marke@sfbg.com

SUPER EGO Ladies, gentleman, laaadies, and ultraviolet unicorns of the San Francisco scene: we can do better than Michael Franti as a soundtrack for OccupySF. For goddess's sake, please! Enough with the bongos, already. We've got like five Funktion One soundsystems in this city — someone hook the mother up and blast a little Masters at Work for 99-percent motivation.Read more »

arts@sfbg.com

MUSIC In 2010, while Franki Chan contemplated the pros and cons of bringing back his much-beloved Los Angeles-based Check Yo Ponytail party concert series, he wasn't entirely sure where it all might lead. All he knew is that he'd become detached from the rapid takeover of the DJ scene and the lackluster dance parties that were becoming the norm.Read more »

marke@sfbg.comRead more »

SUPER EGO Three of my favorite dance tracks this year were made by women: "What They Say" by Maya Jane Coles, "Yours" by Steffi, and "The L Word" by Deniz Kurtel. "Wow," you say. "Three whole women. That's practically a quorum!" I know, I know, but these were big underground hits as well — and it's aces that tracks by females are getting more large-scale traction. Read more »

MUSIC I've never defended the idea of a "best of" record. Some anonymous curator is typically given the task of sifting out a musician's hits from the misses, of establishing an artist's definitive compilation once and for all. A fairly daunting project for judging something as fickle and varied as musical taste. So I have to admit I was skeptical when I picked up The Best of Quantic album put out by the British imprint Tru Thoughts earlier this month.Read more »

MUSIC Pioneering electronic composer Pierre Schaeffer used a specific word to describe his work, which took 'common' noises and manipulated them into music — acousmatic: "referring to sounds that one hears without seeing the causes behind it."Read more »

marke@sfbg.com

SUPER EGO Whew, things seem to be getting kind of straight-laced around these parts — election season and lack of funds are ratcheting up the tension, and everyone seems a tad uptight, like they're all second-guessing their status updates. What this city needs is a good, hard WTF freakend like the one ahead to loosen us up.Read more »

SUPER EGO Dear burners,

I am absolutely NOT BITTER that I couldn't join you this year. And I certainly DID NOT wrap myself in a hot-pink bedsheet, spin around until I saw Ganesh, puke up 23 packets of Tasty Bites, and throw a fistful of chickpea flour in my roommate's face, screaming “Rites of passage, bitch!” so that I could virtually burn. And then I didn't fist-pump to vintage Bassnectar, nor construct a 12-foot flashing Alexander Wang Summer 2011 fun-fur ankle strap high-heeled sandal in our foyer out of wire hangers, chicken bones, old Dell motherboards, and tuck tape. Read more »