Modest Mouse photo by Michael Alan Goldberg
So it’s official. Noise Pop and Another Planet Entertainment are gonna give San Francisco a reason to hit that lovely isle off the coast of the Embarcadero, Treasure Island. For two days in September (the 15th and the 16th), the organizations are pairing for the first annual Treasure Island Music Festival. The party starts Saturday the 15th for the electronic coinoisseurs: headliners include Thievery Corporation, Gotan Project, DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist, Zion-I, Ghostland Observatory, and M.I.A. (let’s hear it for getting through customs this time!). Sunday all indie rock breaks loose, with Modest Mouse, Spoon, Built To Spill, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Earlimart, and M. Ward on the marquee.
Seeing as how I spent this weekend flushing out my system and inexplicably watching both the Daytime Emmy Awards and the Dove Awards -- which was truly awesome in that it’s just like a regular award show, except chorus and audience member would spontaneously start weeping, rocking back and forth, and/or lifting their hands up high to praise Jesus. I wanted to pinch all of their cheeks -- I’m all set for a Homosexual Pride-heavy week. I hope you are, too. Already you can find our city streets littered with curious-looking S.F.L.B. lesbians and frosted-tipped gays. Welcome them by getting shit-faced and sloppy with them, won’t you? Check out the following:
Martuni’s is always a safe and ridiculously-fun bet for an evening of blackout fun. But if you’re hell-bent on dancing, head to The Café, The Bar on Castro, or Sadlands for your favorite club anthems and electro beats, or check out 440 Castro (formerly known as Daddy’s) for superior sounding tunes and a more diverse-looking crowd. Oh, and there's no cover charge at any of the aforementioned watering holes tonight, so...wee. --Brock Keeling
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Exprescion at Alcatraz
Better than: Watching The Rock on cable; serving 25-to-life
It’s hard to think of a more “ultimate” San Francisco party experience than meeting 800 adventure-minded hipsters at Pier 33, boarding a boat, and sailing to that once-foreboding maximum-security prison, Alcatraz, where live music, DJs, a fashion show, and a bizarre burlesque performance await. That’s just what happened at Exprescion at Alcatraz, a regional promotional event sponsored by auto maker Scion. Other than a few video screens with the Scion logo, and a couple of souped-up, tricked out vehicles conveniently parked on the pier and along the winding walkway to the prison, the product placement was minimal, however.
Sage Francis
Human the Death Dance
(Epitaph)
Of Rhode Island MC Paul "Sage" Francis' fourth solo album, Filter magazine wrote, "You can call it emo or you can call it hip-hop." (Cue the sound of squealing brakes.) Huh? Francis may have been affiliated with Midwest emo-rap group Atmosphere, but there is nothing emo about this album.
God, that must be so hard for some people. If you are one of them, please tell us how it feels. Does it hurt? Are you mad? Good, because your "indie-good, corporation-bad" dogma just revealed its inanity.
Man, I suddenly have a powerful urge for a $4 cup of globalization and some sanctified indie rock. Gotta go.
