It's the 11th year of Midnight Mass! We here in San Francisco are so lucky to have Peaches Christ's maniacal midnight film screening series. It is definitely one of the best things about living in this city. The screenings are truly out of this world, with fabulous preshows and special guests. For a full schedule of this year's Midnight Mass, click here. The opening night screening of Showgirls including special guests is appropriately on that most American of holidays, July 4th!

Peaches and I recently had a chat about the upcoming season of Midnight Mass, her favorite cult films and of course, her favorite Disney ride!

Miss Ess: This year's Midnight Mass includes perennial fave Showgirls! Tell us about the cast members that will be joining you at the screening.

Miss Peaches Christ: Showgirls is the only film we've programmed in all eleven seasons of Midnight Mass and it's kinda considered our "signature show."  I'm thrilled that this year we're finally adding actual cast members from the film to our bill.  We've been promised behind-the-scenes tales about the making of this modern day cult classic! Patrick Bristow, who plays Marty the dance instructor, is coming, along with Rena Riffel, famous for receiving the infamous line hurled at her character "Nobody wants to fuck a Penny! They wanna fuck a ‘Hope,’” so she's actually listed as having played Penny/Hope. I love it! Both of the actors are really enthusiastic about sharing stories with us so I'm beyond excited.

HBO Video 90528

Being that it's been some time since I gave you all some found art, I've put together a gallery for you chock full of homespun goodness (badness?).  Here's a batch that has a bunch of customized LP covers, direct from Vinylandia...






Lovely piece here, I think it might even be more appropriate than the actual album cover...below is an original Aladdin Records comp that someone created an awesome pink cover for...

On this date in 1975 one of my all time favorite musicians, Tim Buckley, died of an accidental overdose of heroin; he was 28 years old. Today he is mostly remembered as the father of Jeff Buckley, but
Tim should also be remembered for his brilliant songwriting, his extraordinary voice, and for being one of those rare musicians who relentlessly pushed boundaries, whose experimentation was often mesmerizing and sometimes disquieting. Some people get him, some people don’t, which is how it should be.

Tim Buckley was one of my very first musical discoveries of something I couldn’t find on the radio. I was a prepubescent, guitar plucking Catholic school boy with some stolen change from my mom’s piggy bank when I bought a used copy of Blue Afternoon at Platterpuss Records on Hollywood Blvd for under a dollar. Blue Afternoon was a revelation, and over the course of the next couple of months I tracked down the rest of his albums, and played them all till I knew every nuance to every breath to every note to every chord to every song. A couple of years later when Buckley died, it was my mom who told me; she had heard the report on the radio. And I think she was a little nervous in breaking the news to me.

Anyway, one of his greatest, most beautiful and famous compositions is “Song to the Siren” from his 1970 album Starsailor. Here is a peculiar sampling of some of those who have covered the song: I’ve included the original version performed live by Tim Buckley on the final episode of the Monkees TV show (and with the original lyrics-- he eventually changed the ‘oyster’ line because someone once laughed). Of course I’ve included the famous hit version by This Mortal Coil, the Cocteau Twins side project. Probably my favorite version, with the original lyrics, is by Damon & Naomi (whose version is probably one of the few that reflects Buckley’s and not This Mortal Coil’s). Susheela Raman version is magnificently striped down to the bone. I’ve also included two versions which surprised the hell out of me: George Michael’s (drenched in reverb, but holy shit, I have to admit he nails it!) and Robert Plant, who oddly enough sounds just like Jeff Buckley at times… I know that doesn’t make sense but give it a close listen …

Fries Home Video

Corporate sponsorship and rock and roll go hand in hand, at least in some circles. I think the Poison Girls had it right...Anyhow here's a batch of Killer Korporate Klassicks for all you "Swingin' Corporate Raiders." (The absolutely lamest pop culture reference I've ever dropped-- anyone who can tell me what TV show it's from gets a big kiss from Rain Phoenix.)

What have Anthony Stewart Head from Buffy, Paris Hilton, Ogre from Skinny Puppy and Sarah fucking Brightman in common? Repo! The Genetic Opera:

An Earworm is a term for a portion of a song or other musical bit that gets "stuck" in someone’s head and repeats continually against a their will. Often, relief comes only when it is swapped with a newer fragment from another tune. Research indicates that the people who get the most earworms tend to listen to music frequently and are more likely to have other neurotic habits, such as biting pencils or finger nails or tapping fingers. In Oliver Sacks latest book, Musicophilia, he defines the phenomenon as “involuntary musical imagery.”

