We’re just hours away from Blair Gun‘s Feburary-ish Tuesday Night Residency at the world famous Casbah, with night one kicking off tonight! Tickets are just $9, grab ’em for Jan 28th, Feb 4th, Feb 11th, or Feb 18th. We caught up with them to get a few burning questions answered and gain some insight into the upcoming festivities.
ListenSD: Since Blair Gun‘s inception a few years back, the lineup has changed slightly. Who’s playing what for the four-week run of shows at the Casbah and how did the current roster come together?
Blair Gun: Our lineup has had a little shakeup, we have a new bass player Aston Flores, but other than that the lineup remains the same with Joedin Morelock on vocals, Zach Cavor on guitar, and Jake Richter on drums. We added our long time friend and part-time former rival Aston— and I say “rival” because he was in a really cool local band called Mugs aka Extremophiles and we loved playing with them all the time. Zach and Aston actually go way back and knew each other in high school, later reconnecting at a Soma gig back in 2022. Since then, we’ve stayed in touch, bumping into each other at shows and jamming together and gigs we organize. It’s always comforting to keep it in the family.
LSD: Blair Gun doesn’t fall cleanly into the pop punk or psyche rock genres San Diego is known for; where would you expect to find your records in at the shops? What other bands would you expect to find in that bin?
BG: We’ve always been deeply into pop music above all and try to prioritize some catchy little melody in every song we write. At the same time, we love experimental, noisy chaotic music. Our mission has been to try and blend those together, so we’ve been listening on repeat to artists that go for a similar thing. If I found Blair Gun in a record store I’d hope to find us in the punk or post-punk section, maybe next to IDLES, LCD Soundsystem, Amyl and The Sniffers, or Snooper.
LSD: Blair Gun’s been playing shows for a couple years now at a variety of venues, opening for such luminaries as The Vices, Tsushimamire, and Nada Surf, primarily in San Diego but with various stops around California as well as going on a Clones Across America tour last summer. How did the Casbah residency come together?
BG: We’ve made frequent showings at the Casbah over the last couple years and have become well acquainted with the space and staff. Tim Pyles booked us for the residency. He’s been a big supporter of us for some time now and we love to work with him on anything he’s got going on down at the Casbah. Big shoutout to him and Tim Mays for creating that staple of San Diego music and letting us take part in the history there.
LSD: The residency lineups feature a great set of local bands (Misfire, Virginia Crime, Cope, Slacker, Dusk Drama, The Oxen, The Microblades, Silver Bullet) covering a wide range of sounds. How did you curate each night and will Blair Gun have something special planned for each show?
BG: We had rough themes in mind for the nights, like a post-punk night and an indie rock one. I love to put things like this together, trying to make potent pairings between different locals we love and appreciate. We’ve always tried to keep the door open for ourselves to explore playing with bands of many different genres while keeping the show feeling cohesive. This was something fun we wanted to do cause we thought our sound could fit in with all these cool bands that we love and are friends with.
LSD: Post-residency, what’s on the horizon for Blair Gun this year?
BG: We’re taking the Casbah residency to flaunt and rehearse some new material before we head into the studio, so we’re hoping to get that all recorded and released. You can also always count on us being all over California playing shows in Santa Cruz, Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo even if we’re not touring. Maybe by the end of the year we’ll have some plans in order to tour out of state again… but first, stay tuned for a EP!
