The San Francisco frontman and singer/songwriter, Luke Sweeney has released a new Christmas song to celebrate his holiday residency at Amnesia. We’re excited to share his charming new song and to give you details on the final date of the residency. Don’t miss it!

"For December 22nd we have holiday-decorated solos & duets by Bart Davenport, Sarah Bethe Nelson, Anna Hillburg, DONCAT, Michael Shaw, and Jitsun Vincent plus some special guests w/ DJ Golden Grams. I write a holiday original once a year, and I plan on playing a few of them for the occasion. It will be an inspired time sharing the stage with friends and creating some warm winter magic.” – Luke Sweeney

Tuesday 12/22 solos & duets with Bart Davenport, Sarah Bethe Nelson, Anna Hillburg, DONCAT, Michael Shaw & Jitsun Vincent, and Luke Sweeney. Presented by BFF.fm- Best Frequencies Forever

Bay Area music lovers will have the opportunity to see Brooklyn’s A Place to Bury Strangers play the Milk Bar in San Francisco for two nights only on January 2nd and 3rd! If you’ve been to The Milk Bar in San Francisco’s legendary neighborhood of Haight, you already know this venue is incredibly intimate. This is what makes these two shows so awesome. You won’t have to be crammed in a huge venue, unable to see or get the full effect of the band’s sound.

Take this opportunity to get an up close and personal live performance from A Place to Bury Strangers with special guests:

Night #1: Saturday Jan 2 (SOLD OUT)
A Place to Bury Strangers
SISU (LA, CA)
Astral (SF)

with DJ Clay Andrews (of The Spiral Electric)
Doors 8PM / 21+

Night #2: Sunday Jan 3

A Place to Bury Strangers
Highlands (Long Beach)
White Manna (Humboldt)

Doors 8PM / 21+

Tickets are $20 / $35 w/ limited edition poster
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-place-to-bury-stranger-w-white-manna-highlands-tickets-19899894119

Curated by Evan Hagen (Thief Presents) 

http://www.thiefpresents.com/

A very cool birthday show is coming up at Amnesia in San Francisco on December 19th!

Bay Area Folk and beyond! Celebrate the birthdays of one of the finest musical voices on the west coast, Miss Indianna Hale and Joseph Deakins, host of The Audio Grab Bag radio show and supporter of independent musicians, storytellers, and word performers across the known universe particularly in the SF Bay Area. PLUS this show is a tape release of a live performance Indianna did at Amnesia earlier this year via Camp Bud Tapes. Brought to you by Jessie Woletz’s Seaweed Sway Presents, it will be one of those nights we talk about for years to come.

The show will include performances by the San Francisco based folk artist, Michael Musika, birthday girl, Indianna Hale, the soulful rock band, Sparrows Gate, the psych pop band, FpodBpod and the dreamy folk alt band, The Range Of Light Wilderness.

Joseph will be doing a special set highlighting all these artists on the Dec 19th birthday edition of his show The Audio Grab Bag which is broadcast out of Fort Bragg, CA on the Mendocino coast on KNYO 107.7FM and streaming via http://www.KNYO.org beginning at 11am until 2pm. This a huge night of music and a special occasion, one not to be missed.

We love Ghost & The City‘s sultry jazz inspired music, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that we’re super excited to announce that the band is gearing up to release a new EP on January 15th! The new album is entitled Patchwork Soul and if you recall, we covered to release of the first single off this album, Steady Trippin’. Take a listen to it and we’ll keep you posted on any new developments!

Oakland outfit Ghost & the City is dedicated to elevating style and experience to create music that embodies elements of soul, trip-hop and jazz. Traveling across numerous musical genres to appeal to many tastes, Ghost & the City makes music that defies conventionality, yet solidifies a distinctive sound. Over the past five years, the project has successfully performed at venues all over the Bay Area, supporting such acts as The Internet, Hiatus Kaiyote, Incognito and Marco Benevento. Next year will see the release of Patchwork Soul, a 6-song EP that features fresh collaborations and a new direction.

You can catch Ghost & the City’s last show of the year on December 15th at Great American Music Hall. They open for Judith Hill.

The new San Jose based 60s revivalist rock band, The Gentle Cycle has just emerged into the Bay Area music scene! The band’s music has a bit of a lofi, vintage sound which makes sense because the band features the prominent local record collector, Derek See.

The Gentle Cycle is See´s current and main music project. He also plays occasional guitar with Myron & E,  The Rain Parade and The Chocolate Watchband. It’s always exciting to see new bands emerge, even when they consist of a group of accomplished, experienced musicians. A new group is a new group and we welcome their creative pursuits and look forward to seeing them grow!

You can check out The Gentle Cycle live at The Knockout of January 9th with The Hellenes and Light Fantastic.

The San Francisco native singer-songwriter, Rykarda Parasol will be performing live at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco on December 12th. The Bay Area based post punk outfit, In Letter Form will be supporting Parasol along with the rock ensemble, The Lion’s Den.

This show will be Rykarda Parasol’s North American Record release show! Rykarda Parasol is a San Francisco native now living in Paris, France and perhaps somewhat strangely, signed to Warner Music, Poland! For the past four years, Parasol has pursued a European music career, along with her band in Warsaw. Recently she finished a Central European tour, which included the Waves Festival in Vienna, Austria along with Poland and several Balkan countries. Parasol just released her fourth album, the Color of Destruction, which she self-produced here in San Francisco at Room 5 Recording. A conceptual album, which touches upon facing one’s fatal consequence and whether they should choose to burn or to drown.

