By Marke B.

The shoe

In this week's Super Ego clubs column, I talk to pop-trance juggernaut Tiësto -- certainly the most branded, if not the most bombastic, "big name" DJ out there. (Funny, though, whenever I told people I was talking to the "Biggest DJ in the World" they all thought I meant Paul Oakenfold.)

Hawking the shoe

I'm not against people making a living as a DJ -- or even getting rich off it. Or even being signed to Ultra Records. But there's a point at which you become a cliche, actually working against the advancement of electronic music, even when you're at the point of including the most disparate listeners into your polished genre's fold. That's why I pricked up my ears when Tiësto so easily shrugged off any attempt to still categorize himself as "underground" and began rebranding himself as a pop artist, a producer, and then finally "just Tiësto" during our brief conversation.

In any case, he's still a bit of a hoot. After the jump, some of my favorite Tiësto moments. He'll be at the Cow Palace this Saturday.

Continue reading "A treasury of Tiësto moments" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 03:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

Fight the power, Anna Conda!

Farewell, sweet punk 'n drag apocalypse! Just in time for 2012, beloved five-year-old Friday weekly queer meltdown Charlie Horse at the Cinch has released its gin-soaked core neutrinos and called it quits. Charlie Horse hostess, deconstructed Courtney Love, and Guardian cover girl Anna Conda blames the influx of yuppie condo-dwellers and an increasingly anti-gay agenda overtaking the once queerific Polk district for the club's demise. Apparently, noise complaints forced the Cinch to come before the Entertainment Commission and be threatened with fines or closure if the Polk bar didn't tone it down. The Cinch asked Anna to take a break, but she decided it was time to move on from the hostile climate.

It's a truly tragic state of affairs -- one which points up even more the continuing War on Fun that the city seems to be raging against its own origins and spirit. No real problem with drunk bachelorettes in ridiculous heels and Ed Hardy-drenched dudes squealing and puking up and down the street, but some drag queens getting incredibly creative inside a gay bar? WELL, GASP!

Charlie Horse has been a bright spot in the City's increasingly dreary weekend club scene for half a decade, one that made of family of disparate non-wealthy queers who gagged on Gaga and wanted people to know there were amazing blackout options that didn't involve cologne and gay cockatoo hair. It will be sorely, Horsely missed. Anna Conda's tearful letter of farewell -- and rousing vow to carry on -- after the jump. (And catch her Herr-A-Chick nights every first and third Wednesday of the month at the Eagle!)

Continue reading "Charlie Horse axed for queer noise" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

By Kimberly Chun

This in from the Juan MacLean's people and the Mezzanine: the band's drummer Jerry Fuchs sadly passed away Nov. 8 (The live band will obviously not be performing as scheduled on Nov. 20 at Mezzanine, but Juan will be out for a tribute DJ set to benefit Jerry’s family – all proceeds will be donated to them.):

"Gerhardt “Jerry” Fuchs, beloved and respected drummer for The Juan MacLean, Holy Ghost!, Maserati, !!!, and Turing Machine, amongst others, passed away in the early hours on Sunday, November 8th due to an unfortunate elevator accident that occurred in a Brooklyn loft building. He was pronounced dead at Bellevue Medical Center , a few hours later.

"Jerry was born on December 30, 1974 in Marietta , Georgia . After attending the University of Georgia for graphic design, he left for New York in 1995 to join the band Vineland . His achievements were numerous as he became a New York fixture in the music scene, providing incredibly complex and energetic drumbeats that elicited wide praise and excitement from fellow musicians, critics and friends. On the rare occasion that he was not touring, Jerry did graphic design work for publications such as Chunklet and Entertainment Weekly. Throughout all of his endeavors and successes, Jerry remained one of the most humble and down-to-earth artists anyone could meet. His smile, and loving energy will be missed dearly, as will his talent and contributions to the music scene.

Continue reading "Juan MacLean's drummer Jerry Fuchs, RIP; band to do DJ benefit set at Mezzanine" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 01:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B

Bring Black Back to the Castro !! from STOP AIDS Project on Vimeo.

Does the title of this post shock you? It shocks me and I wrote it! That's because, if you've visited our faery-tailed gay wonderland of late (like, the past 30 years), you may have noticed a somewhat shocking lack of color on the streets and in the bars. Well, StopAIDS has been aiming to remedy that with OUR LOVE, a pretty rad outreach program to black gay men, which celebrates its 10th anniversary with, what else, a party this Sunday afternoon at the Cafe called Church -- drinking, dining, dancing, and general carrying on are on the menu.

OUR LOVE has been bridging the gay color gap with a number of cool things, including a roaming Blackout party, the last installment of which (viewed above) took place at the new Toad Hall -- an interesting choice, if anyone remembers the history of controversy between owner Les Natali and some members of the black gay community. Also: an upcoming "Black Men of the Castro" 2010 calendar, and a soon-to-be-launched social networking site for gay African American men, tentatively called Welcome to My Neighborhood. There's also a "procott" planned (as opposed to a boycott), which will bring masses of African American gay men to visit business in the Castro. Plus: A mess o' more.

Continue reading "Black men invade the Castro" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 05:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Kimberly Chun

Oh, yes, SF -- you like it hot. And you got the sounds to send off the Indian Summer in a proper freaky styley. Here are the worthies that didn’t fit in print.

Alan Braxe
The French dance pop maestro, a.k.a., Stardust, gets out from behind the remix. With One Man Party and Bad Neighbors. Sat/17, 9 p.m. doors, $12-$15. Mezzanine, 444 Jessie, SF. (415) 820-9669.

Chairlift
Electropop loveliness from Brooklyn, exploding exponentially since its last liftoff in SF, thanks to an iPod commercial. With Magic Bullets and El Ten Eleven. Thurs/17, 9 p.m., $15. Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF. (415) 621-4455.

Continue reading "Sonic Reducer Overage: David Cross, Little Boots, Titus Andronicus, and more" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 06:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Michael Krimper

DAM FUNK

Toeachizown

(Stones Throw)

Los Angeles ambassador of boogie grooves Dam Funk taps into the warmth of the sun with this five-volume effort.

Dam Funk, "Toeachizown" promo

Dam Funk performs this Friday with the Donuts crew. Marke B. says:

"Laidback techno-boogie and electro-funk from the shades-bedecked master of jambox rock. West Coaster Dam of L.A.'s luscious Funkmosphere parties will be showing off rare vinyl cuts from his personal collection as well as some of his own, much lauded tracks."

Fri/11, $10. Poleng Lounge, 1751 Fulton, SF. www.polenglounge.com

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 01:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

Oh DJ Mykill, let's just jam

There are a lot of very intriguing parties going on this weekend, featuring a lot of disco and everything else from soulful house to funky old-school techno. But if you're just in the mood to get wasted with some hip-dressed like minds to some impeccably mixed "straight-up party jams" on a Friday night -- and not be mobbed by either fake boobs or mall gays (I can't guarantee this, but that's what my crystal ball is slurring) -- then you could do worse than to hit up the I Am DJ party at 1015 Folsom, with Panic City, DJ Mykill, and JSanty.

Look, I know irony's supposed to be dead -- and how else are you going to survive an attack of LMFAO and 3OH!3 electro mixes (plus maybe a little crunked-up Britney?) without a pinch of "what the fuck? Why not, I guess." But sometimes we all just need a break from either the fabulous abstractitude or out-there vaults rarities that contemporary underground dance floors often present us with, and this joint's my pick to let loose to the sounds of KMEL meets Energy 92.7 -- especially if the effervescent DJ Mykill is behind the decks. (And I have to say that there's actually a lot going on in electro-dance-crunk-pop-trance-or-whatever mixes -- diminished twelfths, anyone?)

Just skip the bottle service. Below is a Mykill mix to test your tolerance. (He plays a lot of other stuff too, and even name-checked the obscure '90s rave white label "Brown Acid," rumored to be by Underworld, in a recent interview. So that's all right.):

DJ Mykill: Club Killers
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?rz3wiytjmnm

I Am DJ
Fri/4, 10pm, free before 11, $5-$10 after
1015 Folsom, SF
www.1015.com

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Michael Krimper

Sub Swara at Burning Man 07

The first use of the word “glitch” traces back to fairly recent innovations in computer technology, initially describing a sudden burst or drastic change in voltage charge. More recently, glitch has become a frenetic pathos, an unexpected musical phenomenon, an intensely dissonant way of looking the world, and a methodology for mother fucking slaying crowds. I’m not even talking about genres; fuck a genre. Enter “Beats by the Bay”, a powerhouse dubbed out nastiness, glitch melter party featuring some of the most ridiculous production innovators of our day. Expect ferocious units geared with space age machinery and foot soldiers parading the illest beats. These cats together posses a schizophrenic style that blasts through free-jazz out thereness, supernovaeing (can I make that a verb?) hip-hop’s monster funk loudness into another dimension of “here I am”. And look at that, it’s right before Burning Man!

Beats By The Bay presented by Infinite Music & ArtnowSF
With Sub Swara, Marty Party, The Gaslamp Killer, Lazersword, The Flying Skulls, Djunya, Majitope, Emancipator, Bogl
Mission Rock Cafe, $20
817 Tery Francois St., SF
415 626-5355
More info: www.myspace.com/artnow

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Mosi Reeves

Kode 9: aborted?

"The mainstream of dubstep is becoming such an abortion," Kode 9 complained to electronic music advocate (and former Bay Area writer) Philip Sherburne in an eMusic.com interview. It's a curious statement from someone who is being marketed (along with Burial, Skream, Benga, and a handful of others) as leaders of the dubstep incursion, a hybridization of 2-step garage, jungle breaks at half-speed and good ol' ragga. (It's the amalgamation of "dub" and "step.") Only two years after Burial's Untrue (Hyperdub) brought pop's cool-hunters to this bastard genre, it seems, dubstep is already eating itself.

U.K. electronic music (and its Anglophile offshoot) is herded by theorists, and Steve "Kode 9" Goodman is one of them. He has a doctorate in philosophy, and recently received a commission from the New Museum of Contemporary Art's Rhizome technology initiative for a forthcoming documentary, Unsound Systems, that explores the use of sound as psychological weapon. His record label, Hyperdub, started out as a Web site spotlighting futurists like Kodwo Eshun and was responsible for the aforementioned Untrue as well as Zomby's recent spin on '90s 'ardkore dynamics, Where Were You in '92? (Werk).

Kode 9's first collection, 2006's Memories of the Future, pairs bleak echoing tones with pummeling bass thuds. One popular track, "Sine," finds vocalist Spaceape reinterpreting Prince's "Sign O' The Times" as dread intonation: "Sign o' the times mess with your mind, hurry before it's too late."

Declaring that a scene is "over" just as the great unwashed embraces it — recent dubstep parties in San Francisco have packed dance floors — seems particularly snotty and perverse. But by disappearing into thicker brush, Kode 9 stays ahead of pop mediocrity. His new singles, particularly "Black Sun / 2 Far Gone," add melancholic melodies and popping bass, retracing a path back to 2-step. Accordingly, U.K. critics have made it an example of a silly new subgenre called "funky." (George Clinton would laugh at that one.)

All this ideological shoegazing shouldn't distract you from enjoying Kode 9's tunes. But it should tell you that U.K. electronic music has traveled very far up its own arse. "I think U.K. electronic music is a bit of a mess right now and very microsegmented, to be honest," said Kode 9 in the eMusic interview. "But there are some lines of intersection that are promising."

THE FUTURE: KODE 9, SPACEAPE, THE FLYING SKULLS Fri/10, 10 p.m., $10 (advance). 103 Harriet, 103 Harriet, SF. (415) 431-8609. www.1015.com/103harriet/events

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 05:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Michael Krimper

Votel, freakin' you

A small portion of music nurtures body, mind, and soul. A miniscule subsect does so by ripping you magnificently out of your familiar musical safety zones with unpredictable and compellingly fresh organizations of sound. Some have baptized the songs that fall under this rarefied territory of music "face-melters," and for good reason. Assiduously dissolving toughened aural skin, face-melting music inspires knowledge of the outer galactic and inner expansive reaches of the embodied mind. Its dangerous allure has solicited varied responses from thinkers, poets, and musicians throughout history. Plato advises to obliterate such enigmatic revelry in The Republic. William Blake seeks to illustrate its destructive purity in Songs of Innocence and of Experience. More recently, Afrika Bambaataa's "Searching for the Perfect Beat" embodies the infinite quest for mystical rhythms.

The DJ, producer, and deep crate-digger Andy Votel has made a career out of cultivating and archiving the face-melting phenomenon. Conducting the freaked-out, electronic psych epic Styles of The Unexpected (Twisted Nerve Records, 2000), and helping spearhead Finders Keepers Records to reissue international instances of obscure and intensely monstrous tracks from around the world, Votel is a leading expert on the limit zones of post-World War II music. Notable Finders Keepers reissues and compilations that will rewire your neural networks have emerged from Anatolia (Mustafa Özkent, Selda), France (Jean-Pierre Massiera, Jean-Claude Vannier), and Pakistan (this year's comp Sound of Wonder).

One contemporary contributor to the Keepers catalog is Los Angeles' feral beatsmith and DJ the Gaslamp Killer. A mad scientist of the Low End Theory collective, GLK psychedel-ifies hypnotic boom bap cuts and mutates vocals into chilling hums and fuzzed out screams locked toward another kind of prayer. But don't believe me, peep his avant-garde corpse ringer mix I Spit On Your Grave (Obey, 2008). Once you've trained your ears on his radiated sewer funk, flip it fresh on Gaslamp's collaboration with fellow Theorist, Free The Robots, for the jazzier side of the gutter on The Killer Robots (Obey, 2008).

To mark the third birthday of SF funk wizard DJ Centipede's Catch the Beat party, Votel, GLK, and Free the Robots have come together for a face-melting good time. Leave your mask at home.

