Sade Sundays: To The Ends of Bear Gulch Road and Back, Year 0.
October 31, 2010
Part One: Joshua Rampage
This thing could write itself; last weekend Mike and I went to find Neil Young’s house. It was a little too easy to track down the latitude and longitude coordinates of his compound, but with no GPS device we’d have to do it like gentlemen. Using a crumpled Google map I assumed the role of navigator as Mike steered us into the dark blue beyond of the Santa Cruz mountains.
Rounding the steep switchbacks and overgrown hillsides of the Land That Time Forgot, it occurred to me that this might be the last and only place on earth where Neil Young would dig in and stake his rock + roll camp of unrequited love. Besides, where else would he have this much room to set up all his model trains?
As we passed an imaginary waterfall of natural spring water, Mike says he’d love to palm some into his mouth, maybe even take a bath; and with this bizarre imagery in mind, I began to contemplate Neil Young as an artist. Personally, I feel his defining moment came when he was sued by his record label for not sounding like himself. God bless that rickety old hatchet of a man, I think I’d like to shake his hand.
When Mike first told me about Le Noise, Young’s new solo record featuring the production of sound manipulator Daniel Lanois, it seemed as if it was to be the heir apparent to Trans, Neil’s 1982 electronic album that buzzed with vocoders and digital trickery. However, when I sat down for a first listen I got bummed – it was as if he and Lanois got high, but not high enough to make the far-out statement they really wanted – or did they? Shit man, I don’t know – we were lost in the woods and Neil Young’s house was beginning to feel like a figment of our damaged imaginations.
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Video: La Sera – “Never Come Around”
October 31, 2010
Here’s an appropriately creepy/charming new video for Halloween, courtesy of La Sera, the latest project from Vivian Girl Katy Goodman. I was hoping that the video would help me resolve a few questions about some of the song’s lyrics, but I got distracted by all the stabbing and killing.
La Sera will be at the Hemlock Tavern on Wednesday, 11/3 (9pm, $7), with Wax Idols and No Joy.
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Burnt Ones top November’s Rumble, 11/3/10 at Milk
October 29, 2010
Did you, like me, sleep on Burnt Ones‘ Black Teeth & Golden Tongues when it came out in August? The band relocated from Indianapolis to San Francisco this year, bringing with it a suitcase full of bubblegum, glam, and rock and roll. The blown-out quality places them within the lo-fi arena, but the songs are poppy, valuing melodies above rawness. Give the entire thing a spin above or check out a couple of highlights below.
Burnt Ones – “Gonna Listen To T.Rex (All Night Long)”
Burnt Ones – “Bury Me In Smoke”
Burnt Ones will be headlining this month’s Rumble party, taking over Milk on Wednesday, November 3rd, with support from Ume and LSD and The Search For God. RSVP here for free entry.
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The Soft Moon – “Tiny Spiders”
October 29, 2010
The Soft Moon – “Tiny Spiders”
SF’s Luis Vasquez records as The Soft Moon, and his first full-length of dark, post-punk-inspired tunes comes out on Captured Tracks on November 16th.
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Dissecting the Song: John Vanderslice – “I’ll Never Live Up To You”
October 29, 2010
It’s a more than a little perplexing trying to figure out when John Vanderslice found the time to write and record a song like “I’ll Never Live Up To You.” Between running Tiny Telephone recording studio (which the San Francisco Bay Guardian declared the “Best Place to Record Your Analog Indie Rock Masterpiece”), producing albums for bands like Spoon and The Mountain Goats and working on opening up a whole new co-op recording studio, Vanderslice still manages to teach a introductory songwriting class for 8 to 11-year olds at Dave Eggers’ hip, literary non-profit, 826 Valencia – leaving a seemingly small window available to write and record new material, especially the sonically rich and lyrically complex batch of songs on his newest EP, Green Grow the Rushes.
