Pioneering world music ambassador, veteran DJ, producer, promoter, and former Amoeba Music employee Cheb i Sabbah, who earlier this year was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer, is doing much better but still continues his fight for a return to full health. This he has been doing despite having no medical insurance but, luckily, having the love and support of friends and fans who have rallied to his help in recent months. Back in July Cheb i Sabbah supporters threw two successful "health-care benefits" in San Francisco for the highly respected world musicologist. These benefits and other acts of support directly helped the man who gratefully posted online that, "With your blessings, prayers and generosity, I am currently in Germany at a clinic nicely situated in a small town that's famous for it's sulfur baths and countryside. I have begun a battery of tests and some treatments. I am feeling good and full of hope, and this is all due to your love. For that I will always be ever grateful." That got him to Europe for treatment this summer. Now back in the Bay Area he is still facing more treatment and, naturally, more expenses.

The unprecedented show of support for Cheb i Sabbah in time of need has proven what an admired, appreciated, and most important figure he truly is. "You know he's been around DJ'ing since he was just a teenager - playing soul in the 60's in Paris and [he] was very hip to all the North African styles long before most anyone else was," said Amoeba Music's Marc Weinstein recalling that Cheb i Sabbah worked at Amoeba Berkeley as world music buyer for about four years in the mid-nineties. "He brought an incredible depth, especially with African and Middle Eastern music, when he worked here at Amoeba," recalled Weinstein, adding that as a DJ he is in a class of his own. "He would have Nickies [on Haight St.] rockin' so hard, creating monster grooves. The place would be packed! He is the most well loved DJ I have ever known!"

Reviews of some of my favorite albums from the past couple of weeks:


Dum Dum Girls - Only In Dreams (CD or LP)

Noise popettes Dum Dum Girls started out rough, all motorcycles and dingy guitars and black nail polish, on their excellent debut album, I Will Be, before expanding the lo-fi quality of their sound to brighter places with this year’s He Gets Me High EP. They continue that trajectory with their second full-length, Only In Dreams, which ups the pop ante considerably. While The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde always had been a touchstone for singer/guitarist Dee Dee’s smoky drawl, the band’s music serves as a signpost here as well, insofar as Only in Dreams combines rock toughness and girl-group melodies in a way rarely seen with such success since that band — check out “Caught In One” for one of the best examples. Elsewhere, the band sounds a bit like early Go-Gos (the jangly “Bedroom Eyes”), The Bangles (“Hold Your Hand” is kind of like an indie-rock “Eternal Flame”) or Mazzy Star (it might bother you how much “Coming Down” sounds like “Fade Into You,” if the tremoloed riffs and breakup lyrics weren’t so damn effective). While they struggle a bit to establish their own identity apart from their forebears, Only in Dreams proves Dee Dee and co. to be formidable purveyors of classic pop-rock.

Free download of "Bedroom Eyes" by Dum Dum Girls.

CIIS Public Programs & Performances and Amoeba Music present classical guitar virtuoso Miloš Karadaglić at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco on October 15th.

Born in Montenegro, Karadaglić began playing the guitar at the age of eight and quickly won international recognition. In 2010, he signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. His first album, Mediterraneo, topped the U.K. classical charts and has now been released internationally.

For tickets and more information, visit them HERE! (Group discounts available for 10 or more!)

The Roxie Theater and Noise Pop present the San Francisco premiere of The Beat Is The Law – Fanfare For The Common People at the Roxie Theater, this Thursday, September 29th.