Weekend Picks: September 20th-23rd
September 20, 2007
Photo by Wes Rowe
Check out these great shows this weekend:
Thursday
- The Old-Fashioned Way, The Ian Fays, and Ray’s Vast Basement at the Rickshaw Stop. 9:30pm, $8.
- The Hot Toddies at the Stork Club, with Maldroid. 9pm, $5.
Friday
- Sugar & Gold at the Elbo Room, with Strength, DJ Omar (Popscene, Fake), and Squaretape. 10pm, $8/$10.
Click to listen to ourfeature episode on Sugar and Gold!
- The Grass Roots Record Co. Showcase at the Hotel Utah, with Lee Bob Watson, Mariee Sioux, Aaron Ross (of Hella), and Alela Diane. 9pm, $8.
- Dreamdate and Goh Nakamura at the Make-Out Room, with Lumaya. 7:30pm, $10-20.
- Bear on Bear at the Edinburgh Castle, with Casy and Brian, Partman Parthorse and Simpl. 9:30pm, $5.
Saturday
What’s going on Saturday night? Let us know in the comments.
Sunday
- The Fucking Champs and The Makes Nice at Great American Music Hall, with Birds of Avalon. 8pm, $13.
- Greg Ashley at Cafe du Nord, with The Blank Tapes and 60 Watt Kid. 7:30pm, $8.
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We’re Still Doomed: Crime Returns
September 20, 2007
We are currently in the middle of a pretty incredible couple of weeks for fans of the early San Francisco punk scene. Flipper just played a show last Friday at Cafe du Nord and The Avengers have one coming up at Bottom of the Hill on October 10th as they kick off their latest national tour. In my opinion, though, the best of the SF punk bands was Crime, the police uniform-donning quartet known–to themselves, at least–as “San Francisco’s First and Only Rock & Roll Band.” It’s exciting news to report that Crime is back with a show this Friday and a brand new album.
Existing from 1976-1982, the band mixed a lo-fi garage-rock sound with a confrontational image to become one of the most popular local punk groups. They put out a number of singles (good luck finding them), but became more widely heard after their demise through bootlegs and the release of the terrific collection San Francisco’s Still Doomed by Swami Records.
Friday night at 7pm, Crime is back, playing a free show at Amoeba in San Francisco to celebrate the release of a brand new vinyl-only album entitled Exalted Masters. The new lineup conists of guitarist-vocalist Johnny Strike and drummer Hank Rank alongside two new members on bass and guitar. We’re very excited to hear what the band has in store.
For more, you can head on over to Crime’s official web site, which has this great article, but currently not much else. There are a couple of MySpace pages (here and here) that don’t seem official, but are still a good place to hear some songs by this incredible band.
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The Makes Nice leave on tour
September 19, 2007
This Sunday night, San Francisco garage-poppers The Makes Nice kick off a nationwide tour with a final local show at the Great American Music Hall. As we noted in our feature episode last week, the band’s rocking new album This Time Tomorrow is out on October 16th on Frenetic Records. You can catch all of The Makes Nice’s tour dates at their MySpace page, where you can also hear two songs from the new album.
Click to listen to our feature episode on The Makes Nice!
Headlining the show are fellow locals and instrumental math-metal wizards The Fucking Champs, who have an alumnus in Makes Nice guitarist Josh Smith. The Champs are just returning from their latest tour. The band released their latest full length album VI earlier this year on Drag City Records.
Sunday’s show starts at 8pm and is $13. Advance tickets can be purchased here. Portland’s Danava also plays.
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9th Annual APAture Festival Begins — Dreamdate & Goh Nakamura to Play
September 19, 2007
Yesterday marked the start of the 9th Annual Kearny Street Workshop’s APAture Festival, which is dedicated to showcasing emerging Asian Pacific American artists. This year’s festival, running the 18th – 29th in venues all over the city, will include a visual arts show, film screenings, workshops, panel discussions, literary readings, performances in spoken word, music, dance, theater, and other performance genres, and an area for zinesters and comic artists to display and sell their work. Wow, that’s alot.
One of the events that caught our eye is happening this Friday over at the Make-Out Room. The Bay Bridged alumni Dreamdate will be taking the stage with local solo artist Goh Nakamura–who you might also know as a member of The Invisible Cities–and Lumaya in what should turn out to be a great evening of pop and acoustic rock. The show will be emceed by Connie Hwong and Lucy Kalyani Lin.
Click to listen to our feature episode on Dreamdate!
Tickets are $10-20 Sliding Scale ($8-20 for KSW Members). The show starts at 7:30pm and is 21+
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Episode 82: Silian Rail
September 18, 2007
Stream the episode:
Silian Rail, this week’s featured band, have the kind of back story ideal for a band one-sheet. Childhood friends from North Carolina who lost touch and then regained contact after separately moving to San Francisco, there’s a natural chemistry between the two that comes off both in our interview and in their music. This duo, if perhaps even because of its limited instrumental palette, strives to make the most through catchy melodic numbers channeling a number of different rock influences and sounds, composing songs that carry a sizable weight or, perhaps put better, rock. A lot.
