THE DEVIL MADE HIM DO IT
Our new column just might get your blood boiling – and put a grin on your face
I'd love to take credit for the name of this new column, but I can't.
The irate question about my alleged omnipotence was posed by a reader in Gardena, who was incensed by an unflattering concert review I wrote earlier this year. Another angry reader wrote of the same review: “You, sir, are an idiot.” While overly formal, this also had appeal as a column title.
If the deliberate irreverence of Who Made You God? offends you, I apologize, and suggest you bake a delicious batch of tough cookies.
This column's name should inspire smiles, not frowns. It also illustrates that, while I love many styles of music and am fortunate to be able to contemplate and write about them in depth, I don't take myself too seriously. Except, that is, when I'm attempting to walk on water while balancing my collection of rare Foghat and Wolfmother bootleg albums on my nose.
What I will not attempt to do is replicate the style or tone of Blue Notes, the Night&Day column written so passionately by my esteemed colleague, the late Buddy Blue. Only the format will be similar.
The focus will often be on notable musical performers headed to San Diego, be they famous or obscure, inspired or vomit-inducing. If my opinions sometimes rankle, as they no doubt will, I beseech you not to take the lord's name in vain. God doesn't like snarky comments – except, sometimes, mine.
Muy caliente!
Aproduct of the same rich Tijuana music community that yielded fellow guitarists Carlos Santana and Jose Molina Serrano, Jaime Valle is a mainstay of San Diego's Latin-jazz scene. He has distinguished himself as a bandleader and solo artist and on albums by such luminaries as Mongo Santamaria, Poncho Sanchez and Tania Maria.
Valle's Sunday night Athenaeum Jazz-at-the-Studio concert in University Heights is being billed as a special event, and it is. He and his longtime keyboardist, Allan Philips, will be joined by veteran L.A. saxophonist Justo Almario, electric bass marvel Russell Blake and Peruvian percussion master Alex Acuna, who has drummed on landmark albums by Weather Report, Los Lobos and others. Expect musical sparks galore.
P.O.D. meets the man from Hades
Considering their deep religious devotion, it's amusing that San Diego Christian rap-metal favorites P.O.D. chose to collaborate with Satan on its new album, “Testify.” I don't mean the real Satan, who's apparently overbooked in Washington, D.C., but veteran producer Glen Ballard.
Ballard's resumé includes the Dave Matthews Band's anemic “Everyday” album and cheese-pop tarts Wilson Phillips and Paula Abdul. He also produced and co-wrote much of Alanis Morissette's 1995 mega-hit, “Jagged Little Pill,” a slick, pseudo-alt-rock album that sounded edgy only to those unfamiliar with Ani DiFranco's far more fierce and original work.
The uneven “Testify” (for a chance at a free copy of the CD, see below) seems like a compromise between Ballard's gloss and P.O.D.'s crunch, as the four-man band balances its hard-rocking past with a growing penchant for melodic ballads. Hasidic reggae star Matisyahu (who recently turned down an endorsement offer from – ahem! – Burger King) guests on “Strength of My Life” and “Roots in Stereo.” Both songs are better than anything on his recent album, “Youth.”
Mat probably won't be on hand when P.O.D. performs here tonight at House of Blues, but Samoan-American rappers Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. (who also guest on “Testify”) could be. Either way, the stage is where P.O.D. tends to burn brightest, even in support of an inconsistent album like this.
George Varga: (619) 293-2253;
george.varga@uniontrib.com.
For more from George Varga, and a chance at free albums, Union-Tribune subscribers can log onto
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