Emily Savage

Heads Up: 6 must-see concerts this week

Tony Robles
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Heads Up: 6 must-see concerts this week

Lots of leading ladies in the music mix this week. These shows boast a punk legend/folk songstress, a female vocalist who inhabits the soul of animals, a girl-fronted ’60s Wall-of-Sound meets modern indie pop act (with a punch) – and yes, maybe even an underground famous dude or two.

There’s also the epic Rap Fest featuring Das Racist, and the Trash Art Bash, which pretty much sounds like the best mashup of all time: trash art, underground music, pizza. I wish I could include a reunited Hot Snakes at Bottom of the Hill, as that’s the show I’m most pumped for, but it sold out months ago, so it just seems cruel to suggest. Good luck with that one. And then there’s…well, you’ll just have to check out the rest. Here are your must-see Bay Area concerts this week/end:

Radiation City
The sprightly Portland, Oreg.-based quintet will be playing cool ’60s girl group inspired jams off last year’s The Hands That Take You and recently released indie pop dream EP, Cool Nightmare.
With Sea of Bees (see the print edition for the Pick on Sea of Bees)
Weds/28, 8 p.m., $10
Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell, SF
(415) 861-2011
www.rickshawstop.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT8itwSlFx4

Penelope Houston
Avengers singer and longtime solo lyricist in her own right, Penelope Houston returns this week to celebrate the release of seventh studio album, On Market Street, packed with lilting folk gems, and “tales of revenge and forgiveness, of love both sanctified and illicit.”
With Prairiedog, Carletta Sue Kay
Thurs/29, 8:30 p.m., $12
Cafe Du Nord
2170 Market, SF
(415) 861-5016
www.cafedunord.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDek4vu2gg8

SF Rap Fest Featuring Das Racist
No doubt about it, this is going to be a good one, a veritable who’s who of wordy Bay Area and beyond hip-hop. Obviously out-of-towners Das Racist will be there to shake things up, but also On the Rise alums Main Attrakionz, along with Friendzone, and Antwon & Shadow Runners, among others.
Fri/30, 9 p.m., $20
103 Harriet, SF
dasracistsf.eventbrite.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXmo0zsG3q0

Odessa Chen
In an attempt to inhabit the spirit of different wild animals, Odessa Chen recorded her third album, Archives of the Natural World, in a remote cabin in Oregon’s National Forrest – what better way to get in touch with the mysteries of coexistence? The show is a benefit for NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council).
With Christopher Smith
Sat/31, 7 p.m., $10-$20
First Unitarian
1187 Franklin, SF
www.odessachen.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTDEDyuSjF4

Trash Art Bash
Recycled, repurposed, and scavanged art by the likes of Winston Smith (Dead Kennedy’s collage artist) and more, along with live ukelele music by the gonzo Pineapple Princess, the Skirts, and Mad Mama Lopez, plus trashy rock’n’roll DJs. Get it: all trash, all night. And it’s at a pizza parlor-cum-dive bar.
Sat/31, 7-11 p.m., free
King Kong Bar @ Escape from NY Pizza
333 Bush, SF
Facebook:Trash Art Bash

Chain & the Gang
With a muffled scream here, a tambourine shake there, and a buzzing chainsaw guitar slicing through it all, Chain & the Gang is a testament to Ian Svenonius’s continuity, and his ongoing ability to scrap genres, culling the best bits of the past — Southern blues, working man shuffles, post-punk, and mod — for his own future perfect.
With Neonates, the Smell
Sun/1, 9 p.m., $9-$12
Brick and Mortar Music Hall
1710 Mission, SF
(415) 800-8782
www.brickandmortarmusic.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zx1FjfOMAA

Bachelorette’s computer folk lands in Oakland this weekend

Tony Robles
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Bachelorette’s computer folk lands in Oakland this weekend

Ask the initially shy New Zealander Bachelorette how she makes music, and you’ll get a fascinating mouthful.

“Some of the stuff I make, it’s almost psychedelic disco, other times I think the music is quite folky,” she begins, “in that kind of computer-based way.” Pausing she then adds, “Lately people have asked me to describe the style and I describe it as computer folk. The computer is my folk instrument. It’s just me on stage and I have a couple of computers and samples and a guitar, a lot of sampling and looping live – I construct the songs differently every time I play, so there’s an element of improvisation.”

Recorded, at least on her self-titled LP released in 2011 on Drag City, the songs are at once soothing and eerie – Bachelorette (aka Annabel Alpers) lets her voice echo over pulsating synth just long enough to create alien unknowns, light-years beyond the realms of modern folk. In songs such as “Polarity Party” she could have slipped in the Drive soundtrack undetected, yet the very next track “Sugarbug,” which begins with the tinkling of a toy piano, would never have worked with all that ’80s-cool smoothness. Her voice subtly hits emotional high notes here, and the slowed-down-to-a-crawl procession of keys and solitary drum beats build to a shimmering crescendo. Then the album takes another turn with Velvet Undergroundian “The Last Boat’s Leaving.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU_lh7ZZKjM

This casual variety should be of no real surprise once Bachelorette’s background is examined. She grew up in NZ adoring the Beatles, then as a teenager began exploring the local underground scene, discovering bands on the Flying Nun label like Tall Dwarfs, also finding a lifelong love of atmospheric 1980s act Cocteau Twins and ’60s psychedelic music, Syd Barrett, and the Kinks. She joined a teen band called Hawaii 5-0 that was “very unambitious psychedelic surf pop.”

Then came a shift in theory. She earned a bachelor of music, majoring in composition and focused mainly on computer-based composition. “I enrolled so I could use computers because I had ideas I wanted to make using multitasking before I knew how to use them.” She then spent an honors year studying in Auckland.

“That’s where I started making music for Bachelorette,” she explains. “I got distracted when I was studying composition because we had to make this art music, I probably would’ve failed if I made pop music – I spent four years having to make pretentious academic art music.”  Though she notes, “it was good training because it broke me out of my songwriting habits from bands before university. I ended up getting waylayed for four years then started making pop music again.” Bachelorette is slightly experimental but still has that pop sensibility, she says. Agreed.

She chose the name “Bachelorette” because of its simplicity and gender indication. And she just liked the way it looked when she it written on a piece of paper. “I thought the word written down suited the minimalist aesthetic [of my music] and of course it’s fitting because I’m a woman making music on my own.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE_2bJuSKbY

Lately, she’s been listening to a lot of folk music from China and parts of Africa. “I’ve never been any good at trying to replicate other sounds, I try to filter and turn it into my own thing. I imagine that listening to indigenous folk music would somehow influence my own music but it’s hard to say how.”

