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Tuesday 'Round Town, New Acoustic Generation, Local Music YouTube Channel, More Casbah Reunions, Tom Rush, CA Guitar Trio, more

Tuesday

San Diego Music Encyclopedia & Database Online Now

Listen to the Overheard in San Diego theme song! Press illo to play the Overheard song!


SanDiegoSkylineFromHwyFNL 

NEW COMPREHENSIVE LOCAL MUSIC DATABASE IS LAUNCHED

IT'S DONE!!!! And growing every hour....

If you wanna see a list of over 1,900 San Diego bands, with links to full profiles, photos, discographies, articles, MP3s, etc, checkout http://www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/search/

Believe it or not, you can click on ANY LOCAL MUSICIAN'S NAME (around 4,900 musicos listed!) and bring up bios of every notable band they've ever been in! Try it here with Rob Crow ---

AND, if that wasn't cool 'nuff, click on an instrument, say like this here link to "Drums" - BAM, a list of EVERY DRUMMER IN SAN DIEGO!!!

We've been working on this massively cross-linked Local Music Database for over two years now, covering a century of San Diego history --- if you're a local performer who wants to add or edit a page, go to http://www.sandiegoreader.com/band/edit/

More soon!!!! JAS

 


HERE'S THE NEW Overheard in San Diego

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overheard12-24-09fnl

overheard12-31-09fnl

overheard1-7-10fnl


ARCHIVE OF Famous Former Neighbors

famjoanfnl

famcannonfnl


sdpcJayAltFnl

ROCK AROUND THE TOWN TODAY/TUESDAY, JANUARY 5

Classical Music

View all Classical Music Events

Submit a Classical Listing


Jay Allen  Sanford "TOO MANY TRAILS, MAN" - OR "WHY I STOPPED TAKING PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS....."

Because who can get any work done with all THIS going on????


http://www.tiernantunes.com/images/nag.gifRETURNS TO THE BELLY UP WEDNESDAY 1-6, AS DO TWO UNLIKELY SURVIVORS ON THE BILL

The debut lineup for Wednesday’s return of the New Acoustic Generation series at the Belly Up Tavern includes two local performers - Michael Tiernan and George Wit – with several unlikely things in common.

 

Album cover “For one, we’re both lacking ribs,” says Tiernan. “Ribless musicians. One of mine was taken out during a major surgery at USC when I was sixteen, and George lost ribs and parts of his sternum to disease.”

Both Tiernan and Wit also suffered rare cancer in their teens. “My battle was very short, but very scary and very impacting on my young psyche,” says Tiernan. “Especially the type I had, testicular cancer. Imagine doctors telling you as a sixteen year-old ‘You have an aggressive form of testicular cancer, and we need to go in and remove your nut, and then rip you limb from limb to catch it in your lymph nodes.’ Yikes!”

 

As for Brazilian multi-instrumentalist George Wit, who moved to San Diego earlier this year, “George had a gnarly type of bone cancer, which actually caused the doctors to saw off several parts of his skeleton. His diagnosis took place earlier in his life, and his battle lasted much longer than mine did.” 

 

Tiernan and Wit also both enjoyed mysterious recoveries. “It was determined that the cancer had spread to my lymph nodes,” says Tiernan. “However, after my whole body was scoured internally, they found none. My doctor said he couldn’t explain, it was quite miraculous to him. In George’s case, the same thing happened; cancer all over, then cancer gone. And his prognosis was much more dire than mine...he was not supposed to make it.”

 

“The spontaneous and unexplainable healing pointed each of us toward our respective musical directions in life.”

 

Both performers will appear when the New Acoustic Generation series returns to the Belly Up Tavern on Wednesday, January 6.

 

Related links


http://www.reverbnation.com/controller/fan_reach/pt?eid=1361450_13060946&url=http://www.myspace.com/cathrynbeeksordeal CATHRYN BEEKS’ WEEKLY LISTEN LOCAL HOTSHEET  

 Thursday 1/7 - Hang out with Kate and Cathryn every Thursday at Winston's Happy Hour Jam in Ocean Beach.  5:00 open, you in?, 6:00 Eddie Jason Coven, 6:30 Conner Cecil, 7:00 The Cathryn Beeks Ordeal - NO COVER! 

 http://www.reverbnation.com/c/fan_reach/pt?eid=3123160_13060946&url=http://www.kprifm.com/pages/homegrown On the RadioMake sure I have your latest tunes for potential play on The Homegrown Hour this year.  The best way to submit your music is in person at any of my showcases, however, you're welcome to submit via email or regular mail, too.

 Monthly Musician Mixer at The Onyx Room on January 24th.  One Sunday each month Listen Local will host a FREE Music Mixer from 7pm to 11pm at The Onyx Room downtown featuring solo acoustic and full band entertainment.  These shows will focus on networking and musician services so if you have a music-related service, please contact me to reserve a spot at the Jan 24th mixer.  If you'd like to play, check the calendar for available spots and email to reserve one.

 Listen Local will be at the Stage Bar and Grill every other Wednesday in January, the corner of 5th and F.  No cover and great sound, join us!

 Come play!  Listen Local has recently added a few new venues so if you haven't played one of our shows in a while, I invite you to check out the calendar and come play.  Your support is appreciated, Listen Local couldn't exist without the participation and support from all of the amazing artists who play our shows... thank you!

http://www.reverbnation.com/c/fan_reach/pt?eid=3123160_13060946&url=http://www.listenlocalsd.com/EventsExtras.html 1/19 - The Game is back at Desi's Bar and Grill in Point Loma.  Write a song to the title USED TO BE and show up by 7pm to get your name in the hat.  21+ all styles and abilities welcomed.  Solo or full band but this is an all-acoustic (NO P.A.) situation.  $5 suggested donation for performers and spectators, but we wont' turn you away.  Desi's has a full bar and nice menu.  This is good fun, see you there!

http://www.reverbnation.com/c/fan_reach/pt?eid=3123160_13060946&url=http://www.cathrynbeeks.com/wish-rock-ranch.html Wish Rock Ranch.  For years I've been annoying anyone who will listen with stories about my dream of having a bedNbreakfast, dude ranch, outdoor venue kinda thing.  Recently, I got Jonny on board with the idea so I decided to name the place and start visualizing it a little more clearly.  Enter Wish Rock.  Here's hoping everyone's dreams come true this year!

  Thank you for another great year.  Hosting shows via ListenLocalsd.com has been an honor for me all these years and I look forward to more.  I consider myself beyond lucky that my work includes my favorite things...music and meeting the good people who make it.  It's my greatest pleasure to be able to introduce people to new music and thanks to Astra Kelly and KPRI, I now have the opportunity to offer even more exposure to the artists who so deserve it.  Thanks to the musicians who support Listen Local by continuing to play our shows and thanks to the good people who listen.  I wish you the best in the coming year... dream big and make it happen!

http://www.reverbnation.com/controller/fan_reach/pt?eid=2964692_13060946&url=http://www.myspace.com/astrakelly Astra Kelly CD release party at The Ruby Room on January 23rd.

http://www.reverbnation.com/fan_reach/pt?eid=3048312_13060946&url=http://www.kprifm.com/ Link of the Week:  Tune into The Homegrown Hour at 102.1 KPRIfm on Saturday nights and join me on Facebook.com to discuss the playlist while you listen.  This Saturday don't miss my interview with Jeff Berkley plus all of the songs have a common theme... can you figure out what it is?  Listen online at kprifm.com.


http://www.theconcreteproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/san-diego-music-awards.gif

SDMA Youtube Channel!

FYI San Diego reports: There is a major anniversary ahead for the San Diego Music Awards and in prep, a Youtube channel has gone up featuring clips from the show throughout the decades! More clips and items will be posted soon, but 70 exclusive videos are now up, including Jason Mraz, The Zeros, Rocket From The Crypt, Switchfoot, Jewel, The Beat Farmers, The Album Leaf, Slightly Stoopid, Jack Tempchin, Charles McPherson, Mojo Nixon and many, many more! Solid proof of just how incredible our music scene is!

http://www.youtube.com/user/slammsd1

 

 

Angels & Airwaves, featuring Blink-182 guitarist Tom DeLonge, will release their third studio album, Love, for free, on Feb. 14, aka, Valentine's Day.

 

Anya Marina performed "Satellite Heart" on The Bonnie Hunt Show December 2nd

 

Benedictum front-woman Veronica Freeman will be guest singer on, “The Gods Have No Reply,” a song from the Chilean band, Vastator, who will be releasing a new CD this year!


Blink 182
is the latest group to be getting a biopic. To be directed by Brandon Flores?

 

An album collecting songs penned by Dave Howard, but recorded by other artists, is in the works.

 

Dave Humphries is wrapping up his new album with contributions from Zeros bassist Hector Penalosa and Regina Leonard.

 

Frankie Laine will be the first inductee in the Little Italy Walk of Fame. The ceremony will be March 23 2010.

 

Jason Mraz and the Muppets teamed up with the Muppets on Dec. 24 for a “special” version of “I’m Yours.” Look for it on Youtube and in syndication.

 

Mark DeCerbo is compiling a second volume of Four Eyes rarities.

 

Mike Keneally is working on follow up albums to 2009’s Scambot 1 and Scambot 2. They will be called Scambot 3 and Scambot 4. Also look for a re-issue of Beer For Dolphin’s, Sluggo.

 

Mower head out on tour Jan. 16, hitting eight states before they perform in San Diego again on Feb. 19 at the 710 Beach Club.

 

New Day Mile’s song, “Between The Guns” will appear on the DVD / new film “Gamer.”

 

Anoushaka Shankar appears on Joshua Bell's new album, At Home With Friends. They perform the track titled "Variant Moods - Duet For Sitar & Violin,” which was written by Ravi Shankar. 

 

Patric Petrie is working on a new album tentatively titled, Evergreen.

 

Skid Roper’s new album is set to be called, Rock ‘n’ Roll Part 3.

 

The Zeros follow their January 2 show at the Casbah with a tour of Europe, opening January 5 in Munster, Germany and also including shows in Spain.


 MORE CASBAH REUNIONS

Jan. 2   The Zeros

Jan. 16  - Creedle

Jan. 22 – The Dave & Deke Combo

Jan. 23 – The Dragons

Jan. 30 – Manual Scan, The Town Criers (NOTE: The previously announced Penetrators reunion announced for this date is NOT happening - the band cites "personal reasons")

 

www.casbahmusic.com


screaming1 TODAY'S "WHAT THE F-CK" ALBUM COVER

WHAT is this a "Sound Track" TO?!

Doesn't look like SHE's enjoying the Sounds of sax..."No sax tonight, dear, I have a headache..."

A Christmas WTF - so much weirdness here, from the rubber chicken and sausages on the tree (?!) to kids' longjohn underwear serving as Xmas stockings, and the fact that Santa is climbing in-or-out of European bathroom bidet!!

And you thought those old Schoolhouse Rock cartoons were the birth of math rock --

Donny Osmond's uncirculated "Butcher cover" ----

Talk about shooting your mouth off!

I think this translates as "Mrs. Bigfoot."

The big WTF here isn't the phallic design, which is funny - rather, it's his SADDLE.

Homeless families need music too --

Judging by the huge erections on those horny trumpets , something's gonna pop, all right...

I frankly don't know WHAT's inside this duo, but I think the guy on the right is shooting dope into his neck with a hypodermic needle!

"A new concept of music, created by sonic vibrations" - too bad the cover looks like a cartoon took a dump on it --- I AM kinda curious about that tune "Twilight Ozone," tho ----

Wow, whoever named this album could see its future!!!

And you thought rappers loved stupid-looking "bling" - how "sophisticated" could this funkmeister have been, if the best chastity belt he could come up with was two elbow patches and a cheap hotel lock?

PREVIOUS WTFs - http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2010/jan/03/wtf-album-covers---strange-bizarre-and-butt-clench/


CGT promo photo

EVENT PREVIEW - GUITAR TRIO AT AMSD ON JANUARY 30TH

"In January, some friends of mine, the California Guitar Trio are coming to town and we'll be performing together at Acoustic Music San Diego," emails local Stick specialist Tom Griesgraber

The Trio is comprised of Paul Richards from Salt Lake City, Bert Lams (originally from Brussels, Belgium, now in Harrisburg) and Hideyo Moriya from Tokyo. "They've been together about 20 years now and met while studying with guitarist Robert Fripp of King Crimson," according to Griesgraber, himself a Crimson devotee and former student of Crimson's own Stick player Tony Levin. 

"They play acoustic guitars, but tuned in 5ths more like cellos. Their music is instrumental and mostly originals but draws from the widest sources of influences imaginable. The covers they incorporate include music from Pink Floyd, Beethoven symphonies, Bach preludes, King Crimson, Yes, Queen, surf guitar, traditional japanese music and spaghetti westerns." The Trio regularly tours, have been on Grammy nominated albums, had NASA use their music to wake the space shuttle astronauts, and shared billings with people like King Crimson, John McLaughlin, Adrian Belew, John Scofield and many more. 

http://www.stick.com/instruments/grand/grand.jpgLocal opening act Griesgraber is best known as a Chapman Stick player (a 12-string guitar/bass hybrid played more like a piano). "I saw Tony Levin playing a Stick at the 1997 NAMM trade show in Anaheim, and I bought one that year," he says. The 12-stringed Stick (popularized by Levin during stints with King Crimson and Peter Gabriel) is played by tapping the strings like piano keys, with bass strings tuned in ascending fifths and melody strings in descending fourths, providing a wide tonal range of sounds.

"It sounds something like electric guitar, electric bass, piano, and synths -- all thrown into a blender," says Griesgraber. "When I started, there was nobody teaching it, really, so I bought the only two books in existence for it. The Stick itself gets amazing reactions. I used to draw small crowds in Guitar Center just by playing a few notes to test amps for it, and I've sold CDs just by pulling it out of the case and not playing a note."

"Locally, I do mostly solo shows (well known from doing 30-60 shows a year at the SD fair, plus events like Artwalk) but tour with several duos including one with Bert from the Trio and another called Agent 22 with Ryan Moran of Slightly Stoopid. I've done several tours with CGT as their opener and guest and will be doing several shows with them on this tour that passes through OC, San Diego, then off to Arizona and New Mexico, before winding up back in LA." 

Griesgraber has done two solo CDs to date, plus two with Agent 22 and one with Bert Lams. He also guested on several of the Trio's albums, performed five times for various Grammy events, and he regularly opens local shows at the Belly Up, the Coach House, and elsewhere.

EVENT INFO: California Guitar Trio with special guest Tom Griesgraber
Saturday January 30, 2010  -  7:30pm, all ages
Acoustic Music San Diego
4650 Mansfield St
San Diego, CA 92116
619-303-8167
www.acousticmusicsandiego.com

Related links


http://inlinethumb02.webshots.com/40641/2262768350103652431S425x425Q85.jpg FOLK LEGEND TOM RUSH COMING TO AMSD - New Studio Album is His First in 35 Years

 Revered singer-songwriter Tom Rush, whose first studio CD in more than three decades What I Know was released earlier this year, will be performing at AMSDConcerts in San Diego on Friday, January 8.

After he started his career in the mid-Sixties as a folk/blues singer and guitarist based in Boston/Cambridge, Tom helped meld folk and rock with his 1965 album, Take a Little Walk with Me. His next album, 1968's The Circle Game, was singled out by Rolling Stone as the record that ushered in the singer-songwriter era, since it presented songs by Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and James Taylor before they had released any albums themselves.

The album also featured what has become Tom's best known and most covered original song, "No Regrets," a hit for other artists in multiple genres; even U2 quotes a verse or two from the song in some of their live shows.

Tom's last trip to the recording studio was for his 1974 album Ladies Love Outlaws, but since then he's been touring steadily and releasing occasional live albums. His relaxed, expressive baritone, accomplished guitar-playing, droll humor and infallible taste in writing and choosing material have made him a perennial favorite among folk-oriented music lovers.

A live YouTube clip of Rush performing the hilarious "Remember Song" has drawn more than 3.5 million hits, so he's reaching a wider audience than ever.

Hie Res Photo for press use 

What I Know is "a deceptively informal, warm and engaging collection of acoustic songs from a variety of sources, Rush's steady pulse at the center of every one," according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Friday, January 8, 2010 - San Diego, CA - AMSDConcerts, located at 4650 Mansfield Street. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $50 for dinner seating and $25 for reserved seating. For more information, call 619-303-8176 or visit the www.AMSDConcerts.com website. 


latefnl

LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, CBS

Mo 1/4: Michael Cera, Jenna Elfman, David Gray
Tu 1/5: Amy Adams, Zachary Levi, Vampire Weekend
We 1/6: Marv Albert
Th 1/7: Nick Jonas & the Administration
Fr 1/8: Jake Johannsen

THE JAY LENO SHOW, NBC

Mo 1/4: Tim Allen, Adam Carolla
Tu 1/5: Kim Kardashian, Jillian Michaels
We 1/6: Hugh Jackman, Katie Couric
Th 1/7: Denzel Washington, Mikey Day
Fr 1/8: Brian Williams

THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, NBC

Mo 1/4: Ethan Hawke, Patton Oswalt, Katharine McPhee
Tu 1/5: Queen Latifah, Chris Pratt, Juston McKinney
We 1/6: Matthew Broderick, Ke$ha
Th 1/7: Jackie Chan, Emily Blunt, Jencarlos
Fr 1/8: Rob Lowe, Aziz Ansari, OK Go

JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE, ABC

Mo 1/4: Steven Seagal, Lea Michele, Eddie Pepitone (R 12/10/09)
Tu 1/5: David Arquette, Abbie Cornish, Jim Brewer
We 1/6: Neil Patrick Harris, Jeremy Renner, Really Doe
Th 1/7: Ellen Pompeo, Michael Strahan, Puddle of Mudd
Fr 1/8: Tobey Maguire, James McAvoy, Colbie Caillat

LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON, CBS

Mo 1/4: Rosie Perez, Switchfoot
Tu 1/5: Patricia Heaton, Carey Mulligan, Yonder Mountain String Band
We 1/6: Ray Romano, Nellie McKay
Th 1/7: Steven Wright, Michelle Monaghan
Fr 1/8: Jason Segel, Shiri Appleby

Mo 1/11: Mila Kunis, Bob Schieffer

LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON, NBC

Mo 1/4: Fred Willard, Japandroids
Tu 1/5: Michael Cera, Ana Gasteyer, Shwayze
We 1/6: Ethan Hawke, Gabourey Sidibe, Clipse
Th 1/7: Amy Adams, John Oliver, a performance by the Broadway cast of "Fela"
Fr 1/8: Matthew Broderick, Ashley Greene, Nick Jonas & the Administration

LAST CALL WITH CARSON DALY, NBC

Mo 1/4: OK Go (R 11/24/09)
Tu 1/5: Derek Luke, Anastasia Ashley, Black Lips (R 10/29/09)
We 1/6: Joss Stone, Ryan Dirteater, Bat For Lashes (R 10/8/09)
Th 1/7: Chuck Klosterman, Rhys Millen, Drennon Davis (R 11/17/09)
Fr 1/8: David Plouffe, Jeret "Speedy" Peterson, Metric (R 11/18/09)

Mo 1/11: David Gray (R 11/25/09)
Tu 1/12: Bill Simmons, Dmitriy Salita, the Raveonettes (R 11/19/09)
We 1/13: Morena Baccarin, Lisa Hannigan (R 11/20/09)
Th 1/14: Donald Glover, Ellery Hollingsworth, Pete Yorn (R 12/8/09)
Fr 1/15: Olivia Munn, Jordy Smith, Paolo Nutini (R 12/9/09)

TAVIS SMILEY, PBS

Mo 1/4: Morgan Freeman (R 12/10/09)
Tu 1/5: Yo-Yo Ma (R 12/8/09)
We 1/6: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jeff Bridges, Quentin Tarantino (R 12/14/09)
Th 1/7: Paul Mooney (R 11/18/09)
Fr 1/8: James Cameron (R 12/17/09)

THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART, Comedy Central

Mo 1/4: Michael Pollan
Tu 1/5: George Lucas
We 1/6: TBA
Th 1/7: Maggie Gyllenhaal

THE COLBERT REPORT, Comedy Central

Mo 1/4: Erick Erickson
Tu 1/5: Riley Crane
We 1/6: Capt. Charles Moore
Th 1/7: James Fowler

LOPEZ TONIGHT, TBS

Mo 1/4: Larry David, Lisa Lampanelli, Jay Sean & Birdman (R 11/12/09)
Tu 1/5: Ted Danson, Bill Engvall, Orianthi (R 11/19/09)
We 1/6: Jamie Foxx, Marc Anthony (R 11/10/09)
Th 1/7: Sandra Bullock, Derek Luke (R 11/24/09)

THE VIEW, ABC

Mo 1/4: A special tribute to "All My Children" (R 12/11/09)
Tu 1/5: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mary J. Blige (R 12/23/09)
We 1/6: Tea Leoni (R 12/18/09)
Th 1/7: Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington, Snoop Dogg (R 12/15/09)
Fr 1/8: John Krasinski, Guy Fieri (R 11/6/09)

Mo 1/11: Patricia Heaton
Tu 1/12: James Spader, Rocky Carroll
We 1/13: Rachel Weisz, Sara Evans
Th 1/14: Joan Rivers
Fr 1/15: Vera Wang, Emilio Estefan

LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY, syndicated

Mo 1/4: Chris Meloni, "Bachelor" Jake Pavelka, Ellie Krieger
Tu 1/5: Jenna Elfman, Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger, Dr. Wendy Bazilian
We 1/6: Tim Allen, Katharine McPhee, Jorge Cruise
Th 1/7: Amy Adams, Gabourey Sidibe, Dr. Melina Jampolis
Fr 1/8: Zach Braff, Marion Cotillard, Cristin Jones, guest co-host Nick Jonas

Mo 1/11: Valerie Bertinelli, Nathan Fillion
Tu 1/12: Jennifer Connelly
We 1/13: Freddie Prinze Jr., Tim Gunn
Th 1/14: Kiefer Sutherland, Norah Jones
Fr 1/15: Denzel Washington, Matt Bomer, guest co-host Anderson Cooper

THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW, syndicated

Mo 1/4: Christian Slater, "So You Think You Can Dance" winner Russell Ferguson, Rickie Lee Jones & Ben Harper
Tu 1/5: Helen Mirren, 8-year-old pianist Emily Bear, Kesha
We 1/6: Queen Latifah, Richard Simmons
Th 1/7: Wanda Sykes, 5-year-old actress Kylie Kim
Fr 1/8: Mary J. Blige, Jackie Chan, Anna Kendrick

Mo 1/11: Matthew Broderick
Tu 1/12: Kara DioGuardi, Tal Ronnen
We 1/13: Josh Holloway, Dr. Drew Pinsky
Th 1/14: Ellen Pompeo, Jim Parsons
Fr 1/15: Ricky Gervais

THE BONNIE HUNT SHOW, syndicated

Mo 1/4: Paul McKenna
Tu 1/5: Masi Oka, Kelly Rutherford, John Caponera
We 1/6: Jean Smart, Jim Breuer, Winter the Dolphin and her trainer Abby Stone
Th 1/7: Ray Liotta, Jillian Michaels, David Williams
Fr 1/8: Jane Kaczmarek, Hutch Dano, Adam Hicks, Kathleen Madigan


TOP 10 COVERS BY LOCALS

(Bart Mendoza) It’s true that San Diego’s musicians (past & present) have penned a slew of incredible songs, but they’re also not adverse to throwing in the occasional cover tune into their live set list. Here’s ten interesting pairings:

1)    Switchfoot / Beyonce – “Crazy In Love” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heiswnjSVuU
2)    Ratt / Fleetwood Mac – “Oh Well”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deHM9w4vDcE
3)    The Beat Farmers / The Sex Pistols – “Anarchy in The UK”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVIz_RhqgH0
4)    Blink 182 / The Cure – “ A Letter to Elise” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p5Ct6-hHTs
5)    The Softlightes / The Talking Heads – “This Must Be The Place”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3-KNMIsnmw
6)    Cindy Lee Berryhill / Tears For Fears –“Mad World”
Live at a benefit concert to help cover medical costs for her husband, author Paul Williams.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGqLfhjnHiM
7)    Pea Hix & Marie Haddad / Yazoo – “ “Nobody’s Diary”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=496vAA8jY3g
8)    Sara Petite / Johnny Cash – “Folsom Prison Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYDsGikd6xE
9)    Nickel Creek / Britney Spears – “Toxic”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuN2AhGq0Hs
10)    Barbara Mandrell / Kenny Loggins – “Footloose”
This clip from her network variety show will leave you speechless... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqyhg39ixn4  

Bonus:
11)    Backdraft / Blink – 182 – “All The Small Things”
Kid band opening for Rockola – check out the crowd they are playing to at the end of the clip!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONzbJrVN4-Y

TOP 20 LOCAL BEATLES COVERS

Forty years after the fact, the Beatles have the top selling album of the decade, so it’s no surprise that they are probably the most covered act of all time, the “classical” music of the modern era. San Diegan’s have not been immune to this phenomenon:

1)    Kenny Eng / “Come Together”
Live at Lestat’s July 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-rMaMzU7FQ
2)    Jason Mraz / “In My Life”
The final song at his Cricket Amphitheatre concert Oct 11, 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XRxA1tcK2o
3)    San Diego Men’s Chorus / “Let It Be”
Live at the Balboa Theatre April 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz0lQUwaNuw
4)    Jon Foreman and a bunch of other guys / “With A Little Help From My Friends”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdL7UGvRI4s
5)    Rusty Jones / “I’ve Just Seen A Face”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK5vkzyPQ8k
6)    Stephen Bishop / “I Call Your Name”
Live in London, before Sir George Martin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezwKr7BUTqY
7)    Schmooze / “And Your Bird can Sing”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMNHAlZeOJ4
8)    AJ Croce / “Maybe I’m Amazed”
With singer Ari Hest and Coco Love Alcorn. Yes, this is technically a solo McCartney track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK05QodE45Q
9)    Rookie Card / “Back In The USSR”
    It’s said the timing is everything. Here’s proof.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TJIrHKkkEw
10)    Peter Sprague & Fred Benedetti / “She’s Leaving Home” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq5Ub2a65MI
11)    Mark Goffney / “Let it Be”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XtCcvU6eVM
12)    The Big Fellas / “With A Little Help From My Friend” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AZBH-XbEvk
13)    921 / "Day Tripper"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78Mcg-7UbW8
14)    Rhythm & The Method / “Come Together”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSh_9tKg_zo
15)    Lexington Field / “I’ve Just Seen A Face”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlHmCVSQlR0  
16)    Gregory Page with The Shambles / “I’m Only Sleeping”
My band backing the esteemed Mr. Page on November 29, 2009 at The Casbah.
http://www.youtube.com/user/LosShambles#p/f/9/EEFivLnaFSI

In A Category of their own:

17)    “Yellow Trolley Line”
A song about The San Diego Trolley System, sung to the tune of …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxeZhii0Mt0
18)    Exclamation Films / “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”
It takes a little while to get there, but this clip features the song set in Balboa Park http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2XblEruKzc
19)      “Day Tripper”
A short clip of two fans lost in the music at Seaport Village :- ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzVbq8w5cfI
20)    “Hey Jude / Let it Be“
From the description: “This is a collection of songs recorded on my camera in the back of my friend Matt's truck in the parking lot of the San Diego Zoo” Spot on,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG8IxvzdtFU

BONUS)    I-8 / “Flying”
Just what it says! Footage shot driving down I-8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHvufmPbAl0


TOP 12 WEB CELEBS TO WATCH FOR IN 2010

I frankly don’t know how the world ever got by before the internet. Seriously. Over the past few years, I’ve been so hardwired to the web that I swear I dream in html. So much of my time is spent clicking --- my left hand can barely hold onto a pencil, while my right hand can crush a Volkswagen --- In the year or so since we set up www.myspace.com/sandiegoreadermusic, and since launching the new website and blog around two years ago, a lot of amazing online video auteurs have come to our attention. Here are a dozen up-n-coming webheads that we think are the TOP 12 WEB CELEBS TO WATCH FOR IN 2010…………………

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/nov/30/top-dozen-web-celebs-to-watch-for-in-2010/


TOP FIVE MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS OF THE ROCK ERA

  5) Heavy Metal - lots of songs done just for the movie, with Blue Oyster Cult even providing thematic backstory for the Harry Canyon segment accompanying their song "Veteran of the Psychic Wars." The soundtrack came out on vinyl in 1981, but problems over song rights kept the movie out of video stores for almost two decades. Other great cuts include the title tune by Sammy Hagar, "Working in a Coal Mine" (Devo), "Reach Out" (Cheap Trick), "Queen Bee" (Grand Funk), and an alternate verion of "The Mob Rules" by Dio-era Black Sabbath.
 
 4) Rock & Rule - mostly songs done for the movie, including Lou Reed (singing the Jagger-like lead baddie's theme song "My Name is Mok"), Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry (who played a role too), Cheap Trick, and a fantastic Earth Wind & Fire cut. The movie almost bankrupted legendary Canadian studio Nelvana, while the somewhat more adult-oriented Heavy Metal feature stole much of Rock & Rule's thunder - the fascinating tale is told at The Rock & Rule Homepage .
 
 3) Lost Boys - space goth representing the best work ever done by Foreigner's Lou Gramm, plus Echo and the Bunnymen doing a cover version of "People Are Strange" that makes the Doors look like the stoner-led lucky hacks they always were.
 
  2) Hedwig and the Angry Inch - great rock opera, all original music by Steven Trask and John Cameron Mitchell. Probably the best movie ever made about a transsexual East German rock star with a one-inch penis ----
 
  1) Velvet Goldmine - a few original glam tracks, but mostly new versions done by various glam supergroup lineups for the soundtrack (I think they let Ewn McGregor sing one of the songs in the movie, but it's someone else's voice on the soundtrack album). The 1998 movie essentially took the true tales of David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, and Lou Reed, to craft an imaginary and colorful account of a Ziggy Stardust-like seventies glam rock superstar -
 

As detailed on Wikipedia, the English musicians who played under the name The Venus in Furs on the soundtrack were Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, David Gray, Suede's Bernard Butler, and Roxy Music's Andy Mackay. The American musicians who played as Curt Wild's Wylde Ratttz on the soundtrack were The Stooges' Ron Asheton, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley, Minutemen's Mike Watt, Gumball's Don Fleming, and Mark Arm of Mudhoney.

The soundtrack features new songs written for the film by Pulp, Shudder to Think and Grant Lee Buffalo, as well as many early glam rock compositions, both covers and original versions. The Venus in Furs covers several Roxy Music songs with Thom Yorke channeling Bryan Ferry on vocals, Placebo covers T.Rex's "20th Century Boy," Wylde Ratttz and Ewan McGregor cover The Stooges' "T.V. Eye" and "Gimme Danger", and Teenage Fanclub and Donna Matthews cover The New York Dolls' "Personality Crisis." Lou Reed, Brian Eno, T.Rex, and Steve Harley songs from the period are also included. The album is rounded out by a piece of Carter Burwell's film score.

All three members of the band Placebo also appeared in the film, with Brian Molko and Steve Hewitt playing members of the Flaming Creatures (Malcolm and Billy respectively) and Stefan Olsdal playing Polly Small's bassist.

http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/large_images/305/40143305.jpg I debated hard over whether to list Times Square (1980) rather than one of the above choices, because I probably play that soundtrack album more than any of the others - but only a few of its songs are unique to the soundtrack. And some of the tracks that turn up elsewhere, like Patti Smith's "P-ssing in the River," are early versions that are kinda plain by comparison.
 
  Plus, the movie has Tim Curry in the cast, one of the greatest and most versatile rock/cabaret/Broadway singers ever, but they don't use him on the soundtrack. Great little rock movie, if kinda surreal and goofy - I found a website with the whole 2-album set - http://vinnierattolle.blogspot.com/2007/02/no-sense-makes-sense.html 
 
Same website has downloadable audio files with two of Tim Curry's best albums, and an offbeat "Greatest Hits" collection of Curry cuts --
 
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 ALSO SEE:

Tim Curry Rocks - Tim Curry has enjoyed a vastly and inexplicably underrated music career. Curry’s big, booming voice was perfectly suited for the theatrical rock opera-esque songs, most of which managed to be both gritty urban and feather-fay at the same time – think Springsteen concert as staged by Twyla Tharp... www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/nov/17/tim-curry-rocks---a-custom-designed-dream-concert

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HEROIN HEARTACHE: MEGADETH VS EX-MEGADETH

Antimusic reports: It appears that a full-scale verbal war has broken out between Dave Mustaine and former Megadeth guitarist Jeff Young. Mustaine fired the first salvo during a recent interview with Undercover.com.au. Classic Rock reports that in the interview Mustaine claimed that the band's 1988 Australian tour had to be cancelled because Young had run out of heroin and insisted on going back to America.... Inevitably, Young has hit back, calling Mustaine "a lying piece of sh-t". But there is more

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COMING IN 2010 - ROCK 'N' ROLL COMICS: JOAN JETT AND THE RUNAWAYS

Here's a sneak peek at the cover art for the full-color Runaways issue of Rock 'N' Roll Comics, which will be released to tie in to the Runaways movie --- www.myspace.com/rocknrollcomics

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DEBATING JOSS WHEDON'S DOLLHOUSE - THE ABBEY ROAD OF TELEVISION??

 ccn43 Joss Whedon’s newest TV show Dollhouse = it took me awhile to get into the debut season. Starring the actress who played Faith the Vampire Slayer in Whedon’s Buffy series, it’s kind of about mercantile Stepford Wives of the Future, with a secret organization that rents out programmed humans whose brains are emptied and refilled of skills and life histories like they were hard drives.

Which, essentially, is what brains are. But the open question is what happens to the soul if the rest of whatever makes up a person is digitized and stored away in the Dollhouse “attic.”

