Actually I’m kind of intrigued. But full intriguement will have to wait until I’m hungover from the onslaught of this weekend’s parties. And here I thought I could recover from Folsom. Nah, brah. Not only are there all these parties I listed in my Super Ego clubs column this week, or our rooftop shindig at SFMOMA tonight, there are also all the below, equally worthy.
And before we launch — can I put in just one more plug for the STEREO: 3-D Arts and Music Fest on Saturday? There are going to be giant classic video games there! Plus a DJ set by Ladytron (and a ’80s video arcade set by DJ Omar), 3-D visual projections, and all kinds of cool effects. Go, Govinda, go!
In other news, can a porn star be a gay circuit DJ? The question has burnt a hole through the local gay internet this week, it really has. I never listen to that circuit, er, stuff — so it’s like a 9-inch tree falling in a forest of meth to me, honey. Good luck, though! Here are some real parties:
Ay-ay-ay, it’s the first anniversary of this hilariously fun monthly, mashing up budget Mexican fiesta with drag queens on cheap drinks. Ambrosia Salad hosts (and DJs now!), along with DJs Taco Tuesday and Stanley Frank. Lots of maracas shaking, and I’ll be the pinata colada. Disfrutas!
Raising awareness of and money to eradicate leukemia, this third annual shindig boasts the always-fresh Mark Farina, Scott Diaz, Chris Lum, and really tons more local funk-house alums. Greeve for a good cause ok!
Thu/27, 9pm, $10 donation to Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Monarch, 101 Sixth St., SF. www.monarchsf.com
I randomly saw this deep-dub Berliner last time he was here, and he blew me away with his techno technique. He’s here this time around as part of the Bunker A/V series at Monarch, courtesy of the great underground techno club Bunker in NYC — and with Detroit-NYC heartthrob Derek Plaslaiko in tow.
Fri/28, 9pm-4am, $10-$20. Monarch, 101 Sixth St., SF. www.monarchsf.com
The stellar local turntablist crew has helped keep that native sound alive in the city for more than two decades — whaaaaa??? Craziness. J.Rocc, Rhettmatic, Babu, D Styles, Melo D, Shortkut, Mr.Choc, DJ Curse – long may they reign — and slay Mighty’s mighty soundsystem.
Old school Detroit techno wizzes will go beyond the dance. Duo Octave One was excellent last last time they were here, playing a driving set that left us breathless. As a DJ, Craig is kind of the Prince of techno — you never know what his live sets will be like, but there will definitely be a soulful eccentricity (and he has one of the unmatched back catalogues in dance music to draw from).
Sat/29, 9:30-4am, $20-$25. Public Wrks, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com
Chicago acid hip-house legend is back on the scene – and headlining this amazing-sounding party at St. Johns church, his only US appearance on a grand tour. (Flashback to the wonderful Episcodisco parties at Grace Cathedral!) Also included: 5kinandbone5, DJ Dedan, Castle Hands, and light artist Donovan Drummond. Get spiritual now.
Sun/30, 5:30-10pm, $10-$15. Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist, 1661 15th St., SF.
This monthly queer hip-hop patio party brought out the sunshine last time around, with stellar live performances and great tunes ranging across the whole hip-hopiverse. It wasn’t just ironic white hipster kids either! Nice vibes and a good time. plus Salt-N-Pepa. Okrrrr?
Sun/30, 3pm-8pm, $8. El Rio, 3158 Mission, SF. www.elriosf.com
SUPER EGO First off, a woozy-recovery shoutout to the heroes of Folsom Street Fair, beyond the organizers themselves, who continue to bring a solid electro music festival vibe to the, er, packed fistful of proceedings. I think drag artist VivvyAnne Forevermore outdid all the torture enthusiasts by staying in full face for three whole days of performing, the mysterious entity known as Luther proved at its party that 400 shirtless, sex-reeking men on a dancefloor doesn’t mean “circuit party,” and DJ Carnita of Hard French valiantly kicked off the amazing Deviants party fresh from the hospital, his ankle broken in a tragic gay basketball accident. What we won’t do for love!
Now, looking ahead (after all those behinds): is trap music a trap? The burgeoning microgenre has seized the Internet this summer after bubbling under for 10 years, begun as a low-budget, dirty-sounding Atlanta rap beats style meant to reflect the dark and paranoid feel of the drug game — the “trap” in question. What it’s become is both a savvy marketing onslaught by hype-happy music producers, some of them of the douche variety (boo) and also a way for dubstep-weary general partiers to get deeper and sexier, by combining hip-hop’s crunked 808 bass-snare swag with EDM’s keyboard-driven energy and some classic booty-bass trimming (nice).
I’m digging it, even though I’m no fan of pop-EDM’s LCD aspirations or contemporary hip-pop’s zombie materialism and worn-out masculinity-crisis tropes — although all that’s recently been changing a bit, and luckily the sophisticated techno and alternative hip-hop scenes have been thriving in reaction. SF finally has a regular club night devoted to the sound, Trap City(Sat/29 and last Saturdays, 9pm-4am, $7–$10. Icon, 1192 Folsom, SF.). And of course we’re giving it some goofy irony and some serious underground connections.
The irony comes via witchy-Tumblr graphics, cartoonish “gold chainz swangin'” hype, and Net-savvy entities (producer Trill Murray and rapper Chippy Nonstop perform this month). The underground connects come from notorious DJ Ultraviolet, queen of the early, grimy dubstep and bass scenes here, who runs the Trap with partner Napsty.
“I think a lot of DJs are getting into this style of music because it is a lot less intense and ‘ravetastic’ then most of the brostep coming out these days, and that sort of vibe is easier for more people to grasp right now than electro and dubstep bangers — although I enjoy those, too,” Ultraviolet told me over email.
“I’ve always injected a bit of hip-hop flavor into my sets and so a lot of the trap music coming out recently appealed to me: it sounds good on the big soundsystems and girls aren’t afraid to dance to it. I really like the diverseness of the scene. At Trap City we get all types of people. You just see everyone going nuts and loving it so much, I kinda ask myself, as a bass music DJ how could I not get into this? LOL.”
Together with other local DJs — some of them hailing from the burner, glitch, or street bass scenes — like Taso, Stylust Beats, Bogl, and AnTennae, and following in the footsteps of bigtimers like Diplo and Flosstradamus, the Trap City kids are pushing the sound forward. Even if it all ends up being more marketing mirage than actual sonic imprint (ahem, moombahton), it’s got a great beat and we can dance to it.
“SF has always loved its hip hop and dirty bass, so the combination of the two seems to fit perfectly with SF’s style,” Ultraviolet tells me. (Peep her productions and trap mixes at www.soundcloud.com/djultraviolet.) “We’re a cool town, this is cool music. I see SF and trap music having a long romantic relationship.”
AFROLICIOUS
Last time our favorite Latin funk-global jams collective took over Mighty, it was dancing room only — this installment looks to be just as groovy-bonkers, with a three-hour set from awesome Afrolicious brothers Pleasuremaker and Senor Oz (including live percussion), and special guests J-Boogie and Izzy*Wise.
Fri/28, 10pm-late, $8 advance. Mighty, 119 Utah, SF. www.mighty119.com
ANDY STOTT
The renowned Manchester technoist blew minds last year with the release of two EPs, Passed Me By and We Saty Together, that embraced an almost terrifying sludgy slowness, mesmerizing with an ur-tribal vibe. He’ll be joined by psychotomimetic occultists Demdike Stare, glitch-blissed Balam Acab, SF’s ghostly oOoOO, sound artist Holly Herndon, and Dark Entries’ darkwaver Josh Cheon for an eclectic night of sounds of now at the Public Access party.
Fri/28, 10pm, $12–$15. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com
CATZ ‘N DOGZ
A Polish house duo so close to my heart I can feel it beating them right now. They live in Berlin now, and combine polished Wolf + Lamb-like R&Bish vibes with that trademark Germanic techno attention to every detail. Most important, they have a sense of humor, great ears for new releases, and are a lot of fun to dance to.
Sat/29, 9pm-4am, $10–$20. Monarch, 101 Sixth St., SF. www.monarchsf.com
SWEATER FUNK FOUR-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
The 100 percent vinyl soul party jets out of the toddler stage, with all the origonal crew in tact, including one of my favorite people, DJ Mama Bear. Laidback, deep boogie, slow jams loveliness — and yes, you will sweat.
Sat/29, 9pm, $5 advance, Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. www.elbo.com
STEREO
This sounds cool: A party in a huge space (Space 550, in fact) with 3-D visuals mixed live (first 500 in get glasses), a DJ set by Ladytron, and a 1990s house room with old school and 3-D video games, and a giant projected Pong tournament. Double double win win.
Who will win this year’s drag tiara of insanity and wonder? All the underground gender clown cognoscenti will gather to determine the new princess-unicorn of the scene, brought to you by the Tiara Sensation crew (they do the fantastic Some Thing drag night at the Stud on Fridays). Judges Pink Lightning, Gina LaDivina, and HRH Princess Diandra of NYC will choose from a glittering bevy of hopefuls; current titleholder Lil Miss Hot Mess will step down (and down) in a surely unforgettable number.
SUPER EGO Last Saturday was one of those incredibly painful nights when there were about 30 awesome-sounding parties that peaked around midnight but all closed at two. Sad trombone, San Francisco, sad trombone. Look, I know our last call cut-off is a state-mandated dealie, but can’t we make a case for our fabulous party exceptionalism? And what is the point of all these rich social media companies relocating to SF if they aren’t paying someone off to let us bump all night? Seriously. I am not seeing the IRL benefit here.
One of the affairs I managed to beep-beep through on the hectic party express was the “soft opening” — no jokes! And no, I did not make the party actually called Soft Opening that same night — of Kink.com’s gorgeous new Armory Club (1799 Mission, SF. www.armoryclub.com), across the street from Kink’s Armory HQ itself, which will leave no one with a sad trombone, but not for the reason you’d think.
The joint is a Victoriana steampunk dream, pure class from the pressed tin ceilings and wrought iron fireplace to the eye-popping textured wallpaper and screens playing uncannily digitized film classics. The only hint of the Armory’s proudly perverse origins is a cheeky oil painting of a clothespin-adorned female nude, and a neat-but-evolving drink menu including Gently Bound and Donkey Punch cocktails. I’ll miss the Ace, the neighborhood biker bar Armory replaced, but cheers and a slap ‘n tickle to Kink for not going all obvious go-go dominatrix on us.
MOTHS TO A FLAME For the past two years, there’s been a chill, cherry Upper Haight-via-Berkeley (with a couple all-night stops at Gray Whale Cove) house scene brewing, centered on the free Spilt Milk parties at Milk Bar, thrown by the deep-grooved Mother Records crew. (Mother not like drag mother but like someone who studies moths.) At first glance, the Mother crew — including Mountaincount, King’s Ransom, Wentworth, Nil, and Taylor Fife — are a lovable bunch of scruffy Cal lads into outdoor raves and elevated mental states. At second glance they’re still all that, but also intensely dedicated to making great music and cultivating a smart but laidback crowd.
Rad new free compilation EP Buff-tip (www.soundcloud.com/motherrecords), named for European moth species Phalera bucephala, shows off the Mothers’ variety, with tracks spanning R&B house, techno samba, and electro raveup. “Like most of the Cal scene, we were into dubstep until a couple years ago,” Fife told me. “But it all started to sound the same, and the crowd went in a more intense direction. We gladly call what we do house, though there’s still definitely a bass music core.” (Special shout-out here to Wentworth’s nifty side project, live electro-house trio Pixel Memory.) The label’s tricky name was inspired, variously, from flashes of light at Burning Man, a moth tattoo on someone’s arm, and a late afternoon smoke-session to find something “subversive, silly, and confusing.”
