The San Diego Reader and moral dilema.

I realized I was about to write quite a bit, and I wanted to make a completely separate post about this. My post about Larry Harmon who writes for the Reader prompted some responses that got me thinking.

The original post is here.

One response was: "I do not feel so inclined to trust Larry's musical opinions because I do not think a responsible commentator of subculture would write for The Reader."

I didn't know this, but the owner of the Reader is a large contributor to anti-abortion campaigns among other things.

Here's an article from Sign on San diego that was posted:
"Parental notice bankrolled by weekly's owner"
and one from a Planned Parenthood site
"Publisher funds anti-abortion measure"

My Response: "I would hardly call Larry "responsible." Nor would I refer to him as a "commentator of subculture." That assigns some sort of responsibility. Larry Harmon doesn't have an agenda. He likes drugs, alcohol, and punk rock music. He used to work writing fake sex letters for porno magazines. Satanism is a pretty consistent theme in his Genetic Disorder zine. I don't fucking trust him, but I like him. He's funny. He's pissed off countless readers in each of the forums he's written in, and I'm sure the number will grow, but I think that's a good thing. He's a black spot in a sea of white. San Diego is far and wide a conservative predominantly christian republican city. San Diego is the 6th largest city in the country and The Reader is the 3rd largest weekly in the country. The fact that Larry has been allowed to write for them is an accomplishment in and of itself. I'm not saying Larry is an activist or has any political/religious convictions. He's a writer, and the Reader is the biggest game in town. When the Reader ran a cover story on abortion headlined "What Becomes of San Diego County's 20,000 Fetuses Each Year," and anti-abortion groups were allowed to run full-page ads with photos of fetuses, it "outraged the Reader staff and remains a nearly taboo topic at the paper." But they didn't quit. There wasn't a protest. It hasn't been boycotted. I think that if they were told what to write, or not allowed to write what they want, they'd have quit. So, are you selling out for contributing to a weekly paper that funds the anti-abortion Prop 85. Yeah, probably. Most of San Diego doesn't have any problem with that. However, wouldn't it be rad to write about dealing drugs, satan, and a band called Heroin in some fucking looney Christian fanatic's weekly magazine."

Then I read up a little more, and I got to thinking, but still thought I should be cautious with my words. Abortion is such a freakin' touchy subject, and even the most seemingly uncouth of your friends might surprise you with some deep seeded convitctions. You really can't make assumptions about what people believe.

The next response: "Rich males telling women what to do with their bodies...it's a BIG DEAL to me as a woman. I didn't call Larry a sell out. I'm sure he's a swell guy. I have no personal opinion of him just that I feel writing for the Reader is irresponsible no matter who the person is or their gender. Jim Holman is a monster and I feel very strongly about that. How quaint, that an alternative newspaper is not allowed to have open discourse over their owner's political machine. Apathy is Jim Holman's best friend and a woman's worst nightmare."

Woah. wait a minute. I had to ask myself. Am I being apathetic or dismissive?
In general, I didn't mean to be apathetic, the fact that the owner of the Reader provided the majority of the funding for the yes on Prop. 85 campaign was news to me. Proposition 85 would have required minors to notify their parents before having an abortion. It was in fact defeated, I think mostly based on the idea that for some children, notifying parents might create a dangerous situation. The issue was not whether or not they would be allowed to have one, but I know Holman is an avid pro life supporter.

Therein lies the dilemma. So, maybe you don't agree with his politics. I believe everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and opinions. However, do you want to help pay for a campaign you don't support? Is your readership helping support the pro-life campaign? Is limiting your convictions to not buying ad space in the Reader or working for the Reader a cop out? Is the solution for the Reader to just go away? How do you make the 3rd largest weekly in the country go away? Do more people know what Holman does with his money? Do employees at The Reader necessarily know? How much have Holman's values affected the content of the paper? Does it matter whether or not the content is affected? How likely is it that both writers and readers just don't know about Holman? Should pro-choice staff at the Reader feel guilty or resign? Have I just not been paying attention? Am I just completely ignorant? If you are pro-choice do you need to stop eating Domino's Pizza, drinking Don Sebastiani wines, and reading the San Diego Reader? ...I don't know.

