Noise

Meklit Hadero in full bloom

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Meklit Hadero in full bloom

Born in Ethiopia and raised in the U.S., songstress Meklit Hadero‘s musical endeavors span latitudes and genres. But there’s also a timeless quality to her warmth and soulfulness that’s reminiscent of archetypes like Nina Simone and Billie Holiday. A former director of the Mission’s Red Poppy Art House, her recent debut album On A Day Like This was heavily influenced by her experiences as an integral part of the Mission scene. In May an exuberant crowd celebrated the release of Meklit’s CD at Bimbo’s, and soon afterward we got to spend an afternoon with her while roaming the hills of West Marin.

SFBG Have you always been a musician?

MEKLIT HADERO Music has always been essential. I’d always wanted to do it, but didn’t know how to give myself the space. Then I made a commitment to develop in public … nothing compares to the growth that happens through performance. People like to see other people being free.

SFBG I noticed your willingness to share that vulnerability at your CD release party, that you didn’t put on airs like “it’s showtime!” There was a moment between songs where there was huge applause and you had to take a couple of extra breaths because of all the emotion. It was really beautiful.

MH I had such a great time at that show. There was so much love in that room.

SFBG Any interesting cover songs on the horizon?

MH I can’t tell you exactly what my plans are because part of the fun is when covers surprise people. I’ve been relatively slow to add covers into my sets, but there will be more. Right now I’m learning a traditional Ethiopian folk song called “I Like Your Afro” [laughs]. Actually, the lyrics are just gorgeous.

SFBG And you have a Stern Grove show coming up?

MH Which is such a dream! I’m so excited about that. Stern Grove is one of the best things about being here in the summer … going early, picking nasturtiums for the salad …

SFBG Of course … you’re the flower lady! You always have flowers in your hair. Any other favorite flowers?

MH Well one of the favorite categories is “flowers that are good for your hair.” Speaking of which, the other day at the Poppy — this resident artist named Fernando Diaz has a cat named Eskimo that he brings everywhere in a sling like a baby. I was holding Eskimo and he climbed up my shoulder, climbed onto my afro, traversed my afro to the other side, and began furiously attacking my flower. It was so funny. Anyway, flat flowers are good or flowers with a short cone. Gardenias are lovely but hard to attach. I don’t know how Billie Holiday did it.

MEKLIT HADERO AT THE STERN GROVE FESTIVAL
Aug. 1, 2 p.m., free
19th Ave. and Sloat, SF
www.sterngrove.org

Janelle Monáe: Soul with perfect teeth

John Elberling
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Janelle Monáe: Soul with perfect teeth

By Ryan Lattanzio

Janelle Monáe has the most beautiful teeth I’ve ever seen. No, really. If you ask me, their pearly whiteness is unmatched.

Just as much as she bared her teeth on Friday afternoon at Rasputin in Berkeley, she bared a little slice of her soul. Monáe stripped her many layers of production and favored an acoustic set – something she said she loves – performing “Tightrope,” the single off this year’s The ArchAndroid (Atlantic), and the gorgeous “Smile” from the 2008 EP Metropolis: The Chase Suite (Atlantic).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwnefUaKCbc

After arriving an hour late (“Janelle Monáe’s in the house!” or “She’s putting change in the meter!” the emcee told us), Monáe was nearly done as soon as she started. Despite probably being tired – she had a show later with Erykah Badu at the Paramount – Monae made those two short songs very sweet.

Like in the music video for “Tightrope,” she wore her trademark futuristic bouffant and button earrings that matched so well with her Spats. And then there are those teeth again.

As in-store appearances go, Monáe was exceptional, entertaining, and of course, maintained the necessary sense of brevity. I wish she could’ve put on an entire show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys4GpR6v0TQ

Eux Autres on World Cup fever and Midnight Special love

John Elberling
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Eux Autres on World Cup fever and Midnight Special love

World Cup fever is here, and in honor of anthems past, local pop merchants Eux Autres have created an unofficial song and video for the event. The band’s singer-guitarist Nicholas Larimer is following the action, which requires him to wake up early in the morning, but the midnight hour is another time that he knows a thing or two about. He has a keen appreciation of Burt Sugarman’s Midnight Special, a TV gem that, under the watchful eye of Mary Hart’s current husband (then married to Carol Wayne), presented live performances by chart-topping acts from 1972 until 1981. I asked him to choose five favorite moments from the show and sound off about them.  

Eddie Money, “Baby Hold On”
SFBG What do you think of Eddie’s somewhat Jaggeresque but East Coast tuff – complete with tie over bare chest – look here? The band on this clip is pretty tight and he sounds great.
Nicholas Larimer I always liked this song, but I never expected this performance to blow me away. He absolutely nails it. An epic performance. And then the camera pans over and you see he’s doing it all in front of an audience of silent people sitting there with their hands in their laps.

AC/DC, “Sin City”
SFBG That’s quite an intro AC/DC gets here – double your rock star pleasure. How long do you think it took Bon to get into and out of the jeans he’s wearing? If Eux Autres could build their own Sin City, what would it include?
NL The first time I saw this, I thought they couldn’t possibly top that tag team Nugent/Tyler intro, but I was wrong. The thing about Bon’s pants is not only are they unbelievably tight, the waist is oddly high. I always like to imagine this song is about Kurriemuir, Scotland, where Bon Scott was born, and where my ancestors hail from. After visiting, I have a feeling this isn’t true.

Fleetwood Mac, “Over My Head”
SFBG It’s always good to cast a vote for Ms. McVie. I like the effect of her face projected within the moon.

NL I always like to stick up for Ms. McVie. I feel like her songs don’t get enough credit from some people. The backdrop is my favorite part of this performance, edging out Lindsay Buckingham’s kimono. 

The Bee Gees, “Nights On Broadway”

SFBG This is sort of a bridge between the Saturday Night Fever-era Bee Gees and the folkier, rockier Bee Gees. They possess an impressive array of keyboards. Robin has this sort of permanently tear-y look. This song has an excellent interlude. Doesn’t it seem like musicianship of this caliber was common back then, and rare today? 

NL This does seem like the bridge between early and late Bee Gees. I think that’s why I like it so much. They were in the process of harnessing the power of the falsetto, but not yet abusing it. This is one of my favorite songs ever, by any band. Robin’s near nude outfit is crazy, and then he does those weird dance moves. The level of musicianship on all of these clips is higher than today. I guess it was just required that if you were in a band, you were insanely tight live. So many of the Midnight Special performances sound better than the actual records.

Heart, “Crazy On You”
SFBG Terrific extended guitar intro by Nancy Wilson here. Is this your favorite Heart song?
NL Yes. The vocals have always seemed so difficult to me. This is flawless.

 

Zion I’s Amp Live steps into the solo album spotlight

Andrew Lam
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It’s hard to think of a Bay hip hop DJ with a more diverse footprint than Amp Live. Rising to prominence as the mixing half of duo Zion I, he’s since spread his futuristic tinkerings through tracks featuring Goapele, Too Short, Charlie 2na, and Del the Funky Homosapien. More recently, he funked up Radiohead’s In Rainbows – dubbing his new vision Rainydayz Remixes, and releasing it to the public before, well, really clearing it with the music’s progenitors. In exchange for his hip hop creativity, he received a cease and desist order from the band. Luckily, their camps found a way to talk it out, and Radiohead eventually gave Amp Live the go ahead to offer up the project, which you can still find on his Myspace page as a free download (he also issued a creative, yet heartfelt apology for his role in the conflict).

We caught up with Amp Live via email on his Mexico vacation – where he’s no doubt “amping” (ha!) up for his CD release party this weekend (Shattuck Down Low, Sat/19). You might recognize some of the other cats that will be onstage; Amp Live’s graciously sharing the playbill with Kev Choice, Deuce Eclipse, Trackademicks — and Zion I will take over as the headliner. 

Murder at the Discotech‘s first single, “Gary Is a Robot” featuring Tracademicks and Mr. Micro is one play from being your 2010 summer anthem

 

San Francisco Bay Guardian: You’ve said in the past that you’ve been looking at adding more “live music” performance on stage to your DJ sets. Can you explain what you are looking at with that?

