Music

Main Attrakionz

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Main Attrakionz

Why is Oakland’s Main Attrakionz (www.mainattrakionz.com) on the rise? It’s because everybody’s talking about it, and with good reason. Last year’s massive 808s & Dark Grapes II mixtape wowed the underground hip-hop world, and with every passing month the act — rapper-producer Squadda B and rapper Mondre M.A.N. — catches the attention of yet another publication, and yet another rising producer — there have been collaborations with A$AP Rocky, Clams Casino, Kool A.D. of Das Racist and Danny Brown, among others.

The cloud-rap duo got a write-up on the Guardian’s Noise blog in December in which writer Frances Capell effused, “Main Attrakionz is carving out its own place in hip-hop by pioneering a new sub-genre” and later, “a refreshing realness runs throughout Main Attrakionz’s lyrics.” In 2012 there will be solo mixtapes from both rappers, along with the collaborative effort Bossalini’s & Fooliyones. With all this skill and regard it’s easy to forget how young the crew really is, it got its start in high school — way back in 2007.

Description of sound: Really can’t describe it. All of our music sounds different.

What do you like most about the Bay Area music scene: The fact that only we know what they talking about.

What piece of music means the most to you and why: The beat to “Da Art of Storytellin” by Outkast featuring Slick Rick, produced by Mr. DJ. It just reminds me of my childhood staying up to watch Rap City countdown and the song was usually number one. Whenever I hear the beat, I think of the puppets in the video.

Favorite local eatery and dish: Buffet Fortuna in Downtown Oakland; chow fun noodles

Who would you most like to tour with: Lil Wayne; as far as performances go, he’s gotta be the top rapper who been performing 10+ years. I wanna learn how he stays ready and energetic for all these years.

Metal Mother

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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0
Metal Mother

Like some sort of neon, acid-drenched wood nymph, Metal Mother’s (metalmother.bandcamp.com) Tara Tati wanders through the leafy, NSFW video for the haunting art-pop “Shake” off last year’s Bonfire Diaries and into the mind’s eye. In 2012, there will be a first trip to SXSW, more videos (yay!), a few remixes, and, fingers crossed, another full length out toward the end of this year. And as the shimmering Tati says, she’ll “Continue dismantling the mundane and mediocre thought systems that are ruling the planet.”

Tati and her band, which came together shortly after the release of Bonfire proved most theatrical of the Guardian photoshoot, with glittering headpieces and flexible posing. In setting up the right headspace for a photo Tati at one point explained, “I imagine we’re on a wind-torn beach in Scotland.” Appropriate given the band’s atmospheric sound. Before embarking on tour, Metal Mother will play Disco Volante on March 3 (347 14 St., Oakl. www.discovolanteoakland.com)

Description of sound: Post-apocalyptic-art-wave.

What do you like most about the Bay Area music scene: Oakland (where I live) has the feeling of being a fairly insulated city, and I think because it feels like we’re off the mainstream radar a bit, in combination with the massive artist population, there’s more support here for being ‘experimental’ and trying new things, than there is for being traditional. There’s this intense camaraderie, like it’s all for one and one for all, yet at the same time, there’s a crazy bullshit filter that really keeps us all in our most authentically creative place.

What piece of music means the most to you and why: The piece that’s recently gotten the most consistent play on my iPod is Sufjan Stevens’ latest album, Age of Adz. I’ve realized that most music that has lasting power for me usually has some symphonic, classical element to it, and he really nailed it with this album. Its masterfully produced; the arrangements are shockingly complex yet have this unyielding elegance that still gets me all emotional. To me, it’s a perfect blend of sweetness, humility, passion, and absurdity; there’s never a dull moment!

Favorite local eatery and dish: Tacubaya in Berkeley, all the vegetarian dishes are amazing. My favorite is probably the ‘seasonal vegetable’ tamales.

Who would you most like to tour with: It’s a tie between Sufjan Stevens and Bjork.

Dirty Ghosts

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Dirty Ghosts

After her other bands naturally fizzled, Allyson Baker was done. “I was burnt,” says the hard-rocking guitarist, clad in her signature black leather jacket, with a rocker’s fringe of black bangs framing her face. Luckily for us, she got the rock’n’roll bug again around 2006, and picked up the pieces for a new project — Dirty Ghosts (www.dirtyghosts.com). Since then the act has gone through a dozen formations, with even more drummers, but one thing remains consistent: Baker herself, a Joan Jett-esque force on stage and off.

Over the past few years the singer-guitarist has recorded and rerecorded a core set of 10 songs, some with the digital help of her husband rapper Aesop Rock, others with session musicians and creative pals. She’ll finally release the full length LP Metal Moon (Last Gang Records) Feb. 21. A few days later (Feb. 23) she’ll play an unofficial album release show as part of Noise Pop’s 20th anniversary (9 p.m., $10–$20. Brick and Mortar, 1710 Mission, SF. www.brickandmortarmusic.com). The year is Baker’s for the taking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GvupEc9oB0

Description of sound: 1960s funk, ’70s rock, ’80s new wave, ’00s R&B, good times/bad times.

What do you like most about the Bay Area music scene: I think this city has a musical history that’s one of the best and most unique, so even to able to exist in the place where that happened I think is pretty special.

What piece of music means the most to you and why: New Age by Chrome. It’s so simple and it’s got all of the elements. It’s perfect.

Favorite local eatery and dish: I don’t wanna be boring and say the super burrito at Cancún which is my real answer, so the margarita pizza at Una Pizza Napoletana

Who would you most like tour with: Swiftumz.

Localized Appreesh: Ash Reiter

Tony Robles
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Localized Appreesh: Ash Reiter

Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.

Call it youthful summer abandon or fresh-baked pop, but there’s something about Ash Reiter’s song and Perez Bros-directed video “Heatwave” that melts the ice of a chilled and cubed SF day. Whether it’s the the lilting melody, surfy plucking, stoop sing-along, or the perfectly-cast ice cream man offering up too many dripping frozen treats, it’s hard to wipe that sticky grin off your face. That is, until you see the ice cream man’s crestfallen face, realizing it’s just too much sugar.

Fun fact: Ash Reiter is both the cheery lead singer/elementary school music teacher, and the eponymous band name. The indie pop five-piece has played with MGMT and been featured on Daytrotter, released the Heatwave EP late last year and followed that up with Christmas in California. About to embark on a Pacific Northwest tour, Ash Reiter will celebrate its return to SF with a Noise Pop show Feb. 21 at Bottom of the Hill. But before all of that, a stop at Amnesia this week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l26Z6BLirU

Year and location of origin: 2008 in the East Bay.

Band name origin: My mom and pops gave it to me. In college my band was called Drunken Boat (like the Rimbaud poem) but another band by the same name started hassling me about so I decided to just go by my own name.

Band motto: What would Paul McCartney, Bryan Wilson, The Strokes, Feist, Grizzly Bear, The Talking Heads, or Jolie Holland do?

Description of sound in 10 words or less: Sunny intelligent retro indie pop with a folk twist.

Instrumentation: Ash – guitar, vocals, Will – drums, vocals, Drew – guitar, Scott – bass, Anthony – keys, vocals

Most recent release: Six song EP – Heatwave. Plus we’re mixing a full-length called Hola right now.

Best part about life as a Bay Area band: I’m from here but I’m always discovering new places and people. I like living close to my nana.

Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: Touring – you have to drive so far to get to the next big city- it’s not like East Coast where you can pop from city to city.

First record/cassette tape/or CD ever purchased: Prince’s Batman Soundtrack.

Most recent record/cassette tape/CD/or Mp3 purchased/borrowed from the Web: St Vincent – Actor is my latest purchase and obsession.

Favorite local eatery and dish: House of Curries – chicken tikka masala with potato nan.

Ash Reiter
With Chrystian Rawk (record release), Anna Ash, and the Heather Band
2/4, 9 p.m., $7
Amnesia
853 Valencia, SF
(415) 970-0012
www.amnesiathebar.com

Bangarang: DIY hip-hop collective Doomtree is back

Tony Robles
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Bangarang: DIY hip-hop collective Doomtree is back

There’s something undeniably envy-inducing about a music collective. Everyone lives their separate lives yet they have continuing influence on one another; they hover nearby for comfort and camaraderie, maintain a steadfast family, and encourage a breeding ground for creatives. The emcees, DJs, lyricists, and producers in the Twin Cities-based DIY hip-hop collective/label Doomtree seem to have that system down pat. Under their own monikers, they create praise-worthy individual records. Together, the group carves out quality time and records masterpieces.

“Every year we do an end of the year, label showcase at First Avenue which is kind of like our legacy club in Minneapolis” says sole female emcee Dessa (Maggie Wander) as the group van careens down the mountains in some “white, alien-looking terrain” a week into a tour that takes it to San Francisco this week. 

“We initially started doing that show as a test of our own draw. Over the years it’s morphed into this like, pagan celebration of the preceding year,” she adds. “It’s hours of music together, you can see how much time we’ve spent together as friends, and occasional roommates – living together in conversion vans and sharing hotel beds.”

Last November’s No Kings, the latest full-length from the seven-piece, is one of those rare accomplishments in the music world; it’s at once fun and earnest, boasts quality rhymes, good beats, and catchy hooks, and features a rotating Lazy Susan of frontpersons. No kings, no group leader. The record is obviously the work of a collective, a rather in tune one at that – most went to high school together, some have been friends since junior high.

