Tonight, 5/22/13: Branches, Kiwi Time, Happy Fangs at Cafe du Nord for SF Station showcase
May 22, 2013
Tonight at Cafe du Nord, SF Station presents The Lineup, a free showcase of local bands determined by an online vote earlier this month. The people voted, which resulted in Branches headlining, preceded by Kiwi Time, Happy Fangs, and Bring the Tiger.
Come early for a free limited-edition T-shirt from D-Structure and capture the moment with our photo booth supplied by Snap Fiesta.
Trumer Pils will also offer its fine local brew for only $3 all night long.
One pair of VIP tickets ($300 value) will be given away for the Guinness Oyster & Music Festival will be given away at the event. The winner must be on the RSVP list and present at the time of the drawing.
Branches, Kiwi Time, Happy Fangs, Bring the Tiger
Cafe du Nord
May 22, 2013
8:00pm, 21+, free
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Ticket Giveaway Wednesday: Detroit Cobras, This Charming Band, Twin Shadow
May 22, 2013
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 once to only one contest. Winners will be chosen at random and will be awarded one pair of tickets unless otherwise noted.
Thursday, May 23rd
Detroit Cobras, Pangea, The Chaw @ Slim’s
9pm, $16, all ages. Buy advance tickets here.
Friday, May 24th
This Charming Band: a tribute to the Smiths & Morrissey, The Purple Ones: a tribute to Prince, The Jean Genies: a tribute to Bowie @ Slim’s
9pm, $15, all ages. Buy advance tickets here.
Saturday, May 25th
Twin Shadow, Elliphant @ Great American Music Hall
9pm, $23, all ages. Buy advance tickets here.
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Review & Photos: Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Holy Shit! @ The Chapel, 5/21/2013
May 22, 2013
Forget what you’ve read about Ariel Pink’s anxiety-filled live shows. Actually, don’t. Because everything I’ve heard and read about his self-indulgent performances made last night that much more amazing. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti filled The Chapel with nothing but celestial vibes. He was, at moments, outrageous, sensual in his flamboyant mannerisms, child-like, theatrical and genuinely humbled.
Before Ariel took the stage, Holy Shit! (pictured above) offered a dance party soundtrack of forgotten 1980s hooks and melodies that a good portion of the crowd was hesitant, at first, to get into. As the band went through songs like “Written All Over Your Face,” a decidedly slinkier number, and the stripped-back “The Castle,” the band’s three-guitar, one bass and one drum machine repertoire eventually melted the audience. Matt Fishbeck’s longtime project, which used to include Ariel and a certain SF-based singer/songwriter who happened to be lurking in the audience, fared much better in this venue than in places like Brick & Mortar, where the band played earlier this year for Noise Pop. With its superior sound, The Chapel cradled the tip-tap beats coming from Matt’s fisher price-looking drum machine, allowing for each guitar part to be distinguished and appreciated, though Matt’s vocals remained characteristically indistinguishable.
After Holy Shit bid farewell with the instrumental “Bombs,” the crowd prepared itself for the main event. After fifteen minutes of downtime, The lights dimmed and, letter by letter, Ariel Pink’s name began appearing on the backdrop, as if an invisible hand was drawing it on with a neon green marker. [More...]
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Interview: Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd discuss ‘The Terror,’ the evolution of their live show and much more
May 22, 2013
Photos by Paige K. Parsons
The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne and multi-instrumentalist/music arranger Steven Drozd won’t mince their words – their band’s new album, The Terror, is their darkest offering yet. “Dark” isn’t the right word for it, but they haven’t thought of an appropriate replacement yet, says Drozd, prior to the Lips’ set at BottleRock Napa Valley. The Lips have made alterations to their well-known stage show to fit the mood of the new album. Yet, at the same time, the gloom that hangs over the music is just one of many sides for the band. Yes, Coyne went through a separation during The Terror’s creation. Yes, Drozd had a brief relapse into a drug addiction. “There is a story there,” Drozd says. “I think that adds to people’s perception or makes it seem heavy or more important.”
Yet at the same time they were making the album, the Lips were writing a happy, uplifting song for a Hyundai commercial (used as a Super Bowl ad), and experiencing a wide array of emotions. “Most people that I know that are interesting artists – they’re not one-dimensional,” Coyne says. “They don’t walk around and see everything as being gray and black and make gray and black music. They’re weirdos, and they don’t know who they are. They’re expressive, and they’re doing things, and they’re experiencing a lot of things. That’s why they want to make music.”
Coyne and Drozd joined The Bay Bridged for a one-on-two interview that went passed the allotted time, and ranged in conversation from Drozd’s background as a drummer in his father’s polka band, to the Flaming Lips “selling out” and much more. It concluded only after the arrival of The Smiths’ bassist Andy Rourke, throwing this writer for a loop. Here’s a sampling.
The Bay Bridged: I assume you get asked all the time about your background in polka drumming. You got that from your father’s side?
Steven Drozd: My dad started playing music when he was, like, 13. He started playing clarinet. By the time he was 16 he picked up saxophone because he heard Bill Haley (and the Comets; the first successful rock group with white musicians) in 1957. He wanted to play rock and roll. So he was a professional musician, but he always played in this German and Czech polka group outside of Houston. It was the summer of 1980, so I was 10, going on 11. This polka group; their drummer was kind of this wild dude. They just couldn’t count on (him). He didn’t show up for a gig, so my dad called the house and told my stepmother to load up my drum set. He took me to the VFW hall where they were playing and I started playing with them.
