For more than 15 years, Orange County ska band Suburban Legends have choreographed energetic, dance-filled shows in any location imaginable, from bars to punk festivals. Tonight they stop in San Jose at the Back Bar along with pop-punk band, The Maxies.

In October, Suburban Legends released their Disney cover EP Dreams Aren’t Real, But These Songs Are. With the success of their last two Disney covers, “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King” and “Under The Sea,” the band tried releasing more covers, which ended up fitting surprisingly well with their energetic, playful style.

Suburban Legends’ first few albums were focused on ska but they moved to incorporate pop punk, especially criticized by fans on their 2009 album Infectious. Though many of the songs were catchy, the album didn’t gain much support from the band’s fanbase. The move away from ska toward pop-punk seemed to have thrown fans a curve ball, which made the band realize that a pop punk sound, while it is an extra element, shouldn’t be their main focus.

“We’ve been through all those growing pains and changes and stuff over the years,” says lead singer Vince Walker. “We’re going back to what we think we did best which is just ska music the way we do it.”

Even though they’ve refocused back on their ska sound, traces of pop still linger in their songs, especially so in the Disney covers, except now newer releases seem to resonate better with both fans and the band. Using popular Disney tunes that the band and their fanbase could identify their childhood with, from a fist-pumping chant on “DuckTales” to a slightly chilly beginning retake on “Colors of the Wind,” ended up being the throwback fusion that worked in their favor.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pop punk teen sensation Paramore announces a fall tour with Metric and Hellogoodbye at the newly christened SAP Center in San Jose. The tour will be in support of their self-titled album released in April.

Paramore has released singles and albums with impressive reception—their previous album, 2009’s Brand New Eyes, premiered at Number 2 on the Billboard charts. This time, their self-titled album—the band’s fourth—debuted at Number 1 on Billboard 200. Though this new effort includes a few stylistic twists, their angsty spirit still remains strong. The tour will be a crazy power-pop filled drive, as they are joined by new-wave band Metric and indie-pop band Hellogoodbye.

“The Self-Titled Tour” kicks off on October 15th in Seattle, then stops in San Jose on October 18th.

Tickets go on sale on Friday, July 26th at 10am.

Click here to view the embedded video.

PinUp Productions, a local music booking company, announced that Cupertino church and music venue The Refuge will no longer play host to live music.

The Refuge is a church hall that is a part of the Good Sam Church in Cupertino. PinUp Productions set up a variety of local music shows there for more than four years, from their Battle of the Bands to punk and metal shows. Some shows at The Refuge attracted up to 400 people. The church hall, however, was in close proximity to homes and businesses and neighbors frequently complained about loitering and noise late at night.

Last week Good Sam Church was informed by a sheriff that they would no longer be able to host non-ministry events, according to PinUp Productions. A meeting was scheduled between surrounding business, residents, Good Sam staff and the PinUp Productions staff to discuss the problems. Good Sam, however, was informed that they would not be able to host any further music events before said meeting took place.

PinUp still plans to book shows in the South Bay and plans to expand into the East Bay.

Live 105’s BFD Music Festival returns this summer with Thirty Seconds to Mars, Passion Pit, Silversun Pickups and Awolnation headlining.

The lineup for the concert on May 19 at Shoreline Amphitheater was revealed on air this morning on Live 105. In addition to the main stage, the concert features performers on three other stages: the Bud Light Festival Stage, the Subsonic Tent and the Local Soundcheck Stage.

Several South Bay bands are performing on the Soundcheck stage this year, including Picture Atlantic, Anya and the Get Down and The Trims, joined by San Francisco favorites Doe Eye, Rin Tin Tiger and Mister Loveless. An opening spot still remains for the band that wins Live 105’s local band contest.

The Subsonic Tent hosts some of electronic music’s biggest names with Diplo, Crystal Method and DJ Shadow. Oakland’s Wallpaper will also be DJing in the tent.

