The guy working security at the Fillmore Wednesday night gave all the photographers in the pit the fingers. Two. Letting them know that rather than the usual three songs, they’d only be allowed to stay there and shoot the first couple. Coming from some bands this sort of announcement would be enough to send the photogs into a hurried panic, but as Spiritualized set the pace with “Hey Jane,” the almost nine-minute rocker that opens latest album Sweet Heart Sweet Light, it was clear the show wouldn’t be so rushed.
It also set a theme for the night. “Hey Jane, when you gonna die?” the band – with extra soul coming from a pair of backup singers – sang over and over. Death isn’t a new topic for Spiritualized, a group (largely Jason Pierce) that’s always combined psychedelic self-realization with gospel influenced calls for salvation. But with Sweet Heart Sweet Light, an album that came about as Pierce struggled with life threatening pneumonia and a degenerative liver disease, the topic seems to have a new gravity.
There was a fairly logical thread early in the set as the band transitioned across albums thorough “Lord Let It Rain on Me,” “Headin’ for the Top Now,” and “Walking With Jesus.” Midway through “Walking” – a bit of rhythm and blues accentuated with harmonica and a whirling organ worthy of a wildly enthusiastic church revival or Allman Brothers concert on Venus – the music got quieter, slower, and darker. Pierce’s vocals were in focus and as he sang “I know I’ve done wrong but I could have done worse.” The song dates back to the Spaceman 3 days, and the line now comes with a lot of weight.
At one point, relatively early in the set, during “Rated X” the person standing behind me told their friend, “This show is kind of boring me to death.” Minority opinion. Even after Spiritualized played their arguably most well-known song, “Ladies and Gentlemen We’re Floating in Space,” having already played for a reasonable amount of time (outside of jam band standards,) the sold out crowd was still thick.
The closer for the night was “Cop Shoot Cop.” It certainly runs on, from a strolling piano groove with light guitars and drums, to a raging wash of guitar and drums with light piano, effectively exhausting the audience’s attention span, so that when it was over the lights were ready to come on.
But for me the real goodbye was “So Long You Pretty Thing,” the final track off of the latest album. Not (just) because of my vanity, but because it – as tenderly beautiful as anything Pierce has put out – is also a reminder that every time you see a band could be the last.
Ugh, that’s depressing, but I guess that alternation between desperation and hope is pretty central to Spiritualized. So I’ll keep in mind the other line from “Walking With Jesus” – that Pierce has been singing for decades – “It’s a long, long time between now and my death.” Maybe it’s a mantra.
Set List: Hey Jane Lord Let It Rain On Me Headin’ For The Top Now Walking With Jesus Oh Baby Rated X Born Never Asked Electric Mainline Soul On Fire I Am What I Am Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space Mary Stay With Me She Kissed Me (It Felt Like A Hit) Come Together –Encore– So Long You Pretty Thing Cop Shoot Cop
Opener: Whether her normal mode or to fit the bill, country singer Nikki Lane sang everything–songs about marriage, a move to California, or taking a walk of shame–with the same solemn tone, strumming her acoustic guitar. Her banter was a little more cheery. “I used to collect Fillmore posters,” the singer said. “I only stopped because some burned up in an apartment I had in L.A.” Then she smiled and added, “Now I have one with my name on it.”
Midnight Mystery Ride and Marshall Weber take it to the streets
It’s quarter to midnight, Saturday night in the Tenderloin, and out front a well-known, Geary Street watering hole, a cluster of cyclists is quietly gathering. It’s the May edition of the monthly Midnight Mystery Ride, and comers are mellow, enthusiastic. Lacking the Testosterone Brigade of Critical Mass, or the themed costumery of the San Francisco Bike Party, the distinguishing factor of the MMR is definitely the “mystery” aspect. The address of the meeting location is published the day of the ride only, no route maps or pre-planned itineraries are available, and the ride leaders and locations change each month, keeping everyone on their toes, or at least their pedals.
What’s not a mystery is the departure time. “At midnight, we ride” promises the original MMR website (whose members are based in Portland, Oreg.), and at exactly 12 am we roll out en freewheel, up the Polk Street corridor which is packed with weekend revelers, who react to the sudden appearance of a spontaneous bike parade with whoops and squeals.
A pass through the Broadway tunnel and down North Beach’s strip club row, up the Embarcadero, down SOMA, and finally up to the hilltop pocket park McKinley Square in Portrero, our route, devised and led by MMR regular “Ms. Jocelyn” winds desultorily through the neon-punctuated corridors of the San Francisco night much like the sort of ride you might take on your own on a nice night when you can’t sleep and the music of the streets is serenading you.
Best of all, upon leaving the park, we all have to bomb down the terrific twists of Vermont Street (“it’s the ‘bring your own big wheel’ hill,” exclaims one of the riders excitedly), providing us with the adrenaline rush we need to pedal back to our respective homes in the wee hours of the morning.
“After about 36 hours is when the hallucinations start,” laughs Marshall Weber of Booklyn Artists’ Alliance of his previous public “endurance” readings. A decade of 24-hour plus readings to get through James Joyce’s Ulysses, 46 hours to read “The Illiad” and “The Odyssey,” 72 hours to get through the bible, has left Weber with a pretty good idea of how to prepare for his Streetopia-connected performance piece, a 72 hour-long marathon poetry reading on the streets of San Francisco (read more about Streetopia, here). Equipped with a doghouse-sized “covered wagon” full of poetry (and sweaters for the cold), Weber’s plan to wander the streets spouting poetry like a mad visionary is contextually different from some of his previous performances.
“Poetry is a little more open-ended, less structured,” he points out. “And San Francisco is an unstructured, free-form place. (This piece) is not so much about the endurance, but about the geography…as much about the place as of the literature.” Encountered streetside out front the Tenderloin National Forest, at one of his handful of scheduled stops, Weber reads Bob Kaufman, Allen Ginsberg.
The rhythm of the jazz-inflected poetry combined with the crowd’s excited discovery of eclipse-enhanced, crescent-shaped sunbeams shining through the leaves of nearby trees and off the mirrors of nearby cars, infuses Ellis Street with a sense of wonder and camaraderie that one hopes will linger long after the poetry, and the Streetopia project, are finished.
Oakland’s resident twerk master Chippy Nonstop premiered her flashy new video for “Kicked Out Da Club” today. Directed by none other than Kreayshawn, the strobe lights and lasers-enhanced clip features teeny Chippy whipping a freaky long green-twirled braid and stage diving with local pals. Get ready, it’s about to be stuck in your head.
The Bay Area has always been a warm breeding ground for bands and thus has always had a vibrant music scene. Indie-pop is a rock subgenre that has thrived particularly well here. In the 1990s, indie-pop experienced a significant heyday in the Bay — a phenomenon that may be bubbling up once again.
So what exactly is indie-pop?
SF Popfest organizer Aaron Ehrlich describes it as having “some sort of jangly guitar sounds,” but wouldn’t elaborate with further descriptions, understandably. “It’s kind of like the Supreme Court’s definition of pornography: you know it when you see it. When you hear it [indie-pop music] you can tell it,” he construes. “It’s really hard to provide any pithy definition.”
“As a genre, it goes back to the mid-’80s,” recounts Mike Schulman of Slumberland Records, “when it became a term to describe a specific kind of music that had bands looking back to the Byrds for inspiration, or sunshine-pop stuff like Mamas & Papas, or Sagitarrius and mixing that up with girl-groups and the Ramones.” More pop-oriented punk ala the Buzzcocks, the pleasant sounds of the Smiths and the noisy leanings of the Wedding Present poured out of the indie-pop blender, “It’s a pretty broad banner,” Schulman surmises.
Slumberland Records is an independent label started by Schulman in 1989 and has been operating out of Berkeley the last 20 years. Not a purely indie-pop imprint per se, but Slumberland has been a key player in the scene past and present. Boasting such previous acts as the Aislers Set, Henry’s Dress, and Go Sailor in the ’90s, the label still has its fingers oh-so-delicately pressed on today’s indie-pop pulse with bands like Terry Malts, Frankie Rose, and Veronica Falls.
Towards the end of the ’90s an amazing frenzy of activity popped up in the Bay Area: Indie-pop had exploded into the spotlight, and with it’s tight-knit community in tow. “It was a magical two- or three-year period where there were shows every week,” Schulman reminisces, “you would go to the show and see all these familiar faces and everyone would be down front singing all the lyrics to the songs. It was really thrilling.”
During this time, Schulman and Slumberland were experiencing a career high with signee The Aisers Set, “They started getting bigger outside of the Bay Area and touring nationally,” he says, “and it was just super exciting”
The biggest difference between then and now, is how immediately noticeable the subset has become. “There will always be an indie-pop underground with fanzines and small labels doing stuff. It seems like, maybe now, indie-pop’s a bit more overground … visible.” The industry has changed drastically since the ’90s allowing for music to become more accessible, therefore aesthetically acceptable and almost mainstream. With help from the Internet (and its infinite wisdom and blogs) and the current trend of very melody-based compositions, indie-pop may be experiencing another renaissance.
Currently popular bands like the Drums and the Pains of Being Pure At Heart — who refer to indie-pop as a big influence and are clearly informed by it — have garnered both attention and commercial success.
Club nights that cater to indie-pop and the like, such as Shine On in The City and Time Keeps Time in the East Bay, have popped up and fill up fast.
“We’re in a period where it’s cool to be melodic. People are ready to hear it,” Schulman says. Bigger labels such as Hardly Art, Sub Pop, Fat Possum have also lent a hand in shining a light towards the music as press tends to pay attention to those who make the most noise — literally — and in turn the people listen, “… and there’s a knock-on effect,” he concludes.
Droves are expected this weekend to SF Popfest’s three-day event. The festival starts Friday evening at the Hemlock with headliners Seapony and support by BOAT, Black Elephant and Desario. Saturday’s all-day show at The Knockout sees Kids on a Crime Spree, Surf Club, Manatee, Dead Angle, Cruel Summer, plus the Shine On DJs. The event ends on Sunday back at the Hemlock with TV Girl, Allen Clapp and his Orchestra, The Bilinda Butchers, Outerhope. More concert and ticket information can be found at sfpopfest.com.
