By Marke B.

The amazing and gifted House god DJ Spen of the Code Red and Defected labels is coming to Temple this Sunday night (8/31).

Now and Spen

Spen's been in House so long, it wouldn't have walls without him -- dating back to his work with the seminal Basement Boys in 1989, up through his major diva remixes (I for one couldn't escape his Mandarin-plucky version of Mary J.'s "Beautiful" in the mid-'90s -- hi, DJ Rolo!) and into his current smooth matureness, spreading some deep sunshine all over the global floors. He'll be accompanied on Sunday for a very long set -- we do have Monday off, yes? -- by the ever-fab DJ David Harness of Thread Recordings. Househed reunion!

My real question, though, is will Spen play this, one of the undisputed underground jams of 1999? I'll bring a change of millennium shoes, just in case ...

DJ Spen w/ David Harness
6pm-late, $10
(Super Soul Sundayz Labor Day Celebration)
Temple
55 Natoma
www.templesf.com

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Posted by Marke B. at 09:11 PM | Comments (0)

By Marke B.

But first, a bonus! -- the ecstatical, fantastical, local maniac DJ Richie Panic at Dance, LA last week -- good lord, did half of hipster-perf SF go down there for this? Hilarious moment @ 2:47 = dancefloor opera, go Richie!

CLUB DANCE (RICHIE PANIC)

And now the meat. In this week's Fall Arts Preview, I thumb out a gaggle of rad parties happening in the near future, and sound off about a few of the lovely club jams I'd like to see hit the floor for fall. Here's some extra-poppy ones I bounce to right now that have interesting video accompaniment: for the ipod of your mind. Nothing too edgy or new -- we'll all fall softly and boppily into autumn's orange arms

Plug: Look out for our next stylish Scene nightlife and glamour supplement to drop on Sept. 17 for more club goodies.

I said you'd be "so over" this next track by last Wednesday -- but I was K.I.D.D.I.N.G. I love Cazwell, the gay rap dream from NYC, and in this one LA megafag Jonny Makeup, gives us the hooks and cell phone heebie-jeebies. It's 1989 in clubland and all's well again.

Cazwell w/ Johnny Makeup, "I Seen Beyonce at Burger King" (click here for hi-q)

Continue reading "Clubs: Sweet majik tunes for summer's end" »

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Posted by Marke B. at 07:43 PM | Comments (0)

SHARON ROBINSON
Everybody Knows
(Sharon Robinson Music)

By Todd Lavoie

Sharon Robinson is one smooth deceiver. On first listen, the singer-songwriter's silken soul meditations might easily billow on overhead in drifts of nerve-soothing R&B - but pull your ears a little closer, and you'll see that there's much, much more at work here than merely setting up some hot-whisper mood music for kicking back with a bottle of wine and your sweet thing on the sofa. Her new release, Everybody Knows, certainly succeeds in creating such ambiance, yes, but further inspection shows enormous depth and complexity across these 10 elegantly arranged songs.

This isn't to downplay the burning sensuality that casts an amorous glow throughout the disc - only the most puritanical of listeners could miss, or deny, the extended come-hither of Robinson's songwriting and self-production. Still, what ultimately resonates the most profoundly is the sense of haunting, of introspection, which burrows itself firmly among the satiny synth textures and jazz-informed midnight grooves.

Such a realization shouldn't come as much of a surprise to those already familiar with Robinson; the songwriter has been a longtime collaborator with Leonard Cohen, having co-written songs with him as well as producing his deliciously moody 2001 album, Ten New Songs (Columbia). (That's her on the cover with him, by the way - an entirely appropriate sharing of the credit, too, given that her involvement included co-writing, arranging, electronic programming, and harmonizing throughout the recording.)

Continue reading "Everybody should know about Sharon Robinson" »

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Posted by Kimberly Chun at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)

Heads gather round: Radiohead. All photos by Spencer Hansen.

