When Big Tree got around to recording Little EP, they didn’t each condemn themselves to anechoic solitary confinement; instead, they took a more organic approach and recorded all three songs together in one hyper-productive, ten-hour session onto a reel of 2” tape. Onto the result, they added three more songs, recorded live at San Francisco’s Rickshaw Stop.

The result is a warm, ecstatic album, human to its very core. Infused with relentlessly singable mantras, raw and emotive vocals, and soul-bolstering instrumentals, the album is a barefoot walk on warm soil where so many others are trips to IKEA. If there is one argument against the over-tinkered immaculacy that pervades so much pop music, Little EP is it.

Read more about Big Tree’s new EP in this interview I nabbed.

Now, down to business: I have a pair of tickets to Big Tree’s Little EP release show on Nov. 15 at Café du Nord, with other local pop must-sees French Cassettes and Chrystian Rawk. The third person to shoot an email to thedelisf@gmail.com gets ‘em.

Stream and download the new EP here. Hint: if you download, you get sheet music for endless sing-alongs. 

-Gracie Gutman

Okay, okay, so it was a little premature to assume former Girls frontman Christopher Owens had given up the musical ghost in favor of the runway, and we’re relieved to say the least.

I feel like this is the most focused effort I’ve ever made musically; telling a story from one song to the next in order of occurrence, making the album almost like one long song. A little bit like a musical. I’m very proud of it and happy it worked so well. I’m pleased to be able to share it with the world; its story, its music, its universal and classic themes. It’s a coming of age story, a road trip story, a love story. It’s a moment in time that has been captured and brought to life through art. For you, for me, for us. For what it’s worth.

Jesse Cafiero’s SF-based solo project Split Screens is set to release a self-titled EP on December 4th. Its sumptuous introductory track “Born” is available for download now.

The song is as much a tapestry as it is a composition, woven from delicate swaths of sound and tape delay through a warp of droning bass, acoustic guitar, and percussion. Quivering organ, sweeping lap steel, shimmering vibraphone, fluttering mellotron, and washy vocal harmonies coalesce and diverge and then melt away like memories of your childhood. 

Listen and download for free here.

Having misspelled their name in the ‘Artist of the Month’ poll, I have failed to give Oakland’s Saything (no space) the introduction they deserve.

Revel in their cohesive—but never monotonous or monochromatic—full-length album Momentary Ens. It’s prog rock with a banjo. Sounds kind of hipster-brand ironic now that I write it out, but it really adds a functional layer of brightness and percussion that would leave a void if it were missing.

Beyond Saything’s instrumental proficiency and Isaac Brockian vocals, these guys know how to compose interesting music. Pitch bends abound and do something marvelous to the musical space in “See You Tomorrow” and “Burning Off the Morning Fog”; Phrygian color lends a darker quality to “Listen All Day”; there are some mathy meters in select songs for those who get bored with multiples of two and three; and there’s a huge allusion to Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle somewhere if you’re willing to look. 

The band recently recorded a new album with Steve Albini, which is tentatively scheduled to come out this springtime. If you’re more of a here and now person, Saything is playing Stork Club in Oakland with Buzzmutt, Field Trips, and The Fighting Weight on November 10 for $5.  

Oakland Dream Popsters Trails and Ways recently released a new single "Border Crosser" to head off their upcoming full-length album Trilingual. "Nobody should be criminalized for crossing borders for the sake of those they love," states the band who is giving away the single in hope that listeners will support the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. 

Give it a listen, download for free, and check out their cause here. 

 Don’t try to pin down Owl Paws’ sound. Please. You’re going to waste all thirty minutes of Carry On, their great new EP, playing the Manticore game (okay, let’s see, it’s got the harmonies of fleet foxes, the descending harmonic line of Radiohead, the vocal timbre of the Decemberists…). When the album’s through, you’ll pat yourself on the back for the sheer magnitude of good bands you know, and then decide Owl Paws really mostly sounds a lot like Owl Paws. That’s a really good thing. 

They’re the winners of our ‘Artist of the Month’ poll, they’re about to go on tour for their new EP, and, well… I’ll just let you read the Q and A. Read More…

Catch ’em tomorrow, October 24 at Kitty Castle.

