Of course we encourage you to check out our latest presents show this week (Thursday at El Rio featuring Le Vice, F*uck, I’m a Ghost, and Red Blue Yellow; 9pm) first and foremost; but, if you just can’t make it or still looking for other shows this weekend here are some other highlights from around the Bay Area.

Local show listing site Epic Sauce has put together a fantastic line up this Thursday at Milk Bar. The first of a new weekly series Epic Sauce will be putting on at this not often traveled Upper Haight venue, this Thursday’s line up features French Miami, White Cloud, and Silian Rail. Free and boasting excellent drink deals (really stiff competition for us…. oi) so if you’re not at El Rio for the Deli presents show you have no excuse not to be at this one. RSVP here.

Out at the Knockout on Friday the Frankenstein band Moonman, comprised of members from various other SF bands, will be having their album release show. Head out to this Mission venue to get your weekend dose of psyched out country-rock, 9pm.

Former band of the month Dangermaker will be playing an acoustic set at the Pirate Cat Radio Cafe on Saturday at 5pm. Pop on down for an early start to your evening and catch their performance, or, if you feel like staying home tune into the podcast here.

That about covers it for this week. Bands remember: if you have an upcoming show be sure to fill it in our calender and you may be featured here. Otherwise, hopefully most of the rest of you will be making it down to our El Rio show this Thursday.

–Ada Lann

Back now from what was hopefully a successful European tour, railcars sadly have no Bay Area dates, though Aria is diligently working on his cover of Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love. Of course, having already mentioned his efforts to re-work that album, this doesn’t come as breaking news; however, what we would like to share is that while they were in Vienna evidently a European site, They Shoot Music, decided to shoot an acoustic (well I suppose acoustic for them) performance of the railcars’ song “There is ice; it is blue". So early in the morning, shortly after waking and baking something according to Aria, he performed a breathtakingly beautiful rendition of the song. Definitely worth a listen.

–Ada Lann

Start your weekend early and come dance your pants off with The Deli SF and Studio SQ as we present Le VICE live at El Rio, Thursday, March 11th! Le VICE is one part electro funk, one part rootsy hip hop with some sprinklings of pop and R&B. They’re the perfect solution to your next dance party and a breath of fresh air.

Le VICE took third place in our annual Best Emerging Artist of 2009 Reader’s Poll and will be celebrating the release of their self titled debut along with Bay Area folks F*ck, I’m a Ghost and Red Blue Yellow.

Come out and dance with us!

Thursday, March 11th
El Rio – 9pm
Le VICE, F*uck, I’m a Ghost, Red Blue Yellow
$5

 -Nicole Leigh

Artist: For Fear The Hearts of Men Are Failing
Album: City Music

City Music, the new release from the homegrown alt-country/folk group For Fear the Hearts of Men Are Failing (FFHMRF) is an enjoyable traditional country and bluegrass-inspired romp. FFHMRF bill themselves as the "longest-named East Bay folk group," and while the name does seem to drag on forever, the record never does. It sounds like it could have been recorded on a summertime front porch in Appalachia. Twangy vocals are punctuated with rolling banjo and guitar interludes. The tracks "Whippoorwill," the mostly instrumental "The Dialog/Elzic’s Farewell," and "The Death Song" stand out from the rest. If you like Punk rock jugbands like Blackbird Raum or traditional folk songs and bluegrass (a la Folkways and Alan Lomax depression-era recordings) you’re sure to like FFHMRF.

Check out their set at Mama Buzz, March 19th, 8pm.

