Emily Savage

San Francisco honors the memory of Warren Hellman with a free daytime concert

Tony Robles
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San Francisco will honor the memory of philanthropist Warren Hellman this weekend with a fittingly free, live bluegrass showcase. The event includes performances by: Poor Man’s Whiskey, John Doe, Kevin Welch, Kieran Kane & Fats Kaplin, Dry Branch Fire Squad, Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, The Wronglers (Hellman’s old band) with Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Gillian Welch, Boz Scaggs, Old Crow Medicine Show, Robert Earl Keen, Emmylou Harris with special guest The Go to Hell Man Clan.    

The Warren Hellman Public Celebration takes place Sun/19 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. down by Ocean Beach,  in the Great Highway (Hwy 1) parking lot between JFK Drive and  Lincoln Avenue. The event also will be streaming live at www.strictlybluegrass.com. 

As Guardian city editor Steven T. Jones expressed the week following Hellman’s death late last year, “Warren Hellman left a hole in the heart of San Francisco when he died.” As most San Franciscans know by now, Hellman, a venture capitalist, was a music lover at heart – he bankrolled the city’s prized fall festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YDTx_yXfeI

When culture writer Caitlin Donohue visited Hellman in his office two years before his passing she noted, , “I realize that central to [Hellman] is bluegrass music. His corner office is comfortably packed with stacks of banjos and guitars, a signed CD from Emmylou Harris that wishes him a happy birthday, a metal sculpture that wears aviator sunglasses and a white cowboy hat, thank you plaques from the Berkeley music venue Freight and Salvage, where Hellman is a keystone donor and acted as chairman for the club’s fundraising campaign in years past. It’s impossible to avoid the music in the room, indeed the music is the room.”

Warren Hellman Public Celebration
Sun/19, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., free
Great Highway (Hwy 1) parking lot
Between JFK Drive and  Lincoln Avenue, SF
www.strictlybluegrass.com

Everlasting Noise

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Everlasting Noise

emilysavage@sfbg.com

NOISE POP Thao recalls hosting impromptu beer trivia with Mirah during their joint show a few years back, a festive moment she says is telling of Noise Pop. Cursive vocalist Tim Kasher retained playing one of the “most hungover shows imaginable” many years ago at Bottom of the Hill and it still being one of his favorite shows. Archers of Loaf bassist Matt Gentling has a fuzzy memory of playing the fest in 1997 with Spoon and Knapsack. Roddy Bottum and Jone Stebbins of Imperial Teen once declared themselves “King and Queen of Noise Pop” due to a tireless week creeping nearly every show.

Chances are, if you’ve been in a touring band at any point in the past two decades, or you’re a Bay Area music fan, you’ve got a Noise Pop memory or 20. My own? That incredible moment a couple years back when Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon were rejoined on the ornate Fox stage by Deerhoof, Petra Haden, Harper Simon, and a half dozen more for a stage-audience sing-along of “Give Peace a Chance.”

Longtime Noise Pop co-producer Jordan Kurland clearly has endless stories from the fest. Sitting casually in the bright, spacious Mission office of his own Zeitgeist Artist Management, he smiles as he quietly recounts his life within Noise Pop; Guided By Voices at Bimbo’s in 2002 playing an encore of the first eight songs off 1994’s Bee Thousand, taking duel legends Frank Black and John Doe out to breakfast the morning after their co-headlining show, watching Joanna Newsom — a soon to be star — play her third ever show opening for Cat Power.

He then begins methodically ticking off great shows of NP past: Flaming Lips, Grandaddy, Creeper Lagoon, Death Cab, Rodriguez (M. Ward’s early act) at Great American Music Hall, Two Gallants, Superchunk at Bimbo’s, Wolf Mother at Bottom of the Hill — Lars Ulrich happened to be in the crowd for that one. “When you look back at some of the bills, it’s pretty amazing — and the fact that people still come and appreciate it, it’s gratifying,” he understates. Later he mentions, “we’ve had some misses over the years too, stuff that just doesn’t connect.” But he’s too polite to indulge those.