“Indie-pop is this perennial thing,” breathes Shine On DJ Jamie Guzzi. Indeed.
Julia B. Chan is a writer and hosts “Play for Today,” a program on Radio Valencia — www.radiovalencia.fm — every Friday from 6 to 8pm. Follow her on Twitter @onTheBeat.
Glenn Danzig has spawned a cult following with his dark and brooding voice, and the sinisterly seductive imagery of his lyrics. From the early days – some 35 years back – as front person for horror punk icons the Misfits, to metal-infused Samhain, and finally to the eponymous Danzig, where he achieved a degree of mainstream success, he has taken macabre themes, blasted them with an obsessive sheen, and come up with some of the most hauntingly memorable songs this side of hell.
Danzig comes to the Warfield on Sunday night on the second stop of a brief two-week tour that finds the 56-year-old icon reuniting with Misfits guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein. Doyle comes as a special guest for a handful of concerts that promise to feature a set of classic tunes with his old band mate.
Speaking over the phone from Los Angeles, the man who has made a living bellowing songs like “All Hell Breaks Loose,” “Skulls,” “Twist of Cain,” “Mother” and countless others is for the most part fairly soft-spoken, and keeps his responses short and to the point.
When first asked about the upcoming show with Doyle, he simply said, “We do a Danzig set, and then about two-thirds of the way in we bring out Doyle and do a bunch of old stuff.”
Later on though, Danzig did agree that the music he’s made has had a lasting impact on those who grew up listening to it, along with kids today just now discovering the Misfits and Samhain, or even newer solo releases such as 2010’s Deth Red Sabaoth.
“That’s the great part, because no one sees all the bullshit you have to go through, so when people come up and tell you what your stuff means to them, it’s pretty cool.”
Danzig was in San Francisco most recently last December, when he was a special guest at Metallica’s 30th anniversary run at the Fillmore, singing “Die Die, My Darling” and “Last Caress,” two Misfits tunes that Metallica covered in their early days as a band.
“I hadn’t seen those guys in a while, and James called me up, and was telling me that the kids were getting to see it for $19.81 total — they were doing it for all the right reasons. I think they just wanted to let fans have a great time, and it was a lot of fun, I got to see a lot of old friends.”
Speaking of covers, Danzig himself is currently finishing up work on an as-yet-untitled album of cover songs, the first of which, “Devils Angels,” is available to listen to on his website. The record, which is due out in the late summer or early fall, is one of many projects that the singer has on his plate at the moment, or hopes to in the near future.
Once the covers album is completed and released, Danzig plans to record Black Aria III, the latest in a series of classical solo projects, and then set about working on the next Danzig record.
In addition to making music, Danzig has been writing several different horror and fantasy-themed comic books over the years, published by his own company, Verotik. One of his titles, Ge Rouge, has been in the development stages of being made into a film for several years, but has run into differing problems.
“We had it going with one production company, but we had to yank it because it just wasn’t going anywhere with them — eventually you get tired of doing all these re-writes on it, and you just say, ‘Look man, either you’re doing this or you’re not doing it!’” says Danzig.
“We had a bunch of other people that wanted to see it, but we couldn’t show it to them because we had a contract – once we’re out of the contract we can start showing it to other people. And I’m always writing scripts, so…we’ll see,” he laughs.
As we all breathlessly count the days — nay, milliseconds — until the June 1 release of Piranha 3DD, there’s still plenty to gnaw on this Memorial Day weekend. Chernobyl Diaries screens tonight (i.e., the night before it opens) which is usually not a great sign, but it’s likely critic-proof anyway (even for me, someone who’s not entirely opposed to the idea of a new genre: nuclear-meltdown-sploitation! Sit down, 1979’s China Syndrome. This one’s got screaming teens and spooky spooks!) Er, anyway … check back tomorrow for my review of that one.
Meanwhile, apply your brain and/or sense of social justice while watching Michael Glawogger’s final entry in his “globalization trilogy,” Whores’ Glory (Dennis Harvey’s review here), or adjust your popcorn levels accordingly for these other recommends:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkEw3mWs86g
HysteriaTanya Wexler’s period romantic comedy gleefully depicts the genesis of the world’s most popular sex toy out of the inchoate murk of Victorian quackishness. In this dulcet version of events, real-life vibrator inventor Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy) is a handsome young London doctor with such progressive convictions as a belief in the existence of germs. He is, however, a man of his times and thus swallows unblinking the umbrella diagnosis of women with symptoms like anxiety, frustration, and restlessness as victims of a plague-like uterine disorder known as hysteria. Landing a job in the high-end practice of Dr. Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce), whose clientele consists entirely of dissatisfied housewives seeking treatments of “medicinal massage” and subsequent “parosysm,” Granville becomes acquainted with Dalrymple’s two daughters, the decorous Emily (Felicity Jones) and the first-wave feminist Charlotte (Maggie Gyllenhaal). A subsequent bout of RSI offers empirical evidence for the adage about necessity being the mother of invention, with the ever-underused Rupert Everett playing Edmund St. John-Smythe, Granville’s aristocratic friend and partner in electrical engineering. (1:35) Embarcadero, Shattuck, Sundance Kabuki. (Lynn Rapoport)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyaFEBI_L24
Men in Black III Why not? It’s been ten years since Men in Black II (the one where Lara Flynn Boyle and Johnny Knoxville — remember them? — played the villains), Will Smith has barely aged, and he hasn’t made a full-on comedy since, what, 2005’s Hitch? Here, he does a variation on his always-agreeable exasperated-guy routine, clashing with his grim, gimlet-eyed partner Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones, and in a younger incarnation, a spot-on Josh Brolin) in a plot that involves a vicious alien named Boris (Flight of the Conchords’ Jermaine Clement), time travel, Andy Warhol, the moon (as both space-exploration destination and modern-day space-jail location), and lines that only Smith’s delivery can make funny (“This looks like it comes from planet damn.”) It’s cheerful (save a bit of melodrama at the end), crisply paced, and is neither a must-see masterpiece nor something you should mindfully sleep through if it pops up among your in-flight selections. Oh, and it’s in 3D. Well, why not? (1:42) Everywhere. (Cheryl Eddy)
Polisse Comparisons to The Wire are not to be tossed around lightly, but when the Hollywood Reporter likened Polisse to an entire season of the masterpiece cop show packed into a single film, it was onto something. Director, co-writer, and star Maïwenn (the object of desire in 2003’s High Tension) hung out with real officers serving in Paris’ Child Protection Unit, drawing inspiration from their dealings with pedophiles, young rape victims, negligent mothers, pint-sized pickpockets, and the like (another TV show worth mentioning in comparison: Law & Order: SVU). But Polisse (the title is deliberately misspelled, as if by a child) is no simple procedural; it plunges the viewer directly into the day-to-day lives of its boisterous characters, who are juggling not just stressful careers but also plenty of after-hours troubles, particularly relationship issues. Between heart wrenching moments on the job (and off), the unit indulges in massive cut-loose episodes of what amounts to group therapy: charades, dance parties, and room-clearing arguments, most of which involve huge quantities of booze. Watching Polisse is a messy, emotional, rewarding experience; no wonder it picked up the Jury Prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. (2:07) Embarcadero, Shattuck. (Eddy)
What creative forms would you expect at the near-ends of the earth? My recent trip to Stockholm, Sweden was weird in the way that travel usually is, more just-like-home moments than alien fears realized of winding up cold and frozen because I forget to transcribe the 17th letter in the name of the street I was staying on.
Honestly, I went for the close-to-the-North-Pole party (did you know you can swim just about anywhere in Stockholm? Sunrise after-afterparty dips abound), but surprise! I ran into artistic inspiration. That’s really having your herring burger and eating it too. Here’s four people and projects that really did it for me, Swedishly speaking.
Sweden has epic, resplendent design history that Ikea has made so common with its bastardized, disposable bedframes (I have a personal vendetta against a certain bedframe, pardon my vehemence.) Every time I walked into someone’s Stockholm apartment I felt like I’d happened onto what taste was like before the Martha Stewart magazine happened – colorful, but with the acknowledgment that life is better amid function and simple form. Things make sense here. Men and women get 16 months of paid leave from work when they have a baby.
In contrast, the artists that most impressed me were all pretty bonkers. Call me contrary?
I first ran into real-life Linde one blurry Sunday afternoon in Berlin at Berghain’s Panorama bar (the best place in the world for techno church hipster zombies.) In a sea of glassy eyes and black T-shirts, Linde had on a yellow plaid suit and a smile, which in my flair-adore book makes him artist enough to begin with. “Makode just gives it to you,” as a friend of mine put it regarding his penchant for exuberant party dress.
Linde invited me to his retrospective at Galleri Kleerup‘s new showroom just around the corner from the opera in old town Stockholm and I acquiesed, only to wind up there with all my luggage in tow en route to the flight that would take me away from Sweden. The only thing there to greet me was a sign saying “TILLBAKA 16:30.” I waited until 17:00 and no one was tillbaka and I had a flight to catch. So thank god for massive plate windows and Swedish acceptance of creepers smashing their nose to them, because otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to see the show.
The Linde retrospective puts his howling cake performance in perspective. His famous cake-head (himself, actually poking his face through a hole in the cake-table) blackface makes since when, after viewing his body of work, you realize that he’s created an world that’s entirely blackface. Giraffes, Betty Boop, bunny rabbits, Jesus on the cross, a Chinese good luck cat, a taxidermied crow. On a stack of shipping pallets in the middle of the room sat a small, ready-to-offend army of these talismans, all from his “Afromantics” series.
What are they warding off? Complacency, perhaps. In a country where the GDP continues to grow despite economic mushiness in other EU countries, it’s still totally cool among even young alternative types to refer to any illegal after-party venue in Stockholm as a “black club.” Stockholm’s not the whitest city I’ve ever been in (shout-out to my nonetheless beloved Portland!), but it’s pretty close — and casual racism still comes in a pretty raw form.
Linde’s had some pretty heavy – and not at all misguided – accusations thrown at him. But standing in that pretty little cobblestone plaza in Stockholm, next to the Danish embassy in whose plate glass windows were displayed an immalculate and modest light pink ballerina gown from years past, I grokked him and his Rorschach test splotches of black faces with big red lips and wide white eyes.
