Love Is Chemicals as a band name is something I, well, love. The name is catchy, honest and even a bit dismal which is a pretty fair way to describe thier music.  Love is Chemicals play fairly basic, straight forward rock songs that are moody at times and have the occasional male/female voice harmony thrown in. The quartet headlined Wednesdays Noise Pop Happy Hour set at Bender’s. Their set consisted primarily of material from their 2008 release, Song of the Summer Death Brigade, the most impressive track of which is below for your listening pleasure.

 Our Darkest Days and Nights

-Nicole Leigh
words and photo

Friday, February 19, 2010
The first thing I noticed when Montana Slim String Band took the stage was the imposing statue of their rhythm guitar player. At well over six feet tall, Jesse is impossible to ignore, until the music starts. The only thing bigger then Jesse is MSSB’s sound. Their sound immediately filled the room at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley and put a death grip on your senses. The band began playing with no discussion and Brent quickly focused attention on his nimble fingers tearing up the fretboard on his mandolin while Dave, and his bass called Trumptet, held down the bottom end with spot on timing. Dave breaks out his bow on one occasion to provide an eerie, haunting sound. Most of the band shares vocal duties, blending subtle harmonies into a full-bodied sound that fills out their music and consumes the audience. I was initially skeptical when I first saw Turi setting up the effects peddles for her fiddle, but she, and the rest of the band, use them judiciously to ad a depth to their sound that gives them a refined, modern edge. Their style of music most certainly falls into the Newgrass or Jamgrass territory, but with Brent’s smoking mandolin and Sean’s unearthly flat-pickin’ breaks, they pay due homage to the masters. When I heard Sean’s first break I expected to see smoking frets, but his calm stage presence and smooth, relaxed pick hand belies his intricate melodies and break neck speed. His use of the entire fret board makes me think that there’s a rocker somewhere inside that wants to get out, but just can’t overcome the bluegrass.

The band also managed to provide a musical marathon, blending one song into another, lulling you into a sense of contentment that makes you forget that you’ve been listening for over ten minutes. They kept the audience connected with their honest lyrics that provide a vehicle for the band to display their emotional connection to the music. Their extended jams were highlighted by Brent and Turi’s instruments occasional back and forth arguments. Though, neither mandolin or fiddle were ever able to claim dominance, they did manage to push each other to greater levels of virtuosity.

The most difficult thing about seeing Montana Slim String Band is catching them in town. In Jesse’s words they tour, “pretty much all the time”, but they are more than worth the effort. They put on a show that will be sure to get you toes tappin’ and you neighbors dancin’; even at a seated venue like the Freight. To take some of their music home you can find their LP Slim Pickin’s at either iTunes or CDBaby and they will be back in town for a major show at the Independent in San Francisco on March 25th. These guys are sure to deliver.

-Jonathon Miller

At the second night of free Happy Hour shows, things seemed a little less organized. Perhaps my mind was still paying its indulgences for the previous evening’s sins but things seemed to be moving slow and unguided. Be that as it may I sat and watched what little I could whilst fueling up on beer and greasy food before heading out to my next stop, Bottom of the Hill.

Shark Toys were first to take the stage and set the bar real low. Perhaps this may be garish of me but there is a certain gravitas and arrogance (or toughness to put it plainly) I expect from music that peaks my interest. The muted and introverted nerd-aesthetic of bands like the Moldy Peaches really has a hard time impressing me. Yet another indie kid, at one time unpopular in high school, whining about on stage and the world keeps turning. It may well be that it could work, but lesson to those who choose this musical direction, diversify your sound! Twenty minutes of a clean guitar being banged, supported by a faint keyboard track (whose volume in the mix may well mirror the shy stage presence of its performer) rarely maintains attention for more than a few moments. We get it, you’re expressing yourself, and we move on.

After a bit of delay, Social Studies followed. I had been under the impression they were last, and I would be totally missing them, but it seems that wasn’t the case. Sadly, having to make my next appointment, I wasn’t able to stick around and listen long enough to formulate an opinion but I can report they played.

