Sade Sundays: Wooden Shjips, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Darwinsbitch
June 21, 2009
We decided to do it at The Nature Food dispensary Mike works at. A shared warehouse in north Berkeley, it houses and packages a wide-range of mindbogglingly expensive grains, nuts and nutbutters. The insides were as sterile as expected; until Mike spilled a 10lb bag of $80 seeds on the floor. The middle room smelled like a farm. A fine place to hold the inaugural Sade Sundays for The Bay Bridged. (Read: Sade Sundays is essentially Mike and I writing checks our butts can’t cash; we will be discussing music. Much like everyone does. Except we’re calling it Sade Sundays and taking phone calls).
There was a tangible volatility in the room: I was floating stagnant in love’s doldrums and Mike was a little gassy. It was compounded by the fact that we were drinking Sammy Smiths. With every sip I grew increasingly remiss, meanwhile Mike kept lifting his butt off the chair to fart. But it was just us two so no one else was offended. Until now. We can’t be sure if any of these mitigating circumstances affected the following discussion, but as Mike is wont to say, we may not be what you want, but we’re what you need.
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Wooden Shjips – “Motorbike”
We started with Wooden Shjips‘ Dos (Holy Mountain; 2009). I found the hits (Tracks 1 & 2 “Motorbike” and “For So Long”) made up for the occasional misses in a true return to kraut/psych fuzz rock fun. Mike disagreed. He felt it was time in his life to stop pretending that he enjoys “this rock and roll thing”, and doesn’t know if that makes him less of a man. The jury is still out, but we decided that if this is what you want, a hypnotic lustbaby of rusty garage rock, SF’s Wooden Shjips is your meal ticket. But Mike had the last words. “To me, it didn’t sound good when I was drinking a Brandy Alexander and playing computer golf”. I had previously thought everything sounded good when you’re drinking a Brandy Alexander and playing computer golf.
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Black Moth Super Rainbow – “Iron Lemonade”
Next up: Black Moth Super Rainbow’s latest offering, Eating Us (Graveface; 2009). Synthesizer meltdowns, vocoded vocals, and idiosyncratic consonance continue to fuel this band’s surreal spaceship. Mike said it was great cocktail music. Put it on at a party and bask in the elegance. I agreed to the extent that I felt it was better suited in the background. Shedding their lo-fi and instinctual history in favor of a hot-shot producer (Dave Fridmann of Flaming Lips fame), I felt they lost a certain something along the way. I settled on the conclusion that they’re not exploiting their dexterity as much as I believe them capable of. Mike: “Wow”. That said, standout track “Iron Lemonade” will take you to the moon. [More...]
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One night only at the Red Vic: American Artifact: The Rise of American Rock Poster Art
June 20, 2009
American Artifact world premieres tonight with two showings at the Red Vic Theatre on Haight Street, 5pm and 7pm.
If only everything about this movie were as cool as that Cheetah wearing sunglasses. Director Merle Becker’s debut documentary has its heart in the right place, and the filmmaker’s passion for posters bleeds from every frame, but American Artifact fails at the crucial task of transmitting this enthusiasm to its audience. Becker thinks we might be made interested in rock posters, and, indeed, we might, but her answer to the question “why should I be interested in rock posters?” seems mostly to consist of “hey, check out this really cool rock poster!” Shirking the documentarian’s role as journalist and cultural historian, the director instead concatenated something closer to a fan film, pitching softball questions to artists she transparently reveres.
In the early going, the film is not helped by one of the lamest set-ups in documentary history. Paraphrased, it goes something like this: “I bought a book about rock posters, and I liked it.” Drawn into the flourishing underground culture of rock poster memorabilia, Becker spent several years traveling the country and interviewing her ink-spattered idols, who expound gamely but tepidly about getting to do what they love, making art on behalf of their favorite bands, with unfettered creative license and a small but steady income. [More...]
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Tour Diary: John Vanderslice
June 19, 2009
Bowery Ballroom, Photo by Elizabeth Weinberg
Words and Photos by: John Vanderslice (except where noted)
We’ve been on a tour for a month, it seems like a year. In a good way. Back in mid-May, we sat in the hundred+ degree heat of Merced and argued the Pat Metheny/Kenny G feud. I sided with Kenny. Seriously, what is the point in attacking Mr. Gorelick?
Photo by Elizabeth Weinberg
Touring is overwhelming and intense: the experiences are so fast and compressed you can barely take it in. In the past 24 hours we saw a Red Panda at the National Zoo, recorded a show in the NPR offices, walked the Natural History Museum, and played a ridiculously good show at the Black Cat. All that imagery scrolling by your window, the heightened personal connections you make, it can’t be fully understood until you get home. And my home life is the polar opposite of my touring life, in bed at 10pm, it’s all stillness and daylight. It’s the difference between playing your bi-amped Telecaster at the Empty Bottle and strumming a parlor guitar in a small wooden room.
Washington Marriott, an architectural marriage between classical Europe and a Scientology welcome center
I’m sitting in the lobby of the Washington Marriott Wardman Park waiting for van call. Over the past year I’ve learned how to game Priceline so we’re killing 4 star hotels this summer. Sometimes we nail a 4-star room for $35 and I feel a small wave of guilt at check-in. That guilt quickly passes. I’ve shared my methods with many bands this tour: The Tallest Man On Earth, Laura Gibson, St Vincent, Telekinesis, Musee Mecanique. If you see me out there feel free to ask me about it.