TBB: Did you have to learn any of the cultural stuff behind that?
Drozd: When I first started playing, I was about 7. It was like KISS and Aerosmith and all the stuff back in the 1970s a kid would want to play on drums. At the same time, my dad was like, “You’ve gotta learn the polka and the waltz beats, and the country 4/4 and the shuffle.” He would make me practice that stuff even if I didn’t want to. So when it came time, and they needed a drummer, they called me up, I went down there, and that was it.
TBB: I have a high school friend who’s in a family polka band.
Drozd: Like a few generations, right? An interesting thing is there’s a lot of families like that.
TBB: They dress up. They go to fairs, and they dance as well as play instruments. Did you see a lot of that?
Drozd: I did growing up, when I was a kid. I don’t anymore. Most of my family has either passed away or moved on. My dad still lives in LaGrange, Texas, but he’s kind of sick, so he doesn’t play anymore. Up until I was about 15 or 16, I thought it was really exciting, and I loved it. After a while, I got really sick of it. (laughs). You’ve got to figure every Friday and Saturday…it would be this thing where I was just this kid, 12, 13, 14 years old, hanging around with a bunch of 30, 40, 50-year-old drunks. After a couple of years, I didn’t want to do it anymore. So my dad and I kind of had a falling out about it. I wanted to go play my own music. He couldn’t understand writing your own music and trying to make it by yourself.
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Premiere: DSTVV – “Healing Enargy Crystels”; cassette out 5/28/13 on Wormhole Records
May 22, 2013
Everyone’s favorite industrial grungegaze band DSTVV is back with their second EP Underground Product, which will be released as a cassette on Wormhole Records on May 28.
We’re pleased to premiere a track off the new cassette, “Healing Enargy Crystels”, which I think is sending some subtle surf vibes my way, thus creating a daring new “Industrial Surfgaze” genre. DSTVV frontman Joel Cusumano told me the track is written from the “point-of-view of a dude who is really into crystals” but also manages to “rock pretty hard.” Indeed it does. You can stream “Crystels” below and pre-order Underground Product from Wormhole.
In addition to “Healing Enargy Crystals”, DSTVV also released a video for “Crusher”, directed by Andrea Scary aka Snow Wite. Let’s just say there’s an awful lot going on and it fits DSTVV’s style perfectly. DSTVV will play at the Milk Bar July 6. Details after the video.
DSTVV, TBA
Milk Bar
July 6, 2013
9pm, $10
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Video: Shout Out Louds – “Illusions” (win tickets to tonight’s show!)
May 22, 2013
Shout Out Louds‘ Optica is probably my favorite indie pop record so far this year, with each song tightly orchestrated and extremely catchy. The band’s US tour is coming to the Great American tonight and we’ve got tickets to give away!
To win a pair of tickets to tonight’s show, email contest[at]thebaybridged.com with the subject line “Shout Out Louds” and include your full name for a chance to win.
Shout Out Louds, Haerts
Great American Music Hall
May 22, 2013
8pm, $19
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Sonny and the Sunsets premiere new song, add tour dates
May 21, 2013
San Francisco’s Sonny and the Sunsets have premiered another track from their upcoming record, Antenna to the Afterworld, via Stereogum. The new song, “Palmreader,” follows “Dark Corners,” which was dropped back in March. The new album is said to be inspired by the passing of singer Sonny Smith’s friend and will be out in June 2013 on Polyvinyl Records.
Sonny and the Sunsets have also announced an updated tour schedule, with dates in New York and a special spoken-word performance at the Roxie this Saturday, 5/25/13.
Listen to “Dark Corners,” Antenna to the Afterworld’s first single, below.
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Review & Photos: The Dillinger Escape Plan, Faceless @ DNA Lounge, 5/19/13
May 21, 2013
Early in their set of thrashing, frantic mathcore on Sunday night, The Dillinger Escape Plan‘s lead singer Greg Puciato pulled himself up by the chains of a hanging PA speaker at the DNA Lounge, leaning dangerously forward ten feet above the shoulder-crushing mosh pit on the floor. DEP are well known for their insane live shows — the band members never really stop moving, using cordless guitars and microphones to allow them to go anywhere in the venue — but even still, I was sure Puciato wouldn’t jump into the mosh pit. That’s too dangerous.
Still hanging, Puciato pointed towards the crowd, smiled, and leaped from the hanging PA speaker, landing with knees and elbows bent on the throbbing crowd. Momentarily lost in a pit of bodies, the crowd spit him back up and onto the stage. The rest of the group continued to blaze through “Farewell, Mona Lisa” from their 2010 LP Option Paralysis — a sprawling, whiplashed hardcore piece that ends in a destructive fury as Puciato screams “What did you expect from us?” Nothing less, I had to admit.
That moment set the tone for the rest of the set as DEP pulled hits from their entire catalog. It was the kind of night where the salaciously catchy swagger of “Milk Lizard” would butt up against lurching, double-speed jams pulled from 2004′s Miss Machine and other more obscure releases.
