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CHICKFACTOR 2012: FOR THE LOVE OF POP! SAN FRANCISCOLinks
The Chickfactor fanzine continues to celebrate its 20th anniversary year with a series of concerts across the US and UK. One of only two California shows!
Chickfactor fanzine was started in 1992 by Pam Berry and Gail O'hara in DC/NYC. Oh, and Belle and Sebastian wrote a song and named it after us.
Stevie Jackson (from Belle & Sebastian)
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All the way from Glasgow, Scotland, the excellent guitarist-singer in Belle & Sebastian, the one who wrote a tune called "chickfactor," natch. Mr Jackson has a new solo release titled "(I Can't Get No) Stevie Jackson."
"This blast of utterly infectious pop-rock from the band’s lead guitarist comes as a dandy surprise. Jackson has contributed some real gems to the B & S catalog – often on singles and EPs – but he was clearly saving up the highest-karat gold for this solo debut (released July 3 in the U.S.). A jumping energy and love-what-I’m-doing feel permeates this set, which shifts around a lot to show there’s much more than six-string skills going on with Jackson. Like his day job, there’s humor and brains, but blessedly less mope, romantic self-pity and cheeky nihilism." --dirtyimpound.com
The Softies
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Rose Melberg (Tiger Trap, Go Sailor, Brave Irene) and Jen Sbragia (All Girl Summer Fun Band) just played their first show together in 12 years at chickfactor’s 20th anniversary party in Brooklyn on April 12. Trust me when I say it was rad. They are only planning to do a couple more shows so do not miss! They reformed this year to play at two other chickfactor shows.
Here is footage of their Portland show: http://www.rawkblog.net/2012/06/watch-the-softies-portland-reunion-show/
"The Softies — Melberg's duo with fan-turned-partner vocalist Jen Sbragia (who has recently recorded with the All Girl Summer Fun Band) — offers weightless guitar/harmony song sketches recalling the skeletal jazz-influenced pop that led Tracey Thorn of the Marine Girls to form Everything but the Girl." --Trouser Press
Lilys
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Early Slumberland recording artist and crazy-talented recording artist Kurt Heasley will be making a rare West Coast appearance.
Indie rock pioneers, Lilys, harness stream of consciousness lyricism and melodically satisfying arrangements to aptly blend sounds from indie-shoegaze to 60's bubblegum pop and beyond.
The album Better Can’t Make Your Life Better's "A Nanny In Manhattan" rose to #16 on the UK Singles Chart after being used in a 1998 advertising campaign for Levi's directed by Roman Coppola. The following year Lilys performed the first fully live performance on Top of The Pops since Aerosmith in 1978.
Formed in Washington D.C. by “the Wally”, an expansive 17-year-old otherwise known as Kurt K. Heasley, Lilys first seven inch single, "February 14th", was recorded in DC at Inner Ear Studio and released on Slumberland. Kurt’s harmonically complex songwriting has resulted in six albums and five EPs with other various labels such as Che', Sub Pop, Sire and any other labels which may begin with an s sound.
There's been an abundance of great talent performing as Lilys over the year's. Today, the intellectual and musical chameleon Heasley is joined by classic beat maker Aaron Sperske, perpetual romantic and social protagonist Torben Pastore and the authentically laid back Dan Horne, who completes the group. They are currently in the studio working on a new record.
Kim Baxter
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After more than ten years of guitar and vocal duties for All Girl Summer Fun Band (K Records, Magic Marker Records), Kim Baxter wrote and produced her first solo album, "The Tale of Me and You", with her husband, Chris Flanagan. The pair played all the instruments on the album which was recorded in their home studio in Portland, Oregon. Baxter has put together a five-piece band to perform these songs live.
Allen Clapp
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In the late '90s, Clapp and his wife Jill Pries bought a house in Sunnyvale, about 15 miles closer to San Jose in the heart of Silicon Valley. "It's an Eichler and we're fixing it up," he would excitedly tell me of the flat-top "mid-century modern" tract home, a breed that flourished 50 years ago. He lightly skewers Sunnyvale these days—a town with no music scene, whatsoever (except for him)—as "the vale of sun."
Before relocating, Clapp had started a band called the Orange Peels with himself on vocals/rhythm guitar and Jill's bass as the only permanent members. It was a worthy vehicle for the brilliant pop songs Clapp was creating then, little gems that occasionally brought back memories of '60s pop/rock titans the Zombies and Herman's Hermits.
Created at his own Mystery Lawn Studio, which now occupies the garage space where his vintage Maserati once grazed, Mixed Greens is an entirely new breed of cat. "Picnic At The Hermitage" is a sweeping instrumental whose piano and synths, floating on a thin bed of industrial noise, turn the unwrapping of sandwiches and the opening of a jar of fresh ants outside Andrew Jackson's ancestral home into a cinematic moment. "Downfall No. 3" has something of the right-hand turn Brian Wilson once made when he ditched surf 'n' psych for the soulful sounds of "Wild Honey." "All Or Nothing" adds something new to the morning weather report: an overriding sense of melancholy.
plus MC Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket!)
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American writer, screenwriter and accordionist. He is best known for being Lemony Snicket's official representative.
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