TONIGHT! The Bay Bridged Presents: Party Time at The Rickshaw Stop!

TheBayBridged.com is proud to present a night of smart, catchy, danceable rock music at the Rickshaw Stop. You won’t want to miss this line-up of top-notch local talent:

About the bands:

Headliner Social Studies has been turning making waves with their infectious debut EP This is the World’s Biggest Hammer and their super-fun live show. Says the San Francisco Bay Guardian, “San Francisco’s Social Studies excel in ardent electropunk and get high marks for their cheerful blend of Casiotone-charged melodies and stripped-down tempos…the quartet knows how to rock a dance floor by playfully weaving a nostalgic arcade hook between flushed bursts of guitar and disco drums…they’ll likely be graduating to pop stardom in no time.”

Click to listen to our feature episode on Social Studies!

Berkeley’s Tempo No Tempo has been tearing it up at venues around the Bay Area. According to The Owl Mag, “Having performed with Ima Robot and Bay Area hotshots Scissors for Lefty and The Morning Benders, it’s no surprise that Tempo No Tempo have received overwhelmingly positive attention. With the debut of their EP The Get Down, it’s clear they deserve it. In all six tracks are crystalline instrumentals set to malleable, dancefloor-ready rhythms, topped off with anxious, driving vocals courtesy of Chris Cadena. Talk about your perfect party music!”

The Lovely Public’s debut record has critics talking! Aquarius Records says, “The Lovely Public draws together many styles as they roam through different dramatic scenes, slinking in and out of the shadows — like an ensemble of olden time court entertainers descending into an electrified pagan ritual. Burning Tape At The Mystery Dinner has elements of jazz, post-rock, avant-folk, pop, krautrock, psych and much more. Whew, can you keep up with them? At once, very trippy yet very surefooted…Recommended.”

Click to listen to our feature episode on The Lovely Public!

The Injection DJs will be spinning rock, dance and psych records between bands!

We hope to see you there!

And a Few to Break Dissolves

Click to listen to our feature episode on And A Few to Break!

Local post-hardcore / chamber punk outfit, And a Few to Break, have intimated to the Bay Bridged and close friends in the music community that they have decided to call it a day. Reputed for exquisite musicianship, earnest and exceedingly energetic performances, perhaps most exemplified by one of their last appearances at Bottom of the Hill with From Monument to Masses last month, the five-piece toured frequently in the past two years while gaining new fans in the far reaches of Northern California and the Northwest. Many of their experiences were blogged here.

The band released its epic debut full length last year, Procession, out on Relatively Conscious records of San Francisco, and reportedly recorded new material recently at John Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone which will hopefully see the light of day sometime down the line. Bassist Paul Slack is also a member of Sacramento’s SWIMS. We had the good fortune to sit down with this talented and passionate bunch earlier this year. You can check out the full interview above. We bid farewell and wish much luck to the band’s members and their future musical pursuits…

Club Six’s Future in Limbo / Balazo Awarded Permit

San Francisco’s Club Six has become known over the past six years as an unlikely but quality DJ and dance music enthusiast’s oasis in the midst of one the city’s more desperate rows on Sixth Street. Now the club is facing a potential month-long suspension issued by the SF’s Entertainment Commission for violating a noise ordinance. Its owner, Angel Cruz, projects the hiatus would put the club out of business for good, despite Mr. Cruz’s twenty year lease on the property and his investment in over $200,000 in additional soundproofing to address prior warnings (according to a letter written by Cruz on the club’s web site addressing the pending suspension and upcoming hearing).

Neighboring residential tenants, especially those located above the club in a low income hotel, have been lodging complaints with the city for quite some time. The debacle has garnered a broad spectrum of views, most evident in the sparring of alternative mainstays the Bay Guardian and the online BeyondChron. BeyondChron’s Managing Editor, Paul Hogarth, contends the Guardian’s bias rests on advertising revenues from the club, while the weekly appears to sympathize with owner Cruz, who pleads in his letter, “We have owned and operated Club Six trouble free for all these years: there have been no ODs, no stabbings, no shootings, and no underage drinking.”

