Emily Savage

GOLDIES 2011: Religious Girls

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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2
GOLDIES 2011: Religious Girls

GOLDIES If they suddenly became stupidly rich, the trio behind Oakland’s Religious Girls would purchase a warehouse to turn into an all-ages venue/home-recording studio, with maybe some laser tag. Or they’d buy a food cart. If that isn’t the epitome of the modern Bay Area band, I don’t what is.

Gutted, then formed from the meat of other local acts, Religious Girls — Nicholas Cowman, Guy Culver, and Christopher Danko — became a unit in the summer of 2008. When asked if Oakland influenced their sound, Danko says, “It really did. We came together in Oakland, and grew together, our music as well.” The arty noise act’s music is that of the futurist multitasker: overflowing synth and samplers, beeping keyboard, near-tribal drumming, and three wordless chanting vocalists. Conspicuously absent are the given instruments of traditional rock ‘n’ roll.

The band is electrifying live, all loose limbs, hard-hitting drums solos, and musty, foggy chants, formed in a claustrophobic circle (more like a triangle, to be mathematically accurate), each musician clearly feeding off the energy of the others. This past summer, the rest of the country got to catch the live act — the Religious Girls (time to note: no actual females play in the band) spent 45 days on the road on their own Shred Til We Ded tour. They toured the East Coast in a giant school bus (dubbed “The Rad Bus”) with Blastoids and the Prophet Nathan, both of Tennessee, and from that trip fondly recall “jumping off a bridge and riding a waterfall in Washington, making a whirlpool with Japanther in Montana, and [getting] the stomach flu!”

The cross-country journey was in support of the recently released 12-inch EP Midnight Realms, which came out on two labels, Everybodies Stomached (in L.A.) and Echolalic Records (Seattle). To be released yet again next year, this time on German label Alien Transistor, the record is fraught with mind-expanding moments of ecstasy. The thrill of the twinkling keyboard build-up in “OG” (named for BART cop shooting victim Oscar Grant) plateaus with guttural screams and fuzzy daggers of laser synth, breaking down into near chiptune digi-video game bleeps and clacking drums. It’s pieces like this that explain the band’s magnetism, having been described as “feral and bubbly,” “fucking MONSTERS” (in a YouTube comment), and “like a more ambient Battles “(okay, that last one was me).

And in truth, it’s just really getting started, the momentum building thanks in no small part to the EP. The band is in the final stages of mixing its full-length record, set to be released next year, and has more tour plans in 2012: the trio will hit the West Coast in January, and take its first European jaunt in April after SXSW — where they’ll undoubtedly pick up a few additional fans, further spreading the good word on Oakland sound.

Premiere: Ramon and Jessica “Snow Day”

Tony Robles
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Here’s an exclusive new video from Ramon and Jessica, a local San Francisco duo that hopscotches folk, pop, and freaky experimental. The single, “Snow Day” was released today, the album, Fly South, comes out in early 2012.


Localized Appreesh: TurbonegrA

Tony Robles
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0
Localized Appreesh: TurbonegrA

Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. Each week a band/music-maker with a show, album release, or general good news is highlighted and spotlit. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.

There’s a sizable difference between a cover band and a tribute band. TurbonegrA is a thrashing, slashing, spit-in-your-eye tribute to legendary Norwegian punk band Turbonegro.

I first learned of the original, Turbonegro, not through its death-rock music, but on a huge patch neatly stitched to the back of a jacket with these words: Turbojugend.  Turbojugend would be the Turbonegro Army, not dissimilar to the Kiss Army, but a whole lot sleazier. To find there’s an all-female testimonial to that kind of debauchery in our very own city of San Francisco, it’s a devilsend. Plus, with the originators currently without SF show dates, TurbonegrA is your only chance to catch the guitar-shredding theatrical doom live, for now at least.

The ladies in leather play next at Bottom of the Hill will fellow band-fans, Ancient Mariners (Iron Maiden tribute) and Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers (ultimate ZZ Top worshipers). Should be a fist-pumping night.

Year and location: 2007, San Francisco
Band name origin: Female version of Turbonegro
Band Motto: ( Ich bin geil)
Description: An all-girl tribute to the infamous boys of Oslo.
Instrumentation: Hanky Panky – Amanda Guilbeaux ( lead vocals), Eurogirl – Shelley Cardiff ( lead guitar), Commander Col Pot – Katie Colpitts ( guitar and vocals), Happy Jom – Millie Clip ( bass), Ms. C’ass – Cassie Jalilie ( drums).
Most recent release: Shetox – 2011 and we also have a full length on Wolverine records in Germany titled – L’ass Cobras.
Best part about life as a Bay Area band: Fleet week
Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: Fleet week
First record purchased: I actually bought 12 records at once for only a penny!
Most recent record purchased: Uncommen Men from Mars ( France) – we had the honor of playing with them on our recent European tour. Locally we have to say we are big fans of Death Valley High.
Favorite local eatery : Esperpento. It’s cheap and fast – like us!

TurbonegrA
With Ancient Mariners, Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers
Weds/9, 9 p.m., $10
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St, SF
www.bottomofthehill.com

A rendition of “Self Destructo Bust” performed, coincidentally, at Bottom of the Hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaJQk3d4-8I

New ‘Romance’: Wild Flag stole our hearts at Great American Music Hall

Tony Robles
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Despite the awesome spectacle (high kicks, guitar humping) and the resumes (Sleater-Kinney, Helium, the Minders) Wild Flag’s music stands on its own. The indie rock foursome (don’t call it a supergroup) from Portland, Oreg. and Washington D.C. ripped the Great American Music Hall to shreds on Saturday night, likely Friday night too, but I wasn’t there.

Jumping on stage without a word and whipping through the first three songs of the set (all off the self-titled debut), the band set the bar high early; the energy between vocalist-guitarist Mary Timony and vocalist-guitarist Carrie Brownstein was instantly electric. The two snaked around one another, in classic sex-soaked rock god movements. Janet Weiss’ complex drumming remained a blissful flurry of pummeling hits. Organist Rebecca Cole added cool retro garage charm. This is a pack of insanely talented musicians, and the crowd fed off their every lick. It was a packed, attentive, ecstatic house.

