EDM bad boy Borgore plays the Fremont on Nov. 17 

[{
    "name": "Ad - Medium Rectangle CC01 - 300x250",
    "id": "AdMediumRectangleCC01300x250",
    "class": "inlineCenter",
    "insertPoint": "8",
    "component": "2963441",
    "requiredCountToDisplay": "12"
    },{
    "name": "Ad - Medium Rectangle LC01 - 300x250",
    "id": "AdMediumRectangleCC01300x250",
    "class": "inlineCenter",
    "insertPoint": "18",
    "component": "2963441",
    "requiredCountToDisplay": "22"
    },{
    "name": "Ad - Medium Rectangle LC09 - 300x250",
    "id": "AdMediumRectangleLC09300x250",
    "class": "inlineCenter",
    "insertPoint": "28",
    "component": "3252660",
    "requiredCountToDisplay": "32"
    }]

Yosef Asaf Borger looks like a perfectly nice young man, but the Tel Aviv-born, LA-based producer, DJ, and rapper has worked hard to cultivate a reputation as an enfant terrible who calls himself the man who "ruined dubstep." Some of his songs have been compared to sex, horror films, or farm animals.

For instance, let's talk about "Rachet," which has been described as "a devastating cock-trap breakdown that rattles both your teeth and sense of self before ricocheting back to the perverse eye of the storm." I don't know about that, but the video features a lot of twerking, vomiting, and smoking blunts as viewed from a spaceship inhabited by a trio of disapproving aliens.

As Borgore's bio says of "Rachet," "The suggestion that the song, which rewrites the children's classic 'If You're Happy And You Know It' into a wobbling, dirty, bass anthem [that] will 'destroy your childhood,' is one that Borgore—eternal provocateur—heartily enjoys."

Alright ravers, club kids, and EDM-a-rinoes, Borgore plays Fremont Theater this Thursday, Nov. 17 (8 p.m.; all ages; $34.61 with fees at seetickets.us).

Stand-up comic Frankie Quiñones plays the Fremont on Friday, Nov. 18 (8 p.m.; all ages; $27.50 to $57.50 plus fees at eventbrite.com). Quiñones stars in the new ABC Studios Hulu show This Fool.

Craigie returns

Numbskull and Good Medicine are bringing Portland-based singer- songwriter and producer John Craigie back to the Cuesta College Performing Arts Center for an encore performance this Friday, Nov. 18 (7 p.m.; $30.59 with fees at goodmedicinepresents.com)—a stop on his Keep It Warm 2022 tour that donates $1 from each ticket to the nonprofit Farm to Pantry, which last year rescued more than 350,000 pounds of produce from the landfill.

Craigie is touring in support of his 2022 album Mermaid Salt, a 10-track collection in which listeners "witness revenge unfurled in flames, watch a landlocked mermaid's escape, and fall asleep under a meteor shower," according to press materials.

"The album comes from the solitude and loneliness of lockdown in the Northwest. Someone whose life was touring, traveling, and having lots of human interaction is faced with an undefinable amount of time without those things," Craigie's bio continues. "Rather than steal away to a cabin or hole up in a house with friends, Craigie opted to set up shop at the OK Theater in Enterprise, Ore., with longtime collaborator Bart Budwig behind the board as engineer. A rotating cast of musicians shuffled in and out safely, distinguishing the process from the communal recording of previous releases."

Special guest Anna Moss (of Handmade Moments) will open the show.

The Siren calls

The Siren hosts a Grateful Dead celebration with the China Cats on Friday, Nov. 18 (8 p.m.; 21-and-older; $18 plus fees at eventbrite.com). Jerry Garcia would be 80 this year, so come celebrate the 9 1/2-fingered guitarist with Santa Cruz and the Bay Area's premier Grateful Dead tribute band.

Local singer-songwriter extraordinaire Mark Adams and his band play The Siren on Saturday, Nov. 19 (2:30 p.m.; free). The winemaker writes terrific narrative songs like "Where's My Town," about unwelcome changes to a small farming community: "Where's my town now/ When did all of this go down/ Where's my town now/ What the who and how/ Population eight hundred and five/ Turned ten thousand overnight / It used to be stop sign/ And now it's stoplight, stoplight, stoplight/ Stoplight, stoplight, stoplight."

Adams' most recent recording is Loaded with Lefty: A Tribute to Lefty Frizzell, which was produced and recorded with his friend Tim Bluhm (Mother Hips) at Bluhm's House in Fairfax, California.