I could understand how he was surprised when people said he couldn’t claim the African experience, because in some superficial ways he has to rep for it in this town.
THE INDIE ACTION-ADVENTURE-PRISON-BIKER-HAIR BAND QUEER FILM
There was only one room devoted to screening a single movie trailer, over and over again, at Konstfack, Sweden’s “second-best” (in the words of a friend) arts and design school. A few chairs sat complacently in front of a screen constantly counting down the seconds til the next screening of Dyke Hard.
Could this film have been shot in San Francisco? Yes, and if director Bitte Andersen succeeds in getting her entry into the Frameline Film Festival it most certainly it will find a audience here. A wacky tale of dyke band gone wild, taking on the forces of evil in a world where Lycra makes some, if not all injustices better? It’s an SF no-brainer. Andersen, along with production team Alexi Carpentieri and Martin Borell, started the project as a series of trailers – a sci-fi movie, a prison movie, a biker flick, and a horror.
“I guess watching a very large amount of genre film for many years and being a queer woman inspired me to make some genre film that wouldn’t be alienating for myself and other queers and/or women,” Andersen told me. Eventually, she and her team decided to combine all the trailers into a single film, Dyke Hard.
Shooting is taking about a year (I narrowly missed being cast in a seminal scene in which the mayor – played by a prominent Stockholm queer club promoter – announces a venue conflict between a battle of the bands and a martial arts tournament. Sports fans and music fans attack each other, only to be reprimanded eloquently by a bighearted member of the protagonist band.) The Kickstarter for the project swings into gear next week, so holler at them if you want to ensure that we are indeed, dyked hard.
DARK GLAMAZON
This is what public art looks like in Sweden: an emaciated giant propped up against (or propping up) the foyer of a luxury shopping mall. She’s got on platform lace-up Timberlands, a studded leather jacket, and of course: no pants.
Her name is “Pretty Vacant,” and her name is Cajsa Von Zeipel, the artist that is. In person, Von Zeipel somehow succeeds in being more glamorous than her drugged-out fashion waifs. She moonlights in boyfriend Tobias Bernstrup‘s Italo disco act, standing behind a keyboard and a wind machine in a patent leather bustier, silky kimono, ass-length blonde hair, and vertiginous high heels that she pretty much never doesn’t wear.
The artist is from a tiny town of 3,000 in Sweden, where she told me for fun she tried out icecream as a beauty product (facials) and generally felt like the weirdest one in school. But if that was the case, then we’re talking a serious ugly duckling-swan situation.
Von Zeipel and Bernstrup’s shared studio feels like an ode to feminine beauty. He’s been known to perform in triple-breasted lingerie armor and is partial to equally dangerous heel heights.
And early awkwardness might also give a clue into Von Zeipel’s art. There are no creatures more high fashion than her sculptures, but at the same time there is a bite to them. Their faces are twisted, their height disorienting. Pretty beautiful, yes — but also pretty freaky.
FEMINIST BLING
Of late, much has been made of craftivism, a reaction to the diminution of women’s work and general aesthetic scorn for things that grandmas get up to around big round tables with their friends. The belittling depiction of craft has been addressed in a feminist takeback that’s seen the rise of knit graffiti, the resurfacing of Gee’s Bend quilts in fine art museums, and more.
In Stockholm, queer feminist radio and TV host-DJ Kakan Hermansson is taking these lessons straight to the nail salon. Her graduate school exhibition at Konstfack is half video installation, half baroque still life – two-foot tall ceramic statues of fingers, capped with nail art erupting with My Little Ponys, Destiny’s Child collage, gems, sparkles, “GIRLS” spelled out in gold script.
If you view the installation as I did through the fog of a mid-afternoon hangover and a bag of popcorn, Hermansson’s accompanying video is more than engaging — it’s important. Her mama bear voice soothes as hands (hers) confidently remove polish from, re-paint, and glitterize the paws of volunteers who spill personal trauma throughout their treatment. Sexual violence, drug dealing mishap, partnerships gone awry. This is a safe space, a place where women can go to recharge and strengthen bonds with each other. The ceramic statues call attention to the lushness that is art contained on the tips of our fingers, while the videos emphasize that not everything that goes on in beauty salons is superficial.
Having too many options can prove paralyzing, but sometimes it can be the reason you end up shaking that ass for days on end. This week, much like the wind, I found myself swirling in four different directions — musically that is. Not able to focus on just one artist or event (and in a city like San Francisco, why should you have to?) I decided to map out all of my fancies this week. Here are four appealing acts traveling to and performing in The City this weekend — suck on a Red Bull and see you at the show.
THURSDAY
Fedde Le Grande
Dutch house superstar Fedde Le Grande is slated to set anchor at Vessel for a spin around the decks. Known for his hard-hitting, dance-floor seizure inducing electro house sound, the DJ and producer hit a high mark in his career when he was asked to remix Madonna’s anthemic “Give It 2 Me.”
Fedde is expected to play some iteration of his massive 2006 single “Put Your Hands Up For Detroit.” The timing is perfect as Movement: Detroit Electronic Music Festival is rolling out this weekend. Bringing at bit of the Motor City madness to those left on the Left Coast, Fedde will have the crowd throwing ’em up and tossing ’em back.
Cass McCombs’ voice doesn’t so much sing as it smooth sails across terrains of simple yet lush harmonies and warm guitars. His music is sparse and quiet with hints of loneliness and despair peeking through almost whimsical sounding melodies. The dichotomy is interesting and McCombs makes it work. At his core, the singer-songwriter is a skilled storyteller – and his stories are bewitching.
Most people probably won’t consider this show as pregame material, but I like to mix it up. Especially before a long night of oonce oonce, it’s kind of nice to get your folk on before getting your freak on.
Secret Circuit may not be a secret much longer. Finishing up a full-length LP for Tim Sweeney’s label Beats in Space, Secret Circuit’s Eddie Ruscha Jr. says he’s hoping for a summer release. “It’s all recorded, it’s just about fine tuning it really,” he reveals, “but all the tracks are there.”
The cosmically experimental musician divulges that the new album will sound much like the 12″ single — “Nebulon Sphynx” — BIS released earlier this year. “It’s analog, synth heavy and there are more song-oriented things that appear as the music goes on,” he says. “The 12″ was part of the larger picture of the record, for sure.”
Using the moniker The Laughing Light of Plenty, Ruscha is also working on an album with Rub N Tug‘s DJ Thomas “It’s coming out killer,” he laughs. “We used an old ARP 2600 and so there’s this kind of random, looping, synth blob happening throughout the whole thing. It sounds like old techno.”
Performing a DJ set on Friday at Monarch, Ruscha says he’ll play “freaky dance music” as well as some of his own beats and tunes. See, I told you there would be some freakin’ going on.
The two halves of Lazer Sword, Low Limit and Lando Kal, are coming back to San Francisco — if only for the night. Hitting up Icee Hot at Public Works on a Sunday (don’t forget it’s an extended Memorial Day weekend for most folks), the boys are crowd-rocking veterans.
The duo is guaranteed to play booming and sexy bass tunes, alongside tracks from sophomore effort, Memory, which will infused the mix with an ’80s-electro musicality. I’d recommend a stretch at home before twerking it full-speed at the club.
Julia B. Chan is a writer and hosts “Play for Today,” a program on Radio Valencia — www.radiovalencia.fm — every Friday from 6 to 8pm. Follow her on Twitter @onTheBeat.
[[UPDATE 5/25: The project was approved]] The San Francisco Planning and Recreation & Park commissions will hold a special joint hearing tomorrow (Thurs/24) afternoon to consider approving the Beach Chalet Athletic Fields Renovation, a controversial city proposal to replace the natural grass fields on the west end of Golden Gate Park with artificial turf.
The $48 million project – years in development by Recreation & Park officials and championed by department head Phil Ginsburg, who has aggressively tried to monetize the city’s parks – has inflamed the passions of both supporters and opponents, who are expected to jam into the 3 pm hearing in City Hall’s Room 400 to deliver hours’ of testimony. [Correction: Patrick Hannan with City Fields Foundation says this is a $14 million project, part of its overall $48 million artificial turf program for the city.]
Supporters say there aren’t enough fields in the city for young soccer players and the existing fields there are in bad shape and without adequate lighting. In addition to the artificial turf, which the City Fields Foundation (created and funded by the Fisher family, founders of The Gap) has been helping to install in parks throughout the city, the project would include 150,000-watt lighting 60 feet in the air to illuminate the fields until 10 pm, year-round.
Opponents of the project, which include primarily environmentalists and park neighbors, cite a litany of problems with the project, saying it violates city plans that call for the park to remain a natural area open to all park users. They say it will disturb wildlife, increase traffic (much of it from out-of-towners who rent the fields), and create potentially toxic runoff in a sensitive habitat.
“Golden Gate Park is a unique, magnificent, and world-famous San Francisco treasure. It was conceived to serve as an open space preserve in the midst of San Francisco – a cultivated pastoral and sylvan landscape. It was designed to afford opportunities for all to experience beauty and tranquility. Plastic fields that are brightly lighted until 10 pm every night of the year are entirely out of place in this setting. The western end of Golden Gate Park should remain a part of the cohesive naturalistic environment envisioned by the Park’s creators,” Katherine Howard of SF Ocean Edge, which organized in opposition to the project, wrote in a May 22 letter to the two commissions.
While it will be a joint hearing, the Planning Commission is charged with approving the project’s environmental impact report and the RPC will consider approval of the project itself. But judging from the long list of angry comments to our last story on the subject by people on both sides of the debate, this divisive project will likely be the subject of appeals and lawsuits for months or years to come.
We’ve Got a Map boasts the title of experimental folk band Tidelands’ upcoming sophomore album – and do they ever. You may remember seeing Tidelands’ stunning animated music video for their song “Holy Grail” last summer off debut album If….
Well Gabriel Montana Leis and Mie Araki are back this summer, with a relatively minimalistic follow-up to that orchestral introduction. And a show this week at Bottom of the Hill.
