ROOT DOWN!

October 24, 2008 -- Skerik and McTuff.

October 24, 2008 -- At The Independent again tonight for singer/songwriter Sonya Kitchell & avant-rock trio The SLIP. The SLIP, brothers Brad & Andrew Barr with bassist Marc Friedman, warmed up the crowd for 19 year-old prodigy and fellow collaborator Sonya Kitchell.  Brad and Andrew recently worked with Sonya on her new sophmore Decca/Velour release, This Storm.  For more, visit Sonya's website, designed by ROOT DOWN.

Brad Barr of The SLIP

October 23, 2008 -- Kaki King and The Mountain Goats hopped on a bus and headed for the Bay Area for two one night stands -- a sold out gig at The Independent (SFs brand new venue -- its raging) and a night at the landmark Fillmore Auditorium.

October, 18 2008 --  Over 100,000 spectators gathered last Saturday to watch 40 teams duke it out in the 2008 Red Bull Soapbox Derby. The event took place in San Francisco's Dolores Park -- a city landmark and popular destination for teens, hippies, bums and even latino gangs to sit out in the sun, drink out of paper bags and spark up cigarillos packed with mota.

Team #1 sporting their Golden Gate pride

S.F. Firefighers airborne after mounting the jump

This giant, spinning Death Star soaked my lens

After pounding their beers, teams performed a 30 second dance routine during which they launched their motorless derby cars down the 5-block hill

With over one hundred thousound people in attendance, the event was the largest wake n bake recorded in city history

October 11, 2008 -- Alex Botwin and Lane Shaw of the Pnuma Trio teamed up to fill a DJ set at Veni Vidi Vici, a local showcase featuring live art by illustrators, painters and air brush artists, and music by DJs, bands and hip-hop groups.  The Pnuma boys played a riveting one hour set with Botwin on the Macbook Pro and Shaw on the drums and were later joined by electro-funk mad scientist Eliot Lipp.

An artiste putting paint on a T

My attempt at a New York Times-esque photograph

Lane Shaw keepin it real on the drums

Alex Botwin, bass player turned laptop jockey

Eliot Lipp dialing in the funk

October 15, 2008 -- 23-year old jazz vocalist, bassist and composer Esperanza Spalding took the stage at Yoshi's Jazz in San Francisco last Wednesday, greeted by a delighted and nearly sold out crowd.  Esperanza was backed by an ensemble she calls the "freshness times five"-- Italian pianist Leo Genovese, Brazilian guitarist Ricardo Vogt and drummer (and fellow bandmate from Joe Lovano's Qunintet) Otis Brown.

Her 90 minute set included a wide variety of tunes (mainly from her recent self-titled release "Esperanza") ranging from pop jazz ballads to bossa nova and were sung in English, Portugese and even a capella, during a solo encore/cover of Lauryn Hills "Tell Him").

The ROOT DOWN! blog is just getting fired up. Stay tuned for fresh photos, tunes and more.