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This set was part of the Mission Creek Music Festival. I really love this song and was glad to catch it on video. This was their last show for a while, as Ashley the bassist is having a baby.

I also got a great clip of them last summer at the Rickshaw. And I might put up an older clip of this particular song from last spring at the Make-Out Room because there was way less talking (but I accidentally covered the mic with my hand for half the song. I am an amateur!!)

(Whenever I hear quiter bands such as the Winechuggers, Low, Jolie Holland, Jonathan Richman, etc. I’m reminded how rude we collectively loud music-lovers are. I guess that’s why bands usually play super loud in order to cover up our drunken blabbermouths!)

Winechuggers

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These days, it’s not very often that I get to see a good goth band play. These guys made me feel like I was on the set of Donnie Darko hearing Echo and the Bunnymen at all the right moments.

Astral

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My boyfriend’s band Aim Low Kid have been in the studio recording their album recently, and they were looking for something to put at the beginning of one of their songs. Luckily, my little 5-year-old roommate Julian saved the day with the best scream anyone could ask for.

(Unfortunately, they later on decided that the scream didn’t really work with the song, but I was glad to capture it on video none the less.)

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Carta is very lulling, and I really love their instrumentation mixed with such grainy and utterly dark footage, which becomes more and more organic the more you look at it. The House of Sheilds is a very interesting place to see a band. There’s a wall of windows facing downtown San Francisco on one side, which has a cool effect on sound and visuals, and the stage is very intimate.

Carta

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These guys were amazing!! This was the first song from their set, and as you can see, they had the audience hooked from the get-go and never let go. This footage is a great juxtaposition to the footage I got of their very first show in Indianapolis last year. I hope to see them in San Francisco again soon.

Margot

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Watch the videoI shot this footage about six years ago when my friend Jason Yoder was writing an article about the Barn House near Spencer, Indiana. This place was in a state of decay when we went (Andy Fry also came) because its builder Jim Pendleton had been in jail for a few years. There was junk everywhere on the property, and it was kind of scary walking through the strange, crickety house. After we went to the house, Jason received a crazy letter from Jim, which I included on my website and super-imposed over the video footage I had gotten. Pretty soon after we visited the Barn House, it mysteriously burnt to the ground. Please see my website for more info.

This might not be suitable for work because the letter has some bad words.

This is an unfinished project that probably never will get finished, which is pretty suitable, considering the subject matter. The timing is a little off in parts, and I find my distorted voice-over kind of silly (but I couldn’t find a guy who could understand the letter enough to read it the way I could)…

Ambient sound by Jorma Whittaker

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These guys topped off the stellar Musical Family Tree event with an eagerly awaited set. I love the lead guitar melody on this one! (I’m sorry the sound quality isn’t so great and that I wasn’t able to get guitarist Erik Trojnar in the shot.) Members are currently in these bands: The Gentleman Caller, Brando, Rogue Wave and Lines in Analog Sound.

Stranded at the Drive-In

Musical Family Tree

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This is yet another incestous conglomeration whose members all appear in various sets from earlier or later in the night. Jake Smith and Freda Love are from Mysteries of Life, John Strohm is now solo (but used to be in Blake Babies with Freda way back in the late ’80s and lots of others, including Antenna, in between), and Pat Spurgeon appears in the Stranded at the Drive-In set (and is currently in Rogue Wave).

Antenna

Musical Family Tree

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I just can’t get enough of Chris Kupersmith’s and Tina Barbieri’s lovely harmonies. It’s almost as if they have male and female counterparts of the same voice. Tina also performed with United States Three the night before.

Uvula

Musical Family Tree

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I remember when Jeb of Musical Family Tree was introducing The Sugarfreaks that night, he aptly said that frontwoman Gretchen Holtz is the one person he knows who is the full embodiment of the term “rock star.” You can also see Gretchen’s adorable kids dancing in The Vulgar Boatmen footage from the acoustic set.

The Sugarfreaks

Musical Family Tree

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