Are you in "The Loop"? Listen to the newest single from Toro y Moi and more great Bay Area artists
Dance on Zoom to "Video Star" by Louie Elser; even more sad chamber pop from the Reds, Pinks & Purples; the first song in a new monthly series from the Seshen
Stoney Creation and Kamaal Williams healing souls at the California Academy of Sciences. Indianna Hale, B. Hamilton, Mae Powell, and Zelma Stone rocking out, blowing flowers, and singing the blues to the beer hounds at Zeitgeist. Maria BC whispering an ambient folk dream through the fog ahead of Arooj Aftab’s Sufi devotional music at Gray Area. Tyler Holmes summoning doo wop, Mariah Carey, and other holy ghosts before Irreversible Entanglements and Moor Mother transformed the New Parish into an Afrofuturist jazz poetry space-and-time-ship.
Thank you Noise Pop.
To catch clips of these live shows and more, be sure to follow our Instagram. And next week—Thursday, March 3 at 8 PM PT—tune into White Crate on Lower Grand Radio for a special show dedicated to this amazing week in music, local and beyond.
In the meantime… see you at King Woman tonight?
Peace,
ronny
THAT NEW NEW
Go-karts, sidecars, and jeepneys! You’ve probably already watched it a few times, but just in case you haven’t, please press play on this super joyful video from Toro y Moi. The third single from the upcoming album MAHAL, “The Loop” features Chaz Bear and company cruising around the Marina and Presidio in those silly yellow GoCars from the Exploratorium like the most lovable tourists ever. Then halfway through the video, they decide to book it back to Oakland for some skating in a parking lot. Basically, the most Bay Area thing ever. Ironically, the song itself declines to stay in a loop, only visiting its extremely catchy chorus once before moving on and progressing through a swirl of psychedelic pop rock sounds.
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“the meaning of breathing exercises is the idea that creatives need to go through a process of inhalation (gaining insight, input, learning, absorbing, listening, experimenting) and exhalation (releasing art, creating new finished pieces, committing to ideas) in order to nourish their art.”
Breathing Exercises is the latest exhalation by Oakland multi-instrumentalist and producer Chris Keys, featuring 15 lovely lofi beats, the perfect background music for working, playing, rapping, or simply spacing out.
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The Rich & Saucy is a luxurious new 20-min EP by D.Bledsoe with producer NOBL. No bangers, no sleepers. Not too fast, not too slow. All laidback and smooth, the five tracks of groovy R&B and hip hop drip and sway and dip and creep along at a perfect walking pace—or cruising slow with the top down. The EP features a bunch of guest artists, including Adam Theis, Mani Draper, and Kate Lamont.
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Set to be released on Record Store Day in April, “Sucker” b/w “Death May Be Your Santa Claus” features the Black Crowes’ lead singer Chris Robinson and Oakland psych rock maestros Howlin’ Rain covering two songs originally performed by Mott the Hoople, the English glam rock band active in the 70s. If the album art doesn’t give it away, this is the closest thing you’ll get to hippie SF rock & roll this week.
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“I don’t think anywhere’s really like the Bay, to be honest with you.” Music saves lives, most literally exemplified in this SF Examiner story about Kalin Freeman (aka KJ Focus), who was playing saxophone at Montgomery station when he received a handwritten note from someone who had been contemplating suicidal thoughts. But they changed their mind when they heard him playing. Freeman, who grew up in Oakland and Richmond, isn’t just busking: “Act Right”, his latest collaboration with Deligod, samples Kendrick Lamar’s “LUST.” into a soulful R&B track complete with, yes, that life-saving sax.
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“Inspired by the isolation forced on society during quarantine”—and referencing the Buggles’ one-time hit “Video Killed the Radio Star”—the new single “Video Star” by SF/Paris artist Louie Elser (released by Los Angeles label Succo Sounds) is the latest must-listen for fans of Jessie Ware, Empress Of, Caroline Polachek, and other retro, 80s-inspired dance pop. Now let’s be glad we’re not dancing on Zoom calls anymore.
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“Jenny and I connected over many things, but the main one was music. It was a love language to share and receive music from one another, to sing and play ukelele together, to see live music and dance as we drove in her car. Jenny was a friend who gave me permission to dream, to see myself as an artist, to believe in myself as a songwriter.”
Dedicated to Jennifer Morris, who died in the Ghost Ship warehouse fire, “Jenny’s Song” by Bay Area singer-songwriter Maddie Carpenter layers strings, deep bass, and voice into a touching, deeply emotional, and beautiful tribute to a lost friend.
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Less than a month after dropping highly-praised and widely-loved full-length album Summer at Land’s End, the ever-prolific Glenn Donaldson returns with a new EP of sad chamber pop. Intentionally or not, the three songs on Slow Torture of an Hourly Wage by the Reds, Pinks & Purples follow the classical structure of a sonata: a lively, uptempo opener, a slower middle movement, and then an uptempo closer. It’s a structure that works and, regardless of tempo, the voice remains gently despondent yet hopeful enough to sing away the pain.
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“I’m up again at dawn / and I hear whispers / The stories of me / are floating from me.” Kicking off a series of new songs, washed out lullaby “Beyond Me” is the first new track in over a year by the Seshen, an indie electronic band led by Lalin St. Juste and Akiyoshi Ehara. The group plans to release a new song every last Friday of the month. As part of Noise Pop Festival, catch Lalin St. Juste opening for Charlotte Dos Santos and John Carroll-Kirby tomorrow night at the Swedish American Hall.
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LOCKED IN THE DRESSING ROOM is a series of benefit compilations by Rotator Vinyl, a Dublin-based vinyl presser and production service, to help raise funds and show appreciation for venues that regularly provide stages for DIY, punk, and unsigned independent bands but were forced to close their doors during the pandemic. Proceeds from Volume 7 and Volume 8 in the series will be going to Bottom of the Hill and Ivy Room. Featured artists include Berlin Blackouts, the Homobiles, the Dwarves, Antigen, the 5.6.7.8's, and the Spits among many others.
MAYBE MISSED
“Plays hard and sleeps harder.” Released just about a year ago, Book I is the first and (so far) only release by SF shoegaze band Grimoires. Fans of post-rock, indie, and/or punk will easily find something to like here, whether it’s the atmospheric guitars drenched in reverb, the ghostly pretty vocals, or the taut, crashing drumwork. According to their Instagram, the band is working on a new set of songs for Book II.
A trio, the band features Dev Addison Bhat on guitar, pedalboard, and backing vocals. Astute readers of White Crate may recall that Bhat also produces soaring, divine ambient music under his alias Shipwreck Detective. Read an interview with Bhat here and also check out this playlist of the band’s influences, including Empty Elevator, Boris, and Deftones.
CLASSICS
Either a cruel joke by whomever put the playlist together—or just a funny coincidence—the 1967 psychedelic rock song “San Franciscan Nights” played softly at the New Parish while we waited for the next performer at a show this week. It’s funny not just because we were in Oakland, but because the lyrics sing an ode to “warm San Franciscan nights,” landing precisely as freezing temperatures crept across the Bay Area. It’s tempting to think that the English songwriters, Eric Burdon and the Animals, had simply assumed that SF was as warm as LA but, according to Wikipedia, they had actually played in the city during a heatwave. Anyone have the citation?
SHUFFLE ON
Listen to a megamix of the best music from the Bay Area in 2021.