By Molly Freedenberg

Did you miss your chance to see Richard Cheese at the Red Devil Lounge on May 27? Even though he added a late night show just for you? You poor sucker.

You missed the best Dick Cheese live performance I’ve seen yet. Yes, he played Vegas versions of “Me So Horny” and “Brass Monkey” and even the theme to the Spiderman cartoon from the ‘80s. Yes, as usual, he cruised through the crowd spouting loungey, slightly-offensive compliments to members of the audience (even once getting stuck mid-room when a song ended, and asking his band to redo the last few measures so he could sing his way back to the stage). And yes, he changed smoking jackets several times, ending up in his martini-glass version. But there was something else to this performance. A subtle excitement. Maybe he was drunk from the early show? Or just slap-happy? Or maybe there’s something about a San Francisco crowd that really is special for him. Whatever it was, we all seemed to be riding the same wave – somewhere between awe at how good the band actually is and awe at how fucking hilarious it is to do something so silly so well.

So why am I telling you all this? Just to rub in that there’s nothing you could’ve done that Sunday night that would’ve been better than this?

No. (Although that’s fun too.) I’m telling you because Dick is coming back. On August 28, he’s returning to San Francisco as part of the farewell-tour-that-will-never-end. So here’s your chance. You can still see Dick Cheese live. But tickets always sell out. And they go on any minute (supposedly today at 10am). So get your shit together and go buy some .

You're welcome.

By Sean Manning

Bono once alleged that Radiohead could be changing the way kids listened to music if only they weren’t so darned esoteric (obviously an extremely relative concept…) and if they just made themselves a little more appealing to the masses: No more death bears and no more blip-bloop-bleep solo albums.

Well, Radiohead’s probably not going to change on Bono’s account. But it’s no wonder why the man flipped his shit so thoroughly over Montreal’s Arcade Fire. The band is the super earnest battering ram to indie culture’s ill-advised irony obsession and penchant for witlessly appropriated kitsch. And as their pair of shows at UC Berkeley’s Greek Theatre this weekend showed, the kids are listening.

No longer trembling newcomers, the band took the stage confidently, playing through their two albums’ worth of material the way David Byrne cherry-picks the best of the Talking Heads’ output for his solo shows. Of course, that kind of assured showmanship is probably a lot easier when the crowd is screaming—screaming—your words back to you, but you can’t exactly fault them for that. Material from this year’s Neon Bible fared well; it constituted much of the group’s main set—but it was the one-two of “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)” and “Rebellion (Lies)” from 2004’s Funeral that was the evening’s long, glorious money shot.

The Arcade Fire is a cool band, to be sure. But they’re the kind of cool band whose show you can take your little brother to—or your mom, for that matter—and that fact doesn’t make them any less cool. At the same time, there’s a sense that this band is saying something, too. It doesn’t take a theologist to see that Neon Bible has some serious underlying commentary on the way religion is culturally appropriated, though the band may not be as blatant about it as Bono would like. But the message is there, and people are listening. And that’s what’s important.

Plans have been afoot for a splashy headliner for the forthcoming KUSF benefit and now it's so, so out: Yo La Tengo will be doing the do, to raise proceeds for the beloved SF college radio station.

The show will happen at Bimbo's 365 Club on Aug. 3. Expect this "very intimate show" to sell out so get tickets starting today at the KUSF site. That's the only place you can score 'em, and they're $25.

By Michael Harkin

ACLU lawyers take note: freedom made its biannual comeback to Yolo County this past Saturday, June 2. It was KDVS’s fifth edition of “Operation: Restore Maximum Freedom,” hosting 16 musical artists in the backyard of Plainfield Station, a biker bar out near Davis.

Peel out, Bananas. All photos by Michael Harkin.

Despite the weird mix that panned all the vocals to the PA on the right, Sacramento garage-rock veterans the Bananas got even the most copiously sunscreened attendees out of the midday shade of the picnic table area, especially with the closing “Nautical Theme,” the kind of oceanographic, whistle-punctuated nugget that lends credence to their respected stature among the denim-clad garage dedicates.

All clear: Battleship.

Due to a slightly late arrival, Battleship had a somewhat truncated set, but the Oakland band showed they could shout “hit and sunk” without the dark ambiance of a nightclub: their boss brutality was as much of a beat-down as the Central Valley heat that day. Long may they float!

Your car is waiting: Valet.

Valet made the trip down from Portland, Ore., producing a droney mood with her vocals and heavily delayed guitar that called to mind kraut-minded shoegaze, especially Pygmalion-era Slowdive, and the drowsy, bleary feeling of opening your eyes after an afternoon nap -- as the Damned would say, “Neat neat neat."

Davis’s the Standard Tribesmen, including two dudes from the Sores, played jittery mutant surf-punk and exemplified the age-old American tradition of multitasking: the vocalist employed all available limbs, playing guitar while tapping out rhythm on a bass drum and hi-hat.

Psyched about Righteous Movement.

Hip-hop group Righteous Movement likewise represented the local region with their life-affirming verse and exemplary backing band. The instrumental breaks were as tight as what they spun in their collective rhymes.

There are bubbles - and spots - in my Lemonade.

