Ok…so here is a list of stuff I’ve found that I totally dig.

The blues gods: Elmore James, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, etc.
Black Mountain – heavy psychedelic stuff
Cracker – It’s Cracker. Not everything they’ve done…but a fine collection. Countrysides is amazing
Dave Alvin – Dave was the Blaster’s guitarist way back when but has gone on to a great career as purveyor of Americana
Heartless Bastards – Just go buy these albums. Seriously. One of my fave new female voices
Steve Earle – the ultimate Nashville Outlaw has carved out a late career of speaking the truth, no matter how ugly it is
Led Zeppelin – I added Presence and In Through the Out Door to my already hefty Zep list
King Khan (and the BBQ Show, and the Shrines, etc) – The best garage rock around
Patrick Sweaney – No idea how I stumbled on this…but damn…I LOVE his record
R.L. Burnside – the dirtiest gruffest blues on the planet
Roky Erickson – The new album with Okkervil River is devastating

And…the Warlocks, The Weepies, Slaid Cleaves, The Ponys, The Dirtbombs, Richmond Fontaine, Phosphorescent, and on and on. Seriously. Check it out.

Keep in mind that I grew up listening to the apex of AOR radio. AOR was, rather pointedly, not about singles, but about the whole piece of music. I’ve always listened to entire albums. Always. I know what track is supposed to come next. I can get a feel for what the artist/producer/engineer/etc was trying to say with sequence. Shoot to Trill comes after Hells Bells, it just does. Three Days (the Stairway to Heaven of my generation) is a perfect follow up to Been Caught Stealing, it just is. When the Levee Breaks is a great album closer. Seriously. At work I listen to a ton of music. It’s always on in the background. And it’s almost always whole albums. Start to finish. I feel like I’d be missing something if I just listened to singles.

Songs I’d have never heard otherwise: Tattooed Love Boys (the Pretenders), Darling Nikki (Prince), Midnight Rambler (the Stones), The Great Curve (Talking Heads), Eurotrash Girl (Cracker). None of these songs were the hit single off their album. But they are all better in my opinion. I’m not saying that listening to singles is bad. I’m just suggesting that their is something more to the experience of consuming an entire album.

Albums people…it’s albums.

Oh…and NSFW.

Sat:

Ferry Building: We arrived too late to partake of the many food trucks (sorry Tom) that are usually there on Saturday (some rather severe traffic coming in over the bridge). We did, however, hit up the Slanted Door for drinks and appetizers. The food was amazing and the drinks citrusy and well thought out. We’ll be going back here I think.

Elephant and Castle Pub: Meh. Gross.

Sunday:

Mifune Don: bin had been on the look0ut for SF okonomiyaki since visiting Japan years ago. Yelp recommend this place. Mifune Don (not to be confused with Mifune) is in the smaller portion of the Peace Plaza in Japantown. It’s a tiny little place that features some classic Japanese food. We had some delicious tempura shrimp and the amazing okonomiyaki which is a rice flower pancake topped with cabbage, seafood, crisp noodles, sauce, and more sauce served in a skillet. Wow. I was totally blown away. I’m SOLD!

Cafe Zoetrope: Francis Ford Coppola’s little cafe in the financial district. We had a prosciutto pizza which was pretty damn good (I mean…how wrong can you go with prosciutto pizza?) and some really damn lovely wine. We got to make fun of the couples next to us who came in to a wine cafe and ordered a Mai Tai. Not great, but good…and wonderful atmosphere and a place to just hang out and take in the city.

Bourbon and Branch: A speakeasy smack dab in the middle of the tenderloin district. You have to have a reservation (email only, please) and the password for the night. Otherwise, you aren’t getting in. The club is nicely decorated and the aura is interesting…but to be frank I was a bit disappointed. The service was horrible. You’d think that a place serving super high-end cocktails would be constantly coming by to refill your drink, but that wasn’t the case. The waitress really pushed the Valentine’s Day menu (I mean REALLY pushing it) so bin and I had some. Mine was really rather tasty. We finished up with a flight of Irish Whiskeys including a “peated” version which did, indeed, taste like camping. Truth be told, the Chapel does just as good a job of combining high end liquors and home made concoctions into tasty cocktails…with less pretension, lower prices, and much better service.

El Sol Taqueria: Hot damn. This is a hole in the wall a block’s stumble away from the Bourbon and Branch. We had the hugest plate of hot, delicious chicken nachos ever and a beer for 8 bucks. Easily the best Mex food I’ve ever had in SF.

bin’s Bradley Collins in our room: bin is perfecting her version of the Applejack based Bradley Collins. It’s a thing of beauty.

Monday:

Ton Kiang: All the way out Geary in Richmond is Ton Kiang…home for reasonably priced dim sum. Good lord I always walk away from this place pleasantly stuffed. Shrimp and scallop, shrimp and shrimp, shrimp and chive, pot stickers….mmmm. Highly recommended.

All in all, we were totally blissed out with food and booze. Can’t wait to go back.

I had a whole wonderful post ready to go about Prague, but suddenly I feel like I’ve already told that story. Suffice it to say that it was an amazing time. I love Prague, and got to fall in love with it all over again. It was amazing to see Alan and Mish and Ziggster. And, most of all, it was good to fall in love with Miss bin all over again too. We travel well together. Really well.

That being said, here is a picture of me with some delicious beer.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3ysuG2O0zw

Link

Oh, and the rules set is available here.