World Famous In San Francisco

Holy Shit - PART TWO - live @ the Eagle, San Francisco, 12/27/07


So if you weren't at the Holy Shit show, you totally missed out. Luckily WFISF has a video camera now, so you don't have to miss out completely. So Holy Shit are a band from LA that make this really stubborn psychedelic music. They play V back to I a lot... sort of like David Bowie's Heroes or Modern English's Melt with You. That chord progression always sounds awesome. So check them out if you're not already familiar. The band features Christopher "Crissy Baby" Owens from one of our favorite bands Girls.

Holy Shit - PART ONE

Holy Shit - PART THREE

Woman of Color - live @ the Eagle Tavern, San Francisco, 12/27/07


Santa bought me a cheap camcorder which is, like, the best gift EVER. I got a chance to tape some of Woman of Color's set last night. I have to admit Cesar was looking kind of hot for some reason so there are lots of zoom-ins on his face. I like the zoom in feature. I want to zoom in on butts (on somebody who sort-of has a butt first) and stuff like that - but I feel like that's tacky and gross. What do you think?

A new SF Christmas tradition? Going to the maul?

For reasons unknown, Mat Cote is leaving San Francisco behind for a gay death known as Kentucky (Louisville to be precise). Fun fact, did you you know one in ten is missing all of their teeth in Kentucky?

Anyway, come to the eagle Thursday night to say goodbye to Mat. He might be quiet at first (he's known for it), but once you get a few drinks in him he loosens up. I'll be there if my flight isn't delayed.



GAY R.I.P. 1979 - 2007

Once again I braved I-5, this time to attend the White Slave Trade Holiday Rave. Hard Place spent more time decorating COG Space then practicing but we managed to pull a set together. Doesn't it look nice?



I love parties at the White Slave Trade. I got hugs from the guys in Totally Radd. Met lots of cool people:



I'd have to say the highlight of the evening was the DJ set by Crusty Grindage (Ashley & Hazel), these girls know how to rock the house!







But Ashley, I'm concerned. You're always so beautiful and composed! When did you become the drinkenest gal I know? So with the aid of my new camera and photoshop, here's a scientific assesment of what you will look like in 10 years if the party doesn't stop!



Wow, kinda like Mrs. Garrett from Facts of Life!

So, one last hurrah before I get on a plane and sit in airports for days on end becuase I refused to pay more to go to Tennessee than I would to go to Europe so my flight is insanely crappy with a million connections that I'll never make visit my family for a few days, Tonight:



At first I was all, bands I don't know anything about and haven't had time to check out their myspace pages, maybe I won't go. But then I realized I'm not that old yet and also the addition of Connie Fucking Francis makes me swoon. They are a punk rock dream. You should come too!

Donuts started off as a club night at The Knockout a little over a year ago with the idea to mix together vegan donuts, live bands, DJs, video and fashion into a poorly lit bar. Within months of starting, Donuts had a well-developed online presence and were mentioned in 7x7 and the SFB Guardian. Due to its hotness, Donuts got pregnant and gave birth to additional clubs like Donuts Disco and Sauerkraut. Donuts is curated by Kat Matutina (resident DJ Pickpocket) and visual artist/videographer Alison Childs. Without further adieu, here are the 6 reasons why I don't like Donuts:

DJ Pickpocket
Allison Childs
1. The promoters are prettier than you. How is a girl supposed to keep her self esteem in tact going out to a club where the promoters aren't some fugly worn-out-and-put-away-wet ex-hipster dude they can rely on sleeping with at the end of the night when they've had too many drinks and their friends have disappeared? I dunno about you, but when I go out to the club, I wanna be surrounded by REAL WOMEN who either look like Xena, Chyna or Mo'Nique. Not these two hot, too hot girls.

2. Party photographers won't take a picture of you. Married older brother types only wanna take pictures of mousey inde girls. Not your fine ass.

3. Vegan donuts guy is the only person who will talk to you. No really.

4. Forget about your band, you're never gonna play at Donuts. Donuts once referred to itself as the Part Time Punks (a long running weekly LA club night) of San Francisco... as if Part-Time Punks only booked bands from Olympia and people that have been popular for over five years. Forget about Donuts being a breeding ground for new musical talent, if you see a band at Donuts, chances are you've seen them before. To be honest, Donuts looks more like a mini Popscene in it's booking of safe, established bands.

5. So straight you might as well be in Daly City. I even attended their one year anniversary that looked sorta gay with hey willpower playing and all. Now I don't necessarily want a room full of queens, but I want to at least feel like I'm in the presence of gaze.

