
Man/Miracle - "Hot Sprawl" Man/Miracle played a great set the other night at the Rickshaw Stop, and their debut full length The Shape of Things is an infectious collection of nervy songs recommended especially for fans of Talking Heads, The Feelies, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. This Saturday (8pm, $5), the band celebrates the new CD's release at Oakland's LoBot Gallery , with Golden Gram and Quinn. Non-Bay Areans: their MySpace page announces plans to tour in the first few [...]

Tempo No Tempo - "Kilometer" With opening sets by Man/Miracle and Maus Haus , and Tempo No Tempo closing out the night, the Rickshaw Stop presented an excellent cross-section of the Bay Area's envelope-pushing indie rock scene last Thursday night. Man/Miracle are running on the recent release of their first full length, The Shape of Things . The album seems to be a [...]
. . . Port O'Brien , Geographer , Grand Lake . . . All this makes for a ridiculous amount of local talent within just one day's time. Let us count the ways: 1) TONIGHT, Thursday, November 5th: Tempo No Tempo , Man/Miracle , Maus Haus at the Rickshaw Stop . 8:00 p.m., $10. 2) TONIGHT, Thursday, November 5th: Grand Lake , the Happy Hollows [...]

Our latest Monthly Mix episode of the weekly podcast includes music from eight great Bay Area bands - some submissions we've received at TBB headquarters, some stuff we've posted on the web site recently, all really good stuff. 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: Birds & Batteries ("The Villain") reveal a funky electronics-dominated side on [...]

You may remember Oakland's Man/Miracle . We covered them on Local Pairings all the way back in July when we reviewed their awesome 7" single for "Pushing and Shoving." At the time, we had noted that they were hard at work on their full length debut, which is now scheduled to be released on November 1 of this year. In reviewing the single, we predicted that these guys had at least a couple of excellent albums in them. With their full length debut, Man/Miracle has proven that prediction to be true: it is [...]

Man/Miracle - "Hot Sprawl" (from The Shape of Things ) Frenetic indie rockers Man/Miracle ready their debut full length The Shape of Things , which comes out on November 1st. They've been working on the album for a year, recording with Eli Crews at New, Improved Recording and at a number of other locations around the Bay and in the band's birthplace of Santa Cruz. "Hot Sprawl" sounds great, and I'm excited to check out the rest of this CD. Man/Miracle's official CD [...]

THE RUMBLE: SAN FRANCISCO TURNS 2 YEARS OLD TONIGHT? Two years???? WTF? How did it happen? The little party meant to bring together the Bay area indie rock community lasted two years? It started as an indie dance party, then added one band each party, then up to two acts performing, and the future looks like three bands + DJ's. [...]

We're on the air now - stream us here Future Sounds #41 – 10/05/2009 Geographer – Kites – Kites 7” – Tricycle Records Deluka – Cascade – Mattie Full On Remix – Unsigned The Love Language – Lalita – The Love Language – Bladen County Records [...]

The West Coast Rumble parties for October are set, and FITZ & THE TANTRUMS will be making the now 6 city run from Seattle to Las Vegas. That's right, Vegas opens on October 11th with our new partners NEON REVERB at THE ARUBA . Each cities line-up is hand picked and unique. October also represents our 2 year anniversary at HARLOT in San Francisco, so Fitz will be playing with upstarts MAN/MIRACLE and [...]

Man/Miracle are a four piece band (Ian, Dylan, Brian and Tyler) from Oakland, California (originally formed at UC Santa Cruz). Their name, Man/Miracle, is a reference to a 1960's film starring Belgian singer/songwriter Jacques Brel, who reached superstar level in Paris and Belgium as a musician, actor and director. While Man/Miracle have a way to go before they reach superstar level, they are definitely a band to watch. Based on the tracks I've heard, I'd bet they have at least a couple great albums in them. They have been hard at work on material for a [...]

We can't really tell you many specifics of how, but suffice it to say that when we got wind of this show, we were more than a little excited to hear of such a massive Oak-town love fest. Granted, with Noise Pop in effect, there's a fair dose going on in the city, so you may find yourself otherwise occupied. That being said, if you do find yourself in the East Bay tonight, or if the other available acts just aren't suiting your fancy, then this might be just your ticket. Tonight at 42nd and Market [...]
The past two nights of Noise Pop have been great with excellent performances from Deerhunter ( photos/review ), Antony and the Johnsons , Stephen Malkmus , Mountain Goats , French Kicks and many more. Tonight brings even more amazing shows, with performances by Stranger Dance favorites like Josh Ritter , Thao Nguyen , A.A. Bondy and a host of great local bands including Thee Oh Sees , Scissors for Lefty and Man/Miracle (many of which were featured on our recent Best [...]

This week is San Francisco's annual Noise Pop festival. All week we will be previewing Noise Pop shows that may have slipped past you. MP3 - " Pushing and Shoving " - Man/Miracle One of my favorite aspects of Noise Pop - if not my favorite aspect - are the free early shows and happy hours happening daily. Each weekday the festival will be hosting a happy hour at Bender's, each stocked with loads of local talent. Oakland's Man/Miracle will be [...]

Emusic is offering a new free compilation entitled Selected + Collected: An eMusic Selects Compilation that features Rademacher , Man/Miracle , Girls , The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and more.

Grand Lake [ Source ] I got a solid helping of local indie rock last week, checking out Geographer at Rickshaw Stop on Thursday, and then Grand Lake and Man/Miracle at the Uptown the following night. Geographer were opening up for Birds and Batteries and the Heavenly States at The Bay Bridged 's third anniversary celebration. I've raved about Geographer before, given that they released my favorite local album of 2008 , and I have seen them play a pair of N&UR-sponsored [...]

The Uptown in Oakland continues its great series of free "First Friday" shows with another excellent and eclectic bill that features a pair of our local favorites - Grand Lake and Man/Miracle , as well as No's from Oakland and Whispertown 2000 from LA. I have really been liking what I've heard from Grand Lake - who are lead by former Port O'Brien bassist Caleb Nichols and sound a bit like a less epic Arcade Fire. I have seen Man/Miracle once before and the band delivers a fun, energetic set. [...]

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 [...]