7/10 Jugbandwashboardgospelbluesylicious!

Ever been to a hoe down? I mean a real hippified, jug band, backyard, bare foot, dust kickin’ kinda hoedown? Well, being from Virginia and having been fortunate (?) enough to get hitched to the String Cheese Incident, Keller Williams, Hot Buttered Rum Band set for a while, I’ve been known to get my feet dusty on occasion. And you can too, (granted, without the actual dust) as Ashkenaz hosts a show by Oakland roots and “Soul Tub” band The California Honeydrops.

While young in years the Drops are old in influence. Versed in varying types of American Roots Music (that catchall category encompassing Blues, Bluegrass, Ragtime, Gospel, Jug Band and music originating in rural Southern and Midwestern communities) the quartet of Lech Wierzynski, Nansamba Ssensalo, Chris Burns and Ben Malament play everything but the kitchen sink as they run through bluesy numbers and dance floor friendly interpretations of classic work by Big Bill Broonzy, Rae Charles, The Soul Stirrers and a long list of other acoustic artists that are being pushed more and more into obscurity with each digitally enhanced day.

Check them out tonight as they put a new hand clapping, foot stomping twist on some old classics. Some sweet southern licks right here in Bay. Bare feet optional.-Kwan

6/27 O Scene Weekend

Featured Event: Soulstice Swap

I got a call a few weeks back from the moms. She’d found a box of my old clothes and wanted to know if should she keep them or sacrifice them to the gods of Goodwill. When she started describing the threads it instantly took me back the early ’90’s, what’s referred to in hip hop as the Golden Age, when the usic was pure and the clothes were super huge and super bright-I’m talking purple jeans, orange and purple Nikes, multicolored Cross Colours button ups with the fitted baseball caps and jackets that matched the rest of the outfit way, way too much. And these were the stepping out clothes. We must have looked like a gang of hood peacocks. Needless to say the box got the donation treatment real quick.
If you’re in possession of such a box of unmentionables, or just have a closet full of last year’s designs you’re itching to get rid of, the homeys from Homeygrown have to solution: bring everything down to Soundwave Studios this Saturday for the Soulstice Swap, a knock down drag out free for all clothing and stuff swapathon. Just show up with your own bag of clothes, movies, books, music or nonperishables and dive right into the mountains of free schwag.
Homeygrown is a local arts and design collective with the mission to “provide a support system for striving artists by offering outlets for exposure.” In the past they’ve sponsored fashion shows, screen printed T-shirts, pushed artist created merch at local street fairs and thrown kick ass parties on both sides of the bay.
Saturday’s event should be another good time. And with the promise all you can drink beer and Sangria for 5 bucks, you just might find yourself coming home with a few questionable items, but hell, just toss them in the closet till next Summer. Unless you find a pair of Orange and Purple Nikes. I might want to get those from you.-kwan

Soulstice Swap
$5
3pm
Soundwave Studios
2200 Wood St,
www.homeygrown.org

6/13/08 O-Scene Weekend

Featured Event: Emily King and Anthony David

A guitar, a mic and a head full of songs combined with a few beers and a reasonably attentive audience-it’s such a simple formula really, and that’s what makes it so damned hard to pull off.
Before the digitization of all things melodic turned everyone and their momma’s into laptop producers, the easiest way to jump into the industry was as a singer/songwriter: get a halfway decent guitar, a few heartfelt lyrics and a couple of people to listen to you and boom-you’re a musician.
But while a hand full of newbies have successfully pulled off the Joni Mitchell/Traci Chapman steez, the road to Bob Dylanhood is littered with discarded guitar cases, cried in beers and song lyrics scribbled on barroom napkins. But for singer/songwriters Emily King and Anthony David, playing tonight at Q’s lounge in Jack London Square, the road has put them on the highway to success and a possible place among the coffeeshop greats.
22 year old Emily King is a bit of a musical prodigy. After leaving school at 16 because classes were moving too slowly, the ambitious New Yorker got her GED and set out to start her own musical movement that so far has led to international acclaim and a 2007 Grammy nomination for her debut album “East Side Story”. From the beginning, King’s music-nimble guitar playing under soul, jazz and pop melodies that lives somewhere between Corinne Bailey Rae, Norah Jones and Mary J Blige, has been drawn from her life story, independent ideology and desire to make a difference in the world. “I think music is such a revolutionary thing” she says “and that’s what it should be.”
Atlanta’s Anthony David isn’t necessarily out to start a revolution, he just wants to make some good music. “Sometimes (my music) is escapism, sometimes it’s sympathy or emotion,” he explains. “Sometimes it’s grounded in the present and some times it’s taking you away from it.” The modern day troubadour calls his style “Millennium Blues” because of the way it “all goes back to the blues. The lyrics, the music, my using everything from acoustic to hip-hop, the story telling…all of it connects through the blues like a bridge.”
A product of Atlanta’s singer songwriter and spoken word scenes, David is signed to close friend India.Arie’s Soulbird Music label and has worked with some of the ATL’s most prolific performers. When he straps on his guitar southern influences drip from his music like molasses. His guitar playing on his new album “Acey Ducey” has a relaxed, “on the front porch” ease to it, and his lyrical honesty paints a picture of a man who’s comfortable in his skin and with what he has to offer.
David’s songs are impressive without trying to impress. From the duet “Words,” that reveals his musical relationship with Arie, to the “Red Clay Chronicles,” a candid depiction of hustling and city life to “Smoke One,” an ode to kicking back with friends-David says this relaxed, no frills approach to music is the only way he’d ever think of creating.When the young revolutionary from back east meets the laid back southern crooner tonight over dueling guitars, it should be a great meeting of the musical minds as well as an instructional session on how to make this deceptively simple style sound as sweet as we all know it can.-kwan

