Review: Soft Moon, Boy Harsher at the Independent
On Wednesday night the Soft Moon returned to San Francisco for its first show since the release of its Sacred Bones debut Criminal, joined by Boy Harsher and Cube at the Independent. Those who braved the rain were treated to a night of satisfying synths, boisterous beats, and complimentary spirits courtesy of Luis Vasquez. Cube opened with a foggy hardware-and-vocals set stationed between four static screens. I had missed Boy Harsher's previous San Francisco show so I was pretty excited to check out their live set. Taking full advantage of the Independent's superior sound and lighting, the duo delivered on [...]
The Soft Moon returning to the Independent following Sacred Bones debut
Berlin-via-Oakland post-punk project the Soft Moon has recently signed with New York record label Sacred Bones, announcing the upcoming February 2, 2018 release of its fourth studio album, Criminal. Luis Vasquez has been creating increasingly confessional music as the Soft Moon since 2010 with the release of its self-titled LP and subsequent Total Decay EP on Captured Tracks. Captured Tracks also put out the Soft Moon's two most recent full-length albums, Zeros and Deeper. Now signed with Sacred Bones, Vasquez maintains his lyrical and introspective trajectory on Criminal. Striking a heavy and self-reflective tone, the album finds Vasquez battling with [...]
Photos: The Soft Moon ignites Slim’s with Male Gaze, Sextile
The Soft Moon (photo: Kristin Cofer) Oakland-originated post-punk band The Soft Moon brought their visually-heavy show to Slim's on Sunday night, January 31, 2016. Joined by Bay Area band Male Gaze and L.A. outfit Sextile, every band gave an impassioned performance and it was a night full of color and intensity. Photographer Kristin Cofer has these stunning pictures of all the performers from the night to share.
Live This Month: April 2015 — an audio guide to upcoming SF concerts
http://media.libsyn.com/media/thebaybridged/LTM_April_2015.mp3 Download: Live This Month: April 2015 (Podcast #360) In Live This Month, we sample some of the great local and out-of-town bands performing in the coming month in the San Francisco Bay Area. It sure is a great time to be a fan of classic dream-pop and shoegazer music, with the recently-reunited Ride hitting the US this month for their first US shows in 20 years. By contrast, Warren Defever, leader of longtime 4AD act His Name is Alive, has kept that band actively releasing records since its inception, but the experimental group's 25th anniversary tour across the United [...]
Video: The Soft Moon – "Want"
The Soft Moon recently dropped the video for "Want," offering visuals that are as disorienting and restless as the music itself. Paired with layered, frenzied rhythms and whispered repetitions of "I want it, can't have it," the video follows the erratic experiences of a hooded man, who, after inexplicably breaking and entering into a house and snorting white powder in a dirty bathroom with some random girl, has his most uneasy moment when he scrawls "What's wrong with me?" on the bathroom wall. It plays like a drug-induced scary movie in just under four minutes, so click play if you enjoy [...]
Mixtape: Bay Area Artists, Remixing and Remixed (Podcast #304)
Mixtape: Bay Area Artists, Remixing and Remixed (Podcast #304) All too frequently, remixes are just okay, but when they are great, they're really something special. A truly great remix can shed new light on the original artist's work and stand on its own as a unique creation. That's no easy feat, either, given the tension between staying true to an original song's components and a reworker's desire to create something new and personal. These days, it feels far too easy to get remix fatigue. Reworkings seem to pop up almost immediately after original songs are released, and they can come [...]
Video: The Soft Moon – "Insides"
Since emerging as in 2009, Luis Vasquez's solo project The Soft Moon has evolved into a full band that knows how to invade the core of its listener's senses. With synthesizers and fuzzed-out guitar making up the bulk of its sound, the San Francisco-based group creates primitive post punk that summons beautiful, dark imagery. The Soft Moon's tunes are at their most dizzying during live shows, when smoke and visuals warp the entire performance into something otherworldly. The band recently released the video for its single "Insides," off of the 2012 album Zeros, pairing the synth-powered song with surrealism to uneasy yet [...]
Review: The Soft Moon, Group Rhoda @ The New Parish, 12/14/12
The Soft Moon began their West Coast tour with Group Rhoda in Los Angeles on Wednesday. This past weekend, the bands celebrated the end of the world a week early with apocalyptic sets at The New Parish in Oakland. Both acts were originally scheduled to perform at The Mezzanine in San Francisco on Saturday, but the show was canceled. San Francisco fans who made the trip across the Bay Bridge were treated to a dark dance chamber of controlled chaos. The Soft Moon also recently announced an East Coast tour this January with Majical Cloudz. [Ed. note: They also just [...]
Live This Month: December 2012 — an audio guide through SF concerts this month (Podcast #294)
Live This Month: December 2012 — an audio guide through SF concerts this month (Podcast #294) In Live This Month, we sample some of the great local and out-of-town bands performing in the coming month in the San Francisco Bay Area. Few new albums and winter conditions mean that there's a seasonal dip in the number of bands hitting the road and coming to town in December. A dip, however, doesn't mean that there aren't noteworthy highlights, including the return of former locals Moon Duo, whose latest LP, Circles, came out earlier this year. As luck would have it, Moon [...]
The Soft Moon – "Die Life"
The Soft Moon - "Die Life" The day has come when The Soft Moon both shares a new song, and makes their annual Halloween-related announcement. That's right -- the local and naturally spooky post-electro project of Luis Vasquez (who played a KILLER Halloween show last year at The Independent), will release the new album Zeros with Captured Tracks on October 30, 2012. This morning the album's first single, "Die Life," premiered on Pitchfork. Additionally, US and European tour dates have been announced for fall - ending in mid-December with a show at The New Parish 12/14 and at the Mezzanine [...]