Music Blogger Archives — Page 19 of 39 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

Rilo Kiley’s Blake Sennett on flying solo, recycling, and filmmaking

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April 17, 2008

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Oh, star-crossed phone interviews – who knows why or how they happen. Rilo Kiley‘s Blake Sennett and I met not-so-cute last week, thanks to poor hearing, mumbled questions, and a patched-in conference call that sounded like everyone in his publicist’s office could hear every “um” or “er” we uttered. Kismet! I’ll sparing you those awkward moments thanks to the magic of editing – I suspect their show tonight, April 17, at the Design Center Concourse will go much more smoothly.

SFBG: Where are you right now? [Sounds like rumored Winona Ryder fiance Sennett is tromping through a parking lot and into an elevator] And what brings you back to SF?

Blake Sennett: I’m in LA. Well, I think typically you do a couple tours for an album cycle so I don’t know it’s the natural thing to do – I don’t know. Maybe we shouldn’t do it. I don’t know. But yeah, I felt like the record deserved two tours.

Billy Jam hits the Whitney Biennial

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April 17, 2008

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Contributing writer and WFMU DJ Billy Jam may boast a mean Irish accent, but he’s all about stateside hip-hop. Hence, the name, I’m guessing, of his event at the Whitney Biennial Saturday, April 19. If you happen to be in the hood – or even if you just wanna listen in via Neighborhood Public Radio’s live stream – check it out: Jam will be helming the turntables along with Demerock Wallnuts from 2-6 p.m., at the Whitney Museum, 941 Madison, NYC. He promises a live jam session with DJ Alf cutting and scratching, as well as freestyle drums, keyboards, and guitar – and spoken word. Oh, yes, and there will be plenty of art – graffiti or otherwise, from both coasts – to see.

Songwriter Tony Scherr dances with Waifs

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April 17, 2008

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A recent clip of Tony Scherr performing “I Could Understand.”

By Todd Lavoie

So so so many choices of what to do this weekend, I know, but let me throw another one your way: this Saturday and Sunday, April 19 and 20, the Independent will be hosting a mighty fine double-bill for fill all your strummed-up twang-age needs. As part of the Green Apple Festival, Brooklyn singer-songwriter and endlessly versatile collaborator Tony Scherr and Australian roots-folkies the Waifs will be playing two nights of rustic goodness at the adventurously booked Divisadero joint.

Now, the Waifs are a marvelous folk-rock group; their latest, sundirtwater (Compass), was just released over here after hitting it big back home in Australia last year. The disc offers a looser, dustier version of their familiar harmony-rich folk meditations, instead opting for deeper forays into the blues and country-soul. Particularly ear-catching is the title track, a swampy little rumba driven by Josh Cunningham’s jazz-sweating guitar slinks and Vikki Simpson’s lusty vocals:

I want to focus on Tony Scherr, though: the guy boasts a massively impressive resume, as a band member, collaborator, and solo artist. Before eventually heading down the dirt roads and rolling fields of country- and blues-flavored songwriting, he was a jazz bassist, adding both acoustic and electric low-end to a variety of ensembles. Scherr started off – and only a teenager at the time – as a member of one of Woody Herman’s latter-day lineups, and then went on to perform with Russ Gershon’s Either/Orchestra, an ensemble well-known for its anything-goes approach to interpreting the work of others. (Bob Dylan, Bobbie Gentry, Robert Fripp, and Duke Ellington have all at one point or another been given the Either/Orchestra overhaul.)

Sonic Overage: Triclops, Kanye, Ian Fays, Jay-Z and Mary J, Elf Power, Teenagers, and so much more

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April 16, 2008

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What is this crazy lil’ magikal thing called Elf Power?

San Francisco, you’re just too much. And that goes for you too, Oakland and San Jose. There’s just far too much to do in the Bay Area – more than we have pages for. But well hell, that’s what Sonic Reducer Overage is fer, ain’t it. Check out all the fun you maybe oughta be checking out.