Just to clarify, I don't think that the quote "a nearly taboo topic at the paper," was intended to mean staff were "not allowed to have open discourse." It's a little too ambiguous to say what that means for the staff at work, or the content of the paper. Also, I think it's an interesting note that the paper had been operating for nearly 16 years before Holman ever got involved with the pro-life campaign. The same article says the paper was modeled on left-wing papers like the Village Voice, and though Holman didn't necessarily have that mind set, he didnt start the Reader for any reason other than to make money. The fact that he spends that money conservative republican politics totally fucking sucks. Why am I just now finding out?

Please, tell me what you think.

"oh, and I bought another Sonic Youth Album. It sucked, it was just noise"

I went and saw Juno last night. Go watch it. It's chock full of music references, a soundtrack that blows fucking Zack Braff's dumb ass out of the water, and a very cute and wonderful little love story that will have couples cuddling on the way out, and the single folks slitting their wrists. The main characters, Juno MacGuff and Paulie Bleeker, are played by Ellen Page and Michael Cera, respectively. Ellen Page (Juno) is absolutely adorable in this (She played Shadowcat in the third X-Men movie, and in some crappy looking street justice To Catch a Predator movie called Hard Candy). She plays a (perhaps unrealistically) charistmatic whip-smart high school junior with razor sharp sense of sarcasm and wit. She gets knocked up after first time sex with sort of boyfriend, played by Michael Cera (the timid kid from Superbad and Arrested Development). He plays the same kind of character in each of his roles, but he plays it well. This is a first for writer Diablo Cody, and I hope it's not the last. The movie ends with the characters performing "Anyone Else But You" originally by the Modly Peaches, which is pretty amazing. "Up Up, Down Down, left right left right, B A, start. Just because we use cheats doesn't mean we're not smart." Genius!



I also saw a trailer for a black and white animated movie called Persepolis based on autobiographical graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi about growing up during the Islamic revolution that looked really good.

If it works out I think they should totally make the graphic novel series, Maus, into movie.

Imperial Teen @ The Casbah.

After about a five year hiatus, Imperial Teen returned to the Casbah on Dec 15th, 2007. Their new album, The Hair the TV the Baby and the Band, is maybe not as dancey as 2002's On, but is the same brand of very underrated power pop/rock that lies somewhere between Belle and Sebastian and the Rentals or Weezer. Beautiful harmonies, delicate melodies, and fuzzy rock-out-without-trying choruses. They're all getting a little older (Roddy's 45), but they are still at it. Roddy and Will are still very hip gay dudes, they were both very sharply dressed. They played stuff from all four albums. Drummer, Lynn Truell, sang lead on a new song "Shim Sham" and gave up percussive duties to Roddy to play bass on a couple of songs during the encore. The place wasn't empty, but it was far from packed, which was actually quite a treat. Everyone there was a very enthusiastic fan, with lots of dancing room. Guitarist Roddy Bottum (former Faith No More Keyboardist) kind of looks like the guy from UCB, Ian Roberts, I think.

You've got to be fucking kidding me.

What the fuck! So, they decide to compile a soundtrack to the movie "Control," the brilliant profile of the life of Joy Division's Ian Curtis. Ok. The soundtrack is filled with great original songs from the period, and some classic Joy Division songs... oh and one Joy Division cover... hmmm.... Sweet, I guess. I mean another Joy Division cover to top off the list of tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of Joy Division covers. The one stop shop for indie credability: a Joy Division cover. Who, pray tell, could be next on the long, tasteless, unoriginal, undistinguished list?

