melodies and moons might sting

but what life the swelling brings
 
original harmony ridge creek drippers | 7.21 | starry plough -berk : 2 gigs in the bay area. i mentioned them last time, but here they're playing in berkeley + you can go get fairly good bbq at flint's prior.
 
pato banton | 7.27 | justice league : toaster from the 80s

joe henry | 8.8 | bimbo's : scar is the best release of 2001 i have purchased this year. of course it's hard to go wrong when you're
surrounded by people like brad mehldau, me'shell ndegeocello, mark ribot + ornette coleman. ornette coleman...he's my jazz ace in the hole for my (obviously unbiased) theory that the best musicians in the world come from texas. once again i digress. joe started out solidly in country + his sound has steadily morphed, all the while writing great songs. i can't find a stitch of country in the new album. he's got a smoky full voice + his songs are filled with honesty + heartache.

matthew sweet | 8.9 | slim's : i'm a sucker for a good pop song. matthew has buckets full.

superdrag | 8.11 | bottom of the hill (show at 6) : not sure why, but these guys will be playing broad daylight for an early show.

zakir hussain, bill laswell, talvin singh, karsh kale, ustad sultan khan | 8.12 | stern grove : not sure, but my guess is they will all be onstage at the same time, which is in itself phenomenal. this is listed as an 'electronica' show. laswell has performed|produced all over the map from funk to punk to hip hop. for the last few years he has been putting albums together with world musician ('imaginary cuba' is genius) + electronic (i guess) rhythms. talvin singh is a tablas player who has always combined modern influence in his music. to the best of my knowledge the rest are all classically indian musicians.

damon + naomi | 8.30 |BotH : when the 'leader' of galaxie500 peeled off, these two stuck together. great on album, never seen them live. 
mudhoney | 9.1+2 | BotH : leaders of the sleazy end of grunge. three chords. + they did that collaboration with jimmie dale gilmore.

mick taylor | 9.1 | gamh : one of the more impressive resumes in music, i'm really only recommending him because he played on 'sticky fingers' + 'exile on main street'. after all, i only get my rocks off while i'm dreaming.

oh yeah, i found out syd straw is opening for glenn tilbrook (see below).
 
how to find hulett this week (actual shows i'll be attending):
 
alejandro escovedo | 7.21 | BotH : ok. this one i WOULD be going to but i'll be out of town. one of my favorite singer songwriters from austin. played in the nuns back in sf's punk days (the real ones back in the 70s i mean). then rank+file then led one of the most powerful guitar armies i ever saw, (the) true believers. then he put out a few introspective folky sounding albums. now in concert you're never sure what persona he'll take on. he can turn on a dime from motor city nose hair singing punk to orchestral bliss to soulful country. his voice is a drone. his voice is five hearts breaking. 'the sky's a fire just waiting to die + his heart's as empty as a dead man's eye. she held his hand, looked him in the eye + said, believe, believe + everything will be fine.'

spoon | 7.25 | gamh : i will be front + center at this band. saw them at bimbo's a few months back for the first time in years. i was expecting to hear their first album which is heavily 'surfer rosa' pixies. they played only one or two songs from that album, so i only knew half of what they played + the new stuff blew me away. costello, pixies, kinks, just a brilliant pop/punk writer. do not miss this band. they blew superchunk off the stage. from austin + i'm homesick. 'don't say a word, the last one's still stinging. back of my mind, i hear that phone ringing. + there is no way back from this. everything hits at once.'

lucinda williams | 7.26 | warfield : my wall-eyed baby. when i worked at the cactus, lucinda once walked up to me + said, "you have an adorable smile." i smiled for about a month after that. oh yeah, her music... blues based country, + a band with extreme rock firepower. great lyrics + a great voice. "if only for a minute or two, i wanna know what it feels like to be without you. i wanna feel the touch of my own skin, against the sun, against the wind."

 jonathan richman | 7.28 | BotH : (give paris one more chance) about ten months ago, at a time when i really needed it, a good friend introduced me to the poetry of hafez, an old sufist poet from persia. so we went to the bookstore + i picked up a collection. he told me during our walk out of the store that hafez's poetry is often used in persia for guidance. you would open the book + whatever poem you land on has a message that you need to hear. so i did, + was stunned. the poem, though wide sweeping in scope (not like grandma's refrigerator poetry, mind you), was filled with incredible detail and things that seemed incredibly personal to me. i have yet to put that book on a shelf. so several months ago i go see jonathan at the make out room. now i've been a fan for a long time, seen him several. every time i see him, he plays at least four new songs that are incredible. i kind of got the feeling that if modern america had anyone similar to hafez, this guy is it. you will always smile at a jonathan richman show. he is life affirming. but the reason he's so much fun is not because he only writes about flippant good time stuff. though he does do that, but he also searches deep in the core for painful things + renders them in a way that you realize that there is beauty there. besides you can tell he is having a ball with it. last time i saw him i was 15 feet from him. several new songs that floored me. one in particular in which he stared straight at me smiling through the whole song. exactly the song i needed to hear. he hasn't recorded it. if you don't know of him + are curious as to what he sounds like, he was the minstrel in 'something about mary.' he has such a thick boston accent that there are times when he almost needs subtitles. he plays a hollow body gibson + often takes it off (which means there is no music playing) so he can dance around onstage. ...with no music playing.
 
> previously mentioned
> sade | 7.17+18 | those damn outdoor theaters
> victoria williams w/mark olson + the original harmony ridge creek
> drippers | 7.20 | cafe du nord
> teenage fanclub | 7.20+21 | slim's
> shawn colvin | 7.21 | fillmore
> alejandro escovedo | 7.21 | BotH
> jerry jeff walker | 7.22 | GAMH
> echo + the bunnymen | 7.22 | fillmore
> glenn tilbrook w/ syd straw | 7.24 | slim's
> spoon | 7.25 | gamh
> lucinda williams | 7.26+27 | warfield
> warren zevon | 7.26 | fillmore
> jill scott | 7.27 | greek theatre
> fishbone | 7.27 | pound
> ramblin' jack elliott | 7.27 | noe valley ministry
> robert walter's 20th congress | 7.27+28 | gamh
> jonathan richman | 7.28 | BotH
> dismemberment plan | 7.29 | BotH
> mark eitzel | 7.30 | gamh
> david byrne | 7.30 | warfield
> area:one fest | 7.31 | shoreline
> the gossip | 8.1 | gamh
> everclear | 8.1 | warfield
> pernice brothers | 8.3 | BotH
> cowboy junkies | 8.4 | warfield
> roxy music | 8.5 | chronicle pavilion
> patti smith | 8.7+8 | fillmore
> tricky | 8.9 | fillmore
> angelique kidjo | 8.10 | fillmore
> tool | 8.10+11 | berkeley comm. theater
> stevie nicks | 8.14+15 | outdoor thingies
> jim carroll | 8.15 | gamh
> erykah badu | 8.17 | chronicle pavilion
> go-go's | 8.21 | warfield
> dwight yoakum | 8.22+23 | fillmore
> the exploited | 8.25 | maritime
> oscar peterson | 8.28 - 9.2 | yoshi's
> flogging molly w/ rev. horton heat | 9.1 | fillmore
> madonna | 9.5 | arena in oakland
> smokey robinson | 9.15 | chronicle pavilion
> nick cave | 9.20+21 | warfield
> widespread panic | 10.12-13 | greek theatre