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Feature

High on Fire, SMC Recordings, and John Vanderslice Make History Now

By Jennifer Maerz

Published: October 17, 2007

Mainstream media outlets spent 2007 casting spotlights on the Bay Area's music scene. Unfortunately, the bulk of that press focused on Summer of Love nostalgia that barely mentioned what's...

News

Alt-Weeklies Provide Web Links to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Home Address

Action Taken in Solidarity with Phoenix New Times

By The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies

Published: October 17, 2007

Member papers of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) this week are providing links on their websites that direct their readers to the many places on the Internet where the home...

Feature

Blaze of Glory

High on Fire reignites interest in Bay Area metal

By Michael Alan Goldberg

Published: October 17, 2007

The Bay Area boasts a metal history virtually unrivaled by any other region in the U.S. You know the names: Exodus, Death Angel, Testament, Possessed, and, of course, Metallica, just to scratch...

Feature

Mobbin' Thru the Industry

How SMC Recordings built an indie rap empire

By Eric K. Arnold

Published: October 17, 2007

Ask major-label record execs about the music biz and they’ll start muttering about the myriad problems affecting the industry, from illegal downloading to a precipitous drop in retail sales to...

Feature

John Vanderslice's Emerald City Offers Parable for Paranoiac Times

By J. Niimi

Published: October 17, 2007

Local singer-songwriter John Vanderslice has released a number of albums that refer to the Iraq War, either in individual song details or in overall concept. He's a natural storyteller who crafts...

Sucka Free City

C.W. Obvious Discovers Bums in S.F.

Published: October 17, 2007

The rancid odor of Old Spice and caked-on sweat nearly overcomes me as I survey the rotting landscape of greasy McDonald's wrappers, shattered Old English bottles, a smattering of syringes, and,...

Sucka Free City

Jon Carroll's Cat Wishes She Was Ann Coulter's Cat

Published: October 17, 2007

My name is Bucket Carroll, but you may better know me as Jon Carroll's cat. "Oh," you're thinking, "that kindly old lefty who writes columns in the back of Datebook about the World's Most Perfect...

Sucka Free City

Chron Watch -- What's Not Working -- SF Chronicle

Published: October 17, 2007

Sucka Free Chronicle Watch -- Working for better Bay Area media San Francisco Chronicle: In the early 1950s, the Chronicle 's circulation was lagging well behind its local competitors....

Letters

Vice Hotel Letters Say City Corruption Boooooooring

Published: October 17, 2007

Oh No SRO Cash not care: There were many things left out of your article ["The Vice Hotel," Oct. 10] regarding the conditions at the Mission Hotel located at 520 South Van Ness. One...

Music

Berkeley's The Pack Mellows Hyphy into "Based"

By Tamara Palmer

Published: October 17, 2007

Berkeley's the Pack reject the notion that they are a hyphy group. Instead, they claim to have created a new genre called based. "Based music is really just feel-good music," says the Pack's...

Reviewed

Liars

Liars(Mute)

By Andy Beta

Published: October 17, 2007

The itinerant trio of Angus Andrew, Aaron Hemphill, and Julian Gross — collectively known as Liars — has always embraced the music of wherever the band's home base happened to be at...

Music

Make Some Noise

By Jennifer Maerz

Published: October 17, 2007

If you walked into the music editor's office at the SF Weekly, you'd think a No-Doz-popping teenager was in charge of the decor. Stacks of CDs covered in Post-Its threaten to topple over from...

Reviewed

Two Gallants

Two Gallants (Saddle Creek)

By Evan James

Published: October 17, 2007

Local blues-folk-Americana-indie-rock darlings Two Gallants courted some major drama last year, reappropriating an old slave song and getting Tasered by the police in Texas. This trend continues...

Music

SF Weekly Music Awards 2007 Program

Published: October 17, 2007

PERFORMERS Brass Mafia As part of San Francisco's Jazz Mafia collective, Brass Mafia brings a unique, improvisation-heavy vibe to its performances. With an emphasis on horns —...

Music

Singer-Songwriter Joe Henry Captures Civilians at GAMH

By John Payne

Published: October 17, 2007

Singer-songwriter Joe Henry — the literate purveyor of a kind of folk-imbued, smokily jazzified, contemporary "adult music" that in a far better world would reside at the top of the pop...

Reviewed

The Go! Team

Proof of Youth (Sub Pop)

By Eric Davidson

Published: October 17, 2007

Proof of Youth is the best record of the year. First there's the grabby opener, "Grip Like a Vice," that takes this Brit band's J.J. Fad fixation and explodes it with massive multi­tracked...

Music

Tenor Sax Player Pharoah Sanders Lives Large at SF Jazz Fest

By Andy Beta

Published: October 17, 2007

"Trane was the father, Pharoah was the son, I was the Holy Ghost," tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler said in the mid-'60s. He was speaking of the free-jazz sax hierarchy headed by John Coltrane and...

Reviewed

will.i.am

Songs About Girls(will.i.am Music Group/Interscope)

By Ben Westhoff

Published: October 17, 2007

Derivative, repetitive, insipid, insincere, and pandering, Songs About Girls also has the worst insert booklet in recent memory — seven pages of will.i.am mugging in a checkered suit....

Let's Get Killed

Bang Camaro Makes You Pay for Karaoke Metal

By Jennifer Maerz

Published: October 17, 2007

If, as a kid, you ever kinked your neck rockin' out to hair metal, recall for a moment that initial infatuation with unabashed testosterock. There you were, staring at your preteen reflection,...

Reviewed

Fiery Furnaces

Widow City (Thrill Jockey)

By Andy Beta

Published: October 17, 2007

Matthew Friedberger, the songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and chops-abuser of New York sibling duo Fiery Furnaces, recently revealed to the Village Voice that he writes four to eight songs a...