BLACK DIAMOND HEAVIES
These southern raspies do the blues-rock duo their own nasty, hard-ass way. With Or, the Whale and Low Red Land. Thurs/17, 9:30 p.m., $7. Hemlock Tavern, 1131 Polk, SF. (415) 923-0923.

GHOSTLAND OBSERVATORY
Pigtail fever! Who knew this Austin, Texas, electro-synth-soul-pop twosome would be blowing up as massively as they have. Expect ’em to break out the Cylon with the release of Robotique Majestique (Trashy Moped). With the Villains. Thurs/17, 9 p.m., $20. Mezzanine, 444 Jessie, SF. (415) 820-9669.

IAN FAYS
The SF-by-way-of-Humboldt-County Ian Fays like it sweet and soft, judging by the tender sounds coursing out of their new CD, The Damon Lessons (Homesleep). With Catholic Comb and Here Here. Thurs/17, 9 p.m., $8. Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF. (415) 621-4455.

INSTANT MESSENGERS AND DJ LAZER SWORD
The Bay Area party rappers get rambunctious with the realization of their just-released disc, Slammers, while the SF DJ brings a folded and spindled sensibility to the cracked beats (behold his remix of 50 Cent’s “I Get Money,” above). With Toy Soldiers and All Teeth and Knuckles. Thurs/17, 8 p.m., $8. Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell, SF. (415) 861-2011.

Clubs: Bootyful action at Full Figure Friday

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April 15, 2008

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Party with me, plus. All photos by Joshua Rotter.

By Joshua Rotter

Going out dancing can be a confidence-buster for peeps of all sizes. But the extreme shame imposed on plus-size women often outweighs their desire to hit da club. Full-figured party promoter Lady Tigress was no different. “I was never a clubber in my twenties because I didn’t feel like I would be comfortable in a nightclub setting,” Tigress said. “I bought into what I saw on TV and thought everyone in bars or dance clubs looked like Beyonce or Britney.”

In a world where the Barbie doll reigns supreme, these notions are only reinforced by a media that has little love for big girls. Rarely on the covers of magazines, large women remain the laughing stock of hip-hop videos, the early eliminations on reality showmances, and stand-up fodder for late night television: think Jay Leno’s Jonah and the whale jokes about Lewinskygate. And Lady Tigress knows that clubland is no kinder.

“There are gorgeous plus-size women in all types of clubs all over the Bay,” Tigress said. “But even if they are confident, there is snickering that sometimes happens when a crew of big girls shows up at a mainstream club, or they are sometimes ignored because a lot of people don’t want to admit that they are attracted to women who live outside of the super-skinny American beauty standard.”

After Tigress started going out to Bay Area BBW parties such as Big Boogie Nights, Sexy at Any Size, and Heavy Rotation in her thirties, she realized that if the event was fat-friendly, these women would come out and party. So Tigress was inspired to create an even larger night, a hip-hop party for plus-size women and their fans called Full Figure Friday, and decided to host her evening, unlike similar hotel-based events across the Bay, at the stylish San Francisco club Bambuddha Lounge.

Take a stanza: Verse and song for National Poetry Month

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April 14, 2008

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By Todd Lavoie

Guys, commence with the stroking your beards in thoughtful poses! Girls, grab your journals and set yourselves a-scrawling! April is National Poetry Month, so now’s the time to start looking deep and sensitive and positively brimming over with penetrating insight. Spring is in the air – the flowers are blooming and birds are chirping – so why not summon your muse and whip up an ode or a sonnet to celebrate all this marvelous rebirth? No way, you say? OK, how about a haiku, then? A limerick? Something cribbed from a restroom wall, perhaps?

If putting words to paper isn’t your thing, or if reading poetry doesn’t float your boat, either, fret not. All hope is not lost for giving April the rune-and-rhyme lovin’ it deserves. How about a little poetry-in-song, then? Sure, I suppose you could say most songs are poetry, in a sense – I mean, you don’t need an MFA to take the average pop song and dissect it into meter, rhyme, verse structure, and all of its other little bits ‘n’ pieces – but strip away the music and much of the power of the argument is lost.

