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Photos and Review: Papercuts, Port O’Brien, Still Flyin’ @ The Independent, 6/25

June 30, 2009 by John Shea · Leave a Comment »
Filed Under Feature Article, News, Show Photos, Show Reviews


Photos by: Charlie Homo

It was a weird night over at the Independent on Thursday. The specter of Michael Jackson’s death hung over the night like bubble wrap on your grandma’s antique china. It felt slightly awkward to be seeing what was sure to be a solid night of live music knowing what went down earlier that day was, in fact, a reality.

Time marches on, as I’m sure someone great once said, and I suppose we were to be the first cavalry. Three amazing bands were scheduled to take the stage in what felt like a strangely paced night, but was ultimately a great show anyway.


04-good-thing-its-a-ghost-town-around-here-1.mp3
Still Flyin – “Good Thing It’s a Ghost Town Around Here”

Still Flyin’ took the floor first, and while the Independent’s wide stage allowed this 15+ member band to stretch out and move around a little bit, something they are very good at, the crowd was sparse…It was pretty much to be expected that early in the night, but a drag nonetheless as these guys are in their element when playing to a full room. Regardless, they played a solid set full of great tunes that can’t help but infect your jaded sensibilities with a need to get down. Even thought the crowd was small, in the end, the band got the people moving Also, their re-interpretation of Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train” was a real treat.

Next up was the formidable Port O’Brien, who I have to admit, I’d never seen live before. (I know, Shame on me.) After this set, though, I’ll be making catching the band a regular thing. First off, guitar/keyboardist/whatever else, Gram Lebron (Rogue Wave) took the stage and sang a few little ditties all by his lonesome. Then Port O’Brien proper joined him on stage with Tyson Vogel (Two Gallants) on drum duty and the show really started. [More...]

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Monthly Mix: June 2009 (Podcast #170)

June 30, 2009 by The Bay Bridged · Leave a Comment »
Filed Under Monthly Mix, News, Podcast

Lesser Lights

Stream the episode:

 

Download

Our latest Monthly Mix episode of the weekly podcast includes music from nine great Bay Area bands — some submissions we’ve received at TBB headquarters, some stuff we’ve posted on the web site recently, all really good stuff.

Subscribe to the The Bay Bridged weekly podcast to get each new episode downloaded free to your iTunes the moment it’s published!

About all of the bands:

Oakland songwriter Brian Glaze (“Leader of the Band”) returns with his third LP Green Living, out July 13th on World Famous In San Francisco. He’ll be at McLaren Park on July 18th as part of the Mission Creek Music Festival.

We recently witnessed The Blacks‘ (“Sunday Boys”) stunning and bittersweet final performance, but the band’s legacy lives on with their new album Tiger Songs, out July 21st on Tricycle Records. Check out a great collection of photos from their final show on Flickr.

Oakland’s Sir Lord Von Raven (“Take It or Leave It”) includes members of The Time Flys and The Gris Gris, and their debut LP Please Throw Me Back In The Ocean is out now on HappyParts Recordings. The band has upcoming shows on July 3rd at the Ghost Town Gallery, and July 9th at The Stork Club.

Von Iva (“Guise”) recently released their latest EP Girls on Film, featuring a bunch of new songs alongside tracks from their previous album. The trio has a number of August dates on the East Coast that you can see on their MySpace page.

[More...]

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Our new Artist in Residence: Claire Nereim

June 30, 2009 by Christian Cunningham · Leave a Comment »
Filed Under Art, Feature Article, News

Fruits Calendar 2 by: Claire Nereim
We are pleased to introduce the newest member of our Artist in Residence program, Claire Nereim. Claire is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in San Francisco. Born in Chicago in 1981, she studied Visual Art at Oberlin College. In her work she explores the relationship between form, meaning, and the invention of memory. Her work has been featured in the Believer, Paper, and Print Magazine.

You can view more of her work at her website; check out her brand new blog; and, if you’re in the mood to purchase something, you can head here.

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Starfucker Bring the Medicine to Bottom of the Hill

June 29, 2009 by Meghan Logue · 2 Comments »
Filed Under Feature Article, News, Show Photos, Show Reviews


Photos by: Charlie Homo

White Cloud, Atole and Starfucker deserved a better slot than a Tuesday evening, and dished out a unique blend of feedback-heavy electro pop that felt better suited for a Friday.  Local group White Cloud opened the night with a mellow – at least in comparison to Starfucker – set featuring rhythmic change-ups and occasional dissonance, while Atole delivered lots of dance-worthy synth rock punctuated with abstract vocals.


Live touches like beat-boxing, scratching and ubiquitous Alan Watts samples did good things for Starfucker’s performance, which also saw the the Portland quartet branching out into more intentional feedback than before.  While their show was made up exclusively of released material, some creative guitar timing and a mischievous look lent the performance an enjoyable touch of suspense.

Check out more photos from this show below: [More...]

