Results tagged “punk”

FILM: Punk at the library? Who would've thought. As part of their ongoing exhibit, Punk Passage: San Francisco First Wave Punk 1977-1981, the SF Public Library will screen three films celebrating San Francisco's legendary early punk scene: Louder, Faster, Shorter, Deaf/Punk, and Insect Lounge Sally RemiX 1978. An audience Q & A with filmmaker Mindy Bagdon and photographer Ruby Ray will follow the screening.

Hailing from Indianapolis, old-school punk band Zero Boys will be making their only appearance on the West Coast this weekend with the re-release of their classic album Vicious Circle. When the album was first released in 1982, at the personal invitation of Jello Biafra, the band came to the West Coast to open for Minor Threat and the Dead Kennedys. In retrospect, historians marked this occasion as the moment when hard core became a national movement, and no longer isolated on the coasts and major cities. From 1979 to 1983, Zero Boys were "the finest hardcore blitz of the Midwest." Since their break-up in 1984, Zero Boys have reunited sporadically in recent years to give loyal fans their Vicious Circle fix.

Cramps frontman Lux Interior (né Erick Purkhiser) died today due to a pre-existing heart condition. He was 52. According to Billboard, "The Cramps formed in 1976 and were part of the now legendary downtown New York punk scene ... [and] has been credited as an influence by bands like the White Stripes and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion." Since your editor doesn't listen to punk, we'll let you mourn for him in the comments. But we do know the Cramps played in SF on many a New Year's Eve (or was it Halloween?), so we're sure many of you will be sad to see their name no longer gracing local marquees.

Tonight: The Thorns Of Life will play a show at 924 Gilman in Berkeley.

A band at a venue, simple as that. And so much more than that.

Blake Schwarzenbach was the front guy for Jawbreaker, a band that defined a lot of the early 90s for many a Bay Area punk. The band's sound was one of bad decisions, sleeping in strange places, getting your heart smashed that first time, withering recriminations, and trying to catch that last BART towards home. It was late night in The Mission, walking home after midnight in bad weather, illicit East Bay rooftop parties, early spring honeysuckles and hand-written notes. The band's songs cut deeper into the listener as years lengthen.

Jawbreaker broke up. The music kept spreading. Blake had another band. They were poppier-ish (there were keyboards involved) and Blake's skill with words shone again. Then back to college/teaching he went. Now he's back in music with a veteran-staffed three piece band making punchy tunes. Old punks all around the Bay are shuddering under their faded tattoos in sheer anticipation of seeing/hearing this new iteration of Blake.

"I wanna remind you that [today] is the first of the month and it's customary to say "rabbit, rabbit" before you say anything else. Think about that, write yourself a note. Alright, have a nice time."

How 'bout some high-quality formerly-local punk rock to start 2009 off with? Yes.

Ahh, Jawbreaker; now and forever the sound of The Mission...

The hilarious Eugene Mirman and Jon Benjamin are hosting SF Sketchfest's "Fresh Faces of Comedy" show on Sunday night at Mezzanine that we can't wait to check out. There will also be a short film contest with Jon Lehr of TBS's 10 Items or Less (he was also Geico's Caveman, whom he looks nothing like, BTW), which had us chuckling aloud the other night. "Five finalists will have their grocery-store themed films showcased and the winner, as determined by the SF Sketchfest founders and Sony Television executives, will receive a cash prize."

We've had a couple of chances to catch Perfect Machines live over the past few months. What can we say, other than that they rock in that super-fun NOFX-meets-Misfits supercharged punk way. They're throwing a CD release party tomorrow at 111 Minna - copies of the album are free with the $10 cover, along with Jameson shots - and we decided to take the opportunity to ask them a few questions.

-- Colors of Christmas: Oh yeah. You know you want to hear this KOIT-ish night of soulful holiday tunes live at Davies, right? Well, we sure do. Peabo Bryson, Oleta Adams, Ben Vereen, and Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. croon R&B-tinged holiday classics and modern hits starting at 8 p.m. at Davies Symphony Hall; $20-$80.

San Francisco's musical offerings were bountiful Wednesday night ranging from Film School to Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings to The Thermals. It seems, though, that most of you made the correct choice: Vampire Weekend. Now we don't doubt that the other shows weren't amazing -- we were pretty miffed that there were so many choices on one night -- but clearly if you are anybody then you were wearing a blue pin-striped shirt, dark...

-- "Punk Rock Karaoke": Damnit all to hell. We can't believe that we have to miss this: members of the Adolescents, Bad Religion, and NOFX perform live while "singers" drunkenly slur along, karaoke-style. But you shouldn't miss it! Starts tonight at 9 p.m. at 111 Minna Gallery; $10.