It helps, no doubt, that they draw inspiration and wisdom from Tartufi, one of our favorite local bands, and another duo who constructs songs through sound-shaping efforts born by a mixture of creativity and skill. According to Eric and Robin, that duo and the other fellow members of the Thread Productions collective have helped push the band forward as they approach a second full-length album.
It’s an album we’re really looking forward to. The band’s first, a self-titled release from earlier this year, captured them early in their development, and by their own admission, the duo’s songwriting has evolved significantly since that release. Better indicators of where they are right now are the demos and new songs we’ve included in this week’s episode. The best indicator, though, is to see this band captivate a live audience with their energy.
You can catch the band next at the 11th Annual MadCat Women’s International Film Festival, where they’ll be playing live alongside silent short films:
Wednesday, September 26th
El Rio
w/ Tartufi and Junk Is A Ship
6:30pm, $7-12
They’re also playing next month at The Knockout:
Monday, October 29th
The Knockout
w/ Birds & Batteries and The Aimless Never Miss
8pm, $tba
Head on over to the band’s MySpace page to hear more music and see their other upcoming dates. There you can also find out how to purchase a copy of the band’s self-titled debut.
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Another ticket giveaway!
September 18, 2007
We’re now up to TWO giveaways this week! In addition to the Grass Roots giveaway, we also have one pair of tickets for Thursday’s The Old-Fashioned Way show we also previewed yesterday. Just send us an e-mail to contest[at]thebaybridged.com and tell us something you prefer the old-fashioned way! Get your e-mails in soon! We’ll announce a winner Thursday at noon.
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Grass Roots Record Co. Friday Night (Win Free Tickets!)
September 17, 2007
For some, Joanna Newsom is the first and possibly only name associated with indie music in Nevada City, California, a town about two hours north of the Bay Area, past Sacramento. The folks at Grass Roots Record Co., however, are determined to shine a wider spotlight on the variety of independent-minded folk and rock talents from this Sierra foothills scene. It’s a commendable effort at scene unity as well as a great way to find out about some excellent new music.
Building off of the success of the Family Album sampler released late last year, this year Grass Roots has released albums from Hella’s Aaron Ross and Lee Bob Watson, among others, with a new CD from Mariee Sioux out next month. These three, plus Alela Diane, will all be performing on Friday night at the Hotel Utah for a Grass Roots showcase.
Friday night’s show starts at 9pm, is $8, and is 21+, but why not win tickets from us:
We’re giving away two pairs of tickets to Friday’s show. Just e-mail us at contest[at]thebaybridged.com by Thursday at noon and tell us something interesting about California history! Winners will be notified by e-mail.
Until the show, why not check out mp3s from some of Friday’s players:
Aaron Ross – “Mama Lonely Wolf”
Lee Bob Watson – “Living In the Past”
Mariee Sioux – “Two Tongues At One Time”
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Wow, that’s a good bill
September 17, 2007
Photo by: Debra A. Zeller
UPDATE: We have a pair of tickets for Thursday’s show! Just send us an e-mail to contest[at]thebaybridged.com and tell us something you prefer the old-fashioned way! Get your e-mails in soon! We’ll announce a winner Thursday at noon.
As people who periodically book shows, we can get a certain envy when we see a particularly good bill that we didn’t have anything to do with. A great example is this Thursday night’s show at the Rickshaw Stop, which is a pretty stacked lineup of well-crafted lyrical pop. The night begins with The Ian Fays, a band we featured several months back who write super-catchy songs with some pretty intense lyrics, According to their MySpace page, the band is going to be recording a new album after this show. We featured some newer recordings in our feature episode on the band, which showcase the Fays’ move from a more synth pop-dominated sound to a more rock-based approach.
Click to listen to our feature episode on The Ian Fays!
After the Fays, it’s a set from Ray’s Vast Basement. Our recent interview with Ray’s leader Jon Bernson ranks as one of the best we’ve had this year and the band’s latest album, Starvation Under Orange Trees, a thoughtful and beautiful record of which we’re still discovering new layers with continued listens. Check out more at their MySpace page and check out that interview below:
Click to listen to our feature episode on Rays Vast Basement!
Capping off the night is The Old-Fashioned Way, who we haven’t yet interviewed, but only because we’ve been waiting for the release of their debut EP, which is set to come out sometime this fall. We’ve seen them live enough times to know that you’re in for a treat on Thursday. Until then, head on over to their MySpace page to hear some of their catchy, clever songs.
The show starts at 9pm and is $8.
