My wish list - I doubt I’ll get everything - especially the items with the asterisks. But a fun list to ponder.

7 inch singles:

Beach House - Lazuli
Crosses - Option/Telepathy
Florence + the Machine - Shake It Out
Garbage - Blood For Poppies
Amanda Palmer & the Grand Theft Orchestra - Polly
*School of Seven Bells - Kiss Them For Me

10 inch:
fun. - The Ghost You Are To Me
*Gorillaz - Do Ya Thing

12 inch:
*Mates of State - Crushes (The Covers Mixtape)
Rockabye Baby - Lullaby Renditions of the Smiths
*Straylight Run - self titled
Tegan and Sara - Get Along
Various Artists - Pretty in Pink soundtrack

I love how traditional museums are embracing other forms of art. Exhibits like The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk at the de Young Museum in San Francisco give high fashion as an art form their place alongside masterpieces from painters, photographers and sculptors.

The exhibit was playfully curated - as you enter, the mannequins are dressed in JPG and are animated - they look around, blink and what not. Kinda creepy, but cool.There are high fashion photographs of the models who wore the creations and rooms devoted to the different periods of JPG’s work. I really dug the boudour room with these leather chests:

This area also had all the Madonna “Vogue” era items - including sketches of the designs:

Another room had a moving catwalk with his Paris themed designs.

In the same room was a wall of punk rock designs (with a lively SF themed mural behind it):

Really enjoyed the entire exhibit - it’s running at the de Young through August, so if you’re in SF before then, go check it out.

I love the week before Coachella because there are bound to be good warm up shows and even though I had to travel to SF for this one, it was sooooo worth it. Set list first:

Band of Skulls
The Fillmore
San Francisco, CA
4/12/12

Sweet Sour
Lies
Patterns
Fires
Bruises
Wanderluster
Cold Fame
Bomb
Blood
Lay My Head Down
Hollywood Bowl
I Know What I Am
You’re Not Pretty But You Got It Goin’ On
Light of the Morning
Death by Diamonds and Pearls

Encore:
The Devil Takes Care of Its Own
Impossible

Last time I saw BoS at the Indy Jam, they were hard at work on the record which was to become the recently released Sweet Sour. They teased a couple of songs during that set and easily was my favorite performance of the day. I knew that seeing the new material live would be amazing. Russell, Emma and Matt just rock so hard, but they do it in an almost non-chalant way that it just makes it more intense.

With the leadoff of the title track from the new album, they set the stage for what was to a fairly long set covering the majority of their two albums. Especially rocking was “Fires” (which we often saw in the encore when they were touring from their debut) and “Wanderluster”, one of my faves from the new one. They finally slowed it down with the ballady “Cold Fame” but it was just a chance for everyone to grab a drink and steel themselves for more rock. By the time they got to “I Know What I Am”, we were drunk with sound, singing all the words (sorry dude next to me) and giving them as much love as they were giving to us. They ended their main set with “Death By Diamonds and Pearls” and came out shortly for the two song encore. “Devil” is a great track for an encore and “Impossible” is a showcase for the band to give us one last sonic assault.

Such a fantastic show (and at the legendary Fillmore no less!) Don’t miss out on them if you’re headed to Coachella or when they are in SD next week at The Griffin.