With an interesting bit of news to start off your weekend, Friday sees the continuation of a recent trend of avant/noise artist’s remixing each others songs. Recently we posted about a number of remixes that were done of the railcars’ song "Cathedral with No Eyes;" now it seems the railcars are beginning to return the favor. Good friends of the railcars, New York’s Philip Seymour Hoffman, have apparently been gaining a lot of traction, going on tour with Truman Peyote, so the railcars decided to give their song "Spring Break 2011" their own treatment. Check it out below.

–Ada Lann

Certainly everybody’s Thursday competition (if you’re trying to play anywhere else in the city anyway), Epic Sauce has gone and once again put together another impressive line up for their show series at Milk. A free show, this Thursday the 1st will see Man/Miracle and Butterfly Bones celebrating the release of their split 7-inch. Red Blue Yellow (who recently played a Deli Presents show) and Beehive Spirit will also be playing, 8pm. Though it is free you are strongly encouraged to RSVP here.

If free shows are not your thing however (or rather lets say you want to rock out with some awesome garage girls), on the same night you can catch The Splinters playing with Ty Segall and The Baths at the Eagle (debateably a NSFW site), 9pm.

Friday night out in the East Bay, Veil Veil Vanish, Mister Loveless, Chambers (a band featuring former members of Death of a Party), and The Ferocious Few will also be playing a free show at The Uptown starting around 9. Of course it is advised that you get there much earlier then that as starting at 6 (and boasting $2 Pabst) East Bay Express, Sony, and Amoeba will be hosting a listening party for the new MGMT album (to be released on the 13th) with free CDs given to the first 50 people to arrive.

If you’re only planing on being out Saturday night (or just find you ears still unsatiated) head over to the Hemlock around 9:30 for the psychedelic sounds of The Love Dimension, Honey, The Spyrals, and Greg Ashley.

Lots to see and lot’s for free this week. Head out and enjoy some good music and check back with us next week for another round of suggestions.

–Ada Lann

Birds & Batteries’ Up To No Good is a complex blend of creepy and dance-y.

Hard to categorize throughout, Michael Sempert’s disaffected and sliding vocals hold this 2009 EP together through five eclectic tracks that bring ominous bass together with psychedelic guitar, creepy keyboard chimes, and distorted whistles. They only break from the task of making the listener feel like he’s lost in the dark by occasionally turning on their dance party floor lights.

This EP is intricate, and lends itself to multiple listening sessions. “The Villain” starts you off feeling alone and confused, with plenty of well-placed synth noise to bolster the freaky guitars and dark lyrics. The excellent harmonies are the lightest part of the song, with the backup voices sounding downright cheery compared to the lead vocalist’s slow drawl. The eerie theme developed in this first track sticks around for most of Up To No Good. Though the short “Lonely Guns” elevates the tone into something more upbeat in preparation for the jaunty third track, “Out in the Woods,” you still hear plenty of those whistling keyboard runs in both tracks (complete with a sudden tempo change or two) to keep you tripping out about the whole experience. There’s even judicious use of that slide whistle sound that makes me think I’ve spotted a UFO, X-Files style.

You know the sound I’m talking about.

“Lightning (UTNC Version)” is their get-up-and-dance track, switching the beat over to a drum machine (or just a well-emulated drum machine feel) that occasionally drops out to leave the vocalist and keyboard on their own. Once I’m reminded to be freaked out, they turn the beat back on. This track is great but it is a partial break from the resonating feel of the rest of the EP. It’s their dark synth-pop moment punctuating the EP’s crescendo before they drop it back down for the final track. If Up To No Good was longer than 20 minutes (and I truly wish it was) I’d expect one or two more songs in this vein, and as it is I’m left wanting more.

Concluding with “Sneaky Times,” they finish up with some compelling vocals that alternately stretch out and rush through the lyrics in between really phenomenal bass lines, bringing us back down from “Lightning” into a slower groove. This is a great final track on a great EP, a good mixture of a funky feel with the unhinged hollowness that I came to expect by the end Up To No Good.

Birds & Batteries never commit themselves completely to any particular genre here, but still end up with a bizarrely cohesive feel that you should definitely experience for yourself. For the San Franciscan with a vehicle, they’ll be playing in Davis on April 10th. I on the other hand, will eagerly wait for a San Francisco show date to materialize.

