For Those About To Rock

Show review: BottleRock Napa Valley, 5.30.14

TV on the Radio plays the second of three new songs Friday at the BottleRock Napa Valley festival in Napa.

After a day of hits and misses, the first day of the 2014 installment of BottleRock Napa Valley came to a close with a decided hit thanks to British alternative rockers The Cure (right).

Robert Smith and company dominated for 2.5 hours on the main stage Friday at the Napa Valley Exposition, surging through a sea of hits including “Lovesong,” “Just Like Heaven” and “Friday I’m in Love.”

But The Cure proved their mettle in the songs that went beyond the singles, such as “From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea,” as guitarist Reeves Gabrels’ fretwork elevated the song to new heights.

The band played until it was forced to stop. After “Close to Me,” when the clock struck the 10 p.m. noise curfew, the band attempted to go into “Why Can’t I Be You?” but the sound was significantly squelched. Although Smith looked offstage and objected, the band relented in the middle of the song. (See the complete The Cure setlist below.)

TV on the Radio introduced new material during a 90-minute stand on the main stage that took a while to find its groove. The band proved most convincing when co-lead singer Tunde Adebimpe roamed freely, flailing his left arm with gusto and working to rile up the crowd. “Repetition” and “Wolf Like Me” proved helpful in this regard, as did 2013 nonalbum single “Mercy,” but others teetered on losing the band’s audience.

Also shining on day one was Moon Taxi, a Nashville rock quintet which brought a revved up set to BottleRock. Although it delivered its own material with verve and intensity, the group’s most surprising move was unleashing a cover of Rage Against the Machine’s “Know Your Enemy” that pulled no punches.

In mid afternoon, on the Miner Family Winery Stage was, fittingly, a Los Angeles folk rock group named Miner. Formed in 2012 as a husband-and-wife duo and expanded to a full band, the group played nuggets from February’s debut album, Into the Morning, including opening with a stirring “Golden Ocean.”

Matching Moon Taxi’s intensity was Delta Rae (left), a North Carolina folk rock group that includes three siblings, one of whom, Brittany Hölljes, is a Cal-Berkeley graduate. The five-year-old band worked through material from its debut slab, Carry the Fire, with help from Sublime With Rome’s dual-row wall of bass speakers, giving the group an unexpected oomph. It balanced its folksy numbers with uptempo rock, like its blistering rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain.”

Power pop rockers Gin Blossoms played cuts from throughout its career, spanning from its post-reunion record No Chocolate Cake to its debut, Dusted, which turns 25 in November. Singer Robin Wilson worked hard to engage the crowd, walking into the photo pit and emergency walkways to sing with fans before returning to the stage to deliver hits such as “Found Out About You” and “Til I Hear it From You.”

Kentucky-born cellist Ben Sollee took one of the early slots on the main stage, accompanied on most songs by a drummer. His set included “Prettiest Tree on the Mountain,” which he claimed he wrote after moving back to Kentucky after a breakup in California. Sollee joked that it took the BottleRock organizers both "balls and class" to book a cellist as a main stage act.

Reggae rapper and alternative rocker Matisyahu delivered a mellow set that leaned more on his recent rock efforts. Inexplicably, two women painted on one side of the stage as he sang. As the performance progressed, the painting took shape, with one side closely resembling the now-clean shaven singer in a style similar to his Live at Stubb’s cover while the other side showed a flock of birds flying.

Starting the day on the Sprint Stage was Chicago rockers Empires, which tried to find its footing with a new audience. Vocalist Sean Van Vleet said the visit to Napa marked new territory for the band, which has a new record due later this summer.

Return Sunday morning for coverage of day two, including highlights from OutKast and Weezer.

The Cure setlist, with help from Setlist.fm
01. Shake Dog Shake
02. Fascination Street
03. alt.end
04. The End of the World
05. Lovesong
06. Sleep When I'm Dead
07. Push
08. In Between Days
09. Just Like Heaven
10. Catch
11. Before Three
12. From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
13. Pictures of You
14. Lullaby
15. High
16. Never Enough
17. Wrong Number
18. The Caterpillar
19. The Walk
20. Mint Car
21. Friday I'm in Love
22. Doing the Unstuck
23. Bananafishbones
24. Want
25. The Hungry Ghost
26. One Hundred Years
27. Give Me It

Encore One
28. A Forest

Encore Two
29. The Lovecats
30. Hot Hot Hot
31. Let's Go to Bed
32. Freakshow
33. Close to Me
34. Why Can't I Be You? [incomplete]

BottleRock bounces back from financial brink for second installment

FAIRFIELD — When Napa-born businessman Dave Graham watched The Black Keys at last year’s inaugural BottleRock Napa Valley festival, he had no idea that he would run the show one year later.

