[Editor's note: This post originally appeared on Aug. 25, 2008, as we were just getting Stranger Dance off the ground. Seeing as how posting over the holidays gets slow, but people's thirst for music doesn't, we've decided to re-post some of our favorite posts from the past year that folks may not have seen. Plus, a soundboard recording of the Outside Lands Radiohead show?! Fuck, yeah!]

For this week’s episode of Panther Picks I decided to post Radiohead’s performance at Outside Lands. Why? Because I’m obsessed and it was a life-changing event. Duh. Special thanks to KC who sent me this great bootleg recording that sounds like it was taken directly from the soundboard - in other words, it’s power-outage free. However, due to file sizes I did have to upload a few songs to BOX.NET Sendspace. Forgiveness please.

Radiohead Live at Outside Lands Festival (8/22/08):

Encore:

Phew, that was a long show. I spent just over five hours at the Mezzanine last night, catching the Not So Silent Night pre-show party. The lineup was a little over the place, but the crowd was into all of the bands. All photos are courtesy of our illustrious staff photographer, Laura Ciekot, and are displayed in marquis order (i.e. reverse chronological). [Review and photos after jump.]

Vampire Weekend

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Everyone’s favorite preppy indie rockers put on a pretty impressive show. Vampire Weekend is easy to make fun of, but the fact is that their debut record is filled with good songs and they put on a great live show. A legion of young San Franciscans seemed to agree as evidenced by constant indie-bounce-dancing throughout their set.

Vampire Weekend - “Oxford Comma”
Vampire Weekend - “M79″

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Unknown to all but serious R&B aficionados, William “Darondo” Pulliam is one of the most colorful and underrated musicians to come out of the Bay Area. A native of Berkeley, Darondo recorded three excellent singles and performed only four shows before calling it quits, creating a mystique which has lasted to this day.

He’s often described as a street-wise Al Green, which works for me, but he’s also got a healthy dose of Ron Isley mixed in. As great as his music was, Darondo’s mythology has grown because of his eccentric personality. After opening for James Brown, Darondo drove away from the show in his signature Rolls Royce and never performed again. After that, Darondo had stints as a pimp and host of multiple local public-access cable shows (such as Doze Comedy Videos, Darondo’s Penthouse After Dark and Tapper the Rabbit - clips available here) and then as a physical therapist (yes, seriously).

After decades out of the spotlight, Darondo has been getting love recently, showing up as the lead track on London DJ Gilles Peterson’s Digs America compilation and subsequently making the rounds on the blogosphere. The recent attention has led to a string of California shows, including one tomorrow (Friday) night at Slim’s.

On this 1973 single, Darando switches between a croak and whisper in a way that makes my head spin. Definitely worth a listen.

MP3:

More:

Darondo Interview [L.A. Record]

I was just introduced to Anya Marina recently, intrigued by the knowledge that Spoon frontman Britt Daniel produced her debut album (along with Brian Karscig of Louis XIV), Slow & Steady Seduction, Phase II (due out Dec. 9).

The record evolved from a conversation with Britt:

“He was asking me about how I write and I told him I didn’t feel inspired to write much of anything. I had been listening to a lot of Peaches, LCD Soundsystem, and Public Enemy, and I was thinking about how their music has this rhythmic drive to it. I told Britt I felt frustrated that I couldn’t write that way.

A week later, a CD of beat loops that Daniel had created arrived in Marina’s mail. “Those loops ended up giving birth to ‘Move You,’ ‘Two Left Feet,’ ‘Cut It Out,’ ‘All The Same To Me,’ and ‘High on the Ceiling,’ ” she says. “It really changed the way I wrote.”

Marina plays at Café Du Nord (with Elisa Toffoli) next Thursday (Nov. 20) and we have tickets to give away to you and a friend. To win, simply send an email (at Stranger@strangerdance.com) explaining why you’re a worthy recipient. The winner will be picked on Tuesday.

MP3:

Regular readers know that The Black Keys and Dr. Dog are both Stranger Dance favorites, so we were pretty excited that the good people at Converse hooked us up with tickets to the final installment of their Converse Century Concert Series. [Review and photos after jump.]

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