Ever the dry wit, Brownstein occasionally piped up with observations — “last night they said we brought the weather from Portland” and “I watched two depressing movies before the show — Girl, Interrupted and How To Die In Oregon.” A pre-game decision that she identified as a bad idea. Playing nearly every track off the album, including standout “Racehorse” and singles “Future Crimes” and “Romance” –  plus two promising new songs – the band retreated off stage after a tight hour.

When they returned for the first and only encore, Brownstein said she’d read a story online about Danzig being too cold at Fun Fun Fun Fest, which delayed his stage time, then she remarked about his need for shawl, buttering us up for a Misfits cover. “I don’t need a fucking shawl to sing a Misfits song,” she explained. Brownstein tricked us by asking if we liked the Misfits song “’Bullet” – cheers – “Yeah, I’m not going to play that, it’s fucking offensive.” Wild Flag launched into a garage version of “She.” Someone threw a shawl on stage. This was followed by a Television cover. The band closed out the impeccable set with a tingling cover of Patti Smith’s “Ask the Angels.”

While Wild Flag is essentially brand new (late 2010), the show felt nostalgic. It was the night of my 10-year high school reunion (which I chose not to attend for obvious reasons), and there were wistful pangs of youthful abandon. Having been just a tiny bit too young for the heart of riot grrrl, on the very teetering tip of the movement, I always felt like I was on the outside wishing to break in. But when the merch woman for Wild Flag at Great American Music Hall complimented my Bikini Kill tattoo, I was filled with pride. Listening to bands like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and Sleater-Kinney changed my young life for the better; no matter my non-traditional place in its legacy, riot grrrl brought me to feminism, to music as art, to journalism.

Yes, Wild Flag is a new –  and might I add, yet again, brilliant – project and should be judged as such, that demands a clean slate, but the members have been a part of the cultural female underground, the ongoing, endless discussion of riot grrrl, post-riot-grrrl, women in rock, and genderless musicianship for decades. It’s unavoidable and I think, a disservice to simply ignore. When do we stop talking about musicians based on sex? It’s a question I alone cannot answer but I think it starts with bands like these. I wasn’t  the only one claiming it album of the year/best show of the year –  female or not – I’ve heard that high praise elsewhere, everywhere.

Atari Teenage Riot releases second “Black Flags” edit with footage from Boots Riley and Steve Aoki

Tony Robles
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Notorious German electro-hardcore group Atari Teenage Riot teamed up with Anonymous to release this second video edit for its song, “Black Flags” late last month, with footage culled from Boots Riley, Steve Aoki, and other Occupy Wall Street supporters. It’s an ongoing video project; submit your statement here.

Beautiful pop

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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2
Beautiful pop

emilysavage@sfbg.com

MUSIC I half-expect Jhameel to be sporting face paint whiskers swiped across his cheeks as I walk up to meet him at Cafe Strada near the UC Berkeley campus. Lyrically, he’s inspired by Ben Gibbard, musically by Sufjan Stevens, but aesthetically, it’s early Bowie.

After listening to Jhameel’s latest full-length — The Human Condition, which came out in early 2011 — on repeat, I’ve grown accustomed to seeing his face painted with black streaks like on the cover, or in rainbow stripes like in the frenetic video for the poppy “How Many Lovers.” The rational side of my brain, however, assures me he’ll show up in street clothes.

It’s not like the multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter wears face paint in real life, or even in all of his output. In reality, his style is gradually morphing. It’s fluid, like the danceable baroque-pop music itself, which Jhameel (his legal name, meaning “beautiful”) composes and creates almost entirely solo. He played every instrument on the album: guitar, piano, bass, drums, violin, cello, trumpet, keyboard. While it’s not his biggest strength (that would be violin), he says he’s most in line with the cello. “I relate to its personality,” he explains, fresh-faced when we spot each other at the cafe wearing similar black pea coats, “It’s got a strong foundation. It’s rooted in the ground. I get a good vibe out it.”

The son of a master violinist (who appeared in the original Fame) Jhameel spent his childhood surrounded by instruments. “I’ve been writing [music] since before I can remember, it’s been like a language for me.” It can be included in the long list of languages he knows, including Spanish, bits of Korean and Chinese, Latin, some Russian, and near fluency in Arabic.

He majored in Arabic at Berkeley and graduated in two years, paying for schooling through ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps). But something happened during that time, a “cliché self-identity crises” — a seismic shift of values, mentality. He won’t shed too much light on the life change, but he says he had to let go of ROTC. He joined a co-op; the contrasts enlivened his lyrics. “I only have one life to do this. I’d like to have a positive effect on the world.”

In a stroke of DIY music-maker ingenuity, Jhameel this week announced that beginning Nov. 8, he’ll release a new song every week for the next five weeks in a series called Waves. Each song will be accompanied by individual photography, and will be totally free to download. He calls the upcoming series more primal and animalistic then the highly poetic The Human Condition, which is an analysis of emotion.

He does have some experience mining pop culture. Early in this musical journey he covered T-Pain’s “Buy You a Drink” — on violin — and posted it to Youtube. It’s the perfect slice of modern music. Go watch it now. He’s not wearing any fancy face paint, but he’s got style.

(Note: this article has been changed from its original print version to reflect Jhameel’s decision after press time to change the nature of his next release.)

JHAMEEL

With Company of Thieves, and Motopony

Nov. 14, 9:30 p.m., $12

Cafe Du Nord

2170 Market, SF

(415) 861-5016

www.cafedunord.com

 

Mood setters

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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0
Mood setters

emilysavage@sfbg.com


MUSIC Water Borders, a gloomy beat-driven San Francisco band with a new release (Harbored Mantras) on Tri Angle Records, spent the past few weekends practicing the art of creating atmosphere for obscure vintage films.


The band was picked for the first San Francisco installment of Celluloid Salon, a multimedia series that also takes place in cities such as New York, Chicago, and Austin, Texas. At the event — Nov. 15 at Public Works — the trio will live score four silent shorts from the 1920s and ’30s. “We’re good at soundscapes,” explains the group’s singer Amitai Heller, sitting amongst pedals, synths, stacked TVs, and laptops in the band’s Tenderloin practice space. “It’s kind of what we do best, is create moods.”