CHANGE THE BEAT 3RD YEAR ANNIVERSARY PARTY With Andy Votel, Gaslamp Killer, Free the Robots, DJ Mahssa, DJ Centipede, Citizen Ten. Fri/10, 10 p.m., $10. Paradise Lounge, 1501 Folsom, SF. (415) 252-5017. www.paradisesf.com

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 05:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Kimberly Chun

Yes, you had to work like a dog for that Fourth of July hot dog - and to get ready for the long weekend. Wasn’t it worth it? Now’s the time to get out and get into trouble.

Sir Richard Bishop and His Freak of Araby Ensemble
The Sun City Girls son and Oakland resident also rises, this time in SF, with Oaxacan as his backing ensemble, on the closing show of his tour. For more on Bishop, go to this edition of Sonic Reducer. With Oaxacan and Rubber O Cement. Fri/3, 10 p.m., $10. Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF. (415) 621-4455.

Extreme Animals
The Pittsburgh-San Diego booty melters flaunt it at this light-show-bedazzled happening. With Nero's Day at Disneyland, Bulbs, and Teengirl Fantasy. Fri/3, 8 p.m., $6. Lobot Gallery, 1800 Campbell, Oakl. www.lobotgallery.com

Hospitals
The raging Adam Stonehouse project recently got a lotta love from UK’s Wire. With Photobooth and Baths. Fri/3, 9:30 p.m., $6. Hemlock Tavern, 1131 Polk, S.F. (415) 923-0923.

Continue reading "Sonic Reducer Overage: Sir Richard Bishop, Hospitals, David Dondero, Hightower, and more" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 02:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B

Have to admit I'm more blown away than I thought I wuld be by the new "Sun of Gao" joint by Mr. Raoul K. on local Afro-house wiz DJ Said's recently revived Fatsouls label. It's truly an Afrominimal journey that seems perfectly of the moment. The gently expanding elements never exactly build to a climax (a hallmark of current dance music production) but they flow over you like smiling waves ....

Said will be virtuosically throwing this and other choice cuts from his stable this Friday at Otis. If you missed it, here's what I wrote in my last Super Ego clubs column (with a couple corrections -- hey I was blazin' at the time). This one's not to be missed for everyone who takes an interest in the growing effervescent confluence of traditional and electronic sounds.

DJ SAID
A decade ago, when the Internet was still booming, Said Adelekan brought some serious dance floor spirit to that oft-soulless go-go period with his local Afro-House movement, his Fatsouls label, and his lovely Atmosphere parties. I'm absolutely delighted that he and Fatsouls have resurfaced — goddess knows we could use a little more Afro-injection — to release a new Fatsouls single called "Sun of Gao" by Mr. Raoul K. Joining Said (and many familiar friendly faces from those days, I hope) will be the luminous DJ Dedan of the great Brothers and Sisters party in Oakland. Expect everything deeply felt, from Afrobeat to minimal techno — oh, and Nigerian legend Rasaki Aladokun on the talking drum.

Friday, June 26, 10 p.m., free. Otis, 25 Maiden Lane, SF. www.otissf.com

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 04:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Interview by Marke B. Photo by Alex Warnow. From our summer SCENE: The Guardian Guide to Nightlife and Glamour -- on stands in the Guardian now.

For 15 years, the much-loved and lovable warm-weather Sunset parties have shaken various hills, isles, parks, patios, and boats with funky, techy house sounds. Launched by underground hero DJ Galen in 1994 (has it really been that long?), the outdoor Sunset gigs have amassed a huge following of excited party newbies and familiar old-school faces — and now their kids! Early on in the game, Galen was joined by fellow Bay favorite DJs Solar and J-Bird, and the three — collectively known as Pacific Sound (www.pacificsound.net) — have kept the vibe strong ever since. This year saw a remarkable expansion on the Sunset fan base: attendance at the season opener at Stafford Lake reached almost 4,000, and Pacific Sound just launched an annual — and truly moving — party on Treasure Island that had multiple generations putting their hands in the air. "The vision was to take electronic music out of the dirty warehouses, away from the dodgy promoters, and into the sunshine," says J-Bird. Summer's just begun, and Pacific Sound, with several gangbuster parties lined up, keeps delivering.

SFBG You guys have been a major part of the party scene here for a while. What do you think of it right now?

Pacific Sound There's a foundation for creativity in San Francisco — that is something that will never change. Also, there definitely is quite a bit more international talent coming here than 10 years ago. It's this constant exposure to musical stylings from around the world that will facilitate a thriving scene. The recent crackdowns by the SFPD and ABC may be dampening some spirits, but it will never stop our creative heritage.

SFBG You mean all the pressure on venues lately ...

Continue reading "SCENE: Pacific Sound takes it outside" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Interview by Billy Jam. Photo by Leo Herrera. From SCENE: The Guardian Guide to Nightlife and Glamour -- on stands in the Guardian this week.

Like so much music and art these days, turntablism is easier to find online than in a public space. A turntablist can easily record their scratch practice session, upload it to YouTube, and sit back and wait for feedback to show up on their screen. But for sheer enjoyment, creative interaction, and advancement of the art form, turntable pyrotechnics really need to be experienced in the live, raw setting of DJ battles or sessions. That's why Bay Area turntablist duo Deeandroid and Celskiii recently decided to revive their hands-on scratch DJ club night, Skratchpad. Bay Area turntable fiends, missing the party's lively conviviality since it shut down earlier in the decade, were getting antsy.

The super-skilled, Vallejo-born female scratch duo who've toured with the likes of KRS-One now tears it up twice monthly at the Cellar in San Francisco. There, DJs from the aspiring to the established (Swift Rock, Shortkut, and Teeko have each turned in memorable sets) join the two and others like Winst-One and Bizibeats to carry on the sacred Bay scratch tradition. Skratchpad boasts two rooms, one with open tables for guest beat-juggling and the other for just plain getting down, and takes mighty inspiration from legendary late-1990s hip-hop joint Beat Lounge, where Deeandroid and Celskiii — and many others on the scene — got their start. Skratchpad even hosts the occasional DJ Q&A session, but all answers must be phrased in the form of turntable pyrotechnics only.

SFBG Why revive Skratchpad now?

Celskiii If we want to keep the music and culture alive, then we have to pass it on. A lot of younger cats didn't grow up during that raw '90s era, but that doesn't mean they can't experience what we were so lucky to have been exposed to.

SFBG How exactly does the open turntable policy work?

Deeandroid You must bring your own needles, headphones, and records, sign up on the list, and wait your turn for the MC host of the night to call the DJ names. We have seven turntables and five mixers usually for the open turn session. DJs rotate after they do their thing twice or we tell them to switch.

SFBG Is it ever a problem with some DJ hogging the turns?

Continue reading "SCENE: Deeandroid and Celskiii put the needle on" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 05:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Interview by Marke B. Photography by Keeney + Law. From our Summer SCENE: The Guardian Guide to Nightlfe and Glamour. On stands in the Guardian now!

Reggae: still fresh? Yes. A lot of stereotypes have attached themselves to reggae over the years, not all of them good or true. But this is the Bay, a blazing nexus for the sound, and a spirit of liveliness and innovation can always be found here — especially if members of the classic Jah Warrior Shelter Hi Fi sound system are twisting it. Since 1988, the crew has been rocksteady on the roots scene — and hardly a evening goes by that you won't find Rocker T, Jah Yzer, I-vier, or Irie Dole lighting up the decks or the mic with his unique approach somewhere. Serious with that: besides Jah Warrior Shelter's weekly Bless Up joint at Milk every Tuesday (celebrating its five-year anniversary July 14) and Toppa Top blast at Club Six every Thursday night, the crew brings the fire to EndUp, Laszlo, Luka's, Pier 23, Oasis, Jelly's ... I-Vier co-helms KPFA's Reggae Express show with Spliff Skankin, the sound system has snagged numerous soundclash competition titles, and Jah Warrior Shelter mixtapes flow like rolling verbiage throughout the scene. Check out their mad productivity at www.jahwarriorshelter.com.

SFBG Why do you think reggae has found such a home here?

Irie Dole San Francisco has always been a hub for reggae music and performers. The hippie movement's peace and love vibration naturally attracted Rastas — foundation artists Jacob Miller and Hugh Mundell were known to be around the city quite a bit. With San Francisco's beautiful landscape, healthy food, and lax weed laws, reggae just fell into place with a lot of people of our generation. California is the ganja capital of the world, the Bay Area is the reggae capitol of California — San Francisco is the place to be.

SFBG Have you seen the scene evolve at all?

Continue reading "SCENE: Jah Warrior Shelter Hi Fi lights up" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

By Marke B.

My fantasy gay post-diva dance music, y'all:

La Prohibida, "Flash"

In this week's Super Ego clubs column, I interview local circuit diva-in-training Caroline Lund, and get into some ideas I've been chewing on about the state of gay dance music, now that the mainstream has embraced outright divadom. I started thinking about all this, funnily enough, when I got stranded in Vegas for a day a couple weeks ago (missed my flight, typical). Against my better punkrock instincts, I ended up totally engrossed in the Cher and Bette Boutique in Caesar's Palace, which sold innumerable tchotckes bearing those two classic divas' likenesses, both of whom have wildly successful shows running in the theater that was built for, ugh, Celine Dion. I bought a Cher mug and shirt. (Side note: the boutique was staffed by Burner-looking FTMs. Then: Chastity Bono became Chaz. But I digress.)

My somewhat-valid prejudices about the circuit scene are no secret to my amazing readers. All three of marvelous you. But because some interpreted the column as broadsiding vocal house in general, not just the really boring screamy phony kind, I wanted to clarify. I’m a proud if slightly-closeted freak for vocal house histrionics of the soulful, gospel-derived variety. Throw on a classic Ann Nesby or La india track and my dancey pants get even wetter. The Jesus squealing can occasionally wear me out, but I get lifted by the spirit. And this little number has basically been my personal theme song for the past 17 years, getting me through some real situations:

Martha Wash, "Carry On"

Which kind of leads into this: The other day I got Facebooked to join the group “I remember Club Universe” – something Caroline Lund and I (and thousands of others) have in common. Throughout the ‘90s, up until that massive, all-swallowing Saturday night ground zero for vocal house (run by the great Audrey Joseph, now of the city's Entertainment Commission) closed in 2002, Lund coordinated the dancers who wriggled on the risers until well into Sunday morning. Meanwhile, I stumbled around Universe’s huge 177 Townsend space wondering why all the substances I had ingested weren’t making me want to dance more. (Wait a minute, that may have been the source of the problem!)

OMG, this whirling light spaceship thing at Universe that would dip down and scare tweakers into a frenzy was sooo cheesy.

Continue reading "Super Ego: More Universal gay diva musings" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 05:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

Hey bay-bay, besides the wall-bouncing antics of DJ Stacey Pullen and The Martinez Brothers that I mentioned in this week's Super Ego clubs column, here's another party glamour to get your feet up off the floor. Also, for all you hip queer kids -- it's second Saturday, and that means another Cockblock vs. Cockfight showdown! As always, I recommend hitting up both. Because I care. Because I can.

Wallpaper at Blow Up

I can't get the stylishly jazzy electro-rap-lounge Oakland trio's latest treatment of Das Racist's "Combination Taco Bell and Pizza Hut" out of my freakin' noggin -- even though it makes my stomach a tad queasy -- but it's the lovely afrobeat-y remix of Passion Pit's "the Reeling" on their MySpace that really follows me around. They'll be at the ever-bonkers Blow Up at Rickshaw Stop on Friday, hopefully with live drums in tow .... be there, and if you're over 30 try not to try too hard to look cool, k?

Blow Up w/ Wallpaper
Fri/12, 10 p.m., $10,
Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell, SF.
www.blowupsf.com

PS -- oh god, Perez Hilton posted about Wallpaper on the same day as me? Really? ugh.

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 07:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

By Marke B.

You may be worn out by indie dance acts that have "glass" in their name -- as well as those with "crystal," "soundsystem," and any kind of cute furry animal -- but the UK's The Glass have just released a summer anthem, about dancing outside in summer, that deserves to be as big as I hope it will be. The video is bananas good as well.

The Glass, "Wanna Be Dancin'"

Could that buried "It Takes Two" sample in the chorus be any more delicious? There's a killer mix of this track by one of my favorite, unfortunately overlooked, bands of 2k8, Clubfeet -- available at Beatport. I recommend downloading it and blissing out in the park, toute suite

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 07:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

Love for the Sake of Love party promo

SF club scene mover and shaker -- and stunning video artiste -- Christopher McVick has launched an effort to help Galveston, TX, celebrate Juneteenth -- the wonderful holiday that celebrates the abolition of slavery. Galveston was where the original celebration took place, but the annual tradition has been threatened by last year's heinous Hurrican Ike. So several beloved SF nightlife personalities and bands are coming together this Sunday at SubMission (the old Balazo space) and raising money to help this awesome tradition continue. Full lineup -- including DJ Omar, House of Salad, fAction, and We are of Atlantis -- after the jump.

Love for the Sake of Love
Sun/7, 8pm-midnight, all ages
$10-$20 donation for 21+
$15-$20 donation for 18-20
No one will be turned away for lack of funds!
Sub/Mission
2183 Mission, SF
www.sfheartsgalveston.com

Continue reading "Super Ego: Love for the sake of love" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 03:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Everybody panic. Don't worry, electronic-symphonica mastermind Mason Bates, who I rave about in this week's issue, isn't gonna freak peeps out. But seriously, do not miss the premier of his orchestral suite for full orchestra and laptop, The B-Sides, which he'll be performing for three nights with the ever-game SF Symphony, Wed/20, Fri/22, Sat/23. After Friday night's performance (free with ticket!) you'll get ushered into a really cool secret space by Davies Symphony Hall for an afterparty, featuring Mason's Mercury Soul project, which kicks ambient-like trip-hop ass and will feature himself behind the decks, as well as some live, avant-garde surprises (and hottie conductor Benjamin Shwartz, *swoon*). If you haven't been to the symphony, or if you're in the mood for something spectacular oracular, this is the time to go.