6. Not sure of their motivations. Venture capitalists are pretty easy to figure out. When I asked the door guy how the money was split, he said all the money went to the bands. I kind of believed him. So if these promoters aren't in it for the money, you'd think they'd be in it for the art right? Well... maybe. The only artists I see getting a break from Donuts are the fashion designers... who don't have any other nightlife I'm aware of to showcase their talent in. It's pretty apparent that Donuts is not trying to nurture any scene or break any new visual/musical artist. They'd be a little more curious and adventurous in their booking if that were the case. I suspect their motivation is personal popularity. I feel like an asshole for mentioning that suspicion. I'd love to be proven wrong.

The next big Donuts party:

I just saw a poster for donuts disco today... there's like, 23,000 different donuts nights aren't there? Is it really necessary? Let somebody else throw a club, don't be so greedy! Myles was asking what was going on on NYE and I just realized -- Donuts probably. The best part is is that I was just being a jerk when I wrote that, but I just went to their myspace and its true!

Anyway, Donuts is alright kinda. No hurt feelings, ok? I'm just stressed out because of the holidays. For those of you still in town this Sunday, Safety Scissors is djing at Donuts again (what dude, are you like resident now?) and he's always a fun time. Go check him out! Ask him to bust out his two copies of "I think we're alone now" by Tiffany. He really wants to be known for being the DJ who runs tricks with that song. Seriously!

One last thing. I've been trying to keep this to myself but I just can't. No matter what the kids in the mission and at ritual say,those vegan donuts aren't that great. And don't say I think that because I'm not vegan!

Artists scramble to make THE iconic portrait at the time of a rapper's death. Here is a collection of some that have been created for Pimp C over the past week.

You can buy the above shirt for me on eBay. It is also my favorite and one of a kind - so it would make a really great gift.

I went and saw Bridez last night.

They played at this invite-only apartment/art-space going-away/birthday party. There were big party bottles of vodka, balloons and lollipops. Spice Girls and Blink 182 were played full blast on a small portable CD player at the bar. There was lots of posturing and outfits - in a good way. Lots of young people taking the typical Polaroid photos - feeling like their life was important and worth documenting. It was kind of cute and optimistic.

So Bridez, formerly known as Wild Gold and Wildflowerz, make this really awesome dumb rock. I'm not really sure what it is. All I know is that I like it WAY better than lead singer Liza's first band, So So Many White White Tigers. Liza basically does the same thing in this band: she makes this really squelchy sound with her voice that kind of sounds like a thermin by the time it comes out of the PA. She sings like that while doing physical comedy: throwing things, pouring drinks on people, and generally just being really in-your-face. You ether hate it for being too brash, or love it for reminding you of why you love loud music.

Well, I definitely love Bridez. They have a lot going for them. The boys in the band are super young - I'm talking under 21. Guitar player Will actually plays power chords and seems to tune his guitar in standard tuning... thank God. I was getting so sick of loud noise bands in San Francisco that took the Thurston Moore way too seriously and decided to reapproach the guitar by way of Sonic Youth. Drummer Phill's playing style is pleasantly generic while still finding a way to be very expressive and fun. In the final analysis, they look statuesque on stage and that's something that will never go out of style. Whether or not that transfers onto a recording... we'll just have to wait and see. A great album would be their ticket out of being the cool urban houseparty band of the moment, but I don't get the feeling they're concerned about being anything more than that.

Bridez play Cafe Du Nord January 26th with White Williams... who is now famous?

New Actually Huizenga of Hard Place Christmas video!



Hard Place play club TransAm Saturday January 5th.

Its so hard to remember that goth was supposed to be kinda fun, what with all these crusty hot topic goths on the street.



But it is supposed to be fun! So this week's myspace of the week is The Vaguelies! And these guys have brains, or at least they eat them.



http://www.myspace.com/thevaguelies

It's really hard for me to decide what my favorite songs of 2007 are. To be honest, I find the songs that have managed to survive the past couple years without sounding passé to be way more interesting than flavor-of-the-year hits a lot of bloggers are writing about.

One song from 2005 that has never left me is Flossin' by Mike Jones featuring Big Moe. I don't care how over exposed Mike Jones got, or how trite the lyrics of this song may sound to the soulless inde asshole; I've never been able to get over the big, bright and romantic chords of Flossin'. For me, this is as good as music gets.

Big Moe passed away this year. It's kind of amazing what's happened in the past couple years - people from all over the world are listening to music from Houston now.

Yes of course the world needs more hysterical Chris Crocker fans. This video pretty much speaks for itself. Thank Godoogle for YouTube!

Experimental performance dancing weirdo Borts Minorts is moving:

Dear friends, fans and supporters of Borts Minorts!


