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Summer camp on wheels 

Two local bands are touring the Bay Area on bikes, and invite you to ride along

While Rupa Marya of Rupa & the April Fishes and Gabe Dominguez of Shake Your Peace are crossing their fingers for cloudless, sunny days ahead during their joint week-long bicycle trek around the Bay Area, in some ways, they were brought together by a storm.

It was a storm both physical and figurative: the scattered downpours during their first encounter at the now-dispersed Occupy SF campsite at Justin Herman Plaza last November (11.11.11) during the Occupy Music Festival — where both bands played — and, the subsequent storm of ideas that lead to the bike tour agreement [...]

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Weird me out 

King Buzzo on longevity, lion taming, and Melvins Lite

Here is a partial list of not quite idioms, butchered sayings, and quasi heartfelt beliefs the Melvins' Buzz "King Buzzo" Osborne peppered throughout a conversation during a phone call last week from his home in Hollywood. "We can't be lion tamers all the time." "You can accuse me of a lot of things, being lazy isn't one of them." "When in fear, or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout." "Treat me right, I'll be your best friend. Treat me wrong, you don't exist" [...]

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Marathon of sound

Eight hours of wildly eclectic acts -- and perhaps a giant flute or two -- at this Sunday's fifth annual Switchboard Music Festival

There is just no easy way to define longtime Oakland band, Faun Fables. But here goes: send a classically-trained dark folk duo into the brush and bramble of a snow-tipped forest as part of a nefarious fairy tale, then ask them to sing for their supper. See? It's difficult [...]

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Bachelorette's computer folk lands in Oakland this weekend

Ask the initially shy New Zealander Bachelorette how she makes music, and you'll get a fascinating mouthful.

“Some of the stuff I make, it's almost psychedelic disco, other times I think the music is quite folky,” she begins, “in that kind of computer-based way.” Pausing she then adds, “Lately people have asked me to describe the style and I describe it as computer folk. The computer is my folk instrument. It's just me on stage and I have a couple of computers and samples and a guitar, a lot of sampling and looping live – I construct the songs differently every time I play, so there's an element of improvisation" [...]

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Zola Jesus, Shabazz Palaces, and more at Creators Project

Along with all the epic-sized Lite-Brites and wing-flapping guardian angels at Creators Project this weekend in soggy Fort Mason, there also was plenty of super bass-heavy, heart-pumping, mind-expanding live music. Again, all free [...]

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Cloud somethings

It's unsettling how the first track off Cloud Nothings' new LP makes one want to drop everything and flop on the ground in an arrested development expression of perma-teen angst. It's hard to even type these words when the song is playing. It's hard to lift my hands. I just want to listen to the melancholic chug-chug of dangling chords, bursts of crashing cymbals, and singer-guitarist Dylan Baldi's stretched-out moan, “No Future/No Past.” I don't want to do anything [...]

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Feeding time

Pack the earplugs and napkins, it's time for the second annual Burger Boogaloo

In San Antonio last week, waking up on a living room floor with assorted Burger Records crew members and friends, record label and brick-and-mortar record shop owner Sean Bohrman, 30, was already thinking three steps ahead [...]

noise pop 2012 for san francisco bay guardian

Everlasting Noise

Noise Pop 2012: It's 20 years for the massive music and film fest -- tender memories with Archers of Loaf, Cursive, Thao, and more

NOISE POP Thao recalls hosting impromptu beer trivia with Mirah during their joint show a few years back, a festive moment she says is telling of Noise Pop. Cursive vocalist Tim Kasher retained playing one of the "most hungover shows imaginable" many years ago at Bottom of the Hill and it still being one of his favorite shows. Archers of Loaf bassist Matt Gentling has a fuzzy memory of playing the fest in 1997 with Spoon and Knapsack. Roddy Bottum and Jone Stebbins of Imperial Teen once declared themselves "King and Queen of Noise Pop" due to a tireless week creeping nearly every show [...]