Amp Live: I think live [music] is very important in creating a good show. During my production set, I create music on the spot using live video and visuals, and will also feature other musicians. 

 

SFBG: What kind of unique resources did you find coming up as a musician in the Bay? Besides your music, is there any one artist today that you think speaks most eloquently about what it’s like to live out here?

AL: There is definitely a large amount of accomplished and talented musicians in the Bay Area. So many tight drummers, keyboardist, horn players, singer, etc. That makes it easy in collaborations and studio work. I like what comes from the DJ Shadow camp. I think he captures the vibe out here pretty well. Also, like what Traxamillion is doing. 

 

SFBG: Your DJing, and general work as an artist, make it clear that you’ve got very deep skills when it comes to technology. Where do you think you would have wound up if it hadn’t been for music? 

AL: Well, I graduated from college with a bachelor’s in science. I was going to go to medical school basically, and be a cardiologist. 

 

SFBG: What ways will the Amp Live solo shows differ from the performances you’ve done as part of Zion I?

AL: The main difference is that it is mostly me on stage, so it’s all eyes on what I am doing. I have to keep the crowd engaged. 

 

Sat/19 9 p.m., $15-20

Shattuck Down Low

2284 Shattuck, Berkeley

(510) 548-1159

www.amplivesworld.com 

www.shattuckdownlow.com

Festival front lines: Harmony 2010

Andrew Lam
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Aerial photo by DJ Guacamole

Santa Rosa got a little more groovy this weekend for the estimated 30,000 to 35,000 that attended the 32nd annual Harmony Festival, three days that were so epic my ability to narrate them cohesively has been called into question. Assembled here are some bits and pieces from the scene.

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Best year ever?

The longest running West Coast music and lifestyle festival seems to have resolved many of the problems it’s had with turning a profit in years past. “We tightened our ship, we did less with more, and we sold more tickets,” says festival CEO, Bo Sapper. Sapper cited the Eco Rally skate contest as a particular success – Harmony teamed up with eight local skate shops, and a passel of pros to put on an amateur mini ramp competition. They had 1,000 skaters sign up to ride, mainly from the local area. The festival also sold out it’s Saturday night shows, a rare occurrence for past years of Harmony.

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Vendor madness

Call me monetarily minded (you’d be the first), but I said it before, and I’ll say it again; the stuff that’s selling can encapsulate the event itself. So what kind of hawkers of wares greeted you upon arrival a the front gates? Amongst the psychics and Mayan chocolate was a woman selling personal sized, portable saunas (she said she was having trouble getting people to experiment with it, temperatures topping out in the nineties and all), some berries from Ghana whose claim to fame were that they could effectively mess your sense of taste up (suggested to buyers as possible cocktail garnishes), and my favorite; Asturias, the sonic didgeridoo man who charms lions and tigers (and for $200/two hours, you too!) with his big, hollow, vibrating stick. 

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Swami sanity

Don’t mourn last night’s loss of those fairy wings! “Everything is set, but the people are upset,” said Swami Chidanandji from his comfy pillow at the Wisdom Speakers Stage. Take it from a man who spent ages nine to 17 practicing solitude and yoga in the Himalaya; no matter how much festival flair you’ve stuffed into your backpack, happiness lies within. 

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Seeding the future

The basket of striped fava beans were what brought me to the West County Community Seed Bank‘s booth, but hearing about their mission to provide Sonoma County with GMO-free seeds for sproutin’ kept me fingering favas for awhile. At the moment, they’re meeting at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Sebastopol every last Saturday of the month, and the seeds are stored in their founder’s basement. Harmony Fest gave them their vendor booth for free; the same price they charge their seed buyers.

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Yoga for the party kids

“Well, I got two hours of sleep last night. I’m not sure how, but we’ll make it through this,” said Yogaworks instructor Eric Monkhouse. Monkhouse took us through a few moderately paced asanas at the Eco-Wellness Sanctuary at 10:15 a.m. on Saturday morning — part of a full slate of yoga classes I thought I’d make it to, but obviously didn’t.

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Goddess Grove

One of the festival’s most rockingest scenes was this shady little side stage, where crowd pleasers Delhi to Dublin and Diego’s Umbrella rolled about gleefully onstage and off (Diego’s guitarist at one point plunged into the crowd to squirm about in the grass). At night, laser lights tickled the tree leaves above the concerts, setting an entirely different stage for the late night lovin’ that any good festie inspires.

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Festival babies: cooler than I am

Where do these little rascals come from? Big ups to the munchkin who was walking around performing courtesy sprays with his bubble gun, but my favorites were the pretty little girl and her buddies perched on the back of a truck that was making its slow way past the Goddess Stage. Next to her were two boys on skateboards, holding onto the fender for dear life. I attempted to make contact with the little thing,  but she shushed me through her ice cream cone, and pointed urgently, soundlessly to the truck’s cab. Festivating stowaways. Love it.

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Crime! 

Of course, it wasn’t all ice cream cones and good vibrations. There’s the matter of the Saturday night theft of a borrowed moped, which Sapper cited as the weekend’s sole unpleasant incident (if you don’t count beer prices).

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Lauryn Hill: ragingly good

So what if she spent a large portion of her first US concert in three years harassing the sound guys – the woman’s a legend, and if she wants to get a little surly, she’s entitled. “We’re all big fans of Lauryn Hill,” Sapper says. “We were aware she was quite reclusive, but she’s ready to come out of that now. Her agency was looking for a safe place for her [to restart her US performing career], and they thought Harmony Festival would be that place –and they were right.” Sapper recalls waiting with his wife and daughter backstage for Ms. Hill to emerge as one of the festival’s more magical moments.

Hill’s heavily remixed versions of such classics as “Turn Your Lights Down Low,” and “Ready or Not” struck a fine balance between crowd pleasing and innovative — and her red, white, and blue jumpsuit she wore struck an equally fine balance between Southern belle and Soul Train. Well worthy of a headliner. Thanks for coming out to play, Miss Hill. Now that she’s played a California hippie fest, can we finally quit with those stupid racism rumors?

 

The noise of summer is here

John Elberling
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The noise of summer is here

By Sam Stander

As part of the Berkeley Art Museum’s eclectic performance series “L@TE: Friday Nights @ BAM/PFA,” a trio of noise- or distortion-oriented musicians takes the…well, there isn’t exactly a stage, but they’ll be playing in Gallery B, where Thom Faulders’ interactive sculpture installation, known as the BAMscape, resides.

The BAM calendar bills the Fri/11 show, titled “Summer Sounds,” as featuring “a lineup of old-school rock ‘n’ roll bands nurtured in our backyard.” First up are Sic Alps, who’ve received accolades of late. Formerly of noise rock pioneers Harry Pussy, guitarist Bill Orcutt — perhaps the headliner of the night — recently put out a solo record. Rounding out the evening are the Baths, a group signed to the verdant Woodsist label who have yet to release their debut record.

 

L@TE — FRIDAY NIGHTS @ BAM/PFA: SUMMER SOUNDS — SIC ALPS, BILL ORCUTT, THE BATHS

Fri/11, 7:30 p.m., $5 (free for UC students)

Berkeley Art Museum, Gallery B

2625 Durant #2250, Berkeley

(510) 642-0808

www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

 

 

 

Felonious gets back into it (and lays it all out) with the smashing “Live City”

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Felonious gets back into it (and lays it all out) with the smashing “Live City”

By Lilan Kane

A capella, beatbox, theater, vaudeville, live band, and everything in between — that’s Felonious (playing tonite, Thu/10, at the Independent). Originally an a cappella hip-hop duo, Felonious has morphed into a hip-hop theater production receiving rave reviews in The Source magazine, Chronicle and Examiner, and have produced sold-out shows in SF, New York, Germany and Oakland. They have shared the stage with The Roots, De La Soul, Big Daddy Kane, DJ Premier, Black Eyed Peas, Zion I, Living Legends, Radioactive, and Crown City Rockers. Their shows capture different elements of entertainment creating something old school in principal but very innovative and contemporary.

Sharing the stage with notable SF musicians from the Jazz Mafia, Felonious has established themselves not only in the theater arts industry but also as respected musicians in the live circuit. They talked to us a bit about the whats and wherefores as they prepared to celebrate Live City‘s release.

