The Park

​
You've heard The Park, even if you don't recognize the name. As the Bay Area's most in-demand rhythm section, the trio quartet of Derek Taylor (drums), Josh Lippi (bass), Ben Schwier (keys), and Nate Mercereau (guitar) has laid down backing grooves for new-generation rap chaps Freddie Gibbs and Big K.R.I.T, cult '70s soul singer Darondo, and the Bay's own Wallpaper. But beyond providing the sounds for other vocalists, The Park holds ambitions to be recognized for its own original compositions, like this week's These Are The Days EP. So we recently caught up with Taylor to talk about the influence of the Roots' career, Ricky Reed's studio habits, and how the Park would soundtrack talk show entrance music for this year's presidential picks.

The Park has gained a good reputation backing up other artists, but is it hard to gain recognition as a band in your own right?
Definitely. When you're a core of musicians, a lot of people want to hear a vocalist and we don't have one vocal voice for the group right now, so just being an instrumental group is a little harder. But it's something we strive to do, and we also enjoy working with different styles and different people.

More >>

These are Dmitri SFC's actual soldering safety goggles.

​A few years back, Dmitri SFC's studio had been robbed, his girlfriend of seven years had left him, and he was depressed.

"I needed more gear to make music again for my own sanity," says the DJ, producer, and poster child for Groove, the 2000 movie about the San Francisco rave scene. He didn't have cash for new stuff, but he stumbled upon pictures of circuit-bent Casio keyboards online and got to thinking.

Circuit bending, or modifying electronic equipment that may or may not have had musical roots, has yielded a subculture of noise -- electronic music that's largely without rhythm.

"When I came across it," he recalls, "I hadn't heard anyone doing legitimate house music with it, and that's what made me want to try it."

Soon, he was taking apart cheap and discarded electronics, relieving them of their useful parts, and recycling them into brand new instruments housed in creative new packages, like a giant Sapporo can, a briefcase, or a computer tower. These fresh instruments became featured and beloved parts of Dmitri's palette of analog tools, most assembled for free or almost nothing.

More >>

Josh Miller

The Fox turns three years old this Friday.

​
It's kind of a big week for Oakland's Fox Theater: Tonight, Wilco plays its last in a series of three Bay Area concerts -- which, if it's anything like Sunday's show at the Warfield, should be incredible.

Then, on Friday, there's a big party at the Fox in honor of the third anniversary of theater's reopening. The party will feature DJ sets from Lyrics Born and DJ Franchise, free tours of the theater, food from Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe, drink specials, a silent auction, and more.

Obviously, the coolest part of this celebration is the chance to get a tour of the 2,800-capacity venue, which originally opened in 1928, closed in 1966, and then reopened in 2009 after an extensive renovation. As anyone who's seen a show at this historical landmark knows, the Fox has the feel of an opulent Indian temple, with gold accents, textured ceilings, and two statues with gleaming red eyes overlooking the audience. It's truly a gorgeous space.

More >>

Bill Ortiz

​"Souls of Mischief brought me in initially to replace a sample that was going to cost them too much to clear!" So says San Francisco-born trumpeter Bill Ortiz with a laugh as he recalls his contribution to the Bay Area rap quartet's cherished debut album '93 'Til Infinity. Ortiz's playing can be heard on the chorus and outro to the song "Live And Let Live." Now Ortiz has brought his commingling with the rap world up to date by featuring The Grouch and Zion I's Zumbi on his latest EP, which begins with a titular cover of Gil Scott-Heron's "Winter In America" and is out now digitally.

Ortiz's formative years also included stints playing with R&B acts TLC, Sheila E., and Tony Toni Tone. We recently spoke with him about those experiences plus the new record, his time on the road with Janet Jackson, and the mythology of Prince's post-show basketball games.

When did you decide to cover Gil Scott-Heron's "Winter In America"?
The idea of the Gil Scott-Heron cover came up about two years ago. I've always been a huge fan of Gil Scott-Heron and had a chance to see him a few times in the mid-'70s. His words have always been very important to me. What I wanted to do with my presentation of the tune is convey my feelings of the message he was capturing in the song but bring it up to date musically. I feel his words are as relevant today as when he first recorded the song; I wanted to make that message relevant to today's people.

More >>

Karen Knoller

Mark Matos performing at a Family Folk Explosion

​
January can be an interesting month for live music in San Francisco. With many large tours still in holiday hiatus mode, the local weirdos get to take over the city's venues and conduct all sorts of unusual musical experiments in them. One of this year's most notable midwinter trials is the Family Folk Explosion residency -- a free series led by Mission folk-rocker Mark Matos that's been packing the mellow insides of Amnesia full every Tuesday night in January. (It continues tonight and concludes next Tuesday.)

Matos is a known quantity around town -- he's collaborated with seemingly everyone in the Misson's sprawling scene, and his band Os Beaches was on Porto Franco until the label's demise -- but the Family Folk Explosion is a different kind of project. "It's my rock 'n' roll roadshow," Matos explains. "It's my Buffalo Bill fantasy -- I call it my rock 'n' roll community center of the spirit."

