Perhaps best known for the energetic recordings and live appearances in the San Diego-based power pop outfit Roxy Monoxide, guitarist Scott Samuels has opted for the singer-songwriter modus operandi on his new six-song EP, The Fall. The best attributes of Roxy Monoxide — melodies and lyrics — have followed Samuels on this current stop in his […]
More and more, I’ve noticed booking agents asking artists to submit links to professional videos before confirming gigs. In the new insta-era, promoters not only want to hear you are good enough for the job, they also want visual proof. Although high-quality videos can be difficult to afford and time-consuming to create, many local musicians realize the […]
We’re excited to see that San Diego coffeehouse singer-turned worldwide entertainer Jason Mraz is back on the scene with new music. His latest album and corresponding tour  is called Yes!, an appropriate title given his signature style that boasts a message of love, positivity, and affirmation. For this acoustic record, Mraz is backed by the pop/folk band […]
Now that the San Diego “Fab Fair” has packed up and shipped out, Del Mar is gearing up for Racing Season at the fairgrounds. Races will take place from July 17th through September 3rd in conjunction with a summer concert series that will offer name acts like The Cult, Weezer, Counting Crows, as well as […]
The movie ended, the credits rolled. I stood up, I sat down. Nearly passing out in a movie theatre only took up about ten seconds of my life, but that was enough for me to think something might be wrong. Over the next few days I continued to feel very dizzy, very tired and very […]
Bands that play Celtic-based acoustic folk and bluegrass music are often steeped in a tradition of established story songs, reels, and shanties that long ago established the templates for the sound. Forkroot is a local trio that takes this to heart on their CD Between Two Cities by writing and performing original material that sounds […]
The best songs hurt. They bring us into heightened awareness of our own pain. They strip away the sugar coating and lay bare the hard truths of life — love often ends, youth fades, and death awaits us all. Yet we keep listening because as John Mellencamp sang, it hurts so good. Why do we […]
Nat King Cole once sang of those “Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer” complete with “soda and pretzels and beer.” George Gershwin thought the “livin’ was easy” during “Summertime.” While many Americans take the cue from these and other summer anthems and put on the brakes to relax during the heat waves of July and […]
It has 88 keys, three pedals, weighs 800 pounds, and in the right hands, a piano is the most versatile of all musical instruments, one that can play anything from stately symphonies to pounding Little Richard rockers — and everything in between. For John Foltz, fascination with the keyboard started early. “I began noodling around […]