Now based out of New York when not out playing shows (though she still goes back to NZ every year), Bachelorette has been touring the U.S. since the start of 2010, with a brief touchdown in Baltimore last week to help a friend mix his own album. After that she’ll pick back up on tour with Magnetic Fields, which brings her to Oakland this Saturday.

“It’s really great playing to their audience because they’re a really great band with a great following. And it’s nice to play to new audiences.“

Bachelorette
With Magnetic Fields
Sat/24, 8 p.m., $35
Fox Theater
1807 Telegraph, Oakl.
(510) 548-3010
www.thefoxoakland.com

Get to know: Kishi Bashi

Tony Robles
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If you’re planning to hit the Fillmore tonight, I can only guess tickets were carefully debated then purchased mainly in order to see fantastical live sets by the magic indie sprites of Deerhoof and/or headliners of Montreal. But might I suggest getting there early for opener Kishi Bashi?

I caught his act last night at Slim’s (it was the same lineup as tonight — the three acts are on tour together) and was glad I did. Others in the crowd were pleased as well, yelling “I love you!” during the few quiet moments in between full blown song attacks.

If you’re not already turned on to his charms, the solo multi-instrumentalist and of Montreal touring member is basically (and I mean basically, as in reality there’s always more to the story) a male tUnE-yArDs looping violin instead of drums. He’s got the same frenzied charm, the same echoing tribal holler, and the same endless loops climaxing in a dizzying fashion. Unrelated but equally notable, he had snazzy bow-tie on last night, and told the crowd he’d just learned to tie it that night, though that was likely a fib as I see he’s wearing it on tour. No matter, more girly sighs and hoots. 

Here’s Kishi Bashi recorded:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JqDgrnaMC4

And here he is live, performing “Manchester”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-IJbaNZc9I

And here he is just one week ago in Texas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-0vJIYc_cQ

Enjoy.

Kishi Bash
With Deerhoof, of Montreal
Thurs/22, 8 p.m., $22
Fillmore
1805 Geary, SF
www.thefillmore.com

Feeding time

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Feeding time

emilysavage@sfbg.com

MUSIC In San Antonio last week, waking up on a living room floor with assorted Burger Records crew members and friends, record label and brick-and-mortar record shop owner Sean Bohrman, 30, was already thinking three steps ahead.

The next morning at 11 a.m., the traveling Burger pen would play a pre-South By Southwest Burger blowout. Then it was off to Austin for the official SXSW showcases. A few more shows along the way, and now shattered fragments of the unofficial posse will hit the impressively titled Burger Boogaloo fest in San Francisco this weekend.

The three-day affair, which takes place at Thee Parkside — with pre-parties Wed/21 at Bottom of the Hill and Thurs/22 at the Knockout — boasts a motley, pizza-and-burger loving pack of noisy garage rockers, fuzzed out post-punkers, and sleazy generally genre-less local and national acts such as King Tuff, Audacity, Dukes of Hamburg, Heavy Cream, Dominant Legs, White Mystery, Thee Oh Sees, Strange Boys, Burnt Ones, Tough Shits, and a whole lot more.

It’s a mix of Burger bands and acts that play the fall SF festival, Total Trash Fest (some are one in the same). The Boogaloo began when Total Trash organizer Marc Ribak contacted Burger last year with the idea and it snowballed organically from there, says Bohrman.

It’s no huge surprise that Ribak, who is also a member of Rock N Roll Adventure Kids, and the Burger dudes hooked up — they have similar styles and lots of crossover acts.

“Music in general is a huge web — everyone is connected. That is my favorite part — who produced what, who recorded what, what bands everyone was in before,” Bohrman says. “To just be following the web, to be creating our own web, has been really amazing and awesome.”

Burger began as a way for Bohrman and longtime pal Lee “Noise” Rickard to put out their own music, Thee Makeout Party — a bedroom rock band formed in Anaheim in 2001. The label really started in 2007 when Bohrman and Rickard were cruising around in nearby Fullerton, Calif. one day talking about putting out a record for another friend’s band, Audacity. They decided to put it out, and thus an indie label was born. Burger has since dispersed 50,000 cassette tapes from more than 200 bands, and released over 15 LPS.

In 2009 Bohrman was hoping to tour with Thee Makeout Party but his job wouldn’t let him go. He quit, cashed out his 401k and funneled it back into the label, also purchasing a storefront in Fullerton with Brian “Burger” Flores, which would become the Burger Records store. It’s naturally the buzzing hub of the empire.

Whenever Vermont-born, LA-based King Tuff (aka Kyle Thomas, also of Happy Birthday) visits the store, he says he essentially walks away with a new record collection. “They’ve created a family — I go down to the record store and just hang out. It’s really like we’re all part of something.”

While King Tuff is officially signed to Sub Pop — which he also describes as having a familial atmosphere — he also is a part of the greasy outstretched arms of Burger (it put out his limited, personalized LP Was Dead). While the acts may be loosely tied together as friends, there’s no set of rules dictating what makes a Burger band.

“We’ve been successful by putting out stuff we really love, not beholden to any genre. This is our life. We can do whatever we want. There’s no ceiling above us. We can do anything, even if it seems impossible,” says the endlessly upbeat Bohrman.

His voice slightly raising, he adds, “The music means something to us. When we hear music it’s not ‘are we going to be able to sell this in a commercial’ or something. It’s about people making awesome music, not selling the songs for a Pepsi commercial.”

That’s how King Tuff grew up making music as well, without the predetermined rules of industry. He recalls his dad bringing home a guitar one day when he was in fifth grade, picking it up, and learning to play. “I was never interested in learning covers, and I never took lessons.” That improvisational spirit shows in his brief, freaky jams with surf-tinged psychedelic guitar and nasally intonations; it’s waves of stringy hair and rattling bones, jittery lyrics like those in “Bad Thing” off his upcoming self-titled release, “when I play my Stratocaster/I feel like an innocent kid/But when I’m looking in the mirror/Remember the bad things I did”

You can hear some of these same freaky-jittery qualities in the heaping mess of acts playing the Boogaloo in SF this week, and for that matter, Burgerama, another like-minded, Burger Records-endorsed fest happening concurrently down south. On top of all the fests, Bohrman and Co. are still producing cassettes (“Cassettes are handy, they’re like little business cards, they’re durable and cheap to make and buy.”) and running a successful little shop.

“It’s been a dream come true, but it’s still so much work. We just keep piling it on for ourselves,” Bohrman sighs. “It’s hard building a legacy.”

BURGER BOOGALOO

Fri/23-Sun/25, individual shows $7–$12, weekend pass $35

Thee Parkside

1600 17th St., SF

(415) 252-1330

Facebook: Burger Boogaloo 2012

Localized Appreesh: Doe Eye

Tony Robles
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Localized Appreesh: Doe Eye

Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.

