“San Francisco” (Used 32 times)

The great Sacramento CA label S.S. Records celebrates their 10th Anniversary this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with three shows in San Francisco (details).

The Club Foot LP is named after one of San Francisco's premier artist-run venues of the late 70s/early 80s, and documents the jazz-punk-DIY-situationist sounds nurtured therein. Originally released in 1981 by legendary local imprint Subterranean Records (Flipper, Dead Kennedys, Inflatable Boy Clams), it was recently repressed in a limited edition of 450 12'' LP's to coincide with Club Foot's 30th anniversary and an "Artifacts from SF's Art Punk Cabaret" event at the San Francisco Public Library.

This time last year, San Francisco's Wooden Shjips released a Holiday Cassingle featuring psychedelic covers of "Auld Lang Syne" and "O Tannenbaum". The 4-piece -- who famously gave away all 300 copies of their debut 10'' -- offered free mp3 version of the cassingle to the WFMU blog. Meanwhile, the cassette itself, limited to 100 copies, sold out in no time, and -- in the spirit of The Holidaze -- all proceeds went to the San Francisco Food Bank.

This holiday season, Wooden Shjips' guitarist and vocalist Erik "Ripley" Johnson is continuing this tradition. He sent over an mp3 from his new project Moon Duo, a brilliant melding of "Silver Bells" with a bit of Hawkwind's "Silver Machine" thrown in the mix. [*Because of these references, we can't certify it as "FMA-safe", so you can grab it from this off-site locale: Moon Duo - Silver Bells (mp3)]

Moon Duo have also put together a new benefit for the SF Food Bank, in collaboration with Zola Jesus, Gary War, and Sacred Bones Records. From the Moon Duo blog (after the jump):

Back in November 2008, before the Free Music Archive website even existed, we compiled a feature for WFMU's blog previewing some of our favorite artists from the San Francisco Bay Area who'd be joining us here once the site launched. Along with station favorites like Bob Ostertag, Citay, Death Sentence: Panda, Negativland, Sic Alps, Kelley Stoltz, Wooden Shjips, and Xiu Xiu, I discovered a really cool free debut EP by Kowloon Walled City. Their Turk Street EP went on to top WFMU's Loud List, and now KWC are back with a debut full-length titled Gambling on the Richter Scale (Perpetual Motion Machine)

Kowloon Walled City is built on a metal foundation with hardcore ornamentation, and sinking in sludge under ominous shadows of doom. KWC distills the dark elements of these metallic forms, bringing to mind some of the best purveyors of loud-rock in its 1990s AmRep heyday. Their sound often recalls pacific northwest artists like Karp and Melvins, but through a lens clouded by Bay Area fog, raw like the Tenderloin (KWC's home neighborhood). Gambling on the Richter Scale has been extremely well-received across the board, including at local SF shop Aquarius Records. The Gambling record release show was an Aquarius-curated event, and that's saying a lot because aQ has an incredibly refined taste when it comes to the heavy sounds (just check out these recordings from the WFMU/Aquarius SXSW bill from earlier this year).

I actually first heard about Gambling On the Richter Scale when I saw it posted on an illegal file-sharing network. Now I'm not going to tell you what filesharing network this was because I don't wanna get anybody in trouble. But I will go ahead and tell you who uploaded it. It was Scott Evans, guitarist and vocalist Ian Miller, bassist for Kowloon Walled City. And it's already been downloaded 1,500 times from that torrent alone, helping to spread the word about the group's successful West Coast tour last month. This four-piece is able to harness the potential of free distribution, while they also producing physical releases that are well-worth our hard-earned dime (and will likely sell out). The Gambling on the Richter Scale 12'' LP comes in clear vinyl or black/silver, and includes a hand-silkscreened CD. From what I hear the first pressing is going fast, and you can pick up your copy at inthewalledcity.com.