An upcoming movie based on an essay about the California punk scene and its connection to Asian restaurants in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Sacramento will star Awkwafina, and will probably be pretty fun.

Deadline is reporting that a film adaptation is in the works of Madeline Leung Coleman's piece “How Chinese Food Fueled the Rise of California Punk,” which was published by Topic back in June. It's coming from Topic Studios, and it seems likely it will focus mostly on the LA scene — where Coleman's piece begins with a narrative about Hong's Restaurant in DTLA, whose upstairs banquet hall was transformed into the legendary punk venue, the Hong Kong Cafe. There's also a bit about Madame Wong's, another L.A. venue, which continued hosting shows until 1987.

The legendary related example in San Francisco is the North Beach Filipino restaurant and nightclub Mabuhay Gardens, which itself became a popular punk venue that played host to shows by the Ramones, the Nuns, the Dead Kennedys, and Patti Smith. What began as a venue for Filipino celebrities transitioned into a full-time music venue after the popularity of promoter Jerry Paulsen's shows, which were originally only on Mondays and Tuesdays. Coleman's piece doesn't tell much about The Mab, though it does include some good photos — and chances are it may not figure much into the film adaptation.

Currently, the former Mab is a venue and nighclub at 443 Broadway called Fame.

We couldn’t ask for a better partner to help us bring this vibrant world to life than Awkwafina,” says EVP of Topic Studios Maria Zuckerman, speaking to Deadline. “Madeline’s article explores an unexpected connection and collaboration which gave rise to an essential and very punk moment.”

Both Hong Kong Cafe and Mabuhay Gardens gave over their spaces to punk promoters out of financial necessity. In the case of Hong's in LA, as Coleman explained, the scene in LA's Chinatown in the 1970s was pretty sad, and owner Bill Hong thought it was only practical to rent out space that he wasn't using upstairs from his main restaurant — and this meant that Chinese families were often dining downstairs while rowdy punk performances were happening above them. "Sometimes the ceiling would be shaking," said Christy Shigekawa, Bill Hong’s great-niece.

Shigekawa is at work on a documentary about Hong Kong Cafe, which only hosted punk shows from 1979 to 1981.

If you want to see more about Mabuhay Gardens, check out the 1978 concert film Louder, Faster, Shorter, by Mindaugis Bagdon, or read this brief history.

Photo: Wikimedia

Maybe you became aware of cult-favorite, proto-punk garage rock band the Seeds because of the Ramones 1993 cover of their hit “I Can’t Seem to Make You Mine.” Or maybe it was because of the Bangles’ 2000 cover of “Pushin’ Too Hard,” or Garbage, or Alex Chilton, or Yo La Tengo and Jon Spencer’s respective covers of “I Can’t Seem to Make You Mine.” Or maybe you heard heard that track as the background music in Episode 1 of Netflix’s Stranger Things in the scene entitled “Hopper arrives at work; talks with staff,” or maybe you discovered The Seeds through the 2014 documentary The Seeds: Pushin’ Too Hard in which Iggy Pop’s engagingly gushing compliments to the band can be seen in the trailer below.

Or maybe you’re an aging punk rocker who actually lived through the iconic Los Angeles sextet’s heyday. However it is you founds these Seeds, the band is back together — well, its surviving members, at least — for a blockbuster reunion show at the DNA Lounge Friday night. SFist caught up with The Seeds as we prepare to get our ribs bruised and our glasses smashed in the mosh pit of that show.

“We wanted to not be like anybody else,” Seeds drummer Don Boomer said of the band’s late 60s commercial peak. “That was a time of Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell ‘Teen Idol’ stuff. We didn’t want to be like that.”

What The Seeds were like was a huge influence on the next several generations of punk, pop, and superfuzz bigmuff grunge rock enthusiasts. While The Seeds were mostly a California phenomenon in their time, their sound germinated its way into the works of everyone from the Beach Boys to the Smashing Pumpkins. “Eddie Van Halen said that ‘Pushin’ Too Hard’ was the first guitar solo he ever learned,” Boomer told SFist.

According to Wikipedia, the Seeds are also credited with coining the term “Flower Power”. Boomer clarifies this is not technically true.

