Listen to Rob and Ellen of Blues Lawyer shred the twee at the Lower Grand Radio studio
Listen to Rob and Ellen of Blues Lawyer shred the twee at the Lower Grand Radio studio
Underground SF hip hop from BlueVenom, rainy day shoegaze from Nothing Natural, a little techno lick by Mars Kasei, and Americana beauties by the Brothers Comatose
Rob and Ellen of Blues Lawyer swung by Lower Grand Radio to perform a six-song stripped down set of songs from their new album All in Good Time, out now on Dark Entries Records. Lovely, catchy melodies, twee pop strumming, and kaleidoscopic electric guitar. It’s a joy.
Listen to the entire performance and interview on Mixcloud.
Then go see them play their release show with Umbrellas and Hits at Thee Stork Club on March 18!
— White Crate
STREET LEVEL FLOWS
“In August of 2020, @wild.west.wun came from NY to spend 5 days with me. In that time we reached out for beats, wrote and recorded this entire album. A lot has changed since, from the label we were on to the whole tracklist and features, but the core of this project has stood strong. The intentional choices to not make the beats allowed us room to fully focus on our writing, themes and deliveries. This really encapsulates a lot of feelings from the beginning of the pandemic.” — T-Venom
BlueVenom is feeling nostalgic. Not just for the beginning of the pandemic but also their roots in 2010. Made up of T-Venom and West-Wun, the hip hop duo has returned with BlueVenom3, featuring production work by Caezi, Juntao, Pase One, and Drax. It’s a dope classic-sounding underground piece of SF rap: There’s hella smooth hooks backed by big beat and stringed out synths on “Villain Recruit.” Psyched out boom bap with shoutouts to all the greats–OutKast, Public Enemy, Wu-Tang, Dilla, and more–on “Classix.” Soulful love with a sample of hustle on “Away.” And on and on. One for the lovers of street-level flows. Out on Soul Satellite Records.
— Ronny Kerr
GRUNGY, PUNKISH JAMS
Here comes the rain again. And here comes the shoegaze too! Nothing Natural is a new quartet out of Oakland playing grungy, punkish jams, and their first recording project as a full band is NN, a self-titled-ish EP released on Dandy Boy Records. The opening track “Glass” comes in strong with a massive, delightfully crushing riff, but most of the music here resides in a gentler place, buoyed by billowy electric guitar and sweet vocal harmonies.
— Ronny Kerr
LITTLE TECHNO BUZZ
Just for a little bit: Bounce off the walls to the bubbly dance pop techno sounds of “Lil Lick” by Mars Kasei, arriving in the midpoint of FML MIXTAPE VOL. 1, a new compilation by SUCIA! and DJ Manny intended to “showcase the current sounds of dance music from NYC to the rest of the world.” There’s jungle, footwork, pop, and even punk from the nearly two dozen artists featured, including Tomu Dj, Total XTC, MEL G, Garro, and Evelyn Palace. Mars Kasei’s track is made up of big fuzzy synths, frenzied bass, and teeny tiny licks of a vocal sample that get chopped up littler and littler until you’re in a buzzing little techno trance.
— Ronny Kerr
GLORIOUS, EARTHY FOLK STUFF
“Headed to a city painted gold
Different color than I used to know
There's no place for me here no more”
The Brothers Comatose—the five-piece band of Americana maestros who call San Francisco home—just served up Ear Snacks, a new album tossing together originals plus covers of songs by the Rolling Stones, Gillian Welch, Janis Joplin, Hank Williams, and more. The recordings come from the time of COVID shelter-in-place orders: At a time when venues had completely shut down and even seeing friends and family seemed a scary, risky thing to do, the Brothers Comatose made it a point to meet up with fellow artists around the Bay once per month to record music together. Collaborators include the California Honeydrops, Rainbow Girls, Lindsay Lou, and more. Old-time acoustic solos, foot-tapping rhythms, and gloriously earthy harmonies—it’s a real treat.
— Ronny Kerr
LIVE
Our top show recommendations for the coming week:
[club] Coco Bryce, Lucy Stoner, Nightware, DJ Staley — March 10 at Monarch
[cumbia] La Sonora Dinamita — March 10 at Roccapulco
[rock] Sonny & the Rhinestone Sunsets, Emily Rose and the Rounders, Noelle & the Deserters — March 10 at Thee Stork Club
[metal] Hell Fire, Early Moods, Westing — March 10 at Eli’s Mile High Club
[punk] Adjudicator, George Crustanza, Aninoko — March 11 at Stay Gold Deli
[rock] Grimoires (Book II EP release), Pure Hex, TREASVRE — March 11 at Bottom of the Hill
[rock] Sour Widows, Torrey, Princess520 — March 11 at Eli’s Mile High Club
[club] Skin on Skin ft. Adware, Bonita Baby b2b sfcowboy, Discnogirl b2b Tom Marsi — March 11 at Secret Location
[rock] Dummy, Non Plus Temps, Blue Zero, Cole Pulice, DJ Alex S — March 12 at Thee Stork Club
[rock] Godspeed You! Black Emperor — March 13-17 at the Chapel
Want even more? Join our Patreon to get access to the full Bay Area concert calendar, featuring specially curated recommendations for upcoming Bay Area shows.