Fife says Mother’s getting back to its roots as a mobile party unit — bringing in bigger guests to this month’s Spilt Milk party (with Nick Monaco and Sepehr, Thu/20, 10pm, free. Milk, 1840 Haight, SF. www.milksf.com) and exporting the vibe to SoMa’s Raven club for a sweet-looking joint called Lighthouse (Sat/29, 10pm, free. Raven, 1151 Folsom, SF. www.tinyurl.com/lighthousesf). Wing your way thither for some true local talent.
SECRET SUMMER
Shed no tears for the passing of the season with this breezy, Balaeric blast, courtesy of the extremely delightful DJs Chris Orr and Derek B. It’ll be a double rainbow of beach-ready sounds from their extensive collections, from Brazilian jams to ’90s house hummers. Wed/19, 9pm, free. Otis, 25 Maiden Lane, SF. Facebook invite
APPLEBLIM
I miss the dark days of late ’00s Bristol dub-bass. Everything’s wonderfully sophisticated and mesmerizingly glitchy now, of course, but sometimes I just want to be dunked deep and ragga-rized. Senor ‘Blim (and his oft-partner Shackleton) always delivered the goods, this intimate night should take us back with a few nice updates. Thu/20, 10pm, $5. 222 Hyde, SF. www.222hyde.com
ICEE HOT LAUNCH
One of my favorite bass-oriented anything-goes parties is launching a label, and it’s kind of about damn time, especially since its roster of talent has been SF-essential for a while. Ghosts on Tape has the first release, “Nature’s Law,” a chimey rave-jam. He’ll get support at this free launch party from Low Limit (love!), Rollie Fingers, and Shawn Reynaldo. Fri/21, 10pm, free. 222 Hyde, SF. www.222hyde.com
MIRACLES CLUB
The too-cute Portland hipster-housers revivalists head up an insanely stylish lineup at the Lights Down Low party. Also on tap: Kim Ann Foxman’s sensuous acid, MikeQ’s vogue drops, Kingdom’s fractured rave-bass, and Jozif’s melodic new-house. Sat/22, 9pm-4am, $15–<\d>$25. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com
SUPER EGO I’m not one to gossip, but …. Story of the month, courtesy of weekly Friday drag extravaganza Some Thing at the Stud: a giant party limo parked outside the club. Blah blah Kirsten Dunst, blah blah Alexander Wang, blah blah a dozen hangers-on blah. (I was inside chilling with the true star of the evening, OG NYC clubkid Desi Monster.) Formidable doorperson Dean Disaster: “Seven dollars each, please.” Wang hanger-on, clutching pearls: “But we’ve never paid cover before!” Disaster: “Here, let me guide you through it. Give me seven dollars. And then I’ll let you in the club.” They paid. We’re all VIPs in this house, henty.
ALTON MILLER
The Detroit-Chicago master was integral to the early techno scene (he co-owned the world’s first techno club, the Music Institute) and has produced a vast catalogue of beautiful, grown-up deep house grooves rooted in African drumming’s expansive rhythms and personal tech flourishes — see lovely 2010 album Light Years Away. He also happens to be one of my favorite people ever. (Sorry, journalistic bias!) Join him at fantastic weekly Housepitality for a trip to the stratosphere and some sophisticated magic alongside locals DJ Said of the Fatsouls label and Ivan Ruiz of the just-launched Moulton Music label.
Wed/12, 9pm, $5 before 11pm, $10 after (free before 11pm with RSVP at www.housepitalitysf.com), Icon, 1192 Folsom, SF.
The bi-annual, summer-long Soundwave sonic festival is still in full effect, and this special event sounds experimental-awesome. Example? “Genesis,” a work by Polly Moller “explores 11 dimensions of the universe and the magical creation of a new 12th dimension.” Also: mechanical tone poems, anxiety dances, sonic wombs.
Fri/14, doors 7:30pm, show at 8, $15. Intersection for the Arts, 925 Mission, SF. www.projectsoundwave.com/5/
MADE IN DETROIT
For the past little while, you could actually almost hear the Detroit techno torch being passed to young’uns Kyle Hall and Jay Daniel. It sounded like a butterfly exploding in a Model T factory. Kaychunk! But it actually sounded like an ingenious melding of deep bass sounds and post-glitch effects applied to classic cosmic techno ambiance. Seeing the duo tagteam classic vinyl at this year’s Movement festival cemented my love for them. This As You Like It party may do yours the same.
Fri/14, 9pm-4am, $10 before 10pm, $20 after. Beatbox, 314 11th St., SF. www.ayli-sf.com
RUSTIE
Adore the laser-cut future bass gems that Rustie the Scot has hewn from his sparkling imagination. He’ll be warping 1015 with another great, Kode9, along with sublime electro-stoner Elliot Lipp and locals DJ Dials, Slayers Club, tons more.
Bring Your Own Queer self (not in a paper bag, please!) to this annual free outdoor daytime funfest, filling the Golden Gate park bandshell with hot pick dance party craziness! DJs Carrie Morrison and Steve Fabus, live sets by Adonisaurus and Darling Gunsel, and, like, zillions more. Plus the Jiggalicious Dance Babes. Gotta love the Jiggalicious Dance Babes. Double rainbow part two!
Sat/15, noon-6pm, free. Music Concourse Bandshell, Golden Gate park. www.byoq.org
ANNA CONDA’S BIRTHDAY
She’s 45 alive! SF’s favorite queer-activist drag queen won’t exactly be roasted at this fundraising event for the Harvey Milk Club, but she will be toasted — something like 45 other queens will take the stage at this killer rock ‘n roll dance party (DJs Dirty Knees and Jon Ginoli) and tribute to her royal lowness.
SUPER EGO And thus the epic saga of the Eagle Tavern, legendary drunken gay leather biker den of iniquity (which secretly boasted one of the best DJs in the city, Don Baird, on Sundays), closed for a year and a half, ravenously beset upon by upscale restaurant developers, canonized by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, radicalized by queer activists desperate to preserve the scared space around which were scattered the ashes of some of our ancestors, transformed into a symbol of contemporary gentrification, gutted by real estate agents, tossed around by the Board of Supervisors like a hot potato, has finally entered another stage.
Please welcome new gay proprietors Mike Leon and Alex Montiel, who told me they hope to open the SF Eagle (www.sf-eagle.com) by Halloween, they’ll still hold charitable events, they’re looking forward to hosting live music nights again, and they’ll be doing their best to preserve that precious Eagle ambiance. You can read the whole story here, but little patent leather caps off to Glendon Anna Conda Hyde, David Campos, Jane Kim, El Rio (which hosted the Eagle’s wonderfully pervy Sunday beer busts in exile), and everyone else who pushed for the preservation of queer nightlife space in SoMa.
Says Glendon, who really led the push, “People thought we couldn’t preserve queer nightlife in this city — but that’s just a lazy excuse for gentrification. we should all be proud of what happens when we come together. Our nightlife history is a powerful force.”
That’s great. Now if we could only get the EndUp back on track, I could do my old Sunday bar (literally) crawl: Eagle, Lone Star, EndUp. Except for those times when I simply curled up beneath a parked car on Harrison. She was hella classy in the ’00s.
SF ELECTRONIC MUSIC FESTIVAL
There’s a lot going on at this annual feast of nifty experimentation — Negativwobblyland, William Basinski, Dieter Moebius, Cheryl E. Leonard, Guillermo Galindo, soddering trio Loud Objects, Machine Shop’s amplified gongs — kind of freaking out about it, ready for scary beautiful.
Wed/5-Sun/9, various times, prices, and locations. www.sfemf.org
NEW WAVE CITY 20TH ANNIVERSARY
Holy Echo and the Bunnymen! San Francisco’s longest-running party is celebrating two decades? Somebody call Square Pegs. I adore DJs Skip and Shindog — they started being retro about the ’80s almost before the ’80s were over. And their selections (Bauhaus, New Order, the Cure, Depeche Mode) somehow transcend the casket of ubiquity, possibly because of the lively and actually old-school cool crowd still riding the brave new waves of aural devotion. Here’s to 20 more years of Tears for Fears, at which point it will be like listening to Elvis in the ’90s. Or something. Prefab Sprout had a song about it. Just go.
Underground indie impresario Kevin Meenan’s monthly Push the Feeling parties are a hot ticket already — but add in Les Sins and we’re entering another dimension? Who are Les Sins? Oh, just chillwave-plus genius Toro Y Moi dropping a DJ set. For an intimate crowd in Lower Haight. For $5. And you’re one of the only people who know about it.
Speaking of New Wave Cities — Josh Cheon’s Dark Entries label has kept the Bay Area at the forefront of the minimal and dark wave movement, which mines overlooked bands of the synth music past and reverential present acts that are direct descendents of those slightly sinister new waves. (Recent signee Linea Aspera is to die for.) This dark celebration features a live performance by Max + Mara plus a glowering set by Cheon himself, with Nihar, Jason P, and Dreamweapon.
Considering the garage powerhouse that is Oakland, it’s weird to me that we don’t have a huge dirty-funk, pervy girl group, kooky Hairspray 1960s dance-party scene here. (Hard French and any concert by Shannon and the Clams come close.) NYC DJ Jonathan Toubin was set to bring his great Night Train party here last year, but he was almost killed by a freak accident in Portland that made national headlines (a car drove into his hotel room and ran over him in bed). Well, he’s recovered enough now to get the party going again, and this groovy dance-off will also be an all-ages celebration of life. Celebrity judges and the cream of our underground garage crop will be in attendance.
Sun/9, 7pm, $13, all ages. Great American Music Hall, 859 O’Farrell, SF. www.gamh.com
OPERA IN THE PARK
Dearest drama queens, have you had a hard night out on the town? Do you need your over-the-top batteries recharged? How about just a lovely day on the lawn to check out other cute arts enthusiasts — like me! — swooning along to our hometown opera company’s overwhelming melodiousness? Bring a little (secret) wine, and let’s sing along.
Sun/9, 1:30pm, free. Sharon Meadow, Golden Gate Park, SF. www.sfopera.org
In this week’s Super Ego column, I wrote of my deep, abiding love of bass music (and revealed my secret source of UK bass knowledge). As low-low luck would have it, 222 Hyde will be woofed and tweeted this Saturday by Body High, a label out of LA whose roster is comprised of several Cali bass stars: Samo Soundboy, LOL Boys, Floyd Campbell. Plus you get DJ Dodger Stadium! (requisite half-hearted boo from Giants fans, and then indulgent smile.) Here’s a few sounds you can expect to be rumbled by:
SUPER EGO So: woozy hip-hop has snuck back onto better dance floors via trap music, neon mutant Goosebumps-Beetlejuice children are ruling the queer clubs, techno keeps getting rave-wiggier, a true house revival is lighting up Oakland — and right now I’m wearing 6-inch shiny black pumps, a canary yellow pencil skirt, and a pair of sexy hornrims, because I am breaking down summer nightlife for you like the busy head of a global conglomerate, power points everywhere. Now where’s my soy double mocha latte no foam with a single ice cube?
(Belatedly, also, can I give a wee squee over the strange EDM-dubstep party cheerleader-gang phenomenon? Air kisses to the Wompettes, and Atomic Girls. You make that music fun for me.)
However, my ear and heart are still captivated by the excellent wave of esoteric bass music rolling out of various world capitals (and our own backyard). Deep, dark, heavy, and moody will always be my type — I’m basically the fruit on the bottom.
