Mike Aho of the Austin based ((sounder)), who we've featured over the years, has just released this great Madonna cover which was recorded at Okay Mountain.
Todd Walberg emailed over these photos of Thee Oh Sees recently taken last month at Pickathon in Happy Valley, Oregon. Why not a little post love for one of the best bands here in San Francisco?
Ever listen to our 2007 podcast interview with front man John Dwyer? It's a good one. Music in Providence, Start of the Coachwhips, Touring, Fighting in Toronto, Drugs, Recording, Favorite Shows, New Ohsees Album, Meric Long, and much much more... Recorded Nov 7, 2007 in the Mission District of San Francisco. Take a listen.
Thee Oh Sees are currently on tour with Ty Segall. They play in Brooklyn this Saturday, Sept 22nd. They return back to SF with a show on 10/12/2012 Great American Music Hall San Francisco, CA w/Sic Alps + Sonny Smith & The Mallard
Thee Oh Sees perform "Contraption" and "Soul Desert" live on KEXP from the Doug Fir Lounge in Portland during Musicfest NW. Recorded 9/10/10. www.kexp.org
A $75 donation gets you a collab print featuring the aforementioned artists... Here, check the vid below so Mike Aho of Sounder can tell you all about it.
One of our local bands is FOPS which consists of Dee Kessler (Thee More Shallows) and Chadwick Donald Bidwell (Ral Partha Vogelbacher) - They just released this video for Cheater Carolina off the "For Centuries" EP available from Monotreme Records.
Great song. great video, and did we read something about a new Thee More Shallows album?
Our buddy Mike Aho of the Austin based group ((sounder)) releases a new baby blue 7" through Mt. Inadale featuring the song We'll Turn The Coffins Into Gardens & Don't Bring it to Life (only $8.50 here). Cover artwork from Travis Millard.
((SOUNDER)) 'We'll Turn The Coffins Into Gardens'. Live at the Mohawk, Austin
Aaaaaa, have you tried Spotify yet? We love it here at Fecal Face and have been discovering new music like the one man band, Dirty Beaches, here. Having a limited library of music/ listening to the same old shit was getting very annoying. Spotify, so far, has been a miracle in discovering new music. Also, pretty great that it ties into social networks as well making a breeze to share music you're into with friends... Ok, enough with the free Spotify ad, but for real. Great great great.
We signed up for the premium Spotify account ($10/ month) and you can play music through your phone and can even listen to something like 3,500 songs in offline mode... meaning that you can have your phone on airplane mode (no wifi or phone service/ i.e., an airplane flight) and have up to like 3,500 songs on your phone to listen to... Love this thing! The future in music loving.
If you're into Spotify, you can click here at listen to the tunes we're jammin' here at Fecal Face.
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Dirty Beaches is playing here in San Francisco at the Velvet Room and Redwood Room of San Francisco’s Clift Hotel August 19th. FREE - IAMSOUND Records is hosting another series of free shows in the swanky Velvet Room and Redwood Room of San Francisco’s Clift Hotel in June, July and August of 2011. Bands include Mark Gardener (from Ride), Cults and Dirty Beaches along with guest DJs. Clift Sessions 2011
Performances at Velvet Room + Redwood Room from 9pm to 1am
Monday, June 27 – Mark Gardener (From Ride) + “Upside Down” Creation Records film screening
Sunday, July 24 – Cults
Friday, August 19 – Dirty Beaches
Our old intern Kevin Luna from back in 2005 directed this video with music by the band Buddy Bag who live back and forth between SF and NYC. The video was shot on an island in the Swedish archipelago at around 3am a few weeks ago... Like it, Kevin. Great work.
Allen Cordell emailed over his most recent fanatastic music video for the French electronic duo Gentlemen Drivers - EP Asphalt released by Because Music (Justice, Klaxons, Jarvis Cocker, Charlotte Gainsbourg, etc...)
Allen's done videos for Beach House, Dan Deacon, Tobacco, Cloud Nothings, etc. - Great work.
Mirkarimi introduced his resolution to save 90.3 fm KUSF yesterday... From the nearly unintelligible stenographer transcript of the proceedings, the vote breakdown went like this:
Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi: Aye
Supervisor Scott Weiner: Aye.
Supervisor John Avalos: Aye.
Supervisor David Campos: Aye.
