San Francisco Bay Guardian | Arts and Entertainment

8 Days a Week

Oct. 19-26, 2005

ONCE AGAIN MUSIC venues throughout San Francisco will be itching with rhythm from the scratching of the skins and the tickling of the ivories when SFJazz's 23rd annual San Francisco Jazz Festival swings into town. This year's lineup features jazz masters from all over the world, representing five different continents and a countless array of styles. Kicking off the three-week-long festival is a Hurricane Katrina benefit for displaced New Orleans musicians showcasing vocal legend Abbey Lincoln Wed/19 at the Herbst Theatre. Two days later Omar Sosa brings his explosive Cuban rhythms to the Great American Music Hall, ushering in a host of Latino and Brazilian performers. R&B and vocalist fans will swoon at this year's highlight performance when the "Queen of R&B," Etta James, returns to her stomping ground accompanied by the Roots Band Sat/22 at the Masonic Center. Where there is a queen a king will sometimes follow, and John Scofield conjures up the spirit of Ray Charles with his dynamic guitar tribute to the "King of R&B" Oct. 28 at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre. Closing out the festival Nov. 6, Congo's Konono No. 1 challenges the senses and leaves you glued to your eardrums as they produce original sound and acute artistry from their unique voices and homemade percussions. Oct. 19-Nov. 6., various venues, SF. For complete information call (415) 776-1999 or go to www.sfjazz.org. (Forrest Caskey)

Oct. 19, Wednesday

Model citizens The subjects in Katy Grannan's photographic portraiture series "Dream America" could be you, me, or someone we know – an awkward teenager, a mother and child, a young couple – but they're posing (or posed) in a way that seems so intimate and private it's as if Grannan had captured a side to these people that usually remains hidden from public view. Of course, it also helps that many of her models are partially or fully nude, but what Grannan most skillfully reveals is what lies beneath the blatant display of skin. Some of Grannan's models were found through classified ads she placed in suburban newspapers – the respondents had aspirations to be photographed as models, but what one wonders when looking at Grannan's images is if her subjects were aware that their vulnerabilities would be so publicly portrayed. At her San Francisco Art Institute lecture, Grannan sheds light on the process and intentions of her work. 7:30 p.m., San Francisco Art Institute, Lecture Hall, 800 Chestnut, SF. Free. (415) 749-4507, www.sfai.edu. (Sarah Han)

Oct. 20, Thursday

Magnificent seven Another spinning core of noise music whirls onward with tonight's Resipiscent release party. And this time (with free booze!) seven performers/bands – Sixes, Bran(...)Pos, Liz Allbee, Anti-Ear, Midmight, Cactus, and Porest – celebrate the release of their latest Resipiscent recordings. This showcase of various kinds of noise production includes guitar, turntables, balloons rubbing walruses, sampling, vocal squeaks, and rotary-phone solos. For those who don't have a dictionary handy, "resipiscence" is a recovery of one's senses through brutal experience, and it is the inherent purpose of the SF label. 9 p.m., Hotel Utah Saloon, 500 Fourth St., SF. $4. (415) 546-6300. (Sean Patrick Maylone)

Oct. 21, Friday

Burn the system Why is it that every thrash band has to begin a set with some Herculean monster onstage commanding the audience to join the circle pit and beat the shit out of each other? Why can't these bands appreciate their fans and put on a fist-clenching show like San Carlos natives Comadre? There's something to be said about five guys (including two brothers) putting together one of the most earnest albums the hardcore scene has ever heard. Their latest release, Songs About the Man (Coldbringer), brings your heart to a instant halt as the band takes you on a roller coaster ride of spasmodic chants that eventually crescendo in a detonation of thrashing guitars and hammering drums. And their live show is something every hardcore fan should witness: an asylum of energy sandwiched between a refreshingly positivist atmosphere; every syllable vocalist Juan Gabe screams is thick with so much passion it becomes nearly impossible not to fall to your knees, unsheath the claw, and wail your heart out right alongside him. Hostile Takeover, Hit Me Back, Right On, and Cinder also play. 8 p.m., 924 Gilman, 924 Gilman, Berk. $7. (510) 525-9926. (Justin Yu)

