All that is night

The Enrique Experience

Last Friday, Rich’s nightclub in Hillcrest was transformed into a scene straight out of Party Monster, thanks to Diva La Disco promotions. DJ Santiago Le Freak was behind the ones and twos and outlandish club-kid garb was not only encouraged, but awarded with prizes. The crown jewel of the night was a performance by tranny extraordinaire Amanda Lepore, who, at one point during the performance, removed her top and jogged in place (it was Friday the 13th, after all). After the show, I got a chance to ask Ms. Lepore some questions, and found out that, like the fake flowers and fancy chandelier that adorned the stage, she dances the line between the mundane and the sublime.
Enrique: On your newly launched website, everythingamanda.com, there are personalized autographed pictures for sale. What’s the oddest message you’ve ever had to scribe?

Amanda Lepore: Well, my manager does that and everything, and he kind of keeps me away from the weird ones.

E: Which politician would you like to star in a sexual scandal with?

A: Living or dead?

E: Living or dead. Or both, if you’re feeling kinky.

A: I don’t know; the black one, I guess.

E: What’s better, being fierce or being fabulous?

A: Ummmm, fabulous, I think. Or fierce. They’re both good, I think.

E: What was the more defining moment, landing a deal with Peace Bisquit Records or getting a vagina?

A: Getting a vagina. I love it. It was the best money I ever spent.

E: On one of your songs you say that your pussy is famous. Have you ever been upstaged by her?

A: I guess so. I have to tame her down. She has a mind of her own. They put a mind in there, too.

E: Any words of advice to young kids out there who are made to feel like outcasts just for being different?

A. Well, I think that if you’re really true to yourself and you don’t try to be somebody else, it can be really hard when you’re a kid. But then, later on, you could be, like, a lot happier person.
—Enrique Limón

To find out more about Diva La Disco’s upcoming events, check out myspace.com/sddivaladisco.com.

More than music

Taking their cues from the old sketch-comedy show Kids in the Hall, San Diego’s The Geese (formerly known as The Honking Geese) are back this week after a four-year hiatus.

“It’s a sketch-comedy show for people who like comedy,” explained Goose Dallas McLaughlin, who plays with local band Bad Credit. “I wish there was a better tagline.” He paused and tried as best he could to come up with something catchier. “It’s definitely not improv, as you can see from this phone call,” he said.

To be fair, CityBeat caught McLaughlin in the midst of a video shoot, so his brain was a bit jumbled. He and the rest of The Geese—Sean O’Donnell, Brad Davis (who both play in the band Reeve Oliver), Matt Gorney, Nick McCann and Danica Russell—were making a video for their comedy MySpace page. We’ll let him slide.

McLaughlin said guests who come out to The Geese Eat Their Young Show, the only live show they have planned until fall, can expect a sketch about a stove that likes to party, one about the awkwardness of white people performing hip-hop, a performance piece about a toaster and a parody of Jeff Foxworthy and friends’ Blue Collar Comedy Tour called “Rednecks on the Road.”

“We don’t normally do parody, but we hate those guys so much that we decided to make fun of them,” McLaughlin said. “As I’m saying [the sketches] to you, I’m realizing how stupid they all sound. It’s better, though, I swear.”
—Kinsee Morlan

The Geese perform at The Compass Theater, 3704 Sixth Ave. in Hillcrest, at 8 p.m. June 19 through 22. $10. www.myspace.com/thegeeseshow.

Jay on K

Occasionally, you meet people who give you no choice but to root for them. Jeremy Jay is one of those people.
The lanky, sandy-haired singer-songwriter is unpretentious, gregarious and just plain nice.

He also just released his first full-length album, A Place Where We Can Go, on K Records. The independent label, whose logo was tattooed on Kurt Cobain’s arm, has had a hand in the careers of Beck, Modest Mouse, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Built to Spill.

What does this mean to a young singer-songwriter who sounds nothing like those bands and sings unabashedly about love?

Everything.