Thu/10, 8:30pm, $15
The Independent
628 Divisadero, SF
415.771.1421
www.theindependentsf.com
www.feloniouslive.com

SFBG: What’s the story behind the title of your new album Live City?

MC/Beatboxer Carlos Aguirre aka Infinite: I think the name Live City represents the history of the city and how we are the next generation of artists to try and replicate that kind of energy that has made San Francisco a staple in live music for several decades..Plus we know all kinds of dope artists in the city and the bay in general that we got a real Live thing happening over here and if we try to consider ourselves more of a musical family then everyone would reap the benefits..we’re pushin for that vision…it’s not just a name…we believe in our city and the talent here is world class so we’re trying to push a movement…

MC Dan Wolf aka d.wolf: On the surface, we’re talking about San Francisco, the Bay Area, a geographic place that has a history of shaping underground culture (hip hop, rock music, street visual arts, culinary arts, circus arts, etc).  On another level I look at it as very idealized place where live performance is cherished, where the city is a living breathing representation of all the creative energy pouring from the artists and culture makers who live there and shape the landscape.  We are a live hip hop band who come from theater, you cant get any more live than that.  We wanna take you to a place where taking risks is normal.  

MC/Beatboxer/Drummer Tommy Shepherd aka Soulati: Well, the album was originally called Str8 No P@per, which is a word play of Thelonious Monks album Straight, No Chaser and the truth, we’re broke like everybody else.  However not many of the songs supported that theme.  This album is recorded all live so there’s part of the title right there.  Felonious, at the beginning of the year, hosted and co-presented a weekly at Coda lounge in SF Called “Live City Revue” which was a night of showcase/cabaret talent.  Basically, any Bay Area act that was working on anything and wanted to test it out with a crowd, or you just want to come through and build on a piece of text or music.  We discussed the name of the show and how it was a statement that the Bay Area is STILL alive and always has been.  So, if the event was the revue, this album is the soundtrack.

MC/Keyboardist Keith Pinto aka KP: We were gonna call it $tr8.n0.p@per after the thelonious monk album straight no chaser… and also living in an ever increasing digital world. plus having limited funds to produce a project. but then we started doing Live City Revue @coda lounge and it just seemed like a natural fit for the title of the new record. Live City is way more optimistic.

http://vimeo.com/12166935

SFBG: What was the recording process for the new album?

Bassist Dylan Mills aka Illin Ills: To record the band in the best rooms possible (Coast, Record Plant, Different Fur…), getting the drums sounding huge.  We worked with producer Ben Yonas to capture the highest quality recordings possible and mixer Hernan Santiago to make the tracks shine.   The group was adamant about making sure everything on the record really belonged there before letting it go out.

Infinite: Amazing…We haven’t truly represented what we do live in shows on an album since The List which was a few albums back so to be able to work in some of the premiere studios in the bay area that carry a lot of history and with an amazing mix team to round out the process, it was a dream come true.

d.wolf: Musically this was the best process we have been a part of.  Recording live hip-hop is very challenging to do well. You have to retain the voice and power of the instruments while creating a sonic world that has booming drums and melodies that feel chopped and sampled yet fully fleshed out.  We never have been able to capture the raw energy of Felonious on record until this one.  Lyrically it allowed us to focus on our own personal styles and continue to try to mesh them together in the studio.  Our last album (2007’s Up To Something) was totally lyrically driven.  We recorded it in Hamburg, Germany over some of the hottest beats produced by Hamburg’s dopest producers.  We lived together in the studio for three weeks and recorded 18 tracks in 22 days.  The process for Live City was spread out over a few years with no real idea what the songs would become.  First we built the beats and freestyled over them as we recorded the tracks and then spent the time writing and crafting the songs.  It taught us how to craft songs based on the strongest verses in the best order.

Guitarist Jon Monahan: Live City was recorded over a span of about a year and a half at 5 Bay Area studios, including The Plant in Sausalito and Coast in SF.  It would have been finished much sooner but so much else was going on in our lives- three members of the band became fathers, our producer got married, one of the people we were working with very closely developed some serious health problems.  It forced us to take our time and allowed us to truly experiment with sounds and ideas that weren’t there when we started.

Soulati: The recording process was a lot of work, one, because it wasn’t recorded in four different studios, and two, because of budget.  The treasure of the experience was we got record in the same room as many music legends such as Stevie wonder and Metallica.  All in all it was a great experience and a very long process but when you’re birthing perfection, you take your time.

http://vimeo.com/12160357

SFBG: Tell me about your new play “Stateless.”

d.wolf: Stateless is a hip hop vaudeville that takes what Felonious is doing in the present and mashes it with what my ancestors were doing 100 years ago in Hamburg Germany.  The Wolf Brothers, my great grand father and his brother, were vaudevillians and singers who took popular melodies and changed the lyrics to reflect social and political issues of their time but in a very comical way.  They wrote over 600 songs that were so popular that in 1938 the Nazis said the songs were ‘too German for Jews to sing”.  Stateless is remixed folk songs written by the Brothers Wolf, re-imagined by Felonious and Brooklyn’s One Ring Zero and placed in a loose narrative that touches on brotherhood, performance and performers, history and lineage.  It’s also an excuse for us to just get on stage and act stupid.  Since they were known as the Hamburg Marx Brothers it gives us permission to be the Bay Area Marx Bros.

KP: On a basic level it’s a mash up of genres… hip hop and vaudeville. seemingly different… but the similarities are actually quite strong. most hip hop albums have a patched together mix tape quality to them… just like a variety show… which is vaudeville. hip hop artists often have funny (sometimes random) little skits on their albums… this is also like the comedic skits of vaudeville. plus visually hip hop/r’n’b videos are known to have b-boys/girls and line dances… which is just like the acrobats and dancers (usually tap) that you would have found at a vaudeville performance. not to mention the evolution of hip hop dance itself. as it incorporates many styles, including remnants of tap and swing dancing. look at the “kid n play” also known as the “funky charleston” (yes, the kid n play may be old but 90’s dances are coming back). as the choreographer of Stateless… those similarities give me more to work with than i could ever fit into one show.

Soulati: Stateless is live music, dance, beatbox, singin’, rappin’ with a twist of vaudeville.  It takes you through a journey of past present and future, leaving you with a mind to want to go out and search your own history, if you’re not aware of it already.  Super energetic and moving to boot, Stateless is the play to be looking out for cause it’s coming to you!!!

SFBG: How do you feel Felonious as a group, and the album Live City represent San Francisco?

Illin Ills: We’ve been making this music in the bay for over a decade now and we’ve seen the upturns an downturns and we put our experiences into our songs.  The album Live City is fitting because throughout all that time there has always been a vibrant music and art scene in the city.  Venues move and change, styles come and go, but people always appreciate live music so we try to keep putting on better shows and building up the scene here.

d.wolf: We’ve been working in San Francisco since 1998 so at this point we’re pretty much the OG’s on the scene.  Everything has changed so much since we started.  I am blown away when I think that during our 2000 – 2003 weekly New Roots to Hip Hop series at the Last Day Saloon we created this whole scene before MySpace was even around.  Now there are so many tools to utilize and build a community.  San Francisco needs to reclaim its place among the great cities of the world.  I mean we have so much great food and great arts here but we’re there is such a lack of industry that even the artists have a hard time thinking strategically about how to have a sustainable career.  Live City is our call to action to reclaim the power that was here in the 60s, 70s and 80s.  We think that with all our angles – music, theater and arts ed – Felonious is ready to lead the charge.  

Jon Monahan: “The album itself features Bay Area luminaries like Jazz Mafia horn players and DJs, and singers like Kimiko Joy and Cait La Dee,  They’ve been a part of the SF scene as long as we have, a decade or more.  And our band feels right at home in the counterculture tradition of San Francisco bands- from Sly to Dead Kennedys to Mike Patton… We’re not necessarily heirs to that throne, but if you came out to Live City Revue, the weekly we ran from Jan – April 2010, you saw some guests and collaborations that could only take place in San Francisco… live hip-hop with West African kora and balafon players, a 20 piece men’s choir singing the Leonard Cohen songbook, book readings from local MCs, some seriously bizarre shit.”