San Francisco’s Shannon Harney is the stuff of girl crushes (I can only speculate about boy crushes). Let’s just review this interview by Twenty Two: she runs an adult day-care, likes bourbon, chess, taco trucks, and long bike rides.

She also happens to have one of those blow-you-away, velvet-soft voices to deliver her musical poetry. Think Regina Spektor vocal cadences, heavily-dampered piano, and lyrics that could only come from an introspective 20-something more interested in watching seasons change than her bank statement.

Catch Shannon Harney at Oakland venue Disco Volante on Sunday, October 28. You can find tickets here. 

San Francisco’s indie-pop trio Geographer recently released a video for the catchy-gone-existential “Lover’s Game,” from their most recent album Myth.

Appropriately set at night in the Nevada desert, the video portrays humans as aimless lights in the dark.  It is only after two individuals meet that their faces emerge, and their interactions are consecrated by a stretchy, colorful goop. Fun fact: that stringy goop is mostly a substance called Oobleck, AKA cornstarch and water, which thickens under the force of sound vibrations. Cool.

Geographer is combing the country on its Myth tour with Freelance Whales. It sounds dangerously close to the premise of a kooky children’s book, but it should also make for a great concert. 

GEOGRAPHER TOUR DATES

Oct 18 – San Francisco, CA @ Mezzanine
Oct 20 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
Oct 21 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
Oct 23 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
Oct 24 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
Oct 26 – St. Louis, MO @ Firebird
Oct 27 – Nashville, TN @ The End
Oct 28 – Atlanta, GA @ The Loft
Oct 30 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
Oct 31 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Nov 1 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
Nov 2 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Nov 3 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club

After my first play through Rin Tin Tiger’s Toxic Pocketbook, the album looped to the beginning. Instead of consciously realizing it, getting annoyed at my playback settings, and turning it off, I continued to listen with the nostalgic feeling the song had once been a favorite of mine. Chalk it up to premature senility, but I think it’s the alt folk trio’s ability to write compelling, lyric-centric music that manages to stay contemporary, while still paying homage to the folk rock deities.

Throw on a disguise, and catch Rin Tin Tiger headline their third annual Haunted Hoedown on October 27 at Bottom of the Hill. Also on the lineup are local artists Doe Eye and Wes Leslie and His Deadly Medley, as well as LA’s The Steelwells. 

You can get your $10 tickets here, but if you want to give Rin Tin Tiger more money, they might invest in some flamethrowers. We can only dream. 

This music video for "Cunundrum" by San Francisco’s Horrorscopes made my day.

Spoiler alert: it’s a lot of shots of the band playing music, sometimes with that photo booth-y mirror effect, interspersed with clips of them touring around doing awesome stuff. All of this is accompanied by glistening guitars, addictive synth riffs, and a cruising bassline that perfectly complements the rangy, DGAF vocals.

Ultimately, this video will delude you into thinking today is a warm Indian summer day, and not some woebegone grayfest. Special shout out to sparklers and Cabazon dinosaurs.

Be sure to check out Horrorscopes at their next show on November 1st at Brick and Mortar.

If there are any Fresno readers out there, or if any Bay Area folks want to take the trek down CA-99, this is for you. 

Café Corazon is hosting a coffee-themed amalgamation of great cuisine, micro-roasted java, art, film, and music on Saturday, October 13 at Fulton 55. The lineup features nine artists including the lush, kaleidoscopic sounds of Fierce Creatures, the schizoid rock of Oakland’s Coast Jumper, and the fuzzy, bluesy grit of Strange Vine.  

As if the music and coffee weren’t reason enough to attend, the event will hit you right in the altruism by donating some of the proceeds to Relay For Life.

Get the full lineup and some tickets here.

The new single "Terracur" from San Francisco’s Social Studies comes on with a slow, sexy drum beat and builds into a dramatic song assisted by singer Natalia Rogovin’s deep voice, confrontational lyrics and sultry guitars. It’s a ballad Beach House could write if they laid off the synths and turned up rock n’ roll. Listen once and you won’t be able to stop.

Social Studies’s sophomore album Developer comes out Nov. 13 on Antenna Farm Records, The record release party will be at the Independent on Nov. 9 and tickets are available here.