Let's party! Get your tickets to Total Accord: A celebration of Bay Area music
Reviews of the debut album by Oakland country rockers The Ugly and the 25th anniversary reissue of "Home Is Where You Hang Yourself" by Her Space Holiday
We’ve been dreaming of doing something like this.
Now it’s happening.
To commemorate its first year, Total Accord Agency is partnering with White Crate to put on an epic celebration of Bay Area music, showcasing amazing local talent at six awesome shows across four of our favorite venues. Schedule and performers:
Thu May 22 at El Rio (happy hour show)
Anna Hillburg, Al Harper, Josiah Flores (DJ)
Thu May 22 at El Rio (late show)
SWISS., Bowl Peace, Davia Schendel, Rip Florence
Fri May 23 at Kilowatt
Spaceface, The Breathing Room, Mayya, Outer Sunset, DJ N0Be
Sat May 24 at Great American Music Hall (day show)
Mild Universe, Seablite, Hugo de la Lune, Grooblen, Luke Sweeney, Isabeau Waia'u Walker, System Exclusive, ronny ronny ronny
Sat May 24 at Great American Music Hall (night show)
Family Not a Group, AroMa, Deon Brown, Casey Cope, Miss Hits, DJ Juanny
Sun May 25 at Rickshaw Stop
Peña, Mint, UFO Baby, Gloomy June
— White Crate
YEEHAW
“It’s like a ghost town here
Walking down Mission Street
I always drink alone
In places we would meet”
Anyone who listened to Noelle and the Deserters on our Lower Grand Radio show knows about one of their superpowers: the singer and guitarist Graham Norwood. Now you can get another round of rollicking good times from Norwood and company on One More Couple of Beers, the debut album by Oakland country rockers The Ugly.
A couple of the songs (“California,” “Quarantine Blues”) seem dated to the COVID era, but the rest is largely typical blues-and-country fare, including cheating ex-lovers, drunk guys at the bar, and… redneck UFO pilots? Okay, so it’s not all typical, and the hilarity maybe reaches its height on “Moderation,” a tongue-in-cheek honky tonk with a level of authorship somewhere between Hunter S. Thompson and Jello Biafra, propounding the virtues of drinking whiskey and tequila, taking quaaludes, shooting heroin, and on and on—in moderation. Chock full of pedal steel, electric solos, and that deep bassy outlaw voice telling stories of modern life, it’s an essential next listen for local country lovers.
— Ronny Kerr
SAD MILLENNIAL BEDROOM POP
“From his boyhood San Mateo, California bedroom, Her Space Holiday explores the bewilderment of young adulthood through a dreamy prozac lens.”
With its mood permanently set to melancholy millennial, Home Is Where You Hang Yourself is… quite the album title. Recorded a quarter of a century ago by Her Space Holiday, it is literally suburban bedroom pop, dappling emotional, muttering indie compositions with the era’s characteristic penchant for lightweight electronic suffusion.
It’s indietronica just as we all remember it, if we’re old enough. A couple favorites: “The Doctor and the DJ” spins an unexpected tale of romance around the twine of a waltz, and on the following track “Sleeping Pills” the artist raises a minimally funky, reverb-glazed toast to the substances that try putting us to rest. Just as satisfying are the long stretches of instrumental navel-gazing (as on the first minute-plus of “Sugar Water”), providing some sort of solace to those who truly find warmth in the company of misery.
Originally released in 2000 on NY label Tiger Style Records, the album was recently re-released by Chicago’s Numero Group in an expanded 25th anniversary edition featuring remixes by Bright Eyes, Duster, and more.
— Ronny Kerr
SHOW RECS
Our top show recommendations for the coming week:
[rock] Tom Conneely & Birds of Paradise (record release), Adam Spry, My Dog Jack — March 20 at the 4 Star Theater
[jazz] Kev Choice plays A Tribe Called Quest’s “The Low End Theory” — March 20 at SFJAZZ
[experimental] Lucy Railton, Amma Ateria — March 20 at the Lab
[jazz] Sharada Shashidhar & Caleb Buchanan, Mejiwahn (DJ), Cheflee — March 20 at Beauty Supply Arts
[drum & bass] Roni Size, Soulox, SOBA b2b khariszma, Lethargy — March 20 at 1015 Folsom
[jazz] Sundra Manning — March 21 at SFJAZZ
[rock] The Atomic Bomb Audition (record release), Genghis Bong, Deer Lord, Earth Abides — March 21 at Elbo Room Jack London
[house] BAY AREA IS UNDERGROUND ft. MonkeyMan, John Glass, Re:Run, Fuse — March 21 at Club Waziema
[rock] Greg Hoy & The Boys, Fuzz Kit, Daizy — March 22 at Kilowatt
[punk] BENEFIT SHOW FOR THRILLHOUSE RECORDS ft. Doc and the Parasites, Source of Pain, False Flag, Surprise Privilege — March 22 at Thrillhouse Records
[house] FREQSHOW DJ Brown Angel, Golem x lilia, wufu x Beatriz, Discnogirl x Tom Marsi, Pepe Ceniston x Wee Willy — March 22 at Bissap Baobab
[breakbeat] HEADS KNOW NYC x NO BIAS ft. Bored Lord b2b bastiengoat, flotussin, nextdimensional b2b HONEY B, Qemist, DJ CARO, RITCHRD, Arielle Lana — March 22 at F8
[jazz] Tammy L. Hall Trio — March 22-23 at SFJAZZ
[alternative] Parallel, Slake, Chandler Trey Johnson, 11111angels — March 26 at Beauty Supply Arts
SUPPORT BAY AREA MUSIC! Get access to our full Bay Area concert calendar, featuring specially curated recommendations for upcoming shows in SF and Oakland.
