Remember Artie, the strongest man in the world? The plate in Mom’s head? Petunia and her sweet dance moves? Pretend it’s 1993, and maybe it will come back to you. Better yet, check out Grand Lake’s cover of the theme song from The Adventures of Pete & Pete, originally done by Polaris:

Grand Lake – “The Adventures of Pete & Pete Theme Song”

As stated by frontman Caleb Nichols:

When I was 16 I had the insanely great fortune of meeting Mark Mulcahy. We had mutual friends and Mr. Mulcahy wanted to play a show in my hometown of San Luis Obispo between stops in LA and San Francisco. I was beyond thrilled to get to meet the mysterious genius who penned the soundtrack to every kids’ favorite TV show – the Adventures of Pete & Pete. There seems to be quite a bit of debate about what the actual lyrics are to this song are. I decided to sing the lyrics the way I remember them from childhood – so firstly, I left out the second verse, and secondly I sand the chorus ‘Hey Sandy, does your dog bite?’ I also sing ‘It’s very strange’ as the first line – because that’s what I always thought it was.

Grand Lake’s Blood Sea Dream is out now on Hippies Are Dead Records. The band also has a slew of California dates coming up (including one tomorrow, Friday 9/3/10 at Ghost Town Gallery):

9/3/10 Ghost Town Gallery – Oakland, CA
9/16/10 Milk Bar – San Francisco, CA
9/19/10 The Hemlock Tavern w/ Hosannas – San Francisco, CA
9/23/10 ARTs Center – San Luis Obispo, CA
9/24/10 Hotel Utah – San Francisco, CA

August 2010 Monthly Mix (Podcast #228)

Our latest (and a little belated) Monthly Mix episode of the weekly podcast features music from eight Bay Area bands, including a bunch of tracks from recent and upcoming releases. Enjoy!

Subscribe to the The Bay Bridged weekly podcast to get each new episode downloaded free to your iTunes the moment it’s published!

About this week’s bands:

To Dreamers, the latest album from Kelley Stoltz (“I Don’t Get That”), comes out on October 12th on Sub Pop. He’ll be playing at the Mezzanine on September 10th, and then celebrating the release of the new record at Cafe Du Nord on October 15th.

Young at Love and Life is the debut EP from Dominant Legs (“About My Girls”). It’s available now from Lefse Records.

Fiveng’s (“Give Me A Taste”) first release is a single on Beach Tapes. You can download both songs at Beach Tapes’ Bandcamp page.

In August, Bronze (“The Rouge Became”) released a 7″ picture disc on World Famous in SF. No shows upcoming, but we’ll keep you posted.

Burnt Ones (“Kaleidoscope Eyes”) recently moved from Indianapolis to San Francisco. Their first full length, Black Teeth & Golden Tongues, is out now on Roaring Colonel Records, and they’ll be at El Rio on September 22nd.

Oakland’s The Dashing Suns (“Future Thunder”) just released their full length Really Like You on The Council. The band doesn’t have any local dates currently announced.

Birds & Batteries (“Strange Kind of Mirror”) release Panorama on October 12th on Spune/Velvet Blue Music. Their record release show is October 15th at Bottom of the Hill.

Adam Haworth Stephens‘ (“The Cities That You’ve Burned”) solo debut We Live On Cliffs comes out on Saddle Creek at the end of September. He’ll be headlining The Independent on October 2nd.

Dominant Legs from TERROREYES.TV on Vimeo.

Above, Dominant Legs performs “Clawing Out at the Walls” for Terroreyes.tv. Below, another new song from the SF band’s debut EP, out now on Lefse Records.

Dominant Legs – “About My Girls”

(Note to the reader: This is an epic tale, long in the telling. If you doubt your mettle, please at least scroll down and check out the respective headliners, who were both rad).

Sometimes the music options in this town present such a tasty dilemma. Friday night saw The Ferocious Few at Fort Mason, Cap’n Jazz at Bimbo’s, and down in Polk Gulch, two shows too good to pass up.

I’m set to cover Kelley Stoltz at the Hemlock, while some of my familiars have committed to hanging with their buddies Trainwreck Riders at the Great American Music Hall.

Over sushi in The Richmond around 8 PM, a plan emerges: With the help of an able research team, I will cover both shows. The night is warm; our legs are fresh. It can be done.

My sources tell me that Virgil Shaw, up first at the GAMH, is a family man who likes to get off stage early, so he will be stop number one. Sure enough, as we ease in, he is wrapping up his set. Nice, heavy, swampy sound. I’d love to say more, but he’s done by 9:05. Clearly, we can stay for another act before checking in at the Hemlock.

The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit – “The Burden of Sea Captains”

The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit obliges us by setting up quickly and launching right into their set. (I have to say here, I so appreciate that. I hate it when a band takes 30 minutes of sullen set up and then goes backstage just to sweat the crowd for another 30. I am herein notifying you all that that is bogus).

TGLTSO is a large ensemble with some skilled and artful pickers. Matt Cordano is a huge asset, handling the Flying V, banjo and pedal steel without breaking a sweat. He trades licks with Jeremy Acker on the opposite side of the stage, who plays solos on his SG exactly how he plays them on the mandolin. Their two-step, harmony-filled ragers have the crowd jumping and swaying, especially when guest singer Bethany Taylor joins them.

It’s just a few minutes past 10:00 when I head up to the Hemlock, taking in some of our fair city’s other cultural highlights along the way.

Note to self: require everyone I know to start calling me Frenchy.

Young Offenders, the first of three old-school punk acts, are just wrapping up their set.

Blessing the timing, I hoof it back to coordinate with my research cohort, Lia, Anne and Megan.

Here’s the plan: I will focus on the Hemlock. Lia will commit to the Great American. If I miss anything significant, Lia will text me a review.

The Pine Box Boys – “The Pallbearers (We’ll Be The Last Ones To Let You Down)”

Inside, co-headliners The Pine Box Boys are in the middle of a beautiful, minor chord ballad, with delicate yet smoking solos from Lester T. Raww on guitar and Big Possum Carvidi on the electric banjo. From there, the set moves uptempo into “songs of murder and misery” as they put it.

We leave Lia to her sub-task with encouraging hugs and head back up Polk. To our surprise, Australia’s Total Control, only the second band on the bill, is still deep in their set.

I run into Kelley Stoltz at the bar. “Yeah,” he confirms, “things move kind of leisurely around here.” How, I ask, did he end up on this bill anyway? “Aw, these guys are friends of mine,” he explains.

For a moment, I am awash with fatigue at the thought of two-plus more hours of music. But over another pint, a light bulb goes on: This is perfect! Everything is going to weave together like it came straight from the loom of the rock gods. We can do it all.

UV Race is up on stage, and, hey! They are kind of musical and catchy. Keyboard player and everything. Upon consideration, this is a cool show for the Hemlock. It sends me back to countless shows in flat black-painted bar backrooms I knocked around in in 1982.

With a renewed spring in our step, we rejoin Lia just in time for Trainwreck Riders. To say they sparked the crowd’s energy would be an understatement. The dance floor was bouncing like a trampoline.

Trainwreck Riders – “Tomorrow’s Gonna Change It All”

It would be accurate but wrong to describe Trainwreck Riders as a Bakersfield-influenced, Telecaster alt-country band. As Duke Ellington said, there are only two kinds of music: good music and bad music. This is some good music.

Their stylistic foundation does not hit you as much as their sincere, organic talent and energy. Their individual voices are passable, but together they sing beautifully. In fact, they are the least overtly virtuosic band of the night, which is not to say they don’t peel out some proper riffs from their Fenders. And Shawn “Boof” Wyman is an excellent bass player in that funky-country way. But take note: they trade slickness for energy, and they killed it.