The Complete Lineup

MAIN STAGE
Thirty Seconds to Mars
Passion Pit
Silversun Pickups
Of Monsters and Men
AWOLNATION

BUDLIGHT FESTIVAL STAGE
Jimmy Eat World
The Airborne Toxic Event
Fitz and the Tantrums
Capital Cities
Atlas Genius
Youngblood Hawke
Twenty One Pilots
The Neighbourhood
Wavves
The Mowgli’s
New Politics
Gold Fields

SUBSONIC TENT
Diplo
The Crystal Method
DJ Shadow
Wallpaper.
Justin Martin/Dirtybird
Robert DeLong
K Theorty
Aaron Axelsen
Miles the DJ
St. John
Nick G

SOUNDCHECK LOCAL BAND STAGE
Tumbleweed Wanderers
Picture Atlantic
Finish Ticket
Anya & The Get Down
Mister Loveless
Doe Eye
The Trims
Rin Tin Tiger
Bonnie and the Bang Bang

BFD is May 19 at the Shoreline Amphitheater. Ticket presales start on Thursday, March 28. General sale opens on Saturday, March 30.

The quirky, lovable duo, David Byrne & St. Vincent, announced two stops in the Bay Area on their Love This Giant tour, including a show at the Mountain Winery on July 20.

Last September, St. Vincent, also known as Annie Clark, and the Talking Heads front man released their debut album together, Love This Giant, earning universal acclaim from critics and fans alike.

The tour stops in more than 25 cities throughout North American over two months, including a visit to Bonarroo. The tour ends just one night after the Mountain Winery performance at Oakland’s Fox Theater on July 21st.

Pre-sale tickets for the Fox Theater show go on sale on Feb. 28. The Mountain Winery opens ticket sales online on April 22l

Crashfaster’s performance Saturday at Rockage 2.0, alongside Slime Girls, Bit Brigade, Minibosses and more, was an unexpected surprise. Morgan Tucker has a deep, smooth voice in conversation but on stage he uses a Gameboy, NES, C64 and a Vocoder to manipulate his vocals into a gritty female robot effect.

Tucker started Crashfaster as a solo project before bringing in Keiko Takamura, Devin Nixon and Ryan Case to form the chiptune band. When Tucker went on tour with the Glowing Stars almost two years ago he was inspired by the richness of incorporating 8bit loops and effects with additional vocals, guitars and drums.  Nixon first learned about chiptune through Lizzie Cuevas [The Glowing Stars], then joined Crashfaster and experimented with circuit bending, Gameboy modding and Little Sound DJ on his own.

The band’s name came to Tucker when he worked at a tech company, using Microsoft Visual Studio. “It was prone to both random and predictable crashes, some of which would hang the entire system for minutes at time,” explains Tucker. “Often I’d scream at my computer ‘crash faster!’ It just kind of stuck after that.”

Tucker played countless games on his NES and Gameboy in his youth and he especially loved tinkering with vintage video games and dabbing in circuit bending to create new sounds long before he realized that there were small communities for chiptune production. “[They were] making music with the ‘actual’ vintage hardware I was aping,” Tucker says. “They called their craft ‘chiptune’ or ‘chip music.’ I was instantly obsessed, and I’ve never looked back.”

Slowly crashfaster is growing their Bay Area chiptune presence through their online community, 8bitSF, a website and Facebook page dedicated to sharing news on chiptune shows and band developments.

Crashfaster remains busy writing music while helping to grow the Bay Area chiptune community. The band releases a split 7-inch vinyl with the the Glowing Stars on Feb. 14.

Dan Vado, owner of comics and local music hub SLG Art Boutiki, announce that his shop and local music venue will move from its longtime home in the SoFA District to a new location near the Alameda, across from Mexico Lindo, next to Freebirds.

A select few who have the new location at at 44 Race Stree are excited for the potential to host live music, an issue that Vado was concerned with when he announced SLG would have to move from its current SoFA District location. Though no longer positioned in downtown San Jose to gain foot traffic from South First Fridays the new location is surrounded by businesses that complement the interests of people who already frequent SLG, such as The Usuals, Black & Brown, Current Tattooing and more.