Great SF parties like Soundpieces, Footwerks, Icee Hot, Ritual, and Tormenta Tropical and shindigs from DJ Dials and the Low End Theory crew help keep my bass mechanics well-lubricated. And one of my absolute favorite DJs in the city, Nebakaneza, is doing amazingly moody and apocalyptic things with the post-dubstep vibe of the moment.
But my true ears on the street — my secret weapon, really — belong to the one and only DJ Deevice, who is a bass snoop par excellence, at least of the more occult and groovy UK variety. Deevice, a.k.a. Martin Collins was a resident at Glasgow’s seminal Sub Club during its wild rave years before heading for our fair-but-still-foggy shores in the ’90s. (He threw the storied UK Gold weekly party). There’s a whole thesis to be written about how British Isles immigrants warped and woofed the history of Bay Area dance music, and Deevice is one of the big players, although he’s never held down a regular residency here.
Instead, Deevice takes to the airwaves, both invisible and virtual, for his weekly Gridlock radio show on Radio Valencia, 87.9FM (Thursdays, noon-2pm, www.radiovalencia.fm) — the play list of which, posted at gridlockfm.blogspot.com, is an ace cheat sheet for us bass- and househeads. He’s also an A&R scout for the legendary R&S Records’ Apollo imprint. Those two positions put him prime for hearing all the best things first. “For some strange reason a lot of this music isn’t finding a home here like it is in Europe,” Deevice told me through his clipped Scottish brogue in Lower Haight recently. “And people send me great stuff all the time, so I’m happy to be passing it on.”
DJ DEEVICE SUMMER ’12 TOP 10
Makoto, “Another Generation” (Apollo)
Om Unit, “Ulysses” (Civil)
Ave Astra, “More L (Original Mix)” (Filigran)
John Tejada, “When All Around Is Madness” (Kompakt)
Sarrass, “A New Day (Original Mix)” (Third Ear)
Steve Huerta, “Take Me Closer” (Amadeus)
Mathew Jonson “Passage to the other side” (Itiswhatitis Recordings)
Ghosts On Tape “Nature’s Law” (Icee Hot)
Volor Flex “About You” (Apollo)
BWANA “Baby Let Me Finish (Black Orange Juice remix)” (Somethinksounds)
THE FIELD
Last time gorgeously hypnotic looper Alex Willner, aka the Field, came through SF, he had augmented his formidable live bank of tech with a drummer and bassist — the effect was outstanding, even though a certain gaggle of talky gays in the Rickshaw Stop crowd would not shut up during his set. (You know who you are.) Now he’s back with musicians in tow on Mighty’s mighty sound system. Hush, children, and sink into the killer grooves.
The hot-hot-hot trans male quarterly always brings the party — if you missed its Pride weekend shindig, or want more of that uniquely seductive machismo in your life, hightail it to this. With Rocco Katastrophe, Billy Elizabeth, Nicky Click, Jenna Riot, Chelsea Starr, Rapidfire, and more.
Fri/31, 10pm, $3 before 11pm, $6 after. Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. www.elbo.com
ODYSSEY
For well-nigh a year, Odyssey was the underground loft party of choice for those ready for an extralegal journey through the sparkling state of local house music. Robin Malone and crew aren’t letting some silly shutdown stand in their way — it’s bigtime, baby, as they take over Public Works all night with hometown hero DJs Sergio Fedasz, Doc Sleep, P-Play, and Stanley Frank. True SF family vibes!
One of the longest-running and consistently excellent weekly parties turns sweet (and deep) sixteen, with one of my longtime favorites, Vinnie Esparza of the Groove Merchants record store, guesting — if anyone’s got the mindblowing underground Latin funk dubs, it is he. Plus: Seattle Mistah Chatman MCing and Dub Mission founder DJ Sep and Ludachris rolling on decks.
SUPER EGO Veronica Klaus, jazz chanteuse extraordinaire, is one of the most sincerely charming people I know — especially when she breezes up to Momi Toby’s cafe in Hayes Valley on her bike one recent morning, fresh from a brisk ride to Ocean Beach, flawless in a casual black wraparound top, ivory kid gloves, and a vintage black bag full of her chihuahua, Charisse. (Yes, queens, named after Cyd — and no, not sporting matching gloves.) “Sorry I’m a little late,” she smiled, barely out of breath, gesturing toward her sculptural figure. “Just trying to keep it all in place.”
She’s a dry wit, too: “After a certain paper’s review of my new CD began with the phrase ‘Veronica Klaus, transgender jazz singer’ I almost wrote a letter addressed to the ‘homosexual editor!'” she told me over black coffee. The CD in question is the jaunty, glistening Something Cool, recorded with the impeccable Tammy Hall Trio. And the lady in question is never anything but a lady, refraining from sending that catty letter after all.
Just please don’t put her in a box — she’ll always pop right out of it, with that distinctly emotive voice of hers and an ear for classy classics. Those who’ve followed the steadfast arc of Veronica’s career on the SF jazz scene since the 1990s recognize her unique ability to combine the musically timeless with the in-the-moment unorthodox. Case in point: her upcoming evening-length tribute to equally unpeggable Peggy Lee, also with the Tammy Hall Trio, taking over the Rrazz Room Fri/24 and Sat/25 and later traveling to NYC and LA. (Her CD of Peggy Lee songbook selections will be released next year).
The gloriously poised Lee, who passed away a decade ago at 81, enjoyed a career that spanned six decades and multiple musical styles, but is still mostly known for her slow-burning burlesque-friendly takes on “Fever” and “Why Don’t You Do Right?” and her voice work on Disney’s Lady and the Tramp. Homosexuals also have a very special relationship with her cinematic rendition of Lieber and Stoller’s “Is That All There Is?,” mostly foisted upon them via epic and/or overambitious drag interpretations.
Despite a couple obvious affinities, why Peggy Lee? “I think part of it is to make amends, really,” Veronica told me. “Like many, I knew her mostly through the hits and the novelty songs, like ‘Professor Hauptmann’s Performing Dogs’ — I still don’t know what that one’s all about. But she had this huge career full of so many different styles and encompassing so many historical moments, from the Benny Goodman era of the early 1940s — Benny heard her obsessively singing along to Lil Green 78s on the gramophone she would lug around with her, and that launched her solo career — to the ’70s when she was doing a more soft rock sound, but she was doing actually good stuff. Along the way, she was always listening to what the kids were doing — Ray Davies, Paul McCartney wrote songs for her, and her Mirrors album [from 1975] is considered a classic by many.
“So the show is really more an almost archaeological undertaking, rediscovering all the musical ways Peggy transmitted her … persona, her flame. Although she had a unique voice, of course, it was really this persona that she projected that held everything she did together. What I’m doing isn’t an impersonation, I’m evoking her spirit. She had such a way about her. She was an enigma. And that’s why I think people were fascinated with her, and also why she’s this wonderful challenge to connect with on a performance level. She didn’t dance around, she didn’t hit people over the head right away. She drew people in with her focus.
“In fact, her motto was ‘softly, with feeling.’ One time she was performing at a nightclub in Palm Springs, and everyone was talking over her. But instead of getting brassy and trying to grab attention that way, she deliberately started singing even softer. Soon people’s curiosity overcame them and they began to quiet down. It was a sort of spell she cast, an enchantment, and something she modeled her performances after for the rest of her life.
“I think that’s just a wonderful thing — to acknowledge the seductive power of quiet focus, this certain softness, feeling.”
All the various cyber-psychedelic Tumblr mutations of hip-hop have finally just been filed away as “trap” (enraging a few who worship the original Houston-based crunk variant that came up in the ’90s.) Think 808 drum machines, huge bass swoops, swinging hi-hats, ectoplasmic soundscapes. Or better yet, listen at SF’s new Trap City party (Sat/25, 9pm-3am, $10. Icon, 1192 Folsom, SF. www.tinyurl.com/trapcitysf). Look for a lot more fall trap.
The always cheeky, musically fantastic Honey Soundsystem (www.honeysoundsystem.com) just completed its audacious experiment: no Facebook presence for one month. And hey, the weekly Sunday night party at Holy Cow was packed. Could this spell the end of clogged feeds and overloaded notifications? Who has the guts to go FB free ’til 2k13?
Things I’ve got tickets for: Treasure Island Music Festival (October 13 and 14, www.facebook.com/treasureislandfestival) features several of our own homegrowns, including Tycho, K.Flay, the Coup, and Dirty Ghosts. Amon Tobin‘s insane techno-futurist projection extravaganza ISAM returns with a new look (October 5 at Greek Theater, blasthaus.com). And New York’s actually legendary deep Latin house party, Body and Soul, makes a long-awaited return (October 6 at Mighty, mightysf.eventbrite.com). Oh! And electro-fetishists: check out the lineup at this year’s Folsom Street Fair (www.folsomstreetfair.org).
SUPER EGO Summer has been carrying a look. A killer neon queer hip-hop wave is splashing across better dance floors, raiding classic i-D magazine spreads, relaunched Boy of London lines, and cheeky RHLS lookbooks (or anything coming out of former SF club kid Frankie Sharp’s insane Tuesday night Westgay party in Manhattan or our own Future| Perfect, Stay Gold, or Swagger Like Us), and soundtracked by ghetto gothic vogue beats and freaky Internet-pastiche rappers. Who knew vogue dramatics and a retro-MS Paint aesthetic would save hip-hop? Somehow a rupture opened in the forcefield and a way ahead appeared.
“I’m totally coming from the Internet, I can be honest about it,” emblematic star Le1f tells me over the phone from his home in NYC, when I ask him about his look and feel. (He’s performing at the Lights Down Low party Sat/11, 10pm-4am, $10–$18 at Monarch, 101 Sixth St., SF, www.monarchsf.com) “It is what it it is, and very natural to me. I’m very much about digital mystique, completely inspired by open source culture. I wanted to be an avatar when I grew up.”
The whip-smart MC has indeed become an avatar of a kind. On the strength of his bass-a-holic, fiercely gay mixtape Dark York, which dropped last April and tapped bleeding-edge producers Ngunguzungu, Booody, Cybergiga, and Morris, and especially track “Wut?,” produced by SF’s 5kinandbone5, with its brilliant accompanying video, Le1f has been branded as the face of the “new queer hip-hop,” if that’s even a thing. In a post-Frank Ocean world, it’s been hilarious watching larger media awkwardly trying to address this whole gay thing. In some cases, critics have been surprised that a gay rapper’s voice can be so low. (Le1f often sounds exactly like 80 percent of the black gay men I know, which is what’s so completely refreshing about him blowing up.)
“I’ve seen the comments, and although I can’t directly address anyone’s personal audio-homophobia, I will say that I do play with different voices and characters — and maybe people are bugging when I’m in my erotic creepy zone. I’m only getting deeper and darker, though.”
I guess why not let new queer hip-hop be a thing, when Le1f is lightening our loafers and intriguing fellow DIY homo-cosmic rappers like Zebra Katz, House of Ladosha, and Mykki Blanco are getting second looks. (Maybe some of the media shine will rub off on our own totally worthy Micah Tron.) Still, there are no outright political statements here — “Conscious rap is not my favorite type of rap,” Le1f has said — nor is there a desire to work in the still-lively, decades-old homo-hop tradition. The new queer hip-hop deal is more about doing your own hyperreal thing, posting alien emoticons from another dimension to killer abstract beats and feeling sexy about it.
