There is no town like San Diego. It may not have the bohemia of San Francisco or the glitz and glamour of LA, but California’s second largest city is a true bastion for music. To honor the city’s reverence to music, and help promising opportunity for the city’s future musicians, the San Diego Music Thing returns for its eighth installment, and they have their best musical lineup yet.
The San Diego Music Thing music and media conference, taking place on Wednesday, November, 11th through Saturday, November 14th, has added an incredible line up to the live music portion of the festival. Kicking things off is seminal indie rock band Yo La Tengo who will be playing Thursday, November 12th at the Observatory North Park with special guests Blitzen Trapper. The full line-up, along with tickets to individual shows, can be viewed and purchased HERE.
During the conference of TSDMT, registrants will have the opportunity to improve their understanding of the music business through didactic, interactive and roundtable sessions with nationally-known panelists and featured speakers who represent the best and most innovative aspects of the music business. This year’s featured Keynote Speaker is a musician, author and university educator Greg Graffin. Graffin is widely known as the superlative lead singer and contributing songwriter of the venerable Southern California punk band Bad Religion.
In their thirty-five years as a band, Bad Religion has cemented their place in history as one of punk rock’s most influential and prolific bands with 16 albums released and over five million records sold. Simultaneously, Graffin earned his Ph.D. in zoology at Cornell University, has lectured at UCLA and Cornell, is the co-author of Anarchy Evolution, with Steve Olson and his newest book, “Population Wars: A New Perspective on Competition and Coexistence” is available September 15th from Thomas Dunne Books.
Other noted speakers include Martin Atkins, an English drummer, best known for his work in post-punk and industrial groups including Public Image Ltd, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Pigface, and Killing Joke. Atkins is also a syndicated blogger, author of the critically acclaimed book “Tour: Smart”, a documentary filmmaker, owner of Invisible Records and Mattress Factory Recording Studios, and is the chair of the business program at SAE Chicago. Also joining the lineup of esteemed speakers is Matthew Logan Vasquez of indie rock band Delta Spirit.
In partnership with TSDMT is The San Diego Music Foundation, who work with the county’s K-12 schools to help improve their music departments by giving students access to guitars, due in part with their partnership with Taylor Guitars. Since last year, they have partnered with Deering Banjos, to provide young San Diego county students involved in the music department banjos.
The music lineup features over 100 live acts performing at nine different venues, with the purchase of a three-day badge you can attend all the shows scheduled, select shows you may purchase tickets for if you don’t plan on attending to the entire three-day experience. Each day will feature an amalgam of artists that will cater to any taste.
Our ten must see acts of TSDMT:
1. Yo La Tengo
2. FKA Viet Cong
3. The Joy Formidable
4. The Briefs
5. Swingin Utters
6. No Age
7. L7
8. Beach Slang
9. Born Ruffians
10. The Album Leaf