While starting down the “20 ways to be a better Fresnan” checklist.
1. MAKE YOURSELF EXPENDABLE
Laid-back reggae/rockers The Expendables are playing what’s probably the biggest gig of the weekend, tonight at Fulton 55. If you like Slightly Stoopid, you’ll like them. We hear it’s closed to selling out. So don’t slack. [More]
Santigold, Ra Ra Riot, Atoms for Peace and Parquet Courts are among the artists you’ll hear on this week’s Ozmosis podcast. On the local level: We’ve got Ted Nunes/Richfield as the Tioga-Sequoia local artist of the week (catch ‘em Friday night in Visalia), and we’ve giving you a taste of Ash Reiter, who is at Audie’s Olympic on Saturday night. All that and more cool new music you don’t hear on the radio all the time. Listen to the podcast below and catch new episodes of Ozmosis every Sunday night at 9 p.m. on New Rock 104.1.
While pondering a downtown public market.
1. HAVE AN UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT
NYC hip-hop duo Camp Lo — famous for their stellar 1997 album, “Uptown Saturday Night” — are at Fulton 55 on Saturday as part of the anniversary tour for the album. It’s a cool gig, particularly if you’ve never seen “Luchini” pour from the sky. [More]
While hoping no other local businesses close.
1. SAY FAREWELL TO THE EXPRESS
With news earlier this week that long-time LGBT nightclub The Express is closing, you can expect big crowds for its final three days tonight, Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday, the popular Xotica drag show — usually on Thursdays — will be capping the final night of the club. [More]
If you’re lucky enough to have sold-out Of Monsters and Men concert tickets, add that.
1. GET YOUR HANDS ON SOME LOCAL GOODS
Since the Fresno Handmade Bazaar was such a success earlier this year, organizers The Soulflower Group have crafted a seasonal sequel — Saturday’s Fresno Handmade Holiday Bazaar. You can buy gifts — for you or your fam — handmade by Fresno’s indie artisans. This ain’t your grandma’s craft fair, though. It’s in a club with a DJ and drinks. Keep in mind that it’s only open to the 21+. [More]
Other than taking the new downtown ice rink for a spin or watching the Veterans Day parade.
1. SWEDE IT UP
Swede Fest is bigger and better, back for its 10th installment Sunday. It’s happening at Tower Theatre, a dream realized for organizers of this quirky film festival. It showcases low-budget parodies made by everyone from average joes to seasoned pros. Creativity, ingenuity and a sense of humor are king at Swede Fest, so you never know what you’re going to see. It’s free and open to movie lovers of all ages. For more on Swede Fest’s growth and rise to popularity, read this Q & A with the organizers. [More]
Today is ArtHop, Jazz Hop, the first day of November, the day after Halloween and Thursday — all of which give the people of the Valley a reason to throw a party.
Among the things on the docket tonight: the debut of our local Amy Winehouse tribute band at Audie’s, the return of EDM party Unity, a Movember kick-off party in Visalia and a Halloween Hangover party at Roe. See the fliers below for those and more.
Other than seeing our local “Voice” contestant Rudy Parris in Visalia or ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro at the Tower Theatre.
1. DO SOMETHING HALLOWEEN-ISH
With that unfortunate Halloween-falling-on-a-Wednesday thing, this weekend promises to be full of slutty nurses roaming your neighborhood bar. We’ll be back with a full rundown of Halloween happenings, but here are a few top options. The party at The Standard is pretty big each year. King Sugar‘s Eureka Burger show makes the list off the flier alone — but they’ve got cool ska flavors too. And who doesn’t want to parade their dog around the Tower District?
If you’re looking for cool live music tonight, the place to be is Audie’s Olympic in the Tower, which hosts Austin rock band Ume, whom I’ve heard a lot of good things about. Two strong local bands back them up — Light Thieves, the new cool-indie-rockers-of-the-moment in Fresno and Style Like Revelators, a quality bluesy-rock band.
Hella shameless self promo here, but my Ozmosis Happy Hour #2 is tonight at Swiggs. There’s sports on the TVs, Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Co’s “Steal the Shirt” night and lots of giveaways — including tickets for this weekend’s NOtown Roller Derby bout and Sergio Romo bobbleheads courtesy of the Fresno Grizzlies.
1. ROLL WITH THE ZOMBIES
Saturday is Fresno’s (now) annual Zombie Pub Crawl in the Tower District. You can get dressed up, hang out with a bunch of zombies and crawl from one Tower bar to the next in search of braiiiiiiiins booze. Some places, such as Babylon as you’ll see below, have their own complementing zombie events. Read more about the zombie craze here.
