This weekend you can experience a few of the most buzzed about acts in the Bay.

Emily Jane White will play the Red Devil Lounge tonight, July 28, with David J. and the Chelsea Set. White has just released her third album Ode to Sentience in Europe, and you can download her single “The Law” in anticipation of the album’s U.S. release. She has received worldwide attention since her debut album Dark Undercoat (2007).

The Fresh and Onlys also play tonight at the Independent. Its recent release, the Secret Walls EP, took the band in a different, downbeat direction. Catch them while you can at a small venue before the big festival gigs such as Outside Lands become the norm.

Round off the weekend with the beautiful music of Lia Rose at the Cafe Du Nord on Sunday, July 31. Lia just released her debut solo album this January, which she had been working up to since her band Built for the Sea formed in 2005. Some may even know her from the band she was in before that, Minipop. The opening band, Professor Burns and the Lilac Field, is also a unique local folk rock act with some great musicians: Professor (literally) Sean Burns, Lathan Baulding, and Adam Kirk (who plays with other talented local artists like Sean Hayes).

–Shauna Keddy

Don’t miss Billy & Dolly‘s last show at Bottom of the Hill on July 28 before they hibernate to record a second album with producer Jason Quever, the frontman and mastermind of the Papercuts. The San Francisco duo will be joined by fellow locals Karina Deinke and Carleta Sue Kay.

Billy & Dolly is the musical venture of Bill Rousseau and Dahlia Gallin Ramirez. They write songs about love and loss, old friends, Gene Clark and the Garden of Eden. The two recently opened for Dr. Dog, Corrin Tucker and Apples in Stereo.

Former Rogue Wave member Steve Taylor steps to the forefront, headlining The Independent with his folk and soul revival band on Saturday, July 30th.
With a sound steeped in the sunlit tones of Laurel Canyon, the mid-60’s pop and R&B of the Brill Building, and the lo-fi synths of early prog rock, Oakland’s Steve Taylor is equal parts folk troubadour and blue-eyed soul balladeer.

A multi-instrumentalist with a surprisingly diverse background, including stints in black gospel churches, math rock duos and Oakland indie band Rogue Wave; he’s recently found himself collaborating with members of Yeasayer, Vetiver and The Shins.

In between touring, Steve is recording a follow up to his latest release, Has The Size of The Road Got The Better of You? with Aaron Prellwitz (Neil Young and Crazy Horse) and Jay Pellicci (Deerhoof) at the venerable Tiny Telephone Studio in San Francisco. Layering acoustic guitars with vintage organs, pianos, analog synthesizers, and dead drums, he’s focused on a sound thoroughly informed by 70’s AM rock. Live, the music takes on a tent revival tone with multiple voices, horns and strings, spinning tales of love, betrayal, and redemption, under the guise of a three minute pop song.

The latest single from hometown heroes Girls, entitled “Vomit,” emerges from tender territory. Opening with a series of heartbroken finger-plucked chords, Christopher Owens’ delicately croons: “Nights I spent alone / I spent them running round looking for you, baby.” These lyrics echo morosely and due to their slow repetition, pull the listener into a bleak and self-effacing landscape.

Girls’ acceptance and acknowledgment of its numerous influences blister awake and we experience tighter drumming, acidic guitar washes, gospel vocal laments and  straining organs. Just as abruptly as the instrumental onslaught occurs, it cycles back into a single acoustic strum, mutating into a multicolored repeated refrain. The aforementioned singular elements melt and Owens’ demands:  “Come into my heart, my love.” The 6-minute epic track finds its home upon conclusion and is resolute, proud of being vulnerable.

If this single is an indication of the rest of the forthcoming album, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, expect Girls’ to explore newer sonic resources and sincerity. Father, Son, Holy Ghost will be released September 13 from True Panther Sounds. Don’t miss Girls on tour this fall with its final shows on October 8 and 9 at Great American Music Hall in SF.

–Julianne Wagner

Check out the first video from The Dandelion War, a 5-piece indie/ambient ensemble from Oakland, CA.

The video for "Sui Generis," off the debut album Geometries and Orchids, explores the trials and tribulations of immigrants coming to the United States.

The name alone of the band Whirr (previously known as Whirl) evokes a swarming spin, the rush of sound passing you by. Densely awash in distortion, Whirr’s recently released EP Distressor (available on bandcamp here) reinvigorates the Bay Area shoegaze scene.

Tracks such as “Leave" kick off with an energetic riff and shimmer into a mess of noise. Dreamlike vocals rest atop the crest of a powerful and thunderous rhythm section; melodies are not buried or forgotten, but instead guide through raucous waves of feedback. Since the layers of gutsy guitars are so well executed, the listener remembers tremulous emotion and forgoes numbness. Whirr’s music certainly possesses an expansive quality, one best experienced through their live shows. Check out their upcoming dates :

• July 22 @ Slim’s with Earth and Angelo Spencer et Les Hauts Sommets
• August 3 @ Uptown Nightclub in Oakland for KALX’s Weekly Showcase with Swig, Children of Time, and Hole in the Sky

Whirr also just signed with Tee Pee Records and will begin recording their next LP soon, so keep an eye out for it!

