Noise Archives — Page 83 of 108 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

Sonic Reducer Overage: Mocheeba, Hercules and Love Affair, Enon, David Banner, and mo’

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April 9, 2008

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Reflections on Enon. Photo by Emily Wilson.

So much to do and see, Lee. And Prince headlining Coachella on Saturday, April 26, doesn’t make the schedule any easier. Check out all these worthy shows that were fit for print but simply didn’t make the trim this week.

KING BROTHERS AND THE FLAKES
Kawaii-cute Japanese distorto-rockers meet Bay Area garage first-schoolers. With Shellshag and Bananas. Thurs/10, 8:30 p.m., $10. Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF. (415) 621-4455.

HERCULES AND LOVE AFFAIR
“I cannot hold / a half a life / I cannot be / at half a wife.” So goes “Time Will” off Hercules and Love Affair’s new self-titled DFA/EMI album. Dulcet warbles care of Antony of Antony and the Johnsons meet cool synthetics with keys by Andrew Butler and drum programming by DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy. Instant love affair, for sure. With Timo Maas and Honey Soundsystem. Fri/11, 10 p.m. doors, $15-$30. Mezzanine, 444 Jessie, SF. (415) 820-9669.

IranianRadio.com takes you on a drive through the Persian-pop unknown

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April 9, 2008

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By Dina Maccabee

Sometimes – when I notice I’ve developed an allergy to my entire iTunes playlist, when all my CDs are mysteriously missing from their cases, and I’m not ready to resort to listening to mix tapes from high school – the silence on my stereo can be deafening. In those dire times, I resort to iTunes radio.
Scrolling down the list of offerings, there isn’t a lot of campaigning to sway your vote. I breeze past the bland listings for Classic Rock, Electronic, and Ambient, on down to International, where if nothing else the flavors have a chance of being spicy. Still, I couldn’t say what exactly prompted me to try IranianRadio.com for the first time. “Persian traditional music,” it read, sandwiched between “The Best Mix of All Things Iranian” and “Persian Pop.” I must have been feeling anti-American.

At any rate, I was pleased to discover hours of uninterrupted Persian classical music, a tradition so stately and affecting that its surface exoticism melts away after only a few minutes. But I began to wonder, from whence, exactly, issues forth this fountain of unfamiliar yet dulcet tones? I pressed a button and suddenly linked the sounds of classical Persia with a bedroom in San Francisco in 2008.

I wanted some background color for the monochromatic iTunes radio experience – and some direction on how to explore the region’s music even further (the station’s format ranges from Persian Dance to Kurdish Pop). Fortunately a friendly service representative at IranianRadio.com, identifying himself only as Cyrus, was able to set me straight on the mysteries behind the music.

SFBG: Who programs the content of IranianRadio.com?

WMC: Giant Step gets it out in Miami

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April 9, 2008

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Ocean Drive divas. All photos by Robin Russell.

Contributing photog Robin Russell closes her WMC dispatches with a stop at Giant Step Presents Sunset Soiree at the Delano Hotel on March 29. Look for Turntables on the Hudson, out with Supreme Beings of Leisure at Mezzanine on April 18.

Nickodemus steals over to the wheels o’ steel.

Turntables on the Hudson melded classic house textures and afrobeat rhythms.

The scene down south.

Arab Strap’s Malcolm Middleton gets up the gritty magic

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April 8, 2008

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By Todd Lavoie

Charmed, I am – former Arab Strap post-folkie Malcolm Middleton has just released his fourth album, Sleight of Heart (Full Time Hobby), and it’s a corker, I’m telling you. A fitting title, too – there’s some lovely little magic at play here, fashioning such shimmers and sparkles from the sadder reaches of the emotional continuum.

Sleight of heart? Sleight of hand, while we’re at it. Middleton plays a swift game of “now you see it, now you don’t” in his songwriting, tossing up chippy-chip-chipper bluebirds of melody only to smother them in his smog-gray handkerchief with the turn of a devastating phrase. Ol’ Malcolm’s a master at such trickery, often creating a mighty impressive gulf between the listener’s initial surface-level perceptions of the song and the eventual under-the-skin burrowing that takes place later, if given the chance. Simply put, our man crafts some of the most immediately accessible brittle-hearted music you’re likely to hear anytime soon.