Here's two views of Mason, aka DJ Masonic, at Carnegie Hall with the YouTube Symphony Orchestra in April, debuting the "Wharehouse Medicine" portion of The B-Sides.

The balcony view, complete with trippy visuals:

and here's from right down in the fray (I'm dying to know what the tiny grand piano behind his is for! Hello, Carl Stalling?) Note the dramatic use of drum pad:

I would be totally, regrettably remiss if I didn't also pump Bates' co-performer on the program, the heartbreakingly talented and just all around fierce Yuja Wang, who'll be performing Prokofiev's Piano Concerto #2, which at around the seven-minute-mark will honestly start to kill you with beauty. Girl's got skills.

Here's her performing at Carnegie Hall. Um, hi hotness.

Also featured: the majestically haunting, almost-4AD-foretelling Fourth Symphony by Sibelius, who's all the rage among young turk composers these days.

Mason Bates, Yuja Wang, and the SF Symphony
Wed/20, Fri/22, Sat/23
8 p.m., $35–$130
Davies Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness
(415) 552-8000
www.sfsymphony.org

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B., who thinks very highly of his ears, if not his latest dance moves. But he'll keep trying. View the previous Nite Trax here.

There are currently three Jamie Joneses in the music world. Two of them are kind of cute -- but I'd never ever listen to them again. As fate would usually have it, the REALLY cute one is the one who's turning me out lately, and has just produced what may well be the summer 09 jam, if I was lame enough to predict such things. Ladies and gentlemen and ladies, the only Jamie Jones that counts:

But I'm really only interested in his music.

The song is "You!" -- an eight-plus minute slice of loveliness, what I would perhaps call subtle tech-soul, that blends a couple grin-worthy retro effects with some serious mixing-board control (loving the dribble-dabs of tinkling percussion). Everything falls into the right place and climbs above genre-tiredness into a burnished place all its own.

Continue reading "Nite Trax: Jamie Jones" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

Some smooth and mellow Mophono pho' ya

Oh, the transient grunts and groans of the dance floor: Just got word yesterday that the eagerly awaited appearance of disco progenitor Nicky Siano at Paradise Lounge has been cancelled -- my deep throat tells me there were sound and venue concerns (although I love the 'Dise!). In any case, there's plenty of other things to hold your ear-nterest and get you bangin' this weekend. Besides my rundown in this week's Super Ego column, below are some more earth shakers and affairs.

-----------

He loves me, he loves me not

Wanna spoon?

I had absolutely no idea that those little plastics coffee spoons from McDonald's were banned because of illicit uses (or perceived one, anyway.) You'd think after all this time, plastic + noses = OK. But no. In any case, snort in luxurious style with the unveiling of a perfect publicity stunt: renowned hip mens' clothiers and artists Ju$t Another Rich Kid, Nice Collective, Terence Koh, and more have designed cute, exclusive, and most likely expensive little Bolivian helpers (watch that terrorism funding!). They'll be giving the dish at Harput's from 6pm-9pm tonight (expect beautiful people), and then there'll be a kiki afterparty at Triple Crown. Don't try to force your way into the stalls. It's all called "He loves me, he loves me not" which brings to mind a kinky game somehow.

Thu/7, 6-9pm, free. Harput's Market, 1527 Fillmore, SF. www.harputsmarket.com
Afterparty, 10pm-midnight, free. Triple Crown, 1760 Market, SF. www.triplecrownsf.com

-----------

Lazer Sword + Mophono live

Lazer Sword, can you blap me for loving you?

Local future blap fave raves Lazer Sword are back from their whirlwind Euro tour with an uptempo live set to get you moving, supported by Bay man of intrinsic deep dance knowledge, Mophono at, yes, the Paradise. Put 'em up and get down, child -- and let's see if those speakers still work.

Lazer Sword at 111 Minna San Francisco 1/15/09

Fri/8, 10pm, $10. Paradise Lounge, 1501 Folsom, SF. www.hacksawent.com

--------------

The Rod

Post-Cinco uprising

Why, yes, I DO host a wet jock strap contest. Come down to Bus Station John's retro bathhouse disco monthly, The Rod, at Deco this Friday around midnight and see me and Hunky Beau scare up a willing and wet bevy of gorgeous, unclad alternaqueer boys -- and see who'll win $100. (No muscle queens need apply, thanks.) Then stay and dance until 3am to the best disco you've only ever heard sampled in other songs before. It's fun and a little scary: frisson alert!

Fri/8, 10pm-3am, $7. Deco, 510 Larkin, SF. www.decosf.com

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

What can I say? I'm cute and often clueless -- and as attested below I'm perpetually on Spring Break. In the print edition of my Super Ego column in this week's Guardian I mistakenly put the DirtyBird Pajama Jam down for Saturday, when in fact it's Friday at Mezzanine. Full and correct preview below. Somebody spank me!

Wig out to J. Phlip on Friday night, download her 2008 !@#$%^& mix (which I'm still wrapping my head around) here.

DIRTYBIRD PAJAMA JAM

Ha ha ha, I feel so spring break. Famed local techno label Dirty Bird matches its goofy sensibility with a no-slumber party, bunny slippers and all. DJs Claude VonStroke, Worthy, Justin and Christian Martin, and up-and-comer J. Phlip bring the post-minimal hijinks, you bring the stripy drawers and stuffed E.T. dolls.

Fri/8, 10 p.m., $15, Mezzanine, 444 Jessie, SF. www.mezzaninesf.com

Claude VonStroke at 2007 DirtyBird Picnic in Golden Gate Park

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 07:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

Makin' pleasure ...

One of my favorite clubs, Afrolicious, the afro-beat/Nuyorican/Brazilian/funk/disco/global weekly hosted by cute (very cute) brothers Senor Oz and Pleasuremaker, is celebrating two years of sterling service to the eager dance floor community with a double-header this week featuring NYC's Nickodemus and Nappy G. of the legendary decade-old Turntables on the Hudson party -- a formidable happening that every year I cry my eyes out for not being able to make. My East Coast friends then laugh in my face. Well, ha ha to them, I've got Afrolicious every week, now with Nick and Napp.

Nickodemus, "Give the Drummer Some"

As per usual, there'll be smoking live percussion (man, I love me some bongos on the dance floor -- old EndUp RIP) and a room packed with beautiful -- but not that icky kind of beautiful -- people not afraid to get sweaty and down. (Check out the tunes and vids here if you want a taste.)

Won't you join me, shantytown butterfly?

AFROLICIOUS TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY
Thu/30: DJ Nickodemus and Smash, live drums by Nappy G
Fri/1: Pleasuremaker Live Band, DJs Nickodemus, Chris Nicholson, and Nappy G.
9pm, $7/$10
Elbo Room
647 Valencia, SF.
www.elbo.com

Bonus: Turntables on the Hudson 10-year party:

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 05:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

By Marke B.

Get ready, kids -- this Saturday night's all about the new-bass (and I go in deep on it in this week's Super Ego clubs column). Do like I said and hit up both mindblowing parties featuring this amazing nightlife sound of now.

Ghislain Poirier, helloooo

In one corner is Montreal's "King of Bounce" Ghislain Poirier, whose Bounce Le Gros monthly in the MTL not only helped launch the careers of such wiggy Canadian future bass purveyors as Megasoid and the tres-tres atmospheric Sixtoo, but also put Quebec on the world dance music map. Ghislain will storm the Tormenta Tropical monthly's electro-cumbia castle at Elbo Room.

Below are two video examples of how Poirier wonderfully "plays it both ways" as it were -- super-danceable and brainily abstract -- with the dancehall boinger "Blazin'" and the headphone freaker "Hit & Red." The third vid, "Don't Smile, It's Postmodern" is his awesome kinda middle ground (although the visuals are waaaay goofy.)

Ghislain Poirier, "Blazin'" featuring Face-T

Ghislain Poirier, "Hit & Red"

Ghislain Poirier, "Don't Smile"

AND in this other corner, righteous kings of woofer-blowing abstractitude Flying Lotus, Kode9, and the Bug hit Mighty for a jam called "The Future." I'll let the videos after the jump give you an idea of each of their genius individual styles, but DO NOT MISS THIS PARTY.

Continue reading "Super Ego: New-bass invades the Bay" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 01:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Taken from SCENE: The Guardian Guide to Nightlife and Glamour -- on stands in the Guardian now. Interview by Marke B. Photo by Pat Mazzera. Art Direction by Mirissa Neff. Mens room courtesy of Matador.

Ultraviolet, Kozee, Roommate, Rob Cannon, and Blackheart

To say that the woofer-rumbling, ragga-ripping dubstep sound has exploded on the club scene in the past few years is an understatement almost as low as the genre's freakiest frequencies. Dubstep seems perfect for our hyper-multicultural, urban-nomadic age, blending street rhythms with the most intricate laptop sonic technology available. It's especially perfect for the Bay, with its shimmering blend of moody menace and artistic bombast, and has duly been embraced by a number of DJs here, many with roots that stretch back to the early days of 2-step, drum 'n bass, and even rave.

DJ Ultraviolet (pictured in red, at left), heads up the fab two-year-old RedLine dubstep collective, and has been bringing her immaculate technique and overflowing energy to the decks in San Francisco since 1997. She was a seminal player in the drum 'n bass and breakbeat scene, as part of the Sleeveless collective with the Femmes Fatales, and was associated with the legendarily raucous Sister DJ crew. As a true vinyl fetishist, she was being booked at the tender age of 19 to play jungle at underground '90s raves and played a part in the Future Breaks FM (miss you!) juggernaut of the early aughts.

Now, along with the wonderfully gifted DJ Kozee, her "second in command," Ultraviolet reps the burgeoning female dubstep explosion, producing tracks and bringing a touch of grimy glamour to the scene with the MakeOut Sessions, RedLine's regular blowout at Matador. The upcoming installment of MakeOut features Matty G of Santa Cruz (www.myspace.com/mattygbeatz) pumping tracks from his new album, Take You Back.

MAKEOUT SESSIONS
Fri/27, 9pm, free
Matador
10 Sixth Street, SF.
www.myspace.com/redlinedjs

SFBG Who's all involved in RedLine?

ULTRAVIOLET Kozee and I, who do a lot of the event planning and are working on a big project together; Babylon System (www.myspace.com/thebabylonsystem), a.k.a Roomate and No Thing, is one of the top production crews in dubstep, currently on tour in Europe; the three DJs of Blackheart (www.myspace.com/lordsofblackheart) from Oakland are our newest addition; DJ Rob Cannon (www.myspace.com/djrobcannon), our youngest member; our L.A. residents Emu and Pawn, who are also a part of the SMOG crew down there, and on our business end, Cyn, Bruxxy, and Dymphna.

SFBG Do you think the dubstep sound is reaching a critical mass? Is the scene in danger of getting stale?

Continue reading "SCENE: RedLine shakes the bass up" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Taken from SCENE: The Guardian Guide to Nightlife and Glamour -- on stands in the Guardian now. Interview by Marke B. Photo by Matthew Reamer. Art Direction by Mirissa Neff. Crotch-buffing by Kalri$$ian. Location: Shattuck Downlow

In these trying economic times, does the Bay really need a motor-mouthed, drug-snorting, pussy-obsessed playboy hip-hop collective — one that shouts out Eric Estrada, acid house, and Optimus Prime while bragging about using paper bags for condoms and instructing someone to "juggle balls in your mouth like a circus act"? Well, yes, actually. Hilariously quick-witted San Francisco-based beastly boys Kalri$$ian certainly bring the sparkling regression to match the recession — by channeling naughty spirits from rap's past like Kool Keith, Shock G, and Prince Paul, and literally melting themselves to audio gaga as they "lick Cool Whip off your flatmate." The bouncy braggadocio of Kalri$$ian's new album, Tales from the Velvet Pocket (Psychokinetics) and over-the-top flashback image somehow seem perfectly refreshing right now.

Experienced Bay nightlifers will recognize some long-time scenesters among the Kal's colorful cast. No need to fret over missing all the in-jokes, though — Kalri$$ian's got a million of 'em, and most involve doing lines off your girlfriends' ass. Check them out live at the release party for Daly City cool kid Mochipet's new Bunnies & Muffins platter:

KALRI$$IAN

April 4, 9 p.m.– 5 a.m., all ages
The Ranch
1433 Van Dyke, SF
www.kalrissianbaby.com

SFBG You sure got a lot of people — it's like you're a super group or something. Tell me about who's all involved ...

"UNCLE" TONY HIGHRISE (producer) You're goddamn right this group is super! I'll tell you what — I wouldn't have left Miami unless it was for something really, really super. I came up on the scene in Delaware back in the day. I was a freelance hype man for a while with my cousin Wicked Awesome J, rest his soul. After the accident, I drifted south and started wearing polyester. It just seemed like the thing to do. Polyester was tough in Miami — it's not that breathable, you know. But I was committed.

KEYLO VENEZUELA (producer) We ARE super group. We make fantastic sound music and tell our stories to everybody. The music is the passion that covers the world.

SMOOTH RICK CHOSEN (vocalist) I'm an ex-Barbazon School of Modeling student who got hooked on pills and realized he had a gift, in his pants.

Continue reading "SCENE: Kalri$$ian comes on to your sister" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 02:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

By Marke B.

Your hostesses Heklina and Renttecca, rolling loaded. Photo by Eric Stein.

Oh lord, is it really that time again already? Time for SF's crazy drag queens to take their "retarted" acts to a largely unsuspecting hinterland?

I just got wind that homelesslike party Charlie Horse is headed to Fresno (more on that later), and now, here I am posting about the annual Trannyshack bus-terfuck road trip to Reno. Oh hell yeah, there'll be spastic vogue drops droppin' in the Mickey D's.

