Glenn Danzig has spawned a cult following with his dark and brooding voice, and the sinisterly seductive imagery of his lyrics. From the early days – some 35 years back – as front person for horror punk icons the Misfits, to metal-infused Samhain, and finally to the eponymous Danzig, where he achieved a degree of mainstream success, he has taken macabre themes, blasted them with an obsessive sheen, and come up with some of the most hauntingly memorable songs this side of hell.
Danzig comes to the Warfield on Sunday night on the second stop of a brief two-week tour that finds the 56-year-old icon reuniting with Misfits guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein. Doyle comes as a special guest for a handful of concerts that promise to feature a set of classic tunes with his old band mate.
Speaking over the phone from Los Angeles, the man who has made a living bellowing songs like “All Hell Breaks Loose,” “Skulls,” “Twist of Cain,” “Mother” and countless others is for the most part fairly soft-spoken, and keeps his responses short and to the point.
When first asked about the upcoming show with Doyle, he simply said, “We do a Danzig set, and then about two-thirds of the way in we bring out Doyle and do a bunch of old stuff.”
Later on though, Danzig did agree that the music he’s made has had a lasting impact on those who grew up listening to it, along with kids today just now discovering the Misfits and Samhain, or even newer solo releases such as 2010’s Deth Red Sabaoth.
“That’s the great part, because no one sees all the bullshit you have to go through, so when people come up and tell you what your stuff means to them, it’s pretty cool.”
Danzig was in San Francisco most recently last December, when he was a special guest at Metallica’s 30th anniversary run at the Fillmore, singing “Die Die, My Darling” and “Last Caress,” two Misfits tunes that Metallica covered in their early days as a band.
“I hadn’t seen those guys in a while, and James called me up, and was telling me that the kids were getting to see it for $19.81 total — they were doing it for all the right reasons. I think they just wanted to let fans have a great time, and it was a lot of fun, I got to see a lot of old friends.”
Speaking of covers, Danzig himself is currently finishing up work on an as-yet-untitled album of cover songs, the first of which, “Devils Angels,” is available to listen to on his website. The record, which is due out in the late summer or early fall, is one of many projects that the singer has on his plate at the moment, or hopes to in the near future.
Once the covers album is completed and released, Danzig plans to record Black Aria III, the latest in a series of classical solo projects, and then set about working on the next Danzig record.
In addition to making music, Danzig has been writing several different horror and fantasy-themed comic books over the years, published by his own company, Verotik. One of his titles, Ge Rouge, has been in the development stages of being made into a film for several years, but has run into differing problems.
“We had it going with one production company, but we had to yank it because it just wasn’t going anywhere with them — eventually you get tired of doing all these re-writes on it, and you just say, ‘Look man, either you’re doing this or you’re not doing it!’” says Danzig.
“We had a bunch of other people that wanted to see it, but we couldn’t show it to them because we had a contract – once we’re out of the contract we can start showing it to other people. And I’m always writing scripts, so…we’ll see,” he laughs.
Having too many options can prove paralyzing, but sometimes it can be the reason you end up shaking that ass for days on end. This week, much like the wind, I found myself swirling in four different directions — musically that is. Not able to focus on just one artist or event (and in a city like San Francisco, why should you have to?) I decided to map out all of my fancies this week. Here are four appealing acts traveling to and performing in The City this weekend — suck on a Red Bull and see you at the show.
THURSDAY
Fedde Le Grande
Dutch house superstar Fedde Le Grande is slated to set anchor at Vessel for a spin around the decks. Known for his hard-hitting, dance-floor seizure inducing electro house sound, the DJ and producer hit a high mark in his career when he was asked to remix Madonna’s anthemic “Give It 2 Me.”
Fedde is expected to play some iteration of his massive 2006 single “Put Your Hands Up For Detroit.” The timing is perfect as Movement: Detroit Electronic Music Festival is rolling out this weekend. Bringing at bit of the Motor City madness to those left on the Left Coast, Fedde will have the crowd throwing ’em up and tossing ’em back.
Cass McCombs’ voice doesn’t so much sing as it smooth sails across terrains of simple yet lush harmonies and warm guitars. His music is sparse and quiet with hints of loneliness and despair peeking through almost whimsical sounding melodies. The dichotomy is interesting and McCombs makes it work. At his core, the singer-songwriter is a skilled storyteller – and his stories are bewitching.
Most people probably won’t consider this show as pregame material, but I like to mix it up. Especially before a long night of oonce oonce, it’s kind of nice to get your folk on before getting your freak on.
Secret Circuit may not be a secret much longer. Finishing up a full-length LP for Tim Sweeney’s label Beats in Space, Secret Circuit’s Eddie Ruscha Jr. says he’s hoping for a summer release. “It’s all recorded, it’s just about fine tuning it really,” he reveals, “but all the tracks are there.”
The cosmically experimental musician divulges that the new album will sound much like the 12″ single — “Nebulon Sphynx” — BIS released earlier this year. “It’s analog, synth heavy and there are more song-oriented things that appear as the music goes on,” he says. “The 12″ was part of the larger picture of the record, for sure.”
Using the moniker The Laughing Light of Plenty, Ruscha is also working on an album with Rub N Tug‘s DJ Thomas “It’s coming out killer,” he laughs. “We used an old ARP 2600 and so there’s this kind of random, looping, synth blob happening throughout the whole thing. It sounds like old techno.”
Performing a DJ set on Friday at Monarch, Ruscha says he’ll play “freaky dance music” as well as some of his own beats and tunes. See, I told you there would be some freakin’ going on.
The two halves of Lazer Sword, Low Limit and Lando Kal, are coming back to San Francisco — if only for the night. Hitting up Icee Hot at Public Works on a Sunday (don’t forget it’s an extended Memorial Day weekend for most folks), the boys are crowd-rocking veterans.
The duo is guaranteed to play booming and sexy bass tunes, alongside tracks from sophomore effort, Memory, which will infused the mix with an ’80s-electro musicality. I’d recommend a stretch at home before twerking it full-speed at the club.
Julia B. Chan is a writer and hosts “Play for Today,” a program on Radio Valencia — www.radiovalencia.fm — every Friday from 6 to 8pm. Follow her on Twitter @onTheBeat.
We’ve Got a Map boasts the title of experimental folk band Tidelands’ upcoming sophomore album – and do they ever. You may remember seeing Tidelands’ stunning animated music video for their song “Holy Grail” last summer off debut album If….
Well Gabriel Montana Leis and Mie Araki are back this summer, with a relatively minimalistic follow-up to that orchestral introduction. And a show this week at Bottom of the Hill.
For the new album, which drops Aug. 7 (check track “The New Black” now on Bandcamp), Leis and Araki decided to play more of the instrumentation themselves, so they wouldn’t have to depend on a big backing band this time around. They wanted to conjure those immense sounds on their own. This gave them a chance to experiment with learning new instruments and therefore expand their creative endeavors.
Leis’ voice has the deep and theatrically clear pronunciations that bring to mind Colin Meloy of the Decemberists. Araki is a badass drummer from Osaka, Japan. A classically trained pianist and percussionist, she also plays the Moog synthesizers for Tidelands. Their music is certainly elaborate, but their newest album offers more simplicity. While their sound is still intricate, the two artists have taken it upon themselves to treat our ears to exotic sounds and old favorites such as the flugelhorn.
Beyond that stunning animated video, you may have heard the name Tidelands due to their collaboration with Magik*Magik Orchestra. The SF-based Magik*Magik Orchestra – currently on a world tour supporting Death Cab for Cutie – joined Tidelands for three songs on the new album, along with producing and arranging one of the tracks, “Twin Lakes.”
I wanted to find out just how the tides were rising for this local duo as their late summer album release approaches, so I spoke with them over a cup of tea at Revolution Cafe in the Mission this week prior to the show:
SFBGHas learning to play different instruments always been a strength for both of you?
Gabriel Montana Leis I have fallen in love with the flugelhorn – it would be easier to not do it, it is a physically challenging instrument, but I just can’t stop. I want to be better. I do have plans for improving my basic knowledge of other instruments, I would love to explore them more fully.
Mie Araki I would like to put a huge explanation mark, and underline to this point – it definitely helps to play other instruments. Leis has become way better than before, it comes from playing flugelhorn. We spend more time thinking, feeling what is going on. When I play classical instruments, there is not enough time to practice, because there are so many different styles and it gets confusing, but it does help you to learn more as a musician.
SFBG I read that Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead provided you with his first guitar, can you elaborate?
GML My dad was a friend and business acquaintance of Weir’s. He was someone that was around, who I knew. If I saw him we would certainly say hi and have a conversation.
SFBGWho are some of your inspirations and why?
MA Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, those are the guys [I grew up with]. Then I began to know the MTV people – Michael Jackson – the pop musicians. I also studied jazz – John Coltrane, Miles Davis, they are huge inspirations to me. Sigur Ros, Wilco, and M83 are current influences, so I have a lot of old and new inspirations.
GML Even our inspirations from when we were teenagers affects who we are now. Kurt Vile is a huge inspiration to us, as well as a Danish musician by the name of Efterklang. Their use of horns has really informed our work – it’s grandiose and glorious sounding, with happy choruses. St. Vincent is amazing too.
SFBGDid Death Cab’s tour with Magik*Magik Orchestra lead you to consider who you would like to collaborate with, if you could choose from any musician?