–Kyle Wheat

Editors Note:  Birds and Batteries Up To No Good can be purchased digitally at iTunes.  For a hard copy contact Birds and Batteries here.

For a limited time, The Blank Tapes are offering their fourth full length release, Home Away From Home as a free download. The 10-track album includes a couple recognizable songs, Driving Out Of My Mind and We Can Do What We Want To, that have been played in The Blank Tapes shows from the past year as well as the slightly gritty Black Hair and Don’t Mind which features a very catchy melody played on ukulele.

You can download your own copy of the album here. Catch them at Amnesia Bar on Thursday, April 1st playing with Shakes, Pony Village (from Portland) and Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt.

-Nicole Leigh

Last week, the Bay Area lost long time San Francisco resident and photographer Jim Marshall. Jim  helped shape the image and record the history of rock and roll in the 60’s and 70’s. If you recall ever seeing iconic images of Jimi Hendrix lighting his guitar on fire at the Monterey Pop Festival or Johnny Cash giving the camera the finger at a San Quentin prison performance, then you’ve seen some of Jim’s work. In addition to his documentary style portrait photography, Marshall also shot over 500 album covers. He was known to be as rebellious as the figures he captured and was an important part of the legacy of Bay Area music.

You can check out a virtual collection of his work at www.marshallphoto.com

-Nicole Leigh

Photo courtesy of Scott Sommerdorf

While many of you may be out of town this week for SXSW, or perhaps on some other well deserved spring vacation, for those still around there are a few good shows this coming weekend that should be worth your attention.

On Thursday the 25th Epic Sauce will be putting on it’s second show in it’s new series at Milk. Starting around 8pm several groups (including Neon Indian – headlining with a DJ set) will put on what is promised to be an epic dance party. Though Boyz IV Men and Sweat Wet (who apparently are anti-myspace) are the only local representation, this show is certainly worth a mention as those sauce-y folks over there are really trying to get something interesting started with this series.

You’re a damn fool if Hemlock isn’t your destination on Friday for Spencey Dude and the Doodles. They will be playing with The Aerosols and The Coathangers, and with a line up like that this will surely be an exciting and rocking show, 9:30pm.

Of course if down-tempo is your flavor for the weekend then there is something just for your pallet. Head up to Kimo’s Saturday night for 7 Orange ABC who will be sharing a bill with Meta, 9pm.

Lastly on Sunday, the Rickshaw will be hosting the Young Prisms with a roster of other out of town bands including Pictureplane, Small Black, and Washed Out. Young Prisms are fresh back from a tour and definitely worth seeing. From the Rickshaw site it looks like the show may be sold out, but if you can scuttle yourself a ticket you won’t be disappointed.

Looks to be a good weekend shaping up. Hope you can make it out for some of these events, or if not then to the many others that are also going on in the next few days.

–Ada Lann

Backed by the funk infused bass of Sean Stillinger and the hip hop influenced drum beats of Darrin Thomas, virtuoso guitarist Renzo Staiano and front woman Alex Lee of Le VICE kept bodies moving last Thursday at El Rio. With a little help from some friends singing back up and playing keyboards, the band celebrated the release of their self titled debut by playing several tracks from the album including the catchy come on Uh Huh and introspective Why Fight.

Studio SQ also set up shop recording the whole thing on some technological device that baffles the technologically inept [like myself]. Renzo and Alex really know how to work a crowd and the photo above shows a rare moment when the two were not in continuous motion. There was a lot of love exchanged between the stage and the crowd and the band played until well past midnight when the audience continued to press for more.

If you missed the party, fear not, you can catch Le VICE in two weeks at The Rickshaw on April 2nd.

– Nicole Leigh, words and photo

This entry is from our Open Blog. You too can post about your band by clicking here.

