The Park

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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 of Derek Taylor (drums), Josh Lippi (bass), and Ben Schwier (keys) has laid down backing grooves for new-generation rap chaps Freddie Gibbs and Big K.R.I.T, cult '70s soul singer Dorando, 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.

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Lou Noble

​Having grown up on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, DJ/producer Jillionaire made a name for himself by showcasing his Caribbean roots with soca beats and dancehall mixes. He began his career 16 years ago on Trinidad's reggae soundsystem Radioactive Nuclear as a host and music selector. After capturing the attention of M.I.A. and Switch while they were on a visit to Trinidad, Jillionaire was invited to produce for Major Lazer and Mad Decent, and has since spent his time conquering the rest of the world opening for duo Major Lazer on their international tour: Playing London's Notting Hill Carnival, curating the first ever tropical bass party at Winter Music Conference, and, most recently, launching his own label, Feel Up Recordings. We recently spoke with Jillionaire about how growing up on the islands influenced his style, playing Outside Lands with Major Lazer last year, and his favorite place to eat ice cream in San Francisco. He opens for Munchi this Friday at Public Works along with local DJs Theory, BootyKlap, Ear Jerker, and more.

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Patrick Lelli

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Many bands that employ gimmicks like costumes, storytelling, and adorable instruments (e.g. melodeon or kazoo) are relegated to the land of twee. But Michigan's Breathe Owl Breathe lacks the cutesy artifice of certain Juno soundtrack singsongers. Perhaps due to the band's incredible musicianship and outside-the-box performance approach, BOB manages to put on unpretentious and purely entertaining shows. The folk trio Breathe Owl Breathe stops in the Bay Area several times each year, often performing with local folk favorite Little Wings. It returns tonight to co-headline with Portland folk singer Laura Gibson at Bottom of the Hill.

The band consists of three multi-instrumentalists/vocalists: singer/guitarist Micah Middaugh, cellist/singer Andrea Moreno-Beals, and keyboardist/percussionist Trevor Hobbs. Now Middaugh is adding "children's book author" and "illustrator" to his already long list of talents. BOB's latest release, The Listeners/These Train Tracks (out on RAD) is a limited-edition two-song 7-inch that comes nestled in the pages of a specially designed block-printed storybook. With masterful craftsmanship, the two stories start on separate sides of the book and meet in the middle, where the hidden 7-inch is housed in a copper block-printed sleeve.

In an interview last week, prolific author Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are) told Stephen Colbert, "I don't write for children. I write and somebody says that's for children." Similarly, BOB's music toes the line between childhood and adulthood, with audiences deciding the purpose of the work more than the creators. We recently caught up with the BOB trio to talk about children's books, performance approaches, and more. Unsurprisingly, the members' answers were often as unusual as their art.

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​Following their debut in 2001, S.F. trance producer-DJs Gabriel and Dresden quickly gained recognition in the EDM scene for putting feel-good lyrics and melodies over progressive house beats. Shying away from one-dimensional beat reverberations on dynamic tracks like "Arcadia" and "Tracking Treasure Down," the talented duo had scored 19 No. 1 Billboard Club Play/Dance tracks and mixes by 2007. However, after touring extensively in the midst of their success, the producers Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden decided to take a break and focus on their solo careers.

Reuniting in 2011, Gabriel and Dresden lost no time assimilating themselves back in the EDM scene, releasing new tracks on Armada Music and playing sold-out festivals around the world. Dave Dresden recently spoke with All Shook Down about renewing the duo's chemistry, the importance of lyrics in EDM tracks, and how social media has come to play a big part in the group's career. Gabriel and Dresden headline ETD Love at the Regency Ballroom with John O'Callaghan, Myon and Shane 54, and more this Saturday, Feb. 4.

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Fujiya & Miyagi

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By his own admission, David Best isn't all that great of a singer. As the voice of the Brighton, England-based four-piece Fujiya & Miyagi, Best provides a careful, static presence that works in conjunction with his band's Krautrock-indebted post-punk. He eschews wild notes or anything complicated, and instead uses a spry whisper.

This approach doesn't easily lend itself to engaging listening, so to make up for his lack of vocal pizzazz, Best pens bizarre but fascinating lyrics that rely on non-sequiturs and strange turns of phrase. When he first began putting together his own words, he took cues from Captain Beefheart, The Fall, and Pavement -- all bands whose lyricists wrote "words that weren't necessarily obvious when you heard them" -- and that inspiration remains evident today. "I liked words that weren't necessarily obvious when you heard them. There are so many records on the radio where you can hear it the first time and you can guess the next rhyme," Best says. "Often, like with Bryan Adams or something, you knew that if he was walking down the street, he would look at his feet, and it was just like, 'Ah, geez.'"

In anticipation of Fujiya & Miyagi's date at The Independent this Monday, Jan. 30, alongside The Frail, we pinned Best down to talk about four of his more evocative lyrical forays.

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Rank/Xerox performing at Fivepoints Arthouse.

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After spending the greater part of 2011 absorbing the band's self-titled album and witnessing a compelling performance at the Fivepoints Arthouse, I met with the rhythm section of Rank/Xerox at their house in the Sunset to discuss their the band's internal politics, relationship with the press, and the merits of arguing. Their newest album is fraught with agitated, neurotic energy and careens between moody, dynamic passages and exhilarating bursts of frenetic noise reflecting the frustration and futility articulated in their lyrics, but don't call it post-punk. Only David West, the trio's guitarist and co-vocalist was absent, but Kevin McCarthy and Jonathan Shade openly discussed his role in the group. If he had been there, we infer that the group would have bickered a lot more.

Your performance live seems very democratic. Is that what your songwriting process is like?
Kevin McCarthy: Some songs are democratic, some songs will be written in full by David West on guitar, and then taught to us and some songs we come up with on the spot.
Jonathan Shade: It changes. We don't have a set pattern and there is a lot of arguing involved.
KM: We wrote songs in 2009 that haven't been finalized because we're still arguing about them.
JS: Other songs have been recorded but we don't play them live.

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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.

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​One half of the Stretch and Bobbito Show on New York's WKCR through the '90s, DJ/producer Stretch Armstrong has played an essential part in the integration of hip-hop into mainstream radio. A fixture in the '90s hip-hop scene, he used media outlets such as mixtapes and radio programs to launch the careers of artists like Nas and Notorious B.I.G. Beyond radio, Armstrong gained notoriety for his album production, including his releases with underground acts MF Grimm and Powerule. In the early '00s, Armstrong began to branch out from radio into other music ventures, touring around the world as a DJ and becoming co-owner of New York's Plant Music label, which boasts artists such as Eli Escobar and Tittsworth. Armstrong recently spoke with All Shook Down about his favorite era of hip-hop, how he helped launch the careers of hip-hop's most prominent artists, and his Plant Music label. He plays alongside Bobbito this Thursday as part of the Red Bull Music Academy series at Mighty, and Blow Up at DNA Lounge on Friday.

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NOFX, with Fat Mike second from right.

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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.

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​Once a member of indie dance group LA Riots, Jon Pegnato, aka Hot Mouth, hasn't seen any drop-off in activity since going solo -- he's playing residencies in Vegas, recording a new EP, and keeping a full schedule of fun in between. Breaking away from the LA Riots sound, Pegnato has become known for mixes that are techy, dark, and funky, as opposed to the electro sound of his earlier work. All Shook Down recently spoke with Pegnato about why he decided to go with the moniker Hot Mouth, adjusting to a solo career, and the goals for his new music. Hot Mouth plays this Thursday at Monarch with Sticky K, Christian Martin, and Amanda Panda.

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