At Bottom of the Hill throw back seemed to be, for the most part, the name of the game. I am well aware that within the parameters of the twenty year decade resurgence rule, that as in the last decade the 80s made their return, the next will certainly see the 90s having it’s heyday once again (you can already see the rise in flannel). Within that context it’s no surprise that we will be seeing bands bringing back some of the musical styles of that decade, and for the most part last night the 90s where very much present.

While it may seem most logical in this context to hearken back to the better parts of 90s music (of which there weren’t many) openers Trophy Fire saw it fit to recall that desolate post-post-post-godit’sgettingridiculousatthispoint-post-grunge wasteland of the late 90s early 00s when we were all sitting around praying for something new to come along. They sounded as though they could have been contemporaries of bands like Fuel or Three Doors Down, and though not as horrendous as either, you get what I’m grasping at.

Picture Atlantic came on second and certainly did not deviate from this general them. Oscillating between a hooky pop sound and a very enthusiastically heavy rock, that at more than one time recalled the Red Hot Chili Peepers (another band low on my list), Picture Atlantic power-popped to a devoted crowed, a few whom I surprisingly spotted singing along. My preference towards their style aside, they were certainly entertaining to watch practically falling all over each other as they leaped around the stage… all that is for the drummer who played contrastingly reserved.

After another cigarette and another beer, the reason I actually came to this show took the stage, Stomacher. I’ve been catching mummers of them for weeks now, and after being sold by the recording of their song "Police," I was determined to check them out. They certainly did not disappoint. Capturing some essence of bands like Muse (only more interesting), Stomacher delivered a high energy set. With a driving rhythm section that barrels the song down on you like an oncoming train and a creative use of digital loops, they certainly stole the evening. Ending their set with an intense drum solo (a really hard task to not make overly cheesy) battling against a wash of loops added the final touches to an already impressive dish. I’ll say it now, keep an eye on them! If they’re not on a rising track, there’s something wrong with all of us.

Playing their reunion show Far took the stage last to a surprisingly enthusiastic crowd. Once again returning to that late 90s style (though being from that period it is of no surprise that is how they played), Far played their brand of hard alterna-rock to a crowd that knew all the words. After fighting through the crowd for a bit to attempt snapping a few pictures (more than once getting threatening looks from thick necked meat-heads who could not quite grasp my role as a member of the press) I decided that I had seen enough sacrifice to the alter of rock gods and made my exit a bit early. To all who were worried, surely with such devotion paid the harvest would be good, but by then I was tired of having guitars shredded and microphones shoved in my face for lyrics I didn’t know.

With another night down, I look forward to tonight as the festivities continue with Four Tet and Weekend opening another Bender’s Happy Hour. Be there or be square (so they say).

 

–Words and Photos by Ada Lann

As I’ve stated already, the free happy hour shows at Benders this week are nothing to shake a stick at. Looking at the line ups, there are several great bands playing, though sadly with such little time to actually see them. In the hopes of capturing some of the music, it was with that rest-be-damned ethos that I set out after an 8 hour work day to catch the early Happy Hour show, with the promise of some quality punk rock later in my evening.

Mist and Mast were the first band at the happy hour show I found myself at when the clock hit five. I have gone, and will likely still go, back and forth on Mist and Mast’s sound. Having heard their recordings, there is very little space in my life for the conventional, tired indie rock style that doesn’t grasp at even a few straws outside the middle of the road. That may be my selfish desire to be assaulted by sound, but for indie rock perhaps  I can be overly critical. Regardless I was impressed with Mist and Mast’s performance. They are accomplished musicians and with their performance they pushed at some barriers of dissonance that I would have loved to see them break further, so for that they garner some credential. If nothing else, they were a perfect band to prep the pallet for what was to come.

Taking the tone in a radically different direction (a theme for these noise pop shows) The Ian Fayes followed, performing a sincerely sweet pop set. With Coco Rosie backed by a drum machine as likely the easiest comparison, and infused with some form of tender sadness, their saccharine and delicate pop sounds were certainly something to call home about. Of course with my preference towards dissonance, I would like to say their sound is the exception to the rule, though such as that is irrelevant; their sweetness impressed.

