The New Vagabonds, Linden Street Lights
DiPiazzas
Thurs., Jan. 7
At this point, the New Vagabonds claim a fairly low profile around here. But a few dozen fans showed up tonight at DiPiazzas, ordering pizzas and sliding into booths to catch the garage-y, 75-percent female foursome. The band looked comfortable playing on its home turf, drawing folks away [...]

Jonathan Richman

PHOTO by DREW A. KELLEY
DiPiazza’s
Fri., Dec. 11
Nights like this one are why a lot of us choose to live in Long Beach, where Jonathan Richman (you know him from Something About Mary if you don’t know the Modern Lovers) heads on a rainy Friday evening for an early show at DiPiazza’s, after three performances [...]

Lightmusic, Eugene and the 1914, Tiger Tank Euphoria

PHOTO by DREW A. KELLEY
The Basement Lounge
Sat., Dec. 5
Heat rises, right? Well, hanging inside the Basement Lounge Saturday night could have made you think all that elementary school science was a lie, as the below-ground night club/music venue/Korean-taco pusher ran at a feverish temperature during performances by three [...]

The Fifth Story Tenants work for the clampdown

PHOTO by JENNIE WARREN
March 20 | Art Theatre
It’s been some years since the last time I saw the Fifth Story Tenants cover another band’s song—at a particularly memorable party at the Booby Trap—so I was excited to see the band (Paul Sharar, vocals and guitar; Matt Sharar, bass; [...]

The Prospector | Feb 2

PHOTO by DAVID THORNTON
The nation was still recovering from Springsteen’s Super Bowl crotch slam when Darker My Love plugged in their instruments Monday night at the Prospector, and the stadium-ready rock only carried on with their performance—no doubt a special treat for proud birthday boy and booker Billgazer, who’d been trying [...]

Live Review: Dave Navarro and J. Mello

ILLUSTRATION by ERIN SMITH
Sachi Bar | Fri Dec. 12
Hard to say exactly why Friday night’s Dave Navarro/J. Mello show at Sachi Bar ended after six songs, but it would be easy to point to the jerk who threw a bottle of water on stage. That’s what the go-go dancer [...]

Half of yesterday’s Part Time Punks Fest escaped me (traffic, lunch), but that still left enough post-punk to fill out a fine retrospective. The Urinals went classic (“Ack Ack Ack Ack” still clocked in at about one minute), Vivian Girls went tasteless (“Hey, have you guys heard of a place called the OC? I guess [...]

Thurs | Oct 2 | Detroit Bar, Costa Mesa

PHOTO by EMILY WILSON
Sparrow Love Crew could probably start a party anywhere, even in your grandparents’ living room: From the DJ’s first scratch, they’d keep the fun free-flowing until their collective wit was all rhymed out. And this is exactly what happened last Thursday at Detroit, as [...]

Flocks of music fans flooded the Fullerton Transportation Center Sat., Aug 30 for the 14th annual Spare the Air festival, aimed at raising awareness about air pollution during the summer—the season when seemingly clear skies, hot temperatures, lighter winds and a strong temperature inversion merge and trap air pollutants near the ground. While the intense [...]

STAG BITTEN AND BAD PARENTS | THE BAD PAD | AUG 15

PHOTO by FEVER DRAGON
Every piece of furniture was turned up on edge and stuffed unceremoniously into the kitchen at the Bad Pad (a house on Seventh Street) before Stag Bitten went on. Stag Bitten are from Portland—but like most Portland bands, none of them [...]