Fresh out of Tiny Telephone studios comes moonbell’s Figurine EP with five cathartic songs that will provide the sonic inspiration for your next spiritual epiphany. The band is comprised of three members–Garen Ingleby, David Paslay, and Lisa Colvin–who came together in San Francisco just last year.
Down-tempo, stripped, simplistic jazz inspired drumming, with a larger-than-life perpetual groove laid down by the bass, moonbell’s sound creeps into your eardrums with a tinge of familiarity and comfort.
Think Tame Impala, Wolfmother, Bear and Cub, or any other Australian psychedelic rock outfit, minus the fast-paced, frenetic vibe. Catch moonbell at The Elbo Room on July 6.
Perfect for a July 4th backyard BBQ, Oakland-based DJ Laura delivers this hot mixtape to get your summer swag on. She urges you to play at maximum volume.
Selling out shows across the country and enjoying international superstar DJ status, Santa Cruz’ Bassnectar has inspired Bay Area bassheads. Two of the best, Mochipet and Minnesota play Temple in SF this Thursday, June 30 to celebrate Mochipet’s Spacezilla EP, released today. The release also features remixes from Udachi, Minnesota and Konekta.
It makes sense that tech-savvy music geeks are dominating the Bay’s bass-dubstep-glitch-hop scene, gaining great popularity through sites like Soundcloud.
Mochipet aka Daly City’s David Wang hits the decks in a purple dinosaur suit and frequent collaborator Minnesota, Santa Cruz’ Christian Bauhofer, is a History major at UCSC. Minnesota’s remix of the Mamas & the Papas’ “California Dreamin” has generated a huge buzz and his original track “Push It” is now a staple in Bassnectar sets. Boy wonder and San Jose high schooler Tanner Petulla aka Getter recently produced one of the hottest Doctor P remixes around. San Jose’s NiT GriT (Danny Beall) has only been performing since March 2010 in a co-billing with Excision, and today is an ambassador of the dubstep/grime scene.
Don’t miss these guys playing local gigs and on tour this summer.
Known for his emotional chamber folk, Portland-via-SF songwriter Holcombe Waller brings his intimate live show on the road. Fresh from the national re-release of his album Into The Dark Unknown, distributed in limited quantities earlier this year, Holcombe is joined by friends Haley Bonar and Daniel Martin Moore for the “Waiting for Lightning to Strike Tour.”
One of the stand out performers at SXSW, Holcombe kicked off the tour by recreating his stripped-down “Bed-In” set at The Ace Hotel in New York, NY. Catch Holcombe as he continues touring the Northeast and Midwest, or back in San Francisco at Bottom of the Hill on Sept. 16. –Whitney Phaneuf
Fresh from its performance at Make Music Pasadena, SF/NYC’s art pop stars NewVillager will continue its rare LA appearances through June 20-23, culminating with a performance at The Wiltern supporting Okkervil River and Titus Andronicus.
NewVillager is too big for one city or genre. The project of multi-media artists Ben Bromley and Ross Simonini, NewVillager is an attempt to illustrate and understand the process of change. The duo’s mythology is documented within its pop music, symbols, drawings, photographs, film and installations. Read more from the Deli’s Nancy Chow when she chatted with Bromley and Simonini following their celebrated CMJ performance.
Look out this year for another NewVillager album, new video for single “LightHouse,” an interactive art installation in New York City, and a 1000-page book. Additional cities on the tour include Tucson, AZ, Lubbock, TX, Norman, OK, St. Louis, MO, Des Moines, IO, Columbus, OH and New York, NY. –-Whitney Phaneuf
Former Low, Cocteau Twins, John Cale and UNKLE collaborators Ryan and Rebecca Coseboom created the shoegazing Stripmall Architecture when their longtime band Halou ended in 2008.
Stripmall Architecture headlines Rickshaw Stop this Sunday, June 19 with The Northern Key and Slow Skate. Expect Rebecca’s haunting female vocals, delicate beats, droning guitars, intense videos and new songs from the forthcoming sequel to last year’s EP, Feathersongs For Factory Girls Part 2.
Don’t miss Electric Shepherd at Sunday’s Haight Ashbury Street Fair. Mark Nelson, Tommy Anderson and Sonny Pearce bring cerebral, jam-based musicianship to the thriving SF, alterna-pysch-rock scene. Fans of Sleepy Sun, Wooden Shjips, The Gris Gris, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club or Ty Segall will dig Electric Shepherd. For a taste, check out the band’s February 23 performance at El Rio and stop by tomorrow June 12 at 11:45 am.
Bay Area indie rock duo The Dodos are returning to the U.S. from their hiatus in the U.K. to support their fourth full-length album, No Color. The tour started last week in Salt Lake City and is now making its way down the eastern seaboard.
