chelsea wolfe for sf weekly

Chelsea Wolfe, Demon Girl
Chelsea Wolfe's newest album, Apokalypsis, begins with a bang. But it's not so much a literal bang as an otherworldly howl. It's like she's exorcising demons before the record can begin [...]

limp wrist for sf weekly

Queercore Band Limp Wrist on Playing Live Again
The song "I Love Hardcore Boys, I Love Boys Hardcore" is a given at most Limp Wrist shows. The brief, screamy hardcore anthem was written early in the band's career (late '90s) but it remains a mainstay, a memorable chant that crowds of sweaty punks cheer for. Not that they often have the chance to [...]

seaweed sway for sf weekly

Seaweed Sway's Jessie Woletz on Seven Years of Putting on S.F. Shows
Local promoter and show booker Jessie Woletz is sort of an oxymoron. She's a powerhouse hippie. She's constantly in motion -- booking, presenting, and promoting two to eight eclectic new weird folk shows a month at various San Francisco venues. Yet she's also peacefully in touch with her chakras (she teaches gentle hatha yoga) [...]

cibo matto for sf weekly

Cibo Matto on Returning to Music, Its Unorthodox Sound, and the Joys of Food
After a decade apart, Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori, founders of art-pop outfit Cibo Matto, are reuniting for a minitour that includes at stop at Bimbo's this Saturday. The Japanese expats began playing concerts together again under less than ideal circumstances -- tsunami benefits -- but now that they're officially back, they're ready for it all: tours, albums, "the whole shebang" [...]

last night: gayngs for sf weekly

Gayngs at the Independent: Sexier (and Obviously Weirder) Than Your Prom
Picture a prom night in the early 1990s, in a glittering hall with a live band that plays soulful, heart-thumping music, cajoling the entirety of the room into wanting some loving.

With Gayngs, an indie supergroup from Minneapolis, that lustful concept isn't so far-fetched. The band -- which includes Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, members of Megafaun, Doomtree, Solid Gold, and occasionally Har Mar Superstar -- makes ample use of the tenor saxophone; dubbed its first concert back in 2010 "The Last Prom on Earth"; and has the most seductive stage presence I've seen. These folks would do well in any Ecstasy-soaked banquet hall affair [...]

apocalypse meow for sf weekly

Cat Art Exhibit 'Apocalypse Meow' Excites Feline Desires
San Francisco's beloved Kittenzilla has returned. At least, it's back in gallery form. The massive mixed-media mural is the main attraction in catcentric group show, "Apocalypse Meow," which debuted at Space Gallery in the Tenderloin on Saturday night. It's an exhibition "examining the dominance of all things feline in contemporary culture," the gallery explained [...]

juke hunt finale for sf weekly

Juke Hunt Finale: The Best Jukeboxes in San Francisco
Over the past few months, we've found treasures and trash in San Francisco bars: Old-school jukeboxes with surprisingly sincere music picks, and sad little boxes we urge you to skip. It's all come to this: The juke hunt winners distilled into a single list, the best offerings in the city that invented the very concept. So where are they [...]

last night: mike watt for sf weekly

Friday Night: Mike Watt Plays the Grizzled Natural at Bottom of the Hill
If such a thing were possible, I'd believe, without hyperbole or winking wit, that Mike Watt was born to play the bass. His fingers fly across the fretboard so smoothly, it's appears he isn't touching strings at all. Curved elegantly, his bulbous palms encircle the bass neck in an endless handshake [...]

poly styrene obituary for sf weekly

Oh Cancer, Up Yours: Appreciating Poly Styrene
A tiny, curly-haired creature pressed into a life-size test tube, smiling just slightly with braces and wrapped in a bright yellow coat with dark tights. Posing on the cover of the landmark X-Ray Spex album, Germ-Free Adolescents, in 1978, Poly Styrene (née Marianne Joan Elliott-Said) looked every bit the punk rock pioneer she was. In a world of high testosterone and rampant sexism, she stood out above the men, with a howling wail, instantly recognizable -- perhaps most of all on her rallying cry, "Oh Bondage, Up Yours" [...]

steve ignorant interview for sf weekly

Crass' Steve Ignorant Explains the S.F. Origins of the Anarchopunk Band's Iconic Logo
The Crass logo is iconic. The songs are military-beat memorable, with lyrics about anarchy, environmentalism, and animal rights. The duo that formed the band -- vocalist Steve Ignorant and drummer Penny Rimbaud -- is somewhat legendary. And yet the English anarchopunk act existed in proper form only from 1977 to 1984. The group, which also included a host of other musicians, such as Gee Vaucher and Eve Libertine, never even performed a full U.S. tour.

