OC Music Awards

First Ever 'Ladies Rock Camp' in OC Happens This Weekend!

The push for an inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls in Orange County continues! This Saturday in SanTana, young women ages 18 and up will be taking on an extensive weekend of songwriting workshops, drum circles, self-defense classes, and instrument instruction. Hosted by El Centro Cultural de Mex ... More >>

The Cokscars? Or: The Awards the Newport Beach Film Festival Didn't Hand Out

For your consideration, 16 commendations that really matter

Yellow Red Spark's Josh Hanson Wins International Songwriting Competition

The rest of the world is finding out what Orange County has known for years...that Josh Hanson of Yellow Red Sparks can write a damn good song! The singer took top honors in the annual International Songwriting Competition (ISC) for "Monsters With Misdemeanors" off the indie folk/rock band's self-ti ... More >>

5 Best Music Videos from Newport Beach Film Fest's Program Premiering Tonight

Tonight at 8 at The Triangle, the Newport Beach Film Festival debuts its Music Videos program, which is part of the three-year-old Music Series of features and documentaries that focus on musicians. Confession time: I had my doubts about the video program when I first heard about it. Who wants to se ... More >>

The Five Must-See Shows in OC This Week

Monday, April 29 The Originalites Gallagher's Pub & Grill Since coming together as teenagers (and later recruiting saxophonist Mike Belk after an impromptu jam session at a local gig), The Originalites have risen high in the ranks of Orange County's local music scene in the span of only five year ... More >>

[Locals Only] Beneath the Buried Are Shredding at the Steakhouse

We all know that in addition to aged steaks and lobster tail, La Cave serves up a variety of musical genres in its guise as Costa Mesa's favorite burgundy-brown den of decadence. While indie bands and trance DJs have done well on the calendar alongside Phil Shane, '80s & '90s flashback night, an ... More >>

The Five Must-See Shows in OC This Week

Monday, April 1 The Originalites Gallagher's Pub Since coming together as teenagers (and later recruiting saxophonist Mike Belk after an impromptu jam session at a local gig), The Originalites have risen high in the ranks of Orange County's local music scene in the span of only five years. The Fou ... More >>

The Originalites

Gallagher's Pub

Beneath The Buried's La Cave Residency Brings Metal Back to Our Favorite Steakhouse

We all know that in addition to aged steaks and lobster tail, La Cave serves up a variety of musical genres under the guise of Costa Mesa's favorite burgundy-brown den of decadence. But while indie bands and trance DJs have done well on the calendar alongside Phil Shane, 80s flashback night and lege ... More >>

OC Music Awards - City National Grove of Anaheim - March 9, 2013

Last Saturday night, a well-dressed army of local music fans, press and artists packed into the City National Grove of Anaheim for the 12 annual OC Music Awards. Like most awards shows, the night's festivities went  bit longer than necessary with a few fumbles here and there and a mixture of in ... More >>

Examining Kalva Won's Bedroom Beats

The nature of the beat scene in Orange County doesn't lend itself to being seen in public very often. For prolific local producers such as Kalva Won, the art of flipping open a laptop in his bedroom and composing kaleidoscopic soundscapes injected with hip-hop DNA doesn't require a ton of live perfo ... More >>

The Five Best Concerts in OC This Weekend

Friday, February 22Angry SamoansThe Observatory First wave punk rockers everywhere are alive and kicking. Just look at the Angry Samoans, hailing from Los Angeles, they've been doing their thing since the late 70s. And since their inception, they've made a career out of being offensive. Rumor has it ... More >>

OC Music Awards: Night 6 Rock Acts Leave Us Both Satisfied and Scarved For Life

OC Music AwardsSegerstrom Center, Founders HallFeb. 12, 2013Night six of the 2013 Orange County Music Awards featured performances both raw (Jeramiah Red) and electrically charged (Devious Means.) Though not all of the five bands hit the high mark set by the aforementioned groups (we'll talk about S ... More >>

Top Five Concerts in OC This Week

Monday, February 11 St. Lucia The Constellation Room For the purposes of this blurb, St. Lucia is not the Swedish figure known for wearing a wreath of candles in her hair bearing gifts for Scandinavian children. Rather, it's the nom de plume of musician Jean-Philip Grobler (doesn't sound pretenti ... More >>

