Celebrating the World Series Special

The San Francisco GIANTS won the world series and what better day to celebrate our orange and black home team than on Halloween Day?! (there is no better day, really). 

Orange sparkly nail polish, orange eyeshadow, an orange bandana and a my GIANTS hoody made me feel ready to venture into the city where thousands of fans were already celebrating!

Arriving at the parade's destination point around the same time the parade was schedule to begin my Dad and I decided to  hunker down  with the crowds surrounding city hall (we even got some Halloween treats from fellow fans!). 

Freaks don't come out only at night in San Francisco and there is definitely always  a surplus of freaky-deeks out on Halloween but there was only one freak on my mind today as I waited for our champs to make their way down Market Street...

No denying Orange October today as throngs of GIANTS fans of all ages and sizes were decked out in costumes, panda hats and jerseys of all colors. Some people held brooms, others blew plastic horns. An estimated 1 million people came to San Francisco for this giant celebration, 1 million fans with one common goal: To Celebrate!

Beer was flowing, bottles were swigged and it sure was fragrant on these SF Streets (even the garbage fit the theme!). Sound tracked by overhead helicopters and ground level cheering some fans relished us with tunes from Snoop Dogg, Journey, E-40 and Carlos Santana as we waited...and...waited.



Just after 1:30 commenced with the sensational music video for Gangnam Style, our 2012 World Series Champions, The San Francisco GIANTS had made it to the Civic Center stage and the place erupted with excitement!





Busta, no-hitter Cain, Bearded Wilson, He only looks illegal Romo, MLB's very own Zack Effron aka:Brandon Crawford, Belt, bum-bum-bum Bumgarner,  Vogelsong, Pence, Zito, Huff, The Panda Timmy THE FREAK, the whole roster was there and we were just as excited to see them as they were to see us! Manger Bruce Bochy was met with fans chanting his name as he carried the Commissioner's Trophy across the stage and added it to the (growing) collection.

To beat the mess of the exiting masses my Dad and hit the road after the team was introduced and past players (Will Clark?!? Willie Mays?!?) were welcomed. We were still a part of the action as we listened to  Tony Bennett sing the iconic, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco", the same song that is heard when leaving a home game at AT&T park. What a treat. Congratulations GIANTS!

Happy Halloween!!

Geographer & Freelance Whales @ The Mezzanine October 18th

Inching closer and closer to the stage as people packed into the sold out Geographer and Freelance Whales show last week at  The Mezzanine cheers of excitement were heard as the hour long wait ended and Geographer took the stage. 

(Geographer. Photo by: Marc Fong)

 

Blanketed in artificial fog and dark lighting, the three piece SF based band found their places: lead vocalist Michael Deni  headed to his synthesizers at stage left, Nathan Blaz took a seat behind his electric cello (electric cello?!) at stage right and Brian Ostreicher tucked into his drum set comfortably set up behind the band and after the first song of the night Deni exclaimed, "there really is no place like home!"

Geographer's dreamy electric dance party kept an even keel of up-beat dance inducing tunes, like the 4th song of the night, "Life of Crime" and less danceable songs throughout their set which consisted for the most part of material off of Myth released earlier this year. 

(Geographer. Photo by: Marc Fong)

(Geographer. Photo by: Marc Fong)

Deni's energetic stage presence never missed a beat as he and Blaz tag teamed on synthesizers during one song , he banged on the symbols while Ostreicher drummed , he  gave hive fives to people in the front row before jumping into the crowd and dancing among fans while he preformed "Kites". Wrapping  up their show, Geographer awarded their loyal fans with an un-heard of opening-act encore! 

 "Aelous" the haunting and some what chilling first song off of Freelance Whales second album Diluvia, was the first song they played last Thursday night. Before continuing on with the harmonic track "Land Features", frontman Judah Dadone said that San Francisco feels like a home away from home (home being Brooklyn New York) acknowledging  that bandmate Chuck Criss is from the Bay Area. 

(Freelance Whales. Photo by: Marc Fong)

 The Freelance Whales' impressively extensive array of instruments and the band's collective ability to play a different instrument every song is remarkable! Made up of 5 band members and upwards of 11 different instruments  it should go with out saying that they utilized the entire stage at The Mezzanine as I am sure they do at every venue.

Everyone in the band also contributes to vocals:  with Dadone on lead vocals on most tracks, Doris Cellar offered a soft female touch, taking the lead on the lustful, fun loving "Spitting Image" which was heard a little further into the set.

 

The ability that Freelance Whales have to harmonize in an almost nautical like ambiance cannot be denied however the subdued vibe found on and throughout Dulivia is inescapable, live and otherwise. 

(Freelance Whales. Photo by: Marc Fong)

 Though spirits seem damped in their new songs, Freelance Whales looked as though they were having fun during their performance and the audience swayed the rest of the night away to songs on the set list which included new tracks:  "Follow Through",  "Spitting Image", "Red Star", "Locked Out", "Winter Seeds", "Dig into Waves" and "Emergence Exit"
along with older tracks off of Weathevanes: "Generator - Second Floor", "Ghosting", "Generator - First  Floor", "Hannah", "Location". 