And so we return once more to claim our victory. It’s ’round midnight and the scene is just peaking out on the street.

Back in the former Hemlock Tavern storage closet, we are greeted with the welcome sight of a full band tuning up. Stoltz has brought the Ramshackle Romeos (see our review from May 9th) – Kevin Ink on bass and Jamin Barton on everything else – along with second guitarist Brock Galland and drummer James Kim. Being the leader and a deserved legend in the indie music world, Stoltz has naturally chosen to stand in the corner in the dark.

The mix was pretty over-torqued, but what can you ask of the sound guys after 3 punk bands? I will say in fairness that you could hear all the instruments, but Stoltz’s voice, which is (in its understated way) excellent, lost out a little.

Kelley Stoltz – “Pinecone”

The group tweaked his songbook for maximum power. His new single “I Don’t Get That,” (see our earlier news item) rocked hard. But Stoltz’ well-documented subtlety and mastery of classic pop song craft were present too, as when Barton replicated the flute part on the insanely catchy “Pinecone” with a Melodion. Kim contributed some super-evocative harmonies towards the end of the set. I wouldn’t have minded hearing that all night.

In sum: Out of eight possible bands, your intrepid correspondent made it to. . . wait for it. . . eight. Let it not be said that The Bay Bridged is not here for you.

(Don’t poop out yet! In addition to their new albums, Trainwreck Riders and Kelley Stoltz can both be heard on the excellent local compilation “In a Cloud.” Kelley Stoltz plays at Mezzanine on September 10th and Cafe du Nord on October 15th before departing for the UK).

Life Magazine

Cold Cave | MySpace Music Videos

Abe Vigoda – “To Tears”

To enter send an email with your full name and the subject “I want to see Cold Cave!” to contest@thebaybridged.com. The fourth person to enter will win a pair of tickets to the show!

The starts at 9pm, $16, 6+. Purchase advance tickets here.

Monday, September 6th: Man Man with Let’s Wrestle @ Great American Music Hall

Let’s Wrestle – “We Are the Men You’ll Grow to Love Soon”

To enter send an email with your full name and the subject “I want to see Man Man!” to contest@thebaybridged.com. The third person to enter will win a pair of tickets to the show!

The show starts at 8pm, $17, 6+. Purchase advance tickets here.

9/3: Great American Music Hall with Farmer Dave Scher, Sonny & the Sunsets
9/4: Great American Music Hall with Famer Dave Scher, Ganglians

We caught a Farmer Dave Scher show a few months ago; read the review here.

Jenny and Johnny – “Scissor Runner”

Sonny & the Sunsets – “Too Young to Burn”

Ganglians – “Hair (from Daytrotter)”

We are giving a pair of tickets away to the Friday show! To enter send your full name to contest@thebaybridged.com with the phrase “I want to see Jenny & Johnny!” in the subject line. The fifth person to enter will win!

Full tour dates and Dave Scher video after the jump:

09/01 Santa Cruz, CA – Rio Theater
09/02 San Francisco, CA – GAMH
09/03 San Francisco, CA – GAMH
09/05 Portland, OR – Doug Fir
09/06 Seattle, WA – Bumbershoot Festival
09/08 Salt Lake City, UT – The State Room
09/09 Denver, CO – Opening for Pavement
09/11 Omaha, NE – The Waiting Room
09/12 Minneapolis, MN – Cedar Cultural Center
09/13 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
09/14 Cleveland, OH – Beachwood Ballroom
09/16 Washington DC
09/17 Pawtucket, RI – The Met Café
09/18 Boston, MA – Opening for Pavement
09/19 Brooklyn, NY – Opening for Pavement
09/21 Hoboken, NJ
09/22 Philadelphia, PA – With Superchunk
09/23 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
09/24 Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club
09/25 Nashville, TN – Mercy Lounge
09/28 Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
09/29 Austin, TX – Emo’s
10/03 Los Angeles, CA – Opening for Belle & Sebastian
10/17 Ithaca, NY – Cornell University – Supporting Phoenix
10/18 New Haven, CT – Toad’s Place
10/21 Toronto, ONT – Kool Haus – Supporting Band Of Horses
10/22 Detroit, MY – The Fillmore – Supporting Band Of Horses
10/24 Charlestown, WV – Mountain Stage
10/25 Baltimore, MD – Rams Head Live
10/26 Charlottesville, VA – Jefferson Theater
10/28 Asheville, NC – Thomas Wolfe Auditorium – Supporting Band Of Horses
10/29 Charleston, SC – North Charleston Pacific Arts Center – Supporting Band Of Horses
10/30 Atlanta, GA – The Fox Theater – Supporting Band Of Horses

Chasing the Moon releases new episodes about once a month. To be notified of future episodes you can subscribe to our podcast either through iTunes or with this feed.

Produced By: Brian Berberich. Shot By: Elijiah Pahati. Mixed By: Scott McDowell.

Sister Crayon is raising money to buy a van to tour in, so if you feel like opening your pockets to help a very talented band meet their masses you can donate at their Myspace page.

Oakland’s Religious Girls are a three piece: a keyboard player, a drummer, and a gent who does both, all shouting wordlessly together. They have an intensely primal sound, and a vicious playing style. These guys are a must-see.

A fellow concertgoer simply said to me “These guys are loud. Like, really loud.” A great compliment. Hats off to the Rickshaw Stop, the light show looked like the bottom of an UFO spacecraft hired to provide lighting at a rave.

LA-based, married duo Rainbow Arabia are poised to be the next big thing. Singer/guitarist Tiffany Preston has a distant and enchanting voice. Her stage presence was a force, she brought the crowd to near-frenzy. Tiffany’s husband Danny describes their sound (accurately) as electronic afro-pop post-punk. Do yourself a favor and see them as soon as you can, because if they fall into the right hands your next time chance will be from 200 yards away at Coachella.

San Francisco duo Lazer Sword headlined — both armed with laptops connected to new-fangled gadgetry. It sounds like they made all your favorite vintage videogame cartridges snort blow off of a key, and then filtered their soundtracks through an electronic meat grinder. It is as if a glitch nerd and a hip hop head got together and decided to make music that will get girls to take their clothes off to. It got so hot in their I started to worry that the sprinklers were going to go off.

The overall theme for the night’s music was loud — for the next few days the only response you will get from me is, “What?”. This was a very inspired bill, the booker is very deserving of a serious high five. I can honestly say this is one of the best shows I have seen in a long time.

The band is on-point, they play tight until they fall into a free-form section where the divergent sums equal a strong whole; all the players were endlessly capable. They play standards in such an inventive and original way that I longed to see what they could do with their own material.

Zoyres Eastern European Wild Ferment began their set with a raucous, cymbal-heavy drum intro. Though going by such an explicit name, Zoyres’ heavy Balkan influence is just one side of the coin — you can hear styles that span the spectrum.

Horns over drums is nothing new, but they are able to inject enough juice to leave you reeling. Their music is played with enough emotion to make it feel narrative, and their arrangement and instrumentation is wild and exciting. While the amplified tuba was battling the prog drums, you may have thought you were listening to a Radiohead cut if you kept your eyes closed.

Japonize Elephants is a bit different than the bands it shared a bill with that night. While the other bands played music that you have heard before but in a way that you have never heard it, Japonize Elephants took two disparate styles of music, left them fairly untouched, and then mixed thoroughly. Both approaches felt new, and were undeniably successful.

