Hip-hop Archives — Page 4 of 55 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

Dispatches from SXSW: Day 3 — Lessons, brisket, and fool’s gold

Steven T. Jones

March 17, 2014

The most important thing I learned from being at SXSW is that I should not under any circumstances make any decisions to move to Austin based on my experience at SXSW. Yes, the city is amazing, hip, and fun for 10 days out of the year, but what about the other 355? I’m willing to bet at least 60 percent of attendees thought to themselves “You know what, I could totally see myself living here.” For San Franciscans and New Yorkers, that number is probably 80 percent. Not to mention, summertime in Austin is a devil’s combo of Arizona heat and Deep South humidity. In addition there’s only one light rail line in this huge sprawl of a city; Austin’s population is a little larger than San Francisco’s but has more than five times the square mileage. I feel this is necessary to point out because I have a feeling there are a dozen or so people every year who did this and after a couple months of living here they panic and are like “Oh god! Why did I sign that one-year lease!”

On to day three (Friday).

Part of the reason I was so excited to visit Austin was for the barbeque, specifically brisket. My original plan was to visit the famous Franklin’s BBQ, a place that usually has a three-hour wait. But when I saw that people were camping out in line, I said scratch that. The first two days were brisket free for me, therefore my third day had to be brisket day. I went to some place called Noah’s and had a brisket plate and a brisket sandwich to go. The plate was good at first and then became mediocre half-way through. When I had the sandwich later on in the day, it was dried out and there virtually useless, I still ate it anyway. My determination to find a decent a brisket joint was still undeterred. I found a food truck area and convinced myself to order a $10 brisket sandwich. It too was mediocre. My friend had a brisket from another food stand, I had a bite of it and it didn’t do anything to impress. Here’s another lesson for you, food at big events sucks, it’s the more expensive and mass-produced version of itself; Outside Lands is very guilty of this.

Anyway, back to the music.

migos
Migos

Day three was also my sleep-in and rest day. Walking 14 miles a day with sun in your eyes and loud noise in your ears and staying out to 2 or 3am can really wreck you. At around 4pm, I’m fully recharged and I make my way to the Fader Fort for one last hurrah. Unfortunately, this time around even the badge-people are having a hard time getting. I’m stuck in line for 80 minutes, while my friends are enjoying the hedonism of the Fader Fort. I finally get in, I catch the last three songs of Young Thug’s raucous set. I find my friends and we decide to bounce, I bid adieu to the Fader Fort.

For our last night in Austin, my friends and I decide that we’re going to stick to one showcase and spend the entire night. We finally decided on the Fool’s Gold showcase hosted by A-Trak and Nick Catchdubs. On the bill was A-Trak, Migos, Travis Scott, Black Atlas, Treasure Fingers, Berkeley rapper 100s, and about 234 other rappers and DJs. We get in line two hours before doors open at 8 and of course there are already 30 people in front of us. We pass the time by playing games, eating dinner, and making new friends with our line buddies. Then 8pm rolls around, the moment we’ve been waiting for. Nothing happens besides someone telling us to form a strict single-file line. Then at 8:40, we make our way in knowing our patience will be greatly rewarded.

The waiting, however, is not over. The first hour and a half of acts are by and large forgettable. They’re all rappers whose gimmicks, fist-pumping, and attempts to “turn up” were doing little to affect the crowd.

Four hours after we got in line, the real fun kicks in when Treasure Fingers hops on the ones and twos. He spins a bombastic set of fast-paced galloping electro and bass-drenched hip hop, a near perfect threading of the border between hip-hop and electronic music. Fool’s Gold co-head Nick Catchdubs takes over the DJ baton after Treasure Fingers and switches to a more hip-hop centric set that’s just as exciting. Sweet vindication for all that time waiting is settling in, my version of the marshmallow experiment.

100s
100s

However, I was not prepared for the next two and a half hours. I had never experienced such a colossal amount of hip-hop bravado, swagger, and stage presence packed into such a small space (the venue was a car repair garage.) 100s led off this hip-hop marathon with his silky perm and synth-hop beats. When they say SXSW is a platform for artists to take off, they’re talking about artists like 100s.

A-Trak takes the stage after 100s and starts turntabling for a bit and then out of a nowhere Danny Brown pops out as the “surprise” guest of evening. The crowd goes wild even though despite this being one of the least surprising guests SXSW. Danny Brown throws down a rambunctious set mostly because the crowd is so hyped to see him. He yells “Where’s the molly at?!” of course, then does one more song and bows out to Migos.

As soon as they grab the mic, it’s apparent that Migos are natural performers. Not too many acts can have an iron-fisted control over a mob of drunk and high hip-hop fans. During “Versace” and “Hannah Montana,” the energy in the air is so palpable I think the entire place was going to collapse. Then Young Thug bursts out of nowhere, causing an earthquake registering a 7.2 on the richter scale. Tsunami warnings are issued all along the Texas and Gulf coasts.

Young Thug and Migos

It’s one of the most “Can’t stop, won’t stop” moments I’ve ever witnessed in hip-hop. More and more guests like A$AP Ferg, Travis Scott, and YG. Each guest somehow finding a way to turn up the crowd more. Every time I feel like we’ve reach peak turn-up, the next track manages to turn up even more.

At the end of this hip-hop extravaganza, I am left nearly catatonic and speechless. I literally OD on hip-hop, and plan to go cold turkey for the rest of the month. When I regain consciousness, a pain and numbness takes over my legs, leaving me with the daunting task of walking two miles home.

Ana Tijoux on motherhood, Breaking Bad, and un-learning colonialist history

Steven T. Jones

March 17, 2014

Ana Tijoux on motherhood, Breaking Bad, and un-learning colonialist history

By Rebecca Huval

If you’re tired of mainstream Latin hip-hop — which, right now, is disproportionately made up of reggaeton beats, male MCs, and bitter lyrics — then Ana Tijoux is the lady rapper for you.

The French-Chilean artist upends the genre. Instead of bragging about her millions, she advocates for cultural pride. Instead of barking at her enemies, she weaves a soothing spool of words that remixes the Spanish language into silk. She has evolved from using samples to working with a live band in a textured, colorful sound all its own, incorporating brass, jazz inflections, and a smorgasbord of South American instruments such as Andean charangos and pan-flutes.

You might have heard Tijoux’s origin-story track, “1977,” on Breaking Bad, as Jesse and Mike make deliveries through a desolate Southwestern landscape. The song describes the year she was born in France to parents who were exiled during the military dictatorship in Chile. Her alternating flow and staccato make the mind-numbing road trip seem badass. Following that sophomore record, La Bala, Tijoux is releasing a mature album with lush orchestration March 18: Vengo. The following evening, Wed/19, she’ll hit The Independent.

Calling to mind Erykah Badu, Tijoux is a poet with a low, creamy voice and a call for algre rebelde, or joyful rebellion. Her lyrics will make you feel like the top of your head was taken off, to paraphrase Emily Dickinson. “I come as a child who sought entrance to his/ home, the entrance to his origin, the return to/ his crusade, I come seeking silenced history/ the history of a land pillaged/ I come with the world and I come with the birds,” Tijoux raps in the title track of Vengo. In the shadow of Pinochet’s Chile, Tijoux is rebuilding dignity in her heritage with thoughtful, joyous rap.

Ahead of her show Wednesday night, we caught up with her by phone to talk about why it’s better to protest with beauty, how it felt to move from France to Chile as a teenager, and what it was like to dance with a man in an octopus suit in a music video.

San Francisco Bay Guardian How did you start rapping, and what female rappers influenced you?

Ana Tijoux I think I began when I was 20, very naturally, out of necessity because I needed to communicate. The woman who inspired me first was Bahamadia. And then I began to rhyme and write, and then I began to learn about more female MCs: MC Lyte, and when I was younger, Queen Latifah.

SFBG I’ve read that you consider yourself to be shy. How do you find the strength to perform in front of so many audiences?

AT Because I’m an amazing actress. [Laughs] On stage, I’m singing, I’m communicating, so I forget about the audience. It’s energy, and you begin a dialogue with people. That’s one of the moments when I feel free. It doesn’t matter what happens, I just do it.

SFBG Why did you move to Chile in 1993?

AT Because my parents were exiled in France, and I’m from there, and when refugees could come back I came with my parents. It was hard, very hard. I was a teenager and you’re in the construction of a personality. You’re fighting between a child and an adult in one personality, and then to change continents was hard. It was also one of the most amazing moments in my life. And it was a moment of a lot of lessons, but I understood about them more later, not immediately. I understood about friends, and about how the North robs so many things from the South. It was a political education.

SFBG Your 2007 video for “Eres Para Mi” with Julieta Venegas is goofy and delightful. It looks like you had a lot of fun making it. What was it like dancing with a man in an octopus suit and a nun?

AT The most hilarious moment in my life. When she made the video she didn’t tell me an octopus would be there, so it was a surprise. And I’m shy, like I told you, so I tried to act the best that I could. I didn’t know I would have an octopus near to me.

SFBG How did you write an album with your young children around?

AT It was an amazing moment, but very hard with time. I learned so much, like trying to be a mother with the [artistic] creation and no sleeping. At the same time, it was amazing. I learned time is a precious treasure and so valuable. I can’t lose time anymore in stupidity. The time I have is for creation or friends and family. It was hard to be honest, but really amazing.

SFBG Why did you decide to work with a live band instead of using samples?

AT I work with the best musicians I could have imagined. The songs have different vision with drums because it can be longer, or if the bassist has a solo, each instrument sings and gives a different color. It feels so organic and every instrument can give one texture to a song, and different movement and weather in the songs.

SFBG In “Vengo,” you say “Without fear you and I decolonize/what we were taught.” How have you unlearned what you were taught about Chile’s history?

AT I feel like everything I learned in school was with a colonized vision. You become interested in your roots, you understand that how you learned history is so different than what happened. In Chile, we live in a country with people with brown and black hair, and in publicity they have women with blond hair. All this publicity is about who we should be, and I’m saying we should be proud of who we are as a society and a community.

In America, they say it’s been 500 years since they discovered the continent. They didn’t discover it, people were here before the colonizers arrived. We’re changing the vision and vocabulary.

SFBG I loved Somos Sur, and I think your lyric “alegre rebeldía” captures the spirit of your music. In your calls for social justice, I sense more beauty than anger. What inspires you to call for equality with your gorgeous lyrics instead of just shouting at a protest?

AT Protests in general are protests for life. When you see fights around the world, it’s a fight for life. To have a fair life, it’s about dignity. We’re so used to protests with anger. We want a better future for us our kids and community. So that’s what I’m saying, it’s a fight for happiness.

SFBG How did it feel to hear “1977” on Breaking Bad?

AT Funny. I’m glad. It’s an amazing series, and I’m glad that there is a mainstream series that’s taking a risk. It’s a good series with amazing characters.

SFBG In “1977,” you say “Caminas en crucijadas/ Cada cual es su morada” (“You walk in crossroads/ each one is your home”). Where do you consider your home now?

AT Chile, totally Chile. It’s where my family is, my parents, my kids, my garden, and my refugees.

SFBG What advice would you give to young female rappers out there?

AT Do not listen to advice at all. Everybody wants to give advice about how to make stuff. Don’t listen to advice. Try to make music and be free.

— @rhuval

Dispatches from SXSW: Day 2 – Fader Fort, Future Islands, and Waiting in Lines

Steven T. Jones

March 14, 2014

I’m pretty sure the Fader Fort is where I want to spend the rest of my youth and possibly my life. This makeshift village is probably as close to cool heaven as it gets. It’s got free music, free drinks, and people-watching galore. Did I mention it’s also got charging stations, free ice cream, and a first aid tent? You really could spend the rest of your youth and/or life here.

The Fader Fort is that illustrious castle on the hill of peak hipness. You can absorb the coolness into your skin via osmosis. For entrance into this Hearst Castle for the Snapchat crowd, you must either know somebody who knows somebody, have a pass (like I do), or get in line at the ungodly hour of no later than 12:30pm. Seriously, if you don’t get in line by at 1pm, you’re doomed to a fate of sunburns and sobriety. So get in line early, your brand depends on it.

As much I want to conduct an anthropological study on the impossibly hip 20-somethings lounging and fluttering all over the Fort, I have to force myself over to music stage.

fader fort

The first act is British crooner Sam Smith. He’s most known for his feature on Disclosure’s “Latch.” Without the Disclosure brothers at his side, Mr. Smith and his rad pompadour unleash an acoustic rendition of the dance hit, which the crowd and I found equally pleasing. As per SXSW custom, Smith busts out 20 minutes of work, packed up, and bounces to his next gig.

I go re-up on free pineapple juice and rum.

When I get back, Theophilus London is about to come on. I’ve been listening to this guy for a while and I still don’t get his deal. I feel like he’s been stuck on the come up for a while, which contradicts the very idea of being on the come up. He presents his mix of electro funk, pop, and hip-hop, all while wearing torn yellow pants, a yellow tank top, jean jacket, and that Pharrell/Arby’s hat. Towards the end of his set, he brings onstage a woman from the crowd and they do some sort of seductive dance that’s kind of novel and cool, but immediately takes a turn for the worse when London creepily starts grope-dancing with her. He almost sucks all the cool from the air, leaving everyone baffled and awkward. She goes back to the crowd and we all breathe a sigh of relief.

theo

Theophilus London
Pineapple juice and rum time.

Collaborators Shlomo and Jeremih are up next. Shlomo warms up the crowd with a DJ set of percolating electro rhythms. I begin to worry Jeremih might not show up, but he does. The two are collaborating for an upcoming album, but their performance makes me think they should establish this as a permanent arrangement. Jeremih’s suave and soothing nu-R’nB vocals hypnotizes the crowd into a state of mindfulness. But Jeremih knows what the crowd wants to hear, they want to hear “Birthday Sex,” and you do not deny what the good people at Fader Fort want. Jeremih plays “Birthday Sex” and the audience reacts in a way that it makes seem it like they enjoy “Birthday Sex” more than actual birthday sex.

Headlining the Fader Fort is electro-funk impresarios Chromeo, aka the self-proclaimed “most successful Jewish-Muslim collaboration ever.” Even though everyone in the concert tent is shoulder to shoulder and butt to butt, we all erupt in cathartic dance when Chromeo belt out “Night by Night.” There aren’t too many acts worthy of being a headliner at the Fader Fort, but Chromeo rises to the challenge and then some. They decimate the audience with 30 straight minutes of the old hits and some new tracks from their upcoming LP, White Women. Then the clock strikes midnight on the Fort and now we all have to face the daunting reality of not being in the Fort. But wait, Chromeo comes back for an encore! Encore finishes. OK, now the Fader Fort is done.

I grab a quick dinner and speed-walk over to Congress Ave, where the entire Heart Break Kids gang are playing, but unfortunately when I get there, there’s a 100-foot line, and from what I can tell, the entire club is packed to brim. Even badge people like myself aren’t being allowed in. I give up on HBK and speed-walk across town again to the Mad Decent Garage shows. Half an hour later I arrive, and there’s a short but extremely slow-moving line. I give up and go meet up with friends at some rave tent with no line.

Turns out, there’s a real good reason there was no line. I’m subjected to blaring and soul-killing dubstep. The filthy and warbled bass jackhammers my very-being. Time to get out of there.

I wander around this part of town looking for my next show, while also being in awe of the massive herd of drunk revelers tripping flyers and empty drink cups.

I then happen upon Cheer Up Charlie’s to catch the end of indie-rockers Merchandise and then indie-poppers Future Islands. I didn’t catch enough of Merchandise to formulate an impression. At this point I’m just happy to be away from the dubstep. Future Islands come on and are the saviors I’ve been waiting for in this post-Fader Fort landscape.

Future Islands

Future Islands’ frontman Samuel T. Herring immediately grabs the crowd with a loud growl, jabbing dance moves, and pointed stares. Every band should have a Samuel T. Herring. His chaotic energy is more infectious than a breakout of pink-eye. He sneers, jumps up and down, and makes disfigured looks on his face for the entire set, and it makes for a surprisingly good complement to Future Islands’ bouncy and sunny pop. I honestly have never seen someone as turned up as this guy. I couldn’t think of a better way to end the day.

Theater Listings: March 12 – 18, 2014

Michael Redmond

March 11, 2014

Stage listings are compiled by Guardian staff. Performance times may change; call venues to confirm. Reviewers are Robert Avila, Rita Felciano, and Nicole Gluckstern. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com.

THEATER

OPENING

Bauer San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post, SF; www.sfplayhouse.org. Previews March 18-21, 8pm. Opens March 22, 8pm. Runs Tue-Thu, 7pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 3pm); March 23 and April 13, 2pm. Through April 19. San Francisco Playhouse presents the world premiere of Lauren Gunderson’s drama about artist Rudolf Bauer.

Twisted Fairy Tales Shelton Theater, 533 Sutter, SF; www.leftcoasttheatreco.org. $15-25. Opens Fri/14, 8pm. Runs Thu-Sat, 8pm. Through April 5. Left Coast Theatre Co. performs the world premiere of seven one-act LGBT-themed plays based on classic children’s stories.

Wrestling Jerusalem Intersection for the Arts, 925 Mission, SF; www.theintersection.org. $20-30. Previews Wed/12-Fri/14, 7:30pm. Opens Sat/15, 7:30pm. Runs Thu-Sat, 7:30pm; Sun, 2pm. Intersection for the Arts presents Aaron Davidman in his multicharacter solo performance piece about Israel and Palestine.

BAY AREA

Arms and the Man Barn Theatre, 30 Sir Francis Drake, Ross; www.rossvalleyplayers.com. $13-26. Previews Thu/13, 7:30pm. Opens Fri/14, 8pm. Runs Thu, 7:30pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm (no show Sun/16). Through April 13. Ross Valley Players perform George Bernard Shaw’s romantic comedy.

ONGOING

Children Are Forever (All Sales are Final!) Stage Werx Theatre, 446 Valencia, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. $15. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Through March 22. Writer-performer and comedian Julia Jackson’s well acted and consistently funny autobiographical solo show details her and her female partner’s attempt to adopt a newborn girl from a young African American mother in Florida. Along the way, Jackson’s smart script details the trials, red tape, and unexpected market incentives in the field of adoption for a same-sex, interracial couple. If the generally involving story nevertheless attenuates a little across its two-act structure, Coke Nakamoto’s precise direction (which builds on original direction by W. Kamau Bell) offers a lively framework for Jackson’s excellent characterizations as well as her frank and interesting commentary on the social, political messiness of certain natural urges. (Avila)

Crystal Springs Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson, SF; www.crystalspringstheplay.com. $20-65. Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through March 23. Eureka Theatre presents Kathy Rucker’s world-premiere drama about parenting in the digital age.

Feisty Old Jew Marsh San Francisco Main Stage, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $25-100. Sat/15, 8pm; Sun/16, 7pm. Charlie Varon performs his latest solo show, a fictional comedy about “a 20th century man living in a 21st century city.”

Foodies! The Musical Shelton Theater, 533 Sutter, SF; www.foodiesthemusical.com. $32-34. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Open-ended. AWAT Productions presents Morris Bobrow’s musical comedy revue all about food.

Hundred Days Z Space, 450 Florida, SF; www.zspace.org. $10-100. Wed and Sun, 7pm; Thu-Sat, 8pm. Through April 6. Married musical duo the Bengsons (Abigail and Shaun) provide the real-life inspiration and guiding rock ‘n’ roll heart for this uneven but at times genuinely rousing indie musical drama, a self-referential meta-theater piece relating the story of a young couple in 1940s America who fall madly in love only to discover one of them is terminally ill. As an exploration of love, mortality, and the nature of time, the story of Sarah and Will (doubled by the Bengsons and, in movement sequences and more dramatically detailed scenes, by chorus members Amy Lizardo and Reggie D. White) draws force from the potent musical performances and songwriting of composer-creators Abigail and Shaun Bengson (augmented here by the appealing acting-singing chorus and backup band that also feature El Beh, Melissa Kaitlyn Carter, Geneva Harrison, Kate Kilbane, Jo Lampert, Delane Mason, Joshua Pollock). Playwright Kate E. Ryan’s book, however, proves too straightforward, implausible, and sentimental to feel like an adequate vessel for the music’s exuberant, urgent emotion and lilting, longing introspection. Other trappings of director Anne Kauffman’s elaborate production (including an inspired set design by Kris Stone that echoes the raw industrial shell of the theater; and less-than-inspired choreography by the otherwise endlessly inventive Joe Goode) can add texture at times but also prove either neutral figures or distracting minuses in conveying what truth and heft there is in the material. Ultimately, this still evolving world premiere has a strong musical beat at its core, which has a palpable force of its own, even if it’s yet to settle into the right combination of story and staging. (Avila)

Lovebirds Marsh San Francisco Studio, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Thu/13-Fri/14, 8pm; Sat/15, 8:30pm. Theater artist and comedian Marga Gomez presents the world premiere of her 10th solo show, described as “a rollicking tale of incurable romantics.”

Mommy Queerest Exit Studio, 156 Eddy, SF; www.divafest.info. $15-25. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Through March 29. Sex scenes in solo shows might sound a little onanistic, but in the right circumstances a door jam or a love seat can serve as a fine co-star. Stand-up comic and actor Kat Evasco demonstrates as much in this raunchy and high-spirited story of her sexual awakening as a lesbian-identifying bisexual, coming out in a household dominated by her closeted mother, a Filipina American drama queen with a long-term female companion she insists is the “gay” one. Presented by Guerrilla Rep and the Exit Theatre’s DIVAfest, and directed by Guerrilla Rep’s John Caldon (who co-wrote the play with Evasco), the story follows a familiar and predictable arc in some ways — familial hypocrisy giving way to inspirational cross-generational understanding — and the characterizations and set-ups (including a family feud on Jerry Springer) come with not always inspired choices. Moreover not all the jokes land where they should in a performance that starts as stand-up but immediately shifts into the style of a solo-play confessional. (A more thoroughgoing subversion of the stand-up format might have produced more complex, less foreseeable results.) At the same time, there’s no denying Evasco’s charm and energy, or her buoyant comedic talent, which makes it easier to forgive the play’s structural shortcomings. (Avila)

“Risk Is This … The Cutting Ball New Experimental Plays Festival” Exit on Taylor, 277 Taylor, SF; www.cuttingball.com. Free ($20 donation for reserved seating). Fri-Sat, 8pm. Through March 29. Five new works in staged readings, including two from Cutting Ball resident playwright Andrew Saito.

The Scion Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $15-60. Thu-Fri, 8pm; Sat, 5pm. Through April 18. In his latest solo show, Brian Copeland (Not a Genuine Black Man; The Waiting Period) explores an infamous crime in his hometown of San Leandro: the 2000 murder of three government meat inspectors by Stuart Alexander, owner of the Santos Linguisa Factory. The story is personal history for Copeland, at least indirectly, as the successful comedian and TV host recounts growing up nearby under the common stricture that “rules are rules,” despite evidence all around that equity, fairness, and justice are in fact deeply skewed by privilege. Developed with director David Ford, the multiple-character monologue (delivered with fitful humor on a bare-bones stage with supportive sound design by David Hines) contrasts Copeland’s own youthful experiences as a target of racial profiling with the way wealthy and white neighbor Stuart Alexander, a serial bully and thug, consistently evaded punishment and even police attention along his path to becoming the “Sausage King,” a mayoral candidate, and a multiple murderer (Alexander died in 2005 at San Quentin). The story takes some meandering turns in making its points, and not all of Copeland’s characterizations are equally compelling. The subject matter is timely enough, however, though ironically it is government that seems to set itself further than ever above the law as much as wealthy individuals or the bogus “legal persons” of the corporate world. The results of such concentrated power are indeed unhealthy, and literally so — Copeland’s grandmother (one of his more persuasive characterizations) harbors a deep distrust of processed food that is nothing if not prescient —but The Scion’s tale of two San Leandrans leaves one hungry for more complexity. (Avila)

Shit & Champagne Rebel, 1772 Market, SF; shitandchampagne.eventbrite.com. $25. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Open-ended. D’Arcy Drollinger is Champagne White, bodacious blond innocent with a wicked left hook in this cross-dressing ’70s-style white-sploitation flick, played out live on Rebel’s intimate but action-packed barroom stage. Written by Drollinger and co-directed with Laurie Bushman (with high-flying choreography by John Paolillo, Drollinger, and Matthew Martin), this high-octane camp send-up of a favored formula comes dependably stocked with stock characters and delightfully protracted by a convoluted plot (involving, among other things, a certain street drug that’s triggered an epidemic of poopy pants) — all of it played to the hilt by an excellent cast that includes Martin as Dixie Stampede, an evil corporate dominatrix at the head of some sinister front for world domination called Mal*Wart; Alex Brown as Detective Jack Hammer, rough-hewn cop on the case and ambivalent love interest; Rotimi Agbabiaka as Sergio, gay Puerto Rican impresario and confidante; Steven Lemay as Brandy, high-end calf model and Champagne’s (much) beloved roommate; and Nancy French as Rod, Champagne’s doomed fiancé. Sprawling often literally across two buxom acts, the show maintains admirable consistency: The energy never flags and the brow stays decidedly low. (Avila)

The Speakeasy Undisclosed location (ticket buyers receive a text with directions), SF; www.thespeakeasysf.com. $70 (gambling chips, $5-10 extra; after-hours admission, $10). Thu-Sat, 7:40, 7:50, and 8pm admittance times. Extended through May 24. Boxcar Theater’s most ambitious project to date is also one of the more involved and impressively orchestrated theatrical experiences on any Bay Area stage just now. An immersive time-tripping environmental work, The Speakeasy takes place in an “undisclosed location” (in fact, a wonderfully redesigned version of the company’s Hyde Street theater complex) amid a period-specific cocktail lounge, cabaret, and gambling den inhabited by dozens of Prohibition-era characters and scenarios that unfold around an audience ultimately invited to wander around at will. At one level, this is an invitation to pure dress-up social entertainment. But there are artistic aims here too. Intentionally designed (by co-director and creator Nick A. Olivero with co-director Peter Ruocco) as a fractured super-narrative — in which audiences perceive snatches of overheard stories rather than complete arcs, and can follow those of their own choosing — there’s a way the piece becomes specifically and ever more subtly about time itself. This is most pointedly demonstrated in the opening vignettes in the cocktail lounge, where even the ticking of Joe’s Clock Shop (the “cover” storefront for the illicit 1920s den inside) can be heard underscoring conversations (deeply ironic in historical hindsight) about war, loss, and regained hope for the future. For a San Francisco currently gripped by a kind of historical double-recurrence of the roaring Twenties and dire Thirties at once, The Speakeasy is not a bad place to sit and ponder the simulacra of our elusive moment. (Avila)

Tipped & Tipsy Marsh Studio Theater, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Sat, 5pm; Sun, 7pm. Through April 6. Solo performer Jill Vice performs her Fringe Festival hit.

The World of Paradox Garage, 715 Bryant, SF; www.paradoxmagic.com. $12-15. Mon, 8pm. Through April 7. Footloose presents David Facer in his solo show, a mix of magic and theater.

Yellow New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness, SF; www.nctcsf.org. $25-45. Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through March 23. Playwright Del Shores (Sordid Lives, Southern Baptist Sissies) returns to his native South — while detouring from previous camp-comedy treatments — with this affirming family drama set in Vicksburg, Miss., about a progressive white couple whose marriage and family are rocked in the wake of their son’s illness. Kate (Dana Zook) and Bobby (Andrew Nance) are celebrating 19 years together. Their oldest son, Dayne (Damion Matthews), is a handsome high school senior and football star; their daughter, Gracie (Ali Haas), is his high-strung younger sister, a drama devotee in more ways than one with plans to be the next Meryl Streep. Gracie’s best friend, Kendall (Maurice André San-Chez), is an effeminate young man with a golden singing voice but a strict fundamentalist mother (Linsay Rousseau) from whom he must hide his plan to join Gracie in the school’s production of Oklahoma. Kendall’s fractured family encourages his tight orbit around Gracie’s — including Dayne, on whom Kendall has an impossible-to-disguise crush — all of whom accept the closeted, innocent youth unequivocally. But when Dayne comes down with a rare liver disease (the title has nothing to do with race, which is not explored here, but references, at a literal level, the sickly color that overcomes Dayne at one point), the seemingly ideal family itself fractures along lines of a deeply buried secret regarding his paternity. Amid their worry for Dayne’s future, and the painful dynamic opened between Kate and Bobby, Kendall’s mother moves in with proselyting zeal, alienating her son to the point of total rejection, but also adding to an already volatile tension between his adoptive parents. Helmed by New Conservatory Theatre Center’s founding artistic director, Ed Decker, the production achieves (after some initial warming up) decent performances across the cast, which, along with Shores’ careful plotting and consistent humor, helps keep this sentimental, somewhat too neat story involving until the end. (Avila)

BAY AREA

Accidental Death of an Anarchist Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison, Berk; www.berkeleyrep.org. $29-99. Opens Wed/12, 8pm. Runs Tue and Thu-Sat, 8pm (no show April 18; additional 2pm shows March 20 and April 17; also Sat, 2pm, but no matinee March 22); Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through April 20. Berkeley Rep presents comic actor Steven Epp in Dario Fo’s explosive political farce, directed by Christopher Bayes,

Bread and Circuses La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, Berk; www.impacttheatre.com. $20-25. Thu-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 7pm. Through April 6. Impact Theatre performs “a cavalcade of brutal and bloody new short plays” by various contemporary playwrights.

Geezer Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston, Berk; www.themarsh.org. $25-50. Thu, 8pm; Sat, 5pm. Through April 26. Geoff Hoyle moves his hit comedy about aging to the East Bay.

The House That Will Not Stand Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison, Berk; www.berkeleyrep.org. $29-59. Wed/12, 7pm; Thu/13-Sat/15, 8pm (also Thu/13 and Sat/15, 2pm); Sun/16, 2 and 7pm. July 4, 1836: As a white New Orleans patriarch (Ray Reinhardt) passes from the scene, under somewhat mysterious circumstances, his longtime mistress, Beartrice (an imposing, memorable Lizan Mitchell), and their daughters (the charmingly varied trio of Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Flor De Liz Perez, and Tiffany Rachelle Stewart) — all free women of color — vie for dominance while trying to secure their respective futures in Berkeley Rep’s sumptuous and beautifully acted world premiere. Nationally acclaimed playwright and Oakland native Marcus Gardley (And Jesus Moonwalked the Mississippi; This World in a Woman’s Hands) brews up a historically rich and revealing, as well as witty and fiery tale here, based on the practice of plaçage (common-law marriages between white men and black Creole women), grounding it in the large personalities of his predominately female characters — who include a nosy and angling intruder (played with subtlety by Petronia Paley) — and lacing it all with a delirious dose of magical realism via the voodoo charms of Beartrice’s slave, Makeda (Harriett D. Foy, who with Keith Townsend Obadike also contributes lush, atmospheric compositions to the proceedings). Gardley delves productively into the history overall, although he sometimes indulges it too much in awkward and ultimately unnecessary expository dialogue. When he allows his characters full scope for expression of their personalities and relationships, however, the dialogue sails by with brio and punch —something the powerhouse cast, shrewdly directed by Patricia McGregor, makes the most of throughout. (Avila)

Lasso of Truth Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller, Mill Valley; www.marintheatre.org. $37-58. Wed/12, 7:30pm;Thu/13-Sat/15, 8pm (also Sat/15, 2pm); Sun/16, 2 and 7pm. Marin Theatre Company performs Carson Kreitzer’s new play about the history of Wonder Woman.

