Episode 75: Ray’s Vast Basement
July 31, 2007
This week’s featured band is Ray’s Vast Basement, a musical project led by singer-songwriter-guitarist Jon Bernson that recently released its highly-acclaimed third full-length album, Starvation Under Orange Trees. As we noted last week, and as we discuss in the interview, the project began from pieces Bernson was commissioned to write for a theatrical adaptation of Of Mice and Men, although the resulting songs drew inspiration from characters and themes from many of Steinbeck’s works.
Using Steinbeck as a starting point for his “musical fiction,” Bernson developed narratives drawn from his own experiences as much as Steinbeck’s characters, resulting in a unique and inspired concept album. Musically, too, Ray’s Vast Basement delivers, with refined, beautiful songs blending elements of folk and rock, a fitting soundtrack for Bernson’s tales.
While Starvation Under Orange Trees features a wide variety of musicians, including Michael Zapruder, Nate Query from The Decemberists, and a host of others with similarly impressive skills, the record never feels like a “kitchen sink” jumble. Part of that is likely attributable to the unifying thematic concepts from Steinbeck’s texts, but much of the record’s success is attributable to the artist’s sense of vision as well as his skill as a songwriter, arranger and producer.
In addition to our interview with Jon, the episode features four songs from the new album for your enjoyment.
Your next chance to see Ray’s Vast Basement live in the Bay Area is a great show curated by Playing in Fog in a couple weeks:
Thursday, August 16th
The Make-Out Room
w/ Two Sheds and Frankel (Playing in Fog Presents!)
9pm, $7
To hear more from the band, visit their MySpace page or web site. Starvation Under Orange Trees is available from Howells Transmitter and can also be downloaded from iTunes and eMusic.
Von Iva releases Our Own Island
July 30, 2007
It’s been a long time since we first caught San Francisco’s Von Iva early last year, when the band was gaining a lot of attention for their excellent self-titled EP. In the interim, the now-trio has been rocking crowds with their infectious live shows and working on their full length debut, titled Our Own Island, which will be released next Tuesday.
The band’s new single, “LALA,” an ode to Los Angeles that many Bay Area residents will likely empathize with, demonstrates a more electro and synth-pop informed sound that the more straight-up post-punk the band dished out on the EP, but it’s an exciting sound we’d like to hear more of.
Although the record hits stores Tuesday, orders from the band’s web site start shipping on August 1st. Von Iva celebrates the CD’s release this Saturday with a show alongside fellow party-starters Sugar & Gold, who we interviewed a little while back and then saw at their CD release party. Details for this Saturday:
Saturday, August 4th
12 Galaxies
w/ Sugar & Gold
9pm, $10, 18+ (purchase advance tix here)
With DJs and visual effects too, it should be quite a evening. After Saturday, Von Iva heads to the East Coast for a number of shows. All of their tour dates can be found at their MySpace page.
Summer Ends, Goodbye Lonelyhearts
July 30, 2007
Click to listen to our feature episode on The Lonelyhearts!
The title says it all–with the end of the summer, so comes the end of live performances by The Lonelyhearts, the synth-folk duo who are one of our Bay Area favorites. Andre and John’s follow-up to Dispatch, their last full length, is almost ready to be released on Three Ring Records and we’ve heard that the duo will be touring around the record in the winter.
For now, you can pick up Dispatch on DIY or Else and can download “Next Year Is Shaping Up To Be Awesome” here. You can also find new Lonelyhearts material on the At the Crossroads compilation and on The Bay Bridged, Volume 1.
The band’s last show of the summer is tonight in Oakland:
Monday, July 30th
Mama Buzz Cafe
w/ Caves and Golden Birds
7pm, $tba
Visit the guys over at their MySpace page, where you can also hear a rough mix of a new song from the upcoming album.
Weekend Picks: July 26th-29th
July 26, 2007
Thursday
- The Music Lovers at the Rickshaw Stop with The Awkward Stage and Hearts of Palm UK. The show starts at 8pm and is $8.
Click to listen to our feature episode on The Music Lovers!
- Vanguard Squad Records presents Last of the Blacksmiths at the Make-Out Room with Judith and Holofernes and Sleeper Waves. The show starts at 9pm and is $7.
Friday
- The Thread Productions showcase featuring Tartufi, Silian Rail, Sky Pilots and Low Red Land at Bottom of the Hill. Check out our preview yesterday. The show starts at 9pm and is $10.
- Social Studies at The Knockout, with Death of a Party and Master/Slave. The show starts at 10pm and is $5.
- “Three Kinds of Stupid,” featuring Music for Animals at the Rickshaw Stop, with The Airborne Toxic Event and DJs Brother Grimm and Trev.
Saturday
- Ray’s Vast Basement’s CD release party at Cafe du Nord, with Jackpot and The Harbours. Read our preview here. The show is at 8:30pm and is $10.
Click to listen to our Monthly Mix for July 2007!
Click to listen to our feature episode on The Harbours!
- Pillows and Two Sheds at the Uptown with Trainwreck Riders, Paula Frazer and Christina Espinosa. This is the last Pillows show for a while, as Jessica heads to Los Angeles for graduate school, and they will be selling copies of their next, currently-unreleased album! The music starts at 9:00pm and is $7.
