Don't know where to go this weekend? Heard Mentality makes it easy–here's the rundown of great music coming to town.
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Friday, May 21
Sweethead takes a turn at helping lay Alex's Bar in Long Beach to waste (or at least sonic waste), with the help of Normandy, Los Mysteriosos and the Velvet Matadors as openers. Led by A Perfect Circle/Queens of the Stone Age veteran Troy Van Leeuwen and Serrina Sims, Sweethead, our main featured artist in this week's issue, are the latest branch of what's been a pretty rich vein of Josh Homme-related rock this millennium. Tickets are $8.
That same night, the latest show in the 2010 DMC World DJ Championship series kicks off at Cohiba in Long Beach. The main showcase set will be last year's champion DJ Shiftee, but keep an eye out for our Locals Only profile artist this week, DJ Jesse Montoya, a.k.a. Twothousand Divine. Further performances come courtesy of Pac Div and Soul Elevation, guest judges include the deservedly legendary DJ Muggs. The whole night will be a real showcase of one of America's best contributions to world art in recent decades; tickets are $20. Get there and get down. Here's DJ Shiftee:
Saturday, May 22
The 6th Annual Battle of the Mariachis Festival down at the Mission San Juan Capistrano from late morning to early afternoon for great music, food and theatrical performances. Tickets are $10.50. Mariachi, though understandably identified with Mexico, is hardly the only “Mexican music” out there. As anyone with roots in the region will be happy to tell you, it's a product of the state of Jalisco, with Guadalajara as much the sound's ground zero as New Orleans is to jazz or New York to hip-hop. The sound is as powerful and varied as those styles are. Here's a clip from last year:
Far will also be at the Glass House; tickets are $15. Seminal emo band Far formed in the early '90s and had a strong cult following throughout the decade touring with friends Incubus and the Deftones. After breaking up in 1999, they got back together in 2008 and are now touring to support their new album, At Night We Live. They'll be at the Glass House with Dead Country and Normandie showing the younguns how to scream into a mic with, you know, real emotion. Here's an interview with the band at their studio:
Sunday, May 23
The Sweet and Tender Hooligans to the House of Blues for that most Southern California of events–namely, Morrissey's 51st Unhappy Birthday Celebration. Tickets are $18.50. The association of the English singer and his utterly rabid fanbase in the area has long since passed from being a curiosity to approaching a multigenerational impact. The Sweet and Tender Hooligans, fronted by spot-on Moz vocal imitator Jose Maldonado, have become their own equally deep-rooted legends, filling in the gaps between their hero's tours with their labor of love. (Don't ignore Maldonado's amusing turn as the man himself in the cult film My Life With Morrissey.)
Sweet and Tender Hooligans'
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