Real Music Alternatives

On his 10th studio album, Temple Beautiful (Yep Roc), Chuck Prophet found his muse in the city he’s called home for 30 years. Exploring the local landmarks and myths with friend and poet klipschutz, Prophet winds his way through San Francisco, stretching tales even taller along the way. But this guided tour isn’t a detailed and prefabricated concept album, so much as it’s the product of spontaneous inspiration, and it’s not a document of the city’s past as much as it is of its present. Prophet will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with him.

Prophet: You’ve probably heard of the Haight Ashbury. Well, the Haight Ashbury over time became simply the Haight. Then it was the Upper Haight. At which point Haight & Fillmore turned into the Lower Haight. It’s not all that confusing as it sounds. Anyway, the Lower Haight is where you’ll find Jack’s Record Cellar, open on a schedule it takes a minute to wrap your head around. (“Open to the public on Saturdays, on other days by reservation only.”) Someone once said that the first thing you’ll notice in Jack’s is that record-store smell. The kind of smell that lets you know you just might find something mind-blowing here.

Behind the counter at Jack’s, if you’re lucky, you might find Roy Loney. Yes, the Roy Loney. I was there recently and Roy, DJing from behind the counter, played a bunch of Elvis and Hank Williams 78s: all titles I’d never heard before. They sounded like they were recorded last Friday.

I’d seen Roy on the street for years and always been too shy to introduce myself. But when I’m making a record, I can’t be shy. We were recording the song “Temple Beautiful” when I reached out to and told him, “I don’t think we’ve formally met. But I feel like I know you. Any chance you’d be willing to come by the studio and lend your thing to the title track?”

A couple hours later he was standing in front of me, singing and being Roy Loney. Fifteen minutes after that he’d chewed right through the tape. He was nice enough to sign my lyric sheet before he disappeared back into the fog.

Temple Beautiful was made in San Francisco by San Franciscans about San Francisco. The song itself started as a title, and that’s all it was for months. It doesn’t exactly rhyme with anything but somehow it survived. It’s set in a long-closed punk-rock club located in the old Reverend Jim Jones’s People’s Temple. I saw my first gigs there, and I still have a Temple poster with Roy Loney at the top of the bill; opening the show was Black Flag.

Roy was there. He’s always been there.

Dig this Dirk Dirksen clip. (I really think Dirk says it all: “People laying it on the line in an effort to express themselves.” Yeah!) He embodied the golden era of S.F. punk. There was no dogma. No uniform. It was a freak show. Dig your inner weirdo. Wave that flag as high and as proud and high as you want.

Another photo after the jump.

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On his 10th studio album, Temple Beautiful (Yep Roc), Chuck Prophet found his muse in the city he’s called home for 30 years. Exploring the local landmarks and myths with friend and poet klipschutz, Prophet winds his way through San Francisco, stretching tales even taller along the way. But this guided tour isn’t a detailed and prefabricated concept album, so much as it’s the product of spontaneous inspiration, and it’s not a document of the city’s past as much as it is of its present. Prophet will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with him.

Prophet: I’m pretty stubborn about technology, don’t really own any recording equipment whatsoever. Then again, I don’t have to root around too long to find one of my fleet of handheld cassette recorders—not a mini-cassette, a cassette. Might be stashed in the kitchen, the dash of the car or my sock drawer. Trouble is, it’s getting harder to find blank tapes to buy. For a while there I saw them left out on the sidewalk, but mostly they’d already been kicked around and stepped on by the time I got to them. Another way to the river is to keep recording over the same tape. Saves the hassle of having to label the fuckers.

Songwriting. I don’t like to hear myself talking about the process of songwriting. To hear people explaining weirds me out, but here I go anyway: You get an idea. You play around with it. You play some more. Sing something. And then the idea might turn into another idea. Colliding in the air with some other thing or another. Ideas start to connect. The music pushes it along. Don’t quote me on this, because I’m probably already quoting somebody else.

Other times you might want to drag someone into the room with you to argue over where to eat lunch. Everybody knows everything, and nobody knows anything. But wait, here’s one helpful thing, short of a secretary following you around taking dictation. (Imagine that. Like with the musical notation and everything. That would work!) Short of that, keep a tape recorder within reach, the older and more beat-up the better. A tape recorder comes in real handy. Here’s one of mine, I painted it blue. (Now show me yours.)

Recording is easy. Listening back? Well, that’s another story.

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Imperial Teen has been around for longer than you think; roughly 15 years to be exact. Wielding its own distinct brand of pop/rock, the quartet has since crafted a solid niche for itself on the indie scene, particularly thanks to the experience of seasoned pros Will Schwartz, Roddy Bottum, Jone Stebbins and Lynn Truell. Known for its complex lyrics and catchy hooks, Imperial Teen has made a solid mark in the music world during its run, especially with new album Feel The Sound (Merge). We decided to test that experience by inviting the band to guest edit magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with Schwartz.

Stebbins: Exercise you can do while laying down? Sign me up! Pilates is an exercise method that uses springs and pulleys for resistance and builds alot of core strength. I pretty much hate most exercise, but I really dig pilates.

Video after the jump.

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