Doe Eye, aka Maryam Qudus, is perhaps the most local of Localized Appreeshers. (That is, despite her current traveler status while studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston.) The lady with the big brown eyes and soulful voice is a true blue, born-and-raised San Franciscan. And she often uses the city as her muse.

The ooh-ooh pain of hazy torch hit “I Hate You” off last year’s Run Run Run EP is likely about a former lover, though it could easily refer to this push-pull foggy city we inhabit. “Darling,” she coos repeatedly, “it hurts to love you.”

Her full-length is due out later this year. This week she headlines Cafe Du Nord.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjGN2Mbqky0

Year and location of origin: I’m a solo artist, so I’ve been songwriting since I was a kid. But the origin of Doe Eye was February 2011 – Union City, Calif.

Name origin: My friend gave me the nickname “doe eye” because of my freakishly large eyes.
Personal motto: “Eat cake for breakfast”. I have a sticker of it on my journal – where I write deep philosophical thoughts. Helps lighten the mood when I write.

Description of sound in 10 words or less: Dreamy and epic.

Instrumentation: Lead vocals, two guitars, keys, two cellos, violin, bass, trumpet, drums and two-to-three back-up vocalists.

Most recent release: My EP titled Run Run Run in August of 2011 – available for free on doeeye.bandcamp.com.

Best part about life as a Bay Area musician: The Bay Area music scene is crackin. It’s the best it has ever been. Having huge support systems like LIVE 105 and so many great venues like Bottom of the Hill, the Independent and Cafe Du Nord. San Francisco is my favorite city in the world, so I find myself influenced by the city a lot.

The weather, the Bay Bridge, the people –  all of it. I love it.

Worst part about life as a Bay Area musician: I fly back and fourth a lot between the Bay Area and Boston because I study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. I hate loving the Bay Area so much and not being able to be here. There is always so much going on in the Bay – shows, events, that I have to miss.

First album ever purchased: I grew up listening to a lot of rap – which doesn’t really influence my music much. My older brother was a huge influence for that. I honestly don’t remember what my first album purchase was – but I do remember listening to a lot of 2Pac.

Most recent album purchased/downloaded: Beach House, Teen Dream. For some reason, I never listened to Beach House until now. A lot of people have been asking me lately if my music is influenced by Beach House so I decided to listen. Uh – yeah I can see why they would ask that. The really reverbed-out dreamy sound – that’s my forte. Teen Dream is an amazing album. I can’t stop listening to it. I can’t wait for their next record.

Favorite local eatery and dish: Delarosa, Eggplant Panini – yum.

Doe Eye
With the Bins, Minor Kingdom
Thurs/22, 9 p.m., $10
Cafe Du Nord
2170 Market, SF
(415) 861-5016
www.cafedunord.com

Zola Jesus, Shabazz Palaces, and more at Creators Project

Tony Robles
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Along with all the epic-sized Lite-Brites and wing-flapping guardian angels at Creators Project this weekend in soggy Fort Mason, there also was plenty of super bass-heavy, heart-pumping, mind-expanding live music. Again, all free.

In the airport-hanger openness of midday in the Festival Pavilion — after a brief, freak hale storm outside — a loud, high-pitched electro-clatter came ringing down the forever long row of speakers. The culprit being Bejing indie rock act, New Pants.

With rapid energy the band bounced through hyperactive synth pop “punk disco,” while video projections by new media artist Feng Mengbo flashed on the screen behind. I most recall one song nearly matched up lyrically with clips from Spongebob Squarepants — the lyrics inexplicably being “I am not gay. Gay gay gay gay gay” and later, New Pants singer Peng Lei in a white button-up smashing a computer on stage, much to the small gathering crowd’s amusement.

After a quick trip back through the “Origin” cube and a saucy vegan tofu burger with pineapple from an Off the Grid truck (Koja Kitchen), I crawled back through the slightly more filled up hanger for always-entertaining LA noise band, HEALTH.  As far as I’m concerned, the best parts of HEALTH were the drumming and the headbanging, which went hand in hand.

The experimental sounds, the mixed vocals, the frantic live show, it was great — but the drummer just killed it, and when another band member picked up the sticks to drum along in pummeling unison, it was near blistering perfection. And to my other point, I just like seeing bands headbang on stage, especially in this odd setting (still bright and light outside, still relatively empty in the enormous space). 

There was one true fan in the crowd — though I’m sure more were there, just possibly bodily contained — that couldn’t help but headbang along with dark flowing hair flying, jump methodically in place, and throw a near-empty cup of beer, much to the chagrin of the nerds around him.

The Antlers followed, and were rather unexciting. It was just that mild, lovely indie rock from a former blog buzz band, suitable for impassioned scenes on nighttime soaps. Though they played it well, not a whole lot of heat.

Seattle’s Shabazz Palaces brought the fun back. While the music off last year’s Black Up is sometimes playful, there’s a refined dynamic in the act, laid out by the casual-close interplay and synchronized dancing between smooth lyricist-808 controller Ishmael “’Palaceer Lazaro” Butler (once of ‘90s jazz-rap group Digable Planets) and bongo slapping multi-instrumentalist Tendai “Baba” Maraire. Lots of grooving followed, and some memorably awkward white boy shoulder jerks of free-form dance in the crowd.

After a round of sweet potato tator tots from Brass Knuckle, it was Zola Jesus mind-melting time.  And just in time to catch that powerfully operatic voice soaring through moving single “Avalanche” off Conatus.

The diminutive vocalist, wrapped in her usual flowing, cape-y white frock, spread her winged-arms out wide during high notes, giving the illusion of a bird about to take flight, or an eerily angelic force, like the inverse of the black angel in Chris Milk’s interactive installation in the nearby Herbst Pavillion.

She was the first act of the day able to truly transcend the challenges of the wide-open space fighting the elements (outdoor rain, shots of wind through open doors, free concert-itus causing general disinterest).  Though that also could have been because the sun was finally officially down, and the true crowds were finally there, more efficiently using the room to huddle. 

And this is when a balding elder with a badge around his neck began holding up his camera and filming Zola Jesus’ set. And it was right in front of me. And then I was watching the floating eerie angel through his tiny screen.

With general media personnel, bloggers, reporters, Intel people, and VICE people all there with a barrage of fancy cameras with huge lenses, or iPads, or iPhones snapping away all day, it felt like nearly everyone was there to document the event. If not for a specific outlet, most definitely for some form of social networking.

It left me wondering, who was there to simply absorb the magic in real-time?  Who came for fun? Are we all part of some scary dystopia in which nothing happens but documentation? But also, perhaps paradoxically, who cares? This was a great event, tying together master creators in the worlds of technology, art, music, and food. Who am I to shit on that?