Van call with Jamie, Sylvain and my mom
I see my mom and brother tonight in Chapel Hill. Our friend Dianna will bring strawberry cupcakes, we’ll see John Darnielle, Jamie Stewart and the Bowerbirds. I’ll have grits and biscuits at my mom’s house in the morning and be on the road by 11am. Seventeen hours in Chapel Hill, overwhelming and intense.
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Sex, air, and rock and roll at the Independent (Win Tix!)
June 19, 2009
Clear out some space in the living room and find some time when nobody’s around, because you should probably already have started training for the Bay Area regionals in the Air Sex World Championships and the US Air Guitar Championships, both of which are taking place next week at The Independent (on 6/24 and 6/26-6/27 respectively).
Now in their seventh year, the Air Guitar Championships have always been well-received in the Bay Area, with local competitor Hot Lixx Hulahan (who we interviewed last year) the defending US & World Air Guitar Champ. One winner from each of next week’s two SF events will join other regional winners at the US Finals in August, where a champion will be selected to represent our nation in the World Championships in Oulu, Finland later that month. It goes without saying that there’s obviously a lot at stake for the entrants, particularly in the always-competitive SF leg of the tour.
If you’re more of an air lover than an air rocker, you may want to check out the Air Sex World Championships, currently in the middle of their first national tour. Like air guitar, air sex competition is pretty much what it sounds like: people get up on stage and pretend to have sex to a song in order to impress the crowd and judges. The competition was inspired by video of air sex performance at a small club in Japan, and after a year of events in keeping-it-weird Austin, Texas, the founders decided to take air sex on the road.
Will a Bay Area champion emerge to take the title from 2008 winner Sad Larry, who, I’ve been told, “won the judges over with a simultaneously heart-wrenching and gut-busting performance depicting a lonely man and an 8X10 glossy of his ex-girlfriend”? Time (and air humping) will tell.
We are giving away one pair of tickets to each night of the Air Guitar Championships on June 26th and 27th. To enter, send an e-mail to contest@thebaybridged.com with your name, address and include the phrase: “I want to go to the Air Guitar Championships on [Friday/Saturday]!” The winners will be chosen at random on Tuesday at noon and will be notified via e-mail.
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A Hellava Night with local + Detroit hip-hop: Esham, Kung-Fu Vampire, Can’t Find a Villain
June 19, 2009
Those who find themselves in the South Bay this Friday (8pm, $13) should make their way over to the Avalon in Santa Clara for what is sure to be quite the night of lyrical manipulation at the kickoff of the Hellava Night tour.
Esham, who’s been in the game since the late 80s, hails from Detroit. He’s remained somewhat of an underground phenomenon despite guest appearances on many many albums throughout his career. While he’s produced 13 (!) albums over the course of his career, Esham’s probably best known from his early days running the Detroit rap scene with Kid Rock and and his guest spots on various ICP albums. His music is typified by an overall bleakness, most of which sticks to the dark side of human nature.
Kung-Fu Vampire, a group who’s sound fuses goth, funk, jazz, and hip-hop, hails from San Jose and is no stranger to the Bay Area rap scene. His stage show is extremely dynamic with cello, bass, drums, guitar and keyboards all coming together to form one cohesive unit. He takes his ques from his from his Kung-Fu Vampire stage persona and I’m sure you can imagine what that entails.
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Grizzly Bear starts the week with two nights @ The Fillmore
June 19, 2009
Before they appeared on Letterman, before they opened for Radiohead, and before the New York Times called their sophomore album one of the best of 2006, Grizzly Bear was the 10th band featured by Vincent Moon for his Take Away Shows.
The band’s stripped down performance of, “Shift,†a track off their first album, Horn of Plenty, is eerily beautiful, and minimalist in this arrangement, and not simply because of the tight quarters in which Moon’s DIY style required them to play.
Three years and one album later, the Fillmore finds itself host to the band’s two-day stay, both with Here We Go Magic, Sunday is sold out — in support of the group’s newly released album, Veckatimest. Recorded in a church in Brooklyn and Cape Cod, the 12-song release is the band’s best attempt at coherence in songwriting.
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Grizzly Bear – “Cheerleader”
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Weekend Mix: 6/19-6/21
June 18, 2009
Weekend Mix is our new mp3-driven preview of some of the upcoming weekend’s best concerts. Let us know what you’re looking forward to in the comments.
Friday:
- Sleepy Sun, Spindrift, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound, DJ Wet Burrito @ Great American Music Hall, 9pm, $13
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Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound – “By the Rippling Green”
- Trainwreck Riders, The Botticellis, Gilded Rooks @ Bottom of the Hill, 10pm, $12
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The Botticellis – “Up Against the Glass (live)”
- Nouvelle Vague @ The Regency Grand Ballroom, 8pm, $25
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Nouvelle Vague – “Killing Moon (Echo and the Bunnymen cover)”
Saturday: [More...]
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The Blacks CD release at Rickshaw tonight
June 18, 2009
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The Blacks – “Sunday Boys” (from Tiger Songs)
As we reported last month, San Francisco-New York trio The Blacks‘ final show is tonight at the Rickshaw Stop with The Red Verse and The Ferocious Few. The band’s second album, Tiger Songs will be available for the first time at the show and will be available on iTunes on July 14th.
Thursday 8pm, $10, Rickshaw Stop, Fell Street at Van Ness
