THE FRESNAN

FUSE Fest 2012: It's The Moments That Count

It's probably a good sign when you are tired after a music festival. Nobody is ever tired after having a boring time. Such is the case the day after FUSE Fest 2012. We're very tired.

There were a lot of cool moments this year: Being moved by the rock of Sparklejet. Discovering Alana Hill has an amazing voice. Seeing Kat Jones reconnect with her Fresno fans. People tripping out on the robot that is Collecto. Light Thieves wowing F55:

Werebear tearing it up the Lampost:

People on Iron Bird Loft balconies enjoying Blake Jones:

POST TAKEOVER - FUSE FEST 2012: Bandgeek is FUSEGEEK

Our last Fresno Urban Sound Experience 'post takeover' is the biggest. A special Bandgeek with all the info you need to enjoy the festival this weekend with links to the venues and band websites.

Come out early and stay late. It's a total geek-out for fans of live and local music. It's FUSE FEST!!:

FRIDAY

IRON BIRD LOFTS (All Ages)

7:30 So Long Williamsburg
8:30 Blake Jones & the Trike Shop
9:30 Boxcar Figaro

FULTON 55 (Main Stage) 21+

7:00 Alana Shap Hill
8:00 Actress
9:00 Light Thieves
10:00 Sparklejet
11:00 Collecto

FULTON 55 (Coffeehouse Stage – upstairs) 21+

7:30 Karen Marguth
8:30 Siren Singing
9:30 Kat Jones
10:30 Fatty Cakes

THE LAMPOST  (21+)

10:30 Your Hero Is A Villain
11:30 Werebear
12:30 Dislodic

SATURDAY

CMAC (Inside Old Fresno Met building) “Studio Stage” (All Ages)

4:30 Gayle and The Bowties
5:30 Danielle Rondero
6:30 College Kids
7:30 Art By Numbers
8:30 Lezayr
9:30 American Sanchez

CMAC “Outdoor Stage” (All Ages)

5:00 I Do Not Exist
6:00 Before Perils
7:00 Distrito Torre
8:00 B-Rawcity
9:00 [surprise band]

FISHBOWL – Warnors Theatre Marque (ALL AGES)

6:30 Aesop Fables
7:30 Strawberry Jam
8:30 Cinco
9:30 It’ll Grow Back

FRANK’S PLACE (21+)

7:00 The Dirty Stomp
8:00 Back In The Valley
9:00 Basura
10:00 Patrick Contreras

FRESNO BREWING COMPANY (All Ages)

6:30 Restaurnaut
7:30 The Overdubs
8:30 Brother Luke & the Comrades
9:30 Achievement House

TOKYO GARDEN (21+)

10:00 Niilo Smeds
11:00 Sunburns
12:00 General Populus
1:00 Ornery Ones

TICKETS
Festival Pass is $20 (gets you into every venue and stage for both days).
Day Pass is $15 (gets you into every venue and stage for one day).
Venue Pass is $5 to $10 (Fulton 55), depending on venue. Good for one venue.

Tickets will be available at the Fulton 55 box office starting now. BRING CASH! They will also be available at most venues throughout the festival…did we mention to BRING CASH! You want to have some cash for band merch too!

PARKING
There is free street parking throughout the Cultural Arts District (or Mural Town!! if you prefer) and at city lots around the Fulton Mall. (Parking meter spots are free on weekends and evenings)

RANDOM
The official Twitter hashtag being used is #fusefest

Check the Facebook event page and invite some folks! There's a lot of samples from FUSE Fest artists poping up there too.

FOOD
Eating at FUSE Fest is recommended at Iron Bird Cafe, Tokyo Garden and Fresno Brewing Company. Dusty Buns will be on the Fulton Mall (in front of Fresno Brewing Company) on Saturday night.

DRINKING
On Friday: Fulton 55 and The Lamp Post. On Saturday: Frank's Place, Fresno Brewing Company and Tokyo Garden. Iron Bird Cafe both nights for excellent coffee and tea.

