Mission Mission

Electric guitar rather than acoustic.  Instead of Bum-Jovi, think Hobo Costello.  Swap drunken La Bamba for (even lower-fi) Pixies and Sonic Youth covers.  An Italian deli for a French bistro.

Word on the street is he lives with his dad and once climbed into Lennon’s hotel room.

Okay. This is it. Since Halloween is this Sunday it’s kind of like having three solid Halloweens, starting tonight. The Secret Alley plans to open its spooky doors for all three.

Tonight we’ll be showing hours of your favorite animated halloween specials, including “Betty Boop’s Hallowe’en Party” (1933), “Hyde and Go Tweet”, “Lonesome Ghost” (1937), “The Fat Albert Halloween Special” and a bunch more. Stop by and hang a bit.

Saturday you can enter our costume contest when you come to listen to Surf Cinema, T.I.T.S., The Four Eyes, The Pyronauts and The Bananas! You have to come through the haunted laboratory to get there.

Finally, on Halloween proper, bring the little kids by for trick or treating! Yeah, it’s Capp Street, but still.

The Secret Alley is at 180 Capp Street, near 17th.

From the Mission Mission Facebook Wall comes a plea for help, from reader Sarah Snyder:

Sounds good to me! Who were they already?

UPDATE:

They’re Greenbelt, from Canada:

Thanks, Kevin!

First Warhol inspired street art, now this?

Tomorrow night (Tuesday 10/26), a bunch of bay area musicians (including Liz Phair!) are recreating the Velvet Underground & Nico in it’s entirety at Coda Lounge on Mission and 14th.

Here are the confirmed artists:

• Dave Mihaly
• Matt Adams/The Blank Tapes
• Rupa Marya
• Aaron Novik/Sarah Palmer
• Adam Theis/Jazz Mafia/Liz Phair
• The California Honeydrops
• Mark Matos & Os Beaches
• Jugtown Pirates
• Michael Musika
• Charith Premawardhana/Classical Revolution
• Stephan Jenkins (Third Eye Blind)

This will probably be a total shit show. I mean, the musicians that make up these groups alone will probably occupy most of the club to begin with. So if you want in, you’d better score some advance tickets right now here. There will be a 7pm show and a 9pm show.

They are also going to record this entire show and put out a record of it. So if you can’t make it, you’ll still be able to hear it someday. We’ll keep you posted on that as it develops.

More info on the social network.

Yeah, Bottom of the Hill definitely seems to host a fair amount of acts with terrible names. And they all seem to want to advertise how terrible their names are by putting their stickers on the bathroom wall for everyone to see. Curious.

What band names make you cringe?

I know you’ve been dying to check out the new Viracocha space. Well here’s your chance: Megan Keely and her band are having a CD release show  there this weekend, Saturday Oct 23.

Every time I hear Megan Keely, I remember that she has one of the most beautiful folk songwriter voices in San Francisco. She also plays a mean ukulele and kazoo. I first saw her at an Amnesia open mic and quickly saw that she totally out-classed the other performers. Of course, the other “performers” were weird spoken word artists, guys who just figured out how to play “Under the Bridge” on guitar, and shockingly bad insult comics. But still.

Meg got her start at the ever-popular open mic at Hotel Utah. She quickly caught a lot of folks attention and starting doing her own regular gig at Amnesia. Her delightful dad and bro are also in her band. I have no idea how they make that work. I couldn’t even play Legos with my brother for 20 minutes without kicking him in the nose.

Here’s the latest from her record, a tune called “Anymore”:

The album is called “Acorn Collection” and Megan made acorn necklaces for the first 60 lucky buyers. I guarantee it’s the best acorn related purchase you’ll make this year.

The show is at Viracocha on Valencia and 21st. It starts at 8pm and there’s a $10 suggested donation. Mission Mission favorites, and also recent CD releasers, Gaucho will also be playing!

If you miss the show, you can also grab it in CD or digital at her bandcamp page.

Was Dirty Cupcakes. Normally they dress more or less normal, but last night they opted for Sailor Moon chic. Here is frontwoman Lauren’s lower half (I think she said the boots were like $10 at the Halloween store, FYI.):

And here’s drummer Laura getting her collar popped by the band’s personal stylist, Colin:

Bass player Sola looked fab too, but we didn’t get any pictures

P.S. Give them a listen. I particularly like “Get Out.”

I’ve been raving about these guys for years, and yet they’re not on top of the pop charts. Inexplicable.

In any case, Airfix Kits are still pumped to play the Knockout, which is exactly what they’re doing tonight. Let’s go!! In the meantime, let’s listen to “Flex Time” and rock out:

If you haven’t made plans for the weekend yet, they’ve got you covered:

we are going to be doing a big all bay area hip hop night at the knockout this weekend and i’ve probably blown 600 dollars and three months getting ready for it.

its going to be the full range of bay area classics: Mac Dre, E40, RBL Posse, San Quinn, Dru Down, Mac Mall, Master P, the Click, the Whoridas, the Luniz, Too Short, 2pac, Digitial Underground, Spice One, Dre Dog, Keak Da Sneak, Del, Casual, Souls of Mischief, 415, Total Devastation, pretty much anything you can think of.

It’s FREE with a Bay Area Hip Hop T-shirt or any Giants’ gear.  And if you need some Giants’ gear, we’ve got you covered:

Vintage Giants Hat at Afterlife

Giants Converse

How Giants Roll

RSVP to Facebook if you are so inclined.

[Photo from SFweekly]

Our buddy Jennifer Maerz over at Spin closes her 12 Best Moments of Treasure Island Music Fest list with this astute appreciation of Surfer Blood:

The Pavement song “Box Elder” is a quintessential slacker kiss-off tune, especially when it comes to the peppy refrain, “I’ve got a lot of good things coming my way, and I’m afraid to say that you’re not one of them.” In the hands of Surfer Blood, though, the single went from wryly tough to dramatically sincere. Then again, the Florida boys’ entire set was nothing if not earnest. Frontman John Paul Pitts opened the group’s performance Sunday by asking if anyone was excited as he was to see headliner Belle & Sebastian later, and when fans sang along to Surfer Blood’s big hit “Swim,” Pitts responded by saying in all seriousness, “Hey, you guys know that song!” When the band closed out by paying homage to Pavement, Paul’s theatrical quiver added gravitas to a song that’s usually packed with wisecracks.

Yes it did. And before all that, J.P. also performed an epic stage dive, pictured above. Surfer Blood rules.

Previously:

Surfer Blood and Pavement at the Pitchfork Music Festival