MA It would be our dream to have [Magik*Magik Orchestra tour] with us actually. We know them through John Vanderslice and his Tiny Telephone Studios in SF that we record in. It would be amazing to play at a venue like the Fox Theater, with a full orchestra like Death Cab did – that was a great show! We have a lot of people around the Bay Area that we would love to work with for collaborations, if we have that chance.
GML Minna Choi of Magik*Magik is part of Vanderslice’s world, his success is that he brings people together. With Choi, we understand each other musically really well.
SFBGWhere did the inspiration for the album title come from?
GML We pulled the line We’ve Got a Map from one of the songs. It is about searching for a meaning, and the feelings surrounding it. It makes a statement for where we are at, what we are trying to achieve.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFeSYklGag0
SFBGYou mentioned that when you initially recorded the songs, you did not know how you were going to perform them live, what was the process of figuring that out like?
MA We start with a segment, phrase, motif and then Leis adds layers.
GML We actually did that at the recording studio this time, but we will take hours just figuring it out. It’s trial and error, and takes time, you just get better through effort and force of will.
MA It’s tricky, it is an orchestration, a choreography. Sometimes the music comes first: but then we have to figure out how will we make it happen.
Tidelands With Voxhaul Broadcast, Bad Veins Thu/24, 9pm, $10 Bottom of the Hill 1233 17th, SF (415) 626-4455 www.bottomofthehill.com
Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.
Behind every San Francisco band is the shadow of the past – decades of sweeping musical scenes that came before it, haunting the Victorian venues, ghosts with ink stamped on their hands. With Major Powers & the Lo-Fi Symphony, that tap-tap-tapping is a bit more literal.
Two of the three members of the trio (French brothers Kevin and Dylan Gautschi) are the sons of Pamela Wood, bassist of 1970s Bay Area act Leila & the Snakes. That’s not to say Major Powers & the Lo-Fi Symphony emulates Leila & the Snakes’ minimalist rock’n’roll weirdo sound, just that perhaps the musical spirit of experimentation courses through the veins of certain families.
No, MP&LFS gets just as much vigor from both the height of the ragtime era and the rise of ’90s Buzz Bin alternative rock as it does the less tangible local past. Led by dynamic pianist-songwriter Nicholas Jarvis Powers, the bouncy band calls itself “adventure rock” and makes good on the promise with complex arrangements spruced up with those tickling feel-good keys and power pop vocals.
The trio is currently in the process of releasing its first LP – We Became Monters – on SF’s Amazing Pony Records, but for now you can catch it popping up live in venues across the city (most recently, a piano showdown at Monarch). This week? Upper Haight experimenters-haven Milk.
Year and location of origin: 2011, Richmond, Calif.
Band name origin: Nick dreamt the phrase “Lo-Fi Symphony.” Dylan’s girlfriend said, “call it Major Powers & The Lo-Fi Symphony.” We all got jazzed.
Band motto: “There is no spoon.”
Description of sound in 10 words or less: Everything Bert Does In Mary Poppins Meets Superdrag Meets Queen.
Instrumentation: Piano, Guitar, Drums.
Most recent release:We Became Monsters.
Best part about life as a Bay Area band: Hotties.
Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: Money.
First album ever purchased: Dylan:Sex Packets, Digital Underground. Kevin: Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em. Nick: Ice Ice Baby (single).
Most recent album purchased/downloaded: Dylan: Powerman 5000 in 1998. Kevin: All Eyez On Me, Tupac. Nick: “Ice Ice Baby” (single) (I’m not kidding – I bought one cassette and that was it).
Favorite local eatery and dish: Dylan: my kitchen Kevin: La Taqueria, Carnitas Burrito Nick: Fonda, Skirt Steak, THAT SHIT CRAY
This week in new music explores the depths of an ingenue with a siren attitude, the quiet ranges of Mount Eerie, mom as muse, and more.
Kimbra:Vows (Warner Bros.)
I have three words to say regarding Kimbra’s debut album Vows: I like it. The poppier tracks are infectious (backsides and feet are among the first to fall victim) and the slow jams are worthy of a swoon or two.
Thrust into the spotlight thanks to a strong performance on Gotye’s currently ubiquitous hit “Somebody That I Used to Know,” the New Zealander holds her own on her first studio effort. Kimbra’s brand of pop spans the genres, from high-energy dance single “Cameo Lover” to the slow-burning ballad “Old Flame.” “Wandering Limbs” featuring Sam Lawrence is a favorite and a spine tingler with its mix of future soul and simple harmonies.
Vows is a well-crafted stage for the 21-year-old’s burgeoning talent. It shines a bright light on her voice’s ability to nimbly ebb and wane from the soaring highs and whispering lows. And with pipes like that, Kimbra has managed to escape one-hit-wonder obscurity.
Mount Eerie: Clear Moon (P.W. Elverum and Sun)
http://vimeo.com/29463284
Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum is low-key. And 2012’s Clear Moon is a record about a quiet life led in Anacortes, Wash., a small northwest town 64 miles outside of Seattle.
Following the release of previous album Wind’s Poem in 2009, Elverum spent two years building a recording studio, known as “the Unknown,” in an old church and the last 15 months forging music. He has recorded two new albums in this giant space: one is Clear Moon out today and Ocean Roar will be available in September. Epic echoes captured within this vast space mingle with deep and melodic chimes while Elverum’s voice cuts through clear and resonant.
San Francisco’s very own Girls have pressed only 1,000 copies of their latest record. The fourth single from the band’s sophomore LP Father, Son, Holy Ghost, “My Ma” will appear on a seven-inch accompanied by B-side “Love Life.” The title song is a heartsick, melancholy ode to frontman Christopher Owens’ mother.
The record is being released as a thank you to the shops that participated in Girls Across America — the band’s nationwide tour of independent record shops in the fall of last year. The rare seven-inch — cover art designed by Owens — will only be available at participating stores.
Saint Etienne: Words and Music by Saint Etienne (Universal)
Words and Music by Saint Etienne is the seminal indie dance-pop band’s first new studio album in seven years and its eighth full-length overall. Still believing in the magic of pop after all these years, Saint Etienne has put together a deluxe two-disc catalogue of new tunes and remixes.
The latest LP is a warm and dizzy trek through ’90s-sounding dance music, complete with the lighter and darker sides of pop. Although its signature sound hasn’t changed much, the group’s music has evolved on this album with hints of house and balearic beats, and lyrical prowess. “I’m growing older,” sings Sarah Cracknell. “Heaven only knows what’s on its way.”
Julia B. Chan is a writer and hosts “Play for Today,” a program on Radio Valencia — www.radiovalencia.fm — every Friday from 6 to 8pm. Follow her on Twitter @onTheBeat.
Weirdo jazz, San Pedro punks, free daytime brewery parties, the highly desirable remains of the Misfits, and more, in this week’s Heads Up.
Just a lot of great shows you should be going to, alright? Apologies. Didn’t mean to snap at you. Sadly, that’s about all I can muster post-Bay to Breakers. The sun-baked, beer-soaked ragers and blistering top 40 pumping all morning and through the night rubbed my Divisadero-based brain the wrong way. Hope everyone’s houses are still standing, and may they be free of the retched urine stain.