The public may attend and testify at the Entertainment Commission hearing June 5 at 4 p.m. in room 406 of San Francisco City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place.

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In other club status news, we’ve previously covered the troubles facing the Mission’s Balazo Gallery. We’re pleased to report that the Gallery was awarded a permit in early May by the Entertainment Commission. According to its MySpace page, one of the city’s few seven-days-a-week all ages clubs hopes to resume activity later this month once it complies with the Commission’s “bureaucratic” regulations.

Episode 66: The Ian Fays

 

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Like all of the bands recommended to us by Deb from Playing in Fog, The Ian Fays are among the most promising groups in the local indie pop-rock community. The band’s debut album The Damon Lessons showcases beautiful vocals backed by melodic guitar and synth parts. As sweet as the songs sound, though, the lyrics convey some very personal, periodically intense portraits of emotional troubles and heartbreak.

As we learned in the interview, the band has had significant developments since that record, including lineup changes that now find them with a full-time live drummer. This development is one of a number discussed during the interview which have changed the band’s sound as they write and record songs for a future second album.

In addition to discussing The Ian Fays’ new sound, their live show, and their experiences touring Europe, we’re excited to include two new songs from the band’s recent recording sessions in this episode alongside two from The Damon Lessons.

You can pick up The Damon Lessons over at Homesleep Music in digital and CD formats. You can also hear more of The Ian Fays over at their MySpace page.

You should be sure to check out The Ian Fays’ next show. We know we’ll be there:

Saturday, June 16th
Hemlock Tavern
w/ Social Studies and Sweetie
9:30pm, $6, 21+

But before that, you should be sure to check out our next The Bay Bridged Presents show this Thursday night, featuring Social Studies, Tempo No Tempo and The Lovely Public at The Rickshaw Stop. Get all of the details here at TheBayBridged.com and we’ll see you there!

Magic Bullets CD Release Party Tuesday Night

San Francisco’s Magic Bullets celebrate the release of their debut full-length a CHILD but in life yet a DOCTOR in love tomorrow night, with a show at Cafe du Nord. The band blends elements of melodic post-punk and jangly 80s indie pop among other reference points, featuring strong melodic guitar and keyboard work backing the croon/sing expressions of longing by frontman Philip Benson.

You can download the first two tracks from the album from Words on Music, where you can also purchase the album. You can also hear a couple more tracks at their MySpace page and check out a swell live performance here.

Tomorrow night’s performance also features fellow locals The Morning Benders and Rescue Me. The show starts at 8:30pm, is $8 and All Ages. Advance tickets can be purchased here.

Mission Creek Music Festival Official Coverage Overview

As you probably have noticed, for the last week and a half The Bay Bridged has been focused on the Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival. We made some calls, sent out some E-mails, and gathered 15 writers, photographers, and videographers to document this great local festival.

This event also marks the very first time TheBayBridged.com has ever featured bands from outside of the Bay Area. This will not be a normal occurrence, but we believe in the ideals this festival was created on and wanted to showcase as much of it as possible.

Below you will find links to all of the writing, photos, and videos we amassed throughout the festival. So enjoy and check something out you’ve never heard of or a local favorite!

Festival Show Reviews

• May 10th: Rykarda Parasol, The Harbours, Caves @ Rickshaw Stop
• May 10th: Extra Action Marching Band, Borts Minorts, Dead Hensons @ The Eagle
• May 11th: Track Star, Vedera, Dear and The Headlights, Calling All Monsters @ Cafe Du Nord
• May 11th: Acid Mothers Temple, Mammatus, Triclops! @ Bottom of the Hill
• May 12th: The Parson Redheads & Love is Chemicals @ Rockit Room
• May 12th: Black Fiction, Lemonade, Head Like a Kite, The Fucking Ocean @ 12 Galaxies
• May 13th: The Dont’s, HIJK, The Junior Panthers @ Cafe du Nord
• May 14th: Pillows & Roman Ruins @ The Make-Out Room
• May 16th: The Herms @ Rickshaw Stop
• May 16th: The Dodos, Two Sheds, The Hallflowers, Alela Diane @ Elbo Room
• May 17th: Ora Cogan, Emily Jane White, Comets on Fire
• May 17th: Petracovich @ The Make-Out Room
• May 18th: Sholi @ The Knockout
• May 19th: Port O’Brien & Andy Tisdall @ Hemlock Tavern
• May 20th: The Music Lovers & The Hot Toddies @ The Make-Out Room