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San Franciscans reflect on Michael Jackson

June 29, 2009 by Michael Pistorio · 1 Comment »
Filed Under News

Michael Jackson -Scrapbook
Scrapbook photos from DJ Bunnystyle

Facebook screamed with puns immediately following the news of Michael Jackson’s death — “His heart just couldn’t ‘Beat It,’” “‘Do You Remember the Time,’ when he was alive” — but people on the streets and in the bars Thursday night had many things to say about life and career of the King of Pop. It was a night to recollect our first memories of MJ and marvel at the creative peaks and absurd images that characterized his long career, with everything from the immortal Thriller video (and Bollywood and Phillipines’ prison variations) to the disastrous Pepsi commercial coming up in conversation.

Here’s a wide-ranging collection of thoughts from San Francisco bargoers on the night of Michael Jackson’s passing:

“It was 1982. I was in 2nd grade and Thriller was the record that I was listening to. I remember looking at him with his baby tiger and seeing his ligament in his arm and just thinking ‘wow, he’s skinny!’ But I still loved him. I danced to his album nonstop over and over again.” – Beth Schuenemann

“The first time MJ came into my life. I was seven years old. My older brother was ten. This was 89′. One day I was going through the couch cushions and found his Jackson 5 cassette and I stole it. For two weeks I listened to it nonstop. My brother cried everyday because he couldn’t find it. I think it broke a few weeks later.”  – Marisa Lehnert

“My theory is that everyone from 18 to 40 has an MJ story. Mine goes back to when I was five years old. I wanted to be like the guys in his “Bad,” video, the one where they’re doing backflips at the end of the song, so I started trying the backflips. That was the first time I knocked the wind out of myself. I bawled my eyes out.” – DJ D.A.V.O aka David Richardson

[More...]

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Details emerge on Girls’ Album

June 29, 2009 by Ben Van Houten · Leave a Comment »
Filed Under News, Video


Girls – “Hellhole Ratrace”

Congrats to SF’s Girls, whose debut full length album, er, Album, will be released September 22nd on True Panther Sounds in conjunction with the venerable Matador Records. The band’s debut 7″ was terrific, and their live shows equally compelling, and Matador is whetting my appetite with the description below:

Built on the powerful songwriting of Christopher Owens and the ethereal production of Chet “JR” White, Girls recorded Album in a variety of bedrooms and rehearsal studios in their adopted hometown, San Francisco. The resulting 12 tracks are the perfect San Francisco summer record, evoking a narcotic, sunny afternoon in Dolores Park, yet promising the eventual hangover of summer’s departure. Album is a redemptive song-cycle about the various characters and desires that color Christopher Owens’s life. Described by the band as “honest, loose, ethereal, obnoxious and perfect,” it is a sincere tribute to the majesty of great pop music and the healing power of rock and roll.

Catch Girls this Wednesday at Club Club You’re Dead at The Stud, or at the Rickshaw Stop on July 21st. All of the band’s upcoming US tour dates are over at their MySpace page.

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Musical Pairings: Country Living in the City

June 28, 2009 by Matthew Hickey · Leave a Comment »
Filed Under Columns, Musical Pairings, News

Musical Pairings
I’m frequently reminded of just how lucky I am to live in the Bay Area.  There is an endless supply of excellent restaurants and easy, cheap access to delicious fresh produce at the countless farmer’s markets, grocers, and ethnic shops that fill every neighborhood in the city.  Likewise, our music scene is full of history, diversity and is teeming with talent.  Musical Pairings was conceived as a way to connect food with music, the way a sommelier would pair wine with a meal.  Similarly, the “Local Pairings” portion of eating/SF began as a way to highlight some of eating/SF’s best local discoveries both culinary and musical, and when Christian offered us an opportunity to share these discoveries with the Bay Bridged, we were honored.  So with this in mind, I’ll offer Musical Pairings for two fantastic Bay Area bands whose music brings to mind simple, clean ingredients reminiscent of low-key country living, Bay Area style: Cousin Chris and Birds & Batteries.

Cousin Chris paired with white beans with chard

Cousin Chris (paired w/ white beans with chard)

San Francisco’s Cousin Chris’ stunning debut album, Moon Paper, is simultaneously evocative of Elliott Smith and early Modest Mouse records (or at least a stripped down version of MM’s This Is a Long Drive), both of whom are cited as notable influences for Cousin Chris in addition to bands like Do Make Say Think, Leonard Cohen, and the Black Keys. Similar to the way Elliott Smith recorded many of his albums, Moon Paper is the product of the sole efforts of Chris Schreiber, who sings and plays all instruments on the album.  We originally paired Moon Paper with Farina in the Mission.  However, I think this rustic white beans and chard recipe would be an equally appropriate pairing as both the album and the recipe are rustic, warm and earthy.  And Kasey notes that this recipe “is composed of few ingredients–but the right ingredients” and the same could be easily said of Cousin Chris’ Moon Paper.

Cousin Chris - The River
Cousin Chris – The River

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