Love and self-perception reflected on "Mirror"—the new EP from Oakland R&B artist Dani Offline
Listen to the part one megamix of our favorite music from the Bay in 2023 + new music this week from B. Hamilton, The Helltones, and a Psychic Eye compilation
It’s that time of year! As the days get shorter and shorter, it’s time to gather friends and family and huddle around the year’s best music for warmth and happiness 💜
Ready to hear our favorite music from the Bay Area in 2023? We’re back with a megamix of the Bay’s best across multiple genres. Listen to part one here.
— White Crate
OBSERVATION, IMPROVISATION
“I’ve always been really interested in self-perception and seeing myself through somebody’s eyes. That’s one of the greatest things about falling in love.”
— Dani Offline
Soundchecking at the Lower Grand Radio studio before her show with White Crate, Dani Offline casually swirled her hands across the keyboard, pouring out the Van Heusen & Burke jazz standard “Polka Dots and Moonbeams”. Yours truly, working the mixing board, was briefly stunned. But understanding that background and capability immediately made clear where Dani’s music comes from, body and soul.
With verses and hooks as irresistible as Solange and soul jazz inflections shared with Sade, the multi-talented singer, songwriter, and producer returns to the spotlight this week with Mirror, her first EP since 2019’s Water Signs. Across seven tracks featuring full band arrangements, Dani Offline puts her voice front and center, cooing ponderous musings on the toughness and softness of love, reflected and refracted through self-perception and (sometimes) self-deception. No answers; just observation, improvisation.
— Ronny Kerr
COUNTRY GLAMMER
“Some things are just to big to be seen with the human eye
Like a newborn universe
The rules we’ve built our cage of
And your mother”
Masterful ChatGPT user Ryan Christopher Parks somehow someway finds time between submitting hilarious AI prompts to also write and record some of the best rock & roll beating out of the Bay. Parks is the bandleader and songwriter for B. Hamilton, which last month released Saigon Market, containing four songs each specifically a vignette about life in Oakland.
We wrote about another B. Hamilton EP earlier this year, noting how the poetry seems to pours forth so easily, and the same holds true here. The lyrics above come from “Things I Learned at the Anti-Gentrification Bake Sale,” the only song here that starts out simple with voice and acoustic guitar before building into a full band jam. The rest of the work is just like that, mostly countrified classic rock jams, though even venturing into some slick blend of glam and yacht rock on the opener “Martin Eden Written Left-Handed in Crayon.”
Read more about the EP on East Bay Express. For more from B. Hamilton, check out On a Borrowed Guitar in Jack London Square.
— Ronny Kerr
SURFY & SOULFUL
It’s not 1957, so you’d be forgiven for assuming an album called Medusa by a band called The Helltones would sound more black metal than doo wop. But it’s 2023, and anything goes. Recorded at Santo in Oakland, the third studio album by The Helltones combs through 13 bluesy, surfy, soulful songs—all original, though some sound familiar, like they could have been rock & roll standards. Groovy basslines, catchy hooks, faces to the sky guitar shredding, and there’s even a song about a “pirate BBQ.” Rock on.
— Ronny Kerr
CROWS & DISSONANCE
“In Jerusalem, and I mean within the ancient walls,
I walk from one epoch to another without a memory
to guide me. The prophets over there are sharing
the history of the holy … ascending to heaven
and returning less discouraged and melancholy, because love
and peace are holy and are coming to town.”— Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Fady Joudah
Deliberately tracing the violence occurring in Gaza to the homelessness and injustice rife right here in the Bay Area, The Ancient Wall assembles 21 tracks of darkwave and industrial by Oakland label Psychic Eye. Taking its name from the poem “In Jerusalem” by Mahmoud Darwish (first six lines quoted above), the compilation crosses vast chasms of synth, dark and forlorn, marching steadily through deathly swaths of harmony and dissonance. Led by pounding new wave beats, sometimes led by a charming vocalist, other times accented by cawing crows, it’s very much a vibe. As of publishing, only four tracks (by topographies, A.S. Valentino, Twin Tribes, and Parallel) are available on Bandcamp, but the label says more will be added on an ongoing basis.
All proceeds from the compilation will be donated to the Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance and Rogers & Rosewater, two Bay Area-based mutual aid organizations run by refugees.
— Ronny Kerr
SHOW RECS
Our top show recommendations for the coming week:
[ambient] Doug Lynner, Franck Martin, MaYir — Dec 8 at Anno Domini Gallery
[alternative] Asha Wells, Katsy Pline, Mary Claire, Beaunoise — Dec 8 at Martial Arts
[indie] mxmtoon — Dec 8 at Cafe du Nord
[hip hop] Ruby Ibarra, Ian Santillano, Ouida, Vince A — Dec 8 at the New Parish
[club] NO BIAS ft. estoc, bastiengoat, Discnogirl, yoni yacht club — Dec 8 at Underground SF
[experimental] Zekarias M. Thompson, Suki O'Kane, Headboggle — Dec 9 at YBCA
[folk] Diana Gameros — Dec 9 at Piano Palace
[rock] Haze Fest ft. Acid Tongue, Everyone Is Dirty, Rose Haze, Grooblen, Snakemother — Dec 9 at Kilowatt
[reggae] Prezident Brown, Reggae Angels, DJ Sep — Dec 9 at Longboard Margarita Bar
[club] Technopagan, b0nitababy, sfcowboy, mothbot — Dec 9 at SF warehouse location
[electronic] Dark Entries Records Shop 1-Year Anniversary — Dec 10 at Dark Entries Records
[country] Black Women’s Roots Festival — Dec 10 at Freight & Salvage
[electronic] Mission Synths 3-Year Anniversary — Dec 10 at Mission Synths
[rock] Juniper, CuVa Bimö, Loser Soup, Curling — Dec 10 at Elbo Room Jack London
[club] Farsight (EP release), WERD. residents — Dec 10 at Monarch