Japonize Elephants mix country and western bluegrass with klezmer (but, of course they let a lot of other influences sneak in, too). Their sound is powerful, bolstered by big group vocals. Like the other two bands the playing was impeccable.

These three very different bands are brought together by a respect for traditional music, and a devotion to mastery that is commendable. The bands were all from the Bay Area, they all shared players, and the crowd seemed initiated. Fresh music that takes cues from around the globe is alive and well, and it lives in our town. I know I feel lucky.

The Rickshaw Stop Wednesday (8:30, PM $10)

True to their mantra (“Sweet Sounds from the Bay”), the Deli SF powers-that-be have lined up four solid bands to play at the Rickshaw Stop this Saturday, September 4th (8:00 pm, $10/advance, $12/door).

My First Earthquake – “Neon for You”

The Dont’s – “Which Side You’re On (The Pirate Song)”

Phantom Kicks – “Eyes Familiar”

My First Earthquake, The Dont’s, Spiro Agnew, and Phantom Kicks will all convene amongst the rickshaws, along with a DJ set from H.A. Eugene (Business 80). Saturday’s set will also serve as Spiro Agnew’s official album release (OH What Model Citizens We Be, available via Bandcamp).

Electric Sunset – “Soda”

Formerly of Olympia band Desolation WIlderness, Nic Zwart moved back to San Francisco and started Electric Sunset. Between “Soda” and the four songs on his Muxtape page, this is some of the catchiest, most affecting synth pop I’ve heard this year.

Electric Sunset comes out on K Records on September 14th, and Zwart will be at Milk on September 29th (8pm, $5).

Part One: Joshua Rampage

Mike “In Case You Didn’t Know I’m The Big King Over Here” Tapscott managed to leave work early (read: his 4-Square round-robby was cancelled) so we could play miniature golf and savor the remaining pockets of heat in the Bay Area. After an aberration of abbreviated warmth, things are back to 55F and foggy in SF, just the way nature designed this coastal town in Northern California.

Herein lies my boggle: the mind recalls with vivid detail the island adventure I just returned from, the very trip that inspired this Sade Sunday’s latest musical undertaking – Monster Rally. But now everything is terribly distorted: jackets, long pants and shoes trump the tanned skin, cut-offs and bare feet of my mind’s isle, creating a paradox within this report. Where is the rum and warm water when you need them?

As we drove south, I regaled Mike with tales of oceanic escapades in an attempt to distract his growling belly from hunger, but no. His blank face held eyes that fixed on the road, staring miles ahead to the Recreational Family Food Fun that awaited us at Malibu Castle. Upon our arrival, he said he’d “get us straightened out” at the food court while I dispensed 3 PBRs into his water bottle for consumption during mini golf.

Everything was going as planned until the bottle overflowed and beer spilled all over the crotch of my jeans. The situation became touchy when I asked a Malibu Castle staff member where the bathrooms were located. I put on my best “it’s not what it looks like” face and walked bravely into the Family Fun.

After splitting a hot dog and cheeseburger with Mike, we set out on the course with putters in hand. Admittedly, there are simple parallels to be drawn between miniature golf and Monster Rally – both are an easy sport that speak softly of condensed fun, the ideal background sound for summertime. Accessible and incandescent, most of the tracks clock in around 2 minutes apiece and are made up of trade wind melodies and looped grass skirts. Word is they’re composed by a guy named Ted who is giving both his EP-length releases away for FREE, providing you the opportunity to save for that Caribbean trip to find Captain Nemo you’ve always wanted to take.

Fact is, my putt putt game has gone to hell since leaving high school. I could blame the unforgiving, metal-lined holes of Castle Malibu’s course, but instead I’ll readily own up to Mike’s superior skills. He had the only hole-in-one between us while I struggled to make it up the ramp of the windmill on 18.

Perhaps I was distracted by the thought of facing another dreary day when all I wanted was to soak up more sun. I have since taken comfort in knowing that I can tune in to Monster Rally whenever I want – transcending the weather and remembering how it felt listening to all those sublime songs in a tropical setting on my island adventure – and suddenly I’m not cold anymore.

Part Two: Michael Tapscott

Today I had a fist-pounding conversation about Obama. We wanted to believe so bad that we fell for a charlatan. We wanted to heave ourselves onto the rocks of belief’s sweet, salt sea and clean everything with neon and sand. But we aren’t Charles Manson, and neither is our president.

As I enjoy these United States in gloomy joy with my old friend and roommate, I breathe scared. Paranoid fantasies of internment camps and tax droids haunt me. Redwood City tugs at my heartstrings as the vast Canadian National Railway and the 101 zip commerce from bow to stern. Joshua is now living an escapist fantasy and I’m the one who feels like Nemo.

Mini golf, batting cages, pontoon bumper cars, summer fantasies and bitchy party girls, lead me into this evening’s America.

Tamaryn – “Love Fade”

Like heat waves off the highway, Tamaryn boils the chewed up metals of all dream pop history in a heavy metal groove. Is that drummer bald with black ear plugs in the lobe? He’s hitting his drums hard and ahead of the pace that signals some metal background to me. Tell me I’m wrong, I don’t care, let me imagine it this way.

Let me imagine, a Stevie Nicks mother earth, pied piper fronting this band, let me imagine starstruck guitarists on her left and right. Let me put a beach where once was highway and flaming orbs of flying fish where once where cars. Let me live on a Yellow Submarine or Howl’s Moving Castle, not the rickity and scientific Nautilus.

The new record, Waves (2010, Mexican Summer), hits all the Mazzy Star references you can throw at it, but it also avoids the glimmer like a real good 90s alt-band. It’s hard-working and saves itself almost completely by not slouching too painfully.

I did get a hole in one at the miniature golf, I dreamt I was in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with a fatal new love in my heart. Then, the old hot dog I had gnawed like beef jerky gave me stomach cramps and the M&M trail mix tasted dry and rancid on the way home. Obama had hurt my feelings for the last time and Joshua’s future is slipping from my area code, but I’ll see him in the prison camps at least.

Super Wild Horses – “Carolina”

Greg Ashley – “Requiem Mass – Part I”

Get your mixtapes ready for a drive up to Davis, because KDVS‘ just-announced tenth Operation Restore Maximum Freedom festival has a lineup sure to satisfy indie rockers, lo-fi heads, noise lovers, and garden variety weirdos. There’s a strong Bay Area contingent in the mix, including The Fresh and Onlys, Greg Ashley, and Young Prisms, but it’s also an opportunity to check out the electronic avant-pop of Mattress (Portland) and Melbourne, Australia’s Super Wild Horses, whose debut album is out now on Hozac Records.

Full list of bands below:

AIDS WOLF
Ganglians
The Fresh and Onlys
Wounded Lion
Super Wild Horses
Mattress
Greg Ashley
Young Prisms
Buk Buk Bigups
Big Black Cloud
Psychic Reality
Random Abiladeze
Didimao

The festival takes place October 2, 2010 at Plainfield Station (between Woodland and Davis) from 2pm-10pm ($8/$10, All Ages).

Tamaryn – “Love Fade”

Tamaryn – “Mild Confusion”

The Waves, the debut full length of shoegazey pop from San Francisco’s Tamaryn, is out now digitally, with vinyl coming on September 14th on Mexican Summer. The band is a duo featuring singer Tamaryn and collaborator/producer Rex John Shelverton, who had been working as a long distance NYC-SF pair before Tamaryn relocated west to work on this album. Judging from the songs above, which temper their haziness with a richness of detail, the move was definitely worth it.

Tamaryn has a record release show on September 15th at the Elbo Room (9pm, $8) with Weekend and DJ sets by oOoOO, DJ Nako and DJ Omar.