President David Chiu: Aye.
Supervisor Carmen Chu: No. [told you so!]
Supervisor Malia Cohen: Aye.
Supervisor Sean Elsbernd: No.
Supervisor Mark Farrell: No. [ again, told you so]
Supervisor Jane Kim: Aye.
Supervisor Eric Mar: Aye.
After the vote, President Chiu's announcement "the Resolution is adopted" was met by applause by the KUSF supporters who showed up for public comment... From what I gleaned, the resolution needed unanimous approval to be effective, so what exactly is the implication of its "adoption"?
Basically, it appears that the SF Board of Supervisor's agreed (mostly) to ask the FCC nicely to cancel the sale, but the decision is still in the hands of the FCC. So, we write them. The stupid part is, despite being the Frikkin Communications Commission, this has to be done with snail mail.
The address is:
Federal Communications Commission
Office of the Secretary
445 12th Street, SW,
Room TW-A325
Washington, DC 20554
While you're dusting off stamps and trying to remember how letters work, you should write to USF's Michael Bloch- the letters will be included in a public file for the FCC. Michael Bloch's on our side, so be nice.
Michael Bloch
University of San Francisco
College of Arts and Sciences
2130 Fulton Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
Last I heard, KUSF was still $3000 short of the cash they needed to retain a lawyer, information on how to make a tax deductible donation can be found here. - As an aside, the USF Faculty Association Policy Board adopted a similar resolution yesterday, Feb 7 2011, requesting that the University cancel the sale.
Roisin Isner, music editor, fecal face dot com
"Cities" drops April 1st, 2011, album art by Tony Kincses
If a boat departs from a harbor and during its voyage successfully replaces every single part, is what eventually docks by all rights the same boat? Similarly, if every cell in our bodies is regenerated every seven years, is it still the same body? While I can’t attest to the Biological accuracy of that last example, the question remains: can I rightly call "Cities" the second Downer Party EP?
Forget everything you've ever heard about The Downer Party- who made a name for themselves with 2009's irreverently lighthearted pop debut "Ego Driven Lust Creatures." Since that release, the band has undergone a complete metamorphosis of membership, resulting in a very different kind of project. This Downer Party, arguably distinct from the one we met in 2009, emerges anew with "Cities"- a departure into more contemplative waters, leaving in its wake a richer and more textured sound.
photo by Andrew Callaway
from left: Josh Merry (bass/backup vocals), August Churchill (guitar/backup vocals) Sierra Frost (guitar/lead vocals), Chris Crawford (drums)
The EP is at once a love letter to and about cities, speaking aptly about places that can also be people, and indeed a metaphor for self. "Cities" was executed start to finish by the band in Churchill's basement, which in and of itself might fail to impress, until one recalls Frost's veteran career of label representation; this marked decision to work in an insular manner demonstrates the band's commitment to- and consumption with- the growth of the project. The opening track, Country Kids, is an eat-your-heart-out for any San Franciscan, superimposing visions of empathy and idiosyncrasy against the vibrant backdrop of our city. The drums on the song Chicago, which you can listen to here, cleverly mimic a beating heart, at once aligning the physiology of the listener with the music and stripping away their skin with the track's starkly raw intensity. The thesis of the EP, succinctly summarized by the final line of the final (and title) track, reads "and how can it be, that we live with those we love in different cities." Thoughtful lyricism throughout sheds light on complex relationships between people and the places they find themselves, real or imagined. The maturity of these observations is all the more impressive when one considers that their author, Sierra Frost, is still a few months shy of 21.
If you've been on this site, you've already heard about the shady closed door sale of beloved our beloved community station, 90.3 fm KUSF. I'll resist waxing on about the importance of this old and established San Francisco fixture, and instead focus on what we can do. By the time you are done reading this, you could have done (almost) all of them.
As you also might have heard, Supervisor Mirkarimi was scheduled yesterday (2/1/11) to introduce his proposition to block the sale of KUSF to the Board of Supervisors. He asked for a continuance of one week- this is a good thing.