Sadly I missed Love is Chemicals, but I had a grittier calling awaiting me.

Moving on to the Cafe du Nord with great anticipation for Harlem, I arrived early enough to be rewarded with a wonderful surprise – The Young Prisms. As best as I can describe it they inhabit some space between Asobi Seksu (especially with the female vocals) and My Bloody Valentine. Their swirling and cavernous soundscape, though at times slightly unsteady, was a pleasure to be smothered with.

Slowing the evening down momentarily were crowd favorites The Sandwitches. Inhabiting a similar space as the Ian Fayes, I was for the most part underwhelmed by their set. The sound was precise and their tone certainly much more dower than The Ian Fayes, generally a strong selling point, but by the end I was left with something to be desired. Maybe I was just antsy to get on to Harlem.

Best Coast followed, reeving the crowd back up with their harder indie rock. Again, certainly not an unaccomplished band but as with Mist and Mast earlier, the generic indie rock style is not a very strong selling point. They were enjoyable, and they certainly brought the energy back up, but as far as breaking any interesting new ground, they did not. Again, perhaps I’m a bit too picky but what can I say, I look for a challenge.

Something of a fury hit the stage as Harlem rounded out the evening with a performance that was everything it promised to be. They were loud, obnoxious, and confrontational in all the right ways. There is certainly nothing down low about their sound. Seeing their wild antics and hearing their slamming punk songs can’t help but conjure up the spirit of The Replacements. Bopping around on stage screaming at the microphone, each other, the audience, their empty beers, and whatever else the room had available, they unleashed their set with all the insanity you could ask for.

All in all, a good night in music. Tonight, another Benders happy hour and Stomacher playing at Bottom of the Hill.  For now enjoy this ridiculous robot.

-Words and Photos Ada Lann

A magic bullet is often described as an instant solution or cure for what ails you. As I found out last week, San Francisco’s Magic Bullets are just that.

Thursday, for even the most optimistic person, was a bad day. I woke up late for work, literally on the wrong side of the bed (I have the bump on my head to prove it), and tried to quickly make myself look human before I ran out the door. As I got ready to mount my bike and get on my way, I looked down and realized I had stepped in a fresh doggie present. Work presented me with an alarmingly full inbox, a coffee stain on a white blouse, bad news from a friend and another alarmingly full inbox upon leaving. Needless to say, as I pushed myself up Divisadero towards the Independent, I felt defeated. I walked in, ordered a shot of whiskey turned towards the stage and all of a sudden couldn’t help smiling.

The Magic Bullets look so painlessly cool you immediately want to be them, or at the very least around them in hopes some will rub off. Most importantly they all seem to be extremely content on stage. In 2009’s Holiday Issue of SOMA, guitarist Corey Cunningham says, “We have such a good time together that the music almost seems secondary.” And you can tell. Their enthusiasm radiates through their performance and it’s hard not to catch some.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s isn’t pop music so sugary it makes your teeth hurt. There is substance to their whimsical tunes laced with an underlying darkness. One would be hard pressed not to make a Smith’s reference here, however they have taken Moz’s signature angst and replaced it with something much more hopeful. feels much like finally seeing the light after being stuck in dark times. “You’ll make fine mistakes, you’ll make mistakes fine,” singer Phillip Benson declares. Lives For Romance The Magic Bullets have seemingly discovered a way to let us know everything will turn out ok. Some people say there is no such thing as a quick fix, however now I beg to differ.

-Alexandra Scioli

While of course the main event this weekend will be the numerous Noise Pop programs around the city, for those not excited about the expense or large crowds (and for our part to lend voice to some likely overshadowed gigs) here are the Deli SF’s picks for some under-reported shows this coming weekend.

Out in the back corner of the Mission, far from all things Noise Pop, at the El Rio you’ll find The Dashing Suns playing a grittier Kinks-style 60s pop sound with out of staters Yellow Suns.

If you’ve got nothing to do this Friday then you have no excuse for missing one of the Bay Area’s finest bands, the Wooden Shjips playing with Sleepy Sun at The New Parish in Oakland, 8pm.

