Eulipia Restaurant, once a South First Street institute, was recently replaced by Café Stritch, a new eatery that will also host live music starting with a free show on March 27 with the Hive Dwellers.

The shows will be all ages, but will also have a full bar for those under 21 (a rare combination in San Jose). Café Stritch will also serve Chromatic Coffee, as well as sandwiches, burgers, Chicken & Waffles and other food options. Café Stritch’s debut show follows the final show earlier this month at SLG Art Boutiki, a staple for live music downtown.

Hive Dwellers, the latest group with K Records head honcho and Beat Happening front man Calvin Johnson, are joined by Los Angeles bnad Tomorrows Tulips and Mike Huguenor.

The concert on March 27 starts at 8;30pm. The show is free. It is followed by another free concert featuring Pony Village, from Portland on March 29 at 9pm.

It’s been three years since East Bay’s all-girl sun-pop group, the Hot Toddies, put out their last record, Get Your Heart On, released on local label Asian Man records in 2010. Now they’re back as a trio with a five-song EP, Bottoms Up, released by Tricycle Records.

Even with the slight lineup change (keyboardist Jessica left the band), Bottoms Up still delivers a similar sound—easy-breezy, surf pop songs, boundlessly catchy vocal harmonies and dry witty lyrics about fun times and sexual innuendos. However, in the absence of keyboards, the Toddies have taken a somewhat heavier, more guitar-centric sound.

It is the heaviest tracks on Bottoms Up, in fact, that are the strongest. Opener “Jaguar Love” is a female-empowering sing-along rocker about fast cars and sex, with lots of tongue in cheek humor. Even with the distortion, there’s no lack of bubbly energy to the song. Another strong track, closer “Hey Hey,” while slower, still has a heavier sound—almost a power-ballad with a slow head-banging beat.

There has been a steady increase of retro girl group rock bands since the Toddies started in 2005, but they continue to distinguish themselves from the new crop of younger girl bands by softening up their twee elements on Bottoms Up and keeping that humor deadpan. We’ll have to wait to see what sound their next full length brings.

The Hot Toddies play the Blank Club on Saturday March 30, opening for Shinobu. Tickets are $10. The show starts at 9pm.

Who would have thought that three guys sitting around watching the Damon Wayans military comedy Major Payne would be make for such a good music video?

San Jose’s Hard Girls take this ridiculous concept as the basis for their new video. It starts with some overt over-the-top comedic elements—the band members sitting on the couch gleefully emulating Wayans’s every move—and quickly progresses into all-out Apocalypse Now mental breakdowns.

The video, which was directed by Bob Vielma (Boboso, Shinobu), contains a level of absurdity that is almost the complete opposite of Hard Girls’ serious, nuanced music, which for some reason fits perfectly. Hard Girls have for the past couple years pushed the bounds of punk into new realms, mixing influences from Pavement, Silkworm and Swans into a raw, energetic package. Their musicianship is complex and innovative and yet contains the simple purity of sweaty, driving rock beats and guttural, honest vocals.

Bass player Morgan Herrell sings lead vocals on “Major Payne.” His voice has the cracking, hoarse quality of Blake Schwarzenbach’s early work with Jawbreaker, only with greater control and a better sense of pitch. “Major Payne” starts at a furious, upbeat tempo and is layered with interesting, experimental post-punk chords. After a minute and a half of being a relatively pop-oriented punk song, it departs into a tense, instrumental space-jam for the remaining two and a half minutes.

This video is a taste of Hard Girls, long-anticipated album, Isn’t it Worse, which is set to be released on Really Records this December.

Straying from it’s usual beat-orientate lineup, The Pagoda Lounge at The Fairmont Hotel presents a full rock-centered lineup for SVSX featuring Will Sprout (Mumlers), Fierce Creatures and Mike Huguenor (Shinobu) followed by an after-party DJ set by B.Lewis.

