San Francisco’s indie-pop trio Geographer recently released a video for the catchy-gone-existential “Lover’s Game,” from their most recent album Myth.

Appropriately set at night in the Nevada desert, the video portrays humans as aimless lights in the dark.  It is only after two individuals meet that their faces emerge, and their interactions are consecrated by a stretchy, colorful goop. Fun fact: that stringy goop is mostly a substance called Oobleck, AKA cornstarch and water, which thickens under the force of sound vibrations. Cool.

Geographer is combing the country on its Myth tour with Freelance Whales. It sounds dangerously close to the premise of a kooky children’s book, but it should also make for a great concert. 

GEOGRAPHER TOUR DATES

Oct 18 – San Francisco, CA @ Mezzanine
Oct 20 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
Oct 21 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
Oct 23 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
Oct 24 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
Oct 26 – St. Louis, MO @ Firebird
Oct 27 – Nashville, TN @ The End
Oct 28 – Atlanta, GA @ The Loft
Oct 30 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
Oct 31 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Nov 1 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
Nov 2 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Nov 3 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club

After my first play through Rin Tin Tiger’s Toxic Pocketbook, the album looped to the beginning. Instead of consciously realizing it, getting annoyed at my playback settings, and turning it off, I continued to listen with the nostalgic feeling the song had once been a favorite of mine. Chalk it up to premature senility, but I think it’s the alt folk trio’s ability to write compelling, lyric-centric music that manages to stay contemporary, while still paying homage to the folk rock deities.

Throw on a disguise, and catch Rin Tin Tiger headline their third annual Haunted Hoedown on October 27 at Bottom of the Hill. Also on the lineup are local artists Doe Eye and Wes Leslie and His Deadly Medley, as well as LA’s The Steelwells. 

You can get your $10 tickets here, but if you want to give Rin Tin Tiger more money, they might invest in some flamethrowers. We can only dream. 

This music video for "Cunundrum" by San Francisco’s Horrorscopes made my day.

Spoiler alert: it’s a lot of shots of the band playing music, sometimes with that photo booth-y mirror effect, interspersed with clips of them touring around doing awesome stuff. All of this is accompanied by glistening guitars, addictive synth riffs, and a cruising bassline that perfectly complements the rangy, DGAF vocals.

Ultimately, this video will delude you into thinking today is a warm Indian summer day, and not some woebegone grayfest. Special shout out to sparklers and Cabazon dinosaurs.

Be sure to check out Horrorscopes at their next show on November 1st at Brick and Mortar.

If there are any Fresno readers out there, or if any Bay Area folks want to take the trek down CA-99, this is for you. 

Café Corazon is hosting a coffee-themed amalgamation of great cuisine, micro-roasted java, art, film, and music on Saturday, October 13 at Fulton 55. The lineup features nine artists including the lush, kaleidoscopic sounds of Fierce Creatures, the schizoid rock of Oakland’s Coast Jumper, and the fuzzy, bluesy grit of Strange Vine.  

As if the music and coffee weren’t reason enough to attend, the event will hit you right in the altruism by donating some of the proceeds to Relay For Life.

Get the full lineup and some tickets here.

The new single "Terracur" from San Francisco’s Social Studies comes on with a slow, sexy drum beat and builds into a dramatic song assisted by singer Natalia Rogovin’s deep voice, confrontational lyrics and sultry guitars. It’s a ballad Beach House could write if they laid off the synths and turned up rock n’ roll. Listen once and you won’t be able to stop.

Social Studies’s sophomore album Developer comes out Nov. 13 on Antenna Farm Records, The record release party will be at the Independent on Nov. 9 and tickets are available here.

If you reach into Warbler’s sonic crayon box, you’ll find a B3 organ, electric and acoustic guitars, banjo, a gamut of analog synth sounds, and, in their own words, “bells and whistles.” With that many sounds, you’d expect to feel bombarded, but Warbler manages to retain open space within their Neo-folk masterpieces. 

Warbler’s music is a stylistic roller coaster: plaintive vocals and intricate fingerstyle guitar give way to disco breakdowns, and dark, heavy folk rock suffuses a cosmic soundscape. It’s the music that might materialize if Elliott Smith, The Flaming Lips, and O’death all did lunch. The Oakland four-piece band is ramping up to release a second record this winter. 

Before hitting the studio, catch Warbler with Oakland’s She Beards and Walnut Creek headliners Wave Array on Saturday, Oct. 6 at Bottom of the Hill. Sadly, this will be Wave Array’s last show for an indeterminate amount of time, due to member Storm Lee’s move away from the area. Give the band a bon voyage worth remembering.

–Gracie Gutman

And now for some corporate-sponsored fun that might be actual fun. 

VICE + JanSport are throwing their final Bonfire Session on Sunday, September 30th at the Fogwatch Picnic Area on Treasure Island featuring psych folk SF darlings the Dodos, the Deli SF’s Artist of 2011 Geographer, and SF/LA project White Fence. LA’s Father John Misty will close the show. Pick up a poster from local San Francisco artist Aaron Bo Heimlich at the event.

Being corporate-sponsored, it’s free with an RSVP here. If you’d rather pay, the Dodos open for Calexico on Oct. 23 at the Fillmore.

San Francisco’s Adios Amigo enlisted local art school student Caitlyn Adkins to create its new video for "Chicken," the single off the Dos EP. Download Dos for free here. The stop motion video shows indie folker John Major playing throughout the streets of San Francisco.

