La Doña, the first lady of Mission District music, bridges the classic and new on "Can't Eat Clout"
La Doña, the first lady of Mission District music, bridges the classic and new on "Can't Eat Clout"
Super cute power pop from a Mills alum and Dandy Boy Records, Sawyer G of Catch Prichard ventures into ambient, In Life goes ghastly shoegaze, and serpentine post-club sounds from Vaguetracks
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— White Crate
CAN’T EAT CLOUT
Since her debut in 2020, San Francisco’s La Doña has been shooting for the stars and almost immediately nailed it with widespread local praise. But this year, we’ve really been seeing her big moves pay off – recognition in Rolling Stone, a slot at Outside Lands, and the coveted Obama playlist placement. Despite the fact that she could, if she wanted, start striving for national and international fame, she stays grounded in the Bay with her new EP, Can’t Eat Clout, on ultra-local label Text Me Records.
Caveat before I get the review portion of this started: I’m half Mexican-American, but was raised, culturally, very white. So I’m not going to sit here and pretend I know much about Mexican musical traditions. All I know is that the album is a refreshing entry into the local music catalog. Even within Text Me’s already wide-ranging musical roster, it stands out as a release that straddles traditional music and newer trends. “Loser Girl” builds on the Mexican-American community’s love of oldies, and her collaboration with up-and-coming actor and rapper Tia Nomore, “Show Me How You Livin,” is a seamless melding of brassy hooks and spirited delivery. On Can’t Eat Clout, La Doña bridges her more traditional roots with moving towards her own singular sound.
La Doña is heading all over North America in just a few days, but check the Fillmore on 11/9 for a local date.
— Jody Amable
SWEET, TWEE, CATCHY AS HECK
How long does it take to release a super cute power pop EP? In at least this case, over a decade!
April Brott graduated in the late 2000s from Mills College with a degree in flute performance, came up with the band name “Funeral Cake” in 2010, took a break from music after the birth of her son, met her partner Fred Brott in 2018, wrote some songs in 2019, and recorded them in 2022. Here we are.
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Ryan Perras at District Recording Studios in San Jose and released by Oakland’s Dandy Boy Records, One Place Left by Funeral Cake is sweet, twee, and catchy as heck. It’s also very much inspired by the East Bay, with Brott singing about how all the flavors sound good on “Loards,” named after the ice cream chain founded in Oakland. The title track is an homage to Children’s Fairyland, a way dreamier place to live than all those overpriced apartments you find from LA to Portland. (Coincidentally, Oakland artist Spellling is hosting a grown-up music festival at Fairyland tomorrow.)
For more new indie pop rock from Dandy Boy Records, check out EP 2 by Oakland quartet Smile Too Much.
— Ronny Kerr
SLOW-MOTION SOUNDTRACK
“And is this not the purpose of creation? To wade into the depths of one’s being and unearth hidden truths? Through this work, I realized there will always be uncharted territories waiting to be discovered—an ever-unfolding journey of the self.” — Sawyer Gebauer
With It’ll Be Gone for a Little While, Oakland artist Sawyer G. is consciously unfolding a new version of his artistic self, venturing beyond the alternative folk of Catch Prichard into ambient music. It is not always peaceful and pleasing; much of this is dark, taut, and muffling, suggesting a psychic tension that remains unresolved. This is intentional: Gebauer says he wants to play with fragmentation—and maybe even contradiction. Composed of synthesized sounds, piano, guitar, and guest-performed saxophone and clarinet, the album is a slow-moving soundtrack to our world and all the other worlds with which it overlaps.
For more ambient music exploring the act of creation, check out the other two new releases from Inner Islands: Generation / Harvest by Channelers and Wide Ranging Rider by Colorado artist Golden Brown.
— Ronny Kerr
STRANGE INTRIGUING SHOEGAZE
“If this is deliverance then throw me in the Bay.”
Announced with staccato punkish pounded drums and ascending electric guitar that leaves the listener in a ghostly, spacious plain of shoegaze, Strawberry Blonde is the debut album by Oakland indie rock duo In Life. Vocalist Nick Noro (Survival, Adjudicator) and guitarist/producer Omar Moon (Fiction Nation) have constructed a strange and intriguing half hour of songs here, bleeding together classic rock style riffs and guitar solos, goth washes of ambience, and even frivolous poppy dance punk tracks—all tied together through Moon’s gauzy production and Noro’s grim, moody voice.
Celebrate the record release with In Life on Wednesday, September 27 at the Golden Bull in Oakland.
— Ronny Kerr
SERPENTINE CLUB SOUNDS
“Cover art is a composite of 32 images. Music was recorded 2020-2023, various equipment & locations in SF. Some of it mirrors the visual design, pieces of songs reassembled into new forms, exploring my language in sound.”
The entrancing hypnagogic club work of Vaguetracks and its founder Raven has been on our radar since last summer, but I didn’t see the artist perform live until this past January. Up in the nook at Underground SF on a Friday night—at the time you would already expect higher tempos to be lighting up the place—Raven started out slow, patiently sculpting ambient waves to a fully present, receptive crowd. Over the course of an hour, the beat came in and pumped harder and harder, until the dance party was fully lit, but always retaining that dreamy, unreal feeling.
This slow, morphing ambient techno journey experienced live that night is reimagined exquisitely in the latest Vaguetracks full-length release, Encoded Language by Jaded Snake. Beginning in a beatless step staircase of peaceful synth and ultimately landing in a deeply satisfying lofi house reverie, the new album twists and curls through a wide composition of club and post-club sounds, expressing a rich techno poetry all along the way.
— Ronny Kerr
SHOW RECS
Our top show recommendations for the coming week:
[experimental] San Francisco Electronic Music Festival — Sep 15-17 at the Lab
[rock] Faetooth, Chokecherry, Rose Haze — Sep 15 at Neck of the Woods
[funk] Radio Veloso — Sep 15 at the Royale
[club] Space Ghost, Mishka, Sánlo, Sangsih — Sep 15 at Monarch
[latin] Due South ft. Y La Bamba, Marinero, Loco Bloco — Sep 16 at Jerry Garcia Amphitheater
[fest] Through the Looking Glass ft. Spellling, Sasami, Sun Ra Arkestra, Laraaji, Fat Tony, Aroma — Sep 16 at Fairyland
[jazz] Kamaal Williams — Sep 16 at the New Parish
[punk] NOFX, Circle Jerks, Lagwagon, Codefendants — Sep 16 at Cow Palace
[club] Ritchrd, Discnogirl, Honeybear, Lonald J. Bandz — Sep 16 at Mothership
[club] PW 13-Year Anniversary ft. Carl Craig, Moodymann — Sep 16 at Public Works
[r&b] Lights on Festival ft. H.E.R., Jazmine Sullivan — Sep 16-17 at Shoreline Amphitheatre
[experimental] Earthling ft. Ana Roxanne, Cole Pulice, Kamuter, Osebo — Sep 17 at Elk Glen Meadow, Golden Gate Park
[indie] Hectorine, Nightshuttle — Sep 20 at Vesuvio Cafe
[indie] The Reds, Pinks and Purples, Chime School, Cindy — Sep 20 at Kilowatt
[rock] Fantastic Negrito, G. Love & Special Sauce — Sep 21 at the Chapel
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