It’s been a curious journey for Middleton. Back in 1995, he and Aidan Moffat forged a distinctively stark, soul-baring form of epic disturbo-folk under the eyebrow-raising name Arab Strap (noun: a contraption used by a man to maintain an erection during intercourse). As the moniker would suggest, the duo didn’t shy away from matters of a carnal nature, but even more arresting was their willingness to dredge up the uglier, less flattering aspects of the human experience.

WMC: Aquabooty bash brings out the masses

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April 8, 2008

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Marcus Worgull got the crowd going. All photos by Robin Russell.

Winter Music Conference in Miami rolled onward as contributing photographer Robin Russell checked out the popular local party Aquabooty Music2 at Opium Garden on March 29. Innervsions artists like Ame, Dixon, Henrik Schwarz and Marcus Worgull appeared along with DJ Harvey and Miguel Migs.

Rich Medina spun Philly soul.

Mr. White and Marcus Worgull took the stage.

Tift Merritt takes on ‘Another Country’

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April 8, 2008

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By Nathan Baker

Tift Merritt is giving something away. It seems delicate but could be strong as steel, a gift from a solitary place but one that she openly shares. It is Another Country (Fantasy). When Lost Highway Records broke things off with the Grammy-nominated songwriter in 2006 she retired to a room in Paris to put down this portrait of a spirit that is at once resilient and vulnerable. “Sometimes you fall up these stairs,” Merritt sings on “Tender Branch,” bruised but not beaten.

If there is a bit of the expatriate in this record it is not the decadent self-destruction of Papa Hemingway but the anxiety and awe of a stranger navigating a mysterious place. In “Love is Another Country” her sentiment is simple and perfect: “I wanna go with you.”

Produced by George Drakoulias, whose clients include the Black Crowes and the Jayhawks, Another Country both reflects and refracts country music. “Tell Me Something True” and “My Heart is Free” illustrate what all the Bonnie Raitt and Lucinda Williams comparisons are for, but mostly Merritt’s is an Americana of the mind – the vernal pleasures Saint-Sulpice, a pastoral stroll along the Seine, the silver needle of a Parisian clothier pushing through a linen summer dress.

TIFT MERRITT
With Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek
April 14, 8 p.m., $16
Great American Music Hall
859 O’Farrell, SF
(415) 885-0750

Clubs: Anavan sans Ativan

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April 7, 2008

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Holy Spazmosis!. Jumpy young rockers Anavan drove up from Salt Lake City to play the queer (and friends!) punk monthly Trans Am at Club Eight for a rapturous beer-spurtin’ crowd last Saturday.

Anavan, “You’re Taking Me Out”

The frantic foursome greeted us with mucho fog machine, trademark hockey helmets, drum, bass, and a wall of synths. And then everything got crazy in a voices-in-your-head way (mostly thanks to the skittering, hyperactive vocals mixed waaaay back in the echo-delay mix.)

Courtesy of the muthafuckin’ LA Times

In the case of the hockey helmets, visual connections to those masked masters Daft Punk, MSTRKRFT, and occasionally (if primly painted-on facial scruff counts — yes, I’m calling those skinny French boys out) Justice might be made. And sonically they can sometimes resemble those glam-tech outfits a teeny-tad, mostly in their boppy keyboard riffs. But Anavan adds its own cymbal-crashing, wildly energetic No-Wave twist, sure to please the art school crowd (Richard Hell is all the rage again, haven’t you heard?) and dance floor maniacs as well as indie kids. I expect you’ll hear them burning down discos near you soon.

(Next month a Trans Am, Sat May 3, features SF native cuties Ex-Boyfriends — should be rocking’.)

WMC: Art of Seduction shows the fest how it’s done

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April 7, 2008

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King Britt and Victor Duplaix make the scene. All photos by Robin Russell.

Contributing photog Robin Russell made a stop at the fourth annual Art of Seduction party at the Victor Hotel on March 29 during Miami’s Winter Music Conference. King Britt and Duplaix headed a bill that included DJ Rashida, Eleonora, Manchild Black, Taylor McFerrin, DJ Dozia, and Kayree.

Cookie monster is fucking metal

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April 4, 2008

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Kathleen Richards over at the East Bay Express is our new hero. She found some utterly hilarious videos someone made of Cannibal Corpse and other metal bands playing over images of Cookie Monster. Metal vocalists are sometimes accused of sounding like Cookie Monster, so we were laughing our asses off around here when we caught her blog post. We’ve inserted the videos below and added a new one: an entire band of Muppets playing awesome metal. This rules. Our next challenge for Richards is to find video of Big Bird floorpunching to Judge and yelling about how he’s Xpoison-freeX ’til death. Two more videos after the jump.

