‘Exited Door’ pays tribute to The City
By: Leslie Katz
Examiner Staff Writer
September 1, 2009
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Making music together: From left, Dan Apczynski, Kirk Hamilton and Lindsay Garfield are the vocalists on Hamilton’s debut album, “The Exited Door.”
(Courtesy photo)
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San Francisco musician Kirk Hamilton isn’t shy about sharing credit for the work that went into his debut album, “The Exited Door,” a cool, stylistically varied collection of chamber- pop songs about The City.
“A lot are friends, a lot donated their time — they were willing to come in and do it,” Hamilton, 28, says of the couple dozen folks who contributed to the project, which took him about a year to complete.
The string section, the marimba player and the jazz band at the Urban School of San Francisco, where he teaches, participated.
Then, there are his co-vocalists Dan Apczynski (his former mate in the rock band Squaretape) and Lindsay Garfield (of the alt-folk band Or, The Whale), who Hamilton claims “did all the heavy lifting.”
A group of about 10 will join him Thursday at the Rickshaw Stop in an all-local gig also featuring adventurous San Francisco pop bands Blue Rabbit and Conspiracy of Venus. The show represents the first time Hamilton’s songs will be played onstage with a full band.
It won’t be the last, either, says Hamilton, a fan of The City’s “small but amazing and exciting music scene” who looks forward to a “huge show” at the Great American Music Hall some day.
In the meantime, he’s happy with the CD.
“I wanted to bring all the different types of music I love into one album,” says the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, whose first musical success was as a jazz saxophonist (he earned a degree in jazz performance from the University of Miami School of Music). He doesn’t mind if his music is compared to that of Tom Waits, Sufjan Stevens, Stephen Sondheim or The Decemberists.
Still, “The Exited Door” remains a distinctly personal expression: “It’s a little autobiographical,” Hamilton says. “It’s about my early passionate rushes of music and romance. It’s songs about my experience.”
One thing it’s not is the culmination of his career.
The Inner Sunset resident — who loves being near Golden Gate Park — says, “I’m already thinking about newer, bigger things. I haven’t made my rock opera yet!”
IF YOU GO
Rabbits on Venus
Featuring Blue Rabbit, Kirk Hamilton Group, Conspiracy of Venus
Where: Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell St., San Francisco
When: 9 p.m. Thursday
Tickets: $10
Contact: (415) 861-2011, www.rickshawstop.com