9/15 – San Francisco @ The Elbo Room w/ Weekend (DJ Set by oOoOO)
9/16 – Portland, OR @ Holoscene w/ Interiors PDX
9/19 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo w/ Puro Instinct & Dunes
10/21 – Brooklyn, NY @ Knitting Factory (Mexican Summer CMJ showcase)
10/22 – Brooklyn, NY @ Coco 66 w/ Frankie & The Outs, Light Asylum

Mayyors (Sacto/second-to-last show ever)
Ty Segall
Culture Kids
Blasted Canyons

Friday, September 3, 2010
Serra Bowl
8pm, FREE, All Ages

About the bands:

Sacramento’s Mayyors are calling it quits, and the Serra Bowl show is their second-to-last show ever and final Bay Area performance. The band is known for a singularly intense brand of noise punk that amounts to some insane live shows. “[A]ggro, volatile, and missing a chromosome…Assaulting guitars and vox backed by jumping drums hooked the crowd, and soon everyone was sloshing around in a chummy, punch-you-in-the-face sort of manner.” (WFMU Beware of the Blog) “Mayyors hit the stage and were everything I had anticipated. Short. Sharp. Swirling. Punishing. Brilliant…Now fast forward to this morning and I get an email from Mayyors’ ’singer’ John Pritchard who stated that the band was about to play their final four shows ever as a band. [I]f you live in Northern California or Portland, Oregon, you really have no reason to NOT go see them perform before they pack up.” (Chunklet)

Local hero Ty Segall’s latest album, Melted, is his best work yet, showcasing both his raw rock and roll sensibility and some unbelievably catchy melodies. “You’re not going to hear many rock records that’ll kick you square in the pants quite like this one this year, provided Segall doesn’t up and crank another one out by December; the kid’s got heart, brains, and quite an ear for a hook, and he throws himself body and soul into these tunes. Segall makes quite an impression in half an hour’s time, and Melted’s the best foot he’s put forward yet.” (Pitchfork) “On the whole, this is the best album yet from Ty Segall, as joy-ride thrilling as the debut, as clearly delivered as Lemons, but with stronger, more varied writing.” (Dusted Magazine)

Ty Segall – Girlfriend

Culture Kids is a hardcore/punk band from San Francisco. They have a self-released 7″ and a now out-of-print split tape on Wizard Mountain.

Blasted Canyons includes members of Jonesin’ and Wax Idols. The blown-out psych pop band have a single coming out on Castle Face Records.

It feels like a very long time ago at this point, but for the inaugural year of the Treasure Island Music Festival (a.k.a. September 2007), Trainwreck Riders managed to snag one of the coveted opening “local band” slots. They’ve played Noise Pop and SxSW, they won the SF Guardian ‘Goldie’ award for Best Local Band, they’ve toured with the likes of Two Gallants, Langhorne Slim, and the Devil Makes Three . . . etc. It comes as no surprise that the band will be headlining the Great American Music Hall this Friday, August 27th (9pm, $14, all ages).

Trainwreck Riders – “Chug Along”

Friday’s show, deemed the “Old Time Southern Murder Hour” by Shelby Ash Presents, will also feature Pine Box Boys, Virgil Shaw and Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit.

We have a pair of tickets to give away to Friday’s show. The first person to e-mail contest[at]thebaybridged.com with the subject line “I want to see Trainwreck Riders” gets the tix.

Sunday’s 2010 Rock Make Street Festival was an unequivocal success, bringing thousands of attendees to the Mission to sample the best in local music, arts, crafts, and fashion. On behalf of all of the Rock Make organizers, we’d like to thank the sponsors, vendors, bands, hosts and volunteers who helped produce this great event. We’d also like to thank all of you who attended the fest! To find out more about all of the sights and sounds from Sunday, head to Rockmake.com.

More Photos

From Monument to Masses perform their final show at Great American Music Hall on Saturday, August 28th (9pm, $15). They’ll be joined by fellow local instrumental rock bands Judgement Day and Silian Rail.

From Monument to Masses – “Beyond God & Elvis”

It was a real treat to sit down and interview these guys for the podcast last year, and we know they’ll be missed by devoted fans around the world. Earlier this year, guitarist/co-founder Matthew Solberg offered a lengthy statement about the band’s decision to call it quits:

“…There is too much to say here about our experience. We’ll be blogging about it later, I’m sure. Suffice it to say, that I’m incredibly grateful for my time spent with FMTM and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. From the responses we heard in talking to people about our music, I’m convinced that the music worked; it did it’s job. It reached people on a different level than most music… and that’s exactly why I committed myself to the band in the first place…I loved every minute of it – even the minutes that I hated. FMTM was a very frustrating band, mired in frustrating business relationships, frustrating personal relationships, and frustrating contradictions between what we wanted to be and what we were; where we wanted to go and where we were headed. Given these obstacles, FMTM fell prey to a sort of “band entropy” wherein everything that we tried to control slipped even further out of our control. Eventually, the net losses outweighed the net gains and no one was happy. That’s when you know your band needs to break up, regardless of whether it breaks your heart or not…”

We have a pair of tickets to give away to Saturday’s show. The third person to e-mail contest[at]thebaybridged.com with the subject line “I want to see From Monument to Masses” gets the tix.

Magic Bullets

Still Flyin’

Wednesday, August 25:
Sweet Bones, Huff This!, The Mallard, Dylan Tidyman Jones @ Kimo’s

Thursday, August 26:
Lazer Sword, Rainbow Arabia, Religious Girls, Sister Crayon @ Rickshaw Stop
Royal Baths, Th Mrcy Hot Sprngs, Outlaw, Lilac @ Hemlock Tavern
Light Asylum, You, Veil Veil Vanish, Sssleeping Desiress @ The Knockout
Wallpaper., The Downer Party @ California Academy of Sciences

Friday, August 27:
Audrye Sessions, Dave Smallen and the Serious Relationship, Devotionals @ The New Parish
Trainwreck Riders, Pine Box Boys, Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit, Virgil Shaw @ Great American
Cannons and Clouds (album release), Winfred E Eye, By Sunlight @ Bottom of the Hill
The Younger Lovers, Hornet Leg, Orca Team, Neighbors @ Milk
Snob Theater: Jonah Matranga, Ash Maynor @ The Dark Room

Saturday, August 28:
From Monument to Masses (last show), Judgement Day, Silian Rail @ Great American
The Shants, Vandella, Not An Airplane, Coyote Girl @ Hotel Utah
Nortec Collective, Loquat @ The Independent

Sunday, August 29:
Pure Hell – A Celebration of the Life and Times of Makh Daniels with Bomber, DJ Hellhound @ Rickshaw Stop
Sonny & the Sunsets, End of Summer @ Amnesia

Il Gato – “Burning Red (The Fa Fa Fa Song)”

Wallpaper. – “I Got Soul, I’m So Wasted”

Trainwreck Riders – “Chug Along”

Silian Rail – I Is Somebody Else”

From Monument to Masses – “Between God & Elvis”

Loquat – “Sit Sideways”

Sonny & the Sunsets – “Day in the Life of a Heel”

Don’t you love it when the first band steals the show?

I mean, of course we don’t totally love it – we’d prefer to be knocked out by everyone on the bill. But there is something thrilling about the lesser-known, usually younger, usually greener openers getting up there, channeling their nerves and excitement into a great set and showing everyone how it’s done.

That’s what The Splinters, a quartet from Berkeley, did at Bottom of the Hill Wednesday night, and they brought a bunch of their buddies with them to take audience of the night honors as well. The Splinters have attracted a fair amount of attention here lately (see our podcast #225), and I am happy to confirm that they deserve it.

