The California Honeydrops are a good-time band with an unmistakably Californian style, despite drawing on influences like Delta blues, gospel, and Motown. While frontman and trumpet player Lech Wierzynski sings and plays trumpet, he's joined by Johnny Bones on tenor saxophone and clarinet, Lorenzo Loera on keys, and Beau Bradbury and Ben Malament on tub bass and various percussion, including washboards, jugs, and drums. Their latest album, A River's Invitation, has been described by one critic as "a fabulous, feel-good, fun-fest album of joyous musical partying."

And their performance style can only be described as trying to get a party started. "The whole point is to erase the boundaries between the crowd and us," Wierzynski says. "We don't make set lists. We want requests. We want crowd involvement, to make people become a part of the whole thing by dancing along, singing, picking the songs and generally coming out of their shells."

This year, they're excited to be touring as the opening act for the great Bonnie Raitt, with whom they'll be playing at the Fox Theater in Oakland — their hometown — on April 23. The show's sold out, but you may find some tickets popping up on Craigslist or elsewhere. (And, despite the band's party-making ethos, the Bonnie Raitt crowd necessitates a sit-down show, so sadly the floor at the Fox won't be open for bouncing around.)

Wierzynski spoke to SFist via phone, from his house in Oakland.

For those who don't know, how would you describe your music?
I would say it's a mix of a lot of West Coast rhythm and blues, and a lot of New Orleans music as well. Those are the primary influences — it's good music to dance to and have a good time to.

You got your start with the band in Oakland, but you're originally from Poland?
Yes, I was born in Warsaw, but I'm the only member of the band who's not from California. I came here about 11 years ago after college [at Oberlin] with another of the founding members of the band [Ben Malament]. We played a lot at BART stations, a lot at Macarthur, Rockridge, and Ashby. That was our main gig at first, just being street musicians. We also played a lot at the Castro Muni station. We played all over, on Fourth Street in Berkeley, just wherever the money was good.

When I first came out here I started working with some older R&B musicians. I played with a couple of guys form Johnny Otis's old group, Shuggie Otis's dad, and there was a band I played in for a bunch of years with a lot of older cats. But eventually I wanted to start my own band. This band was started about two years after moving here [in 2007], and it was because I really wanted to get back to street playing.

And you've been touring with Bonnie Raitt, how's that been going?

That's been great. She's gotta be our biggest fan, or at least our most important fan. She's such a sweet person. We get to watch her every night and she's such an amazing performer. There's so much to learn just by watching her and listening to her play. And we've had the opportunity to play in front of these huge audiences who've never heard our music before. So we've been loving life. And we've been jumping up on her set sometimes, and we've had some of her band members come up and play with us during our set. It's been great.

What are some of your favorite cities to play in?

There's a lot of great cities with a lot of great people. Northern California, it's always great here. People love to party, people love to sing along, and it's easy to get people loose and having.

New Orleans is a great city to play where people really know the music. But you never know where you might have an amazing gig. You might just have an amazing time playing on a street corner. I think spontaneity is the key to making great music, and that can happen anywhere. You can duck off into the woods at a festival and just have this amazing time playing there, you never know.

Where in the Bay Area have you played recently?

The last couple shows were at the New Parish and at the Freight & Salvage — one show for the partying children and one for the sit-down crowd, you know. Keeping 'em separate so they don't get mad at each other. And we did a CD release for two nights in September at the Fillmore. I enjoy the bigger venues and the smaller venues — the only shows I don't enjoy are the ones where people are just standing around talking.

What can you tell me about the new album?
It's been out for a minute now. I really like it. It's my favorite one that we've made so far. We recorded it all at home, in my living room in Oakland, and it has a homemade feel. We're a band that doesn't have a record label and we raised money for original album using Kickstarter and playing fundraisers at the Cheese Board in Berkeley. Nowadays we have management and stuff but we're still independent and want to keep it that way.

It's maybe the most innovative album that we've made. People think of us as sort of a retro band because of the sounds we use, but people who know music can hear that there's a lot of stuff in there — just in the way we lay our beats and the bass lines, and just the way we put the music together that's actually pretty new.

I think it's cutting edge but most people think our music is retro. Just because we don't use any synths or computer sounds or whatever, people think of our sound as retro. You might see though, if you really listen, that there's a lot going on in the songs that hasn't really been done before.

