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 [...]