Cannibal Corpse

Muppets crank to 11

METAL: Chillin’ with Amber Asylum/Frozen in Amber’s Kris Force

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April 4, 2008

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Amber Asylum isn’t metal, but band leader Kris Force has been a longtime participant in the scene, while metal fans have gravitated toward her dark-ambient-folk group. Terrorizer named Amber Asylum’s last album, Still Point (Profound Lore), as one of their top 40 albums of 2007, and her project has consistently found a home on metal labels. I caught up with Force recently on the phone as she relaxed at home in Pacifica on a sleepy Saturday afternoon. And by the way, Amber Asylum plays their first show in a year and a half on April 19 at El Rio.

SFBG: What’s going on with this new release?

Kris Force: Grey Force Wakeford – it’s apocalyptic folk or postindustrial music, kind of like Death in June or David Tibet. I worked with Tony Wakeford [Death in June/Sol Invictus] – he’s in London – and Nick Grey is in Monaco. We did a lot of it remotely. I had been corresponding with Tony because I liked his music and reached out to him, and he asked me to do some string parts on something.

I found Nick through MySpace. I was really despairing one night and found his MySpace page. He didn’t have many friends. I played his music and totally loved it, and I wrote him an e-mail, and he was familiar with my work. I suggested we do a mail-art collaboration, and he sent me a fabulous track. Then it turned into five tracks. It turned out Nick and Tony had four. We decided to put them together and see what happens. I mixed it all and I think it seems cohesive. It’s come out on a French label called Athanor.

METAL: Rockin’ more Walken

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April 4, 2008

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By Duncan Scott Davidson

Here’s more an interview with San Francisco’s Walken. Read the original piece here.

Shane Bergman: A 14-year-old with a gun is the last thing I want to see around here.

SFBG: When did you guys form?

Sean Kohler: Actually, we came up with the name Walken in 1999.

SFBG: Pre-“More Cowbell.”

SB: Yeah, I think so. It was right at the beginning of the Christopher Walken joke obsession, with all the new movies and all that. I think we were caught up in the beginnings of that, doing Walken impressions and such. At the time it was just me and Andrew, who was the original drummer. I think we all collectively think of Walken forming again in different phases, ‘cause it’s changed so much. Present lineup: two years, basically.

Sweet, sweet Ruby Suns shine a light tonight

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April 4, 2008

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Birthed in New Zealand and suckled on Cali pop, Maori folk, and assorted indie-rock eclectic undefinables, the Ruby Suns plucked the title for their new sophomore album, Sea Lion (Sub Pop), from our very shores: the critters basking off Highway 1. I exchanged e-mails with Ruby Suns’ king Ryan McPhun, who appears with his band tonight, April 4, at Bottom of the Hill.

SFBG: So why title your new album after the sea lions who live near San Francisco? What sort of experiences have you had with them?

Ryan McPhun: I guess my explanation is not too complicated. My girlfriend and i were driving down the coast on Highway 1 and came across this colony. We sat and watched these animals for about an hour. We were really close. They were making some amazing noises. It was a great time, so that’s why. It was an inspiring trip.

The finest in female-fronted indie? Finest Dearest celebrates a new disc

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April 4, 2008

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By Alex Felsinger

What happened to women in indie rock? The rocking influence of PJ Harvey and Sleater-Kinney seems to have all but vanished in the hands of indie-pop darlings like Au Revoir Simone or Camera Obscura. These and many other successful female-fronted indie bands in recent years follow the same formula of cute, poppy songs. A Belle and Sebastian influence permeates, while the Pixies inspiration is played down. Indie was once edgy, but now it’s mostly serene.

But San Francisco has a hold-out: Finest Dearest has essentially ignored the current indie scene. Their new self-titled album on Bloodtown Records could easily fit among discs by the powerful women of ’90s indie rock.

Formed in 2004, the band has never been afraid of the drums-guitar-bass formula, and for the most part, their music is nicely streamlined. The group initially included an electric cello player, but on their new full-length, the instrument is used sparingly on a only few tracks.

WMC: When Push FM comes to Groove Junkies – more parties

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April 4, 2008

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Groove Junkies got the junk out of the trunk at Terry Thompson and Friends Presents. All photos by Robin Russell.

Maimi’s Winter Music Conference kept the beat going as contributing photographer Robin Russell stopped into both Push FM/R2 Records‘ soiree at Love Hate and the Terry Thompson and Friends Presents event at the Chelsea Hotel on Friday, March 28.