Catch Adios Amigo at Elbo Room on Friday, Oct. 5 with Solwave and Dogcatcher.

San Francisco does the heady, catchy, synth sound well and Maus Haus is among our best in that scene. It’s going to be a busy fall for the band with an extensive US tour (listed below), new EP Light Noise out Oct. 2, and most exciting, playing the Deli’s CMJ show at The Delancey on Oct. 18.

Get a feel for Light Noise by downloading the first single "No More Girls." Maus Haus also premiered a cover of Cinema 90’s song “In Ultra-Violet” on Consequence of Sound today.

–Whitney Phaneuf

MAUS HAUS TOUR DATES

10/2/2012 Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
10/3/2012 Boise, ID – Neurolux
10/4/2012 Salt Lake City, UT- Kilby Court
10/5/2012 Denver CO Larimer Lounge*
10/6/2012 Omaha, NE – Waiting Room*
10/7/2012 St Louis, MO – Firebird*
10/9/2012 Chicago, IL – Burlington Bar
10/11/2012 Toronto, ONT – Club Nocturne (Indie Fest Toronto)
10/12/2012 Montreal, QUE – Club Lambi
10/13/2012 Québec, QC – L’Agitée
10/15/2012 Winooski, VT – The Monkey House#
10/17/2012 New York, NY – Pianos (afternoon show)
10/17/2012 Brooklyn, NY – Shea Stadium (evening show)
10/18/2012 New York, NY – The Delancey (Deli Magazine CMJ)
10/19/2012 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s^
10/20/2012 Washington, DC – Red Palace^
10/21/2012 Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506^
10/23/2012 Asheville, NC – Grey Eagle Tavern & Music Hall^
10/24/2012 Atlanta, GA – EARL^
10/25/2012 Birmingham, AL – Bottle Tree^
10/26/2012 New Orleans, LA – Circle Bar
10/27/2012 Austin, TX – Holy Mountain
10/29/2012 El Paso, TX – Lowbrow Palace
10/31/2012 San Diego,CA – Bar Eleven
11/02/2012 Los Angeles,CA – The Smell
11/3/2012 San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop

* support for The Dodos ^ support for Generationals # support for The Intelligence

After breaking up San Francisco garage pop duo Girls, former frontman Christopher Owens is taking a break to model.

CMU caught the artist doing his best blue steel for Yves Saint Laurent’s ready-to-wear line, Saint Laurent. Check it out in Vogue, which describes Owens’s look as "very much like Kurt Cobain." Umm, let’s not encourage the drugs or the modeling, thank you.

Remember better days in this performance of "Vomit" from 2011’s Father, Son, Holy Ghost.

–Whitney Phaneuf (with reporting by Justine Fields)

The Bay’s Tricycle Records is giving away some great Bay Area bred music on its latest "Friends of Tricycle Records Compilation Vol. 2," available for free download here. Provide an email address and get 18 tracks from many of the Deli’s favorites bands including Big Tree, Le Vice, Loquat, The Hot Toddies, and more. Find the entire track list below.

While you’re feeling the local love, watch Le Vice get thugged out in its new video for the band’s take on Drake’s "Underground Kings," off the recently released album Neverland.

–Whitney Phaneuf

Friends of Tricycle Records Compilation Vol. 2:

Big Tree, “Storm King”
Mister Loveless, “Wild Summer”
8th Grader, “Heavy Without You”
Le Vice, “Find You”
The Hot Toddies, “Boogie Nights”
Loquat, “Simple Song” (Shins cover)
Birdmonster, “Living”
Sioux City Kid & The Revolutionary Ramblers “Darlin’ Darlin’"
Rich Girls, “Sink Like Stones”
Fake Your Own Death, “Reindeer Games”
Paranoids, “Astronaut”
I Am Animal, “Just You Wait”
Here Come The Saviours, “Tomorrows Version Of Me”
Magic Fight, “I’m Not (Going Back)”
Teenage Sweater, “Oceans and Seas”
The Union Trade, “Everyday Including Holidays (Remix)”
Lilofee, “Girls on My Brain”
Vows, “OurBrethren’s”

After releasing Paper Diamonds and last year’s Heatwave, San Francisco indie pop darlings Ash Reiter are at it again with a new full length album, Hola. There are only 37 hours left to contribute to the band’s Kickstarter campaign to support the cost of pressing Hola, which will be available in limited edition red vinyl and CD format. The band offers some fun rewards including singing telegrams and a “choose your own adventure” option that offers a variety of fun activities like a hot air balloon trip, skydiving, river rafting or recording a tape split album with the band.

“This album was fun to make. We did a lot of really playful and experimental stuff-mostly in our home studio. Some of my favorite moments were captured while working in pairs, to get a wild sound that only four arms could achieve, with one person manipulating effects pedals and another playing an instrument. It made the editing/mixing process fun and challenging too,” says Ash Reiter. 

Hola also marks the beginning of the band’s new line up with brothers Scott Brown on bass and Drew Brown on guitar plus Anthony Ferraro on keys. While Ash Reiter’s critically praised “honey and whiskey” voice is still present, she is now accompanied by rich background vocals and lush instrumentation sitting somewhere between the classic sounds of the Beach Boys and the more psychedelic feel of Animal Collective. 

Hola was recorded at Oakland’s New Improved Recording (tUnE-yArDs and Thao & Mirah). With the release, the band will embark on a national tour beginning in early fall. Check the band’s website for dates.