Tag: live music

Daily Dose: Cat Stevens, “Tell ‘Em I’m Gone”

Rarely do iconic artists release weighty, relevant new music decades into their careers yet Cat Stevens, also known as Yusef Islam, has done just that with Tell ‘Em I’m Gone. Perhaps this is because the angst, the want for change so evocative of the 1960s is still a very real thing, and Cat Stevens was a pivotol voice of that generation. Or maybe the authenticity of Yusef Islam’s search for the Self through his guitar strikes a chord with us, his audience.  Whatever the reason, this troubador for peace is performing at the Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco on December 12th. Give yourself the gift of a lifetime, and see the man in person.

Thick Red Wine :: Homesick Homecoming

Mike Wojciechwoski plays DNA Lounge this Friday, 8/29/14, under the moniker THICK RED WINE with Halcyonnaire, Mild Meddle, and Portland’s The Weather Machine.

It’s a long holiday weekend. Many people are heading out of town to camp, attend weddings, or maybe they’ve already been raptured to the Playa. For those of us happy to stay in The City, might I suggest kicking off the Labor Day weekend by listening to the labors of THICK RED WINE at DNA Lounge tomorrow night?

The brainchild of San Francisco’s Mike Wojciechowski, THICK RED WINE pairs the intensity of adolescence with the reflection of grown-ass adulthood.  Taken at face value, the music is utterly enjoyable with its simple, repetitious chords and middle school nostalgia pushed through gritty, rambling vocals. As with most things in life, however, you get what you put into it and investing in the THICK RED WINE catalog unearths a depth that can be glossed over if you’re impatient. Some of my favorite moments from Wojciechowski’s last album, Never Wanted To Be Cool, come back to back with “If I Had a Shotgun” and “Never Find the Time” which speak to our generation’s paralysis in the face of seemingly limitless options that are tempered by fewer opportunities. We are eager, we are earnest and we just can’t seem to get over.

I feel this intimately, and Thomas Wolfe’s words “you can’t go home again” often rattle around my brain. Thankfully, THICK RED WINE provides an antidote to the depression Wolfe can trigger. No, we can’t go home again…but we can sure as hell remember it fondly, and we’ll always have our friends. In the last song on Never Wanted To Be Cool, Wojciechowski drops an impressive Marquis de Sade reference (brilliant) and provides a fantastic summary of his music: “I guess the moral to the story is you can’t hope to explain just what it means to be human or grow up or be sane…So I steal pennies from the dirty fountains of my checkered youth, hopin’ someday all these words I write will mean something to you.”

If this last album is any indication, I expect his forthcoming EP–Homesick–will mean much to me (this is, after all, a blog based on nostalgia), and I’m excited to announce Wojciechowski has agreed to be part of the Nostos Algos oral history project, Soundbyte. Tomorrow’s official release of “Marathon”, his first Homesick song, is hosted by Mutiny Radio and is a Bourgeois Productions joint. I will be there, and I will be in it to win it.

 

A Phono del Sol Playlist

Couldn’t make the Bay Bridge + Tiny Telephone production Phono del Sol today? Not to worry, Nostos Algos has you covered. Here are some festival favorites for you to view in the pantsless privacy of your apartment, so crack that craft brew, microvave those Chinese leftovers and let this visual playlist be your Saturday highlight.

Wye Oak, an everlasting gobstopper-esque addicition.

Much love for the throwback sound of San Francisco State University alum, Nick Waterhouse.

The Tambo Rays, purveyors of one of the best damn shows I’ve seen all year.

Always a woman of her own means, the ever-ready Thao & The Get Down Stay Down.

Tony Molina. Tony (freaking) Molina.

Must See: Jesus Sons

With their first full-length album in tow, Jesus Sons returns to San Francisco at Brick & Mortar this Friday.
With their first full-length album in tow, Jesus Sons returns to San Francisco at Brick & Mortar this Friday.

If you love good old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll as much as this little lady, then mark your calendars: Jesus Sons plays Brick & Mortar Music Hall on Friday, June 13. Already have plans? Cancel them.

Originally formed in San Francisco, the band is fronted by Brandon Wurtz (former bassist of the Spyrals) who relocated to Los Angeles with his new band after his employer–Charlie’s Place, an SF motorcycle shop–headed for greener pastures in the southern part of the state. While this could make him persona non grata to many Bay Area die hards, he explained the move in an interivew with LA Canvas as a reaction to “the SF government and the pirates” who have radically changed the fabric of our fair city. I’m thinking not many in our musical community would argue with that assessment of the Tech Boom, but this is fodder for a separate article (and something I could talk about for days).

While many bands have embraced a vintage 60’s psych-garage sound, Brandon and the boys are the real deal–not merely emulating motorcycle culture for the coolness of it all, but instilling their music with the motorcylce sludge that pumps through their veins. Their addictive first full-length album, eponymously named, was recorded at Fuzz City in Oakland on glorious 1/4 inch reel to reel tape. The album is rowdy, the music muscular yet spiritual like a prayer thrust into the wind pumped out of a carburetor–textured with grit, and the sweet sweat of the blues.

As much as this San Franciscan is loathe to admit it, Los Angeles–with its dirty desert heat, and hundreds of paved miles–may be an ideal fit for these American journeymen. After all, Rock ‘n’ roll hungers for the heat. Luckily the highway brought them home for one more show.

 

 

 

Cover Lover: “Young Hearts Run Free”

I think everyone loves a good cover song. Perhaps it’s the joy in knowing and citing the original, or the excitement of seeing something in a new light. Either way, when an artist covers a song well, he/she makes it his/her own, transforms it, and brings something fresh to the forefront. Waters is an artist who has found his voice, which is no small feat, and he uses it to transform a song that I first became familiar with courtesy of Baz Luhrmann and his soundtrack for Romeo + Juliet. Above you’ll find the Waters version of “Young Hearts Run Free” and below you will find Kym Mazelle’s version. You can also see Waters, along with Farallons and Mornings, at Brick & Mortar Music Hall tonight for a mere $6; highly recommended.