End of Summertime Thing

Amy Winehouse, has gone from pop darling to pooped out hag at an alarmingly quick rate. Her debut US breakthrough track 'Rehab' was apparently no tongue in cheek joke.

Amy Winehouse - Rehab

It took many years for folks like Courtney Love, Liza Minelli & Billie Holiday to hit the real life rehab circuit, but Winehouse is apparently really on the fast track to hell...

Amy Winehouse - Help Yourself

She's canceled all her upcoming appearances while on an island respite, including a high profile spot on the MTV awards.

Nasty pix of Amy Winehouse in a bathing suit frolicking on vacation & even some of her junkie beau bleeding abounded this week at This Is London
.



Amy Winehouse - Monkey Man ( Specials cover)


The stories continue of public repudiations from her in-laws, followed by angry rebuttals from her dad. It's all the dirty drama that sleazy UK tabloids love, with bonus bleeding scars, bruises and track marks.

Amy Winehouse - There Is No Greater Love


Speaking of sleazy tabloid news, how about that kooky Senator Craig of Idaho who plead guilty to some airport men's room soliciting, and now claims it was a simple misunderstanding. Here's his new hit single, recorded live in Minnesota, called lying & denying during interrogation...

Senator Larry Craig - Lying & Denying


Manu Chao is set to release a new disk this coming week, his first studio effort in 6 years. Nacional Records will be handling "La Radiolina" in the U.S, his fourth stateside release and they have high hopes that this CD can top the 200,000 cumulative units he's shifted here previously.

La Radiolina available Tuesday Sept 4th
Catalog ID: NCL 68496
UPC: 689076849623
c 2007 Radio Bemba Music






Here's a preview track, the catchy number known as Me Llaman Calle

Manu Chao - Me Llaman Calle

Manu Chao
"Me Llaman Calle" (mp3)
from "La Radiolina"
(Nacional Records)

More On This Album

Marin County's storied Sweetwater venue in Mill Valley closes down this fall. Friday night August 31st is a farewell night featuring music from longtime local SF rocker Chuck Prophet and The Mission Express.

So if ya wanna enjoy the joint one last time, head on down for a final summertime thing...

Chuck Prophet - Summertime Thing (mp3 download coming soon as I get a chance to upload it)

The venue, in biz for some 30 years was an intimate spot where musical luminaries like Bonnie Raitt, Jimmy Scott, Jerry Garcia, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and countless local musicians captivated audiences in the cozy confines off Throckmorton St. Given a 30 day notice by the landlord last month, It's a double death knell to Mill Valley & Marin's once world renowned music scene this fall as Village Music, another longtime fixture in the community closes as well.



Where some go down, another Phoenix rises...

Rumor has it that legendary SF punk venue The Mabuhay Gardens in North Beach is scheduled to host a grand re-opening party on Sept 7th. The venue, most recently The Velvet Lounge, was a former Filipino supper club that started hosting punk shows and art damaged music catering to the nearby SF Art Institute crowd circa 1976. It's reputation built up as a sort of west coast CBGB's in the late 70's, while hosting acts like The Ramones, Devo, The Avengers, Tuxedomoon, Mutants, The Nuns and Nico. Later until the late 80's under late booker Dirk Dirksen's guidance it hosted numerous hardcore & indie rock bills including acts like Flipper, Metallica, Green on Red, Black Flag, Mojo Nixon, Dag Nasty, Sea Hags, Soul Asylum and many more.

Mabuhay History:

In 1976, Filipino restaurateur Ness Aquino opened up his sleepy struggling venue to a bill featuring The Ramones & The Dils. Soon a bunch of art damaged kids who were anything but hippies started hanging out nightly. For the next decade the Mabuhay Gardens aka Fab Mab, was booked by Dirk Dirksen and became the defacto center of the city's punk scene. Hosting local bands like The Mutants, Avengers, Nuns, Crime, Chrome, Offs, Dead Kennedys, Flipper, Pink Section, Lewd, Toiling Midgets, Inflatable Boy Clams and many more the venue gained an international reputation similar to NYC's CBGB's. Touring groups that passed through included acts like The Damned, Blondie, Suicide, TSOL, Husker Du , Toxic Reasons, DOA , and tons of others.

Upstairs a larger space was called The On Broadway Theater and handled the bands as punk begat hardcore and groups drew larger crowds in from the suburbs. Dirksen grew less interested in the knuckleheaded Hardcore scene by the mid 80's, and Paul Rat started presenting the events. The Mab venue ceased presenting bands by mid 1987.

The lower portion of the venue operated until recently under the name Velvet Lounge.

443 Broadway St
San Francisco, CA 94133

The upstairs space is now known as Broadway Studios, and has occasionally presented bands since the glory days ended. I helped promote a Sublime show their in 1994 with the late Wes Robinson, and saw Convoy there in 1998. It's also been used as a comedy venue for cable telecasts and last weekend a Sublime tribute act played the house.

Playing the reopening night downstairs at the reinvigorated Mab on Sept 7th will be the Radishes, a new LA/SF axis band featuring indie rock vets like Scrote of the Billy Nayer Show and leader Paul Stinson . No word on whether they'll be joined by recent recording collaborators Rey Washem of Scratch Acid/Jesus Lizard, and Paul Barker of Ministry.

Here in San Francisco this year, a local character known as Chicken John is running for mayor. In fact, the gene pool for mayoral candidates is so thin, that this guy is likely going to come in second. He just qualified for matching campaign funds, which means the city will double is money, meaning with 25 grand he's now got a campaign war chest of approx $50,000 currently. That dough is a drop in the chicken coop to the real mayor who's likely got a million bucks saved up, but still not bad for a part time auto mechanic who used to play in a band with G.G Allin.

His name is John Rinaldi, and he came to town years ago from NY when he was dating a cute local indie filmmaker friend of mine, she dumped him eventually in an ugly breakup, but he didn't go away. Chicken went on to make a name for himselfin san Francisco exploiting just about any angle he could, from running a gypsy like circus troupe on a shoestring where he ended up with more string than anyone else, to running a bar for awhile called The Odeon.

I'm not exactly endorsing the guy, because i find him to be a little bit more than self centered, and can vouch for some creepy, callous and corrupt behaviors on his part. Although, in politics, that describes just about everyone...

So, despite my better judgment, I probably will vote for him I suppose...

Despite that he considers himself a "showman", he's not much of a musical artist, so I'll just insert some music from LA's Pigeon John. Sounds close enough, and likely way more enjoyable than hearing Chicken rant at ya.

Pigeon John
"Freaks! Freaks!" (mp3)
from "Pigeon John & The Summertime Pool Party"
(Quannum Projects)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic
Stream from Rhapsody
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Bonus Track:

Pigeon John - Weight of The World(live)

Anyhow...

That's all for now...


Next week I'll have previews of Michael Franti's Power to The Peaceful Concert in SF's Chrissy Field where our lil' company EventMagic is involved in the logistics.

Anyhow, I'm on way down to Southern California for a few days this weekend, see ya I return...