Oct. 22, Saturday

Travel writer Folk musician Mare Wakefield knows a thing or two about the lure of the road – she's lived in Texas, Oregon, and Massachusetts and now calls Tennessee home. It's kind of perfect that she recently married a fellow musician named Nomad. This affection for bein' restless informs her latest album, Take Me Home (Maresie Music), which features a title inspired by John Denver (a childhood favorite) and songs about highways, arrivals and departures, and, on the gospel-tinged "Love vs. the USA," the way a stressful road trip can tear right through a seemingly solid relationship. Wakefield's time in Tennessee has clearly influenced the arrangements on Take Me Home, which toss banjo, piano, and nifty fiddling into the mix. Nearing the end of her current West Coast tour, she stops in Berkeley (with Nomad backing her up on bass). Irina Rivkin and Ter-Ra also perform. 8 p.m., Rose Street House of Music, 1839 Rose, Berk. $5-$20 sliding scale. (510) 594-4000, ext. 687, www.marewakefield.com. (Cheryl Eddy)

MAPP of the human art With Open Studios in its third week, you're probably already traipsing around the neighborhoods, from gallery to garage to indeterminate art space. Make sure, however, that you end up in the vicinity of 23rd, 24th, Folsom, and Bryant Streets today for the Mission Arts and Performance Project, which takes the open studios concept and runs with it – into streets, parks, gardens, garages, galleries, and even a few living rooms. A bimonthly celebration of local talent, MAPP is focusing its energies on the theme of resistance this time around, pairing up with the Chasky, an annual event concerning indigenous people's struggles in the Americas. Wandering the streets is a fine strategy, but don't miss the procession starting at Parque de los Niños (6 p.m., Folsom and 23rd) as well as art and performances at Garage de la Folsom (2649 Folsom), Million Fishes Arts Collective (2501 Bryant), the Red Poppy Art House (2698 Folsom), the Blue Cavern (2694 Folsom), and Galería de la Raza (2857 24th St.). Children's activities 3:30-6 p.m., procession 6:30 p.m., art receptions 7-10 p.m., ongoing performances 9 p.m.-midnight, 23rd, 24th, Folsom, and Bryant Sts., SF. (415) 826-2402, www.tysonarts.com (click on MAPP). (Lynn Rapoport)

Bundles of joy As the lady doth expand in her third trimester, she may find it quite expensive to keep herself in stylin' outfits. That's where Bobbi Williams, a graduate of the Women's Initiative for Self-Employment, and her business partner, Pilar Schiabo, step in to fill the Bay Area's maternity resale need with their less-than-a-year-old company, Maternity Xchange. The women acquire clothing – much of it, in this single-kid society, worn a scant few months – and hold traveling sales around the area that also feature new fashions by up-and-coming designers. Today they partner with Sports Basement to host the free, daylong Pre and Post Natal Health and Wellness Expo. In addition to browsing Maternity Xchange's clothing, new and expecting parents can meet with midwives, massage therapists, fitness instructors, and childbirth and child-care experts. Workshops include baby sign language, cooking for your baby, and childproofing your home. 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Sports Basement Presidio, 610 Mason, SF. Free. (415) 867-0921, www.maternityxchange.com. (Laurie Koh)

Oct. 23, Sunday

Somnaballistics If you could make a train jump a supertanker, then you could create an equivalently amazing impression of Sleeping People's songs. The San Diego ensemble, featuring Kenseth Thibideau (of Pinback, Howard Hello, and Rumah Sakit), brings badical changes and rhythm to raucous math rock. Sleeping People's playful melodies are reminiscent of those of Rumah Sakit but are also influenced by bands like Battles and Meshuggah. The complexity of the compositions isn't flashy, like Slash-shredding-in-the-desert musicianship, but more like the flash bombs going off at your SWAT team-themed birthday party. OK (featuring exmembers of Dilute) headline. 9:30 p.m., Hemlock, 1131 Polk, SF. $6. (415) 923-0923. (Maylone)