By Kat Renz

I was in the throes of a particularly conflicted love/hate relationship last weekend. The first Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in Golden Gate Park - so much to appreciate (the music, scenery, intention), so much to loathe (the overlapping performances, long lines, the great green marketing strategy).

"We deserve a festival," folk-rocker Matt Nathanson told journalists during a press conference on Saturday, Aug. 23, the second day of Outside Lands. And though he was being ironic, he echoed the sense of entitlement sweeping through Speedway Meadows on down to the Polo Fields, like the restless ghost of a spoiled brat. Between concert-goers tearing down fences and elbowing relentlessly (and pointlessly) through the audience, or getting so pissed they could barely make out Thom Yorke on the giant TV screens and littering like motherfuckers, the scene got pretty obnoxious.

But, duh, what else did I expect with 150,000 people?

Hat club for men: Sean Hayes.

Let me diverge, briefly, from the rantings of my inner curmudgeon: Oakland's bluesy outfit Howlin' Rain struck an inaugural chord on the tiny Panhandle Stage, jamming through a half-hour set fueled by the soul rasp of front-howler Ethan Miller and Joel Robinow’s organ harmonies.

In the swim: Rupa and the Fishes.

Continue reading "Inside Outside Lands fest: on music-loving and littering hordes and sustainable music gatherings" »

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Posted by Kimberly Chun at 07:36 PM | Comments (1)

Can't lie: I've had Sunday, August 31 circled on my metal-show calendar for months. Judas Priest, Motorhead, Heaven and Hell (aka Black Sabbath as fronted by Dio), and Testament rocking the same bill? It's worth the drive down the peninsula to the Shoreline Amphitheater, where even sweaty mullets and overpriced fried grub won't be enough to dampen the awesomeness of Metal Masters. It's hard for me to type with both my hands curled into devil horns, but since Judas Priest guitarist KK Downing was kind enough to speak with me over the phone -- from Belgium, no less -- about Metal Masters, Priest's new concept album, and the evergreen appeal of metal, I'll do my best to transcribe our conversation here.

Continue reading "Hell bent for Metal Masters" »

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Posted by Cheryl Eddy at 07:17 PM | Comments (0)

Wild and wooly Wilco. All photos by El Fotografo Clandestino.

El Fotografo Clandestino took aim at the third and last day, Sunday, Aug. 24, of the Outside Lands music fest in Golden Gate Park, SF. Here are a few of the artists, things, and people - look for more thoughts and images in this space.

Howl: Gift of Gab of Mighty Underdogs.

Whistle bait: Andrew Bird.

Continue reading "Outside Lands day three: Jack, Wilco, Toots, fence jumpers" »

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Posted by Kimberly Chun at 11:08 PM | Comments (0)

By Erik Morse

"It was only four tracks on the machine, but I was picking up 20 from the extra terrestrial squad...”

Reggae producer and dub pioneer Rainford Hugh Perry, a.k.a., Lee Perry, a.k.a. Scratch, a.k.a. the Upsetter, has a professional career that now stretches over half a century with thousands of studio tracks, production and songwriting credits. From Studio One to Amalgamated Records to his own Black Ark studio and label, Perry is second only to Bob Marley for his contribution to the worldwide popularity Jamaican music.

His list of compatriots reads like a Rosetta stone of Rastafarian music – Max Romeo, the Congos, King Tubby, and Augustus Pablo. His genre-bending work in ska, rocksteady, reggae, and dub has earned him the distinctive sobriquet of mad genius. But three generations of experimental artists - born under the sign of “I Am the Upsetter” and “Long Shot” - have since taken up the echo plate, leaving Perry a largely mythic and removed patrician of all-things woozy. At 72, Perry maintains a life of sobriety, with a Grammy to his credit and a permanent residence in Zurich. The Upsetter of late is far from the raving producer who once burned down his own backyard studio in a fit of rage.

