Jennifer Maerz is the music editor for the Weekly... She saves us the good shit.
So much has happened since I last wrote here. I headed back to Oregon for a bit, I got a year older, and my internet bill is now twice what it used to be. What didn't happen is a lot of shows. January was pretty dead - which was nice for me because it meant recovery time from the holidays. But it sucked for doing a music blog because I didn't have much to cover - especially when I missed what I heard was an amazing Caroliner performance (which, luckily, it looks like Jesse caught). But blah blah blah... Some new interesting stuff in my hood, including this urinal art on the abandoned apartment that was previously just host to a couple cool goth creepies.

And at my neighborhood venue, Café du Nord, I caught the first show of S.F.'s Wooden Shjips, a heavy newish project from the guys who once brought you Botulism.

Wooden Shjips have a short but interesting history -- they gave out copies of their vinyl releases out for free while they lasted, and existed pretty unassumingly on MySpace until the likes of Rolling Stone magazine stumbled onto their music. And there's plenty to stumble onto here - bulldozing drone patterns, dreamy static, and stoney vocals. Pretty sweet stuff. The band is opening up for Roky Erickson as part of Noise Pop and also playing SXSW in March. And, um, here's their pedals. Yeah.

That same week, local psych pop boys Black Fiction also played at Du Nord.

While they're not as weird as Animal Collective, Black Fiction embodies that same giddy jubilance, the kinda stuff that makes you instantly stoked on life just hearing their MySpace tracks through your shitty laptop speakers. I mean how can you not get happy when a bunch of bearded dudes with lots of hair and high and low voices are singing these happy, hopeful, sing-songy tunes?

Frontman Tim worked his way into the crowd to further spread the love.

Something special must've been happening here.

The best thing about that weekend was that the next day was my birthday. And not only was it the perfect day to be play tourist for the millionth time

but Jay Reatard played the Hemlock that night. Jay put out one of my favorite garage spaz records of 2006. The fates were in my favor. Tokyo Electron opened the show

The drummer for Jay Reatard is the frontman for Tokyo Electron. TE play fast, crank it to 11 garage rock, the kind of stuff that can replace your caffeine intake with stiff electric jolts of rock 'n' roll.

But the highlight was definitely Jay Reatard, he of the Lost Sounds, the Reatards, and a loose gag reflex

Jay says his solo record, "Blood Visions," was a breakup album. If that's the case, it's the best kinda broken heart ode out there - no time to mope about. These songs are fast, loud, outta control, but still keep those pop hooks intact. These are hyper tunes for manic times. But speaking of time, the show both started and ended way too early (began around 6pm, ended around 8pm), which Jay protested by breaking a clock at the end of his set. (And from what I remember he broke it on his face).

That took us to just about dinner time. Where I ate the worst battered bits of ocean life you can imagine at the best place to spend a birthday.

What immediately follows has nothing to do with music, so if you don't want to see photos of people celebrating by making faces, you can skip ahead.

Back to the music: More garage rock (or "flower punk" as they call it) from the Black Lips an excellently fucked up band. The night they played 12 Galaxies, one of the guitarists broke an entire case of beer bottles on the stage in one swift drop. The other guitarist used a chunk of broken bits to play slide guitar, then proceeded to cut his buddy's face during a French kissing session - which of course I didn't catch on film because I'm still a bit retarded at this camera stuff. I just caught this instead.

But you can't live on garage rock alone. It's a new year, which means new resolutions that include new fitness routines.

These weights were all made of paper, so they're a little easier to lift. They were part of L.A. artist Christopher Tallon's show at Steven Wolf Fine Arts.

The show included Tallon performing fitness routines live while his video self gave the instructions.

I broke more of a sweat, though, by finally going to a show at Li Po, the esteemed Chinatown dive with a fallout shelter basement that's ruining young ears in all the right ways.

We were there to see Ariel Pink, an artfully screwed up pop dude whose damaged new romantic anthems are, well, loosely orchestrated to say the least. But that's why people love him... and got on his guest list.

Pink was dressed in an appropriate-for-the-neighborhood Chinese silky smock, and he crooned these awesome songs about girls and drummers and other topics hidden in his obtuse phrasing

Last time he toured, Pink picked up a new band in every city, practicing with them right before the show. This time the band came up from L.A. I think, and they seemed to know the songs, except when the drummer played the wrong one once or twice. Overall, though, the music was ironically more cohesive live then on record. Good times.

We went over to Oakland after the show to a party at Ghost Town Gallery, a multi-chambered labyrinth of music and art...

..and folks proud of their MySpace buttons

and my friend Miguel who I haven't seen forever

The only way to conclude a most excellent run of music, art, birthday, music, and more art, of course, was to have (veggie) hotdogs at Albany Bulb with the Rock 'n' Roll Adventure Kids who I mentioned in another blog last year. You should go see them at 12 Galaxies on Thursday, Feb. 15. You could memorize all the words to their songs between now and then very easily, especially if you like hot dogs.

Until next time...

p.s. Jay Howell's newest zine, Let Me Tell You Where to Stick It, is some of the funniest shit I've read... well, pretty much ever.

Upcoming Shows Worth Checking Out:

• The Affair (Bottom of the Hill, 2/9)
• Climax Golden Twins/Factums (2/16)
• Black Fiction (Mezzanine, 2/16)
• MV & EE (Hotel Utah, 2/16)
• Papercuts (2/20, Great American Music Hall)
• Noise Pop (various venues, starts 2/28)

What else? February's looking kinda slow. Post tips on good shows/bands/workout routines/hot dog recipes below. {moscomment}

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