Little apes on a little rock in a sea of nothingness

With a new single called “I’m An Idiot,” pop singer Scoobert Doobert’s current album Big Hug is the follow-up to last year’s Little Hug EP. “The goal of my Big Hug LP is simple,” he says. “Give my listeners a big hug. Because I write, play, produce, and mix my own music, I wanted to make something that really felt like this moment. We’re all emerging from our caves, full of fear, apprehension, and social awkwardness. I wanted to make a record that helped people get through this. It has moments of bliss and self-doubt, of anxiety and self-deprecation, but hopefully, it acts as a transformative record for a transformative time. Like, it’s kind of perfect that my song ‘I’m An Idiot’ was picked up by Spotify’s New Music Friday. It’s an anti-anthem for our post-post-modern generation, celebrating the joy of not knowing, and knowing you don’t know. I admit I’m scared, just like you. We’re little apes on a little rock in a sea of nothingness, in the midst of a moment that crystallizes and highlights our impermanence and futility. But, dude, we have each other. And after all, life’s all a lot better when we get a big hug.”

Pop-punk rockers Sorry It’s Over came together when Sam Adgate and Louis Petrella, who have been bandmates since high school, moved together to Santa Barbara for a few years. Returning to San Diego, they decided to start working on original music. The duo was soon backed by Sam’s bassist brother Gus Adgate, drummer Freddy Barden, and Freddy’s brother Michael, who used to be in a La Costa Canyon High School band with Sam and Louis called the Borski Boys. They honed their sound in a twelve-by-twelve Encinitas garage, where they wrote several of their early songs. Their early 2021 single “Is It Cool?” was streamed free on Spotify, where they also sell downloads of previous singles such as “Am I Better?” and “Ghost Inside.” With over 200,000 plays currently displayed on Spotify, the band’s debut self-titled album, which drops October 29, is being released on Geza X Records. The label was founded LA’s Godfather of Punk Geza X, producer for Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, the Germs, and the hit song “Bitch” by Meredith Brooks.

The Nortec Collective merges techno music with a norteño (“from the north”) sound and cultural identity. The band’s 2005 album Tijuana Sessions, Volume 3 reached number one on the iTunes Latin Albums chart, earning two Grammy nominations, for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Recording Package. The group includes Fussible (Pepe Mogt) and Bostich (Ramón Amezcua), who have also been releasing a stream of work apart from the Collective as a duo. The side-project launched by Amezcua (living in Chula Vista) and Mogt (who resides in Tijuana), Bostich and Fussible, was nominated for a 2009 Grammy Award, for Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album. Bostich and Fussible have a new single, “Convénceme,” featuring singer Rubén Albarrán, who was also recently heard in the Color Forty Nine’s animated music video for “What Would I Know/¿Yo Que Sé?”

Singer Stephen Pearcy has released several solo albums since and during his various tenures with MTV hair rockers Ratt. He has also been in the bands Arcade, Vicious Delite, Vertex, Nitronic, and Band From Hell. With a new solo album in the works featuring Jerry Montano (Hellyeah), the 65 year-old singer is plugging Nothing To Lose - A Stephen Pearcy Rockumentary, available now on ASY TV. “Follow Ratt singer Stephen Pearcy’s story from his childhood home in San Diego to the world-famous Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood,” reads the press sheet, “eventually finding platinum success and playing to sold-out arenas around the world.” Pearcy’s other recent solo releases include a single for “Night Flight,” a cover of Duran Duran’s “Girls On Film,” and a music video for a previously unreleased solo song, “Don’t Wanna Talk About It,” featuring guest guitarist Ferentinos, Mike Duda on bass, and Greg D’Angelo on drums. As for this year’s version of Ratt, it apparently includes only Pearcy and bassist Juan Croucier from the classic lineup, backed by Croucier’s solo band drummer Pete Holmes (Black ‘N Blue) and guitarists Jordan Ziff (Razer) and Frankie Lindia.

Formed in March 2012, Americana rock band Mrs. Henry is fronted by singer-guitarist Daniel Cervantes (Whiskey Circle, Howlin’ Rain, Creature and the Woods). Their 2018 all-star Last Waltz performance was recorded and released as a three-disc vinyl album. Follow-up concerts have continued to be staged locally, all inspired by the same Last Waltz album originally recorded by (and filmed with) Bob Dylan’s one-time backing group, The Band. Further, the multimedia Mrs. Henry web series debuted during the pandemic shutdown of early 2020, featuring live music, puppet shows, guest appearances, sketch comedy, and guest appearances by fellow acts on Cervantes’ record label, Blind Owl. A new Mrs. Henry full-length drops this month, Keep On Rising - Act I: The Sex Sells, Love Drugs, Rock N Roll Society, the first of a three-part rock opera to be released by Blind Owl. Cervantes describes the musical story setting as “an ultra-sexualized reality where drugs are available on every corner and rock and roll is a normalized way of life. There is no taboo, all is equal, nothing is sacred, and everything we’ve ever known is subject to change with the wind.”