Reports from the scene

Locals only

When word got out late last week that hardcore legends Swing Kids were playing a unannounced show at Che Café Friday night, hundreds of fans showed up to what ended up being a packed, sold-out show. “It was fucking crazy,” says Jimmy LaValle, who plays guitar with the band. “It was well sold out with all the sides and the back packed and people trying to watch from the outside.” LaValle last played with Swing Kids in 1997, when the band officially broke up. Although he says they had a hard time selling out shows back in the day, Swing Kids’ music went on to inspire bands like Refused, Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower and multiple hardcore acts, while Swing members went on to form The Locust (Justin Pearson), Sweep the Leg Johnny (John Brady) and The Album Leaf (LaValle).

“People from all over the country, all over the world, flew in for these shows. It was definitely something people had been waiting for,” LaValle says. “It was really kind of surprising. I knew that Swing Kids were influential, but never that big. And now you see that the band made a mark, and it was something that people clued into after the fact.”

If you missed the shows last weekend, LaValle says you might be waiting a long time.

“I really doubt that we’ll play again,” he says. “It was awesome, but we could barely get through this one.”

Following the additions of Pinback and Three Mile Pilot, Temporary Residence Ltd. has signed The Black Heart Procession. While the label has not released a official statement, Procession frontman Pall Jenkins has confirmed that it will release the band’s new record in October.

This is Not My Life, the new band from Matt Mournian (Goodbye Blue Monday, Calico Horse), will make their live debut at The Casbah Wednesday, May 20. The band also features members from Mr. Tube and Manuok. Plans are for some initial shows and then recording. Mournian describes the music as “a combination of Goodbye Blue Monday and lowcloudcover with a bit of sleaziness.” www.myspace.com/thisisnotmylifemusic.

Grand Ole Party have been tapped to open for Yeah Yeah Yeahs on a Midwest tour that starts next week in Chicago.

View from a stool

Back in the day, when North Park dive bars still smelled like puke and “hipster” wasn’t yet part of everyday vernacular, I watched local math-rockers Sleeping People burn down the Office formerly known as Scolari’s. I was accompanied by then-Channing Cope drummer Chris Connor, and about two songs in, he leaned over and remarked, “That guy makes me want to quit drumming.”

Fast-forward more than five years and “that guy,” Sleeping People drummer Brandon Relf, is still freaking people out with his insane syncopation. At Soda Bar last Friday night, the band played its first show in more than a year-and-a-half, and judging by the crowd, they’ve been missed. Hell, the last time they played there, the place was called Chaser’s, but they didn’t sound the slightest bit rusty this go-round. Opening with the incendiary “Blue Fly, Green Fly,” the band’s killer instrumentals had the crowd in front headbanging and screaming randomly as if channeling the ghost of Can’s Rebop Kwaku Baah. Opener Rob Crow joined the band for one song, but Relf was the star of the show. Out in front of the stage where a singer might normally be, he was like a samurai, closing his eyes in between songs, only to spring back to life, cutting away seemingly without intent but always hitting his mark.

Relf later told me the band had been busy on other projects—hence the hiatus—and that guitarist Joileah “Joi” Maddock would soon be moving to Switzerland, but he said the band would continue on as a trio. Whether her absence will affect the sound remains to be seen, but Sleeping People will play one more show together at The Casbah on Thursday, June 4. It may not smell like puke, but it’ll surely do.

Sweet beats

Our semi-regular look at the local DJ scene

Artist: DJ Fred Savage (no relation to the Wonder Years star)

Sound: Danish author Hans Christian Andersen said it best: “Where words fail, music speaks.” Savage (real name Frederick Puzon) shares this sentiment. “When I get depressed, I turn to music,” he says. After a very trying year, Savage compiled New Beginnings, a 30-track mixtape that served as “musical therapy” and features remixed songs from artists such as Camp Lo, A Tribe Called Quest and DJ Jazzy Jeff with Savage’s signature smooth sound, which he describes as “hip-hop meets neo-soul.” The cover art features the scratcher himself schlepping a suitcase up a flight of stairs, a metaphorical image he says reflects his life. “As you can see,” he says, “I’m on the very first step. This is a whole new chapter in my life. I’m out to make a name for myself, and I’m eager to see where this journey takes me.”
While most of his contemporaries are strictly digital, New Beginnings comes from a back-to-basics vinyl set.

“Nowadays, you can just go out, buy a Serato [vinyl emulation program] and say you’re a DJ,” he says. “Half of the fun of being a DJ is going out and digging for vinyl. That’s how it all started and why I choose to mix live.”

Stats: He can be found Fridays and Saturdays at Jimmy Love’s and is the man behind the ones and twos at Altitude’s monthly Social Saturdays series. When not warding off “lame top-40 requests” and the occasional drunken Gaslamp bro asking him for the whereabouts of Winnie Cooper, he likes to unwind in his Rancho Peñasquitos home while watching the adventure reality series Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel.

“That show is crazy, man. I love to eat crab, and these guys risk their lives for it,” he says. “Last show, a couple of them drowned. It’s crazy what those people do just to make sure you get crabs.”