Gotta admit, I’m quite smitten with local band Copper & Glass at the moment. These five dudes have a great sound that doesn’t scream “local band.” In fact, last week I had some of their songs on an iTunes playlist with a bunch of national bands, and as I listened I couldn’t distinguish which was the new local group and which were the veteran national acts.
It probably helps that two of Copper & Glass’ members were part of Atari Champ, a celebrated indie rock band from a decade ago. Below is “Clear Black Skies,” a more alt-country-sounding song of theirs. Head to their ReverbNation page to check out my favorite song of theirs, “All My Life,” which has more of a folksy/indie rock vibe. Says singer Jc Babb: “We’ve been compared to everyone from Marshall Tucker Band to Ryan Adams to Ray LaMontagne — a little bit country, a little bit soul and a little bit rock ‘n’ roll.”
Veteran local musician David Lane — a regular at Club Fred/Audie’s Olympic — died last week after a battle with lung cancer.
Today, the folk singer be remembered by his peers and friends from the local music scene, at 4 p.m. at Full Circle Brewing Co., 620 F St. The memorial includes a pot luck and music. More details here.
The Fresno Folklore Society has put together a great online remembrance for Lane, which you can read right here. Here’s part of it:
David began playing songs from the 1920s on the ukulele at his mother’s tea parties. The performance bug bit him hard. As a teenager, he played with the band, Dave the Wave and Undertows, before embarking on a lifelong career as a folk singer …
[I]n 1980, David continued, playing bass with Joe Holley (the left-handed fiddler for Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys) and frequently performing with Fresno folk music royalty such as Jon Adams and Kenny Hall and his sister Kathleen.
According to his friends, Lane battled cancer with no insurance, so money is being raised for his family. Anybody wanting to help can donate at any Wells Fargo branch. There’s an account in Lane’s name, numbered 1204211054.
While you play with your shiny new iPhone 5 …
1. ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR CANOE TO FULTON 55
If you ask me, the coolest show in Fresno this week stars Canadian band Royal Canoe, who is at Fulton 55 tonight and whose sound I really dig. They lead a plump lineup that also includes local indie rock faves Fierce Creatures and been-here-a-few-times-and-knocked-em-dead soul artist Ssssnake. [More]
On this week’s episode of Ozmosis: Pinback, Animal Collective, Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie and many more great artists. Strange Vine is the Tioga-Sequoia “Drink Local, Listen Local” band of the week and two acts you’ll see in Fresno later this week — Royal Canoe and David Dondero are also featured.
If you dig Ozmosis or just wanna hang with me and drink beer, then know that the first Ozmosis Happy Hour is going down Thursday at Audie’s Olympic. More info here. Enjoy the podcast and tune in at 9 p.m. Sunday for a new episode of Ozmosis on New Rock 104.1.
If the above player gives you any grief, you can listen directly on Mixcloud.
Tonight two local band and two bands from Fresno’s cool, older, more-put-together cousin Portland combine at Audie’s Olympic. Portland bands Animal Eyes and Fanno Creek come to town, while Achievement House and Fast Car help them out. It’s going to range from wordly and chill (Animal Eyes) to raucous and punk (Fast Car). Get tickets at LoveTheCaptive.com or at the door.
Other than helping clean up a river.
1. SEND STRANGE VINE OFF IN STYLE
Strange Vine is my favorite band in Fresno right now. Fact is, they’re a lot of peoples’ favorite band right now. In fact, I gushed about them in the paper today and said they should totally open for The Black Keys (like that FB page, y’all!). But let’s focus on the now: Strange Vine is taking off for a quick tour through Texas and Nashville and up to NYC. Send them off Saturday night at Audie’s Olympic. Indie rock darlings of the moment Light Thieves are also playing. [More]
Lots of great new music on the latest episode of Ozmosis — The XX, Two Door Cinema Club, Cat Power, The Divine Fits and Matt & Kim to name a few. Sea of Sound is the Tioga-Sequoia “Drink Local, Listen Local” band of the week and there’s music from three artists performing tonight — Nite Jewel (at Cellar Door), Camper Van Beethoven (at Fulton 55) and Ape Machine (at Audie’s Olympic).
If you listened to the show live on Sunday night, you’ll be happy to know there are a few more songs on the podcast for you to check out. Enjoy the podcast and tune in at 9 p.m. Sunday for a new episode of Ozmosis on New Rock 104.1.
If the above player gives you any grief, you can listen directly on Mixcloud.
We all know Mondays aren’t usually the best days for live music, but it sure feels like we’ve had a string of good Monday night shows recently.
