A few years ago, The Pine Box Boys made a special Christmas card that was available for purchase. Each card came with its own unique X-Mas story by Mr. Raww himself, detailing the holiday misadventures of Cousin Sticker. It also included a download card with two original holiday classics by the Boys: “St. Eclipse (Santa Clips)” and “Merry X-Mas and Have a @#$!!?! New Year.” With that, the idea of SANTA RAWW was born.

As with most things associated with the holidays, each year the Boys forgot about SANTA RAWW until it was too late to do anything. Preoccupied with Feast of Three Arms festivities, the whole Christmas thing was pretty much negligible to them. Shelby Ash Presents decided to remedy that.

Join Lester, Possum, Col. Leather, and Aaron as they bring SANTA RAWW to the stage for the first time. Come to Plough & Stars (Clement Street between 2nd and 3rd in San Francisco) on Friday, December 17 from 9:30-11:30 for THE MOST MISERBLE AND DEPRESSING HOLIDAY SHOW OF THE SEASON. In addition to some classics from the H&H catalog, SANTA RAWW will perform tunes from Lester’s Holiday Songbook. A Hollins & Hollins holiday season is defined by finger-eating specters, yellow snow, drowned lovers, Crow Court, and gifts that smell funny. ‘Tis the feckin’ season.

Continuing in their tradition of dark, gallows humor, the team at Hollins & Hollins Mortuary Entertainment are pleased to present APOCALYPSE SUNDAY, a tongue-in-cheek farewell to the world and everything in it. In the face of a pandemic, environmental crises, military conflict, and the questionable agendas of various world leaders, the members of H&HME believe it is important for us to join with our community, raise a glass, and (figuratively) wait for the tsunami to hit. How better to deal with your overwhelming sense of existential dread?

So what exactly is APOCALYPSE SUNDAY? Consider it a sort-of variety show for people with very few options left. Primarily a musical revue, APOCALYPSE SUNDAY features the music of Bay Area horrorbilly faves The Pine Box Boys, singers of songs of murder and misery. The Boys will also appear as their alter-ego band Lester T. Raww’s Graveside Quartet, whose music has been described as “Tin Pan Alley charm, with Addams Family grim.” Rounding out the regular entertainment is “Gentleman” Jimmy Hadley and his songs of debauchery and poor life choices.  And since variety is the spice of life, each week will feature another SF/Bay Area band or artist. 

So, consider this your invitation to THE LAST PARTY EVER. And if the world DOESN”T end, no sweat. We’ll do it again next month. Madrone Art Bar, 500 Divisadero (at Fell).

Click here for a short video about APOCALYPSE SUNDAY.

Aaron “Dogbite” Harris and Ruckus in The Records, hailing out of the great state of Oregon, have released a compilation that, well…let’s just say it can break the spell of all this ISOLATION we’ve been feeling. The compilation, entitled RUCKUS IN PLACE, includes tracks from some of your favorite road dogs like James Hunnicutt, Samm Bones, Billy Hood, Stoned Evergreen Travelers, Husky Burnette, and old Dogbite himself. Dogbite invited Lester Raww to contribute a track, so he offered up a recent song that he and Possum Carvidi collaborated on, “San Francisco 19.”

According to Lester, “I wrote this song about a month after everything went into lockdown. The streets of San Francisco were pretty empty, except for the tents that were popping up on the sidewalks. I was taking long walks, smoking my pipe, and wondering how this was all going to turn out. Frankly, if it weren’t for the rising death toll, I kinda liked how the city seemed so empty, eerie, and peaceful…like a graveyard. But then the techies came out of hiding and started taking over public spaces. The homeless have been chased off to god-knows-where. Bars and restaurants are building booths on sidewalks and in curbside paring spaces, doing what they can to stay in business. It’s great that people are coming outdoors, although I prefer it when they put a mask on. In any case, the song is more about how the City felt right after the lockdown. Now, not so much.”

RUCKUS IN PLACE is more than just a good compilation. The proceeds from the sales of this CD benefit the Trevor Project, serving the needs of LGBTQ+ youth who are in crisis. The Trevor Lifeline is a national 24/7 crisis intervention and suicide prevention lifeline for LGBTQ young people under 25, available at 1-866-488-7386. TrevorChat is a free, confidential, secure instant messaging service for LGBTQ youth that provides live help from trained volunteer counselors, and is open daily. TrevorText is a free, confidential, secure service in which LGBTQ young people can text a trained Trevor counselor for support and crisis intervention, available daily by texting START to 678-678. You can learn more about the Trevor Project by visiting https://www.thetrevorproject.org/.

To get your copy, go to https://ruckusintherecords.com/.

Check out the video for “San Francisco 19” at the link below:

https://youtu.be/B5Ozd5UyQWw

As many of you know, the members of The Hollins & Hollins Mortuary Family celebrate The Feast of Three Arms on December the 13th of every year. This day commemorates Parmalene, the Lady with Three Arms, the man that did her wrong, and her son Jubal who vowed revenge upon that scoundrel. It is on this date that the Observants of the Feast of Three Arms renew their vows for vengeance despite all good advice and common sense to the contrary.

This is a VERY special Feast for it falls upon a Friday the 13th. So, rather than have one of our private parties, The Pine Box Boys will be taking over The Milk Bar (1840 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA) to perform the entire album THE FEAST OF THREE ARMS in front of a live audience. Joining us will be The Junk Parlor with their “gypsy junk-rock” sound. Also, “Gentleman” Jimmy Hadley and His Swindling Dwindlers will kick things off. The show starts at 8PM; $10 cover.

If you would like to know more about how to celebrate The Feast of Three Arms in true H&HME style, check out this video:

https://youtu.be/9gM8NYoXALk

We hope to see you in December on Friday the 13th at The Milk Bar for this exciting show.

The Boys are digging through their domestic messes, searching for passports, usable guitar strings, playable banjos (the joke is on Possum: there’s no such thing as a “playable banjo”), and bottles of trumpet valve oil(well, Jimmy SAYS it’s for his trumpet). The time is drawing nigh and The Boys will be crossing The Pond for another European excursion. They will be leaving San Francisco on the 19th of June, arriving in The Netherlands in time for The Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival on the 21st of June. Their travels will take them from The Netherlands, to Belgium, to Sweden, and Finland. There are many exciting shows including The Picking Bones Festival in Linter, BE, a festival which includes Carrie Nation and The Speakeasy amongst many other greats. The Boys will return to another one of their favorite venues, The Podium t’Beest in Goes, NL Check out the “tour” page for all of the dates. And check back here for more updates!