tikva records for san francisco bay guardian

Tradition!

A Jewish record store is coming to the Mission — briefly

Row after row of sentimental — sometimes kitschy, sometimes renowned — vinyl albums are lining pristine white walls in a small storefront, waiting for the opening of a record store that will exist for just one month [...]

mark sultan for san francisco bay guardian

Mark Sultan (BBQ) on vitamins, 'Seinfeld,' and the death of rock'n'roll

Mark Sultan is an embattled crusader for true rock'n'roll. Though in prose, he'll have you believe that it must be destroyed – to save it from itself [...]

from the back of the room for san francisco bay guardian

XX hardcore

Female punks step out From the Back of the Room in new doc

When Blatz, a political punk band connected to all-ages Berkeley music venue 924 Gilman Street Project (the Gilman), was looking for a girl singer to join the act in 1990, it wound up with two new additions [...]

turntable kitchen for san francisco bay guardian

Maximum Consumption: the Turntable Kitchen interview

I'd venture a guess that no one in this town knows the frosting tipped appeal of hand-mixing music and food more than the couple behind Turntable Kitchen. What started one year ago as a simple (yet highly aesthetically pleasing) website mashing up recipes and records, has grown into a celebrated multi-headed creative output machine, with food+music news, event sponsoring, giveaways, and the newly added physical pairings boxes – on top of the drool-inducing/stunning posts [...]

goldies: dirty cupcakes for san francisco bay guardian

GOLDIES 2011: Dirty Cupcakes

"We didn't even have a band, but we had the name."

It was the summery music video that launched a thousand bubblegum crushes. Guitarist-vocalist Lauren Matsui, drummer Laura Gravander, and bassist Sola Morrissey, a.k.a the Dirty Cupcakes, adorably lust after unrequited love. The cute boy of their dreams prefers other boys, and he sexily smooches another man, while the girls swoon from different spots around San Francisco, including a Sandy-in-Grease bedroom scene. "I feel like it's a San Francisco thing to be in love with a gay man, or somebody that you can't have," says Matsui [...]

goldies: religious girls for san francisco bay guardian

GOLDIES 2011: Religious Girls

The arty noise act's music is that of the futurist multitasker

If they suddenly became stupidly rich, the trio behind Oakland's Religious Girls would purchase a warehouse to turn into an all-ages venue/home-recording studio, with maybe some laser tag. Or they'd buy a food cart. If that isn't the epitome of the modern Bay Area band, I don't what is [...]

jhameel for san francisco bay guardian

Beautiful pop

The many sides of up-and-coming virtuoso Jhameel

I half-expect Jhameel to be sporting face paint whiskers swiped across his cheeks as I walk up to meet him at Cafe Strada near the UC Berkeley campus. Lyrically, he's inspired by Ben Gibbard, musically by Sufjan Stevens, but aesthetically, it's early Bowie [...]

water borders for san francisco bay guardian

Mood setters

Water Borders draw out the inherit creep of vintage film

Water Borders, a gloomy beat-driven San Francisco band with a new release (Harbored Mantras) on Tri Angle Records, spent the past few weekends practicing the art of creating atmosphere for obscure vintage films [...]

live shots: hans-joachim roedelius for san francisco bay guardian

Hans-Joachim Roedelius celebrates his 77th birthday at Cafe Du Nord

“What a cerebral evening,” a show companion observed as we exited Cafe Du Nord last night, pushing the doors open to a whoosh of cool fall air. Indeed. For the man who's seen it all, first as a child actor in 1930s Germany, then as a reluctant member of the Hitler Youth, and finally a pioneer of early experimental krautrock in the 1970s and ambient jazz, Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Cluster/Harmonia) was not the confrontational artist one might expect. Tall and bald with wire-rimmed glasses, he was erudite, pleasant, subdued [...]