Le1f studied dance for most of his life and received advanced training at Wesleyan University (he’s responsible for the beats behind fellow Wesleyan rappers Das Racist’s “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell”), yet told me, “I always wanted to be a rapper. I mean, I was a gay kid at a boarding school, it was the furthest escape I could think of. ” He cites influences from Missy Elliot to seminal vogue DJ MikeQ, but when it comes to traditional hip-hop audiences and their reactions to all the awesome weird that seems to be flooding into the scene lately, Le1f says, “I really have no connections whatsoever to those crowds or those types of performers. I’m sure they have a scene, and that’s great for them — just like my scene is vibrant and right for me.”
The current popularity of Dark York, which took three years to record, and even some of Le1f’s media spotlighting as a “gay rapper” are all part of a painstaking masterplan. “If people are freaking out now, wait until they see my next video, for ‘Mind/Body.’ I’m an alien transsexual being writhing in a trance rave cosmos.” You need to take us there, Le1f.
“I generally feel like 18 and over parties pander and talk down to their audience,” mega-wicked promoter Marco de la Vega tells me. “So I’m trying to focus on the opposite.”
Um, talk about respect — here’s the dark, dreamy, bass-crazy lineup of his first monthly youthful assay: Gatekeeper, Teengirl Fantasy, Nguzunguzu, 5kinandbone5 with secret spec1al guest, and the Tenderlions. Good thing I turned 18 last month, see you there.
Fri/10, 10pm-4am, $10–$18. DNA Lounge, 375 11th St., SF. www.dnalounge.com
The Spaniard delivered pretty much the dance album of the year so far with Fin — further exploring the psychedelic-Balearic release epitomized in his previous work. He’ll be appearing, intimately, in t he public Works Odd Job Loft, bringing some sunshine to the Icee Hot party.Also, this is so far the cognescenti club hit of the summer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuJg4WcIO7Q
Thu/2, 9pm-3am, $5 before 11, $10. public Works, 161 erie, SF. www.publicsf.com
This ought to be insane — NYC’s House of Aviance descends on San Francisco for some vogue ball realness (more like a showacse, really, as a commenter below points out). Mother Juan Aviance, Nita Aviance, Kevin Aviance, Gehno Aviance, plus DJs Juanita More, Jason Kendig, and capoeiraista Antonio Contreras. It’ll be a bonkers extravaganza for all, queens and admirers both. Get ready to drop! (And Lady Bunny says she’s coming? Ummmm)
Fri/3, 9pm-3am, $15-$25. Beatbox, 314 11th St., SF. www.beatboxsf.com
Dark and fierce queer rapper from the future rides a fresh wave of hype to the spooky-neat 120 Minutes party, with Physical Therapy and a performance by the eye-popping Boy Child.
Fri/3, 10pm, $10. Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. www.elbo.com
The Holy Cow continues to shed its reputation as a somewhat, er, screechy meat market, welcoming in this new Friday underground-vibes techno monthly, kicking off with local faves Nikita, Adnan Sharif, Lt. D, Joseph Lee, and special guest from Vancouver Kota Shibata.
The super-hot (like, for me, panties-throwing hot — but also hot in the audial way) British Hotflush label honcho is perfectly schizophrenic, giving us atmospheric dubby-deep bass genius and cerebellum-tickling techno in the harder vein. We like it when both sides come out to play — and why wouldn’t they at this As You like It party, with an amazing sound system and support from the also fascinating Olivier Deutschmann, Epcot (he’s back!), and Mossmoss.
Fri/3, 9pm-4am, $10 before 11pm, $20 after. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com
>>G.A.W.K.
And now for something completely different — it’s OG club kid (and supposed progenitor of queer hip-hop) Jon Sugar’s birthday, and he’s having the party at his raucous regular Gay Artists and Writers Kollective showcase, with bands 5 Pines and Happy Idiots, fantasy solo performances, and an ever-lively crowd of the open-minded.
Sun/5, 7pm, free. Tikka Masala, 1668 Haight, SF. Email gawksf@yahoo.com for more details. Or just go!
SUPER EGO So much glitterbong unihorny tres magnifiqué this week — let’s get into it:
CHUCK HAMPTON
Fabulous old-school Detroit houser (also known as Gay Marvine) hits up the Housepitality weekly, dropping some glamour on the kids with fellows P-Play and Synthetigers.
Love the impeccably chosen tech-house sounds of this handsome longtime UK favorite. 2011 LP Traces showed he could really pull out the sexy. With Tyrel Williams at the Sound weekly.
Gearheads and stardancers, rejoice. Really lovely monthly showcase of live electronic music, Realtime at 222 Hyde, hosts this classic local neo-electrosoul duo who’ll take you on a supranatural audial journey to within. With C. Faith.
The As You Like It crew host this South African dub-techno hero, who reaches for timelessness but doesn’t forget to take the dance floor with him. With Sassmouth vs. Mossmoss, Jason Kendig, and more. (Don’t miss obligatory insane afterparty at 6am at 222 Hyde.)
Fri 20, 9pm-4am, $10–$20. Beatbox, 314 11th St., SF. www.ayli-sf.com
LOVEBIRDS
Gorgeously melodic cosmic disco(ish) cutie Basti Doering from Hamburg, aka Lovebirds, widens the vibe of Marques Wyatt’s fantastic Deep monthly, currently hosting an “innovators” series that pairs classic vibes with cutting-edge styles for a super-diverse crowd.
Local trumpet prodigy Will Magid’s World Wide Dance Parties parties are a global blast, and this Romani romp featuring legendary musician Rumen “Sali” Shopov and the Balkan Brass Band will be pure foot-stomping, body-whirling bliss.
Three months can feel like forever when you’re young and beautiful and partying hard — so yeah, it feels like forever since the wonderfully sophisticated-electro party Blow Up tickled our tailfeathers. Raise your glass, gorgeous, it’s back! With DJ Wool of The Glass, Jeffrey Paradise, Ava Berlin, more.
Sat/21, 10pm-late, $10. Rickshaw Stop, 155 fell, SF. www.blowupsf.com
NITIN
Dreamy Torontonian No.19 label founder will come packed with a slew of sophisticated new tech tracks to light your brain on fire at the huge Forward party. With Adnan Sharif, Galen, Star Kommand, more.
Sat/21, 9pm-4am, $10–$20. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.forwardsf.com
So incredibly excited to peep intense duo Donato Dozzy and Neel, aka Voices from the Lake, who are everything on the discerning techno connoisseur circuit right now, with a buzzy ambient edge that slices dimensions. This collab between NYC’s excellent Bunker club and our own Gray Area Foundation for the Arts will slay in a heady way.
Ahoy, sunshine! In this week’s Super Ego nightlife column, I get all hot an bothered about the upcoming re-appearance of the Surya Dub global dread bass DJ crew at the Non Stop Bhangra monthly party on Sat/14. This installment of this ever-awesome and refreshingly diverse shindig is billed as “Indian-Caribbean tropical summer madness.” Well, what the heck does that sound like? (Answers below.)
The super-productive producer and DJ Kush Arora is letting us drop this exclusive Surya Dub Summer Rewind mix — he had a hand in a few of the tunes himself — to let us hear where his crew is at lately, globalwise. It is a serious jam I highly recommend listening to somewhere you can bounce around. And below the Kush mix track list is a special “Asian dub bass mix” that Maneesh the Twister did for UK website NadaBrahama.co.uk that gets a little more ethereal. And below that? The sounds of Non Stop Bhangra itself, from DJ Jimmy Love. Great stuff, which will sound even better live. Also: catch Kush and Maneesh on the airwaves with their new radio show “The Surya Dub Takeover” Mon 7.23 10pm on KPFA 94.1FM.
TRACKLIST 1. Kush Arora and Mega Banton – Shake Sitten (China White Remix) 2. Violet – Black River 3. Solo Banton – Make you Groove 4. Bongo Chilli -Can’t Touch My Style 5. Dre Skull – Loudspeaker Riddim 6. Popcaan – The System 7. Natalie Storm – Rock The Runway 8. Ghislain Porier – Alert Riddim 9. Ghislain Porier Feat. Natalie Storm – Gal U Good 10. WILDLIFE feat. J Wow – DNO 11. Urban Knightz Feat. Blackout JA- Step On Dem 12. Dinherio Negro (Bumps Bailehall Mix) 13. Rishi Bass – Latin Futura
14. Mak and Pasteman – Jungle Juice ( Pale Remix) 15. LV feat. Okmalumkoolkat – Boomslang 16. Partysquad feat. Baskerville – Gunshot 17. Spoeke Mathambo and Cerebral Vortex – Drunk Like That 17. Mr. Vegas – Bruck it Down ( Kush Arora Remix) 18. Buraka Som Sistema – Rita O Pe (Rob Howle Remix) 19. Astronomar and Wick – WYWD 20. Busy Signal – Doggy Style ( So Shifty Remix) 21. Natalie Storm – Lick it Good 22. Cardopusher – Goldo 23. Maga Bo – Piloto de Fuga feat. Funkero and BNegaeo 24. Zuzuka Poderosa and Kush Arora – Pisicodelia 25. Nego Mozambique – SurfistadoPavaofinal
SUPER EGO Hurray, it is not 115 degrees here! I just got a skype from my heatwaved homegirl Googie Santorum in Canton, Ohio, and she said all her wigs had melted into Dynel helmets and that she lost two pairs of kitten heels in the asphalt puddle outside Heggy’s Nut Shop on West Tuskawaras Street. I thought we cured global warming 10 years ago when we sat through that Al Gore movie and quit using Aqua Net? Well, apparently not.
I felt a little guilty reveling in our temperate clime while the rest of America fried — but that all changed when I started instead feeling a little guilty for passing out on the Fourth with two lit sparklers in my hair and a crotchful of spilled PBR. Goddess bless America. And all her bald spots and blackout complications.
In club terms, however, summer’s really steaming up our tails. I especially felt the mercury rising when it was announced that our hometown heroes of “dread bass,” the Surya Dub DJ crew, would be returning to the scene, taking over the second dance floor of the bangin’ Non Stop Bhangra monthly party on Sat/14 (9pm-3am, $10–$15. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com). Bassheads, get ready for a low pressure system no amount of my overheated metaphors can properly describe.
The mega-affair is being billed as “Indian-Caribbean summer tropical bass madness,” and you get mad amounts of hot tropicalia: a main room headlining slot from Portland’s DJ Anjuli and The Incredible Kid, founders of the longest-running bhangra party on the West Coast; guest spots for our main moombahton man, DJ Theory, and Matt Haze of wicked broken bass collective Slayers Club; bhangra dance lessons from the amazing Dholrhythms dance troupe; live drumming ….
And on top of it, Surya Dub’s ever-evolving, deep-global sound, finally back in the spotlight. SF’s musico-cultural cross-currents certainly haven’t flagged in the three years since the South Asian-flavored crew ruled the local bass scene with an irresistible mix of dub floor-droppers, future-bass bangers, ruff riddims, global breaks, and hip-hop bhangra. But when the crew members went on to various projects (including bringing Surya Dub to India and producing some great records), the scene lacked their singular fire.
“We never really went away,” Maneesh the Twister told me on a conference call with fellow Dubbers Kush Arora and Jimmy Love. “But it seemed like the music was changing in the clubs here. We wanted to evolve, to update the dread bass sound, in response to all the dubstep, electronic bass music, UK funky, and bashment that’s come to the fore.”
“We started feeling a wider variety of both New World and traditional sounds,” Kush told me. “African beats like kuduro — Buraka Som Sistema is great — to more post-dubstep tropical sounds. All of these rhythms that are talking to each other around the world. And of course we work in what’s been going on in bhangra as it develops.”
Jimmy, who also runs the Non Stop Bhangra party itself, was the catalyst for the “reunion.”
