Aidin Vaziri: October 2009

25 October 2009

Live Review: Bridge School Benefit at Shoreline

Edgy lineup energizes Bridge School concert: Aidin Vaziri | Neil Young took a risk this year. Rather than tapping the bankable legacy acts for his annual Bridge School benefit concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre, he skewed the bill a little younger, a little edgier and maybe even a little weirder. It's not often you see Jimmy Buffett sharing a stage with No Doubt, or Coldplay's Chris Martin trying to get people to sing along to "Earth Angel." While the change of direction didn't exactly pay off in ticket sales - the 22,000-capacity venue was just a little more than half-full on Saturday (a second show, with even fewer tickets sold in advance, took place Sunday) - it definitely energized the 23rd annual fundraiser, which benefits the school for children with severe physical impairments. Read more.

23 October 2009

Pop Quiz: Beth Ditto of Gossip

Aidin Vaziri | Beth Ditto is vomiting. Not in the good way, either. But with Gossip on tour in support of its breakthrough release, "Music for Men," the singer can't really take a day off. Produced by beardy studio wonder Rick Rubin and featuring a staggering disco-punk single called "Heavy Cross," the album's chances of measuring up to the singer's huge persona are certain.

Beth Ditto of Gossip
Q: When you were throwing up earlier, was it the good kind where you got too drunk, or the bad kind, where you ate too many fish sticks?
A: Probably the bad kind, where I had a virus. I don't know if there is a good kind. Maybe if it's before you go to bed, but definitely not when you wake up. Actually, now I have a really bad sore throat and a head cold and a fever. It's been a crazy ride.
Q: Hey, it's a great excuse to lock yourself in a hotel room and watch bad TV.
A: I wish I had a hotel room! We're touring in a bus, which is better than a van. But it's stupid cold in here. Earlier I sneezed and shot all this snot all over my hand, and I was in the top bunk, so I couldn't even move. I had to wait for someone to walk by and I was like, "Please, somebody give me some toilet paper!"
Read more.

Jay Farrar on Channeling Jack Kerouac

Aidin Vaziri | Jay Farrar of Son Volt and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie had never met before they came together earlier this year in a San Francisco studio to create the soundtrack for a documentary about Jack Kerouac's novel "Big Sur." But their mutual admiration for the Beat-era author inspired a dozen original songs for the film and the record "One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur." The duo is playing material from the set with a pickup band Saturday at Bimbo's 365 Club. We spoke with Farrar about the making of the project.

Soundtrack for Beat-era Kerouac
Q: Do you think Jack Kerouac would have approved of these songs?
A: That's a good question. That was my biggest concern - would he really want somebody meddling with his words or ideas? In the context of the book, Jack did accept folk music and participate in sing-alongs at campfires. He also palled around with Ramblin' Jack Elliott, so that gave me the impetus I needed.
Read more.

Influences and Inspirations: Regina Spektor

A guide to Regina Spektor's album 'Far': Aidin Vaziri | She was raised on Russian folk songs and bootleg Queen records, loves Nirvana and the Ramones, and asks Jeff Lynne to produce her music without checking out his resume first. These are just some of the things that make Regina Spektor the best 29-year-old Jewish-Russian classical anti-folk storytelling female singer-songwriter we've heard all year. But for those still trying to understand her fifth and latest studio album, "Far," here's a guide to everything that went into it. Read more.

Review: Devendra Banhart, 'What Will We Be'

Review: Devendra Banhart, 'What Will We Be': Aidin Vaziri | Those who thought Devendra Banhart went off the deep end with his robust Elvis impressions and kooky musings on "Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon" two years ago will want to approach his latest with caution. On his major-label debut and sixth full-length album, "What Will We Be," the sometime San Francisco singer-songwriter pulls his own "Judas!" moment, dispensing almost completely with the spacey folk sound that defined him and forging further into the vortex where Jim Morrison, Caetano Veloso, Led Zeppelin, Donovan and any number of Haight Street philosophers share a hash pipe. How many people can put on a straight face to deliver a line such as, "Look at the neighbors with the long, long hair/ Making their money at a Renaissance Faire"? Meanwhile, the music swells with a wobbly mix of twinkling pianos and amateur doo-wop harmonies, while evocative acoustic guitars drift in and out of the haze. It's not strictly for people who wear caftans, but it's certainly not for everybody. To Banhart's advantage, there are enough moments of unparalleled beauty in tracks such as "First Song for B," "Maria Lionza" and the gorgeous "Meet Me at Lookout Point" to bring even his most far-out cosmic flights back to Earth.

Pop Quiz: Omara Portuondo

Aidin Vaziri | We're pretty sure a bit was lost in the very patchy translation from Cuba, but it was a thrill nonetheless to catch up last week with Omara Portuondo, the lone female star of the Buena Vista Social Club, in anticipation of her first visit to the United States since 2003. The singer, who turns 79 this month, will perform Tuesday at the Palace of Fine Arts as part of the San Francisco Jazz Festival. Her American tour ends three days later with a show at UCLA. She will be playing material from her most recent album, "Gracias," which was nominated for a Latin Grammy in the category of best contemporary tropical album.

