1. WHY? – Eskimo Snow
Its hard to believe these songs were written at the same time as Alopecia way back in 2007. A perfect mix between weird, poppy, and intelligent that is incredibly fun and satisfying.

2. Man/Miracle – The Shape of Things
A band with some of the most original mixes of influences, think Talking Heads doing sometimes darker indie dance songs, Man/Miracle is one of my favorite bands in Oakland. Every song on The Shape of Things becomes your favorite as you listen to it. A late release in November of 100 copies has already rumored to be sold out, but it will be re-released by Third Culture Records in February of 2010 making it a safe prediction that The Shape of Things will make it on this same list next year too.

3. Girls – Album
It seems that there are a number of people who are “over” this record or sick of hearing about it on Pitchfork and other prominent music blogs but, to be frank, those people are idiots. Excessive publicity aside, Girls made a really amazing record. Interesting song writing and Christopher Owens’ voice made most of the songs on Album impossible to not enjoy. Was there a better opening song on a local record this year than “Lust For Life” or a better almost seven minute slow tempo pop song than “Hellhole Ratrace”? No, there wasn’t.

4. Grand Lake – Nevermint
Grand Lake’s debut with their original 4 person line up blew me away when it was released in March. Short minimal pop songs became controlled explosions for all 7 tracks of Nevermint. The songwriting of Caleb Nichols is complemented perfectly by the wild guitar abstractions of Jameson Swanagon. Grand Lake may have moved on from these type of songs, but none the less Nevermint is one of the better listens from the East Bay scene this year.

5.Tall Grass – Nothing, Nothing Tra La La
Tall Grass made my favorite CD-R of 2009. The songwriting of Andrew Macey is both emotional and hilarious allowing it to touch the listener in a special and unique way. Like their performances, Tall Grass is best enjoyed in an intimate setting where you can feel as close to the acoustic guitar, fiddle, harmonies, and subtle percussion as possible.

-Glenn Jackson

The morning benders’ recently released "Promises", the first single from their new album Big Echo, as a free download from their website for a limited time. True Panther Sounds will release the 7′ single with the B-side "Oh Annie" in late February. Big Echo is due out on March 9th.

This entry is from our Open Blog. I don’t know a lot of whippersnappers, but all of the ones I do know seem to go to Berkeley High. How big is Berkeley High anyway? These kids definitely have talent but I can’t help but wonder, do they ever get beat up?

After meeting in the renowned Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble two years ago, Thirstbusters began performing Pop/Rock around the Bay Area. Incorporating jazz sensibilities, the young band puts on a diverse, energetic, and mature performance. Now at UCLA, UC Irvine, Oberlin and Vassar, the band always has a new exciting project waiting for them when they come home. In addition to having shows, they recorded and produced an album of all originals. The release of Time You Awake was a huge success last summer at Ashkenaz in Berkeley and the debut album is now on iTunes. Now the high-caliber music video takes Thirstbusters to a level unexpected from such recent high school graduates. They’re currently planning a California tour for next summer. With Zach Sorgen on vocals and keyboard, Ryan Thomas on guitar, Forrest Mitchell on drums, and Chase Jackson on bass, Thirstbusters realize that with inspiration, dedication, and a little elbow grease, the dream can become a reality. Thirstbusters are young, full of passion, and on their way. While maintaining their youth and feel-good vibe, this band is lyrically and musically on the forefront of creative output.

You can post about your band to our open blog by visiting this site.