Soulati: Felonious as a group came to the Bay at a pinnacle moment of the music scene.  Of course there were your track acts but live Jazz/Hip Hop was thriving.  Alphabet soup was runnin thangs along with Brown Fellinis and other crews that were holding it down.Us, Crown City, Psycho Kinnetics, Most chill Slack mob among others were new to the scene and fit right into the mix.  All these mentioned groups are still hittin to this day and representing SF like ganbusters.  We keep pushing the scene to feel it push back.  The album naturally speaks directly of the San Francisco scene.  It IZZ live.

KP: Felonious has been a part of the SF music scene for over 10 years… sf has a rich history of musicians and hip hop artists working together from the acid jazz days to now. Felonious is a continuation of that. we are multicultural and multidisciplinary.   in this time of ipod dj’s (and i mean… instead of a dj… just an ipod) we feel it’s important to keep the city’s music scene all the way live! 

SFBG: What would you consider the group’s most notable accomplishments have been since Felonious started?

Infinite: Winning best of the bay two years in a row was super dope and opening for The Roots two nights in a row at The Justice League (now The Independent) and working with all the amazing artists we’ve been bless to collaborate with over the years.

Illin Ills: Playing the Fillmore, Maritime Hall, Berlin, Hamburg.  Opening for the Roots, De La, LL, BEP.  Taking Beatbox: A Raparetta to NYC.

Soulati: Since Felonious started we have become a household name in San Francisco/Bay Area.  Among winning Bammy’s and Wammy’s and critics choice shwoompties, we are also published playwrights and educators.  Staying relevant is, I think, our most notable accomplishment.

d.wolf: Survival is our most notable accomplishment.  Along the way we’ve been blessed to travel together, play with some the hottest hip hop acts, produce and publish plays, and build some real deep, lasting personal and professional relationships.

SFBG: How important is it for you personally to put on a captivating live show?

Infinite: It’s absolutely fundamental to both the group and the art form of hip hop..and musical performance in general..i mean there are no rules really but there’s a code and decor and history behind being an emcee and you gotta respect that legacy by paying homage to the meaning behind the emcee..to be master of ceremonies..to control the crowd…to lead the crowd and to ultimately pass on an experience…that’s what playing live is all about for me…”so you remember the name, when you walk out the door.

d.wolf: Coming from the world of theater the live show is actually more important to me than the studio.  That being said we’ve been killing live shows for years and have had a real hard time capturing that energy on our albums.  Hip-hop is a studio art form but you have to kill on stage especially if there isn’t a capacity crowd chanting every word.   You gotta give people a reason to remember you in this oversaturated world.

Soulati: Personally, Why come out to see someone stand there and sing songs? That, you can do at home.  A live show should be just that, LIVE.  And because more than half of Felonious are trained actors, theatrics is our tactic and we better come with a theatrical extravaganza you know?  Cats gotta be their “super human” selves on the stage.  Them times 10.  That’s what makes me as an audience member want to pay 13 in advance or 15 at the door, right?

SFBG: What can people expect to see at your CD Release show at the Independent June 10th?

Infinite: Felonious playing banging beats with live string and horn orchestration ,courtesy of The Jazz Mafia, through out the set…we’re gonna play a whole range of material but alot off the new album ..most of the new album in fact..plus special guest singers Caitladee and Kamiko Joy..and really expect to see ONE OF THE BEST LIVE SHOWS OF 2010… guaranteed!

Illin Ills: The whole shebang.  There will be horns, strings, singers, and more rocking with the Felonious Crew, playing songs from the new record, beatboxing, and generally carrying on.  Shotgun Wedding is another great group from the bay who will be rocking the middle spot.  The amazing Rondo Brothers will be there celebrating the release of their latest record.

Jon Monahan: We’ll premiere at least one brand new song, and play most of the new album reworked and fleshed out with a string section and horn section.  Some top-shelf beatboxing as always.  We’re putting together an all-star freestyle session as part of the set, plus I hear talk of some comedy/ dance routine by some friends of ours that sounds epic and possibly really creepy.  AND sets by Shotgun Wedding Quintet and the Rondo Brothers!

Soulati: A full live band, a string trio, a horn duo, beatboxing, freestyling and some special guests coming to spit vocals.  You’ll get a night of great music and fresh collaboration.  There will be B-boyz and B-girlz, hot ladies if you be boyz and kept gentlemen if you be girlz.  The night, from top to bottom, is gonna smash!!!!

The Good Life, full of passion

Sue Vaughan
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The Good Life, full of passion

By Peter Galvin

Like the musical counterpart of your everyday office workaholic, Tim Kasher has been pulling long hours for most of his life. Currently the frontman for the Good Life — playing Thurs/10 at Bottom of the Hill — and indie-rockers Cursive, Kasher has been making it in various bands since the age of 18, including a ’90s supergroup with members of the Faint and a 15-year-old Conor Oberst.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkscXnpg8vA

All of Kasher’s projects revolve around the travails of life, but none feel more personal than the Good Life, which began as a purely solo work and has since bloomed into a four-person band with a lush sound. The antithesis of Cursive’s rage and angst, Kasher’s songs here focus on acceptance and the struggle of growing up. Autobiographical narratives about drinking and playing childish relationship games squarely spotlight his weaknesses, but he seems cognizant of how immature it all is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeaRM4_LcUs

The Good Life is Kasher expunging personal demons, and it’s easy to be drawn in, whether by fascination or relatability. Although the band hasn’t released any material since Kasher’s 2007 soundtrack to an unfinanced screenplay, *Help Wanted Nights* (Saddle Creek), the foursome struck up an impromptu tour for the love of it. Music is Kasher’s life and he is livin’ it.

THE GOOD LIFE
With the Parson Red Heads, the Contrail
9 p.m., $12, 21+
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St, SF
(415) 621-4455
www.bottomofthehill.com/

Live Shots: Air Guitar Championships, Fillmore, 06/05/2010

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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0

I’ve been to plenty of concerts in my life, and I’ve seen some pretty wild shows in various states of consciousness. That being said, nothing could have prepared me for this year’s Air Guitar Regional Championships at the Fillmore.

For those who don’t know, the Air Guitar championships are where bunch of costumed Air virtuosos compete for this title of the Best Air Guitarist and a chance to compete in the National finals in New York, and a chance to represent the good ol’ US of A in the world championship in Finland. With official rules and judging criteria, serious air performers have to do more than just wave their arms around to their favorite guitar based rock.

Serious competitors require some (if not all) the following: A guitar driven song that will resonate with the crowd/judges, a name that exudes rock, a ridiculous outfit, a collection of props, costumed assistants, dance moves, and the ability to rock the crowd. That’s not to say having all of the above will lead to success, as this years judges were especially tough (and tougher the more drinks they had). A high concept presentation may make the crowd excited, but a bring a weak performance and be ready to dodge a beer bottles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyyng2ictZE

This year’s crop of competitors ranged from last years regional champion simply named “Awesome” to more surreal characters such as Singar the Goat Demon (with goat legs and horns), Crusher (a mashup of everything KISS), Captain Nowhere (a 70’s glam rock throwback complete with cape), and Snake Riffskin (complete with eyepatch and arrow in his leg) among others.

While the performances varied from rocktackular to downright painful, the overall showcase was a pretty wild experience complete with an abundance of surprises. Stage dives were performed (both intentional and not), drinks were thrown with abandon, clothes were torn off, bouncy balls rained down from the sky, and the crowd yelled louder than most “real” concerts. And after the dust settled we were given a new regional champion in Cold Steel Renegade.

That’s what I think makes this event so much fun. We’ve all been to the concert where the band doesn’t seem like they want to be there and perform accordingly. The Air Guitar Championships are the complete opposite, All the performers WANT to be on that stage. They WANT to rock you (if only for their 60 seconds). However the best part of the night was the close out song, in which all the performers and anyone who wanted to jump on stage got to perform together in an explosion of air guitar greatness. Try doing that at the next concert you attend.