The Five Best Concerts in OC This Week

Monday, February 4 Social Distortion House of Blues Anaheim With few shows happening this Monday, you might consider trying to check out Social Distortion's umpteenth gig at the House of Blues this month. Perhaps setting a record for the most shows played at the Anaheim venue by a single band in o ... More >>

Social Distortion

House of Blues

The Five Best Concerts in OC This Week

Monday, January 7 Big Monsta Detroit BarThe latest youthful band to grab the coveted Monday night residency over at Detroit Bar is Huntington Beach-based Big Monsta. But their sound is anything but what that name would suggest (read: not some douchy club DJ wearing fake gold chains, nor a band playi ... More >>

Your Nominees for the 2013 OC Music Awards

Now that we've shaken off the hangover of 2012, we've double checked our watches and realized that the first full week in January is time for one thing and one thing only: a new season of OC Music Awards madness. Today, the nominees for the 2013 Awards ceremony (hosted  at the City National Gro ... More >>

Annie McQueen Is a Bohemian Hillbilly Who Bows to No One

[Locals Only] The La Habra Heights singer/songwriter has a country sound that prefers to not fit in

The Best Five Shows in OC This Week: Big Business, Major Lazer

Monday, October 15Big BusinessAlex's BarFor those not familiar with the genre Sludge Metal, meet Big Business. Hailing from Seattle and signed to Gold Metal Records, they traffic in crunchy, chugging jams with wonky, drop-tuned strings. Reminiscent of instrumental metal band Pelican, Big Business fe ... More >>

The Devious Means Break Into Commonwealth Lounge Tonight

It seems every week an incredible shows popping out of the woodwork, and tonight in Fullerton The Devious Means will head to the Commonwealth Lounge (112 East Commonwealth Ave, Fullerton) to play a free concert for a birthday extravaganza.  This OC indie-rock quintet have been accumulating a to ... More >>

BLOK to Headline an Extra-Spooky Edition of Plugged Into Local at Alex's Bar, Oct. 24

We don't give a fuck that it's happening a week before Halloween, Plugged Into Local can and will scare the shit out of you this month. October's installment of our lil' monthly concert series returns with three bands who trade in bone-cracking agression, blood-curdling screams, and three signature ... More >>

Local Record Review: 'The Isle of Her' by Micah Brown

Micah Brown"The Isle of Her"http://micahbrownmusic.comSee Also:*Local Record Review: 'This One's For Terminal Boredom' by Roman Candles*Local Record Review: 'We Are Locally Grown' by Locally Grown Collective*Local Records Review: 'Four Steps in Corsets' by Yellow Red Sparks Listening to Dana Po ... More >>

Newport Beach Film Festival's Sounds and Fury

Its music series makes more noise

Tully James Wilkinson

Copper Door

Micah Brown

The Observatory

Signa Muddle Up Genres

[Locals Only] It's Latin-alt and Christian—but it's all rock & roll for Signa

The Devious Means, Robert Jon and the Wreck, Ethan Hulse and More at the OC Music Awards Showcase 7 at the Constellation Room

Ethan Hulse​Ethan Hulse, Robert Jon & the Wreck, Italian Japanese, The Devious Means and MphaseThe Constellation RoomFeb. 14, 2012Despite the almighty lover's holiday, The Constellation Room was crawling with fans for the Orange County Music Awards Best Live Band Showcase. (We hope you got you ... More >>

Parker Macy, Danny Maika, Tully James Wilkinson and More at the OC Music Awards Showcase at the Continental Room Last Night

​Mandie and Ruby, Foxxhound, Danny Maika, Parker Macy, Tully James Wilkinson  Continental Room, FullertonFeb. 7, 2012The biggest criticism this curmudgeon will heap upon night six of the OC Music Awards has to do with the venue. Of all the beer bars and juke joint hosting this season's showca ... More >>

Slime Kings, Red9, Death Hymn #9, Snakebit Drifters and Railroad to Alaska at Night Five of the OC Music Awards Showcase - Tiki Bar

​Red9, Slime Kings, Death Hymn #9, Snakebit Drifters and Railroad to AlaskaTiki Bar, Costa MesaJan 31, 2012Night five of the OC Music Awards saw the most consistent lineup of bands in the series thus far. That's not to say there weren't a few dips in what proved to be an exciting evening, but ther ... More >>

[UPDATED: Young the Giant Responds!] Does OC Have BO? Why Do Orange County Bands Distance Themselves?