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Bands on the Rise 2012

Moombahton mavens, doom metal masters, post-apocalyptic art wavers: 12 local music acts you need to know this year

There's no underlying theme running through the 12 acts profiled here other than geographic: they all reside somewhere in the Bay Area. Well, that and we think they'll break huge this year. Or at least, deserve a larger audience in 2012. It's not based on buzz or hype, I can assure you of that. It's about their artistic output, innovation, and listenability, the grand scheme of the band's lifespan (just how many EPs did they record?), and the current cultural zeitgeist as we see it.

Perhaps what links them is what divides them — their musical diversity. As opposed to recent years, we are not in 2012 overloaded with a single genre. That blanket, behemoth of fuzzed out garage rock, which at times felt overdone, overhyped, and overworked, is finally expanding. That's not to say we aren't fans of garage, it's just a note that there's so much more out there in our freaky little section of the West Coast. This year feels electric; it began with a refreshing mix of acts on the rise [...]

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Bangarang: DIY hip-hop collective Doomtree is back

There's something undeniably envy-inducing about a music collective. Everyone lives their separate lives yet they have continuing influence on one another; they hover nearby for comfort and camaraderie, maintain a steadfast family, and encourage a breeding ground for creatives. The emcees, DJs, lyricists, and producers in the Twin Cities-based DIY hip-hop collective/label Doomtree seem to have that system down pat. Under their own monikers, they create praise-worthy individual records. Together, the group carves out quality time and records masterpieces [...]

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Dome rock

Carlton Melton — ex-Zen Guerrilla — creates psychedelic noise in a geodesic structure

"I don't know if you've ever been in a geodesic dome," says drummer-guitarist Andy Duvall, formerly of Zen Guerilla, and currently one third of the improvisational space rock outfit Carlton Melton. "But if you stand right in the middle, there's a sweet spot" [...]

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Ben Gibbard pops up at Cobb's, plays the theme from "Mannequin"

It was well past midnight when a surprise musical guest was announced Saturday night at Cobb's. “Jon,” the host of the Delocated Witness Protection Program Variety Show, which swung through SF Sketchfest last weekend (and airs on Adult Swim as simply Delocated), came back out to the stage after the last of a thrilling round of comedians – Eugene Mirman, David Cross, Paul Rudd. Approaching the modified mic in a ski mask, baby pink 49ers jersey, and gold lamé bootie shorts, “Jon” introduced (and I'm totally paraphrasing here, because I can't recall his exact joke) “Sven Jibberd of Meth Cat for Tootie" [...]

michael jackson cirque du soleil review for san francisco bay guardian

Last night with Michael: Cirque Du Soleil revives the King of Pop

I consider myself a casual Michael Jackson fan; I've long owned worn vinyl copies of Thriller and Off the Wall, and have fuzzy memories of attempting -- painfully -- to learn the dance moves in the videos for "Beat It" and "Scream" (oddly, a personal favorite). But I know I will never fully appreciate what Michael did for his fans, how much he obviously meant to the costumed group sitting in front of me at the Oracle Arena in Oakland on Tuesday evening during Cirque du Soleil's thrilling new production, Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour. But I was there for the spectacle of it all, and spectacle I got [...]

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Create and destroy

WINTER LOOKS: Collin Weber is the designer to the (garage rock) stars

You might have spotted Collin Weber running through the Mission on the way to the Knockout, frantic, with a bag full of satin bows to complete a trio of Sailor Moon costumes. Or perhaps you've seen his handy-work elsewhere, in the colorful capes and pointed hats Shannon and the Clams wear in their video for "Sleep Talk" or the sixties striped shifts the Dirty Cupcakes sport in "I Want It (Your Love)" [...]

michael jackson cirque du soleil for san francisco bay guardian

Thriller

The spirit of Michael Jackson returns with Cirque du Soleil

There are so many extravagant things you could say about the late King of Pop, our holy father of stage theatrics and sequined gloves, Michael Jackson. The moon-walking man, the storied myth, the embattled legend.

If you want to get at the core of his power, the lifelong devotion of his millions of followers, try to envision a scenario that took place decades ago; look back at a then-12-year-old choreographer named Laurie Sposit, mimicking dance moves in her bedroom plastered with Michael Jackson posters. "I also wanted the red [Thriller] jacket but my dad wouldn't get it for me, I was traumatized," says Sposit from a brief stop in Phoenix, Ariz [...]