It’s called “Yours Truly, A benefit for the victims of the Ghost Ship fire,” it’s got lots of local talent, and it kicks off at 9pm, this Wednesday. Here’s the invite:

“Not everything has to be on the main road, sometimes you find paradise in the smallest places” – Frankie Knuckles

Fellow Dream Makers,
Our community has been struck by a tremendous loss this past weekend. We admire your resilience and honor your commitment to the collective magic. We are strongest together. Like many of you we are at a loss for words. We all find solace, however, in our community.

This Wednesday night Hard French and El Rio invite you to gather, embrace, share, be, dance, sing or just get some air with family while we honor our fallen primos in Oakland.

Featuring
DJs
Hard French with DJ Carnita and Brown Amy
Carlos Souffront
Vin Sol (Club Lonely , Soo Wavey)
Josh Cheon (Honey Soundsystem, Dark Entries)
More TBA

Bands
Thao (Thao +TGDSD)
Tender Forever
Scott Moore (Live Set)
Hot Lunch

RSVP and invite your friends!

And for other ways to help, KQED put together this helpful list of links.

I mean, when was the last time you went, man?

In case you’ve never been, here’s what’s so great about it. Maybe you should invite that friend of yours who never comes to the Mission.

[via Primo]

Some more fine work by Primo Pitino.

[link]

Now let’s rock:

[via Primo]

Eater SF talked to general manager Peter Hood on Friday:

According to Hood, the reason for vacating Boogaloo’s primo location is indeed due to their newly raised, “whacked out Valencia Street rent,” which the business wasn’t willing to pay. And while Hood confirms that the search for a tenant is on starting in September, he says “We want to stay as long as we can for our employees. Our main concern is keeping our current staff employed and helping them find new jobs.” Since the restaurant is just now hitting the market (with its whacked out rent), that means it could be a while. Either way Boogaloo’s will have 30 days notice, which means there will be time to snag a last “Temple ‘O Spuds.” And, says Hood, he’s “open to relocating,” if a reasonable rent still exists in this town.

Read on for more info and downer details.

The lease on the St. Francis Fountain space was listed for sale on Craigslist for a while a couple months back, not sure what’s going on with that though. But I’d bet a property like Boogaloo’s, located at 22nd and Valencia, will be snapped up real quick.

Gone are the days when friends could argue St. Francis Fountain vs. Boogaloo’s year after year, never worrying that either one might ever disappear.

;(

[Photo by Google Maps]

Happy birthday, Four Barrel! Here’s the official word:

• $1 drinks. Yep: All drinks are $1. In the past we’ve given them away for free, but this year we decided to do some good, and so we’ll be donating the money from the $1 drink “sales” to our friends at the Robot Mata coffee cooperative in Ethiopia. The money raised will go toward school supplies, chairs, facility expansion and renovation, etc. Think of it as a forced donation to a rad cause.
• Free Photo Booth. Glass Coat Photo Booth will be setting up their annual free photo booth from 12pm-4pm so that people can remember this day always and forever.
• We’re serving free Tartine cake promptly at 12pm. (It doesn’t last long)
• For the smaller kids, we’ll have a mobile petting zoo set up in one of our parklet corrals from 12pm–3pm, courtesy of Little Explorers Mobile Petting Zoo.
• Skylite Snowballs (fancy Baltimore sno-cones with hot marshmallow topping) will set up out front from 12pm-4pm.
• Free ice cream scoops while they last, courtesy of our buddies at Humphry Slocombe.
• For the bigger kids: free Street Fighter II and Big Buck Hunter arcade games all day.

[File photo of Primo outside Four Barrel via an old post about Primo's art]

Can’t believe it’s been 10 years already! Seems like only yesterday everybody was like, “What’s the deal with this brand-new bar having ALL THE BEST BANDS AND DJs ALL THE TIME and isn’t their ‘NOPE’ sign funny???”

Seems like only yesterday Jay Reatard (RIP) was playing a 10-minute (amazing) set there. Back when the stage was next to the bar.

Seems like only yesterday we were there for an Oldies Night, laying eyes on Primo for the first time, all that energy behind the decks, and we were like, “ALL DJs SHOULD BE LIKE THIS.”

Seems like only yesterday we were there for a Debaser around Christmastime seeing their Weezer cover band and we were like, “THIS IS WAAAY BETTER THAN ACTUALLY SEEING WEEZER!”

Seems like only yesterday we finally got to see the Dukes of Hamburg for the first time, at a Teenage Dance Craze party on New Year’s Eve.

Seems like only yesterday we saw Stokemonster’s big smile for the first time, greeting us crazy-warmly on our way in.

Seems like only yesterday we were singing “I got soul but I’m not a soldier!!!!!!!!” at karaoke there on a Monday night.

Seems like only yesterday we got ejected from a Debaser for stage diving (when Jamie Jams put on “Holland, 1945″ of course).

Seems like only yesterday Beth was on the door that night.

