An ode to Valencia: Bézier reflects on a definitive San Francisco hotspot

Bronze to me was, musically, the most iconic contemporary manifestation of San Francisco when I arrived. Visually and sonically, they were the total package. You could not get more California with this video of them performing at the Henry Miller library in Big Sur. 

Going to the Castro Theater in 2010, watching a screening of ‘What Ever Happened to Susan Jane’ from 1984 by director Marc Huestis gave me the inputs I needed to diagram in my head the queer connections of San Francisco. Recalling that history, when you go to Aunt Charlie’s for a Hot Boxxx Girls show you can feel SF’s bloodlines coursing through every vein of every drag queen performing there. 

The Knockout in San Francisco was my introduction to the live, eclectic music scene in the Bay. It was there, for the first time, I saw Mara perform completely in control of an array of synthesizers and drum machines. Her organization with her equipment recalls a style of music performance you’d might find around campfires and renegade raves in the open backlots of the countryside. At the same time, this was revolutionary for me:she relied on the most minimal current of electricity to manage and operate the machines. I think about the human mind as the computer and the devices as mere scripts running in the background. 

I first saw Jess Scott’s band in the hidden stage area of El Rio. Similarly, I watched Limp Wrist for the first time there as well. Brilliant Colors is lesbian, guitar driven punk music with an etherial twist– who then went on to becoming Flesh World with Scott Moore of Limp Wrist. This music is quintessentially Californian. 

Around 2008, Minimal Wave and Wierd were bubbling on the east coast while on the west coast Josh was organizing his life around the foundation of Dark Entries. In the first couple of years of knowing each other, Saturdays were spent getting brunch on Valencia street and then biking up to the Lower Haight to go record shopping. We’d spend afternoons comparing and analyzing records including stuff we ordered online. For a birthday present Josh gifted me a 7” of this record which quite realistic for me planted the seeds for Valencia. Driving, romantic and scenic– there’s a level of pathos and passion seeping through the bright yet melancholic arpeggiation from this track.   

There are always pockets in SF that would be easy to overlook if you don’t pay close attention. For one, Audium at the top of Nob Hill is an audio sensory experience that only the initiated can really talk about in detail, but is not a main feature people think about when visiting SF. Here, a record by Californian Jyl Porch that came out in 1984 and recorded by Klaus Schultze and Ingo Werner in Germany, continues to sound fresh and ahead of its time despite being hidden from view from even the most discerning musicologists. This record is one that I continuously refer back to when I try to describe my musical upbringing. Especially (given Porch’s backstory), that I am also a Californian who moved to Germany. 

A vital energy of Bay Area California’s musical legacy. Over time, I saw Dax Pierson more often whether at Gays Hate Techno out in rural Northern California or at one of the many events in SF involving family and electronic music. What marks Dax apart from contemporaries is his productions hone in on a resilient tone, one that is persistent, futuristic but altogether classical. Dax’s music feels like renewal. Elements of electronic music’s timelines are interwoven and tempered to readjust and refocus the angles on how sounds really should be listened. 

I had finished a semester in Germany and then backpacked through Europe in the summer of 2002 where electroclash was in vogue and Fischerspooner’s ‘Emerge’ was ripping through all the hostels I stayed at. At that time, being a bleeding heart Bjork stan, I was following Matmos. When The Soft Pink Truth’s: ‘Do You Party?’ appeared on the servers of Soulseek, the act of downloading and consuming it served as a satisfying close to a chapter of musical discovery which eventually saw me on the trail up from Orange County to Silverlake, shepherding  me toward a new existence as a San Francisco resident. At once, starstruck, I saw Drew at parties the first few years I lived there and M.C. Schmidt having a drink at The Stud.