“I can juggle a chainsaw, a bowling pin, and two Honeycrisp apples while taking a bite out of them. The apples, not the chainsaw or bowling pin.” That’s Mira Mesa rapper Kahlee, answering the question …

I’ve heard of band members who were best buds in college, in high school, and even in grade school. But Steve Denyes — half of the hard-working kids’ band Hullabaloo — met his musical partner …

Heat of the blanket,cool of the pillow...long sunLow sun...the fact of flieson fernsTwo thumbsto the weave of the sock...cold sunCap and gown,she boards the bus...by the bumsBirdsong...squawk anxiousat the fire engineIn twilightI become...the crow’s caw“Flag …

Why is San Diego suddenly the main source for island and reggae music at so many music festivals, both nationwide and worldwide? “I’d say San Diego has had reggae roots for a long time now,” …

Ever wondered how to leave your body? According to Matt Rhea, frontman for Manganista, all it takes is a dark room, a comfortable bed, and the liberal sampling of a popular nasal decongestant. Years ago, …

The Goodies, known up until recently as Jus Goodie, are Justin “Goodie” Goodman and a collaborator who calls herself Zan. Between them, they’ve hung their hats in Chula Vista, Ramona, South Park, Mt. Helix, El …

“I hit the pavement, wrists and knees first,” says <a href="http://www.sandiegoreader.com/musicians/eric-nielsen/">Eric Nielsen</a>, recalling the wreck of his Harley-Davidson Dyna Wide Glide in Pacific Beach. “And as I slid across the road, I twisted and skidded …

Slack, not slacking: He’s run a record label, a record store chain, a recording studio, a legal service for musicians, and one of San Diego’s most prominent Hawaiian music bands. But, admits native San Diego …

The new video from San Diego’s <a href="http://www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/embers/">Embers</a>, “scratch my name,” features an eye-popping pink Mercedes G-Wagon (a rental, no less) getting jacked, scratched, cruised all over creation, and danced on, with dog shit and …

I often ask musicians about their best, worst, and weirdest experiences while performing in and around San Diego. In the case of classically-trained soprano and mezzo-soprano <a href="http://www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/victoria-robertson/">Victoria Robertson</a>, these three categories melded in one …

These days, <a href="http://www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/mike-keneally/">Mike Keneally </a> calls Arizona home. But he gigged in and around San Diego from the mid-’80s until just last year, so he’s got plenty of local stories: good, bad, and yes, …

A strong fantasy life, to offset painful reality. A protagonist escaping into elaborate fantasy because he sadly lacks footing, let alone any happiness, in reality. “That’s a nice description of the Marshmallow Man,” allows <a …

<a href="http://www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/marcelo-radulovich/">Marcelo Radulovich</a>, who is back with a new studio project called Western West, has had homes in Chile, Costa Rica, Fresno, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Holland, more or less in that order. Asked …

The song “Not a Phase,” which opens <a href="http://www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/strike-twelve/">Strike Twelve’s </a> new album Last Band Standing, furiously (but humorously) roasts the question of when this punk-with-pop trio out of Temecula is going to grow up …

Gideon Prior, guitarist and singer with the progressive alt-rock band A Lens To the Sun, grew up in Los Angeles, until a quest for his Ph.D in electrical engineering took him in another direction. “I …

Singer/guitarists Kevin Ring and Bart Mendoza co-founded Manual Scan back in 1981, and have gigged together in The Shambles as well. But the way Ring tells it, the earlier appellation has been a little busier …

Not imposters — unposers San Diego’s Clance & Imes take their name from the two psychologist researchers who coined the term “imposter syndrome” in a 1978 paper: Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Ament Imes. But …

Problems in Modern Puppetry Performance : When SDSU English department grad and tech geek Michael Buchmiller turned himself into Professor B. Miller of the Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra, he knew he’d face challenges in the songwriting, …

Don’t get him wrong, San Diego native Bill Perrine has no insurmountable beef with his hometown. He’s happy to rock out at the Casbah, or to stick his head into Nate’s Garden Grill or the …

On May 11, the Federal Department of Health and Human Services will end the Covid public health emergency. But the bureaucratic behemoth is a slow-footed beast; John Q. Public knows the pandemic ended some time …

San Diego’s Jared Mattson has a new solo album, Peanut; it represents a bold step away from his work with twin brother Jonathan in Mattson 2. But as Jared testifies, he had to deal with …

Slack Key Ohana didn’t intend to release a live album. But the mahalo groove (aka the Hawaiian spirit of gratefulness for everything) held sway in the end. The slack key guitar band’s new full-length Live …

Nefarious Creatures — a band of four San Diego-bred horror-lovin’ fiends — had the will, the music, and the over-arching deep concept for their debut EP Fables For the Wicked. What they didn’t quite have …

Some bands can count their lineup shifts on one finger, like ZZ Top or R.E.M. (one each). Then there’s San Diego skamaniacs The Amalgamated. “About ten years ago,” explains guitarist/singer Reggie Costa, “I made a …

