July
16, 2003
Hey, its Xifer, hack stage manager for the Red Devil Lounge,
and the best damn sound engineer in my who-o-o-o-o-o-o-ole price
range. Actually that's pretty questionable...when I can't be
at the club for whatever reason I customarily hire folks smarter
than me so I learn stuff. Now you know the truth.
It's a funny place, that there Red Devil. Sometimes its the
coolest goddamn club on earth, and sometimes we say to ourselves,
"Is there a reason we didn't go into plastics?" Mostly
we walk out thinking..."Hmmm...cool vibe, great bands,
heavy pouring arms....life could be a whole lot worse."
So this is my little corner where I get to rant about stuff
I like, stuff that tweaks my cringe reflex, stuff I do, stuff
I think, stuff I hear, stuff I eat...I promise at my worst to
be mildly literary and at my best to direct you toward cool
stuff in a way that's amusing to read. Feel welcome to drop
a note and say, "Yeah, yeah...whatevs, buddy. What makes
you think your opinion is worth my autographed pictures of Barbara
Feldon??"
In fact I'll save you the trouble: I'm so unhip its a small
wonder my ass doesn't fall off. I'm quite aware that my opinions
on music (and other things, for that matter) + $2.10 + tip gets
me a double depth-charge at Central Coffee, Tea and Spice.
Having said all this, I sincerely hope that at some point I
drop a paragraph about a band I worked with or saw or got a
demo from that I really liked a ton, and then you decide to
stop copy/pasting the same months-old 'the-scene-here-sucks'
posts from Craigslist into fresh new posts long enough to maybe
check out a band for a change.
Here's a few things to start:
-I'll just come right out and say it: The scene in SF is really,
really good right now. more than anything, its promising. I
think in my next column I'll discuss how and why I'm qualified
to say this, but for now I'll just say this:
Cut yer goddamn bellyachin'--the scene here has a lot to offer
bands that are working on their shit, know a little something
about promotion, and are more interested in music than complaining
and excuses, and frankly, there's more damn good bands in this
town and surrounding area-codes than i've seen in a long, long
while. Other folks who see an average 15 - 20 local bands per
week can feel welcome to rebut this. Go on, have at me.
-With respect (and a challenge to play Pitch when he moves back
to town) to Dan Leone, Hahn's Hibachi has these new soba-noodle
dishes for 7-something plus tax. Yum. There's a Hahn's across
from the Red Devil, and lately I'm going through 4 or those
suckers a week.
Favorite recent show at the Red Devil
July
4 brought us the super-slammin Deadweight with HairyApesBmx.
Didn't sell out, but the 150 or so folks who came out for this
show heard some of the most furious freak rock I'd seen on that
stage in a while. If you've never seen 'em, Deadweight (http://www.deadweightsf.com)
is drums, amped cello and amped violin. Picture a country-fied
Zep with prog-shred chops, but without all those pesky guitars.
I've seen 'em a buncha times before, but this night was particularly
amazing. HairyApesBmx opened the night. Mike Dillon's an alum
of Critters Buggin', Brave Combo, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe,
and MC 900 Foot Jesus. Mike is the percussionist/amplified and
sometimes distorted vibraphonist/conguero/timbalero/singer.
There were also keys (rhodes and some synths), guitar, drums,
and a bassist/front guy who crooned like algreenebelafonte.
Zappa-esque freakouts landing softly in funk grooves and culminating
in drum and timbale breakdowns. Paulo of Deadweight (drummer)
and Mike of the Apes left town 2 days later to be in Les Claypool's
Frog Brigade.
Other bands I particularly liked in June/July:
Japonize Elephants, Beanweevils, Ill-Gotten Gains, Clevergirl,
P.C. Munoz, LZ Phoenix, Slowfinger, Qi.
Yeah, I'm in a band too, and while I'm no stranger to shameless
self-promotion, I'll save it for next week as a show of faith
that I'll try not to abuse the privilege of having a column.
To be clear: I WILL mention my own band regularly. I WON'T mention
it all the damn time.
S'all for now. Thanks for reading.
xifer
Xifer may be reached by e-mail at christopher@jaysieganpresents.com
