Taco Bell's Feed the Beat included Black Gold as part of their up-and-coming rock acts  that made the 2009 Feed the Beat lineup. Celebrating its fourth year, Feed the Beat provides free food and marketing support to America’s up-and-coming rock acts. This year, Black Gold is accompanied by The All-American Rejects, Boys Like Girls, Forever The Sickest Kids, We The Kings, Atreyu, Owl City, Dr. Dog and more.....

Music fans will be able to discover each Feed the Beat band on Taco Bell’s Virtual Music Festival Web site (www.feedthebeat.com) which showcases their music and exclusive content created for the site. Once there, fans can listen to bands they know or discover new tunes as they stream music via the Feed the Beat Music Player.

Congrats Black Gold!

many years ago, just before I moved to San Fran for school, my ex-girlfriend Jeanna and I came up to scope out an apartment and the school.  at least, that's what we told our parents.  it was really a ruse of sorts for I had other motivations:  the mexican food and the thrifting.  we bypassed all the posh areas and the tourist spots and headed for ....Mecca....--the mission district.

first we hit the marvelous rainbow health food store where I confirmed that I could get all my natural goodies. then we tackled the thrift stores one by one. the glorious thrift town, which never lets you down. the salvation army, so large and full of crazy finds and many other thrift gems that I won't mention because finding them on your own is half the joy.

famished and thrifted out, Jeanna and I carried our huge shopping bags of discarded treasures in search of the best Mex we could find. the taquerias are literally side by side in the mission, all beckoning to you through their windows like dutch maidens in the alleys of ....amsterdam....'s red light district.  our lust was killing us.

we passed one gorgeous tease after another and they all looked amazing:  taqueria pancho villa with the tofu burrito option and the cleanest looking fresh salsa bar I'd ever seen; taqueria cancun, stuffing it's fresh sliced avocados in lieu of guacamole in it's lil donkeys; and even the wild card ti couz, a true-to-form creperie that has the best buckwheat savory crepes I've had outside of France.  all these places were packed with seemingly happy customers.

by now we'd been carrying our bags and walking for ages and still hadn't decided. we reached the end of the strip at 25th and mission and stopped to take inventory for our final decision.  we stood outside yet another taqueria to catch our breath.  this one was a no frills place and looked a bit old.  I decided that it was disqualified since it had no fresh salsa bar and it wasn't very crowded.  plus, the name of the place was less than beguiling: "la taqueria."  who the hell names their taqueria "la taqueria?"  it's like naming your diner "the diner."

Jeanna and I began to narrow down the other finalists for our dinner.
"I vote for pancho villa," she said.
"yeah, that looked pretty great," I chimed.
"great name too," added Jeanna.

"hey chief!," shouted a voice out of nowhere.
"huh?"
"over here, chief!"  we turned and saw that it was the dude behind the counter la taqueria.
"um..., yeah?," I reluctantly responded.

"you looking for some mexican food, chief?  we are the best."
"uh, no thanks man, we got it covered," said I, trying to be as polite as possible but feeling a little irked.
"chief, my parents opened this place over 30 years ago and now I'm in charge. I've made sure that we use the same recipes from back in the day and that everything is made fresh to order."

I tried to be polite but i started to nudge Jeanna away from the place.  let me interject by saying that one of my resto pet peeves are those assholes that stand in front of restaurants trying to lure tourists inside like those annoying guys on curry row on ....6th street.... in NYC. if you fall for their sweet talk, you're usually rewarded with crappy food, watered down for tourist palates.

but then i looked into the dude's eyes and saw something sincere there. there was warmth that didn't really scream "naive tourist wrangler."  he smiled and gently said, "come in and try my fresh mango juice, it's made from only crushed mangoes, water and a lil sugar."

our thirst, exhaustion and curiosity got the best of us and we entered the place with some trepidation.  he ladled the mango agua fresca from a huge transparent glass jug that was chubbily ribbed like the Michelin man.  next to the mango jug sat several other chubby containers in a rainbow of colors- strawberry, lemon, melon, horchata, and ....Jamaica...., all looking very fresh and enticing.

mango is my fave fruit of all time so I was expecting to be disappointed.  mango drinks usually taste processed and artificially flavored. I took a sip, Jeanna took a sip and we smiled wide-eyed at each other like little kids trying ice cream for the first time.  imagine biting into the ripest, sweetest, mango everytime you took a sip. I sipped and sipped and could pick out tiny bits of fresh mango pieces, which I gleefully chewed on. it was a magnificent dessert and a restorative drink all in one.

"would you like to try one of our burritos?"
"uh....I'm not sure..."
"what kind, chief?"
"well, we're vegetarians and ..."
"veggie burrito!!!," he yelled before I could finish my sentence. immediately, his staff jumped into action.

we watched closely as they assembled it. they scooped perfect whole pinto beans into the grilled flour tortilla with melted cheese then topped it with crema and the most finely chopped fresh salsa I'd ever seen.
"what's in your salsa, man?"
"tomatoes, onions, cilantro, lime, salt"
"that's it?"
"that's it, chief."
the cute little mexican lady behind the counter smiled and scooped a little more of the red caviar-like salsa into our burrito after she saw me gaping at it.

the duder handed Jeanna the burrito and it looked heavy by he way she nestled it with both hands.
"ok man, how much do I owe you?"
"nothing, chief."
"huh?"
"just come back if you like it."