Let the bloody chaos — err, week of mind-bending and enthusiastically nutty shows — begin yet again. Here are your must-see Bay Area concerts this week/end:
San Francisco Offside Festival This fest is a brief but fascinating look into the current world of jazz, including an experimental night at El Valenciano with modern “garage jazz” quartet Bait & Switch, and brand new quintet These Are Our Hours, which features members of the Oakland Active Orchestra. The second night at 50 Mason Social House explores straight-forward contemporary jazz, focusing on three Bay Area composers (bassist Marcus Shelby, trumpeter Erik Jekabson, and guitarist Alex Pinto) and their respective trios. Night three’s location is under wraps for now, but the fest promises to deliver an evening of “genre-expanding music that intersects jazz in distinctive ways.” Thu/24, 8pm, $10 per night or $25 for festival pass El Valenciano 1135 Valencia, SF
Fri/25, 8pm, $10 per night or $25 for festival pass 50 Mason Social House, SF
Sat/26, check www.sfoffside.com
I Break Horses “Listen to “Winter Beats” from 2011’s Hearts, and you’ll probably have Stockholm, Sweden’s I Break Horses figured as a purely dreamy, slightly cold shoegazing act. Just listen to those mesmerizing synth arpeggios and slow, distantly winsome vocals. But as soon as the snares start cracking on “Wired” and build into a beat that a person could actually bounce around a bit too, some of the ice starts melting away” — Ryan Prendiville With Silver Swans, DJs Omar and Aaron Thu/24, 9:30pm, $14 Advance Rickshaw Stop 155 Fell, SF (415) 861-2011 www.rickshawstop.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sg7YkPnEYw
Toys That Kill Toys That Kill is back! That instantly likeable F.Y.P. offshoot – with the same snot-nosed, sugared up forever young yelps of singer Todd and jubilant pop punk spirit – has finally released a new album Fambly 42, out this month on Todd’s iconic San Pedro label, Recess Records. The band tours to Oakland this weekend for night two of 1-2-3-4 Go! Records’ Go Go fest. With Avengers, the Bananas, Fleshies, Terry Malts Fri/25, 9pm, $12 New Parish 579 18th Street Oakl. (510) 444-7474 www.thenewparish.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzMLr-laYrs
Jaberi & Deutsch Full disclosure: Deutsch is an old pal. But Jaberi is a brand new face, and he’s got the crackling R&B vocal pipes that round out this East Bay-based, lo-fi keyboard duo. With Lake, Half-Handed Cloud Sat/26, 9:30pm, $8 Hemlock 1131 Polk, SF (415) 923-0923 www.hemlocktavern.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaRk8SzZBFI
Terry Malts Punk-minded chainsaw pop act Terry Malts (also On the Rise alums) play this free, all-ages show at a brewery this weekend. Beer, Malts, and – fingers crossed – sunshine. What possible reason could you have to not go? With Uzi Rash, Synthetic I.D., Yi Sat/26, 4-9pm, free Speakeasy Ales & Lagers 1195 Evans, SF Facebook: PosDes+Speakeasy Present http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1K9O4FkzOs
Danzig with Doyle performing The Misfits Dying to catch singer (Glenn) Danzig and guitarist Doyle (Wolfgang von Frankenstein), back to muscle-y back, singing something about skulls (“I want your skull”), death, ladies (“She was virgin vixen”), Halloween (“Hallo-weeeeen”), or other ghoulish, fist-pumping Misfits delights? This may be your last chance – last caress, if you will. Neither is a current member of the theatrical hardcore band, but they were the ones – along with Doyle’s brother Jerry – who essentially started it all. With Kyng, Monstro Sun/27, 8pm, $38 Warfield 982 Market, SF www.thewarfieldtheatre.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChjZqbwDVFg
Lazer Sword The formerly SF-based electro duo returns this week for an album release party, celebrating their sophomore album, Memory (Monkeytown), a stripped down, “more emotional, [more] adult,” and “sleeker, sexier” affair from the previously ADD act. Stream here. Icee Hot with DJ Stingray Sun/27, 10pm, $5 before 11pm; $10 after 161 Erie, SF (415) 932-0955 www.publicsf.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ula6lbWLG0
If you’ve ever caught Dum Dum Girls live, you’ve likely asked yourself, “who is that babe with the flying black hair who’s slaying on drums?” That’s Sandra “Sandy Beaches” Vu, the quartet’s drummer, who also fronts her own music project, SISU (pronounced “see-soo”). Her band mixes minimal electro beats and synth with guitar, bass, and flute, all surrounded by Vu’s ethereal voice, a far cry from Dum Dum Girls’ chainsaw surf guitar and singer Dee Dee’s vibrato.
This tour, SISU joins Dum Dum Girls as the traveling opener for most nights including Mon/21 in San Jose (though not in San Francisco, Tues/22 – but hey, Sandy will still be there, pounding away with DDG). SISU’s totally DIY (hence, highly limited) hand-numbered CD-Rs will be available on the West Coast tour.
I spoke with the tireless Vu during a quick van ride during their joint tour, in her Los Angeles hometown, discussing doing double duty in the lineup, feeling naked on stage, and beats that sound like a giant’s stride.
SFBGCan you tell me about SISU’s formation, when did it start, and how did the idea come together?
Sandra Vu I was in a band called Midnight Movies, we were signed to a small label and we were on track to “go big” but it never happened. I had put everything into it at that point, and had structured my life, day job, and so on to make playing music my life.
So when we split, I was pretty confused about what to do next. I had always written songs and generally messed around with recording multiple tracks of myself since I learned how to use a tape deck.
So I just decided to write songs for myself, and learn how to use the computer as a home studio. This was before Garageband so it was a little more esoteric back then to record on a laptop. My goal was always just to keep it going and play music with my friends if they would join me.
SFBGWho else is in the band now?
SV Ryan Wood also played in Midnight Movies. We had that special rhythm section bond and had become really good friends. He’s a talented songwriter and guitar player in his own right. He’s pretty much the other half of the SISU brain. More than playing guitar and keyboard, he’s the band engineer.
We have done a lot of self-releases, so I’ve made him responsible for the sort of technical aspects of the band, which I think plays a big hand in the sound of the band. He is a synth nerd and fine tunes a lot of sounds that we end up using. Then there is Nathanael Keefer on drums, Rebecca Calinsky on keyboards, and Chris Stevens who joined us on this tour on bass guitar. They are the best!
SFBGWhen did you start drumming? And when did you pick up other instruments?
SV I started playing drums when I was 13. I taught myself guitar around the same time as well, if not before. My first instrument was the piano, I think around age 7. In second grade, I joined the school band and learned the flute.
I wanted to play drums for a long time, but picked up guitar and flute along the way because it’s a bit inaccessible to get a drumkit. You know, it’s expensive, takes up a lot of room, and super loud – basically, every parents’ nightmare. I realize it sickens people to hear how easily it came to me, but it really didn’t. I worked hard at it and spent many many hours playing and obsessing.
SFBGHas SISU opened for Dum Dum Girls before this tour? What’s it like doing double-duty at shows so far?
SV No, this is the first time. We had talked about it before, but it hasn’t happened until now! Now that I’m a few shows in, I can tell you that it’s pretty stressful. I thought we had no time to hang out playing in one band, we absolutely have zero time to grab dinner after soundcheck with friends now because I have another soundcheck right after. Overall, it’s more mentally tiring than physically. I don’t think I could drum in two bands in one night though, that would just be too intense.
SFBGDo you see any similarities between the two bands? SV They are very much separate. Dee Dee and I have overlapping taste in music, but the outcome of our bands are very different. For one, there are no synths in Dum Dum Girls, whereas SISU songs are often centered around synth sounds. In SISU, I play the guitar very sparingly and hardly ever use complete chords.
SFBGAny other musicians, songs, or albums influence SISU?
SV Some unexpected influences are Serge Gainsbourg, DJ Shadow, and Vashti Bunyan. There is one DJ Shadow song that I was sure inspired our bass sound, but I went back and listened to it, and it was much different than I remembered. It was strange that I was inspired by an inaccurate memory, and even stranger that what we came to could have been drawn from much more obvious band, like the Cure.
SFBGAnything non-music related influence SISU?
SV The song “Infinity Net” on our new EP was inspired by artist Yayoi Kusama and a conversation I had with a friend. Sometimes I will let a visual idea dictate sounds and rhythm in a song. It’s easier for me to describe sounds as visual than in words, for instance, I always describe to Nat, our drummer, that the beat is like a giant slowly stepping, which would give the song a weighty downbeat. So, in a nutshell, yes, things like dots and giants will influence SISU.
SFBG Is there a huge visceral change switching between drummer and frontperson?
SV Completely. I often don’t see audience faces from the drums. And if I do, I have this cage of drums and hardware before me. In front, it’s just me, my guitar, and the feeling of utter nakedness. Singing is the most vulnerable thing I can think of doing in front of a bunch of strangers, apart from literally going naked.
SFBGWho writes SISU songs, lyrics?
SV I’ve written and arranged almost everything that we’ve put out. I like to collaborate on lyrics with friends occasionally. The invitation is always open to my bandmates since it is usually the last thing we add. “Light Eyes” lyrics were written by my friend Deborah Uytiepo. I had originally written the song not for SISU, but for an unnamed project. I like to experiment that way, involve my friends and open up my world to people who aren’t musicians. I create everything else alone and typically between the hours of 2-8am, so it’s nice to engage that way.
SFBGIs ‘Demon Tapes Vol. 2’ available only in CD-R format?
SV For now, yes. My friend just brought up the idea of putting the first and second Demon Tapes EPs together in an actual cassette tape, which will probably happen a bit later. I wanted Vol. 2 to be a cassette tape, but in the end, CD-R is more suited to our DIY production process. It’s faster to burn CDs and easier to customize packaging. I would have ruined cassettes if I tried to spray paint them.
SFBG Is it meant to be a follow-up to the ‘Demon Tapes’ EP?
SV I like the idea of seriality, but the thing they have in common is that they are demos. They are first-takes of ideas as they first happened. We left in a lot of technical mistakes and things I knew I could have performed better. Half the time in SISU, we are deciding whether or not to “fix” stuff, but we often don’t, even if it’s not a demo. The other common thing between the two is that we produced and did everything ourselves. Ryan knows how to mix and record and we are both graphic designers. I played nearly every instrument on both. It is half out of necessity and half that I actually enjoy every step of the way. My fingerprints are literally on each and every CD that goes out.
SFBGAny plans to record a full-length? SV Yes, we have one “in the can” as they say. It should be in the cannon, but instead it’s waiting in some can somewhere. It was supposed to come out last year, but we had some difficulty planning a release date around my schedule with Dum Dum Girls. I’m already thinking about the next record, but we are still figuring out a way to release that one.
… and apparently I am hosting them with Anna Conda on Thursday, May 31. What the heck are the 2012 San Francisco Nightlife Awards? No worries, they are magical, and you should totally go because it’s gonna be a fun party that supports the future of San Francisco nightlife. But let’s back up a minute.
A few weeks ago, my Nightlife Bat Phone started ringing off the Nightlife Bat Hook. “We were just nominated for a 2012 San Francisco Nightlife Award!” or “Why weren’t we nominated for a 2012 San Francisco Nightlife Award?” or “What the heck are the San 2012 Francisco Nightlife Awards?” said the chorus of voices into my Nightlife Bat Voicemail, because my Nightlife Bat Ringer broke when I dropped it in a vat of fake blood while vampire-wrestling for charity (gay).