-Nicole

As we leave behind a decade that saw the decline (if not near extinction) of the indie record label, those few survivors it seems are faced with certain existential questions. When, for less than the price of Friday night’s bar tab, practically any band or single recording can find it’s way onto the downloadable markets of iTunes and it’s ilk, and any small time musical flunky with an email can spam out copies of their songs to try and get the attention of blogs and other media (and boy do they spam), what is the roll of the indie record label here now in the future?
I suppose that question can be pawned off to someone else but for our purposes now, Gold Robot Records (a local Bay Area indie record label responsible for releases by railcars, lady genius, and others), having recently released the compilation Designed Entropy, at least has found a way to stay relevant in spite of the push towards the superfluous. Here perhaps is a bit of saving grace for the small label; it can serve as a road sign to local acts. Releasing compilations can be a great way to pull together talent and focus attention (often spread thin in this musical landscape) in appropriate directions.
Designed Entropy brings together three San Francisco acts and one Portland band for a tight sample of some great (mostly) electronic music. Further, being released as a 7inch (a process a bit more involved than throwing your rubbish onto the internet) Gold Robot Records has provided tactility, a fading quality of the album experience, to the listener. Though enough for now of this mumbo-jumbo, on to the meat of the EP: the music.
Side A of Designed Entropy features two tracks, the first "Exchange Among Systems" by Bomarr and the second "Karate Eyes" by Copy (Portland’s single contribution to the album). Both tracks sound as though they originated in the electronic music era of Kraftwerk. There is a certain simplicity to the tracks, built as a series of minimal electronic loops that, while in actuality were probably fastidiously arranged, sound as though they could have been composed on a very basic 70s synthesizer.
Though not from San Francisco, Copy’s contribution to this album might be my favorite. There is a certain levity and cheerfulness to it that is so sincere it demands a smile in spite of any cynicism (a welcome difference in quality than what I normally am found listening to). All in all the elemental sound in these songs makes them stand out in a genre in which simplicity far to often falls rapidly into the mundane.
If side A recalls the sounds of Kraftwerk, side B resembles much more the electronic sounds of Joy Division and New Order. Meanest Man Contest’s track “Takitani Edit” pounds out a dark piano riff over a subtle electronic mix with the vocals sounding something of a cross between Ian Curtis and Nick Cave. It’s a nice dark turn from the levity of the previous side.
A soothing ethereal finale Roman Ruins’ “Plea for Performance” rounds out the EP in a graceful outro. Owing much of its sound to New Order, “Plea for Performance” sounds as though it was recorded at the heyday of New Wave.
Certainly this EP, compiled by Gold Robot Records, is a good sampling of Bay Area electronica. It gives a good taste of what these bands, which may not have come so quickly to my attention, have to offer. As a series too, Designed Entropy promises to continue providing us with samples of different local artists, and hopefully provide Gold Robot with the relevance in needs to stay around.

-Ada Lann

San Francisco’s Birds & Batteries will be making their way over to the East Bay this Friday to play at Berkeley’s Starry Plough. They will be joined by East Bayer’s Winter’s Fall, Waste Band, and Forest Floor which should make the evening a fun mixture of synth pop, indie rock, and a touch of folk.

Birds & Batteries, Winter’s Fall, Waste Band and Forest Floor
@ The Starry Plough, Berkeley
Friday, January 8th

Starry Plough is located at 3101 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley
Cover is $8

SF Bay Area Deli readers,

We apologize for being a little slow lately with all things related to our Best of SF 2009 poll for emerging indie artists. Our NYC Readers’ Poll (which we recommend you to check out here) has brought an unexpected amount of traffic to our site, which has caused our server to crash several times yesterday, making us waste a lot of time. Because of this we decided to postpone slightly the beginning of some of the other cities’ readers’ polls, SF included.

Anyhoo… we just finished collecting the nominations from our knowledgeable and attractive panel of jurors and we are now ready to hit you all with an impressive list of awesome local, emerging and 100% independent artists. If you’d like to learn more about our voting process, please check out the rules here.

While we are organizing the list of nominees for the readers’ poll, we wanted to announce the winners of our SF Open Contest. For those unaware, this Contest is the part of our Best of SF Poll that nominates artists through an open submission system – while the majority of our finalists are freely selected by a jury of local bloggers, promoters and scenemakers. We’d like to thank all the artists who participated in our Open Contest, the ones who submitted directly, and the ones who qualified throughout 2009 by winning our monthly polls. Choosing the winners was not an easy decision to make for The Deli writers, which is a testament to our amazing music scene. We are happy to announce that the following artists qualified for the next phase of the poll:

Man/Miracle
James & Evander
Baby Dino
Orchestra of Antlers
The Music Lovers

Special congratulations to Man/Miracle (in the picture, playing in someone’s house with bad lighting) who were the overall winners of our Open Contest!