This is why Ignorant (minus Rimbaud) is now traveling throughout the states singing classic songs off the Feeding of the 5000, Stations of the Crass, Penis Envy, and Christ the Album: To give American fans a chance to see those songs live, and as one last hurrah for the tracks themselves. After this jaunt, appropriately titled "Steve Ignorant presents Crass songs 1977-82, the Last Supper," the music will go back in to its recorded vaults. We recently spoke with Ignorant, who performs Wednesday at Slim's [...]

bernal heights juke hunt for sf weekly

On the Hunt for the Best Jukebox in Bernal Heights
Bernal Heights is often unfairly lumped in with the Mission as a whole. While it is backed up against the Mission, Bernal has its own plentiful offerings -- Indian pizza, indoor street food, and lesbian bars with three-story patios, to name a few. So, in deference to the vibrant nature of this hood, we embarked on yet another juke hunt, this time to bars posted within Bernal's district lines [...]

cults for sf weekly

Cults Play a Short, Sweet Set at the Independent
It was short but sweet.

Like most, I went into the Cults show at the Independent last night knowing a mere three songs by the headlining band: "Most Wanted "(aka that sugary doo-wop one), "The Curse" (that Cramps-esque swaggery one), and "Go Outside" (the hit). Such is the nature of a newish buzz band, especially one made known throughout the blogsphere thanks largely to its Bandcamp profile.[...]

richmond juke hunt for sf weekly

On the Hunt for the Best Jukebox in S.F.'s Richmond District
Thanks partly to the diversity of its residents, the Richmond District has a lot of great bars and restaurants. The neighborhood is a confluence of Russian bakeries, Chinese markets, and Irish pubs, and the songs available on the few scattered classic jukeboxes reflect this diverse blend [...]

north beach juke hunt for sf weekly

Which Bar Has North Beach's Best Jukebox?
There's something so classic and romantic about San Francisco's own Little Italy: North Beach. Despite the sometimes-obnoxious crowd it seems to attract, the hood itself exudes a warm, old-timey charm, with vintage architecture and jukeboxes that hold swing and blues songs written and recorded before many of today's bar hoppers were born. On dreary, rain-soaked afternoons, swarms of tourists and locals still flock to its dark, wood-paneled taverns, with fragrant plumes of Italian cooking wafting through the bustling streets[...]

[Juke Hunt archives]

sway machinery for sf weekly

The Sway Machinery Captures Malian Adventures on Its New Album
Barreling down the dusty roads of the West African country of Mali in January 2010, Jeremiah Lockwood and his Brooklyn-based band the Sway Machinery felt elated. They had just left an impromptu gig jamming with local musicians at a bumping riverfront juke joint [...]

mission juke hunt for sf weekly

The divide among Mission dwellers is strong. There are the older families that have lived in the area for generations, then the hip twenty- and thirty-somethings who moved in more recently.

The latter half are the ones who can often be found crawling from bar to bar, dance party to live show. And in the haunts of this colorful crowd comes a variety of music choices -- though not one quite as diverse as one might assume. There are definitely standards on all the old music boxes of Mission bars, but each has its own musical twist. Let's explore this large and mythic San Francisco neighborhood [...]

bay area girls rock camp for sf weekly

Thao and Mirah Perform at Bay Area Girls Rock Camp Benefit This Friday
You may not know Chixx Mixx or Poison Apple Pie by name, but they're bands formed by Bay Area tween and teen girls, and they don't sound like what you might be picturing. As much as we all would like to think gender divides do not exist, it's the sad and simple truth that most bands are still made up of dudes [...]

haight juke hunt for sf weekly

On the Hunt for the Best Jukebox in the Haight
The heyday of authentic jukeboxes is long over. With many bars installing those nasty touchscreen digital Internet boxes, the old school record-flipping kind of jukebox is a dying breed. And this is in the town that originated the concept of jukeboxes back in 1889. So what denotes a quality juke these days? It's subjective, but there are some key signifiers: diversity of the records and mood-setting capabilities. In this column we seek out and celebrate the remaining machines. We also measure their success with a one to five drinks scale, based on how long you'll want to linger and listen [...]

monotonix for sf weekly

Monotonix Explains Why They Dump Trash on You at Shows
At any given Monotonix show, you will see three hairy men crowd surfing with their instruments, throwing trash on the crowd, spitting beer on the crowd, leading group sing-alongs and, possibly, pissing [...]

kusf for sf weekly

KUSF Supporters Deliver Message of Frustration, Outrage to USF President
On Tuesday, the nearly 34-year-old freeform San Francisco radio station KUSF went dark after the station's FM license was sold -- without any warning for listeners and without discussion amongst station volunteers and DJs. Last night, those who felt they didn't get to have any say in the situation got a chance to air their grievances [...]