The Other GG

I'm guessing this guy has a big record collection, because he draws from a wide range of punk rock sources.  I didn't hear that kind of inventiveness and variety on the Carbonas album I used to own (the dude used to front that band), but this reaches far and wide without losing that strand that holds it all together.  Anger and hooks and just a touch of evil, this is the best punk I've heard in awhile.

Boo Boo!

I've been on a hunt for new blues guys for what seems forever. Basically, ever since Junior Kimbrough and RL Burnside left the earth over 6 years ago. A really long haul. I don't know why but the internet hasn't made it any easier. It's hard to filter through all the polished crap and cliches that make 99% of blues music intolerable. Just like 99% of pretty much any genre.

So in this age of Twitter, Tumblr and all the other crap people use to "communicate," I found out about Boo Boo in a TV ad. His song "So Tired" is in a 5 Hour Energy spot! But I instantly heard IT. My head lifted from my monitor at work when this song played. FINALLY an authentic voice. Just the right amount of whine, but then naturally deep in a second. And his music's raw hypnotic drive tipped me off Boo Boo was probably from Mississippi. Just like Junior and RL. This music is a slow-cooked drug. I get lost in it. I love it.

Name of the Game isn't a perfect album by any stretch. The production can be a bit too slick. Some of the songs don't really go anywhere.  Boo Boo isn't ever going to be as good as Junior. But Boo Boo is alive! And I've found a new living reason to listen to blues.

For the Man Who Has Too Much

Charlie Manuel's Tears

Phillies' fans face adversity. Poorly.

Scourin' the Basement

Happy summer, ya lousy lushes! Busy times on the couch and in the mountains, goin' bug-eyed from perusing too many books in prep for a new class in the fall and chasin' kids down trails that end in waterfall rainbows. July will make you a hippie if you let it, so put down the pipe, raise the bottle and curse something that's buggin' ya, like my failed attempts to get modern attempts at the p-rock, which may simply mean the time has finally come when I'm just too damn old to get it anymore. Find myself scrunching my face and yearning for some semblance of melody every time I slap a new disc on.  That's OK, cuz there' still so much to draw from. Finally found a vinyl copy of Jack O's Don't Throw Your Love Away, which as always, sounds vastly superior to my nearly decade-old burned copy. Picked up the reissue of Fungus Brains' Ron Pistos Real World and it did not disappoint, all Aussie skronk with that rarely effective horn to boot- a must for lovers of all things 80s Oz noise. Have you been to Rasputin's lately?  They must do their markdowns with Skinnerian rats slapping price tags for treats. With absolutely no discernible rhyme or reason for why one record is now four bucks and the exact one next to it remains 16, that crazymotherfucker that owns half of Telegraph gives the vinyl-digging obsessive a fighting chance of actually scoring. You see records in that place you just don't see anywhere else (Sundazed aficionados should head basement-wise pronto) and some of them at very affordable prices. For instance, grabbed John Phillips' self-titled solo attempt to become king of the Laurel Canyon drug freaks for just five clams, and it would be worth it if only for the back photo, in which our demonically smiling, top-hat, multiple-scarf, tight black pants and polar bear jacket wearing hero becomes the poster boy for BEIN' HIGH and thinkin' you've got the world beat not knowing that the steep descent of your career began on the fifteenth rail of your breakfast on photo day. Hell of a record, though. Let's see, snagged Doug Sahm's early San Antonio recordings that Norton put out after his death and while there's nothing as groovy as "Mendocino" on it, young Doug being below the age and before the time when bong hits replaced sugar-coated cereals as your wake-up ingestion of choice, you can dance to it. For one mere dollar I continued my quest to own every Guy Clark album, even these crappy 80s ones. For some weird reason, 2009's Son Volt comeback record was wrapped and available for four dollars, and while the earnestness remains high it did send me back to Trace, his first and best record that sounds amazing all these years later. Have you heard that David Allan Coe naughty set of songs? If you see a copy, pick it up for me, will you? Never fails to make me laugh uncomfortably, and the cover shot of him on his Greatest Hits album is priceless, some fashionista's nightmare combo of Gram Parsons' jacket, Indian rain symbol necklace with matching earring, stupidly symbolic hand prison tattoos, anti-Hitler mustache (did a pipe accident make that area below his nose no longer fecund?) and the obligatory badass country black hat.  He's also looking straight into the camera with an expression of contempt for the candy ass motherfucker that even dares look him in the eye. My newest singer-songwriter project is Mr. John Prine, and any record that has "Sam Stone" on it is OK by me.  You see any of his first four records, do yourself a favor. I thought I had Rockpile's Seconds of Pleasure but a quick scouring of the basement runovers suggests not- hooks thy father is Lowe.

Hey, does anybody know anything about Jon Wayne's Texas Funeral? It sounds up my alley, but I'm tired of gettin' burned.

Gotta date with a Beltran-strapped Giants' squad who now threaten to score that third run a game.

Who are these bands?

I have discussed the subject of indie rock's reign as the dominant genre of "rock n roll." And yet still this list of groups performing at the annual Treasury Island music fest amazes me. Who the hell are these bands? Has anyone heard of them?

I do know who their fans are. I went to the Mission district a few weeks ago. It was like an American Apparel ad. So many skinny jeans! So much ironic detachment and cool! Anywho, if someone can recommend any of these bands, please do. The festival takes place on my birthday.

The Treasure Island Music Festival announced its lineup for the two day festival on Oct. 15 and Oct 16.

The first day's acts, which as SFist so correctly points out, tends to lean a bit towards the electronic/techno side.

The acts are:

- Empire of the Sun - Cut Copy - Death From Above 1979 - Chromeo - Dizzee Rascal - Flying Lotus - Buraka Som Sistema - Battles - The Naked & Famous - YACHT - Shabazz Palaces - Aloe Blacc - Geographer

Sunday the festival will return with more rock acts, including headliners Death Cab for Cutie and Empire of the Sun.

The acts for Sunday are:

- Death Cab For Cutie - Explosions in the Sky - Beach House - The Hold Steady - Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Friendly Fires - St. Vincent - The Head and The Heart - Wild Beasts - Warpaint - The Antlers - Thee Oh Sees - Weekend