While at Zanzibar in Santa Monica for Afro Funke’ last night I over heard a partygoer compliment the host of the evening for his mic swag, “he’s got the gift of gab!” What a genius way to describe someones oratory skills. Coincidently enough, just a few hours earlier Blackalicous rapper and Quannum Projects member Gift of Gab performed on The Amoeba Hollywood stage. Blackalious, a duo comprised of Gab and DJ/Producer Cheif Xcel, found a nice comfy position in the heart of underground hip-hop and has remained there since its inception in 1992. Quannum Projects is a hip-hop collective/ independent record label out of the San Francisco Bay area comprised of DJs and Mcs. Ever heard of DJ Shadow or Lyrics Born? They’re some of the more notable members of the small-unified group. Gift of Gab, although very much still a part of the duo, has been doing solo projects and collaborations with other hip-hop heavies like Lateef The Truth Speaker and Grouch and Eligh since 2004. Last nights zealous show was mind-blowing, short lived, but nontheless enjoyable.

Gift of Gab opened up his set with “A-G”, a Blackalicious classic. DNA Beats shared the stage serving as his DJ. An eclectic mix of enthusiastic die-hard fans—young and old—Amoeba shoppers and employees gathered in between isles to enjoy the spectacle. The show didn’t last anymore than half an hour, but still I left with that adequate feeling of utter satisfaction. No gimmicky stage show with flashing lights galore and all things glitter necessary; this brilliant MC commands the stage with just his voice, as do most of the acts who are privileged enough to grace the Amoeba stage. Then again, isn’t that how it’s supposed to be? His rapid-fire delivery is really what’s most impressive. He’s Speedy Gonzales on the mic. Gab spits out more lyrics in one 8-bar than the sun produces solar power energy per hour. Not just any old meaningless bundle of words, Allmusic best describes his prolific style as “jam-packed with internal rhymes, allusions, metaphors, ten-cent words, and amazing tongue-twisting feats of skill.” Couldn’t have put it any better had my life depended on it.

Tom Lynch
12 Years Employment
Buyer Extraordinaire

Miss Ess: How did you end up at Amoeba?

Tom Lynch: I was working at Car City Records in Detroit, my co-worker, Geoff Walker, had just come back from his vacation to the Bay Area and told me about Amoeba opening in SF and looking for used LP buyers. Geoff had applied on a whim, got interviewed, and offered the job. Geoff came back , decided to go to grad school, declined the offer, and told me that I should give it a go. I was up for a change, not to mention I had just been in a  wreck and had no more van and had no money to buy another one. So fate really forced my hand. I've always felt that they never really got over Geoff turning them down.  

ME: What is the best live show you have ever seen?

TL: Being one of three people in the audience as The Replacements ripped through their set at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit, July 1983. Everyone else was in the bar below the club watching Siouxsie & the Banshees videos. My pal John Maxwell & I and this weird short guy were the only people watching them -- they were opening for R.E.M. -- and this short guy was wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy boots, doing these sliding dance moves and was yelling at the 'Mat's to get off the stage. They were blazing hot; when nobody was looking they would crush you with their ferocity. They just laughed at him, threw lit cigarettes at him.

MAREK HEMMANN
In Between
Freude-Am-Tanzen

This is the debut full-length album from Germany's Marek Hemmann, as well as the first CD long-player from the house of Freude-Am-Tanzen. Hemmann has long been one-half of the duo Hemmann & Kaden, who for years have been the pillars of the new house & techno scene, both as producers and as a live act. Hemmann has also been responsible for innumerable remixes, from Dirt Novitzky to Chopstick & Johnjon to Dusty Kid. In Between is pure technoid material in an eclectic house-world, which offers a new discovery at every turn. From classic deep-droning dub epos over frizzy house with shots of bossa nova and demanding horn-action, up to highly complex sample tone-art, this is a long, rewarding trip through techno-land. With a round of wholly comprehensive melancholy and hypnotic bass lines, the tracks bathe you in a type of beauty that will come over you like a sunrise.