 

GET THERE EARLY! The set times aren't like normal set times that are "suggested". It STARTS at 7pm on Friday and 4:30 on Saturday (Music Gods willing).

The Central California's biggest LOCAL music festival. Come out and kick ass with everyone.

Post Takeover - FUSE Fest 2012: Flowing With FUSE

Back again with another special edition of Flowing With Famous: Flowing With FUSE 2012.

Josh and Mikey talk about some highlights from the past five years of the Fresno Urban Sound Experience.  Plus, breakdown what they’re looking forward to this year, all with FUSE Fest music flowing in and out.

It’s a good time. Click to listen: FlowingWithFUSE2012.mp3

*Heads up: Some of the music is Not Safe For Work - which makes it more kickass.

FUSE Fest 2012 'Post Takeover' - Coattrack Records Boxset Featuring FUSE Fest Artists

As we continue our 'post takeover' with FUSE, we find that the new Coattrack Records box set features plenty of FUSE Fest 2012 bands. Such as Niilo Smeds, Actress and Restaurnaut. It's good stuff no matter how many FUSE bands there are:

Check out the video Coattrack put together to promote the box set:

FUSE Fest 'Post Takeover': Dorktown Podcast #122 with Werebear

Musician and festival organizer, Cristobal, from animal-punk band Werebear and Spanspek Music & Arts Festival, visits Dorktown and helps the gang talk about stuff like:

• Dove season in Fresno.
• Is it okay for Dorktown to drink something other than Tioga Sequoia beer?
• The whats and whys of Spanspek.
• Growing up Orosi.
• What is wrong with Clovis?
• Mikey gets Dorktown involved with some podcast beef with Podawful and Ear Candy and it's awesome!
• MUSIC BREAK: Collecto.
• Werebear is also playing FUSE Fest 2012 dontcha know.
• Mikey almost dies for Becky.
• What the hell is a Werebear?
• MUSIC BREAK: Werebear.
• Fonzy Eyyys!

Please go out and have a nice craft beer from our friends at Tioga Sequoia!

Check out Dorktown's home, leave a kickass review on iTunes, like their Face and Tweet'um... you know... if you have the time or whatever.

FUSE Fest 2012 - Fresnan 'Post Takeover' + FUSE Schedule

If you're a beer snob then you may have heard of a thing called a 'tap takeover'. It's when one brewing company takes over all the taps at a bar or restaurant for the whole night.

So we're taking that idea and bringing it to the blog world. This week on The Fresnan, all the posts will be Fresno Urban Sound Expierience related. In other nerdy words: FUSE Fest is doing a 'post takeover' here at The Fresnan.

First up, it's maybe the most important of all: the schedule is out for this weekend's FUSE Fest. You can check the site, or check it right now here:

LINEUP ANNOUNCEMENT: Fresno Urban Sound Experience Festival for 2012

Hope you'll be in town September 6th-8th. It's going to be a fun weekend in Fresno. Fun because that's the weekend for the Fresno Urban Sound Experience. It's the 5th year for FUSE Fest and while it may be a bit bigger, the ideals are the same as year one: Showcase Fresno's diverse and talented music scene while featuring relevant venues in Downtown Fresno.

So. The big stuff. The reason there is a festival at all. Let's take a look at the lineup for Fresno Urban Sound Experience #5! Because FUSE Fest has no headliners, this is in no particular order:

• Light Thieves
• B-Rawcity
• Patrick Contreras
• Lezayr
• Werebear
• Blake Jones & the Trike Shop
• Distrito Torre
• Boxcar Figaro
• It'll Grow Back
• Gayle and The Bowties
• Alana Shap Hill
• Fast Car
• Restaurnaut
• The Overdubs
• The Dirty Stomp
• Collecto
• Fields Of Prey
• Actress
• Strawberry Jam
• Kady! Danger
• Sparklejet
• Dislodic
• Cinco
• The Dirty Dirties
• Back In The Valley
• I Do Not Exist
• Karen Marguth
• Niilo Smeds
• Before Perils
• Kat Jones
• Your Hero Is A Villain
• Basura
• Brother Luke & the Comrades
• Danielle Rondero
• Achievement House
• General Populus
• Siren Singing
• College Kids
• Sunburns
• Ornery Ones

That's a large helping of Fresno music. Lineup is supject to change (such is life). But it's looking damn special so far and we cant wait to see it all in Downtown Fresno, Friday and Saturday September 7th and 8th.

