Author: rockfag

          Okay, after noticing that Kanye Wests’ LP My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, made more top ten lists than almost any other record released last year I felt it my duty to investigate.  Would I be similarly captivated like a surprising number of  very “Indie Rock” musical authorities like Pitchfork.com?  Would an artist whose work just never interested me  suddenly capture my attention and allegiance with this multi-platinum release.  I’m never opposed to changing my mind about an artist when provided with a solid reason.  I like to find merit in an artists work, especially if i have been unimpressed or even disliked them in the past.  So I’m pretty open to this but it did not happen with this record and I’m totally scratching my head over why this LP is so universally revered and everyone has gone ape-shit over it.  Give me anything by Gang Starr over this mediocre dreck any day.  At times Kanye West reminded me of an anemic piss-take of some of Gang Starr’s finer moments.  Innovation?  Unprecedented artistry?  Soul-baring vulnerability?  Raising the bar for all rap-hip hop artists, groundbreaking travels over new terrain?  Nope, I didn’t get that, in fact there was very little i liked about what i heard at all.  New territory? Yeah right.  Theres nothing new here.  I did sort of like the tasty bit of a guest spot by Nicki Minaj but even she as an artist isn’t really registering much more than suspicion with her multi-platinum hit record.  I wanna like her but frankly I’m not sold.  Maybe I’m too Old School when it comes to my Rap and hip hop tastes but give me Digital Underground, Kool Keith, Paris, The Conscious Daughters, Kool Moe Dee, Too Short, The Coup, Dr. Octagon and Snoop over this stuff any day.  Hmmmmmm, most of that list are or were considered to be local talent, perhaps that has something to do with it, who knows, but I am completey not moved by My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.  I tried to like it, really i did.

The Growlers–Hot Tropics and The Growlers–Are You In Or Out:

Hot Tropics is actually considered an EP and I thought Are You In Or Out was released in 2009 but it was 2010 as well and i heard both of them within a couple months of each other and also saw the band within that time so i’m just combining them in one listing as truly enchanting and satisfying records from  a large band of weird miscreant eccentrics who combine a myriad of styles (tex-mex, surf,  psycho-folk, rockabilly, punk rock, blues, country western) and come up with a sound all their own that is atmosperic, humorous, twangy, dreamy and incredibly danceable when you see them live (and they are playing the Hemlock in SF on new years eve this year FYI).  The vocalist Brooks Neilson has an incredible voice that often brings to mind the lilt of Hank williams and his lyrics are prophetic and twisted tales of wayward freaks and impending doom and having love affairs with the devil in his dreams and Tijuana and being thrown in the river for sexual indiscretions with a powerful mans daughter, and all kinds of creepy but fun scenarios of love and death and satanic gypsy rituals and drugs.  It’s murky layered meandering strains have been coined as “surf-goth” my new favorite genre next to “witch house” of course.  I noticed a recurring theme of graves, graveyards, death and apocalyptic events.  The first cut on Hot Tropics, “Graveyard” opens with the lyric, “The graveyard’s full/ we’re running out of earth/ but we can use the bones to build another church/ thick walls made of men whose souls have come and went.”  There’s just something about this band.  I found this quote from their website: During the release of their first album and their ongoing singles releases, they have experimented with recording techniques that have the ability to bend sound in ways only drugs can. When i first started thinking about my top 10 list, The Growlers were the first band that came to mind.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSX6dc8Fthg&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

Deerhunter–Halcyon Digest:

This is the fucking creepiest record cover of the year, hands down.  I shudder when ever i see it but the music inside is far from a nightmare.  It is in fact a very beautiful contemplative record with a mysterious emotional power we’ve come to expect from Bradford Cox figurehead of Deerhunter as well as Atlas Sound.  With this his third Deerhunter release I think he’s made his most appealing and accessible release yet.  He seems to embrace an early 60’s girl group or Motown vocal style on a few cuts here and it matches up so well with his sensitive indie-rock guy of today thing.  This music is subtle and meticulously executed and uplifting.  The best cut is the astonishing “Desire Lines”  which you can listen to below and i defy you to find a more beautifully brilliant chord progression from any other song this year.  I’ve been a bit lukewarm about Deerhunter until I heard this.  And you can enjoy the uber-creepy record cover for over six minutes of viewing time.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mBSOtdOjoc&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

Crocodiles–Sleep Forever

This is the perfect follow-up to last years debut Summer of Hate, showing just enough growth and polish to the gritty angst-y and loud  entrance made by this guitar/keyboard duo last year.   I love all of the faint Beach Boys-like melodies roughed up with guitar distortion and repetitive sound loops and yes, I know, the Jesus and Mary Chain did do this twenty years ago and i loved it then too but Crocodiles are bringing a lot of pure rock and roll danger and darkness to the california sunshine-y pop music table and i really like these songs.  They also recorded a cover of Dee-lites “Groove is in The Heart” that is great, with a quick refrain of “California Girls” thrown in to the fuzzed-up feedback fun for good measure.  Then I just viewed their video for “Hearts of Love”  which i’ve posted below.  It’s a perfect example of why i like this band.  I have yet to see them live but have heard they are amazing and LOUD.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLxJv6d8MN4&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

