Snap Sounds Archives — Page 4 of 5 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

Snap Sounds: Alexis Penney

John Elberling

-

February 10, 2010

0

Alexis Penney

“Lonely Sea”

(demo)

“I’M A HARD-LIVING, YOUNG QUEEN WITH A BIG HEART AND A LOT TO SAY.”

I’m listening. Alexis Penney is part of Party Effects, which Marke B. wrote about recently. This solo track is like if a badass version of Erasure and Crystal Waters’ “Gypsy Woman” had a love-hate child. But way better. “Lonely Sea” makes me wish Frankfurt was next door to Oakland, so I could program a club night with performances by Alexis and Chelonis R. Jones. For now, I’ll just listen to this song, and its classic throwaway (as in throw your heart away) lines about good pillows and last names – at least a few times a day.

Snap Sounds: Moon Duo

John Elberling

-

February 10, 2010

1

MOON DUO

Escape

(Woodsist)

I’ve been thinking about how Moon Duo‘s name sounds a little like Amon Düül. Maybe that’s just tangential coincidence, but the SF twosome’s songs allow for the kind of daydreaming that produces such thoughts.

Escape delivers on the great promise of Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada’s earlier recordings, especially last year’s Killing Time (Sacred Bones). Like that EP, Escape is made up of four songs, but the lunar flares sprawl ever outward to album length. We’re only a month into 2010, but here’s a contender for Bay Area album of the year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzXD_uA7c4w

Snap Sounds: The Album Leaf

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

-

February 7, 2010

0

By Amber Schadewald

THE ALBUM LEAF

A Chorus of Storytellers

(Sub Pop)

Be lured into a deep daze with the frosty, sublime sounds of The Album Leaf’s new release, A Chorus of Storytellers. The San Diego band — which will be performing Fri/12 at Great American Music Hall — is ambient to its core. Only four of the 11 well-crafted tracks incorporate vocals. (Ironic, considering its the album’s title.)

The rest are purely poetic and offer obvious insight into their Icelandic influences and production by Birgir Jon Birgisson, an engineer who has worked with Sigur Ros. A Chorus of Storytellers was recorded as a whole band, contrary to the previous four albums, on which primary songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jimmy LaValle played nearly everything himself.

THE ALBUM LEAF

w/ Magik*Magik Orchestra and Sea Wolf

Fri/12, 8pm, $15

Great American Music Hall

859 O’Farrell, SF

www.gamh.com

Snap Sounds: Beach House

-

January 26, 2010

0

By Amber Schadewald

BEACH HOUSE

Teen Dream

(Sub Pop)

Romantic and eloquently sewn, the latest release from Beach House is sure to make you swoon. Teen Dream reminisces of a lonely dance floor, surrounded by glowing lanterns, slight piano, sliding guitar and soft lavender scents. Victoria Legrand’s vocals burn with grace and pair flawlessly with simple tambourine and lingering electronics for an album that deserves a full listen.

Snap Sounds: The Crêpes

-

January 25, 2010

0

By Johnny Ray Huston. View the previous Snap Sound here.

THE CRÊPES

What Else?

(Information)

Balearic goes cuddlecore, as a member of Studio crafts acoustic music gentle enough for Sarah Records lovers. Sounds like the Field Mice on vitamins in the sunshine.

The CrÊpes, “What Else?”

Snap Sounds: Washed Out

-

January 25, 2010

0

By Johnny Ray Huston. See the previous Snap Sound here.

WASHED OUT

Life of Leisure

(Mexican Summer)

Forget Neon Indian, and hold the verdict on Memory Tapes — here’s the valedictorian of the chillwave, glo-fi, hypnagogic pop brigade. Ignore the blog backlash, because "Hold Out" is too gorgeous for the movies, and "Feel It All Around" is 10cc’s "I’m Not in Love" for the 21st century.

Washed Out, “Feel It All Around”

Snap Sounds: Cobra Killer

-

January 21, 2010

0

By Johnny Ray Huston

COBRA KILLER

Uppers and Downers

(Monika)

German funny girls together outrageously. Pole dance music nonpareil. Weird and witty samples, Chinese food fixations, and cameos by Jon Spencer and Thurston Moore. Electroclash can kiss their wine-soaked asses — check the YouTube recording studio vids.

Snap Sounds: Crocodiles

-

September 24, 2009

0

By Johnny Ray Huston

CROCODILES
Summer of Hate
(Fat Possum)

If it’s 1988 all over again, Crocodiles are our Spacemen 3, ready to deliver the perfect prescription: drum machines. vintage organs, drugs = god lyrics. They’ve got the best Jesus and Mary Chain death anthems too, and the occasional burst of energy, trading ’ludes for upper-spiked punk on “Soft Skull (In My Room).” The poise and epic production here are surprising for a debut.

