Stern Grove has free concerts every Sunday every summer. This is the 70th year! All concerts start at 2pm. June 17 Huey Lewis & the News, The Paul Thorn Band June 24 The Idan Raichel Project, Hyim & the Fat Oakland Orchestra July 1 Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers July 8 San Francisco Symphony, James Gaffigan, Conductor July 15 Os Mutantes, Los Amigos Invisibles July 22 Breathing Under Water, featuring Anoushka Shankar & Karsh Kale; Non-Stop Bhangra Collective July 29 Andy Palacio [...]
Beatbeat Whisper ( myspace ) came down and did a set of their signature reminiscent-of-traditional-fol k-not-quite-like-the-60s-"folk " folk music on my radio show yesterday . Here's their set list : Old River the Whistler Cowboy Song Up the Long Tracks Lulu Don't Let it Pass You By That was going to be the end of their set, but, by demand, they came in for one more song: Door to Door They were really [...]
Song obsessions are those songs that we listen to on repeat. I noticed that my obsessions are often a week long. I also thought that other people might have similar obsessions. I've collected a panel of a few like-minded individuals and gotten their "song obsessions of the week." Maybe you'll become obsessed with one of these. - Adrian ( me ): The Morning Benders - Boarded Doors (mp3) ( buy ) These guys played this during their set on KZSU earlier this week [...]
As reported on Fionn Regan's homepage, my favorite artist of 2006 (and one of the first things I blogged about here once I started this blog) has signed to Lost Highway , home to, among others, Johnny Cash for his last decade. They will be giving The End of history a US release on July 10. Seriously: get ready to buy this album. A double bonus[1] that was announced yesterday is that he'll be playing the Cafe du Nord (one of america's [...]
On Sale Soon is a weekly series of the tickets going on sale that weekend. Where to get tickets: The Independent , Great American Music Hall , Slim's , Fillmore, Warfield, and other Livenation venues . I think I'm most excited about Oh No oh My!, Bishop Allen and Kings of Leon. On sale Friday, June 8 : 7/6 New Edition with K-Ci & JoJo @ Paramount Theatre 8/23 Slayer, Marilyn Manson with Bleeding Through @ Sleep Train Pavilion [pre-sale] On [...]
Last night I saw Laura Veirs ( myspace ) at the Cafe du Nord (which Paste recently named one of the top 40 clubs in America). Lake was the first band up after I got there. They are a double boy, double girl musical-chairs sort of band. They played some nice subdued indie pop with both male and female lead vocals. (I liked the male lead better; my friend Dave liked the female lead songs better.) It was a surprisingly nice set and I picked up their self-titled [...]
P4k Fest is having a Behind the Scenes contest in which writers, photographers and graphic designers can win themselves a trip to the Pitchfork Fest along with some cash and exclusive access. I've entered these Andrew Bird photos .
Just a reminder : I'll be hosting two great bands tonight, starting at 9pm on KZSU (90.1 FM bay area or listen online ): great local indie pop at 9pm PST: the Morning Benders ( myspace ) great local indie folk at 10:30pm PST: Beatbeat Whisper ( myspace )
I found the the Ian Fays from the latest podcase from the Bay Bridged and have been enjoying their music. The Ian Fays are twin girls plus another girl and another guy. They started recording largely on four tracks when they went to college but they'd been bands before that. (People still use four tracks?). They have breathy, close vocals over acoustic guitars, piano and casio-keyboard drums and other synths. The twin part leads to some harmonies that sound like two of the same person (which is easy enough to do by anyone on a recording [...]
The other day I was talking to a fellow DJ who was telling me about seeing a band in her neighbor's kitchen. I told her I bet she wants that band to blow up big because then she could say "Yeah, you know, I saw those guys when they played in my neighbor's kitchen." Is there something wrong with me that that was what I thought of immediately? But what's the best "[big indie band] in [ridiculous venue]" story? The Human Giant guys in their Other Music video thought that "Devendra Banhart [...]
Four odd trends in indie rock: the preponderance of "Wolf" band names. e.g. Wolf Eyes, Sea Wolf, Wolfmother, etc. self-referencing fake encores. e.g. John Roderick of the Long Winters "Just pretend that we left the stage and came back and now this is the encore." Ben Gibbard, after his 'last' song, "I'll see you guys in six minutes." unironic (or, heck, ironic) use of disco drum beats everyone suddenly sounding like Bruce Springsteen (or, at the very least, every critic thinking everyone sounds like Bruce Springsteen)
Including "Bad Day", "My Hump" and "Golddigger."
I saw the Arcade Fire at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley on Saturday Night. I'd never been to the Greek Theatre before. It's styled after, obviously, the ancient bowl-shaped Greek theaters built into the side of a hill. It built out of concrete, with step-tiers up the inside of the bowl. In the end, it's doesn't have the acoustics of actual Greek amphitheaters or the presence of Roman ones . It was a chilly night in Berkeley as we made our way to some seat-tiers a little off [...]
ipickmynose
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
