Michael Franti‘s music has the incredible ability to create instantaneous community and love wherever he’s performing.
His music is brimming with inspiring lyrics and powerful messages, along with infectious beats and rhythms that make it impossible to not start dancing. It’s rare for a musical artist to be so talented at singing and performing while simultaneously working as a strong social activist for world peace. Beside traveling to the Middle East to perform for soldiers, Franti is constantly working in the name of peace, bringing together artists and activists from around the globe to our very own Golden Gate Park each September for the annual Power to the Peaceful concert. If you haven’t been to this festival, you must go. It’s amazing.
As was the concert this weekend at the Greek Theater, which included lots of audience participation as Franti swam his way through the packed crowd. Franti and Spearhead have a new album coming out in September titled The Sounds of Sunshine and after hearing a few tracks at the show this weekend, it’s bound to be a smash hit.
Jazzy, sultry, soulful, and smooth, Shayna Steele — performing at Coda on Sat/17 — has a voice and style that is causing quite the buzz. With a background in Broadway (she starred in Rent and Hairspray) and influence from the jazz greats, she had a major break with her vocal feature on Moby’s number one dance hit “Disco Lies.” On her latest record I’ll Be Anything (Highyella Lowbrown), she truly shows that she can sing anything.
Opening the record, “Alright” is driven by funky guitar riffs, “Wishing” is more R&B and even tinged with latin rhythms and percussion, and closes with an elegant jazz ballad “We’ve Already Been Here Before.” Shayna should be considered one of the most promising and versatile up and coming R&B singers, right up there with Rachelle Ferrell and Ledisi. I got a chance to interview her over email aboiut Broadway, Billboard, and the Jazz Mafia.
Shayna Steele with the Jazz Mafia All-Stars Sat/17, 10pm, $10 Coda 1710 Mission, SF (415) 551-2632 www.codalive.com
SFBG:How would you describe the Shayna Steele sound?
Shayna Steele: New York subway grit, covered in a buttery and rich jazz gravy with a pinch of Mississippi soul.
SFBG:Tell me about your new album, I’ll Be Anything. What was the writing process?
Steele:I’ll Be Anything covers many styles, musically and vocally, as far as how I interpret the music. My voice changes with how the song makes me feel. My writing process changes with each song…but mostly I write on the subway, in bars and restaurants when I’m alone and when I’m listening to music, mostly jazz. Jazz inspires me most… Miles, Coltrane, Herbie Hancock. The truth.
SFBG: You started on Broadway performing in Rent, Hairspray, and Jesus Christ Superstar. Do you miss the theatre?
Steele: My connections and my professional stage experience started on Broadway with Rent. It certainly opened a ton of doors for me in music, because Rent, at the time and still today has such a profound impact on theatre. It was a historical moment and I was so grateful to be a part of it. The people in the Broadway community will always be family, but for the record, I don’t miss it when I’m doing my own music. It was certainly more constant and stable, but my heart and gut never ached with such passion for theatre as it does for jazz and soul music. My music runs through my veins now. It is part of me and you can see that when I perform live. The Broadway community, I’m certainly very much involved with charity work and live performances through my Broadway connections, such as Broadway Impact (I’m running the NYC marathon on their behalf) and the Broadway Inspirational Voices.
SFBG:When did you know that you wanted to move on from Broadway to your solo career?
Steele: When I did my first gig in 2003 with my band. It changed everything for me. I had a lot of support when I decided to leave and some people were confused as to why I was walking away. I walked away, because I have mucho respect for theatre, therefore I believe in not taking a place that does not belong to me. The “Broadway actress,” position needed to be opened up for someone who craves it, like I crave music.
SFBG:You sang on Moby’s hit song “Disco Lies” in 2008 that went #1 in the U.S. Billboard Dance charts. Would you ever consider recording another dance song like that?
Steele: If the opportunity came up, absolutely. It’s not something I sought out. It kinda found me.
SFBG:What can people expect to see at your show at Coda this Saturday?
Steele: Passion! A killin’ band (The Jazz Mafia All-Stars) and strong vocals. I try and surround myself with amazing musicians who love their instrument and dig my music. I’m here to tell a story. It’s an experience. I mean, that’s what people say about me.
I had a “hold me closer, Tony Danza,” moment when I first heard the hyper-localized anthem “High Priest of the Mission,” on Mark Matos and Os Beaches’ 2009 Porto Franco release Words of the Knife. I thought Matos sang “the high priest of omission,” then I suspected that maybe he was singing “the high priest of submission,” which gave the song an entirely different slant. Either way, the rollicking tempo of the organ and solid, driving rhythm section infuse Matos’ tongue-in-cheek ode to a hipster-haven with very unhip earnestness. The album’s next track, “The Moving,” a downbeat duet with fellow Porto Franco compatriot Kacey Johansing, plays out like a classic Camper Van Beethoven composition minus the signature strings. The down-home, plaintive tone of Matos’ voice eerily conjures Dave Lowery’s isolated Santa Cruz croon, as does the subtle poetry of the lyric: “You never said you were unhappy/You never said you’d rather be/somewhere in Montana….I just kind of felt you/moving away from me.”
The psychedelic swirl of “The Warrior and the Thief” creeps up like a tab of orange sunshine, mellifluous layers of cello, guitar, and a Hammond B3 following the “rise rise rise” of the warrior’s path, and the slow, meandering line of the end of the road. Words of the Knife‘s final track, the tumbleweed-lonely “I Come Broken,” manages to tie together all the songs’ themes, referencing the brown eyes of “High Priest,” the seashore of “The Moving,” and the self-reliance of “The Warrior and the Thief”. When Matos sings “I’m broken but I’m free,” he sounds like he means it.
MARK MATOS AND OS BEACHES: MISSION CREEK MUSIC FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT with Rykarda Parasol, Kevin Junior, Dolly Rocker Movement Wed/14, 9:30 p.m., $12-14 Café Du Nord 2174 Market, SF (415) 861-5016 www.cafedunord.com
Mount Wittenberg Orca is neither the first nor last time Björk sings about oceans, mothers, and plant life (re: “Oceania”). But now, she has the genius of the Dirty Projectors – in particular, producer and Dirty frontman David Longstreth – looking at Mother Nature, too.
On Orca – and I don’t mean Bitte Orca, the Dirty Projectors’ 2009 indie instant-classic – the Icelandic songstress and Longstreth have teamed up to produce an album for charity. This is a 20-minute, seven track release – short, but oh how sweet – whose proceeds all go to the National Geographic Society. It’s the first time we’ve been able to hear studio recordings of these tracks since Dirty/Björk played a benefit concert last year at Housing Works in New York.
Perhaps the titular mountain is our very own, in Marin. Either that or, judging by the album art, it’s some Middle Earthian alternate world. The eponymous orca – a killer whale – holds especially pertinent ground for Björk since, back in the Aughts, she developed some kind of maritime obsession on Medulla and the Drawing Restraint 9 soundtrack. It’s also interesting to note that, back in 2005, Björk’s hubby Matthew Barney gave ambergris, aka whale shit – one of his many fetishized materials – a starring role in Drawing Restraint 9. If you want to connect the dots even more, Barney was born in San Francisco.
