Text and photos by Ariel Soto
“Honk for health care,” shouted thousands of people gathered in front of City Hall last night as they showed their support for health care reform in the United States. The crowd included members from many organizations, including Single Payer Now, Organizing for America and young med-students who were out voicing their opinions on the necessary changes needed to fix our current failing health system.
Text by Nicole Gluckstern. Photos by Gabe Magaña 
Richmond District residents and fedora aficionados who mourned the temporary closure of Paul’s Hat Works on Geary will have no excuse to go out on the streets hatless again, now that the 91 year-old custom haberdashery has reopened its doors with new ownership at the helm. For the first time since its inception, Paul’s will be an entirely woman-run, worker-owned operation, but the focus and craft of hat-making by hand is one they’ve inherited from three generations of hatters, all the way back to Napolean “Paul” Marquez, who founded his namesake storefront in 1918. 
Olivia Griffin, Kirsten Hove, Wendy Hawkins, Abbie Dwelle Trained in traditional hat-making by previous owner Michael Harris, who’s been hatting for about forty years, Paul’s new owners, Abbie Dwelle, Olivia Griffin, Wendy Hawkins, and Kirsten Hove are hoping to breathe new energy into a time-honored craft, one toquilla palm fiber body and grosgrain ribbon at a time. 
Olivia Griffin persons the counter A whirlwind tour of the premises at the grand opening gala last Saturday revealed a cosy retail floor, a vintage glass-paneled display cabinet, a museum-quality array of hat blocks and brim shapers, and a slightly diabolical-looking conformiteur, a hat-shaped device with vaguely medieval head vise undertones, used to measure the circumference of the skull (a completely painless process, I am assured). 
Wendy Hawkins and a potential customer try out the conformiteur Because it’s still the season for straw, a wide variety of Panama hats were on display, ranging from high-end superfine weaves to the coarser “creative” line — a pocketbook friendly choice for hard times. “If you take care of it, a Panama hat will last you a lifetime,” co-owner Wendy Hawkins says, showing off 75 year-old model. Now that they’ve finally opened their doors, will the spirited proprietors of Paul’s succeed in their mission to “bring the hat back”? Only time, and perhaps your wallet, will tell. 
Paul’s Hat Works 6128 Geary Blvd, SF (415) 221-5332 http://hatworksbypaul.wordpress.com
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s Look: Mystery Lady, Union and Laguna
Ariel says, “I took this woman’s photo because I thought her glasses were amazing … but then her bus came and she ran off! I tried to get her name and story but she was too fast!”
Compiled by Molly Freedenberg
This yummy image may be a still from next week’s Erotic Film Festival, but it makes us want to get frisky a little early. Check out some bare torsos this week at Nipple Play at Powerhouse.
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>> Nipple Play
First Wednesday means time to take off your shirt, pull out some cash, and enjoy drink specials like the $3 Pink Nipple Cocktail or the $1 Twisted Nipple Shot.
Wed/2, 9pm. Free.
Powerhouse
1347 Folsom, SF
(415) 552-8689
www.powerhouse-sf.com
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>> Open Eyes Queer Film Night
Get ready to rock out to some seriously gay music videos in this month’s installment of local artist’s provocative, critical, and/or engaging films curated by Stephanie Yang (and enhanced with discussion, popcorn, and beer).
Fri/4, 7:30pm. $10-$15.
Femina Potens
2199 Market, SF
www.feminapotens.org
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>> School of Shimmy: Red Hots Burlesque Showcase
Graduates of Dottie Lux’s popular burlesque series perform alongside SF veterans.
Fri/4, 7:30pm. $5.
El Rio
3158 Mission, SF
www.redhotsburlesque.com
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>> Jeeti Singh Art Exhibit at Madame S
FP Edge and Madame S present body image in a new light with an exhibition of artwork by painter Jeeti Singh, whose subjects face their insecurities.
Runs Sept. 7-Dec. 12, 11am-7pm.
Madame S
385 Eighth St, SF
www.fpedge.com
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>> Ask Our Doctors: the Prostate
With a little know-how, you can have lots of prostate fun – either on your own or with a partner. Dr. Charlie Glickman will tell you everything you need to know to get started on this overlooked and undervalued pleasure spot.
Tue/8, 6:30pm. Free.
Good Vibrations Valencia Store
603 Valencia, SF
(415) 522-5460
www.events.goodvibes.com
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SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s Look: Nadia, Fillmore and Post
Tell us about your look: “I was a top model when I was a young woman in Bulgaria.”
a&eletters@sfbg.com
SONIC REDUCER We all have fantasies, and considering the fact that he happily goes to the sick, hilarious places only you and your silliest, closest pals go, comedian Brent Weinbach’s is remarkably simple. He’d love to drive you … no, not insane, but around in a cab. Of course, when the dream sort of came true — he got to tool around with a cabbie-curator for "Where to," a 2007 art show of taxi-related art at the Lab — one bubble was brutally burst, spurring a joke, of sorts.
"Not a lot of people got it," confesses the longtime SF comedian, now based in his native Los Angeles and back in town for his Outside Lands fest performances. In the cab, he says, "I met a wide variety of people: I met two yuppie girls, a yuppie guy, and more yuppies — and a stripper. A yuppie stripper.
"The point was," Weinbach continues, "I thought it was going to be more like New York City, where all kinds of people take cabs. But that’s really what it was — a bunch of yuppies and a stripper. It turns out the only people who ride around in taxis in San Francisco are yuppies."
A disappointingly homogenous experience for a comic who has found plenty of very specific and strange black, queer, Chinese, Russian, Mexican, and just plain twisted voices to filter through his hilariously stiff, straight-guy comic persona — and despite the perk that, as a Travis Bickle manque, one would have a captive audience in the backseat. Still, cabbing it provided a theme of sorts for the wildly diverse array of live performance recordings, studio-recorded skits, and Weinbach-penned tunes and video game-inspired backing sounds making up the comedian’s second album, The Night Shift (Talent Moat), the focus of a release show at the Verdi Club on Sept. 11. Weinbach sib and comedy co-conspirator Laura of Foxtail Brigade opens, along with Moshe Kasher and Alex Koll.
The tunes on Night Shift are a new touch, setting me off on a daydream about Weinbach doing the duelin’ piano (and laughs) routine with Zach Galifianakis. (Weinbach once teased the ivories professionally in the lobby of Union Square hotels like the Mark Hopkins.) "Sometimes I close my set with one of those songs," Weinbach says. "After hearing the word ‘penis’ a bunch of times and talking about poo-poo, it’s kind of funny to end the set with a sweet old-fashioned song." He worries, though, about the track-by-track re-creation of the album at the Verdi Club: "I hope they don’t kill the momentum of the set."