Grinderman–Grinderman 2:

Their show at the warfield in december was by far the greatest concert I attended in 2010.  It really made me appreciate the songs on this record much more, seeing them performed live.  This side project for Nick Cave of The Bad Seeds is a far more rocking outfit and brings to mind his seminal earliest band The Birthday Party, whom I saw once before and to date ranks as one of the scariest shows I ever witnessed.  That was over 20 years ago and no matter what you say, Nick still has plenty of that dark primal over-the-top rock and roll evil whirling around in his soul and Grinderman is the perfect outlet for it.  The cut “Kitchenette” finds him delivering one of his sexiest vocal performances to date and as always the lyrics are plenty intense and full of ghastly, cutting imagery and dark humor and fear and longing.  Infinitely lovelorn, angry and twisted.  This disc is awesome.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKznZUtKntg&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

The Black Angels–Phosphene Dream:

The third LP from The Black Angels from Austin Texas finds this impressive outfit who can really create a huge atmospheric monster of a psychedelic stoner rock sound, branching out and expanding their repertoire to encompass more psychedelia, but more of the 60’s kind of pop-psychedelia like the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Strawberry Alarm Clock era stuff and they do it remarkably well.  Their previous releases always seemed pretty dark and sinister, night time music for sure, but this one lightens up on the foreboding gloominess and brings a bit of daylight to their mysterious sound.  It suits them well.  The live video below sounds really good and finally i know what they look like.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex8jxCuO7mI&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

The Black Keys–Brothers:

What can you say about  the Black Keys?  They are a great band, simply a duo yet every bit as powerful as any combo, with a string of seven full releases since their 2002 debut, all an improvement over the previous.  Their pared down bare-bones take on the blues and soul sounds more authentic than just about anything else out there,  and somehow always leaves me wondering how two people can create such a full and complete and satisfying noise.  This release in some ways is their strongest and with four grammy nominations and the number 2 position on Rolling Stones top records of 2010 list it seems they are getting the recognition they deserve.  I think the bands secret weapon has proven to be Dan Auerbach’s incredible voice.  He’s born to sing the blues.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnzIrRykilA&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

Tame Impala–Innerspeaker

This young trio are from Perth and they make wistful psychedelic melodic rock music, equally informed by the Beatles as well as early Pink Floyd, Turkish and South American psychedelic rock of the 60’s, a bit of prog-rock and basically anything ever considered in any way psychedelic in the past 40 years of Rock.  That said, they somehow manage to make it sound very fresh and clearly have the skills and finesse to have created a very enchanting and trippy sound of their own, not too hard or math-rock-ish and not too light and airy or overly synthesized.  I would anticipate hearing much more from this band in the coming year.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEFy0-pThlM&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

Pulled Apart by Horses

Pulled Apart By Horses is a great band name if you ask me.  Formed in Leeds just under two years ago from the ashes of four different bands, these four musicians wanted to keep making music and have more fun with it so they decided to create “a Jesus Lizard rip-off band.”  Being a big fan of the legendary Texan punk band i thought any band with that as a plan is okay by me.  PABH definitely bring that influence to this record but the emulation isn’t their only trick by far.  They fucking shred.  This is the one record of the year that makes me wanna break shit and thrash about with abandon and always play it LOUD.  They’ve also, through heavy touring, become known as on of Britain’s most exciting live acts.  Lots of dirty words, screaming vocals, sarcasm and searing razor-like guitars hitting harder than most while not sounding anything like heavy metal.  2010 really needed this record to remind us all that theres something more than Vampire Weekend and Ariel Pinks Haunted Whatever and Caribou and Beach House and Arcade Fire and lots of other indie stuff that everyone loves and i dont understand why.  Their first single was called “Back To The Fuck Yeah, ” a good sentiment and you can view its video plus another from them below.  they are that good.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzDz5wVs8uw&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muE7KtpNNRA&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

Thee Oh Sees–Warm Slime:

Thee Oh Sees are an incredible San Francisco-based band that I’ve come to know mostly from their live shows at the SF Eagle Tavern on their infamous thursday night live music nights.  Thee Oh Sees play there almost once a month it seems and they bring an array of other great bay area based bands to open for them and occasional acts from as far as Australia and other cities in the US.  They put out lots of records and I can easily say they are all good, like this one.  They have really made me see that San Francisco has a very rich and lively rock scene with tons of interesting and captivating young bands, and they lead the pack in spirit and raw talent and drive and product.  So many great records under their belts, all waiting to be purchased at the merch table at all their shows.  Click the link below to see a video of what they do at The Eagle live.