Continue reading "Echolalia: Lee Perry returns to the Bay Area" »

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Posted by Kimberly Chun at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

SHEARWATER
Rook
(Matador)

By Todd Lavoie

Shipwrecks, burning bodies, scattered deaths and sweeping acts of violence - welcome to the cold troubled world of Shearwater's fifth release, Rook, a world in which everyone and everything seems to be classified as either predator or prey. Here, hunters lurk behind tempo changes, bigger birds feast upon the carcasses of smaller birds to the flutter of circular guitar patterns, and the mighty ocean swells in cruel crescendos, threatening to engulf us all.

Scared? Intrigued? Titillated? Well, all of the above would be perfectly appropriate - the disc works plenty of heartbeat-skipping hoodoo from its gripping whirls of hushed ambient textures, elegant orchestral-pop melodrama, and jugular-bulging rock 'n' roll bombast. At the center of it all is singer-songwriter Jonathan Meiburg, a mild-mannered ornithologist - or, I assume he is mild-mannered, anyway, considering his expertise in the quiet, meditative field of bird-watching - who does not write lyrics as much as composes metaphor-heavy abstract poems and sets them to intricate song structures with little interest in rote verse/chorus/verse design.

Then, of course, there is his voice: a gorgeous, enormously versatile instrument that often manages to pack years worth of conflicting emotions within a single phrase, it is without doubt the swooping, howling-falsetto focal point of Shearwater's woodwind-and-string-laden experimental theatrics. Meiburg's expressive abilities are such that it's tough to imagine the idea of a casual Rook listener: his delivery, sensitive to every nuance demanded by the lyrics, tends to pull me ear-first against the other end of the microphone, eagerly awaiting the next word from his lips. Elements of Scott Walker come into focus, traces of Jeff Buckley. Here and there I hear Antony Hegarty, Thom Yorke. And lastly - but certainly not least - I pick up a lovely Mark Hollis (Talk Talk) vibe. Those who followed Talk Talk's metamorphosis from decent electro-pop outfit to one of the chief architects of post-rock will surely squeal in delight upon discovering Shearwater's daring forays into similarly oblique territories.

Continue reading "The sheer beauty of Shearwater, coming soon to Great American Music Hall" »

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Posted by Kimberly Chun at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

By Sonny Smith

When I met musician John Murry, Memphis transplant, I naturally asked him about hometown. He told me: “When I first got out here I had to be told I couldn’t keep a pistol in my glove box.”

Murry has been here for four years - creating a music label, Evangeline Records; playing in a few bands; ruffling some feathers; and raising his daughter. “The thing is, people from Memphis are basically from Mississippi, or maybe Arkansas," he said. "Memphis is the capitol of Mississippi. There is a fair share of disputes settled by knives and guns.... The scene there is kind of beautifully dysfunctional - everybody chasing after everybody’s wives and stuff.”

He’s put a lot of records out in a short time with Evangeline. “My family was intertwined with William Faulkner’s. The Murrys and the Faulkners intermarried three or four times," he said. "My grandfather owned some property signed over by Bill, and when he died the grandkids got a little bit of money." His friend, artist Bob Frank, also brought some money to the project.

“It’s a ridiculously fair label," Murry continued. "I just built it the way I thought labels were supposed to be. I just don’t make anything. I don’t think artists should ever be in debt to a label. Artists are already in debt - spiritual debt. Without artistic freedom you don’t have art - there can’t be a compromise. I don’t tell the artists anything about how it should be or what would sell.”

Continue reading "Memphis in SF: John Murray keeps it downhome with Evangeline Records" »

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Posted by Kimberly Chun at 01:32 PM | Comments (0)

He won't back down: Tom Petty. All photos by El Fotografo Clandestino.

El Fotografo Clandestino took in the second day, Saturday, Aug. 23, at the Outside Lands music fest in Golden Gate Park, SF. Here are a few of the sights - expect more in this space.