In case you weren't aware, years before the formation of the band Scissor Sisters in New York, Ana Matronic (b. Ana Lynch) was a young fixture in the S.F. nightlife scene and an occasional performer at Trannyshack back in the late 90s. She went on to partner with Jake Shears, Babydaddy, and Del Marquis to found the band in 2001, and they released their fourth studio album, The Magic Hour, last year. This weekend, Ana is here in S.F. performing on Sunday, April 28* at Public Works at a party dubbed "Shall We Kiki?" hosted by Juanita More. And she's here with her husband Seth Kirby, both as members of the psychedelic Joshua Light Show which is performing with Medeski Martin & Wood at the Mondavi Center in Davis tomorrow night. She spoke to SFist by phone today from Davis.

So, tell us what you're doing in Davis.
My husband, Seth, has been in The Joshua Light Show since 2006. So, I was a light show wife, sitting on the sidelines for many years, and in 2010, one night they needed someone on "liquids" — the giant overhead projectors that use the pscyhedelic liquid imagery, with oils and water and glycerin — and they called me in. And Joshua [White] said I did a better job than he'd ever seen. So now I'm officially a member, and have been working with them ever since. My official position is Lady of the Lake.

How long have you known Juanita More?
I moved to S.F. in '96, and that's when I met her. She's one of my dearest friends. The first time I saw her, I can't ever forget, was on stage at Trannyshack, and I was just blown away. I was like, 'I need to know this woman and be her friend and I need her approval.'

What initially drew you to New York?
I was a kid who was raised by older parents, and really early I got into black-and-white movies. I was obsessed with Humphrey Bogart and Fred Astaire. Old musicals, too, the kind that were often shot in New York. The first time I went to the city I was 13. I was with my dad and it was 1987, I think. I just knew from the minute that I set foot there that I was going to live there someday… the architecture, so many people living there, trying to make it work in their own way. Years later I had friends move there, the same friend who made me move to San Francisco in fact. And he was like, 'It's time for you to move here, Ana. You're ready and New York is ready for you. And he was right.

What was the biggest surprise, would you say, about your most recent tour and the new album, Magic Hour?
The biggest surprise was the success of "Let's Have a Kiki." That was never meant to be a single. It represented just this fun moment in the studio for me and Babydaddy - no one got it, the label didn't get it, the executive producer didn't get it, but everyone in the band insisted it had to be on the album. It was just this fun tribute we all wanted to do to our friends in New York and the world that raised us. The fact that it became the underground hit that it became was just incredible. There were moments, for instance like one in Madrid, where the audience was so loud and crazy asking for it that we had to come back on stage and do Kiki again. It's the greatest feeling when your band can connect with an audience like that and have a surprise hit like that song turned out to be.

You've probably talked about this a lot before, but explain who Pickles is.
Pickles is the nickname of Sammy Jo, our tour DJ. He's someone who started using the word "kiki" a lot around us, and we all started using it. That was Jake's voice on the record, and I told him to do it in his "hooker" voice - all butched up, you know. When I lived in San Francisco I had so many friends who were hookers and had ads in the BAR, and you'd call their number and their voicemail greeting would be all deep and butch like 'Hey, what's up.' So, that's what I meant when I said "hooker voice."

And now you're working on a solo album?
It's been in the works for a few months now, and it's still far from finished. It's been really fun and gratifying, and my husband is doing all the promo stuff for it. It's been a really great family-style operation. The solo record is quite a bit of an extension of what you've seen me do in Scissor Sisters. The music about going out and having a great night out with your friends, and bringing that inspiration home with you afterwards. It's definitely going to be a record for the dancefloor, but hopefully it will go deeper than that, and will inspire some sort of inward journey in the listener.

Tell us what's happening at Public Works.
It's going to be a really fun night. I'll be DJing with my amazing husband Seth, who is a really great DJ himself, and there will be a light show element via Joshua Light Show, and Juanita will be DJing. I'll be performing three songs, including a couple Scissor favorites. And my backup dancers are Benny and Javier Ninja from the House of Ninja. They have, amazingly, never been to San Francisco and so this will be their S.F debut. Benny founded the House of Ninja back in the 90s and Javier is really part of the future of vogue-ing. I'm really excited to get them on the stage at Public Works.

