Comedy/Spoken Word

So, this is my last post for Listen.com. I figured I'd wrap this up with that staple of the nerdy music journalist: the year end list!

Another sign that the recession has been going on a lot longer than a month: Two local record stores are going bye-bye. In fact, Open Mind Music -- which moved to Market Street a couple years back in the hopes of staving off extinction -- is already gone, having shuttered its doors last month. (The store will apparently sell its remaining underground hip-hop, freaky techno, and oddball rock at the Other Shop on Divisadero and online.) Now comes the news that the 24th Street location of Streetlight Records is going kaput after the holidays.

After an extended holiday break, we're getting back into the swing of things full time. This week actually has some great shows, with most nights having three or four solid options. So after we stocked up on turkey and stuffing we should have the stamina to make it through a long week of shows.

Monday
Eagle and Talon, DJ Kevin Bronson @ Spaceland. Free
First of all, it's nice to see Kevin Bronson, former LA Times music writer, still out there in the scene making things happen. I'm sure he'll have a good local selection to play, and if you're not following his Buzzbands blog, it's definitely worth your time. Ok, and while we're at it we should go check out Eagle and Talon. These two girls were nice enough to send me a handwritten postcard asking me to come see them. How can I say no to that? They play a version of modern rock that's a touch more mainstream than your average Spaceland band, but they're still pretty weird.

Usually, it's pretty hard to get San Franciscans to come over to Oakland. They figure they've got pretty much the same stuff over there (save for, um, the outrageously high murder rate), so why bother to risk a DUI or the ridiculously early last BART train? How about this for a reason? A multitude of quirky art galleries, loose open container laws, and a free burlesque show featuring a bevy of bodacious broads and a wild New Orleans-style marching band.

That's what you get with Oakland's Art Murmur and the First Friday Follies.

Our buddy's over at Family are hosting another get together tonight, this time with local band Jennifer the Leopard and Michel Gondry. The event is called You'll Like This Band Because We're J Lep.

Full details after the jump...

Chad Radford: Hello Neil. How are you?

Neil Hamburger: Not so good. Someone sprayed cyanide gas on the audience last night, all over the front row. I think about 200 people died. It should be on the news today, but we're going to do another show tonight, regardless.

I hadn't heard about that. Was it heckler that did it?

Yeah, it was one of those hecklers who went too far.

Where was the show?

It was in a little town, called Stolen Penny, Nebraska. It's all over the news, look on Fox News and you will see it.

I grew up next to Nebraska, or right next to it anyway.

Oh, so then you know this town. It's fantastic...

Are people mean to you in the press?

Well you do get your occasional sickee who likes to say something horrible in the press. They try to say that I'm not as funny as Carrot Top. That's not a nice thing to say.

I don't think Carrot Top is very funny at all.

I don't either, that's what makes it a rip off for what you pay to get into that show, but some of these journalists feel differently from us.

Carrot Top creeps me out. He's all muscular and orange these days.

That's what I've been trying to say, but people have an agenda before they even put pen to paper. I think some of them are even working for Carrot Top, like maybe even on his payroll.

They're still getting that 10-10-3-2-1 money. Remember those Carrot Top Commercials where he said "It's free for you and cheap for them..."

They will haunt us forever...

How to fill in your calendar for this week:

Monday
White Williams, Harmonia @ (le) poisson rouge 158 Bleecker St. 18+ $20    

Under the hubbub of re-formed bands like My Bloody Valentine and Polvo at ATP, one of the sleepers was Harmonia, the sublime meeting between Cluster's Roedelius and Mobius with NEU! guitarist Michael Rother who released two classic albums in the mid-70s. While MIDI presets course through their sound now, they still retain the propulsion of analog drum machines and the results are at once bright and dark. Upstart laptop jacker White Williams opens.

Woodstock aside, New York as a state gets the shaft when it comes to hosting music festivals. California's Coachella blooms out in the desert, while Austin, Texas gets not just SXSW but also the Austin City Limits Festival. Chicago hosts both Lollapalooza and Pitchfork Festival while even New Jersey glimmered with this year's inaugural All Points West. Thankfully, this year, Monitcello, New York will host the venerated All Tomorrow's Parties Festival this weekend.

Universal health care may never come to New Yorkers, but go figure that a 21st century update of a traveling medicine show is hitting the island of Manhattan this weekend (September 11-13). Or is it a gothic carnival? Steamer punk cabaret? Noir-leans jazz band? Who knows what exactly to call The New Orleans Bingo! Show, but they will be erecting their circus tents on the planks of Pier 17 on the East River as part of their exclusive residency at Spiegelworld.