Newsletter & Contest: Old 97s come to Napa, Cursive's Tim Kasher, Prewn & more!

Hello friends and welcome to Smart Mouth.

We've got a huge newsletter for you this week, so we'll keep this intro "short and sweet!"

Last night my lady and I caught BULLY performing Live at Lagunitas in Petaluma. Bully's Alicia Bognanno said to the crowd, "I will remember this show forever." Even though I have so many other deadlines looming, I couldn't help myself and wrote about this excellent concert event! Read all about it here!

This past weekend we were in Napa for the SoFi Discrict's Battle Of The Bands block party music festival. We might have moved away from Napa a few months ago, but we still consider the place home. I am fortunate enough to still write for the Napa Valley Register newspaper and wrote about my experience at the festival for the paper.

The paper cut out some of my light criticism of the event: Too many cover bands, too many hard rock/dad bands and not enough hispanic acts or other flavors. But overall we had a great time. You can read that column at the Napa Valley Register, or you can navigate around the paywall with this link:

And lastly, this week I've interviewed one of my favorite singer-songwriter's Rhett Miller from the Old 97's, an alt-country rock band from Dallas, Texas. It was an absolute dream to interview Miller. I've been such a big fan of his band for years!

They're playing TUESDAY at the Napa Music Hall AND we have TWO pairs of tickets to give away to the show! Check out the interview at the link below, and enter to win! Note, you must be a SmartMouth subscriber to win, but signing up automatically signs you up for the mailing list. So win-win-win!

I turn 45 this Monday, August 3rd. I'm sure I'll write more about it next week! I'll be lightly celebrating another year around the sun on Tuesday night in Napa! Even if you don't win tickets, won't you come celebrate with me?

Contests:

NEWS:

Please submit any local music news to smartmouth707@gmail.com

Cursive's Tim Kasher is coming to Santa Rosa!
Tim Kasher is the lead singer of the legendary Emo/Indie rock band Cursive. He has branched out into filmmaking and has directed a low budget horror film called Who's Watching! Tim is coming to the North Bay for a special screening on August 27, 2026 at the Roxy in Downtown Santa Rosa.

The Roxy's website does not have a lot of information on the film screening at this moment, but you can purchase tickets now here: Who’s Watching - w/ Live Director Q & A. Note, you have to manually select the date of the screening.

There is more information about the film and the upcoming movie tour on Kasher's Instagram page at: @timkasher

I will reach out to the theater and see if I can get more information! I will report back with my findings.

Watch the trailer for Who's Watching here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc74__1FTFg

THIS WEEKEND'S RECOMMENDED EVENTS:

I've been building a curated calendar of local events happening in and around the North Bay that I feel should be on your radar. I've been slacking on it lately, putting all my work into the actual writing, but I hope to get back to it very soon. Check out that work in progress at smartmouthcalendar.com.

Please submit any upcoming events for consideration at: https://smartmouthcalendar.com/submissions/

Thursday July 30: Prewn - Little Saint, Healdsburg. Free
When I first started this project, I sat down and went through every single venue's online calendar. I listened to damned near every single artist coming through the North Bay area. It was a LOT of listening and I found a lot of cool discoveries.

Prewn is one of those discoveries. Gloomy late night bedroom pop that will remind listeners of Lana Del Ray, PJ Harvey, Fiona Apple and Wednesday. Her new album System has been on repeat since I discovered it. I'm looking forward to a damned cool, intimate show with Prewn on Thursday at the Little Saint.

Here's a really solid live video of the band playing Chicago earlier this year: https://youtu.be/PRbMDd1-HA8?si=oN-P87g8bq_5qpRi

Thursday July 30: Whose Rhyme? Hip Hop Gameshow hosted by Dark Matter Lives!
Whose Rhyme? Hip Hop Gameshow is BACK for it's second installment this Thursday at the new Lost Church. I still don't know what the hell a Hip Hop gameshow is or how it works, but color me intrigued! This sounds cool as hell.

From the Lost Church website: A live, interactive, improvisational, hip-hop game show where freestyle MC’s play a variety of hip-hop games and the audience becomes part of the show! With live beats by Psychedelic, improvisational Hip Hop duo Dark Matter Lives! Hosted by King Lung and Crystal Mathmatics and featuring DML!, LaiddBack Zach, MR. BMMNM!!!, and Erica Ambrin.

There are a few videos on the Whose Rhyme instagram page to give you an idea about the show. I can't make this one, but I can't wait to check this out!

