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Nite Trax: DJ Rekha brings the 'Basement' beats to Non Stop Bhangra

02.09.12 - 3:53 pm | Marke B. |
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"I have been around the bhangra block," says DJ Rekha, NYC's ambassador for the highly danceable contemporary Punjabi (by way of London) sound, and founder of the popular, long-running Basement Bhangra party. "The biggest gig was definitely the White House. I have played all over the US and in Brazil, Sweden, New Zealand. I've done a bunch of music festivals and performed at cultural spaces including the Kennedy Center in DC."

Talk about "world music" (even if that term has fallen from fashion). Rekha brings her Basement Bhangra spin -- which includes a good bit of hip-hop and global bass influence -- to our own beloved Non Stop Bhangra this Sat/11, joining the monthly party's dholrhythms dance crew and DJ Jimmy Love for its reboot at Public Works, as I detailed in this week's Super Ego nightlife column. In an email interview, Rekha wrote about bhangra's changing scene, her favorite moments from the past 15 years at her club (Padma Lakshmi, anyone?), and her favorite bhangra bangers of the moment. 

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Unintelligible genius: looking back at all four shows of the Reggidency

02.08.12 - 12:30 pm | Ryan Prendiville |
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When Reggie Watts first came to my attention, through a series of appearances on Conan O’Brien’s show a few years back, I didn’t know where to place him. My first instinct was to lump him in with the trend in music – particularly indie rock –  around the looping pedal where solo artists including Owen Pallett and tUnE-YaRds could layer mic samples atop one another during a live performance to get a larger, simulated band sound. Read more »

Localized Appreesh: The Yellow Dress

02.07.12 - 12:39 pm | Emily Savage |
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Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.

Dogs, ghosts, kids, hand-clapping, whistling on a sunny park day – it's all in the video for the Yellow Dress's “This Could Be Anything.” The song itself it already a treat, kicking off with the aforementioned clapping and whistling and a solitary guitar, in pipes mariachi trumpet and swallow-you-whole powerful vocal pipes à la orchestral pop master Beirut. (It also has garnered comparisons to Magnetic Fields and a drug-less Velvet Underground.) Read more »

Noise Pop Photo Retrospective, with Plastic Villains and Cool Ghouls

02.07.12 - 10:17 am | Mia Sullivan |
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The 20th anniversary of Noise Pop is oh-so-close to upon us. In celebration and commemoration of how far the festival has come, and of the musicians who’ve made Noise Pop a much-anticipated Bay Area tradition, Bottom of the Hill will be hosting a retrospective photo gallery. The exhibit's opening reception takes place Tues/7 from 6 to 9 p.m. and is free to the public. Read more »

Maximum Consumption: Bay Area bands choose their favorite eateries

02.03.12 - 3:17 pm | Emily Savage |
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I know, it's so close to the weekend that you can taste it. But before you sign off for the day, your peepers sore and fingers trembling, here's a comprehensive list – sure to get your tummy rumbling – of Bay Area bands' favorite local restaurants, food trucks, and eateries. I compiled these answers from our On the Rise questionnaire (results of which are in this week's issue) and my ongoing Localized Appreesh column. Enjoy. Read more »

Breathe Owl Breathe's newest project is a dark, DIY children's book

02.03.12 - 11:25 am | Kevin Stark |
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Breathe Owl Breathe, the ethereal, off-folk-band from the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, is on tour promoting its recent project, The Listeners/These Train Tracks — a children’s book with accompanying two-song record. Fans familiar with the band will not be surprised to hear it made a book for kids, or that the two stories are surreal and odd. The Listeners is about a mole and an ostrich – one blind, the other only technically a bird –  that find each other in the darkness and form a band. Read more »

Reggie Watts melts minds at SF Sketchfest's Reggidency kickoff

02.01.12 - 11:51 am | Ryan Prendiville |
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“Welcome to [SF] Sketchfest,” Reggie Watts said, in what appeared to be his natural voice, “it’s going to be a big night for all of you guys.” The first night of his four-part “Reggidency” at the comedy festival was billed as being Just the Music but from before Watts took the stage at Yoshi’s SF – giving himself an introduction from behind the the curtain and then launching into a series of characters that wavered from pseudo-unintelligible to borderline familiar (Japanese? Jesse Jackson? Vallejo-ean?) – it was clear that label was Just a Guess. Read more »

Party Radar: Mike "Agent X" Clark, Cheap, DJ Hell, Forro Brazuca, Martin Buttrich, The Bunker

01.31.12 - 11:43 pm | Marke B. |
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Our weekly Super Ego clubs column took a wee breather from the paper this week in order to bring you some great live bands we love. But does that mean you're not going to go out partying? Possibly even partying like this dude, who last month broke the world record for continuous DJing (130 hours and 30 mins)? Maybe! After the jump, my picks of the week.

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Localized Appreesh: Ash Reiter

01.31.12 - 3:48 pm | Emily Savage |
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Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.

Call it youthful summer abandon or fresh-baked pop, but there's something about Ash Reiter's song and Perez Bros-directed video “Heatwave” that melts the ice of a chilled and cubed SF day. Whether it's the the lilting melody, surfy plucking, stoop sing-along, or the perfectly-cast ice cream man offering up too many dripping frozen treats, it's hard to wipe that sticky grin off your face. That is, until you see the ice cream man's crestfallen face, realizing it's just too much sugar. Read more »

Bangarang: DIY hip-hop collective Doomtree is back

01.31.12 - 10:17 am | Emily Savage |
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There's something undeniably envy-inducing about a music collective. Everyone lives their separate lives yet they have continuing influence on one another; they hover nearby for comfort and camaraderie, maintain a steadfast family, and encourage a breeding ground for creatives. The emcees, DJs, lyricists, and producers in the Twin Cities-based DIY hip-hop collective/label Doomtree seem to have that system down pat. Under their own monikers, they create praise-worthy individual records. Together, the group carves out quality time and records masterpieces. Read more »