Treasure Island Fest 2009 Lineup Announced… And it’s *AWESOME*

by The Scene on July 13th, 2009

Wow, it’s been a while since The Scene had a post. We’d apologize, but given that us hard-working writer types are also hard-working Dubious Ranger types, the last couple months have been brimming with band activity, touring, cutting a new album, and other small things like that, so our excuse is as valid as my driver’s license 6 months from now. And now, without further ado…

OMG OH DEAR GOD THE TREASURE ISLAND FESTIVAL FOR 2009 IS GOING TO BE AMAZING!!!1111!

Okay,  outburst over. Here’s some explanation:

Saturday (Electronic/Dance day):

You might think we’d get really excited for another chance to see Girl Talk, Dan Deacon, and The Streets. Well, we are pretty excited. Dan Deacon’s shows are otherworldly in a very surreal, hipper-than-thou way that’s entertaining beyond anything you could expect. Girl Talk doesn’t need explanation, Greg’s just the man to run your party, period. And The Streets? Mike Skinner may be getting older, but his hooks are still pretty damn great, even if a lot of his lyrics nowadays just sound like a guy describing whatever he’s passing by in his car. MGMT is headlining the day, and while we enjoyed their earlier shows with a more classic rock, lower-key feel, we’re sure they’ll move the crowd in whatever electro-dance fashion they deem fit. Oh, and local San Jose buzz-band The Limousines will be opening the day, and they rock pretty well too.

And… here’s why Saturday isn’t even that exciting:

Sunday Lineup:

The Flaming Lips - Pure psychedelic joy. What better way to end a weekend than with flying saucers and a bearded acid-casualty savant in a bubble?

The Decemberists - Honestly, they’ve been getting notably better with every single album for the last decade. How the hell does a band DO that?

Beirut - Indie boy wonder is the perfect anachronism for modern music, love it.

YO LA TENGO! - Sonic Youth and Pavement may get the indie godfather award on a more regular basis, but Yo La Tengo is simply one of the best bands you’ll ever see live, plain and simple. Whether hitting up their newer material or plumbing classics from their back-catalog, YLT has an unmatched mastery of dynamics and subtlety, not to mention you can watch Ari go nuts for 20 minutes as the band jams out on “Pass The Hatchet, I think I’m Goodkind”. Yes.

The Walkmen - the best country band who you never knew was a country band. Last year’s You & Me was a Scene favorite, and it’s safe to assume the band’s set at this show will match very well with watching the sun set from the middle of the Bay.

Bob Mould - you remind me of my old high school bio teacher, except you helped invent the underground. Will he be DJing or rocking out this show? Hard to predict, as he’s gotten more and more interested in his turntables these last few years… We wouldn’t mind just *one* cut from Zen Arcade though… pretty please?

Spiral Stairs - The Scene’s always been more of a shameless Malkmus worshipper, but if anything, we’re just more excited to see him take the stage as a solo artist under his old Pavement moniker, rather than as The Preston School of Industry. Not to be mean, but if you’re doing older cuts, could you please please do Date With Ikea rather than Hit The Plane Down? Just a small request, really.

Sleepy Sun - All your acid/psychedelic rock needs bundled into one insanely cool young band. We at The Scene don’t want to pitch these guys too hard at our readers… let’s just say if you don’t check them out immediately and watch ‘em live, you have something extremely wrong with you and you should end your life asap.

I hope we’ve done a semi-coherent job at conveying our excitement. Tix go on sale July 14; go get ‘em, Tiger.

Drum roll…

by The Scene on April 21st, 2009

And it’s been officially released. We know it’s going up against new albums by The Super Furry Animals and Depeche Mode (not to mention Empire Of The Sun’s US release of the best album cover ever made) in competition for your eyeballs and ears, but if you’d like to support The Scene, or if you just like damn great music, you should get this immediately:

The Bay Area’s new “It” band: The Limousines

by The Scene on March 31st, 2009

The Scene figures that, since everybody else in the SF indie scene has spent the last couple weeks drumming up the hype (including a successfully packed coming out party at Pop Scene) for San Jose’s new indie darlings The Limousines, The Scene might as well join the fray and sing a few praises of its own. Well, we guess you can’t really call them indie anymore since they just signed to Universal last week, but major label be damned, these guys have a very cool sound that mashes together the best elements of electro-indie modern touchstones such as MGMT and Of Montreal. Oh, and with their song “Very Busy People”, they also have a catchy and instantly lovable single that uses a cuttingly smart wit to satirize the general pop culture malaise that is the day-to-day life of San Fran scenesters like you and me. Sounds like an anthem to us…

Check ‘em out here: http://www.myspace.com/thelimousines

Even if it may sound a bit like lots of songs you’ve enjoyed for the past 2 years, well, you enjoyed those songs, didn’t you? Then you’ll enjoy these, so quit complaining.

