Not so frantic as the last un, but a goody nundaless!

Maybe this weekend won’t be as hectic as the last one, well for a start there is no Treasure Island Festival, and there aren’t a gazillion parties to check out, but happily there are two that are worthy of your attention. Tonight, Friday, Blasthaus come through with the goods once again. This time the legendary and reliable promoter presents a dj set by Kompakt owner and pioneering producer Michael Mayer at (IMHO) San Francisco’s best club venue, Mighty. Kompakt is renowned in minimal techno circles, but manages not to fall into the generic trap that many other imprints and artists in this idiom are in. Local main stay and party rousing dj Nikola Baytala is the support. It will be a damned good one, so go check it out.

On Saturday night DJ Omar and Shaun Slaughter present Full Frontal, a night of sleazy Italo, Euro disco and electro. This will be going down at the legendary San Fran club The Stud, where there have been a coupla two or three sleazy events in the past, or so I’ve heard. The fabbyless and flamboyant Javier Glitterbox guests and the event is hosted by the lovely persons of We Are Champagne. It should be a sweaty, messy and sensual ball of fun times and you could do worse than checking it out. I’ll be busy but I’ll be there in spirit, quick mixing Kano records.

Orr

School Of Seven Bells

School Of Seven Bells is a new band formed by Benjamin Curtis of Secret Machines. Curtis has been around for a while, having started out in Texan garage rockers Tripping Daisy, an outfit that also contained Tim De Laughter, Mark Pirro and Bryan Wakeland of The Polyphonic Spree. In his new outfit he is joined by ex-On!Air!Library! sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza. Curtis, is a professed lover of spacey, progressive rock, as was evidenced with Secret Machines, and School Of Seven Bells definitely has an element of this coupled with some shoe gazey and electronic inclinations.

So far they have released material on US indie label Table of Elements side label Radium, British label Sonic Cathedral Recordings, Ghostly International, that Ann Arbor, Michigan based powerhouse of top tunes and refreshing eclecticism, and on Warp Records in collaboration with Prefuse 73 — aka Guillermo Scott Herren, who collaborates with Claudia Deheza as A Cloud Mireya. The couple has also produced a son, from scratch with no samples.

School of Seven Bells are out and about touring at the moment and will be touching down in the UK in late October — hell, they’re even playing in Canada, of all places — and will be in San Francisco and Los Angeles on October 28th and 29th respectively. Take some time out from arranging you Hallowe’en costume to check ‘em out and run and get their “Half Asleep”/”Caldo” single on Ghostly, which came out last week.

Orr

One nu shoe (gaze) in the Friendly Fires of World Peace. Come again!

Rush out and buy these two records today, or do so by the weekend please! First up is the Friendly Fires self-titled, debut album on British label XL. This ten tracker, which is released stateside today, picks up where the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party left off. The band, which is from St. Albans, England, have perhaps ventured the furthest out into the electronic dance music/rock fusion galaxy than any outfit has thus far, and that includes LCD Soundsystem. Members Ed MacFarlane, Jack Savidge, and Edd Gibson craft a sound that is hooky and accessible yet still brimming with lush electronics, driving percussion and an obvious penchant for Prince and Talking Heads.

They also profess a love for the German label Kompakt and the Detroit techno innovator Carl Craig. The opening track, “Jump In The Pool” displays a percussive, dance floor tendency coupled with warm electronic touches that might make one utter the words shoegaze. What about Nu Shu Gaze? Or is there anything new about this considering that bands such as My Bloody Valentine (in SF next Tuesday btw. Oh yeah!) and Slowdive dipped their toes in the warm pool of sound that was early ‘90s electronic dance music? MBV had Weatherall on remixing duties and Slowdive delved into ambient tinged music that hinted at the motor city’s more reflective moments.

However, with Friendly Fires, the day saving pop element is not sacrificed at the feet of innovation, and the Princely predilections of “In The Hospital” will have you in a Raspberry Beret before you can say “I’ve seen the future and it works.” “Paris” is elevated, ascending and joyfully dreamy, while celebrating the possibility of the better things in life — it’s like the sound of Bloc Party in a multi-track pile up with Carl Craig’s mix of Maurizio’s “Domina.” It’s blissful but not brainless or dizzy, euphoric with intellect. Track four “White Diamonds” is similarly compelling, with a punchy bridge, gritty guitar and a churning but uplifting and infectious hook. “Strobe” is downright bloody blissful too, with gorgeous electronic sounds, and beautiful, chiming guitars.

