San Diego Shows–Tuesday, July 7
ONLY PLAN: Princeton, WestFire, Jamuel Saxon @ The Casbah–Princeton may be arriving a little late to the white boy preppy party started by Vampire Weekend, but that doesn’t mean their music should be ignored. Yeah, they grew up on the rough streets of Santa Monica and mommy probably paid for all their equiptment, but their cool brand of sunshine-pop just got them signed to Kanine Records (the little DIY Brooklyn label that broke Grizzly Bear, Chairlift and Oxford Collapse) who will release the band’s debut, Cocoon of Love (tied with Crocodiles’ Summer of Hate for best album title of the year) in September. I’ve heard some advance material and it’s essentially Belle and Sebastian meets 69 Love Songs at the beach. But atleast they’re not blatantly ripping off the black man to sing songs about commas and how cool fuckin Cape Cod is (and I’ve been to Cape Cod. Trust me, it sucks). And where the hell did WestFire come from? Do me a favor, click on their name above and as the MySpace page loads up and you catch a glimpse of the band before the songs start to play, try and instinctively guess what kind of music they play. I thought I was instore for some crappy, goth melodrama, but actually it’s some fairly decent music that I think they like to call “adult-contemporary” around the Goldenvoice offices. Not my thing, but not bad for what it is.
QUICK PICKS:
Freak Tent, Killer Dreamer, Pigs @ Soda Bar
Incomplete Neighbor, Brown Show, The Predicates, DJ Gonzobilly @ Beauty Bar
“Too Cool For Karaoke: America Fuck Yeah” @ Ruby Room
“Tiki Tuesday” Feat. Adrian Demain’s Exoticatronica@ Bar Pink
“Rub a Dub Reggae Tuesdays” with The Devastators and Dub Traffik Control DJs @ Belly Up
Distruct of Evolution, Tigon, Mozaik @ Radio Room
Duane Peters, Cobra Skulls, Ashers, Jakked Rabbits @ Brick By Brick
Greg Gibson, David Fletcher, Justin John Rodriguez @ Tin Can Ale House
“Jazz Jam” with Gilbert Castellanos
Actually, I believe Princeton has been around longer then Vampire Weekend- wiki has them(VW) starting in 2006, and Princeton has been on myspace since fall 2005. Also, I personally saw Princeton play in NYC in 2007 during CMJ, so they’ve been around. Not that anyone could be faulted for thinking that Princeton are “late comers” to a sound started by Vampire Weekend, given the overall level of awareness for that band compared to the total absence of interest in Princeton.