“We’re don’t just play traditional-sounding Bollywood or bhangra at the NSB parties,” he said. “I love dub reggae and Afrolicious-like funk, and our die-hard Indian crowd has loved when we play more tropical tracks. We always want to stretch the definition, and walking upstairs to Surya’s room will be a seamless experience of global sounds.
“It’s all about bringing communities together on the dance floor. And then heating everything up.”
COSMETICS
Soigné dark synthpop Canadian duo Cosmetics travel musically from Moroder to Siouxsie, charmingly, icily, and will be joined by Portland’s Soft Metals and our own Breakdown Valentine — two more chamber synth duos whose tunes seem intimately crafted just for you — for a catchy Friday the 13th affair. Justin of the Soft Moon, Rachel of the Conversion, and Omar DJ.
The whole gay bear thing kinda lost my interest once many of the hot fat country lumberjacks got replaced by entitled circuity gymrats constantly checking their Scruff apps on the dance floor. YOU’RE NOT A BEAR — YOU’RE JUST MIDDLE-AGED, I cried. (Middle age is a new thing for us post-AIDS era gay men; we’re working it out.) But that was, what, 2010? Time to reappraise. I’ve been hitting up this too-cute pan-musical dance party at Lonestar the past two months, brimming with sexy-goofy young hairies on the hoof and a few zesty chubs, too. Bear Trek: the Next Generation looks pretty damn good.
The once-local (now Brooklynite) trio sanded off some of its esoteric angles in favor of wistful, Fairlight synth era-referencing pop on new album Diver, but it still retains those breezy percussive touches that made it one of the leaders of the nu-tropicalism underground dance movement a few years ago. With killer DJ and DMC champion Kid Fresh from Hong Kong at the always balmy nu-cumbia Tormenta Tropical monthly.
Sat/14, 10pm, $10. Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. www.elbo.com
SUPER EGO Hi, my name is Paris Hilton. I’m a DJ. I have a new song out called “Afrojack” with Rihanna. Want to experience it? Close your eyes. Lay on something soft, like grass, or a lamb, or Perez Hilton’s dumpster bag of excised stomach. Journey with me back in time to 2007. Can’t you feel the tiny fingers embroidering the pockets of your half-bleached jeans, the douche-mousse dripping down your Gucci wraparounds, the gaudy wheeze of MySpace deflating slowly underfoot, the background throb of masked insurgents? Can’t you hear the gentle buzz of Britney’s flaxen hair fall, her greenish umbrella tap-tap-tapping at your car window? Quickly, now, hold my chihuahua Tinkerbell, I’m fading, fading rapidly into the animated gifs, Ed Hardy tramp stamps, hot-pink Hummers, and reality programming challenges of your constantly refreshing mind…. Oh, how ew!
Delete, delete, delete.
Paris’s debut on the decks last month, melting down mostly and dragging up all the celebucrap of history’s tackiest decade (OK, OK the foppish 1670s were pretty bad), was yet another meme-ready sign of well-played Mayan prediction. 2012 Apocalypse! It’s here! And it’s wearing sparkly tuxedo lapels and flubbing the EQ levels!
But Earth’s supposed obliteration countdown can also inspire, and lead to some more, er, sophisticated sonic expressions, especially concerning the intersection of humanity and technology.
“With the Mayan calendar ending this year and all the crackpot end-of-times theories, I thought, ‘this is a perfect time for an inward reflection of who we are and where we’re going. And also an opportunity to renew or hit the reset button on our own humanity.'” That’s Alan So, dreamy executive and artistic director of the glorious Soundwave Festival (Thu/5-September 30, www.projectsoundwave.com/5), explaining to me over email the genesis of its 2012 theme: “Humanities.”
The bi-annual, three-month-long Soundwave takes over the city with a heady onslaught of sonic explorations, many of the electronic, installation-based variety, but also incorporating nifty biophysical elements and experiential live performances. This installment promises some truly cosmic haps.
The fest kicks off at the Cal Academy’s great Nightlife weekly on Thu/5 (6pm-10pm, $12. California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Dr., SF. www.calacademy.org/nightlife), with techno-audial treats like Jay Kreimer’s ‘Born Wireless’ empathic facial responder, Stephen Hurrel’s live sounds of the moving Earth, and The Cellar Ensemble’s sound-light oracle instrument, plus guitarist Danny Paul Grody “playing the skies of the Aurora Borealis in a mini-planetarium” and artist Shannon O’Malley giving out tastes of her satiric-disastrous Apocalypse Cakes.
Footage from last year’s Soundwave:
More Soundwave 5 summer tantalizers: “Tension” at the Battery Townsend military bunker in Marin, which pairs riveting strings compositions with extreme resonance; “The Human Bionic” series at the Lab featuring Joe Cantrell’s Sounding Body, an audience interactive performance that uses brainwaves to conduct sound; and Canadian folk artist Diana Burgoyne’s interactive performances using intense-looking analogue-circuitry masks. The physical body is transcended, too: Andrea Williams and Lee Pembleton’s “SleepWalks” encourages participants to snooze (bring your sleeping bag) while the artists play music for their dreams, and “Revelation Zen,” a collaboration with the Zen Center attempts to breach dimensions both inner and outer.
“The advancements in technology have been astounding in the past 20, more so in the last five,” So told me. “Just think what can do now that we couldn’t do even do two years ago. We create technology to make lives ‘better.’ Machines know when we are awake, which means they also know when we are sleeping. Technology has been integrated in our worlds and our bodies so heavily it is becoming inescapable. I wanted to explore that in the sense of sound, and in the spirit of working towards humanity’s renewal of purpose after what we’ve don to the Earth.
“Also, probably, its my own unconscious self yearning for a simpler life in the midst of all this technology. Is that a possibility?”
RECLOOSE
The oft-heard, not-so-much-seen Michigander now lives in New Zealand, but still transmits the techno-eclectic vibes he learned under Carl Craig’s tutelage, with an open-air accessibility and broad funk wink.
Amazingly energetic and fun NYC bhangra-meets-brass nine-piece combo, led by dhol drummer Sunny Jain, seriously gets crowds hyped. Punjabi funk: taking over America the crazy right way.
Fri/6, doors 8pm, show 9pm, $18. Slim’s, 333 11th St., SF. www. slimspresents.com
SALEM DJ SET
Whither them witches? Witch house has been completely (and, by my scry, bewitchingly) taken up by a young “Why so serious?” coven of underground musicmakers who make no bones about bubbling the weird underside of the Internet up into a brew of funhouse splatter. But lost, I fear, is the gangsta rap-referencing button-pushing of OG poster children Salem. This DJ set may bring back the danger.
Fri/6, 10pm, $10. Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. www.elbo.com
WARM LEATHERETTE
The roving minimal wave and dark synth party celebrates three years of “vagabond existence” with guests The KVB (moody electronic shoegaze from the UK) and Deathday (aggressive industrial, filtered through hissing tapes, from LA).
Uhhhh…. yes, I’m finally recovering from Pride, which was quite a thing. Here’s the quick tea: our SFBG Pulling Pork for Pride party was chill in a good, busy, porky way. Nightlife at the Cal Academy was a breezy, star-filled affair — with baby ostriches, even! The lovely Mr. at Monarch on Friday was packed with stylish yet soulful dancers (along with Quentin Harris at Saturday’s Mighty Real shindig, one of the most diverse parties of the weekend, too).
Juanita More’s double-venue marathon on Pride Sunday was a high-water mark: its throbbing, post-runway crowd dressed in custom black separates and dripping vintage gold chains. Hard French was also a rockin’ delight, its post-Tumblr crowd dressed in custom neon separates and dripping in silver netting. And Honey Soundsystem was just far too hot-hot-hot (both temperaturewise and bodywise), its crowd pretty much naked except for glimpses of Southwest-patterned motifs, whether shaven into baroque haircuts or flashed from acid-washed scraps. The music at every party was pretty amazing, and I even stumbled upon a secret shisha bar in the TL, woot.
People both crabby-old and young-hip were snippily comparing the actual Pride Sunday celebration at Civic Center to Love Parade, with its cavalcade of straight, inebriated youth, whose fuschia-fishnet-girl, unshirted-jocky-stoner hot-boy, slutty-mess energy I can only envy. But, one, it’s been like that since long before Love Parade migrated to our shores six years ago — more like Halloween in the early 2000s, I’d say. And, two — hi, if you’re going to throw a huge free(ish) party full of cuddly gays, rainbows, and drag queen unicorns, of course young straight girls will show up, with wannabe-boyfriends in tow. It’s not queer rocket science (gaeronautics)!
Welcome to assimilation, queens: us drunk straight girls gon’ be there, k?
But outside of the wild teens, it did all seem a bit mannered, so well behaved — like no one really got craaazy with Pride. I hope we haven’t put that side of us behind us. Scream something!
I hung out a few times with this quintessential deep, sophisticated house producer in Detroit in the 1990s, and it’s such a pleasure to see him return to the DJ scene. Whether on his own or along with oft-partner Ron Trent, he made some of the timeless classics of the early techno-house era, bringing out a true spirit in the machines. He’s hitting the ever-glowing Housepitality weekly (which next week hosts the amazing Recloose. Booking coups!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RWT_Rcdcyo
Wed/27, 9 pm, $5 before 11 p.m., $10 after. Icon, 1192 Folsom, SF. Facebook invite here.
>>SATURDAY: ROBERT HOOD
On to the headier side of classic Detroit tech now, as longtime ace producer Hood blends hypnotic experiments with machine-soul vibes, stripping things down wickedly, expertly to the cosmic sub-basement level.
Sat/30, 10pm-3am, $10-$15. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com
>>SUNDAY: IVAN SMAGGHE
Kill the DJ! At least that’s what his Paris party’s named, but global fans have long smothered him with love, writhing to his dark-disco, genre-melting style that ranges from pounding No Wave chestnuts to cutting edge icy minimal wave re-edits. Hang with him high for an extended set, among the strobing lights at the Honey Soundsystem weekly, which continues to kill it for hot queers and their hot friends.
Living! Francois K., Joe Clausell, and Danny Krivit, together again and playing SF. One of my favorite clubs of all time (seriously, I flew to NYC all the time especially for its amazing blend of, well, body and soul) isn’t coming to Mighty until 10/6 — but now’s the time to get tickets before it sells out. $20 presales available here: www.mightybodyandsoul.eventbrite.com and we will groove all night.
SUPER EGO Everybody’s in an uproar. Panties: twisted! Wig: askew! Weave: berated! Kanga: roo’d! The upper lefthand quadrant of the Internet is aflame.
Respected undergroundish house DJs are being kicked out of upscale club booths at an alarming rate. In February, Dennis Ferrer was tossed from the tables at Miami’s Mansion for not playing “commercial enough.” Last week, our own beloved Mark Farina got bumped from the Marquee poolside in Las Vegas because the management was “getting complaints from the table service crowd” about too much house. (And, most inexplicably, adorable ambient sage Mixmaster Morris was unplugged at a prestigious Berlin event late last year, for not wanting to spontaneously tag team with the tipsy promoter.)
Beyond screaming, “Why the hell would you play these idiotfests to begin with!” (each has their own credible individual explanation), I tend to think this rash of boots is simply symptomatic of dance music’s current bout of mainstreamification. A similar thing happened when oonce-oonce techno took over mainstream-y dance floors in the mid-1990s. Suddenly it seemed every DJ disappeared except Paul van Dyk, Paul Oakenfold, Armin van Buuren, and Sasha and Digweed. Creepy. This time around, house lovers, there’s plenty of venues and crowds for everyone, without having to cry about our time slot in the Electric Daisy Cannibal of life. All is full of PLUR. Just don’t fuss with our Farina again, Vegas, or we’ll Mushroom Jazz your ass.
