Volunteer Pioneer EP Release, New Project

Click to listen to our feature episode on Volunteer Pioneer!

Less than a week after we interviewed Volunteer Pioneer in January, we were shocked to learn of the passing of harpist and vocalist Sabrina Duim. The surviving band members, Kyle Williams and Jason Byers, took some time off to regroup after this tragic event, but recently announced the release of the band’s EP of recorded material, some selections from which you can hear in our podcast episode and in this live set recorded at Rodent Records.

The Volunteer Pioneer EP can be purchased via PayPal directly from the band’s MySpace page, and additional mail order methods are outlined on the band’s blog. It’s a great record and very much worth your money.

Additionally, Kyle and Jason have announced via the VP blog that they are currently working on a new band and will soon begin recording new material. The guys write that, “The new band will include more instrumentation with plenty of pizazz to shake a stick at. We are very excited to be writing and rehearsing and are looking forward to playing shows this summer.”

We’ll keep you updated as we find out more about the new project.

The Weekend Digest: April 26th-29th

Click to listen to our feature episode on Ex-Boyfriends!

Two Seconds

Plenty of interesting local shows to see this weekend:

Thursday night features a few local options. There’s the Birdmonster show at The Independent that we previewed on Monday. Those guys have built a well-earned reputation for great, high energy live shows and tonight should be no different.

There’s also a great show at Cafe du Nord, featuring performances by Bay Bridged alumni Ex-Boyfriends and Two Seconds, as well as Fresno’s Rademacher. The Ex-BF guys have been in the studio working on the follow-up to their debut Dear John and drummer Chris O has been documenting the process in words and pictures. You can also hear a song from Two Seconds’ debut album in our Monthly Mix from last September. The show starts at 9pm, is $10 and is 21+.

Your best bet Friday night is to catch one of the two final performances of Giant Haystacks, which we discussed yesterday. We’ve seen them several times before and they always deliver.

Also on Friday, local label Jackpine Social Club celebrates its fifth birthday over at Annie’s Social Club. Over its five years, the label has released records by Bay Area notables like The Herms, Kelley Stoltz, Oranger, and Loquat among others. Friday’s celebration features performances from Ian Moore, Jackpot, and Parker Bros. Jackpot, from Sacramento, will be releasing their new album on Jackpine Social Club on May 15th. At the show, there’s also going to be a meat raffle, which we initially assumed was a joke, but it sounds like there is actually going to be a raffle with meat prizes. The show starts at 9pm and is $8 and 21+.

On Saturday night, The Finches play a last Bay Area show before heading on a West Coast tour that finds them playing gigs from San Diego to Vancouver. For all of the dates, check out their MySpace page. We spoke to the duo just before they released their very received debut full-length Human Like a House earlier this year. Joining them are fellow local folk-rockers Chinatown Bakeries and Phoenix’s French Quarter. The show begins at 9:30pm, is $7 and is 21+.

And on Sunday night, the excellent Dreamdate, who we recently featured, headline over at Cafe du Nord, alongside Make Me, Origami, and Excuses for Skipping. The show starts at 7:30pm, is $8 advance/$10 door, and is 21+.

Tartufi’s tour hits midpoint in NYC…

One of San Francisco’s hardest working bands, progressive noise ambassadors Tartufi, have just hit the midpoint of their “35 show/40 day” Spring Tour. While visiting in New York, we had the opportunity to catch the road warriors in fine form at the Delancey as they received a seemingly hometown reception for their entrancing set of experimental pop mayhem.

Leaving town on March 28, the dynamic duo kicked the party off in Reno, and has since made its way through an Atlas-load of states including Utah, Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and New York. The two will play a smattering of shows in North Carolina and the Southeast while heading back via Texas to the motherland.

Members Lynne Angel and Brian Gorman still seemed quite fresh-faced and tighter ever and they played musical chairs on stage with loops-a-plenty vocal harmonies, bass, guitar and gut pounding drums through renditions of their latest release, “Us Upon Buildings Upon Us”, which you can purchase here or listen to on their myspace. Almost sold out of t-shirts and a little van-weary, the two reported an unusually strong response from the kids in New Hampshire among other tidbits of road wisdom.

Back in January, we had the pleasure of interviewing these two amazingly talented and fun musicians. Check out the full interview here in Episode 49.

Giant Haystacks calls it a day

Click to listen to our feature episode on Giant Haystacks!

San Francisco trio Giant Haystacks, whose unique blend of punk and post-punk sounds have made them one of our favorite bands, recently announced that they they are disbanding following two final shows this Friday night in San Francisco.

If you’ve never seen Giant Haystacks perform live, the band takes its tight punk anthems and compresses them even further into great short sets bursting with melody and intensity. We’re hoping the guys stretch out their set lengths a little more in their final two shows to accomodate the wealth of material they’ve released, including the great 2005 full-length Blunt Instrument and the trio of EPs released since then. You can find out more information about all of these records and hear samples at Giant Haystacks’ web site and MySpace page.

Friday starts with an early 21+ show at The Knockout, followed by a secret all ages show:

Friday, April 27th (early show)
The Knockout
5pm, $6, 21+
w/ Signal Lost and The Vicious (Haystacks on first)

Friday, April 27th (late show)
Secret Location (hint: take a look at their web site for the info)
8pm, money requested for touring bands, All Ages
w/ The Vicious, Young Offenders, Surrender (GH headlines)

While we’re sad to see them go, these two shows should be a great chance to catch this excellent band one (or two) final time(s).

Episode 61: The 2007 Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival (Part 1)

 

 Episode 61: The 2007 Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival (Part 1) [38:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Kelley Stoltz

Updated with show times!