–Julianne Wagner

Whirr – Distressor EP by TheSoundsOfSweetNothing

His first full-length release on new label Drag City, SF-based Ty Segall’s Goodbye Bread is a fantastic mix of old and new. Tracks such as "You Can Make the Sun Fry" exhibit Segall at his most carnal and emotional. This album may inspire an entire generation to quit their day-jobs, pick up an old guitar and join in the garage rock debauchery.

Segall’s musical style picks up where his primitive rock influences left off, and he set out to give Goodbye Bread an “evil, evil, space rock” sound. His dirty hooks reek of the Brooklyn indie scene and the songwriting in the vein of The Stooges and T. Rex, all with a tone that made Jason Collett’s (Broken Social Scene) Rat a Tat Tat such a solid album. There is a very natural element to Segall’s songs, like he could be jamming right in your backyard, volume blasting, letting it all out.

–Ed Guardaro

Ty Segall: "Fist Heart Mighty Dawn Dart" (T. Rex Cover) by alteredzones

Summer, more than any other season, calls for commitment-free, easy listening habits. Despite San Francisco’s foggy views, the sun shines brightly on the bouncy hooks and reverb-laden bedroom stylings of jangle pop.

Gone are the days when college rock heroes such as the Feelies or Aztec Camera were dismissed as trite or underwhelming. Perhaps inspired by the exploding popularity of bands such as Best Coast or the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, the Bay Area is experience a renaissance of spindly, lo-fi tunes where happy-go-lucky sounds shroud heartbreaking lyrical themes. Here is a look at three local bands of the jangle pop variety:

Sourpatch – Sourpatch, hailing from the South Bay, are a four-piece girl/boy delight. Impossible romances combine with danceable dirge. Recalling C86 tape memories, Sourpatch’s infectious noisy bop proves that twee ain’t all that saccharine.

Dreamdate – Swinging guitars and warming vocals contribute to Dreamdate’s unstoppable charm. The three members can certainly get noisy and use piercing riffs to punctuate a comfortably hazy sound. Catch them next at Amnesia on July 21!

The Splinters – Squirming and snarky garage pop from four boisterous Oakland-transplants ignite sincerity into something catchy, but not necessarily cutesy.

–Julianne Wagner

DreamDate – Melody Walks (live) from cleanwhitelines on Vimeo.

The Deli’s Artist of the Month K Theory will be dropping new tracks tonight, July 13, at Electro Pop Rocks 159 "It’s Time 4 a Sexy Party" at 715 Harrison St. in SF. 

J Rabbit and Syd Gris headline the 18+ party with reduced admission before 10:30 pm or if you wear super sexy attire. Bow tie or bustier suggested. Get there by 11 pm to catch K Theory.

Gucci Gucci (K Theory Bootleg Remix) [FREE DOWNLOAD] by K Theory

“F*ck the Police:” It’s a theme as old as authority itself, popularized by N.W.A., revisited by nouveau-gansta-rappers MellowHype (Odd Future side project) in its July 12 release BlackenedWhite, and on the cover of Xiu Xiu’s new 7-inch now available for pre-order.

Xiu Xiu creator Jamie Stewart describes the limited edition 7-inch as: “side A = in hell you are not alone & side B = queer dance floor, you are not either.”

Side A features original track “Daphny,” an anthem of support for Jamie’s friend who was raped by a police officer, and Side B is a cover of Rihanna’s “Only Girl (In the World).”

Dramatic and empathetic, “Daphny” is the first song new members Zac Pennington of Parenthetical Girls and Sam Mickens of The Dead Science have written with Jamie. The three are working on an album with Greg Saunier of Deerhoof once again producing.

The lighthearted cover of “Only Girl” was inspired by the dance floor of a lesbian bar, pulls in Detroit Grand Pubahs’ song “Sandwiches” and opens with the Ting Ting’s line “That’s not my name.”

Catch Xiu Xiu on tour in North America and Europe.

–Whitney Phaneuf

Xiu Xiu – Only Girl (in the World) (Rihanna cover) by the3penguins

Otherness is a 1995 EP by the Cocteau Twins.

Otherness is also a collaboration between Elephant & Castle and Man/Miracle.

That’s about all we know, but enjoy this mp3 "Crystalline," a chilled out, 80s-meets-psychedelic track.

–Whitney Phaneuf

June Artist of the Month Sam Misner of Misner & Smith sat down with the Deli to talk about the duo’s busy summer touring the U.S. Read more here.

Catch the Americana/Folk revivalists in SF before they’re on the road again at The Rockit Room on July 9 with Jonny Cat & the Coo Coo Birds.

–Whitney Phaneuf