And really, it's all about the journey:

Isn't this the real reason that California might split in two?

So, yes, the much-bemourned Trannyshack is rising from the zombie-swamp, loading a bunch of freaks up onto a couple of busses, and taking over Reno's bars, hotels, casinos, and sidewalks for a couple of days. It all goes down April 11-12 (Easter weekend). Won't you join them in a total blackout? Tickets available now!

Full release deets straight from the whorses mouth at www.trannyshack.com and after the jump. Try not to gag on the professionalism!

Continue reading "Super Ego: All aboard for Trannyshack Reno, woot" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 01:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

Rupture goes there

"A DJ mix that stands alone as an album is a rare thing, but leave it to Jace Clayton, a.k.a. DJ/rupture, to make one, as he has with Uproot (Agriculture)," wrote the Guardian's Brandon Bussolini last year. "Deeply, er, rooted in the bass plate tectonics of dubstep and cut with the finest in eclectic samples, ranging from experimentalist Ekkehard Ehlers to lazer bass don Ghislain Poirier, Uproot rolls deep with dubbed-out ambience, but DJ/rupture is just as happy to turn things upside down, as when he plunks down Ehlers' gorgeous string loop, "Plays John Cassavetes, Pt. 2," around the mix's halfway point. And if bangers of the future don't sound like "Gave You All My Love (Matt Shadetek's I Gave You All My Dub Remix)," which subs out dub's organic space for Fisher-Price primary-color contrasts that split the brain evenly in two, I'm not sure it's a future worth living in."

I'd have to agree with all of that, but also emphasize DJ/rupture's extremely thrilling versatility when it comes to global musical styles with regards to both his recordings and live sets. That's why I'm tickled hot pink that he's putting together a special cumbia set for this Saturday's Tormenta Tropical with the Bersa Discos boys, who've consistently stirred some of the world's best DJs into their electro-cumbia-hop stew. Tormenta Tropical was bangin' last month, and this one should be a real ruptured doozy.

Tormenta Tropical
w/ DJ/rupture
Sat/14, 10pm, $10
Elbo Room
647 Valencia, SF
www.myspace.com/bersadiscos

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 02:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

Yep, queeroids, it's one of those rare and muy delicioso head-to-heads that a nightlife writer lives for: This Saturday night, one of SF's biggest hot dyke parties, Cockblock, squares off against the highly anticipated launch of a giant new alternative fag party, Cockfight. That's right:

VS.

Could it get any better? Only if you trade your GluStik for paint thinner.

In the irrespective corners:

Continue reading "Super Ego: Cockblock vs. Cockfight!" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 03:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

I just came upon this 2k7 vid of the best-club-ever-after-Paradise-Garage Body and Soul tour in Tokyo. And I don't know if it's the beauty of DJ Joe Clausell's knob-tweaking, the pain of the recent Depression, the gay-soul-gorgeousness of Dan Hartman and Loleatta Holloway's barnstormer duet, or the sight of hundreds of off-their-nut Japanese boppers singing "Relight My Fire" -- but I'm bursting into tears.

Body & Soul Live in Tokyo Open Air 2007

Those kids are so amped up that by the time of the breakdown ("I'm strong enough to walk on through the night") they can't shout any louder. Srsly, it's time for a house comeback. There's already a couple of underground roving house revivals going down in NYC, and Body & Soul itself will rock Webster Hall there this Sunday. Let's pick it up SF!

We could do worse that pack Vessel on Thursday night for a very rare appearance by way-more-than-legendary Body & Soulmate Francois K.

Continue reading "Super Ego: Relight my fire, Francois K." »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 03:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

By Andre Torrez

I entered SoMa’s Paradise Lounge for the first time this past Valentine’s Day, startled by an unexpected fashion show - it was scheduled, I just didn’t know about it - oddly set to the music of the Jackson 5. And it wasn’t your typical “ABC," or “I Want You Back." No, that wouldn’t have fit the atmosphere at all. It was one of their less obvious '70s grooves, something a little grittier and less innocent, so props to the DJ who demonstrated the intuition to foreshadow an evening of freaks on the floor.

The brief parade of design provided a blur of a background as we settled into the club. With drinks in tow, my friends and I made our way upstairs to get a better view above the stage. Before we knew it, HOTTUB, Oakland’s answer to queercore, was shakin’ its shit all over the place. If memory serves me right, the group has referred to a few of its tracks as real “pussy bangers." Perhaps that’s a suggestion for what to do while listening to their music. I’m not really sure.

Continue reading "'Clear': Falling in with Juan Atkins, Dam Funk, and HOTTUB at Paradise Lounge" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 08:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New weekly hip-hop mixer? Sure, you got it; here's the word from the organizers:

"San Francisco - We All We Got, a new weekly mixer, hip-hop open mic, and live performance party in San Francisco is the place for Bay Area artists, musicians, producers, managers, designers, and creatives to connect. Hosted by Revolutionary Poet Sellassie, We All We Got is designed to expose interesting and determined talent, cultivate relationships, showcase independent hip-hop artists and keep the dance floor moving with KPFA's Hard Knock Radio DJ Mike Biggz. Bring your CD, get on the open mic, discover and listen to new artists, build allies, and connect. We All We Got is every Wednesday at Levende Lounge, San Francisco.

"Advocates of independent music, Inhouse Talent's Gina Gallo and Sellassie see the opportunity to contribute to the local arts community among ambitious, forthcoming artists and offer a platform to perform. Hip-hop artist Sellassie states, 'We are the future' and realizes the vast talent here in the Bay Area. 'Local promoters bring in all these other rappers from all over the country for shows and have stars right here in the Bay.'

Continue reading "Hip-hop mixes it up: 'We All We Got' kicks off at Levende" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 04:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

Wait a minute, it's February? Sheesh. In the spirit, perhaps, of our recently bipolar weather systems and my on-again off-again memory banks, I've been raving in my cubicle to two disparate tracks all week -- one a tingly, moody laptop dubstep (lapstep?) zonker by Mount Kimbie:

Mount Kimbie, "Maybes"

And the other some good ol-fashioned achingly lovely wronged-woman house by Teddy Douglas of the Basement Boys, with his frequent collaborator, the immaculately voiced Margaret Grace. I've never really been a fan of Teddy's basic-seeming beats, but this one really comes together around the three-minute mark, and grows and flows like a classic track by Quentin Harris (who actually cribbed quite a bit off the old Teddy, melody-wise):

Neither of which will probably be played at any of the choice upcoming parties below, but hey -- a miracle mashup in my wobbly head can be dreamed and deemed righteous, no? Check these out, and also more in my latest Super Ego clubs column. Do whatcha like!

-------------

ROLLER DISCO PARTY
In absence of a nearby rink, rollerskating parties have found a new home in nightclubs and galleries. Just watch out for those warped floors! Do the bump, indeed. SF Indie Fest is throwing a Big Lebowski-themed shindig on wheels at CellSpace, with tunes by the Black Rock Roller Disco camp. Rentals provided - snowball and bromance optional.
Fri/13, 9 p.m., $10, $5 with costume. CellSpace, 2050 Bryant, SF. www.cellspace.org

Continue reading "Super Ego: Bear attacks, roller skates, dry humps" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 02:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

Photos from Feb. 4's jungalicious Booty Call party by Brandon Norris. Hi-ya, Terry T!

This past Friday, Hunky Beau and I breezed through the new and a little lamely named Club Q (didn't every college town have a straight bar with a gay night called "Club Q" or "Q Bar" or something Q-similar on some random week day? Maybe that's the point, here. I'll keep mum on the continuing genericalization of the Castro.) In any case, it didn't look like it had transformed much beyond the location's past incarnation, Bar on Castro, which is now Bar on Church, on Church. Confusing! Well, maybe there was some more red lighting.

One definite vote for the new joint though: Joshua J. and Miss Juanita More have kept their fantastically successful Booty Call nights there.

Your hostess and sometimes DJ, Miss Juanita More

Every Wednesday, fashionista gays (and alt friends!) gather to prance around to some soothing disco, funk, and soul, while fab photog pulls people into the theme-decored back room to snap them in party glory.

Continue reading "Super Ego: Hear that Booty Call y'all" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

I just got word about another installment of the fantastic BiBi party, happening this Saturday night at Club Six. BiBi's the number one top happening for queer folks of SWANA (Southwest Asian–Northern African) descent -- ladies, the ladies who go are fucking gorgeous -- and their admirers. DJs Emancipacion, Josh Cheon of Honey Soundsystem, and Massood wil bring their exhilarating blend of traditional and contemporary Arab, Persian, Indian, and Latin hits, because basically if it's brown, they're down. Palestinian hip-hop duo NaR will be performing, as will fave-rave dancer Cherry Gallette. Part of the proceeds will benefit Middle-East Children's alliance.

Lucky for club kids like me (who also happens to be a big queer Arab!) the party will take place at the same time as dread bass monthly Surya Dub's huge 2-year anniversary bash that I wrote about in my last Super Ego clubs column, also at Club Six in the basement and main room for a separate fee. All-night belly dancing, Palestinian hip-hop, and bowel-shaking dubstep beats? I'm all over it.

BiBi
Sat/7, 9pm-afterhours, $10/$15
Club Six
60 Sixth St., SF.
www.clubsix1.com
www.myspace.com/bibisf

Read more SFBG Noise blog clubs coverage here and more Super Ego clubs columns here.

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 03:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

By Marke B.

2k9's gallery party season is heating up -- last Saturday, I jetted from the art-fag-elite-packed Jonathan Solo opening at Catherine Clark Gallery to the huge "What's the Big Idea?" shindig at YBCA, just in time to see thousands of expressive-oriented types raise their hands and clap along with the NonStop Bhangra troupe as they showed them how to punch the the air, Punjabi-style.

Next up on the big calendar is this Friday eve's "Parlor Games" at the de Young, celebrating that museum's ongoing Yves St. Laurent exhibit, hosted by one of the SF underground's most scintillating performers/choreographers, Fauxnique.

Fauxnique and friend -- arty, non?

Fauxnique was one of Trannyshack's darlings (her revival of her Elton John "Butterfly" tribute number, complete with full ballet corps and huge outspread wings, brought the house down at last year's Trannyshack Kiss-Off party. She's the top female drag queen in town -- not drag king, but drag queen, as in faux queen. Yes, it's confusing.) From 7:15-7:45 in the Piazzoni Murals Room, there'll be charades, musical chairs and a “Proust Questionnaire,” and Fauxnique and some ultra-chic friends will perform numbers meant to invoke both the asthmatic Parisian author/drama queen's social demimonde and Laurent's delicate and lovely designs.

Continue reading "Super Ego: Let's pARTy" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 06:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Text by Nicole Gluckstern, photos by Morlock E.

It’s a good thing so many of the gents are equipped with vintage aviator goggles this year, since otherwise it would seem they’d run the risk of getting their eyes poked out—whether by parasol, peacock feather, or plunging décolletage. It’s the ninth annual Edwardian Ball -- a two-day affair that took place this past weekend -- and like most excuses to get all gussied up in San Francisco, the masses have appointed themselves with gusto. Though most of the costumes here are decidedly more Deadwood than dead and gone, more sumptuous than spooky, the spirit of patron saint Edward Gorey still wafts faintly through the proceedings like a clammy graveyard breeze. Black-and-white cutouts of Gashlycrumb Tinies adorn the walls along with cunning Paxton Gate-style dioramas of dressed-up rodent skeletons, while the Jules Verne-like “Goreyscope” offers microscopic evidence of the haunting qualities of Gorey’s curious bibliography.

A Jill Tracy accompanist

Friday Night at the Edwardian World Faire, headlining act geek-girl cello combo Rasputina sets toes to tapping with such “classics” as “Hunter’s Kiss”, “Watch TV”, and “Saline the Salt Lake Queen”, while upstairs in the fine arts gallery, fairies are being robotically squeezed to make libations (at least that’s what the sign says. Too bad January is my libation-free month, no freshly-squeezed fairy for me).

Jill Tracy (at keyboard)

Downstairs at the “fair”, much steam engine activity is on display thanks to the Kinetic Steam Works, and fabulous trinkets are for sale, mainly in the “jewelry made from sprung watch cogs, and studded leather utility belts” five-and-diamond vein.

Continue reading "Ballin' - Edwardian style" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Motor-vated: Kinetic Steamworks at Coachella 2007.

Because once is never enough. More ear-teasers to tantalize...

Edwardian Ball
Break out the corsets and strap yourself in, girls. The ninth annual event - now three days strong - bids you to party like it's 1899, follow the green fairy, and partake in music, art, burlesque, circus acts, and all things Edwardian and Edward Gorey-esque. (OK, Gorey was born a bit too late, but you get the general drift of the proceedings.) With Rasputina, Abney Park, Kinetic Steamworks, Rosin Coven, Vau de Vire Society, Jill Tracy, Cirque Berzerk, Agent Ribbons, and more. Fri/23-Sun/25, call for times, $25-$35. Regency Center, 1290 Sutter, SF. (415) 435-7527.

Thunderheist
The Toronto electro-funk party-starters gave a lil' impromptu show in London in December (above). Tonight they do it the legal way, courtesy of Blasthaus. Next up: a new album on Big Dada, coming March 31. Fri/23, 9 p.m., $10. 103 Harriet, SF.

Unagi
The slippery DJ brings the knowledge - "real hip-hop on real records all night long" - to his regular event, 442 Fridays, with DJ Animal. Fri/23, 9 p.m.-2 a.m., $5 after 10 p.m. Madrone Lounge, 500 Divisadero, SF. (415) 241-0202.

Continue reading "Sonic Reducer Overage II: Edwardian Ball, Unagi, Dragging an Ox Through Water, and more" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 08:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

It's time for you weekend nightlife forecast, but first this update from that horribly "hip" new Domino's BBQ chicken pizza campaign:

Viral! Compare that, of course, with SF's very own dirty techno birdie, Claude VonStroke -- and is anyone else 100 blog centuries old like me, and remembers that whole Burger King "subservient chicken" viral campaign where you could tell the guy in the chicken suit what to do? From like 2k3? OH MY GOD IT'S STILL HAPPENING!!!

