Eat before (or while!) you rock. It's just better that way.

​Watching live music when you're starving is no fun. Actually, scratch that. It's really fun for a little while, when the whiskey or beer buzz hits like a moon-sized meteor, and you feel like a superterrific weightless alien witnessing the most seminal musical event in intergalactic history. That's fun. But then the reckoning comes, and you hit the porcelain throne (or, worse, the floor), like the meanest case of projectile eew this side of Andromeda, and you have to leave the show, and you can't even make it off the bus, and yeah ...

Point is, you should eat before a show. Everything is just better that way. And we've assembled a helpful guide to assist you with doing just that.

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The huarache Alambre from El Huarache Loco, which you can eat at Outside Lands this year.

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Ostensibly one goes to Outside Lands for the music, right? I mean, spending three days in Golden Gate Park amid throngs of crazy young ravers, rock dads, children of rock dads, hipster trash, and jaded asshole music journalists is only really fun if there are a ton of great bands to see. And this year there are. But they aren't the only reason to go to Outside Lands: According to SF Weekly food blog editor and avowed food truck enthusiast W. Blake Gray, the food offerings at Outside Lands this year are not only bigger than last year; they're better, too.

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Helios Creed, beer model

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Good news: You can finally put an end to all those half-lucid drunken arguments you've had about what kind of beer S.F.-based psych-noise pioneer Helios Creed would be if he were a beer. (You've had those arguments, right?)

Now there's an official answer, because the Burnt Hickory Brewery, of Kennesaw, Georgia, has created a new beer in honor of the former guitarist of acid-punk pioneers Chrome.

And what is it? Can we get an warped, blown-out drum roll, please ?

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​After an eight-month break, the Indie-Mart Party returns this Sunday to Thee Parkside in Potrero Hill, bringing the only three things we care about -- music, food, and booze. Oh, and there's gonna be shopping and such for those of you who don't have your priorities straight (or just want to see some unique stuff, whatever).

The suggested donation for entrance is $3-5, which will help fund Indie-Mart founder Kelly Malone's cancer treatment.

Hit the jump for full details and line-up information.

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Cássio Abreu/Wikimedia

​Legendary audio engineer (don't call him a producer) and Shellac frontman Steve Albini eschews name-brand technology in the studio, despises digital. He's analog; this is common knowledge, championing the visceral over the virtual. As a stalwart traditionalist, he's as uncompromising in his opinions on music as he is about food. At the end of March, he started (or, as it's been revealed, wifey Heather started) a food blog to chronicle the dishes he serves her, as told in the canon of famed chef Mario Batali. The blog, mariobatalivoice, encapsulates the Albini tenets of good eating: to forgo the use of any extraneous ingredients or instruments and to respect the craft. Hell, he can spin gold out of copper coil; how hard can it be to eyeball olive oil and egg yolk to perfection? He spoke with us to discuss his stance on food, and though he finds no correlation between his cooking process and sound recording, there's something to be said about a man whose treble crunch is as fundamentally simple yet compelling as the culinary craft he's taken on.

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Heather Hryciw

Music and gourmet eats: together at last

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There's a shared culture between musicians and chefs, says Noise Pop Industries marketing manager Dawson Ludwig, ticking off concrete examples, like getting off work at 2 a.m., and the more esoteric shared sense of underground and independent spirit.

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When you're a central figure in one of the biggest hip-hop groups ever, what's the next, natural progression for your career? Wine blogging, of course! Beastie Boys' Mike D has started writing for the wine website James Suckling as a guest critic, dropping views on his favorite varietals in lieu of dropping lyrical science over a monster beat.

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haighteration.com

Grayceon on the roof of Idle Hand Tattoo

​If you looked up on Haight Street last Friday night, you might have caught San Francisco's own Grayceon playing a set on the roof of Idle Hand Tattoo, letting their chugging, downtuned splendor waft down to an appreciative cluster of Art Walkers. If you are a local musician with any entrepreneurial sense whatsoever, little gears should have started whirring away in your head.

Cease thy reveries, young scenester, and holler at the good people at Noise Pop for your or your band's chance to play for an hour to a projected 15,000 grass-fed locavores at next Saturday's SF Street Food Festival. Don't get too ambitious, mind you: the New Oxford American Dictionary defines busk as "play music or otherwise perform for voluntary donations in the street or in subways" -- ergo no amplification, no cover charge, no shelter. But a lot can happen with a tuba and some joint compound buckets, right? Right.

[via Ear Bud]

J. Birdsall

Aztec Chocolate Cupcakes from Mission Minis

​Just imagine: Al Green could chow down on a mint It's-It ice cream sandwich this weekend in Golden Gate Park. Those brothers from Kings of Leon might try a Maverick's pulled-pork sandwich or a gourmet cupcake from Mission Minis. Maybe Cat Power will munch on sweet potato fries from Pacific Catch, or a savory crepe from Ti Couz. More >>

DJ Pam the Funkstress: Cajun food queen

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The Bay Area's devotion to its homegrown music and food is steadfast. The culinary creativity here is as infectious as our sonic imagination, so it should come as little surprise that there is a crossover between the two local scenes. But did you know that DJs are whipping up cupcakes and burritos, and guitarists are serving up their personal brands of margaritas and champagne?

Behold our picks for eight local artists who rock kitchens and vineyards as easily as they do concert stages and DJ booths:

8. Boz Scaggs
Along with his legendary singing and songwriting career (that includes six Top 20 hits), Scaggs is well known for supporting live music in San Francisco: He owns Slim's and the Great American Music Hall. He's also the former owner of Marina bar/restaurant Blue Light Cafe and is now cultivating a new passion with his Scaggs Vineyard in Napa.

7. Sammy Hagar
The loud rocker runs a quiet food and spirits empire from his home base in Mill Valley. He sold 80 percent of his Cabo Wabo tequila company to Italy's Gruppo Campari for $80 million, and partnered with Gruppo subsidiary Skyy Vodka (of S.F.) for marketing. He is also the former owner of S.F.'s Tres Agaves restaurant and tequila lounge--he bowed out of that one in 2007. Thankfully, his more lowbrow and touristy Cabo Wabo Cantinas are nowhere near here.

6. DJ Hubert Keller
While Keller is principally a chef and restaurateur (Fleur de Lys and the newly opened Burger Bar in Macy's Union Square), it seems that his heart is truly found on the dance floor as DJ Hubert Keller, pumping out tunes that fuel the European tropics. The Top Chef Masters contestant drops the Balearic beats of Ibiza by way of one-off parties at night spots such as San Francisco's Bambuddha Lounge and at the occasional culinary event.

5. DJ Rajah
Chef, culinary instructor, and DJ Roger Feely of Soul Cocina deftly blends the musical and edible diaspora, sourcing beats and ingredients from all continents. Find him on the streets of San Francisco, as part of the current wave of gourmet food carts.


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