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Sakana Sushi Bar
Roll Play: Sakana Sushi gives downtown Monterey a cozy and creative spot for special rolls.
Good things come in threes, so they say. With International Cuisine in Pacific Grove and Dametra Cafe in Carmel well established, Monterey’s Sakana Sushi Bar now joins the Nimri family trifecta. Youngest brother Fadi Nimri ...
Fishy and Flavorful
Viva Las Vegas, election food fun and super flavor on the South Coast.
Hope reported for duty in a strange place last Saturday. It turned up in the heart of the Monstrosity the Mob Built, the Disneyland of Skin, the Elvis impersanator oasis known as The City of ...
Hope Floats
Reigning in locavore extremists with help from a different “slow” food movement.
Locavore fundamentalists might call it blasphemy, but there’s no reason why a meal made with local foods can’t also contain ingredients from the other side of the world. Homegrown vegetables like broccoli and garlic stir-fried ...
Carmel Count
Mayor Sue McCloud back for a sixth term; City Council challenger Burnett wins big.
Carmel's municipal election tally: Mayor's race: Mayor Sue McCloud: 789 Adam Moniz: 674 City Council: Jason Burnett: 1081 Paula Hazdovac: 646 Gerard Rose: 588 Sue McCloud begins her second decade in office, while Hazdovac enters ...
Chapala Mexican Restaurant
Pillar Talk: New owners, updated décor, but Chapala’s fresh Mexican fare remains.
We arrived unannounced at 7pm on a Tuesday to find a cherry parking spot and only four tables occupied. It wasn’t long before we were enjoying chips, salsa and deliciously refreshing margaritas – half our ...
Too Thirsty 4 Love
QUINTRON
Quintron and puppet master/spouse, Miss Pussycat, can’t quite put together a record that holds the excitement or spectacle of their shows. Too Thirsty 4 Love follows the New Orleans organist’s dive into such big, bounding ...
The New Game
MUDVAYNE
Listening to Mudvayne’s The New Game is about as enjoyable as being castrated. Alongside Slipknot and Disturbed, Mudvayne brought a new element of sickness over the past decade, but The New Game is nothing more ...
Rattlin’ Bones
KASEY CHAMBERS AND SHANE NICHOLSON
Forget everything you know about Australian alt-country chanteuse Kasey Chambers before sitting down to listen to the album she co-wrote and recorded with husband, Shane Nicholson, who, we gather, used to be a pop-rock star ...
The Only Color That Matters Is Green
PACEWON AND MR. GREEN
PaceWon is bitter that Eminem, his former Outsidaz groupmate, didn’t bring him along when he blew up. He airs out his antagonism on “The Joker,” the last track on his new album with producer Mr. ...
The Ball Street Journal
E-40
E-40 is a shrewd businessman and competent rapper who at times verged on being a great rapper. But usually his desire to remain marketable outpaces his creativity – 40’s endless repetitions of certain slang words ...
Speak Low
BOZ SCAGGS
That bluesman turned ’70s pop superstar Boz Scaggs would one day turn to jazz is no surprise. “Harbor Lights” from Silk Degrees and “Heart Of Mine” from Other Roads are just two examples of how ...
A Thousand Shark’s Teeth
MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND
When singer-songwriter Shara Worden conceived her debut under the moniker My Brightest Diamond, the classically trained vocalist’s sole accompaniment was to be a string quartet. Displeased with the results, Worden shelved the project, instead making ...
Dirt Don’t Hurt
HOLLY GOLIGHTLY AND THE BROKEOFFS
During a career of more than 15 years, British singer Holly Golightly has performed garage-punk, R&B, girl-group pop, swing and cocktail jazz, but for the most recent couple of albums, she’s pretty much stuck to ...
I Am… Sasha Fierce
BEYONCE
If her album title seems like the moniker for a transgendered entertainer, it wouldn’t be the only thing that’s gay about Beyonce’s third (rushed) solo project. From the hippy, J-Stepping choreography on “Single Ladies (Put ...
Souls for Sale
VERBENA
When Fat Possum added obscure Alabama folk musician and ex-Verbena frontman A.A. Bondy to its roster this year (with the stunning solo debut American Hearts), the Oxford, Miss., blues label knew what it was getting: ...
