Indulge in stoic gluttony in the "Corner Booth" with SF hip hop duo Professa Gabel and Brycon
Indulge in stoic gluttony in the "Corner Booth" with SF hip hop duo Professa Gabel and Brycon
Charles Bronson & the Sundance Kid channel Devo (and Tim & Eric); Mahsa Vahdat meditates on the tragic global refugee crisis; Su'Lan deliver fiery "6pm on Melrose"
Like many of you, I’m once again cautiously optimistic about the near future of live music. And while I don’t make a habit of covering all the amazing events happening around the Bay, here are a few special ones worth knowing about:
If you’ve never been to Audium, you have to go at least once. Originally opened in 1967 before moving to its permanent SF location at Bush and Franklin in 1976, the theatre has played host to experimental sound for decades, transmitting a collage of recordings through 176 speakers scattered around the room to an audience seated in complete darkness. Now, for the first time, Audium is opening up to outside artists: New Voices will feature Bay Area artists Victoria Shen, Alexa Burrell, and Noah Berrie performing their own compositions live. Read more on 48 hills.
Ongoing now, West Oakland Sessions is a series of 10 jazz concerts hosted at the Dresher Ensemble Studio in West Oakland. Presented by Jazz in the Neighborhood and the multidisciplinary performance hub New Performance Traditions, the series features “adventurous Bay Area ensembles” led by a wide variety of musicians, including clarinetist Ben Goldberg, guitarist Karl Evangelista, and bassist Lisa Mezzacappa. Read more on Oaklandside.
Finally, of course, the Noise Pop Music & Arts Festival will be taking over venues around the Bay the week of February 21-27. While not strictly a local music spotlight, the festival will feature a ton of local talent as it has done in the past, including metal demon King Woman, chill skateboarder and guitarist Tommy Guerrero, blessed soul singer Lalin St. Juste, DJ/producer Experimental Housewife, and many others. See the full lineup.
So is this just another wave, the live music that fills in the gap between the deltas and omicrons and omegas, or is it different this time? Nothing to do but prepare for the worst and work for the best.
Peace,
ronny
THAT NEW NEW
“There are a million recordings about love, lust and loss, but everyone relates to a song about good food.” MF DOOM knew. Riffing on food, dining, and decadence, Professa Gabel & Brycon team up on the great new double EP Corner Booth, featuring guest appearances by MC Pauze, Monk HTS, Ozer, Equipto, and Cyph4. What the hell is a double EP? Find out in this interview with the duo plus live performances of songs from Corner Booth on White Crate’s show on Lower Grand Radio.
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Alt-pop-R&B project Cardboard People (featuring Yunoka Berry, Jim Greer, and Hieroglyphics founder and producer Damien Domino Siguenza) collaborated with LA artist Manorofanimals on “What If…”, a bit of a synth pop surprise, catchy and cathartic.
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I used to be a huge reader. But gosh, it’s hard to keep up with so many movies, TV shows, video games, and, of course, music. The flashy entertainment is just too tempting! Could all this lack of reading be connected to society’s ills? Maybe. Perfectly timed with the devolution of the human species comes Read a Good Book, the debut full-length album by Charles Bronson & the Sundance Kid. It’s a lot like the catchy new wave of Devo (with similarly shaped hats, to boot) but with a heavier dose of Tim & Eric-style goofiness—you want to hate it but you know you love it.
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Nicaraguan-American rapper Deuce Eclipse teams up with Kulcha Latino producer El Kool Kyle and Mega Banton on “Vamonos” a positive, uplifting, poppy reggaeton track with a simple message: Let’s go!
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“An attempt to understand our limitless influences - past, present and future.” Here’s another Bay Area artist staying busy. Less than two weeks after their “elemental dub” collaboration with Orogen on Magma Pulse, Berkeley artist Kush Arora returns with the much more club-ready EP Vision. Featuring vocals from 45DiBoss and Blackout JA on the first two tracks plus a couple instrumental versions, the artist’s riddims blend dancehall and drill into a drunken concoction of industrial devotion.
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A year after the body of 15-month-old toddler Artin Iran Nezhad was found in Norway, Bay Area-based Iranian singer Mahsa Vahdat offers “Lullaby of the sea - Havets voggesang”, a duet with Norwegian singer Solveig Slettahjell. Nezhad and his family were refugees from Iran who traveled through Turkey, Italy, and France in seek of a better life, but died attempting to cross the English Channel. Vahdat’s new piece is a meditation on this too-common, tragic story of our modern world. All income from streams go to the nonprofit A Drop in the Ocean, supporting refugees in Greece.
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Like a dazzling sunrise over a vast landscape of mountains, canyons, forest, and plains, Oakland artist ONIKHO once again puts her voice front and center atop a range of layered sounds on the indie pop single “Bright lights don't blind me”.
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“Bobbing flowers and piqued beasts.” Recorded in various living rooms in Oakland—with additional drums and backing vocals added at Santo Recording— “Lest You End As I” is the newest indie rocker by Owen Adair Kelley on Dandy Boy Records. Sometimes it’s easy and pleasing (as on “Maze”), other times it’s whimsical and dizzying (“Sleeping Bag”). Always daring and wonderful.
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Two of the best rappers in the Bay, if not the entire west coast, Su’lan return today with “6pm on Melrose”, featuring LA group Baby Stone Gorillas. “That’s a slap” it says about itself, and it ain’t lying. With that classic beefy Bay beat behind them, the Oakland duo goes hard, as they do, lighting a fire in the streets.
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We raved about this one last summer, but the soundtrack is finally out, so here’s another friendly reminder to watch Questlove’s essential documentary Summer of Soul on how the “Black Woodstock” brought together the Black community in Harlem during the intense political and social upheaval of 1969. Now you can listen to the album featuring Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, SF psychedelic soul legends Sly and the Family Stone, and many others.
MAYBE MISSED
BART’s transit map has become iconic enough to represent the Bay in totality, even when its simple lines are cast among the stars. You can take the art or leave it, but lovers of dance, disco, and deep house will find much to be starry-eyed about on this comp from indie label Bay Area Disco, simply entitled Compilation 001. Released last summer, the collection includes original bangers and juicy edits from an array of local producers, including: King Most, 3kelves, Disco E, Maratta, Soul Drip, Taylor Eye, Time Zones, Switchzilla, Matt the Katt, and Brothers in Arms.
For more, be sure to check out the Bay Area Disco crew at 7th West tomorrow from 1-5 PM. Also: Hat tip to Moto Tembo, my buddy in Oakland who just released an original deep house track of his own, “Walk Like A (Spaceman)” via Stereophonic.
CLASSICS
At the risk of turning White Crate into a “White Rabbit” covers catalog, here is a new version of the psychedelic 60s rock classic by Jefferson Airplane, somehow made even more trippy by Berlin DJ and producer Marcel Dettmann and Gabriel Mounsey.
When I see the name “Marcel Dettman,” I think deep pulsing bass and dark techno, so I was surprised to hear their nearly minimalist approach to “White Rabbit,” dialing up the song’s bass and overall volume to reach our loudness war-defeated eardrums, plus adding caverns and caverns of reverb. Then I realized that the piece was created for The Matrix Resurrections, and it all made sense. Give me all the red pills.
SHUFFLE ON
Listen to a megamix of the best music from the Bay Area in 2021.