It's been yet another eventful year here at Amoeba San Francisco, our 11th here on Haight Street! Below is a sort of best-of, a bunch of the highlights from the year for us, from instores to holiday events-- read on to celebrate the end of 2008 with us!

Going back to January 2008, we kicked off the new year with a groovy instore from Devendra Banhart.

September 30th, 2007:   Had he lived musician Marc Bolan would have celebrated his 60th birthday today.  The UK artist who fronted T-Rex (originally known as  as Tyrannosaurus Rex in their pre glam days) scored a ton of hits including the brilliant 20th Century Boy (see video above). collaborated with David Bowie (he played guitar with Bowie and also shared the same producer -Tony Visconti), and was arguably responsible for glam rock (thanks to T-Rex's  Visconti producted sound coupled with his unique & smart fashion sensibility including an affinity for wearing boas & sporting glitter onstage - long before any other artists did), tragically died in a car crash at age 29 on September 16th, 1977.  He was just two weeks shy of his 30th birthday. Today in the UK several low-key events are planned by fans of the late great artist, and in New York a concert event was scheduled to celebrate his 60th birthday anniversary - to be  attended by Tony Visconti, Patti Smith, Robert Gordan, his son Rolan Bolan and others.

But even before I realized that today would have marked Bolan's 60the birthday he had been on my mind a bit this past week. The reason being that  every time  I hear Devendra Banhart's voice I can't help but think of Marc Bolan who he is more than a little reminiscent of.   And in the past week on the radio I've been hearing a lot of Devendra Banhart because his recommended new album Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon  (XL Recordings) dropped. Pick it up at Amoeba Music and while you are there pick up a T-Rex release if you don't already own one or more.   Meantime for more background reading on Marc Bolan check out this website  or his fan club website. Or do a YouTube search for such videos as "Jeepster" or "Get it On (bang a gong)" or better still, as I said,  hit up the Rock isles of your nearest Amoeba Music.

As if you needed an excuse to visit that loveliest of all the lovely San Francisco venues, the Swedish American Hall, this coming Sunday it will be filled with the music of Bert Jansch.


Yes, that's right, Bert Jansch, oh -he- of- that- difficult- to- pronounce -last- name (last time I checked it was Yan-sh) will be making a rare-ish appearance here in our fair city.


Bert's one of those lucky people who came up in the U.K. in the late 50s/early 60s, so by the time he was a young man, he was in Swinging London's folk clubs impressing many a drunken lout.

My favorite records of his came out in the mid-to-late 60s:

Jack Orion (1966)    


and
Birthday Blues (1968) 




If you like your folk music straight up with just a slight twist of mournfulness, Bert's a guy for you.  His voice is so rich and warm.  It doesn't sound like anyone else's ever.  He's had somewhat of a comeback lately, with a great record released last year called Black Swan, produced by Noah Georgeson and with requisite omnipresent guest Devendra Banhart, among others.  From what I hear about his live shows, he's still got chops for miles.  Unfortunately, I can't make the show Sunday, so some of you will have to go for me and report back....Please?

Michael Hurley played at the Cafe du Nord Wednesday night, so I busted on over there after my weekly Bravo reality tv date, and I made it just in time for his full set. 

Hurley is one of the last standing of the 60s folkies, and he's still playing out often. I think in about the last 3 years I have seen him play maybe 5ish times? Oh, and though he is in his 60s he's still expertly writing ghostly, beautiful songs. Some of my favorites of his entire career have been on records from the last 15 years. He's been recording since 1965!  Despite the fact that most people associate folk music with serious, political topics, Hurley has always had his sense of humor intact and out front in his songs.

He's come back into fashion in these last 10ish years mainly because lately other artists have been giving him the shout-outs he's always deserved and have been covering his songs. Two of the more notable artists to champion Hurley lately have been Chan Marshall of Cat Power and Devendra Banhart. (Weirdly, Chan Marshall's Covers Album is almost like a song for song version of Hurley's Armchair Boogie.)  A few years back I saw Devendra with Vetiver, Chris from Espers, Carrituck County members and Joanna Newsom covering one of my absolute favorite Hurley songs, "Be Kind to Me" at the Swedish American Hall, and they tore it up, made it the raucous and ramshackle-y number it's meant to be.

Anyway, Hurley's a quiet, modest guy, but he is quite the renaissance man-- in addition to all his writing and touring, he creates the artwork for pretty much all his cds. 

               INT. JOB'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

               JOB, (early 30's) sits at his desk. A BLACK CAT is curled in
               his lap.

               He's listening to music on shuffle; a new song playing every
               few minutes or so. Currently playing is an early song by
               Front 242 from their album "Geography", located in the
               Gothic/Industrial section of Amoeba Music.

               He's typing out his latest blog, in screenplay format.

               In the time it takes him to describe the music that's
               playing, it switches to a track from Clinic's latest effort,
               "Visitations"; an album he is still exploring and enjoying,
               though it doesn't immediately rock his world like their
               impish, catchy and pithy album "Walking With Thee", located
               in the Rock/Pop section of Amoeba Music; an album which
               samples one of his heroes, Laurie Anderson, also found in
               that section.

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