Left pondering this, I realized: my cheeks were frozen stiff, my belly ached from fried foods, and my ugly sniffling cold was rearing its ugly sniffling head. It was time to go home. Luckily, my photographer stayed behind to document Squarepusher and Yeah Yeah Yeahs for those who missed it real-time.

 

Hosi Simon of VICE offers tips on this weekend’s Creators Project

Tony Robles
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Hosi Simon of VICE offers tips on this weekend’s Creators Project

As most know by now, there’s been an email circulating about a massive free event in San Francisco all weekend with art, tech workshops, food, and live sets by the Yeah Yeahs Yeahs, James Murphy, HEALTH, Teen Daze, Zola Jesus, and more. The catch: to attend the Saturday Creators Project gathering (the day when all those epic bands play), you had to win a virtual lottery, by RSVP-ing and rolling the e-dice.

Most of those with the lucky RSVP have now been notified (as one friend put it: “I got one! I feel like I’m going to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory!”) but fear not everyone else, Hosi Simon, GM of VICE, says more will be dispersed Friday (though RSVP-ing is now closed).

For those who got the winning Wonka email, those still waiting to hear, or everyone else who is perfectly fine just checking out the art+technology on Friday or Sunday – no ticket needed those days –  Simon offered up some pointers on what to look out for, and answered a few additional burning questions:

SFBG Okay, what should attendees check out?
Hosi Simon  Most important, the first one is UVA and Scanner’s piece, “Origin.” The instillation is opening tomorrow night [and is] open through Sunday. It’s the perfect place for a romantic walk – I’ve tried it and it worked in New York. It’s the massive 40×40 foot light instillation that was started at Coachella 2011 and we traveled with it country to country. These steel cubes in different formations have developed.

Secondly, we encourage people to check out all the local artists, born and bred in San Francisco. Casey Reas is doing a workshop that teaches people how to use programming – it’s a super fun thing for people to get involved with. And Chris Milk is debuting his new interactive instillation, “The Treachery of Sanctuary” –  he went to school in San Francisco and did the “Wilderness Downtown” video for  Arcade Fire [“We Used To Wait”], you know?

Third, the legendary Squarepusher will be playing brand new music from his new record coming out in May.

Fourth – it will turn into an epic marathon. On average people stay for about 10 hours – [for] films, panels, workshops, bands. Be prepared to be tired and overwhelmed. Pretty much everything is inside. Eat, hydrate, do some stretching exercises. 

Fifth, If you weren’t able to get a ticket in the lottery for Saturday, Sunday is totally open, you don’t need a ticket. All the artwork including David Bowie’s will still be open Sunday and there will be panels.

SFBG How many tickets did you give away? Why the lottery system?
HS We will be giving away about 12,000 tickets. We’ll give away another quarter of those tickets on Friday. We’ve labored with this, we feel it’s the fairest way to guarantee entry.

The main thing is we don’t want to charge and want to make [tickets] as available as possible. There’s no perfect system for anything. We started as an industry party in New York, and we’ve [since] pushed it as a democratic cultural project. We want it to be open to as many people as we can.

SFBG When did that first New York party happen?
HS The first one was June 2010. It’s gone to seven [Creators Project events] in 2010, nine in 2011, and there will be seven or eight  in 2012 –  São Paulo, Bejing, Paris, New York. This is our first time in San Francisco, we’ve always wanted to bring it here. And a lot of the artworks [created here] will travel to all the stops around the world.

Localized Appreesh: The Myonics

Tony Robles
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Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.

Older sister band to previously profiled rabble-rousers Symbolick Jews, offensive psych-rock locals the Myonics just released their new, aptly-titled LP, Pagans. Richard Hell, Syd Barrett, and pioneering Japanese electronic act Yellow Magic Orchestra all equally inspired the record. Can’t really go wrong with that mix, right?

Plus, a super-special limited edition vinyl purchase of Pagans includes “occult figurines, religious and faux-religious artifacts, found objects and stolen mantelpieces personalized by the band” – along with the requisite download code.

So let’s take a sloppy punk-as-fuck attitude (“I Don’t Give a Fuck About You”), throw down some truncated pop hits mixed with meandering psychedelia then plop in some beep-beep, knob-twisting digi-organisms, and you could extract the very essence of the Myonics. Or you could buy the record. Or you could see it performed live this Friday at Lost Church.

Year and location of origin: 2006 in Los Angeles.

Band name origin: A made-up word meant to sound scientific and possessive.

Band motto: Either “That’s a really hot shot” or “We’ll figure it out.”

Description of sound in 10 words or less: The end is nigh.

Instrumentation: 1-3 guitars, electric bass, 1-2 drum kits, electric autoharp, trumpet, cheap synths, microcasette recorder, and some vocals

Most recent release: Pagans, a full-length long playing vinyl record containing 10 concise pop masterworks. The album’s also available in a “Special Edition” – folk objects personalized by the band with a download code affixed to them. Buy either online here. Or better yet, come to the shows and save yourself the shipping charge (by giving us more money). Also available at Amoeba Music.

Best part about life as a Bay Area band: Living on the edge of destruction is creatively stimulating.

Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: Living on the edge of destruction is stressful. There are also way too many bands here and we’re claustrophobic.

First album ever purchased:
Jasper – The Beatles – Yesterday…and Today (on cassette)
Nat – The Backstreet Boys – Millennium (I think)
Tom – In Utero
Eric – Midnight Oil – Species Deceases
Brian – Queen – LIVE Killers
Billy – Peter Pan (soundtrack)

Most recent album purchased/downloaded: 
Jasper – Tom Verlaine – Cover
Nat – Wax Idols – No Future
Tom – Starsailor (tired of memorizing the scratches on my mp3s, i finally got the vinyl)
Eric – Emily’s Sassy Lime – Desperate, Scared, But Social [ed. note – rad]
Brian – Sun Ra – It’s After The End of the World
Billy – The Tornadoes – Meet The Tornadoes

Favorite local eatery and dish:
Jasper – The Great Koonaklaster’s Strawberry Ice Cream Sodas or Eddy’s Steakburgers.
Nat – The taco truck on Harrison near 19th street; veggie tacos.
Tom – Eggplant with Tofu at Chili Cha Cha 2.
Eric – “I got nothin.'”
Brian – The pizza at Golden Boy’s.
Billy – Redwood Cafe – Meditation Plate.

The Myonics
With the Wounded Stag
Fri/16, 8:30 p.m.
Lost Church
65 Capp, SF
www.thelostchurch.com

Localized Appreesh: Date Palms

Tony Robles
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Localized Appreesh: Date Palms

Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.