Totally thrashed Thousand Oaks, Calif., is a wholesome city: the proud home of the historic Crowley House, a gorgeous 18-hole public golf course, and three-piece thrash group Rhino Charge. As their name implies, Rhino Charge are a juggernaut of invasive noise. Each member hails from a different corner of the aggressive music scene, a fact that transforms their sound into a genre-bending flurry of power-violence, black metal, and grindcore. Originally a two-piece instrumental act, guitarist Matt Dunaj and drummer Ryan Charge recently asked vocalist Björn Hooper to lend his throaty blasts to the tussle. Their self-titled 7", to be released on Live a Lie records next month, will be a ten-minute collection of microsongs that reveal the band's unique stylistic derivations. Godstomper, Progeria, Kalmex and the Riffmerchants, Noisecop, Mutual Abuse, and Speculum round out the show. 3 p.m., Balazo18, 2183 Mission, SF. $5. (415) 244-7227. (Yu)

Oct. 24, Monday

Hickory wind If you're tiring of rock bands long on hype and short on chops, a no-nonsense performance by the Sadies is the best kind of medicine. Led by the swirling harmonies and hot-shit licks of brothers Dallas and Travis Good, this Canadian foursome play spaghetti-western rave-ups, sad country laments, and sparkling Byrds-style dreamers with professionalism (don't expect much more than a "thank you" between songs) and great taste. There's a reason these modest men have been tapped by Neko Case as a backing band, and it's not just their Gram Parsons-style jackets, though one can't help thinking that the alt-country bard would love to lay down some tracks with the Sadies. Jon Spencer's rockabilly project Heavy Trash and the Husbands also perform. 9 p.m., Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF. $10. (Max Goldberg)

Oct. 25, Tuesday

See you in hell He inspired many a sweaty nightmare with his horror-flick villains Candyman ("We dare you to say his name five times!") and Pinhead ("Demon to some. Angel to others") and took us to other worlds with fantasy-fiction books like Imajica. Today, horror and sci-fi author Clive Barker steps into the Booksmith to discuss and sign his book of pictures, paintings, and drawings, Visions of Heaven and Hell. Featuring more than 300 works by Barker, Visions delves into the mysteries, mythologies, and fantasies of internal and external good and evil. Although the book may appeal most to those who commonly incorporate the word talisman into their vocabulary, Visions gives all a peek into the genuinely creative and dynamic mind of Barker. 7 p.m., Booksmith, 1644 Haight, SF. Free. (415) 863-8688. (Han)

Oct. 26, Wednesday

Extrasensory perception There's nothing flashy about local jazz quartet Telepathy, but there's plenty of substance to their music. Led by tenor and soprano saxophonist Patrick Cress, the group specializes in smart, melodic jazz that's not really avant-garde but certainly not regurgitated hard-bop or post-bop either. The lineup is rounded out by bass clarinetist Aaron Novik (a busy bandleader in his own right), upright bassist David Arend, and drummer Tim "not Buckley" Bulkley. They've released three albums on a local artist-run co-op label, each one better than the last; the most recent one is called meditation, realization (Odd Shaped Case), and it is as good as the work of similar, more ballyhooed units like the Vandermark 5 or any number of downtown New York groups. 9 p.m., Hotel Utah Saloon, 500 Fourth St., SF. $6. (415) 546-6300. (Will York)

The Bay Guardian listings deadline is two weeks prior to our Wednesday publication date. To submit an item for consideration, please include the title of the event, a brief description of the event, date and time, venue name, street address (listing cross streets only isn't sufficient), city, telephone number readers can call for more information, telephone number for media, and admission costs. Send information to Listings, the Bay Guardian Building, 135 Mississippi St., SF, CA 94107; fax to (415) 487-2506; or e-mail (paste press release into e-mail body – no text attachments, please) to listings@sfbg.com. We cannot guarantee the return of photos, but enclosing an SASE helps. Digital photos may be submitted in jpeg format; the image must be at least 240 dpi and four inches by six inches in size. We regret we cannot accept listings over the phone.