-Natalia Cooper

In San Francisco, merely uttering words that suggest you perhps don’t care for A B & the Sea is akin to cheating on the perfect boyfriend in high school who brought you stuffed animals as presents and called just to say he loved you [ok, I didn’t have one of those boyfriends either but you get get the metaphor, yes?]. Why, why would you do that? Koley O’Brien might just be that boyfriend, or at least that’s what A B & the Sea’s lyrics would have you thinking. With songs like "Yellow Haired Girl" and "We Can Ride Our Bikes to the Beach," A B & The Sea brought some sweet and innocent surf rock back to California via Wisconsin last Sunday night [does that sound strange to anyone else or just to me?]. A B & the Sea are what my co-editor Ada likes to call "nice guy rock." Where their lyrics lack in depth, their music makes up for in catchy-ness and musicianship. Their Noise Pop show at Bimbo’s was tight and energetic and the crowd was certainly in love. A B & the Sea made mama proud that night.

-Nicole Leigh
words and photo

The Northern Key is the side project of Andrew Galluccio, bass player for the San Francisco band The Red Verse. Andrew’s haunting indie folk compositions started off an eclectic evening of music at Bimbo’s for one of Noise Pop’s final eveings of shows. Joined by the multi-instrumentalist Christina Platter on cello and keys as well as Danny Sullivan on drums, the trio helped wind down the weeks back to back days of happy hours and dancing. With somber lyrics and an overall sound that is very reminiscent of Iron & Wine with a slightly less solitary feel, The Northern Key’s set at Noise Pop was quite enjoyable.

The Northern Key released their self titled LP on Tricycle Records earlier in February.

-Nicole Leigh
words and photo

Possibly the only band at Noise Pop to feature both a glockenspiel and a Gibson Flying V, the seven piece band known as Citay headlined the Thursday evening festivities at Cafe du Nord. Not surprisingly, the band with the eclectic instrumentation has an eclectic sound and it all came out of the mind of Ezra Feinberg in 2006. Since that time the band has put out a few albums, the most recent of which, Dream Get Together, was released earlier this year. Their Cafe du Nord performance was in celebration of the album which features pop melodies, multi-layered harmonies, and spacey guitar solos. Its pretty interesting stuff.

Careful With That Hat

-Nicole Leigh
words and photo

Sandwiched between San Diego’s Tape Deck Mountain and Portland’s [via England] grunge minimalist, Scout Niblett, was an intimate solo set from Greg Ashley. During the Thursday night performance, murmuring could be heard amung the audience about the identity of the person they were watching – "who is this?" "what’s this guys name?" It could have been the wine or possibly the years of experience playing with bands like Oakland’s Gris Gris and The Mirrors that made him seem so at ease on stage in this extremely personal set but Greg was relaxed and each song came out with that low-fi, mellow, vintage, slightly psychedelic sound that is somewhat if a trademark for Greg. The majority of the set consisted primarily of instrumental songs played on just an electric guitar with Greg sipping from one of the two glasses of wine he brought on stage.

Greg hasn’t put out a solo album since 2007’s Painted Garden, these days he’s spending time producing artists such as Brian Glaze, Powell St. John and Dutchess and The Duke but this Cafe du Nord set is perhaps a hint of some of the projects to come from Ashley in 2010.

-Nicole Leigh
words and photo

While a few a weeks ago psychedelic was the theme of the weekend, looking out this week good ol’ fashion punk rock seems to be taking hold of the city for a few days.

Tomorrow night (the 3rd) local punk rock superstar Jello Biafra will be playing at Bottom of the Hill with his latest outfit Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, 9pm.

If you’re a fan of the raucous Swiss punk rock group LiLiPUT (Kleenex) do check out DADFAG at the Epicenter Cafe this Friday the 5th with The Whines and Baths, fresh off their Noise Pop appearance.

Saturday night, deep in the Mission, the awesomely ostentatious Meat Sluts will be headlining a show. Head out to El Rio around 9 to jam out with yo…. get gritty with these rocking ladies.

Of course, if punk rock is not your flavor, you could also check out Adam Stephens, from the impressively talented folk duo Two Gallants, this Thursday at Bottom of the Hill. Otherwise, on Friday you could wander up to Kimo’s and check out indie rockers Evacuee with the ambient psych-ish rock of The Blue Eyed Souls and out of towners Tropical Depression.