I’m not gonna do a track by track, just get out and check this album, because it’s brimming with talent and transcendent fun. And while you’re scooping it, pick up the killer German compilation, Computer Incarnations For World Peace II on the Berlin based Sonar Kollektiv label. This is volume two of a compilation series, which kicked off with a Baldelli honoring collection of heady tunes for the more thoughtful dance floor. Number two continues the tendency towards brain stimulating rump shakers and features a selection of more recent releases from European and American producers.

You get tunes from L.A. residents Woolfy, and Tony Watson (under his Project Santro guise), and from Euro main stays like Todd Terje, Crazy Penis and Château Flight. The music itself walks a fine line between tuneful electro, Italo, Cosmic classics, and disco. It’s an unmixed comp, compiled by Frankfurt dj, producer and music journalist Gerd Janson, and its mood is fairly consistent throughout. That mood is groovy, funky, lush and leaning towards the more mid tempo side of things. So it’s great warm up or cool down music, and you should go get it. 

Orr

ATP NY - Friday, September 19 (Pt.1)

"Rubbed with ham" would be the theme of Day 1. This from the lips of Patton Oswalt as he riffed on the spectacularly disheveled interiors found at Kutshers Country Club, the site of the legendary ATP festival's first outing in the Catskills, hosted by My Bloody Valentine.

Meat Puppets were a proper first experience in this bizarre atmosphere. The walls in the Stage 1 auditorium, speckled in stardust and planetary bodies proved the perfect backdrop for their fantastic spaced-country punk. The songwriting still shines bright after all these years as did the extended space freakouts and fantastic guitar picking of Curt Kirkwood and co.

Tortoise performed a sonorific reading of their classic, "Millions Now Living Will Never Die", which demonstrated the dimensionality and brute power of the imported PA, leaving high expectations for the massive volume rockers to come later in the weekend. They were followed by others in the Don't Look Back series of classic recordings performed live including Thurston Moore and Built To Spill.

The vibe is high, the executive card room is buzzing amongst other things...Parts 2 and 3 to come.

Another banging weekend in San Frandisco!

I think that sometimes I take San Francisco for granted and focus on the negative, like you need a six figure salary — or extremely rich parents — to live here and the city has become a haven for increased snootiness and a plethora of schlocky top 40 clubs, a seeming contradiction but it seems to happen nonetheless. However, there’s always been an underground music scene. and though it struggles amid a suffering economy and a dynamic club culture that has gone a little generic and off the boil, to a large degree it maintains.

This week, like many others, it maintains with gusto to spare. I’m not out every night of the week, for various reasons, financial and health wise (cue violins), but I did catch a few cool events this week and there is one to catch tonight for sure. On Sunday I went over to City Hall to the Sunset Get Out The Vote party. Booming tunes in front of City Hall and a finale of Nikola Bayatala knocking out a kicky, deep and atmospheric minimal techno set. Though I’m always rabbiting about how I can’t stand generic sets, Baytala’s style is not generic, it has a feel, and I’m sure he pulls in tunes from a few genres to achieve that feel. It sure sounds like it, and puts him well ahead of the posse when playing this style of techno. Add to this that people were able to register to vote it was a very worthwhile — and free — little do. The crowd was well up for it too, as is the norm at any Sunset shindig.

On Wednesday night I stopped in to Vessel to catch The Glimmers (at last) and Headman on the decks along with Gun Club’s able bodied and eared deck tech Ryan Poulsen. The party was a joint effort between Infatuation (the brainchild of Richard Oh! and Sleazemore) and the Gun Club and Trigger posse. I’ve always wondered why the Glimmers haven’t played here, and now I don’t have to anymore. And I ran into them on Geary the following day, a meeting of three record nerds and I had two crates of records with me at the time. In the morning!!! Records aren’t just for night, they’re for life.

