Courtesy of www.kevynlettau.com

8 Thursday

Ska punk band Home Grown will bring their Orange County surfer attitude to Canes Bar & Grill. The show starts at 7 p.m. and tickets cost $10. Call Ticketmaster for more information at (619) 220-8497.

Flying Blind feature their guitar-driven power pop style at Brick by Brick. The show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets cost $6. Call Ticketmaster to purchase tickets at (619) 220-8497.

After rising up from singing in the streets of Del Mar, Kevyn Lettau will play at Dizzy's in support of her new album, which covers classic Police songs. Showtimes will be at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. and tickets cost $12. Call (858) 270-7467 for ticket information.

9 Friday

Zosia is only 15 years old, but she can sing the blues. She brings her sound to Dizzy's at 8:45 p.m. Tickets are $8. For more information call (858) 270-7467.

The Holiday Matinee Winter Tour will be at the Casbah. This tour will showcase some of the best indie rock bands. Death Cab for Cutie, The And/Ors and The Jealous Sound will perform. The show starts at 8:30 p.m. For ticket information call (619) 232-HELL.

Scratch and Dice Raw have toured with The Roots with their human beatbox skills. They have broken off to support their solo material and they will perform at the Belly Up Tavern at 9:15 p.m. Tickets are $15 and they can be purchased through Ticketmaster by calling (619) 220-8497.

Dave Howard is one of the premiere songwriters in San Diego. Howard will play his hook-laced acoustic guitar songs at the Rhythm Cafe in Oceanside. The show starts at 8 p.m. For more information call (760) 631-4466.

10 Saturday

Check out San Francisco blues musicians Robben, Patrick and Mark Ford at the Belly Up Tavern. These well-traveled musicians have been playing the blues since the late 1960s, backing up Charlie Musselwhite and Muddy Waters and playing in their own bands. The show starts at 9:15 p.m. Tickets cost $12 and tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster at (619) 220-8497.

11 Sunday

As part of the Celebrity Series at the East County Performing Arts Center, Neil Sedaka will perform the hits that made him famous through the '60s, '70s and '80s. Call (619) 440-2277 for more information.

14 Wednesday

David Lindley has grown up playing the fiddle and banjo and has performed with various blugrass groups. He has released three solo recordings and has played in the studio with Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and David Crosby among others. Lindley will perform at the Belly Up Tavern. Tickets cost $15. Call Ticketmaster for more information at (619) 220-8497.

Oasis

""Familiar to Millions""

Big Brother

A

::

Amid all the fighting between brothers and band mates, a new bass player and a new guitar player and getting kicked off airlines and canceling tours, Oasis still stands as one of the best live acts in music today.

Their last two studio albums, ""Be Here Now"" and ""Standing on the Shoulder of Giants,"" seem overproduced and layered with just one too many guitars. They seem like they are trying too hard. But with their recent live album ""Familiar to Millions,"" Oasis prove that they are more than just a studio band trying too hard.

This two-disc set shows off the raw talent and energy of Oasis pumped through Noel Gallagher's Marshall stack amps. You can feel the electricity as throngs of people at the famous Wembley Stadium chant ""Oasis! Oasis!"" until a massive applause greets the opening bars of ""Fucking in the Bushes,"" an instrumental guitar solo that simply rocks.

The return to the band's more rock roots show that they are defined by more than just a ""Wonderwall"" or ""Champagne Supernova.""

After front man Liam Gallagher dubs the hallowed Wembley Stadium a ""shit hole,"" they kick off with their most recent anthems ""Go Let It Out"" and ""Who Feels Love.""

After the success of their first two albums, ""Definitely Maybe"" and ""What's the Story (Morning Glory),"" Oasis have been criticized for losing their touch with their last two studio albums. Liam makes the offhand comment, ""You should write more of these songs, Noel,"" before heading into ""Supersonic,"" a classic from their first album.

Oasis run through brilliant B-sides like ""Acquiesce"" and ""Step Out"" while throwing in old favorites such as ""Wonderwall"" and ""Live Forever."" All the while, Noel shows his prowess on the guitar with classic rock solos and lush riffs. Noel stands as one of the most underrated lead guitars players.