John Vanderslice – “I’ll Never Live Up To You”
Unless you were paying attention, you might have missed that the venerable, San Francisco indie-rock veteran put out a record earlier this year. Instead of trotting out the usual pre-release dog and pony show, he dropped the EP for free online. While Vanderslice is planning on issuing the album on vinyl in the coming months, giving it out for free has him really jazzed.
“In a weird way, when you put out a free EP, it’s kind of more exciting than doing a normal record,” he says. “It was the most euphoric thing to happen to me this whole year. It’s like a rocket – you post it up and within three days you have like 50,000 downloads, it’s insane.”
Even though Vanderslice has released songs for free in the past, they’ve always been remixes or songs that were clearly b-sides – tracks that had no business being on a record people were expected to shell out their hard-earned dollars for. Of the the 25 songs that were initially recorded for his 2009 album, Romanian Names, a mere 12 made the final cut. However, he only deemed two of the rest unfit for public consumption, leaving nearly a dozen quality songs floating out in the ether, looking for a home. Vanderslice selected his favorite handful of those songs and that became Green Grown the Rushes.
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Halloween weekend heaviness with Thrones, Acid King, Christian Mistress @ Hemlock Tavern 10/29/10
October 28, 2010
Halloween comes but once a year, so it’s appropriate, on this spooky special occasion, that doom wizards Acid King grace us with a rare San Francisco appearance — just two days before the most metal of holidays! Founded in 1993 by guitarist/singer Lori S. and drummer Joey Osbourne, Acid King has endured a host of line-up changes and label switches, but the core of the band’s sound hasn’t changed much, subsisting on steady diet of tectonic, down-tuned riffsmithing, thrumming leads, and Lori’s otherwordly vocals.
Can’t say I’m sure which drummer or which bassist will show up at the Hemlock, but the uncertainty shouldn’t deter you — their respective pedigrees are guaranteed to be impeccable. The music on offer will combine suet-thick sludge and shimmying fuzz, representing a masterful take on the kind of languorous ‘luded-out Sabbath-worship that fans of the genre know and love.
Openers Christian Mistress are rapidly rising through the ranks, and the buzzed-about Olympia, WA quintet seem to have the talent to justify their meteoric ascension. Their relentlessly retro NWOBHM sound turns the clock back to the heyday of Maiden and Priest, though the brassy vocals of singer Christine Davis add an unexpected, modern touch. Mini-LP Agony & Opium is wall-to-wall headbanger bliss, and the group is likely to debut new material on this tour.
Thrones will headline, offering a thunderous conclusion to an all-round barnstormer of a bill. Former Earth, Melvins, High on Fire, and Sunn O))) bassist Joe Preston’s solo project offers a wide-variety of skull-crushing, psychedelic excursions, and you never really know what he’ll do next, except that it will be extremely heavy. Armed with a bass and synthesizer, he’ll make war on your eardrums.
Hemlock is doing a double bill on the 29th, so the awesome won’t start until 9:30 PM. Get there early, though — there aren’t any online pre-sales, and Acid King hardly ever plays live. All the hard info lies below:
Thrones, Acid King, Christian Mistress
9:30pm, $10
Hemlock Tavern
1131 Polk St., SF
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Video: Ellul gets kidnapped, leads glitch-rock forest party in “Debris”
October 28, 2010
From SF electronic rock duo Ellul‘s brand new album Ashes, which is out now and fully streamable below.
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Our new banner artist: Brendan Sheehan
October 28, 2010
With the World Series underway we thought it would be a perfect time to change the face of the site with a new banner! This terms banner artist is Brendan Sheehan.
Brendan Sheehan is a graphic designer and musician currently living in Playa Del Rey, California. You can catch him around the Bay playing shows with his band Sands (formerly Dame Satan) or just kicking it at the
The photographs used as the basis of his banner for the Bay Bridged were taken by his beautiful wife Katherine, whom he often collaborates with. More examples of their work can be found on his design blog.