The new location could host shows at the front of the venue spaces and the back area has potential green rooms, storage space, a kitchen, and load-in-load out areas, but Vado is holding off on discussing details until he gets closer to moving and reopening at the new location.

The current Art Boutiki on Market Street has two final shows on March 15th and the 16th (details TBA) before the move.

Dan Vado, owner of San Jose comic book hub and live music venue SLG Art Boutiki, announced this week that the business must relocate to make way for a new apartment building.

After 11 years at the current SoFA District location, Vado will have to find a new location to call home.

“The property is scheduled to be razed and have an apartment building built,” Vado says. “When that will happen, we’re not sure, but we were informed that we should be looking for a new place to do business.”

However, the relocation date for SLG Art Boutiki remains unclear as plans to redevelop the property are still being finalized. “Based on the estimate, we could probably stay until the end of the summer,” Vado says. “However, if something presents itself before that time, we’re going to go.”

Photo by Jessica Shirley-Donnelly.

The Art Boutiki has hosted regular all-ages concerts for the last three years. A fundraiser was held less than a month ago to replace  a violin stolen from Curious Quail’s violinist Alan Chen. Bands brought in their families and friends, and spread the word about the cause which, in turn, brought in other supporters who helped raise funds for a new instrument.

“It’s rare to see such strong community come together to help a fellow musician and it just gave me warm fuzzies,” says Zen Zenith, co-founder of the bimonthly concert series the Rock Hop. “I can’t imagine that it would happen anywhere other than Art Boutiki.”

The quirky décor of the performance space—tikis, comic books and t-shirts displayed for sale, a vinyl record stage backdrop and the infamous penguin always on stage—is also a favorite among many local bands.

“It’s one of the few venues where I can walk in and be able to say hi to everyone that works there,” says Daniel Hernandez Martinez, drummer of Picture Atlantic. “It feels more of a hangout spot then a venue, which sets it apart from most places where I’ve performed.”

The plans to move are inevitable but, for now, Vado is continuing to do business with the support of the building owners. “They’ve been very supportive of us as tenants as we’ve changed our business,” Vado says. “I value that relationship.”

In the meantime, Vado is searching for a new home that will accommodate all of his needs, and hopefully provide another all-ages venue.  “I am hoping to continue to do live music, but the places where I can do that are limited and difficult to get into,” Vado says.

For five years, Cartoon Bar Fight has gone through  lineup changes, with only two of the founding members left: Kendall Sallay and Dirk Milotz. Despite the instability, they’ve mastered a few songs along the way. Following their release of their debut EP, Tell All The Children, almost exactly last year to date ( Nov. 18th), the San Jose band presents a full album showcasing songs they have long waited to present.

Beautiful, haunting melodies create a surreal, peaceful mood on CBF’s Reincarnate. Starting fresh after a previous life seems to be the theme for CBF, from their original formation to now. In a sense they have reincarnated themselves in the process of releasing this album.

The album starts with an eerie organ-like movement, “A Beautiful Death” (the same title as the album artwork by Terry Fan), and into “Dear Victoria,” a solemn song almost styled as a shanty. “Circus” continues in the same vein with a cry for change as the ending chant repeats the lyrics “I sleep too often, when will I awake?” and  “I know I’ve fallen away.”

The title track, “Reincarnate,” helps close the album with much more hopeful lyrics for life and change as heard in the chorus, “in life and death, disappear, change your shape, reappear, reincarnate” before the final song “A Beautiful Life.”

The album really shows a much darker and reflective side of CBF not present in Tell All The Children, with more musical development, instrumentation depth and richness to their songs.

Highlight Tracks: The Marquee, Reincarnate, The Kingdom Of

Usually known for it’s rock ‘n’ roll tendencies, the Blank Club hosts a rare hip-hop show for SVSX on Saturday featuring battle rapper Dirtbag Dan, up-and-coming San Jose MC Antwon with Cities Aviv, DJ Ichy the Killer and G.I.F.T.