The Noise Pop festival began in 1993, founded by Kevin Arnold who continues to this day, along with Kurland, to produce it. That first year, there were five bands playing one venue, one day. This year, there are 128 bands, playing 19 venues spread out over six days. Plus there’s the Noise Pop-Up pre-events, and the Thurs/16 pre-party with Class Actress, a Painted Palms DJ set, and Epicsauce DJs at the California Academy of Sciences.

“It’s changed so much,” Kurland says. “When Kevin started [Noise Pop], it was about celebrating a scene that really wasn’t well recognized, and most of the bands were like Hüsker Dü or Replacements, you know, noisey pop.” Now, he says, “it’s really just about independently-minded artists. It doesn’t mean that every band that plays the festival is on an independent label, it’s just a certain approach to the craft.”

He adds that they’ve expanded over the years to include electronic music, dance music, and underground hip-hop. “I feel like we’re all getting older — I know, weird. But our staff is immersed in the culture of this so we have a good sense of what people are listening to — I mean, we’re not going to start booking yacht rock.”

Kurland joined Arnold in 1998, the sixth year of Noise Pop. “At that point, Kevin had been saying for the past five years, ‘this is the last year,’ ‘this is the last Noise Pop, I can’t do it anymore.’ He had a day job in the technology industry, but I was working for another management company so it was easier to weave [booking bands] into the fabric of my day.”

The year Kurland joined, the Flaming Lips did the momentous boombox experiment (pre-Zireka) at Bimbo’s, and Modest Mouse played its first show at Great American Music Hall. In the years that followed, the organizers introduced the Noise Pop Film Festival, which screens music-enwrapped flicks, and have toyed with different music education forums. There was once Noise Pop Night School, this year, there’s Culture Club at Public Works, where you can learn how to bounce with Big Freedia, or all about art, animation, and film with Aaron Rose and Syd Garon. The fest, which began a small indie music creature, is now a many-headed culture beast.

This year is a significant year for Noise Pop, as Kurland is well aware. “You only get one 20th anniversary…so for this year it was a big effort to bring back bands that have played.” He and Arnold called up acts such as Flaming Lips, Archers of Loaf, Bob Mould, and Imperial Teen, all of which played early on.

There’s also Thao and John Vanderslice, locals who have both separately played Noise Pops past in different incarnations, and who this year will co-headline Bottom of the Hill. At that show Thao will be testing out five to six new songs, and says “depending on the reaction, they may or may not go on the new album.”

There is, however, one act that will be brand new to Noise Pop this year and yet, is still part of the tradition in a sense. Kurland has been trying to nab Built to Spill for the fest for the past 14 years, to no avail, though it did once play Treasure Island (also part of Noise Pop Industries). His annual reach-out for the act has become a tradition in its own right. “Every year it’s like a joke, I call them up, and it actually worked this year!”

That Built to Spill show at the Fillmore, however, is long sold out, as are many of the big names — Flaming Lips, Atlas Sound, Imperial Teen, even comparatively newer acts like Grimes. Though those who purchased badges will still have the opportunity to check them out, and there are dozens of other impressive lineups. “It’s definitely moving quicker this year,” Kurland says when the rate of sell-outs is pointed out. “I think there’s more attention on the festival.”

“It seems obvious, but I feel every year we get a little more established,” he adds. “I feel like not that long ago people who should know what Noise Pop is, didn’t.”

Noise Pop also inevitability brings a whole batch of artists wandering the city. Stebbins from Imperial Teen is hoping to catch Archers of Loaf at Great American Music Hall, Christie Front Drive at Cafe Du Nord, and Craig Finn at Bottom of the Hill, among other fellow artists. Interestingly, Kasher from Cursive also mentions those exact shows. Kurland, the eternal music fan, is also ready to haunt SF’s venues yet again. “I’m kind of stressed about some of the nights, I’m like, okay, Saturday night I’ve got Surfer Blood, but also Archers of Loaf…”

Time again to start marking those schedules, fanatics.

NOISE POP

Feb. 21-26

Various venues, SF

2012.noisepop.com

 

Localized Appreesh: Bhi Bhiman

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

Bhi Bhiman manages a joke when he coolly plucks bluesy guitar while singing about kimchi on “Kimchee Line” off his new album Bhiman (“it’s cabbage time”). It’s just not the food you’d expect to hear name-checked in a folky 1920s blues-style standard. (Though on another track, “Ballerina,” he does mention beans.) Despite this wry wink, his songs have an inherent sadness to them, which only makes more intriguing that irreverent style of telling socially conscious stories with lyrics you just wouldn’t quite imagine there in another time period. It’s the contemporary take on the classic style.