Friday Rock City: Who in the hell green-lighted this tripe!!??

by The Scene on March 29th, 2009

Well, we were actually the ones that green-lighted this music video, and it’s finally launched as of this Friday! Dubious Ranger can now put another notch on their bedposts, as they officially have appeared in something that looks waaaay too expensive for any of these guys to appear in. It just seems weird. And awesome. And weird. Oh, and completely fucking insane.

The Scene says watch it:

Jack Conte, Dubious Ranger, All My Pretty Ones @ Elbo Room, SF, Monday 3/16

by The Scene on March 16th, 2009

Although it’s been a helluva weekend, and we’re all feeling mighty rocked by all sorts of awful parties and hangovers– not to mention this town has to prep itself for true St Paddy’s Day on Tuesday– we’re still feeling good enough to go to this show. Hell, since Dubious Ranger and The Scene share quite a bit of staff, we kind of have to.

But we don’t really *have* to go… We GET to go to this show. This is because Jack Conte is one awesome dude. This wunderkind has been rolling around the country with a one-man performance rig that at times approaches Rube Goldberg if he was into MIDI, and now we hear he’s got an entire band, which should be nothing short of delightful. Oh, and did we mention this? Go watch it. Oh and this too. He’s a bit of a youtube hero, and definitely a friend of the Scene.

It all goes down at 9pm, Monday 3/16 at  Elbo Room in the Mission on Valencia between 16th and 17th. Bring your fixie and your hip snobbery. PBRs are $2, of course, because it’s hipster-town. The Scene says go.

Cut Copy, Matt & Kim @ Fillmore this Thursday, March 12

by The Scene on March 12th, 2009

Who needs to know more than what’s said in the above title?! Cut Copy and Matt&Kim are Scene favorites, they write incredible songs and put on great shows. Need we say more? What else do we need to say? Should we ask you if you like Pet Shop Boys???!!!

Really if you have a brain you should also already have a ticket to this show! (cuz it’s sold out)

DJ Knightlife will be there too. Afterparty goin’ down at Popscene later that night too… see you there you damn dirty hipsters.

Stephen Malkmus officially the coolest guy on earth

by The Scene on February 26th, 2009

As part of San Francisco’s seminal NoisePop festival, currently underway this week amidst a dizzying haze of indie shows and flannel-clad fixie-bikers, Stephen Malkmus played a solo acoustic guitar set at SF’s lovely Great American Music Hall. Performing for a sold-out crowd, this event can only be properly described as a Pavement fan’s wet dream, and coupled with the recent news of a 4/5 Pavement reunion at Bob N’s wedding last week, February is something of a wet-dream month. Excepting the 2 competent but boring folk guitar opening acts, here’s why the night was pure perfection:

- Comes onstage with his laptop, on which he’d just written a loose setlist. He complains about having to use complex apps to write out this setlist, and laments “what the hell happened to AppleText?” Audience calls out for Powerpoint, Excel, etc., someone yells “Nerd!” he laughs and replies “Yeah, nerd!”

- Opens with Pavement live favorite b-side Harness Your Hopes. This is a very good sign for the evening.

- Looks like he may be stoned and is having a great time. The house is packed with what are obviously hardcore Pavement fans making constant requests for rare tracks

- Spends his long set covering every range of his career, from Real Emotional Trash all the way back to Summer Babe and Shoot The Singer. Particularly beautiful cuts include Range Life, Fin, Heaven Is A Truck, Pink India, Starlings in the Slipstream, and encore-closer Here.

- It seems he hasn’t played some of these songs in years, as he struggles to remember certain verses and progressions. It’s all in good fun though, such as when he stops playing Vanessa From Queens after forgetting the 2nd verse and apologizes to the audience with a knowing smirk on his face. In front of this loving crowd, Malkmus can do no wrong; every word and movement from him is gospel, pure and absolute.

- Audience members sing along throughout, but never (thank god) annoyingly so.

- Audience requests are taken regularly, although demands for “1% of One” and “No More Shoes” are met with a “how the fuck am I supposed to do that without a band?” smirk. At numerous points, Malkmus apologizes for not being able to end songs well, since instrumental codas from originals are regularly replaced by random acoustic guitar noise and feedback on certain pieces. Nobody requests a Spiral Stairs song, especially not Hit The Plane Down, which would have been… strange on solo acoustic guitar.

