Review + Photos: serpentwithfeet at Swedish American Hall
serpentwithfeet (photo: Jon Bauer) "I wanna get messy with y'all," serpentwithfeet said to the sold-out crowd at Swedish American Hall on Sunday. And though the show was messy, in the colloquial sense, it was also the breeziest I've been to in recent memory —rather than bagging down his performance, serpentwithfeet's emotionality rendered his set more intimate, warm, and easy. Throughout it — as serpentwithfeet chatted, read poems, and floated around the stage — the hall filled with genuine affection, both from the artist and the crowd. This glow was reflected, too, in the decor of the venue itself: instead of the usual [...]
Photos: Let It Bleed featuring Sasami, KERA at the Independent
Sasami (photo: Kaiya Gordon) "Let it Bleed," Sea Witch Productions' yearly "rock and roll tampon drive," is special — not just because it's designed to collect tampons for houseless people in San Francisco, or that Sea Witch's zine is available for purchase at the show, but because the lineup is filled with innovative performers both from the Bay Area and beyond. This year, Humid, Kera (of Kera and the Lesbians), Empath, and Sasami took the stage. While the artists performed through hazed, swirling visuals (created by hand, using glass plates, dye, and a projector), Sea Witch collected menstrual products to donate [...]
Review + Photos: Snail Mail at Swedish American Hall
Snail Mail (photo: William Wayland) So, here we are: my first San Francisco show since moving away for graduate school one year ago. I'm back for the summer, or at least part of it, and it feels good — good to tire myself out walking up and down hills, to reunite with my one true love the Pacific Ocean, and to (finally!) eat a really good burrito. I first saw Snail Mail live when the band — the project of Lindsey Jordan — opened for Waxahatchee at the Fillmore. Then, as now, I was struck with the apparent clarity in Jordan's [...]
Noise Pop: Father/Daughter is the hardest-working label in SF
From now until the start of Noise Pop, we'll be profiling some of our favorite artists playing the festival this year. This time we're profiling Father/Daughter, the now-legendary SF label gathering some of the Bay and beyond's best and brightest. Jessi Frick and her father, Ken, live 3,000 miles away from each other. But in 2010, the two came up with a plan to make that long distance feel a little shorter: they founded Father/Daughter Records, and started releasing music out of their respective living rooms. In the years since, Father/Daughter has grown in both size and notoriety. The label [...]
Review + Photos: Vagabon at the Fillmore
Vagabon (photo: Kaiya Gordon) Lætitia Tamko made one of the most empathetic, deft albums of 2017 with Infinite Worlds. Yet somehow, if possible, Tamko's talents shine even brighter in her live performance — her voice sounds easy, clear, and full, and her toggles between guitar, keyboards, and synth look almost effortless. Or, as I said to friends after I saw her set, TBH, Vagabon shreds. At the Fillmore on December 28th, Tamko played in advance of Cherry Glazerr. The bands have vastly different approaches to live performance — Tamko's set was strikingly intimate, feeling almost like we were watching her play in [...]
One year after Ghost Ship, Chasms return to SF
Photo by Jess Garten Much has changed since the last time I spoke with Chasms. Last October, I met the duo of Jess Labrador and Shannon Sky Madden in a San Francisco taqueria next door to the venue hosting their album release show for On the Legs of Love Purified. Now, I dial their LA number from the shelter of my Columbus bedroom. In the year since their debut album dropped and we chatted amidst warm clouds of tortillas, the band has, along with moving to Los Angeles, experienced deep periods of grief and loss. These days, Labrador tells me, [...]
Reparations Rock: FUPU brings joy and power to punk
“You can’t like FUPU if you aren’t physically doing something to make the world a place of access and equality for Black humans; femme humans; LGTBTQ humans; poor humans,” says Uhuru Moor. “People are [neglecting] that we are demanding reparations for Black people right now, that we are demanding land, that we are demanding clean water, that we are demanding shelter, that we are demanding what has been stolen, raped, robbed, and pillaged, [and] that we want it right now, and we make this music for that.” Moor, who goes by The Uhuruverse onstage, is one fourth of LA-based band [...]
Review + Photos: Green Day at the Oakland Coliseum
Green Day (photo: SarahJayn Kemp) Two years ago, I injured my knee screaming “Basket Case” at a karaoke party. The lingering injury is just one of countless ways Green Day has impacted me throughout the years; many of my most memorable elementary and middle school moments can be conjured by the opening notes of a Green Day song, and their music has threaded myself and my childhood friends together, even as we live our adult lives. I’m not going to lie to you and say that I grew up at 924 Gilman, or that I saw Green Day before they were [...]
NRVS LVRS talk ‘Electric Dread,’ play Bottom of the Hill tonight
(photo: Peter Prato) San Francisco's NRVS LVRS have been a Bay Area fixture 2014. On their latest album, Electric Dread, the duo skillfully plays with intersections between hard rock, haunting vocals, and sound engineering. The album's composition is surprising and engaging — it's the type of music you want to play more than once. Electric Dread comes out today, June 30, on Hz Castle Records. To celebrate the release, they play Bottom of the Hill tonight. In advance of the show, we caught up with NRVS LVRS to ask them about the influences and processes behind their latest release. The Bay Bridged: [...]
On ‘Silver Haze,’ Aye Nako opens a window into their world
(photo: Chris Sikich) MIRROR After I ask Mars Dixon and Jade Payne of Aye Nako to confirm the pronouns used by each member of the band, they ask me about my pronouns, which feels good. It’s a little after 10am in San Francisco, and the two are calling me from their car in Minnesota, where they just wrapped up another show on their national tour. I imagine the two of them weaving through the country, trying to contextualize their journey with the imperfect visuals I can imagine: As a slowly-moving dot on a map, or a cartoon car racing through [...]