The Lion and the Fox Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant, Berk; www.centralworks.org. $15-28. Thu-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 5pm. Through March 30. Central Works performs a prequel to its 2009 hit, Machiavelli’s The Prince, which depicts a face-off between Niccolo Machiavelli and Cesare Borgia.

The Music Man Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College, Berk; www.berkeleyplayhouse.org. $17-60. Fri and March 20, 7pm; Sat, 1 and 6pm; Sun, noon and 5pm. Through March 23. There’s trouble in River City! See it unfold amid all those trombones at Berkeley Playhouse.

Once On This Island Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield, Palo Alto; www.theatreworks.org. $19-73. Tue-Wed, 7:30pm; Thu-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through March 30. TheatreWorks performs the Tony-nominated musical about a star-crossed love affair in the tropics, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid.

PERFORMANCE/DANCE

Caroline Lugo and Carolé Acuña’s Ballet Flamenco Peña Pachamama, 1630 Powell, SF; www.carolinalugo.com. Sun/16, March 22, 30, April 6, 12, 19, and 30, 6:15pm. $15-19. Flamenco performance by the mother-daughter dance company, featuring live musicians.

Companhia Urbana de Dança Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission, SF; www.ybca.org. Thu/13-Sat/15, 8pm. $25-35. Brazilian dance troupe under the direction of Sonia Destri Lie.

“Dream Queens Revue” Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, 133 Turk, SF; www.dreamqueensrevue.com. Wed/12, 9:30pm. Free. Drag with Collette LeGrande, Ruby Slippers, Sophilya Leggz, Bobby Ashton, and more.

Feinstein’s at the Nikko Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason, SF; www.feinsteinssf.com. This week: Cheyenne Jackson with musical director Ben Toth, Fri/14, 8pm; Sat/15-Sun/16, 7pm, $60-75.

Greg Fitzsimmons Punch Line Comedy Club, 444 Battery, SF; www.punchlinecomedyclub.com. Thu/13, 8pm; Fri/14, 8 and 10pm; Sat/15, 7:30 and 9:30pm. $23.50. The comedian performs.

“The Garden Party” Phoenix Theatre, 414 Mason, SF; www.overcasttheatre.com. Fri/14-Sat/15 and March 19-22, 8pm; Sun/16, 5pm. $11-13. Overcast Theatre performs Václav Havel’s 1963 comedy.

“LEVYdance Presents: The Salon” LEVYstudio, 19 Heron, SF; www.levydance.org. Sat/15, 8:30pm. $10. Performing arts showcase featuring 10 local artists of various disciplines.

“LOL Mondays at OMG” OMG, 43 Sixth St, SF; www.clubomgsf.com. Mon/17, 7pm. Free. Comedy show hosted by Valerie Branch, with featured performers Imran G., Samantha Gilweit, and Barry Fischer, plus an open mic.

“Magic at the Rex” Hotel Rex, 562 Sutter, SF; www.magicattherex.com. Sat, 8pm. Ongoing. $25. Magic and mystery with Adam Sachs and mentalist Sebastian Boswell III.

“The Naked Stage” Bayfront Theater, B350 Fort Mason Center, SF; www.improv.org. Sat, 8pm. Through March 29. $20. BATS Improv performs a completely improvised play.

“New Winter: Winter Choreographers Showcase” Dance Mission Theater, 3316 24th St, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. Fri/14-Sat/15, 8pm. $14. Works by Tika Morgan’s Reggaeton Fusion Performance Workshop, Allan Frias’ Hip-Hop Performance Workshop, Maurice Stokes, Natasha Carlitz Dance Ensemble, and more.

“Paper Wing” NOHspace, 2840 Mariposa, SF; www.theatreofyugen.org. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Through March 22. $15-35. Sculptural costume artist Sha Sha Higby presents a new solo performance.

“Point Break Live!” DNA Lounge, 373 11th St, SF; www.dnalounge.com. April 4, 7:30 and 11pm. $25-50. Dude, Point Break Live! is like dropping into a monster wave, or holding up a bank, like, just a pure adrenaline rush, man. Ahem. Sorry, but I really can’t help but channel Keanu Reeves and his Johnny Utah character when thinking about the awesomely bad 1991 movie Point Break or its equally yummily cheesy stage adaptation. And if you do an even better Keanu impression than me — the trick is in the vacant stare and stoner drawl — then you can play his starring role amid a cast of solid actors, reading from cue cards from a hilarious production assistant in order to more closely approximate Keanu’s acting ability. This play is just so much fun, even better now at DNA Lounge than it was a couple years ago at CELLspace. But definitely buy the poncho pack and wear it, because the blood, spit, and surf spray really do make this a fully immersive experience. (Steven T. Jones)

“Shotz: Featuring a Strong Female Lead” Tides Theatre, 533 Sutter, SF; www.amiosnyc.com. Tue/18, 8pm. $10. Seven plays, five minutes each, created in less than a month, and united under the theme “Featuring a Strong Female Lead.”

“Silenced” and “The CONTACT Project” CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission, SF; www.counterpulse.org. Fri-Sat and March 20, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through March 23. Performance works by Charya Burt and Krista DeNio.

“Sorya! 2014: We Are Still At It” NOHspace, 2840 Mariposa, SF: www.brownpapertickets.com. Sat-Sun, 2pm; Mon, 7pm. Through March 24. Theatre of Yugen presents its 35th anniversary season with a performance by founder Yuriko Doi in the kyogen play Kawakami.

SOULSKIN Dance Joe Goode Annex, 401 Alabama, SF; soulskindance.brownpapertickets.com. Fri/14-Sat/15, 8pm. $20. A multimedia pop culture journey directed by Adrianna Thompson.

“Speechless” Public Works SF, 161 Erie, SF; www.speechlesslive.com. Wed/12, 7:30pm. $20. One-year anniversary special of the PowerPoint-based comedy show.

Stephen Petronio Company Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, 700 Howard, SF; www.sfperformances.org. Fri/14-Sat/15, 7:30pm. $35-50. The company performs the West Coast premiere of Like Lazarus Did.

BAY AREA

“An Evening of Relentless Humor in Multiple Formats from SOB” 142 Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton, Mill Valley; www.142throckmorton.com. Sat/15, 8pm. $25-35. Sketch and improv comedy.

Savion Glover Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium, 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael; www.marincenter.org. Fri/14, 8pm. $20-60. The tap dancer performs his new work, StePz.

“The Ironbound” Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller, Mill Valley; www.marintheatre.org. Mon/17, 7pm. Free. Staged reading of a new play by Martyna Majok.

“MarshJam Improv Comedy Show” Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston, Berk; www.themarsh.org. Fri, 8pm. Ongoing. $10. Improv comedy with local legends and drop-in guests.

“Mortified: March Madness” Uptown, 1928 Telegraph, Oakl; www.getmortified.com. Thu/13, 7:30pm. $20. Also Fri/14, 7:30pm, $21. DNA Lounge, 375 11th St, SF. Fearless storytellers share their most adorably embarrassing childhood writings.

Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir’s Annual Spring Musical First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison, Oakl; www.oigc.org. Sat/15, 7:30pm. Free. OIGC performs spiritual and gospel music under the direction of Terrance Kelly, with special guest Calvin B. Rhone.

“Poetry Express” Himalayan Flavors, 1585 University, Berk; poetryexpressberkeley.blogspot.com. Mon, 7pm. Free. Ongoing. This week: Richard Silberg, plus open mic. Next week: Ambrose Mohler, plus open mic.

“Some Girl(s)” Dragon Theatre, 2120 Broadway, Redwood City; www.dragonproductions.net. Fri/14-Sat/15, 8pm (also Sat/15, 2pm); Sun/16, 2pm. $15. Dragon Theater’s 2nd Stages Program kicks off with this production of Neil LaBute’s dark comedy. *

Freedom of Choice

Steven T. Jones

March 4, 2014

It’s 2:30 on a Thursday afternoon in East Oakland, and on stage in the amphitheater at Castlemont High School, Kev Choice is trying to keep a straight face. Seated behind a keyboard in jeans, a button-down shirt, purple sneakers, and a baseball cap, the musician — who’s been Lauryn Hill’s bandleader, and the go-to keyboard player and sideman for Lyrics Born, Goapele, Michael Franti, Too $hort, and the Coup, among others — is serving as accompaniment today for a slightly different type of artist than usual: There are about 20 of them, for one, performing solo or in small, nervous groups, and they’re all at various stages of puberty.

One young lady sings a respectable SWV cover. Two boys rip wordless electric guitar riffs. Then a young man scream-raps a song about hoes and twerking, to the delight of a dozen or so girls in the front row, and punctuates it by ripping his shirt off — much to the chagrin of his teachers and school administrators (one of whom runs on stage to try to cover him, unsuccessfully, just as the song is coming to a close). In other words, just your average high school talent show.

“I was actually surprised he did that bit,” Choice says of the teenager, laughing, a few hours later. The musician began mentoring at Castlemont just a couple months ago, but he already knows some students pretty well. “He can do other things. He came into class singing one of my songs at me last week. But I think he was maybe trying to impress a certain, you know…demographic.”

As someone who grew up rapping for his friends in the schoolyard, then going home to study Beethoven’s piano sonatas, the pitfalls of trying to appeal to a certain demographic — and the difficulty of not fitting neatly into a given category — is a somewhat familiar topic for Choice. He’s an Oakland native who’s always had one foot firmly in the hip-hop world, and one in the world of academia, classical music, and jazz; it’s a balancing act made all the more delicate by the fact that, regardless of his chops as an emcee or producer, no matter what instruments he plays (and he plays a lot of them), he’s always been known predominantly as a sideman. A talented, hard-working, and in-demand sideman, to be sure, but a sideman nonetheless.

It’s from the side, then, that he’s watched as Oakland has changed around him these past few years. He’s seen First Fridays come and blow up, has quietly observed as rent has nearly doubled around Lake Merritt — where he spent his teenage years, and where he currently lives again — and working-class people move elsewhere. He was there at the Oscar Grant protests, he was in the streets for Trayvon Martin, but he’s not generally one to get on a bullhorn.

All of which is to say that, when Choice’s solo record Oakland Riviera dropped in late January — a warm, lush, ambitious album that swerves fluidly between genres, weaving jazz instrumental interludes named for Oakland streets between tracks of Choice’s dynamic, live-band hip-hop — it sounded distinctly like the work of a man with something to prove. Boasting a guest roster that reads like a who’s who in East Bay music, with rappers from Zion I‘s Zumbi to Mistah F.A.B. to local R&B and jazz greats, the album is a determined step into the limelight, drawing a sprawling yet cohesive map and love letter to the town where Choice grew up — a town that’s changing very quickly or not quickly enough, depending on whom and where you’re asking.

“There’s a lot on this album that I’d been thinking about for a long time, but hadn’t really had the chance to say,” Choice explains during an interview back in his neighborhood, at a shiny new burger joint on Lakeshore Avenue, when I ask about the first track that stood out to me, the upbeat anthem “Shed Light.” It’s built around a John Coltrane tune, with Choice rapping lyrics about the development of Oakland’s Uptown District: “No matter how many fancy restaurants sprout up/the menus don’t cater to the issues around us…tale of two cities, the pretty and the gritty/the welcome and neglected, the prosperous and profitless/we got some issues to address, can’t build up part of the city and neglect the rest.”

“I wanted to showcase the beauty of Oakland, and talk about all the possibilities here, but also the struggles,” he says, noting that the record’s name was inspired by traveling to the south of France recently and, upon returning home, wanting to “take people on a trip here, remind people that Oakland is just as beautiful as some of the most beautiful places in the world.”

“The social activism on the album is just a reflection of what I see going on in my city, things I’ve been hearing about for a long time,” he says. “What does gentrification mean? How do we address the crime rate? How does a black man succeed here, or even just escape the violence, escape police harassment? And what can I say and do as an Oakland native to be a positive influence on that?”

At the moment, what he’s not doing very much of is sleeping. Today he has a two-hour break between mentoring at Castlemont (in one of Oakland’s poorest neighborhoods) and a birthday party downtown for the soul singer Jennifer Johns (whom he’s produced, and who guests on his album) that doubles as a fundraiser for the Creating Sustainability campaign, a new project to help build an economic stability plan for the city. When he gets home sometime after 2 am, he’ll do some work on a record a singer just emailed him about producing, practice some lightning-quick Herbie Hancock licks on the piano, and maybe prep for the Black History Month event he’s part of at Laney College the next day.

Last week he was in Atlanta for a Lauryn Hill show; next week he’ll be in the Pacific Northwest on a quick Coup tour. And 10 minutes ago, an elderly woman with glasses interrupted him while he was eating a turkey burger to chastise him for not returning a CD she loaned him a few weeks back.

“I’m so sorry, I’ve been out of town. I promise!” he says, as she smiles and waves him off. “Reverend E — it’s music she wants me to learn for church,” he explains sheepishly after she’s gone. “I need to do that.” Two other neighbors, a middle-aged man with a little boy, and a 20-something kid with a buzz cut, stop to say hi within the span of half an hour. This section of Lakeshore is basically his living room, he admits; he always winds up stopping to talk to folks: “My daughter doesn’t even like walking down the street with me here on a Saturday.”

Of course, should you ever find yourself needing directions in Oakland, he’d be a good person to run into. Kev Choice — real name: Kevin Choice — has spent roughly 30 of his 38 years in this town. One of two boys raised by a single mother, a secretary, in three different Oakland neighborhoods, he was a precocious kid, he says. At Brookfield Elementary in East Oakland, he skipped the first grade after blowing through the workbooks for the year in a month or so.

“I knew how to focus on education, because my mother stressed that was important,” he says. “I caught a little bit of a hard time for that — I was short, and I was smart. But I just knew what I was supposed to do, and I did things fast.”

In seventh grade at Westlake Middle School, an 11-year-old Choice picked piano class as his elective, and within a few months had learned a Muzio Clementi sonata, practicing rigorously and constantly at home, entirely of his own volition. “I think my family was kind of shocked,” he says. “My mom always had music around the house. She liked early Prince, Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross…but here I was playing Bach, Beethoven. Like, where did this come from?”

Still, all he listened to was hip-hop: Run DMC, A Tribe Called Quest, LL Cool J. He started rhyming around age 13, an art form he quickly found brought him a little more respect from his peers than classical piano. He kept them separate, but he kept at both: He was accepted into the competitive Young Musicians Program for teens at UC Berkeley, and joined the jazz band at Skyline High — all of which led to a full scholarship to study piano at Xavier University in New Orleans, where he moved on his own at 17, and where, at his professors’ urging, he dug into jazz history for the first time. “They kind of politely said ‘You suck,'” he recalls. “‘Now go listen to this Thelonious Monk. Really listen.’ And I did. I’d practice eight, 10 hours a day back then. That’s what gave me the foundation I still stand on today.”

After getting his master’s in piano at Southern Illinois University, he landed back in Oakland in 2000, with seven years of rigorous musical education behind him — and zero job prospects. So he started playing cafe and restaurant gigs with a jazz trio here and there. It was at the Java House in Oakland that the bassist from Spearhead first noticed him and suggested he come audition. Shortly afterward, Choice found himself leaving the US for the first time on tour with Michael Franti, playing for stadiums of 10,000 people. Aside from the basics of how to be a touring musician — “pacing yourself, sleeping on a bus” — Choice watched how Franti dedicated himself to causes, how seamlessly he infused his music with activism.

“He inspired people,” says Choice. “That was the first time I saw that you could be socially conscious, be involved in the community, and be a successful artist. You gotta stand behind what you say — you can’t just say shit and not be willing to live it on the day-to-day basis.”

The tour with Spearhead led to a tour with Goapele; the tour with Goapele led to putting together a band for Lyrics Born, after Lyrics Born decided he wanted to rap with a full band in 2006. And the day after he got fired by Lyrics Born (final straw: missing a flight to Hawaii when they were opening for the Black Eyed Peas), Choice got a call from a producer friend, who informed him he was one of three guys who would be auditioning for Lauryn Hill the following afternoon at a studio in Emeryville.

As it turned out, he was the only one of said guys who could keep up with Hill — who entered and exited the audition without saying a word to any of the musicians — when she started playing guitar in an odd time signature. From that point on, Choice was her bandleader for a year and a half, putting together a live band under her orders out of his musician friends around the Bay. She would text him music to learn in the middle of the night, he says. “Go download this, teach the band this by tomorrow.” Once, she flew him to LA, and sent him to a hotel room where there was a box full of studio equipment waiting. Her instructions: Put together a studio, then go to a record store and buy every Bob Marley CD he could find — she wanted to him to re-create the instrumentals for the bulk of Marley’s catalog.

“Which, on the one hand, why am I in this hotel room trying to remake 30 Bob Marley songs?” he says, laughing. “On the other hand, it felt like a mystical guidance kind of test — ‘Once you do this, I know you’re ready.'” This was 2007, and despite overseeing her band during a tour that would make headlines largely for Hill’s antics (some would say meltdowns), Choice maintains she was crucial to his growth, pushing him and exposing him to Ethiopian and other world music.

“She was hard, but she was also really encouraging,” he says. “She’d say, ‘You have what it takes, but you gotta be sharp at all times. And if you wanna be one of the best, you can’t conform to what other people you think you should do.'”

In the years between leaving Hill’s band and putting out this new record, Choice has been taking steps toward center stage: At the helm of the Kev Choice Ensemble, a jazz-funk-hip-hop band he created with the idea of a modern Duke Ellington in mind, on a handful of solo mixtapes, and on a 2009 record, The Power of Choice, a compilation of his recorded work from the previous five years. But Oakland Riviera represents a true premiere for the musician — an unmistakable coming-out by someone who’s been hustling for a solid decade and a half.

“He has an unstoppable work ethic,” says the Coup’s Boots Riley, of his experiences with Choice. “On tour, he’ll have a keyboard and a laptop in his lap, recording music while we drive in the van. And I don’t know when he sleeps, because then he’ll be up ’til five in the morning in the hotel room fiddling away on the keys, nodding off, waking back up a second before his head is going to fall into the desk, blinking his eyes while waking up, rewinding the recording he was working on, and playing for a few more minutes before nodding off again…and sure enough, each day he’ll have posted a new song on Facebook or wherever, often based on whatever’s been happening.”

“I’ve written maybe 100 songs in my career,” adds Riley. “I’m sure Kev Choice has made 100 songs since October.”

If early reviews are any indication, the 15 that made the cut for this album have the potential to take Choice, as an emcee and as a solo artist, to a new level in the public eye. “This album was, I feel like I could be one of the dopest artists out of the Bay Area, so why not just show people?” he says. His personal life was one driving force. Over the last couple years, both his mother and his best friend/former girlfriend passed away — the latter from cancer, at age 34 — and he realized something. “When you lose the closest people to you, you got nothing really left to lose. Why not get this out? Why not go for it all?”

Part of the story he’s apparently been waiting to tell: a loving portrait of a city whose profile is similarly, if problematically, on the rise.

“When people talk about Oakland as the new, hip place to be — it’s always been that,” he says. “Aside from LA, Oakland is the cultural center of the West Coast. There is so much art here. The music, the history, the politics…but when you start seeing Oakland on lists of top destination spots, why are they saying that? Because there’s a certain amount of five-star restaurants now, or cool little hipster bars?” he says, in the few minutes before he has to leave to head toward Uptown, into the heart of them. “That’s starting to get away from the essence of what Oakland really is, which is about the people.”

“At the same time, there are people within 20-mile radius of us right now who are literally scared to come here. ‘Oh, they’ll shoot you over there, they’ll rob you.’ Look, there is a possibility that will happen,” he says. “There’s also a very real possibility that you’ll meet a very intellectual person and have a great conversation, or go to a club and hear some great music, or walk up the street and see people doing capoeira, doing some crazy, creative shit.

“People block out what Oakland is because of their perception, and perception is everything. If you never spend time here, believe me — it’s something entirely different from what you’d expect.”

Events: March 5 – 11, 2014

Michael Redmond

March 4, 2014

Listings are compiled by Guardian staff. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Selector.

WEDNESDAY 5

Bikes to Books beer and map social Bender’s Bar and Grill, 806 S. Van Ness, SF; www.burritojustice.com. 7-9pm, free. Gather to talk lit history, maps, and urban cycling with like-minded folks.

David Grand City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus, SF; www.citylights.com. 7pm, free. The author reads from Mount Terminus. Also reading: Wesley Stace, author of Wonderkid.

“Twelve Brief Moments: Reading and Publication Launch’ Southern Exposure, 3030 20th St, SF; www.soex.org. 7pm, free. Culminating event of a year-long series of readings by artist Michael Swaine, who performed a short text-based work every month from February 2013 through this event.

THURSDAY 6

“A Curious Menagerie” Creativity Explored Gallery, 3245 16th St, SF; www.creativityexplored.org. Opening reception 7-9pm, free. Exhibit runs through April 16. Over two dozen Creativity Explored artists interpret various members of the animal kingdom, both real and imaginary, in this new gallery show.

“Shipwreck: Wind in the Willows” Booksmith, 1644 Haight, SF; www.booksmith.com. 7:30pm, $10. Six writers “destroy” one great book and character using their literary skills and creative imaginations. This month’s participants include Alan Leggit, Sean Keane, Alitzah Oros, Christopher Steffen, Kate Santos, and one more TBD.

“Urban Air Night Market” SoMa StrEat Food Park, 428 11th St, SF; www.urbanairmarket.com. 5-10pm, free. Ongoing every Thursday. It’s not just food trucks anymore: Urban Air Market brings its array of independent designers, artists, and other vendors for a weekly event at the park.

FRIDAY 7

Anchee Min Books Inc., 1344 Park, Alameda; www.booksinc.net. 7pm, free. The best-selling author (Red Azalea) reads from her long-awaited memoir sequel, The Cooked Seed.

“Quiet Lightning with San Francisco Center for the Book” San Francisco Center for the Book, 375 Rhode Island, SF; www.quietlightning.org. 7:30pm, $7-10. Celebrate the release of a “live literary mixtape,” the latest issue of Sparkle + Blink.

“What Do the Women Say: A Celebration of International Women’s Day” La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck, Berk; www.goldenthread.org. 8pm, $15. Golden Thread’s annual celebration of International Women’s Day features an eclectic array of Middle Eastern female artists, including filmmaker Maryam Keshavarz, comedian Zahra Noorbakhsh, author Ayesha Mattu, and others.

SATURDAY 8

“Babylon Salon” Cantina SF, 580 Sutter, SF; www.babylonsalon.com. 6:30pm, free. With readings by Daniel Alarcon, Katie Crouch, Robin Sloan, Melissa Stein, and Molly Antopol.

“Benefest 2014: Subterranean Arthouse’s Fifth Anniversary Party” Subterranean Arthouse, 2179 Bancroft, Berk; www.subterraneanarthouse.org. 6-11pm, $20-100. The nonprofit, volunteer-run arts venue presents a fundraising night of live music, plus a visual art exhibit and a silent auction.

“In Love and Struggle: A Celebration of International Women’s Day” La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck, Berk; www.lapena.org. 7:30pm, $10-15. Hip-hop and spoken word performance, plus a dance party, to benefit Berkeley Copwatch.

“Pretty in Ink: North American Women Cartoonists 1896-2013” San Francisco Main Library, Fourth Flr, 100 Larkin, SF; www.sfpl.org. Exhibit runs through June 5. Photos, letters, comic books, artwork, and more highlight this exhibition showcasing female cartoonists past and present.

“World Naked Bike Ride: San Francisco Southern Hemisphere Edition” Justin Herman Plaza, One Market, SF; facebook.com/wnbrsf. 11am, free. Back for its fifth year, this “as bare as you dare” ride propels packs of naked or nearly-naked cyclists through Fisherman’s Wharf, the Embarcadero, and other popular spots to draw attention to the dangers of global dependency on oil. Don’t forget the SPF!

SUNDAY 9

Philip B. Choi Eastwind Books of Berkeley, 2066 University, Berk; www.asiabookcenter.com. 3pm, free. The architect and Chinese American studies pioneer discusses San Francisco Chinatown: A Guide to Its History and Architecture.

MONDAY 10

Julian Hoffman Booksmith, 1644 Haight, SF; www.booksmith.com. 7:30pm, free. The author reads from Being at Home in a Beckoning World.

TUESDAY 11

Clifford Chase Magnet, 4122 18th St, SF; www.booksinc.net. 7:30pm, free. The author of Winkie reads from his new memoir, The Tooth Fairy: Parents, Lovers, and Other Wayward Deities.

D. Foy City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus, SF; www.citylights.com. 7pm, free. The author reads from his new novel, Made To Break.

Shaham Mufti Booksmith, 1644 Haight, SF; www.booksmith.com. 7:30pm, free. The author discusses The Faithful Scribe: A Story of Islam, Pakistan, Family, and War.

“Edith Wharton at Home: Life at the Mount” Koret Auditorium, de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr, Golden Gate Park, SF; deyoung.famsf.org. 7:15-9pm, $15. American Decorative Arts Forum of Northern California presents this talk about Edith Wharton and her “autobiographical house” by Richard Guy Wilson. *

Synthesizers, saxophones, and one African grey parrot: The Other Minds music festival is a magnet for the avant-garde

Steven T. Jones

February 26, 2014

Synthesizers, saxophones, and one African grey parrot: The Other Minds music festival is a magnet for the avant-garde

By Micah Dubreuil

When Charles Amirkhanian was 5 years old, he received a John Cage record as a gift from his father. It was a mistake — the elder Amirkhanian had taken it to be an album of traditional Armenian music, their cultural heritage. Instead, young Charles was introduced to a sound that was anything but traditional, and in that music for prepared piano, he found a life’s calling. Some 60-odd years later, the director of the Other Minds festival — the West Coast’s premiere experimental music event, now in its 19th incarnation — points to that accident as a fairly fortuitous one.

Music is everywhere. Not just in the headphones mashed in every pocket, but in the sounds and systems of the world around us, from raindrops and birdcalls to trains and electronic circuits. That might, at first, sound overly lofty — but this concept has been a driving force for, among other things, hip-hop, arguably the dominant form of popular music over the last few decades. The impulse to investigate these sounds in unconventional and inventive ways has been equally significant in what’s usually called avant-garde, experimental, or simply “new” music. Other Minds 19 will celebrate this music Feb. 28 and March 1, when the festival takes over the SFJAZZ Center for the first time. Nine composers, all with ties to Northern California, will present works that aim to explore and reveal the world of sound through a variety of mediums, including wildly futuristic synthesizers, saxophones of unusual proportion, and one African grey parrot.

Of course, as more mainstream music has evolved over the course of the past two decades, so has the meaning of “avant-garde,” says Amirkhanian; much of what was once considered radical has become ubiquitous. “Now that everybody has the ability to use GarageBand, and can take a sample of something and turn it into a hi-hat cymbal, I don’t know if [needing to introduce avant-garde] is really a problem anymore,” he says. While some pieces in the festival could be seen as quite challenging, the goal is “to surprise people pleasantly rather than violently” with what Amirkhanian calls “revealationary” as opposed than “revolutionary” new music.

Wendy Reid, with Lulu

Composer Wendy Reid, a lecturer at Mills College in Oakland, has always been fascinated by natural processes and the beauty of bird song. She takes a direct route to revealing these sounds: She writes and performs with Lulu, an African grey parrot.

“I love birds,” says Reid simply. “They’re the greatest musicians that we have.” African grey parrots, in particular, are considered by many to be the most intelligent birds in the world. They can live more than 50 years, and have been known to carry out conversations with humans (not in the wild, presumably). Reid has always had birds as pets, or “family members,” as she likes to think of them. She records the birds’ songs, improvises along to the recordings, and composes bird-like sounds in order to engage Lulu, who responds as she feels fit.

Lulu is, to be sure, not a trained musician. She does not have notated parts or learned responses, and Reid stresses that this is “not a circus act” — to train or direct Lulu would compromise the natural musical responses that Reid finds so fascinating. “I let [the birds] be who they are; they are their best that way. People are their best that way, too.”

The festival is named, in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek manner, after an obituary of John Cage, wherein the author dismissively wrote that Cage “[merely] created music in other people’s minds.” (If you’ve heard of any avant-garde composer, you’ve heard of Cage. Philip Glass might be a close second, and he performed at the first Other Minds in 1993). Cage’s wide-ranging musical interests set a precedent that persists through this program. From Mark Applebaum’s sound sculptures, to Charles Celeste Hutchins’ live-generated digital projections (produced by self-developed software), to Myra Melford’s solo piano performance (seemingly old-fashioned in this context, though it will sound nothing of the sort), the festival’s intentionally non-thematic lineup covers an enormous variety of work. If ours are the “other minds” in question, they will be kept quite busy.

Roscoe Mitchell

Widely referred to as an “American iconoclast,” living saxophone legend and prolific composer Roscoe Mitchell will present his composition Nonaah, arranged for four bass saxophones. If you’ve never heard or seen a bass saxophone, you’re not alone: it’s a rarely used instrument, larger then the more common baritone sax and with a deeper range, a full octave below the tenor. “One of the aspects of music that engages me is the sound, and the desire to know how all music works,” Mitchell says of his penchant for performing on unusual woodwinds. Nonaah itself is a composition that dates back to 1976, when Mitchell performed it on solo alto saxophone for an initially skeptical crowd in Europe. He thoroughly won the room, and has been exploring the piece ever since.

“When I first imagined this work for alto saxophone, I had no idea that this composition would take on a life of its own,” Mitchell says. After arranging the piece for alto sax quartet, he went on to write a completely notated version for four cellos, followed by flute, bassoon and piano, chamber orchestra, orchestra, and now bass saxophone quartet. Multiple doctoral theses have been written on Nonaah, and Mitchell is currently planning on writing a book about it. “For me it’s a kind of musical journey — it starts out a piece for alto saxophone, and now it’s a piece for full orchestra.” [See a video of Mitchell performing at a recent Exploratorium series below.]

Mitchell’s is not the only journey that leads to Other Minds 19. The festival’s line-up includes Donald Buchla, a prolific creator and founding father of sound synthesis who will be presenting the U.S. premiere of his composition Drop by Drop, as well as Joseph Byrd, one of the earliest adopters of synthesizers in rock ‘n’ roll. The entire program, in fact, is filled with either giants of the field or emerging stars.

Don Buchla

Yes, there will also be animals, instruments you’ve never seen before, and electronic controllers that may well remind you more of Star Trek than a concert hall. But, as Wendy Reid says, this is not a circus act: These are composers and improvisers pushing the boundaries of serious music. “There’s a thirst among maybe 2 percent of the population to hear this music,” says Amirkhanian, but the people in this dedicated group hail from every corner of the globe — and, as young Charles personally discovered, from every demographic.

Other Minds 19
Fri/28 – Sat/1, 7pm discussion and 8pm concert both nights
$25 – $65
SFJazz Center
201 Franklin, SF
www.sfjazz.org
www.otherminds.org

Noise Pop goes electronic: The indie rock festival continues branching into booty-shaking territory

Steven T. Jones

February 26, 2014

By Whitney Phaneuf

Over the course of its 22 years, the Noise Pop Festival has expanded its definition of indie beyond rock and into genres like hip-hop and electronic music. The festival had to evolve with its audience’s eclectic tastes, its general manager Dawson Ludwig explained in a recent interview, without sacrificing the aesthetic that celebrates alternative, DIY culture.

