Oh, maybe you didn’t see it on pitchfork, gorilla vs bear or rcrdlbl but Girls have a seven inch coming out on True Panther Sounds

So check this out, even though I know you’ll all be at Thee Parkside for Club Feral with Hard Place, maybe you really want to get quantum and be at the Hotel Utah as well for the Girls seven inch release party with Softboiled Eggies (word on the street is that these guys are a real, unlike some other LA acts we’ve mentioned on this blog!!) and Primo. The trick is to not be observed and its possible you were at both — we’ll tell everybody you were.

Hard Place from LA
Wealthy Whore Entertainment
Schlitz Claiborne (Lane from Connie Fucking Francis’s new band)
Frisco Dykes Frisco Dykes (also touring!)

Dance Party w/ DJ Vinyl Abuser

When it comes to San Francisco, we don’t know how lucky we are to have so many good bands. Here’s our attempt to list the top 20 movers & shakers in the SF Bay Area music scene! Hey we’re modest so we’ll put ourselves in at #20 although I must point out that this is just a list, and the numeric order denotes NOTHING!

#20. World Famous In San Francisco – In a little over a year WFNSF has launched a blog, label and hopefully made a lot of you laugh! Recently hooking up with Revolver for distribution and currently poised to release Mon Cousin Belge’s debut record Quelle Horreur, the upcoming year will be an interesting one with singles by Passionistas, Bridez, Hard Place & more!

#19. Don Baird – Don spins (SF Eagle) all the latest and greatest records around town and also has one of the best & longest running columns (Jessica Dubroff anybody???) in SF. No blog bullshit for Don, he’s legit in print. check it out:
Beat This

#18. West Add Radio – the best radio station? It sometimes is! Help them get a new transmitter. WAR 93.7fm is a volunteer run community radio station broadcasting on the FM dial 24/7 out of San Francisco. WAR 93.7fm receives no money for advertisements. check out the events section for monthly benefit gigs….

WAR 93.7

#17. TransAm – The Club! Bringing the best rock bands together with the gay scene. And Don’t The Kids Just Love it!

TransAm

#16. SMiLe – Neil Martinson has been incredibly supportive of the SF music scene. We LOVE Neil! His legendary club Smile has been in action since 2001 and we hope it never stops. Many bands have been lucky enough to book their debut at the Monday night Smile while the Friday night Smile showcases some of the most exciting rock from the Bay Area & beyond. And hey, there’s no link! Neil doesn’t use the internet! We love him for that, and he sometimes wears a cape!

#15. Antenna Farm – the past year has been amazing for this DIY indie label. Hugely successful releases from Sugar & Gold, The Botticellis and the re-release of Bart Davenports OOP debut have proved that this label is going strong, how do they do it? Running a label is soooo expensive…

Antenna Farm

#14. The OhSees – John Dwyer. (aka The Oh Sees, Thee Oh Sees and formerly OCS, Orange County Sound, Orinoka Crash Suite) began as a way for John Dwyer (of Coachwhips, Pink and Brown, Landed, Yikes, Burmese, The Hospitals, etc.) to release his instrumental, experimental home recordings. However, over the course of 7 albums it has evolved into a full band that is not surprisingly one of his best! We really like this band, John Dwyer rocks.

ohsees

#13. The Bay Bridged – getting your band or show listed on this Bay Area blog guarantees exposure. Once bands clamoured to get listed in the SF Bay Guardian or SF Weekly, now it’s all about The Bay Bridged. Now they sometimes even link to World Famous In San Francisco. How cool is that!

The Bay Bridged

#12 Revolver – Midheaven Mailorder. Most folks don’t realize how lucky we are to have a fantastic local independent music distributor! Check out their podcasts.

Revolver Distribution

#11 Girls – On the SF scene for just about one year (and risen out of the ashes of the excellent Curls) Girls is the “IT” band of 2008, and with good reason. Their myspace page garnered rave reviews in Pitchfork. They’re about to embark on a tour (sure to wow crowds in NY and Paris! Chris and JR, currently rehearsing with their band. Girls debut 7″ is out soon on True Panther Sounds. Chris & JR know what they want when it comes to THAT sound!

Girls

#10 SF Eagle – Thursday Nite Live
Having hosted such bands as Times New Viking, the OhSees, and the Avengers, this legendary leather bar is the place to be on Thursday nights. Doug Hilsinger is the man mainly responsible, but the entire crew over there rules. DJ Andy we love you too!

SF Eagle

#9 Randy Walker – Carletta Sue Kay and Mon Cousin Belge, we never seem to see Randy Walker walking about whenever there is a CSK or MCB show. WTF? For years Randy was known as the best singer in town, now he’s being recognized for his songs and lyrics. Combined with constant touring via Carletta and the resurrection of the Belge, make room for another mysterious Mr. Walker.