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The Streets on Fire–This Is Fancy

Boy am I glad i checked out this band because something about them just screams “We are the real deal.”  The Streets On Fire are a four-piece from Chicago and this, their second release was recorded in just four days on an 8-track and theres nothing fancy about this no-frills lo-fi recording but throughout this disc, song by song I started loving them more and more.  They are very garage rock, with edgy over the top vocals, fuzzed up distorted guitar tones (like the Cramps but less rockabilly novelty and more garage-y Stooges-like) and they have a sort of post-punk funkiness to them like early talking heads or something equally art school-ish with a touch of psychedelia thrown in for good measure.  You can tell they have a healthy sense of humor and they like to dance.  The cut “Fancy” is brooding and atmospheric and spooky, starting with just guitar and handclaps then the drums and bass fill it all in with a large cavernous expanse of dread and the vocals are unhinged with a kind of manic melancholy that laughs at itself or its own despair.  this song just kills me, definitely one of my favorites of the year.  There are quite a few other high points on this disc and more people need to hear this band if they like a bit of rock in their rock music.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipU9_hLNAec&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

Finally one of my fave bands of the past two years brought their unique retro-soul/rock and roll to SF for their own headlining appearance and they were great. a very spirited set with solid renditions of all of their songs and a surprising amount of interesting slight variations on familiar numbers. The vocalist is a very engaging and energetic performer and the band members have a real cool bad ass jazz band look and attitude going on. All of them are very goodlooking–just look at the photo of the vocalist above. His singing was sexy and versatile, at times sounding like James Brown to Marvin Gaye to Screaming J.  Hawkins.  The crowd in attendance was much larger than i anticipated.  i guess i liked to think The Heavy were my little secret and not real widely known but their music has appeared on a national automobile commercial and i also heard them on the trailer for the upcoming Green Hornet movie, so they are indeed getting the attention they so richly deserve for being one of the hottest rock and soul outfits and dazzling british imports to hit these shores in awhile.  This brings me to a question that i often find myself asking at many shows here in San Francisco:  Why don’t San Francisco audiences ever really dance to the music?  To me they often seem staid, kind of like standing there with their arms crossed and saying, “Oh Yeah?  Prove it,” to the band on stage rather than getting down and shaking it a little.  And if ever there was a band worth dancing to, The Heavy are that band.  The people down front were feeling it but most of the rest of the house seemed indifferent though attentive.  In the late sixties I dont think SF was thought of as the city with audiences that just stand there but it’s 2010 and many touring bands are starting to note this too-hip-to-dance dynamic from the audiences of this fair city.  whats that all about?

I first heard this band on hypemachine and they really caught my attention so i sought out everything i could find by them online and song by song i was completely drawn into the murky lazy surfy deep-southern-california-desert south of the border goth-tex-mex stylings and crazy world of this unique seven member band of minstrels who travel and tour with their own oddly painted freaky tour bus, like the patridge family but really not.

Just as I was really getting into them and had managed to get ahold of their two releases, the Growlers Greatest Hits and Are You In Or Out, I heard that their creepy tour bus was soon to be parked just around the corner from my place at the Rickshaw Stop where they were making an appearance.  I had been playing them when i dj-ed quite a bit and they captured the attention of my friend Timothy with their reverb-y atmospherics, strange amalgam of styles,  sweetly country western cum psychobilly vocals and their shambolic gypsy-like, even cult-ish manner.   We decided right away to go see them.

The rickshaw stop is certainly a friendly spacious venue and i feel lucky to have it just right around the corner from me and from timothy.       We arrived early and the first of three bands were still playing so we ducked out to get a drink elsewhere.  We tried a bar i had never heard of or been too called the Smugglers Cove on Gough st.  I was quite surprised when we walked in to the most amazing bar I’ve ever seen.  It had three levels and was completely decorated in a pirate motif including a fountain on the front wall that trickled down to the lower level like a subterranean grotto full of sunken pirates treasure and torches and candle-light while the upper levels resembled the decks of a pirate ship.  I couldn’t believe this place existed, it was amazing and very crowded with people drinking cocktails in exotic containers with long straws.  They had a cocktail menu about five pages long and full of complicated and strong concoctions and a very friendly staff but they were very busy and we likely didn’t have time to commit to a drink served in a punchbowl-sized lava rock so we opted to return another time, but it was the coolest bar i’ve ever set foot in.  You’d never imagine looking at the outside.