Formed in 2005, frontman and singer/songwriter Meric Long joined forces with percussionist Logan Kroeber. The two come together as a unique blend of minimalist drumming overlaid with guitar lines harkening back to the fuzzy grunge days of the early 90s.
The Dodos return to the U.S. is accompanied by a beautifully shot music video for their song, "Companions."
DownloadDistorted Reverberations the new project from San Francisco producer Al Lover, a free remix collection of local psych and garage bands sampled and turned into instrumental hip hop.
“The idea behind the project was to take this current music and rework it into something entirely different while at the same time helping to further connect the underground music community,” said Lover.
Inspired by the revitalized SF garage/psych scene, Al Lover transforms the gritty garage sound using his MPC, various guitar pedals and recording techniques. Permission to sample the material was given by all the artists.
“I’m originally from North Carolina and moved to SF about three years ago. The idea for this particular project came about when I was at SXSW and just started asking fools if I could sample their material. Everyone was super down.”
Al Lover transforms wild, blues-guitar-driven jams such as Ty Segall’s "Fist Heart Mighty Dawn Dart” or Thee Oh Sees’ "If I Stay Too Long” into futuristic Dust Brothers’ style productions. The entire track list is below.
“I’ve been really inspired by the reinstated garage scene. I’ve seen some of the best shows of my life in little dives like The Eagle and The Knockout. It’s just a bunch of misfits and outcasts rocking the most. I feel that about my crew and myself. We’ve always been the misfits in the hip-hop scene. It’s funny being an outsider to another group of outsiders.”
Al Lover’s name may sound familiar from his highly acclaimed Safe as Milk Replica, a remix of Captain Beefheart’s first record Safe as Milk or his work with The Fist Fam, with whom he started making rap music in his late teens.
“I like most of my music grimy. I think that’s why I was originally drawn to the garage stuff. I grew up with my Dad bumping The Rolling Stones, T-Rex, and The Velvet Underground, as well as traditional blues like Sun House and Robert Johnson. I started listening to rap in grade school, NWA and The Ghetto Boys being among my first tapes. The rap/rock thing is the most corny if made wrong (which it usually is) but if done right, it’s the toughest shit ever.”
Distorted Reverberations Track Listing
1. Natural Child – White Man’s Burden
2. Shapes Have Fangs – Terlingua
3. Thee Oh Sees – If I Stay Too Long
4. White Fence – Sticky Fruitman Has Faith
5. King Tuff – Sun Medallion
6. Jeff The Brotherhood – Hey Friend
7. Ty Segall – Fist Heart Mighty Dawn Dart
8. Davila 666 – Yo Seria Otro
9. Night Beats – H-Bomb
10. Moonhearts – I Can Go On
“Sometimes so lost all I knew was my name,” sings Megan Smith with Sam Misner on “Greyhound Days,” a song off their new album Misner & Smith: Live At The Freight & Salvage. This song is their modern version of a timeless lost-on-the-road, train-hopping tale: “Never trust comfort, it’s weak and it dies/ Have faith in the struggle/ Don’t rest ‘til you die."
The Northern California natives have been playing original Americana and Roots music since 2004. Misner & Smith: Live At The Freight & Salvage is a live album from their performance at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, and the album features a stunning array of their work to date.
Misner & Smith are known for their beautiful use of vocal harmonies. Megan Smith plays the upright bass and mandolin, and Sam Misner plays guitar. This live album has a perfect pacing—some songs take a slow and mournful approach, while others feature guitar pickin’ madness. Their song “Poor Player,” featured on this album and originally recorded in 2008, won the West Coast Songwriters Association’s Song of the Year competition, and was nominated in the New Folk category in one of the world’s largest international song contests put on by the Just Plain Folks music organization. Other fan favorites on the live album include “Madeline (Paradise Cracked)” from their debut album Halfway Home.
San Francisco’s Silver Swans has slowly evolved from a "casual project" to a productive partnership. Fresh from four successful New York City shows, chanteuse Ann Yu took a break from recording the forthcoming album Forever to talk about the indie pop duo’s influences and inspirations. Read more here. “Mother of Pearl” is a new demo track from Forever.
The Frail stirred up a raucous dance party at the Zazzle Bay to Breakers After Party at Public Works, and this Saturday, May 28, the indie-electro-pop outfit headlines a night of music and fashion at Red Devil Lounge. No guarantee a disco turtle will make an appearance.
From a humble Craigslist collaboration to appearing on MTV, vocalist Daniel Lannon and producer Kevin Durr have carried the band for four years strong through to its recently released EP, Lasers Over Lovers.
If you miss the fun this weekend, The Frail and Altars will support MOTHER MOTHER on Sunday, June 12 at Rickshaw Stop.
