The Bay Abridged: Aug 17 – 30
(illustration: Cassidy Miller) In this recurring feature known as The Bay Abridged, our staff writers provide short, witty recaps on shows they attended around the Bay Area. A scene check, a heat check, and sometimes more — stop by every other Wednesday for the most comprehensive and concise recap of the Bay Area concert scene. The Redlight District, Bobcat Rob Armenti at Don Quixote’s International Music Hall (Felton) Aug. 17. On Wednesday the 17th, Santa Cruz’s favorite psychedelic hard rock and roll quartet The Redlight District kicked off a 4-gig mini-tour in Felton at Don Quixote’s. The boys took the [...]
Premiere: OVVN’s debut LP is uncompromisingly dissonant art rock
(I Love Myself And Want To Live album art by Phil Elias) Begun in late 2013, as a recording project with no intentions of live performance, OVVN have since expanded into an impressive four-piece. Centered around band leader Ethan Jayne's pitched vocals and atonal compositions, he's joined by Connor Alfaro (Acrylics, Fussy, the Down House) on drums, Jonathan Reddick (ex-Twin Steps) on bass, and Max Caufman on guitar. The experienced crew, affectionately referred to as "the boys," imbue the home recordings with a necessary urgency that has garnered the band attention from across the Bay. The foursome cultivate a tension [...]
The Bay Abridged: Dec 15 – Jan 12
In this recurring feature known as The Bay Abridged, our staff writers will provide short, witty recaps on shows they attended around the Bay Area. A scene check, a heat check, and sometimes more — stop by every Wednesday for the most comprehensive and concise recap of last week's Bay Area concert scene. OVVN, Toner, OCD, Software at Sgraffito (Oak) Jan. 8 Caught an awesome bill of all local bands last friday at a rad new gallery space in Oakland. OCD play a poppy, modern mix of punk and indie and are all new to Oakland. I thought their set [...]
Bay Area’s OVVN release live video and new tape ‘Two Lives’
(OVVN live at Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, photo by Leslie) With members hailing from West Oakland and small, North Bay redwood enclave Guerneville, OVVN have spent the last year cultivating an edgy, provocative sound that is truly a breath of fresh air in a music landscape saturated with cookie-cutter pop and hardcore. Although some might find the effected vocals to be a kitschy calling card, I think they compliment OVVN's bleak, and wiry brand of dissonance quite well. Just last month the group released their second tape, entitled Two Lives. It's a more upbeat batch of songs than last years b l o vv n, [...]
Premiere: The fuzzed-out punk weirdness of OVVN
Consider this in part a postscript to our recent mixtape on all of the great North Bay bands: Weird-punks OVVN, with members hailing from West Oakland and Guerneville, are releasing a new tape this week, a wonderfully strange mix of blown-out heaviness, warped gloom, and tightly-wound nerve. The set of songs feels like chaotic ideas captured direct-to-tape from the minds of its creators, and you can check it out below. b l o vv n by OVVN As the rad flyer designed by Josh Staples indicates, the band's release party is this Friday at Pee Wee Golf & Arcade in [...]