Coachella’s line-up this year hearkens back to the past—not the old past, but my past, to the bands that were popular when I was in high school. To keep in the spirit of things, I’ve reviewed all of Friday’s bands as I might have done in Freshman English at Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa. Today’s format? Spenserian sonnets! Here's part I: COACHELLA DAY 3: POLO GREEN IS GOLD The Lord's Day started out in Satan's hands, Black gloved and, God knows, drenched in [...]
Fuzz (Photo: Jason Shane) In what should be remembered as one of highlights of this year's installment of Noise Pop , OBN IIIs and Fuzz – the latest brainchild of SF-wunderkind Ty Segall and old pal Charles Moothart – co-headlined a spectacular and unpredictable night at The Knockout last Thursday, filling the tiny venue (capacity: 132) with their respective modern-day hardcore furor and paint-peeling throwback psychedelic blues metal. Opening the evening was Sacramento/Davis/Oakland quartet G. Green [...]
The Hemlock seems an unlikely venue for Noise Pop. The oversized cutesy animated Noise Pop banner looked out of place behind the tiny stage in the dingy nethers of a club that prides itself on featuring "a bleeding-edge, non-mainstream mix of local, national and international bands...subgenres, scenes and microscenes." Like putting a Hello Kitty sticker on a murky bong. That said, it seemed like any ol' night at the Hemlock - a veritable mix of the too cool for school, too stoned for school, and TL party party people (some of which I wager to guess have never stepped foot [...]
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Equally passionate and effortless, Two Gallants rolled through a set of old favorites and new works the first night of their two-night stand at the Edinburgh Castle on Thursday. Wedged in between the short-lived freak folk ascendance (Devandra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, and various hairy trolls) and the reverb revival (Thee Oh Sees, Fresh and Onlys, and various recovering shoegazers), Tyler Vogel and Adam Stephens proved to be the quintessential SF house band for the past some-odd years. Built from adolescent busking, onetime national buzz, and some hairy tour tales, the two stir punk-adled emotion [...]
I probably don't even need to say how cool it was to see Mac McCaughan — leader of indie rock legends Superchunk and Portastatic , co-founder of Merge Records — in the intimate setting of the Swedish American Hall. McCaughan definitely played to the audience and the setting. He told us he was going to "try not to fuck it all up" before he got started, and was warm and friendly between songs, even taking some requests (though he did reply "Not gonna happen" when someone shouted [...]
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Finally, I've saved the best for last; day 3 of Lollapalooza 2011. Wow what a way to wrap up a great weekend with The Cool Kids, The Cars, Sam Adams, Nas & Damian Marley, and of course Deadmau5. I didn't have time to see Kid Cudi or The Foo Fighers perform that day, but still [...]
Well, it’s over! What an incredible weekend it’s been. Out of my four experiences with this wonderful festival, this year has certainly been one of the best, not just in terms of high quality acts, but of the entire festival itself. A more efficiently run festival combined with better security and competent staff resulted in less crowds and a much better atmosphere. Hit the jump for a recap of all the acts I saw yesterday MENOMENA (B) Being up so late last night, I [...]
Day 3: A song that makes you happy. Easy. Anything. And I mean ANYTHING by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros makes me immensely happy. And in honor of the Railroad Revival Tour that I get to go to thanks to an amazing friend of mine who helped me with the financial bit of getting me a seat on a plane, I give you "Janglin."
Tweet I always get a little nervous at the prospect of seeing a favorite artist play without the comfort of a backing band. On some level, I think, a solo performance is inherently a struggle, with one individual responsible for keeping the crowd entertained, or, at the least, preventing its attention from getting distracted elsewhere. I've seen more solo sets than I care to admit fade behind audience conversations and noise from the bar, or drag in uncomfortable between-song silences. Given the king's welcome [...]
