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Anamude is Ana Hortillosa, a San Francisco-based songwriter who combines expressive and experimental guitar-playing with poetic lyrics to create moods that range from the quirkey and off-kilter to the lush and cinematographic. Bridging influences from classical, country blues, folk and pop music, Anamude's music is uncompromisingly unique. Her music has been compared to Laurie Anderson, Kristen Hersh, Cat Power and M. Ward. Others have described Anamude's music as "guitar folk pop that temptingly hints at a shy PJ Harvey playing from John Fahey's songbook." (Losing Today) Currently, Anamude is working on her fourth recording project.

A long time ago, in a black box theater, down in the Natoma wine country in the South of Market district of San Francisco, California, there was a community arts organization called Teatro Ng Tanan. They produced a play called Mr. and Mrs. Lacuesta Goes Dancing , by Noel Alumnit. This was the birth of the legendary Bobby Banduria Band, whose original line-up included Bobby Banduria on strings, Fernando Funk on bass, and Bong Agung on drums and percussion, Bong Agung collaborated with musicians, poets, actors, teachers, organizers, researchers, aunties, uncles, lolas, lolos, tatay at nanay, pinsans, and anybody under the sun who loves music. Now that Bong Agung is grown and has a kid named Milo, he's been spending a lot of time at home. He has a computer, synthesizer, sampler, drum machine--no turntables but a microphone. Homebody is an album made during stolen moments at home, and is near and dear to his heart...para sa iyo ito Milo. Tayo na magsaya.

Sheela Bringi is a daughter of immigrants from South India. She came to the Bay Area to study at Mills College and recently graduated with a degree in Ethnic Studies, where she had the opportunity to travel and live in South America and India.   Sheela is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and dancer, activist, spiritualist, and currently working as a web programmer and designer in Oakland. Sheela has been studying the bansuri , or bamboo flute from India for the past ten years, focusing mainly on devotional and folkloric styles, but also including study of classical ragas in the Southern Northern Indian traditions. Sheela has also studied Southern Indian vocal techniques and devotional vocal music  With a voice that brings together the intimacy of Songs: Ohia and the ethereal force of Sigur Ros or Jeff Buckle.

Odessa Chen's music has been described as wintry, intelligent, haunting, and tender. Her debut album, One Room Palace , explores themes of love, longing, beauty and death with accomplished lyrics, a finger-picking guitar style that is almost classical, and arrangements both sparse and complex. For live shows she is joined by Rich Douthit (of The Drift, Winfred E. Eye) on drums and Devin Hoff (of Nels Cline Singers and Good for Cows) on double bass. She has been interviewed on NPR, has an international audience, and is a guest vocalist on recordings by Charles Atlas and Thee More Shallows. She is currently at work on her second record, The Ballad of Paper Ships .

Shayna Dunkelman was born in Tokyo, Japan to an Indonesian mother and an American father. At age fifteen, she started performing percussion/drum set/gamelan with her mother, who is also a musician/composer in Tokyo, Japan. She is currently pursuing a BA in performing percussion and mathematics at Mills College, where she is studying with William Winant. She is active in the Bay Area and Tokyo, Japan, and a member of the free improvisation band Slow Children with Maryclare Brzytwa and Kanoko Nishi. She has performed with musicians such as William Winant, Ches Smith, Wei Wang, Fred Frith, Les Stuck, and Kimberly Miller.

Echo of Bullets was formed through the childhood connection between Rupert Estanislao and Joshua F. Castro who both (partly) grew up in Vallejo, CA. They desired to form a band which reflected not only their own personal affinities for metal, hardcore, and punk, but which also reflected their desire to speak out against the injustices which plagued Third World countries such as their homeland, the Phillipines. They sought out bass player Naomi Stine, whom they had known from a performance at PinoisePop, and also drummer Eric Salvador, whom they met through connections with Bindlestiff Studios performers. They currently have released a three-song demo cassette ( The State of Emergency Demo ).

Aireene Espiritu is a singer/songwriter whose music is inspired by rhythms and melodies of traditional roots, jazz and blues patterns; folk and bluegrass pickings; and inspirations from gospel and spirituals. Her lyrics portray human beings being human, stories from ghosts and the living, and identities of cultures within cultures.

Venus Beltran (aka David Han) is best known in the indie rock arena for his work as singer/ songwriter/ guitarist of San
Francisco based indie rock trio, Astral, who have sold albums worldwide and charted on CMJ (the Billboard charts of US
college radio). His solo material diverges into a mellower world of dreampop. Distilled down to fundamental beat and subtle melody, the music tends to be visual almost like expressionist soundscapes. The integrity of his signature guitar playing style is still apparent in the solo repertoire and is accompanied by the charm of analog electronic beats. Visit www.myspace.com/venusbeltran or www.myspace.com/astral for more information.