“As the term indie rock has expanded and been redefined, it’s opened itself up to mean a lot of things,” Ludwig said. “Those who buy tickets to Bob Mould are just as likely to buy tickets to DJ Rashad.”

Ludwig said the litmus test is often what music gets played at the Noise Pop offices. One of this year’s headlining electronic acts, the London-based duo Digital Mystikz, has been on heavy rotation. Although they’re considered a pioneer of dubstep, their interpretation of the genre is much more dark and difficult. The remainder of the electronic lineup is as far-flung and experimental. Here are our top five picks:

Matthew Dear Presents Audion Live: Subverticul
The New York-based producer Matthew Dear is responsible for some of the most innovative dance music of the past decade — as a solo artist, under multiple aliases, and as the co-founder of an independent record label. When Dear was still in college, he started the Ghostly International label (the home to another artist on the lineup, Com Truise) and began releasing his own albums. As Audion, he produced dance-floor friendly songs inspired by hard-hitting Detroit techno, but took a break in 2009 to focus on his avant-pop solo efforts. Dear revived Audion late last year, dropping the singles “Motormouth” and “Sky” and promising a new album in the spring. Those who attend his Noise Pop show will be among the first to hear the new album in its entirety and witness his ambitious new live show. Collaborating with the design team behind Amon Tobin’s groundbreaking ISAM tour visuals, Dear said on his Facebook page that “it is equal parts kaleidoscopic light and LED show, as it is a moving visual sculpture.” You’ll have to be there to understand exactly what that means.
Wed/26, 7pm, $20
Mighty
119 Utah, SF
www.mighty119.com

Digital Mystikz
At a time when dubstep is a dirty word among music snobs, groups like Digital Mystikz prove that there’s plenty of creativity in the genre. In the early 2000s, when Mala and Coki started making music from classic dub (a subgenre of reggae), their odd rhythms and sinister basslines sounded like nothing else at the time. That’s still true today, even as countless producers have tried to emulate their sparse, almost meditative style. The duo is highly revered in London club circles, where they built a name doing shows that boast massive sound systems, but little spectacle aside from a strobe light. They’ll bring that same underground sensibility to their rare US appearance at Noise Pop. Bring earplugs.
Thu/27, 10pm, $17.50
1015 Folsom
1015 Folsom, SF
www.1015.com

Com Truise
If his name doesn’t give you a hint — a spoonerism of Tom Cruise — Com Truise is obsessed with the ’80s. Brooklyn-based producer Seth Haley (Com’s real name) uses analog synthesizers to achieve a sound that belongs on a sci-fi film soundtrack. Appropriately, in 2011, he was tapped by Daft Punk to remix a song on its TRON: Legacy soundtrack. His recent live sets have featured remixes of Sky Ferreira, Twin Shadow, and Neon Indian and music from his entire catalog, including his latest EP, Wave 1, which strikes a balance between chilled-out atmospherics and funky four-to-the-floor booty shakers.
Thu/27, 9pm, $20
Mezzanine
444 Jessie St, SF
www.mezzaninesf.com

Scene Unseen III with Majical Cloudz and Mr. Carmack
Less is more when it comes to Montreal synth duo Majical Cloudz, which layers delicate synths, loops, and samples to create emotionally resonant music. The mood is further set by Devon Welsh’s baritone vocals and personal lyrics about mortality and loss. Unlike many electronic acts who excel more in the studio, Majical Cloudz’s live sets crackle with intensity and spontaneity. On the lighter side of dance music, Mr. Carmack combines his love of hip-hop, house music, and heavy bass into a versatile sound all his own.
Fri/28, 9pm, free with RSVP
1015 Folsom
1015 Folsom, SF
www.1015.com

Cold Cave
Musician Wesley Eisold has been producing darkwave under the moniker Cold Cave since 2007 — long before it was cool again to be goth. His pop instincts have earned him comparisons to Depeche Mode and New Order, but his influences also span hardcore, industrial, and noise. For his live performances — usually as a duo — Eisold delivers high-energy vocals over live percussion and ’80s-style synths. It’s a deceptively simple set-up that yields a big, brooding sound.
Fri/28, 8pm, $16
Slim’s
333 11th St, SF
www.slimspresents.com

This Week’s Picks: February 26 – March 4, 2014

Michael Redmond

February 25, 2014

WEDNESDAY 26

Fresh and Onlys

Yeah, Ty Segall moved to LA and Thee Oh Sees are on an indefinite hiatus, but chin up! The Fresh and Onlys aren’t going anywhere. Keeping the SF garage rock scene alive, these hometown heroes are tireless, performing almost constantly around the city since their inception in 2008. Sure, you’ve seen ’em before and you’ll probably see ’em again, but this is prime: headlining the city’s greatest (and most fitting) down n’ dirty rock club as a part of Noise Pop, the city’s greatest (and most affordable!) arts festival. And if you haven’t seen ’em before, get on it! These dudes can write a catchy tune with just the right amount of melancholy like nobody’s business. (Haley Zaremba)

With Sandy’s

8pm, $14

Brick and Mortar Music Hall

1710 Mission, SF

(415) 800-8782

www.brickandmortarmusic.com

THURSDAY 27

Com Truise

It is only fitting that Com Truise embarks on a national tour at the same time the new RoboCop film is in movie theaters. Both the electronic funk producer and the futuristic peace officer are products of the ’80s, borrow heavily from the era, rely on shiny technological weaponry, and owe a shout-out to Michigan. Since 2010, Ann Arbor’s trendy Ghostly International label has championed Truise’s artistic exploits, including the shimmering Wave 1 EP released this year. Truise concocts muddled, vintage, bass-heavy synthwave, the type of emphatic sound that might arise if Joy Division or New Order were selected for RoboCop reprogramming. (Kevin Lee)

With Phantoms, Kauf, DJ Dials

9pm, $19

Mezzanine

444 Jessie, SF

(415) 625-8880

www.mezzaninesf.com

Jel

Forget the music, watching Jel repeatedly punch drum machine pads and twist sampler knobs on bulky, last-gen machinery would be worth the price of admission. The East Bay-based electronic hip-hop producer manages to keep his appendages intact while stabbing out a dizzying array of kick drums, snares and percussion in ever-shifting breakbeat arrangements and tempos. On his latest LP, Late Pass (Anticon), Jel balances bass with shoegaze melodies, hints of psychedelia, electric guitar chords and some of his own emceeing. In line with the political undertones throughout the album (“Don’t get comfortable,” the title track advises), this show marks the two-year anniversary of the San Francisco Patient and Resource Center, a medical cannabis nonprofit. (Lee)

With Maus Haus, Grown Kids Radio DJs

7pm-10 pm, free (RSVP required for non-Noise Pop badge holders)

Sparc

1256 Mission, SF

(415) 252-7727

www.sparcsf.org

FRIDAY 28

Bleached

It won’t surprise anyone to learn that Bleached’s Clavin sisters are longtime friends of Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino. Bleached dishes out the same brand of blissed-out, beach-blonde pop morsels that has been pouring out of Southern California (San Fernando Valley, in the Clavins’ case) for the past few years. This isn’t to say that there’s nothing special about this sister act: The Clavins have an amazing aptitude for earworms and feel-good noises paired with feel-bad lyrics, and Bleached’s recent debut album establishes that the band is not to be dismissed as one of the crowd — the sisters have been sneaking into punk shows and honing their musical chops for years, and it shows. (Zaremba)

With Terry Malts, Mystic Braves, Tropical Popsicle

8:30pm, $15

Rickshaw Stop

155 Fell, SF

(415) 861-2011

www.rickshawstop.com

Other Minds Festival

What do jazz saxophone legend Roscoe Mitchell, experimental composer Joseph Byrd, and an African grey parrot have in common? They’re all sharing a bill at the 19th annual Other Minds Festival, a two-day celebration of avant-garde music, taking place for the first time at the SFJAZZ Center. This year’s festival also includes performances by award-winning pianist Myra Melford, the premiere of synthesizer superstar Donald Buchla’s Drop by Drop, and a specially commissioned performance of Roscoe Mitchell’s Nonaah for four bass saxophones — a rare instrument in its own right. The LA Times calls this the “West Coast’s premier festival of new music,” so if you’re not afraid to get a little out there, this is the place to be. (Emma Silvers)

8pm, Fri/28 – Sat/1, $25-$65

SFJAZZ Center

201 Franklin, SF

(866) 920-5299

www.otherminds.org

SATURDAY 1

James Bond

While most people are probably familiar with James Bond as a character from the film and literary worlds, the iconic spy has also had his danger- and damsel-filled missions and adventures featured in comics and newspaper strips around the globe. Suit up and join Alan J. Porter, author of the book James Bond: The History of the Illustrated 007, for a discussion and slideshow highlighting the secret agent’s other realm of action. Cartoon Art Museum chairman Ron Evans and artist Mike Capozzola will host this evening’s festivities, which will also include a look at vintage Bond memorabilia, prizes, an auction, and of course, martinis — shaken, not stirred, naturally. (Sean McCourt)

7:30-9:30pm, $7

Cartoon Art Museum

655 Mission St, SF

(415) CAR-TOON

www.cartoonart.org

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.

Perhaps Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. should transition into full-time DJ work. On one track of their new (and free to download) mixtape Produce Vol. 1, indie rockers Joshua Epstein and Daniel Zott cheekily layer vocals from both the Notorious BIG and the Beach Boys over 16-bit video game beats, creating an unexpected and playful mashup. “Beach Blanket Biggie” epitomizes the irreverent approach and wide-ranging musical influences of the Detroit-based duo. Their sophomore LP The Speed of Things (Warner Bros. Records) collects bright vocals, moody folk, electronically shifted acoustic samples, and a splash of uptempo synth-pop, as evidenced by the recent single “If You Didn’t See Me [Then You Weren’t On The Dancefloor]”. (Lee)

With Chad Valley

9 pm, $20

The Fillmore

1805 Geary, SF

(415) 346-6000

www.thefillmore.com

Afrika Bambaataa

Without Afrika Bambaataa, hip-hop as we know it would not have existed; he is credited for coining the term “hip-hop” back in 1982, more than three decades ago. That same year, Bambaataa released his seminal single “Planet Rock,” a daring electrofunk track featuring vocoders and synthesizers that transformed rap and electronic music genres. Part of the hip-hop patriarch’s staying power can be attributed to the connections he fostered in the ’70s and ’80s, when he hosted gatherings to promote peace and social change, and shaped a generation of artists. Continuing to DJ and produce tracks that mix funk, breaks, fusion, and rock also helps to ensure fans that hip-hop’s godfather isn’t going anywhere. (Lee)

With DJ Jahi

10:30 pm, $26

Yoshi’s San Francisco

1330 Fillmore, SF

(415) 655-5600

www.yoshis.com/sanfrancisco

SUNDAY 2

SF History Expo

With the city by the Bay going through yet another period of transformation, now is the perfect time to look back on its incredible history and learn some of the stories that shaped the modern metropolis we know and love today. The 2014 San Francisco History Expo will feature more than 50 exhibitors creating special “mini-museums” and booths onsite, along with a variety of presentations, films, displays, and more — all taking place at the Old Mint, one of the few buildings to survive the earthquake and fire of 1906. (Sean McCourt)

$5, 11am-5pm Sat, 11am-4pm Sun

The Old Mint 88 5th St, SF

www.sfhistoryexpo.org

Isness Productions Presents First Sundays Yoga

Who’s trying to get downward dog tonight? For those who like to get down on the dance floor as well as on their yoga mats, head to the Regency for an evening of yoga, live music, organic food, eco-vending and holistic healing. Isness Productions’ Scott Franklin Manning has been using music as a healing power and a means to break down barriers since the ’90s, but this event marks the grand opening of his First Sundays gatherings. Practice yoga with two Yoga Tree instructors, Laura Burkhart and writer/spiritual man-about-town Mark Morford, with an electronic soundtrack by DJ Little John. Later on, DJ Garth will start the dance party, followed by an all-vinyl set by Wicked Sound System. The all-ages event will also feature a yoga class for kids and holistic activities from tarot reading to collective chair massages and an organic tea and raw chocolate lounge. As if it couldn’t get anymore wholesome, 100 percent of the proceeds fund school garden projects in San Francisco. (Laura B. Childs)

3pm – 9pm, $35

The Regency

1290 Sutter, SF

www.firstsundays.com

Murder in Pigalle launch party with Cara Black

French private investigator (and magnet for trouble) Aimée Leduc is back at it again in Murder in Pigalle. San Francisco Library Laureate and best-selling author Cara Black celebrates her latest installment in the French mystery series with a book reading and signing. Inspired by a true-crime story during the summer of 1998, Murder in Pigalle follows Aimée Leduc as she tries to slow down her hectic lifestyle — until a serial rapist wreaks havoc on Paris’ Pigalle neighborhood. When the criminal strikes too close to home, Aimée can’t help but become involved. The suspense will leave you au bout de souffle. (Childs)

3pm, free

Books Inc. at Laurel Village

3515 California, SF

www.booksinc.net

MONDAY 3

Marshall Elementary School Second Annual Best Tamales Contest

There are few Central American delicacies as exceptional as the tamale. Wrapped up like a present, the masa dish can be filled with gooey cheeses, spiced meats, or an assortment of veggies. But what makes a tamale the best tamale? Marshall Elementary School is a on a quest to find el major tamale de la Mission. After its immense success last year, the tamale contest will once again bring the community together to help raise money for the underfunded school. Parents of students and the school’s Mission neighbors will cook up a variety of homemade tamales based on their places of origin, ranging from the Yucatan to right here in San Francisco. Expect tastes from many other regions of Mexico and Latin America as well! (Childs)

6pm – 8pm, $30

Roosevelt Tamale Parlor

2817 24th St, SF

TUESDAY 4

Tosca

Tosca is the sound you hear in a dimly-lit lounge, resplendent with plush velvet seats and sensual wisps of scented candle smoke. Austrian downtempo luminaries Richard Dorfmeister and Rubert Hubert make a rare foray this side of the Atlantic with a six-stop trip through North America. Sophomore studio album Suzuki (!K7 Recordings) remains a gold standard in the lounge music genre, as refreshingly lush and catchy today as when it was released at the turn of the millennium. Their newest LP, Odeon, is a vocal-laden voyage that entices listeners through layered atmospherics and dramatic tones. This live performance will feature the longtime pair alternating between piano and electronics, accompanied by vocalists and visuals from Austria’s Ars Electronica Futurelab. (Lee)

With Cath Coffey and Robert Gallagher

8pm, $35

The Independent

628 Divisadero, SF (415) 771-1421

www.theindependentsf.com

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Doin’ it in the dark

Michael Redmond

February 25, 2014

SUPER EGO “If people want to accuse me of being a heteronormative queer assimilationist, they can come to my traveling amateur porn film festival and say it to my face!”

That’s Dan Savage — spunky sex columnist, “It Gets Better” maestro, and editor of Seattle’s the Stranger — calling me on the way to the airport. He’s flying the friendly skies for the nationwide Hump Tour (coming Fri/28 and Sat/1 to the Roxie Theater in SF, humptour.strangertickets.com), which is giving the Stranger’s notorious — and notoriously successful — annual homemade skin flick competition more, er, exposure.

In fact, the Hump Tour reminds me a little of the hilarious Sodomy Bus from Michael Moore’s 1990s TV show, filling the hills and crevices of America with resounding squeals and joyful bangs. Of course, the Sodomy Bus deliberately targeted anti-gay areas to make a political point — back when sodomy was still illegal, remember then? Whereas the Hump Tour projects handcrafted erotica with titles like Rumpy Pumpy (“an animated starter with funny, floppy dicks”), D&D Orgy (“roll for experience as the dungeon master’s fantasy game gets extremely real”) and Go Fuck Yourself (“one man time travels to save the world and fuck himself. Then things get complicated”) onto big screens in major cities with a side of popcorn. You can’t get more cuddly-quaint than that, no?

“I’m actually kind of worried about coming to San Francisco, though,” Savage said with an emphatic laugh. “Here I am, with my monogamish husband, editing this severely liberal paper and writing a sex column, my schedule full of porn, and I always feel like I’m going to be attacked for not being radical enough for SF, because I spoke out for same-sex marriage and other things.” I didn’t have the heart to tell him how much things have changed here — our overheated scandal du jour is over a queer club in Oakland politely asking straight people not to come because it’s too crowded, sigh.

So, what are the benefits of touring the country with a suitcase full of funny, irreverent, poignant, crude, and sweet stag films? “I’m at the point now where I’ve been writing about sex for so long that people mob me after each screening to say how they grew up reading me, how they would sneak my column into their bedroom, how I convinced them to try some things. And now I’ve enticed them to come see some porn with their friends and family. That’s kind of funny.”

Meanwhile, his stacked hubby has become a fixture on Seattle’s underground queer dance scene — does Dan ever hit the dance floor with him? “I usually hide in my room and write. It would never work if we were into the same things. You need some difference for that spark that makes you want to screw each other rather than just be each other.”

We’ll forgive you, Dan. Just keep the smut coming.

AUDION

Techno heartthrob Matthew Dear’s dirtier, funkier alter ego Audion steps back into the limelight with what’s said to be an insane visual experience for this tour. (The team behind Amon Tobin’s mindblowing ISAM tour designed it.)

Wed/26, doors at 7pm, show at 8pm, $20, all ages. Mighty, 119 Utah, SF. www.mighty119.com

DIGITAL MYSTIKZ

Dark south London dubstep visionaries Mala and Coki drop in for Noisepop to school the kids on beautiful angst and swooping boom. With Chicago juke kingpin DJ Rashad.

Thu/27, 10pm, $17.50–$20. 1015 Folsom, SF. www.1015.com

DANNY TENAGLIA

Danny’s been spinning for 30 years and has become the elder statesperson when it comes to dance music in America. But the mixes! Oh, the mixes. He’s a master of creating a roiling, huge-room groove, bending the sound of each track toward a glimmering whole. Most DJs give you crap about how they “take you on a journey” — Danny actually delivers. A four-hour set with Nikita and John Kaberna supporting.

Fri/28, 9pm-4am, $25–$30. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com

DJ SPUN

Wickedly good NYC house player headlines a Rong label showcase with local heads Corey Black of 40 Thieves, Jeffrey Sfire of Ghostly International, and — woot! — DJ Ken Vulsion, finally out of retirement and ready to enchant.

Fri/28, 9pm-3am, $10. F8, 1192 Folsom, SF. www.feightsf.com

RIOT GRR

This is a monthly Riot Grrrl tribute night at the bear bar. So perfect. February’s installment celebrates Carrie Brownstein, right after the new “Portlandia” season debuts, and we think how happy we are for her success, but please get on that Sleater-Kinney reunion already. With DJs Crowderism and Jimmy Swear.

Fri/28, 8pm, free. Lone Star Saloon, 1354 Harrison, SF. www.lonestarsf.com

JOHN TEJADA

The magic techno man from LA is a smooth, smart beast on decks, laying on the pulsing rhythms and subterranean energy. He’s at the Night Moves party with Shiny Objects and Brother in Arms, the nifty new “slo-mo deep house” collab from hometown heroes Deejay Theory and J-Boogie.

Fri/28, 9pm-4am, $20. Monarch, 101 Sixth St, SF. www.monarchsf.com

RESONATE

Killer broken bass sounds at this regular party, bringing Low End Theory’s DJ Nobody and IZWID Records’ Esgar to the tables, along with the heady Slayers Club crew supporting. It’s a release party for one of my favorite local basshead Joe Mousepad’s new EP, too.

Fri/28, 9pm-3am, $5–$10. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com

AFRIKA BAMBAATAA

You could do way worse than to jam out to “World Destruction,” this hip-hop god’s legendary 1984 collaboration with the Sex Pistols’ John Lydon, while you’re applying your mascara in the evening. Or do the dip to “Planet Rock” when you take it off the next morning. Zulu Nation has you covered round the clock.

Sat/1, 10:30pm, $26, 18+. Yoshi’s SF,1330 Fillmore, SF. www.yoshis.com

Gimme 5: Must-see shows this week (Noise Pop edition)

Steven T. Jones

February 24, 2014

Gimme 5: Must-see shows this week (Noise Pop edition)

Like sands through the hourglass, so are the festivals of San Francisco. Or something like that. SF Beer Week is over, dear readers, but fret not! It’s the end of February, which is undoubtedly the cruelest month, no matter what T.S. Eliot said, when the darkest days of winter (in places that have that season) are finally over, and the first blossoms of spring are testing their sea legs like so many trepidatious Bambis. In these parts, that means one thing: Noise Pop is upon us.

This the year NP turns 22, so the festival is definitely old enough to hang with the big kids. And there are indeed some big kids in this year’s lineup — Lord Huron, Real Estate, and Dr. Dog, to name a few. But our favorite part about this festival is what it means for up-and-coming Bay Area acts, for whom playing Noise Pop is something of a rite of passage. We’ll be highlighting a few of our favorites over the course of this week, but for now, here are some suggestions for places to show some local pride. As per usual, the tightly-packed schedule presents some tough choices — so yes, we know there are more than five options here. Life’s tough. T.S. Eliot got that one right.

Wed/26

Papercuts and Vetiver @ The Chapel
This is a dreamy package deal if I’ve ever seen one. Papercuts‘ Jason Robert Quever’s melodic, melancholy sighs have never sounded as subtlely polished as on his upcoming album, Life Among the Savages, his first for the brand-new LA-based label Easy Sound Recording Co. Labelmates and fellow San Franciscans Vetiver‘s breezy folk-pop is music for a spur-of-the-moment afternoon drive up the coast. Throw in San Diego opener The Donkeys and you’ve got yourself the sonic landscape of a California we’re in the habit of relegating to car commercials where someone in the passenger seat is grinning and sticking their hand out the window playfully, a California where everyone’s fresh-faced and it never rains. Noise Pop-goers, you can have it all! Especially that last part.
With EDJ, and Vinyl selections by Britt Govea
8pm, $18
The Chapel
777 Valencia, SF
www.thechapelsf.com

(Plan B: Strange Vine/French Cassettes at Bottom of the Hill, or CCR Headcleaner/Skate Laws at Benders)

Thu/27

Jel @ Sparc
Forget the music, watching Jel repeatedly punch drum machine pads and twist sampler knobs on bulky, last-gen machinery would be worth the price of admission. The East Bay-based electronic hip-hop producer manages to keep his appendages intact while stabbing out a dizzying array of kick drums, snares, and percussion in ever-shifting breakbeat arrangements and tempos. On his latest LP, Late Pass (Anticon), Jel balances bass with shoegaze melodies, hints of psychedelia, electric guitar chords and some of his own emceeing. In line with the political undertones throughout the album (“Don’t get comfortable,” the title track advises), this show marks the two-year anniversary of the San Francisco Patient and Resource Center, a medical cannabis nonprofit. — Kevin Lee
7pm, free (RSVP req. for non badge-holders)
Sparc
1256 Mission, SF
www.sparcsf.org

(Plan B: Social Studies, Aan, Farallons, Max and the Moon at the New Parish)

Fri/28

Painted Palms, Dirty Ghosts, Happy Fangs @ Slims
Sure, Cold Cave is technically the headliner, but calling these three local bands supporting acts just seems wrong. SF duo Painted Palms are the darlings du jour of the psych-rock world, for good reason — Forever, released just last month, is one of the most lush, layered debut albums we’ve heard in a while. Dirty Ghosts‘ Allyson Baker is a frontwoman and a half, drawing from punk, blues, experimental rock, and electronica, and the band has promised a new record in 2014, so we wouldn’t be surprised to hear some fresh material. And Happy Fangs, featuring boundless, rough-around-the-edges, sweet n’ salty energy from former members of My First Earthquake and King Loses Crown, will be playing their first show with a live drummer (check back here for a Q&A with them later this week).
7pm, $16
Slim’s
333 11th St, SF
www.slimspresents.com

(Plan B: Soft White Sixties/The She’s at the Chapel, Bleached/Terry Malts at the Rickshaw Stop)

Sat/1

Black Map, Free Salamander Exhibit, Lasher Keen, Happy Diving @ Bottom of the Hill
Yes, there’s a lot going on Saturday night. No, you shouldn’t go see that band you’ve seen a million times before. If you’re in the mood to get super-heavy and excellently weird, this is a solid lineup of newish Bay Area talent running the gamut from Black Map‘s epic, guitar-driven, smart-art-rock-meets-anthemic-metal sound to upstart Happy Diving‘s soft-grunge-leaning, head-bobbing power pop. Lasher Keen’s earthly psychedelia seems to be from another century, you just can’t tell if it’s the future or the past — we’re pretty sure they’d say that’s a good thing. And Free Salamander Exhibit is, of course, the new project from former members of the elaborately theatrical, cultishly loved experimental noise-rock outfit Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Let’s just say you’re not going to be bored.
8pm, $15
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St, SF
www.bottomofthehill.com

(Plan B: Mikal Cronin at the Chapel, Mark Kozelek at Great American Music Hall — look for our feature on the latter in this week’s paper.)

Sun/2

Rogue Wave, Trails and Ways, Wymond Miles @ The Chapel

Oakland’s Rogue Wave set the tone for lo-fi, indie pop-rock way back in the mid-aughts, with an onset of popularity so sudden it seemed unsustainable. Not so — the lineup may change, but the band’s talent for crafting jangly earworms needs no further proving, as of last year’s Nightingale Floors. Trails and Ways, whose members met at Cal, make danceable, Bossa Nova-infused dream-pop that broadens and deepens with repeated listens, but doesn’t take itself overly seriously; oh yeah, they also sing in three languages. And Wymond Miles, still probably best known as the Fresh and Onlys’ guitarist, put out his second solo work late last year — a dense, thoughtfully arranged post-punk gem of a record. Note: This is an afternoon show and, with a bloody Mary on the side, would probably be an excellent hangover soother.
3pm, $20
The Chapel
777 Valencia, SF
www.thechapelsf.com

Music Listings

February 21, 2014

WEDNESDAY 19
ROCK
Amoeba Music: 1855 Haight, San Francisco. Phantogram, 6 p.m., free.
The Chapel: 777 Valencia, San Francisco. Marissa Nadler, Donovan Quinn, 8 p.m., $12-$15.
Elbo Room: 647 Valencia, San Francisco. Peace Creep, Future Twin, Buffalo Tooth, George Chen, DJ Jello Biafra, 9 p.m., $5.
Hemlock Tavern: 1131 Polk, San Francisco. Bellyfruit, The Vans, Conspiracy of Venus, 8:30 p.m., $6.
Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. Animal Super Species, Cuban Cigar Crisis, 9 p.m., $7.
The Knockout: 3223 Mission, San Francisco. The Younger Lovers, Half Blast, No Bone, 9:30 p.m., $6.
Milk Bar: 1840 Haight, San Francisco. Graph Rabbit, The Desert Line, Builders, Crowding Out, 8 p.m., $5.
DANCE
Beaux: 2344 Market, San Francisco. “BroMance: A Night Out for the Fellas,” 9 p.m., free.
The Cafe: 2369 Market, San Francisco. “Sticky Wednesdays,” w/ DJ Mark Andrus, 8 p.m., free.
Cat Club: 1190 Folsom, San Francisco. “Bondage A Go Go,” w/ DJs Damon, Tomas Diablo, & guests, 9:30 p.m., $5-$10.
Club X: 715 Harrison, San Francisco. “Electro Pop Rocks: Mardi Gras,” 18+ dance night with B33son, Carlos Alfonzo, Krishna, Linx, Non Sequitur, D Menis, more, 9 p.m., $15-$20.
DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. God Module, The Witch Was Right, Mordacious, Product, DJs Decay & Unit 77, 9 p.m., $10-$15.
F8: 1192 Folsom, San Francisco. “Housepitality,” w/ Dr. Nojoke, Victor Vega, Miguel Solari, DJ Platurn, 9 p.m., $5-$10.
Infusion Lounge: 124 Ellis, San Francisco. “Indulgence,” 10 p.m.
Lexington Club: 3464 19th St., San Francisco. “Friends of Dorothy,” w/ DJ Sissyslap, 9 p.m., free.
Lookout: 3600 16th St., San Francisco. “What?,” w/ resident DJ Tisdale and guests, 7 p.m., free.
Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “Rock the Spot,” 9 p.m., free.
Make-Out Room: 3225 22nd St., San Francisco. “Burn Down the Disco,” w/ DJs 2shy-shy & Melt w/U, Third Wednesday of every month, 9 p.m., free.
MatrixFillmore: 3138 Fillmore, San Francisco. “Reload,” w/ DJ Big Bad Bruce, 10 p.m., free.
Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Booty Call,” w/ Juanita More, Joshua J, guests, 9 p.m., $3.
Showdown: 10 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Nokturnal,” w/ DJs Coyle & Gonya, Third Wednesday of every month, 9 p.m., free.
HIP-HOP
Neck of the Woods: 406 Clement, San Francisco. “Over the Hump,” w/ Children of the Funk, 10 p.m., free.
Skylark Bar: 3089 16th St., San Francisco. “Mixtape Wednesday,” w/ resident DJs Strategy, Junot, Herb Digs, & guests, 9 p.m., $5.
Slate Bar: 2925 16th St., San Francisco. “Special Blend,” w/ resident DJs LazyBoy & Mr. Murdock, 9 p.m., free.
ACOUSTIC
Bottom of the Hill: 1233 17th St., San Francisco. Shareef Ali, Whiskerman, Sparkbox (Megan Keely & Kelly McFarling), 9 p.m., $8.
Brick & Mortar Music Hall: 1710 Mission, San Francisco. Lou Evans, Robin Applewood, Kenny Crowley, Melted State, 9 p.m., $5-$8.
Cafe Divine: 1600 Stockton, San Francisco. Craig Ventresco & Meredith Axelrod, 7 p.m., free.
El Rio: 3158 Mission, San Francisco. Redrick Sultan, The Liquorsmiths, Sister Exister, 8 p.m., $5-$10.
Plough & Stars: 116 Clement, San Francisco. Daniel Seidel, 9 p.m.
Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. Ane Brun, Linnea Olsson, 8 p.m., $24-$29.
JAZZ
Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. Gaucho, Eric Garland’s Jazz Session, The Amnesiacs, 7 p.m., free.
Burritt Room: 417 Stockton St., San Francisco. Terry Disley’s Rocking Jazz Trio, 6 p.m., free.
Cigar Bar & Grill: 850 Montgomery, San Francisco. Sandor Moss Organ Quartet featuring Brian Ho, 8 p.m.
Hotel Rex: 562 Sutter, San Francisco. Ben Goldberg, 6:30 p.m., $20.
Jazz Bistro at Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Charles Unger Experience, 7:30 p.m., free.
Le Colonial: 20 Cosmo, San Francisco. The Cosmo Alleycats featuring Ms. Emily Wade Adams, 7 p.m., free.
Pier 23 Cafe: Pier 23, San Francisco. Ned Boynton & Friends, 6 p.m., free.
Sheba Piano Lounge: 1419 Fillmore, San Francisco. Fran Sholly, 8 p.m.
Top of the Mark: One Nob Hill, 999 California, San Francisco. Ricardo Scales, Wednesdays, 6:30-11:30 p.m., $5.
Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Carol Luckenbach, 7:30 p.m., free.
INTERNATIONAL
Bissap Baobab: 3372 19th St., San Francisco. “Baobab!,” timba dance party with DJ WaltDigz, 10 p.m., $5.
Cafe Cocomo: 650 Indiana, San Francisco. “Bachatalicious,” w/ DJs Good Sho & Rodney, 7 p.m., $5-$10.
Pachamama Restaurant: 1630 Powell, San Francisco. Cafe Latino Americano, 8 p.m., $12.
BLUES
Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. K.K. Martin, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $15.
The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. Craig Horton, 9:30 p.m.
SOUL
Boom Boom Room: 1601 Fillmore, San Francisco. “Soul Train Revival,” w/ Ziek McCarter, Third Wednesday of every month, 9:30 p.m., $5.
The Royal Cuckoo: 3202 Mission, San Francisco. Freddie Hughes & Chris Burns, 7:30 p.m., free.