Well, this is going to be an awesome show as Parasol’s voice and style are throaty, exotic and dramatic in all the best ways! Make your way out to Bottom of the Hill on December 12th!

The San Francisco native singer-songwriter, Rykarda Parasol will be performing live at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco on December 12th. The Bay Area based post punk outfit, In Letter Form will be supporting Parasol along with rock ensemble, The Lion’s Den.

This show will be Rykarda Parasol’s North American Record release show! Rykarda Parasol is a San Francisco native now living in Paris, France and perhaps somewhat strangely, signed to Warner Music, Poland! For the past four years, Parasol has pursued a European music career, along with her band in Warsaw. Recently she finished a Central European tour, which included the Waves Festival in Vienna, Austria along with Poland and several Balkan countries. Parasol just released her fourth album, the Color of Destruction, which she self-produced here in San Francisco at Room 5 Recording. A conceptual album, which touches upon facing one’s fatal consequence and whether they should choose to burn or to drown.

Well, this is going to be an awesome show as Parasol’s voice and style are throaty, exotic and dramatic in all this best ways. Make your way out to Bottom of the Hill on December 12th!

We´re excited to share another premiere today!! Emily Afton’s voice is transporting. Deep and smokey, Emily delivers her emotive and honest songs from a place that feels lodged in the past, rooted in a dreamy barefoot era. You can hear the Georgian lineage on her mother’s side, conjuring a Southern swamp, mixed with urbane pop relevance. Oakland indie-rock meets an after hours quest for mischief, with ribbons of soul and electro-pop interwoven.

"Archetype is an episodic album which explores themes of time passing, love, and the cycle of life/death (It’s also produced by Lila Rose and David Earl). The newest single "Someday" is one that particularly focuses on exploring death and relates it to "falling down the rabbit hole". I wrote it last summer when my mom was very ill and for the first time, was forced to explore what death means to me. It sort of has a mix of blissfulness and existentialism, because it begs us to be in love with our lives while we’re here, while also always remembering that we are inevitably going to die." – Emily Afton on the forthcoming album, Archetype and the single, “Someday”

Teens in Trouble is a brand-new indie pop/rock band fronted by San Francisco-based singer/songwriter Lizzie Cuevas. Their debut single, Santa Monica will release this fall on Bandcamp and is armed with lovelorn lyrics, dreamy vocal effects and some serious ‘60s girl group harmonies. With pop punk band Sputterdoll and 8-bit rock duo The Glowing Stars already to her name, Lizzie is no stranger to the San Francisco Bay Area music scene

Santa Monica will be available for free on Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Spotify, and Apple Music on November 25, 2015. Fans will be able to pre-order the Teens in Trouble 7" vinyl on Bandcamp which includes "Santa Monica" and bonus track "Simple." Vinyl orders are expected to ship January 2016.

¨I was born and raised in the San Francisco and have lived in the Bay Area for my whole life except the time I lived in Santa Monica for a year in 2013. It’s a city that holds a special place in my heart and time felt like it slowed down while I was there, in a good way.¨ – Lizzie Cuevas

The San Francisco based post rock duo, Niveles which features Andrew O’Neil, bassist of Mondo Drag on guitar will be performing at the Elbo Room in San Francisco on Tuesday, November 24th. The San Francisco based neo psych shoegaze band, The Spiral Electric will also be sharing the bill as both local bands will be opening for the the very special international guest performers from Sweden, The Orange Revival.

You´re in for a great show. If you are a neo psych music fan, do your best to make it out to see The Orange Revival. They are a great ensemble and a part of the international music collective that brings shoegaze and psych bands together from across the world. Don´t miss this show!

The cool thing about the Bay Area´s local bands, particularly the artists who are surviving in San Francisco right now, is that they tend to be very committed to their home base. A great example of local artists paying homage to the changing times in their city (for better or for worse) is Royal Jelly Jive. This great vintage swing-soul band has written a song and shot a video to commemorate the destruction of a part of the Old Bay Bridge.

The video was shot at the Embarcadero in honor of this special occasion with a song they wrote inspired by the bridge itself… aptly named, "The Old Bay Bridge". Check out the video and support local artists who are keeping their head above water in the San Francisco Bay Area (literally and figuratively)!

We do our best to stay on the cutting edge and keep our ears to the ground for new Bay Area music groups and artists. A pat on the back feels well deserved as we are pleased to share new music from a great new psych R&B band called almondsandpearls. Their music is eclectic and unique, the members are experienced and funloving and exactly what an ever changing city like San Francisco needs as it evolves into a new era of art and music.

almondsandpearls is a band that has evolved over the years from multiple musicians living, hanging out, and rocking together in one of San Francisco’s last standing artist warehouse spaces. The line up includes visual artist and vocalist, Breck Omar Brunson (Former frontman of The Apes, Screens), guitarist, Kyle DeMartini (Down Dirty Shake, Fast Eddy), and multi-instrumentalist and sound designer Sia Mozaffari (Should We Run). Our sound is psychedelic R&B with a tinge of jazz, reflecting the diverse background from which each member comes from.

Take a listen to their new singles, Soul Free and Peppermint and please support their current indiegogo campaign! Support local independent music!