That'd be awesome if it was like the Bravery or the fucking Killers or some lame shit like that...
Wait, no fucking way!
You're kidding right?
What?
The Killers?!
The Fucking KILLERS!?
Oh, Christ I hate the Killers. Every time Brandon Flowers puts his hand on his hip and dips like "I'm a little teapot," I wanna fucking slap him.
The Killers?
How pathetic. Jeeezus.
So much respect and reverence for Ian Curtis and Joy Division, and they get The Killers to cover Shadowplay? Why don't they just get Fall Out Boy to do an acoustic massacre, I mean cover, of like the most covered song ever, by one of the most abused-by-cover band ever, "Love Will Tear us Apart." That'd really shine a light on the memory of Joy Division, really capture the song's spirit you know. Wait, what? No fuck! You have got to be kidding me. That's brilliant. Aww, this is awesome.



The only Joy DIvision covers I've ever liked were when Swing Kids did Warsaw and The Aisler's Set did Walked in Line for John Peel. I heard Xui Xui played a decent live cover of Ceremony, but have never heard it...

The fucking Killers though... man that's hilarious.

David Bazan @ The Casbah

Pedro the Lion quite easily makes my top ten artists of all time list. And yet, I've missed them every time they've played in San Diego for one reason or another. Before Pedro the Lion singer/songwriter, David Bazan, went solo, I drove up to L.A. to see him play acoustic at the Troubadour. I also caught a short turned down set at Off the Record about 4 years ago. I saw Headphones when they played the Casbah, the short lived project that he did with TW Walsh where he played keyboard. Well, now that David Bazan is officially a solo artist, seeing him perform at the Casbah on the 8th of December, was the closest I'd ever get to seeing Pedro the Lion again. I had to go. David Bazan is a master storyteller. He uses fiction to tackle lots of social issues, often religion and politics, even shitty journalism.

He started off with a christmas song. I've forgotten which one, I was still getting a drink, and lack of sleep is wreaking havoc on my short term memory. I do remember the rest of the set. He didn't just play songs from his records as a solo artist. He played "Transcontinental," one of my favorites from Achilles Heel, and "When They Really Get to Know You They Will Run," from 1998's It's Hard to Find a Friend. He also played "Selling Advertising" from the Fewer Moving Parts EP which is an explicit stab at Pitchfork.com, prompting the quote by him "more people need to tell lazy, sloppy journalists to go fuck themselves." The title track from that EP, which he also played, is a bit of an unapologetic, yet regretful, explanation of why he decided to go solo. Less than half of his set was comprised of new songs to be released by this coming summer. He ended with a cover of Hallelujah - A Leonard Cohen song that I had become familiar with through the stylings of Jeff Buckley. If you've heard either version, you'd know it's a pretty ballsy move. Fans of Jeff Buckley will attest to the merciless tear inducing power of his version. There were a couple of girls next to me that were sniffling through most of the set. Yet, many before have failed miserably in an attempt to recreate this effect. Bono, K.D. Lang, Bon Jovi, even Anthony Micheal Hall have all contributed to the long list of terrible versions of Hallelujah. Not surprisingly, David Bazan pulls it off nicely, singing it in his own distinctive voice, as though he himself had written it. As a performer, Bazan is very down to earth and charming. Whenever he plays he asks if anyone has questions while he's tuning or just between songs. In response to a question, he talked about having seen "No Country for Old Men" four or five times so far, some of the shitty jobs he'd held before becoming a musician full time, his daughter...

You can legally download the entire set from a live show (including Q&A sessions) he played on Nov. 4th this year at the Grey Eagle in Asheville, North Carolina, here. It's got a lot of material from his forthcoming album on Barsuk Records.

The Locust, Melt Banana, Sleeping People @ The Epicentre.

On Wednesday Dec 5, '07 I went to the Miramesa Epicenter to see The Locust, Melt Banana, and the Sleeping People. Yip Yip also played, but I just couldn't make it out there in time to see them.

Melt Banana is pretty insane. Definitely the most straightforward rhythmically of the three bands that night, but that doesn't mean shit. They are unrelenting, noisy, and LOUD. They just pound away with a little japanese girl that doesn't weigh more than 100 pounds yipping and screeching her ass off, amid crazy lazer sound guitar effects, blast beats, and thumping bass lines. I was the only one of my friends who thought to wear some sort of ear protection. They were pretty fucked.

