The Boulevard Ear; 3/27/12 – In the Hall of the Scandinavian Kings
April 4, 2012
Welcome back to the Boulevard Ear, a regular feature on The Bay Bridged, where our man about town examines a community’s live music offerings over the course of one evening. What is it like to be a show-goer whose experiences are dictated entirely by location? Follow Todd as he explores Bay Area music venues by neighborhood, finding a variety of independent music along the way.
It is gloomy without – the wind bitter and persistant, the moisture horizontal and aggressive. Within – in this case the bar of Chow – we push stringy bangs back and revel on. Our esteemed colleague, photographer Charlie Homo, will join us in the forbidding elements on a fitting project – plumbing the unseen corners of a music venue that represents the closest our young frontier can call history. [More...]
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Review & Photos: Chuck Prophet & The Mission Express, Roy Loney and the Phantom Movers @ Great American Music Hall, 3/30/12
April 2, 2012
Generations of homegrown legendry teamed up at the GAMH Friday night to show young and old (and quite old) alike how roots rock is served. Alt-country hero Chuck Prophet, who emerged in the 80′s with Green on Red and has never let up, and Roy Loney, former front man for 70′s power pop progenitors The Flamin Groovies, brought their respective ace backups, The Mission Express and The Phantom Movers by for the show.
Loney blasted his way onstage, brandishing his lifelong insistence that roots rock is not a novelty. He hasn’t lost his mastery of the “goofy monster” punk persona and the fidelity to grinding, two-chord or 12-bar blues structures that had such an influence on label mates The Ramones, just for starters.
As a rock lifer, Loney also clearly understood how to make the best of a big crowd and venue. He and the Movers kept the pace tight and the energy high. The salt-and-pepper crowd, along with a smattering of the beard and horn rims set, were convinced. If you can rock the house, it doesn’t matter how clever your compositions or sound textures are. And if you can’t rock the house, it matters even less.
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Photos/Review: Treefort Music Fest in Boise with Why?, Built to Spill, and a long list of Bay Area bands
April 2, 2012
Kicking off what will hopefully become a regular music and arts festival in downtown Boise, the Treefort Music Festival saw about ten thousand people from a variety of places on March 22-25. Undoubtedly the heavy attendance was due to the phenomenal headliners Built to Spill, Why? and Of Montreal.
Here’s a festival retrospective and live performance starring Why? produced in part by local production company Retroscope Media.
A first-year event can be very interesting to witness, and even better to watch grow in time. In this case, 130 bands played in 8 different venues, which ranged from the large-scale outdoor main stage to mid-sized venues that regularly host live music, like Neurolux and Red Room. Certainly, even in this capacity, the festival had the look and feel of a developing SxSW, in that the downtown Boise area has plenty of local businesses and open lots to utilize. The producers had keeping attendees busy in mind when they packed the schedule with industry panels, interactive art performances, craft beer, food trucks, street vendors, and a daytime in-store performance at The Record Exchange from Blitzen Trapper.
An additional selling point for an out-of-towner such as myself was how Treefort’s lineup really hit a sweet spot. Over four days, the combination of bands covered a great sampling of what Boise’s music scene has to offer, as well as some of the best names in Northwest folk/Americana. However, it was the abundance of San Francisco Bay Area bands that the psychic powers of the festival’s bookers tapped into that were the most appealing. The complete list includes Mwahaha, Blasted Canyons, Tartufi, Appetite, Sister Crayon, Night Genes, The Spyrals, The Soft White Sixties, Maus Haus and the honorary former Oakland resident Why?.