Dollhouse IMO at first played too much with Mission Impossible/Charlie’s Angel identity-swap adventures but, by the end of the season, much more was revealed about the more metaphysical and philosophical aspects of the storyline, especially as to the nature of the soul and the fluid morality (or lack thereof) of all involved ---

 ccn44 At the 2008 Comic-Con, they screened the unaired 13th Dollhouse episode, Epitaph One. BUT, you don’t want me to spoil anything by revealing what it’s about, do you? You DO? Well...it takes place in the future, within the long-abandoned Dollhouse, beneath a city that may also have been destroyed. You’ll have to get the season one DVD set (out at the end of the month) to see it –

Whedon did reveal that Alexis Denisof, the actor who played Wesley in Buffy and Angel, would be in the next season of Dollhouse, as would Summer Glau from Whedon's short-lived Firefly series (and the cancelled Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles).

This year's SECOND (and, as it turns out, final) season immediately pulled a Serling/Shyamalan/O Henry turnaround of everything the viewers thought they knew ----

As Dollhouse continues to astound with its mind-blowing final episodes, I realize that creative mastermind Joss Whedon is the Beatles of television. Breaking new ground, in new ways, and creating all new storytelling templates that people will still be trying to figure out for years to come ---

Buffy was his Sgt. Pepper - perfecting the formula, then rewriting it from scratch --

Angel, his White Album - some wonky sidetrips, but even his most dense and dare-you-to-follow-me work is engaging and, ultimately, timeless.

Firefly was his surprise left turn into Yellow Submarine/Magical Mystery Tour - at least a cool movie came out of it, one still Whedon-tronic, if somewhat diluted so the masses could at least peek in the door.

Dollhouse is Joss Whedon's Abbey Road. Pitch perfect, every note. All together now, nothing he can do that can't be done - he makes it look so easy!!

I anxiously await the final three eps when the show takes its final bows, beginning January 8th ----

 COMIC BOOK CREATOR SS CROMPTON (Demi the Demoness) REPLIES: While I agree with most of what you said about Joss’ work, I have to say that Doll house if far more like his “You know my name look up the number” or the Beatles Christmas Fan Albums, than Abby Road.  Dollhouse was virtually unwatchable and pointless.  And like some of the Beatles at their drug-induced silliest, it proves that not everything someone does is always a classic – sometimes, it’s just bad.

Sorry, guess it just wasn’t my cup of tea – love the rest of his stuff though - Steve

Jay Allen  Sanford JAS REPLIES: Hey Steve,
Unless you've been watching ALL the eps from the beginning thru the last few bugfuggen crazy two-hour blocks, I'm afraid I must discount your opinion as uninformed. Much like the best work of, say, Rod Serling and Charles Beaumont, the beginning of the show was mostly "red herring" misleading, in that it chose NOT to set up a framework for future events.
 
Rather, the earliest eps instead lulled you into the complacent belief that you were settling in for something akin to Stepford-Wives-Meets-La-Femme-Nikita, only to instead flip the script into a far more wide-ranging and mind-blowing take on Sartre's No Exit vis-a-vis Gibson Neuromancer and the second story arc of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series (also called, not coincidentally I'm sure, The Doll's House).
 
Fellow Revolutionary Comics contrib Alec Scott compared Dollhouse's stream of consciousness storytelling to none other than roach-crazed WTF-specialist William Burroughs ----
 
You and I tend to have similar tastes in fiction, Steve - I bet if you watch the inevitable box DVD set of Dollhouse sometime down the line, including/especially the unaired "future" ep from the season one set, you'll be thanking me for drawing your attention to this epic twist on TV sci-fi and horror (you may have stopped watching even before the "horror" flavor brewed to the top of the mix - if so, you're REALLY missing out ---- ).
 
Even more so than the final eps of Star Trek Enterprise (which you chided Jamie for not sticking around long enough to witness), Dollhouse is going out with one of the biggest bangs to end all bangs ---- It's too late (and too involved) to jump into thu final three eps cold, but you could always stream older eps from the website and THEN enjoy the finale(s) ----
JAS

 SS CROMPTON: Well I only watched the first 4 episodes, so maybe you are right, but those four episodes were so bad…Here were my beefs and probably why the show failed with the general public…

Because she’s a “different personality” every episode, you never get to really know or like the main character. When she’s in Doll mode –she and the rest of the “dolls” are basically like retarded adults – not much to like there either. The main programmer purposely gives the “Doll” weaknesses (like anxiety attacks and blindness?? And nobody in the organization even questions that – wtf?)  That would be like the defense department having a cruise missile that randomly turns off it’s radar or explodes if it’s raining – makes no sense.

People seem to be able to find and hire the dolls with no trouble at all, but somehow the CIA the FBI and the NSA can’t find them. Even though they have a permanent fancy headquarters filled with scientific equipment and lots of people working there.

No main villain or enemy group (at least not in the first 4 episodes)  Just a different generic bad guy she could defeat each week.  Kind of like the old Superman TV show, where you knew there was no way the gangster was going to defeat Superman.  (I suspect that’s why they added (weaknesses) to the Doll, because otherwise, she would just walk in and defeat the bad guys in 5 minutes with no trouble at all.

But – You are probably right, it sounds like it got better.  Joss just waited too long to get the story moving forward.  You can fool the audience successfully in a 2 hour movie - (Sixth Sense is a great example of this)  but you better make the story that viewers think they are watching be engaging and somewhat logical – and the beginning episodes of the show just were not.   Trying to drag it out for an entire season was just a terrible idea.  He should have introduced at least some MAJOR hints about where the show was going early on.  If those hints where there – he hid them too well - Steve

Jay Allen  Sanford JAS REPLIES: I'll concede the slow (and ultimately misleading) startup - I almost tuned out. BUT, to carry the Beatles comparison even further, what if you had given up on Abbey Road after the third song, Paul's "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," which John refused to even perform on, calling it just another of Paul's "Granny songs." By almost any measure, a kinda crappy song (until/unless performed by Steve Martin!) You would never have gotten the back of your skull blown off by subsequent side-one cuts like "Oh! Darling" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)."

That's how sharp a left turn Dollhouse took. The "mission of the week" aspect was just one of the red herrings I mention - the drama has since become much more internal, not just by withdrawing into the Dollhouse(s) but into the very minds of the characters themselves.

Well worth giving another shot, I assure!

 AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR ALEC SCOTT CHIMES IN: Hey, Jay, been reading the back-and-forth. Have to say, I agree with you. Steve's point, about the first few eps, is a valid one -- no real personality to identify with -- but, as you pint out, only when taken by themselves. Taken all together, we realize that, from the beginning, Echo, a real identity and character of her own  -- whose existence is only informed by the existence of Caroline, not to mention all the characters she's been over time -- and that THAT'S who's been trying to, and is now succeeding at, breaking through into her own.

I agree, too, that these last episodes are mindf-cking brilliant, the kind of stuff that only people like Lynch and Kaufman (Charlie) have dealt with on any comparable (cinematic) level in the past -- and even *they* didn't have this broad a canvas to work with.

So Abbey Road as performed by Philip K. Dick is how I'd put it - Alec

 WRITER/RESEARCHER JAMIE RALPH GARDNER: Dear Steve, How much of Joss Whedon's work have you seen? You told me that you saw part of 1 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and part of 1 episode of Angel. Have you seen Firefly, Serenity or Alien: Resurrection? During a conversation about Buffy on the phone, your description of the episode sounded like one of the episodes from the 5th to 7th season.

I think Buffy at it's best was during the first 4 seasons. I like later episodes but I think the show became much more uneven during the last 3 years. I think  some of the weaknesses of the last 3 seasons have been brought in to the Buffy comic books. Sinn Sage (Vampirooni) was a viewer of Buffy and she thought the show went downhill in later seasons. She quit watching the show. I continued watching
Buffy, most of the time, through the final season.
Jamie Gardner

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http://inlinethumb64.webshots.com/8575/2475335330103947755S425x425Q85.jpgHALFORD-GNR-ZEPPELIN VETS FORM TEMP SUPERGROUP

BW&BK reports: The Halford Slash Bonham Supergroup performed at 95.5 KLOS' Mark And Brian Christmas Show, which took place at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California on Wednesday, December 16th.

The band featured singer Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Slash (Velvet Revolver, Ex-Guns N' Roses) and Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin). Other guests included Steve Lukather (Toto) and Keith Emerson (Emerson, Lake & Palmer).

Halford's Metal God team captured exclusive rehearsal, sound check and performance footage. Once edited, the footage will be made available as a free download on a date to be confirmed next month (January 2010). - Set list

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http://static.squidoo.com/resize/squidoo_images/-1/draft_lens2249220module12220473photo_1224536213muppet-american-gothic.jpg MRAZ MEETS MUPPETS, SAVING SWITCHFOOT, ROLIE'S ROLL, MORE

Spend Christmas Eve with Jason Mraz and the Muppets. Mraz will be on Sesame Street Dec. 24 to sing a special version of "I'm Yours". more

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Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame inductee Gregg Rolie, best known for his vocals and keyboard work with Tijuana native son Santana and Journey, has caused a flurry of excitement with the release of his latest CD 'Rain Dance".

This live CD captures Gregg and his all-star band performing at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in 2007. The music press and fans alike have been raving about the new CD and have even compared Rolie's band to that of the original Santana group, in which Rolie was a founding member. "The reviews have been great," says Gregg. "The band and I are anxious to get out on the road and play as many cities as possible in 2010, 2011, 2012 and so on..."

'Rain Dance' features electrifying versions of several Santana classics such as :"Evil Ways", "Black Magic Woman" "Soul Sacrifice", "Jingo" and "No One To Depend On" as well as tracks from Rolie's previous effort 'Roots' and new songs. The Gregg Rolie Band consists of founding Santana member Michael Carabello on Congas, Adrian Areas (son of original Santana percussionist Jose Chepito Areas) on Timbales, drummer Ron Wikso (who was also in The Storm), Kurt Griffey on guitar, internationally acclaimed bassist, Chapman Stick artist and Santana alumni Alphonso Johnson and former Jean Luc Ponty keyboardist Wally Minko.

"The band is great, because we all really enjoy each other and I think the sound reflects the fun we are having," Gregg recently told Voices of Latin Rock. "We subtitle the band; 'Santana- the way you remember it' And at that gig in New York recently, we had half of the original Santana, that's about the closest you're ever gonna' get, to seeing that band together again! Michael Shrieve came down and sat in and it was fantastic! He is such a lyrical player and he makes me smile when he would do a certain thing or a fill and I'd remember his playing style, very much on the jazzier end but just so stylish. Ron Wikso my regular drummer is heavier and a real solid player too."

Gregg Rolie 'Rain Dance' CD is available through CD Baby. For more information visit the official website: - http://www.greggrolie.com

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Switchfoot will kick off 2010 with a performance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on Monday, January 4th. Later that week, the band will be one of two groups playing the ESPN National Championship Tailgate, which will take place at the Rose Bowl Stadium just before the Alabama Crimson Tide face the Texas Longhorns in the Citi BCS National Championship Game on January 7th.

The band has been playing sold-out shows since November, coinciding with the release of its latest album, Hello Hurricane, which debuted in the Top 15 of The Billboard 200. The North American tour, which has been extended through January, features Switchfoot playing the album in its entirety, followed by an assortment of fan favorites from its previous albums.

Switchfoot will continue to collect donations for local food banks along the way, so fans are encouraged to bring non-perishable items to the shows.

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The Entire Known Universe?

The Entire Known Universe? by Jay Allen Sanford

“Apparently, Golden Track Studios thinks it’s okay to steal the song Matt Commerce and I wrote for the San Diego Your Song Competition,” read Alyssa Jacey’s Facebook post on December 2... More

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Time and Space

Time and Space by Jay Allen Sanford

Experimental electric-soul songsmiths Children of Nova came together in summer 2007, featuring members of Atlas of Id and Temperature Delete... More  

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DAVE MUSTAINE'S EGO VS SUICIDE SILENCE

Antimusic.com reports: Lambgoat is reporting that Suicide Silence left the Megadeth tour on not so good terms with the headlining act. While the tour was in its final days, there was apparently some behind the scenes trouble between Megadeth and Suicide Silence that was so bad that the band wasn't able to finish the trek.

Lambgoat reports: The official announcement from Suicide Silence is fairly standard: "We're sorry to announce that we won't be playing tonight in Reno, NV. Megadeth, Warbringer, and Arcanium will still be there so head out and show your support for those awesome bands!"

However, interestingly, we received the following news submission this morning: "Suicide Silence not allowed to play Reno due to Dave Mustaine's ego. Kicked off last two days of tour and had laminates removed." After digging around a bit, it appears that Suicide Silence drummer Alex Lopez posted the following update via Twitter: "Dave Mustaine kicked us off the Megadeth tour cuz he wanted to take our laminates for a little incident weeks ago, so we told him to f*ck off." That update has since be removed - more at Lambgoat

Rock Radio has a related story: Mustaine haS confirmed there will be another Megadeth album after Endgame - and he's already nearly finished writing it.

The revelation comes after months of speculation that Mustaine was planning to retire when he escaped from his current record deal with Roadrunner, which he's been unhappy with for some time. Even the album's title hinted that Megadeth might be winding down.

But now the thrash icon tells Metal Hammer: "I'm excited with what's going on in my band. I've got my book coming out and I've got this tour coming up with Slayer." On the new album: "I've got almost my entire next record ready to start recording, so I can start packing my bags." - more on this story

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS RECORDING NEW ALBUM TOO!

Scott Weiland tells Spinner.com that the band is "almost finished" recording its Don Was-produced new studio album. "There will probably be 11 songs on the record and we have nine completed already," he says. more

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FREE TRILLION DOLLARS FROM OBAMA!!

The government is handing out Trillions.  Now you can too!  Help spread the wealth and holiday cheer by forwarding this Trillion Dollar gift to all of your friends! Print and pass it on!

 

Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page to print out Trillion Dollar Bills and share the wealth!

Want another Trillion Dollar gift for your friends?  Get the Trillion Dollar Bailout game!  The perfect stocking stuffer only $7.99.  Check it out!!!!

 www.obamanationcardgame.com!!! 

And HO HO HOBAMA!!!

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WHY ARE SO MANY PEOPLE HATING ON PATHOLOGY???

Jay Allen  Sanford  If you're into bands like Cattle Decapitation, the Locust, Megadeth, Entombed, Disgorge, or Cannibal Corpse, you'd probably like Pathology. Loud, dirty, metal, morbid imagery - not bad, nor special, but certainly not a band worth getting upset or worked up over.

Even considering the new press release announcing they've signed to Victory Records, which is written with such cheez and oblivious cluelessness that it practically cries out to be mocked. Which is what's happening, especially at www.blabbermouth.net ---

Album coverAlbum cover First, the press release, in italics - annotated in NON-italics are some of the reaction comments from site visitors (who are really into their metal).

San Diego, California-based death metal/grindcore band Pathology has inked a deal with Victory Records. Commented the group: "We have been working tirelessly at writing new music and are ecstatic to be putting our next album out through Victory."

posted by : crazytaco_12: Victory records f-cking sucks


"We would like to thank Tony and the Pathology team for their diligent efforts in bringing Pathology and Victory together. Most of all, we would like to thank the fans who've been there from day one to support us every step of the way. We are very excited and can't wait to release our yet-untitled 2010 album!"

posted by : X-Box: pure crap. Victory Records staff and trend jumpers

Pathology recently announced the addition of singer Pascual Romero (STRANGLED BY STRANGULATION, IN THIS MOMENT) to the group's ranks. According to the band, "Pascual is best known for being the vocalist of underground death metal band STRANGLED BY STRANGULATION as well as his tenure as the bass player for Century Media band IN THIS MOMENT. He brings years of writing, recording, and touring experience to the plate and we are very enthusiastic for what the future holds for us. He brought the presence and power that the band needed to reach the next plateau of true blasphemous death metal."

posted by : brutalcali23: What an utter joke. The new singers presence and power compared to Matti Way is laughable...Hell compared to Levi he is a joke. I saw them play in riverside and the drums on the cd are obviously edited because he can not even double bass properly or even play close to the cd. And the vocals wow, he has no power or presence at all. And the line about them touring across the states to spread there gospel in front of thousands of fans. I can barely type iam laughing so hard.

The band toured across the states on some self-booked tours and spread their gospel of filth to thousands of fans. The guttural bowl shaking vocals of Romero combined with Tim Tiszczenko's chainsaw guitar and Astor's lightening-fast blastbeats and breakdowns make for an earth shattering experience of pure, vomit inducing metal."

posted by : sinewayve: Why is thei news peice so full of bullsh-t? They have never "toured across the states" like it says in there! They've cancelled 10 times more than they have actually completed.why are they signed again?

posted by : brutalcali23: They have done like 5 f-cking shows for 3 full length cds. So obviously victory has never even seen them live. Just more proof of how gay a label is that signs a band and never sees them play live before hand. One thing is for certain this band with all its claims, lies and terrible live performances will always provide a good laugh. F-CK OFF pathology you guys could be the poster boys for the word posers. And with all the lies and false claims you guys make, well lets just say karma can be a bitch.


Album cover Pathology's latest album, Age of Onset was released in May via Comatose Music. The CD was recorded at Double Time Studio in El Cajon, California. The cover artwork was created by Pär Olofsson.

posted by : Punisher of Weaklings: This band f-cking sucks!... This band is total bullsh-t! Victory sucks hard.


Album cover Pathology was formed in the beginning of 2006 by Dave Astor (Being Killed, the Locust, Cattle Decapitation). The band's debut album, Surgically Hacked was released in September 2006 on Amputated Vein Records (Japan). In July 2007, Pathology signed with Grindhead Records (Australia) to release the band's crushing malpractice, Incisions Of Perverse Debauchery (2008).

posted by : sinewayve: This sh-t is incredibly boring and has zero to do with the locust, in this momnet or even cattle decap! And didn't cattle decap kick out the guy because he didn't want to tour? Boring ass stuff and like 10 years too late haha sounds like 6 feet under trying to play broken hope and failing. Another waste of time and money for victory records.

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=131889

Jay Allen  Sanford  Wow! I guess some people really get worked up over Pathology, and over Victory Records. They DO go thru members - just this year, secondary singer Mason Gregory left the band, as did lead singer Matti Way in September, coming after the previous defection of singer/guitarist Levi Fuselier.

I just played a couple of Pathology songs off Surgically Hacked - certainly better than at least half of Megadeth's recorded output. Or Anthrax's, for that matter, and those are supposedly among the biggest, most successful metal acts ever ---

I wonder what Pathology/Victory have done to p-ss so many people off, just at the mention of their names????

Related links

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http://www.indiemuse.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/ticketmaster_no_full.jpg BELLY UP AND VIEJAS DITCH TICKETMASTER FOR GOOD!                           And that goes for the Belly Up in Aspen CO, too!

Front Gate Tickets, a leading provider of ticketing solutions for music festivals, venues, artists, and the Performing Arts, today announced its continued expansion into the San Diego market through its exclusive ticketing deals with Belly Up Tavern and Viejas Entertainment.

“Belly Up is very excited to partner with Front Gate Tickets,” said Belly Up owner Steve Goldberg.  “The move to Front Gate is a win for us and the customer and better reflective of our vibe as the non-corporate approach to entertainment.”

The Austin-based Front Gate Tickets first established a presence in San Diego in 2004 when it became the exclusive ticketing provider for the Casbah. Since, then, the independently owned and operated Front Gate Tickets has provided ticketing services for Street Scene, CityBeat Festival of Beers, North Park Music Thang, Epicentre, Jumping Turtle, Independence Jam, and Hard Rock Hotel among others.

“We are excited about our relationship with the Belly Up Tavern and Viejas Entertainment,” says Jeff Kreinik, Director of Marketing and Business Development at Front Gate Tickets. “These are two of the premiere venues in the San Diego area and two of the more forward thinking organizations around.”

Front Gate Tickets ( www.frontgatetickets.com ), based in Austin, TX, is one of the largest independently owned ticketing agencies, with clients including San Diego Street Scene (San Diego, CA), Belly Up Aspen (Aspen, CO), The Long Center for the Performing Arts (Austin, TX), Warehouse Live (Houston, TX), and Boulder Theatre (Boulder, CO).

 

The company is owned by Front Gate Solutions ( www.frontgatesolutions.com ), a software development company.

Tickets:
http://bellyupsolanabeach.frontgatesolutions.com

http://viejas.frontgatetickets.com

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 ADAM LAMBERT AND THE PANSY FIGHT

In the wake of Adam Lambert’s man-on-man TV smooch (and the subsequent boost - then drop - in his album sales), it’s easy to forget that many of the same hometown voters who supported him on American Idol also voted against legalized gay marriage. Pansy Division frontman Jon Ginoli reminds that his own band was practically run out of town by 11,000 gay-hating San Diegans, when they opened a Halloween show for Green Day.

“Mobs of young guys right down front were flipping us off,” he says in his book Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division, an account of touring with one of the first openly gay rock bands.

 

 “We hammed it up right away. Chris [Freeman, bassist] was shaking his -ss, saying ‘We’re big f-gs from San Francisco!’ Pandemonium. There was way too much going on at one time to see it all from the stage...People were giving us the finger and throwing objects at us.” The band reportedly only sold $164 worth of merchandise that night.

 

Pansy Division has since made San Diego a regular tour stop. “We’ve been playing the Casbah for over a decade,” says Ginoli. “Luis [Illades, drummer] is from the San Diego area. Still, we’ve never had more than an okay draw…the Casbah has more of a booze and tattoos clientele than we do but, as often happens, we win people over.”

 

Ginoli’s book kicks off with quotes like “We’re the buttf-ckers of rock-and-roll,” and “We want to sock it to your hole!”

 

Sounds like a Pansy/Lambert co-headlining tour is something both acts should be able to get, um, behind.

 

Related links

You can checkout Lambert's local Star 94.1 interview from December 3rd by clicking this link to AJ in the Mornings. While in town, he donated his American Idol Kiss outfit and did some press - best coverage can be found at Hotel Chatter:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/12/7/4413/54310&ct=ga&cd=cMDANcA4_Wo&usg=AFQjCNGf9dhgl-q6QRctg_YW_1E1e8TxoQ
HotelChatter
Hard Rock San Diego Rocks Adam Lamberts' KISS Outfit
HotelChatter
... at the American Music Awards (come on, Madge made out with Britney and Xtina at the vmas), but the Hard Rock San Diego is showing the singer some love...

 

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bootlabel  Vinyl Records Are Gaining Sales

Sales of vinyl albums have been climbing steadily for several years, tromping on the notion that the rebound was just a fad. Through late November, more than 2.1 million vinyl records had been sold in 2009, an increase of more than 35% in a year, according to Nielsen Soundscan. That total, though it represents less than 1% of all album sales, including CDs and digital downloads, is the highest for vinyl records in any year since Nielsen began tracking them in 1991.

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http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.prefixmag.com/news/san-diego-filmmaker-plans-blink-182-biopic-ignores/35498/&ct=ga&cd=eRisdntZXwg&usg=AFQjCNH-JeNWpkairCQmL6f8aqkboriEtg
Prefixmag

San Diego Filmmaker Plans Blink-182 Biopic, Ignores Universal Disinterest
Prefixmag
Daniel Flores, a San Diego-based filmmaker, says he plans to make a biopic on the early days of Blink-182. Apparently, Flores saw the skateboard film...

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/12/blink-182_superfan_is_making_a.html&ct=ga&cd=QRljeYMDcC4&usg=AFQjCNHtbSJFz5k0Pdfpwflbpcgp390ytA
New York Magazine
Blink-182 Superfan Is Making a Blink-182 Movie
New York Magazine
So serious, in fact, that the San Diego native has written a movie about the band's early days, from its founding by Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus and original ...

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 TONY HAWK'S RIDE MUSIC

Antimusic.com reports: Check out the track list for the Tony Hawk: RIDE video game, which has just hit North American retail shelves. The game, which has a long standing tradition of groundbreaking soundtracks, features more than 50 eclectic tracks.

Ranging from popular anthems from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, MGMT and Green Day to new rising artists Band of Skulls and The Temper Trap, the game also weaves through the grooves of The Commodores and The Meters into the high energy of The Stooges and The Replacements in a diverse yet seamless collection of upbeat tunes.

Tony Hawk: RIDE takes the popular action sports franchise in a new direction. The game features a groundbreaking wireless skateboard controller that was designed in conjunction with the game. Using a combination of accelerometers and motion sensors, the intuitive controller allows players to physically control the action by performing various movements and gestures on the board that directly translate into amazing tricks in the game. Without complex button combinations or analog sticks, gamers of various skill levels can literally step on the board and play. - full tracklisting

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Secret History of Chicago Music: Chuck and Mary Perrin (Dizzy's)


http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/secret-history-of-chicago-music-chuck-and-mary-perrin/Content?oid=1245682

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Shipping in Autumn 2010 from Bluewater Productions

ROCK 'N' ROLL COMICS - The Led Zeppelin Experience:

The Led Zeppelin saga is one of the wildest in rock history, and this graphic novel pulls no punches in dramatizing the backstage, behind-the-scenes story. From their early days as the New Yardbirds on through their rise to superstardom (and controversy), all five issues of the original Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics series are collected in one rockin’ volume, with art by Scott Pentzer (Razor), Marshall Ross (Deepest Dimension), David Neer (Sports Superstars), Francois Escalmel (Frank Zappa: Viva La Bizarre), and others. The collection also includes update material, bringing the saga up to 2010.

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http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/travel/06surfacing.html&ct=ga&cd=q8czxIJSKlI&usg=AFQjCNEbg0CvQU-UA89ZobC4F783X8Hulg
New York Times
Pulsing With Eclec-tricity in San Diego
New York Times
A diverse mix of businesses has put a lot of the zip back in the North Park area of San Diego. By JAMIE BRISICK FOR years, 30th Street at University Avenue ...
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Jay Allen  Sanford WHAT I'M WATCHING
image
 

WONDERWALL (1968) – “LOST” PSYCHEDELIC CLASSIC WITH MUSIC BY GEORGE HARRISON, RINGO STAR, PETER TORK, ERIC CLAPTON, AND MORE

 

 

 Tonight, I watched the epically wonky 1968 Wonderwall movie DVD, with music by George Harrison and psychedelic visual design by The Fool, that group of acidhead techno artists who painted the Apple office building in the '60s and had much to do with the latterday Beatles imagery (I wonder if Magic Alex ever perfected his magic box?).

 

The movie is so freakish, it's almost impossible to absorb - as an artifact of the 60s and hippiedom, and an example of some of the first Beatles "solo" music, it was well worth watching, and probably worth the high price that the limited edition U.S. region DVD sells for (I got a "bargain" on eBay at $30 - I've seen it sell for $75 and up).

 

It's hardly a "movie," at least by the normal definition. Worth noting is that the director is the same guy who later did the fantasy sequences in the Led Zep concert movie The Song Remains the Same. If you liked that movie's werewolves with tommy guns spurting psychedelic blood, you'd dig Wonderwall.

 

The first thing that comes to mind, a few minutes after finishing the film, is "This must be what it's like to do peyote, throw up, and then spend two hours staring at your vomit and marveling at how wondrous and beautiful your former lunch now looks...."

 

 The music is by George Harrison, whose Wonderwall solo album has some but not all of the music heard in the movie (it was the first Beatles solo album, AND the first Apple album). For the rock songs, Harrison hired Liverpool band the Remo Four, as well as bringing in Ringo Star, Eric Clapton, and Peter Tork (playing one of Paul McCartney’s banjos).

 

The Indian sitar music heard in the film was recorded in January 1968, during the same Beatles sessions - and using the same musicians – that resulted in the Beatles’ song “The Inner Light,” originally issued as the B-side of "Lady Madonna."

 

Wonderwall the movie was only shown a few times in the late ‘60s, and was considered a “lost” film until a good print was found and restored, along with an unreleased Harrison song intended for the original 1968 soundtrack, “In The First Place,” one of the only Wonderwall songs with lyrics (proceeds from a single of the song helped pay for cancer treatments for one of the musicians from the Remo Four).

 

 

As near as I can figure it, here’s what the movie is about:

 

An aging nutty professor and OCD paper hoarder finds a peephole in his cluttered apartment that glows like starlight (set within a wall mural painting of a crowned goddess in the sky) -

 

When he looks thru the hole, he sees an otherworldly beautiful oft-nekkid young woman named Penny Lane (played by lovely blank-faced cipher Jane Birkin, who was equally blank in Antonioni's equally obtuse movie Blow-Up).

 

image Penny Lane seems to be perpetually posing for 60s softcore porn mags, cigarette commercials, and stewardess ads, alone and/or with equally underdressed ladyfriends.

 

One one side of the wall, the Old Prof's side, it’s just another day, the barber shaves another customer, the banker looking in ---

 

 On the OTHER side of the peephole, it's the 24-hour freakout channel, with freakout music kicking in every time the old man peeps at the fetishistic nylon leg shows and Hefner-fueled/acid-soaked visions of a Wild and Wonky World According To Playboy. Within Without You.

 

image

 

Opening more peepholes seems to open more worlds – or are these just the Old Prof’s daydreams? In one trippy vision, the old Prof improbably sees himself, outdoors, battling a teenage Superman with "weapons" like giant ciggies and lipstick tubes. Or at an effeminate cowboy riding a plastic rocking horse and talking on the phone, or a hippie mermaid chick floating on a sea of polyester fabric while brushing her hair, or a Perplexing Planet of Preposterous Sunglasses.

 

image

 

He peeps most often at an ongoing idyllic Dionysian hippie party jam, with flute-playing flower children and beautiful dancing gypsies (with almost EVERYone smoking something, either ciggies or ??). The smoking in various other wonderworlds ranges from small glass pipes to Chong-sized roaches and giant octopus hookahs –

 

Amusingly, the Old Prof himself, in his world, is proudly a non-smoker --- tho one wonders about how lab-customized his beloved sugar cubes may be, given his increasingly bizarre visions thru the Wonderwall.

 

The Old Prof becomes so obsessed that, for awhile, he seems to stop shaving or sleeping or doing anything else aside from peeping. Sorta presaging the advent of 500-channel TV feeds, it could be said ---

 

So as the Old Prof is peeping at the dreamy hippie otherworlds, he starts dressing up in what an unschooled old man might approximate as "psychedelic" circa 1968, ie a pointy New Year's party hat, or a funky outsized tuxedo, and decorating his apartment - especially the "wonderwall" itself - with streamers and party favors.

 

When he strays too far from the wall - like when he goes to work at the lab one day, if only to study up on alternate realities and gaze lovingly at Penny Lane thru his microscope (?!)- he suddenly becomes black and white. As does the world around him. Only the wonderwall can color his world....

 

At some point, one of the wonderwall visions appears to actually be the adjoining room of a young hippie couple - or is it? Everything on the Other Side is just a colorful and halucinogenic as his other visions.

 

When he realizes he's fallen in love with the young girl - or at least with her magical hippie wonderland - he manages to find a magic (Alex) doorway and dramatically leap into her world, apparently by dressing as a top-hat magician and fondling his magic wand (don't ask....) –

 

 

However, when he gets to Her World, the hippie girl's psychedelic-flavored life isn't idyllic as it seemed. She is unmarried and has just discovered she's pregnant, and her hippie boyfriend is being a big hippie dick about it.

 

So - while the Old Prof hides in her psychedelic closet - the hippie girl (real or fantasy?) chokes down a bunch of pills, cries, and is carried out on a stretcher.

 

Flash to a newspaper headline: "Scientist Saves Fashion Model - Top Hat Riddle in Penny Lane's Gas-Filled Flat."

 

The next time he sees Penny Lane is under his microscope, in his lab, with the girl dressed like an angel and blowing him kisses while floating - and shrinking - into a churning field of stars and nebulas.

 

WTF?

 

 

The DVD also includes footage cut to Eric Clapton’s playing, stills of artwork by the various Fool’s who designed the psychedelia, footage cut to a Remo Four track, and other ephemeral perks.

 

 

So, in summation – glad I watched it. Glad it was restored, especially the sonically engaging soundtrack, and glad it came out on DVD. Also glad the hippies – and Hollywood’s brief trippy obsession with them – pretty much died with the Beatles.

 

I’ll probably never have occasion to spin this inexplicable tripfest again, unless under the influence of the Old Prof’s suspect sugercubes, but I’m glad I finally got to checkout this funky flashback, 40 years after it first came and went ------

(Wonderwall in Wikipedia - animated gifs courtesy the fantastic blog of Martin Klasch )

Also see: "My Brunch With Yoko, plus Weird Beatles ...

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http://media.sdreader.com/img/bands/leadart/newday.jpg

NEW DAY MILE LAND A SONG IN GAMER MOVIE SOUNDTRACK

2009 San Diego Music Award Nominees New Day Mile will appear on the Gamer movie DVD scheduled for release next year on January 19th. 

The story of Gamer is based around Kable (Gerard Butler) who was taken from his family, imprisoned, and forced to fight against his will in a first-person shooter game called “Slayers.” Kable becomes a hero as a modern-day gladiator fighting to victory led by the teenaged gamer (Logan Lerman) who controls him.
Kable’s wife (Amber Valletta) has her own problems while trapped in another game called “Society.” Slayers was created by an egomaniacal billionaire (Michael C. Hall) who enables audiences to execute violent fantasies in front of a global audience using mind-controlled real prisoners as avatars. A rebel group called “Humanz” sees the games as a threat to humanity. 

The song “Between The Guns” from New Day Mile’s sophomore release Damn Strate will appear on the DVD. Damn Strate was recorded at Stratesound Studios in Santee, CA with acclaimed Engineer Alan Sanderson notable for his work with Elvis Costello and The Rolling Stones. 

“Between The Guns” can be streamed at www.myspace.com/newdaymile or downloaded for free at www.newdaymile.com 
 
According to this prog rock trio, "The name New Day Mile is derived from a song lyric, and it symbolizes new chances and opportunities for everyday we're alive."

Born and raised in New Jersey, James Brady took guitar lessons from local guitar virtuoso Dave DiPietro. DiPietro's student roster included Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society, Ozzy Osbourne) and Dave "The Snake" Sabo (Skid Row). Brady's other San Diego bands have included Juiced and Crown 10.

Frank Dolan, a native of Ireland, has worked with Larry Mitchell, Fiction, and Fighting Iris. He co-wrote the Rhythm Knowledge drum instruction series with Berklee instructor and Pearl/Zildjian clinician Mike Mangini.