Crocodiles, “Summer of Hate”

Snap Sounds: Blues Control

-

September 24, 2009

0

By Johnny Ray Huston

BLUES CONTROL

Local Flavor

(Siltbreeze)

A hot dog made Patty Duke lose control, but on this album Blues Control makes me lose control. Local Flavor is kinda like a short version of Daydream Nation minus the annoying vocals. “Tangier” is the track that hypnotizes me with an effectiveness akin to that of Jacques Bergerac in 1960’s The Hypnotic Eye. Cameo by Kurt Vile on one track.

Blues Control, “Rest On Water”

Snap Sounds: Barbara Lynn

-

September 22, 2009

0

By Johnny Ray Huston

BARBARA LYNN

Here is Barbara Lynn

(Water)

A lost gem of Atlantic, saved by the boys of Water in Oakland. The clarity and purity of Lynn’s voice are rare — and don’t let those adjectives fool you into thinking she’s a frail flower. Here, the left-handed guitarist makes wise ballads she wrote as a teen burn as strong and steady as anything by Irma Thomas. It’s all in the voice.

Barbara Lynn, “You’ll Lose a Good Thing”

Snap Sounds: Emitt Rhodes

-

September 17, 2009

0

By Johnny Ray Huston

EMITT RHODES
The Emmit Rhodes Recordings (1969-1973)
(Hip-O-Select)

Oh, Emitt. At your peak you were picture-perfect: thick brown hair parted down the middle, angelic face with a doll’s complexion. The music business’ merry-go-round has been cruel to you, but what glorious pop songs you’ve given us: “Live Till You Die” has been holding me together the last week or two, and it’s just one of many beauties from your self-titled 1970 LP.

Emitt Rhodes, Four Songs from Emitt Rhodes

Snap Sounds: Mos Def

-

September 15, 2009

0

By D. Scot Miller

MOS DEF

The Ecstatic

(Downtown)

After 2006’s somewhat tepid though promising True Magic (Geffen), Mos drops the best hip-hop album of 2009 thus far. Named after Victor Lavalle’s novel, with cover art from Charles Burnett’s Killer Of Sheep, this is a gem that I just can’t stop playing — especially "Priority" and "No Hay Nada Mas"

Mos Def, “Quiet Dog” Live

Snap Sounds: DatA

-

September 11, 2009

0

By Daniel N. Alvarez

DATA

"Skywriter"

(Ekleroshock/Naive)

While much has been made of the Sebastien Grainger-sung, electro-disco tracks "One In A Million" and "Rapture," “Skywriter” is full of that classic, synth-slathered French house sound that so many fell in love with when they first heard Daft Punk. Some hooks here will stay lodged in your head for weeks.

DatA, “Skywriter”

Snap Sounds: MF Doom and Empress Stahhr

-

September 10, 2009

0

By D. Scott Miller

MF DOOM FEATURING EMPRESS STAHHR

"Still Dope" (from MF Doom’s Born Like This)

(Lex)

Sista spits some of the tightest shit over jagged hard beats with clarity, wit and grace for two minutes and forty seconds with no punches — or punches pulled. I wake up in the morning sometimes with her voice in my head and it feels good! Still dope? Yeah.

Snap Sounds: Dam Funk

-

September 9, 2009

0

By Michael Krimper

DAM FUNK

Toeachizown

(Stones Throw)

Los Angeles ambassador of boogie grooves Dam Funk taps into the warmth of the sun with this five-volume effort.

Dam Funk, “Toeachizown” promo

Dam Funk performs this Friday with the Donuts crew. Marke B. says:

“Laidback techno-boogie and electro-funk from the shades-bedecked master of jambox rock. West Coaster Dam of L.A.’s luscious Funkmosphere parties will be showing off rare vinyl cuts from his personal collection as well as some of his own, much lauded tracks.”

Fri/11, $10. Poleng Lounge, 1751 Fulton, SF. www.polenglounge.com

Snap Sounds: Bibio

-

September 9, 2009

0

By Mosi Reeves

BIBIO

Ambivalence Avenue

(Warp)

Some albums escape criticism…they just sound good. And as much as I try to pick apart Bibio’s surprising breakthrough — from its heavy allegiance to Boards of Canada, J Dilla and other beat icons to its catalog of hip indie styles — I can’t stop listening to it. I’ve played it on long drives to L.A., and I’ve fast-forwarded through it on quick trips to the supermarket. Perhaps what moves me about it is its humanness. When he begins to croon as "Lovers’ Carvings" builds into a bright, sprightly square dance, it usually leaves a smile on my face. I’m a sucker for melody.