Reminisicent of Medulla, Orca is like an epic chamber piece: harmony-heavy, flippantly sliding up and down scales, often ending up in a round of disparate melodies. Both Björk and the Dirty Projectors foreground imaginative vocal arrangements, and thus, the vocals here are strong and full of nuance.
The opening track, aptly titled “Ocean,” features some frightening feedback and disquieting vocals that wouldn’t be out of place in Krzysztof Penderecki’s scariest nightmares. Later, the bouncy “Sharing Orb” showcases the Dirty girls’ piquant “eh eh eh”s to match Björk’s Yoko-like, banshee-wailing “waaaaw.” “How do you say ‘love’?” she asks. Well, I know how I say it, Björk, and it’s definitely not the same way you do (“laaaaaave”). But as on the rest of her canon, her Neanderthalic cadence is totally successful in the context of the album’s conceit: A return to nature and the elements, a vision of an a priori universe of sound, to create modern, tightly woven aural textures.
“No Embrace” sounds like typical Dirty Projectors fare: spooky, yet wistful. Longstreth and his leading ladies – Angel Deradoorian, Hayley Dekle, and Amber Coffman – never clash with Björk’s typically dominant voice. The two work well in concert (both in the literal and figurative sense if you’ve seen the performances) yet you can still tell who’s singing and when.
The best song is “All We Are,” the final track and also the Björkiest. It almost sounds like a b-side from Medulla or the separated Siamese twin of “Sonnets/Unrealities XI.” The choir-like incantations, offering plenty in the way of falsetto, wax ethereal beneath Longstreth’s romantic lyricism. But like the best of Bjork’s Icelandic-to-English words, beauty is met by danger, and emotions are met with undermining qualifications (“I looked out for you/But looking never meant less”).
Mount Wittenberg is a pleasant, lovely climb, both brisk and a breath of fresh air. It’s enough to satisfy fans of either Bjork or Dirty Projectors, and you’ll most likely freak out if you’re a follower of both like myself. Yet at 20 minutes, it still leaves you wanting more. You can purchase the mp3s at mountwittenbergorca.com for pretty cheap, or you can stream the album on YouTube.
Who do you drink to? I guess it really depends on what you’re drinking. Moonshine: The Devil Makes Three. Thug Passion: Tupac. Shot of a Patron, beer back: Very Be Careful. And hell no I’m not getting mom on you — that’s the vallenato five-piece from Los Angeles that’s ready to party with you next week at The Rickshaw Stop (Thurs/15). VBC, formed by brothers Ricardo (accordian) and Arturo (bass) Guzman, sticks pretty close to the sounds that originated in their hard-partying parents’ homeland in the sun-soaked Colombian Caribbean coast. Their music sticks close to the tunes from down south, but something in that onstage swagger – that’s all Californian. I interviewed the two the other day over the phone, and I must say, I like the cut of their jib. Anyone whose professed purpose in life is to play about getting “the most out of life and love” while everyone boozes and lights up the dancefloor is very okay con esta chica.
San Francisco Bay Guardian:Your shows are meant to be real, real fun. What are the key ingredients to a good party?
Arturo Guzman: Dancing and drinking is always fun.
SFBG: Well, yeah. What do you like to drink?
Ricardo Guzman: You mean during the show or during the day? I like Sapporo, that’s my favorite beer. At the show, it’s Patron with a beer back. We go through phases. And about your last question, I think at the shows, people enjoy our enthusiasm, and we really enjoy theirs.
SFBG:Who writes your songs?
RG: My mom writes a good number of our songs, and I write the lyrics for many. The band itself writes the music … I don’t even know how, Sometimes at the show.
SFBG: Wait, your mom writes your songs?
RG: Her name’s Daisy Guzman. She was inspired by us playing this music and she said songs started coming to her, so she’d pass them on to me. Some of our best songs are by her. She’d write songs about her experiences and imagination – she has quite a few now, she really enjoys them.
SFBG: Does the music come to her? Just the lyrics?
RG: She’ll sing [what she’s come up with] sometimes and I’ll work with that. It’s awesome. Everybody loves those songs, they’re special to us.
SFBG:Very Be Careful has been around for awhile, what’s your secret of longevity?
RG: We started in ’97, so [we’ve been together for] 12 years I believe. But those are secrets that we can’t really reveal. We’re like a family, you know what I mean? I would say that’s one of the biggest things that keeps us together. Like a family you have your ups and down. There’s no weird, deep things going on. Well I guess there is, we’re like a family. It’s like a survival thing
VBC also enjoys props. And sunsets.
SFBG:What do you see in the future of Very Be Careful?
AG: We’ve already seen it. It looks great!
SFBG:Where are you getting your musical influences from?
RG: the music comes from Colombia, a town called Valledupar in Northern Colombia. It’s spread through the coastal town — and through the world. It started with accordian, guacharaca — a scratching instrument typical to Colombia – and the caja. That’s the drum. That’s of course our main influence, but there’s a lot of influences that maybe people don’t see in our music, but maybe they will in our performance. We all like hip hop, rock, jazz music.
SFBG:What draws you to vallenato, besides your cultural heritage?
RG: I think it was luck. We started hearing records, and it kind of fell in our laps in a way. I was drawn to it because a lot of the accordion music I heard when we were younger I didn’t like. But now I see, wow, this is really up my alley.
AG: It’s local, village sort of music that is a part of other styles of music that we like. It’s music of the working class. What its like to be poor, but still get the most out of life and love.
RG: When we first started playing it we noticed the reaction people had to it from all walks of life, I was astonished – I had found what I want to do in life.
SFBG: What’s the message that people are going to take away from a Very Be Careful show?
RG: I want people to remember as much as possible the next day. And to remember that they’ve had a great time, and hopefully their feet are tired from dancing.
AG: Yeah, but I don’t know how anyone’s gonna remember. The thing about the live show we do, everyone surrenders to it. We work together on this abandoning and surrendering. It’s an in-the-moment thing, all you can say to people is, this is amazing. And besides that, we just want people to look into the roots of this music. It’s not really into the radio, even on the Internet. And, you might also meet someone nice on the dance floor.
SFBG:Any other words for your San Francisco audience?
RG: We hope that since our time up there is limited that everyone comes out and support Very Be Careful.
AG: Don’t worry about working on Friday. That should be the least of your worries. Take the day off. Whatever you need to do, get your groove on. We might not even make it to Friday.
