By Johnny Ray Huston
AIR FRANCE
No Way Down EP
(Sincerely Yours)
With the Honeydrips, Tough Alliance, jj, and this group, the Sincerely Yours label has established itself as Sweden’s chief castle of indie pop. "Collapsing at Your Doorstep" and "No Excuses" could be outtakes from Saint Etienne’s Foxbase Alpha (Heavenly, 1991), and ain’t nothing wrong with that.
Air France, “No Excuses”
By Marke B.
Oh DJ Mykill, let’s just jam
There are a lot of very intriguing parties going on this weekend, featuring a lot of disco and everything else from soulful house to funky old-school techno. But if you’re just in the mood to get wasted with some hip-dressed like minds to some impeccably mixed “straight-up party jams” on a Friday night — and not be mobbed by either fake boobs or mall gays (I can’t guarantee this, but that’s what my crystal ball is slurring) — then you could do worse than to hit up the I Am DJ party at 1015 Folsom, with Panic City, DJ Mykill, and JSanty.
Look, I know irony’s supposed to be dead — and how else are you going to survive an attack of LMFAO and 3OH!3 electro mixes (plus maybe a little crunked-up Britney?) without a pinch of “what the fuck? Why not, I guess.” But sometimes we all just need a break from either the fabulous abstractitude or out-there vaults rarities that contemporary underground dance floors often present us with, and this joint’s my pick to let loose to the sounds of KMEL meets Energy 92.7 — especially if the effervescent DJ Mykill is behind the decks. (And I have to say that there’s actually a lot going on in electro-dance-crunk-pop-trance-or-whatever mixes — diminished twelfths, anyone?)
Just skip the bottle service. Below is a Mykill mix to test your tolerance. (He plays a lot of other stuff too, and even name-checked the obscure ’90s rave white label “Brown Acid,” rumored to be by Underworld, in a recent interview. So that’s all right.):
DJ Mykill: Club Killers
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?rz3wiytjmnm
I Am DJ
Fri/4, 10pm, free before 11, $5-$10 after
1015 Folsom, SF
www.1015.com
By Johnny Ray Huston
Dark Rift
(Lovepump United)
Tweaker pop from Denver’s Travis Egedy, this crystal cathedral of sound will have you trying out ’80s new romantic dances in its prismatic mirrors. Industrial-tinged but quite melodic, it creates panicky backing vox from split-second samples of girl pop — Kylie Minogue, is that you, ABBA, and Stevie Nicks trapped Poltergeist-like in "Goth Star"’s spectral tunnel? — while invoking boys in makeup.
Pictureplane, “Trance Doll”
By Marke B.
The xx
(Young Turks)
A sublime entanglement of negative space, lithesome riffs, and raw sentiment delivered by mush-mouthed lead vocalists Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sims, this xx-cellent debut by the young rock quartet gleams the post-everything cube. Tracks “Basic Space,” “Islands,” and “Crystallized” could be the anthems of a less-virtual, more physical generation of emotional wonderers — even as the instrumentation and weird engagement-through-detachment mood hearkens back to the early New Order. (Justin Timberlake and Tracy and the Plastics are listed as influences).
The xx, “Basic Space”
By Kimberly Chun
Relaxing too hard this Labor Day weekend? Get the blood moving at these musical happenings – so much more than we could fit in print.
AC/DC
The Aussies are slipping on Black Ice and into the record books as the fifth best-selling band in US history. With Answer. Wed/2, 8 p.m., $92.50. HP Pavilion, 525 W. Santa Clara, San Jose. www.livenation.com
All photos by el fotografo clandestino
Cuckoo for M.I.A.
John Vanderslice
Calexico
Calexico
Calexico
Modest Mouse
All photos by el fotografo clandestino
Outsidestock
Nortec Collective
Nortec Collective
Street Sweeper Social Club
Street Sweeper Social Club
Street Sweeper Social Club
By Marke B.