In fact, without Graham and his business partners (right) — pictured, from left to right, with partners Joe Fischer, Jason Scoggins, Graham and Justin Dragoo, who comprise Latitude 38 Entertainment — there would be no BottleRock festival this year.

The three-day music, wine and food festival returns Friday through Sunday to the Napa Valley Exposition with English alternative rockers The Cure, reunited Atlanta hip-hop duo OutKast and North Carolina country singer Eric Church headlining a roster of more than 60 performers.

During the past year, the festival’s future fell into question after months of financial fallout. Debt for BR Festivals Inc., which produced the 2013 installment, ballooned to more than $9 million to various creditors, including the city of Napa, stagehands, vendors and more, according to bankruptcy court documents filed in February.

While concert industry powerhouses such as AEG Live, Live Nation and Another Planet Entertainment expressed varying degrees of interest in taking over, as deadlines loomed to make a 2014 installment possible, Graham and his cohorts came into the picture.

The quartet formed Latitude 38 Entertainment, named after one of Napa’s axis coordinates. The Napans took over the festival with a combination of cash and converting BR Festivals’ debt into equity, eliminating $4.3 million in dues to control the name and other assets, said Graham, Latitude 38’s CEO.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” Graham said. “Most people thought we couldn’t pull it off given the baggage.”

Graham, whose business experience includes building startups, said Latitude 38 made three promises to officials who run the Napa Expo, host site for the festival, as well as to the community: Help to eliminate the debt, retain a Napa spirit and commit to a 2014 installment.

The final promise, Graham said, is what distinguished Latitude 38 from other proposals, many of which he said looked to postpone a second event until 2015, after bankruptcy proceedings ended.

“No one was willing to take on that obligation,” Graham said. “People don’t realize that the festival wasn’t going to happen in 2014 unless we stepped up and did it. The festival wasn’t going to happen this year. ... A lot of the interested parties didn’t want to deal with the debt situation. We were the only ones willing to stand up and make a bad situation less bad.”

Doing so presented Graham and his cohorts with the challenge of untangling the financial knots of the 2013 festival while simultaneously raising funds, building a team and preparing for the realities of this weekend’s installment.

“We realized really quickly that everything was going to need to be done in parallel,” Graham said. “It has been seven days a week since November.”

With the deal finalized in January, Latitude 38 had just more than 40 days to pull together a lineup. Joining The Cure, OutKast and Eric Church (left) are artists such as Weezer, TV on the Radio, LL Cool J, The Fray and Heart.

Northern California talent is on the lineup card, too, including San Francisco's Third Eye Blind as well as The Soft White Sixties, San Jose's Smash Mouth and Santa Cruz's Camper Van Beethoven.

Booking artists proved complicated due to the small time frame as well as “radius clauses,” contractual stipulations that limit when and where artists already booked for other events can perform.

“This year was really difficult for us,” Graham said. “The industry doesn’t know us. They don’t trust us. All they know is BottleRock owes people money.”

Part of the process involved going to creditors owed money from last year’s promoters and convincing them to continue doing business with the BottleRock brand.

“We did feel bad about what happened,” Graham said. “In the beginning, it took two to six conversations for it to understandably compute.”

Eventually, Graham said, many of them came around. He remains hopeful this year’s event can restore faith in the BottleRock name, but said he thinks many concert goers will attend this year’s festival unaware of the financial drama.

“We knew there was possibility for the brand and we knew there was a possibility to pull this thing off,” he said. “We do have a vision for the future. We’re not paying attention to that vision until we pull this off. On June 2, we’ll start talking about that.”

For more information on tickets, a complete lineup, set times, hotel reservations and more, visit BottleRockNapaValley.com.

Follow Nick's updates from the festival grounds throughout the weekend on Twitter @ndeciccodr.

Latitude 38 Entertainment photo courtesy Jason Tinacci. Eric Church photo courtesy Townsquare Media.

‘Thug Notes’ keeps it real with classical literature

What’s good, playa? This week, we got our old-school literature game on lock thanks to the Web series “Thug Notes.”

“Thug Notes” drops the 4-1-1 about classic literature in the same way CliffsNotes or SparkNotes do, but the review and analysis are served in the style I’m using right now, a more “urban vernacular.”

