Music
In a parking garage in East Oakland’s Jingletown neighborhood, an enormous piece of local music history gazes out at parked cars. More than ten feet tall, and sporting sunglasses, the relic is a stage prop modeled after rapper Shock G. The head was featured in a 1993 music video by rapper Shock G’s platinum-selling group, Digital Underground, and went out with the group on tour. Now it collects dust and dirt from exhaust pipes.
Over the last year, Oakland North has profiled nearly a dozen up-and-coming East Bay bands as part of our mini-documentary video series called Bandwidth. Check out a few of the highlights here, and meet some of the faces you’ll see performing around town. • The California Honeydrops, an Oakland-based band, got their start playing at local East Bay haunts like the Cheese Board Collective in Berkeley and BART stations four years ago. They have now gone on to perform across…
From Cuban exiles to Bay Area salsa fanatics clad in nostalgic Cuban revolutionary gear and chomping the occasional cigar, Oakland’s Splash Pad Park was a crucible of various cultures Sunday as San Francisco-based Cuban salsa outfit, Team Bahia, performed some of its best tracks for a crowd of more than 300 dancers.
Over 200 Oakland residents of all ages crowded onto the main floor of the Scottish Rite Center Friday night to kick off the two-day “Voices for Peace” festival with singing, dancing, and messages of nonviolence. The festival, a benefit for Oakland’s Urban Peace Movement, is part of a three-month “Summer of Peace” global celebration that features youth outreach programs, weekly online “telesummits” and multicultural events.
“Dedicated to the One I Love” is a classic love song, originally recorded in the 1950s by The “5” Royales and remade by numerous artists who wanted to put their own spin on it. On Sunday, Actual Café in Oakland decided to take the theme in another direction with a musical event called “Dedicated to the One I Love” during which customers could make a request or a dedication to friends and loved ones. Listeners were invited to bring in their favorite songs or choose from the musical collection of KALX’s DJ Poindexter, who hosted the event.
On Friday afternoon, community leaders and over 100 local residents gathered on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Way and 32nd Street in Oakland to celebrate the life of slain rapper Tupac Shakur and to commemorate what would have been his 41st birthday.
Since he was kid, Dvondre Woodards has gone by another name, Pooka. Given to him by his grandmother, the name stuck, be it with friends, family, and even teachers. It doesn’t have any meaning as far as 22-year-old Woodards knows. “It’s just unique. So I’m making my own definition of it,” he said.
The Watusi and the Jerk—popular dance moves in the early 1960’s—could be spotted during the launch of Summer Sounds Concerts at City Center Plaza on Wednesday. Over a hundred people, some of them doing the Twist, cheered on The Sun Kings, an Alameda based rock band that covers the Beatles’ music.
Sitting at a low table in the dining room of the home he shares with his business partner Christopher Nicholas and his girlfriend, JooWan Kim poured tea for everyone at the table as the conversation about the upcoming concert began. He took his seat at the table, crossing his long legs and swinging that shoulder length black hair slightly as he shifted onto the pillow on the floor.