I have a soft-spot in my cold, cold heart for East Bay electro-funk duo Wallpaper — I grin at their catchy-kooky antics, and whatever wrong rub I get from the pair’s unironic frat-boy sentiments (“If I wasn’t me, I’d date myself”) is quickly sanded off by the amount of beguiling musical ideas in their songs. I’m still working my way through my advance copy of their new Eenie Meenie LP, Doodoo Face (see what I mean about the level of humor here?), and I’ll have more thoughts on it before it hits stores on 9/22. For now though, here’s Wallpaper’s latest — you can judge for yourself. It could be a giant statement about the loneliness of a crowded dance floor, it could just be a party jam. It’s kind of both to me. Plus, they totally sample themselves.
Wallpaper, “I Got Soul, I’m So Wasted”
Wallpaper
Doodoo Face record release party
w/ HOTTUB
Sat/26, 9pm, 18+
$10 over 21/$15 under
Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell, SF.
M.I.A. All photos by Kimberly Chun.
By Kimberly Chun
Outside Lands — here and now gone. A final dispatch from the dusty, green groves.
Sunday, Aug. 30
Keeping your expectations low is key to smorgasbord fests. Still, I expected a sparser crowd today, the day of the canceled Beastie Boys appearance due to Adam Yauch’s cancer diagnosis, and those expectations were fulfilled. There was definitely less of a mob today: not quite as many specially propped-up cleavages and fewer well-heeled, supertanned oldsters (acolytes of George Hamilton?) than yesterday. What can you say? Dave Matthews definitely skewed the demographic toward the middle-aged, if not outright white-haired.
I don’t know how gramps and grammy would have felt about the fence-jumpers, but they were definitely hopping today as well: I spied about a dozen crash over the fence en masse near the Presidio stage mid-afternoon to the sound of congratulatory whoops from bystanders on the inside. Outside a few agile types peered in at the Sutro stage from the trees on the other side of the barrier. Low-key in comparison to last year’s gang fence-vaulting.
Matt and Kim.
Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. All photos, except where noted, by el fotografo clandestino.
By Kimberly Chun
O Outside Lands – how sprawling thou art. So many acts in the dusty, leafy grounds of Golden Gate Park, so many goings-on at night at the Independent and Rickshaw Stop. A few dispatches, then, from the periphery and about.
Zap Mama.
By Kimberly Chun
So much to do and so many Mayyors ‘n’ Lamps hoedowns, Outside Lands night shows, and damaged prom benefits to attend. San Fran never disappoints. Here are the worthies still to come.
Big Sur Festival 2009/Party in the Pines
A mini-fest to rival Golden Gate Park’s massive — with way coolios like Kurt Vile, who puts out his first Matador disc, Childish Prodigy, in October, and SXSW breakouts such as Woods. With Wooden Shjips, Vietnam, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Gang Gang Dance, Dungen, and Saviours. Sat/29, noon-11 p.m., $31. Henry Miller Library, Highway 1, Big Sur. www.henrymiller.org. Dungen also plays with Woods and Kurt Vile Sun/30, 8 p.m., $14, at Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF. (415) 621-4455.
Blue Sky Black Death
From Haight to the wide blue yonder, with estimable hip-hop sounds for all. With Boy Eats Drum Machine and Boy in Static. Sat/29, 10 p.m., $10. Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF. (415) 621-4455.
Death Angel
You can’t keep the Bay thrash vets down. With Skinlab and Kaos. Sat/29, 9 p.m., $15. Uptown, 1928 Telegraph, Oakl. (510) 451-8100.
By Michael Krimper
Sub Swara at Burning Man 07
The first use of the word “glitch” traces back to fairly recent innovations in computer technology, initially describing a sudden burst or drastic change in voltage charge. More recently, glitch has become a frenetic pathos, an unexpected musical phenomenon, an intensely dissonant way of looking the world, and a methodology for mother fucking slaying crowds. I’m not even talking about genres; fuck a genre. Enter “Beats by the Bay”, a powerhouse dubbed out nastiness, glitch melter party featuring some of the most ridiculous production innovators of our day. Expect ferocious units geared with space age machinery and foot soldiers parading the illest beats. These cats together posses a schizophrenic style that blasts through free-jazz out thereness, supernovaeing (can I make that a verb?) hip-hop’s monster funk loudness into another dimension of “here I am”. And look at that, it’s right before Burning Man!