Bassist Jason Sikora joined in 2007, replaced two years later by Dave Garcia.

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 San Diegans on Saturday Night Live? (By Bart Mendoza) Ever wonder what San Diego-related music artists have appeared to date on Saturday Night Live ?? Here ya go, with artist / host:

 

02/21/76 Desi Arnaz

12/11/76 Frank Zappa / Candice Bergen

04/09/77 Tom Waits / Julian Bond

03/11/78 Stephen Bishop / Art Garfunkel

10/11/78 Frank Zappa

04/11/92 Pearl Jam / Sharon Stone

11/20/93 Stone Temple Pilots / Nicole Kidman

04/16/94 Pearl Jam / Emilio Estevez

05/10/97 Jewel / John Goodman

11/14/98 Jewel / Joan Allen

01/08/00 Blink 182 / Jamie Foxx

04/20/02 POD / Alec Baldwin

04/15/02 Pearl Jam / Lindsay Lohan

10/04/08 The Killers (w/ Ray Suen) / Anne Hathaway

01/31/09 Jason Mraz / Steve Martin

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DINOSAUR JR. REVIEWS SAN DIEGO AND THE BELLY UP - Lou Barlow's Tour Diary 11-4-09

Solana Beach, CA 11/4
Solana Beach is just north of San Diego. Our day begins in San Diego at a radio station. Dinosaur Jr is meant to do an acoustic session. So Tim and Noel have schlepped one of my bass amps and one of J’s to the tiny broadcast booth.

We are greeted by the DJ, who immediately and forcefully entices us with offers of free strings and guitar pedals. As he is mentioning all of the amazing free things he gets, I realize that I will be getting none of it. Do I ask for his number and then pester him over the next few weeks for his friend at insert-company-name’s number? Do I have “my people” contact him? I have no idea.

As confusing as that is, the performance and interview go well. The DJ is a pro. The best part, however, is J’s resistance:

DJ: Would you like to do another song?
J: Of course not.

Something about San Diego and its skate culture seems driven by a devotion to promotion. I find it bewildering. As the skate guys get older their long shorts, XL logo tees and baseball caps make them look like gigantic 7-year-olds.

As plugged in to that scene as Dino Jr are, I am alienated by it. Every time I sign a skateboard, I feel like a fraud.

Our friend O, photographer/musician, greets us at the radio station. I don’t know how he does it, but he is there wherever and whenever we roll into town. There may be two or three identical O’s in San Diego He is the most mysterious, down-to-earth person I have ever met. He seems to have superpowers, a knowledge of all amplifiers, recording gear and food. It’s always great to see him.

Off to the club, a fancy place, usually host to international blues acts and non-punk
fare. It’s the sister club to the Belly Up in Aspen. Aspen: the rich person’s playground. There is definitely an aspect of that here: seating on the sides, lots of wood. I guess we’ve moved up from the Casbah (the cozy punk-rock bar that has hosted 95% of my visits to S.D.). I’m ambivalent about that, but equally happy to have a new neighborhood to explore. There’s an antique mall across the street. I buy a vintage Preskool Little People school bus for $26. I want my kids to have the Little People experience. I buy Noel (our long suffering sound engineer) a Bruce Springsteen 7" (the Boss has been a theme on this tour). He’s been doing sound for Dino AND my band for a month.

Everyone’s got it easy compared to Noel: under fire every night, 36 speakers shooting knives, the audience screaming at him, "More vocals!: It’s a damn shame what we put that man through. He seems pleased when I hand him the single. There’s a version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town’” on the b-side.

The show goes smoothly. I’m happy to say that I am not nervous about playing L.A. tomorrow. The oft-dreaded hometown gig. Plus, Tom’s girlfriend is driving us home tonight. I’ll be back in my house by 3 a.m.!

(From Lou Barlow and Dinosaur Jr. Tour Diary - Tempe/Solana Beach - 11/3-4/09 - Paste Magazine )

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NEW MUSIC NIGHT - JUMP & JIVE

The "Burrito Brothers" are Action Andy (Haunted Honky Tonkers, Sleepwalkers), along with Victor Penalosa (the Zeros, the Fuzztones, the Records, the Melanies). Penalosa is currently recording a new album with Mike Kamoo...

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ARTICLES OF INTEREST

Here are some articles local music and technology fans might be interested in - click any title link for more:

Is Facebook Getting Uncool for 18-24s?
According to comScore, as it has gained a broader audience, the older teens and twentysomethings that drove Facebook's initial popularity are using it less. And research by WPP Group's Mindshare suggests that group is reevaluating the site's worth as a tool for developing friendships.

Herd It's New Take on Music Apps - Online music apps are all over the place these days. It seems like Facebook has a zillion of 'em. But Herd It, a new casual music game/music discovery tool developed by a team of students at the University of California, San Diego, is unique

The Night Marchers  --  Review of the Night Marchers at the Fillmore: To begin the review, I'll say I truly despised the first act of the night, the Night Marchers. Their 3 chord/1 riff "rock and roll" was lame and truly fell short in light of the show's overall expectations. The best way I can describe it: Everyone has that one uncle, right? The middle-aged guy who listened to too many Beach Boys records when he was 20...

Study On Online Music Piracy And Purchasing Habits
There has been high-profile debate in the media about whether file-sharing has a positive or negative impact on music sales. The study below, which is original text from Jupiter Research, analyses in more detail the different spend of file-sharers, digital and physical music purchasers.

Despite Economic Woes, Consumers Not Scrimping On Entertainment Subscriptions
According to the latest update to the “Entertainment Trends in America” consumer tracking studies conducted by The NPD Group, even as newspapers and other traditional forms of subscriptions have declined, most forms of entertainment-content subscriptions have been maintained by U.S. consumers this year, and mobile data plans and other newer kinds of subscription services have expanded their customer bases. Overall monthly per-capita entertainment-content subscription spending rose to $115, which is an increase of nearly 7% since last year.

E-Readers Will Take Off For Holiday Shoppers In 2010
2009 is likely to be remembered as a watershed year in the evolution of e-books and e-readers with several milestones and product launches standing out as catalysts for change in the market, according to Gartner, Inc. However, Gartner said that while the number of electronic readers sold is likely to increase in 2009, it expects 2010 to be the year when e-book readers really become popular consumer electronic devices, culminating in e-reader “mania” for the 2010 holiday season.

Like, Totally Wired
According to findings from Alloy Media + Marketing's 9th annual College Explorer Survey, projected annual technology spending among college students (ages 18-30) has reached an all time high at $6.5 billion, ranking 3rd in overall discretionary spending for college students, just below food and auto.

Monetizing Mobile Content
The long debate over how to monetize digital content has gained new life in the economic downturn due to the slumping ad market. The question of paid models versus ad support is particularly urgent in the fast-emerging mobile space. eMarketer predicts that by 2013, nearly 50% of mobile phone users will access the mobile Internet at least monthly.

In Tough Times, 10 Ways Retailers Can Bring Holiday Cheer
While beleaguered shoppers will be looking for ways to make the season bright, retailers can do their part by bringing some much needed holiday cheer to the shopping experience.

"Friending" Brands Egocentric, Finds Razorfish
Have social marketers been kidding themselves that consumers “friend” brands on social media because they are passionate and want deep and meaningful relationships? Recent data suggests that perhaps all consumers really want from brands on social media is a good deal and great customer service.

Coupon Use Continues Resurgence
Consumers have re-embraced coupons as a way to get more for their money. In the third quarter, year-to-date coupon redemption was up 26% to 2.4 billion redemptions, making it the fourth consecutive quarter of growth, according to new research from Inmar in collaboration with The Nielsen Company.

Illegal File-Sharing Has An Overwhelmingly Negative Impact On Music Sales
Demos, the UK political think-tank, has released a widely-reported survey on music downloading which may be misinterpreted as suggesting that illegal file-sharing stimulates rather than reduces legitimate music sales.

Playing Games With Media Usage
It's no secret that time spent online is a major rival to traditional media usage. But among some segments of the population, at least, time spent gaming is in the same ballpark as time watching TV or surfing the Web.

Touchscreen Mobile Phone Adoption Grows At Blistering Pace In U.S. During Past Year
comScore, Inc. recently released a study of touchscreen mobile phone adoption in the U.S., which showed a significant 159% growth rate during the past year to 23.8 million users in August 2009. The growth in touchscreen device adoption substantially outpaced the already strong 63% growth in U.S. adoption of smartphones.

When It Comes to Entertainment Options, U.S. Consumers Turning To Social Networking, Texting, And Twitter
According to the latest update to the “Entertainment Trends in America” tracking study conducted by The NPD Group, many consumers expect to be spending the same amount on traditional entertainment categories during the coming holiday season, even as their participation in newer forms of entertainment continues to rise.

Web To Drive Holiday Retail Sales
Retail sales will probably be flat this holiday season, but online sales are expected to reach $44.7 billion, an 8% jump over last year, according to the latest data from Forrester Research.

Seven Ways To Tap Social Shopping
Marketers must understand that customers use social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter to communicate with and gather information from their friends and colleagues. As a result, your presence on these sites must be integrated into the multi-directional communication when consumers want to interact with your firm. Here are seven ways to maximize social shopping results.

Will iPhone Lead The Growth In Portable Gaming?
A study by DFC Intelligence, released on Friday, predicts that games for the iPhone and iPod touch (an iPhone without the cellular capabilities) will be the principal drivers for growth in the overall portable and mobile gaming market in five years.

4 Emerging Trends Of The Real-Time Web
There is a lot of hype surrounding the real-time web, and much of the feeding frenzy reminds me of the RSS space four years ago — though there is a lot of potential, there is also a lot of noise.

A Shift In Mobile Computing From Laptops To Smaller Devices Is Forcing PC Makers To Adjust
The smartphone market will surpass laptops in unit sales this year, and will easily surpass the latter market in revenue by 2012.

Google's Eric Schmidt On What the Web Will Look Like In 5 Years
Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions a radically changed internet five years from now: dominated by Chinese-language and social media content, delivered over super-fast bandwidth in real time. Figuring out how to rank real-time social content is “the great challenge of the age,” Schmidt said in an interview in front of thousands of CIOs and IT Directors at last week's Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009.

Does Social Media Work For Small Biz?
Small businesses are not hitting it off with social media, according to an August 2009 study from Citibank. More than three-quarters of U.S. small-business executives surveyed did not find social networks helpful for generating leads or expanding their business.

‘Gradual Greening' Of U.S. Tech Consumers
‘Green' or environmentally friendly policies and programs are becoming more top of mind for U.S. consumers when making technology related purchase decisions, but few are aware of specific policies, according to the annual Ipsos Green Technology report.

Online Retailers To Emphasize Free Shipping, Social Media This Holiday Season
The economy is not only impacting shoppers, it's affecting online retailers, too. According to results of Shop.org's eHoliday Study, conducted by BIGresearch, shoppers will see changes in retail marketing and promotions this holiday season in response to economic uncertainty. With an understanding that many of today's shoppers use Facebook and Twitter regularly, and because these tools are more cost-effective than traditional advertising, 47.1% of retailers surveyed will be increasing their use of social media this holiday season.

Top Ten Holiday Trends For 2009
BIGresearch shares 10 insights of what to expect this holiday season based largely on findings from NRF's first holiday survey.

Flat Is The New Up: Web Buzz Also Suggests Soft Holiday Retail Season
Despite increased optimism about the economy, the social media landscape indicates that we are in a similar place to where we were this time last year when it comes to spending; buzz about Christmas and holiday shopping is down 3% year-over-year.

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 THE KIDS OF WIDNEY HIGH - A ROCK 'N' ROLL COMIC!

The Kids of Widney High: Beyond the Sky’s the Limit is the latest in a long line of accomplishments by The Kids of Widney High, a music group composed of students with developmental and/or physical challenges from J. P. Widney High School, a special education center in Los Angeles.

http://www.kidsofwidneyhigh.com/img/AYAcover.jpg Written entirely by members of the band and illustrated by some of the comic book industry’s top talent, the 36-page book is a milestone event in both rock 'n' roll and comic book history. Contributors include award winning artists Jim Mahfood (Clerks, Jay & Silent Bob), Chuck B.B., and Rafael Navarro, along with up and coming new talent like Rikki Niehaus, Neal Von Flue, Robbi Rodriguez, and Chris Brandt.

All the dialogue spoken by characters in the book was drawn directly from quotes recorded during story sessions, effectively capturing the spirit and attitudes of the bandmembers.

http://www.kidsofwidneyhigh.com/img/oldalbumcover.jpg The Kids of Widney High first formed in a songwriting class in 1988 and has grown into a world-wide sensation. They've performed on stages all along the west coast including The House of Blues, The Key Club, and Chain Reaction, and they were recently featured in the movie The Ringer. A documentary detailing the history of the band is currently in production.

Bandmember Tony Whitfield proudly says the comic is “the music that will rock your eyes!”

www.kidsofwidneyhigh.com

Knitting Factory by kidsofwidneyhigh (Knitting Factory: photog Mathew Klickstein)

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http://media.sdreader.com/img/bands/leadart/as_i_lay_dying_.jpg

Album cover Antimusic reports: As I Lay Dying is currently holed up with Killswitch Engage guitarist/producer Adam D. and Daniel Castleman at Lambesis Studios in San Diego, recording and writing their follow up to 2007's An Ocean between Us. The band will be recording and writing throughout the rest of 2009 and vocalist Tim Lambesis has issued the following update via the band's myspace page:

"We've released little bits of information here or there in previous news posts and blogs, but there are still questions coming in concerning what we've been up to. Below is an unquestionably obvious outline concerning our future plans…

1) We started working on new album.

2) We started recording the new album a few weeks ago with Adam D & Daniel Castleman at the reigns (and JMR for a couple weeks).

3) There are only drums for 8 songs tracked so far. One of them we're undecided about, but maybe it'll feel different when the vocals are done. Either way, we need write more than 8 songs (since they aren't as long as the 8 songs on Master of Puppets). Therefore we're working on writing MORE new songs as soon as we finish recording what's been started.

4) The only break in working on the new album will be our short trip to Mexico and Sri Lanka to play two of the best shows of our career. 5) All of us can't stress enough how grateful we are to be writing music that we love while still receiving a paycheck. This can only be credited to OUR LOYAL FANS! Sometimes bands need to rush out a crappy record so they can start touring again to pay their bills.

"In our case, we plan to make a record worth listening to (hopefully), and start touring again when we're done. Thanks for your patience and understanding. We care and we're working. In fact, I haven't had a full nights rest since March when the coolest kid ever made me a DAD!" - more on this story

Album cover As I Lay Dying (named after the book by William Faulkner) formed in 2001. The lineup consists of Tim Lambesis (vocals), Jordan Mancino(drums), guitarists Nick Hipa and Phil Sgrosso - bassist Clint Norris was replaced by Josh Gilbert in May 2007.

Hipa describes the band’s music as “brutal, energetic, melodic metal”; Mancino calls it “metal with ska breakdowns.” The band signed with Metal Blade Records in 2003 and spent 2006 supporting their album Shadows Are Security with opening slots for Slipknot and performances at Ozzfest events around the country.

“I never realized, until Ozzfest, about our utterly weird fans,” says Lambesis. “We were signing autographs...this guy brought out his two-week-old baby, and he actually has us sign the baby — our autographs are right there on its body.”

Jordan Mancino recalls, “The hardest thing [about Ozzfest] was getting stuck on a dirt road with our bus in the middle of the Arizona desert.”

Nick Hipa: “Lots of sloppy, gross old ladies walking around with their gross old boobs painted. Definitely a bum-out.”

Asked about being occasionally called “Christian metal,” Hipa says “All of us in the band are Christian dudes and we’re vocal about it and I think our lifestyles and our lyrics reflect that. But at the same time, we also tend to opt to play in the normal music scene because that’s what we love doing.”

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 Image:Ilan wiki.jpg

LOCAL NINE INCH NAILS DRUMMER HAS A NEW REGIME FOR YOU

Antimusic reports: We've been warned. "Things are about to get MANIC," so says Rock Sound magazine. What's behind that declaration? The New Regime, the "true solo project" of current Nine Inch Nails and former Lostprophets drummer Ilan Rubin. No mere time-keeper, the adept multi-instrumentalist wrote and recorded every note of bass, drums, guitar, piano and vocals on The New Regime's 2008 debut, Coup (Command! Music).

Feeling energized by the new crop of fans he's collected due to Nine Inch Nails' recently concluded "Wave Goodbye" tour, Rubinhas put together a special limited edition deluxe package of Coup set for release November 10 exclusively on the band's website (www.thenewregimemusic.com ). For $45, fans will get a 180 gram vinyl, the CD, a DVD featuring live performances and an interview with Rubin, a 16-page full color 12" x 12" booklet, and an exclusive website link to download instrumental mixes from The New Regime's website.

All 1,000 limited edition copies will also be hand-numbered and signed by Rubin. A stand alone digipak CD will also be available on the band's website for $7. To celebrate the package's release, the band will be performing at the Viper Room in Los Angeles, CA on Thursday, November 19. Tickets are currently on sale.

In a true sign of support for his new band member, Trent Reznor is encouraging his hardcore fans to get to know The New Regime by offering a free download of the album in its entirety on NIN.com the same day as Coup's release. Nine Inch Nails' camp will also host the download on a direct link, http://thenewregime.nin.com , starting at midnight on November 10.
- more on this story

Drummer Ilan Rubin. started his music career while still in grade school, with the local band Freak of Nature, which performed at Woodstock 1999. Nine Inch Nails announced this week that Rubin is their newest drummer in early '09. 20 years old at the time, Rubin used to take drum lessons from Travis Barker of blink-182 and David Uosikkinen, from the Hooters.

Astute Reader readers may remember that one previous NIN drummer, Jerome Dillon, had a medical mishap during a 2005 San Diego gig, only to find himself quickly replaced in the band.

Here’s the Overheard comic from September 2005, when NIN played in San Diego shortly after having done a show at Soma, only to have drummer Jerome Dillon fall over onstage ----

OverheardNIN

Dillon told MTV.com at the time "It was absolutely the most stressful thing I've been through in my life…During the third leg of the tour, I noticed that I was not feeling good. A few years ago, I was diagnosed with a thyroid malady and I was taking medication for it. I didn't know that [the medication wasn't working] and was building up in my system on the road."

A few NIN shows were cancelled, and then Dillon called NIN management to say he was back on his feet, healthy, and ready to get back behind his kit. But Dillon said Reznor and company showed "complete apathy and no sympathy for what I'd been through…I was not welcomed back with open arms, which I didn't understand, since I had been in the band for six years."

After booting Dillon from NIN, Reznor posted a message on the band’s website, saying “Jerome continuously has to see himself as the victim in all circumstances. He lives in a world where he is always being wronged by someone or something. That could be me, that could be management, that could be his drum tech, that could be the girl who mistakenly washed his permanent press designer jeans, that could be the person that didn't cook his chicken properly before the show, or that could be the record label that wont give him tour support for his new band to play a show…you look like an a-hole in your picture.”

Congratulations, Ilan, for becoming NIN’s new drummer...and, uh…..good luck!

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RYAN SEACREST HAS AN EVENTFUL FOR YOU

San Diego-based Eventful, Inc. and Ryan Seacrest Productions have announced a "strategic marketing and technology alliance." The alliance brings together Seacrest, the American Idol host and syndicated radio show producer, with Eventful, a digital service connecting fans with entertainment and local events.

Seacrest will produce entertainment content and marketing programs leveraging Eventful's proprietary technologies including the company's robust email technology platform and Eventful's unique Demand it! service which will empower Seacrest's audience to engage and vote on programming topics, "Demand" their favorite celebrities and participate in contests and promotions for entertainment and live events. The alliance is at the forefront of a movement in which performers and entertainment properties partner with leading social media companies to combine unique and engaging content with the latest technology platforms in order to reach and engage consumers.

 To begin their new alliance, Ryan Seacrest and Eventful are announcing the launch of the 'Ryan Rock My Town' contest through Eventful's Demand it! service which allows fans to demand a free concert in their city featuring Kris Allen, Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta. The city with the most Demanders will win the concert and participants will be eligible to receive the free tickets.

Fans can demand the concert online by going to RyanSeacrest.com. The winning city will be announced January 8, 2010 on Seacrest's radio show, On Air with Ryan Seacrest, and on KIIS FM in Los Angeles. The announcement will also be posted on RyanSeacrest.com immediately following the broadcast.

By hosting and producing multiple television and radio programs, Ryan Seacrest continues to be a force in entertainment media. The host of American Idol and the global radio countdown show, American Top 40 also has a market-topping #1 nationally syndicated entertainment morning drive-time radio show with On Air with Ryan Seacrest.

His RSP company has multiple shows in production including Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and the socially conscious Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution with famed British chef Jamie Oliver, premiering in 2010 on ABC.

Eventful is a digital social media service which connects consumers with entertainment, live events and performers. Along with Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, Eventful is part of the digital connection between fans and performers and a marketing resource for the music, film and entertainment industries. Reportedly, nearly 13 million people use Eventful's online, email and mobile services every week to discover what's happening in their local market and decide what to do. Eventful's unique Demand it! service "empowers fans to influence the location and content of events and entertainment."

"It is imperative we continue to engage and create dialogue with our audience," says Ryan Seacrest, "Eventful is at the forefront in the world of digital media and I am thrilled to be partnering with them."

 "We're honored to work with Ryan Seacrest who is among the most talented and creative people I've ever met," said Eventful CEO Jordan Glazier. "The strategic alliance between Eventful and Ryan Seacrest brings big benefits to both of our companies and, most importantly, will bring exciting content and entertainment opportunities to consumers."

As part of the alliance, Seacrest joins Eventful's Board of Advisors.

Terms of the alliance were not disclosed.

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30 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH.........

deadkennedys12-15-85

12-14-85: The Dead Kennedys played one of their final shows with original singer Jello Biafra, at downtown’s California Theater. As the set wrapped up, raucous fans tore up the seats and pulled curtains down from walls, causing police to call out a riot squad, though officers stayed outside the building until the crowd dispersed on its own.

The fifteen song set included tunes off their newest album Frankenchrist, as well as “Triumph of the Swill,” “Police Truck,” and the encore “Holiday in Cambodia.”

The show's promoter - future Casbah owner Tim Mays - recalls "The police were called in by the fire marshalls - who were freaking out about fans not staying in their seats and clogging the aisles. Some seats got destroyed...At one point I went outside to get some air, and there were police on all four corners surrounding the block the theatre was on. They weren't going to let me go back inside."

"Finally, one of my production managers convinced a female cop he happened to know that I was indeed the promoter and not just some random fan who had wandered outside."

The next night (12-15-85), the DKs performed at Tijuana’s Teatro Casa de la Cultura, in a show also promoted by Mays (tickets: $5). Outside the venue, Mexican police arrested several San Diegans “for no apparent reason,” according to newspaper columnist George Varga.

After the DKs, the California Theater only hosted a handful of punk shows for the remainder of its existence as a concert hall. After TJ, the band with Biafra only played three more concerts before calling quitting the concert trail a few weeks later.

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SHIPPING SUMMER 2010: ROCK 'N' ROLL CARTOON HISTORY - THE SIXTIES

Here's the first look at the cover art for the 300 page graphic novel Rock 'N' Roll Cartoon History: The Sixties, shipping summer 2010 from Bluewater Productions. www.bluewaterprod.com  --  www.myspace.com/rocknrollcomics 

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Jay Allen  Sanford WHAT I'M WATCHING - QUEEN OF THE DAMNED (2002)

It's never a good sign when the deleted scenes and DVD commentary are more enjoyable than the stand-alone film, but Queen of the Damned surprised me. It's got a lot of flaws - but it's not at all a horrible movie. It messed with and compressed/redid the Anne Rice novels so much that few people seem to like it - but I think if you go into without expecting it to be Anne Rice's Lestat, but rather a story loosely "inspired by" her books, it's a decent little goth movie.

Particularly the fully-realized music (and accompanying music videos, seen only in flashes during the movie but included on the DVD in their entirety, all framed ala German expressionism and surreal, very much Nosferatu/Doctor Caligary silent movie-inspired), by guys from Korn, Static X, Oingo Boingo, and even Marilyn Manson (who has one great album, Mechanical Animals, his Ziggy Stardust glam tribute/ripoff).

The whole vampire-goes-high-tech subtheme is intriguing, especially Lestat calling out his fellow vampires on the giant Times Square diamondvision screen ("Come out, come out, wherever you are"), and Lestat laying down inside a huge satellite dish and absorbing the entire world as it streams digitally and directly to his brain.

Some of the director's alterations from the two Rice novels the movie is based on (Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned) are actually improvements - such as keeping Lestat's debut concert to a one-time affair, thus explaining why the other vamps never went after him at other concerts (a vexing plothole in the Lestat novel).

 On the other hand, transforming female lead Jesse from a savvy vampire hunter and historical archivist with insider insight into a mere "Bite me, baby, one more time" groupie is among the filmmaker's WORST moves - eccch. Even if the actress playing Jesse is quite fetching (Marquerite Moreau, also seen in the highly underrated remake of Bedazzled).

The DVD's deleted scene showing the other Ancient Ones, as they gather to plot against the Queen SHOULD have been kept, as it provides all the motive behind the anti-Queen backlash acted out by present day-to-day vamps. I especially loved the Ancient Ones walking freely thru a goth concert, looking around incredulously and commenting "Ancient Rome had nothing on these people!" Why oh why was all that cut???

An improvement over the books - having the big concert outdoors in the desert in a remote and isolated Burning Man-style gathering is FAR better than Rice's dinky little indoor concert hall melee. Visually, the ensuing onstage battles need to be matched by the epic size and scope of the event locale, so the movie version is much more dynamic, and really more correct and apropos than in the novel.

The remote concert locale also goes a long way toward explaining how vampires can suddenly "out" themselves and their powers all over the stage, without a worldwide audience immediately finding out all about the head undead (UnDeadheads?) coming out of the shadows and into the spotlight.

Stuart Townsend as Lestat deserves particular praise. While no Tom Cruise, he's a lot better than you'd expect, and certainly believable as a rock star. As surprisingly dynamic as Cruise was in Interview/Vampire, there's no WAY he could have done the rock star turn without making everyone laugh while remembering the tightie whitey dance from Risky Business!

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LOCALS IN THE NEWS

Michael Robertson, the local webking whose original MP3.com and Sideload websites caused no end of legal troubles, has sold San Diego-based Gizmo5 to Google for $30 million. Gizmo5 specializes in internet telephony technology. Google Acquires voip Firm Gizmo5 for $30 Million

Antimusic reports: As I Lay Dying entered the studio in October with Adam Dutkiewicz (of Killswitch Engage) and Daniel Castleman (Winds Of Plague) to begin tracking their next Metal Blade Records release. more

Travis Barker spoke with MTV and told them a little about his solo album plans, "There's some stuff on my record that's not going to have a bunch of guitars, that are just straight-up hip hop records. Everything's going be real different. It's going to be really well-rounded," he told MTV News on Wednesday. "We got a new Blink song on there, I think I'm going to do something with Chester Bennington from Linkin Park. Slash is a maybe too

Former San Diego street urchin Linda Perry - who went on to front 4 Non Blondes and to write hits for Xtina and others - has signed Little Fish to her Custard label via Universal Motown Records, Little Fish's debut album Baffled and Beat is set for an early 2010 release. The album was produced by Perry herself, in her Los Angeles studio. The band is currently on tour in the UK supporting The Eagles Of Death Metal and will finish up a set of dates with Juliette Lewis in December. With a handful of CMJ dates already under their belt, the band will soon be hitting the States to strut their stuff. - go fishing here

Flogging Molly have announced dates for what has become their annual spring tour centered around the St. Patrick's Day holiday. The "Green 17 Tour" kicks off on February 9th in Dallas, Texas more

 Blink-182's Travis Barker appears alongside Taylor Swift and Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz,  and Weezer's Rivers Cuomo in Brett Ratner-directed commercial ad for Activision video game Band Hero where they recreate a scene from "Risky Business". "The premise is that we're sliding out into a living room and it's me and three other players. The three other players are some of my musical heroes," Taylor commented more

The Black Heart Procession are interviewed in the new Filter Magazine - Q: The first show of the tour will be at The Casbah in your hometown of San Diego. Is it symbolic that you start where the band began 12 years ago? (more Q&A: The Black Heart Procession)

Pinback are featured in a new article in the Washington Examiner - Pinback plays on: California band brings show to dc's Black Cat

Runhoney drummer Emily O'Bannon will appear in the November 25 episode of the new TV show Glee, which has proven to be a huge hit, having sold over two million songs online. O'Bannon plays the drummer for a rival band competing with the Glee crew. O'Bannon also works at the newly opened Gossip Grill, which is operated by Chris Shaw, formerly of the Flame.

AntiMusic reports: A lil Judas Priest Christmas cheer for Halloween? The new single "Christmas for Everyone" from Halford III Winter Songs is available as a FREE download from HalfordMusic.com . Four more new singles from "Halford III Winter Songs" are available for purchase from HalfordMusic.com as well:Get Into The Spirit, We Three Kings, Oh Come O Come Emanuel, Winter Song. more

Check out Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready performing "Ball & Chain" with Social D here Also be on the look out for video of Mike Ness and Jonny "2Bags" Wickersham joining Pearl Jam on-stage performing "Down."

We Are The Fallen, the new band featuring original Evanescence members Ben Moody (guitar) and John LeCompt (guitar) and Rocky Gray (drums) along with American Idol vocalist Carly Smithson is currently recording its debut album for Universal Republic in Los Angeles and expect to release it in early 2010. more

Stone Temple Pilots are just about to hit Canada with a couple of random dates set after that. Sounds like a perfect time to get to work on an album, and that's the plan according to frontman Scott Weiland: "When we get back[from touring], we're going to finish the album. And then when we finish the album, there will be a big tour around its release and that will probably be a long tour." more

Adam Lambert had this update for fans on his Twitter account: "Well here's some more album info for you guys! The upcoming single was produced by Dr Luke!!" he twits. "Debut single is called 'For Your Entertainment' get ready to shake yo asses to this song. It'll make ya dance for sure." more

Less than three weeks from its release day, Lambert's major-label debut album For Your Entertainment has been previewed. All of the fourteen songs on the album can be streamed for 30 seconds on Amazon U.K. more

(Lambert's Nagel-inspired cover art looks a lot like Rihanna's new album, not to mention below Kylie Minogue records! A new "Touch Yer Face" fad?)

lamber

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TEN SONGS BY LOCALS THAT ARE BETTER WHEN SOMEONE ELSE DOES THEM! --- courtesy Bart Mendoza

 Being a musician is great but being a songwriter can be even greater -  if your song ends up in the right hands, or with the right voice. Here are ten songs by ten San Diego connected songwriters which fared rather well when performed by others.

 

Phil Collins / “Separate Lives”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF0scfQ7_so

Written By Stephen Bishop. A huge worldwide hit, as heard in the 1985 film, White Knights.

 

Phil Collins & Phillip Bailey / “Easy Lover”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1kDmnHyOBg

Co-written by Nathan East. This one went all the way to #2 in 1984, hitting #1 in the U.K.

 

Dan Fogelberg / “Rhthym of The Rain”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djCUfGVd9lY

Written by John Gummoe. This is the lone track here that was a hit in an earlier incarnation as well, in this case by Gummoe's own group, The Cascades. Fogelberg’s 1990 version was a #3 Adult Contemporary Hit, and is till ubiquitous on soft-rock radio. Also one of only two songs by a local songwriter to hit near the top of the charts with more than one version of a song. So far.

 

Lynyrd Skynyrd/ "Call Me the Breeze"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaTZkIInYNw

Written by JJ Cale. This is the band in their prime, with a 1975 appearance on British TV program, The Ol’ Grey Whistle Test.

 

Steve Miller Band / “Jungle Love”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZHXMnC2qwk

Co-written by Greg Douglass. Some songs are lucky enough to get a second chance at hit status, as happened when Steve Miller’s “Jungle Love” was used as a theme song for CBS-TV sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.

 

The Monkees /  “Daydream Believer”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9m-hkvFDLk

Written by John Stewart. Many others including Anne Murray and Shonen Knife have had hits / singles with the song. With so many versions to choose from, we went with U2 live, with head Monkee, Davy Jones, in 1997.

 

The Matrix with Katy Perry / “Broken”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOoyiN3BfP0

Co-written by Anna Troy & Lindsey Troy. This single was recorded in 2004, but not released until 2009.  The Troys version of the song, was called “What Do You Do.”

 

The Ramones / “I Don’t Want To Grow Up”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU2SRNU955c

Written by Tom Waits and another tune with many versions – dig the Dan Clowes artwork in the video!

 

Johnny Rivers / “Slow Dancin (Swayin’ To The Music)”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQOmW_TVPxI

Written by Jack Tempchin, one of his many hit songs. This version is live, on NBC-TV’s The Midnight Special.

 

Various Artists / “Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-P3ClQfWks

Written by Jeannie & Jimmy Chetham. Many blues songs have been written by San Diegans, but only one is a certified standard, covered by hundreds of bands worldwide. Case in point, here’s one of a numerous local bands found online playing the tune, Band of Oz, from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

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 RIP SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON FOUNDER SHEL DORF
Longtime comic book historian Shel Dorf passed away November 3, at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, after a long hospitalization. His brother, Michael Dorf, was at his side. If you knew Shel, or just want to find out more about the man who founded the San Diego Comic-Con, I encourage you to visit (and maybe post to)  http://www.sheldorftribute.com/

The original San Diego’s Golden State Comic-Minicon was held on March 21, 1970 at the U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego. News of Shel's passing leaves me very sad - he knew Revolutionary Comics founder Todd Loren back when Todd was first doing comic conventions in around Detroit, and I've known Shel since his early '80s days at the San Diego Comic-Con and working with us at Blackthorne Publishing on the Dick Tracy comic strip reprints in the late '80s.

I didn't begin attending the local Comic-Con until 1983, when they were at the Community Concourse Civic Theater and Golden Hall, but from then I went every year, up until I retired from comic book publishing in 2000. Shel withdrew from running the Con in the mid-'80s, and my first-ever professional "comic-creator" Con pass came courtesy of friends of Shel, who let me attend his farewell party where I met dozens of comic creators and publishers who'd later be instrumental in my own career.