Patrick Huang aka DJ Phatrick has been involved with the Bay Area hip hop community since he first moved to Berkeley from Houston, TX, in 2000, to pursue a degree in Ethnic Studies University of California, Berkeley. hop educator and community organizer by day, the night transforms Patrick into Phatrick, a professional dj who spins anything funky and soulful, from Al Green to Zion I and has graced the stage with such acts as De La Soul and DJ Premier. When not rocking the dancefloor, Phatrick helps rock crowds as the official dj for Native Guns, comprised of pinoy MCs KIWI and BAMBU. "Barrel Men," the debut album from the NativeGuns, is in stores now! Please support API hip hop and pick one up!  www.myspace.com/nativeguns www.myspace.com/djphatrick

The Invisible Cities is a San Francisco-based band that makes incandescent, sometimes-quiet, sometimes-loud rocknroll pop music with wiry guitars and boy/girl harmonies.  They were voted Best Indie Pop Band in SF Bay Guardian's Best of the Bay 2005, and are currently working on their second album. The Invisible Cities are Han Wang, Sadie Contini, Goh Nakamura, Tim Bulkley, and Gary Wang.

San Francisco-based singer songwriter Goh Nakamura has been fighting for freedom and delighting audiences both young and old.   He is currently holed up in his compound \studying the secret art of "Folk Song Ninjitsu" under the tutelage of a cryptic mentor only known as "SKIMASK".   His debut album Daylight Savings was named one of the Top Ten Local Albums of 2004 by the San Jose Metro.

Linh Nguyen enjoys rocking out on his guitar. But sometimes he'll sing songs of love and lost with such conviction that you are certain he has peeked into your diary. Linh's self-released debut Breathe (2005) draws the line between reckless and intimate, and then exhales it. For more info visit www.linhnguyen.us or www.myspace.com/linhnguyenmusic .

For six years Dj Deetalx and Nomi de Mira were a part of the hip-hop quintet Oddjobs and toured the country many times over, making friends and enemies alike; sleeping on floors and random beds, driving from state to state in a van that was more like a pirate ship than a piece of American ingenuity. Those were great times but the fat lady sang her glass-shattering verse, and it was time to bring it to an end. Kill the Vultures was born, and Dj Deetalx and Nomi had created Power Struggle . Power Struggle is a personal voyage on a deserted highway a quarter past midnight. The duo's journey began in Brooklyn, New York, and ended in San Francisco. California. Their latest CD, Arson at the Petting Factory , is available for sale.

"Praxis" is the term used to describe the application of theory into action.   This idea is at the epicenter of the Praxis Roks Collective.   This collection of MCs has formed with the understanding that Hip Hop, particularly the element of Emceeing, can be used as an educative tool. The fusion of education and Hip Hop creates an alternative method in engaging communities in dialogue about any personal, local and global issues.   Keeping in line with the theme of applied theory, Praxis Roks also has the capacity to provide workshops on the "power of voice" and the various ways of using that power to communicate.   This collective consists of educators, students, and organizers who have backgrounds in education and community involvement.

A gem of the San Francisco underground music scene, Olga Salamanca was recently a finalist in the U.S. West Coast bracket of the international Emergenza Music Festival. Olga and her band have performed at venues such as The Great American Music Hall, Elbo Room, 12 Galaxies, Red Devil Lounge, and Tongue and Groove. Olga's debut album, Pale Light, features songs and lyrics that resonate. Olga and her current band have developed a harder-edged sound, with a powerful, driving, and infectious groove. For more information please visit www.olgazone.com . 

Tensegrity Nine  is an Oakland/Alameda-based Pop music duo featuring Matt Payne and  Peter Lim on a variety of electronic and acoustic instruments. Formed  in late 2003, Tensegrity Nine fuses elements of Folk, Rap, J-Pop,  Progressive House, and Hyphy to create a distinctly out-of-this-world  musical atmosphere. Tensegrity Nine's live performance is a seamless,  high-energy affair featuring passionate vocals, musical solos on  strange instruments, quirky humor, and choreographed dancing. In  essence, it is the musical nerd-rock, electro-pop equivalent of John  Mayer, anticon, Yanni, and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, thrown into a pot of  steaming lava, mixed together with an electric egg beater.