The SF Best of 2009 Readers’ has officially started… vote away!

The Deli SF staff

I’ve been an East Bay (mostly Oakland and Berkeley) resident for the better part of the last five years but really did not become a member of the music scene until 2009. I also must say that I really don’t make it out of the East Bay too often to see music, so the highlights of my year are obviously going to be slanted in favor of the Oakland/East Bay scene. Nothing against San Francisco, but the East Bay is my home and home to an amazing amount of talented people who make great music. If you are a big follower of the SF scene, then I will probably leave out some bands you think should be on my list but hopefully we can at least agree on a few things!

My Favorite Shows of 2009:

1. WHY? at Great American Music Hall, SF
I am a self-admitted WHY? fan boy and it was amazing to see them play their songs live. I can see how some people might think that WHY? is a band that would be better on record, seeing as much of their appeal can be attributed to the creative production found on their albums, but the bottom line is that they write amazing songs and are great musicians. Diehard fans of WHY? and newcomers alike were not let down and my fondness for this band has only grown since.

2. Any show where Grand Lake and Man/Miracle play together!
Is there a better pairing of bands in the East Bay than Grand Lake and Man/Miracle? I doubt it. Two completely different sounding bands that are great for different reasons but always bring more energy and intensity to their sets than most Oakland bands could even dream of. The best example of this was at the Ghost Town Gallery in November, both bands had us dancing in a drunken frenzy!

3. Tall Grass at Fort Gallery, Oakland
The now, unfortunately, defunct Fort Gallery was one of my favorite venues for the short time it was open and no show exemplifies what made that place so cool as Tall Grass’ CD release show. With about 30 to 40 of us sitting on the floor with cold beers from the nearby liquor store in hand, Tall Grass’s acoustic guitar, fiddle, and simple drums eased us into a state of awe, interrupted occasionally by bursts of laughter and giggling. A wonderful reminder of what makes Oakland such a beautiful place to witness live music.

4. Peter Stanley, Waste Band, and Silian Rail at Book Zoo, Oakland
On a cold winter night, three bands played an entirely acoustic show at a small bookstore on the edge of North Oakland and Berkeley. Rarely do you get to see bands play completely acoustic (no microphones, no amplifiers) and be blown away. Peter Stanley (of Winter’s Fall) began the evening with his twangy voice and acoustic guitar, followed by Waste Band’s guitar, baritone ukulele, and beautiful harmonizing voices. To cap off the night, math rock duo Silian Rail played an acoustic set with both members playing guitar (usually a guitar and drums duo). To hear their songs in the intimacy of a bookstore and the simpleness of two acoustic guitars showed the versatility and strength of their songwriting.

5. Vetiver at Treasure Island Music Festival
Vetiver had the tall task of playing in between Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Grizzly Bear on the cold and damp afternoon that was the second day of the Treasure Island Music Festival and they completely delivered. I was not very well versed in their recorded material prior to the performance so I wasn’t sure what to expect and was overwhelmed by the song writing and clear talent of the musicians playing. Definitely one of the better sounding bands at the festival, despite the wind and rain the band sounded clear and full and the songs were interesting and easily enjoyed.

-Glenn Jackson

Oakland hip hop veterans Themselves (Doseone and Jel) can usually be found on the more adventurous side of their genre, twisting, spinning, pushing, and at times ignoring hip hop’s limits while still keeping its roots and principles somewhere nearby. Their new record, Crownsdown, is Themselves’ attempt at creating 10 tracks that each represent an essential hip hop theme, i.e. the diss track, the dj track, the story rap, etc. Not an easy task, especially considering how muddied and forgotten the origins of hip hop have become to the common listener. For a genre that can at times seem to be stuck in its formula, Themselves bring new ideas and energy to hip hop with a respectable and well informed nod to where it came from.