It’s hard to imagine a better fit to experimental film than psychedelic drone. The brief images on screen take you away to darkened unknown landscapes, the multitracked tape manipulation of sound mimics the calm yet uneasy mood in a segmented rhythm.

It’s with this symbiosis in mind that I recommend Date Palms – the Oakland band, made up of veteran droners Gregg Kowalsky and Marielle Jakobsons  – and its double-feature this weekend. The duo will perform its soothing/unsettling, lost-in-the-rippling-barren-desert, music during two nights (one in SF, one in Oakland) of Super 8 films by Paul Clipson, himself a recipient of last year’s GOLDIES.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEknV_BW-bg

Year and location of origin: Jingletown, Oakland, 2009.

Band name origin: I grew up in South Florida.

Band motto: Slow and Low.

Description of sound in 10 words or less: Psychedelic minimalism with Eastern tinged melodies driven by cyclical, distorted bass patterns.

Instrumentation: Bass, Violin, Tanpura, Fender Rhodes, various analog synths, tapes.

Most recent release: Four-way split double LP on Immune Records for Record Store Day with Date Palms, Expo 70, Pulse Emitter, and Faceplant (one half of Peaking Lights).

Best part about life as a Bay Area band: An open minded audience.

Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: Pacific Coast isolation, makes it difficult to tour East Coast and Europe.

First album ever purchased: Kiss – Dynasty (cassette).

Most recent album purchased/downloaded: Miles Davis – Live Evil LP (reissue).

Favorite local eatery and dish: Cholita Linda, Fish Tacos

Date Palms
With Barn Owl, Ensemble Economique, and Super 8 films by Paul Clipson
Fri/9, 8 p.m.
Lab
2948 16th St., SF
www.thelab.org

With Barn Owl, Ensemble Economique, and Super 8 films by Paul Clipson
Sat/10, 8 p.m., $7-$10 donation
Liminal Space
950 54th St., Oakl.
www.liminal-space.org
 

Cloud somethings

Tony Robles
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0

It’s unsettling how the first track off Cloud Nothings’ new LP makes one want to drop everything and flop on the ground in an arrested development expression of perma-teen angst. It’s hard to even type these words when the song is playing. It’s hard to lift my hands. I just want to listen to the melancholic chug-chug of dangling chords, bursts of crashing cymbals, and singer-guitarist Dylan Baldi’s stretched-out moan, “No Future/No Past.” I don’t want to do anything.

But that first track is something of a subterfuge as the rest of the album truly picks up beat-and-tone-wise, though the lyrics remain similarly restless. The second song off Attack on Memory peels me off the floor. By track four, “Stay Useless,” I’m nearly dancing, it’s nearing popped traditional emo, though still in that morose, everything-is-fucked clattering noise – recorded, as breathlessly reported in every story on the band, by the legendary musician-producer Steve Albini (Shellac, forever linked to Nirvana).

And that’s when I realize I love this record, I love everything about it: the trick start, the nouveu-grunge milieu, Baldi’s struggling vocals, suburban angst at its best. And the kicker: dude is only 20. He was maybe 2-years-old when Kurt Cobain died. And, perhaps even more surprising, he’s totally likeable, offering stoney laughs during our chat, and affably answering surely oft-repeated queries:

SFBG: How’s it going?

Dylan Baldi: Hey, I’m fine.

SFBG: How tired are you of talking about Steve Albini?

DB: I’m pretty tired of that [laughs], but if you have questions I don’t mind it.

SFBG: I can imagine, but people are obsessed with him. So I here I go – just wondering what your experience was like working with him?

DB: We were only there for four days and he’s a nice guy. He was pretty hands-off in terms of actually coming up with things to do but I kind of like that. I wasn’t looking for someone to tell us what to do with our songs, I just wanted someone to make the record sound good, and he did.

SFBG: The first Cloud Nothings record you recorded alone, correct?

DB: Yep.

SFBG: So when you recorded that first album was it almost an accident? Were you intentionally making a new project?

DB: Yeah it was sort of an accident, I just made two songs and put them online and someone liked it and wanted to put out a tape, so I made some more songs. It’s spiraled from there yeah. [This] started about two years ago.

SFBG: How long was the gap between putting it up on the Web and an interest being generated?

DB: It was literally two or three days. Super fast. It was on Myspace and a couple of blogs picked it up right away.

SFBG: Pretty awesome. So when did you start writing ‘Attack on Memory?’ What influenced you during that time?

DB: Last June pretty much. One of the big influences musically is a band called the Wipers. I was listening to them a lot over the year, between the two records. I guess musically also I wanted to do something that wasn’t like the last record, so it was a conscious effort to make something a little different.

SFBG: How did you discover the Wipers?

DB: A friend first told me about them, and I got their first couple records and I really like them and I couldn’t stop listening to them.

SFBG: They’re such an underrated punk band, it’s weird that people don’t talk about them more.

DB: They totally are! I was going to say exactly what you’re saying, it’s weird that more people don’t know about them. They’re amazing.

SFBG: What was the first record you ever bought with your own money?

DB: Oh! Um, I think it was probably Apollo 18 by They Might Be Giants. I was into them, I’m still into them.

SFBG: What are the some of the records you’ve guys have been listening to on this tour?

DB: You know that song by Ozzy Osbourne, “Mr. Crowley” – it goes like [singing] “Miiiister Crooowley” [laughs]. It starts off with this crazy keyboard thing? We listen to that song a lot. As far as full-length records, our goal today is to listen to Death Magnetic by Metallica because we have a 12-hour drive and that’s a good album. I guess we don’t listen to a lot of like, “good” music.

Cloud Nothings
With Mr. Dream, Your Cannons
10pm, sold out
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St., SF
(415) 621-4455
www.bottomofthehill.com

Maximum Consumption: Overlap at Public Works pairs the audio with the edible

Tony Robles
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0

So at Public Works this Thursday you can: watch veteran SF DJ Mophono and beat-driven gothsters Water Borders* live, learn about innovative advancements in music-making, peep some short films and new local art, and nibble tasty vegan treats. All in one event, from the safety of your own neighborhood club.

We all know there are overlapping circles between the arts – even the edible arts – and this is the belief that drives Overlap.org, a hyphen organization (music-arts-technology) that also has been hosting parties since 2006. In prep for the next installment of Overlap – which goes down Thursday – I spoke with Ghostly International’s Christopher Willits (Overlap.org’s founder, experimental SF-based musician) about music, food, and fostering local creativity:

SFBG: What will you be doing during the designing process workshop?

Christopher Willits: I’ll be covering a popular music-making and production tool called Ableton Live. I’ll be talking about the basics of this software system and how you can make expressive creative art with this digital tool.

