RELEASE ME: The weekend rings in a pair of release parties celebrating new homegrown music. Tonight, Thursday, September 10, Goleta’s Cory Sipper invites all to dine and enjoy the gentle sounds of her new album, Make Your Magic, from which she will play songs with a full band at SOhO (8 p.m., $8, 1221 State St.). In a July 2 interview with me, she said her new album is about listening to your inner voice and trusting your inner drive. Go to SOhO Thursday, and be spellbound with encouragement.
On Saturday, September 12, the eclectic Headless Household hosts a release “wingding” for their new album, Balladismo, at Center Stage Theater (8 p.m., $17 general, $12 for students and seniors, 751 Paseo Nuevo), where the band has played ever since the theater's founding 25 years ago. Fans and newcomers can expect the unexpected, with numbers pulled from Headless Household's many-headed beast of a back catalog, nine albums and counting. Present will be some of the great jazz and experimental musicians of the area. It’s sure to be a celebration not just of the new album but of all off-beat and free-form rhythms strongly rumbling just under the glossy Santa Barbara radar.
SKATE AND SHOOT: On the theme of bands throwing parties, consider putting on your calendar the ¡La Vasa! Video Shoot and Show on Sunday, September 20, at the Dos Pueblos Orchid Ranch (10:30am-8pm, free admission) for the filming of the resident punk speed-rawkers’ newest music video. The event promises a Powell Invitational Skate Contest and access to a private beach, petting zoo, half-pipe, and indoor skate park, tri-tip and BBQ, with a free party bus from downtown S.B. to Goleta. Even better, the $10 VIP ticket gets you free beer provided by Pabst Blue Ribbon. Slow Children, Defeating the Purpose, Courtney and the Heathens, and The Olés will provide some musical accompaniment to the day's surely wild and crazy proceedings.