Beats By The Bay presented by Infinite Music & ArtnowSF
With Sub Swara, Marty Party, The Gaslamp Killer, Lazersword, The Flying Skulls, Djunya, Majitope, Emancipator, Bogl
Mission Rock Cafe, $20
817 Tery Francois St., SF
415 626-5355
More info: www.myspace.com/artnow
By Sean McCourt
Though he may be one of the oldest performers to take the stage at this weekend’s Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, Tom Jones will undoubtedly be one of the best. For more than four decades the Welsh singer’s rich vocals and electric stage presence have propelled a career that continues to produce hits even as he is less than a year away from turning 70. As he proved to a full house at the Warfield earlier this year, Sir Tom (he was knighted in 2006 by Queen Elizabeth) still has the goods when it comes time to entertain a crowd, singing old favorites such as "It’s Not Unusual," "She’s A Lady," and "What’s New Pussycat?" along with more recent hits like "Sex Bomb."
Jones pulls in a wide variety of people to his shows, ranging from kids in their early 20s to original fans near his own age. The singer still loves connecting with an audience, be it at a Vegas nightclub or an outdoor festival like Outside Lands.
"If there are people out there and they’ve come to see me, I’m going to give it the best I can — whether it be 5,000 people or 10,000, or 100,000," Jones says.
"I don’t change the show from Las Vegas to a festival because I don’t do a ‘Vegas’ act anyway. I don’t use any dancing girls — it’s a concert I’m doing. My show is basically the same, [though] I maybe make sure I cover the stage a little bit more," he laughs.
Jones, who released his latest album 24 Hours (S-Curve) last year, is already gearing up to work on a new record after he completes another tour through the U.K. and Europe. As for the tradition of female fans flinging their undergarments at him while on stage, the man known as "the Voice" looks at it from a couple of different angles. "It depends on what song I’m singing at the time. If I’m singing a serious ballad, it can break the mood," says Jones. "But I don’t think it’s for an entertainer to dictate to an audience what to do — the entertainer does what he or she does, and hopefully the people get it."
TOM JONES At Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival. Fri/28, 6:50 p.m. Golden Gate Park, SF. $89.50–$225.50. www.sfoutsidelands.com
By Kimberly Chun
San Franwindy – that’s what we call you around the house while you’re busy blowing your butt off. It’s time to take refuge in musicland – here are some shows that didn’t get swept off our radar.
Foreign Cinema
Dreamy, chill, and, natch, cinematic – that’s the sound of the year-old SF trio and its trip-hop- and alt-rock-laced new debut EP. With Maggie Morris and Ghosties. Sun/23, 9 p.m., $6. Hemlock Tavern, 1131 Polk, SF. (415) 923-0923.
Chuck Prophet
The SF singer-songwriter unveils his new long-player, live and track by track, alongside Ernest “Boom Boom” Carter, Rusty Miller, and Tom Ayres at “Let Freedom Ring.” Expect the proceedings to be properly documented, with Kelley Stoltz behind the wheels o’ steel. Oh, yeah, and kids wanna know: will there be Donkey Kong? Sun/23, 8 p.m., $10. Knockout, 3223 Mission, SF. (415) 550-6994.
By Marke B
Last week in the paper I wrote about outrageously contagious local tesseractic rapper Odynophagia — I love his killer live show and Social Masque album on his Millipede Handjob label. (The Alternative Tentacles of the ’10s?). Basically he’s a flesh alien, beaming up hyperreal art star Ryan Trecartin with a side of Dr. Octagon.
