INCIDENTAL FAILURE.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Shit town.Shit Town?

When I read interviews by bands from San Diego and they are asked about the music scene here, I'm just not sure what/who to believe. Here are a few examples. In an interview with truepunk.com, Reeve Oliver says "...the SD scene is on the rise. It used to be amazing... and it kind of went through a dry spell. ...San Diego scene is pretty small and supportive" In an interview for About.com, Switchfoot said of San Diego, "...bands here are really in it for the music. It's not a scene like in LA or New York -- where people are trying to get a record deal. People here are really trying to make music for the sake of making music." Exactly what part of the San Diego music community does the hugely successful North County christian band Switchfoot play again? I don't know. Tim Pyles is quoted by sandiegopunk.com as having said, "The music scene in San Diego is growing at a rapid rate and the bands keep getting better and better. Were on our way to being a music boom town! Look out! I could easily name 50 quality bands in town right now! The quality is there!" Reading that you might think it's still some sort of Mecca where you'd want to go to start a band, but I'm still not sure. Local band Straight No Chaser (not the Rochester, NY Hardcore band of the same name) said "I think the main area that I would like to see improved is the lack of quality all ages venues. There are a few clubs that aren't terribly band friendly, and that seems very counteractive to growing a solid local music community." Alright, so what do we have going for us? We have Cullen Hendrix music journalist extraordinaire, writing for the SdReader, Sd City Beat, Music Matters, and his own blog Dirtbag's Delight. We've got Rosey working hard at sddialedin. Sandiegopunk.com is still active and accurate. Ok, but where are the Virgil Porters? Does Spence Gooch still live here? Where's Tara Barnes? Is Sandiegocore.com up and operating? I can't find it. Was it ever working? Dan Maier [formerly of Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower and engineer at Audio Design Recording] was interviewed a couple of years ago by Sandiegopunk.com. When asked about the San Diego music scene/community (they like to ask about that), he blamed the accessibility of music via the Internet for decline in show attendance and overall unoriginality. "There is nothing wrong with more kids playing music, but it seems since all these bands are so accessible on the internet, show attendance has dramatically declined. I also think this rush of band exposure, plus the mainstream co-opting the punk sound and image harder than ever, has homogenized the genre on a grand scale. There are more clone bands than ever, and it seems that cities aren't developing their own sound anymore...San Diego has a strong music scene but I think the lack of all-ages venues is really detrimental. There are really no all-ages venues in central San Diego, besides Soma, which is too big for most smaller bands." Also two years ago, Justin Pearson weighed in on online promotion via myspace, saying it is a "lame way to promote your band. That site is a pathetic attempt at mixing youth culture with major label corporate marketing all tied in with fraggle glam and sexual predators." Whereas, Tim Pyles' take was slightly different, "MySpace Rocks! Best networking tool ever! Just look out for pedophiles!...The access to finding out about bands and the bands being able to promote themselves for pennies on the dollar, it's freakin' sweet!...I promote MySpace quite a bit and use it everyday! It's made my job much easier, but I still like to get the CD from the band. I'd be lost without it now!" Where is our Troubadour, an all ages venue that serves alcohol? The all ages crowd and the fickle 21+ crowd do not intermingle. We had a bimonthly magazine called SD Music Matters that went under only to come back as Music Matters. Apparently, San Diego music isn't as important as they thought. Now the magazine says "socal music socal culture" under the header. I was hard-pressed to find evidence of any real dedication by the magazine to the local music scene anyway. The old site was rarely updated and the new site doesn't have any information specific to San Diego anymore. They used to have a show listing and a band listing. We've lost amazing artists like Minmae, The Robot Ate Me, and The North Atlantic. Many bands that seemed to have to struggle to draw in their own home town of San Diego for years, only to flourish on the road. And Eventually, they left for good. What happened to bands like The Displaced that were "DIY or Die" that just kept trying and trying til as far as I know have just disappeared. Maybe they haven't DIY and died just yet, but I see no signs of life. Labels like Happy Couples Never Last or Swim Slowly that have relocated in search of greener pastures. Other bands from out of town, opt to skip right past San Diego on their way to Arizona or L.A. Right now Tera Melos is on another U.S. tour booked by a professional booking agent where they have consecutive dates in Phoenix and Anaheim. That's a 360 Mile drive that skips right past San Diego, for Anaheim. We can't beat out Anaheim! Bands have skipped San Diego more times than I can remember. Sure we got a lot of touring bands, but a lot of times it seems we're not worth the stop. It's not just indie bands. Andrea Bocelli plays Glendale Az on Dec 14 and Anaheim the 15th. No San Diego. Oh, but Fallout Boy will be stopping in San Diego so I guess we're doing alright. Off the Record couldn't afford to stay in Hillcrest. Their new location isn't big enough for instores, and they had some of the fucking coolest in-store performance over the years. Those basement shows just never really worked out. I recently read the Band of Horses interview at Pitchfork.com which spends a considerable amount of time addressing the incident that occurred between Ben Bridwell and SdDialed In Rosey. In the process, Bridwell makes clear the impression San Diego garners. Gared from PMFS shared similar views, but the following Bridwell quote begs the question, what the fuck can we do as active members of the music community to change the impression we give to the rest of the countries touring acts? "It's just really jock-y around the Pacific beach right there, and San Diego in itself is a bit jock-y. The vibe was just kind of weird. It just felt a little off. I know there were people there that were fans, and we had to put on a good show for them. But at the same time, half the room seemed to be filled with weekend warrior types." Is this town worth a damn? I want to know.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Holy Shit, is that DPD Pete eating a cheeseburger?!

