Temple Beautiful
Named after a long-gone San Francisco punk club, *Temple Beautiful* is Chuck Prophet\'s tribute to the city he loves. He writes and sings like a beatnik: a West Coast Jim Carroll who essays vocals like he\'s on the firing line. \"Museum of Broken Hearts\" plays like a street-tough ballad that wouldn\'t be out of place on an album by David Johansen or Scott Kempner, while the title track rages with the fury of punk rock in its memory. Unlike the chroniclers of the Haight-Ashbury hippie dream, Prophet takes a gritty, near–East Coast approach to his tunes. The former member of Green on Red has always had a garage rocker\'s heart. \"Willie Mays Is Up at Bat\" remembers the legendary ballplayer, proving that even rockers occasionally make it into the afternoon sun for the American pastime. \"White Night, Big City\" nods to the murder of S.F. city supervisor Harvey Milk without making it obvious. Prophet\'s everyman voice is matched by a band that plays it similarly workmanlike. There are no flourishes, no attempts at prettifying the streets.
With “his triple-threat ability—excellent songwriter, killer lead guitarist, charismatic frontman”—(AOL Spinner), California native and longtime San Francisco resident singer-songwriter Chuck Prophet pays homage to the city he calls home for his twelfth studio album, Temple Beautiful. Set for February 7, 2012 release on Yep Roc Records, the album is named for the ill-fated club of the same name, “Temple Beautiful is a long closed punk rock club located in the old Reverend Jim Jones’ People’s Temple. Where I saw my first gigs,” says Prophet, who co-produced the album with Brad Jones. “This record was made in San Francisco, by San Franciscans about San Francisco.” Co-written with klipschutz at Prophet’s “non-internet-having office space,” the 12-track album’s odes include “Castro Halloween,” “a gleaming, breezy rocker, anchored by Prophet’s everyman voice” (SF Weekly), “Willie Mays Is Up At Bat,” “Emperor Norton in the Last Year of His Life (1880),” and the title track which boasts Roy Loney, vocalist of legendary Bay Area band The Flamin’ Groovies, on guest vocals. Compelled to pay tribute to the history and weirdness that brought him to the city nearly 30 years ago and inspired by current San Francisco artists, Prophet entered the studio with James DePrato (guitars), Rusty Miller (bass, vocals) and Prairie Prince (drums, percussion) to record “an unsentimental (though loving) tour of San Francisco,” says Prophet. “My effort to tap into the history, the weirdness, the energy and spontaneity that brought me here in the first place. All the songs are San Francisco related somehow.” The album also features Stephanie Finch (vocals); Chris Carmichael (cello, violin); Jim Hoke (woodwinds, flute).
Not since Lou Reed paid homage to the city and era that forged him with New York has there been a song cycle dedicated to a…
Leave it to San Francisco's Chuck Prophet to turn that generalization upside-down on his twelfth studio release since the 1990 dissolution of Green on Red.