Make no mistake about it, San Diego is home to its share of top talents in pop, rock, jazz, and blues. The Reader’s music crew cast its net to find out why these music makers …

Transfer’s Matt Molarius is a current player and ringleader for the Redwoods collective of bands. What’s your favorite local band? “Is this a trick question? All of the bands on our label.” What’s your favorite …

Dawn Mitschele is a local singer/songwriter who splits time between going it solo and the Cardinal Moon. What’s your favorite local band? “Redwoods bands and Oh Spirit.” What’s your favorite local venue? “Music Box.” Do …

Alfred Howard plays instruments you’ve never heard of and serves as house scribe for various Redwoods acts. What’s your favorite local band? “New Kinetics or Drive Like Jehu...” What’s your favorite local venue? “Casbah. Always …

Adam Gimbel is an occasional gunslinger for Rookie Card and a full-time Geezer. What’s your favorite local band? “I’m way biased since I filled in as the Schizophonics’ bassist for a month, but besides being …

Lety Beers is the drummer-in-chief of the Schizophonics, the Rosalyns, and the Little Richards. What’s your favorite local band? “Tie between the Loons and Creepy Creeps. Always lifts up the spirit when you see these …

Daniel Ellis is the Splavender mastermind who utilizes his synesthesia super-power to his creative advantage. What’s your favorite local band? “Spooky Cigarette because they showed me a style of music I wasn’t aware of. At …

Teenage Fanclub’s Bandwagonesque was the platter that Spin magazine deemed their Album of the Year in 1991. At the end of those 12 months, pristine harmonies complemented by fuzzy guitars beat out grunge (Nirvana’s Nevermind), …

Craig Finn of the Hold Steady is playing a string of dates opening for Vancouver’s Japandroids. For these shows, he has recruited a trio going by the name of the Uptown Controllers. During a stop …

Roots-rocker Alejandro Escovedo jumped ship from his longtime base of Austin, Texas, to what would be considered a less-hip locale — Dallas. So, is this the Lone Star State version of ditching San Diego for …

Dave Smalley is about to roll through San Diego with the same line-up of Down by Law that played on 1994’s Punkrockacademyfightsong. The band has gone through its fair share of membership fluctuations over the …

Here’s a fun fact: the Los Angeles Chargers might sell out some games in 2017. They are likely to pull off this seemingly impossible feat by aiming small — as in 30,000 fans small. That’s …

If you mention dodgeball to someone over 18 years of age the most likely response will be to either praise or denigrate the 2004 film of the same name starring Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn. …

Hardcore revivalists OFF! are supposed to be on hiatus right now, but the band has unexpectedly switched ON! ahead of schedule. “We’re supposed to be on a year-long hiatus and we are, maybe, seven months …

Anybody who caught X when they were wee lads playing shows in Los Angeles circa 1977 is about to feel old: X is on the brink of turning the big 4-0. “The reason we’re doing …

I read somewhere that the reason you’re sad around Christmastime is because it’s a reminder of what you’ve lost since childhood: the belief that the world is a magical place that is interested in your …

It’s not often that a band is born out of a name, but that was the case with Black Sabbitch. “We were just goofing around one night and someone said the name ‘Black Sabbitch,’ and …

If one were to travel back to when AOR guitar-rock ruled the charts, they would have a difficult time tracking down a band that featured four guitarists. Welcome to the 24-string world known as Diarrhea …

Rocket From the Crypt played their “final concert ever” at the Casbah’s then-annual Halloween party at the Westin Horton Plaza in 2005…so it was only fitting that the beast be brought back to life to …

Hole 5 at the Balboa Park Golf Course is a sloping nightmare. Option one is to drive your ball a bit to your left where it will (hopefully) come to a rest on the edge …

It’s not often that you catch up with the lead singer of a punk band that’s shopping for tortoise food, but that’s just how Zac Carper rolls. He’s a character. His dad, John Carper, is …

When imagining a band composed of two acoustic guitar players and a drummer, most would envision some sort of mellow country or folk group. That ain’t the Yawpers. The Yawpers play acoustic guitars, but they …

Elizabeth Borg, the lead-singer of local rockers Chica Diabla, has passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer. Borg was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, which, at the time, she appeared to have …

In the 1990s, four Canadians known collectively as Sloan took their home country by storm with a collection of albums that fused the alternative nation with the paramount aspects of classic rock. The group never …

When most people go to college it’s not a huge deal. When Milo went to college it changed the world of punk rock forever. His institution of choice was our own UCSD. Besides hitting the …

