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(Early circular for Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - even then you couldn't quite put your finger on them)

Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks were a band that pretty much defied description, but have had a large and loyal following ever since they first formed in 1968. Still playing and recording, The Hot Licks have gone through a lot of incarnations since their initial breakup in 1971, but the inimitable style of Dan Hicks keeps on going.

So here's a little something mellow for a Thursday night. This track, Slow Movin' is off their first album "Original Recordings"their only album released on Epic in 1969.

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(Sopwith Camel - their solitary hit pigeonholed them forever as lightweight)

Sopwith Camel were a San Francisco band that had a lot more going for it than being a lightweight pop outfit. Nevertheless, they became pigeonholed through their only hit "Hello Hello" and couldn't seem to shake it.

They lasted until the end of 1967 before calling it a day. Reforming in 1971 and issuing one album on Warners before putting it to bed for good in 1974. A second album was in the can, but only released in 2001 when interest in their work resurfaced.

They probably got further than many of their contemporaries at the time, but the end result was the same. Lack of interest, bad timing, lack of support, lack of airplay - the same old story.

At least there's Postcard From Jamaica to consider, their second released single from their first and only album for Kama-Sutra in 1967.

Like Motley Crue, The Pixies, Aerosmith and seemingly everyone else these days, the legendary Devo will be hitting the road playing Are We Not Men and Freedom of Choice in their entirety.

The original Akronites Gerard and Bob Casale and Bob and Mark Mothersbaugh will join drum god Josh Freese for the dates this fall.

Not only is there old Devo in the works, but new Devo too. Warner Bros., the band's once and future home, will also release a new studio album from the band sometime in 2010.

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As previously noted, festival organizers all over the country have been having to replace the Beastie Boys, who cancelled their tour due to MCA having to undergo surgery for cancer.

Today, via Twitter, San Francisco's Outside Lands Festival announced that they were replacing the Beastie Boys with "the greatest band in the world": Tenacious D, the musical comedy duo featuring Superstar Jack Black and Kyle Gass.

(h/t Logan)

A YouTube user recently uploaded this complete Kiss show from 1975 in San Francisco from the Kissology set. You can watch the whole thing here.

I've always had a mixed relationship with Kiss, as have a lot of music fans who can't divorce them from the blatant commercialism and megalomania that they've embodied for most of their career. This set is a million miles away from that -- merely four guys from New York with something to prove. Peter Criss gets his first line a half-step sharp, and from there delivers a charged vocal performance somewhere in the big space between James Brown and Iggy Pop. "I Was Made for Lovin' You" it ain't. The 1950s style black and white footage just adds to the mystique.

"Black Diamond" is the night's closer. There's something about hearing one of the most polished, manicured acts in rock history start a song with an out of tune guitar and an uncertain melody that makes you wish they fell victim to such accidents more often. Watch the whole show if you have some time.

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(Some people just never got over it.)

Jack Lescoulie presents an ode to The Polo Grounds, almost two years after the last game was played by the Giants before moving to San Francisco in 1957. Here he is, from his Stardust Program over NBC Radio on June 2, 1959.

. . .Like it was yesterday.

The San Francisco-based promoters that are putting on WestFest, a free 40th Anniversary Woodstock concert on October 25th, will announce today that they do not plan to comply with a cease and desist order from New York's Woodstock Ventures, the production company that put on the original Woodstock in 1969.

According to a press release from Boots Houghston, producer of WestFest, Woodstock Ventures has been shutting down "any event in the world that plans to celebrate the "40th Anniversary of Woodstock," as well as anyone who tries to use the phrase "Peace and Love." Houghston claims that since at least 18 of the original artists that were at the original 1969 festival were from San Francisco, that they have as much a right to use the name as anyone.

Among the SF performers are DFH veteran and Country Joe McDonald, a performer at the original Woodstock, and an ensemble of 3,000 guitar players playing Jimi Hendrix's 'Purple Haze' at the same time.

Understandably and predictably, folks involved with the San Francisco production think that going to the mat on trademark issues over the word "Woodstock" is not exactly in the spirit of Woodstock itself, and that Woodstock has plenty of a debt to settle with San Francisco. "We're the ones who started the whole vibe to begin with," Hughston said.

May 09, 2009 CNN