I almost choked, last night when I saw Die Princess Die/God's Gang/Snakeface/Wulf Anderson singer/guitarist Pete Chekvala taking a big healthy bite out of a hamburger in a Carl's Jr. commercial. It's an old commercial that is re-airing. I think the first time around that commercial paid for a year's worth of his comfortable living. Lucky Bastard. He lives quite the charmed Los Angeles life. Not that I'm bitter, maybe just a little jealous, but he deserves it. He's also been in a Bacardi commercial, a car commercial [I think he's driving a mitsubishi], and the movie "The Boys and Girls Guide to Getting Down," among other things. I've yet to see the movie, any good? Anyway, he's nice and a super charming guy, and he likes to party. Hard.



[Mary Roth and an "intoxicated" Pete Chekvala at the Spin-sponsored afterparty for the screening of "The Boys and Girls Guide to Getting Down." Pete ironically played "The Sober Guy" in the movie. (taken from Spin.com]


Read the interview with Die Princess Die in Modern Fix to get a good idea of what a DPD show is like.

Strike the Match!


Red Cross Benefit show tomorrow night! November 9th.

5 bands for $5 too!
Strike the Match is hosting this great show for a good cause! all proceeds of the suggested donation go to the Local Disaster Relief Fund.
Check out these bands and help support your community

Pen and Ink ( 8pm)
Death on Mars ( 9 pm)
Behind the Wagon(10 pm)
Cabron (11 pm)
the Fascination (12 am)

The Alibi1
403 University St.
San Diego CA.

21 and up...sorry kids!

www.strikethematch.org

San Diego Dialed In One Year Anniversary!


Don't forget to support Rosey and SdDialedin tonight at the Ken Club. She really doesn't get all the credit she deserves for all time she puts in. I will be there rain or shine.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Bad Dudes, Bad Video, and more.

On Friday November 2nd, I went to Scolari's Office to see The Viewmasters, Bad Dudes, and Planets. I was also subjected to "Naughty Bodies Be Good Vol 1," a video by a very lovely and talented woman named Sarah. I must be quite honest in saying that I don't get it, but that's a whole different subject.

First up was Planets, an instrumental two-piece very much in the vein of Hella, The Advantage, Lighting Bolt, Bad Dudes... It's Reno's version of your very mathy two-piece complete with unbelievable time changes, breakneck speed, and ridiculously complex melodies and rhythms. They came out in white spandex full body suits, with eye holes cut into them. They use all white speaker cabinets and white drums to match. The bass was clear plastic, and they projected what seemed like stock science video of microscopic life and astrology onto themselves and the white sheet draped behind them and across the stage. The amazing thing about Planets is that the bassist was really sort of playing two instruments at once. He was thumping basslines out with his thumb on the top two strings, and fingerpicking all the melody with his other fingers on his strumming hand on the other strings. I'm not sure if his bottom two strings were guitar strings, or just tuned up higher. With the hand that was on the neck, he would hop back and forth holding down notes on the top and bottom strings and hammering out notes while play the bass parts. There was just a lot of noise coming from that man. The only other time I've seen anything like this was when I saw Brooklyn three piece, Vaz, play as a two piece. Vaz is an amazing AmRep style two piece that was described by a friend of mine at the show (a couple of years ago at the Che) as "Joy Division atmosphere with Sonic Youth texture and Amphetamine Reptile power." There was only the guitarist and drummer, but we distinctly heard guitar melody on top of a bassline. We went up and asked the guitarist Paul Erickson, former member of Hammerhead who is also known as Apollo Liftoff, after the show how he was doing it. To make up for there only being one guitarist to play both parts, his bottom two guitar strings were actually bass strings on which he played the low end rhythm. Pretty fucking awesome. They are still together and just put a third album called "The Lie That Matches The Furniture," that comes out next Thursday on Narnack Records. It's on my wishlist.

I was also pretty astonished to find that the Planets bassist wore a full out Amish style beard underneath his storm trooper underwear. I hope the material breathes. I took a picture with my phone. I know, I know, I need to get a new digital camera. It's on the agenda. The agenda is long.






Next they showed Naughty Bodies be Good, immediately followed by a live performance by some of the naughty bodied dancers featured in the video. I won't say anthing about all that, but I will repost what I read in a blog by someone else who will remain nameless:

"friday night, i was subjected to a ridiculous display of vanity. basically, a group of scenester/hipster girls made a movie... no, no, no. i wouldn't call that monstrosity a movie. i'd call it: "look at how fashionable and fuckable we are." it was painful and pointless to watch. there was no plot, no comedy, no mis-en-scene, nothing. it was even harder to sip my saphire and tonic while watching said group of girls scream and giggle and laugh at every little thing happening on screen. you had fun making it. cool, whatever. watch this in your living room; don't subject innocent drunks to this nonsensery, this skull fuckery. i like good music, good conversation, and good company with my drinks, not that ridiculousness."



No comment.

When that was all done Bad Dudes took the stage. They are a six-piece instrumental band with members of Upsilon Acrux. Their music has been referred to as Nintendo Rock or Nintendo-core. They sound like The Advantage, but write original music. Lots of really fast melodic runs and single notes as opposed to strummed chords. They used to have a vocalist, and boy are they fun to watch. The drummer is pretty amazing with the double kick pedal.

After that, it was so crowded in there, I decided to walk down the street to the Bar Pink Elephant, where I enjoyed more $2 dollar tecates than planned, and totally missed The Viewmasters set. I walked in as they finished their last song. Sorry T-Bone.

Apologies, it's coming.

My posts have been sparse, but I've working hard on a some big things. Much much more to come, very soon.