One of my biggest professional or personal thrills to date was drawing a little piece of skullface barbarian artwork on a gigantic wall-size paper card that everyone at Shel's party was drawing on that night, along with personal messages of cheer and well wishes - I sheepishly scribbled my art between drawings by the likes of Berni Wrightson, Frank Brunner, and John Pound, feeling for all the world like an interloper and imposter, brazenly defacing Shel's giant greeting card with my own inadequate scrawl.

But then Shel walked over, shook my hand, and thanked me ---- I cite that as the very moment I became a professional comic book creator ---

Many years later, around 1992, I went to lunch with Shel and Revolutionary Comics publisher Herb Shapiro. I was surprised to find that Shel actually remembered me from as far back at that '80s Comic-Con party, tho I imagine he only remembered because I was the one guy he'd never met before but who defaced his giant greeting card anyway.

During lunch, Shel looked at me and said "I had a feeling right from the start that you were one of the good guys in comics."

I've strived ever since to live up to that pronouncement ---- 

Shel Dorf was a rare true-life hero -- he'll be sorely missed ---

Jay Allen Sanford 11/3/09
 
Jack Kirby and Shel Dorf - November 9, 1969 Jack Kirby and Shel Dorf — November 9, 1969 - courtesy http://www.sheldorftribute.com/
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RockNrollComicsTributeArtSansLogos

Photo of Todd Loren Presents THE RETURN OF ROCK 'N' ROLL COMICS!

Here's a sneak peek at the first promo art for the locally-produced Rock 'N' Roll Comics: Hard Rock Heroes, a 400 page graphic novel shipping from Bluewater Productions in early 2010, as well as the 240 page Beatles Experience comic, the Pink Floyd Experience, Led Zeppelin Experience, the Elvis Presley Experience,  and more -
JAS
 
First, here's the first look at the Elvis Presley Experience cover art:
And here's the scoop and a first look at the cover of the Pink Floyd Experience:

The Pink Floyd Experience: All five issues of the Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics series The Pink Floyd Experience have been out of print and in demand for over fifteen years. As showcased in Pink Floyd’s own official box CD set Shine On, the Floyd comics chronicle rock’s most enigmatic psychedelic warriors, from their early dayz with stoner icon Syd Barrett, through their split (and later reformation). With art by Marvel and DC star Ken Landgraf (Wolverine, Hawkman, Nightwing & Flamebird, etc.), the collection also includes update material, bringing the saga up to 2010.
 
 
 

Hard Rock Heroes: What goes together better than comics and rock music? With almost 300 pages of Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics, Hard Rock Heroes goes WAY beyond Behind the Music, to tell the real life, behind-the-scenes stories of rock’s most heavy hitters. Creators include Stuart Immonen (Superman: End of the Century), Ken Landgraf (Wolverine), Jay Allen Sanford (Overheard in San Diego..), Todd Loren (Beatles Experience), Scott Pentzer (Razor), Mike Sagara (Ninja High School), and many others.

 

Hard Rock Heroes is a book-length pictorial history, covering bands like Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, Motley Crue, Poison, Megadeth, Pantera, Anthrax, Motorhead, Sammy Hagar, and more. The cinematic stories are realistically drawn, researched from countless photo and video archives, with an encyclopedic eye toward visual accuracy, dramatic flair, and journalistic depth.

 

 Also includes the never-before published “missing” Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics #8 from 1990, on Skid Row. The lack of an eighth issue has vexed collectors and catalogers for years – exactly 20 years later, the story can finally be told, and collectors can finally own ALL the Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics!

 

As a bonus treat, Hard Rock Heroes also features the Motley Crue comic story from their official box CD set Music To Crash Your Car To II, released in 2004 and written and drawn by original Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics creators Lyndal Ferguson and Larry Nadolsky. Shipping February 2010.

 

 (colors: Christie Maconnell)

 

tod17 "Great ideas, like the marriage of rock 'n' roll and comics, have the half-life of Uranium and will always be popular," says series co-creator Jay Allen Sanford, who has worked on over 200 reality-based comic books and thousands of similar cartoon strips for the San Diego Reader, as well as for magazines like Rip, Spin, and Oui. "The folks at Bluewater clearly have their fingers on the same pop culture pulse that enabled the original Rock 'N' Roll Comics to become one of the top-selling indie comics of the '90s. Truth is often stranger than fiction...and certainly much more interesting!" 

aerosmithcvrkk30kk31metallicahits 

 

The Beatles are bigger than ever, now available online for the first time digitally, on the Vegas stage in “Love,” and in the new Beatles: Rock Band video game. Now comes the most comprehensive and encyclopedic illustrated Beatles story ever, the Beatles Experience! Over 200 pages, dramatizing one of the most compelling tales in pop culture history, drawn from thousands of photos and interviews, meticulously researched and featuring stunning art by Mike Sagara (Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics) and Stuart Immonen (Legion of Super Heroes, Ultimate X-Men).

 

Covering the Beatles’ lives from birth and beyond their breakup, dramatized in dialogue and scene recreations more akin to a film bio than a mere documentary, the Beatles Experience also includes a Chronolog timeline going down each page, with encyclopedia background and footnotes detailing related events happening at the same time in the world, in music, and in the Beatles’ own tumultuous and extraordinary lives. 

 

beatles8snpaulkk68  

 

 The Led Zeppelin Experience:

The Led Zeppelin saga is one of the wildest in rock history, and this graphic novel pulls no punches in dramatizing the backstage, behind-the-scenes story. From their early days as the New Yardbirds on through their rise to superstardom (and controversy), all five issues of the original Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics series are collected in one rockin’ volume, with art by Scott Pentzer (Razor), Marshall Ross (Deepest Dimension), David Neer (Sports Superstars), Francois Escalmel (Frank Zappa: Viva La Bizarre), and others. The collection also includes update material, bringing the saga up to 2010.

rockcomics2.bmp

RockComicHist2

www.rocknrollcomics.com  ---  www.myspace.com/rocknrollcomics

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BOOTLEGGING AT CRICKET/COORS

Anyone wondering how effective all those “no recording devices” and “no cameras” signs and searches are at concert venues, here are a baker’s dozen of fan shot clips live from Cricket/Coors Amphitheatre. For some shows there are numerous videos posted by different fans / different vantage points…http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/nov/30/bootlegging-at-coors-amphitheatre-aka-cricket-amph/

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 MORE STRANGE STAGE MOMENTS - courtesy of Bart Mendoza

Zank Bennett: “At a gig, I was standing just behind our main speaker at the Tiki in PB, leaning against the map that is on the wall there. A little later I was playing a big solo in a song called “Saturday Night” and I went to lean back on the map/wall. It wasn't there. Unfortunately, I had spun another 45 degrees during my solo and hadn’t realized it. I was directly behind our front-of-the-house speaker; the one that sat atop an empty keg of beer. Still with my eyes closed, I leaned back and the three of us, the keg, the speaker on top and I, went tumbling the foot-and-a-half drop to the floor below.  We were about three beats from the end of the song. The band never lost a beat and we finished the syncopated last few bars perfectly, more or less. And without a scratch.

Karin Carson: “One time I was playing shaker on a gig and getting really into the tune. So into it, that I lost the grip on my shaker, which went flying towards the guitar player, who, mid-riff, dodged the flying shaker in a matrix like move, sideways. The audience never caught on, but we still laugh about it.”

 

Carolyn Kallis / Coco and Lafe: “We were busking on the street in Boston and this very large man came down and sat down in front of us, almost right on the microphone, sort of assumed the yogi position and pulled out a can of colt 45. He started to mumble along to our songs, but then he lay down and fell asleep. Every once in awhile he’d wake up, mumble something and then go back to sleep. Homeless people really gravitated to us in Boston.”

 

Danny Cress / The Coyote Problem: “I was in a surf trio a few years ago. We were in a club playing a version of the old standard “Caravan,” when all of a sudden - and in unison, the guitarist and bass player just put down their instruments and walked off. They headed towards the bar, looking at me just long enough to say “drum solo.” It was probably only about five minutes before they came back, but it seemed much longer.”

 

Mary Dolan: “I was booked for a performance at an AA convention in Las Vegas. I got there with about 1/2 hour to spare. I had a raging headache from the desert drive, the air conditioning and the tension of bad traffic, so I asked a friend for some aspirin. She didn't have any, but she asked her sister and SHE had a bottle of Advil in her purse.  So I took two. I'm on stage and I'm starting to feel weird, like maybe I had more than just a headache.  I was having a hard time feeling my fingers on the fretboard and the audience was getting blurry.  No one was saying anything. Maybe it sounded okay and looked okay, even though I felt a kind of lousy I've NEVER experienced before. For my last tune, I gave "Piece of my Heart" whatever I had left. I cut it short and then I started to dry heave as I was getting off stage. My friend and her sister came running up to me as I was telling them that I was really very sick.  My friend's sister had tears streaming down her face and she was saying," I'm sorry, I'm sorry."  What, huh, I thought?  Then my friend told me that her sister had accidently given me her disguised muscle relaxants. I was loaded at the AA convention.”

 

Calen Lucas / Family Wagon:  “We played a concert on Halloween and there was a giant pumpkin on the stage right in the center, where the monitors should be. As we were playing I decided to put one foot up on the pumpkin for dramatic effect. Except that my foot sunk right into the center of the pumpkin, which was hot orange goo under the stagelights.”

 

Abraham Nunez / Team Abraham: “At our Record Release Party (@ the Casbah) in March, we were mid-set when I suddenly see two bras hanging from the mic stand. One was very sexy the other was fairly large and sturdy. This was fine and I kept playing and all, but mid the next song, I see some boxers being passed down toward the stage... they we're flannel and I could smell them as they were being placed, by a fan, onto the mic stand. I wasn't sure how to respond...”

 

Eric Schauer: “Strangest thing?  A gig at a dirty dive called "The Double Down" in Las Vegas with my surf band on 6/6/06. We were playing surf instrumental versions of Black Sabbath tunes.  Before we played, there was a side-show troupe. Their act included a young lady bending over and shooting darts from her ----- and popping balloons that were taped to a man's chest about 20ft away. That's not too disgusting, right?  There were fire-breathers and our hula-hoopist was topless and donned in red paint and devil horns. We were set up on the floor and some girl in the audience kept taunting her and knocking her hoop down as we played.  Finally, the hula-hoopist snapped, lept out of the hoop in mid-hula onto this girl and proceeded to beat her down.  The band played on as the bouncers broke it up. I’ve seen a few girl-fights with this band at this bar. This one definitely sticks out.”      

 

Anna Troy: “On stage at Lestats, I was singing a song with a friends band when a piece of hair went into my mouth. It was uncomfortable, but I waited until between songs to pull it out, complete with spit. Not very graceful, but it had to be done. For some reason the guys in the band loved it. The bassist said it was the highlight of the night.”

 

Jaime Valle: “Years ago, I was playing an underground Tijuana night club, it was a hot summer night, the band was jamming, the joint was jumping, suddenly, someone shoots the bass player. The bullet was aimed at the singer, missed and hit the poor bassist. All the cats in TJ know who I'm talking about.”

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UPSTAGING APPLE'S iTUNES: Electrical engineers go head to head with Genius on music playlists

UC San Diego engineers use their song-annotating algorithms to study playlists

VIDEO: Electrical engineers at UC San Diego have created a new kind of music search engine that actually listens to music. This approach could help bands like Juna and S03 (both...

Click here for more information.

Electrical engineers recently pitted Genius – the music recommendation system in Apple's iTunes – against two experimental music recommender systems. Genius appears to capture acoustic similarities among songs within the same playlist, the researchers found. The University of California, San Diego electrical engineers also discovered that the music recommender they built from scratch can generate song playlists that human subjects thought were as good as those that Genius generates. The UC San Diego system works for songs that Genius knows nothing about.

UC San Diego electrical engineering Ph.D. student Luke Barrington presented these findings on October 28 at the 2009 International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR 2009) in Kobe, Japan. (Read the paper at: http://cosmal.ucsd.edu/cal/pubs/Barrington-Genius-ISMIR09.pdf

"Our goal is to make a music recommendation tool that is as good as or better than Genius, but that does not require massive amounts of user data. The system we are developing can analyze and recommend completely unknown songs by new bands as accurately as it analyzes the most popular hits," said Barrington, who used the same underlying technology to create a series of music discovery games for Facebook (http://herdit.org) and a new kind of music search engine that will be available for beta testing next week (http://herdit.org/music/index.html). Watch a three minute video about the new music search engine at: http://cse-ece-ucsd.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-music-search-engine-on-way.html

Tools for creating automated music playlists are increasingly useful now that huge numbers of songs are available for download and streaming to anyone with an Internet connection. iTunes – the most popular music retailer on the planet – has sold more than 6 billion tracks. Genius uses "collaborative filtering" on these purchase statistics to help people organize their music and discover new songs they might like based on similarity to a "seed" song that they do like.

By averaging statistics about how millions of listeners purchase and play music, Genius appears to actually capture acoustic similarities between songs, according to the new research, which involved human evaluation of music recommendation systems and was led by researchers at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Because Genius is a proprietary system whose secrets are not available to the public, the researchers studied it by testing its song recommendations against comparable song suggestions from experimental music recommender systems that they fully understood.

IMAGE: Electrical engineers recently pitted Genius -- the music recommendation system in Apple's iTunes -- against two experimental music recommender systems. Genius appears to capture acoustic similarities among songs within the...

Click here for more information.

"At first we thought that collaborative filtering would just spot similar artists: if you like Daft Punk, it might recommend any song by Justice. However, we found that acoustic similarities come through in Genius playlists. Genius seems to find correspondences between songs that go beyond what you get by just matching artists. We don't think Genius actually knows anything about the acoustics of songs, but it still produces great recommendations since the data it is using is built upon acoustic analyses of the music done by millions humans," said Luke Barrington, an electrical engineering Ph.D. candidate at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, and the first author of the new study. Gert Lanckriet, an electrical and computer engineering professor from UC San Diego and Reid Oda, an undergraduate in cognitive sciences at UC San Diego are co-authors on this paper, available at: http://cosmal.ucsd.edu/cal/pubs/Barrington-Genius-ISMIR09.pdf

Smarter than Genius?

The UC San Diego researchers found that the playlist generator they built using their own algorithms performed as well as Genius under certain conditions. In contrast to Genius, which uses information about the songs people buy and listen to in iTunes in order to learn which songs in any iTunes library are related, the UCSD music recommender relies on auto-tagging algorithms that use machine learning to label songs with descriptive words based only on the acoustic content of the songs.

"Our computer system works by listening to the music – it doesn't know anything about artists or albums or charts. In some trials of our survey, we tried to remove these biases from the human listeners by hiding the names of the songs and artists and making sure that subjects liked the seed songs but had not heard them before," said Barrington. In these cases, the researchers found that people liked playlists generated by the UCSD auto-tagging algorithms as often as they liked Genius playlists.

This partial parity with Genius underscores how the UCSD auto-tagging algorithms can be used to generate high quality music playlists that incorporate lesser-known and unknown songs. Genius currently ignores relatively unknown songs because it lacks adequate wisdom from iTunes customers about how these songs connect to other songs. Systems like the auto-tagging music algorithms developed at UC San Diego could be useful in filling in the "blind spots" in Genius and other collaborative filtering systems that rely on the wisdom of the masses to generate playlists.

"We weren't expecting our system to beat Genius at making playlists based on the most popular songs – our system doesn't know about artists, popularity, release dates, albums or anything else that the average music fan is aware of. Once we add that information in, we think we can build something that is really smarter than Genius," said Barrington.

Music Games are Serious Research

The UCSD electrical engineers are always improving their auto-tagging algorithms thanks to a series of music discovery games they created for Facebook called Herd It (http://www.herdit.org/). Players listen to songs and compete with other online players to most accurately describe the songs they are listening to. The electrical engineers use the song-word combinations these games generate to improve the accuracy and breadth of their auto-tagging algorithms.

As with the Herd It games, the surveys the engineers created to study playlists also began with humans listening to a song clip. Next, the survey system produced two competing five-song playlists for the same seed song. Playlists were generated by one of the four possible recommender systems the researchers were studying: Genius; Artist Similarity – a music recommender that selected songs based only on similar artists; Similar Tags – a music recommender that selected songs based only on the audio content of the songs (this system was built upon the UCSD auto-tagging algorithms); or random playlist.

For each pair of playlists, subjects identified the list they thought was better. Playlists were built from the authors' personal music library of over 12,000 relatively popular songs that span the most common genres of Western popular music. The list of songs used to seed playlists is available at: http://cosmal.ucsd.edu/cal/projects/playlist/

People are moving more and more to streaming music, where listeners don't have the actual file. With access to every song on You Tube, deciding which of the 10 million songs you want to listen to next can be daunting.

"Playlists are an increasingly important tool for overcoming what otherwise might be an overwhelming amount of streaming music," said Barrington.

New Music Search Technologies

The algorithms that automatically tag songs with descriptive words that are at the foundation of the UC San Diego playlist generator are also powering a new breed of search engine for music as well as Facebook games that provide researchers with the information needed to improve the new search engine. To watch a video highlighting the capabilities of the new music search engine, go to: http://cse-ece-ucsd.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-music-search-engine-on-way.html

This search engine will be available for beta testing next week. Register for the music search engine beta test at: http://herdit.org/music/

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SPORTS ARENA MVP SPILLS ON 2.5 MIL REDO AND NEW ARENA NIGHTCLUB

“We’re putting two and a half million dollars in the building” says Ernie Hahn, General Manager of the Sports Arena for the past 13 years. “It’s been a year since AEG Live became a majority owner partner and, since there’s no new arena being built for awhile in San Diego, AEG is modernizing the facility with creature comforts like LCD TV screens, flat screens, redoing the entrances and the outer concourse, paint and colors and lighting, and all new lower level seats. The eight rows of riser seats at the Arena that have literally been here since day one are all getting replaced, [with] 2,200 state-of-the-art seats.” 

 

Construction has also begun on “a special club for our sponsors and club seat holders,” in the old Arena Club space, set to open later this year. Club 3500 (the facility’s address) will be 6,500 square feet, with a 350-person occupancy and accessed via membership only. “When you walk in,” says Hahn, “it’s going to feel like a downtown club, really swank, hip, and sophisticated. It’ll be close to a dedicated seating section at stage right, which will be put aside for our club members.”

 

Annual membership is $2,450.00, with the option to purchase up to four “dedicated seating” tickets for events you want to opt-in for. Other perks include VIP parking, a VIP entrance, and its own “Exclusive men’s and women’s rest rooms, with sound in them, new paint, mirrors, sinks, and counters, and stalls. The Arena Club in the past always had to utilize the rest rooms that are also available to anybody in [sections] A, B or C on the floor.”

 

 Hahn is also outfitting Club 3500 with Arena memorabilia. “Few houses have this kind of history,” he says. “A lot of people saw their first concert here. We’ll have over 120 pictures showing the actual [Sports Arena] history, like Pink Floyd in ‘74, or the Stones in ’72. I’ve got a great shot of Elton John, one of Elvis in ‘73 or ‘76, and I think a Led Zeppelin ‘75 shot. We have a great photo of James Brown here in 1967, and one of John Denver in the mid-seventies, which I particularly like.”

 

The 42 year-old Hahn grew up in locally, with parents who were Mariners season ticket holders in the ‘70s (“Lower level one, two seats on the end, across from the visiting penalty box”). He began at the facility as an event coordinator in June 1991.

 

AEG runs, operates, or is involved with around a hundred arena facilities worldwide, though Hahn notes “We’re an open building. So, whether it’s Live Nation or AEG or anyone else, all shows are not only welcome but encouraged here.”

 

As for selling naming rights to the building (after a short-lived stint at the iPayOne Center), Hahn says “Through the global partnerships division of AEG, we’re working with a lot of sponsors, some who just recently stepped up, and we’re in discussions with a couple who will hopefully bid or ultimately come in as a naming rights partner.”  

 

AEG sold naming rights for Berlin’s 02 Arena last year for $37.5 million.

And now, courtesy of Bart Mendoza, here are 15 video clips set at the Sports Arena, some pro-shot and some fan-made ----

1)      Tribal Seeds @ Reggae Fest 2008

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONzQ-w7zr84

2)      Fleetwood Mac / “Dreams” 05/31/09 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eXXAth0i74

3)      Metallica / “Enter Sandman” 01-13/14-92 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYlPUNEwGRU

4)      Nirvana / “Heart Shaped Box” 12 29 93 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVGpbtv2mgU

5)      U2 / “Beautiful Day” 09 28 05 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HhnRBOMJhY

6)      George Micheal / “Careless Whisper” 06/17/08 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml1Qlpn_LQ8

7)      Led Zeppelin Comes to San Diego on SD News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APplenzzKk4

8)      Taylor Swift / “Hey Stephan” (really good footage of her interacting with concert crowd at 2:30 – kind of daring actually…

       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI4e8_fn80k

9)      AC/DC / “Back In Black” 2009

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiWX-7khEog

10)  Janet Jackson / ….. (Janet gets overwhelmed by San Diego fan response)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcosWOI-dOs

       11) Pearl Jam / “Jeremy” 1995 – not great pic quality, but really good sound!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCOZoUcPANI

12)  JJ Cale & Eric Clapton / “Cocaine” 03/15/07

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg63-uOgUJ8

13)  P.O.D. / “Boom” (just 8 seconds worth!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXEzvQtnC9w

14)  Ozzy Osbourne / …end of the show (fake gunshots!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUpDN1gOx5s

15)  Slayer / At the Sports Arena 1992 (a brief parking lot clip shot by a fan!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H_9zhpMDHY

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ElvisDieAd

WHY MEXICANS HATED ELVIS!

elvismex12 May 1959: While Elvis Presley’s popularity in the U.S. was arguably at its all-time peak, Mexico was in the midst of a huge anti-Elvis backlash.

Tijuana tabloids called him a racist and homosexual, after the singer reportedly told gossip columnist Federico de León “I’d rather kiss three black girls than a Mexican.” A Mexican woman in the same column was quoted saying “I’d rather kiss three dogs than one Elvis Presley.”

Mexican Radio Exitos read de León’s column over the air and spearheaded a boycott of the “insolent artist,” while the powerful student group Federación Estudiantil Universitaria (FEU) held public record burnings.

ElvisMex20 When Elvis’ movie King Creole screened in May 1959 at the Américas Cinema in Mexico City, newspapers who’d advertised the film under the title Melodía Siniestra (Sinister Melody) reported a “riot” occurring.

Mexican counterculture novelist Parménides García Saldaña wrote a short story, “El rey criollo,” about the screening where several hundred gatecrashers reportedly shredded the seats and threw lit papers onto patrons from the balcony.

“Before the film began,” wrote Saldaña, “it was pure chaos, a f-ing riot as they say more vulgarly. The different gangs shouted ‘Here the Guerrero [neighborhood],’ ‘Here the Roma’ …And then some chicks come in with leather jackets with swastikas painted on them, pony tails and bobby socks, real rock and roller like…a group of guys gang up around them [and shout] “‘Dance!’”

elvismex16 Mexican reporters suggested Elvis’ hip-wiggling and mannerisms proved he was either maricón (homosexual) or actually a woman in reverse-drag.

The movie Los chiflados del rock’n roll, a musical spoof, was promoted with posters showing Elvis in drag, being shot by rifle-toting men in sombreros, under a banner reading “Die Elvis Presley!”

The book “Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture” (Berkeley: University of California Press, c1999) claims the original Elvis quote was fabricated. According to author Eric Zolov, “Herbe Pompeyo of Polygram Records in Mexico City claims that a high-up Mexican political figure wanted to contract Presley for a private party, for which he sent the performer a blank check to fill in as he wished.

elvismex5 Presley, according to the story, returned the blank check, so the politico, extremely offended, invented the storyline about Elvis not liking Mexican women.”


elvismex4

Who could have imagined that, four decades later, Mexico would be producing more Elvis velvet paintings than any other region in the world…

elvismex3

…not to mention giving us “El Vez, the Mexican Elvis….”

elvismex15

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Many of the artists from Revolutionary Comics, Rock 'N' Roll Comics, and Carnal Comics have joined forces once again to work on a new & unusual comic and reality based project – The Obama Nation Card Game! 

Obama Nation makes good-natured fun of politics, republicans and democrats, government spending and the US economic meltdown.  It’s a bit like playing Old Maid or Go fish, but half the fun is looking at and reading the hilarious card art – all very tongue in cheek.  Though it’s called Obama Nation, the game makes fun of consumers, banks, environmentalists, the elite, congress in general and both political parties, all in a fairly good natured way.  The goal of the game is to see if you can spend Billions of tax dollars faster than your opponents,

Former Rev Com artist  (and Obama Game art director) Steve Crompton described how it all came together; ”It’s a bit like a cross between wacky packages, Old Maid and some of the stuff Revolutionary Comics might have done if they made card games.  I thought it would be fun to get the old gang together for something like this, and I needed all the help I could get, so I contacted everyone I could find and I’m really happy with the response and great art I got from my Rev Com & Carnal pals.”

A quick look at the 54 card deck shows reveals an impressive list of RevCom & Carnal alums, including Lyndal Ferguson, Scott Jackson, Steve Crompton, Brad Foster, Gus Norman, Randy Vogel and Philo.  There may even be a few others hiding in the set as a complete list of all the RevCom artists is hard to come by. 

The full-color 54 card deck comes in a resealable box for a only $7.99. 
http://shop.twistedrules.com/ 

You can also get it at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/shops/carnalcomics

http://www.obamanationcardgame.com/  

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WHY AL KOOPER HATES LOCAL WRITERS (BUT LOVES SAN DIEGO)

Al Kooper

Legendary keyboardist Al Kooper has played with Dylan, the Stones, George Harrison and countless others, but he still has time to beef about local music reporters like Buddy Blue and a certain Reader columnist... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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ANYA MARINA GETS STONED!

Rollingstone.com has added Anya Marina to their "breaking artist" profiles - http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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concert12 THE BEATLES IN SAN DIEGO

 8-28-65 – the Beatles: For the Beatles' one and only local appearance, at Balboa Stadium, radio station KCBQ declared that Saturday "Beatle Day" and gave out pins saying so to attendees. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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 UNEXPECTED BEATLES ART - The Fab Four turn up in the oddest places... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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yogi12

MAHARISH COMIX AND STORIES, OR "YOGI MAKES A BOO-BOO"

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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wb25   wb31    

WEIRD BEATLES MERCHANDISE - WTF were these licensors (and bootleggers) thinking... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/feb/06/my-brunch-with-yoko-plus-weird-beatles


lennon4    

MY BRUNCH WITH YOKO - Brunch with a Beatle bride... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/feb/06/my-brunch-with-yoko-plus-weird-beatles


yo7  

YOKO ONO COMICS AND STORIES  - When Johnny Met Yoko, with dialogue and captions paraphrased from published Lennon interviews. Plus John Lennon: A Life in the Day

... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/feb/06/my-brunch-with-yoko-plus-weird-beatles


 bea10 bea2 bea3 bea4  

LENNON OR McCARTNEY??  --We asked 25 local performers about their fave Beatle (and why), and got some surprising (and frequently revealing) answers...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/dec/13/we-asked-25-local-musicos-lennon-or-mccartney

  CELEBRITY HOUSE HUNTING IN SAN DIEGO - Real estate broker Jeff Paiste has squired several famous musicians around San Diego in their search for decent digs to lease or rent, including Bread frontman David Gates and the late George Harrison.... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/13/celebrity-house-hunting-in-san-diego

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 JOEY MOLLAND/BADFINGER INTERVIEW - Badfinger's last man standing, Joey Molland, reveals more about the tragic story of Badfinger, as well as meeting and working with John Lennon, George Harrison, and Todd Rundgren, plus the Concert for Bangladesh, and more.  http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/aug/21/x-jam-cancellation-controversy-plus-how-i-snuck-in/


The Dream Is OverTHE DAY JOHN LENNON WAS SHOT - Local celebs share their recollections of December 8, 1980, plus guest essays from Al Kooper (who was recording with George Harrison that day) and others....  http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/25/john-lennon-12-8-1980-we-ask-local-celebs-where-we/


lego-let-it-be-300x300.jpg

LEGO ALBUM COVER RECREATIONS! Those wacky kidsters at toyzone.com put together this great tribute to OCD Legoholics everywhere... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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st2

Exclusive preview and new interview with one of the creators/performers behind the new internet Trek series - click for more ---http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/oct/04/happy-rons-hormonal-harem---loving-san-diegos-musi/#

READER EXCLUSIVE - For the first time anywhere on the web, here's the promo trailer for Star Trek: The Continuing Mission, episode six: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/audioclips/66/

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deep36

The Twilight Zone made it's TV debut 50 years ago, on 10-2-59 - we asked local musicos to tell us their own favorite Zone episodes --- (more "What's Your Favorite Twilight Zone?" )

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black75

THE ROCKETEER AND OTHER FAMOUS '80S COMICS BEGAN RIGHT HERE IN SAN DIEGO - Here's a detailed history of local Pacific Comics, who recruited comic superstars like Jack Kirby to create one of the first successful indie comic book lines. Pioneers in the fight for comic creators' rights and royalties, former employees and operators reveal how they did it, and what went so terribly wrong...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/08/pacific-comics-the-inside-story-jay-allen-sanford


 

kissart

THE KOMPLETE KISS KOMIX KRONICLES - Comprehensive collection of stuff I’ve done about working with Kiss on a comic book series in San Diego, along with a bunch of never-before-seen artifacts from the Kiss Komix archives AND an article by Kiss comic author Spike Steffenhagen, offering his own very-different take, ala Rashomon, on the same events I describe in my essay...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/12/komplete-kiss-komix-kronicles


RockComicHist1RockNrollComicsTributeArtSansLogos

ROCK 'N' ROLL COMICS: THE INSIDE STORY - In 1989, San Diego's Revolutionary Comics ("Unauthorized And Proud Of It") launched Rock 'N' Roll Comics, featuring unlicensed biographies of rock stars, most of which I wrote. Some performers, like Frank Zappa and Kiss, were supportive, while others like New Kids On The Block considered our comics akin to bootlegs and sued. In June 1992, publisher Todd Loren was found dead in his San Diego condo, brutally murdered...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/12/rock-n-roll-comics-the-inside-story


ac42ac43

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK VS REVOLUTIONARY COMICS - The inside story of how a hugely successful boy band tried to sue local-based Rock 'N' Roll Comics over an unauthorized biography of the group, sparking a court case that established, for the very first time, first amendment rights for comic books. Illustrated by comic superstar Stuart Immonen (Superman, etc.)...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/13/new-kids-on-the-block-versus-revolutionary-comics


carn23.psd

OVER A MILLION CARNAL COMICS ARE IN PRINT - Here's how and why we made some of the top-selling erotic comics of all time, right here in San Diego, including what Gene Simmons has to do with it all, backstage tales of porn stars, and more confessions of a comic pornographer...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/08/carnal-comics-the-inside-story-jay-allen-sanfor


ac105ac123

COMICS AND CENSORSHIP - DON'T BE AFRAID, IT'S ONLY A COMIC BOOK - A local-centric history of comic book censorship, and the fight for the rights of comic creators...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/06/comics-and-censorship-a-local-centric-illustrated


deep38joblog50 joblog51

TWILIGHT ZONE AND STAR TREK WRITER GEORGE CLAYTON JOHNSON PRESENTS - The inside story of a local horror comic book series featuring Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, plus sci-fi king Larry Niven, Zap Comix co-founder Spain Rodriguez, Matthew Alice artist Rick Geary, Vampire Lestat painter Daerick Gross, yours truly JAS, and many more...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/05/deepest-dimension-terror-anthology-twilight-zone


im51

THE BIRTH OF IMAGE COMICS: INSIDE STORY OF A LOCAL PUBLISHING POWERHOUSE - Illustrated tale revealing how Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and local comic artist Jim Lee (the Punisher, etc.) conspired to create the ultimate creator-owned comic books...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/03/the-birth-of-image-comics-an-illustrated-history


 Down the Slippery Slope - Arrested For the Crime of Viewing Manga

On March 30, 2004, when Dwight Whorley found the Japanese website of Fractal Underground Studio via Yahoo and clicked on a couple of the thumbnail images... ( http://comipress.com/special/miscellaneous/down-the-slippery-slope-the-crime-of-viewing-manga )



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"Before It Was The Gaslamp: Balboa's Last Stand" - Cover story 6-21-07: In the late 70s/early 80s, I worked at downtown San Diego's grindhouse all-night movie theaters, for the owner of the Pussycat Theatre chain, Vince Miranda - this detailed feature recalls those dayz, the death of the Balboa Theatre, etc.

More Before It Was the Gaslamp

 

"Battle Of The Peeps" - feature article about a weird gig I had in the mid-'80s, running a strip club called Jolar, for the nation's second biggest pornographer, Harry Mohney (Deja Vu Showgirls founder).

More Battle of the Peeps - An Insider History of San Diego Porn Shops

"Field Of Screens" - Cover story 7-6-06: Complete theater-by-theater history of San Diego drive-ins thru the years, including a few which screened X-rated fare for awhile.

More Drive-In Theaters in San Diego: Complete Illustrated History 1947 thru 2008

 kat104 

"Pussycat Theaters - When 'Cathouses Ruled California" -- for the first time, the detailed inside story of the west coast Pussycat Theater chain of adult moviehouses, which peaked in the '70s but later died out. Told by those who actually ran the theaters!

More Pussycat Theater History: When Cathouses Ruled CA

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Jay Allen  Sanford  More Music on the Reader Website:

Find a Band

Today's Top MP3 Downloads

 

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Like this blog? Here are some related links:

OVERHEARD IN SAN DIEGO - Several years' worth of this comic strip, which debuted in the Reader in 1996: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/photos/galleries/overheard-san-diego/

FAMOUS FORMER NEIGHBORS - Over 100 comic strips online, with mini-bios of famous San Diegans: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/photos/galleries/famous-former-neighbors/

SAN DIEGO READER MUSIC MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/sandiegoreadermusic

JAY ALLEN SANFORD MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/jayallensanford

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San Diego Music Encyclopedia & Database Online Now

Listen to the Overheard in San Diego theme song! Press illo to play the Overheard song!