For the new album, which drops Aug. 7 (check track “The New Black” now on Bandcamp), Leis and Araki decided to play more of the instrumentation themselves, so they wouldn’t have to depend on a big backing band this time around. They wanted to conjure those immense sounds on their own. This gave them a chance to experiment with learning new instruments and therefore expand their creative endeavors.
Leis’ voice has the deep and theatrically clear pronunciations that bring to mind Colin Meloy of the Decemberists. Araki is a badass drummer from Osaka, Japan. A classically trained pianist and percussionist, she also plays the Moog synthesizers for Tidelands. Their music is certainly elaborate, but their newest album offers more simplicity. While their sound is still intricate, the two artists have taken it upon themselves to treat our ears to exotic sounds and old favorites such as the flugelhorn.
Beyond that stunning animated video, you may have heard the name Tidelands due to their collaboration with Magik*Magik Orchestra. The SF-based Magik*Magik Orchestra – currently on a world tour supporting Death Cab for Cutie – joined Tidelands for three songs on the new album, along with producing and arranging one of the tracks, “Twin Lakes.”
I wanted to find out just how the tides were rising for this local duo as their late summer album release approaches, so I spoke with them over a cup of tea at Revolution Cafe in the Mission this week prior to the show:
SFBGHas learning to play different instruments always been a strength for both of you?
Gabriel Montana Leis I have fallen in love with the flugelhorn – it would be easier to not do it, it is a physically challenging instrument, but I just can’t stop. I want to be better. I do have plans for improving my basic knowledge of other instruments, I would love to explore them more fully.
Mie Araki I would like to put a huge explanation mark, and underline to this point – it definitely helps to play other instruments. Leis has become way better than before, it comes from playing flugelhorn. We spend more time thinking, feeling what is going on. When I play classical instruments, there is not enough time to practice, because there are so many different styles and it gets confusing, but it does help you to learn more as a musician.
SFBG I read that Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead provided you with his first guitar, can you elaborate?
GML My dad was a friend and business acquaintance of Weir’s. He was someone that was around, who I knew. If I saw him we would certainly say hi and have a conversation.
SFBGWho are some of your inspirations and why?
MA Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, those are the guys [I grew up with]. Then I began to know the MTV people – Michael Jackson – the pop musicians. I also studied jazz – John Coltrane, Miles Davis, they are huge inspirations to me. Sigur Ros, Wilco, and M83 are current influences, so I have a lot of old and new inspirations.
GML Even our inspirations from when we were teenagers affects who we are now. Kurt Vile is a huge inspiration to us, as well as a Danish musician by the name of Efterklang. Their use of horns has really informed our work – it’s grandiose and glorious sounding, with happy choruses. St. Vincent is amazing too.
SFBGDid Death Cab’s tour with Magik*Magik Orchestra lead you to consider who you would like to collaborate with, if you could choose from any musician?
MA It would be our dream to have [Magik*Magik Orchestra tour] with us actually. We know them through John Vanderslice and his Tiny Telephone Studios in SF that we record in. It would be amazing to play at a venue like the Fox Theater, with a full orchestra like Death Cab did – that was a great show! We have a lot of people around the Bay Area that we would love to work with for collaborations, if we have that chance.
GML Minna Choi of Magik*Magik is part of Vanderslice’s world, his success is that he brings people together. With Choi, we understand each other musically really well.
SFBGWhere did the inspiration for the album title come from?
GML We pulled the line We’ve Got a Map from one of the songs. It is about searching for a meaning, and the feelings surrounding it. It makes a statement for where we are at, what we are trying to achieve.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFeSYklGag0
SFBGYou mentioned that when you initially recorded the songs, you did not know how you were going to perform them live, what was the process of figuring that out like?
MA We start with a segment, phrase, motif and then Leis adds layers.
GML We actually did that at the recording studio this time, but we will take hours just figuring it out. It’s trial and error, and takes time, you just get better through effort and force of will.
MA It’s tricky, it is an orchestration, a choreography. Sometimes the music comes first: but then we have to figure out how will we make it happen.
Tidelands With Voxhaul Broadcast, Bad Veins Thu/24, 9pm, $10 Bottom of the Hill 1233 17th, SF (415) 626-4455 www.bottomofthehill.com
I’m (clearly) not a stock market analyst or Wall Street Whiz (if I was that smart, how come I’m not rich?), but I have to say, some of the stuff that’s coming out about the Facebook IPO makes this social media company that lives on its users’ content and that’s been portrayed as the company of the future look an awful lot like some rotten companies of the past. Sfist has an overview here.
And the fallout from the most hyped IPO in history bursts not just the illusion that Facebook is actually worth $100 billion, but the idea that Facebook is different than any other corporation hell-bent on making as much money as possible for a handful of very wealthy people … For a company which Mark Zuckerberg boasted in a letter to investors “was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission,” Facebook sure as hell acted like a company in helping to enrich insiders at the expense of public investors.
The way IPO’s often work is no secret — the underwriters try to create a furor of hype around the company so that the early investors (the pals of those underwriters) get in at a low price that soars quickly so they make a nice neat profit. In this case, that only worked for the folks who bought early and sold very fast.
Now Facebook and the underwriters are getting sued, and corporate lawyers will be getting rich (note to Facebook’s counsel: Get paid in cash, not stock).
But the Facebook employees who got stock as part of the IPO will still be pretty rich, and they’ll still be driving up real-estate prices in the Bay Area, and my trolls will still be telling me I hate and envy success. (Or maybe I measure success in ways that don’t include personal wealth.)
At any rate, a lot of investors lost money on this deal, but Mark Zuckerberg won’t miss any meals.
Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.
Behind every San Francisco band is the shadow of the past – decades of sweeping musical scenes that came before it, haunting the Victorian venues, ghosts with ink stamped on their hands. With Major Powers & the Lo-Fi Symphony, that tap-tap-tapping is a bit more literal.
Two of the three members of the trio (French brothers Kevin and Dylan Gautschi) are the sons of Pamela Wood, bassist of 1970s Bay Area act Leila & the Snakes. That’s not to say Major Powers & the Lo-Fi Symphony emulates Leila & the Snakes’ minimalist rock’n’roll weirdo sound, just that perhaps the musical spirit of experimentation courses through the veins of certain families.
No, MP&LFS gets just as much vigor from both the height of the ragtime era and the rise of ’90s Buzz Bin alternative rock as it does the less tangible local past. Led by dynamic pianist-songwriter Nicholas Jarvis Powers, the bouncy band calls itself “adventure rock” and makes good on the promise with complex arrangements spruced up with those tickling feel-good keys and power pop vocals.
The trio is currently in the process of releasing its first LP – We Became Monters – on SF’s Amazing Pony Records, but for now you can catch it popping up live in venues across the city (most recently, a piano showdown at Monarch). This week? Upper Haight experimenters-haven Milk.
Year and location of origin: 2011, Richmond, Calif.
Band name origin: Nick dreamt the phrase “Lo-Fi Symphony.” Dylan’s girlfriend said, “call it Major Powers & The Lo-Fi Symphony.” We all got jazzed.
Band motto: “There is no spoon.”
Description of sound in 10 words or less: Everything Bert Does In Mary Poppins Meets Superdrag Meets Queen.
Instrumentation: Piano, Guitar, Drums.
Most recent release:We Became Monsters.
Best part about life as a Bay Area band: Hotties.
Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: Money.
First album ever purchased: Dylan:Sex Packets, Digital Underground. Kevin: Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em. Nick: Ice Ice Baby (single).
Most recent album purchased/downloaded: Dylan: Powerman 5000 in 1998. Kevin: All Eyez On Me, Tupac. Nick: “Ice Ice Baby” (single) (I’m not kidding – I bought one cassette and that was it).
Favorite local eatery and dish: Dylan: my kitchen Kevin: La Taqueria, Carnitas Burrito Nick: Fonda, Skirt Steak, THAT SHIT CRAY
Photographer Allen David sent us these snaps from the May 12 Boonville Beer Festival, good old-fashioned weekend porn if ere we’ve some. Check them (and his prose below) out to kickstart your next mission outside city limits, using our 2012 Summer Fairs and Festival guide for additional inspiration.
A scenic drive north takes me to the festival at which the suds spread and the language are both unique. Boontling, an Anderson Valley regional dialect with words from the British Empire, the Pomo Californian indigenous people, and Spain can be heard between the festival’s many taps: “The ballets steinbok horning’, chiggrul groin’ tiddrick in the heelch of the Boont Region!”
For four hours I am able to sample the finest beers that the West has to offer. From golden pale ales to dark oatmeal stouts to Double IPAs with more hops than I thought possible. Two hours into the festival, everyone’s feeling hoppy themselves. Those sudden yells of joy you only find at beer festivals spread across the crowd, as smiles stretch further and further across faces.
Beer bellies be damned, when the end of the festival approaches everyone finishes their last glass and heads to the fair campground to continue the party, with DJs and dancing ’til the moon is high above. Great festival. See you next year, Boontling.
Julian Davis, a widely known progressive activist and organizer in San Francisco since 2002, declared Tuesday his intention to run for supervisor in District 5, the city’s most liberal district and a battleground district for progressives seeking to regain control of the Board of Supervisors.
He joins eight other challengers to Sup. Christina Olague, appointed by Mayor Ed Lee to replace former Sup. Ross Mirkarimi. He was considered by many to be the board’s most reliable progressive. He succeeded Matt Gonzales, a strong progressive. The battle will center on which candidate will be the most reliable progressive vote–Olague, whose votes are being carefully watched by progressives, or by one of her challengers.
Davis, a Bay Area native, is a graduate of Brown University and UC Hastings College of the Law, where he graduated magna cum laude. He has worked in government and non-profit and legal sectors on community development, civil rights, social justice, public power, and environmental causes. He has worked on several candidate and ballot measure campaigns including John Avalos for mayor (20ll), Jane Kim for supervisor (2010), Prop H (2008), Clean Energy Act.) He also led a succeesful campaign in 2007 to free journalist Josh Wolf from federal prison for refusing to reveal sources in a demonstration he was covering.