Among the catchiest of the No Kings bunch is a little hip-hop track dubbed “Bangarang” – yes, also the name of a Skrillex song and EP but, no, it’s not remotely dubstep. Doomtree’s is tougher and amusing, with a hearty beat and quick-spitting flow. The lyrics mesh the funny with the thought-provoking – “all these rappers sounds the same/beats/sound the same/raps/sound the same.” and later, “I built more than a rap career/I’ve got my family here.” The band wisely chose to feature the song in a video based around a karaoke night, meaning the words scroll across the screen for the viewer as well. Oh, and that karaoke night is hosted by a sensually stripping Har Mar Superstar, the perfect star for such a video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2dX_k6MvWM

“We thought it would be fun to showcase the personalities within Doomtree, and a goofier side to the performers,” says Dessa. “And we’ve been friends with that dude [Har Mar] for a really long time.” Har Mar is part of the sex-oozy Gayngs collective (also of Minneapolis), which runs in the same circles as Doomtree.

The idea for the video came about when producer-DJ Lazerbeak (Aaron Mader) was sitting at a bar with the producer who made the video and they agreed a karaoke video would be easy, and they could get Har Mar to run up on tables, singing and screaming. Then we get to the core of the reason for it: it’s cheap and looks great. “We’re an independent label, and we’re artists owned and operated, so keeping costs down is the name of the game!” Dessa says.

The obvious question, to me at least, was if the group itself enjoys the occasional karaoke night out. Does art imitate life? In this case, no. No, it doesn’t.  Dessa and Lazerbeak giggle when I pose the question. “We’ve never done it,” Dessa says. “A big no,” Lazerbeak laughs. Whatever guys.

Doomtree
With 2Mex
Tues/31, 9 p.m., $16
Slim’s
333 11th St., SF
www.slimspresents.com

An expert’s pour: What and where to drink during SF Beer Week

Andrew Lam
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Now that Drynuary has basically curled up into a ball and died (take that, seasonal sobriety!), it’s time to turn our gaze to SF Beer Week. 10 days of heavyweight gourmet beer drinking lie ahead of us, Bay Area. Even if your hankering for a beer paunch pales in comparison, say, to your desire to fit into your Valentine’s Day party dress, you have a responsibility to indulge.

For Beer Week is not just a gustatory pleasure — it supports what has burgeoned in SF into a thriving biz. Breweries sized from nano to Anchor are filling a six pack near you. Feb. 10-19 will conjure everything from urban beer hikes to beer-and-chocolate pairing events, beer-and-cheese couplings to the finest in bitter ales. Quite recently, we had the pleasure to one-on-one (via email) with David McLean, the mastermind behind all the brews at Magnolia Brewery. This isn’t his first time talking with the Guardian about the miracles of local boozing, but this time we’ve captured his can’t-miss picks for hobnobbing and hops that will take place Feb. 10-19 (and yes, they include an stout made with Hog Island oysters).

San Francisco Bay Guardian: In general, what are your top picks for Beer Week this year? 

David McLean: There are still so many incoming events in the queue to be posted to the schedule that I’m not sure we’ve even been exposed to half of what 2012’s SF Beer Week has to offer. But what I think we are starting to see is a more developed, organic process of brewers and other food-beverage professionals coming together in all kinds of great collaborations. This being the fourth year, my sense is that everyone’s creativity is much better developed following a few years of trying things out, seeing what works, seeing what other people are doing, and so forth. I’m not sure events like the Speakeasy–Schmaltz–Ninkasi–Homebrew Chef [tasting dinner with circus performers at the Elk Lodge] or the Trumer and Bols dinner at Comstock Saloon could have happened in year one, for example. And, the big opening celebration (Feb. 10) got a lot bigger this year, having moved to a new venue for us — the Concourse Exhibition Center. [Plus, we’ve] partnered with Noise Pop for the music and Off the Grid and other great vendors for the food. 

SFBG: Anyone new on the scene whose brews you’re excited to sample?

DM: After many delays (all par for the course) it is super-exciting to have Southern Pacific Brewing Company open just in time for SF Beer Week. As the first new brewery built in San Francisco in many years (close to 10), that one leads the pack in terms of excitement level. But the big story in craft beer this year is growth and newcomers to the industry — there are a number of other new beers and brewing companies in the Bay Area that are all worth trying. Another SF company just getting off the ground is Pacific Brewing Laboratories, which is starting to get its Squid Ink IPA and a couple of other beers into bars and restaurants. Almanac’s latest seasonal release, Winter Wit, should be hitting the streets just in time for Beer Week too, and it’s worth hunting down.

SFBG: A new release from a well-established local brewery you’re excited about?

DM: There are a handful of interesting collaborations among established breweries timed for Beer Week releases, but the one I am most excited about is the SF Strong Ale event that all members of the SF Brewers Guild collaborated on (and which was brewed at Speakeasy). It will debut at the opening celebration and then will be available in a very limited draft release around San Francisco (including at all Guild brewpubs).

SFBG: A food-beer pairing event you think is a can’t-miss?

DM: The creativity now happening in the world of beer dinners is something to behold. To me, the range of pairing dinners throughout Beer Week is one of its most impressive strengths. But some pairings are just so perfect as to be timeless — they’re less about being creative and more about flavors that need no help fitting together. A personal favorite is oysters and beer, particularly oysters and certain kinds of stout (especially dry stouts). We go a step further at Magnolia with an oyster stout we make using Hog Island Sweetwater oysters in the beer. The effect is subtle, and maybe it is gilding the lily, but a few freshly-shucked Sweetwaters and a glass of that beer (Oysterhead Stout) is about as good as it gets. We’ll be spending all day on Valentines Day shucking a variety of oysters and serving them with that stout and some other good oyster-pairing beers until the oysters run out. But, if I was free on February 13, you might find me at the Butcher and the Beer at the Beast and the Hare – it’s a dinner with Ryan Farr and Almanac Beer.

SFBG: Your tip for making it through Beer Week — how DO you do it?

DM: The well-timed vacation waiting on the other side of Beer Week helps maintain my sanity during Beer Week. I think many of us are already buried in Beer Week-related planning and work and the week hasn’t even started yet. With multiple events to work everyday, some near, some far, it’s a definitely a marathon and not a sprint. But it is also one of the premier celebrations of craft beer in the country and the sense of enthusiasm, camaraderie, and support from the beer community is more than enough to help us all get through the week. It’s energizing, actually. But don’t forget to hydrate.

SFBG: Has there been an increase in Bay Area craft breweries over the past year? What are the new ones?

DM: Here and everywhere. We started in 2011 with about 1,700 breweries in the country. We are creeping up on 2,000 a year later and there are something like 800 or so known to be in planning. It’s safe to say craft beer is exploding right now, and consumers have never had more quality choices for their beer drinking. In the Bay Area, some notable highlights are Southern Pacific, Elevation 66, Dying Vines, Pacific Brewing Laboratories, and Heretic Brewing. But, there are plenty more on the way in 2012.

For a full list of SF Beer Week events, head over to www.sfbeerweek.org

 

The Hangover: Jan. 25-29

Tony Robles
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1

Jounce with us, if you will, through the Guardian staff’s frenzied weekend. Here’s our live reviews, hot raging, random sightings.

***Classy is, somehow, the wrong word for a quality show at Yoshi’s – but elegant is an appropriate descriptor, especially considered the dapper ladies and gentlemen assembled on Wednesday night for Red Bull Music Academy’s presention of Gary Bartz, featuring young buck R&B devils Aloe Blacc and Bilal. It takes a certain level of grace for a venerable saxophonist like Bartz to give up the spotlight, but Bilal’s tear-jerkingly masterful roar-to-whisper rendition of “Body and Soul,” and Blacc’s swaggerful performance of his hit “I Need a Dollar” were well-choreographed breaks in the venerable saxophonist’s riff and trills. (Caitlin Donohue)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZFQphn_hu0

***On Friday night I experienced an Outerlands sit-down dinner for the first time, and it was nothing short of magical. You can always expect a bit of a wait at this earthy, intimate gathering place known for its Tartine-esque bread, savory soups, and mason-jarred drinks because of the place’s popularity-to-table ratio. But ordering an opening beer from a list that will impress even the haughtiest of San Francisco beer snobs stoked my epicurean anticipation and made the slight wait (dare I say?) enjoyable. I indulged in an Aventinus (or two), the warm manilla clam and fennel salad, and the fresh cavatelli with wild mushrooms, winter squash, rapini, and parmesan. (Mia Sullivan)

***The pure indie-pop bliss of Adios Amigo drew me in Friday night at the Hemlock. Led by Il Gato drummer/Adios Amigo guitarist-vocalist Johnny Major, the quartet played upbeat ’50-evoking pop for a packed house. Performing songs off its new five-song EP, Adios Amigo occasionally dipped towards mellow Belle & Sebastian sentimentality, at other points rocking more Shins-like. After the show, spit out into the Tenderloin, I made the short trip to the Edinburgh Castle for an excellent ska night, and ended up pushing through another crowd, stoked on the spinning sounds of two-tone. (Emily Savage)

***My Saturday night was enjoyed in a house in Alamo Square with a cluster of the friendliest jungle juice sippin’ folks. A friend of the host was leaving to Jerusalem, another was celebrating her birthday, and a roommate’s brother was anticipating his birthday a couple nights ahead. Space Ghost’s ethereal synthscape was spinning our boozy heads in to a luscious sub-bassed frenzy as friends reunited and babes made out in the corner. In many ways, it was a typical house party – enthusiastic dance moves by the most unexpected people, messy hugs, messier number exchanges, and tears over lost weed. What made this night really special though is that by sunrise there was a marriage proposal, homemade cake, and a dance-off to a remix of “This Is How We Do It.” (Soojin Chang)