After having the plug pulled prematurely on the concert he was a part of last Saturday at the Bayou Boogaloo & Cajun Food Festival in Norfolk VA where authorities charged him with "abusive language" (apparently for uttering the lyrics "What the fuck" during one of his songs),  Boots Riley of The Coup has issued a statement saying that the local authorities' charges against him are "racially motivated."

The obscure local Virginia law, on the books as # 18.2-416, has never before now been applied to a performer, nor has it been enforced against anyone in over 25 years.   But yet the city of Norfok is determined in pressing forward with the charges against the visiting Oakland emcee.

"City Officials claim that they are making the statement that profanity will not be tolerated," said Boots Riley in a prepared statement sent out yesterday by his label. "Obviously, since no one has been charged with this in 26 years, profanity IS tolerated. The statement they are making is that the culture and the people they feel I represent won't be tolerated. I was already off stage; the man they asked to leave the stage was Trombone Shorty, another Black man who looks nothing like me."

"This happened at 10PM, and it was far from a 'family' atmosphere, most of the audience was intoxicated after drinking at the festival's bar -- 'The Missing Kidney.' There was also a VIP section where free alcohol was distributed by the keg. Anyone who has been to a music festival on a Saturday night understands the scene. I did not leave the park afterward, as was claimed by FestEvents, the organizers of the Bayou Boogaloo Festival. I stayed and debated the validity of the charge with police and festival promoters. It is clear that this is part of a larger debate that has nothing to do with profanity, one that is being dealt with nationwide. That debate is about racism, gentrification and the ownership of public space."

Background

Paul Anderson is a prolific Generation X filmmaker with a trademark style and five Academy Awards under his belt. He's also made music videos for everyone who's performed at Largo. In addition to his film-making, he's dated models turned singers, singers turned models, daughters of singers and models who only sing in the shower.

Style

Paul Anderson's films are notable for their flashy style and complicated, interweaving story lines. As one of the video store generation of filmmakers, he employs a large bag of cinematic tricks, including quick cuts, constant camera movement, stunning scenery, dutch tilts, low angles, high angles and revolving pullback shots-- tricks gleaned from growing up with a VCR rather than film school learning. He frequently employs female-led ensemble casts drawn from a stock of trusted actors. Making up that group are such players as Julianne Moore, Sean Pertwee, John C. Reilly, Colin Salmon, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Jeremy Bolt, Melora Walters, Jason Isaacs, and Luiz Guzman, to name a few.

Themes

Anderson's ostentatious style is frequently used to elevate the seemingly mundane to epic proportions. Sometimes the point of this ostentatious streak seems merely like showing-off, perhaps an effect of Anderson's high level of film exposure but probable lack of theory. He frequently revels in the seedy underside of outwardly blissful environs. Other frequently recurring themes include constructions and examinations of makeshift families, the role of media, divine acts, secret governmental organizations and the unintended consequences of technology run amok.

Films

While trying to beat the heat, I often think of what far-off cold places I'd like to go before the world turns to desert. North Asia is high on my list for sheer obscurity. Even the designation "north Asia" sounds like something that never gets said. I think that my first awareness of North Asia as a place came with playing Risk (aka La Conquête du Monde) when my conquering cavalry rode triumphantly into Yakutsk, Irkutsk and Kamchatka. It's expensive to fly there, they almost all love throat-singing, the curiously named Jew's Harp and occasionally stumble across frozen mega-fauna. Beyond that, I know more about the member Planets of the Federation than the little-known nations of North Asia... (in Ying Yang Twins voice) at least til now.



The Altay (also known as Altai or Altayans ) people are a nomadic Turkic people who've settled in the Altai Republic (and neighboring Altai Krai).


According to the website waytorussia.net:

Some facts on garbage: According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average American produces about 4.4 pounds of garbage a day, or a total of 29 pounds per week and 1,600 pounds a year; multiply that by the United States population of about 300 million, and you have one hell of a mountain of trash. And this average only considers households and not industrial waste or commercial trash.

The garbage produced in a year in the U.S. alone could fill enough garbage trucks to form a line to the moon… or cover the entire state of Texas two and a half times … or bury more than 990,000 football gridirons six-foot deep in compressed waste. Also, Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild the entire fleet of commercial jets in the US.

And for those inclined, here are a few more dumpster diving tips.

Tip # 1 - Never, and I do mean never, climb inside a dumpster that is equipped with a trash compactor. Sure some of those tales may be just urban myths, but once in a while down at the ol’ landfill a grisly discovery finds some poor sucker, flashlight still in hand, squished like a bug.  