“There was this group of girls that always came to our shows, and they always brought flowers and sat on the stage,” he recalled. “Some of the DJs in Los Angeles started hearing about that, and they were the ones that really pushed it on us, But we were forever known as the band with ‘Flower Power’. Once it started, it never stopped.”

The Seeds were flower-powered by the charisma of vocalist Sky Saxon, a workhorse frontman right up until his 2009 death from renal failure. “Billy Corrigan had been working with Sky right before Sky died to produce some new record,” Hooper told SFist. “Sky was the only one of us that kept playing all the time. He played the night before he died. You can’t be any better than that. That’s a good way to go out, playing all the way to the end.”

The Seeds today, image via the Seeds

So you won’t see Sky Saxon at Friday’s show, but you will see the closest incarnation possible to, say, a Seeds show at the Pasadena Civic Center in 1968. “The 60s are embedded in our DNA. We can’t not do that,” Hooper said. “It feels the same to us when we do those songs. When we get up and play, nothing’s changed. When we play, we’re back to being 20 again — though we got a few more wrinkles.”

“Unfortunately, it can’t be all the original guys. It is what it is,” he continued. “But the music is still the original music. You’re gonna hear that music. We’re not using a bunch of electronics or stuff that people use now. We’re making an authentic 60s show. Because people have heard those songs on records for 50 years, they still play them on the radio and they use them in commercials and movies. People know the songs. But if you’re not 65 or 70 years old, you never got a chance to see us live. Well, we’re gonna do a Seeds show.”

That show is Friday night at the DNA Lounge, whose goth, punk spirit makes it an ideal venue to see the Seeds. “We’re gonna be packed in there,” Boomer says. “And that’s great. We’re used to having the audience very, very close to us. That’s really our element, to have tiny shows with the audience packed right close up. So make sure your deoderant’s working, I guess.”

The Seeds play Friday, September 15 at the DNA Lounge (375 11th Street, at Harrison Street) with the Cellar Doors and Isaac Rother and the Phantoms. Tickets here.

Pansy Division, they're back! Jumping on the national radar when they opened for Green Day back in the day, Pansy Division forged their own road and diehard fanbase. And with good reason; they write and croon queercore ditties about "cocksucking, butt fucking, gayness," and everything else that's good about being gay and being alive.

Riddled with fitting exclamation, they write:

Well the Eagle isn’t open yet but will be asap … so please join us at El Rio this Thursday, February 21st for the rare and beautiful thing that is the legendary PANSY DIVISION live in concert!!! All you favorite songs about cocksucking butt fucking gayness, live and loud and proud!!!

The night also features special musical guests ZBORNAK, as well as awesome song wrangling from the amazing HARD FRENCH DJs Brown Amy and Carnita before and after the bands…. all of this fabulousness gussied up for you by hostess with the mostess Miss Anna Conda!

Show starts at 8:30 at El Rio. Ticket are only $8 (that's crazy cheap). Show up early. More details.

[via Mission Mission]

Tony Sly, singer and principal songwriter for noted San Jose, California hardcore punk outfit No Use for a Name has passed away at age 41. His cause of death has not yet been released.

In a statement released this morning, the band's longtime label Fat Wreck Chords broke the news:

It is with great sorrow that we must say goodbye to Tony Sly of No Use For A Name. We received a call earlier today of his passing, and are devastated. We have lost an incredible talent, friend, and father - one of the true greats.

NoFX frontman and Fat Wreck founder Fat Mike, who signed the band back in 1993, said of Sly, "One of my dearest friends and favorite song writers has gone way too soon. Tony, you will be greatly missed."

No Use for a Name formed in San Jose in 1987. Sly eventually joined the band in 1989 at the age of 18 and would become its longest standing member. In total, the band released nine albums from 1990's Incognito to 2008's The Feel Good Album of the Year with Sly on the microphone and lead guitar.

Most recently, Sly was out on an acoustic tour with Lagwagon's Joey Cape. His solo acoustic album, Sad Bear was released in October of 2011.