The Splinters – “Mysterious”

The band’s recordings show off their fairly straightforward garage-rock-with-girl-group-topping formula. The songs are well-crafted and get effectively in your head. But the group elevated their game by light years on stage, and it was all about their energy.

It wasn’t just the friendly, club-house connection with the audience. These gals were having a blast together. Lauren “Ketchup” Stern worked a mad tambourine and managed to both draw focus and share attention with her band mates. Drummer Courtney “Juju” Gray, the group’s strongest musician, grinned the whole night like a kid on her first trip to Disneyland. The vocal harmonies hit every nail.

They earned 100 extra points – with me at least – by doing switchies. For one song, Juju moved to guitar, Ketchup took over the drums, Caroline “Spex” Partamian hit the tambourine and Ashley “Flapjacks” Thomas stayed where she was.

Then Gray went back to merrily bashing her kit.

The Sandwitches – “Song of Songs”

The Sandwitches, from this side of the bay, have distinguished themselves with a nervous, heady kind of vibe that can be quite intriguing. But it made for a challenging segue on Wednesday.

The trio opened with some new material that seems to draw from traditional forms like 1920’s blues singers and folk ballads. It did not gel for me, especially some baffling falsetto harmonies.

A technical breakdown forced them to re-group (guess which band’s drummer brought a new amp for them with a mile-wide smile on her face?). And then something interesting happened: The Sandwitches nailed their last two songs. The jangle came back into the guitars, the beat achieved lift-off and the voices came together. I don’t know if those songs represent the direction the band wants to move towards or away from. But they sent me.

Perhaps The Sandwitches are the sort of cerebral, shy people who need a little warm-up time. Even they were smiling by the end.

Woven Bones – “I’ve Gotta Get”

Woven Bones from Austin, TX headlined (and employed the first bass guitar of the evening). They are a stripped-down power trio whose drummer, Carolyn, uses a floor tom and snare to whip up a formidable beat.

The band’s driving, three-chord rock is very much in step with Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees and others who bravely hold down the shit-fi fort while the trendsters depart for new territory.

Grass Widow – “Fried Egg”

Past Time, the new album from SF’s Grass Widow, is out today on Kill Rock Stars. Check out “Fried Egg” from the new album above, and the video for “Shadow” below.

The band’s record release party is at the Cyclone Warehouse (1842 Illinois at Cesar Chavez) on September 10th (7pm, $tba) with STLS and Shannon and the Clams. They’ll also be at Amoeba SF on September 11th at 2pm. All of Grass Widow’s upcoming US and European dates are below:

Sep 1 2010 8:00PM
Spaceland W/Ty Segall, Garotas Suecas(Brasil) Los Angeles, CA

Sep 10 2010 7:00PM
Record Release Party!
W/STLS, Shannon and the Clams
Cyclone Warehouse
1842 Illinois @Cesar Chavez, SF CA

Sep11 2010 2:00PM
Amoeba In-Store!
1855 Haight Street, SF CA

Sep 14 2010 8:00PM
Wandering Goat w/STLS Eugene, OR

Sep 15 2010 8:00PM
Backspace Cafe w/STLS
Portland, OR

Sep 16 2010 7:00PM
The Northern w/STLS , Broken Water Olympia, WA

Sep 17 2010 8:00PM
Healthy Times Fun Club Seattle, WA

Sep 18 2010 8:00PM
Neurolux Boise, ID

Sep 19 2010 8:00PM
Record Bar Kansas City, MO

Sep 20 2010 10:00PM
White Lightening Warehouse w/Wet Hair
700 S Dubuque St Iowa City, IA

Sep 21 2010 9:00PM
Turf Club St. Paul, MN

Sep 22 2010 8:00PM
The Strutt Kalamazoo, MI

Sep 23 2010 4:00PM
University of Chicago
5796 University Ave Chicago, IL

Sep 23rd 2010 9:00PM
Crown Liquors w/Black Math
2821 n Milwaukee Ave Chicago, IL

Sep 24 2010 10:00PM
The Sco @ Oberlin College Oberlin, OH

Sep 25 2010 :00PM
Haverford College w/Garotas Suecas
370 Lancaster Ave Haverford, PA

Sep 26 2010 8:00PM
Rock and Roll Hotel w/Shonen Knife
1353 H St NE Washington DC

Sep 27 2010 8:00PM
NYC

Sep 28 2010 8:00PM
NYC

SEP 30 London, The Old Blue Last (w/Trash Kit)

OCT 1 Brighton, Cowley Club (w/Trash Kit)

OCT 2 Birmingham, Island Bar (w/Trash Kit)

OCT 3 Ipswich, McGintys (w/Trash Kit)

OCT 4 Manchester, Trof NQ (w/Trash Kit)

OCT 5 Sheffield, tba

OCT 6 Nottingham, tba

OCT 7 Glasgow, 13th Note (w/Trash Kit)

OCT 8 Sheffield, The Red House (w/Trash Kit)

OCT 9 Bristol Local Kid (w/Trash Kit)

OCT 10 London, Lexington (w/ Naked On The Vague and Wetdog)

OCT 11 Paris, Le Chiquito

OCT 12 Amsterdam, OT301

OCT 14 Berlin, Marie-Antoinette (w/ The Beets)

Oct 29 8:00PM
Thee Parkside w/Bar Feeders
1600 17th Street SF CA

Nov 30 8:00PM
The Earl w/Yellow Fever
Atlanta, GA

Dec 1 8:00PM
TBA w/Yellow Fever
Asheville, NC

Dec 2 8:00PM
TBA w/Yellow Fever
Chattanooga, TN

Dec 3 8:00PM
TBA w/Yellow Fever
Nasheville, TN

Dec 4 8:00PM
TBA w/Yellow Fever
St. Louis, MO

Dec 5 8:00PM
TBA w/Yellow Fever
Columbia, MO

Dec 6
TBA w/Yellow Fever

Dec 7 8:00PM
TBA w/Yellow Fever
Athens, GA

Oakland’s Religious Girls did this live set for Terroreyes.tv. The band is at the RIckshaw Stop on Thursday (8pm, $12), with Lazer Sword, Rainbow Arabia, and Sister Crayon.

The 2010 Rock Make Street Festival is this Sunday, August 22nd, 2010, on Treat Avenue and 18th Street from 11am-6pm! Presented by The Bay Bridged, Tartufi, and Cookie and the Dude, the free, all ages fest will feature three stages of local music and entertainment, 100 local arts and crafts vendors, beer gardens, a children’s activity area, and a guaranteed good time. Spread the word and we hope to see you there!

2010 Rock Make Street Festival Preview Mix (Podcast #227)

Set times for all entertainment is as follows:

Medithrive Stage
12pm – Blue Rabbit
1pm – Sunbeam Rd.
2pm – Jhameel
3pm – Tartufi
4pm – AB & the Sea
5pm – Special Surprise Guest! (Unfortunately, The California Honeydrops are no longer performing, but we’ve lined up a friend of The Bay Bridged for a special set. More details on that on Sunday…)

Harrison Stage
12:30pm – Billy and Dolly
1:30pm – Butterfly Bones
2:30pm – Sea of Bees
3:30pm – Still Flyin’
4:30pm – Social Studies
5:30pm – Leopold and His Fiction

Folsom Stage
12:10pm – Wizard Lizard
1:10pm – The Psychotherapists
2:10pm – The Thrashers
3:10pm – The She’s
4pm – The Romane Event (comedy!)