DMITRI FROM PARIS
And now I will spin you a shaggy tale of reverse-douchebagginess. The year? 2000. The place? Winter Music Conference in Miami. The party? Playboy Mansion. All the fixings of a bottle service fake boobs popped collar disaster-fantasy! Of course I went. But then. Someone handed me one of those little shaker eggs that make maraca noises. And then. DJ Dmitri from Paris launched into a 12-minute version of “Love is Always on Your Mind” by Gladys Knight and the Pips. The floor went wild and I went straight (forward) to heaven. It was totally like that moment in the gay bar in 1978 when someone hands Sandra Bernhard a tambourine. Free at last! Ever since then I’ve adored this kicky disco Greek Frenchman, and now that he’s launched several re-edit projects, he’s back in the pulsating limelight. Will he drop the epic opera version of Pet Shop Boys’ “Left to My Own Devices”? As a guest at Marques Wyatt’s monthly Deep party, one of the best and most diverse in SF, anything goes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi50cNBjSMw
Fri/15, 10pm-3am, $15 advance, $20. Mighty, 119 Utah, SF. www.mighty119.com
THE MAGICIAN
Have we at least reached the late Steve Miller Band stage of electro-disco? Abracadabra, out pops this mysterious prestidigitator, pulling blissful, keyboard-chiming, fog-enshrouded tricks from his fuzzy-wuzzy dream hat. I am assuming ze Magician is French, because he pulls off that excellent French touch trick of pulling your feverishly beating heart out of your chest right when the strobes hit. But in a more contemporary, happy house way. (UPDATE: The Magician is possibly Belgian. Magic!)
Don’t call him a “throwback” the young soul-funk revivalist prefers to count J. Dilla among his influences, even while he’s nicking inspiration from Holland-Dozier-Holland. The Stones Throw label favorite’s DJ set should span a spectrum of mood-bending, rootsy sounds.
Sat/16, 9pm-late, $10$15. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com
SON’Y RAYS
Kind of freaking out about this one. Some of the deepest, most intellectually soulful – and danceable! – tech-house future beats are being made in Oakland right now (and for the past few years) by the Deepblak crew. This showcase will bring together most of the major players at SF’s SOM: Diaba$e and Nasrockswell, Blaktroniks, Aybee and Afrikan Sciences, and Damon Bell. Do not miss this night of exquisite hometown, hand-crafted live machine vibes.
SUPER EGO One of the googly-eyed insider pleasures of attending a massive thing like the Movement Detroit Electronic Music Festival over Memorial Day Weekend is catching a glimpse of who’s checking out who: elder legends Anthony “Shake” Shakir and Danny Tenaglia peeping ever-smiley Berliner Cassy’s driving afternoon set on Monday’s main stage; a slew of unexpected European fameballs shimmying awkwardly at hometown hero DJ Godfather’s rapidfire booty bass blasts; a dream DJ-booth Detroit traffic jam of Stacey Pullen, Mark Kinchen, Kenny Larkin, and Terrance Parker; Boston’s wacky Soul Clap getting down on every sideline I could see; and everybody peeping Public Enemy in Sunday’s main stage headliner slot to see who stole the soul.
PE revved up nicely into its classic, cavernous hip-hop cacophany, with Chuck D in fine voice and a randy Flava Flav as old school hype-y as ever. (He’s got a Twitter y’all, and we need to help open his friends’ restaurant at 15 Mile Road and Van Dyke.) No, Underground Resistance did not show up to take Terminator X’s place behind the turntables, but we all knew the words — including Ice-T, making a surprise media appearance at one of the best-vibed, eclectic, well-run Movements I’ve been to (five out of 12).
Kids wanted to dance, too — all 30,000+, drenched in 90-degree sweat for three days of the best DJs in the world. The big overarching narrative in the global techno community right now is how it should react to the bland pop successes of the likes of David Guetta and Tiesto on the one hand and the watered-down dubstep youthquake of Skrillex and co. And yes, there were a fair share of Deadmau5 tees and tattoos among the nubile — but nothing sounded anything like all that at the fest.
And no one seemed to care, really. Abstract pop thrills could be had from Major Lazer, SBTRKT, Roni Size, and melodic pop-tech popularos like Seth Troxler, Jamie Jones, and Slow Hands. But what to say about the hordes of smiling teens freaking out over Dopplereffekt’s darkly hypnotic true-electro pounding, or swaying along to No Regular Play’s breezy, sculptural grooviness, or whinnying madly when Lil Louis broke Diana Ross’s “Love Hangover” into the slow part of his “French Kiss” — and then Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” when it got all fast again? Fucking Detroit. Love it.
So yes, smart and sophisticated techno is thriving — no doubt about that, really, after all it’s been through. Case in point: Sunday night’s huge KMS 25th anniversary party which celebrated founder Kevin Saunderson seminal label with an insane fanboy blowout, featuring Inner City and Carl Craig’s 69 project live, as well as techno inventors Saunderson, Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Eddie “Flash” Fowlkes together onstage, on four decks setups. And that was just the most-hyped of the satellite parties, which blossomed like wild fennel along the cracked concrete streets of the D.
I caught up with an only slightly bleary-eyed Saunderson after his label’s shindig, and before he was set to go on as the penultimate main stage act. (Closing honors went this year to Jeff Mills a.k.a. the Wizard, whose spacey hijinks predictably killed). KMS is releasing an anniversary box set at the end of this month bursting with juicy classic cuts and new barnstormers. You can read my full interview with Saunderson on the Noise blog at SFBG.com later this week. But one thing he said struck me in particular, especially in metaphorical relationship to the Motor City.
I asked him how he could keep up such tremendous energy through a quarter-century, how he didn’t run himself ragged on the hard facts of the world even as he transported generations of dance floors into cosmic netherworlds.
“It’s a path,” he replied, uncurling his arm along the back of my chair and staring somewhere far in the back of my skull. “Techno is a calling, and you do it because you have to do it, and that’s it. It’s not just some sort of music you build a life around. It’s the direction you take in your whole life, the actual path. No matter where it leads you.”
I promised I’d finally stop writing about Detroit but the hits just keep on coming: mad genius and early techno innovator from across the river in Windsor Richie Hawtin whirlwinds through with the yummy Paco Osuna (Fri/8, 9pm, $22.50. Mezzanine, 444 Jessie, SF. www.mezzaninesf.com), former Detroiter (now Berliner) Magda lights up the Sunset Island party on Treasure Island Sun/10, and the As You Like It Live party with Kollektiv Turmstrasse, Kassem Mosse, Christina Chatfield, and Bobby Browser (Fri/8, 9pm-4am, $15 before 10pm, $25 after. Beatbox, 314 11th St., SF. www.facebook.com/AsYouLikeItSF) continues Movement’s adventurous exploration of techno textures.
SOUL SLAM SF 7
I recently stayed in a Prince-themed hotel where the mirror above the bed was inscribed, “I was dreamin’ when I wrote this, forgive me if it goes astray ….” It was a fantasy come true. Another? The seventh installment of this Prince vs. Michael Jackson sonic smackdown — a step beyond the normal tribute night with excellent rare selections by NYC’s DJ Spinna with Hakobo, King Most, and Proof.
It’s a mitzvah! After surviving a tragic hit-and-run that stunned the nightlife community, bike king and DJ extraordinaire Toph One resurfaces at this ace bhangra monthly, heading up the global-funky loft with Jeremy Sole of Santa Monica’s groovy Afrofunke’ party. Meanwhile, in the main room, LA bhangra superstars Sandeep Kumar and Doc Bladez keep it electro-punjabi whirled.
Sat/9, 9pm, $10 advance, $15 door. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. wwwpublicsf.com
PINK AND PURPLE PATIO PARTY
Why should El Rio, EndUp, and Wild Side West get all the sunny queer veranda jollies? Cafe Cocomo prances into the afternoon outdoors game with this cute-looking affair — and yes, there is a fuschia and lavender costume theme, with prizes awarded to best retina-searing ensembles. DJ EMV throws a few Latin and retro-pop twists with eclectic guests. Plus: free BBQ!
Sat/9, 1pm-7pm, $10 — mention the Guardian and get $5 off! Cafe Cocomo, 650 Indiana, SF. www.tinyurl.com/PPPPLGBT
SUPER EGO Ooh, she's windy! And everybody knows it. I'm writing you from Chicago, specifically and improbably from the Hard Rock Hotel in the gorgeous old Union Carbide building. It's not so tacky (I'm staying on the Prince Floor, displaying several of his blouses), even though it's brimming with hopefuls for the International Mr. Leather Competition-related "Grabbys," the big annual gay porn awards. Someone please tell their hairdressers that 2005 was seven years ago! No more gay porn cockatoos, please. It is also big, hairy bear week here — officially called Bearpawcalypse 2012, I shit you not — so everything is thuper-thuper-gay.
I'll be back to join you at the following ragers, but right now I'm off to "grabby" me some drinks in the stunning Second City. First stop: a strong sidecar and some live Latin jazz at Al Capone's favorite hang, the Green Mill. Straight mobbin', y'all.
OMAR SOULEYMAN
Are you ready to completely lose it, hypnotic synth-groove hi-NRG Syrian folk-pop style? Even just thinking of how this hyper-energetic, legendary Middle Eastern singer somehow came to be embraced by Western ravers makes me smile — but we'll all be too busy bouncing and trying to sing along to deconstruct all that.
Fri/1, 8pm doors, $20 advance. Mezzanine, 444 Jessie, SF. www.mezzaninesf.com
STOMPY 20-YEAR REUNION
The Stompy label, party crew, and music production powerhouse has helped keep the chunky, funky, banging SF house sound alive (DJ Deron, Stompy's honcho, is one of my favorites when I just wanna let loose). To celebrate its second decade, Berlin's sunny tech-house wiz Ian Pooley is joining Jonene, Tasho, Sweet P, and Deron to stomp us good.
Fri/1, 9pm, $10 before 11pm, $20 after. Monarch, 101 Sixth St., SF. www.stompy.com
DOPPLEREFFEKT
Keepers of the true mad scientist techno flame, this mysterious, essential group — headed by mental lab technician Heinrich Mueller, a.k.a. Gerald Donald, a.k.a. Rudolf Klorzeiger — was all the rage, and one of the actual quality offspring, of the electro clash scene, which is now experiencing a full-blown revival. Dark thoughts and porn dreams burble up through insanely catchy melodies and sci-fi Kraftwerk affect. With C.L.A.W.S., Robot Hustle, Josh Cheon, Caltrop, and the No Way Back crew.
What would the city's techno scene be like without Kontrol? Ace new crews like As You Like It and Rocket might not be around if it hadn't been for the seven-year-old monthly blast of live news from the global techno underground. Originally started at the storied Rx Gallery as a clean, minimal-pumping break from all the baroque, bombastic clutter that was techno in the early 2000s (and as a showcase for the burgeoning international touring circuit created by the Internet and advancing digital technology), Kontrol grew at the EndUp into one of our invaluable electronic faces to the world. Now the Kontrollers — Greg Bird, Alland Byallo, Sammy D, Nokloa Baytala, and Craig Kuna — have way too much going on, damn their popular talents! This seventh anniversary event is also the end of the line for the monthly party, although Kontrol will live on in other forms, including, I'm sure, one day, a 21st anniversary party, at which I will be raving in my hover-wheelchair. Berlin master Heiko Laux performs. Danke and aufweidersehn!