“I was drawn to San Francisco by the creative energy and culture of the city–by what makes this place so special,” Davis said. “Over the past l0 years, I’ve devoted myself to developing healthy communities. I’m running for supervisor to keep the city a vibrant home for the every day people that make San Francisco real.” b3
Toward the end of Big Fun in the Big Town (released today and available here), Dutch filmmaker Bram Van Splunteren’s love letter to the birth of hip-hop in NYC, we’re treated to an interview with a young LL Cool J at his Grandma’s house in Queens. The newly released documentary, compiled from footage that’s been collecting dust in a European warehouse since 1986, is full of these revelatory moments, painting a vivid picture of an art form in the process of defining and justifying itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqnyQ5vhH7o
It’s endearing and revealing to witness younger versions of superstars like Run-DMC, Grandmaster Flash, and Russell Simmons discussing their artistic philosophy early on in their careers, hungry for the success and celebrity we now know they achieved. Van Splunteren effortlessly conveys his passion for hip-hop, and talent for filmmaking, without upstaging the musicians at the film’s center. Edited with a deft hand, Big Fun in the Big Town breezes through its 40-minute running time, offering a fresh take on one of the great paradigm shifts in American music history.
Mayor Ed Lee is on the roll these days, with a string of recent pro-business successes capped off by today’s announcement that the Golden State Warriors are moving to San Francisco and building a new arena at Piers 30-32. But Lee faces a series of tricky balancing acts in the coming weeks as he tries to compensate for his strong economic development focus, which is driving up residential and commercial rents and threatening the city’s diversity and livability.
Lee has been overly enamored by tech companies since taking office, from pushing through last year’s tax breaks for Twitter and Zynga to his announcement a couple weeks ago that Yelp was expanding into a 100,000-square foot space in SoMa. “Yelp’s lease brings the total tally for technology leasing to more than two million square feet,” his office boasted in a press release. “Comparatively, this milestone was reached in the fall of 2011, indicating that the technology industry is increasing their role as a key driver in the office leasing marketplace and job creation in San Francisco.”
That’s great for residents who work in tech companies that are awash in venture capital from Ron Conway or the other billionaires who funded Lee’s mayoral campaign, or for the commercial landlords taking advantage of the latest tech bubble. But it’s not so great for the nonprofits and small businesses who are having a hard time with making rents that are being steadily driven up — or even for the cultural cache of a city being steadily overrun by boring Google-busers.
Contrary to right-wing fairy tales, policies that favor wealthy investors don’t really help the average San Franciscans much, and they need to be balanced by policies and taxes that see to the common good. That’s been crystal clear for a long time when it comes to San Francisco’s housing policy, which is why Lee today is submitting his proposal for a Housing Trust Fund to be placed on the November ballot.
Details are still being worked out even as I write this, but the Chronicle reports that it proposes to initially generate $20 million per year by slightly increasing the real estate transfer tax, diverting a bit of the city’s hotel tax, and then trying to set aside some future property taxes, with the goal of eventually reaching $50 million per year.
Unfortunately, that would barely put a dent the affordable housing needs identified in the city’s Housing Element, which says about 60 percent of all new housing construction should be affordable to prevent gentrification and its associated problems (more commuter traffic, loss of diversity, etc.), which the Board of Supervisors already exacerbated last week by greenlighting the 8 Washington project for the super-rich.
And Lee’s compromise with developers and the business community on his housing trust fund makes things even worse by diverting $15 million into a down payment assistance program for middle-class homebuyers (in a city where two-thirds of residents rent, and in a country that should have learned not to lure more families into overextending themselves to buy houses) and actually reduced the number of below-market-rate units that developers are required to build.
Granted, these are tricky problem fraught with complicated politics, particularly as we approach the deadline for submitting ballot measures for a fall election when only a simple majority is needed to pass revenue measures, a once every four year anomaly. As we reported last week, Lee is currently in the throes of final negotiations for his business tax reform measure, with labor and progressives putting the pressure on to back off his insistence that it be revenue-neutral.
That will be an important indicator of whether Mayor Lee will be content with simply catering to corporations and staying focused on his neoliberal economic development agenda – or whether he is serious about maintaining this city’s socioeconomic diversity (being a “city for the 99 percent,” as he said in his inaugural address) and taking a more balanced approach to governance.
Lee seems to understand the situation better than his predecessor, Gavin Newsom, who wasn’t willing to risk any political capital to solve the city’s most vexing problems or to make any big asks of downtown (or even to keep the 49ers in town). Whereas Newsom was willing to basically give Piers 30-32 away to Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison to secure the overhyped America’s Cup, Lee allowed that real estate deal to wither without losing the race and found what at first glance seems like a better deal for Piers 30-32: an arena built with private money.
But in the housing fund, business tax reform, CPMC’s massive hospital and housing project, and budget fights that will unfold in the coming weeks (the mayor’s budget is due June 1), Lee will demonstrate whether he has the political skills, the long-term vision, and the populist perspective to do right by all San Franciscans, or whether he’ll cling to his belief that a handful of business elites should be trusted with the future of this great city.
“People at sex clubs are looking to hook up. It’s usually my safe sex practices that get me turned down more and not the fact that I’m transgender”
I thought it would be cute to conduct today’s interview in a bathhouse sauna. Instead I found myself sipping a soy milk latte in one of the Mission’s many hip coffee shops — not as intimate of an option, but probably better for my note taking. For once, I was on time, and I patiently awaited San Francisco sex educator Niko Kowell.
I love Kowell’s official job title, transmale program specialist. It sounds so glamorous, and in truth, it is. Kowell is the creator of San Francisco’s Transmenformen night, held every second and fourth Thursday at Eros, one of San Francisco’s most innovative gay bathhouses. At TM4M, as the event is nicknamed, Kowell facilitates group dialogues for queer and transmen who want to have sex with other males. He teaches bathhouse cruising tactics (coy glances over one’s shoulder among them), screens transgender and queer-related films, and puts on an almost-naked yoga class.
During our morning together, Kowell and I talked about bathhouse culture and fucking transmen. He also debunked the rumor that all transmen who sleep with men are bottoms.
San Francisco Bay Guardian: Tell us about your experiences with gender and sexuality, particularly within gay male cruising and bathhouse culture.
Niko Kowell: It’s been interesting learning about gay male cruising. I come from a really communicative, consensual background when it comes to sex. And I have had to learn how to pick up men in a bathhouse in a completely different way. It’s a lot more to do with eye contact. Being too verbal can be seen as a turn off. I’ve also had to think of creative ways to disclose the fact that I’m transgendered. Recently I’ve taken to towel flashing hot guys I’m attracted to.
I had a lot of assumptions of what male cruising spaces would be like. People at sex clubs are looking to hook up. It’s usually my safe sex practices that get me turned down more and not the fact that I’m transgender. It’s been good for me to learn that my trans-ness isn’t always the reason why people aren’t interested. There are are a number of reasons why someone wouldn’t be interested. I’ve also had to learn how to be my own best advocate. It’s important to know what your boundaries are and be willing to stand by them.
SFBG: Take us through the series of events that led to your position as a transmale program specialist.
NK: Five years ago when I was in college I came to San Francisco and did an internship at Eros. I was studying psychology, and I was working on a paper entitled the “First Timers’ Guide to Playing With a Transguy.” I went back to Ohio, graduated, and promptly returned to SF.
Upon my return, I was working part-time at Eros when Luke Woodward, the previous program supervisor at Transthrive, hired me as a private contractor to do Transthrive events. Last October our program got funding, and now I get to focus predominantly on transmale programing. TM4M is a collaboration between Eros, Trannywood Pictures, and Transthrive, a program at the Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center.
Showing them tats, flashing those biceps: Niko Kowell in the Transthrive offices.
SFBG:Eros is already known to be a queer masculine and transinclusive space. Why have a night specifically geared to transmen?
NK: It is important that TM4M happens at Eros because it gets transmen into a male space. It begins to build community between cismen and transmen, and it teaches everyone how to have casual sex with different types of bodies safely. TM4M is a space where transmen can talk about what it was like to transition and still be into the same gender. I want to reduce shame around the issue of transitioning and participating in one’s sexuality.
SFBG:What other events and projects are you currently working on?
NK: I’m working with Trannywood Pictures on a documentary project about transmen and their relationships to their penis, whether that be the cock they strap on or the cock they grew while on testosterone. The project was inspired by the 1999 documentary Private Dicks a special about cisguys and their relationships to their penis.
SFBG: How do you identify with your gender today?
NK: I identify strongly as transgender. I use male pronouns, and I strongly feel genderqueer. I’m really proud of my female history. It’s important to me. I guess I identify as queer in general in regards to my sexuality and gender.
SFBG: Are you currently dating anyone?
NK: I’m in a nonmonogamous relationship with a ciswoman. I almost predominantly play with men, and she almost predominantly plays with woman. It works for us.
SFBG: Tell us something interesting and sexy.
NK: I’m versatile. It’s hard for me to find cismen who want me to top them. I just want to dispel the rumor that all transmen who sleep with men are bottoms. That’s why I wrote the top five reasons to fuck a transguy:
1. Transguys are hot
2. Trans cock is any shape or size you want, and it never goes soft
3. Three holes are better than two
4. Small hands make small fist(s)
5. Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back
I’m in part being cheeky with my list, and I acknowledge that every transguy is unique in the way they want to experience sex and their sexuality. I want people to keep in mind some transmen may not agree with these reasons.
SFBG: What does creating a sex-positive space mean for you?
NK: A sex-positive space should be free of judgement. There is no certain way to be a man or be sexual. You should be sexual in a way that makes sense for you. When I’m facilitating dialogue about sex it’s important that everyone in the room remain open and supportive.
As a facilitator I’m open and honest about my experiences. I sleep with men and women. I’ve done porn. The people who keep coming back to my events are committed to cultivating a sex-positive space. It’s about diversity and really connecting with the diversity of queerness. People should have the space they need to share their personal experiences, and we need to really be in support of each other as a broader GLBTQI community as well.
EDITORIAL The Rules Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors joined the war on sunshine May 17 when it rejected four qualified candidates from three organizations who are mandated by the ordinance to choose representatives for the task force because of the organizations’ special open government credentials.