"SanFolk Disco is the brainchild of JL Stiles and he is the glue that will hold each of these bills together like a secretly broken vase by opening and hosting each show. If you do not know of his incredible talents already, here are three facts you need to know immediately: Fact #1: JL Stiles is the freakiest white fingerpicking guitarist in this great country right now. Fact #2: JL Stiles believes he has come up with the algorithm for the pure soul of music. Fact #3: JL Stiles has a mind that sees music in a similar way to how J.S. Bach saw music, however Bach never played the blues. "Simultaneously classic and original, Stiles lays into his 12-string guitar with the vigor and ambition of a streetwise punk who just discovered Leo Kottke" (Blues Revue)

SanFolk Disco is a new monthly series of shows that aim to hover over the bountiful but disparate music scene of the great, legendary city of San Francisco, Ca, and, just as in bygone eras of pre-history, reach a bony hand from above to three blazing comets of musical ice and fire, and collide them monthly at a specified place and time in The Universe. The next show is on April 15th at Cafe Du Nord, SF, 8pm, featuring Bart Davenport, J.L. Stiles & Kacey Johansing, the following show will be May 13th, also at Cafe Du Nord, SF, featuring Eric Mcfadden, JL Stiles & Jenny Kerr. SanFolk Disco demands that you become a good citizen and have a damn good time while doing it.

With a new week upon us it’s once again time for another round of show highlights from around the city.

On Thursday the 18th at the Cafe Du Nord Love is Chemicals (who recently impressed Nicole at a free Noise Pop Happy Hour Show) will be opening for HIJK’s CD release party along with Rademacher, 8pm. Free copies of HIJK’s CD will be given out with the purchase of advanced tickets, so head over here to get your ticket and album.

They who run things over at Hemlock have put together quite the eclectic show this Friday. For something a little different than the usual indie rock that graces our ears check out local electronic artist Deceptikon with out of towners Tik///Tik, Captain Ahab, and Twin Crystals, 9:30pm.

Saturday night Xiu Xiu will be returning briefly to San Francisco to play an all ages show down at Bottom of the Hill, 10pm.

If non of strikes your fancy, Sunday night at Kimo’s Rollercoaster will be playing with the intensely loud Sweet Nothing and Seattle garage punk-rockers Watch It Sparkle.

Well that about covers this week. Tune in next Tuesday for another round of selections.

–Ada Lann

With turn out last Thursday at Milk being quite impressive, kudos should be thrown in the direction of Epic Sauce for putting together a great show. The crowd was thick and all ears were open, and though (much to everyone’s chagrin) the drink specials ran out in all of about 5 minutes, there was for the most part a good night of music to be had in the Haight.

Silian Rail were the first up laying down there minimalist post-rock. I’ve seen Silian Rail a few times, and while I like their music on a fundamental level I’m usually left wanting more by the end of their sets. There is something of an oxymoron in minimalist post-rock as that style in many ways demands an orchestra. There is always a certain amount of tension in the give and take of instruments in any particular post-rock song — when split between several instruments there is fascinating power relationship to listen for, but with just the two it becomes more of a fight for one to be heard over the other. These two talented musicians are making interesting music, but if they fleshed out their sound with more bodies on stage they could take their music from intriguing to downright compelling.

White Cloud came up next, and it’s been a while since I’ve seen them. They seem to have shed most of their garage-rock elements and replaced them with reverb-drenched psyche. Still just as fascinating to listen to, White Cloud’s wall of sound hit the crowd like a tsunami. Nabbing little snippets of unique tones, I sat in the incredibly dim light and swam through their layers of echoing sounds.

French Miami closed out the night and were everything you would expect. Playing their math-rock influenced dance-punk, they hammered away squealing guitar lines over synth sounds and heavily hit drums. Playing mostly from their last record, we were lucky enough to catch a couple of new tunes. It would seem they have a new record coming out this summer, anticipation abound.

Minus the almost immediate disappearance of cheap drinks, Epic Sauce put together quite a good show. This is the first in a weekly series from them so keep an eye on their site for future gigs and if you can make it, head up to Milk next Thursday for the next show.

–Words and Photos by Ada Lann

With the feel of a desperate man at his breaking point, beseeching an immeasurable abyss, Weekend’s debut 10-inch EP is a considerable needle to thread though the ear. Though fuzz inadequately describes the level of distortion on the guitars, Weekend’s hypnotic noise-rock owes much to A Place to Bury Strangers and the traditions of My Bloody Valentine and Yo La Tengo, but imbues the complexity of that shrill, droning musical style with the tender naïveté of best of saccharine pop melody.