​Young the Giant tweeted at us yesterday after the blog went live. They said, "We live in the quiet hills of East LA and the label doesn't pay rent. We do. We live together and can write at will this way. We appreciate your concern but we are OC all the way. Straight Irvine OG represent."  Ri ... More >>

Honeypie, Skee and More at Night Four of the OC Music Awards at Malone's Last Night

Kevin Lara/OC WeeklyHoneypie​Honeypie, Skee, I Hate You Just Kidding, Button Willow Locomotive, Kacie YoshidaMalone'sJan. 24, 2012And the gold star for best performance goes to--in this critic's humble opinion--Honeypie. Simply put, they were head and shoulders above the other four bands in last n ... More >>

OC Music Awards Night Three Recap: In Pictures!

​The OC Music Awards' live band showcase season is always an exciting time for the local music community. We at the Weekly love going to the showcases each week to check out the rising talent around us at some of our favorite local clubs. Thursday was kind of a sleeper in terms of exciting new act ... More >>

OC Music Awards: Free 'Best Live Band' Showcase Tonight!

​Tonight's the night! The 2012 OC Music Awards Showcase Series kicks off at the Detroit Bar with a free showcase of bands nominated for "Best Live Band." Jeramiah Red, the Gromble, Paulie Pesh, Strange Birds and James Fletcher are all performing.The show starts at 8 p.m., and for the next seven we ... More >>

The Gromble Make a Loud Buzz

[Locals Only] The Laguna Niguel boys are getting their quirky indie-pop out to the masses

Railroad to Alaska

House of Blues

Nicole Vaughn Goes Big

[Locals Only] Laguna Niguel's folk songstress branches out with a backing band

Dirty Heads to Play Catalina

John Gilhooley/OC Weekly​Catalina Island is about to get a boost in its entertainment options via a musical performance from Huntington Beach stoner crew the Dirty Heads. The band will be playing July 29 at the Decanso Beach Club courtesy of the Santa Catalina Island Company who hooked up with loc ... More >>

Kiev in 3D at Segerstrom Center PLUS Five Local Bands We Wish Would Put On a 3D Show

​Kiev is opening for Menomena at Segerstrom Center's Indie Band Series next week, and apparently they have a few gimmicks they didn't roll out at the OC Music Awards when they won Best Indie Band this year. 

Local Record Review: 'A Simple Song' by Justin Soileau

Beat Blvd. is Heard Mentality's weekly review of local releases. If you're an OC musician or band with something new to offer--vinyl single, full-length album, CD, cassette--we want to hear from you! Send copies, along with any photos and PR material, to Beat Blvd., c/o OC Weekly, 2975 Red Hill Ave. ... More >>

Menomena and Kiev Kick Off Segerstrom Center's Indie Band Series

An old Menomena photo with Brent Knopf​On May 24, you can see for yourself why Riley Breckenridge from Thrice is such a Menomena fanboy.  The Portland band kicks off Segerstrom Center for the Arts' Indie Band Series in Samueli Theater, with local band Kiev (winner of the Best Indie Band at th ... More >>

Echo Echo

House of Blues

Micah Brown: Top Picker

[Locals Only] OC's No. 1 acoustic act teams up with a full band for a House of Blues show

The 2011 OC Music Awards

[Mental Notes] Stan Freese, Wildboys, Dahga Bloom, Micah Brown and BLOK all made the OCMA pretty memorable

Bob Dylan Opens OC Fair

[Mental Notes] Also: The winners of two OCMA awards, Amateur Chemist is on hiatus

Grrl Fair Turns 10

[Mental Notes] Also, a new drummer for A7F, a new name for the Grove, and new nominees for the OCMAs

Lightning In a Bottle, The Return of the Ice Cream Man, the New Limb News

[Mental Notes] It's almost summer, and the festival scene is heating up

Multiple Sounds for MS Benefit at the Yost

[Mental Notes] Also: the New Limb's homey debut, Coachella's late-night special

Local Indie Rockers Halos Perform Tuesday at Orange County Music Awards Showcase

[Locals Only] Vacuum Bell's Will Morrison Gets Feisty With His Folk