Emily King and Anthony David
$35
Doors at 6, Show at 8pm
Q’s Lounge
126 Broadway, Oakland, CA
www.eandjbbq.com

6/12 Mix it Up East Bay

It’s time again for Mix It Up, the monthly meet ‘n drink get together for young and young at heart activists, artists and organizers in the East Bay.  Often firmly entrenched in some social justice campaign or another, Mix It Up offers a much needed chance for organizers to step away from the policy debates and funding crises and kick back with some fellow do gooders (and is it me, or is the activist set just full of hotties?). The night usually starts off with a short presentation and discussion-tonight the topic is “Public Art: Essential for a Vibrant City”- followed by all out networking, imbibing and revelry.  Green, eco friendly, sustainable revelry, of course.  Take a brake from saving the world for a few hours and have a beer.  The world will thank you for it later.-kwan

5/27: WordPress 5 year Anniversary party

Happy Birthday WordPress!

The company that launched a million blogs turns 5 today.

It was just 5 short years ago that Matt and the WP team unveiled the publishing platform that essentially changed the way people viewed media and content creation (sorry Blogger) and made it so much easier for people (including our grateful OB staff) to share their inner most feelings, political commentary and pictures of their cats in amazingly compromising positions with the rest of the world.

So if you’re like a bazillion other people and currently run a WordPress blog or three, get your hind parts over to 111 Minna tonight and toast the company that made it all possible. Or if you’re the antisocial type (as are a lot of bloggers) just come through, get toasted, hear some tunes, stare at the crowd then come home and blog about it. It’s all in the spirit of the party.-kwan

5/23 O Scene Weekend

Featured Event: Decoy

The ability to manipulate form and color in order to blend into your surroundings is one of nature’s true wonders and a time honored tool for hunting and basic survival. Whether it’s a frog turning itself all types of rust colors to snag that tasty fly, or a fish that blends into the background whenever the big bad eel comes along, or the short skinny kid from middle school who strikes a ninja pose and vanishes into the crowd to avoid that weekly ass kicking, in certain situations, the ability to fade and mimic have proven to be crucial skills.

Along these same lines, certain industries have been known to use visual deceptions to their advantage in several, sometime shiesty ways. From passing counterfeit twenties to packaging a generic product to look just like the New! Improved! Tide! sitting right next to it, media and marketing especially have been using mimicry,camouflage and decoys to get over for years.

Tonight a group of artists are giving the technique a try. Decoy, the new show at Lobot Gallery is a group exhibition of sculpture, painting, video, and works on paper featuring recent work by Patrick Blaeser, Robert Burden, Ross Campbell, Diane Derr, Robert Jackson Harrington, Claire Jackel, Whitney Lynn, Jana Rumberger and Brian Stinemetz. The show attempts to engage the political and psychological aspects of deception, perception, cognition and abstraction.

There’ll be music by The Tea Set, MNDR and Family Tree, and Lobot Resident Artist Patrick Blaeser will open his studio for viewing.