Make sure to start inviting all your friend's faces. Follow FUSE Fest on Twitter and check the website for the latest news.

Win Something: Tickets To Saturday's 'Rock Expo' At Blackbeards!

Okay, so The Artourage is putting on a big rock festival Saturday at Blackbeards. Yes, Blackbeards! (How has someone not thought of this before?!). All kinds of festival-y stuff going on. Most notably to us are all the bands. Like, locals Bully The Kid, The Velusha, Homebrew, Dislodic, Rise Before The Fall and more. Big out of town acts too, such as Michale Graves (ex Misfits) and Pacific Dub.

Point is, it's going to be a crazy-ass time out there. The Artourage has been very generous with the ticket give-aways for Rock Expo. So generous they want a couple Fresnan Readers to go. So, to maybe win a pair of tickets, just email us something, you know whatever, to [email protected] and you'll be entered. We'll pick the winner using our Randomizer and email him or her Thursday night.

Good luck!

If you don't trust your luck, you can always buy some tickets here.

BANDGEEK!: Saturday Is A Fresno Music Nerd's Dream Day

Nothing against the fine shows happening Friday night, but DAMN! foos, Saturday is going to be crazzetz. Enjoy the holiday weekend, Fresnans. Get out there and BANDGEEK!:

FRIDAY

FULTON 55: Come out and support Creative Fresno's Mural Project, proceeds go to bring more murals to Fresno (aka MURALTOWN!) Love the mix of bands on this one (complete with set times):  8:00 Lisa’s Big Night Out, 8:45 Suicide Lounge, 9:30 Lezayr, 10:15 Blake Jones & the Trike Shop and 11:00 Motel Drive:

AUDIE'S OLYMPIC: Performing stuff off their newly released CD "Unashamed Portrial" is The Jay Smith Group (Jay Smith-keys/synth, Eva Scow-mandolin, Tyler Cravines-drums, Pat Olvera-bass). Plus The Experience with Eva Scow:

C.A.F.E. INFOSHOP: Reggae ska and punk represented with Iwanaga, Checkered Past and more:

THAI PALMS: Local talent, no cover, North Fresno... 2 out of 3 aint bad. Whatever The Matter, SixHandsMouth and Not Perfect Humans:

THE NEXT BAR: More Fresnan rock with Outside The Wire, Broken G String, Palm Kids and more:

INCOMING!: Swede Fest 9 - Deadline Looms

Fresno's 9th Swede Fest - maybe the most unique event out of Fresno - is next Thursday the 24th. And there is still time to get your entry in this year's festival. The deadline is Sunday before Midnight. As a added bonus, this time around you can see your Swede in an actual movie theater!

 

In Fresno Tonight: A Rogue-y Beginning

It's the time of year in Fresno when the Creative Community goes balls out. Besides the standard awesome Fresno stuff, the next 10 days has the added bonus of the Rogue Festival (hope you've been saving your Rogue Dollars).

Tonight has many choices. First there's Art Hop, plenty of stuff to do. Like a can't miss Jazz Hop show at the new CMAC with Poor Man's Poison, or Art Hop stuff like this:

There's the beginning of Rogue with stuff like this and this and this:

Then there's the typical Thursday night music stuff with AC Myles at the Lamp Post and a tour kick off show from Bully The Kid and I Do Not Exist:

The next 10 days in Fresno shall be interesting:

INCOMING!: Festivus Festival @ Fulton 55

Friday night at Fulton 55 local podcaster, Dirty Dowdy, is starting a new Fresno holiday tradition with the "Festivus Festival". Lots of Festivus inspired events (like Feats Of Strength) will be happening plus plenty of local comedians, some porn stars hanging out, live podcasting and good local music from Session, From The Fallen and Dislodic.

