill up Tin Can Ale House Sunday night, you betcha. The SanFran psych-pop band is getting great mileage out of last year’s Woodsist debut, the highly recommendable Grey-Eyed Girls. The quartet’s ready-set to drop follow-up Play It Strange in October. Little Deadman and Young Prisms go first.... From Berlin, the self-proclaimed “kings of geek bubblegum,” TV Buddahs, will turn on at Bar Pink. This is their first U.S. tour in support of this year’s s/t EP CD.... If you’re feeling flush, the big tickets are Willie Nelson at Harrah’s and Pixies and Fuck Buttons at the Rimac. Hey, Crackity Jones, has the Pixies’ reunion outlasted their original incarnation yet? They better check their cred report.
Monday 27
French pop singers Marianne Dissard and Françoiz Breut join our own show-stopping Miss Erika Davies to fill a femme fatale bill at Soda Bar, oo la la.... And — ladies represent — the Grammy-grabbing, Billboard-smashing countrypolitan superstar Emmylou Harris will grace the stage at Humphrey’s by the Bay.... Folk-rocking buskers from New York City, the Felice Brothers, headline Casbah’s Anti-Monday meet-up this week.
Tuesday 28
The Felice Brothers will head to the hills over Joshua Tree to meet up with their friend and musical ally Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) for a night of roots-rock boundary pushing at Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown. If you’ve never been, this is more than enough reason.... But if homeways is rightways, dream-pop duo Beach House blows into Soma behind this year’s crit hit Teen Dream. Frat-pop act Vampire Weekend headlines.... Piano-pounding up-and-comers Jukebox the Ghost materialize at the Loft at UCSD.... Hitmaker Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers visit the Cricket with Texas blues-rock trio ZZ Top. TP’s out to tout this year’s well-received and laudable late-career collection Mojo.... Brit-born beat-boxing one-man band Jamie Lidell sets this year’s Compass for Belly Up.... And Ruby Room stages the California Blood Tour, featuring local deathgrind trio Cattle Decapitation and Dallas, Texans Devourment.
Wednesday 29
Hump-night highlights would be Steve’s son Justin Townes Earle playing Casbah behind this year’s Bloodshot offering Harlem River Blues.... Blues Traveler rolls into Belly Up. They’re ready to record the shows, so you can purchase a set to take home.... ’Round town, from Columbus, Ohio, rock-roll throwbacks Mount Carmel loom at Soda Bar...NYC noisemakers White Hills serve up the psychedelics at Bar Pink...and if you’re Young & Broke, or just broke, Tin Can Ale House and DJ Crystal Mess have got a deal for you: no cover. And bring in your utility bill for a chance to get it paid on the spot. Now that’s some savvy promo.
— Barnaby Monk