by
Mike Huguenor on August 11, 2021
This weekend, San Jose’s premiere burlesque troupe the Circus of Sin returns to their loving home of the Caravan for “Back to the Van.” Led by MC and occasional wrestler Some Guy, the adventurous Circus of Sin is all about a memorable night out. A typical performance might include drag, exotic dancing,…
Continue reading »
by
Matei Predescu on August 7, 2019
Every second Thursday of the month, the Caravan Lounge hosts one of San Jose’s best known open-mic sessions. The Cypher features rappers and turntablists in a freestyle session, followed by showcases of underground artists. This week, Guatemalan rapper Kontra Marin, signed to Barba Roja Records, is headlining alongside San Jose rap crew…
Continue reading »
by
Stephen Perez on February 21, 2018
If you’re craving the sweet, electronic sounds of your favorite ’90s video game, Vector Hold has your fix. This solo project, fronted by San Jose musician Peter Rice, deals in blippy, 32- and 64-bit synthwave compositions. Much of the Vector Hold catalog is original material, though Rice has had some fun crafting…
Continue reading »
For some creatives, San Jose can feel both claustrophobic and incestuous—like some backwater city in the middle of nowhere—and also impossibly sprawling, like any other faceless suburb. Not for Jafar Green. “It’s like a small town disguised as a big city,” the San Jose native says. “That’s what I kinda like about…
Continue reading »
Punk legends Hüsker Dü don’t actually sound like San Jose’s the Conceal, yet I can think of no better band in which to compare them.
Continue reading »
Monkey may very well be San Jose’s longest running, consistently-active band. The band emerged in 1995, but unlike a lot of Monkey’s contemporaries, it never mixed punk rock and ska. Monkey always stuck strictly to the traditional more R&B-based sounds of ska’s first wave.
Continue reading »
by
BEAU DOWLING on July 31, 2012
Seeing San Jose’s Culo A Boca live for the first time can be loosely akin to seeing Gwar live for the first time: it requires just as much time spent trying to figure out their costumes and obscene props as their music.
Continue reading »
Zack Alves has been tearing up South Bay clubs for over a decade with his band Rivals. Originally a positive-hardcore band, their most recent album We Live Electric shifts gears and moves in the direction of old school punk rock in the vein of the Misfits.
Continue reading »
Jonny Manak of Jonny Manak and the Depressives (full disclosure: Metro’s former in-house rock star) loves garage and punk rock with equal passion, at least that’s what his music suggests. He strings together bits of garage and surf from the 50s and 60s, early pissed-off punk rock from the late 70s and…
Continue reading »
by
AARON CARNES on May 30, 2012
Hawk Jones’ early recordings paired the unlikely combination of driving punk rock drumming and weird, finger-tapping guitar work, making them a difficult group to classify. Experimental-punk seemed like the best description. But with their new EP, Que Rico, the San Jose band headlining at the Caravan on Saturday shakes things up a…
Continue reading »