Forget about the canceled tours, the fist fighting and Liam's insatiable urge to kick Robbie Williams' arse. This live album shows off the band's gorgeous melodies and the inherent ability of Oasis to completely capture an audience.""

--Joseph Lee

Sade

""Lovers Rock""

Epic Records

A

::

The woman who fueled the '80s with casual sex and slicked-back hair is back after a near decade of self-imposed seclusion. Helen Folsade Adu, otherwise known as Sade, follows her 1992 ""Love Deluxe"" (which carried the hit ""No Ordinary Love"") with ""Lovers Rock,"" an album that masterfully blends her soulful voice with today's electronic rhythms.

Soft saxophones give way to delicate acoustic licks in classic fashion. But the album also offers some recent flare with beats master-stroked by Massive Attack and Everything But the Girl, helping propel the diva's pipes into the 21st century.

All in all, however, the tone and temperament on ""Lovers Rock"" remains resolutely the same, from the lush melancholy of ""King of Sorrow"" to the dub-inflected sensuality of the title track.

Seemingly negligible lyrics come across as distant and lovelorn, making the words just as palpable and delicious as the music. More than worth its price.

-- David Lee

The UCSD DJs and Vinylphiles Club will launch its first event of the quarter at Porter's Pub, and with Valentine's Day just around the corner, it is aptly titled ""Heartbreaks."" With the event being exclusive to and free for UCSD students, there is hope that there will be a strong student support for the show.

Event coordinator Robin Duong hopes to see a lot of people attend the show, which will showcase new members of the DVC as well as the talents of the more experienced members. Duong is excited about the event because it will give the new members a chance to play on a large system in front of a large crowd.

Heartbreaks will feature two areas of music, themed ""Heaven"" and ""Hell."" The Heaven area will be located inside the Pub and appropriately decorated with angels, stars, clouds and other Heaven-esque themes. Hell, of course, brings out the darker side with devils, fire and brimstone.

The contrasting themes in the areas also separate the styles of music. Heaven is focused more on house, breaks and NU-NRG, while Hell has an obviously darker mood with jungle and hardcore DJs.

Capacity is limited to 500 and early arrival is suggested. The event is free for UCSD students and there is no need to obtain tickets before the event -- just show up with your student ID. This is most likely the DVC's only event this quarter.

AREA 1: HEAVEN (House, breaks and NU-NRG)

Wonderboy, Ladykilla, tommyboy, DJ Evil B, Kurt Hectic, Adam Mercury, Spartan, DJ Sam and L4.

AREA 2: HELL (Jungle and hardcore)

Crime Lab (Tag Team: Crazy and Otterpop), Degenerate, DJ Elated, DJ XL, Flip! and AlterEgo.

Alternative band They Might Be Giants played to an enthusiastic but diminutive crowd at San Diego's 4th and B. Last year the band toured to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of their album, ""Flood.""

The 2001 tour is in reaction to the high turnout they received last year, yet last Sunday's San Diego show did not sell out despite the band's recent notoriety as the performers of the theme song to the sitcom ""Malcolm in the Middle.""

The band catered to an audience composed of overwhelmingly die-hard fans by playing a good number of their older and more bizarre songs and B-sides like ""Minimum Wage"" and ""Fingertips"" along with such hits as ""Don't Let's Start"" and ""Particle Man.""

The band's principal members John Linell and John Flansburgh, and their three back-up musicians -- all named Dan -- still managed to keep the crowd on its toes, introducing five unreleased songs and lapsing into improv segments.

At several points the musicians facetiously emulated free jazz and incorporated the audience into the performance in a command-response relationship.

These moments of spontaneity lent the show to a sense of freshness despite the fact that the audience could sing along with nearly all the material. But all too obvious was evidence of the alleged rivalry between Linell and Flansburgh.

While Flansburgh, the rhythm guitarist, exhibited the jovial attitude that the band is known for in his on-stage banter, Linell stood behind the keyboard and performed with a self-mocking tone.

The two seldom made eye contact, even when they were alone on stage. This didn't disappoint the crowd, as the band was coaxed out for two encores.