Thursday July 30: Crooked Comedy with Avery Dauer, Josh Argyle & Juan Carlos - Crooked Goat Brewing, Petaluma. $15
Full admission: I'm a bartender at Crooked Goat. This is a rare Thursday night I'm spilling beers everywhere.
Tonight I sat back and watched a lot of videos of the headliner Avery Dauer and had a blast listening to his comedy about dealing with his disabilities. I think you will too. Doors at 7pm. Comedy at 8pm in the back room. $15 at the door. 18+
I'm bummed to miss this show.
Headliner: Avery Dauer (Roast Battle League All-Star!!) @averydauercomedy
Featuring Josh Argyle @joshargylecomedy
Hosted by Juan Carlos @arenasjuancarlos & LOL 707 Comedy

Friday July 31: Benefit Show for Undocufund Featuring Angry Aztecs, Rascuaches, and more - Barrel Proof Lounge, Santa Rosa. $10-$50

•Hot damn! Rascuaches is a super rad cumbia band from right here in Sonoma County! I can't stop watching their videos. There's an anger and a kind of punk edge to this traditional cumbia music and it all feels so very exciting.
•Something Wicked are a straight up punk rock band from Humboldt County with an The Exploited/The Casualties kind of sound.
•Angry Aztecs from Oakland bring a real fast and furious, yet oddly poppy brand of Bay Area Hardcore to the mix.
There's a lot more happening than these killer performances, here's a list of what else is happening at this DIY event:
•Plus the Beautiful Singing+Hilarious Comedy+Exciting Burlesque of @miss_bettiesage This event is Featuring Drag Performances and MCing by Thee Phenomenal @kochinarude Also Featuring @dj_nadie_ Spinning all night long!!!!
•We Have Tabling by Important Organizations- @undocu.fund  @raizescollective and FTP Feed The People
•Plus Vendors- @xicanaollin + @craysha_boutique + @pxssyheavendistro donating a portion of their sales to Undocufund so pls support them! As well as Getting Delicious Dinner from @tacoselgranmac
—Dont forget @darkheartsvintage is donating a gift bag full of rare treasures to bid on —all proceeds from this event go directly to Undocufund!!!
This event is wheelchair accessible! $10-50 sliding scale all ages Welcome!!!

From a distance, I've been enjoying watching the event programmers Skye Langenhahn & Moira Scar working overtime trying to get the word out about this event. Congratulations in advance. It's going to be a huge success.

Saturday August 1: New Earth Farmers & eggcorn - Elephant In The Room, Healdsburg. $15
This is a damned cool mixed bill! New Earth Farmers are a "California Roots band" and features founding member of of The Alarm, Nigel Twist along with James DePratto from Chuck Prophet's band. They play classic, Bay Area '60s throwback Power-Pop. It could sound like your average bar band, but with this group of old pros and heavy hitter's new album, Cure For The Late Bloom, comes across as a classic album you must have missed somehow back in the day.

eggcorn are a Symphonic indie rock / dreamy indie-pop band from the Napa area. With intricate violin parts layered over epic sounding indie rock, the best comparisons I can make are the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Big Thief, and The Cranberries.
Damned, damned cool stuff. There's nothing quite like them in the North Bay (or Bay area at large). I can't recommend their newest album, Observer Effect, enough.

Saturday Aug 1: Pat Todd & the Rankoutsiders, The Ific & The SF Rejects - Big Easy, Petaluma. $10
A great night of power pop meets that classic '70s punk sound. In the vein of Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers or New York Dolls, The Cramps and Buzzcocks.

From the Big Easy website: Pat Todd & the Rankoutsiders are a Los Angeles, California-based punk rock band. The group was founded by Pat Todd, the former lead singer of the punk rock band Lazy Cowgirls, after the Cowgirls broke up in 2004. The Ific – Bay Area – Original Garage Rock / Power Pop – The SF Rejects – Bay Area – When 4 lifetimes of music collide, an explosion is inevitable. Meet The SF Rejects, a new band bursting onto The San Francisco Music scene.

Tuesday August 4: Old 97's with River Shook - Napa Music Hall, Napa. $40
When I worked for the Blue Note inside the building that would become the Napa Music Hall, I would dream of bringing more Americana and Alt-country to Napa. The top of my list of folks to bring to the ballroom would have been the Old 97's. I'm so very excited to see them in that space and see if my instincts were correct. That they're perfect for the town.

We are currently giving away two pairs of tickets to this show! Read my interview with Rhett Miller of the Old 97's to enter to win! Winners will be announced on Monday August 3rd.