Omara Portuondo
Q: On your last tour, you were with all those men in the Buena Vista Social Club. What was that like?
A: I felt like a queen, because everybody treated me that way.
Q: What are you looking forward to most about coming back to San Francisco, apart from performing? Shopping, riding cable cars, going up and down in elevators?
A: Really, my profession is the music. I'm very interested in going to the United States because we've always had a lot of cultural exchange. It's been almost six years since the last time I went to the United States. That's the reason I have been visiting Europe and other countries and waiting for the next opportunity.
Q: What keeps you going after all this time?
A: That is my profession, and I love my profession. Music is essential to human beings.
Read more.

Live Review: Bob Dylan at the Greek Theatre

Dylan's defiance invigorating, frustrating: Aidin Vaziri | Nothing much has changed since the last time Dylan was in the Bay Area, or the time before that. The encore once again saw his band burning through bludgeoning renditions of "Like a Rolling Stone" and "All Along the Watchtower," while everything else - from 1964's "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," all the way through to "Jolene," from this year's "Together Through Life" - was delivered as a lolloping death march wrapped up in loud guitars and abrasive horn blasts, with Dylan not so much singing the lyrics as coughing up the words through his nose. Read more.

11 October 2009

Pop Quiz: MGMT

Aidin Vaziri | There are a lot of amazing acts at this year's Treasure Island Music Festival, which takes place next weekend, but the band everyone will be clamoring to see is the Brooklyn electro-pop duo MGMT. Even though the tie-dyed group released its first album, "Oracular Spectacular," more than a year ago, hits such as "Kids" and "Electric Feel" have pretty much kept the duo on the road ever since, with work on a follow-up release commencing only a few months ago. Singer Andrew VanWyngarden talked to us about festivals, kids' shows and, naturally, Phish.

Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT
Q: Are you guys ready to compete with the Flaming Lips and their giant hamster ball?
A: I don't think that would be a wise competition for us. We don't have any crazy production in our show. Most the bands we're influenced by are in their own world when they play live, from the Grateful Dead to Royal Trux to Spacemen 3. We're kind of the same way.
Q: How is that possible when your videos are full of Chuck E. Cheese characters and people wearing feathered headdresses romping in the jungle?
A: I know. It kind of leads to a lot of people being disappointed, but that's all right. We don't want to use any backing tracks when we play. In order to do that, all the concentration is going to be on playing and singing.
Q: You just made a guest appearance on the children's show "Yo Gabba Gabba!" Is MGMT good for the kids?
characters and people wearing feathered headdresses romping in the jungle?
A: I don't know. I'm surprised Nickelodeon or whoever it is went through with it because most people are going to be like, "These guys are tripping on mushrooms!" Maybe when you're a kid you don't really pick up on that. But that's probably one of the best things we've ever done. I was so happy with the way it turned out.
Read more.

Review: Girls, 'Album'

Review: Girls, 'Album': Aidin Vaziri | You can't fault Girls for having run out of ideas by the time it came to naming their album. The San Francisco duo put everything it had into the actual music, a body-quaking blast of lo-fi guitar feedback, woozy surf melodies and sun-streaked catharsis. On the opening track, "Lust for Life," singer Christopher Owens announces over and over that, "I'm just crazy, f- in the head." It's not exactly a stretch, considering he was born into a hippie cult, escaped at 16 to live on the streets and now, with musical partner Chet White, boasts an enthusiastic appetite for mind-altering substances. Most of the songs on "Album" document a recent breakup, to heart-rending effect. "I might never get my arms around you, but that doesn't mean that I won't try," he broods on "Lauren Marie," sounding a bit like a dazed Buddy Holly. But it's the sprawling "Hellhole Ratrace" that suggests that the band has slyly crafted "Pet Sounds" for a new generation, lazy title and all.

Live Review: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 9

Hardly Strictly packs in a crowd for music fest: Aidin Vaziri | The few hundred people that made the effort to show up early Saturday to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 9 festival in Golden Gate Park were rewarded lavishly. Breaking in the new Towers of Gold Stage at the far end of Lindley Meadow just before noon, Nashville guitarist Buddy Miller brought out a couple of special guests - Emmylou Harris to sing devastating harmonies on his song "Wide River to Cross" and Robert Plant to unleash his leather lung wail on the Hank Snow standard "I'm Movin' On." "This is like going to school for me," said the Led Zeppelin frontman, who minutes earlier had been taking pictures of gophers digging in the lawn backstage. Read more.

