Orange County Music Blog

​When it comes to Detroit Bar's ever-impressive acquisitions of national acts, local faves and surprise guests, September was far from a dry spell. But it was this kind of success that forced them to forego their free, Monday night residency shows. To be fair, it probably worked out for the best.

Thankfully, this king of shopping center music venues resumes it's status as a local hipster launch pad for shaggy, eclectic up-and-comers.

Case in point: the next four Mondays will be dominated by Long Beach psych-pop outfit the Fling. With a steady amount of touring through the summer months, this 60s inspired four piece (which includes Dustin Lovelis on vox and guitar, Graham Lovelis on bass, Justin Ivey on drums and Justin Roeland on guitar) prepares to cast their net every Monday, hoping to snag some Detroit regulars.

Obviously this isn't the first time their jangly, lo-fi rumblings and polished vocal harmonies came up on our radar (see Dave Segal's Locals Only praise wayyyy back in 2008).

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Fullerton's Dusty Rhodes and the River Band experienced a bit of a setback last month--namely, bassist Brad Babinski being hit with both mono and shingles (yeesh), forcing the band to scrap their east coast tour.

Carlos van Hijfte

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Remember that Sonic Youth show scheduled for the Fox Theater in Pomona on September 25? Bad news: it's not happening, due to guitarist Lee Ranaldo's wrist injury, generally a bad place for a guitarist to hurt himself. (It happened while playing tennis, a more high-impact sport than you might have imagined.) Good news: it's been rescheduled to January 8, when Ranaldo will hopefully be "100%" again (teehee).  Full list of rescheduled fall Sonic Youth dates after the jump.

Just got this email regarding two-for-one tickets on sale only today. Here's the info I was sent.

HALF PRICE TICKETS; Get 2 for the Price of 1 -- Tomorrow!

-- Starting at 12:01 midnight on Wednesday, July 22 for 24 hours:

-- A pair of lawn tickets to participating Live Nation amphitheater shows is available for half-off

-- Available for the following area shows through LiveNation.com:

            The Fray (Verizon Wireless Amphitheater)- July 29

            Crue Fest 2 (San Manuel Amphitheater)- July 31

            Journey (San Manuel Amphitheater)-- August 1

            Rock The Bells 09 (San Manuel Amphitheater)-- August 8

            Toby Keith (San Manuel Amphitheater)-- August 15

            Def Leppard w/special guests Poison & Cheap Trick (VWA--Aug 30; San Manuel Amph--Sep 6)

            Nickelback (Verizon Wireless Amphitheater)-- September 3

            Creed (Verizon Wireless Amphitheater)-- September 30

PS What's Cheap Trick doing opening for Poison and Def Leppard?

Chance Theater

In the middle of Act II of Hair, the "American Tribal Love-Rock Musical," a thought pops into my head: "This is what getting high must feel like." What spawned this revelation? Sitting there, I had only a vague notion of the storyline. In spite of this, I was more than happy to go where the musical was taking me, which was a psychedelic cornucopia of lights, music, dancing, and all manner of revelry that characterize human beings as social animals. 

Recycling is great, free shows are great, soda is great--what's not to love about the gimmick/sponsorship dealie when you get into Girl Talk shows for free with 36 empty cans of Squirt? It gives you a chance to drink (a lot of) a relatively obscure soft drink, see a noted mash-up wizard for free, and feel like you're doing something positive for the environment. It went down last month at the Grove of Anaheim and is happening July 24 at the Fox Theater in Pomona.

But things have changed: instead of 36, you can now enter by bringing any amount of Squirt cans to the venue. Well, that's certainly easier. And it still all benefits the Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles. So even if you only bring one can, it'll still help someone at least a little. (If you can really live with yourself after such an appalling lack of can-gathering.)

The late Chris Gaffney created beautiful music, though he'd rather have been watching "Sportscenter."

It was a misty day in December when I ducked into the Swallow's Inn in San Juan Capistrano to talk with general manager Cheryl Krupp about one of the entertainers she frequently booked there, the late Chris Gaffney.

"I knew him very well," Krupp said while glancing in the direction of the empty stage that had been regularly darkened by the country/folk/R&B/soul/rock singer-songwriter-guitarist-accordion player and his various bands. "He had his own type of music, he had a great following, and he had great fans. He was laid back, easygoing. It was a shame when he got sick."

Gaffney, a military brat who bounced around Europe before eventually landing in Tuscon, Arizona, southeast Los Angeles County and Orange County, succumbed to liver cancer at 57 in April 2008. His pal Dave Alvin has put together a Gaffney tribute album that the Blasters co-founder and Grammy winner promotes down the street from Swallow's at the Coach House Saturday night.

Asked if she could recall any Gaffney antics during her 17 years at Swallow's, Krupp got a twinkle in her eye. "You never knew what he was going to do," she said. "He was one of the bands you always had to remind had a show to do. You had to go find him during breaks to tell him he's still got to keep playing."

She never quite knew what he would end up playing either. She recalled booking Gaffney to play country music one Saturday night. "He was on a break and he said, 'Oh, I don't know what I'm going to play. I'll do something different. I'll just play country.' That was what he was supposed to play!"

It was worth the trouble, according to Krupp: "He would bring in a crowd that was unbelievable."

It's easy to hate on Live Nation, but they've been involved in some alright stuff lately, like the Blink 182 lawn seats that cost $20, straight-up--inclusive of parking and service fees and all that yakkety yak. The latest is "no service fees Wednesdays," which will run throughout the summer and starts this Wednesday (tomorrow!), June 3. As the name suggests, it removes dreaded service fees from lawn tickets from all sorts of big shows, like 311, Aerosmith, Coldplay, No Doubt and Dave Matthews Band--all shows coming to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine this summer.

Giant corporations and the consumer--the recession makes strange bedfellows, apparently. Full details at Live Nation's official site.

The 2009 version of KROQ's annual summer blowout, the Weenie Roast y Fiesta, is hitting the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater May 16. That's like less than two weeks away, so get on it.

Bands include Weezer (who still don't have or bassist Matt Sharp back in the band, even though everyone knows they should), Kings of Leon, Jimmy Eat World, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Rancid, Silversun Pickups, the Airborne Toxic Event, Cage the Elephant and White Lies on the main stage and Hollywood Undead, Asher Roth, Anberlin and Big B on a stage that I won't mention because they can buy an ad if they want their watered-down beer mentioned here.

Tickets go on sale Thursday at 5 p.m. via Livenation.com only. Seats are $65 and sitting on the lawn is $55. And before you get all freaked out about those hefty prices, money from the event helps benefit the Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay and ASF.

Remember kids: Skin cancer's very real. Bring some sunscreen. 

Newport Beach's The Jakes have been steadily rising in stature as of late--opening up for Kings of Leon, playing the OC Music Awards live band finals, getting their tunes on The Real World, and even being written up in the OC Weekly (don't hold that against them)--and next month they're hosting a Tuesday night residency at all-ages Costa Mesa venue eVocal. They'll be playing each Tuesday in May, along with a rotating cast of guest bands. The series is sponsored by KROQ's Locals Only show (not to be confused with our Locals Only, natch), which has given Jakes tunes like "Cough Syrup" some airplay as of late.

Dates and supporting bands after the jump!