It seemed like the awards had come out of nowhere. But I will reveal all! Or rather, Nathan Allbee of the California Music and Culture Association, which is putting on this year’s awards, will reveal all via my short interview (along with a complete list of nominees) below.
By way of introduction first, CMAC formed a couple years ago in response to the War on Fun, a series of misguided attempts by city officials and police to shut down the city’s nightlife. A group of partiers and bar and club owners got together to form a non-profit awareness-raising and lobbying association to try to keep fun alive, especially as one of our primary tourist industries and community-building activities. (In this way, CMAC is kind of like the great San Francisco Late Night Coalition of the late 1990s and early 2000s). Raves were getting busted again, permitted parties were being raided on the flimsiest of excuses, and perfectly anodyne street fairs were seeing their fees jacked up due to “increasing security.”
Now CMAC is using some breathing room to expand for the next fight, because you know there’s gonna be one, hunny. Thus, the 2012 San Francisco Nightlife Awards — this is the second annual edition — trying to bring people together and give recognition. Nathan Allbee says more:
SFBGMost people associate CMAC with efforts to save and bolster San Francisco nightlife — has there been a recent expansion of the mission over there? It seem like there’s a lot more people involved
Nathan Allbee Yeah, we’re really excited to be taking the next step organizationally. We just opened a physical office, brought on a full time Executive Director, Laura Hahn, and I came on as the Director of Events.
CMAC was really born out of crisis: the war on fun, which the SFBG wrote a lot about, was in full swing and we had a major hand in stopping it. Now that that particular crisis is behind us (hopefully) we’re able to devote more of our resources to building the organization and that includes reaching out to DJs and promoters who are the lifeblood of San Francisco nightlife and culture.
In addition to our 2nd Annual Nightlife Awards, we’re in the planning process for some other big events for the year – we’ve got a Bay Area-wide DJ competition, a battle of the bands, and we’re going to be working with the awesome people that throw the Bartenders Ball to really make that an even larger event. Tom Temprano from Hard French, who also does a lot of nightlife advocacy, is helping to coordinate our outreach strategies and events.
SFBGThis is the second official CMAC Nightlife awards, yes? How on earth did I miss the first ones?
NA I don’t know Marke, we missed you last year.
SFBGHow were the nominees for 2012 chosen?
NA We started with our Nominations Committee – DJs, promoters, venue owners – who developed a list of people and places that they were impressed with (which was massive and really hard to narrow down by the way) and our Board of Directors had the final say.
The criteria our Nominations Committee used as a guide included: creativity, popularity, and a positive representation of nightlife and entertainment.
SFBG There’s been some controversy over the fact that the nominees win by getting as many people as possible to pay to come to the party and vote for them. (I think this is kind of a promotional stroke of genius by the way, and if it weren’t all going toward a good cause, it would be pure evil!). Can you tell us where the money is going, and how this might be tied in to a sort of membership drive?
NA We really wanted this award to be democratic and not just be about who has the most fans on Facebook or the biggest email list –- like what often happens with online voting. Having people turn out to vote in person is the best way to assure that voters are actual participants in SF nightlife, and that winners are being honored by their peers. There’s also a place on the ballots for write-in candidates so that everyone can be included.
The door cover is going to cover our costs for the event, but we’ll also be doing the old-fashion non-profit ways of fund raising: a raffle, asking for donations and sponsorships.
And hell yeah this is a membership drive! CMAC wants more diversity in our membership and a larger variety of voices at the table. We’ll be working hard this year to get more DJs, promoters, door workers, bartenders, barbacks, musicians, performers, designers, photographers, and people who just love nightlife involved.
SFBG Um, I noticed there’s no ‘Best Nightlife Writer” category ….
NA Why bother? You would win it every year.
SFBG It’s an honor just to nominate myself. So what other kinds of deep involvement with the nightlife community can we expect from CMAC in the future?
NA We’re going to fight…for your right…to party. (RIP MCA)
2012 SAN FRANCISCO NIGHTLIFE AWARDS
Featuring DJs from Debaser, Future Perfect, Hard French, Lights Down Low
Hosted by Anna Conda and Marke B.
Thu/31, 8pm-midnight
Members $5, Non-Members $10, Join CMAC and get in for free! $25
All voting for each category will take place at the event from 8pm to 10pm with the winners announced during a ceremony immediately after voting has ended. All attendees are welcome to vote.
Bay Area-born and raised drummer extraordinaire Terry Bozzio (who plays the Regency Ballroom Fri/18 with reunited band UK) has performed with Frank Zappa, Missing Persons, Jeff Beck, Fantomas, and a host of other musicians over the years. Recognized as one of the best modern drummers, he has recorded a variety of instructional videos, been honored by Guitar Center’s RockWalk in Hollywood, and has created some of the most insane custom drum sets ever seen on stage.
Bozzio’s amazing talents will be on display live tonight as he performs with the reunited prog rock super group UK — with whom he originally played from 1978 through 1980 — which also features John Wetton (King Crimson, Asia) and Eddie Jobson (Frank Zappa, Roxy Music).
Born in San Francisco, Bozzio’s family moved to Marin County when he was in third grade. His father had been a child musical prodigy, playing the accordion on stage in San Francisco when he was only four years old, and continued to occasionally play when he was older and had a family.
“People would come over for a Sunday dinner, and they’d beg him to play the accordion — he would begrudgingly pull it out, but within a few chords he would silence the room, he could just hold them in the palm of his hand,” says Bozzio over the phone during a recent tour stop in Portland. “To witness that power was something I was very jealous of at an early age, and now having experienced being able to do that — so I’m told — I credit him with having inspired it.”
When Bozzio started playing a musical instrument himself a few years later — the drums — his father would often give advice to him and his band mates when practicing in one of his first groups, Blue Glass Radio, a combo comprised of friends from middle school. “I was pretty much a rock’n’roll, play by ear kind of guy until I took six months of drum lessons which were very, very key and important for me, when I was 15 or so,” says Bozzio.
“My last year at Drake High School I started to study music seriously, and continued to study jazz and classical at College of Marin; I graduated from there with a commercial music degree — just an A.A. degree — but that was enough to prepare me for what was going to happen within a very short time.”
Bozzio soon began playing a wide variety of musicians, in many different styles, and after some time found himself with a reputation as being one of the best drummers in the Bay Area, which eventually led him to being asked to join Frank Zappa’s band. From there, Bozzio has gone on to perform with an incredible amount of world-class musicians over a nearly four decade long career.
With this UK reunion, Bozzio says he is having fun looking back and re-examining that particular portion of his musical legacy. “I’ve always been proud of that music, and I think both John and Eddie are tremendous musicians with a great history in rock’n’ roll, making great contributions. When you listen back to some of this stuff, it impresses you because you kind of listen with fresh ears.”
Performing at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco will have a special hometown meaning for Bozzio — he saw his first rock concert at the Avalon Ballroom, which was what the venue was called in its first incarnation back in the ’60s.
“My dad and my uncle took me down, I remember clearly, we saw It’s A Beautiful Day, Canned Heat, and Vanilla Fudge. I’ve never been back, so this will be the first the first time since 1965 that I’ll be there!”
With UK set to play in Europe and Japan after the U.S. leg of the tour is finished, Bozzio’s schedule shows no signs of slowing down, and the talented musician is grateful for the opportunities he’s been given.
“The power of music is a very spiritual and amazing thing—I’m 61, and for almost 40 years I’ve been making a living as a musician, without having to get a day job—I consider myself very lucky, the stars have been lined up for me.”
What do a parrot and a vibrator have to do with a well-known San Francisco band you ask? Well let me tell you.
Birds & Batteries is the indie-pop project of singer and multi-disciplined musician Mike Sempert. Together with Christopher Walsh and Jill Heinke, the band is a homegrown, hometown staple in The City’s arsenal of great local acts.
I meet with Sempert and band manager Dan Koplowitz — also of Friendly Fire Recordings fame — at the Lone Palm in the Mission for what turned out to be a series of stories and Manhattans. Initial probes into the name Birds & Batteries brings us to the story of Antonio the parrot.
Antonio was incredibly despondent, tells Sempert. “He was just a really sad and lonely bird,” he says, “and he was always crying.” A solution popped up in the form of a battery-operated orgasm-yourself appliance (read: B.O.O.Y.A.!). “We found that if we were to give the bird a vibrator that it would comfort him … it wasn’t sexual at all, it was purely a comforting vibration.” One day, however, Sempert and his college roommates ran out of batteries and Antonio died of sadness.
Gripping, I know.
A moment of silence followed this tale as we sipped on our drinks and avoided eye contact, contemplating the fragility of life. But then the absurdity sunk in, eyes met and laughter burst forth.
Now, it should be said that while Sempert is a force of musical talent, there is also a great streak of whimsy and humor to the man. I can’t help but also mention the band’s moniker might be a reference to the Tom Robbin’s book “Still Life with Woodpecker.” Whether it’s because of Antonio and the vibrator, or “Woodpecker” (I’m sensing a theme here) Sempert wanted Birds & Batteries to express both the organic and synthetic elements of his music.
Performing at Public Works tonight for “Broke & Classy: Broke-Ass Stuart’s 10-year anniversary of living in SF,” Sempert and band are gearing up for the release of their next full-length LP Stray Light in August. Having just dropped the EP Unfold last month, Sempert wrote and recorded both records at the same time. By a happy accident, a dichotomy emerged from the results of his studio sessions — some songs were of pain but most were those of happiness and love.
