Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music

Sizzle

Tamara Palmer

Digital Underground with George Clinton.

Tim Mooney, R.I.P.

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More About

• Tupac Shakur
• Bobby Seale
• George Clinton
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Hip-Hop and Rap

• On what would have been Tupac Shakur's 41st birthday, the group that gave the late rap legend his start, Digital Underground, celebrated him in a live show at Yoshi's. Guests included George Clinton (who was virtually unrecognizable without his rainbow wig) and Black Panthers co-founder Bobby Seale. It was a loud, messy night — one Tupac would've loved.

• After a celebrated run in Berkeley and on Broadway, Green Day's American Idiot musical has returned to S.F. The show lurches from one anthemic song to the next, only minimally developing its characters. But with dazzling sets and exacting musical performances, punk rock has made a loud, irreverent incursion into the world of Broadway musicals.

• Richmond rapper G-Mo Skee grabbed a lot of attention with a violent music video in which he attacked the heads of KMEL and Thizzler's annual Freshman 10 list for not being included last year. Then something funny happened: Skee actually made this year's list. Of course he declined to attend any of the official Freshman 10 events.

Fizzle

• The Bay Area metal community lost Jeff "Leppard" Davis, a beloved musician and engineer who died in a motorcycle accident at age 39. Davis was an alum of Voetsek and STFU, among other bands, and later became an accomplished audio engineer. His wife, Nikki, was also injured in the accident; the family is accepting donations to help with her medical bills.

•Tim Mooney, drummer and producer for S.F. bands American Music Club and Sun Kil Moon, passed away at age 53. Mooney played with punk outfits Sleepers and Negative Trend before joining AMC in the early '90s. He was remembered by AMC singer-songwriter Mark Eitzel as "absolutely instrumental in whatever sound we had." Mooney is survived by his wife and daughter.

• Another note of finality: Music Center of San Francisco, one of the city's oldest sources for sheet music, instruments, and accessories, is closing imminently. "A lot of people are calling and saying they heard we're going out of business," says Warren Leong, who has worked at or owned the Music Center for 45 years. "But they haven't shopped here for years."