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Music
Happy Sundays Puts Long Beach Vibes Into Festival Form
The thing about grassroots festivals that few people ever see isn’t the grass or the roots, it’s the dirt that the hands have to dig in order to make everything come together. In the festival world, that dirt comes in the form unexpected obstacles, frustrated emails, sleepless nights and endless hashing and rehashing over minute […]
Katzu Oso Mixed Trap Beats Into Love Songs To Create Mellifluous Pop
Katzu Oso — not his real name — and I meet up at the labyrinth known as the Outlets of Orange during the early afternoon. As he walks towards me, I can see a skateboard in one hand and his phone on the other. Katzu is worried that he’s being awkward because he smoked weed. He […]
Lee Fields and Monophonics Headline Funky Sole Weekender at the Echoplex
The folks behind Los Angeles’ long-running dance party Funky Sole want your feet to ache at the end of the weekend. Have your hangover cures ready and clear your Sunday schedule to prepare for the first-ever Funky Sole Weekender – a two day celebration of the best in Southern California funk and soul music. “Around […]
Rocksteady Legend Pat Kelly Hits Southern California
One of the finest voices from Jamaica’s rocksteady era will perform two shows in Southern California this week, offering a display of the sounds that would later morph into reggae. Singer Pat Kelly, who rose to fame as a member of vocal group The Techniques before putting out multiple hit singles as a solo artist, […]
ScareLA 2018 Turns Out the Lights and Turns Up the Terror
Horror fans and Halloween aficionados perpetually keep their eyes peeled for festivals, conventions, and attractions which cater to their types. Fortunately, as time goes by, more and more events provide welcoming invitations for ghosts, goths, goblins, and other nightmarish entities to congregate for some good ol’ pre-Halloween fun. In 2013, ScareLA launched its first annual […]
Psycho Las Vegas Was Four Days of Heavy Music
The floor and bar areas of popular Las Vegas casinos are chaos on a standard weekend night. This past weekend, folks embarking for a weekend stay at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in search of pool parties, bachelorette get-togethers, and gambling were besieged by hordes of headbangers and stoner-rockers search for the power […]
Stray Cats Strut Their Stuff For Two Reunion Shows in Costa Mesa
Thursday night the Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa was crowded with rockabillies, rockafillys, chilli-billies, psychobillies and whatever other sub-group you can slap that suffix on. Though the Orange County Fair is over, the venue’s amphitheater was filled with folks who lived through the first wave of rockabilly, the second wave of rockabilly, the third wave–what […]
The White Buffalo Returns Home to Tug Heartstrings
Free outdoor concerts tend to bring out the part of us that never wants to let the summer go—what summer meant before we spent most of it cooped up indoors at work. However, I began to rethink the reason for the healthy early crowd forming last night, early evening. In our short walk from the […]
The Best Concerts in OC Aug. 17-23
Friday, Aug. 17 Wes Brawler, Rodney Moon & The Little Dippers, 8 p.m., $5, 21+, The Wayfarer, 843 W. 19th St., Costa Mesa (949) 764-0039, www.wayfarercm.com. Armored Saint performing “Symbol of Salvation in Its Entirety,” 7 p.m., $25, all ages, House of Blues Anaheim, 400 W. Disney Way, Anaheim (714) 778-2583, www.houseofblues.com/anaheim. The B-Sharps OC […]
The Aquabats Need Your Help to Kickstart Their Long Lost TV Show
It’s not often you hear a superhero asking mere mortals like us for assistance. Fortunately the Aquabats are never too afraid to summon the power of their legion of righteous camarades, i.e. fans, to get something done right. Now more than ever, MC Bat Commander and the crew of spandex wearing, ska-punk saviors of humanity […]
Mike Ness Allegedly Puts the Smack Down on a Trump Supporter
Say this much for Social Distortion at this stage in their career–they continue to make things interesting. At a show in Sacramento last month, singer Mike Ness railed against President Donald Trump on stage, which, for the most part, seemed to be greeted warmly. However, one fan — a Trump supporter named Tim Hildebrand — […]
At Feedback Fest, the Spirit of Inclusivity Is a Breath of Fresh Ear
Whether it’s onstage at a bar in OC or at a biker fest in South Dakota, Well Hung Heart are used to standing out, or in most cases, not fitting in. Over the years, the skill of embracing their rock oddity has become a way of life. “We get told we’re not heavy enough, we’re […]
Dance With The Dead’s Synthwave Unites Dance Kids and Metalheads
As members of synth-wave duo Dance With The Dead, Irvine natives Tony Kim and Justin Pointer take inspiration from the darkness of the horror and sci-fi movies they grew up watching to generate dance beat and guitar-driven instrumentals that serve as hyper-charged versions of era-appropriate soundtracks. Both musicians had been circling around the Orange County […]
The MC5’s Wayne Kramer is Still Kicking Out the Jams 50 Years Later
Before your favorite hard rock musicians were old enough to tie their own shoes, Wayne Kramer had already founded and dismantled one of the most influential bands of all time, put on one of the most legendary musical performances in the history of politics, gone to prison for selling drugs, and become a sought-after collaborator […]
Panic! at the Disco Fans Prove that Equality is Where the Heart Is
Brendon Urie has been in the music game a long time. But the Panic! at the Disco frontman couldn’t help but be taken aback by what he saw on July 1, 2016. That night, as Urie took to the stage to sing his song, “Girls/Girls/Boys,” pops of color began to illuminate the Xfinity Center in […]
Why Rockabilly Fans Still Rant n’ Rave Over the Stray Cats
It’s 2018, and there are a ton of great bands we can honestly say took part in making history. However, there are only a handful of them who are history. The Stray Cats just happen to be one of those bands who moved the needle. In a very retro way, they were ahead of their […]
Top 10 “Must-See” Bands at Psycho Las Vegas 2018
This weekend, from 12 Noon Thursday morning, August 16th through well after midnight on Sunday night, August 19th, hordes of metal-heads and stoner-rockers will descend upon the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino for the Psycho Las Vegas festival. Operating as “Psycho California” and originally as Psycho De Mayo during its Santa Ana origins, the annual festival is a haven for those that dig their riffs […]
The Pixies Have a Ball at the House of Blues in Anaheim
Heading out to see the Pixies is a bucket list moment for me. I’ve never seen them before. I have most of their CD’s — yes, I still have those. I bought most of them at the Goodwill for one dollar. (A deal compared to $20 for a record.) So seeing them and writing about […]
The Best Concerts in OC Aug 11-16
Friday, Aug. 10 Lil Baby, 11:15, $25, all ages, The Observatory, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana, (714) 957-0600, www.observatoryoc.com The Higgs, WTFB, 8 p.m., $10, 21+, The Wayfarer, 843 W. 19th St., Costa Mesa (949) 764-0039, www.wayfarercm.com. Nekromantix, The Black Rose Phantoms, The Thirsty Crows, 9 p.m., $20, 21+, Marty’s on Newport 14401 Newport […]
Janelle Monáe Added to The Second Day of Music Tastes Good 2018
Since last May when Long Beach festival Music Tastes Good announced its lineup, there was plenty of speculation about who would fill the void left by the rumored co-headliner Vince Staples. Little did we know the fest would make up for it by giving us an R&B android made of steel. Today MTG announced Janelle Monáe […]
Mike Vitale’s Life Hacks as a Working Musician Are Starting to Pay Off
No matter how big of a rockstar any musician these days hopes to become, the biggest stage they’ll ever play on is a cell phone. Few local troubadours understand that better than Mike Vitale. On a recent Saturday afternoon, a video of Vitale performing an hour-long set in his bedroom is garnering views from people […]