Dirtbag Dan
12:30am, Blank Club
Dirtbag Dan was born in San Jose as Daniel Martinez. He first got onstage when he was 14 years old and saw LSP (Kung Fu Vampire’s old group) perform at Java Stop in San Jose. At the end of the performance, they invited the audience onstage to freestyle. His friends, knowing he liked to rap, coaxed Dan to try it. “It was the coolest thing ever. I was like, ‘I am definitely doing this. This is my thing,’” he recalls.

He recorded his first solo album, Dirt 4 $ale, in 2003, joining Thunderhut around that time, then Counter Productive a little later. Eventually, he devoted himself to Counter Productive full time. In 2005, he, Able Abilities & Skylar G found a DJ named Ichy the Killer, and the Counter Productive crew was officially complete.

Dan has earned international fame thanks to his dominance in Grind Time, the battle-rap league. Anyone who has seen him perform knows that Dirtbag Dan is impossible to ignore, having one of the weirdest rap personas. As his name suggests, he sports a thick scraggily hobo beard—and a loud, over-the-top swagger.

Antwon with Cities Aviv
11:30pm, Blank Club
San Jose rapper Antwon has been getting a lot of attention lately. In February, he released his video “Helicopter,” which mixes footage from Steve McQueen’s 1968 car-chase flick Bullitt with shots of Antwon and his crew wandering around train tracks, drinking malt liquor and eating heaping platefuls of food (color-corrected, of course, to match the vintage footage).

The video has received favorable attention from several blogs, including on Spin’s website. Yes, the video is good, but it’s backed up by a killer song, too. Antwon has a laid-back, easy flow reminiscent of Biggy Smalls, but he’s not taking himself seriously. He’ll string together a single sentence about smoking weed and eating too much food that is neither comedic nor pretentious. The driving, shuffling funk beat and blaring dissonant organ loop sound like they were plucked right out of a grindhouse movie.

Since his breakout mixtape “Fantasy Beds,” Antwon has released the equally impressive “End of Earth,” which has his latest single, “Living Every Dream.” The video looks like an authentic relic from the VHS era and contains an infectious sample from the famous DNA remix of Susan Vega’s “Tom’s Diner.” Keep your ears on Antwon. This is where rap is heading.

G.I.F.T./First Class
10:30pm, the Blank Club
G.I.F.T. and Bless (Ya’Soul)—two young emcees from the local hip-hop duo First Class—each bring something distinct to the table. Bless, for instance, is an intense rapper with a direct, straightforward flow. He keeps his rhymes positive and uplifting, whether he’s commenting on society or relating his personal experiences. His presence is powerful—almost intimidating. But he balances his force with thought-provoking, compassionate rhymes. G.I.F.T., on the other hand, brings a crazier, offbeat vibe. His raps are full of stream-of-consciousness associations, spun together in unusual rhythms, connecting every loose peculiar idea he has floating around in his head in a clever manner, mixing humor and down-to-earth charm.

Together, G.I.F.T. and Bless combine their strengths into a full-on, well-rounded attack. Even as they work together, they are always working off of each other—in direct competition to see who can spit the best verses. It’s been this way since the beginning, since they first met at age 13 and started writing songs together. The name “First Class” was their way of saying that their skills—when combined—could go up against any other rapper or crew out there. They are currently managed by South Bay musician and producer “Da Hermit.”

Ichy the Killer
10pm, 12:30Am, the Blank Club
DJ Ichy the Killer, also known as Chris Larsen, got his start almost a decade ago with the hip-hop crew Counter Productive. He continues to spin for Dirtbag Dan, also from Counter Productive, and Insolence, Language Arts Crew and various other San Jose groups. In August, Ichy advanced to the final round of the online portion of the DMC DJ battle. As his online video submission demonstrates, Ichy can hold his own without anybody rapping over his beats. He’s got a strong sense of structure and a slick artistic style.