Maggie Gently releases “Alive” ahead of May 29 EP
Photo cred: Amayah Harrison We’re stoked on this week’s release from a San Francisco pop-punk favorite. EP Good Cry arrives this Friday from queer indie artist Maggie Gently, the solo project of Maggie Grabmeier (formerly of The Total Bettys). “The songs on Good Cry were written during the dark winter days in the middle of a painful friend breakup,” shares Grabmeier. “Good Cry became an album of processing doubt, learning to trust yourself, and eventually seeing a glimmer of a future where things are OK. The songs on this album became healing affirmations that you can be a thoughtful, forgiving [...]
Debut album ‘Evan Myall’ is terribly lovely
Known for playing with psych rock group Sleepy Sun for the last decade, Evan Myall Reiss (who drops the last name as an artist) released his debut, self-titled album Evan Myall today and it is a collection worth tuning into and turning up. Though there are still touches of psych rock a la Sleepy Sun, Evan Myall is full of sweet harmonies, warm strings, a gentle touch of the space synth (“Weep” even has a grungy feel). Track “Forever Mine” has great lyrical concepts and cute harmonies like the kiss of a Beach Boy in the background. Throughout the album [...]
Supporting BFF.fm keeps the music coming and shines a silver lining
We’ve all been hearing stories of resilience, boundary pushing (in a good way), and communities coming together in new ways. One of our biggest sources of togetherness during the times of shutdown has been livestreaming and radio. “Radio stations are considered an essential business,” says Amanda Guest, founder and director of Best Frequencies Forever, better known as BFF.fm. “So we could have just kept doing things the way we were doing them, but we were concerned as a community, because we have a very diverse group of 125 DJs — that’s a lot of people coming in and out of [...]
Premiere: Baybs’ dreamy “Would You Dare”
(photo: Nikki Pratchios) After the release of last year’s single “You’re the Only One,” we’ve been ready and waiting for Baybs’ next dreamy pop tune and were delighted to put our ears to the band’s newest single, “Would You Dare” off their forthcoming EP, Introvertigo. Baybs is the musical project of San Francisco-based artist Craig Jacobs, whose collaborators include backup vocalist Melissa Russi, Timothy Vickers on bass and keys, along with Kyle DeMartini on lead guitar and most recently, Chloe Zelma Studebaker (Zelma Stone) on back up vocals. Jacobs, who in addition to singing these fine tunes plays guitar and [...]
May Day! Bandcamp takes no cut 5/1
Somehow the weeks have flown by and it’s almost May. Not to put words in Bandcamp’s mouth, but what I can only assume is in honor of May Day, the music streaming service is waiving their fees on the 1st of May. Now is a solidly wonderful time to buy music — digitally or records!? — because 100% of that hard-earned dinero will go straight to the artists. What about a pre-order of one of the Bay Area’s finest, Healing Potpourri? Excuse me? That baseline and those vocals? Get out of my car and into my life, or however that [...]
‘Murder in the Front Row’: An interview with director Adam Dubin
When Adam Dubin set out to film Murder in the Front Row, a documentary about the beginnings of the Bay Area thrash metal scene, it wasn’t supposed to be through the eyes of a musicologist &mdsah; which he admits he is not. “I’m interested in how people felt,” Dubin says. “What was going on at the time and what people were responding to — the musicians themselves and their fans.” Dubin — well-known director of many Beastie Boys music videos, including the hilarious “Fight for your Right” — had worked with Metallica for over 25 years before he approached them [...]
Rogue Wave’s “Aesop Rock” is a solid return
After a two-year hiatus, Oakland’s Rogue Wave released their new single “Aesop Rock,” a pleasing response to rapper Aesop Rock’s single “Rogue Wave” released in January. The catchy indie pop-rock tune has great guitar leads paired with bubbly synths and percussive motion that charges the song forward and begs a little repeat. For the release of the single, the band teamed up with San Francisco's The Tipping Point, a nonprofit that works to break the cycle of poverty in the Bay Area. It’s an important organization working to help community members get the resources they need when their needs are not being [...]
Video: Hectorine’s “Your Severed Hand”
A year after the release of Hectorine’s debut, self-titled album, on April 7 the San Francisco space folk group released the music video for the album's closing track, “Your Severed Hand." Fans of the seventies-inspired folk are likely to enjoy the seventies-style video, which features such high-tech features as soft lighting, trippy fades and double exposures bringing you from one white-suited Sarah Gagnan to the other. In a time where it feels like dreams are all we have, as the song says, this is exactly the type of sweet reverie we’d like to fall into. Channel it, girl.
Wednesdays at Wally’s live show featuring Oakland’s Alycia Lang alongside others
In honor of today’s Wednesdays at Wally’s online streaming concert for Hyde Street Studio C, we’d like to showcase the first artist on the lineup, one Alycia Lang. The Oakland-based singer-songwriter’s music rests somewhere in the lovely space between folk and jazz and is surrounded in mesmerizing vocals. Lang recorded her latest EP at Hyde Street and as she tells the Bay Bridged, “It feels good to be taking my set online with them!” In the weekly show where the Hyde Street crew use their expertise and recording set-up to offer improved audio quality for streaming concerts. As Lang puts [...]
Once + Future Band’s “Freaks” is freakin good
Photo Cred: Rob Williamson This month, Oakland’s Once & Future Band released two fresh singles off their forthcoming album, Deleted Scenes. Single “Freaks” is a tune with that jumps in with an energetic baseline and snarky, relatable break up lyrics. Songs have a touch more of a rock and roll pop vibe than their first album but those ELO and Paul McCartney influences are woven strongly throughout. Once & Future Band manages to sound epic yet grounded, fantastical yet relatable, and lord bless them, likable. Deleted Scenes is out April 10 on Castle Face Records and in the meantime, support your [...]