Odynophagia, “The Container is Pervasive” from Social Masque
Welp, just in time for our wobble-kneed Drug Issue, Odyn drops an exclusive freestyle just for us. Strap down your naked lunch and enjoy:
Note: Yo Marke, here’s a freestyle. Ya know freestyle in the purist OLD SCHOOL tradition. Which is: writing something over a period of 11 weeks. Focus grouping it, then having your stenographer earpierce buzz it when you battle Kool Herc. The rap’s about this retail accident demolecularizing my subjectivity, then me coming back as this ghastly thing assisted by lepers to turn YOU (the listener) into a infected prostitute mannequin that the male community will flock to (because you’re hot, and either gender, but really just cuz I dressed you pretty, and slathered on this hot lipgloss. Your lipgloss be poppin’)
BIRD NAMES
Sings the Browns
(Upset the Rhythm)
By Kimberly Chun
Who likes to mix Captain Beefheart blues-skronk cacophony and ADD-driven, jazzy razzle-dazzle, with a strong dollop of Deerhoofian experimentation on the side? Chicago’s Bird Names, that’s who — say their name. Rag-tag and rough-edged, this crazy quilt of a quartet swaps instruments live and in the studio — and swaps musical ideas in and out just as confidently and punkily. It’s as if the members of Bird Names all busily moonlight as carnies at madcap dadaist carnival, and their night job has merrily bled over into their music. Teetering guitar lines tumble against manic tambourine, fading into a dazed middle distance, on “Scandinavia,” and out-folk woodwinds peal against a backdrop of forest-critter chimes and child-like rhymes on “Natural Weeks,” both off the band’s fifth full-length, Sings the Browns. England’s Upset the Rhythm, a big supporter of Bay Area underground combos, got behind the group’s Brown album. And with such cock-eyed yet dulcet paeans to altered states as “Oh, Narcotopic Fantasy,” Bird Names manage to maintain a level of pleasing, if swampily documented, subversion.
By Kimberly Chun
Anything for a jaunt south to Big Sur, no? I love the leafy goodness that much.
Now, after last year’s super-fun, post-fire, fund-raising Festival in the Forest, NYC label Kemado is throwing together another reason to make a trek down, in conjunction with the launch of its new vinyl-only imprint Mexican Summer: In the Pines Big Sur Festival.
The folks at (((FolkYEAH!))), which put FITF in ‘08, is helping to produce the mini-fest at Henry Miller Library. Expect Kemado bands, favorites, and friends like Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Dungen, Gang Gang Dance, Farmer Dave Scher, Kurt Vile, Saviours, VietNam, Wooden Shjips, and Woods. Psych, metal, art rock, progginess, dancey experimentalism, noisiness, folk … by the way, can I get a ride?
IN THE PINES BIG SUR FESTIVAL 2009
Aug. 29, noon-11 p.m., $31
Henry Miller Library
Highway 1, Big Sur
(831) 667-2574
www.henrymiller.org
Kimberly Chun
Les Paul, Rashied Ali – Big Daddy Death keeps claiming another one. Goddamnit. You can find me at the bar, buried in vodka tonics, till you finally find the strength to perk up, listen to Interstellar Space again, stroke your koa-wood SG, and contemplate all the live music, still kicking all around you.
Society of Rockets and Dominique Leone
The SF psychedelicists bang noggins with the congenial local, NorCal synthesist. Thurs/13, 9 p.m., $10. Café du Nord, 2170 Market, S.F. (415) 861-5016.
Solillquists of Sound
Me likee the bubbling, robo-futuristic beats of the Orlando, Fla., quartet’s new No More Heroes – and the live act is supposed to be pretty awesome, too. With 40Love and Zutra. Thurs/13, 9 p.m., $10. Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF. (415) 621-4455.
By Kimberly Chun
Wow, it’s far from freezing but way too foggy at the beach – so dry off, stop gawking at the sea lion near the Sutro Baths, and check the head at these worthy musical happenings. Black Francis’ acoustic show may be sold out at Hotel Utah tonight, but there’s still too much going on for you to get your grump on.
Concrete Jungle Meets the SF Classic
Yeah, I can tell by your itchy mod finger that you’re just dying to check out the scooter rally afterparty. DJs Selecter Kirk and Prince Omar take the pulse of the mob with two-tone, ska, rocksteady, and more. Sat/8, 9 p.m., $5. Knockout, 3223 Mission, SF. (415) 550-6994.
Frustrations
Wah-wah-wow. The Detroit-based slaves to the skronkadelic grind it up something fierce. With the Mindless Things. Sat/8, 6 p.m., $5. Hemlock Tavern, 1131 Polk, SF. (415) 923-0923.
Text and photos by Ariel Soto
I love how everyone makes Latin music their own, from the blonde dude shaking his head and slapping his leg in time, to the Asian couple cha-cha-chaing across the room with elegant ease and perfectly choreographed movements. At a performance on Friday, July 31st, at the Red Poppy Art House, Tito Gonzales, a renowned Cuban tres player (an instrument similar to guitar), stated that the bolero was born in Cuba, but then someone in the audience shouted out “No, es de Colombia!”