Supervisor Mirkarimi addressing the crowd yesterday, photo by Gina JustGina
This is one week where we can accomplish some serious community organizing. The nub and thrust of the whole thing is to make it blatantly and unavoidably clear that the loss of KUSF is unpopular. The board will resume on Tuesday, February 8th to vote. In the meantime, take every step you can to voice your opinion to the Board of Supervisors, like:
1. Call and Keep Calling- If you don't know your district, check this district map. Then check here for the contact information of your Supervisor here. If you call during normal business hours, your call will be answered by your Supervisor, or an aid. Calling after they close is also effective, jamming up the voicemail can do wonders. Tell them, firmly, that you urge them to stand with Sup. Mirkarimi to block the sale of 90.3, and restore broadcast programming of KUSF.
If you are not registered to vote, call anyway. If you are registered in one district, but live in another, call both supervisors. If your Supervisor is Ross Mirkarimi, call Mark Farrel of D2. It's adjacent, and he's one of the more conservative leaning Supe's.
If you are not a San Francisco resident, but live within the broadcast radius of KUSF, you can still call- call all of them.
2. Email, Email All of Them- emails can also be found on the Board of Supervisors website. A succinct sample would be:
"Dear Supervisor ________,
I urge you to vote in favor of Mirkarimi's proposition on Tuesday, February 8th. KUSF is a valuable community asset, and I wholly oppose it's sale.
-Best Regards,
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Excited to see opening band Beach Fossils most of all and ended up being blown away by headliner Bear in Heaven last night at The Rickshaw Stop here in San Francisco. Beach Fossils bounced about like a high school version of New Order or Joy Division. I like the music. It sounds familiar and a huge fan of New Order, but it just lacked originality and a spark that I was hoping for. In between the two acts is Twin Sister who would be the musical child of Bjork, Blond Redhead and Jamiroquai, of all bands. Although, I could hear them, I was behind a few too many tall fellas to see anything but the light show. (Hey Rickshaw Stop, raise the stage a foot for your smaller patrons).
When Bear in Heaven went on, something clicked. The sound is thick and full. You know, let's quote Pitchfork as they wrote about Bear in Heaven when they presented the band "Best New Music" award for their album Beast Rest Forth Mouth: Mostly made up of textural, spacious three- to four-minute pop anthems with towering choruses, BRFM is a welcome reminder that an album doesn't have to be bombastic to feel huge and important. Take out the earbuds and let it fill a space: This is music that's bigger than your iPod—music you'll want to feel all around you. Though not quite coming out of nowhere, BRFM seems like a surprise gift—a striking consolidation of the spiky psych-prog tendencies of their debut into a pop framework. -Pitchfork
Hey, Jon Philpot of Bear in Heaven is a Fecal Face fan (bottom right photo)... See them as they are touring the USA and Europe right now. You won't be disappointed -->Check the dates.
Fresh off their tour of the Southwestern United States (and a bit bloodshot in the eyes), Mister Loveless' newest release, the Three Words EP, hit shelves just a fortnight ago.
Having so effectively channeled an aesthetic which fits comfortably between Echo and the Bunnymen and Joy Division, and despite the relative youth of its members, Mister Loveless resonates strongly with the generation who came up during the 70's and 80's. ~read on
I headed down to LA to check out the DANCEiSM monthly Dance Party at the Echoplex, and within a few minutes discovered something well beyond my expectations. While Electronica music events are usually synonymous with Raves, and despite the party's inception in the warehouses of LA, a Rave it was not. This party was patently devoid of sixteen-year-olds with plastic bracelets coating their limbs, and saucer-like pupils. In fact, this event was surprisingly free of drug use of any kind. While far from being a sober crowd, dancing did take priority as the activity of the evening.
Since our last interview with Brooklyn's Matt and Kim was so much fun, we decided to catch up with them again as they came through San Francisco to promote their new album.
Gabe interviews this SF based "pulsating hypnotizing synth grooves" who recently opened for krautrock legends Cluster and would eat Brian Ferry if need be.
We really really really love this UK based band who'll be coming state side in the coming months! Read our interview with Emma and Mia from this great four piece.
This Brooklyn based band is the kind of band you'd want to play at your birthday party every year... They're playing at Bottom of the Hill March 1st with Erase Errata as part of Noise Pop.
I don't think at this point it needs to be written since the last update to Fecal Face was a long time ago, but...
I, John Trippe, have put this baby Fecal Face to bed. I'm now focusing my efforts on running ECommerce at DLX which I'm very excited about... I guess you can't take skateboarding out of a skateboarder.
