The Fresnan

Have a Fresno Venue Suitable for an Army?

Hey Fresno bands and promoters.  Why ya got to be such jerks?  What am I talking about?  The Republic Tigers are in town Saturday and they have no place to play that night.  Their original venue fell though and they've been looking for a new one.  Nobody is coming through.

They've played Letterman guys and they have catchy Postal Service beats combined with whimsical Shins like singing.  So surely there is a spot they can fill on a Saturday in Fresno. This is a band that can bring some people out.  But maybe spots are just too hard to come by in this town.  Nobody seems to want to make room. 

Stop being douchebags Fresno Musician-sphere - that's for bloggers.

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.

Fresno likes Stone Foxes

If you were older than 19 you might have missed last night's show at Starline.  But those under that age didn't seem too.  There were a lot of them.  Frisco's The Stone Foxes played and I've never seen Starline so packed on a Tuesday night.  Was it because school's out or is Fresno all about Stone Foxes? 

A brief video of The Stone Foxes last night:

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

Monday Hangover: Still Searching For One

Not much local bloggy happens over a holiday weekend.  So when there isn't much to blog about, ya gotta start digging.  Searching.  And when you search Fresno, our little city isn't the only Fresno that comes up.  No, I'm not talking about Fresno, Texas.  I'm talking about the Brazilian band named "Fresno."

Fresno has been cluttering up my Fresno searches forever and I've always ignored the band.  But a slow blog day means it's time to give in and find out more about these indie rock dudes.

They started out in 2001 with an EP called O Acaso do Erro. Currently there are four members: Lucas, Gustavo, Rodrigo and umm...Rodrigo.  They've made four studio albums, the latest being Rendencao.  And the band has had three songs reach the Hot100Brazil.

The big question is: has Fresno ever been to Fresno?  I don't think so because they may speak Portuguese so maybe they don't tour the states much.  I don't really know actually.  Could somebody search the answer for me?

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 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.