Yet Weinbach is game — the ex-Oakland substitute teacher has had to be (memories of the letter from a student apologizing for calling him a "bitch" ghost-ride by). He dives into a rapid-fire, impassioned discussion of his comedy, which rarely discusses race directly, yet clearly emerges from the mashed-up, pop sensibility of a half-Filipino, half-Jewish Left Coast kid.
"The only time I’ve ever talked about race is right after the presidential election, when I wrote this: ‘On Nov. 4, 2008, history was made’ … — I usually get a little applause here — ‘It was a remarkable thing to see so much of the black community come together and deny gay people their civil rights. So now that the black man is keeping the gay man down, that means gay is the new black. And that means suburban teenagers will have to get used to a whole new way of acting cool.’"
Weinbach pauses, then explains heatedly, "I was really upset that 70 percent of black voters in California voted against gay marriage, when this whole election was about getting a black president into office. It just blew my mind." As for the joke itself, well, "It gets a good response, though sometimes people think I’m making fun of gay people or black people. I don’t even know what’s going through their head, actually. I do remember doing the joke once and hearing people hissing. It was like, ‘What are you hissing at? Are you glad gay people were denied their rights or are you a snake?’ And if you’re a snake, that’s OK … ‘" *
BRENT WEINBACH
Sept. 11, 8 p.m., $10–<\d>$12
Verdi Club
2424 Mariposa, SF
www.brownpapertickets.com/event/72659
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The cute couple loves their bubblegum and Casio-pop on Hi, We’re Jonesin’ (Telemarketer’s Worst Nightmare). Thurs/3, 9 p.m., $6. Hemlock Tavern, 1131 Polk, SF. www.hemlocktavern.com
The rev has his finger on the holy trigger. Wed/2, 8 p.m., $56–<\d>$85. Warfield, 982 Market, SF. www.goldenvoice.com
Literati party down at a book arts-zine exhibit, with dance sets by Vin Sol, Honey Soundsystem, and Pickpockit. Fri/4, 9 p.m., free before 9 p.m., $7–<\d>$10. 111 Minna Gallery, 111 Minna, SF. www.111minnagallery.com
a&eletters@sfbg.com
SONGWRITING Cass McCombs writes songs that feel like walking into a trap. It’s clear that the quasi-itinerant singer-songwriter — an old-fashioned term that seems to fit him well — is more aware of genre than the average indie troubadour, which makes his songs easy to enter but difficult to penetrate or exit. His music is not of the confessional variety, though it is indirectly personal. String together the titles that make up his discography and you get some sense of how his coded, morphing symbols approximate but never equal the biographical C.M.: A (4AD, 2003), PREfection (2005), Dropping The Writ (Domino, 2007), and Catacombs (2009). And that’s not even getting to his lyrics, which go about the work of making meaning and then suddenly self-cancel or erupt with the real.
"You Saved My Life," from McCombs’ most recent and accomplished record, is a career apogee in this respect. A swooning lap steel and big blunt snare do much of the heavy lifting to make the tune eminently mixtapeable, but the gratitude suggested by the title is troubled by the hard pivoting action of the phrase, "And I can’t blame you enough," and the wobbly delivery of "Blood to gulp and flesh to eat." McCombs’ canniness has little to do with word games or enigma-baiting, though: McCombs may as well have wandered into the singer-songwriter room after a childhood spent listening to mersh rap radio and simply and unfussily picked up on forms he found useful. McCombs’ music may be especially NPR-ready now, with the worn denim elbows of his current queasy Americana overtaking the Smiths/4AD dazzle that held sway over PREfection and surfaced on Dropping The Writ. Yet in comparison to a The Band-ripping band like Deer Tick, everything about McCombs’ music remains to be said.
One of McCombs’ strengths is the ability to modulate through moods over the course of an album while demanding a kind of deep semantic listening unusual in indie rock. Particularly with Catacombs, one gets the sense that Cass is a born Album Artist, the sort of person who understands the virtues of patience and can shear off the highs of his hits while packing filler with unexpected content. Though the quasi-punning Catacombs comes front-loaded with his most affecting tracks and ends with somewhat disposable, self-consciously lighter fare like "Jonesy Boy" and "One Way to Go," the relations between parts makes it difficult to skip over in-between jams like "Harmonia" and "My Sister, My Spouse." It helps, too, that these little coves of patience — a formalist’s trademark — tend to be where he tries out some of his stringier lyrical ideas.
"This is what happens when a leitmotif implodes," McCombs sings on "Lionkiller Got Married," a sequel to Dropping The Writ‘s opening track and personal standard of sorts, "Lionkiller." He could be explaining his own approach to autobiography with the line. It just may be that his subject matter is as much the act of making sense — as much about the point where the line falls off the page — as it is about the sense he’s making. None of it measures up to, say, Dylan-level fibs or automythology, but it serves an important purpose: you never get the feeling that there’s a straight line from McCombs’ intentions to your reception. This is not a dude in your living room relaying earthy, relatable feelings through his acoustic guitar.
It’d be a bit much to call McCombs an antihumanist, though: whatever slipperiness he manifests stems from a healthy distrust of settled meanings rather than a need to assert his control over his audience. Not to discount, either, that some of his contradictions seem to stem from guilelessness. That McCombs is clearly having fun even when he appears to be dead serious — as with "The Executioner’s Song," say — sets his kind of innocence apart from the standard journo narratives of indie rock discovery. As great as Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar, 2007) is, it will never live down the "dude goes into the forest and records awesome bummer breakup album" rap that’s stamped across it, for the foreseeable future, like a "The Nice Price" sticker.
But McCombs’ mercurial self-presentation seems less like the stamp of a "truer" authenticity than Bon Iver’s than a sustained parry of that terrible word. Not to forget, either, that Catacombs has been lauded in Vice and given Pitchfork’s Best New Music designation. Whether or not we’ve fussed our way into being able to describe what makes McCombs’ music so difficult to digest, there’s something tough and unyielding at its center. Partly I wonder whether this is what rock would sound like without Pavement, but mostly I listen. When it hits wrong, the boredom is palpable. But just as often Catacombs conveys the bottom falling out of meaning in gorgeous slow motion.
CASS MCCOMBS
With the Papercuts, Girls
Sept. 9, 9 p.m. (doors 8 p.m.), $14–$16
Great American Music Hall
859 O’Farrell, SF
(415) 885-0750
a&eletters@sfbg.com
INTERVIEW Sacramento quartet Ganglians daydreams blissed-out harmonies — ones made hazy by distortion. As its sun-kissed psych-pop sounds become garbled, the band creates a prismatic realm, a sonic state of being somewhere between waking and dreaming. This polychromatic province, where myoclonic twitches and hypnotic jerks occur, is conjured by variations between fuzzy, thermal jams and abstract, pensive chants.
