2010 was Mission Creek’s most successful festival to date and continued the new tradition that has become its centerpiece, a free, all-day event at the amphitheater in beautiful McLaren Park.

• THE FRESH AND ONLYS - The latest of many marvels to come out of San Francisco, that inexhaustible source of bands that insists on reproducing almost all the aspects of pop and rock from times past, answers to the name of The Fresh & Onlys. The band, a project shared by Tim Cohen and Shayde Sartin, goes much further than a simple revival taking a little from here and a little from there, sometimes from fifties rock, or from elastic garage or from the immaculate pop of the Byrds. The Fresh and Onlys have recently vaulted into a leading role in the garage rock revival, earning several rave reviews from kingmakers like Pitchfork. http://thefreshandonlys.blogspot.com/

• HOWLIN RAIN - Led by Comet’s on Fire guitarist and singer Ethan Miller, Howlin Rain explores a heady combination of psychedelia, blues, funk and classic 1970s arena rock. Their sophomore album, Magnificent Fiend was produced by legendary Rick Rubin, and released on a subset of of Columbia Records, American Recordings. The band’s fiery live performances have earned them high praise, touring with Queens of The Stone Age and playing at the prestigious All Tomorrow’s Parties.

• http://www.howlinrain.com/

• LAU NAU - Lau Nau is the nom de plume of free spirited Finnish artist Laura Naukkarinen. Since the release of her celebrated debut full length Kuutarha on Chicago’s Locust Music in 2005, Lau Nau has enjoyed considerable recognition for her intimate & playful blend of ethnic tinged folk songs with curious & intuitive sounds conjured from familiar and exotic sound sources. Kuutarha made many year end best of lists and achieved recognition as an “important record” (Dusted), a “tremendously powerful statement” (Brainwashed) that “begs to become many a listener’s point of fixation, source of meditation and object of adoration" (lost at sea). In their 8.0 review, Pitchfork praised Lau Nau’s unique combination of edginess and warmth on Kuutarha: “(Lau Nau) manages to take a million-and-one risks while keeping things subtle, understated, aesthetically intriguing and emotionally resonant.”

• http://www.haamu.com/launau/

FAUST: Nobody Knows if It Ever Happened + Krautrock Smorgasbord
A striking document of the 90's reunion of legendary Krautrock band Faust, captured live in all their post-industrial glory at the legendary 1996 Faust Garage concert.  Program will also feature rare performance footage & interviews from the giants of Krautrock: Kraftwerk, Neu, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, & many more.

RHYTHMIC UPRISING
Rhythmic Uprising is a documentary that shows how the transformative powers of Afro-Brazilian performing arts are used to fight racism and inequality in Bahia, Brazil.
INVASION OF THE THUNDERBOLT PAGODA + PARADISE NOW
Take an alchemical journey with Ira Cohen's Invasion of the Thunderbolt Pagoda, a mythosphere-filtered-through-Mylar worthy of Kenneth Anger's most lysergic moments, with ritual music provided by ex-Velvet Undergrounder Angus Maclise. Also on the program is Marty Topp's Paradise Now: The Living Theatre in Amerika. "Life, revolution and theater are three words for the same thing:  an unconditional NO to the present society" - Julian Beck.

SHORT FILM REVOLUTION
Whaddya Gonna Do About It? Productions and Educational Access Television present a special presentation of “Watch This!” a romp through the hottest short movies made in the Bay Area and beyond. Filmmakers include Peter Max Lawrence, John Madden, Jennifer Noland, Kate Hupp, Hyp, Doc Matthews, Alex Lasky, Jim Swanson, Dana Jae, Charles Chadwick, Victor Fanucchi

SF EXAMINER
By Christina Troup - Special to The Examiner - July 15, 2009
Unusual Hispanic artists are the focus of Convergence MMIX (Excerpted)

Convergence, now in its second year, is part of the Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival, which was established in 1996 by Jeff Ray, who wanted to “fill a cultural void that existed in San Francisco” by promoting local musicians and artists

“Essentially, Convergence is a mini version of the Mission Creek festival, but only with an emphasis on Latino and other global music, film and arts,” producer Ann Blankenship says.Emerging progressive, experimental and lesser-known music genres are what set Convergence apart from other International festivals.

