Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Stay Strange: Experimental Pre-Hispanic Noise

Promoter and noise musician Sam Lopez (aka Zsa Zsa Gabor) is curating his third monthly Stay Strange installation with experimental pre-Hispanic music and a local collaboration between Michael Zimmerman (keyboards) and M.J. Stevens (guitar, noise).

“I happened upon Aztlan Underground UNEARTHED by sheer accident,” writes Lopez. “I was getting my experimental guitar show shirts printed up at the ultra-cool Roots Factory and one of the guys there showed me the most insane artwork hanging in their gallery. They were these intense pieces by an artist named, Joe Galarza. See Joe's work here. Amazing stuff!

“Anyway, Bob from the Roots Factory proceeded to explain a performance by Joe that involved outlandish head gear, electric bass, and a menacing array of effect pedals! I was hooked! I had to have Joe play a Stay Strange. Luck would have it that Joe also played in a bigger band from Los Angeles called Aztlan Underground. I approached Joe and asked if he would play a solo noise set and he offered Aztlan Underground's "side-project" called UNEARTHED instead.

“UNEARTHED, Joe explained, was a mixture of primitive sounds including wind instruments (Native American wood and clay flutes), indigenous percussion and ancestral chants! It's always been my dream to incorporate the worldly sounds with those of an experimental nature. Of course I was honored to have UNEARTHED play!! While Aztlan Underground form their base around social awareness, UNEARTHED journey comfortably around the spiritual. Please help me welcome UNEARTHED to San Diego!”

“Chances are you already know M.J. Stevens and Michael Zimmerman,” Lopez continues. “M.J. was the lead noise apparatus/free-guitarist for de-music band, hING. I've seen M.J. ruin his guitar with an egg beater once. Mr. Stevens was also the inventor of the infamous guitar of 100 strings that was featured recently on local television. M.J. is the professor of the unknown, the maestro of dissonance and the only musician I know that can turn an acoustic bass into a snarling animal.

“Michael Zimmerman is another A-class musician. Mr. Zimmerman also plays in hING. His weapon is the keyboard. I've seen him bend time and logic with that instrument. I had the pleasure of playing with Michael in The Blind Dead, a mini-opera where he manned the blood organ! Brutal! I am also honored to have these two master craftsman of sound play the third aktion of Stay Strange. By the way, MJZ is a combination of, well, you get the picture.”

Lopez has been curating shows at the Kava Gallery ever since his previous music collective, Trummerflora, went on hiatus.

“The Kava Gallery and Trummerflora had a great working relationship and I didn't want the shows to stop, so I basically have been booking shows there ever since,” says Lopez. “Stay Strange will reside at the Kava Gallery for the remainder of the year.”

Lopez, who curates the annual San Diego Experimental Guitar Show, bills Stay Strange as "A Night of Outsider Art & Music," but says that the name really applies to the audience.

“I'm suggesting that the audience stay strange, or keep their minds open.”


Stay Strange #3  

Sunday, April 15 – 7 p.m.

Kava Gallery at the Kava Lounge - 2804 Kettner Blvd. – Little Italy

$5 – all ages

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

Seals hook up with Beaver

Salty’s Escape is a Mexican-Style cerveza brewed with corn and puffed Jasmine rice

Promoter and noise musician Sam Lopez (aka Zsa Zsa Gabor) is curating his third monthly Stay Strange installation with experimental pre-Hispanic music and a local collaboration between Michael Zimmerman (keyboards) and M.J. Stevens (guitar, noise).

“I happened upon Aztlan Underground UNEARTHED by sheer accident,” writes Lopez. “I was getting my experimental guitar show shirts printed up at the ultra-cool Roots Factory and one of the guys there showed me the most insane artwork hanging in their gallery. They were these intense pieces by an artist named, Joe Galarza. See Joe's work here. Amazing stuff!

“Anyway, Bob from the Roots Factory proceeded to explain a performance by Joe that involved outlandish head gear, electric bass, and a menacing array of effect pedals! I was hooked! I had to have Joe play a Stay Strange. Luck would have it that Joe also played in a bigger band from Los Angeles called Aztlan Underground. I approached Joe and asked if he would play a solo noise set and he offered Aztlan Underground's "side-project" called UNEARTHED instead.

“UNEARTHED, Joe explained, was a mixture of primitive sounds including wind instruments (Native American wood and clay flutes), indigenous percussion and ancestral chants! It's always been my dream to incorporate the worldly sounds with those of an experimental nature. Of course I was honored to have UNEARTHED play!! While Aztlan Underground form their base around social awareness, UNEARTHED journey comfortably around the spiritual. Please help me welcome UNEARTHED to San Diego!”

“Chances are you already know M.J. Stevens and Michael Zimmerman,” Lopez continues. “M.J. was the lead noise apparatus/free-guitarist for de-music band, hING. I've seen M.J. ruin his guitar with an egg beater once. Mr. Stevens was also the inventor of the infamous guitar of 100 strings that was featured recently on local television. M.J. is the professor of the unknown, the maestro of dissonance and the only musician I know that can turn an acoustic bass into a snarling animal.

“Michael Zimmerman is another A-class musician. Mr. Zimmerman also plays in hING. His weapon is the keyboard. I've seen him bend time and logic with that instrument. I had the pleasure of playing with Michael in The Blind Dead, a mini-opera where he manned the blood organ! Brutal! I am also honored to have these two master craftsman of sound play the third aktion of Stay Strange. By the way, MJZ is a combination of, well, you get the picture.”

Lopez has been curating shows at the Kava Gallery ever since his previous music collective, Trummerflora, went on hiatus.

“The Kava Gallery and Trummerflora had a great working relationship and I didn't want the shows to stop, so I basically have been booking shows there ever since,” says Lopez. “Stay Strange will reside at the Kava Gallery for the remainder of the year.”

Lopez, who curates the annual San Diego Experimental Guitar Show, bills Stay Strange as "A Night of Outsider Art & Music," but says that the name really applies to the audience.

“I'm suggesting that the audience stay strange, or keep their minds open.”


Stay Strange #3  

Sunday, April 15 – 7 p.m.

Kava Gallery at the Kava Lounge - 2804 Kettner Blvd. – Little Italy

$5 – all ages

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.