CASSY
Simply Devotion
Cocoon

Like hardly any other contemporary DJ, Berlin-based Catherine Britton, aka Cassy, is living at the interfaces between reduction and soul, jazzy deep house and geometrically-structured techno. In Berlin, she quickly gained a residency at the Panorama Bar, worked as a producer with such renowned musicians as Ricardo Villalobos, Luciano, Mathew Jonson and Swayzak, and has released her music on labels such as Perlon and Ostgut Ton as well as on her own imprint, Cassy. Simply Devotion is Cassy's second mix CD after the highly-acclaimed Panorama Bar 01 (OSTGUT 002CD) compilation, and it is proof of her love for deep house of a different kind, which has -- despite occasional flashes of soul vocals -- nothing to do with garage house. With unhurried charm and a secure sense of the seductive power of house music, Cassy enchants us with more than 70 minutes of sensual sound hypnosis and she starts with an exclamation mark: together with his Ifach buddy Ian Loveday, aka Minimal Man, Baby Ford beguiles the listener with mantra house with hints of Italo-pop. Anton Zaprecalls, with his purified form of percussive dub house, the best days of Chez Damier, and Danny Howells makes you speechless with "September," a breathtaking stringed furioso in the best tradition of Detroit trance, remixed by Future Beat Alliance. Cassy's own unreleased track, "Magnificent Cat Won't Do," is powered by the kind of electrically-charged minimal dub soul that is so typical for her. The final track comes from Miami's house institution and Murk legend Ralph Falcon, with his house mix of "Whateva," which sits somewhere in between R'n'B vocals and acid reminiscences. Other artists include: Trus'me, Jitterbug, DJ Qu, Kai Alce, Azulu Phantom, STL, Taho, Quince, Kassem Mosse, Linkwood, Inland Knights, Kezym, Pierre LX, and Alan T and Alex K.

Friday & Saturday November 6 & 7

The Restored Director's Cut Of

Betty Blue aka 37°2 le matin
1986, France, 185 minutes
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0090563/
dir. Jean-Jacques Beineix, starring Béatrice Dalle, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Gérard Darmon, Consuelo De Haviland
Fri: 8:00; Sat: 4:00 & 8:00, Watch The Trailer!

Continue reading

1) GIft of Gab Escape 2 Mars (Cornerstone Ras)

2) Masta Ace + Edo G Arts & Entertainment (Traffic Entertanment)

3) Mr. Chop For Pete's Sake (Now Again Records)

4) Sene & Blu A Day Late & A Dollar Short (Shaman Work)

5) R.A. the Rugged Man Legendary Classic Vol 1 (Green Street)

6) CunninLynguists Strange Journey Vol Two (Piece So Strange Music)

7) Jern Eye Vision (MYX)

8) Themselves CrownsDown (Anticon)

9) Killa Keise Yellow Tape Zone (Step It Up Entertainment)

10) Kam Moye (aka Supastition) Splitting Image (MYX)

Special thanks to Luis (pictured below) at the San Francisco Amoeba Music for this week's Amoeba Music Hip-Hop Top Ten Chart. The chart has a really nice, diverse mix of new releases, including several homegrown Bay Area albums such as the Haight Street store's top selling rap album this week, GIft of Gab's Escape 2 Mars. This is the second official solo album release, a follow up to 2004's 4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up, from the talented Quannum emcee. Gab is also is one half of Blackalicious (with Chief Xcel) and a founding member of Bay Area rap-supergroup The Mighty Underdogs (with Lateef the Truth Speaker of Latyrx and producer Headnodic of the Crown City Rockers). To help celebrate this new release, which hit Amoeba shelves on Tuesday, the much loved Bay Area MC did an Amoeba SF instore on the release day. "It was really cool and he [Gift of Gab] was awesome on the mic," reported Luis of Tuesday evening's free concert. The artist was joined onstage by Dnae Beats who produced Escape 2 Mars, which was released by Cornerstone Ras.

