Ume announces co-headlining tour with SF show on 6/13/12
May 10, 2012
Austin-based rockers Ume will rumble through San Francisco on June 13 with co-headliners The Life and Times. Ume have gained significant points around the blogosphere for combining raw rock guitar stylings with the polished, ethereal vocals of lead singer and guitarist Lauren Larson. A little more Live 105 than contemporaries like Cleveland’s Mr. Gnome, Ume are caught in an interesting dilemma: too big of a sound to be neatly slotted in as indie rock, but with no where else to go since alternative (radio) rock mostly sits gasping for air in the gutters of pop culture.
If this sounds like a dilemma you’d like to hear played out on stage, you can buy tickets for the June show at Bottom of the Hill here.
Ume, The Life and Times
Bottom of the Hill
June 13, 9pm
$12
Full Tour Dates: [More...]
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Video: Seventeen Evergreen – “Burn The Fruit (Pegasus)”
May 9, 2012
Continuing their theme of visually captivating music videos, space-rockers Seventeen Evergreen have released the official effort for “Burn The Fruit (Pegasus)”, the closing track off March’s Steady On, Scientist! album. The video originally debuted on Stereogum and you can check it out (see: become entranced) below.
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Wax Idols 7-inch release show Friday 5/11/12 at the Make-Out Room
May 9, 2012
Wax Idols celebrate the release of their new 7″ on Suicide Squeeze with Wounded Lion from LA and Big No at Make-Out Room on Friday. Chances are, all of you hip little kitties have heard the anthemic new wave A-side, “Shadenfreude”, but you’ll most likely get to hear the (according to their Facebook page) mysterious B-Side called “The Last Drop” as well.
If you miss Wax Idols on Friday, you can catch them in June with The Mallard, and White Lung from Vancouver. (The show was originally booked at 1-2-3-4 Go! Records, but has since been moved. Stay tuned.)
If you haven’t already, check out the new video for “Dilno” (yet another awesome Hannah Lew production) from the 2011 LP No Future which debuted on Hearty Magazine last week, complete with BDSM accoutrements and ball-crushing. We don’t need to tell you how conservative and backwards American culture is when it comes to sex, but it’s great to see a hot, confident woman making pop music outside the mainstream without lookin’ a hot mess or conforming to the tired, hippy free-love shit, either:
Wax Idols, Wounded Lion, Big No
Make-Out Room
May 11, 2012
7:30pm, $10
The Mallard, Wax Idols, White Lung
TBA
June 10, 2012
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Carletta Sue Kay releases debut album! Finally!
May 7, 2012
The wait is over at last: Carletta Sue Kay‘s debut album, Incongruent, is finally here. Well, technically it comes out May 15 on Kitten Charmer Records. But astute Facebook fans of Carletta Sue Kay might have noticed that it is already available on iTunes, for the low low price of $6.99 no less. Go on and get it!
Carletta Sue Kay – “Pas Le Meme”
Then go see Carletta Sue Kay belt out the tunes in one of the most powerful voices you’ve ever heard at Amoeba Music on May 17 and Cafe Du Nord on May 18. If that’s too long of a wait, check out this video and try to contain yourself.
Carletta Sue Kay
Amoeba Music
May 17, 2012
6pm, Free
The Avengers, Erase Errata, Carletta Sue Kay
Cafe Du Nord
May 18, 2012
9pm, $15, 21+
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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:
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Flying Lotus to play Low End Theory tonight, 5/4/12
May 4, 2012
Once called “the chief of the Los Angeles beat scene” by the LA Times Music Blog, LA’s Flying Lotus is coming to SF to blow all of our minds tonight, 5/4/12, at the monthly Low End Theory throwdown at 103 Harriet.
Flying Lotus’s bass-heavy, experimental beats have been winning him a lot of fans the past few years. Hell, Thom Yorke has shown up to play with him at not one but two Low End Theory nights down in LA. Video or it didn’t happen, you say? Well here you go:
Here’s Flying Lotus’s Independent Music Award-winning video for “MmmHmm” to further get you in the mood:
Flying Lotus, Dibiase, 14KT, Dnae Beats, Taurus Scott, Daddy Kev, Nobody, Gaslamp Killer, D-Styles, Nocando
103 Harriet
May 4, 2012
10pm, $20
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New Silian Rail album out today, release show at Bottom of the Hill tonight
May 3, 2012
Silian Rail dropped their new album, each/other, today via Side With Us Records. Check out either of those sites to get a copy and revel in the warm instrumental bliss. If records aren’t really your jam, don’t worry — you can go hear them live at their record release party tonight at Bottom of the Hill.
The new album is a bit denser than Silian Rail’s previous two full-lengths. There are ambient sounds swirling around, new instruments punching in here and there, all helping fill out the sound. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still the jaw-dropping, open-chord guitar work and epic, propulsive drumming, and Silian Rail’s music was always impressively full even with just those two elements. But even the band acknowledges that their music has achieved new depths, and attributes that evolution to their involvement with the local music community.
Specifically, Silian Rail credits engineer and co-producer Robert Cheek for playing “a crucial role in giving sonic form to the record”, as well as violist, violinist and composer Dina Maccabee and multi-instrumentalist Lynne Angel (of Tartufi), who has joined the band as a third member for live shows, with helping them achieve the more full sound of each/other.
Check out the video for album cut “Shapes” to get a taste.
Silian Rail is hitting the road this Spring, find the tour dates after the jump.
Silian Rail, Whiskerman, Michael Musika
Bottom of the Hill
May 3, 2012
9pm
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Help make something awesome: “Roving Projections in Downtown Oakland”
May 2, 2012
I speak from firsthand experience when I say: Luke Judd is a badass visual artist. He has done projections at a number of shows I’ve attended/played, and they’ve always blown me away.
His latest idea is probably his most badass yet: a “roving projection rig” for downtown Oakland. He’s got a Kickstarter going right now to try and make it happen, but it ends tomorrow and he needs your help. Dig deep folks. Support the arts.
I remember a house party once in Oakland where he was projecting several different shapes all over the back of the house. That was badass enough in its own right, but the really cool part was that there was this mobile-type thing hanging from the back porch (it was a house in Oakland, dude) and he was projecting on to the mobile so that it cast a shadow in the middle of the projection. Trust me: It was dope. (You can actually see a short clip of it in the video above.)
Oh, and did I mention that this project is Keak Da Sneak-approved?
Here’s a video of my band playing The New Parish accompanied by Luke’s projections. The person who shot this was not trying to focus on the projections, but you’ll still get the idea. The idea being: these projections are completely awesome, and you should support Luke’s attempts to take them to the streets.