San Diego is in for a treat when cow-punk band the Mekons plays in Escondido on September 25 at the new home of arts collective A Ship in the Woods. Mekons singer/guitarist Jon Langford figures …

The local Redwoods music collective merges the creative energy of the Elephant Six movement with the hired-gun musicianship of the Wrecking Crew. All the Redwoods projects, however, are anchored by the words of percussionist/lyrical scribe …

Greg Hetson cut his punk-rock teeth playing in Redd Kross and the Circle Jerks before embarking on a nearly 30-year run with Bad Religion. Hetson recalls shows at the local Jackie Robinson YMCA as being …

In 2014, five guys played the Belly Up under the moniker of Guided by Voices. A pair of these musicians was present at this year’s show — Robert Pollard (singer) and Kevin March (drummer) — …

New Orleans–based quartet Pears is a modern spin on the punk bands of the late ’80s and early ’90s — groups such as the Victims Family, Nomeansno, and My Name, bands that employed the Minutemen’s …

Pitbull Audio opened their National City storefront in 2014. They’re an independent musical instrument and pro-audio retailer that has to compete with big-box chains, such as Guitar Center and Sam Ash. One of the methods …

Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Broncho has traded in the new-wave sound prevalent on their last album, Just Enough Hip to Be a Woman, for a reverb-drenched collision of ’80s synth-rock and dreamy shoegaze. With three LPs out, …

The first Descendents album since 2004’s Cool to Be You blasts out of the gates with a pristine five-song run of classic ‘Dents goodness. The cream of the crop is “Victim of Me,” an 97-second …

Before Royal Headache started their set, I spotted their bassist, Joe, taking a stab at the NFL Blitz ’99 arcade game nestled in the club’s main room. Perhaps he was using it to learn the …

For eight years Mikey Erg played drums and wrote a bunch of songs for the Ergs!, a hyperactive punk band born and bred in New Jersey. Since their breakup in 2008, he has spent most …

Chica Diabla vocalist Elizabeth B. and bassist Rachel Bunz had a homespun, three-song demo of material in the can when their future drummer happened upon a posting they had placed on Craigslist. “I moved out …

Though they come from “the land down unda,” Australia’s Royal Headache has been growing a loyal following in the states. That’s not bad for a quartet two LPs into the game. The group is about …

Domenic “Nicky” Palermo began recording songs as Nothing about five years ago in Philadelphia. He was depressed and in the midst of a nervous breakdown. Nothing’s initial demo couldn’t be deemed a “bedroom project,” as …

The instrumental trio Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet are best known for penning the theme song to the Kids in the Hall sketch comedy TV series. Even though the Shadowy Men were in the …

Have you spent years lamenting the fact that this city doesn’t have a worthy Joan Jett/Runaways/Donnas-style female-fronted rock-and-roll juggernaut to call our very own? Well, lament no more. Chica Diabla has arrived and they have …

Nada Surf first gained national recognition in 1996 when the video for their song “Popular” went into heavy rotation on MTV. As a result, the group toured their debut album, High/Low, heavily, but when it …

Before Beach Slang played, patrons at the Casbah were treated to a new supergroup of sorts in the backroom. The trio brave enough to call themselves “California” includes one member of Green Day (Jason White) …

After releasing a pair of EPs, Beach Slang dropped their debut album, The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Us, last October. A couple of months later, the band watched as it …

Jeff Parker officially joined Tortoise on January 1, 1997. He had been playing in an unofficial capacity with the band for some time before that. He sat in during hometown gigs in their native Chicago …

Black Mountain is back in action with a new record, IV, after a relatively quiet four years. The group was last heard from in 2012 on their soundtrack to the post-apocalyptic surf film Year Zero. …

Please: More signs on the edge of the Marines’ Miramar base.

The prolific Alfred Howard has started yet another band. The new project has been christened “Cardinal Moon” and is a collaboration between Howard and singer/songwriter Dawn Mitschele. “Dawn is a tremendous songwriter and lyricist and …

Danny Ellis attended Valhalla High School, where he sang tenor in the choir. It was a rewarding experience, one that sent him to Europe three times. “I sang at the Vatican, all around Rome, Germany, …

Detroit quartet Protomartyr delivered a blistering set of post-punk goodness to Soda Bar. The band performed selections from all three of their albums, which the packed house lapped up like enthusiastic Rottweilers. Vocalist Joe Casey’s …

After releasing two lo-fi solo albums on independent label Don Giovanni, Katie Crutchfield delivered her musical project, Waxahatchee, to a larger home. Her first release on Merge Records was last year’s Ivy Tripp — a …