Tonight there’s Miss Kittin and The Hacker live at 103 Harriet Street with support from Nikola Baytala, courtesy of party stalwarts Blasthaus. While Saturday sees Trigger (a Gun Club offshoot) at 111 Minna with live music by Lemonade, Djs Solar and Commodore 69, art and fashion from Karina Michel, Joshu Vela, Shane Orr, Ernesto Ortiz and Derrick Boyd aka Dead Seal, and photography by Jared Harrell. On top of this, electro super party Superego kicks off at DNA Lounge with live action my favs Lilofee, The Frail and PJ Pooterhoots, and dj duties by the likes of Kid Hack, Miles The Intern and Eli Glad.

So there’s plenty going on here in SF this weekend, so check it out and enjoy!

Orr

Wailing Ultimate

Though I’m never shy about digging around for a few good, classic tunes, and pride myself on amassing a kick ass collection of dance floor nuggets through my own hard labor, and thrifty, Scottish sensibility, I do get tired of the endless trainspotting, nostalgia and — dare I say it and not sound like a hypocrite — blogging about obscure records from club music’s yesteryear. Be it Italo, boogie (or cheesy but often glorious, ‘80s pre house, electro-funk), early house and garage, after a while it gets all bit too tedious and spectator driven for me.

When I feel that way then I explore some new music that’s not dance oriented, like indie rock or folk or some classic punk rock, like Wailing Ultimate. This was released on the now defunct Homestead label, a sub-label of the also now defunct Dutch East India Trading, a New York distributor that released selected titles like US domestic pressings of Peel Sessions. Wailing Ultimate was a sampler of all the great bands on Homestead’s roster, and is pretty much replete with stunning and almost stunning tracks by an array of obscure and not so obscure mid ‘80s indie rock and hardcore outfits.

If you’re a fan of Hüsker Dü, The Pixies or Throwing Muses, then you’ll love this record, if you can find it as I believe it’s out of print. Dinosaur Jr. are on here — as Dinosaur without the Jr. suffix — with the stellar “Repulsion,” as is Big Black’s “Il Duce,” a mind blowing fusion of drum machine, noisy guitars and Steve Albini’s caustic lyrics and vocals. “The Well” by Salem 66 shows some ‘60s influence as does my personal favorite track, “Valley Of The Gwangi” by Phantom Tollbooth. Many years (like fifteen maybe) after I had heard this song on a copy of The Wailing Ultimate that my buddy Johnny took back to Galway from a trip to the US in '87, I walked into Amoeba Music on the Upper Haight and Guided By Voices were playing a song instantly recognizable to me but which I couldn’t put a name on.

After thinking about it for a minute I figured that it must be a track from Wailing Ultimate, probably “Valley Of the Gwangi” by Phantom Tollbooth. How I figured that out I don’t know but it so happens that Robert Pollard the Guided By Voices frontman rerecorded Power Toy, the third album by Phantom Tollbooth, added new lyrics, and released it in 2003 as Beard Of Lightning. The three original members of the band were on there too and even with Pollard on board the outfit was still called Phantom Tollbooth. “Valley Of the Gwangi” is a blistering three minutes and fifteen seconds of super fast, psychedelia and free jazz inflected punk rock with the best start and stop on a dime timing this side of Fugazi. It also feels like an early and raw manifestation of math rock and and is just straight up bloody awesome. Check it on the play list for proof.

There are other gems too, “Song of the South,” by Breaking Circus, “Sun God” by Squirrel Bait and “In a Glass House” by Antietam, as well as tunes by Naked Raygun, Big Dipper and Live Skull. This album is testament to a serious peak in American rock music before the more polite and twee college rock sound took over in the ‘90s and the angst and rage dissipated. This was hard core punk embracing other influences like psychedelia and jazz, and running with them. The late ‘80s wasn’t all just Chicago house and hip-hop, there was this glorious noise too, and Wailing Ultimate takes me back to a time when all the music coming at us felt like it was revolutionary, probably because it was. Someone reissue this please!

Orr

Richard Wright R.I.P.

Richard Wright of psychedelic rock legend, Pink Floyd, lost his life to cancer on Monday. He died amongst family in his home in Britain at just 65 years of age.

Wright's textured keyboard parts added an essential element to Pink Floyd's sound. The first time I heard Pink Floyd, I was but a young lass. The record The Dark Side of the Moon was about as close to outer space as I've ever gotten and that's saying a lot because I've stood atop a few REALLY tall buildings. All kidding aside however, my twelve year old world was changed forever and for that I'll always be thankful. So cheers to the late, great Richard Wright. The world is a better place for having known you.

Liz Letterland