When I was in fifth grade staying up late enough to catch Dave Letterman's Top Ten was a personal goal of mine every weeknight (on Saturday nights it was staying up late enough to make it through Saturday Night Live in its entirety, but I always conked out right about the time Dennis Miller wrapped up his Weekend Update). I like to think that I became a lover of lists and listing things because of that after-hours fixation of mine, but who cares? The fact is that I do love a list and this year's Halloween happenings were so fabulously choice that I've got to work it out herein, Late Night Top Ten style:

10: Students of San Francisco State University protesting budget cuts on Monday by turning the quad into a graveyard for courses felled by a lack of state education funds. The many headstones featured names of "dead" classes and mourners honored them dutifully in Dios de los Muertos style with candles, flowers and gorgeous little treats. A very clever and seasonally satisfying display of discontent!

9: Rammstein's timely release of their new album Liebe Ist Für Alle Da. Now, I count myself as an accidental Rammstein fan (and there's a good lengthy yarn I could spin about the who, what and why-fors about it), but a fan I am nonetheless ---especially as their machismo-soaked yet obviously Depeche Mode influenced electro-opera-industrial rock always seems to find a place on my annual Halloween mixtape! Not to mention that these German rockers consistently crank out quality music videos that remind us that there once was a time when the medium was viewed as an elevated art-form. Their video for the 1995 single Du Riechst So Gut is perhaps their most romantic (despite the fact that the imagery delves into bestiality, transvestitism and baroque dance routines) and very Halloween appropriate (despite the fact that nearly all their videos could be specified as "Halloween appropriate"). Oh Rammstein, why must thy art be so misunderstood? Maybe it's a European thing...

Time seems to be flying by so fast as we get close to the end of the year. I really do love this time of year and hate that it goes by so fast. As soon as October begins it seems to end. Halloween has come and gone and Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year's Eve will be here and gone before we know it. The music releases will start to slow down in November and December but there are still some great albums coming out. We have a new fantastically great reissue from the fantastically great band Pylon. I can't believe it has already been two years since their last reissue, but it's true! I was about to do a whole blog about Pylon but it was sounding a bit familiar as I was thinking about it in my head. That is because I already did a whole blog about them two years ago. Pylon's first album, Gyrate, was reissued by DFA two years ago on October 16, 2007. You can go back and read my blog here if you want. I just went back and read it myself. I was amazed what I had forgotten over the last couple of years and actually learned something myself. Pylon was great. You may not know that. I sure didn't know anything about them until 2 years ago when that first reissue came out. DFA has now reissued their second album, called Chomp. It is equally as great as the first one. And I love how they recreate the LP artwork for the CD reissue along with the worn in imprint from the vinyl. Pylon was a new wave band from Athens, Georgia, but they have a darker sound than fellow Athens groups the B-52's and R.E.M. They remind me of Siouxsie & the Banshees at times, mixed with the Motels and Romeo Void. Basically, you can just think of any fantastic female led new wave band and mix them all up together and you get Pylon. The band toured a bit with Gang Of Four and also sound like them at times. This second album is at times dark and gothy and at times just a dark sort of punk. I like to think of them as Athens Goth. Seriously. These songs would not be out of place at a death rock night at any club. Good stuff. I really did love that first reissue but had sort of forgotten about Pylon until now. I was so excited when I heard that their second album was also getting reissued. I went and listened to that first reissue again to get myself ready. The second reissue does not disappoint.

Since the release last week of Jason Bitner's engaging new book Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves, the St Martin's Griffin published, 212-page anthology of 60 short stories, has been striking a nerve with  readership of a certain age who can directly relate to and recall its pre-iPod subject matter: the bygone era of the homemade mixtape -- specifically mixtapes made to woo new crushes or love objects.