Very Be Careful
feat. Franco Nero and Intl Freakout Djs Special Lord B, Ben Bracken, and Phengren Oswald
With King of the Beach, Nathan Williams, Billy Hayes, and Stephen Pope have finally stopped adding “v”s to their name. After Wavves (2008) and Wavvves (2009) of unpolished lo-fi, these San Diego-based upstarts have elevated to a dreamier, more whimsical sound (re: “When Will You Come”). Yet Wavves also hearkens back to Blink-182, Sum 41, and the bygone days of summer in the ’90s. The new album’s delightful pastiche is thanks, in part, to Dennis Herring, who’s produced the likes of Counting Crows, Elvis Costello, Modest Mouse, and the Hives. Goodbye dissonant noise; hello pop punk! Williams has been Pitchforked to on- or maybe even above-the-radar status, and the media frenzy brought to cold, hard light his alleged substance abuse issues. Druggy themes are present within the music (or at least the song titles), especially “Post Acid,” whose nasally croon and carbonated licks quite literally scream DeLonge, Hoppus, and Barker. “Green Eyes” displays a similar harum-scarum musical attitude, where Williams doesn’t care how derivative he sounds. The freewheeling “Convertible Balloon,” with its effervescent chorus and prickly percussive textures that just stick to you – as any fizzy-lifting-thing does – is pure PG-rated fun.
A reference to a Nintendo game in “Linus Spacehead” makes the heart grow even fonder for the ’90s. There’s an esoteric boyishness at large that makes King of the Beach, strangely, more precious than the band’s previous releases. The tinges of melancholy and nostalgia in a song like “Mickey Mouse,” along with some chilling vocal reverbs, reflect a band that’s still young, still having fun, and yet starting to grow up. Even if at the end of the beach, Wavves crash on an overproduced note (“Baby Say Goodbye”), Williams is among the least pretentious of a current breed of rockers who can be found on the corner of Indie and Internet.
KISSES “People Can Do the Most Amazing Things” (This Is Music)
Kisses has become a Snap Sounds stalwart before even releasing a debut album, because the upcoming album’s songcraft is terrific.This follow-up single to “Bermuda” starts like a startling homage to Arthur Russell’s “The Platform On the Ocean” and improves from there. Jesse Kivel’s voice is in fine form and the guitar sound is superb. Lots of groups pay homage to ’80s pop romanticism, but to my ears, only Kisses manage to match or trump it.
Keyboard and organ player Dave Faulkner didn’t have to think too hard about the most golden moments of this year’s High Sierra music festival (although he did say that the Black Crowes “nailed it” at their Saturday evening main stage performance). “I love it when you’re just walking around, and you see a random jam that’s totally rocking. I think High Sierra attracts a lot of musicians – it’s like a sample platter of bands.”
But not like one of those intestinal spiderwebs of fried appetizer nuggets you get at T.G.I. Friday’s. Were I to liken the 4th of July weekend’s four day Tahoe-area campout to a culinary adventure, it’d probably take on the form of a potluck dinner amongst good, if disparate friends. Everybody — from Fela’s Afro-disco son Femi Kuti, to the late night burlesque acrobatics of March Fourth Marching Band, Trombone Shorty‘s New Orleans-inflected prodigy, and the awe-inspiring spoken word consumerism take downs of Al Lesser — brought it (most on multiple consecutive days), and the result was fly. And unexpected. Even though South Carolina native Zach Deputy played a taxing total of three scheduled shows throughout the weekend, I still happened across the red-bearded friendly giant in Saturday’s blazing sunshine getting crazy with the guitar for a throng that had assembled in the pathway to watch him play on top of an RV. The metal top bounced merrily along to his enthusiastic strums, clearly only a nerve-wracking sight to those who had not worked their way into the High Sierra mellow yet.
In a only a slightly more whimsical mood was the Banana Slug String Band, the absolute be-all end-all for itty-bitty Northern Cali music fans. The group plays a kid’s version of the Grateful Dead shows that they spent their own younger days following. Their songs touched on such epic themes as getting to know your watershed and the astonishing physical strength of certain insect communities, and I’ll tell you what, on day four of partying balls there’s nothing quite like jumping into a congo line of festival rugrats while you all pound the air shouting “ants!” to make you never want to leave the Kidzone stage. Not to mention the table where you could make egg carton eye goggles. Super score.
Faulkner was playing the keyboard for the Slugs at that show, marking his sixth year onstage at the festival, where he’s also tickled the jam band ivories with his Dead cover band, Shady Groove (who plays Moe’s Alley in Santa Cruz Aug. 13th if you’re down for a coastal highway road trip). “One of my favorite parts of High Sierra is that a lot of the artists camp in the festival,” he tells me in our post-party phone rehash. “I think the fact that it’s in such a remote location, the ticket price, the selection of bands — it makes it a real niche festival. The support is amazing, people are just there to watch music and get down.”
He weren’t foolin’. Faulkner had clearly prepped for a lot more than just straight concert watching with the 460 Ford V8-powered Winnebago that he mainly uses as festival finder — he used it to transport five of his buddies up from their home in Santa Cruz to High Sierra, and has rocked the Burning Man playa in the same LED-lit, subwoofer-equipped vehicle for the past three years.
Like most everyone else in the High Sierra groove, Camp Millennium found the time in between concerts to roll a beach cruiser to one of the scheduled yoga classes at Shady Grove, buy organic produce from the dude at food court shakedown alley that was hawking on the cheap the last day of the festival, nap in a hammock, catch a Javanese puppet show, test out their festie stamina in preparation for August’s week-long Burning Man, and of course, cover themselves in glitter and facepaint on top of the MF as the sun set, a lone guitarist kicked out fine tunes, and the 8,500 (an early estimate by festival staffers) souls who’d made the drive up into the piney flush of the Plumas County mountains took a breather before the chaos of late night concerts and carousing.
By 11 p.m. on Sunday, most everybody had seen the bands they’d come to see, and the camp (plus extended family) had made it back to the RV for a kind of ridiculously lovey dance fantastic amidst the empty whiskey bottles and tousled bins of the clothes they’d packed to wear. No one was exactly comparing notes on the bands they’d caught, how the sets they’d seen measured up to the last time they’d caught the same bands in San Jose, or Portland, or New York City — which kinda makes you think this festival thing plays more tunes than the ones that rocket out of the bandshell mega-amps. “To love is to live,” Zach Deputy said when he was asked to sum up the weekend in a single sentence. Man I’ll tell ya, when it comes to how to spend your long summer weekends, those hippies might have been on to something after all.
Party prince Richie Panic likes to pile it on in a good way. Although he’s been a keen-eared staple of the SF scene for years, he really blew up with the Blow Up party, blasting the table-wrecking new-electro bangers and always eliciting a Panic-specific “oh sh*t!” from the crowd Now he helms two weekly clubs, Wanted (Mondays at Q Bar) and the Boner Party (Wednesdays at Beauty Bar), and his style has morphed a bit into slightly more nuanced territory. It’s still shiny-shiny, with plenty of gold-teeth bite, but now he’s a master craftsman, giving his mixes some thoughtful sheen and a clearer dancefloor narrative.