I'll never understand why we always make cute what we want to eat. Except puppies. Even kitties are cheezburger on the Internetz.

But let's put away childish things, shall we, and dig into some of this weekend's better affairs:

--------------

TONITE! THU/22

THE NOISE

New local promotion juggernaut Hacksaw Entertainment launches with a grab-yr-cha-chas blast at 103 Harriet -- featuring, of course, my laptop life-love Lazer Sword bringing the future bass soundz, plus the very talented Ana Sia who'll bring some of her techno-burner pedigree to the tables, and SF mashup psyphy duo Hookerz and Blow, who blow the hooker-roof off live .... High-tail it to the H&B MySpace page and check out "Blow the Whistler" and it's Too $hort meets Claude VonStroke (again with him!) for some pure traffic jam genius.

The Noise
Thu/22, 10pm, $7
103 Harriet, SF
www.hacksawent.com

---------

FRI/23

ALPHABEATS

Beloved DJ Andrew Phelan and the rest of the chunky beats Prismatic crew -- the promos behind the hyperinventive Tonal color-coordinated loft parties -- bring in the big names for their AlphaBeats party, subtitled A is for Alien (I eagerly await B is for BetaMax). I would scoff a little at the umpteenth appearance of 90s god Doc Martin, but his set at LoveFest this summer was out of hand with its perfect blend of old school house numbers and new school choons. Doc's never really been known for his subtlety on the tables (it's all about bangin' hard into the cosmos), but he's definitely evolved stylistically as a major dance artist. BONUS: Sunshine Jones, of fave raves Dubtribe Sound System, will be on hand to spread it. DOUBLE BONUS: dress as an alien and get a free mix .... do it now!

AlphaBeats
Fri/23, 10pm-4am, $15-$25 (presale info here)
DNA Lounge
375 11th St., SF.
www.dnalounge.com

Continue reading "Super Ego: Alien techno chickens go bang, with hacksaws" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 04:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wow, oh wow -- not only is San Francisco's premiere punk-mess drag queen Anna Conda hosting a very-special-guest version of her weekly Charlie Horse party this Friday, BUT she'll then be retracting her greedy, greedy claws for a really good cause on Saturday afternoon at The Mix bar in the Castro. Sleeplessness!

Anna Conda: doin' good, whatever it takes

She'll be hosting a beer bust -- featuring a gaggle of too-wild and possibly just-assembled drag performances -- to help out Community Housing Partnership, a lovely local nonprofit which houses formerly-homeless people. For ONLY $10, you can mingle with the rock stars of indie drag and refill your little plastic beer cup as much as you like. For a good cause! Plus, a raffle.

Anna Conda's Sublebrity Beer Bust for CHP
Sat/17, 3-7pm, $10
The Mix
4086 18th St., SF
www.sfmixbar.com

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I knew it. I knew it! This weekend is the first holiday weekend I'm gonna be in town for the past year -- and I'm totally gonna blow my wad early and end up watching old episodes of Mad Men in bed, dutifully stoned. Why? Because Thursday night sees the launch of Daly City Records and ArtNowSF's ' new monthly Bass Camp at 111 Minna. And their bringing in all the big Montreal names in lazer bass, damn. I'm so lazer there.

Freakin' Megasoid, freakin' Lunice, freakin' Hovatron -- and a little somethin' I like to call Lazer Sword.

All that, PLUS Robot Koch and Bass Science -- with way-too-cute residents Mochipet, Epcot, Quitter, Salva, and MC Buddy LeRoy. It'll be the blaps, y'all ...

I LOVE LAZER BASS

Bass Camp
Third Thursdays, 9pm, $10 advance
111 Minna, SF.
www.111minnagallery.com

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 07:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Benefit time - with hip-hop lyricists and a dab of R&B. This in:

"Musiq 4 Hunger and Element Lounge in association with Hard in the Paint Ent., ViXXeN EnT., and LK Management presents: "The Resolution 2009."

"Performances by: Beeda Weeda, Don P., Diamond, Moss Da Boss, Bay Area Bad Girlz, Da Trendsettaz

"Featuring live music from Maya Kronberg (keys), Scott Thompson (bass), Chris Hansen (drums), Brandon McKee (sax), Bill Smolik (trumpet).

"Open mic sign-ups start at 9:30 p.m. Live band jam from 9:30-11 p.m. Special perfomances start at 11 p.m. ending at 12:45 a.m.

"DJ Smocha spinnin from 12:45 a.m.-2 a.m. with an open mic. $7 at the door or $5 with a canned food item. For more information please contact: Li-Mari, vixxenmusiq@gmail.com, (510) 672-8868."

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

Is there such a thing as talent? REALLY? Every philosophical question you have about drag gets tossed up and around when the famously scattered yet oddly hypnotic and definitely entertaining House of Salad takes over, as it will this Friday at Charlie Horse, the infamously packed and outlandish punk/rock/grunge/country/??? party hosted by Anna Conda at the Cinch on Polk Street.

I haven't ever been able to assign an aesthetic to the Saladeers -- mostly because there's so many of them, and mostly because no matter what's been planned going in, it all usually ends up pretty fucked up. But this newest House does give off a few pungent qualities: they always defy definition, from queen bee Ambrosia's post-melodramatic take on contemporary dance anthems to Kadija's super-techno and dubstep shakedowns, to Stanley and friends' old-school vaudeville. And they always put on a good show -- even if it's hilariously undercut by a fierce lack of studious stage effects. The girls need to find the spotlight sometime.

Yet of course I adore them, and you never know WHO is gonna pop up in the Salad spinner. Or what "giveaways" they'll be packing. (Hint: little, brown.) Basically it's all about thrown-together deliciousness, so just hold out your bowl and dive in.

Ambrosia Salad et al at L.A.'s Shits & Giggles party

House of Salad at Charlie Horse
Fri/16, 10pm (show at midnight), free
The Cinch
1723 Polk, SF.
www.thecinch.com

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mind that One Track Mind: Egyptian Lover's "Freak-A-Holic."

San Francisco stirs itself, shakes its shaggy head, and leaves home. Here are a few more reasons.

Leopold and His Fiction
The many moods of the SF indie-folk-rock combo turn toward...celebration with the unveiling of their new full-length Ain't No Surprise. Electric! With the Healing Curse and Candy Apple. Fri/9, 9:30 p.m., $6. Hemlock Tavern, 1131 Polk, SF. (415) 923-0923.

LoCura
Living la vida LoCura? That means an eye-opening blend of flamenco, rumba, reggae, and hip-hop complete with bellydane and plenty of Animas. Fri/9, 9 p.m., $15. Great American Music Hall, 859 O'Farrell, SF. (415) 885-0750.

Continue reading "Sonic Reducer Overage: Magic Bullets, LoCura, White Cloud, Chuchito Valdes, and more" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The up side: Agent Ribbons.

Another in a series of year-end picks from Bay Area musicians, writers, scene-makers, and music lovers.

SMILE'S NEIL MARTINSON'S TOP 10

- Citadelle at the Knockout, Aug. 4
- Robert Forster at Great American Music Hall, Sept. 10
- Peter Hammill at Great American Music Hall, Sept. 30
- Kelley Stoltz, Circular Sounds (Sub Pop)
- The Moon Upstairs, Guarding the Golden Apple (Gifted Children)
- Various artists, Daisies soundtrack (Finders Keepers)
- Bart Davenport, Palaces (Antenna Farm)
- Lavender Diamond, www.myspace.com/lavenderdiamond
- Agent Ribbons, www.myspace.com/agentribbons
- Willow Willow, www.myspace.com/willowwillow

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 06:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Doing it better: Chromatics.

Another in a series of year-end picks from Bay Area musicians, writers, scene-makers, and music lovers.

MICHAEL HARKIN'S TOP 10

- Nobunny, "I Am a Girlfriend"
If the original Ramones replaced Tommy with a drum machine, it might've sounded as amazing as this track from Love Visions (1-2-3-4 Go!).
- Danzig at the Warfield
"Mother"... kicking a pizza box out of a roadie's grasp ... Glenn still rules.
- Nodzzz, Nodzzz mini-LP (What's Your Rupture?)
Fantastic, distortion-free guitar pop.
- Special Disco Version at Mighty
God bless James Murphy and Pat Mahoney for their brilliant edits and many mirrorballs.

Continue reading "'Girlfriend,' Special Disco, Danzig: Michael Harkin's tops for 2008" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a very select blast of bubbly, DJ-driven New Years Eve parties. All events take place Wednesday, Dec. 31 — and those marked "late" go afterhours for your party-hopping pleasure.

Afrolicious

Feel a warm, wet vibe of the new with DJ Sabo of Sol Selectas, residents Pleasuremaker and Señor Oz, live percussionists, and hundreds of gyrating lovelies.

10 p.m., $20. Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. www.elbo.com

Bootie Pirate Party

Arrrr — it's 2k9! Swing from the mashup club's mizzenmast with Smash-Up Derby live and DJs Adrian and Mysterious D, Party Ben, Dada, and Earworm.

9 p.m.–late, $25 advance. DNA Lounge, 375 11th St., SF. www.bootiesf.com

Booty Call NYE

Drag mother Juanita More, playboy Joshua J., DJ Initials P.B., performer Hoku Mama Swamp, and star photographer Brandon — look smart! — bring all the hot boys together to pop a few corks.

8:30 p.m., Check Web site for price. The Bar, 456 Castro, SF. www.juanitamore.com

Eclectic Fever Masquerade

Shake your feathers and bhangra in the new with the NonStop Bhangra dance troupe, and then get global with Sila and the Afrofunk Experience, Daronda, and DJ Felina.

9 p.m.–late, $55. Gift Center Pavilion, 888 Brannan, SF. www.eclecticfever.com

Imagine

Spundae and Mixed Elements explode with local house heroes Kaskade, Trevor Simpson, and baLi — plus, a jungle room and "shiny confetti rain."

8 p.m., $60 advance. Ruby Skye, 420 Mason, SF. www.rubyskye.com

Love Unlimited

Almost every fab disco crew — Gemini Disco, DJ Bus Station John, Honey Soundsystem, Ferrari, Beat Electric — comes together for this all-night beat blast with DJ Cosmo Vitelli.

9 p.m., $15 advance. Paradise Lounge, 308 11th St., SF. www.myspace.com/honeysoundsystem

Continue reading "Super Ego: New Years blasts -- pop, pop!" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

I'm a-freezing my hanukkah latkes off in Detroit right now (-10 wind chill), so maybe it's appropriate, among the blizzard of end-of-year lists, that I pop in my hot mix of the year. All 45 Ghostworld conga-line minutes of Detroit wizard Jeff Mills' triple-table symphonic techno tour de force, "The Exhibitionist."

Before the techno purists claw my ears out, yes this mix came out in late 2k7 -- but I'm on drag time. What really got me about this mind-blowing performance (the sleeve clean at 17:20 made me burst into tears) was how Mills tweaked the massive global rhythms that have always existed subconsciously below fine techno's surface to come up with the kind of polyrhythmy that dubstep can only achieve at its best. Not that it's a competition -- and I was addicted to more dubstep mixes this year than I can count -- but I'm a technoist at heart, and this mix really said something I've been trying to say for years: that machine music possesses a global soul.

I will eternally worship the person who transcribes this for the New York Philharmonic. Or whips out the entire set at Carnaval.

BONUS: SF-made mixes I loved this past year:

Lazer Sword: Future Blaps

Kontrol: XLR8R techno tear-up

Richie Panic: An Amazing Lifelike Companion

Public: all mixes (esp. Metallica)

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Old-school musical mash-ups - hold the torture: DeLeon.

By Michelle Broder Van Dyke

Eight days of fun packed into one night: two bands, DJs, latkes, He’Brew beer tastings, halvah, Hanukkah survival kits, and a menorah-lighting ceremony - this surely surpasses any party Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, and Blitzen are planning to throw this holiday season.

New York band DeLeon reinterprets pre-Spanish Inquisition Sephardic folk melodies sung in Ladino (a Judeo-Spanish language), Hebrew, and English into postmodern rock compositions. Fusing Spanish and Middle Eastern percussion and electronic rhythms along with a mixture of each aforementioned language, DeLeon's songs commandeer an array of emotions, ranging from lovelorn and woeful to lighthearted and gleeful, while reclaiming an ancient folk tradition for a modern audience.

Continue reading "Jews rock out for Hanukkah as if the Spanish Inquisition never happened" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 09:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's an interview with new-cumbia whizzes Bersa Discos -- on the eve of their party Tormenta Tropical's first anniversary this Friday at the The Elbo Room -- as published in this week's Scene: The Guardian Guide to Nightlife and Glamour magazine, on stands inside the Guardian...

DJ oro11 and Disco Shawn. Photo by Conor Collins.

"The reception to our sound has been amazing here," says new-style cumbia pioneer DJ Oro11 — who, along with partner DJ Disco Shawn, heads the Bersa Discos label (www.myspace.com/bersadiscos) and puts on the packed Tormenta Tropical monthlies at Elbo Room. "A place like the Bay Area is a perfect spot for new cumbia sounds to take hold. People here are always looking for new music, plus there's obviously a huge Latino population. A lot of younger Latinos who grew up hearing cumbia also listened to hip-hop and electronic music. They're really into what we're doing."

Cumbia, the irresistible traditional accordion-driven dance music of Argentina, has undergone a mutation of sorts, opening up to include electronic augmentation, hip-hop beats, and even punk styles. The new iteration has taken hold in clubs like the cutting-edge Zizek, in Buenos Aires, where Oro11 was living and performing when Disco Shawn sought him out in 2006 for a taste of the electro-cumbia sound. The two returned to San Francisco, their home base, to form the Bersa Discos label as a kind of sonic nexus. "DJs and producers were selling burned CDs and swapping MP3s, but nothing was very organized at the time," says Disco Shawn. "We just wanted to get some of these amazing tracks pressed up on vinyl and circulated a little more officially."