#8 Cole Palme – Founding member of the legendary Factrix. Still one of the most loved and respected musicians in this town with fans clamoring to gain access to recordings of his . Last time we talked to Cole he was working on something new, we keep our fingers crossed it comes out soon!

#7 Passionistas -video flyers, charisma up the ass, great songs, and a new single recorded by JR from Girls, out soon on World Famous In San Francisco. For a brief time last year, it almost seemed like God’s Boat might sink. Andrew was thinking of quitting, no drummer, and then manager Will (New & Used) was at a crossroads. Thank goodness Andrew gave it the good ol’ college try and is now contributing songs. Oh yeah, they found the perfect drummer. Tina rocks.

Passionistas

#6 Bridez – Currently on tour with Gravy Train, one of the best things to hit the scene this year, or any year for that matter! A fantastic new record out on Gifted Children Records this band also brings it live. Wildly exciting! A dirty good time.

Bridez!

This is taking too long! I give up…

here’s the Top 5, you figure out why they are the TOP 5….if you’re still reading this you just might need your head examined.

#5 Sam Flax Keener – Sam’s band played with the Foxx at the Hemlock last year and people are still gushing about it. This is the most mysterious band in the world. Even Sam’s friends think it is a mystery. Come out and play SAM!!

#4 The Vortex Room

#3 Tubesteak DJ Bus Station John

#2 Mission Creek Music Festival

#1 Tie!!!!! Apache (the band) and Davey! Davey goes to a lot of good shows. We saw him!

Our pal Francesco, a.k.a. Warbear, the hottest bear of all time. And trust me, I am not into The Bears. This man, Francesco, is a Roman God… He foin grrrrl! …HE FOIN!!! And he is about to throw the final celebration for his party Phag Off in September. But it’s in Rome, so all you SF and LA faggots probably won’t make it. Emile sends his regards.

This from their website;

Phag Off deconstructs inner stereotypes of gay communities: “Another sexuality is possible” Phag Off has the form of a monthly bacchanal party. A dirty mail-art-like newsletter is the track to follow; the party extreme contents are driven by: Politically incorrect vjing with d.i.y. queer porno and freeware open source video software; Queer Music promotion – being it queer djing with a special focus on information freedom through plagiarism, bootlegs, mash ups or/and queer bands, live sets; Fanzines, Exhibitions; Spoken words and performances; Independent video presentations; Pink rallies; Partecipation to queer related festival and conferences.

check out this mix by my hairy Italian lover Francesco, my Jupiter, my Mars, my Mercury!

http://www.flxer.net/SCUMTAPE4.mp3

http://www.phagoff.org/

Fuck gay pride and fuck gay shame!

What about San Francisco Pride? And what about San Francisco Shame? Yesterday, at our 38th Annual Gay Pride Celebration, some friends of ours who came up from Los Angeles to take part in the festivities, to spend their hard earned dough on nine-dollar beers and five-dollar corn dogs, attended a party at The Phoenix Hotel. The oh so still trying desperately to be trendy Phoenix Hotel. Well, after having paid THIRTY GREEDY DOLLARS EACH, to attend this “exclusive” party, that’s NINETY dollars collectively, and no sooner had they entered these faux-hipster digs that suddenly they were all immediately and not so kindly removed from the premises by no less than FIVE ham fisted thugs with protracted brows, without cause or reason, whatsoever!

This from the Phoenix Website;

How many hotels can claim that Keanu Reeves, Joan Jett, Vincent Gallo and Little Richard have graced their mattresses (no, silly, not all at the same time!)? How many hotels are the crash pad and launching pad for world-renowned bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Psychedelic Furs and Pearl Jam; and up-and-comers like The Killers, Bloc Party and The Shins? With so much creative energy swirling around you never know who might be strumming a guitar, posing for a photo shoot or just kicking back by the pool.

I suppose I would seem naïve to not expect such vulgar displays of violent idiocy coming from a hotel, which boasts the likes of Keanu Reeves and The Red Hot Shitty Peppers to hock their wares online!

This is the kind of stupidity that shames this beautiful city of ours and makes visiting tourists from say…Helsinki…say to themselves, “ah…on second thought, maybe we should just have our holidays in Oslo or Stockholm.”

I mean honestly, these friends of ours? Not burning man burnouts, not pee in the pool pugilists from Petaluma, not loud, hardly security risks! Unless of course management at The Phoenix Hotel finds kind, sweet and genuinely interesting people threatening.

