Otis Redding

Record Peddler: The Horrors of Suggesting a CD to a Vinyl Buyer

[Record Peddler is an occasional column by Sam Lefebvre on life and music as viewed from behind the counter of an independent record store.] I've continuously worked in record stores since I was 16 years old. For nearly a year, I lived in the back of one record store while working in another, and w ... More >>

Mighty Unveils Its New, High-Powered Soundsystem

Second City Sessions with Colette & DJ Heather Saturday, March 30, 2013 Mighty My vision became a blur of Nike and Adidas, with legs and arms shooting out to occasionally grab onto the rhythm. I was standing at the far corner of Mighty's dancefloor, on the periphery of a house dancer's circle that ... More >>

Anchor Brewery Announcement Leads to Delightful Day-Drinking

Had Anchor Brewery's proposed waterfront extravaganza been extant in the days of Otis Redding, sitting on the dock of the bay could have been a less melancholy experience. Yesterday's big development announcement was made during a dreary gray morning. But, even on a clean, crisp Northern California ... More >>

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

Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" Is 45 Years Old Today

It's the song that defines Otis Redding, and one of the most famous songs about San Francisco (or at least San Francisco Bay), ever. It was released 45 years ago today, on Jan. 8, 1968, on the great Stax/Volt label. And despite the song's close association with one of the greats of '60s soul -- and ... More >>

Bryan Boogie on His Love for Deep House and Why DJs Shouldn't Be Promoters

Growing up during the height of the '90s Bay Area turntablism movement, local DJ Bryan Boogie decided to save his lunch money to buy equipment from RadioShack at the age of 12. While locals Q-bert, Mix Master Mike, and Apollo were dazzling in DMC battles, Boogie instead found himself drawn to house ... More >>

Neil Young Wants Perfect Sound. Here's Why I Don't.

Today, at last, Neil Young and I are united in our ambitions: we would like you to go back in time, to Valentine's Day 1967. We want you to enter a recording studio in New York. This is a session for Atlantic Records, so the great Jerry Wexler is there, as is King Curtis and his saxophone. Most rema ... More >>

R.I.P. Donald "Duck" Dunn: The Bass That Held Stax Soul Together

There's a glorious sense of mystery, a rightfully rarefied air, reserved for the masters of American soul. It's not just that the genre is called "soul," although that's got to be part of it. The greats of the music are held in special regard because playing soul well is something akin to magic, a l ... More >>

Rick Santorum, 1967 Otis Redding Knows More About Education Than You Do

​Sunday ad-circular vest model Rick Santorum is going around the country arguing that pretty much every new feature that America has developed since 1950 is in fact a bug that Quality Assurance should have stomped out. This weekend, though, he reached back even further in time to find better days: ... More >>

Tonight: Psych-Soul Outfit Harry and the Hit Men Perform the 1967 Stax Revue Concert Live

In 1967, iconic Memphis soul label Stax took some of its best artists -- Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd, and more -- on a tour of Europe. The trip put a racially integrated band and some of the era's most feverish black R&B singers in front of mostly staid audiences that had nev ... More >>

Album of the Year: Handicapping the Race for the Best Record of 2011

It's almost November -- the month when music scribes pull their ears out of whatever Sonic Youth/Public Enemy/Kate Bush playlist they normally exist to and begin cramming for that all-important professional exercise: The annual Best Of list. Picking the 10 or so best new albums of the year and placi ... More >>

Jay-Z and Kanye West Are Bringing the Throne to the Bay Area This Fall

The Kings will cometh.​Now that the hype from the Royal Wedding has finally died down, it's time for the Kings to arrive. The self-proclaimed kings, that is -- Jay-Z and Kanye West, now collectively known as the Throne, will bring their upcoming joint tour through the Bay Area this fall. Will ... More >>

Noah & The Whale Bring Good Vibes to The Independent

[Editor's note: All Shook Down accidentally sent two writers to the show, but we're posting both reviews, since they're both so good.] Lauren Sloss​Noah and the Whale Bahamas May 26, 2011 @ The Independent Better than: mastering the choreography to Duckie's Otis Redding dance alone in your r ... More >>