Essentially, Matos has gathered a large, loose group of musicians to play his songs, their songs, and covers on Amnesia's tiny stage in a kind of Last Waltz-like showcase. The music wanders between blazing guitar blues, classic country tunes (the group does an excellent "Long Black Veil"), and straight-up rock, although most of it has strong flavors of psychedelic Americana. It's like the last 60 years of American music seen through the mushroom-hazed eyes of a bunch of West Coast misfits.

More >>

The Gold Dust, now an endangered species of San Francisco bar.

​Have you heard? San Francisco's classic Gold Dust Lounge -- a 1933 watering hole that was a regular haunt of legendary local columnist Herb Caen, and hosts a regular live rock 'n' roll band -- is in trouble. Its landlord wants to boot the bar to make way for an expansion of clothing store the Limited (yes, really, the Limited). So of course local barflies, history buffs, and Defenders of All That Is Old, Cheap, and Real in San Francisco are doing what they can to save the place. If they fail, this hall of West Coast history will be only a memory after March 6.

Hence "Save The Gold Dust Lounge," a new tune from local songwriter Catherine Hill. Over a rambling blues-folk chord progression, Hill invokes the storied history of the Gold Dust in the spirit of an old protest song, offering listeners both an education and a call to action. Hey, who knew crooner Bing Crosby did the ceilings and lights? We didn't. See what else you find out about the Gold Dust (and sign a petition to save it) after the jump.

More >>

NOFX, with Fat Mike second from right.

​
You may not have been alive in 1983, when punk rock icon NOFX was started in Berkeley. That was nearly 30 years ago, after all, and the world was a very different place: Ronald Reagan was president, "big" East Bay punk bands like Rancid or Green Day didn't exist, and Thriller was only a year old. Since then, while you were learning to walk and talk and shit politely, NOFX sold more than 6 million records. It put out a ridiculous number of fast, sarcastic, often gut-bustingly funny songs about topics like discovering one's lesbian side, George W. Bush, being called "white," and drugs and alcohol. (Drugs and alcohol being a favorite, both as song topics and activities.) NOFX refused to join a major label, and actively discouraged its songs from getting on the radio. It grew a gigantic fan base anyway.

And while the band retains its independence today, some things have changed: Frontman Fat Mike, for example, is a father (and a golfer). He's also the head of Fat Wreck Chords, a San Francisco punk label that's home to artists like Rise Against and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Ahead of NOFX's two (sold-out) shows at the Fillmore this Friday and Saturday, we called up Fat Mike to talk about fatherhood, his label, and recreational pharmaceuticals.

How's the tour been so far?
It's been excellent. Not a lot of sleep, but a lot of drugs, lots of sold-out shows.

More >>

Hey, you'd be smiling, too.

​
Let the Bay Area pride fly: According to the the Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll, whose results were released late yesterday, the best album of 2011 was made by none other than Oakland funk-pop outfit tUnE-yArDs.

Yep, that's best album, period. The same coveted title awarded (almost unanimously) to Kanye West last year has now been bestowed upon w h o k i l l, tUnE-yArDs' second album and a riot of loop-pedal groove, roiling bassfunk, and multidimensional vocalizing from headwoman Merrill Garbus.

More >>

Beeda Weeda.

​
"I'm kinda like taking the Too $hort persona and putting my own stamp on it," says Oakland-based rapper Beeda Weeda about his upcoming project. Titled Bass Rock Babies, the album is co-signed by $hort Dog, who contributes guest raps and has allowed Beeda to recreate classic videos of his to promote the project. In the run up to that album's March release date, Beeda dropped the freebie Bass Rock Babies: The Leak mixtape last week. So in the interests of paying deference to the Bay Area's hip-hop pioneer, we asked Beeda to run through his five favorite Too $hort tracks.

5. "Girl (Cocaine)" (1985)
With this song it's just that beat! It's something special about it; I redid this song for my own project, with the same exact beat. When I first heard this ... I was probably like two or three years old, but my cousins used to have tapes and I used to steal tapes and get ass-whoopings for stealing their tapes! Then later I'd take them to elementary school and my grandfather found out and I got an ass-whooping for it!

More >>

Wallpaper's Ricky Reed

​
Wallpaper., the thumping crunk-pop outfit led by Oakland's Ricky Reed, signed a record deal late last year with Sony Music imprint Epic, making it the latest Bay Area group to jump to a major label.

Best known for last year's breakout single, "#STUPiDFACEDD" -- which was featured on MTV and watched more than 2 million times on YouTube -- Wallpaper joined the Epic roster after a late-night meeting in early December with L.A. Reid, Epic's CEO and a judge on the music TV show The X Factor.

In an interview with All Shook Down over the weekend, Wallpaper's Reed says he was called to the Sony Music building in Beverly Hills late on Dec. 2, and found himself meeting with Reid, producer Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, and the Epic artist Ciara. After several hours of playing Wallpaper's music for the assembled group, Reed was asked if he wanted a deal, and by the afternoon of Dec. 4, he had signed a contract.

More >>