Musicians worry about money. They worry about gear. They worry about the van. They don’t usually worry about the horn player falling over a cliff. But to hear it from Ryan Hughes of Crucial Blend, …

You might never expect a Ph.D, in anything to discover a passion for outdoor sidewalk busking. But for Dr. Bruce L. Thiessen — Dr BLT to the music world — it’s all part of the …

Dante Loaiza, late of Agua Dulce and currently of Maracuya, knows both sides of the border, and he allows that weirdness can break out on either side. “In Tijuana, we had one [gig] where some …

Guitarist/singer/songwriter Hugh Noble came to San Diego from the UK in 2014. Over the past eight years of gigging with his band Slum Summer (new album Living in Milk out now), he’s delineated the highs, …

Performing Hawaiian slack key guitar music takes dedication, focus, respect, and of course, only the best Hawaiian shirt patterns. “I really like our white-and-red rayon and beach-green shirts with outrigger canoes,” enthuses Kamaka Mullen, co-founder …

For each successive rockin’ out generation, the search for a band name grows tougher, as scourers claim all the common nouns. Hometown fellows Z Matrix were no exception. “It’s very difficult to come up with …

“I have lived full-time in my van since 2015,” says singer/songwriter Tim Rose, who frequently plays Mission Bay Resort and Estancia La Jolla. “I first lived in a little Nissan NV200 on Oahu for about …

Hummingbird tries to perch on two crossed branches *** Traffic lights play catch with yellow one block apart *** Tap away at her eyes long enough/// hit winter streams *** Arm unswept, stillborn shout... crows …

Normally, musicians are drilled in the art of capturing an audience’s attention. And if that’s your training, then performing where people don’t pay attention — and aren’t even meant to — can be a challenge. …

Lyrical Groove’s Kendrick Dial, a Dallas native, came to San Diego in 2000 with the Navy. Since then, he’s called Chula Vista, Spring Valley, Downtown, and North Park home, and noted how each district boasts …

California measures approximately 163,696 square miles, and it’s home to more than 39.5 million souls. Total number of places to see music? Search me. But I’m betting a thousand would just be a start. And …

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a music writer isn’t going to get rich plying his trade, but at least he’ll get free stuff: albums, concert tickets, swag, perhaps even the occasional backstage pass. …

“Blueberry Satin,” a new online single from singer Renee Marie, starts in a fog of minor chords and then, depending on which YouTube version you click on, moves to either an organ-and-drums riff or unadorned …

Asked for his most colorful stories about gigging around town, singer-songwriter BJ Jezbera gives the impression that he knows just a little bit more than he’s telling. “I feel like a question like this,” he …

New arrivals to San Diego, musicians included, often compare and contrast where they’ve been to where they’ve landed. But Jakvoich Skolnick, who plays guitar and a few other things for Quel Bordel, has more in …

If it looks, walks, and quacks like a certain common North American waterfowl, it’s probably just what you think it is. But when Matt Delvecchio named the brewery he co-founded Duck Foot, he was thinking …

A man who’ll throw an annual 50th Birthday Bash for himself clearly boasts a robust sense of humor. And San Diego fixture Steve Poltz, who’s observing that cracked anniversary (he’s actually turning 62) at the …

“Happy Together,” performed by the Turtles, came out on Valentine’s Day 1967, and hit number one on the Billboard charts on March 25. Though it’s often covered and enshrined in film, nobody seems to notice …

Donna Larsen knows singing, songwriting, producing, and promotion. But when it came to making music (and eventually books) for kids, she fell back on the most reliable test market she could find: her own children. …

Kyle Mcmillan has lived in San Diego continuously since 1993, and he’s been involved in local music for almost that entire time — as a musician, booker, and manager. Now he’s opening a new all-ages …

Shooting his new video “Heathrow (Somebody Else)” in black-and-white might seem evocatively logical, judging from the vid’s final look. But here, 22-year-old cultgabe spills the beans: that wasn’t all on purpose. The final look, he …

Mike “Spike” Muellenberg, aka Hairy Scary Spice, has given San Diego plenty of both music and laughs while out in front of the Spice Pistols: five fellows happy to be not young, not hot, and …

October: pilot waves to the brakeman... chilly sundown October... jelly jar upside-down by the lettuce Solstice: spinning sun moves on from the model trains One stone on the high bridge--I ponder... pocket it? Forlorn... the …

Singer/songwriter Gayle Skidmore describes herself as “a San Diego native, an East County girl.” She has long loved Sarita’s and La Posta, and says she basically grew up at the Living Room on El Cajon …

Brock Scott’s mission was to get those band photos. He had no photo pass and no permission to take a camera inside any given venue (this was years before camera phones). But he had his …

Poet and performer Noah Lekas, late of Wisconsin, more lately of North Park and Vista, says that the work of combining his poetry with the sound from local musicians just flowed naturally. “I’ve always been …