Bersa Discos is now on its fourth release, titled, appropriately, Bersa #4 and featuring Afro-Colombian-tinged tracks by Brooklyn's Uproot Andy and deeper sounds from the Netherlands' Sonido del Principe. And the Tormenta Tropical party has seen legends like DJ/Rupture, South Rakkas Crew, Buraka Som Sistema, Toy Selectah, and even the Zizek folks burn up the stage. Shawn says to keep a 2k9 ear out for DJ Panik's Texan "crunk cumbia." Meanwhile, UK "bashment" crew the Heatwave hop in Dec. 19 to enliven the party's first anniversary.

SFBG What originally attracted you to the new cumbia style?

Continue reading "Scene: Bersa Discos hits the bueno" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 05:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This in from Special Lord B - and hurry it's tonight:

"CLUB INTERNATIONALE!!! Thursday, Dec. 11.

"Hear obscure pop, psych, disco, and funk from Turkey, Italy, Thailand, India, Japan, Germany, France Africa, and more!

"Guest DJ LOACHFILET, aka, Bobby Adams (Mummers, Caroliner, Honeywell)

Continue reading "Global obscuro-a-go-go: Club Internationale goes off tonight" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 09:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jump in: Too $hort's "I'm a Player."

Party-hopping, penny-pinching, craft-making and cookie-baking, and singing for your supper - the holiday activities never let up - and the city responds in kind...with more, more, more shows. Here's what you might be missing...

All righty: Cold War Kids' "Something Is Not Right with Me."

VAMPIRE WEEKEND AND COLD WAR KIDS
"Golden Gate Jumpers" alert. The combos warm up Not So Silent Night with this toasty pre-show. Wed/10, 8 p.m., $25. Mezzanine, 444 Jessie, SF. (415) 625-8880.

Continue reading "Sonic Reducer Overage: Mudhoney, Too $hort, Not So Silent Night, the Bug, and more" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

But will he ever find sunrise?

Look, I love all kinds of nightlife -- even zillion-selling sellout nightlife on occasion (yes, I've been to Ibiza) -- and I've championed a lot of dumb music just because it's fun. Ain't nothing wrong with a little fun, and I'm comfortable with being accused of being gushy about absolutely silly things at times.

But I've also spent most of my life trying to convince people that electronic dance music is so much more than lazy, repetitive drivel made for a million blank-minded lockstep androids -- that it can have true soul and experimental meaning, inducing both chills and progress in a subcultural community -- only for many of my arguments to come undone by this horrid bombast:

Continue reading "Super Ego: My nightmare, it is real" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 03:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

I would seriously follow local turbocrunk duo Lazer Sword to the ends of the earth -- and I just might have to, once they embark on their European Tour in February (come back, come back ...). One of the last times to see them rock the little electronic boxes live will be this Thursday at the fun-filled monthly Work party at UndergroundSF, hosted by the Unicrons crew.

I've had a few small reservations about the Work parties -- they've been popular, and I dig all the local music-making talent they've brought in. Particularly, I'm partial lately to Unicrons members Futuristic Prince, whose jam "Amok Time" has lodged itself in my ears. But the party seemed to follow a kind of tired banger party template, and the promotion has at times seemed a tad desperate. Once they even claimed to be celebrating the release of the new G4 iPhone and The Dark Knight Returns! I hope that was in jest, and I certainly understand that you gotta do what you gotta do to build a party. Twenty Myspace bulletins an hour, though, usually only serves to turn me off. (Can we make that a rule for all club promoters at this late point in the MySpace thingie?)

HOWEVER!

Continue reading "Super Ego: Work that Lazer Sword" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

The Guardian's Year in Music issue doesn't come out for a couple weeks, but I'm getting my musical top 10 of 2008 (clubswise) list ready -- check out last year's here -- and I'm pretty sure the loves of my musical life for the past two months will be on it: Clubfeet, a golden trio from Australia, where most great dance-ish music seems to come from. OK, it's not too dance-ish, maybe (although look for the slew of banger remixes to follow), but the tuneful coupling of innocently cynical sentiment with absolutely beautiful production is a marvel that has me skipping around in my undies. Check out Clubfeet's album Gold on Gold (Plant Music -- available on iTunes etc.) and get ready to sing a long ....

Below, the vids for "Teenage Suicide" (if you don't get the reference, then I fear for your Gen-X soul) and the gorgeous "DIE Yuppie Scum" which puts me in mind of Stephen Duffy/Tin Tin, especially the vocals. And I will bestow a million kisses on the first DJ here to play them ...

Clubfeet, "Teenage Suicide"

Clubfeet, "DIE Yuppie Scum"

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 01:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

Oh, hai, the '80s -- ur doin it rong. Unless you've been hitting up the totally awesome roving monthly New Wave City for the past 16 years, right? I remember when NWC DJs Shindog and Skip were just a twinkle in the '90s eyes -- 1992, wha? -- going against the rave-inundated mainstream and reliving the cozy Morrissey-tinged conundrum that was the '80s: shy neon. Love those children. And take that Calvin Harris fans -- the '80s started again the minute they finished! Lather rinse repeat.

'80s! I'm just gonna write that a thousand million blood- and mascara-stained times.

NWC's planned a massive synthalicious hoedown at DNA Lounge this Saturday, Dec. 6, to blow out their Sixteen Candles with appropriate assymetrical haircut aplomb. Special guest DJs they've fi-Nageled for the occasion: Melting Girl, Donimo, and Andy T. PLUS: an '80s fashion contest to win those fancy new Smiths and New Order deluxe compilations! Be there or be Huey Lewis.

After the jump: My NWC sweet 16 top 7 special requests

Continue reading "Super Ego: New Wave City's sweet 16" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 04:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

Clubwise, this is an absoschmutely luverly weekend to catch up on your real house music education. Representing the actual, incredible old school is the Godfather of House (and the sqwonky inventor of acid) himself, Marshall Jefferson, moving your body at the steamy B.O.D.Y.H.E.A.T. party at Elbo Room on Friday, Dec. 5. Marshall recently brought it into the new a little with his smash Mushrooms, remixed by SF's own goofy-minimal darling Justin Martin -- which was nice after what seemed too many years of silence from the master.

But he didn't bring it exactly up to the minute, into the realms of underground German microhouse -- for that, I gaily urge you to hit up one of my most favorite minimal techno clubs, Kontrol at the Endup, to catch perennially poignant Perlon records' Cassy at work this Saturday, Dec. 6.

Cassy, oh! Photo by Marietta Kesting

I still don't know if I believe in microhouse -- which to my fuzzy, broken ears often just sounds like minimal techno with a very few softer sounds and soul samples thrown in. But I get that it's the proud polar opposite of the usual overproduced house bombast, even if it can sometimes lean dangerously close to trance at times, albeit barebones, non-carnival trance. Not that there's anything wrong with trance, but there kind of is.

In any case, Berlin native Cassy's on it with some fierce sets of deep-cutting suavity, and Kontrol's booth will see some much-appreciated female power. Its dance floor, however, will be as dark and fantastic as always. The Berlin invasion continues!

Cassy at Hamburg's Camp 77 party

Cassy at the 2008 Detroit Electronic Music Festival

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 03:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

A sad week -- possibly, see below -- for queer punks and their admirers: beloved monthly Trans Am, which has torn up the floor of Club 8 (and confused quite a few Korean tourists expecting a campy tranny floorshow) for two whole years is calling it quits. Dangit!

The mad punk spirit will live on at weekly dragtastrophe Charlie Horse and Trans Am promoters Bill Picture and DJ Dirty Knees's other monthly joint Chrome, but Trans Am booked a ton of live talent that wouldn't have gotten as much exposure without them. Plus, there were always a few hot boys.

I asked Picture about the club's tearjerking demise and plans for the future (drag ball!). His comments after the jump:

Continue reading "Super Ego: Trans Am effs off" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by SFBG at 08:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Say hello to my little invisible friend: Los Amigos Invisibles' "Cuchi Cuchi."

Ask and the city provides - good times and solid sounds for all. Here's the good schtuff that didn't make it to print.

WU-TANG CLAN
The Wu is with you - though RZA and Ghostface Killah were MIA when the group last played Ess Ef. Wed/3, 8 p.m., $45. Grand Ballroom at Regency Center, Van Ness and Sutter, SF. (415) 421-8497.

LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES
This year the Venezuela group impressed at Outside Lands and threw out its first live DVD - and a new studio album is said to be in post-production. With Funky-C and DJ Felina. Thurs/4, 9 p.m., $22. Independent, 628 Divisadero, SF. (415) 771-1421.

Continue reading "Sonic Reducer Overage: Mixmaster Mike, Los Amigos Invisibles, Wu-Tang Clan, Morning Benders, and more" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 11:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Change Nation: Lyrics Born's "I Changed My Mind."

You're gonna be stuffed, you're going to be stressed, you're going to be tired of watching football... Then, you'll want to go out - and be among kindred spirits fleeing family and taking refuge in solid sounds.

LYRICS BORN
You like him, you love him. The Bay MC ushers in the holidaze. With Raashan Ahmad and Mavrik. Wed/26, 9 p.m., $25. Independent, 628 Divisadero, SF. (415) 771-1422.

SISTERS OF MERCY
The band that launched a jillion black dye jobs hasn't released new material since 1993. Wed/26, 8 p.m., $35. Warfield, 982 Market, SF. (415) 421-8497.

Continue reading "Sonic Reducer Overage: Lyrics Born, M83, Herbaliser, and more" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

It occurs to me -- your nightlife numbskull, your good-times guide -- that my Super Ego column this week and its bloggy follow-up, which focussed on some of my fave queer clubs, was a tad phallocentric. Dykes are HOTTT! Including the invisible ones. Here's an especially lovely lesbian hoedown coming up, with more dyke nightlife delights to come.

Diamond Daggers Disco Thanksgiving

The enormously talented and flexible all-queer-women burlesque troop Diamond Daggers blew naughty minds at the Castro Street Fair and have been perfoming monthly at Fat City lately. Who can deny their death-defying feats of daring dykeness? Not me. This time around, on Sat Nov. 22, they're presenting a "Disco Thanksgiving" for all you polyester turkeys stuffed with shards of mirror ball and platform giblets.

Oh yes, there's an especially all-star lineup for this one as well: dark god Vinsantos, "princess of pork" drag superstar Glamamore, fabulously nimble SF Boylesque troupe, local cabaret starlet and "Oakland's Chocolate Kisses of Burlesque" Alotta Boutte, drag king singer Leigh Crow aka Elvis Herselvis, and many, many more than listable in this infinite webspace. The disco part will be provided by girl-about-town DJ Campbell and the mysterious C’est Jille. C'est chic! Let's freak!

Diamond Daggers Disco Thanksgiving
Sat/22, doors 9pm, show 10:30pm
$12-$20 sliding scale
Fat City
314 11th St., SF.
www.myspace.com/DiamondDaggersBurlesque

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In this week's Super Ego clubs column, I feature some truly cutting edge homosexual dance parties to wiggle your Prop 8 blues away at. Of course, there wasn't room for all of them -- here's a couple more, with more to come, to whet your limp-wrist whistle.

To get us going, here's the brand-spankin'-new vid for "Tweaker Bitch" by SF's very own rockin' crazies Mon Cousin Belge (one of our 2008 Hot Pink List queers we love). Tweak it, Tina!

---------
All aboard for Booty

What's better than a club hosted by wild personalities that drags you into a phenomenally, artistically decorated back room to snap your photo? One that comes out with it's own freakin' calendar. Yes, I'm talking about Booty Call, Juanita More and Joshua J.'s packed weekly Wednesday night affair at the haplessly-named Bar on Castro.

This Wednesday is Booty Call's first anniversary, and they've just released their 2009 calendar, featuring hot More Boys (and one girl) photographed by the ever-cute Brandon Norris, which you can purchase here.

Booty Call Wednesdays
9pm, free
Bar on Castro
456 Castro, SF.

But wait -- there's more!

Continue reading "Clubs: Bitch, B*tch, Booty Call" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 02:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Michelle Broder Van Dyke

Watching Lykke Li bounce her nimble, lithe body, holding her hand to her head, as she warms up before screaming into a megaphone in the “Breaking It Up (Alternate Take)” video reminds me of a simple fact: sex sells. Better yet, cute Swedish girls who exude sexuality sell.

A standard formula we all know, but these days it has got a twist: GAWS majors and hipster boys wearing their sister’s pants reflect a shift in the standard norms of sex stars from the typical Paris Hilton and Christina Aguilera wannabes, and the spectrum has been widened to less conventional icons like Maggie Gyllenhaal and Swedish pop sensation Lykke Li.

Lykke Li dances with a lot of hopping and arm flinging, which makes her resemble a sexier, less crazed, but still spastic Ian Curtis. She stares into the camera as if she’s looking at you, drops her eyes, and even though she’s breaking up with you, you’re already addicted by the time the catchy hook comes.

Easy to do: the official "Breaking It Up."

Continue reading "Dance, dance, dance with Lykke Li - and mixed emotions" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 09:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What to wear - and who to scare?

Starting early, I'd sample "Tingel Tangel Club: Sex Magic and the Occult" - Penny Arcade, Kitten on the Keys, and others take a sexy occult spin on Samhain. Come with? Wed/29, 9 p.m., $16-$22. Café Du Nord, 2170 Market, SF. (415) 861-5016.

Then I'd land, splat, at Thrillpeddlers' blood-spattered Grand Guignol, Shocktoberfest!! 2008: Elemental Horror. Cannibalism, unspeakable magnetism, decapitated heads, and the spookiest finale yet - where do I sign up? Fri/31, 8 p.m. (though Nov. 22), $15-$69. Hypnodrome, 575 10th St., SF. (800) 838-3006.