The more harrowing tunes cover darker territory and ended up on Unfold. Truths and spirits “loom in the future” on track “Greatest Minds” while Sempert finds himself breaking down and questioning his cool on “Epic Fail.” He croons over foreboding synth melodies, melancholy and dejected. Sempert says he wanted to “filter the ones [songs] that felt that they would get in the way of joy.”
As for the joy, jubilance was reserved for Stray Light. “The goal of this record was to tap into those moments of clarity with love,” Sempert says. “The idea that light and happiness and joy are accessible to us.” The album is positive and upbeat. Lead off number “The Golden Age of of Dreams” is about a bright future — in stark contrast to Unfold‘s “Greatest Minds” — and is brimming with hope. Triumphant harmonies swirl about while synthetic plinks and plunks sparkle throughout. Stray Light is a blast into the cosmos sonically (nerd note: Sempert is a recently-converted Battlestar Galactica addict). This time around, Sempert sings with hint of a promise, as if paradise is right around the corner. The album ends with ballad “Arctic Flowers” in which the singer surmises “we are new again.”
For those B&B fans who fell in love with 2010’s Panorama and its quirkily rad video for single “Strange Kind of Mirror,” Stray Light will be decidedly more synth-tacular. B&B “dials down the Americana,” explains Koplowitz, “the music is getting richer, the song structures more interesting, and Mike has a way of coaxing these really interesting sounds out of his instruments.”
Although Sempert admits, “I take some pride in unpredictability,” he has always had a taste for what he calls his “dancey future-flavor.” Synthy elements have existed throughout B&B’s 8-year career as heard in 2009’s Up to No Good EP and other singles.
As for Sempert, is he unfolding or enlightened? Is his future bright? He smiles and answers, “Blindingly so.”
Julia B. Chan is a writer and hosts “Play for Today,” a radio program about new music on www.radiovalencia.fm every Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. Follow her on Twitter @onTheBeat.
With an arsenal of a dozen guitars and several amplifiers lined up behind him, Lindsey Buckingham wasted no time delving into his extensive catalog of songs Monday night at the Fillmore.
Striding up to a lone microphone stand wearing his signature blue jeans, v-neck t-shirt, and black leather jacket, the singer and guitarist launched into an hour and 15 minute set that spanned a broad spectrum of his career, covering a wide swath of solo material in addition to some of the mega hits he created as a member of Fleetwood Mac.
After running through the first couple of tunes and warming up his formidable finger picking skills, the 62-year old Buckingham took a short break to talk about his current tour across the country, contrasting the differences between performing with what he called the “big machine” — Fleetwood Mac — and “the small machine” — his solo outings.
Remarking that when he started out on his own, he would often take a sizable backing band with him, but over the years he has decreased the number of players, with his last major tour featuring a trio, and that this trek finds him venturing out by himself.
Aside from a few songs that he played along with to a pre-recorded backing track, such as “Go Your Own Way,” it was just Buckingham, his stellar guitar playing, and his still-powerful voice providing the sonic soundscape that filled the historic auditorium, proving beyond a doubt that he was capable of carrying the show all on his own, with a highly vocal and appreciative audience to encourage him.
At times, it felt strange to look at the stage and see only one person performing with the amount of energy and excitement being generated. During songs such as “Big Love” and “Go Insane,” Buckingham made a variety of impassioned facial expressions while playing, and yelled and clapped at the crowd when he finished.
When the Palo Alto native came back out for an encore, he walked along the front of the stage, high-fiving and shaking hands with his fans, before telling the audience that it “you guys really do make it feel like home here.”
Then adding, “There’s so much history in this place, and with all the music that has come out of this city, I’m just proud to be a small part of it.”
With Monday’s show in the books, Buckingham can be assured that he is still very much a vivacious and viable contributor to that ongoing legacy.
Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.
The essence of Oakland’s Wild Hunt could summed up thusly: doomy, progressive metal that perches in the cerebral cortex during a waking nightmare. A ghoulish nightmare from which you don’t necessary wish to wake. It’s black magic behind fluttering eyelids.
Along with more traditional metal riffs, there are drawn-out, heavy breakdowns that lend easily to slow, deliberate head banging, blended with modern hypnotic ambiance that gives it that dream-like quality. It doesn’t hurt that drummer-vocalist Harland Burkhart sounds like he’s growling underwater. I’ve seen Enslaved noted as a point of reference here, and agree with that assessment.
So now you need to hear it, right? Well, you’ve chased it down and speared it. The quartet’s debut album, Before the Plane of Angles, which was mixed by Laudanum’s Salvador Raya and mastered by Justin Weis (Hammers of Misfortune, Ludicra), is out now on Kemado. And the album release show is this weekend at El Rio.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihzeCQWlMHc
I caught up with the Wild Hunt in that unsettling space between wake and sleep. Here’s what Burkhart had to say:
Band name origin: “Wild Hunt” refers to the ancient European myth of a phantasmal cavalcade of dead folks seen madly flying through the sky, usually around Yuletide. There are a variety of different versions of the legend; some believe the Norse god Odin leads the pack, others believe King Arthur, others believe Ronald McDonald.
Band motto: You got fourteen cent?
Description of sound in 10 words or less: Heavy, melodic, dreamlike. At times jarring, at times tranquil.
Instrumentation: Two guitarists, one bassist, one drummer/vocalist.
Most recent release: Before the Plane of Angles (Kemado Records, 2012) Best part about life as a Bay Area band: Being situated in such a hotbed of creative activity.
Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: Paying rent.
First album purchased: For me, possibly Oingo Boingo, Only a Lad.
Most recent album purchased/downloaded: Allseits, Hel.
Favorite local eatery and dish: Southie has become my lunchtime destination. That dang fried rock shrimp sandwich has changed my life, tell you what.
Wild Hunt With Giant Squid, Black Queen Sat/19, 10pm, $8 El Rio 3158 Mission, SF (415) 282-3325 www.elriosf.com
With dream-pop favorites and a randy R. Kelly, this week is both guilt-free and not-so-innocent. Fresh Cuts has selected the finest new records to blast at your next barbecue; the following truly sizzle.
Beach House: Bloom (Sub Pop)
Baltimore’s dreamy pop duo Beach House flourishes this week with the release of new record Bloom. The easy, breezy album sees the pair doing what they do best: pretty melodies. Larger sounding than its predecessor on the Sub Pop imprint, Bloom picks up where Teen Dream left off.
The band’s signature hazy and ethereal sound is more powerful this time around. With her distinct mid-to-lower register, singer and keyboardist Victoria Legrand’s voice becomes an instrument that propels the music forward, asking the listener to both lean in closer and lie back.
Craft Spells: Gallery EP (Captured Tracks)
Craft Spells is a quartet from Seattle started by Justin Vallesteros, a musician from Stockton, Calif. who briefly lived in San Francisco. The band’s new EP Gallery is now available for consumption and is a fabulous homage to new wave. Steeped in a deep love for ’80s synth-pop, the record is reminiscent of all the greats: New Order, Pet Shop Boys, and Depeche Mode.
Violens: True (Slumberland)
Violens’ sophomore effort True is an indie pop release with all the fixings. With smooth and polished vocals and heart-squeezing harmonies, True manages to both tap the toes and spin the head. Driving crescendos in songs such as “Microarc” and “Unfolding Black Wings” uplift while darker tunes such as “Lavender Forces” and “Lucent Cares” offer a reprieve from the atmospheric trip Violens is bound to take you on.
R. Kelly: “Feelin Single” (Jive/Sony Music)
R&B don Robert Kelly’s latest single was released last week in anticipation of his new album Write Me Back on June 26, which was just announced Tuesday. The ladies man’s 11th full-length record will be the follow-up to 2010’s Love Letter. Kelly garnered critical acclaim on his previous album for its retro sound, and if the disco-esque “Feelin Single” tells us anything, it’s that Kelly intends for his new LP to follow suit.
Julia B. Chan is a writer and hosts “Play for Today,” a radio program about new music on www.radiovalencia.fm every Friday from 6-8pm. Follow her on Twitter @onTheBeat.
In our recent Bike Issue, we profiled several of our favorite Bike People — freewheelin’ movers on the 2012 bike scene we particularly admired. Among them, for how could it be otherwise, were the Sons of Science, an augmented trio of musical bike-tivists whose side-splitting viral “Motherf*cking Bike” video hit lampooned and celebrated SF’s precious, in-your-face bike culture.
John Benson and Ward Evans of Sausage Films teamed up with amazing bike horn soloist Hector Pérez for the one-off (perhaps?) project — and there are plenty of juicy local cameos in the video. Benson and Evans took some time from sippin’ lattes on their fixies (kind of!) to answer some questions.
SFBGSo…. I heard Russell Crowe just tweeted about you ….
SONS OF SCIENCE Yes apparently he’s an avid cyclist, and we think he approved of the language. The video got several thousand more hits as a result of his tweet, and to show our appreciation we’re going to rent every one of his movies — even Breaking Up.
SFBG Who’s all in the band and when did you get together? Is it an outgrowth of other media projects?
