One of the Peninsula’s largest summer street fairs, the Mountain View Art & Wine Festival packs a whole lot into two days. The public party features artwork from more than 500 artists and makers, live music, plenty of kid-friendly activities, plus beer, wine and signature cocktails—all on Castro Street. Also this year, the Pigskin Party Lounge returns. Gather round the outdoor big screen to watch the Giants take on the Dodgers and the 49ers challenge the Buccaneers. For more information, visit mountainview.miramarevents.com.

Mountain View Art & Wine Fest
Sat-Sun, All Day, Free
Castro Street, Mountain View

One of the Peninsula’s largest summer street fairs, the 47th annual Mountain View Art & Wine Festival packs a whole lot into two days. This year, the family-friendly fest features rock climbing, mechanical bull rides, bumper cars, miniature golf, face painting and, of course, art, food, beer and wine. Peruse the work of local artisans and enjoy live music. This year’s line-up includes Club 90, Tortilla Soup, Livewire, Busta-Groove!, The Shanks, Cocktail Monkeys, Johnny Neri Unplugged, Emerson and the Growiser Band, Bob Culbertson, HeartStrings Music, John Clarke, Stephen Dreyfuss, and Ancient Winds. The festival runs through Sunday.

Mountain View Art & Wine
Sat, 10am, Free
Castro Street, Mountain View

After a spectacular performance last year, renowned classical guitarist Jerome Mouffe returns to the Community School of Music and Arts as part of their Community Concert Series, sponsored by classical radio station KDFC. Mouffe is currently on faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he was the first guitarist to ever earn a Doctor of Musical Arts degree. Since 2013, Mouffe has taught masterclass lectures at Sonoma and San Jose State universities. This accomplished performer will perform pieces by European and Latin American composers. (SP)

Jerome Mouffe
Sat, 7:30pm, Free
Tateuchi Hall, Mountain View

Ein Bier bitte! Oktoberfest has arrived, and Silicon Valley is celebrating. Last weekend marked Redwood City’s annual beer bash, and this week it is Mountain View’s turn. The annual event closes out the final days of September at Steins Beer Garden, with musical performances by The Alpiners USA, SF German Band and Big Lou’s Accordion Princess. Oktoberfest is not complete without beers from Munich’s breweries. Suds from Weihenstephaner, Andechs, Paulaner, Steigl, Weltenburger and Hofbrau will all be flowing, as well as special microbrews from the South Bay. Drink tickets will be available at the festival, which runs through Sunday. Prost!

Oktoberfest Mountain View
Sat, 11am, Free
Steins Beer Garden, Mountain View

The 43rd annual Mountain View Art & Wine Festival was held this past weekend on Castro Street, the cultural and culinary center of one of Silicon Valley’s most tech-savvy cities. People from all over the Peninsula and the South Bay flocked to downtown Mountain View for the food, beer, wine, art and music. Metro photographer Toni Contini was there for the festivities.

Beerwalk made its debut in Mountain View over the weekend with several breweries on hand to take advantage of the warm weather and a special celebration for Tied House’s 25th anniversary celebration.

Attendees enjoyed local brews from Faultline, Gordon Biersch, Hermitage, Tied House and Santa Clara Valley Brewing and regional favorites Speakeasy, Firestone Walker, Anchor, Santa Cruz Ale Works, Lagunitas and Almanac at several venues in downtown Mountain View.

Photos by Alex Stover.

Red Rock Studios in Mountain View may have not been known to most people in the South Bay music scene, yet it was an important part of it. It was the practice place and frequent recording spot for Picture Atlantic and Dogcatcher before it closed this month. Several other Bay Area bands also recorded there, including Rin Tin Tiger, East of Western and Coast Jumper.

Michael Toy started the studio in his basement 14 years ago as a place he could practice playing bass and for his Sunday morning church band to rehearse and eventually record their sessions. Through the years he accommodated other artists and bands simply for the love of music, not to make money.

He moved to the current location in Mountain View in 2008, where he paid the bills by sometimes doing voice-over work for corporate videos, but he donated studio time to bands, churches and nonprofits whenever possible. During the last few years, his church Highway Community helped pay the bills to keep the vision alive. In the end, the landlord sold the property to Intuit, who will be using it as office space.

“We just wanted to publicly thank Michael Toy for his vision and generosity with his gear, as well as the great people of the Highway Community who caught the vision and paid the rent for the last few years,” Dogcatcher posted on their Facebook page. “The history of our band would be vastly poorer without this wonderful resource available to us, and we will miss it greatly.”

On Thursday, November 1, Dogcatcher, Picture Atlantic, members of Highway Community church and friends of the studio gathered one last time to bid the studio farewell. It was an emotional experience for everyone. Toy even wrote a farewell poem on the wall at the tail end of the party. Ryan Blair from Picture Atlantic tweeted about it that night.

“We recorded an EP here, tracked tons of demos and rehearsed our choreographed stage moves for countless hours in this place. Sad to see it go. Our hearts go out to you, Red Rock,” Blair wrote.

For five years running now, Rock the Bells has been the South Bay’s biggest rap show. It’s also the strangest megatour of the 21st century; since its debut in 2004, it’s reinvented itself almost every year, and this one is no exception.

