THE FRESNAN

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.

Happening Now!: First Ever 'Cart Hop'

As you might expect, Dusty Buns will be leading this inaugural event today. Interested to see how it grows. Check out the website and Facebook for more info.

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.

Music To ArtHop To: Benji McEntee, Brother Luke, Niilo Smeds, Strawberry Jam and Fatal Rebirth

We noticed there's a lot of good music happening during Art Hop tonight... Alright well, there's ALWAYS good music at Art Hop, we just noticed it this time.

At P*DE*Q, Benji McEntee (he of the greatness that is The Fay Wrays) will being doing a set of his own in support of Danielle McEntee's exhibit. [Free, 5-8pm]

At Fresno Brewing Company is Brother Luke & the Comrades featuring Bekah Eropkin, Pro Wings, and Kevin Reese (Aspen Hollow). [Free, 8pm, All Ages]

And, of course there's always Jazz Hop:

POST HOP

At Tokyo Garden, there's some Strawberry Jam, Niilo Smeds and Who's Clayton. [$3, 9:30, 21+]

At Audie's Olympic, some late night metal from Fatal Rebirth and DJ Evil G all night. [$3, 9pm, 21+]

There's probably plenty more music too. As always, please feel free to leave a comment if you know of something!

Saturday The Fierce Creatures Managed To Make The Fulton Mall The Best Place In Fresno

Congratulate promoter Religious Appeal. Congratulate the Fierce Creatures. The Fresno Brewing Company. Sheet Jesus (he was there). Fresnans. Everyone. It was a special kind of night on the Fulton Mall Saturday.

The Beehive has some quotes and a fine video up that explains it better than we can. We did get this video that gives those that weren't there an idea of how many Fresnans are willing to go see live music on the Fulton Mall:

If John or somebody can give us all the formula to make this kind of thing happen on a regular basis in Fresno (and we mean wherever), we'd be mighty grateful.

BANDGEEK!: It's Not Quite ALL About Saturday's 'Catacomb Party' But It's Close

Once you've stolen a glass from Fresno Brewing Company, you're all set to begin your weekend of comedy and music. It's time to... BANDGEEK!!

FRIDAY

KUPPAJOE'S: Frequent Fresno visitors Picture Atlantic stop in to release their CD "Digital Tension" with Cold Eskimo, Happy Body Slow Brain, Sahab and Conveyor:

FULTON 55:

C.A.F.E. INFOSHOP: Seattle folk rock from Origami Ghosts. Plus Fresnan favorites Werebear and more:

THAI PALMS: Valley rock from Dislodic, Hamerdown Sindrum and Keeney:

STARLINE: It's a Jurassic Jam to fight cancer:

SATURDAY

FRESNO BREWING COMPANY/FULTON MALL: Biggest show Catacomb Party we've seen all year and one of the more unique ones. The Fulton Mall (out front of FBC) will be turned into, basically, a music festival venue. Lots of good bands, lots of good beer, highlighted by a performance from the Firece Creatures. Plus music from Fast Car, Strange Vine, The Slient Comedy, a reunion for the Argyle Pimps, Achievement House, Coast Jumper, Animal Eyes and Bell Thieves. And did you get that it's free and open to all ages? Yep:

Listen To This: Remotely Drunk - Dorktown Podcast #119

We just had a lot of fun with this one. Too much? Yes. Annoying sometimes? Yes. But good times. Dorktown's first ever guest, Aaron "The La Selva Beach Connection" comes back and gets rude with the gang. As usual we talk (over each other) about: Fresno, Clovis, craft beer, beer beer, Gold Lays, sexy Armenians, extra holes, other podcasts and so on. We also play a mega Or Game/Forit Or Againit/Is It Metal.

Make sure to listen for the remotes with Dead In 60 Years!! Plus some live Light Thieves and we play the new Fierce Creatures. BONUS remote with the mom older sister of Whitney Freeman from Achievement House. There may even be a "Bert" Easter Egg in a remote or two.

It gets real "drunk-y" so be warned. Have a listen:

RemotelydrunkDorktown119.mp3

Support Tioga Sequoia Brewing because they are big supporters of Craft Beer, Downtown Fresno and Fresno podcasts!

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.

 

Do This Fresno!: Go Mall To Mall

It is Bike Month douncha know Fresno!? Plenty of things going on in town this month - Fresno is working its way to becoming a biking city, if we're not already. Wednesday is a very cool event called the Mall-to-Mall Ride...actually it probably WAS a cool event since you're probably reading this too late because we totally suck ass and only posted about this the night before...*sigh*

What would have happened is you would have joined up with other local cycle-heads at Manchester Mall and had a escorted ride to Fulton Mall. More details on I Bike Fresno.

Yeah so we missed that. At least there is Bike To Work Day on the horizon.

Tonight @ Fresno: An Excessive Amount Of Things

Fresno's really showing off now. It's Spring and there's too damn much going on, especially for one shitty blogger to keep up with. ArtHop is tonight with dumps of stuff (artists love it when you refer to their pieces as "dumps of stuff") all over at places like this:

Also, that blog that has never stopped believing that blogs are popular, the Fresno Beehive, are putting on another Tweetup with the Grizzlies, poolside:

Downtown Fresno is all into doing stuff on Thursday nights now:

Arthop is so popular it produces bi-product events:

Oh yes, there's the normal during Arthop live music like the Light Theives playing...

...And post-Arthop live music as well:

There's probably a buncha other junk happening too...after all it is Fresno: lot's of stuff happens here.