Head over to RockMake.com for videos and photos from last year’s festival, information about our vendors and sponsors and more.

As previously reported, Grand Lake’s debut full-length is out on Hippies Are Dead Records, and it’s now seeing release on vinyl as well. For the vinyl release show, Grand Lake has lined up It’s for Free Grace (Ted Nesseth of the Heavenly States), Sean Smith & the Present Moment, and DJs James and Evander to join in the celebration.

Grand Lake – “Louise”

Grand Lake – “Spark”

The bands will take the stage at Cafe Du Nord on Tuesday, August 24th (9:00 pm, $10, 21+).

Grand Lake – Louise (I Live In A Fantasy) from Ryan Pierce on Vimeo.

Here’s a guide to the local eats which will be open and serving up specials for festival attendees. In order to avail yourself of the discounts, you’ll need to stop by the festival and grab a free flyer (which also doubles as a handy festival map). See you Sunday!

Coffee Bar
1890 Bryant (@ Mariposa)
Offering a free coffee with any meal purchased and Rock Make flyer.

La Tepa Taqueria
2198 Folsom (@ 18th)
Offering a free agua fresca with any meal purchased and Rock Make flyer.

Evergreen Garden Restaurant
3100 18th Street (@ Harrison)
Offering a free soft drink with any meal purchased and Rock Make flyer.

Fops – “Solid Copper Huntress”

If you miss Thee More Shallows like we do, you’ll be pleased to know that TMS’ Dee Kesler has teamed with Ral Partha Vogalbacher’s Chadwick Donald Bidwell to form Fops. The duo’s first album of electronic art-pop, Yeth, Yeth, Yeth, comes out on Monotreme Records later this year.

Mayer Hawthorne

The Devil Makes Three

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

Al Green

Phoenix

Kings of Leon

Empire of the Sun

Crowd

Rebirth Brass Band

My Morning Jacket

Tokyo Police Club

Wolfmother

Cat Power

The Strokes

Crowd

Speaking of Tartufi videos, here’s one for the song “Church Of Hanging Leaders,” off Nests Of Wave And Wire.

2010 Rock Make Street Festival Preview Mix (Podcast #227)

This Sunday, August 22nd, we’re pleased to present the third installment in our annual free, all ages Rock Make Street Festival, taking place on Treat Avenue and 18th Street from 11am-6pm. As we’ve been saying over the past few weeks, this year’s Rock Make is bigger and better than ever, with 100 arts and crafts vendors selling their wares, three stages of music and entertainment, a ton of great local indie bands, and, for the adults, a beer garden serving up some tasty brews.

To get you prepared for Rock Make (and Thursday night’s Rock Make pre-party at the Academy of Sciences), we’re pleased to offer this collection of songs featuring eleven of the bands performing on Sunday. More information about the many aspects of Sunday’s Rock Make fest can be found at RockMake.com.

Subscribe to The Bay Bridged Podcast to get each week’s new episode downloaded free to iTunes!

Tracklisting:

Leopold and His Fiction – “Golden Friends”
Performing on the Harrison Stage at 5:30pm.

Tartufi – “Dot Dash”
Performing on the Medithrive Stage at 3pm.

Sunbeam Rd. – “Houseboat”
Performing on the Medithrive Stage at 1pm.

Sea of Bees – “Marmalade”
Performing on the Harrison Stage at 2:30pm.

Social Studies – “Time Bandit”
Performing on the Harrison Stage at 4:30pm.

AB & the Sea – “Bone Dry”
Performing on the Medithrive Stage at 4pm.

Butterfly Bones – “xoxo”
Performing on the Harrison Stage at 1:30pm.

Jhameel – “Hello Cash”
Performing on the Medithrive Stage at 2pm.

Billy and Dolly – “You Always Win”
Performing on the Harrison Stage at 12:30pm.

Blue Rabbit – “Sleep”
Performing on the Medithrive Stage at 12pm.

Still Flyin’ – “Runaway Train II”
Performing on the Harrison Stage at 3:30pm.

To win a pair of tickets to the show, be the first person to send an email to contest@thebaybridged.com with your full name and the phrase “I want to see Casiokids!” in the subject line.

The show starts at 9pm, $10, 21+. Purchase advance tickets here.

Wednesday, August 25th – Thriving Ivory, Ryan Star, Entice @ Great American Music Hall

To enter send an email to contest@thebaybridged.com with your full name and the phrase “I want to see Thriving Ivory!” in the subject line. The THIRD person to send an email will win a pair of tickets to the show.

The show starts at 8pm, $17. Purchase advance tickets here.

Geographer’s much-loved Animal Shapes has received the shiny new re-release treatment on Tricycle Records, this time with some fancy new remixes by The Limousines and Wallpaper..

Stream: Geographer – “Kites” (Limousines remix)
Stream: Geographer – “Paris” (Wallpaper. remix)

Geographer – “Kites”

This re-release, complete with remixes, is available as of today via iTunes and the Tricycle Records website. The EP can also be picked up at Amoeba Berkeley, where Geographer will be playing a free set tonight, August 17th at 6:00 pm.

Wednesday August 18
Wavves, Young Prisms @ Rickshaw Stop
The Fresh & Onlys, Honey, Blasted Canyons @ The Knockout
Woven Bones, The Sandwitches, The Splinters @ Bottom of the Hill

Thursday, August 19
Darker My Love, Sonny & the Sunsets @ The Independent
Total Trash Fest: Hunx & His Punx, Shannon & the Clams, Okmoniks, Thee Goochi Boiz, Miss Chain and the Broken Heels @ Thee Parkside
Ida, Michael Hurley, Westwood & Willow @ Bottom of the Hill
The Lickets, Tied to the Branches, Odd Owl @ Hemlock

Friday, August 20
Bats in the Belfry, Glass Cake, Natalie Alyse, Batmen, Tiny Knives @ Mama Buzz Cafe
Persephone’s Bees, The Soft White Sixties, Angel Island, DJ Omar @ Cafe du Nord
Total Trash Fest: Gentleman Jesse and His Men, Personal & the Pizzas, Barreracudas, The Wrong Words, Meercaz @ Thee Parkside

Saturday, August 21
Slang Chickens, Man/Miracle, Yellow Dress @ Hemlock Tavern

Sunday, August 22
Rock Make Street Festival with Tartufi, AB & the Sea, Social Studies, Butterfly Bones and more
The Horde and the Harem, The Aimless Never Miss, The Buttercream Gang, And I Was Like, What? @ Rickshaw Stop

Ash Reiter – “La Bahia (from Daytrotter Session)”
Honey – “Tree’s Sun”
The Splinters – “Blood On My Hands”
The Wrong Words – “What Went Wrong”
Man/Miracle – “Hot Sprawl”
Sonny & the Sunsets – “Day in the Life of a Heel”
Michael Hurley – “Porland Water”

Magic Bullets – “Lying Around”

Still Flyin – “Runaway Train II”

Amy Woloszyn (aka amymade), is a NYC transplant, now San Francisco based artist and founder of amymade graphic design. She has crafted a graphic design business around what really motivates her, working with community organizations and individuals striving for social change, and musicians.

After graduating from Pratt in Brooklyn, NY with a degree in Communications Design, and living on the east coast all her life, she has found new inspiration in the landscapes and personalities of the west coast. A lifelong music and craft lover, when she’s not behind the computer, you’ll find her pasting glittery things together, painting, concocting a beat or ripping up a dancefloor.

Head to amymade.com to contact her and see more of her work!

