Rafter Roberts debuted a new project and music video last week. Roberts & Lord is a collaboration between Rafter and Simon Lord. The music video for their first single "Windmill" features some colorful calisthenics and was directed by local video artist Josh Hassin.
Posted By zack | 7/18/2011 | 7:00 PM | Add a Comment
The Tree Ring head up the coast next week to kick off a relaxed two week tour of the Northwest, British Columbia, and California. Their kick off show should be a great one, joining Oregon natives Norman and John Heart Jackie at Portland's historic Doug Fir Lounge. After Oregon The Tree Ring will pop up to Canada, come down through Orcas Island, hit Santa Cruz, Oakland, and Los Angeles. This great band tours almost never, so make sure to catch them in your home town and to tell your friends! (home page photo by Natalie Kardos)
July 21st – Portland, OR / Doug Fir Lounge. 8 PM, 21+, $6.
July 22nd – Corvallis, OR / Bombs Away Cafe. 9 PM, 21+, Free.
July 26th – Victoria, BC / Fort Cafe. 8 PM, All Ages, $5.
July 29th – Orcas Island, WA / Doe Bay Resort. All Ages, Free.
July 31st – Santa Cruz, CA / The Abbey. 8 PM, All Ages, Free.
August 1st – Oakland, CA / House Show (thetreering@gmail.com for address)
August 2nd – Los Angeles, CA / Hotel Cafe. 11 PM, 21+.
August 3rd – San Diego, CA / Habitat House. 8 PM, All Ages, Free.
Posted By zack | 7/12/2011 | 7:22 AM | Add a Comment
For a second straight year, Sezio has been denied funding by San Diego County. Now we know the city and state have been hit hard with budget cuts, but we think we have a pretty strong case for a $5,000 dollar grant out of a 2.5 million dollar pot. Let me explain further:
Earlier this year we applied for San Diego County's Community Enhancement Program, which seeks to fund
"Cultural activities, museums, visitor and convention bureaus, economic development councils, and other similar institutions/organizations, including County programs and projects, which promote and generate tourism and/or economic development within San Diego County.
The project or "cultural activity" we specified in our application was a four night concert series held in East Village / Downtown San Diego. Those of you who attended last fall or saw one of the many videos, know this was not your average music series. Set in a 3,000 square foot warehouse turned giant living room and art installation, Four Day Weekend hosted intimate performances from eight emerging California-based bands (5 from San Diego, 2 from San Francisco, and 1 from Los Angeles).
The performances were available to all ages (a very rare thing in San Diego's music scene). They were affordable, priced between $10 and $15 dollars. The total event drew over 1,000 people (each night had a 250 person capacity), but was seen by hundreds of thousands more. The above video, which was produced by Sezio's extremely talented media team, was featured on Pitchfork.com, the world's largest music blog. "Dodos: Live in San Diego" right on the top of Pitchfork.com's home page. This brands San Diego internationally. This is how Brooklyn became Brooklyn and how Portland became Portlandia.
Above that, we played the TOT game. The Transient Occupancy Tax, which funds the community enhancement program and also the city's commission for arts & culture, is funded by hotel rooms purchased in San Diego County. Sezio brought Hotel Indigo on as an event partner, we put the bands up at the hotel the night they played, and the hotel offered discounted rates to in-town and out of town attendees of the festival. We made sure to get press from Los Angeles-based blogs to let all of Southern California know they were welcome in San Diego for the weekend (see here). We also supported the local economy, hosting after parties at East Village establishments like Bar Basic.
So we thought we had a pretty strong argument asking for $5,000 dollars to host the event again this fall. We were mistaken. 2.5 million dollars was split up between anything that contained the words Museum, Theater, or Chamber of Commerce. Take a moment to browse the distributions list here. Many of the funded organizations are the same ones that contact us on a weekly basis, asking us to help them promote their events, partner with them on openings and performances because they recognize that Sezio has a direct connection to youth that are interested in arts & culture in San Diego.
We've gotten our peers to notice our service to San Diego, we've gotten the institutions to notice, now it's time for the government, the council members, the donors, and the foundations to take notice, and to help us continue our crucial role in San Diego's burgeoning creative community.
Here's how you can help! Please take the time to email four people for Sezio this week. Explain to them how much you love and rely on our website to experience local art and music. How much you've enjoyed attending or performing at our one-of-a-kind events. If these four people receive a couple hundred emails from Sezio supporters, they can't help but fund us when the next grant opportunities come around.
Ron Roberts - Supervisor, District 4 - ron-roberts@sdcounty.ca.gov
Greg Cox - Supervisor, District 1 - greg.cox@sdcounty.ca.gov
Todd Gloria - Councilmember, District 3 - toddgloria@sandiego.gov
Kevin Faulconer - Councilmember, District 2 - kevinfaulconer@sandiego.gov
Title your email "Funding Request for Sezio, Inc.", and write them all at once. Copy info@sezio.org on there too...
Thank you sincerely for reading this, for taking the time to email in a petition for Sezio to be funded, and for reading our website, coming to our events, and for supporting art & music in San Diego. It means an incredible amount to all of us.
- Zack Nielsen (Sezio's Founder & Business Director)
Posted By zack | 7/4/2011 | 1:49 AM | View Comments (7)
School is out for summer, and the brothers Baliff and drummer Grant Nassif are hitting the road for a week this summer. Dirty Gold will kick off their mini tour tomorrow at Habitat House and then open two dates for Darwin Deez in SF and LA. Pick up a fresh white vinyl of their debut ROAR at a show, or order your copy online from Autumn Tone Records.
Posted By zack | 7/1/2011 | 5:37 PM | Add a Comment
Invisible Children sent their music team to SXSW this past March to shoot 25 bands to raise awareness about 25 years of war in central Africa. They've started to release videos on a weekly basis, recently highlighting San Diego's Lesands. Watch their creek-side stripped down version of "Pretenders" below and click through to IC's video page for the likes of Sun Airway, Bahamas, Guards and a ton of other great acts.
Posted By zack | 6/30/2011 | 12:39 PM | Add a Comment