Artists include alternative rock outfits like headliner Juan Son, Nacotheque and Pop Noir. The festival also features a screening of the Brazilian documentary “Rhythmic Uprising.” (Ann) Blankenship chose the nearly two dozen acts mostly because they’re slightly against the grain. “I really like bands that are somewhat odd and kooky and don’t fit any particular mold,” she says. “I also like bands that do performance-art pieces. This year I’ve booked Juan Son, the former lead singer of Porter, a massively popular band from Guadalajara, Mexico. I saw a picture of him playing an accordion in a pizza outfit. So I figured he would be a perfect fit.”“I hope that audiences will want to explore bands that are really not a part of the mainstream and perhaps bands that leave them being a little confused, but in a good way,” she says.

The Bay Bridged: Mission Creek Holds Court at McLaren Park by Ben Van Houten - July 20, 2009

Mission Creek held a major free concert in McLaren Park on Saturday featuring over a dozen great bands and a bunch of good times. For me, the event was equal parts great local music and sales pitch for the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater, which I hadn’t known existed prior to the show. I was admittedly skeptical as I got off my second bus of the day, bringing the travel time to the fest to a round hour-and-a-half, and adding a “This better be worth it” feeling to the experience, but I wandered down a hill to the emerge upon the backside of an amphitheater full of hipsters, hippies, families, and weirdos all enjoying great weather and great music. In a moment, it felt so naturally San Francisco, as if of course there was a 600-person amphitheater in McLaren Park and of course it was filled with people on a Sunday afternoon, and of course Bart Davenport and band were playing onstage.

But the event only felt predestined. Clearly a ton of work was involved, and the between-band announcements for raffle tickets and donations left me hoping that it was at least a break-even proposition. In a city facing an ongoing War on Fun, a free, all ages, mostly local music event like this is the sort of thing we should all get behind, particularly when the bands are, as they were, so great. Which brings me off the soapbox and back to the afternoon: Davenport and band were sublime, and his showmanship was masterful as always. Rubies, who we’ll be talking more about tomorrow, got people dancing with their effervescent “mellow disco” sound. And Persephone’s Bees were loud and poppy and thoroughly enjoyable. I left completely satisfied, inspired by the afternoon’s success and wondering how to take advantage of the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater in the future.

 

Flavorpill

By Allison P Davis

For the 14th year in a row, the Bay Area's premier independent music festival continues to present the finest local music and art. Close to a dozen venues, big and small, in Oakland and SF will host the festival from July 8 - 18. Created with the intention to foster community and nurture local arts, MCMAF continues to expand with the inclusion of literary events, art shows, and alternative performances, with notable guest curators to facilitate this evolution. Visual artists, performers, and musicians will again converge at Collision. Defined by the spirit of collaboration, Collision brings together local and international music acts with artists working in sound installation, experimental music, dance, and music based sculpture.

Fourteen years ago, experimental musician, artist, and Rainbow Grocery store employee Jeff Ray began the Mission Creek Festival out of his apartment in the Mission. Ray had absolutely no festival experience, but was involved in the SF indie music scene (he's a member of the band Radius and elfin performance ensemble the Extraordinary Forest). That first year was a one-day festival with eight bands and 100 audience members. Now, MCMAF stretches over two weeks with more than 180 bands playing on both sides of the bridge. Tonight's SF opening party features the Bitter Honeys — a cheeky Oakland-based Northern Soul throwback band. Past festivals have attracted on-the-verge talent like Joanna Newsom and Devendra Banhart. See the best of what the Bay has to offer before they blow up.