Seriously, Brandon Relf and Gabe Serbian, the drummers from Sleeping People and The Locust respectively, have to be the most goddamned talented drummers ever. It's ungodly. Speaking of ungodly, The Locust's live show alternates between sounding like a satanic cult invoking the devil and a fucking bomb Raid. They play a really tight set. There's no witty banter inbetween songs, no wasted time, maybe some quick re-tuning, and go. Consequently, not many people, including myself, really knew where songs ended and began. Inbetween songs, and during rests in songs, the venue was dead fucking silent. It was awesome and kind of eerie. It was an all ages show, and kids are kids, so at the beginning of the set, some eager young Locust fans decided that the people up front had to earn their spots. There was a lot of cannon-balling into the crowd with a good 10 yard running start. Thankfully, it didn't last long. I might be getting too old for some of this shit.

I saw Sleeping People first. Of all the instrumental bands out there that play really mathy ridiculously intricate and complex rhythms that make your head hurt (Tera Melos, Planets, Hella, Lighting Bolt...) they are still one of the most listenable. You can rock out more than just listen with mouth agape in awe of talent you could never in this lifetime achieve yourself. That's what I do most of the time anyway. Brandon played the set wide-eyed and sober looking, which is a departure if you've ever seen him off stage. I think he can play just as well as ever baked out of his mind, or from the bottom of a bottle. It's like magic. Jason Hendrix from the North Atlantic, who played with him in the short lived but highly controversial band Barfer, said of Relf something to the effect of "some days, I don't know how he puts his pants on in the morning... [but] it took me like half an hour just to figure out what he was playing, much less write something to it." The Sleeping People just keep getting better in my opinion. They have some beautifully contrasting changes between really heavy droning parts and really quick plinky beepy picked out parts in some of the new material. Brandon also did something I've never seen before where he scraped the tip of his stick across the bell of the cymbal that made a resonant ringing sound like rubbing the edge of a crystal glass with a wet finger. They just got done touring the U.S. with the Locust (during which I'm sure everyone's heard by now, the Locust got robbed in St. Louis). Now they are touring in Japan, though they may already be back by the time you read this.

Again I had a lot of pictures, but managed to corrupt a memory card with over 300 photos on it. Gone forever.

If you feel so inclined, I think you can still donate to the Locust Relief Fund.

Dissimilars at the Zombie and Larry Genetic talks shop

I don't know what the fuck is up with The Sess playing early at shows at which they are billed to play last or late, and then playing really short sets. It's happened several times now. And not only that, they don't seem to stick around after their own set to see anyone else's. Once was at their own record release show. Pretty fucked, but they do play out a lot, so I guess somehow, that makes up for it in part. They are pretty badass, so it just saddens me each time I go to see them making it to the venue as early as I can, only to find out they've already played. They are playing a shitload more in January, so word to the wise, get there advisedly early. You don't want to miss this band as many times as I have.

Anyway, on Thursday Dec 6th, I walked down to the Zombie Lounge after I got out of practice to see them and the Dissimilars. The Cobra Skulls were setting up as I got there. Incidentally, all of their songs have the word "Cobra" in them. They play punkabilly and a little reggae downbeat stuff. They do it well if that's your cup of tea.