Continue reading "Sonic Reducer Overage: Hot Halloweenie roast and other scary delights" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lots of stuff in store for the SF group Lemonade - this just in from their PR peoples:

"Lemonade marries big beats with heavy psychedelic noises, while touching on elements of North African rai, dub, breakbeat, and samba and much more in their self-titled debut. The SF trio (soon to be NYC trio) is composed of childhood friends Callan Clendenin (vocals), Alex Pasternak (percussion) and Ben Steidel (bass), and they did not have grand expectations for the project outside of exploring their shared vision of a place that they have never been: a fantasy landscape that is at once gritty and pristine, tropical and foreboding. Their trippy, pulsing self-titled debut is out now, Oct 21, on True Panther.

"Hot on the heels of this much anticipated release, Lemonade is announcing the REMIXTAPE album this November as companion to their debut. The REMIXTAPE features contributions from Delorean, Lazer Sword, Ghosts On Tape, C.L.A.W.S, among others."

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

By Brandon Bussolini

If the name James Lavelle rings familiar, think back: this is the guy behind UK label Mo’ Wax, which in its heyday endtroduced DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, and Tommy Guerrero. He’s also the mastermind behind UNKLE, the collaboration-prone production team that paired him with Shadow for their five-years-in-the-making debut, Psyence Fiction (Mo’ Wax, 1998).

More talked about than actually heard — the first album included contributions from Thom Yorke, Talk Talk’s Mark Hollis, and Mike D, among others — UNKLE went on to replace Shadow with Richard File for 2003’s less compelling Never Never Land (Mo’ Wax) and 2007’s virtually ignored War Stories (TBC).

But focusing on Lavelle’s lofty ambitions as a music maker doesn’t give credit to his considerable contributions to hip-hop and house music in the UK; with his boutique label and club nights — That’s How It Is, with Gilles Peterson, lasted a decade — Lavelle helped midwife trip-hop by establishing hip-hop as a living tradition, one whose boundaries weren’t strictly musical.

Continue reading "Entroducing... James Lavelle at Mighty" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 08:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

OK, I took a lot of shit for my recent velvet-gloved smackdown of French electro duo Justice and their cavalier ways, despite my total support of the local banger scene -- but, really, with their new movie A Cross the Universe about to hit Blu-Rays near you-rays, I must say I completely stand by my assertion that hardcore electro is the new hair metal.

Paraphrasing that indespensible Chroniblog Of Our Times, Hipster Runoff: "will public chick b00b ratio to meaningful tour driving road scenes = 1?"

BONUS: EDGY! Total mindfuck mid-90s-like gay-grabbing ploy for cred/attention! C'est francais!

BONUS BONUS: Everyone's doing it! (And yet I lurf it.)

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 06:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jesus: Patti Smith in The Black Generation in 1979.

So much to do, so many to see. Here are the notables that didn't make print.

HUBBA HUBBA REVUE
Every third Friday, the frocks come off and the old- 'n' new-school burlesque is ahn. Loved Lady Satan's recent toy-gun-humping Sarah Parlin striptease - she's here at this Oktoberfest edition, along with Trixxie Carr, Sparkly Devil, Alotta Boutte, and Calamity Lulu. Lee Press-On and the Nails provide the live tunes. Check the show out every Monday eve at Uptown Nightclub, too. Fri/17, 9 p.m., $10-$15. DNA Lounge, 375 Eleventh St., SF. (415) 626-1409.

Continue reading "Sonic Reducer Overage: Patti Smith, Kings of Leon, M.A.N.D.Y., Hubba Hubba Revue" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 08:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Taken for granted? Pendulum's "Granite."

Whoa, again, San Fran coughs up the fun stuff to do this week - and as usual, it's far more than we can handle in one mere newspaper. Here's what didn't make it into print, but may be worth leaving the house for.

SKYGREEN LEOPARDS AND EYES
SF’s feline psychedelicists stir, alongside Eyes’ proggy dreamers. With the Mantles. Thurs/9, 9 p.m., $8. Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF. (415) 621-4455.

GLITCH MOB
The LA glitch-hoppers unleash the Equal Opportunity Enjoyer on an unsuspecting public. With Megasoid, Rustie, Eprom, and Anasia. Fri/10, 9 p.m. doors, $20 advance. Mezzanine, 444 Jessie, SF. (415) 625-8880.

Continue reading "Sonic Reducer Overage: Pendulum, Killdozer, Kowloon Walled City, and more" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 04:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Brandon Bussolini

Brazilian Girls just released an album named for a city that they’ll be leaving for a little bit. They used to tour a lot, but now vocalist Sabina Sciubba, keyboard player Didi Gutman, and drummer Aaron Johnston are leaving New York City to spend time elsewhere. This makes sense since Brazilian Girls’ music has no single place of origin or definite direction. Their new album, like its predecessors, sits across several different styles and changes from minute to minute.

It can be a fun game to chase down the kinds of music Brazilian Girls incorporate into their own, but the sound itself has very little to do with tradition or context - it’s synthetic, and at its best is good enough to stop you from wondering whether what you’re listening to is world music or not - and whether there’s even anything wrong with that.

Sciubba’s voice is the band’s most distinctive element, but the songs themselves are little intelligent machines, and they work unhurriedly and with economy. The new full-length's first song, “St. Petersburg,” is where this clicks into place immediately, with its samba-techno rhythm and big triumphant chorus, where Sciubba’s typically arch delivery breaks with sophistication and becomes uncomplicatedly raw and moving. I had the opportunity to speak with Sciubba as the group began a short tour supporting New York City (Verve Forecast). Brazilian Girls play Mezzanine Saturday, Sept. 27.

SFBG: I read that after completing the album you took off for Paris. Was this a vacation, or something more permanent?

Continue reading "Multilingual beats, Obama love: Brazilian Girls move on with 'New York City'" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 05:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh, how we love our very own famed gay bathhouse disco revivalist DJ Bus Station John and his decidedly hot man-centric cruisefest parties, thrown in the steamy-smoky spirit of the early-mid '70s and slightly beyond. (Read my 2005 interview with him here.) So how delightful that the anniversary of MANQUAKE!, his "sordidly savory SF mix of trickin' chicken, tourist meat, & sexy senior citizens" soiree would fall on Folsom Street Fair eve!

Spirits of the disco: "Karl" and "Phillip" at MANQUAKE

Spirit of the Piers: "Bruce" at MANQUAKE
All masks loving crafted by Bus Station John

Return to the tender coal mining days of gay yore at the Gangway this Saturday night, randy boys and men, and feast your eyes upon the fair bounty lining the Gangway's man-mask-bedecked walls and X-traordinary vintage visuals curated by der Blaue Reiter -- and your ears on the impeccable vinyl selection of Bus Station John featuring "'70s/'80s lost disco, funk, and r&b classics & rarities from the glory days of pre-digital dance music. Festive attire or clothing optional? YOU decide!" Plus: a mystery go-go boy! See your loins a-plenty there.

MANQUAKE! 1-Year Anniversary (Folsom Eve)
Sat/27, 10pm-2am, $5
The Gangway
841 Larkin between Geary and O'Farrell
(415) 776-6828

After the jump -- a BONUS history flashback, sent from DJ BSJ, starring Ozzy!

Continue reading "Clubs: MANQUAKE! pricks up Folsom eve" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 06:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Photo by Jordan Fraker

First the good news: Lazer Sword, the local loco duo of robo-crunk remix actionists that blow out my speakers rightly, have just released the mixtape of the year, in my book. It's called Blap to the Future. Check it out and gleam dizzy (download). Srsly, my laptop is xplodin' with this shit. Listen and believe. You can find out more about the mix on the Lazer Sword MySpace blog.

Now the bad news (read the fine print):

From Lazer Sword: SO YES FRIENDS IT'S TRUE. LANDO KAL, 1/2 OF LAZER SWORD, GOT HIS APPLE MACBOOK PRO LAPTOP STOLEN OUT OF HIS HANDS AT GUNPOINT IN FRONT OF A CLUB BEFORE A LS SET WEDNESDAY, 8/27/08.

Mum's the word on which club -- but look, we're gonna have a party and reimburse the shit. Hit up fancy Ambassador this Thursday for an all-star lineup of glitch-hop, electro disco, and other adventurous heads, in conjunction with promoters Hoodies and Heels, for a mind-bending night that gives back.

Lazer Sword Benefit
Thurs/25, 10pm-2am, Free but donate at the door
Ambassador
673 Geary Street
More info here

PS -- oh hey, speaking of White Girl Lust, there's a ripping disco-dive brand new mix up on xlr8r that features their new label Solid Bump.

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 04:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Michelle Broder Van Dyke

If you want to see naked ladies and full-tilt dick, then Gravy Train!!! - one exclamation point for each member of the band - has the show for you. Members of the Oakland fourpiece almost always get outta-hand and nude onstage while serving up their saucy sounds. Chunx, Hunx, Junx, and Funx take turns on guitar, bass, keyboard, and vocals, and usually prance onstage wearing neon-pink spandex, fishnets, or feather boas. If all goes well, they’ll be wearing less than that by the end of their set.

Electropop is the name of Gravy Train!!!!'s game, and while not brilliant, their catchy sound sports lyrics that run the gamut, from advocating boning high school boys to the frustrations of men with petite wieners. Their raps are particularly impressive, and include such clever rhymes as “I had some 40z on my mind when I woke up this mornin' / I was sick of fancy drinks from the bitches I’d been bonin’ / Wanted to get trashed, lay down and drink my stash / Get up and make a quick dash then bat my fuckin' eyelash / At the big nasty bottle of the shit I drink / You may call me a ghetto freak but I won't even blink / Don't even try to contain the 40z that I drain / I leave a malt liquor stain like a fucking freight train” ("Sippin 40z").

Continue reading "Naked funk? Get on the Gravy Train!!!!" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

Justice, "DVNO"

Bonjour, Fifi! In this week's Guardian I go after French hardcore electro sensation Justice (Kim Chun wonderfully defends them), and share a few personal thoughts on the explosively glitzy banger scene that's grown up around their sound. Some people have written me to call me "old" and "a scold" -- that rhymes! Others have lauded me as an "old-school defender" and for "finally taking a hard look at today's materialistic youth."

I don't know about all that. I am old-school -- I've been around a while -- but that doesn't mean I want to divide stuff up and take sides. Move on dot org!

I can see good things and bad things about most kinds of nightlife. And I surely feel a positive energy and musical innovation at certain banger clubs like Blow Up, even as I worry over some of the materialistic and surface aspects of the hardcore electro scene. Nightlife is an art, and like any art critic, I retain a moralistic vision -- but I know that the wonderful purpose of art is to blow up (get it?) any moralistic vision to smithereens and go beyond mere words. But I'll always totally be down with, as fabulous DJ Richie Panic says below, "going out at night, doing drugs, having sex in bathrooms, and listening to DANCE music."

It's difficult to try to objectively critique an underground scene I love and support! BUT at least it's not this, roight:

Rockstar SF @ Roe/Prive

And here, for comparison's sake, is Blow Up:

Besides the hipster quotient and economic differences (the banger audience is def not $200 bottle service -- yet speaks better french!), and also A LOT more comfort with the gays and female empowerment, plus far less douchebags in dimestore cornrows laughing about rape -- HAHAHA -- I think I root the difference mostly in the music. I get chills when the change comes in on the lovely Empire of the Sun track above. (With mashups of "Obsession" .... not so much.) And that's a fundamental of underground nightlife right there -- better music and hair than the douchebags. See? We're still all one.

Anyway, back to Justice. They're weird! they can fill giant venues, which kind of forfeits underground cred, yet they still somehow retain underground cred. For illumination, I turn to Richie Panic, one of my favorite DJs, the king of the Cali banger scene, and a real sweetheart. Plus a genius. Oh, and he'll be playing a monster show at Mezzanine with Too Many DJs and Soulwax on Oct. 30 -- so catch that! His take below:

Continue reading "Clubs: Seeking Justice with DJ Richie Panic" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 02:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"The way you fierced Middle-America with your thong-and-boots model stomp into that truckstop Diary Queen will be a moment I'll never forget ... "

An amazingly sad evening, as news that The Steve Lady, stunning drag queen, winner of the first Miss Trannyshack, and, really, just a fierce human, a paragon of class and sexiness, with always a hilariously kind and sisterly word for me, has passed on. I use the word legendary a lot, but The Steve Lady really was it.

Tribute to the Steve Lady

From Juanita More's Web site:

Dear Friends,

The Steve Lady passed away peacefully at home with her partner and father at her side. Over the past couple of weeks the notes that you left for her were shared with The Lady at her bedside. She was floored by your messages of love.

There will be a celebration of his life in San Francisco, date and time to come.

Love, Juanita

Read the many messages of love. You can help with donations, etc here.

The Steve Lady will be incredibly, sorely missed.

The Steve Lady and Juanita More perform "The Funky Watusi" at Trannyshack's inflammatory "Wetback night" in '99 ...

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hola. My name is Marke B. I write a sort-of biweekly clubs column for the SF Bay Guardian called Super Ego. Sometimes I write about electro. This is not my party.

In June 2007, the same folks threw this party I think at Etiquette. I wrote to them! They wrote back! It was informative!

Continue reading "Clubs: In case you were wondering ..." »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 03:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ah, my anarchic, incorrect geighs -- I haven't checked in with them in a while, and I'm sure they've been up to alot! Besides Q-Tipping playa dust out of their cracks. So here's a fun threesome of upcoming things from the homo-club-intelligentsia to enjoy. And by "enjoy" I mean "masturbate." And by "masturbate" I mean "enjoy." It's an antimetabole!