Put it this way: if you simply read aloud the lyrics of most songs, unaccompanied, they’d sound like pretty weak excuses for poetry. Embarrassing, even. And no, I’m not hatin’ – I’m just sayin’, that’s all. Nah, you won’t catch any poetry snobbery from me – hell, I adore Marc Bolan, but you won’t sneak me passing off any T. Rex ditties as shining examples of poetic form. Still, I’ve always been fascinated with intersections of poetry and song; I did a little scraping around in my thought-box and here are a few successful experiments of music/poem collisions which came to mind:

Ken Nordine, Colors (The Nordine Group/Asphodel)
“Word Jazz”, he called it – in fact, the rumbling, rich-baritoned radio/television voiceover maestro liked the phrase so much that he used it as the title of his 1957 debut. Over the course of a series of inventive, parameter-pushing Word Jazz recordings made in the ’50s and ’60s, Nordine married loose, free-association musings to bongo-friendly bohemian-jazz – yep, very Beat Generation, daddy-o.

Clubs: producer-DJ-MC Kero One looks to the Bay and abroad

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April 11, 2008

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By Jamilah King

Bay Area DJ Kero One likes to say that he got his Seoul from Korea. Regardless of its origins, his talents as a producer, DJ, and MC are creating a big buzz in hip-hop. He’s collaborated with Grand Puba, Aloe Blacc, and Ohmega Watts. His smooth sound takes hip-hop back to its roots while also moving it forward. Tonight, March 11, Kero One performs at 111 Minna Gallery; he also has a monthly at Madrone Lounge.

He sat down to talk about his music, and more.

SFBG: You’re from the Bay. Where in the Bay did you grow up?

Kero One: I grew up in the Santa Clara area, and moved to the city about three years ago to get more serious about my music career.

SFBG: When did you fall in love with music?

KO: I remember being really little and staying up into the wee hours of the night to listen to the radio and stations like KMEL. My mom would come in and try to get me to go to bed, then I’d get right back up and turn the radio on and listen to stuff like Boogie Down Productions, and all the stuff that was big in the late ’80s.

Sonic Reducer Overage: Mocheeba, Hercules and Love Affair, Enon, David Banner, and mo’

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April 9, 2008

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Reflections on Enon. Photo by Emily Wilson.

So much to do and see, Lee. And Prince headlining Coachella on Saturday, April 26, doesn’t make the schedule any easier. Check out all these worthy shows that were fit for print but simply didn’t make the trim this week.

KING BROTHERS AND THE FLAKES
Kawaii-cute Japanese distorto-rockers meet Bay Area garage first-schoolers. With Shellshag and Bananas. Thurs/10, 8:30 p.m., $10. Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF. (415) 621-4455.

HERCULES AND LOVE AFFAIR
“I cannot hold / a half a life / I cannot be / at half a wife.” So goes “Time Will” off Hercules and Love Affair’s new self-titled DFA/EMI album. Dulcet warbles care of Antony of Antony and the Johnsons meet cool synthetics with keys by Andrew Butler and drum programming by DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy. Instant love affair, for sure. With Timo Maas and Honey Soundsystem. Fri/11, 10 p.m. doors, $15-$30. Mezzanine, 444 Jessie, SF. (415) 820-9669.

IranianRadio.com takes you on a drive through the Persian-pop unknown

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April 9, 2008

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By Dina Maccabee

Sometimes – when I notice I’ve developed an allergy to my entire iTunes playlist, when all my CDs are mysteriously missing from their cases, and I’m not ready to resort to listening to mix tapes from high school – the silence on my stereo can be deafening. In those dire times, I resort to iTunes radio.
Scrolling down the list of offerings, there isn’t a lot of campaigning to sway your vote. I breeze past the bland listings for Classic Rock, Electronic, and Ambient, on down to International, where if nothing else the flavors have a chance of being spicy. Still, I couldn’t say what exactly prompted me to try IranianRadio.com for the first time. “Persian traditional music,” it read, sandwiched between “The Best Mix of All Things Iranian” and “Persian Pop.” I must have been feeling anti-American.

