True Widow will make heavy yet sultry sounds at Brick + Mortar this weekend
Words by Cat Jones Despite largely appealing to fans of metal and other ultra-heavy varieties of music, True Widow is a dark beast of an entirely different variety. Rather than rooting itself in guttural vocals and blast beats, True Widow’s sultry and somehow sinister riffs land somewhere between stoner rock, old-school country, and shoegaze — which was lovingly dubbed “stonegaze” early on in their career. Like the musical embodiment of a dark and beautiful stranger staring at you from the corner of a dimly lit biker bar, their records feel both dangerous and sensual — a very difficult combination of [...]
Treasure Island update: Set times announced, two new artists added to the lineup!
Yesterday, the 2016 Treasure Island Music Festival announced the set times for this weekend's festivities (reprinted above). The set-times-reveal is often the most stressful part of planning to attend a music festival, as a previously-enticing list of performing acts gets winnowed down by conflicting sets on stages far apart from each other. Not so at Treasure Island! The complete absence of overlapping set times between stages means that there are no hard decisions to make. If you're wearing comfortable shoes and strategically time your restroom visits, you can see every minute of every band on the poster. Moreover, each day's [...]
Helms Alee bring heavy sounds to Hemlock this week
Words by Jordan Martich As Seattle-based band Helms Alee tours in support of their newest album Stillicide, experiences are becoming unbelievable for drummer Hozoji Matheson-Margullis. This is their longest tour to date, and they've been juxtaposed with sludge-riff legends The Melvins for almost two months, meeting up with longtime comrades Russian Circles afterward. Awestruck at performing on the same bill as a band she's admired for so long, Matheson-Margullis was floored when all of Helms Alee was asked to close out the show by playing along supergroup style to “Night Goat,” reworking the classic song into a loud, magnificent event. [...]
Playlist: Get ready for the 2016 Treasure Island Music Festival with over three hours of TIMF jams
There are a lot of music festivals these days, but few offer the all-around excellence of the 2016 Treasure Island Music Festival, coming up on October 15 and 16. True to form, the tenth installment of this annual favorite offers a diverse lineup of rock, hip hop, and electronic artists, with some strong local representation as well. Plus, the fact that there are NO OVERLAPPING SETS means that you can see every minute of over two-dozen performances over the course of the festivities. To get ready for TIMF 2016, check out this Spotify playlist below, which features three and a [...]
Live This Month: October 2016 — an audio guide to upcoming SF concerts
http://media.libsyn.com/media/thebaybridged/LTM_October_2016.mp3 Download: Live This Month: October 2016 (Podcast #394) Support for this podcast is provided by Goldstar. Visit their web site at goldstar.com/thebaybridged In Live This Month, we sample some of the great local and out-of-town bands performing in the coming month in the San Francisco Bay Area. This episode kicks off with a song from Tycho, one of many great acts performing at the 2016 Treasure Island Music Festival. From Saturday opener Kamaiyah through Sunday closer Sigur Rós, both days are stacked at the tenth installment of one of our favorite annual events. The fact that this year's fest [...]
Premiere: Listen to Light Fantastic’s dreamy new album ‘Out of View’
Even without learning that Light Fantastic is a San Francisco band, Out of View feels unmistakably like a Northern California album. The group's sound is equal parts jangly surf-rock and hazy dream-pop, familiar elements crafted here into something uniquely rich. The music is dense without being cacophonous, and strong melodies abound. Light Fantastic is led by singer and songwriter Terry Sowers, formerly part of Farmer Dave Scher's band, who recorded the album with Rex John Shelverton. Shelverton crafted some great music collaborating with Tamaryn and he and Sowers have created a winner here. But don't take our word for it: [...]
Mixtape: New Releases from Some of the Bay Area’s Best Record Labels
http://media.libsyn.com/media/thebaybridged/Record_Labels_2016_Mixtape.mp3 Download: Mixtape: New Releases from Some of the Bay Area's Best Record Labels (Podcast #393) Support for this podcast is provided by Goldstar. Visit their web site at goldstar.com/thebaybridged The post first ran on KQED.org. A record label may not be a necessity for a musician in 2016, considering the remarkable ease with which anyone can record an album and put it out into the world, and its benefits may not be obvious to some, given the precarious state of the music industry as a whole. Still, amidst the sea of countless new releases every week, there's undeniable value [...]
Stinky’s Al Fresco takes us back to the strange late ’90s
Words by Jordan Martich Join us this weekend back in the strange days of the late '90s, when Stinky's Peepshow gained attention as a thrilling weekly exhibition of the bands, booze, and babes that defined the City by the Bay's underground scene. Current talent booking agent for Thee Parkside Audra Angeli-Morse threw the city's wildest party with Stinky's back then, and is now expanding the idea into a two-day festival called Stinky's Al Fresco, happening this weekend, September 24 and 25. Angeli-Morse started booking a weekly event in 1997 at The Covered Wagon Saloon, where Stinky's Peepshow built crowds and [...]
Sponsored: Get ready for Fall at The Fillmore
Though there's a chill in the air outside (depending on where you are in the Bay — sorry, Livermore), Fall is shaping up to be a hot season at The Fillmore. With a calendar full of quality, well-curated acts that bring energy, emotion, and just plain fun to the storied Fillmore stage, chances are there are a few you won't want to miss. Fans of rootsy rock 'n' roll can get out to Welsh band Catfish and the Bottlemen next week, and those looking for more traditional funk, jazz, and hip-hop sounds with a global flair will love The Soul [...]
Mixtape: The Adventurous Sounds of San Francisco Bay Area Post-Rock
http://media.libsyn.com/media/thebaybridged/Post_Rock_2016_Mixtape.mp3 Download: Mixtape: The Adventurous Sounds of Bay Area Post-Rock (Podcast #392) Support for this podcast is provided by Goldstar. Visit their web site at goldstar.com/thebaybridged The post first ran on KQED.org. Despite the festival-headlining status of Explosions in the Sky, the resurgent Godspeed! You Black Emperor, and the lengthy careers of bands like Mogwai, it often feels like post-rock doesn't get its due. Perhaps it's the genre's terrible name, although is it any worse than "shoegaze"? Or maybe it's a perception that mostly-instrumental, composition-focused rock music sounds more like a novelty than fertile terrain for bands to explore. As [...]