He has been referred to as the “Sri Lankan Woody Guthrie,” but that sort of makes me cringe, for a number of reasons. Though it’s true they both sing stories of the downtrodden (check “Guttersnipe” below). But Bhiman is a musician who needn’t be reduced to borderline comparisons based partially on ancestry. He’s got a style his own, and was born in St. Louis. This week, the SF-based musician celebrates the release of Bhiman with a show Sat/18 at Bottom of the Hill.

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

Year and location of origin: Born 1982, St. Louis, USA, Earth.

Motto: Badabing Badaboom.

Description of sound in 10 words or less: Socially aware country blues and soul.

Instrumentation: Acoustic guitar, vocals.

Most recent release: BHIMAN (BooCoo) – released Jan. 24, 2012.

Best part about life as a Bay Area musician: Diversity of culture

Worst part about life as a Bay Area musician: Cost of living

First album ever purchased: Michael Jackson’s Dangerous.

Most recent album purchased/borrowed from the Web: Booker T Jones, The Road From Memphis.

Favorite local eatery and dish: There’s a new Korean place called Manna that is really good and reasonably priced (incredibly important). I get the soft tofu soup with pork.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUxknehMG6E

Bhi Bhiman
With Vandella and Misisipi Mike & Cree Rider opening
Sat/18, 8:30pm, $12
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St., SF
www.bottomofthehill.com

Girls cover ‘I Will Always Love You’

Tony Robles
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San Francisco’s Girls paid tribute to Whitney Houston — whose untimely death this weekend stunned the globe — with this emotional cover of her cover of “I Will Always Love You.”

Localized Appreesh: The Yellow Dress

Tony Robles
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Localized Appreesh: The Yellow Dress

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

Dogs, ghosts, kids, hand-clapping, whistling on a sunny park day – it’s all in the video for the Yellow Dress’s “This Could Be Anything.” The song itself is already a treat, kicking off with the aforementioned clapping and whistling and a solitary guitar, in pipes mariachi trumpet and swallow-you-whole powerful vocal pipes à la orchestral pop master Beirut. (It also has garnered comparisons to Magnetic Fields and a drug-less Velvet Underground.)

The Yellow Dress closed out 2011 with a metaphoric group hug, thanks to the video and a well-received second album, Humblebees. This year, it’s already off to a run through the park, pull your dress up and get mud on your ankles, start. In the next seven days, the San Francisco band will play three local shows, all at interesting venues, perhaps a bit off the beaten path. Do it up big and catch a trio of Yellow Dress performances.

Year and location of origin: 2007, San Francisco (the corner of Haight and Fillmore to be exact)

Band name origin: We used to be called Mr Stopmotion and the Yellow Dress after a particularly dapper couple I saw walking through Golden Gate Park, back then we were just a two-piece, and the name was pretty unweildy. For about a day we were Mr Stopmotion, which sounds like a Devo/XTC cover band. We decided on The Yellow Dress, which immediately led to a dramatic (and affirming!) number of yellow dresses in both (me and original bandmember Jon) of our lives. For a not very interesting story that sure took a lot of time to write.

Band motto: I’m sorry.

Description of sound in 10 words or less: Earnest-indie-twee-folk-pop.

Instrumentation: Acoustic and electric guitar, bass, drums, glockenspiel, male/female vocals, trumpet, organs, whistles, hand claps, if anyone reading this plays the cello and love dinosaurs please call me.

Most recent release: Humblebees.

Best part about life as a Bay Area band: With so many artistic people around it’s easy to find like minded folks to play with, slowly envelop in your ever growing line-up.

Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: With so many artistic people around you are rarely the only game in town any given night.

First record/cassette tape/or CD ever purchased: The Top Gun soundtrack. It was great.

Most recent record/cassette tape/CD/or Mp3 purchased/borrowed from the Web: West Indies Funk Volume 3 (2012 is the year of the steel drum).