SFBG: What are some other activities that will take place during this installment of Overlap?

CW: We have some great live music and a diverse lineup with Mophono, Water Borders, and Danny Paul Grody. Local films will be shown, we’ll have local vegan food from Freedom Kitchen, food by Rocky’s Fry Bread, and more local vendors announced the day of. We’ll have an info booth for our friends at Mission Creek Festival, and this time we also have very cool art vendors – Dave Marcoullier, The Heated, and more.

SFBG: Can you describe the vibe? What has been most surprising about previous Overlaps?

CW: I connected with Public Works after a SF Forage event I performed at, and we found that we shared a common vision of where the Overlap event could go. Our first event with [them] was last October, it proved the concept and set the tone – a relaxed evening of diverse art and some really awesome people hanging out and meeting. It’s cool to see people coming out of their usual scene and connecting with this idea of greater creative community overlapping, a community made from unique but interrelated groups.

SFBG: Why incorporate local food into a music event?

CW: We support the localization of food. Our last events have featured permaculture discussions about decentralizing our food sources. We can do this in SF.  Plus we just want people to be comfortable with some delicious clean food and feature these hard-working culinary artists. They are so much a part of the creativity of this city.

SFBG: Do you see any connections in the art of cuisine and the art of music? If so, what?

CW: Absolutely, the process, texture, flavor, color, history. Music, just like food, is woven in the very fabric of our culture. I don’t know of two other things that bring people together better than food and music.

SFBG: What are your personal favorite local places to eat?

CW: I’m really into Gracias Madre right now. Ask for the hot sauce, it’s this paste-like mixure of a couple different chiles. Yum. I think you need to ask for it.

SFBG: Future goals for Overlap.org and Overlap parties?

CW: Our goal is simple – to grow creative community in San Francisco. The rest will fall into place. We want to provide that place and time for people to come together and strengthen new bonds.

I have this feeling that we’re within a new creative wave in SF. We’re living in an amazing place and time, we’re all redefining how art and community interact and grow together. We have so much imagination and creativity. Together we are redesigning how our local communities can connect, come together and ultimately incite creative change.

Overlap
With Christopher Willits, Danny Grody, Mophono, Water Borders
Thurs/1, 7 p.m., $5-$10
Public Works
161 Eerie, SF
(415) 932-0955
www.publicsf.com

 

*An absolute aside: Water Borders’ Amitai Heller once casually told me he’d want to do a TED talk on the intersection of goth and baseball, and I think about this often, joke or not.

Localized Appreesh: The Shants

Tony Robles
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0

Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.

The Shants have done something curiously rare these days: created an authentically Southern and categorically enjoyable stompy blues and folk record in the heart of garage punk and hip-hop obsessed Oakland. That authenticity come from real roots, as these sorts of things often do – the new record, Beautiful was the Night, is said to be a “haunted love letter” to singer Skip Allum’s youth in the South Louisiana delta pines.

The resulting record is a lively mix of Americana, twanged vocals, bluesy riffs, bits of piano and violin, and steel guitar, with guest appearances by the likes of multi-instrumentalist/horn player Ralph Carney, Blue Bone Express, and vocalist Quinn DeVeaux. I think singer Brianna Lea Pruett, who also guests on the record, describes the music best when she says in the short documentary on the making of the album, “Even in the dark parts, there’s a sweet treatment to it.”

With the long-awaited release of its debut full-length record finally here, the quartet will play Cafe Du Nord this Thursday.

You can watch the making of the new album here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaPdF3T8UZs

Year and location of origin: Oakland, 2009

Band name origin: Its a reference to the Gaelic word, shiant, meaning blessed or charmed… and the Shiant Isles of Scotland. Skip came across it while doing some research on his Scottish family origins, which can be traced to those islands. That’s the short version, anyway.

Band motto: “Is the pedal steel too loud? How ’bout now?”

Description of sound in 10 words or less: A dusty, slow blend of Southern folk, and country blues.

Instrumentation: 1954 Harmony archtop guitar, Emmons double-neck pedal steel guitar, 1970s Peavey bass guitar, drums. May soon have a new fella on many other instruments. Stay tuned!

Most recent release: Beautiful Was The Night, our first full-length! Available now at live shows, our website, iTunes, Bandcamp, Spotify, etc. and all Rasputin Records locations. It was recorded with all analog gear over at the Rec Center (formerly Bakesale Betty’s storage space) and at Tones on Tail Studios in Oakland, with Mr. Eliot Curtis.

Best part about life as a Bay Area band: The diverse musical community is pretty inspiring. We may not sound like a lot of other bands coming out of Oakland and the city… but we are all very DIY-focused & often looking to expand our sound with new textures.

Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: Tolls and parking tickets are a bitch, man. After shelling out this much money, we should get board seats with Caltrans and Alameda County.

First album ever purchased:
Skip: Matthew Sweet – Girlfriend
Carver: Nirvana – Nevermind
Adam: The Police – Synchronicity
Sam: Son Volt – Trace

Most recent album purchased/downloaded:
Skip: Samantha Crain – You (Understood)
Carver: Etta James – Etta James Rocks the House
Adam: Keith Jarret – Shostakovich 24 Preludes and Fugues
Sam: Calexico – Feast of Wire

Favorite local eatery and dish:
Skip: Aslam’s Rosoi on Valencia. I love their lamb Madras.
Adam: Lo Coco’s on Piedmont Ave in Oakland. Their Maria and Suzanne pizzas so good.
Carver: Brown Sugar Cafe in Emeryville. Get the chicken & waffles.
Sam: Bakesale Betty’s in Oakland. Fried chicken sandwich, of course.

The Shants
With Chadwick Stokes
Thurs/1, 8 p.m., $17
Cafe Du Nord
2170 Market, SF
(415) 861-5016
www.cafedunord.com

Snap Sounds: Void

Tony Robles
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2
Snap Sounds: Void

VOID
SESSIONS 81-83
(DISCHORD)

Void was hardcore in a blender. It was loud, frantic, messy, and fast as hell. A brief yet seminal (there’s that word again) punk act, formed in 1979 D.C., Void was known equally for its early mix of hardcore and thrash, as its frenzied live shows, which often turned violent. And for such a memorable act, we future listeners were left with little to actually, well, listen to. It was all buried in seven-inches, splits, and hard-to-find comps.

Nearing the end of 2011, Dischord announced it would release a comprehensive catalogue of the long-gone band’s songs, and it delivered. Sessions 81-83 essentially spans the life of Void in 34 songs, and includes 20 unreleased tracks, live performances, standouts like “Dehumanized,” and thrashy covers (Black Flag’s “Wasted”). Fittingly, the disc ends with a live “My Rules,” recorded in ’83, which simply cuts out, like someone unplugged the amps and walked away. 

