Music

Old Shit Is Cool

— By Kate Horton |

Over on the dreaded Book of Faces, Shanti Deva has been kind enough to upload her amazing collection of old promotional postcards once distributed by Bill Graham’s fabled Fillmore West.

Shanti writes, “My Dad’s Mom was an awesome Grandma. She liked the artwork so much she got on the mailing list for the Fillmore. She decorated the kitchen with all these crazy postcards. Now I have them. I also have all her Beatles 45’s. She gave me my first pair of GoGo Boots, taught me to crochet, and was the first person I knew to get MTV.”

Shanti, your grandma sounds like she was one hip lady. All mine ever did was criticize my hair and tell me to stand up straight (sorry Mom, but it’s true).

The entire collection can be found here.

Revenue Retrivin

— By Serg |

40 water on Chronicle Live, a show I didn’t know existed. It’s not as good as when Too Short was on Kron4 with Gary Radnich but whatever. sucks 40 had to close his Fat Burger joint though, I never got to hit it.

AY MAMA I KNOW THE WEED MAN

— By Serg |

I don’t like to flambost to much either but fuck all those other cornball bay videos, here’s the new 40 water jump off with Stressmatic of Federation on the hook. Peep the One Block Radius tshirt (Hi Z-Man!). It’s a better look for Stress than that terrible mixtape he made for Sacramento skateboard and bmx kids. Some claim it’s a return to form for 40 but I’m undecided, we’ll see how the final version of Revenue Retrieving actually ends up. Although this and the video with turf give me hope, stylistically 40 is taking it back to his more aggressive fluctuations which is great but I’m always suspicious that we’ll end up with half an album of soft rap. 

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 

Found: Janet Jackson on Muni Metro

— By Jane Parton |

 A few weeks back, I came to the horrifying startling realization that the music video for Third Eye Blind’s seminal nineties classic, “Semi-Charmed Life” was shot in the Mission. Today it comes to my attention that the trains in the music video for Janet Jackson’s “All For You” look exactly like Muni Metro trains! 

So, it would seem that I have a gift for discovering pieces of San Francisco-related ephemera within pop music videos from the late nineties and early 2000s. I guess it does pay off to indulge one’s semi-embarrassing musical hankerings on YouTube. Does this mean it’s okay to openly appreciate the musical stylings of Janet Jackson and Third Eye Blind? If not the music itself, I think we can agree that the incredibly precise synchronized choreography (in Janet’s case) deserves some serious praise.

"Badass Death Metal Grindcore, with an avian screeching it's guts out."

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

My downstairs neighbors are pretty avid birders.  They keep a bunch of parrots as pets and on warm, sunny days, all the windows in the house are open and the birds sing all day long.  While I find avian music soothing and enjoyable, it’s hard to maintain the illusion of cool if I’m not awkwardly rapping along to The Chronic, Word of Mouf, or Arlo Guthrie.

Anyways, the other day my roommate commented that “this parrot/music mashup reminds me of Hatebeak.”  I had no idea what Hatebeak was.  Do you know what Hatebeak is?  It’s a fucking death metal group fronted by a goddamn Congo African Grey Parrot named Waldo.  Let me repeat that: a death metal group fronted by a fucking bird.  Until the other day, I had no idea there was a subgenre of metal for bands fronted by animals.  Caninus really take the crown on this front because nothing is more ridiculously brilliant as growling pit bulls.

I feel like with the explosion of cats and generally stupid animal pictures on The Memenets in the late 2000s, animal-fronted bands are going to be the meme of the 2010s.  Girl Talk is going to remix Night Ripper with ‘authentic barnyard sounds’ and call it Bestiality.  I want to get in on this ‘cash cow’ too.  Anyone want to start a band fronted by pigs?  We’ll call it something rad like “Swine Terror” or “Pig Panic” or “Osama Pig Latin,” get some guy that can drum really fast, and slay the pig at the end of the show while we snort and yell “that’s all folks!”

Who wouldn’t pay $15 dollars to see that shit?  I’m going to be richer than God.

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