Continuing the theme of punked out 60s pop, on Saturday should you find yourself wandering around the Tender-Nob area, pop in to Hemlock to catch the garage/surf/punk sounds of Shannon and the Clams with The Pharmacy and The Rantouls somewhere around 9:30.

Of course while trying to highlight mostly non-Noise Pop Shows here, we’d be remiss not to also mention the great consecutive days of FREE happy hour shows at Benders. Featuring a some great local talent including Love is Chemicals, Social Studies, Weekend, and That Ghost these shows, while likely packed to the rafters, should be your first stop after work this week. You can find more info about these shows here.

That’s all for this week. Check back next week for our suggestions and, if your in a band keep us updated on your schedule and you may be featured here.

 

-Ada Lann

For some artists, their time in the studio can be a working environment that is rather personal and closed off, not for the public. For those of us on the outside of the event, it can seem like a mysterious and secret process that piques the curiosity of those that appreciate a persons ability to communicate through song.  That’s why when Chloe Roth of Chloe Makes Music contacted The Deli to see if we’d like to sit in on a recording session at Studio SQ we jumped at the chance. Who wouldn’t want to observe and listen like a fly on the wall in the moment that an artist puts their creative expressions into a fixed medium?

Twice a month, the readers of The Deli SF vote for their favorite nominated artist of the month. These artists not only rewarded with a banner on the site but also with free studio time from the poll’s sponsor Studio SQ. As a musician trying to make it in the second most expensive city in the US, free studio time is a very good thing. Back in the second half of October 2009, Chloe Makes Music was chosen by the Deli readers as the Artist of The Month and this was the first time that anyone at the Deli was able to see the poll process come full circle.

We visited Chloe in the studio on day 5 of a 6 day recording marathon as she laid tracks with producer Chris Chu [vocalist for The Morning Benders] for her upcoming debut LP. Studio SQ has a nice warm welcoming feel. You’re greeted by a friendly brindle boxer the door who naps on the couch when shes not monitoring the activity around and the studio itself is large and open and filled with a lot of wood which gives it that comfortable, home-y feel. It’s almost hard to believe that such an intimate place can exist in what is a primarily industrial part of the city.

Chloe is recording backing vocals for the current track that they’re working on, "The Puppeteer," and Chris is preparing to sit at the piano for the next segment of the recording. Chloe explains, "I want it to sound like there are puppets singing" – an appropriate request for a song about a person that manipulates marionettes. Chloe was concerned that I might be bored but I wasn’t, not even the slightest bit. Boring is watching me sit in my small studio apartment trying to create sentences to describe what had taken place. Mostly, I was intrigued by what sounded to be an almost complete track with some lovely haunting harmonies.

As the afternoon begins to wind down, Chloe and Chris discuss which elements are left to record and begin to coordinate their final day in the studio. I decide to take this as my cue to slip out and allow the creative flow to be uninterrupted. I say a quick goodbye and quietly leave. Outside, the sun is almost gone and I realize that there is a catchy melody of puppets still singing in my head.

The Deli SF would like to thank both Chloe Makes Music and Studio SQ for allowing this unique opportunity and we look forward to hearing the finished product!

-Nicole Leigh

While the rest of San Francisco gears up for Noise Pop next week, this weekend it seems that the Bay Area’s psychedelic roots have decided to pop up in force for various performances around the city.

Tomorrow night the 17th the fantastic noisy garage-psyche band White Cloud will be sharing the stage with the more folk-y Ash Reiter and TV Mike and the Scarecrows at the Rickshaw stop. That show incidentally is Ash Reiter’s CD release party as well.

Friday night the 19th at Bottom of the Hill Here Come the Saviors will be performing their shoe-gaze inspired psychedelia with Boy in the Bubble at 9pm. For a more traditionalist approach to psychedelic rock Friday night, head across town for The Love Dimension performing with The Parties, The Polymers, and Augustus at Kimo’s.

If you’re in the East Bay with a hankering for traditional 60s inspired psyche, Teenage Sweater, The Buttercream Gang, The Helen Kelers, and Samvega will be playing across the water at The Stork Club around 8pm also on Friday.

That’s all for this week. Be sure to keep updating the calender and check back for next week’s recommendations.

