Skip to Navigation Skip to Content

David Downs

Natasha Kmeto brings soul to electronic music

Natasha Kmeto
Futuristic soul singer and electronic music producer Natasha Kmeto will perform her first headlining gig in San Francisco at Public Works on Sunday. The show — which also features Insightful, Joe Mousepad and Manitous & Swoonz — is a prelude to Kmeto’s Feb. Read More

Afrolicious breaks attendance records at Elbo Room

Afrolicious
Electro, samba, dub, disco and funk fans keep African-inspired beat music alive at the weekly Afrolicious residency in the Mission district’s Elbo Room. In April, the melting pot of funky beats will turn 6 years old and exceed 300 events, thanks to “an amazing crowd without a doubt,” says co-founder DJ Pleasuremaker. “The room has amazing, amazing energy,” he says. “These are totally passionate people that love music and want to hear whatever crazy, insane stuff we can come up with. Read More

Mike Relm’s Ghetto Blaster slams S.F.

Mike Relm
A god among VJs, Mike Relm returns to the Independent on Friday for a fierce mashup set the likes of which have earned Relm more than 13 million YouTube views and counting. Using two turntables, a MacBook, Serato Scratch and a sampling machine, Relm layers snippets of movies, television shows, music and video games into pounding, frenetic, pop culture bangers — and he does it all live. Read More

Christopher Willits’ positive electronic vibes flow

christopher willits
Producer Christopher Willits — who crafts positive, beautiful, relaxing electronic music — brings his one-man band of guitar, vocals and electronics to the Independent on Friday. The leading figure in San Francisco electronic music, opening for Tycho on Friday, will debut a new audio-video show featuring exotic, gorgeous vistas that he shot in HD and Super 8. He live-edits the video material while simultaneously layering guitar, vocals and effects. Read More

Bottom of the Hill goes downtempo with Mister Lies

One of The City’s best music venues, Bottom of the Hill, offers a night of rising experimental electronic-music producers Friday with Chicago’s Mister Lies, supported by the Bay Area's Giraffage and Some Ember. Suitable for fans of Massive Attack, Aphex Twin, Flying Lotus, Bonobo or Baths, Mister Lies is the pseudonym of 20-year-old dramatic writing undergraduate Nick Zanca, who releases his debut LP “Mowgli” on Lefse Records on Feb. 26. Read More

SOMA's Tall Sasha to shock people out of holidays, into new year at Vessel this weekend

New Year’s Eve victims, it’s time to get back on the horse. San Francisco DJ and producer Tall Sasha will shock limp nervous systems back to life with jolts of progressive house and electro Saturday at nightclub Vessel. In town since 1998, Sasha holds forth regularly at the small, swank Union Square club, and he has released a string of successful singles in 2012. Read More

Richie Panic to perform at Fort Mason Wintersalt festival

Let’s face it: New Year’s Eve in San Francisco on Monday is going to be another debacle. The bridge-and-tunnel crowd, the drunks acting out, the cab situation — it’s all horrific. That’s why people are celebrating Friday and Saturday at Fort Mason’s Wintersalt festival with Diplo, DJ Shadow, Germany’s Zedd, and major San Francisco electronic music DJ and booker Richie Panic. The 32-year-old Mission district resident and “Lights Down Low” crew co-promoter agrees: There are no cabs on New Year’s Eve, and Muni is a violent circus. You might as well walk. Read More

FreQ Nasty mixes bass for world's end at 1015 Folsom

Fiji-born, New Zealand-raised FreQ Nasty has a booming set of bass music planned for his headline slot Friday at the Mayan-themed “RE:SYNC” party at 1015 Folsom in the South of Market district. What he lacks is an emergency plan for — potentially — his last night on Earth. “I have a feeling that we’ll wake up on the other side of it happy and healthy, but then I guess that’s what everybody feels before an apocalypse,” Nasty says. Read More

DJ Dials brings Bondax to 1015 Folsom

Nob-twiddling, this is not. Tireless San Francisco electronic-music DJ and promoter DJ Dials opens up for the U.K.’s Bondax today at 1015 Folsom. The 29-year-old veteran DJ is one of the top bookers of sophisticated, taste-making electronic music in the Bay. He’ll spin contemporary and classic house using turntables and the performance program Serrato, with opening help from Lights Down Low promotion crew members Sleazemore, Richie Panic, Joaquin Bartra and Commodore 69. Read More

Crystal Method bang it out again at Ruby Skye

Can’t San Francisco just adopt The Crystal Method? San Francisco is a sister city for the Los Angeles-based electronic music duo, playing one of its last local dates of the year Friday at Ruby Skye. Ken Jordan and partner Scott Kirkland hit the downtown club often. They played two megafestivals in San Francisco in 2012, and a number of private gigs around the Bay Area this year. Read More

Fred Everything goes vinyl only for Throwback

Nothing against glow sticks, but the epileptic light shows of Deadmau5 and gymnastics of Steve Aoki can seem a bit gaudy, exhausting and derivative for those who’ve been around the block. Among such purists is Potrero Hill producer, Lazy Days Recordings head and funky, French-Canadian deep house DJ Fred Everything, who headlines the free, 1990s classic house party “Throwback” at Mighty on Saturday (with open bar) — LED light show not included. Read More

After Thanksgiving, have a wallop of Big Chocolate

Heavy metal-influenced drum and bass and dubstep producer Big Chocolate will burn off some of the Bay Area’s turkey weight Friday with an intense set at 1015 Folsom atop the “Bass Camp” lineup, which also features Kill Paris, Jelo and the Opulent Temple resident DJs. Portland, Ore.-based Big Chocolate is actually a regular-sized redhead named Cameron Argon. The Friday set is a prelude to the release of his new “The Red” EP on  Dec. 4 and part of a swift rise for the full-time 22-year-old producer. Read More

DJ Qbert joins Jazz Mafia at Fillmore

Two quintessentially American art forms — jazz and turntablism — collide at the Fillmore on Saturday during Jazz Mafia Symphony’s adventurous, 12-year anniversary blowout featuring DJ Qbert, a world champion battle DJ. Jazz Mafia Symphony will play commissioned works such as “The Emperor Norton Suite” and “Brass, Bows, and Beats” with DJ Qbert on turntables as part of a celebration for the loose Jazz Mafia collective. Read More

Azari & III playing to Fox Theater with Die Antwoord and more

Sensual, inviting dance band Azari & III aims to make more fans in the Bay Area this week as part of its “Sonar on Tour” trek with Die Antwoord, which pulls into Oakland’s Fox Theater on Friday. The 4-year-old Toronto four-piece offers a retro, revivalist house counter-point to the bombastic Skrillexes and Deadmau5es of the world. Using synths, drum machines, bass machines and live vocals, “I think we’re making R&B and techno,” says Alixander III, co-founding member of the group. Read More

J Boogie breaks sound barriers in the Bay Area

Bay Area DJ icon J Boogie continues to dissemble the boundaries of dance music this week with “Night Moves” — unifying the scenes of San Francisco house, modern funk, nu-disco and moombahsoul at the Monarch on Saturday. The “Night Moves” party is a deliberate blend, J Boogie explains. “We’re trying to tap into the house-music scene and catch the younger kids who are into nu-disco and moombahsoul. It’s some of the new folks and some of the old folks all dancing together,” he says. Read More
URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/people/david-downs?page=1&quicktabs_1=0