In this new Wanted Weekend Warrior Mixtape — not an actual mixtape but Richie should rap it’d be Brazilian melons — he rides a summer jam-wave, giving us a few clever twists. Listen, especially for the orgasmic drop at 19:22 as the Burns remix of Heavy Cross by the Gossip starts to sag a bit … then bam! Richie splices in part of the Tim Green 2010 remix of 1999 Cassius classic “99,” which glides from a loopy overload into bonafide floor-thump funk. Wooden claves alert! And then straight into the post-disco glory of Alex Metric’s “Stylo” total rework, what? Afterwards, Bjork gets nu-cumbia’d. It all winds up with homeboy Topher, a.k.a. Gold Chains, the creator of one of my favorite pre-mixtape tracks of all time, teaming up with the delish Tiny Bones for a “Heat” sendoff – into the hot summer nights ahead.
Since recording debut album Monster Movie with seminal Krautrock band Can back in 1969, vocalist and visual artist Malcolm Mooney has mostly made his home in the States. More recently, he has recorded with San Francisco-based band Tenth Planet, with whom he takes the stage Thurs/1 at Bottom of the Hill.
Mooney is up there in years (though the Internet fails to provide me with his actual age), and in some ways a relic of a very odd moment in musical history — the birth of Can — but his broad artistic pursuits suggest he’ll have something new and different to offer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWl7qSXEuV4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BP-RU2Ckuk
MALCOLM MOONEY AND TENTH PLANET With Stephen Kent, Extra! 9 p.m., $10 Bottom of the Hill 1233 17th St, SF (415) 621-4455 www.bottomofthehill.com
At a recent sunny day preview of The Bowls Project at YBCA, I was very confused. I had spoken with Jewlia Eisenberg of the group Charming Hostess a few days earlier on the phone, and she had given me the impression her new sound installation at the gallery was about ancient Babylonian incantation bowls used to summon demons for help in the domestic arena. “I refer to it as apocalyptic intimate,” she told me, “they’re things from the home, but they have angels and demons, things you have to deal with.” She read to me from wild inscriptions she’s found through research on these bowls, which serve as some of our only records of female voices from the era. They include curses against gossips that their “tongue should cling to the roof of their mouths,” calls for Anwar next door to become “inflamed, heated” for the commissioner of the bowl – even an ode to the overthrow of the heavens. It was rad. But there I was, at the YBCA, listening to the description of — a sustainable architecture project?
Michael Ramage is a muscular, clean cut man in an orange Cambridge University sweatshirt. He looks roughly approximate to his profession, which is teacher of architecture and structural engineering at aforementioned school. How he and Jewlia Eisenberg, who is the theatric, charismatic creator of an experimental music ensemble, came together is perhaps testament to the mesmerizing pull of the past.
The two met at MIT, where Ramage was studying the construction of masonry domes using traditional methods and non traditional materials. Eisenberg was taking part in an artist residency program at the university, and had just discovered the bowls’ existence in a “fusty dissertation from 1972.” She wanted to recreate the bowls’ magic for a modern day audience – how amazing would it be to stage the exhibit in a bowl-like space on which actual inscriptions could be etched? She says she “told [Ramage] about the project, and four years later we’re doing it.”
Many art installations involve some sort of structure to stage the work within, but none I’ve ever seen can match the forethought, and fortitude of The Bowl Projects’ domes. Ramage specializes in a style of building called Catalan vaulting, a school of building perfected thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt, and used well into the approximate modern day by architects like Rafael Guastavino and Gaudi. It requires little by way of materials; the bricks in Catalan vaulting are held up largely by the pressure they exert on each other.
Charming Hostess (Jewlia Eisenberg second from right) is laying down the welcome mat at the Bowls Project. Photo by Robin Hultgren Esprite Photographie
Of course, that was a bit difficult to describe to the Department of Building Inspection, who allowed the structure to be built on two conditions; it be reinforced, somehow, and it be earthquake ready. These seem to have been but piddling roadblocks for Ramage – the architect hit upon a light, sustainably produced mesh to reinforce the air bubble filled concrete bricks, and set the structure atop a remarkable system of bowls (natch) and ball bearings so that, should the big one hit, the whole thing will just roll around and surf the tremors out. The two connected domes form an elegant mix of low-tech, lightweight, and environmentally sound; nearly all the energy expended on the project was powered by human muscle. Prince Charles, Eisenberg told me, wants Ramage to build one like it in the Prince of Wales’ own garden.
Which is all really cool. But what exactly will be happening inside this fabulously produced space (which is for sale after The Bowl Project is packed up in August for what one of the project’s engineers pinned at “a low, low price of we’ll talk about it.” Incidentally, he thought it’d make a great winery tasting room – any takers?) once it opens to the public? Bring it back to the demon bowls. Much as women back in the day would endow the amulets with their domestic secrets, Eisenberg is currently collecting hidden truths from the public on her website and hotline. These will be projected as a 360 degree sound experience within the domes.
But that’s not all. The bowls represent “that ecstatic exploration of sex and magic,” says Eisenberg, and to that end, she hopes they’ll be used for self-reflection and celebration by the community. She’s planned a full slate of musical performances, art workshops, meditation days, and public rituals by such local holy people as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for the space.
So, all kinds of cool stuff. But the truly amazing thing about the Bowl Project may just be that it was made at all. Architects, engineers, union masonry workers who have been contributing their labor pro bono, museum folk; a new band of partners-in-crime for this concept musician. “The collaboration has been intense, and amazing, and I’ve learned a ton,” says Eisenberg. A sentiment which begs for a bowl inscription of its own.
There’s a lot of lovely local summer mixes being tossed into my inbox lately, so I thought I’d share a few through regular Summer Wavelengths postings.
Let’s kick things off with something energetically breezy, a post-electro yet still gonzo poppy mix from Shane King and local duo White Girl Lust of the Solid Bump label. (There’s even a little bit of can-can kiki house near the end during WGL’s addictive “Oui.”) This one’s to promote their upcoming party, Fri/2 at Mezzanine, with Carte Blanche, a superstar DJ duo composed of Mehdi from France and the UK’s Riton. All the tracks are either composed or remixed by the aforementioned gentlemen.
As for the party itself, Shane tells me: “It’s going into some 909 Chicago house-influenced craziness (and we just got some professional back up dancers to do a Chicago house routine).” If they can pull that off it’ll be a doozy. And I bet they can.
Shiny, sparkling, blinged-out: Slick electro-pop and disco revivalists Goldfrapp absolutely bedazzled us on Saturday. Talk about the perfect mix of wind machines and ’70s sexiness. With new album Head First, the duo clearly hasn’t lost its melodic luster or surreal grooves. The packed Fox was ready to dance, and Goldfrapp delivered. Did I mention the high levels of shiny spandex? Yea, that was hella hot.
“I’ve always seen Berkeley as an extension of Stockton”, quipped Pavement‘s Stephen Malkmus, his limp, grey-brown hair dyed a shimmering red by the Greek’s stage lights, and his guitar clutched high and tight to his chest like a mandolin.
The crowd laughed indulgently at this stroke of wit, but there was no mistaking its growing restlessness, because the ratio of talk to rock had become increasingly lopsided. This was probably the biggest surprise of the night — the Pavement front man is one hell of a chatterbox. His stage patter is a lot like his songs: wry, nonchalant, and frequently bizarre. Over the course of the Friday, June 25 show, he held forth on Stockton, Cal football, and the history of the Greek Theatre. He also poked dry fun at his bandmates, who for their part gave as good as they got.