The representatives served as experienced, knowledgeable members who were independent counters to the nominees of supervisors who were often promoting an anti-sunshine agenda. The committee asked the organizations to come up with more names.
That was a nasty slap at members and organizations that have served the task force well for years. And this arbitrary demand will make it virtually impossible for these organizations to come up with a “list of candidates” to run the supervisorial gauntlet. Who wants to go before the supervisors on a list for a bout of public character assassination?
Specifically, the committee:
•Unanimously moved to sack the two incumbents (Allyson Washburn from the League of Women Voters) and Suzanne Manneh (New California Media now known as America New Media.) The League was mandated to name a representative because of its tradition and experience with good government and public access issues. America New Media was mandated to name a member to insure there would always be a journalist of color on the task force.
•Unanimously refused to seat two representatives from the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the sponsor of the ordinance with a long tradition in open government and First Amendment issues. One SPJ mandated representative was for a journalist (Doug Comstock, editor of the West of Twin Peaks Observer, one of the best neighborhood papers in town and a former chair of the task force.) The second mandated seat was for an attorney (Ben Rosenfeld).
•Tried to knock out incumbent Bruce Wolfe, an excellent member, on motion of member Mark Farrell, but Wolfe survived on a 2-l vote.
•Voted unanimously for four new persons to the task force while sacking and refusing to appoint able members with experience and expertise without a word of thanks, explanation, or apology.
Committee Member David Campos later told me that he went along because he could see he didn’t have the votes. He said the organizations’ candidates “were eminently qualified,” that they should have been appointed, and that he would fight for them. He said he would ask the office of Jane Kim, who chairs the committee, to set the issue for hearing at the next rules meeting or call for a special meeting.
We asked Campos what the organizations should do. “They should stand by their candidates,” he said. We concur.
The Society of Professional Journalists, the League of Women Voters, and America New Media and their open government allies should stand by their candidates, lobby for them with the rules committee and the full board, and get out the word about this attempted coup in the most important court of all, the court of public opinion.
The Sunshine Task Force has annoyed some elected officials with its dogged efforts to promote open government. City Hall is again trying to find ways to undermine it. That needs to end, now.
This week in new music explores the depths of an ingenue with a siren attitude, the quiet ranges of Mount Eerie, mom as muse, and more.
Kimbra:Vows (Warner Bros.)
I have three words to say regarding Kimbra’s debut album Vows: I like it. The poppier tracks are infectious (backsides and feet are among the first to fall victim) and the slow jams are worthy of a swoon or two.
Thrust into the spotlight thanks to a strong performance on Gotye’s currently ubiquitous hit “Somebody That I Used to Know,” the New Zealander holds her own on her first studio effort. Kimbra’s brand of pop spans the genres, from high-energy dance single “Cameo Lover” to the slow-burning ballad “Old Flame.” “Wandering Limbs” featuring Sam Lawrence is a favorite and a spine tingler with its mix of future soul and simple harmonies.
Vows is a well-crafted stage for the 21-year-old’s burgeoning talent. It shines a bright light on her voice’s ability to nimbly ebb and wane from the soaring highs and whispering lows. And with pipes like that, Kimbra has managed to escape one-hit-wonder obscurity.
Mount Eerie: Clear Moon (P.W. Elverum and Sun)
http://vimeo.com/29463284
Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum is low-key. And 2012’s Clear Moon is a record about a quiet life led in Anacortes, Wash., a small northwest town 64 miles outside of Seattle.
Following the release of previous album Wind’s Poem in 2009, Elverum spent two years building a recording studio, known as “the Unknown,” in an old church and the last 15 months forging music. He has recorded two new albums in this giant space: one is Clear Moon out today and Ocean Roar will be available in September. Epic echoes captured within this vast space mingle with deep and melodic chimes while Elverum’s voice cuts through clear and resonant.
San Francisco’s very own Girls have pressed only 1,000 copies of their latest record. The fourth single from the band’s sophomore LP Father, Son, Holy Ghost, “My Ma” will appear on a seven-inch accompanied by B-side “Love Life.” The title song is a heartsick, melancholy ode to frontman Christopher Owens’ mother.
The record is being released as a thank you to the shops that participated in Girls Across America — the band’s nationwide tour of independent record shops in the fall of last year. The rare seven-inch — cover art designed by Owens — will only be available at participating stores.
Saint Etienne: Words and Music by Saint Etienne (Universal)
Words and Music by Saint Etienne is the seminal indie dance-pop band’s first new studio album in seven years and its eighth full-length overall. Still believing in the magic of pop after all these years, Saint Etienne has put together a deluxe two-disc catalogue of new tunes and remixes.
The latest LP is a warm and dizzy trek through ’90s-sounding dance music, complete with the lighter and darker sides of pop. Although its signature sound hasn’t changed much, the group’s music has evolved on this album with hints of house and balearic beats, and lyrical prowess. “I’m growing older,” sings Sarah Cracknell. “Heaven only knows what’s on its way.”
Julia B. Chan is a writer and hosts “Play for Today,” a program on Radio Valencia — www.radiovalencia.fm — every Friday from 6 to 8pm. Follow her on Twitter @onTheBeat.
Weirdo jazz, San Pedro punks, free daytime brewery parties, the highly desirable remains of the Misfits, and more, in this week’s Heads Up.
Just a lot of great shows you should be going to, alright? Apologies. Didn’t mean to snap at you. Sadly, that’s about all I can muster post-Bay to Breakers. The sun-baked, beer-soaked ragers and blistering top 40 pumping all morning and through the night rubbed my Divisadero-based brain the wrong way. Hope everyone’s houses are still standing, and may they be free of the retched urine stain.
Let the bloody chaos — err, week of mind-bending and enthusiastically nutty shows — begin yet again. Here are your must-see Bay Area concerts this week/end:
San Francisco Offside Festival This fest is a brief but fascinating look into the current world of jazz, including an experimental night at El Valenciano with modern “garage jazz” quartet Bait & Switch, and brand new quintet These Are Our Hours, which features members of the Oakland Active Orchestra. The second night at 50 Mason Social House explores straight-forward contemporary jazz, focusing on three Bay Area composers (bassist Marcus Shelby, trumpeter Erik Jekabson, and guitarist Alex Pinto) and their respective trios. Night three’s location is under wraps for now, but the fest promises to deliver an evening of “genre-expanding music that intersects jazz in distinctive ways.” Thu/24, 8pm, $10 per night or $25 for festival pass El Valenciano 1135 Valencia, SF
Fri/25, 8pm, $10 per night or $25 for festival pass 50 Mason Social House, SF
Sat/26, check www.sfoffside.com
I Break Horses “Listen to “Winter Beats” from 2011’s Hearts, and you’ll probably have Stockholm, Sweden’s I Break Horses figured as a purely dreamy, slightly cold shoegazing act. Just listen to those mesmerizing synth arpeggios and slow, distantly winsome vocals. But as soon as the snares start cracking on “Wired” and build into a beat that a person could actually bounce around a bit too, some of the ice starts melting away” — Ryan Prendiville With Silver Swans, DJs Omar and Aaron Thu/24, 9:30pm, $14 Advance Rickshaw Stop 155 Fell, SF (415) 861-2011 www.rickshawstop.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sg7YkPnEYw
Toys That Kill Toys That Kill is back! That instantly likeable F.Y.P. offshoot – with the same snot-nosed, sugared up forever young yelps of singer Todd and jubilant pop punk spirit – has finally released a new album Fambly 42, out this month on Todd’s iconic San Pedro label, Recess Records. The band tours to Oakland this weekend for night two of 1-2-3-4 Go! Records’ Go Go fest. With Avengers, the Bananas, Fleshies, Terry Malts Fri/25, 9pm, $12 New Parish 579 18th Street Oakl. (510) 444-7474 www.thenewparish.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzMLr-laYrs
Jaberi & Deutsch Full disclosure: Deutsch is an old pal. But Jaberi is a brand new face, and he’s got the crackling R&B vocal pipes that round out this East Bay-based, lo-fi keyboard duo. With Lake, Half-Handed Cloud Sat/26, 9:30pm, $8 Hemlock 1131 Polk, SF (415) 923-0923 www.hemlocktavern.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaRk8SzZBFI
Terry Malts Punk-minded chainsaw pop act Terry Malts (also On the Rise alums) play this free, all-ages show at a brewery this weekend. Beer, Malts, and – fingers crossed – sunshine. What possible reason could you have to not go? With Uzi Rash, Synthetic I.D., Yi Sat/26, 4-9pm, free Speakeasy Ales & Lagers 1195 Evans, SF Facebook: PosDes+Speakeasy Present http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1K9O4FkzOs
Danzig with Doyle performing The Misfits Dying to catch singer (Glenn) Danzig and guitarist Doyle (Wolfgang von Frankenstein), back to muscle-y back, singing something about skulls (“I want your skull”), death, ladies (“She was virgin vixen”), Halloween (“Hallo-weeeeen”), or other ghoulish, fist-pumping Misfits delights? This may be your last chance – last caress, if you will. Neither is a current member of the theatrical hardcore band, but they were the ones – along with Doyle’s brother Jerry – who essentially started it all. With Kyng, Monstro Sun/27, 8pm, $38 Warfield 982 Market, SF www.thewarfieldtheatre.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChjZqbwDVFg
Lazer Sword The formerly SF-based electro duo returns this week for an album release party, celebrating their sophomore album, Memory (Monkeytown), a stripped down, “more emotional, [more] adult,” and “sleeker, sexier” affair from the previously ADD act. Stream here. Icee Hot with DJ Stingray Sun/27, 10pm, $5 before 11pm; $10 after 161 Erie, SF (415) 932-0955 www.publicsf.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ula6lbWLG0
As an advocate for the passage of the San Francisco sunshine ordinance and task force in the early 1990s, I felt obligated to take my first and only City Hall position and serve as a founding member of the task force. I served for l0 years and helped with many other good members to build the task force into a strong and respected agency for helping citizens get access to records and meetings and hold city officials accountable for suppressing access.
The task force is the only place where citizens can file an access complaint without an attorney or a fee and force a city official, including the mayor, to come before the task force for questioning and a ruling on whether they had violated sunshine laws, The task force lacked enforcement power, but it still annoyed of city officials, including Mayor Willie Brown.