Favorite local eatery and dish: I miss Mission Burger so much, you have no idea. The Yellow Dress is however willing to give a full endorsement to the chicken millanesa torta at La Torta Gorda.

The Yellow Dress
With Adam Balbo, the Slaves
Thurs/9
Alley Cat Books
3036 24th St., SF


With Matt Dorrien, Fox and Woman
Fri/10, 8 p.m., $8
924 Gilman, Berk.
www.924gilman.com


Valentine’s Day Monthly Rumpus: Sugar’s Coming Out Party
With Pocket Full of Rye, Janine Brito
Feb. 14, 7 p.m., $10
Verdi Club
2424 Mariposa, SF
www.therumpus.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maximum Consumption: Bay Area bands choose their favorite eateries

Tony Robles
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I know, it’s so close to the weekend that you can taste it. But before you sign off for the day, your peepers sore and fingers trembling, here’s a comprehensive list – sure to get your tummy rumbling – of Bay Area bands’ favorite local restaurants, food trucks, and eateries. I compiled these answers from our On the Rise questionnaire (results of which are in this week’s issue) and my ongoing Localized Appreesh column. Enjoy.

San Francisco Bay Guardian: So local Bay Area musicians, what’s your favorite local eatery and dish?

DJ Theory: Cubano sandwich and sangria from Parada 22 in Upper Haight.

Dirty Ghosts: 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

Metal Mother: Tacubaya in Berkeley, all the vegetarian dishes are amazing. My favorite is probably the ‘seasonal vegetable’ tamales.

Main Attrakionz: Buffet Fortuna in Downtown Oakland; chow fun noodles

Seventeen Evergreen: So many options here but let’s nominate the Chilaquiles at the farmer’s market in the Ferry Building or a number of places in the Mission for the same.

Jhameel: Cheeseboard Pizza in Berkeley. Perfect vegetarian pizzas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPLYLsVDG8w

Future Twin: Secret Spot has delicious bagels, fresh squeezed juice, and homegrown greens.

Terry Malts: The #6 at Turtle Tower, best for hangovers.

Tycho: Thai Time — Red Chicken Curry (or anything else there).

Black Cobra: 1. Cathead’s Barbecue. Cornmeal crusted tofu is killer!
2. The Submarine Shop on West Portal. Italiano center sub with a Coke.

Silver Swans: El Metate Mexican Veggie burrito, the vegetables are roasted and always fresh. Everything there is delicious and on the cheap, right down to their alfajore cookies, I fully endorse the entire menu.

Le Vice: Broken Record — fresh organic soul food in a grimy-ass dive bar. Tasty as fuck. Hipster bling.

Ash Reiter: House of Curries – chicken tikka masala with potato nan.

Magic Touch: Ken Ken Ramen – Japanese ramen + veggie up.

The Fucking Buckaroos: Mission’s Kitchen – Breakfast Burrito.

Prize: Millenium for overall vegetarian dining experience, and the garlic spread from Stinking Rose for the best actual thing to put in my mouth.

Swiftumz: Fresh Dungeness crabs!

Buffalo Tooth: Morty’s in the TL, Chicken BLT.

Cosmo  Alleycats: Steve: Le Colonial’s brussels sprouts; Mike: Cordon Blue, California @ Hyde, menu #5; Emily: Where to begin? The food trucks at Off the Grid are ridiculous. I’m addicted to Curry Up Now’s chicken tikka masala burrito. Also, the veggie burger at the Plant Organic is to die for. And I love my Thursday night ‘liquid dinners’ with the band at Blondie’s Bar & No Grill.

Mental 99: Joe: Iwashi (sardine) at Tataki South (Church and 29th). Dawn: It’s hard to go wrong in SF – so many good places to eat. But the veggie burrito at Taqueria Cancún is pretty tasty – and close by, especially if you just played El Rio.

Uni & Her Ukelele: Green Chili Kitchen.

Symbolick Jews: The Philly cheese steak at Mission Kitchen is forged in the fires of gastro-intestinal hell, and I stand by its superiority over any other cheese steak in the city.

G-Eazy: Gordo’s on College Ave in Berkeley, without a doubt.

