What people are saying about Playing in Fog


SFGate.com
Looking Foward To It! • Sunday, December 3, 2006

When Playing in Fog's Debra A. Zeller puts on a show, it's a good bet that the artists involved will have lovely voices and play music that's a little sad, a little trippy and totally worth hearing. In fact, if you describe the music as "dazcore," people in certain Bay Area circles will know exactly what you're talking about. Playing in Fog hosts a holiday show with the Music Lovers, That Man Fantastic and the Bye Bye Blackbirds at 9 p.m. Dec. 13 at the Make-Out Room.


SF Chronicle's 96 Hours
Playing in Fog: Music lover went from watching bands to getting them onstage in the city's coolest clubs. Just don't confuse it with KFOG.
By Delfin Vigil • August 31, 2006

It was just a foggy notion.

In late 1999, Debra Zeller and a friend thought it might be cool and useful to post an online calendar of all the Bay Area gigs she and her friends were planning to see.

Then it grew to writing live reviews.

Then album reviews.

Then there came the invitations to be the official gig photographer.

Before long, Zeller found herself booking the best bands around in the coolest clubs in town for a monthly showcase called Playing in Fog."It really grew into this little monster and eventually out of control," says the mellow Zeller, whose latest Playing in Fog showcase is tonight at the Make-Out Room with a triple bill of Love Is Chemicals, Peloton and Dora Flood.

With a strong six-year track record of helping bands and clubs get the best out of each other, Playing in Fog has earned a reputation for reliable, high-quality but never too-cool-for-school nightlife that sometimes can be hard to find in San Francisco. Zeller, a native of Napa who moved to the city in 1987, is just happy to have finally overcome her biggest fear.

"I was always most afraid that people would confuse Playing in Fog with KFOG, the radio station," says Zeller, who at first didn't like the name, which was thought up by her close friend Kate Izquierdo (a.k.a. "Squid," a writer with the Bay Guardian). "It actually happened once, in the beginning. I was at a bar when I overheard someone tell another person that Playing in Fog was definitely a KFOG event," remembers Zeller with a pause and a sigh.

Those days are done. With past lineups that include the likes of Scissors for Lefty, Seventeen Evergreen, Kelley Stoltz, Rykarda Parasol, Music for Animals and Elephone, Playing in Fog has had a knack for figuring out the best bands in the bay long before KFOG ever could.

Zeller also promotes Playing in Fog by getting the groups college radio play, guest DJ spots and print reviews -- stuff bands are typically expected to figure out on their own. But perhaps the biggest perk for playing with Playing in Fog is getting to be on one of the souvenir posters that Zeller's monster is known for.

Artists like Terrence "Lil Tuffy" Ryan, Michael Hester, Nathalie Roland and Summer Makovkin have helped create a collection of concert posters destined to be San Francisco classics like the Fillmore stuff.

But the posters aren't so popular with the San Francisco Department of Public Works, which last year fined Zeller $750 for posting Playing in Fog flyers that were causing "a visual blight." Turns out it was a few of the bands who were posting the flyers. The guilty guitarists offered to pay the fine, but Zeller insisted on fighting the city.

"A visual blight? That's ridiculous," says Zeller, who has paid more than $750 in attorney fees to fight the fight even though Playing in Fog is basically pro-bono work that she finances with a day job. "They're basically saying that it makes the city ugly. Walk up Mission Street and I think you'll find a lot bigger concerns than flyers."


Flavorpill SF
LOW BEAM: Playing in Fog • August 13, 2003

Even on slow days, SF is usually so happening that we can't list everything we find flavorful, so we're grateful for Playing in Fog, an online calendar of all indie-oriented gigs around the Bay Area. A cross between a calendar and a zine, Playing in Fog also throws parties (the upcoming Ral Patha Vogelbacher show is a must), reviews gigs, archives live photos, and hosts MP3s from a select roster of indie and unsigned acts including the Lovemakers, Stereo Total, and Film School. An up-and-coming indie institution, Playing in Fog cuts through the murk. (PS)

SFGate.com
Tribe 8's punk-rock doc; getting artistic for SFMOMA; tuning up for Nick Drake
by Beth Lisick • June 25, 2003

Leave it to those ladies from Playing in Fog, the friendly neighborhood Web site, show producer and cheering section, to round up the cream of the local music crop and sic Nick Drake on them. Last Monday night's sold-out show featuring local musicians doing Drake songs at the Makeout Room proved three things I've been fairly sure of for a while:

1) Everyone loves to love Nick Drake.
2) Jolie Holland rules.
3) So does Kelley Stoltz.