8 Days a Week Oct. 19-26, 2005 ONCE AGAIN MUSIC venues throughout San Francisco will be itching with rhythm from the scratching of the skins and the tickling of the ivories when SFJazz's 23rd annual San Francisco Jazz Festival swings into town. This year's lineup features jazz masters from all over the world, representing five different continents and a countless array of styles. Kicking off the three-week-long festival is a Hurricane Katrina benefit for displaced New Orleans musicians showcasing vocal legend Abbey Lincoln Wed/19 at the Herbst Theatre. Two days later Omar Sosa brings his explosive Cuban rhythms to the Great American Music Hall, ushering in a host of Latino and Brazilian performers. R&B and vocalist fans will swoon at this year's highlight performance when the "Queen of R&B," Etta James, returns to her stomping ground accompanied by the Roots Band Sat/22 at the Masonic Center. Where there is a queen a king will sometimes follow, and John Scofield conjures up the spirit of Ray Charles with his dynamic guitar tribute to the "King of R&B" Oct. 28 at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre. Closing out the festival Nov. 6, Congo's Konono No. 1 challenges the senses and leaves you glued to your eardrums as they produce original sound and acute artistry from their unique voices and homemade percussions. Oct. 19-Nov. 6., various venues, SF. For complete information call (415) 776-1999 or go to www.sfjazz.org. (Forrest Caskey) Oct. 19, Wednesday Model citizens The subjects in Katy Grannan's photographic portraiture series "Dream America" could be you, me, or someone we know – an awkward teenager, a mother and child, a young couple – but they're posing (or posed) in a way that seems so intimate and private it's as if Grannan had captured a side to these people that usually remains hidden from public view. Of course, it also helps that many of her models are partially or fully nude, but what Grannan most skillfully reveals is what lies beneath the blatant display of skin. Some of Grannan's models were found through classified ads she placed in suburban newspapers – the respondents had aspirations to be photographed as models, but what one wonders when looking at Grannan's images is if her subjects were aware that their vulnerabilities would be so publicly portrayed. At her San Francisco Art Institute lecture, Grannan sheds light on the process and intentions of her work. 7:30 p.m., San Francisco Art Institute, Lecture Hall, 800 Chestnut, SF. Free. (415) 749-4507, www.sfai.edu. (Sarah Han) Oct. 20, Thursday Magnificent seven Another spinning core of noise music whirls onward with tonight's Resipiscent release party. And this time (with free booze!) seven performers/bands – Sixes, Bran(...)Pos, Liz Allbee, Anti-Ear, Midmight, Cactus, and Porest – celebrate the release of their latest Resipiscent recordings. This showcase of various kinds of noise production includes guitar, turntables, balloons rubbing walruses, sampling, vocal squeaks, and rotary-phone solos. For those who don't have a dictionary handy, "resipiscence" is a recovery of one's senses through brutal experience, and it is the inherent purpose of the SF label. 9 p.m., Hotel Utah Saloon, 500 Fourth St., SF. $4. (415) 546-6300. (Sean Patrick Maylone) Oct. 21, Friday Burn the system Why is it that every thrash band has to begin a set with some Herculean monster onstage commanding the audience to join the circle pit and beat the shit out of each other? Why can't these bands appreciate their fans and put on a fist-clenching show like San Carlos natives Comadre? There's something to be said about five guys (including two brothers) putting together one of the most earnest albums the hardcore scene has ever heard. Their latest release, Songs About the Man (Coldbringer), brings your heart to a instant halt as the band takes you on a roller coaster ride of spasmodic chants that eventually crescendo in a detonation of thrashing guitars and hammering drums. And their live show is something every hardcore fan should witness: an asylum of energy sandwiched between a refreshingly positivist atmosphere; every syllable vocalist Juan Gabe screams is thick with so much passion it becomes nearly impossible not to fall to your knees, unsheath the claw, and wail your heart out right alongside