The Spyrals: That’s a tough one. Probably Los Compadres. It’s a family owned Taqueria in South City, near where we rehearse. Damn good carnitas.

TurbonegrA: Esperpento. It’s cheap and fast – like us!

The Sandwitches: Chevys and fried chicken.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1871NoR6IMQ

Debbie Neigher: Plantain black bean burrito at Little Chihuahua.

Violet Hour: Sausages at Rosamunde’s on Haight

Waterstrider: We frequent Taqueria La Familia. It is the best Mexican food in Berkeley. Their veggie burritos or chile rellenos do the trick for me.

Dreams: Shakin’ Jesse at Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe. Guinness, espresso, and ice cream – can’t go wrong with that.

The 21st Century: Al Pastor at El Metate–dynamite.And the Cold House Noodles at Yamo.

Rank/Xerox: Golden Gate Indian Cuisine and Pizza on Judah. Best restaurant in the city, eat everything but the Italian dishes.

The Jauntying Martyrs: Lucca Foods on Irving and 20th.  Best deli in SF, baby. Get the Billy Filly. (You can only get it when Billy’s working).

Religious Girls: Bake Sale Betty’s fried chicken sandwich

Tycho

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Tycho

It felt like we were all on the verge at Tycho’s (www.tychomusic.com) December show at the Independent, the breaking point of something momentous, a perfect merging of visuals and sounds. In an effortlessly cool — though I’m sure highly engineered — production, Tycho, a.k.a graphic designer Scott Hansen, played synthesizers with live guitars and drums out front of a screen splashed with fuzzy orange surf images, rolling waves and crashing water.

It was the backdrop to the expressive and expansive Dive (Ghostly International), the first official release in years from the Sacramento native-longtime San Franciscan. And it was the ultimate sensory experience. Now on tour on the East Coast and in Europe, Tycho recently blogged, “I spent the last year locked in my basement working on the album so it’s been really refreshing to be out here performing it for people.”

Description of sound: Ambient / Psychedelic / Electronic.

Like most about the Bay Area music scene: Any show at the Independent.

What piece of music means the most to you and why: I couldn’t really pick one instrument in particular. I see the studio and all of the equipment in it as a single instrument, so I suppose that means the most.

Favorite local eatery and dish: Thai Time — Red Chicken Curry (or anything else there).

Who would you most like tour with: Midlake.

Bands on the Rise 2012

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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emilysavage@sfbg.com

MUSIC There’s no underlying theme running through the 12 acts profiled here other than geographic: they all reside somewhere in the Bay Area. Well, that and we think they’ll break huge this year. Or at least, deserve a larger audience in 2012. It’s not based on buzz or hype, I can assure you of that. It’s about their artistic output, innovation, and listenability, the grand scheme of the band’s lifespan (just how many EPs did they record?), and the current cultural zeitgeist as we see it.

Perhaps what links them is what divides them — their musical diversity. As opposed to recent years, we are not in 2012 overloaded with a single genre. That blanket, behemoth of fuzzed out garage rock, which at times felt overdone, overhyped, and overworked, is finally expanding. That’s not to say we aren’t fans of garage, it’s just a note that there’s so much more out there in our freaky little section of the West Coast. This year feels electric; it began with a refreshing mix of acts on the rise.

In the Bay Area blender there’s doomy metal, tropical synth pop, cloud rap, moombahton, dirty rock, and all the gratuitous additional descriptors you can stomach. In asking the chosen acts how they personally described their sound, I got back cerebral explanations such as “post-Apocalyptic-art-wave,” “zenith snowflake pop” and “an avalanche of barbed wire and rabid sharks.” I can’t stop listening.

Some of the bands and DJs have been haunting around Bay for nearly a decade, others picked up their instruments as a collective just last year. Some have amassed thousands of social media fans, a modern indicator of popularity if ever there was one, while others currently hover around 100 likes. Most have an exciting new release coming in the next twelve months, and all will likely be touring to a city near you.

It can be difficult to capture the essence of a living, breathing band, so we went straight to the source. I asked the tough questions — how would you describe your sound (as in, here’s a soapbox, let’s get it right this time) — and the headier ones, because everyone wants to know what musicians eat, right? Below, I’ve given you a brief wrap-up of who they are and why they should be on your radar in 2012. Following that you’ll see their answers to our quickie take off the Proust questionnaire.