 

-Ada Lann

Good news for fans of noise and the shrill! Later this month railcars will be releasing an EP with a number of equally talented noise artists’ remixes of the title track, from their latest album, "Cathedral With No Eyes". San Francisco’s own (or at least formerly so) Xiu Xiu  is providing one of the remixes, making a lovely scrambled version of an already chaotic song, with Portland’s White Rainbow and Massachusetts’ Truman Peyote also contributing their own versions. Other’s promised to appear on the EP include Lucky Dragon and Neon Navajo with more still to be announced.  While the Truman Peyote version can be heard here and the White Rainbow remix can be previewed over at XLR8R, the patient will get to hear the Xiu Xiu adaptation, as well as the others, when the EP is released for free from Aria’s website.

In the meantime, as railcars finish up their European tour, Aria has been soliciting donations through Kickstarter so that he can do a full cover of the Kate Bush album Hounds of Love. So, if you’re curious to see how Aria Jalali’s imagination will render this album, drop him a few dimes and wait for the copy he will send. For a hint of how he might be inclined to interpret it check out his cover of the Cranberries’ song “Linger” here.

 

-Ada Lann

The Deli SF’s Best Emerging Artist of 2008, Maus Haus, will release a new 7" single "Winter"/"Zig Zag" at their Noise Pop 2010 show. This is Maus Haus’s first release since 2008’s Lark Marvels and includes an additional digital only 4 track EP Sea-Sides.

The February 27th show at the Mezzanine features My First Earthquake, Sugar & Gold, Maus Haus and Brooklyn’s !!! – a lineup that promises a lot of energy and a lot of dancing. It will undoubtedly be one of the many highlights of the festival.

-Nicole Leigh

If, in the coming months, you realize that the availible selections on your ipod have become cumbersome or uninteresting, consider giving some of the artists from the upcoming 3rd annual Switchboard Music Festival a listen. Since 2007, the Switchboard Music Festival has aimed to create a "marathon concert featuring artists, primarily from the San Francisco Bay Area, whose music challenges traditional genre distinctions."  At this years 8 hour marathon concert you’ll experience such Bay Area artists as the black metal bossa nova fusion band Thorny Brocky, the experimental cello arrangements of Zoe Keating [above], and the prog rock classical thrash metal of miRthkon.

If you can find a Bay Area music festival with a more eccentric lineup, tell me about it and I’ll give you $5 dollars from my own pocket*.

The Switchboard Music Festival takes place on March 28th and tickets range from $10-40.

-Nicole Leigh
photo by Lane Hartwell

*5 (five) United States Dollars will be awarded to 1 (one), only 1 (one) winner who can give me the name of a Bay Area music festival with a lineup in greater anomalus nature to the Switchboard Music Festival. This contest is in no way sponsored by the Switchboard Music Festival and is void where prohibited by law. Ps, the $5 bill I just pulled out of my wallet and set aside for this contest reads "I love you Jesus!! Thank you for provisions!!" – consider that a bonus.

As if they haven’t given enough reason to draw worship to their alter, it seems the ever fantastic and often dangerous (at least financially) Amoeba Music has taken it upon themselves to become part of the fast growing list of organizations raising money for relief in Haiti. Amoeba will match dollar for dollar and contribute all the proceeds garnered through a special online store to the organization Doctors with out Boarders, currently providing much needed medical care in Haiti.  If you haven’t picked up your copy of the Girls self titled album (The Deli SF’s CD of the month) or would like to pick up a fancy new Blu Ray copy of the wonderful Talking Heads tour film Stop Making Sense, the click on over to their website and snatch yourself one.

Of course if you can’t find what you’d like on the site, apparently Amoeba will also be collecting donations in their stores coinciding perfectly with this weekends pet adoption day at the San Francisco location. Music, homes for pets, humanitarian aid – surely Amoeba you have performed enough miracles in your lifetime to warrant becoming the first inanimate saint. So this weekend throw caution to the wind and hop down to the store knowing that you may leave sans your next months rent, but at least you’ll have supported a worth while cause… and of course boosted your record collection.

 

-Ada Lann