Reports from the scene

Locals Only

According to a letter received by Southland Publishing, CityBeat’s parent company, Rob Hagey Productions, the company that has produced the annual Street Scene music fest for 25 years, is liquidating its assets in order to pay an estimated $2.8 million owed to creditors (CityBeat is among those owed money) and an undisclosed amount owed to former employees. While not a form of bankruptcy, the liquidation is what’s called a General Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors. The letter, from San Diego Credit Association, states that General Assignment is “an option to filing a Chapter 7 liquidation in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.”

This seems to be the culmination of Hagey’s problems. As CityBeat has reported, the company had trouble paying bands and vendors at this year’s Street Scene, with the most vocal critic being Conor Oberst (aka Bright Eyes), who at the October Monsters of Folk concert at Spreckels Theatre remarked, “This next song is dedicated to Rob Hagey, who still owes me $41,000 for playing at Street Scene in August.” This, in addition to two separate breach-of-contract lawsuits filed by Kleege Industries and Southern California Sound Image Inc., who together handled staging, rigging and sound for the festival.

In an e-mail sent to CityBeat on Friday, Nov. 13, Hagey said that this year’s poor attendance was what put his production company in such deep trouble.

“As you know we had a very tough year,” Hagey wrote. “The attendance dropped below 50 percent of what we had anticipated for Street Scene. So the loss was substantial for my company. I have had to close my account as my company is completely insolvent. I have transferred all monies to San Diego Credit Association well below the debt owed to everyone…. I have worked in the music business for over thirty years (producing Street Scene for 25 of those years). So this is a life altering time, something that hurts me deeply as I’m very passionate about music.”

So, is this the end of Street Scene?

“It sucks. It seems like the city could have made it easier for Rob on some level,” says promoter and deejay Tim Pyles, who’s been involved with Street Scene in the past and has attended every fest since it began in 1984. “I feel like it lost a lot when it ended Downtown and stopped having some of the diverse lineups that it had in the past. Live Nation got involved before, and that’s a big part of it getting ruined. Maybe it’s run its course.”

Pyles said he doesn’t believe Casbah owner Tim Mays will pick up the torch. “It would have to be one of these crappy companies that we despise that would buy the name and try to put it back on,” he said.

In any case, Hagey wrote in a later e-mail that his involvement is over. “It could happen. [It] just wouldn’t be under my company,” he says. “I hope Street Scene can be around another twenty-five more years.”

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Danielle LoPresti and Alicia Champion, producers of San Diego IndieFest, have helped Fox cast some local musicians in the popular show Glee. According to an e-mail from IndieFest, Champion will appear on the show alongside multi-instrumentalist Megan Jane (of Veronica May & The To Do List, Bitter Sober, Saucy Monky), Sherry Soto (Bitter Sober), and Emily O’Bannon (Runhoney) on an episode called “Hairography” set to air on Wednesday, Nov. 25. The musicians will play band members from the Jane Adams School For Delinquent Girls, led by a choir mistress played by rapper Eve.

Vaudeville-rockers Street of Little Girls will celebrate the release of their debut EP, The Beauty is in the Street, at Tin Can Ale House on Friday, Nov. 20. Reverend Mothers and Longsleeves will also perform.

Seattle-based label Jake Records recently released Young Mass Presents… The Best of Daygo City, a compilation of local hip-hop that includes artists like Kayo, Black Cotton, Mr. Ridley and others.

—Seth Combs and Kelly Davis

The Enrique Experience

From thinly veiled libel threats to bangin’ underground fête announcements, my inbox is a cluttered potpourri of goings-on. One conspicuous invite that recently caught my eye was for a “Puppy Play” party. It sounded a little screwy from the get-go, starting with the location: The San Diego Eagle—the leather bar par excellence—but being the avid animal lover that I am, I picked up a Milk-Bone and headed up North Park Way.

A personal pep talk with Cesar Millan could not have prepared me for the scene inside—it was far from the Humane Society adoption drive I had envisioned and more like Marmaduke and Lassie’s perverted pimp ’n’ ho ball. Bargoers were clad in rubber suits, collars, leashes and latex canine masks in an array of breeds (boxer, terrier and even a slutty Rottweiler).

“It’s filling a niche and transcending through so many fetishes, from furries to diaper boys to guys into uniforms that like the Doberman and Bulldog models because they go well with leather gear,” mask designer Scott Moats from La Mesa told CityBeat. His company, RubberDawg.com, started five years ago as a way of filling an apparent market void. “I went to my first [puppy] party in Palm Springs, and they all looked like monkeys, so I took matters into my own paws,” he recalls. Now, orders pour in from as far away as Australia and Japan.

Never mind probation—one hour at this soirée would be enough to set Michael Vick straight. There was aggressive barking and stick throwing as a medley of Hi-NRG tunes blared from the juke. Yes, there was also butt-sniffing. Lots of butt-sniffing. Note to self: Research the human rabies vaccine.

“Eew, this smells like old tire,” a snooty poodle said, taking a whiff of the inside of another pup’s mask. Later, the uppity pooch went on to boast about his London-purchased custom vinyl suit with the braggadocio of a regular Tinkerbell Hilton.

Thankfully, all these bitches seemed to be potty trained, as I encountered no messes on the floor—this time.

—Enrique Limón

Bye-bye, Blarney

The crowd was unusually polite, speaking in hushed tones and tactfully shushing each other when the performers were on and waiting patiently to hug and console a local hero.

It was part personal wake and part Last Waltz, but if you’ve never imbibed the anti-ironic absurdity of open-mic Sunday nights at The Blarney Stone in Clairemont, it’s pretty hard to get just why it was so fun. Sure, it’s hard to imagine anyone with taste grieving the loss of an open mic, anywhere, but it will be missed.

Local comedian and musician Allison Gill found out via text message just last week that Blarney is discontinuing the open mic she’s been hosting for the last five years. She says she’s already moved on, but her closure came with “Allison’s Last Stand (Up),” a farewell showcase last Sunday.

Boasting 12 selected acts (10 comics, an acoustic trio and Gill), the evening’s packed house paid tribute to the lyrically twisted talents of the statuesque, tattooed redhead and her “songs about vaginas.” Other Gill songs include advice on why skinny, stoned and fat girls give good head (because they’re hungry) and acoustic grooves that plead, “If you’re ugly /  Don’t make out in front of me.”

Since its beginning in 2004, bigger names (Anya Marina, Steve Poltz and the Rugburns, Gregory Page and the Reeve Oliver / Bad Credit spin-off, Fever Crotch) have come through the Sunday-night gauntlet, but it’s been the hit-and-miss comedy that was the real draw.

“Originally, these [comics] were the ones who drifted over from bland open-mic sessions at The Comedy Store in La Jolla,” Gill says. “[Comics] heard we had a reputation for being the toughest comedy room in town. And it is brutal. It’s probably what made us such a long-running, well-kept secret.

“You had to strap on some big balls to go on stage here, for sure.”

—Will K. Shilling

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