Winter Sunshine
SHEILA JORDAN
Sixty-year jazz veteran and vocalist Sheila Jordan recorded this live CD on the week of her 80th birthday in February of 2008, and like jazz stalwart and singer Alberta Hunter’s resurgence at the age of ...
Things Are Getting Sinister and Sinisterer
EDIE SEDGWICK
This side project by Justin Moyer, a veteran of such Washington, D.C., art-punk groups as El Guapo and Antelope, is lo-fi in its execution but sophisticated in its sassy conception. On this second album (which ...
Road Shows Vol. 1
SONNY ROLLINS
Arguments for Sonny Rollins to be considered the greatest hard-bop saxophonist, if not the best tenor saxophonist of all time, outnumber those against. His full tone, unending inventiveness, willingness to take rhythmic chances, and long ...
4:13 Dream
THE CURE
After hearing news of a new release from an act like ’80s goth-rock legends The Cure, most fans’ response is, “Right, so when’s the tour?” Cure fans have reason for caution following 2004’s poorly timed, ...
Murs for President
MURS
Released a year behind schedule but at a timely moment nonetheless, Murs for President retains the qualities of backpacker hip-hop, despite its new Warner Bros. patina. It is, by turns, nerdy, self-flagellating, irreverent, bitingly funny ...
Black Ice
AC/DC
The Song Remains the Same may be the title of an old Led Zeppelin album, but it’s also the best way to describe AC/DC’s new studio album, Black Ice. Black Ice is yet another “new” ...
Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8
BOB DYLAN
The first of two discs on Bob Dylan’s latest foray into the bootleg series is riddled with songs about being trapped and boxed in. There are narrators stuck geographically (a breezy, stripped down take on ...
Broadcast Sessions 1958-1959
Acrobat Music
This collection of previously unreleased performances by Miles Davis’ groups featuring John Coltrane, culled from live radio broadcasts, quickly reminds one of how inventive, imaginative and original Miles’ music always was. The 10 selections are ...
Foodchain
Retiring His Number
LAST LINK IN THE CHAIN… I’m sure there is no important correlation between the outgoing presidential administration leaving the White House after eight years and me leaving the Weekly House after just about the same ...
Foodchain
Eaten Up
STEWING OVER IT… Phil’s Fish Market in Moss Landing received a visit from the Food Channel’s Bobby Flay last week to film an episode of Throwdown. That’s the show where Flay shows up and challenges ...
The Unknown
ANIMAL FARM
The Oregon-based, backpack-rap quartet Animal Farm’s first album, The Unknown, is a collage of philosophy, politics and humor, soaked in classic soul and R&B samples. It’s like Del the Funky Homosapien meets Blackalicious, with a ...
Foodchain
In Costume
HALLO AT ME… I’m sitting here writing this for the Halloween issue dressed up like a politician running for president of the United States. I am wearing a navy blue suit, white shirt and conservative ...
2 Grover, With Love
JASON MILES
While this follow up to keyboardist and producer Miles’ 2001 recording honoring Grover Washington Jr., To Grover With Love, has less compelling music, it is a more sincere tribute. Whether due to the live-in-the-studio recording ...
Sunshine Lies
MATTHEW SWEET
Ever since his power-pop masterpiece, Girlfriend, in 1991, rocker Matthew Sweet has suffered– perhaps unjustly– from perennial comparisons to that landmark album. On the other hand, many of us who love the melodic melancholy of ...
Foodchain
Don’t Be Scared
KNOWING THE SCORE… I sit here realizing that summer seems to have neglected us this year. It is beginning to get colder, the days are noticeably shorter, yet I don’t remember any extended stretch of ...
All Hope Is Gone
SLIPKNOT
Forget what the Bible has to say about hellfire and brimstone: Slipknot has now redefined the term. Following a three-year hiatus to allow its members to focus on side projects, the nine-piece masked marauders from ...
All U Need Is Mosh
PLASTILINA MOSH
It’s been 10 years since Mexico’s Plastilina Mosh garnered buzz on both sides of the border with their genre-mashing, electro-hip-hop-rock debut, Aquamosh. The duo of Jonaz Gonzalez and Alejandro Rosso rocked the mic like a ...