Jeanna and I stared at the duder like he was speaking Russian.
"um, are you sure, man?"
"sure chief.  enjoy and thanks for coming in."

we were truly perplexed. why would this guy give us free food when his taqueria was not nearly as crowded as his competitors'?  was this burrito some kind of trick?  was it poisoned, snow white style?

we tasted it and all the skepticism melted from our faces. this was simply a perfect burrito made with love and passion.  each ingredient, on it's own, was magnificently prepared.  that caviar-like salsa is, to this day, the best I've ever tasted. it's so damn simple--so finely chopped and fresh that you can eat it as a spritely salad for days. the whole pinto beans were the ideal combination of firmness, saltiness and creaminess. the tortilla was grilled just right and the cheese melted just so before the rest if the ingredients were added.

the dude behind the counter wasn't a trickster at all; he was a man proud and confident of his family's recipes and their incredible made-with-love creations.  over the following months, I tried just about all the other taquerias in the city. none could hold a candle. I came back again and again to la taqueria, each time bringing new converts who fell in love like I did. it became a weekly ritual--"let's meet at la taq tonight?...yes!"  my homies and I became so obsessed with la taq that when my schoolmate vitali came to visit me in ....hawaii.... from San Fran, he lovingly smuggled it (mango juice and all) in his backpack for me. (vitali-you rule forever!!!!)

a couple days ago when black gold came to San Fran to play cafe du nord, I had to make a quick stop to get my fix.  everything looked and smelled the same, only now it was packed with happy faces.  that mango juice is as incredible as ever.  omg, the veggie tacos are life itself. this is my fave taqueria of all time, my queen.
when you go, please order the mango juice, the artistically blistered flour quesadilla with fresh avocado and one or two of the tacos. please give my love to the duder, the chief himself.  hail to the chief, indeed.

t.

As a musician, generally the last thing I want to do is describe my music according to genre. When forced to do so, I (like all other artists) feel frustrated, flustered and uncomfortable. Inevitably, I am left feeling like whatever words I have chosen fall short of giving an accurate representation of my music. However, I am able to see the value to the development of the language to talk about music. This is why I have recently become very frustrated by the confusion of all the existing terminology to describe music (such as: rock, punk, rap, hip hop, house...).

I think I first became aware of the muddling of these descriptive categories when I watched the evolution of the term "hip hop." Before the 90's, the term hip hop was not commonly used. Urban music at the time was generally categorized as either rap or r&b. In the 90's, some rap music was categorized as hip hop when groups like De La Soul and Tribe Called Quest developed a very particular brand of rap that incorporated elements of jazz and r&b into their music. Needless to say, that music was tremendously successful.  By the end of the 90's however, the term hip hop began to have less specific meaning as almost every rap group began to call their music hip hop. Perhaps this was an attempt to legitimize their music by attaching it to a genre that was already successful. Or maybe, people were simply confused about the meaning of the term hip hop. Either way, for those of us who find ourselves talking music all day and night, the term hip hop had less and less meaning as artists like Eminem and Snoop Dog categorized their music as hip hop.

Far more frustrating perhaps has been the de-evolution of the term "punk." For those of us who are Ramones and Sex Pistol fans, the idea that Blink 182 or Green Day call themselves punk rock is completely absurd. Punk rock was routed in a young and often violent counter culture that re-examined the music of Chuck Berry in a far more aggressive manner. So, when these bands in the 90's who played cheerful, positive, anthemic pop music began calling themselves punk rockers, what happened to the meaning of that category? These days, you see all sorts of musicians and fans from wealthy suburbs claiming that they are punks. To these people I would say that if you have purchased any of your wardrobe from the Hot Topic at the local mall, you are most likely not a punk rocker.

The same goes for hardcore music. Originally, this term was used to describe the music of bands like Bad Brains and Minor Threat who were coming from the highly politically charged culture in DC. Soon after, this music inspired some bands in NY like Agnostic Front who clearly were expanding on an idea that was first developed in DC. Nowadays, the term hardcore is used to describe all sorts of music that often involves musicians who wear Halloween costumes on stage, scream gutturally and have a message that is far from political. Aside from a shared aggressive nature, where is the similarity there?

By no means am I intending to judge the quality of any of this music by denying musicians their chosen category. Nor am I naive enough to expect language to halt it's constant evolution. I am however simply requesting that musicians and press alike begin to respect the guidelines that our language requires. If we continue to muddle the meaning of all the words we use to describe music, we will make the already difficult job of talking about music even more complicated. A wise man once said that, "talking about music is like dancing about architecture." Perhaps, it is a futile effort to try to preserve the language we use to talk about music, but I doubt that will stop me from continuing the on-going discussion about music. So, perhaps we can all agree to do what we can to make the process a bit easier and more meaningful.

Sept 25^th – Singapore, Fort Canning Park....

Black Gold head to Singapore next week to perform live at F1 Rocks™ Singapore with LG on the Red Bull Stage on Friday, Sept 25^th.  Their performance is part of the inaugural F1 ROCKS™ event, which will take place nightly at the 3-day 2009 FORMULA 1 SINGTEL SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX, and will be headlined by No Doubt, Black Eyed Peas and Beyonce.  Other artists confirmed for the concerts in Singapore’s Fort Canning Park are ZZ Top, Simple Minds, N*E*R*D and Chinese pop legend Jacky Cheung.....