Here's something you might be interested in.
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Live Five: Jonny Tarr, Band Argument, Matt Heinecke, Mattson/Nielson, Fuzz Huzzi
Electro-soul, art-pop, classic folk, instrumental-ambient, and SoCal rock in Rancho Santa Fe, City Heights, La Jolla, Little Italy
The Band Cope will open for Band Argument on July 3 at Soda Bar
July 2
“I now consider myself a singer-songwriter and producer first and foremost, but I am consistently involved with a wide range of projects as well as my own band,” says Cardiff-raised, San Diego-based singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Jonny Tarr. Originally from Cardiff, Wales, his music blends electro-soul, funk, pop, and R&B, as well as drawing on rock influences — such as his Sting-like vocals. In concert, he specializes in playing electronic soul music on guitar, synth, flute, vocals, loop station, samples, and blowing sax. An album called The Jonny Tarr Quintet: Live at Studio West was recorded at a local studio and dropped in early 2020, during the pandemic shutdown. His first fully self-produced album The Rules was released in 2024 via local Pacific Records, recorded at his Tarr Towers Studios and featuring his own contributions on piano, guitar, and saxophone. “The album is a response to the past few years of world chaos and emotional wreckage filled with messages of love and hope,” says Tarr, who also occasionally fronts a tribute project covering the music of the band Chicago.
July 3
Experimental math rock and art-pop group Band Argument blends technical musicianship and lo-fi aesthetics with digital effects, utilizing odd rhythms, sample pads, MIDI processing, and ethereal vocal delivery. The group was founded by members of Big Bad Buffalo, Jordan Krimston and Sil Damone, along with Alex Simonian and Jake Kelsoe. “This project is an analog-digital hybrid,” says Krimston. “It’s a classic rock band setup - two guitars, bass, drums, vocals - but everything has a digital filter on it [like] MIDI pickups on the guitars, sample pads and triggers on the drums, and harmonizers on the vocals.” Their debut single “Buddy” dropped in December 2018, followed by their Patchwork EP (promoted with a west coast tour) and a debut album called Cow Tools in 2022. They released their sophomore full-length last year, If the Accident Will, featuring 17 tracks recorded live in a barn. The all-local City Heights show will be opened by indie-art group The Band Cope (whose Dress Up EP was mixed and co-produced by Krimston) and dreamy shoegazers Sparkler.
Matt Heinecke at Farmer & the Seahorse
July 5
Inspired by artists like James Taylor,singer-songwriter and guitarist Matt Heinecke specializes in a classic folk rock sound. With over two decades of professional experience as an accomplished singer, guitarist, and acoustic troubadour, he first learned his performing chops while appearing in Coronado coffee shops as a high schooler. At USC, he studied classical and jazz guitar and voice before working as a singer-songwriter and studio musician in Los Angeles and Nashville, until relocating back to his San Diego hometown in 2007. A husband, dad, musician, and teacher in the Coronado Unified School District, he’s become a regular presence at local eateries, lounges, and hotels specializing in light entertainment. In concert, he performs solo, with a repertoire that covers a wide range of genres, from classic rock to ‘80s and ‘90s pop, top 40, jazz, and solo classical guitar, as well as covering artists who influenced him such as Jackson Browne and Harry Chapin.
Jared Mattson & Ruban Nielson at the Casbah
July 6
Instrumental-ambient duo Jared Mattson & Ruban Nielson features Jared Mattson of local surf-jazz sibling duo The Mattson 2 and Ruban Nielson of Unknown Mortal Orchestra. The group plays lo-fi jazz-inspired psychedelic rock and tube-saturated guitar music, highlighted by spontaneous bluesy jams and presented with a sunny kick-back San Diego vibe. They recently released their collaborative instrumental album Fear via Jagjaguwar, along with a visualizer for the single “Wedgie,” an intricate interplay of two guitar virtuosos and one of the album’s most celestial moments. Fear was recorded in June 2024, the year Mattson and Nielson first met in person, having previously crossed paths online through being longtime admirers of each other’s music. It wasn’t long before they began playing music together and, during that first improvisational session, Ruban hit the record button. Within a couple of days, they had captured all seven of the album tracks. All recording and mixing took place in Palm Springs, with mastering by Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios in London.