him. Hostile Takeover, Hit Me Back, Right On, and Cinder also play. 8 p.m., 924 Gilman, 924 Gilman, Berk. $7. (510) 525-9926. (Justin Yu) Oct. 22, Saturday Travel writer Folk musician Mare Wakefield knows a thing or two about the lure of the road – she's lived in Texas, Oregon, and Massachusetts and now calls Tennessee home. It's kind of perfect that she recently married a fellow musician named Nomad. This affection for bein' restless informs her latest album, Take Me Home (Maresie Music), which features a title inspired by John Denver (a childhood favorite) and songs about highways, arrivals and departures, and, on the gospel-tinged "Love vs. the USA," the way a stressful road trip can tear right through a seemingly solid relationship. Wakefield's time in Tennessee has clearly influenced the arrangements on Take Me Home, which toss banjo, piano, and nifty fiddling into the mix. Nearing the end of her current West Coast tour, she stops in Berkeley (with Nomad backing her up on bass). Irina Rivkin and Ter-Ra also perform. 8 p.m., Rose Street House of Music, 1839 Rose, Berk. $5-$20 sliding scale. (510) 594-4000, ext. 687, www.marewakefield.com. (Cheryl Eddy) MAPP of the human art With Open Studios in its third week, you're probably already traipsing around the neighborhoods, from gallery to garage to indeterminate art space. Make sure, however, that you end up in the vicinity of 23rd, 24th, Folsom, and Bryant Streets today for the Mission Arts and Performance Project, which takes the open studios concept and runs with it – into streets, parks, gardens, garages, galleries, and even a few living rooms. A bimonthly celebration of local talent, MAPP is focusing its energies on the theme of resistance this time around, pairing up with the Chasky, an annual event concerning indigenous people's struggles in the Americas. Wandering the streets is a fine strategy, but don't miss the procession starting at Parque de los Niños (6 p.m., Folsom and 23rd) as well as art and performances at Garage de la Folsom (2649 Folsom), Million Fishes Arts Collective (2501 Bryant), the Red Poppy Art House (2698 Folsom), the Blue Cavern (2694 Folsom), and Galería de la Raza (2857 24th St.). Children's activities 3:30-6 p.m., procession 6:30 p.m., art receptions 7-10 p.m., ongoing performances 9 p.m.-midnight, 23rd, 24th, Folsom, and Bryant Sts., SF. (415) 826-2402, www.tysonarts.com (click on MAPP). (Lynn Rapoport) Bundles of joy As the lady doth expand in her third trimester, she may find it quite expensive to keep herself in stylin' outfits. That's where Bobbi Williams, a graduate of the Women's Initiative for Self-Employment, and her business partner, Pilar Schiabo, step in to fill the Bay Area's maternity resale need with their less-than-a-year-old company, Maternity Xchange. The women acquire clothing – much of it, in this single-kid society, worn a scant few months – and hold traveling sales around the area that also feature new fashions by up-and-coming designers. Today they partner with Sports Basement to host the free, daylong Pre and Post Natal Health and Wellness Expo. In addition to browsing Maternity Xchange's clothing, new and expecting parents can meet with midwives, massage therapists, fitness instructors, and childbirth and child-care experts. Workshops include baby sign language, cooking for your baby, and childproofing your home. 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Sports Basement Presidio, 610 Mason, SF. Free. (415) 867-0921, www.maternityxchange.com. (Laurie Koh) Oct. 23, Sunday Somnaballistics If you could make a train jump a supertanker, then you could create an equivalently amazing impression of Sleeping People's songs. The San Diego ensemble, featuring Kenseth Thibideau (of Pinback, Howard Hello, and Rumah Sakit), brings badical changes and rhythm to raucous math rock. Sleeping People's playful melodies are reminiscent of those of Rumah Sakit but are also influenced by bands like Battles and Meshuggah. The complexity of the compositions isn't flashy, like Slash-shredding-in-the-desert musicianship, but more like the flash bombs going off at your SWAT team-themed birthday party. OK (featuring exmembers of Dilute) headline. 