Daniels was in the latest issue of Decibel Magazine, in a feature about San Francisco bars and venues. This blog took the liberty of scanning the article in a post remembering Daniels. A PayPal account has been set up to take donations for his services, linked to the address ripMakhDaniels@gmail.com.

Local outfit Floating Goat is bobbing up and down in the metal ocean, somewhere in the vicinity of its tenth anniversary. Usually a fixture of San Francisco’s sweat-stained stages, their raucous jams and distinctive, steer-horned drumset have been absent lately, but with good reason – time not spent onstage has been spent in dark lairs around the Bay, crafting Spawn of Poseidon/Suburban Anxiety, an ambitious new double LP.

The ten-year milestone can be a dubious distinction, especially when a long shelf-life leads to frustration or musical calcification. For Floating Goat, the opposite is true: the songs on the new album represent strides forward in technique, songwriting, and furor, all of which abet the album’s epic scope.

As its title suggests, Spawn of Poseidon falls more fully in the headbanger wheelhouse, hinging on references to metaphysical spooks and an arsenal of snarling, pissed-off riffs. Opener “Get Out of the Way” features vocals that veer surprisingly close to strident hardcore for a band with such well-established stoner rock pedigrees. This iconoclastic ability to blend subgenres in the name of speed surfaces throughout the record.

Next up is the title track, whose thundering tribal toms evoke the ocean god’s tidal fury with traditionalist aplomb, before revving up into a screaming solo. Ominous, vaguely Middle Eastern melodies kick off “Smoke Rising” before giving way into a classic fuzzy shuffle groove. Guitarist Chris Corona’s playing, honed no doubt by a busy schedule (he is also a member of Orb of Confusion and Hazzard’s Cure, among other local projects) sounds better than ever. While he can be justifiably proud of his leadwork, the way he settles into the churning triplets on “Smoke Rising” is particularly satisfying.

Floating Goat – “Spawn of Poseidon”

The rhythm section, comprised of bassist Ian Petitpren and drummer Aaron Barrett, showcase their metal mettle on “The Great Wasteland,” the album’s fourth track. Petitpren’s playing is deep, rumbling, impeccable, and inconspicuous in the way that the best bassists seem to master, and Barrett follows Coronas riffs, fills and trills expertly around the kit, occasionally taking the spotlight himself with a deft roll.

“Entropy Must Be Stopped” and “Caught in the Headlights” round out the first LP, the former beginning with chiming, sustained chords before erupting into uptempo battery. The latter starts with a meditative, almost Mastodon-like lead before embarking on a heavy-handed, mid-tempo groove.

Suburban Anxiety, the second album of the pair, is by far the more formally experimental, consisting of two one-track, multi-part opi. Though the double-LP’s first six tracks deliver a hefty helping of the band doing what they already do well, the second album features more inventive, risky songwriting.

Side One track “The Doldrums/Suburban Anxiety/A New Paradise/The Beast” starts with an eerie, Pink Floyd-style lead which fades away ethereally, replaced by a menacing, methodical riff. After about a minute, the band pauses to make room for Corona’s haranguing vocals, with the line “there must be life beyond this hell/robot or slave/cog in a wheel/it’s always the same day,” encapsulating the themes of anger and alienation that drive the second platter. Eventually, the frustration culminates in an explosion of angry thrash.

“A New Paradise” is built around a driving, 6/8 pattern, which underscores a soaring guitar solo before the low-end chords of “The Beast” re-establish the despondent mood. By the track’s tenth minute, the river has overflowed its banks, and the song ends in an avalanche of toms and shredding.

Side Two begins similarly to its partner, with a pensive, acoustic intro accompanied by swelling ride cymbal rolls and a powerful vocal melody. Barrett builds the drums up march-style on the snare, before settling into a groove in preparation for the monster chords that make up the chorus. “The Year of Drought” dabbles in balladry before a meticulous build-up introduces an epic, downbeat-driven main course, which gathers ten-ton momentum before returning to the intro’s somber sonics, which benefit from Petitpren’s captivating, cello-like bass tone. “The Flood” sounds very much like its title suggests, washing inexorably over the listener with increasing intensity until submersion finally results, in the form of a climactic bit of unison riffing. As this fades, the album closes with melancholy guitar, heard as if from underwater.

Floating Goat’s entire double album spectacular will be available for download soon, and for purchase in hard copy slightly later. Both of these developments will likely be accompanied by live appearances. Check back in this space – and at The Bay Bridged generally – for information as it becomes available, including a more detailed description of the local recording and mastering engineers that worked behind the scenes to bring Spawn of Poseidon/Suburban Anxiety into being.

It takes a certain brand of chutzpah for a band to tack 11 minutes of spaced-out krautrock onto the end of a 2-minute garage-pop song, and then make that whole 13-minute epic the first track on an album that barely clocks in at half an hour. The conventional wisdom of track ordering says that you front-load a record with your most accessible pop ditties and put your extended psychedelic jams in the back – give people an enticing piece of candy at the beginning in the hope they stick around for the LSD-laced meat you have planned for them later. To convincingly pull it off, it takes a band with a devoted fan base willing to follow them through all of their long-form experimentation – thereby earning the buy-the-ticket-take-the-ride mentality that starting an album off like this implies. Or, it takes a band that simply does not give a shit about their audience’s expectations. In the case of the title track from Warm Slime, the newest full-length by San Francisco garage-rock pioneers Thee Oh Sees, it’s probably a bit of both. In either case, it helps that the whole thing kicks a veritable mountain of ass.

Thee Oh Sees – “Warm Slime”

John Dwyer, the band’s front man and principal songwriter, went into recording Warm Slime with the stated goal of recreating the band’s raucous live performances as faithfully as possible. Live, the band is a howling vortex of lo-fi energy that leaves crowds sweaty and spent in its wake. Their recent string of free, Bay Bridged-sponsored, live shows at Serra Bowl in Daly City have been evening-length masters classes in audience destruction.

To capture the electric, anything-can-happen vibe the band projects when they perform, Thee Oh Sees recorded Warm Slime as if they were performing the songs live – tracking the whole thing on an old Tascam 388 eight-track tape machine in one short day of recording with zero overdubs. If they couldn’t perform something live, it didn’t go on the record. The result is seven songs that blend noisy sonic chaos and infectious pop hooks so deftly that any attempt to discern where the former ends and the latter begins is instantly rendered moot.

“I used to work by Club Six,” Dwyer says, “it’s a hip-hop/reggae bar at 6th and Market – a big, airy room with a nice wooden stage, hardwood floors and really high ceilings. I gave them $500 to record in the room for 12 hours.” The bar owners were initially a little reticent and asked if Dwyer and his crew were going to use their unfettered bar access to drink all the booze on the premises. “Well, I’m going to fucking try,” Dwyer joked.

Staying in their hometown to record was a change of pace from their normal routine. The band’s previous few albums saw them recording at John Baccigaluppi’s Hanger Studios. Baccigaluppi, who is also the publisher of the influential recording nerd magazine Tape Op, houses his studio in a relatively isolated industrial section of Sacramento. Other than walking to a Chinese restaurant about a mile away, there’s nothing to do except record music. Usually, the band likes this because it allows them to get away from real life and completely disappear into their music for a few days. But, with this album, they didn’t want to disappear. To accurately represent what they do live, they had to be fully engaged in their normal lives – as drunk and distracted as they are when they play shows. “Club Six was great because I could walk out the door and buy crack or a taco,” Dwyer says with a laugh, “but there are so many distractions, which is why we only spent one day there. There’s no way we could have spent a week at 6th and Market. I love it over there and I worked that area for ages, but it’s such a nightmare – police sirens and shit, but in Sacramento it’s just crickets.”