Fans of Seinfeld don't need Festivus explained to them, but in case you do:

The Fresnan Presents: Dorktown Podcast #102: Sweded Dorks

It's taken years but Dorktown finally got the dynamic duo of Bryan & Roque from Dumbdrum.com and Swedefest.com. Good timing too as their Swed Fest is coming Saturday and their sweded Avengers trailer has been exploding the Internet's nerdy head.

So Bells and Mikey will be talking to them about that, other Fresno/Dumb Drum business and then add a good Star Wars rant to appease the Dork Gods. All within Dorktown Episode 102.

Listen by downloading or clicking the file below:

Dorktown Episode 102

Music by Trumpet Solo and Rademacher (go buy Babyhawk Vol II).

Make sure to check out Swedefest.com and head out Saturday for Swede Fest 8:

Local Boys Done Gone Viral: Sweded Trailer For The Avengers Movie Blows Up The Internets

In case you haven't seen over at Dumb Drum or The Beehive, the Fresnans from DumbDrum.com and creators of Swede Fest made a Sweded version of the trailer for The Avengers movie and released it before the festival to get some buzz going.

They got it.

It's all over the Internet now (like, the other Internet, not just Fresno's). The video has 70k views and counting and has already appeared on sites like:

• Buzz Feed
• Laughing Squid
• Bleeding Cool
• Slash Film
• First Showing
• Aint It Cool News
• Right This Minute

Mad props (wait, does anyone say 'mad props' still? ... fuck it we're going with it) mad props to the Dumb Drum/Swedefest folks.

Here is the actual trailer followed by the sweded version. PRO TIP: Play them at the same time and you can see how well they match up. Nice work!:

Swedefest 8 is coming November 5th and there's still time to get your own Swede in.

 

Bandgeek!: Big Shows. Small Shows. Underground Shows. Shows We Don't Know About.

So you know that Incubus is in town tonight. That's fine, they did okAaaay the last time we saw them at Save Mart Center. Surely they will be adiquate again. Godsmack will be all hard rock at the Fair on Saturday night. Audra is back in Fresno this weekend too. All good stuff. But we usually prefer the lesser traveled, smaller, local inspired shows.

The kinda shows you'll always find in... BANDGEEK!:

FRIDAY

KUPPAJOES: After a big of a hiatus, Kuppa has returned, returned strong too with rising alt-rock band, I Am Empire. They are off of Tooth & Nails Records, are from San Jose and have shared a stage with the likes of Flyleaf, Sublime, Deftones and Silversun Pickups  Also playing tonight is Phinehas, Corsair, Blood & Water and Nine Lashes. [$10, 7pm Door, All Ages]

FULTON 55: Leave it to Patrick Contreras to do something extra special that Fresnans aren't used to seeing: "The Tiny Country, Big Show Concert". Please check out this page for more info on this:

BROADWAY KLUB: This venue isn't going to stay a secret for much longer if they keep getting good shows. Los Angeles punk band Naked Aggression plus All Or Nothing, The Furloughs and more:

AUDIE'S OLYMPIC: Something. It's a bar too, go hang out.

SATURDAY

THE BEL-TOWER: Much respect to the little venue that could. The Bel-Tower has made it through a DIY year and would like to celebrate with a festival. It's the FYBT Fest! A BT compilation tape will be available along with all these bands!: ACxDC, Resist and Exist, Duke Nukem Forever, Ruptures, Clarence Boddigker, They As In Them, Desecrator, Tiger Lily, Glamour Tronic, Skomm, Tyrannosaurus Zebra, Iwanaga - all are local! Note the early start (because that's how festivals work, sun):