Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. Each week a band/music-maker with a show, album release, or general good news is highlighted and spotlit. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.
An album release is always cause for celebration. The Bay Area act Violet Hour’s Cowardly Loins EP release extravaganza goes down tomorrow night at Bottom of the Hill. The somewhat illusive indie rock act, supposedly led by Le Duc Violet (along with other equally ostentatiously named creatures) and said to be influenced by Bowie and French surrealist painter Yves Tanguy, brings to mind playful, glam 90s post-punk. Check out the band’s description of its own sound below, it’s pretty magical.
Also check the deceivingly sweet intro’d song “Whatever It Takes” – as the guitar line wobbles and grows more frenzied, the vocals follow, building to the chorus “we all make the same god damn mistakes/whatever it gives/whatever it takes.” The reverb rises, voices blur, and out oozes melancholy. It’s like throwing a rock through an ex-lover’s window on a solo midnight bike ride; the build up and release, the instant regret.
But hey, snap out of it. Stop by the band’s live show on Wednesday, there also are some great local openers.
Year and location of origin: Berkeley , Calif. 2007
Band name origin: A subsection of TS Eliot’s “Fire Sermon” in The Waste Land.
Band motto: The deadly serious business of rock’n’roll.
Description of sound in 10 words or less: Like a peregrine falcon overhearing an angel’s orgasm.
Instrumentation: Guitar, vocals, bass & drums, keys and crazy stuff Adam invents.
Most recent release: Cowardly Loins EP October 2011.
Best part about life as a Bay Area band: So many excellent venues, so many passionate and diverse music fans.
Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: It’s so fucking expensive to live here I’m gonna cry.
First record/cassette tape/or CD ever purchased: The Simpsons Sing the Blues
Most recent record/cassette tape/CD/or Mp3 purchased/borrowed from the Web: Stephen Malkmus Mirror Traffic
Favorite local eatery and dish: Sausages at Rosamunde’s on Haight
Violet Hour
With Myonics, Symbolick Jews, and Arms + Legs
Wed/19, 9 p.m., $8
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St., SF
www.bottomofthehill.com