Do you have any rituals when you come back to San Francisco?
Always breakfast at Dottie's. Always mani-pedis with my dear friend Damon in the Castro. Always dinner with Juanita, hopefully at her house. Catching up with friends. Going to the Badlands. Getting my hair done at the Glamarama. San Francisco for me is all about friends, food, and catching up. It will always feel like home, and whenever I come back I never want to leave. Seth always says the same thing. We'll be hanging out doing some fun, ridiculous thing, and he'll ask, 'How did you leave this place?' I definitely see myself dragging him back to live here and spend our twilight years.

* This post has been corrected to show that the party, Shall We Kiki?, is happening on Sunday, April 28.

Knowing that Bambuddha Lounge was closing (you've heard, right?), drag queen and party promoter Juanita MORE! had to find another place for gays of all stripes to congregate after the Sunday Gay Pride festivities on June 27th this year. "It had to be someplace with great outdoor space," Juanita tells SFist, and for her now famous post-Pride party she finally settled on Kelly's Mission Rock Café, a space better known to the heteros about town. "There's floor to ceiling windows upstairs looking out over the entire Bay, so if it's the tiniest bit chilly it's still going to feel like you're outdoors but you can stay warm."

Juanita and her team will be running shuttle buses to Mission Rock all day starting at 1:30 from The Phoenix Hotel/Bambuddha, for all those confused as to how to get there, and for all those stumbling drunkenly uphill from Civic Center assuming the party's still there. Buy your tickets ahead of time here, or at Seventh Heart (Market and Franklin).

Below, see our brief interview with Juanita about this year's Pride Party DJs, and what she thinks makes a great party.

While you really can't go wrong with just about any of the Noise Pop weekend options, we are particularly looking forward to catching Memory Tapes as Bottom of the Hill tomorrow night. The solo project of New Jersey based stay-at-home dad Dayve Hawk, Memory Tapes 2009 debut LP Seek Magic was one of the most talked about and downright enjoyable albums of last year, earning a well-deserved place on endless best-of-year lists. Up until a few months ago, however, not much was known about the reportedly reclusive artist -- Dayve had yet to play a live show as Memory Tapes, and rarely seemed to sit down for interviews. We had a chance to catch up with Dayve earlier this month, where we had a lengthy discussion about his love of small shows, his desire to be a distinctly blue collar musician, his approach to remixes and much, much more. And guess what -- it turns out Dayve Hawk isn't quite the enigma people thought he was after all.

Memory Tapes play Bottom of the Hill Saturday (2/27) with Loquat, Birds & Batteries and Letting Up Despite Great Faults. Advanced tickets are sold out, but a limited number of tickets may be available at the door.

by Kevin Meenan of Epicsauce

As we discussed last Monday, Mighty lined up one of LA's rising electronic stars over the weekend, Nosaj Thing. We had a chance to catch up with the 24-year-old beat maker before his show last week, where we discussed his hip hop fundamentals, LA's infamous DIY venue The Smell, his beta stage visually synced show and much more.

Kevin Meenan: Your 2009 full length debut Drift was one of the year's most unique and compelling records, clearly drawing inspiration from an endless range of genres. At its core, however, I really see Drift as a hip hop record. Was hip hop part of your earliest musical foundation, or was it an influence that came later in life?

Nosaj Thing: I guess it all started when I was in 3rd grade. My parents enrolled me in an after school program at the YMCA, and the bus driver that picked us up always had on the local hip hop stations -- Power 106, or it would be 92.3 The Beat. I would hear that everyday, and when I would get home I would want to listen to it more. I had this clock radio that had recording capability, and I would just record the shows that I liked and from then on just listen to it.

by Kevin Meenan of Epicsauce

Prior to their show at Café du Nord a couple weeks back, we had a chance to catch up with sibling duo Lymbyc Systym's Jared Bell via phone, and we had a lengthy discussion about the instrumental act's recording process, the benefits and drawbacks of their geographic barrier, the sans-vocals approach, their plethora of early influences and much more.

Kevin: When listening to your recent effort Shutter Release and 2007’s Love Your Abuser it is easy to forget that you guys are at the core a duo. The sound is incredibly rich and layered, and it is clear that there is much more going on than synth and drums. Can you give us any insight as to what is happening musically in the studio?