…………We could go on and on but instead let’s just watch some of one of Jay Reatard’s performances there, and then we’ll talk some more:

Oh and let’s quick enjoy this photo of Primo straight phase-shifting into another dimension that our pal Lizzy took back in ’11:

Here’s what’s happening this weekend:

COME CELEBRATE 10 YEARS OF THE KNOCKOUT! BRINGING YOU LIVE MUSIC, CHEAP DRINKS, KILLER DANCE PARTIES AND MAKING MEMORIES SINCE 2005! AS A SHOW OF THANKS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT OVER THE YEARS WE’VE PLANNED A KILLER WEEKEND OF DJs AND LIVE SHOWS TO KICK OFF THE NEXT 10 YEARS!!!

Friday, July 10 9pm

TEENAGE DANCE CRAZE PRESENTS…
THE GEARS
LOST RITUAL
THE COPPERTONES
Plus The World Famous TDC DJS…
OREN, RUSSELL QUAN & dX THE FUNKY GRANPAW

Saturday July 11, 2:30pm

ALCOHOLOCAUST PRESENTS…
VKTMS
HIGHTOWER
CELLAR DOORS
BUFFALO TOOTH
BREAKARTS
CRYPTO

Sat July 11, 10pm

THE KO SUPER STAR DJ SATURDAY NIGHT PARTY
W/ DJs PRIMO, JAMIE JAMS, SPECIAL LORD B (AKA PAUL PAUL) & JOSH YULE

Sun July 12, 2pm

THE POPE OF YES PRESENTS…
CCR HEADCLEANER
TERRY MALTS
MALE GAZE
THE STRANGELAND
EMOTIONAL
JESUS TAPE

+ PBRn’B DJs

Sun July 12, 10pm
SWEATER FUNK MODERN FUNK AND BOOGIE PARTY
W/Live Sets by KMAXX & PLAZA 

Full-weekend passes come with limited edition KO Anniversary t-shirts. Limited tickets.

Rest up, everybody.

Here is a little more poster art:

And here’s a heap of Knockout-related posts from over the years:

[via Primo]

The dunes are coming for us! Nature’s fury! (Remember what happened last week?)

[via DJ Primo on Instagram]

We know how much you miss Diary, the original Mission emo night at Pop’s that sadly is no more, but rather than get all emo about it, now you’ve got another chance to sing along too loudly to Understanding in a Car Crash at the Knockout every month with Make Me a Mixtape!

Come and party like it’s 1997!

Playing the best 90s/00s old school emo,punk and post-hardcore tunes. All vinyl!

Friday 6-9pm

And the best part is they’re not even trying to trademark the term “Emo Night” like those doofuses down in LA.

Also, after the last American Football tune drowns out, go grab a couple tacos at Cancun and then pop back to the Knockout for Primo’s Oldies Night!  Look at that, I just planned out your whole Friday night.  Now do it to it!

I’ve got a Primo original hanging in my room and I couldn’t be happier about it. Get one for yourself this Saturday:

In case you’re around and want to see some paintings or a few of these weird tshirts I made, this is going on this Saturday night at 1114 Folsom, later that night we’ll be moving to Amnesia for our 2 MEN WILL MOVE YOU party

The shirts are pretty righteous too:

Check out Primo’s Instagram for more.

Primo’s right! GLOBAL WARMING IS GENTRIFICATION

It’s basically a tattoo by Yann Black.

[via Primo]

Every Tuesday night at the Make-Out Room.

In my early days living in the city, I liked to walk home from SF State like this: north along the Muni tracks into West Portal, up over Forest Hill and down into the 9th and Irving area (where I’d stop for a slice or a cookie or a loaf of bread at Arizmendi), past Kezar Stadium, down Haight Street to Toronado (where I’d stop for a pint or three) (they were $2.50 back then!), then down Church Street and up to the bench at the crest of Dolores Park (where I’d stop and do some homework), and then along some more Muni tracks to 21st or 22nd Streets (in what’s called “Dolores Heights” or the “Liberty Hill Historic District” depending on your map) where I’d turn left and head down into the Mission.

I had lots of favorite sights along that route, but this weird Muni-only thoroughfare with high walls between Liberty and 21st just really visually struck me every time I saw it. So after a while I started taking a picture of it every time I passed by, and I compiled them into a PowerPoint. (David Byrne popularized the idea of PowerPoint as art about 10 years ago; I was into it too.)

Soon after, I graduated and stopped walking that route, and then I got busy with work (and blogging) and forgot all about it. Some years later, I was visiting my sister at my parents’ house in Sacramento and she proposed we go to (and participate in) a “multimedia open mic night” at the Villanova House performance space in Davis. I dug through some old boxes I’d put into storage in their basement, found some SF State-era thumb drives and my old Minidisc player, and improvised this “multimedia open mic” performance:

Then Primo ‘grammed this photo the other day and got me reminiscing all over again.

(Oh and it was also along those tracks that I took the photo that became the first Mission Mission post ever.)

[Photo by Google Maps]