creole choir of cuba for san francisco bay guardian

Strength of song

The Creole Choir of Cuba — and other global music acts — hit SF

In Cuba, there is just one group that specializes in traditional Haitian songs — the Creole Choir of Cuba. "Some of the songs in our repertoire are those we learned from our parents or grandparents, others we learned during the many visits we have made to Haiti," says choir director Emilia Diaz Chavez, through translator Kelso Riddell.

big harp for san francisco bay guardian

Big Harp on writing lyrics, Saddle Creek, and touring with kids

I listened to Big Harp's debut album, White Hat, without any preconceived notions, and fell in drippy, folky, love. I fell into the slight country twang and gentle plucking of baritone singer-guitarist Chris Senseney, and the sweet backing vocals of bassist Stefanie Drootin-Senseney [...]

budget rock for san francisco bay guardian

The last hurrah

It's time to say goodbye to Budget Rock

On the final day of Budget Rock 10, the endmost moment of the Budget Rock showcase itself, there will be pancakes and local '80s surf-punk band the Phantom Surfers. Likely a few tear stained cheeks as well [...]

war on drugs for san francisco bay guardian

Battle hymns
The War on Drugs' Adam Granduciel keeps his finger on America's pulse

On the winding beach roads of Central California, in the cool coastal stillness of midnight, I remembered what the music hive mind spewed forth when it came to recently released record (and previous albums) from Philadelphia's the War on Drugs: road trip music [...]

treasure island festival for san francisco bay guardian

Island time

From Angolan kuduro and gauzy psychedelia to local garage punk and silent disco: It'll be a packed weekend of Treasure Island Music Festival's chords and beats

Now in its fifth year, the Treasure Island Festival maintains a mystifying balance: it's both big enough to attract larger acts (Death Cab for Cutie, Empire of the Sun), and small enough to make the event feel intimate (with eyes closed, it's you alone dancing in the Silent Disco). There are rarely timing issues, one act stops, another begins. Precision and organization enrich a festival, whodathunk [...]

gardens & villa for san francisco bay guardian

Mystic wanderings

Gardens & Villa navigates the road often traveled

Hermann Hesse's 1930 novel Narcissus and Goldmund is, more or less, the story of man who wanders Medieval Germany after leaving the monastery in search of the meaning of life. He finds organic pleasures like art and the empowering touch of beautiful women. Eventually given the choice of joining an artists guild, he bows out, instead favoring the freedom of the road less traveled [...]

live shots: css for san francisco bay guardian

Lovefoxxx makes SF love her at the Fillmore

By the end of last night at the Fillmore, CSS's dynamic lead vocalist-party rioter Lovefoxxx was stripped down to a black tank top and ripped up jean shorts over fishnets, her raccoon eye makeup smeared across her face, fluffed pink hair electrified out of its sockets [...]

men for san francisco bay guardian

Feminist dance pop: Q&A with MEN's JD Samson
Just as she did with Le Tigre, JD Samson blurs the lines between feminist theory and modern pop music with her most recent musical endeavor, MEN. The experimental art-pop band, which began in 2007, is a collective with fellow Le Tigren Johanna Fateman – among others – that's as subversive as it is danceable [...]

beirut for san francisco bay guardian

The instruments of my life: Q&A with Beirut's Zach Condon

Zach Condon, the pied piper of Beirut, is known for a great many things – his quavering voice and heart-tugging music (watch the new video for “Santa Fe” and try not to weep, I dare you), the global journeys on which he embarked to gain such a worldly sound, and, perhaps above all else, his skilled takes on an array of string and horn instruments. He employs their use to enable listeners an audio-vacation: the far corners of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, to the chateaus of French chansons, to his mariachi-filled hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico [...]

great integration for san francisco bay guardian

Chamber hip-hop opera 'Great Integration' returns with a second act

Perhaps you've seen the billboard on your daily Bay Bridge commute: simple white background, a hand with two fingers pressed together, and in bold type, the words Great Integration: A Chamber Hip-Hop Opera [...]