Tip # 22 - I always avoid climbing a fence to reach a dumpster. Here are a couple of reasons why: first, if there is anything worthwhile to be had, chances are middling to good that the wares will be lying around outside the fence. The fact is most people are lazy and won’t take the time to put their trash bag down, reach in their pocket, fiddle for some keys, struggle with selecting the right key, unlock the fence, pick the sack of garbage back up, open the dumpster, drop it in and the relock the gate unless they absolutely have no other choice … and even then they’ll find an excuse. And the second reason for not climbing a fence: As a kid, my little sister slipped climbing over a chain link fence. She caught her arm on a spike, and as she dangled there, frantically clawing at the air and at the fence, screaming “there’s a hole my arm, there’s a hole my arm!” every thrashing twist ripped a bigger gash in her bicep, until finally it tore loose. The sight of a dripping hunk of skin hanging from a spike on a fence and the blood soaked cement below has stayed with me for many a decade. Simply put -- I don’t climb fences.

Hard-working jazz singer/instrumentalist Esperanza Spalding, who recently played several dates in California and whose latest album Esperanza on Heads Up International has been available at Amoeba Music since it was released last month, took some time out of her busy schedule to talk with the Amoeblog this week. The jazz acoustic bassist/vocalist  talked about how she defines the type of music she plays, her recent gig at the Roots Picnic in Philly, the state of jazz music in 2008, and how she got into the style of music initially. 
 
"I fell in love with the music via the bass," said Esperanza. "Playing the instrument automatically made me a draw for jazzers who needed bass in their band, or on a gig. People would literally tell me, 'Hey if you check out these records or learn these songs, you can have this gig.'  And, when the music I was assigned or turned onto was jazz, I would take it to heart and try my best to understand it. Of course, for my musical palette at that time, it took a while before I could really    
   appreciate what I was listening to."

As for the challenge of being both a vocalist and an instrumentalist simultaneously, the artist said that it just takes practice as far as executing the music. "But what can be difficult is being a singer, in the sense that you are engaged with the audience, and really responsible for emoting, and getting into the lyrics, melody, etc and being an effective bassist/band leader," she added. On the topic of Esperanza's music, I asked the artist how she herself describes her style? "Hmm, investigative," she replied. "I am trying to synthesize all the elements that are present, or at least present in my intention, if it doesn't always translate to the listener. I figure in a few years I'll really be able to peg my sound."

It seems like I just talked about Sigur Ros on the blog, but that was way back in November when they released their live/unreleased stuff sort of album. I just can't talk enough about how much I love this band. This week they are putting out the brand new full length album full of all brand new songs. The album is called Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust. For those of you that do not speak Icelandic or Hopelandic, this translates into "With A Buzz In Our Ears We Play Endlessly." As you can imagine, the new album is fantastic. After all, it is a new Sigur Ros album. How can it not be great? But it is a bit of a departure from what we have come to expect from these guys. While still managing to very much be a Sigur Ros album, it comes off as being a bit more of a pop record I think, but in a Sigur Ros kind of way. Don't worry, it is still weird. The opening song and single is "Gobbledigook." The song includes a lot of hand claps, and I am a big fan of the hand claps. It is a nice way to start the album, but it really gets me with the second song. This is the kind of Sigur Ros song that I fall in love with. I have no idea what they are signing about but it just doesn't matter. It is like some huge classical anthem that you just fall in love with. It speaks to you without the words. I don't even really think of the vocalist as a singer. His voice is just another instrument in the band. The song has a lot going on. It sounds like a full orchestra and a choir of young Icelandic singers, and it's all brought together by Jonsi's beautiful voice. It is that voice that first made me fall in love with the great Sigur Ros, and it is that voice that keeps me a loyal member of the Sigur Ros fan army. His voice is like the most beautiful instrument in the world. I know I sort of sound like a cult member, but they really are that good.

ULTRA RARE THEATRICAL SCREENING!

 

Saturday June 28

Doug McClure
& Vic Morrow in

Humanoids From The Deep

1980, 80 min.

New Beverly Cinema
7165 W Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Midnight, $7

From The Caverns Of The Deep... It Strikes!

As you may already know, here in San Francisco we recently celebrated the uproarious madness that we like to call Amoebapalooza!  Here are two first-hand accounts of the controlled chaos that is Amoebapalooza SF!

