The Bay Bridged – San Francisco Bay Area Indie Music

This Week in SF: Picks and a Mix for 5/20-5/26/13

First City Festival: Modest Mouse, Passion Pit, Beach House lead 30+ bands performing at new summer fest in Monterey

Ticket Giveaway Thursday: Sea Wolf, Savoir Adore @ Great American, 5/21/13

Celebrate the Phono del Sol lineup with us at the ‘MishiPot’ Microhood this Thursday, 5/16/13!

Stitchcraft + Record Release = Hotel Utah Tonight

May 11, 2009 by Michael Pistorio · 1 Comment »
Filed Under Mp3, News

stitchcraft

Can I call Stitchcraft harmonius?

Yes. I think I will.

Dakota.mp3
Stitchcraft – “Dakota” (from Through The Hoolaboo)

Former Floridians, Heather Normandale (vocals and guitar/mandolin) and Anna Perlmutter (vocals and violin) make a fine duo of tone and texture. On their sophomore album, Through The Hoolaboo, the two have brought on Ezra Lipp (drums), adding another layer to fill out their “dense soundscape,” as Perlmutter describes the group.

Expect to dance and sway tonight as the group works through a 40 minute set to immediately follow Hotel Utah‘s famous open mic. Tonight’s release show will be for the Hotel Utah community, a group of musicians that has been key over the years for the band, says Perlmutter. On June 7th, the official release party will be at Amnesia.

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Stitchcraft – “Forest of Why” (from Through The Hoolaboo)

Open mic starts at 7:30pm with Stitchcraft following at 10pm. FREE.

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Cryptacize, Battlehooch open for Ponytail tomorrow @ BotH

May 11, 2009 by Nicole L. Browner · Leave a Comment »
Filed Under Mp3, News

Weekends sometimes don’t pan out to what they should be, which is why your Tuesday is looking so much better than the past few days combined: Cryptacize and Battlehooch are playing with Baltimore’s fun-core Ponytail at Bottom of the Hill (9pm, $10). As if no two better bands could exist in the Bay Area to open than Battlehooch and Cryptacize, which meet both the art rock and spontaneity criteria of a Ponytail-deserved performance.

We’ll have a featured podcast for you with Cryptacize tomorrow — but in the meantime, check out the headlining band Ponytail. Their “8.4″ Pitchfork-rated Ice Cream Spiritual came out last year on We*Are*Free records (also released Yeasayer’s All Hour Cymbals).

yummypigtails.mp3
Ponytail – Celebrate the Body Electric (It Came From an Angel)

They’re part of the Baltimore suit some know via the Wham City Collective (Dan Deacon), and others know as the meeting place of Animal Collective. Regardless, there’s a boastful crew that call the state of Maryland home, and an interesting little biopic done by Papermag about it.

Photons – Glory!

May 11, 2009 by Ben Van Houten · Leave a Comment »
Filed Under Mp3, News

The Photons
03_where_were_you_last_night.mp3
Photons – “Where Were You Last Night” (from the Glory! EP)

San Francisco indie-poppers Photons are back with a new EP titled Glory! The eight-member band’s 2008 self-titled release was a very promising debut, and the above track both makes the most of the group’s size and bodes quite well for the new release. Glory! is available exclusively from Insound, with a digital release to follow in June. The band’s got an EP release show is Thursday, May 14th at the Hemlock Tavern. Wax Fingers and Spencey Dude and the Doodles also perform. 9pm, $6.

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The Photons – “This Must Be Love” (from the Photons EP)

Over at their web site, the Photons gang has an ongoing Song Club, in which members of the band are writing a song a week around a chosen topic or theme. They’re inviting outside participation, too, and you can check out past entries and the current theme at their site.

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Thursday: Greil Marcus on “Music and the American Self”

May 11, 2009 by Ben Van Houten · Leave a Comment »
Filed Under News

San Francisco native Greil Marcus is one of rock music’s most celebrated critics — with works including Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music and In the Fascist Bathroom: Punk in Pop Music, 1977-1992 — and an opportunity to see him speak is well worth seizing. Marcus will be at the Contemporary Jewish Museum on Thursday, May 14, at 7pm for a gallery talk about “Music and the American Self,” discussing what “American music” is and the connection between American music and identity.

Joining him in conversation will be Josh Kun, co-author of And You Shall Know Us By the Trail of Our Vinyl, which examines the history of Jewish recorded music from the 1940s to the 1980s through a collection of LPs from the period. The book served as the basis for the Museum’s current “Jews on Vinyl” exhibition.

