New LP from Blackbird Blackbird + show on 3/28/11 at Milk Bar
March 23, 2011
As Blackbird Blackbird himself says on his Bandcamp, this new LP is “no biggie” – just a set of B-sides and previously unreleased tunes. For Blackbird Blackbird fans, however, this is definitely a bigger deal than BB indicates. Halo‘s 17 tracks include a number of new-to-our-ears songs, and is available now at the increasingly popular “pay-what-you-want” rate.
Blackbird Blackbird will be playing at Milk Bar on Monday, March 28th with out-of-towners Foxes in Fiction and Happy Trendy, plus locals Kites Sail High (8:00 pm, $5, presented by Ears of the Beholder).
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Ticket Giveaway Wednesday: Smoking Popes, The Appleseed Cast, Liam Finn, She Wants Revenge, Uh Huh Her
March 23, 2011
To enter any contest submit an email to contest[at]thebaybridged.com with your full name in the body and the concert you’re entering the contest for in the subject line. You may only submit your name to one contest. Winners for each show will be decided using the guidelines listed below.
Thursday, March 24th
Liam Finn, The Luyas @ The Independent
To win a pair of tickets to the show be the THIRD person to enter!
The show starts at 8pm, $13-$15, 21+. Purchase advance tickets here.
Friday, March 25th
Smoking Popes, The New Trust, The Hot Toddies @ Great American Music Hall
To win a pair of tickets to the show be the FIFTH person to enter!
The show starts at 9pm, $15, 6+. Purchase advance tickets here.
Saturday, March 26th
The Appleseed Cast, Muscle Worship @ Great American Music Hall
To win a pair of tickets to the show be the FOURTH person to enter!
The show starts at 9pm, $15, 6+. Purchase advance tickets here.
Monday, March 28th
She Wants Revenge, The Californian @ The Independent
To win a pair of tickets to the show be the SECOND person to enter!
The show starts at 8pm, $25, 21+. Purchase advance tickets here.
Tuesday, March 29th
Uh Huh Her, Diamonds Under Fire @ Great American Music Hall
To win a pair of tickets to the show be the THIRD person to enter!
The show starts at 8pm, $21, 6+. Purchase advance tickets here.
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Song Premiere: Sands – “Fares and Tolls”
March 23, 2011
Sands returns with the new track “Fares and Tolls” — featuring the otherwordly backing vocals of Two Sheds‘ Caitlin Gutenberger — one of four songs recorded for an upcoming EP. Sands couldn’t be a better pick for the local opener on Friday’s Wye Oak and Callers show at Bottom of the Hill (8:30pm, $12). The three-piece calls upon folk and country’s dark, trance-like elements and tops them off with fine studio adjustments, as it sounds from what Sands shares about recording “Fares and Tolls” below:
One of a handful Sands recorded at The Hangar in Sacramento over the course of 2010, “Fares and Tolls†is a dense hedge of strings wrapped around an enchanted reverie sung by Simmons and guest singer Caitlin Gutenberger of Sacramento heroes Two Sheds. Caitlin is all over these recordings by the way, which is a good thing. Her dude and bandmate Johnny plays tenor acoustic on this track. Live drummer Sam Coe doesn’t show up here, but he plays on most of the rest. New York-based collaborator Dr. Phil Carluzzo contributes mandolin and piano. He blessed the entire session with keys and plenty of naps. Think of the headphones strapped over your ears as golden, warm biscuits and the lush mess emanating forth as a sort of aural ham. Snack hard and often.
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Bay Area bands in high school (and younger): Enter our contest to win a free week of recording time at Tiny Telephone’s new Minitel studio!
March 23, 2011
Hey, Bay Area high school students: John Vanderslice wants to help you make a record! To celebrate the grand opening of Tiny Telephone‘s new B studio, Minitel, we’re teaming with John and Tiny Telephone to give away a free week of analog recording at Minitel at the end of April, including free analog tape and the services of house engineer Jamie Riotto. Additionally, Minna Choi of the Magik*Magik Orchestra will do a string arrangement and provide Magik*Magik orchestral players for a song. That’s a whole lot of free recording time in a great new facility, so enter our contest now! Good luck!
How This Contest Works
This is a contest for San Francisco Bay Area bands in high school and below. In order to qualify, a majority of your band members have to be age 17 or under.
To enter, submit the below information to thebaybridged[at]gmail.com by Friday, April 8 at noon. the end of Friday, April 1. We’ll post a group of semi-finalists on TheBayBridged.com on April 4 and launch a week of open voting to pick three finalists. From those finalists, Our judges will pick a winning band and announce the winner on April 11.
If you want to enter your band, send the following information to thebaybridged[at]gmail.com with the subject “Minitel Contest”:
- The name of your band
- The names and ages of the band’s members
- A link to a Facebook or MySpace page (or other web site) for your band
- A short bio describing your band
- A brief description of what you want to do with the recording time (e.g., work on a single, an album, etc.)
- If possible, include an mp3 recording of what your band sounds like
- If possible, include a link to a YouTube/Vimeo video of your band performing
Please remember that some of this information may be posted on our web site.