Bibio, “Jealous of Roses”

Bibio, “Lovers’ Carvings”

Snap Sounds: 24-Carat Black

-

September 8, 2009

0

By Johnny Ray Huston

24-CARAT BLACK

Gone: The Promises of Yesterday

(Numero Group)

The title here rings all too true: 24-Carat Black is a memento of all that soul music could have been, had economic woes not killed its most ambitious tendrils. This dozen-plus ensemble’s unfinished sequel to 1975’s oft-sampled Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth (Stax) is just as conceptual, but more downtempo. "The Best of Good Love Gone" is Dusty in the ghetto instead of a satin Memphis boudoir. "I Want to Make Up" does a slow burn then floats off in the nighttime breeze.

24-Carat Black, “The Best of Good Love Gone”

Snap Sounds: Air France

-

September 4, 2009

0

By Johnny Ray Huston

AIR FRANCE

No Way Down EP

(Sincerely Yours)

With the Honeydrips, Tough Alliance, jj, and this group, the Sincerely Yours label has established itself as Sweden’s chief castle of indie pop. "Collapsing at Your Doorstep" and "No Excuses" could be outtakes from Saint Etienne’s Foxbase Alpha (Heavenly, 1991), and ain’t nothing wrong with that.

Air France, “No Excuses”

Snap Sounds: Pictureplane

-

September 3, 2009

0

By Johnny Ray Huston

PICTUREPLANE

Dark Rift

(Lovepump United)

Tweaker pop from Denver’s Travis Egedy, this crystal cathedral of sound will have you trying out ’80s new romantic dances in its prismatic mirrors. Industrial-tinged but quite melodic, it creates panicky backing vox from split-second samples of girl pop — Kylie Minogue, is that you, ABBA, and Stevie Nicks trapped Poltergeist-like in "Goth Star"’s spectral tunnel? — while invoking boys in makeup.

Pictureplane, “Trance Doll”

Snap Sounds: The xx

-

September 2, 2009

0

By Marke B.

THE XX

The xx

(Young Turks)

A sublime entanglement of negative space, lithesome riffs, and raw sentiment delivered by mush-mouthed lead vocalists Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sims, this xx-cellent debut by the young rock quartet gleams the post-everything cube. Tracks “Basic Space,” “Islands,” and “Crystallized” could be the anthems of a less-virtual, more physical generation of emotional wonderers — even as the instrumentation and weird engagement-through-detachment mood hearkens back to the early New Order. (Justin Timberlake and Tracy and the Plastics are listed as influences).

The xx, “Basic Space”

Snap Sounds: Desire

-

July 9, 2009

0

By Johnny Ray Huston

DESIRE

Desire

(Italians Do It Better)

Sorry, but I can’t hate: Johnny Jewel’s latest disco project is too lost in emotion to be dismissed as a hipster poseathon. The 1980s touches dig below irony the same way Glass Candy’s cover of "Computer Love" gave that icy-by-definition track a successful heart transplant. "Don’t Call" is my jam of the summer so far, not least because of its live "Beat It" rhythm.

Snap Sounds: Connie Converse

-

May 28, 2009

0

By Johnny Ray Huston

CONNIE CONVERSE

How Sad, How Lovely

(Lau derette)

Irwin Swirnoff sang the praises of How Sad, How Lovely in the Guardiana few weeks back, but I’ve got to harmonize with him like an echo in a lonely canyon. This is the rare kind of "lost" music that truly deserves to be found, voiced by a bookish valedictorian and lover of poetry (one fave: Jacques Prévert) who knows how spin a tale and make it sing. Elizabeth "Connie" Converse vanished from society around the time of the Nixon resignation, but her spirit lives on in these recordings. Simply put, they’re a treasure.

Connie Converse, “One by One”

Snap Sounds: Big Business

-

May 27, 2009

0

By Ben Richardson

BIG BUSINESS

Mind the Drift

(Hydrahead)

Big Business: an irresistible concoction of infectious, heavy, and bizarre. Drummer Coady Willis and bassist/singer Jared Warren are joined by guitarist Toshi Kasai. The band tempers its sludgier excesses with dynamic and compositional progress, plus plenty of weirdo headbanger hooks.

Big Business
10pm, $12
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St., SF
www.bottomofthehill.com

Snap Sounds: Chelonis R. Jones

-

May 11, 2009

0

By Johnny Ray Huston

CHELONIS R. JONES

Chatterton

(Systematic)

The U.S. expat Mr. Jones sews up album of the year honors by track one, after jogging barefoot through hell to conclude "Stains are my nationality." As kickoffs go, it’s as dramatic as the The Queen is Dead‘s title track — apt, since he name-checks Morrissey. From there, Chatterton traverses Cure-like goth, Marley Marl-ready rap, contemporary Euro techno … and Fleetwood Mac? "The Cockpit" is a Cabaret Voltaire-meets-Giorgio Moroder minimal epic from the perspective of a plane crash’s ungrateful sole survivor. The final lines of "Pompadour" are genius.

An oldie but goodie from Mr. Jones

View the previous Snap Sound here.