Vocalist-guitarist Ryan Grubbs grew up in Bozeman, Mont. In 2006, he moved to Sactown after visiting the state capitol with his grandfather, who was attending a big horn sheep convention. Guitarist Kyle Hoover, drummer Alex Sowles, and bassist Adrian Comenzind all grew up in Sac and jammed together in Comenzind’s attic.
"Ryan worked down the street from that attic and when he’d walk home, he could hear us playing," says Sowles, explaining the band’s serendipitous formation. "Ryan had a show lined up and he asked us if we wanted to play with him. It just kinda worked out." After a pause he adds: "And then there was a car crash right in front of the venue that we played at …" Hoover, Grubbs, and Sowles rally back and forth about the group’s chemistry, which "wasn’t actually all there at first," before concluding that "the chemistry was there, but we weren’t exactly sure how to pull it off."
In biology, clusters of cells perform the same function within a ganglion — for instance, dorsal root ganglia relay sensory information from the skin to the spine. This process is a metaphor for the band’s rapid maturity: progressing from the first show, which was an interpretation of Grubbs’ solo work, to the chemistry-click when the members began writing songs together (and finishing each other’s sentences).
It all makes sense, except: the plural of ganglion is ganglia, and the band’s choice of name has nothing to do with the neurological term. Instead, Ganglians is a haphazard smooshing together of words. "Mostly I just liked aliens, and a gang of aliens, so I thought of ganglians," says Grubbs. "I had never heard of it before, so it sounded really cool, mysterious and iconic. I found out later it was a cyst or something, spelled a little differently, which is cool because that’s kinda weird and it’s like a bundle of nerves, and nerves are all about perceiving things and stuff. It worked out perfectly, I guess."
Ultimately, the randomness of Ganglians’ name, and how it came into being, is probably a much better metaphor for how the band operates. Its two releases to date, a self-titled EP (Woodsist) and Monster Head Room (Woodsist/Weird Force), were released almost simultaneously. The EP came out first, but features many songs written after those on Monster Head Room. The latter "was more of a production thing," says Sowles. Or as Grubbs put it, "It was a labor of love, we really nourished it." Monster Head Room‘s relative polish is illustrated by re-recordings two tracks of "The Void" and "Candy Girl" from Ganglians’ self-titled release.
Ganglians usually build songs around a melody. Grubbs often finds his during a "mindless" and "routine" job as a busser/server at a sushi restaurant. "I just go into this trance, " he says. "Then I’ll run into the bathroom and record a little snippet off of a melody on my phone."
After piecing together Grubbs’ cell phone recordings, the band jams for a while, with each member contributing different ingredients for the song. Most contributions are based upon a theme or an idea, such as sounding like a forest, or like being underwater, or trying to conjure the feeling of a journey.
Grubbs’ lyrics spring forth from themes and sounds, as in "Valient Brave," from Monster Head Room. "From its rhythm-guitar," says Grubbs, "I knew it was going to be a war chant." Grubbs also builds lyrics around vowel sounds, as is evident in his use of slant rhyme: the same album’s "Cryin Smoke," for example, pairs "pasture" with "bathroom."
The idiosyncratic moments in Ganglians’ music express a randomness but also reflect an increasing attention to detail. These particulars are most easily perceived while listening to Monster Head Room on headphones: the back-and-forth thumps that begin "Valient Brave," the UFO blast-off in "The Void" (produced via an oscillator and space echo), and the field recordings of crickets, frogs, and wood crackling that permeate "To June." There is a charm in not knowing whether these moments were fortuitous, like the band’s formation and name, or calculated. The ambiguity only heightens Ganglians’ ability to bring its listener into its half-dream sphere.
GANGLIANS
With Wavves
Sun/6, 7:30 p.m., $10–$12
155 Fell, SF
(415) 861-2011
a&eletters@sfbg.com
Heading south across the Rio Grande, their pants and shoes raised high over their heads, a 13-year-old Mexican American girl named Romy (Maria Candelaria) and her two sort-of fathers — inveterate bad boy Lupe (Sean San José) and straight-laced new stepdad Ben (Johnny Moreno) — wade into the past as their only way forward. In what you could call a return to the repressed, they find themselves in an in-between world of haunted memories and intersecting fates, devilish plans and sweet, unexpected salvation.
This is Octavio Solis territory par excellence, the playwright who for the last three decades has mapped landscapes personal, psychical, and political at once: this is Dreamlandia, or the coma realm where Lydia communes with her counterpart Ceci across space and multiple other barriers. Here, in lyrical, fiercely funny and sublimely violent El Otro — revived, and revised by Solis, as part of Thick Description’s 20th anniversary season — Texas and Mexico dissolve in peyote-fueled depths of meaning and contradiction along a border never as solid or sure as anyone thinks. Even the tattoo off her dad Lupe’s back (Rhonnie Washington) — a black man in a black cowboy suit riding to the rescue with irrelevant Berlitz Spanish — is anything but two-dimensional.
But back to the setting: it’s the 1980s, it’s a Monday, it’s Reagan’s "Morning in America," which is to say it feels like the start and the end of something big. Romy, having lived with Lupe since her mother Nina (a sharp Presciliana Esparolini) left him for good, is getting the hand-off. Nina’s new love, Ben, pressed and manly in his private’s uniform, has come to pick her up and take her back to her mother. But Lupe isn’t willing to let her go that easy, insisting Ben accompany him to retrieve a present he bought her. Lupe’s behavior — erratic, coy, in no way to be trusted — worries the private everyone insists on calling "Sarge." But he sees no alternative and does his best to be mature, responsible, and agreeable as both Lupe and Romy gradually reduce him to a shattered mess. What emerges afterward is a secret family history just hinted at before, and a strange, almost surreal plot of atonement-revenge devised by Lupe in cahoots with a rancher (Richard Talavera) and his wife (Wilma Bonet).
In what Thick Description announced will be its last production in its Potrero District black box theater, artistic director Tony Kelly stages the play in stark, bare-bones fashion, the play’s moods and settings conveyed largely by the actors, along with choice lighting cues from Rick Martin and flashes of musical coloring courtesy of Vincent Montoya, with Seventy and the Tattooed Love Dogs.
The spare stage gives rein to a fluid pace in sync with the play’s consciousness-slipping style, but Kelly’s normally very sharp eye seemed less trained than usual at times. The music cues could feel cramped and sometimes engulfed a line or two, and opening night’s performances were in some places still gelling. San Jose prowled and shook the stage with a ferocious, concentrated energy and a crisp sardonic wit, but that intensity was matched only part of the time by Moreno’s proudly square and increasingly overwhelmed stepdad, or by Candelaria’s Romy, who felt initially a bit rote and could be difficult to hear. Both actors came much more to the fore in the second act, however. And as a first act closer, it’s hard to beat Rhonnie Washington’s entrance as El Charro Negro, one of Solis’ more fanciful and inspired creations and a consistent treat throughout in Washington’s hands (who is back in the saddle after having originated the role in 1996).
