Sonic Youth @ the Independent, SF, CA

this picture may not reflect how incredibly AWESOME sonic youth were last night at the independent. funny, i was flipping through this blog recently, since i've been posting more again on it, and saw the beck post that i made after seeing him last august at the independent, one of my favorite places to see music in SF. the intimacy of this 500 person club for these major performers is so incredibly seductive.

last night thurston moore shimmy'd out to an equipment case that was an extension of the stage during one song, and kim gordon was just RAWKING a gorgeous blue bass right in the faces of those in the front row. i was happily checking the show from upstairs. it was a stellar situation to walk into...knew about the gig, wanted to go, didn't get tix, forgot about the gig, then was reminded of it while at yoshi's, checking out "wild magnolia" from new orleans. yoshi's sf was cool, and i'm BEYOND excited to see everest there sept. 01. BEYOND!

i don't know the names of many sonic youth songs. but i WAS that typical fan that new the "hit" they saved for the middle encore, exprssway to yr skull. thx again to the people at another planet entertainment, and the kind folks at the indy. very grateful!

Phish Red Rocks 8.01.09 MOUND

wow

neal casal at pleasure point paradise spot

neat treat for the santa cruz locals in the newly renovated women's surf shop right off 41st avenue, paradise surf shop. pretty trippy seeing music in there, but the set up was great, and the sound didn't suck at all. ashley lloyd started the evening, neal belted out a GREAT set, complete with all his fancy, subtle guitar mastery and epic songwriting, followed by a passionate performance by carey ott. suffice it to say that i could not be happier that neal feels at home at The Point in santa cruz. its music to my ears!

Elbow on KCRW

i LOVE this band. from the brief intro, this is an incredible treat. can't believe they've been together for 18 years! that's not nothing!

hiss golden messenger...again

i'm so into this HGM album & i urge you to buy it from this link that i'm providing to the iTunes store. i wrote a geeky review for the sucker on iTunes (i've NEVER done that) and this is what i said:

not easy to review this complex yet simple sounding album. i keep coming up w all these polar opposite ways of describing it: timeless but contemporary, vintage yet current, seemingly "less is more"-sounding but full at the same time. i find myself enjoying this album more every time i hear it. love when that happens.



and i'll officially use that as a great intro to my new gig doing Artist Relations at reapandsow.com, a digital music distribution company based here in SF. i may never have heard this album if i wasn't working at reapandsow. or maybe it just would have taken me a longer time. either way, i'm beyond excited at this new opportunity to work so congruently with what has obviously been a passion of mine for as long as i can remember. i almost credit peter gabriel, back in 1993, when i saw him on the US tour. or secret world. or whatever it was called. that show blew me away. it wasn't long after that i started seeing ekoostik hookah in tiny little bars on the east side of cleveland, followed by phish, then the grateful dead...so that was really my trajectory. then lots more hookah and phish...until i smashed head first into ryan adams music...but i digress.

reapandsow is an awesome organization filled with passionate people who commit their lives to music. now i'm one of them. thx for being patient as my transition from being a Fashion Jewelry Designer sales rep clunkily landed me doing what i want to be doing: serving a purpose to both artists and fans by connecting the two. not unlike what i was doing before just a switch of atmosphere. yay!

hope you get to follow your dreams today...

Hiss Golden Messenger

GREAT album, great band, great tune...peep it!

"Hiss Golden Messenger, who dip a twig down into ontological anthills, nibbling at the crawling wisdom they pull up and spitting it out with sticky, effervescent insight. Born from under-sung S.F. great The Court and Spark, this now bicoastal aggregate is like a blue-eyed answer to Niyabinghi music, observing, "The truth is that we're here and then we're gone," yet still knotting their talented fingers into something celestial, folkloric and deep paired with a sparkling, enormously easy to like musical feel that draws freely from '60s English folk, Meddle era Pink Floyd, Jamaican strains, Winwood-esque pastoral jazz-rock and more."

Dennis Cook - 2009 -

Hiss Golden Messenger
"Watch Out for the Cannonball" (mp3)
from "Country Hai East Cotton"
(reapandsow, Inc.)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Rhapsody
Buy at Napster
Stream from Rhapsody
More On This Album

choice phish youtubes

i fell in love with phish in the fall of 1994. or maybe it was before that. i guess it was spring of 94, when i saw my first phish show. being in love with phish has been a roller coaster, to say the least. i don't know if its especially because i am beside myself to get to my first show in almost 5 years or if its because the way they are playing (based on the recordings i've heard) sounds pretty epic, or if its just a vibrational thing (i think its prob the latter) but i got inspired to poke around on youtube for phish 1994. i found this incredible documentary that has had me SMILING ear to ear while i've been watching it. i'm reminded of that fall tour that i saw many of these bluegrass acoustic songs for the first time, and the spirit and energy was just completely transformational!

i can't possibly describe the way i've been feeling lately about phish. i guess i've never quite been able to articulate it...me and every other phishhead that feels phish as a life-path. i'm newly inspired to love phish again. its time. so i punched in a favorite combo into the youtube search tonight: phish 1994. this is what i found...SO FUCKING GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!