Top 6 Songs To Avoid If You Want To Keep Your New Year's Resolutions

Are you one of those hopelessly optimistic people who decides to transform yourself into a better human every time a New Year rolls around? You may have been brimming with enthusiasm for your resolution as the clock hit midnight last Friday, but we're guessing that, by now, the cracks are probably s ... More >>

Lonely holiday: Grillade finds soul in a Christmas song

But You Can't Stay Here: Seven Songs for S.F's New Sit/Lie Law

Move it or lose it, sister​ In the aftermath of last week's elections, Measure L, the controversial initiative that would -- nay, will -- make it against the law to clutter San Francisco's public thoroughfares with shiftless human litter between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m., has finally squeaked into the l ... More >>

Huey Lewis To Be Honored by Stax Records Museum

​Local boy Huey Lewis is getting props from one of the great houses of American soul.Lewis and the News' new album -- their first in nine years -- is called Soulsville, and consists of songs released on Memphis' Stax label, the home of Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Issac Hayes, and Booker T. & ... More >>

R.I.P. Solomon Burke, 'King of Rock 'n' Soul'

Solomon Burke in the '60s​Pour one out for one of the all-time greats of soul music, self-proclaimed King of Rock 'n' Soul Solomon Burke, who died yesterday in the Netherlands, according to CNN and others.Burke, 70, died of natural causes early Sunday morning on a plane at Amsterdam's Schiphol Air ... More >>

Gold Sounds

Nemeth: Show Preview

Beres Hammond: Show Preview

Outside Lands Day Two: Al Green, The Devil Makes Three, and A Mass of Humanity

​Outside Lands Day Two Sunday, August 15, 2010 Better than: watching bootleg videos of the gig on YouTube at home by yourself. Open-air music festivals are as much about atmosphere as they are bands. At Outside Lands Day Two, this meant The People -- aka the plebs, the great unwashe ... More >>

The Top Five Covers of Outside Lands 2010

Christopher VictorioAl Green's soul medley on Sunday had us wearing a stupid grin.​Of all the things we'll remember about this year's Outside Lands festival -- the sun breaking through the fog during Al Green's set, the gaudy costumes of Empire of the Sun, and the incessant oonce oonce from the He ... More >>

In Store: Rooky Ricardo's (New Record Shop Column)

​In Store is a new All Shook Down column in which we find San Francisco's quirkiest, most beloved, weirdest, and/or otherwise-most-interesting record stores, talk to people there (employees, volunteers, customers, cops, whoever) and find out what's up. Along the way, we hope to paint a fun little ... More >>

Pirate Radio gets a tame U.S. release, but we still love rock 'n' roll

Friday Night: Booker T and Bettye LaVette at the Independent

Booker TBooker T and Bettye LaVette The Independent Friday, May 8, 2009 Last night I saw Booker T. Jones, one of the titans of American music, and it really hit me how much he has contributed to Western pop culture. I was also digging his performance, as was everyone else at the sold-out show. Whe ... More >>

Sunday Morning Fever

Rap and Bullshit

Today’s R&B is pure garbage.

Taj Mahal's diversity through the decades

Rare Sly Stone, Soul Music Film Clips at SF Public Library

The San Francisco 100: The Best 'Baghdad by the Bay' Songs, Ever

Various

Monterey International Pop Festival (Razor & Tie)

I Left My Heart Right Here

Shouting out the year's best Bay Area songs

Jamie Lidell

Multiply

Back to School

Kanye West's Late Registration cements him as hip hop's most conflicted -- and fascinating -- superstar

Solomon Burke

Make Do With What You Got

Singing Praises

Are you there, God?

Film It Yourself

The Film Arts Festival of Independent Cinema: an ideal reality check

The Week's Can't-Miss Performance

The Detroit Cobras squeeze new life into rock oldies.

House Of Tudor

Ad Hoc Committee Against the Millennium, Josie's Cabaret and Juice Joint and "Play Pretty for Baby"

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