The Dissimilars were next. I saw Chandra, the Scolari's weekend bartender there. Hilariously, the first thing singer Jimmy did when the set started was push his way through the crowd and start thrusting his junk, backing the startled bartender up almost into the next room. Jimmy did his temper tamtrum vocals thing in his tightey-whitey's. I took pictures, but I've been having issues getting the photos from the camera... long story. After the Dissimilars set (which was over by 12:30, pretty early for a bar show), I asked Nathan and Larry from the Dissimilars why the Sess hadn't played, at which point they informed me that the Sess were already set up on stage when The Dissimilars showed up to load in, waiting to play first. "That sucks," I said. They were mostly complacent. "Roll with the punches..." I got into a lengthy discussion with Larry Harmon, long-time author/publisher of Genetic Disorder Zine, about the record industry and local music. He's a contributor to the local music column in the San Diego Reader called Blurt. He recently wrote an article about GSL Records calling it quits. Gsl was spending 4 times as much on press than they were on manufacturing records, and it just got too expensive. Larry commented on just how ridiculous the availability of digital music has gotten. Recently he decided that it would have taken more time and effort to get out of his seat and find a cd from his collection and play it, than it would have been to find it on the internet and download it. So he downloaded it. Larry and I, like many music collectors, have almost entirely excluded our music purchases to vinyl. Cds, and mp3's are just so disposable, the industry is really starting to feel it. Larry said he recently spoke to a friend that works pressing vinyl records, who said that business has been better than ever for vinyl production. "It's like collecting baseball cards," I told him. He then charged me with the responsibility of breaking the news to his younger brother Todd, that upon Larry's death, Todd will not recieve any of his extensive collection of rare out of print records. Larry wants to be buried with them. He doesn't just want them to go in the ground with him, he wants them all to be melted down forming a sarcophagus in which to put his body, like a big goofy marblized King Tut. We went on to talk about hometown crap, and how he hurt his finger shooting with his brothers (both of which regularly carry guns) over Thanksgiving vacation. Anyway, it was good to see Genetic Disorder Larry Harmon writing. Read his stuff in Blurt, and buy Genetic Disorder. You'll thank me later.


Here's the Genetic Disorder bio from Zinewiki.

Wild Weekend and Squiddo @ The Tower Bar

If you read my Blog about the Sessions Fest, I talked about having seen Wild Weekend's first show ever at the Coffee House on Broadway, I recognized that they had some room for growth. I'll admit I don't give a lot of credit to cover bands, and I understood the obvious gimmicky element of an all girl cover band. However, I really like the Zeros and I thought it would be fun. So, I didn't give up and decided to give it a second go at the Tower Bar on Saturday 12/01/07. The show was billed as Wild Weekend, The Sexies, and The Rich White Males. Both The Sexies, and The Rich White Males canceled at the last minute, so Squiddo stepped in to fill one of the spots. I was glad that I had come out because I think much of that growth has come on rather quickly for Wild Weekend. The two girls from The Atoms, Melissa and Kaitlyn, have left the band. No disrespect to Melissa as a drummer, but she's been replaced by Brian Hill (formerly of the Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower and The Prayers), who's quite the bad ass drummer. Kaitlyn has been replaced by Wendy from The Sexies, who is considerably more comfortable with the bass guitar. One description I heard of Kaitlyn's bass playing was "it always looks like she's taking a test," and well Wendy's got a lot of strut to go with her strum. Kelly's coming out of her shell as a performer, she's a lot more mobile, and sang lead on a song ("Leech," which can be heard on her personal myspace page here). Maren's solo's were timed sublimely, which is something that I really couldn't say for the first time around. She knows her way around that big ass yellow hollow body guitar. All three girls are hitting the back up vocals strong and right on queue. Also, they've started writing and playing originals. The originals are speedy pop punk girl shout anthems that remind me a lot of the Soviettes when the girls are singing. You can hear a big difference in Maren's vocals when she sings the originals, they're just a better fit, more natural. Wild Weekend is a much tighter, more engaging band than before, and I hope to hear more good things.

I'd seen Squiddo play before, and they made a much stronger impression on me this time too. I wonder if Squiddo's bummed about the covers project possibly overshadowing their own. The funny thing is, I think that Squiddo songs sound more like Zeros music than the Wild Weekend originals. Actually that makes a lot of sense considering Hector Penalosa, one of the original members of the Zeros, is in Squiddo. It's kind of a weird situation altogether.

Now that Brian Hill is drumming, this puts Wild Weekend ahead of The Vultures and The Prayers as my favorite post-Plot project (Mostly because I refuse to buy into the hype). I gave the Prayers a good long listen, and that Madonna cover just gets on my god damned nerves. I don't dislike the Vultures, I just don't see what all the fuss is about.

In other news: I am super bummed about having missed some really good shows recently: M.I.A., Jay Reatard, The Walkmen, Calico Horse, Repeater... next time.