9:30 p.m., Hemlock, 1131 Polk, SF. $6. (415) 923-0923. (Maylone) Totally thrashed Thousand Oaks, Calif., is a wholesome city: the proud home of the historic Crowley House, a gorgeous 18-hole public golf course, and three-piece thrash group Rhino Charge. As their name implies, Rhino Charge are a juggernaut of invasive noise. Each member hails from a different corner of the aggressive music scene, a fact that transforms their sound into a genre-bending flurry of power-violence, black metal, and grindcore. Originally a two-piece instrumental act, guitarist Matt Dunaj and drummer Ryan Charge recently asked vocalist Björn Hooper to lend his throaty blasts to the tussle. Their self-titled 7", to be released on Live a Lie records next month, will be a ten-minute collection of microsongs that reveal the band's unique stylistic derivations. Godstomper, Progeria, Kalmex and the Riffmerchants, Noisecop, Mutual Abuse, and Speculum round out the show. 3 p.m., Balazo18, 2183 Mission, SF. $5. (415) 244-7227. (Yu) Oct. 24, Monday Hickory wind If you're tiring of rock bands long on hype and short on chops, a no-nonsense performance by the Sadies is the best kind of medicine. Led by the swirling harmonies and hot-shit licks of brothers Dallas and Travis Good, this Canadian foursome play spaghetti-western rave-ups, sad country laments, and sparkling Byrds-style dreamers with professionalism (don't expect much more than a "thank you" between songs) and great taste. There's a reason these modest men have been tapped by Neko Case as a backing band, and it's not just their Gram Parsons-style jackets, though one can't help thinking that the alt-country bard would love to lay down some tracks with the Sadies. Jon Spencer's rockabilly project Heavy Trash and the Husbands also perform. 9 p.m., Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF. $10. (Max Goldberg) Oct. 25, Tuesday See you in hell He inspired many a sweaty nightmare with his horror-flick villains Candyman ("We dare you to say his name five times!") and Pinhead ("Demon to some. Angel to others") and took us to other worlds with fantasy-fiction books like Imajica. Today, horror and sci-fi author Clive Barker steps into the Booksmith to discuss and sign his book of pictures, paintings, and drawings, Visions of Heaven and Hell. Featuring more than 300 works by Barker, Visions delves into the mysteries, mythologies, and fantasies of internal and external good and evil. Although the book may appeal most to those who commonly incorporate the word talisman into their vocabulary, Visions gives all a peek into the genuinely creative and dynamic mind of Barker. 7 p.m., Booksmith, 1644 Haight, SF. Free. (415) 863-8688. (Han) Oct. 26, Wednesday Extrasensory perception There's nothing flashy about local jazz quartet Telepathy, but there's plenty of substance to their music. Led by tenor and soprano saxophonist Patrick Cress, the group specializes in smart, melodic jazz that's not really avant-garde but certainly not regurgitated hard-bop or post-bop either. The lineup is rounded out by bass clarinetist Aaron Novik (a busy bandleader in his own right), upright bassist David Arend, and drummer Tim "not Buckley" Bulkley. They've released three albums on a local artist-run co-op label, each one better than the last; the most recent one is called meditation, realization (Odd Shaped Case), and it is as good as the work of similar, more ballyhooed units like the Vandermark 5 or any number of downtown New York groups. 9 p.m., Hotel Utah Saloon, 500 Fourth St., SF. $6. (415) 546-6300. (Will York) The Bay Guardian listings deadline is two weeks prior to our Wednesday publication date. To submit an item for consideration, please include the title of the event, a brief description of the event, date and time, venue name, street address (listing cross streets only isn't sufficient), city, telephone number readers can call for more information, telephone number for media, and admission costs. Send information to Listings, the Bay Guardian Building, 135 Mississippi St., SF, CA 94107; fax to (415) 487-2506; or e-mail (paste press release into e-mail body – no text attachments, please) to listings@sfbg.com. We cannot guarantee the return of photos, but enclosing an SASE helps. Digital photos may be submitted in jpeg format; the image must be at least 240 dpi and four inches by six inches in size. We regret we cannot accept listings over the phone.