San Diego Indie Music Fest!

Get Ready to be completely underwhelmed!

Its almost that time of year again when the best in the ‘Indie’ world descend on Northpark for two days of music and mayhem! Who? That’s what I thought when I got an email from Citybeat, directing me to the Indie Music Fest website. Hey, I know who James Marsters is! He’s Buffy’s other boyfriend from Buffy The Vampire Slayer, his character, Spike made watching Buffy worth every minute of pain I endured during season 4 when Buffy started dating the Initiative guy, Riley [what a total douche nozzle that guy was]. Spike was delightfully manipulative and you could see his budding obsession with the Buffster. Apparently he’ll be performing with his band. I wish it was a different famous actor turned musician, like Zooey Deschanel and M Ward instead, but I’ll settle for Spike.

The Indie Music Fest ‘performer’ list reads like a whos who of who. I guess that is the point at an Indie Music ‘fest’. Though Kid Beyond would be worth seeing, he’s a genius using live midi-on the fly samples. I’m wondering where all the San Diego Bands are though? No Prayers, Muslims, Vultures or Transfer? What about Grand Ole Party? Why the fuck do these great San Diego bands always get passed over? How about Weatherbox, one of the best melodic hardcore bands to come out of SD in years?

People get so bummed out when talking about the local ‘scene,’ and I can guess why. Scolaris will now be the exclusive bar of the new world order in North Park. All those bourgeois 30-thousand dollar millionaires will need a watering hole closer to their prefab domiciles across the street and Bar Pink Elephant is thankfully too ‘weird’ for those gaslampers. The Alibi won’t be having shows in the near future or possibly ever again. Beauty Bar and U31 have cornered the asymmetrical haircut movement and don’t even get me started on Soma or the Che where exclusionary IS the norm.

Even Music Fest sponsor 91x treats their Loudspeaker show like a shameful experiment by having it air from 1am to 3am monday mornings. I guess that ensures that the only people who’d listen and be interested are fast asleep. In the interest of full disclosure my brother is a DJ for the loudspeaker show so yes I’d like to hear loudspeaker ‘live’ and not through their podcast monday afternoons.

It boggles the mind. But maybe it is too early to assume there won’t be any bands there that I’d like. Or maybe my discriminating tastes are too music snob and not quite Joe Public enough. I hope to be pleasantly surprised, or more so than last year when Fishbone was one of the few attractions.

Here’s who I’d pick for a ‘Locals Only’ Stage, if given the chance.

Grand Ole Party
Archons
The Prayers
Get Your Death On
Hostile Combover
Joanie Mendenhall
The K23 Orchestra
Weatherbox
Some Girls

Congratulations To the Future Mr and Mrs Sarah Glaser!

That’s right! Cullen finally proposed to Sarah, on her last day as a volunteer kelp tank cleaner at the Scripps Birch Aquarium. Kudos to Cullen for the hugeness of the proposal! Six years of dating had to end in a blowout proposal, one that all of San Diego will remember, at least those that read the Tribune today since it made the front page! Not only that but he made the NATIONAL FUCKING NEWS!!!

Some folks like to propose to their loved ones at Scolaris and some like to propose to their loved ones while they are in full scuba gear in a fish tank. But no more of this kind of action for Mr. Hendrix. [I’ll save the one of him ‘asleep’ on the beach for the privacy of the wedding party]

Cabron, Batwings, Dissimilars, Frauds Live at Scolaris

So we’re playing Scolari’s with our good friends Batwings on Saturday night. Those guys are our rehearsal space neighbors and aside from being stand up dudes, their brand of post-punk swagger and Jehu-esque sound is really rad to behold. AND it’s Scolari’s, the first and friendliest (Freddy RIP) bar I ever stumbled into in San Diego. The drinks are poured heavy, it smells like 40 years of stale beer and puke (almost like the Boiler Room smelled back when it was the only place worth sitting in at the Tivoli in Denvoid) and now all three bands I’ve been a member of in this town will have played there. Gingtian Violet, The Turnstiles and now Cabron!, that is very cool. They have a very interesting system for paying bands as well. The shows are free, bands get drinks 20 min before – during their set – and 20 minutes after plus 50 bucks. Leo and I were discussing this with Bryan and Robert from Batwings the other night and realized what a good model this is, even for touring bands. No matter what the door ‘would’ve’ been and even if there are only like 5 people there the bands still make some money and get loaded. My good friend Cullen wrote an awesome, backhanded indictment/article for City Beat last week about this whole DJ/band thing taking place in San Diego (and I’m sure elsewhere in other hipster spots like NY and LA). Where DJ’s get equal billing with bands that are playing live. If you think that a DJ should get paid out of the ‘door,’ essentially taking cash from a band that is actually performing then you’re best bet is to go spend some time at the ‘clubs’ in SD (chain bars) that care more about selling booze than letting local talent blossom. It cannibalizes music. I’ll never be convinced that putting a a needle on vinyl is equal to playing a song with several other people, no matter how much beat matching and mixing you’re doing or how deep your vinyl collection is or what rare Hawkwind, CAN or Joy Division single you might be spinning. Music that is spun should be either relegated to the background, or put in the forefront to stand alone and get asses shaking, it should supplement a band not be an equal ‘performing’ entity.

We’re not cool enough!