Cool Ghouls release video with Yours Truly, announce tour
In the past year, Cool Ghouls hasn’t just become one of the best local rock n’ roll bands - the quartet is taking the San Francisco music scene by the hand and running with it. Worried about the so-called departure of a certain upbeat garage rock local hero? Look no further than Cool Ghouls debut LP and vibrant live show. In case you haven’t caught the band live yet, now’s the time. Cool Ghouls kicked off their US tour last night at the Rickshaw Stop alongside Mikal Cronin, setting forth on eleven scheduled stops before returning to Brick and Mortar [...]
Giveaway: Astronauts, Etc., Waterstrider, There's Talk at Slim's
Astronauts, Etc and Waterstrider are co-headlining a dreamy evening of pop at Slim's Saturday night, and we have a pair of tickets up for grabs. Astronauts, Etc's frontman Anthony Ferraro has been playing keys for Toro y Moi's most recent tour, and will be heading to Australia and New Zealand for some Toro y Moi dates Down Under shortly after the show. He plans to release an EP later this year. Waterstrider just dropped a cover of Little Dragon's "Twice", and are preparing to release a full-length album for release this year as well. There's Talk opens the evening. To [...]
Jay Stone – '16th & Adeline' EP
I'm really excited about Bay Area hip-hop these days, and Jay Stone is yet another shining example of the strength of the local scene. On 16th & Adeline, named for the location of producer Trippy Swaggert's apartment where the album was recorded, Stone takes on Swaggert's challenging beats with ease. "He gave me some beats that were like tailor made to my style, it was crazy!", Stone tells me. "The instrumentation really carved a path for me to take the music to another place." "Ayahuasca", my favorite track on the album, is also the most experimental. For the heart of [...]
Videos: The Younger Lovers – "Hey Now" / "Get Up, Get Up"
Sugar in My Pocket is the third LP from Brontez Purnell's The Younger Lovers, and it's available now on Southpaw Records. The collection was recorded by Warm Soda's Matthew Melton and it's catchy as hell. Enjoy videos for "Hey Now" and "Get Up, Get Up" below and stream the whole album after the jump. The Younger Lovers will be performing at The Night Light this Friday night. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84OK_3nTszA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VSHrgg_U5E
Giveaway: See Pickwick at The Chapel this week!
Pickwick's tour of the western United States comes to The Chapel this Thursday, January 9th, promising a rocking good time from the Seattle sextet known for great live shows. More good news: we have tickets to give away! To enter for a chance to win tickets to see Pickwick at The Chapel, email contest@thebaybridged.com with "Pickwick" in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the email. A winner will be selected at random and notified via email. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yULM3MMe1mo&feature=youtu.be
Kool A.D. releases 'Not OK' mixtape
Reflecting on the state of local music in 2013, SF Weekly's Ian Port recently wrote, "Acts, whether they play rock, dance, or increasingly hip-hop, are now defined by the particular slice of the past they evoke." While I agree legions of local garage rockers constantly try to evoke the past, there's a growing supply of Bay Area hip hop that is constantly looking to the future. Bay Area native Kool A.D.'s Not OK is a great showcase of a Bay Area hip-hop scene that is continuing to move forward. Kool (aka Victor Vazquez) enlisted several local producers to provide beats, [...]
Bill Baird releases 'Bill Sings Will' cassette
Oakland's Bill Baird just released an album of covers, Bill Sings Will, on Curly Cassettes. Bill shared some thoughts with me on creating the album: I can never do things the easy way, though, so instead of just recording me strumming and singing (which might be purer in a sense, but my mood right now is wilder, woolier, and in search of strange colors), I set about re-framing the songs. You know, create a strange shape around a normal song. Shift the ground beneath its feet. See what that does to the song. Shift the context. See how much of [...]
Best of 2013: Eric Barleen on Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers
2013 was the year of the Grambler! Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers embody so much of what this incredible city and area of the country have to offer from a musical standpoint and a general approach to life. Another Planet Entertainment manages the band, so I’ve have had the opportunity to witness the transformation of Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers from the sideline. What started as part of a delicate, harmonizing folk duo alongside husband Tim Bluhm (The Mother Hips), Nicki has propelled herself (and the Gramblers) into the spotlight of a true Americana-induced soul and blues rock band. There [...]
WillCall New Year's Eve club takeover
Pretty much every New Year's Eve I’ve known since entering adulthood has been cursed with the same question: “What to do?” Option 1: spend way too much money on tickets to a monstrously large NYE festival event for which you may have to travel. Option 2: Keep it casual at a friend’s house or house party, or maybe even a dive bar if the night goes there. Option 3: Find a good show with a great artist playing and take the night from there. Ultimately, option 3 always sways me – it’s just planned enough so that I have a [...]
Best of 2013: Daniel Senter’s 2013 East Bay highlights
I joined The Bay Bridged staff as a Production Associate last spring, and it has been endlessly enjoyable to be pulled deeper into the sonic recesses of the Bay Area’s various scenes by TBB. As an Oakland resident, my Best of list just happened to trend toward the Bay’s warmer side, so I went with it. A few 2013 East Bay highlights, in no particular order: Glenn Jackson – Morning Swim EP The sounds are bright, breathy, and totally groovy. This three song solo debut from Oakland’s Glenn Jackson is house music to be enjoyed outside – whether on a [...]