Well-pitched performances came too from Lawrence Radecker as Ross, an increasingly light-headed and blood-bespattered cowboy, and Michael Bellino as the border patrol cop wrestling with his backlogged conscience after he catches Mexicans sneaking the wrong way over the river — a real fuse-blower, the sight acts on him like a nonsense rhyme on one of those Star Trek robots with the smoldering ears.
Solis, enjoying an impressive string of productions of late, including last season’s excellent Bay Area premiere of Lydia at Marin Theatre Company, crafted an enduring work in El Otro for all its pop references and rough edges. At the best moments in this admittedly fitful but worthwhile production, the flow of language — mingling flights of poetic revelry, whimsical and nightmare imagery, casual and colorful vulgarity and deadpan humor — seems to hover and soar just over the stage. At the same time, it never loses sight of the ground, and in fact more than once plunges deep into the mud: playing movingly with life and death in the viscous slime and churning waters of that border-defining river.
EL OTRO
Through Sept. 13
Thurs–Sun, 8 p.m., $15–$30
Thick House, 1695 18th St., SF
PREVIEW RAWdance’s Concept Series is the brainchild of dancer-choreographers Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein, who needed a lab situation in which to test concept and show works in progress. They invited friends and artists who looked interesting and who had similar concerns. The result is a series of informal presentations that sparkle with fresh ideas, although the individual works are rarely finished. Watching this type of dance is so inviting, despite the tiny, near-impossible performance space. It’s long and narrow, and audiences must be prepared to move the furniture to accommodate a particular artist’s requirements. Concept 5 looks especially intriguing. In addition to Smith and Rein’s latest experiments, you’ll get the inimitable Mary Armentrout; Bob Webb/Bare Bones Butoh — you probably know him better as the ubiquitous stage manager who keeps dance shows on track; improv dancers Christine Cali and Amy Stemstetter, freshly back from the East Coast; Printz Dance Project, who have their own show Nov. 5-7; and Lily Dwyer and Scott Marlowe, LEVY Dance members who are striking out on their own. Parking is tough, so patronize Muni. But the price is right: pay what you can — and the popcorn is free.
RAWDANCE PRESENTS THE CONCEPT SERIES: 5 Sat/5–Sun/6, 8 p.m. (also Sun/6, 3 p.m.), pay what you can James Howell Studio, 66 Sanchez, SF. (415) 686-0728.
Events listings are compiled by Paula Connelly. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com.
WEDNESDAY 2
Rebecca Solnit Green Arcade, 1680 Market, SF; (415) 431-6800. 7pm, free. A release party for Solnit’s new book, A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster, where the award winning author explores themes of altruism and hope through several histories of the shaken commons in the aftermath of calamity.
THURSDAY 3
Divisadero Art Walk Divisadero from Haight to Geary, SF; www.divisaderoartwalk.blogspot.com. 6pm, free. Get in touch with the burgeoning art scene on Divisadero street, with 35 participating merchants offering specials, art, music, and community.
Oy Vey! Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission, SF; (415) 655-7800. 5pm; free, $5 admission to exhibits and programs. Kvetch with friends over drinks after work while enjoying some art and architecture. Featuring Susan G. Solomon giving a talk titled, The Art of Listening: Oral Histories from Voice of Witness and StoryCorps.
Art and Wine for PACT San Francisco PACT office, 635 Divisadero, SF; (415) 922-2550 to RSVP. Enjoy wine tasting, food, and student made art at this fundraiser for PACT, Inc., an non-profit that provides low income and first generation students guidance through the college, financial aid, and scholarship application processes.
FRIDAY 4
Art.tech The Lab, 2948 16th St., SF; (415) 864-8855. Fri. 8pm, Sat. 1-8pm, Sun. 1-7pm; $12-20 sliding scale per day, $36 for a three day pass, $8 for single evening performance. A festival of art, performance, sound, workshops, demos, and lectures featuring cutting-edge artistic experiments created with and related to technology.
SATURDAY 5
Food For Thought Toby’s Feed Barn, 11250 State Route One, Point Reyes Station; (415) 663-1542. 7pm, free. Hear author David Mas Masumoto read from his books and talk about his experience as a third generation organic peach and grape farmer, whose organic farming techniques have been widely adopted.
SUNDAY 6
Penguins to Penguins Great Highway, connecting Golden Gate Park to the San Francisco Zoo, SF; sundaystreetssf.com. 10am, free. Take advantage of this month’s Sunday Streets, a safe, fun, car-free area for people to get out and get active in San Francisco neighborhoods.
TUESDAY 8
Lang Lang Zellerbach Auditorium, UC Berkeley Campus, 2430 Bancroft Way, Berk; (510) 642-9988. 7:30pm, $20. Hear this highly influential Chinese pianist interview with Sarah Cahill, also a pianist, from KALW’s Sunday evening show Then and Now, about his new book, Journey of a Thousand Miles in this program and book signing.
Music listings are compiled by Paula Connelly and Cheryl Eddy. Since club life is unpredictable, it’s a good idea to call ahead to confirm bookings and hours. Prices are listed when provided to us. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com.
WEDNESDAY 2
ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP
Boylion, Shovelman, James Michael and the Lower Case Letters Hotel Utah. 8pm, $7.
Bye Bye Blackbirds, Rhubarb Whiskey, Billy Boys El Rio. 8pm, $5.
Davila 666, Mannequin Men, No Bunny, Bridez Thee Parkside. 8pm, $10.
Mike Donovan, Douglas Armour, Banaya Papaya Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $6.
*Enforcer, Slough Feg, Cauldron, Holy Grail Annie’s Social Club. 8pm, $10.
*Al Green, Orgone Warfield. 8pm, $56-85.
Derick Hughes Biscuits and Blues. 8pm, $15.
Eric Lindell Coda. 9pm, $20.
Mitchel Musso, KSM, Jimmy Robbins Slim’s. 7pm, $20.
Nels Cline Singers, Ava Mendoza Café du Nord. 9:30pm, $14.
Papa Grows Funk Boom Boom Room. 10pm, $15.
Shakewell, Paula O’Rourke and the Scarlett Bellows, SugarButtTiger Red Devil Lounge. 8pm, $8.
Skeelo, Paulie Rhyme, Bonus Traxx Elbo Room. 9pm, $20.
BAY AREA
Def Leppard, Poison, Cheap Trick Shoreline Amphitheater, One Amphitheater Pkwy, Mtn View; www.livenation.com. 7pm, $55.50-131.