The series is interesting both for the way it entertains about the books it’s reviewing as well as for what it says about race and language.

Sparky Sweets, Ph.D., — played by comedian Greg Edwards — hosts the episodes, often clad in a do’ rag and giant gold chains as he sits in a library that would do Jay Gatsby proud.

Here’s a bit from the “The Hobbit” episode (above): “When Smaug realizes that somebody be ganking his swag, he goes hyphy in this b**** and starts tearin' up the nearby towns.”

Most episodes are delivered in five minutes or less. First comes a summary of the piece, followed by analysis.

Part of what makes “Thug Notes” amusing is the humorous irony of seeing Romeo referred to as the “emo son” of “Big Daddy Montague and his boo, Lady Montague” or that Queequeg and Ishmael were “kicking it Bert and Ernie style” during their stay at The Spouter Inn in “Moby-Dick.”

It’s what keeps the series’ regular viewers coming back, too, as a familiar title is intriguing for just how “Thug Notes” might interpret it, while books the viewer may have missed are welcome as a comical introduction to the piece.

Although the episodes tend to work better if the viewer is familiar with the work in question in a particular episode, the installments even have a way of executing on the promise of the “Notes” genre, recapping as well as delivering insight into the works.

In the “Lord of the Flies” episode, I came away with a perspective I hadn’t considered, which is that the book’s many incidences of falling are symbolic of the fall of humankind and its humanity, especially in the context of World War II.

While the series has educational and entertainment value, the way they are delivered asks interesting questions about race and how it’s portrayed.

Months after Seattle Seahawks player and Stanford graduate Richard Sherman (left) pointed out that being called a “thug” was tantamount to using a racial slur, it calls into question how “Thug Notes” might further negative perceptions about blacks who live in urban settings.

The notion of Sparky Sweets as a doctor plays on an expectation that someone who looks and speaks as he does lacks intelligence. The show’s creators, Jared Bauer and Joe Salvaggio, acknowledge this in interviews, but say the show is an encouragement “not to judge a book by its cover,” as Bauer said in a National Public Radio interview earlier this year.

Bauer has a salient point there, although it shouldn’t excuse the casual racism on which the show trades. “Thug Notes” has something smart to say about its audience in terms of how we look at and interpret language. By offering Sweets as a doctorate-level mind, it flips the script on some of those negative ideas that might come with his portrayal.

To take it a step further, “Thug Notes” pays homage to the language it uses by showing that it does have some art and creativity.

It’s the same argument made for rap artists. While some see their words as nothing more than poor poetry, there’s an eloquence and artistry to it. When Nas raps, “Through the lights, cameras and action, glamour glitters and gold / I unfold the scroll, plant seeds to stampede the globe,” one would be hard pressed to argue that someone with a gift for words didn’t concoct lines of such complexity, depth and meaning.

The same is true with “Thug Notes,” which takes voluminous tomes and condenses them down into a funny, easy-to-understand format. “Thug Notes” is a loving embrace of language from a different perspective and people who may speak that way.

On the real, the series’ usage of such language is loving, entertaining and informative. It’s a fun way to learn more about classic literature its viewers already know and a funny way to be introduced to more.

So, see you next week, ballers. Peace.

Thug Notes releases new episodes every Tuesday. Visit the official website for more information.

Richard Sherman photo by Mark Samia

One decade later, 'Deadwood' still a gem

Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) and Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) converse during a scene from the first season of HBO's "Deadwood." The show, which deepened and enriched the classic western, first aired 10 years ago.

Ten years ago, a show aired on HBO that many overlooked.

It dealt with the complexities of the law, power struggles, race and how a society is built.

Blu-ray and DVD sales have raised its profile, but it was canceled before it could reach the ending it deserved.

Though many may think of “The Wire,” which aptly meets all these requirements, the series in question, instead, is “Deadwood.”

While Baltimore-based crime drama “The Wire” has enjoyed a second life thanks to cult recommendation as "the greatest drama in television history," “Deadwood” is as unfairly overlooked 10 years after its premiere season debuted as it was when it first aired.

“Deadwood” commented, too, on social, political, racial and personal struggles, set months after Gen. George Armstrong Custer’s last stand.

The town marches from lawless, unincorporated — read: Native American — territory to being swallowed into the American political machine during the course of the series, which plays out in 1876 and 1877.