TheBayBridged.com is proud to sponsor the 11th Annual Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival, which comes to over a dozen San Francisco Bay Area venues for ten days beginning on May 10th, 2007. This year’s festival features over 180 bands, many of which have been featured on past episodes of The Bay Bridged. Last year, we brought you two mixes dedicated to the 2006 festivities, which you can find here and here. That coverage first introduced us to a number of bands which would quickly become favorites and we’re excited about the opportunity to discover some great new bands through this year’s festival.

This year we’ve partnered with the people behind Mission Creek to bring you comprehensive coverage before, during, and after the festival. We’ll be providing detailed previews of the shows before they happen, photos and recordings from the performances, and show recaps after the festival. Our coverage begins with this week’s podcast, which includes songs by ten artists and bands performing in the festival. We’ll provide more details about all of the artists in the days and weeks to come, but for now, enjoy ten songs by:

Kelley Stoltz
Sunday, May 13th
The Make-Out Room
9pm, $10
w/ Sonny Smith, Virgil Shaw

The Parson Red Heads
Saturday, May 12th
The Rockit Room
Doors at 3pm, $6 before 6pm/$8 after 8pm
w/ The Love X Nowhere, Gingerbread Patriots, Kite Flying Society, Amy Cooper, Furniture on Fire, Love is Chemicals, The Centuries

Calling All Monsters
Friday, May 11th
Cafe du Nord
9pm, $12
w/ Track Star, Vedera, Dear and the Headlights

Head Like a Kite
Saturday, May 12th
12 Galaxies
9pm, $8/$10
w/ Black Fiction, Lemonade, The Fucking Ocean, Skeletons and the Kings of all Cities

The Spires
Thursday, May 17th
The Make-Out Room
9pm, $8
w/ Petracovich, Snowblink

The Rum Diary
Friday, May 11th
Hemlock Tavern
9:30pm, $7
w/ French Disco, Empty Rooms

Garrett Pierce
Friday, May 11th
Argus Lounge
9pm
w/ Planes For Spaces, Michael De Winter

Andy Tisdall
Saturday, May 19th
Hemlock Tavern
9:30pm, $10
w/ King Kong, Port O’Brien

The Dead Science
Friday, May 18th
The Knockout
10pm, $5
w/ Sholi, Little Teeth

Pale Hoarse
Thursday, May 10th
Argus Lounge
9pm
w/ Mariee Sioux, Benjamin Oak Goodman, The Moontraps

This week’s show marks the first time we’ve included artists from outside the Bay Area in our podcast. This isn’t a permanent change, but we’ve decided to break our locals-only policy during the festival because of its commitment to supporting live independent music in the San Francisco Bay Area. All of the bands we’re including are playing alongside some of our Bay Area favorites and our hope is that exposing you to these songs will encourage you to get out to some shows during MCMAF.

Stay tuned to TheBayBridged.com for all of the latest local news and MCMAF coverage!

Birdmonster returns home

Click to listen to our feature episode on Birdmonster!

San Francisco’s Birdmonster, fresh from the latest leg of their seemingly neverending tour, play their next hometown show at The Independent on Thursday, headlining alongside The Cribs and Illinois (who we saw and thoroughly enjoyed at SXSW). The band has promised a bunch of new songs on their frequently updated blog and we’re still enjoying the rockers on last year’s No Midnight, which you can hear selections from in our episode featuring the band, as well as on their MySpace page.

8pm, $14 (advance tickets available here)

KUSF Turns 30!

This Wednesday night, Annie’s Social Club hosts a night of live music celebrating the thirtieth birthday of of one of the best radio stations in the Bay Area, KUSF 90.3 FM. During its thirty years, KUSF’s free-form playlist has been bringing Bay Area listeners great new music from a variety of genres, as well as community-oriented cultural programing. The station has been credited as one of the first in the country to play punk rock. The station’s monthly top 10 podcast is definitely worth checking out too.

Given KUSF’s eclecticism, it’s only appropriate that Wednesday’s show features three diverse local acts: amplified ukelele rockers Pineapple Princess, polka-punks Polkacide, and garage-punks Hank IV. KUSF DJs will be spinning records between bands.

8pm, 21+, $5-10 sliding scale.

Also, if you’re going out in the Mission tonight, the KUSF folks will be hanging out at Doc’s Clock from 7-10pm.

The Weekend Digest: April 19th-22nd

Click to listen to our feature episode on Social Studies!

There’s plenty of great live music around the Bay this weekend:

(((folkYEAH!)))’s Spring Festival 2007 in Big Sur has excellent bands playing all weekend long, with shows at the Fernwood Resort on Friday and Saturday and a free show at the Henry Miller Library on Sunday. We previewed the festival last week, with a video feature on Howlin’ Rain, who will be playing on Friday night. All of the set times and ticket information can be found here.

Friday kicks off early with Afternoon Delight, a great new series of free early Friday evening shows which we previewed yesterday. It should be a blast and we’re quite looking forward to once again catching The Lovely Public.

That night, From Monument to Masses headlines over at Bottom of the Hill, a show we wrote about on Monday. The show starts at 9:30pm and you should show up early to catch And a Few to Break and Silian Rail.

Alternatively, you can catch The Heavenly States and Social Studies (see their feature episode at the top of this post) with The San Antonio Kid & His Bootleggers at the Hemlock Tavern. We included The Heavenly States in our first mix show, previewing last year’s South by Southwest festival. The band has recently been recording new material for the follow-up to 2005’s Black Comet, having achieved significant acclaim in the interim for Borderline, the film documenting their experiences as the first American rock band to play public shows in Libya since the travel embargo was lifted.

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