Food Chain
Forkful of Freedom
NIBBLING AWAY… As we grudgingly face the ever-more possible possibilities made clear by all economic indicators in a world gone wrong, along with the many depressing realities already plaguing more of the world, it becomes ...
Day After Tomorrow
JOAN BAEZ
Jack White did it for Loretta Lynn. Ryan Adams did it for Willie Nelson. And now Steve Earle has done it for Joan Baez– and by “it,” I mean a younger talent has infused new ...
Furr
BLITZEN TRAPPER
Blitzen Trapper’s 2007 CD, Wild Mountain Nation, approached ’60s rock, folk and country with a fractured sound reminiscent of Pavement’s scattershot 1999 opus Wowee Zowee. On their latest, Furr which is also their debut on ...
Food Chain
Still Biting
EAT YOUR HEART OUT… Wow, 20 years of Weekly weekly, never weakly. I came aboard in the summer of 2000 after I answered an ad in the Coast Weekly looking for a restaurant reviewer. My ...
Dear Science
TV ON THE RADIO
TV On The Radio is officially the sexiest band in indie rock. Or at least the most sexed-up. Most of their indie-rock contemporaries either treat love like something epic and metaphysical, or bury it under ...
The Standard
TAKE 6
It doesn’t seem possible considering how consistently good they are, but this vocal a cappella group keeps getting better. While many performers’ voices falter with age, Take 6’s vocals have a greater sense of blend ...
Death Magnetic
METALLICA
Metallica’s last album, 2003’s St. Anger, with its raw, messy, unfocused songs and dingy production, was like group therapy on CD, and spoke to the personal demons that the band members were dealing with. It ...
Only By the Night
KINGS OF LEON
Amid the myriad alternative releases that look to Brits like Joy Division or the Clash for inspiration, Nashville four-piece Kings of Leon’s Only By the Night hones a no-frills American rock sound decisively more meat-and-potatoes ...
Acid Tongue
JENNY LEWIS
It’s all about the casting. When former child star Jenny Lewis plays Lucinda Williams (“See Fernando”), Blue- period Joni Mitchell (“Acid Tongue”) or even Stevie Nicks-led Fleetwood Mac (“Black Sand,” “Pretty Bird”), she nails the ...
Food Chain
Fall Out
A LITTLE SEASONING… It’s October. I don’t remember the last time I saw rain around here, felt its freshness wash over me. I feel dried out, brown and droopy, my movements hampered by limbs turned ...
Nobody Left to Crown
RICHIE HAVENS
A new era and a new social climate can sometimes restore meaning and depth to a song long taken for granted. Such is the case for folk-rock legend Richie Havens’ amazing interpretation of The Who’s ...
Foodchain
Food: Medicine for the Madness
FEEL THE PAIN… Amidst the flailing (that’s correct) financial markets and institutions (“I’m not ready for an institution”– Mae West), the military unrest throughout the world’s hot spots, the blatant government-sanctioned theft by conscienceless corporate ...
Daylight Kissing Night: Adam Marsland’s Greatest Hits
ADAM MARSLAND
The first song on Adam Marsland’s 20-song collection from his solo career and his former band, Cockeyed Ghost, is called “My Kickass Life.” Marsland ain’t kidding: He used to share a practice space with Weezer; ...
Epic Journey Volumes 1 and 2
ADAM NIEWOOD & HIS RABBLE ROUSERS
Known for being the woodwind-playing son of famous former saxophonist Gerry Niewood, Adam Niewood is beginning to turn heads in New York. With a strong educational background including the Berklee College of Music and Juilliard, ...
The Stand Ins
OKKERVIL RIVER
The Stand Ins is Okkervil River’s follow-up to their critically acclaimed The Stage Names, but don’t call it a sequel– it’s really a collection of deleted and extended scenes, scrapped when frontman Will Sheff, fearing ...
Food Chain
Vote for Fun
POPULAR Election… Life should be pretty fun these next eight weeks or so as the final act of our presidential comedy performance– er, election– plays itself out. The farcical popularity contest between representatives from both ...