SOS Sons of Science are Hector (Pérez, who appears as Horn Solo in the MFB video), John (Benson, who appears as Fixie Hipster) and Ward (Evans, who plays Stoner Messenger). We’ve known each other for years and just recently decided to collaborate for fun, and it clicked. John and Ward also direct as a team, so it was a great excuse to do a video. For this track we were also very lucky to feature Tim Brooks (formerly of the Young Offenders, who plays the Angry Commuter), he brought a pantload of energy and genuine cyclist cred to the project. He also knows the MASH guys, which was how we got that great cameo. SFBGAre you all on a motherfucking bike right now?
SOS Hells yeah, we are live-tweeting this interview from the center lane of Market at rush hour while sipping nonfat lattes.
SFBGWho are some of your bike heroes (besides Russell Crowe)?
SOS A guy named Joff Summerfield rode a penny farthing around the globe, he’d be right up there. Then there’s Elliot from ET, Dave from Breaking Away, Juliette Lewis (who also tweeted our video and has probably been on a bike), and pretty much everyone on two wheels who risks their lives in traffic every day — while employing common sense and basic courtesy, of course.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAJBXtVg8nQ
SFBGWill we see you performing live soon?
SOS You can see us anytime on YouTube, but a live show will require more songs and the perfect ratio of smoke to lasers. Right now we’re focused on MFB, but it’s definitely on the to-do list.
SFBGWhat’s your next big project? Because I want to see you rolling down Valencia on a motherfucking Ferris Wheel, living the dream of the 1890s.
SOS We’re considering some kind of performance art piece involving giant illuminated human hamster balls out on the Bay, but the wind and tides would have to be just right. It’s a work in progress.
SFBGIf you could rename the Wiggle, what would you call it?
SOS We shot a good deal of Tim’s bits in and around the Wiggle, so in his honor we’d probably go with the “Tour de F*ck You.”
“Let’s just have a good time tonight,” said Jonny Pierce, the singer of the Drums, one song into a sold-out show at the Great American Music Hall on Saturday. He paused briefly to let the applause fill an appropriate amount of space and added, “This next song is about a dead person.”
There may have been some intentional, practiced irony at play, but the space between those two statements is the key to everything that is great about the Drums. Sure, Pierce has one of the most perfect, near angelic voices in pop music – witness enraptured fans, hands out toward the stage, looking for a hold – but more importantly, he also has one of the best deadpans.
When he’s performing, his facial expressions vary more in intensity than emotion. If you catch him smiling, it’s inward. Happy? Sad? Blah. When the band is playing bright, uptempo, yet often melancholic music, and the lyrics send conflicting cues on how to feel, the singer seems careful to pivot just right, not tip his hand.
After singing “Book of Revelation” off of the recent album Portamento, which includes the lines “I’ve seen the world and there’s no Heaven and no Hell” and “I believe when we die we die, so let me love you tonight,” Pierce said, “That last song was really important to me, so to hear you guys singing that…thank you.”
On stage, The Drums* won’t tell you how to feel about typical pop topics like love and heartbreak anymore than less typical ones like, say, being an atheist and having an existential crisis, but Pierce is seemingly happy to show what you can do in the mean time, as he’s otherwise constantly moving about the stage, calmly dancing with his own confusion.
Openers: Part Time recalled a less drugged out (or just more doobied) version of Ariel Pink, but that may have just been the lead singer’s technicolor dream coat. Also on the style watch, the drummer looked like one of Biff’s lackeys in Back to the Future (but that may have just been the glasses.)
Craft Spells’ Justin Paul Vallesteros gave a shout out to Stockton, where he started the band before relocating to Seattle. Someone in the crowd said he’d “discovered the band last year, and it turned out to be the perfect summer soundtrack.” Based on the way that the intro to “After the Moment” – from last year’s “Idle Labor” – was recognized with cheers, he wasn’t the only one that feeling that way. And given how well new tracks “Warmth” and “Still Left With Me” were live, it could be the soundtrack for this summer as well.
*Truth is the whole band has deadpan solidarity, particularly co-founder Jacob Graham who, whether playing keys or conducting a bank of analog synth – as he did for the encore opener “Searching for Heaven” – has an ever-present, captivating stillness.
This week, musicians come from far and wide, from broad plains on the other side of the spinning globe, plucked from different coasts of varying notoriety, and from our very own backyards to entertain us. It’s a veritable Google Earth of sonic endeavors.
Far: exquisite Malian vocalist Khaira Arby. Around the corner: Thee Oh Sees with new Oakland act Warm Soda. Not quite as far as West Africa: Brooklyn’s Light Asylum, and Manhattan’s Emily Wells (different nights). Out of this word: Carletta Sue Kay. Now that’s entertainment. Let’s globe trot together from the comfort of our own venues, shall we?
Here are your must-see Bay Area concerts this week/end:
Light Asylum Supernatural goth-pop duo Light Asylum is back, this time celebrating the release of its self-titled debut full-length, out now on Mexican Summer. Both gritty and ethereal, the record is a study in straddled extremes. Light Asylum also plays Amoeba at 5pm Monday. Mon/14, 9pm, $12-$15 Public Works 161 Erie, SF (415) 932-0955 www.publicworks.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTk3R–Heug
Khaira Arby She’s been hailed as “Mali’s reigning queen of song,” and is revered outside of Timbuktu by fellow world acts, including the Sway Machinery, which asked her to join it on tour a few years back. She writes and sings in indigenous languages of the Sahara desert and in those, her voice has a husky, powerful draw. Wed/16, 9pm, $10-$15 New Parish 579 18th St., Oakl. (510) 444-7474 www.thenewparish.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UDecjaj4ek
Warm Soda and Thee Oh Sees The name brings to mind cola burps. But it’s actually a brand new pop band put together by Oakland’s Matthew Melton, formerly of Bare Wires. And this will be your first chance to catch it live. And of course, fellow locals/headliners Thee Oh Sees routinely shred. And that goes for the rest of the lineup as well. With the Mallard, Burnt Ones Wed/16, 9pm, $12 Brick and Mortar Music Hall 1710 Mission, SF (415) 800-8782 www.brickandmortarmusic.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSZTJsUWqXA
Emily Wells Her variable voice is intoxicating, as are her live-looping violin skills. Sure, the video below is old and the multi-instrumentalist/”one-woman orchestra” has a brand album (Mama, Partisan Records) that’s full of endless layers and vigor. But this song’s called “Take It Easy, San Francisco,” and so we will. With Portland Cello Project Thu/17, 8pm, $15 Swedish American Hall 2174 Market, SF (415) 431-7578 www.swedishamericanhall.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6e2wOt1E2Y
Alright, here’s one off Mama http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tnMlQcWcsI
Suckers Riding a sunny art-pop rainbow of sticky, digitally-enhanced highs on newly released sophomore record Candy Salad (French Kiss), Suckers – whom you may know from previous single “It Gets Your Body Movin’” – journey to our coast this week from their adopted-home base of Brooklyn. Collective thanks again, Brooklyn, these Suckers are stuck in our heads. With Young Man, Vanaprasta Thu/17, 9pm, $12 Bottom of the Hill 1233 17 St., SF (415) 621-4455 www.bottomofthehill.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZjfpBO_n2w
Carletta Sue Kay Carletta Sue Kay vocalist Randy Walker has a fancy new (and if you can believe it, debut) album out this week – Incongruent (Kitten Charmer, May 15) – but is already something of a local legend, having opened for the likes of Kurt Vile, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Girls, the Fresh & Onlys, and Kelley Stoltz. Oh, and recently got a damn profile in the New York Times. Go, hear that silky, bluesy four octave vocal range once more, and rightfully fete the singer-songwriter. Carletta Sue Kay also plays Amoeba at 6pm Thu/17. With Avengers, Erase Errata Fri/18, 8pm, $15 Cafe Du Nord 2170 Market, SF (415) 861-5016 www.cafedunord.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=324m9sDQQl8
Black Sabbath’s Paranoid The next round in a creative ongoing series from UnderCover Presents, “Black Sabbath’s Paranoid” pits more than 50 Bay Area musicians against one monumental heavy metal record. Each band covers one song, then on to the next. Note: there will be heavy metal-themed sandwiches sold outside, courtesy of Brass Knuckles. With Extra Action Marching Band, Uriah Duffy with the Memorials, Sabbaticus Rex & the Axe-Wielders of Chaos, Tiger Honey Pot with Max Baloian, and more Sat/19, 9pm, $20 (includes cover CD) Independent 628 Divisadero, SF (415) 771-1421 www.theindependentsf.com
Fans of intentionally reclusive rock group Black Moth Super Rainbow had the opportunity to catch the Pittsburgh, Pa.-based band at 1015 Folsom on Friday. The code-named members initially struggled in the performance, partly distracted by projector technical difficulties, but also trying to overcome an awkward lineup.
The best shows I’ve seen at at 1015 and conjoined sister club 103 Harriet have made good use of the main room’s set-up, alternating between the stage on one side of the room and the DJ booth on the other, keeping the wait time between acts to a minimum. That sort of seamless club flow is pretty essential for jockeys and electronic acts, but not always possible with bands. Since the lineup for the night was mixed and the booth may have been needed for sound engineers, a little lag for set-up was forgivable.*
But what wasn’t so forgivable, was the placement of Zackey Force Funk. Splitting time between tuning up tracks on his laptop and emcee-ing, ZFF’s performance went down like sitting on a friend’s couch while they share their latest iTunes downloads – Flying Lotus, Lazer Sword, Jonwanye – and proceed to mime along and drink Heineken.