Here is the band's breakthrough MTV hit, 1993's "Soulmate" off of ¡Leche Con Carne!:

And "San Mateo Fogline" from Sad Bear

[Fat Wreck]
[EW]

Eugenia at Muni Diaries brightens our day year with this photo of an unapologetic punk rock cat sitting atop its equally rad owner boarding a Muni train. "[T]he cat that looks absolutely indifferent about perching on a backpack on a bus," notes Eugenia. And why should it? This cat doesn't care about anything other than scoring some catnip and scratching your eyes out.

h/t: the brilliant @shanasarett who snapped this shot.

Back in the days of yore, San Francisco concertgoers used to sneak off to the bathroom to do bumps of cocaine or heroin in between sets. That's the way God wanted it. Now local aural revelers prefer to luxuriate in such edibles as artisan pizza or bacon endive wrapped pancreas butt while listening to emasculated crooners with no visible ass. The marriage of music and food is about as edgy and creative as the Vh1 Fashion & Music Awards, or so hints Ian S. Port who penned this thought-provoking piece on food and music in SF Weekly. He claims that young "full-time freaks and out-of-the-way spaces that host them" are disappearing due to terrible tech ilk and the fine food they cram down their gullets. More or less.

He explains:

Here's how it goes: Creative people -- not web designers or software developers, but artists, musicians, activists, writers, and other colorful types -- tend not to make much money. As this city becomes less and less affordable, those people leave. And when those people leave, whom will the city's entertainment events target? The people who can afford to stay: Young, well-off tech workers or high-income young couples, whose tastes and lifestyles are cushier, more conservative, less driven by purely creative aims, and, often -- if only in comparison with the people they've replaced -- dull.

These bougies-in-training will want events to practice their conspicuous consumption, whether on food, booze, music, or all at the same time. And they'll get it at events like Noisette. This kind of high-minded consumerism -- fun as it is -- will become the norm, even more than it already has. So while it was once a respite for low-income creatives and real deviants, who would pay $5 or $10 to go a show or a party (at the Eagle Tavern, or Annie's Social Club, or Kimo's, remember those?), swill cheap whiskey, and watch something freaky and loud until early in the morning, San Francisco will slowly become one big pork-belly party, an amusement park for well-off residents to discover some new consumer good to become picky over, or for bridge-and-tunnel types to visit on the weekend, go to an overpriced club, and meet a hookup. Big concerts will draw kids from the 'burbs paying $50 or more a head. They'll never believe they could be rich enough to actually live here.

Or, maybe most twentysomethings really are into food that much? This New York Times article seems to suggest as much. And from what few twenty-year-old types we selectively keep in our social harem of unbridled lunatics, they sure do go on and on and on about pop-ups and gastronomic thingamajigs. (Hand to God, if just one of them brings up another pop-up restaurant into conversation, we shall steal their youthful essence Charlize Theron-style.) After all, punk is dead and more of a distant Gen Xer memory, yes? Then again, the music scene here in SF is admittedly quiet, so... who knows? Maybe your pork slider is the cause of it all. And if it is, maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Anyway, Port goes on to point out a harrowing future, one involving...Oakland. He writes:

The freaks and creatives won't go too far -- they'll go to Oakland, where there's much more space, at much lower cost. The kinds of reckless energy that powered San Francisco music from the '60s through the '90s will trickle away, as much of it has already. And the city will be worse for it.

Read the piece in its entirety. It's a good read.

Update: Grub Street editor (and SFist contributor) Jay Barmann weighs in as well. He says that, hey, this is what people want, adding, "the times are a-changin', and on the bright side, at least the food is way better here than it was ten years ago."

by Erick Pressman

Can you believe that punk rock is heading into it’s fourth decade of existence? Hell, some say it’s already in its forties depending on which “first punk band ever” school of thought they choose to subscribe to, but that’s a boring argument best reserved for people who aren’t interested in having rewarding sex lives. That being said, Chicago punk giants Rise Against are hitting our fair city Saturday night, and they’ve decided to bring LA punk legends Bad Religion, as well as Worcester, MA, upstarts Four Year Strong, with them. It will be an outstanding evening of multi-generational punk that will appeal to the youth as well as some of the parents who will inevitably be in the crowd watching their special little snowflakes kick ass in the pit.