Get HEALTH-y with some noise disco

John Elberling
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0
Get HEALTH-y with some noise disco

By Peter Galvin

When the massive drums make their entrance on the first track of Get Color (Lovepump United), you’d be forgiven for thinking that HEALTH is a metal band. These L.A. electro-punks — playing Wed/9 at Slim’s — are noisy! There’s also a beauty in the reverberations of those drums, echoing over and over in the background of HEALTH’s tracks, and it makes their music more than a little spine-tingly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWZxThGh5wQ&has_verified=1

But HEALTH aren’t really metal, and they’re more likely to be lumped in with the emergent electronic noise scene thanks to their 2007 remix of Crystal Castles’ breakout hit “Crimewave.” The comparison is apt, not just because both bands can bank their successes on the same song, but because the sounds of both are so discordant. Where Crystal Castles make noisy electronic music, HEALTH makes electronic noise, playing with grating machine sounds and textures in ways that question what it is that makes most music appealing in the first place. There’s no way to listen to HEALTH at low volume, you gotta crank it up, so I have to believe that seeing them live will be even better.

HEALTH
With Indian Jewelry, Gold Panda
Wed/9, 8 p.m., $15
Slim’s
333 11th St, SF
(415) 255-0333
www.slims-sf.com

 

Gaga over Gaga: Madge stands in for Alejandro

John Elberling
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1
Gaga over Gaga: Madge stands in for Alejandro

By Katie Gaydos

Swapping diamond dripping lingerie (a la “Bad Romance”) for nude-colored underwear and trading faux-Technicolor (a la “Telephone”) for black and white, the new music video “Alejandro” goes where no Gaga video has gone before. For that alone I’ll applaud it. But where’s the over-the-top burlesque, borderline grotesque fashion sensibility we’ve come to know and love?

Under the direction of fashion photographer Steven Klein (who’s worked with Madonna in the past), the visual aesthetic of “Alejandro” seems slightly toned down compared to Lady Gaga’s previous videos. As the camera scans Gaga holding a vintage calabash pipe, wearing a black Elizabethan ruff, steampunk goggles, and a heart shaped crown, it’s apparent that fashion plays a big role in “Alejandro.” Yet Gaga’s neo-Victorian look, while complimenting the video’s bleak, post-industrial vibe, is undeniably less exciting and less fun than the diamond studded Alexander McQueen stilettos and smoldering cigarette sunglasses we’ve seen before. Even the featured red leather nun habit and cross-on-crotch catholic tunic, while controversial, lack imagination.

In addition to the fashion letdown, the video as a whole doesn’t make much sense. The allusion to Madonna’s music video “Express Yourself” along with the Madonna-esque dance scene, complete with black pantsuit and rifle reinvention of Madge’s iconic cone bra, prove to be both visually and choreographically stunning. Unfortunately it’s not clear what channeling Madonna has to do with the video’s preoccupation with homosexuality in a catholic context. Gaga seems more infatuated with Madge than she does with Alejandro. Speaking of Alejandro, where is he anyway? Is he one of the many shirtless soldiers sporting bowl haircuts? Or is he the straight-faced man sporting a leather suit and cop hat at the end of the video?

Regardless of its disjointed plot, “Alejandro” does have its sparkling moments. Let’s not forget (like we could even if we wanted to) the highly erotic bed scene where Gaga writhes, grinds and rides her entourage of high-heel clad men. Our “Queen of Spectacle” certainly knows how to command a camera!

At the end of the day there’s no question Gaga outshines her fellow pop star peers in terms of creative music videos. After all, who else could rock skin-tone underwear with minimal eye make-up? Sadly, despite all the hype leading up to it’s highly anticipated release, “Alejandro” doesn’t quite trump Lady Gaga’s previous videos. The question still remains then: what will it take to outdo herself?

Love, danger, and the enjoyable lightness of Delorean

John Elberling
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3
Love, danger, and the enjoyable lightness of Delorean

On Subiza, Barcelona’s Delorean best all the other acclaimed bands (Tough Alliance, jj) who’ve resurrected the spirit of Madchester, creating something exhilarating with a poignant undertow. Before last weekend’s French Open final, I posted member Ekhi Lopetegi’s thoughts on Rafael Nadal. Now, on the eve of a Thurs/10 performance at Popscene, it’s time for the rest of the interview with Lopetegi, whose relaxed cadences, cigarette voice and thoughtful answers made for a pleasurable conversation.

SFBG One review of Subiza described it as “luminiscent,” and I thought that word was fitting. Were you trying for that kind of effect within the album’s sound?
Ekhi Lopetegi It was a conscious choice. Not that you sit down to try and make a bright, luminescent sound, but there is a feeling or atmosphere you are looking for, and when the record’s on, you recognize you’ve found it. We wanted to make it bright, but not silly. We wanted the sound of enthusiasm.

SFBG “Grow” is one of my favorite songs on the album. The melody is quite immediate and catchy, but it’s also complicated, and so is the sentiment of the song. Could you tell me more about it?
EL It’s one of my favorites. We built this song out of a sample of a British pop rock band, Prefab Sprout.

SFBG I love Prefab Sprout.
EL It’s a sample from the song “Bonny” (from Steve McQueen, 1985). We started to sing over the sample, and build from there. It’s a completely different song. I like the lyrics and the vocals and how it blows up.
There’s a line taken from Holderlin, “Where danger grows, well that’s what it saves.” It’s about love, and keeping up with it. It’s ambiguous — it can save you and also put you in a situation of total danger.

SFBG Some of my favorite songs on Subiza, like “Grow” and “Real Love,” use a female vocal sample as a hook. Was that a conscious decision when writing and recording?
EL We love female vocal samples. We usually use (samples from music) libraries. We’ll take a line, chop it, reverse it, transpose it, pitch it up, pitch it down. It’s almost like homework. We make our own melody.
In “Real Love,” the melody is made from chopped-up vocal samples. In the end, we have this melody that usually works almost as a theme. A lot of songs are built out of this — a small loop. We keep on working until we’ve made a song.

SFBG It might be cliche to reduce what’s happening in Barcelona to a scene, but I wanted to ask you about music there right now, and about Pablo Díaz-Reixa of El Guincho and Coconot, because I’m also a big fan of his music.
EL We love El Guincho. He’s a great musician. A real one. I honestly admire him. We aren’t close friends, but we know each other.
The scene in Barcelona is very vivid, very heterogeneous and spread out. It’s not totally united, but it’s a community. Extraperlo, who El Guincho produced, are an amazing band. We’re all doing our own thing, we each have our own universe.

SFBG The photo collage of the band on the sleeve of Subiza remind me a bit of a recent movie by Albert Serra. Do you like him, or other contemporary Spanish directors like José Luis Guerin?
EL To be honest I don’t know much about Spanish cinema. Though one director I’d really like to start watching is Victor Erice.

SFBG He’s great.
EL I don’t like Spanish cinema as much as films from other countries. My favorite two directors are John Cassavetes and Werner Herzog. To me, they’re the two most important ones who I’ll always watch.

SFBG I’m ending with a subject that you probably hear about too often, but I’ll try to talk about it in a different way. New Order has been an influence for Delorean, but more than that, I’m struck by how hugely influential New Order is on a lot of music being made today. Last year I thought their influence had crested with bands like Memory Tapes, but here we are in 2010 and I’m hearing their spirit and sound in a lot of good music right now. What do you think of them?
EL New Order is always going to be an influence on us. They definitely were a great influence in the past. We identify with them.
They were the first punk band that literally embraced house music. They started to use electronic stuff, not just keyboards and synths, but (instruments used to make) house music and club music. They’re very down to earth at the same time — they’re not fancy people. Their shows are shitty. They’re a bunch of hooligans trying to make great music. We don’t listen to them as much as we used to, but I feel very close to them in a certain way. Not that I like to do shitty shows, but I embrace their attitude.

SFBG What are you listening to now?
EL I’ve been listening to a lot of Roedelius and Cluster. Last year, a lot of Anna Domino, Cocteau Twins, Durutti Column and UK funky dubstep. And Cubahia — my friends here in the States listen to a lot of it.

