Congratulations, President Obama, on picking one our nastiest days, weather-wise, to show up to the Bay Area. We're truly sorry "Sunny California" had to drench you. But, Mr. President, while we know you have important meetings scheduled for your all-too-brief visit, we have to ask: why come now? Don't you know Prince isn't playing until next week? And you're five whole days too early for Noise Pop, the music festival that helps us creatively minded locals make it through drizzly winters.
Still, there's rarely a bad night to be out on the town in S.F. If this rainy Thursday is your only chance to take in some live music in S.F. -- and you're going to need a beer and some beats after hanging with nerds all evening -- here are five ideas for how to spend your precious time.
1. Cake at the Fillmore
It's hard to imagine any bandleader who sees more eye-to-eye with you on environmental issues than Cake's John McCrea. Plus, Cake recently released a song called "Federal Funding," which may provide some much-needed perspective on your impending budget struggle. And knowing your appreciation for stirring rhetoric, President Obama, we think you'd probably love this wordy alt-rock band from up the road in Sacramento.
The other day I got an e-mail that has stuck with me. It definitely hurt my feelings, but has also got me to think. The subject line was "Happy New Year," and the writer went on to say how he used to read me, but now he doesn't, because its a column about bars, what happens in bars, what happens to me in bars, the decor of bars, etc., and so forth. He ended by telling me that the whole endeavor was a "waste of space." At first I couldn't understand why he would take the time out of his life to make me feel bad, but then I realized that I write similar things about various places all the time. Why shouldn't I also be the target of criticism? But after even more thinking, I realized that I was scared that what he was saying was true: All I do is write about bars: hookers in bars, losers in bars, alcoholics in bars, bars bars bars. What is it about bars? Was I losing my edge by sticking to the narrow confines of bars? The whole thing left me feeling like a failure.
Then I read about Range, the restaurant on Valencia that had earned itself a Michelin star, only to have it taken away this year; Michelin's subtle way of saying that the joint is a waste of space. I naturally felt immediately drawn to it.
Local jazzman-turned-folkie Mark Growden: There are many ways to interpret and preserve the traditions of musical Americana. One is treat it like a museum piece, with pious reverence -- thereby sucking the fun clean out of it. Another is to revamp it, keep its mannerisms, but supercharge it, mucking it up with irony and audacity until it's hard to tell where love for the music leaves off and contempt takes over. Local lad Mark Growden has found his own path -- he approaches American music in untraditional ways, keeping the framework and verities, but, in his words, "turning them on their head, [interpreting them] the way a jazz musician would. It's not jazz, but it's taking old songs and finding their emotion, remaking them anew." Growden embraces American music as a whole, finding Bruce Springsteen and Aretha Franklin part of the same continuum as Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly.
After having a spat over legal rights with Afeni Shakur, Tupac Shakur's mom, Morgan Creek Productions has received her blessing to make a biopic about the slain N.Y./D.C./Bay Area rapper. And considering the exciting/troubled/contradictory life story of Tupac, there's definitely enough there to create a great movie of some sort. But a big-budget biopic from director Antoine Fuqua , who is best known for directing police, crime,. and action films? That doesn't seem like the right context for presenting Pac's life.
When the words "Dutch DJ" come to mind, most think of Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren, or Ferry Corsten, who all seem to possess a strange ability to take over dance charts with why-is-this-stuck-in-my-head tunes. But if you prefer something with more bass and heavier beats -- and something less likely to send you into a vodka-cranberry coma, you'll be delighted to hear the sensational sounds of Bart B More. With heart-pounding tendencies, and remixes that destroy massive crowds at showcases for Trouble & Bass and festivals like Electric Daisy Carnival, his impressive rise to stardom included such accomplishments as remixing Drop the Lime's "Sex Sax" and being featured on Pete Tong's Essential New Tunes. Let Bart B More elevate your blood pressure this Friday at Rickshaw Stop.
Because of your name, do people often think you're from Baltimore, or that you play Baltimore Club?
Yes, this has happened to me a few times, but I don't really mind. I like the B-more sound, and my music has been influenced by it, too -- although my name has nothing to do with it and it's purely a coincidence. I'm going to play my first show in Baltimore soon, I think that will be funny and confusing to some!
Listen to this while high: Hi Infidelity by REO Speedwagon.
Huh?: If you were getting high thirty years ago, you did so to this record whether you remember it or not.
Behind the buzz: Formed in 1967 as a cover band by students at the University of Illinois in Champaign, REO S-Wagon was yet another one of those uncompromising Midwestern hard-rock acts domesticated by degrees to the pop market. When this chrome-plated wedge of 1981 arena rock hit Number One for the third time, dumbfounded critics were (again) stuck with the sorry job of accounting for public taste -- while punks and heshers alike bonded in headlong flight from "Take It on the Run." Hi Infidelity eventually sold ten million copies, which gives some idea of just how hard this whole thing was to live down.
Today's weed: OG Kush, the King of Indicas and renowned for its pain-dulling properties.
