
As a part of free First Fridays, The Uptown will be hosting some of Oakland's finest and a guest from LA. The line-up will be Grand Lake , Man/Miracle , Whispertown2000 and No's . If you haven't heard Grand Lake yet, it's about time to check them out. Fronted by Caleb Nichols, formerly of Port O'Brien , the band's songs are simple yet affecting. The Deli SF wrote, "At times rootsy and other times ethereal, the [...]
We decided to change things up for this month's mix. Instead of working around a theme ( Christmas , Harmony , etc.), we're highlighting some of the best artists from San Francisco and the greater Bay Area. After pouring through our local music collection, we came up with so much good music that we quickly realized that it'd be impossible to whittle the list down to a single mix, so we're making this a two-parter. This month's installment will feature some of the more toe-tap-worthy with next month's dedicated to songs with less than 80 BPM and/or [...]

The Hospitals write songs. This is important because if you manage to get a copy of their (sold out) new record, Hairdryer Peace , you might initially confuse this for an art-noise group, yet another collection of unwashed kids turning knobs on the floor and blowing out their eardrums. However, breaching the surface of oceans of compressed drums and thick guitar wash are perfect rock verses, disintegrating in front of you, as though deposited into the slit gastrointestinal tract of some horrible mass-culture monster and subjected to an unforgiving process of [...]

It's pretty amazing how many great releases came from Bay Area bands this year, and we were pleased to interview many of these groups on our podcast in 2008. This week's episode features music from twelve of this year's best as featured on our show during the past twelve months. If you like what you hear, check out our feature episodes spotlighting each of these bands. This will be our last podcast of the year, but we'll be continuing regular blogging right into 2009. Happy holidays! About [...]

The Mills Dance Collective are putting on a benefit fundraiser show this Tuesday at the Uptown Nightclub in Oakland. Proceeds will go towards the Mills College dance program and their scholarships, as well as the local music scene. Download audio file (sheaintgottime.mp3) Leopold and His Fiction - "She Ain't Got Time" Leopold and his Fiction , a trio from SF, will be livening up the dance benefit with the a [...]

Man/Miracle ( Feature Podcast ) headline a quality show tonight at the Hotel Utah . The band's been touring quite a bit lately, and their debut 73 single is good stuff on both the A and B sides. Take a listen to "Pushing and Shoving" below: Pushing And Shoving - Man/Miracle If you don't recognize some of the other names on the bill, you'll definitely know some of the projects with which they've [...]

I posted on these guys a while back , when Man/Miracle was known as Bear on Bear. While the name has changed, the talent certainly still remains. This Bay Area band crafts some damn fine jams, with the A-side single "Pushing and Shoving" for an upcoming release features some hand-clapping, sng-alonging, and break-neck pacing. I love how it teeters on destruction and desperation, but never seems to slip over the line. While already posted by more reputable sites, I thought I'd pass this along to the loyal Macktronic readers in case you missed [...]

This week on the show, synthesizers smashin' and rock with passion. New York's the Walkmen have just come out with their new album, You & Me . And the band is as colorful and poignant as ever in their music. We've also got some progressive synthesizer rock from O Soundtrack My Heart : the new album from the trio Pivot. We've also got new music from Peter Bjorn and John, Jesu, Man Miracle, and Zach Hill, so jump on these podcasts while they're still hot. The Needle Drop [...]
With a raucous intro that could be mistaken for a high school pre-game hype up (in a dream world where kids have spare tambourines, yes), Bay-area based Man/Miracle 's "Pushing and Shoving" is a bouncy venture into Spencer Krugonics. A song that had been the band's poppy underdog-- written by vocalist/guitarist Dylan Travis on the brink of legality-- is now the A-side of their new 7". Like Wolf Parade without the growl, and with a bit of Robert Smith in the [...]
That flu bug got to us pretty hard this week and therefore it's taking longer than expected to get back into the thick of things. You know you're out of it when you wake up with the earplugs you put in the night before. We did check out many of the residencies this week... Good to see Radar Bros. after many years. We Barbarians are bringing the buzz that they ended 2007 with to the SLL and late