THURSDAY 20
ROCK
Boom Boom Room: 1601 Fillmore, San Francisco. Huntinanny, Lee Gallagher & The Hallelujah, Talk of Shamans, The Dedications, 9:30 p.m., $5-$7.
Bottom of the Hill: 1233 17th St., San Francisco. Night Riots, The Epilogues, Ghost Parade, Kiven, 9 p.m., $10-$12.
The Chapel: 777 Valencia, San Francisco. The Thermals, Colleen Green, 9 p.m., $15-$17.
DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. Dark Tranquillity, Omnium Gathering, Exmortus, Alterbeast, 7:30 p.m., $20-$25.
The Knockout: 3223 Mission, San Francisco. Dancer, The Rantouls, So What, Graaar, DJ Beth Amphetamine, 10 p.m., $5.
Milk Bar: 1840 Haight, San Francisco. Ale-Jhay; Lush Vibes; Not Sure. Not Yet; Hot Flash Heat Wave, 8 p.m., $5.
Rickshaw Stop: 155 Fell, San Francisco. “Popscene,” w/ Wildcat! Wildcat!, Seatraffic, Popscene DJs, 9:30 p.m., $12-$14.
Slim’s: 333 11th St., San Francisco. Public Service Broadcasting, Kiev, 8 p.m., $13.
DANCE
1015 Folsom: 1015 Folsom, San Francisco. “A Light in the Attic,” w/ Vaski, Buku, R/D, Psymbionic, Le Portal, Danny Weird, 10 p.m., $10 advance.
Abbey Tavern: 4100 Geary, San Francisco. DJ Schrobi-Girl, 10 p.m., free.
Aunt Charlie’s Lounge: 133 Turk, San Francisco. “Tubesteak Connection,” w/ DJ Bus Station John, 9 p.m., $5-$7.
Beaux: 2344 Market, San Francisco. “Men at Twerk,” 9 p.m., free.
The Cafe: 2369 Market, San Francisco. “¡Pan Dulce!,” 9 p.m., $5.
California Academy of Sciences: 55 Music Concourse, San Francisco. Noise Pop 2014: Universal Rhythm NightLife, w/ YACHT (DJ set), 6-10 p.m., $10-$12.
Cat Club: 1190 Folsom, San Francisco. “Throwback Thursdays,” ‘80s night with DJs Damon, Steve Washington, Dangerous Dan, and guests, 9 p.m., $6 (free before 9:30 p.m.).
The Cellar: 685 Sutter, San Francisco. “XO,” w/ DJs Astro & Rose, 10 p.m., $5.
Club X: 715 Harrison, San Francisco. “The Crib,” 9:30 p.m., $10, 18+.
DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. “8bitSF,” w/ Doctor Popular, Together We Are Robots, Cartoon Violence, 8 p.m., $8-$11.
Elbo Room: 647 Valencia, San Francisco. “Afrolicious,” w/ DJs Pleasuremaker, Señor Oz, and guests, 9:30 p.m., $5-$8.
F8: 1192 Folsom, San Francisco. “Beat Church,” w/ B.R.E.E.D, Dov, Da Moth, more, 9 p.m., $5-$10.
Infusion Lounge: 124 Ellis, San Francisco. “I Love Thursdays,” 10 p.m., $10.
John Colins: 138 Minna, San Francisco. “SoLuna,” w/ resident DJ Miquel Penn, Third Thursday of every month, 9 p.m., free.
Laszlo: 2532 Mission, San Francisco. “Werk It,” w/ DJ Kool Karlo, Third Thursday of every month, 9 p.m., free.
Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “Night Fever,” 9 p.m., $5 after 10 p.m.
Mezzanine: 444 Jessie, San Francisco. “House of Mezzanine,” w/ Pat Mahoney, Museum of Love, Curses, Eug, Richie Panic, Kevin Meenan, 9 p.m., $10.
Monarch: 101 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Hey Young World,” w/ Tanner Ross & Nick Monaco, 9:30 p.m., $10 advance.
Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Throwback Thursday,” w/ DJ Jay-R, 9 p.m., free.
Raven: 1151 Folsom, San Francisco. “1999,” w/ VJ Mark Andrus, 8 p.m., free.
Ruby Skye: 420 Mason, San Francisco. “Awakening,” w/ Myon & Shane 54, Late Night Alumni, 9 p.m., $25 advance.
Slide: 430 Mason, San Francisco. “Euphony,” w/ Mikey Tan, Sebastian Concha, Mari Mar, Matth, 9 p.m.
Underground SF: 424 Haight, San Francisco. “Bubble,” 10 p.m., free.
Vessel: 85 Campton, San Francisco. “Base,” w/ Lee Foss, 10 p.m., $10 advance.
HIP-HOP
Eastside West: 3154 Fillmore, San Francisco. “Throwback Thursdays,” w/ DJ Madison, 9 p.m., free.
Showdown: 10 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Tougher Than Ice,” w/ DJs Vin Sol, Ruby Red I, and Jeremy Castillo, Third Thursday of every month, 10 p.m.
Skylark Bar: 3089 16th St., San Francisco. “Peaches,” w/ lady DJs DeeAndroid, Lady Fingaz, That Girl, Umami, Inkfat, and Andre, 10 p.m., free.
ACOUSTIC
Atlas Cafe: 3049 20th St., San Francisco. Nearly Beloved, 8 p.m., free.
Bazaar Cafe: 5927 California, San Francisco. Acoustic Open Mic, 7 p.m.
Hemlock Tavern: 1131 Polk, San Francisco. Idea the Artist, Terrible Buttons, City Tribe, 8:30 p.m., $6.
Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. The Liquorsmiths, Grover Anderson, Pete Ahonen, 9 p.m., $10.
Plough & Stars: 116 Clement, San Francisco. Crooked Road Ceili Band, 9 p.m.
JAZZ
Blush! Wine Bar: 476 Castro, San Francisco. Doug Martin’s Avatar Ensemble, 7:30 p.m., free.
Cafe Claude: 7 Claude, San Francisco. Marcus Shelby Trio, 7:30 p.m., free.
Cafe Royale: 800 Post, San Francisco. West Side Jazz Club, 9 p.m.
Cigar Bar & Grill: 850 Montgomery, San Francisco. Royal Jelly, 8 p.m.
Feinstein’s at the Nikko: 222 Mason, San Francisco. Paula West, 8 p.m., $35-$50.
Jazz Bistro at Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Eugene Pliner Quartet with Tod Dickow, First and Third Thursday of every month, 7:30 p.m., free.
Le Colonial: 20 Cosmo, San Francisco. Steve Lucky & The Rhumba Bums, 7:30 p.m.
The Lucky Horseshoe: 453 Cortland, San Francisco. Ralph Carney’s Serious Jass Project, 9 p.m.
Pier 23 Cafe: Pier 23, San Francisco. Dick Fregulia Trio, 7 p.m., free.
The Royal Cuckoo: 3202 Mission, San Francisco. Charlie Siebert & Chris Siebert, 7:30 p.m., free.
Top of the Mark: One Nob Hill, 999 California, San Francisco. Stompy Jones, 7:30 p.m., $10.
Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Barbara Ochoa, 7:30 p.m.
INTERNATIONAL
Bissap Baobab: 3372 19th St., San Francisco. “Pa’Lante!,” w/ Juan G, El Kool Kyle, Mr. Lucky, 10 p.m., $5.
Cafe Cocomo: 650 Indiana, San Francisco. Julio Bravo y Su Orquesta Salsabor, El DJ X, 8 p.m., $12.
Jewish Community Library: 1835 Ellis, San Francisco. Veretski Pass, 7 p.m., free.
Pachamama Restaurant: 1630 Powell, San Francisco. “Jueves Flamencos,” 8 p.m., free.
Red Poppy Art House: 2698 Folsom, San Francisco. Fishtank Ensemble, 6:30 p.m., $15-$20.
Sheba Piano Lounge: 1419 Fillmore, San Francisco. Gary Flores & Descarga Caliente, 8 p.m.
Verdi Club: 2424 Mariposa, San Francisco. The Verdi Club Milonga, w/ Christy Coté, DJ Emilio Flores, guests, 9 p.m., $10-$15.
REGGAE
Pissed Off Pete’s: 4528 Mission St., San Francisco. Reggae Thursdays, w/ resident DJ Jah Yzer, 9 p.m., free.
BLUES
50 Mason Social House: 50 Mason, San Francisco. Bill Phillippe, 5:30 p.m., free.
Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. Hunter & The Dirty Jacks, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $15.
The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. Chris Ford, Third Thursday of every month, 4 p.m.; Wendy DeWitt, 9:30 p.m.
COUNTRY
Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. Rose’s Pawn Shop, Miss Lonely Hearts, 9 p.m., $10.
The Parlor: 2801 Leavenworth, San Francisco. “Twang Honky Tonk & Country Jamboree,” w/ DJ Little Red Rodeo, 7 p.m., free.
EXPERIMENTAL
The Luggage Store: 1007 Market, San Francisco. zBug, A Tribute to John Tchicai with members of The Archetypes, 8 p.m., $6-$10.
FUNK
Brick & Mortar Music Hall: 1710 Mission, San Francisco. New Orleans Suspects, Breakestra, 8 p.m., $17-$20.

FRIDAY 21
ROCK
Bottom of the Hill: 1233 17th St., San Francisco. American Steel, The Criminals, Arliss Nancy, 9:30 p.m., $12.
Brick & Mortar Music Hall: 1710 Mission, San Francisco. King Lollipop, Santoros, Wyatt Blair, Levitation Room, DJ Al Lover, 9 p.m., $6-$8.
The Chapel: 777 Valencia, San Francisco. R. Stevie Moore, The Memories, Seventeen Evergreen, 9 p.m., $15-$18.
El Rio: 3158 Mission, San Francisco. Friday Live: Audrey Howard & The Special Guest Band, DJ Emotions, 10 p.m., free.
Hemlock Tavern: 1131 Polk, San Francisco. DSTVV, Snow Wite, Blood Sister, 9 p.m., $6.
Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. Ringo Deathstarr, Purple, Surf Club, 9 p.m., $8-$10.
Milk Bar: 1840 Haight, San Francisco. Modern Kicks, Dumbsaints, Lucabrazzi, The Basements xoxo, Banshee Boardwalk, 8 p.m., $5.
Neck of the Woods: 406 Clement, San Francisco. Van She, on the upstairs stage, 10 p.m., $15-$18.
Sub-Mission Art Space (Balazo 18 Gallery): 2183 Mission, San Francisco. Commissure, You May Die in the Desert, Wander, Dissolve, 7:30 p.m., $6.
Thee Parkside: 1600 17th St., San Francisco. Life Leone, Wild Wild Wets, Daikon, 9 p.m., $8.
Vacation: 651 Larkin, San Francisco. Male Gaze, Useless Eaters, Glitz, 9 p.m., free.
DANCE
1015 Folsom: 1015 Folsom, San Francisco. Red Bull Music Academy: Bass Camp San Francisco, w/ DJ Lo Down Loretta Brown (aka Erykah Badu), Thundercat, Cosmo Baker, Kid Smpl, more, 10 p.m., $10-$25.
111 Minna Gallery: 111 Minna, San Francisco. “Trap + Art 3: I Am Basquiat,” 10:30 p.m., $15 advance.
Audio Discotech: 316 11th St., San Francisco. The Knocks, Justin Milla, Split, 9 p.m., $10 advance.
BeatBox: 314 11th St., San Francisco. “U-Haul: 1-Year Anniversary Party,” w/ DJs Jenna Riot & China G, 9 p.m., $5-$10.
Beaux: 2344 Market, San Francisco. “Manimal,” 9 p.m.
Cafe Flore: 2298 Market, San Francisco. “Kinky Beats,” w/ DJ Sergio, 10 p.m., free.
The Cafe: 2369 Market, San Francisco. “Boy Bar,” w/ DJ Matt Consola, 9 p.m., $5.
The Cellar: 685 Sutter, San Francisco. “F.T.S.: For the Story,” 10 p.m.
DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. “Turbo Drive,” w/ D/A/D, Devon, MyKill, Netik, Fact.50, Mr. Smith, 9:30 p.m., $8 advance.
The EndUp: 401 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Trade,” 10 p.m., free before midnight.
F8: 1192 Folsom, San Francisco. “Freeform vs. Dubalicious: Reunited and It Feels So Good,” w/ Jonboy, Iyad, Floorcraft, more, 9 p.m., $5.
The Grand Nightclub: 520 Fourth St., San Francisco. “We Rock Fridays,” 9:30 p.m.
Infusion Lounge: 124 Ellis, San Francisco. “Flight Fridays,” 10 p.m., $20.
Lookout: 3600 16th St., San Francisco. “HYSL: Handle Your Shit Lady,” 9 p.m., $3.
Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “That ‘80s Show,” w/ DJs Dave Paul & Jeff Harris, Third Friday of every month, 9 p.m., $5.
Manor West: 750 Harrison, San Francisco. “Top Shelf Friday,” w/ DJs Alie Layus & Marcus Lee, 10 p.m., $20.
MatrixFillmore: 3138 Fillmore, San Francisco. “F-Style Fridays,” w/ DJ Jared-F, 9 p.m.
Mighty: 119 Utah, San Francisco. “theLIFT S.F.: 4-Year Anniversary,” w/ Gilles Peterson, Jeremy Sole, Wiseacre, 10 p.m., $20 advance.
Monarch: 101 Sixth St., San Francisco. Marques Wyatt, Jayvi Velasco, Jimmy B, Dan Suda, 9 p.m., $10-$20.
Public Works: 161 Erie, San Francisco. Daniel Bortz, Bells & Whistles, Dax Lee, in the OddJob loft, 9:30 p.m., $10-$15.
Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Pump: Worq It Out Fridays,” w/ resident DJ Christopher B, 9 p.m., $3.
Ruby Skye: 420 Mason, San Francisco. Deniz Koyu, Danny Avila, Mikael Weermets, 9 p.m., $20 advance.
Slate Bar: 2925 16th St., San Francisco. “Darling Nikki,” w/ resident DJs Dr. Sleep, Justin Credible, and Durt, Third Friday of every month, 8 p.m., $5.
Temple: 540 Howard, San Francisco. “Resonance Friday,” w/ Giuseppe Ottoviani, Betsie Larkin, Reverse, DJ Tone, DJ Von, 10 p.m., $15.
Underground SF: 424 Haight, San Francisco. “Bionic,” 10 p.m., $5.
Vessel: 85 Campton, San Francisco. Hook N Sling, Enso, 10 p.m., $10-$30.
Wish: 1539 Folsom, San Francisco. “Bridge the Gap,” w/ resident DJ Don Kainoa, Fridays, 6-10 p.m., free; “Depth,” w/ resident DJs Sharon Buck & Greg Yuen, Third Friday of every month, 10 p.m., free.
HIP-HOP
Elbo Room: 647 Valencia, San Francisco. Sadat X, El Da Sensei, Qwel & Maker, 10 p.m., $10.
EZ5: 682 Commercial, San Francisco. “Decompression,” Fridays, 5-9 p.m.
John Colins: 138 Minna, San Francisco. “Juicy,” w/ DJ Ry Toast, Third Friday of every month, 10 p.m., $5 (free before 11 p.m.).
Mezzanine: 444 Jessie, San Francisco. DJ Don Cannon, DJ Orator, DJ Amen, 9 p.m., $10-$15.
Public Works: 161 Erie, San Francisco. Talib Kweli Gravitas Record Release Party, 9 p.m., $15-$20.
Showdown: 10 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Fresh to Def Fridays: A Tribute to Yo! MTV Raps,” w/ resident DJs Boom Bostic, Inkfat, and Hay Hay, Third Friday of every month, 10 p.m.
Slim’s: 333 11th St., San Francisco. T. Mills, Blackbear, Cody Brazil, The Wilde, 9 p.m., $16.
Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. Dead Prez, 10:30 p.m., $25-$30.
ACOUSTIC
Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. Michael Musika & Eric Kuhn, Eric & Erica, Bob Thayer, 8 p.m., $8-$10.
Bazaar Cafe: 5927 California, San Francisco. Geoff Baker & Lesley Greer, 7 p.m.
BrainWash Cafe & Laundromat: 1122 Folsom, San Francisco. The Mercy Kit, The Scruttocks, Evan Raymond, 8 p.m., free.
Hotel Rex: 562 Sutter, San Francisco. Ukulenny, 6:30 p.m., free.
Mercury Cafe: 201 Octavia, San Francisco. Toshio Hirano, Third Friday of every month, 7:30 p.m., free, all ages.
Plough & Stars: 116 Clement, San Francisco. “Hillbilly Robot: An Urban Americana Music Event,” w/ The Earl Brothers, Left Coast Country, 9 p.m., $10-$15.
The Sports Basement: 610 Old Mason, San Francisco. “Breakfast with Enzo,” w/ Enzo Garcia, 10 a.m., $5.
JAZZ
Atlas Cafe: 3049 20th St., San Francisco. Jazz at the Atlas, 7:30 p.m., free.
Beach Chalet Brewery & Restaurant: 1000 Great Highway, San Francisco. Johnny Smith, 8 p.m., free.
Bird & Beckett: 653 Chenery, San Francisco. The Third Quartet, Third Friday of every month, 5:30 p.m., free.
Cafe Claude: 7 Claude, San Francisco. Jerry Oakley Trio, 7:30 p.m., free.
Cafe Royale: 800 Post, San Francisco. Cyril Guiraud Trio, 9 p.m.
Cliff House: 1090 Point Lobos, San Francisco. David Costa, 7 p.m.
Club Deluxe: 1511 Haight, San Francisco. Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, 9:30 p.m.
Feinstein’s at the Nikko: 222 Mason, San Francisco. Paula West, 8 p.m., $35-$50.
Jazz Bistro at Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Charles Unger Experience, 7:30 p.m., free.
The Palace Hotel: 2 New Montgomery, San Francisco. The Klipptones, 8 p.m., free.
Pier 23 Cafe: Pier 23, San Francisco. Maikel Garcia Quartet, 8 p.m., free.
Red Poppy Art House: 2698 Folsom, San Francisco. Tiffany Austin Quartet, 7:30 p.m., $15-$20.
Revolution Cafe: 3248 22nd St., San Francisco. Emily Anne’s Delights, Third Friday of every month, 8:45 p.m., free/donation.
The Royal Cuckoo: 3202 Mission, San Francisco. Wil Blades & Jack Tone Riordan, 7:30 p.m., free.
Savanna Jazz Club: 2937 Mission, San Francisco. Kendra McKinley & Camille Mai Trio, 7:30 p.m., $10.
Sheba Piano Lounge: 1419 Fillmore, San Francisco. Steve Snelling Quartet, 9 p.m.
Top of the Mark: One Nob Hill, 999 California, San Francisco. Black Market Jazz Orchestra, 9 p.m., $10.
Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Joyce Grant, 8 p.m., free.
INTERNATIONAL
Asiento: 2730 21st St., San Francisco. “Kulcha Latino,” w/ resident selectors Stepwise, Ras Rican, and El Kool Kyle, Third Friday of every month, 9 p.m., free.
Bissap Baobab: 3372 19th St., San Francisco. Individúo, 6:30 p.m.; Qumbia Qrew, Third Friday of every month, 8 p.m.; “Paris-Dakar African Mix Coupe Decale,” 10 p.m., $5.
Cafe Cocomo: 650 Indiana, San Francisco. Taste Fridays, featuring local cuisine tastings, salsa bands, dance lessons, and more, 7:30 p.m., $15 (free entry to patio).
Cat Club: 1190 Folsom, San Francisco. “Gigante Temblor,” 10 p.m., $5.
Cigar Bar & Grill: 850 Montgomery, San Francisco. Alexis y la Original, 10 p.m.
Pachamama Restaurant: 1630 Powell, San Francisco. Cuban Night with Fito Reinoso, 7:30 & 9:15 p.m., $15-$18.
Roccapulco Supper Club: 3140 Mission, San Francisco. Los Hermanos Flores, Pastor Lopez, 8 p.m., $35 advance.
REGGAE
Gestalt Haus: 3159 16th St., San Francisco. “Music Like Dirt,” 7:30 p.m., free.
BLUES
Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. Shane Dwight, 7:30 & 10 p.m., $22.
Lou’s Fish Shack: 300 Jefferson, San Francisco. Little Wolf & The HellCats, 6 p.m.
The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. Highwater Blues, 4 p.m.; Steve Freund, 9:30 p.m.
FUNK
Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. “Hella Tight,” w/ resident DJs Vinnie Esparza, Jonny Deeper, & Asti Spumanti, Third Friday of every month, 10 p.m., $5.
Make-Out Room: 3225 22nd St., San Francisco. “Loose Joints,” w/ DJs Centipede, Damon Bell, and Tom Thump, 10 p.m., $5-$10.
SOUL
Edinburgh Castle: 950 Geary, San Francisco. “Soul Crush,” w/ DJ Serious Leisure, 10 p.m., free.
The Knockout: 3223 Mission, San Francisco. “Oldies Night,” W/ DJs Primo, Daniel, Lost Cat, and friends, Third Friday of every month, 10 p.m., $5.

SATURDAY 22
ROCK
Bender’s: 806 S. Van Ness, San Francisco. The Radishes, High & Tight, 10 p.m., $5.
The Chapel: 777 Valencia, San Francisco. Magic Trick, Kevin Morby, Joseph Childress, 9 p.m., $12-$14.
Hemlock Tavern: 1131 Polk, San Francisco. Synthetic ID, POW!, Airfix Kits, The Riflemen, 9 p.m., $6.
Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. Uncle Frank & The Co-Defendants, Good Luck Jimmy, Dudley Hughes, 9 p.m., $10.
Make-Out Room: 3225 22nd St., San Francisco. Carlton Melton, White Manna, 3 Leafs, 6:30 p.m., $8.
Milk Bar: 1840 Haight, San Francisco. Benefit for the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair with Sea Dramas, Dangermaker, Sweetwater Black, Margaret the King, 8 p.m., $5.
Rickshaw Stop: 155 Fell, San Francisco. DRMS, Con Brio, Systemritual, 8 p.m., $12-$15.
Slim’s: 333 11th St., San Francisco. “Hillbilly Robot: An Urban Americana Music Event,” w/ Stellar Corpses, The Quarter Mile Combo, Hopeless Jack & The Handsome Devil, RocketShip RocketShip, 8 p.m., $15.
Sub-Mission Art Space (Balazo 18 Gallery): 2183 Mission, San Francisco. Power, Lies, Volatile Substance, Worship, 7:30 p.m., $8.
Thee Parkside: 1600 17th St., San Francisco. Slick’s Bash #102: The Stitches, The Richmond Sluts, Modern Action, Lazerwolf, 9 p.m., $12.
DANCE
Audio Discotech: 316 11th St., San Francisco. Anthony Attalla, Teddy C, 9 p.m., $10 advance.
BeatBox: 314 11th St., San Francisco. “Chaos,” w/ DJs Guy Scheiman & Tristan Jaxx, 10 p.m., $20 ($5 before 11 p.m.).
Cafe Flore: 2298 Market, San Francisco. “Bistrotheque,” w/ DJ Ken Vulsion, 8 p.m., free.
Cat Club: 1190 Folsom, San Francisco. “Villainy: The Dance Club with a Dark Side,” w/ DJs Tomas Diablo, Donimo, Fact.50, Daniel Skellington, and Shindog, 9:30 p.m., $5-$8.
DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. “Bootie S.F.,” w/ The First Church of the Sacred Silversexual, A+D, Entyme, Keith Kraft, Lucio K, more, 9 p.m., $10-$15.
The EndUp: 401 Sixth St., San Francisco. Shangri-La, Asian queer dance party., Fourth Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., $15-$20 (free before 11 p.m.).
F8: 1192 Folsom, San Francisco. Lindsay Lowend, DJ Hoodboi, Lil Texas, The Pirate, Mack Blajik, Mr. Humphreeze, Boats, Obstac, 9 p.m., $5-$20.
Harlot: 46 Minna, San Francisco. “Gotta Dance Dirty,” 9 p.m.
Infusion Lounge: 124 Ellis, San Francisco. “Set,” Fourth Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., $20.
The Knockout: 3223 Mission, San Francisco. “Galaxy Radio,” w/ Plaza, 9:30 p.m.
Lookout: 3600 16th St., San Francisco. “Bounce!,” 9 p.m., $3.
Manor West: 750 Harrison, San Francisco. Tigran, St. John, Key Method, 10 p.m.
Mezzanine: 444 Jessie, San Francisco. The Twelves, 9 p.m., $15.
Mighty: 119 Utah, San Francisco. “Put on the Breaks,” w/ Kapt’n Kirk, Tamo, Shissla, Zach Moore, Nerd Nate, Melyss, 9 p.m., free before midnight with RSVP.
Monarch: 101 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Lights Down Low: 8-Year Anniversary,” w/ Kevin Saunderson, MPHD, Myles Cooper, Split, Richie Panic, Sleazemore, 9 p.m., $15-$20.
Public Works: 161 Erie, San Francisco. “Deep Blue,” w/ Carl Craig (DJ set), François K, Rooz, Bo, Ghosts on Tape, Austin Cesear, Suzanne Kraft, Avalon Emerson, Shawn Reynaldo, 9:30 p.m., $15-$20.
Ruby Skye: 420 Mason, San Francisco. MAKJ, Drezo, 9 p.m., $20 advance.
The Stud: 399 Ninth St., San Francisco. “Dark Room,” w/ Lady Bear and the Dark Drag Dolls, DJ Le Perv, more, 10 p.m., $8 before 11 p.m.
Temple: 540 Howard, San Francisco. “Life,” w/ Sound It Out, Linx, Kepik, Brian Cabalic, Carlos Tino, J Funk, more, 10 p.m., $20.
Vessel: 85 Campton, San Francisco. DJ Scotty Boy, Fyasko, 10 p.m., $10-$30.
HIP-HOP
John Colins: 138 Minna, San Francisco. “Nice,” w/ DJ Apollo, Fourth Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., $5.
Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. Dre Day 2014, w/ DJs Ma Yeah, Honeyknuckles, and Spank Bank, 10 p.m., $5.
ACOUSTIC
Atlas Cafe: 3049 20th St., San Francisco. Craig Ventresco and/or Meredith Axelrod, Saturdays, 4-6 p.m., free.
Bazaar Cafe: 5927 California, San Francisco. Rozanne Gewaar, 7 p.m.
Exit Theatre: 156 Eddy, San Francisco. Songwriter Saturdays, hosted by Melissa Lyn, Last Saturday of every month, 8:30 p.m., free/donation.
Plough & Stars: 116 Clement, San Francisco. The Fireflies, 9 p.m.
The Riptide: 3639 Taraval, San Francisco. Back40, 9:30 p.m., free.
JAZZ
Feinstein’s at the Nikko: 222 Mason, San Francisco. Paula West, 7 p.m., $35-$50.
Jazz Bistro at Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Bill “Doc” Webster & Jazz Nostalgia, 7:30 p.m., free.
The Rite Spot Cafe: 2099 Folsom, San Francisco. Mr. Lucky & The Cocktail Party, 9 p.m., free.
The Royal Cuckoo: 3202 Mission, San Francisco. Steve Lucky & Carmen Getit, 7:30 p.m., free.
Savanna Jazz Club: 2937 Mission, San Francisco. Savanna Jazz Trio, 7 p.m., $8.
Sheba Piano Lounge: 1419 Fillmore, San Francisco. The Robert Stewart Experience, 9 p.m.
Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Anne O’Brien, Last Saturday of every month, 8 p.m., free.
INTERNATIONAL
1015 Folsom: 1015 Folsom, San Francisco. “Pura,” 9 p.m., $20.
Bissap Baobab: 3372 19th St., San Francisco. “Paris-Dakar African Mix Coupe Decale,” 10 p.m., $5.
Cafe Claude: 7 Claude, San Francisco. Trio Garufa, 7:30 p.m., free.
Cafe Cocomo: 650 Indiana, San Francisco. N’Rumba, DJ Luis Medina, 8 p.m., $15.
Cigar Bar & Grill: 850 Montgomery, San Francisco. Mario Flores, 10 p.m.
El Rio: 3158 Mission, San Francisco. “Mango,” Fourth Saturday of every month, 3 p.m., $8-$10.
Make-Out Room: 3225 22nd St., San Francisco. “El SuperRitmo,” w/ DJs Roger Mas & El Kool Kyle, 10 p.m., $5 before 11 p.m.
OMG: 43 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Bollywood Blast,” Fourth Saturday of every month, 9 p.m., $5 (free before 10 p.m.).
Pachamama Restaurant: 1630 Powell, San Francisco. Eddy Navia & Pachamama Band, 8 p.m., free.
Red Poppy Art House: 2698 Folsom, San Francisco. Redwood Tango Ensemble, Trio Zincalo, 7:30 p.m., $10-$15.
Space 550: 550 Barneveld, San Francisco. “Club Fuego,” 9:30 p.m.
REGGAE
Pier 23 Cafe: Pier 23, San Francisco. Native Elements, Last Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., $10-$15.
BLUES
Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. Earl Thomas & The Rhumboogies, 7:30 & 10 p.m., $24.
Lou’s Fish Shack: 300 Jefferson, San Francisco. Willie G, 6 p.m.
The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. Dave Workman, Fourth Saturday of every month, 4 p.m.; Ron Hacker, Last Saturday of every month, 9:30 p.m.
EXPERIMENTAL
Center for New Music: 55 Taylor, San Francisco. Hyejin Jun: Dots & Lines, 4 p.m., free.
Noisebridge: 2169 Mission, San Francisco. Godwaffle Noise Pancakes, noon.
FUNK
Boom Boom Room: 1601 Fillmore, San Francisco. Vinyl, Soul Mechanix, DJ K-Os, 9:30 p.m., $12-$15.
Brick & Mortar Music Hall: 1710 Mission, San Francisco. New Orleans Suspects, Breakestra, 8 p.m., $20-$25.
Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. Icons of Funk featuring Leo Nocentelli, Bernie Worrell, Bill “The Buddha” Dickens, and Adrian Harpham, 8 & 10 p.m., $22-$34.
SOUL
Edinburgh Castle: 950 Geary, San Francisco. “Nightbeat,” w/ DJs Primo, Lucky, and Dr. Scott, Fourth Saturday of every month, 9 p.m., $3.

SUNDAY 23
ROCK
El Rio: 3158 Mission, San Francisco. Panic Is Perfect, Brainstorm, Sweat Lodge, 8 p.m., $6.
Hemlock Tavern: 1131 Polk, San Francisco. Kowloon Walled City, Drunk Dad, Gaytheist, Hornss, 6:30 p.m., $8-$10.
The Independent: 628 Divisadero, San Francisco. The Independent 10th Anniversary Show: Two Gallants, 8 p.m., $25.
DANCE
440 Castro: 440 Castro, San Francisco. “Sunday Furry Sunday,” Last Sunday of every month, 4-10 p.m., $1.
Audio Discotech: 316 11th St., San Francisco. “London Calling (Chapter 2),” w/ Honey Dijon, Tedd Patterson, Nikita, Manny Ward, Keith Kraft, more, 2 p.m., $10 advance.
Beaux: 2344 Market, San Francisco. “Full of Grace: A Weekly House Music Playground,” 9 p.m., free.
The Cellar: 685 Sutter, San Francisco. “Replay Sundays,” 9 p.m., free.
DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. “Sunset Arcade,” w/ Camo & Krooked, B33son, Frank Nitty, Sonny Daze, Carlos Alfonzo, Sychosis, Infusion, more, 9 p.m., $15-$25.
The Edge: 4149 18th St., San Francisco. “’80s at 8,” w/ DJ MC2, 8 p.m.
Elbo Room: 647 Valencia, San Francisco. “Dub Mission,” w/ Daddy Spleece, DJ Sep, Maneesh the Twister, 9 p.m., $6 (free before 9:30 p.m.).
The EndUp: 401 Sixth St., San Francisco. “T.Dance,” 6 a.m.-6 p.m.
F8: 1192 Folsom, San Francisco. “Stamina,” w/ Sigma, Jamal, Lukeino, 10 p.m., free.
The Knockout: 3223 Mission, San Francisco. “Sweater Funk,” 10 p.m., free.
Lookout: 3600 16th St., San Francisco. “Jock,” Sundays, 3-8 p.m., $2.
MatrixFillmore: 3138 Fillmore, San Francisco. “Bounce,” w/ DJ Just, 10 p.m.
Otis: 25 Maiden, San Francisco. “What’s the Werd?,” w/ resident DJs Nick Williams, Kevin Knapp, Maxwell Dub, and guests, 9 p.m., $5 (free before 11 p.m.).
The Parlor: 2801 Leavenworth, San Francisco. “Sunday Sessions,” w/ DJ Marc deVasconcelos, 9 p.m., free.
Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Gigante,” 8 p.m., free.
S.F. Eagle: 398 12th St., San Francisco. “1982,” 7 p.m., $5.
The Stud: 399 Ninth St., San Francisco. “Cognitive Dissonance,” Fourth Sunday of every month, 6 p.m.
HIP-HOP
Boom Boom Room: 1601 Fillmore, San Francisco. “Return of the Cypher,” 9:30 p.m., free.
ACOUSTIC
Alley Cat Books: 3036 24th St., San Francisco. Babar Jug Band, 2 p.m., free.
Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. Indianna Hale, Brianna Lea Pruett, Eight Belles, 8 p.m., $7.
Bazaar Cafe: 5927 California, San Francisco. Manjali Light, Jean Marc, Dinner with the Kids, Heather & Jessica, 6 p.m.
The Chapel: 777 Valencia, San Francisco. Griffin House, Clarence Bucaro, Jeff Campbell, 8 p.m., $18-$20.
Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. Aiden James, Dawn Thomas, 8 p.m., $10.
The Lucky Horseshoe: 453 Cortland, San Francisco. Bernal Mountain Bluegrass Jam, 4 p.m., free; Second Annual Stanley Sing & Birthday Party, 4 p.m.
Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “Spike’s Mic Night,” Sundays, 4-8 p.m., free.
Plough & Stars: 116 Clement, San Francisco. Seisiún with John Sherry & Kyle Thayer, 9 p.m.
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church: 1755 Clay, San Francisco. “Sunday Night Mic,” w/ Roem Baur, 5 p.m., free.
JAZZ
Chez Hanny: 1300 Silver, San Francisco. Janis Mann & Kenny Werner, 4 p.m., $20 suggested donation.
Feinstein’s at the Nikko: 222 Mason, San Francisco. Paula West, 7 p.m., $35.
Jazz Bistro at Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Bill “Doc” Webster & Jazz Nostalgia, 7:30 p.m., free.
Jazz Heritage Center: 1320 Fillmore, San Francisco. Conversations with Sonny, featuring Sonny Buxton & Frank Jackson, 4-6 p.m., $15.
Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “Sunday Sessions,” 10 p.m., free.
Revolution Cafe: 3248 22nd St., San Francisco. Jazz Revolution, 4 p.m., free/donation.
The Royal Cuckoo: 3202 Mission, San Francisco. Lavay Smith & Chris Siebert, 7:30 p.m., free.
Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. Omer Avital Quintet, 7 & 9 p.m., $17-$22.
Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Hubert Emerson, 7:30 p.m., free.
INTERNATIONAL
Atmosphere: 447 Broadway, San Francisco. “Hot Bachata Nights,” w/ DJ El Guapo, 5:30 p.m., $10 ($18-$25 with dance lessons).
Bissap Baobab: 3372 19th St., San Francisco. “Brazil & Beyond,” 6:30 p.m., free.
El Rio: 3158 Mission, San Francisco. Salsa Sundays, Second and Fourth Sunday of every month, 3 p.m., $8-$10.
Thirsty Bear Brewing Company: 661 Howard, San Francisco. “The Flamenco Room,” 7:30 & 8:30 p.m.
REGGAE
Il Pirata: 2007 16th St., San Francisco. “Ragga Ragga,” w/ DJs Vinny Ras, Kure All, & Theory, Last Sunday of every month, 7 p.m., free.
BLUES
Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. Kirk Fletcher, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $15.
Lou’s Fish Shack: 300 Jefferson, San Francisco. Jim Moore & Funktional Soul, 4 p.m.
Pier 23 Cafe: Pier 23, San Francisco. Mighty Mississippi, 5 p.m., free.
The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. King Perkoff, 4 p.m.; The Door Slammers, Fourth Sunday of every month, 9:30 p.m.
Sheba Piano Lounge: 1419 Fillmore, San Francisco. Bohemian Knuckleboogie, 8 p.m., free.
Swig: 571 Geary, San Francisco. Sunday Blues Jam with Ed Ivey, 9 p.m.
SOUL
Delirium Cocktails: 3139 16th St., San Francisco. “Heart & Soul,” w/ DJ Lovely Lesage, 10 p.m., free.

MONDAY 24
ROCK
Brick & Mortar Music Hall: 1710 Mission, San Francisco. Waters, The Tambo Rays, James Supercave, 9 p.m., $6.
Milk Bar: 1840 Haight, San Francisco. Void Boys, Blackstone Rangers, Burnt Palms, 8:30 p.m., free.
Rickshaw Stop: 155 Fell, San Francisco. Noise Pop 2014: Pre-Party with Courtney Barnett, Fever the Ghost, Kins, Rich Girls, 8 p.m., $12-$14.
DANCE
DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. “Death Guild,” 18+ dance party with DJs Decay, Joe Radio, Melting Girl, & guests, 9:30 p.m., $3-$5.
Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Wanted,” w/ DJs Key&Kite and Richie Panic, 9 p.m., free.
Underground SF: 424 Haight, San Francisco. “Vienetta Discotheque,” w/ DJs Stanley Frank and Robert Jeffrey, 10 p.m., free.
ACOUSTIC
Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. The Pick Bluegrass Jam, Fourth Monday of every month, 6 p.m., free; The Earl Brothers, Fourth Monday of every month, 9 p.m., free.
Bazaar Cafe: 5927 California, San Francisco. West Coast Songwriters Competition, 7 p.m.
The Chieftain: 198 Fifth St., San Francisco. The Wrenboys, 7 p.m., free.
Fiddler’s Green: 1333 Columbus, San Francisco. Terry Savastano, 9:30 p.m., free/donation.
Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. Open Mic with Brendan Getzell, 8 p.m., free.
Osteria: 3277 Sacramento, San Francisco. “Acoustic Bistro,” 7 p.m., free.
The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. Peter Lindman, 4 p.m.
JAZZ
Jazz Bistro at Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Eugene Pliner Quartet with Tod Dickow, 7:30 p.m., free.
Le Colonial: 20 Cosmo, San Francisco. Le Jazz Hot, 7 p.m., free.
Sheba Piano Lounge: 1419 Fillmore, San Francisco. City Jazz Instrumental Jam Session, 8 p.m.
Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Nora Maki, 7:30 p.m., free.
REGGAE
Skylark Bar: 3089 16th St., San Francisco. “Skylarking,” w/ I&I Vibration, 10 p.m., free.
BLUES
The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. The Bachelors, 9:30 p.m.
EXPERIMENTAL
Elbo Room: 647 Valencia, San Francisco. “Slowed/Throwed,” w/ Jim Haynes & Jon Porras, 8 p.m., free.
SOUL
Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “M.O.M. (Motown on Mondays),” w/ DJ Gordo Cabeza & Timoteo Gigante, 8 p.m., free.

TUESDAY 25
ROCK
Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. Bill Baird, Janina Angel Bath, Sama Dams, James Riotto, 9 p.m.
Bottom of the Hill: 1233 17th St., San Francisco. No Way North, Sunhaze, The Wearies, 9 p.m., $8.
DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. Pentagram, Radio Moscow, Kings Destroy, DJ Rob Metal, 7:30 p.m., $20-$25.
The Knockout: 3223 Mission, San Francisco. Bädr Vogu, Femacoffin, Tomes, DJ CZLA, benefit show for Bädr Vogu, 9:30 p.m., $6-$20 sliding scale.
Rickshaw Stop: 155 Fell, San Francisco. Ty Segall, Scraper, Chad & The Meatbodies, 8 p.m., sold out.
DANCE
Aunt Charlie’s Lounge: 133 Turk, San Francisco. “High Fantasy,” w/ DJ Viv, Myles Cooper, & guests, 10 p.m., $2.
El Rio: 3158 Mission, San Francisco. Hyenaz, Acreaturas, Believe, DJ Lovely Lesage, 7 p.m., $10.
Monarch: 101 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Soundpieces,” 10 p.m., free-$10.
Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Switch,” w/ DJs Jenna Riot & Andre, 9 p.m., $3.
Underground SF: 424 Haight, San Francisco. “Shelter,” 10 p.m., free.
Wish: 1539 Folsom, San Francisco. “Tight,” w/ resident DJs Michael May & Lito, 8 p.m., free.
HIP-HOP
Double Dutch: 3192 16th St., San Francisco. “Takin’ It Back Tuesdays,” w/ DJs Mr. Murdock & Roman Nunez, Fourth Tuesday of every month, 10 p.m., free.
Elbo Room: 647 Valencia, San Francisco. Local Celebrity, Stand-up comedy and hip-hop with Telli Prego, Gram, Brendan Lynch, Jules Posner, Christian Reyes, Nick Palm, Zach Chiappellone, DJ Iron Mike, and host Sergio Barajas, 8 p.m., $12.
ACOUSTIC
Bazaar Cafe: 5927 California, San Francisco. Songwriter in Residence: Paige Clem, continues through.
El Rio: 3158 Mission, San Francisco. Dillbilly, Genesis Fermin, in the front room, 7 p.m., free.
Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. The Goat Rodeo, Thee Hobo Gobbelins, Willy Tea Taylor, 8 p.m., $10.
Plough & Stars: 116 Clement, San Francisco. Song session with Cormac Gannon, Last Tuesday of every month, 9 p.m.
The Rite Spot Cafe: 2099 Folsom, San Francisco. Toshio Hirano, 8 p.m., free.
Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. Shannon Corr, 8 p.m., $25-$30.
JAZZ
Beach Chalet Brewery & Restaurant: 1000 Great Highway, San Francisco. Gerry Grosz Jazz Jam, 7 p.m.
Blush! Wine Bar: 476 Castro, San Francisco. Kally Price & Rob Reich, 7 p.m., free.
Burritt Room: 417 Stockton St., San Francisco. Terry Disley’s Rocking Jazz Trio, 6 p.m., free.
Cafe Divine: 1600 Stockton, San Francisco. Chris Amberger, 7 p.m.
Jazz Bistro at Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Clifford Lamb, Mel Butts, and Friends, 7:30 p.m., free.
Le Colonial: 20 Cosmo, San Francisco. Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, 7 p.m.
Revolution Cafe: 3248 22nd St., San Francisco. West Side Jazz Club, 5 p.m., free.
Sheba Piano Lounge: 1419 Fillmore, San Francisco. Michael Parsons, 8 p.m.
Tupelo: 1337 Green, San Francisco. Mal Sharpe’s Big Money in Jazz Band, 6 p.m.
Verdi Club: 2424 Mariposa, San Francisco. “Tuesday Night Jump,” w/ Stompy Jones, 9 p.m., $10-$12.
Wine Kitchen: 507 Divisadero St., San Francisco. Hot Club Pacific, 7:30 p.m.
Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Brenda Reed, 7:30 p.m., free.
INTERNATIONAL
Cafe Cocomo: 650 Indiana, San Francisco. Salsa Tuesday, w/ DJs Good Sho & El de la Clave, 8:30 p.m., $10.
The Cosmo Bar & Lounge: 440 Broadway, San Francisco. Conga Tuesdays, 8 p.m., $7-$10.
F8: 1192 Folsom, San Francisco. “Underground Nomads,” w/ rotating resident DJs Amar, Sep, and Dulce Vita, plus guests, 9 p.m., $5 (free before 9:30 p.m.).
REGGAE
Milk Bar: 1840 Haight, San Francisco. “Bless Up,” w/ Jah Warrior Shelter Hi-Fi, 10 p.m.
BLUES
Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. The Hound Kings, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $15.
The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. Powell Street Blues Band, 9:30 p.m.
SOUL
Make-Out Room: 3225 22nd St., San Francisco. “Lost & Found,” w/ DJs Primo, Lucky, and guests, 9:30 p.m., free. 2

Goldies 2014 Music: The Seshen

Steven T. Jones

February 18, 2014

GOLDIES “What was the latest? Afro-futurism? Afro-futurism,” says Lalin St. Juste, songwriter and lead singer in the East Bay band The Seshen, of how the somewhat un-categorizable band has been categorized by critics most recently. “Which we’re kind of OK with. It makes me think of, like, a silver afro.”

“Or, you know, like we trade in afro futures,” says keyboardist Mahesh Rao, between bites of chips and salsa, eliciting a burst of laughter from his bandmates. “Electro-soul is OK too. We were calling ourselves electro-pop for a while, but then Paris Hilton came out with a record a while back that she was calling electro-pop, and I was like, Lalin, we gotta take that off our business cards.”

Call them what you will. The sounds this seven-piece band makes are captivating, layering the soulful, Erykah Badu-reminiscent vocals of St. Juste and the musical theater-trained Akasha Orr — whose smile you can hear in her voice — with precise electronic samples, dub sounds, R&B guitar grooves, bass lines that beg to be bumped out your car window at a stoplight, and percussion that seems to borrow from at least three continents.

It’s both sexy and a little nerdy: immersive, inviting, warmer than your weirdest Radiohead, but with a chilled-out, dreamy, late-night sensibility and spirituality. It’d be just at home on an indie-rock mix as, say, Beach House, but it’s hardly background music — there’s just too damn much going on. Live, the Seshen is committed to a specific blend of electronic elements and “humanity…I think we have something really human and warm, because of the vocals, live drums, other human elements,” says percussionist Mirza Kopelman. Regardless, the band’s setup is far from straightforward; St. Juste’s custom pedal board looks like it could power a small plane. “Sound guys hate us,” offers synchronizer-sampler Kumar Butler.

People often don’t quite know what to do with them, Seshen members are the first to admit. They’ve been labeled “world music” in the past simply because, as far as they can tell, they’re seven people representing a wide range of ethnicities. But especially following the release of last summer’s spaced-out, sped-up trip-hoppy, drum-and-keyboard-driven single “2000 Seasons,” which revealed a more upbeat sound than The Seshen’s self-titled 2012 debut, hip-shaking seems to be a common reaction.

Guardian photo by Saul Bromberger and Sandra Hoover

“Some songs are meant for sitting and relaxing,” says St. Juste, “but in general, we want people to dance.” Bigger crowds and stages have followed. Playing Oakland’s Hiero Day last year, band members were overwhelmed to hear that some of their local childhood hip-hop heroes were Seshen fans, too.

It’s a rehearsal evening, which means members are sprawled around their studio — the tricked-out den of an El Cerrito house that St. Juste, producer-bassist Aki Ehara, and Orr all share — with snacks and beers and their notes about the most recent mixes of their upcoming EP, due out this spring. There’s a dartboard in one corner; a campy poster featuring the winged angel version of Michael Jackson dominates another, while D’Angelo stares across the room from an LP cover.

Just past a tiny enclave marked by a photo of Ehara’s grandfather is the producer’s recording and mixing setup — the band does it all, quite literally and very meticulously, in-house. The value of Ehara’s determined focus on the subtleties of a mix cannot be overstated, say his bandmates. In honing the band’s sound, says Ehara, he’s influenced by delving into the history of electronic music, he says, going back to John Cage and early BBC radio electronica. “That, alone, opened a whole other door for me.”

“I’ve played in a lot of bands, and I’ve never been in one that pays this much attention to detail,” says drummer Chris Thalmann. “Everyone has a really high level of expectation for what we put out there.” That perfectionism is starting to get attention: In January, they inked a deal with Tru Thoughts, an independent label out of Brighton, UK. After the EP comes out, the big plan for 2014 is to tour more — pack themselves into a 15-passenger van and find out if they get along as well on the road, stinky socks and all, as they do at home.

“We do have to corral ourselves back into working sometimes,” says Orr. “It is pretty amazing that with this many people we all really get along, but we do. We have fun, and we love each other. That part’s organic.”

“I think that’s part of what sets us apart from some electronic acts,” says Kopelman. “We’re seven people making something together. Not, you know, a mustachioed hipster on a laptop.”

www.theseshen.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOkubxzD4gY

Goldies 2014 Music: DJ NEBAKANEZA

Michael Redmond

February 18, 2014

marke@sfbg.com

GOLDIES “I don’t care how much equipment you have, how many laptops you’ve got hooked together — if you’re just making a bunch of trendy electronic sounds, if you don’t know melody or dynamics or how to really play an instrument… you aren’t making any music.”

The masked man known as DJ Nebakaneza is notorious for his dazzling and unsettling outfits, gonzo energy, brain-scrambling bass, and rollicking social media presence. He isn’t afraid to court controversy or speak his mind about what’s going on in dance music, either. But dig a little beneath the flash and bombast and a portrait of an artist as a young bass maven emerges, one brimming with deep musical knowledge, canny intellectual vision, disarming charm, and inspiring faith in his hometown scene.

It’s almost impossible to talk about Neb without including the rest of his Irie Cartel DJ crew — JohnnyFive, Mr. Kitt, Miss Haze, and Danny Weird. Irie Cartel has had a profound effect on the San Francisco dance music scene. But to understand just how much of an effect, we’ll need to run down a little history of what didn’t happen in the San Francisco clubs.

In the early 2000s a deep and throbbing apocalyptic sound from the grimier neighborhoods of London called dubstep started shaking the bass bins of the underground. By 2007, it was seeping into club nights here like Grime City, Brap Dem, and Full Melt, drawing critical interest and providing a nice complement to the minimal techno and disco revivalism that was also happening at the time.

But then a funny thing happened: mainstream America, apparently looking for a new arena-style rockout, hijacked dubstep, gutting it of all but its deep bass and catchy name. Pop artists adopted the sound, twisting it into a series of bowel-rumbling bass drops (nothing wrong with those, really), and it became known more for its fist-pumping frat party reputation than a reflection of the more angsty corners of urbanity. A wave of bro-step began washing over US clubs, threatening to wash out more subtle party expressions with its macho aggression.

Guardian photo by Saul Bromberger and Sandra Hoover

That onslaught was stopped at our borders, thanks to Irie Cartel, whose weekly Ritual dubstep nights kept the fun factor high (and the bass extremely low), but also made room for classic bass music sounds, experimental electronic showcases, and flights of melodic beauty. It still melted your face, but poetically. Irie also emphasized old school rave community spirit: At its height, in the basement of club Temple, the Ritual party included a community marketplace for people to sell their handmade wares and food. It was like a cosmic bass bazaar full of beautiful bass faces. “We’re all musically nerdy,” Neb says of his crew. “But we strip out all the ‘look at me’ ego that came with the mainstream dubstep scene.”

DJ Neb got into dubstep, in fact, as a fresh-faced youth who wandered into Grime City one night. “I spotted this flyer pasted to a wall and decided to check it out — it was at the old Anu club on Sixth Street at the time. And when I walked in, I was blown away by this wave of bass, these awesome sounds that seemed to be pulling me apart. I never looked back from there,” he told me over the phone, as he prepared to leave for a gig in Uruguay. “It seemed to pull together something that had been brewing in me somewhere. I’d always been into music. I started working at Rasputin Records as soon as I could, and would spend all my free time in there, too — just digging through bins and listening to music. My paycheck would go right back into those records. They used to pay me in music, essentially.

“As a kid, I played percussion. I went through a Janet Jackson and New Jack Swing phase, got really into hip-hop. I was deep into downtempo, trip hop, and rare groove when I started DJing. It was the whole ‘lounge era’ of nightlife, so I started getting a lot of gigs as a cocktail hour DJ. I even had a chillout show on KKSF, the smooth jazz radio station,” he laughed.

“But when the dubstep thing started blowing up for me, I realized it was time to create a new persona, and that’s when DJ Nebakaneza was born. I had to delete my previous existence. I made a ceremonial sacrifice of that guy.” Neb went on to host the Wobble Wednesdays show on Live 105 and rise to the forefront of forward-thinking yet accessible bass purveyors.

But now it’s 2014, dubstep has almost completely played itself out — bro-step wiz Skrillex’s latest shows have been billed as “playing the classics” — and Ritual is on hold. (“When dubstep became popular, Ritual suddenly had this massive influx of people who were drawn to the sound but had never been in a club before, didn’t know how to act,” Neb said. “They were spurned by a lot of our regulars, who closed ranks. But I was like, ‘We were all new at the party at one point, wouldn’t it be better to connect with these people?’ It was sad that our scene got so defensive. I wish we could have embraced the fear a little more. But we’re just giving everything a time out. Ritual will be back.”)

If dubstep is no longer an option, what’s a dubstep DJ to do?

Go back to the drawing board, of course. Last year, DJ Nebakaneza started releasing a series of exquisite mixes tapping into his vast knowledge banks. Each month he would take on a new, unexpected genre — yacht rock, rare disco, Dirty South hip-hop, instrumental funk, even emerging ones like half-time — and weave something magical from his roots. The Expansion Series is one of the most ambitious things I’ve heard a Bay Area DJ attempt, and it comes off pretty flawless.

“I was having an identity crisis,” Neb said. “Dubstep had kind of moved on, and I missed my crate-digging days. Playing those lounge sets — some of them were four or more hours long. That’s a lot of music. I missed being able to sneak all kinds of colors into it. I also missed playing the music that’s closest to my heart: Isley Brothers, James Brown, all that beautiful old funk and soul. I needed to break myself down a little to see how to move ahead.”

Currently, Neb is throwing a bass-oriented monthly party called Paradigm with fellow head Lud Dub. But he’s still planning his next sonic move. “I want something sexy, still with the bass, but a more ‘purple’ feel. Not the trap sound that’s been happening, but something deep and hot.”

Heavens, does that mean the edgy Nebakaneza persona will be tossed to the wind? “Don’t worry, Nebakaneza’s not going anywhere. And I’m still keeping the mask.”

A very Indy decade

Steven T. Jones

February 11, 2014

esilvers@sfbg.com

LEFT OF THE DIAL If there’s one thing Allen Scott remembers from opening the Independent 10 years ago, it’s the rush. Not the emotional high (though surely that was a factor too), but the literal rushing around that was necessary to open a state-of-the-art live concert space with a capacity of 500 “on a shoestring budget.”

“We barely got open on time,” recalls Scott, the managing owner of the venue at 628 Divisadero — the latest in a long line of storied San Francisco clubs that have shared that address. “We had friends painting it right up until about the day before we opened. We’d moved the sound system in but didn’t have alarms set up, so we were taking turns sleeping on the stage overnight. People would come by and say ‘When are you opening?’ and we’d say ‘In a couple days,’ and they’d laugh, like ‘Good luck with that.’ The night we opened, the fire department signing everything off while the band was sound-checking.”

That band was I Am Spoonbender, and that show was the first of more than 2,500 that have taken place within the Independent’s walls since February 2004. If the space feels like it has a deeper history than that, it’s for good reason: In the late 1960s, it was home to the Half Note, a popular jazz club that saw the likes of Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk; the house band featured George Duke and a young Al Jarreau. In the early ’80s it became the VIS Club, and served as a hub for local punk, new wave, and experimental bands; by the late ’80s it was the Kennel Club, and hosted up-and-comers like Nirvana and Janes Addiction. In the mid-’90s, it was reborn as the Justice League, nurturing burgeoning electronic and hip-hop acts — Fat Boy Slim, Jurassic 5, the Roots, and plenty others all found enthusiastic crowds. To put it mildly, if those walls could talk, they’d tell a lot of good party stories. Next week’s lineup of shows will only add to the vault: From Feb. 19 through Feb. 26, the Independent will host Allen Stone, John Butler Trio, Beats Antique, DJ Shadow, Two Gallants (below), Rebelution, and Girl Talk in a series of special performances to celebrate the club’s 10th anniversary.

As the club has changed, San Francisco — as it is wont to do — changed around it. The formerly gritty Western Addition is now shiny NoPa (at least according to real estate agents); what was once a bustling center for the city’s African-American population and jazz scene is now more of a bustling dining destination for the upper-middle-class. Regardless, says Scott, there’s no question that the Independent is “in the heart of the city…being part of this neighborhood, this community, is so important to us.”

Scott was just a young San Francisco promoter with an impressive track record when he was approached in 2003 by Gregg Perloff and Sherry Wasserman — proteges of Bill Graham and owners of the scrappy, barely-year-old concert promotion/marketing team Another Planet Entertainment — to run booking and promotions at the unopened venue.

“The name ‘The Independent’ came up through some discussions with music industry friends,” Scott told SF Weekly at the time of the club’s opening. “The whole idea of the Wal-Marting of America applies to the music industry as well. We wanted to stand alone: independent thinking, independent music. We’re an independent company. Of course, it was also an elbow in the side of the corporate giant out there.” (Perloff had just parted ways with Clear Channel under less-than-friendly circumstances.)

A decade later, of course, APE runs a couple of the biggest festivals in Northern California, and functions as the exclusive promoter for Berkeley’s Greek Theatre, Oakland’s Fox Theater, and the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, among others. And Scott’s now the vice president of APE. But The Independent, now the smallest APE operation, is still his baby.

“We wanted a utilitarian room that had great sound, great lights, and perfect sight lines,” he says. “And because it’s a box, the sight lines there really are perfect — no matter where you’re standing in the room, you can make eye contact with the performers and vice-versa. I think it’s the best-sounding room in the city. And I’d say it has the best lights of any venue underneath the size of the Fillmore.”

Nicki Bluhm is among the local artists who now regularly pack larger venues (see: her sold-out Fillmore show Jan. 25) but maintain a soft spot for the Independent. “[The club] treats their artists with so much respect,” she says, adding that the atmosphere there has led to some of her band’s most memorable shows. Also memorable, says Scott: Obama’s first presidential win, when the club held a free results-viewing party with live music. “When he won, the place erupted, and everyone spilled out into the streets…so there was a band playing inside and people just raging outside,” he recalls. “Very San Francisco.”

What does a quintessentially Brooklyn-loft-party-post-punk band sound like when two of its principal members relocate to LA? Judging by VoyAager, the lush, layered, immersively and epically spacey new album from experimental stalwarts Aa (“big A, little a”), it sounds like someone sent an assortment of synthesizers, samplers, and drum sets into the future, and the future is an industrial cityscape full of curiously advanced life forms who don’t communicate in a narrative sense, but they sure have lots of energy, and they like writing melodies (though not the kind you’ll likely hear on the radio anytime soon). Life sounds rough around the edges on this planet, but you kinda don’t ever want to leave. (Give the first track a listen at the end of this story.)

John Atkinson, the drummer-heavy band’s main vocalist and one of said members who relocated to the West Coast about three years ago, said the album — the band’s first in seven years — is actually the culmination of nearly seven years of recording. “We all work on songs together even when we’re not in the same place,” explains Atkinson, who lived (and recorded some of his parts) in France in the mid-aughts. Though Aa’s lineup and instrumentation seem to be constantly in flux (at this point, says Atkinson, there’s something of an East Coast lineup and a West Coast one), the band’s sound is distinctly more cohesive and melodic than on its 2007 debut, gAame.

“We don’t want to be making straight-ahead pop songs, but at the same time, I’d say the sounds of pop music have broadened our palette, while sticking to the way we like to put songs together,” says Atkinson. The changing lineup has helped the band’s sound evolve, as well: “Everyone listens to different music…dark industrial heavy stuff, electronic stuff, metal, punk, another drummer is into Samba, world music and jazz…everyone brings something different, so it’s great to watch that kind of stew congeal into something that still sounds like us.”

Playing the Hemlock on Feb. 15 will be the second stop on a weeklong West Coast tour that will take the guys up to Seattle, after which Atkinson will be making a point to stop at every basketball stadium he can on the way back down — the Jersey native is a fairly new appreciator (not a bandwagon fan, he wants to be clear) of California basketball.

As for the NYC/LA transition in general: “New York’s always gonna be home to me, but every time I go back, so much has changed about Brooklyn — all these condos, cookie-cutter new restaurants, and the vibe of the city is just not what it used to be,” he says, “LA is a really hard city to get to know, but that also means there’s a ton of interesting new stuff to discover all the time. It’s starting to feel like home.”

Last but definitely not least: Don’t forget to check out the first Bay Area Record Label Fair, (or B.A.R.F., which is funny whether or not you are 12, admit it), at Thee Parkside on Feb. 15, the brainchild of SF promoters Professional Fans and the city’s own Father/Daughter Records. Some 18 different labels will be represented at the daylong affair, plus live performances from Cocktails, Dog Party, and others TBD. Oh yeah, and it’s free — so bite your tongue the next time you find yourself saying that everything in this city has gotten too expensive.

The Independent’s 10th Anniversary Celebration
Feb. 19 – Feb. 26, show times and prices vary
Independent
628 Divisadero, SF
www.theindependentsf.com

Aa
With Alan Watts, Wand, and Violent Vickie
Saturday, Feb. 15 9pm, $8
Hemlock Tavern 1131 Polk, SF
www.hemlocktavern.com

B.A.R.F.
Saturday, Feb. 15 12pm – 5pm, free
Thee Parkside
1600 17th Street, SF
www.theeparkside.com

Events: February 12 – 18, 2014

Michael Redmond

February 11, 2014

Listings are compiled by Guardian staff. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Selector.

WEDNESDAY 12

Black History Month programs San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, aboard the Balclutha, Hyde St Pier, and in the Visitor Center, 499 Jefferson, SF; nps.gov/safr. Daily throughout Feb (9:30am-5pm in the Visitor Center, free): “African Americans in the Maritime Trades: A Photographic Exhibition.” Sat/15-Sun/16 (3pm in the Visitor Center, free): “The Saga of Captain William Shorey,” slide lecture. Sun/16 and Feb 23 (2:15pm aboard the Balclutha, $5): “The Great Migration in Alaska: African Americans, the Alaska Packers Association, and the Politics of Race at Sea, 1896-1929,” interactive program. Feb 22 (1-1:45pm aboard the Balclutha, $5): “Chanteys: The African American and Caribbean Connection,” musical program.

“Darwin Day Celebration” Revolution Books, 2425 Channing, Berk; www.revolutionbooks.org. 7pm, free. Presentations and videos on the topic “Evolution: What it Means for Science and the Struggle to Radically Change the World.”

Habitot Children’s Museum Valentine Play Date Habitot Children’s Museum, 2065 Kittredge, Berk; www.habitot.org. Children with special needs and their families are invited to this free afternoon of hands-on, safe, and accessible fun at the museum.

Cecile Pineda Latino Hispanic Community Room, San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin, SF; www.sfpl.org. 6:30pm, free. The Neustadt International Prize for Literature nominee, also a noted anti-war activist, reads from her award-winning first novel, Face.

San Francisco Middle School Science Fair Randall Museum, 199 Museum Wy, SF; www.randallmuseum.org. On display through Feb 21; museum hours Tue-Sat, 10am-5pm. Free. Check out all the exhibits in the 32nd annual fair, with participants hailing from 30 local public and private schools. The 200 projects on display are chosen from 4,000 total entries, with prizes going to the top three winners in each grade. Sat/15, 10am-2pm, visit the “Science Fair Fest,” celebrating the fair and engaging in interactive science experiments.

THURSDAY 13

Falu Bakrania Booksmith, 1644 Haight, SF; www.booksmith.com. 7:30pm, free. The author reads from Bhangra and Asian Underground: South Asian Music and the Politics of Belonging in Britain.

Eileen Cronin Book Passage, 1 Ferry Bldg, SF; www.bookpassage.com. 6pm, free. The author reads from Mermaid: A Memoir of Resilience.

“Curator’s Talk with Professor Al Camarillo” California Historical Society, 678 Mission, SF; www.californiahistoricalsociety.org. 6-8pm, $5. The curator and Stanford university prof discusses the exhibit “Juana Briones y Su California: Pionera, Fundadora, Curandera,” as well as the life and legacy of its subject.

“Ricky Vincent: Party Music: The Inside Story of the Black Panthers’ Band” Humanist Hall, 390 27th St, Oakl; www.humanisthall.org. 7:30pm, $15. With hip-hop historian Davey D, Marcus Books proprietor Blanche Richardson, original Black Panthers, and others.

“Valentine’s Day from Cleis Press” Books Inc., 2275 Market, SF; www.booksinc.net. 7:30pm, free. The veteran LGBT publisher visits the indie bookseller for a night of reading and romance, with authors Felice Picano, Lewis DeSimone, and Rob Rosen, plus the releases of the Best Gay Romance 2014 and Best Gay Erotica 2014 anthologies.

FRIDAY 14

Mass wedding Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza, Berk; www.downtownberkeley.com. 5pm, free. Any and all couples (queer and straight, as long as you have your IDs and a valid marriage license) can get hitched at this mass wedding to celebrate Valentine’s Day and the end of Prop 8 and DOMA; three couples will win a mini honeymoon package for dinner, hotel, theater tickets, and more Berkeley-centric gifts. Yes, there will be cake.

SATURDAY 15

Chinese New Year Spring Festival Chinese Culture Center, 750 Kearny, Third Flr, SF; www.c-c-c.org. 11am-3pm, free. This year’s theme, “Old School/New School,” is embodied by performances by Starr King Elementary School students and Pacific Wushu, as well as China Dance Theater, traditional lion dancing, calligraphy art activities, and more. Make sure to visit the exhibit Between Modern and Contemporary: Fong Chung-ray, highlighting the work of the abstract art pioneer.

“Oakland Art Murmur’s Third Saturday Guided Gallery District Tour: Developing a Critical Eye” Meet at Manna Gallery, 473 25th St, Oakl; oaklandartmurmur.org/walking-tours. 2-4pm, free. Free guided walking tour of several galleries in Uptown Oakland.

“Valentine’s Day Weekend at Playland-Not-at-the-Beach” Playland-Not-at-the-Beach, 10979 San Pablo, El Cerrito; www.playland-not-at-the-beach.org. Sat/15-Mon/17, 10am-5pm. $10-15. Special Valentine’s-themed games and prizes in addition to all of the arcade’s usual attractions: pinball, amusement devices, penny arcades, and more.

SUNDAY 16

“Ex Postal Facto Lectures” Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin, SF; www.sfpl.org. 1-4:30pm, free. Correspondence art is the topic of this lecture series, with panels entitled “The History of West Coast Mail Art” and “Artistamps and Their Makers: Seeing the World in Miniature,” plus a reception and “passport stamping.” Participants include artists Lowell Darling, Leslie Caldera, Carl Chew, and Anna Banana, as well as James Cline, James Felter, Harley, and Ginny Lloyd.

TUESDAY 18

“Capp Street Project’s 30th Birthday Party” CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, 350 Kansas, SF; www.wattis.org. 8pm, free. Celebrate the groundbreaking visual-arts residency program Capp Street Project with 1980s jams, a display of custom-crafted piñatas by Capp Street alum, and more.

Peter Mountford Booksmith, 1644 Haight, SF; www.booksmith.com. 7:30pm, free. The author reads from The Dismal Science and discusses his work with Peter Orner. *

The layout

Michael Redmond

February 11, 2014

SUPER EGO “A man, a plan, a gram: anal canal!” Why some queen just shrieked this quasi-palindrome in my earhole at 5am outside the 7-Eleven — not the Castro one, I have my pride — absolutely no idea. But the poor, bedraggled dear has a point: BE PREPARED.

Next week is the Guardian’s fab annual Goldies issue, a wall-to-wall celebration of up-and-coming artists. And there’s no room in it for your beloved Super Ego (old). So here’s looking ahead to the next hot fortnight’s-worth of shindigs. Of course, the biggest hoot of all will be the Guardian 25th Annual Goldies party (Fri/21, 8-11pm, $10. Folsom Street Foundry, 1425 Folsom, SF.) DJs Primo and Wam Bam Ashleyanne will do a special soul-groove “golden oldies” set — and it’s $10 for all the beer you can drink. Plus, duh, the coolest people. Stick it in your calendar, already.

QBERT

Last week’s SFBG cover star, scratch legend Qbert, joins with Dan The Automator, Del The Funky Homosapien, and more local hip-hop/turntable heroes for a wild time, in support of his crowdsource campaign for his new album, Extraterrestria/Galaxxxian (www.djqbert.com).

Thu/13, 9pm, $10 advance. Mezzanine, 444 Jessie, SF. wwww.mezzaninesf.com

SLOW HANDS

Talk about heartthrobs, yum. This cutie brought major sexy back to dance floors when he slowed tempos down to a crawl and let everyone stretch out. Now he’s all about crooning live and steaming things up with Tom Croose as the Worst Friends duo — also appearing at this As You Like It lovefest.

Fri/14, 10pm-4am, $10–$20. Beatbox, 314 11th St, SF. www.ayli-sf.com

JOHN TALABOT

That thing where a DJ is also a magician, creating a whole new psychedelic-ecstatic universe out of common sounds, rearranging how you hear music forever. He’s also Spanish and wears a lot of tinfoil over his face for photos. At the Icee Hot party.

Sat/15, 10pm-4am, $10 advance. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com

DISCO DADDY

There is a thing called Bear Weekend with a long and dramatic history (let’s not get into it) — and here’s this year’s fun-furry climax: DJ Bus Station John turns the Eagle leather biker bar into a glorious old school gay disco evening t-dance. Bring your own chic towel, but no Schick razors, please. “Endorsed by the Tamale Lady,” fyi.

Sun/16, 7pm-midnight, $5. SF Eagle, 398 12th St, SF. www.sf-eagle.com

HONEY SOUNSYSTEM PRESIDENTS EVE

Celebrate the presidents with Honey’s lovely residents: P-Play, Kendig, Josh Cheon, and Robot Hustle give the cute queer boys, girls, and others steamy techno all night long. (Hot straight people also eligible.)

Sun/23,10pm-4am, $10 advance. Beatbox, 314 11th St, SF. www.beatboxsf.com

GILLES PETERSON

“Rare groove” would be nothing without this absolutely incredible, omnivorous DJ. And neither would Diplo. Experience a Whole Earth Catalog of sounds in his mindblowing sets. I love him.

Fri/21, 10pm-3am, $20. Mighty, 119 Utah, SF. www.mighty119.com

CARL CRAIG + FRANCOIS K

If you know anything about dance music, you have probably just wet yourself. If not, let’s be clear: One of Detroit techno’s most poetic innovators and one of the best disco, house, and dub producers of all time will be on the decks, as part of Red Bull Music Academy Bass Camp 2014.

Sat/22, 9:30pm-3:30am, $15–$20. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com

KEVIN SAUNDERSON

Happy eighth birthday to the Lights Down Low party. And happier birthday to us dancers! LDL’s bringing in this true legend, basically one of three guys who invented techno — from Detroit, duh — and changed the world forever.

Sat/22, 9pm-3am, $15–$20. Monarch, 101 Sixth St, SF. www.monarchsf.com

PUT ON THE BREAKS

I’ve been wondering when this would happen. A breakbeat revival has been hitting the underground rave and techno connoisseur scene for a couple years. Now there’s an official dedicated party. Noice. With Kapt N Kirk, Tamo, Nerd Nate, and more.

Sat/22, 10pm-3am, free before midnight (RSVP at www.mighty119.com). Mighty, 119 Utah, SF.

HONEY DIJON

Beloved and classic DJ Nikita is headed off to London. But first he’s counting down eight monthly London Calling parties with incredible special guests, like NYC banging house royalty Honey Dijon and Tedd Patterson.

Sun/23, 2pm-2am, $10 advance. Audio, 316 11th St, SF. www.audiosf.com

Q up

Michael Redmond

February 4, 2014

MUSIC “I always wanted to know how music sounded in outer space. And with certain types of crystals you can supposedly tune into different frequencies, receive other transmissions. Often I meditate with crystals, go to sleep, and dream about music from outer space. Then I wake up, make stuff like that on the turntables, and take it from there.”

That’s a lot of there to take it from, but DJ Qbert is no stranger to mixing the cosmic with the underground. A legendary emissary of scratch who became the international representative of turntable culture in the 1990s along with his “band” Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Q has always mixed a heavy dose of Bay Area flavor into his masterly sets — which aren’t typical DJ sets by any means, but untethered, jazz-like flights during which a set of turntables and a crossfader, manipulated lightning-fast, become their own kind of spaceship. His polyrhythmic scratch concertos summon white noise, radio interference, oceanic undertow, Looney Tunes quick cuts, vintage advertising jingles, embryonic hip-hop, Big Brother menace, and fiendish, childlike glee. Great beauty, too, especially when you think of them as pure sonic expression, floating free of time and space. Not that you can’t dance your ass off to most of it, mind you.

We were talking about his new album Extraterrestria, dropping in March on the Thud Rumble label and backed by a huge Kickstarter campaign that aims not just to fund the disc, a marketing campaign and a tour, but also typical Qbert innovations like amazing touch-sensitive digital album packaging that simulates DJ controller equipment. (More details at www.djqbert.com)

“The album is actually two albums in one, two different discs,” Qbert, looking tight in a buttondown shirt and track pants, told me. “Extraterrestria is music from another galaxy, hip-hop beats from other planets, collected by the Galactic Scratch Federation. It’s as bizarre and unique as I could make it, a collection of weird noises and different time signatures with as much scratching as possible. The second disc is called Galaxxxian, which is hip-hop from earth beamed into space: raw, primitive. It features a bunch of MCs — Kool Keith, Del Tha Funky Homosapien, Mr. Lif, Soul Khan, Bambu — doing their thing, which a lot of time, you know, means going for the sex, drugs, and hip-hop and roll. We’re not quite on the extraterrestrial level, yet.”

Other biggies like Dan the Automator, Chad Hugo of the Neptunes, cellist-trombonist Dana Leong, and rapper El-P (here a producer) also contributed. “What with the recession and everything, a lot of us have been trading with each other, so we can continue collaborating. Like I’ll do a beat for your album if you do a verse on mine. Something where the money’s phased out, a barter thing. It’s put us back in touch with what’s real,” Qbert said.

TWIST THE FORCE

As we talked on the second floor of the California Academy of Sciences, the first floor was rapidly filling up for the Academy’s weekly Nightlife party, this week a launch celebration and fundraiser for Extraterrestria — and a reunion of sorts for turntablism heads, albeit one bursting with fresh young faces. As b-boys and fly girls made their way through exotic landscapes, whale skeletons, stuffed giraffes, a butterfly-flooded rainforest dome, and aquarium displays including live stingrays, giant octopi, frisky penguins, Claude the albino alligator, and phosphorescent jellyfish, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the deliciously loopy, phantasmagorical animated movie version of Qbert’s era-defining previous album Wave Twisters, released 16 years ago.

That’s a long time between official releases, but it wasn’t like Qbert had been kidnapped by aliens. Although his live performance schedule was less-than-usual bonkers, he still made regular appearances, by himself or as part of his extended Bay Area scratch crew family. He popularized turntable techniques in a series of instructional videos and launched online educational community Qbert Skratch University, in 2009. He also went all in on the equipment tip, putting out his own brand of turntable cartridges and needles, an Invisibl Skratch Piklz-branded mixer, “and of course our own vinyl to scratch with — which is really vinyl on one side and a digital interface on the other, for use with DJ software like Traktor.”

Fifteen years has also seen the rise of social media and a more user-friendly Internet. Has that changed the way he produces beats or performs at all? “Of course it’s been great for finding new sounds to use,” Qbert said. “If I want to hear, say, a tarantula farting, I can look it up instantly and hear that. On the other hand, most of my old sets are up there now, with all their mistakes, and a lot of times I’m cringing and say in a small voice, ‘Please, please let them delete that.’ It keeps me on my toes now, knowing everything can be recorded in all its glory. But because I’ve actually been working on this album for seven years, all that’s been incorporated — it’s not like a shock. I use what I can use.

“But I try not to be trapped in the present. I often think back to the past, to cats like Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong. That timeless, improvisational jazz feeling where you practice and practice, but when the time comes you’re just an instrument connecting with the god-force, channeling the sound through you, swinging through that ocean of feeling. When you’re in that zone, that’s the most wonderful thing. It’s a meditation, a spiritual thing. We’re all spirits, so we have to connect to other spirits and the most high, whatever you want to call it — God, Allah — connect to that creator source and use it because it’s yours to use. Like how some writers just flow and do that automatic writing, they’re just instruments. We’re just instruments you know, it all flows through us.”

SKRATCHING ROOTS

When Qbert, raised in SF’s Excelsior neighborhood, astonished the DJ world by winning its spun-out version of the Olympics, the DMC World Championships, not once (solo, 1991) but three more times in a row after that (as part of Rocksteady DJs with Mixmaster Mike and Apollo) it was an unparalleled triumph not just for local scratch and hip-hop community, but for Bay Area Filipino American culture as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2ZFsQjaOTI

As music critic and Guardian contributor Oliver Wang details meticulously in his forthcoming book Legions of Boom: Mobility, Identity and Filipino American Disc Jockeys in the San Francisco Bay Area (Duke University Press), a vibrant scene of Filipino mobile DJ crews — independent groups of teenage sound and lighting specialists hired to provide entertainment for weddings, graduations, and parties — thrived here since the 1970s. When hip-hop eclipsed disco on the request lists in the 1980s, the mobile crews defined streetwise Bay Area Filipino youth culture and provided a fertile training ground (and sometimes needed cash) for young DJ up-and-comers.

Qbert’s domination of the DJ world could be read as the apex of that scene, which faded in the 1990s with the rise of digital technology. And of course Qbert went on to create his own crew of fellow Filipino DJs: The Invisibl Skratch Piklz, with Shortkut, Apollo, Mix Master Mike, and several others. The Piklz went on to become insanely popular, establishing scratching and other turntable manipulations as a form of art and a highly marketable genre — turntablism — that changed the sound of hip-hop and dance music. Mix Master Mike went on to become, in essence, the fourth Beastie Boy; one early ISP member was A-Trak, current turntable-wielding heartthrob of the superstar EDM crowd.

In fact, the current popularity of turntable-rooted DJs like A-Trak and the burgeoning trip-hop and late ’90s revival makes the timing of Qbert’s return auspicious. “A-Trak runs a dance music scene and I think it’s great that he brings the scratching into it, he’s really unique in that field — so more power to him for turning on a different crowd to the sound. But for me it’s never really gone away, pure scratching. There’s a zillion underground cats who are genius at what they do — Quest, Deeandroid and Ceslkii, Disk, tons more. And maybe the widespread recognition isn’t there, maybe it isn’t in your face like it once was, but they’re all around. It’s like the guys who still do yo-yo tricks. They don’t know things have moved on. They keep practicing and practicing and doing incredible things, regardless of how many people are following. They’re always battling, always progressing. Never put down your yo-yo, man,” he laughs.

As for connecting to a new generation, working with (gasp!) turntables and (double gasp!) vinyl at this stage of DJ history is a deliberate artistic choice. Even with a resurgence of interest in analog techniques — a specific reaction to digital overload — does Qbert fear that scratching will be seen as merely a retro novelty?

“I think no one can deny that, whether you’re old or young, using a turntable to make a scratch sound — well, you can’t deny that it sounds really bugged out. How else are you going to make that sound unless you’re actually moving the sound with your own hand? Just to hold the sound and grab it, move it back and forth — that’s unique and fascinating to people. It’s like a sci-fi movie in real life, a sound that people have heard since maybe they were little kids, but one that also points to a future where man meets machine. It’s a real manipulation, a sound design in itself. What other instrument can do that?”

Strings of life

Michael Redmond

February 4, 2014

marke@sfbg.com

SUPER EGO Every year or so the plucky Kronos Quartet — our audacious yet user-friendly 40-year-old vanguard of the musical avant-garde — pops back on the scene to wow us. Last time I saw them, they opened for electronic pioneer Amon Tobin’s spectacular 3-D projection ISAM tour at the Greek Theatre, and if you don’t think a string quartet can garner deafening cheers at a giant rave, you need to hear Kronos. Before that, the foursome was at YBCA, bowing electrified fences and simulating multiple water wheels. This week the string quartet will be launching the fifth installment of its composers-under-30 showcase with an intense work by Bay Area native Mary Kouyoumdjian called Bombs of Beirut (Feb 6-9, 8pm, $20–$25. Z Space, 450 Florida, SF. www.zspace.org).

“I want to create a feeling of chaos and nostalgia,” Armenian American wiz Kouyoumdjian says of her piece, which attempts to reflect the day-to-day situation of life during the 1980s Lebanese Civil War, and which includes haunting ambient recordings taken from a balcony during the conflict. (Kouyoumdjian’s family lived through it.) She also wants to put a complex human face on ongoing Middle East conflicts — and hey, possibly remind us of that whole endless war thing still perpetuating. Maybe we want to try to stop that soon?

ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER

Stop everything; look up this ambitious, electro-drone-based Brooklynite’s video for “Boring Angel.” Then watch cerebral local opener Holly Herndon’s astounding vid for her new “Chorus” track. Yeah, that kind of incredible “life on a parallel Internet planet” stuff.

Thu/6, 10pm-3am, $17.50–$20. 1015 Folsom, SF. www.1015.com

SCUBA + DJ HELL

Brilliant producer Scuba swings from drowned-flute downtempo to punishing dub techno (although his often-confusing sexual politics turn some people off). The real news for me, though, at this Lights Down Low party is DJ Hell, who’s been slaying dance floors for three decades with his edgy, driving beats — and always has interesting hair.

Thu/6, 9pm, $18. Mezzanine, 444 Jessie, SF. www.mezzaninesf.com

HOUSE SHOES

Detroit’s phenomenal Michael Buchanan, a.k.a. House Shoes, heads up a big tribute to J. Dilla — the quintessential hypnotic-soulful beats producer whose influence can be heard in pretty much every dope hip-hop track to drop in the past decade. (Dilla died in 2006 at 32.) Also on tap: Shortkut, Mr. E and Haylow, Fran Boogie.

Fri/7, 9pm, free before midnight with RSVP at www.mighty119.com. Mighty, 119 Utah, SF.

REBOLLEDO

I love the off-kilter sense of humor this Pachanga Boy from Mexico gives off — he’ll take us on a trip to the outer reaches with a wink and smile. With catchy NYC duo Blondes and cute “screw house” dude Axel Borman at the As You Like It party.

Fri/7, 9pm-4am, $15 advance. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com

NONSTOP BHANGRA

The incredible chnagra club celebrates 100 colorful salutes to banging underground Indian dance music with a special appearance by London’s revered Punjabi MC — oh, and the dholrhythms dance troupe, live drumming and painting, the Curry Up Now truck, and DJ Jimmy Love on decks.

Sat/8, 9pm, $15 advance. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com

SKIN

An amazing-sounding new monthly from Oakland heroes Candi and DJ Cecil featuring music and rhythms of the Latin and African diasporas, kicking off with live drumming from the awesome Sistahs of the Drum, Cuban salsa lessons, and one of my absolute favorite deep house DJs Carlos Mena.

Sat/8, 8pm, $5–$10. Venue Oakland, 420 14th St, Oakl. skintones.eventbrite.com

ANGELS OF BASS

Hometown lowdown hero Ana Sia returns to shake the walls, in her initimable minimal-meets-hardcore style, with the Angels of Bass crew Jess, Tamo, Viajay, and LMCG.

Sat/8, 9pm, $15–$20. Monarch, 101 Sixth St., SF. www.monarchsf.com

KELE OKEREKE

The indie god Bloc Party frontman has been heavily invested in electronic sounds for ages. Now you can hear his selections on deck at the Isis party, one of the true success stories of the past year in terms of wicked good times and a too-cute crowd.

Sat/8, 9:30pm-3:30am, $12–$15 advance. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com

POOLSIDE

So happy for this SF-LA duo’s continued success bringing gorgeous, sun-drenched house tunes to the masses. Jeffrey Paradise and Filip Nikolic hit town again in big style, all night at Mezzanine. Bring your inflatables.

Sat/8, 9pm, $18.50. Mezzanine, 444 Jessie, SF. www.mezaninesf.com

Music Listings: Feb 5-11, 2014

January 29, 2014

WEDNESDAY 5

ROCK

Brick & Mortar Music Hall: 1710 Mission, San Francisco. The Pack A.D., 9 p.m., $10-$12.

DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. My Body Sings Electric, Belle Noire, Six Steps North, 8 p.m., $8-$10.

Hemlock Tavern: 1131 Polk, San Francisco. Man Forever, Life Coach, Brian Chase, Death Cheetah, 8:30 p.m., $6.

The Independent: 628 Divisadero, San Francisco. St. Lucia, Sir Sly, 9 p.m., sold out.

Milk Bar: 1840 Haight, San Francisco. Cool Ghouls, That Ghost, Midnight Sons, 8:30 p.m., $5.

DANCE

Beaux: 2344 Market, San Francisco. “BroMance: A Night Out for the Fellas,” 9 p.m., free.

The Cafe: 2369 Market, San Francisco. “Sticky Wednesdays,” w/ DJ Mark Andrus, 8 p.m., free.

Cat Club: 1190 Folsom, San Francisco. “Bondage A Go Go,” w/ DJs Damon, Tomas Diablo, & guests, 9:30 p.m., $5-$10.

Club X: 715 Harrison, San Francisco. “Electro Pop Rocks,” 18+ dance party, 9 p.m., $10-$20.

Elbo Room: 647 Valencia, San Francisco. “Replicant,” w/ Emotional, Zanna Nera, Sophie Ginou, plus DJs Rachel Aiello, Sky Madden, and Kerri Lebon, 9 p.m., $5.

F8: 1192 Folsom St., San Francisco. “Housepitality,” 9 p.m., $5-$10.

Harlot: 46 Minna, San Francisco. “Qoöl,” 5 p.m.

Infusion Lounge: 124 Ellis, San Francisco. “Indulgence,” 10 p.m.

Lookout: 3600 16th St., San Francisco. “What?,” w/ resident DJ Tisdale and guests, 7 p.m., free.

Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “Rock the Spot,” 9 p.m., free.

MatrixFillmore: 3138 Fillmore, San Francisco. “Reload,” w/ DJ Big Bad Bruce, 10 p.m., free.

Mezzanine: 444 Jessie, San Francisco. Skrillex, Etnik, Seven Lions, 9 p.m., sold out.

Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Booty Call,” w/ Juanita More, Joshua J, guests, 9 p.m., $3.

HIP-HOP

Skylark Bar: 3089 16th St., San Francisco. “Mixtape Wednesday,” w/ resident DJs Strategy, Junot, Herb Digs, & guests, 9 p.m., $5.

Slate Bar: 2925 16th St., San Francisco. “Special Blend,” w/ resident DJs LazyBoy & Mr. Murdock, 9 p.m., free.

Slim’s: 333 11th St., San Francisco. Action Bronson, Trash Talk, 9 p.m., $25.

Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. “Hump Day Happy Hour,” w/ Ren the Vinyl Archaeologist, 6:30 p.m., free.

ACOUSTIC

Cafe Divine: 1600 Stockton, San Francisco. Craig Ventresco & Meredith Axelrod, 7 p.m., free.

Club Deluxe: 1511 Haight, San Francisco. Happy Hour Bluegrass, 6:30 p.m., free.

Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. Warbler, Strange Ideas, Puffalo Phil & The C&W Band, 8 p.m., $6.

Plough & Stars: 116 Clement, San Francisco. Jeanie & Chuck’s Bluegrass Country Jam, First Wednesday of every month, 9 p.m., free.

JAZZ

Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. Gaucho, Eric Garland’s Jazz Session, The Amnesiacs, 7 p.m., free.

Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. Mitch Woods & His Rocket 88s, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $15.

Burritt Room: 417 Stockton St., San Francisco. Terry Disley’s Rocking Jazz Trio, 6 p.m., free.

Jazz Bistro at Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Charles Unger Experience, 7:30 p.m., free.

Le Colonial: 20 Cosmo, San Francisco. The Cosmo Alleycats featuring Ms. Emily Wade Adams, 7 p.m., free.

Savanna Jazz Club: 2937 Mission, San Francisco. “Cat’s Corner,” 9 p.m., $10.

Top of the Mark: One Nob Hill, 999 California, San Francisco. Ricardo Scales, Wednesdays, 6:30-11:30 p.m., $5.

Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. Mads Tolling Quartet featuring Kim Nalley, 8 p.m., $19-$23.

Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Anne O’Brien, First Wednesday of every month, 7:30 p.m., free.

INTERNATIONAL

Bissap Baobab: 3372 19th St., San Francisco. Timba Dance Party, w/ DJ WaltDigz, 10 p.m., $5.

Boom Boom Room: 1601 Fillmore, San Francisco. Cha-Ching, First Wednesday of every month, 9 p.m., $5.

Cafe Cocomo: 650 Indiana, San Francisco. “Bachatalicious,” w/ DJs Good Sho & Rodney, 7 p.m., $5-$10.

Make-Out Room: 3225 22nd St., San Francisco. “Frigo-Bar,” First Wednesday of every month, 8 p.m., free.

Pachamama Restaurant: 1630 Powell, San Francisco. Cafe Latino Americano, 8 p.m., $12.

REGGAE

Bottom of the Hill: 1233 17th St., San Francisco. Passafire, Ballyhoo!, Pacific Dub, 9 p.m., $12-$14.

COUNTRY

The Chapel: 777 Valencia St., San Francisco. Swinging Doors, 9 p.m., $12.

THURSDAY 6

ROCK

Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. Pat Thomas, The Cairo Gang, Tomorrows Tulips, Joseph Childress, 8 p.m., $10.

Bottom of the Hill: 1233 17th St., San Francisco. The Hounds Below, Blisses B, Growwler, 9 p.m., $10.

Hemlock Tavern: 1131 Polk, San Francisco. Nasty Christmas, Can of Beans, Courtney & The Crushers, 8:30 p.m., $5.

Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. Whitethorn Singers, Little Person, Lissy, 9 p.m., $8.

Slim’s: 333 11th St., San Francisco. Breakaway Patriot, Midnight Cinema, Pushing the Sun, They Went Ghost, 8 p.m., $13.

Thee Parkside: 1600 17th St., San Francisco. White Murder, Musk, Quaaludes, Bad Daddies, 9 p.m., $8.

DANCE

1015 Folsom: 1015 Folsom St., San Francisco. Oneohtrix Point Never, Holly Herndon, Shawn Reynaldo, Marco de la Vega, DJ Will, Chad Salty, 10 p.m., $17.50-$20 advance.

Abbey Tavern: 4100 Geary, San Francisco. DJ Schrobi-Girl, 10 p.m., free.

Aunt Charlie’s Lounge: 133 Turk, San Francisco. “Tubesteak Connection,” w/ DJ Bus Station John, 9 p.m., $5-$7.

Beaux: 2344 Market, San Francisco. “Men at Twerk,” 9 p.m., free.

The Cafe: 2369 Market, San Francisco. “¡Pan Dulce!,” 9 p.m., $5.

Cat Club: 1190 Folsom, San Francisco. “Throwback Thursdays,” ‘80s night with DJs Damon, Steve Washington, Dangerous Dan, and guests, 9 p.m., $6 (free before 9:30 p.m.).

The Cellar: 685 Sutter, San Francisco. “XO,” w/ DJs Astro & Rose, 10 p.m., $5.

Club X: 715 Harrison, San Francisco. “The Crib,” 9:30 p.m., $10, 18+.

Elbo Room: 647 Valencia, San Francisco. “Afrolicious,” w/ DJs Pleasuremaker, Señor Oz, and guests, 9:30 p.m., $5-$8.

F8: 1192 Folsom St., San Francisco. “Beat Church,” w/ resident DJs Neptune & Kitty-D, First Thursday of every month, 10 p.m., $10.

Harlot: 46 Minna, San Francisco. “Modular,” w/ Supernova, Pedro Arbulu, MFYRS, 9 p.m., $7-$10.

Infusion Lounge: 124 Ellis, San Francisco. “I Love Thursdays,” 10 p.m., $10.

Lookout: 3600 16th St., San Francisco. “Fluff: A Queer Night of House,” w/ DJs Sissyslap & Dr. Sleep, First Thursday of every month, 9 p.m., $3.

Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “Night Fever,” 9 p.m., $5 after 10 p.m.

Manor West: 750 Harrison, San Francisco. “Twerkteam Thursdays,” w/ DJ Solarz & Marcus Lee, 10 p.m., $20.

Mezzanine: 444 Jessie, San Francisco. “Lights Down Low,” w/ Scuba, DJ Hell, Richie Panic, Sleazemore, Kozee, 9 p.m., $17-$20.

Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Throwback Thursday,” w/ DJ Jay-R, 9 p.m., free.

Raven: 1151 Folsom, San Francisco. “1999,” w/ VJ Mark Andrus, 8 p.m., free.

Rickshaw Stop: 155 Fell, San Francisco. “Popscene,” w/ Moullinex, DJs Aaron Axelsen & Omar, 10 p.m., $13-$15.

Ruby Skye: 420 Mason, San Francisco. “Awakening,” w/ John Dahlback, 9 p.m., $15-$50 advance.