>>DIRTY GHOSTS

>>DJ THEORY

>>METAL MOTHER

>>MAIN ATTRAKIONZ

>>SEVENTEEN EVERGREEN

>>JHAMEEL

>>TERRY MALTS

>>FUTURE TWIN

>>BLACK COBRA

>>SILVER SWANS

>>LE VICE

>>TYCHO

 

Silver Swans

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Silver Swans

When is the cover better than the original? When the original is by newbie/vitriolic web backlash victim Lana Del Rey, and the cover is a sensual send-up by seasoned San Francisco duo Silver Swans (silverswans.bandcamp.com). The local act split open the pop song — “Video Games” — slowed it down, and filled it with chilly synth floating below breathy vocals.

But we’re not here to debate Del Rey’s musical ability; we’re here to keep a glossy superhero eye on Silver Swans. Formed by Las Vegas-born vocalist Ann Yu and Jamaica-bred effects wizard-DJ Jon Waters in 2007, the band has delivered a lovely catalogue — most recently 2010’s Secrets EP and the upcoming LP Forever (Feb.7) — of heart-wrenching synth pop and shoulder-dancing, Manchester-evoking icy club rock. It’s high time they get their international due.

Description of sound: Someone else said it best: “tropical synths and stuttering 808s” wrapped in ambivalent romance and bittersweet longing.

Like most about the Bay Area music scene: The Bay Area music scene is both sophisticated yet charming. So many amazing bands come out of SF, yet you can still create your own place here and find people who appreciate what you do. In that sense, it’s still fresh here. The scene isn’t jaded and over-saturated, there’s charm and new inspiration everywhere.

What piece of music means the most to you and why: This is a hard one, so many songs have come into my life and forever changed me, the first mixtape I got had a song on it called “So Said Kay” by The Field Mice and I think I could have listened to that song on repeat for days reading into every lyric and just taking in the voice. It made me sad too, and just made me feel exactly what I wanted to feel at the time. It was one of the first songs to inspire me to write and also tap into that unknown territory where you don’t care about how unique or difficult a part is write, you just let yourself get carried away in the moment of the song itself and let it almost write itself.

Favorite local eatery and dish: El Metate Mexican Veggie burrito, the vegetables are roasted and always fresh. Everything there is delicious and on the cheap, right down to their alfajore cookies, I fully endorse the entire menu.

Who would you most like to tour with: Karin Dreijer Andersson — Jon and I are both admirers of everything she does. She is a true artist, and I get lost in her songs always.

Black Cobra

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Black Cobra

Last year was epic for Black Cobra (www.blackcobra.net); the duo toured with a reunited Kyuss Lives, closed out the night at Yerba Buena’s awesome art-meets-metal live show, and released Invernal. The album, full of pummeling hardcore, saw vinyl release last month on Southern Lord, thus kicking of another doomy year for the act that got together way back in 2004 when drummer Rafa Martinez (formerly of Acid King and Gammera) was living in LA and ex-Cavity guitarist Jason Landrian was in NYC.

Black Cobra essentially began by snail mail, each sending brutal bits of song across the country. Moving to San Francisco in 2007, the band evolution was complete. While Black Cobra on record sounds undeniably good, the band is at its very best when live, with polyrhythms, Martinez beating the shit out of the drums, and Landrian’s gravity-defying backbends. The next show will be a charmer, Valentine’s Day at the New Parish (8 p.m., $10–$13. 579 18th St., Oakl. www.thenewparish.com), the best way to confess to the dark lords, “Nothing Says I Love You Like Doom” (which happens to be the event’s title). Hopefully it’ll be touring with Black Sabbath by the end of this year.

Description of sound: Jason Landrian: Like an avalanche of barbed wire and rabid sharks.

Rafa Martinez: sounds like drinking the blood of your enemy.

What do you like most about the Bay Area music scene: JL: The size and variety. It’s not too big, but not too small and there is not just one type of band.

RM: Awesome bands, diverse crowds, cool clubs.

What piece of music means the most to you and why: JL: Master of Puppets by Metallica. This was a massive staple of my youth and a huge influence on my playing when I was first learning guitar.