But the conclusion the audience seemed to draw was that after 17 years and multiple permutations, the band might be losing some of its original gusto as it moves into a slightly more commercial sphere.

Fortunately, the focus of this tour is the commemoration of that which set the band apart from the beginning.

While the band is producing material that looks less and less like what made them famous, they've proven that they can still rock like they did almost two decades ago. If you're not familiar with TMBG material, check out their greatest hits album, ""Severe Tire Damage""

The quality of a film is often negatively correlated with the number of genres it tries to straddle. ""Head over Heels"" could be described as a romantic-crazy-drama-comedy with action elements.

Courtesy of Universal Pictures

It is the concept of one ""girl next door"" (Monica Potter) living with four models, and she just happens to be good-looking herself. OK, fine. This is America, after all.

Add living across the road from the vague exhibitionist Mr. Perfect (Freddie Prinze Jr.), who may or may not be a serial killer. Then progress to pile up the cliches at a higher rate than your average Bon Jovi lyric.

A sense of humor based on bodily functions and discharges can make for funny films. It's just that it's been done so much funnier, so many times before. That goes for every potential laugh-inducing element of this film: the makeover scene (""Clueless""), the spying on neighbors (""Friends"") and the list just goes on.

In the last instance, the film suffers from trying to do everything at once and never really manages to achieve anything. The only thing it has built to excess is the melodrama with quivering lips and knees.

The action scene has been toned down to an insipid level. The models try to act but become, at best, caricatures of themselves next to the more developed main characters.

Guys, they don't even have breasts, cause they're models, and models are too skinny to produce any luscious cleavage to speak of.

I tried to amuse myself by reading meaning into the Kate Moss-skinny script, but to no avail -- unless the statements ""Women can't be both beautiful and smart at the same time; they need men to save them"" and ""Men with foreign accents are villains"" count as anything worthy of ""meaning."" To me they don't.

If you do have an irresistible urge to expose yourself to this film, at least hold back until it's released on video, so you can cringe in the comfort of your own home. Or alternatively, go on Valentine's Day, because here's your chance to make out in the dark cinema without missing anything at all.

We can all remember a time when we were young and sat glossy-eyed and transfixed in front of the television. OK, so maybe some of us still do that now, but back then, our short attention spans were completely diverted to our favorite cartoons. ""The Smurfs,"" ""Thundercats"" and ""Rainbow Bright"" were immensely popular with boys and girls when we were young, and we stared in awe as they passed off corny plotlines and cheesy dialogue as wholesome entertainment.

Cartoons have evolved a lot since then, but alas, it was too late for me. I personally blame the old cartoons of the '80s for permanently destroying millions of my brain cells with such animated catastrophes as ""Superfriends"" and ""GoBots."" Actually, the cartoons of today should also be held responsible for the idiocy of American youth with shows like ""Digimon: Digital Monsters"" and ""Sabrina: The Animated Series."" These programs look and move a lot better than their older counterparts, but the premise of all cartoons remains the same: to provide kids with mindless entertainment ""robots in disguise;"" classic good-fighting-evil prototypes. It's a concept still used today -- automatons that have the ability to shoot lasers with the adaptability of disguising into an inconspicuous, common vehicle, such as a Lamborghini ambulance.

But beneath the Transformers' adventures for peace on screen lay a corporate juggernaut bent on raking in cash with its subliminal half-hour toy commercial. For Hasbro, the producer of Transformers figures, it was a spectacular success.

My friends and I bought almost every robot so we could re-enact their television adventures without 1:100 scale models of the patriarchal leader Optimus Prime, the aggravating Starscream and the hilariously useless Bumblebee who, playing the perfect foil, constantly found himself in trouble. Of course, the show always gained new characters, like the ""Constructicons"" (five earth-moving robots that made one gigantic earth-moving robot) and thus, there were more toys to buy. When Transformers were introduced in 1984, there were perhaps 30 Transformers total. By the series' end, the number grew to approximately 23,000 mechanized warriors.

Transformers episodes are being released on VHS and DVD by Kid Rhino.