Lots of good shows this weekend so, if you’re not still spent from Noise Pop, get out and see some local music… and don’t forget to check back next for another round of highlights and recommendations.

–Ada Lann

With the last of this weeks free happy hour show starting much later than advertised, That Ghost took the stage with the most blasé of attitudes. From the Kinks’ tradition of pre-psychedelic 60s garage rock, though minus their raw energy, That Ghost doled out their songs like it was punishment. Their front man, seemingly unable to match the key, stood nonchalantly moaning the songs while chewing gum. He couldn’t have seemed less interested in his own music. On the other side of the stage there was another guitarist who didn’t seem to be contributing anything to the overall sound. He appeared to be playing but I couldn’t hear it. To their credit their bassist was very talented and held together a strong backbone for their songs. Inject some life into their members and I may be back to check them out.

Following That Ghost The Baths took to the stage, with a front man sporting his best Ringo Starr handle bar mustache, and continued with the theme of 60s garage rock. Fairly conventional sounding they were enjoyable but nothing terribly innovative.

Heading downtown to the Mezzanine, a place I would normally avoid like the bubonic plague for fear of catching an Ed Hardy disease, I geared up for the dance party to come. First up were the cute and quirky band My First Earthquake. With an air of 50s girl pop sans lyrics about “be my baby” and more about tits and wet dreams, filtered through 80s synth rock like The Cars, My First Earthquake did nerd rockers of the world proud. They were as if a group of theatre kids from your high school formed a band to endear their way into your ears.

Sugar and Gold followed and really hammed it up for the crowd. Imploring his best Prince performance (right down to his diminutive stature) their front man strutted around stage licking his guitar and shaking his ass for a dedicated crowd. I’ve never been much of a fan of their disco-revival sound but it certainly was a show to watch. The music is catchy and serves as a perfect background for a dance party, but as far as depth there isn’t much to it.

After several months as recluses, Maus Haus are back and could not have sounded better. Playing tracks from their debut album and a few from their forthcoming 7-inch (available for download on Tuesday), and weaving together their fascinating and intricate sound. Hearing the new tracks was quite exciting and I wait with great anticipation to give them an in depth listen latter on. Additionally, as a performance it was quite nice to see Josh, one of their front man, really come out of his performance shell getting into the groove and almost rapping one of my favorite songs of their initial album “Reaction.”

!!! closed the evening, laying down their fantastic groove, to a thoroughly devoted crowd. Truly living up to their reputation of assaulting your hips with their rhythm and groove, !!! put out as much energy as they demanded from the crowd. Though I would greatly loved to hear a few tracks from Louden Up Now, I can understand why they would choose not to play them. The downside to writing directly political tracks somewhat dates them. It’s hard to tell a different President, that you may or may not support, to “suck your dick” with the same meaning behind it. All that aside, they certainly did their job energizing the crowd, so much so that during their encore the stage was bum rushed by overly zealous dancers who were swiftly shut down by the bouncers. It was wild to see.

Nearing its end, I head out to my final Noise Pop show tonight, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros at Bimbo’s.

–Words and Photos by Ada Lann

Midway through the Noise Pop Happy Hour set on Friday, Seth a.k.a Hunx took a second to connect with the audience at Bender’s. "Are you guys having a good time? Yeah? You just came here cuz its free huh? Thats cool, I wouldn’t pay for this shit either."

The funny thing is, with over the top outfits, catchy retro 2 1/2 minute songs and tons of confetti, who wouldn’t pay to see this show? Watching a Hunx and his Punx show is like watching a live action John Waters film that features only the musical numbers. Its highly sexualized, its campy and its meant to either shock or entertain [often times both]. The set consisted of mainly songs from their latest release Gay Singles and included a few new songs towards the end. Hunx’s Punx were dressed as grannies while Hunx himself was dressed in spandex, a frilly shirt and a studded chest harness. While this current project is a slight shift from Seth’s last band Gravy Train!!!, the dancability of the songs remains and there were several times when it was difficult to take photos because all I really wanted to be doing was dance.