At any rate, I was pleased to discover hours of uninterrupted Persian classical music, a tradition so stately and affecting that its surface exoticism melts away after only a few minutes. But I began to wonder, from whence, exactly, issues forth this fountain of unfamiliar yet dulcet tones? I pressed a button and suddenly linked the sounds of classical Persia with a bedroom in San Francisco in 2008.

I wanted some background color for the monochromatic iTunes radio experience – and some direction on how to explore the region’s music even further (the station’s format ranges from Persian Dance to Kurdish Pop). Fortunately a friendly service representative at IranianRadio.com, identifying himself only as Cyrus, was able to set me straight on the mysteries behind the music.

SFBG: Who programs the content of IranianRadio.com?

WMC: Giant Step gets it out in Miami

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April 9, 2008

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Ocean Drive divas. All photos by Robin Russell.

Contributing photog Robin Russell closes her WMC dispatches with a stop at Giant Step Presents Sunset Soiree at the Delano Hotel on March 29. Look for Turntables on the Hudson, out with Supreme Beings of Leisure at Mezzanine on April 18.

Nickodemus steals over to the wheels o’ steel.

Turntables on the Hudson melded classic house textures and afrobeat rhythms.

The scene down south.

Arab Strap’s Malcolm Middleton gets up the gritty magic

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April 8, 2008

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By Todd Lavoie

Charmed, I am – former Arab Strap post-folkie Malcolm Middleton has just released his fourth album, Sleight of Heart (Full Time Hobby), and it’s a corker, I’m telling you. A fitting title, too – there’s some lovely little magic at play here, fashioning such shimmers and sparkles from the sadder reaches of the emotional continuum.

Sleight of heart? Sleight of hand, while we’re at it. Middleton plays a swift game of “now you see it, now you don’t” in his songwriting, tossing up chippy-chip-chipper bluebirds of melody only to smother them in his smog-gray handkerchief with the turn of a devastating phrase. Ol’ Malcolm’s a master at such trickery, often creating a mighty impressive gulf between the listener’s initial surface-level perceptions of the song and the eventual under-the-skin burrowing that takes place later, if given the chance. Simply put, our man crafts some of the most immediately accessible brittle-hearted music you’re likely to hear anytime soon.

It’s been a curious journey for Middleton. Back in 1995, he and Aidan Moffat forged a distinctively stark, soul-baring form of epic disturbo-folk under the eyebrow-raising name Arab Strap (noun: a contraption used by a man to maintain an erection during intercourse). As the moniker would suggest, the duo didn’t shy away from matters of a carnal nature, but even more arresting was their willingness to dredge up the uglier, less flattering aspects of the human experience.

WMC: Aquabooty bash brings out the masses

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April 8, 2008

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Marcus Worgull got the crowd going. All photos by Robin Russell.

Winter Music Conference in Miami rolled onward as contributing photographer Robin Russell checked out the popular local party Aquabooty Music2 at Opium Garden on March 29. Innervsions artists like Ame, Dixon, Henrik Schwarz and Marcus Worgull appeared along with DJ Harvey and Miguel Migs.

Rich Medina spun Philly soul.

Mr. White and Marcus Worgull took the stage.

Tift Merritt takes on ‘Another Country’

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April 8, 2008

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By Nathan Baker

Tift Merritt is giving something away. It seems delicate but could be strong as steel, a gift from a solitary place but one that she openly shares. It is Another Country (Fantasy). When Lost Highway Records broke things off with the Grammy-nominated songwriter in 2006 she retired to a room in Paris to put down this portrait of a spirit that is at once resilient and vulnerable. “Sometimes you fall up these stairs,” Merritt sings on “Tender Branch,” bruised but not beaten.

If there is a bit of the expatriate in this record it is not the decadent self-destruction of Papa Hemingway but the anxiety and awe of a stranger navigating a mysterious place. In “Love is Another Country” her sentiment is simple and perfect: “I wanna go with you.”

