The Fresnan

What You Missed Last Night: Circles and Circles

This is where you were not, last night.  Don't worry, we checked it out for you:

Indie Tuesday: Circles and Cakes

Is it weird for a band to have an anniversary party after only one year of existence?  Maybe.  But there has been weirder anniversary parties. Really though, given the volatile nature of keeping a band together, one year actually is a reason to stop and party.

Tonight, join Circles and Circles at Starline as they celebrate their relatively lengthy togetherness.  They invited Fresno's Aspen Hollow, Akasha and LA's Ready Aim Fire, to play and eat cake with them.  Seriously.  There will be cake.

Enjoy some show related videos after the break...

Saturday Fresgeek: Let's Do IT Tonight

If you don't want to see the Batman tonight, choose from one of the following:

What?  Four in one day isn't enough for your horny greedy ass?  Then see what The Hive thinks.  Still want more?  Damn, you want it all the time.  Just give me five minutes here....okay, I'm ready, here ya go.  Now leave me alone, I need a nap.

[*For those of you up late on Saturday nights, we'll have a new segment starting tonight that will post at 1:01 - I should be ready for a sixth go at it by then]

Fresno Bootlegs #6: Sweet and Innocent?

In our continuing series of live bootlegs of Fresno musicians, we finally bring you something sweet and innocent.  Or is it?

Judge for yourself by listening to our bootleg of Fresno's own Abigail Nolte singing and playing guitar at Tokyo Garden.

Download AbigailBeautiful.mp3

*The song may or may not be called "beautiful" - I wouldn't know because I bootlegged this yo and I'm to lame to just straight up ask.

Dorktown Podcast: Give it one more try

Our podcast has returned with in-studio Fresno dorkness. Listen to Dorktown Episode 63. Be warned, rude language and rude Fresnans throughout.

-The FCC can't stop drinking on podcasts.
-Fresnans are tuff!
-Bells randomly checks on listeners.
-Hot Fresno breakfast spots.
-Timmy T controversy on The Fresnan.
-"Brodie Mash" answers questions from a dork.
-The "Front Row" pops up in Fresno in another form.
-Why is Ray Appleton so damn popular?
-FBomb drop.
-The Sleepover Disaster gets dorky.
-The return of the OR GAME.
-National Champion Diamond Dogs...with Pat Hill?
-Fonzy Eyyss.

Download: dorktownEpisode63.mp3

Obsess Over Some Fresno Music Thursday

As you physically and mentally prepare to deal with the heat at the Best of Fresno show on Saturday (You are a Fresnan.  You are tough. You can do it.), get musically prepared on Thursday with a cool drink at a great local show.

Fresno's own Fay Wrays, The Sleepover Disaster, Joshua Lanes and Long Beach's The Aircrash, will be playing Club Fred at Audie's Olympic.  I can't stop listening to the Fay Wrays right now.  So I thought I should share in my Fay obsessiveness.

Download or just click to listen to the Fay Rays: ThisIsTheKiss.mp3

Fresgeek Weekend: Saturday night venue hopping

It's all about the Tower District Saturday night for music (like it is pretty much all the time). 

Audie's Olympic at Club Fred welcomes Spindrift with Fresno's Brother Luke & The Comrades and JohnQ (from Love, the Captive) DJ-ing.  The Starline counters with Goodbye Hidden Betty, What Hands Are For with Fresno's From Blood to Wine and The Kid's International.

It sounds like a good night to hop back and forth between the two clubs.  If you time it right, maybe you'll circumvent all the annoying waiting around in between bands and their sound-checks.  Plus it's an easy drunk-in-an-alley walk between the two places.

Some video of Spindrift if you take the jump with me:

Fresno Housepartying Rules

So we at The Fresnan were invited to a sweet Fresno house party over the weekend.  We made an executive decision to not go because we are just gettin' too old - and there wasn't going to be booze.

Looks like we really missed out because my favorite Fresno area band played.  Tokyo Death March.  Have a look at the fun that is a Fresno house party with a great band:

Fresno Bootlegs #5: El Olio Wolof

I never got Merced band El Olio Wolof.  I saw them at Starline.  Didn't get.  I saw them at Babylon.  Nothin'.  "What's the big deal?" is a stupid question I would ask to nobody in particular.

Maybe I just needed a venue change because I saw a version of El Olio at Tokyo Garden recently and finally got them.  I think the T Garden's atmosphere fit the music better or something...I dunno.  Wolof singer "Radioactive Cauliflower"  has a cracked genius way about his songwriting that I really dug.

The point is, I really liked what I heard and I'm on board the Merced indie-train.  A train that leaves this month for a short summer tour of the states.  A tour that will have Malcolm Sosa playing keyboards.  You can hear what that might sound like with our exclusive bootleg clip from Tokyo Garden of a stripped down version of El Olio Wolof playing "A Fire Breathing Dragon":

Download or listen to Afirebreathing.mp3

Fresno Bootlegs #4: It may or may not grow back

Time for more bootleggin' in Fresno.  This time it's Fresno's punk boys It'll Grow Back.  This was recorded at the Dorktown Three Year Party.  It's raw and I mean that in every way: sound quality and f-bombs (from the crowd and the band).  Not very safe for work or your kid (Earmuffs, all you have to say is earmuffs).

Download saywhatmofo.mp3  "Say What Mother Fucker" recorded on 6/10/8 at Starline, Fresno.