After a long week of several 12, 13, 14+ hour days, the energy of this show helped to keep me going on a Friday night. If ever you hear that Hunx and his Punx are playing remember that they’re worth the money and if you find yourself bored at the show, check your pulse becasue you’re probably dead.

-Nicole Leigh
words and photo

Bolting out the door once again, and heading right out to Benders as the work week ended, I arrived for my third consecutive day of Happy Hour shows (slash fuel up on beer and food music session) this time hosted by our good friends over at the Bay Bridged. Well put together on their part, The Bay Bridged had arranged the Happy Hour show I was most anticipating with a strong line up featuring Hunx and his Punx, Spencey Dude and the Doodles, and Weekend. Sadly, as I would be compelled to leave and skip across town to my next destination, the only band whose set I had enough time to check out was Weekend.

Taking the stage, Weekend started off a bit reserved and trepidatious about their sound as they were unable to use their own amps. Ultimately, that fact was irrelevant and they gained more confidence as their set progressed, but at the beginning they seemed to be holding back. Mustering up some great shrill guitar backed by hard-hitting and up-tempo drumming Weekend filled every empty crevice of the venue with sound. Best as I can say, if My Bloody Valentine went punk rock you’d get Weekend.

Scuttling across town, I headed over to The Independent for my Friday night respite from all things Indie Rock and settled in for an evening of electronic flavor. First up were the duo NewVillager. Mixing both synthesizers and live instruments NewVillager, played for something of a sparse crowd, that had yet to fully flush out to the sold out statues the venue had promised. If you took Prince’s falsetto and epic lyrical style subtracted the guitar shredding and added electronic beats then surely you’d have the recipe for their sound. Continuing with the food analogy, NewVillager were a lovely down-tempo appetizer for the bands to come.

Taking something from the Fiery Furnaces circa Biter Tea (only less experimental, to use that poisoned word) Rainbow Arabia, up from LA, took the stage second to a more densely crowd populated, peppered with several hardcore fans. Much like the band before, Rainbow Arabia implored a mix of live instruments and synths to create their fairly unique sound. Tiffany Preston could easily be compared to Eleanor Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces, who in turn has been compared to Pattie Smith in her presence as a front woman. Prancing around the stage, sometimes with a hyper sense of sexual tension, Preston’s performance was a joy to watch.

The first of the two British electronic musicians to take the stage, Nathan Fake prepped the crowd’s electronic pallet for the evening. Pairing glitchy electronic sounds with dance beats, Nathan Fake set down the path of electronic music that interests me. I can get bored with the merciless mundane thudding that many electronic musicians are want to do, but this wasn’t the case with Nathan Fake. His arrangements were intricate and complex and I must admit I caught myself sheepishly dancing along to them at several times. Of course I’d be remiss not to point out that if this electronic road is one you like to journey down on a regular basis do check out these local artists at your next convenient opportunity: The Luxury Tax and Business 80.

Nestled up in the Independent’s balcony area, far from the fully fleshed out crowd and amidst clouds of something very skunky smelling that had gathered in the rafters from said crowd, I found myself a nice perch to listen to Four Tet. I’ve always found his brand of electronic music to be much more cerebral than dancy so I spaced out (perhaps with a contact high) and explored the music as he spent the next hour or so arranging and composing his intricate soundscape. With the faintest of touches he delicately placed his fastidiously mixed sounds together for a beautifully sounding, near seamless set. It was quite the show to be a part of.

Past the halfway point now through this year’s Noise Pop, I wait with baited breath for the last of the Bender’s Happy Hour shows tonight followed by personal favorites Maus Haus and !!! at the Mezzanine.

–Words and Photos by Ada Lann