Cream Cuts
TUSSLE
Humming a Tussle song is hard work. Trying to sing any track from Cream Cuts, the San Francisco quartet’s third full-lengthed, is the kind of quasi-spiritual drum-guru pursuit to which Mickey Hart would dedicate three ...
Carried to Dust
CALEXICO
For those who know Calexico primarily through its collaborations with other, more notable musicians– including the masterful 2005 EP In the Reins (with Iron & Wine) and last year’s I’m Not There contribution “Goin’ to ...
Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
DAVID BYRNE AND BRIAN ENO
Two of the most influential and groundbreaking musicians of all time have joined forces for the first time since 1981, so of course the resulting music will be excellent. The question is: How excellent? What ...
Food Chain
Another Peace
SAME STUFF, very DIFFERENT DAY… Each week I submit this conglomeration of bars, stripes and star-spangled banners for a deadline that allows the editorial and artistic folks down at Weekly central to plug it into ...
Here With Me
JENNIFER O’CONNOR
With any luck, indie rock will never die, thanks to efforts as painstakingly constructed and brashly executed as Jennifer O’Connor’s Here With Me. Produced by John Agnello, a man with far too many subtly awesome ...
Symphonica
JOE LOVANO
Throughout history, jazz musicians, seeking the widest palette to perform with, have longed to record with a full symphony orchestra. Interestingly, critics tend to pan such recordings; witness Wes Montgomery’s work on A&M and Charlie ...
Oh! Mighty Engine
NEIL HALSTEAD
The twilight-saturated folk-pop of Neil Halstead is a pleasure to listen to, even if, like soy products, his music diminishes manhood and makes dudes feel twee. The jaunty yet melancholy title track, in which the ...
Untitled
NAS
Bill O’Reilly’s attack on Nas was one of the more bizarre dust-ups of the last year. The roots of the controversy are preposterous: O’Reilly took issue with the lyrics of Nas’ “Shoot ’Em Up.” The ...
Top Seeds
Gary Ibsen and Dagma Lacey see off their signature TomatoFest with the flavor locals have come to expect.
For the decidedly epic event, Monterey Marriott-3 Flags’ Willi Franz has crafted a caravan of scarlet corn-crusted green zebra heirloom tomato sliders with pepper-griddled citrus soft-shelled blue crab and caricia aioli. Talk about a mouthful. ...
The Love Chronicles
DIVINE BROWN
If Amy Winehouse were remixed by the B-52’s, they might concoct something like “Bebe,” but it dances into your head courtesy of Scarborough wunderkind Slakah the Beatchild. On it, a rich assortment of brass instrumentalists ...
Food chain
Run for Cover
APOCALYPSE NOW… September has arrived. With it comes scorching summer days upon a landscape bereft of moisture, dehydrated beyond normal capacity. Our decreasing water index exacerbates the increasing stress levels presented by a societal egosystem ...
Here&Gone
DAVID SANBORN
David Sanborn is one of the most influential saxophonists of the 20th century. His influences, however, are the less known saxophonists Ray Charles featured in his early bands: Hank Crawford and David “Fathead” Newman. On ...
Food chain
Dead Ringer
TOP OF HIS GAME… Watching the Olympics has reminded me just how much I love sport. The searing heat of competition, the camaraderie among participants, the excruciating emotional risk, the exhaustive expansion of individual and ...
The Gleam II
THE AVETT BROTHERS
Two summers ago, The Avett Brothers performed at our 100-person-capacity venue, Monterey Live. Boy, have things changed for the North Carolina trio since then. The group has sold out amphitheaters, played the country’s most revered ...
Don’t Do Anything
SAM PHILLIPS
It’s hard to tell if this is the end of the third, or the beginning of the fourth phase of Sam Phillips’ career. In the mid-’80s, she was a popular, if undistinguished, Christian artist who ...
Conquer
SOULFLY
Although we were all raised to not judge a book (or a CD) by its cover, an exception can be made with Soulfly’s sixth studio effort, Conquer. The cover depicts an ancient warrior with six ...
Evil Urges
MY MORNING JACKET
My Morning Jacket’s latest is the sort of album that critics adore, because it allows us to flex our smarts by pointing out the different styles that a talented and ambitious band incorporates into its ...