The Tunnel Top: 601 Bush, San Francisco. “Tunneltop,” DJs Avalon and Derek ease you into the weekend with a cool and relaxed selection of tunes spun on vinyl, 10 p.m., free.

Underground SF: 424 Haight, San Francisco. “Bubble,” 10 p.m., free.

Vessel: 85 Campton, San Francisco. “Base,” w/ No Regular Play, 10 p.m., $5-$10.

W San Francisco: 181 Third St., San Francisco. First Thursday with DJ Van Cliffe, 8:30 p.m., free with RSVP (required).

HIP-HOP

Eastside West: 3154 Fillmore, San Francisco. “Throwback Thursdays,” w/ DJ Madison, 9 p.m., free.

John Colins: 138 Minna, San Francisco. “The Premiere,” video hip-hop party with VDJ T.D. Camp, First Thursday of every month, 9 p.m., $5.

Skylark Bar: 3089 16th St., San Francisco. “Peaches,” w/ lady DJs DeeAndroid, Lady Fingaz, That Girl, Umami, Inkfat, and Andre, 10 p.m., free.

ACOUSTIC

Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. Misisipi Mike & The Midnight Gamblers, First Thursday of every month, 9 p.m.

Atlas Cafe: 3049 20th St., San Francisco. The Kentucky Twisters, 8 p.m., free.

Bazaar Cafe: 5927 California, San Francisco. Acoustic Open Mic, 7 p.m.

Milk Bar: 1840 Haight, San Francisco. Secret Town, M. Lockwood Porter, Jimbo Scott & The Hot Mess, 8 p.m., $8.

Musicians Union Local 6: 116 Ninth St., San Francisco. San Francisco Singer-Songwriters’ Workshop, hosted by Robin Yukiko, First Thursday of every month, 6:30 p.m., $25 (free for AFM members).

Plough & Stars: 116 Clement, San Francisco. The Shannon Céilí Band, First Thursday of every month, 9 p.m., free.

JAZZ

Blush! Wine Bar: 476 Castro, San Francisco. Doug Martin’s Avatar Ensemble, 7:30 p.m., free.

Cigar Bar & Grill: 850 Montgomery, San Francisco. Jimmy Grant Quartet, First Thursday of every month, 8 p.m., free.

Jazz Bistro at Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Eugene Pliner Quartet with Tod Dickow, First and Third Thursday of every month, 7:30 p.m., free.

Le Colonial: 20 Cosmo, San Francisco. Steve Lucky & The Rhumba Bums, 7:30 p.m.

Pier 23 Cafe: Pier 23, San Francisco. Sara & Swingtime, 7 p.m., free.

The Royal Cuckoo: 3202 Mission, San Francisco. Charlie Siebert & Chris Siebert, 7:30 p.m., free.

Savanna Jazz Club: 2937 Mission, San Francisco. Savanna Jazz Jam with Eddy Ramirez, 7:30 p.m., $5.

SFJAZZ Center: 205 Franklin St., San Francisco. Henry Butler, in the Joe Henderson Lab, 7 & 8:30 p.m., $30.

Top of the Mark: One Nob Hill, 999 California, San Francisco. Stompy Jones, 7:30 p.m., $10.

Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. Marcus Shelby Orchestra featuring the Dynamic Miss Faye Carol, 8 p.m., $20-$23.

Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Barbara Ochoa, 7:30 p.m., free.

INTERNATIONAL

Bissap Baobab: 3372 19th St., San Francisco. “Pa’Lante!,” w/ Juan G, El Kool Kyle, Mr. Lucky, 10 p.m., $5.

Brick & Mortar Music Hall: 1710 Mission, San Francisco. Fanfare Zambaleta, Mission Delirium, 9 p.m., $7-$10.

Pachamama Restaurant: 1630 Powell, San Francisco. “Jueves Flamencos,” 8 p.m., free.

Sheba Piano Lounge: 1419 Fillmore, San Francisco. Gary Flores & Descarga Caliente, 8 p.m.

Verdi Club: 2424 Mariposa, San Francisco. The Verdi Club Milonga, w/ Christy Coté, DJ Emilio Flores, guests, 9 p.m., $10-$15.

REGGAE

Pissed Off Pete’s: 4528 Mission St., San Francisco. Reggae Thursdays, w/ resident DJ Jah Yzer, 9 p.m., free.

BLUES

50 Mason Social House: 50 Mason, San Francisco. Bill Phillippe, 5:30 p.m., free.

Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. Grady Champion, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $22.

The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. Chris Ford, First Thursday of every month, 4 p.m.

COUNTRY

The Parlor: 2801 Leavenworth, San Francisco. “Twang Honky Tonk & Country Jamboree,” w/ DJ Little Red Rodeo, 7 p.m., free.

EXPERIMENTAL

The Luggage Store: 1007 Market, San Francisco. Christopher Luna’s Jatyantara-parinamah, Dylan Neely, 8 p.m., $6-$10.

SOUL

Boom Boom Room: 1601 Fillmore, San Francisco. West Grand Boulevard, Mama Foxxy, 9:30 p.m., $5.

Brava Theater Center: 2781 24th St., San Francisco. SF IndieFest Opening Night Bash, w/ Vokab Kompany, Gene Washington & The Ironsides, 9 p.m., $10.

FRIDAY 7

ROCK

El Rio: 3158 Mission, San Francisco. Friday Live: The Galloping Sea, DJ Emotions, 10 p.m., free.

Hemlock Tavern: 1131 Polk, San Francisco. Venus Beltran, El Terrible, I Am Animal, 9 p.m., $6.

Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. War Poets, Lance Burden, Star Anna, Neokane, 9 p.m., $10.

The Independent: 628 Divisadero, San Francisco. Lucius, You Won’t, 9 p.m., sold out.

Milk Bar: 1840 Haight, San Francisco. The Electric Magpie, Cigarette Bums, Criminal Hygiene, Sad Tires, 8:30 p.m., $5-$7.

Neck of the Woods: 406 Clement, San Francisco. The Memorials, Blood Party, Wildlife Indoors, Ever So Android, 8 p.m., $10.

Slim’s: 333 11th St., San Francisco. Fortunate Youth, Hirie, Dewey & The Peoples, Midnite Raid, 8 p.m., $16.

Sub-Mission Art Space (Balazo 18 Gallery): 2183 Mission, San Francisco. Global Affront, Point of View, Mad Judy, Communist Kayte, Ally’s Anatomy, 7 p.m., $7.

Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. House of Floyd, 8 & 10 p.m., $18-$35.

DANCE

1015 Folsom: 1015 Folsom St., San Francisco. “All S.F. Everything,” w/ The M Machine, WhiteNoize, Tenderlions, Manics, Niteppl, more, 10 p.m., $17.50 advance.

Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. “Brass Tax,” w/ resident DJs JoeJoe, Ding Dong, Ernie Trevino, Mace, First Friday of every month, 10 p.m., $5.

Audio Discotech: 316 11th St., San Francisco. Oxia, Dax, Martin Aquino, John Kaberna, 9:30 p.m., $10 advance.

BeatBox: 314 11th St., San Francisco. “Soul Krush,” w/ KINGMCK, 10 p.m., $10-$20.

Beaux: 2344 Market, San Francisco. “Manimal,” 9 p.m.

Cafe Flore: 2298 Market, San Francisco. “Kinky Beats,” w/ DJ Sergio, 10 p.m., free.

The Cafe: 2369 Market, San Francisco. “Boy Bar,” w/ DJ Matt Consola, 9 p.m., $5.

Cat Club: 1190 Folsom, San Francisco. “Strangelove: 9-Year Anniversary,” w/ DJs Tomas Diablo, Joe Radio, Andy T, Daniel Skellington, Sage, Netik, Fact.50, Unit 77, and Mz. Samantha, 9:30 p.m., $7 ($3 before 10 p.m.).

The Cellar: 685 Sutter, San Francisco. “F.T.S.: For the Story,” 10 p.m.

The Chapel: 777 Valencia St., San Francisco. Bluetech, Christopher Willits, Manitous, Swoonz, Michelangelo, 10 p.m., $15-$20.

The EndUp: 401 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Trade,” 10 p.m., free before midnight.

The Grand Nightclub: 520 Fourth St., San Francisco. “We Rock Fridays,” 9:30 p.m.

Harlot: 46 Minna, San Francisco. “The Animal Party: Mythical Love,” w/ Traviswild, Lisbona, The Maurice, 9 p.m., $10-$20 advance.

Infusion Lounge: 124 Ellis, San Francisco. “Flight Fridays,” 10 p.m., $20.

Lookout: 3600 16th St., San Francisco. “HYSL: Handle Your Shit Lady,” 9 p.m., $3.

Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “Dirty Rotten Dance Party,” w/ Kap10 Harris, Shane King, guests, First Friday of every month, 9 p.m., $5.

Manor West: 750 Harrison, San Francisco. “Fortune Fridays,” 10 p.m., free before 11 p.m. with RSVP.

MatrixFillmore: 3138 Fillmore, San Francisco. “F-Style Fridays,” w/ DJ Jared-F, 9 p.m.

Mezzanine: 444 Jessie, San Francisco. “Future Fridays,” w/ Twrk, ElCoolJ, Tech Minds, Tchphnx, 9 p.m., $10.

Monarch: 101 6th St., San Francisco. Lee Coombs, Syd Gris, Ethan Miller, Kimba, 9 p.m., $10-$15 advance.

OMG: 43 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Release,” 9 p.m., free before 11 p.m.

Powerhouse: 1347 Folsom, San Francisco. “Nasty,” First Friday of every month, 10 p.m., $5.

Public Works: 161 Erie, San Francisco. “As You Like It,” w/ Rebolledo, Blondes, Axel Boman, Conor, Mossmoss (in the main room), 9 p.m., $10-$15.

Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Pump: Worq It Out Fridays,” w/ resident DJ Christopher B, 9 p.m., $3.

Ruby Skye: 420 Mason, San Francisco. Digitalism (DJ set), 9 p.m., $20 advance.

Slate Bar: 2925 16th St., San Francisco. “Haçeteria,” w/ Heatsick, Jason P, Smac, Tristes Tropiques, and Nihar, 10 p.m., $10.

Temple: 540 Howard, San Francisco. DJ Enfo, DJ E20, BFMJ, DJ Tone, DJ Von, 10 p.m., free.

Underground SF: 424 Haight, San Francisco. “Bionic,” 10 p.m., $5.

Vessel: 85 Campton, San Francisco. “Blitz,” w/ Charity Strike, Key Method, Genesis, 10 p.m., $10-$30.

Wish: 1539 Folsom, San Francisco. “Bridge the Gap,” w/ resident DJ Don Kainoa, Fridays, 6-10 p.m., free; “Depth,” w/ resident DJs Sharon Buck & Greg Yuen, First Friday of every month, 10 p.m., free.

HIP-HOP

EZ5: 682 Commercial, San Francisco. “Decompression,” Fridays, 5-9 p.m.

F8: 1192 Folsom St., San Francisco. Soulection Paradise Tour 2014, w/ Esta, The Whooligan, GoldenChyld, Vinroc, Dubstantial, PRZNR., 10 p.m., $5-$10.

Mighty: 119 Utah, San Francisco. “… This One Is for Dilla,” w/ DJs House Shoes, Shortkut, Mr. E, and Haylow, 9 p.m., free before midnight with RSVP.

Red Devil Lounge: 1695 Polk, San Francisco. KRS-One, Ren the Vinyl Archaeologist, 8 p.m., $25.

ACOUSTIC

Bazaar Cafe: 5927 California, San Francisco. The Shelby Foot Three, 7 p.m.

The Sports Basement: 610 Old Mason, San Francisco. “Breakfast with Enzo,” w/ Enzo Garcia, 10 a.m., $5.

St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church: 2097 Turk, San Francisco. First Fridays Song Circle, First Friday of every month, 7 p.m., $5-$10.

Thee Parkside: 1600 17th St., San Francisco. The Dead Westerns, The Human Condition, The Parmesans, 9:30 p.m., $7.

JAZZ

Atlas Cafe: 3049 20th St., San Francisco. Jazz at the Atlas, 7:30 p.m., free.

Beach Chalet Brewery & Restaurant: 1000 Great Highway, San Francisco. Johnny Smith, 8 p.m., free.

Bird & Beckett: 653 Chenery, San Francisco. Don Prell’s SeaBop Ensemble, First Friday of every month, 5:30 p.m., free.

Center for New Music: 55 Taylor, San Francisco. Jon Raskin 60th Birthday Concert, w/ Rova Saxophone Quartet, The Fab Lab, The Long Table Project, 8 p.m., $10-$15.

Jazz Bistro at Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Charles Unger Experience, 7:30 p.m., free.

The Palace Hotel: 2 New Montgomery, San Francisco. The Klipptones, 8 p.m., free.

Red Poppy Art House: 2698 Folsom, San Francisco. Amendola vs. Blades, 7:30 p.m., $15-$20.

SFJAZZ Center: 205 Franklin St., San Francisco. Henry Butler, in the Joe Henderson Lab, 7 & 8:30 p.m., $35.

Top of the Mark: One Nob Hill, 999 California, San Francisco. Black Market Jazz Orchestra, 9 p.m., $10.

Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Joyce Grant, 8 p.m., free.

INTERNATIONAL

Bissap Baobab: 3372 19th St., San Francisco. “Paris-Dakar African Mix Coupe Decale,” 10 p.m., $5.

Brick & Mortar Music Hall: 1710 Mission, San Francisco. Lagos Roots, Cha-Ching, 9 p.m., $9-$12.

Cafe Cocomo: 650 Indiana, San Francisco. Taste Fridays, featuring local cuisine tastings, salsa bands, dance lessons, and more, 7:30 p.m., $15 (free entry to patio).

New Dehli Restaurant: 160 Ellis, San Francisco. Vintage Glam Bollywood Style Party, 6 p.m., $65-$95.

Pachamama Restaurant: 1630 Powell, San Francisco. Cuban Night with Fito Reinoso, 7:30 & 9:15 p.m., $15-$18.

REGGAE

Gestalt Haus: 3159 16th St., San Francisco. “Music Like Dirt,” 7:30 p.m., free.

Showdown: 10 Sixth St., San Francisco. “How the West Was Won,” w/ Nowtime Sound, First Friday of every month, 10 p.m., free.

BLUES

Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. Grady Champion, 7:30 & 10 p.m., $22.

Lou’s Fish Shack: 300 Jefferson St., San Francisco. Robert “Hollywood” Jenkins, 6 p.m.

Tupelo: 1337 Green, San Francisco. Jinx Jones & The KingTones, First Friday of every month, 9 p.m.

COUNTRY

Plough & Stars: 116 Clement, San Francisco. The Bitter Diamonds, Bob Spector, 9 p.m.

EXPERIMENTAL

Joe Goode Annex: 401 Alabama, San Francisco. Pamela Z & Christina McPhee’s Carbon Song Cycle, Feb. 7-8, 8 p.m., $12-$25.

FUNK

Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. Swoop Unit, First Friday of every month, 6 p.m., $3-$5.

Make-Out Room: 3225 22nd St., San Francisco. “Loose Joints,” w/ DJs Centipede, Damon Bell, and Tom Thump, 10 p.m., $5-$10.

SOUL

Edinburgh Castle: 950 Geary, San Francisco. “Soul Crush,” w/ DJ Serious Leisure, 10 p.m., free.

The Knockout: 3223 Mission, San Francisco. “Oldies Night,” w/ DJs Primo, Daniel, Lost Cat, friends, First Friday of every month, 10 p.m., $5.

SATURDAY 8

ROCK

Bender’s: 806 S. Van Ness, San Francisco. Kicker, Assbackwards, Reckless, 10 p.m., $5.

Bottom of the Hill: 1233 17th St., San Francisco. Shearwater, Jesca Hoop, Cazadero, 9:30 p.m., $12.

El Rio: 3158 Mission, San Francisco. Here Come the Saviours, The Cold & Lovely, Face Tat, 9 p.m., $8.

Hemlock Tavern: 1131 Polk, San Francisco. Tony Molina, Life Stinks, Violent Change, Swiftumz, 9 p.m., $6.

Milk Bar: 1840 Haight, San Francisco. SpiralArms, Zed, The Devil in California, Gypsy Flight, 8:30 p.m., $8-$10.

Slim’s: 333 11th St., San Francisco. Mad Caddies, illScarlett, United Defiance, 9 p.m., $18.

Thee Parkside: 1600 17th St., San Francisco. Before the Brave, Rio Rio, Girls in Suede, 1955, 9 p.m., $10.

DANCE

Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. “2 Men Will Move You,” w/ DJs Primo & Jordan, Second Saturday of every month, 9 p.m.

Audio Discotech: 316 11th St., San Francisco. “Konnekted,” w/ Stefan Biniak, J. Remy, 9:30 p.m., $10 advance.

Cafe Flore: 2298 Market, San Francisco. “Bistrotheque,” w/ DJ Ken Vulsion, 8 p.m., free.

Cat Club: 1190 Folsom, San Francisco. “Club Gossip: Cure Night,” w/ DJs Damon, Shon, Low-Life, Daniel Skellington, and Panic, 9 p.m., $5-$8 (free before 9:30 p.m.).

DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. “Bootie S.F.,” w/ A+D, DJ Dada, Brother Darkness, A Boy Named Art, Meikee Magnetic, Mixtress ShiZaam, Airsun, Chucky Brown, more, 9 p.m., $10-$15.

Elbo Room: 647 Valencia, San Francisco. “Tormenta Tropical,” w/ Ape Drums, 2 Deep, Oro11, DeeJay Theory, 10 p.m., $5-$10.

The EndUp: 401 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Dose,” w/ Cosmic Selector, Jeff Taisch, Dutch, Zach Moore, Billy Casazza, Vitamindevo, Mystr Hatchet, Sonny Daze (afterhours starts 2 a.m. Sunday morning).

The Grand Nightclub: 520 Fourth St., San Francisco. “Love Generation,” w/ Steve Smooth, 10 p.m., $20-$30.

The Hot Spot: 1414 Market, San Francisco. “Love Will Fix It,” w/ DJ Bus Station John, Second Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., $5.

Infusion Lounge: 124 Ellis, San Francisco. “One Way Ticket Saturdays,” w/ Eric D-Lux, Second Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., $20.

The Knockout: 3223 Mission, San Francisco. “Galaxy Radio,” w/ resident DJs Smac, Emils, Holly B, and guests, Second Saturday of every month, 9 p.m., free.

Lookout: 3600 16th St., San Francisco. “Bounce!,” 9 p.m., $3.

Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “Music Video Night,” w/ DJs Satva & 4AM, Second Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., $5.

Mezzanine: 444 Jessie, San Francisco. “Blow Up Forever,” w/ Poolside (DJ set), Vito & Duzzi, Tropicool, DJ Dials, 9 p.m., $15.

Mighty: 119 Utah, San Francisco. “Salted,” w/ DJ Spinna, Miguel Migs, Julius Papp, 10 p.m., $10-$15 advance.

Monarch: 101 6th St., San Francisco. Angels of Bass, Ana Sia, 9 p.m., $15-$20.

Neck of the Woods: 406 Clement, San Francisco. USF Don-A-Roo After Party, w/ Caked Up, Bixel Boys (on the upstairs stage), 10 p.m., $15-$20.

OMG: 43 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Fixup,” Second Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., $5 (free before 11 p.m).

Public Works: 161 Erie, San Francisco. “Isis,” w/ Kele Okereke; Hi, Today; Brittany B (in the OddJob Loft), 9:30 p.m., $12-$15.

Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Shoop!,” w/ DJs Tommy T & Bryan B, Second Saturday of every month, 9 p.m.

Rickshaw Stop: 155 Fell, San Francisco. “Cockblock,” w/ DJ Koslov & Ms. Jackson, 10 p.m., $10.

Ruby Skye: 420 Mason, San Francisco. Benny Benassi, Dvbbs, Tall Sasha, 9 p.m., $20-$55 advance.

Slate Bar: 2925 16th St., San Francisco. “The KissGroove S.F.,” w/ DJ Vinroc & The Whooligan, Second Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., free.

The Stud: 399 Ninth St., San Francisco. “Frolic,” w/ DJs Nightkat, Ikkuma, Blue, and NeonBunny, 8 p.m., $8 ($4 in costume).

Sub-Mission Art Space (Balazo 18 Gallery): 2183 Mission, San Francisco. “Batcave S.F.,” w/ Inferno of Joy, plus DJs Necromos, Lori Lust, and Burning Skies, 9:30 p.m., $5.

Temple: 540 Howard, San Francisco. James Egbert, Kid Alien, Philt3r, Rich Era, Airavata, Random, Sausee, 10 p.m., $20.

Vessel: 85 Campton, San Francisco. The Disco Fries, Wallace, 10 p.m., $10-$30.

Wish: 1539 Folsom, San Francisco. “All Styles & Smiles,” w/ DJ Tom Thump, Second Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., free.

HIP-HOP

111 Minna Gallery: 111 Minna St., San Francisco. “Back to the ‘90s,” Second Saturday of every month, 9:30 p.m., $10.

Brick & Mortar Music Hall: 1710 Mission, San Francisco. DJ Touré (with Casual, London, Dolla Will, Emakulant, and Word Up), Mars Today (with Sayknowledge, Cait La Dee, Alex Lee, Shamila Ivory, and Lilan Kane), DJ Sake One, 9 p.m., $10.

Double Dutch: 3192 16th St., San Francisco. “Cash IV Gold,” w/ DJs Kool Karlo, Roost Uno, and Sean G, Second Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., free.

John Colins: 138 Minna, San Francisco. “Second Saturdays,” w/ resident DJ Matt Cali, Second Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., free.

Showdown: 10 Sixth St., San Francisco. “The Shit Show,” w/ resident DJ Taurus Scott, Second Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., two for $5.

ACOUSTIC

Atlas Cafe: 3049 20th St., San Francisco. Craig Ventresco and/or Meredith Axelrod, Saturdays, 4-6 p.m., free.

Bazaar Cafe: 5927 California, San Francisco. Songwriters in the Round with Alex Jimenez, Starr Saunders, and Scarth Locke, 7 p.m., free.

The Chapel: 777 Valencia St., San Francisco. Marc Broussard, Jenn Grinels, Andy Suzuki, 9 p.m., $25-$30.

Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. Annie Lin, Cynthia Lin & The Blue Moon All Stars, Terry Matsuoka, Catherine Nguyen, 9 p.m., $7-$10.

Plough & Stars: 116 Clement, San Francisco. Daniel Seidel, 9 p.m.

The Riptide: 3639 Taraval, San Francisco. The Rock Soup Ramblers, 9:30 p.m., free.

Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. Duncan Sheik, 8 & 10 p.m., $21-$34.

JAZZ

Jazz Bistro at Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Bill “Doc” Webster & Jazz Nostalgia, 7:30 p.m., free.

Savanna Jazz Club: 2937 Mission, San Francisco. Gina Harris & Torbie Phillips, 7:30 p.m., $10.

SFJAZZ Center: 205 Franklin St., San Francisco. Henry Butler, in the Joe Henderson Lab, 7 & 8:30 p.m., $40.

Sheba Piano Lounge: 1419 Fillmore, San Francisco. The Robert Stewart Experience, 9 p.m.

Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Brenda Reed, 8 p.m., free.

INTERNATIONAL

1015 Folsom: 1015 Folsom St., San Francisco. “Pura,” 9 p.m., $20.

Bissap Baobab: 3372 19th St., San Francisco. Misión Flamenca, Monthly live music and dance performances., Second Saturday of every month, 7:30 p.m. “Paris-Dakar African Mix Coupe Decale,” 10 p.m., $5.

Boom Boom Room: 1601 Fillmore, San Francisco. La Gente, Sol Tevél, DJ Kush Arora, 9:30 p.m., $10-$15.

Cafe Cocomo: 650 Indiana, San Francisco. Jerry Rivera, 8 p.m.

The Independent: 628 Divisadero, San Francisco. LoCura, Ziek McCarter, 9 p.m., $14-$16.

Make-Out Room: 3225 22nd St., San Francisco. “El SuperRitmo,” w/ DJs Roger Mas & El Kool Kyle, 10 p.m., $5 before 11 p.m.

Pachamama Restaurant: 1630 Powell, San Francisco. Eddy Navia & Pachamama Band, 8 p.m., free.

Public Works: 161 Erie, San Francisco. “Non Stop Bhangra,” w/ Panjabi MC, J-Boogie, Mandeep Sethi, DJ Jimmy Love, DJ Rav-E, Dholrhythms dance troupe, more (in the main room), 9 p.m., $15-$20.

Red Poppy Art House: 2698 Folsom, San Francisco. Maria José Montijo, 7:30 p.m., $10-$15.

Space 550: 550 Barneveld, San Francisco. “Club Fuego,” 9:30 p.m.

BLUES

Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. Karen Lovely, 7:30 & 10 p.m., $22.

Lou’s Fish Shack: 300 Jefferson St., San Francisco. Eldon Brown, 6 p.m.

The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. Dave Workman, Second Saturday of every month, 4 p.m.

EXPERIMENTAL

Joe Goode Annex: 401 Alabama, San Francisco. Pamela Z & Christina McPhee’s Carbon Song Cycle, Feb. 7-8, 8 p.m., $12-$25.

SUNDAY 9

ROCK

Amoeba Music: 1855 Haight, San Francisco. Secret Chiefs 3, 1:30 p.m., free.

Brick & Mortar Music Hall: 1710 Mission, San Francisco. The Sour Notes, The Tropics, Upstairs Downstairs, Dreadnought, 7:30 p.m., $5-$8.

Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. Incan Abraham, The Alternates, 8 p.m., $10-$12.

Milk Bar: 1840 Haight, San Francisco. Septacy, Known to Collapse, Even Gods Can Die, 8 p.m., $5-$7.

DANCE

Beaux: 2344 Market, San Francisco. “Full of Grace: A Weekly House Music Playground,” 9 p.m., free.

The Cellar: 685 Sutter, San Francisco. “Replay Sundays,” 9 p.m., free.

The Edge: 4149 18th St., San Francisco. “’80s at 8,” w/ DJ MC2, 8 p.m.

Elbo Room: 647 Valencia, San Francisco. “Dub Mission,” w/ MC Champian & Roots Hi Fi, DJ Sep, J-Boogie, 9 p.m., $6 (free before 9:30 p.m.).

The EndUp: 401 Sixth St., San Francisco. “T.Dance,” 6 a.m.-6 p.m.; “The Rhythm Room,” w/ Deron Delgado, Brian Salazar, Mario Dubbz, Christian Intrigue, J.J. Shay, Joe Lanzon, 8 p.m.

F8: 1192 Folsom St., San Francisco. “Stamina,” w/ Calyx, Teebee, Jamal, Lukeino, 10 p.m., free.

The Independent: 628 Divisadero, San Francisco. Delorean, Until the Ribbon Breaks, 8 p.m., $18-$20.

The Knockout: 3223 Mission, San Francisco. “Sweater Funk,” 10 p.m., free.

Lookout: 3600 16th St., San Francisco. “Jock,” Sundays, 3-8 p.m., $2.

MatrixFillmore: 3138 Fillmore, San Francisco. “Bounce,” w/ DJ Just, 10 p.m.

Otis: 25 Maiden, San Francisco. “What’s the Werd?,” w/ resident DJs Nick Williams, Kevin Knapp, Maxwell Dub, and guests, 9 p.m., $5 (free before 11 p.m.).

The Parlor: 2801 Leavenworth, San Francisco. DJ Marc deVasconcelos, 10 p.m., free.

Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Gigante,” 8 p.m., free.

Temple: 540 Howard, San Francisco. “Sunset Arcade,” 18+ dance party & game night, 9 p.m., $10.

HIP-HOP

Boom Boom Room: 1601 Fillmore, San Francisco. “Return of the Cypher,” 9:30 p.m., free.

ACOUSTIC

Bazaar Cafe: 5927 California, San Francisco. Ukuladies & Gentleman, 6 p.m.

The Lucky Horseshoe: 453 Cortland, San Francisco. Bernal Mountain Bluegrass Jam, 4 p.m., free.

Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “Spike’s Mic Night,” Sundays, 4-8 p.m., free.

Plough & Stars: 116 Clement, San Francisco. Seisiún with Marla Fibish, Erin Shrader, and Richard Mandel, 9 p.m.

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church: 1755 Clay, San Francisco. “Sunday Night Mic,” w/ Roem Baur, 5 p.m., free.

JAZZ

Jazz Bistro at Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Bill “Doc” Webster & Jazz Nostalgia, 7:30 p.m., free.

Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “Sunday Sessions,” 10 p.m., free.

Martuni’s: 4 Valencia, San Francisco. Madame Jo Trio, second Sunday of every month, 4-6 p.m., free.

Pier 23 Cafe: Pier 23, San Francisco. The Robert Stewart Experience, 5 p.m., free.

Revolution Cafe: 3248 22nd St., San Francisco. Jazz Revolution, 4 p.m., free/donation.

The Royal Cuckoo: 3202 Mission, San Francisco. Lavay Smith & Chris Siebert, 7:30 p.m., free.

SFJAZZ Center: 205 Franklin St., San Francisco. Henry Butler, in the Joe Henderson Lab, 5:30 & 7 p.m., $30.

Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Amanda King, 7:30 p.m., free.

INTERNATIONAL

Atmosphere: 447 Broadway, San Francisco. “Hot Bachata Nights,” w/ DJ El Guapo, 5:30 p.m., $10 ($18-$25 with dance lessons).

Bissap Baobab: 3372 19th St., San Francisco. “Brazil & Beyond,” 6:30 p.m., free.

El Rio: 3158 Mission, San Francisco. “Salsa Sundays,” Second and Fourth Sunday of every month, 3 p.m., $8-$10.

Old First Presbyterian Church: 1751 Sacramento, San Francisco. Wooden Fish Ensemble, 4 p.m., $5-$17.

Thirsty Bear Brewing Company: 661 Howard, San Francisco. “The Flamenco Room,” 7:30 & 8:30 p.m.

REGGAE

Slim’s: 333 11th St., San Francisco. Morgan Heritage, The Simpkin Project, 9 p.m., $26.

BLUES

Lou’s Fish Shack: 300 Jefferson St., San Francisco. Nat Bolden, 4 p.m.

The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. Blues Power, 4 p.m.

Sheba Piano Lounge: 1419 Fillmore, San Francisco. Bohemian Knuckleboogie, 8 p.m., free.

Swig: 571 Geary, San Francisco. Sunday Blues Jam with Ed Ivey, 9 p.m.

Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. Ana Popovic, 7 p.m., $24-$28.

COUNTRY

The Riptide: 3639 Taraval, San Francisco. Joe Goldmark & The Seducers, Second Sunday of every month, 7:30 p.m., free.

Thee Parkside: 1600 17th St., San Francisco. “Twang Sunday All-Girl Country Showdown,” w/ Laura Benitez & The Heartache, The Bootcuts, 4 p.m., free.

SOUL

Delirium Cocktails: 3139 16th St., San Francisco. “Heart & Soul,” w/ DJ Lovely Lesage, 10 p.m., free.

MONDAY 10

ROCK

Bottom of the Hill: 1233 17th St., San Francisco. Bit Brigade, Mega Ran, Crashfaster, Danimal Cannon, Gnarboots, 9 p.m., $10.

Brick & Mortar Music Hall: 1710 Mission, San Francisco. Waters, 9 p.m., $6.

The Independent: 628 Divisadero, San Francisco. Augustines, My Goodness, 8 p.m., $13-$15.

