"Game of Thrones" is over. The Fab Fair is over. World Cup is over. Depressingly, that means summer is half-over. But with the races (and shows) in Del Mar, Comic-Con, San Diego Music Thing, Awesome Fest, and much more local goodness still to come, it’s time to get our priorities straight for the few weeks of lazy days we have left. Here is some music news to get your week started off right.
• San Diego Music Thing just announced their first round of bands, and it’s impressive. In addition to a bunch of Angeleno national acts that include Deap Vally, La Santa Cecilia, Dengue Fever and Liars, locals Ed Ghost Tucker, the Midnight Pine and Oh, Spirit will round out a roster of dozens. Not to mention that Moby has been announced as the Music & Media Conference/Festival’s featured speaker. It all goes down Sept. 11-13 and tickets are on sale now here.
• Comic-Con is almost upon us. And if, like me, you were completely left cold by the announcement of weed-snitches Linkin Park and Wesleyan “rockers” MGMT as highlighted Con performers – or worse yet, having the ever-fascinating Grimes added, only to find out she’s merely doing a DJ set - there may be hope. Thrash-metal vets Exodus have been announced as part of a bill that will also include Kirk Hammett of Metallica. The Bay-Area moshers have reunited with vocalist Steve Souza, and provide a desperately needed alternative to the so-called “big” acts.
• Jesse Hofbauer of the Paragraphs has some new projects in the works. He recently started playing drums in a band called Brando, and also started a one-man project called Sleep Document -- which has a debut release scheduled for July 29. Don't worry, there's plenty of this guy to go around, apparently: Don’t miss his main squeeze, the Paragraphs, when they play with Flaggs at the Saloon in Encinitas on Wednesday, or their show with Natural Child at Soda Bar Sunday.
• In 'San Diego bands that are breaking up, getting back together or changing names’ news: Family Wagon is now the Young Wild. Read the SoundDiego interview with them here.
• Surf punk kids the Frights have a new split EP with Los Angeles garage rockers Death Lens and it comes out on Postmark Records July 22. But you can pre-order it here.
• Local metal trio Old Man Wizard is heading out on their first tour. They kick things off on Friday at Tower Bar. The 14-date West Coast swing will wrap up on August 2 in Los Angeles.
• New records tomorrow from Anna Calvi, Dead Fingers, Fink, Jungle, Morrissey, the Mother Hips, Pennywise, Plastikman, Rise Against, Sebastien Tellier, Trampled By Turles, Weird Al Yankovic.
Show of the week: Jurassic 5 at the Del Mar Summer Concert Series on July 18. This is just an awesome way to kick off 4 o’clock Fridays at the racetrack. The four MC/two DJ collective reunited at last year’s Coachella and is currently taking the show on the road. I don’t think I’ve anticipated a concert “Where the Turf Meets the Surf” this much since Sonic Youth played in 2002.
Blogger Scott McDonald covers music in San Diego for a few different publications and is the editor of Eight24.com
