Mesh Magazine

The legendary Jonathan Richman (ex-Modern Lovers) performs with Liz Ross on Wednesday, December 6, 2006 at the Great American Music Hall at 8PM. Tickets are $15 and the show is all ages. Here’s an interview with Jonathan done by Chuck Prophet that we ran earlier this summer.

Talking FenderTrash with Jo Jo
Chuck Prophet talks to Jonathan Richman about the legendary guitar.
By Chuck Prophet. Photo by Billy Douglas.

Chuck Prophet, Mark Kozlek, Tarnation and Jonathan Richman (speaking only) will be performing Saturday, June 3 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco in a benefit for the West Memphis Three defense fund. A Fender Stratocaster will be auctioned off. The guitar was hand picked by Chuck and Jonathan.
  
“Like gasoline in the sand, Fender Stratocaster/Like a motorcycle at a hotdog stand/Oh and the sound so thin it’s barely there/Like a bitchy girl who just don’t care/Fender Stratocaster, well there’s something about that sound.” –Jonathan Richman
 
I was in a creative slump. Not sure where I got the idea but it hit me that the answer to all my woes could be a new guitar. After playing the same Telecaster since the ‘80s, I thought switching to a Stratocaster might be the sea change I needed. It’s pretty radical; I know it.
 
Like a lot of sensitive people, guitar shops tend to overwhelm me and I can short out pretty fast, so I decided to bring an expert consultant to help me through the experience. Who better than the man who wrote the song “Fender Stratocaster,” Jonathan Richman.
(more…)

Take Root Records is a new label with a small (one band) roster, but ambitious plans and a recording studio (Take Root Recording) that has already recorded the likes of Ludicra, Le Plebe, The Black Furies and Tim Bluhm. The label’s initial signing is Bellavista, which features members of Vue (Sub Pop). The band creates lush, fuzzed-out songs with pounding drums and a sound so large, it defies the fact that the band is a trio.

Bellavista is headlining Take Root Records’ launch party Thursday, December 13th at The Rickshaw Stop, with Immigrant (ex-Evening), who recently toured the West Coast with The Killers, plus DJs Bertie (Blow Up), Brian (Scissors for Lefty) and Baby Ryan. The show is only $5.
Take a listen to the tom-heavy “River of Lust” by Bellavista.

Bella Vista River of Lust MP3

The title of Casey Logan’s upcoming show “I Believe In the Power Absurd” captures the artist’s work perfectly. Many of his pieces look like they might easily fit in at a science fair in another dimension. Logan takes globes and cuts them up, includes parallel plastic oceans on his piece “What Ever Happened To That Planet With Perpendicular Gravitational Oceans?”, puts whirlpools inside of cardboard boxes, and in this show at the Little Tree Gallery (3412 22nd Street @ Guerrero), “in a featured sound sculpture, Mr. Logan takes a world globe, cuts it in half, and fills each interior void with a speaker. The two earth-speakers emit natural phenomenon sounds that fill the gallery” according to the press release. The show opens this Saturday and runs through December 31st.

Mesh’s Joy Lian (Confessions of a Restaurant Whore)is performing in “Convenience”, a musical that was just extended six weeks at the New Conservatory Theatre Center (25 Van Ness near Market). It’s getting great reviews like this one: “CONVENIENCE at New Conservatory Theatre Company…hits all the right notes…profoundly delightful…delicate and timely…a heartfelt, sassy, and fun original score…a constant ride of laughs and sentiment…addictive tunes…finely structured…breath-taking and amiable music sprinkled with delicious style…terribly catchy…”- Eugene Lovendusky – BroadwayWorld.com

Below, check out Joy’s update, more reviews and how to get tickets. (more…)

Live Forever
Dub legend Lee Scratch Perry takes care of his lightning.
By Max Sidman
Photo by Drew Goren

It’s difficult to pen meaningful words about a legend. What is there to say that hasn’t been said before? At 70 years old, Lee Scratch Perry is the kind of artist whose music and pedigree speak volumes. With a career that spans nearly 50 years and began as an engineer—he cut his first album in 1959— Perry, born Rainford Hugh Perry, was involved in the seminal Studio One and Black Ark labels, and has been a present and influential character through the careers of artists like Bob Marley and The Wailers, Junior Byles, The Heptones and many, many more.

