Talk of the Tastemakers

We're living in an era of New Music Overload, thanks to the ubiquity of fresh tracks on blogs, turntables, and indie radio stations. How do you cut a path through the thicket? One answer is to check out the recommendations from your pick of tastemakers — and in such a music-savvy spot as San Francisco, there are plenty to choose from. We get fanatical here about digging up new and long-forgotten sounds, and this town is ridiculous with point-people for those excavations, depending on the genres you crave most.

Tracking down all the city's music mavens would've filled an entire issue of the Weekly, so instead we offer an eclectic batch of heavies who've turned their curatorial listening habits into careers: label owner, musician, and editor Pat Thomas; electro DJs Jefrodisiac and Richie Panic; indie loyalist Ted Leibowitz; the dirtybirds vinyl crew; KUSF mainstay and club promoter MikeBee; and the boys behind the queer oldies nights at Aunt Charlie's, Seth Bogart and Brontez Purnell. In the pages following are clues to their starts, their styles, and, most importantly, the sounds that drive their habits.

Read more articles in Listen Up 2008

Dirtybirds records crew by Tony Ware
Jefrodisiac & Richie Panic by Evan James
Pat Thomas by Mark Keresman
Seth Bogart & Brontez Purnell by Jess Scott
Ted Leibowitz by Hiya Swanhuyser
MikeBee by Toph One