After last year's incredible reunion (and a hugely successful world tour) one of SF's original rave crews — the one that brought a tasty touch of pagan British psychedelia to its eclectic productions — gathers again to howl. DJs Garth, Jeno, Thomas, and Markie, plus a signature cast of beloved characters, get devilish all night. *
You know I’m lying about mixing them up, I’ll just dress for a massive outdoor techno festival and a giant leather fetish convention to cover my bases. Rave chaps are totally back, as is twirling flaming leather flag dildos in a retro acid house smiley-face jockstrap. A joke about 12-inch Glo-Sticks. Another joke about polishing fun-fur boots with a raw tongue. Neither of them very funny, because it all just sounds like Burning Man. Oh well. Poppers!
Before hopping in the rainbow twin-prop and leaving you to rage at the following parties, however, I want to wish one of the true heartbeats of the San Francisco leather, nightlife, and charity scenes, Mama Sandy Reinhart (www.mamasfamily.org), a very happy, very whippy 70th birthday. Love you, Mama!
ALEXI DELANO
Chilean-via-Sweden, Alexi has been amping house signifiers into deep techno streams for a couple decades now and dropping into SF on highly anticipated occasion. (Notably, he appeared a dozen years ago at the storied Staple parties). He’ll be revving up the bangin’ Housepitality weekly party.
“Party like it’s 1906” — and if this wasn’t another wonderfully brainy banger from the Cal Academy of Sciences, I’d be a-scared. But in this case it’s all pre-quake, a dancing, drinking (and some learning) salute to the glorious, gold-fueled, saloon-heaving Barbary Coast days of my favorite time period: yore. This fundraising soiree stylishly launches the Academy’s neat new “Earthquake” exhibit. No crack allowed!
Fri/25, 7pm-midnight, $49–$69. California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Dr., SF. www.calacademy.org
RE:CREATION
Feel like some amazingly atmospheric, floor-churning future bass from mysterious knob-twiddlers with names like Opiuo, Eligh, and Onra? I kind of always do, and I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lde91njylYo
Fri/25, 10pm-4am, $15–$20. 1015 Folsom, SF. www.1015.com
DJ ASSAULT
The undisputed King of Booty is coming to town form Detroit to show us all how to dirty drop. Joining him to filth up the floor is New Jersey’s DJ Sliink and SF’s own invaluable Footwerks crew.
Don’t let sundown dull your Carnaval festival (www.carnavalsf.org) sequined shimmy. Mighty’s got you (un)covered for night-time Caribbean carousing, with samba-rific live talent: Brothers Calatayud and Little Brasil, Fogo Na Ropa, Boca do Rio, Antonio Geudes and Chillaquiles, and many more plus Brazilian wax from DJs Zamba, Fausto Sousa.
The always wonderful annual Stompy + Sunset Memorial Weekend jam (twelve hours of great music!) is a truly diverse SF gas with awesome guests, and this time the two venerable party crews are hosting the pumping wigginess of the UK’s Radio Slave, plus NYC’s deliciously groovy Alex from Tokyo, plus much ecstatic dancing.
Sun/27, 2pm-2am, $10 before 5pm, $20 after. Cafe Cocomo, 650 Indiana, SF. www.pacificsound.net
SUPER EGO Zounds and gulldurnit. Figures I’d fall ill right at the start of street festival season, when the weather was gorgeous, the freaks were How Weirding, and two new clubs were throwing open their fresh-painted portals. Why can’t my body just obey my mind and be invincible! It’s nothing but an overgrown orang-oo-tang. Oh well, I guess when you have only one sinus left — thanks, 1997 — every day of health is a smelly blessing.
Those two clubs: OK, one was really a hard re-opening. 222 Hyde (www.222hyde.com) has been going packed and strong for a few months since its remodel. The skinny-as-a-rail, bi-level spot has a bit more capacity and a lounge and smoking area — but the real talk is the absolutely transfixing light display on the ceiling above the basement dance floor. It feels like disco Tron! The good Tron!
And a blizzard of ecstatic Tweets agonized me about missing the actually opening of RKRL (52 Sixth St., SF. www.facebook.com/RKRLSF), a satellite of Club Six that plans to bring small-venue live rock — and a little dancing, too — to downtown’s wilds, courtesy of the crazy Low SF crew. I’ll be there soon. Achoo!
WUNMI
Sunny live Nigerian (via London and NYC) riddem vibes from one of the world’s most gorgeous and talented women at the always-pumpin’ Afrolicious weekly global funk party? You can’t miss this high-octane Wunmi bliss — I can’t wait to see what she’s wearing.
Thu/17, 9:30pm, $8 before 11pm, $10 after. Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. www.elbo.com
ANDRE LODEMANN
Among my all-time favorite techno producers and DJs, who rides that impeccable sweet spot between intelligently danceable and emotionally hypnotic. The delicious twist here is that the classic German, instrumental in East Berlin’s 1990s dance scene, will be playing at Marques Wyatt’s lovely monthly deep, deep house party Deep. The collision of spiritual currents with waves of brain-tickling tech should be, well, splashy. In the sweat-inducing sense.
A hot-sounding new monthly party named, presumably, after the brilliant Model 500 record from 1989, already promising a warm blanket of chill Balearic house-y sounds. Up first: the West Coast cosmic boogie boy known as Suzanne Kraft, lo-fi sensual wooziness from SFV Acid, Ash Williams, Avalon Emerson, Caitlin Denny, more.
Fri/18, 9pm-3am, $5. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com
DEETRON — (JUST HEARD DEETRON HAD TO CANCEL DUE TO ILLNESS ;(, BUT THE AMAZING CAMEA WILL NOW PLAY AN EXTENDED SET)
The second in a massive series of techno parties from the quality As You Like It crew (this time teaming up with Public Works) sees Swiss wiz Deetron bang the party with his signature melodic twists on the Detroit sound. Bern, baby, Bern! With Camea, Rich Korach, and Mossmoss.
Sat/19, 9pm-4am, $10 before 10pm, $15 after. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.ayli-sf.com
HARVEY MILK BIRTHDAY PARTY
“Out of the bars and into the streets!” But first onto the dance floor with a who’s who of the queer scene to raise some funds for and awareness of the Harvey Milk Democratic Club. Honey Soundsystem, Hard French, Stay Gold, Some Thing, Dial Up, Anna Conda, Bear Z. Bub, and a huge gay buffet! Mon/21 7-10pm buffet and reception, $40–$80 then dance party $5 10pm-2am, Beat Box, 314 11th St., SF. www.tinyurl.com/milkbday
SUPER EGO “I really don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into,” Skypes Jeremy Bispo, founder of the As You Like It techno party crew, into my twinkling Princess Phone app with a laugh.
“Well you better know, sweet thing, and quick!” I think, hopefully not too out loud. Bispo’s about to embark on an odyssey of mythic blowout proportions, launching a series of seven huge parties (with attendant afterparties at smaller venues) in the next two months that will include a live showcase touchdown at Smart Bar in Chicago and a return to the crew’s Midwestern roots at the Movement electronic music festival in Detroit, to coproduce the third installment of Shit Show, one of the fest’s more scandalous satellite shindigs. (Check out www.ayli-sf.com for more info about it all.)
Featured at those parties will be some of the most revered names in contemporary techno production, including Kassem Mosse, Deetron, Kollectiv Turmstrasse, Dave Aju, Camea, Mark E, and Sandwell District, plus AYLI’s wonderfully dedicated regulars Christina Chatfield, Rich Korach, Mossmoss, Tyrel Williams, and Brian Bejarano, a.k.a. Briski. The series kicks off Fri/11 at AYLI’s monthly throwdown at Beatbox, this one themed “Coast to Coast,” with deeply respected house DJ Jus-Ed from Connecticut and Detroit’s Marcellus Pittman of the actually legendary 3 Chairs collective.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO5fwHXQ8iM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UiU2ECedZE
But if anyone can pull this gargantuan bender off it’s Bispo who, along with AYLI head compañero Jeremy Linden, has not only hosted a rarely paralleled roster of the global techno circuit’s leaders, but built a quality brand from the underground up (AYLI parties at various city locations in the past two years have been among the best on offer) with almost Machiavellian cunning — minus the maliciousness, of course, and with extra warm fuzzies on the Technicolor dance floor.
“Global leaders?” “Quality brand?” Why am I talking like Lindsey Naegle from The Simpsons? And how have techno crowds changed in San Francisco that hundreds of people will happily throw down $20–$30 to see bleeding-edge, non-pop DJs and live acts, many from Europe, that surely only the most ardent followers of sites like Resident Advisor or Little White Earbuds would recognize as genius (in my rapacious online forum estimation, there’s about 56 of us)? And hardly one glow stick in sight?
“The movement I see is still nomadic in the classic sense,” Bispo explains, referencing techno’s border-hopping transmission, its rave-caravan past, and its universal appeal. “But now in San Francisco, the people who are moving here who are interested in this music are very educated, very sophisticated. They know what’s out there. Many of them want to spend their money on something that has been curated for them with care, especially since there are so many people making this type of music now. And people like to be challenged, not just in the sound but in the feel. Our underground events have many times been more successful than our licensed ones.
“It’s still about having a place to go party all night to some great music,” he continues. “But now it’s not just fellow DJs who are listening to the sets and making the connections. You might be surprised how many people passionately follow this music, especially in our tech-centric city.”
Awesomely, As You Like It makes no bones about its brainy side — the Shakespearean moniker comes via the title of a cherished, hard-driving 2000 cassette mix by esoteric Detroit DJ Claude Young. And hopefully underground techno is still a life calling and not some “edgy” packaged product, to be tossed on at the weekend like a nootropical pashmina. But if we’re all now techno connoisseurs, we could do no better than Bispo’s remarkable crew to lead us toward the new.
AS YOU LIKE IT COAST TO COAST
With Jus-Ed, Marcellus Pittman, Lance Desardi, Tyrel Williams, and Brian Bejarano. Fri/11, 9pm-late, $10 before 11pm, $20 after. Beatbox, 314 11th St., SF. www.ayli-sf.com
EMISSIONS
Woah, this fourth annual three-day campout tribute to “West Coast Bass Culture” out to be insane, with wob-wob and sophisticated rumble headliners Vaski, Starkey (love him!), Zion-I, Minnesota, and a fantastic sub-zillion more. Presented by Camp Question Mark and the awesome Irie Cartel, who’ve really upped the local dubstep game.
UK disco-funk glam revivalist outfit Crazy P have ruled the past few years with a stellar live show and a lowdown sexy way with the turntables. Hot Toddy, one half of Crazy P’s production team, is coming to steam up the glasses of Monarch, inaugurating new monthly Night Moves, curated by bigtime Bay players like J-Boogie and DJ Theory who want to douse veteran house and funk fans in a wave of newer sounds that just might be sweep them off their feet.
Fri/11, 9pm, $10 advance. Monarch, 101 Sixth St., SF. www.monarchsf.com
MARTINEZ BROTHERS
I raved about super-cute Bronx house prodigies Chris and Steve Jr. a couple years back when they were too young to get into most of the venues they rocked. Now they’ve grown into a touring juggernaut, true global representatives of the classic house sound — live percussion usually included — updated for today’s soundsystems, wielding sonic light-sabers (those smiles!) against our contemporary cascade of cynicism.
Fri/11, 10pm-4am, $10 advance. Mighty, 119 Utah, SF. www.mighty119.com
ORIGINAL PLUMBING RELEASE PARTY
Pretty much the hottest magazine ever (www.originalplumbing.com), the down ‘n dirty quarterly for trans men and fans was kickstarted by Amos Mac and Rocco Katastrophe here in SF, but has since grown into a movement based in NYC. Amos and Rocco are back in town to celebrate the release of their ninth issue with a sexy shebang: DJs Rapid Fire and GX Meow, the Freeplay Dance Crew, naughty photobooth, and of course a shit-ton of hot guys. Queer on, OP!