“Dehumanized” audio track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukqm91gz7hs

With moving pictures, Void is even better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JXLM8fS2jU

Noise Pop Roundup 2: Cursive, Budos Band, Emily Jane White, DRMS, Atlas Sound

Tony Robles
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0
Noise Pop Roundup 2: Cursive, Budos Band, Emily Jane White, DRMS, Atlas Sound

My personal strategy for Noise Pop 2012 was to pack in as diverse a personal schedule as possible, taking into account old obsessions (Cursive, Bradford Cox) and favored newer acts (Allah-Las, DRMS), national and local bands and musicians, weird and precious live indie music.

I also wanted to spread my time over multiple venues, so this time around I hit up the Independent, Bimbo’s, Great American Music Hall, Swedish American, and Mezzanine. I walked the length of the city, racked up some high bus and cab bills, likely imbibed too frequently and caught some stellar live music. My head, feet, and note-scribbling hand are sore, but it was worth it.

WEDNESDAY: Cursive at Great American Music Hall

It was mid-song (“The Martyr,” 2000’s Domestica), mid-set (Noise Pop), of Cursive’s likely sold-out performance at Great American Music Hall. I opened my eyes, scanned the room, and saw we were all singing along breathlessly. Plaid-shirted forearms thrust towards stage, fringed heads bobbing, and everyone within earshot hollering towards the center. There in the middle stood grizzled singer-guitarist Tim Kasher, leader of the Omaha-bred longtime Saddle Creek Records fixture Cursive, as well as the Good Life. Parsing his words carefully, Kasher spoke for nearly the first time after a quick-fire opening shot of beloved Domestica and Ugly Organ tracks, interspersed with brand newer, understandably less-clapped-for I Am Gemini cuts. “Let’s get candid,” he understated. Full review here.

THURSDAY: Allah-Las and Budos Band at Independent

If you could handpick its most redeeming qualities and inhabitants from any time period in the past half century, Los Angeles could actually be a rather magical place. Pluck the psychedelic guitar strains reverberating through Laurel Canyon, scoop a fistful of bronzed sun-kissed surfers and sparkling waves from the coast, add two shakes of downtown weirdness, and you’d likely come up with something along the lines of Allah-Las, the quartet that opened for Budos Band during the Noise Pop lineup at the Independent Thursday. Full review here.

FRIDAY: Emily Jane White and DRMS at Swedish American Music Hall

The first time I saw dark folk songstress Emily Jane White live was at an ornate church on a hill (RIP EpiscoDisco) so this Noise Pop stop at the Swedish American Music Hall last Friday brought back some particular memories. Memories of an elegant, otherworldly setting and the singer-guitarist who encapsulates the venue’s charms.

With nary a smile, the black cloth-and-lace-swaddled White beautifully finger-picked and sang original tracks off 2009’s Victorian American and 2010’s Ode to Sentience, backed by a seated guitarist, a fellow on bass clarinet, and later, a violinist, who added even more depth to haunting closing song, “Victorian America” – a piece that showcases the bold yet breathy strength of White’s voice. Seated in folding chairs at the Swedish American, surrounded by dark wood trim, the audience clapped politely then grabbed between-act beers from guest bartender John Vanderslice.

Upon my return from Vanderslicing, I saw that DRMS (formerly known as Dreams) had splayed across the relatively small church-like stage, a clump of seven musicians with an interesting mixture of instruments and styles. Behind the retro 1920s blues vocals, the Afro-folk band incorporated more traditional instruments along with melodica, vibraphone, and some sort of bag of shimmering noise, all rainstick-like. Live, the intimate set felt like it could be happening anywhere in the world, a group of friends playing jumbly music with hints at a grab-bag variety of genres and cultures. This could work anywhere, yet still the venue felt the ideal setting.

SATURDAY: Atlas Sound at Bimbo’s

Three of the four acts Saturday night at Bimbo’s were solo dudes on guitar making sounds far beyond the basic limitations of the instrument. These were experiments in experimenting, Carnivores, Frankie Broyles, and of course, the man who likely influenced the others in some form or another, Atlas Sound (aka Bradford Cox, also of Deerhunter).

With a courteous “hello,” Cox picked up one of his magic vintage guitars – one attached to so many pedals and looping mechanisms that one pictures a jumble of chords slithering snake-like up his thigh – and opened up to a captive Bimbo’s crowd with his hypnotic near-soundscapes.

Not knowing quite what to expect live, I was, for whatever reason, somewhat surprised to see only Cox on stage at Bimbo’s (another grand San Francisco venue, for those keeping track of the prettiest music spots to visit) playing music so full it sounded like a full band. Perhaps a ghost band sat behind him, guiding the chord snakes.

Though it’s his solo project, it’s still mystifying to me that he can create such a beautiful noise alone. Cox’s swirling, pulsating loops of guitar and drum sounds picked up speed at times, revving up those in the audience as well, particularly during “Shelia” off 2009’s Logos and more so tracks off most recently released record Parallax: “Te Amo”  and “Terra Incognita.”

The front row of the ballroom was packed with youthful obsession (the excited youngsters sat up front on the dancefloor ground from the time the doors opened at 7 p.m. ’till Atlas Sound’s set at 11). Those kids provided fodder for Cox’s eccentric on-stage musings later in the evening, when he brought a boy on stage and said he looked like a younger version of him. I also heard later that young fans swarmed Cox after the set to gush and thank him for saving their lives, with his music.

From California to Ethiopia with Allah-Las and the Budos Band

Tony Robles
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0

If you could handpick its most redeeming qualities and inhabitants from any time period in the past half century, Los Angeles could actually be a rather magical place. Pluck the psychedelic guitar strains reverberating through Laurel Canyon, scoop a fistful of bronzed sun-kissed surfers and sparkling waves from the coast, add two shakes of downtown weirdness, and you’d likely come up with something along the lines of Allah-Las, the quartet that opened for Budos Band during the Noise Pop lineup at the Independent Thursday.

Sporting a bolo tie and an acoustic guitar, lead singer Miles Michaud ran the band through a tight set of exhaustively pleasant, twist-worthy folk-adelia – with the kind of echoing vocals that shoot you back to a simpler time of black-and-white TV rock’n’roll. Perhaps behind those smiling, hair shaking acts of Ed Sullivan yore, a secret hallucinatory tab or barbiturate ran through the blood streams; if you could somehow bring those mysteries pumping through warm veins to the surface, you could get the Allah-Las set. Likewise, it could have replaced Strawberry Alarm Clock in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, had any of its members been alive at the time.