-- Cinewhores Present Midnight Cowboy (1970): Although tame by today's smut-filled standards -- oh, you heard right! -- Midnight Cowboy has the distinction of being the only X-rated film to have ever snagged the Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The film -- about the friendship between Joe, a rookie New York City hustler, and Ratso, a terminally-ill New Yorker -- is prefaced by a reading by queer author Kirk Read. (Oh, and Sylvia Miles is simply fucking awesome in Midnight Cowboy.) Doors open at 6:30 p.m. at ATA; $5-$20 (all donations go to benefiting the St. James Infirmary.)

While it's no new thing for rock bands to come out with their own movies, they've definitely gotten more dramatic. Two films (that couldn't be on more opposite ends of the cinematic concert-film spectrum, if you ask us) are showing in the next two weeks: Sigur Rós' Heima (Icelandic for "Home" or "Homeland") and Daft Punk's Electroma. While Heima is more your traditional rockumentary (see band play. See band play in nice locations.), Electroma is about (according to imdb) "the history of two robots, the members of Daft Punk, on their quest to become human." Well then.

Writer, lead singer, guitarist, and founder of J-Church, Lance Hahn, passed away due to kidney disease complications on Saturday. He was 40.

coarse language = a wee bit NSFW

-- Daft Punk's Electroma: Pinocchio-ish road movie about two robots -- played by Daft Punk members Peter Hurteau and Michael Reich -- and their quest to become human. Riot In Belgium, the Bang Gang DJs, Dandi Wind, and Richie Panic & Jefrodisiac perform tonight before and after the movie. Doors open at 7 p.m. at Mezzanine, 444 Jesse (at Mint); free with RSVP at going.com. -- Justice League Wiffle Ball Game: According to Laughing...

Just passing along the latest news on Roisin Isner, the 17-year-old drummer hit by a firecracker in Dolores Park on July 4.

We found it pretty interesting that the L.A. Times saw fit to publish a feature story examining teh Haight, complete with quotes from actor Peter Coyote, a Marin Resident. (Leave it to the LaLa Times to turn to an actor for quotes . . . ).

Before you bike to work on Thursday, brush up on your inner urban cyclist with a free bike clinic with tips on navigating through the city -- not to mention step-by-step instructions on how to fix a flat. Get there by 7 for the workshop. REI San Francisco, 840 Brannan, SF.

A very sincere thank you to the reader who forwarded along this picture of former Mrs. Gavin Newsom Kimberly Guilfoyle with her baby boy Ronan Anthony Villency. All together: awwwwwww!

Droll NPR commentator (who was previously fired for cursing) Sandra Tsing Loh brings her one-woman show, "Mother On Fire," to the Women's Building tonight! For a 9 night run!

Cultural Learnings of Blogosphere for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of -Ist-a-verse

Our new favorite trivial pursuit is police radio codes and according to APCO (that's the Association of Public-Safety Communication Officials), 10-16 means "domestic trouble." So, to avoid any domestic trouble, we're heading on over to ATA (992 Valencia @ 21st) to check out the Free Form Film Festival program OUT2, a series of "outsider" shorts about the holidays. High kitsch factor alert! The screening will be followed by a performance by Sabreteeth, who will hyphenatedly overwhelm us in a good way with Metal-Punk-No-wave-Jazz-Funk-Noise-Junk. (8pm)

? She described it as "like a John Hughes movie, only punk rock" and said that she "laughed so hard during the concert scenes (she) pulled a stomach muscle."

and telling the guy who runs the Vans Warped Tour that he wanted to cover the scene "undercover." Unfortunately, about a month before the tour was set to begin, his band broke up. So what did he do? He sent out an email to all his friends, asking them if they'd pretend to be in a band with him.

When we heard children's book author Jarrett J. Krosoczka, author of , a story any of us who have trimmed our own bangs can relate to.

When we heard that the Golden Gloves were moving back up to San Francisco from the Cow Palace, we were all "sure, that sounds cool", but we didn't really get how awesome it was until we set foot in the Civic Center Friday night. Right away, we want to take our hats off to the entire organization for taking what was, as we said earlier, basically a friends and family event and making it into some fantastic sports entertainment.

Has everyone gotten into the holiday spirit, or are we all just hopped up on eggnog? Either way, there are some festive fetes, punk rock riots and buzzworthy delights coming to our neck o' the woods this week.

The San Jose Museum of Art plays host to the first major solo U.S. exhibit of work by Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara. Citing influences such as Disney and Punk Rock, Nara is best known for his unsettling cartoon-like children. Although they may fit the Japanese sense of kawaii, the direct gaze and sense of malice that is often present in Nara’s characters excludes them from fitting a Western definition of ‘cute’. The tilte of the show, “Nothing Ever Happens” is an apt reflection of the startling sense of ennui that permeates much of Nara’s art.