But ultimately, we all know that it was the high cheese factor of these cartoons that won our hearts and brainwashed our minds. ""My Little Pony"" was a popular show aimed at girls that taught them how to be, well, girls.

Petite, saccharine horses that were either painfully shy or hopeless romantics -- girls were suckers for these pastel-coated equines and bought stampedes' worth of these totally immovable ponies that just posed there looking stomach-churningly cute. In the show, the ponies had three human friends -- Megan, Molly and Danny -- whom thanks to their opposable thumbs always saved the ponies from life-threatening danger, like being tied up in rope or being too far in the deep end.

The ponies always had celebrations and parties for no apparent reason, and incessantly preached for love and kindness until maple syrup poured from the viewers' ears. But the toys' popularity dwindled, and the ponies went straight to the glue factory.

Only ""My Little Pony: The Movie"" can be seen on the hard-to-find VHS by Vestron Video, and the episodes have not yet been released by Sunbow Productions.

Old cartoons have been rising in nostalgic popularity, as many series and movies are being re-released in some way or another. Oldies like ""SilverHawks"" (a spacy version of ""Thundercats""), ""Yogi Bear's Treasure Hunt"" (in which all of Hanna Barbera's characters are featured), and ""Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers"" are all on syndicated rerun on the Cartoon Network, Boomerang and the Disney Channel, respectively. ""G.I. J.O.E: The Movie"" is also now available on DVD.

It's always good to take a break to stroll down memory lane. We're older now, but we can always fondly reminisce about our young, stress-free lives when we sat too close to the television with a large bowl of Froot Loops and bathed in TV's animated glow.

Tyler Huff
Guardian

1 Thursday

Linkin Park will perform that timeless rap-metal style popularized by the likes of Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit. They will be supported by Taproot at Canes Bar & Grill. The show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets cost $13.50. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster at (619) 220-8497.

2 Friday

Watch the GoGirls Music Festival at the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown San Diego. The $5 show will begin at 9 p.m. and will benefit the Nicole Brown Foundation for survivors of domestic violence as well as El Nido domestic violence shelter. The Festival will feature Diamond in the Rough, the Cheryl Bliss Band, the Laura Preble Band, the Lisa Sanders Band and Ren Zenner. Call (619) 615-7625 for ticket information.

Steve White will perform at Dizzy's with a blues sound integrated with musical influences from around the world. Tickets are $8 and the show starts at 8:45 p.m. Call (858) 270-7467 for more information.

Popular So-Cal ska band Buck-o-Nine will perform at the Belly Up Tavern. The show will start at 9:15 p.m. and the tickets cost $12. Call Ticketmaster for more information at (619) 220-8497.

3 Saturday

Thrash metal group Nothingface features two drummers. The Washington D.C. band will perform at the Brick By Brick starting at 8 p.m. Call Ticketmaster at (619) 220-8497 for more information.

The O'Brien Brothers use their contemporary and traditional Irish songs to pack pubs across the country. They will perform at the Belly Up Tavern along with special guest Terry Casey. Tony Cummins will open for them. Show starts at 9:15 p.m. and tickets are $15. Check out http://www.obrien-brothers.com or call Ticketmaster at (619) 220-8497 for more information.

Gearing up for the release of a new studio album, old-school punk rockers Social Distortion will perform at 4th & B. The tickets are $25 and the show starts at 7 p.m. Call Ticketmaster for more information at (619) 220-8497.

4 Sunday

After their third album ""Flood"" reached gold status, media and the fans slowly dwindled for rock band They Might Be Giants. Catchy hooks and strong lyrics add up to a great live show. They Might Be Giants will perform at 4th & B at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $16.50 and can be bought through Ticketmaster by calling (619) 220-8497.

5 Monday

Death metal band Morbid Angel hail from Tampa Bay and will perform at the Brick By Brick. Tickets cost $15 and the show starts at 8 p.m. Call Ticketmaster to purchase tickets at (619) 220-8497.

8 Wednesday

B.B. King is a blues legend and he will grace San Diego with his presence at 4th & B. The show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets will range from $40 to $45. You can purchase your tickets through Ticketmaster by calling (619) 220-8497.

""Whoa, Nelly!""

Sony Music