In fact, Willie spent a good deal of time trying to kick me off the task force. He used one jolly maneuver after another, even getting an agent to make a phony complaint against me for violating the ordinance with an email. (The complaint went nowhere.) I refused to budge and decided to stay on the task force until Willie left office—on the principle that that neither the mayor nor anybody else from City Hall could arbitrarily kick members off the task force. When Willie left office after two terms, I resigned with the hope that the Willie principle had been established.
The principle held, until last Thursday (May 17) when the board’s rules committee (Sup. Mark Farrell, Chair Jane Kim, and Sup. David Campos) brought Willie Brownism back to the task force with a vengeance. The committee moved to sabotage the task force by sacking or refusing to appoint four qualified candidates from three organizations who are mandated by the ordinance to choose representatives for the task force because of the organizations’ special open government credentials. Their representatives served as experienced, knowledgeable members who were independent counters to nominees of supervisors who were often promoting an anti-sunshine agenda. The committee asked the organizations to come up with more names. There was no explanation nor apology to the candidates nor to their organizations. It was a nasty slap at members and organizations that have served the task force well for years. And this arbitrary demand will make it virtually impossible for these organizations to come up with a “list of candidates” to run the supervisorial gauntlet. Who wants to go before the supervisors on a list for a bout of public character assassination?
Specifically, the committee:
+unanimously moved to sack the two incumbents (Allyson Washburn from the League of Women Voters) and Suzanne Manneh (California New Media.) The League was mandated to name a representative because of its tradition and experience with good government and public access issues. California New Media was mandated to name a member to insure there would always be a journalist of color on the task force.
+unanimously refused to seat two representatives from the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the sponsor of the ordinance with a long tradition in open government and First Amendment issues. One SPJ mandated representative was for a journalist (Doug Comstock, editor of the West of Twin Peaks Observer, one of the best neighborhood papers in town and a former chair of the task force.) The second mandated seat was for an attorney (Ben Rosenfeld.)
+tried to knock out incumbent Bruce Wolfe on motion of Farrell, but Wolfe survived on a 2-l vote.
+voted unanimously to approve David Pilpel, a former task force member who is known by observers for delaying meetings with is bursts of lengthy nitpicking on almost every item. He then usually votes against citizen complaints and for protecting city officials on the basis of spotting “onerous” burdens caused by the complaint
+voted unanimously for four new persons to the task force while sacking and refusing to appoint able members with experience and expertise without a word of thanks. The four new members are “a “a bunch of neophytes,” according Rick Knee, outgoing SPJ member for 10 years.
Knee, a former task force chair surveying the carnage, said that the committee’s actions stemmed “partly from a desire by some supervisors to sabotage the task force and the ordinance itself, and partly from a vendetta by certain supervisors after the task force found several months ago that the board violated local and state open meeting laws when it railroaded some last minute changes to a contract on the Park Merced development project without allowing sufficient time for public service review and comment.” He noted that the developer “had slipped in a 14-page package of amendments at the llth hour” to get board approval.
Knee said that the rules committee is recommending sacking two incumbents and apparently hopes to sack two more. Farrell wanted to push out a fifth but was outvoted by Kim and Campos. All five candidates, he said, “have done excellent work, each brought a unique perspective and, while we had our share of disagreements among ourselves, all shared a passion for open government and for making sure that everyone who came before us got a fair hearing.”
Hanley Chan, an outgoing task force member, backed up Knee’s point in an email. He wrote that “I spoke with Sup. David Chiu and he told me that the rest of the supervisors will not appoint any incumbent, because we defied the city attorney’s opinion (the Park Merced case). “”You should have made a right decision. I was told by the city attorney that it was legal, my aides explained it to the task force and you should have made a better judgment.'” Chan said that the rules committee ouster move was “retribution on how we voted that day.” Chan said that “Bruce Wolfe and all the task force members made a wonderful argument and stuck to their guns.” The task force vote was a unanimous 8-0 vote.The point: defy the supervisors and city attorney and the boys and girls in the back room and get blasted off the task force, bang, bang, bang, bang.
The committee choreographed the move smoothly. Farrell as the heavy would make the move. Kim would agree and facilitate as chair. Campos would go along reluctantly. The deputy city attorney would be supine through the process even though the supervisors were breaking precedent and misinterpreting the ordinance. Sunshine candidates and advocates in the audience were furious and emails have been crackling back and forth ever since.
Campos later told me that he went along because he could see he didn’t have the votes. He said the organization’s candidates “were eminently qualified,” that they should have been appointed, and that he would fight for them. He said he would ask Kim’s office to set the issue for hearing at the next rules meeting or call for a special meeting. Kim did not return calls for comment.
I asked Campos what the organizations should do. “They should stand by their candidates,” he said.
I concur. The Society of Professional Journalists, the League of Women Voters, and California New Media and their open government allies should stand by their candidates, lobby for them with the rules committee and the full board, and get out the word about this attempted coup in the most important court of all, the court of public opinion. Make this an election issue with all incumbents and candidates. Let public officials know there are serious consequences to supporting Willie Brownism on the sunshine task force, the first and best local task force of its kind in the country if not the world.
The good news is that the rules committee has demonstrated, with its sneak attack, the value of the task force for citizens and open government and why it is a San Francisco institution that needs to be saved and strengthened. All of this illustrates once again my favorite axiom of mine. In San Francisco, the public is generally safe, except when the mayor is in his office and the supervisors are in session. b3
If you’ve ever caught Dum Dum Girls live, you’ve likely asked yourself, “who is that babe with the flying black hair who’s slaying on drums?” That’s Sandra “Sandy Beaches” Vu, the quartet’s drummer, who also fronts her own music project, SISU (pronounced “see-soo”). Her band mixes minimal electro beats and synth with guitar, bass, and flute, all surrounded by Vu’s ethereal voice, a far cry from Dum Dum Girls’ chainsaw surf guitar and singer Dee Dee’s vibrato.
This tour, SISU joins Dum Dum Girls as the traveling opener for most nights including Mon/21 in San Jose (though not in San Francisco, Tues/22 – but hey, Sandy will still be there, pounding away with DDG). SISU’s totally DIY (hence, highly limited) hand-numbered CD-Rs will be available on the West Coast tour.
I spoke with the tireless Vu during a quick van ride during their joint tour, in her Los Angeles hometown, discussing doing double duty in the lineup, feeling naked on stage, and beats that sound like a giant’s stride.
SFBGCan you tell me about SISU’s formation, when did it start, and how did the idea come together?
Sandra Vu I was in a band called Midnight Movies, we were signed to a small label and we were on track to “go big” but it never happened. I had put everything into it at that point, and had structured my life, day job, and so on to make playing music my life.
So when we split, I was pretty confused about what to do next. I had always written songs and generally messed around with recording multiple tracks of myself since I learned how to use a tape deck.
So I just decided to write songs for myself, and learn how to use the computer as a home studio. This was before Garageband so it was a little more esoteric back then to record on a laptop. My goal was always just to keep it going and play music with my friends if they would join me.
SFBGWho else is in the band now?
SV Ryan Wood also played in Midnight Movies. We had that special rhythm section bond and had become really good friends. He’s a talented songwriter and guitar player in his own right. He’s pretty much the other half of the SISU brain. More than playing guitar and keyboard, he’s the band engineer.
We have done a lot of self-releases, so I’ve made him responsible for the sort of technical aspects of the band, which I think plays a big hand in the sound of the band. He is a synth nerd and fine tunes a lot of sounds that we end up using. Then there is Nathanael Keefer on drums, Rebecca Calinsky on keyboards, and Chris Stevens who joined us on this tour on bass guitar. They are the best!
SFBGWhen did you start drumming? And when did you pick up other instruments?
SV I started playing drums when I was 13. I taught myself guitar around the same time as well, if not before. My first instrument was the piano, I think around age 7. In second grade, I joined the school band and learned the flute.
I wanted to play drums for a long time, but picked up guitar and flute along the way because it’s a bit inaccessible to get a drumkit. You know, it’s expensive, takes up a lot of room, and super loud – basically, every parents’ nightmare. I realize it sickens people to hear how easily it came to me, but it really didn’t. I worked hard at it and spent many many hours playing and obsessing.
SFBGHas SISU opened for Dum Dum Girls before this tour? What’s it like doing double-duty at shows so far?
SV No, this is the first time. We had talked about it before, but it hasn’t happened until now! Now that I’m a few shows in, I can tell you that it’s pretty stressful. I thought we had no time to hang out playing in one band, we absolutely have zero time to grab dinner after soundcheck with friends now because I have another soundcheck right after. Overall, it’s more mentally tiring than physically. I don’t think I could drum in two bands in one night though, that would just be too intense.
SFBGDo you see any similarities between the two bands? SV They are very much separate. Dee Dee and I have overlapping taste in music, but the outcome of our bands are very different. For one, there are no synths in Dum Dum Girls, whereas SISU songs are often centered around synth sounds. In SISU, I play the guitar very sparingly and hardly ever use complete chords.
SFBGAny other musicians, songs, or albums influence SISU?
SV Some unexpected influences are Serge Gainsbourg, DJ Shadow, and Vashti Bunyan. There is one DJ Shadow song that I was sure inspired our bass sound, but I went back and listened to it, and it was much different than I remembered. It was strange that I was inspired by an inaccurate memory, and even stranger that what we came to could have been drawn from much more obvious band, like the Cure.
SFBGAnything non-music related influence SISU?
SV The song “Infinity Net” on our new EP was inspired by artist Yayoi Kusama and a conversation I had with a friend. Sometimes I will let a visual idea dictate sounds and rhythm in a song. It’s easier for me to describe sounds as visual than in words, for instance, I always describe to Nat, our drummer, that the beat is like a giant slowly stepping, which would give the song a weighty downbeat. So, in a nutshell, yes, things like dots and giants will influence SISU.
SFBG Is there a huge visceral change switching between drummer and frontperson?
SV Completely. I often don’t see audience faces from the drums. And if I do, I have this cage of drums and hardware before me. In front, it’s just me, my guitar, and the feeling of utter nakedness. Singing is the most vulnerable thing I can think of doing in front of a bunch of strangers, apart from literally going naked.