Push FM DJ Abicah Soul manned the decks at the bash hosted by the London online radio station.

The crowd at Push FM/R2 Records’ night.

John “Julius” Knight made an appearance at Terry Thompson’s Baltimore/DC house throwdown.

Clubs: You still hold me, Devotion

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April 3, 2008

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Before he jetted off to be all jetset in Miami at the WMC, SF-native DJ Ruben Mancias jammed EndUp last Saturday night for the Devotion 7-Year Reunion party. Oh yes, I’m one o’ them dancing hands-up fools in this clip:

Ruben and his partner Eric left to find fortune and fame in NYC a few years ago, taking their regular EndUp Sunday night party Devotion with them. It was great to have it (and them) back for one night only — if only to get that ol’ EndUp Saturday at 5 in the morning bangin’ house feeling back (one day I’ll write about all the crazy amazing — cramazing! — night people you encounter on the dancefloor at that time.)

Ruben — who I’ve known since we used to run with legendary SF house maestro Aaron O (RIP, croissant goddess) back in the early ’90s — really turned it out, playing some of my favorite tracks, like Teddy Douglas’s “Whatcha Gonna Do,” and classics like the ’88 Ralphi Rosario barnstormer above. The mood was electric-atmospheric with a bouncy bass undertow and more than a little nostalgia. The crowd was mixed and ready. Work.

PS — Devotion may be ovah, and somewhat similar-tracked Fag Fridays long gone, but you can still get a taste of the above with DJ David Harness, another well-known Aaron O acolyte, when he returns from the WMC to play new goodies all night long at Super Soul Sundayz this coming Sunday, 4/6 10pm-4am at the EndUp. See you (sweaty) there.

Out of the mouths of Cribs: controversy, needs, and the Replacements

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April 3, 2008

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Striped, Ripe, Culty, and Sultry: the Cribs. Photo by J. Beckman.

Who are these mystery scamps in UK’s the Cribs – working with Franz Ferdinand’s Alex, Sonic Youth’s Lee Renaldo, and the Smiths’ Johnny Marr alike? And landing at Popscene tonight, April 3? I traded e-mails with the youngest Jarman brother, Ross, who drums in the threesome.

SFBG: What’s it like being a “family band”? And do you think they get a bad rap?

Ross Jarman: To be honest, we are unaware what it is like to be anything but a family band. I’m curious what being in a band with your friends is like. I think being in a band with your brothers is easier, as there is more honesty towards writing, etc., and it keeps the three of us on a level playing field.

SFBG: What was it like to work with Alex from Franz Ferdinand on the Mens Needs… album?

RJ: Being in the studio with Airwolf was a lot of fun. We had offers from other producers before he came into the equation, but we didn’t want to make a record that sounded like a load of others, so going in with a producer who was producing for the first time out of his own circle, we knew we were going to get something unique. He also knew the band a lot more than any other producer, as he had seen us play every night for two months on a tour of the US.

WMC: Jellybean Soul in the house

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April 3, 2008

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Ruben Mancias, Wumni, and Jellybean Benitez meet in Miami. All photos by Robin Russell.

The Winter Music Conference’s Jellybean Soul label party at Hotel Victor on Friday, March 28, was next on contributing photog Robin Russell’s schedule in Miami. Here’s what she caught.

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Little Louie Vega and Mike “Agent X” Clark are all smiles.

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London-born singer-dancer Wumni lent her vocals to Ruben Mancias’s “Let It Rain (Ko Ma Ro).”

METAL: Throw them horns!

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April 2, 2008

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By G.W. Schulz
Photos by Mirissa Neff

METAL HANDS: A GESTURAL GLOSSARY

Every metal show contains plenty of dudes who merely headbang softly to themselves with their hands stuffed into the pockets of their tight black hoodies. A sea of empty faces they are. What fun is that? In honor of our metal issue this week, here are a few ways you can cheerlead the next time you’re at a metal show.

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Classic horns A staid gesture to be sure — but fairly reliable. You know the drill here. Turn it to the side and pump it like a fist for added pleasure.

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The Claw When deploying just one hand to exhibit the claw, as opposed to the invisible orbs, bring it close to your face and pull downward for a melodramatic affect. Growl a little, too, like it just can’t get any more metal … when deep down you know it really can.