Will Sprott
11:30pm, Pagoda Lounge, Fairmont
South Bay fans may wonder where Will Sprott of the Mumlers has been. The singer/songwriter known for sparking the South Bay’s wave of freak-rock a few years ago hasn’t been nearly as ubiquitous here since he moved to the East Bay. But he’s been perhaps busier than ever. It’s been a couple of years now since the Mumlers’ second album, Don’t Throw Me Away. If the folky debut was surprising and offbeat enough to get Sprott national media attention, the follow-up surpassed it in every way with its grittier, Stax-on-acid soul.

Sprott, however, felt that in many ways he didn’t get to capitalize on the album’s strengths live, because it was just too hard to get the big Mumlers lineup on tour. In 2011, he decided to do some dates as a solo act.

He’s also been working on his follow-up to Don’t Throw Me Away, though he doesn’t yet know if it’ll be released under the Mumlers moniker, his own name or something else entirely. The upcoming album promises to be something unexpected. It’s not a revisiting of his sound on the last record—in fact, there are no horns at all. Instead, Sprott is focusing on bizarre new uses for vocal harmonies.

Fierce Creatures
10:30pm, Pagoda Lounge, Fairmont
Being a seven-piece indie-rock band gives Fierce Creatures the maneuverability to play exactly the kind of music they imagine. It also gives them plenty of room to layer in as many sounds and harmonies as they need to create gorgeous, dynamic-enriched arrangements.

They combine guitars, keyboards, drums, percussion and even some less-standard instruments like an occasional mandolin, harmonica and some bells—a tactic that creates a wall of sound larger than any one instrument. They work together to create new soundscapes, intense moods and crescendos, rather than focusing on any one member and showing off their chops.
Fierce Creatures tinker with musical styles indiscriminately, tactfully hodgepodging bits of pop, folk, soul, classic rock and experimental sounds into their songs to create something that is all their own. They dig for the most basic thread of childlike musical expression and re-interpret the standard rock & roll conventions to give new life to pleasantly familiar simple songs.

Mike Huguenor
9:30pm, Pagoda Lounge, Fairmont
“Agues,” the first song off Mike Huguenor’s solo album, Bardamu, is a solid, quirky alt-rock jam that rests nicely between the musical extremes of his various bands. There is Shinobu, his on-again-off-again neurotic jangle-pop quartet. Then there’s Hard Girls, the sophisticated, post-punk power trio. And of course there’s the Classics of Love, his old-school punk-rock group that’s fronted by none other than Jesse Michaels, the former lead singer of Operation Ivy.

Somehow, Huguenor also found time to record this solo EP and even shot a music video for “Agues,” which features him as every member of the band and every person in the audience. His solo material isn’t as overtly offbeat as Shinobu, or as complex as Hard Girls, or even as fierce as the Classics of Love. But what it does have is a newfound level of maturity that marries all of these elements and delivers them in an understated, clever way.

B. Lewis
12:30am, Pagoda Lounge, Fairmont
Producer and beatmaker B. Lewis is one of many local musicians influenced by Peanut Butter Wolf. Born and raised in San Jose, B. Lewis quickly came to appreciate Wolf’s legacy as a trailblazer once he started making music in 2009. “He definitely led the way, in the right way,” says Lewis.

Only 23 now, Lewis ironically didn’t discover labels like Stones Throw and Brainfeeder until he went away to Expression College in the East Bay. After college, Lewis moved back to San Jose. This spring, he finished the Egg Black EP, with singer Miles Bonny. What might surprise those who are only familiar with Lewis’ more experimental beats is the sleek and smooth sound of the songs’ soulful R&B.

Lewis’ newest release, A Lion’s Aperture, came out in late July, and delivers further proof of his willingness to push boundaries in a late-night groove. “Priority Number One” kicks off with spacey pinging sounds that evolve into an otherworldy wash of sound and vocal abstractions. “World Frozen Over” spins off in a swirl of sonic scat, anchored by strong keyboards.

Mike Huguenor, known as the longtime lead singer/guitarist for local indie-jangle-pop group Shinobu, has released his first entirely solo EP with all instruments—excluding a trumpet part on the opening song—performed by himself.