***I was in the mood for some mind-bending psych-rock this weekend and found it in both Feral Ohms and Carlton Melton at El Rio. Unfortunately, I arrived just after stoner-metal openers Glitter Wizard finished, a cruel defeat as I’d been hoping to catch the whole lineup for this particularly epic evening. While I missed Glitter Wizard, nearly weeping into my Tecate, I did receive a surprise treat. The gods shined down on me when a friendly stranger offered up a vegan, cheeseless version (however did they know?) of the excellent frybread that pops up at El Rio nightly thanks to Rocky’s Frybread. (Emily Savage)

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

***Somehow I ended up Sunday night at the Stud listening to true-blue classic disco hits, with a barking dog in my lap and whiskey and Coke perspiring in hand. “Dance Doggy Dance A Fundraiser for Wonder Dog Rescue” was sadly, sparsely attended, there’s no question there, but the idea has potential. Wonder Dog volunteers brought the energy and disco digs, and a few attendees brought their small pups out to the SOMA bar. Maybe it will gain momentum, perhaps next time it’ll be a daytime event, or there will be more preview press. Hopefully, you’ll see this very blurb and start prepping your dog’s glittery bow tie in anticipation of the next doggy disco. (Emily Savage)

Live Shots: Decentralized Dance Party

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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All photos by Bowerbird Photography
 
When Sam Love and I finally arrived at Union Square on Fri/27 night, we were surprised by the mass of boomboxes perched on peoples’ shoulders, like a thousand John Cusacks in Say Anything, heading down Powell Street. Somehow, we found our friends (Ickles and Eckles) when the party descended at the Powell Street BART station. The music blared and tourists careened their heads over the banisters of the station to see what the heck was going on. It was a Decentralized Dance Party (DDP), where strangers get dressed up, gather with their old boomboxes, and wait for the organizers to hijack a radio frequency, where they send out the jams on long antennas, for some major noise and wild Friday night dancing.

The theme was “Strictly Business,” so at times it was hard to tell the downtown suits from the party people, which just added more crazy to the mix. Of course, it got pretty hot on the concrete dance floor and layers were quickly stripped. Eventually, we found ourselves walking down Market, a hoard of twinkle-toed goofballs, getting down to everything from Journey to LMFAO. Almost to the Ferry Building, we stopped in a business park at 1 Bush Plaza and were told — gleefully? — that we had amassed 400 noise violations. The cops gave us one more song. Little did they know, DDP would pick a nearly 15 minute-long song – extending the party just long enough to finish off those “water” bottles and find someone’s shoulder to dance on.

Shabazz Palaces get Amharic

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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0

Languorous bike-riding, age-old mother-daughter conflicts, technicolor flower-bursts, and a surprising glimpse into the Ethiopian community of (we suppose) Seattle, the hometown of cosmic hip-hop duo Shabazz Palaces make the video for their new single, “Are You … Can You … Were You? (Felt)” off last year’s awesome Black Up album a nice Monday start. They’ll be performing this Thu/2 at Yoshi’s SF. (10:30 p.m., $18-$22. 1330 Fillmore, SF. www.yoshis.com)  

Burning Man ticket requests far exceed supply

Sasha Cuttler
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Burning Man ticket requests far exceed supply

Burners’ worst fears are about to come true: they’ll be denied tickets to Burning Man when the results of the new lottery-based system are announced on Wednesday. But organizers say if everyone stays calm and relies on their community then they’ll probably still get tickets.

Substantially more people registered for tickets than organizers expected, so much so that they believe burners and their allies ordered way more tickets than they’ll need this year because of concerns about the new ticketing system and the fact that the event sold out early for the first time last year.

“It’s big enough that we believe that all the demand for tickets is not new folks,” Larry Harvey – chair of SF-based Black Rock City LLC, which stages the event – told the Guardian. He refused to say how many people registered for tickets, but the LLC did say each registrant ordered 1.7 tickets, indicating a higher than usual number ordering the maximum of two tickets.

If it’s true that most burners bought more than they needed, that also means there will be lots of tickets circulating through the Burning Man community, so Harvey and fellow board member Marian Goodell are urging everyone to not overreact, don’t buy expensive tickets from scalpers, and take advantage of the LLC’s new aftermarket ticket exchange program that will go online in a few weeks.

“If someone is looking for a ticket, we don’t want them to go to eBay or Craigslist, we want them to turn to their community,” Harvey said. “We think the community is a better distributor than anyone.”

Goodell emphasized that the burner ethos calls for people to only sell tickets for face value – which is $240-390 for the 40,000 tickets going out next week – and she said she believes there will be enough tickets to satisfy demand if people don’t panic and feed the scalpers’ market. Those who don’t follow that advice could also end up with counterfeit tickets, whereas the LLC will verify tickets it swaps.

“The secondary market is the community, and we don’t want people to feel they have a commodity in their hand that will help them make the rent,” she told us. “You’re really hurting your community if you’re treating this like a commodity.”

But the unknown factor is how many ticket buyers are more profit-minded than community-minded, particularly after tickets were selling for almost double-face-value on average after tickets sold out last year, according to a study by SeatGeek. Goodell said only burners can keep the scalpers’ market in check.

“We’re being optimistic, but we were able to get more than 50,000 people to remove their trash [from Black Rock City every year],” Goodell said. “We know we can train people to behave in ways that are more community-minded.”

Many people criticized Burning Man for replacing the usual Internet ticket sales with the lottery system this year, but Harvey and Goodell both said they think the over-registration problem had more to do with tickets selling out last year than the new system.

Still, Harvey told us the transition could have been handled better: “If we had it to do over, we might do some things differently.”

As for whether the new system will end up being OK, Goodell said, “We won’t know how it’s working until we get to the event and see if people are happy.” But in short run, she said, “I’m going to have a lot more unhappy people than I was counting on.”

In addition to managing ticket exchanges through its website, BRC does still have one more ticket sales session planned for March 28, when 10,000 tickets will be sold online in a first come, first served system, like first day sales used to be.

As I chronicle in my book, The Tribes of Burning Man: How an Experimental City in the Desert is Shaping the New American Counterculture, Burning Man has grown from a small gathering on Baker Beach in 1986 to a thriving year-round culture that builds a temporary city of more than 50,000 people in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert in late summer. Burners build the city and its art from scratch with their own resources, almost everything in this gift economy is offered for free, and everyone is encouraged to participate in its creation, enjoyment, and cleanup.

The event doubled in size since I started covered it in 2004, and it has spawned a network of regional events around the world, as well as offshoot organizations such as Black Rock Arts Foundation (which funds and facilitates public art off the playa), Burners Without Borders (which does disaster relief and other good works), and the Burning Man Project (a newly created nonprofit that will take over operations of the event in coming years).

The LLC is currently negotiating with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for permits that will allow the event to grow up to 70,000 people within five years, but Goodell cautioned against those who might see growth as an answer to this year’s problems.

“Honestly, I don’t want more people until we do a little tweaking to the departure process,” Goodell said, noting that people waited as much as nine hours this year to get off the playa and onto the two-lane highway that leads to the Black Rock Desert.

I asked whether they were entertaining any big new ideas for managing the growth of the event, such as how the popular Coachella music festival this year created two events with identical lineups to handle demand. Harvey didn’t say specifically that was an option, but he did refer to his essay discussing this year’s art theme, Fertility 2.0, which just belatedly went online.

“If you read my theme,” he told me, “it’s all about the expansion of the culture.” Among other sentiments, Harvey wrote, “We are living in an age of mass production and consumption that is unsustainable. But culture, as a living system, has the power to create and recreate itself.”

Live Shots: Fitz and the Tantrums

Tony Robles
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0

A steady backbeat. The swirling organ. Lots of saxophone. Two singers who double as dancers. One skunk striped haircut. Without a doubt, Fitz and the Tantrums have their act together, and worked it Thursday, the first of two nights at the Regency Ballroom.

The Tantrums, a stylish soul revival band with pop tendencies, are led by singer-songwriter Michael Fitzpatrick, a skinny man with a skinnier blonde streak in his ‘do. Fitzpatrick’s voice is somewhere between blue-eyed soul artists Daryl Hall and Michael McDonald (the Doobie Brother, not the guy from MadTV, although there is a striking resemblance to the latter). Fitz is matched vocally by Noelle Scaggs, whose hair no longer matches the band’s banner. It’s the chemistry between the two that drives the band onstage, complementary but also competing to be more bombastic. Neither seems afraid to work up a sweat, but Scaggs for her part apparently picked up an old trick from Tina Turner, which is to hold the tambourine in hand and just shake the whole body.

In the last year, the group has been getting a lot of attention, mainly through festival performances, including Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. The Tantrums won me over at Sasquatch in Washington, with some nice placement before Sharon Jones. The show on Thursday was essentially the same, down to the banter, audience interaction, and requests to “get low.” Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it comes off more natural than mechanical – a level of polish and chops that would sweep X Factor or American Idol. If, however, that reality competition dreck comparison is a little too safe for comfort, rest assured that Fitz, for his part, drops way too many F-bombs for network TV.