It was a great 15 years, and most of that effort can still be found within the site. Click around. There's a lot of content to explore.
Hit me up if you have any ECommerce related questions. - trippe.io
I'm not sure how many people are lucky enough to have The San Francisco Giants 3 World Series trophies put on display at their work for the company's employees to enjoy during their lunch break, but that's what happened the other day at Deluxe. So great.
SF skateboarding icons Jake Phelps, Mickey Reyes, and Tommy Guerrero with the 3 SF Giants World Series Trophies
When works of art become commodities and nothing else, when every endeavor becomes “creative” and everybody “a creative,” then art sinks back to craft and artists back to artisans—a word that, in its adjectival form, at least, is newly popular again. Artisanal pickles, artisanal poems: what’s the difference, after all? So “art” itself may disappear: art as Art, that old high thing. Which—unless, like me, you think we need a vessel for our inner life—is nothing much to mourn.
Hard-working artisan, solitary genius, credentialed professional—the image of the artist has changed radically over the centuries. What if the latest model to emerge means the end of art as we have known it? --continue reading
"Six Degrees" opens tonight, Friday Jan 16th (7-10pm) at FFDG in San Francisco. ~Group show featuring: Brett Amory, John Felix Arnold III, Mario Ayala, Mariel Bayona, Ryan Beavers, Jud Bergeron, Chris Burch, Ryan De La Hoz, Martin Machado, Jess Mudgett, Meryl Pataky, Lucien Shapiro, Mike Shine, Minka Sicklinger, Nicomi Nix Turner, and Alex Ziv.
"[Satire] is important because it brings out the flaws we all have and throws them up on the screen of another person," said Turner. “How they react sort of shows how important that really is.” Later, he added, "Charlie took a hit for everybody." -read on
As we work on our changes, we're leaving Squarespace and coming back to the old server. Updates are en route.
The content that was on the site between May '14 and today is history... Whatever, wasn't interesting anyway. All the good stuff from the last 10 years is here anyway.
Opening tonight, Friday May 23rd (7-10pm) at Park Life in the Inner Richmond (220 Clement St) is Again Home Again featuring works from the duo Jacob Mcgraw-Mikelson & Rachell Sumpter who split time living in Sacramento and a tiny island at the top of Pudget Sound with their children.
Jacob Magraw will be showing embroidery pieces on cloth along with painted, gouache works on paper --- Rachell Sumpter paints scenes of colored splendor dropped into scenes of desolate wilderness. ~show details
NYC --- A new graffiti abatement program put forth by the police commissioner has beat cops carrying cans of spray paint to fill in and cover graffiti artists work in an effort to clean up the city --> Many cops are thinking it's a waste of resources, but we're waiting to see someone make a project of it. Maybe instructions for the cops on where to fill-in?
The NYPD is arming its cops with cans of spray paint and giving them art-class-style lessons to tackle the scourge of urban graffiti, The Post has learned.
Shootings are on the rise across the city, but the directive from Police Headquarters is to hunt down street art and cover it with black, red and white spray paint, sources said... READ ON
Los Angeles based Alison Blickle who showed here in San Francisco at Eleanor Harwood last year (PHOTOS) recently showed new paintings in New York at Kravets Wehby Gallery. Lovely works.
We haven't been featuring many interviews as of late. Let's change that up as we check in with a few local San Francisco artists like Kevin Earl Taylor here whom we studio visited back in 2009 (PHOTOS & VIDEO). It's been awhile, Kevin...
If you like guns and boobs, head on over to the Shooting Gallery; just don't expect the work to be all cheap ploys and hot chicks. With Make Stuff by Peter Gronquist (Portland) in the main space and Morgan Slade's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow in the project space, there is plenty spectacle to be had, but if you look just beyond it, you might actually get something out of the shows.
Fifty24SF opened Street Anatomy, a new solo show by Austrian artist Nychos a week ago last Friday night. He's been steadily filling our city with murals over the last year, with one downtown on Geary St. last summer, and new ones both in the Haight and in Oakland within the last few weeks, but it was really great to see his work up close and in such detail.
Nate Milton emailed over this great short Gator Skater which is a follow-up to his Dog Skateboard he emailed to us back in 2011... Any relation to this Gator Skater?
Congrats on our buddies at Needles and Pens on being open and rad for 11 years now. Mission Local did this little short video featuring Breezy giving a little heads up on what Needles and Pens is all about.