And this from Rolling Stone Magazine;
“The Phoenix Hotel has fast become the hotel of choice for the rock community, with a fancy swimming pool, jungle sounds piped into the courtyard…this could be your ticket to hanging poolside with the likes of Radiohead or Sonic Youth…”

All the fancy and no doubt expensive ads in the world, all the cheesy quotes from boring magazines are never going to exonerate your repugnant actions yesterday. Perhaps we here at World Famous in San Francisco should contact the corporate entity, Joie de Vivres Hotels, that owns you, and demand an apology. It is shit like this that makes San Francisco, in the words of my friend Mark who’s from Halifax, Nova Scotia say, “San Francisco is so…provincial.

Ok, surprise! Arthur is having financial issues again. I know its more of an LA thing than an SF thing but they always seem more SF at heart, right?

Anyway, while I’m presonally never 100% into what they’re covering I’m definitely on their side. I donated, maybe you want to too?

In case you somehow missed it in the press, the latest dispatch from Emile:

Bon Soir Madames et Monsieurs!

Je suis Emile.

I will be in town one night only, just in from Jakarta, this coming
Saturday night at Thee Parkside, 28 June. I will be in performing with
my newly formed band. We had to get rid of a “little” dead wait…so
we fired our fat drummer! But we are gluttons for the punishments so
Mademoiselle Cote will be flying in from that glamorous
downtown…err…Louisville…err…kentucky…and joining in on with
fun with her very special, patented brand of…err…humor and
hammering out the pure gold faggot beats as the new Sodom celebrates
the pride of the homosexuals.

Cum and let me be inside you!!!

in loving…

emile

6/28/08 10 PM $6
@ Thee Parkside
1600 17th Street @ Wisconsin
San Francisco, CA
Mon Cousin Belge
Ice Cream Socialites
The Caldonias

Be sure to come, this is gonna be something. Emile hasn’t been able to perform in the US for over a year and a half (damn the department of homeland security!!). Its been worth the wait though, he’s bringing with him limited pre-release quantities of MCBs debut album Quelle Horreur. Mon Dieu!

These aren’t my favorite photos but I took ‘em and I posted ‘em to flickr so I guess now you gotta look at ‘em.

I was all about The Fresh & Onlys before I saw them. Then I saw ‘em. I dunno if all the reverb impaired my senses or if it was some kind of triggered memory from the last time I was at the Rickshaw Stop, but when they all burst into dance for the end number I decided I might not need to follow them too closely.

Sic Alps weren’t extra good like I thought they were going to be, but they were extra lovable. As tempers flared over equipment failures they endeared themselves to me with every smashed guitar, defective cord thrown into the audince, knocked over microphone, and breath of fresh air grabbed outside. When the equiment cooperated though, all right!

Singer was last and good enough. All of the advanced press was accurate — lots of US Maple moves were copped. The last song was the best. I remember thinking the word pummeling. Thats a trick US Maple never pulled off and probably why I thought it was the best of the bunch.

When I was in Tennessee, visiting, my mom and I were totally grooving to Sta Prest and I’ve been meaning to make them the myspace of the week since. And so now they are.

Looking like the B52s, sounding like the Au Pairs by way of New Zealand (that organ!) as played by Stephen Pastel, these guys and gals had records on Outpunk Records and Kill Rock Stars. They were totally at the front of the queercore scene which, as i remember it (being that i was a totally faggy teenager), was a big deal and is probably why they have a Wikipedia entry from which I am now going to gratuitously quote:

The band first made its appearance on the queercore record label Outpunk Records, on its compilation Outpunk Dance Party. Soon afterwards they released their first EP, Vespa Sex, also on Outpunk. Like other bands influenced by the nascent Riot Grrrl scene in Olympia, Washington, New York No Wave, and European post-punk, core members of Sta-Prest (Aloofah, Dudley Manlove, and Professor Swish) adopted pseudonyms, swapped instruments between songs, and practiced a consensus-based approach to song composition. A revolving membership included Tetley, Twi Tybat, Clutch-y-Spun, and Scout.

In 1997. the band appeared in performance in the seminal documentary film She’s Real, Worse Than Queer by Lucy Thane.

In 2002, Aloofah, a.k.a. Iraya Robles and Dudley Manlove, a.k.a. Gary Fembot, appeared in Maximum Rocknroll’s “Queer Punk” issue, featured in a discussion with other queer-identified musicians Martin Sorrondeguy of both Los Crudos and Limp Wrist and Aaron Detroit of The Little Deaths.

The coolest thing about this band though is that, unlike many of their peers, they still actually sound pretty good today which is why they’re the myspace of the week. Check it out!

http://www.myspace.com/staprest

He is the man of men! He is the man of men magnets! look into those eyes. you want to move to Pacifica with him and massage his aching shins when he’s come home from a nice bike ride through the surrounding hills. You want to stroke his thick man muscles and caress his cyclist thighs! You can scarcely contain yourself! He will only destroy you in the end. Don’t you understand? Don’t you understand!!!