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Summer camp on wheels 

Two local bands are touring the Bay Area on bikes, and invite you to ride along

While Rupa Marya of Rupa & the April Fishes and Gabe Dominguez of Shake Your Peace are crossing their fingers for cloudless, sunny days ahead during their joint week-long bicycle trek around the Bay Area, in some ways, they were brought together by a storm.

It was a storm both physical and figurative: the scattered downpours during their first encounter at the now-dispersed Occupy SF campsite at Justin Herman Plaza last November (11.11.11) during the Occupy Music Festival — where both bands played — and, the subsequent storm of ideas that lead to the bike tour agreement [...]

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Weird me out 

King Buzzo on longevity, lion taming, and Melvins Lite

Here is a partial list of not quite idioms, butchered sayings, and quasi heartfelt beliefs the Melvins' Buzz "King Buzzo" Osborne peppered throughout a conversation during a phone call last week from his home in Hollywood. "We can't be lion tamers all the time." "You can accuse me of a lot of things, being lazy isn't one of them." "When in fear, or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout." "Treat me right, I'll be your best friend. Treat me wrong, you don't exist" [...]

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Marathon of sound

Eight hours of wildly eclectic acts -- and perhaps a giant flute or two -- at this Sunday's fifth annual Switchboard Music Festival

There is just no easy way to define longtime Oakland band, Faun Fables. But here goes: send a classically-trained dark folk duo into the brush and bramble of a snow-tipped forest as part of a nefarious fairy tale, then ask them to sing for their supper. See? It's difficult [...]

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Bachelorette's computer folk lands in Oakland this weekend

Ask the initially shy New Zealander Bachelorette how she makes music, and you'll get a fascinating mouthful.

“Some of the stuff I make, it's almost psychedelic disco, other times I think the music is quite folky,” she begins, “in that kind of computer-based way.” Pausing she then adds, “Lately people have asked me to describe the style and I describe it as computer folk. The computer is my folk instrument. It's just me on stage and I have a couple of computers and samples and a guitar, a lot of sampling and looping live – I construct the songs differently every time I play, so there's an element of improvisation" [...]

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Zola Jesus, Shabazz Palaces, and more at Creators Project

Along with all the epic-sized Lite-Brites and wing-flapping guardian angels at Creators Project this weekend in soggy Fort Mason, there also was plenty of super bass-heavy, heart-pumping, mind-expanding live music. Again, all free [...]

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Cloud somethings

It's unsettling how the first track off Cloud Nothings' new LP makes one want to drop everything and flop on the ground in an arrested development expression of perma-teen angst. It's hard to even type these words when the song is playing. It's hard to lift my hands. I just want to listen to the melancholic chug-chug of dangling chords, bursts of crashing cymbals, and singer-guitarist Dylan Baldi's stretched-out moan, “No Future/No Past.” I don't want to do anything [...]

burger boogaloo for san francisco bay guardian

Feeding time

Pack the earplugs and napkins, it's time for the second annual Burger Boogaloo

In San Antonio last week, waking up on a living room floor with assorted Burger Records crew members and friends, record label and brick-and-mortar record shop owner Sean Bohrman, 30, was already thinking three steps ahead [...]

noise pop 2012 for san francisco bay guardian

Everlasting Noise

Noise Pop 2012: It's 20 years for the massive music and film fest -- tender memories with Archers of Loaf, Cursive, Thao, and more

NOISE POP Thao recalls hosting impromptu beer trivia with Mirah during their joint show a few years back, a festive moment she says is telling of Noise Pop. Cursive vocalist Tim Kasher retained playing one of the "most hungover shows imaginable" many years ago at Bottom of the Hill and it still being one of his favorite shows. Archers of Loaf bassist Matt Gentling has a fuzzy memory of playing the fest in 1997 with Spoon and Knapsack. Roddy Bottum and Jone Stebbins of Imperial Teen once declared themselves "King and Queen of Noise Pop" due to a tireless week creeping nearly every show [...]