Click to listen to our feature episode on Pillows!
- The Finches at the Hemlock Tavern, with The Bushes and The Mantles. The show begins at 9:30pm and is $7.
Click to listen to our feature episode on The Finches!
Thread Productions Showcase
July 25, 2007
It’s tough not be impressed by what the folks at Thread Productions are doing. Musically, the five Thread bands–Tartufi, Low Red Land, Birds & Batteries, Silian Rail and newest member Sky Pilots–are among the top in Bay Area indie rock, with a streak of excellent full length albums that, while musically diverse, all capture unique artistic viewpoints.
As the East Bay Express noted, when they named Thread the “Best Band Collective” last year, these bands are committed to supporting each other–resulting in excellent collaborations like last year’s Dragon Slayers, Volume 1, a compilation featuring music by each of Thread’s then-four bands. For Volume 2, which comes out this week, they’ve opened it up to include songs by some of the other Bay Area bands they love, like Or, the Whale and The Aimless Never Miss, plus new and unreleased tracks from the collective members.
On Friday, Thread celebrates the new comp’s release at Bottom of the Hill featuring performances by Tartufi, Silian Rail, Low Red Land and Sky Pilots, who are also celebrating the release of their new CD Enjoy a Day Off at the show. The show starts at 9pm and is $10.
Ray’s Vast Basement’s CD Release Party
July 25, 2007
Saturday night, Ray’s Vast Basement celebrates the release of their brand new CD Starvation Under Orange Trees at Cafe du Nord. We included an example of the band’s mix of textured beats and melodic acoustic songwriting in our latest Monthly Mix, and the new CD has been receiving strong reviews around the web
The CD draws inspiration from the works of John Steinbeck, as it emerged originally from work songwriter Jon Berson had done for a local production of Of Mice and Men. Reading Bernson’s song-by-song notes over at Largehearted Boy, though, brings home the fact that these songs aren’t just cribbed from Steinbeck, but instead incorporate his characters and themes into personal reflections on location, love and tragedy.
You can hear more at Ray’s Vast Basement’s MySpace page and web site, and you can purchase the CD from Howells Transmitter, where you can also download a couple of tunes.
Saturday’s show is also the CD release party for Sacramento’s Jackpot, whose new CD Moonbreath was recently released on Jackpine Social Club. Find them over at their MySpace page. Kicking off the evening are our good friends The Harbours, whose excellent rock-pop should compel your prompt arrival. We featured the band here and you can hear more at their MySpace page.
The show starts at 9:30pm, is $10 and is 21+.
Episode 74: The Botticellis
July 24, 2007
This week’s episode of The Bay Bridged podcast features San Francisco’s The Botticellis. Like many, we first about this band via their debut EP, and few debuts have hit us with as much punch, as the melodies in songs like “Killing Spree” hit immediately and stayed lodged in our brains for many days after.
As a result, we’ve long been awaiting the band’s debut full-length album, titled Old Home Movies, which they recently completed recording. As catchy and immediately gripping as the songs are, they’re also full of those little moments that maximize replayability. From the tasteful use of vintage keyboard sounds to the energetic refrains, there’s a lot to like about this album.
Those little details, we learned during our interview with the band, were the result of more work before entering the studio than inside it, as the band worked and reworked songs, some which are by this point almost three years old, in order to find the right sound and right feeling. When you listen to the album, it’s clear the work has paid off. We’re pleased to include album versions of two songs from Old Home Movies alongside live recordings of two others.
Catch The Botticellis next Thursday night at Bottom of the Hill along side our old friends Scrabbel:
Thursday, August 2nd
Bottom of the Hill
9:00pm, $10, All Ages (purchase advance tickets here)
w/ Judgement Day, Scrabbel
You can hear more of the band’s music at their MySpace page. We’ll keep you updated about the release of Old Home Movies as more information develops.
John Vanderslice’s Emerald City
July 23, 2007
John Vanderslice seems to be simultaneously the most successful indie musician in San Francisco today as well as the most respected, and he has a new album coming out tomorrow called Emerald City, available on Barsuk Records. Judging from the full album stream over at Vanderslice’s MySpace page, this CD is a winning follow-up to 2005’s excellent Pixel Revolt.
Vanderslice’s command of layered indie rock/pop sounds strong as ever, with moodier numbers like “Tablespoon of Codeine” nicely complementing several rockier tracks, including “White Dove”, which you can download here.
Lyrically, the new CD has been described as love songs capturing emotionally turbulent episodes rooted in current events both personal and global. On the former front, Vanderslice wrote most of the album in the midst of unsuccessful attempts by his French girlfriend to obtain a visa. On the latter, politics have often informed the artist’s themes; on the new record, even the album’s title is inspired by the troubled state of international affairs.
The official Emerald City tour doesn’t start until September, with its San Francisco stop at The Independent on October 20th, but John has an in-store performance coming up at the San Francisco Amoeba:
Saturday, August 11th
Amoeba Music
2pm, Free