Maybe most of the 20/30-something, casually hippie crowd was not there for these openers (or the other opening acts), because they seemed mostly stoic – and this sound pleaded for shaking, at least a few hip-swivels. Something. 

And from this vintage California boardwalk postcard of a band, we were flown around the world to Ethiopian jazz-via-Staten-Island. The instrumental Budos Band headlined the night and crushed its set – after an abnormally boiling, sticky half-hour wait that left a nearby fan audibly exasperated, and a trail of cool sweat down my back.

The 10-13-piece – counted nine on stage last night – Afro-funk band sauntered out with brassy swagger, clasping large horns (sax, trumpet), traditional vestiges of rock’n’roll (guitar, bass), and plenty of African percussion, amidst a hovering cloud of herbal smoke. Never have I seen such a charismatic baritone saxophonist as Jared Tankel, taking control of the stage with his impressive horn and skill, a maestro of groove, eliciting excitement from the audience by pumping one arm up when freed from the keys.

(The below video was not shot at the Indy, but in Washington a few days earlier) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjPhtjIKjpc

With an instrumental set, the mind naturally wanders, and with this one, it brought me to Bill Murray. Specifically, the downtrodden, graying Murray driving around listening to Ethiopian jazz artist Mulatu Astatke in Broken Flowers. Though I see Budos Band too as perfect driving music, the audience moved far more for during this round, hooting and hollering, shifting and swaying to the consistent beat, laid down by bongos, congas, tambourine, clave, and West African shekere.

The walls were dripping with sweat by the end of it all, and though it was not the transnational journey I’d conjured, the few hour brain-vacation boded well.

 

All photos by Chris Stevens.

Antwon’s new video for ‘Helicopter’ is rooted in Bay Area connections

Tony Robles
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1

San Jose rapper Antwon’s new video for “Helicopter” (directed by Brandon Tauszik) splits time between the Steve McQueen classic Bullitt (1968), filmed on the mean streets of San Francisco, and present-day Oakland; the modern shots are of Antwon and friends including Squadda B and Mondre MAN of Oakland’s Main Attrakionz hanging out around the city, along with some gratuitous Sriracha pouring.

Cursive gets candid during Noise Pop

Tony Robles
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0

Tears, booze, sex, pain, martyrdom, regret. Against my better judgment, I was singing along with the band. I was singing carefully, with my eyes closed and likely a smile creeping up in the corners of my mouth. I couldn’t help it, it came from within, as much as that particular act generally annoys me in packed settings. The swell of angular guitar and thundering drums pulled back mostly leaving higher octave vocals from a scale that slides to and fro: “Your tears are only alibis/To prove you still feel/You only feel sorry for yourself/Well get on that cross/That’s all you’re good for.”

It was mid-song (“The Martyr,” 2000’s Domestica), mid-set (Noise Pop), of Cursive’s likely sold-out performance at Great American Music Hall. I opened my eyes, scanned the room, and saw we were all singing along breathlessly. Plaid-shirted forearms thrust towards stage, fringed heads bobbing, and everyone within earshot hollering towards the center. There in the middle stood grizzled singer-guitarist Tim Kasher, leader of the Omaha-bred longtime Saddle Creek Records fixture Cursive, as well as the Good Life. Parsing his words carefully, Kasher spoke for nearly the first time after a quick-fire opening shot of beloved Domestica and Ugly Organ tracks, interspersed with brand newer, understandably less-clapped-for I Am Gemini cuts. “Let’s get candid,” he understated.

As with the folly of any continuous lovers, there was ecstasy and there was heartbreak. Dashing Kasher, the classic storyteller, the frog-croaking boozehound, inspires great emotion in his followers, only those who’ve been with him for quite some time – say, more than a decade – may question the direction of sound. Cello out, trumpet in. Perhaps it was projection, but it appeared the crowd and Kasher were mutually orgasmic during early career, well-worn classics, and likewise, faking it to get through the newer ones.

Ending the official set with “Art is Hard” (later explaining he’d be back for an encore, after taking a shot), Kasher reminded us why we were there, because making art is indeed hard and trying, and thrilling and sometimes, routine. “Fall in love to fail – to boost your CD sales.” It’s pulling all those creative types like taffy, up to fame, sideways to monotony, and sometimes, down with it, but if you don’t have a soundtrack to the downward spiral of inventive misery, well, all else is lost too: “You gotta’ sink to swim.”

 

All photos by Chris Stevens.

Localized Appreesh: Churches

Tony Robles
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1
Localized Appreesh: Churches

Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.
 
There’s a whole lot of religious imagery going on within new local guitar-and-drums superduo Churches. Most vivid, beyond the obvious, is the guilty, desperate strain in mesmerizing first single, “Save Me,” and its jittery remixes. The track and remixes (available on Bandcamp) are both pleading and sensual, evoking the classic good/evil ecstasy of sacred customs.

Musically, the band – made up of Caleb Nichols (Grand Lake, Port O’Brien) and Pat Spurgeon (Rogue Wave) – arouses memories of ’90s bedroom angst; “Save Me,” recorded at Tiny Telephone, utilizes this vibe and mixes it with distorted pop, repetitive calls, and lightly-employed synth. Second single “Feel Alright,” released today, follows the garage trail deeper, occasionally evoking an early Nirvana-lite.

What better way to showcase an auspicious local act than with a slot during Noise Pop? Churches plays Bottom of the Hill this week with Fresh & Onlys. But first, they gave us the rundown on a new life as Churches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AH9XkyhkQE

Year and location of origin: September 2011. San Francisco and Oakland. Tiny Telephone and Harlan Street.

Band name origin: I came up with the name while on tour with WATERS (I was playing bass with them). I remember that Van and Niko and I were talking about what my next music thing should be and we came up with the idea for Churches, which is the English translation of my middle name, Kirke, but plural.

Band motto: Aequalis opus aequalis stipendium.

Description of sound in 10 words or less: Re-experience teen angst through distortion and chorus plus loud drums.

Instrumentation: Guitar, Singing, Drums + (a little) Bass and Moog.

Most recent release:  “Feel Alright”  – a self-released single, out today, Feb. 21.

Best part about life as a Bay Area band: Lots of great venues, lots of great musicians and studios.

Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: Living here can be expensive. Being a musician can be expensive. Many musicians are poor. So, the math is against some of us.

First album ever purchased: Michael Jackson Dangerous.

Most recent album purchased/borrowed from the Web: Cloud Nothings, Attack on Memory.

Favorite local eatery and dish: Super Duper on Market and Castro.  Best burger in the WORLD.

Noise Pop: Churches
With Fresh and Onlys, Talkdemonic, Disappears
Wed/22, 8 p.m., $12
Bottom of the Hill
www.bottomofthehill.com

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