Self Care come back to life with “Just a Ghost”
North Bay indie outfit Self Care has been delving into the more ethereal side of indie rock in the last few years. Their new album Just a Ghost drops today via Earth Libraries records, and like the title suggests, the record is ghosty as hell. The album portrays the birth, life, and death of a romantic relationship from the POV of vocalist and songwriter Ryan Keller. Engineered and mixed by Kyle Lindauer, the new record is full of whatever the music equivalent of lens flare is. The band's affinity for dense and shimmering instrumentation is balanced by some lo-fi production aesthetics, [...]
Thao + The Get Down Stay Down release Zoom music video for “Phenom”
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down (photo: Jon Ching) Earlier this month, Oakland-based indie band Thao & The Get Down Stay Down released the music video for their latest single "Phenom." Shot entirely in a single take via the digital conferencing app Zoom, the music video is a brilliant adaptation to our current socially isolated environments. It's full of energy and choreographed remarkably. Eight dancers swirl around lead singer Thao Nguyen as they defy gravity, pass around and pour glasses of water, and construct a hulky body through multiple screens. The end product is simply mesmerizing, and a testament to the [...]
Video Premiere: Drift through Steinhart Aquarium with W.O.E.
Out of the current crisis will emerge a large quantity of artistic output, most certainly. For many musicians, isolation is not new: There's always another chord to loop, another vocal track to harmonize and another layer to agonize over before deleting for good. But this quarantined world is far away from sticky, beer-soaked floor of a venue or the backyards full of JUUL vapor. Memories of these immersive worlds are touchstones back to the familiar normalcy of the past, an escape that now seems filled with disease vectors. Though it may be changed forever, these experiences are a crucial piece [...]
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.
Video: Decent Criminal, “Bleached”
Hey, what you doing right now? Yeah that's what I thought. Here, take 4 minutes out of your busy day of Zoom meetings, bread baking, and fluctuating existential dread to watch the new Decent Criminal video. Their new single "Bleached" is a punchy little slice of West Coast punk rock to get your weekend started off right. And the video? You got face masks, zombies, and family drama, so you know I'm into it. Shittttt, can we go to live shows yet? No? Fine, just watch the damn video.
Boy Scouts release video for “Wish”
Boy Scouts (photo: Norm deVeyra) Last month, Oakland singer-songwriter Taylor Vick of Boy Scouts released "Wish," her first track since her most recent album Free Company, which was recorded entirely in a shipping container converted studio. "This song is an ode to reflecting on the past,” Vick explains. “Sorting through waves of nostalgia, and hoping for a future in which reflecting on aspects of the past can feel good, and what a privilege that is." Vick's silvery voice is thick with emotion and a yearning hope. The video beautifully manifests the nostalgia conveyed in the song's lyrics, set against a backdrop of [...]
Video Premiere: Schlee, “Run Run Baby”
Look around you. Doesn't it feel like you're living in a dream world right now? Can you even remember what life was like before this? My advice: go with it. Fall down the rabbit hole. And while you're down there, bump the new single from North Bay singer/songwriter Schlee's upcoming LP Tears. Entitled "Run Run Baby," the track is a sparsely-textured slice of dream-pop with tinges of Americana and electro wave with '80s. The psychedelic video will make you feel like you're walking on a long stretch of desert highway- parched, thirsty, broken down car — until Schlee's ethereal voice [...]
Zelma Stone releases music video for “Fly” off ‘Dreamland’ EP
Photo by Nikki Pratchios Last Friday, February 28, Zelma Stone released their music video for “Fly.” The track is punishingly tender, interrogating darkness by throwing open the curtains and forcing the light to pour in. Chloe Zelma Studebaker, lead singer and songwriter of Zelma Stone, recorded her track at Tiny Telephone, a local studio who you may remember from previous coverage of Abe Hollow and Ryan Von Gonten, and the whole affair is bathed in the signature analog warmth that defies specifics. The track and video are all self released, but their softness betrays none of the rough [...]
A new favorite: Glass Mountain Rodeo’s “Favorite Dudes”
After 2017’s mellow folk rock album Kerguelen, we’re pleased to see that Glass Mountain Rodeo just released “Favorite Dudes,” the first single off forthcoming Pond King. The album is twinged with Neil Young and Roy Orbison influences but with a gentler touch and the occasional pleasing sound effect. Song “Favorite Dudes” — and its accompanying, hilarious video — is a stand-out tune that has more of a Talking Heads meets Elvis Costello feel than the rest of the collection. Stay tuned for the second single, “Autocorrect,” with touches of country and dreamy sad clarinet touches (thanks, Carly Bond). Pond King [...]
Sour Widows release “Tommy” video, single
We’re stoked to present the latest from Sour Widows, the Oakland-based shoegaze dreamboats. “Tommy” hit the waves on January 31, ahead of the band's forthcoming self-titled EP (out February 28). The video features a few of Oakland’s iconic spots and some pretty adorable shots of the band members doing things like eating doughnuts, petting kitties and playing gigs. Shout out to that Weezer-reminiscent guitar melodies and that solo. The band has a lot more in the works this spring. They’ll be starting up their West Coast tour with LA-based Cryogeyser then heading to SXSW to play the Phluff unofficial showcase, [...]