Quality banter is always welcome from a band leader, so it was good to see that Malkmus could play the sardonic frontman with as much ease and dexterity as he demonstrated on the Fenders that passed through his hands over the course of the evening. This was still, though, a rock show, meaning that Pavement’s sole function at the Greek was as a mechanism for the delivery of rock. All the wit in the world couldn’t have saved them if they had failed in that charge.
Thankfully, there was no such problem on Friday night. When Malkmus cracked wise, it was entertaining. When he actually shut up and played, it was glorious. Pavement’s set list was a satisfying mixture of deep cuts and tried-and-true crowd pleasers, full of improvisational riffage, experimental phrasing, and charmingly sloppy false starts. At one point, Malkmus balanced a guitar on his open palm for an impressive ten seconds, while shaggy-haired drummer Gary Young shambled dazedly across the stage like a bear just emerging from hibernation.
Just as impressive as the set lists’ content was its arrangement — in a particularly smart move, the band preempted requests by opening with the addictively melodic fan favorite “Cut Your Hair” while the irony-drenched mope-anthem “Here” made for a tonally perfect coda to the evening’s revels. Throughout the night, aging hipsters pogoed alongside their college-aged counterparts, the scent of cannabis perfumed the air, and everyone left the Greek ready to once again swear fealty to Pavement, the returned crown princes of indie rock.
This Sun/27, Danzig takes the stage at SF’s Regency Ballroom. Now, I guess Danzig technically refers to the band as a whole, but the concept of the band is inseparable from its eponymous frontman Glenn Danzig. Danzig is the man behind horror-punk mainstays the Misfits and Samhain, and, to our great benefit, seems to possess almost no self-awareness. Well, maybe a little bit, since he did that Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode. His sublimely absurd sincerity as he revels in images of the occult renders him simultaneously a laughingstock and a sort of heroic eternal adolescent. I guess what I’m trying to say is, Danzig rocks.
He’s touring behind his just-released album Deth Red Sabaoth (Evilive/The End), and this is his last tour date until his fall Blackest Tour. Just to get you pumped up, here is a sampling of why Danzig, well, rocks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNO9k1TXS0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgSn0SbQJQI
And, not in fact Danzig, but a perfect musical likeness:
Shannon and the Clams are playing a show. The occasion calls for a link to the expanded version of my interview with the trio in the current issue of SCENE. There, you’ll find Blanchard, Shannon Shaw, and Ian Amberson sounding off about warlocks in the woods, sleeping in the fields, what they like and don’t like about Oakland, their favorite death songs and teen romance songs and teen death romance songs, curfews, the sonic appeal of crying, and more. Chow down.
Lesbians who look like Justin Bieber. You’ve followed it online, but the awesome Cockblock party made it a reality with a recent lookalike contest This weekend, hit up Cockblock after-Dyke March party (Sat/26) and Les Beaux after-Pride joint (Sun/27). Details here. You’ll be “one less lonely girl.”
Considering the tripped-out journeys of its songs, it comes as no surprise that Fat Freddy’s Drop was born of psychedelic experimentations. A top seller in its native New Zealand, FFD focuses on maintaining a stellar groove — you’d be hard-pressed to find a Fat Freddy track clocking in at less than six minutes. The seven-member band dropped into town last fall to play to a ravenous, sold-out Independent crowd. While its devoted kiwi fanbase is regularly treated to FFD’s funkafied, reggae-infused performances, the Independent show was the first U.S. appearance since a one-off back in 2004. With more SF shows this time around, it seems like the septet is really gaining traction on this side of the Pacific. Saxophonist Chopper Reeds gave us the lowdown on the Drop.
SFBGWhat’s the name Fat Freddy’s Drop about? CHOPPER REEDS We’re probably stepping all over Bay Area counterculture royalty here but, as you probably know, Fat Freddy was one of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. And he had a cat — a feline of somewhat loose morals. The cat had a cult following here in Wellington among a party-loving crowd. So we bastardized his name and embraced his vibe.
SFBGWhat are you looking forward to on this tour? CR Some proper Mexican food. And looking for records. Oh, and playing for our U.S. friends. The reaction to our first West Coast gigs was fantastic. The band is in great form, so I think we’ll have something fresh for people to see.
SFBGHow have influences from the western hemisphere — dub, soul, funk — filtered into your music? And how did singer Joe Dukie develop his unique vocal style? CR Filter is the right word. We can only really access that music through records or if we get a chance to see someone live when we’re traveling. We’re not purists — we’re seven rabid fan boys all diggin’ on some Al Green, Delroy Wilson, Prince, or Fela Kuti and trying to work out how we can cop that vibe rather than copy the notes. As for Dukie, well I can’t answer for him. All I can say is, he is a deep pool. By that I mean he draws out his lyrics in a very considered and powerful way.
SFBG What about the mix of New Zealand-Pacific Islander backgrounds in the group and how that plays out in the music? CR We’ve got one Samoan, three Maori, and three European New Zealanders. But our outlook is pretty internationalist, so we’re prepared to steal musical influences from anywhere.
SFBGTo me the music of Fat Freddy’s Drop drips of summer. Is that just the general vibe of New Zealand, or is it particular to the group? CR I like to think that the music can transport you. New Zealand can be a pretty grim place in winter, and the country’s thoughts are very much on sunshine and warmth. Themes of family, love, and renewal are in all music. That sounds like a good summer to me.
FAT FREDDY’S DROP Fri/25 and Sat/26, 9 p.m., $20 The Independent 628 Divisadero, SF www.independentsf.com
Seven songs of drifter daydreams. There is something so beautifully lonely and core-hitting about the way Vile’s sprawling songs continue to evolve. He can’t be written off to any scene or fad — he’s one of the most poignant, affecting songwriters around. Check out one reason why after the jump.
A long version of the interview in the current issue of SCENE:
If I’m going to stay up late and go as deep as I can into the night, so far that I’m just about lost and in trouble, I want the sounds of Shannon and the Clams with me. The Oakland group’s album I Wanna Go Home (1-2-3-4-Go! Records) is packed with songs that have been there and will shine a light to lead you back into the day, while letting you have a sip or two and an adventure or three along the way. This is rock ‘n’ roll music, electric-charged by bassist Shannon Shaw’s wild wonder of a voice, guitarist Cody Blanchard’s flair for classic crooning and crying, and drummer Ian Amberson’s fierce reliability. See Shannon and the Clams live. You will believe.