SanDiegoSkylineFromHwyFNL 

NEW COMPREHENSIVE LOCAL MUSIC DATABASE IS LAUNCHED

IT'S DONE!!!! And growing every hour....

If you wanna see a list of over 1,900 San Diego bands, with links to full profiles, photos, discographies, articles, MP3s, etc, checkout http://www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/search/

Believe it or not, you can click on ANY LOCAL MUSICIAN'S NAME (around 4,900 musicos listed!) and bring up bios of every notable band they've ever been in! Try it here with Rob Crow ---

AND, if that wasn't cool 'nuff, click on an instrument, say like this here link to "Drums" - BAM, a list of EVERY DRUMMER IN SAN DIEGO!!!

We've been working on this massively cross-linked Local Music Database for over two years now, covering a century of San Diego history --- if you're a local performer who wants to add or edit a page, go to http://www.sandiegoreader.com/band/edit/

More soon!!!! JAS

 


HERE'S THE NEW Overheard in San Diego

overheard12-17-09fnl

overheard12-24-09fnl

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overheard1-7-10fnl


ARCHIVE OF Famous Former Neighbors

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sdpcJayAltFnl

ROCK AROUND THE TOWN TODAY/TUESDAY, JANUARY 5

Classical Music

View all Classical Music Events

Submit a Classical Listing


Jay Allen  Sanford "TOO MANY TRAILS, MAN" - OR "WHY I STOPPED TAKING PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS....."

Because who can get any work done with all THIS going on????


http://www.tiernantunes.com/images/nag.gifRETURNS TO THE BELLY UP WEDNESDAY 1-6, AS DO TWO UNLIKELY SURVIVORS ON THE BILL

The debut lineup for Wednesday’s return of the New Acoustic Generation series at the Belly Up Tavern includes two local performers - Michael Tiernan and George Wit – with several unlikely things in common.

 

Album cover “For one, we’re both lacking ribs,” says Tiernan. “Ribless musicians. One of mine was taken out during a major surgery at USC when I was sixteen, and George lost ribs and parts of his sternum to disease.”

Both Tiernan and Wit also suffered rare cancer in their teens. “My battle was very short, but very scary and very impacting on my young psyche,” says Tiernan. “Especially the type I had, testicular cancer. Imagine doctors telling you as a sixteen year-old ‘You have an aggressive form of testicular cancer, and we need to go in and remove your nut, and then rip you limb from limb to catch it in your lymph nodes.’ Yikes!”

 

As for Brazilian multi-instrumentalist George Wit, who moved to San Diego earlier this year, “George had a gnarly type of bone cancer, which actually caused the doctors to saw off several parts of his skeleton. His diagnosis took place earlier in his life, and his battle lasted much longer than mine did.” 

 

Tiernan and Wit also both enjoyed mysterious recoveries. “It was determined that the cancer had spread to my lymph nodes,” says Tiernan. “However, after my whole body was scoured internally, they found none. My doctor said he couldn’t explain, it was quite miraculous to him. In George’s case, the same thing happened; cancer all over, then cancer gone. And his prognosis was much more dire than mine...he was not supposed to make it.”

 

“The spontaneous and unexplainable healing pointed each of us toward our respective musical directions in life.”

 

Both performers will appear when the New Acoustic Generation series returns to the Belly Up Tavern on Wednesday, January 6.

 

Related links


http://www.reverbnation.com/controller/fan_reach/pt?eid=1361450_13060946&url=http://www.myspace.com/cathrynbeeksordeal CATHRYN BEEKS’ WEEKLY LISTEN LOCAL HOTSHEET  

 Thursday 1/7 - Hang out with Kate and Cathryn every Thursday at Winston's Happy Hour Jam in Ocean Beach.  5:00 open, you in?, 6:00 Eddie Jason Coven, 6:30 Conner Cecil, 7:00 The Cathryn Beeks Ordeal - NO COVER! 

 http://www.reverbnation.com/c/fan_reach/pt?eid=3123160_13060946&url=http://www.kprifm.com/pages/homegrown On the RadioMake sure I have your latest tunes for potential play on The Homegrown Hour this year.  The best way to submit your music is in person at any of my showcases, however, you're welcome to submit via email or regular mail, too.

 Monthly Musician Mixer at The Onyx Room on January 24th.  One Sunday each month Listen Local will host a FREE Music Mixer from 7pm to 11pm at The Onyx Room downtown featuring solo acoustic and full band entertainment.  These shows will focus on networking and musician services so if you have a music-related service, please contact me to reserve a spot at the Jan 24th mixer.  If you'd like to play, check the calendar for available spots and email to reserve one.

 Listen Local will be at the Stage Bar and Grill every other Wednesday in January, the corner of 5th and F.  No cover and great sound, join us!

 Come play!  Listen Local has recently added a few new venues so if you haven't played one of our shows in a while, I invite you to check out the calendar and come play.  Your support is appreciated, Listen Local couldn't exist without the participation and support from all of the amazing artists who play our shows... thank you!

http://www.reverbnation.com/c/fan_reach/pt?eid=3123160_13060946&url=http://www.listenlocalsd.com/EventsExtras.html 1/19 - The Game is back at Desi's Bar and Grill in Point Loma.  Write a song to the title USED TO BE and show up by 7pm to get your name in the hat.  21+ all styles and abilities welcomed.  Solo or full band but this is an all-acoustic (NO P.A.) situation.  $5 suggested donation for performers and spectators, but we wont' turn you away.  Desi's has a full bar and nice menu.  This is good fun, see you there!

http://www.reverbnation.com/c/fan_reach/pt?eid=3123160_13060946&url=http://www.cathrynbeeks.com/wish-rock-ranch.html Wish Rock Ranch.  For years I've been annoying anyone who will listen with stories about my dream of having a bedNbreakfast, dude ranch, outdoor venue kinda thing.  Recently, I got Jonny on board with the idea so I decided to name the place and start visualizing it a little more clearly.  Enter Wish Rock.  Here's hoping everyone's dreams come true this year!

  Thank you for another great year.  Hosting shows via ListenLocalsd.com has been an honor for me all these years and I look forward to more.  I consider myself beyond lucky that my work includes my favorite things...music and meeting the good people who make it.  It's my greatest pleasure to be able to introduce people to new music and thanks to Astra Kelly and KPRI, I now have the opportunity to offer even more exposure to the artists who so deserve it.  Thanks to the musicians who support Listen Local by continuing to play our shows and thanks to the good people who listen.  I wish you the best in the coming year... dream big and make it happen!

http://www.reverbnation.com/controller/fan_reach/pt?eid=2964692_13060946&url=http://www.myspace.com/astrakelly Astra Kelly CD release party at The Ruby Room on January 23rd.

http://www.reverbnation.com/fan_reach/pt?eid=3048312_13060946&url=http://www.kprifm.com/ Link of the Week:  Tune into The Homegrown Hour at 102.1 KPRIfm on Saturday nights and join me on Facebook.com to discuss the playlist while you listen.  This Saturday don't miss my interview with Jeff Berkley plus all of the songs have a common theme... can you figure out what it is?  Listen online at kprifm.com.


http://www.theconcreteproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/san-diego-music-awards.gif

SDMA Youtube Channel!

FYI San Diego reports: There is a major anniversary ahead for the San Diego Music Awards and in prep, a Youtube channel has gone up featuring clips from the show throughout the decades! More clips and items will be posted soon, but 70 exclusive videos are now up, including Jason Mraz, The Zeros, Rocket From The Crypt, Switchfoot, Jewel, The Beat Farmers, The Album Leaf, Slightly Stoopid, Jack Tempchin, Charles McPherson, Mojo Nixon and many, many more! Solid proof of just how incredible our music scene is!

http://www.youtube.com/user/slammsd1

 

 

Angels & Airwaves, featuring Blink-182 guitarist Tom DeLonge, will release their third studio album, Love, for free, on Feb. 14, aka, Valentine's Day.

 

Anya Marina performed "Satellite Heart" on The Bonnie Hunt Show December 2nd

 

Benedictum front-woman Veronica Freeman will be guest singer on, “The Gods Have No Reply,” a song from the Chilean band, Vastator, who will be releasing a new CD this year!


Blink 182
is the latest group to be getting a biopic. To be directed by Brandon Flores?

 

An album collecting songs penned by Dave Howard, but recorded by other artists, is in the works.

 

Dave Humphries is wrapping up his new album with contributions from Zeros bassist Hector Penalosa and Regina Leonard.

 

Frankie Laine will be the first inductee in the Little Italy Walk of Fame. The ceremony will be March 23 2010.

 

Jason Mraz and the Muppets teamed up with the Muppets on Dec. 24 for a “special” version of “I’m Yours.” Look for it on Youtube and in syndication.

 

Mark DeCerbo is compiling a second volume of Four Eyes rarities.

 

Mike Keneally is working on follow up albums to 2009’s Scambot 1 and Scambot 2. They will be called Scambot 3 and Scambot 4. Also look for a re-issue of Beer For Dolphin’s, Sluggo.

 

Mower head out on tour Jan. 16, hitting eight states before they perform in San Diego again on Feb. 19 at the 710 Beach Club.

 

New Day Mile’s song, “Between The Guns” will appear on the DVD / new film “Gamer.”

 

Anoushaka Shankar appears on Joshua Bell's new album, At Home With Friends. They perform the track titled "Variant Moods - Duet For Sitar & Violin,” which was written by Ravi Shankar. 

 

Patric Petrie is working on a new album tentatively titled, Evergreen.

 

Skid Roper’s new album is set to be called, Rock ‘n’ Roll Part 3.

 

The Zeros follow their January 2 show at the Casbah with a tour of Europe, opening January 5 in Munster, Germany and also including shows in Spain.


 MORE CASBAH REUNIONS

Jan. 2   The Zeros

Jan. 16  - Creedle

Jan. 22 – The Dave & Deke Combo

Jan. 23 – The Dragons

Jan. 30 – Manual Scan, The Town Criers (NOTE: The previously announced Penetrators reunion announced for this date is NOT happening - the band cites "personal reasons")

 

www.casbahmusic.com


screaming1 TODAY'S "WHAT THE F-CK" ALBUM COVER

WHAT is this a "Sound Track" TO?!

Doesn't look like SHE's enjoying the Sounds of sax..."No sax tonight, dear, I have a headache..."

A Christmas WTF - so much weirdness here, from the rubber chicken and sausages on the tree (?!) to kids' longjohn underwear serving as Xmas stockings, and the fact that Santa is climbing in-or-out of European bathroom bidet!!

And you thought those old Schoolhouse Rock cartoons were the birth of math rock --

Donny Osmond's uncirculated "Butcher cover" ----

Talk about shooting your mouth off!

I think this translates as "Mrs. Bigfoot."

The big WTF here isn't the phallic design, which is funny - rather, it's his SADDLE.

Homeless families need music too --

Judging by the huge erections on those horny trumpets , something's gonna pop, all right...

I frankly don't know WHAT's inside this duo, but I think the guy on the right is shooting dope into his neck with a hypodermic needle!

"A new concept of music, created by sonic vibrations" - too bad the cover looks like a cartoon took a dump on it --- I AM kinda curious about that tune "Twilight Ozone," tho ----

Wow, whoever named this album could see its future!!!

And you thought rappers loved stupid-looking "bling" - how "sophisticated" could this funkmeister have been, if the best chastity belt he could come up with was two elbow patches and a cheap hotel lock?

PREVIOUS WTFs - http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2010/jan/03/wtf-album-covers---strange-bizarre-and-butt-clench/


CGT promo photo

EVENT PREVIEW - GUITAR TRIO AT AMSD ON JANUARY 30TH

"In January, some friends of mine, the California Guitar Trio are coming to town and we'll be performing together at Acoustic Music San Diego," emails local Stick specialist Tom Griesgraber

The Trio is comprised of Paul Richards from Salt Lake City, Bert Lams (originally from Brussels, Belgium, now in Harrisburg) and Hideyo Moriya from Tokyo. "They've been together about 20 years now and met while studying with guitarist Robert Fripp of King Crimson," according to Griesgraber, himself a Crimson devotee and former student of Crimson's own Stick player Tony Levin. 

"They play acoustic guitars, but tuned in 5ths more like cellos. Their music is instrumental and mostly originals but draws from the widest sources of influences imaginable. The covers they incorporate include music from Pink Floyd, Beethoven symphonies, Bach preludes, King Crimson, Yes, Queen, surf guitar, traditional japanese music and spaghetti westerns." The Trio regularly tours, have been on Grammy nominated albums, had NASA use their music to wake the space shuttle astronauts, and shared billings with people like King Crimson, John McLaughlin, Adrian Belew, John Scofield and many more. 

http://www.stick.com/instruments/grand/grand.jpgLocal opening act Griesgraber is best known as a Chapman Stick player (a 12-string guitar/bass hybrid played more like a piano). "I saw Tony Levin playing a Stick at the 1997 NAMM trade show in Anaheim, and I bought one that year," he says. The 12-stringed Stick (popularized by Levin during stints with King Crimson and Peter Gabriel) is played by tapping the strings like piano keys, with bass strings tuned in ascending fifths and melody strings in descending fourths, providing a wide tonal range of sounds.

"It sounds something like electric guitar, electric bass, piano, and synths -- all thrown into a blender," says Griesgraber. "When I started, there was nobody teaching it, really, so I bought the only two books in existence for it. The Stick itself gets amazing reactions. I used to draw small crowds in Guitar Center just by playing a few notes to test amps for it, and I've sold CDs just by pulling it out of the case and not playing a note."

"Locally, I do mostly solo shows (well known from doing 30-60 shows a year at the SD fair, plus events like Artwalk) but tour with several duos including one with Bert from the Trio and another called Agent 22 with Ryan Moran of Slightly Stoopid. I've done several tours with CGT as their opener and guest and will be doing several shows with them on this tour that passes through OC, San Diego, then off to Arizona and New Mexico, before winding up back in LA." 

Griesgraber has done two solo CDs to date, plus two with Agent 22 and one with Bert Lams. He also guested on several of the Trio's albums, performed five times for various Grammy events, and he regularly opens local shows at the Belly Up, the Coach House, and elsewhere.

EVENT INFO: California Guitar Trio with special guest Tom Griesgraber
Saturday January 30, 2010  -  7:30pm, all ages
Acoustic Music San Diego
4650 Mansfield St
San Diego, CA 92116
619-303-8167
www.acousticmusicsandiego.com

Related links


http://inlinethumb02.webshots.com/40641/2262768350103652431S425x425Q85.jpg FOLK LEGEND TOM RUSH COMING TO AMSD - New Studio Album is His First in 35 Years

 Revered singer-songwriter Tom Rush, whose first studio CD in more than three decades What I Know was released earlier this year, will be performing at AMSDConcerts in San Diego on Friday, January 8.

After he started his career in the mid-Sixties as a folk/blues singer and guitarist based in Boston/Cambridge, Tom helped meld folk and rock with his 1965 album, Take a Little Walk with Me. His next album, 1968's The Circle Game, was singled out by Rolling Stone as the record that ushered in the singer-songwriter era, since it presented songs by Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and James Taylor before they had released any albums themselves.

The album also featured what has become Tom's best known and most covered original song, "No Regrets," a hit for other artists in multiple genres; even U2 quotes a verse or two from the song in some of their live shows.

Tom's last trip to the recording studio was for his 1974 album Ladies Love Outlaws, but since then he's been touring steadily and releasing occasional live albums. His relaxed, expressive baritone, accomplished guitar-playing, droll humor and infallible taste in writing and choosing material have made him a perennial favorite among folk-oriented music lovers.

A live YouTube clip of Rush performing the hilarious "Remember Song" has drawn more than 3.5 million hits, so he's reaching a wider audience than ever.

Hie Res Photo for press use 

What I Know is "a deceptively informal, warm and engaging collection of acoustic songs from a variety of sources, Rush's steady pulse at the center of every one," according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Friday, January 8, 2010 - San Diego, CA - AMSDConcerts, located at 4650 Mansfield Street. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $50 for dinner seating and $25 for reserved seating. For more information, call 619-303-8176 or visit the www.AMSDConcerts.com website. 


latefnl

LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, CBS

Mo 1/4: Michael Cera, Jenna Elfman, David Gray
Tu 1/5: Amy Adams, Zachary Levi, Vampire Weekend
We 1/6: Marv Albert
Th 1/7: Nick Jonas & the Administration
Fr 1/8: Jake Johannsen

THE JAY LENO SHOW, NBC

Mo 1/4: Tim Allen, Adam Carolla
Tu 1/5: Kim Kardashian, Jillian Michaels
We 1/6: Hugh Jackman, Katie Couric
Th 1/7: Denzel Washington, Mikey Day
Fr 1/8: Brian Williams

THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, NBC

Mo 1/4: Ethan Hawke, Patton Oswalt, Katharine McPhee
Tu 1/5: Queen Latifah, Chris Pratt, Juston McKinney
We 1/6: Matthew Broderick, Ke$ha
Th 1/7: Jackie Chan, Emily Blunt, Jencarlos
Fr 1/8: Rob Lowe, Aziz Ansari, OK Go

JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE, ABC

Mo 1/4: Steven Seagal, Lea Michele, Eddie Pepitone (R 12/10/09)
Tu 1/5: David Arquette, Abbie Cornish, Jim Brewer
We 1/6: Neil Patrick Harris, Jeremy Renner, Really Doe
Th 1/7: Ellen Pompeo, Michael Strahan, Puddle of Mudd
Fr 1/8: Tobey Maguire, James McAvoy, Colbie Caillat

LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON, CBS

Mo 1/4: Rosie Perez, Switchfoot
Tu 1/5: Patricia Heaton, Carey Mulligan, Yonder Mountain String Band
We 1/6: Ray Romano, Nellie McKay
Th 1/7: Steven Wright, Michelle Monaghan
Fr 1/8: Jason Segel, Shiri Appleby

Mo 1/11: Mila Kunis, Bob Schieffer

LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON, NBC

Mo 1/4: Fred Willard, Japandroids
Tu 1/5: Michael Cera, Ana Gasteyer, Shwayze
We 1/6: Ethan Hawke, Gabourey Sidibe, Clipse
Th 1/7: Amy Adams, John Oliver, a performance by the Broadway cast of "Fela"
Fr 1/8: Matthew Broderick, Ashley Greene, Nick Jonas & the Administration

LAST CALL WITH CARSON DALY, NBC

Mo 1/4: OK Go (R 11/24/09)
Tu 1/5: Derek Luke, Anastasia Ashley, Black Lips (R 10/29/09)
We 1/6: Joss Stone, Ryan Dirteater, Bat For Lashes (R 10/8/09)
Th 1/7: Chuck Klosterman, Rhys Millen, Drennon Davis (R 11/17/09)
Fr 1/8: David Plouffe, Jeret "Speedy" Peterson, Metric (R 11/18/09)

Mo 1/11: David Gray (R 11/25/09)
Tu 1/12: Bill Simmons, Dmitriy Salita, the Raveonettes (R 11/19/09)
We 1/13: Morena Baccarin, Lisa Hannigan (R 11/20/09)
Th 1/14: Donald Glover, Ellery Hollingsworth, Pete Yorn (R 12/8/09)
Fr 1/15: Olivia Munn, Jordy Smith, Paolo Nutini (R 12/9/09)

TAVIS SMILEY, PBS

Mo 1/4: Morgan Freeman (R 12/10/09)
Tu 1/5: Yo-Yo Ma (R 12/8/09)
We 1/6: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jeff Bridges, Quentin Tarantino (R 12/14/09)
Th 1/7: Paul Mooney (R 11/18/09)
Fr 1/8: James Cameron (R 12/17/09)

THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART, Comedy Central

Mo 1/4: Michael Pollan
Tu 1/5: George Lucas
We 1/6: TBA
Th 1/7: Maggie Gyllenhaal

THE COLBERT REPORT, Comedy Central

Mo 1/4: Erick Erickson
Tu 1/5: Riley Crane
We 1/6: Capt. Charles Moore
Th 1/7: James Fowler

LOPEZ TONIGHT, TBS

Mo 1/4: Larry David, Lisa Lampanelli, Jay Sean & Birdman (R 11/12/09)
Tu 1/5: Ted Danson, Bill Engvall, Orianthi (R 11/19/09)
We 1/6: Jamie Foxx, Marc Anthony (R 11/10/09)
Th 1/7: Sandra Bullock, Derek Luke (R 11/24/09)

THE VIEW, ABC

Mo 1/4: A special tribute to "All My Children" (R 12/11/09)
Tu 1/5: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mary J. Blige (R 12/23/09)
We 1/6: Tea Leoni (R 12/18/09)
Th 1/7: Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington, Snoop Dogg (R 12/15/09)
Fr 1/8: John Krasinski, Guy Fieri (R 11/6/09)

Mo 1/11: Patricia Heaton
Tu 1/12: James Spader, Rocky Carroll
We 1/13: Rachel Weisz, Sara Evans
Th 1/14: Joan Rivers
Fr 1/15: Vera Wang, Emilio Estefan

LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY, syndicated

Mo 1/4: Chris Meloni, "Bachelor" Jake Pavelka, Ellie Krieger
Tu 1/5: Jenna Elfman, Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger, Dr. Wendy Bazilian
We 1/6: Tim Allen, Katharine McPhee, Jorge Cruise
Th 1/7: Amy Adams, Gabourey Sidibe, Dr. Melina Jampolis
Fr 1/8: Zach Braff, Marion Cotillard, Cristin Jones, guest co-host Nick Jonas

Mo 1/11: Valerie Bertinelli, Nathan Fillion
Tu 1/12: Jennifer Connelly
We 1/13: Freddie Prinze Jr., Tim Gunn
Th 1/14: Kiefer Sutherland, Norah Jones
Fr 1/15: Denzel Washington, Matt Bomer, guest co-host Anderson Cooper

THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW, syndicated

Mo 1/4: Christian Slater, "So You Think You Can Dance" winner Russell Ferguson, Rickie Lee Jones & Ben Harper
Tu 1/5: Helen Mirren, 8-year-old pianist Emily Bear, Kesha
We 1/6: Queen Latifah, Richard Simmons
Th 1/7: Wanda Sykes, 5-year-old actress Kylie Kim
Fr 1/8: Mary J. Blige, Jackie Chan, Anna Kendrick

Mo 1/11: Matthew Broderick
Tu 1/12: Kara DioGuardi, Tal Ronnen
We 1/13: Josh Holloway, Dr. Drew Pinsky
Th 1/14: Ellen Pompeo, Jim Parsons
Fr 1/15: Ricky Gervais

THE BONNIE HUNT SHOW, syndicated

Mo 1/4: Paul McKenna
Tu 1/5: Masi Oka, Kelly Rutherford, John Caponera
We 1/6: Jean Smart, Jim Breuer, Winter the Dolphin and her trainer Abby Stone
Th 1/7: Ray Liotta, Jillian Michaels, David Williams
Fr 1/8: Jane Kaczmarek, Hutch Dano, Adam Hicks, Kathleen Madigan


TOP 10 COVERS BY LOCALS

(Bart Mendoza) It’s true that San Diego’s musicians (past & present) have penned a slew of incredible songs, but they’re also not adverse to throwing in the occasional cover tune into their live set list. Here’s ten interesting pairings:

1)    Switchfoot / Beyonce – “Crazy In Love” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heiswnjSVuU
2)    Ratt / Fleetwood Mac – “Oh Well”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deHM9w4vDcE
3)    The Beat Farmers / The Sex Pistols – “Anarchy in The UK”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVIz_RhqgH0
4)    Blink 182 / The Cure – “ A Letter to Elise” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p5Ct6-hHTs
5)    The Softlightes / The Talking Heads – “This Must Be The Place”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3-KNMIsnmw
6)    Cindy Lee Berryhill / Tears For Fears –“Mad World”
Live at a benefit concert to help cover medical costs for her husband, author Paul Williams.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGqLfhjnHiM
7)    Pea Hix & Marie Haddad / Yazoo – “ “Nobody’s Diary”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=496vAA8jY3g
8)    Sara Petite / Johnny Cash – “Folsom Prison Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYDsGikd6xE
9)    Nickel Creek / Britney Spears – “Toxic”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuN2AhGq0Hs
10)    Barbara Mandrell / Kenny Loggins – “Footloose”
This clip from her network variety show will leave you speechless... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqyhg39ixn4  

Bonus:
11)    Backdraft / Blink – 182 – “All The Small Things”
Kid band opening for Rockola – check out the crowd they are playing to at the end of the clip!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONzbJrVN4-Y

TOP 20 LOCAL BEATLES COVERS

Forty years after the fact, the Beatles have the top selling album of the decade, so it’s no surprise that they are probably the most covered act of all time, the “classical” music of the modern era. San Diegan’s have not been immune to this phenomenon:

1)    Kenny Eng / “Come Together”
Live at Lestat’s July 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-rMaMzU7FQ
2)    Jason Mraz / “In My Life”
The final song at his Cricket Amphitheatre concert Oct 11, 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XRxA1tcK2o
3)    San Diego Men’s Chorus / “Let It Be”
Live at the Balboa Theatre April 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz0lQUwaNuw
4)    Jon Foreman and a bunch of other guys / “With A Little Help From My Friends”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdL7UGvRI4s
5)    Rusty Jones / “I’ve Just Seen A Face”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK5vkzyPQ8k
6)    Stephen Bishop / “I Call Your Name”
Live in London, before Sir George Martin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezwKr7BUTqY
7)    Schmooze / “And Your Bird can Sing”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMNHAlZeOJ4
8)    AJ Croce / “Maybe I’m Amazed”
With singer Ari Hest and Coco Love Alcorn. Yes, this is technically a solo McCartney track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK05QodE45Q
9)    Rookie Card / “Back In The USSR”
    It’s said the timing is everything. Here’s proof.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TJIrHKkkEw
10)    Peter Sprague & Fred Benedetti / “She’s Leaving Home” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq5Ub2a65MI
11)    Mark Goffney / “Let it Be”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XtCcvU6eVM
12)    The Big Fellas / “With A Little Help From My Friend” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AZBH-XbEvk
13)    921 / "Day Tripper"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78Mcg-7UbW8
14)    Rhythm & The Method / “Come Together”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSh_9tKg_zo
15)    Lexington Field / “I’ve Just Seen A Face”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlHmCVSQlR0  
16)    Gregory Page with The Shambles / “I’m Only Sleeping”
My band backing the esteemed Mr. Page on November 29, 2009 at The Casbah.
http://www.youtube.com/user/LosShambles#p/f/9/EEFivLnaFSI

In A Category of their own:

17)    “Yellow Trolley Line”
A song about The San Diego Trolley System, sung to the tune of …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxeZhii0Mt0
18)    Exclamation Films / “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”
It takes a little while to get there, but this clip features the song set in Balboa Park http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2XblEruKzc
19)      “Day Tripper”
A short clip of two fans lost in the music at Seaport Village :- ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzVbq8w5cfI
20)    “Hey Jude / Let it Be“
From the description: “This is a collection of songs recorded on my camera in the back of my friend Matt's truck in the parking lot of the San Diego Zoo” Spot on,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG8IxvzdtFU

BONUS)    I-8 / “Flying”
Just what it says! Footage shot driving down I-8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHvufmPbAl0


TOP 12 WEB CELEBS TO WATCH FOR IN 2010

I frankly don’t know how the world ever got by before the internet. Seriously. Over the past few years, I’ve been so hardwired to the web that I swear I dream in html. So much of my time is spent clicking --- my left hand can barely hold onto a pencil, while my right hand can crush a Volkswagen --- In the year or so since we set up www.myspace.com/sandiegoreadermusic, and since launching the new website and blog around two years ago, a lot of amazing online video auteurs have come to our attention. Here are a dozen up-n-coming webheads that we think are the TOP 12 WEB CELEBS TO WATCH FOR IN 2010…………………

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/nov/30/top-dozen-web-celebs-to-watch-for-in-2010/


TOP FIVE MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS OF THE ROCK ERA

  5) Heavy Metal - lots of songs done just for the movie, with Blue Oyster Cult even providing thematic backstory for the Harry Canyon segment accompanying their song "Veteran of the Psychic Wars." The soundtrack came out on vinyl in 1981, but problems over song rights kept the movie out of video stores for almost two decades. Other great cuts include the title tune by Sammy Hagar, "Working in a Coal Mine" (Devo), "Reach Out" (Cheap Trick), "Queen Bee" (Grand Funk), and an alternate verion of "The Mob Rules" by Dio-era Black Sabbath.
 
 4) Rock & Rule - mostly songs done for the movie, including Lou Reed (singing the Jagger-like lead baddie's theme song "My Name is Mok"), Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry (who played a role too), Cheap Trick, and a fantastic Earth Wind & Fire cut. The movie almost bankrupted legendary Canadian studio Nelvana, while the somewhat more adult-oriented Heavy Metal feature stole much of Rock & Rule's thunder - the fascinating tale is told at The Rock & Rule Homepage .
 
 3) Lost Boys - space goth representing the best work ever done by Foreigner's Lou Gramm, plus Echo and the Bunnymen doing a cover version of "People Are Strange" that makes the Doors look like the stoner-led lucky hacks they always were.
 
  2) Hedwig and the Angry Inch - great rock opera, all original music by Steven Trask and John Cameron Mitchell. Probably the best movie ever made about a transsexual East German rock star with a one-inch penis ----
 
  1) Velvet Goldmine - a few original glam tracks, but mostly new versions done by various glam supergroup lineups for the soundtrack (I think they let Ewn McGregor sing one of the songs in the movie, but it's someone else's voice on the soundtrack album). The 1998 movie essentially took the true tales of David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, and Lou Reed, to craft an imaginary and colorful account of a Ziggy Stardust-like seventies glam rock superstar -
 

As detailed on Wikipedia, the English musicians who played under the name The Venus in Furs on the soundtrack were Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, David Gray, Suede's Bernard Butler, and Roxy Music's Andy Mackay. The American musicians who played as Curt Wild's Wylde Ratttz on the soundtrack were The Stooges' Ron Asheton, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley, Minutemen's Mike Watt, Gumball's Don Fleming, and Mark Arm of Mudhoney.

The soundtrack features new songs written for the film by Pulp, Shudder to Think and Grant Lee Buffalo, as well as many early glam rock compositions, both covers and original versions. The Venus in Furs covers several Roxy Music songs with Thom Yorke channeling Bryan Ferry on vocals, Placebo covers T.Rex's "20th Century Boy," Wylde Ratttz and Ewan McGregor cover The Stooges' "T.V. Eye" and "Gimme Danger", and Teenage Fanclub and Donna Matthews cover The New York Dolls' "Personality Crisis." Lou Reed, Brian Eno, T.Rex, and Steve Harley songs from the period are also included. The album is rounded out by a piece of Carter Burwell's film score.

All three members of the band Placebo also appeared in the film, with Brian Molko and Steve Hewitt playing members of the Flaming Creatures (Malcolm and Billy respectively) and Stefan Olsdal playing Polly Small's bassist.

http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/large_images/305/40143305.jpg I debated hard over whether to list Times Square (1980) rather than one of the above choices, because I probably play that soundtrack album more than any of the others - but only a few of its songs are unique to the soundtrack. And some of the tracks that turn up elsewhere, like Patti Smith's "P-ssing in the River," are early versions that are kinda plain by comparison.
 
  Plus, the movie has Tim Curry in the cast, one of the greatest and most versatile rock/cabaret/Broadway singers ever, but they don't use him on the soundtrack. Great little rock movie, if kinda surreal and goofy - I found a website with the whole 2-album set - http://vinnierattolle.blogspot.com/2007/02/no-sense-makes-sense.html 
 
Same website has downloadable audio files with two of Tim Curry's best albums, and an offbeat "Greatest Hits" collection of Curry cuts --
 
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 ALSO SEE:

Tim Curry Rocks - Tim Curry has enjoyed a vastly and inexplicably underrated music career. Curry’s big, booming voice was perfectly suited for the theatrical rock opera-esque songs, most of which managed to be both gritty urban and feather-fay at the same time – think Springsteen concert as staged by Twyla Tharp... www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/nov/17/tim-curry-rocks---a-custom-designed-dream-concert

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HEROIN HEARTACHE: MEGADETH VS EX-MEGADETH

Antimusic reports: It appears that a full-scale verbal war has broken out between Dave Mustaine and former Megadeth guitarist Jeff Young. Mustaine fired the first salvo during a recent interview with Undercover.com.au. Classic Rock reports that in the interview Mustaine claimed that the band's 1988 Australian tour had to be cancelled because Young had run out of heroin and insisted on going back to America.... Inevitably, Young has hit back, calling Mustaine "a lying piece of sh-t". But there is more

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COMING IN 2010 - ROCK 'N' ROLL COMICS: JOAN JETT AND THE RUNAWAYS

Here's a sneak peek at the cover art for the full-color Runaways issue of Rock 'N' Roll Comics, which will be released to tie in to the Runaways movie --- www.myspace.com/rocknrollcomics

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DEBATING JOSS WHEDON'S DOLLHOUSE - THE ABBEY ROAD OF TELEVISION??

 ccn43 Joss Whedon’s newest TV show Dollhouse = it took me awhile to get into the debut season. Starring the actress who played Faith the Vampire Slayer in Whedon’s Buffy series, it’s kind of about mercantile Stepford Wives of the Future, with a secret organization that rents out programmed humans whose brains are emptied and refilled of skills and life histories like they were hard drives.

Which, essentially, is what brains are. But the open question is what happens to the soul if the rest of whatever makes up a person is digitized and stored away in the Dollhouse “attic.”