Music In Fresno Tonight: The Harmed Brothers Brew On The Fulton Mall and Brother Luke Veni's Tower

Playing at the new Fresno Brewing Company (old Milano's spot on the Fulton Mall) is Eugene's The Harmed Brothers. These guys play American folk and indie-grass style music. The show starts at 7:30 and is FREE to ALL AGES. There will be craft beer and pizza available along with FBC's coffee choices.

Check out The Harmed Brothers:

Also tonight, let's not forget one of our favorite local acts, Brother Luke. They're (or maybe just he is) playing a show at VVV's starting around 10pm. It's free and is 21+ only.

Brother Luke:

Fresnan Late Night: Josh & Jaime - Dorktown Podcast #105C

A long running joke on Dorktown is that the engineer/co-host sucks at engineering - and hosting but that's a whole other thing. Sadly this joke isn't written in or on purpose. Random bad audio just seems to happen on the podcast. Mics not working, random buzzing, levels all over the place and even the occasional deleted show.

Well that's what happened to the Original Dorktown #105, with guest Joshua Tehee. Somehow it got deleted. So Josh was nice enough to come back a week later and record it again... half way through, the file imploded on itself and THAT was deleted, but in a whole NEW way. So what you're (hopefully) going to listen to now is the second half or third attempt at #105-C.

In this episode you'll hear:

• Bells and Mikey hanging with Joshua Tehee and Jaime Holt as they talk about their band and how they're playing Fulton 55 Monday night as a fundraiser for Cat House On The Kings.
• One of the "members" of Mr. Rude calls in. 
• Josh & Jaime play live "In The Corner".
• Is there somewhere to go on the Fulton Mall?
• What's a merkin?
• Josh & Jaime make a big radio related - EXCLUSIVE to Dorktown - announcement.
• FRESNO "OR GAME".
• FAX stories.
• How did Dorktown get its name?
• Fonzy Eyyys.

Be careful, lot's of cussing as always. Listen by clicking:

Josh and Jaime - Episode 105C

Dorktown on: iTunes, Facebook, YouTube.

Fulton Mall Moves Another Step Closer To Being Just Plain Old Fulton Street

We think this is bad. The PBID (it's like a board of people that own property in Downtown or something) voted to support tearing out the Fulton Mall and putting in some of that new fangled asphalt everyone talks about. This is bad, no? Seems like things are heading towards the City Of Fresno bringing back cars on the Fulton Mall. Art and uniqueness be damned.

Some folks say this will bring more people on the Fulton Mall ... actually it would just be Fulton. Yeah, that does sound right given Fresnans car driving ways. But then Fashion Fair and River Park do just fine without traffic. We're confused.

Maybe we should do a trial run and open up traffic to Manchester Center and see how that goes.

[Pic stolen from here]

Fresno Bee Fail: A Story About The City Turning On Some Fountains At Fulton Mall Becomes 'Homeless Dude Bathing In A Fountain'

If you get the ink version of the Fresno Bee (like us), then you saw it on Saturday morning. Right below the fold. A homeless dude taking a bath in a Fulton Mall fountain. No, it wasn't a story about how Fresno's homeless are the most hygiene conscious in the country. It was a story about the City Of Fresno turning on some of the Fulton Mall fountains.

Nice. Finally the city is doing something positive with the Fulton Mall. Things are looking up a little bit. Maybe I'll go check those fountains out...THEN BOOM: homeless dude in fountain.

Those backwardsass Fresnans that are scared of downtown just got their fodder for the next time they call Ray Appleton or Chris Daniels Daniel (or for comments on the Bee's website).

One picture. Two steps back for downtown.

[Photo stolen from here]

INCOMING!: Fresno Chile Festival June 18th

Any time you can get a festival going on the Fulton Mall it's a good thing. Check out all the stuff happening that day (including a nice music lineup) by going here. And there's still time to sign up be a vendor. More info is at www.fresnochilefestival.com.

Hummm, a festival on the Fulton Mall... some other Fresno festival should consider this.

Fulton Corridor Meetings: Wait. There Were No Brawls? Nobody Even Acted Buttholish? Well That's Boring

Nope. Nobody threw down Monday night at the Fulton Mall workshop. In fact, some were impressed by how non-buttholish everyone was. The main wow factor item unveiled was the Eight Fulton Mall Alternatives:

1. Do nothing (hey, it's already budgeted)
2. Restore it.
3. Restore it and open up cross streets.
4. Keep south and center closed.
5. Keep the center closed.
6. Reconnect to grid 1.0 (small street through the mall).
7. Reconnect to grid 2.0 (bigger street).
8. Reconnect to grid 3.0 (say bye bye to Fulton Mall).

Number two seems ideal to this blog, but number three sounds interesting too. Let's just hope it's not number one or eight and go from there. But really, if there was money to throw at the mall, our humble suggestion is to make living in and renovating spaces above the Fulton Mall, the easiest thing there ever was to accomplish ever in Fresno. Then get crackin' on fixing the mall part.

For those that missed the Fulton Mall workshop, lots of nerds bloggers were there Monday, even if one douchey nerd wasn't, to get you up to speed. We know that James already has a post up. Maybe Conlan? Those Beehivers probably will. Dumb Drum perhaps? Funny man Travis? Famous Whitewater is famous for Fulton talk. And Archop must have one coming.

The workshops continue tonight with "Limited Economic Resources: What is the Development Strategy for Fulton District, Cultural Arts District, South Stadium, Chinatown" ZZzzzzz ZZzzzzzz