Now a resident of Switzerland with his wife and children, Perry still records and plays music, and still performs live frequently throughout Europe, the U.K. and the U.S. He won a Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 2003 for Jamaican E.T. and with a new release to his credit every two or three years, the master is showing no signs of slowing down. (more…)

I saw this on SF Party Party and just may have to nerd-out and head down to the Mission Branch Library (300 Bartlett @ 24th Street) tonight for a lecture on the history of the Mission District by Bernadette C. Hooper, author of San Francisco’s Mission District.

Kid Koala
Your Mom’s Favorite DJ
Ninja Tune

Canada’s best musical export has got to be Kid Koala. Since he first wowed fans with the bootleg classic Scratch-Cratch-Ratch-Atch, he’s not only showcased his unique musical style, but he’s also been able to incorporate his visual art and affinity for craftiness into his projects via innovative package design and music/book companion projects. But Your Mom’s Favorite DJ is a return to older Koala styles—the focus is the album itself, with Koala’s unique blend of funk and jazz and soul with myriad vocal samples and turntable oddity to create whimsical, funky pastiches of sound and music. In some cases, the tracks tell little stories and in some cases they make no sense at all, but through it all, fun is the central thread of continuity.
–Max Sidman

Coolwavessf.com is presenting the Cool Waves Festival on December 8th & 9th, downtown at the House of Shields. For those of you who haven’t checked out the Cool Waves site, they feature news, a calendar and message board all related to Bay Area shoegazer and “dream popper” bands like Loquat, The Love X Nowhere, Estereo and Empty Rooms. On the bill the Friday, the 8th are Ellul, One Becomes One Hundred and headliners Excuses for Skipping, a self-described whimsical rock band who have been churning out catchy, melodic, indie pop for the past several years. On the bill the next night are Halcyon High, Cupids and Oceans of Fire. The events are each only $5 and 21+.
Listen to “Gravity” by Excuses for Skipping.

Technorati Tags: Shoegazer, Dream Pop, San Francisco, Cool Waves Festival, House of Shields

By Daniel Taylor. Illustration by Clifford Greenwood.

Here’s the story. There is nothing you could possibly ever say that I could possibly ever care about. You’re not appealing to me in the least. I don’t want to chat with you online. I don’t want to add you as my friend. I don’t want to see if I can get your band a show in my town on either March 24th or 25th. I don’t want to come to your reception at Hipster Coffee Shop with Two-Buck Chuck and DJ WhiteKidWhoGotDecksForChristmas spinning totally ironic ‘90s hip-hip songs to look at shit that you traced out of an old Juxtapoz. You are not part of a movement. Your art fucking sucks.

Your blog is also a real piece of shit. No one cares about what you have to say. Period. Just because you read a Dave Eggers book doesn’t mean your life is worth fucking documenting. He made most of that shit up and it still wasn’t even that great. Your life is not tragic, it’s not exciting, it’s just ordinary and pathetic. No one wants to read about it, and especially not have to look at pictures of it. Your friends all look like assholes in vintage/mod/emo/indie eBay clothes and your girlfriend is probably the most pathetic of them all. Sorry if you think she’s totally the hottest girl in your little scene of trendy dive bar scumfucks, but she looks like the chic from Morningwood without the fat girl from Facts of Life cuteness. She needs to take those blanket ponchos back to Urban Outfitters and clean up her act. No one needs to look at 34 photos of her at the Myspace angle trying to look mysterious. She’s looks like every other girl at the Pitchfork Band of the Month rock concert except maybe a little stupider. You should wake up and smell the coffee. You will never have a hot girlfriend. No matter what. (more…)

Chuck Gonzalez, ex-Lines in Analog Sound and sometimes Mesh contributor, performs this Friday, December 1st at The Make-Out Room with Aim Low Kid. At this early show, Chuck will be performing songs off his new release, You Are On My Radar, recorded by Tim Bluhm of The Mother Hips. The show is $6 and 21+.

Listen to “Colours” by Chuck Gonzalez.

Technorati Tags: Chuck Gonzalez, Make-Out Room, San Francisco