The EP, Bardamu, was released digitally on August 1st on Quote Unquote Records, and will be available on vinyl from Suitors Club Records later this month. For fans already familiar with Huguenor’s quirky, brainy, self-depreciating songwriting, the songs from Bardamu come off a little straight-forward, at least on the first listen. Repeat listens reveal an understated weirdness different than his previous work.

The opening track, “Agues,” could almost pass for a standard guitar-driven power-pop song. Though upon further inspection, the offbeat swagger and strange post-punk chord structures are similar to his songwriting in Shinobu, just a little more subtle.

“Montreal” starts out as the most standard track on the album. It’s a guitar ballad with a linear build, but as the song progresses the softer part develops a slightly drunken beat. When the song reaches its full dynamic peak, Huguenor plays a Pavement-esque guitar solo, artistically straddling the line between in and out of key, never quite hitting that one note to give it resolution.

Fans of Huguenor’s more overt self-depreciating ramblings, will delight in the third track, “Great Plans,” which features drum machines, power-chords and a catchy slacker-anthem chorus. (“I’ve got some great plans that will never come to fruition/I’ve got some great plans that will never see the light of day.”) It’s conflicted, introverted indie rock at its finest.

Boboso (aka Bob Vielma) is known primarily as the go-to South Bay punk rock bassist. He’s played in Shinobu, Yulia, The High Sea, The Bears and several others throughout the past decade. But quietly over the past year, he’s recorded a killer hip hop mixtape that is at least as good as anything most of the other South Bay rappers have put out. He recently released a hilarious, low-budget video for the song “Ya Boy Boboso” to accompany the release.

What people may not know about Vielma is that is roots have always been in hip hop. Before he ever picked up a bass, he formed the hip hop crew, the Rap$callions back in high school. They openly flaunted their nerdiness and heir topics of choice were either too dumb for any respectable rapper (love for burgers and fries) or they went the complete opposite direction, as in an exaggerated, sarcastic version of “real” rap, with subject like money and ho’s.

This was all before nerdcore gained national recognition. A few years down the road they changed their name to the Chillin Dogs and improved their beats and rap skills to the point of being a legitimately good rap group, though no less silly.

Now that Vielma has returned to rap as a solo artist, he has refined his over-the-top lyrics, his flow, and his genuinely interesting production work. His upcoming mixtape features a lot of other non-hip hop South Bay musicians too—people like Ben Henderson and Mark Guerrero, from the pop punk band the Pillowfights.

“Ya Boy Boboso” is a simple hip hop tune with a cool piano loop and an instantly catchy chorus. The content is one big long brag about how every girl in the entire world “knows about ya boy Boboso.” The video only emphasizes the ridiculousness of the song by placing Vielma in front of a green screen while he raps over old black and white footage. Vielma mimics standard rap poses with ease, but throws in some goofy dancing to remind viewers what a ridiculous song they’re listening to—just in case in case they forgot.

Mike Huguenor is the former frontman of Shinobu, the now defunct San Jose indie rock band with a range self-described as “simplistic to annoying.” Within the scene however, they’re considered “unsung punk rock heroes.” But if you take a look at Huguenor’s output since the band’s dispersal, it’s obvious that he’s worked hard at distinguishing himself.

After Shinobu disbanded a few years ago, Huguenor formed Hard Girls with bassist Morgan Herrell and drummer Max Feshbach, once part of the Phat n’ Phunky trio Pterardon. Add ex-Operation Ivy vocalist Jesse Michaels and you get Classics of Love, who released their first full length album last month, and are set to embark on a three city tour of the East Coast tomorrow evening.

Huguenor, currently pursuing his master’s at the University of Chicago, returns to San Jose next Wednesday for a solo performance at The Blank Club. We spoke over email as he prepared to leave for New York about recording an album in three days, Mark E. Smith, and jowls.

How’s Chicago? Have you been playing music out there?

Chicago is mostly nice. Rent is cheaper, school is really good, I have a good enclave of Bay Area ex-pat friends. I had a bit of a scuffle with a shady landlord when we first moved out here, but that has finally settled.

Classics of Love just released their first album – what was the recording process like, seeing as how you were a couple thousand miles away from the rest of the group?