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Burger Boogaloo 2012 grand finale: Strange Boys, Los Vigilantes, Sir Lord Von Raven and Junk Species
March 28, 2012
Austin’s Strange Boys headlined the final Burger Boogaloo fiesta at Thee Parkside on Sunday. Singer Ryan Sambol seems never content to play any song the same way twice. There was a fantastic, slowed-down, twisted version of “Be Brave”. They also played a song written during Sambol’s recent months living in SF. The song was written about Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and what must have been a powerful set from the often boring Gillian Welch. Sambol had only performed the song solo a few times under the moniker Asabov Sobelo. For the last song, they called up Brigid Dawson (of Thee Oh Sees) to sing harmonies. Ryan offered keyboard choices to the audience before settling on strings. Brigid could barely contain her laughter…
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Burger Boogaloo 2012 part 3: Coathangers and Guantanamo Baywatch
March 27, 2012
If my pictures are getting blurry, well, blame the Boogaloo. This offering respresents Saturday night’s hoopla to the best of my failing capacities. Surely Guantanamo Baywatch provides the ultimate Burger experience. Flying surf guitars, perfectly pounded drums and bass lines so sweet you’re content to crawl right under the bar and die.
Coathangers have evolved. The bleached blonde I first encountered 2 years back screaming at the helm is either gone or converted into a black haired drummer (tho still screamy!). Said drummer did come up front to belt one out even adding some crazy guitar licks. The new sound is heavier on the keyboards and more art school to these ringing ears. Their 3rd release “Larceny and Old Lace” gives a glimpse, but it’s got to be seen to believe. [More...]
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Burger Boogaloo 2012, Part 2: Kings Tuff and Lollipop, Coconut Coolouts and MOM
March 26, 2012
Friday night at Thee Parkside finished off with Vermont’s King Tuff in rare form. Stage diving and moshing galore.
No one knew what to make of MOM particularly when the fat naked baby showed up. She does have a nice….er…..record collection, but I would prefer to hear “‘A’ You’re Adorable” without the squealing Mickey Mouse voiceovers. Be grateful to be spared the naked pictures!
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Burger Boogaloo 2012 part 1: Shannon & the Clams, Heavy Cream, Nobunny, Hunx & his Punx
March 23, 2012
Meeeeow! Or whatever sound it is a leopard makes… Nashville’s Heavy Cream played second at the Bottom of the Hill on Wednesday for the first of MANY Burger Boogaloo events this week. Jessica (pictured here) prowled around the stage singing, screaming and spitting into a fury of hard rockin’ milky goodness.
Shannon & the Clams kicked it all off. Cody (aka King Lollipop) delivered the Buddy Holly meets Mortimer Mouse treasures.
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SXSW 2012: Inside the Hipster Habitrail
March 21, 2012
If hipsters were hamsters, they might spend SXSW at Spiderhouse. Once a small cafe on the north side of town, Spiderhouse sported SEVEN stages this year. Hip hamsters arrived at noon and partied until 2am. With twitchy whiskers they could snake through a maze of bands both well-known and completely unheard of. There were water bottles to suck on hanging from the walls and the feed station was dishing up some very decent tacos. Foodie type hamsters could run next door for serious BBQ at Ruby’s.
The And So… Party on Friday had 44 bands including impressive works by Mikal Cronin (with Ty Segal, Emily Rose Epstein and Tim Hellman), Mexico’s sweaty-shirtless Los Headaches and Austin’s Strange Boys (who also played amazing sets at Trailer Space Records and completed my weekend with a 1am show at Mohawk). Strange Boys will be at SF’s Burger Boogaloo this Sunday (not to be missed) at THEE PARKSIDE! Extra special hamster treats are due to Portlandia’s Guantanamo Baywatch (also playing Burger Boogaloo but Saturday). If you like hard rockin’ surf tunes, do proceed to the exercise wheel. Still thirsty? Pass through a tube like corridor, turn left and enjoy a full bar of crazy good micro brews on tap. Yes, of course they have Lone Star and Shiner Bock. (note: the only place these 2 beers are not available in Texas would be the Hype Hotel where they served Miller Lite and inedible Taco Bell tacos. WTF! Despite a painful hour delay Jimmy Cliff did make up for it.) [More...]