Lupe Fiasco in your face.

The Coup keep it real.


Cake beneath the bowers.

Continue reading "Outside Lands day two: Petty, Lupe, Rupa, Coup, Tacuba, and more" »

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Posted by Kimberly Chun at 09:35 AM | Comments (0)

Manu Chao go mano y mano. All photos by El Fotografo Clandestino.

El Fotografo Clandestino caught the first day, Friday, Aug. 22, of Outside Lands music fest. Here are a few images from the night - and look out for more.

Check your head.

Steel Pulse breaks open the beat as the first band Friday night at the Lands End main stage.

Continue reading "Outside Lands day one: Radiohead, Lyrics Born, and Manu Chao captured" »

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Posted by Kimberly Chun at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)

PAUL WELLER
22 Dreams
(Island/Yep Roc)

By Todd Lavoie

The buzz-buzz-buzz in eardrums and across the pages of blogs and music rags hither and yon is all about Paul as of late - no shock there, if you've had the good fortune to hear the Modfather's expansive (and reputation-expanding) 21-track epic, 22 Dreams.

Plenty of garlanded praise and eyebrow-raising declarations have been lavished upon Weller since the album's initial release in Britain at the beginning of June, thus piquing the curiosity of American folks like me who have always enjoyed the vocalist's solo work but had felt a little less spark for his recent output (and were shy of paying a hefty import-only CD price tag - crossing fingers for an eventual stateside release).

There was something almost rigidly straightforward about much of 2005's As Is Now (Yep Roc), for example - solid as it was, it offered relatively few shocks. Similar critiques had been offered now and again throughout his solo career, truth be told - surely the downside of his having set such a high standard for himself with the unimpeachable catalogs of the Jam and the Style Council prior to going at it alone. As Is Now made for a good listen, but it felt like it was missing something. Adventure? Drama? The element of surprise, perhaps?

Continue reading "Buzzing again: Paul Weller returns with a winning '22 Dreams'" »

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Posted by Kimberly Chun at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

Tales from... : Tre of the Pharcyde. All photos by Mosi Reeves

By Mosi Reeves

Rock the Bells was tiring but fun. The Aug. 16 event showcased 14 acts on the main stage, as well as an additional eight on a side stage, and the only way to catch them all was to run around Shoreline Amphitheatre like a chicken with its head cut off.

The day began super-early at 10:40 a.m. with Jay Electronica. I didn’t arrive to the stadium until 11:30 a.m., just in time to catch Washington, DC, rapper Wale finish his set with “W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.,” his hit viral remix of Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.” That meant I spent an exhausting 11 hours at Shoreline. Other audience members were less committed: the venue didn’t reach capacity until around 4 p.m. Still, it was a little early in the morning for hip-hop.

“Hip-hop doesn’t really start until noon,” said Murs before launching into popular underground cuts like “Silly Girl,” “L.A.,” and “Lookin’ Fly,” a new track from his upcoming album Murs for President. The great thing about Rock the Bells is that it draws audiences that actually know who Murs is. He enthusiastically ended his set by saying how grateful he was to be on the main stage this year - last year, he headlined the "Paid Dues" side stage (named after a festival he launched in 2006) for the West Coast leg of the tour. “I get to have cereal with De La Soul. I dare y’all to enjoy yourselves more than me.”

Live forever: Immortal Technique.