Setlist
1. Don’t Gotta Work It Out
2. Winds of Change
3. Breakin’ the Chains of Love
4. Wake Up
5. Pickin’ Up the Pieces
6. Rich Girl (“Rich girls will break your heart, but a poor girls will take all your fucking money.”)
7. 6 AM
8. Tighter
9. Lovesick Man
(“This is where the motherfucking dance party will begin.”)
10. LOV
11. Steady As She Goes (Raconteurs)
12. Dear Mr. President
13. News 4 U
Encore
14. We Don’t Need No Love Songs
15. Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics)
16. Moneygrabber

Live Shots: Paufve Dance’s So I Married Abraham Lincoln

Andrew Lam
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This weekend Paufve Dance is winding its way through all the rooms at Dance Mission Theater, making the audience follow, as it performs So I Married Abraham Lincoln. There are only three performances left for the production, so snag those tickets quick before this little gem passes you by.

During a recent performance that the Guardian was privy to, the sparse set filled with the monochromatic tone of the dancers’ clothing, gave an air of desperate times, with just the right amount of humor. Music ranged from opera to punk rock, giving the impression that dancers moved between time and space, free of affilation to a specific era. 

So I Married Abe Lincoln

Fri/27 and Sat/28, 8 p.m.; Sun/29, 7 p.m., $15-18

Dance Mission Theater 

3316 24th St., SF

www.dancemission.com

 

“So this will really be a doggie disco.”

Tony Robles
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“So this will really be a doggie disco.”

Let’s just get this out of the way immediately: there’s going to be a doggie dance this Sunday at the Stud. I could say no more about it and there would still be a segment of people, myself very much included, that would need to go, no questions asked. I mean, it’s a dance for dogs.

Well for the rest of you, I asked the questions. The official title is “Dance Doggy Dance A Fundraiser for WonderDog Rescue” and it’s the first of its kind for Wonderdog. The Stud is dog-friendly, and there will be DJs spinning lower decibel levels so as not to hurt those velvety pup ear flaps. 

“So the first DJ David Sternesky will be spinning disco during that time. ,” says Wonderdog volunteer “So this will really be a doggie disco.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jyd1LdZpqA

Here’s hoping we see a Chihuahua mix doing the non-sexual hustle with a Lab, or perhaps a Bullmastiff  howling Chic’s “Le Freak.”

After Sternesky (Rocket Collective, Solid), Taco Tuesday (OH! & I Cochina Tonga’s) sidles into the DJ booth and real live humans can get in on the dancefloor as well. Either way, it’s a spot to bring your dog and have a cocktail.

Wonderdog is a volunteer group that rescues dogs from all over Northern and Central California. According to its site, it has “saved blind and deaf dogs, puppies as young as two weeks and seniors as old as 15.” It also offers hospice to special needs and elderly dogs.

The fundraising will go towards Wonderdog’s ability to pay vet bills, rent out its Western Addition space, transport dogs, and of course, feed the things.

Dance Doggy Dance
Sun/29, 9 p.m., $10-$20 donation
The Stud Bar
399 Ninth St., SF
www.wonderdogrescue.org

Dome rock

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Dome rock

MUSIC “I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a geodesic dome,” says drummer-guitarist Andy Duvall, formerly of Zen Guerilla, and currently one third of the improvisational space rock outfit Carlton Melton. “But if you stand right in the middle, there’s a sweet spot.”

Carlton Melton records all its stripped down, lo-fi material in a dome house located a few hours north of here, though the three mainstays — Duvall, Rich Millman, and Clint Golden — call Oakland and San Francisco home. As for their process: “We just go up, hang out, and record all weekend. It’s very sloppy in many ways but I’ve always been a fan of slop. I think perfection can be a little boring.”

During recording other musician pals drop in and out. Live, the trio switches up the instrumentation mid-set. Duvall, a gifted, frenetic drummer influenced by Colm Ó Cíosóig of My Bloody Valentine among others (“[He’s] completely overlooked when people talk of their brilliance”), added guitar to his repertoire for Carlton Melton. The band will again show its live prowess locally this Saturday at El Rio.

In the few years since the vocal-less act formed in 2008 — I use “formed” tentatively, as it was more of a natural progression than the word implies — it’s released a cluster of DIY material on indie labels and its own, Mid-To-Late Records. There was the initial, 2008 “Live in Point Arena” CD-R, an Empty Shapes split LP, another split with Qumran Orphics and a few seven-inches on SF’s Valley King Records and the Irish Trensmat Records (which specializes in “transmitting drone, noise, oscillations and grooves”), both in 2011. In 2012 they’ll put out yet another long-player (already recorded), likely in spring, and are currently hammering out the details for a European tour.

Last year also saw the release of the swirling, spacey Country Ways LP, a record that begins with the 20-minute titular track, a slow-building stunner of dangling drums and psychedelic guitar with the irregular cosmic zap. A track that seemingly has no beginning or end, with the foggy vortex of pleasing chords hanging on for eternity, it’s trance-like, sensory, afferent. And something clicks when you remember they made this sound while cracking beers amongst friends over a few days in a specially-shaped structure.

The band actually came to be because of the dome. After Zen Guerrilla — a band that, should be noted, amassed many local fans and was a 2001 GOLDIES winner — split up in 2003, Millman was busy raising his two kids. Duvall was happily spending time with his girlfriend and their two cats, Gerard and Cheval. In 2008, Millman called Duvall, and asked if he’d want to start playing again. He agreed but it was mostly to jam with an old friend, the opposite of a definition band. The two, now both 44, who first began creating music together in 1990 when they lived in Delaware, talked to the owner of the dome and said “hey, we’re going to come up and bring some amps and make a bunch of noise at your place, do you mind?”

Back to that sweet spot — it naturally enriches sound. “If you’re talking, your voice just instantly amplifies. Same thing happens with music, you’re playing guitar and it’s just swirling around in the dome. It’s sort of ideal for psychedelic music.” says Duvall in a phonecall from his home in Oakland.

That first night up north was magic. They realized they needed name. Duvall, with all his genial charm recalls the conversation then whispers “Carlton Melton.” Melton was a cool guy he knew from junior high in Delaware, a real bad-ass. Strangely, Millman, who went to another school, also knew Melton in Delaware — they’d played one another in football. Years later, Duvall and Melton happen to meet another dude named Carlton Melton, and that last bit of coincidence seems to have sealed the name’s fate. “It’s bizarre but it really fits the band. I just hope the guy from Delaware’s not offended, because we named the band after him for all the right reasons.”

CARLTON MELTON

With Feral Ohms, and Glitter Wizard

Sat/28, 9 p.m., $8

El Rio

3158 Mission, SF

www.elriosf.com

The Performant: Discord fever

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The Performant: Discord fever

San Francisco Tape Music Festival unwinds at ODC

The fact that it’s raining makes it an unexpectedly perfect night to attend the San Francisco Tape Music Festival. The water rushing through pipes and sweeping across the rooftop of the ODC Theatre adds an extra layer of ambience to the cacophonic tones emitting from a modest bank of speakers, squatting on the stage like forbidding monoliths. The here-and-now intrusion of the rainfall ties even the most outré compositions of the evening together in an entirely unanticipated manner, from the oldest (dated 1857) to those created this still-young year by members of the current incarnation of the San Francisco Tape Music Collective and sfSound.


Snugly protected from the bluster of the elements, we sit in patient anticipation as the lights dim to as near a full blackout as can be achieved with glowing EXIT signs and lighted soundboard. The darkness forces focus on the content of the composition, not the conduit, freeing the senses from the unconscious tyranny of vision. And a certain amount of focus does come in handy for an evening spent listening to the trajectories of polyphonic dissonance whizzing through the room at reckless speeds. Field recordings, samples of radio-age music scores, spoken murmurings of French, English, Greek, percussive clatterings, static-y white noise, and a host of sonic curiosities stack up on top of each other like the building blocks of childhood, leaning precariously, threatening to topple. “Purposeless play,” John Cage once described it, though of course such purposelessness contains a purpose all its own.

Maggi Payne, SF Tape Music Fest, SFBG.com

Composer Maggi Payne

A 16-minute Matthew Barnard composition entitled The Piano Makers sweeps the oddience into the Kemble piano factory, where Barnard made a series of field recordings of piano manufacturing: all clatter of machinery, zing of taut strings and tuning forks, and pounding of keys. John Cage’s Williams Mix kicks off a centennial celebration of Cage’s birth with a frenetic mélange of classic cartoon scores, old jazz standards, church hymns, radio announcements, and a lonesome foghorn. One of the evening’s most distinctive aural pleasures comes courtesy of noted theatrical sound-designer Cliff Caruthers, whose eerie, affecting Underneath would serve perfectly as the ambient score of some great, underwater epic — Gilgamesh perhaps — all creaking boards, and groaning depths, punctuated by the primal bellow of some unfathomable creature and a twinkle of silvery fish. Maggi Payne’s Glassy Metals rounds out the first half with a textural layering of metallic sounds manipulated to mimic the wet gurgle of a deep forest brook and rush of dry desert winds.

