Little Hurricane headlines, Bobby Bray experiments, Wavves returns, Crucial Blend opens, Blame Betty releases

Blues-rock duo Little Hurricane released a children’s album earlier this year, Life Is But a Dream. Among the fifteen tracks are standards such as “Wheels On the Bus,” “This Old Man,” “Three Blind Mice,” and “Hole in the Bucket,” as well as a “Railroad Medley” and a twinkly version of “Little Star.” They play the Casbah on June 30, topping a bill that includes Ellis Bryant and Low Volts.

The July 29 edition of the Stay Strange Summer Series at the College-Rolando Library features experimental musician Bobby Bray (Innerds, INUS, The Locust) paying musical homage to humans no longer living, with each piece presented alongside an explanation of the foundational tools and ideas. This will include using a Turkish Saz, as well as utilizing a handmade interface featuring microcontrollers and an IBM joystick from the 1980s to control effects.

Wavves started out as a one-man band brainstormed by Nathan Williams, a former Music Trader manager who had dropped out of college and was living in his parents’ house. His debut lo-fi album as Wavves was recorded on a laptop computer in his parents’ garage, on the trial version of Garage Band with a Macbook routed through an internal mic. His July 1 appearance at Observatory North Park includes Cleveland, Ohio rockers Cloud Nothings, whose most recent album is 2001’s The Shadow I Remember.

Ocean Beach will ring with the sounds of reggae and acoustic punk rock with a July 1 Skunk Records showcase at Winstons headlined by Kyle Smith. The bill includes OB staples Crucial Blend, whose Cruel World EP was nominated in 2022 for a San Diego Music Award, their third SDMA nomination. They’ve shared the stage with Morgan Heritage, Mike Pinto, Marlon Asher, E.N. Young, Ballyhoo, Tunnel Vision, Bumpin’ Uglies, and others.

Busy local trio Blame Betty plays rockabilly, roots music, and surf rock at venues all over town, averaging multiple gigs every week. Their 2023 six-song EP was produced, recorded, and mixed by Jeff Berkley (Berkley Hart). The band will debut the EP on July 2 at Fast Times in Clairemont with a performance of songs from the record, along with their regular setlist of dance faves.