mike apocalypse for san francisco bay guardian

Legends of the underground

Gehenna's Mike Apocalypse doesn't care what you think

"There are people like us who decide we no longer want to deal with what is fed to us through commercial forces," says infamous hardcore singer Mike Apocalypse, "We strive to create new things — if I couldn't create new music, I would fall apart in a month's time." [...]

iggy pop for san francisco bay guardian

Keep it raw

Does the Godfather of Punk really need an introduction? It's Iggy Pop. He's been doing this — this meaning spitting out underground ethos in a signature growl and writhing shirtless — for nearly 50 years. With the untimely death of original Stooge guitarist Ron Asheton, Pop regrouped and tapped Raw Power-era player James Williamson to rejoin the band a couple of years back.

I spoke to Pop in Paris over the phone -- his current world tour was supposed to land in San Francisco on Sept. 12 and 13 [...]

glowing stars for san francisco bay guardian

Reprogramming the hardware

The Glowing Stars want you to make chiptune music, too.

Technology can be so existentially mystifying. One minute you're a kid in the back seat of your parents' car with thumbs aimed and eyes glued to the screen of your modern handheld gaming console, the next you're on stage with blinding lights and an audience, smashing into a modified old-school Gameboy on a snare drum. One second you're doubled over in bed with the stomach flu, the next you're in a box on Google+, simultaneously interviewing two band members from their respective Bay Area cities [...]

kreayshawn for san francisco bay guardian

Kreayshawn gets some lady love at Slim's

It was just fine, really. Oakland-bred rapper Kreayshawn's big, sold-out show at Slim's last night was amusing, mildly enjoyable, and packed with good people watching. Rapping over prerecorded beats, elfin Kreayshawn and her Chipmunks White Girl Mob (V-Nasty and Lil Debbie) ran through what I suspect is the gamut of their songs in a brief, hyper set [...]

il gato cover story for san francisco bay guardian

Bravo, il gato

FALL ARTS PREVIEW: The baroque San Francisco band is about to have its best season yet

The clouds hang over San Francisco like a brumous, early evening warning sign. It's late summer on the back patio of popular Mission street bar El Rio. Small pockets of people huddle near outdoor heaters, and vintage pop songs come pumping through the speakers. Three men dressed neatly in sweaters and hoodies sit at a long picnic table clutching cheap beers.

This is the story of il gato, a San Francisco band that describes itself as indie-baroque-folk. Its music is baroque in the sense that it's melancholic yet upbeat, lyric-heavy yet leans towards the classical, and highly decorated with a wide array of instrumentation. The band's 2010 long-player, All These Slippery Things (self-released), and similarly-named followup EP All Those Slippery Things (released last month) feature banjo, mandolin, piano, a string quartet, and trumpets, along with aggressive acoustic folk guitar, looping pedal, upright and electric bass, and complex drumming [...]

tri angle records showcase for san francisco bay guardian

Drag me from hell
Witch house — or whatever you care to call it — is far from dead

MUSIC Noah "DJ Dials" Bennett Cunningham wants to galvanize your pleasure center.

"You know how you can think back to that one night? That punk show or cool house party or the first time you saw Björk, and it's just, the night you'll never forget? I want to do that for other people. I want to make lasting memories," he says from his perch in Four Barrel Coffee as he grabs Rosamunde french fries from his bag [...]

outside lands wrap-up for san francisco bay guardian

Outside Lands, day three
Ah, Golden Gate Park on a crisp, sunny Sunday morning. Well, afternoon. There's nothing else like it. When I finally made my way out to Outside Lands, the highly recognizable vocal stylings of tUnE-yArDs were piping through the brush and bramble. Sweaty, shirtless men – fried to a near-crisp – rain danced far back from the Sutro Stage. And those free-jazzing saxophonists that I mentioned in the pre-festival rundown were indeed beside Merrill Garbus [...]

king lollipop for san francisco bay guardian

Sticky fingers
Cody S. Blanchard moonlights in a junkyard candy-land band

Remember the raw, heart-thumping heat of the Jukebox Jamboree in John Waters' 1990 cult classic Cry-Baby? A steamy musician (Johnny Depp) strums and snarls towards a crowd of excited nogoodniks. There was a similar scene a few Saturdays back at a garage rock show in Oakland, thanks largely to Cody S. Blanchard [...]