The talk is only $5 and free for members and youth 18 and under.

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Still Flyin’ Releases Never Gonna Touch the Ground

May 8, 2009 by John Shea · Leave a Comment »
Filed Under Feature Article, Interview, Mp3, News

What ever happened to fun? Why does it seem like everyone is so caught up trying to say something lately that they forget to have a good time?Â Don’t you ever want to just let your hair down and dance like no one’s watching?

Still Flyin’ is all about the good times. More than that, Still Flyin’ is a band that makes you jealous that you’re not in it. I dare you not to smile while you watch 15 people up on stage all dancing and rocking out while being led through songs about being dead, being drunk, hanging out, and hammjammin’ (yes, the M’s are necessary) — all in the same song!Â You’ll get no ballads here, folks.. just straight up party jams, and in these times of economic stress and swine flu and general Armageddon, isn’t that just what the doctor ordered?

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Still Flyin’ – “Good Thing It’s a Ghost Town Around Here”

Guitars, basses, drums, saxes, trumpets, vibraphones, organs…. the list goes on. The amount of sound coming off the stage alone is sure get the crowd at Cafe Du Nord movin’ this Saturday, where Still Flyin’ will be celebrating the release of their debut album Never Gonna Touch the Ground (Ernest Jenning/Antenna Farm), and prepping for a West Coast tour opening for Love is All. After that, it’s straight to Europe to jamm the pants off some other countries’ asses.

I recently caught up with band leader Sean Rawls to exchange a few words about Still Flyin’:

The Bay Bridged: How did the band get so huge?

Sean Rawls: The original vision was more to form a hang-out squadron rather than a band. I want people just hanging out on stage, jamming brews. I asked everyone I knew to join, even people that had never played music before. To my surprise everyone said “yes.” [More...]

Sleepy Sun tours Europe, plays CA record release shows

May 8, 2009 by Nicole L. Browner · Leave a Comment »
Filed Under Mp3, News

Sleepy Sun

sleepy-sun-new-age.mp3
Sleepy Sun – “New Age”

The whimsical mountain dwellers Sleepy Sun have announced all kinds of fun things for May and June. All this month they’ll be doing a European tour, including the ATP Festival in the UK (with Spiritualized, Devo, Jesus Lizard), then head back to the states for two record release shows, in the south and north, respectively:

June 17 @ Eagle Rock Community Center in Los Angeles

June 19 @ Great American Music Hall with Spindrift and Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound

But wait, there’s more: Sleepy Sun’s Daytrotter session premieres on May 15 (that’s next Friday!), so keep your bookmark ready. It’s a sure bet that songs off their newest Embrace will be part of that session.

See their full tour schedule below: [More...]

Loquat Giveaway Responses – What pie do you like?

May 8, 2009 by Christian Cunningham · Leave a Comment »
Filed Under News

Loquats
Last week we ran our first of two Loquat features and giveaways (next one published next Friday!) for their month long residency at Cafe du Nord which began last night. For that giveaway we asked our loyal readers to answer the following question:

What is the best fruit to be made into a pie? Support your answer with up to 500 words. (Please don’t waste your time with 500 words. After all, these are drawn at random. Particularly ridiculous answers, however, may end up on our Twitter.)

Now even though we draw the winners at random, we enjoy asking questions because sometimes the answers are funny – even hilarious – and make our day jobs go by faster. And this contest did not disappoint. There were so many good responses that I’ve decided to create an entire post full of some of the best answers we received.

So what do our readers think is the best fruit made into a pie?

It’s not an easy question to answer. Are you asking, “which fruit pie do I like best?” or are you asking “which fruit is the best to make pie with?” The first question assumes I am eater and the second assumes that I am baker. I have not tried all fruits so, I kinda’ feel parochial and small-towny when I think that I only know a handful of fruit pies – like apple and blueberry. And I have no idea how to bake…if I answered apple, and apple pie baking as it turns out requires huge amounts of resources and that many people needlessly risk their lives during the process, well, that would make me look foolish, now wouldn’t it? So I am going to say rhubarb. Just because. - Steve R.

Sweet Potato, because you can slip shitloads of bourbon in there and feed it to your mother. Oh wait. That’s a vegetable. DAMN! Then I’ll say Loquat, because they’re sooooooo fruity. - Hollination

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