It would be natural to think that someone as famously prolific as Dwyer wouldn’t edit himself very much. In reality, for every song that successfully makes it from his head to an Oh Sees record, there’s a handful that get tossed out and, if the band hadn’t been proactive in adapting the rough song sketch he initially brought in, Dwyer admits that “Warm Slime” would have likely ended up in the circular file.

You can trace the evolution of the song from Dwyer’s original, home-recorded demo:

Thee Oh Sees – Warm Slime (John Dwyer Solo Demo)

To an early full-band recording:

Thee Oh Sees – “Warm Slime (Early Full Band Demo)”

One of the key differences between the early version of the song and the one that made it on the finished album is the transition into the jam. In the final version, the band stumbles into it in a way that recalls early Pavement, whereas in the demo, the transition is much more liquid. While Thee Oh Sees count Stockton’s finest as an admittedly strong influence (they’re even opening for Pavement at an open air show in Central Park this September), the quirky, halting transition is a result of drummer Mike Shoun accidentally coming in a beat late during the moment when the entire song turns around. Shoun catches it like a pro and makes it work almost instantly. The elegance of the catch is impressive because the band waited until the very end of the session to record the song and, by that point, everyone was pretty cooked. However, they only recorded two takes and, despite the slip up, the one that made it onto the final product had a much more ferocious energy – Malkmus would likely approve.

Dwyer says that the band has, “been getting more and more into jamming live – bringing stuff in and then seeing what happens naturally. The beginning part came together pretty quick but the whole segue into that 8-10-13-minute part was essentially from us fucking around with the general idea I came in with, which was to write a song similar to Can’s ‘Yoo Doo Right’. ‘You Doo Right’ is this 20-minute song from Can’s first album that blew my mind when I was a kid. It starts with a riff and breaks it down to almost nothing until it’s just the beat and the singer. I wanted to take apart the riff and have everything build around that – from the vocal and melodic changes to the solos.”

“Warm Slime” doesn’t immediately sound a whole lot like “You Doo Right” on first listen, but both the jam on “Warm Slime” and the seminal krautrock band’s song are anchored by repetitive rhythmic grooves. The heart of “Warm Slime” is bassist Petey Dammit’s driving, one-note bass line. One of krautrock’s key innovations was taking the tenants of classical minimalism, the work of guys like Terry Riley and La Monte Young, and applying it to rock music. They discovered that you could put any amount of craziness on top of a simple, rock-solid groove and everything still holds together like clockwork.

It’s a good thing too because the guitar solo that Dwyer dips his 12-string Burns guitar, a gift from his friend, TV On Radio guitarist Dave Sitek, into on the second half of the song is pretty much the definition of craziness. “I call it the anti-solo,” he says. “I hated solos when I was a kid, unless it was someone like Iron Maiden shredding up the neck like a phoenix rising from the ashes. I like solos that are more percussive than tonally based. Going with the beat you can get away with doing anything. I call it the Brady Chord because, if you ever watch an episode of The Brady Bunch where they do a band thing, you look at their hands and they clearly have no idea what they’re doing. They’re playing guitars with their elbows. Play a Brady Chord and you can do whatever the fuck you want.”

Dwyer’s primal guitar technique is largely due to his being self-taught. He took two guitar lessons when he was a teenager where he learned how to string the guitar, tune it and play AC/DC’s “Back in Black”. “After that,” he says, “I told my teacher I was done and never came back.” It taught him some major chords, some minor chords and, “in a way, every song I’ve written since then has been a variation on that one.”

The waves of guitar squall can seem crushing and oppressive, especially coming after the part of the song where the band deconstructs the groove down to its most base elements. There’s an intentional thematic component to all of this because the song is ostensibly about the distinctly crummy feeling you get by being too hung over to go outside on a gorgeous, sunny day – how certain circumstances can turn a nice, warm afternoon slimy and full of regret.

Dwyer recounts a recent tour through a hot and muggy New York City. “Playing that song there finally made sense. It really is a summertime song and when we played it it finally felt slimy. Every show we played was like 130 degrees inside of a tiny room. That right there is what we’re singing about. Sometimes stuff will retroactively make sense like that.”

This song, their first wholehearted embrace of krautrock, is a pivotal turning point for the band – one that may well see them graduating from the garage-rock world into becoming a (capital “I”) Important band. At a recent show at the Independent, they debuted a bunch of new (as of yet unreleased) material. It’s much more in the vein of the second half of “Warm Slime” than it is like anything they’ve done previously. Bass lines repeat into infinity as guitars drift in a mist of hazy dissonance. Instead of recalling the band’s expected touchstones, like The Cramps or The 13th Floor Elevators, the new songs sound, more than anything else, like post-OK Computer Radiohead, Atoms for Peace, or the New York/Berlin art-punks, Liars.

It’s not that Dwyer has suddenly affected Yorke’s soaring falsetto; instead, with the new songs it’s impossible to miss that the band has fundamentally shifted the way it thinks about its compositions to become more in line with Radiohead and Co. Most band write songs from left to right, assembling each individual section (verse, chorus, etc.) and then transitioning to the next. What Thee Oh Sees have begun to do is to build each song from the bottom up – thinking about the song as a whole and what each instrument is doing throughout the entire composition. It’s less about intentionally subverting the traditional verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chours-outro pop song structure than it is about being unconcerned with it entirely. Even if if they don’t seem to do so lyrically, songs written from left to right tell a story as they progress from beginning to end. Songs written from the bottom up create a world, put different elements into it and then let those elements interact. Done clumsily and it sounds like aimless jamming; done well it verges on the transcendent.

Maybe that’s why the band not only selected “Warm Slime” as the first track on the album but named the entire record after it. They wanted their listeners to know this is the direction they’re going. Bury it in the back and people could ignore it or dismiss it as a mere self-indulgence. Putting a weird, difficult and ultimately rewarding song like this up front is like erecting a signpost pointing toward the weird, difficult and ultimately rewarding direction Thee Oh Sees are taking anyone brave enough to follow them.

The Fresh & Onlys have announced the official release of their third record, entitled Play it Strange. The album comes out on October 12th via In the Red.

The Fresh & Onlys – “Second One to Know” [from "Second One to Know" 7" release]

To support the new album, the Fresh & Onlys have lined up a fall tour, mostly supporting Clinic. However, the band’s two local shows will be supporting Vetiver and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: at the Independent on 9/05/10 (8:00 pm, $15) and at Moe’s Alley in Santa Cruz on 9/28/10 (8:30 pm, $15), respectively.

All tour dates and Play it Strange track list after the jump:

The Fresh & Onlys fall tour:

09/05 San Francisco, CA – The Independent !
09/28 Santa Cruz, CA – Moes Alley @
11/05 Washington, DC – Rock n Roll Hotel $
11/06 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brendas $
11/08 Boston, MA – Paradise $
11/09 Montreal, QC – La Sala Rossa $
11/10 Toronto, ON – Lees Place $
11/11 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall $
11/12 Minneapolis, MN – 7th St. Entry $
11/15 Seattle, WA – Neumos $
11/16 Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret $
11/17 Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge $
11/19 San Francisco, CA – The Independent $
11/20 Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour $

$ = w/ Clinic
! = w/ Vetiver
@ = w/ Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

The Fresh & Onlys
Play It Strange
(In The Red)
Street Date: Oct. 12, 2010

Summer Of Love
Waterfall
Until The End Of Time
Tropical Island Suite
All Shook Up
Be My Hooker
Fascinated
Plague Of Frogs
Who Needs A Man
Red Light Green Light
I’m A Thief