Ma++ Ingalls, SF Tape Music Fest, SFBG.com

Performer Ma++ Ingalls. Photo by Lenny Gonzalez

Two of the highlights of the second half include the second John Cage piece of the night, Imaginary Landscape No. 5. Composed on a block graph designating eight tracks and 42 separate sound clips, the realization of this version was created collaboratively by the Tape Music Collective, and performed by Ma++ Ingalls. Sterfos, by Orestis Karamanlis, also performed by Ingalls, transports the listener to a fishing village on the edge of the Aegean Sea. Bucolic village sounds such as the somber clang of church bells, footsteps crunching on gravel, the lapping of waves, dogs barking, children playing, and an elderly man with the oratory tone of a storyteller, all layered over with the urgent textural tones of aggressive modernity. More than any other piece of the evening, Sterfos embodies the cinematic quality of the music, a clearly defined story arc winding through the village entire. Only a minor technical glitch halfway through the piece mars the otherwise seamless meander along the shoreline of a strangely familiar sea.

 

Occupy is back — with horns and glitter

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Occupy is back — with horns and glitter

yael@sfbg.com

On Jan. 20, hundreds of activists converged on the Financial District in a day that showed a reinvigorated and energized Occupy movement.

The day of action was deemed “Occupy Wall Street West.” Despite pouring rain, the numbers swelled to 1,200 by early evening.

Critics have said that the Occupy movement is disorganized and lacks a clear message. Some have decried its supposed lack of unity. Others have even declared it dead.

But the broad coalition of community organizations that came together to send a message focused on the abuses of housing rights by corporations and the 1 percent sent a clear message:

The movement is very much alive.

 

A FULL SCHEDULE

Protesters packed the day with an impressive line-up of marches, pickets, flash mobs, blockades, and everything in between.

The action began at 6:30 a.m., when dozens chained and locked themselves together, blocking every entrance to Wells Fargo’s West Coast headquarters at 420 Montgomery Street. The bank didn’t open for business that morning.

Another group of protesters did the same thing at the Bank of America Building around the corner. A dozen blockaded one of the bank’s entrances from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., preventing its opening. A group organized by Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) closed down the Bank of America branch at Powell and Market for several hours.

The Bank of America branch at Market and Main was also closed when activists turned it into “the Food Bank of America.” Several chained themselves for the door, while others set up a table serving donated food to hundreds of people.

Meanwhile, activists with the SF Housing Rights Coalition and Tenants Union occupied the offices of Fortress Investments, a hedge fund that has overseen the destruction of thousands of rent controlled apartments at Parkmerced. Direct actions also took place at the offices of Bechtel, Goldman Sachs, and Citicorp.

Hundreds picketed the Grand Hyatt at Union Square in solidarity with UNITE HERE Local 2 hotel workers.

A group of about 600 left from Justin Herman Plaza at noon and marched to offices of Fannie Mae, Wells Fargo, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) in a protest meant to draw attention to housing and immigrant-rights issues.

“It’s not just a corporate problem. The government has been complicit in these abuses as well,” said Diana Masaca, one of the protest’s organizers.

More than 100 activists from People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER) and the Progressive Workers Alliance “occupied Muni,” riding Muni buses on Market Street with signs and chants demanding free transit for youth in San Francisco.

Another 200 participated in an “Occupy the Courts” action at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in protest of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision and corporate personhood.

 

GLITTER AND BRASS

Exhausted, soaked protesters managed to keep a festive spirit throughout the day, with colorful costumes, loud music, and glitter — lots of glitter.

The Horizontal Alliance of Very Organized Queers (HAVOQ) and Pride at Work brought the sparkly stuff, along with streamers and brightly colored umbrellas, to several different actions. Many painted protest slogans onto their umbrellas, proclaiming such sentiments as “I’ll show you trickle down” and “Not gay as in happy, queer as in fuck capitalism.”

According to protester Beja Alisheva, “HAVOQ is about bringing fabulosity to the movement with glitter, queerness, and pride. All day we’ve been showing solidarity between a lot of different types of oppression.”

There was also the Occupy Oakland party bus — a decked-out former AC transit bus — and carnival, a roving party that shut down intersections and bank entrances in its path while providing passengers a temporary respite from rain.

The Brass Liberation Orchestra, a radical marching band that has been energizing Bay Area protests for a decade, showed up in full force with trumpets, drums, trombones, and a weathered sousaphone.

The Interfaith Allies of Occupy also used horns to declare their message. About 30 participated in a mobile service, sounding traditional rams’ horns and declaring the need to “lift up human need and bring down corporate greed.”

Said Rabbi David J. Cooper of Kehela Community Synagogue in Oakland: “Leviticus 19 says, do not stand idly by in the face of your neighbor’s suffering. Well, we’re all neighbors here. Ninety-nine percent of us are suffering in some way, economically or spiritually. And maybe that number is 100 percent.”

 

FOCUS ON HOUSING

A coalition called Occupy SF Housing called for and organized the day of action, but the messages ranged from environmental to anti-war to immigrant rights.

Many groups did focus in on housing-related issues — and a takeover of a vacant hotel building stressed the urgency and need to house homeless San Francisco residents.

Housing protests included an anti wage-theft occupation led by the Filipino Community Center and the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns at the offices of CitiApartments, an action at the offices of Fortress Investments to demand a halt to predatory equity, and an “Occupy the Auction” demonstration in which protesters with Occupy Bernal stopped the day’s housing auction (at which foreclosed homes are sold) at City Hall.

“A lot of the displacement in this city is happening because of banks and because of things that are out of peoples’ control,” said Amitai Heller, a counselor with the San Francisco Tenants Union. “People will live in a rent controlled apartment for 20 years thinking that they have their retirement planned. A lot of the critiques of the movement are, if you couldn’t afford it you should move. But these people moved here knowing they could afford it because of our rent controls.”

 

LIBERATE THE COMMONS

Most of the early protests drew a few hundred people. But when the 5 p.m. convergence time rolled around, many people got off work and joined the march. A rally at Justin Herman Plaza brought about 600; by the time the march joined up with others at Bank of America on Montgomery and California, the numbers had doubled.

The evening’s demonstration, deemed “liberate the commons,” was also more radical than other tactics throughout the day; organizers hoped to break into and hold a vacant building, the 600-unit former Cathedral Hill Hotel at 1101 Van Ness.

When protesters arrived at the site, police were waiting for them. Wearing riot gear and reinforced by barricades, the cops successfully blocked the Geary entrance to the former hotel.

The darkness, rain, and uncertainty created a chaotic environment as protesters decided how to proceed. Some attempted to remove barricades; others chanted anti-police slogans.

Soon, cries of “Medic! We need a medic!” pierced the air. A dozen or so protesters had been pepper sprayed.

Police Information Officer Carlos Manfredi later claimed that the pepper spray was in response to “rocks, bottles and bricks” thrown by protesters. He also claimed that one officer was struck in the chest by a brick, and another “may have broken his hand.”

But I witnessed the entire incident, and I can say that no rocks, bottles or bricks were thrown at police.

When protesters opted to march down Van Ness, apparently towards City hall, several broke windows at a Bentley dealership at 999 Van Ness.

The march then turned around and headed back up Franklin, ending at the former hotel’s back entrance. There, it became clear that some protesters had successfully entered the building; they unfurled a banner from the roof reading “liberate the commons.”

Soon, many other protesters streamed into the building. They held it, with no police interference, for several hours.

Around 9:30, police entered the building and arrested three protesters for trespassing. About 15 others remained in the building, but left voluntarily by midnight.

This building has been a target of protest campaigns in San Francisco since it was purchased by California Pacific Medical Center, which closed the hotel in 2009. There are plans underway for a hospital to open at the site in 2015.

The project has been met with opposition from unions such as SEIU United Healthcare Workers West and UNITE HERE Local 2. The California Nurses Association (CNA) has also come out against the hospital proposal. In fact, it was the target of a CNA protest earlier in the day Jan. 20, when protesters created a “human billboard” reading “CPMC for the 1 percent.”

At a Jan.18 press conference, CNA member Pilar Schiavo said that at the former Cathedral Hill Hotel site, “A huge hospital is being planned with is being likened by Sutter to a five-star hotel. At the same time, Sutter is gutting St. Lukes Hospital, which is essential to providing healthcare for residents in the Mission, the Excelsior and Bayview- Hunter’s Point.”

Homes Not Jails, a group that finds housing for the homeless, often without regard to property rights, was crucial to planning the “Liberate the Commons’ protest. The group insists that the 30,000 vacant housing units in San Francisco should be used to shelter the city’s homeless, which they estimate at 10,000.

 

RAINY REBIRTH

Wet and cold conditions were not what Occupy SF Housing Coalition organizers had in mind they spent weeks planning Occupy Wall Street West, which was billed as the reemergence of the Occupy Movement in San Francisco for 2012.

Yet for many, the day was still a success.

“The rain’s a downer. But I think it speaks to the power of the movement, the fact that all these people are still out getting soaked,” said Heller on Jan. 20.

Perhaps hundreds of “fair-whether activists” did forgo the day’s events to stay out of the cold. If that’s the case, then occupy protesters with big plans for the spring should be pleased.

At this rate, it seems that Occupy will survive the winter- and emerge with renewed energy in 2012.

 

This article has been to corrected. We originally reported that a demonstration at the offices of Citi Apartments was led by the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA). In fact, it was led by the Filipino Community Center and the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns, and supported by a number of organizations including the Progressive Workers Alliance, of which CPA is a member organization. We regret the error.

Whatever happened to Baby Jaymes?

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Whatever happened to Baby Jaymes?

arts@sfbg.com

MUSIC One day in November 2004, my then-girlfriend returned to our Oakland apartment all excited. “I just heard this on KMEL,” she said. She handed me a CD, Baby Jaymes, Ghetto Retro (Underground Soul), while she unwrapped the included Ghetto Retro EP and cued up “Nice Girl.” “He sounds like Prince,” she enthused—we were Prince geeks—”but he’s from East Oakland!”

