Notes on music, arts, drinks, culture, and San Francisco
Written by mikl-em (writer, technologist, theater artist, event producer, & social cacophonist)
Friday, May 27, 2011
Please help me support San Francisco's next great theater venue--StageWerx moves to the mission
My pals Ty & Cory McKenzie are moving their theater space StageWerx from their current location near Union Square to the heart of the Mission—16th & Valencia, the former Intersection for the Arts space. The location is fantastic and so is their commitment to helping indie theater. They are unique in having a large space (4000 sq. ft.) with high ceilings and capacity of over 70 seats. There’s also a separate rehearsal space. Those are sensational additions to the SF local theater scene, and to the Mission in particular. Especially in a time when many small theaters are closing.
They need to raise a bunch of money to do this, and they’ve started a Kickstarter campaign to make it happen. There are lots of licensing fees and important upgrades to make to the space. And they really need your help to make it happen.
Ty has asked 100+ friends to each help bring in $200. Danielle and I are hoping that we can between us get at least $500 from folks in our network. Please take a look and give something if you can to help enable great theater in San Francisco.
Reminder: you can stream or download all the past Can Haz DJ shows and you should, you really should. Sometime soon, I will post a guide to these past shows, to point you to ones that you might particular like (or that I'm particularly proud of). Here's more on some of the music from the most recent show....
Well, good news first. A great new song by guitarist Ivan Julian, one of the original twin guns of Richard Hell's Voidoid arsenal. The Voidoids were an absolute punk revelation for me, even though it took me quite a while to find out about them. Blank Generation is absolutely one of my Top-5 albums of all time.
Perhaps my favorite punk band of the original era are Australia's The Saints. For a very long time I've said it's essential to have their 1976-77 era material and to avoid their later work with just as much determination. That's when Ed Kuepper left the band and lead singer Chris Bailey marched The Saints in a much poppier direction.
Here they are in their prime:
That said, the more recent Bailey-era stuff which is again in a power-trio format is the best since 1977. In fact I actually picked up (or rather down loaded) 2005's Nothing is Straight in My House before the show, and I'm pretty impressed with it. Another Saints album, the most recent, came out in '06 which I haven't heard yet. But the original lineup, Kuepper included, came back together in 2009 to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival. Here's a lo-fi glimpse of that:
And here's a look at the video for the original version of that song, I'm Stranded which was their break through to the world back in 1977:
The sad news is that the great Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex recently passed away. She was incredible, a true original in her punk days. She dropped out of punk as it became more and more the music business as usual. And, sadly, after years away from music, she was just mounting a comeback when tragically she lost a battle with cancer.
Below are the title track from her brand new album, a feature on her from her X-Ray Spex days and a recent interview with her talking about the new record.
Tonight on Can Haz DJ: Listening to an Electronic World
Tonight at 10pm Pacific on RadioValencia.fm, I'll be playing a bunch of great electronic music that incorporates various world musical traditions (Indian, African, Latin, to name a few). There's lots more on the show besides, but here's a taste of some of that "worldly electronic" that you are likely to hear:
And a whole lot more.... Details on the whole show & more videos on the CanHazDJ blog.
