With Mac Demarco slithering onto the scene as some kind of hipster anti-sweetheart, I think it’s safe to say slime is in. Slime is SF three-piece Black Cobra Vipers’ main jam.

Of course, there’s the name. I’ve taken a vow to start a band called Black Cobra Viper Anacondas someday.

They’ve got their self-proclaimed sound, "secret art sex," which, for lack of any better pigeonhole, works as well as any other; maybe something to do with yacht rock, or jazz, or lo-fi with a keyboard or something, I don’t know. Sure, why not. Secret art sex it is.

Then, there’s the lead singer’s propensity for treating each note like a rubber band to be stretched and snapped and messed with—more pitch bends than pitches, and just about as emotive as it gets. It’s really something to be reckoned with.

They put on a feverish show, and they’re currently in the process of recording something, so keep your ears and schedules open. Also, they gave me some of my favorite interview responses to date.

We’ve tallied the results for the Open Submissions stage of our SF Bay Area Year End Poll. All of the submissions were ranked by Deli Editors from other scenes, and the list of acts that have advanced to our Readers’/Fans’ Poll phase are below. We will also be releasing the list of nominees chosen by our local "scene expert" jurors very soon. 

Ash Reiter’s sweet dream pop couldn’t come from anywhere other than coastal California. The band recently rolled out its sophomore album, Hola—a feast of baroque, honey-crooned hits. Just in time for their album tour homecoming, our Deli jury voted them number one in our SF Year End Poll’s Open Submissions with an impressive average rating of 8.5.

Materializing in a bedroom somewhere in San Jose in 2005, Seabright is the electro-organic brainchild of Justin Morales. Two full-length albums in one year, and you’d probably expect something bland, but Seabright creates carefully constructed collages of drum loops, instrumentation, vocals, and a huge array of samples. Seabright tied for second in our SF Year End Poll’s Open Submissions with average rating of 7.66 (the other 2nd place went to Lauren O’Connell – see entry below).

Lauren O’Connell began writing songs at fifteen in her home in Rochester, New York. Today, at twenty-four, the alt-country artist has completed three full-length albums, one collaborative EP, and a 3000-mile move across the country to San Francisco. Her passionate songwriting and gentle twang have earned her comparisons to Neil Young, Wilco, and Neko Case.

If you’re wondering what to play at your holiday shindig that isn’t as stale as the proverbial fruitcake, look no further. #Christmas is not your great aunt’s Christmas compilation album. Your great aunt does not even know how to pronounce #Christmas. But @you do #youtechsavvything.

The Ivy Hill Entertainment release features local indie artists like Finish Ticket, Mr. Kind, and Marqiss, singing new Christmas songs and breathing life into old ones. The album is available on Bandcamp for whatever you want to pay (including goose egg, but you wouldn’t do that). All proceeds go to Swords to Plowshares, a non-profit veteran service organization.

In light of the album release, Marqiss, The Plastic Arts, and Maria Quiles & Rory Cloud will be putting on a holiday show called Marqissmas at the Subterranean Arthouse in Berkeley tomorrow, December 20. Entry is $10. Here is the best promotional video I’ve seen all year.

Oakland-based Oceanography‘s EP Parachutes of Plenty, was released today on iTunes and Bandcamp. The project of Brian Kelly (Disclosure: Kelly is the East Bay Express’ art director and my colleague), Oceanography combines the depressive folk of Low, the gloom pop of Echo and the Bunnymen, and indie rock — circa early 2000s Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where Kelly used to live. 

Catch Oceanography live at its record release show at Hemlock Tavern on Thursday, Dec. 13 at 9 p.m., with openers Swells and Wilding.

–Whitney Phaneuf

Santa Rosa schizophrenic garage rockers Girls in Suede demand your attention. Just when you think you can juggle the music in their debut self-titled album, they’ll toss you another sound. 

Aligning closest with alt rockers like early Chili Peppers and Modest Mouse, the band also nods to jazz, call-and-response, funk, prog, and old-fashioned garage punk. That’s a lot of nodding. Listen for angst-ridden screaming choruses, soulful saxophones, and guttural, fuzzed out guitars and basses that make up the album’s teenage anthemic colors. 

Girls in Suede will be making their way down to Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco for their album release on Thursday, December 20th. Joining them will be locals Wes Leslie, Of Shape and Sound, and "post-schizoid" rockers Coast Jumper. Get your tickets here. 

-Daveth

I was just chatting with a friend about how, once in a while, we’ll come across those people whose futures we’d want to invest in. I think it’s just a matter of time before the teens in Oakland’s Fever Charm wind up on the charts, and it’d really rev my hipster sensibilities to say, “I knew them when.” 

There’s a new venue in town. Neck of the Woods, formerly known as Rockit Room, will be throwing an opening party on December 1st, featuring six top notch bands, two DJs, two stages, and an after party. Here’s the lineup and all the info you need to have a great Saturday night. No, I won’t pay for your cab fare.

Debbie Neigher
www.facebook.com/debbieneighermusic

DJ Aaron Axelson (Live 105, Popscene)

Doe Eye
www.facebook.com/ilovedoeeye

The Hundred Days
www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hundred-Days

Mister Loveless
www.facebook.com/MisterLoveless

New Diplomat
www.facebook.com/newdiplomat

Nova Albion
www.facebook.com/NovaAlbionMusic

Seeking Empire
www.facebook.com/seekingempire

After Party (1am) @ Downstairs Stage with DJ Huffy (Death Valley High, Minushead Records)

You can buy tickets at the door for $12, or you can buy some here for $10, and put those two smackaroos toward one fearsome bar tab.

Let’s start by saying Mahgeetah’s first full-length album Heavy Baby doesn’t qualify as your typical SF indie scene staple. 

Beginning with a single interval on a B3 organ—or a B3 imposter—and ending with a classic blues-rock jam, the album is truck stop music’s sensitive cousin who went off to college, but still gets nostalgic for his blues and folk rock roots. It would gladly trade your Bay Area reverb for a little distortion any day.

Heavy Baby uses influences like Dr. Dog and Wilco as a compass, but ventures into territory of its own. It is constructed of propulsive rhythms with easy riding guitars, and furnished with Cat Stevens-like electric piano riffs with soulful, staccato vocals that call to mind Arcade Fire’s Win Butler and Wolf Parade’s Spencer Krug.

Listen to the album all the way through; this is much more than a catchy road trip playlist.  

Here’s the only track from the album I could find for free download, but you can stream it on major streaming platforms like Rdio, and buy it on major buying platforms like iTunes. 

Get convinced you want to buy or stream Mahgeetah’s album by watching their show at The Night Light, December 7, with T.V. Mike and Scarecrows. 

Evil Eyes’ musical adventure begins with a bro jam in a shabby motel room in a mysterious, suntanned land called Florida. Four years, three new members, two singles, and one EP later, the band is preparing to release their first full-length album here in Palesville (okay, San Francisco), CA.

Their gauzy, glazed pop lives in a similar zip code as Real Estate, Beach House, and Youth Lagoon. Heavy on janglitude, guitar pedals, and pentatonicism, they should have no issue packing out a space in the prolific West Coast shoegaze scene. 

Listen to their stuff here, and look forward to their album release early next year.