JAZZ/NEW MUSIC
Ben Marcato and the Mondo Combo Top of the Mark. 7:30pm, $10.
Cat’s Corner Savanna Jazz. 7pm, $5-10.
8 Legged Monster Yoshi’s San Francisco. 8pm, $14.
Lisa Mezzacappa’s Bait and Switch, John Shiurba’s 5×5 Climate Theater, 285 Ninth St, SF; (415) 704-3260. 8pm, $7-15.
Shotgun Wedding Yoshi’s San Francisco. 10pm, $14.
Tin Cup Serenade Le Colonial, 20 Cosmo Place, SF; (415) 931-3600. 7pm, free.
FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY
Bluegrass Country Jam Plough and Stars. 9pm, free.
Freddie Clarke Peña Pachamama, 1630 Powell, SF; (415) 646-0018. 8 and 9:30pm; $12.
Los Diablos de Amor Rasselas Jazz. 8pm, free.
DANCE CLUBS
Afreaka! Attic, 3336 24th St; souljazz45@gmail.com. 10pm, free. Psychedelic beats from Brazil, Turkey, India, Africa, and across the globe with MAKossa.
Booty Call Q-Bar, 456 Castro; www.bootycallwednesdays.com. 9pm. Juanita Moore hosts this dance party, featuring DJ Robot Hustle.
Hands Down! Bar on Church. 9pm, free. With DJs Claksaarb, Mykill, and guests spinning indie, electro, house, and bangers.
Hump Night Elbo Room. 9pm, $5. The week’s half over – bump it out at Hump Night! Jam Wednesday Infusion Lounge. 10pm, free. DJ Slick Dee.
Qoöl 111 Minna Gallery. 5-10pm, $5. Pan-techno lounge with DJs Spesh, Gil, Hyper D, and Jondi.
RedWine Social Dalva. 9pm-2am, free. DJ TophOne and guests spin outernational funk and get drunk.
Respect Wednesdays End Up. 10pm, $5. Rotating DJs Lonestar Sound, Young Fyah, Sake One, Serg, and more spinning reggae, dancehall, roots, lovers rock, and mash ups.
Synchronize Il Pirata, 2007 16th St.; (415) 626-2626. 10pm, free. Psychedelic dance music with DJs Helios, Gatto Matto, Psy Lotus, Intergalactoid, and guests.
THURSDAY 3
ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP
Answer, Sticks and Stones Red Devil Lounge. 8pm, $10.
Black Quarterback Coda. 9pm, $7.
Blue Rabbit, Kirk Hamilton Group, Conspiracy of Venus Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $10.
Brave Combo, Pine Box Boys Slim’s. 8:30pm, $15.
Heather Combs, Austin Willacy, Walty, Welcome Matt Hotel Utah. 7:30pm, $8.
Greyhounds, Anthony Ferrell Boom Boom Room. 10pm, $8.
Jonesin’, Sandwitches, Hanni el Khatib Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $6.
*Jucifer, Grayceon, Flood Annie’s Social Club. 8pm, $10.
Mos Def, Erykah Badu, Jay Electronica Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness, SF; www.livenation.com. 7:30pm.
Nels Cline Singers, Ava Mendoza Café du Nord. 8pm, $14.
Scene of Action, Fighting the Villain, Robots of Fury Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $8.
This is My Fist!, Airfix Kits, Robocop 3, Gunner Thee Parkside. 9pm, $5.
Unauthorized Rolling Stones Biscuits and Blues. 8pm, $15.
BAY AREA
Deadbolt, Chop Tops, Thee Merry Widows, Switchblade Riot, DJ Wednzdai Uptown. 8pm, $12.
JAZZ/NEW MUSIC
Eric Benet Yoshi’s San Francisco. 8 and 10pm, $35.
Eric Kurtzrock Trio Ana Mandara, Ghirardelli Square, 891 Beach, SF; (415) 771-6800. 7:30pm, free.
"Full Moon Concert Series: Harvest Moon" Luggage Store Gallery, 1007 Market, SF; www.luggagestoregallery.org. 8pm, $6-10. With RTD3 and Gino Robair.
Marlina Teich Trio Brickhouse, 426 Brannan, SF; (415) 820-1595. 7-10pm, free.
Stompy Jones Top of the Mark. 7:30pm, $10.
FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY
Dark Hollow Band Atlas Café. 8pm, free.
Flamenco Thursday Peña Pachamama, 1630 Powell, SF; (415) 646-0018. 8 and 9:30pm, $12. With Carola Zertuche and Company.
Shannon Céilí Band Plough and Stars. 9pm, free.
DANCE CLUBS
Afrolicious Elbo Room. 9:30pm, $5-6. DJs Pleasuremaker, Señor Oz, J Elrod, and B Lee spin Afrobeat, Tropicália, electro, samba, and funk.
Caribbean Connection Little Baobab, 3388 19th St; 643-3558. 10pm, $3. DJ Stevie B and guests spin reggae, soca, zouk, reggaetón, and more.
Club Jammies Edinburgh Castle. 10pm, free. DJs EBERrad and White Mice spinning reggae, punk, dub, and post punk.
Drop the Pressure Underground SF. 6-10pm, free. Electro, house, and datafunk highlight this weekly happy hour.
Funky Rewind Skylark. 9pm, free. DJ Kung Fu Chris, MAKossa, and rotating guest DJs spin heavy funk breaks, early hip-hop, boogie, and classic Jamaican riddims.
Heat Icon Ultra Lounge. 10pm, free. Hip-hop, R&B, reggae, and soul.
Holy Thursday Underground SF. 10pm, $5. Bay Area electronic hip hop producers showcase their cutting edge styles monthly.
Kick It Bar on Church. 9pm. Hip-hop with DJ Jorge Terez.
Koko Puffs Koko Cocktails, 1060 Geary; 885-4788. 10pm, free. Dubby roots reggae and Jamaican funk from rotating DJs.
Lacquer Beauty Bar. 10pm-2am, free. DJs Mario Muse and Miss Margo bring the electro. Mestiza Bollywood Café, 3376 19th St., SF; (415) 970-0362. 10pm, free. Showcasing progressive Latin and global beats with DJ Juan Data.
Popscene 330 Rich. 10pm, $10. Rotating DJs spinning indie, Britpop, electro, new wave, and post-punk.
Rock Candy Stud. 9pm-2am, $5. Luscious Lucy Lipps hosts this electro-punk-pop party with music by ReXick.
Studio SF Triple Crown. 9pm, $5. Keeping the Disco vibe alive with authentic 70’s, 80’s, and current disco with DJs White Girl Lust, Ken Vulsion, and Sergio.