Dollhouse IMO at first played too much with Mission Impossible/Charlie’s Angel identity-swap adventures but, by the end of the season, much more was revealed about the more metaphysical and philosophical aspects of the storyline, especially as to the nature of the soul and the fluid morality (or lack thereof) of all involved ---

 ccn44 At the 2008 Comic-Con, they screened the unaired 13th Dollhouse episode, Epitaph One. BUT, you don’t want me to spoil anything by revealing what it’s about, do you? You DO? Well...it takes place in the future, within the long-abandoned Dollhouse, beneath a city that may also have been destroyed. You’ll have to get the season one DVD set (out at the end of the month) to see it –

Whedon did reveal that Alexis Denisof, the actor who played Wesley in Buffy and Angel, would be in the next season of Dollhouse, as would Summer Glau from Whedon's short-lived Firefly series (and the cancelled Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles).

This year's SECOND (and, as it turns out, final) season immediately pulled a Serling/Shyamalan/O Henry turnaround of everything the viewers thought they knew ----

As Dollhouse continues to astound with its mind-blowing final episodes, I realize that creative mastermind Joss Whedon is the Beatles of television. Breaking new ground, in new ways, and creating all new storytelling templates that people will still be trying to figure out for years to come ---

Buffy was his Sgt. Pepper - perfecting the formula, then rewriting it from scratch --

Angel, his White Album - some wonky sidetrips, but even his most dense and dare-you-to-follow-me work is engaging and, ultimately, timeless.

Firefly was his surprise left turn into Yellow Submarine/Magical Mystery Tour - at least a cool movie came out of it, one still Whedon-tronic, if somewhat diluted so the masses could at least peek in the door.

Dollhouse is Joss Whedon's Abbey Road. Pitch perfect, every note. All together now, nothing he can do that can't be done - he makes it look so easy!!

I anxiously await the final three eps when the show takes its final bows, beginning January 8th ----

 COMIC BOOK CREATOR SS CROMPTON (Demi the Demoness) REPLIES: While I agree with most of what you said about Joss’ work, I have to say that Doll house if far more like his “You know my name look up the number” or the Beatles Christmas Fan Albums, than Abby Road.  Dollhouse was virtually unwatchable and pointless.  And like some of the Beatles at their drug-induced silliest, it proves that not everything someone does is always a classic – sometimes, it’s just bad.

Sorry, guess it just wasn’t my cup of tea – love the rest of his stuff though - Steve

Jay Allen  Sanford JAS REPLIES: Hey Steve,
Unless you've been watching ALL the eps from the beginning thru the last few bugfuggen crazy two-hour blocks, I'm afraid I must discount your opinion as uninformed. Much like the best work of, say, Rod Serling and Charles Beaumont, the beginning of the show was mostly "red herring" misleading, in that it chose NOT to set up a framework for future events.
 
Rather, the earliest eps instead lulled you into the complacent belief that you were settling in for something akin to Stepford-Wives-Meets-La-Femme-Nikita, only to instead flip the script into a far more wide-ranging and mind-blowing take on Sartre's No Exit vis-a-vis Gibson Neuromancer and the second story arc of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series (also called, not coincidentally I'm sure, The Doll's House).
 
Fellow Revolutionary Comics contrib Alec Scott compared Dollhouse's stream of consciousness storytelling to none other than roach-crazed WTF-specialist William Burroughs ----
 
You and I tend to have similar tastes in fiction, Steve - I bet if you watch the inevitable box DVD set of Dollhouse sometime down the line, including/especially the unaired "future" ep from the season one set, you'll be thanking me for drawing your attention to this epic twist on TV sci-fi and horror (you may have stopped watching even before the "horror" flavor brewed to the top of the mix - if so, you're REALLY missing out ---- ).
 
Even more so than the final eps of Star Trek Enterprise (which you chided Jamie for not sticking around long enough to witness), Dollhouse is going out with one of the biggest bangs to end all bangs ---- It's too late (and too involved) to jump into thu final three eps cold, but you could always stream older eps from the website and THEN enjoy the finale(s) ----
JAS

 SS CROMPTON: Well I only watched the first 4 episodes, so maybe you are right, but those four episodes were so bad…Here were my beefs and probably why the show failed with the general public…

Because she’s a “different personality” every episode, you never get to really know or like the main character. When she’s in Doll mode –she and the rest of the “dolls” are basically like retarded adults – not much to like there either. The main programmer purposely gives the “Doll” weaknesses (like anxiety attacks and blindness?? And nobody in the organization even questions that – wtf?)  That would be like the defense department having a cruise missile that randomly turns off it’s radar or explodes if it’s raining – makes no sense.

People seem to be able to find and hire the dolls with no trouble at all, but somehow the CIA the FBI and the NSA can’t find them. Even though they have a permanent fancy headquarters filled with scientific equipment and lots of people working there.

No main villain or enemy group (at least not in the first 4 episodes)  Just a different generic bad guy she could defeat each week.  Kind of like the old Superman TV show, where you knew there was no way the gangster was going to defeat Superman.  (I suspect that’s why they added (weaknesses) to the Doll, because otherwise, she would just walk in and defeat the bad guys in 5 minutes with no trouble at all.

But – You are probably right, it sounds like it got better.  Joss just waited too long to get the story moving forward.  You can fool the audience successfully in a 2 hour movie - (Sixth Sense is a great example of this)  but you better make the story that viewers think they are watching be engaging and somewhat logical – and the beginning episodes of the show just were not.   Trying to drag it out for an entire season was just a terrible idea.  He should have introduced at least some MAJOR hints about where the show was going early on.  If those hints where there – he hid them too well - Steve

Jay Allen  Sanford JAS REPLIES: I'll concede the slow (and ultimately misleading) startup - I almost tuned out. BUT, to carry the Beatles comparison even further, what if you had given up on Abbey Road after the third song, Paul's "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," which John refused to even perform on, calling it just another of Paul's "Granny songs." By almost any measure, a kinda crappy song (until/unless performed by Steve Martin!) You would never have gotten the back of your skull blown off by subsequent side-one cuts like "Oh! Darling" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)."

That's how sharp a left turn Dollhouse took. The "mission of the week" aspect was just one of the red herrings I mention - the drama has since become much more internal, not just by withdrawing into the Dollhouse(s) but into the very minds of the characters themselves.

Well worth giving another shot, I assure!

 AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR ALEC SCOTT CHIMES IN: Hey, Jay, been reading the back-and-forth. Have to say, I agree with you. Steve's point, about the first few eps, is a valid one -- no real personality to identify with -- but, as you pint out, only when taken by themselves. Taken all together, we realize that, from the beginning, Echo, a real identity and character of her own  -- whose existence is only informed by the existence of Caroline, not to mention all the characters she's been over time -- and that THAT'S who's been trying to, and is now succeeding at, breaking through into her own.

I agree, too, that these last episodes are mindf-cking brilliant, the kind of stuff that only people like Lynch and Kaufman (Charlie) have dealt with on any comparable (cinematic) level in the past -- and even *they* didn't have this broad a canvas to work with.

So Abbey Road as performed by Philip K. Dick is how I'd put it - Alec

 WRITER/RESEARCHER JAMIE RALPH GARDNER: Dear Steve, How much of Joss Whedon's work have you seen? You told me that you saw part of 1 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and part of 1 episode of Angel. Have you seen Firefly, Serenity or Alien: Resurrection? During a conversation about Buffy on the phone, your description of the episode sounded like one of the episodes from the 5th to 7th season.

I think Buffy at it's best was during the first 4 seasons. I like later episodes but I think the show became much more uneven during the last 3 years. I think  some of the weaknesses of the last 3 seasons have been brought in to the Buffy comic books. Sinn Sage (Vampirooni) was a viewer of Buffy and she thought the show went downhill in later seasons. She quit watching the show. I continued watching
Buffy, most of the time, through the final season.
Jamie Gardner

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http://inlinethumb64.webshots.com/8575/2475335330103947755S425x425Q85.jpgHALFORD-GNR-ZEPPELIN VETS FORM TEMP SUPERGROUP

BW&BK reports: The Halford Slash Bonham Supergroup performed at 95.5 KLOS' Mark And Brian Christmas Show, which took place at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California on Wednesday, December 16th.

The band featured singer Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Slash (Velvet Revolver, Ex-Guns N' Roses) and Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin). Other guests included Steve Lukather (Toto) and Keith Emerson (Emerson, Lake & Palmer).

Halford's Metal God team captured exclusive rehearsal, sound check and performance footage. Once edited, the footage will be made available as a free download on a date to be confirmed next month (January 2010). - Set list

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http://static.squidoo.com/resize/squidoo_images/-1/draft_lens2249220module12220473photo_1224536213muppet-american-gothic.jpg MRAZ MEETS MUPPETS, SAVING SWITCHFOOT, ROLIE'S ROLL, MORE

Spend Christmas Eve with Jason Mraz and the Muppets. Mraz will be on Sesame Street Dec. 24 to sing a special version of "I'm Yours". more

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Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame inductee Gregg Rolie, best known for his vocals and keyboard work with Tijuana native son Santana and Journey, has caused a flurry of excitement with the release of his latest CD 'Rain Dance".

This live CD captures Gregg and his all-star band performing at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in 2007. The music press and fans alike have been raving about the new CD and have even compared Rolie's band to that of the original Santana group, in which Rolie was a founding member. "The reviews have been great," says Gregg. "The band and I are anxious to get out on the road and play as many cities as possible in 2010, 2011, 2012 and so on..."

'Rain Dance' features electrifying versions of several Santana classics such as :"Evil Ways", "Black Magic Woman" "Soul Sacrifice", "Jingo" and "No One To Depend On" as well as tracks from Rolie's previous effort 'Roots' and new songs. The Gregg Rolie Band consists of founding Santana member Michael Carabello on Congas, Adrian Areas (son of original Santana percussionist Jose Chepito Areas) on Timbales, drummer Ron Wikso (who was also in The Storm), Kurt Griffey on guitar, internationally acclaimed bassist, Chapman Stick artist and Santana alumni Alphonso Johnson and former Jean Luc Ponty keyboardist Wally Minko.

"The band is great, because we all really enjoy each other and I think the sound reflects the fun we are having," Gregg recently told Voices of Latin Rock. "We subtitle the band; 'Santana- the way you remember it' And at that gig in New York recently, we had half of the original Santana, that's about the closest you're ever gonna' get, to seeing that band together again! Michael Shrieve came down and sat in and it was fantastic! He is such a lyrical player and he makes me smile when he would do a certain thing or a fill and I'd remember his playing style, very much on the jazzier end but just so stylish. Ron Wikso my regular drummer is heavier and a real solid player too."

Gregg Rolie 'Rain Dance' CD is available through CD Baby. For more information visit the official website: - http://www.greggrolie.com

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Switchfoot will kick off 2010 with a performance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on Monday, January 4th. Later that week, the band will be one of two groups playing the ESPN National Championship Tailgate, which will take place at the Rose Bowl Stadium just before the Alabama Crimson Tide face the Texas Longhorns in the Citi BCS National Championship Game on January 7th.

The band has been playing sold-out shows since November, coinciding with the release of its latest album, Hello Hurricane, which debuted in the Top 15 of The Billboard 200. The North American tour, which has been extended through January, features Switchfoot playing the album in its entirety, followed by an assortment of fan favorites from its previous albums.

Switchfoot will continue to collect donations for local food banks along the way, so fans are encouraged to bring non-perishable items to the shows.

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The Entire Known Universe?

The Entire Known Universe? by Jay Allen Sanford

“Apparently, Golden Track Studios thinks it’s okay to steal the song Matt Commerce and I wrote for the San Diego Your Song Competition,” read Alyssa Jacey’s Facebook post on December 2... More

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Time and Space

Time and Space by Jay Allen Sanford

Experimental electric-soul songsmiths Children of Nova came together in summer 2007, featuring members of Atlas of Id and Temperature Delete... More  

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DAVE MUSTAINE'S EGO VS SUICIDE SILENCE

Antimusic.com reports: Lambgoat is reporting that Suicide Silence left the Megadeth tour on not so good terms with the headlining act. While the tour was in its final days, there was apparently some behind the scenes trouble between Megadeth and Suicide Silence that was so bad that the band wasn't able to finish the trek.

Lambgoat reports: The official announcement from Suicide Silence is fairly standard: "We're sorry to announce that we won't be playing tonight in Reno, NV. Megadeth, Warbringer, and Arcanium will still be there so head out and show your support for those awesome bands!"

However, interestingly, we received the following news submission this morning: "Suicide Silence not allowed to play Reno due to Dave Mustaine's ego. Kicked off last two days of tour and had laminates removed." After digging around a bit, it appears that Suicide Silence drummer Alex Lopez posted the following update via Twitter: "Dave Mustaine kicked us off the Megadeth tour cuz he wanted to take our laminates for a little incident weeks ago, so we told him to f*ck off." That update has since be removed - more at Lambgoat

Rock Radio has a related story: Mustaine haS confirmed there will be another Megadeth album after Endgame - and he's already nearly finished writing it.

The revelation comes after months of speculation that Mustaine was planning to retire when he escaped from his current record deal with Roadrunner, which he's been unhappy with for some time. Even the album's title hinted that Megadeth might be winding down.

But now the thrash icon tells Metal Hammer: "I'm excited with what's going on in my band. I've got my book coming out and I've got this tour coming up with Slayer." On the new album: "I've got almost my entire next record ready to start recording, so I can start packing my bags." - more on this story

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS RECORDING NEW ALBUM TOO!

Scott Weiland tells Spinner.com that the band is "almost finished" recording its Don Was-produced new studio album. "There will probably be 11 songs on the record and we have nine completed already," he says. more

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FREE TRILLION DOLLARS FROM OBAMA!!

The government is handing out Trillions.  Now you can too!  Help spread the wealth and holiday cheer by forwarding this Trillion Dollar gift to all of your friends! Print and pass it on!

 

Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page to print out Trillion Dollar Bills and share the wealth!

Want another Trillion Dollar gift for your friends?  Get the Trillion Dollar Bailout game!  The perfect stocking stuffer only $7.99.  Check it out!!!!

 www.obamanationcardgame.com!!! 

And HO HO HOBAMA!!!

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WHY ARE SO MANY PEOPLE HATING ON PATHOLOGY???

Jay Allen  Sanford  If you're into bands like Cattle Decapitation, the Locust, Megadeth, Entombed, Disgorge, or Cannibal Corpse, you'd probably like Pathology. Loud, dirty, metal, morbid imagery - not bad, nor special, but certainly not a band worth getting upset or worked up over.

Even considering the new press release announcing they've signed to Victory Records, which is written with such cheez and oblivious cluelessness that it practically cries out to be mocked. Which is what's happening, especially at www.blabbermouth.net ---

Album coverAlbum cover First, the press release, in italics - annotated in NON-italics are some of the reaction comments from site visitors (who are really into their metal).

San Diego, California-based death metal/grindcore band Pathology has inked a deal with Victory Records. Commented the group: "We have been working tirelessly at writing new music and are ecstatic to be putting our next album out through Victory."

posted by : crazytaco_12: Victory records f-cking sucks


"We would like to thank Tony and the Pathology team for their diligent efforts in bringing Pathology and Victory together. Most of all, we would like to thank the fans who've been there from day one to support us every step of the way. We are very excited and can't wait to release our yet-untitled 2010 album!"

posted by : X-Box: pure crap. Victory Records staff and trend jumpers

Pathology recently announced the addition of singer Pascual Romero (STRANGLED BY STRANGULATION, IN THIS MOMENT) to the group's ranks. According to the band, "Pascual is best known for being the vocalist of underground death metal band STRANGLED BY STRANGULATION as well as his tenure as the bass player for Century Media band IN THIS MOMENT. He brings years of writing, recording, and touring experience to the plate and we are very enthusiastic for what the future holds for us. He brought the presence and power that the band needed to reach the next plateau of true blasphemous death metal."

posted by : brutalcali23: What an utter joke. The new singers presence and power compared to Matti Way is laughable...Hell compared to Levi he is a joke. I saw them play in riverside and the drums on the cd are obviously edited because he can not even double bass properly or even play close to the cd. And the vocals wow, he has no power or presence at all. And the line about them touring across the states to spread there gospel in front of thousands of fans. I can barely type iam laughing so hard.

The band toured across the states on some self-booked tours and spread their gospel of filth to thousands of fans. The guttural bowl shaking vocals of Romero combined with Tim Tiszczenko's chainsaw guitar and Astor's lightening-fast blastbeats and breakdowns make for an earth shattering experience of pure, vomit inducing metal."

posted by : sinewayve: Why is thei news peice so full of bullsh-t? They have never "toured across the states" like it says in there! They've cancelled 10 times more than they have actually completed.why are they signed again?

posted by : brutalcali23: They have done like 5 f-cking shows for 3 full length cds. So obviously victory has never even seen them live. Just more proof of how gay a label is that signs a band and never sees them play live before hand. One thing is for certain this band with all its claims, lies and terrible live performances will always provide a good laugh. F-CK OFF pathology you guys could be the poster boys for the word posers. And with all the lies and false claims you guys make, well lets just say karma can be a bitch.


Album cover Pathology's latest album, Age of Onset was released in May via Comatose Music. The CD was recorded at Double Time Studio in El Cajon, California. The cover artwork was created by Pär Olofsson.

posted by : Punisher of Weaklings: This band f-cking sucks!... This band is total bullsh-t! Victory sucks hard.


Album cover Pathology was formed in the beginning of 2006 by Dave Astor (Being Killed, the Locust, Cattle Decapitation). The band's debut album, Surgically Hacked was released in September 2006 on Amputated Vein Records (Japan). In July 2007, Pathology signed with Grindhead Records (Australia) to release the band's crushing malpractice, Incisions Of Perverse Debauchery (2008).

posted by : sinewayve: This sh-t is incredibly boring and has zero to do with the locust, in this momnet or even cattle decap! And didn't cattle decap kick out the guy because he didn't want to tour? Boring ass stuff and like 10 years too late haha sounds like 6 feet under trying to play broken hope and failing. Another waste of time and money for victory records.

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=131889

Jay Allen  Sanford  Wow! I guess some people really get worked up over Pathology, and over Victory Records. They DO go thru members - just this year, secondary singer Mason Gregory left the band, as did lead singer Matti Way in September, coming after the previous defection of singer/guitarist Levi Fuselier.

I just played a couple of Pathology songs off Surgically Hacked - certainly better than at least half of Megadeth's recorded output. Or Anthrax's, for that matter, and those are supposedly among the biggest, most successful metal acts ever ---

I wonder what Pathology/Victory have done to p-ss so many people off, just at the mention of their names????

Related links

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http://www.indiemuse.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/ticketmaster_no_full.jpg BELLY UP AND VIEJAS DITCH TICKETMASTER FOR GOOD!                           And that goes for the Belly Up in Aspen CO, too!

Front Gate Tickets, a leading provider of ticketing solutions for music festivals, venues, artists, and the Performing Arts, today announced its continued expansion into the San Diego market through its exclusive ticketing deals with Belly Up Tavern and Viejas Entertainment.

“Belly Up is very excited to partner with Front Gate Tickets,” said Belly Up owner Steve Goldberg.  “The move to Front Gate is a win for us and the customer and better reflective of our vibe as the non-corporate approach to entertainment.”

The Austin-based Front Gate Tickets first established a presence in San Diego in 2004 when it became the exclusive ticketing provider for the Casbah. Since, then, the independently owned and operated Front Gate Tickets has provided ticketing services for Street Scene, CityBeat Festival of Beers, North Park Music Thang, Epicentre, Jumping Turtle, Independence Jam, and Hard Rock Hotel among others.

“We are excited about our relationship with the Belly Up Tavern and Viejas Entertainment,” says Jeff Kreinik, Director of Marketing and Business Development at Front Gate Tickets. “These are two of the premiere venues in the San Diego area and two of the more forward thinking organizations around.”

Front Gate Tickets ( www.frontgatetickets.com ), based in Austin, TX, is one of the largest independently owned ticketing agencies, with clients including San Diego Street Scene (San Diego, CA), Belly Up Aspen (Aspen, CO), The Long Center for the Performing Arts (Austin, TX), Warehouse Live (Houston, TX), and Boulder Theatre (Boulder, CO).

 

The company is owned by Front Gate Solutions ( www.frontgatesolutions.com ), a software development company.

Tickets:
http://bellyupsolanabeach.frontgatesolutions.com

http://viejas.frontgatetickets.com

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 ADAM LAMBERT AND THE PANSY FIGHT

In the wake of Adam Lambert’s man-on-man TV smooch (and the subsequent boost - then drop - in his album sales), it’s easy to forget that many of the same hometown voters who supported him on American Idol also voted against legalized gay marriage. Pansy Division frontman Jon Ginoli reminds that his own band was practically run out of town by 11,000 gay-hating San Diegans, when they opened a Halloween show for Green Day.

“Mobs of young guys right down front were flipping us off,” he says in his book Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division, an account of touring with one of the first openly gay rock bands.

 

 “We hammed it up right away. Chris [Freeman, bassist] was shaking his -ss, saying ‘We’re big f-gs from San Francisco!’ Pandemonium. There was way too much going on at one time to see it all from the stage...People were giving us the finger and throwing objects at us.” The band reportedly only sold $164 worth of merchandise that night.

 

Pansy Division has since made San Diego a regular tour stop. “We’ve been playing the Casbah for over a decade,” says Ginoli. “Luis [Illades, drummer] is from the San Diego area. Still, we’ve never had more than an okay draw…the Casbah has more of a booze and tattoos clientele than we do but, as often happens, we win people over.”

 

Ginoli’s book kicks off with quotes like “We’re the buttf-ckers of rock-and-roll,” and “We want to sock it to your hole!”

 

Sounds like a Pansy/Lambert co-headlining tour is something both acts should be able to get, um, behind.

 

Related links

You can checkout Lambert's local Star 94.1 interview from December 3rd by clicking this link to AJ in the Mornings. While in town, he donated his American Idol Kiss outfit and did some press - best coverage can be found at Hotel Chatter:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/12/7/4413/54310&ct=ga&cd=cMDANcA4_Wo&usg=AFQjCNGf9dhgl-q6QRctg_YW_1E1e8TxoQ
HotelChatter
Hard Rock San Diego Rocks Adam Lamberts' KISS Outfit
HotelChatter
... at the American Music Awards (come on, Madge made out with Britney and Xtina at the vmas), but the Hard Rock San Diego is showing the singer some love...

 

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bootlabel  Vinyl Records Are Gaining Sales

Sales of vinyl albums have been climbing steadily for several years, tromping on the notion that the rebound was just a fad. Through late November, more than 2.1 million vinyl records had been sold in 2009, an increase of more than 35% in a year, according to Nielsen Soundscan. That total, though it represents less than 1% of all album sales, including CDs and digital downloads, is the highest for vinyl records in any year since Nielsen began tracking them in 1991.

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http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.prefixmag.com/news/san-diego-filmmaker-plans-blink-182-biopic-ignores/35498/&ct=ga&cd=eRisdntZXwg&usg=AFQjCNH-JeNWpkairCQmL6f8aqkboriEtg
Prefixmag

San Diego Filmmaker Plans Blink-182 Biopic, Ignores Universal Disinterest
Prefixmag
Daniel Flores, a San Diego-based filmmaker, says he plans to make a biopic on the early days of Blink-182. Apparently, Flores saw the skateboard film...

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/12/blink-182_superfan_is_making_a.html&ct=ga&cd=QRljeYMDcC4&usg=AFQjCNHtbSJFz5k0Pdfpwflbpcgp390ytA
New York Magazine
Blink-182 Superfan Is Making a Blink-182 Movie
New York Magazine
So serious, in fact, that the San Diego native has written a movie about the band's early days, from its founding by Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus and original ...

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 TONY HAWK'S RIDE MUSIC

Antimusic.com reports: Check out the track list for the Tony Hawk: RIDE video game, which has just hit North American retail shelves. The game, which has a long standing tradition of groundbreaking soundtracks, features more than 50 eclectic tracks.

Ranging from popular anthems from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, MGMT and Green Day to new rising artists Band of Skulls and The Temper Trap, the game also weaves through the grooves of The Commodores and The Meters into the high energy of The Stooges and The Replacements in a diverse yet seamless collection of upbeat tunes.

Tony Hawk: RIDE takes the popular action sports franchise in a new direction. The game features a groundbreaking wireless skateboard controller that was designed in conjunction with the game. Using a combination of accelerometers and motion sensors, the intuitive controller allows players to physically control the action by performing various movements and gestures on the board that directly translate into amazing tricks in the game. Without complex button combinations or analog sticks, gamers of various skill levels can literally step on the board and play. - full tracklisting

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Secret History of Chicago Music: Chuck and Mary Perrin (Dizzy's)


http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/secret-history-of-chicago-music-chuck-and-mary-perrin/Content?oid=1245682

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Shipping in Autumn 2010 from Bluewater Productions

ROCK 'N' ROLL COMICS - The Led Zeppelin Experience:

The Led Zeppelin saga is one of the wildest in rock history, and this graphic novel pulls no punches in dramatizing the backstage, behind-the-scenes story. From their early days as the New Yardbirds on through their rise to superstardom (and controversy), all five issues of the original Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics series are collected in one rockin’ volume, with art by Scott Pentzer (Razor), Marshall Ross (Deepest Dimension), David Neer (Sports Superstars), Francois Escalmel (Frank Zappa: Viva La Bizarre), and others. The collection also includes update material, bringing the saga up to 2010.

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http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/travel/06surfacing.html&ct=ga&cd=q8czxIJSKlI&usg=AFQjCNEbg0CvQU-UA89ZobC4F783X8Hulg
New York Times
Pulsing With Eclec-tricity in San Diego
New York Times
A diverse mix of businesses has put a lot of the zip back in the North Park area of San Diego. By JAMIE BRISICK FOR years, 30th Street at University Avenue ...
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Jay Allen  Sanford WHAT I'M WATCHING
image
 

WONDERWALL (1968) – “LOST” PSYCHEDELIC CLASSIC WITH MUSIC BY GEORGE HARRISON, RINGO STAR, PETER TORK, ERIC CLAPTON, AND MORE

 

 

 Tonight, I watched the epically wonky 1968 Wonderwall movie DVD, with music by George Harrison and psychedelic visual design by The Fool, that group of acidhead techno artists who painted the Apple office building in the '60s and had much to do with the latterday Beatles imagery (I wonder if Magic Alex ever perfected his magic box?).

 

The movie is so freakish, it's almost impossible to absorb - as an artifact of the 60s and hippiedom, and an example of some of the first Beatles "solo" music, it was well worth watching, and probably worth the high price that the limited edition U.S. region DVD sells for (I got a "bargain" on eBay at $30 - I've seen it sell for $75 and up).

 

It's hardly a "movie," at least by the normal definition. Worth noting is that the director is the same guy who later did the fantasy sequences in the Led Zep concert movie The Song Remains the Same. If you liked that movie's werewolves with tommy guns spurting psychedelic blood, you'd dig Wonderwall.

 

The first thing that comes to mind, a few minutes after finishing the film, is "This must be what it's like to do peyote, throw up, and then spend two hours staring at your vomit and marveling at how wondrous and beautiful your former lunch now looks...."

 

 The music is by George Harrison, whose Wonderwall solo album has some but not all of the music heard in the movie (it was the first Beatles solo album, AND the first Apple album). For the rock songs, Harrison hired Liverpool band the Remo Four, as well as bringing in Ringo Star, Eric Clapton, and Peter Tork (playing one of Paul McCartney’s banjos).

 

The Indian sitar music heard in the film was recorded in January 1968, during the same Beatles sessions - and using the same musicians – that resulted in the Beatles’ song “The Inner Light,” originally issued as the B-side of "Lady Madonna."

 

Wonderwall the movie was only shown a few times in the late ‘60s, and was considered a “lost” film until a good print was found and restored, along with an unreleased Harrison song intended for the original 1968 soundtrack, “In The First Place,” one of the only Wonderwall songs with lyrics (proceeds from a single of the song helped pay for cancer treatments for one of the musicians from the Remo Four).

 

 

As near as I can figure it, here’s what the movie is about:

 

An aging nutty professor and OCD paper hoarder finds a peephole in his cluttered apartment that glows like starlight (set within a wall mural painting of a crowned goddess in the sky) -

 

When he looks thru the hole, he sees an otherworldly beautiful oft-nekkid young woman named Penny Lane (played by lovely blank-faced cipher Jane Birkin, who was equally blank in Antonioni's equally obtuse movie Blow-Up).

 

image Penny Lane seems to be perpetually posing for 60s softcore porn mags, cigarette commercials, and stewardess ads, alone and/or with equally underdressed ladyfriends.

 

One one side of the wall, the Old Prof's side, it’s just another day, the barber shaves another customer, the banker looking in ---

 

 On the OTHER side of the peephole, it's the 24-hour freakout channel, with freakout music kicking in every time the old man peeps at the fetishistic nylon leg shows and Hefner-fueled/acid-soaked visions of a Wild and Wonky World According To Playboy. Within Without You.

 

image

 

Opening more peepholes seems to open more worlds – or are these just the Old Prof’s daydreams? In one trippy vision, the old Prof improbably sees himself, outdoors, battling a teenage Superman with "weapons" like giant ciggies and lipstick tubes. Or at an effeminate cowboy riding a plastic rocking horse and talking on the phone, or a hippie mermaid chick floating on a sea of polyester fabric while brushing her hair, or a Perplexing Planet of Preposterous Sunglasses.

 

image

 

He peeps most often at an ongoing idyllic Dionysian hippie party jam, with flute-playing flower children and beautiful dancing gypsies (with almost EVERYone smoking something, either ciggies or ??). The smoking in various other wonderworlds ranges from small glass pipes to Chong-sized roaches and giant octopus hookahs –

 

Amusingly, the Old Prof himself, in his world, is proudly a non-smoker --- tho one wonders about how lab-customized his beloved sugar cubes may be, given his increasingly bizarre visions thru the Wonderwall.

 

The Old Prof becomes so obsessed that, for awhile, he seems to stop shaving or sleeping or doing anything else aside from peeping. Sorta presaging the advent of 500-channel TV feeds, it could be said ---

 

So as the Old Prof is peeping at the dreamy hippie otherworlds, he starts dressing up in what an unschooled old man might approximate as "psychedelic" circa 1968, ie a pointy New Year's party hat, or a funky outsized tuxedo, and decorating his apartment - especially the "wonderwall" itself - with streamers and party favors.

 

When he strays too far from the wall - like when he goes to work at the lab one day, if only to study up on alternate realities and gaze lovingly at Penny Lane thru his microscope (?!)- he suddenly becomes black and white. As does the world around him. Only the wonderwall can color his world....

 

At some point, one of the wonderwall visions appears to actually be the adjoining room of a young hippie couple - or is it? Everything on the Other Side is just a colorful and halucinogenic as his other visions.

 

When he realizes he's fallen in love with the young girl - or at least with her magical hippie wonderland - he manages to find a magic (Alex) doorway and dramatically leap into her world, apparently by dressing as a top-hat magician and fondling his magic wand (don't ask....) –

 

 

However, when he gets to Her World, the hippie girl's psychedelic-flavored life isn't idyllic as it seemed. She is unmarried and has just discovered she's pregnant, and her hippie boyfriend is being a big hippie dick about it.

 

So - while the Old Prof hides in her psychedelic closet - the hippie girl (real or fantasy?) chokes down a bunch of pills, cries, and is carried out on a stretcher.

 

Flash to a newspaper headline: "Scientist Saves Fashion Model - Top Hat Riddle in Penny Lane's Gas-Filled Flat."

 

The next time he sees Penny Lane is under his microscope, in his lab, with the girl dressed like an angel and blowing him kisses while floating - and shrinking - into a churning field of stars and nebulas.

 

WTF?

 

 

The DVD also includes footage cut to Eric Clapton’s playing, stills of artwork by the various Fool’s who designed the psychedelia, footage cut to a Remo Four track, and other ephemeral perks.

 

 

So, in summation – glad I watched it. Glad it was restored, especially the sonically engaging soundtrack, and glad it came out on DVD. Also glad the hippies – and Hollywood’s brief trippy obsession with them – pretty much died with the Beatles.

 

I’ll probably never have occasion to spin this inexplicable tripfest again, unless under the influence of the Old Prof’s suspect sugercubes, but I’m glad I finally got to checkout this funky flashback, 40 years after it first came and went ------

(Wonderwall in Wikipedia - animated gifs courtesy the fantastic blog of Martin Klasch )

Also see: "My Brunch With Yoko, plus Weird Beatles ...

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http://media.sdreader.com/img/bands/leadart/newday.jpg

NEW DAY MILE LAND A SONG IN GAMER MOVIE SOUNDTRACK

2009 San Diego Music Award Nominees New Day Mile will appear on the Gamer movie DVD scheduled for release next year on January 19th. 

The story of Gamer is based around Kable (Gerard Butler) who was taken from his family, imprisoned, and forced to fight against his will in a first-person shooter game called “Slayers.” Kable becomes a hero as a modern-day gladiator fighting to victory led by the teenaged gamer (Logan Lerman) who controls him.
Kable’s wife (Amber Valletta) has her own problems while trapped in another game called “Society.” Slayers was created by an egomaniacal billionaire (Michael C. Hall) who enables audiences to execute violent fantasies in front of a global audience using mind-controlled real prisoners as avatars. A rebel group called “Humanz” sees the games as a threat to humanity. 

The song “Between The Guns” from New Day Mile’s sophomore release Damn Strate will appear on the DVD. Damn Strate was recorded at Stratesound Studios in Santee, CA with acclaimed Engineer Alan Sanderson notable for his work with Elvis Costello and The Rolling Stones. 

“Between The Guns” can be streamed at www.myspace.com/newdaymile or downloaded for free at www.newdaymile.com 
 
According to this prog rock trio, "The name New Day Mile is derived from a song lyric, and it symbolizes new chances and opportunities for everyday we're alive."

Born and raised in New Jersey, James Brady took guitar lessons from local guitar virtuoso Dave DiPietro. DiPietro's student roster included Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society, Ozzy Osbourne) and Dave "The Snake" Sabo (Skid Row). Brady's other San Diego bands have included Juiced and Crown 10.

Frank Dolan, a native of Ireland, has worked with Larry Mitchell, Fiction, and Fighting Iris. He co-wrote the Rhythm Knowledge drum instruction series with Berklee instructor and Pearl/Zildjian clinician Mike Mangini.

Bassist Jason Sikora joined in 2007, replaced two years later by Dave Garcia.