First, we hear from Miss Kelly Sweeney:


Every spring, say around March or so, ideas begin buzzing around inside the heads of Amoeba’s staff. These inklings and urges are born of a question: What should I do, or rather, who can I be at Amoebapalooza this year? Could it be that this is the year that your dream Thin Lizzy cover band enables you to live your classic rock fantasy on stage for fifteen minutes? Is it finally time for you to rediscover your inner Buddy Guy, Stevie Nicks, or Michael McDonald? Everyone’s whisperin’ Fleetwood Mac -- will it happen? Whether you’re of the impression that Amoebapalooza is nothing but a glorified talent show or, conversely, that it’s perfect conduit through which Amoebites can shed some of their geekdom while gaining an odd sort of street cred, one cannot look past the fact that when it comes to “office parties” Amoebapalooza celebrates the uniqueness of the people that daily breathe life into the overall experience of one of the world’s best record stores.


This year’s Amoebapalooza hosted a motley lineup of acts featuring employees and friends of Amoeba SF. Tributes to our fellow employee and cherished friend Anthony Marin punctuated the playful atmosphere of the evening, with everyone expressing their reverence and grief in gestures, dedications and in some cases bizarre shout-outs; the love we feel for Big Ant was very much a part of the celebration.

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It might well look from a mainstream glance that hip-hop today has evolved into nothing but slickly produced, bouncy, party music with mindless lyrics that are more concerned with ringtone-designed, catchy choruses than any type of political message.

We are in a time in the once widely revolutionary music that whenever you hear of an artist accused of being 'offensive' it is more likely that they are being misogynist  than being lyrically threatening or offensive to the government or the economic or social system.

But there are still hip-hop artists today making politically charged, socially relevant music in the tradition of such militant rap artists as Public Enemy and Paris. Immortal Technique is such an artist and his latest album, The 3rd World (Viper), which arrived in Amoeba Music yesterday, is a prime example of an artist using his craft and resources as a platform to make powerful political, economic, and sociological statements.

I recently had the opportunity to catch up with the outspoken Harlem, NY emcee, who is as critical of the music industry as he is of the Bush administration. The 3rd World, like his previous releases such as the classic Revolutionary Vol.2, is  released on his own label, Viper, with carefully monitored distribution by KOCH. He told me he would rather have control of his music and his business than have some huge corporation pimp him. Not that any large entertainment conglomerate would not be scared away by such a loud political rapper. The industry won't really push political artists, he told me. "They will champion someone who is not fit to defend those positions for our people," he said, noting that this only inspires him to stick to the script. "It's very important for us to never lose sight of the revolutionary aspect of hip-hop.....that's the 3rd world: the revolutionary side, the street side, the hardcore side, and the independent."

        

 
        

        
     
        

              

        

       

      

     

    

      
 

      

One of the distinctive features of the expansive East Bay city of Oakland is the amount of churches that dot its wide landscape from Deep East Oakland to North Oakland, and of course West Oakland. Churches are everywhere --every few blocks in most parts of Oakland it seems there's a church building.

What's so wonderful about these churches is how they range so widely in architectural styles and types.

Each church boasts its own unique structure and they vary from the fancy to the functional. 

If time allows, it's fun to leisurely travel Oakland's streets and take in their beauty.

Click on this website for a list of many (not all) of the churches of Oakland. But really, you don't need a guide to find them.  Go anywhere in Oakland and you'll pass a church within no time.

West Oakland (the red part in opposite map of Oakland) is a good place to start where there's a church on every second or third block. As a result the churches of West Oakland play a key role in defining the image of this East Bay neighborhood. However, with the fast advancing gentrification that's been going on in West Oakland in recent years, many longtime residents may be forced out due to rising real estate value. 

Hence economics would dictate that many of these little West Oakland churches, most of which draw a steady but small congregation every Sunday, will in short time become an endangered species, so if you want to see them in all their beauty do it now.

Vestron Video 5352

Come and join us for a night of rebellious music -- Dance floor Afro-Beat, Reggae, Hip-Hop, Salsa & Cumbia classics, all with messages of freedom and rebellion. Amoeba employees Gazoo (Edwin), Askari (Eric) and myself will be on the turntables with Ray Ricky Rivera as our host. Special guest will be East Los Angeles Reggae En Español band Umoverde.

All of this for only five bucks!



The Scene
806 E. Colorado St.
Glendale, California
Cost: $5

Vestron Video VA4348

George Carlin died earlier today (June 22, 2008) in Los Angeles. He was 71 years old. The truly unique and always outspoken American comedian/social commentator/actor, who had a history of heart problems, died of  heart failure at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica at approx 6PM today. 