In a filmmaker's thinking, we wish more videos were done in this style. Too much editing and music with a lacking in actual content. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
Matt Wagner recently emailed over some photos from The Hellion Gallery in Tokyo, who recently put together a show with AJ Fosik (Portland) called Beast From a Foreign Land. The gallery gave twelve of Fosik's sculptures to twelve Japanese artists (including Hiro Kurata who is currently showing in our group show Salt the Skies) to paint, burn, or build upon.
FFDG is pleased to announce an exclusive online show with San Francisco based Ferris Plock opening on Friday, April 25th (12pm Pacific Time) featuring 5 new medium sized acrylic paintings on wood.
Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne played host to a huge group exhibition a couple of weeks back, with "Gold Blood, Magic Weirdos" Curated by Melbourne artist Sean Morris. Gold Blood brought together 25 talented painters, illustrators and comic artists from Australia, the US, Singapore, England, France and Spain - and marked the end of the Magic Weirdos trilogy, following shows in Perth in 2012 and London in 2013.
San Francisco based Fecal Pal Jeremy Fish opened his latest solo show Hunting Trophies at LA's Mark Moore Gallery last week to massive crowds and cabin walls lined with imagery pertaining to modern conquest and obsession.
Well, John Felix Arnold III is at it again. This time, he and Carolyn LeBourgios packed an entire show into the back of a Prius and drove across the country to install it at Superchief Gallery in NYC. I met with him last week as he told me about the trip over delicious burritos at Taqueria Cancun (which is right across the street from FFDG and serves what I think is the best burrito in the city) as the self proclaimed "Only overweight artist in the game" spilled all the details.
Ever Gold opened a new solo show by NYC based Henry Gunderson a couple Saturday nights ago and it was literally packed. So packed I couldn't actually see most of the art - but a big crowd doesn't seem like a problem. I got a good laugh at what I would call the 'cock climbing wall' as it was one of the few pieces I could see over the crowd. I haven't gotten a chance to go back and check it all out again, but I'm definitely going to as the paintings that I could get a peek at were really high quality and intruiguing. You should do the same.
The paintings in the show are each influenced by a musician, ranging from Freddy Mercury, to Madonna, to A Tribe Called Quest and they are so stylistically consistent with each musician's persona that they read as a cohesive body of work with incredible variation. If you told me they were each painted by a different person, I would not hesitate to believe you and it's really great to see a solo show with so much variety. The show is fun, poppy, very well done, and absolutely worth a look and maybe even a listen.
With rising rent in SF and knowing mostly other young artists without capitol, I desired a way to live rent free, have a space to do my craft, and get to see more of the world. Inspired by the many historical artists who have longed similar longings I discovered the beauty of artist residencies. Lilo runs Adhoc Collective in Vienna which not only has a fully equipped artists creative studio, but an indoor halfpipe, and private artist quarters. It was like a modern day castle or skate cathedral. It exists in almost a utopic state, totally free to those that apply and come with a real passion for both art and skateboarding
I just wanted to share with you a piece I recently finished which took me 4 years to complete. Titled "How To Lose Yourself Completely (The September Issue)", it consists of a copy of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine (the issue they made the documentary about) with all faces masked with a sharpie, and everything else entirely whited out. 840 pages of fun. -Bryan Schnelle
While walking our way across San Francisco on Saturday we swung through the opening receptions for Kirk Maxson and Alexis Mackenzie at Eleanor Harwood Gallery in the Mission.
Jeremy Fish opens Hunting Trophies tonight, Saturday April 5th, at the Los Angeles based Mark Moore Gallery. The show features new work from Fish inside the "hunting lodge" where viewers climb inside the head of the hunter and explore the history of all the animals he's killed.
Beautiful piece entitled "The Albatross and the Shipping Container", Ink on Paper, Mounted to Panel, 47" Diameter, by San Francisco based Martin Machado now on display at FFDG. Stop in Saturday (1-6pm) to view the group show "Salt the Skies" now running through April 19th. 2277 Mission St. at 19th.
For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to quit my job, move out of my house, leave everything and travel again. So on August 21, 2013 I pushed a canoe packed full of gear into the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, along with four of my best friends. Exactly 100 days later, I arrived at a marina near the Gulf of Mexico in a sailboat.
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