Rocking back and forth like a hand on a cradle, “All American” opens up the EP with equal parts penetrating guitar and a lulling rhythm and melody line. It has the soothing quality of falling asleep with your head next to an open window in a car speeding down the highway. As the song progresses and the guitars layer, Weekend creates an intricate space of almost white noise in which the listener may wander about. There is much to explore in the delicate layers of texture, while a disembodied voice continuously ask us where we are going.

Flipping over, “Youth Haunts” opens up with a piercing squeal that rang through my apartment, startling me and waking the neighbor’s baby. Needless to say, he wasn’t happy. With a driving melody like pistons slamming, “Youth Haunts” ebbs and flows like an elaborate sea of noise. Between the two I’d say this is my favorite. Though both have a lot to offer, “Youth Haunts” has wraith-like eeriness to it with several lovely different sounds to seek out in each listen.

Permeated with tangible chills, Weekend’s EP is certainly not for the faint of heart. Layered in textures of fuzz and distortion, this EP offers as much as it asks from the listener and should be a part of any noise-connoisseur’s collection.

-Ada Lann

Weekend’s debut 10-inch can be purchased here from Mexican Summer.  Download cards are available with purchase.

It seems uncanny that Maus Haus (a large group of musicians) can maintain staying power without crumbling under the weight of their own eclecticism; most other groups with similarly eccentric sound have very few members. Yet Maus Haus seems to have found a way to push onward and upward defiantly, following last years strikingly unique Lark Marvels, born out of living room musings, with an equally impressive collection of tracks built around the 7-inch EP Winter/Zig Zag. For all of Lark Marvels’ cavalier creation, and any aloofness that may have permeated those recordings as a result, Maus Haus’ latest recordings reveal a band further coalescing and maturing their sound.

With something of an eerie feel, “Winter” on Side A of the 7 inch, descends on you like a heavy blizzard in a swirl of bass-y synthesizer sounds and mono-syllabic vocal harmonies — certainly a staple of music with a heavy psyche influence. With the air of a dispassionate homily, “Winter” creates the feeling of a cold deserted street complete with a disembodied voice advising us to “look at the mess we’ve made." A part of me wants to think this is the band telling us to pay close attention to the mess of sounds we’re about to be thrown into.  If I had to guess I’d say these boys have been listening to a lot of Syd Barrett, as the lyrical style of “Winter” (and many of these new tracks as well) implore the somewhat syncopated rhythmic singing style that owes a lot to Syd’s influence.

Kicking off like a fall down a deep hole, Side B’s “Zig Zag” thunders along like a demented fun-house ride. Contrasting “Winter’s” trundle, “Zig Zag” is driven by an upbeat tempo, a powerfully forceful bass line, and a cavernous layer of vocals. Certainly the more complex of the two (if its feel is not apparent in its title) “Zig Zag” changes rapidly, jerking the listener along it’s intricate journey.

Though these two songs make a brief and very dense 7-inch, it seems Maus Haus was not entirely done, releasing these two songs along with an additional three as the digital EP Sea-Sides. Sounding like it could very well have been left off Lark Marvels “Skyward Housing,” the first of the remaining digital tracks is a well-earned bit of levity from the darker tone of the 7-inch. True to its title, “Skyward Housing” builds a rising crescendo of synthesizer sounds in an electronic whirlwind. With a driving siren like melody, "Skyward Housing" builds up the movement towards the more ambient plateau that closes out the EP.

Creating a subdued mood with a more cavernous electronic soundscape, the final tracks "Sunshine" and "Sneaky Feelings" come well-versed in the lessons of Brian Eno circa Another Green World. The tones of these tracks carry less of a punch then the preceding ones, relying instead on a fuller more ethereal construction with multiple layers of synthesizer sounds. There is a nice calmness at work in these two that function as a soothing dénouement from the more intense moments earlier in the EP.

A fantastic follow up, Maus Haus’ latest recordings carry themselves with the gravitas of a band really getting comfortable in their own groove. Thematically there is something much darker at work in these new recordings, but the chills instigated by the eeriness of the sounds are exciting to experience nonetheless. Let’s hope for a full-length in the near future.

–Ada Lann

The 7-inch Winter/Zig Zag can be purchased here from Rocinante Records.  Download cards for Sea-Sides are available free with the purchase of a 7-inch.