SCARED TO DANCE

Party with me and some of San Francisco's finest at Scared to Dance presents NYE!! 15$, free champagne at midnight. Awww yeahh.

current tune // tonight's happenings

Back in the bay and ready for The Soft Moon tonight at the Rickshaw Stop!! Thanks Popscene. The show isn't quite sold out yet, so if you're into psych-tinged new wave post punk stuff, have a listen to this tune and get yourself to the Rickshaw.

3 am

Current tune:

I leave for Los Angeles in just a few hours, and I couldn't be happier to get away from the downpour going on outside right now. It literally sounds like buckets of water are being thrown onto my widows. I'm dreaming of a dry, valley landscape. The feeling just before you start sweating. Having to squint while wearing sunglasses. UV rays and some vitamin D!!! But mostly my sisters and my pup Charlee. L8R SF. See you before the new year.

Wednesday musings

When your world is in a state of flux and nothing can stop the subtle and not so subtle changes in life from coloring your reality violent shades of red, there are things that remain safe and untainted. Family and friends--the kind of love that only evolves--are necessary for these times. When I can't have those selected people around when I need them most, I'm so grateful I have music to keep my mind, ears and heart busy.

You can memorize every lyric, riff and flourish of a song, yet it always has the potential to take on new meaning with each listen. It could be the song you traveled Europe to, the song you fell in love to, the song you met your best friend to, the song you danced that sexy dance to, that reliable song you listen to while walking to work everyday. It can be all those things, and then one listen later it can be something completely different.

Music is incredibly reliable, especially for its dynamic nature, its ability to morph into what you need it to be and what you want it to be.

That is the greatest thing about music and why I enjoy writing about it. It is concrete, something an artist carefully crafted to convey whatever emotion or narrative he/she wanted to put into the world. But in a way it is also completely subjective. The listener can turn it into whatever they need at the time, they can make it suit their surroundings and circumstances, the weather, their relationships and any triumph to trial they are experiencing at the time.

"Love is a Laserquest" by Arctic Monkeys hits right at home these days for several reasons. The cold weather and slight holiday blues are just a couple. Whether those reasons are literal or metaphorical interpretations of the lyrics or just something I've invented in my mind, this tune served as the perfect soundtrack for my meditative adventures around the city today, just as it has served me on several quiet nights at home. My favorite version is an acoustic one Alex Turner performed live on KEXP.

For me writing about music is flirting with both sides of it: the concrete and subjective. I enjoy picking apart lyrics just as much as I like to let the music speak for itself. I like to provide my own interpretation of it but leave much of it to the artist. This is exactly why any type of music writing works. Yes, there is the good and the bad (obviously), but there are so many ways one can attack music journalism. A writer could describe the notes in technical terms, if they are well versed in music theory, or they can turn what they absorb from music into a kind of poetry, an art form in itself. Some may laugh at the idea and insist "writing about music is like dancing about architecture," but criticism in any field is essentially one person's understanding of an outside entity, something some other artist created--like the art it focuses on, criticism isn't necessary but people are driven to create it and others are tempted to take it in, which is why literature, film, art and yes music has always had critics, whether those critics have audiences of thousands of readers or, like this blog, just a few.

The Spyrals on fire

The Spyrals playing an acoustic version of "Lonely Eyes" at a bon fire in Los Angeles. Shot by Joo Joo Ashworth, who coincidentally snapped some photos of Down and Outlaws for me back in November! Enjoy the double acoustic madness.

The Spyrals - Lonely Eyes from Joo-Joo Ashworth on Vimeo.

Moon Duo returns home

flyer by Celeste Byers

The San Francisco locals of Moon Duo are returning home to the city tomorrow night! Along with keyboardist Sanae Yamada, Wooden Shjips guitarist Ripley Johnson weaves other-worldly space rock through familiar lo-fi fuzZz to create a neo-psychedelic sound that's both sinister and charming at the same time. So head over to Bottom of the Hill tomorrow night and be ready to have your senses stimulated. In the meantime, check out Moon Duo's music video for "Sleepwalker." Its definitely worth sharing again.