An image that pops into many minds would be the Rob Gordon character played by John Cusack in the  Stephen Frears directed film adapatation of Nick Hornby's novel High Fidelity and his obsession with making the perfect mixtape, regardless of how long it took. Or as Shirley Manson of the group Garbage wrote for Cassette From My Ex's jacket cover, "Anyone who understands the obsessive attention to detail, the time it took to collate, select, and edit the content of a perfectly executed mix tape, or just someone who appreciated the rhythms and nuances of such extraordinary artifacts will treasure this collection of stories, comfortable and secure in the knowledge that such exquisite efforts were not made in vain and indeed there was a time when a humble cassette tape was perhaps the greatest gift of all."

For Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves, Bitner, who is best known as a co-founder of the wonderful Found magazine series, compiled first-person essays about mixtapes fueled by crushes or love (some tragic, some hilarious, many in-between) written by sixty different writers, many of them journalists & musicians. Contributors include author Rick Moody, This American Life's Starlee Kine, The New Yorker's Ben Greenman, The Magnetic Fields’ Claudia Gonson, Improv Everywhere's Charlie Todd, Mortified's David Nadelberg, and former Rolling Stone writer and MTV2 veejay Jancee Dunn.

ELECTRONIC/TECHNO


STEVE BUG Look Who's Stalking/Zero Balance 12" (COR 067EP)

Steve Bug follows up his Collaboratory mix with this superb 12" for Cocoon. While "Look Who's Stalking" uses the raw energy of Chicago/Detroit house with driving hand claps, percussions and nasty vocals, "Zero Balance" is an experiment in how far you can reduce tech-house to the essence of a bass line. Short vocal loops complete a sensibility that makes Bug's tracks such high quality music.


SIZE Yeah (Gregor Tresher Remix) 12" (PURE 055EP)

VA Snuggle & Slap 2x12" (CCS 041LP). 2x12

CONFORCE Cruising EP 12" (CURLE 021EP)

SIGUR ROS Gobbledigook 12" (KOM POP015EP)

ROBERT HOOD The Pace/Wandering Endlessly 12" (MPM 004EP)

ANDY STOTT Night Jewel 12" (LOVE 058EP)

PACO OSUNA Lemon Juice 12" (PLUS 8106EP)

JABBERJAW The Garden Of Eden 12" (SPC 078EP)

JOHN SELWAY Shake The Snow 12" (THRONE 003EP)

ROCHA/MUGWUMP Hands Of Love (Fingers Of Sand) 12" (IFEEL 001EP)

Beatconductor CARIBBEAN PATH 12"

DJ Koze MINIMAL ELVIS & MIXIMAL MJ 12" LTD001

Danton Eeprom SCORING ONLY TO BE.. 12" CNTX3637

PROXY Who Are You?/8000 12" (TURBO 071EP)      

Super Value SPECIAL EDITS 07 12" SV07

Hell & Christian Prommer FREAK IT 12" 047BUZZ

Another spooky Amoeba San Francisco Halloween has come and gone...thank goodness we have photographs to help us always remember the good, the bad, and the ugly!

We kicked things off with mood-setting DJ sets by DJ Tay and Miz Margo, Taylor in some creepy garb and Margo a dead ringer for Abbey from NCIS!

This set is a collection of 20 flower labels named after the zempoalxochitl or cempazuchil ("twenty-flower") otherwise known as the orange marigold. Traditionally on El Dia de los Muertos, wreaths made from the marigold are placed on the graves of loved ones and offered to the dead. There was no way that I was going to find a collection of labels featuring only marigolds, so a post made up of various flowers will have to do.

PUMA and Ableton (Live) are teaming up for a Beat Showcase at Low End Theory, this Wednesday, Nov. 4th, in Downtown L.A, with performances by Thavius Beck, Take and Matthewdavid.... 

They're also hosting a very special pre-show event, where you can learn FOR FREE beatmaking tips & tricks, including on the software Live, as well as receive free giveaways from Novation, Odyssey, Dubspot; and for those who will come early, PUMA will be giving out some very special limited edition Puma x Ableton tee's made for the event...without forgetting drinks on them!!! It's going to be some real fun, and for those who know about controllers, we will showcase the new Novation Launchpad, pretty ill actually.