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Land ho There’s really never been a sufficient name for outright pumping your fist or fists at a show, but some folks around here are calling it "land ho." It’s better off with no distinct title. Fist pumping during violent blastbeats or a huge, doomy breakdown is raw and organic, like the beginning of time. It needs no name. And it spans genres. We advise, however, that you reserve dual fists for truly metal moments. The members of Portland, Ore.’s Tragedy have been known to throw out a fist or two while playing, but this is extremely dangerous and should be done by professionals only.

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Invisible orbs This is a variation of the Claw, except that you do it with both hands and hold them out in front of you rather than near your face, as if you’re holding two invisible orbs. We contend that the invisible orbs should be savored while you’re listening to Scandinavian metal or anything heavily influenced by it. If you scan the artwork on old black metal records, the bands are often posing with some version of the orbs, gritting their teeth and trying to look as menacing as possible.

WMC: Om Records whoops it up in Miami

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April 2, 2008

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Vikter Duplaix and Daz-I-Kue (Bugz in the Attic) get down at the Om party. All photos by Robin Russell.

Contributing photographer Robin Russell swung through Miami’s Winter Music Conference, which ran from March 25-29, and sent these dispatches. First up: the fete thrown by SF-based Om Records at Y Ultralounge on Thursday, March 27.

Cobblestone Jazz settles in.

Things heat up at the Om party.

METAL: Color me heavy, Junior

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April 2, 2008

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By Todd Lavoie

Well, I can’t speak for all of us here, but I reckon I’m not the only one who likes to unwind after a hard day’s work with a rip through Slayer’s Reign In Blood, a couple of beers, and a box of crayons…am I? I best not neglect the trusty ol’ number two pencil while I’m at it, either – all the better for scrawling perfect 666’s upon every available surface as “Postmortem” heralds the sheer blinding breadth of my fiendish ways, my pure evil intent. Are you with me, my pentagram-slamming brothers and sisters? Someone please tell me I ain’t alone on this one.

Of course I’m not alone, silly, silly headbangers! Exhibit A: The Heavy Metal Fun Time Activity Book (2007), recently unleashed upon the previously untapped Crayola-wielding caught-in-a-mosh market by ECW Press/Independent Publishers Group. Authored and drawn by Aye Jay Morano – credited here as simply “Aye Jay” – the 48-page children’s activity book send-up pays loving tribute to those fantastic little workbooks Mom and Dad would buy us at the supermarket or the toy store to shut us up for a few hours in the car during long drives.

Yep, I remember a bout or two of gut-wobbling carsickness on trips up to summer cabins and amusement parks, thanks to burying myself nose-deep in those suckers, throwing myself into diamond-cutting concentration trances in an effort to keep coloring with the lines! Oh, how I loved those books – excitement awaiting on every page, with dot-to-dots, mazes, word searches, brain teasers, and oodles of pictures ready for the colorin’! Any chance to bust out the burnt sienna and my stubby little fingers would set a-twitching in anticipation.

METAL: High time for Hightower

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April 2, 2008

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What’s up with San Francisco skate-metal-punk contenders Hightower?

Well, they’re kind of on hiatus, according to bassist Dave Fallis, taking a break from his SF picture-framing business to talk despite his bandmates’ absence – “We can’t form the Voltron,” he warned. Hightower has made the rounds, touring every summer for the last six years, so this time, they’ve decided to just “concentrate on getting their lives back together” before writing songs and recording – once they raise enough funds.

“We’re, like, the least marketable band out there,” Fallis explained matter-of-factly. “We’re not quite a metal band and not a, quote-unquote, punk rock band. It just seems like when we’re at punk rock show, we’re the regular dudes in jeans and T-shirts, and when we go to a metal show, we’re the same way.” Still, the band that met each other skateboarding around their SF neighborhood continues to find their way with the help of kindred skaters. “If we didn’t skate we wouldn’t know each other,” Fallis said, “and as far as touring and getting shows, we’ll contact people we know through skateboarding, and we’ll decide which town to go to according to which ones have a great skateboarding spot or swimming hole.”

HIGHTOWER’S TOP FIVE SPOTS TO SKATE OR SWIM WHILE ON THE ROAD

– Montreal, the Big O or the Olympic Stadium
– Chattanooga, Tenn., Suck Creek (“A great spot in the Smoky Mountains.”)
– “Late-night skinny-dipping in Lawrence, Kansas.”
– Maine’s cliff jumps
– Assorted skateparks in Louisville, Ky.