Something in the way the vocals were layered, the tasty guitar and bass details under aloof keyboards, and the idiosyncratic, non-pimp, non-player personality that disclosed itself seemed to justify the comparison, particularly as we moved on to the LP. The hidden track “Ev’ry Nuance,” for example, could be a Lovesexy outtake, even as its more lo-fi aesthetic seemed to allude knowingly to 1999-era bootlegs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJrO8GoozIE

Comparisons to Prince would be made in nearly every review of Ghetto Retro, though the insistence was a little misleading. While Prince is definitely an influence, BJ — as he’s known — isn’t especially well-versed in the Purple One’s catalog. Some of the resemblance stems from the common influence of 1960s and ’70s soul; Motown, particularly Smokey Robinson, and Stax loom much larger for Baby Jaymes, and in many ways, the similarly pint-sized singer is the anti-Prince, possessing no conventional technical musical ability, depending on collaborators to translate the melodies and arrangements he hears in his head.

In 2007, I had the experience of watching him cajole a string trio from blank incomprehension into a soaring, unscripted overdub reminiscent of a Paul Riser classic. Yet I’ve also seen the comparatively simple matter of a guitar overdub founder for want of a common vocabulary.

“It’s all about energy to me,” BJ says, “but I can’t always articulate it in a way that musicians understand. But if I articulate it emotionally they might be like, yes! and we’re there. I used to knock myself out because I can’t play, but that’s part of my gift. I’ve gotten to the place where I’m ok with that.”

The other major difference is the difference between Minneapolis and East Oakland, for while Prince has profoundly influenced hip-hop, he’s never known what to do with it, whereas it’s second nature to BJ, hailing from the notorious Rollin’ 100s (99th and MacArthur, to be exact).

Much of Ghetto Retro is built on heavily manipulated samples, augmented with instruments, and though he’s the furthest thing from a thug — I’ve never heard him cuss, though I have heard him say “my goodness” and even “golly”—Baby Jaymes sounds entirely natural with Turf Talk on his 2008 single “The Bizness” or The Jacka on his new EP, Whatever Happened to Baby Jaymes?, released late last year on Hiero-imprint Clear Label Records.

THE SHIFT

The EP’s title, BJ admits, was the brainchild of Souls of Mischief and Hieroglyphics member and Clear Label head Tajai Massey, both punning off the Bette Davis film and nodding to the seven-year wait since Ghetto Retro. BJ initially resisted.

“I disappeared,” he admits. “But I don’t want people to think I wasn’t doing anything.”

“I was bummed out with the artist thing,” he continues. “People remember me — which is a good thing. But I couldn’t imagine life not having anonymity. To this day I can’t go anywhere in the Town without seeing at least one person that knows me. It can be overwhelming.”

BJ’s local profile, elevated by airplay on KMEL, national press from Fader and XLR8R, and even a 2005 GOLDIE, was complicated by the chronic difficulty of making money as a Bay Area urban artist. In the mid-’00s, besides longstanding major label distinterest, Bay Area independent artists suddenly saw their financial foundations crumble with the decline of CD sales.

“You have to preserve your mystique,” he says, “but you don’t have money to be that guy all the time. I might really be on the bus and you see me on the bus and it just kills my whole thing for you. So I decided I just wanted to make music, not make music to be famous.”

Instead BJ moved to L.A. to pursue licensing deals in movies and TV. Even before Ghetto Retro, he’d already tapped into Hollywood money, writing a song (“Without a Daddy” by Touché) that appears in Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday (1999). (His own version appears on Ghetto Retro as “Black Girl/White Girl.”) Since relocating, he’s racked up an oddball assortment of screen credits, from a few seconds of music in a Nicole Kidman vehicle (2007’s The Invasion) to production work on Fox’s intro to the 2008-09 NFC Championship broadcast (apparently Cleatus the Robot’s first foray into hip-hop).

More recently NCIS used a snippet “so small and incidental, you can barely hear it,” but this brings in incomparably more money than dropping a Bay Area hip-hop soul classic. Essentially BJ makes the bulk of his modest income off five song placements and would like to bring that number up to around 40 reliable ones, which he estimates would bring in a comfortable enough existence to fulfill his artistic ambitions.

 

THE PROVERBIAL RETURN

For, despite his earlier discomfort, Baby Jaymes’s artistic ambitions remain, and Tajai was able to induce him to sign to Clear Label to record a new album, for which the seven-song Whatever Happened is simply a calling card. Still, after so long a hiatus, the EP is a joy to hear. I’d wondered if BJ and long-time collaborator, producer Marc Garvey, would shy away from the sound they’d crafted in favor of something more obviously commercial, but instead they’ve dug deeper, returning to the samples-plus-hip-hop-drums core that makes Ghetto Retro feel so warm and timeless.

The single, “Heart & Soul,” captures the throbbing drama of a kind of vintage R&B that concerns matters of deeper import than Bentleys and Belvedere, serving by turns as a declaration of love and an artistic manifesto. Yet BJ also shows off a new swag with an inventive reimagining of 50 Cent’s “21 Questions” over a live band, co-produced by Ledisi mastermind Sundra Manning.

This more than anything else gives a foretaste of the album to come, judging from the unreleased tracks he played me, all of which featured live instrumentation. This is a far more expensive way to make a record, but he hopes to have complete and release it sometime in 2012.

“Honestly, if Tajai hadn’t said, ‘We should do a record, I’ll help you pay for it,’ I probably wouldn’t have been able to do it,” he says, clearly relishing the new material. “I do it for the love of music, nothing else.” *

 

Sorrow, tears, blood — and dance

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Sorrow, tears, blood — and dance

arts@sfbg.com

MUSIC Musical genius, human rights activist, cultural legend, African icon — late Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti encompassed multitudes, but to his 1980s-era guitarist Soji Odukogbe, he provided not only inspiration but a way into his music.

“The music was written by Fela, so if you were good enough, you could add to it, and he wouldn’t say anything. But if you were not good enough, he’d say, ‘This is the line,'” explains Odukogbe, 49, by phone from Berkeley where he now lives. “Afrobeat is a written music — you can’t add to it. You can add if you know your instrument, and it’s sweet enough, then you can go there.”

Fortunately the Lagos, Nigeria, native — who as a child was inspired enough by Fela’s hits to take a wood plank, hammer a nail into it, and pretend it was a guitar — was good enough to take his liberties on guitar on legendary Fela albums like Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense, Beasts of No Nation, and Underground System (all Barclay; 1986, 1989, and 1992). “[Fela] was anxious to meet me [after he got out of prison], and when he saw me, he was so happy — he said, ‘I have a guitar player that’s really good!,'” recalls Odukogbe, who joined Fela’s band in ’85. “One day I said, ‘Fela, I want to take a guitar solo. He only allowed horn and keyboard solos, and he said, ‘Yeah, go ahead,’ and I blew his mind. He was so proud of me.” Odukogbe appears with kindred Fela player Baba Ken Okulolo at a “Fela Kuti Extravaganza” dance party at Cafe Du Nord Jan. 28.

The guitarist played with Fela for five years before deciding to take his chances in the U.S. where a so-called world music movement was catching fire with the success of Nigerian juju master King Sunny Adé, Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares (Nonesuch, 1987), and Brazil Classics 1: Beleza Tropical (Luaka Bop, 1990). Now, with publications such as The New York Times trumpeting an “African invasion” in indie rock and a fascination with African music takes hold once more — morphed and bent to new ends by performers ranging from Vampire Weekend to Dirty Projectors to this year’s Pazz and Jop poll-topping tUnE-yArDs — the time seems right to revisit Fela’s legacy.

Long before African outfits like Tinariwen and Blk Jks threaded rock ‘n’ roll guitar into indigenous rhythms, and hipster-cred comps such as the Ethiopiques and Congotronics series touched down stateside, Fela was hybridizing jazz and highlife with a potent dose of James Brown-style funk, a black power sensibility (not for nothing did he dub himself the Black President), and a driving thirst for justice, even after being jailed some 200 times, suffering at the hands of soldiers (the wounds Fela revealed when he dropped his trousers in the 1982 documentary Music Is the Weapon are heartbreaking), and undergoing a level of government harassment and abuse that would break most mortals. It all appeared to climax in 1977 after the release of his military-mocking 1977 LP Zombie (Barclay) and the subsequent invasion of his Kalakuta Republic commune by soldiers, which led to the death of his mother and the beating and brutalization of the performer, his family, wives, and friends.

Though mainstream superstars Will Smith and Jay-Z threw their producing weight behind the recent Tony Award-winning musical production of Fela!, it’s tough to imagine an artist quite like Fela in today’s music scene, fighting back from the top of the pop charts, occupying the public imagination with his radical politics and spiritual beliefs, and speaking his mind, loudly and outrageously. Still, Fela’s story and music speak louder than ever, especially in the context of indie’s less-than-political appropriation of African sounds, the recent SF run of Fela!, the 2011 rerelease of Fela’s Universal-controlled albums in North America by Knitting Factory Records, the upcoming film directed by artist-filmmaker Steve McQueen, and continuing tide of injustice in Nigeria, where weeks of protests continue over fuel prices and the country has undergone its worst oil spill in a decade.

