No Age is a noise rock duo comprised of Randy Randall and Dean Spunt. The Los Angeles band’s excellent 2010 album, Everything in Between, was highly praised and listed on many year end lists. No Age will play the Ché Café Collective on January 7, and in anticipation of the show, we sat down with Randy Randall for a wide-ranging interview. Check it out below…
Owl and Bear writers’ favorite albums of 2010. Continue reading…
For San Diego’s music scene, 2010 has been a good year. Bands like Crocodiles and Dum Dum Girls found national acclaim, Wavves made an unexpected comeback following their much-publicized 2009 meltdown, and upcoming acts like Cuckoo Chaos and Tape Deck Mountain are poised to make their own waves next year, thanks to some freshly inked deals with Lefse Records. It’s fitting, then, that the Casbah has lined up three of San Diego’s finest bands to help ring in the new year. Continue reading…
MP3: The Smart Brothers – “Make it Last”
In a show modeled after Martin Scorsese’s epic 1978 concert film The Last Waltz, The Smart Brothers and a cast of local all-stars will give 2010 a big sendoff at the Casbah on December 28.
The acclaimed San Diego trio — you may remember them from their charming, Owl and Bear-programmed SoundDiego LIVE performance back in October — has invited Gregory Page, Erika Davies, John Meeks and Sara Petite, among others, to perform with them. Continue reading…
Wynn Walent is the kind of guy you’re proud to call your friend. A couple of years ago he ditched the grid to offer a helping hand to kids in an orphanage in Peru. Then, when the earthquake struck Haiti, he scraped up money from donations from friends to hop on a flight to Port-au-Prince to see how he might be able to help out. In the midst of the recent cholera outbreak there, he sent a heartbreaking yet optimistic email update (reprinted below) to his mailing list.
The reason Wynn has a mailing list, and the reason we’re mentioning him on this blog, is that he’s also an incredibly talented musician. He writes soft acoustic folk songs with earnest lyrics and an effortlessly beautiful tenor. As he mentions in his email, the music is free for download on his website, and if you choose to donate any money for it, 100% will go to needy or sick families in Haiti that he knows personally. I can vouch for him.