Is the Bay Area in its country era?
Three new country-adjacent albums from Michael James Tapscott, Levi Thomas, and Ryan Wong - plus DJ Juanny on No Bias, an instrumental hip hop EP from Eddou XL, and pure pop punk from Poppy Patica
“Is the Bay Area in its country era?”
It’s a question posed by one of our regular contributors, Jody Amable, and here’s why: This week’s newsletter features six reviews and half of them are country-adjacent. Once you scroll past the clubby new DJ Juanny EP (which is obviously incredible), you’ll get to little sad country tunes from Michael James Tapscott, warm analog jams from Levi Thomas, and twangy Americana from Ryan Wong. We ain’t complaining.
— White Crate
TWISTED LATIN NOSTALGIA
“MIATA is a model of car owned by DJ JUANNY’s father during his high school years. It was in this car that JUANNY learned how to drive and where JUANNY would often play blog-era rap music and explore dance music sounds while searching for culture and excitement away from the uniformity of his environment.”
DJ JUANNY, formerly known as Juanny Depp, isn’t slowing down. After releasing six EPs in 2022, the Bay’s most prominent dembow producer and co-founder of Amor Digital is back with his second release of the year. It’s also his first entry for No Bias and his first vinyl release ever. In true DJ Juanny style, MIATA taps into nostalgic Latin club sounds but twists it into something just a little bit more experimental and heady, toeing the line between private session headphone music and cathartic communal dancefloor jams. It’s all good but my favorite may be the opener “ME BESAS A MI,” a seductive synth-driven track based around a vocal sample from the 2005 reggaeton hit “Ven Bailalo” by Angel y Khriz.
See DJ Juanny celebrate the EP release at another No Bias party alongside nextdimensional B2B Dev Moore, Mars Kasei, Yuca Frita, and Ritchrd - tonight at Underground SF.
For more perfectly-on-point club music from No Bias, check out the recently released Juke Juice by Memphis-based producer Qemist.
— Ronny Kerr
WISTFUL SAD COUNTRY
Is the Bay Area in its country era? I mean, it hasn’t NOT been for a long time: You needn’t look too far back to know; at least to the era of Creedence and Country Joe. But there’s been a steady output of songs that reference the roots of country in the last half-decade—more of a back-to-basics sound than the slick, homogenized sound of country radio—and next up is Michael James Tapscott’s The Beasts of History.
I know Tapscott from China the Band, but you may know him from one of many other projects he’s been involved in over the last two decades: Royal Geography Society, Odawas and more. With pedal steel, geographic references to the Western United States, and a Neil Young creak in his voice, The Beasts of History sounds like an open road unwinding in front of you. I can’t stop listening to it and if you love wistful and a little sad country tunes like I do, I bet you won’t be able to, either.
— Jody Amable
WARM ANALOG JAMS
“Shasta is the product of an experiment in limitations and creative self-control. Recorded with solar power on a Tascam 388 and remaining true to only the 8 available tracks, these sessions were often late nights around the wood stove in a small hillside studio in Big Sur.”
If he lives in LA but still hosts his album release party in Oakland, which is the artist’s spiritual home? Singer-songwriter Levi Thomas, who grew up in the Ozarks and moved through the South and Midwest before his time in the Bay, just released his latest album Shasta via Oakland’s The Long Road Society. It’s moody country rock through and through, but you know it’s much more than that from the 45-second-long trembling keyboard drone that opens the album. For the next half hour plus, Thomas and his collaborators ride through warm analog jams guided by drawling poetry broken like daily bread. Epic highway drives and coastal views, thick mountain wood and creaking studio, melting sun and starry skies: Central coast devotees will have no trouble imagining the magic that brought this music to tape.
— Ronny Kerr
TWANGY AMERICANA
The New Country Sounds of Ryan Wong is exactly as described. Produced by Sonny Smith, it’s a major—though welcome—departure from Ryan Wong’s work with San Francisco’s Cool Ghouls, a band that always drew obvious influence from ’60s bands like the Byrds and the Stones. (As a lover of urban ruins, I will forever be jealous I did not get to see their infamous appearance in the Sutro Caves.)*
I also love twangy Americana, so Wong’s debut under his own name currently holds the number-one spot for my favorites of the year. It’s a little bit campy, with country tropes like jangly drums and steel guitar featured prominently but not so overwhelming that they gaudily declare this work “his country album.” It’s a refreshing new entrant into the Bay’s vibrant folk-Americana scene; just as strong as any work by long-timers the Brothers Comatose or Goodnight, Texas.
— Jody Amable
HEART-SWELLING BOOM BAP
It’s springtime and love is in the air. You feeling it? Or are we just high on wildflowers. In any case, ahead of the most recent Bandcamp Friday, Eddou XL dropped love (spring pack ’23), a short and sweet three-beat piece celebrating love and the season. It’s the first thing we’ve heard of the Santa Cruz producer since they teamed up with Quintessential on My Cheese Budget Is Growing, one of our favorite Bay Area hip hop albums of 2022. Tap into the new EP for scratchy soulful boom bap brimming with heart.
— Ronny Kerr
PURE POP PUNK
“Shooting star feels like a chance you let fall
But it’s just a rock, not a star at all”
Musicians moving *to* the Bay Area? Not a story we hear often but we’ll take it. Born and raised in the home of hardcore punk Washington, D.C., Peter Hartmann is now based in Oakland but he’s not afraid to take his nostalgic past with him. Black Cat Back Stage, the latest work from his band Poppy Patica, is named after a now-defunct D.C. venue where the band played just before its closing a few years ago. The album is pure pop punk, catchy and even sometimes saccharine, but it wobbles equally over to the edgier side of the spectrum, especially on the noisy, slowly building experimental waltz “Burnt to Bits.” Another highlight is the instantly satisfying romper “Band Aid,” the only track written by Chloe M, another member of the quartet. A very welcome addition to the Bay’s underground indie and punk rock scene.
— Ronny Kerr
SHOW RECS
Our top show recommendations for the coming week:
[experimental] Field of Fear, Leila Abdul-Rauf, Kathryn Mohr — May 12 at Tamarack
[hip hop] Lil Wayne — May 12 at the Masonic Auditorium
[club] NO BIAS ft. DJ Juanny (EP release), nextdimensional B2B Dev Moore, Mars Kasei, Yuca Frita, Ritchrd — May 12 at Underground SF
[hip hop] Aaron Space & His Terrestrial Underlings, James Wavey, Byron Mayhew, Simago, Mophono (DJ) — May 12 at El Rio
[rock] Mill Valley Music Fest ft. Cake, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew: Remain in Light, Tank and the Bangas, Durand Jones, The Dip, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeyboars, Valerie June, Orchestra Gold, The Alive — May 13-14
[club] Black Coffee, Joe Kay, Kevin Saunderson — May 13 at Frank Ogawa Plaza
[punk] Secret Boyfriend, Blaq Hammer, Body Double — May 13 at Tamarack
[country] Levi Thomas (album release), Kit Center, Desiree Cannon — May 13 at Thee Stork Club
[hip hop] P-Lo, Miles Medina, Karri, Michael Sneed — May 13 at the Warfield
[ambient] Ami Dang, Beast Nest — May 18 at Kuumbwa Jazz Center