It’s telling that the music sellers in the Mission that have survived are the ones that are engines of recommendation: Samir, owner of Semiramis Imports, is passionate in his devotion to Middle Eastern music. He opened the store 35 years ago – a former liquor store operator, he kept getting inquiries about where to find the Middle Eastern music that he played on his weekly radio program on a now-defunct AM radio station, and he was sick of the liquor business anyway. And Aquarius Records is one of the most heavily annotated music stores of all time, ever – a place where every album has a story.
The stories we were looking for were short ones: we asked every person connected to ever music operation that we could think of to recommend one album. And this is what we got. Sadly,the incomparable Discolandia is closing, a state of affairs that left Silvia Rodriguez was too sad to participate in this when we asked her. While it’s still open, we suggest that you go there buy a few things – she’s a neighborhood treasure. And we’re sad to not have any recommendations from Pirate Cat Radio – if we do wind up hearing back from them, they will be added, because we love them and what they do for the Mission.
So, without further ado….
AQUARIUS RECORDS – 1055 Valencia (@22nd)
Andee Connors:
Jaill That’s How We Burn (Sub Pop) Easily THEE best, catchiest psychedelic indie pop record of the year, crunchy and jangly and hooky and so goddamn great. I listen to it every day. And don’t see myself stopping any time soon…
Scott Hewicker:
Gonjasufi A Sufi And A Killer (Warp) A Sufi And A Killer is an amazing debut, a perfect fit between the murky off-kilter beats of Flying Lotus, Burial and King Midas Sound. But it also surprisingly displays a lot of vocal and musical range, moving into some rockier moments, tripping out on short interludes or sometimes delving down strange, exotic and mysterious but always interesting sonic tangents.
Allan Horrocks:
Malachi Ugly Side Of Love (Domino) Super catchy lost-in-time blast-sorta-from-the-past that’s actually from the here and now, a UK electronic duo blending vintage samples with actual instruments to rock out like a groovy ’70s psychedelic proto-metal power pop band that never was.
KALEIDOSCOPE FREE SPEECH ZONE (3109 25th @ Folsom)
Sara Powell:
Os Beaches Words of the Knife (Porto Franco) A local rock and roll band off of a Mission label that bill themselves as “acid gospel.” That’s “gospel” as in “the truth” – not “gospel” as in “the word of God.”
EXPLORIST INTERNATIONAL (3174 24th St @ Shotwell)
Chris Dixon:
It’s a toss-up between two completely opposite records:
Outer Space Outer Space (Arbor) It’s like a fake early electronic record. Lots of pulsing synths. It’s really pleasant and also: space is awesome.
Spider John Koerner March 1963 (Nero’s Neptune Records) He was an early folk revivalist – a fingerpicker but also kind of a punk-ass. His style was really raw and more relateable to early folk and blues, not fluid and pretty like the Tompkins Square, Joan Baez people.
SOMA FM 1890 Bryant (@Mariposa)
Rusty Hodge:
The Maze Sounds from the Ground (Waveform) A hybrid trip-hop/ambient groove release from a band I’ve liked for over 10 years. They keep releasing stuff that’s true to their older work but also inventive and edgy enough to keep you from getting bored.
But, actually, my favorite release is Groove Salad vol. 1, a compilation that I mixed and released this December. It’s available to SomaFM’s supporters.
Gina (DJ Lucretia:
The music on my channel (Doomed) is unusual in that most bands don’t make that sort of music, even if they happen to have one song that is appropriate for the channel. With that in mind can I say “My favorite music of 2010 was the sound of tortured hipsters screaming in agony as they discovered their local Valencia Street bar had run out of PBR?”
SEMIRAMIS IMPORTS 2990 Mission St (@26th St)
Samir Koury
Om Kolthoum (Everything she’s ever done) They call her ‘The voice of the Nile” (Sawt El Nile). She was born in Egypt in 1904, died in 1975, and sang over 65,000 songs. Each album is one song, because time in music is measured differently than it is in the Western civilization. Her songs are about love, longing and loss, performed with an orchestra of as many as forty instruments.