Every year I look forward to building my altar for Dia De Los Muertos. It’s become more important to me than Christmas or New Year's, and most certainly more than Thanksgiving. It's time for me to take time out and think of those who have left this world and look forward to their spiritual return via memories, stories and offerings. Besides images of family and friends that have passed on, I like to include musicians and artists who have inspired me in some way. This year, many great musicians from Latin America and Spain have passed. So this is my ofrenda to them. Pan De Muerto, Chocolate and Tequila for all spirits who visit. I hope you can include the souls listed below in your altar or in your thoughts today.

Mercedes Sosa (Argentina)
Argentine folk sing and outspoken activist. Along with Silvio Rodriguez, Victor Jara, Violeta Parra and many others, was part of the Nueva Canción movement. Nueva Cancion was the mixture of Latin American folk music and rock with progressive and politicized lyrics. Mercedes Sosa is not only respected in her native country, but around the world. Her most recent album, Cantora, contains collaborations with the likes of Shakira, Caetano Veloso and Luis Alberto Spinetta.

Jorge Reyes (Mexico)
Jorge Reyes started one of Mexico’s first progressive rock bands, Choc Mool, in the late 70’s/early 80’s. He played both guitar and flute while incorporating many indigenous instruments of Mexico. In 1985, Jorge went solo and released a series of new age albums based upon indigenous Mexican culture. He performed legendary concerts at famous Mexican archeological sites such Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza and his music was used for movies and television shows around the world. Coincidentally, he had an annual Dia De Los Muertos show at The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City that was widely popular.

Folks dressed up all freaky... devil music on the sound system... zombies and skeletons dancing onstage... was it Halloween or just another normal day at Amoeba Hollywood? The distinction is not always crystal clear in the 90028. But if you peruse these photos, you will discover that yes, it was definitely the most haunted day of the year! A day when tombs open and spirits arise, and all manner of ghoulies and beasties come forth looking for out-of-print CDs and groovy dollar records and classic horror movies on Blu-Ray... the lurking madness of Halloween at Amoeba!


We kicked things off with a little Misfits on the stereo (endorsing the patronage of Glenn Danzig, loyal Amoeba shopper) and the costumed Amoebites began arriving in full-on freak regalia! Scott showed up to staff the hip-hop section in the grey beard and American flag headband of the typical Vietnam veteran acid burnout, and got to work upstocking the J. Dilla section while mumbling something about Charlie and the Da Nang Bridge. Edythe and Saffron were resplendent as an old-time groom and bride, Jamie rocked a fabulous handmade Indian squaw shabooz and Annie made the scene in slinky Panther Pink.  There was a sexy vestigial midget nerd (best description I can muster), a purple cosmic space witch, a putrefied but spirited zombie cheerleader, a fearsome Lucha Libre wrestler, and a va-voom Poison Ivy impersonator (the Cramps guitarette of course, not the Batman villain).  Things got really wild & crazy when Kris and Javi showed up as Weekend At Bernie's, in board shorts and Hawaiian shirts with a very authentic-looking Bernie corpse. Melody's outfit was typically mind-blowing, a black vinyl recreation of Klaus Nomi! Juan was regal in Roman toga and Chuck Taylors, Scott was futuristic in a baby-blue flannel onesie as a Twitter post. And Melissa was magical as an alluring marionette. Not one but two serial killers stalked the mezzanine, Travis as Leatherface and Matt as Dinky Doodles, the smiley slasher.  Joel further indulged his aeronautics obsession as the black box from the Air France plane crash, complete with French moustache and attitude. Did I miss anyone? I'm sure I did, but hopefully the pictures got 'em all.  My own disguise was a bit tricky to identify but it was meant to be Peter Gabriel's sci-fi look on the cover of Genesis Live, as the Watcher of the Skies. (Or perhaps Xenu, the god of Scientology, as someone suggested.) Lucas improved on the general idea when he put it on and went around muttering to the staff his dead-on impression of my voice, doubling the horror and really freaking some folks out!