DANCE

DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. “Death Guild,” 18+ dance party with DJs Decay, Joe Radio, Melting Girl, & guests, 9:30 p.m., $3-$5.

Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Wanted,” w/ DJs Key&Kite and Richie Panic, 9 p.m., free.

Underground SF: 424 Haight, San Francisco. “Vienetta Discotheque,” w/ DJs Stanley Frank and Robert Jeffrey, 10 p.m., free.

ACOUSTIC

Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. The Pick Bluegrass Jam, Second Monday of every month, 6 p.m., free; Toshio Hirano, Second Monday of every month, 9 p.m., free.

The Chieftain: 198 Fifth St., San Francisco. The Wrenboys, 7 p.m., free.

Fiddler’s Green: 1333 Columbus, San Francisco. Terry Savastano, 9:30 p.m., free/donation.

Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. Open Mic with Brendan Getzell, 8 p.m., free.

Osteria: 3277 Sacramento, San Francisco. “Acoustic Bistro,” 7 p.m., free.

The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. Peter Lindman, 4 p.m.

JAZZ

Jazz Bistro at Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Eugene Pliner Quartet with Tod Dickow, 7:30 p.m., free.

Le Colonial: 20 Cosmo, San Francisco. Le Jazz Hot, 7 p.m., free.

Sheba Piano Lounge: 1419 Fillmore, San Francisco. City Jazz Instrumental Jam Session, 8 p.m.

Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Nora Maki, 7:30 p.m., free.

REGGAE

Skylark Bar: 3089 16th St., San Francisco. “Skylarking,” w/ I&I Vibration, 10 p.m., free.

BLUES

The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. The Bachelors, 9:30 p.m.

EXPERIMENTAL

Center for New Music: 55 Taylor, San Francisco. “Breaking the Sound,” w/ Aram Shelton & Philip White, Jessie Marino, Blood Wedding, 7:30 p.m., $10-$15.

SOUL

Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “M.O.M. (Motown on Mondays),” w/ DJ Gordo Cabeza & Timoteo Gigante, 8 p.m., free.

TUESDAY 11

ROCK

Bottom of the Hill: 1233 17th St., San Francisco. Dave Davison, The Great Work, The Soonest, 9 p.m., $10-$12.

The Knockout: 3223 Mission, San Francisco. A Million Billion Dying Suns, What Fun Life Was, Lemme Adams, 9:30 p.m., $6.

Rickshaw Stop: 155 Fell, San Francisco. Hospitality, Air Waves, Matt Kivel, 8 p.m., $10-$12.

Slim’s: 333 11th St., San Francisco. Kid Congo Powers & The Pink Monkey Birds, Wax Idols, Dancer, DJ Omar, 8 p.m., $15.

Thee Parkside: 1600 17th St., San Francisco. Buffalo Tooth, The Blast, 8 p.m., $5.

DANCE

Aunt Charlie’s Lounge: 133 Turk, San Francisco. “High Fantasy,” w/ DJ Viv, Myles Cooper, & guests, 10 p.m., $2.

Harlot: 46 Minna, San Francisco. “Tutu Tuesday,” w/ resident DJ Atish, Second Tuesday of every month, 9 p.m., $7 ($2 in a tutu before 11 p.m.).

Hotel Nikko: 222 Mason, San Francisco. “Saké & Sound,” w/ Brian Salazar & DJ SteelE, 7 p.m., free.

Monarch: 101 6th St., San Francisco. “Soundpieces,” 10 p.m., free-$10.

Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Switch,” w/ DJs Jenna Riot & Andre, 9 p.m., $3.

Underground SF: 424 Haight, San Francisco. “Shelter,” 10 p.m., free.

Wish: 1539 Folsom, San Francisco. “Tight,” w/ resident DJs Michael May & Lito, 8 p.m., free.

HIP-HOP

Double Dutch: 3192 16th St., San Francisco. “Takin’ It Back Tuesdays,” w/ DJs Mr. Murdock & Roman Nunez, Second Tuesday of every month, 10 p.m., free.

ACOUSTIC

Bazaar Cafe: 5927 California, San Francisco. Songwriter in Residence: Paige Clem, continues through Feb. 25.

Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. Porkchop Express, He Who Cannot Be Named, Piss Pissedoffherson, 8 p.m., $8.

Plough & Stars: 116 Clement, San Francisco. Seisiún with Barry O’Connell & Vinnie Cronin, 9 p.m.

JAZZ

Beach Chalet Brewery & Restaurant: 1000 Great Highway, San Francisco. Gerry Grosz Jazz Jam, 7 p.m.

Blush! Wine Bar: 476 Castro, San Francisco. Kally Price & Rob Reich, 7 p.m., free.

Burritt Room: 417 Stockton St., San Francisco. Terry Disley’s Rocking Jazz Trio, 6 p.m., free.

Cafe Divine: 1600 Stockton, San Francisco. Chris Amberger, 7 p.m.

Jazz Bistro at Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Clifford Lamb, Mel Butts, and Friends, 7:30 p.m., free.

Le Colonial: 20 Cosmo, San Francisco. Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, 7 p.m.

Revolution Cafe: 3248 22nd St., San Francisco. West Side Jazz Club, 5 p.m., free.

Tupelo: 1337 Green, San Francisco. Mal Sharpe’s Big Money in Jazz Band, 6 p.m.

Verdi Club: 2424 Mariposa, San Francisco. “Tuesday Night Jump,” w/ Stompy Jones, 9 p.m., $10-$12.

Wine Kitchen: 507 Divisadero St., San Francisco. Hot Club Pacific, 7:30 p.m.

Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. Tommy Igoe Big Band, 8 p.m., $22.

Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Anya Malkiel, 7:30 p.m., free.

INTERNATIONAL

The Cosmo Bar & Lounge: 440 Broadway, San Francisco. “Conga Tuesdays,” 8 p.m., $7-$10.

F8: 1192 Folsom St., San Francisco. “Underground Nomads,” w/ rotating resident DJs Amar, Sep, and Dulce Vita, plus guests, 9 p.m., $5 (free before 9:30 p.m.).

REGGAE

Milk Bar: 1840 Haight, San Francisco. “Bless Up,” w/ Jah Warrior Shelter Hi-Fi, 10 p.m.

BLUES

Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. Kyle Rowland, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $15.

Boom Boom Room: 1601 Fillmore, San Francisco. Dr. Mojo, 9:30 p.m., free.

EXPERIMENTAL

Center for New Music: 55 Taylor, San Francisco. sfSoundSalonSeries, w/ Bonnie Jones & Andrea Neumann Duo, Danishta Rivero, 7:49 p.m., $10-$15.

FUNK

Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “Boogaloo Tuesday,” w/ Oscar Myers & Steppin’, 9:30 p.m., free.

SOUL

Make-Out Room: 3225 22nd St., San Francisco. “Lost & Found,” w/ DJs Primo, Lucky, and guests, 9:30 p.m., free.

To the occasion

Michael Redmond

January 28, 2014

arts@sfbg.com

DANCE Now in its 19th season, Robert Moses’ Kin offered up a three-part program, “RISE,” this past weekend at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. “RISE” contained two world premieres — Profligate Iniquities and The Slow Rise of a Rigid Man — and a reprise of last year’s ambitious NEVABAWARLDAPECE. It was an evening in which Moses’ 14-member ensemble showcased its individualities, and presented rich perspectives on two very different pieces of choreography. The dancers would have been even more appreciated if they could have been seen better. For some reason, David K. H. Elliott’s lighting design favored darkness; at times, it was so murky that it wasn’t easy to see who did what, where.

For Profligate, Moses chose a selection of glorious Sephardic music that evoked the cultural complexity of southern Spain before the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. Tiffany Snow’s brightly lit sukkah, the temporary and fragile dwelling associated with the High Holy Days, suggested a place of respite.

The duets that made up the majority of Profligate explored a wide range of relationships, yet all of them seemed to have a touch of anger and distrust to them. There was weariness in the way Katherine Wells and Brendan Barthel circled each other, with Wells bursting into limb-shaking explosions. Yet they finished by going off together into the darkness. Standing tall and self-assured, Crystaldawn Bell barely glanced at Victor Talledos, who crawled and slithered in her direction like something emerging from below the earth. They shared a couple of promising dominance encounters, but then she sent him off.

Norma Fong, fiery and fierce, and Dexandro Montalvo, the man with the loosest hips, went at each other like two different forces. When he swung her, she defiantly stared at us.

Individually, the duets were strongly delineated, beautifully showing off these fine dancers — including major solos by Carly Johnson in her second year with the company, and Jackie Goneconti in her first. But Profligate was too episodic. It dragged. It needed some thread, some trajectory to tie the individual parts together.

The evening’s second premiere was Artistic Director Moses in the modest but well-focused The Slow Rise of A Rigid Man, a solo he created for himself. The work is part of a project about family, Blood in Time, which Moses began in 2000.

Dressed in a flowing coat and wide pants, the dancer looked heavier than he is in real life. Walking calmly into the spotlight, Moses started a movement conversation with David Worm (heard on tape), a founding member of the SoVoSo singing group. His rich baritone roamed in a free-flowing but wide-ranging manner through the topic of emptiness, perhaps aging. Moses started with simple warm-up movements in place, repeatedly wishing his knee into action. As he began to spread into space, you could still see young Moses with ODC/Dance in the fluidity of his gestures. But every step, every turn has been distilled, not from memories but from a recognition of the now. At one point, he reached both arms high, perhaps to embrace Worm. Though modest in language, Slow resonated.

I had feared that without the live music and text that was such a major part of last year’s NEVABAWARLDAPECE (“never will be there a world of peace”), its reprise would lose power. In dance terms, it was made richer through the simple addition of four dancers — the unisons, for instance, whether simply sitting on the sidelines, working their way in line formations across the stage, or observing the action from the wings. However, the 45-minute work did not come more into focus.

The major issue seemed to be Carl Hancock Rux’s overwhelming text that ranges from ancient to contemporary injustices. His words thundered across the stage like some invisible doomsayer’s. Since we are more wired to absorb information aurally than visually that can’t be helped, but it put a big burden on the dance.

Often the stage looked like an arena for struggle. Jeremy Bannon-Neches gesturing and leaping as if attacked, Wells whipping through turns as if pursued, and Montalvo drawing on his hip-hop roots to tear into the fray. Even the gorgeously long-limbed Bell seemed besieged when simply standing still. In their solos, Goneconti and Johnson seemed as unstoppable as the passage of time. At one point two dancers appeared to be nailed to a wall, quite arbitrarily. And yet among these incidences, there were welcome moments of quiet, passages of waiting, and a double circle folk dance when everybody seemed to be on the same page.

The last image was of Montalvo vigorously gyrating his hips with some overhead comment about being creative, because that’s all we have. A noble thought, perhaps, but not enough to pull this ambitious project into focus. *

Death and life

Michael Redmond

January 21, 2014

cheryl@sfbg.com

FILM This week, the African Film Festival National Traveling Series touches down at the Pacific Film Archive, bearing seven features and a number of shorts. The only film to have previous local distribution is Andrew Dosunmu’s Mother of George, about a Nigerian couple living in Brooklyn whose marriage is tested when the wife — played by Walking Dead badass Danai Gurira; her husband is Jim Jarmusch muse Isaach De Bankolé — fails to become pregnant with the son her in-laws demand. The gorgeous photography earned Bradford Young (who also lensed Ain’t Them Bodies Saints) a cinematography prize at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, and, appealing cast aside, his work is the main reason to catch George on the big screen.

The strongest film in the festival is the one that closes it: David Tosh Gitonga’s crime drama Nairobi Half Life, submitted by Kenya as its first Best Foreign Language Film contender last year. Though it didn’t make the Oscar shortlist (frankly, it was a tough year for foreign films, with Amour claiming all major accolades), it’s easy to see why it made the cut. It’s the not-unfamiliar tale of a rural dreamer named Mwas (the charismatic Joseph Wairimu) who sets out to pursue an acting career in the big city (“where the devil lives,” according to his mother). His improv skills are on point, but he is completely gullible, which makes him a prime target as soon as he arrives in “Nairobbery.”

Urban life offers many hard lessons, whether it’s Mwas finding his place in the gang he joins as a means of survival, or overcoming the snooty dismissals of the professional actors he enounters at theatrical auditions. In both realms, he gets in over his head, but he’s a quick thinker and a talented hustler, which gives him an edge his opponents tend to underestimate. If Nairobi Half Life‘s script leans a little heavily on Mwas being caught between two worlds (alternate title suggestion: Nairobi Double Life), its energy is infectious and its presentation is polished — props to producer Tom Twyker (1998’s Run Lola Run, 2012’s Cloud Atlas), whose One Fine Day Film Workshop guided its making.

Director Lonesome Solo’s more rough-hewn and downbeat Burn It Up Djassa also weaves a tale of desperation that culminates in violence, this time in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast’s largest metropolis. Again, there’s a conflicted young man at its center: Tony, or “Dabagaou” (as he’s known in the ‘hood), whose rise from cigarette seller to killer on the run is shared via a streetwise narrator who lays down story beats like a hip-hop version of Shakespeare; his scenes are the most cinematic amid what feels like an otherwise largely improvised effort. And indeed, Burn It Up Djassa builds to a tragedy of Bardian proportions. You’ll see it coming, but it’s wrenching nonetheless.

Death is the main character in Alain Gomis’ Dakar-set Tey, or “today,” which takes place in a world that resembles ours but with one key supernatural difference: Those who are about to die are given 24-hour advance notice. One morning, seemingly healthy fortysomething Satché wakes up with the grim knowledge that this is his last day. By the same mysterious power, those closest to him — his family, friends, a bitter former lover, and his wife (though not, it seems, his young children) — are also made aware. Though there’s a certain amount of wailing from his older relatives, Satché accepts his fate, drifting through a day that begins with a sort of living funeral, in which both praise and criticism are lobbed at him, and leads into a raucous street parade and hang time with friends.

As the day grows longer, it turns more melancholy; he visits the man who’ll be preparing his corpse for burial, who reminds Satché he’s lucky to know when his time is up so he has a chance to say his good-byes. But Tey isn’t a total bummer of a movie — it has a dreamy quality and moments of humor, as when Satché shows up late to a ceremony held in his honor, but can’t find anything to eat or drink at the completely pillaged catering table. That this dead man walking is played by American slam poet Saul Williams (though Satché is Senegalese) adds to his inherent outsider vibe. The ticking clock breaks down any forced politeness in his encounters, particularly with his wife, which gives us an idea of what he like was before he knew he was about to die.

End-of-life issues also dominate Akosua Adoma Owusu’s Kwaku Ananse, one of three films composing “Between Cultures: Recent African Shorts” (the other two, Faisal Goes West and the Quvenzhané Wallis-starring Boneshaker, were not available for preview; among the features, Damien Ounouri’s documentary Fidaï, a portrait of his Algerian freedom-fighting great uncle, was also unfortunately unavailable). Kwaku Ananse casts the West African trickster character, Anansi (Americans know him from classic children’s book Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti), as its main character’s recently-deceased father. The young woman has come to his Ghanan village for his funeral, and to confront the second family he was keeping on the side. The 25-minute work slowly becomes more fairy tale-like as it progresses, anchored by a solemn but fiery performance by lovely star Jojo Abot.

Elsewhere in the fest, a mockumentary from Cameroon (banned in Cameroon, not coincidentally) about what would happen if the president suddenly disappeared (Le Président) is paired with short Nigerian doc Fuelling Poverty; both examine deep-seated corruption in troubled, post-colonial economies. And for a completely different audience (ages seven and up) is Rémi Bezançon and Jean-Christophe Lie’s Zarafa, the animated story of a young boy who escapes slavery in Africa and becomes enmeshed in the remarkable, mostly true story of the first giraffe to take up residence in France. *

AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL 2014

Jan. 25-Feb. 26, $5.50-$9.50

Pacific Film Archive

2575 Bancroft, Berk.

bampfa.berkeley.edu

Slice of local soul

Steven T. Jones

January 14, 2014

LEFT OF THE DIAL Looking back with the sense of perspective that four and a half decades can provide, the year 1969 seems almost implausibly momentous. The US government instated the draft for Vietnam. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. John and Yoko got in bed and stayed there; Jimi shred the Star-Spangled Banner. And the Mets were really, really good.

In San Francisco, Sly and the Family Stone went into the studio — Pacific High Recording, on a tiny street near the 101 between Market and Mission, to be specific—and emerged with a record that would change the course of funk and soul music forever. Stand! was the fourth album from the Vallejo-bred seven-piece, catapulting into the mainstream a band the likes of which popular music had never seen: Two white folks and five black folks, both men and women, who sang about racism, poverty, peace and violence, sex, and other provocative topics in an honest yet irresistably danceable way. At the wheel was Sly Stone (born Sylvester Stewart), a charismatic sometime-soul DJ for SF radio stations and a musical prodigy of sorts who played the keyboard, guitar, bass and drums by age 11.

The record sold more than 3 million copies, propelled by singles like the title track, “Everyday People,” and “I Want to Take You Higher.” It was the apex of the band’s success. Three months later, they would give one of the best performances of their career at Woodstock, at 3:30am on a Sunday. By the end of 1969, after a move to LA, Sly and other Family Stone members were addicted to cocaine; by 1970, tensions were brewing in the studio and on the road. Despite producing a handful of other critically acclaimed records, drug problems and personal rifts grew steadily, and the band dissolved in 1975.

Still: “There are two types of black music,” wrote Joel Selvin in Sly and the Family Stone: An Oral History. “Black music before Sly Stone, and black music after Sly Stone.”

Of the 100-plus Bay Area musicians participating in “UnderCover Presents: Sly and the Family Stone’s Stand!” Jan. 17-19, it’s safe to say most came of age in the latter era — regardless of ethnicity — with popular music that bore Stone’s influence. For three consecutive nights at the Independent, nine artists from diverse genres will recreate the iconic album from start to finish, with each band performing its own unique arrangement of the track they were assigned. A record of all the performances was produced at San Francisco’s Faultline Studios in the weeks leading up to the show.

UnderCover has been producing large-scale shows like this every few months for the a little over three years, each time honoring an influential album with a different bill of Bay Area bands and a different guest musical director: Past shows have included reinterpretations of Joni Mitchell’s Blue, Nick Drake’s Pink Moon, and Radiohead’s Kid A. But Stand! represents new ground for a couple reasons: From a technical standpoint, the sheer quantity of musicians participating is daunting, thanks to guest director David Möschler’s 50-person Awesöme Orchestra, a Berkeley-based collective that holds monthly orchestral rehearsals that are free and open to anyone who wants to play.

Perhaps more importantly, this will be the first show honoring a local musician — one whose legacy still commands so much local respect. Recruiting bands who were excited about the chance to honor Sly and the Family Stone, says Möschler, was the easy part.

“If you’re talking innovation, if you’re talking community, if you’re talking Bay Area, that’s Sly,” says Möschler, a Berkeley-based musical director and conductor who comes from the world of orchestra and musical theater. “It was a natural choice.” He pitched Lyz Luke, UnderCover’s director, after being “blown away” by the Joni Mitchell show last January. Möschler said it was time for an Undercover show highlighting an artist of color — and that, while tribute nights to Michael Jackson, Prince and even Stevie Wonder are in no short supply, Sly’s oeuvre seemed to be under-trodden territory.

Why Stand!? “Every song is so powerful and yet so economical. There are these huge political statements — ‘Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey,’ ‘Everyday People,’ ‘You Can Make It If You Try’ — but it’s also just extremely good songwriting. And then there’s this 13-minute jam with ‘Sex Machine,'” says Möschler with a laugh. “You can hear that they were at the height of their creative powers as a band.”

Möschler reached out to Bay Area artists that felt like family bands, as Sly’s was. Seemingly impossibly, every artist, from the acclaimed jazz composer/bassist Marcus Shelby to the hip-hop/funk/Latin 10-piece Bayonics, listed a different first choice of song to cover.

“I think we said yes within two minutes,” says Daniel Blum, drummer for the Tumbleweed Wanderers, a folky soul-rock outfit who’ll be performing “Everyday People.” “We were huge fans of the band, but we didn’t want to fall into just covering the song. We played with harmonies, added some signatures of our sound.” Aside from the thrill of reinterpreting Stone’s music, UnderCover presented a rare opportunity to work with a slew of other artists the band respected, said Blum.

“Every show we do, we have artists tell us that they made connections they might never have otherwise, saying ‘You have to keep doing this,'” says Luke. She had the idea for UnderCover late one night three years ago, over drinks at the Latin American Club with Jazz Mafia founder Adam Theis and Classical Revolution’s Charith Premawardhana, then stayed up until morning crafting a dream-team lineup. “Our very first show [a Velvet Underground and Nico night in which Liz Phair and Third Eye Blind’s Stephan Jenkins took part], there were musicians running out from backstage just to see the next band, exchanging numbers afterward — they were in awe of each other.”

Theis has since watched the shows evolve as both an organizer and a musician. Though it hasn’t been the case with this show, “More than one previous UnderCover artist has told me that they actually didn’t really dig the song they ended up with at first, but that it brought them to a place where they had to dig and search for what the song meant to them,” says Theis, whose ensemble will be performing “You Can Make It If You Try.” “For me, that’s brought me to new musical places that I never would have gotten to just by staying in my comfort zone.”

Speaking of comfort zones: Nothing’s official, but this may be the first UnderCover show featuring members of the band being honored. Sly Stone famously fell on hard times in the early ’80s, suffering from addiction, financial problems and alleged mental illness; the musician, who is believed to live in Vallejo again, has made public appearances only sporadically since. But at least a few other original members have happily said they’ll be there. And Sly definitely knows about the show, thanks to Jeff Kaliss, a former Chronicle entertainment reporter who in 2008 penned the only authorized biography of the band, including the first in-depth interview with the elusive musician in over two decades. The verdict: Sly supposedly thinks it sounds “very cool.”

“The number of people from Sly’s community who have reached out has been truly amazing,” says Luke. “We’re talking major, famous funk guys going ‘We’re on board, we’ll help you. I think the community was waiting for this. I don’t think I realized what he means to the Bay Area.”

UnderCover Presents Sly & the Family Stone’s “Stand!”

Fri/17 – Sun/19

The Independent

628 Divisadero, SF

www.theindependentsf.com/

Ignore less

Michael Redmond

January 7, 2014

culture@sfbg.com

CAREERS AND ED Often called the first feminist, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz could well be your guiding spirit heading into this bright new year. Born in 1651 in colonial Mexico, Sor Juana defied societal expectations about women at the time to study herself into becoming one of the smartest people in New Spain. She became a nun rather than marry, and eventually amassed one of the largest libraries in the Americas.

One of Sor Juana’s enduring catch phrases was “I don’t study to know more, but to ignore less,” a prettily humble bon mot from a woman who constantly had to defend her right to learn. Sadly, threats of censure by the church slowed her educational roll — but nonetheless, her unlikely influence on the fight for women’s rights is still honored today.

Will you ignore less in the new year? Surely there are fewer obstacles in your way than Sor Juana’s. Here are some excellent ways to engage with the world around you in 2014.

FEMINIST BOOK CLUB FOR MEN

So you say you’re a boor? For all the menfolk — or anyone, really — boggled by feminism, this monthly book club may be the ticket. Held at Noisebridge, the Mission’s tech learning center (check its calendar for amazing, mainly free classes and meetups), the club will start with bell hooks’ Feminism is for Everybody and feature conversations about how to be the best ally possible. All gender identities welcome.

Second Wednesdays starting Wed/8, 7pm, free. Noisebridge, 2169 Mission, SF. www.noisebridge.net

BEGINNING STAND-UP COMEDY

The stand-up school with the most working comedians on staff of any similar institution in the country wants to get you in front of an exposed brick wall talking about your boyfriend’s crazy roommate.

Wednesdays Jan. 8-Feb. 12, 6pm, $239-279. SF Comedy College, 442 Post, Fifth Fl., SF. www.sfcomedycollege.com

REGGAETON FUSION DANCE

Instructor Tika Morgan explores the hip-hop, dancehall, Cuban salsa, and other influences that create the pounding rhythms of reggaeton.

Wednesdays, 8-9:30pm, $13. Dance Mission Theater, 3316 24th St., SF. www.dancemission.com

LGBT COUNTRY-WESTERN DANCE

Two-step, skiffle, country swing, and waltz your way through these inclusive country-western lessons and dance parties run by community advocates Sundance Association.

Thursdays 5:30pm, Sundays 7pm, $5. Sundance Saloon, 550 Barneveld, SF. www.sundancesaloon.org

CHOW QIGONG BASICS

Learn about qigong, the Chinese chi-balancing practice that involves breathing, other physical movements, and mental exercises. This free class is taught by Effie Chow, a qigong grandmaster who founded her East West Academy of Healing Arts here in 1973, and has served on White House advisory boards concerning alternative medicine.

Fri/10, 7-9pm, free. Polish Club, 3040 22nd St., SF. tinyurl.com/qigongsf

MEDIA LITERACY

Support your local community college through its battle to retain its accreditation by enrolling in one of its class offerings — there’s no charge for non-credit courses (though you may have to buy books and materials). This class examines the hidden and explicit messages sent out through mass media, and helps students pinpoint how these cues affect the decisions that they and other members of society make.

Fridays Fri/10-May 23, 8am-12:50pm, free. City College of San Francisco, 1125 Valencia, SF. www.ccsf.edu

STAND-UP PADDLING

Start at the Aquatic Center next to Fisherman’s Wharf where you’ll learn safety and equipment basics, then head down with this SF Rec and Park class to Lake Merced’s scenic bird estuary to get down on some core-strengthening, stand-up paddle boarding action. Bring your own wetsuit, kiddies — it gets cold on those waters!

Sat/11, 1-4pm, free. Aquatic Park, Beach and Hyde, SF. www.sfrecpark.org

INTRODUCTION TO GRAPHIC AND WEB DESIGN

To do anything these days, you need a website. To have a website, you need a web designer. So basically, you may need to sign up for one of the Bay Area Video Coalition’s intro courses on dynamic layouts and client interfaces so that you can continue living your life as a functional citizen in 2014.

Sat/11-Sun/12, 10am-6pm, $595. Bay Area Video Coalition, 2727 Mariposa, SF. www.bavc.org

MAGNIFICENT MAGNOLIAS

With 51 species of this lovely, placid bloom sprinkling the premises, the San Francisco Botanical Garden is the perfect place to learn about the majesty of the magnolia. The garden offers daytime walks if you’re scared of the dark, but we think the nocturnal stroll sounds divine.

Jan. 16, 6-8pm, $20. Register in advance. SF Botanical Garden, Ninth Ave. and Lincoln, Golden Gate Park, SF. www.sfbotanicalgardensociety.org

INDOOR CANNABIS HORTICULTURE

Sure the price tag is steep for this class on raising buds in bright indoor light, but you’ll be supporting your green thumb and your local pot movement institution, which has surfed the tsunami of federal persecution and will live to blow clouds right through legalization (we reckon).

Thursdays Jan. 16-March 20, 10:30am-1pm, $1,195. Oaksterdam University, 1734 Telegraph, Oakl. www.oaksterdamuniversity.com

HYPNOTIC RESTORATIVE YOGA

Accessing the subconscious’s potential for healing is the name of the game in this extremely mellow yoga class, during which you’ll be put into a trance-like state through a hybrid method developed by a Reiki, yoga, and hypnotherapy professional. The dream state is said to be highly beneficial for psychic health -– and sounds hella fun.

Jan. 18, 2:30-5:45, $40-50. Yoga Tree Telegraph, 2807 Telegraph, Berk. www.yogatreesf.com

MEZCAL MASTER CLASS

Each month La Urbana, the chic new taqueria on Divisadero, hosts fancy mezcal tastings. But you’re not just getting your drink on: A different producer of the agave-based spirit comes in each time to present a signature mezcal alongside tales of its production. Educated boozery, this is it.

5-6pm, $10-15. La Urbana, 661 Divisadero, SF. mezcalmasterclasses.eventbrite.com

FAN DANCING

Valentine’s Day (sorry for any unwanted reminders) is on its effusive, heart-shaped way, giving you the perfect excuse for you to drop in on this class with Sin Sisters Burlesque co-founder Balla Fire to learn how to swish, conceal, and reveal with the best of them for your sweetheart.

Jan. 21, 7-9pm, $30. Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission, SF. www.sexandculture.org

INEXPENSIVE AND INCREDIBLE: HOW TO SPOT GREAT VALUE WINE

Does paying $40 to learn how to parse affordable wines make sense? Depends on how many bottles of Cab Sauv you’re consuming — and one would think that after partaking in this one-off seminar with Bar Tartine’s old wine director Vinny Eng, that tally will increase.

Jan. 22, 7-9pm, $40. 18 Reasons, 3674 18th St. SF. www.18reasons.org

WORLD OF FISH

A full weekend of learning about ways to cook fish from around the globe will go on at this friendly North Beach cooking school (which tends to book up its workshops early, so book now). On the menu: black cod poached in five-spice broth, brodo di pesce, and much more.

Feb. 1-2, 10am-3pm, $385. Tante Marie’s Cooking School, 271 Francisco, SF. www.tantemaria.com

PORTRAITURE UNVEILED

Do you have a staring problem? Fix your gaze on this 10-session course including anatomy tips, representational tricks, and a focus on the art of portraiture.

Thursdays, Feb. 6-April 10, 6:30-9:30pm, $360. California College of the Arts, 1111 Eighth St., SF. www.cca.edu

THE BASICS OF BUDGETING AND SAVING

If the only thing you can depend on in this wacky 2014 is yourself, it’s time to hone those financial security skills. This free class is held once a month at the LGBT Community Center, and should give you a couple things to think about when it comes to money management.

Feb. 11, 6:30-8:30pm, free. LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market, SF. www.sfcenter.org

HERBS FOR FLUS AND COLDS

In addition to a more long-running courses and a by-donation, student-staffed herbal health clinic that is open to the public, Berkeley’s Ohlone Herbal Center offers practical classes in Western herbalism for regular folks. Your loved ones will thank you for brushing up with this one — it teaches preventative anti-cold and flu measures, and home remedies for when you inevitably catch something. Yes, tea is provided during classtime.

Feb. 12, 7-9:30pm, free. Register at ohlonecenter@gmail.com. Ohlone Herbal Center, 1250 Addison, Berk. www.ohlonecenter.org

AIN’T I A WOMAN? MY JOURNEY TO WOMANHOOD

If you are looking for educational opportunites as to changing the face of culture, look no further than this public lecture hosted by the California Institute of Integral Studies. For two hours, Orange is the New Black breakout star Laverne Cox will discuss her journey to becoming the most visible black transwoman on television (not to mention the first ever to produce and star in her own program with VH1’s “TRANSForm Me”). The talk won’t be lacking in looks-ahead to the important activism that still remains for Cox and her allies.

March 19, 7-9pm, $25-75. Nourse Theater, 275 Hayes, SF. www.ciis.edu

EVENT SPONSORSHIP

You will finally be able to get that organic farmstand delivery service to sponsor your yearly watermelon seed-spitting contest (or whatever) after you take this crash course on getting money to hold events. The secrets to obtaining event sponsorships are divulged during this one-day class: how to pitch potential partners, going market rates, and more, all in a group discussion-centric format.

April 26, 9am-5pm, $300. San Francisco State University Downtown Campus, 835 Market, SF. www.sfsu.edu

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