Doseone’s (emcee for Themselves) style has evolved over the years, at times being a slow loose screeching mix of talking and singing and other times a sharp syncopated onslaught of rhythms and rhyme schemes. On Crownsdown Doseone raps with incredible syncopation, his voice and the drums seem locked on every syllable. The few times when he strays away from the beat only make you listen closer, paying attention to his words as he hangs them loosely around the rhythm. His lyrics are challenging and even sometimes hard to understand at first listen. Eventually, with a little effort, the random rapid-fire syllables begin to align and fall into place and a rich and complex world of poetry unfolds as you listen. The best example of this is probably the “dj track” “Skinning the Drum”. Doesone takes a concept that has been around since hip hop’s inception, an emcee given his dj props, and does something completely unique with it. After a chorus of cut up samples via Jel, Doesone begins “You CDJ press play on the mix nah/ I’m drum with no sticks till calloused of hand/ Blowing the glow of these computer can bands and step sequencer Rembrandts/ All me me me, myself, and an Ipod/ Getting jive on the hi hat and volume knob”. The song then ends with what is probably the best 4 lines of the record, “There’s a fine line between who invented it and who was wrenching it/ Who infected it and who protected it/ Who perfected it and who collected it, who came correct with it/ It aint your bag so why drag it.”

The beats for Crownsdown are crafted by Anticon and weird hip hop veteran Jel. His style has also evolved over the years becoming more complex and incorporating a vast amount of new influences and sounds. The beats on Crownsdown are much more electro than the Anticon beats of years ago. Trading in the slow string samples, bass lines, and compressed drums for synthesizers and up-tempo break beats that fit the current musical context well without sounding clichéd. Jel’s beats have layers of complexity and subtle nuances that aren’t found in a lot of modern hip hop production while still having an incredible ear for drum breaks and grooves. Although not the highlight of Crownsdown, Jel’s beats are solid and perfect for Doseone’s delivery and style.

Crownsdown is not, and probably wasn’t intended to be, a genre changing record. Hip hop is still stuck in its current state for who knows how long and no amount of genuinely creative and unique records is going to change that anytime soon. Underground and/or alternative artists will just have to keep challenging themselves and their listeners and be happy with what success comes from that. Themselves are a shining example of this type of artist and hopefully will continue to pull hip hop apart and put it back together for the love of it.

-Glenn Jackson

This week I’ve developed a new obsession with the video interview series "Whats In My Bag?" on Amoeba’s site. Its always facinating to get a glimpse into what has influenced musicians and the songs they create. Want to hear the members of Girls talk about some of their favorite albums? Or how about listening to turntablist DJ Qbert explain his method for selecting albums to sample? Did you know that British band The Horrors totally dig Wooden Shjips? Me neither! This is probably the closest thing to going CD shopping with them in person.

-Nicole

Your Cannons are the latest Bay Area band to be chosen by our readers as The Deli SF Artist of The Month. Their latest release The Dust Bowl EP is availible now and you can check them out January 19th at Bottom of the Hill.

What food item best describes your music?
Black licorice dogs, we have an endless supply in our studio, they inspire us.

What instrument have you wanted to include but have yet to find a way to fit into your sound?
I recently bought a Melodica because I thought I heard Brian Wilson play one on Cabin Essence on Smile. It will probably be on every song on the next EP

Embarrassing childhood memory?
Bon Jovi

What musical artist would you like to grab a beer with?
Not Thom Yorke, he once lent me 20 pence to buy a pint at a Strokes gig in Oxford, when I gave him his change he slowly counted it. Probably Nick McCabe.

And finally, time travel or space travel?
Definitely time travel. There’s so many amazing things that I’ve missed, the England World Cup win in ’66, Keith Moon drumming, being at the Joiners Arms in Southampton when The Verve played the ‘best gig ever,’ dinosaurs etc. Getting anywhere of interest in this universe involves a lot of waiting, stasis, and sleep, and that’s just not that exciting…

If your band has answers to The Deli SF’s Five Questions, forward them on to sfeditor@thedelimagazine.com

-Nicole

B and Not B have branched out from driving around the city in a U-Haul van playing impromptu covers of Led Zeppelin and are now driving around the Pacific Northwest performing original material from their yet to be released debut album. The Notes Within is the first in a series of videos that give a backstage look at the glamorous life that is being a Bay Area indie band shacking up in a single hotel room on the road. You can download the song for free at their site.

-Nicole