RM: Der Ring des Nibelungen by Wagner. It was the soundtrack of my childhood.

Favorite local eatery and dish: JL: Cathead’s Barbecue. Cornmeal crusted tofu is killer!

RM: The Submarine Shop on West Portal. Italiano center sub with a Coke.

Who would you most like to tour with: JL: Black Sabbath

RM: Rush

Future Twin

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Future Twin

The two females in Future Twin (www.futuretwin.com) — Jean Yaste and Stephanie Rose — met one another in a moped gang called the Lockits, another member of the band was in a moped crew called Treats of the Loin; I’m not sure if you can concoct a greater back-story than that but I’d be hard-pressed to find one. And the San Francisco fivesome, which formed in December 2010 originally as a trio, makes the equivalent of moped rock on its debut EP cassette, Situation (which is also available for download, for those without a tape player). Released Jan. 31, Situation revs up with roaring guitar, and incorporates field recordings of gunshots and small engines such as lawnmowers and of course, mopeds, but veers from blunt roughness, instead leaning towards powerful girl group-style vocals and multi-part harmonies.

While the first release is a small one, the Mission-based band has chops, brains, and a clear bond. Though perhaps not tight enough to get all its members to a photoshoot — while the drummer Antonio “Tones” Roman-Alcala with strep throat made it, another Future Twin simply texted, “yo, just didn’t feel like going.” No matter, Future Twin celebrates the release of Situation at the Hemlock this Thu/2 (9 p.m., $6. 1131 Polk, SF. www.hemlocktavern.com).

Description of sound: Psychedelic farmageddon grandma rock.

What do you like most about the Bay Area music scene: The things we liked most was the Clarion Alley block party until the damn breeders built their precious condos next door and started their war on fun. These people need to be taken out and the “scene” will heal itself.

What piece of music means the most to you and why: Rap News Occupy 2012. Why? No reason.

Favorite local eatery and dish: Secret Spot has delicious bagels, fresh squeezed juice, and homegrown greens.

Who would you most like to tour with: Bill Murray (as a zombie) and Kool Keith (as himself).

Seventeen Evergreen

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Seventeen Evergreen

Seventeen Evergreen (www.seventeenevergreen.com) occasionally sounds like evil video game music to me. The San Francisco band consists of Caleb Pate and Nephi Evans, both writers-producers who sing and play drums, synths, and Asiatic stringed instruments among other contraptions. Though it has roots in garage, the duo mostly sticks to experimental psych-pop, and sometimes incorporates aggressive dance beats that lend to gaming — you can almost picture shattered gold rings falling through the sky in a winning ding-ding-ding during moments in the forthcoming Steady On, Scientist! LP (March 27, Lucky Number). The next show is Feb. 25 with Atlas Sound at Bimbo’s as part of Noise Pop (8 p.m., $20. 1025 Columbus, SF. www.bimbos365club.com).

The album standout is “Polarity Song,” with its catchy, repetitive hook and provocative lyrics. The song also was featured on the Psyentist EP, released last December and subsequently, there was a music video. While the EP and video by Terri Timely, which played up a rainbow of yarn spun thrift store monsters, were released last year to local acclaim, the full-length will be out in 2012, making it the perfect year for the band to reach its deserved position beside fellow danceable indie giants. After watching Seventeen Evergreen live last year, the phrase “embrace the polarity of life” was bumping about my brain for weeks. Undoubtedly, this will happen to you too.

Description of sound: Somewhere between zenith snowflake pop and psychedelic cave techno.

What do you like most about the Bay Area music scene: The Asian influence on the avant garde, the room for innovation, and the many different scenes which may or may not always celebrate the out-and-out sonic weirdness that this city has produced over the years.

What piece of music means the most to you and why: No one piece could ever answer this one so far, but last year Cass McCombs’ “County Line” was a favorite. “Golden Lady” by Stevie Wonder and nearly anything by Moondog come to mind as perennials.

Favorite local eatery and dish: So many options here but let’s nominate the Chilaquiles at the farmer’s market in the Ferry Building or a number of places in the Mission for the same.

Who would you most like to tour with: ELO.

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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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

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