By weaving together the factual and fictional, famous figures such as George Hearst, “Wild Bill” Hickok (right, played by Keith Carradine) and Wyatt Earp appear alongside memorable imaginary counterparts such as Alma Garret, Francis Wolcott and Mr. Wu.

“Deadwood,” which first aired in March 2004, rode into town and broke the mold for westerns. It dismantled the fables about heroic, morally superior outlaws, throwing shade on Ian McShane’s Emmy-nominated Al Swearengen, owner of the Gem Saloon and the show’s wiliest reprobate. Though among the town’s most clever, Swearengen’s saloon doubles as a legitimate business for an enterprise that also traffics in everything from opiates to murder.

Yet he managed to be likable, too, a principle part of organizing the town’s government as well as looking out for Garret when Hearst’s mining operation escalated his interest in her claim to more violent forms of persuasion.

Nonetheless, the final scene of the series is him scrubbing blood off the floor of his office, lamenting that one of his saloon employees — perhaps like fans of the show itself — “wants me to tell him something pretty.”

Because of low ratings and high costs, HBO decided to close shop on the exquisite drama in 2006 after three seasons. There was talk of doing a pair of two-hour movies to tie up the series and though we’re in an era where shows enjoy heretofore unprecedented renaissances (“Family Guy,” “Arrested Development,” “Futurama,” “24”), the more time wears on, the less likely it seems possible.

This is a shame because the show left a number of threads hanging. The third and final season introduced pieces series creator David Milch planned to pay off in season four, such as the deep investment in a newly arrived theater troupe. (Left: The troupe's leader, Jack Langrishe, played by Brian Cox.) In the form we’re left, it can be chalked up to a description of the show’s ever-expanding universe, a way to show the march from lawlessness toward civilization.

What makes the show a joy to catch for the first time or revisit after all these years is its complex characters as well as its dense prose, lavish costumes and that indescribable French term mise en scène, which speaks to the sum of the elements put on the screen. In much the same way Baltimore was a principle character in “The Wire,” so, too, was the South Dakota town of Deadwood in its show.

The language in particular is an attraction to the show. Milch concocted a cocktail of contemporary obscenity fused with sophistication, leading its characters to speak like this:

Swearengen: Our whole goal is to get annexed to the United f------ States. We start holding trials, what’s to keep the United States f------ Congress from saying, "Oh, excuse us! We didn’t realize you were a f------ sovereign community and nation out there! Where’s your c---sucker’s flag? Where’s your f------ navy or the like? Maybe when we make our treaty with the Sioux, we should treat you people like renegade f------ Indians! Deny your f------ gold and property claims and hand everything over instead to our ne’er-do-well cousins and brothers in law!"

And that's just one of the more palatable examples, forgetting entirely Swearengen's hilarious efforts to converse with Mr. Wu, a man of Chinese descent if not birth, that consist largely of a 10-letter swear beginning with C.

It also features actors who later went on to acclaim in other work, such as John Hawkes, who earned an Oscar nomination as leathery, unsettling meth addict Teardrop Dolly in “Winter’s Bone,” Timothy Olyphant, who’s played lead role Raylan Givens for five seasons on FX’s “Justified,” and Anna Gunn, who played Skyler White on “Breaking Bad,” among others.

But like any good show, it needs to be viewed to be fully appreciated.

On a network that housed heavyweights such as “The Wire” and “The Sopranos,” “Deadwood” may have been easy to overlook, but it’s held up as well as any other show since the turn of the millennium.

Edit, 6:22 p.m. 5/2/14: Corrected to "10-letter swear."

Show review: Mastodon at The Fox Theater, 5.1.14

Mastodon presented a platter of pleasantries from throughout its career in Thursday’s stop at The Fox Theater in Oakland.

Rather than a full-fledged unveiling of new tracks from June’s forthcoming Once More ’Round the Sun, Mastodon spent most of Thursday’s 90-minute set dishing out a sampler of its 14-year history.

Taking the stage to sounds of the ocean and whales, signaling its Leviathan record, the Atlanta metal group launched the night with the meaty, intricate “Hearts Alive.” An ambitious choice for an opener, the 14-minute opus served as an entree before the main course for many moshers and headbangers.

After guitarist Brent Hinds overcame a tuning issue in “Crusher Destroyer,” the band found its footing by sandwiching the singles “Capillarian Crest” and “Black Tongue” together for a powerful pair.

The quartet dug deep, too, displaying Blood Mountain’s “Bladecatcher” as an instrumental, ditching the screeching, unrecognizable noises of the studio effort for raw live menace.