I actually just managed to squeeze it in before leaving for Chicago. My girlfriend and I flew out to a friend’s wedding in Utah, and when I flew back in I had a friend pick me up at the airport, and drop me off at the studio. We did all the music in about three days and then Jesse did the vocals over them. He had to do some scratch vocal tracks for me to do my backups over, since I would be gone once he started really doing the real ones, but that was the only thing that was a little bit goofy.

All of the bands that you’ve been in have maintained a heavy tour schedule. Do you still enjoy it as much as you did at 19 or 20?

I really like touring a lot. I’m leaving for NY tonight to do a few shows with Classics of Love on the East Coast before coming back for the shows at home. The one thing that I don’t really like about it is how disruptive it is to any attempts at maintaining what purists would call a “real life.”

Do you see yourself still playing music, at least in any professional capacity, twenty or thirty years from now? Does the idea of being a forty year old musician appeal to you at all?

I’ve kind of long since realized that I’ll never be able to support myself playing music. The goal is to try and find a job that will allow me to not hate myself when I’m not playing music, since I won’t be swimming in Doritos-commercial royalties any time soon. But to be frank, I don’t really think there’s anything wrong or unappealing about being a musician at 40, 50, 60, 70, what have you. That stigma of it being something for young people who are just avoiding adulthood, I think, is largely just an American thing. Which is too bad. Music doesn’t suddenly become uninteresting or unfulfilling once you have jowls. I also don’t think you have to be young to be in touch or have something to say. Look at Tom Waits, Michael Gira, Mark E. Smith, etc. Those guys are getting up there, and they’re all still doing cool, interesting things.

I think one of your biggest strengths is songwriting. With Jesse acting as the impromptu frontman of Classics of Love, have your duties shifted somewhat? Or do you still write as much? And if so, how does it feel to have Jesse Michaels sing your lyrics?

I don’t write any of the lyrics for Classics, that definitely is an area where Jesse just does his thing. For that band in particular my input is more reactive, suggestive, and playful. It’s fun, I like it a lot. I still write my own stuff for the other projects.

Humor and literature seem to inform your music to a large extent, whereas with Jesse, it’s a bit more politically-oriented – at least now. He’d explained this somewhat by saying that he wants his “art to be a service,” which to me, is of the utmost importance – for art to be functional. Do you feel any such obligation?

I really believe in art. Aesthetically, and epistemically. I tend to shy away from the social critique or political aspects of writing, mostly because I’m not very good at saying anything in that way. Politics has never been something that I can draw creative rage from. It just makes me feel impotent and awful. But I think that music and literature and film and art all have the ability to give an individual a feeling of the ecstatic. That’s what I’m in it for, at least.

You’re playing solo next week back in San Jose, and I realized that I’ve never heard you play alone. Will it be a significant sea change from the stuff with Classics, Hard Girls, or Shinobu?

It will likely be a selection of Shinobu and Hard Girls songs, possibly some new ideas I’m working on, and maybe one or two terrible proto-punk songs that I’ve been thinking about repurposing.

I know you’re a big fan of The Fall, and I see a lot of Mark E. Smith’s influence in your music. How does that influence bear out?

I absolutely love The Fall. I think they are the most interesting band of all time. There’s just no one like them. I think that a lot of the music I have made so far doesn’t sound all that much like The Fall, but that’s mostly because once you try to sound like them it just becomes completely obvious that that’s what you’re going for. They’re too distinctive. In an interview Mark E. Smith did one time, he said all the bands who claimed to be influenced by them just sounded like the Talking Heads to him. Then, he said, that the Talking Heads were “the enemy.” That’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard a musician say. While neither Shinobu nor Hard Girls sound much like them, I think that their willingness to bring in an esoteric humor, and their willingness to just let a song devolve into absolute nonsense have really struck a chord with me. Plus, I think like all the bands I’ve been in, I’ve tried to use sort of elements of punk music as a starting point, without really trying to be a “punk band.” The Fall does that better than anyone.

Huguenor plays a solo set at The Blank Club on March 21 with Oddly Even and Orangutang. Free admission.