Continue reading "Rock the Bells: Did the fest pull off its blend of old school and new?" »

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Posted by Kimberly Chun at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)

"C'mon and turn it up," for sure. I really dug Kim Gordon's last project, Free Kitten's Inherit (Ecstatic Peace) - the resurrected Gordon, Julie Cafritz (Pussy Galore), and Yoshimi (Boredoms) collabo came out earlier this year. But what sort of feline mischief has the Sonic Youth player been up to of late? Apparently the indie-underground icon has been toiling as an artist-in-residence at the garden-green Montalvo Arts Center in otherwise-burby Saratoga - so says the press release that came over the transom recently. Sounds like Montalvo is picking up where it left off with the 2006's noise- and art-filled Bleeding Edge Festival, which brought together Matmos and Zeena Parkins (also working with Gordon this time around), Yo La Tengo, Sunroof!, and Tim Hecker:

"On Sept. 26, Montalvo Arts Center will present the world premiere of 'Kim Gordon Meets Phantom Orchard,' a musical collaboration featuring internationally renowned artists at the forefront of the alternative music scene. Kim Gordon, bassist, guitarist and founding member of Sonic Youth, joins the Phantom Orchard duo of laptop artist Ikue Mori and harp innovator Zeena Parkins, plus special guests Trevor Dunn on bass and drummer Yoshimi. The artists are in development with their new project, entitled 'The Song Project,' as part of their Montalvo Arts Center's Lucas Artists Programs residency.

"Kim Gordon has enjoyed a long and storied career as a musician and a visual artist. In 1981 Gordon, with future husband Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo, helped found seminal alt-rock band Sonic Youth. Though they started out as a decidedly underground act, Sonic Youth emerged from the New York City music scene to become one of the most iconic and influential American rock bands, earning praise for their unique, unorthodox rock guitar style, strong studio albums (which have been included in Rolling Stone's 'Greatest Albums of All-Time' list), and career stamina that has spanned over the course of nearly three decades. An established visual artist and curator, Gordon has exhibited her work across the U.S., Japan and Europe (sometimes incorporating live music in her exhibitions), written for respected art publications and has had several books published highlighting her original art.

Flower children: Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins.

Continue reading "Kim Gordon gets down in Saratoga" »

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Posted by Kimberly Chun at 08:16 AM | Comments (0)

While I'm still waiting for a response from owner Greg Bronstein about the supposed "new direction" that his bar the Transfer -- our City's most beloved alternaqueer and ultrahipster dive-hole -- is supposedly taking (as I reported earlier), another regular party besides Frisco Disco and Lustre has decided that the next date will be its last there. Everyone's transferring out! I just got word from promoter Joshua J. that his raucous monthly homo-disco-circus spectacular, Big Top, which is celebrating its one year anniversary at the Transfer on Sunday August 31, will end after that date.

Joshua is part of a VERY successful Wednesday weekly, Juanita More's Booty Call, at another of Bronstein's joints, Bar On Castro, and assures me -- despite the odd timing -- that he's folding his Big Top tent so that he can concentrate on his new Friday party with the illustrious Frankie Sharp, called M4M, at Underground SF. And indeed, if the Transfer truly is looking to go all upscale, Underground SF should snatch all its shit and bring it for the alternaqueers and rangy str8s. I don't like the looks of the flyer below much -- seems a little LCD -- but hey, I'll check it out. Especially if there's a cologne-blast of mojito-squealers big-upping C+C Music Factory unironically at the Transfer.

This is a golden opportunity, really, for any bar still willing to be open-minded enough to really let something creative happen in this city. Deco, Club Eight, Matador, Buckshot Tavern, Amnesia, or Rickshaw Stop are well-positioned to lap up the new party homeless. You may not make loads of $$, but I'll write about you more! Legendary.

I really can't fault Bronstein for wanting to make money off his business -- he's allowed the Transfer to be the most exciting and edgy club in the City for the past three years. I know he's planning to expand and renovate his slick Jet venue up the street, so maybe he's freaking about the duckets it'll take. His usual thing is rather chi-chi, not even always in a tacky way. But it's just sad. Plus I'm guessing that he was none too polite about the changes (although I really want to hear his side of it before I jump to unjournalistic conclusions): the Frisco Disco kids are absolutely fuming. Read their explosive farewell kiss-kiss MySpace post after the jump -- to the tune of "Death of a Disco Dancer" by the Smiths:

Continue reading "Clubs: More Transfer kerfuffle -- Big Top bows out" »

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Posted by Marke B. at 09:34 PM | Comments (0)

Alas, the rumors -- most of them anyway -- are seeming to be substantiated. Word kept hitting my hotline last week that owner and fairy impressario Greg Bronstein was effecting a management and direction change at the fantastic gay/hipster/hipster-gay ground zero, The Transfer. Many of the Transfer's beloved party institutions appear to be fleeing. (Update: even more are fleeing.)