“The thing that’s most interesting about Fela’s music is how traveling and seeing other cultures, going to the United States, and getting familiar with American music and James Brown and American politics inspired him to fulfill his own roots and look back on himself and to really see these international forces as part of his background and his own culture,” observes Will Magid, 26, who organized the Fela dance party and has played with Odukogbe and Okulolo. Magid’s own forthcoming debut album promises to mix Kuti’s influence with Balkan, pop, and funk sounds. “We need more people who are like that and who are speaking up.”

El Cerrito-by-way-of-Nigeria bassist Okulolo played with Fela as well as King Sunny Ade and has performed with Odukogbe in the Kotoja, the Western African Highlife Band, and the Nigerian Brothers. Magid’s friend and mentor since the two met through Okulolo’s son at UCLA, the musician sees “Fela Kuti Extravaganza” as a teaching opportunity.

“Fela was a great musician, and his music will never die,” says Okulolo. “I think it would be a good idea to continue educating people about his music and how beautiful it is. I worked with [Fela] briefly, and I know the man well, and so many bands are playing Afrobeat now — generally the music needs to be out there.”

“It has funk; it has jazz; it has an African beat; it has everything,” he continues. “It’s our opportunity to showcase it to as many people as we can and make it valuable, to put it in a category that someday will be what reggae is today.”

And during hard times, we can all learn something from Fela, his still-vibrant music, and his way of moving, fluidly and artfully, through oppression, through pain. “There’s this element of social consciousness, of people dancing and then hearing about these oil spills,” muses Magid of the upcoming dance party. “It’s a different kind of dancing when you’re dancing through suffering.” *

 

WILL MAGID’S WORLD WIDE DANCE PARTY: FELA EXTRAVAGANZA

With Baba Ken Okulolo and Soji Odukogbe, Will Magid Trio with Fely Tchaco, MSK.FM, and izzy*wise

Sat/28, 9:30 p.m., $15

Cafe Du Nord

2170 Market, SF

www.cafedunord.com

Rep Clock

Andrew Lam
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Schedules are for Wed/25-Tues/31 except where noted. Director and year are given when available. Double and triple features are marked with a •. All times p.m. unless otherwise specified.

ART DECO MOVIE THEATER 2700 Saratoga, Alameda; www.baicff.com. $10-20. "Bay Area International Children’s Film Festival," family films from around the world, Sat-Sun, 10am-5:30pm.

BALBOA 3630 Balboa, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. $15-20. "Opera and Ballet at the Balboa Theatre:" Caligula, from the Paris Opera Ballet, Wed, 7:30; Cendrillon, from the Royal Opera House, Sat-Sun, 10am. "Jazz and Film:" A Great Day in Harlem (Bach, 1994), with live performance by Jimmy Ryan’s Balboa Be Bop Band, Sun, 5:30.

BERKELEY FELLOWSHIP OF UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS 1924 Cedar, Berk; www.bfuu.org. Hypothesis (Smith), followed by a discussion about 9/11 truth, Thurs, 7.

CASTRO 429 Castro, SF; (415) 621-6120, www.castrotheatre.com. $7.50-10. "Noir City X:" •House of Bamboo (Fuller, 1955), Wed, 7:30, and Underworld USA (Fuller, 1961), Wed, 9:20; •Naked Alibi (Hopper, 1954), Thurs, 7:30, and Pickup (Haas, 1951), Thurs, 9:20; •Thieves’ Highway (Dassin, 1949), Fri, 7:30, and The Breaking Point (Curtiz, 1950), Fri, 9:30; •Three Strangers (Negulesco, 1946), Sat, 1, 5, 9, and The Great Gatsby (Nugent, 1949), Sat, 3, 7; Roadhouse Nights (Henley, 1930), Sun, noon; The Maltese Falcon (Del Ruth, 1931), Sun, 1:20; City Streets (Mamoulian, 1932), Sun, 3; Mr. Dynamite (Crosland, 1935), Sun, 4:45; The Glass Key (Heisler, 1942), Sun, 7; The Maltese Falcon (Huston, 1941), Sun, 9. Advance tickets (double features, $10-15) and more info at www.noircity.com.

CHRISTOPHER B. SMITH RAFAEL FILM CENTER 1118 Fourth St, San Rafael; (415) 454-1222, www.cafilm.org. $6.75-10.25. "Rafael Film Club:" Complicated Women (Munro Neely, 2003), Thurs, 1. With author and film critic Mick LaSalle. Pina (Wenders, 2011), Jan 27-Feb 2, call for times. Joffrey: Mavericks of Dance (Hercules, 2011), Sat, 10:30am.

JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF THE EAST BAY 1414 Walnut, Berk; (510) 848-0237, www.brownpapertickets.com. $6-8. "San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Presents:" 77 Steps (Mara’ana, 2010), Thurs, 7:30.

PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE 2575 Bancroft, Berk; (510) 642-5249, bampfa.berkeley.edu. $5.50-9.50. "Film 50: History of Film, Cinema, and the Other Arts:" "Back to the Beginning: From the Cinema of Attractions to Narrative Illusionism," with lecture by Marilyn Fabe, Wed, 3:10. This event, $5.50-11.50. "Documentary Voices:" David Holzman’s Diary (McBride, 1968), Wed, 7. "African Film Festival 2012:" Medicine for Melancholy (Jenkins, 2007), with director Barry Jenkins in person, Thurs, 7; A Screaming Man (Haroun, 2010), Sun, 4:30. "Howard Hawks: The Measure of Man:" Paid to Love (1927), Fri, 7; Scarface (1932), Tues, 7. "Henri-Georges Clouzot: The Cinema of Disenchantment:" Diabolique (1955), Fri, 8:40; The Spies (1958), Sun, 6:30. "Austere Perfectionism: The Films of Robert Bresson:" Pickpocket (1959), Sat, 6:30; Diary of a Country Priest (1950), Sat, 8:10.

ROXIE 3117 and 3125 16th St, SF; (415) 863-1087, www.roxie.com. $6.50-10. Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts (Meaney, 2011), Wed, 7:15, 9. The Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee "Scratch" Perry (Higbee and Bhala Lough, 2011), Thurs, 7:30, 9:30. Sing Your Song (Rostock, 2011), Jan 27-Feb 2, 6:45, 8:45 (also Sat-Sun, 2:45, 4:45).

SFFS | NEW PEOPLE CINEMA 1746 Post, SF; www.sffs.org. $10-11. Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos (Murata, 2011), Wed-Thurs, 2, 4:30, 7, 9:15. Sleeping Beauty (Leigh, 2011), Jan 27-Feb 2, 2, 4:30, 7, 9:15 (no 7pm show Mon/30).

YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS 701 Mission, SF; (415) 978-2787, www.ybca.org. $6-8. "British Arrow Awards: Best British Television Commercials of 2011," Thurs-Sun, 2, 4, 6, 8. The House by the Cemetery (Fulci, 1981), Fri-Sat, 10.

ZINC DETAILS 1905 Fillmore, SF; rsvp@zincdetails.com. Free. Eames: The Architect and the Painter (Cohn and Jersey, 2011), Wed, 6. With a discussion about the Eames with former Dwell editor Sam Grawe.

Stage Listings

Andrew Lam
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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. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Picks.

THEATER

OPENING

Vice Palace: The Last Cockettes Musical Thrillpeddlers’ Hypnodrome, 575 10th St, SF; (415) 377-4202, www.thrillpeddlers.com. $30-35. Opens Fri/27, 8pm. Runs Fri-Sat, 8pm. Through March 3. Thrillpeddlers revives the Cockettes’ 1972 musical extravaganza.

BAY AREA

Arms and the Man Lesher Center for the Arts, Margaret Lesher Theater, 1601 Civic, Walnut Creek; (925) 943-7469, www.centerrep.org. $38-43. Previews Fri/27-Sat/28, 8pm; Sun/29, 2:30pm. Opens Tues/31, 7:30pm. Runs Wed, 7:30pm; Thurs-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2:30pm. Through Feb 25. Center REPertory Company presents George Bernard Shaw’s classic romantic comedy.

Body Awareness Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison, Berk; (510) 843-4822, www.auroratheatre.org. $34-55. Previews Fri/28-Sat/28 and Feb 1, 8pm; Sun/29, 2pm; Tues/31, 7pm. Opens Feb 2, 8pm. Runs Tues, 7pm; Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through March 4. Aurora Theatre performs Annie Baker’s comedy.

ONGOING

Cabaret Young Performers Theatre, Fort Mason Center, Bldc C, Room 300, Marina at Laguna, SF; (415) 381-1638, cabaretsf.wordpress.com. $25-45. Thurs-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 7pm. Through Feb 19. Shakespeare at Stinson and Independent Cabaret Productions perform the Kander and Ebb classic in an intimate setting.

Food Stories: Pleasure is Pleasure Z Space, Theater Artaud, 450 Florida, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. $20-55. Wed-Thurs, 7pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through Feb 5. Word for Word presents performances of short stories by T.C. Boyle and Alice McDermott.

Future Motive Power Old Mint, 88 Fifth St, SF; www.mugwumpin.org. $15-30. Fri/27-Sun/29, 8pm. Mugwumpin takes on the life of Nikola Tesla in its latest performance piece.

