Trinidad James kicks off Mezzanine's 10-year anniversary series on April 4.

Mezzanine celebrates 10 years in the game with a series of anniversary concerts this April. And while the downtown nightclub kicked off in 2003 with a laser focus on DJ and dance music events, next month's roster of performances perfectly encapsulates how Mezzanine has evolved into a venue for many kinds of artists.

Atlanta upstart rapper Trinidad James -- perhaps best known for launching the catchphrase "Popped a molly, I'm sweatin', woo!" on his single "All Gold Everything" -- kicks off the birthday month with a live appearance on April 4.

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* We're Celebrating Metallica's 30-Year Anniversary This Week

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It's the song that defines Otis Redding, and one of the most famous songs about San Francisco (or at least San Francisco Bay), ever. It was released 45 years ago today, on Jan. 8, 1968, on the great Stax/Volt label. And despite the song's close association with one of the greats of '60s soul -- and its status as an all-time hit -- it's often forgotten that Otis Redding himself never actually heard the final version of "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay."

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Katie Hovland

NOFX: About to turn 30

Reassuring us once and for all that turning 30 doesn't mean you have to start behaving like an adult, NOFX -- the West Coast punk icon/touring kegger that never winds down -- announced this week that they'll mark the end of their third decade in existence with a limited edition box set of deluxe LPs, a collection of every studio album the band has released.

That's 12 records in total, if you haven't been keeping count, with a limited number of them signed, plus "a life-size version of the band's infamous stage banner." They won't be issued until Feb. 19, though. So for the NOFX aficionado who just can't contain their excitement, here's a walk through some of the most colorful memories Fat Mike and the crew have given us over the last 30 years.

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YACHT performing at the Fox Theater in Oakland.

Well, that went by fast. A year ago, a couple dudes behind DJ/promotion outfit Epicsauce started Push the Feeling, a low-key party at the gritty, unheralded Lower Haight club Underground S.F. The monthly aimed to showcase some of the new dance and electronic music burbling up from outside of the regular club scene. A year later, the party has hosted the likes of Toro Y Moi's Chaz Bundick (spinning as his DJ alter ego, Les Sins), Thrill Jockey act High Places, and notable locals like Blackbird Blackbird and James & Evander. Next Friday, it celebrates its one-year anniversary with a headlining DJ set from one of the most reliably fun acts on the DFA label, YACHT.

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The Jimi Hendrix Experience

There aren't a lot of undiscovered gems in the catalog of an artist as widely admired (and repackaged for commercial gain) as Jimi Hendrix. But there are some remarkably good songs outside of the five or 10 that are his most famous. Today, in honor of what would have been Hendrix's 70th birthday, we're rounding up five lesser-known Hendrix tunes -- deep album cuts and live recordings -- that we think deserve more attention than they've gotten. If you know these already, sit back and enjoy. If not, here are some songs you've gotta hear:

See also:
* Jimi Hendrix's 70th Birthday: 13 Revealing Quotes From the Man Himself
* Hendrix at 70: Jimi Was Headed For Jazz Fusion and Hip-Hop, Not Earth, Wind & Fire

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By Steven Roby

Editor's note: Today, Nov. 24, 2012, would have been Jimi Hendrix's 70th birthday. We're celebrating with a few posts on the man, including a roundup of 13 revealing quotes from Hendrix on Hendrix, a new volume of interviews and profiles edited by Hendrix biographer Steven Roby. Below, Roby shares his thoughts on where Hendrix's music was headed before the guitarist's untimely death on Sept. 18, 1970.

Jimi Hendrix stands alone. Seattle's hometown icon influenced everyone from painters to musicians, but to say his next musical direction was a pop/disco horn band makes no sense at all.