“I’m really proud of being on K Records,” Jay told CityBeat from his L.A. home, shortly after shooting a video for the song “Beautiful Rebel.” “I think the music turned out really well. Those guys have been great and I feel pretty lucky.”
Jay was born in Chula Vista and lived in San Diego County until he was 3. His great-grandfather, George Kerrigan, spent years on the San Diego City Council and the city Planning Commission.

Jay’s upbringing was anything but traditional. Living with a Swiss mother who spoke only French, he didn’t speak English at home until he was 13. He was profoundly affected by the language, as well as by French music and culture.
“I ended up listening to a lot of things like Edith Piaf and Francoise Hardy,” he said.

Mix with that a love for Richie Valens and Buddy Holly—born from a life-changing La Bamba soundtrack sheet-music gift from his Aunt Patty—and you have a start to the sound Jay is cultivating.

Whatever it is, people are starting to notice. Jay embarks on a multi-continent tour on Friday, June 20, and stops by the Whistle Stop Bar in South Park on Saturday, June 21.

“I do like touring,” he said, “but what I’m really looking forward to is going on a grand adventure.”
—Scott McDonald

Locals only

The music week gets off to a laidback start on Thursday, June 19, when ambient trip-hoppers XIV (not to be confused with Louis XIV) celebrate the release of Eta at Kava Lounge. But for those who like a little more disturbance in their cosmic ether, The Sess, Xerox and Coat Hangers also play on June 19 at Tower Bar.

Local hip-hop collective Deep Rooted cut to the chase when it came to titling their new (and third) album, 3, and they’ll celebrate that succinctness with Illa J (aka, brother of the late, great J Dilla) at the Onyx Room on Friday, June 20. Also making the Friday rounds are Transfer, Apes of Wrath and Old Man Hands at Anthology, Get Back Loretta, The Modlins and Lemon Sun at Beauty Bar and Vision of a Dying World, Crocodiles, Mermaid and Kelly Alvarez putting in a DJ set at Che Café.

A ménage à trios of album-release shows hit on Saturday, June 21, in the form of Fantastic Magic (releasing a new, self-titled 7-inch) at the Whistle Stop, SweetTooth (a self-titled full-length) at O’Connell’s and Somato Sensory shucking self-titled albums in favor of Life on Autopilot at SOMA.

June 23 is particularly near and dear to Nightgeist, not just because it’s the day—29 years ago—when Janis Dinsdale squeezed me Straight Outta Cervix, but also because the Whistle Stop is hosting a “Locals-Zonely” night featuring guest DJs like Justin Pearson (The Locust), Rob Crow (Pinback) and Jason Soares (Aspects of Physics) spinning San Diego music “from all eras.”
—Nathan Dinsdale

Sundays are more super now

Last Sunday, June 15, marked the first More Super Sundays, a new event put on by “Super Jill” Johnson and her so-called “Super Team.” Jill and her crew organized artists, designers, restaurateurs and fashionistas to participate in Hillcrest’s new monthly meet-up. With more than 300 people in attendance, mostly passersby who stumbled upon the three blocks of interactive displays on University Avenue, the event provided an ideal environment for the Uptown crowd to mingle with fellow art folk, schmooze with local curators and knock back discounted drinks from staple watering holes like Baja Betty’s, Bamboo Lounge and Wine Steals.

Among the artists in attendance were Brittni Cute with her unique liquid photography works, Alex Sample with his swirling plexiglas and paint designs and the exotic sounds of Shayna Wiseman, who plays the hang, an instrument she learned to play while living in London.

Aside from the endless supply of discounted margaritas, one of the other highlights from the afternoon art walk were the brown paper bag creations by local artist Billy Dalla$$, aka Don Taylor. Selling his prints for $1 per three pieces, Dalla$$’s spray-painted stencil lunch bags were a hot commodity. While he displayed his work as mere “coveralls” for 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor, many in the crowd recognized the prints as specimens of urban art nouveau, or, to paraphrase Dalla$$, “prototypes of hip-hop roadie art.”
—Justin Roberts

More Super Sundays happens next on July 13 at University Avenue and Richmond Street in Hillcrest.
www.moresuper.com.