With the return of headliner Nas (making his sixth RTB appearance), Common, Curren$y, Immortal Technique, Murs and other festival favorites, there’s a string of continuity, but the addition of acts like J. Cole and 2Chainz, and a whole new set-up for the tour, has led to some controversy, or just plain confusion. Here are answers to some key questions about the ever-evolving hip-hop festival as it returns to Shoreline this weekend.

Is Rock the Bells getting bigger or smaller?

Both, sort of. Rock the Bells has a convoluted history of shapeshifting: after starting out as two SoCal festival dates (summer and fall) in 2004, it went to a single day in 2005, then blew up into a hybrid festival and multi-city club tour in 2006. The next year had three festivals, 15 single-stage shows and 5 two-stage shows across the country. In 2008, organizers took Rock the Bells international in what was probably its biggest year, with 16 festival dates. The next year, it contracted a little, and 2010 saw only 4 dates. Last year had three, and this year also boasts three shows, but all three are two-day festivals. So a much smaller number of cities will be seeing Rock the Bells than in its heyday, but those select cities will have their bells rocked for twice as long. So it all depends on if you’re lucky enough to be near one or not, which brings us to…

Why Mountain View?

The festival started in San Bernadino, so it’s no surprise that Rock the Bells launched there this year. A second date, in New Jersey, was clearly meant to shore up that East Coast presence the festival established five years ago with its much-hyped storming of New York City (the reunion of Rage Against the Machine as headliners didn’t hurt). Mountain View’s Shoreline may seem like a strange third choice for a festival that established itself in Chicago, Detroit and Boston. But in fact, NorCal has been a huge part of the festival’s success since 2006—first in Concord, then SF, and, since 2008, at Shoreline. Organizers from Guerilla Union and Live Nation, who co-produced the festival this year, indicated the tour will have a home in this area in the future, as well. “The Bay Area music scene has always had a thriving and diverse hip hop community. Be it music from The Team to Souls of Mischief or Del The Funky Homosapien to 2 Pac and Keak Da Sneak, various sub-genres of hip hop are represented well in this market,” they wrote in response to my inquiry. “This is evident in the success that Rock The Bells has had in the past and what we see doing in the future now that we are holding this event as a two-day festival.”

With Electronic Dance Music still emerging as a genre, Skrillex’s set at Outside Lands last weekend was probably the best free publicity the Identity Festival could ask for going into its return to Shoreline Friday.

When the EDM-focused ID Fest came around last year, the music was mostly still a club phenomenon, at least in the South Bay. But since then, there’s been a lot of epic raving to go around, from Bassnectar’s San Jose show to the I Love This City festival to Skrillex’s Golden Gate debut.

This year’s headliner is Eric Prydz, who I think can be largely credited (or blamed, depending on your point of view) for kickstarting the ‘80s revival, which started bubbling up not long after his 2004 song “Call on Me,” which took the title line (and vocal sample) from Steve Winwood’s mid-80s megahit “Valerie,” drenched it in electro riffs, and stuffed it into the most laughably hypersexual (and yet, still totally hot) music video ever set in a gym.

The Shoreline stop also features Le Castle Vania, who has become a South Bay fave after regular club stops here, and Doctor P (the only DJ who also played I Love This City), as well as Excision, Paul Van Dyk, Hardwell, Bingo Players, Showtek, Noisia, Adrian Lux, Eva Simons, Audrey Napoleon, The Eye and more.

The IDENTITY FESTIVAL will be presented Fri, Aug. 17 at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, 2pm; $60.

With her debut album Vows a certified pop-culture phenomenon, New Zealand singer-songwriter Kimbra has announced her first headlining U.S. tour, to launch this fall. After supporting Foster the People around the U.S. and Canada through July, she’ll pick back up with her own tour on September 25, stopping at Shoreline Amphitheare in Mountain View on September 29.

Though Vows has been out in New Zealand and Australia since last summer, the futuro-soul singer (full name: Kimbra Lee Johnson) went back into an L.A. studio to record new tracks for the U.S. release, which hit stores last month. One of the new tracks, “Warrior” features Mark Foster of Foster the People, and A-Trak.

The dates for her fall tour are:

Sept 25 – Commodore Ballroom – Vancouver, BC
Sept 26 – Showbox @ the Market – Seattle, WA
Sept 27 – Wonder Ballroom – Portland, OR
Sept 29 – Shoreline Amphitheatre – Mountain View, CA
Sept 30 – Majestic Ventura Theater – Ventura, CA
Oct 03 – Fonda Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
Oct 05 – House of Blues – San Diego, CA
Oct 09 – The Depot – Salt Lake City, UT
Oct 10 – Ogden Theatre – Denver, CO
Oct 12 – Verizon Theatre – Grand Prairie, TX
Oct 14 – Austin City Limits – Austin, TX
Oct 16 – Varsity Theater – Minneapolis, MN
Oct 17 – Metro – Chicago, IL
Oct 20 – Webster Hall – New York, NY
Oct 21 – Theater of the Living Arts -Philadelphia, PA
Oct 23 – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC
Oct 24 – Royale Nightclub – Boston, MA
Oct 26 – Corona Theatre – Montreal, QC
Oct 27 – Danforth Music Hall -Toronto, ON

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