Monthly Mix: June 2009 (Podcast #170)
June 30, 2009
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Our latest Monthly Mix episode of the weekly podcast includes music from nine great Bay Area bands — some submissions we’ve received at TBB headquarters, some stuff we’ve posted on the web site recently, all really good stuff.
About all of the bands:
Oakland songwriter Brian Glaze (”Leader of the Band”) returns with his third LP Green Living, out July 13th on World Famous In San Francisco. He’ll be at McLaren Park on July 18th as part of the Mission Creek Music Festival.
We recently witnessed The Blacks‘ (”Sunday Boys”) stunning and bittersweet final performance, but the band’s legacy lives on with their new album Tiger Songs, out July 21st on Tricycle Records. Check out a great collection of photos from their final show on Flickr.
Oakland’s Sir Lord Von Raven (”Take It or Leave It”) includes members of The Time Flys and The Gris Gris, and their debut LP Please Throw Me Back In The Ocean is out now on HappyParts Recordings. The band has upcoming shows on July 3rd at the Ghost Town Gallery, and July 9th at The Stork Club.
Von Iva (”Guise”) recently released their latest EP Girls on Film, featuring a bunch of new songs alongside tracks from their previous album. The trio has a number of August dates on the East Coast that you can see on their MySpace page.
Battlehooch (Podcast #169)
June 23, 2009
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This week, we’re excited to feature Battlehooch, a band whose sound and antics border on the indescribable, combining elements of art rock, prog, and pop to create funky, winning songs. After building a strong reputation as an energetic live band, who often performed on City streets with a homemade generator, the group released their debut EP, 2008’s Oof Owf. This week, the band returns with their first full length album, Piecechow, which maintains their trademark kitchen sink approach, with a variety of horns, synths and drum machines, while staying catchier than a lot of proggy music. That’s no small feat, especially considering that the band challenges itself to avoid ever doing the same thing twice.
If you haven’t experienced Battlehooch before, our interview will make clear that the band is comprised of some eclectic characters (which may be something of an understatement). The guys met in Santa Cruz, where they were music students at UCSC, and emerged as Battlehooch upon moving to San Francisco in 2006. Most of them now live and record together in a house in the Sunset District, and the close quarters have no doubt contributed to the guys’ development of a shared vocabulary of Battlevans (their tour van), Battlepads (their home), and Battlerags (the distinctive headbands group members wear). But behind their eccentricity, there’s a wealth of musical talent and inventive compositional ideas, fused into a unified aesthetic of do-anything musical freedom now captured on Piecechow.
We sat down with the band at The Bay Bridged Studio recently to discuss their origins, the meaning of “piecechow” and more. We’ve also included four songs from Piecechow in the episode.
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Papercuts (Podcast #168)
June 16, 2009
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This week’s podcast profiles Papercuts, the indie rock-pop band led by San Franciscan Jason Quever. The band’s released a series of well-received albums, culminating with 2007’s Can’t Go Back and, this April, You Can Have What You Want, both on Andy Cabic and Devendra Banhart’s Gnomonsong label. Quever’s collaborated with Cabic’s band Vetiver before, and he’s been involved in recording and producing a wide variety of projects in his Pan American Recording Studio, including locals like Still Flyin’, Donovan Quinn and Skygreen Leopards. Having your own home analog studio means you can take the time to perfect a warm, vintage-referencing sound, so it’s little surprise that You Can Have What You Want expertly sculpts nostalgic California pop into something thoroughly modern.
You Can Have What You Want is definitely a shift for Papercuts, but it’s not out of left field. After Can’t Go Back, Quever found himself moving past that album’s Byrdsian folk-rock, more interested instead in embracing the dreamy-pop sounds that has long touched his works. With the new album, the warm haze is planted front and center, with Quever’s vocals resting atop gorgeous layers of warm keyboards, an aesthetic likely influenced by Alex Scally’s (Beach House) involvement in the studio. As discussed in the interview, Scally’s role was hard to define, but it’s notable as the first time Quever’s had a collaborator so involved in Papercuts’ sound. Where Papercuts go next is anyone’s guess, but You Can Have What You Want is an affecting work from this talented band.
Grand Lake (Podcast #167)
June 9, 2009
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This week’s podcast profiles Grand Lake, an Oakland quartet whose debut release Nevermint has generated much excitement for their engaging, stripped-down indie rock. The band’s led by bassist-singer Caleb Nichols (formerly of Port O’Brien), who reunited with longtime friend and Bloody Heads bandmate Jameson Swanagon (guitar) to record some songs and recruited Erika Pipkin (vocals/keys) and Ryan Parks (recently replaced by John Pomeroy on drums) for the project. For a group that developed in the studio, it’s a little surprising to see how strong the band’s innate chemistry is on both stage and record.
Nevermint is a diverse album, the sound of a band defining itself in part by establishing its boundaries. It can be anthemic and urgent (”Concrete Blonde on Blonde” and “She’s A Hater”) or pensive and introspective (”Nevermint” and “Blue Hoodie”), and there’s an excitement to watching the band grow and change over the course of the release. Regardless of the mood, though, certain elements are constant throughout–most notably the band’s mastery of building engaging melodies and dynamic shifts from minimalist layers. Most promising, the group’s new cassingle–out this month–features two great new songs that show them further exploring these songwriting weapons. With a commitment to touring and further recording in the near future, keep watch for big things from Grand Lake.