Unlike so many comedians who tend to tone down their act as the years slip by or as they become more famous & widely accepted, George Carlin consistently kept his work  on the edge by always being brutally honest and darkly satirical as he routinely tackled such targets as religion, culture, politics, and the hypocrisies of America.

The ever anti-establishment Carlin will probably be best remembered for "The Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV" routine of his (found on his Class Clown album) in which he tested the limits and challenged the government regulated words that dared not be uttered on television (or the radio).

In 1972 in Milwaukee at a show Carlin did this routine, uttering those seven "dirty" words from the stage, resulting in his arrest for disturbing the peace. The same routine, when played on American radio, led to the 1978 Supreme Court ruling upholding the government's authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language.

Personally, I loved everything he ever did that I got my hands on: records, books and filmed performances-- three video clips of which are included below. One is the aforementioned "The Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV" from a 1978 concert. Another is the wonderful "Modern Man" from more recent years, in which he does an inspired piece about modern technology (great for mixing over beats because of its poetic flow) and another amazing recent piece - the no-holds-barred "America Is Tyranny" in which Carlin tells it like it really is today in the messed up United States of America.

60 years ago this week on June 21, 1948, at a press conference in the luxurious Waldorf Astoria Hotel (former home to such 20th century luminaries as Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Siegel, Nikola Tesla, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Cole Porter, and former President Herbert Hoover), Columbia Records unveiled their latest concept; the “LP.” This choice in dates was by no means a random selection. Columbia picked the summer solstice because it’s the longest day of the year and “LP” stands for "long playing."

The new “LP’s” played at a speed of 33⅓ rpm, and came in two sizes: 10in (25cm) and 12in (30cm) in diameter and were pressed out of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or what we now simply call vinyl. This new material was more durable and much less brittle then the shellac used in the previous 78rpm format. (By the way, ‘shellac’ is a substance obtained from the secretion of a Southeast Asian beetle). The LP’s audio quality was better and the playable length of time for each side increased dramatically. This new format was revolutionary.

Although they released approximately 50 records simultaneously to help push the fledgling LP market, the first popular music catalogue number for a ten-inch LP, CL 6001, was a reissue of the Frank Sinatra 78 rpm album set from 1946, The Voice of Frank Sinatra. (Initially the 12in format was reserved for higher-priced classical recordings and Broadway shows, though that would change just a few years down the road). Not only was The Voice Sinatra’s first studio album, but many music critics claim it holds the distinction of being the first concept album … no way dude!

Worldwide Underground is every Sunday at Amoeba Hollywood from noon til one. Here is my set list.
You can also hear or download my set by clicking here. Thanks to Jayme for recording it.

"Nana de Colores"-Diego Carrasco
"Oye Mi Olelole"-Celina Y Reutilio
"Senor Presidente"-Los Cojolites
"Tres Golopes"-Toto La Moposina
"Oualahila Ar Teninam"-Tinariwen
"Osman Pehlivan"-Arif Sag
"Sonido Amazonico"-Los Mirlos
"Usti, Usti Baba" - Senor Coconut Vs. Kocani Orkestar
"Cumbia"-Columna De Fuego
"Watergate"-Tipica 73
"Astronautas A Mercurio"-Sonara Casino
"Tifit Hayed"-Wganda Kenya
"Che Che Cole"-Antibalas
"Afrobeatnik?"-Gecko Turner
"Paloma"-Sidestepper
"Cumbia Sapuesana"-Aniceto Molina
"Volaron Las Brujas"-Los Erederos De La Cumbia
"Cologiala" - Rodolfo y su Tipica R.A.7
"Rebellion"-Joe Arroyo
"Lloraras"-Dimension Latina
"Bacalo Con Pan"-Irakere
"Rico Suave Bossa Nova"-J Dilla
"Wanda Vidal"-Marcos Valle
"Pe Da Roseira"-Gilberto Gil
"Tive Razao"-Seu Jorge

Lightning Video LA 9929

The Bay Area's own Pansy Division are the stars of a new documentary chronicling their blood, sweat and tears as one of the country's first out queer rock bands. The title of the film is, appropriately, Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band. It will have its first US festival screening this Thursday, June 26 at 7pm at the Victoria Theater as part of this year's Frameline LGBT Film Festival. For more info on the screening click here.

The film was created out of older footage and recent band member interviews and was directed by Michael Carmona. Bass player Chris Freeman has a film degree and was the editor of the film! I spoke to band member Jon Ginoli about it and he related that the documentary is "an outsider's perspective with insider's access." 

The band will be in attendance at the screening and there will be an afterparty at the fabulous Eagle Tavern, where Pansy Division will perform!