November Shows Recap (it's never too late)

It's been a really busy and kind of stressful month. The holidays are hard on me for a number of reasons. Either way, I made it out to a few shows this month before I had to start traveling. I got back into town on the 29th. Before I left I think I made it to something like 8 shows and 12 bands in 11 days. Hmph. Anyway, here is a recap of all the November shows I attended.

Note: I only listed the bands I actually saw, not necessarily all the bands that played. Also, I took some really shitty pictures with my phone, and have since fixed my digital camera. I will soon be buying a new one as well.

11/08 Thursday - Swim Party @ The Ken Club

This was the One Year Anniversary for Sd Dialed In. I got there late didn't see Writer or Pocket Utopia. Swim Party was good. I had only heard myspace snippets before, but I enjoyed them live. They reminded me of what I what consider "classic" indie rock, like Yo La Tengo, or Guided By Voices. They got a nomination for Best Alternative Album at last year's San Diego Music Awards. A friend of mine who's only a few years younger than me said she felt like she was the youngest person there. The crowd was a little older, but I hadn't really noticed til she pointed it out. That night I also accomplished putting a face to the name behind SdDialedIn Rosey, when Swim Party tried to get her on stage. Go to SdDialedIn for more pictures and words on Rosey's blog, where she says " I don't think there's any band that I've written about on my site more than Swim Party."

11/09 Friday - Stars @ House of Blues

Canadian indie pop/rock is awesome. Stars is kind of at the forefront of what people like to call the Canadian Invasion. At least three of their members are part of the Canadian collective ubergroup, Broken Social Scene. They can be a little cheesy at times, but very catchy nonetheless. Throughout the show they kept throwing flowers into the crowd. They play the kind of songs that are familiar after the first listen. They played as a six piece, there was a lot of lush delicate instrumentation and really pretty arrangements to compliment the dual male/female vocals. It's just really pretty music.

11/09 Friday - Cabron, Fascination @ The Alibi

Stars ended pretty early, so I made my way to the Alibi in time to watch the last couple of bands. This was a fun show. There was blood, a human auction, weird dudes in overalls, semi nudity, a lot of drunkenness, oh and even some bathroom sex. It was a benefit for the Red Cross organized by the Strike a Match organization for fire victims. I missed Pen and Ink, Death on Mars, and Behind the Wagon. I've never seen Death on Mars before, but am familiar with the other two. Pen and Ink is Cullen Hendrix's band (Ex-North Atlantic, City Beat, Music Matters...). They practice in the same building as my band does, and we've played with them before. They have a strong Sunny Day influence and remind me a lot of Capp'n'Jazz and The Ivory Coast (damn, old school). I've also seen Behind the Wagon before. They are awesome honk-if-you're-honkey-tonk whiskey-drunk-country-rock (say that ten times fast). They stuck around after their set and got fucked up. Those boys like to drink. I did make it in time to see Cabron and The Fascination. Batwings is "tight bros" with both of these bands, we've played with each them a bunch of times. Cabron also practices where we practice. Oh yeah, there was this guy in overalls, the overalls guy... well, my friend Lori put it well: "we notice some dude wearing a one-piece dickies coverall kind of thing. he unzips it, so it's hanging around his waist. During Cabron's soundcheck, he's prancing around like he's ready to fucking rock you know. jumping, throwing a few punches here and there. Carmen, friend who is with me, and I look at each other after spotting him: "THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME!" He was pumped, he kept on doing like Tae-Bo moves and shit, and his coveralls kept falling off his ass. So Cabron had just started when I walked in. Bob, the guitarist, was pretty wasted. At one point he knocked a mic stand down, and on its subsequent path to the ground it shattered though my aforementioned friend, Lori's drink, cutting her hand pretty badly, and also hitting her in the head. Their intoxication lent itself to very enthusiastic stage show, they were all drunk and pissed. I think Bob cut his arms up rolling around on the floor with the broken glass that he had made as well. Between sets, Billy from Behind the Wagon got auctioned off by the night's totally wasted MC, Todd Price, for five bucks. The young lady that bought him didn't waste a lot of time getting her money's worth. I'll leave it at that. The Fascination were in good form. They played their fancy dancey brit pop complete with disco lights, and Robin hopped around in his white boots. Forrest and Merwan played a rock solid set, and Merwan stripped down to his underoos. Kickass standard Fascination fare.

