11 Takeaways From Burger Boogaloo:

Burger Records and Total Trash Productions put on their 5th annual Burger Boogaloo in Oakland. I covered it for Oakland Local and here were some notes that didn't make it into the article.

Chad Ubovich of Meatbodies and yet another of my fav guitarists who plays an SG 

       Balloon spacing is key: Love Scum in balloons was placed above the stage on Saturday. The first band, White Fang, noted what the early festival goers were already thinking: that the words were awfully sexually suggestive. Loves cum, anyone? Anyone?

      Retro, but it doesn’t matter what retro: Blue hair, Doc Martens and vans, round sunglasses, jean vests, calf tats, Jansport backpacks. It doesn’t matter what retro you chose, it’s all in. Even mullets. 

     Burger Boogaloo highlights the revitalization of guitar bands. Wand, Meatbodies, Thee Oh Sees, The Gizmos all shred. Electronic and dance have taken the limelight for long enough, make way for the guitars!

      Amps make a great place to stand but a hard place to get down from: Two bands using the Amp to stand on: Thunderroad and Nobunny. ThunderRoad making a more classy exit by jumping off, but didn’t have a mask obscuring his sight.

      It’s not easy playing guitar in a snuggy: The Bananas lead singer is wearing a leopard print snuggy (and no shirt) that keeps falling down his arm and getting in the way of playing his guitar. ‘A snuggy is the most comfortable thing to wear. It has its problems though. This is not an official endorsement.’

      Even the other bands are in awe of John Dwyer: OFF! Played a set of 20 songs, short but high energy, new and old. The lead singer said about John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees: even though I’m older ‘he’s one of my heroes.’

      Girls are rocking it big time: Saturday was a bit of a boys’ day, but Sunday showcased how much girls can rock! Summer Twins, La Sera, Dirty Ghosts, The Muffs, Shannon and the Clams, and Ronnie Spector all tear it up.

      Punk/Garage is pretty white: there’s been a good showing of women in punk music, but both the lineup and the crowd are mostly white. It’s a pretty stark contrast with the all black pickup basketball games happening outside.

     The Bay Area represents: Dirty Ghosts, an SF band with a female guitarist and drummer and very anthemic rock sounds, SF’s Terry Malts who play raucaus punk, Danny James  and Shannon and the Clams. Danny James and his once and future band from Oakland, CA. Comparisons to Elton John make sense in terms of sounds of look. The first band to use a wah pedal—very funky.      Meatbodies: period.  Some of the most talented musicians around. Overheard later in the day:  ‘You guys missed Meatbodies?! They were SO good. I bought their record.’ You and the rest of my crowd, m’dear. Along with WAND, they are top on bands to watch.

      Ronnie Spector still has it…will forever have it: of all the artists at Burger Boogaloo, Ronnie is the one to steal the show.The bands which have already played line up behind the stage and watch Ronnie Spector.