Laura Chavez

Blues guitarist Laura Chavez grew up near San Jose and was still in grade school when she began playing guitar. By the time she graduated high school, she was already a working musician, going on to play and collaborate with the late Candye Kane, serving as her musical director and playing on several albums, as well as taking part in Kane’s autobiographical stage play The Toughest Girl Alive. Kane’s 2013 CD Coming Out Swingin’, co-produced by Chavez, features thirteen songs Kane wrote or co-wrote with Chavez, plus several covers. She’s also played, recorded, and collaborated with Casey Hensley, Nikki Hill, Vanessa Collier, and many others. She became a familiar face in Europe and even Russia, thanks to playing in the house band for the annual traveling Blues Caravan, which has also hosted locals such as Whitney Shay. During the pandemic, with downtown gigs scarce, she began bussing outdoors with Chickenbone Slim, another formerly busy player who was doing upwards of 200 shows per year before Covid. Chavez has been nominated Best Instrumental Guitarist for the 42nd annual Blues Music Awards.

Courtesy Amy Fennie at The Oriel

Lower-case-letter-loving alternative rock band almost monday features surfing pals Dawson Daugherty (vocals, bass) and Luke Fabry (guitar), later joined by Cole Clisby (guitar). The trio released several singles in 2020, including “Come On Come On,” “Parking Lot View,” and “Broken People,” with the latter track soon covered on a summer 2020 single from Sofi Tukker. Producer-engineer Mark Needham (the Killers, Imagine Dragons) and producer Simon Oscroft worked on their debut 4-song EP don’t say you’re ordinary, recorded in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. The EP generated more than 37 million total streams, with its lead single “broken people” hitting the Top 10 on Sirius XM’s Alt 18 Countdown, landing in the Top 20 on Alternative Radio, and ending up featured on Amazon Music’s Best of 2020: Alternative playlist. They were also profiled in GQ Australia magazine’s 21 Breakout Musicians to Know in 2021, Amazon Music’s 2021 Artists To Watch playlist, and Apple Music’s Shazam Predictions 2021 playlist, which “features 50 emerging artists who are poised to have a breakthrough year.” The group has generated more than 40 million audio and video streams. They have a new single for their song “hailey beebs,” as well as a video shot at night around San Diego on 16mm film, directed by band associate Jack Revell.

Jonathan Weiner

Fronted by former Blink 182 member Tom DeLonge, Angels & Airwaves has a new single for “Euphoria,” as well as a video directed by UFO enthusiast DeLonge, who describes the video as “a tale of intrigue complete with a femme fatale, her lover, a mysterious motorcyclist, Area 51 intelligence, and a tour de force performance by the band...in a music world that seems to be absent guitars, angst, and emotional authenticity, I felt it was important to lead with a song that mirrors the post-hardcore days of my youth, where the power of the music creates that feeling we once had as teenagers, where we wanted to break something and change the poisonous environment within our broken homes. These emotions create us. This song shows the seductive nature of an intense love built with that baggage from our youth, from being born into an imperfect household.” It’s the band’s first new music since “All That’s Left Is Love” was released in April 2020. They’ll play this year’s Lollapalooza in Chicago (July 29 to August 1) and at L.A.’s Hollywood Palladium on November 5.

Unpaved Highway

Acoustic rockers Unpaved Highway came together in late 2012, founded by Eric Nedelman, after earning his Ph.D. in music theory. By October 2014, a three-piece band was firmed up with Brent Livingston on bass and Joe Bradetich on drums. Their debut single “Hung in Custody” was released in May 2015 and can be streamed on YouTube, where you can also find live recordings dating all the way back to 2013 such as “Back at Home,” as well as video footage from gigs at area venues like the Jumping Turtle in San Marcos. An EP was released in 2017, preceded by a single for “Stand Up.” An EP called Fragments of My Life premiered in December 2018, followed by a Breaking Down Walls EP in May 2019. Their upcoming EP Behind the Wheel, due in mid-June, features the first full-band recording of “Hung in Custody” and long-in-progress tracks such as “Diamonds in Style,” a marriage proposal, as well as a 1970s-style dance track called “It’s All Happening” and the NASCAR inspired “9000 RPM.”

We the Commas

The three Comma siblings who make up alt-surf R&B rockers We the Commas released their debut single “Sherry” in June 2020, followed by a single and video for “Custom Made.” Their debut EP Sarb came out late last year, preceded by a single and Mad Max-inspired video for “Pissed Off.” Last November, a single and video appeared for “I Will,” followed in December by “The RZN,” concerning social justice. The latter track, written three days after George Floyd was killed by police while resisting arrest, was recorded with live brass and string instruments. Championed by supporters such as The Head and The Heart and Young the Giant, who both shared their covers online, they’ve worked with A-list production talent like Rex Kudo (Post Malone, Young Thug, Lil Uzi Vert) and Charlie Handsome (Khalid, The Weeknd, Drake). Their sophomore EP Old School Love just dropped, along with a single for “Better Days” and a video for “Sherry.”