Mission Mission

Positive Destruction, the local music blog devoted to writing even more Oh Sees posts than I do, just put together a year-end best-of list:

The Bay Area absolutely smashed it in 2011, with some of our favorite artists releasing amazing albums, EPs and cassettes that we’ve been listening to endlessly this year. It was incredibly difficult to cull the past 12 months to our favorite 15 releases, but we did it anyway.

Thee Oh Sees’ “Carrion Crawler/The Dream” double-EP (pictured above) gets the #1 spot, which is fair, but I gotta say I think I like the Mikal Cronin record even better, so definitely buy it for the garage rocker on your shopping list. Read on for lots and lots of locally made gift ideas.

This Thursday, Noise Pop presents a special party at the Cal Academy featuring The Ferocious Few. Here’s the deal:

Noise Pop is proud to announce our partnership with Nightlife at California Academy of Sciences. Every couple months we’ll join forces with Nightlife to bring unique and exciting programming to this beautiful and living space. On December 8th, we’re bringing The Ferocious Few to the museum so they can pummel their way through a powerhouse set of pop gems.

Having mostly seen these guys playing on dirty Mission street corners, it’ll be extra special to see them in a world-class science museum. To win tickets, tell us your best Ferocious Few-related anecdote in the comments section below. A winner will be chosen based on merit. Contest ends at noon this coming Wednesday.

Buy tickets here.

Our pal TK went to a great show at the Independent last night. Great except that some loud talkers (not pictured) talked through the whole thing and bummed everybody out:

Standing by the bar was a group of four, two guys and two girls. And during the entire show, nonstop, start to finish, they were YELLING at each other. I don’t think they could have heard a single song. I really just do not fucking understand this. With service fees and everything, tickets to this show were around $22 apiece. Why would you spend $22 to go to a show that you have no interest in watching and then compound your mistake by bothering everyone else around you who IS watching it? Fuck you. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck you.

After a couple of songs of that, we moved further up into the crowd and that fucking frizzy-haired bitch’s donkey-like braying receded, but I was treated to a fresh round of her shrieking every time I had to go to the bar, which was often. Fuck.

Read on for TK’s solutions to the problem.

It’s called Tikva Records, and it’ll be occupying the Queen’s Nails Annex space through December, hosting a bunch of events and promoting the release of Songs for the Jewish-American Jet Set: The Tikva Records Story 1950 – 1973, a collection released last month. Here’s some of what’ll be going down:

*Fool’s Gold (CD Release Event)
*El Gavachillo con Banda La Juvenil w/ Wil-Dog of Ozomatli
*Steve Berlin of Los Lobos
*Zach Rogue (Rogue Wave)
*The Burton Sisters
*Members of Dengue Fever
*Sam Hoffman and Eric Spiegelman (Producers of Old Jews Telling Jokes)
*Geo Trio w/ Original Members of Garaj Mahal and Special Guest Rasaki Aladokun
*Jeremiah Lockwood w/ Guests Ethan Miller (Comets On Fire, Howlin Rain) and Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars/The Black Crowes)
*49th Street All-Stars w/ Dan Lebowitz (ALO), Scott Law (Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings), Nicki Bluhm, Joe Kyle Jr (The Waybacks), Dale Fanning (Materialized), and Jordan Feinstein
*Dan Lebowitz & Friends
*Rebecca Bortman (My First Earthquake)
*Club Unicornio Kosher Mambo Party
*Tel Aviv’s Charlie Megira & The Modern Dance Club (CD Release Party)
*American Musical Heritage Foundation Presents The Kosher Katz and Kittens with Glenn Allen Howard
*Stories on Record: Bring Your Jewish Record Collection to Tikva Records
*Double Feature Yiddish Musical Screenings Daily at Tikva Records

Read the full press release after the jump…

[Photo by Bernalwood]

(more…)

Nicole from The Bay Bridged gives us the rundown on the first edition of The Bay Brewed:

This is our second NEW event of 2011 and I am really excited that this one is finally going to happen for real. The idea is this: you go to a beer festival and pay $60 to taste unlimited beers, which is great and all, but the music usually SUCKS. We decided why not bring down the ticket price, invite all the amazing local breweries (Lagunitas, 21st Ammendment, Anchor… list goes on), get sausages from Rosamunde, and then enlist AWESOME local bands. You and I both know that I would pay $45 to see Terry Malts any day of the week, but Weekend and Sleepy Sun are worth the ticket price alone. And you’ll leave with a Bay Brewed beer glass for keeps!

Buy tickets here.

The Bold Italic and Dusty Stax are throwing an epic party at the Verdi Club weekend after next:

Join us by dressing sharp and celebrating a night of shakin’ your stuff with a live soul revue supergroup with a 9-musician strong backing band. The lineup includes an All Star Girl Group featuring Turn Up Records Recording artist Heidi Alexander (The Sandwitches), Shannon Shaw (Hunx and His Punx), Noelle Cahill (Magic Trick) and Jen Snyder (Jonesin’).

A few fellas will sing along too, including Sonny Smith of Sonny & the Sunsets, Kelley Stoltz, and your host Dusty Stax, crooning out favorites by Ike and Tina, Irma Thomas, and The Crystals to name a few. Dick Vivian (Proprietor of Rooky Ricardo’s Record Shop in The Lower Haight) will work the turntables with classic soul singles. He’ll also be offering instruction on how to dance like a pro!

Bites from one of our favorite pop-ups, Rice Paper Scissors, and libations will be available for purchase to keep you fueled for dancing the whole night long. We’ll start you out with a complimentary cocktail from Distillery No. 209. The ever-delicious Mission Minis will be there too, with free cupcakes in holiday inspired flavors to hit your taste buds at just the right angle.

And check out this strict dress code:

No denim will be permitted. For fellas: ties and collars are a must and leave those sneakers at home. Ladies: you know what to do… Just don’t forget your dancing shoes. And don’t stress about dates, stags and the like are welcome. 21 and over dance all night!!

Tickets cost $30 each, so if you’d like to win a pair for free, post a sneak preview of you in your outift on our Facebook wall. Contest ends Wednesday, December 7, 2011 at noon, when a winner will be chosen based on merit. Good luck!

Or maybe neither? These guys can’t seem to decide:

[via Carlos]

Ash Reiter has been one of our favorite local bands for years now. This holiday season, they’re offering a free download of a new Christmas song. Check it out here.

Mission Mission on Tumblr picked up on this news early yesterday and posted the mp3 for all to hear. It’s sure to cure your holiday blues. Click through to listen:

Dido – “Thank You” (Myles’ Retune)

It’s this coming Saturday, which gives you two whole days to digest. Some other key things to remember:

• Breezy Nix is our special guest DJ, in town just for the weekend. She will undoubtedly bring the house down, so bring your dancin’ shoes.
• This is our first party with an absolutely first-rate DJ booth and soundsystem, so bring your dancin’ shoes.
• This party goes ’til 2AM.
• $2 beer until midnight.

RSVP and invite your friends!

Plus, be sure to check out (and bookmark) the newly launched AMERICANTRIPPS.COM.

Note also that this is our first time throwing this party at Project One, which is located just a teeny bit outside the Mission. It’s still easy to get to though, via the 22-Fillmore or something, or your bike or feet:

[Map by Bing Maps because I can't get any Google products to load here at DIA.]

*Disclaimer: Mission Mission and American Tripps are sister operations, as they were both my idea. Thanks, all, for your continued interest in both.