Flavors of the month

By Vivian Host

I KNOW THIS is supposed to be the club column, but I feel obligated to hype you on a few things. Why should New York hipsters have all the fun of knowing about everything first?

First off, Dizzee Rascal. I'm going to tell you about his record, Boy in Da Corner (XL), now, because by Christmas, Vice Records will have snapped it up, and then you'll have that weird "Do I like it or hate it because Vice is hyping it?" mental dilemma going on instead of just listening to the music, which is rad. Dizzee is basically the mouthpiece for an entire, pretty U.K.-specific genre of 2-step/U.K. garage tentatively known as garage rap.

It tastes a lot better than it sounds. It basically combines really minimal beats (sort of Miami bass booty-shake meets Atari video-game bleeps) with rapping by insane 19-year-olds with blingy names. It's like Cash Money Millionaires mixing it up with Donkey Kong-like London thugs in the blender of a rave. If the Streets is a brick of hash, then Dizzee Rascal is a speedball – all cracking vocals, clanging emotions, and bass that makes your brain jump around in your head like a fucking Ping-Pong ball. The best thing is that it actually sounds like teenage boys: it's raw, it's in your face, and it thinks it's the shit. When Luke Vibert (Wagon Christ) DJed at the Squarepusher show a few weeks back, he played Dizzee's "I Luv You," and the crowd hit the rafters. Weirdly, although Boy in Da Corner is a roughneck, and at times emotionally difficult, record, Dizzee is the only artist I know who can command hype from a group as diverse as local music critic-aesthete Philip Sherburne, Compression promoter and D&B DJ Havoc, Future Primitive's Mark Herlihy, and Zion I producer Amp Live. Word.

The other thing is the scene developing around Naan 'N' Curry, that cheap but highly delicious Indian restaurant chain. No less than five people I've met who've eaten there within the last six months have been turned on by the audio accompanying their dal and tandoori. The chefs there play underground U.K.-produced bhangra hits that give that recent Punjabi MC-Jay-Z collabo a serious run for its money. The South Asian underground is pretty strong in the U.K., where racism against Pakistani and Indian musicians drives an insular underground scene that combines Bollywood film songs and modern South Asian pop vocals with beats ranging from 2-step to jiggy hip-hop to breaks. Talvin Singh sounds like a real pussy in comparison. You can check this stuff out on the Panjabi Hit Squad and Rhythm Dhol Bass Web sites (www.panjabihitsquad.com and www.rdbdjs.com), and at www.realbhangra.com, but maybe someone should just hire the counter guy at Naan 'N' Curry to come play his tapes on a boom box somewhere.

And now a confession: I am the one person in town who doesn't get multiple orgasms from listening to Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love." In fact, it's sort of starting to bug me that it doesn't matter what club you go in on a weekend night – from Sound Factory to the Arrow – they will all be playing Beyoncé. And Timberlake. Sometimes I wonder if, when the '90s come back into fashion, people will get snobby about music again. In the meantime, I'm off to my bedroom to listen to my boyfriend's limited-edition Bis 7-inches and get all curmudgeonly with it.

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In other news, lady DJ about town Miss Leema is back off to Germany for an indeterminate time. We wish her the best of luck and hope to see her funk-hip-hop-electro-rockin' ass back here soon. In the meantime, support her club night, Crucial, at Nickie's. In Leema's absence, DJs B-Love and Tomas will be more than picking up the slack with roots reggae and dancehall flavors. If you ask nicely, Tomas will even show you how to play dominoes, including my favorite part, where you win, slap the table, spill everyone's Red Stripes, and yell, "Domino, motherfucker!" Also curing my boredom: upstart DJs Adrian and Mysterious D are throwing a new monthly, Bootie, which promises to be the first club to play mash-up bootlegs in San Francisco.

Crucial. Wednesdays, 9 p.m.-2 a.m., Nickie's BBQ, 460 Haight, S.F. $5, free before 10 p.m. (415) 621-6508.

Bootie. Second Wednesdays, 9 p.m.-2 a.m., Cherry Bar and Lounge, 917 Folsom, S.F. $5. (415) 974-1585.

E-mail Vivian Host