Richard Elliott first caught my ear during the mid-’80s as a member of one of the West Coast’s hottest funk/jazz bands, Tower of Power. Later, he put out a solo album called Trolltown that featured …
February 13, 2008
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Stories by Dave Good
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Richard Elliott
Rodrigo y Gabriella
If the acoustic duo Rodrigo y Gabriella sounds more like a trio, it is because Gabriella Quintero’s right hand does the work of two guitarists. It flutters and snaps and swivels in the air above …
February 6, 2008
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke is back after a five-year respite from solo recording. He has a new CD and a hot young band that is reviving the sound of ’70s jazz fusion with an animation and propulsion …
January 23, 2008
Ben Kenney
Brandon Boyd plays up the new-age, en vogue rock star thing a bit too much for my tastes, but there’s nothing wrong with his band. Incubus is a wonderland of power chords and hip-hop beats …
January 16, 2008
Jeannie Cheatham
“I wasn’t a singer,” says Jeannie Cheatham after I tell her how much I have enjoyed her singing over the years. “I was always a piano player,” she says, “that played for other vocalists.” Maybe …
The Aggrolites
Belly Up Tavern, Monday, December 31, 9 p.m. 858-481-8140. $38. The Aggrolites say they are not a ska band, but for the life of me they sound like one, minus horns. That's the tipping point …
December 27, 2007
The First Rocket Man
When Ike Turner died at his San Marcos home on the morning of December 12, his band was in the next room setting up to play. It was to be a surprise gig, but Ike …
December 20, 2007
Janiva Magness
It's hard to talk to blues singer Janiva Magness and not bring up the rub board. "It's custom made," she says. "The patent is owned by a woman from New Orleans." Magness tells me where …
December 13, 2007
Ahmad Jamal
The music that Ahmad Jamal was making in the early 1970s spoke of kinder days ahead. Jamal's jazz at that time was more cushion than intellect. Things were looking up: a bloody decade of civil …
December 6, 2007
Jonathan Richman
Belly Up Tavern, Monday, December 3, 8 p.m. 858-481-8140. $15 Iggy Pop and Frank Black and the Violent Femmes all have Jonathan Richman in common, but you're not likely to get the connection without having …
November 29, 2007
Heavy Trash
The Casbah, Friday, November 9, 8:30 p.m. 619-232-4355. $12. Heavy Trash (Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray) is like a snapshot of a familiar subject taken from a different angle and in harsh lighting. The Beat …
November 8, 2007
Popa Chubby
Ted Horowitz is Popa Chubby from the Bronx, a guitarist who once toured with Richard Hell and the Voidoids but who earned his fame during a long stand at Manny's Car Wash. Manny's is a …
October 25, 2007
Things to Say to a Girl
Steve Serrano, drummer for Dynamite Walls, says that the first night of their first national tour was, unbeknownst to the band, spent in a home where one of Seattle's worst shootings had taken place the …
September 13, 2007
Making a Living...Not a Killing
Beginning in September, all San Diego--area Borders stores will begin taking a 40 percent cut of musicians' revenue generated by CD sales. In the past, Borders has allowed artists to pocket all of the money …
August 16, 2007
We Do Death
'Three out of four band members live in TJ," says Fabian Tamayo, rhythm guitarist in MinusOne. The only stateside resident is the band's drummer, Pierre Moreno, who lives in Imperial Beach. He fabricates custom motorcycle …
May 10, 2007
Borders Crackdown
"I will no longer be performing at Borders Stores in San Diego," read the subject line in an e-mailing from local guitarist Jim Earp on Monday, April 9. "Two days ago," Earp wrote, "all artists …
April 19, 2007
Hip-Hop and Hayden
Opening night at the San Diego Chamber Orchestra at St. Paul's Cathedral in Hillcrest, and from the outset a visitor notices things that are out of the ordinary. First, a welcoming committee of tuxedoed orchestra …
December 14, 2006
Rocking the Sign
He told me his name was Jeff and that he was from Texas. You could call him a sign spinner, but he wasn't, at least not in the traditional sense. What Jeff did with a …
August 31, 2006
Two Fans in Tibet
'Now, with the Internet being where it is, there's little that a record label can actually do for you," says Jamie, a jazz violinist, composer, label owner, and multimedia artist. "The Internet gives you world …
June 1, 2006
Roller Babe
Kellie Davis lives in Normal Heights in a studio apartment with her boyfriend Tom and their dog Phoenix. Kellie is a recent UCSD graduate with a film degree and works as a production assistant for …
March 16, 2006
A Pox on Cover Bands!
"The [city] planning department is rewriting the city plan right now," bassist Glen Fisher says, "and...I'm trying to make a lot of noise." Fisher, on Point Loma's Peninsula Community Planning Board, hopes to influence the …
December 1, 2005
The Nortec Collective
The Nortec Collective's new disc, Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3, recently edged out such platinum acts as Enrique Iglesias and Shakira to reach number one on the iTunes Latin Albums chart. Robert Mendoza (known as Panoptica) …
August 18, 2005
Alto Workouts
It was the stuff we did in high school band class that eventually told how my life would play out. It's hard to imagine any public school music class as being influential, but this was …
August 11, 2005
In the End
"In the end, we could not get a lease here. These buildings will go away and be turned into something else." After more than a decade on India Street, owner DeForest Thornburgh says the Blue …
April 28, 2005
Tranquil Trip
"You're gonna go wacko if you're just listening to Enya over and over again."
January 13, 2005
La Costa, Del Mar, Valley Center, Talmadge, Ramona, San Ysidro, Lemon Grove, City Heights, University City, Mission Beach, Julian, Carmel Valley, Scripps Ranch, East Lake, Linda Vista, Serra Mesa
Where I live, no major high-volume road cuts apart the 'hood. People can cross the street without becoming dead. The amoeba-shaped Balboa Park Municipal Golf Course and grid-busting canyons have made a rabbit warren of the streets.
December 30, 2004
No crackheads in Talmadge
Draw an imaginary line down El Cajon Boulevard from Fairmount Avenue to 54th Street. Invisible as the line may be, it keeps the crackheads and prostitutes and the smog-belching oil leakers of Southeast San Diego …
December 30, 2004
Neighborhood: small towns of San Diego
I see Asian gang cars some nights, in a long caravan down the Mira Mesa Boulevard. They meet at In-N-Out Burger before heading off for illegal street races on Kearny Villa Road or in Sorrento Valley.
December 24, 2003
South Mission Hills
First the guy was dead, and then he was not, a significant detail that changed during the telling of the story. But dead or alive, said my neighbor Matt, there was a body in the …
December 24, 2003
Fattburger broke my heart
It is a quiet night, perked up by a woman — Gentry’s girlfriend — who is dancing to the music by herself. Gentry, in coat and tie, is part of a horn section that is …
October 18, 2001
Guitar Trader Burnouts
“The first guy was, like, this 14-year-old kid from Irvine,” says Chris Greenslate about auditions for his punk band, the Cause. “He said all he listened to was Marilyn Manson. He sent us tapes [of …
September 7, 2000