Marc Weinstein: owner of Amoeba Records. Photo: Amoeba Blog Marc Weinstein is a Berkeley institution — or if he isn’t he should be. The founder of Amoeba Records, the world’s largest independent record retailer, which opened in a former Mexican restaurant on Telegraph Avenue in 1990, Weinstein has built a veritable empire based on the […]
Music
Posted inArts, Schools
Berkeley High School teacher shows his soul power
Local band Soul Power is on the up: BHS teacher Scott Willson is front right. Scott Willson has been teaching math at Berkeley High for eleven years but he thinks he’s having his best year ever right now. That’s because he’s bringing his love of music into the classroom — he teaches a music club […]
Posted inArts
Broadway debut for Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong
Local-global rock star Billie Joe Armstrong. Green Day frontman and local rock-star Billie Joe Armstrong is to appear on Broadway in the musical hit American Idiot, the show based on the East Bay band’s album of the same name which made its debut at Berkeley Rep a year ago this month. Armstrong, who also composed the musical, will […]
Posted inArts
Crooner Eddie Fisher dies in Berkeley
Eddie Fisher, the 1950s singer whose career was overshadowed by his marriages to Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor, died in Berkeley on Wednesday, according to new reports. Fisher, 82, died as a result of complications from hip surgery, his daughter Tricia Leigh Fisher, told the Associated Press. When his other daughter, Carrie Fisher, was performing […]
Posted inArts, Events
Symphony audience open to innovative music
Joana Carneiro: enjoying Berkeley's quirkiness. Joana Carneiro is about to start her second season as the music director for the Berkeley Symphony and she told an attentive audience at the Berkeley Breakfast Club Friday morning that she has found Berkeley to be a place where people are “open to innovation.” The presence of the university […]
Posted inArts
Erk Tha Jerk shooting music video in Berkeley today
We have it on good authority that Richmond emcee and rapper Erk Tha Jerk is shooting his latest music video in Berkeley today. Erk refers to himself as “the ‘hood nerd because he’s worn glasses for the past 12 years. Even his 2000 debut album was called Nerds Eye View. He is seen as a hip-hop musician […]
Posted inArts
Big Screen Berkeley: The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector
A bewigged Phil Spector shares screen time with John Lennon's famous white piano in The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector. Phil Spector is a musical genius. He’s also an egomaniac who compares himself favorably to Michelangelo, Galileo and Da Vinci, a recluse with a penchant for firearms, and an inmate in Corcoran State Prison, […]
Posted inCommunity
A moment in time: French horn player on Ohlone
Berkeleysider Diana Howard was walking home from the Y yesterday on Ohlone Greenway when she spotted this “plein air” French horn player running through some tunes. “It was near Hearst and McGee,” says Howard, a designer who keeps a notebook on her at all times for just such an opportunity to sketch on the hoof. “I’ve seen him […]
Posted inArts
Berkeley Girl transplanted to SoCal
Singer songwriter Harper Simon, who describes his music as “psychedelic country and rock”, has released a new video of his single, Berkeley Girl. It’s the tale of a woman from our fair city who has “the style of Paulette Goddard and a smile like Joan Fontaine”. But, just as in the television show Parenthood, Berkeley […]
Posted inArts, Business, Events
Music for everyone at Downtown Berkeley MusicFest
The first man to play the first show at Freight & Salvage in 1968 will be the kickoff headliner event for the Downtown Berkeley MusicFest, a nine-day extravaganza of music. Phil Marsh, described as a “folk-to-country-to-blues troubadour” will reunite with the Energy Crisis band for a performance Friday August 20 at 8 pm the newly-remodeled […]
Posted inArts, Events
Phish delights fans at the Greek Theater
More than 8,500 people streamed into the Greek Theater on Thursday for the first of Phish’s three concerts. When the shows were announced, tickets sold out in about five minutes. They originally cost $50 but are in such high demand now that some are selling on the secondary market for $750. It looks like it […]
Posted inArts, Business
Passion for music underpins harpsichord maker’s craft
Harpsichord maker John Phillips in his West Berkeley workshop. Photo: Janet Delaney By Emily Gordis The front room of John Phillips’ West Berkeley workshop on Grayson Street is crowded with an Italian-style harpsichord in for repairs from Virginia and a French-style instrument, waiting to be delivered to its new owner in El Cerrito. In the next […]