Toppa Top Thursdays Club Six. 9pm, $5. Jah Warrior, Jah Yzer, I-Vier, and Irie Dole spin the reggae jams for your maximum irie-ness.
FRIDAY 4
ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP
Café R&B Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $22.
Division Day, Bad Veins, LoveLikeFire Café du Nord. 9:30pm, $12.
*Drunk Horse, Green and Wood, Sea of Air Knockout. 5-8:30pm, $7.
Foxtail Somersault, Color Turning, Tomihira, Tracing Figures Red Devil Lounge. 8pm, $10.
Hatchet, Havoc, Brocus Helm, Laceration, DJ Rob Metal Thee Parkside. 9pm, $10.
DJ Lebowitz Madrone. 6-9pm, free.
Mew, Funeral Party Independent. 9pm, $18.
Neville Brothers, Dr. John Regency Ballroom. 9pm, $50.
Outrageous Cherry, Devon Williams, Thee Makeout Party Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $8.
Punchface, Triple Cobra, Chop Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.
SMP, Stiff Valentine, Slave Unit Annie’s Social Club. 9pm, $10.
Alexander Spit, Overview, Trackademicks, J-Billie, MC Hopie Spitshard, DJ Ant-1 Slim’s. 9pm, $14.
Tinted Windows, Magic Christian Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $26.
White Buffalo Hotel Utah. 9pm, $12.
Gary Wilson and the Blind Dates, James Pants, Odd Nosdom Elbo Room. 10pm, $12.
BAY AREA
Mos Def, Erykah Badu, Jay Electronica Paramount Theatre. 7:30pm, $39.50-79.50.
Wallpaper, Battlehooch, Somehow at Sea, Suicidal Barfly Uptown. 9pm, free.
JAZZ/NEW MUSIC
Audium 9 1616 Bush, SF; (415) 771-1616. 8:30pm, $15.
Eric Benet Yoshi’s San Francisco. 8 and 10pm, $35.
Black Market Jazz Orchestra Top of the Mark. 9pm, $10.
Miss Faye Carol and Her Trio Red Poppy Art House. 8pm, $20.
Eric Kurtzrock Trio Ana Mandara, Ghirardelli Square, 891 Beach, SF; 771-6800. 8pm, free.
Strong Move Quartet Coda. 10pm, $10.
FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY
Cuban Nights Peña Pachamama, 1630 Powell, SF; (415) 646-0018. 8:30pm, $15. With Fito Reinoso, and Eddie and Gabriel Navia, and Latin dancing Buena Vista style.
Jeremy Serwer and Courtney Robbins Plough and Stars. 9pm, $6.
DANCE CLUBS
Activate! Lookout, 3600 16th St; (415) 431-0306. 9pm, $3. Face your demigods and demons at this Red Bull-fueled party.
Bar on Church 9pm. Rotating DJs Zax, Zhaldee, and Nuxx.
Matthew Dear, Alland Byallo Mighty. 10pm, $12. Spinning electronic pop, minimal house, acid techno, and more.
Exhale, Fridays Project One Gallery, 251 Rhode Island; (415) 465-2129. 5pm, $5. Happy hour with art, fine food, and music with Vin Sol, King Most, DJ Centipede, and Shane King.
Fat Stack Fridays Koko Cocktails, 1060 Geary, SF; (415) 885-4788. 10pm, free. With rotating DJs Romanowski, B-Love, Tomas, Toph One, and Vinnie Esparza.
Gay Asian Paradise Club Eight, 1151 Folsom, SF; www.eightsf.com. 9pm, $8. Featuring two dance floors playing dance and hip hop, smoking patio, and 2 for 1 drinks before 10pm.
Laila Ruby Skye. 9pm, $20. An international sound experience.
Look Out Weekend Bambuddha Lounge. 4pm, free. Drink specials, food menu and resident DJs White Girl Lust, Swayzee, Philie Ocean, and more.
M4M Fridays Underground SF. 10pm-2am. Joshua J and Frankie Sharp host this man-tastic party.
Oldies Night Knockout. 9pm-2am, $2-4. Doo-wop, one-hit wonders, soul, and more with DJs Primo, Daniel, and Lost Cat.
Popscene vs. Loaded Presents Rickshaw Stop. 10pm, $10. With Twelves, Tenderloins, and more DJs Omar, Aaron, and Sleazemore.
Punk Rock and Shlock Karaoke Annie’s Social Club. 9pm-2am, $5. Eileen and Jody bring you songs from multiple genres to butcher: punk, new wave, alternative, classic rock, and more.
Strangelove Cat Club. 9pm, $6. Sisters of Mercy tribute with DJs Tomas Diablo, Fact50, Justin, and Prince Charming spinning dark electro, new wave, industrial, and goth.
Upper Playground and Sonic Living Happy Hour Laszlo. 6-9pm, free. Resident DJs Amplive and Tourist with special guests. Drink specials and giveaways.
SATURDAY 5
ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP
B-Cups, Sweet Revenge, Smokejumper, Air Show Disaster Red Devil Lounge. 8pm, $10.
Detonize, Vivid Sekt, Corpus Knockout. 4-7pm, $5.
Rick Estrin and the Night Cats Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $20.
Fast Times Maggie McGarry’s, 1353 Grant, SF; (415) 399-9020. 9pm, free.
Hightower, Emeralds, Bogus Tokus, Space Vacation Annie’s Social Club. 9pm, $7.
Magic Bullets Café du Nord. 9pm, $10.
New Radiant Storm King, Faking Your Own Death, Vir Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $7.
Nico Vega, Dirty Sweet, Gringo Star Bottom of the Hill. 10pm, $10.
Stockholm Syndrome, Bret Mosely Independent. 9pm, $25.
Tubes, Cat McLean Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $25.
Wire Train, Translator, Debora Iyall, Benjamin Bossi, DJ Choice Slim’s. 9pm, $26.
BAY AREA
*Jucifer, Ferocious Few Uptown. 9pm, free.
JAZZ/NEW MUSIC
Audium 9 1616 Bush, SF; (415) 771-1616. 8:30pm, $15.
Eric Kurtzrock Trio Ana Mandara, Ghirardelli Square, 891 Beach, SF; (415) 771-6800. 8pm, free.
Four Freshmen Yoshi’s San Francisco. 8pm, $24.
Ricardo Scales Top of the Mark. 9pm, $10.
Steppin’ featuring Oscar Myers Coda. 10pm, $10.
FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY
Thorny Brocky Red Poppy Art House. 8pm, $15.
Carnaval Del Sur Peña Pachamama, 1630 Powell, SF; (415) 646-0018. 8pm, $15.
Kit and the Branded Men with Emith Plough and Stars. 9pm, $6.