Food Chain
Ready to Roll
ON RAMPING UP… Well, I’m sitting here inspecting the dozen or so vintage, classic, extremely rare automobiles I bought at the various auctions during car week. This year I tried to buy according to color ...
Ear Food
THE ROY HARGROVE QUINTET
Trumpeter Roy Hargrove is the definition of a questing musician, having tried his hand at a number of different styles. From funk/hip-hop work on Hard Groove to Latin on Habana, Hargrove hasn’t always succeeded but ...
Live At The 1977 Monterey Jazz Festival
TITO PUENTE
Puente’s big 15-piece Latin jazz band plays with all of the charisma and virtuosic skill with which he was long associated. Interestingly enough, it was this concert that’s credited with bringing the great timbale player ...
Live At The 1994 Monterey Jazz Festival
SHIRLEY HORN
Long overlooked by jazz historians, vocalist and pianist Shirley Horn is featured with her longtime trio, bassist Charles Ables and drummer Steve Williams, on this concert concluding the Festival’s 37th anniversary. While always known for ...
50 Years Of Dave Brubeck: Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival 1958-2007
DAVE BRUBECK
The latest collection of six Monterey Jazz Festival archival recordings, which highlight either a single night’s concert or a career of performances, includes a stunning collection of pianist Dave Brubeck’s work. The 10 pieces, from ...
Food chain
Heart of the Party
SIX HUNDRED FOR SUR… “The winds of change blow through, and leave me in the clear blue sky of mind more quickly when I greet them with an open heart.” A friend of mine, Beth ...
Food Chain
Fringe Benefits
HOPE FLOATS… As sunshine begins to crack through the foggy days here in never-never land and smoke recedes, rebuilding proceeds and our summer accedes, word of special tributes and fundraisers abounds as we neighborly folk ...
Two Men With the Blues
WILLIE NELSON AND WYNTON MARSALIS
Even if you know Miles Davis titled one of his pieces “Willie Nelson” out of respect and admiration for the country crooner, you still might think this pairing with Wynton Marsalis might be a disaster. ...
Fire Songs
THE WATSON TWINS
The vibe of this first full-length album from The Watson Twins is wholly American, and that encompasses a whole lotta elements: soul, country, R&B, folk, indie rock, gospel and jazz. Once one learns that the ...
Modern Guilt
BECK
Produced by hot beatmaker Danger Mouse and bearing an ominously portentous title, Modern Guilt raises expectations that its creator, Beck, has no interest in living up to. A moody run-through of the thematic preoccupations that ...
At Mount Zoomer
WOLF PARADE
Three years later, Wolf Parade’s breathless debut Apologies to the Queen Mary is as exhilarating and, by Canadian indie-rock standards, charged as the day it came out. Follow up At Mount Zoomer doesn’t reach that ...
Food Chain
Up and at ’Em
RISING THOUGHT… This morning was one of those mornings– awake too early to truly be called morning, later than what normal people would call night. So I sit here clicking away at this keyboard and ...
Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
COLDPLAY
From 2000’s piano-based, virgin-mopefest debut, Parachutes, to 2005’s X&Y, Coldplay morphed into a bombastic, synth-heavy arena-rock group, like U2. For Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, Coldplay enlisted Brian Eno, a frequent ...
Sax For Stax
GERALD ALBRIGHT
Saxophonist Gerald Albright made a name for himself in 1991 with the release of an astoundingly first-rate live recording. His technical brilliance was perfectly matched by a soulful honesty that made him widely popular, not ...
Food chain
South Rising
FROM THE ASHES… Hit the south coast last week– bloodies at River Inn, lunch at Big Sur Bakery. It was uplifting to see business going on in Big Sur, folks picking up where Mother Nature ...
Food Chain
Still Cookin’
FIGHTING BACK… As the wildfires and blistering heat scorch the world around us, we here in idyllic Never-Never Land by the Sea remain seemingly oblivious to the plight of others less fortunate in their choice ...
