Mission Mission

If you’re not friends with Jay Reatard on MySpace, you’re welcome. A bulletin was posted this afternoon:

Jay Reatard is playing a second set tonight– The Warfield is sold out!
Jay’s set is at 11:30; great bands to open so get there early.

Jay Reatard
The Ohsees (John Dwyer from the Coachwhips etc)
The Pets
Ty Segall
9:00 pm
10$

@ 12 Galaxies
2565 Mission St.

@ 22nd
advanced tickets www.12galaxies.com

Browse Mission Mission’s music section for posts on Black Lips, 12 Galaxies’ wraparound Mezzanine, SXSW, and more.

Had a drink at the Attic after work. Came out to find some band blaring Stones covers out a second story window. Modest crowd gathered around. Drummer was carpa hinchable perched in a bay window. Guitarist and singer made their way out onto the overhang for a bit. Beat cops smirked and one snapped pictures with his phone.

This is my fully edited account of the early morning efforts of the March 19 San Francisco Day of Direct Action. In it, you’ll find decked-out riot police, a brass band, more twirlers, demonstrating in front inflatable water slide of Chevron, a cable car, more Frank Chu, the Transamerica Pyramid, dancing in the streets, yelling in the streets, posters, signage, bloody hands, people in pink, motorcycles on sidewalks, blockaded intersections, and more — all set to the tune of “Big Ideas” by LCD Soundsystem.

Link to yesterday’s coverage.

Link to response at Curbed SF in which they’re debating the hipster question.

Link to Bay Area Direct Action.

I have come to realize that I’m really good at party-planning, and hope to get into the Event Planning Industry very soon. One of my specialties is a great ear for what sets the mood of a party. My motto is just because you like a song/album does not necessarily mean it should be played at this particular moment. So when I was loosely invited to DJ at an early slot at the Beauty Bar by a friend (since the normally scheduled “northern soul” DJ moved his set to Kimo’s), I jumped feet first into coming up with a three-hour set of my favorite genres: soul, oldies, oldie-reggae, disco.

My expectations of being a good DJ were exceeded. Dancing started happening around 8:30pm and lasted non-stop until 10:30-11ish. People I knew, people I didn’t know, shrieks of happiness, a look of parco gonfiabili amazement on my husband’s face, sweating, pushing through the crowd, laughter, happened right before my eyes – and all because of me, my music, and booze. It’s the best feeling that I’ve felt in a long time. When I told people I was DJing on Thursday, they all gave me the sarcastic response, “Oh – with iTunes?”. But I used a combination of, yes, iTunes and CDs. When the “real” DJ came in and started setting up his equipment, it included a direct line from his iPod to the stereo system. Oh, and a large Abe Lincoln hat.

I was invited back to DJ again, so next time I might tackle punk, electronic, funk?

Now, event design companies – REPLY TO MY RESUME! Or someone give me some money so I can have my own business. And then I’ll be your competition.

Last month, after the Black Lips‘ set at GAMH, singer/bassist Jared was chauffeured over to Beauty Bar for a DJ set sponsored by Vice and Dewar’s. It was pretty good, and it had me thinking my preconceived notions about the bar might be unfair. I was going to write about it, but I was waiting on photos from Misha Vladimirskiy. Photos were never published, and I never finished my post.

Last night, an even better DJ changed my mind once again. And I took my own photo so I wouldn’t have to wait. Bravo, DJ.

My cousin Jojo fronts this great band from Berkeley called Please Quiet Ourselves. Their label, Mushpot Records, sent them to SXSW this week, and I got the following tour diary from my aunt:

It is craz-z-z-z-y here in Austin @ sxsw – nonstop music. JoJo’s first gig was at Sonny’s Vintage – that’s sonny in the gray suit and hat on the right. It was a good start for their first show in Austin. JoJo wore his green KDVS t-shirt! Tomorrow they play at Lovejoy’s which is right smack dab in the middle of all the clubs – so they’re pretty excited. Tonight I saw Jens Lekmann – what a treat!!! I was right up front listening to him play – his mannerisms are just like Jonathan Richman‘s. then went to go see Yo Lo Tengo – a little too loud and dissonant/distorted for my ears – but it was in the Austin Music Hall which houses 4000. Great food here – had delicious bbq beef rifbs for $11 on our anniversary. Having a great time…you guys would love it here! See you soon, love, Jane

Link to bigger pic.

I’m on the Great American Music Hall/Slim’s email list, and every week there’s some show they can’t sell enough tickets to, so they give away a block of free tickets to mailing list members that can answer a trivia question. Last week’s was, “The actor Michael Pitt is also a musician. In which Gus Van Sant movie did he play a brilliant but troubled musician?” I love Michael Pitt the actor, I think mainly because of Hedwig, and since I knew the answer (Last Days), I sent it in. I won, and went to the show. Michael Pitt is in a band called Pagoda, but Friday he played a solo set consisting of brooding, acoustic, one-man grunge peppered with lots of yelps and groans.

Halfway into the opening number: technical difficulties, feedback. An effects pedal is on the fritz. Pitt says, “I just came from New York. They’re doing this thing at the airport now where they take apart your pedals.” Bummer! He fiddled with it a bit, and we got a sampling of some kind of eerie sound collage that presumably would’ve accompanied one or more of his songs. But the pedal proved unfixable, so it was tossed aside and the show went on, sans accompaniment.

As mentioned in the post just prior to this one, I can’t do anything without thinking about how to blog it, so when Pitt finished up I asked him if I could ask him a few questions about the airport experience. He said, “Oh yeah sure,” and then disappeared backstage never to be seen again. As an actor trying to make a go of being a musician too, he’s apparently shy about interviews when on tour, so I was sure to emphasize that I just want to talk about the airport security thing.

In any case, I never got him to elaborate, but I wonder if other working musicians have had similar experiences. Particularly with the whole industry headed down to SXSW, I hope the TSA isn’t fucking up everyone’s gear.

Link to Beautifully Scarred, a helpful Michael Pitt fan site.

Saw The Hives last night. Newish single “Tick Tick Boom” was the big closer, and as it reached its apex (each Hive unleashing final bursts of sonic fury), Pelle delivered a ferocious terrorist-hijacking-themed coda, shouting stuff like, “This Air Hives flight is going down!” and “Are you ready to explode?!” Luckily, after that, they came back and closed for real with the much-better non-single “Return the Favour”. I made an imeem playlist featuring these songs and a couple other highlights from last night, but WordPress won’t let me embed it here

Thriller 25 originally uploaded by allanhough

There’s nothing more titillating than seeing posters of the best album ever on a sunny Valentine’s Day. I think I’ll bust out my Billie Jean moves tonight after the aufblasbare rutsche party (if disproportionate nipples and vomitous crime scenes turn you on, this is the perfect Valentine’s Day aphrodisiac).