Insights into Photography
What do you do if you’re a PYT, out on the prowl, just trying to get your club on at a DJ set by The Rapture at El-D, and some hipster “pussy magnets” try to eat your face? Pepper spray? Play the boyfriend card? Swift kick in the balls? Nah, just stick a Pabst in front of those boys and watch them go at it like Antonio Cromartie goes after a Champagne bottle. —Seth Combs
Locals only
Crocodiles frontman Brandon Welchez and Kristin Gundred (aka Dee Dee) from Dum Dum Girls have started a record label called Zoo Music. The label’s new release, a vinyl-only EP from Austin, Texas, band Woven Bones, sold out immediately on the label’s website, but the label claims that more copies will be available at the Woven Bones show at Bar Pink on Thursday, Dec. 3.
In other Crocodiles news, anyone who’s caught the band live lately has surely noticed that the original duo of Welchez and guitarist Charles Rowell has been joined by the rhythm section of Marco Gonzalez (bass) and Marco Rapisarda (drums). Welchez told CityBeat that the band will play live as a foursome but that he and Rowell will continue to record as a duo.
Folkster Jason Mraz has certainly reached household-name status, and not because his new live album debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard charts. Rather, the singer was lampooned on the Nov. 21 episode of Saturday Night Live. In the sketch, Mraz (played by guest host Joseph Gordon-Levitt) appears on a fictional television program called “The Mellow Show with Jack Johnson” (Johnson is played by Adam Sandberg) and plays a new song called “Lookin’ Good,” wherein he sings about his love of hat shopping. Dave Matthews also appears in the sketch playing a very un-mellow Ozzy Osbourne, while Matthews, in turn, is played by Bill Hader.
Electro maestro Jimmy LaValle has released the track listing and title of the new Album Leaf album. Set for release in February 2010, A Chorus of Storytellers will be the first Leaf full-length in more than three years.
Metal band The Long and Short of It’s frontman Ben Johnson has started a new hip-hop side project with Microphone Mike called Grammatical B. The debut single, “Do Fries Come with that Walk of Shame,” is available to stream on MySpace.
—Seth Combs
The Enrique experience
Driven by the verve of Goldilocks on steroids, I searched for the perfect night out. My trek started at the new Fellowship of San Diego Park Gallery, but the crowd was way too young (think Justin Bieber mall-performance young). I then crashed a CD-release party at Cream coffeehouse for a guy named Chris Hassett. In contrast, the coterie there was AARP-coupon-day-at Kobey’s-swap-meet old.
Armed with nothing but bravery and the air in my lungs, I ended up in City Heights’ Coqui Bar & Grill (4286 University Ave.)—maximum occupancy: 40. It’s a place that answers the age-old question: What do those men who hang outside Home Depot do at night?
Personal beer pitchers are $4, ceviche tostadas $3.50, and the house specialty, cueritos (pickled pork skin) goes for $6. A fútbol game was playing on the big-screen TV, and a strand of garlic bulbs hung above the front door, I’m guessing to ward off gringos.
A complete fiesta salchicha (south-of-the-border talk for “sausage fest”), the only two females there could have easily been cast in the lead role for the Latino version of the film Precious. Still, they were the belles of the ball. A quick cerveza and call it a night? Forget it. Stetson-wearing patrons here come to drown their sorrows. The hammered señor to my left kept incessantly toasting with me to the health of Lucita—the absent daytime bartender—while my neighbor to the right was at times weeping (thanks to the that-puta-did-me-wrong soundtrack) and, moments later, napping.
“Uno dos, uno dos” (the Mexican DJ equivalent of “one two, one two”), the man behind the ones and twos said as he got ready for the night’s main event—Mexi-karaoke, but only one man was courageous enough to sing. He chose a ditty by Juan Gabriel—Mexico’s answer to Liberace—and at one point, two drunken men started dancing, as the Precious gals were already taken.
After that, a full-on bar brawl ensued—I’m talking a bottle-flinging, curtain-rod- and steak-knife-wielding fight.
Stoically, like the string quartet in Titanic, the DJ kept on playing ’till the cops came. I toasted to Lucita for the 37th time and got the hell outta Dodge with a smile on my face.
—Enrique Limón
Night Moves
This week, Wednesday is the new Friday, and whether you’ve got cool family members in town or you just want to dance off all those extra calories, here’s our special holiday-weekend guide to the after-dark events we’re looking forward to.
Rifat Ziadeh @ Voyeur: The last time this guy gigged at Voyeur, he played an electro remix of Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing.” We didn’t really know we wanted to hear that until we did. Wednesday, Nov. 25.
“My, What Big Cans You Have” @ Side Bar: OK, OK. Despite the name and the location, this is a pretty cool event for a Wednesday night. They’ll have a hosted bar from 9 to 10 p.m. for anyone who brings in two canned food items for local food banks, and DJ DeVoy will be on the wheelz of steelz. If anything, a fantastic and altruistic way to start the night before heading to…
“Jivewire” @ The Casbah: This every-month-or-so dance party featuring DJ Atari is probably the only night when non-scenesters are tolerated and Casbah bartenders have to make something more complicated than a vodka and tonic. In any case, it’s sweaty, it’s dank and if you can’t hook up here, then you must not be a good dancer. Wednesday, Nov. 25.
Simian Mobile Disco @ La Sexta House of Music (Tijuana): You know, rumor has it that some countries don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. Skip the pumpkin pie, kiss grandma and take the $5 cab ride from the border to Revolución and Calle 6 to hear these London electro DJs keep on till the break of dawn (literally). Thursday, Nov. 26. (www.LaSexta.com.mx)
“F@#king in the Bushes” @ Whistle Stop: We’re hoping this inaugural Britpop night lasts, especially when the DJs are Rob Moran (of Some Girls fame) and Daniel Sant (the limey singer of Northern Towns, who are also playing earlier in the night). Oasis fans need not apply. Friday, Nov. 27.
DJ Rap @ On Broadway: She was all the rage back in the late ’90s when even your mama knew what drum-n-bass was. Then Rap started singing Big Sonic Chill-suited trip-hop, and we all sighed. But, judging by her new material, she’s found a make-out worthy middle ground between hard breakbeats and sexy ambiance.
—Seth Combs
