Seasons of the Witch: The Tubes are “Proud To Be an American”, aren’t you?
Photo by Jorgen Angel/Redferns The performing artists, cultural critics and punk rockers that make up The Tubes came together in 1972. Like many artists then and now, they uprooted from their homes in Arizona and planted themselves in the Bay Area in 1969 to be at the center of the counter culture. Quickly developing a reputation for their sharp satire, the band left no aspect of pop culture unscathed in their political, unpredictable, sometimes pornographic and highly self-aware live performances. Their contempt for the music industry often came out in the form of Quay Lewd, the drugged-up, platform-wearing alter-ego of [...]
Seasons of the Witch: Blue Cheer & the so-called San Francisco Sound
San Francisco is always weathering a Season of the Witch, oscillating somewhere between liberal idealism and cold reality. Whether that reality is in the form of sadistic violence or obscene wealth, the cycles between the good and the bad, the pretty and the ugly, make up the city’s core. And within these cycles, music is the most obvious mark of victory, defeat and catharsis. Seasons of the Witch is a new series that traces the bloodlines of music. Like David Talbot’s book of a similar name, the series is a window into the people and events that made The Bay [...]