02 October 2009

Live Review: Kylie Minogue at the Fox Theatre

Kylie Minogue struts. Sings, too.: Aidin Vaziri | It's impossible to describe the full spectacle of the Kylie experience - part Vegas extravaganza, part sci-fi adventure, all flesh. There were golden tigers, confetti showers, diamante-studded football players, digital explosions and Trojan warriors with elaborate plumes on their heads. Well, why not? The fact that she fit it all into a relatively intimate venue was a marvel unto itself. The show seemed to have been designed to be visible from the moon, with large-scale video projections broadcasting studio montages of celluloid Kylie mouthing the words to the songs the real-life version was singing below. The stage swarmed with musicians, dancers and the occasional army of robots. Meanwhile, her wardrobe department seemed intent on making Lady Gaga wave a white flag. Read more.

Pop Quiz: Jason Mraz

Aidin Vaziri | Jason Mraz's laidback hit "I'm Yours" recently made history as the longest-running song on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, where it has spent the past 75 weeks and counting. To celebrate scoring the most inescapable song ever, the earthy 32-year-old songwriter returns to the Bay Area on Friday for a concert at Berkeley's Greek Theatre - just a few weeks after drawing one of the biggest crowds at the Outside Lands festival.

Jason Mraz
Q: You thought so highly of "I'm Yours" that you first released it as a B-side to another song from your previous album.
A: Well, from the time it was a B-side four years ago, I always played it live at my shows and watched it take on a life of its own. I never had to be push it. I never had to sell it. In fact, I became a servant to it. It's been tremendous. Setting records and all that. It's ridiculous. It's something I never anticipated.
Q: It's a long way from "Geek in the Pink." Are you done with the jokey songs?
A: I'm just not in the mood to go there. I don't know if my next record is going to be a joke anymore. It's just experience and life. Sometimes playfulness lacks tact. I really want to get serious.
Q: That's hard when you're offering dating advice in Cosmo like, "Put on a men's dress shirt and nothing else."
Read more.

They Love The '90s

Club 1994 enjoys retro vibe: Aidin Vaziri | The "TRL" playlist isn't the only thing about Club 1994, which returns to Minna on Saturday, to trade on instant nostalgia. Berlin, who does double-duty as the party's resident photographer, helps make it a totally immersive experience. There are film and television clips from the era projected on the walls. Invitations are sent out to seminal pop culture figures like Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Puck from "The Real World." There are even runway shows featuring local designers showing off pieces inspired by the days Alicia Silverstone ruled the earth. "In a way, it's a girl thing," she says. "I wanted to create a place to have fun and dance and sing along to songs that girls of my generation grew up with. Plus, when there's booze involved and you're old enough to have sex it changes the game a little bit." Read more.

Review: Gossip, 'Music For Men'

Review: Gossip, 'Music For Men': Aidin Vaziri | Beth Ditto is one of the best things happening in rock 'n' roll right now, and not just because she's a plus-size lesbian from Arkansas who drops her clothes every time she's in the vicinity of a camera. On her band's Rick Rubin-produced major-label debut - arriving a mere decade after the trio formed - the Gossip front woman takes charge even as the bearded Red Hot Chili Peppers/Metallica studio henchman attempts to reign things in. On "Music for Men," the group's fourth overall full-length release, Ditto rages magnificently, putting her boot to everything from the punk-funk racket of "Heavy Cross" to the synthetic soul of "Vertical Rhythms" like a cat getting swung around by its tail - and loving every second of the ride.

Pop Quiz: Esser

Aidin Vaziri | The first thing you notice about British pop savant Ben Esser - you can refer to him by his last name, thank you - is everything. With an angular haircut, big cartoon features and penchant for dressing like a rockabilly icon, he's not only one of the year's most striking new acts, but also musically ambitious. His infectious debut album, "Braveface," was influenced by everyone from the Specials to Beck. During a recent visit to Rooky Ricardo's Records in the Lower Haight, he was ready to expand the palette even wider. "I want to absorb as much as I can," Esser said, flipping through the stacks of vinyl. But we were more interested in that quiff.

Esser
Q: So what do you tell your barber?
A: Well, my barber is great. It's this man called Mr. Ducktail. He only does rockabilly cuts. That's what he does. He's partly responsible for my look.
Q: Do you think someday people will go to their barber and ask for The Esser?
A: That would be great. Someone did take a picture of me to the barber.
Q: Give it a few years. I think people are still asking for the Chris Martin.
A: What's the Chris Martin?
Q: I think it's just a bad haircut.
Read more.

Review: Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions

Review: Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions, 'Through The Devil Softly': Aidin Vaziri | Never one to rush things, Mazzy Star singer Hope Sandoval returns with her first set of new music in eight years with "Through the Devil Softly." The leisurely work pace naturally spills over into the music, which she collaborated on once again with My Bloody Valentine drummer Colm O'Ciosoig, as each song rides a gentle swell of languorous guitars and shimmery rhythms. But it's Sandoval's earthy voice that gives the material fire, delicately pulling listeners into the bloodshot opener "Blanchard" and illuminating its way through shifting late-night rambles such as "Bluebird" and "Fall Aside." Not much has changed since "Fade Into You" made her a minor MTV star more than a decade ago, but this is beautiful, ageless stuff - clearly worth the wait.