Embassy Home Entertainment 1613

Located on Telegraph Avenue near 66th Street in North Oakland, close to the Berkeley border, is the unique hair salon and vintage boutique Down At Lulu's -- which is owned and run by the fun, music-minded duo of Tina Lucchesi and Seth Bogart, two good friends who both happen to love music, fashion, hairdressing, and retro rock culture. They also clearly love what they do at Down At Lulu's which, while only a little over a year old, has won a Best of the Bay award and gained a strong clientele. The store, which is located roughly midway between the White Horse pub and the Smokehouse burger joint, has a festive storefront window with the large glittery words GABBA GABBA HEY -- a nod to one of their mutual favorite bands, the Ramones. Inside are records (not a whole lot, but carefully selected ones), cool clothing, and of course, the hair styling stations. I recently stopped by the store and caught up with Tina (Seth was away on tour with his band), who talked about Down At Lulu's, and about her and Seth's interests and passions -- especially music.

AMOEBLOG: How would you describe Down At Lulu's to someone who has never seen it?

TINA: Hmmm !!! A John Waters, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Rock N Roll High School, the Madonna Inn, Rock N Roll Burrito!

AMOEBLOG: How exactly did Down At Lulu's come into being?

This little band called Okkervil River have been a band for almost 10 years. They come from the wonderful little town called Austin, Texas.  Austin is actually not really that little. Not only is it the capital of Texas but it is also the 16th largest city in the United States. It is also home to that little festival called South by Southwest and that brilliant little band called Explosions in the Sky. Although Okkervil River have been around for a while, I really think that this is the album that is going to make them big stars. Or maybe just a little bit bigger stars. They really are brilliant. Any fan of the Shins should for sure also be an Okkervil fan. Imagine the Shins mixed up with some Will Oldham and Willie Nelson along with some darker bands like Black Heart Procession or Arab Strap. "Stage Names" is basically their fourth real album and it comes out this week.

I have been hearing friends talk about this band for years. Numerous people told me of their great devotion for Okkervil. But I didn't really give them the time they deserved until the last album, "Black Sheep Boy." The album was great and a bit magical. It got a lot of praise as I am sure this new one will get as well. I say magical mostly because of singer Will Sheff. He has one of those voices that is really easy to fall in love with. He is also in the band Shearwater with Jonathan Meiburg.
As I have been talking about this band more lately, I have also found out that many of my friends also like Okkervil River. It is always a nice little surprise to find out some of your friends like a band that you had hoped they would like.

Paramount Home Video 12908

So my back is almost healed. It’s probably at 70%, a passing grade to most, but I feel 100 times better than I felt just a few weeks ago. One of the things I could not do, besides sit or stand for long periods of time, was go dancing. During that time I went to see Calle 13 in concert and I had to stay perfectly in place or experience more pain than I already had. It was a hard task. Calle 13’s band is amazing! They had three percussionists and a horn section. Residente and Vistante of Calle 13 are step-brothers and they had their kid sister (P-13) as a their back-up singer. She looks like a b-girl but sounds like Toto La Momposina, the Afro-Colombian singer. The Calle 13 album, Residente o Visitante, is still one of my favorites of this year. I wanted to dance, even with the pain in my back, but when I tried to dance it looked odd. Imagine Frankenstein dancing to Cumbia and that is what I looked like. (My girl probably still thinks I dance like that, even when I don’t have a bad back.) I appreciated that no one laughed at me. The people at the show had class. Not what I’d expect from a Reggaeton show, but then again, this is Calle 13, one of the more intelligent groups out there.

Class is something that some people severely lack. I hate to generalize but some of the most awful displays of low class that I’ve seen have come from affluent people. People with money and success can act the most “ghetto,” as they like to call it. The funny thing is that you can’t get away with that kind of an attitude in most barrios, otherwise someone would put you in check. Last week after I finished my DJ set at Zanzibar (insert shameless self-promotion here) in Santa Monica, I sat with my lady to have a drink. There was an older gentleman that was way into the music we were playing that night. He looked like he could have been someone’s Anthropology professor. He had a little bit of an Australian outback look to him. Anyhow, he was dancing by himself, a little strangely, but harmless. A group of drunken West Side peeps came into the club during Mexican Dubweiser’s set. One Paris Hilton knock-off noticed the guy and immediately started taunting him by dancing just like him. The guy stopped dancing, perhaps conscious of the fact that she was making fun of him. I quietly fumed as I continued to watch the bitchy Paris Hilton knock-off prance around the club.