Much of the night doubled as a showcase for Brann Dailor, Mastodon’s high master of percussion. Dailor — with a kick drum cover still sporting the creature of many features from the cover of band's last studio effort, 2011’s The Hunter — put on a clinic throughout the night, especially when inspiring the crowd toward insanity during Leviathan’s “Megalodon.”

Stacking together so many eras from the band’s history told the story of its career path without feeling like a greatest hits package. For instance, the band’s best-known single track, “Blood and Thunder,” was left out of the night’s proceedings.

“Trampled Under Hoof,” from debut LP Remission, stood as a reminder of the band's salty youth, bringing its primal, progressive metal beginnings to the fore.

That stood in contrast to The Hunter's “Octopus Has No Friends,” which features Dailor and bassist Troy Sanders delivering clean vocals over Hinds' and Bill Kelliher's sludge rock riffage. A few songs apart, they spoke to how Mastodon has seasoned its palette throughout the years rather than losing its flavor.

“Octopus” also helped set the tone for the introduction of “Chimes at Midnight” and “High Road,” two songs from ’Round the Sun. Both felt musically in tone with more recent Mastodon efforts, including “High Road,” released last month, which went for earthier, grittier territory than its anthemic chorus might suggest.

If the band’s goal was to play at least a few nuggets to please fans of each era in its history, mission accomplished. As for introducing ’Round the Sun, Thursday’s gig did more to remind Mastodon fans of their track record and build anticipation for a new platter than it did reveal it.

Also, French metal band Gojira (right) turned in an exceptional opening set, centering half of its eight-song, 50-minute set around its celebrated 2005 effort, From Mars to Sirius. Superb lighting and thick fog augmented a triumphant performance, helping set the tone well for the headliner.

Mastodon setlist
Hearts Alive
Divinations
Crusher Destroyer
Capillarian Crest >
Black Tongue
Bladecatcher
Crystal Skull
Trampled Under Hoof
Siberian Divide
Naked Burn
Megalodon
Oblivion
Octopus Has No Friends
Chimes at Midnight
High Road
Aqua Dementia
The Sparrow

Gojira setlist
To Sirius
The Heaviest Matter of the Universe
Backbone
Flying Whales
L’Enfant Sauvage
Toxic Garbage Island
In the Forest
Blow Me Away You(niverse)

Show review: Fu Manchu at Bottom of the Hill, 4.30.14

Fu Manchu's Scott Hill sings Wednesday at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco.

For better and for worse, Fu Manchu’s modus operandi is consistency.

For better, that means the San Clemente-based stoner rock band, which kicked off its tour Wednesday at San Francisco’s Bottom of the Hill, is a known quantity. They’ve mastered slow, sludgy riffs with low, rumbling bass caked on top. That’s been the formula in the studio for 20 years.

For worse, that means even new material, such as Gigantoid, released this week, comes with an air of familiarity. Few people look at Fu’s back catalog and talk about “that one experimental record” because, well, it just doesn’t exist.

Some of the new Gigantoid material was on display during a 75-minute set that also leaned heavily on the old favorites.

What familiarity also can breed — as Fu Manchu showed Wednesday — is precision.

“Weird Beard,” played by request of singer Scott Hill’s friend in the crowd, packed a fuzzy freakout into the build up to its protracted reading of the song’s title.

The night-ending number, “King of the Road,” drove a capacity crowd to moshing and singing along on the club's floor.

Although all the member’s execute with precision, Hill is the most magnetic presence on stage, headbanging, stomp kicking into songs and lurching into a crouch to churn out his riffs.

His movement around the stage at the conclusion of “Evil Eye” caused the cords for his guitar to tangle with those of bassist Brad Davis.

“We’re f------ Spider-Men,” Hill joked.

Among the new material showcased was “Dimension Shifter,” which found guitarist Bob Balch using a choppy delay effect over the song’s long concluding drone, a rarity among Fu's setlist Wednesday in that it faded away instead of burnt out.

The set featured material from throughout the band’s career, including a trip back to “Time to Fly,” the opening track on its first LP.

But whether old material or new, Fu Manchu showed Wednesday that it’s comfortable doing what it does best — sticking to its formula for success.

Setlist
Squash That Fly
Hell on Wheels
Anxiety Reducer
Eatin’ Dust
Time to Fly
Regal Begal
Dimension Shifter
Laserbl'ast!
Mongoose
Invaders on My Back
Weird Beard
Evil Eye
Pigeon Toe

Encore
Saturn III
King of the Road