Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Some artists just aren’t well-served by the giddy party-vibe atmosphere of Noise Pop. And last night, despite performing in one of the most intimate and mild-mannered venues in San Francisco, British guitar fury Scout Niblett took her place in that group.
Continue reading “Noise Pop Show Review: Scout Niblett at Café Du Nord, 2/25/10”
There was nothing conventionally romantic about soul legend/civil rights icon Mavis Staples’ Valentine’s Day weekend shows at Yoshi’s Oakland. But while the fleeting whimsies of romance may have been absent, they were replaced by something much more substantive: the fiercely passionate love, devotion, and commitment with which Ms. Staples, 70, has tackled her stirring, liberating material ever since she first began recording with her family band, The Staples Singers, sixty years ago.
Continue reading “Show Review: Mavis Staples at Yoshi’s Oakland, 2/13/10”
I generally avoid Popscene when possible. There are myriad reasons for this, which needn’t be explained to anyone who’s been there. For one, it’s notoriously 18+, which: no thanks! Any club that needs to see my special grown-up wristband before letting me have a beer is a place I’m happy to avoid. Secondly, there’s the inherent wrongness of any establishment that bills itself as “San Francisco’s premier indie nightclub.” So. Much. Wrong. Third, it’s scene-y in a superficially obvious way that still makes me feel I’m Susan Boyle standing around at Danceteria or something (cue the glittery 18-year-olds: “Who at the what?”).
And finally, I resent their unassailable skill at booking the hottest, coolest young acts and forcing the rest of us to go all the way to 330 Ritch in Mission Bay to see them (plus, I’m still mad I couldn’t get tickets when they hosted Amy Winehouse for her only Bay Area show to date). But sometimes these various negatives can come together for a really amazing positive. Last night’s show was one such exception. Continue reading “Show Review: VV Brown with Ebony Bones! at 330 Ritch (Popscene), 2/4/10”
According to the song that opened their winning 90-minute set, comedian Julia Sweeney (best known for her 1990-1994 run on Saturday Night Live) and musician Jill Sobule (best known for singing “I Kissed A Girl” first and so much better) met randomly at the Monterey Bay Aquarium one lucky day not long ago. Sobule cautiously approached Sweeney to express her admiration, but then Sweeney spotted Sobule and pounced her. Their mutual admiration society has led to an ongoing story-song collaboration called “The Jill and Julia Show,” which made its first Bay Area stop last night as part of the 2010 SF Sketchfest.
Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: The Jill and Julia Show at Yoshi’s San Francisco, 1/27/10”
The Webb Sisters performed their first of two partially seated shows at Café Du Nord last night. Not many get two consecutive nights to perform at Du Nord, but who doesn’t love a sister act? However, given how many there are, it can be difficult differentiating The Webb Sisters from such similar acts as The Watson Twins, The Chapin Sisters, or their clearest musical inspirations, t.A.T.u. But in this instance, it’s simple: these are the sisters who scored the once-in-a-lifetime gig of singing harmony for Leonard Cohen on his enthusiastically acclaimed recent tour. And it was very clear that the majority of those in attendance at Du Nord last night were hoping for more of the same. But is that what they got? (Also, just kidding about t.A.T.u.)
Continue reading “Show Review: The Webb Sisters at Café Du Nord, 1/25/10”
Listening to the music of Basia Bulat is an unabashedly heart-hugging delight. The 26-year-old Canadian singer/songwriter first established herself as one of the brightest young talents in the folk-rock scene with her insanely lovable debut LP, Oh, My Darling (2007), and makes overwhelmingly good on that early potential with her sophomore release, Heart of My Own.
Continue reading “Album Review: Basia Bulat — Heart of My Own”
“Moses” is the first song that iconic Cocteau Twins vocalist Elizabeth Fraser has ever released as a solo act. This either means something profoundly significant to you, or it doesn’t. For an entire generation of music fans, Fraser’s was “the voice of God.” But it has been 12 years since she’s had any real involvement with the music world. Why pop up again now? Then again, disappearing for a decade between releases seems to be working just fine for Sade, so why not Fraser?
“Does she still look like Janice from The Muppets?” asked a friend when I mentioned I was seeing Rickie Lee Jones at The Fillmore last night. There’s certainly a resemblance, that’s for sure. It’s been 30 years since her chart-topping debut single, “Chuck E’s In Love,” but Jones, 55, is still very much the picture of laid-back, blonde, heavy-lidded California cool. And if she feels slowed down by age, she certainly didn’t show it during her marathon two-and-a-half-hour set.
Continue reading “Show Review: Rickie Lee Jones at The Fillmore, 12/19/09”
Evangelista is the latest (and longest) incarnation of the restless musical mind of Carla Bozulich, the extraordinary, genre-busting singer/songwriter whose career dates back over two decades. She was a member of the seminal industrial band Ethyl Meatplow before forming The Geraldine Fibbers, whose tragically brief output consisted of two of the most magnificent albums of the ’90s, Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home (1995) and Butch (1997), before disbanding. It was at this point that Bozulich began veering in a more “experimental” direction, in which she continues to create strange and harrowing new sounds.
There’s just one problem: I’m a die-hard Fibbers fan with no tolerance for so-called “experimental” music. Granted, this is my problem, not hers. But whenever I’ve listened to her post-Fibbers output, whether it be Scarnella, Evangelista, or her full-length reinterpretation of Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger, I’ve longed for even a hint of the torch-twang-punk brilliance of the Fibbers. And so, I walked into her show at the Hemlock last night with resigned pessimism. I was thrilled to finally witness Carla singing live, but was bracing for an hour of free-form noise and distortion. Oh, how I hate being wrong.
San Francisco’s Midwestern transplants flocked to the Great American Music Hall on Tuesday night to bask in the soothing siren song of Ohio-based indie stalwarts Over the Rhine. The band, consisting primarily of smug marrieds Linford Detweiler (bass/piano/vocals) and Karin Bergquist (vocals/piano) and currently celebrating its twentieth year, treated its Bay Area fans to a nearly two-hour set spanning a vast array of fan favorites.