SFBGShannon, when did you start to sing for fun? What singers did you love as a kid? What kind of stuff forms what you’ve called a “rage cage,” and does singing help you break out of it? SHANNON SHAW I have been making up songs since I could talk at the ripe age of two. The first song I remember in full came about because I was cast off to spend time in my room for being bad. There, I formed a rage cage (rage cage: an explosion of anger you can’t escape from) and sang a song that lasted the duration of my time out. The lyrics were something like: ‘I’m really a princess, and my mom doesn’t know because she’s evil, and I’m a princess, and my gramma is my real mom who is a queen and she loves me and lives in a castle…my castle, I’m a princess, where’s my castle?” Very sophisticated, eh? I think I was 4ish at the time. My favorite singers growing up were definitely Roy Orbison, Kermit the Frog, the Mouse Girl from An American Tale, Mrs. Brisby from The Secret of N.I.M.H., Eric Burdon, George Strait, Les Claypool, Ronnie Spector, Shelley Fabares, the Supremes, and Connie Francis. I know it’s a strange combo, but it’s true.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndApsVCeM54
SFBGDid you all meet at California College of the Arts? What was that experience (meeting and being there) like? CODY BLANCHARD Yeah, I met Ian and Shannon [during] my second year there. And me and Ian lived in a big house together with 5 people, but we were always really busy with school stuff, so we didn’t even hang out much. We used to have crazy gigantic parties there — that’s where Shannon and the Clams started playing as a band. I wasn’t in the band yet, but I would listen to them practice. IAN AMBERSON Cody and I used to live together, but we all joined forces by way of CCA. The music my peers introduced me to had a big impact on my knowledge and taste. CCA is so small that sometimes you form relationships and exchange ideas with people at a higher rate, just by your proximity to others in a context that attempts to promote creativity.
SFBGCody, you sing an amazing song called “Warlock in the Woods.” Can you tell me a bit about the warlock? CB The warlock was a child whose mother didn’t want him and ditched him in the forest and tied him up with tree roots. The roots started to grow around him and tell him their secrets and poison his mind. He sort of went into a cocoon of roots, then was released decades later, very mixed-up and manipulated by the dark spirits of the forest. He took a cave as his new home and was convinced that he must capture the hearts of young children and travelers in the woods and put them inside this amulet, which the trees had given him, in order to find his way home and to be free of the forest. In the end, he realizes that all the hundreds of hearts he has taken have done nothing for him and he was still living in a cave, lost in the woods, and that he was tricked by the evil forest into doing their bidding. I like to write songs about fantastical stuff these days, weird little stories set to song. That’s my favorite kind of song; one that tells a tiny story that you are easily able to follow just by listening.
SFBGWhat is your favorite item of clothing right now? CB A rope belt. SS A ripped-up white Adam Ant V-neck T-shirt that Seth of Hunx and His Punx gave me. While I was on tour with them in France I saw him wearing it one day and said, “I love Adam Ant, I need your shirt.” He took it off of his back and handed it to me. What a good friend! He stood there, nearly naked as a jaybird, to give me the shirt of my dreams. I wear it every Friday night if you ever wanna see it.
SFBGWhose sense of style do you admire? CB The members of the Lollipop Guild — you know, from The Wizard of Oz. We represent the Lollipop Guild! SS A really pleasant pie-baking mother of the ’50s, mixed with an ’80s skateboardin’ bad boy.
SFBGWhat do you like and not like about Oakland? CB I love that’s it’s not too big or too busy, not overwhelming. All of the neighborhoods are really small and you can find a totally hip fancy neighborhood and then walk a few blocks and be in some scary warehouse district full of abandoned hot dog stands. I like that it’s kind of like San Francisco’s more relaxed little brother. Less freaks here, more quiet — less happening, but still tons of cool stuff. I like a place that doesn’t have too much going on. I love that there is crazy scary Ghost Town and West Oakland, but then there’s also the Oakland hills with amazing parks like Tilden and Joaquin Miller. I generally wish there were more trees and foliage. I thrive on fauna, and I grew up in a very woodsy suburb. I love the Berkeley Bowl — I guess that’s in Berkeley. One thing I’m on the fence about is gentrification. On one hand, I don’t like burned-out neighborhoods, but on the other, I hate really expensive stuff and excess and money as an oppressive force. And I know all that stuff is catering to people like me. It makes me feel mixed-up and bad. It sort of destroys the charm of a more naturally evolved neighborhood. IA Oakland is just a great hub. It sort of feels like being in the middle of a giant cultural sample platter. Having places like Berkeley and San Francisco nearby is nice, while not having to live in those more demanding environments.
SFBGWhere do you like to go out at night?
CB I love movie theaters so much. Usually they’re too expensive, though. My favorite thing is when a theater plays an old movie. I’ve seen Blade Runner, El Topo, The Thing, Jurassic Park, Maximum Overdrive and a bunch of other stuff in the theater. I also love to go to the video store and rent movies. It’s way more fun than Netflix or something, because it’s impulsive and you’re not sure what to get and all these other movies or snacks can catch your eye. Or I love to be around a BBQ or a campfire. My parents have a fire pit. And if there can be fireworks too, then it’s my #1 dream. Or bicycling through the empty night. Or being in a car or a train going across the country, staring out the window.
SS If I had my choice, I would hang out in a wooded area by some railroad tracks with a boombox and a bike.I used to hand out at this old Sunsweet prune factory by train tracks in an old deserted part of downtown Napa. I loved it so much. It was super overgrown with weeds, and surrounded by foliage and abandoned factories. There was a little campfire area nearby and a perfect place to sip on a Friday night sneaky flask. I think I like the feeling of being kind of like a hobo, waiting to hop a train, or camping all hidden in the middle of town. I like having freedom and privacy outside. Part of why Oakland is so rad.
SFBGShannon, your brothers were at one of your recent shows. What’s it like to have them in the audience? SS Lucky for me they come to most of my shows. I like them a lot. They are giant and hilarious and love to shake it. They both walk around and seem to have these magic invisible love vests on at all times. It’s really nice to see them dancing around and making people happy.
SFBGCody, why do think there have been so many great songs about crying? CB Umm, well crying is something you do instinctively as a baby, and you do it all the time. I guess you laugh and shit and barf a lot too. But maybe when people think of crying it brings them back to that primal state — baby times. It’s a very powerful, uncontrollable emotion. People are drawn to powerful things like that, like when a song has so much power over you it brings you back to a time when you had no control, crying. It is attractive because it is so powerful and so rare. And we try not to cry, so when there’s a song that lets us feel as if we are crying, maybe we love it because we miss that feeling. Or maybe people just want to pretend they are babies. A song about crying might make you feel like a helpless baby, which can be fun. I like to do that. Like Muppet Babies.
SFBGHow about death songs, doomed teenage romance or otherwise – do you have any favorites? SS“Johnny Angel” by Shelley Fabares, “Earth Angel” by the Penguins, “Leader of the Pack” by the Shangri-Las, “Little Town Flirt” by Del Shannon, “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tommy James and the Shondelles, “Last Kiss” by Ricky Nelson, “Patches” by Dickey Lee. So tragic. Listen to those lyrics — oh my! CB I love “The Gypsy Cried” by Lou Christie as a doomed romance song. Mostly because the music is soooo great. But also because you don’t really get an answer in that song; the man goes to the gypsy to see what the future holds for his love, and the premonition is so sad and devastating that the gypsy can’t even speak, all she can do is cry. “Snowman” by Diane Ray is awesome, it’s about building a snowman to replace your former lover. “Don’t Drag No More” by Susan Lynne includes death, and the hook and title are grammatically incorrect — that’s awesome.