He’s right. The textured tracks on Harbored Mantras creep from black velvet-swaddled eerie (“What Wiwant”) to veiled ethereal (“Waldenpond.com”). Moody synths and drum machine beats are layered with cinematic samples that recall snake rattles, dragging chains, even bird chirps. The album — which is the band’s first full-length release after putting out a CD-R, a cassette, and a few records on labels such as Disaro — also takes hints from post-punk and experimental industrial, most notably, Coil.


Heller’s doomed, swallowed vocals are the most startling. “There’s definitely a lot of studio tricks with the vocals,” says Heller’s partner-in-sound, Loric Sih. “Our music is generally dense and cavernous, the vocals have to be mixed in a specific way to sound right sitting on top of that. There was a lot of experimenting, a lot of trial and error, a lot of long nights in here.” Here meaning the practice space, where a nearby metal act’s muffled guitar bleeds through the walls.


While this project arose in 2009, the two met 10 years back at UC Santa Cruz when Heller was the “flamboyantly dressed” singer of Gross Gang. After Gross Gang ended, Heller started New Thrill Parade and asked Sih to join. With Water Borders, Heller says they had a plan: “everything in reverse from how we did things in the previous band.” In the other band, they “self-promoted aggressively, toured insane, and lost tons of money.”


Says Heller, “With this, [Loric and I] decided that we wanted to get everything in order first, have concise direction…and not show people the evolution as it unfolded. So it’s record it, perfect it, show it.” While that was the theory, the reality was a bit more complicated. They had to work at bringing the synth-and-machine music to the stage in an engrossing way. “It’s taken us about this long to understand how to make electronic sound good live. I think the [record release] show we just played at Amnesia was probably the first time that nothing went wrong.”


Part of that newfound live strength comes from the band’s newest member, Matt Rogers, a longtime friend and recent Seattle transplant. At shows, the multi-instrumentalist plays guitar, keyboard, and an electrical kalimba, among other pieces. The addition of Rogers, who joined in August, meant Heller could focus mainly on vocals. And those are important to him. While they’re murky, under a thick goth-y haze, the lyrics on Harbored Mantras touch on themes of dissatisfaction, systemic and institutional change, and colonialism. They come from Heller’s sociopolitical awareness; raised on a kibbutz in Israel, he’s now a volunteer counselor at the Tenants Union and frequents the Occupy SF grounds.


While likely not so in line with his personal politics, he once composed music for a documentary on the Seastedding Institute (which, he says, is basically an organization of rich libertarians who want to colonize the ocean by creating autonomous cities). The event at Public Works will be the first scoring for Water Borders as a band though. Sih and Heller seem stoked at the prospect. “I would be happy if this band was able to score films professionally,” enthuses Sih. The tones of the short films vary wildly, one even has a slapstick element — which seems worlds away from the Water Borders vibe. Says Heller, “It’s challenging in a good way.”


 


WATER BORDERS


Nov. 15, 7 p.m., free with RSVP


Public Works


161 Erie, SF


(415) 932-0955


www.myopenbar.com/celluloidsalon


www.publicsf.com

Localized Appreesh: The Sandwitches

Tony Robles
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0

Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. Each week a band/music-maker with a show, album release, or general good news is highlighted and spotlit. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.

The Sandwitches are all about high highs and low lows. The vocals of Heidi Alexander and Grace Cooper (both former back-up singers for Fresh & Onlys) defy the bounds of San Francisco garage, piping up from low and fuzzed out to high-pitched and near theatrical. The music strays similiarly from convention, with an underlying garage-pop root that sometimes hits close to country-folk, other times lends itself more toward dewy trophy love song/doo-wap. It’s a sound that takes a minute to digest – and that’s a good thing.

You can check it out for yourself. The trio’s upcoming seven-inch single The Pearl is streaming now, here. And then you can go see it live. The Sandwitches will fill the opening slot of a pretty righteous show this week at the Fillmore, with headliners/Australian indie poppers Architecture in Helsinki and lo-fi American rockers DOM.

You may protest, “but that’s not how you spell sandwiches!” Yes, spelling wizards, it’s a play on words. Sand-witches. Witches of bread. Meaning sourdough with warts, or something less gross. Spooky PB&J? Bubbling cauldrons of BLT? Or as you’ll see below, the name simply came from “a process of elimination.”  It’s also way easier to Google.

Year and location of origin: 2009, Frisco, baby.
Band name origin: A process of elimination
Band motto: “More feeling”
Description of sound in 10 words or less: dingy, pingy, bumpy, pumpy, lumpy, brash, sophisticated, and smooth.
Instrumentation: Mexican telecaster, Mexican stratocaster, drum set
Most recent release: The Pearl/Benny’s Memory Palace 7″, Hardly Art
Best part about life as a Bay Area band:  The buds [ed note — double entendre?]
Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: The fog?
First record/cassette tape/or CD ever purchased:  Queen Greatest Hits I & II, Blue Beatles hits collection on tape.
Most recent record/cassette tape/CD/or Mp3 purchased/borrowed from the Web: Jackie Gleason, Music for Lover’s Only.
Favorite local eatery and dish: Chevys and fried chicken.

Sandwitches
With Architecture in Helsinki and DOM
Thurs/3, 8 p.m., $20-$29
Fillmore
1805 Geary, SF
(415) 346-6000
www.livenation.com

Hans-Joachim Roedelius celebrates his 77th birthday at Cafe Du Nord

Tony Robles
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“What a cerebral evening,” a show companion observed as we exited Cafe Du Nord last night, pushing the doors open to a whoosh of cool fall air. Indeed. For the man who’s seen it all, first as a child actor in 1930s Germany, then as a reluctant member of the Hitler Youth, and finally a pioneer of early experimental krautrock in the 1970s and ambient jazz, Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Cluster/Harmonia) was not the confrontational artist one might expect. Tall and bald with wire-rimmed glasses, he was erudite, pleasant, subdued.

He looked concentrated while constructing music, focused mainly on lilting keyboard and buzzing MOOG and an Allen & Heath ZED 14 mixer (note: I read the back of machines well), but between the pieces Roedelius smiled wide, nearly goofy. It was his 77th birthday, a rather special occasion. He kicked off the set with a startling sample of America’s national anthem, followed by a half-hour-long piece of ambient drone. He then told us he’d play Europe’s national anthem and out came a crackling Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (“Ode to Joy”).