Fri/11, 10pm, $7. Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. www.elbo.com
PUSH THE FEELING
Open your ears, love. This is the third in a effervescent series that showcases some of the nifty local acts smudging the line between indie electronic and experimental music, including absolutely brilliant tropical-tinged Oakland duo Chucha Santamaria y Usted and, also from Oakland, entrancingly dubby tech-hop act Shortcircles.
Surefire is one of the Bay’s secret dance music weapons, growing from a scrappy-yet-canny bass label to an international artist rep agency, whose eye-popping roster reads like a serious underground bass fanatic’s who’s who. But let’s ditch the market-speak and go under, as Surefire’s ace tour lands at SOM, with jooky UK headliner (and local fave) Addison Groove of “Footcrab” notoriety doing a live 808 show, and Doc Daneeka, who makes some unabashedly gorgeous house and dank-groove music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-Lbg5jRa88
Sat/12, 9:30-late, $10 advance. SOM, 2925 16th St., SF. www.som-bar.com
THE GATHERING
Last year, essential Bay Area rave the Gathering turned 20. (What other party can claim that its participants stomped out a potentially disastrous grass fire in the hills, while dancing?) That party was the kind of reunion blowout that not only took “rave to the grave” silly-seriously, but cuaght the ears of younger generations as well. Now it’s tuning an extra-legal 21, and will still go hard, with beloved DJ Dan, Hipp-E, Dutch, Andy Caldwell, and the Sunset and Forward crews, and tons of visual artists, surprises, and bonkers fun.
As one half of Dubtribe Sound System, Sunshine Jones was responsible for a bonafide deep house masterpiece, “Do it Now” from 2001. His solo output has been pretty grand as well (2007’s “If You Wouldn’t Mind” leaps immediately to mind and stays there.) But he’s always had an affinity for dub textures, as the “Sound System” moniker suggests. Catch him at rocksteady, long-runnning weekly Dub Mission, where he last played in 1999(!) for a good dose of the sublime.
SUPER EGO The everywhere nightlife talk last month, as reported by the UK Guardian, was that Berlin politicians had pledged one million shiny euros to preserve clubs from the growing threat of gentrification and rising real estate prices in that once cheap-as-curbside-currywurst berg.
If only in SF. What would you do with all that clubby money? Create a B&T party-bus dropoff zone between First and Fifth Streets and Mission and Brannan for shrieking singles (“Fluorescent Tube Dress Island”)? Fix all the bad pants at tech networking mixers? Cork wedge police? Eyebrow wax ban? DJ-with-a–$-in-their-name annihilation? New face for Heklina? (Kidding, love you and your Sarah Jessica barker, girl.) Really, the possibilities.
JESSE SAUNDERS
Dear Housepitality, you are killing me with classic loveliness every week — this one for instance, bringing in Chicago’s “originator of house” Jesse Saunders, whose 1986 “Love Can’t Turn Around” with Farley Jackmaster Funk and Darryl Pandy (RIP) changed mine and about 300 million others’ lives.
Wed/2, 9pm, free before 11pm with RSVP at www.housepitalitysf.com/rsvp, or $5 before 11pm, $10 after. Icon, 1192 Folsom, SF.
STYLE FROM WITHIN, VOL. 1
If you’re going to turn it out for summer on the runway of life, you could do no better than to hit up this free musical fashion show extravaganza at the Clift from boutiquista-nightlife heroine Bianca Starr. Slay-worthy looks from Sui Generis, Wonderland, Density Dept, and Top Shelf. Groovy tunes from J-Boogie and DJ Ry Toast(!), plus a performance by blowing-up Bay star B. Bravo.
Two of my favorite queer female house and techno DJs teaming up for an extravaganza at 222? This I like, and would like to see more of. Both throw down some expansive knowledge of current electronic textures and historical subcultural connotations — but nevermind all that, this will be total funzo.
Love, love, love me some classic Bay turntablism action from the mindblowing threesome. But wait, Shortkut, Vinroc, and Apollo are hip-hop triple-teaming on the decks all night for free — with an open bar from 9pm-10pm? On a Friday night? Whoever’s sponsoring this insanity, I will kiss you.
The NYCer has been rightly lauded for helping to lead dance music into sophisticated new directions. His obsessively detailed creations meld moody post-minimal techno with classic deep house flow, flooding the floor with pure, cool tones that sometimes dunk you under into rhythmic experimentalism.
He’ll be joined at the Icee Hot monthly by Rem Koolhaus from Brooklyn’s awesome Turbotax party.
Sat/5, 10pm-3am, $10. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www,publicsf.com
CINCO DE MOZ-O
Because who loves Morrissey more than Mexicans? Why, drunk Americans at the fantastically hip Britpop and Swinging London-themed Club Leisure monthly, that’s who. Piñatas! Smiths karaoke! Someone named Union Jackoff!
More good news from Oakland’s great house scene: your Cinco de Mayo celebration (mess?) will get some soulful uplift as this great monthly from the Divinyl Echo collective celebrates three years. Beloved special guest DJ Julius Papp headlines, and Soul Camp treasure Teejay Walton supports. Let’s get down.
SUPER EGO Is San Francisco experiencing a douche drain? Suddenly a heck of a lot of, er, “upscale” clubs are mediating their bottle service images with creative, musically forward parties. I can’t think they’ve run out of Appletini orderers, or that the real nightlife money is in importing obscure Crosstown Rebels label DJs — although maybe all the bachelorettes really have fled to Castro gay bars and the stiff-collar dudes are glued to their Girls Around Me app? I’m loving finally feeling comfortable (and digging the quality sound systems) at some of these shiny joints. I’m also tickled by the occasional accidental crash collision of crowds, as when a bleach-blond klatch of stilettoed, squealing singles found their meat market had been occupied by lumbering gay techno bears, but stayed to dance anyway.
The trend kicked off three years ago when 1015 Folsom rebranded its “underground” basement as 103 Harriet, then Holy Cow roped in Honey Soundsystem Sundays and Vessel launched techno-riffic Base Thursdays. Now a number of clubs, including Monroe in North Beach on weekend mornings and Otis on Sunday nights, have joined in. The kooky part is how some of these clubs have been surreptitiously changing their names to their addresses in promotions when they get a little “alternative.” Besides 103 Harriet, Harlot is “46 Minna,” Icon Ultra Lounge is “1192 Folsom,” Ruby Skye’s former VIP room is “4Fourteen” (Mason). This is so hilariously shady and bland at the same time! Yet it tickles. Just please don’t call it pop-up nightlife — call it a stealth takeover, darling.
JUANITA’S FUNKY CHICKEN
What better thigh to gnaw on than a drag queen’s? Hostess with the hot plate Juanita More pitches in for the Dining Out for Life AIDS fundraiser (www.diningoutforlife.com) with her traditional menu of chicken covered in honey goo, blue cheese salad, corn muffin, and red velvet cupcake. Plus old school soul from the Hard French DJs and a crowd of gorging gorgeousness. Eat it, ladies!
Thu/26, 6-9pm, $22. Mars Bar, 798 Brannan, SF. For reservation info, see www.juanitamore.com.
GREG WILSON
I admire a ton of DJs, but Greg is one that I actually love. His tailor-made funk and soul re-edits, many from the darker reaches of the vaults, hit me just right. And when this UK veteran (almost 40 years of experience! The first DJ to scratch on British TV!) mixes them all together and throws in some unexpected singalongs and sound effects, it’s party heaven.
Party promoter wunderkind Marco de la Vega is filling several fun voids in our nightlife with his audio edge-play productions. And he’s upping our intellectual ante, too: “Club culture is inherently performative. Public Access is an experiment in the nature of that performance. A feedback loop of spectacle and spectator,” he says of his latest extravaganza of Technicolor darkness, featuring lo-fi nihilists Hype Williams, dream-rave duo Teengirl Fantasy, lurid discothequers Gatekeeper, and Zebra Katz, whose filthy “Ima Read” track is spring’s official club anthem thus far.
Fri/27, 9pm-3am, $15-20. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com
CLAUDE YOUNG
He lives in Tokyo now, but second generation Detroit techno man of many talents Claude Young honors his roots on the decks — mostly by slaying crowds with his signature jazzy-tech flair and insane manual dexterity (let’s just say the man can mix with his chin). A perfect complement to the jawdropper that was fellow Detroiter Jeff Mills’ set at Public Works last week, and a rare opportunity to hear Young on these shores. For $5!
What’s more emotionally hair-raising than tonight’s “appearance” by DJ Pauly D at the Sound Factory? The pic accompanying this post of the scrubbed and painted Eagle Tavern that surfaced on the Internet this week — I saw it via drag queen politico Anna Conda. The Eagle closed last year — it was an actually legendary hangout for leather biker queers, and straight scruffy friends, into amazing rock music courtesy of DJ Don Bard at Sunday beer busts and a passel of live bands on Thursdays. It closed amid controversy, confusion, and stalled protest efforts, but now It does indeed look, in the words of one commenter, like, “My memories have been raped by a poorly designed condo kitchen.” (I hate rape jokes, unless they’re hilarious.)
But as another astute commenter commented, “While the physical space that was the Eagle is no longer, the people that made the atmosphere, the experience, the adventure, and the tradition are still with us. Let’s focus on the people and look for new space.” Amen. The monthly Eagle in Exile beer bust at El Rio is doing great, and although we’ve yet to achieve something weekly, I kind of think a little break for my liver on Sunday afternoons (and a chance to explore some other venues) has been a good thing. But I do miss hanging with my manly-man, non-gym queen homies, getting turned on to musical gems like this — and this pic brought on a lot of memories, as well as Crate and Barrel nightmares.
>> DOC MARTIN + J-BOOGIE Cali’s most beloved rave legend DJ Doc Martin, whose sets can encompass classic house woo-woo, intricate techno, and deep funk (he’s been on fire in the past couple years especially) will join SF’s multitalented jazzy-funk producer J-Boogie’s live band Dubtronic Science at Yoshi’s Fillmore to “combine electronic dance music with live instrumentation, progressing the tradition of jazz improvisation in the Fillmore.” This sounds really cool. Below is one of J-Boogie’s smooth recent joints that’s been popping up everywhere lately. What might Doc Martin do with it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSfWEOh6uxw
Fri/20, 10pm-1am, $15-$25. Yoshi’s Fillmore, 1330 Filmore, SF. Facebook invite here
>> FIX YOUR HAIR Giant neon queer fun with scene favorites DJs Jenna Riot and Andre, performers Manicure Versace and Terry T, the Vogue and Tone Crew, and more wet and wild friends. Tease it out, grrrlz.
>> JOEY NEGRO The UK dance hero, also known as Dave Lee, ruled much of the late 80s to early 00s: he was one of the first to infuse overt disco samples into house, and his productions and remixes like the below really did save my life on numerous occasions. Classic, classic, classic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR4BJdaM-ZU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R1XHs7239U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdWTQ-6D4Q4
Fri/20, 9pm-3:30am, $10-15. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com
>> SOUTH RAKKAS CREW SOM Bar is gonna be keeee-razy on 4/20 with a ton of booming’ future-dancehall and global bass music from this Mad Decent crew, plus incredibly diverse supporting players Kush Arora (perfect for today!), DJ Sep, Daneekah, Bootyklap, and the always slayin’ it Slayer’s Club players. Light up and get low.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUrqxf2Hq_I
Fri/20, 9pm-3am, $5 before 10:30, $10 after. SOM, 2925 16th St., SF. Facebook invite here