Weezer
WEEZER
On Pinkerton, regarding the subject of committing to a relationship, Weezer once implored listeners, “Why Bother?” Now, as that cult album approaches its 12th birthday, listeners can return the favor with each new Weezer release. ...
Seraphic Light
SAXOPHONE SUMMIT
Saxophone Summit pairs the three most influential tenor saxophonists of our era—Michael Brecker, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano—with a rhythm section. Their previous release, Gathering Of Spirits, put new life into the “tenor battle” concept so ...
Smile
BORIS
Japanese metal trio Boris have spent the past five years subjecting their music to the same kind of violent experimentation and abuse that members of Megadeth generally reserved for their frontal lobes. They’ve made albums ...
Food Chain
Feel the Freedom
INDEPENDENT THINKING… When in the Course of human Events it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, ...
food chain
Happy to Be Nappy
CRUSHING DRIVE… In the past, I have periodically focused on some of the more vile members of the sub-class of species running our world into the compost heap of history and fired a few volleys ...
NICK CAVE&THE BAD SEEDS
Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
The only negative thing about Nick Cave’s latest opus of degradation and hope is the vulgar excess of punctuation in the title. Otherwise, this record is among the best in an oeuvre that is threatening ...
AL GREEN
Lay It Down
Although he reunited with famed producer Willie Mitchell for his previous two albums, legendary R&B singer Al Green has delved into the world of neo-soul to create his latest CD, and the resulting songs sound ...
Food chain
Cool It
TOO HOT TO HANDLE… Fires seem to be spontaneously combusting nearby and around the state. It looks like we are headed for a difficult, fire-filled year unless we miraculously receive a few straight weeks of ...
IRVIN MAYFIELD&ELLIS MARSALIS
Love Songs, Ballads and Standards
The concept is solid: Pair pianist and master teacher Ellis Marsalis with a young, immensely talented former trumpet student, Irvin Mayfield, whose shared stalwart defense and promotion of jazzís purest sense of history makes them ...
NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS
Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
The only negative thing about Nick Cave’s latest opus of degradation and hope is the vulgar excess of punctuation in the title. Otherwise, this record is among the best in an oeuvre that is threatening ...
IRVIN MAYFIELD & ELLIS MARSALIS
Love Songs, Ballads and Standards
The concept is solid: Pair pianist and master teacher Ellis Marsalis with a young, immensely talented former trumpet student, Irvin Mayfield, whose shared stalwart defense and promotion of jazzís purest sense of history makes them ...
Food Chain
Hospitality, Period.
REALITY CHECK… As I sit here, hands holding a heavy head, visualizing our little corner of paradise, I’m trying to get a sense of what this whole crazy industry, this hospitality branch of the unarmed ...
Coal
KATHY MATTEA
Once a Grammy-winning country superstar of the ’80s and ’90s, Kathy Mattea finds herself releasing material via her own label. Now she’s free to be an artist as opposed to a glorified beer saleswoman. The ...
Lifecycle
THE YELLOWJACKETS
Beginning their life more than 25 years ago as guitarist Robben Ford’s backing band, the rhythm section of Russell Ferrante on keyboards, bassist Jimmy Haslip and drummer Ricky Lawson eventually went their own way becoming ...
Blame It on Gravity
OLD 97’S
Old 97’s frontman Rhett Miller says the band’s seventh album is a return to its earlier high-energy sound, a “second childhood” and a re-focus on songwriting. From the first searing tube-amp-distorted lick of “The Fool,” ...
Food Chain
Drink It In
WHO’S MY DADDY… First of all, a shout out to Papa Nap on his 86th birthday. The man’s been through the depression, WWII and a whole bunch of life. Still about the sharpest mind I ...
Do It!
CLINIC
Clinic, a quartet from Liverpool, claims to be an experimental band, but their mash-up of punk, metal, folk-rock, psychedelia and ‘50s R&B won’t sound unfamiliar to anyone with a knowledge of 20th-century pop music. How ...
Foreign Feeling
Juan L. Sanchez Ensemble delivers a special show before returning to Spain.
The music of Monterey’s Juan L. Sanchez Ensemble does not recognize international borders. On their second CD titled Hijos de la Tierra, the crack group of local musicians allows Latin, African, Middle Eastern and American ...
