Ready Set Survive

Jazz trumpeter Stephanie Richards pays tribute to New York City on her sophomore album Take the Neon Lights, due March 1. A video is streaming online for “Brooklyn Machine,” named from Allen Ginsberg’s poem “My Sad Self” and directed and animated by Andrea Yasco. Other titles are taken from NYC-themed poems by literary icons such as Maya Angelou and Jack Kerouac, with the title track set to Langston Hughes’ “JukeBox Love Song.” Guest players include pianist James Carney, bassist Sam Minaie, and drummer Andrew Munsey. Her next local show is May 22 at UCSD’s Conrad Prebys Music Center.

The release party for the Josh Rosenblum Band’s album Move Yourself happens March 3 at Navajo Live in San Carlos. “The band rarely rehearses, allowing every performance to be as musically spontaneous as possible,” says singer-songwriter Rosenblum, who cites fellow local Jason Mraz among his influences. The bill includes Evan Diamond and Choose Your Own Adventure.

Jake Najor & the Moment of Truth will debut their album In the Cut on March 8 at the Music Box. “Come to the show, because it’s rare for a drummer to release a record,” says Najor. “Hoping to have some of the vocalists that are on the record, like Burkey from Vokab Kompany, Jamie Allensworth, and Mixmaster Wolf from Breakestra.”

“We’ve found that releasing singles independently allows us the opportunity for a more frequent dispersal of new music,” says Troy Cook of Ready Set Survive. They’ll premiere two new tracks, “Perfection” and “Young and Dumb,” on March 16 at the Merrow. “’Perfection’ is a song about the recent generation’s need to appear perfect on the screen and the pressures of social media imposed on them to be so. ‘Young and Dumb’ is a hyperbole, a somewhat light-hearted exaggeration about carefree youth, belligerence, and debauchery.” Mainsail, Fishing for Chips, Avenue Army, and the Rough will also appear.

Runaways songwriter Roni Lee will debut a new single at Humphrey’s Backstage on March 20, "Wild Young Boys."

The Touchies have a split 7-inch with Honeychain called “Dinosaur,” that they’ll introduce when they open for the Dollyrots at Space on March 28.

Occasional Rugburn and former San Diegan Steve Poltz has a new album on Red House Records, Shine On, produced by Will Kimbrough and promoted with a single for “Ballin’ on a Wednesday.”

Planet B, the hip-hop-punk amalgam composed of Justin Pearson (the Locust) and Luke Henshaw (Sonido de la Frontera) have collaborated with Bronx-based rapper Kool Keith, signed to Pearson’s Three One G Records label, for a remix of Keith’s “Blast” and “Uncrushable,” due March 29.