Things that go bump in the night

The Kinsee Report

Billy Midnight is back. Not that the local band ever really left—but they’ve been keeping a low profile, writing songs for a new album (set to come out in spring, hopefully) and working in the guitar parts of their newest member, Ben Krueger.

Not many fans showed up to The Casbah last Thursday for Billy Midnight’s show, but those who did were pleased. The pleasure elevated to excitement when the band ended with “Spider,” a half-crazed, demonic-sounding departure from the nice and normal Southern-rock-meets-alt-country sounds the band typically serves up.

“Are you the one who controls the spider?” the crowd sang along as Bobby Shaddox, drummer and brother of frontman Billy Shaddox, leapt from behind his drum kit and threw himself to the ground for a dramatic finish. If the YouTube videos are any indication, Bobby is only allowed to fully let loose with his shenanigans in his side project, Bobby Fantasy.

On Dec. 5, Billy Midnight will continue playing the first Friday of every month at The Ould Sod. Their next big show is with Bartender’s Bible at The Ruby Room on Dec. 13. There are no Bobby Fantasy shows scheduled as of now.

Last Saturday (or Friday for a few VIPs) marked the soft opening of the new Sushi Performance and Visual Art space at 390 11th Ave., Downtown. The urban-inspired warehouse-like building is a much-anticipated and needed home for the arts-and-culture organization, which has essentially been homeless, hosting what it cleverly called “Sushi’s Takeout Series” at venues around the city, since 2004.

The concrete and exposed piping of the new space is currently colored by Beyond Theory, a visual-art show featuring works by emerging artists from Belgrade, Serbia. At the VIP opening on Friday, the young artists walked guests through the collection of videos, paintings, photography and installations and did their best to explain the conceptual works.

“We are kind of making fun of art,” said one of the three members of Art Fun Club, a collective whose piece in the show—videos of people leafing through contemporary art books while a laugh track cuts in and out—would best be described as ironic hipster art. The artists, as they explained, refuse to put themselves in a category with either creators or critics, but one listener couldn’t help but propose a challenge.

“Do you think this art is good?” asked a man from the crowd, pointing at Nenad Kostic’s oil painting—of pop-culture cartoons—hanging on the wall next to the video pieces. The pair of young 20-something boys behind the collective squirmed a bit but managed to dodge the question. Thanks to the plethora of free wine at the opening, the crowd let it go pretty quickly.

Sushi’s new space formally opens at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, with The New Barbarian Collection, a performance by the group La Pocha Nostra, featuring 10 artists from San Diego and Tijuana.
—Kinsee Morlan

Locals Only

One item that seemed to get lost in the shuffle amid the recent BC Jean / Beyoncé controversy was that Jean is originally from San Diego, although she currently resides in Studio City. It’s been reported that Beyoncé’s hit single “If I Were a Boy” (which is currently No. 4 on iTunes) was co-written by Jean, with help from German producer Toby Gad. Gad sold “If I Were a Boy” to Beyoncé, who also took a songwriting credit. Although Beyoncé and her people have kept quiet, Jean posted this statement on her website: “To set the record straight from the horse’s mouth—IF I WERE A BOY is my song; YES, I wrote this song; It is my story; a painful one, and the song is very dear to me.” We see lawsuits and/or check-cutting in the future. Stay tuned.

Local funk / hip-hop mainstays Alfred Howard & The K23 Orchestra will play their last show on Friday, Dec. 5, at Winston’s. For seven years, the quintet has garnered a huge local following that won them three San Diego Music Awards. In a statement, Howard cited exhaustion and indifference as reasons for calling it quits, but he says the economy didn’t help: “There have been great shows in the midst of slow nights, but those slow nights have taken their toll. These hard times are the large and leaden straw to break this camel’s back.” The band does have plans for a posthumous album release in 2009.

Sometimes-local singer-songwriter Anya Marina (she currently lives in L.A.) will be featured in the new issue of Rolling Stone, which hits newsstands on Friday.

La Mesa drummer Timm “Figg” Newton won the district finals of Guitar Center’s “Drum Off” competition. He advances to the regional finals in L.A. on Dec. 2 in hopes of advancing to the grand finals in January.
—Seth Combs

In your Blindspot

Bart Mendoza’s Blindspot Records has sporadically released local music for 17 years, and the label will finally hold its first annual Holiday Party on Saturday, Nov. 29, at Tio Leo’s in Bay Park. Also functioning as a CD-release show for The Spring Collection’s In Between, the concert features performances by several San Diego-scene vets, including Mendoza’s True Stories and The Dave Humphries Band, with special appearances by Joey Harris and Patric Petrie.

Headlining is blues-rock combo The Anna Troy Band, whose Wait Another Day was released by Blindspot in October. Troy and Co. were nominated for a San Diego Music Award in the Best Pop category earlier this year, and the strength of their latest work practically ensures further nods. Blindspot will celebrate the release of its Staring at the Sun V.7 compilation CD in late December. The album features songs by 20 local artists, including Troy, The Modlins, Steve Poltz, Danielle Lo Presti and more.
—Todd Kroviak

The Enrique Experience

Most towns wear their pride on their sleeves—Encinitas wears it on its tiled trash cans, sidewalk tree grates and just about anywhere else a Highway 101 logo can be stamped. Along Pacific Coast Highway, flanked by the Self Realization Fellowship to the south and Moonlight Beach to the west, lies Swamis, a sort of North Park of the north.

Smack in the middle of the trendy hub and proud of its motto “It doesn’t suck!” is the neighborhood’s dive par excellence, 1st Street Bar (656 S. Coast Hwy. 101). Prerequisite Budweiser memorabilia lines the lacquered wood-paneled walls, along with vintage Lynyrd Skynyrd concert posters, a sign that reads “Hippies use back door. No exceptions.” And an extensive framed record-sleeve collection that includes the likes of Ted Nugent and Bing Crosby and an inexplicable one titled Music for Pussy Cats (You know who you are!).

Above the bar is another strange sign, this one offering “Free beer tomorrow—The Manager,” which, according to bartender Heidi, has proven to be an excellent marketing tool. “We get drunken guys waiting till midnight for a free beer, but then I make them read it again at 12:01. Works every time,” she said.

Three of the bar’s seven flat screens advertise in-house specials, Thursday nights with Shaunie, who, according to the advertisement, is Encinitas’ worst bartender. “You think you hate him now, wait till you taste your drink,” the ad says. Lucky for me, I was there on Wednesday—open-mic night.

As an elderly Asian woman stormed into the watering hole selling egg rolls from a basket, the first band got ready for its set. “What makes us kill the faggots and the Jews? Testosterone!” they sang.

I swallowed my egg roll whole, raced toward the hippie exit and got the hell outta Dodge.
—Enrique Limón