The crowd, mostly casual in black hoodies and  sportscoats, wished the living legend well, and sang him “Happy Birthday” (English version). Roedelius looked pleased, thanking us back repeatedly, tipping his handled glass of amber liquor. I guessed it spiced rum, just to keep it casual, another show companion thought perhaps brandy. Astute observations all around, companions.

An aside. These are the sounds I heard (or perhaps conjured) during the set of experimental openers, XAMBUCA:
1. Fat drops of metal tears.
2. Supposedly what it sounds like to have cochlear implants (according to a This American Life episode)
3. Fuzzy ham radio waves
4. A swarm of electronic birds
5. The knock-knock-knocking of a looming horror movie villain

 

*Note: excuse the red-soaked tone of the images. But really gives you a sense of the humming womb ambience, no?

Strength of song

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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0
Strength of song

In Cuba, there is just one group that specializes in traditional Haitian songs — the Creole Choir of Cuba. “Some of the songs in our repertoire are those we learned from our parents or grandparents, others we learned during the many visits we have made to Haiti,” says choir director Emilia Diaz Chavez, through translator Kelso Riddell.

Riddell is the group’s tour manager for this journey, which is the choir’s fifth trip through the U.S. The vibrant ensemble — featuring Creole vocals and percussion — appears in San Francisco at the Herbst Theatre on Nov. 3, through the California Institute of Integral Studies’ public programs and performances series.

Diaz Chavez created the group in 1994 in Camagüey, Cuba. The core ten members — Rogelio Torriente, Fidel Miranda, Teresita Miranda, Marcelo Luis, Dalio Vital, Yordanka Fajardo, Irian Montejo, Marina Fernandes, Yara Diaz, and Diaz Chavez — were already part of the Regional Choir of Camaguey, which Diaz Chavez also directs (and has for the past 32 years). “The Haitian descendents of the Regional Choir got together to form the Desandann or the Creole Choir of Cuba with the objective of promoting the songs of our ancestors,” she explains.

Desandann literally translates to “descendents.” The choir is made up of the descendents of a people twice displaced, first from West Africa, then from Haiti. Some of their ancestors escaped slavery in Haiti near the end of the 18th century, others came to Cuba more recently to work in the coffee and sugar plantations.

Diaz Chavez was born in Camagüey, and remembers nights at home singing — she says her whole family enjoys song and dance. She studied music at the School of Arts in Camagüey, then completed her studies in Havana. “After graduating, I became particularly interested Haitian music and bringing it to the rest of the world,” she says.

While the journey of her people may have included displacement and sorrow, the songs the group sings are mostly uplifting — lyrics include messages of love, humor, and happiness, along with struggle. “These make us all laugh and cry and sing and dance,” say Diaz Chavez. And the consistent hand percussion and moving vocal compositions maintain an air of excitement, urgency. Live, the group dresses in colorful prints and engages audiences in participation. On this tour, which includes 30 performances during a six-week period, the choir also has been holding workshops at schools throughout the country.

“We hope people leave our concerts knowing more of our Haitian music, and that they have received our messages of love and friendship,” Diaz Chavez says, “And [we hope] they enjoy a little Cuban music too.” *

CREOLE CHOIR OF CUBA

Nov. 3, 8 p.m., $25–$65 Herbst Theatre

401 Van Ness, SF

(415) 621-6600

www.cityboxoffice.com

 

ADDITIONAL GLOBAL MUSIC EVENTS

The annual San Francisco World Music Festival, now in its 12th year, will premiere “The Epic Project: Madmen, Heroines & Bards from Around the World.” The performances bring together singers, musicians, and epic chanters from Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, and the Tamil Nadu rivers of India, among other worldwide locations. Performers include Azerbaijani kamancha master Imamyar Hasanov, Chinese nanguan master Wang Xin Xin, North Indian tabla master Swapan Chaudhuri, South Indian carnatic violinist Anuradha Sridhar, and more.

Fri/28-Sun/30, 8 p.m., $20

Jewish Community Center of San Francisco

3200 California, SF

(415) 292-1233

www.jccsf.org

 

Riffat Sultana, daughter of legendary singer Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, performs traditional and modern music including Sufi, folk, and love songs from Pakistan and India. The vocalist is backed by an ensemble playing tabla, bansuri flute, and 12-string guitar. Sultana, who comes from eleven generations of master vocalists, is the first woman of her lineage to perform publicly and to tour the West. Since moving to the US, she has performed with Shabaz (previously known as the Ali Khan Band) — an acoustic group of world musicians — and more recently, her own Riffat Sultana & Party, a paired down group focused mainly on her velvety vocals.

Fri/28, 8pm, $12–$15

Red Poppy Art House

2698 Folsom, SF

(415) 826-2402

Localized Appreesh: Debbie Neigher

Tony Robles
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0

Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. Each week a band/music-maker with a show, album release, or general good news is highlighted and spotlit. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.

This week’s Localized Appreesh is the lush-vocal’d Debbie Neigher. She’s a stunning jazz-tinged singer-songwriter, who recorded her recently released self-titled LP with John Vanderslice at his Tiny Telephone Studios, along with the backing orchestral help of Minna Choi of the Magik*Magik Orchestra.

Neigher, a transplant from New Jersey, has the kind of effervescent voice that transcends time.  She’s youthful (just 24), yet her voice is strong and conveys a wise understanding of past, similar to Michelle Branch or Fiona Apple. Her lyrics often dive into difficult topics, particularly on dramatic tracks like “Cathedral.” And her intricate piano work on the album soars.

The talented songstress plays the Haunted Hoedown at Bottom of the Hill this Friday, Oct. 28. She’ll be premiering a new song, and will be backed by guest musicians on bass, lap steel, drums, violin, guitar, and sax.  The event includes costume contests, free treats, and a rather creepy concert poster.  Get spooky. 

Year and location of origin: I started performing my original songs when I was 15 back in my hometown in New Jersey in 2002.  I wasn’t even legally allowed in half of the bars I played!

