Video Premiere: Meet The Cherries with “Welcome Back”
The Cherries is a new SF band featuring former members of Permanent Collection, The Broonies, and Grandma's Boyfriend. The group's first video, "Welcome Back," is a extremely catchy slice of noisy, poppy punk that we're premiering below. http://vimeo.com/138308990 Hopefully we'll hear more from the band in the near future, and you can check them out live this Sunday night at the Hemlock Tavern, with Colleen Green and Jaill.
Video Premiere: Watch a relationship unfold in Anna Hillburg’s “Your Room”
The song "Your Room" kicks off the self-titled debut LP from San Francisco's Anna Hillburg. The Greg Ashley-recorded album arrived a few years ago on California Clap, but it definitely merits a fresh listen with the arrival of this great new video. Directed by Zack Kasten, the clip tracks the singer-songwriter's relationship with a boyfriend played by Lars Kullberg of The Gris Gris, and the highs and lows the two experience feel authentic and relatable. Adding to that lived-in feeling: apparently the video was shot over a few years. It was definitely worth the wait. https://vimeo.com/138284911 Hillburg was one-half of [...]
Shannon & the Clams celebrate ‘Gone by the Dawn’ release Friday at Great American Music Hall
Shannon and the Clams have been one of my favorite local bands since 2011. They have been a band I've supported wholeheartedly throughout the years. A band that I've listened to during some of the worst times of my life and a band that has given me some of the best memories of my life. I will always get starstruck when I see Shannon Shaw out and about, because the 19 year old inside me that cried along to her voice just freezes when I see her. They met at the same college I went to (California College of the [...]
Michael Stasis releases ‘RIP III’
Although Michael Stasis has left the Bay Area for LA (where else?), we're happy to see that his delightfully weird pop stylings have found a proper release on Montreal's Arbutus Records. Stasis, who in addition to his solo work also released a snowboarding concept album although neither he nor his bandmates snowboarded, has compiled something of a "greatest hits" album for RIP III, with selections from his collection of more than 200 songs. Always one to embrace the oddities of life, Stasis has also shared a video for the track "Necklace", in which he performs magic tricks to woo a [...]
bAd bAd drops some videos; shows forthcoming
In support of their most recent release, Waterboredom, bAd bAd has released a pair of videos for your enjoyment. Earlier this summer, they dropped a stop-motion animation romp for "Dump", directed and shot by bAd bAd guitarist Michael Zamora in Boston. Among other things, it features shredded paper vomit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYr_IPsgP2Q For the quasi-instrumental "Untitled", found footage visuals of desert and western scenes make the connection to a spaghetti western sound they eveke at times. With every release, the band continues to add layers and complexity to their original "Turkish surf mariachi". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcsLoXbgUI4&feature=youtu.be The aforementioned Waterboredom is available on cassette from [...]
Golden Void offers first single from new LP ‘Berkana’
It's been three years since stellar local psych-rock band Golden Void first impressed us with the band's self-titled debut. Come September, the quartet will release its second LP, Berkana, on Thrill Jockey. The band -- Isaiah Mitchell (guitar/vocals), Camilla Saufley-Mitchell (keyboards/vocals), Aaron Morgan (bass) and Justin Pinkerton (drums) -- recorded the new album at Tim Green's Grass Valley studio, layering instruments to add new depth to the top-notch heaviness. Check out "Dervishing" below and mark September 19th on your calendar. That's when Golden Void will be co-headlining The Chapel and celebrating Berkana's release. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwx26cwZWSY Golden Void, Mermen, Kehoe International The [...]
Bay Area’s OVVN release live video and new tape ‘Two Lives’
(OVVN live at Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, photo by Leslie) With members hailing from West Oakland and small, North Bay redwood enclave Guerneville, OVVN have spent the last year cultivating an edgy, provocative sound that is truly a breath of fresh air in a music landscape saturated with cookie-cutter pop and hardcore. Although some might find the effected vocals to be a kitschy calling card, I think they compliment OVVN's bleak, and wiry brand of dissonance quite well. Just last month the group released their second tape, entitled Two Lives. It's a more upbeat batch of songs than last years b l o vv n, [...]
Get to know: Wild Couch
Wild Couch is a San Francisco folk band that according to member Will Skinner began "with casual acoustic jam sessions and then mutated into overdrive banjo solos and heavy metal drumming." Eventually, they recorded their debut album Ottoman Empire at Tiny Telephone, which was released earlier this summer. The album is a combination of songs written over five years ago and others written just a few days before their recording session. Tracks such as "Metronome" take the band's traditional instruments in unique directions that separate the band from bluegrass and folk traditionalists. Listen to Ottoman Empire in its entirety below, [...]
Superhumanoids kick off tour at Rickshaw Stop
Superhumanoids' 2013 release, Exhibitionits, is the kind of album you don't realize you've had on repeat for hours until your nearest co-worker starts to flag down HR out of concern. You can fixate on the exuberant and bright 80's sounds of "So Strange" and "Too Young For Love" just as much as the dark hypnotizing synth of "Bad Weather". Thankfully, the LA-based three piece will soon enough provide more to further ingrain in our minds. Their second full length album, Do You Feel Ok?, is set for a September 11th release via Innovative Leisure. The first two singles that have [...]
The Greening premiere video for “Unifier”
Psych-pop rockers The Greening have a headtrip of a new music video out based on their single "Unifier." It's a brain-scrambling masterpiece, a beautifully disconcerting swirl of kaleidoscopic imagery and slow-motion effects with a seductively surreal vibe that will suck you in and won't let go for the nearly four minute runtime. The visuals mesh seamlessly with the entrancing music: the slinky electronic groove, the atmospheric synths, the understated vocal melodies. This one is not to be missed, and once you see it, good luck forgetting it. You can catch the band live at the Milk Bar on August 29th [...]