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 [...]

urban adamah cover story for j. the jewish news weekly

Nurturing their roots: Fellows flock to Berkeley’s Jewish urban farm
It’s 9 a.m. on a brisk Monday morning and Aliza Gazek and Molly Fischman are happily plucking kale from the earth.

They laugh and chat about the day’s activities while harvesting the kale, along with chard and red-leaf lettuce, to donate to the LifeLong Medical Care Clinic. Beyond them, Berkeley’s morning commuters whiz past a chain-link fence [...]

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" [...]

honored: the big jewcy list

From Jewcy.com
The Big Jewcy: Emily Savage- Covering Bay Area Jews, Vegan Food, And Music With Equal Vigor
I’m normally threatened by people that share my first name, but Emily Savage has quickly managed to prove that she deserves the name as much as I do. Readers of Jewcy may know her as the Photo Editor and columnist for San Francisco’s J. Weekly, but she also regularly contributes culture writing to SF Weekly and is the San Francisco Editor at Poor Taste Mag [...]

From J. Weekly:
J. photo editor, writer on ‘Big Jewcy’ list
Jewcy.com, a website for hip young Jews, has honored j. photo editor and columnist Emily Savage with a spot on its 2011 “Big Jewcy,” an annual list of people admired by the site’s writers. The list of 88 was revealed in sections from June 1 to 15.

In addition to her work at j., which includes authoring the Jew Tunes blog at Jweekly.com, Savage is a culture writer for S.F. Weekly and the editor of the San Francisco edition of Poor Taste magazine. A longtime vegan, she also writes a column for Poor Taste under the heading “Tofu Dearest" [...]

oran hesterman for j. the jewish news weekly

The right to eat well: Access to healthy food options is Berkeley native’s dream
Growing up in two very different spots in Northern California in the 1950s, Oran Hesterman had a dual life — city kid, country kid.

During the school year he lived in Berkeley, attended Hebrew school at Congregation Beth El and was active in Young Judea. But during every school vacation and the long stretches of summer, he worked with his father, a Jewish cattle rancher, on their family farm in Mendocino County’s Potter Valley. There he herded cattle, fixed the irrigation system and learned what it meant to be a working cowboy [...]

tofu dearest: mexican sweet potatoes for poor taste magazine

Batata! Sweet potatoes, spiced up Mexican-style
“Only a vegan!” my coworker chirped cheerfully when I told her what I was warming up for lunch: the spicy sweet potato taquitos I had made at home the night before. I instinctively thought, “you should be so lucky” as it is my first reaction whenever someone questions something so delectable on my plate. Really, what could be better than a spicy Mexican meal that incorporates such a distinctive flavor as sweet potato [...]

hazon for j. the jewish news weekly

Hazon: Summertime is right time for annual food confab
For the past three years the annual Hazon Food Conference — one on the East Coast, another in Northern California — has been held in December. The time of year was chosen to attract farmers, as it’s usually their downtime [...]

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 [...]

bill graham exhibit for j. the jewish news weekly

Bill Graham’s American dream: Retrospective tells story of Holocaust refugee and rock impresario
As a Jewish child in Nazi Germany, Wolfgang Grajonza saw his family torn apart by the Holocaust.

His mother was taken to Auschwitz and gassed, his siblings were split — some were sent to an orphanage for safety, while others stayed behind and ended up in the camps.

The young boy went to a series of orphanages and on the Kindertransport to France, eventually making his way to New York City, with only a handful of photographs and a yarmulke on his person.