About Minitel
Opening May 1st, Minitel is a new B room located next door to, but completely separate from, Tiny Telephone. Bookings are currently being taken, and the studio’s rate is $200 a day plus engineer. On the equipment front, the studio has a Neotek Elite 44 input console, Studer 827, HD, and tons of great gear. You can follow Minitel’s construction at the Minitel Tumblr and find out more at TinyTelephone.com.
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Check out Mission Mission’s SXSW coverage
March 22, 2011
Allan over at Mission Mission covered South by Southwest in an astonishing level of detail, and I recommend you head over to his site for a large collection of photos, videos and impressions from last week’s shows. For example, he flagged the above video of Off! which is pretty great. As Allan notes, the Keith Morris-led punk supergroup is going to be playing at — where else? — 924 Gilman on April 22nd (8pm, $10), with Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Culture Kids, and Zero Progress. Nice.
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Disposable Film Fest highlights the year’s best shorts; Pomplamoose hosts workshop on making music videos
March 22, 2011
Disposable Film Festival 2011 – Official Trailer from Disposable Film Festival on Vimeo.
Now in its fourth year, the Disposable Film Festival takes place this week, celebrating films made on what might be thought of traditionally as “lesser” cameras like mobile phones and webcams.
Opening night is on March 24th at The Castro Theatre (8pm, $12), where the year’s best disposable shorts are going to be screened, including music videos from The Limousines, Fergus & Geronimo, The Notwist and others. Events continue all weekend, and indie music fans might be especially interested in a concert/workshop with Pomplamoose, whose YouTube chart-topping success suggests that they might know a thing or two about making music videos. That event is at CELLspace on March 26th (8pm, $12).
The full festival schedule can be found at disposablefilmfest.com.
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Photos: Memorable moments from SXSW with Sea of Bees
March 22, 2011
Editor’s Note: As we weren’t inclined toward extensive festival coverage at South by Southwest this year, it made sense to send a frantic last-minute inquiry for a guest contribution from a Bay Area musician. Our willing mobile-uploader is the quirky talent Julie Baezinger, also known as (Sea of Bees), who below shares photos and words about her first trip to SXSW. She and her five-piece, Sacramento-based band had an impressively packed schedule — including sets at Noise Pop, Tape Op, NPR and Brooklyn Vegan shows. Enjoy a brief recollection of time spent with friends and fairies, as told by Jules, with select photos to explain what that means, exactly.
SXSW was a clusterfuck! But, at the same time there was so much going on your eyes would be so entertained by all the crowds and chaotic music. I didn’t know it would be so overstimulating. The best parts were when we finished our four sets in a day, we’d go back to the house we were staying at and cook dinner and sit on the porch.
We all arrived differently. The Amber and I flew in from London and met Johno at the airport and then we went to John’s friend Laura’s house where we were staying. Her husband Harris plays guitar and helped us make a pedalboard. Bryce and James drove and we all met up.
There were some great moments: for example, the night when we did our showcase at the Central Presbyterian Church, Vetiver played in the church right across the street. We played four shows that day and we were so tired but we were so happy to end the night with sweet songs from Vetiver. Andy’s new songs are incredible. Another great moment was when Robin and Bob from NPR came out to our show on a drunken rooftop bar, but then the sun started to set and the wind was blowing in our hair. John and Robin said it was like the Beatles in Let it Be.
Another great night was pizza with Laura and the band at The Backspace. Pizza is big in Texas. We waited an hour but it was worth it. Laura knows how to have a good time and she’s good company. Another pizza moment was at Homeslice. I was pissed that we couldn’t use our electric guitars but it wasn’t their fault, and they made us feel so comfortable and were such good hosts and loaned us a big red acoustic guitar. It was a real Texas guitar, spicy and bold. Our friends Sarah Lee and Johnny came to see us play too. We ended the week with another pizza show at The Red House Pizza with the Music for Listeners guys, they were so happy to have us, we were tired but we felt really welcomed. It was a good way to end it. The Amber took a pizza back and ate the whole thing in the car.
-Jules The Bee, Sea of Bees
(Hover over images for Jules’ captions)
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Backseat Beat Episode 9: Social Studies, part 2
March 22, 2011
Backseat Beat Episode 9: Social Studies part 2 from Brad Robertson on Vimeo.
Backseat Beat is a video series highlighting indie musicians and the city by the Bay. Armed with Flip cameras, we interview bands in the back seat of our ‘83 Volvo as we spirit them away to unexpected, forgotten corners of San Francisco, where they plug in outdoors to play a few tunes. Each band’s performance transforms these urban spots from their anonymous day to day existence into surreal, magical backdrops.
The smell emanating from the back of the van, the bitching and moaning about how your stash of expired Slim Jims has mysteriously disappeared, playing the license-plate game for the nth fucking time, passing the last rest stop for 150 miles just before that last beer hits your bladder… It’s like Vacation all over again. The real question on our minds here at Backseat Beat headquarters is not which member of Social Studies would play Clark Griswold, but rather, what the hell did happen to that stack of nudie books this high?
In this week’s installment of Backseat Beat, our favorite juvenile delinquents practice their back seat singalong technique in preparation for hitting the road for SXSW. Not content to feel up every state in the union, Social Studies skipped town and parked it in Texas recently to enlighten the visiting hordes (and the few Austin natives that actually remain in Austin during SXSW) with their moody, mathy brand of indie pop. We’re hoping they kept their pants on this time around but we aren’t holding our breath.