-  Okay, here’s the real juice: returning onstage for his encore set, Malkmus proceeds to break into a seemingly spontaneous cover of “Love Train”. We aren’t kidding. He sings falsetto and gets really into it. So does the entire audience, clapping and singing along. This is a moment packed with humor, absurdity, cathartic release of emotion, intelligence, and humility in the face of adoring fans. In other words, a summary of Pavement’s entire career. Perfection through the art of roughness. Beauty in sound always through natural conveyance of emotions, songs, and lyrics. A pile of gold found on an old crusty seat on the subway. Too many ways to describe the awesomeness.

Point in closing: Stephen Malkmus has been one of the most important voices of music in the past 2 decades, and continues this legend merely by showing up at gigs and being himself. His work seems effortless, his happiness contagious. The Scene loves you S.M.; without your work, we wouldn’t even know what indie rock is.

Show of the weekend: DNA Lounge Sunday Feb 22

by The Scene on February 22nd, 2009

Some people don’t find the Oscars entertaining. Hugh Jackman may be a song and dance man, and Mickey Rourke may be the ugliest Cinderella story of the year, but every year people seem to forget that those Oscars are pure milquetoast.

So what’s your alternative remedy? The Scene has many friends playing tonight at the DNA Lounge in SOMA, San Fran. The show is, unfortunately, a Battle of the Bands, however that fact is balanced by the goodi-ness of many of the bands involved. We’ve got the following SF indie bands playing from 6pm-11pm…

DUBIOUS RANGER
ROBERT GASTELUM
FEAR THE FIASCO
OF THIS CITY
THE SCARLET PIMPERNELS
THE PUNDITS
STEREO FREAKOUT
JHANA
WILD SIDE

Buy tickets this way: https://cart.dnalounge.com/order/?item=50879

Get there this way: 375 11th St. @ Harrison, right near Slims

Oh and Nate Silver already predicted the Oscar winners if you’re really a sucker for suspense: http://nymag.com/movies/features/54335/

Thursday Rock City

by The Scene on February 10th, 2009

Hey Scenesters, so this Thursday, we’ve been informed of a great lineup playing at Retox in San Francisco from 9pm til 1am, and it looks to be a big whammy, in the parlance of our times. The gritty nitty:

What: Fat Skeleton (dancey psychadelic metal/electronica/rock from Modesto), Mass Fiction (Slammingly catchy pop-rock/electro/classic rock from Berkeley), and Fat Water (Electro-experimental avant-garde noise jams)

Where: Retox, 628 20th St, San Francisco, 21 and over only

When: Thursday, Feb 12, 9pm-1am

How Fat: Two Fats and a Massive. Now THERE’S a great name for a cock-rock band.

The Scene likes all of these bands. A lot. We’re going… are you?

San Francisco Halloween Bash: Everybody Gets Slayed

by The Scene on October 25th, 2008

Hey there ladies and gents, been a long time since we’ve posted anything, what with the economy, an addiction to shwarma, and a man-bear hybrid that refuses to stop chasing us around. Luckily, that quick bastard is taking just enough of a breather to let us chat about the place to be this Halloween. The Scene and some of our best buddies are getting together this Friday, Hallow’s Eve, at Irelands 32 for an excellent show and party, aptly dubbed “Everybody Gets Slayed”. Theme of the night: Haunted Saturday Morning Cartoons. Do you remember the theme song from Dino The Last Dinosaur? We don’t, but you can make up the words if you’re hammered enough. The gist:

1. It’s an Irish pub in which you don’t have to be embarrassed that you blame witchcraft and illiteracy on the beer you just spilled on yourself.

2. From 7-8, you can get your body rocked by hot spins from DJ Hot Rod. He’ll make you dance, we promise.

3. From 8-9:30,  your favorite indie insaniacs Dubious Ranger will be powering through earth-shaking art-rock and freak-out pop– including covers by none other than David Bowie, Blondie, Talking Heads, and The Beatles– and blowing you away in general. They will be dressed as Ghostbusters, fucking aye.

4. There will a costume contest that won’t make any sense because that guy who spent $1000 and 40 hours building his Mum-rah outfit will lose.

5. 10-12: Your favorite hair rock + polka/klezmer 8-piece funk band, Sex With No Hands, will hit you across the face with  1.2 Gigawatts of laser-light-show power and accordian+vocoder sexual magic.

6. 12-onwards: best Halloween afterparty in town, featuring Portland’s Excellent Gentlemen. Imagine Chromeo, but more slow-jams, and they can actually sing without autotune. Yaaaaay.

7. Did we mention the entire  night will feature a huge laser-light-show? Yeah guess we did.

This all sounds awesome. The Scene says Go.

You can get tickets here: http://everyonegetsslayed.eventbrite.com/

Next Page »