“THRILLER 40“
When reading the press release statement on the Showtime website about “Thriller 40” states, “Forty years after the release of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller,’ the best-selling album of all time, director Nelson George takes fans back in time to the making of a pop masterpiece, featuring never-before-seen footage and candid interviews, allowing viewers to fully experience the creation of a cultural phenomenon that continues to influence the worlds of music, television, dance, fashion, and more to this day.”
Thriller 40 is about The King of Pop, not The King of Pain. It’s a choice.
Listen, I remember exactly where I was when Paul Robeson died, when Cobain passed on, and when both Biggie and Pac expired. On the night Michael Jackson died, folks—commuters and those unhoused—were dancing to “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” at the 16th Street Bart station.
It was a moment of harmony in the Mission. Even in death, that’s what MJ did.
The very next day, June 26, 2009, I went to Community Thrift on Valencia Street, perused through the record section, and just as I thought, all of the multiple copies, scratched and kinda dusty, of Thriller (Off The Wall was not in the dollar bins, that record is like a cousin in Black families), rando Jackson 5 records, Janet Jackson records, Rebbie Jackson’s Centipede, and ALL the busted Freddie Jackson records (and he’s not even related to those Jacksons)… gone by 10am.
For those uninformed, Nelson George wrote for the Village Voice in the ’80s. At the time, only a small number of Black music journalists got the opportunity to not only write about Black music and culture but were also permitted the column space, in a heavy white male music journalism-dominated world (it’s the Reagan Big 80 folks) to properly consider this burgeoning new thing called… hip-hop.
While the VV was at least adventurous on the alternative weekly side of things, a publication like Rolling Stone was a “different publication” in those days. Recent Jann Wenner comments support that.
Thriller 40 captures a period in time that shall never happen again. For that reason alone, it’s worth watching.
It’s streaming on Showtime and Paramount+.
But in the meantime….It’s Under The Stars, babe. A quasi-weekly column that presents new music releases, upcoming shows, opinions, and other adjacent items. We keep moving with the changes and thinking outside the margins.
Be sure to hit up Rosamunde on 24th Street….. they’ve reopened and their sausages and condiments are the business…
Go get it, but let’s get it!
HERBIE HANCOCK, SEXTANT (COLUMBIA)
Going back 50 years now: Recorded at Hyde Street Studios right here in San Francisco in 1973, Sextant is very much a musical relative to Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew and On the Corner records.
Ten years before his Grammy-winning, MTV hit “Rockit,” which paid off some debts he owed to Columbia Records, Hancock drove this heavy listening avant-funk moment deep into the cosmos without a care if listeners, from Earth or other stars, had the access codes.
His eleventh album was the final with his groundbreaking Mwandishi-era sextet lineup featuring saxophonist Bennie Maupin, trumpeter Eddie Henderson, trombonist Julian Priester, bassist Buster Williams, and drummer Billy Hart.
“Hidden Shadows,” an Afro-centric jazz-funk attitude with off-time drumming, 23 years before J Dilla would come and make this type of beat pattern the norm in a genre not yet created called hip-hop, is a slow-moving comet of complexity that makes the term swag seem trivial.
Pick it up on vinyl here.
DJ SEP FEATURING KHALIFA, “MANY ARE CALLED”
I have been attending DJ Sep events for a while now. It goes back so far that in the past, you could pay for a burrito with a $10 bill and even get some change back, instead of using a $20 bill or a debit card.
Dub Mission on Sunday Nights at Elbo Room, which started around 1996, always maintained its unique atmosphere regardless of the type of crowd that showed up.
Sep was always in control, keeping ffolkes stepping right.
“Many Are Called” is her new single featuring vocalist Khalifa, and it is a sleek piece of production that revolves around a very fitting lyric, “We’re living in a time of tribulation.”
As a DJ at heart, I am always drawn, I’m a sucker straight up, for the dub version, and this track delivers exactly what DJs love. It presents that strong bass line creates powerful horn lines, and drops ’em at just the right time.
“Many Are Called” evokes a range of emotions, providing hope through its positive and funky vibrations.
You can purchase it here.
ROBYN HITCHCOCK + NEW DOCUMENTARY ABOUT SYD BARRETT, JANUARY 4 AT THE 4STAR PRESENTED BY (((FOLKYEAH)))
Not to sound like a broken record, but if you want to save your local neighborhood movie theaters that carry the style of beer, Scooby snacks, and custom tees that make your day, and provide that corner store appeal that makes going to the big screen a low-pressure, big-time comfort adventure… Support their new endeavors.
Our beloved 4 Star Theater is screening the new Syd Barrett documentary Have You Got It Yet? with a special guest, one of England’s most enduring contemporary singer/songwriters and live performers, Robyn Hitchcock, performing for an hour before the film.
This is the type of performance you want to catch in a venue that feels like your local.
Grab tickets here.
THE UMBRELLAS, “ECHOES”(SLUMBERLAND RECORDS)
The Umbrellas are returning with their second single and visual, “Echoes,” from their upcoming sophomore release, Fairweather Friend. According to the San Francisco four-piece, this new project vows to showcase the band in the way that these enterprising musicians have always wanted, balancing that rambunctious sonic attack of their live shows with studio craft and finesse. “Echoes,” a meditation on what might have been, captures the outfit’s complexity quite succinctly in the video directed by Morgan Alice. The visual utilizes the wistful, melancholic feeling of letting go. It’s a turn that bodes well for the band, indicating their depth runs a bit more cavernous past a quick listen.
Pre-order Fairweather Friend here.