We returned to the rickshaw just before the band was going on and i spotted a few members relaxing and mingling with the crowd.  They looked far more civilized and clean and less like dusty crazy psycho-gypsys traveling by bus than their videos had portrayed.  In fact some of them were quite good-looking and dapper even.  They took the stage unceremoniously and drifted into action and from that moment i was mesmerized.  Their onstage demeanor was very calm yet engaged and and smooth.  The chaotic and somewhat improvisational mood i anticipated was abandoned for a more highly tuned and stable feeling and very musically proficient and subtle performance.  They were hardly the dust-covered crazies i had expected, they were refreshingly unpretentious and solid and tight, creating a complex and layered miasma of atmosphere and textures that seemed effortless and natural and irresistible, not to mention as my friend timothy whispered to me about two songs in, sexy.  This band really captivated me with their overall cohesive and adept performance as a unit, probably because the somewhat chaotic and rag-tag feeling of their first two records had me expecting quirky and semi-crazy desert freaks.  The vocalist was exceptionally strong and in fine form, and for some reason his unique vocal style kept bringing hank williams to mind though country and western isnt a style I’d try to hang on this band.  They really had the crowd enthused and dancing non-stop and i really got the feeling that something big and worthy was going on here and people were knowing it.  Just a couple weeks after the show they released a new disc entitled Hot Tropics and it’s an even better record than their first two, not a bad song in the bunch of 10, though many are quite short and technically the disc is considered an EP.  It still packs a full-sized punch and frankly i’m having a hard time not listening to it all the time.  so go buy it and if you hear they’re coming to town dont miss them.  You’ll see why.

I’ve been DJ-ing regularly at the Hole in the Wall and the Eagle Tavern for about 16 years now and prior to that off and on in a variety of clubs and bars for an additional 5  or 6 years.  I believe my first dj gigs were guest spots at the famous freak cabaret known as Klubstitute, and for awhile I co-DJ-ed with Jon Ginoli of  Pansy Division at a club we did called Rock and Roll Queer Bar until Jon decided to put all his energy into his band.  Another really fun gig i had was spinning at the Casa Loma, a wild bar frequented more by straight people than gay and managed by one of  SF’s most popular beloved bartenders LB Jones of The End-up.  At every club I played music for I played rock and roll instead of the more dance oriented or techno flavored music of choice for all gay clubs.  I just did it because rock and roll was the music that moved me personally and i knew there were other gays out there who were fans or respected the rock.  It was by no means a majority but I did it anyway because rock and roll was the music I heard in my head when i walked the city streets, it defined my teenage years and represented a certain freedom that I felt at my first ever concert at age eleven seeing T-Rex and Blue Oyster Cult.  Rock and roll was the devil’s music, it opened doors for me that my parents weren’t even aware of, and I knew there was no turning back.  I ran away from home at 15 just to see Led Zeppelin play the Seattle king-dome in august of 1977, one month to the day before  Elvis Presley died.  I was tied to it from very early on.  I devoured copies of Creem magazine and Rolling Stone and certain rock writers became my heroes.  It was like a dream come true when a writing gig fell into my lap after i had lived in SF for a couple years.  Suddenly i was a rock columnist.  I had every excuse i needed to see as many rock shows as i wanted and write about them and buy all the records I needed to hear but essentially i was already doing that because rock and roll was the greatest source of pure joy and happiness for me–it was a reason to live.  Nietzsche said a great thing that i’ll always remember, “Without music life would be a mistake.”  That quote hangs over the door of the DJ booth at The Eagle Tavern, where i spin every other Sunday beer bust, the largest instant gay crowd you’ll find assembled in SF on a Sunday afternoon.  And that’s what rocks about it–this huge crowd gets to hear a lot of music they aren’t necessarily used to hearing in other gay haunts and over the years i believe they’ve grown to like it and know it and learn about things they didn’t know were great.  I’m sure some just tune it out, some even listen to their own ipods and a few folks actively express their displeasure with the musical selections or volume regularly.  I generally try to be polite when getting dissed like that but i usually just punch them in the throat when they say things like “Dont you play anything good?” or ask me to pay Tori Amos, Madonna or Lady Gaga.  No offense to those artists but thats just not how we roll at The Eagle.  We play rock and roll, it’s what this city needed in their gay bars and exactly what The Hole In The Wall Saloon provided first , then the eagle as well.
so yeah, that is indeed what I do, i play rock and roll music for two of the finest bars/clubs in this city and couldn’t be happier with my job.  I’m so lucky to have one involving something I feel so passionately about.
Check out the sunday beer bust and the hole in the wall on thursday and friday nights to have a listen to the not so ordinary soundtrack of a night out in a gay bar.  It’s time to listen to the devil’s music, or just not disco, techno or show tunes basically.  Eventually I will start posting song-lists of my sets and even music to download directly as i learn how to present such features properly and legally