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 San Diegans on Saturday Night Live? (By Bart Mendoza) Ever wonder what San Diego-related music artists have appeared to date on Saturday Night Live ?? Here ya go, with artist / host:

 

02/21/76 Desi Arnaz

12/11/76 Frank Zappa / Candice Bergen

04/09/77 Tom Waits / Julian Bond

03/11/78 Stephen Bishop / Art Garfunkel

10/11/78 Frank Zappa

04/11/92 Pearl Jam / Sharon Stone

11/20/93 Stone Temple Pilots / Nicole Kidman

04/16/94 Pearl Jam / Emilio Estevez

05/10/97 Jewel / John Goodman

11/14/98 Jewel / Joan Allen

01/08/00 Blink 182 / Jamie Foxx

04/20/02 POD / Alec Baldwin

04/15/02 Pearl Jam / Lindsay Lohan

10/04/08 The Killers (w/ Ray Suen) / Anne Hathaway

01/31/09 Jason Mraz / Steve Martin

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DINOSAUR JR. REVIEWS SAN DIEGO AND THE BELLY UP - Lou Barlow's Tour Diary 11-4-09

Solana Beach, CA 11/4
Solana Beach is just north of San Diego. Our day begins in San Diego at a radio station. Dinosaur Jr is meant to do an acoustic session. So Tim and Noel have schlepped one of my bass amps and one of J’s to the tiny broadcast booth.

We are greeted by the DJ, who immediately and forcefully entices us with offers of free strings and guitar pedals. As he is mentioning all of the amazing free things he gets, I realize that I will be getting none of it. Do I ask for his number and then pester him over the next few weeks for his friend at insert-company-name’s number? Do I have “my people” contact him? I have no idea.

As confusing as that is, the performance and interview go well. The DJ is a pro. The best part, however, is J’s resistance:

DJ: Would you like to do another song?
J: Of course not.

Something about San Diego and its skate culture seems driven by a devotion to promotion. I find it bewildering. As the skate guys get older their long shorts, XL logo tees and baseball caps make them look like gigantic 7-year-olds.

As plugged in to that scene as Dino Jr are, I am alienated by it. Every time I sign a skateboard, I feel like a fraud.

Our friend O, photographer/musician, greets us at the radio station. I don’t know how he does it, but he is there wherever and whenever we roll into town. There may be two or three identical O’s in San Diego He is the most mysterious, down-to-earth person I have ever met. He seems to have superpowers, a knowledge of all amplifiers, recording gear and food. It’s always great to see him.

Off to the club, a fancy place, usually host to international blues acts and non-punk
fare. It’s the sister club to the Belly Up in Aspen. Aspen: the rich person’s playground. There is definitely an aspect of that here: seating on the sides, lots of wood. I guess we’ve moved up from the Casbah (the cozy punk-rock bar that has hosted 95% of my visits to S.D.). I’m ambivalent about that, but equally happy to have a new neighborhood to explore. There’s an antique mall across the street. I buy a vintage Preskool Little People school bus for $26. I want my kids to have the Little People experience. I buy Noel (our long suffering sound engineer) a Bruce Springsteen 7" (the Boss has been a theme on this tour). He’s been doing sound for Dino AND my band for a month.

Everyone’s got it easy compared to Noel: under fire every night, 36 speakers shooting knives, the audience screaming at him, "More vocals!: It’s a damn shame what we put that man through. He seems pleased when I hand him the single. There’s a version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town’” on the b-side.

The show goes smoothly. I’m happy to say that I am not nervous about playing L.A. tomorrow. The oft-dreaded hometown gig. Plus, Tom’s girlfriend is driving us home tonight. I’ll be back in my house by 3 a.m.!

(From Lou Barlow and Dinosaur Jr. Tour Diary - Tempe/Solana Beach - 11/3-4/09 - Paste Magazine )

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NEW MUSIC NIGHT - JUMP & JIVE

The "Burrito Brothers" are Action Andy (Haunted Honky Tonkers, Sleepwalkers), along with Victor Penalosa (the Zeros, the Fuzztones, the Records, the Melanies). Penalosa is currently recording a new album with Mike Kamoo...

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ARTICLES OF INTEREST

Here are some articles local music and technology fans might be interested in - click any title link for more:

Is Facebook Getting Uncool for 18-24s?
According to comScore, as it has gained a broader audience, the older teens and twentysomethings that drove Facebook's initial popularity are using it less. And research by WPP Group's Mindshare suggests that group is reevaluating the site's worth as a tool for developing friendships.

Herd It's New Take on Music Apps - Online music apps are all over the place these days. It seems like Facebook has a zillion of 'em. But Herd It, a new casual music game/music discovery tool developed by a team of students at the University of California, San Diego, is unique

The Night Marchers  --  Review of the Night Marchers at the Fillmore: To begin the review, I'll say I truly despised the first act of the night, the Night Marchers. Their 3 chord/1 riff "rock and roll" was lame and truly fell short in light of the show's overall expectations. The best way I can describe it: Everyone has that one uncle, right? The middle-aged guy who listened to too many Beach Boys records when he was 20...

Study On Online Music Piracy And Purchasing Habits
There has been high-profile debate in the media about whether file-sharing has a positive or negative impact on music sales. The study below, which is original text from Jupiter Research, analyses in more detail the different spend of file-sharers, digital and physical music purchasers.

Despite Economic Woes, Consumers Not Scrimping On Entertainment Subscriptions
According to the latest update to the “Entertainment Trends in America” consumer tracking studies conducted by The NPD Group, even as newspapers and other traditional forms of subscriptions have declined, most forms of entertainment-content subscriptions have been maintained by U.S. consumers this year, and mobile data plans and other newer kinds of subscription services have expanded their customer bases. Overall monthly per-capita entertainment-content subscription spending rose to $115, which is an increase of nearly 7% since last year.

E-Readers Will Take Off For Holiday Shoppers In 2010
2009 is likely to be remembered as a watershed year in the evolution of e-books and e-readers with several milestones and product launches standing out as catalysts for change in the market, according to Gartner, Inc. However, Gartner said that while the number of electronic readers sold is likely to increase in 2009, it expects 2010 to be the year when e-book readers really become popular consumer electronic devices, culminating in e-reader “mania” for the 2010 holiday season.

Like, Totally Wired
According to findings from Alloy Media + Marketing's 9th annual College Explorer Survey, projected annual technology spending among college students (ages 18-30) has reached an all time high at $6.5 billion, ranking 3rd in overall discretionary spending for college students, just below food and auto.

Monetizing Mobile Content
The long debate over how to monetize digital content has gained new life in the economic downturn due to the slumping ad market. The question of paid models versus ad support is particularly urgent in the fast-emerging mobile space. eMarketer predicts that by 2013, nearly 50% of mobile phone users will access the mobile Internet at least monthly.

In Tough Times, 10 Ways Retailers Can Bring Holiday Cheer
While beleaguered shoppers will be looking for ways to make the season bright, retailers can do their part by bringing some much needed holiday cheer to the shopping experience.

"Friending" Brands Egocentric, Finds Razorfish
Have social marketers been kidding themselves that consumers “friend” brands on social media because they are passionate and want deep and meaningful relationships? Recent data suggests that perhaps all consumers really want from brands on social media is a good deal and great customer service.

Coupon Use Continues Resurgence
Consumers have re-embraced coupons as a way to get more for their money. In the third quarter, year-to-date coupon redemption was up 26% to 2.4 billion redemptions, making it the fourth consecutive quarter of growth, according to new research from Inmar in collaboration with The Nielsen Company.

Illegal File-Sharing Has An Overwhelmingly Negative Impact On Music Sales
Demos, the UK political think-tank, has released a widely-reported survey on music downloading which may be misinterpreted as suggesting that illegal file-sharing stimulates rather than reduces legitimate music sales.

Playing Games With Media Usage
It's no secret that time spent online is a major rival to traditional media usage. But among some segments of the population, at least, time spent gaming is in the same ballpark as time watching TV or surfing the Web.

Touchscreen Mobile Phone Adoption Grows At Blistering Pace In U.S. During Past Year
comScore, Inc. recently released a study of touchscreen mobile phone adoption in the U.S., which showed a significant 159% growth rate during the past year to 23.8 million users in August 2009. The growth in touchscreen device adoption substantially outpaced the already strong 63% growth in U.S. adoption of smartphones.

When It Comes to Entertainment Options, U.S. Consumers Turning To Social Networking, Texting, And Twitter
According to the latest update to the “Entertainment Trends in America” tracking study conducted by The NPD Group, many consumers expect to be spending the same amount on traditional entertainment categories during the coming holiday season, even as their participation in newer forms of entertainment continues to rise.

Web To Drive Holiday Retail Sales
Retail sales will probably be flat this holiday season, but online sales are expected to reach $44.7 billion, an 8% jump over last year, according to the latest data from Forrester Research.

Seven Ways To Tap Social Shopping
Marketers must understand that customers use social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter to communicate with and gather information from their friends and colleagues. As a result, your presence on these sites must be integrated into the multi-directional communication when consumers want to interact with your firm. Here are seven ways to maximize social shopping results.

Will iPhone Lead The Growth In Portable Gaming?
A study by DFC Intelligence, released on Friday, predicts that games for the iPhone and iPod touch (an iPhone without the cellular capabilities) will be the principal drivers for growth in the overall portable and mobile gaming market in five years.

4 Emerging Trends Of The Real-Time Web
There is a lot of hype surrounding the real-time web, and much of the feeding frenzy reminds me of the RSS space four years ago — though there is a lot of potential, there is also a lot of noise.

A Shift In Mobile Computing From Laptops To Smaller Devices Is Forcing PC Makers To Adjust
The smartphone market will surpass laptops in unit sales this year, and will easily surpass the latter market in revenue by 2012.

Google's Eric Schmidt On What the Web Will Look Like In 5 Years
Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions a radically changed internet five years from now: dominated by Chinese-language and social media content, delivered over super-fast bandwidth in real time. Figuring out how to rank real-time social content is “the great challenge of the age,” Schmidt said in an interview in front of thousands of CIOs and IT Directors at last week's Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009.

Does Social Media Work For Small Biz?
Small businesses are not hitting it off with social media, according to an August 2009 study from Citibank. More than three-quarters of U.S. small-business executives surveyed did not find social networks helpful for generating leads or expanding their business.

‘Gradual Greening' Of U.S. Tech Consumers
‘Green' or environmentally friendly policies and programs are becoming more top of mind for U.S. consumers when making technology related purchase decisions, but few are aware of specific policies, according to the annual Ipsos Green Technology report.

Online Retailers To Emphasize Free Shipping, Social Media This Holiday Season
The economy is not only impacting shoppers, it's affecting online retailers, too. According to results of Shop.org's eHoliday Study, conducted by BIGresearch, shoppers will see changes in retail marketing and promotions this holiday season in response to economic uncertainty. With an understanding that many of today's shoppers use Facebook and Twitter regularly, and because these tools are more cost-effective than traditional advertising, 47.1% of retailers surveyed will be increasing their use of social media this holiday season.

Top Ten Holiday Trends For 2009
BIGresearch shares 10 insights of what to expect this holiday season based largely on findings from NRF's first holiday survey.

Flat Is The New Up: Web Buzz Also Suggests Soft Holiday Retail Season
Despite increased optimism about the economy, the social media landscape indicates that we are in a similar place to where we were this time last year when it comes to spending; buzz about Christmas and holiday shopping is down 3% year-over-year.

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 THE KIDS OF WIDNEY HIGH - A ROCK 'N' ROLL COMIC!

The Kids of Widney High: Beyond the Sky’s the Limit is the latest in a long line of accomplishments by The Kids of Widney High, a music group composed of students with developmental and/or physical challenges from J. P. Widney High School, a special education center in Los Angeles.

http://www.kidsofwidneyhigh.com/img/AYAcover.jpg Written entirely by members of the band and illustrated by some of the comic book industry’s top talent, the 36-page book is a milestone event in both rock 'n' roll and comic book history. Contributors include award winning artists Jim Mahfood (Clerks, Jay & Silent Bob), Chuck B.B., and Rafael Navarro, along with up and coming new talent like Rikki Niehaus, Neal Von Flue, Robbi Rodriguez, and Chris Brandt.

All the dialogue spoken by characters in the book was drawn directly from quotes recorded during story sessions, effectively capturing the spirit and attitudes of the bandmembers.

http://www.kidsofwidneyhigh.com/img/oldalbumcover.jpg The Kids of Widney High first formed in a songwriting class in 1988 and has grown into a world-wide sensation. They've performed on stages all along the west coast including The House of Blues, The Key Club, and Chain Reaction, and they were recently featured in the movie The Ringer. A documentary detailing the history of the band is currently in production.

Bandmember Tony Whitfield proudly says the comic is “the music that will rock your eyes!”

www.kidsofwidneyhigh.com

Knitting Factory by kidsofwidneyhigh (Knitting Factory: photog Mathew Klickstein)

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http://media.sdreader.com/img/bands/leadart/as_i_lay_dying_.jpg

Album cover Antimusic reports: As I Lay Dying is currently holed up with Killswitch Engage guitarist/producer Adam D. and Daniel Castleman at Lambesis Studios in San Diego, recording and writing their follow up to 2007's An Ocean between Us. The band will be recording and writing throughout the rest of 2009 and vocalist Tim Lambesis has issued the following update via the band's myspace page:

"We've released little bits of information here or there in previous news posts and blogs, but there are still questions coming in concerning what we've been up to. Below is an unquestionably obvious outline concerning our future plans…

1) We started working on new album.

2) We started recording the new album a few weeks ago with Adam D & Daniel Castleman at the reigns (and JMR for a couple weeks).

3) There are only drums for 8 songs tracked so far. One of them we're undecided about, but maybe it'll feel different when the vocals are done. Either way, we need write more than 8 songs (since they aren't as long as the 8 songs on Master of Puppets). Therefore we're working on writing MORE new songs as soon as we finish recording what's been started.

4) The only break in working on the new album will be our short trip to Mexico and Sri Lanka to play two of the best shows of our career. 5) All of us can't stress enough how grateful we are to be writing music that we love while still receiving a paycheck. This can only be credited to OUR LOYAL FANS! Sometimes bands need to rush out a crappy record so they can start touring again to pay their bills.

"In our case, we plan to make a record worth listening to (hopefully), and start touring again when we're done. Thanks for your patience and understanding. We care and we're working. In fact, I haven't had a full nights rest since March when the coolest kid ever made me a DAD!" - more on this story

Album cover As I Lay Dying (named after the book by William Faulkner) formed in 2001. The lineup consists of Tim Lambesis (vocals), Jordan Mancino(drums), guitarists Nick Hipa and Phil Sgrosso - bassist Clint Norris was replaced by Josh Gilbert in May 2007.

Hipa describes the band’s music as “brutal, energetic, melodic metal”; Mancino calls it “metal with ska breakdowns.” The band signed with Metal Blade Records in 2003 and spent 2006 supporting their album Shadows Are Security with opening slots for Slipknot and performances at Ozzfest events around the country.

“I never realized, until Ozzfest, about our utterly weird fans,” says Lambesis. “We were signing autographs...this guy brought out his two-week-old baby, and he actually has us sign the baby — our autographs are right there on its body.”

Jordan Mancino recalls, “The hardest thing [about Ozzfest] was getting stuck on a dirt road with our bus in the middle of the Arizona desert.”

Nick Hipa: “Lots of sloppy, gross old ladies walking around with their gross old boobs painted. Definitely a bum-out.”

Asked about being occasionally called “Christian metal,” Hipa says “All of us in the band are Christian dudes and we’re vocal about it and I think our lifestyles and our lyrics reflect that. But at the same time, we also tend to opt to play in the normal music scene because that’s what we love doing.”

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 Image:Ilan wiki.jpg

LOCAL NINE INCH NAILS DRUMMER HAS A NEW REGIME FOR YOU

Antimusic reports: We've been warned. "Things are about to get MANIC," so says Rock Sound magazine. What's behind that declaration? The New Regime, the "true solo project" of current Nine Inch Nails and former Lostprophets drummer Ilan Rubin. No mere time-keeper, the adept multi-instrumentalist wrote and recorded every note of bass, drums, guitar, piano and vocals on The New Regime's 2008 debut, Coup (Command! Music).

Feeling energized by the new crop of fans he's collected due to Nine Inch Nails' recently concluded "Wave Goodbye" tour, Rubinhas put together a special limited edition deluxe package of Coup set for release November 10 exclusively on the band's website (www.thenewregimemusic.com ). For $45, fans will get a 180 gram vinyl, the CD, a DVD featuring live performances and an interview with Rubin, a 16-page full color 12" x 12" booklet, and an exclusive website link to download instrumental mixes from The New Regime's website.

All 1,000 limited edition copies will also be hand-numbered and signed by Rubin. A stand alone digipak CD will also be available on the band's website for $7. To celebrate the package's release, the band will be performing at the Viper Room in Los Angeles, CA on Thursday, November 19. Tickets are currently on sale.

In a true sign of support for his new band member, Trent Reznor is encouraging his hardcore fans to get to know The New Regime by offering a free download of the album in its entirety on NIN.com the same day as Coup's release. Nine Inch Nails' camp will also host the download on a direct link, http://thenewregime.nin.com , starting at midnight on November 10.
- more on this story

Drummer Ilan Rubin. started his music career while still in grade school, with the local band Freak of Nature, which performed at Woodstock 1999. Nine Inch Nails announced this week that Rubin is their newest drummer in early '09. 20 years old at the time, Rubin used to take drum lessons from Travis Barker of blink-182 and David Uosikkinen, from the Hooters.

Astute Reader readers may remember that one previous NIN drummer, Jerome Dillon, had a medical mishap during a 2005 San Diego gig, only to find himself quickly replaced in the band.

Here’s the Overheard comic from September 2005, when NIN played in San Diego shortly after having done a show at Soma, only to have drummer Jerome Dillon fall over onstage ----

OverheardNIN

Dillon told MTV.com at the time "It was absolutely the most stressful thing I've been through in my life…During the third leg of the tour, I noticed that I was not feeling good. A few years ago, I was diagnosed with a thyroid malady and I was taking medication for it. I didn't know that [the medication wasn't working] and was building up in my system on the road."

A few NIN shows were cancelled, and then Dillon called NIN management to say he was back on his feet, healthy, and ready to get back behind his kit. But Dillon said Reznor and company showed "complete apathy and no sympathy for what I'd been through…I was not welcomed back with open arms, which I didn't understand, since I had been in the band for six years."

After booting Dillon from NIN, Reznor posted a message on the band’s website, saying “Jerome continuously has to see himself as the victim in all circumstances. He lives in a world where he is always being wronged by someone or something. That could be me, that could be management, that could be his drum tech, that could be the girl who mistakenly washed his permanent press designer jeans, that could be the person that didn't cook his chicken properly before the show, or that could be the record label that wont give him tour support for his new band to play a show…you look like an a-hole in your picture.”

Congratulations, Ilan, for becoming NIN’s new drummer...and, uh…..good luck!

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RYAN SEACREST HAS AN EVENTFUL FOR YOU

San Diego-based Eventful, Inc. and Ryan Seacrest Productions have announced a "strategic marketing and technology alliance." The alliance brings together Seacrest, the American Idol host and syndicated radio show producer, with Eventful, a digital service connecting fans with entertainment and local events.

Seacrest will produce entertainment content and marketing programs leveraging Eventful's proprietary technologies including the company's robust email technology platform and Eventful's unique Demand it! service which will empower Seacrest's audience to engage and vote on programming topics, "Demand" their favorite celebrities and participate in contests and promotions for entertainment and live events. The alliance is at the forefront of a movement in which performers and entertainment properties partner with leading social media companies to combine unique and engaging content with the latest technology platforms in order to reach and engage consumers.

 To begin their new alliance, Ryan Seacrest and Eventful are announcing the launch of the 'Ryan Rock My Town' contest through Eventful's Demand it! service which allows fans to demand a free concert in their city featuring Kris Allen, Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta. The city with the most Demanders will win the concert and participants will be eligible to receive the free tickets.

Fans can demand the concert online by going to RyanSeacrest.com. The winning city will be announced January 8, 2010 on Seacrest's radio show, On Air with Ryan Seacrest, and on KIIS FM in Los Angeles. The announcement will also be posted on RyanSeacrest.com immediately following the broadcast.

By hosting and producing multiple television and radio programs, Ryan Seacrest continues to be a force in entertainment media. The host of American Idol and the global radio countdown show, American Top 40 also has a market-topping #1 nationally syndicated entertainment morning drive-time radio show with On Air with Ryan Seacrest.

His RSP company has multiple shows in production including Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and the socially conscious Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution with famed British chef Jamie Oliver, premiering in 2010 on ABC.

Eventful is a digital social media service which connects consumers with entertainment, live events and performers. Along with Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, Eventful is part of the digital connection between fans and performers and a marketing resource for the music, film and entertainment industries. Reportedly, nearly 13 million people use Eventful's online, email and mobile services every week to discover what's happening in their local market and decide what to do. Eventful's unique Demand it! service "empowers fans to influence the location and content of events and entertainment."

"It is imperative we continue to engage and create dialogue with our audience," says Ryan Seacrest, "Eventful is at the forefront in the world of digital media and I am thrilled to be partnering with them."

 "We're honored to work with Ryan Seacrest who is among the most talented and creative people I've ever met," said Eventful CEO Jordan Glazier. "The strategic alliance between Eventful and Ryan Seacrest brings big benefits to both of our companies and, most importantly, will bring exciting content and entertainment opportunities to consumers."

As part of the alliance, Seacrest joins Eventful's Board of Advisors.

Terms of the alliance were not disclosed.

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30 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH.........

deadkennedys12-15-85

12-14-85: The Dead Kennedys played one of their final shows with original singer Jello Biafra, at downtown’s California Theater. As the set wrapped up, raucous fans tore up the seats and pulled curtains down from walls, causing police to call out a riot squad, though officers stayed outside the building until the crowd dispersed on its own.

The fifteen song set included tunes off their newest album Frankenchrist, as well as “Triumph of the Swill,” “Police Truck,” and the encore “Holiday in Cambodia.”

The show's promoter - future Casbah owner Tim Mays - recalls "The police were called in by the fire marshalls - who were freaking out about fans not staying in their seats and clogging the aisles. Some seats got destroyed...At one point I went outside to get some air, and there were police on all four corners surrounding the block the theatre was on. They weren't going to let me go back inside."

"Finally, one of my production managers convinced a female cop he happened to know that I was indeed the promoter and not just some random fan who had wandered outside."

The next night (12-15-85), the DKs performed at Tijuana’s Teatro Casa de la Cultura, in a show also promoted by Mays (tickets: $5). Outside the venue, Mexican police arrested several San Diegans “for no apparent reason,” according to newspaper columnist George Varga.

After the DKs, the California Theater only hosted a handful of punk shows for the remainder of its existence as a concert hall. After TJ, the band with Biafra only played three more concerts before calling quitting the concert trail a few weeks later.

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SHIPPING SUMMER 2010: ROCK 'N' ROLL CARTOON HISTORY - THE SIXTIES

Here's the first look at the cover art for the 300 page graphic novel Rock 'N' Roll Cartoon History: The Sixties, shipping summer 2010 from Bluewater Productions. www.bluewaterprod.com  --  www.myspace.com/rocknrollcomics 

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Jay Allen  Sanford WHAT I'M WATCHING - QUEEN OF THE DAMNED (2002)

It's never a good sign when the deleted scenes and DVD commentary are more enjoyable than the stand-alone film, but Queen of the Damned surprised me. It's got a lot of flaws - but it's not at all a horrible movie. It messed with and compressed/redid the Anne Rice novels so much that few people seem to like it - but I think if you go into without expecting it to be Anne Rice's Lestat, but rather a story loosely "inspired by" her books, it's a decent little goth movie.

Particularly the fully-realized music (and accompanying music videos, seen only in flashes during the movie but included on the DVD in their entirety, all framed ala German expressionism and surreal, very much Nosferatu/Doctor Caligary silent movie-inspired), by guys from Korn, Static X, Oingo Boingo, and even Marilyn Manson (who has one great album, Mechanical Animals, his Ziggy Stardust glam tribute/ripoff).

The whole vampire-goes-high-tech subtheme is intriguing, especially Lestat calling out his fellow vampires on the giant Times Square diamondvision screen ("Come out, come out, wherever you are"), and Lestat laying down inside a huge satellite dish and absorbing the entire world as it streams digitally and directly to his brain.

Some of the director's alterations from the two Rice novels the movie is based on (Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned) are actually improvements - such as keeping Lestat's debut concert to a one-time affair, thus explaining why the other vamps never went after him at other concerts (a vexing plothole in the Lestat novel).

 On the other hand, transforming female lead Jesse from a savvy vampire hunter and historical archivist with insider insight into a mere "Bite me, baby, one more time" groupie is among the filmmaker's WORST moves - eccch. Even if the actress playing Jesse is quite fetching (Marquerite Moreau, also seen in the highly underrated remake of Bedazzled).

The DVD's deleted scene showing the other Ancient Ones, as they gather to plot against the Queen SHOULD have been kept, as it provides all the motive behind the anti-Queen backlash acted out by present day-to-day vamps. I especially loved the Ancient Ones walking freely thru a goth concert, looking around incredulously and commenting "Ancient Rome had nothing on these people!" Why oh why was all that cut???

An improvement over the books - having the big concert outdoors in the desert in a remote and isolated Burning Man-style gathering is FAR better than Rice's dinky little indoor concert hall melee. Visually, the ensuing onstage battles need to be matched by the epic size and scope of the event locale, so the movie version is much more dynamic, and really more correct and apropos than in the novel.

The remote concert locale also goes a long way toward explaining how vampires can suddenly "out" themselves and their powers all over the stage, without a worldwide audience immediately finding out all about the head undead (UnDeadheads?) coming out of the shadows and into the spotlight.

Stuart Townsend as Lestat deserves particular praise. While no Tom Cruise, he's a lot better than you'd expect, and certainly believable as a rock star. As surprisingly dynamic as Cruise was in Interview/Vampire, there's no WAY he could have done the rock star turn without making everyone laugh while remembering the tightie whitey dance from Risky Business!

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LOCALS IN THE NEWS

Michael Robertson, the local webking whose original MP3.com and Sideload websites caused no end of legal troubles, has sold San Diego-based Gizmo5 to Google for $30 million. Gizmo5 specializes in internet telephony technology. Google Acquires voip Firm Gizmo5 for $30 Million

Antimusic reports: As I Lay Dying entered the studio in October with Adam Dutkiewicz (of Killswitch Engage) and Daniel Castleman (Winds Of Plague) to begin tracking their next Metal Blade Records release. more

Travis Barker spoke with MTV and told them a little about his solo album plans, "There's some stuff on my record that's not going to have a bunch of guitars, that are just straight-up hip hop records. Everything's going be real different. It's going to be really well-rounded," he told MTV News on Wednesday. "We got a new Blink song on there, I think I'm going to do something with Chester Bennington from Linkin Park. Slash is a maybe too

Former San Diego street urchin Linda Perry - who went on to front 4 Non Blondes and to write hits for Xtina and others - has signed Little Fish to her Custard label via Universal Motown Records, Little Fish's debut album Baffled and Beat is set for an early 2010 release. The album was produced by Perry herself, in her Los Angeles studio. The band is currently on tour in the UK supporting The Eagles Of Death Metal and will finish up a set of dates with Juliette Lewis in December. With a handful of CMJ dates already under their belt, the band will soon be hitting the States to strut their stuff. - go fishing here

Flogging Molly have announced dates for what has become their annual spring tour centered around the St. Patrick's Day holiday. The "Green 17 Tour" kicks off on February 9th in Dallas, Texas more

 Blink-182's Travis Barker appears alongside Taylor Swift and Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz,  and Weezer's Rivers Cuomo in Brett Ratner-directed commercial ad for Activision video game Band Hero where they recreate a scene from "Risky Business". "The premise is that we're sliding out into a living room and it's me and three other players. The three other players are some of my musical heroes," Taylor commented more

The Black Heart Procession are interviewed in the new Filter Magazine - Q: The first show of the tour will be at The Casbah in your hometown of San Diego. Is it symbolic that you start where the band began 12 years ago? (more Q&A: The Black Heart Procession)

Pinback are featured in a new article in the Washington Examiner - Pinback plays on: California band brings show to dc's Black Cat

Runhoney drummer Emily O'Bannon will appear in the November 25 episode of the new TV show Glee, which has proven to be a huge hit, having sold over two million songs online. O'Bannon plays the drummer for a rival band competing with the Glee crew. O'Bannon also works at the newly opened Gossip Grill, which is operated by Chris Shaw, formerly of the Flame.

AntiMusic reports: A lil Judas Priest Christmas cheer for Halloween? The new single "Christmas for Everyone" from Halford III Winter Songs is available as a FREE download from HalfordMusic.com . Four more new singles from "Halford III Winter Songs" are available for purchase from HalfordMusic.com as well:Get Into The Spirit, We Three Kings, Oh Come O Come Emanuel, Winter Song. more

Check out Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready performing "Ball & Chain" with Social D here Also be on the look out for video of Mike Ness and Jonny "2Bags" Wickersham joining Pearl Jam on-stage performing "Down."

We Are The Fallen, the new band featuring original Evanescence members Ben Moody (guitar) and John LeCompt (guitar) and Rocky Gray (drums) along with American Idol vocalist Carly Smithson is currently recording its debut album for Universal Republic in Los Angeles and expect to release it in early 2010. more

Stone Temple Pilots are just about to hit Canada with a couple of random dates set after that. Sounds like a perfect time to get to work on an album, and that's the plan according to frontman Scott Weiland: "When we get back[from touring], we're going to finish the album. And then when we finish the album, there will be a big tour around its release and that will probably be a long tour." more

Adam Lambert had this update for fans on his Twitter account: "Well here's some more album info for you guys! The upcoming single was produced by Dr Luke!!" he twits. "Debut single is called 'For Your Entertainment' get ready to shake yo asses to this song. It'll make ya dance for sure." more

Less than three weeks from its release day, Lambert's major-label debut album For Your Entertainment has been previewed. All of the fourteen songs on the album can be streamed for 30 seconds on Amazon U.K. more

(Lambert's Nagel-inspired cover art looks a lot like Rihanna's new album, not to mention below Kylie Minogue records! A new "Touch Yer Face" fad?)

lamber

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TEN SONGS BY LOCALS THAT ARE BETTER WHEN SOMEONE ELSE DOES THEM! --- courtesy Bart Mendoza

 Being a musician is great but being a songwriter can be even greater -  if your song ends up in the right hands, or with the right voice. Here are ten songs by ten San Diego connected songwriters which fared rather well when performed by others.

 

Phil Collins / “Separate Lives”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF0scfQ7_so

Written By Stephen Bishop. A huge worldwide hit, as heard in the 1985 film, White Knights.

 

Phil Collins & Phillip Bailey / “Easy Lover”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1kDmnHyOBg

Co-written by Nathan East. This one went all the way to #2 in 1984, hitting #1 in the U.K.

 

Dan Fogelberg / “Rhthym of The Rain”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djCUfGVd9lY

Written by John Gummoe. This is the lone track here that was a hit in an earlier incarnation as well, in this case by Gummoe's own group, The Cascades. Fogelberg’s 1990 version was a #3 Adult Contemporary Hit, and is till ubiquitous on soft-rock radio. Also one of only two songs by a local songwriter to hit near the top of the charts with more than one version of a song. So far.

 

Lynyrd Skynyrd/ "Call Me the Breeze"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaTZkIInYNw

Written by JJ Cale. This is the band in their prime, with a 1975 appearance on British TV program, The Ol’ Grey Whistle Test.

 

Steve Miller Band / “Jungle Love”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZHXMnC2qwk

Co-written by Greg Douglass. Some songs are lucky enough to get a second chance at hit status, as happened when Steve Miller’s “Jungle Love” was used as a theme song for CBS-TV sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.

 

The Monkees /  “Daydream Believer”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9m-hkvFDLk

Written by John Stewart. Many others including Anne Murray and Shonen Knife have had hits / singles with the song. With so many versions to choose from, we went with U2 live, with head Monkee, Davy Jones, in 1997.

 

The Matrix with Katy Perry / “Broken”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOoyiN3BfP0

Co-written by Anna Troy & Lindsey Troy. This single was recorded in 2004, but not released until 2009.  The Troys version of the song, was called “What Do You Do.”

 

The Ramones / “I Don’t Want To Grow Up”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU2SRNU955c

Written by Tom Waits and another tune with many versions – dig the Dan Clowes artwork in the video!

 

Johnny Rivers / “Slow Dancin (Swayin’ To The Music)”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQOmW_TVPxI

Written by Jack Tempchin, one of his many hit songs. This version is live, on NBC-TV’s The Midnight Special.

 

Various Artists / “Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-P3ClQfWks

Written by Jeannie & Jimmy Chetham. Many blues songs have been written by San Diegans, but only one is a certified standard, covered by hundreds of bands worldwide. Case in point, here’s one of a numerous local bands found online playing the tune, Band of Oz, from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

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 RIP SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON FOUNDER SHEL DORF
Longtime comic book historian Shel Dorf passed away November 3, at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, after a long hospitalization. His brother, Michael Dorf, was at his side. If you knew Shel, or just want to find out more about the man who founded the San Diego Comic-Con, I encourage you to visit (and maybe post to)  http://www.sheldorftribute.com/

The original San Diego’s Golden State Comic-Minicon was held on March 21, 1970 at the U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego. News of Shel's passing leaves me very sad - he knew Revolutionary Comics founder Todd Loren back when Todd was first doing comic conventions in around Detroit, and I've known Shel since his early '80s days at the San Diego Comic-Con and working with us at Blackthorne Publishing on the Dick Tracy comic strip reprints in the late '80s.

I didn't begin attending the local Comic-Con until 1983, when they were at the Community Concourse Civic Theater and Golden Hall, but from then I went every year, up until I retired from comic book publishing in 2000. Shel withdrew from running the Con in the mid-'80s, and my first-ever professional "comic-creator" Con pass came courtesy of friends of Shel, who let me attend his farewell party where I met dozens of comic creators and publishers who'd later be instrumental in my own career.