That includes, incredibly unfortunately, the wonderful six-year-old Frisco Disco, which has grown world famous as an international hotspot for scenemakers who don't mind a little party puke on their stilettos. Alas! This Saturday is the final Frisco Disco at the Transfer.

This party's been homeless before -- it journeyed to the Transfer after a successful -- perhaps too successful -- run at Arrow Bar, now Matador, on Sixth Street. It may be back, too, after a short hiatus -- but definitely not at the Transfer. The Frisco-ites claim that Bronstein said they were too rowdy for him, although they still adore the Transfer staff etc. I'm trying to get a hold of Bronstein now for comment. Also announcing Transfer departure: Lustre, the goth new-wave night. San Francisco may be on the verge of losing one of its most interesting alternative party venues ... more to come!

FINAL FRISCO DISCO
w/ DJs Jeffrey Paradise and Richie Panic
Sat/23, 10pm
The Transfer
198 Church at Market

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Posted by Marke B. at 01:36 PM | Comments (1)

Jerry Wexler. Courtesy of popentertainment.com.

By Kandia Crazy Horse

I am in utter shock at the fact that my lifelong hero, my much-cherished Jerry “Papa Dippermouth” Wexler (Jan. 10, 1917–Aug. 15, 2008) has gone to glory. Been thinking hard not only about my friend, his youngest daughter Lisa (of the great New York State band Big Sister), and my play-uncle/mentor Stanley Booth (one of his best friends), but all the unbroken circle of folks who loved and forever appreciate the magic Wexler produced during his paradigm-shifting career as a music journalist and (likely) the last of the great record men.

I have been weeping all this interminable weekend beginning with his death on Friday morn, Aug. 15 – Black Friday to me forever after. Of course, it is not as if Papa Dip was not poised at the end of his days. And, yes, he enjoyed a long and varied career the likes of which many music geeks of my generation envied (who didn’t want to be a producer at Atlantic Records between the titanic poles of Brother Ray Charles’ and Led Zeppelin’s arc’s therein?). Still, I cannot be consoled.

He wasn’t just the hallowed man who exposed me to the riches of King Solomon Burke and sent me Dusty in Memphis for deep listening or kindly shared personal revelations about my generation’s foremost soul icon Donny Hathaway – the man born Gerald Wexler in the boogiedown Bronx was the first person I was conscious of outside my kinpeople as being essential to how my world revolved. From the age of 2 ½ at least, I read his liner notes or saw his name credited on the back of Atlantic long-players, as the label’s iconic iconography circled round-and-round, and I knew in my deepest soul who and what I wanted to be.

Continue reading "Producer/journalist Jerry Wexler remembered" »

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Posted by Kimberly Chun at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)

By Kat Renz

I kept glancing behind me during the Saviours show last Sunday, Aug. 10. Where is everyone? The Rickshaw Stop, a 4,000-square-foot venue with a worthy sound system, stayed only about a quarter filled - and sparsely at that. I was in awe: anyone reading music mags since the release of Saviours's second album Into Abaddon (Kemado) last January has been inundated with gushing reviews of the local foursome, so WTF? The crowd's absence was almost embarrassing, like we fell short in upholding our gracious side of the mutually beneficial performer/audience agreement.

Shame aside, it's challenging to convey just how visceral a Saviours show is. Even through my weenie laptop speakers, their sound - dripping with reverb, soaring on dead-on harmonized guitar leads, reliant on sick scale-shreddage, equally mastered bass, and no mercy drumming - is preternaturally powerful. The live experience, transcendence times 10, is positively psychedelic.