Rise Against started their rise to the top in the early 2000s and were born from the ashes of the infamous 90s skate punk band 88 Fingers Louie. The band released early material on San Francisco’s own Fat Wreck Chords, and found themselves signing to Dreamworks in 2003, who released their highly acclaimed Siren Song of the Counter Culture record. Rise Against's unique brand of melodic hardcore has sent them to the top of the Billboard charts since getting into the major-label game. This tour sees them out in support of their newest record Endgame, which proves to be another chapter in their legacy of being a punk band who’s making the system work for them.

While Rise Against did all their own work to get to where they are today, they wouldn’t be anywhere without the existence of Bad Religion. What can be said about a band who has literally been doing it for thirty-one years, and kept afloat through the first wave of American hardcore bands, the rise and fall of “college” rock, grunge, punk, ska, and is still holding their own in an aggressive music scene dominated by gimmicky bands dependent more on internet social networking for their success than their actual talent? Bad Religion have slugged through the last thirty years putting out several highly influential records such as How Can Hell Be Any Worse?, Suffer, Generator, and Recipe For Hate.

They're currently out in support of their fifteenth studio record, The Dissent of Man, which proves to be another strong showing of their keen ability to blend melody, harmony, and intellect with circle pit inducing fury and the sort of intensity that drives crowds insane, so much that the end result has lead to rioting (one such evening was captured on their legendary VHS/DVD release Along The Way, an interesting view to say the least). While age has taken a bit of edge off the bands approach, Bad Religion’s live sets are always a perfect balance of new material and classic hits, so those of you who may have caught the early years of the band will have something to sing along to while your kids are up in the front crowd surfing for the first time.

Opening the night’s festivities are Worcester, MA powerhouse Four Year Strong, who exploded onto the national scene in 2006 with the release of their debut full length, Rise Or Die Trying. Our first exposure to these young Massholes came at Warped Tour ’08, when about five thousand kids destroyed the first few rows of seats in front of the big stage at the Shoreline Ampitheatre. If one were to describe Four Year Strong to someone who’s unfamiliar, imagine Fall Out Boy’s ability to sing, harmonize, write catchy riffs, and perfectly verbalize youthful angst regarding love and friendship, but with a hefty dose of mosh metal influence.

Four Year Strong’s ability to take a song from being cute and melodic to the soundtrack to serious dance floor justice has yet to been achieved so well by anyone, and has definitely made them a benchmark in punk rock’s thirty plus years and counting history. Their latest record, Enemy of the World, shows much maturity as they continue to turn heads and leave audiences pummeled and sweaty.

Head out to the Civic on Saturday night. See punk rock's grandparents, parents, and youngins duke it out on the stage, and change up that cardio routine from riding your bike around Golden Gate Park to circle-pitting and crowd-surfing at one of the Tenderloin’s less skeezy landmarks. We will most definitely see you in the pit.

MUSIC I: Fulfill your dream of embodying your favorite punk legends live and onstage at American Idle: Live Band Karaoke. The event's house band, the HeeBeeGeeBees, will also perform, along with some surprise guests from SF's music scene.

5 to 10 p.m. // Milk Bar (1840 Haight St) // $5

MUSIC II: Saxophonist Cyril Guiraud will sax it up at Cafe Royale's weekly Sunday jazz night.

7 p.m. // Cafe Royale (800 Post St) // free

by Taryn Harrington

Shannon and the Clams would arguably sound their best at a 1960s themed prom; hosted by the Log Lady from Twin Peaks and attended by every DIY kid in the Bay Area. The band is beloved for their eccentric Shangri-las meets The Bad Brains version of rock and soul, but Tuesdays show at the Hemlock lacked a loyal crowd. Compared to last weeks sold-out show for lead singer Shannon Shaw’s other act, Hunx and his Punkettes, Hemlock was a total dud. “God, it feels like we’ve been playing for seven hours,” Shaw playfully admitted before beginning the last song.

But Shannon and the Clams are not loosing momentum; the Oakland based band played pop melodies and twang guitar that punched with gusto. Songs that stood out included "I Wanna Go Home" and "You Can Come Over". Shaw’s raspy, girl in distress voice croons like a lonely bird.

Let’s hope their show at the Balazo on January 21 will attract a more upbeat and rock ready crowd. We’re store our tacky prom dresses until then.