DELOREAN
With Teengirl Fantasy
Thurs/10, 9pm, sold out (a limited number of tickets will be available at the door)
330 Ritch, SF
www.myspace.com/delorean

Live Review: Holy Ghost!, Fillmore, 6/3/2010

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Live Review: Holy Ghost!, Fillmore, 6/3/2010

By Peter Galvin

While much of the mainstream is still poking fun at the hair bands and taking pot-shots at the easy-listening fluff, the ’80s have snuck back in for a full-on revival. Kids who grew up in the decade of Ninja Turtles and parachute pants surely have the fondest memories, and two of those kids play poker-faced homages to the era as Holy Ghost! Full of flashy synths and smooth vocals, Holy Ghost goes a step beyond the copycat ambiance of Ariel Pink or the sly winking of Francis and the Lights or Chromeo, passing up tongue-in-cheek for reverence.


The band played a flawless five song set in the opening slot for LCD Soundsystem on Thursday night, with the duo of Alex Frankel and Nick Millhiser filling out to six members who played it tight and close to the vest. Drum conversations between Millhiser and Frankel were synched perfectly, their clean sound much better suited to a live setting than headphones. Five songs felt a bit short, but, with just the Static on the Wire EP (DFA) out, it may well have been the extent of the band’s music at this point.

With the draw of the headliner the way James Murphy injects contempo beats onto ’70s art-rock music, Holy Ghost!’s deadpan renditions may have been too much for The Fillmore’s more mainstream concert-goers. Reading the hesitation in the crowd, Millhiser spoke little and thanked the audience “for sitting through our set” before launching into their final song of the night. Inclusion on the DFA roster guarantees any band a ton of reviews and buzz, but I wonder if joining LCD Soundsystem on their US tour will win Holy Ghost! many fans of their own in the long run. I’d certainly love to see them return as headliners.

Hot air: The passion and Hot Lixx of air guitar

John Elberling
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Hot air: The passion and Hot Lixx of air guitar

By Zach Ritter

Someday, an enterprising cultural archivist is going to compile a history of air-musicianship. I’ve got to assume that the phenomenon long predates the headbanging era. Maybe it’s just because I get a kick out of imagining top-hatted fops sawing away on invisible violins, but the instinct to mime an instrument just seems so natural that I have to assume people have been doing it for centuries. I mean, nobody teaches you air guitar. When you hear a sufficiently righteous riff, the hands just take over.

Which is why, at first, the idea of a national Air Guitar Championship seems so counterintuitive. Air guitar’s not supposed to be something you practice. You do it when you’re drunk at a concert, between shouts of “Freebird.” You do it in front of your bedroom mirror, with the door securely locked.

But at the same time, there’s a certain brilliance to the idea of formalized, stadium-centric air guitar performances. Air guitar is rock and roll stripped down to its pure, unpretentious essence — it’s the ultimate triumph of style over substance, swagger over scales. So bear that in mind when you go to the Sat/5 SF round of the US Air Guitar Championships at the Fillmore. The airy axmen and axwomen who’ll be competing are, in a very real sense, the true descendents of Page and Hendrix. With apologies to Don Mclean, these people believe in rock and roll, and that music can save your mortal soul. Prepare accordingly.

Hot Lixx Hulahan, the 2008 Air Guitar World Champion and current top contender in the nationals:

 

Delorean is pulling for Rafa

John Elberling
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Delorean is pulling for Rafa

Soon I’ll be posting my interview with Ekhi Lopetegi of the Barcelona group Delorean, whose new album Subiza might be the year’s most resplendent. Lopetegi had things to say about luminsecent atmosphere, building songs from vocal samples, the greatness of Prefab Sprout, the rewards and dangers of love, and the rude brilliance of New Order, as well as the looseness of Barcelona’s community of musicians. But for the sake of timeliness, I’m posting his thoughts on Rafael Nadal, before Nadal faces his arch-nemesis and the only player to have beaten him at Roland Garros, Robin Soderling, in the Sunday final of the French Open.

Clay-court tennis brings out nationalistic partisanship. When I interviewed the Björn Borg-influenced Swedish-born electronic duo Tennishero, they made their antipathy for Nadal clear, and Soderling, an entirely different style of player from Borg’s homeland, is now on the brink of wresting control of the clay courts away from Nadal and Spanish dominance. But Lopetegi’s thoughts were a bit more reflective.

SFBG Are you rooting for Nadal to win the French? Do you like him?

EKHI LOPETEGI I was just doing an interview in which the guy asked if I wanted him to win. I definitely was pretty sad when Nadal got injured and struggled for a while and couldn’t find his game. His playing — I like the way he plays, it’s pretty raw, strong and intense. He needs to master his energies better and he has been working on that.

Federer is very classy, like a ballet dancer. Nadal is like a working class player.

I like sports. It’s not just about people competing, it’s something else as well. We’re big soccer fans, and Barcelona and Madrid represent two completely different styles and ideas of what soccer means.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vrm436HtZQ

 

You down with ICP? The perils and wisdom of being just a Juggalo in 2010

John Elberling
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You down with ICP? The perils and wisdom of being just a Juggalo in 2010

By Zach Ritter

Do you remember the first time you heard of Insane Clown Posse? What was your reaction? Did you laugh? Recoil in horror? Or did you thank the trickster gods of pop culture for allowing such a band to exist?

Now, when confronted with a pair of sneering rappers in greasepaint who call themselves Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, most people are going to resort to mockery. It’s really the only reasonable response. At the same time, though, it’s beginning to seem as if the whole cottage industry of ridicule that’s sprung up around the band has jumped the shark. Yes, ICP are absurd. Yes, the elaborate “Dark Carnival” mythology that surrounds their albums is profoundly stupid. These are facts, and few non-Juggalos would dispute them. At this point, though, even SNL is doing ICP-themed sketches, which I think is a pretty good indication that the joke has run its course.

So instead of mocking ICP, I instead invite you to consider the implications of their fame. There are few American bands that can lay claim to a fanbase as dedicated as ICP’s Juggalos. It’s possible that this has something to do with misery loving company — the more critically scorned a band becomes, the more its fans close ranks, drawing defiant strength from their shared marginality. But I think there are other forces at work here. ICP can be justly accused of a lot of aesthetic sins, but insincerity isn’t one of them.

This is a bigger deal than it might seem. “Legitimacy” in music has become an increasingly fraught concept, especially in the irony-suffused world of indie rock. A lot of music fans seem to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out whether or not their favorite bands are pulling one over on them. Juggalos don’t have that problem. Juggalos know that J and Shaggy mean, with all their hearts, every last word of the goofy shit they spout on their albums. Case in point: the following video. Either these guys are the most sincere lunatics ever to rock a mike, or they’re the greatest surrealist comics of our time.

So when ICP rolls into San Francisco on June 5, and the Juggalo legions descend upon the Warfield, you might want to actually check out their show. I’m not saying that you’ll have an unironic good time, but you might figure out something that everyone else has missed.

INSANE CLOWN POSSE
With Kottonmouth Kings, Coolio, Kittie, and Necro
Sat/5, 7 p.m. (doors 6 p.m.), $32.50-$35
The Warfield
982 Market, SF
(800) 745-3000
www.ticketmaster.com

 

Oakland hosts Buzz band

John Elberling
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Oakland hosts Buzz band

By Sam Stander

First-wave British punk’s pop geniuses the Buzzcocks have been reunited for some time now, currently sporting two members from the band’s heyday in the late ’70s, guitarist-vocalists Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle. They’re passing through the East Bay on Fri/4, at Oakland’s Uptown, backed by pop-punkers the Dollyrots. It’s their only Bay Area stop on this go-round, and a surprisingly small venue for such a heroic act. Buzzcocks monopolize a distinctive mixture of frankness and enthusiasm that still trumps their countless teen-bop imitators, and any chance to see them even at this late date should be relished. Videos (now and then) and show info after the jump.