Later that same night, check out the all-vinyl soul vs. funk DJ dance party presented by Soul Dust (8 p.m.; 21-and-older; $7 presale at eventbrite.com or $10 day of show).

Chillin' with DENM

SLO Brew Rock hosts singer-songwriter and alt-indie beach hipster DENM this Thursday, Nov. 17 (7:30 p.m.; 18-and-older; $18 plus fees at ticketweb.com). His new album, Slum Beach Denny, is filled with super-chill tracks like "Life's 2 Short": "If all we are is all we get/ Then I'ma live with no regret/ Life's too short to stress out/ Life's too short// I've watched my old man cry/ 'Don't you live your life like mine'/ Life's too short to stress out/ Life's too short." Imagine Jack Johnson with a hip-hop vibe.

Bluegrass savior

SLOfolks is on a run of great concerts, and this week they're bringing The Jake Blount Quartet to Castoro Cellars on Friday, Nov. 18 (7:30 p.m.; $25 at castorocellars.com/events or (805) 238-0725). Blount is a 2021 Steve Martin Banjo Prize winner and two-time winner of West Virginia's Appalachian String Band Music Festival.

"In addition to Jake shining a powerful light on the Black and Indigenous roots of folk and old-time music, he also brings to the forefront the issues of racism and colorism in queer and Black communities," local accordionist Duane Inglish explained. "There's really no one quite like him—well, Rhiannon Giddens is one of his mentors—in the old time, country, and bluegrass communities."

The specialist in the early folk music of Black Americans is a skilled performer of spirituals, blues, and string band sounds, concert organizers noted.

"His show will promise not only a display of his incredible musical prowess, but also will immerse you into a spinning history of American root music and the significant influence from Black Americans on it—reaching deep into Negro slave spirituals, old-time, country, and even a little jazz."

Mark your calendars!

Bill Callahan will be performing at the San Luis Obispo Guild Hall next Thursday, Nov. 24 (6 p.m.; $16 at eventbrite.com), in support of his new album YTI⅃AƎЯ—his eighth solo album under his own name. Jerry David Decicca, Mindparade, Ziona Riley, and a simple pig opens. Callahan has an amazing and unusual voice and a knack for writing woozy, arresting songs.

More music ...

Billy "The Guitar Wiz" Foppiano plays SLO Cider Company this Friday, Nov. 18 (7 p.m.). This dude is indeed a wizard on the guitar and has a huge repertoire of music to draw from.

The Cal Poly Jazz program will present its Fall Jazz Concert season opener this Friday, Nov. 18, in the Spanos Theatre (7:30 p.m.; $20 general and $19 student at 805-SLO-4TIX). Cal Poly's Jazz Ensemble and Vocal Jazz Ensemble will perform music by jazz legends including Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Count Basie, Pat Metheny, and Wayne Shorter.

The SLO County Jazz Federation is proud to present The Dave Becker Sextet featuring Marina Pacowski and Scott Whitfield on Saturday, Nov. 19, at SLO's Mt. Carmel Lutheran Church (7:30 p.m.; $30 general at my805tix.com). The all-star sextet includes Becker on saxes, Marshall Otwell on piano, Ken Hustad on bass, and Darrell Voss on drums.

Berlin- and LA-based singer-songwriter Stony Sugarskull is touring in support of her second album, Princess, with several local stops: The Raconteur Room on Saturday, Nov. 19 (9 p.m.; 21-and-older; $5 at eventbrite.com); Atascadero's Fall Fest on Sunday, Nov. 20 (6:30 to 7:15; all ages; free); and The Siren on Saturday, Nov. 26 (8 to 8:45 p.m.; 21-and-older; $7 to $12 at eventbrite.com), opening for The Ragged Jubilee. Stony Sugarskull is composer and multi-instrumentalist Monika Demmler, Ph.D., who will remind listeners of Mazzy Star or Nico.

The Basin Street Regulars present the Brass Nickels Jazz Band from Sacramento in a "hot swingin' jazz" concert with Cuesta's vocal jazz group Vocé opening this Sunday, Nov. 20, in the Pismo Beach Vets Hall (1 p.m.; $10 general at my805tix.com). The Brass Nickels Jazz Band (formerly known as the Pub Crawlers) features Bonnie Otto, a stride piano player and arranger. Δ

Contact Senior Staff Writer Glen Starkey at [email protected].