We are sad to announce the departure of our beloved Chris Carlone (aka
Borts) for Philly, but we are far from closing the door on what has
been an incredible 1 1/2 of our band's existance. We plan on having
shows on both the East and West coast in the future, but this Saturday
nights show at the Bottom of the Hill marks the end of an era.
Come celebrate and bid farwell to comrade Borts, whose decked San
Francisco's nightlife with color and wierdness for the past year.
Join our merry band of strangness along with some very special guests,
including former dancer Dinah and flutist Melting Razor as we open up
for Captured by Robots.
We hope to see you all there!!!

XXXX Punope

I never saw Borts because I'm 'over' ironic dance:



Never mind all those photos I took of Captain Ahab, its asking too much for consistency on my part. That said, tonight may be the night I get over myself and check it out. Maybe see you there?

You know, the legendary San Francisco art/experimental/multimedia/anonymous rock legends. Well, here's a chance to get to know more about them:

http://www.ybca.org/tickets/production.aspx?performanceNumber=4542

So, the night to go was last night (we're so helpful, yeah?) where a member of the residents introduced the three night series, but tonight and tomorrow night focus on films from recent years.

Why not, right? And if anybody went last night, what was the dude wearing?

Check it out, a new Girls song called "Summertime". Myles was right, it does rule. Where as the last song was an undeniably catchy pop ditty, this new one is more rock with some nice psychedelic floursihes. Its like if spacemen 3 were from California and their drugs were laced with amphetamines.

Damn fellas, somebody I know with a record label is thinking seven inch!

I've been sick and busy with work and all sorts of fun stuff, but I'm back on the scene. More about that later.

Anyway, a few weeks ago Bridez, Forever, and The Passionistas played at Cafe du Nord. Bridez were totally killer. Fronted by Liza of So So Many White White Tigers and cobain in a coma, I think this band represents a different side of this girl. Unlike the intentional disaster area that a SSMWWT show is/becomes, where Liza does her best Courtney Love impression -- antagonizing the audience and throwing things -- while the band thrashes itself into the ground rather than actually beating out a song, Bridez is the flip side of that coin where disaster follows Liza around while she and her band mates honestly try to thrash out an actual song. And you can just about make out the song they're trying to play -- even as keyboards crash to the ground, stands collapse, and monitors are knocked over while Liza paces the stage like she can't articulate herself -- and that song is pretty awesome. Seriosuly, I think this girl has talent.


More here!

Forever were totally some kind of whiskey soaked or road ravaged rock band, the singer and guitarist looking into each others eyes like they're in love with... well based on their sound and what their myspace page says, X. I liked these girls because they were excited to be on stage, but sometimes their songs were a little too much like later X, which is a little to straight up rock 'n roll for me. Hopefully they can figure out how take that X influence and turn it into something more their own. Oh, and do you think they like X so much because its two Vs touching each other? Hmm.



More here!

I'm not even going to get into the Passionistas. They already think they're the greatest band of all time. Even if I were to write something to the contrary would their eyes even be able to see it? Would their brains be able to comprehend it? I think through sheer force of belief my words would turn into praise.



More here!

One of the sexiest rappers, Pimp C, was found dead at the Mondrian Hotel in Hollywood this morning. I'm totally bummed about this as Pimp C was one of my favorite artists. He made me feel good about growing old. He got better every year he rapped. He was captivating, funny and a pleasure to listen to. He will be missed. Click here to read my previous entry on Pimp C.

Check out these classics:

2007 Hit The Block


2000 Sippin On Some Syrup


1999 Big Pimpin'

check out Hard Place live on KXLU!

What is with the promoters of club i-D? Have they no shame? If naming their first club after a British fashion magazine they were completely unaffiliated with wasn't enough, they had to do it again! Everyone welcome club THE FACE named after yet another British magazine.

What are people supposed to think? That these club nights are thrown by these magazines on a monthly basis in San Francisco without an open bar? Puh-leeze. I wish these promoters would stop trying to co-opt the coolness of something else. It's kind of tacky.

This post is follow up to our August post about vanity jams. The video for Kid Sister's Pro Nails finally came out today. I'm really disappointed that Memphis Tennessee's Project Pat wasn't featured in the video as the hook does come from the first verse of his fairly recent song Good Googly Moogly. It would have been cool to have him in the video, I hope they invited him.

As for the video, I'm not that impressed. It's kind of what you'd expect. It features all the coolest people from Chicago wearing ironic early 90s clothes. Take a look for yourself:

Project Pat featuring Three 6 Mafia - Good Googly Moogly

It was 46º Saturday night in San Francisco. All this cold weather makes me wanna do is blast the heater and sprawl out below the Kinkade. Thank Jesus for track lighting and dimmers, seriously. I can make my cottage painting look like daylight or dusk depending on one of 'em gadgets.