Dancing in the shower? "Pass the Loofah" by Naked Roommate has you covered
New releases by Christopher Owens (of Girls fame) and Michelle Zheng’s project Lunar Noon, plus our weekly Bay Area show recommendations
Year-end lists.
Year-end lists.
Year-end lists.
No one does it quite like us: Tune into White Crate on Lower Grand Radio this Tuesday, December 10 for part one of our favorite Bay Area music of 2024! And don’t forget you can always explore our archive of LGR recordings on Mixcloud.
— White Crate
WEIRDO SYNTH SAX PUNK
“Naked Roommate was an assault tactic I came up with to intimidate a bad roommate out of our home.” — Amber Sermeno in Paperface Zine
Sure to make this year’s short lists for the best in Bay Area music, Pass the Loofah is Naked Roommate’s follow-up to their pandemic-era album Do the Duvet. More bouncy with pop rock but just as infectious as its predecessor, the new album applies deadpan-delivered post-punk-style vocals and weirdo synth and sax over a taut, pulsing tapestry of progammed krautrock beats. From the minimal house dance party of lead single “Bus” to the jolly good fun of “Broken Whisper” (reminiscent of Little Creatures-era Talking Heads), the album is just the soundtrack for happily two-stepping in the shower. Out now on Trouble In Mind Records.
See Naked Roommate open for Dengue Fever at the Chapel on Monday, December 30.
— Ronny Kerr
PURIFYING INDIE LEGEND
“In Texas, we had to sneak around, but California teens in San Francisco, they just did whatever the fuck they wanted. And everybody was so cool. It was exciting. I felt at home.” — Christopher Owens (SFGate)
Christopher Owens lives in New York now, but at one point his San Francisco-based group Girls was music royalty. That was around 2009-2011, when the Bay Area had a thriving garage rock scene helmed by Thee Oh Sees, The Fresh & Onlys, Ty Segall, and Kelley Stoltz. Over the years, that scene evaporated, and Owens fell into a heartbreaking downward spiral fueled by painful loss after loss.
All this context is and isn’t important in listening to the purifying indie rock performances that make up I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair, Owens’ first solo album in more than a decade. Neither depressingly weighed down by years of pain nor a joyfully exuberant hallelujah in transformation (though the backup vocals sometimes do go to church), these songs on the surface mostly sound like singer-songwriter pleasantries. But even a modicum of close attention reveals the sad, difficult revelations that had to be endured to arrive here. After trodding through the album with the humble momentum of a simple guitarist and poet, Owens presents the climactic seven-minute closer “Do You Need a Friend,” working in an interpolation of Roxette’s “It Must Have Been Love” between his rising voice and the stewing distortion to say “the loneliness is always the same.”
The first show sold out, so the Chapel added a second show for Christopher Owens on Saturday, December 14.
— Ronny Kerr
MUSIC FOR MINDFULNESS
“I grew up a short distance from the redwood forest and Pacific Ocean in Santa Cruz County, California, so the sounds of these places are even better than music to my ears – waves, the rustling of trees, birds … they are literally the most natural things, and put me at ease in a way that sometimes music can’t.” — Michelle Zheng of Lunar Noon in Fifteen Questions
Inspired by nature, musical collaboration, and the mindfulness teachings of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, A circle’s round is the second full-length album by Michelle Zheng’s project Lunar Noon. It is an epic 66 minutes long and heroic in its blending of styles, including field recordings of water flowing and birds chirping, sweeping classical strings, free jazz drums and bass, guzheng (a Chinese plucked zither), ambient atmospheres, piano jams, and Zheng’s ardent, ever-present voice.
Would this be performed at a concert hall, a dusky jazz club, or an eccentric art space? Any could work, as there are (for the listener) challenging moments of both maximal and minimal experimentation as much as there are easily accessible numbers with melodies that could have been borrowed from a contemporary musical. If there is a thread, it is the theme: Music that is born and dies through mindfulness.
— Ronny Kerr
SHOW RECS
Our top show recommendations for the coming week:
[electronic] DARK ENTRIES 2-YEAR SHOP ANNIVERSARY ft. Brown Angel, Five, Nahmab — Dec 5 at Dark Entries Records
[rock] Please Don't Eat Me (EP release), Cardboard People, Divine Honey, DJ NObe — Dec 5 at the Knockout
[techno] CAPP STREET PROJECT ft. at-at, Brick, Skiis, Zero Idea — Dec 5 at Underground SF
[experimental] Cel Genesis, Gumby's Junk, Diesel Dudes — Dec 6 at the 4 Star Theater
[metal] Ancient Rage (record release), Glowing Brain, Trencher, Aruspex — Dec 6 at First Church of the Buzzard
[punk] Pocket Full of Crumbs, Welcome Strawberry, Dethcaps, Demora — Dec 6 at the Knockout
[house] FREQSHOW ft. Farsight, Infinite Jess, DJ Buck, Golem, IPad Baby, Wee Willy, Pepe Ceniston — Dec 6 at Bissap Baobab
[experimental] FUNDRAISER FOR KASHMIR & PALESTINE ft. DJ Baqvas, Lara, Weepingwillowtree, Starlight + DDD, Only Now, and more — Dec 7 at Beauty Supply Artsu
[alternative] Uncle Chris, Country Risque, Double Helix Peace Treaty, The Richmond Revue, Freight Train Lady — Dec 7 at the 4 Star Theater
[experimental] 40 Years of The Lab ft. Pamela Z — Dec 7 at the Lab
[rock] ROYAL OAKIE HOLIDAY REVUE ft. Michael James Tapscott, Natural Bridges, Half Stack (solo) — Dec 7 at Little Hill Lounge
[perreo] CLB INTRNCL ft. Profesito, DJ Saratonin, Louie El Ser, SAADORI — Dec 7 at Mothership
[experimental] MISSION SYNTHS 4-YEAR ANNIVERSARY Boomer, Extended Play, Its Own Infinite Flower, Pale Blü Dot, Ryan PWM, Slow Worship, Spreadsheets, The Creatrix (TVOD) — Dec 8 at Mission Synths
[latin] La Doña, Inti Mystica, Bululú, Esotérica Tropical, DJ AGANA — Dec 8 at the Chapel
[metal] CELEBRATION OF LIFE FOR MICHAEL MADFES ft. Vorlust, Molten, Gravedodger, and more — Dec 8 at Bottom of the Hill & Thee Parkside
[folk] Anna Hillburg, Al Harper — Dec 10 at the Lost Church
[rock] Wife, Blous3, Praying, Inverts — Dec 11 at Kilowatt
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