Produced by George Drakoulias, whose clients include the Black Crowes and the Jayhawks, Another Country both reflects and refracts country music. “Tell Me Something True” and “My Heart is Free” illustrate what all the Bonnie Raitt and Lucinda Williams comparisons are for, but mostly Merritt’s is an Americana of the mind – the vernal pleasures Saint-Sulpice, a pastoral stroll along the Seine, the silver needle of a Parisian clothier pushing through a linen summer dress.

TIFT MERRITT
With Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek
April 14, 8 p.m., $16
Great American Music Hall
859 O’Farrell, SF
(415) 885-0750

WMC: Art of Seduction shows the fest how it’s done

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April 7, 2008

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King Britt and Victor Duplaix make the scene. All photos by Robin Russell.

Contributing photog Robin Russell made a stop at the fourth annual Art of Seduction party at the Victor Hotel on March 29 during Miami’s Winter Music Conference. King Britt and Duplaix headed a bill that included DJ Rashida, Eleonora, Manchild Black, Taylor McFerrin, DJ Dozia, and Kayree.

METAL: Chillin’ with Amber Asylum/Frozen in Amber’s Kris Force

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April 4, 2008

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Amber Asylum isn’t metal, but band leader Kris Force has been a longtime participant in the scene, while metal fans have gravitated toward her dark-ambient-folk group. Terrorizer named Amber Asylum’s last album, Still Point (Profound Lore), as one of their top 40 albums of 2007, and her project has consistently found a home on metal labels. I caught up with Force recently on the phone as she relaxed at home in Pacifica on a sleepy Saturday afternoon. And by the way, Amber Asylum plays their first show in a year and a half on April 19 at El Rio.

SFBG: What’s going on with this new release?

Kris Force: Grey Force Wakeford – it’s apocalyptic folk or postindustrial music, kind of like Death in June or David Tibet. I worked with Tony Wakeford [Death in June/Sol Invictus] – he’s in London – and Nick Grey is in Monaco. We did a lot of it remotely. I had been corresponding with Tony because I liked his music and reached out to him, and he asked me to do some string parts on something.

I found Nick through MySpace. I was really despairing one night and found his MySpace page. He didn’t have many friends. I played his music and totally loved it, and I wrote him an e-mail, and he was familiar with my work. I suggested we do a mail-art collaboration, and he sent me a fabulous track. Then it turned into five tracks. It turned out Nick and Tony had four. We decided to put them together and see what happens. I mixed it all and I think it seems cohesive. It’s come out on a French label called Athanor.

METAL: Rockin’ more Walken

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April 4, 2008

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By Duncan Scott Davidson

Here’s more an interview with San Francisco’s Walken. Read the original piece here.

Shane Bergman: A 14-year-old with a gun is the last thing I want to see around here.

SFBG: When did you guys form?

Sean Kohler: Actually, we came up with the name Walken in 1999.

SFBG: Pre-“More Cowbell.”

SB: Yeah, I think so. It was right at the beginning of the Christopher Walken joke obsession, with all the new movies and all that. I think we were caught up in the beginnings of that, doing Walken impressions and such. At the time it was just me and Andrew, who was the original drummer. I think we all collectively think of Walken forming again in different phases, ‘cause it’s changed so much. Present lineup: two years, basically.

Sweet, sweet Ruby Suns shine a light tonight

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April 4, 2008

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Birthed in New Zealand and suckled on Cali pop, Maori folk, and assorted indie-rock eclectic undefinables, the Ruby Suns plucked the title for their new sophomore album, Sea Lion (Sub Pop), from our very shores: the critters basking off Highway 1. I exchanged e-mails with Ruby Suns’ king Ryan McPhun, who appears with his band tonight, April 4, at Bottom of the Hill.

SFBG: So why title your new album after the sea lions who live near San Francisco? What sort of experiences have you had with them?

Ryan McPhun: I guess my explanation is not too complicated. My girlfriend and i were driving down the coast on Highway 1 and came across this colony. We sat and watched these animals for about an hour. We were really close. They were making some amazing noises. It was a great time, so that’s why. It was an inspiring trip.