I’ve spent the last month or so moving, filling my new apartment and emptying my previous life. Funny, once my old house was bare and the garage was cleared of all its natural debris, I wanted to stay. Then again, no surprise there, just a few weeks earlier I wanted to torch the garage with all my crap inside: the thousands of records, the hundreds of books, the furniture, memorabilia -- destroy everything that wouldn’t fit into a Trader Joe’s shopping bag and my pants pockets, and the rest just send up in an electrifying whoosh of a bonfire. I could have used a purifying ritual about then, no matter how cruelly naked the results. Sorry to muff such a blissful moment, an unfulfilled act I needed to execute decades ago. I just didn’t have a gas can or matches this time around.

Actually, I couldn’t hang onto the mindset I’d need to genuinely cleanse my life. Besides if I did burn it all down, I would have ruined this fine-looking tableau of rafters, conduit and cobwebs. Right now, with my weary, worn back, boxes weighing down every square inch of walk-able space in my new digs, living in an empty garage staring at the rafters seem so much more appealing than sorting through my fifth edition dog-eared books and my bubblegum records and the scraps of paper that explain who the hell lives here.

Summer began June 20th at 23:59PM, coordinated Universal Time, which is mean solar time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich in London, overlooking the River Thames -- Coordinates 51° 28′ 40.12″ N, 0° 0′ 5.31″ W.  And here in sunny ol’ Tinseltown -- coordinates 34° 6′ 0″ N, 118° 20′ 0″ W, summer began at 4:59 P.M, June 20th.

OK, a couple of weeks ago I was speaking to a friend about what movies I'd especially like to see screened... At the top was Kamikaze '89, Fassbinder's starring role in a totally depressing (now retro) futurist New Wave sci-fi thriller. Second on the list was Never Too Young To Die. Only a matter of a couple hours went by before I noticed that, due to the terrible fire at Universal Studios, Phil had changed a few of the titles he was showing. Boom, there it was!!! A real life, full screen showing of one the 80's strangest creations.  Gene Simmons dressed up looking like Carmen Miranda morphed with Frank N Furter, wearing Lynda Carter's old fake Kiss costume. The God of Thunder as an eco-terrorist by day and Pre-Op glam-metal cabaret singer by night. Vanity flying "high" after her big role in Barry Gordy's the Last Dragon. John Stamos as the 2nd generation secret agent gymnast sent to save LA. It's all waiting for you 24 hrs from now, down at the New Beverly which is located at  7165 Beverly Blvd., just west of  La Brea. Phil will take your $7 at the window, please thank him for showing this film!!! 

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80 years ago today, in 1928, the legendary jazz musician and groundbreaking force of nature Eric Dolphy was born in Los Angeles. He was one of guiding forces who piloted the "new thing" of jazz though the late fifties and the 1960’s. His unique improvisational style intoned wide intervals, extended techniques, scorching intensity and unexpected sonic explorations on alto sax, clarinets, and flute. Such sounds were seldom heard before and seldom sound as accomplished since.

Educated at Los Angeles City College, he walked the fine line between traditional/mainstream jazz and the avant-garde like few musicians could. Though his work is often classified as simply “free jazz,” Dolphy’s playing was more then just his own idiosyncratic personal voice. He touched on the history of most jazz styles, from New Orleans to bop to third stream; he experimented with various non-Western music and 20th century classical ideology, pioneering extensions as both a soloist and as a jazz composer. His influence is still felt today.

During his short time on the scene Dolphy played with almost every great jazz musician of the day including, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, Chico Hamilton, Oliver Nelson, Max Roach, Gerald Wilson, Abbey Lincoln, Gunther Schuller, and Andrew Hill. In his own bands Dolphy included the likes of Tony Williams, Herbie Hancock, Bobby Hutcherson, Woody Shaw, Richard Davis, Ron Carter, Jaki Byard, Roy Haynes, Mal Waldron, Booker Little and Freddie Hubbard.

At the age of 36 Eric Dolphy died in a diabetic coma in Berlin on June 29th, 1964. Dolphy was posthumously inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame shortly after his death.

Tartufi is one of the greatest local bands around here in the Bay Area. Co-members Lynne and Brian spoke with me recently about the progress on their new album, their guilty pleasures, and the musical collective they have created. If you are in the Bay Area, you can catch them next at a free show at Cafe Du Nord on Monday, June 23!


Miss Ess: How did you form together and come up with your sound?

Lynne: Like Voltron, just like Voltron. It was a natural progression from the direction we were headed in musically, spiritually...and Transformerally.