Grajonza would go on to become Bill Graham, perhaps the world’s most well known rock promoter and a beloved impresario. He’s best known for operating the legendary venues Fillmore West and Winterland in San Francisco and Fillmore East in New York City, but he also donated time and money organizing charity music events such as Live Aid [...]

tofu dearest: vegan brunch for poor taste magazine

Seven Vegan Brunch Dishes You Must Try Before You Die

In honor of Poor Taste’s gargantuan gathering of the best brunch spots in the U.S., I decided to focalize the task even more, to highlight the dishes themselves and pay respect to the vegan options, wherever the restaurant.

I’ve eaten at or been regaled with stories of a great many vegan brunch across the land, from decadent waffles soaked in syrup and Earth Balance pillows to healthy homemade oatmeal with soy milk and fresh strawberries. I wanted to celebrate my favorite of these options, but also open it up to you, fellow vegans of the planet, to share your own favorites [...]

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 [...]

sandor katz for j. the jewish news weekly

Pickling pro will talk about kraut on local tour
Growing up Jewish on New York’s Upper East Side, surrounded by stores selling sour dill pickles, Sandor Ellix Katz was almost destined to become a fermentation revivalist.

Katz is the author of two popular fermentation and food politic manifestos, “Wild Fermentation” and “The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved,” and he has spent the last two decades farming, fermenting, teaching and writing [...]

tofu dearest: vegan filipino for poor taste mag

No Worries, Vegans Eat Filipino Food Too
Chef Jay-Ar Isagani Pugao is out to change the public perception about Filipino food. The executive chef-restaurateur owns Oakland’s No Worries, an entirely animal-free vegan Filipino spot, and he wants the food world to know there’s a healthy side to the fare. It’s believed to be heavy and fatty, he said during a Dishcrawl cooking demonstration and dinner last month, but it doesn’t have to be [...]

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" [...]

goy passover for j. the jewish news weekly

It was my boyfriend’s first seder — but it felt new to me, too
Despite the fact that my cohabiting boyfriend and I have been a “we” for four years — two of which spent under the same roof — we had yet to attend a Passover seder together until this year.

Perhaps even more surprising: he’d never been to a seder before in his life. You see, he’s my loving goy (aware of the negative connotations, choosing to disregard), and while we’ve fried latkes for many years and visited the Contemporary Jewish Museum more times than I can count, this was his first time observing Pesach [...]

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 [...]

are we there yet? cjm exhibit for j. the jewish news weekly

The art of the question: Robotic algorithms put visitors in an auditory sea of queries
If you enter the top-level Yud Gallery in the Contemporary Jewish Museum these days, you’ll be greeted by a question.

It could be any number of questions — from a bank of 2,500 different questions, in fact — and the proximity of the voice you hear will change depending on where you are in the room. A small camera, unseen even to the knowing eye, will follow your every move, using robotic algorithms to calculate mathematically which of 20 floor speakers to activate. The walls are white and bare, and the only sensation is crisp, clear sound [...]

tofu dearest: rescue chocolates for poor taste mag

Vegan Chocolate Rescue Bunnies
It’s everywhere this month — crunchy, chocolate, Peep-y Easter candy. It fills our drug store aisles and taunts us with milk derivatives and smooth bunny shapes. My own Easter memories are warm with huge baskets stuffed with chocolate eggs and character Pez dispensers. My brother and I would stalk around our Irish-Polish Catholic grandparents’ backyard in Antioch, Calif., sniffing out brightly colored eggs then pouring our finds across the living room carpet [...]

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.[...]

tofu dearest: beet burgers for poor taste magazine

Just Beet It: Vegan Burgers Get Street Cred
You know that old adage — when your CSA gives you beets, make beet burgers? Or something along those lines, correct?

Last week our community-supported agriculture network, Farm Fresh To You, delivered a cardboard box that included three giant, hearty beets with long, red-veined leaves sprouting off the bulbs like plumage, among other less-tantalizing fruits and vegetables. When choosing what to do with those magnificent purple root vegetables, the answer seemed obvious: veggie burgers [...]