Tweet Sometimes Noise Pop Festival lineups aren't necessarily about Noise Pop as an entity. In fact, my very first Noise Pop show was in 2007, and I wasn't even aware that the Noise Pop Festival had been going on for years - I just wanted to see Spinto Band. And I did. And it was fun. Day 3 of Noise Pop 2011 featured Film School, Apex Manor, Gregory and the Hawk, and Melted Toys at Cafe du Nord . Stylistically, you can [...]
Tweet Photos by: Agata Kamler I've seen the Ferocious Few more time than I care to count. I've seen them in parks, on street corners, at raucous outdoor festivals. I saw them play in the middle of a packed street during a joyous near-riot the night Obama was elected. I've seen them so regularly that I once recognized their guitarist on an airplane. This may be the only local band at their level I've seen often enough to pick out [...]
Two down, one more day to go. So with the ringing tinnitus killing my poor little ears, a hangover that only two long days of boozing can bring on, a sever lack of sleep impossible to hide from showing in my eyes and a voice that is fading to a kind Jack Palance husk, we head out for one last sunny day in Brighton. Another stack of excellent shows awaits and by the end of the day we will be worn, but high on the knowledge that this weekend will forever hang long in the memory. [...]
Blood Into Wine is an strange choice for the Noise Pop film festival - it's only tangentially about music. More precisely, it's a feature-length vanity project for veteran rock singer and novice winemaker Maynard James Keenan, who has delighted audiences since 1990 with his rock band Tool and hopes to do the same for oenophiles with his forthcoming line of Arizona-grown wines. Made by new-on-the-scene filmmakers Chris Pomerenke and Ryan Page, whose IMDB pages are as sparse as their Rolodexes clearly are not, the film was created without a definable narrative. To compensate for [...]
Photos by: Charlie Homo Everyone loves a homegrown success story. And whether you caught The Dodos ' Meric Long as a fledgling picker, shoegazing through bangs and armed with loop pedals and two microphones (one always bleeding reverb nearly at ear's might) at Hotel Utah, the Make-Out Room or a myriad of other intimate venues dotted around the Bay Area, it's now simply fodder for the nostalgic among us. For most of Thursday evening's grand production at the Palace of Fine Arts , Meric himself seemed in awe of just [...]
Photos by: Nicole Browner Tape Deck Mountain - "Scantrons" As I walked up Market Street to Cafe du Nord, I could hear these brooding tunes emanating from underground and couldn't help but think how perfectly the music of Tape Deck Mountain fit with the almost vampiric ambiance of du Nord's crimson-soaked lighting and walls. While it was the brooding tunes I heard on my way in, TDM switched things up a bit in their set, playing a few tracks off their Scantrons [...]
Review and Photos by: Nic Buron One of the many strengths of the Noise Pop Festival is its ability to bring together such solid and eclectic bills. Of course tonight’s show was no exception. Show opener Tiny Television is a San Francisco band (by way of Denver, Colorado), that prove difficult to describe. Their sound is so familiar, but feels undeniably new: think hard charging, dark Americana, but with something that you just can’t put your finger on. Tonight they played as a six-piece: two [...]
By Thursday eve, we've already had a significant dose of unique music, art, and film, and Noise Pop 2010 is in full swing. Approaching the latter half of the festival, Thursday's events offer up the standard mix of free events and film screenings , along with a reunion, an orchestra, and an all-encompassing dose of stellar indie music. The first musical spectacle will take place at Cafe du Nord , where a co-headlining event will also include local opener Greg Ashley and San Diego opener Tape Deck Mountain . [...]
From the top.... State Radio, Arctic Monkeys, White Lies, B52's, Here We Go Magic, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Alela Diane.
L.A. RECORD
The Bay Bridged
Before the Bigs
mostly junkfood
Candy For Your Ears
THE RECOMMENDER
M1 Music
Daft Punk - Lose Yourself to Dance (Simøne Remix)
New Diarrhea Planet – “Separations”
Birthday wishes from Ray Stevens
HAERTS: “All The Days”