Brian: I saw Lynne play years ago, was blown away by her style and was determined to be in a band with her. Our musical tastes are very close and our vision is so in line it's frightening. Tartufi presented us both with the opportunity to write and play exactly what we wanted without the interference of extra band mates and the burden of unnecessary, inflated egos.

ME: Sounds ideal. How does song writing work within the band?

Lynne: We both bring things to the table and sculpt them into something we are both happy with. Like potato latkes.

Brian: We often give ourselves technical or musical challenges and problem solve our way to writing something we are both excited about. There's a lot of "what if we tried this...?" in our practices. Then we spend the next several hours rearranging our gear, experimenting, studying electricity, and making pained expressions as we try to wrestle our ideas into something tangible.

What do you think of the SF music scene at the moment?

This Summer’s awesome shows have already begun, and this weekend alone is going to BLOW MY MIND!!  And it’s not going to be one of those weekends that starts pretty good and builds into one huge final show, oh no.

We begin big on Friday night with Earth at the Great American Music Hall. Dylan Carlsen’s sludgey, droney, stoner metal band has grown and evolved into the template that so many other bands have tried to emulate-- like SunnO))) for example. The line-up is complete with Adrienne Davies on drums, Steve Moore playing trombone and Wurlitzer, and Don McGreevy on bass. I LOVE THIS BAND. And co-headlining with them is Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter, which is exciting for me for 2 reasons:  I’ve never seen them, and the last time I saw Earth they played with Neurosis, so this will be a completely different experience. I can appreciate and respect a band not contained in a box, either internally or externally created. Click here for a great new interview with Earth. For more info on tonight's show at the Great American, click here.

Then we have:


Saturday night at the 12 Galaxies is Amoeba Music San Francisco’s Amoebapalooza!  Employees and friends perform in 15 minute sets, with assured madness to ensue. Some acts have been together and performing for a while, some acts are purely for fun—a one time gig. 

It is now officially the week of Coldplay. I knew the album would be huge but it has seriously done better than anybody's expectations, and the week is not even over yet. It will for sure be the Sex & the City of the summer. Everyone is expecting it to do well, but this is just craziness. I think it might end up being the biggest debut at Amoeba ever. However, the most exciting release of the week for me would have to be the new Joy Division Documentary. Control really left me wanting more Joy Division in my life, and now I can finally have it.

There has not really been a good Joy Division documentary yet-- a least not one that I have seen-- so it is nice to finally have one on DVD. I just got the DVD yesterday but I have not had a chance to watch it yet, so I can't exactly talk all that much about it, but it is "Fantastic" according to Russ Fischer from Chud.com. This is the quote on the back of the DVD. I really hate quotes on the packaging of DVDs. At least CDS usually have little quotes on stickers on the outside of the plastic. I know they are great marketing tools but it really ruins the artwork. I should be happy at least they put the quote on the back of the DVD. I would think that they could get a quote from somebody more well known than chud.com... but I guess not. I had not really heard of chud.com, so this quote did not influence me to buy the dvd but it did make me check out their website. I might now be a fan of chud.com. I had been looking for some other movie blogs to check out and I think I might have found one. C.H.U.D. stands for Cinematic Happenings Under Development. It seems to be a website/blog for comic book and sci-fi/horror nerds, but I will have to do some more investigation. I do believe them though. I bet the DVD is fantastic. It includes the documentary with all the surviving members of Joy Division and also 75 minutes of additional interviews.

60 year ago today Nicholas Rodney Drake, enigmatic British folk musician, was born. Today he lives only in myth, legend and allegory. Drake, who released three albums in his lifetime, Five Leaves Left, Bryter Layter, and Pink Moon  failed to find a wide audience thirty odd years ago, but since his death in 1974 has found a continuing growth in popularity and influence.

Nick Drake was twenty years old when he signed to Island Records, releasing his debut album Five Leaves Left in 1969. Over the next few years he recorded only two other albums, though none sold more than five thousand copies in their initial releases. His reluctance to perform live or be interviewed no doubt contributed to his lack of commercial success.

Throughout his life Drake constantly battled depression. After the completion of his final album, 1972's Pink Moon, he ceased performing and recording, and chose to withdraw from society to his parents' home in rural Warwickshire. Drake died from an overdose of the prescribed antidepressant, amitriptyline, on November 25th 1974.