Tonight, Audie’s Olympic keeps that going with a bill that features Kinship, American Sanchez, Euphoria and touring band Chiefs.
If you can’t be there, the show will be airing live on the web show Everybody’s Doing It With Kris & Laura, which you can pick up from longbox.fm.
ALSO: A long overdue plug for Longbox.fm, because it plays a lot of local music and streams 24/7.
Besides singing “Don’t Drop that Baklava.”
1. SEE TWIN SHADOW
You know how The Cellar Door in Visalia gets all those cool concerts? Well, organizers are saying tonight’s is the biggest one of the year. It’s with ’80s-inspired dance-pop act (and critical darling) Twin Shadow and the very groovy Poolside. In fact, I’ve heard people from L.A. and S.F. have been buying most of the advance tickets. Don’t miss out, local hipsters! Read this interview I did with Twin Shadow to get you ready. [Tickets]
All right, ya’ll. Three things for tonight:
ONE: The Kiss Country $5 summer concert series is happening again at Woodward Park. And, again, it’s hella sold out. So, you snooze, you lose. If you didn’t snooze, have fun tonight seeing Lee Brice, Dustin Lynch and Andy Gibson.
TWO: NYC rockers Outernational return to Fresno to headline Fulton 55. These revolutionary rockers get compared often to Rage Against the Machine — just with a little more Latin rock appeal. Probably ’cause they’ve become protege’s of RATM’s Tom Morello. Because Outernational is nice, here’s a free download of the band’s latest single. Find tickets for tonight here.
THREE: Audie’s Olympic has some international metal tonight with Spanish band Calibre Zero. Here’s their song “Muerde La Vida,” which gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect. This ain’t gonna be no siesta, that’s for sure.
Do you remember when Tuesdays used to the day to go see a band in this city? I do. And I can’t help but notice that tonight’s Tuesday night entertainment harkens back to those days. Some good stuff ahead of you, Fresno. So go see a show.
AT AUDIE’S OLYMPIC: L.A. punk/bluegrass band Old Man Markley arrives for a tour stop thanks to Numbskull Shows. The band is playing here before doing a run of dates with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. [More]
AT FULTON 55: Love the Captive brings us Portland band Aan (as heard on last week’s Ozmosis) plus much-buzzed-about local indie rock band Light Thieves as main support. The bill also features Greener By Color and Actress. [More]
AT TOKYO GARDEN: Another Oregon group, Wintertime Carousel, stops in town to share its indie/folks sounds. Let’s hope the carousel doesn’t melt in the Fresno heat. [More]
AT BABYLON: Itchy-O — a 32-piece masked (!!) marching band from Denver stops at Babylon. It sounds a bit like a concert and the Royal Rumble all in one. With pulsing percussion and electronica fun. [More]
AT ALDO’S: For the club crowd, Aldo’s hosts “Gotham City,” a Batman-themed party with all the usual club flair, plus a costume contest. I hope someone goes as Alfred — or, I suppose, the more probable, Slutty Alfred. [More]
After you Conan-ize yourself.
1. TAKE A DIP, HEAR SOME TUNES
Seems like a good weekend for a pool party, right? Good, because it’s time for another of the Blue Lagoon parties at Sierra Sport and Racquet Club. Modeled after a Las Vegas pool party, it has booze and DJs, and is only for the 21+. This time, local band Clouded Vision plays too. [More]
In addition to not being a hater.
1. SPIT RHYMES WITH THE KNUX
Alt-hip-hop dudes The Knux return to Audie’s Olympic on Sunday night. They’re a bit atypical in that they, ya know, play instruments and stuff. Here’s a good example of their sound. [More]
San Francisco’s Inspector Gadje marches into Fresno tonight to play Audie’s Olympic and all I can wonder is, “will all those people fit on stage?”
Fifteen musicians are in the band, 12 horn players and three percussionists. The band says it, “brings a big sound to the beautiful and bumpin’ brass band music of the Balkans of south-eastern Europe.” Cerro Negro — who you can also see Thursday night at Revolucion for my taco party — is opening.
Other than seeing how many chicken wings you can cram in your mouth in 10 minutes.
1. GO POP WITH THE GRIZZLIES
The Fresno Grizzlies have a pop culture-heavy weekend planned. Tonight is “Super Hero” night, where the team will be wearing “Dark Knight Rises” theme jerseys — as seen on ESPN.com, FYI. If you dress like super heroes, you get in free. Saturday, the Grizz host Disney actress/singer Zendaya Coleman from “Shake It Up.” She’ll be singing the National Anthem and signing autographs. [More]