July 8
“We play Southern California rock with an indie feel and a classic-rock approach, with a funky, bluesy alt-vibe,” says Imperial Beach-based Fuzz Huzzi. The group was co-founded by singer-guitarist Allen Camp (later of Freak the Mighty), whose old band Misguided Children was once booked to play a local club by a pre-Pearl Jam Eddie Vedder. The debut Fuzz Huzzi full-length Release Me was recorded in 1996, in the El Cajon space that later became Mike Kamoo’s Earthling Studio, and they followed up in 2003 with Rock and Roll Ain’t Easy. A downtown performance at 4th & B drew the attention of manager and record label founder Randy Spencer, who lined them up to record with P.O.D. guitar player Marcos Curiel, resulting in the four-song EP Smell the Streets of Hollywood. By the time of their 2011 album Revival, Camp was the sole founding Fuzz Huzzi member. Summer 2019 saw the release of singles such as “I Am Rock N Roll,” from their full-length Ghosts, and the band debuted a new album in 2024 called Waiting On the Sun. This year has so far seen the release of singles for “Only Promised Grace,” “Plastic People,” and “This Little Lite of Mine.” The all-local Little Italy bill includes rock fusion trio Refuza and psychedelic alt-rock outfit Hypno Toads.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Live Five: Jonny Tarr, Band Argument, Matt Heinecke, Mattson/Nielson, Fuzz Huzzi
Electro-soul, art-pop, classic folk, instrumental-ambient, and SoCal rock in Rancho Santa Fe, City Heights, La Jolla, Little Italy
Live Five: Jonny Tarr, Band Argument, Matt Heinecke, Mattson/Nielson, Fuzz Huzzi
Electro-soul, art-pop, classic folk, instrumental-ambient, and SoCal rock in Rancho Santa Fe, City Heights, La Jolla, Little Italy
The Band Cope will open for Band Argument on July 3 at Soda Bar
July 2
“I now consider myself a singer-songwriter and producer first and foremost, but I am consistently involved with a wide range of projects as well as my own band,” says Cardiff-raised, San Diego-based singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Jonny Tarr. Originally from Cardiff, Wales, his music blends electro-soul, funk, pop, and R&B, as well as drawing on rock influences — such as his Sting-like vocals. In concert, he specializes in playing electronic soul music on guitar, synth, flute, vocals, loop station, samples, and blowing sax. An album called The Jonny Tarr Quintet: Live at Studio West was recorded at a local studio and dropped in early 2020, during the pandemic shutdown. His first fully self-produced album The Rules was released in 2024 via local Pacific Records, recorded at his Tarr Towers Studios and featuring his own contributions on piano, guitar, and saxophone. “The album is a response to the past few years of world chaos and emotional wreckage filled with messages of love and hope,” says Tarr, who also occasionally fronts a tribute project covering the music of the band Chicago.
July 3
Experimental math rock and art-pop group Band Argument blends technical musicianship and lo-fi aesthetics with digital effects, utilizing odd rhythms, sample pads, MIDI processing, and ethereal vocal delivery. The group was founded by members of Big Bad Buffalo, Jordan Krimston and Sil Damone, along with Alex Simonian and Jake Kelsoe. “This project is an analog-digital hybrid,” says Krimston. “It’s a classic rock band setup - two guitars, bass, drums, vocals - but everything has a digital filter on it [like] MIDI pickups on the guitars, sample pads and triggers on the drums, and harmonizers on the vocals.” Their debut single “Buddy” dropped in December 2018, followed by their Patchwork EP (promoted with a west coast tour) and a debut album called Cow Tools in 2022. They released their sophomore full-length last year, If the Accident Will, featuring 17 tracks recorded live in a barn. The all-local City Heights show will be opened by indie-art group The Band Cope (whose Dress Up EP was mixed and co-produced by Krimston) and dreamy shoegazers Sparkler.
Matt Heinecke at Farmer & the Seahorse
July 5
Inspired by artists like James Taylor,singer-songwriter and guitarist Matt Heinecke specializes in a classic folk rock sound. With over two decades of professional experience as an accomplished singer, guitarist, and acoustic troubadour, he first learned his performing chops while appearing in Coronado coffee shops as a high schooler. At USC, he studied classical and jazz guitar and voice before working as a singer-songwriter and studio musician in Los Angeles and Nashville, until relocating back to his San Diego hometown in 2007. A husband, dad, musician, and teacher in the Coronado Unified School District, he’s become a regular presence at local eateries, lounges, and hotels specializing in light entertainment. In concert, he performs solo, with a repertoire that covers a wide range of genres, from classic rock to ‘80s and ‘90s pop, top 40, jazz, and solo classical guitar, as well as covering artists who influenced him such as Jackson Browne and Harry Chapin.
Jared Mattson & Ruban Nielson at the Casbah
July 6
Instrumental-ambient duo Jared Mattson & Ruban Nielson features Jared Mattson of local surf-jazz sibling duo The Mattson 2 and Ruban Nielson of Unknown Mortal Orchestra. The group plays lo-fi jazz-inspired psychedelic rock and tube-saturated guitar music, highlighted by spontaneous bluesy jams and presented with a sunny kick-back San Diego vibe. They recently released their collaborative instrumental album Fear via Jagjaguwar, along with a visualizer for the single “Wedgie,” an intricate interplay of two guitar virtuosos and one of the album’s most celestial moments. Fear was recorded in June 2024, the year Mattson and Nielson first met in person, having previously crossed paths online through being longtime admirers of each other’s music. It wasn’t long before they began playing music together and, during that first improvisational session, Ruban hit the record button. Within a couple of days, they had captured all seven of the album tracks. All recording and mixing took place in Palm Springs, with mastering by Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios in London.
July 8
“We play Southern California rock with an indie feel and a classic-rock approach, with a funky, bluesy alt-vibe,” says Imperial Beach-based Fuzz Huzzi. The group was co-founded by singer-guitarist Allen Camp (later of Freak the Mighty), whose old band Misguided Children was once booked to play a local club by a pre-Pearl Jam Eddie Vedder. The debut Fuzz Huzzi full-length Release Me was recorded in 1996, in the El Cajon space that later became Mike Kamoo’s Earthling Studio, and they followed up in 2003 with Rock and Roll Ain’t Easy. A downtown performance at 4th & B drew the attention of manager and record label founder Randy Spencer, who lined them up to record with P.O.D. guitar player Marcos Curiel, resulting in the four-song EP Smell the Streets of Hollywood. By the time of their 2011 album Revival, Camp was the sole founding Fuzz Huzzi member. Summer 2019 saw the release of singles such as “I Am Rock N Roll,” from their full-length Ghosts, and the band debuted a new album in 2024 called Waiting On the Sun. This year has so far seen the release of singles for “Only Promised Grace,” “Plastic People,” and “This Little Lite of Mine.” The all-local Little Italy bill includes rock fusion trio Refuza and psychedelic alt-rock outfit Hypno Toads.