 

THE BUZZCOCKS

With Images
8:30 p.m. (doors), $35
The Uptown
1928 Telegraph, Oakland
www.uptownnightclub.com

Snap Sounds: Kisses

John Elberling
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Snap Sounds: Kisses

To name a song “Midnight Lover” is ambitious, and perhaps dangerous. A song with a title so classically charged with sex and romance had better deliver. Luckily, this track from Kisses’ upcoming album Heart of the Nightlife (Surround Sound) possesses enough swoon-worthiness to compensate for its relative lack of lust. This duo is romantic, and has the disco credentials – love of Cerrone and Gino Soccio; tutelage under Alec R. Constandinos – to deliver the sleek seduction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKRagSW56Os

Vegans and vegetarians might not like a chorus come-on that hinges on the appeal of an invitation to a “nice steak dinner,” but Jesse Kivel’s Jens Lekmanesque croon makes the sentiment hard to resist. (It’s also timely, what with Tracey Thorn calling out Lekman by name on the first track of her new album and singing a duet with him later.) Of course, Lekman covered a song by the true tremulous source of the waves of indie-tinged electronic pop and electronic-tinged indie pop in recent years: namely, Arthur Russell. No one to date has matched Russell’s emotional purity, but Kisses might be my favorite of his children-in-waiting because of the way Kivel manages to at least approximate the simple tenderness of Russell’s lyricism. He zeroes in on the feeling of happiness that occurs when one realizes old friends aren’t lost, or that an affair is on the horizon. In this case, perhaps a vacation resort sunset horizon rather than a hazy one on Russell’s urban pier haunting and cruising grounds..

Kisses’ first release “Bermuda” is a strong contender for my favorite song of spring-into-summer, and with this one, the twosome has got another in the running. Inspired in part by Kivel’s past gig as a travel writer, the loneliness of a luxury vagabond life seems to be a theme of Kivel’s and Zinzi Edmundson’s album. I’m ready to dive into Heart of the Nightlife.

 

“Beach, fun, drinks, girls, and a good time”: Chico Trujillo is your Memorial hangover cure

Andrew Lam
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Thank you holiday weekend, you have memorialized whatever brain cells and desire to integrate into the everyday world of not being drunk by 2 p.m. I still had left. I suppose it was a fair trade for all the lovely memories that I of course won’t remember. Shall we turn then, to something fun that’s happening this upcoming weekend (Fri/4 La Peña Cultural Center) to keep us going? A lovely South American cumbia party that goes by the name of Chico Trujillo? Hurry, before sobriety catches you, cue the mp3 and hold on for the interview! 

Click here, then proceed.

Now that the tunes are swirling through those alcohol and sunshine wasted synapses — a note of historical significance. For those who have never ratcheted their hips to a sensual beat on a cobblestone colonial street, cumbia originated in the wilds of Colombia. It was originally played for courtship rituals by the area’s enslaved African population. Throughout the years, cumbia’s rolling stone gathered snippets of the culture around it, rhythms from the indigenous Colombians, the use of European instruments, etc, etc. Let’s just say it was adept at bringing people together to party.

Chico Trujillo (who are good old chicos from Chile), inherited this mish-mash legacy, and saw it the addition of ska — a fact which imparts an evident swagger to their most recent release, Chico de Oro. Although on the whole, Chilean cumbia’s been ceding its popularity to the ear drum exploding beats of reggaeton, Chico Trujillo’s gigs still get crazy and light roofs on fire, I guess symbolically speaking. 

Heartened by how cool it’s proven itself to be in the homeland, Chico’s now taking its show to Gringolandia — they’ll be rocking the stage at La Peña Cultural Center as part of that East Bay progressive organization’s 35th anniversary party. I chatted with the band recently via email, and their responses, I guarantee, will make that first day back on your grind a little smoother to jibe with.

 

San Francisco Bay Guardian: I’ve heard that most of your shows in Chile sell out. They sound like amazing parties. What makes a good party, in your opinion? 

Chico Trujillo: In Chile, a good party means the best loud music, best drinks, nicest women (and men, I guess), and everybody dancing and singing. But I think that is a good party anywhere. And yes, all of our shows sell out.

 

SFBG: Oh my. What makes cumbia so awesome?

CT: Its simplicity, and its hypnotizing effect on the people. Once we start, the people just can’t stop, and neither can we.

 

SFBG: Tell us about the social issues you touch on in your music. Do you consider yourselves activists?

CT: As human beings, we consider ourselves activists, and are very concerned with social issues happening in Chile. Although we may not always agree with the “left” all the time (and almost never with the “right”), we do actively participate in events that we feel are important. [There’s] a lot of things concerning the environment in Chile, the native people’s rights there, etc. We just arrived in the US, and have seen non-stop on the TV things about the oil spill.  We would love to do something, anything to help that out. But as for our lyrics, and the music of Chico Trujillo, well, they speak more to the utopian ideals that we have of beach, fun, drinks, girls, and a good time, a break from the real world – [which is] the only things people should think about when we hit the stage. If everyone lived by the lyrics of Chico Trujillo, the world would be a better place…

Chico Trujillo feat. Tokezon

8-10 p.m., $15-18

La Peña Cultural Center

3105 Shattuck, Berkl. 

(510) 849-2568

www.lapena.org

Live Shots: SF Bay Area Labor Heritage Rockin’ Solidarity Chorus, City College, 5/27/2010

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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0

My auntie Yam is the ultimate SF activist, along with my mom, a.k.a. Snorkel Mom. The two of them are always out together, advocating for single-payer health care, participating in anti-war rallies, sharing new organic gardening techniques with each other, and attending all day lectures on Earth Day. I’ve learned so much from both of them, and I’m always awed by their commitment to change and their strong visions for a better world. So when auntie Yam invited me to go see her Labor Chorus perform at City College, I knew I was in for an uplifting and exciting show.

The SF Bay Area Labor Heritage Rockin’ Solidarity Chorus is no ordinary chorus. Their songs are dynamic and at times even hilarious, crying our for peace and justice for every worker. Labor songs go back over a hundred years and are the perfect combination of melody and spunkiness to get union workers riled up and excited as they unite for their cause.

The performance at City College was no different. Some of my favorite sing-alongs were “Bring Back My Factory to Me,” based of the traditional Scottish folk song “My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean” and an adapted version of Ted Warmbrand’s “Who’s the Criminal Here” that included lines about the Arizona police and questions like “And you, now, were you native born?” It’s true that this chorus sings some classic, almost antiquey songs, and yet they are all so relevant and necessary to our world today.

Thank you auntie Yam and Snorkel Mom for teaching me how to be a strong and conscientious citizen!

And now, just as the performance ended last night, let’s all join together and sing solidarity forever!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYiKdJoSsb8

Birds & Batteries move out of the fog and into the bright light

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Birds & Batteries move out of the fog and into the bright light

Part haunted house, half honky-tonk and a lot of freak funk, the sounds emitted via San Francisco band Birds & Batteries— playing Fri/28 at Rickshaw Stop— is a mixed bag of awesome that seems to come from a questionable place. Drug trade, mental instability and disturbing sadness inhabited the streets below band member Mike Sempert’s former apartment in the Tenderloin and crept into his songwriting with dark undertones. Now that he’s officially transplanted to greener grass in Oakland, the only thing creepin’ into the band’s new tunes is a little sunshine. 

Sempert and his band of three, Jill Heinke, Christoper Walsh and Brian Michelson, have been playing as Birds and Batteries since 2005, but last year’s killer EP, Up To No Good (Eightmaps, 2009) was especially stocked with magic and spook. Electronic elements churn beneath salty guitars and rusty keys, and even the song titles, “The Villain” and “Out of the Woods” give hints of shadows in the night and goosebumps. A group of hipsters with a dark side?

“A lot of things were happening at the same time…The financial upheaval. World events. And living in the Tenderloin with my girlfriend– I was confronted on a daily basis with scary, sad things. It definitely influenced the sound a bit,” Sempert says, explaining the band’s minor feel. 

Touring, writing more songs, keeping spirits high and transporting life to a less depressing neighborhood, Sempert reports Birds and Batteries new album, to be released this summer, is more on the “dancey-quirky side.” 

“It’s a more open sound with more major keys. More folk-Americana,” he says to my disbelief, and I’m worried he’s been getting too many rays in Oakland. “It will be more uplifting.”

Like a moody teenager, Birds and Batteries feels emotions in waves– currently it’s a tidal wave of happy…with a nice bronze glow. 

“The sunshine…ahh, ya. It’s much better than the fog…and heroin addiction.”

 

 

Birds & Batteries

Fri/28, 10pm, $12

Rickshaw Stop

155 Fell, SF

www.rickshawstop.com

Party Radar: Strap yourself in for the long weekend

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Party Radar: Strap yourself in for the long weekend

This week, I took advantage of our Video Issue to gush in the Super Ego column about some digital developments in Clubland that fascinate me. But of course upon us comes the three-day bonanza known as Memorial Weekend to the outside world (Blackout McBlackety-Blackout Weekend to party peeps). So here’s a few picks to guide you tipsily down the Memorial Hole. Rat your wig and grip that PBR, because here we go. And check out our Weekly Picks for more craziness.