SFBGWho writes SISU songs, lyrics?
SV I’ve written and arranged almost everything that we’ve put out. I like to collaborate on lyrics with friends occasionally. The invitation is always open to my bandmates since it is usually the last thing we add. “Light Eyes” lyrics were written by my friend Deborah Uytiepo. I had originally written the song not for SISU, but for an unnamed project. I like to experiment that way, involve my friends and open up my world to people who aren’t musicians. I create everything else alone and typically between the hours of 2-8am, so it’s nice to engage that way.
SFBGIs ‘Demon Tapes Vol. 2’ available only in CD-R format?
SV For now, yes. My friend just brought up the idea of putting the first and second Demon Tapes EPs together in an actual cassette tape, which will probably happen a bit later. I wanted Vol. 2 to be a cassette tape, but in the end, CD-R is more suited to our DIY production process. It’s faster to burn CDs and easier to customize packaging. I would have ruined cassettes if I tried to spray paint them.
SFBG Is it meant to be a follow-up to the ‘Demon Tapes’ EP?
SV I like the idea of seriality, but the thing they have in common is that they are demos. They are first-takes of ideas as they first happened. We left in a lot of technical mistakes and things I knew I could have performed better. Half the time in SISU, we are deciding whether or not to “fix” stuff, but we often don’t, even if it’s not a demo. The other common thing between the two is that we produced and did everything ourselves. Ryan knows how to mix and record and we are both graphic designers. I played nearly every instrument on both. It is half out of necessity and half that I actually enjoy every step of the way. My fingerprints are literally on each and every CD that goes out.
SFBGAny plans to record a full-length? SV Yes, we have one “in the can” as they say. It should be in the cannon, but instead it’s waiting in some can somewhere. It was supposed to come out last year, but we had some difficulty planning a release date around my schedule with Dum Dum Girls. I’m already thinking about the next record, but we are still figuring out a way to release that one.
… and apparently I am hosting them with Anna Conda on Thursday, May 31. What the heck are the 2012 San Francisco Nightlife Awards? No worries, they are magical, and you should totally go because it’s gonna be a fun party that supports the future of San Francisco nightlife. But let’s back up a minute.
A few weeks ago, my Nightlife Bat Phone started ringing off the Nightlife Bat Hook. “We were just nominated for a 2012 San Francisco Nightlife Award!” or “Why weren’t we nominated for a 2012 San Francisco Nightlife Award?” or “What the heck are the San 2012 Francisco Nightlife Awards?” said the chorus of voices into my Nightlife Bat Voicemail, because my Nightlife Bat Ringer broke when I dropped it in a vat of fake blood while vampire-wrestling for charity (gay).
It seemed like the awards had come out of nowhere. But I will reveal all! Or rather, Nathan Allbee of the California Music and Culture Association, which is putting on this year’s awards, will reveal all via my short interview (along with a complete list of nominees) below.
By way of introduction first, CMAC formed a couple years ago in response to the War on Fun, a series of misguided attempts by city officials and police to shut down the city’s nightlife. A group of partiers and bar and club owners got together to form a non-profit awareness-raising and lobbying association to try to keep fun alive, especially as one of our primary tourist industries and community-building activities. (In this way, CMAC is kind of like the great San Francisco Late Night Coalition of the late 1990s and early 2000s). Raves were getting busted again, permitted parties were being raided on the flimsiest of excuses, and perfectly anodyne street fairs were seeing their fees jacked up due to “increasing security.”
Now CMAC is using some breathing room to expand for the next fight, because you know there’s gonna be one, hunny. Thus, the 2012 San Francisco Nightlife Awards — this is the second annual edition — trying to bring people together and give recognition. Nathan Allbee says more:
SFBGMost people associate CMAC with efforts to save and bolster San Francisco nightlife — has there been a recent expansion of the mission over there? It seem like there’s a lot more people involved
Nathan Allbee Yeah, we’re really excited to be taking the next step organizationally. We just opened a physical office, brought on a full time Executive Director, Laura Hahn, and I came on as the Director of Events.
CMAC was really born out of crisis: the war on fun, which the SFBG wrote a lot about, was in full swing and we had a major hand in stopping it. Now that that particular crisis is behind us (hopefully) we’re able to devote more of our resources to building the organization and that includes reaching out to DJs and promoters who are the lifeblood of San Francisco nightlife and culture.
In addition to our 2nd Annual Nightlife Awards, we’re in the planning process for some other big events for the year – we’ve got a Bay Area-wide DJ competition, a battle of the bands, and we’re going to be working with the awesome people that throw the Bartenders Ball to really make that an even larger event. Tom Temprano from Hard French, who also does a lot of nightlife advocacy, is helping to coordinate our outreach strategies and events.
SFBGThis is the second official CMAC Nightlife awards, yes? How on earth did I miss the first ones?
NA I don’t know Marke, we missed you last year.
SFBGHow were the nominees for 2012 chosen?
NA We started with our Nominations Committee – DJs, promoters, venue owners – who developed a list of people and places that they were impressed with (which was massive and really hard to narrow down by the way) and our Board of Directors had the final say.
The criteria our Nominations Committee used as a guide included: creativity, popularity, and a positive representation of nightlife and entertainment.
SFBG There’s been some controversy over the fact that the nominees win by getting as many people as possible to pay to come to the party and vote for them. (I think this is kind of a promotional stroke of genius by the way, and if it weren’t all going toward a good cause, it would be pure evil!). Can you tell us where the money is going, and how this might be tied in to a sort of membership drive?
NA We really wanted this award to be democratic and not just be about who has the most fans on Facebook or the biggest email list –- like what often happens with online voting. Having people turn out to vote in person is the best way to assure that voters are actual participants in SF nightlife, and that winners are being honored by their peers. There’s also a place on the ballots for write-in candidates so that everyone can be included.
The door cover is going to cover our costs for the event, but we’ll also be doing the old-fashion non-profit ways of fund raising: a raffle, asking for donations and sponsorships.
And hell yeah this is a membership drive! CMAC wants more diversity in our membership and a larger variety of voices at the table. We’ll be working hard this year to get more DJs, promoters, door workers, bartenders, barbacks, musicians, performers, designers, photographers, and people who just love nightlife involved.
SFBG Um, I noticed there’s no ‘Best Nightlife Writer” category ….
NA Why bother? You would win it every year.
SFBG It’s an honor just to nominate myself. So what other kinds of deep involvement with the nightlife community can we expect from CMAC in the future?
NA We’re going to fight…for your right…to party. (RIP MCA)
2012 SAN FRANCISCO NIGHTLIFE AWARDS
Featuring DJs from Debaser, Future Perfect, Hard French, Lights Down Low
Hosted by Anna Conda and Marke B.
Thu/31, 8pm-midnight
Members $5, Non-Members $10, Join CMAC and get in for free! $25
All voting for each category will take place at the event from 8pm to 10pm with the winners announced during a ceremony immediately after voting has ended. All attendees are welcome to vote.
Bay Area-born and raised drummer extraordinaire Terry Bozzio (who plays the Regency Ballroom Fri/18 with reunited band UK) has performed with Frank Zappa, Missing Persons, Jeff Beck, Fantomas, and a host of other musicians over the years. Recognized as one of the best modern drummers, he has recorded a variety of instructional videos, been honored by Guitar Center’s RockWalk in Hollywood, and has created some of the most insane custom drum sets ever seen on stage.
Bozzio’s amazing talents will be on display live tonight as he performs with the reunited prog rock super group UK — with whom he originally played from 1978 through 1980 — which also features John Wetton (King Crimson, Asia) and Eddie Jobson (Frank Zappa, Roxy Music).
Born in San Francisco, Bozzio’s family moved to Marin County when he was in third grade. His father had been a child musical prodigy, playing the accordion on stage in San Francisco when he was only four years old, and continued to occasionally play when he was older and had a family.
“People would come over for a Sunday dinner, and they’d beg him to play the accordion — he would begrudgingly pull it out, but within a few chords he would silence the room, he could just hold them in the palm of his hand,” says Bozzio over the phone during a recent tour stop in Portland. “To witness that power was something I was very jealous of at an early age, and now having experienced being able to do that — so I’m told — I credit him with having inspired it.”
When Bozzio started playing a musical instrument himself a few years later — the drums — his father would often give advice to him and his band mates when practicing in one of his first groups, Blue Glass Radio, a combo comprised of friends from middle school. “I was pretty much a rock’n’roll, play by ear kind of guy until I took six months of drum lessons which were very, very key and important for me, when I was 15 or so,” says Bozzio.
“My last year at Drake High School I started to study music seriously, and continued to study jazz and classical at College of Marin; I graduated from there with a commercial music degree — just an A.A. degree — but that was enough to prepare me for what was going to happen within a very short time.”
Bozzio soon began playing a wide variety of musicians, in many different styles, and after some time found himself with a reputation as being one of the best drummers in the Bay Area, which eventually led him to being asked to join Frank Zappa’s band. From there, Bozzio has gone on to perform with an incredible amount of world-class musicians over a nearly four decade long career.
With this UK reunion, Bozzio says he is having fun looking back and re-examining that particular portion of his musical legacy. “I’ve always been proud of that music, and I think both John and Eddie are tremendous musicians with a great history in rock’n’ roll, making great contributions. When you listen back to some of this stuff, it impresses you because you kind of listen with fresh ears.”
Performing at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco will have a special hometown meaning for Bozzio — he saw his first rock concert at the Avalon Ballroom, which was what the venue was called in its first incarnation back in the ’60s.
“My dad and my uncle took me down, I remember clearly, we saw It’s A Beautiful Day, Canned Heat, and Vanilla Fudge. I’ve never been back, so this will be the first the first time since 1965 that I’ll be there!”
With UK set to play in Europe and Japan after the U.S. leg of the tour is finished, Bozzio’s schedule shows no signs of slowing down, and the talented musician is grateful for the opportunities he’s been given.
“The power of music is a very spiritual and amazing thing—I’m 61, and for almost 40 years I’ve been making a living as a musician, without having to get a day job—I consider myself very lucky, the stars have been lined up for me.”