WHAT: Mission Creek Festival
WHEN: July 9-11, July 14-18
WHERE: Oakland and San Francisco, CA
WHO: The Fresh and Onlys, Ganglians, Grass Widow, Little Wings, Howlin' Rain, Lau Nau, Bridget St. John, Parenthetical Girls

 

In 2010, The Bay Bridged ran an entire Podcast mix for the festival, featuring songs from 10 artists as well as updating its audience the festivals lineup and park extravaganza. 2010 also saw a significant interest by bloggers in the press like Kata Rokkar, who also significantly profiled the festival ahead of events.

 

In 2009 year Mission Creek featured over 150 bands and artists. Here is just small sampling of this year’s featured performers….

• JESSIE EVANS - Although Jessie spent the past decade playing in bands built from the blood of previous generations in the 70/ 80s punk rock new wave vein, such as San Francisco’s The Vanishing, Autonervous (with Bettina Koster of Malaria!) and the all girl garage goth quartet Subtonix, as well as collaborating with numerous artists like Glass Candy & Hanin Elias (Atari Teenage Riot), it wasn’t until she collaborated with drummer Toby Dammit (The Residents, Iggy Pop) that she truly discovered a unique sound. http://jessieevans.net/

• DEAD MEADOW - Darlings of both the stoner rock and modern psychedelia scenes (and featured in the new movie on heavy rock named after one of their tracks, "Such Hawks, Such Hounds"), DEAD MEADOW transcend both. Over the last ten years, they've reacted to the country's swelling conservatism with a peculiarly escapist, surreal, lovely, and deafening sound of their own, and an exponentially growing audience tuning in. With their latest release "Old Growth", the trio of Jason Simon, Steve Kille, and Stephen McCarty have delivered a remarkably clear, powerful and confident recording that matches their live shows and should elevate them to the pantheon of great guitar bands of our time. http://www.deadmeadow.com/

 

• XOEL LOPEZ - Xoel López is one of Spain's most successful alternative rock musicians, often compared to Beck in that he sells out large arenas but is also taken seriously by fans and critics alike. Hailing from Coruña, Galicia, he has released half a dozen successful releases on Mushroom Pillow Records and Virgin Records has traveled the world on tour, and is fluent in English and Spanish. He recently relocated to Buenos Aires, Argentina, seeking a bit of respite from the extreme fame in his native Spain. His record *Los Jóvenes Mueren Antes de Tiempo* was considered the Best of 2005 by the Spanish edition of the Rolling Stone magazine. He is eager to reach the American public, having recently been invited by Bart Davenport to play the Hemlock Tavern, and is eager to return to California to play the Mission Creek Music Festival. http://www.xoel.com/

Demographics - Our audiences range from high school students to post-graduates, from professional artists to artistic professionals. A variety of ethnic backgrounds are represented. Although the audience is mostly composed of twenty and thirty somethings, musicians and audience members have expanded our demographic by 10 years on either side.

Media - MCMAF has reached its target audiences with media sponsorships from college radio stations such as KUSF and KALX, and from publications The San Francisco Bay Guardian, Performer Magazine and webzines The Owl, The Bay Bridged, Rockeros.net and SFRemezcla.com.

Social Media and Web presence - MCMAF’s principal means of disseminating information is through its website and social media like the MCMAF Facebook page and Twitter, @MissionCreek.

Guerilla Marketing - This year MCMAF launched an aggressive month-long street marketing campaign through FLAG Marketing that that reached our target audiences at hip urban lifestyle locations and events located throughout San Francisco. Neighborhoods targeted were the Mission District, Hayes Valley and The Haight Ashbury.

Attendance – Since its inception in 1996, attendance for Mission Creek has grown from a modest 100 concert-goers for a one-night-stand to an average of over 3000 people over the course of 5 or more days in a variety of small and large venues throughout San Francisco and in a few select locations in Oakland. 2010 total attendance for the 2-week period was over 6000 attendees.