Thursday 20
When actress Ellen Page was asked by writer Diablo Cody what she thought the smartypants teen would be listening to in their hit flick Juno, Page said it had to be Moldy Peaches. That soundtrack went to numero uno on the Billboard charts and reinvigorated the careers of disbanded Peaches Adam Green and Kimya Dawson. Call it pop cultcha poop or karmic comeuppance, the duo created some cool tunes and deserve the due, IMHO. Kimya Dawson’s back on the road after babymaking and will play Ché Café in advance of upcoming K Records collection Walk Like Thunder. The titular single’s on the web and is vintage Kimya, which — weird, this — is Swahili for “silence.” Rollicking folk punks Defiance, Ohio (they’re really from Columbus) will split the bill behind their fourth full-length, last year’s Midwestern Minutes, making this the gig to get to tonight.... Else: Jam Sax, TV Girl, and Lesands will plug in to electropop the Casbah...dance-rock band the Nervous Wreckords spin at Eleven...it’ll be Oaktown alt-rock trio the Memorials at Soda Bar — their drummer used to be in Mars Volta if you want a clue as to how “alt” their “rock” is...and SanFran garage-rock man Ty Segall will be rocking Palm Springs karaoke klub J Dee’s Landing with the Cosmonauts of Orange County and yours truly. Truly.

Friday 21
Local indie hit Nathan Williams’s Wavves crashes Soma’s side stage Friday night with Best Coast and No Joy. Best Coast is a lo-fi surf-rock trio from L.A. that went supersonic last year behind their debut Crazy for You, a fuzzed-out girl-group affair that sticks like Santa Monica sand. It’s been swell in the old truck carousel between Segall’s Melted and the new Girls EP Broken Dreams Club — a spot that suits them sonically. With up-and-coming maneaters No Joy, this is yer gig to get to this week, indie geek.... Prefer your jams with a little less fuzz and a little more buzz, the Price of Dope goes up at Bar Pink. This is the first reunion show for these jazz-funk fiends, and it is yours for the low, low price of zero dollars.... Latin-dance-jam band Ozomatli checks into Belly Up for a two-night stint. The L.A. big band packs some brass on their latest Fire Away.... Hometown hits Transfer, New Mexico, and D/Wolves fill an indie-eclectic bill at Casbah.... I.B. power-pop four-piece Fuzz-Huzzi hits Brick by Brick behind its new as-yet-untitled Kings Ransom Records release. Want to help the guys decide what to call it, click this: facebook.com/pages/Fuzz-Huzzi/187607238603.... Tin Can Ale House stages lo-fi indie-pop by SanFran bands Young Prisms and Melted Toys, with like-minded locals Heavy Hawaii. DJ Mario O spins round sets. “Melted toys” brings back some plastic memories.

Saturday 22
Uncle Joe’s Big Ol’ Driver rolls into town for their annual reunion gig at Casbah. The barroom rockers were in the “next Seattle” mix way back when and actually took the fight to Seattle, where...they...broke up and went their separate ways. Except for guitarist Andrew McKeig, who now lives in the Emerald City and, last I heard, works at the Jimi Hendrix Museum when he’s not touring with the Presidents of the United States of America (“...millions of peaches...” “...she’s lump, she’s lump, she’s in my head...” — those guys). Anyway, UJBOD’s back and playing with Furious IV and Big Tension and it’s gonna smoke and you should go.... Miss the door there and absolutely have to have big sounds coming down, you got Bleeding Through at Soma and L.A. Guns up at Ramona Mainstage.... Some pretty cool t’dos Uptown, too, as Operation Mindblow takes over the Til-Two club with art, psychedelic light shows, Nuggets-doling DJs, and live music by Red Octopus, VonVeederVeld, Carlton Melton, Joy, Sugarrush Railroad Inc., the Kabbs, and Trap Gold. That thing starts at 2 in the afternoon.... Soda Bar pops the top off the second annual San Diego Experimental Guitar Show — just all kinds of local players doing all kinds of unholy things to their guitars.... And David J (bassman from Bauhaus and Love and Rockets) drops a disc at Bar Pink. Flip or click to this week’s “Blurt” and Dorian’s chat with the bat for more on that.

Sunday 23
From Knoxville, Tennessee, indie-rock trio Royal Bangs hangs at Casbah Sunday night with Hotel St. George and Italian Japanese. The Bangs got a loose, experimental bent, rhythmically propulsive, with a taste of blues on their Flaming Lips. Kiss this: myspace.com/royalbangs. Makes sense that Black Key Pat Carney grabbed ’em and signed ’em up on his Audio Eagle Records. The trio made the leap to Glassnote Records last year and anticipates a coming out with Flux Outside, due to drop March 29.... Minnesota-based folk-rock duo Peter Wolf Crier joins the Retribution Gospel Choir at the Loft at UCSD. PWC has had some critical nods for its Jagjaguwar debut Inter-Be, a quaint-pop collection steeped in old-timey sounds. Think Dodos doing some M Ward. I kinda cribbed that from the Pitchfork review, but only cuz it’s true.... Lotsa Latin jazz coming out of the 20-member Bi-National Mambo Orchestra, which will fill Dizzy’s Culy Warehouse space. That’s on Seventh Avenue in the Gaslamp.... Weatherwise, Sunday: Guster hits House of Blues...Typhoon blows into Soda Bar.

Monday 24
New Jersey granola gang Railroad Earth chugs into Belly Up behind last year’s s/t reinvention, a collection that found the fellas ranging “from rousing ballads and string-band funk to wistful waltzes and quirky-time-signature folk.” I saw them some years back at the Josh Tree folk thing after never having heard of them and just thought Here’s the second coming of the Band. Hey, it was a festival, I was festivaling.... Florida boys Fake Problems got some hub and bub over ’09 intro It’s Great to Be Alive. They’re in town to tout their brand-new beach-punk platter Real Ghosts Caught on Tape. Dynamite Walls sets the Casbah stage this Anti-Monday.

Tuesday 25
Poet and performance artist Ursula Rucker graces the stage at Kava Lounge in support of her new studio session, She Said. Charged by forward-thinking socio-politics and backed by hip-hop beats, Rucker rolls from improv to “steel-cut precision.” Go get your thoughts provoked.... Uptown: from Austin, Texas, rock-n-soul quartet Uncle Lucius visits Ruby Room behind last year’s Pick Your Head Up...and from Arizona, sunny-pop band Kinch sets up a monthly residency at the Soda Bar. This trip they’ll be joined by like-minded locals Echo Revolution.

Wednesday 26
I’m so over my word count. Anyway, Casbah puts up Timberlake’s evil twin, L.A. party boy Wallpaper Wednesday night...House of Blues has emo group Get Up Kids, back together behind this year’s There Are Rules...grungetronica duo Tropical Depression hits Tin Can Ale House with mixmaster CRMNL...and alt-pop trio Marcy Playground (“Sex and Candy”) swings into Brick by Brick. Fin!
— Barnaby Monk