Jared Bell: The basic premise is that I play keyboards and my brother Mike plays drums, along with the programmed beats. And live, it is basically like that. But on the record, we both sort of do a bunch of things. There are a plethora of instruments - banjos, guitars, all sorts of little keyboards and toys, old and new. We also have some friends play on the album -- a couple different string players and a couple horn players. I could probably go way more in depth here, and make this a really long answer.

This interview comes to us via Kevin Meenan of Epicsauce.

As previously discussed, we are eagerly anticipating The Rural Alberta Advantage's return to San Francisco tomorrow night. We recently had the chance to catch up with singer Nils Edenloff via phone about his band's debut Hometowns, their signing to Omaha's Saddle Creek, the Frank Slide, and more.

The Rural Alberta Advantage plays Bottom of the Hill tomorrow night (12/16) with Sonny & The Sunsets and The Shaky Hands. Tickets are $10.

SFist: Your last San Francisco show landed on quite a big week for you guys. Saddle Creek had just re-released your 2008 debut Hometowns, and Pitchfork had given you that big 8.0 review. The response from the audience that night was really remarkable -- I imagine it was quite a change from the Toronto open mic nights where the band got its start. How has this transition from local favorites to must-see touring act been for you guys?

Nils Edenloff: It’s been really fun! [laughs] I think we have all just been really excited about the response we have gotten -- it sort of amps us up when we are playing. I think everyone in music, they hope that they will play for a responsive crowd that is really into it, really excited for the music. And now that this is happening -- it hasn’t diminished how much we enjoy it.

by Kevin Meenan of Epicsauce

2009 has been quite the year for Vic Chesnutt. The prolific singer-songwriter released two albums (At the Cut and the Jonathan Richman produced Skitter on Take-Off), appeared on the Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse collaboration Dark Night of the Soul and toured extensively with his all-star band, featuring Fugazi's Guy Picciotto along with members of Canadian's post-rock heroes Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion. We had the good fortune of reaching Vic via phone over the holiday weekend, where we talked with him about his band and recent works, and he told us a bit about what to expect from his show tonight at the Great American Music Hall.

You have an amazing set of musicians supporting you on this tour and on two of your recent releases, At the Cut and North Star Deserter. In my opinion, it doesn't get much bigger than Fugazi's Guy Picciotto, and Silver Mt. Zion/Godspeed You! Black Emperor connection is pretty damn impressive as well. How did the group come about?

It was all Jem Cohen’s idea, the filmmaker and my best buddy. It was all his idea to bring us together. He did my previous two records - Silver Lake and Ghetto Bells -- and he said he wanted to make a good Vic Chestnut record. He wanted to exploit the two halves of my songwriting and my musical life, and that is the acoustic and the distortion.

San Francisco photographer Joe Budd is debuting a new collection of photographs from his travels across the world as a commercial photographer, featuring people and landscapes in exotic locales such as Brazil, Thailand, and Africa in En Route.

The opening reception is tomorrow night, featuring Primo Beer and food by Hands on Gourmet, and the show runs through September 30.

Wednesday, August 26, 6 to 8 p.m. // Design Within Reach (1913 Fillmore St) // free

Artist Micke Tong spoke with Joe about photography techniques, the photography community, and how he got started in the business.

by Micke Tong

Neuroscientist David Eagleman's new book Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives is a series of fictional explorations of the afterlife that range from downloading one's consciousness to a computer to meeting God (both male and female versions). Fans of Radio Lab on NPR may have heard him as well as a couple pieces from the book on their recent episode about the afterlife (listen to the podcast here).

Mr. Eagleman will be reading this evening at Rakestraw Books in Danville, and tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Books Inc. at Opera Plaza in SF. He spoke with SFist this week in the midst of his book tour.

SFist: How do you define "the afterlife" in Sum? Where did your fascination with ideas of the afterlife begin?

David Eagleman: When I was younger I asked a rabbi whether Jews believed in an afterlife, and, if so, what the afterlife looked like. He answered, "You ask two Jews, you'll get three opinions." I was deeply impressed by the freedom of opinion implied by that answer. I think that brief conversation was probably the seed which turned into Sum about a decade later.