Tony Hawk VS Surfbort

“It was so rad hanging with Tony Hawk,” says 27 year-old singer Dani Miller, whose band Surfbort recently released a video for their track “Open Your Eyes” featuring the members battling local skateboard legend Hawk. “He is such a talented, incredible human, and we share the same self-deprecating humor. He let me scream at him and tell him he sucks. The video of us refereeing and yelling at Tony relates to real life. If people are telling you that you suck or trying to bring you down, [then] pushing through and skating through to the good times is what life is about. He also did a trick over me, kinda one of the coolest moments of my life. We also had a pizza party.” The song concerns navigating life’s difficulties with grace, something the band says Hawk has proven adept at. Surfbort’s most recent album Keep on Truckin’ was released last year as part of a new label collaboration between occasional San Diegan singer-songwriter Linda Perry (4 Non Blondes) and SoundCloud/Repos. The band’s previous video also featured a sports star, pro skateboarder, World Cup champion, and Olympian Lizzie Armanto.

Jim Ryan

Singer-guitarist Jim Ryan is best known from Cardiac Kidz, a 1970s San Diego punk band that evolved from the group Glass Onion. Their vinyl records now fetch big money among garage and punk rock collectors. Though only extant for a few years, Ryan says they were playing every week at long-gone venues such as the Spirit, the Skeleton Club, the North Park Lions’ Club, PB’s Roxy Theater, and SDSU’s Backdoor. The Kidz reunited several years ago, with various rosters, and Ryan’s side band the Jim Ryan Project was formed in 2012. Ryan just dropped his third solo album, Acoustic Mayhem, highlighting the Dylanesque folk-punk genre that has engaged Ryan during the pandemic. “The album revisits the eccentrics of the pandemic years,” he says, “shouting like a newborn from the safety of the modernistic caves of the artist living in isolation during the lockdown years.” Ryan did very little work on the album in a studio, instead recording much of it at home, including inside the family bathroom where the acoustics proved favorable. “The feeling of expressed music is being lost to production gimmicks and the overtly sweet ear candy found in today’s music,” he says.

Slack Key Ohana

Slack Key ʻOhana is a Kaleponi (California) based guitar duo with an ever-expanding roster of guest talent rotating, both in the studio and for their frequent live performances. Their tiki-centric vibe blends Hawaiian melodies with Beach Boys-style harmonies, using old school recording techniques. The band’s debut self-titled album, released late last year, came with a single being released exclusively with Apple Music/iTunes, “Hanalei Moon.” The album, which debuted at number two on the iTunes World Music Charts, features cover artwork painted by Tom “Thor” Thordarson, a Hawaiian artist who is known for his work with Disney. The record recently won Best World Music Album at the 2022 San Diego Music Awards. A new limited edition vinyl run of their self-titled debut full-length contains special cuts of the songs specifically mastered for vinyl, with each disc pressed in a unique blend of red and yellow “lava.”

Judy Henske

Producer Jack Nitzsche called her “The Queen of the Beatniks” and Woody Allen drew upon elements of her life and style while writing Annie Hall. She opened shows for Lenny Bruce and enjoyed a circle of creative friends that included Phil Ochs, Jackson Browne, and Shel Silverstein. After moving to San Diego in 1959, folk and blues icon Judy Henske got her start in Pacific Beach coffeehouses. Around 1962, she joined ex-Kingston Trio member Dave Guard in the Whisky Hill Singers and recorded an album with them. Elektra Records was impressed enough to sign her up for a pair of albums, which she promoted in various Greenwich City clubs after relocating to NYC. After appearing in the 1963 Johnny Cash film Hootenanny Hoot, she began to earn national notice for her 1964 single “High Flying Bird,” following up with albums on the Mercury and Reprise labels and performing on TV’s The Judy Garland Show. She also starred in an Off-Broadway musical written by Anita Loos (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) called Gogo Loves You. Frank Zappa released Henske’s 1969 Farewell Aldebaran full-length, produced by her husband (composer Jerry Yester), on Zappa’s Straight Records label, which also put out an album by her band Rosebud in 1971. Henske, who had been living at a Los Angeles area hospice facility during a long illness, reportedly passed away on April 27, at the age of 85.

The Filthy Violets

Founded in 2010, The Filthy Violets cite influences such as FM staples The Strokes, the Libertines, Two Door Cinema Club, Arctic Monkeys, and Black Sabbath. Their drummer Tim Sams (who has also played with Taken by Canadians, Dead Feather Moon, Ten Bulls, etc) and his wife Kelly just opened a new art gallery storefront in Oceanside, Goblin Shark Emporium, located at Coast Highway and Seagaze. A recent grand opening soirée showcased local artist Strange Bouquets (who also manned the turntables for a DJ set), as well as the retro memorabilia venue’s highly curated new/old/revamped collection of local art, vintage vinyl, gifts, Chochkiez, plants, aura mapping, and three-card tarot monte. “We had a steady flow all day and even a shoulder to shoulder couple of hours,” says Sams, who has also served as Senior LEGO designer and Model Shop Supervisor at LEGOLAND.