But none of this really mattered because the only important thing that night was that everyone had a good dance partner and just enough space to shake and twist a bit. Tito’s band played all the classics, including “Besame Mucho,” and made it totally impossible for anyone to stay in their seats. If you like the Buena Vista Social Club, you’ll love Tito and his Son De Cuba. And if you missed the show on Friday, they’ll be preforming again at the San Jose Jazz Festival on Saturday, August 8th. As for the original birth place of Latin music, well, that will always be a mystery.
FAUST
C’est Com… Com… Complique
(Bureau B)
By Kimberly Chun
Too eclectic for its own good? Not Faust. The combo fully deserves that wretchedly overused “legendary” label: its relatively new full-length, C’est Com… Com… Complique — is all that and then some, meaning complicated in the most meatily excellent, endearingly awkward way. The band has been around almost four decades, but original members Jean-Herve Peron and Werner Diermaier — working with Amaury Cambuzat of French post-rockers Ulan Bator — still put together sounds with a child’s mind, as if they were starting all over from scratch. Never mind that Faust sold 100,000 copies of their third album, The Faust Tapes (Virgin), way back in the day.
This latest Dadaist document starts with the heavy breathing and shattered guitar of “Kundalini Tremolos” and then stops, starts, pauses for a pastoral reverie or two (with and without throat singing), and then squeaks and squeals with bugle peals to an inspired, absurdist close. The strategy, or lack thereof, runs counter to the more popular/familiar beatific motorik musings of, say, Neu!, and even diehard Faust heads are likely to shrug at the group’s attempt at throwaway, goofball dub, mixed up with “derrieres” cries (“En Veux-Tu Des Effets, En Voila”). But otherwise, Complique bears repeated listens — ‘cause it’s devilish fun.
If you haven’t heard of local blog The Bay Bridged, you probably aren’t a fan of Bay Area indie rock. No offense, but you’re missing out — not just on a thriving music scene, but also on a well-written, easy-to-navigate (and totally nonprofit) site that boasts podcasts, show and album reviews, music news, videos, and more. The Bay Bridged sponsors rock n’ roll shows from time to time, but they’re steppin’ to the spotlight Friday night with Regional Bias, a fundraiser jam-packed with, well, the kinda stuff BB covers (live music, celebrity DJs, art by Bay Area artists) plus food, drinks, and raffles with some pretty stellar prizes — Outside Land$ ticket$, for example.
Info is on the flyer below, or visit the event website for more details.
By Kimberly Chun
More music – you got it, SF. Just ‘cause you’re you. Here are a few worthy shows that didn’t make the jam-packed issue. (Psst, pass the tissue.)
Clip’d Beaks
The sometime SF-ers share their latest visions. With Boys IV Men, Vice Cooler, and Emily Hoof. Wed/29, 9 p.m., $5. Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. (415) 552-7788.
The Donkeys
Balking? The Dead Oceans combo from San Diego responds to the healing powers of Beach Boys-style harmonies. With Magnolia Electric Company, Val Esway, and El Mirage. Wed/29, 9 p.m., $12. Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF. (415) 621-4455.
By Kimberly Chun
Jarvis Cocker — an endless source of compelling ruminations. Did you ever imagine it to be any different? More from a talk with the ex-Pulp pasha (for the other choice tidbits, see this week’s Sonic Reducer), right before he was about to get on a train and embark on a holiday with his young son — and while I was being driven very speedily through the streets of San Francisco.
SFBG: So your new record, Further Complications [(Rough Trade)] — how was the making of it different from your first solo album [Jarvis (Rough Trade, 2007)]?
Jarvis Cocker: Well I felt fairly prepared for this record — we played the songs to other human beings. We played them live. There were only two songs that were recorded that we hadn’t played live, so I really wanted to capture the songs.
SFBG: Are the songs particularly personal, reflect your life?
JC: They are reflective of that. I write songs about personal things and songs that I use to make sense of what’s going on in life. I use parts of my experience in them, which is kind of a dangerous thing to do. But I hope to make something that can be amusing but still have some emotional content. For me songs have to have emotional content.