The finest in female-fronted indie? Finest Dearest celebrates a new disc

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April 4, 2008

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By Alex Felsinger

What happened to women in indie rock? The rocking influence of PJ Harvey and Sleater-Kinney seems to have all but vanished in the hands of indie-pop darlings like Au Revoir Simone or Camera Obscura. These and many other successful female-fronted indie bands in recent years follow the same formula of cute, poppy songs. A Belle and Sebastian influence permeates, while the Pixies inspiration is played down. Indie was once edgy, but now it’s mostly serene.

But San Francisco has a hold-out: Finest Dearest has essentially ignored the current indie scene. Their new self-titled album on Bloodtown Records could easily fit among discs by the powerful women of ’90s indie rock.

Formed in 2004, the band has never been afraid of the drums-guitar-bass formula, and for the most part, their music is nicely streamlined. The group initially included an electric cello player, but on their new full-length, the instrument is used sparingly on a only few tracks.

WMC: When Push FM comes to Groove Junkies – more parties

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April 4, 2008

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Groove Junkies got the junk out of the trunk at Terry Thompson and Friends Presents. All photos by Robin Russell.

Maimi’s Winter Music Conference kept the beat going as contributing photographer Robin Russell stopped into both Push FM/R2 Records‘ soiree at Love Hate and the Terry Thompson and Friends Presents event at the Chelsea Hotel on Friday, March 28.

Push FM DJ Abicah Soul manned the decks at the bash hosted by the London online radio station.

The crowd at Push FM/R2 Records’ night.

John “Julius” Knight made an appearance at Terry Thompson’s Baltimore/DC house throwdown.

‘Battlestar Galactica”s season-opening salvo whirls by like a black-out trip to Earth

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April 3, 2008

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First: what an amazingly over-the-top press kit housing season four’s opening episode. The disk came tucked in the rear pocket of a framed, numbered print of the Battlestar Galactica cast in Last Supper mode. Quite a souvenir for the trophy room – the first episode of the series’ fourth and final season airs Friday, April 4.

The April 4 season opener, “He That Believeth in Me,” unfolds as pals/lovers Lee “Apollo” Adama and Kara “Starbuck” Thrace trade glances from their respective ships as they fly alongside each other. Starbuck assures him that she’s been to Earth and he’s “gonna love it.” Oh, yeah? Vipers and Raiders battle, splattering organic toaster guts on Starbuck’s windshield: splashy! The opening episode boasts notably more nuanced, beautifully realized special effects – the powers-that-be are clearly not holding anything back for the last season. The cinematography and effects here are lush, showy, and cinematic in their detail.

Surprise! Starbuck’s hubby Sam is now a Viper pilot and he suits up and gets ready to take on his Cylon brethren for the first time – leading to an eerie mano-y-mano, eyeball-to-Cylon-iris-scan moment when a Raider turns and connects with him. The Cylons seem to have the humans on the run but suddenly they turn back. Has sleeper Cylon Sam been “activated”? The knowing looks exchanged by all the new humanoid Cylons reach some kind of climax as now-outed-Cylon/once-ace-Cylon-hater Colonel Saul Tigh fantasizes about shooting his best friend, Admiral William Adama, in a dream sequence reminiscent of Sharon “Boomer” Valerii’s assassination attempt. Meanwhile, Dr. Gaius Balthar gets drawn into a sweet lil’ female-dominated (sex) cult of sorts: is it a fantasy or nightmare come true? And has Balthar become a faith healer, he of little faith? The egotistical scientist’s semi-comic scenes are always a welcome relief amid BSG’s general gloom. The mystery surrounding Starbuck’s seeming death and sudden reappearance deepens: she says she simply woke up at one point – after her ship apparently burst into flames – and found herself flying above Earth. She has photos and everything. Nevertheless, everyone thinks she’s a Cylon.