DANCE CLUBS
Debaser Knockout. 11pm, $5. Wear your flannel and get in free before 11pm to this party, where DJ Jamie Jams and Emdee play alternative hits from the 1990s.
Everlasting Bass 330 Ritch. 10pm, $5-10. Bay Area Sistah Sound presents this party, with DJs Zita and Pam the Funkstress spinning hip-hop, soul, funk, reggae, dancehall, and club classics.
Fire Corner Koko Cocktails, 1060 Geary; 885-4788. 9:30pm, free. Rare and outrageous ska, rocksteady, and reggae vinyl with Revival Sound System and guests.
Gemini Disco Underground SF. 10pm, $5. Disco with DJ Derrick Love.
HYP Club Eight, 1151 Folsom, SF; www.eightsf.com. 10pm, free. Gay and lesbian hip hop party, featuring DJs spinning the newest in the top 40s hip hop and hyphy.
Leisure Paradise Lounge. 10pm, $7. DJs Omar, Aaron, and Jet Set James spinning classic britpop, mod, 60s soul, and 90s indie.
Moped Amnesia. 10pm.
Rebel Girl Rickshaw Stop. 10pm, $5-7. A sexylicious dance party of girrrs, bois, and their friends with DJ China G.
Saturday Night Soul Party Elbo Room. 10pm, $10. Sixties soul on 45s with DJs Lucky, Phengren Oswald, and Paul Paul.
So Special Club Six. 9pm, $5. DJ Dans One and guests spinning dancehall, reggae, classics, and remixes.
Spirit Fingers Sessions 330 Ritch. 9pm, free. With DJ Morse Code and live guest performances.
Summer Saturdays Bar On Church. 9pm, free. With DJ Mark Andrus spinning top 40, mashups, hip hop, and electro.
SUNDAY 6
ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP
Guitar Shorty Biscuits and Blues. 8pm, $20.
In n’ Out Boom Boom Room. 9:30pm, $5.
Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam, Rob Drabkin Slim’s. 8pm, $16.
Adam Marsland, Adrian Bourgeois Union Room (at Biscuits and Blues). 8pm, $10.
Midnight Stranglers, Tough Luxury, Cons Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $6.
*Old Grandad, Floating Goat, Pins of Light, Aerial Ruin Annie’s Social Club. 7pm, $8.
Maia Sharp Café du Nord. 8pm, $15.
Stockholm Syndrome, Stone Foxes Independent. 9pm, $25.
Wavvs, Ganglians Rickshaw Stop. 7:30pm, $12.
BAY AREA
John Legend, India.Arie, Vaughn Anthony Greek Theater, UC Berkeley, Berk; www.ticketmaster.com. 7:30pm, $39.50-89.50.
JAZZ/NEW MUSIC
Four Freshmen Yoshi’s San Francisco. 2 and 7pm, $5-24.
Lucid Lovers Harris’ Restaurant, 2100 Van Ness, SF; (415) 673-1888. 6:30pm.
Rob Modica Simple Pleasures, 3434 Balboa, SF; (415) 387-4022. 3pm, free.
FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY
George Lammam Ensemble Peña Pachamama, 1630 Powell, SF; (415) 646-0018. 9pm; $10.
Mucho Axe Coda. 8pm, $7.
Quin and friends Plough and Stars. 9pm, free.
"Songwriter Sundays" Yoshi’s San Francisco. 8pm, $3. With Francesca Lee, Jennifer Faust, and Weather Pending.
Tippy Canoe Velo Rouge, 798 Arguello, SF; (415) 752-7799. 2pm, free.
DANCE CLUBS
DiscoFunk Mashups Cat Club. 10pm, free. House and 70’s music.
Dub Mission 13th Anniversary Elbo Room. 9pm, $6. Dub, roots, and classic dancehall with DJs Sep, Yossi Fine, and Twilight Circus Dub Sound System with Ryan Moore.
45Club’s Soulful Labor Day Funk Fest Knockout. 9pm, $2. With Dirty Dishes, English Steve, and dX the Funky Granpaw.
Gloss Sundays Trigger, 2344 Market, SF; (415) 551-CLUB. 7pm. With DJ Hawthorne spinning house, funk, soul, retro, and disco.
Honey Soundsystem Paradise Lounge. 8pm-2am. "Dance floor for dancers – sound system for lovers." Got that?
Jock! Lookout, 3600 16th; 431-0306. 3pm, $2. This high-energy party raises money for LGBT sports teams.
Kick It Bar on Church. 9pm. Hip-hop with DJ Zax.
Religion Bar on Church. 3pm. With DJ Nikita.
Stag AsiaSF. 6pm, $5. Gay bachelor parties are the target demo of this weekly erotic tea dance.
SupaStar Sunday Blue Macaw, 2565 Mission, SF; www.myspace.com/citypage. 10:30pm. Hosted by SupaStar City with DJ Rick Lee.
MONDAY 7
ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP
Cold Cave, Crocodiles, Best Coast Knockout. 10pm, $5.
Little Cow Café du Nord. 8pm, $10.
JAZZ/NEW MUSIC
Belleville Outfit Yoshi’s San Francisco. 8pm, $10.
Lavay Smith Trio Enrico’s, 504 Broadway, SF; www.enricossf.com. 7pm, free.
FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY
Israel Vibration, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad Independent. 9pm, $25.
Songs of Sea Labor Ferryboat Eureka, Hyde Street Pier, SF; (415) 447-5000. Noon, $5. With Salty Walt and the Rattlin’ Ratlines and Holdstock and Macleod.
DANCE CLUBS
Black Gold Koko Cocktails, 1060 Geary; 885-4788. 10pm-2am, free. Senator Soul spins Detroit soul, Motown, New Orleans R&B, and more — all on 45!
Going Steady Dalva. 10pm, free. DJs Amy and Troy spinning 60’s girl groups, soul, garage, and more.
King of Beats Tunnel Top. 10pm. DJs J-Roca and Kool Karlo spinning reggae, electro, boogie, funk, 90’s hip hop, and more.
Krazy for Karaoke Happy Hour Knockout. 5-9pm, free. Belt it out with host Deadbeat.
Mainroom Mondays Annie’s Social Club. 9pm, free. Live the dream: karaoke on Annie’s stage and pretend you’re Jello Biafra.
Manic Mondays Bar on Church. 9pm. Drink 80-cent cosmos with Djs Mark Andrus and Dangerous Dan.
Monster Show Underground SF. 10pm, $5. Cookie Dough and DJ MC2 make Mondays worth dancing about, with a killer drag show at 11pm.
Network Mondays Azul Lounge, One Tillman Pl; www.inhousetalent.com. 9pm, $5. Hip-hop, R&B, and spoken word open mic, plus featured performers.