There was no public announcement or notice of his death. Initially there was no effort to even reissue his three albums, but in 1979 the box set Fruit Tree, compiling his three completed albums plus a handful of home recordings and left over sessions, was released. However, once again, sales were poor, the album received little notice from the press, and by 1983 Fruit Tree was deleted from the Island Records catalogue. Still, a fanatical following and interest never ceased. Musicians such as Robert Smith, Peter Buck, Kate Bush, and John Martyn cited him as an influence. In early 1999, BBC2 aired a documentary, A Stranger Among Us—In Search of Nick Drake. And most notably in 2000, Volkswagen featured the song Pink Moon in a television commercial, and within one month Drake had sold more records than he had in the previous thirty years.

Watch the trailer today. Watch the movie on Saturday.

 

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Saturday June 21

John Stamos, Vanity
& Gene Simmons in

Never Too
Young To Die

1986, 92 min.

New Beverly Cinema
7165 W Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Midnight, $7

Vanity: the new breed of temptress! Stamos: the new breed of hero!

---

June
June 7 Heavenly Bodies
(Phil's 30th BDay Party - FREE screening of this unjustly overlooked aerobics classic! Leg warmers & leotards encouraged!)
June 14 Burial Ground
(The Italian Zombie Classic!)
June 21 Never Too Young To Die
(What would happen if John Stamos, Vanity, Gene Simmons and George Lazenby starred in the SAME film? Find out at this RARE screening!)
June 28 Humanoids From The Deep
("They're not human. But they hunt human women. Not for killing. For mating!" The deliriously tasteless Roger Corman monster fest!)

July
July 5 Delta Force
(celebrate Independence Day weekend - watch Lee Marvin & Chuck Norris kick terrorist BUTT in the Cannon Films classic!)
July 19 Just One Of The Guys
(Sony's LAST 35mm print of the ultimate '80s role reversal comedy!)
July 26 Chopping Mall
(w/ special guests director Jim Wynorski & star Kelli Maroney in attendance, schedules permitting)

Ronnie Lane is one of those musicians who never really got recognized for the great talent he was.

He was mostly know for being in the Small Faces and the Faces, where he played bass and wrote songs, but was largely overshadowed by front men Steve Marriott and Rod Stewart, respectively. 

His later work both as a solo artist and with his band Slim Chances is what I have really been enjoying lately. He left the Faces in '72 and chose a quieter life on a large farm in Wales.  At one point he arranged a tour that was literally a circus-- they traveled as a caravan across England and set up tents, had animal attractions, etc. It was Ronnie's dream and it turned out to be a financial failure he never really recovered from.

Some of his songs for his first solo album, Anymore for Anymore, were recorded by the band outdoors in the hills of his property, surrounded by sheep and children playing.That era of the early to mid 70s seems to have been the most idyllic of his life.

And here's a performance of the lead track from that album, "How Come":



Lane's music fits into the classic rock idiom in some ways, the Americana idiom in others, but it has a buoyancy and a sparky energy that make it special and idiosyncratic. Ronnie's essence is truly captured in his songs.

There was one thing my Dad and I always agreed on, even when I was a teenager and we were unlikely to find any common ground: we were both awe-struck by Cyd Charisse, the greatest and sexiest of all of the Hollywood Musical dancers. She was gorgeous, strong, and always brought a little extra sizzle and nuance to her work.

Charisse died Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after suffering an apparent heart attack. She was 86.

Cyd Charisse danced in some of the greatest Movie Musicals during the hey-day of Movie Musicals. She first gained attention in 1943 in The Harvey Girls, and went on to appear in The Zeigfield Follies, Till the Clouds Roll In, and Words and Music. But she really hit her stride in the early 1950’s with Singin' in the Rain, where she danced with Gene Kelly in what can only be described as one of the steamiest of all Hollywood ballets. She went onto star in other classic films such as The Band Wagon, Brigadoon, Deep in My Heart, It's Always Fair Weather, and Silk Stockings.

In 1952, at the height of her career, her legs were reportedly insured by Lloyds of London for $5 million dollars. She was even featured in the 2001 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records as the "Most Valuable Legs" in Hollywood history.

Born Tula Ellice Finklea on March 8, 1922, in Amarillo, Texas, her older brother nicknamed her Sid as a variation on Sis. She eventually changed the spelling of her name while at MGM, to “give her an air of mystery.”

A few months back I got a real chuckle out of friend who has years of experience working some big time gigs at a couple of major labels. He thought the sticker blog featuring multiple Janet Jackson stickers was a riot.  He had helped with the albums design, including the stickers, but really didn't recall designing different stickers for it.  Here's a whole gallery of sticker variations, none of which are as fun as the Janet example, but they do provide anecdotal details regarding the chronology of hits, attempted hits, awards, milestones etc...