In August of 2013, San Francisco’s French Cassettes self-released one of the year’s highlights from around the Bay, the band’s debut LP Gold Youth. That stellar album is now is getting the limited edition, random-colored cassette re-release treatment from Oakland-based label Off The Air Recordings, and we have the exclusive on a new bonus track, “Little Shoes (Almost Accoustic)”.
Gold Youth‘s new cassette release is due Tuesday, May 20, 2014, and French Cassettes and Off The Air will fête the occasion at two separate shows – one in the City and then one in the band and label’s native Central Valley. The local show is Friday, May 23 at Bottom of the Hill and also features Black Cobra Vipers, Elskling (Waters, Social Studies), and DJ Honeycomb Brown. The second show is the following Thursday, May 29 at Deva Cafe in Modesto, with Night School and Machine Lovers supporting.
This new partnership between French Cassettes and Off The Air isn’t the first time the two crossed paths and, in fact, their shared roots and past collaborations began in 2007 in the Central Valley – in October of that year, Off The Air hosted French Cassettes’ debut performance in Modesto, which set the wheels in motion for the band’s slow and steady rise to becoming one of the Bay’s most promising young acts. Off The Air Recordings is now the sole focus of the former Modesto-based DIY production company Off The Air that provided a venue for independent music in that area of the state from 2005-2013, working with hundreds of acts including the likes of Jason Lytle, Sea of Bees, Emily Jane White and Two Sheds.
The new cassette release of Gold Youth will feature a limited edition button with a line drawing of the French Cassettes’ mascot Sprout the Cat. And, in keeping with the Central Valley-based theme of this project, the bonus track features the talents of other notable musicians on the Off The Air Recordings roster who began playing shows in Modesto and are now stationed in the Bay Area, including Travis Vick, Taylor Vick (Boy Scouts), and Rose Droll (Matt & Rosie, Emily Jane White). Preorder one of 200 cassettes on Off The Air’s Bandcamp, and then stream “Little Shoes (Almost Acoustic)” below, exclusively here on The Bay Bridged.
French Cassettes, Black Cobra Vipers, Elskling, DJ Honeycomb Brown
Bottom of the Hill
May 23, 2014
9:30pm, $10 (all ages)
French Cassettes, Night School, Machine Lovers
Deva Cafe
May 29, 2014
Details TBA