The sounds of Geographer paired with Freelance Whales is a pairing close to perfection.  

You won't want to miss this bill, they're on tour through November 3rd!

A glimpse of Treasure Island Music Fest 2012

 The 5th Annual Treasure Island Music Festival truly was an island get away as thousands flocked to the middle of the San Francisco Bay last weekend for two days filled with sunshine, seasonally warm Indian Summer temperatures and of course some indie music favorites!

 

The show schedule was strategically planned this year insuring that the 13 performances which were divided on to the Bridge and Tunnel stages each day would not over lap so that festival goers would get the most out of what they paid for. The last minute shuttle relocation from the usual McCovey Cove set up to the impromptu The Bill Graham Civic Auditorium didn't cause any hiccups and Saturday morning the shuttle service was up and running at 11:00am.

(Gossip. Picture by Marc Fong)

(M83. Picture by Marc Fong)

(The XX. Picture by Marc Fong)

T.I.M.F has a way of capturing and representing San Francisco's diverse music scene, delivering a unique artist line-up every year and 2012 was no exception as Saturday was filled with dream-pop, hip-hop and mash ups Sunday's set list delivered folk music, new-wave indietronica and good old fashioned indie rock.

   

Make Some BOYS NOIZE!!!

The third studio album from the German electronic music master, Boys Noize dropped today!

"Boys Noize third album does what everyone wanted Justice's last to do - there, we said it" - Mixmag

 Out Of The Black is an intelligent in your face throwback to old school beats that you may (or may not) remember from back in the day before the days and craze of DubStep. Yes, track one, "This Is What You Want"is what you want and it is what you get it along with an adrenaline rush for what's in store.  Riding the high from the first track right into the second track, "XTC" you'll hit your peak amidst it's retro funkadelic mixes, heavy build-ups and brilliant breakdowns. Wrapping up Out Of The Black with the collaborative Snoop Dogg track  "Got it" Boys Noize's third album does great job at revamping the underground rave sound on what some say is his best work to date. 

 

("ICH RU" Music Video)

Boys Noize will be at The Fox Theater in Oakland on December 14th!

Cupkates Salted Caramel: it's sinfully delicious

First of all I must say that I love the ingenious fusion of the baker's name into the title of the cupcake food-truck, Cupkates which by the way was the first food truck to specialize in curbside cupcakery. 

Kate's cupcakes are baked fresh everyday using only the best local ingredients such as Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, Guittard chocolate, Clover Farms sweet cream butter and milk in every recipe and the flavors on each truck vary from day to day. Once a flavor is gone it is wiped off of the handwritten menu displayed on a white board in the window and once all of the cupcakes are gone so is the truck. 

 Before walking away with my Salted Carmel cupcake in it's little brown baggie I over heard the girl behind the cash rep tell the customers in line behind me that the Salted Carmel was their best seller which made my mouth water. 

Fresh was the first word that popped into my mind as soon as I had the first bite of Cupkates's Salted Carmel cupcake in my mouth.  This cupcake is one of, if not the freshest cupcakes I have ever eaten! The super moist chocolate cake is so much so that it's heavy yet doesn't weigh you down and dissolves easily when eating it. The dollop of  rich caramel buttercream is thick, creamy and rich with just the right amount of  seasalt. It didn't take long for me to understand why the Salted Caramel flavor is Cupkates best selling cupcake, it's simply decadent and delicious. 

The chocolate and caramel flavors themselves are discrete which balances wonderfully with the richness of this cupcake because anymore flavor would be an overload.  I may have found my favorite cupcake at Cupkates maybe you will too! 

Cupkates Truck Stops: 

12th & Broadway Oakland: 11:30am-2:00pm

400 California St, San Francisco: 12noon-2:00pm

Off The Grid, Upper Haight St, San Francisco: 5:00pm-9:00pm

NEW MUSE

The first MUSE release since 2009's The Resistance, came out yesterday October 2nd and today the new album, The 2nd Law is streaming all over the internet.  

The critically acclaimed anthem rockers of this generation  have once again delivered an overly orchestrated album yet somehow MUSE seems to have lost their rock edge.

This Summer's Olympic theme song, Survival does a great job at building up to the intense yet quickly found breakdown characterized with wicked guitar solos and front man Matthew Bellamy hitting some very high, high notes. Unfortunately that energy does not survive through the end of the song.

Listening to 2nd Law I couldn't help but think that MUSE recorded an album they thought their fans expected to hear. Except for  the last two songs: The 2nd Law: Unsustainable and The 2nd Law: Isolated System which are fusions of  sounds similar to Skrillex , 2003's Absolution  and 2006's Black Holes & Revelations  the new  album carefully stays in a comfort zone that the band and it's fans has come to know.

Visually speaking The 2nd Law album art work stimulates the senses with a fiber-optic-esque image resembling a brain making one think, "I do want to check out this album". Moreover on the visual aspect, listening to The 2nd Law leaves very little doubt that the next MUSE tour will be, as always,  a sight to see.