POP MUSIC : Usual Suspects Make Wanted List in Best Unsigned Band Contest

Usual Suspects, an enterprising young rock band from Chula Vista with a flair for melody and socially conscious lyrics, is among 250 semifinalists in Musician magazine’s third biannual Best Unsigned Band contest.

The contest drew entries from more than 3,000 original-music rock bands from all over the world. Semifinalists were selected by the magazine’s editors.

An all-star panel of judges--Lou Reed, Robbie Robertson, Lyle Lovett, Living Colour’s Vernon Reid and Branford Marsalis--is reviewing the demonstration tapes and will choose 12 to 15 finalists.

Finalists will be announced in the October issue of Musician. They’ll be represented by a song each on Warner Bros. Records’ upcoming “Best of the Best Unsigned Bands” album, which will be sent to various movers and shakers in the music industry: record-company talent scouts, managers, agents and the media.

The top band will also receive $30,000 in home recording equipment.

“We heard about the contest through an ad in the magazine and just decided to send them a tape,” said guitarist-songwriter Kyle Ince, 24. “The next thing I knew, we got a letter in the mail, telling us we were among the semifinalists, and I was really jazzed--it’s a great opportunity to get some national attention.”

Usual Suspects were formed in 1986 and have since played all over town, in clubs like the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, the Bacchanal in Kearny Mesa, the Spirit in Bay Park, and Winston’s Beach Club in Ocean Beach.

Incidentally, one of the entrants in the first ‘Best Unsigned Band’ contest was Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians. They didn’t even make the semifinals.

Mojo Nixon has just received an advance cassette copy of his new album, “Otis,” from Enigma Records.

The album, the local manic-talkin’ bluesman’s sixth and first without longtime sidekick Skid Roper, is scheduled to be released Sept. 4. It was recorded last spring in Memphis and features such celebrated backup musicians as fellow San Diegan Country Dick Montana, of the Beat Farmers, on drums; ex-X bassist John Doe, and guitarists Bill Davis from Dash Riprock and Eric Amble from the Del Lords.

“It’s a real rock ‘n’ roll record, the first post-Cowpunks supergroup rock ‘n’ roll extravaganza,” Nixon said.

Here is what Nixon said about each of the 12 songs on the album:

* “Destroy All Lawyers.”

“This is something everyone, obviously, can agree on. Musically, it’s the Dave Clark Five versus the Righteous Brothers’ ‘Little Latin Lupe Lu.’ ”

* “I Wanna Race Bigfoot Trucks.”

“This one’s going to make me a star on ESPN, I think. I wrote it after watching all those trucks with huge tires crushing things--it seemed very American to me, very manly.”

* “Ain’t High Falutin.”

“It’s about people getting too high-toned and whatnot, people worrying about what kind of shirt to wear if they want to get into a certain club, stuff like that.”

* “Shane’s Dentist.”

“You ever see Pogues lead singer Shane McGowan’s unique dental work? He could easily be a poster child for English people with bad teeth. He could floss with a two-by-four.”

* “Rabies Baby.”

“A beach music-soul-pop concoction about a woman with rabies who happens to love me.”

* “Put a Sex Machine in the White House.”

“The concept behind this song is summed up in one line: ‘Push the love button, not the nuclear button.’ ”

* “Star-Spangled Mojo.”

“A unique rendition of the national anthem that’s so bad it’s good. It sounds like something John Lee Hooker would do after swallowing a case of muscatel.”

* “You Can Dress ‘Em Up But You Can’t Take ‘Em Out.”

“That’s what my mom always said to me and my brother when we were kids and would do things like set the table on fire in some fancy restaurant.”

* “Don Henley Must Die.”

“A song about the bloated, pseudo-serious whining of brain-damaged mega-stars. There’s a very ungraceful aging when you start to sell a lot of records; you stop having fun and take yourself far too seriously.”

* “The Perry Mason of Love.”

“This one’s about me, where I proclaim to be the Perry Mason of love because, like Perry, I never lose.”

* “I Took Out the Trash and I Never Came Back.”

“Just a little old song about marital bliss.”

* “Gonna Be a New World.”

“A look at today’s American pop culture, with the line, ‘I wanna feel like Jack Lord’s hair/And be on ESPN all covered with Nair.’ ”

LINER NOTES: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ Thursday night concert at the Belly Up Tavern has been canceled, for unspecified reasons. The fabled father of shock rock’s show may be rescheduled sometime in September. . . .

During his second show at Humphrey’s on Shelter Island last Wednesday night, Al Green disassembled a bouquet of red roses and handed them out, one by one, to the stream of eager ladies running up to the stage. There were more ladies than roses, however, and shortly before the end of the show, the soul crooner-turned-gospel swooner ran out. No problem. He grabbed a stalk of baby’s breath that had come with the bouquet, tore it apart, and dispersed the tiny white flowers among the final rush of clutching hands. . . .

July was the best month ever in the nine-year history of the annual Concerts by the Bay series at Humphrey’s, reports promoter Kenny Weissberg, with no fewer than 10 sold-out shows. The capacity crowd-getters: Patti LaBelle, Harry Connick Jr., Harry Belafonte (twice), Johnny Mathis (twice), Garrison Keillor and Chet Atkins, Spyro Gyra, Michael Franks, and Dave Brubeck. . . .

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday for K.T. Oslin and Ricky Van Shelton’s Sept. 13 concert at the Starlight Bowl in Balboa Park, and for Melissa Etheridge’s Sept. 14 appearance at San Diego State University’s Open Air Theatre. . . .

Best concert bets for the coming week: Ray Charles, tonight at Humphrey’s; Robert Plant with Alannah Myles, Thursday at the San Diego Sports Arena; Alan Munde and Country Gazette, Saturday at the Del Mar Shores Auditorium, and Waylon Jennings, Sunday at Humphrey’s.