If it has a place, it’s as an extremely chill warm-up or as part of a larger group, but not following two bands like Pictorials and Lumerians. Especially since the latter – with a percussive kineticism and vibrant psych tint – could have been a fine lead in to the main act.
As its set progressed, BMSR, with a somewhat lackadaisical air, built gradually into a rhythm. It never strayed too far from subdued, vocoded vocals against consistent, slow crashing beats, peaking on the oddly inviting “Sun Lips” from Dandelion Gum.
It seemed to do the job for the crowd, manifesting in extremely calm mosh pits and a few stage divers, one of whom – ouch – went straight to the floor. (Remember to look before you leap.)
I’d been curious what Gramatik would do to close out the night. The producer’s latest EP on Pretty Lights Music, #digitalfreedom, features an expansive sound, complete with forays into Bassnectar-like ADHD beats, but nothing that I imagined gelling with BMSR.
There was little sense of urgency, but Gramatik, accompanied by a guitarist, seemed to essentially disregard what came before, getting into a hard set that was light on overused drops and heavy on soul hooks. It was probably the best plan. The crowd had thinned between sets, and the bar was closed by that point, but as the set went on, the dancers, who may have been waiting all along, trickled back into the main room.
*No machine is 100% efficient, but some of the heat, otherwise lost, can still be used to do work.
Like many four-year-olds, Justin Martin abhorred piano lessons. Unlike most adults however, he’s now grateful for those tedious moments in practice and memorization. “Now that I look back, I’m so thankful that my parents forced me to do it,” he says, “because the lessons of music I learned at a young age I’ve taken with me my whole life.”
The world-traveling DJ and electronic music producer has recently accomplished a self-imposed goal: a full-length album. An ambition that has previously eluded Martin, debut LP Ghettos and Gardens (dirtybird) is almost 10 years in the making — his very first record “The Sad Piano” was released on Ben Watt’s Buzzin’ Fly label in 2003.
“I don’t think it [releasing an album] is the most important thing in dance music,” Martin says, “but it was on my list of things to do.”
In 2001, Martin bought a computer and dove into making electronic music — however with technology came irresponsibility. “I wasn’t very disciplined when I first started out,” Martin says. While catching his first break as a DJ, Martin found the experience enthralling. He was being pulled in directions far and wide from San Francisco and was enjoying his new found success. “It was all so crazy and amazing,” he recalls. “I was finally getting my name out there.” And although Martin considered making an album amid the the initial height of his career, he admits, “I wasn’t quite ready.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTtEnfxua6Y
It was after years of reveling in the fun that often accompanies success, that inspiration struck Martin in the form of producer and dirtybird label founder Claude VonStroke in 2009. Martin witnessed the long strides VonStroke was making firsthand and realized that he could achieve the same fortune through hard work — “the sky’s the limit,” he discerned. “That was when I really got motivated to sit down and write an album,” he says.
A labor of true love, Ghettos and Gardens will be released May 22. “It’s a real exciting time for me,” Martin exhales. The DJ claims his album captures the opposite sides of his personality and elaborates on the duality of the soft and hard elements of music that he is drawn to. “I’ve always tried to combine an audible tough and tenderness,” Martin explains. “I make music that has nice melodies but also has gritty undertones – nasty basslines and stuff like that.”
As for the album’s title, Martin drew fancy from a fountain many artists have dipped in before: a fight with the sweetie. After a squabble, the couple found themselves at an impasse – one headed to the liquor store and the other to a flower shop. A quick reconciliation resulted in a bouquet of roses resting comfortably in an empty 40 oz. bottle and the image of such proved powerful to a slightly-buzzed Martin.
“That image summed it up for me: this raw thing with beauty coming out of it,” he recollects, “and I thought, ‘This kind of represents my sound’.”
Performing at the quarterly Dirtybird party at Mezzanine on Friday, Martin will be debuting most of Ghettos & Gardens. Martin says he feels “like a kid in a candy store,” and has high hopes that his new material will be well received. “The harder I work, the more fun I have,” he exalts. Not a bad mantra.
Ghettos and Gardens release party and dirtybird label showcase
Julia B. Chan is a writer and hosts “Play for Today,” a radio program about new music on www.radiovalencia.fm every Friday from 6-8pm. Follow her on Twitter @onTheBeat.
For nearly 45 years, Lindsey Buckingham has been writing and performing songs with an indelible impact on rock’n’roll; and several of those tracks are nearly universally considered to be among the pillars of the classic rock pantheon.
Perhaps best known for his work with Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham wrote or co-wrote tunes such as “Go Your Own Way” and “The Chain” with the band, and his guitar work and vocals propelled the songs to the hit single and anthem status they eventually achieved.
In addition to his work with Fleetwood Mac, the Bay Area-born and raised musician has recorded several excellent solo records, and contributed a host of tracks to well-known film soundtracks, including “Holiday Road” for National Lampoon’s Vacation.
In recent years, Buckingham has become the subject of a running gag on Saturday Night Live, with comedian Bill Hader doing a impersonation of Buckingham on the faux talk show “What Up With That” where the host (played by Kenan Thompson) always introduces Hader’s Buckingham as his final guest, but never actually lets him speak, cutting him off for ridiculous dance numbers and other outrageous situations to end the show.
Hader does his best serious and pouting expression, leading the host to plead with him not to be mad, ultimately causing the perpetually leather jacket and v-neck t-shirt clad Hader to smile, but still, never talk.
A highlight of the May 2011 “episode” of “What Up With That” was the surprise appearance of the real Buckingham himself, playing guitar and speaking up for his impersonator, resulting in the one of the funniest sketches in SNL in some time.
Buckingham’s ever-evolving musical talents are no joke, however, as the powerhouse guitarist and singer released his latest solo album Seeds We Sow last year. He comes to the Bay for a special one man show at the Fillmore, which promises to touch on both his solo efforts, and a variety of Fleetwood Mac classics.
Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.
I’ve been wanting to get Glitter Wizard in Localized Appreesh for some time. It’s based in the Bay Area, plays local haunts often, and I appreciate what it’s putting out there. Fronted by Wendy Stonehenge, the hair-shaking, psychedelic glam rock band is at once wildly individual and comfortingly throwback.
That vintage guitar sound and the fringed frocks that adorn Glitter Wizard recall tripping San Francisco musicians of yore; and yet, there really aren’t many other bands doing it up quite like this now, in the modern day Bay. We’re dying for the long-hairs, the rock’n’roll dramatics, the all-out performance of Glitter Wizard, sonically Hawkwind, aesthetically Bowie.
The band’s next releases aren’t out ’till summer (read: real soon), but you can catch the act live this weekend opening for another band with a penchant for glittering spectacle and glammy make-up, White Hills. Before all that, Stonehenge fills in the blanks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drbGNEqZlbI
Year and location of origin: Glitter Wizard was originally birthed in Santa Cruz sometime around 2006. The Bay Area version came together in 2008.
Band name origin: I just felt that the name was a perfect amalgamation of our glammy stage show and our heavy rock sound.
Band motto: Turn up the guitar!
Description of sound in 10 words or less: Gypsyhawk said it best: “You guys sound like Uriah Heep played by punks!”
Instrumentation: Wendy Stonehenge on vocals, Doug Graves on keys and synths, Fancee Cymballs on drums, Lorfin Terrafor on Guitar, Kandi Moon on bass.
Most recent release: Our last release was our first LP, Solar Hits, but we have a new seven-inch and full-length coming out this summer.
Best part about life as a Bay Area band: We’ve probably got more good bands here than any other city in the country, if not the world.
Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: You have to book shows at least three months in advance.
First album ever purchased: New Kids on the Block — Hangin’ Tough (how embarrassing).
Most recent album purchased/downloaded: Def Leppard — High ‘n’ Dry (only slightly less embarrassing)
Favorite local eatery and dish: Lorfin and Kandi just introduced me to the beef brisket at Tommy’s Joynt. So good!
The web is all abuzz — rightly — about the bravery of Against Me! singer Tom Gabel “coming out” to Rolling Stone as transgender and beginning to live her life as Laura Jane Grace (while remaining legally married to her wife and raising their child. Take that, North Carolina!). ‘Tis a wonderful thing indeed, and most of the commentary on the high school hearthrob band’s website has been positive.
As much as it pains me to call any band that came after Fugazi “punk,” Against Me! wasn’t half bad to soundtrack your 2000s teenage mall rebellion, carrying on the legacy of punks through the ages. And Grace’s transformation carries on another legacy as well — that of famous transgender rockers.
I’ve lately been rereading one of my favorite books, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk — if ever there was a book to make your life seem utterly boring shite, that’s it. It’s full of hyperenergetic boys donning frocks, from punk founders the Dead Boys and the New York Dolls to the glam heroes that punk was meant to take down, like David Bowie and Gary Glitter. And of course many fierce women of the early scene were shaving their heads and kitting out in “mens’ clothes.” (There was actually a time when Robert Mapplethorpe’s cover shot for Patti Smith’s Horses was a scandal, really.)