Festival Photos

• Acid Mothers Temple
• Akimbo
• Black Fiction
• Calling All Monsters
• Citay
• Dear and The Headlights
• DMBQ
• Dusty Brown
• Ellul
• Experimental Dental School
• The Dont’s
• The Fucking Ocean
• Hammers of Misfortune
• Head Like a Kite
• The Herms
• HIJK
• Jessica Pratt
• Junior Panther
• Lava Children
• Lavender Diamond
• Ledbetter and his Best Bet
• Lemonade
• Leyna Noel
• Mammatus
• Miguel Z. (of The Harbours)
• Moore Brothers
• Numbers
• The Old-Fashioned Way
• Or, the Whale
• Petracovich
• Pillows
• Pillows 2
• Roman Ruins
• Saros
• Snowblink
• The Spires
• Sugarghost
• Track Star
• Vedera
• The Watson Twins
• Winter Flowers

Festival Videos

• Acid Mothers Temple
• Birds & Batteries
• Black Fiction
• Borts Minorts
• The Dodos
• The Dont’s
• Extra Action Marching Band
• The Fucking Ocean
• Head Like a Kite
• HIJK
• I am Spoonbender
• Jessica Pratt
• The Junior Panthers
• Ledbetter and his Best Bet
• Lemonade
• Leyna Noel
• Mammatus
• Michael Zapruder’s Rain of Frogs
• Miguel Z. (of The Harbours)
• The Music Lovers
• The Old-Fashioned Way
• Pillows
• Pillows 2
• Roman Ruins
• Rykarda Parasol and the Tower Ravens
• Sugarghost
• Two Sheds

MCMAF Show Review: Pillows and Roman Ruins @ The Make-Out Room

Photo by: Reid Williams

Truthfully, I had never seen Pillows play live until this show, despite being a huge fan of Two Step, an album I’ve been replaying since our feature episode on the band over a year ago. I am quite pleased to report that the band did not disappoint, playing through a number of great songs from their debut album intermixed with a few new ones. For the band recently named “Best Musical Duo” by the East Bay Express, the set was an exhibition in how to make big sounds with only two people and a few instruments, as even the songs with more sparse instrumentation felt full thanks to Julie and Jessica’s warm, rich vocals.

On the more electric numbers, the band displayed why they don’t fit into easy classification as a folk group. The churning “Incantation,” for example, owes more to garage rock than it does folk, with its simple, effective electric guitar lines and rolling drums. To my mind, the garage comparison extends beyond the sound to the overall quality of the band. Like the best garage rock, nothing feels missing in Pillows’ music, despite the band’s minimal setup. Quite the contrary, the configuration allows the lyrical and musical details to more easily take center-stage.

Roman Ruins performed before Pillows, and delivered a set that made me want to hear more in the future. Although some of the songs on his MySpace page reminded me of the lusher side of California pop–and there were certainly some songs that went in that direction–Graham Hill’s solo performance displayed a greater variety of sounds and styles.

In a live setting, it’s a tough and, from my perspective, unenviable task to be a solo performer in a live setting, especially when some of your attention has to be directed toward coaxing interesting sounds out of the devices on-stage. While there wasn’t an explosive stage show, Hill’s melange of loops and samples kept the sound interesting. With only a single 7″ out officially, I’m curious to see where Hill takes the project in the future, as he clearly has an eye for sound layering and song construction.

MCMAF Photos: Festival Closing Party @ Thee Parkside

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