SFBGWho are your favorite record producers, past and present? CB I really love Joe Meek. Ian turned me on to him. Such a weirdo, and his stuff is so experimental for the time [when he was recording]. And he was crazy, which is double interesting, also gay and he couldn’t play any instruments or read notation. So I hear. Also, Giorgio Moroder is incredible, both his crazy awesome stuff with Donna Summer and his solo stuff. I think he produced the theme for The Neverending Story. Ennio Morricone is so awesome, such an experimental freak. Big influence. I so dearly love the music from Leon Schlesinger and Harman & Ising cartoons, MGM and Warner Bros. studios. Not sure who was in charge of the music. Also, those Italian synth weirdos who did soundtracks for all those ’70s Lucio Fulci movies, like Fabio Frizzi and Claudio Simonetti.
SFBGShannon, what were some of your wildest and favorite experiences on the road in Europe with Hunx and the Punkettes, and what were some of your favorite ones? SS Probably full-group ghost hunting in underwear in Liege, Belgium, in this abandoned college where we had to sleep. Lots of screaming and giggling and inappropriate flashlight shining. Also, maybe full-band nude sauna with King Khan and his wife and kids. Those Europeans are quite comfortable with nudity. ‘Twas hard for me, because I’m a former Mormon and a bit of a chunker if you haven’t noticed. In the end, no one gave a shit and it was fun! Glad I did it. In Paris, we played along a canal that was basically a gypsy camp. Seth wore a banana hammock made of candy that broke at a very inconvenient time. Instead of helping him with his suddenly public family jewels, some demon of entertainment overtook me and made me tear the remaining candies off his bod and throw them to the audience. I think he thought it was funny.
SFBG If you could set up a dream bill packed with bands you’ve never played a show with, who would be on it? What place would be the venue? SS Gene Pitney, Roy Oribson, Gem, Danzig, Lou Christie and the Tammys, and the Muppet Band. CB Oh boy, Ennio Morricone, the Lollipop Guild, the Ramones, Devo, King Tuff, Best Coast, Mark Sultan, the Ooga Boogas, Pissed Jeans, the Seven Dwarves (from the Disney cartoon), Roger Miller, King Louie (from The Jungle Book), Motorhead, Jonathan Richman, the Monks and the Frogs.
SFBGRollercoasters or haunted houses?
SS Haunted houses. Not the fake kind at fairs and stuff. Real ones. IA Haunted houses. Our favorite is in the Enchanted Forest theme park in Salem, Oregon. It has lots of creepy automatons and surprisingly scary uses of compressed air to scar the crap out of ya. CB Gosh, tough call. Haunted houses. They have more character and their creation and construction is a more nuanced art form I think. They’re longer and more entertaining and weird and freaky. Although I do love rollercoaster art more than almost anything. The glitter and lightbulbs and bold stripes and stuff. So wonderful, so American.
SFBGHot dogs or hamburgers? SS Hamdoggers, I think. IA The process leading up to both is disgusting, but I really prefer a well-cooked brat over a patty of beef. Hot dogs are so much more mysterious, and have a pleasant snap to them. CB Hamburger, no contest. Hamburgers are bigger and more filling and it’s easier to fit more cool toppings on them, like cheese and mayonnaise and avocado and pickles and onions and stuff. Although Pink’s Hot Dogs in LA makes me think twice about that statement. Also, vegetarian hot dogs taste like a garbage can, and vegetarian burgers come in all types of weird flavors and textures.
SFBG45 record parties or drive-in double features? SS Drive-in! I’ve never been to one. Somebody wanna give me a ride? CB Drive-in for sure. I go to record parties all the time, but I never get to go to the drive-in because they are so rare these days. I love movies so much, and the drive-in is the ultimate movie experience. You’re outside in the magical summer night and you can do whatever you want in your car. It’s very nostalgic for me. I saw Honey, I Shrunk the Kids at a drive-in when it came out. I don’t think I’ve been to one since.
SFBGHave any of you ever had a curfew, and if so, did you break it? Do you like staying up late at night, and if so, why? SS Our curfew system at both houses was crappy and confusing. My mom only had one if she was mad or awake, so most of the time me and my brothers would stay under the radar because she went to bed so early. My little brother Paddy and I would sleep way deep out in our field with our dogs at night when it was hot in the summer. We would wait until we were sure Mom was passed out and then go sneak around in the country with sticks to hit stuff, or dig holes, or whatever hilbilly kids do. And at my dad’s house the curfew was always conveniently right before Are You Afraid of the Dark? came on Nickelodeon or X-Files started. He hates “scary stuff” so much. He didn’t want me and my bros exposed to it because he saw the original Mummy in the ’50s when he was little and is still scarred from it. CB Yes, I had a curfew, and yes, I broke it constantly. I got grounded once because me and my neighbor friends camped in my backyard with a bunch of TVs and video games and Doritos and 2-liter Cokes and we got bored and snuck out of the yard and ran around the neighborhood, hid from cars, and climbed on the roof of the junior high. When we came back to go to sleep, my parents were waiting and came out with flashlights. A flashlight in your face is so disturbing. We got grounded from each other for a month. I like the late night and early morning equally. The only thing I don’t like about the late night is that you will probably miss the early morning. Both times are really quiet and there are certain things that are off-limits, like calling people and going to the store. It limits your activity in a fun way. You have to find something weird to do. Someone once told me that there’s a theory that, since more people are asleep at night, there’s less “psychic energy” flying around at night, and so your mind feels different, quieter, more focused. I’m not sure, but I like to believe it.
SFBGIt’s perfect that you’ve performed at the Stud. Etta James used to sing there, and Shannon’s vocal on “Troublemaker” reminds me of her. Do either of you ever feel the presence of ghosts or artists or people you love when writing or performing a song? Who would you most like to join you on stage? IA I think it would be really awesome to jam with Dick Dale or maybe the piano stylings of Zombies-era Rod Argent. CB I don’t think think about songwriting enough to feel that. Or maybe I think about it too much. I like to think about Marc Bolan when I sing some new thing to myself. He seemed so enchanted and magical and possessed by some uncontrollable musical spirit. I like to think part of his ghost is inside me, like maybe just the ghost of his hair or something. Or I like to think at least that his ghost likes what I’m singing, and he can hear me through all the noise of the astral plane, because we are alike somehow. I would most like to share a stage with Marc Bolan. We would dress like psychedelic elves and do duets. SS Roy Orbison is totally my #1, Gene Pitney is my #2, Frankie Valli is my #3, the Beach Boys are my #4, Danzig is my #5. What would I give to do a show with Roy O.? I don’t think I coild ever have enough gold, doubloons, or talent to sign with him or his ghost. He was so special and unique and genuine. You can feel his troubles and pain like they’re yours when you listen. Earthshattering heartache and longing is his forte.