But all that was mere transgression, welcome as it may have been to the oppressed queers of the day — and now for that matter. Being transgender is something different, having the courage to reconcile your physicality with the mental and emotional image you carry of yourself inside. And then to rock the fuck out? Cool. Here are some of my transgender punk heroes:
She became famous in the late ’70s, kicking against the pricks in London as Wayne County (with band the Electric Chairs) — but was an NYC underground mainstay before then, taking part in the 1969 Stonewall Riots, hanging with the Warhol crew, and starting one of the first punk-like bands Queen Elizabeth in 1972. (“God Save the Queen” indeed.). She soon rechristened herself Jayne County, performing unabashedly before punk audiences as a transgender woman. As an actress, she starred in seminal underground queer films like Derek Jarman’s Jubilee and Rosa von Praunheim’s City of Lost Souls. She’s still raging.
The outrageous and outrageously talented founder of ’70s experimental industrial-noise-punk-electronic outifts Psychic TV and Throbbing Gristle, Genesis approaches gender in an experimental vein as well. Already well into his own gender recalibration, he and his wife Lady Jayne Breyer P-Orridge began an odyssey of physical transformation in the 2000s to become a single pandrogynous entity to be called “Breyer P-Orridge.” Sadly, Lady Jayne died in 2007 of stomach cancer, but Genesis continues to challenge gender expectations, as the recent release of lauded doc The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye attests to.
The indispensable local trans man was instrumental in the punk revival of the ’90s with his insane dyke outfit Tribe 8, and now helps keep queers safe on the streets of SF with his Homobiles on-call transportion service. He’s also an accomplished author and performer in his own right. Queers fight (and write) back!!
UPDATE: In the comments below, readers below have pointed out two very important transgender punks: Sarah Kirsch, formerly Mike Kirsch, guitarist and vocalist seminal East Bay outfit Pinhead Gunpowder, Fuel, and a ton more including Fuel and Sawhorse (and who is currently recovering from cancer). I couldn’t find a good vid of Sarah in her current incarnation, but here’s a recent one of Pinhead Gunpowder at 924 Gilman.
PLUS the incredible Ginger Coyote of the White Trash Debutantes, who was pretty essential to the Mabuhay Gardens punk scene here.
And of course, there is a thriving, vibrant, now-decades-old underground of scrappy queer and transgender punk rock bands — and wonderful local trans musicians like Christine Beatty and Justin Bond and even lounge singer Veronica Klaus who keep the proud and outspoken transgender musical flame alight. In the immortal words of Jayne County, “If you don’t want a piece of the action, take a walk!”
This week in new music sees an “English Opera” through the eyes of a Britpop prince, Afrobeat kings, and Adam Bainbridge’s kind change of mind.
Damon Albarn: Dr Dee(Virgin) Dr. Dee is an opera by director Rufus Norris and musician Damon Albarn that debuted in England last summer as part of the 2011 Manchester International Festival — the work explores the life of Elizabethan academic John Dee.
The studio album by Albarn features his vocals alongside contributions by Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen, the BBC Philharmonic, and others. Busy-bee Albarn managed to squeeze this release out between dropping Gorillaz’s “Rocket Juice & the Moon” in March and a show of Olympic proportions this summer in London.
Fela Kuti: Live in Detroit, 1986 (Knitting Factory) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4AA6EuZe-k Speaking of Afrobeat, Knitting Factory Records has released a full-concert LP of Fela Kuti‘s 1986 show at Detroit’s Fox Theatre. The recording was part of Fela’s debut tour in the United States with Egypt 80. This is the first time since Fela’s 1992 studio album Underground System that new material has been issued for the Nigerian musician. Bonuses include extended live renditions of “Just Like That”, “Confusion Break Bones”, and “Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense.”
Kindness: World, You Need a Change of Mind(Casablanca/Terrible) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI73NFINsyo Groovy lo-fi god Adam Bainbridge’s World, You Need a Change of Mind — released under his Kindness moniker — is a smooth slide into chill world where blissful vocals and wonked-out synths live together in harmony. It’s a toe tapping, head bopping, summertime kind of album — grab the sangria and take this to the park.
Here We Go Magic: A Different Ship (Secretly Canadian) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqaMEMIBPIw Brooklyn-based indie rock band Here We Go Magic’s A Different Ship is a warm, warped, and loopy dip in the pool. Luke Temple’s expanded five-piece band delves into percussion-driven melodies as vocals layer over playful synths. Here We Go Magic has created a record both choppy and calm at the same time — kind of like the seas themselves.
On the move: Former SF outfit Lazer Sword announced a tour in support of its latest album Memory on the Monkeytown imprint. Lando Kal and Low Limit dropped their sophomore effort on April 27. The record is considered significantly minimal compared to previous releases, but the duo’s obsession with hip-hop can still be heard throughout. Sexy sounding with thick bass thumps and the more playful elements of UK funky and electro, Memory is versatile — also dipping into darker territories with super sinister melodies. The boys head to San Francisco for the next edition of Icee Hot at Public Works on May 27. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhechSNr32o&feature=youtu.be
Julia B. Chan is a writer and hosts “Play for Today,” a live radio program about new music on www.radiovalencia.fm every Friday from 6 to 8pm. Follow her on Twitter @onTheBeat.
This week you can catch piano adventures, spacey freaks, free DJ nights, scratchy 1960s garage veterans, Jem’s truly outrageous husband, and more. But before all that, pour out a Brass Monkey for fallen brethren and pioneering music-maker Adam Yauch, also known as the Beastie Boys’ MCA.
It’s a loss felt hard. License To Ill, Paul’s Boutique, and Check Your Head, these records appealed to the masses because they were made for the masses; hip-hop built by punks, fun and smart, they were the nasty tracks we spun at high school parties and adrenaline-filled drives to the nearest music venue, speeding out of the ‘burbs with abandon.
It’s cliched, but it seems to take something as dire as a death to reignite a passion. And this past weekend, I’ve seen the flicker of recognition from folks who’d forgotten how much the Beasties, and all innovative music, once meant to them. Once your burly cocktail has been poured, take a moment of silence, and then get back out there, champ.
Here are your must-see Bay Area concerts this week/end:
Gauntlet Hair An equivalent to listening to Denver’s Gauntlet Hair: leap off a glittering cliff into bouncy blue waves and listen to the reverberating vocals of smiling Lisa Frank dolphins slowed down to stoned speed. With Dana Buoy, Minot Wed/9, 9pm, $10 Bottom of the Hill 1233 17th St., SF (415) 621-4455 www.bottomofthehill.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cryycmunuQc
“Adventure Piano Night” Is attack-piano a thing? I guess it’s more commonly referred to as “dueling pianos” but this event will feature aggressively talented bands playing mostly solo. No direct showdowns (per say) but lots of punch from buskers extraordinaire the John Brothers Piano Company, experimental maestro Dominique Leone, and more. With Major Powers & the lo-fi symphony, Sit Kitty Sit Monarch Thu/10, 7pm Monarch 101 Sixth, SF www.monarchsf.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCOYzOeNBkU
JD Samson & Men Last time JD Samson (of Le Tigre) and her danceable pop protest group Men came around these parts, the mustachioed spark plug rallied hard, twisting about a laptop and throwing her spindly hands up to rile a warming crowd as the opening act for CSS. This time, the main stage is gold glittered hers. With Myles Cooper Fri/11, 9pm, $14 Rickshaw Stop 155 Fell, SF (415) 861-2011 www.rickshawstop.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGF94Q9J-Pk
Push the Feeling: With shortcircles (live) Woozy, pulsing hip-hop with spacey looping beats and effects, shortcircles has been compared to the following: Clams Casino, Tycho, and the space between Bonobo and Four Tet. Sounds about right. With Chucha Santamaria y Usted (live), YR SKULL & epicsauce DJs Fri/11, 9pm, free with Facebook RSVP Underground SF 424 Haight, SF Facebook: Push the Feeling http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdsKGje8x4g
Ramona Falls Portland Oreg.’s experimental rock act Ramona Falls is the relatively newer musical branch from Brent Knopf (of Menomena). More delicate, with twinkling keys and dramatic floating strings, debut release Inuit (Barsuk, 2010) could be the soundtrack to a sepia-toned love-lost motion picture. Check new album Prophet (Barsuk, 2012) for a slightly darker edge. With Social Studies, Churches Fri/11, 9:30pm, $12 Café Du Nord 2170 Market, SF (415) 861-5016 www.cafedunord.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCyj2Y0Zdtw
Dean Wareham Dean Wareham (half of Dean and Britta, with wife Britta Phillips a.k.a the singing voice of Jem) reaches back to his earlier roots, playing select songs from his first band, late ‘80s meandering alternative rock group Galaxie 500, during two thoughtful sets tonight. Fri/11, 7:30 and 10:30pm (two shows), $20 With Tortured Genies Hemlock Tavern 1131 Polk, SF (415) 923-0923 www.hemlocktavern.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6o2mc-xKa8
The Sloths Should you want to catch true part-of-the-action forefathers of scratchy ‘60s garage rock’n’roll, best catch the Sloths live and “back from the grave” this weekend at the Stork Club. With Wounded Lion, Dukes of Hamburg Sat/12, 8pm, $5 Stork Club 2330 Telegraph, Oakl. (510) 444-6174 www.storkcluboakland.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRG-uFNqGBg
In this week’s issue, we talk to Bay favorite musician Meklit Hadero about her latest project, Copperwire — a hip-hop space opera coming to the Rickshaw Stop on Sat/5. Hadero is joined in the project by two Ethiopian-American emcees, Gabriel Teodros and Burntface. Go more indepth (and outerspace) with Hadero about the project below.