11/10 Saturday - The Hives, Feist, Vhs or Beta @ 4th and B

Not a big fan of the venue, but I am a fan of Leslie Feist's voice, it's really powerful and expressive. Unfortunately like her albums, a live show for Feist is a tragic pairing of a few really amazing and catchy songs, and a whole bunch of slow boring ones. She's a great guitarist as well as vocalist, it's just too bad her music plays like adult contemporary. The backing band looked suicidal, they were so damn bored. VHS or Beta are a good band, but I still thought they were kind of boring too. I think mostly, they are just not my cup of tea. Some might say it's blasphemy, but I think I've had my fill of shoegazer wannabe brit pop. Cure fans would most definitely dig them, I just thought that there were too many people on stage to be playing such simple music. Also, I don't think it's an accident how much the vocalist, Craig Pfunder, sounds like Robert Smith. The Hives are pure gimmick in the best way, they know how to put on a show. That said, if you've heard one Hives song, you've heard them all. I knew what to expect musically. The stuff from the new album sounds just like the stuff from the old albums, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The beer was was expensive and the mosh pit (yes there was a mosh pit) was fucking annoying. There were a couple of jocks with no shirts trying to start fights.

11/11 Sunday - Hostile Combover @ The Zombie Lounge

Shamefully, I had no idea who had opened the show at the time. I got there as Hostile Comb-Over was setting up. If you've never seen them, prepare yourself for heavy riffs, jarring changes, beards, dual yelling/bellowing vocals, and veins popping out of Ben Johnson's neck and John Cota's head. The two bands I had missed were two San Francisco bands called Bottom and Floating Goat.

11/13 Tuesday - King Khan and BBQ Show @ The Pink Elephant

There were a shitload of people there. Among others, I saw members of The Atoms, The Sess, Dissimilars, Slab City, The Spits, The Corvinas, Rich White Males, and of course three of us from Batwings were there. I also saw Troy Johnson (formerly of Fox Rox and City Beat), and Foundation Skateboards' own Josh Beagle. King Khan and BBQ play stripped down, stomped out, doo-wop meets punk rock. Mark Sultan, or BBQ, actually has a really good voice. He plays guitar while playing a kick and snare with foot pedals bare-footed. King Khan plays most of the lead guitar parts and sings back-up vocals. Things got good and rowdy. I like the Pink Elephant, it's a nice bar, and Pabst and Tecate cans are only 2 bucks, but it isn't really suited all that well for a packed house show.

11/16 Friday - Beatmo, The Predicates @ Scolari's Office

I have to be honest, the only reason I ended up at this show is because I was killing time before meeting up with a friend. I looked up all the bands on myspace. In an email, a friend warned, "Beatmo - they're stylish and interesting, but they're missing something. they need more rock or something. The songs start off good, but then they get boring. and i don't like her voice either. it's unpleasant. also, listened to The Predicates -- didn't like them. boring and both their voices were extremely nasally." I felt similarly about both bands. Beatmo is an east LA six-piece consisting of four guys and two girls. After looking up Beatmo and seeing them in action, I felt like someone in Beatmo must have taken a marketing class or something. It was either that, or someone put them together like P-Diddy and Da Band or whatever. Either way, they seem like they are in it to win it. They've got a bunch of professional promo photos in matching outfits on their myspace profile. They even brought along this pornstar looking hooker-boot-wearing merch girl. I'm sure she was just a friend of the band, but I calls 'em like I sees 'em. They are all young, fresh faced, good looking Latinos, and naturally, they have a gorgeous eye-candy front-woman named Alexis. I was sitting in the back near where they had their merch set up, and each time she passed me she would say "excuse me," or "thanks hun," and rub my arm up and down, or my knee back and forth, you know very affectionately... too affectionately. That kind of irritated me, because I knew it didn't mean what that kind of thing ought to mean, she was just being a fucking a flirt. Marketing. Maybe my reaction was supposed to be, "Oh dood, that girl lust rubbed my leg, I'm going to go talk to her, maybe buy a t-shirt or something... well, just as soon as she's done rubbing up on those three other guys" It could have been that she was just really nice and a little touchy-feely, but it felt like she was working the room, and I like my own space. I think if it were the other way around and a man was doing that to all the girls in the room, they'd get their ass kicked. The crowd was totally into them. They have some Spanglish words and song titles that went over really well. They are really talented, and they play a tight set. A couple of the guys are multi-instrumentalists... but somehow it still feels like there is just a little something missing. The crowd asked for an encore, and I think they played an extra song. That's a little awkward for an opener to do, and pretty shitty for the other bands. Decide for yourself, they play the San Diego Sports Club on Dec. 8th.

