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Out of the Wilderness, into the Sunset: For several years, Nic Zwart has been traveling through the hazy guitar pop of Olympia’s Desolation Wilderness, but since moving back to San Francisco, he’s returned to DW’s roots and is now basking in the glow of the more electro-charged Electric Sunset. The transition from the band to his new solo project has been relatively seamless. “I was moving to San Francisco, and Ben [Kapp], the only other guy in Desolation Wilderness at the time, wasn’t too interested in learning the new songs, which wound up being some of the songs for Electric Sunset,” he says. “So [breaking up the band] suddenly seemed like the only course of action. It feels great to have a fresh start and be doing something new.”
Zwart has already completed Electric Sunset’s debut full-length, which is being released by K Records in September. His music continues to be dreamy, but these days he’s also finding inspiration in some unexpected places, like the corner of the music world where old-school reggae and dancehall hang out. “I like that stuff because it’s sort of a precursor to electronic music with all the remixing, dub versions, and DJ stuff they were doing,” he says. “I’ve also been listening to a lot of fuzzed-out, weird old guitar music and psychedelia. Plus, I’ve been really digging a lot of early synthesizer stuff and academic electronic music recently.”
Electric Sunset’s first show in the city is Wednesday, June 30, at Sub-Mission Art Space, but the project’s true live debut is Saturday, June 26, in Oakland. “All I could get out of who I spoke to was that it starts at 8 p.m. and is at a warehouse on the corner of 17th and Martin Luther King in Oakland,” he says. “And that when you get there, it should be ‘really obvious’ which one it is.”
Having a gay old time: You know who played SF Pride in 2008, right? Yeah, Crystal Waters performed, and sure, Margaret Cho was there, but the one they’re still talking about is Lady Gaga, who took to the main stage in Civic Center Plaza back when most people were still calling her Stefani Germanotta. This year’s lineup likely won’t produce a similar before-they-were-famous experience — then again, who’s to say Dangerous Muse won’t get its fame monster on in the next year? — but the marquee names on Sunday, June 27, are fairly impressive: Rose Royce brings the disco at 3:25 p.m., Backstreet Boys will be showing off which way they want it at 4:05, and then Erasure’s Andy Bell takes the audience on a cruise in his ship of fools at 4:45. (In case you’re wondering, Dangerous Muse is headlining at 5:45.)
Elsewhere during this rainbow-striped weekend, Bob Mould is celebrating his first SF Pride as a local denizen on Saturday, June 26, at Slim’s with “Blowoff,” his oonce-oonce bear party with Rich Morel. The pair once brought the rock-band version of “Blowoff” to the Folsom Street Fair, but these days they’re sticking to the ones and twos. “The live show was good fun in 2006, and people enjoyed watching us play and sing,” Mould says. “It’s tricky integrating the two — the live set changed the dynamic from a circular social event to a linear concert event. Maybe we’ll do it again in the future, but for now I’m grooving on the DJ party vibe.” Mould says he’s been checking out the Frameline LGBT film festival (which closes on Sunday), and you should, too: A good musical option is a sneak-preview screening at the Victoria on Saturday of Kerthy Fix’s documentary, Le Tigre: On Tour.
 Brainy blips ’n’ bleeps: They say that good things come to those who wait, and that’s certainly true of local beatmaker Eskmo. Brendan Angelides started recording as Eskmo more than a decade ago, but he’s just now putting together his first proper full-length for Warp Records. You might assume that Angelides had to bang on a lot of doors to get the venerable label to take notice, but he hung back and let Warp approach him after catching a live performance. “I’m honored to be a part of that legacy,” he says. “Some Warp acts, such as Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, and Squarepusher, were huge influences of mine from back when I was tapping into the electronic world. It’s great to see an independent label like them still going so strong.”
Eskmo — who recently got a Best of San Francisco nod from SF Weekly for Best Bleep Beats Blowing Up—has also done a mix for Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint, and he’s the special guest when the label’s Strange Utopia Tour (featuring Strangeloop, Teebs, Timeboy, and San Francisco’s Shlohmo) stops at Milk on Friday, June 25.
As for that full-length, Eskmo isn’t offering many details, but the curious should head over to www.eskmo.com on July 7 for more information and a free track. In the meantime, seek out “Fine Objects,” the first single from Eskamon, Eskmo’s collaboration with Amon Tobin.
“I opened up for him in 2008 at Yuri’s Night,” Angelides says. “He was really into the more recent stuff I was writing, and we started chatting even more and eventually linked up to start working on music. We definitely have plans to write more as Eskamon, but there are a couple chunks of work that we each need to finish off before we dive into that process.”
The lost generation: A lot of ink has been spilled in the name of documenting punk’s past, present, and future, but Eric Davidson has a new tale to tell. In We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001, Davidson — a music writer who is best known as the frontman of New Bomb Turks — chronicles a slice of punk he believes has been largely overlooked. Davidson says that books like Legs McNeil’s Please Kill Me and Michael Azerrad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life were inspirations, “as were the less-interesting vast majority of music journalism/films that, when covering ‘punk,’ seem to jump right from Black Flag and Minor Threat — at best — straight to Nirvana and Green Day, basically skipping a decade of bands. We thought it was about time some ’90s stuff got covered, besides fucking Sum 41, Good Charlotte, Yellowcard, or whatever the hell mall stores thought punk had become through the last decade.”
We Never Learn makes sure to give the Bay Area its due, with the Mummies, Supercharger, and the Donnas among the bands covered. “Gearhead Records and [Gearhead] magazine were based out there, and they really pushed a lot of the loud, obnoxious, retro-forward punk into the bland skate/pop-punk or grunge-obsessed indie world of the early ’90s,” Davidson says. “They first brought the Hives, Hellacopters, and basically the whole Swedish garage-punk scene to the States. And, of course, the Dwarves were based there. You know, the greatest band ever.”
At 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 1, at the Hemlock Tavern, Davidson will read from the book and share outtakes, show some rare video clips, and DJ. Then in true DIY-punk fashion, he plans to take the party to the Eagle Tavern for the Eddy Current Suppression Ring show. Davidson is also scheduled to DJ at Pop’s Bar the following night.
Five Twitter Picks
1. RT @SFWeekly: An opera review for people who don't understand anything about opera http://bit.ly/9pYFW2 5:25 PM Jun 21st
2. SF band todayokay talks Star Wars, Record Deals and Sexual Chocolate http://bit.ly/dtV1tk 3:37 PM Jun 21st
3. Snag a free mix from Dirtybird's Justin Martin. http://bit.ly/9AxkCd 1:20 PM Jun 21st
4. Wondering what wine to drink with Bay Area bands like Ty Segall, Hunx and His Punx, or Emily Jane White? Right here: http://bit.ly/9ffMPI 11:57 AM Jun 21st
5. SF's kid-aimed band the Sippy Cups rocked Dolores Park Saturday with a fat lady costume and a Syd Barrett cover. http://bit.ly/dBC7kb 9:02 AM Jun 21st
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