Longtime Orange County ska outfit and Disneyland's favorite choreographed band-with-horns Suburban Legends have been looking for locals to open for them at their album-release show tomorrow night at Chain Reaction. Day Job, the latest from these fun-loving guys, is nearly four years coming, and its entirely self-recorded, straight OC-ska sound is breathing new life into a scene that, by all accounts, peaked 15 years ago.

We sat down with Suburban Legends guitarist Brian Klemm to ask for his and his fun-loving bandmates' thoughts on building their own recording studio, experimenting with pop music and comic-book geekery.

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Jack's Mannequin today dropped the video from the upcoming People and Things record, "My Racing Thoughts." Directed by Anders Rostad with Jesse Springer as the director of photography, it's a pretty catchy way to spend four minutes of your time.

There's also a super cute Q&A from Buzzfeed after the jump; find out what frontman Andrew McMahon's favorite kitchen utensil is!
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Funk pioneer Sly Stone announced in the New York Post this week that he's homeless. Fans are lamenting Stone's predicament, but we see it as karmic retribution for the annoying omnipresence of his music (those who have heard "Everyday People" 90 times during a morning commute can relate).

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UPDATE, Sept. 7, 9:44 a.m.: And what do you know, there's a 20th anniversary edition of Pocket Full of Kryptonite that features the album "as you remember it."

Original post, Sept. 6, 10:36 a.m.: Nostalgia for the 1990s has been surging lately, spurred, as nostalgia often is, by a yearning by simple people for simpler times.

Last week, Rolling Stone blew the trend to noxious proportions with a story on the 20th anniversary of Pocket Full of Kryptonite, the debut album by the Spin Doctors.

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If you haven't seen Lady Gaga's latest video, "You and I", in which she transforms to look like a dude, then you were probably confused by last night's opening of the VMAs. Yes, Lady Gaga can play a convincing roughed-up guy, but her chameleon skills aren't easy to come by. It doesn't matter how many stylists you have, how many producers work for you, or how much dough the record label throws your way, because ultimately if you don't have the chops don't bother changing your look (it won't help). With out a doubt real iconic artists, like Lady Gaga, Madonna, and David Bowie, have the talent to pull off different styles and branch out to different genres. Some pay off and some definitely don't.

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Reel Big Fish

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Andrew Youssef/OC Weekly

​Tom Morello, Rage Against the Machine's guitarist, continues the LA Rising video series with a heavy dose of nostalgia: he talks about the beginnings of Rage Against the Machine 20 years ago in a small rehearsal space in San Fernando Valley, in August 1991.

When they started making the music that would become the first Rage Against the Machine record, he said, "we had no idea anyone would hear these songs...I was just happy to be in a room with guys getting off on playing this heavy, roaring, hip-hop, punk riff rocking music.

We really thought that given the lyrical content and ethnic makeup and the genre smashup of the band, there was no home for it. There was certainly no home for it on radio, on record labels, indie or otherwise, and certainly no place for it in clubs."

He goes on to talk about their relationship with Tool and the grunge bands of the era, plus how they developed their sound. Watch it after the jump.
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Today NBA star Shaquille O'Neal posted on his Twitter account that "I'm retiring" and "Shaq ooout" today. On the video linked from his Tweet, he says, ""We did it. Nineteen years, baby. (I) want to thank you very much. That's why I'm telling you first, I'm about to retire. Love you. Talk to you soon."

The Boston Celtics have not announced the retirement of the 7-foot-1-inch center, who has won four NBA titles in 19 years. According to CNN, he is fifth on the NBA's all-time career scoring list with 28,596 points.

If this is official, does that mean his rapping alter-ego, Shaq Diesel, is coming back in full force? Sure there's a Greatest Hits CD out, but that was 15 years ago. Here are five reasons (not including this awesome one of him singing "When the Doves Cry.") Shaq should go back to doing music full time.

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John Gilhooley/ OC Weekly

​Sublime with Rome have released the first single, "Panic," from their upcoming album Yours Truly today, and ... well, it sounds like an old Sublime song. Actually, it sounds like a bunch of Sublime songs--"Date Rape," "Saw Red" and "Jailhouse," to be precise.

Don't believe us? Listen to the song after the jump--we itemized a list of the old (Sublime) tricks new (Sublime with Rome) used in "Panic," and where you first heard them.
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Chad Sengstock/OC Weekly

​Steve Ignorant Presents Crass
Fox Theater Pomona
April 29, 2011

• Click here for the slideshow!

Last Friday night, hundreds of multi-generational fans from all sects of punk-rock came out to pay their final crusty homage to CRASS. Oh yes, the vigor expressed at these nostalgic shows can be quite the modern theatrical masterpiece, the weathered singer as he hawks out the tired songs one last time, the perfect singing along of every single lyric by the entire crowd. And the Pomona supplement to their "Last Supper Tour" was no exception. 


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