SFBGWhat are the Clams up to these days? Are you recording a new album? Can you tell me about some of your new songs? IA We should be recording our new stuff soon, but soon might mean in several months. We are playing with the Pharmacy and Guantanamo Baywatch at Pissed Off Pete’s on 25th. That will be a show worth going to. CB We’re getting a bunch of material ready for a new album. We have a 7″ of some really old awesome stuff coming out on Southpaw Records, it’s called “Paddy’s Birthday” and it’s so good. We’re trying to lay off playing so much, we overwork and distract ourselves doing so many shows, although it seems like Oakland loves it when we play two parties a week. We love them! We’re spending some money on recording equipment. The new stuff has some Buddy Holly-type poppy sparse hop jump fun songs and some dark scary Disney soundtrack haunted forest type stuff, like “Teddy Bear’s Picnic.” Also a lot of ballads like we’ve always done, but they’re vocally weirder, lots of weird doo-wop yelps, Muppet singing and Morricone primal yowling. We’re trying to finally perfect some powerful Everly Brothers/girl group-style harmonies. And we’re experimenting with some super-evil-sounding ’80s punk thrash stuff. I can’t wait to record ’em!
What’s your favorite World Cup song? We’ve covered some smoothies in Gavin Hardkiss’ “Mundo Via Afrika,” and chatted with Eux Autres about their contribution to the games. Salon.com just poured a cooler of haterade all over Shakira’s head for her “Waka Waka,” (probably because they don’t like Fozzie Bear). But there’s tons of delightfully earnest attempts to encapsulate-cash in on the futbol crazy sweeping the globe for the next month. Angelique Kidjo has hit us up with a Curtis Mayfield cover for Africa, and K’Naan… well I love K’naan. His video has a lot of backflips on beaches, which I support. But did you know that SF has a hat-tricking local troubador of our own?
Yes sir, meet Nader DeAik, who had me believing he was a pop star from Bethlehem who was throwing the Bay a bone with a few shows here and there to entertain us with his greatness. But no! He lives here! He is a curly haired, jovial looking man who wants to entertain us with his smiles and Americanized wardrobe (don’t believe me? check out his earlier video shot at the de Young – now that’s an “international” pop star!). He has recorded a song called “Strike!” that you must set aside your criticism, and just revel in.
Glory in his greatness. San Francisco, you are now represented at the World Cup. I hear Henry Thierry bumps this in the locker room:
Why’d Nader feel compelled to unleash this into our world? “I’m a huge soccer fan, and a player as well,” the soft spoken pop star told me in a recent phone interview. “I wanted to share my excitement and celebration with soccer fans worldwide. I decided to make a song full of energy and spirit.”
So… did tapping into the billions of soccer fans out there (three billion alone took in the opening game this year) up Nader’s bottom line? “It’s a world sport, it’s one of the biggest events in the world. Its great exposure for me. I’ve been getting a lot of great feedback regarding the song.”
“It’s been playing on radio stations in the Middle East, and it’s been playing in clubs here,” says Nader, who added he wasn’t aware of any other Bay composed World Cup songs this year, and that DJs get hyped to play a local joint to whip up soccer spectators into a frenzy.
Fab, Nader. DeAik’s clearly a big believer in the power of the soccer ball to bring people together, so tell us – is it important for the Bay to be represented by a World Cup song (one at least, right?) “Yes absolutly,” he decided. “Soccer is very popular in the Bay area, and I think it’s great not only for the Bay area, but the US as well. The other day I was at a soccer field and I was shooting parts of the music video with the youth. Watching the youth play soccer, sing along to the song. It was just great.”
Nader DeAik
Aug 8, check website for times and prices
The Bethlehem Association 25th Anniversary Convention
Kylie Minogue’s take on “The Locomotion” has been a highlight of Hunx’s DJ sets. It set the dancefloor afire at a Goldies party a few years back. His version is buoyed by Nick Weiss’ Hi-NRG-meets-happy-house production.
The wacky Drac attack “I Vant to Suck Your Cock” finds the two playing with haunted house dick shtick. “Can a Man Hear Me” is the highlight, its me-as-may vocals like Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy with a swagger. A different side of Hunx, and more proof that TeengirlFantasy‘s Weiss is pretty brilliant.
Watching Celebration at Big Sur, the film that documents the 1969 Big Sur Folk Festival, I witness the crystalline Pacific Ocean, members of the audience freaking out in face paint, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and more singing merry tunes about coming together and putting a lil’ love in your heart.
This is not the ’60s, this is not the Summer of Love – this is the first Great Recession of the 21st century. At the Woodsistcelebration at Big Sur on June 12th, 2010, we did not “freak-out.” Instead, we lied around on flannel blankets, baking in the sun. Everyone we met at the festival had come from urban zones, from Brooklyn, from Portland, from special San Francisco, or even from Hollywood – like Kirsten Dunst, as well as drummer Jason Boesel and Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley.
In between sets, we explored the woods behind Henry Miller Library, hiking through creeks and over fallen trees. We drank cold beers or sipped on cocktails mixed in water bottles as we listened to bands hailing from Brooklyn’s Woodsist label, founded by Jeremy Earl of Woods. We were happy for the freedom to forget.
http://vimeo.com/12755753
The Art Museums, a San Fran/Santa Cruz band at the end of their very first tour, performed with a unified front, as if ready to play Red Rover and decisively send anyone back who might try to break their ties. In between songs, while amps were tweaked, cute stage banter was in effect, with drummer Virginia Weatherby talking about lady bugs. San Francisco’s the Mantles, who include Weatherby on a complete drum set instead of a drum kit, had a few mishaps. Guitarist-vocalist Michael Olivares’ guitar strap malfunctioned, but such issues suited the group’s goofy good-time vibe.
Portland’s Eat Skull, about to move and realign, performed a stripped-down collection of songs that perhaps came up wanting. Philly’s Kurt Vile climbed on stage to join the group for a cover of Spaceman 3’s “Come Down Easy,” and then played an acoustic set while the sun speckled the stage. Letting his long locks cover his face, he stared at his strings and intricately finger-picked. Later, as he tuned his guitar, he asked if we were prepared for the weather to get cold.
San Fran’s the Fresh & Onlys played two new tracks, including “Waterfall.” Moon Duo, a new San Fran psych-band, played as the sun set and ended up in the dark — and the cold that Vile had predicted. The group’s guitarist Ripley Johnson (also of Wooden Shijps) is a madman on the guitar.
After Moon Duo, NY’s Woods mesmerized with a tripped-out opening and all their quintessential hits. The festival ended with Real Estate, who, like many of the bands, craft anthems for our times. Take these lines, from “Green River”: “Hey green river, what can I do?/If it’s alright I’ll walk next to you/Sit in the shade of your beechwood trees/Don’t you know these days I ain’t hard to please.”
BEACH FOSSILS Beach Fossils (Captured Tracks) Your pretty guitar — or in Beach Fossils’ case, your gorgeous guitars. Lyrics and vocals are virtually beside the point, considering how poetic the guitar sounds are on these songs. Beach Fossils is well-listened enough to admire McCarthy and the Go Team. On “Youth” and “Wide Awake,” the group comes up with something deeply emotive. You have to make the jump and join me on the other side to find out.
