Tom Waits made the surprise announcement over the weekend that he will join the Oct. 27 Bridge School Benefit lineup, which already includes My Morning Jacket, Queens of the Stone Ages, the Killer and more.

Waits announced the performance on his Facebook page, stating that he’ll be playing an acoustic set featuring songs off of his 2011 album Bad As Me with his band, which includes Les Claypool on bass.

Also on Facebook Waits stated, “I had every good intention to stay home and work on my JD Salinger Halloween mask, but when Neil told me yesterday he was serving burnt cow’s eyes on a flat tire and it’s all gluten free, I invited myself!”

No word on when Waits plans to play live again beyond Bridge School, so this could be the only opportunity to see him live for the near future.

Local post-punk rockers the Trims are set to release a new EP, Delete You After, this Friday with a release party at the Blank Club.

While the band has always been known for its late 70s/80s retro alt -rock sound, influenced by bands like Joy Division and early cuts from the Cure, this new EP has a more modern twist, capturing the essence of groups like the Killers, the Rapture and Franz Ferdinand, who themselves were highly influenced by 80s post-punk but with a more dance-rock edge.

The shift is due in part to the band working with producer Steve Murr, who has an impressive resume, including Smashmouth, J.Dash, Young Science and Pounders.

“We felt that we had hit a plateau with our sound as far as recording so we decided to bring in a producer to help shape the songs with an outsider’s perspective,” says lead singer/guitarist Gabe Maciel. “Working with Steve was not work at all, but rather a sharing of ideas with someone who became less of a producer and more of an extended member of the band.”

Some of the key changes that Murr brought to the table was the use of keyboards, which the Trims have never recorded with before, as well as suggesting they speed up their songs. Both of these elements give the songs a stronger dance feel and less of an overt rock sound.

http://youtu.be/TJbCXY_EsVg

Murr also helped the Trims pull off the bigger guitar sound they always wanted. Although they’ve been able to achieve a large sonic wall of guitars in their concerts, they haven’t yet been able to translate that power to their recordings.

“We tracked guitars in a way that would capture that same tone and emotion you would hear live,” says guitarist Bryan Aguirre.

For people who haven’t seen the Trims live in awhile, they’ve added a visual component to the show, putting on coordinated color lightning as they play.

“We feel that the lighting reflects visually what’s going on musically,” Maciel says. “We have always wanted to give people the most bang for their buck. If you come out to see us and pay money, we want to bring an arena style performance to a small club and give our fans a show they deserve and will never forget.”

The Trims play April 26 at the Blank Club at 9pm. Tickets are $8. More info.

More than half of the 20 Bay Area bands competing for an opening slot at Live 105’s Not So Silent Night, featuring Jack Whit, the Shins, the Killers,  M83, Tegan & Sara, Passion Pit and more on December 7 and December 8 at the Oracle Arena, are from the South Bay.

As of this this posting, Curious Quail and Light the Rocket are the two South Bay bands with the most votes. They are neck and neck for 3rd and 4th place. The first place position belongs to Livermore group Hear The Sirens. To win, some of the bands are finding creative ways to motivate their fans to vote. Dogcatcher, for instance, is offering all their albums for free online until the voting ends. Curious Quail uploaded a video explaining to their fans all the reasons why they should vote for them.

Other South bay bands in the running include Drop Dead Sixty, Fossil Tree, INFM, Pounders, Touch My Rash, The Mess, The Oarsmen and UP&GO.

More than half of the 20 Bay Area bands competing for an opening slot at Live 105’s Not So Silent Night, featuring Jack Whit, the Shins, the Killers,  M83, Tegan & Sara, Passion Pit and more on December 7 and December 8 at the Oracle Arena, are from the South Bay.

Voting is still open, HERE.

Claudeo come from San Diego with one purpose in mind—to get people on their feet to dance. In the process, they’ve chosen some unusual places for dance parties. Here in San Jose, they selected the local dive-bar of choice, The Caravan, where they are playing this Thursday, September 13th. But Claudeo—who are Ivan Deyoung-Dominguez and Chris Changchien—are determined to get some feet moving no matter where they go.

The duo met in 2011 while working together on a project for UCSD and realized they both shared a mutual passion for making crowds shake their booties. But underneath the surface of their interest in pounding drum beats and screeching synthesizers, they also shared a passion for indie-pop songwriting, inspired by bands like Death Cab for Cutie and Coldplay.

They mix keyboards and guitars while trying to employ elements from the rock and electronic world in a pop setting. The end result is a mishmash that falls somewhere between Daft Punk and the Killers. For a dance band, they have a fair amount of variety in their songs with even a few sappy acoustic ballads for the slow dances.

Claudeo plays The Caravan on Thursday September 13th at 10pm. The show is free.