Live This Month: May 2018 — an audio guide to upcoming Bay Area concerts
Download: Live This Month: May 2018 (Podcast #427) 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. Our May mix of concert picks features new and recent local music from DONCAT, Coke, Ezra Furman, and Mystic Priestess. There's also a ton of excellent local hip hop in this mix, including Ruby Ibarra, Kamaiyah, and Beejus, who is one of many artists performing at our 2018 Southside Festival on May 19. Seattle's Special Explosion offers one of this month's highlights from touring bands, as does [...]
Best of 2016: Russell Jelinek’s favorite local lyrical moments
I've never been one to sit down and follow along to the lyrics when I listen to an album, but there were a few lyrical moments from local artists that really punched me in the gut this year. Here are some of my favorites. "I got big money, all facts, petty bitches can fall back" - Kamaiyah on E-40's "Petty": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXKjMGCSADg The words aren't exactly thought-provoking, but Kamaiyah's delivery of this line made me stop what I was doing, spin around, grin ear-to-ear, and immediately start the song over just to get to this line again. The choppy cadence leading [...]
Best of 2016: Pranav Trewn’s Bay Area Rap Hall of Fame
You’ll probably hear that 2016 hip-hop belonged to Atlanta. This is the year the region’s most prominent ambassadors cemented their status as national icons. Young Thug released three increasingly excellent commercial mixtapes that culminated with his greatest work yet, this summer’s JEFFERY, which nabbed him a handful of radio staples with “Digits” and the Travis Scott-assisted “Pick Up The Phone” along the way. Meanwhile, Future became a verifiable festival-topper, Drake tour mate, and bona fide rock star, landing his very own Rolling Stone cover over the summer. 2016 also saw the breakthroughs of sure-to-be career artists in 21 Savage and [...]
Treasure Island Music Festival 2016 lineup announced
Pay attention, party people: The Treasure Island Music Festival lineup has landed. Featuring performances from Neon Indian, Car Seat Headrest, Kamaiyah, Sigur Ros, and many, many more, this years's roster is outpaces most of the festival's lineups in recent history. With varied artists spanning several genres but all sharing a common theme of being emerging and long-respected talents — this year's Treasure Island is set to be a stunner. Now in its 10th year, Treasure Island has grown into one of the most attractive festivals in the Bay Area and beyond. This will be its last year on the island [...]
Mixtape: Highlights and More from South by Southwest 2016
http://media.libsyn.com/media/thebaybridged/SXSW_2016_Mix.mp3 Download: Mixtape: Highlights from South by Southwest 2016 (Podcast #382) Every March, thousands of aspiring bands flock to Austin, Texas for South by Southwest Music, a week-long event functioning as part conference, part music festival, and an all-around great opportunity to sample some of the world's best acts. The sheer number of options blanketing the Texas capital during the festival can be overwhelming, but it remains one of the premier places to discover new and emerging bands. That's the view from a music fan's perspective, mind you. For a musician, the degree to which South by Southwest performances might [...]
Oakland’s Kamaiyah releases debut mixtape “A Good Night in the Ghetto”
The first time I heard Young Thug I was astounded by the rapper’s playful use of cadence, and how he didn’t so much say words as stretch them into different shapes and sizes to wield them as an assortment of verbal weapons. He’s Willy Wonka channeled through Harry Houdini; capable of conjuring these infectious turns of phrase out of otherwise unassuming minor key instrumentals. You can almost chew on a Young Thug song — his raps coalesce like syrup over the boat, turning a popular contemporary sound into his own concoction. Oakland rapper Kamaiyah doesn’t hold the same technical command [...]