Live This Month: June 2009 (Podcast #166)
June 2, 2009
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Every month, we dedicate a week of our podcast to highlighting some of the great local and out-of-town bands performing soon in the San Francisco Bay Area. We’ve got a dozen great bands playing some excellent shows this month, so head out and see some live music!
About the bands:
Touring the West Coast behind their latest album You Can Have What You Want, Papercuts (”You Can Have What You Want”) co-headline with Port O’Brien at The Independent on Thursday, June 25th.
Seattle’s The Maldives (”Tequila Sunday”) head to SF this weekend, for the latest The Bay Bridged Presents show at The Independent on Saturday, June 6th. Or, the Whale headlines the evening, with Built For The Sea also performing.
On Friday, June 19th, Trainwreck Riders (”Chug Along”) play their first SF show since releasing their new album The Perch. The show’s at Bottom of the Hill with The Botticellis and Gilded Rooks.
Little Wings (”Scuby”) headlines a great show of Bay Area folk-rock at Cafe Du Nord on Thursday, June 11th. Michael Musika, honey.moon.tree., and Sleepy Todd also perform.
Celebrating their new album Moondagger, Detroit’s Deastro (”Parallelogram”) head to Bottom of the Hill on Wednesday, June 24th. Locals Battlehooch (celebrating their CD release) and Tempo No Tempo support.
Monthly Mix: May 2009 (Podcast #165)
May 26, 2009
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Our latest Monthly Mix episode of the weekly podcast includes music from nine great Bay Area bands with a bunch of newly released CDs. About all of the bands:
We kicked off the show with a song from the always entertaining Battlehooch (”Take The L-Train”), off their brand new full length Piecechow, out June 15th. They’ll be at 111 Minna on Thursday, May 28th and their official LP release party is June 24th at Bottom of the Hill.
Oakland’s Dreamdate (”Have I Told You”) recently released their second album Patience on Skywriting Records. They’re on a West Coast tour through the first week of June.
Originally from Wisconsin, A B & The Sea (”Suzie”) were recently named “Best Beach Boys Worshippers of 2009″ by the SF Weekly. The band — who have been working on a new album — will be at The Independent on June 5th.
Jonesin’ (”Rollerskates”) is the duo of Matt Jones from Master/Slave and Jenny Jones. Although there’s a lighter pop touch here, Matt’s love of vintage synths thankfully remains. Head to the band’s MySpace page for more.
Local indie poppers My First Earthquake (”Cool In The Cool Way”) release their first full length this month, entitled Downstairs. They’ll be celebrating with a CD release show on June 20th at Cafe Du Nord.
Odawas (Podcast #164)
May 19, 2009
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This week’s podcast profiles Odawas, a duo fusing ambient synth tones and singer-songwriter rock. Michael Tapscott (”keyboards, guitars, vocals, harmonicas, dry skin, songs and sounds”) and Isaac Edwards (”keyboards, patience, ears and beards, sounds and songs”) met as students in Bloomington, Indiana in 2004, and the band moved around the Midwest before ultimately settling in Berkeley last winter. Their arrival in the Bay was soon followed by the release of their excellent latest album, The Blue Depths (Jagjaguwar), a critically-acclaimed work that they’ve supported with performances up and down the West Coast. It’s been a busy 2009 for Odawas, with little sign of letting up.
The band’s unique sound results from shared interests and divided roles. Both Tapscott and Edwards have a love of film soundtracks and electronic compositions, and they harness the grandeur of these styles to maximize the emotional impact of what remain, at their core, rock songs. Rock songs composed principally on keyboards, that is, and written initially by Michael alone, who then delivers his rough sketches to Isaac for refinement and reworking. That separation works for the band, but it seems a little surprising, given how cohesive the mix of organic and electronic layers is on The Blue Depths. “Cohesive” understates it considerably; this is a lush album full of riches to enjoy.
Cryptacize (Podcast #163)
May 12, 2009
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This week’s podcast features Cryptacize, an Oakland quartet of eclectic pop wizards who recently released their excellent sophomore album, Mythomania. The band is led by Nedelle Torrisi and Chris Cohen, each of whom first found creative success separately — the former as the solo artist Nedelle and Cohen with The Curtains and Deerhoof. After Torrisi performed background vocals on a Curtains recording and became a touring member of the band, the duo began writing music together, and the new songs birthed the new band, Cryptacize. Like The Curtains, this band’s interests are many and varied, and although their approach is stripped-down, they make each voice and instrument matter in crafting engaging, theatrical pop.
In April, Cryptacize released Mythomania, a record that critics have praised for simultaneously focusing the musicians’ prodigious talents into some quite engaging songs while preserving the band’s knack for complex, musically diverse works. In addition to the great music, the album’s also full of charming and intriguing lyrical nuggets, told from the perspective of narrators one would be careful not to always trust. Mythomania, after all, is another name for the condition of pathological lying. One thing that isn’t a lie, however, is that Cryptacize has made an exciting record well worth checking out, and with European and US tours ahead, it’s a good time to catch on to this excellent band. [More...]