Clearly a transitional episode, “He That Believeth in Me” sets up more questions than it answers. Newbies will wonder what the fuss is all about; enthralled BSGers will be satisfied that so many narrative threads are getting picked up and tugged.

Out of the mouths of Cribs: controversy, needs, and the Replacements

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April 3, 2008

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Striped, Ripe, Culty, and Sultry: the Cribs. Photo by J. Beckman.

Who are these mystery scamps in UK’s the Cribs – working with Franz Ferdinand’s Alex, Sonic Youth’s Lee Renaldo, and the Smiths’ Johnny Marr alike? And landing at Popscene tonight, April 3? I traded e-mails with the youngest Jarman brother, Ross, who drums in the threesome.

SFBG: What’s it like being a “family band”? And do you think they get a bad rap?

Ross Jarman: To be honest, we are unaware what it is like to be anything but a family band. I’m curious what being in a band with your friends is like. I think being in a band with your brothers is easier, as there is more honesty towards writing, etc., and it keeps the three of us on a level playing field.

SFBG: What was it like to work with Alex from Franz Ferdinand on the Mens Needs… album?

RJ: Being in the studio with Airwolf was a lot of fun. We had offers from other producers before he came into the equation, but we didn’t want to make a record that sounded like a load of others, so going in with a producer who was producing for the first time out of his own circle, we knew we were going to get something unique. He also knew the band a lot more than any other producer, as he had seen us play every night for two months on a tour of the US.

WMC: Jellybean Soul in the house

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April 3, 2008

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Ruben Mancias, Wumni, and Jellybean Benitez meet in Miami. All photos by Robin Russell.

The Winter Music Conference’s Jellybean Soul label party at Hotel Victor on Friday, March 28, was next on contributing photog Robin Russell’s schedule in Miami. Here’s what she caught.

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Little Louie Vega and Mike “Agent X” Clark are all smiles.

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London-born singer-dancer Wumni lent her vocals to Ruben Mancias’s “Let It Rain (Ko Ma Ro).”

WMC: Om Records whoops it up in Miami

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April 2, 2008

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Vikter Duplaix and Daz-I-Kue (Bugz in the Attic) get down at the Om party. All photos by Robin Russell.

Contributing photographer Robin Russell swung through Miami’s Winter Music Conference, which ran from March 25-29, and sent these dispatches. First up: the fete thrown by SF-based Om Records at Y Ultralounge on Thursday, March 27.

Cobblestone Jazz settles in.

Things heat up at the Om party.

METAL: Color me heavy, Junior

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April 2, 2008

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By Todd Lavoie

Well, I can’t speak for all of us here, but I reckon I’m not the only one who likes to unwind after a hard day’s work with a rip through Slayer’s Reign In Blood, a couple of beers, and a box of crayons…am I? I best not neglect the trusty ol’ number two pencil while I’m at it, either – all the better for scrawling perfect 666’s upon every available surface as “Postmortem” heralds the sheer blinding breadth of my fiendish ways, my pure evil intent. Are you with me, my pentagram-slamming brothers and sisters? Someone please tell me I ain’t alone on this one.

Of course I’m not alone, silly, silly headbangers! Exhibit A: The Heavy Metal Fun Time Activity Book (2007), recently unleashed upon the previously untapped Crayola-wielding caught-in-a-mosh market by ECW Press/Independent Publishers Group. Authored and drawn by Aye Jay Morano – credited here as simply “Aye Jay” – the 48-page children’s activity book send-up pays loving tribute to those fantastic little workbooks Mom and Dad would buy us at the supermarket or the toy store to shut us up for a few hours in the car during long drives.

Yep, I remember a bout or two of gut-wobbling carsickness on trips up to summer cabins and amusement parks, thanks to burying myself nose-deep in those suckers, throwing myself into diamond-cutting concentration trances in an effort to keep coloring with the lines! Oh, how I loved those books – excitement awaiting on every page, with dot-to-dots, mazes, word searches, brain teasers, and oodles of pictures ready for the colorin’! Any chance to bust out the burnt sienna and my stubby little fingers would set a-twitching in anticipation.