San Francisco's own Burnt Ones

PHOTO BY MATTHEW MELTON

That's how King Tuff grew up making music as well, without the predetermined rules of industry. He recalls his dad bringing home a guitar one day when he was in fifth grade, picking it up, and learning to play. "I was never interested in learning covers, and I never took lessons." That improvisational spirit shows in his brief, freaky jams with surf-tinged psychedelic guitar and nasally intonations; it's waves of stringy hair and rattling bones, jittery lyrics like those in "Bad Thing" off his upcoming self-titled release, "when I play my Stratocaster/I feel like an innocent kid/But when I'm looking in the mirror/Remember the bad things I did"

You can hear some of these same freaky-jittery qualities in the heaping mess of acts playing the Boogaloo in SF this week, and for that matter, Burgerama, another like-minded, Burger Records-endorsed fest happening concurrently down south. On top of all the fests, Bohrman and Co. are still producing cassettes ("Cassettes are handy, they're like little business cards, they're durable and cheap to make and buy.") and running a successful little shop.

"It's been a dream come true, but it's still so much work. We just keep piling it on for ourselves," Bohrman sighs. "It's hard building a legacy."

BURGER BOOGALOO

Fri/23-Sun/25, individual shows $7–$12, weekend pass $35

Thee Parkside

1600 17th St., SF

(415) 252-1330

Facebook: Burger Boogaloo 2012