----------

Bitch

"Bitch" has become such a fraught word in this election. So let's add flaming to the fire and go to a club called Bitch on 9/11! Right on. (Hey we've already had 9/11 in July...) Mistress Monistat is throwing another of her fabulous straight-bar takeover shindigs at Vertigo this Thursday to wipe away your Al-Quesadilla Al-Qaeda blues. Mona's been a little stingy on the DJ info, just like she is with the baggie, but I do know that the inimitable Anna Conda of Charlie Horse (pictured on the flyer below) will be there, doing something, with something. But cocktails! Disaster!

Bitch
Thu/11, 9pm-2am, free
Vertigo
1160 Polk (at Sutter), SF.
(415) 674-1278

----------

Chicken

Cluck, cluck, goosed -- The ever-gooful Miss Juanita More is hosting another of her infamous Funky Chicken Brunches on Sun/14 afternoon at Mars Bar -- and all the cool kids will have their napkins out for her delicious fried chicken and heavenly home-baked (just like her!) carrot cake. The chicken's good -- and so's the chicken!

Continue reading "Clubs: That chicken got runt over, bitch" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 06:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

The amazing and gifted House god DJ Spen of the Code Red and Defected labels is coming to Temple this Sunday night (8/31).

Now and Spen

Spen's been in House so long, it wouldn't have walls without him -- dating back to his work with the seminal Basement Boys in 1989, up through his major diva remixes (I for one couldn't escape his Mandarin-plucky version of Mary J.'s "Beautiful" in the mid-'90s -- hi, DJ Rolo!) and into his current smooth matureness, spreading some deep sunshine all over the global floors. He'll be accompanied on Sunday for a very long set -- we do have Monday off, yes? -- by the ever-fab DJ David Harness of Thread Recordings. Househed reunion!

My real question, though, is will Spen play this, one of the undisputed underground jams of 1999? I'll bring a change of millennium shoes, just in case ...

DJ Spen w/ David Harness
6pm-late, $10
(Super Soul Sundayz Labor Day Celebration)
Temple
55 Natoma
www.templesf.com

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

But first, a bonus! -- the ecstatical, fantastical, local maniac DJ Richie Panic at Dance, LA last week -- good lord, did half of hipster-perf SF go down there for this? Hilarious moment @ 2:47 = dancefloor opera, go Richie!

CLUB DANCE (RICHIE PANIC)

And now the meat. In this week's Fall Arts Preview, I thumb out a gaggle of rad parties happening in the near future, and sound off about a few of the lovely club jams I'd like to see hit the floor for fall. Here's some extra-poppy ones I bounce to right now that have interesting video accompaniment: for the ipod of your mind. Nothing too edgy or new -- we'll all fall softly and boppily into autumn's orange arms

Plug: Look out for our next stylish Scene nightlife and glamour supplement to drop on Sept. 17 for more club goodies.

I said you'd be "so over" this next track by last Wednesday -- but I was K.I.D.D.I.N.G. I love Cazwell, the gay rap dream from NYC, and in this one LA megafag Jonny Makeup, gives us the hooks and cell phone heebie-jeebies. It's 1989 in clubland and all's well again.

Cazwell w/ Johnny Makeup, "I Seen Beyonce at Burger King" (click here for hi-q)

Continue reading "Clubs: Sweet majik tunes for summer's end" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 07:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While I'm still waiting for a response from owner Greg Bronstein about the supposed "new direction" that his bar the Transfer -- our City's most beloved alternaqueer and ultrahipster dive-hole -- is supposedly taking (as I reported earlier), another regular party besides Frisco Disco and Lustre has decided that the next date will be its last there. Everyone's transferring out! I just got word from promoter Joshua J. that his raucous monthly homo-disco-circus spectacular, Big Top, which is celebrating its one year anniversary at the Transfer on Sunday August 31, will end after that date.

Joshua is part of a VERY successful Wednesday weekly, Juanita More's Booty Call, at another of Bronstein's joints, Bar On Castro, and assures me -- despite the odd timing -- that he's folding his Big Top tent so that he can concentrate on his new Friday party with the illustrious Frankie Sharp, called M4M, at Underground SF. And indeed, if the Transfer truly is looking to go all upscale, Underground SF should snatch all its shit and bring it for the alternaqueers and rangy str8s. I don't like the looks of the flyer below much -- seems a little LCD -- but hey, I'll check it out. Especially if there's a cologne-blast of mojito-squealers big-upping C+C Music Factory unironically at the Transfer.

This is a golden opportunity, really, for any bar still willing to be open-minded enough to really let something creative happen in this city. Deco, Club Eight, Matador, Buckshot Tavern, Amnesia, or Rickshaw Stop are well-positioned to lap up the new party homeless. You may not make loads of $$, but I'll write about you more! Legendary.

I really can't fault Bronstein for wanting to make money off his business -- he's allowed the Transfer to be the most exciting and edgy club in the City for the past three years. I know he's planning to expand and renovate his slick Jet venue up the street, so maybe he's freaking about the duckets it'll take. His usual thing is rather chi-chi, not even always in a tacky way. But it's just sad. Plus I'm guessing that he was none too polite about the changes (although I really want to hear his side of it before I jump to unjournalistic conclusions): the Frisco Disco kids are absolutely fuming. Read their explosive farewell kiss-kiss MySpace post after the jump -- to the tune of "Death of a Disco Dancer" by the Smiths:

Continue reading "Clubs: More Transfer kerfuffle -- Big Top bows out" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 09:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Alas, the rumors -- most of them anyway -- are seeming to be substantiated. Word kept hitting my hotline last week that owner and fairy impressario Greg Bronstein was effecting a management and direction change at the fantastic gay/hipster/hipster-gay ground zero, The Transfer. Many of the Transfer's beloved party institutions appear to be fleeing. (Update: even more are fleeing.)

That includes, incredibly unfortunately, the wonderful six-year-old Frisco Disco, which has grown world famous as an international hotspot for scenemakers who don't mind a little party puke on their stilettos. Alas! This Saturday is the final Frisco Disco at the Transfer.

This party's been homeless before -- it journeyed to the Transfer after a successful -- perhaps too successful -- run at Arrow Bar, now Matador, on Sixth Street. It may be back, too, after a short hiatus -- but definitely not at the Transfer. The Frisco-ites claim that Bronstein said they were too rowdy for him, although they still adore the Transfer staff etc. I'm trying to get a hold of Bronstein now for comment. Also announcing Transfer departure: Lustre, the goth new-wave night. San Francisco may be on the verge of losing one of its most interesting alternative party venues ... more to come!

FINAL FRISCO DISCO
w/ DJs Jeffrey Paradise and Richie Panic
Sat/23, 10pm
The Transfer
198 Church at Market

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 01:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hey, girl, hey: In this week's Super Ego clubs column, I talk to the reigning king and queen of SF Drag: Fudgie Frottage of this Saturday's 13th Annual San Francisco Drag King Contest, and Heklina of Trannyshack, whose weekly club is coming to a nuclear close after 12 years as I type this (listen very carefully and you can hear dizzy trannies exploding in the distance....) before her giant Trannyshack Kiss-Off Party on Aug 23 at the Regency Center.

Footage of the century: A youngish Heklina plugs the first Trannyshacks at Fudgie's legendary DragStrip club, April 14, 1996. Arturo Galster MCs.

Look at me, I'm a starfucker. Below is my extended, unexpurgated, sticky-fingered interview with Fudgie, aka Lu Read, whose hairy roots stretch back to the heyday of SF's punk rock drag scene. Strap one on and dive in.

SFBG: This is your lucky 13 -- are you planning anything, like, spooky? Are there any SF Drag King disaster stories you can share?

Fudgie: Well, our theme this year sets us Kings donating to a sperm bank -- that is genetically spooky to many, though most find it hilarious. Drag King disaster stories? Well, last year one of my balls failed to inflate during the opening number "Big Balls," but the concept got across so it wasn't a total disaster.

Yes Nurse! No Nurse! Photos by Larry Utley

SFBG: What in general do you have planned for this glorious, gorious evening?

Fudgie: Hard and throbbing musical productions, firm and penetrating performances, and extraordinary feats of entertaningly unbridled masculine stamina and staying power. Cohost Indra and I have a few surprizes, Electro, the Pop n' Lock King, SFDK title holder from 2000 is flying in from NY as our special guest. He hasn't performed here for 8 years and I'm really looking forward to seeing him -- he is a fantastic performer!

The Contest is very much like a variety show, we've got bands like The Mighty Slim Pickins and TuffnStuff, aerialist burlesque with Kitty Kitty Bang Bang: some Kings lipsynch, some sing live, some choreograph amazing dance routines, of course there's Fakin' Aiken, this year's title holder plus the troupe title holders The Pacmen from Sacramento who are adorable, talented and handsome. Surely Delicio Del Toro, L. Ron Hubby and Seimen Marcus will do something wild and crazy. The contest is like a mash-up of the Miss America Pageant, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Project Runway, Halloween and a Monster Truck Show.

Fudgie gets fishy

SFBG: An annoying thing for me: Many people I know, even smart ones, don't know much about the drag king community -- drag queens get all the freakin' press. What do you think about the lack of drag king visibility on the SF scene?

Continue reading "King me, Fudgie: Spermin' out with drag's biggest baller" »

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Busta Rhymes busts a move in "Dangerous" - and at Projekt Revolution at Shoreline this week.

As summer fades into a hazy, chilly miasma of Blood Marys, Krautrock beats, and high gas prices, the time has come to make the rounds at those lingering shed shows, avant-punk readings, burbling throwdowns.

A.Skillz
Sunset Promotions showcases the UK hip-hop-breakbeat turntablist, surfacing at Mighty for his first show in SF in four years. With Murphstar, AnTenNae, and Motion Potion. Fri/8, 10 p.m., $10-$15. Mighty, 119 Utah, SF. www.sunsetpromotions.net

"I'm my own worst enemy": Linkin Park's "Given Up."

Projekt Revolution
A revolution in WTF! pairings begins here: Linkin Park, Chris Cornell, Bravery, Ashes Divide, Busta Rhymes, Hawthorne Heights, and Street Drum Corps. Hey maybe it's time to check those damn assumptions; you're breaking both your back - and mine. Sat/9, 2 p.m., $34-$77. Shoreline Amphitheatre, 1 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View. www.ticketmaster.com

Born free: Born Against back in the day.

Sam McPheeters
Take another, literary look at the local underground. The hardcore legend of Born Against fame reads from his new magazine, alongside Sarah Cathers of 16 Bitch Pileup (who will render love horoscopes from rock lyrics), Erika Anderson of Gowns (who will perform an exorcism), Tara Tavi of Amps for Christ (who will play traditional Chinese music and screen a documentary on the subject), and George Chen of KIT and Club Sandwich (who will do stand-up comedy). And yep, there's even more. Sun/10, 7 p.m., $6-$10, 21 Grand, 416 25th St., Oakl.

Balmorhea
Austin, Texas, ambient bohos dream in elegant, string- and banjo-shaded colors. With Lazarus and Tiny Vipers. Mon/11, 8:30 p.m., $12. Cafe du Nord, 2170 Market, SF. www.cafedunord.com

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 04:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sax machine: Paul Costuros, left, with his band Death Sentence: Panda!

This just in from Paul Costuros of Death Sentence: Panda!, Murder Murder, Total Shutdown, et al:

"Welcome to the first installment of Buddies! A bunch of friends hanging out in a bar (the Knockout) playing their five favorite songs. Not genre specific so you might hear Wolf Eyes' "Stabbed in the Face" played next to Britney Spears' "The Zone" (both good songs).

"This Monday, July 28, free at the Knockout from 10 p.m.-2 a.m., will be the following people (in no particular order):"

Chris Rolls
Eric Bauer
Eric Landmark
Eric Park
Justin Labo
Lila Holland
Diana Hayes
Dave Hoag
Emily Jocson
Cristina Jocson
Michael Doyle
Ashley Hibbs
Paul Allan
Rob Spector
Sarah Bernat
Kevin Woodruff
Antonio
and maybe Jenny Hoyston and/or Ellie Erickson

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Kimberly Chun at 03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As many if not all know by now, Trannyshack, revered weekly trash-drag temple of glittery gore from the planet Thrift Town, is ending after 12 years of tranny antics (trantics?). Head honchette Heklina revealed to me the exact reasons why in a candid interview back in early February -- and I didn't even have to score her any hot sex with quadriplegic Desert Storm veterans in return! She's magnanimous. I'm scoopy. We traded memories.

Right now, Trannyshack's counting down to its close with a series of four command performance nights featuring fave messy queens from the present and past. That will be followed by a ginormous, absolutely ginormous, Trannyshack Kiss-Off Party at the Regency Center on August 23. This shindig will double as this year's famed Trannyshack Pageant as well, and will encompass appearances by Lady Bunny, Justin Bond, Lady Miss Kier, Ana Matronic, and more. I smell glorious disas-tears.

Let's leave this off with the incredible Glamamore's (NSFW maybe!) performance of Bjork's "Pagan Poetry."

digg • del.icio.us • sphere • google •

Posted by Marke B. at 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Holy crap. Has it really been five years since DJs Adrian and Mysterious D started their Bootie mashup parties right here in SF? Since then, the bi-weekly parties at DNA Lounge have become one of the city’s favorite dance nights -- and Bootie parties have become an international phenomenon.

Whether you like mash-ups or not (and I wholeheartedly do), it’s hard not to appreciate the work and dedication this DJ team have put into making Bootie ground zero for mashup culture.

Celebrate with them at their biggest party yet, this Saturday. The night features special performances by A&D, a retrospective of mashup history by stellar live mashup band Smashup Derby, an upstairs lounge dedicated to cover songs, and several performances by artists like Felicia Fellatio, Trixxie Carr, and members of SF Boylesque.

BOOTIE 5-Year Anniversary Party
Saturday, August 9
9pm, $10-$15
DNA Lounge
375 11th St., SF
www.bootiesf.com