Author: Dave Jurgens

Gordon “Shorty” Ramos, a singer in the San Francisco based Latino band the Hip Spanic Allstars, says candidly, “I should be dead.” Driving down the freeway on his Harley four years ago, Ramos got in a horrific motorcycle accident that landed him in the hospital in dire condition.  When the doctors examined him they told him his arm probably wasn’t going to make it. Miraculously he made a full recovery and regained the use of his arm.  Today, Ramos is living out his musical dream singing for the Hip Spanic Allstars.  He credits the success of his band, as well…

Roxy Roller, is the high energy, bassist, singer, and songwriter of the bands LUCABRAZZI, Pleasure Parade, and Synikk. Roller is a man who has long been a musical institution in the San Francisco Bay Area rock scene helping to promote and create shows for countless local bands. In addition to being a talented musician, Roller occasionally moonlights as the charismatic radio show host of the highly entertaining Roxy Roller Radio Show and Horror Hop Radio Show that has featured entertaining interviews with SF musical talent. He owns a production company called Chromespider Presents that puts on live shows and promotes…

Tracy Wakai, the singer, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter of the indie rock band Sunset Republic, wrote a thousand songs before he ever got one played on the radio. Wakai says, “My dad always told me to quit music and get a real job. I had stacks of notebooks of lyrics that proved I was a workaholic in a career that was making no money.” Now it appears his hard work is paying off. Sunset Republic is dropping its debut album in the summer of 2017, just in time for the festival and music season in San Francisco. The album is…

Live 105 Not So Silent Night Oracle Arena, Oakland December 10, 2016 All photos by Pollen Heath. The second night of the Not So Silent Night concert series encapsulated the sound of two decades of Live 105 San Francisco Bay Area music, bringing together an eclectic mix of old and new bands, young and old crowd members, showing just how much alternative music has grown in the music scene over the past twenty years since the concert started. Green Day Green Day knows how to work a crowd into frenzy and did so quickly and easily, kicking off the set…

Christy Chemical, lyricist and lead singer of the hard hitting rock, metal band, Chemical Gunns, admits she’d probably be insane by now if she didn’t have music to be her cathartic outlet. “I see the direction that our planet is going and I feel like society is really taking a turn for the worst. Global warming is real. Our oceans are dying. The bumblebee just went on the endangered list. I feel like we are going into a really dark place. Music, for me, is the ability to spread the message because I could rant on Facebook all I want,…

Greg Duvel, co-singer and songwriter of the San Francisco Darkwave band Untamed Creatures, had planned to commit suicide in his music studio in 2012 after the one-two punch of the death of his sister and a DUI that left him deeply depressed. But it was music, like a descending angel of inspiration, that intervened and saved his life. “My only sister died and it kind of threw me in a bad place and I started drinking alcohol in abundance just to numb my pain. I spent all my extra money, instead of buying synthesizers I was buying beers and I…

“I think vampires are different from human beings, but they’re sentenced to eternity on this planet. They have the same confusion about love and permanence, integrity and denial. These qualities really are the same in vampire characters as in humans. I think they’re universal themes.” ­—Alexandra Cassavetes The vampire action film Vampariah, by San Francisco film maker Matthew Abaya, is an exciting spectacle, a tour de force which looks like it was made with a Hollywood big budget but instead was shot on a shoe string, which is mind boggling. Typically, most indie film directors do almost everything themselves, use…