Mission Mission

It’s that sporadically open little record store on 20th Street, where you bought weird old records for cheap, and maybe a vintage lunchbox for a friend’s birthday, and maybe a new needle for your turntable. Its owner passed away recently, and his friends and family are trying to find a way to keep his legacy — the store — alive. All Shook Down tells the story:

​”Braindead” Dave Devereaux, owner of Force of Habit Records in the Mission, a small but passionately run shop specializing in rare punk rock, vinyl, and collectible toys, passed away this month of an unknown cause. He was 41.

Devereaux passed away on July 4 or 5 — paramedics found him dead in his apartment on July 5, and autopsies to determine the cause of death have proven inconclusive. For the last year and a half of his life, Devereaux suffered from gastroesophageal problems, according to family members and friends.

“Dave was one of that sort of vanishing species known as a ‘record geek,’” said Jello Biafra, former vocalist of the Dead Kennedys and regular customer at Devereaux’s shop. “Very passionate about music.”

Read on.

[via mmmmcakes]

In case you haven’t already seen Jonathan Richman a million times at the Make-Out Room like the rest of us (he does multi-night residencies there on a pretty regular basis), Night Fog Reader has assembled a multi-part review of the most recent residency, which took place last week.

This fellow set up shop on the corner on both Saturday and Sunday this past weekend playing his amplified lute for all to hear.  The music seemed to captivate all who heard it, as passers-by would stop for a few moments to listen to the eerie progressions.  Rather than the go-to “Play some Skynyrd” that usually accompanies loosely-organized performances, inebriated patrons instead compelled to “Play some Greensleeves, bro!”

While not as furious as the Ferocious Few, for instance, you’ve got to hand it to this busker for his resilience.  Perhaps there’s a Renaissance Fair nearby where he can find his soul mate.  In the meantime, I’m gonna go and listen to some Dragon Warrior NES music.

UPDATE!!!! I am an “expert” at world music and this a West African Kora, not a medieval lute.

Someone must have been so amped to see DJ Avalos at Oldies Night tonight that they couldn’t bother with finding a parking space. Well, that and they also crazily reversed into the building and very nearly caused several instances of vehicular manslaughter. Of particular intrigue is the fact that no substances seemed to be involved.  No, this was sober driving at its worst.

According to our own Mike Chino who was one of those almost struck, “it came out of nowhere, very suddenly.” We’re very happy that Mike’s knees are still intact, and we implore the driver, who drove away 30 minutes later after a lengthy conversation with police, to please learn how to drive a car.

Our pals at Noise Pop recently launched a new regular feature on their website called Town Crier where they get their pals to write guest posts about the local music scene or music in general. This week, they were lucky enough to get yours truly to investigate the local emo scene (which, as we all know, centers around Diary AKA “Emo Night” at Pop’s, which is celebrating its second anniversary this Saturday night). Here’s how it starts:

I never got into emo. Friends in high school were into it, but I just didn’t get it. Years went by, and you stopped hearing about it so much. I thought maybe emo was a thing of the past—and then one night a couple years back somebody invited me to something called “Emo Night at Pop’s.” I liked Pop’s pretty well, so I went, and it was like nothing I’d ever seen before. It was a roomful of kids drinking cheap beer (seemed pretty familiar up to this point I guess) and shouting along to every single word in every single song the DJ played. With such joy on their faces, every one of them. I drank some beer and nodded my head, but I couldn’t shout along. I felt so left out.

Read on for the rest of my emotional story, plus Q&A’s with Diary co-founder Patric Fallon and a real live San Francisco emo kid, and some epic emo videos!

RSVP and invite your friends here.

This is going to be a blast. Music, food, fun. Decent weather. People actually making the trek over to Potrero del Sol for once. (Now, the question still remains: When the hell will somebody bring a decent concert lineup to Dolores? Right?? But I don’t want to be a Negative Nattles; Phono del Sol will certainly suffice for now. It’s gonna be a blast!)

RSVP and invite your friends here.

Tiny Telephone is a world-renowned recording studio located right here in the Mission, right around the corner from Potrero del Sol. Last week, I stopped by and caught Moe Meguro screwing around between takes. I sure love Weezer.

Moe Meguro’s Kickstarter campaign still needs $90 more btw — and it ends in 11 hours!

Well this dude kind of looks like a square, but apparently he’s not, because he’s about to get nasty at Oldies Night tonight at the Knockout. He is mayoral hopeful John Avalos and he’s been invited to guest DJ at tonight’s party. The Examiner, our local newspaper of record, delivers some choice copy on the matter:

Avalos is making a special guest apperance [sick!] at a popular Mission party dubbed Oldies Night and rumor has it the District 11 supervisor will be playing some choice dance jams for the masses.

Described as a “rad nasty dance party,” Oldies Night is regularly attended by the 21- to 35-year-old sect, of the hipster variety. [link]

Rad nasty! The only problem is that Avalos’ headshot, while handsome, isn’t quite as handsome as the usual Oldies Night posters.

RSVP and invite your friends here.

The band is called Appetite, they’re playing for free at Potrero del Sol this Saturday as part of Phono del Sol, and you can watch the video in its entirety right here:

[via The Bay Bridged]