Decoy
Friday May 23
Free
8:30
Lobot Gallery
1800 Campbell St. Oakland
www.lobotgallery.com

Mix it Up on Valentine’s Day

Want to get a window into who’s going to be running this city in 15 years? Swing by Arsimona on Thursday evening. You will meet activists, organizers, and many other people ready to discuss East Bay issues they care about. It’s Mix it Up East bay, and this time, the theme is increasing sustainable foods in urban areas. So get there early — these events get crowded — pick up your glass of wine, and settle down for presentations by People’s Grocery, Oakland Food Connection, and the Growing Youth project from the Alameda Point Collaborative.

When: February 14 between 6 pm and 9 pm
Where: Arsimona bar and lounge, 661 11th Street
How Much: Free
Questions? Call Emily at (510) 435-8248

1-11-08 Novoscene Weekend

From Oz to Astrology, murder mysteries to musical hipsters, the second week of 08 is looking pretty good for the fun obsessed. Indulge all you want. -Kwan

Friday, Jan. 11

Welcome to Oz
In late 2007 Clean Skateshop and Sense6 Recording got together to form the Oakland Zoo Krew, an arts and events company focusing on urban arts and skater culture. The crew has a full slate of goodness planned for the new year starting tonight with Clean’s already infamous 2nd Friday’s Art show. Tonight’s show features photos and art by Joe Brook and Dylan Maddox of Slap Magazine and tunes by E.T.C and resident beast master DJ Ooh Child.

Oz 2nd Friday Art Show

Free

8pm

Clean Skateshop

1432 Franklin St. Oakland

http://oaklandzookrew.com

Tuesday 1/8 ANDREW CARRIERE & THE ZYDECO ALLSTARS

“A native of Southern Louisiana, accordionist and singer Andrew Carriere brings a long family tradition into his playing. His father was the legendary Creole fiddler “Bebe” Carriere, his uncle was accordionist Eraste Carriere, and cousins Chubby, Calvin, and Roy Carrier are popular in the zydeco arena. Carriere moved to the Bay Area in the ’60s, learned accordion from the late Danny Poullard, and is featured vocalist on the California Cajun Orchestra’s “Not Lonesome Anymore” CD. He performs regularly with the Creole Belles and CZ & the Bon Vivants, and more occasionally in the Cajun Classics.

Carriere’s Cajun/Zydeco Allstars are steel guitarist Billy Wilson, drummer David “Killer” Hymowitz, guitarist Mitch Polzak, and fiddler Marty Jara. The lineup may not seem particularly “traditional” to current followers of Cajun and zydeco, but, Wilson explains, “This is the real tradition that came out of the ’50s and ’60s honky-tonk Cajun bands, where they just had fun and played for dancers. The steel guitar was right there, and fiddles and an occasional lead guitar.” And, of course, the accordion. The repertoire is the standards and classics of Cajun and zydeco, old and new.”

Andrew Carriere and the Zydeco Allstars
$10
Doors at 7:30 p.m.
Cajun/Zydeco dance lesson at 8:00 p.m.
Show at 8:30 p.m.
Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center
1317 San Pablo Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94702
http://www.ashkenaz.com

12/31 New Year’s Eve Events

 

 

-Brass Menazeri

Take heed all ye faithful revelers, your night has arrived! The streets will be filled with merriment, the music will play, the drink will flow and the world will move just a little closer to universal peace, love and understanding-or at the very least we’ll see some fireworks, blow some noisemakers and bond with tons of people you won’t remember in the morning.

From the traditional to the eccentric, the formal to the WTF! there’s a little something in the Novoscene New Year’s Eve guide for however you like get your respective groove on. See you in the New Year!

-kwan

2008 New Year’s Bash w/ DJ Jay-R

$10

8 p.m

White Horse Inn

6551 Telegraph Ave., Oakland

510-652-3820

WhiteHorseBar.com

 

 

Brian Jack & Zydeco Gamblers

$45

9 p.m.

Eagles Hall, 2305 Alameda Ave., Alameda

415-285-6285

SFZydeco.com

 

 

Black Comedy Explosion W/ Earthquake, Lavelle Crawford, Sheryl Underwood, & Rueben Paul.

$39.75-$67.75

10 p.m.

Paramount Theatre,

2025 Broadway, Oakland,

510-465-6400

ParamountTheatre.com

 

Bootie Pirate New Year’s Eve Party w/ Adrian & the Mysterious D, Party Ben, Dada, Smash-Up Derby, DJs Earworm Freddy & King of Pants, & the Indra

$20-$30

9 p.m

DNA Lounge

375 11th St., San Francisco

415-626-1409

DNALounge.com

 

 

Cake W/ the Lovemakers

$69.50-$79.50

9 p.m.

The Warfield

982 Market St., San Francisco

415-775-7722