Personal motto:  If you are lucky enough to figure out what truly moves you, it’s your responsibility as a human to stop at nothing to pursue it.

Description of sound in 10 words or less:  Intricate/lush piano, jazz vocals, and painfully honest lyrics.
Instrumentation:  I sing and play the piano and have an absurdly talented crew of drummers (Jason Slota, Ezra Lipp, Andrew Maguire) and bassists (Jamie Riotto, Jesse Cafiero) that I call on for live shows.  We usually have lap steel (Jesse Cafiero) and guitar (Phil Pristia) as well.

Most recent release: I just released my debut full-length record (self-titled) this past July.  I had the honor of working with John Vanderslice (Spoon, The Mountain Goats) as my producer and the Magik*Magik Orchestra (Death Cab for Cutie, The Dodos) on the project.
Best part about life as a Bay Area musician: The warm, welcoming, and collaborative nature of the music community here.  I’ve never met so many talented players with such humility – I’m grateful to know these people every day!

Worst part about life as a Bay Area musician: I work a full-time job and teach piano lessons on top of writing/performing music to afford the rent in our fair city!

First record/cassette tape/or CD ever purchased: Oh god I just asked my mom and her guess was a New Kids on the Block cassette.  In an attempt to redeem myself, I also distinctly remember having Nirvana’s Nevermind CD and Bush’s Sixteen Stone CD when I was little.

Most recent record/cassette tape/CD/or Mp3 purchased/borrowed from the Web: Local Natives “Gorilla Manor”
Favorite local eatery and dish:  Plantain black bean burrito at The Little Chihuahua.

Haunted Hoedown
With Debbie Neigher, Owl Paws, Rin Tin Tiger, and Please Do Not Fight
Fri/28, 8:30 p.m., $10

Bottom of the Hill

1233 17th St., SF
www.bottomofthehill.com

Big Harp on writing lyrics, Saddle Creek, and touring with kids

Tony Robles
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0
Big Harp on writing lyrics, Saddle Creek, and touring with kids

I listened to Big Harp’s debut album, White Hat, without any preconceived notions, and fell in drippy, folky, love. I fell into the slight country twang and gentle plucking of baritone singer-guitarist Chris Senseney, and the sweet backing vocals of bassist Stefanie Drootin-Senseney.

It was only after I went back and read up on it that I realized (1) Big Harp is a Saddle Creek band (my forever weakness) – meaning the musicians have been part of the ongoing Saddle Creek creative community, known for swapping members and working together in fluid ongoing capacities. Drootin-Senseney has played with Conor Oberst’s Bright Eyes and Tim Kasher’s the Good Life among many other bands on the label. Plus (2) the duo behind Big Harp is married with two kids. Too adorable.

So I jumped at the chance to learn more about Big Harp, chatting with Drootin-Senseney while she, her husband, her babies, her mother-in-law, and Big Harp’s drummer John Voris trekked through the Southwest in the modern folkrock take on the covered wagon caravan.

San Francisco Bay Guardian: Where are you in the tour?
Stefanie Drootin-Senseney: We’re driving through Arizona. We stayed in New Mexico at a Holiday Inn last night and they had a restaurant [laughs] – we had our first sit-down meal of the tour.
SFBG: How is it touring with the kids?
SDS: It’s so different, we rush home after the show because they wake up at six in the morning. It’s like a family road trip with a show at the end of the night. I’m seeing more of each place we go to then before we had the kids. We’re seeing lots of zoos and parks and museums.
SFBG: You and Chris actually met on a tour, right? When Good Life toured with Art in Manila.
SDS: We met a month before the tour, but we definitely got to know each other on tour. That was the end of 2007.
SFBG: When did you start making music together?
SDS: It happened out of nowhere, we were so wrapped up with raising the kids that we didn’t have time to make music – but I’d always been a big fan of Chris’ songwriting, and we’d been talking about him making a record, then he wanted me to work on it with him. He really writes all the lyrics and most of the melodies, I work on tempos and structure, change this and that, but he comes in with the core of the song.
SFBG: Are Chris’ lyrics autobiographical?
SDS: He says it would be a mistake to take the lyrics as him writing it personally, it’s more storytelling.
SFBG: Tim Kasher once said the same thing to me and yet, both of their lyrics seems so personal.
SDS: [Chris] and Tim both take inspiration from personal lives, but it’s not like reading a diary.
SFBG: Did you  always know you’d want to put out Big Harp on Saddle Creek?
SDS: We really wanted to be on Saddle Creek – it’s family, going with another label would have been different, but we wanted to stay in the family.  I was 17 when I met Conor and Tim and we really kept a closeness, there’s something so similar to the friends I had, their personalities, the relaxed, laid back, friendly, warm vibe. We’re on tour right now with [fellow Saddle Creek artist] Maria [Taylor] and I’ve played with Azure Ray and her solo work, she’s one of our best friends in the world. We’re all attached to each other in ways. We want to stick around the same people and play in each others bands.
SFBG: What did you and Chris grow up listening to?
SDS: [I listened to] Violent Femmes, Bob Dylan, fIREHOSE, Tom Waits. My mom listened to a lot of Neil Young and Carol King. Dad listened to Queen and Black Sabbath and jock rock [laughs]. I think it definitely had an influence on me. Chris grew up listening to a lot of old country, he grew up in a small, rural town, Valentine, Nebraska, and you can hear that. 
SFBG: What do your kids listen to?
SDS: Twila is one so she listens to whatever we listen to. Hank [who is three] likes Fleetwood Mac, the Beatles, Neil Young. His favorite is “Back in the USSR” – that’s his song.
SFBG: Will you teach them to play instruments when they get older?
SDS: They definitely show an interest already, Hank will say “Let’s go to band practice.” We won’t push them, but we’ll encourage it.

Big Harp
With Maria Taylor and Dead Fingers
Sat/22, 9 p.m., $12-$14
Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell, SF
www.rickshawstop.com

 

The last hurrah

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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0
The last hurrah

emilysavage@sfbg.com

MUSIC On the final day of Budget Rock 10, the endmost moment of the Budget Rock showcase itself, there will be pancakes and local ’80s surf-punk band the Phantom Surfers. Likely a few tear stained cheeks as well.