Sunday's show was exemplary. The band delivered a typically spirited eight-song barrage to launch their two-and-a-half month national tour (catch them again at the tour's end Octer 23 at the Regency Center Ballroom with Iced Earth). Riding on their signature galloping riffs -- the two guitarists are nothing if not relentless gallopers -- they began with "Circle of Servant's Bodies," a Black Sabbathian decent into doom land. Title-track "Into Abaddon" felt in fast-forward, the tempo increase sort of a surprise considering the delicious brownies circulating the room. Ditto for "Narcotic Sea, on which vocalist-guitarist Austin Barber took turns dominating the fretboard with new guitarist Sonny Reinhardt, formerly of Watch Them Die and recently replacing D. Tyler "Balls" Morris.

Continue reading "Getting saved by Saviours at the Rickshaw" »

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Posted by Kimberly Chun at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)

By Todd Lavoie

I want to rave like a street-corner rapture-seeker about the enormous healing properties of Los Angeles' new unashamed pop-messiahs Music Go Music, but first, a little personal exposition.

When I dare to cast a fleeting glance back in the direction of my tween years - the absolute apex of my chronic bumblinghood, that endless expanse of skinny arms and butterfingers and nervous stammers - I'm tempted to take refuge in how deep-down cool I told myself I really was despite my oversized glasses and severe bowl-haircut and startling inability to interact with the rest of the human race. I had Clash cassettes, after all - and the Fall, too, and mixes of Echo and the Bunnymen and Flipper and Dead Milkmen songs I'd taped from local college radio shows! I mean, who could step to that kind of coolness at such an age? Sure, I was scared of my own shadow, but the Misfits convinced me I was the biggest bad-ass in all of New Hampshire, pubes or no pubes. Since I couldn't speak for myself in public, I'd simply assumed that the meticulously crafted Gang of Four and Fishbone logos I'd etched across my fifth-rate denim-blue Trapper Keeper-knockoff would do the talking for me. I knew all of the words to the Smiths' "Reel Around the Fountain," for Christ's sake - why oh why didn't any of my equally self-conscious gangly-wangly peers take notice? Or care? Why was I so alone?

Here's the thing. This so-called coolness I've just described? It's only part of the picture. See, there's a deeper, darker secret, lurking underneath the Morrissey quotes and ballpoint-pen notebook sloganeering: I also harbored a wide-eyed fascination with Top 40 radio. Or, specifically, the stuff I'd hear in the car on the way to a swimming lesson, to summer camp, to a Little League game I'd rather avoid.

Continue reading "Go, go, Music Go Music!" »

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Posted by Kimberly Chun at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

By Vanessa Carr

With feral vocals, shattering guitar riffs, and a collection of microtonal keyboards ordered off of a Lebanese Web site, Rainbow Arabia combines Middle Eastern beats and modes with the vibrant energy of Los Angeles' experimental punk/dance scene. The result is a hypnotic neo-tribal, hipster-dub sound that falls somewhere in the vicinity of post-punk spiritualists Gang Gang Dance and These Are Powers. Rainbow Arabia plays at Cellspace on Aug. 16 before embarking on a cross-country tour with Gangi and Hecuba in October.

The band is composed of Danny and Tiffany Preston, both 36. The husband and wife duo were married for more than three years before they started playing music together and recording in their basement in early 2008. Before Rainbow Arabia, Danny played in punk-dub outfit Future Pigeon and Tiffany in Licorice Piglet.

"It's definitely tested us, being in a band together. But the great thing is that when things are going really well, you get to share it together," Tiffany told the Guardian.

Continue reading "The LA anti-scene guerrillas of Rainbow Arabia make dance mayhem with Middle Eastern guitar, microtonal keys" »

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Posted by Kimberly Chun at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)