One of my biggest professional or personal thrills to date was drawing a little piece of skullface barbarian artwork on a gigantic wall-size paper card that everyone at Shel's party was drawing on that night, along with personal messages of cheer and well wishes - I sheepishly scribbled my art between drawings by the likes of Berni Wrightson, Frank Brunner, and John Pound, feeling for all the world like an interloper and imposter, brazenly defacing Shel's giant greeting card with my own inadequate scrawl.

But then Shel walked over, shook my hand, and thanked me ---- I cite that as the very moment I became a professional comic book creator ---

Many years later, around 1992, I went to lunch with Shel and Revolutionary Comics publisher Herb Shapiro. I was surprised to find that Shel actually remembered me from as far back at that '80s Comic-Con party, tho I imagine he only remembered because I was the one guy he'd never met before but who defaced his giant greeting card anyway.

During lunch, Shel looked at me and said "I had a feeling right from the start that you were one of the good guys in comics."

I've strived ever since to live up to that pronouncement ---- 

Shel Dorf was a rare true-life hero -- he'll be sorely missed ---

Jay Allen Sanford 11/3/09
 
Jack Kirby and Shel Dorf - November 9, 1969 Jack Kirby and Shel Dorf — November 9, 1969 - courtesy http://www.sheldorftribute.com/
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RockNrollComicsTributeArtSansLogos

Photo of Todd Loren Presents THE RETURN OF ROCK 'N' ROLL COMICS!

Here's a sneak peek at the first promo art for the locally-produced Rock 'N' Roll Comics: Hard Rock Heroes, a 400 page graphic novel shipping from Bluewater Productions in early 2010, as well as the 240 page Beatles Experience comic, the Pink Floyd Experience, Led Zeppelin Experience, the Elvis Presley Experience,  and more -
JAS
 
First, here's the first look at the Elvis Presley Experience cover art:
And here's the scoop and a first look at the cover of the Pink Floyd Experience:

The Pink Floyd Experience: All five issues of the Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics series The Pink Floyd Experience have been out of print and in demand for over fifteen years. As showcased in Pink Floyd’s own official box CD set Shine On, the Floyd comics chronicle rock’s most enigmatic psychedelic warriors, from their early dayz with stoner icon Syd Barrett, through their split (and later reformation). With art by Marvel and DC star Ken Landgraf (Wolverine, Hawkman, Nightwing & Flamebird, etc.), the collection also includes update material, bringing the saga up to 2010.
 
 
 

Hard Rock Heroes: What goes together better than comics and rock music? With almost 300 pages of Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics, Hard Rock Heroes goes WAY beyond Behind the Music, to tell the real life, behind-the-scenes stories of rock’s most heavy hitters. Creators include Stuart Immonen (Superman: End of the Century), Ken Landgraf (Wolverine), Jay Allen Sanford (Overheard in San Diego..), Todd Loren (Beatles Experience), Scott Pentzer (Razor), Mike Sagara (Ninja High School), and many others.

 

Hard Rock Heroes is a book-length pictorial history, covering bands like Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, Motley Crue, Poison, Megadeth, Pantera, Anthrax, Motorhead, Sammy Hagar, and more. The cinematic stories are realistically drawn, researched from countless photo and video archives, with an encyclopedic eye toward visual accuracy, dramatic flair, and journalistic depth.

 

 Also includes the never-before published “missing” Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics #8 from 1990, on Skid Row. The lack of an eighth issue has vexed collectors and catalogers for years – exactly 20 years later, the story can finally be told, and collectors can finally own ALL the Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics!

 

As a bonus treat, Hard Rock Heroes also features the Motley Crue comic story from their official box CD set Music To Crash Your Car To II, released in 2004 and written and drawn by original Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics creators Lyndal Ferguson and Larry Nadolsky. Shipping February 2010.

 

 (colors: Christie Maconnell)

 

tod17 "Great ideas, like the marriage of rock 'n' roll and comics, have the half-life of Uranium and will always be popular," says series co-creator Jay Allen Sanford, who has worked on over 200 reality-based comic books and thousands of similar cartoon strips for the San Diego Reader, as well as for magazines like Rip, Spin, and Oui. "The folks at Bluewater clearly have their fingers on the same pop culture pulse that enabled the original Rock 'N' Roll Comics to become one of the top-selling indie comics of the '90s. Truth is often stranger than fiction...and certainly much more interesting!" 

aerosmithcvrkk30kk31metallicahits 

 

The Beatles are bigger than ever, now available online for the first time digitally, on the Vegas stage in “Love,” and in the new Beatles: Rock Band video game. Now comes the most comprehensive and encyclopedic illustrated Beatles story ever, the Beatles Experience! Over 200 pages, dramatizing one of the most compelling tales in pop culture history, drawn from thousands of photos and interviews, meticulously researched and featuring stunning art by Mike Sagara (Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics) and Stuart Immonen (Legion of Super Heroes, Ultimate X-Men).

 

Covering the Beatles’ lives from birth and beyond their breakup, dramatized in dialogue and scene recreations more akin to a film bio than a mere documentary, the Beatles Experience also includes a Chronolog timeline going down each page, with encyclopedia background and footnotes detailing related events happening at the same time in the world, in music, and in the Beatles’ own tumultuous and extraordinary lives. 

 

beatles8snpaulkk68  

 

 The Led Zeppelin Experience:

The Led Zeppelin saga is one of the wildest in rock history, and this graphic novel pulls no punches in dramatizing the backstage, behind-the-scenes story. From their early days as the New Yardbirds on through their rise to superstardom (and controversy), all five issues of the original Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics series are collected in one rockin’ volume, with art by Scott Pentzer (Razor), Marshall Ross (Deepest Dimension), David Neer (Sports Superstars), Francois Escalmel (Frank Zappa: Viva La Bizarre), and others. The collection also includes update material, bringing the saga up to 2010.

rockcomics2.bmp

RockComicHist2

www.rocknrollcomics.com  ---  www.myspace.com/rocknrollcomics

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BOOTLEGGING AT CRICKET/COORS

Anyone wondering how effective all those “no recording devices” and “no cameras” signs and searches are at concert venues, here are a baker’s dozen of fan shot clips live from Cricket/Coors Amphitheatre. For some shows there are numerous videos posted by different fans / different vantage points…http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/nov/30/bootlegging-at-coors-amphitheatre-aka-cricket-amph/

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 MORE STRANGE STAGE MOMENTS - courtesy of Bart Mendoza

Zank Bennett: “At a gig, I was standing just behind our main speaker at the Tiki in PB, leaning against the map that is on the wall there. A little later I was playing a big solo in a song called “Saturday Night” and I went to lean back on the map/wall. It wasn't there. Unfortunately, I had spun another 45 degrees during my solo and hadn’t realized it. I was directly behind our front-of-the-house speaker; the one that sat atop an empty keg of beer. Still with my eyes closed, I leaned back and the three of us, the keg, the speaker on top and I, went tumbling the foot-and-a-half drop to the floor below.  We were about three beats from the end of the song. The band never lost a beat and we finished the syncopated last few bars perfectly, more or less. And without a scratch.

Karin Carson: “One time I was playing shaker on a gig and getting really into the tune. So into it, that I lost the grip on my shaker, which went flying towards the guitar player, who, mid-riff, dodged the flying shaker in a matrix like move, sideways. The audience never caught on, but we still laugh about it.”

 

Carolyn Kallis / Coco and Lafe: “We were busking on the street in Boston and this very large man came down and sat down in front of us, almost right on the microphone, sort of assumed the yogi position and pulled out a can of colt 45. He started to mumble along to our songs, but then he lay down and fell asleep. Every once in awhile he’d wake up, mumble something and then go back to sleep. Homeless people really gravitated to us in Boston.”

 

Danny Cress / The Coyote Problem: “I was in a surf trio a few years ago. We were in a club playing a version of the old standard “Caravan,” when all of a sudden - and in unison, the guitarist and bass player just put down their instruments and walked off. They headed towards the bar, looking at me just long enough to say “drum solo.” It was probably only about five minutes before they came back, but it seemed much longer.”

 

Mary Dolan: “I was booked for a performance at an AA convention in Las Vegas. I got there with about 1/2 hour to spare. I had a raging headache from the desert drive, the air conditioning and the tension of bad traffic, so I asked a friend for some aspirin. She didn't have any, but she asked her sister and SHE had a bottle of Advil in her purse.  So I took two. I'm on stage and I'm starting to feel weird, like maybe I had more than just a headache.  I was having a hard time feeling my fingers on the fretboard and the audience was getting blurry.  No one was saying anything. Maybe it sounded okay and looked okay, even though I felt a kind of lousy I've NEVER experienced before. For my last tune, I gave "Piece of my Heart" whatever I had left. I cut it short and then I started to dry heave as I was getting off stage. My friend and her sister came running up to me as I was telling them that I was really very sick.  My friend's sister had tears streaming down her face and she was saying," I'm sorry, I'm sorry."  What, huh, I thought?  Then my friend told me that her sister had accidently given me her disguised muscle relaxants. I was loaded at the AA convention.”

 

Calen Lucas / Family Wagon:  “We played a concert on Halloween and there was a giant pumpkin on the stage right in the center, where the monitors should be. As we were playing I decided to put one foot up on the pumpkin for dramatic effect. Except that my foot sunk right into the center of the pumpkin, which was hot orange goo under the stagelights.”

 

Abraham Nunez / Team Abraham: “At our Record Release Party (@ the Casbah) in March, we were mid-set when I suddenly see two bras hanging from the mic stand. One was very sexy the other was fairly large and sturdy. This was fine and I kept playing and all, but mid the next song, I see some boxers being passed down toward the stage... they we're flannel and I could smell them as they were being placed, by a fan, onto the mic stand. I wasn't sure how to respond...”

 

Eric Schauer: “Strangest thing?  A gig at a dirty dive called "The Double Down" in Las Vegas with my surf band on 6/6/06. We were playing surf instrumental versions of Black Sabbath tunes.  Before we played, there was a side-show troupe. Their act included a young lady bending over and shooting darts from her ----- and popping balloons that were taped to a man's chest about 20ft away. That's not too disgusting, right?  There were fire-breathers and our hula-hoopist was topless and donned in red paint and devil horns. We were set up on the floor and some girl in the audience kept taunting her and knocking her hoop down as we played.  Finally, the hula-hoopist snapped, lept out of the hoop in mid-hula onto this girl and proceeded to beat her down.  The band played on as the bouncers broke it up. I’ve seen a few girl-fights with this band at this bar. This one definitely sticks out.”      

 

Anna Troy: “On stage at Lestats, I was singing a song with a friends band when a piece of hair went into my mouth. It was uncomfortable, but I waited until between songs to pull it out, complete with spit. Not very graceful, but it had to be done. For some reason the guys in the band loved it. The bassist said it was the highlight of the night.”

 

Jaime Valle: “Years ago, I was playing an underground Tijuana night club, it was a hot summer night, the band was jamming, the joint was jumping, suddenly, someone shoots the bass player. The bullet was aimed at the singer, missed and hit the poor bassist. All the cats in TJ know who I'm talking about.”

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UPSTAGING APPLE'S iTUNES: Electrical engineers go head to head with Genius on music playlists

UC San Diego engineers use their song-annotating algorithms to study playlists

VIDEO: Electrical engineers at UC San Diego have created a new kind of music search engine that actually listens to music. This approach could help bands like Juna and S03 (both...

Click here for more information.

Electrical engineers recently pitted Genius – the music recommendation system in Apple's iTunes – against two experimental music recommender systems. Genius appears to capture acoustic similarities among songs within the same playlist, the researchers found. The University of California, San Diego electrical engineers also discovered that the music recommender they built from scratch can generate song playlists that human subjects thought were as good as those that Genius generates. The UC San Diego system works for songs that Genius knows nothing about.

UC San Diego electrical engineering Ph.D. student Luke Barrington presented these findings on October 28 at the 2009 International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR 2009) in Kobe, Japan. (Read the paper at: http://cosmal.ucsd.edu/cal/pubs/Barrington-Genius-ISMIR09.pdf

"Our goal is to make a music recommendation tool that is as good as or better than Genius, but that does not require massive amounts of user data. The system we are developing can analyze and recommend completely unknown songs by new bands as accurately as it analyzes the most popular hits," said Barrington, who used the same underlying technology to create a series of music discovery games for Facebook (http://herdit.org) and a new kind of music search engine that will be available for beta testing next week (http://herdit.org/music/index.html). Watch a three minute video about the new music search engine at: http://cse-ece-ucsd.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-music-search-engine-on-way.html

Tools for creating automated music playlists are increasingly useful now that huge numbers of songs are available for download and streaming to anyone with an Internet connection. iTunes – the most popular music retailer on the planet – has sold more than 6 billion tracks. Genius uses "collaborative filtering" on these purchase statistics to help people organize their music and discover new songs they might like based on similarity to a "seed" song that they do like.

By averaging statistics about how millions of listeners purchase and play music, Genius appears to actually capture acoustic similarities between songs, according to the new research, which involved human evaluation of music recommendation systems and was led by researchers at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Because Genius is a proprietary system whose secrets are not available to the public, the researchers studied it by testing its song recommendations against comparable song suggestions from experimental music recommender systems that they fully understood.

IMAGE: Electrical engineers recently pitted Genius -- the music recommendation system in Apple's iTunes -- against two experimental music recommender systems. Genius appears to capture acoustic similarities among songs within the...

Click here for more information.

"At first we thought that collaborative filtering would just spot similar artists: if you like Daft Punk, it might recommend any song by Justice. However, we found that acoustic similarities come through in Genius playlists. Genius seems to find correspondences between songs that go beyond what you get by just matching artists. We don't think Genius actually knows anything about the acoustics of songs, but it still produces great recommendations since the data it is using is built upon acoustic analyses of the music done by millions humans," said Luke Barrington, an electrical engineering Ph.D. candidate at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, and the first author of the new study. Gert Lanckriet, an electrical and computer engineering professor from UC San Diego and Reid Oda, an undergraduate in cognitive sciences at UC San Diego are co-authors on this paper, available at: http://cosmal.ucsd.edu/cal/pubs/Barrington-Genius-ISMIR09.pdf

Smarter than Genius?

The UC San Diego researchers found that the playlist generator they built using their own algorithms performed as well as Genius under certain conditions. In contrast to Genius, which uses information about the songs people buy and listen to in iTunes in order to learn which songs in any iTunes library are related, the UCSD music recommender relies on auto-tagging algorithms that use machine learning to label songs with descriptive words based only on the acoustic content of the songs.

"Our computer system works by listening to the music – it doesn't know anything about artists or albums or charts. In some trials of our survey, we tried to remove these biases from the human listeners by hiding the names of the songs and artists and making sure that subjects liked the seed songs but had not heard them before," said Barrington. In these cases, the researchers found that people liked playlists generated by the UCSD auto-tagging algorithms as often as they liked Genius playlists.

This partial parity with Genius underscores how the UCSD auto-tagging algorithms can be used to generate high quality music playlists that incorporate lesser-known and unknown songs. Genius currently ignores relatively unknown songs because it lacks adequate wisdom from iTunes customers about how these songs connect to other songs. Systems like the auto-tagging music algorithms developed at UC San Diego could be useful in filling in the "blind spots" in Genius and other collaborative filtering systems that rely on the wisdom of the masses to generate playlists.

"We weren't expecting our system to beat Genius at making playlists based on the most popular songs – our system doesn't know about artists, popularity, release dates, albums or anything else that the average music fan is aware of. Once we add that information in, we think we can build something that is really smarter than Genius," said Barrington.

Music Games are Serious Research

The UCSD electrical engineers are always improving their auto-tagging algorithms thanks to a series of music discovery games they created for Facebook called Herd It (http://www.herdit.org/). Players listen to songs and compete with other online players to most accurately describe the songs they are listening to. The electrical engineers use the song-word combinations these games generate to improve the accuracy and breadth of their auto-tagging algorithms.

As with the Herd It games, the surveys the engineers created to study playlists also began with humans listening to a song clip. Next, the survey system produced two competing five-song playlists for the same seed song. Playlists were generated by one of the four possible recommender systems the researchers were studying: Genius; Artist Similarity – a music recommender that selected songs based only on similar artists; Similar Tags – a music recommender that selected songs based only on the audio content of the songs (this system was built upon the UCSD auto-tagging algorithms); or random playlist.

For each pair of playlists, subjects identified the list they thought was better. Playlists were built from the authors' personal music library of over 12,000 relatively popular songs that span the most common genres of Western popular music. The list of songs used to seed playlists is available at: http://cosmal.ucsd.edu/cal/projects/playlist/

People are moving more and more to streaming music, where listeners don't have the actual file. With access to every song on You Tube, deciding which of the 10 million songs you want to listen to next can be daunting.

"Playlists are an increasingly important tool for overcoming what otherwise might be an overwhelming amount of streaming music," said Barrington.

New Music Search Technologies

The algorithms that automatically tag songs with descriptive words that are at the foundation of the UC San Diego playlist generator are also powering a new breed of search engine for music as well as Facebook games that provide researchers with the information needed to improve the new search engine. To watch a video highlighting the capabilities of the new music search engine, go to: http://cse-ece-ucsd.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-music-search-engine-on-way.html

This search engine will be available for beta testing next week. Register for the music search engine beta test at: http://herdit.org/music/

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SPORTS ARENA MVP SPILLS ON 2.5 MIL REDO AND NEW ARENA NIGHTCLUB

“We’re putting two and a half million dollars in the building” says Ernie Hahn, General Manager of the Sports Arena for the past 13 years. “It’s been a year since AEG Live became a majority owner partner and, since there’s no new arena being built for awhile in San Diego, AEG is modernizing the facility with creature comforts like LCD TV screens, flat screens, redoing the entrances and the outer concourse, paint and colors and lighting, and all new lower level seats. The eight rows of riser seats at the Arena that have literally been here since day one are all getting replaced, [with] 2,200 state-of-the-art seats.” 

 

Construction has also begun on “a special club for our sponsors and club seat holders,” in the old Arena Club space, set to open later this year. Club 3500 (the facility’s address) will be 6,500 square feet, with a 350-person occupancy and accessed via membership only. “When you walk in,” says Hahn, “it’s going to feel like a downtown club, really swank, hip, and sophisticated. It’ll be close to a dedicated seating section at stage right, which will be put aside for our club members.”

 

Annual membership is $2,450.00, with the option to purchase up to four “dedicated seating” tickets for events you want to opt-in for. Other perks include VIP parking, a VIP entrance, and its own “Exclusive men’s and women’s rest rooms, with sound in them, new paint, mirrors, sinks, and counters, and stalls. The Arena Club in the past always had to utilize the rest rooms that are also available to anybody in [sections] A, B or C on the floor.”

 

 Hahn is also outfitting Club 3500 with Arena memorabilia. “Few houses have this kind of history,” he says. “A lot of people saw their first concert here. We’ll have over 120 pictures showing the actual [Sports Arena] history, like Pink Floyd in ‘74, or the Stones in ’72. I’ve got a great shot of Elton John, one of Elvis in ‘73 or ‘76, and I think a Led Zeppelin ‘75 shot. We have a great photo of James Brown here in 1967, and one of John Denver in the mid-seventies, which I particularly like.”

 

The 42 year-old Hahn grew up in locally, with parents who were Mariners season ticket holders in the ‘70s (“Lower level one, two seats on the end, across from the visiting penalty box”). He began at the facility as an event coordinator in June 1991.

 

AEG runs, operates, or is involved with around a hundred arena facilities worldwide, though Hahn notes “We’re an open building. So, whether it’s Live Nation or AEG or anyone else, all shows are not only welcome but encouraged here.”

 

As for selling naming rights to the building (after a short-lived stint at the iPayOne Center), Hahn says “Through the global partnerships division of AEG, we’re working with a lot of sponsors, some who just recently stepped up, and we’re in discussions with a couple who will hopefully bid or ultimately come in as a naming rights partner.”  

 

AEG sold naming rights for Berlin’s 02 Arena last year for $37.5 million.

And now, courtesy of Bart Mendoza, here are 15 video clips set at the Sports Arena, some pro-shot and some fan-made ----

1)      Tribal Seeds @ Reggae Fest 2008

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONzQ-w7zr84

2)      Fleetwood Mac / “Dreams” 05/31/09 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eXXAth0i74

3)      Metallica / “Enter Sandman” 01-13/14-92 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYlPUNEwGRU

4)      Nirvana / “Heart Shaped Box” 12 29 93 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVGpbtv2mgU

5)      U2 / “Beautiful Day” 09 28 05 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HhnRBOMJhY

6)      George Micheal / “Careless Whisper” 06/17/08 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml1Qlpn_LQ8

7)      Led Zeppelin Comes to San Diego on SD News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APplenzzKk4

8)      Taylor Swift / “Hey Stephan” (really good footage of her interacting with concert crowd at 2:30 – kind of daring actually…

       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI4e8_fn80k

9)      AC/DC / “Back In Black” 2009

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiWX-7khEog

10)  Janet Jackson / ….. (Janet gets overwhelmed by San Diego fan response)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcosWOI-dOs

       11) Pearl Jam / “Jeremy” 1995 – not great pic quality, but really good sound!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCOZoUcPANI

12)  JJ Cale & Eric Clapton / “Cocaine” 03/15/07

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg63-uOgUJ8

13)  P.O.D. / “Boom” (just 8 seconds worth!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXEzvQtnC9w

14)  Ozzy Osbourne / …end of the show (fake gunshots!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUpDN1gOx5s

15)  Slayer / At the Sports Arena 1992 (a brief parking lot clip shot by a fan!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H_9zhpMDHY

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ElvisDieAd

WHY MEXICANS HATED ELVIS!

elvismex12 May 1959: While Elvis Presley’s popularity in the U.S. was arguably at its all-time peak, Mexico was in the midst of a huge anti-Elvis backlash.

Tijuana tabloids called him a racist and homosexual, after the singer reportedly told gossip columnist Federico de León “I’d rather kiss three black girls than a Mexican.” A Mexican woman in the same column was quoted saying “I’d rather kiss three dogs than one Elvis Presley.”

Mexican Radio Exitos read de León’s column over the air and spearheaded a boycott of the “insolent artist,” while the powerful student group Federación Estudiantil Universitaria (FEU) held public record burnings.

ElvisMex20 When Elvis’ movie King Creole screened in May 1959 at the Américas Cinema in Mexico City, newspapers who’d advertised the film under the title Melodía Siniestra (Sinister Melody) reported a “riot” occurring.

Mexican counterculture novelist Parménides García Saldaña wrote a short story, “El rey criollo,” about the screening where several hundred gatecrashers reportedly shredded the seats and threw lit papers onto patrons from the balcony.

“Before the film began,” wrote Saldaña, “it was pure chaos, a f-ing riot as they say more vulgarly. The different gangs shouted ‘Here the Guerrero [neighborhood],’ ‘Here the Roma’ …And then some chicks come in with leather jackets with swastikas painted on them, pony tails and bobby socks, real rock and roller like…a group of guys gang up around them [and shout] “‘Dance!’”

elvismex16 Mexican reporters suggested Elvis’ hip-wiggling and mannerisms proved he was either maricón (homosexual) or actually a woman in reverse-drag.

The movie Los chiflados del rock’n roll, a musical spoof, was promoted with posters showing Elvis in drag, being shot by rifle-toting men in sombreros, under a banner reading “Die Elvis Presley!”

The book “Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture” (Berkeley: University of California Press, c1999) claims the original Elvis quote was fabricated. According to author Eric Zolov, “Herbe Pompeyo of Polygram Records in Mexico City claims that a high-up Mexican political figure wanted to contract Presley for a private party, for which he sent the performer a blank check to fill in as he wished.

elvismex5 Presley, according to the story, returned the blank check, so the politico, extremely offended, invented the storyline about Elvis not liking Mexican women.”


elvismex4

Who could have imagined that, four decades later, Mexico would be producing more Elvis velvet paintings than any other region in the world…

elvismex3

…not to mention giving us “El Vez, the Mexican Elvis….”

elvismex15

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Many of the artists from Revolutionary Comics, Rock 'N' Roll Comics, and Carnal Comics have joined forces once again to work on a new & unusual comic and reality based project – The Obama Nation Card Game! 

Obama Nation makes good-natured fun of politics, republicans and democrats, government spending and the US economic meltdown.  It’s a bit like playing Old Maid or Go fish, but half the fun is looking at and reading the hilarious card art – all very tongue in cheek.  Though it’s called Obama Nation, the game makes fun of consumers, banks, environmentalists, the elite, congress in general and both political parties, all in a fairly good natured way.  The goal of the game is to see if you can spend Billions of tax dollars faster than your opponents,

Former Rev Com artist  (and Obama Game art director) Steve Crompton described how it all came together; ”It’s a bit like a cross between wacky packages, Old Maid and some of the stuff Revolutionary Comics might have done if they made card games.  I thought it would be fun to get the old gang together for something like this, and I needed all the help I could get, so I contacted everyone I could find and I’m really happy with the response and great art I got from my Rev Com & Carnal pals.”

A quick look at the 54 card deck shows reveals an impressive list of RevCom & Carnal alums, including Lyndal Ferguson, Scott Jackson, Steve Crompton, Brad Foster, Gus Norman, Randy Vogel and Philo.  There may even be a few others hiding in the set as a complete list of all the RevCom artists is hard to come by. 

The full-color 54 card deck comes in a resealable box for a only $7.99. 
http://shop.twistedrules.com/ 

You can also get it at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/shops/carnalcomics

http://www.obamanationcardgame.com/  

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WHY AL KOOPER HATES LOCAL WRITERS (BUT LOVES SAN DIEGO)

Al Kooper

Legendary keyboardist Al Kooper has played with Dylan, the Stones, George Harrison and countless others, but he still has time to beef about local music reporters like Buddy Blue and a certain Reader columnist... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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ANYA MARINA GETS STONED!

Rollingstone.com has added Anya Marina to their "breaking artist" profiles - http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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concert12 THE BEATLES IN SAN DIEGO

 8-28-65 – the Beatles: For the Beatles' one and only local appearance, at Balboa Stadium, radio station KCBQ declared that Saturday "Beatle Day" and gave out pins saying so to attendees. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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 UNEXPECTED BEATLES ART - The Fab Four turn up in the oddest places... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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yogi12

MAHARISH COMIX AND STORIES, OR "YOGI MAKES A BOO-BOO"

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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wb25   wb31    

WEIRD BEATLES MERCHANDISE - WTF were these licensors (and bootleggers) thinking... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/feb/06/my-brunch-with-yoko-plus-weird-beatles


lennon4    

MY BRUNCH WITH YOKO - Brunch with a Beatle bride... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/feb/06/my-brunch-with-yoko-plus-weird-beatles


yo7  

YOKO ONO COMICS AND STORIES  - When Johnny Met Yoko, with dialogue and captions paraphrased from published Lennon interviews. Plus John Lennon: A Life in the Day

... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/feb/06/my-brunch-with-yoko-plus-weird-beatles


 bea10 bea2 bea3 bea4  

LENNON OR McCARTNEY??  --We asked 25 local performers about their fave Beatle (and why), and got some surprising (and frequently revealing) answers...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/dec/13/we-asked-25-local-musicos-lennon-or-mccartney

  CELEBRITY HOUSE HUNTING IN SAN DIEGO - Real estate broker Jeff Paiste has squired several famous musicians around San Diego in their search for decent digs to lease or rent, including Bread frontman David Gates and the late George Harrison.... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/13/celebrity-house-hunting-in-san-diego

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 JOEY MOLLAND/BADFINGER INTERVIEW - Badfinger's last man standing, Joey Molland, reveals more about the tragic story of Badfinger, as well as meeting and working with John Lennon, George Harrison, and Todd Rundgren, plus the Concert for Bangladesh, and more.  http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/aug/21/x-jam-cancellation-controversy-plus-how-i-snuck-in/


The Dream Is OverTHE DAY JOHN LENNON WAS SHOT - Local celebs share their recollections of December 8, 1980, plus guest essays from Al Kooper (who was recording with George Harrison that day) and others....  http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/25/john-lennon-12-8-1980-we-ask-local-celebs-where-we/


lego-let-it-be-300x300.jpg

LEGO ALBUM COVER RECREATIONS! Those wacky kidsters at toyzone.com put together this great tribute to OCD Legoholics everywhere... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/jan/29/the-return-of-black-heart-procession-plus-anya-mar

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st2

Exclusive preview and new interview with one of the creators/performers behind the new internet Trek series - click for more ---http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2009/oct/04/happy-rons-hormonal-harem---loving-san-diegos-musi/#

READER EXCLUSIVE - For the first time anywhere on the web, here's the promo trailer for Star Trek: The Continuing Mission, episode six: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/audioclips/66/

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deep36

The Twilight Zone made it's TV debut 50 years ago, on 10-2-59 - we asked local musicos to tell us their own favorite Zone episodes --- (more "What's Your Favorite Twilight Zone?" )

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black75

THE ROCKETEER AND OTHER FAMOUS '80S COMICS BEGAN RIGHT HERE IN SAN DIEGO - Here's a detailed history of local Pacific Comics, who recruited comic superstars like Jack Kirby to create one of the first successful indie comic book lines. Pioneers in the fight for comic creators' rights and royalties, former employees and operators reveal how they did it, and what went so terribly wrong...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/08/pacific-comics-the-inside-story-jay-allen-sanford


 

kissart

THE KOMPLETE KISS KOMIX KRONICLES - Comprehensive collection of stuff I’ve done about working with Kiss on a comic book series in San Diego, along with a bunch of never-before-seen artifacts from the Kiss Komix archives AND an article by Kiss comic author Spike Steffenhagen, offering his own very-different take, ala Rashomon, on the same events I describe in my essay...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/12/komplete-kiss-komix-kronicles


RockComicHist1RockNrollComicsTributeArtSansLogos

ROCK 'N' ROLL COMICS: THE INSIDE STORY - In 1989, San Diego's Revolutionary Comics ("Unauthorized And Proud Of It") launched Rock 'N' Roll Comics, featuring unlicensed biographies of rock stars, most of which I wrote. Some performers, like Frank Zappa and Kiss, were supportive, while others like New Kids On The Block considered our comics akin to bootlegs and sued. In June 1992, publisher Todd Loren was found dead in his San Diego condo, brutally murdered...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/12/rock-n-roll-comics-the-inside-story


ac42ac43

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK VS REVOLUTIONARY COMICS - The inside story of how a hugely successful boy band tried to sue local-based Rock 'N' Roll Comics over an unauthorized biography of the group, sparking a court case that established, for the very first time, first amendment rights for comic books. Illustrated by comic superstar Stuart Immonen (Superman, etc.)...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/13/new-kids-on-the-block-versus-revolutionary-comics


carn23.psd

OVER A MILLION CARNAL COMICS ARE IN PRINT - Here's how and why we made some of the top-selling erotic comics of all time, right here in San Diego, including what Gene Simmons has to do with it all, backstage tales of porn stars, and more confessions of a comic pornographer...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/08/carnal-comics-the-inside-story-jay-allen-sanfor


ac105ac123

COMICS AND CENSORSHIP - DON'T BE AFRAID, IT'S ONLY A COMIC BOOK - A local-centric history of comic book censorship, and the fight for the rights of comic creators...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/06/comics-and-censorship-a-local-centric-illustrated


deep38joblog50 joblog51

TWILIGHT ZONE AND STAR TREK WRITER GEORGE CLAYTON JOHNSON PRESENTS - The inside story of a local horror comic book series featuring Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, plus sci-fi king Larry Niven, Zap Comix co-founder Spain Rodriguez, Matthew Alice artist Rick Geary, Vampire Lestat painter Daerick Gross, yours truly JAS, and many more...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/05/deepest-dimension-terror-anthology-twilight-zone


im51

THE BIRTH OF IMAGE COMICS: INSIDE STORY OF A LOCAL PUBLISHING POWERHOUSE - Illustrated tale revealing how Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and local comic artist Jim Lee (the Punisher, etc.) conspired to create the ultimate creator-owned comic books...

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/03/the-birth-of-image-comics-an-illustrated-history


 Down the Slippery Slope - Arrested For the Crime of Viewing Manga

On March 30, 2004, when Dwight Whorley found the Japanese website of Fractal Underground Studio via Yahoo and clicked on a couple of the thumbnail images... ( http://comipress.com/special/miscellaneous/down-the-slippery-slope-the-crime-of-viewing-manga )



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"Before It Was The Gaslamp: Balboa's Last Stand" - Cover story 6-21-07: In the late 70s/early 80s, I worked at downtown San Diego's grindhouse all-night movie theaters, for the owner of the Pussycat Theatre chain, Vince Miranda - this detailed feature recalls those dayz, the death of the Balboa Theatre, etc.

More Before It Was the Gaslamp

 

"Battle Of The Peeps" - feature article about a weird gig I had in the mid-'80s, running a strip club called Jolar, for the nation's second biggest pornographer, Harry Mohney (Deja Vu Showgirls founder).

More Battle of the Peeps - An Insider History of San Diego Porn Shops

"Field Of Screens" - Cover story 7-6-06: Complete theater-by-theater history of San Diego drive-ins thru the years, including a few which screened X-rated fare for awhile.

More Drive-In Theaters in San Diego: Complete Illustrated History 1947 thru 2008

 kat104 

"Pussycat Theaters - When 'Cathouses Ruled California" -- for the first time, the detailed inside story of the west coast Pussycat Theater chain of adult moviehouses, which peaked in the '70s but later died out. Told by those who actually ran the theaters!

More Pussycat Theater History: When Cathouses Ruled CA

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Jay Allen  Sanford  More Music on the Reader Website:

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Like this blog? Here are some related links:

OVERHEARD IN SAN DIEGO - Several years' worth of this comic strip, which debuted in the Reader in 1996: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/photos/galleries/overheard-san-diego/

FAMOUS FORMER NEIGHBORS - Over 100 comic strips online, with mini-bios of famous San Diegans: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/photos/galleries/famous-former-neighbors/

SAN DIEGO READER MUSIC MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/sandiegoreadermusic

JAY ALLEN SANFORD MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/jayallensanford

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