Spliff Sessions Tunnel Top. 10pm, free. DJs MAKossa, Kung Fu Chris, and C. Moore spin funk, soul, reggae, hip-hop, and psychedelia on vinyl.
TUESDAY 8
ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP
*Black Cobra, 16, Serpent Crown, DJ Rob Metal Knockout. 10pm, free.
Karl Blau, Neal Morgan, Casual Fog Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $6.
Michael Burks Biscuits and Blues. 8pm, $20.
David Cook Fillmore. 8pm, $32.50.
Laura Cortese and Jefferson Hamer, Anne Heaton Elbo Room. 9pm, $7.
JL Stiles, Sean Garvey, Quinn Deveaux Café du Nord. 9:30pm, $10.
JAZZ/NEW MUSIC
Dave Parker Quintet Rasselas Jazz. 8pm.
Spencer Day Rrazz Room, Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason, SF; www.therrazzroom.com. 8pm, $30-37.50.
Eric McFadden Union Yoshi’s San Francisco. 10pm, $14.
"Jazz Mafia Tuesdays" Coda. 9pm, $7. With Spaceheater’s Blast Furnace.
Ralph Carney’s Serious Jass Project Yoshi’s San Francisco. 8pm, $14.
Ricardo Scales Top of the Mark. 6:30pm, $5.
FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY
Kitten on the Keys Climate Theater, 285 Ninth St, SF; (415) 704-3260. 8pm, $7-15.
Barry O’ Connell, Vinnie Cronin and friends Plough and Stars. 9pm, free.
DANCE CLUBS
Drunken Monkey Annie’s Social Club. 9pm, free. Weekly guest DJs and Hamm’s for a buck.
Eclectic Company Skylark, 9pm, free. DJs Tones and Jaybee spin old school hip hop, bass, dub, glitch, and electro.
Mixology Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, 133 Turk, (415) 441-2922. 10pm, $2. DJ Frantik mixes with the science and art of music all night.
Rock Out Karaoke! Amnesia. 7:30pm. With Glenny Kravitz.
Share the Love Trigger, 2344 Market, SF; (415) 551-CLUB. 5pm, free. With DJ Pam Hubbuck spinning house.
Womanizer Bar on Church. 9pm. With DJ Nuxx.
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s Look: Myloan, Buchanan and Union
Tell us about your look: “I’m on my way to my birthday dinner tonight at Osha Thai.”
Before Chief Gascon starts talking amnesty and clearing minor cases, he needs to demonstrate that he’s going to take a hard line on the serious misconduct cases
EDITORIAL We’re glad to see San Francisco’s new police chief, George Gascon, is talking about reform. He’s talking about opening up the mediaphobic culture at the SFPD, bringing in new blood at the management level, shifting schedules so more experienced cops are available at night (when most crime takes place). He wants to focus the discipline process on the most serious departmental offenders – the handful of officers who are responsible for the majority of the misconduct problems.
Those are, generally, good signs. If he’s serious about changing the moribund, sometimes corrupt, and generally toxic climate in the department, though, he’ll need more than promises. Over the next few months, he needs to take action on a few key fronts.
By Marke B.
I have a soft-spot in my cold, cold heart for East Bay electro-funk duo Wallpaper — I grin at their catchy-kooky antics, and whatever wrong rub I get from the pair’s unironic frat-boy sentiments (“If I wasn’t me, I’d date myself”) is quickly sanded off by the amount of beguiling musical ideas in their songs. I’m still working my way through my advance copy of their new Eenie Meenie LP, Doodoo Face (see what I mean about the level of humor here?), and I’ll have more thoughts on it before it hits stores on 9/22. For now though, here’s Wallpaper’s latest — you can judge for yourself. It could be a giant statement about the loneliness of a crowded dance floor, it could just be a party jam. It’s kind of both to me. Plus, they totally sample themselves.
Wallpaper, “I Got Soul, I’m So Wasted”
Wallpaper
Doodoo Face record release party
w/ HOTTUB
Sat/26, 9pm, 18+
$10 over 21/$15 under
Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell, SF.
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s Look: Natasha, Charlton and Union
Tell us about your look: “We’re trying to get our new store White Label going and we stock all the latest fashion. This outfit is from there.”
By Kimberly Chun
So much to do and so many Mayyors ‘n’ Lamps hoedowns, Outside Lands night shows, and damaged prom benefits to attend. San Fran never disappoints. Here are the worthies still to come.
Big Sur Festival 2009/Party in the Pines
A mini-fest to rival Golden Gate Park’s massive — with way coolios like Kurt Vile, who puts out his first Matador disc, Childish Prodigy, in October, and SXSW breakouts such as Woods. With Wooden Shjips, Vietnam, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Gang Gang Dance, Dungen, and Saviours. Sat/29, noon-11 p.m., $31. Henry Miller Library, Highway 1, Big Sur. www.henrymiller.org. Dungen also plays with Woods and Kurt Vile Sun/30, 8 p.m., $14, at Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF. (415) 621-4455.
Blue Sky Black Death
From Haight to the wide blue yonder, with estimable hip-hop sounds for all. With Boy Eats Drum Machine and Boy in Static. Sat/29, 10 p.m., $10. Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF. (415) 621-4455.
Death Angel
You can’t keep the Bay thrash vets down. With Skinlab and Kaos. Sat/29, 9 p.m., $15. Uptown, 1928 Telegraph, Oakl. (510) 451-8100.
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s Look: Lindsey, Webster and Union
Tell us about your look: “My style is eclectic. I like to mix some classic pieces and then some more trendy pieces together.”
By Kimberly Chun
Spotted in an empty storefront with a “for lease” sign on Market at Montgomery.
By Michael Krimper
Sub Swara at Burning Man 07
The first use of the word “glitch” traces back to fairly recent innovations in computer technology, initially describing a sudden burst or drastic change in voltage charge. More recently, glitch has become a frenetic pathos, an unexpected musical phenomenon, an intensely dissonant way of looking the world, and a methodology for mother fucking slaying crowds. I’m not even talking about genres; fuck a genre. Enter “Beats by the Bay”, a powerhouse dubbed out nastiness, glitch melter party featuring some of the most ridiculous production innovators of our day. Expect ferocious units geared with space age machinery and foot soldiers parading the illest beats. These cats together posses a schizophrenic style that blasts through free-jazz out thereness, supernovaeing (can I make that a verb?) hip-hop’s monster funk loudness into another dimension of “here I am”. And look at that, it’s right before Burning Man!
Beats By The Bay presented by Infinite Music & ArtnowSF
With Sub Swara, Marty Party, The Gaslamp Killer, Lazersword, The Flying Skulls, Djunya, Majitope, Emancipator, Bogl
Mission Rock Cafe, $20
817 Tery Francois St., SF
415 626-5355
More info: www.myspace.com/artnow