The Predicates are total fucking cheesballs. This was supposed to be their cd release show. Their third album is called "Wicked Smart," a follow up to "Dissin' Treez" which featured such gems as "Taco Bell." You say Po-tay-to, I say puh-tah-to. You say witty and talented, I say joke songs haven't been cool since Cheshire Cat. I didn't think they were very funny or talented. The chorus to one of their songs is "yo quiero taco bell" for crissakes. Maybe I'm being hard on them, maybe I just don't get it. They took a long time between songs and kinda wouldn't shut the fuck up. They are pretty whack. Don't be mad at me though, blame Blink-182. They ruined it for all the marginally talented funny musicians. I had to leave after the first few songs of their set, and I missed The Drowning Men.

11/18 Sunday - The Long and Short of it @ The Pink Elephant

This "Sunday Mass" made it two consecutive Sunday performances for Ben Johnson, who plays drums for Hostile Combover, as well as handling the all the redfaced HR-style vein popping hooting and hollering for The Long and Short of It. They are a bunch of badass Rockevangelists, preaching the word in the form of relentlessly driving and noodley AmRep style post punk. There was a decent crowd gathered for a Sunday afternoon.

P.S. We once played an Anti-Monday League show at the Casbah with them. It was like the second or third Anti-Monday League that Tim Pyles had put together, and so someone at the Daily Aztec, the SDSU newspaper, decided to write and article about it. I just happened to be on campus the day the article ran. There in the Tempo section was a close-up picture of Todd Price of Batwings on the mic with a caption that read "Ben Johnson of the Long and Short of It..." I thought is was hilarious. Unfortunately, throughout the whole article there was no mention of the bands that had played that night they took the photo, with the exception of the incorrect photo caption. But I still think Ben got screwed. Now people think he looks like Todd. Poor guy. Just kidding Todd. Click on the picture to read the article.

11/29/07 Thursday - Los Esmiths @ The Ken Club

Los Esmiths are from Calexico, a border town just south of where I grew up. They play Smiths and Morrissey covers. Not much more to it. They do an excellent reproduction, so if you like the Smiths... it was good, recommended if you like Smiths, but don't expect anything particularly spectacular. They don't have costumes or pompadours. The singer won't spin around with flowers in his pocket and claim to be asexual or anything. The opener that I missed was an artist named Bez. I have no idea if he just played records or if he has songs or whatever, but he's got some other minimalist electronica project called 01101o. I've met him before, and though I can't say for sure whether or not he is, he seems like a prick, a prick proud to be prick. Either way, a wise old friend once told me "Never trust anyone that thinks they are cool enough to wear sunglasses at night. Only assholes wear sunglasses at night," and Bez wears sunglasses at night. Hey, I don't make the rules...

11/30/07 Friday - Westwind Boys @Scolari's Office

This was another night where I had been busy until really late, and just went to Scolari's to see if I could get a drink or two in before last call. I walked in and said to myself, "What the fuck is going on?" Everyone was drinking Coors Light and wearing backwards baseball caps. The Westwind Boys do really trite rap, white boy Ocean Beach frat boy rap. Rad. That was a weird night.