The daylong event at Thee Parkside — which tops off four days plus 10 years of weirdo, trashy, slack rock shows — also features the annual morning record swap and a ticketed evening lineup that includes the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, the Mothballs, Midnite Snaxxx, and Okmoniks, amongst others.

The organic pancake batter, donated by former Thee Parkside co-owner Sean O’Connor, will come in a pressurized can (he created Batter Blaster), while the bands, many brought back together specifically for Budget Rock, will come to the venue courtesy of Chris Owen and his longtime fellow organizer, Mitch Cardwell.

This year’s fest, Thursday, Oct. 20 through Sunday, Oct. 23 at Bottom of the Hill and Thee Parkside, not only brings back Phantom Surfers from the first ever Budget Rock showcase, but also returns Boston’s Lyres, the classic ’80s punk band formed from the ashes of DMZ. Organizers also recruited bands that played subsequent years — the masked Nobunny (this time playing original budget rock-esque covers), Subsonics, the Statics, Personal & the Pizzas (whose first ever show was at Budget Rock), and booked a Ripoffs reunion show — a coup for Owen, who’s been a fan of the ’90s garage rockers since college.

“The fact that Lyres and the Ripoffs are playing in San Francisco in the year 2011 is fucking incredible,” Owen enthuses from his perch at Gio’s, an old school Italian FiDi spot he says reminds him of Thee Parkside when he first started going there in late 2000. “Carpet on the ground, tablecloths on the tables.” (Obviously things have changed immensely since then.) But it was there, sharing beers after work with his friend John O’Neill, that Owen says they first came up with the idea for a Budget Rock showcase — a term he borrowed from another of his all-time favorite bands, the Mummies (which he later got to reform for Budget Rock 8). Owen and O’Neill had both been booking shows at the venue, and came up with the concept to concentrate all the then-scattered acts.

That first fest took place in 2002. Including the 2011 showcase, 190 bands will have come through Budget Rock. Over the decade it survived a move to the East Bay for a couple of years (to the Stork Club), lead organizer shifts (Owen bowed out for most of last year as his wife was pregnant) and the general chaos of unrefined rock’n’rollers. O’Neill vividly recalls when Peter Zaremba of the Fleshtones ran outside mid-song onto 17th Street to sing to a Muni bus that had just pulled up. And Phantom Surfers’ guitarist Maz “Spazz” Kattua claims “All I remember about [Budget Rock 1] was that we played in matching boxer shorts with hearts on them and sock garters.”

So why end it now? Owen chalks it up to two main reasons: the organizers of Budget Rock are in different spots in life (he now lives in Fairfax with his wife, son, and baby daughter); and the influx of other like-minded showcases like Total Trash and 1-2-3-4 Go’s contribution.

“You want to fill a void, not create one,” says Owen. “That is the guiding principle. The whole concept of this festival was filling a void, there wasn’t anything like this. There was no local garage rock or kind of dorky minimalist music showcase [then].”

Plus, he says, “Once we got to six [years], we knew we would shoot for 10. And we were like, ‘if we can get to 10, we should get Lyres to come back.'”

While all the other bands at Budget Rock 1 were local, and most other acts throughout the years have been Bay Area bred, Lyres was a special case. O’Neill had booked shows in Boston before moving out West, and managed to fly Lyres to SF through alcohol endorsements that first year. Lyres evoked the ethos of the fest, a clear marker, unlike “careerist” bands, as Owen refers to others that try to make it big or take themselves too seriously — those types have never been the Budget Rock style.

“It’s a certain kind of ‘I don’t care about the rest of the world’ mentality,” Lyres organist-vocalist Jeff Conolly says about his band’s longevity, “and a genuine love for being in a group where you enjoy the results of the process.”

It’s about having a good time in your band, without a lot of expensive hoopla. “Big picture, the whole idea of [Budget Rock] was just having fun — not professionalism or competition or reputation. Those things aren’t important,” Owen stresses. “I would like to remember having a good time. That’s the only purpose that this was ever supposed to serve.”

He later gave me a list of “perfect budget rock bands” (those that have played the fest in the past, or simply fit the vibe): the Mummies, Icky Boyfriends, the Brentwoods, Captain 9’s and the Knickerbocker Trio — and any band with Russell Quan, Tina Lucchesi, or Mike Lucas.

Lucchesi, of the Trashwomen and a zillion other Bay Area bands, has played the fest in different incarnations 18 different times. This year, she plays the final Budget Rock on Saturday with Tee’N’Dee Explosion, then the next night at Thee Parkside with both Special Ed and Midnight Snaxxx. “There’s a lot of that friend-rock thing going on this year,” Owen says, “Sunday’s going to have a lot of it, pretty much all day long.” He later adds, “This is the last hurrah, so we wanted to do something cool.”

Jokes the mischievous Nobunny, “I don’t believe for one second it won’t be back next year.”

BUDGET ROCK 10

Thurs/20-Sun/23, $5–$20

Bottom of the Hill

1233 17th, SF

(415) 621-4455

www.bottomofthehill.com

 

Thee Parkside

1600 17th, SF

(415) 252-1330 www.theeparkside.com

Battle hymns

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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0
Battle hymns

MUSIC On the winding beach roads of Central California, in the cool coastal stillness of midnight, I remembered what the music hive mind spewed forth when it came to recently released record (and previous albums) from Philadelphia’s the War on Drugs: road trip music.

I pushed play on Slave Ambient (Secretly Canadian) — the band’s first full-length since the departure of Kurt Vile — and was greeted by Tom Petty. Well, not actually Petty, but the milieu in which an album of his might exist. It was the War on Drug’s charismatic leader Adam Granduciel, a vocalist, guitarist, and harmonica playing samplerphile, and friends, pouring out of the speakers, wooing me with layer upon layer of crunchy rock.

The next week, I spoke with Granduciel while he cleaned dirty dishes in preparation for another tour away from his home base in Philadelphia.

San Francisco Bay Guardian You used to live in the East Bay.

Adam Granduciel I had a friend who was living there [in 2001], and I was like ‘maybe I’ll go see what California is all about.’ I actually had never been there so I flew out with a bag and my guitars. I loved living there. It’s just, I was so young and so restless that I stayed for two years…then moved back to the East Coast via train. I’d like to hopefully one day go back up there.

