Real Guitars, San Francisco

I saw these great decorated guitars at San Francisco's "Real Guitars" store, an awesome used guitar haven and repair shop off of 11th Street, on Lafayette.




Also this immaculately illustrated, hand painted Danelectro reissue!


The guys that work here are super dooper sweet, and they've got an excellent supply of parts, perfect for rounding up the bits for that Fender 60's Duo Sonic project you've got on the go!

(:

Outside Lands, San Fran! (Sunday)

Outside Lands, Sun 15th Aug 2010, Golden Gate Park, in beautiful San Francisco.

Riding through San Fran by bike is a great way to see some beautiful sights, but there are some BIG hills along the way..

I somehow managed to navigate it, though, to join the stream of funky & hip folk chugging through this gorgeous bushy park. Got through the gates right in time for The Temper Trap, who were playing early on in the program, and they ripped it up! A great performance from these fellows, with a beautiful new song early on in the set too, which was a highlight for me, and worthy of note. Check out my take on the day...

My lads from Melbz, The Temper Trap:




Temporary Tatto0s for a program - that's clever!



This festival just has such an amazing vibe - everyone is very chilled out, but creative and colourful as well. The town just seems to be full of spunky freaky people. I just can't fault the place. And they came in droves for a great line-up today, including Phoenix, Kings of Leon, Janelle Monáe, Al Green, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Chromeo, Empire of the Sun, and The Budos Band, who I'd never heard of before, but I was just lapping it up. All over it. These guys have some grooves on! Do yourself a favour and check them out. They have a new album just out. Of special note is their bass player, who plays with his bass guitar jutting right out over the audience, like he's giving 'em all some, direktly.













Chromeo. Fun times!







The Gathering Hoards:









Budos Band, from NYC - Awesome grooves!


& Kings of Leon, closing off the night:

Continuing on up the Coast

(Part 2: Santa Barbara -> San Fran)

After the buzz of the Seymour Duncan factory tour, Heather warned me we were gonna be kinda pushing it to get all the way to San Fransisco in the time we had left in the day, particularly if we were to take the scenic route with roads winding along the coast, slowing us way down. We had a big decision to make! I gulped hard & made the call: if she was up to it (being the sole insured driver of the mighty Volvo station wagon) I was certainly into pushing on through - taking a bit more of the coastal route and then following the 101 inland for the more direct highway connection up through to San Fran.

As it turned out, we kept on talking and chatting about this and that and all-sorts (as you tend to do on a proper road trip!) and the journey was just lovely! Even though we'd chosen the less awesome tourist route, I found the scenery along the way actually rather interesting and beautiful, and Heather kept me informed with bits of information on what was being grown along the road sides, plus various places which were common to use on shoots for this and that. I couldn't have wished for a better tour of California! Thank you, Heather!