Thao & The Get Down Stay Down – “Kindness be Conceived” (with Joanna Newsom)
February 1, 2013
San Francisco folk-rocker Thao Nguyen and her band The Get Down Stay Down have a sparkly new album by the name of We the Common, out February 5th. We’ve already heard some early tracks, “We the Common (for Valerie Bolden)” and “Holy Roller,” but the latest to surface is a much-anticipated collaboration with freak-folk wunderkind Joanna Newsom (who also dwelled in the Bay Area for a time, little-known tidbit).
The clip-clop acoustic tune, “Kindness be Conceived,” is simplistic, lighthearted, and gorgeously harmonized (the combination of their voices is almost Feist-esque). The track seems to declare an equal mix of Nguyen and Newsom, with Thao’s upbeat and rattling guitar pop and Joanna’s tinkling, whimsical vocals.
If you can’t get enough of Nguyen, luckily she’s embarking on a US tour to coincide with the release of We the Common. She’ll play with The Get Down Stay Down at Amoeba SF on February 5th and will chime in for the Noise Pop 2013 roll call on March 2nd, when she’ll rock the Great American Music Hall. More details and We the Common‘s track listing are below.
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Christopher Owens adds West Coast dates to solo tour
January 24, 2013
Fresh from the infamous Girls break-up of 2012, Christopher Owens‘ newest project and solo debut, Lysandre, dropped last week (1/14/13) on Turnstile/Fat Possum. The candid, more poppy release was met with a resounding chorus of critic approval, as Drowned in Sound writes:
These songs marry the simplicity of the debut’s structures with the overarching consistency and ornamentation of record three (on this go round, adding a good deal of rasping sax and wistful flute), and it’s fun to hear how the two disparate periods of Owens’ trajectory meld together. Songs like ‘Here We Go Again’ and ‘New York City’ account for the otherwise baffling disappearance of the early surf-rock influences, while numbers like the title track snap with Owens’ penchant for tum-tee-tum pop (which enjoyed its final hurrah in Father, Son, Holy Ghost’s ‘Magic’).
Along with the new record, West Coasters also get a whole new set of tour dates. Owens will trek from San Diego to Vancouver during the last few weeks of March, hitting San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts on the 23rd. Tour dates and tickets are available on his website.
Christopher Owens
Palace of Fine Arts
March 23, 2013
8pm, $25
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The Soft White Sixties release new single “Knock It Loose” on eve of summer tour
June 25, 2012
The Soft White Sixties released their new single “Knock It Loose” on Tuesday via Bandcamp. The track, which is available at a “name your price” special, is a hook-heavy, danceable blues track reminiscent of The Black Keys’ more recent work, and it comes with cover art featuring a beautiful, hazy black-and-white photo of the City skyline from the perspective of the Golden Gate Bridge. Listen here on The Bay Bridged, and then head over to Bandcamp to download the mp3.
The band is hitting the road for their summer tour starting Saturday night, 6/23/12, at L.A.’s Bootleg Theater. Check out the full schedule of gigs below.
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Sic Alps announce self-titled fifth album, out September 11, 2012 on Drag City
June 21, 2012
Just a year after releasing their double LP Napa Asylum, Sic Alps is back with their eponymous fifth album, which will drop September 11th on Chicago’s Drag City label. The first single, the album’s attitude-filled opening track “Glyphs”, premiered recently on Pitchfork. The song actually has a very Beatles feel—albeit a very lofi, raw Beatles feel. From the gentle, string-filled intro, to the bevy of dirty and angular, but oddly melodic guitars and vocals that follow, “Glyphs” showcases this band’s incredible talent:
Having just wrapped a tour of Europe in May, Sic Alps aren’t heading back out on the road until the Fall, when they’re playing a handful of dates with Thee Oh Sees in SoCal, Montana, and western Canada. Hopefully we’ll hear some additional material off Sic Alps as the album’s release date and the band’s Fall tour inch closer.
Check out full details on Sic Alps’ upcoming gigs, as well as cover art and the track listing for the new album after the jump. [More...]
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Future Twin announces July 31 “dual release”
May 21, 2012
Future Twin has announced a “dual release” for July 31: the band is putting out a new 7″, called the Resist 7″, as well as Future Twin Deluxe Edition, a CD that will contain both the new record and the Situation EP. Both are coming out on the Future Twin Inc. label — which is to say, both will be self-released.
Here’s the video for Situation EP track “Landslide,” which premiered on Impose.tv earlier this year. It’s a bit of a tour video with some candid footage of the band thrown in, to give you a nice little window into what it’s like to be Future Twin.
In the lead-up to the dual release date, Future Twin is playing a couple dates in Brooklyn, then coming back and playing the Hemlock here in their hometown. Details after the jump, along with a downloadable version of “Landslide.”
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New 7″ from Grandma’s Boyfriend out on Loglady Records
May 18, 2012
While the designation “punk-pop” might suggest that slick, whiny garbage that somehow became popular around the turn of the millennium, Grandma’s Boyfriend is helping to seize back nervy, sped-up pop for the rest of us. The SF band is giving away their new EP of songs “about getting killed and lost love and girls that just take things too far” below, but this is seven-inch music, so grab one from Loglady. As the flyer indicates, the “cuttiessssst band of 20122#” is currently on tour.
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Sleepy Sun to conclude North American tour with album release show Friday 5/18/12 at The Independent
May 17, 2012
SF pysch-rock quintet Sleepy Sun rolls back into SF this Friday, 5/18/12, after a month’s-long tour across the States and Canada in support of their latest effort Spine Hits (out April 10th on The End Records), and they’re celebrating the occasion with an album release show this Friday, May 18th at The Independent. Joining the band are Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound, Some Ember, and DJ Britt Govea.
After a very brief rest (read: enough time to do their laundry and repack), Sleepy Sun returns to the road, heading to Europe for a run of shows beginning on May 23rd in the Netherlands, before a short turn around the West Coast in June. Spine Hits is their third full-length album, and the band has been gaining steam on the strength of tracks like “V.O.G.”, which we previously featured back in April:
Get full details on the show and Sleepy Sun’s upcoming European and West Coast tours after the jump.
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Social Studies wants you to help them make their next album
May 4, 2012
Back when I reviewed Social Studies‘ set at Noise Pop 2012, I specifically mentioned a new song, “Terracur,” as a standout track. Social Studies singer Natalia told me it would appear on their new album, so I’m pretty stoked that the album is almost ready. But first, there’s a small matter of mixing and mastering the thing… and that’s where you come in.
The band has recorded 12 new songs to 2″ tape at New, Improved Recording with Eli Crews, a local producer with records by Why?, Deerhoof, and tUnE-yArDs on his resume. They’re real stoked about how the album is turning out, but they need some financial assistance to finish it proper style.
Head on over to their Kickstarter page and help ‘em out, why don’t ya?
You can listen to Social Studies’ last album, Wind Up Wooden Heart, while you donate:
