Stealing the Wheels

Rockers continue to play DJ-for-a-day at various parties around the city — The Sounds spun out at The Standard a few weeks ago, and we just caught the boys from VHS or Beta showing off their mixin’ skills at BPM mag’s relaunch party at Mood last Tuesday. But it looks like another kind of artist is getting wax action, too. Obey Giant design guru Shepard Fairey dug the decks last Thursday at Loose Tooth at Forbidden City, and word is, he definitely made partiers obey the beats. Looks like the Tooth is finally starting to give clubgoers something to chew on; last week, with Fairey and feral garagers The Cribs, was its most packed yet, surpassing the week prior, which spotlighted DJ sets by members of Le Tigre and The Go! Team and a sneak-peek listening session of The Killers’ brand-new material, which “not even the band” had heard yet, courtesy of their manager, Tom Atencio.

Thong Throngs

Tushes and ta-ta’s were shakin’ all over town on Friday. At El Rey, The Velvet Hammer served up the first of two season-finale performances with its “Fellini-esque striptease artistes,” but Nightranger opted for another kind of Italian surrealism at The Overlook on Vermont Avenue (formerly Café Bliss, formerly Pedro’s Grill), where Lopsided Productions presented “8 2/3 Italian Burlesque,” a night of goombah-themed giggles and girly grinds hosted by a Father Guido Sarducci–like MC, a.k.a. performer Polly Peabody in drag. Monthly for five months now, Peabody and partner Crystal Swarovski, both from New York originally, have been presenting their vampy variety show featuring burlesque-circuit babes and one sight-unseen performer they call “a random guy from Craig’s List.” It’s a riot. Our fave on Friday: Darcy Leonard’s (Club Screwball) spot-on Mafia-wife skit, complete with tacky caftan and New Joysey accent. Later that night, headed over to Forty Deuce, where dancers from the Las Vegas club (in the Mandalay Bay) traded ’tease duties with their L.A. counterparts for the weekend, proving that what happens there doesn’t always stay there. Proprietor Ivan Kane (formerly of Deep, now called Basque) is said to be opening a new venue soon, but “the ink isn’t dry yet.”

Revved Up

Hundreds of cherried-out classic cars (and their owners) were cleansed of speeding sins at the 12th annual Blessing of the Cars on Saturday. A sea of tats, hair gel, red lipstick, wifebeaters, parasols and, oh yeah, really awesome autos (nuthin’ newer than 1968), the gathering, held at a sweltering Hansen Dam Park, featured dozens of car clubs (The Creeps, The Pedestrian Killers, The Yakety Yaks, etc.) and live performances by Champagne Velvet, Three Bad Jacks and El Vez. Trophies were given out for “Best Flames,” “Best Female-Built Car” and even “Best Hard-Luck Story.” Seen inhaling the fumes: art duo Suzanne and Robert Williams, the BratStore’s Nancy Kaufman, Bigfoot Lodge’s Bobby Green and showman Estefan Bravo, who told us that his stage production inspired by the groovy art of Shag is going to Vegas, baby. Vrrroom-vrrroom . . .

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