“A Brief History of Love” is the debut album of the UK-based electro-rock duo, The Big Pink, and it has me completely enraptured. Their sound is modern and anachronistic all at the same time – like MGMT meets My Bloody Valentine. It took me a good month to wrap my head around the combination of that and it’s enormity. Once I made it past the wall of distortion and reverb to the other side of their music – the lyrics – I fell to my knees. The impassioned plea of “Velvet”, one of my favorite tracks, particularly slays me. “These arms are mine/ Don’t matter who they hold/ So should i maybe, Just leave love alone/ You call out my name, for the love you need/ Which you won’t find in me.”
The pair will make their way to San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall on November 17. Count me in.
Whoo hoo! The 8th Annual Budget Rock festival kicks into high gear this week right in my backyard from October 22-25. The Eagle Tavern, Thee Parkside and Bottom of the Hill will play host to the West Coast’s longest running garage rock festival. Don’t miss the opportunity to see some great local garage rock, including The Gris Gris, Thee Oh Sees, The Fresh & Onlys, Nobunny, the legendary Mummies and more! The best line up for sure is Sunday, October 25 at Bottom of the Hill featuring nearly all of the aforementioned bands. Oh yeah, let the shitgaze begin!
I don’t know what I found more compelling about the email Terrorbird sent me on Beardo recently – the album cover, the video, or the fact that High Times actually has an Unsigned Artist of the Month. Whatever it was, it made me laugh. And get a little nostalgic for some early Beastie Boys. Well turns out Beardo is on a roll – literally and figuratively, I guess. He’s just wrapped a tour opening for Snoop Dogg and they seem to be eating him and his debut album up. With tracks like “Snort Your Drugs,” “24 Hour Party,” and “Girls N Pills,” how can you not?
Beardo is scheduled to play Slim’s November 5. Check it out and enjoy.
Get on board. Kurt Vile will be playing San Francisco this Wednesday, October 21, at The Hemlock promoting his new album, Childish Prodigy, with Wooden Shjips (no that’s not a typo).
As I’ve been highlighting in my recent trendspotting series, everyone seems to be collaborating these days. Like Monsters of Folk and The Dead Weather, Midnight Masses appears to be the latest indie supergroup du jour that features an ever-expanding collective of mostly Brooklyn-based artists. And I like it.
On any given day the band could be a lean ensemble of its core members or an imposing 14-piece collection of string players, organists, and guests pulled from any number of Brooklyn’s finest bands – including Trail of Dead’s Kevin Allen, Jason Reece and Conrad Keely, TV on the Radio’s Gerard Smith and Jaleel Bunton, the bewitching Katie Eastburn, Peter Hale of Here We Go Magic, and more. Midnight Masses is preparing to gather once again for Rapture Ready, I Gazed At The Body, their debut EP, set for release on November 10th via Collect Records.
Fans of Starfucker take note; the band has formally changed their name to Pyramid. Big bummer, I know. I had a hard time with this one too. But the name change came about for some good reasons. (See the interview excerpt below with the Portland Mercury). A fan contest was created to select the new name. While general consensus has been disappointment, the deed is done. Go have yourself a cry over the loss of a great name and let’s move on to acceptance and more hot dance moves from Ryan!
Q: Why are you changing your name, and why are you doing so at this particular juncture?
A: We’re changing our name because it just doesn’t make sense anymore. We never thought starfucker would make it as far as it has, and never had any expectations of success. At this point we need to be able to either put more into music, or just stop doing it so we can get 9-5 jobs to pay our rent. Right now we’re in this bardo where we don’t quite make a living off music but we put so much energy into it that we can’t put any time into a real job either. We just need to get serious about one or the other. The name has been a problem for us in a lot of ways. We’ve missed out on opening slots with bands we really like, and we hope to tour europe soon where there is already a Starfucker. Someone booked us once thinking we were the European Starfucker. The list goes on and on…
Q: Is this just a name change, or is it meant to reflect some stylistic or structural change in the group or its music?
A: It’s definitely just a name change. We will still be the same band with the same philosophy. The music of course, like anything else, will always be evolving.
Q: Are you at all concerned that you might alienate or confuse people who are already fans of your music?
A: Of course that is an issue we’re concerned with, but hopefully the music can transcend the controversy surrounding the name change. That is also why had the contest with our fans, so as not to alienate anyone, and let them be part of the process. We do realize we’ll have to be the band formally know as Starfucker for awhile, which is fine.
Got my hands on the new Flaming Lips double LP, Embryonic, today and …eeeeoooowww…I’m so excited to see them at the Treasure Island Music Fest this Sunday I can hardly contain myself. I spontaneously squeal every time I think about it. For this album, the band of fearless freaks have ditched their pop tendencies and headed squarely down the path of lo-fi, ethereal psychedelia – while remaining fabulously weird.
In true Flaming Lips fashion, there are plenty of kooky delights to be found on the album, like the track, “I Can Be a Frog” that features Karen O making an array of animal sounds. There’s also a number featuring MGMT, “Worm Mountain“, that has me dreaming…anticipating…a joint performance with the two bands this weekend at Treasure Island. They’re playing the same festival after all. It’s gonna happen. It’s gotta happen. I know it. All hail Wayne Coyne!
A little bit electro pop, a little bit 80’s synth rock, meet Lilofee. San Francisco’s answer to Ladytron, MIA and Santogold. This track, featured on my Flour + Water Mixtape, has been literally stuck in my head for weeks now. Infectious. “Hey mister, hey mister, I kissed your kid sister. Whatcha gonna do?”
The band is scheduled to play around town from now through the end of the year, including The Hemlock, El Rio and Red Devil Lounge. Check their MySpace page for specific dates.
I’m really enjoying this album right now from Lightning Dust, Infinite Light, a side project of some members of Black Mountain. Amber Webber’s ethereal, haunting voice is mesmerizing. Enjoy!
Part of me is absolutely smitten with this band from New York and their self-released debut, Blew it Again. They just look like trouble, don’t they? They sure know how to pick cover album art too. The band is touring the hell out of the US for the next two months and will hit San Francisco’s beloved Thee Parkside on November 11. Their album will soon be available on InSound, but until then you can grab these free MP3s or nab one of their limited 500 vinyl albums. Check their MySpace page for more tour dates.
the OCMD 