NKLA is coalition made up of animal welfare organizations, city shelters and individuals concerned for the welfare of animals. It is led by Best Friends Animal Society and is dedicated to ending the killing of healthy pets in L.A. shelters, providing spay/neuter services and helping to increase pet adoptions. Best Friends Animal Society also is providing grants to coalition partners for every pet they get adopted to a new home over the number they adopted last year.

Muttville is a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of senior dogs, rescuing them to find them homes, and providing hospice and education for caring for older dogs. Senior dog adoption and more information can be found at www.muttville.org.

L.A.’s own Bleached will bring their grimy guitars and candy-coated melodies to Amoeba San Francisco next week for a performance May 6 at 6 p.m. Led by sisters Jessie and Jennifer Clavin (formerly of L.A. punk greats Mika Miko), their recently released debut album, Ride Your Heart, has been spinning circles around us for the past couple of weeks on the strength of punk party jams like “Next Stop” and radio-ready gold like “Dead in Your Head.” Pick it up, and check them out at Amoeba SF or back in L.A. May 8 at the Troubador with Ex Cops and Tijuana Panthers. I saw down with Jessie for a quick and dirty interview before their performance.

PST: It’s hard to believe your first album is finally out! We’ve been awaiting it for some time. Did you want to make sure you got it just right, found the right producer or had the songs developed to the point that you wanted?

Jessie: We knew we really wanted to work with Rob Barbato again, who produced our last two 7-inches. We started with some rough demos, and the songs really started to come to life as we started adding over dubs and Jens vocals.

PST: Some of the newer tunes are really pop-oriented, like “Dead in Your Head,” while others like “Next Stop” retain the punkiness of your earlier work. Has the approach to songwriting changed at all?

FIDLAR's long-awaited debut album is a Pabst-soaked party record with strong songwriting anchoring its punk attitude. Pulling from hardcore, surf rock and pop-punk, and with the immediacy of The Clash's first record, the foursome, made up of singer/guitarist Zac Carper, Brandon Schwartzel (bass), and brothers Elvis Kuehn (guitar) and Max Kuehn (drums), sing about being young and dumb and getting fucked up. But all the funny lyrics in the world wouldn't mean a thing if the songs themselves didn't captivate you, and they do, across FIDLAR's 14 tracks. There's nary a hint of cynical sneer, and though they play with sloppy punk abandon, their hooks are tight as a six-pack ring. FIDLAR sing about who they are and what they do, whether that's waking, baking, skating in mechanical hedonism or reflecting that said young hedonism can "kind of suck."

The band has been selling its debut record at shows for some time now, but it's officially out in stores Jan. 22. FIDLAR is playing Amoeba SF Jan. 18 at 6 p.m. and Amoeba Hollywood Jan. 24 at 6 p.m. They're also playing a release show at LA Fort Jan. 22 with Pangea, Meat Market and Spaceships. I caught up with Carper as the band was set to play SF. WARNING: This will be a bit NSFW (Not Suitable for Wussies). There's poop involved.

PST: Fidlar has some of the best song titles in recent memory (such as “Cheap Beer,” “Stoked and Broke”). Do those usually come first before the lyrics and sort of guide them, or do you guys kind of joke and throw stuff around to see what sticks once the songs are written?

Carper: It kinda matters. Sometimes the title will just pop out and we’ll think of a chorus with the lyrics and base it around that. Sometimes we’ll jam it out and think of a topic to sing about. I remember with cheap beer, I said “I dunno, I just wanna write a song that says I drink cheap beer so what fuck you,” and someone said “why don’t we just yell that?” Sometimes we’ll just hear someone talking and say something funny and we’ll use that. It’s all a collaborative process and super fuckin’ fun.

Harry Duncan’s Roots and Rhythms Series returns to Amoeba SF Saturday Oct. 27 from 2-5 p.m. To hear a sample of the music Duncan spins, listen to In The Soul Kitchen with DJ Harry Duncan on KUSF In Exile Tuesdays from 7 to 9 p.m. Listen to past shows here.

This Saturday’s show will include a rare appearance by legendary poet and activist John Sinclair. Sinclair was once the manager of Detroit proto-punks MC5 and lead anti-racist and pro-marijuana efforts in the 1960s. He was imprisoned in 1969 for the possession of two joints of marijuana, which spawned the John Sinclair Freedom Rally in Ann Arbor, Mich. in 1971, which featured John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Allen Ginsberg, Abbie Hoffman and another of other luminaries from the time. He was soon after released, and the Michigan Supreme Court ruled the state’s marijuana law was unconstitutional. He was charged with two others in the 1972 Supreme Court case United States v. U.S. District Court, which upheld that warrantless domestic wiretaps were illegal.

Sinclair is now based in Amsterdam, where he continues to write and record poetry, which is often accompanied by blues, jazz and rock musicians. He hosts a radio show at RadioFreeAmsterdam.com where he plays jazz, blues, R&B and other music, and maintains a blog, Fattening Blogs For Snakes. I caught up with Sinclair over the phone as he was working on a documentary in Healdsburg, Calif.