SFBG Tell me about making Slave Ambient.

AG Eighty-five percent of it started at my house. We had informal sessions where we would record, maybe just drums — or two drummers at once — and I’d record everything to tape and then spend days dubbing it out, sampling, resampling, then I’d transfer all the tapes at my friend Jeff Zeigler’s studio.

We also did some stuff in Dallas, Texas for a week…in December 2009. A lot of people say that stuff was scrapped — it was really never scrapped, I would keep like, a vocal chorus, or some guitar or drums.

[Zeigler’s] got a great collection of synthesizers, effects, and mics. A lot of the crazy sounds are just myself at home off the tape machine. I think the record is the journey in my growth as someone who is constantly recording at home and learning new ways to do things. Like all the stuff that’s under “Come to the City,” without that beat in the background — the electronic pulse — that song would be super straight-forward. I wasn’t always working on a song, I was working on a tone. It was about a year of doing that, then finally I was like, ‘alright, I’m now ready to focus on the record.’

SFBG Sounds like a lengthy process.

AG There are 12 songs on the record, I probably had ideas for 30 and they all ended up being thrown in through various ways to songs on the record. Like, “Baby Missiles” we worked on for almost three years, just trying to get the right feel. I mixed it like, 50 times.

SFBG What’s your take on the whole road trip/driving music thing?

AG I think it’s cool. I’m definitely sometimes just like, ‘really?’ But I think it’s cool because when you’re driving and a great song comes on you’re like, ‘this is the fucking life.’ But at the same time, driving music sometimes means that it’s music you don’t have to think about, you just cruise like “Boys of Summer” or “Take it Easy” — I guess those are both Don Henley — but I think maybe it’s just that freedom or spirit in the songs that people relate to. Or it’s just something people write without having experienced it.

SFBG I’d read it enough times that I made a point to listen to it on a road trip.

AG I think maybe the other thing too is that I spent a lot of time on the sequence of songs — on the all the records — the sequences have always really flowed. You can just put it in and you don’t have to press fast forward, you can just cruise on [Highway] 1 — so I can see it.

THE WAR ON DRUGS

With Purling Hiss, and Carter Tanton

Sun/23, 8 p.m., $12–<\d>$14

Independent

628 Divisadero, SF

(415) 771-1421

www.theindependentsf.com

We want the airwaves: KFJC’s birthday party

Tony Robles
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3

At 8 p.m. on Oct. 20, 1959, the first words spoken on local college radio station KFJC came pumping through the air waves. It was station manager Bob Ballou, operating from a broom closet at the old Foothill Junior College campus in Mountain View. In the decades that followed, the station has grown known for its eclectic show lineup and in-house concerts: Noothgrush, Exhumed, and Foxtails Brigade, among so many others.

With KUSF ripped off the air earlier this year (an aside: Save KUSF), the debate about local college radio has, if nothing else, continued. It’s part of a far bigger issue – where do people learn about new music and how do they listen? For those who tuned in to this type of programming as students, or those who live nearby and still click the dial as post-grads or never-grads, the gaping gap is felt. KFJC DJs have stood by KUSF throughout the protests and legal discussions, clearly aware of the brevity of the situation.

KFJC, 89.7 FM, which is operated as a teaching lab for the fine arts and communications department of Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, is thankfully still pumping – this year celebrating its 52nd anniversary. In honor of the milestone, there will be an open house Saturday, Oct. 22. Meaning: you can peek your nose around a living, breathing college station.  (It’s just south of San Francisco).

The station also is on the verge of possibly receiving CMJ’s most adventurous station College Radio Award – results are in this Thursday. On the eve of these events, I got the rundown on the news and events from KFJC DJ and volunteer Jennifer Waits and KFJC Publicity Director (and DJ) Leticia Domingo.

San Francisco Bay Guardian: What will take place during KFJC’s open house?
Jennifer Waits: Listeners will get an opportunity to meet KFJC DJs and tour KFJC’s studios at Foothill College. It’s also during our annual fundraiser, so they will be able to pick up some KFJC goodies in exchange for donations to the station.
SFBG: How has the station grown in the past year?
JW: A big project this year was the installation of new shelving at the station. KFJC has tens of thousands of pieces of music, from vinyl to CD to cassette tape, and we’ve been bursting at the seams. The new high density shelves helped give us some breathing room so that we can continue to add music to our library at the current pace. We also traveled to Milwaukee this summer in order to broadcast live from the Utech Records Festival.
SFBG: Why do you feel KFJC is up for CMJ’s most adventurous station award?
JW: During my tenure at KFJC, I’ve always felt like the station has been an innovator. Not only is KFJC’s airsound unique – with music ranging from experimental to country to soundtracks to metal to electronic – but the station has also been a pioneer in international live remote broadcasts. KFJC’s first international broadcast was from Brixton, England in 1996 and since that time we’ve traveled to New Zealand (2000) and Japan (2008) in order to present live music performances to our listeners. The 2008 live broadcast from Japan also featured a live four-camera video stream, so that listeners from around the world could both see and hear the musicians on stage.
SFBG: To what do you attribute KFJC’s longevity?
Leticia Domingo: Obviously our listeners have kept us alive for so long. They are our staff, the hands that feed us. They’ve allowed us to indulge our creativity and breathe life into the ho hum/indie/college radio scenes.
SFBG: What’s your take on the current state of college radio?
JW: I’m saddened by the loss of some of our peers from the terrestrial dial, particularly KUSF in San Francisco. But at the same time, we’re lucky in the San Francisco Bay Area to have a number of thriving college radio stations on the dial. Personally, I’ve become even more connected with people from other stations this year and am happy to see the college radio community strengthening.
LD: Unfortunately and fortunately we are at crossroads. People don’t need DJs and college stations to turn them on to music or shows anymore. However at KFJC we are still very fortunate to be able to continue to discover new sounds and keep the saw sharpened. Without preemptive action, radio broadcasting is going to phase out like broadcast TV signals. And for college radio stations, we are at the mercy of the colleges.

KFJC Open House
Sat/22, 1-5 p.m., free
Directions: Here
www.kfjc.org

Localized Appreesh: Violet Hour

Tony Robles
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0
Localized Appreesh: Violet Hour

Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. Each week a band/music-maker with a show, album release, or general good news is highlighted and spotlit. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.

