I know I'm not the only fan out here, so here's something that might be
of interest to people who aren't averse to a little wild experimentation
in their music...
gogo Market is Prophet's side-project, with Stephie Finch out front
centre... I think the talk of tix at the end is for a gig long gone,
but they do crop up from time to time in San Fran...
Stevie
"Forward Thinking"
I've seen the future of rock and roll, and it looks a lot
like a big, unshaven guy
with a crew cut scratching and bobbing behind a versatile,
four-piece rock
band. The main attraction of gogo market is adorably
grizzled couple Chuck
Prophet, the consummate guitarist-surfer guy, and Stephanie
Finch, the
consummate bar singer who tosses out lines like she's
tossing back gin and
tonics. But what dries the band along is DJ Ill Media,
ak.k.a. Mark Reitman,
who flies in a repertoire of everything from classical
strings to work songs
recorded in prison to moog demonstrations to Baptist
preachings. Last
Wednesday night at Bottom of the Hill many of the songs
kicked off with
hip-hop style and Memphis-sould drum loops, picking up
addtional steam
when drummer Dawn Richardson (ex-4 Non Blondes member) and
bassist
Vince Russo came in. Riding on top of the groundwork,
Prophet and Finch
wove together a pleasant double-guitar attack reminiscent of
Creedence
Clearwater Revival's swamp-gumbo, along with cowgirl
ballands and
new-wave, Farfisa-powered psychedelia. Prophet (from S.F.
cult faves Green
on Red) played the impresario as he employed an easy slide
and slow-hand
fingering technique echoing that of Joe Walsh and Neil
Young. Still, he
seemed most inspried while trading licks with the turntables
during the ballad
"Talkin' to You" and when strumming thick rhythms behind
Reitman's
whooshing scratch-lead during the denouement of the
classically
power-poppy "One Thing That Mattered." Finch has the pretty,
blowsy appeal
of a young Gena Rowlands and a voice that's comfortable and
bright. Her
songs come wrapped up shiny and tight as in the
Farfisa-powered "Woman's
Magazine" (shades of This Year's Model) or the wa-wa
funkadelic "Channel
9." About the time the band headed home with the
Chilites-Atlanta Rhythm
Section $&B groove of "Dead," it dawned on me that parties
in the 21st
century will probably sound more like gogo market and less
like KC and the
Sunshine Band. gogo market opens for Box Set Sat/12, 9pm.,
Slim's, 333
11th St., SF $13-$14, (415) 522-0333.
Adam Savetsky