HIGHTOWER
With Walken, Three Weeks Clean, and Soulbroker
May 1, 9 p.m., $8
Cafe Du Nord
2170 Market, SF
(415) 861-5016

Ministry’s Al Jourgensen talks about Jack Daniels, last tours, and the synth-pop shadows lurking in his past

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April 1, 2008

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By Joshua Rotter

After 10 albums and almost three decades, Ministry unleashes their final album, Cover Up, a collection of rocking remakes of party songs for which the band feels a school-day sentimentality: the Rolling Stones’ “Under My Thumb,” the Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues,” and Golden Earring’s “Radar Love.”

In keeping with the festive vibe, the disc also contains additional feel-good songs from classic artists such as Deep Purple, T-Rex, and ZZ Top. ““This is a case of people drinking bottles of Jack Daniels, and thinking, ‘Hey man, I knew this in high school,’’” founding frontman Al Jourgensen said in a recent interview from his tour bus. “It wasn’t like I thought of the bands as influences. It was more like ‘If you know the riff, let’s play it, and get it on CD.’ It was totally random and fueled with Jack Daniels.”

For die-hard fans, Ministry’s last album, due today, April 1, and current farewell tour, cheekily titled “C U LaTouR,” are no joking matters. But according to Jourgensen, who will soon focus on other endeavors including production duties for other bands on his 13th Planet label and movie soundtracks, there’s no need to get all choked up. He’s not. He simply has no time to.

Muxtape love

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March 31, 2008

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I never saw Say Anything or read High Fidelity (for me, mopey indie straight dudes are cute in theory — just not as John Cusack). But I am a nerd, and subject to all the emotional turmoil and reward a good mixtape can heap upon the recipient and maker. Yeah, I mean mixtape as in “fire up the ol’ press play-and-record and unleash your TDK, baby” — not the semi-underground hiphop cds that the big record companies have unsuccessfully hijacked of late.

Trouble is, the tiny plastic or chrome (eek, remember those being eaten every third play?) reel-to-reels have bit the dust, CDs are so un-green it hurts, and MP3 shareware is too complex for me and probably good ol’ High Fidelious Jack Black.

Enter, then, Muxtape, this neato site with a very indie bent that launched a little bit ago. You can upload up to 10 MBs of MP3s to a handy little link and email it to your friends. They then can click on individual tracks and listen. Also: it’s free. And: anyone in the world can click on your muxtape and hear what your thing is. You can RSS your favorite Muxtapers, even.

Pretty nifty — although I still miss the lovely rickety squeaks and hisses of cassettes. Anyone got a good app on hand to insert them? TapeSqueal? Memorexia?

Tip o’ the nib to my pal Steven Reaume for turning me on to this. Check out his Detroit classics muxtape (including lost early house tune “Liferaft” by Juicy Fruit) here.

Richie Sambora, what happened? Livin’ on Bon Jovi love

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March 31, 2008

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By Joshua Rotter

Bon Jovi‘s iconic “Livin’ on a Prayer” video, showcasing the band’s fresh faces and glossy personas, did much in the way of packaging the so-called metal band for pop consumption in the late ’80s. Clearly, no group encapsulates the poppy side of the sound like Bon Jovi, making their greatest hits and latest hits “Lost Highway” and “(You Want to) Make a Memory,” off their number one disc, Lost Highway (Mercury Nashville, 2007), popular among both the day-care and home-health-care sets.

Last week, however, things appeared a lot lighter on the pop and heavier on the metal when Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora was arrested on a DUI charge, while driving his 10-year-old daughter, Ava. Due in court in May, he is also expected to face child endangerment charges.

This is only Sambora’s latest setback over the last couple years following a high-profile divorce from actress Heather Locklear – over alleged infidelity with friend Denise Richards – in addition to a stint in rehab for alcohol abuse, and the death of his dad from lung cancer.

Last month, as the band prepared to launch the 36-city North American leg of their Lost Highway tour, a sober Sambora discussed how he overcame some of these difficulties by starting work on the Lost Highway LP and planning one of the biggest tours of 2008. Bon Jovi appears April 2 and 8 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.

SFBG: Bon Jovi is known for massive stage shows. What can fans expect this time around?

Richie Sambora: We’ve got a bunch of HD screens that are just morphing into different things. It’s going to be a spectacle that people have never seen before. From what we know after 25 years of experience in these stages and stuff like that, it looks like a holy-cow moment. People are going to walk away going, “Wow, this is really cool.”