An album release is always cause for celebration. The Bay Area act Violet Hour’s Cowardly Loins EP release extravaganza goes down tomorrow night at Bottom of the Hill. The somewhat illusive indie rock act, supposedly led by Le Duc Violet (along with other equally ostentatiously named creatures) and said to be influenced by Bowie and French surrealist painter Yves Tanguy, brings to mind playful,  glam 90s post-punk. Check out the band’s description of its own sound below, it’s pretty magical.

Also check the deceivingly sweet intro’d song “Whatever It Takes” –  as the guitar line wobbles and grows more frenzied, the vocals follow, building to the chorus  “we all make the same god damn mistakes/whatever it gives/whatever it takes.” The reverb rises, voices blur, and out oozes melancholy. It’s like throwing a rock through an ex-lover’s window on a solo midnight bike ride; the build up and release, the instant regret.

But hey, snap out of it. Stop by the band’s live show on Wednesday, there also are some great  local openers.

Year and location of origin: Berkeley , Calif. 2007
Band name origin: A subsection of TS Eliot’s “Fire Sermon” in The Waste Land.
Band motto: The deadly serious business of rock’n’roll.
Description of sound in 10 words or less: Like a peregrine falcon overhearing an angel’s orgasm.
Instrumentation: Guitar, vocals, bass & drums, keys and crazy stuff Adam invents.
Most recent release: Cowardly Loins EP October 2011.
Best part about life as a Bay Area band: So many excellent venues, so many passionate and diverse music fans.
Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: It’s so fucking expensive to live here I’m gonna cry.
First record/cassette tape/or CD ever purchased: The Simpsons Sing the Blues
Most recent record/cassette tape/CD/or Mp3 purchased/borrowed from the Web: Stephen Malkmus Mirror Traffic
Favorite local eatery and dish: Sausages at Rosamunde’s on Haight

Violet Hour
With Myonics, Symbolick Jews, and Arms + Legs
Wed/19, 9 p.m., $8
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St., SF
www.bottomofthehill.com

Live Shots: Gardens & Villa and Waterstrider at Bottom of the Hill

Tony Robles
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1

Rarely, if ever, do I see such unbridled joy at shows these days, at least not in the way I saw it last night for every band at Bottom of the Hill.

Even for barefoot Berkeley Afropop openers Waterstrider (this week’s Localized Appreesh) – not that the band isn’t excellent, because it is – but when was the last time you witnessed ecstatic masses losing their shit and screaming for “one more song” during the opening set of a Thursday night rock show? Perhaps it was the uncharacteristic heat. (Strange how strange it is to see San Franciscans out at night wearing little more than a strappy sundress or stretched-out tank top.) That kind of warmth and freedom does something to your endorphins. But I also chalk it up to the ‘Berkeley co-op factor.’ Waterstrider mentioned the co-ops (where it was spawned) and got a rousing reply. Like a hippie frat.

My show companion reminded me halfway through the night that one of our earliest visits to Bottom of the Hill was for Pretty Girls Make Graves, Your Enemies Friends, and Atom and His Package. Don’t jump to protest, the music of these bands and last night’s bill cannot compare sonically (the former was during the post-rock Aughts, a time when I was the one with the ‘X’ scrawled on my hand). But the youthful energy, and excitement, this is what triggered such memories. The kids throwing their hands in the air with abandon. I caught a young woman headbanging, swinging her hair back and forth, last night to music you wouldn’t expect.  And she was all smiles.

That ecstasy continued for touring headliners Gardens & Villa, hitting San Francisco with two stops left before its return to Santa Barbara. Opening the set with shuddering album opener, “Black Hills,” the five-piece began smooth and calm, soon sending the crowd into yet another tizzy with the more anthemic “Cruise Ship.” It moved along through other tracks off the recently released self-titled album, including “Spactime” (heavily profiled in print this week), and broke out a new, more upbeat dancey jam, to boot. The crowd ate it up, like ravenous heat monsters.

 

All photos by Chris Stevens.

Live Shots: Prince Rama, Gang Gang Dance at the Independent

Tony Robles
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0

A few things Prince Rama –  show openers at the Independent last night –  and Gang Gang Dance –  headliners – have in common: a whole lot of rhythm, standing tribal drumming (Gang Gang also has a more Western seated drummer), psychedelic visuals (damn, should have brought those drugs the kids take), and high, reverberating, Bollyhood-recalling vocals.

Sanskrit chanting-synth act Prince Rama, somewhat of a baby-Gang Gang-in-training, had a lesser stage show, but the crowd still dug it. As noted by Taraka and Nimai Larson, their families were in attendance (I peeked a whole lot of them dancing up front and in the balcony) –  wait, are they really sisters? No matter, midway through the set, there was a trust fall, during the song “Trust,” off the band’s newest release Trust Now (Paw Tracks). That’s a whole lot of trust for such a sparse front row. Also on stage: the folded-over visuals producer, mixing warped live feeds of the Larson girls, eerily recalling Grace Slick’s color-saturated turn in Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit.”

Gang Gang had such a strangely unceremoniously beginning, each musician casually making their way to the stage, then slowly grabbing the instruments; with singer-percussionist Lizzi Bougatsos –  wearing an over-sized skeleton vest, winged patterned blouse, and killer heels – holding up a large drum and banging. It did help build momentum, likely the point. Once the thumping bass and beats got going, it was a memorizing set, full of rave-like whimsy and “positive energy” (the floating triangle projected on the screen behind included those words, and vibrated with the rest of the sound). Bougatsos moved effortlessly from standing drums to mic to rhythmic dance-off with peculiar on-stage “spirit guide” Taka Imamura (who spent much of the set maneuvering a plastic bag covered stick). The wicker-tree-hat-dance was an odd moment, but thankfully brief.

Gang Gang played nearly every song off newest release Eye Contact (4AD), and saved the older tracks for the encore. All the while, a figure in one of those Scream masks filmed from the sidelines and drank straight tequila. Clearly, an entertaining night. Though I can’t help but recognize that the areas of the crowd where plumes of smoke rose were likely having the most fun.

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