Mixtape: The Orchestral Side of San Francisco Indie Rock (Podcast #317)
http://media.libsyn.com/media/thebaybridged/Chamber_Rock_Mix.mp3 Download: Mixtape: The Orchestral Side of San Francisco Indie Rock (Podcast #317) Guitars and drums may make up the core of indie rock, but a considerable number of Bay Area artists also use instruments more traditionally associated with an orchestra than a rock band. Adding strings, horns or woodwinds might seem pretentious to some -- and, admittedly, genre names like "chamber rock" and "orchestral pop" probably don't help that assessment -- but, when used deftly, these instruments can heighten a song's emotion, add weight to dynamic shifts, and provide layers of texture that generate wonderfully unexpected moments. String and [...]
Grayceon releases epic new track, record coming out 2/12/13 on Flenser Records
Chamber metal outfit Grayceon is set to release its new album, Pearl and the End of Days, on February 12th via Flenser Records, and the first taste has surfaced on Alarm-Magazine.com. This is more than a mere sneak peek of the album, however, given that it's a full track from a 30-minute album that consists of just two epic tracks. Head on over and listen to "Pearl" in its entirety. "We wrote this song when I was pregnant with my daughter, Pearl, who is now just over a year old, but the lyrics came after she was born," Grayceon's cellist/vocalist [...]
Grayceon announce new album, 'Pearl and the End of Days'
Chamber metal group Grayceon has announced that their next album, entitled Pearl and the End of Days, will be out in early 2013 on Flenser Records. The album is comprised of two epic tracks, "Pearl" and "The End of Days", which were written primarily during down time the band went through after the release of their third album, All We Destroy. Cellist/vocalist Jackie Perez Gratz says the free time allowed them to explore some new ideas: Lack of specific goals and immediate expectations gave us the freedom to penetrate a newfound energy in our music. These two new songs, "Pearl" [...]
Weekdays at Annie’s: Enforcer 9/2, Jucifer 9/3
Two raucous shows back to back at Annie's Social Club last week; it's hard not to feel bad for the Folsom Street venue's upstairs neighbors. Whore for Satan Productions put together an atypical bill last Wednesday, replacing their usual down-tuned fare with something more high-pitched, and high octane. The ambiance evoked a bygone era, an uneasy time straddling the chasm between bell-bottomed, hedgerow-bustling 70's metal acts and the thrash and sleaze-glam that were to follow by the mid-eighties. Interstitial bands like The Scorpions, Accept, and Saxon prefigured the popularity of these later trends, and the night unfolded in their image. [...]
Jucifer: Thursday @ Annie’s Social Club
Jucifer is the loudest band I've ever seen, which is no mean feat. Despite having only two members and no permanent home base (instead proudly proclaiming themselves “nomadicâ€), the husband-and-wife team truck around a veritable wall of amplifiers, girding the back of the stage in wattage at every gig. Amber Valentine handles guitar and vocals, while skinsman Edgar Livengood plays drums that look more like cauldrons or industrial cable spools, the better to cut through the fuzz. Underscoring Valentine's elastic, screaming-to-crooning vocals with explosive, digressive doom metal, the pair run roughshod over a dozen genres — the only constant is [...]