*Humor Abuse American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary, SF; (415) 749-2228, www.act-sf.org. $10-85. Tues-Sat, 8pm (also Wed and Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2pm. Through Feb 5. “This is a show about clowning,” Lorenzo Pisoni advises his audience at the outset of his graceful solo performance, “and I’m the straight man.” It’s a funny line, actually — funny because it’s true, and not true. In the deft routines that follow, as well as in the snapshots cast on the atmospherically dingy curtain hung center stage, the career of this Pickle Family Circus brat (already alone in the spotlight by age two) never veers far from the shadow of his father. That fact remains central to the winning comedy and wistful reflection in Humor Abuse. Reared in the commotion and commitment of the famed San Francisco circus founded by his parents Larry Pisoni and Peggy Snider, Lorenzo had a childhood both enviable and unusually challenging. The fact that he shares his name with both a grandfather and his dad’s famous clown persona is instructive. His trials and his triumphs are further conflated — along with his father’s —in such elegant catastrophes as falling down a long flight of stairs. And in his good-humored and honest reflections, the existential poignancy at the heart of such artful buffoonery begins to rise to the surface. The spoken narrative feels a little pinched or abbreviated, in truth, but there are no shortcuts to the skill or wider perspective inculcated by the charming Pisoni and (under direction of co-creator Erica Schmidt) set enthralling in motion. (Avila)

*New Fire: To Put Things Right Again Brava Theater, 2781 24th St, SF; (415) 647-2822, www.brava.org. $10-30. Thurs/26-Sat/28, 8pm; Sun/29, 3pm. You hear a lot of lip service these days to “community-building,” even when that community might represent the merest sliver, unable to reach out or expand beyond its own narrow parameters. That is not the kind of community playwright Cherríe Moraga is interested in paying lip service to, and her latest work New Fire reaches out in all possible directions, most notably digging deep into sacred spaces frequently left out of the conversation altogether. Structured not as a conventional (by Western standards) play, but as a healing ceremony centered around the story’s single protagonist, Vero (Dena Martinez), Celia Herrera Rodriguez’ staging and design blend seamlessly with Alleluia Panis’ ecstatic choreography to create a world where the sacred and the mundane coexist, almost unremarked, but certainly remarkably. Combining new media such as video by Emily Encina, with ancient ritual, the most electrifying moments are those rendered wholly without spoken words — the steady heartbeat of percussion, the ululation of Charlene O’Rourke’s magnificent chanting, the stealthy creeping of spirit figures whose faces are hidden by the wide brims of vibrantly painted hats. But don’t go in expecting a woo-woo, earth mother love fest: New Fire, is heavy with dark moments. But as El Caminante (Robert Owens-Greygrass) points out, such darkness can be beautiful too. (Gluckstern)

Not Getting Any Younger Marsh San Francisco, Studio Theater, 1062 Valencia, SF; (415) 826-5750, www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Fri, 8pm; Sat, 5 and 8:30pm. Extended through Feb 25. Marga Gomez is back at the Marsh, a couple of too-brief decades after inaugurating the theater’s new stage with her first solo show — an apt setting, in other words, for the writer-performer’s latest monologue, a reflection on the inevitable process of aging for a Latina lesbian comedian and artist who still hangs at Starbucks and can’t be trusted with the details of her own Wikipedia entry. If the thought of someone as perennially irreverent, insouciant, and appealingly immature as Gomez makes you depressed, the show is, strangely enough, the best antidote. (Avila)

Olivia’s Kitchen Exit Theatre, 156 Eddy, SF; www.generationtheatre.com. $20-40. Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 3pm. Through Feb 19. GenerationTheatre offers this “remix” of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

“SF Sketchfest” Various venues, SF; www.sfsketchfest.com. $10-75. Through Feb 4. The 11th San Francisco Comedy Festival invades 15 venues in 17 days with local and celebrity-packed (and local-celebrity-packed) performances, film events, improv shows, and more.

Waiting for Godot Royce Gallery, 2901 Mariposa, SF; (415) 336-3522, www.tidestheatre.org. $20-38. Thurs-Sat, 8pm. Through Feb 18. Tides Theatre Company debuts with a bold interpretation of the Beckett classic.

BAY AREA

Ghost Light Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison, Berk; (510) 647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.org. $14.50-73. Tues, Thurs-Sat, 8pm (also Sat and Feb 16, 2pm); Wed and Sun, 7pm (also Sun, 2pm). Through Feb 19. Berkeley Rep performs Tony Taccone’s world-premiere play about George Moscone’s assassination, directed by the late San Francisco mayor’s son, Jonathan Moscone.

*The Kipling Hotel: True Misadventures of the Electric Pink ’80s New venue: Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston, Berk; (415) 282-3055, www.themarsh.org. $20-50. Sat, 8:30pm; Sun, 7pm. Through Feb 12. This new autobiographical solo show by Don Reed, writer-performer of the fine and long-running East 14th, is another slice of the artist’s journey from 1970s Oakland ghetto to comedy-circuit respectability — here via a partial debate-scholarship to UCLA. The titular Los Angeles residency hotel was where Reed lived and worked for a time in the 1980s while attending university. It’s also a rich mine of memory and material for this physically protean and charismatic comic actor, who sails through two acts of often hilarious, sometimes touching vignettes loosely structured around his time on the hotel’s young wait staff, which catered to the needs of elderly patrons who might need conversation as much as breakfast. On opening night, the episodic narrative seemed to pass through several endings before settling on one whose tidy moral was delivered with too heavy a hand, but if the piece runs a little long, it’s only the last 20 minutes that noticeably meanders. And even with some awkward bumps along the way, it’s never a dull thing watching Reed work. (Avila)

The Pitmen Painters TheatreWorks at Mountain View Center for the Arts, 500 Castro, SF; (650) 463-1960, www.theatreworks.org. $19-69. Tues-Wed, 7:30pm; Thurs-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through Feb 12. TheatreWorks performs a new comedy from the author of Billy Elliot about a group of British miners who become art world sensations.

The World’s Funniest Bubble Show Marsh Berkeley, TheaterStage, 2120 Allston, Berk; (415) 826-5750, www.themarsh.org. $8-50. Extended run: Feb 12, 19, 26, March 11, and 18, 11am. Louis “The Amazing Bubble Man” Pearl returns with this kid-friendly, bubble-tastic comedy.

PERFORMANCE/DANCE

“The Best of Times” Alcazar Theatre, 650 Geary, SF; www.42ndstmoon.org. Thurs/26, 7pm. $70. 42nd Street Moon salutes Tony-winning Broadway composer-lyricist Jerry Herman.

“The Eric Show” Milk Bar, 1840 Haight, SF; www.milksf.com. Tues, 8pm (ongoing). $5. Local comedians perform with host Eric Barry.

“Father Panic!” Garage, 975 Howard, SF; (415) 518-1517, www.975howard.com. Fri/27-Sat/28, 8pm, $15. Dan Carbone’s latest autobiographical performance piece.

“Hidden Classics Reading Series” Exit on Taylor, 277 Taylor, SF; www.cuttingball.com. Sun/29, 3pm. Free. Cutting Ball Theater presents two August Strindberg readings: Miss Julie and A Dream Play.

“Loved By You: A Self-Love Story” TJT, 470 Florida, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. Sat/28-Sun/29, 8pm. $15. Lori Shantzis performs her solo show about self-acceptance.

“Musicircus” Walt Disney Family Museum, 104 Montgomery, the Presidio, SF; www.calartsf.net. Sat/28, 1:30-5:30pm and 6-9pm. Free. CalArts Alumni and the Walt Disney Family Museum present this marathon performance event and showcase concert.

Paufve Dance Dance Mission Theater, 3316 24th St, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. Fri/27-Sat/28, 8pm; Sun/29, 7pm. $15-18. The company premieres the dance theater work So I Married Abraham Lincoln.

“The Rivalry” Kanbar Hall, Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California, SF; www.jccsf.org. Sun/29, 4pm. $42-55. LA Theaterworks presents this performance of Norman Corwin’s depiction of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

“The XXX Factor” Eureka Theater, 215 Jackson, SF; www.ticketweb.com. Tues/31, 8pm, $15. Comedy Noir performs a new show satirizing televised talent contests (with “mentors” Sarah Palin and John Wayne Gacy, among others).

BAY AREA

Company C Contemporary Ballet Castro Valley Center for the Arts, 19501 Redwood, Castro Valley; (510) 889-8961. Sat/28, 7:30pm and Sun/29, 2pm. $15-27. Also Feb 17, 8pm; Feb 18, 6:30pm (gala benefit); and Feb 19, 3pm, $23-175. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission, SF; (415) 978-2787. The company opens its 10th anniversary season.

“The Gondoliers” Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic, Walnut Creek; www.lamplighters.org. Fri/27-Sat/28, 8pm (also Sat/28, 2pm); Sun/29, 2pm. $20-53. Lamplighters Music Theatre performs the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.

“Lycanthropos: The Werewolf in Story and Song” Parish Hall, St. Alban’s Church, 1501 Washington, Albany; (510) 528-1685. Sun/29, 7pm. $25-30. Tim Rayborn uses spoken word, song, and exotic instruments to illuminate the werewolf legend, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.

“Saturday Night Special: Broken Resolutions” Nick’s Lounge, 3218 Adeline, Berk; www.nickslounge.com. Sat/28, 7-9:30pm. Free. Open mic featuring LJ Moore and Chanel Timmons.

“What’s Strunk and White, and Read All Over?: The Elements of Style” Pegasus Books Solano, 1855 Solano, Berk; www.1stpersonsingular.com. Wed/25, 7:30pm. Free. Calling all copy editors: First Person Singular dramatizes The Elements of Style.

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