In a recent interview, Janie Hendrix, Jimi's stepsister, told KISW that what Hendrix was aiming for in 1969 was what Earth Wind & Fire became. Perhaps Ms. Hendrix has her late-1960s horn bands confused, and meant to say Chicago, or maybe Blood, Sweat, and Tears, since Earth, Wind & Fire really didn't come to national attention until 1975 with their dance hit "Shining Star." Or maybe the fact she was once married to a guitarist from EWF had something to do with her statement.

See also:
* Jimi Hendrix's 70th Birthday: 13 Revealing Quotes From the Man Himself
* Top Five Insanely Great Jimi Hendrix Songs You Might Not Know

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Jimi Hendrix, the greatest rock guitar player who ever lived, was born on Nov. 27, 1942. Today, honor of what would have been his 70th birthday, we present 13 amazing quotes from the man himself, all taken from Hendrix on Hendrix, a new volume of interviews and profiles of the man edited by Steven Roby. The book traces Hendrix's life from his arrival in London in 1966 through his rise to fame in the U.K., his explosion onto the American scene in 1967, his performances at Woodstock, the end of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and the vision Hendrix had for his music before his life was cut short. Hendrix died on Sept. 18, 1970, after a mishap with sleeping pills in a London flat. Let's remember him through his own words.

See also:
* Top Five Insanely Great Jimi Hendrix Songs You Might Not Know
* Hendrix at 70: Jimi Was Headed For Jazz Fusion and Hip-Hop, Not Earth, Wind & Fire

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The CD: still looking thin at age 30

Thirty years ago today, Sony unveiled the first commercially available compact disc, Billie Joel's 52nd Street, designed for the Sony CD-101P, the first commercially available CD player. Since then, compact discs have grown from audiophile specialty to world-ruling music format to anachronistic punchline. And in 2011, sales of digital music eclipsed compact discs for the first time ever, even though more than 300 million CDs were sold.

NPR has an in-depth look at the rise and legacy of the CD, while Tech Hive recounts the development of the technology. Both pieces take a sort of goodbye-to-all-that view of the CD, which had 25 or 30 years as the favored format and now is fading into obsolescence. From Tech Hive:

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"93 'til Infinity" was released 19 years ago today.

"Dial the seven digits. Call up Bridget/ Her man's a midget. Plus she got friends, yo, I can dig it..."

It was 19 years ago when Tajai, Opio, Phesto, and A-Plus first upped us on how they just chill, roaming the strip for bones to pick, attackin' with the smoothness.

"93 'til Infinity" still stands as one of the best hip-hop joints to ever come out of the Bay -- the West Coast's proudest contribution to the kicked-back, jazz-based, lyrically-complex rap style A Tribe Called Quest was making famous in the early '90s. For Souls of Mischief, that debut album, which bore the same name as its lead track, would be their most commercially successful. The record was released on Sept. 28, 1993 and, like the way the crew chilled, its legacy will persist 'til infinity.

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via Classicpopicons.com

Forty-six years ago today, on Aug. 29, 1966, the Beatles played the final live concert of their careers at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Though many of the band's most timeless songs lay ahead of them, this Bay Area live date would mark the end of the Beatles as a touring entity. Freeing themselves from the burdens of live performance allowed the Liverpool foursome to become ever more daring and experimental in their studio work, which had already begun with the then-three-week-old Revolver, and would continue with the White Album, and, of course, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

While the band members of the band apparently knew it would be their final live show, the audience didn't. Listening to bootlegs of the set, one is struck by the tsunami of screaming fans in the audience, and how here, in 1966, the Beatles still seemed very much in the the early, heartthrob phase of their career. (Of course, this was arguably the second or third or even fourth phase for the band; the Fab Four had honed their live chops on obscure stages in Hamburg and elsewhere long before packs of dazed teenagers followed their every move.)

After the jump, we've gathered some YouTube footage of the band's arrival in San Francisco and the crowd action at Candlestick -- along with the full bootlegged audio of the 11 songs played back in August '66. The recording is rough, echoey, and filled with teenage screams, but it's still worth a listen.

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