First to get you in the mood while you read this, here’s a primo mix from one of my new fave “fun time” DJs, Alex Niggemann, suitable for throwing down, vogueing, or just doing up your go-out mascara:

 

Alex Niggemann Live @ Soulfooled, Watergate, Berlin – 14-04-2010 by R_co

(Feeling deeper? Try this Snobo mix. Or just bhangra out of control.)

MISS HONEY

Get real, get fierce, get runway ($200 cash prize for voguers who rule) at the one year anniversary of this kiki favorite all the children flock to. DJs Errol, Chelsea Starr, Nikki B. play an interesting melange of the danceable — ironic pop to disco depths. Domonique and Artist Malcolm Drake preside over the ovah.

Fri/28, 10pm-3am, $7. Supperclub, 657 Harrison, SF. www.supperclub.com


NEW 7TH HEAVEN ROLLER DISCO II

Bump hips and try not to trip when you strap into your skates and go for a wild, wild ride at Mezzanine. DJs Chris Orr, Conor, Jordan, and BT Magnum give you the spins. Plus best promo ever: “What do you get when you take 23 afros, 37 scrunchies, 19 side ponytails, 45 satin bomber jackets, 132 knee socks, 240 bootie shorts, 3 fog blasters, 18 lasers, 52 sexy disco cuts, put them in an open spaced industrial warehouse space, shake it up, a drizzle of neon, a sprinkle of glitter, and a smorgasbord of wheels?” My Tuesday?

Fri/28, 9pm, $7. Mezzanine, 444 Jessie, SF. www.mezzaninesf.com

SOME THING

It’s DJ Down-E’s birthday, and a gaggle of alternadrag queens will be flocking to the stage for “Some Thing Special” to pay tribute. Faux King Awesome, Beth Amphetamine, Glamamore, Phatima, and so many more will help blow out the candles. DJs Hoku Mama Swamp and Juanita More put on party hits.

Fri/28, 10pm-4am (shows at 11 and midnight), $5. The Stud, 399 9th Street, SF. www.studsf.com

STACEY PULLEN

The Kosmik Messenger of Detroit techno flies in with his mindblowing combination of tribal soul and electronic forward-thinking. I’ve known him and heard him for about 21 years now, and he never fails to delight, deepen, and surprise.

Fri/28, 10pm-4am, $10. Teple, 540 Howard, SF. www.templesf.com

TEENAGE DANCE CRAZE– LIVE!

DJs Sergio Iglesias, Russell Quan, and dXXX bring on the old old school (we’re talking Motown, rockabilly, and French 60s pop here) for a hip and giddy crowd — and enliven it with a live performance from the Teenage Dance Craze house band. Kids keep swingin’.

Fri/28, 10pm, $4. The Knockout, 3223 Mission, SF. www.knockoutsf.com

BOYZ NOIZE

Trust, no Zs when this banger invades Mighty. Not quite an all-out electro overloader — he throws in some subtle, even disco-y effects — but yeah, he’s a bit of joyous nutso. OK, I changed my mind, there will be overload. Freaky overload.

Sat/29, 10pm-very late. $20. Mighty, 119 Utah, SF. www.mighty119.com

SIXXTEEN’S CHERRY BOMB PROM!

Rock it. Roll it. Blow it up! One of SF’s most “cherished” (punny, maybe!) rock ‘n roll extravaganzas returns for prom-prom-prom. Dressed in your finest fucked-up formal wear and lose it sublime. Lusty Ladies dance, Merkley??? hosts, Nicky Bangles performs, Lady Bear serves, nuns are there, and DJs Omar, Jenny, and a hell-heaven host of others rip up the tables. Tons of prizes awarded to nuttiest prommers — including Prom King, Biggest Queen, Class Slut and Stud. Why do I keep typing “porn” instead of “prom”?

Sat/29, 9pm-3am, $10. Cat Club, 1190 Folsom, SF. www.sfcatclub.com

TABOO: THE NEW JOURNEY

DJ David Harness‘s classic soulful house affair is back this weekend, at SOM. This should have an amazing and diverse crowd of deep lovers in it for the dance, not the showin’ off.

Sat/29, 9:30pm-4am, $10. SOM, 2925 16th Street, SF. www.som-bar.com

CHICKENBEAR

The whole gay “identify with an animal” thing has gone too far. Let’s mock it by taking it farther! Mica and Walter host this Sunday evening homo “in between” party at the Powerhouse (sexy!) to “get wild.” Tons of kooky funsters and drink specials expected. Music by DJ Dirty Knees. Plus this: “Wanna be the reigning CHICKENBEAR? Then practice your mating call and get ready to strut your stuff for a CASH prize! You can get some pointers from our feral gogo dancers!” CASH. It’s a theme.

Sun/30, 7pm-11pm, $5. Powerhouse, 1347 Folsom, SF. www.powerhouse-sf.com

HONEY WITH SPUN

The Honey Soundsystem boys are bringing in fabulous disco-house spinner DJ Spun from Rong Music for their “extended Memorial Day mix.” Goddess help us all.

Sun/30, 6:30pm-2:30pm, $3. paradise Lounge, 1501 Folsom, SF. www.paradisesf.com

 LIGHTS DOWN LOW

The too-hip electro free-for-all is back for jamz. The awesome HOTTUB rap trio tears off their clothes, DJ Them Jeans from LA provides some gonzo (yet pretty keenly smart) slices, and our two biggest saw-wave table-ravers Richie Panic and Sleazemore flash their pearly jaws.

Sun/30, 9pm, $10. Triple Crown, 1172 Market, SF. www.triplecrownsf.com

STOMPY+SUNSET JAMBOREE

Smooth house hero Kevin Yost returns, and hometown kings Solar, J-Bird, Galen, Deron, and Tasho (with a headlining appearance by Lance DeSardi) make it work at this marathon bonkers outdoor-patio Beat-BQ (you can eat til six), brought to us by the delerious Pacific Sound. You could lose a day here, easy.

Sun/30, 2pm-2am, $10. Cocomo, 650 Indiana, SF. www.cafecocomo.com

SWEATER FUNK

This regular Sunday night party is so cute I don’t know what to do with it. If you like to boogie — and I don’t say that ironically, it gets funky and sweaty in the basement of Li Po — then join E Da Boss, Eddy Bauer, and the Sweater Funk crew for some lively, local, laidback-attitude times. Sweeet.

Sun/30, 9pm, free. Li Po Lounge, 916 Grant, SF.

Lovely fade: Elisa Randazzo teams with local musicmakers for ‘Bruises and Butterflies’

Site Mover
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Love and loss and an unfaltering creative spirit appear to inform Elisa Randazzo’s new album, Bruises and Butterflies (Drag City). Her marriage to ex- Josh Schwartz, once of Beachwood Sparks and her partner in Fairechild, may be over, but Randazzo has found plenty of other talents to commune with.

The fashion designer and onetime violinist and vocalist for Red Krayola befriended British folk cult icon Bridget St. John three years ago, and their friendship has led to such haunting songwriting collaborations as the fluttering, autumnal “He Faded.” Randazzo — the daughter of ‘60s songwriters Teddy Randazzo (“It’s Gonna Take a Miracle,” “Hurt So Bad”) and Victoria Pike — found her ideal accompanists among like-minded Bay Area musicians such as Wymond Miles, John Hofer, Shayde Sartin, and Joe Goldmark.

Swept away with pedal steel, dobro, and cello and urged along by Hammond organ, Fender Rhodes, and a legion of acoustic guitars, Randazzo sounds as if she’s shooting for the kind of pop transcendence that her father could understand on such songs as “Colors,” as she intones, “I could ask every friend in sight / Jump a plane, so I could travel light / But who would know the color of my love? / Remind me of the things I’m givin’ up.” But from the lightly levitating sound of Bruises and Butterflies and its cover image of a serene idol licked by flames, I have the feeling she’s aiming even higher. 

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