Lemonade finished off the night: it took a few minutes for the crowd to get its collective head around their echo-fied groove, but as the set went on the spacey noodling and yelping gave way to infectious, danceable beats that got a strong response.

Despite not boasting names as big as some KDVS have hosted before (Erase Errata, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Growing), the festival was stellar, and the entire 10 hours ran beautifully. The sun was out, the sound was mostly well-engineered, and a 10-minute wait or a quick 180-degree turn to the other stage was all that separated you from the next performance.

The “Operation” will be returning sometime this fall, likely September or October. For more on what’s up in and around Davis, check out KDVS and their accompanying record label, KDVS Recordings.

In the mood for indie? NYC three-part-harmonizers White Rabbits carry on without their tourmates Mystery Jets - who canceled their mini tour with WR at the last minute - tonight, June 11, at Cafe du Nord.

The exuberant six-piece White Rabbits promise to bring the joy with horns, handclaps, and well, if not cute pups then energy galore.

Big news down at Henry Miller Library: Pegi Young, spouse of rock legend Neil, gets out from her hubby's enormous shadow and performs with her band (which includes pedal steel player Ben Keith, who has worked with Neil, the Band, Waylon Jennings, and many others) at the lovely Big Sur spot Friday, June 22, at 7:30 p.m.


Pegi and Neil Young. Courtesy of www.sfsu.edu.

A co-founder of the Bridge School and a force behind the annual Bridge benefit, Pegi has toured as a backing vocalist for Neil on many a tour, including the memorable "Greendale" outing. This time she'll be focusing on her own music, which comes out tomorrow, June 12, on a self-titled Warner Bros. debut. SF songwriting savant Kelley Stoltz and folk warbler Marisa Nadler support the lady during her first public concert of songs from the CD, presented by Folk Yeah! Gates open at 7 p.m.; $37 tickets are available in advance only here. Carpooling is recommended.

Check it before ya wreck it, duderinos. Hamburger Eyes photo journal, issue 011, is here, and, lo, it's all about sweet, sweet music.

Shooters include the inimitable Ted Pushinshy (j'adore the recent show), Estevan Oriol, Shem Roose, Charles Peterson, Peter Frey, Bill Daniel, Peter Dean Rickards, Stefan Simikich, Michael Jang, Mark Murrmann, Ryan Furtado, David Potes, Uri Korn, Sandy Carson, Janette Beckman, Bill Burke, Boogie, Alissa Anderson, Jason Roberts Dobrin, Amanda Lopez, Ray Potes, Aaron Reagan, Brian David Stevens, Ed Templeton, Heather Renee Russ, David Uzzardi, John Eckhoff, Matt Weber, Jim Jocoy, Keith Sirchio, Angela Boatwright, Ricky Powell, Rick Valenzuela, Oskie Mendoza, Jason Fisher, Alexander Martinez, Patrick Griffin, Jesse Pollock, Jon McGrath, Andrew McClintock, and Paul Schiek. All still kicking it old school on real-deal film, I'm sure.

And of course, there's a party Thursday, June 14 - pick up copies of the mag and check the all-music photo exhibit at Hamburger Eyes Photo Epicenter, 26 Liliac St., at 24th and Mission, SF. 6-9 p.m. Then hobble over to the HE-approved afterparty, Coldblood, at the Attic, with DJs Bobby London and Mike Slice. Cya there!

In the mood for synthesizer-driven, blister-forming cacophony, honey? Then check a pair of ace twosomes tonight at the Hemlock Tavern: The Bay's electri-noise sprats Casy and Brian contort 'n' distort like the finest of 'em. You'll get grimy kid stuff on your Havaianas - and you'll dig it.

Casy and Brian tap some serious monkey magik. Make it stop.

Headliner Big Digits make their way all the way from Cambridge, Mass., to rattle those steely ear drums. They wanna make you sweat. So bring a change of clothes.

Wrap those Big Digits around my 'roids, puleeze.

And Chief Death Rage opens up for 'em all - and apparently the Economist is quite taken with 'em. Embrace the death urge! It all goes down tonight, June 15, 9:30 p.m., $6. Hemlock Tavern, 1131 Polk, SF. M'out.

By G.W. Schulz

It was incredibly disheartening to learn today that one the nation’s best known indie-culture and rock zines, Punk Planet, had published its final edition after 13 years and 80 issues. Longtime editor Dan Sinker has announced that it will cease to exist in hardcopy form after the current issue.

No small number of punk journos and thinkers owe a massive debt of gratitude to PP for offering young writers a chance to explore the craft and young readers a chance to see how the “news” is much more than what appears in daily headlines.

Former Guardian staffers A.C. Thompson and Annalee Newitz have written some of the magazine’s most memorable pieces. I certainly wouldn’t be at the Guardian today – or in any media job at all, for that matter – if it weren’t for how much I gleaned from Punk Planet about what could be accomplished through alternative, long-form and literary journalism.

This just in from Dinosaur Jr. label home Fat Possom: Dinosaur Jr's J Mascis - a real-life guitar hero who is going frickin' blind for his loud, loud art - takes on comedian and vid game playah David Cross on AOL/the DL's Guitar Hero II Challenge.

Who takes home the riffage troph? Ax me later.