And no one even played "Pink Moon"! When Stoltz finished his two-song set, I actually saw people jump up from their chairs, so affecting was his voice and guitar work on "Saturday Sun" and "Place to Be."

Being the last performer of the night, Holland took her time, bringing up a few guests, including Sean Hayes, and finally had to break it to the crowd, who kept shouting for more, that she really must stop playing. Truly.

Another fine specimen of a local band, whose set I sadly missed but everyone was yammering about, is the lovely Vervein. Your chance to see them (and help them celebrate the release of their new record, Vast Low Cities) is this Friday, June 27 at the Hemlock Tavern.

SF Weekly
Best Web Site for Live Indie Rock Tips
by Dan Strachota • May 14, 2003

There are just too many live-music options in San Francisco. How are you supposed to separate the wheat from the chaff, the peanut butter from the jelly, the indie rock buzz from the musical never-was? Even with clubs closing faster than a Catholic squeezes out babies, there are still a shitload of shows to decide among. And in these recessed times, cash-strapped music fans need to pick and choose. The question Ry Cooder once posed -- "How can a poor man stand such times and live?" -- never seemed so apropos. Luckily, there's www.playinginfog.com. The locally based Web site began in 2000 as a way for music lover Deb Zeller to let her pal, KUSF veteran Kate "Squid" Izquierdo, know what concerts she was planning on attending. Squid then suggested they make an online journal out of the site, with Squid providing cheeky show reviews and Zeller snapping the accompanying photos. After garnering a healthy following, the pair split ways in early 2002: Squid pursued other musical avenues, and Zeller tapped local lad Jake Thomas to pen reviews. Now, besides including a wealth of information about local and national indie rock acts and dreamy photos of same (Zeller's been published in Rolling Stone and Devil in the Woods magazines since starting the site), PIF hosts a calendar with live recommendations for nearly every day of the month. Zeller has impeccable taste -- everything from the sad-and-pretty folk of Vetiver to the epic noise-sprawl of Stratford 4 -- which she also showcases during her monthly "Playing in Fog" events at the Hemlock Tavern. This is one site that plays in -- and cuts through -- the showgoing haze.

CoffeeFog.com
March 11, 2003

About 6 months ago I was at a bar called Cafe du Nord in San Francisco, listening to local "country" bands (the court and spark, the real sippin' whiskeys) when this girl came over and put a flyer for a website on my table. I picked up the flyer, and the name immediately jumped out at me - Playing in Fog. As an outspoken fog proponent myself, the mere mention of fog piqued my interest. So I took the flyer home and made a point to check it out later.

Since then Playing in Fog has been my most reliable and frequently used source of music recommendations. A couple of local indie rock fans run the site, recommending and reviewing SF bay area rock shows almost every day of the week. When I feel like going out to a show but don't have a clue where, I turn to playinginfog.com and usually find 3 shows playing this week that look promising. Just last night I headed out to see Thee More Shallows at playingfog's recommendation and had a great time listening to mellow new music. So my advice to you is to surf over to playing in fog and pick out a good show to see this week. I realize, however, that my blog readership is a) small, b) geographically diverse, and c) not necessarily into geek rock. So I take it upon myself to attend more shows on your behalf.

SFGate.com
Stephen Malkmus at Noise Pop, Rock Out Against War, Cat Power at the Hemlock and more
by Beth Lisick • March 5th, 2003

The Hemlock may have finally outdone itself last Thursday night. A secret, exclusive Cat Power show followed by Japanese chaos magnet Guitar Wolf on the same night? Advertised only by word of mouth, Chan Marshall's hush-hush appearance lasted for two hours -- and, apparently, the notoriously enigmatic performer was a dreamboat. She's toured previously with Hemlock part owner Kyle Statham's band F-- and was in the Polk Street club last December for a photo shoot with S.F. photographer Deb Zeller, whose divine pic of Ms. Marshall appears in the March 6 issue of Rolling Stone. Word is that after the room cleared after her show, all hell broke loose with Guitar Wolf, who supposedly crawled across the stage on hand and knees, stuck a finger down his throat and puked.


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